FILM: Avengers Infinity War IMAX 3D (dirs: Joe and Anthony Russo, 2018)

"Cool?"
"Cool."
"So cool."

The reward to loyal Marvel fans who have painstakingly sat through all the films over the last decade pays off superbly, and is a fitting way to celebrate ten years of the studio's hit filmmaking.  It hits the ground running - picking up from the ending of Thor Ragnarok - and immediately establishes Thanos as a genuine threat (not perfect, but certainly one of the better superhero movie villains of recent years), with the momentum kept up for most of the film.  Indeed, the pace is frantic, but the storytelling is superb, the introduction of characters regularly raises a smile, the scale is enormous, but the Russos handle it all almost effortlessly.  We see the characters and the cast at their peak, there are some truly wonderful new toys and upgrades on display, and the film is surprisingly very funny, with the combinations of characters not only providing much butting of heads to comedic effect but also genuine interest in how they work together.  Although the story is a routine 'gather the stones' through line, familiar characters are given some interesting arcs with some surprises and shocks along the way.  There are many highlights from small moments and one-liners to the huge battles, but the comedy genius of Drax and Thor is excellent, there is one particular heartbeat-skipping special effect that is truly awesome, and the swift return to Wakanda is very welcome indeed. Alan Silvestri's terrific score is also worth mentioning.  The bold and tonally unexpected final few minutes held the packed audience absolutely immobile, and yes, you have to sit through every single credit for the single but necessary final scene.  It will be very interesting to see where Avengers 4 (as yet untitled) and the conclusion of the MCU's Phase 3 goes, but for now Infinity War is utterly ambitious, hugely entertaining and a real event movie.

FILM: Truth Or Dare (dir: Jeff Wadlow, 2018)

"Just...follow the rules."

Truth Or Dare is another simple-concept Blumhouse cheapie that has an instant familiarity for its main target audience - undemanding teenagers - and thus, like the Final Destination movies, it is all about the 'how it happens' rather than 'what is going to happen'.  Once the premise is set, the narrative inevitably runs like clockwork, and in spite of the contemporary trappings of mobile phones and social networks, its limitations give the film an unexpectedly old-fashioned horror feel.  The main players are adequate but do not make much of a mark, the film relies too heavily on the aggressive foregrounding of everything in the sound mix, and the ending feels reminiscent of other recent horrors, making Truth Or Dare a rather run-of-the mill affair overall.

FILM: Rampage (dir: Brad Peyton, 2018)

"That happened."

Rampage does not pretend to be anything other than a very noisy, very silly and very big creature-feature, and as such it delivers on that promise, especially in the sometimes genuinely spectacular carnage wreaked on Chicago in the final act.  Other than that, this is a typically pointless and unimaginative blockbuster that at times cannot even be saved by Dwayne Johnson's cinematic charms - here, he plays it somewhat too seriously for the material, even by his standards.  Indeed, all of the performances consist of very large broad-strokes acting in an attempt to match the scale of the effects and the noisiness of the soundtrack.  WETA once again work their magic on the wonderfully-realised creatures with excellent work on display, but some of the other CGI work, such as integrating actors over CG backgrounds, is disappointingly and jarringly not up to the same standard.  As big Friday-night popcorn entertainment, Rampage does its best to please, but do not look for any more than that.

FILM: Ghost Stories (dirs: Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, 2018)

"STAY!"

If you have seen the hit West End play, this film is a surprisingly sympathetic and effective expansion of that experience.  Regardless, Ghost Stories is a lovingly-crafted homage to the old 70s portmanteau chillers, which obviously expands on the theatrical use of light and sound and employs very good location work to make for an extremely effective cinematic experience, which follows a professor's quest to disprove the paranormal across three different cases.  The lead performances are all very strong, the narrative links together the seemingly disparate ideas so well in the unexpected ending, and depending on your point of view and previous experience of the material, it is either a well-mounted collection of classic genre conventions or/and a very smart and atmospheric thrill ride.

FILM: Love, Simon (dir: Greg Berlanti, 2018)

"Is this a Make A Wish situation?"

The latest YA-lit hit adaptation is heralded as being a bold, honest (for Hollywood) depiction of the ordinary gay teenage experience - ordinary if you happen to live in a huge beige house with three cars in the drive and Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel as your parents - and it at least represents some small if notable steps forward.  It is earnest and sincere, but it is also featherweight and feels somewhat long to watch.  As Simon, Nick Robinson is a very capable and likeable young actor who carries the movie extremely well being in almost every scene, and the rest of the cast is effective, the only jarring character being a dreadful comedy vice-principal who feels completely out of place and tone.  With friends and family proving to be, of course, exceptionally liberal and supportive, the more traumatic moments of Simon's (enforced) coming out are overcome relatively easily, and the identity of Simon's online friend Blue is not too hard to work out.  Love, Simon is well-meaning and enjoyable enough overall, but more dramatic heft would have been welcome.

FILM: A Quiet Place (dir: John Krasinski, 2018)

"I didn't say anything."

For once, this is a high-concept movie that truly delivers on its premise.  Led by terrific performances by John Krasinski (who also directs with excellent, taut precision) and Emily Blunt, the tension is maintained from the start with at least three almost unbearable superbly-executed sequences.  The film does not hold back on the horror aspects - both physical and psychological - with a very well-constructed screenplay and remarkable sound design.  To say more would give away some of the central conceits at play, but suffice to say A Quiet Place is undoubtedly one of the most challenging, accomplished and uniquely entertaining films of this year.

FILM: Isle Of Dogs (dir: Wes Anderson, 2018)

" I have a question: are we eating him, or is this a rescue?"

Isle Of Dogs is a quintessential Wes Anderson movie: odd, funny, quirky, inventive...but difficult to warm to.  The meshing of the basic theme and heart of the movie - a boy and his dog - with much larger issues is handled very cleverly indeed, as is the combination of East and West, and whilst the story and narrative techniques used are effective, it can be a little soporific in relentless style over feature-length running time.  Isle Of Dogs is one of Anderson's more entertaining movies, but it is perhaps one of those films to admire rather than enjoy outright. Nevertheless, there is no denying the artistry on display here.

FILM: A Wrinkle In Time (dir: Ava DuVernay, 2018)

"I'm underwhelmed."

Disney's big bold gender/ethnicity box-ticking statement movie is a surprisingly tepid and dull affair, which is considerably less than the sum of its parts.  The whole film feels underpowered, with a one-note script that is more a collection of soundbites on love, family and empowerment, and with an episodic plot that limps along and falls apart in the final act.  Performances from the younger and older cast members are appropriate to the limited material and style, but overall the ambition that was so clearly evident for this film has not really translated onto the screen effectively.

FILM; Tomb Raider (dir: Roar Uthaug, 2018)

"The machinations of fate never cease to amaze me."

More earnest and less cheesy than the Angelina Jolie movies, this film follows the more grounded game reboot but makes for an experience that rarely rises above adequate.  Vikander is clearly invested in the character and is perfectly acceptable in the action sequences, but all the other roles are underwritten by comparison, in spite of good performances by Daniel Wu in the gender-reversed sidekick role, Kristin Scott Thomas as Laura's guardian and Dominic West as her genial father.  Direction is competent but at times unsurprising, and the film is very much a by-the-numbers example of the action/adventure genre.  Again, there is a heck of a long wait for some actual tomb-raiding, which turns out be hardly worth the patience spent, and much as it would like to be, this film is hardly up there with the better Indiana Jones movies.

FILM: Blockers (dir: Kay Cannon, 2018)

"What the hell's that?"
"I have no idea."

It does not take too long into this supposed comedy before you realise that it is a desperately weak film that does not improve as it goes along.  It has an all-pervasive feel of emptiness, with very limp dialogue and an unfortunate lack of humour, clearly wanting to capture the feel of a modern female-led Porky's or American Pie but missing the mark.  It touches lightly on well-worn themes of growing up, Prom Night, parenthood and even female rights but never really does anything with them, with low-rent vomiting, beer butt-chugging and near-sex scenes rounding out this sorry package.  The teens make little impression, and as the trio of parents John Cena tries so hard with little return, Ike Barinholtz tries too hard, and Leslie Mann has so little with which to work, making Blockers a very long and unrewarding film to sit through.

FILM: Pacific Rim - Uprising (dir: Stephen DeKnight, 2018)

"I am not my father."

This sequel to the 2013 guilty pleasure takes a while to find its own identity, and for a long time feels like an unlikely mix of Independence Day - Resurgence and Robocop 3(!), but it does some interesting things with the mythology established by the original film - here, the threat is from within as well as the returning kaiju - and John Boyega successfully sells every frame as if his life depended on it.  The effects work is stupendous, the huge action sequences are handled very well, and all-in-all this is a hugely enjoyable big daft sequel to an equally big daft movie that takes itself commendably seriously but delivers a lot of gleeful fun along the way.

FILM: Peter Rabbit (dir: Will Gluck, 2018)

"I don't know why I'm so out of shape - I only eat salad!"

From the outset, Peter Rabbit takes great pains to tell the audience that it is not the old-fashioned whimsical Beatrix Potter film it might expect, which in many respects proves to be a mistake.  Unlike Paddington, this film fails to nail a consistent tone, making it a rather odd experience, from its anachronistic modern pop soundtrack to shoehorning in modern filmic motifs (e.g. from an action team slo-mo/training montage to an R&B song to a mid-credits scene and even a peculiar bit of fourth-wall breaking), together with a script that veers from pathos to pantomime.  Rose Byrne is chirpy, Domhnall Gleeson plays the antagonist with comedic effectiveness, but the performances also exhibit the wild swings insisted upon by the wayward script that also sometimes lacks internal logic in the presentation of human/rabbit relationships.  The CG animals are superbly integrated into the action, but the inconsistencies undermine the potential charm, making Peter Rabbit more of a generic modern children's/animated film in style.

FILM: Ready Player One 3D (dir: Steven Spielberg, 2018)

"It's f***ing Chucky!"

Pop culture eats itself in this deft adaptation of the cult novel into this exciting piece of disposable entertainment about disposable entertainment.  To those of us who lived though the 70s and especially the 80s, this is a total nostalgia-fest with iconic figures and objects of the era mixed with some killer soundtrack choices , all used to excellent effect.  There are, however, three main aspects that make this movie fly: Alan Silvestri's superb music score; Spielberg's total mastery of storytelling (after some heavy exposition at the start) and screencraft that gives this long tale relentless energy and momentum; and the staggering Avatar-style mo-cap/animation that offers enormous scale, depth and detail.  Ready Player One is a total fantasy genre product that is artfully and lovingly constructed to be a superb slice of entertainment.