Hotel Transylvania 3

I didn't care too much for the second "Hotel Transylvania", so I went in with my expectations pretty low for this one. I was pleasantly surprised. Yeah, it's predictable, but it's a kids movie. There were a few times I laughed. The animation is fast-paced and fun to watch. The plot is at least somewhat interesting this time around. Not all of the jokes worked, (in fact, some were completely out of nowhere and made no sense) but the ones that did really worked. The villains were pretty interesting, and there were a lot of really clever visual gags. It's at least an improvement on the second one, because stuff actually happens in this one. I rather enjoyed this. I would definitely at least rent it.
Grade: B     8/10     3.5/5 stars

Skyscraper

I really wanted to at least mildly enjoy this movie. The trailers didn't impress me that much, but I thought "It's a "The Rock" movie. It will at least be a fun kind of stupid." It's not even that. It's just stupid, stupid. I knew from the trailers that it was basically "Die Hard" and yeah, it is. But it's a poor man's "Die Hard". Like, if that movie were a TV movie on the Syfy channel. The writing is absolutely terrible. The characters are bland and one-dimensional. There are no character flaws to overcome. I thought "The main character has a mechanical leg. Is that going to be his crutch in the movie, both literally and figuratively?" Nope! If anything, it gives him an advantage. He also never sees his mechanical leg as a flaw that he learns to appreciate. I thought "Surely, as cliche as this trope is, he's going to be the dad that puts his career ahead of his family and learns to appreciate them?" Nope. He's pretty decent. There are no character flaws to overcome, which makes for boring characters, which makes for a boring movie. The only cool thing about this movie were the action sequences from several thousand feet up, giving me a sense of vertigo, but even those wore thin very quickly. This would have worked better as an amusement park ride. It's not even worth a rent. It's as generic as generic can be. I felt like I was being trolled with how absolutely stupid this movie is.
Grade: D    6/10    1/5 stars

Ant-Man and the Wasp

After the depressing bloodbath that was Infinity War, we needed something lighthearted to make us feel better, and this film delivered. It had all the humor of the first one, but also knew when it needed to be serious. Some of the running jokes do get old after the 4th time, but some still work. The action sequences are some of the most fun I've seen this year. The villain, while very cool, did some kind of generic in terms of motivation, and I saw the twist coming. Many people were worried this was going to be SJW propaganda, but it is not. It does what "Incredibles 2" should have done. There were too many villains in this movie, too. I think Marvel, in terms of villains, is starting to suffer from DC-itis. Overstuffing the movie with too many characters just for fanservice. There is also one moment in the film where there is a race against time, and when the time runs out...nothing happens, thus rendering the stakes useless. Overall, it was about on par with the first movie, and still had lots of great humor. If you want to see a superhero movie that's borderline parody, but never quite that, than this is the film.

Grade: B     8/10      4/5 stars