Black Widow (2021) Review
Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova carries a film that arrived too late to matter. The Phase Four opener that established the pattern of decorative empowerment.
Filming Location: United Kingdom (Page 10)
GeorgiaAvengers: Endgame (2019) Review
The most contrived blockbuster of the decade. The 4 reflects honest evaluation of one of the most commercially successful films in cinema history.
CaliforniaDoctor Strange (2016) Review
Cumberbatch as a specifically arrogant intellectual protagonist, Tilda Swinton's Ancient One, reality-folding combat. The 8 reflects honest evaluation of one of the more successful Phase Three MCU entries and the entry that introduced the franchise's mystical-arts dimension.
IcelandThor: The Dark World (2013) Review
Christopher Eccleston wasted as Malekith. The first MCU film that feels like industrial franchise routine.
ItalyAvengers: Age of Ultron (2015) Review
James Spader's exceptional voice performance carrying an uneven ensemble film. The Vision's introduction and Sokovia's destruction.
CaliforniaCaptain America: The First Avenger (2011) Review
The 1940s adventure that built the franchise's moral foundation. The 9 reflects honest evaluation of the most disciplined origin film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the entry that gave the franchise its moral center.
LondonEx Machina (2014) Review
Garland built Ex Machina to be precise, controlled, and unsettling in a register that keeps the audience at analytical distance instead of pulling them into emotional investment. The performances are strong.
United KingdomEdge of Tomorrow (2014) Review
Edge of Tomorrow earns its 8.5 by doing the one thing time-loop narratives almost never manage: making the repetition feel earned instead of gimmicky. Cage doesn't loop because the script needed a device.
Shepperton StudiosAlien (1979) Review
Experiencing it blind, in a dark theater, with an audience that had no idea what was coming, that was specific and unrepeatable. The 8 reflects both what the film achieved and what watching it now is like, which are different…
Pinewood StudiosAliens (1986) Review
Aliens earns its 8 by doing the one thing sequel filmmaking almost never manages: it doesn't compete with the original. Ridley Scott's Alien is a horror film about isolation and violation, one creature, confined space, systematic elimination of everything between…
IcelandThe Fifth Element (1997) Review
The Fifth Element is a perfect film. Not a perfect science fiction film, not a perfect action film, a perfect film, period.
IcelandPrometheus (2012) Review
Prometheus wastes one of the most visually gifted directors in contemporary cinema on a script that requires its characters to be catastrophically stupid. These are supposedly the best scientists humanity could assemble for a trillion-dollar mission to find humanity's creators.