Captain Marvel

Law and Larson search for Lawson while Jackson and Coulson add more maleness to the mix in Marv-elle’s embarrassingly late, first female-centric film. Unfortunately, in this Star-Warsy epic, Brie fails to bring it despite ample room and support from Annette, bening over backwards to add depth to a shallow premise.

Ready Player One

Spielberg’s excessively non-self-referential spectacle races to the starting line then struggles to maintain the virtual velocity of its opening antics. Loaded with loving movie and pop-culture references the shining Oasis is effectively Imaginationland re-animated and vastly more satisfying than the grainy real-world parallels, including mustache-twirling Mendelsohn and Inceptionally illogical finale.

Darkest Hour

Joe gets it Wrong again, the year’s 2^nd best Dunkirk film, British Lincoln, turns out to be Dullest Two Hours. Even-Older-man’s brilliant performance is utterly riveting but struggles to maintain audience support through shelling of bizarre stylistic missteps. Interesting but subpar subway scene proves that you Winston, you lose some.

Rogue One

Rogue fits perfectly into franchise formation, forcefully awakening original trilogy’s tone while further diversifying the universe.  Felicitous casting features stellar Luna and K-2dyk’s robot reprisal, but Yen is underutilized and Desert Forest feels almost as out of place as Tarkin’s face. Against all odds, delivers hope of further franchise expansion.

The Rover

Michod’s McCarthy-esque Mad Max is a brooding and beautiful character study of an ambiguously good and/or bad Guy who goes on a brutal and brutally simple journey, pausing only to adopt a mentally handicapped vampire.  Intense performances, precise pacing and a well-crafted world lead to a doggone interesting title-pertinent ending.

Exodus: Gods and Kings

After Jewish Bale is exiled for refusing to wear the family eyeliner, he rises out of dark desert night then enlists the aid of kinderGods and Kingsleys (just there managing Moses’ list) and sits back to passively enjoy a mediocre effects orgy crafted by Ridley Demille’s VFX crew of thousands!