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I’m searching for ways that this film would be more enjoyable, and I’m sure most of the answers to that question involve copious amounts of drugs.

I received this film as a recommendation in a movie challenge I’m participating in online, and the category for the week was surrealist films, and let me tell you, Fantastic Planet definitely falls into that genre. There were times that this felt like the animated versions of picture books I remember from my youth, but dipped in a Dali painting and then rolled through a pile of the oddest rejected creature creations from Star Wars.
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The animation in the film is basic and that’s really just fine. The creations mentioned above are truly unique and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like them on film or elsewhere. I really enjoyed the visual approach, and the lack of complex animation actually contributes to being able to focus on the story.

Being a French film, I wish I could have watched this with the original French voices and English subtitles. Unfortunately, the English voice cast was bad and probably detracted from my enjoyment of the film. On the other hand, the music was terrific. It was very clearly from the 1970s, but had a good vibe to it throughout.

If you’re looking for something different from the traditional animation from Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, etc., this is definitely one that fits that bill, but I’m not sure it’s truly a great film.

6 out of 10

Long before director James Cameron took us on the most famous ocean voyage of the 20th century, he embarked on an undersea adventure that taxed everyone involved, but still manages to hold up over 30 years later.
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The Abyss (affiliate link) features a small crew of Navy SEALs traveling to a deep sea oil drilling platform with the mission of finding a nuclear submarine that crashed nearby and retrieve the warheads before the Soviets can get to them. The team is led by Cameron regular Michael Biehn playing Lieutenant Hiram Coffey. Ed Harris is in excellent form here as the platform’s foreman, Virgil "Bud" Brigman alongside Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Dr. Lindsey Brigman, Bud’s estranged wife and designer of the special platform.

​After recently reading a book all about Cameron’s films and learning what went into making this film, I’m not at all surprised by how well the underwater photography holds up all these years later. True, there are a few instances where it’s a bit clunky and could be done better today with digital images. But the look and feel of all the underwater scenes are generally superb, owed in large part to the insistence by Cameron that most of them be shot in an enormous tank built specifically for the film.

The ending of the film feels a bit unearned by the rest of the story and the last five minutes of the film feel like Cameron just didn’t know how to end things and wrote “and they all lived happily ever after” on the last page of the script. The visuals and technology are a sight to behold even many years later, but all that doesn’t make up for a story that feels unfinished.

7 out of 10

Thor is back and I wish I could say better than ever, but unfortunately Love and Thunder leaves a bit to be desired.

Much was made of the return of Natalie Portman to the Thor franchise, and it was great to see her back on screen, and even better to see her don the Thor armor and wield Thor’s legendary hammer Mjolnir. But the truth of this film is that it feels like an awkward follow-up to what was an excellent previous installment in Thor: Ragnarok.

The film picks up with Thor as he tries to figure out what to do with his life after Avengers: Endgame where he left with the remaining Guardians of the Galaxy and while they figured prominently in the trailers promoting the film, I’ll disappoint any Guardians fans by letting you know they disappear about 15 minutes into the film. Don’t worry, they will be back with their holiday special on Disney+ and another theatrical film in the works, but Chris Pratt has been busy with Amazon lately, so the Guardians scenes in this film are pretty limited.

​The other high point of the film is Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher. The film actually opens with his backstory and I wish we’d gotten more about his character. We quickly understand his motivations from the opening scenes of the film, but there was so much more they could have done with the character. His lines are sparse and Bale delivers them with his typical dedication to the material, but I couldn’t help hearing Bruce Wayne/Batman in some of his scenes.

Thor: Love and Thunder is still a fun film. There are plenty of new characters introduced and we may look back in five years’ time with a different lens after seeing what else has transpired in the MCU, but for now this film didn’t quite reach its full potential.

6 out of 10

This is a fascinating documentary look at the crazy media obsessed culture we live in today and the immediate effects our reliance on social media has on our ability to digest and be critical of information.

Wait, this isn't a documentary? That just makes it even more depressing.

Don't Look Up is a fantastic political/social satire that gets right at the heart of the problems facing the world today. The horrible part about this film is that nearly every beat is fully believable. The pop-star going on a trendy talk show to spend 20 minutes discussing her recent public breakup followed by a short segment of the same show on a pending cataclysmic event that no one even pays attention to. Yet even as horrible as this is, it's also the genius of the film, getting us to look at this by presenting it in a way that is utterly ridiculous, but completely plausible at the same time.

This film is unique in that nearly every character has their likeable moments and their moments when you hate their guts (yes, I said nearly for a reason). The cast is stellar from top to bottom including the likes of Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Timothée Chalamet, and Jonah Hill. It's also nice to see several of these actors playing somewhat against their standard roles. Streep plays the ruthless president, more interested in her party winning the midterm elections than the end of the world. Even Chalamet sheds the meek young man and shows up in the final act as a grungy kid from the street stealing booze from the liquor store.

My only qualm with the acting actually comes from DiCaprio's character, but it's more the script or the direction than Leo's fault. His portrayal of Dr. Randall Mindy at the beginning and end of the film is spot on, but he spends the middle third of the film in what seems like a different character that was cut from the script and blended into Dr. Mindy.

That small qualm aside, the film made me laugh out loud, ponder my own technology usage, and wonder to myself how much of what we see on the screen actually goes on behind closed doors, or possibly even right out in the open, without most people even noticing. The film is a wake up call of sorts for me and one that will stick with me for some time to come.

9 out of 10