I loved it. Felt like an (original, not meaner reboot series) Evil Dead movie wearing some Resident Evil clothes, with some Thing thrown in for good measure, so basically it combines bits of three of my favourite horror franchises of all-time, and then makes a barely 90 minute rollercoaster of a movie out of them. Just enormous fun.
I definitely feel like I’ll be at the upper end of the spectrum in terms of enjoyment, as I got the impression that not everyone in my screening found it as funny - or got as many of the references - as I did. I also understand, but don’t necessarily agree with, some of the (admittedly fairly sparse) criticism it’s facing, which seems to be based either on the fact it’s not as “important” as Cregger’s other work, or the usual entitlement from RE diehards who are pissed off the fact it isn’t literally set at the same time as RE2 (as it feels like it sort of is/could be, but has modern technology rather than being 90s-set), or just that it doesn’t have Chris, Jill, Leon, etc, in it.
I haven’t been the cinema that much in the last year or two, but seeing as that’s my favourite trip since Weapons, I will await Cregger’s next film with interest - my issues with the logistical consistency of Us notwithstanding, I’d say both he and Jordan Peele are three for three now, and if anything, as much as I love Nope, I’m giving Cregger the edge for now, for me at least.
It it an anniversary or something as I've had loads of XMen clips on the socials..
They're starting to integrate them into the MCU now, with some of the old Fox cast appearing in Avengers Doomsday later in the year, and then a lot of the new MCU casting - for a 2028 X-Men movie - being unveiled last week
The Fox X-Men stuff includes about 3-4 decent movies - that are still often campy or cringey - sandwiched in-between a bunch of others that range from vaguely serviceable through to absolute drivel. I'm always amazed by quite how many there are actually are too, especially if you count the pseudo-spinoffs. The fact that they tried to shoehorn in the Dark Phoenix saga twice and fucked it both times is almost impressive, and I suspect Marvel will try that again eventually, but I hope they take their time getting to it, as it is an iconic storyline, it just needs to be done better.
I am still fond of a lot of it though? Nostalgia is obviously a factor, and Logan still stands apart in terms of quality, but I do still like X2, First Class, Days of Future Past, and the Deadpool moves (for my sins), and while a couple of the rest are genuinely terrible some of the others aren't completely without merit. They've certainly had some excellent set-pieces in there in amongst it all - like Al says, there's Nightcrawler in the White House, and then also those two Quicksilver sequences in the prequels that are probably the biggest standouts besides.
There's that post-credits sequence in Deadpool & Wolverine where they effectively bid a fond farewell to the whole messy Fox years, and I genuinely enjoyed the look back, as well as the song choice - 'Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)' - as they are something flawed and messy, but I did quite like them.
I've never really been enormously invested in superhero comics, just used to have a few cartoons I would watch as a kid, and then X-Men, Spidey and DC tpbs I used to read (or copy from) as a teen, but the X-Men movies probably got this whole thing superhero going, for better or worse, and then the MCU had me right up until the end of Endgame, partially just because of the 'younger me would've never believed this' element. I am finding myself vaguely interested in how they handle Doomsday/Secret Wars now though, partially because I can see it going a bit awry, but mainly because I think I'm at least a little interested to see how the MCU handles the X-Men in those and going forward, as they seem to be the characters I retain the most fondness for.
The Count of Monte Cristo is the same, though there's a theory that the second half drags a little more at certain points because Dumas decided to make sure he would get paid for it for a bit longer, which I've always been amused by.
The original Soul Calibur is still unbeaten in its genre, IMHO. Six games into the series and they've never recaptured the magic of the first one.
I will not stand for this Soul Blade/Edge erasure.
The only things I can think of that haven’t already been mentioned are Marvel vs Capcom 2, Trickstyle (and I have no idea how that will have aged) and Cannon Spike, which I never actually played, but sounds cool. I did play a lot of Quake 3 Arena too.
As has already been said, so many of these games have since come out elsewhere that it’s hard to know what to recommend - my DC top 5 would probably be Ikaruga, Power Stone(s), Marvel vs Capcom 2, Jet Set Radio and Soul Calibur, and I think they’re all available elsewhere. Even the Dreamcast Resi is getting remade now.
JDubYes