Movie Review Rant 2025

[Sarus Crane]

I saw that no one has started one for 2025 so I’ll start it.

Yesterday I went to an early IMAX screening of Snow White. The original animated film came out in 1937 and now 88 years later they made some changes:

What’s the good?
The movie explains why Snow White is an orphan the scene of her in the scary woods has some good surround sound effects. I like the new expanded version of Heigh Ho. The dwarf’s mine carts go much faster than the coaster at Magic Kingdom. People are saying they look creepy and like the Polar Express characters but I don’t mind as I love the Polar Express. I like how setting and the artistry that made Snow White’s world to feel like it was in the medieval era. Gal Gadot’s Evil Queen costume was really impressive. Marc Webb and his team did a good job bringing the era and vibes of the time to life. For accurately rendered wildlife species depicted both a Eurasian Eagle Owl and Hooded Vulture make appearances.

What’s the bad?
I found the way the songs played in IMAX somewhat poor. The ratio of instrumentals to vocals was 75% instrumental / 25% vocals. If you want to understand what the lyrics are I reccommend listening to the soundtrack beforehand. Gal Gadot’s Evil Queen just didn’t seem like she had alot of evil in her. Maybe because of her accent but she didn’t sound very much like a traditional Disney villain. Her Old Hag form wasn’t as creepy as the 1937 version (there’s no junpscare) and I found the excuse she gave to Snow White to eat the apple kinda strange. Is Snow White really that dumb to believe that? I didn’t care at all for the Jonathan/Bandits bit. I thought they took away from the story and made it feel more like Snow White & the Huntsman.

Final Thoughts
This film I would say is mid-tier for a Disney live action remake. Jungle Book, Beauty & The Beast and Little Mermaid were better and others like Dumbo and Peter Pan were worse. If you’re curious about it I’d suggest to go check it out yourself but preferably in a theater that has good quality audio.

Final Score: B

 

[Batto]

No rant; Ne Zha 2 is very entertaining.

 

[birdsandbats]

I recently watched Hundreds of Beavers - It's easily one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. It's basically two hours of live-action Looney Tunes, and the black-and-white, low budget, and (almost) no dialogue really add the experience. The first 10 minutes or so are really slow but after that it's straight jokes all the way to the end.

Despite being a low-budget screwball comedy, it also tells a really nice story, which I wasn't expecting at all. And the editing is incredible.

I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a strange and hilarious film. It's free on YouTube Movies, so you have no excuse.

 

[Mr Gharial]

Since I saw the trailer for Night of the Zoopocalypse I already knew I wanted to watch it. The animation is very stylized (but not in a bad way) and the concept of cartoony, talking animals in a horror scenario is incredibly creative and fun.

(warning: spoiler-heavy review incoming. I highly recommend you watch the movie because it's quite good)

Let's start with the horror element of it.
I think it's a great mix between goofy and creepy! The zombies (called gumbeasts during most of the movie) get a rubbery, slimy makeover during their transformation. They also get some snap-on-snap-off physics where their bodies can break apart and be easily be put back together like toys. You'd think this would make them a little more goofy and cartoony (partially true), but it actually gives the movie a chance to get away with some genuinely creepy body horror. At some point a Gorilla and a Giraffe merge together to create a hybrid gumbeast with the gorilla's head on the giraffe's neck.


That is, until it is revealed that the giraffe's head was actually stuck in the gorilla's throat...


Again, genuinely creepy yet still cartoony

There's also multiple homages to classic horror movies. Including the giraffe/gorilla scene which is a callback to the double-mouth reveal in Alien. Also from Alien, there's a scene paying homage to the Chestburster scene, but with a zombified baby kangaroo coming out of its mother's pouch.

On to the characters!
The characters in the movie are all quite charming, and I personally feel that the chemistry between them is quite good. I do think it's a bit of a shame how the cast of seven characters are split up in two groups for most of the movie, but I also get how having a larger group for the whole movie would mean they would be fighting for lines the whole time. Our main two characters, Gracie and Dan, have the typical "one grumpy and one cheery" dynamic but it's done pretty well.

Poot, the pygmy hippo calf, can sometimes be a bit annoying but she is written pretty accurately as a child character so I'll excuse it.

Xavier is my favourite character. He has quite a gimmick about him, as he constantly breaks the fourth wall and seems like he's slightly aware he's in a movie. This gimmick can easily go wrong and come off as obnoxious or disingenuous, but it's done really well here. He's a Red ruffed lemur that fakes injuries to end up in the veterinary clinic so he can watch movies (already a pretty funny concept). Because he's seen a whole lot of movies he's able to call out some tropes and mildly predict what could be coming next. This is both used for humour and horror, as he describes what typically happens in act 2 of a horror movie and it only makes the other characters more scared and desperate. And then in other cases he makes comments like "Why did I have to be in a horror movie? Why couldn't I be in a musical?"

Or my personal favourite:


In most movies, fourth wall breaks are brushed off by side characters, as if they didn't even hear it (looking at you, deadpool), but in this movie they actually acknowledge that Xavier, having seen some horror movies, is actually quite genre-savvy and will increase their survival chances.

Now, usually with movies set in zoos or otherwise including animals most people don't know too much about, knowing anything about animals breaks the whole movie. But in this case it actually makes it more fun in some cases. During the obligatory third act breakup of the main characters, Gracie and Dan get into an argument about how they should continue. Gracie thinks they should stick together with the other survivors and try to cure the remaining gumbeasts, while Dan thinks they should leave the zoo as quickly as possibly, and that they should split up to increase their survival chances. Seems pretty standard, but it is quite fun that Gracie, the wolf and pack animal, argues sticking together while Dan, the cougar and solitary animal, argues splitting up.

Earlier in the movie Dan also mentions the law of the watering hole. Where, during times of great drought, predators won't hunt at watering holes, he says that them being at the veterinary clinic is the watering hole, and the gumbeasts outside are the drought.

What I especially like about the movie (from a zoo nerd's perspective) is that they didn't decide to go with the "our main character longs to escape the zoo" storyline. This would be a very easy plot point to put in there. If you give zoo animals human intelligence, them not wanting to be trapped is almost automatically the next step. Now, to be fair, Dan does want to escape the zoo, but it's also explicitly stated that he was captured from the wild, while the other animals were born in captivity. At the end of the movie, Dan decides to go back to the wild, and invites Gracie to join him, but Gracie would prefer to stay in the zoo. That's not something you see in many movies featuring captive animals.

Additionally, the movie also avoided the "alpha wolf" misconception. Gracie's pack leader is her grandma, which is more accurate to real wolf pack structure, rather than the whole "Alpha wolf, beta wolf" nonsense based on a really old and inaccurate study.


Overall, a pretty good movie that does some new things quite well, has charming characters and is a great way to watch horror with young(er) children. I highly suggest the watch!

 

[PossumRoach]

@Mr Gharial I did happen to watch the movie a few days ago. It was charming for what it offered, however I still have some bones to pick with it.

Spoiler: Contains spoilers

I do agree that it got some horror elements right. I liked the suspense I felt during the chrysalis scene where the cute petting zoo animals were asleep and vulnerable to the patient one. I also liked how the plush toys in the toys shop here hung offering something twisted for older horror fans to appreciate.

I also loved the character designs of many of the normal and gummy versions of the animals. They were stylized and endearing. But there are some that I didn’t like such as the background black buck character being quite large, Ash having three toes per foot instead of two and Frida’s body looking like a terrier’s instead of being chunky as a capybara should be.

Now let’s start with my (other) issues, which you are free to call nitpicking.

To start with, I think the zoo and some of the main cast could have had a better introduction than just have the closing hour shown. For example I did not like how Gracie told Xavier to catch the elephant gumbeast when the elephant wasn’t even shown before. Or I don’t understand how Ash and Frida were able to escape their enclosures since they did not have an introduction similar to Felix the proboscis monkey. Or It would have been funny we saw Xavier hurt himself right before his confused fellow lemurs rather than see his acting as a flash back. I also wish that we were given more details of how or why Dan ended up getting caught for the zoo.

I did not like Poot. I think her question and phrases make him more annoying than she should since she is already a burden to Gracie and Dan.

Xavier was probably my favorite character, but I can understand if people don’t like him being the personification of TV Tropes. He sort of defeats the “show don’t tell” rule frequently.

Also I found it weird how all the other zoo animals weren’t curious about the outside world. I know that the zoo animals are not as interested in freedom as much as Dan was but it was just weird to see predator and prey who barely met each other before be causal with each other instead of getting scared and confused.

Finally, this part I will show more sympathy for the staff of the movie due to the costs of animation, especially these days where animators are treated like expendables. But I do wish that we were shown more zoo animals and gumbeasts. Just seeing chicks, antelopes, and monkeys with some exceptions here and there feels underwhelming. Even the farm area, which shouldn’t be too hard to polish felt underwhelming with just rabbits, chicks, and alpacas. Imagine what could be done with crocodiles, rhinoceri, and zebra gumbeasts amongst other animals.

All in all I think this movie is charming but has much unfulfilled potential.

 

[Mr Gharial]

There are some that I didn’t like such as the background black buck character being quite large

At the end of the movie the un-gummified antelopes are shown to have orange and white fur, so they're actually a bit of a mix-matched Scimitar-horned oryx/addax and not Blackbucks

Edit: there's multiple gazelles shown in the final scenes, also including a springbok and a sable antelope. But because they're using the same model, just with different facial markings and horns, they are indeed the same size

To start with, I think the zoo and some of the main cast could have had a better introduction than just have the closing hour shown. I don’t understand how Ash and Frida were able to escape their enclosures since they did not have an introduction similar to Felix the proboscis monkey. Or It would have been funny we saw Xavier hurt himself right before his confused fellow lemurs rather than see his acting as a flash back. I also wish that we were given more details of how or why Dan ended up getting caught for the zoo.

Although I do agree an additional opening scene with Xavier pretending to break his tail and being sent to the vet, I actually quite like that the group of side characters don't have all their escapes shown. It leaves a bit to the imagination, so to speak. A "cold open" of Dan getting captured would have been a great addition

I do wish that we were shown more zoo animals and gumbeasts. Just seeing chicks, antelopes, and monkeys with some exceptions here and there feels underwhelming. Even the farm area, which shouldn’t be too hard to polish felt underwhelming with just rabbits, chicks, and alpacas. Imagine what could be done with crocodiles, rhinoceri, and zebra gumbeasts amongst other animals.

The credits show a concept walking cycle for a gumbeast Rhinoceros which I did not see in the movie, so that did confuse me a little bit. And I do agree it's a bit of a shame the gumbeast cast is 80% chicks and macaques

 

[Brum]

I'm not currently on my laptop so two very brief reviews for the latest MCU movies.

Captain America: Brave New World

Not a great movie, starts off so promising and genuinely had me hooked for the first two acts despite the obvious reshoots and rewrites. Final act just descends into CGI nonsense and awful writing. It also should have been an Incredible Hulk film considering some of the big players are directly carrying on their storyline from the 2008 movie with Edward Norton.
Anthony Mackie is good but not a great leading man, Harrison Ford is having a great time (compared to his latest movies), and the supporting cast are fine overall.
If you haven't watched The Falcon & Winter Soldier on Disney+, or Eternals, then certain characters and plot points won't be recognisable at all, and they're not really explained either so good luck...

Overall it's the worst Cap movie and probably a 6.5/10, but I may be being generous with that.

Next up is The Thunderbolts which I thought was amazing. After watching Captain America last week (didn't even bother seeing it at the cinema), I wasn't too hyped for this but I like the characters so gave it a chance. Very glad I did, it's a great MCU movie and a very good film on it's own merits.
Not gonna go into too much detail because, uou know, spoilers, but it has a comprehensive plot, it's not massively CGI heavy, the cast are fantastic - special mentions to Florence Pugh as Yelena, and Lewis Pullman as Bob. Credit to David Harbour and Sebastian Stan are great in supporting roles, but yeah this is Florence and Lewis' film really.
Mid-credits scene is funny, and for the first time in a while the post-credits is important AND sets up the next film in the series...
Homework needed for this consists of Black Widow and The Falcon & Winter Soldier (yet again...) as most of the cast are from those two projects, and if you know their back stories it makes the team-up scenes more fun.

All in all a return to form for the MCU and genuinely just a great movie
Honestly can't wait to see this again, ginger it a solid 9/10.

 

[Caribbean Flamingo]

Just watched the IMAX screening of Superman yesterday. It’s such a great film, but not James Gunn’s best film (his best film is GOTG 3). The casting was perfect and the plot was also great. Seeing this film in IMAX was also a great experience and it’s the best way to see this film. the film were entirely opened up to 1:90:1 IMAX screen. This is the fourth film I’ve seen in IMAX theatres and the first film I’ve seen in IMAX theatres where the entire film opened up to 1:90:1. The previous films I’ve seen in IMAX are Oppenheimer, Insterstellar (2025 re-released), and Thunderbolts. All of these films were not entirely opened-up to IMAX 1:90:1 theatres, only some selected scenes do. Overall, I’ll give Superman a 9/10 rating.

 

[Caribbean Flamingo]

Just watched Zootopia 2 this afternoon. It's a great film. Also, this is one of the best animated sequel movies of all time. At first, I wasn't expecting anything from this film cuz I feel like this movie is gonna be mid like Moana 2 which came out a year ago. But I was wrong, It turned out that this movie was fun and entertaining to watch. BTW, I'm a fan of Gary De'Snake. He's funny and adorable. By this, Ke Huy Quan had voiced 2 different Indonesian animals, Han (sunda pangolin/manis javanica) in Kung Fu Panda 4 (which also came out a year ago) and Gary De'Snake (komodo island pit viper/trimeresurus insularis) in this movie. Overall, I'll give Zootopia 2 a 9/10 rating.