“Damsel … is part of a fairly new strain of feminist films that wish to dismantle the stereotypes associated with fantasy films such as these. Its subversive claims … are made clear from the start. […] But alas, this 101-minute entirely self-serious tale—there isn’t a bone of humour in Damsel—has little to say and even less to show. I kept waiting for the film to kick in, to usher me into what it promised and wow me with its action, but that moment never arrived.”

“That line of dialogue hits at what the new Netflix movie is about: the ennui of the digital age. Essentially, it wants to depict the cause and effects of generational malaise that began in millennials and is more acute with Gen Z, who were born into an always-online world. So much of our life today happens on social media. Or, rather, how it appears on social media.”

“[Feels] like it’s actively avoiding most responsibilities. Despite its galactic scale and life-threatening scope, The Marvels operates as a lightweight, small cosmic adventure that can’t help but feel like a stepping stone to nothing. Sure, there’s spurts of enjoyable banter between this new trio … but there’s alarmingly little dramatic material to make it a substantial film.”

“The Mumbai Film Festival, better known as MAMI … is back in physical form after a gap of four years. […] And thanks to the riches of its primary sponsor Jio … MAMI 2023 promises to be bigger than ever. For one, it will run for a full 10 days: October 27 to November 5. Across the opening weekend, films will be screened at the glitzy 2,000-plus-seater Grand Theatre at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre.”

“A series of PSAs that are increasingly in your face, to the point that the last one is literally delivered to your face, with [Shah Rukh] Khan breaking the fourth wall and addressing the audience. [… It] coasts on the movie-star charm of and the audience’s affection for Khan, but that can only take you so far. Thrust into an action thriller package—it’s more of an action comedy, to be honest—the world of Jawan operates with zero cohesion or internal logic.”

“On the surface, it’s about a man who helped alter the shape of the world. But it’s also about our world today (naturally). A world where patriots are discarded, put in jails, and labelled “anti-nationals”. And those who solely work for their own profit brand themselves as saviours while spreading hate and division. Oppenheimer is a character study that purports itself as a thriller for the majority of its runtime, only to gradually usher you into an entirely different movie.”

“[The] bigger problem with the Extraction films [is that they] are more interested in wowing you with intensity and effort. ‘Look at how much work this sequence must have taken.’ […] It’s a shame the scripts don’t put nearly enough into making us care about the characters and what’s happening to them. [The writer Joe] Russo cares more about expanding his world and building out the ensemble.”

“For a tale that’s been adapted into film half a dozen times (and scores more on stage), Peter Pan & Wendy was crying out for an infusion of [David] Lowery’s Green Knight magic. Unfortunately, he’s delivered a less-than-serviceable remake that’s both undercooked and repetitive at the same time.”

“All that said, it’s hard to argue against the sheer adrenaline thrill that John Wick 4 delivers. Sure, there are just too many dishes and the size of the portions is out of control, but you can’t escape its butt-clenching intensity. John Wick: Chapter 4 delivers on what you expect from a John Wick movie—I just wish it wasn’t overstuffed and so full of itself that it threatens to crowd out its best bits. It could do well to learn from its lean, mean, killing machine.”

“[James] Cameron has decided to present Avatar: The Way of Water in variable frame rates: standard 24fps, and high-frame-rate 48fps. Most of the dialogue scenes make use of the former, while the action is all rendered in the latter. At times though, the Avatar sequel switches between the two on the fly, in the same scene, in what is both unnecessary and jarring. […] Cameron believes this solves HFR’s pain point, but I’m not convinced.”

“[Even] though it might be the first proper MCU horror tale, I don’t think it’s effective in that regard. Sure, there are moments when blood streams down your screen … but I can’t recall any genuine scares. An even bigger problem is that it’s too short. Wrapping up at 48 minutes … Werewolf by Night doesn’t have enough time to flesh out its characters. It gets over before it really even begins.”

“There’s a lot of action set-pieces scattered across The Gray Man, but none of them have staying power. Rather than meticulously craft scenes that build characters and suit their story, it seems [Anthony and Joe Russo] have crammed one in every nook and cranny of the Netflix movie. Sure, they are bombastic, but it feels like a case of the directors justifying the humongous cost of the production and VFX budget. In fact, I would argue The Gray Man goes too big.”

“Rather than being set in our world and focusing on what it might be like for humans to co-exist with dinosaurs, […] the bulk of Jurassic World Dominion once again takes place within an isolated dinosaur sanctuary that is run by a multinational corporation solely in it for the profit. What’s the point of calling it Jurassic World if your (terrible no-good) trilogy is going to end without showing us how the world and its many cultures are dealing with dinosaurs in different ways?”

“The magic went out of these movies long ago—and the third of five planned chapters, The Secrets of Dumbledore, is unable to truly put a finger on it. That said, I didn’t actively hate [it] like I did the last one. Or maybe it was simply because the bar had been set so low by The Crimes of Grindelwald that there was no way to go but up. Still, The Secrets of Dumbledore ends up making some of the same mistakes as its predecessors.”

“Given the sheer magnitude of The Dark Knight, it’s bold of [Matt] Reeves to opt for the Joker as the sequel’s centrepiece. […] I really hope he knows what he’s doing. The Dark Knight is one of my favourite movies of all time, and The Batman 2 will need to be something insane, special, and legendary to avoid looking like an also-ran. Reeves is inviting the comparison and he needs to answer for it.”

“[Proof] that Bollywood can’t make a lean-and-mean high-concept B-movie. Rather than jump straight into the thick of things (and stay in its lane), the Hindi-language remake of writer-director Tom Tykwer’s Sundance Film Festival-winning 1998 German thriller Run Lola Run stuffs in all sorts of plot, subplot, and backstory into it. There’s even a song sequence that further slows down Looop Lapeta.”

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife isn’t as slavish to its original film as [Star Wars:] The Force Awakens was, but it’s also not nearly as enjoyable. For what it’s worth, [Jason] Reitman tries to carve out a new voice for the Ghostbusters series [… but troublingly, it] doubles down on the nostalgia towards the end—which undoes the good work that Reitman signals at for most of his film.”

“[A] bold bet. […] There are no lightsabers, dogfights, or space battles here. […] Its characters don’t trade quips, or ping-pong across planets on a galactic adventure. [… There’s] no humour on display here, it’s all self-serious. Dune is more akin to Game of Thrones, but in space, and, minus the sex and the humour. It serves up a whole lot of palace intrigue, hints at a questionable quasi-Biblical journey, and seemingly evokes Lawrence of Arabia at times.”

“A poorly-used John Cena can’t mask Justin Lin’s [giant electromagnet] gimmicks and meta discussions [about how everyone’s favourite petrolheads seem to survive anything and everything. Plus,] Fast & Furious 9 brings back virtually everyone we know […] F9 is essentially a compendium of The Fast Saga. But it’s still incomplete.”

“[Brought] to life with some of Pixar’s most stylised animation to date—[Enrico] Casarosa & Co. have spoken about how they were inspired by traditional 2D animation, Japanese woodblock paintings, a bunch of Italian classic movies, and the works of the legendary Hayao Miyazaki—and paired with a scintillating background score … that is at once serene, playful, tingling, and epic.”

“To call it overlong might be an understatement. It’s so long that some characters aren’t introduced until after the first hour, while others don’t show up until we pass the two-hour mark. It’s so long that the film’s epilogue takes half an hour, featuring multiple ‘endings’ that seem to suggest [Zack] Snyder put everything he had up on the wall. Justice League Snyder Cut is definitely indulgent.”

“Most films … send heroes on a journey on which they encounter obstacles, before arriving at their destination with new values. But Soul goes a step further and questions all of it. What is the journey worth? What should you be willing to give in pursuit of the goal? And what if we are moving towards the wrong destination? In other words, Soul is interested in pondering the meaning of life—the biggest question of them all.”

“[Christopher Nolan] not only wants to preserve the big screen experience (understandable) but he also wants to be the saviour of cinemas (risky), which have been among the worst hit industries during the [COVID-19] pandemic. But in going for a staggered release with Tenet during an ongoing pandemic, Nolan is going to end up spoiling the film for some (not good) or push them towards piracy (worse).”

“Unfortunately, Choked doesn’t have anything to say about the socio-political ramifications of demonetisation. Instead, it’s merely used as a plot device.”

“[If] the title of your movie has no thematic underpinnings to it, it doesn’t bode well. […] Scenes are so loosely written and put up that it almost feels like the makers couldn’t wait to be done with it. Maska is a frivolous and farcical joke of a movie.”

“Instead of immersing the audience in Sonic’s rich, fantastical home-world that the film briefly visits, it keeps us in a corner of the non-descript human world that robs the film of any identity.”

“[Dibakar Banerjee’s] societal horror story bakes in the ugliness of caste, corruption, and immorality, and directly touches upon the erosion of small towns owing to the spread of urbanisation. [… Anurag] Kashyap’s ideas are buried too deep in the film, and though [Zoya] Akhtar’s leaves itself open to interpretation, it doesn’t reward you for the thought. Meanwhile, [Karan] Johar’s has nothing to offer.”

“The wonderful thing about [Rian] Johnson is that his films come from a place of admiration for the genre, and that he’s willing to push the boundaries on what they have been about. […] With Knives Out, Johnson throws out a story that [Agatha] Christie would have appreciated, but he makes sure to go that step further to subvert it.”

“Continuing his love for bleeding-edge tech from his previous feature, [Ang] Lee has shot Gemini Man in extra-high frame rate—120fps to be precise, which is five times the standard 24fps—at 4K resolution in 3D. […] But Lee has spent time and money on technology that forget being appreciated, can’t even be seen as intended.”

“[Some] of the most imaginative and best-looking frames of the original are virtually discarded on the remake, which in turn opts for a more natural feel. Therefore, those who haven’t seen the original will enjoy the remake more, as they’ll have nothing to compare it with.”

“Men in Black: International can’t recapture the Thor: Ragnarok magic, because the two stars weren’t solely responsible for it. Much of Ragnarok‘s success was down to the irreverence of director Taika Waititi […] Unfortunately, F. Gary Gray … can’t catch that lightning in a bottle.”

“[Were] it not for [Ryan] Reynolds, who carries over his Deadpool persona—minus the expletives—in voicing a version of Pikachu that wears a deerstalker hat and has a caffeine addiction, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu would immediately be a lesser film.”

“Captain Marvel is more a reminder of Marvel’s early work (think the first Captain America or Thor) than its more recent output (Black Panther or Infinity War).”

“Both Charlie and Bee have faced loss and are broken in different ways, and the film uses that human-machine connection to craft a well-meaning tale of compassion and friendship.”

“[The] Wreck-It Ralph sequel is clever and self-aware enough to not just mine the decades of nostalgia for a dozen laughs but turn that shameless self-promotion of Disney’s several intellectual properties into a storytelling tool.”

“Venom is neither here nor there, and its failure to be self-aware makes it feel like a movie from a different superhero era at times.”

“Many superhero films have since tried to copy its formula, but most have failed. The biggest fault … has been the relentless focus to ground themselves in grittiness, either oblivious or uncaring of the aspects that matter more. […The Dark Knight‘s] script was full of clever call-backs and foreshadowing, and had bits and pieces of humour in the right places … to offset the otherwise depressing nature of events on-screen.”

“[Its] themes are dealt with in as perfunctory a manner as J.A. Bayona’s Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back reference, as the film is happy to oblige and hand audiences what they’ve come for.”

“[Since it] is the beginning of the end for the current generation of Marvel superheroes, it can do away with some and still have plenty to go around. That helps generate stakes and makes Infinity War different from any other Marvel film.”

“The problem with most adaptations of video games is two-fold: keeping a check on the exposition, and designing action set-pieces that are interesting to watch. Roar Uthaug mostly fails on both counts.”

“Mistrust, class struggles, and social mobility appear to be important themes for Bright in the early going, and it indulges the idea of exploring the symptoms and consequences of that for the first half hour. But it eventually gives that up, and turns into a Will Smith-movie, which is to say a generic guns-blazing action thriller.”

“The film is about Spider-Man facing what it means to be a hero, and what that entails. But instead of saying it as a fancy dialogue, it shows how great power brings great responsibility.”

“The world of Coco is beautifully conceptualised and brought to life in a gorgeous, eye-popping fashion, with special mention for the aforementioned alebrije, which have their basis in Mexican folk art and have been rendered as multi-coloured fantastical creatures.”

“From its opening moments, Blade Runner 2049 is more interested in creating an experience than telling a story by the numbers. It’s why the director Denis Villeneuve and the film, in turn, bide their time, to slow you down and immerse in the dreary, eerie, and dystopian world of futuristic Los Angeles.”

“The inability to let events properly play out causes a perennial rush. At times, it almost seems as if The Last Knight is wearing its editing choppiness as a badge of honour, daring you to make sense of the moments in between. Michael Bay further compounds the problem by never letting the film rest, and imbuing every other scene with so much incoherent action that you’ll be most likely be left with a headache.”

“[James] Gunn manages to pack an emotional punch in the end, delivering a character send-off that’s bound to bring most viewers to the verge of tears. But though the celestial action is grounded in relatable values, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2‘s central message—that family comes in all shapes and sizes—struggles to shine through, amid the cacophony.”

“In Rogue One, [Gareth] Edwards has made the most realistic of Star Wars than any before—and with that, also the most mature and grown-up one. This is not the fun-filled romp for the younger audiences that last year’s Episode VII: The Force Awakens was. Instead, Rogue One is the Star Wars prequel George Lucas should have made, and one that fans of the original trilogy rightly deserve.”

“More often than not, Suicide Squad plays out completely opposite to that old adage: strength in numbers. The film fares better when it lets individual characters take over the narrative, but cowardice and a general lack of time investment make sure that no one can get in more than a single line in what is a continuous repartee.”

“What Zootopia says is even more important today, a time when democratic nations around the world move towards harsher right-wing policies, by way of fear and misinformation of ‘outsiders’. The city of Zootopia … runs obvious parallels to mankind’s own diversity and through the beaming eyes of [Judy] Hopps offers a glimpse at what can be achieved if only we don’t remain so set in our ways.”