The Tomorrow War - 2/5

This movie’s visuals are as amazing as the plot is baffling. The monsters look great and the action is well choreographed for the most part, but the film undercuts the tension by setting up rules about the monsters and then completely ignoring them. There’s no angle from which you can think about the time travel that makes sense, but if you can turn your brain off completely and manage to not think about how or why anything is happening this could be a pretty fun movie.

Closest comparison: It’s like reverse Terminator with monster vibes from Pitch Black.

Setting: Sci-Fi
Plot: Action
Tone: Action

Batman: Bad Blood - 3/5

This movie is treading water with no direction in sight. It has passable action and halfway decent plot, but the whole affair seems to just drone on and on until it’s finished, and it’s not even that long of a movie. The visual style is very bland, relying on dark hard-to-read images for the bulk of the narrative. The whole bat-family is in this one, as well as a collection of villains, and this seems to be the main draw of the film. It creates a new villain, but instead of being a grounded, empathetic character like in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, instead it comes off as formulaic and canned.

Closest comparison: Just watch Batman: Mask of the Phantasm again instead.

Setting: Noir
Plot: Mystery
Tone: Superhero

Killer Elite (2011) - 3/5

On the whole this is just your standard action flick. It looks really good and the action sequences are slightly above average, but the plot plods along exactly as you might expect. Robert De Niro and Clive Owen elevate the average acting level significantly and Jason Statham is Jason Statham. Apparently it’s based on a true story, which improves some of the mondanity quite a bit. The film isn’t great and it isn’t terrible, but it doesn’t offer anything beyond that.

Closest Comparison: Ronin crossed with The Bourne Ultimatum