2022 Mid-Year Movie Round-Up
We are now half way through the year which is crazy that in 6th months we will be in the year 2023. So today I’m sharing my favorite, least favorite, biggest disappointment, and biggest surprise of 2022 (so far). With that said, let’s get started!
Least Favorite:
3. Morbius: The movie that kept on being delayed, and by the time this movie came out I think everybody lost interest in this movie. And went to see it out of curiosity, and the box office numbers really showed that. And as a fan of comic book movies I was thinking I was going to be fine with this movie, but what I got was a pretty close to bad movie. That had all of the stuff that you expect from a comic book movie but does a bad job of all of it. There is a plot here, but it just moves so quickly from scene to scene with no clear sense of direction or forward momentum. So it’s very messy when it comes to the story and the story telling. And how this movie has maybe the worst credit scene in any comic book movie, and it just doesn’t fit with what was already established.
2. Deep Waters: Now this is a movie that I was excited to check out, I actually had it on my most anticipated list for 2022. It stars Ben Affleck who is great in these types of movies, and you also have Ana de Armas as a co-lead in the movie, and she is just great in everything she is in (she’s also my celebrity crush). But the movie that we got was a predictable and confusing movie. Where this movie doesn’t explain, doesn’t develop any of these characters. It felt like we were dropping in the middle act of the movie, and that means that you don’t care or connect with anything taking place or any of these characters. And the final twists and turns as to what is going on is so predictable. And I will say this, this movie would also be one of my biggest disappointments. Maybe my runner up, but I didn’t want to talk about it twice in the same post.
1. The Bubble: A Netflix original movie that dropped in April, the same day as Morbius. So April 1st was not a good day for movies. And this is a comedy that deals with actors trying to make a movie in the heights of the pandemic. And I didn’t find this movie funny at all, almost none of the jokes made me laugh. And a comedy is supposed to make you laugh, it’s supposed to make you smile on your face. But this movie didn’t do that for me. And some of the humor was terrible, where they have Pedro Pascal’s character take drugs and start banging a hologram played by Daisy Ridley, that’s just weird. It’s supposed to be a joke, but it’s not funny at all, it's cringy. And I found each act of this movie to feel like a different act, like the 3rd act doesn’t feel like the 2nd act and the 2nd act doesn’t feel like the 1st act. They turned the producers and Hollywood into the villains of the movie. It put a bad taste in my mouth that they did that. I don’t think that was the best decision to make for this movie. So easily, without question this movie is one of the big disappointments of this list.
Biggest Disappointment:
3. Death on the Nile: Kenneth Branagh’s second directed movie based on an Agatha Christie story. The first one being Murder on the Orient Express that came out in Novembe 2017. And I hadn’t seen the previous movie, no reason why it just hasn’t happened yet. And with an all star cast filled with a bunch of actors that I like. I enjoyed the trailers for this movie, they didn’t blow me away or anything. But they were nice, solid and enjoyable enough trailers for me. And then the movie was very bland and generic. It’s one of those movies that you forget about 10 minutes after you see it. Because the movie spends the first hour introducing all of the characters then the murder happens. And then the last hour is Kenneth Branagh trying to figure out who the murder is. That’s the entire movie, it’s very bland and it doesn't have enough style or energy to make it pop. And the final twist is pretty predictable, you know very early on where this is all going.
2. Lightyear: Now this movie was actually one my most anticipated list for the year. I’ve been excited for this movie ever since they announced a Buzz Lightyear spin-off movie starring Chris Evans. And all of the trailers worked for me, Pixar is very consistent with their movies. So I went in thinking this could be another great Pixar movie. And this is the fourth Pixar movie in a row where I feel that Pixar is losing their magic. They are losing the thing that made them the top film studio putting out great movie after great movie. And I’m not sure if that’s them, or if it’s me getting older and moving away from being the target audience. But I was very disappointed by this movie. It’s still a good movie, I gave it a positive review and I stand by that. But literally 3 of the last 4 Pixar movies Soul, Luca, and Lightyear I gave a B to. And then Turning Red I gave a C+ to. This is a film studio that half of the movies I would give a B+ and above to. The top seven, I would give all A’s to. That’s frustrating, and I was hoping and thinking that this could be a movie that is a top tier Pixar movie and a top tier movie of the year. But it wasn’t, and that’s very disappointing for me.
1. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: Maybe the most polarizing movie of the year so far. And easily one of the most polarizing movies of the entire MCU. And I’m polarized by this movie too, I loved it so much about this movie. I loved getting a horror and gothic MCU movie, it’s something so wildly different from anything that came before. There are some weird and wacky images going on with this movie that feel very much like Sam Raimi. Elizabeth Olsen just knocks it out of the park with her performance, she is The Scarlet Witch and will forever be The Scarlet Witch. But this is a movie that has two big problems with it. First up, this movie has enough plot for a 2 hours and 20 minute movie but they squish it into a movie that is 2 hours and 6 minutes long, with the credits. The credits start rolling before the 2 hour mark of the movie, and that shouldn’t be happening. This movie felt like it could have been so much longer because it had enough plot but it was moving so quickly from plot point to plot point that everything doesn’t hit as well as it should. Also, for a movie that is called “In the Multiverse of Madness”, there isn’t a whole lot of madness within the multiverse. They have this character whose powers are hopping between different multiverses. And they have this montage of themes going through a paint world, a black and white world, an underworld. But the one that we go to the big changes are you have pizza in a bowl and you go on red and stop on green. That is such a waste of a movie that has madness and multiverse in the title. So I was super frustrated and disappointed while watching this movie.
Biggest Surprise:
3. Downton Abbey: A New Era:Now we are going to move on to a happy subject. And I went into this movie having watched a summary of the tv show, and not watching the 2019 movie. So I was very new to this world, and didn't really know any of the characters. But I went to go see this movie with my mom and my grandparents for mother’s day and I dug this movie. I liked this movie a whole lot more than I thought I would. This movie had a much sharper sense of humor then I was expecting, I was laughing out loud multiple times within the movie and so was my audience for the movie. The cast and characters were a lot of fun and I enjoyed all of them. Now this isn’t a perfect movie, I didn’t love this movie. And the big issue is you have a plot line about half of the characters going to France and the other half staying out home while a film crew comes and films a movie in the castle. And those are strong enough plot lines to stand down, and I don’t know if mixing them together was the best idea. So as somebody who isn’t a fan of this world, and new to this world I enjoyed this movie a whole more than I thought I would.
2. Scream: Now going into this movie, I haven’t seen any of the previous Scream movies. And that was a bit of a mistake because this movie does spoil the original twist ending. But I went into this movie expecting a fun enough horror movie, that was good I expected to give it a B maybe a B-. But I was watching this movie, got about 20 minutes and thought to myself “I’m really digging this movie”. Kept on going and I thought the same thing, the movie finished and I thought the same thing. And now it’s June and I saw the movie in January and I still really dug that movie. It’s a very enjoyable and very funny horror movie that does a great job with the commentary on the horror genre. I liked the characters, and they did a good job of balancing the new characters with the legacy characters. David Arquette and Jack Quaid would be the two standouts for me. So all in all, this is one of my top 5 favorite movies of the year and I really dug it.
1. Fantastic Beasts the Secrets of Dumbledore: Now this Wizarding World franchise is so frustrating for me. Because I love the Harry Potter movies, those are great and some of my favorite movies of all time. But The Fantastic Beasts franchise isn’t nearly as good, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a totally mediocre and forgettable adventure. Fantastic Beast the Crimes of Grindelwald is a bad movie with a bad story and bad storytelling to it. So I went into this movie without hearing the best reviews and with my expectations lowered because of the previous two movies. And I dug this movie, I like this movie and I think it’s easily the best of The Fantastic Beasts franchise. They didn’t make the mistakes that the previous movies did, this movie focuses on the battle with Grindelwald and side lines the fantastic beasts side of things. So I was a bit burned out by this franchise, but after this movie I’m excited for a fourth movie. Assuming a fourth movie happens, but maybe not because this movie is not casting a spell at the box office. The movie hasn’t even made $100 million at the domestic box office and just made over $400 million at the worldwide box office.
Favorite:
3. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent: A movie that I rolled my eyes at when I found out Nicholas Cage was making a movie where he plays Nicholas Cage. But I saw the trailer for the movie infront of Death on the Nile, and I thought to myself “that actually looks pretty good. I kind of want to see that”. And I watched the trailer a lot at home, and saw it a bunch in the theaters. So I was getting pretty excited for this movie, and I went to see this movie and it was just as awesome as I had hoped. And it’s the best Nicholas Cage movie that Nicholas Cage has ever done. It’s a celebration, it’s a love letter to Cage’s career. Nicholas Cage is perfectly teamed up with Pedro Pascal in this movie and I love the bromance between the two of them. And the scene where Cage and Pascal are on drugs is maybe the hardest I’ve laughed in a movie in quite some time, I don’t know if I remember the hardest. I laughed that hard.
2. Top Gun: Maverick: A sequel that when they announced this movie back in 2018 or 2017. I rolled my eyes at the fact that Top Gun was getting a sequel. I thought that was a bad idea and it was just an easy way for Tom Cruise to get another paycheck and for the studio to make money. And then the movie came out and it was awesome. I loved this movie and thought it was even better than the original movie. It’s a ture blockbuster that is exciting, funny, and heartfelt at points in time. And it’s a blockbuster that doesn’t really have everything to be CGI. And this proves why Tom Cruise is maybe the greatest movie star of all time. Where he just knows what audiences want and delivers on all of that. The cast all around is great, Tom Cruise might give one of the best performances of his career. Miles Teller and Glen Powell are the two stand outs of the new wave of Top Gun pilots. So all in all, I haven’t been able to see this movie for a second time which is a shame, because I really want to.
1. The Batman: If I’m being honest, I was going back and forth a bit between having this movie for Top Gun: Maverick as my number 1. But this is a movie that I’ve been super excited for ever since we started to get details on it, and then we started to get the initial trailers for the movie and my excitement for this movie only went up. And then I saw the movie, and it was everything I wanted. I’ve been a Batman fan for probably about thirteen years at this point, ever since I was about 4-5 I’ve been watching Batman movies and tv shows, and playing Batman video games. And getting a movie that is a dark detective story is something that I’ve been wanting for a Batman movie. Matt Reeves just does such a great job of directing this dark thriller that is heavily inspired by Se7en and David Fincher’s other work. And that is meant as a positive, because Batman and Se7en is such a great blend of movies. And the characters all around are great, and they are played by great actors. So all in all, this is a movie that was so exciting for me and it’s a movie that lived up to my hype. And my hype for this movie was about as high as you could get.
There you have it, my picks for the most disappointing, worst, most surprising, and best movies of the first half of 2022. What movies would you put under those categories? Thanks for reading!
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