Reviews

Laika has always been one of my least favorite animation studios, and it's because they are tied to a medium of animation (stop-motion) that is becoming more and more dated as CGI is trying to replicate it with new software, and *Wildwood* is no exception. This movie is based on a 2011 novel about a teenager named Prue McKeel, who ventures into a forbidden forest to retrieve her baby brother Mac from the dowager governess, Alexandra. While the movie itself has a great story that perfectly blends action, comedy, character development, solid pacing, and emotional moments, and even has a phenomenal score from Dario Marianelli, the film's edgy, PG-13-level tone and stop motion visuals, while alluring, feel like a major letdown. The character designs look so stiff and plastic, almost like moving dolls rather than real people. And that's my problem with stop motion animation: the texture...

Technically its a marvel, but storywise it really falls flat. The stop-motion animation is so well done and fluid it looks like it could be computer generated. It must have taken an absolutely mammoth effort to create the film. The film has a painterly palette which looks gorgeous. Which is all the more shame as the characters and story let it down. The characters are less than one dimensional. The parents make some of the most bizarre and illogical actions ever set to screen. Prue doesn't believe in magic she says, but never ever questions it. The other characters are under-developed cliches. The core of the story has conflicting messages and just washed over me, I didn't develop any affinity for any of the characters or end up rooting for them, and the film didn't connect with me on any level emotionally. The film looks gorgeous, but there is nothing under the surface.

Check out my full review @ https://www.manuelsbento.com/wildwood-2026-laika-delivers-a-stop-motion-generational-masterpiece/ Rating: A+ WILDWOOD is a true masterpiece, and I don't use that word lightly. Travis Knight and everyone at Laika spent years building, by hand, the most impressive stop-motion movie I've ever seen, one that deserves the "generational classic" stamp. Caleb Deschanel's cinematography and Dario Marianelli's score belong in every major awards conversation, as the final battle sits right next to the greatest set pieces ever put to screen. Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Jacob Tremblay carry two beautiful arcs. Carey Mulligan makes sorrow terrifying and heartbreaking at the same time. It's a dark, brave, deeply emotional story about grief, family, sacrifice, and, in a very Tolkien manner, the courage of small creatures and their everyday deeds to keep darkness at bay. No...

Full review: https://movieswetextedabout.com/project-hail-mary-movie-review-ryan-gosling-shines-in-a-visually-stunning-redemption-story-for-the-ages/ Rating: A- "Project Hail Mary stands as a triumph of narrative over technique, where the redemption of a man who believed himself a coward becomes the symbol of hope for an entire civilization. It’s a beautiful exploration of how genuine communication and personal sacrifice can tear down the most unthinkable barriers, uniting two beings from opposite worlds in a common purpose. Leaving the theater, my thoughts weren’t focused on orbital physics or alien chemistry, but on the profound lesson of altruism that Rocky and Grace leave to the real world. It asserts itself as one of the most immersive and emotionally rewarding sci-fi experiences in recent cinema, joining the technical grandeur of an IMAX production with the intimacy of one of the...

Incredible movie. So heartwarming and funny. The cinematography is gorgeous, the story is so entertaining and you get so emotionally invested to the characters. Ryan Gosling will never disappoint me.

I think this might be my favourite sci-fi film since “Galaxy Quest” (1999) and like that, this is a solid and entertaining story led by an actor who is quite possibly getting better looking and more charismatic as he gets older. “Grace” (Ryan Gosling) is the kind of interactive science teacher that I’d have loved. Few text books, just gadgets, gizmos and beanbag factoids that appear to keep his teenage students interested and enthusiastic. When he leaves one afternoon he encounters the enigmatic "Eva” (Sandra Hüller) who knows of his more rebellious past amongst the scientific community and who invites him to participate in a crucial and global project. The sun is dying, and rapidly, and they have identified what they think might be the cause. Quickly identifying what he calls the “astrophage”, he is soon aboard an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean working on an antidote that...

When times are tough and world-weary souls have looked for an avenue of escapism to retreat from their woes, worries and weltschmerz, they’ve often flocked to the movies to relieve that pent-up pressure. And, at a time when it feels like the world is going to you-know-where in a you-know-what (like now), that’s true more than ever. So it’s with that in mind that this much-anticipated sci-fi space adventure from directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller enters the picture, a release promulgated with the hope of providing that much-needed and much-hoped-for entertainment remedy. Unfortunately, it comes up seriously short of the mark. When once-famous but now-discredited scientist Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) redeems himself by discovering the cause of a space-based catastrophe lying in wait with the potential to devastate the Earth, he’s “recruited” by an international panel of...

A sickening, borderline fascist film that is simultaneously dull and harmful. The editing represents that of an anti-pirate commercial and the politics are beyond reprehensible. The film ends with a monologue about how violent law-enforcement and brutality is what the country needs, but does not deserve. Nolan clearly did not intend for any subtext, yet that is not an excuse, if anything, that makes it worse. He includes these scenes to make the film more dark and edgy, yet there are people, from suppressed countries, who have to live through the hardships of violence from law-enforcers and dictatorship every day, and in his obliviousness, Nolan thinks that using this in a superhero film is a good excuse for self-importance. He is a war profiteer, and exploiter, and this is nothing short of disgusting.

A Masterpiece!!! I Love how The Dark Knight shows to me the "Dark & Gritty Tone". Overall, Nolan give us the Game changing, best superhero film OF ALL TIME. For me it's 10/10

One of the best movies of all time. Christopher Nolan has brought us the Batman trilogy that it made it feel it could happen today. Christian Bale returns as Batman, was able to perform as wonderfully as he did in Batman Begins. The one person that ultimately stole the show had to be the late Heath Ledger who played as the Joker. His performance as a psychotic clown terrorizing Gotham City was one of the best performance as a superhero villain. One of the best parts of the Joker was when he was telling his victims on how “he got his scars?”. Another great part was when he kidnapped a police officer and he was recording it while scaring the man and also giving a warning to Batman. The supporting actor and actresses did a good job of delivering the story. I was disappointed that Katie Holmes did not return as Rachael Dawes but the actress how played as her Maggie Gyllenhaal did a really...

This has no competition. It is the very finest comic-book character movie ever made. Knowing the Burton, Donner and Nolan filmic adaptations of Batman and Superman exist helps me to sleep at night. They are Exhibit A of 'How to Make a Comic-Book Movie'. Nothing else has ever come even remotely close. These seven films (I include 'Superman II' because it was mostly Donner's work)--and Nolan's trilogy especially--are what I imagine a great director like Kubrick, Hitchcock or Kurosawa would have come up with, if they had ever been asked to make a Superman or Batman movie. They are the easiest for an audience to identify with because in these the scripts most approximate human emotions and the typical conundrums of the human experience--in short, are the closest, in a good way, they come to the complexities of the human condition. Peerless.