Blackhat (2015) - 3/5

This movie is a down-to-earth hacker action movie. With Michael Mann’s attention to detail it gets right what most other hacker movies get wrong about the hacking, but it also makes for a drier film overall. The action is good, but not the driving force of the movie which instead opts for the taught feel of a political thriller. Its plot is more cookie-cutter than Mann’s usual detailed stories, and makes for more of a fun popcorn movie than his other thrillers.

Closest comparison: It’s like Mission: Impossible by way of Heat.

Setting: Espionage
Plot: Adventure
Tone: Thriller

The Cabin in the Woods - 4/5

This movie is a deconstruction of the pop horror genre, but also succeeds at being its own solid entry into the pop horror genre. All of the less palatable aspects of movies like this are significantly improved by having characters directly critique them, though not as satisfyingly as they could have. It’s a great return to ‘90s form and the horror movie genre would do well to head in this direction. And while it’s cleverly executed it stops just short of turning the whole premise on its head, as it was poised to do, but leaves just enough wiggle room for fan theorists to have some fun with it.

Content warning: lots of blood, brief female nudity

Closest comparison: It’s like The Last Action Hero for horror movies.

Setting: Horror
Plot: Sci-Fi
Tone: Comedy Horror

Men in Black: International - 3/5

It’s kind of dumb, but it’s a lot of fun. It follows in the steps of Ant-Man, where it keeps to its own rules for the main storyline but abandons them when it wants to make a joke. That being said the jokes land, for the most part, and it’s flashily cinematic in all the usual places. Instead of having a boring, predictable plot it changes up the formula by keeping the audience guessing which of the myriad tropes they’re going to fall into. This is the least weird and most stylish of the Men In Black franchise, and the second best one of the lot because of it.

Closest comparison: Thor and Valkyrie in a buddy cop movie with aliens.

Setting: Weird Sci-Fi
Plot: Buddy Cop
Tone: Comedy

Avengers: Age of Ultron - 4/5

This movie is fantastic, but introduces too many metaphors to pay off by the end. Director Joss Whedon stated in an interview that he challenged himself to make it shorter than The Avengers (2012), and it shows. This movie tries to do more in less time, and although it does an incredible job with what it has, an extra 10-20 minutes could have made this a 5/5. That being said the action is dazzling, the concept is solid, and they even managed to squeeze in three new characters that went on to appear in other MCU movies. With so much crammed into one movie, it definitely improves with multiple viewings.

Closest comparison: It’s the troubled middle child of the Avengers franchise.

Setting: Super hero
Plot: Super hero
Tone: Super hero

The Avengers (2012) - 5/5

This movie does Character better than almost any other. Joss Whedon accomplished the almost insurmountable task of combining the six main characters and several side characters in a way that lets each of them shine unimpeded by the others. The brilliance of the one-on-one confrontations each main character gets with the villain that highlight the unique strengths they bring to the team cannot be overstated. It also contains one of the most dynamic and multi-faceted arguments ever put to film. It combined three existing character-based film franchises, reinvented a fourth, and added in two main characters to boot. And it did it so well that it became the gold standard by which all action films and all team-up films are measured.

Closest comparison: It’s the super hero team up movie that started them all

Setting: Super hero
Plot: War Spy
Tone: Action Adventure

Thor (2011) - 3/5

This is Marvel’s first attempt at mashing up two different genres, and all things considered it works really well. The action is quite good, the story is solid, and the CGI is fine, kept in dark environments as needed. The Shakespearean dialogue is essential to the core of the Asgardian characters, evoking the sense of royalty with ease and meshing perfectly with the ‘royal drama’ nature of the plot. And no review would be complete without mentioning the Dutch Angles that are just everywhere in this movie, but only work well about half of the time.

Closest comparison: It’s the bisection of the line between He-Man and K-Pax, but with much better production values.

Setting: Fantasy
Plot: Super hero
Tone: Action Comedy

Avengers: Infinity War - 5/5

This film has all the great cross-over action scenes we've been waiting for. Each character gets a time to shine and dialogue that fits them well. If you haven't seen all of the other movies leading up to this I think most of it will still make perfect sense, but you'll miss some quips and inside jokes. Also, be aware that while this film is mostly fun there are some much darker moments, including a torture scene. All in all, though, the film is certainly worth the hype.

Thor: Ragnarok - 3/5

Mileage may vary. The action is awesome, but only some of the humor worked for me. The visuals are stunning, but much of the plot only pays off mildly well. It's not a bad film by any means, but it's only 'fine' when it could have been 'great'. It's candy, not meat and potatoes. It's fun, flashy and fleeting.

 Honestly the fact that the trailers ruined so much of the movie was very disappointing to me. There's like 20 minutes of build-up to "who is Thor going to fight?", but that was in the first 20 seconds of the trailer. And for as amazing as many of the costumes were, Valkyrie's costume was one of the worst I've seen in any super hero movie. Who thought "You know what's a badass color? Taupe."