Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) - 4/5

This movie walks a fine line between funny and light, and darkly serious. And most of the time it works. The music, action, and character building are easily the highlights of the film, far outstripping several previous MCU entries. The rich color palette and gorgeous visualization of deep space are a wonder to behold and worth the price of admission alone. The main issues with the film are about tone, with characters cracking jokes while dark or disturbing things happen just before or afterward. Beyond that, however, it’s a fun misfit adventure with occasional sincerity.

Closest comparison: It’s the crazy, silly, irreverent ‘youngest child’ of the MCU.

Setting: Gritty Sci-Fi
Plot: Adventure
Tone: Comedy

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - 5/5

This movie is dripping with awesome style, but if it doesn’t appeal to you that will affect your enjoyment of the overall film. There’s still a lot to like beyond that with amazing cinematography, vivid characters, and both meaningful and hilarious dialogue. Seeing alternate universe interpretations of all the well-known Spider-Man canon is a blast. The interactions between Miles and his dad are insightful, and there’s unexpected depth to the interactions between the ‘Spider-People’. Funny, fun, and visually amazing, it doesn’t get much better than this.

Closest comparison: It’s like Spider-Man: Homecoming meets The Lego Movie.

Ant-Man and the Wasp - 4/5

This movie is a comedy and I think it's hilarious. Not all the jokes land, but they recover quickly from those that don't. Luckily, even if the humor doesn't work for you there's still enough of a movie to make it worth watching. They've taken the criticisms from the first movie about the villain to heart, and the antagonist here is character driven with a nuanced relationship to the heroes. Lots of popcorn-crunching spectacular fun to be had and beautiful, colorful visuals, though the issues with physics persist from the first movie. All in all, it's even better than its predecessor and definitely worth a watch.

Coco (2017) - 5/5

Well, they've done it again. Leave it to Pixar to take an all-encompassing issue like Family and do it justice. The animation is breathtaking, of course, but it's the story that really shines. It walks a razor's edge path to avoid every pitfall and to continually go unexpected places. Characters that would have been two-dimensional cardboard cutouts in a lesser film are instead flushed out and complex. Great music, inspiring message, and tear-jerking conclusion. 

Avengers: Infinity War - 5/5

This film has all the great cross-over action scenes we've been waiting for. Each character gets a time to shine and dialogue that fits them well. If you haven't seen all of the other movies leading up to this I think most of it will still make perfect sense, but you'll miss some quips and inside jokes. Also, be aware that while this film is mostly fun there are some much darker moments, including a torture scene. All in all, though, the film is certainly worth the hype.

Ready Player One - 3/5

This movie is a fun popcorn flick, but there's no real depth to it. It's pretty, has lots of fun references, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Since it's Universal Studios and Steven Spielberg, they were able to get a staggering number of intellectual property licenses, and it's fun seeing them all interacting like they would if the Oasis were a real place. The plot provides enough reason for there to be car races, dance numbers, and massive battles all in the same movie, but it's about as philosophically deep as National Treasure (that is to say, not very). If you enjoy pop culture from the 1980's until now, it's definitely worth a watch.

The Greatest Showman (2017) - 5/5

This movie is amazing. The audio/visual experience is on the level of Moulin Rouge, if not better. Some people will be put off by modern pop-style music and dance in a period piece, but I loved it. For all the great singing and acting Hugh Jackman has done over the years, everyone in this movie was at least as good as him on both counts. And I think if the message resonates with you especially then you will like it even more than I did.

Thor: Ragnarok - 3/5

Mileage may vary. The action is awesome, but only some of the humor worked for me. The visuals are stunning, but much of the plot only pays off mildly well. It's not a bad film by any means, but it's only 'fine' when it could have been 'great'. It's candy, not meat and potatoes. It's fun, flashy and fleeting.

 Honestly the fact that the trailers ruined so much of the movie was very disappointing to me. There's like 20 minutes of build-up to "who is Thor going to fight?", but that was in the first 20 seconds of the trailer. And for as amazing as many of the costumes were, Valkyrie's costume was one of the worst I've seen in any super hero movie. Who thought "You know what's a badass color? Taupe."

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets - 3/5

The world building, visuals, and action scenes (basically the first half of the movie) are 5/5. But then there's the writing. Most of the characters are just not very likable, and the plot and story are problematic. The movie brings up some big topics as if it's going to address them (genecide, human trafficking, forgiveness, love) but only gives trite, meaningless answers that are ultimately insulting to the subject matter. So, if you can turn off your brain, you'll have a lot of fun watching this movie. If not, then skip it.

La La Land - 4/5

Sorry, I can't go the full 5/5. It's the ending. It was ok, but kind of a let-down after the rest of the film. If I did half points it would be 4.5/5, but it is what it is. I'd say it's the best musical since Moulin Rouge, but not better than. The last 5 minutes of a movie are half the movie, and where Moulin Rouge's ending was poetic this just felt a bit rocky. That being said, I'll probably have the songs pop into my head for the next week.

Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 - 3/5

First off, the good: lots of beautiful visuals and some great character moments with tertiary characters. The opening sequence is fantastic, and if the whole movie was like that it might have been a 5. Unfortunately, most of the humor in the film is mean-spirited, which for me is intolerable. And for a movie that is relying largely on the humor it's just painful.