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Watched on August 7th, 2025

I tried my best to ignore this movie at all costs, despite having seen the trailer, and just who doesn't love to see dinosaurs on the big screen once again?. I was younger when I saw Jurassic World in the theater, and I still loved it, no matter what people tried to convince me, but the last two kinda left me with a bitter taste for the franchise, especially Dominion. Well, believe it or not, I thoroughly enjoyed this one not even gonna lie. It's a lot better than whatever the hell the last one was. I thought to myself what are they going to do next after the abysmal previous movie? What they could offer next, they basically went "go big and go home", and it was pretty much the Avengers: Endgame of the Jurassic franchise.

I obviously have some gripes with the script regarding the characters (you probably know which). If only they could change it or scrape it off completely, I would've upped the rating surely. But honestly, everything in this is just alright. The premise is simple enough, we're not dealing with "the end of the world" situation, though it still opens the door for something big. The amount of both human drama and dinosaur action sequences is just enough, I got numb and exhausted watching every big sequence in Dominion because there was no real intensity behind it. It was way over the top for its own good. There was one moment that felt magical and that's already made this movie stand above the last two. There's a hilarious amount of Deus Ex Machina in this one, to the point of being ridiculous and overdone.

Watched on August 6th, 2025

To say that Weapons isn't one of my most anticipated movies of the year, alongside Sinners, would be a blatant lie. In my early days, I didn't give much care about the horror genre in general, not because I'm a coward, but because I didn't find enjoyment in watching them, and probably I wasn't even aware that there were many great modern horrors. Anyway, I immediately said in my out-of-theatre reaction that this is probably not for everyone (hope I'm wrong) but it sure did work for me. If you've seen Cregger's Barbarian (2022) then you're already familiar with his storytelling approach because it's important to find your way through it to enjoy his movies.

Weapons is a little different, throughout the entire event in the movie, we're thrown into a different view of the story, which is from our six main characters to see how it all ties up to the very end. I mean, it's really hard not to go into spoiler territory, and it'll just ruin the whole experience if I do, right?. I'll just say that it's a slow-burning horror that really takes time to build up the final blow that might catch people off guard and Zach is such a master at dropping red herrings in his movies, that's the reason why his previous work got people's attention and he earned himself the hype for this movie. Julia Garner has redeemed herself with Fantastic Four and this after her underwhelming first entry earlier this year, Wolf Man. Some horror movies are solely dependent on their atmosphere, and in effect, it's just dull and drags, but Weapons uses it effectively to creep you out. Kinda reminds me of Longlegs.

Watched on July 23rd & 24th, 2025

I said the other day that The Fantastic Four: First Steps serves as a palate cleanser for all Marvel movies that came before, while Thunderbolts* drags us back to its roots when the billion-dollar franchise is still at its peak in the early days. This movie surely gives us a glimpse of hope and shows us that the MCU is slowly rising back to where it used to be. Despite knowing that they made an excellent choice by setting this movie in an alternate universe and just letting the story move and breathe freely without ties to the main timeline, I can't deny the feeling of doubt when the runtime was first announced, fearing that everything would be rushed and that too many things would be squeezed into the movie. But hey, I also told myself if they can make it work in just 115 minutes, then it's fantastic.

Should I say that again? Yes, it's a fantastic introduction to Marvel's first family, who are finally joining the MCU, and they actually do these characters real justice this time around. Look, I don't know about others, but I've grown tired of the traditional origin story in every superhero movie. Why not throw us in their early years when the heroes are trying to grasp the reality that they have now and the responsibility that follows after their lives changed for the better?. This is what the four of them carry on their shoulder onwards as the people will always look up to them, and then suddenly be forced to face something beyond their experience and knowledge, even for the smartest man alive, Reed Richards. The family dynamics that the four of them share have never been better depicted on screen and I don't even need to talk about Galactus, you just have to see and "hear" him for yourself on the biggest screen and loudest speakers you can find. I assure you, he doesn't disappoint, unlike his previous movie iteration.

I literally found out a couple of days ago that there weren't auditions for the main actors; they basically just met with the director, Matt Shakman, and got the part. But who could've guessed that the chemistry between the family is perfect and each of them is the right person to play it. As much as I like Pedro, he's the only one I couldn't fully connect with just yet, probably due to him not being given much to do while wearing the white and blue suit, though he's great when being a genius scientist and a father. Vanessa Kirby definitely takes the spotlight, and damn, she's perfect as Sue.

The Fantastic 4: First Steps is one of the most visually vibrant (and confident?) Marvel movies, and it has "some" of the most impressive CGI ever put on screen. There's one scene involving the Silver Surfer in space, and it's clean and dope as hell.