What I'm Watching
Movie Log
So back in July 2022, I bought the AMC A-List subscription; twenty dollars a month for three free movies a week is a pretty good deal, and it lets me see a lot of movies I wouldn't have risked otherwise. I enjoy it a lot! This movie log is a list of what I've seen with this.
This only goes back as far as when I got A-List, as I do not have exact dates for many movies before then. Starts with the most recent movie.
March 28th, 2024
I saw Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire on opening Thursday and had a lot of fun. It was extremely silly at times, which is something I personally enjoy but other Godzilla and kaiju fans may not. I enjoyed it, however, I regret to inform my readers that Godzilla and Kong did not have explicit, graphic sex on screen, and therefore I have to rate it 0/10.
March 19th, 2024
I got a pre-screening ticket for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and I enjoyed it. I think it was a decent follow-up to Afterlife, and I liked the new characters they introduced. I am still hoping that they'll bring back the 2016 ladies in one of the new movies, but I'm aware this is unlikely to happen.
March 8th, 2024
Kung Fu Panda 4 was one I was ambivalent about; I thought the plot wrapped up nicely in the previous one, and I was pretty sure no sequel would bead the second movie in quality. But hey, it was a fun movie that I enjoyed! While it mostly felt like it was setting up for sequels, it was solid with stunning animation.
January 29th, 2024
An Illumination movie, Migration was better than I expected. A solid kid's movie. That's basically all I can say for it, it was pretty generic otherwise.
January 5th, 2024
Wish was a celebration of Disney's 100th year as opposed to an actually good movie. It was passable, but mostly existed to have easter eggs for classic movies. I do think the villain was hot, though. sorry
December 10th, 2023
Say what you want about the MCU, but I really enjoyed the Marvels! Kamala Khan was a delight to see on screen, and her actor did a great job.
November 28th, 2023
A long time went by without seeing any new movies, but I saw Trolls Band Together and enjoyed the worldbuilding and animation style. It was a fun movie! I don't have a lot of other thoughts on it.
July 31st, 2023
I don't have any nostalgia for this franchise, but I really, really enjoyed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. It was a lot of fun, had fantastic animation, and I appreciated what it had to say about being a Good Person. Very good movie.
July 24th, 2023
This movie desperately needed transgender people on the writer's team. Barbie was fun, but not very good.
July 2nd, 2023
This movie was largely brushed off under the assumption that it would be another poorly done metaphor for racism (think Zootopia), but I think it defied expectations. Elemental was a story about a daughter of an immigrant family who falls in love with someone outside her community. I don't think it's intended to be a 1 to 1 commentary on real world races, rather a story about how our different cultures are important and deserving of respect–and at the same time, they don't make us incompatible.
June 29th, 2023
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken was a fun movie that was, IMO, an unsubtle metaphor for being trans. I enjoyed it! I think it was neat and fun. I want to make an OC to ship with Ruby and her canon love interest (Connor).
June 7th, 2023
I was not the target audience for this movie, but Transformers: Rise of the Beasts was still enjoyable and fun. It's not, like, high-art, and not a movie that's going to stick with me, but hey, it was fun.
June 2nd, 2023
I was super excited for this one. A standward was set with the first movie in the series, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse not only manages to meet that standard, but surpasses it. While it's only half of the story, it was a great opening for the next movie, and I had a great time!
April 5th, 2023
Oh, I was waiting for this one. The Super Mario Bros. Movie was a delight. Judged as a Mario adaptation, it was fantastic, and judged as a movie, it was respectably good! The only criticisms I have is that it was extremely fast paced, which is not necessarily a negative for a kids movie, and that there weren't enough ghosts. I'm waiting for the Luigi's Mansion movie, Nintendo!
March 16th, 2023
Continuing the superhero movies, I saw Shazam! Fury of the Gods and enjoyed it. Not all of the jokes landed, and I haven't seen the previous Shazam movie so I was a little lost in places, but I still thought it was fun.
March 3rd, 2023
First new movie of the new year, after going to three Puss in Boots showings in three consecutive months. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania had some interesting concepts that make me genuinely interested in the next set of Marvel movies. I have a degree of cynicism when it comes to the MCU, but this movie was fun and enjoyable.
December 28th, 2022
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish went really hard. The animation was beautiful, the plot was gripping, and the story felt like a fairy tale in a way that the last Puss in Boots movie (which, to be fair, I don't remember very well) wasn't. All the fairytale elements blended together in a way that made intuitive sense, and the end result was was absolutely fantastic. If this is the kind of care Dreamworks is putting into what is technically a Shrek spin-off movie, I can't wait to see what they do next.
November 29th, 2022
I have all sorts of conspiracy theories about why Disney did almost zero marketing for Strange World, all of them boiling down to how Disney is a deeply evil company. The movie was fantastic, with speculative biology elements, engaging characters, and a hopeful environmental message. I hope every creator working for Disney finds a different publisher for their stories & the resources needed to switch jobs.
October 25th, 2022
I saw Black Adam and liked it. It's a very different superhero movie than what I've seen before, and it was a nice change of pace. I didn't think it was fantastic, but it was enjoyable.
September 14th, 2022
Nope is a masterpiece. For context, I do really badly with horror, as well as scary stories in any genre, but my boyfriend is a fan of Jordan Peele's movies, and I really, really wanted to see this one after they told me how good it was. It was worth it. It's a beautifully crafted piece of storytelling. I also didn't do too badly with it–there's a lot of anticipation in the movie, but it has a payoff, and the whole experience is self-contained. Fantastic. No one is doing it like Peele.
September 13th, 2022
I wanted to see Spider-Man: No Way Home because I was told Doc Ock has DILF energies. He does, but he's not as prominent as I thought. The movie was alright! I had some problems with the message and how it said it, but like, it's a Marvel movie, and I can turn my brain off and just enjoy it.
September 3rd, 2022
Well, I saw Three Thousand Years of Longing, and it was kind of… bad? Whatever the movie's message is, I don't think it tells it very well, and if the message is something about "Love is the Most Important Thing" or "Everyone Wants Love", I profoundly disagree. It also reached a decent place to end like, four different times, which made the actual ending feel like nothing. Not great. Wouldn't watch again.
August 26th, 2022
AMC did a reshowing of Godzilla vs. Kong, and since I hadn't gotten to watch it when it was first in theaters, I decided to go see it. Somehow I managed to avoid spoilers for it, and my God, there was a reveal so good I gasped out loud. I enjoyed it a lot!
August 6th, 2022
I wasn't expecting much from DC League of Super Pets, but it was better than I thought it would be! Genuinely cried when Ace, played by Kevin Hart, reveals his backstory. Granted, I cry very easily at movies, but still. I am also convinced that the villain was boiled alive at the end, though my friend disagrees.
July 27th, 2022
So I watched Minions: The Rise of Gru. It was, uh. Baffling? It had some heartwarming parts scattered among minion nonsense, and I at least mildly enjoyed myself even if I can't call it a good movie. Like, it was pretty bad. Not as bad as Paws of Fury, but like, the bar is on the floor for that one.
July 18th, 2022
This movie was awful. It was multiple kinds of racist, had other bigoted jokes scattered throughout, and one scene had a cat nazi submarine for some reason? Even though the setting is supposed to be based off feudal Japan? Anyway, don't watch Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank.
July 13th, 2022
Lightyear was a pretty good movie, but I would have enjoyed it more if it had been disconnected from the Toy Story universe. I feel like Pixar wanted to make a sci-fi movie and were forced to market it as a Buzz Lightyear movie, when it really could have worked on its own. I did like it, though!
July 8th, 2022
I saw Thor: Love and Thunder on opening night to break in my AMC A-List card. It was ok? I enjoyed it while watching it, but it's not a movie that's gonna stick with me.