Slumberland (2022)

Streaming Service: Netflix
Movie Name/Year: Slumberland (2022)
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Family
Length: 1h 57min
Rating: PG
Production/Distribution: Chernin Entertainment, Netflix
Director: Francis Lawrence
Writer: David Guion, Michael Handelman
Actors: Jason Momoa, Marlow Barkley, Chris O’Dowd, Kyle Chandler, Cameron Nicoll, Antonio Raine Pastore, Weruche Opia, India de Beaufort, Chris D’Silva, Yanna McIntosh
 
Blurb from IMDb: A young girl discovers a secret map to the dreamworld of Slumberland, and with the help of an eccentric outlaw, she traverses dreams and flees nightmares, with the hope that she will be able to see her late father again.
 

Selina’s Point of View:
The first thing I need to say about Slumberland is that everything is gorgeous. Every bit of the CGI was on point and the settings were larger than life.
 
That said, Slumberland was not without its flaws.
 
One of my issues in the first half was the pacing. The problem wasn’t that it was slow. There was always something happening, always something to hold my attention. The issue was in the transitions. It made the pace seem choppy and a bit disjointed. The trailer made it clear to expect the story to bounce between the real world and dreams, but the method they used made those transitional moments between fast-paced scenes seem out of place.
 
It did take me out of the story a bit. Enough so that I didn’t really get emotionally invest until about an hour in.
 
There were also some portrayal issues with the characters – particularly the girl’s uncle. He turned out to be well-rounded, but up until half-way through he seemed annoying and 1-dimensional. They spent several scenes focusing on him and painting him as a nebbish. I eventually felt for him, but not until that half-way point.
 

That second half of Slumberland, though. It had me in the second half.
 
Once the twists were twisted and the transitions petered out, the feels got involved. There were some funny scenes that happened, but they didn’t overwhelm the depth of the character’s emotions. It was well-balanced and had me choked up for a substantial amount of time.
 
Slumberland was obvious about the theme of grief. From the beginning, it was very in-your-face. It goes deeper than just losing a parent, though.
 
I don’t think it’s a spoiler, but just in case I’m going to issue a minor spoiler warning here.
 
The movie really focused in on what it’s like to lose something you could have had, but didn’t. In this case the relationship between brothers. There’s something devastating about losing someone who loved you, when you didn’t know that felt that way until they were gone. I had something similar happen in the past few years, and the way Slumberland handled that was spot on.
 
I can understand why critics have been hard on Slumberland. There’s a part of me that agrees with a lot of the criticism. That said, I also understand why it’s getting a high score from audiences. I think this flick is unsuccessful in a technical category, but in entertainment it shines. I will probably watch it again.
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 38%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 88%
Metascore – 37%
Metacritic User Score – None
IMDB Score –6.0/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 3.5/5
 
Movie Trailer:

Behemoth (2020)

Movie Name/Year: Behemoth (2020)
Genre: Horror
Length: 88 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Production/Distribution: ColourBleed Entertainment, Level 33 Entertainment, Première TV Distribution
Director: Peter Sefchik
Writer: Peter Sefchik, Derrick Ligas
Actors: Josh Eisenberg, Paul Statman, Jennifer Chruchich, Richard Wagner, Whitney Nielsen, Vadym Krasnenko, Nicole Krasnenko, Angela Nicholas, Hamilton Matthews
 
Blurb from IMDb: A desperate father will risk anything, even his soul, to save his terminally ill daughter
 

Selina’s Point of View:
When reviewing a film like this, I feel it’s important to keep one fact in mind. Behemoth was advertised not on the strength of its plot or acting, but on its low budget – high quality CGI. That tells me that the creative team knows that this film is a vehicle for the graphics, and not much else.
 
That’s how it was served to me, so that’s how I’m going to look at it.
 
As predicted, the acting is insincere and the plot is underdeveloped. (Though I did really enjoy the ending.) I’m going to ignore those aspects, though.
 
The CGI was where there was some serious promise.
 
It wasn’t perfect. There were some scenes where people got thrown and it looked like someone tossed a Stretch Armstrong into the setting. There’s also a moment where a horde of demons appears on screen and it looked like something from a 90s video game.
 

That said, when it did succeed – it was impressive. There were some demonic visuals that caused me to whistle in appreciation. At one point, the audience got a look into hell and that setting was just about flawless. There were also moments where the real-world rippled into something else, and those moments were almost always done phenomenally.
 
For most of Behemoth, I found myself shocked at how much the creative team managed to accomplish in a $65,000, self-financed, indie film. There are B-movies that I love that don’t hold a candle to this flick graphically. In that way, it is impressive.
 
Instead of giving Behemoth a score, I’m going to simply call it a pass. As a movie, Behemoth is a failure. There’s no escaping that. It accomplished what it set out to do, though. We now know what kind of quality can be accomplished on a tight budget with enough talent. I believe, with a bit more money and better actors – this could have been magical.
 
Maybe the next one will be.
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – None
Metascore – None
Metacritic User Score – None
IMDB Score – 4.1/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – Pass
 
Trust-the-Dice’s Parental Advisory Rating: R
 
Movie Trailer:  

Monster Hunter (2020)

Streaming Services: N/A
Movie Name/Year: Monster Hunter (2020)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Length: 99 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Production/Distribution: Constantin Film, Impact Pictures, Capcom Company, Tencent Pictures, Toho Company, China Film Group Corporation, Constantin Film Verleih, Constantin-Film, Praesens-Film, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Releasing Argentina, Sony Pictures Releasing, Toho Company, Towa Pictures, United International Pictures (UIP), Universal Pictures International (UPI)
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Writer: Paul W.S. Anderson, Kaname Fujioka
Actors: Milla Jovovich, Tony Jaa, T.I., Meagan Good, Diego Boneta, Josh Helman, Jin Au-Yeung, Ron Perlman, Jannik Schümann, Hirona Yamazaki, Nic Rasenti, Nanda Costa, Aaron Beelner, Schelaine Bennett, Adrián Muñoz
 
Blurb from IMDb: When Lt. Artemis and her loyal soldiers are transported to a new world, they engage in a desperate battle for survival against enormous enemies with incredible powers. Feature film based on the video game by Capcom.
 

Selina’s Point of View:
I have blue balls.
 
I don’t have testicles… but yes. That’s what this is. Blue balls.
 
There was no ending to Monster Hunter. It cut off during the climax. Nothing got resolved at all. It looks like something is going to happen, and then it doesn’t. Credits roll and we get a cute, but unnecessary, mid-credits scene.
 
It doesn’t even feel like the movie was leaving things open for a sequel, it feels like a part 1 – at best. Even if it was, that wouldn’t have been the place to cut it.
 
I started at the end with this one, because it’s the part that sticks out the most. It’s the feeling I’m left with. I’m unfulfilled and a little annoyed.
 
It wasn’t all bad, though.
 

The film was gorgeous. In fact, it works better as an hour-and-a-half commercial for the CGI team than an actual story.
 
The monsters felt super real. They were terrifying and designed incredibly well.
 
There were also some really great fight scenes… not enough of them to excuse the fact that I didn’t care about whether or not any of the characters survived.
 
That brings me to the next point: it had no heart. It didn’t go into the relationships enough, and most of what it did go into involved ridiculous trope-y script work. There were plot holes galore and just no reason to care.
 
Then, it winds up taking away the ending. If they had given us some kind of beautifully crafted, action-packed ending, it might have raised my opinion of it some. Instead, it left me feeling nothing. Like I wasted my money.
 
Monster Hunter is the epitome of style over substance. I will be surprised if it is not the biggest disappointment of the year where movies are concerned.
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 49%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 70%
Metascore – 44/100
Metacritic User Score – 4.0/10
IMDB Score – 5.3/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 2/5
 
P.S.: Short mid-credit’s scene.
 
Movie Trailer: