Movie reviews of Craig McKenzie

A charmless, passionless chore bereft of energy and originality that fails to justify its own existence. There is no reason to watch this version when the animated original already exists as it does broadly the same things except worse and has a longer running time. Review

An entertaining and well put together cinematic experience that excels at world building while doing right by fans of the franchise. Review

A joyless slog that suffers from a huge lack of focus ending the long standing X-Men film franchise on a whimper. Review

A beautifully crafted and immensely entertaining experiences that cements this franchise among the gold standard of western produced action cinema. Review

An incredible cinematic experience that delivers a satisfying finale to 22 films worth of build-up. It uses its long runtime well, delivers powerful character moments and strong fan service while delivering on the promise of an epic conclusion to everything that had come before. Review

A strong and delightfully self aware superhero origin story that has a lot of fun with the usual trappings that come with the setup and focuses the narrative on engaging characters. Review

Despite my misgivings Captain Marvel is a reasonable entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Strong performance can’t quite make up for a lack of narrative focus and easy to guess twists. Review

A strong sequel that completely changes direction from the first film and delivers a really entertaining sci-fi comedy that expands the universe in really fun ways. Review

A technically impressive, character driven experience that does really well with world building but fails to craft a truly engaging story. Review

A satisfying heartwarming conclusion to what can now be called one of cinema’s greatest trilogies. Review

A fun and engaging entry into the DC canon that makes great use of Jason Momoa’s obvious charisma and delivers some really creative visuals. Review

Individual elements such as Emily Blunt’s performance or some creative sequences work well enough but a dull story, unmemorable songs and a general lack of originality leave this feeling like a pointless sequel capitalising on audience nostalgia rather than standing out on its own merits. Review

An excellent film with great characters, an expertly crafted story, stunning animation and a clear love for Spider-Man in all his forms. Review

The visuals are impressive enough and one or two characters stand out thanks to talented actors playing them but the lack of focus on anything and over reliance on unnecessary backstories are everything that’s wrong with franchise filmmaking. Review

It’s really well paced, the performances are great, recreations of famous performances are excellently done and it hits the major beats that Queen fans would expect. Review

A worthy sequel to the original Halloween that strips away all of the overly complicated elements to deliver a simplified take on the iconic franchise. Review

Despite the many flaws I can’t say I was ever bored by Venom. Review

An incoherent mess of a film with unlikeable characters, a disjointed narrative that has clearly been cut to the bone, terribly edited incoherent action and too much focus on uninteresting details. Review

An underwhelming movie that misses more opportunities than it lands and fails to take advantage of its obvious strengths. Review

An entertaining creature feature that is full of missed opportunities. Review

An entertaining and fun entry into the Marvel Cinematic universe that makes for a good ensemble piece and delivers some creative action. Review

Expertly merges plot with action to create and well paced experience with incredible set piece moments... Review

A compelling character driven story from the point of view of a protagonist with a less than traditional outlook. Review

A charming film with engaging characters, plenty of laughs and a fun setup. Review