Loki (Season 1, Disney+, 2021) - 3/5

This show is fun and interesting, but has several problems holding it back. The show poses a lot of good questions about the multiverse, but season 1 ends on a cliffhanger without resolving almost anything which is very annoying to say the least. The set design and costuming is gorgeous, but some of the new superpowers and worldbuilding rules are very problematic in their retroactive implications. Owen Wilson does an outstanding job, but the writers seemed to want to write for a post-Ragnarok Loki and sloppily shoehorn 6 years of character development into one scene. It also seems to think it’s ‘woke’, so all the female characters are stronger, smarter, and more competent than all of the men. Ironically, this backfires by making the two male leads by far the most interesting characters. This show could have been great, but in the end it has nowhere to go.

Closest comparison: It’s like Doctor Who by way of Brazil (1985).

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

Hellboy (2019) - 3/5

This movie’s main draw is its visual aesthetic, which is so Metal that it looks like it was taken directly from an Iron Maiden album cover. It overemphasizes the goriness wherever it can, but if that’s your thing you’ll probably like this movie more than I did. There are lots of fun locations and characters, with a few sequences that were exceptionally well done. Unfortunately, there are too many plotting problems, with unclear character motivations and stakes. Unless you’re really into the visual style, just rewatch Guillermo Del Toro’s 2004 classic again instead.

Content warning: language, gore, dead children, brief female nudity

Closest comparison: It’s like someone read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and thought, “This needs more demons, intestines, and severed limbs.”

Setting: Hidden World
Plot: Adventure
Tone: Horror/Splatter