Black Adam - 2/5

This movie takes a good idea for a super hero story and muddies the water with bad dialogue, clunky exposition, and forced character motivations. The special effects are very good, but its penchant for depicting violent deaths stands head and shoulders above its peers in the genre. It suffers from the same problem as Superman, granting its protagonist too much power to allow for coherent stakes. Surprisingly, Pierce Brosnan’s Dr. Fate gets the best character arc in the whole runtime.

Content warning: violence

Closest comparison: It’s like Suicide Squad (2021) by way of Man of Steel (2013).

Setting: Adventure
Plot: Super hero
Tone: Action

Aladdin (2019) - 3/5

It’s good, but uneven. The normal, baseline parts of the movie that should go smoothly are rough and often badly acted. Then the movie turns around and absolutely nails the parts that are tricky and hard to pull off. Out of nowhere a few scenes are played for awkward cringe comedy, which are followed up by scenes of Aladdin and Jasmine’s endearing, believable chemistry. The Prince Ali number, a delightfully spectacular riff on the song, was much better executed than One Jump Ahead, which walked when it should have run and mismatched its lyrics with the action. Luckily the movie gets better as it goes and comes into its own with some surprisingly impactful moments in the third act.

Closest comparison: It’s the best live action Disney remake to date.

Setting: Fantasy
Plot: Adventure
Tone: Adventure