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.

Big Hero 6

If Ghostbusters had imagined Stay Puft in an Iron Man suit… Fun fighting for kids, tragically exempt from Marvel-verse.  Many plot points and character evolutions appear out of nowhere, perhaps plucked through the Stargate.  Comedy?  Scott ads it.  Incredible microbots and sprawling San Fransokyo mark the film’s most original concept.

The Artist

Pseudo-past prediction of Singin’ in the Rain complete with Clockwork McDowell. OSS 117 covers accent with silence, and delivers perfect Clooney meets Carrey performance. Reminder of when Goodman was good and Cromwell did well. Film tightropes between artistic concept and quirky gimmick and successfully crosses silent chasm to thunderous applause.

W.

Alarmingly objective and seemingly fair representation of recent controversial events. Brolin’s performance is incredibly compelling without becoming a caricature. Supporting cast are for the most part impeccable as well, thought Wright and Newton are a bit hard to accept. Objectivity hindered by amusing and unrealistic compilation conversations of so-called Bushisms.

Surrogates

In a world of wrinkle-free Joan Rivers robots, Bruce Willis’ rugged good-looks go totally unappreciated. Brilliant dystopic premise tanked by horribly convoluted plot. Beats the viewer over the head with the message that real people are really really really ugly. Mediocre dialogue and neck-pouch-free world will appeal to George Lucas.