Movie Thoughts Bundle (2023) #1

In this collection of short reviews, we’ll explore the year 2023 where we had a supernatural horror flick that felt like an escapee of the 2000's era finally being released with all of its cliches intact, a sequel to a long going franchise that does nothing to improve its track record and reputability, and a glaring reminder of why the Godzilla IP belongs to Japan and America feels like a child borrowing their parent's antique figurines for playtime with this license. 

1. The Boogeyman - 6/10

What starts off as a standard fare supernatural horror tale involving your typical mythologized evil entity with specific rules behind it later turns into something leaning towards a straight forward average quality creature feature. The Boogeyman in just about almost every corner of its presentation comes across as a movie that for whatever reason got shelved in the mid-late 2000's (where this particular sub genre of horror really skyrocketed) and made its way into current markets bringing nothing particularly fresh to the table. All of the barebones minimum tropes and cliches that you'd expect are given here in both the set up and payoff of several of its scares and storytelling components.

Aside from one solid enough audio jump scare and a couple clever uses of environmental lighting (such as a video game being played to intentionally brighten up a dark room in addition to other sources of lights to tease the monster's presence), there's really hardly much to celebrate here in scare factor. The direction overall is decent enough to get a pass as are the performances being serviceable at best, but the story is nothing that we haven't seen countless of times before. What we're ultimately left with is a passable but forgettable haunted house build up to a generic looking creature that invokes the current post-Cloverfield monster copycat design sensibility (with one small unique aesthetic that’s only noticeable towards the end). It's not necessarily a bad watch by any means, but it's certainly nothing excitement-worthy for horror fans. At best, this is a watchable free rental on a rainy night if there's literally nothing else to watch

2. The Nun II - 5/10

During the first half of its runtime, The Nun II presents itself as a sequel that could've easily been considered one of the most generic and forgettable Conjuring entries to date (and modern horror films in general). This is largely due to several scenes where the direction of certain horror elements are escalated far too quickly robbing them of any potential lasting impact. It’s almost as if the movie is constantly rushing the audience to its titular villain showing it off fully out of desperation which unfortunately makes everything feel cheap in its overall presentation. Even in moments where admirable filmmaking attempts to set the stage for something creepy utilizing creative imagery or sound design are ruined in their payoffs by showing way too much of its star monster in bombastic fashion.

However, once the movie enters into the second half of its runtime, things then take a turn for the better as story elements start to interweave and rise in stakes gearing up to a surprisingly engaging enough thrill ride experience. This shift in entertainment value comes in once the big reveal surrounding the villain’s agenda creates a somewhat intriguing MacGuffin at the center of a mystery. And although the scare factor doesn’t particularly progress forward in quality, the movie makes up for it by amping up the fun haunted house rollercoaster angle with its horror-fantasy components. The nun goes from a "supposed to be creepy" entity lurking in the dark to now a full on video game final boss while other “sub bosses” make their presence known in the climax setting. 

It really does feel like a video game scenario at this point, and where I’d typically put this as a negative for these types of movies, somehow this sequel makes it work to some extent. It also helped that we had a decent enough cast of characters that I actually found myself somewhat emotionally connected to by the end due to serviceable writing surrounding them. Overall, The Nun II doesn't offer much to the Conjuring franchise in terms of positive reinforcement to keep it moving up in quality due to a forgettable and lackluster mixed bag of a viewing experience. In fact, it encourages the idea that we ought to step away from creating sequels to spinoffs and just stick to the mainline series or create one-off spinoffs with the help of talented filmmakers. Though there are a few instances where I did feel some creative effort for subtle and effective tension building were being attempted, this is sadly an entry that I'd recommend skipping entirely unless you're a series completist. 

3. Godzilla Minus One - 9/10

I think it's safe to say that Godzilla Minus One is Japan showing America yet again how it's done when it comes to making a great Godzilla movie. Now, I will say that the recent batch of attempts within the Legendary Pictures Monsterverse franchise do far more than surpass the "let's pretend it doesn't exist" 1998 effort. However, Minus One reminds us in one movie what those 5 movies consistently failed to do in the grand scheme of things. That being the ability to both wow the audience with giant monster spectacle while simultaneously telling an engrossing human story at its center.  

The characters here actually feel like human beings trapped in the midst of an existential crisis and battle for survival while dealing with their own personal struggles of war. Whereas in the aforementioned Monsterverse franchise, most of the characters just felt like one dimensional stereotypes that took up more screen time than they deserved. To that I say, Godzilla Minus One is a highly welcomed breath of fresh air and proof that you can write dramatically investing human characters in a Kaiju movie. The character arcs and overarching themes surrounding the psychological repercussions of the pressures of war are well executed here. And on a side note, it also helps that we have an excellent original score played throughout while utilizing the classic theme appropriately. 

Take away Godzilla and you still have a solid period piece war-drama which is a feat worth mentioning. Put Godzilla back into the story and you have a great monster movie with a dramatic edge worth admiring. And although the visual FX aren't consistently academy award worthy by today's standards, the scenes of Godzilla causing complete and utter carnage are cinematically crowd pleasing (especially the atomic breath sequences). You can feel the amount of passion that went into the direction revolving around Godzilla as this terrifying Earth shattering threat which is certainly worth the price of admission alone. So, if you're a monster movie fan, then I'd more than happily recommend seeing this as it perfectly lives up to the original 1954 classic.