Movie Review: Tenet

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An ambitious film that never takes full-advantage of its high concept, which results in a bit of a bland movie that confuses more than entertains. Ultimately, the plot isn’t much different than the typical James Bond film, except there’s the addition of the reversal of time mechanic. This is the big selling point for this movie, but it doesn’t come into play for a large chunk of the runtime. Outside of that, we get the watered-down Bond stuff, but the locals aren’t as exotic, the stunts are underwhelming, and the hero isn’t as smooth. (He doesn’t even have a name.) The characters are suitable to tell the story, but most have them have no depth or development. Eventually, the film does move up to a higher gear, but the climax is too muddied and the time-bending rules aren’t explained well-enough to make all the twists payoff properly. (In fact, a couple of the reveals are surprisingly predictable.)

**1/2 out of *****

Movie Review: Bill & Ted Face the Music

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Bill & Ted are back with a new adventure that pulls from their previous journeys, and also adds a new wrinkle, but ultimately the entire thing falls flat. The plot itself is fine: Bill & Ted work against a ticking clock to finally make the world-saving song they were first told about way back in the original film. Their attempts to do this are the better part of the movie, even though the jokes usually fall flat. It’s the portion of the plot that features their daughters that never gets out of first gear. They’re totally two-dimensional characters, that have no personalities beyond just being female versions of their fathers…including a Keanu Reeves impression that wears pretty thin after a while. A few historical figures do pop up, but they end up not adding too much to the overall film. There are a few nice callbacks and characters from the previous films, with the return of Death being the highlight. And while the finale works on some levels, it’s too convoluted for its own good, not to mention it further cements that the time-travel rules throughout the film never really make much sense. I didn’t stick around for it, but there is a fun little post-credit scene.

*1/2 out of *****

Movie Review: The New Mutants

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Despite shaking up the superhero genre by using a horror-themed setting, “The New Mutants” struggles to overcome mediocre acting and characters that never really connect with the audience. The film doesn’t waste too much time getting to the paranormal elements, and quickly feels different than any X-Men movie we’ve seen so far. While the plot moves along briskly and doesn’t get too complicated, the characters just don’t feel all that interesting. We get plenty of hints towards deeper backstories, but everyone is too tight-lipped for the first half of the movie and you don’t know how to feel about them. (And one character in particular has a bizarre origin that gets no explanation.) The acting is just okay, (poorly done accents and all), but ultimately Blu Hunt is just too bland in the lead role to carry the film. The climax arrives surprisingly quick, and just when it gets good, it’s over. And, despite something sinister going on behind the scenes the entire film, everything abruptly wraps up. (There supposedly was a post-credit scene that would’ve addressed this, but since any plans for a sequel were apparently canceled, the end is the end.)

**1/2 out of *****