Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

For a film with World in the title, the second half is remarkably contained within Bayona’s Impossible Orphanage. Amazing effects manage to compliment cartoonish action to artificially stave off extinction of the franchise. Periodically leans on weaker clichés but then clever twists predictably rush in to rescue each massive moment.

Jurassic World

Sequels find a way.  World extracts Park’s DNA and uses it to engineer a bastard movie equipped with all the technical weaponry of the past decade.  Our heroes run around the island, narrowly dodging dino-bullets and effectively ticking off all the obligatory Jurassic beats, while completely failing to evolve themselves.

The Village

Underrated middle-act in Shyamalan’s predictably twisty career.  Well acted by an all-star cast and cleverly conceived.  Film is greatly hurt by clunkiness of the reveal and several forced lines of explanation thereafter.  Though his performance is great, Brody’s senseless (story-wise) character drags plausibility of film into pit spiked with silliness.

The Help

Stone sinks into the background and helps her darker supporting stars shine the brightest. Alarmingly long, and strangely comedic in feel, this race relations piece astonishes on several fronts. Spencer finally lands a large enough role and executes it masterfully, while Chastain and Davis keep the critics in their pockets.

50/50

Rogen deals with another unintentional growth in the tragicomedy, Knocked Down. JGL bares his soul and his head with carefully delivered performance in this devastating and hilarious film. Does the heart come from cast’s stunning performances or the fact that it’s the writer’s autobiography? After several MRIs, looks like 50/50.

Terminator Salvation

McG tries to reboot Terminator franchise with gritty Batman Begins treatment. His attempt is hampered by the absence of (real) Schwarzenegger, a decent plot, or any semblance of loyalty to original films. Bale and Yelchin inhabit their characters well enough, but Worthington’s strong heart can’t make up his weak character.