I'm between TV shows at the moment, so in the last few days I've been watching some movies until I decide what to start next. I normally assign every movie and show I watch a rating, both for the fun of deciding what I really think about it, as well as a good marker to look back at what all I've enjoyed over the years. I'm no movie critic by any means, so don't expect deep thoughts on the meaning of life! I just write down the positives and negatives that led me to give it the rating I did. Everything is pretty much just typed up as I think of it, so apologies if it's a bit abrupt and disjointed!

I was looking forward to this movie ever since it was announced, so it was great to finally be able to see it! Unfortunately I ended up being a little disappointed with the final product. It's not a terrible movie by any means, but it's not amazing either. Perhaps most telling is that my most memorable moments didn't primarily feature the title character. Only the Justice Gang swooping in saved it from being a 7 instead.

They definitely made the right choice by jumping right in after Superman has been active for a while, it allowed them to get right into the story without being bogged down by setting everything up. I thought the casting was very good, with a few (Lois, Perry, Green Lantern, and Mister Terrific) being particularly good. I enjoyed Fillion in Firefly and Gathegi in For All Mankind, so they were fun to see here too. I was disappointed Hawkgirl was mostly background, but since it's technically a Superman film I somewhat expected it. I also liked the tone for the most part, some humor here and there while not going super dark every chance either.

Now for the negative side. I guess maybe I've seen too much of this kind of thing, but I found a lot of the fights and disaster scenes to be quite underwhelming, and often too long as well. I kept getting the feeling that I was supposed to be awed by it, but I just.... wasn't. I don't necessarily think it's fatigue with that type of scene though, because I found Godzilla's attack on Ginza in Minus One to be very impactful. I also think Krypto is a bit of a miss in my book, despite looking forward to having him in the movie.

I waited way too long to watch this one! Very atmospheric and engrossing, with the primary weak spots being the callbacks to the original.

I bought the Blade Runner/2049 combo set years back, but while I enjoyed the original, I sat on the sequel for a while. I've found in many cases that sequels often can't match the level of the original, but this is one of the outliers for me.

Watching K deal with his everyday life is interesting, and I wouldn't have minded getting a bit more backstory, or at least more time spent on it. I've always found the slower, visual style of storytelling very interesting in movies, and this is a good example of that. The atmosphere really helped sell the story, which I thought was pretty interesting. I personally would have preferred to see them cut loose from the original and tell a new story in the same universe, but I suppose they wanted the extra publicity for this movie. It just seemed to me like a lot of it could have been eliminated without affecting the story. You would have still had K working through his identity crisis, his depressing relationship, and the investigation of the replicant situation, which in my opinion would have been a more focused story.

The visuals are, of course, impressive. I didn't know who the director was until the end, but by that point I wasn't surprised to see Villeneuve's name, bringing me up to four of his movies that I like. (Dune 1 & 2, Arrival, and now this) I know not everyone likes the style and pace, but the visuals and the filming style can suck you in as if you're there.

This is a rewatch for me, but it's been a while. Every time I watch, it's simultaneously a very interesting and frustrating experience. I think of it as a 9/10 movie sandwiched by a 5/10 beginning and ending. I can understand what they were going for, it just doesn't work for me.

Once the movie gets past the initial opening it gets very interesting, and even moreso once the story moves to the ship. I find a lot of it completely fascinating, even after seeing the movie multiple times. There's a sense of tension throughout, even when you know exactly what happens next. The sets really do a good job of feeling like an actual ship, and the model and composite work is some of the best I've seen.

I only wish it had a different ending in particular, as I'm apparently not cerebral enough to enjoy it!