Happy Death Day

Happy Groundhog Tomorrow revisits familiar structural gimmick but infuses it with slasher genre tropes. It’s amusing but tedious and somehow delivers an ending so disappointing that the subsequent satisfying conclusion barely redeems it. And the lead is so utterly unlikeable that the poor people stuck re-killing her feel almost justified.

Thor: Ragnarok

What We Do in the Cosmos plays Thor for laughs, but slips into idiocracy for lengthy rags-to-rocks second act made entertaining by gladiatorial Goldmaster. Blanchett’s character lacks the complexity of her thorny performance. Psychedelic colors and Marvel’s first memorable music assist endless ad-lib in delaying end (of world and film).

Justice League

Grouchy Avengers assemble to battle every Thor villain fused into one. They stage super-disappointing resurrection as a cheat-code against the infinity boxes that threaten to plunge the whole cinematic universe into a tonally mismatched mess irredeemable even by the combined work of every action composer or occasional Flashes of humor.