Dune: Part One (2021) - 5/5

This movie is a paragon of adaptation, sticking incredibly closely to the source material and making only the changes necessary to deliver the same emotional beats on the big screen. It is the masterpiece Denis Villeneuve was born to film, making his previous work look like practice by comparison. The few parts I didn’t like or made me uncomfortable were taken directly from the book, which made me feel the same way reading them and instead of being drawbacks only serve to make the film a better adaptation. And it manages to convey convoluted political intrigue with ease, due in no small part to the outstanding acting, which is second only perhaps to the cinematography.

Closest comparison: It’s like Blade Runner by way of Ad Astra.

Setting: Sci-Fi
Plot: Political Intrigue
Tone: Arthouse Drama

Aquaman - 3/5

This is a very uneven movie. Many times the visuals are stunning, gorgeous even. Then the actors dump exposition on the audience for a several minutes at a time. Jason Momoa is fun and endearing; Amber Heard is grating. Every fight scene has something really cool and something either bad or just dumb. There are two separate villain plots that push the runtime over 2.5 hours, and that would be fine if the dialogue was good or the characters were likable. Unfortunately, the stiff performances and lousy writing won out. Except for a few really great moments, this film is not worth your time.

Closest Comparison: It’s Thor: Ragnarok by way of Jupiter Ascending

Justice League - 3/5

This is actually being rather generous. It's really a 2.5 but I had to pick a direction. The fight scenes are ok but uninspired and the writing is really really bad, especially in the dialogue. Everything is oversexualized and the way it's edited shows Joss Whedon tried to minimize that aspect as much as possible when he took over directing in the last month or so of film production. On the plus side it's colorful and the Flash has some funny lines with good delivery. Mostly a dud, but not a dumpster fire like Batman v Superman.

Full disclosure, we saw this movie last week but accidentally missed the first 30 minutes and didn't realize it until we got out and it wasn't as late as it should have been. We re-watched it today and my opinion of it actually didn't change that much. If it were a made for TV movie or a 90's direct to video special I would have said it wasn't too bad. But as it's a $300 million blockbuster it's hard to imagine how nobody on the production team threw up the red flag before it was released.