Independence Day: Resurgence

LANDON *
The last time I sat through a movie like this was Michael Bay's 2009 sequel, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."  My experiences with both movies were exactly the same.  About halfway through the movie, I started fidgeting in my seat.  I wanted to get up and leave, or at the very least lie down on the floor and avoid positioning my eyes towards the screen at all cost.  I did however eventually start making small talk with my buddy who I attended the film with.  It didn't matter.  Anything was better than this.  "Independence Day: Resurgence" is one of the worst movies I've seen in years, and quite possibly the worst film I've seen all decade.  The original "Independence Day" is a bit of a guilty pleasure, known for its cheesy yet fun entertainment.  I wish I could say that this sequel has at least a hint of that.  But instead we're presented with a film that is insanely boring, compounded with awful acting and dialogue so bad it'll make you nauseous.  Each and every shot carries zero conviction and is filled to the brim with characters that are laughably stupid and scenarios that are completely uninteresting.  It's unbearably long, making the boredom even more unforgiving and torturous.  I walked out of the theater with a headache.  In fact, just thinking about this movie gives me a headache.  There's no beating around the bush: "Independence Day: Resurgence" is a terrible movie and is clearly the worst so far this year.  For your own sake, avoid at all cost.

Finding Dory

CHASE ***
A while back, I said that Pixar shouldn't make anymore sequels because I love their original movies.  But after watching "Finding Dory," I kind of realized that sequels aren't necessarily a bad thing, as long as they take the characters in a direction that makes the most sense.  That's what this movie did with the story being about Dory trying to find her family.  This is a really funny and solid movie that I really enjoyed.  The humor of the movie is spot on with lots of moments that had me in stitches.  The idea of having a side-character as the lead character doesn't sound good on paper, but because of how interesting Dory's arc is, it's actually a really nice call.  It also helps that it is a very heartfelt movie that got me in the feels at the right times.  However, I was a little bit bothered by the barrage of call backs that they made to "Finding Nemo," despite the main-story line being fundamentally different.  Plus, there are some moments, especially in its climax, where they try to go too big for their own good.  Overall, "Finding Dory" is a solid Pixar movie and a welcome addition to their ever-impressive library.

LANDON **1/2
LOGAN ***

BANGERANG SCORE: *** 

Warcraft

CHASE **

It's here, one of the most popular gaming franchises has finally gotten their own movie with "Warcraft," but is it any good?  The answer is kind of muddled.  It's a war been humans and orcs and we get to see the perspective of each side.  The strongest point of this movie, by far, is that the orcs are really interesting characters.  Especially the main orc we semi-follow, Duratan (Toby Kebble).  I connected with him and I liked following his story.  Some of the action sequences were fun and some of the visual effects look amazing, particularly in regards to the orcs.  They completely real and totally believable.  However, that's where the praise ends as the film does have a lot of problems.  The biggest one, by far, is that the story goes by so quickly that you hardly have any time to take in the atmosphere of a pretty cool world.  Most of the characters, particularly the humans, don't felt as fleshed out as they should.  Because these scenes go by so quickly, the movie does feel a little dull at times.  It also doesn't help that for every great visual, there are jarringly bad ones by comparison.  My feeling, in general, is that there is a good movie inside of this movie.  There are just a lot of problems that get in its way.

LANDON **

LOGAN **

BANGERANG SCORE **

X-Men: Apocalypse

LANDON **1/2
Bryan Singer returns to direct his fourth "X-Men" film in the ever-growing franchise.  His past three films are what I consider the easy top picks for the best films in the series.  Does this latest installment reach those lofty standards?  The unfortunate answer is: not quite.  Which is a shame to admit, because there's a lot about this movie I really liked.  McAvoy and Fassbender are still as terrific as ever as Xavier and Lehnsherr.  Magneto continues to prove why he's one of the best super villains ever, with this movie adding to his emotional complexity and giving him more reason to be bad.  You'll really feel for this guy here.  The story and concept here is actually quite good and contains some unarguably great scenes of character growth and intensity.  Unfortunately, they aren't as frequent as they should be.  The film is so concerned with making sure each new character has a proper introduction and sendoff that it moves at a really slow pace.  It drags.  There's not a whole lot of ground covered here in an otherwise long movie.  If you love the "X-Men" films, there's no doubt that you'll enjoy this movie plenty.  But this installment, without question, isn't as exciting or engaging as Singer's other films.  All the same, this is a fine film nonetheless.

LOGAN ***

BANGERANG SCORE: **1/2