Movie reviews

MORBIUS

Watchable. Jared Leto and Matt Smith gave masterful performances. Top-notch CGIs, including body-morphing and falling from skyscrapers - shot in Los Angeles, make-up, comics blended with film, adrenaline-pumping sequences, great music in Atmos clarity make it elaborate but nearly a horror. I mean well executed though unpleasant. Bram Stoker's "Dracula" is a clear inspiration as is the "Twilight" scene in which she cut herself. There are 2 mid-credits, no post-credit.

DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS AT IMAX 3D

Watchable. Sam Raimi directed it so splendid Marvel universes mix with horror. Scarlet Witch crosses a universe through a screen in a "Ring"-like manner and Strange's corpse looks older and creepier than it needs to. Souls of the Damned and other monsters wreak havoc. A giant octopus is at least on the cute side. A Minotaur-like creature appears in a Chinese temple modelled on Shaolin. Scarlet Witch startles the protagonists in a tunnel like a group of teenagers in a horror flick, people are grabbed from the back - scary movies gimmicks. An actress called America Chavez lands a significant role, her character has lesbian mothers and they're black, Wong gets a bigger part, Strange dwells in a decrepit house on a high rock and the edifice resembles the Eye of Sauron. The trip through numerous worlds and the alternative NYC are wonderful - visually and creatively. But spectacular bits - all worth Imax 3D - are intertwined with ordinary superhero fights, full of hovering in the air. All that conceals a simplistic plot and wooden lines. Hence the movie's uneven: from superb scenes to horrible ones and superb again, for 2 hours. And the 2 hours felt like 3. Atmos-recorded monumental score consists of Danny Elfman's music with pieces by Beethoven, Wagner, Silvestri. The mid-credit announces further mayhem, the post-credit is a humorous closure. 

THE LOST CITY

Watchable. Starts with a promotional event for a book called 

"Romancing the Page" which is a satire on marketing and a contemporary version of "Romancing the Stone" follows, with modern femininity and masculinity patterns and undertones of career. Channing Tatum shows off his acting chops as "Fabio". Daniel Radcliffe, Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock are cast too. Sadly, dialogue perpetuates the fake notion of people using only "10% of the brain" and low-brow humour mars the fun. Atmos quality sound is a saving grace. There's a mid-credit.