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Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer was loud. The music was the primary culprit. Overall, the sound design was turned up to eleven. I know that if I had watched it on the IMAX theater near me it would’ve blown my eardrums out. That screen seems to believe IMAX is about the volume and not the view.

For me, they had hyped the movie as building the Bomb to drop on Japan. Except that was only for the first hour. The rest of this three hour movie was about the political posturing in the atomic age during confirmation of a cabinet member. I had know I idea that this is what this was going to be about. Certainly, it made for the more intriguing film. The early part focusing on building the Bomb didn’t seem to have much stakes to it, but the latter about the confirmation had the plot to engage me. Strange since going in I would’ve rather seen the science, but in my seat, the politics was intriguing.

Overall, cover your eyes if you watch this in an IMAX theater. While it was a good film, solid, it was not Nolan’s best.

3 of 5 stars.

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One is the beginning of the end. Hopefully. Not that I wouldn’t mind many more Mission Impossible movies, but I think franchise films are a bit empty. Although this series is fantastic so I think it would do some good work and stories in any subsequent film they do.

It was certainly thrilling and the stunts were impressive, but I felt the need for the second part. It can’t get here soon enough.

3 of 5 stars.

Asteroid City feels to me like Wes Anderson’s Barton Fink. Completely baffling upon first watch. Perhaps it needs several in order to understand it. I know if I was to figure out what I watched I need watch it again.

It was a meta-movie. A film about a stage play. And it looked like a stage play but as a movie. It also had the entire cast of every Wes Anderson film in it, too. Except for Bill Murray. It was a family reunion.

I guess I’ll have to watch again, but this one left me cold.

3 of 5 stars.

Across the Spiderverse made me sad. I thought the implications of what the Spider Corps was doing was plenty dark. I thought the joy of having Spider-Gwen, Peter B Parker, Spider-Noir, Peter Porker, and Penny in the previous installment was washed away with this more serious, high-stakes story. I am still trying to come to grips with it. Most every review I’ve seen or read believe this to be a great film. For me, I’m not sure.

I wanted more of the same — fun adventures with Miles Morales. Instead, this one’s very much got some high stakes. The rejection of Miles from the Spider Corps was a heavy moment. He thought that he had found like minded friends and colleagues. Add to it that the head Spider thought he was an aberration. Imagine what darkness that is. Rejection. Finally, imagine falling into the darkest timeline from which we’ll have to wait for the story to be concluded next year. Multiverses are filled with madness.

It left me sad. Do I need to wait? Why do I feel Mile’s rejection?

Anyhow, they animation in this film continues the previous style even more so. Finally, animators are finding a richer way to tell animated stories. Gone is the cold perfection of CG rendering. It is now getting expressive. I wonder if we are entering the WGA style for CG animation? I like this style as it is something that shows us that animation is art for everyone.

4 of 5 stars.