J*A*S*M

Conceptually, it’s not a completely futile sequel, but what's the point of a concept if it ends up like almost everything on Netflix, The execution lacks energy, the characters should pull it off, but none of them are engaging. I was looking forward to at least some nice shots of Barcelona, but they couldn't even make the city they crammed into the title work. One Ms Bier is worth more than two pastors.

On a positive note, it's not as generic other current Netflix productions. It's a quirky mix of sci-fi themes from Get Out and The Cabin in the Woods drowned in what is supposed to be humour, probably so there's an excuse that the plot doesn't quite hold together logically – nonsense can be justified better in a comedy than in a serious science fiction movie. The problem is, however, that I didn't find it funny at all, the trio of heroes (a drug dealer, a pimp, and a whore) can’t be likeable to a normal Central European, and instead of genuine entertainment, what follows is at best embarrassment and at worst awkwardness. For three stars, I don't buy it, but after the trailer everyone probably expected more. Rotten is again a level or two off, for obvious reasons.

In terms of experience, it’s five stars. It's a riveting, visually stunning, imaginative, fun ride with a fabulous Margot Robbie and an even more fabulous Ryan Gosling. It's a pleasure to see a big-budget film that totally breaks away from the uniform grey that blockbuster Hollywood usually offers today. But the voice of reason complains timidly about the script's underdeveloped supporting (human) characters and the sometimes annoyingly literal feminist cannonade in the final act, when it seems as if they wanted every argument they could think of to be heard. So, four stars.

Visually, it often looks worse than excrement, the quality of the humour highly surpasses the bar of awkwardness already in the opening sequence with the babies and doesn't dip below it for the rest of the film, and Ezra Miller is the most annoying, sleazy superhero I can remember, and as if that wasn't enough, he's here twice. And perhaps because of this off-kilter combination of strange creative choices, I actually ended up enjoying it more than I ever dared to expect. I just can't see The Flash as being another rank-and-file comic book film, it feels more like a parody, like the Hot Shots comic-book adaptations (thanks to which it’s not a problem that it doesn't make much sense). God forbid that someone would follow it up in style to set a trend (which won't happen given the box office flop), but as a one-off, for me, it’s quite the guilty pleasure.

A nicely conceived premise that they unfortunately failed to fully exploit. The acting and directing are rather bland and they let that potentially powerful, cynical twist the film was clearly heading towards to slip through their fingers, and instead, the film eventually fizzles out into nothingness.

Well, well, someone here tried to copy Ari Aster’s Hereditary or Jennifer Kent’s Babadook. But Daina Reid, the director, completely missed the essence that makes the aforementioned films popular with critics and fans alike, resulting in an annoyingly pretentious borefest incapable of arousing any emotion beyond an intense wish that the insufferable boy and his unlikeable mother would be brutally slaughtered by some supernatural entity no later than than thirty minutes into the film.

After the second season: From is at its most entertaining in the episodes where it mindlessly throws one mystery after another at the viewer, resulting in a medley that is sheer nonsense, but manages to entertain. The filler episodes, dealing the relationships among the characters, leave a much worse impression, though. The actors are mediocre at best and the script consists only of very basic dialogue, so any would-be drama can't interest anyone.

If the characters didn’t behave like after a lobotomy, literally nothing would happen. The idiocy reaches such high levels that it makes things quite fun.

The first act is a great short conversational sci-fi film: engaging, striking, well-acted, well-written and with a great plot point. The other two acts are a decent extension of said short into a full feature film, and I don’t think it was really necessary.

Congratulations to the filmmakers for finding a meaningful reason to make the thousandth exorcism horror film with the potential for epic expansion into sequels. However, I won’t congratulate them for not being scared of their own idea, and without flinching, follow a template we’ve seen a thousand times before. A template entertaining and well executed enough to be worth watching, but a template nonetheless. Russell Crowe is very good, some of the visual effects and the generic demonic voice not so.