Dumbo (2019) - 2/5

This movie has some fatal character problems. While Colin Farrell is excellent and Danny DeVito steals every scene he’s in, the young girl (Nico Parker) shows the personality of a plank of wood. The villain only does villainous acts when the plot calls for it, and it’s never consistent for his character. Telling the most powerful person in the movie who has always treated his employees well until today that he has never had any power is weak and trite, and is emblematic of the scene-centric approach to this film that ignores character development. Of course the CGI elephant is good and the costuming is great, but movies live and die on plot and character.

Closest comparison: Just another in a line of poorly-conceived Disney live-action remakes.

Setting: Musical
Plot: Super hero
Tone: Drama

Spider-Man: Homecoming - 5/5

Tom Holland is my new favorite Peter Parker. I'm glad they went back to a high school spiderman, and I think updated characters worked really well. The design on the Vulture was inspired, and I loved all the changes they made to the character because they made them for all the right reasons. Ultimately, I think I would give it a 4.5 out of 5, but since I don't do half points there were a few things that bugged me about the movie. They didn't cash in on some of the stuff they set up, and it would have been a really good payoff. Also Aunt May is pretty bad. But all in all, excellent movie, and I definitely recommend it.

Originally I gave this movie a 4/5, but over time the issues with Aunt May fade into the background of how great the rest of the movie is.

Birdman - 3/5

This movie's strength is in its moviemaking. It is shot to look like it's all one continuous, unbroken take, using very clever invisible cuts to make it possible. There are also quite a few mirrors in the film but never the camera reflected in them, a feat which I'm still not sure how they were able to accomplish. The story is pretty weird, though, and there's a lot of sexual dialogue and situations that don't actually add anything to the film. Also the ending undercuts itself. The film could have been going one of two directions, basically, and has an unclear ending that doesn't come down on either side. Instead of making both interpretations meaningful and valid, it only serves to make neither of them interesting or satisfying. If you like dissecting film-making techniques it's really cool, but otherwise I'd skip it.