Culture Representation: Taking place in an alternate version of New York City, the fantasy action film “Dust Bunny” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A 10-year-old girl hires her mysterious neighbor to find and kill the monster whom she believes ate her parents.
Culture Audience: “Dust Bunny” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, writer/director Bryan Fuller, and movies that combine whimsical fantasy with gritty action.
Sophie Sloan, Madds Mikkelsen and Sigourney Weaver in “Dust Bunny” (Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions)
Quirky and visually striking, the fantasy/action film “Dust Bunny” overcomes its plodding dialogue with engaging performances from the principal cast. It’s like 1994’s Leon: The Professional but set in a magical, alternate version of New York City. The movie takes a while before it gets to its most action-packed scenes, but the rapport and emotional bond that develop between the two main characters is worth seeing.
Written and directed by Bryan Fuller, “Dust Bunny” had its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. “Dust Bunny” is Fuller’s feature film directorial debut. He is best known for his work in television, including being a creator/executive producer/writer for the TV series “Pushing Daisies” (which was on the air 2007 to 2009) and “Star Trek: Discovery,” which was on the air from 2017 to 2024. In “Dust Bunny,” a 10-year-old girl named Aurora Jacoby (played by Sophie Sloan) lives in an apartment building with her parents Cecil Jacoby and Karen Jacoby. Aurora is terrified of that a dust bunny monster lives under her bed. Her parents don’t believe her.
Across the hall from the Jacoby family lives a mysterious assassin, who doesn’t have a name in the movie. In the film’s end credits, he is listed as Intriguing Neighbor (played by Mads Mikkelsen), who is noticed by Aurora. One day, Aurora’s parents disappear, and Aurora is convinced that her parents were eaten by the dust bunny monster. And so, Aurora hires a reluctant Intriguing Neighbor to find the monster and kill it.
The heart of the movie is the unlikely pairing of this hardened assassin with a previously sheltered girl who has to grow up fast as they get into dangerous situations. Supporting cast members include Sigourney Weaver as Intriguing Neighbor’s domineering colleague Laverne; Sheila Atim as a Child Family Services employee named Brenda Bautista; and David Dastmalchian as an unnamed assassin, who is listed in the end credits as Conspicuously Inconspicuous Man.
The “Dust Bunny” production design and visual effects are above-average. Viewers must have patience because the movie’s energy is sometimes too low for what this story needs. However, the story in “Dust Bunny” gets better as it goes along and has a conclusion that should appeal to most viewers.
Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate released “Dust Bunny” in select U.S. cinemas on December 12, 2025. The movie was released on digital and VOD on January 13, 2026.
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed medieval fantasy world, the fantasy comedy/drama film “100 Nights of Hero” (based on the graphic novel “The 100 Nights of Hero”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people, Latin people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: After refusing to have sex with his newlywed wife, her husband makes a bet with a close friend that the friend won’t be able to seduce the wife, who goes through a journey of self-discovery with help from her storytelling maid.
Culture Audience: “100 Nights of Hero” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the novel on which the movie is based, and unusual movies about gender roles, feminist ideology, and sexual seduction through mind games.
Nicholas Galitzine and Maika Monroe in “100 Nights of Hero” (Photo by Matthew Towers/Independent Film Company)
The dark comedy fantasy “100 Nights of Hero” is a quirky adaptation of Isabel Greenberg’s novel. The movie (about a virginal bride at the center of a sexual competition) is sometimes disjointed, but it’s an intriguing rebuke of misogynistic oppression. The film’s pacing is occasionally dull, but if viewers are still interested in watching the movie about 30 minutes into this 91-minute film, then the movie will keep viewers guessing how the movie is going to end. There’s a big part of the movie’s conclusion that is obvious and telegraphed about halfway through the film, but the rest might be surprising to some viewers.
Written and directed by Julia Jackman, “100 Nights of Hero” had its world premiere at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival and later screened at the 2025 BFI London Film Festival. The movie is based on Greenberg’s 2016 graphic novel “The 100 Nights of Hero,” which has been described as a “feminist fairy tale.” The story takes place in a fictional medieval fantasy world where almost everyone has British accents. “100 Nights of Hero” was filmed on location in the Knebworth area of England.
The movie has intermittent voiceover narration from a narrator (voiced by Felicity Jones) who remains unseen. Jones (who is an executive producer of “100 Nights of Hero”) also has a small acting role as a character named Moon, who’s in the movie for only about five minutes. The first third of “100 Nights of Hero” is when the movie is at its most rushed and jumbled. The movie hits its stride by the middle of the story.
“100 Nights of Hero” begins by showing the wedding of a woman named Agnes (played by Markella Kavenagh) to an unnamed man (played by Cory Peterson) whom Agnes does not want to marry. It’s an arranged marriage in this patriarchal society, where women are not allowed to be educated beyond learning how to speak and doing things such as cooking, cleaning and other duties that will please men. In this society, a woman’s greatest purpose is to marry and become a mother. Male heirs are considered more important than female heirs. There are many societies today that still teach these attitudes.
The movie’s narrator explains how this “100 Nights of Hero” world came into existence. A teenage girl named Kiddo (played by Safia Oakley-Green) created the world, but her domineering father Birdman (played by Richard E. Grant) demanded that the world would have a population of many people made into his image. Birdman literally looks like someone wearing a bird costume, so expect to see many anonymous “bird people” in the movie. Unbeknownst to the guests at Agnes’ wedding, Agnes was already pregnant with a daughter named Hero. The narrator says that Hero “will change the world.”
The movie then fast-forwards to 27 years later to a scene taking place at a castle owned by a wealthy lord named Jerome (played by Amir El-Masry), a newlywed who lives there with his virtuous wife Cherry (played by Maika Monroe), who is still a virgin in the beginning of the movie. Jerome and Cherry are having a meeting at a large dining table with Birdman and several other men in the community.
Birdman is upset that Cherry still hasn’t become pregnant after six months of marriage to Jerome. Cherry, who is polite and soft-spoken, is considered Birdman’s “ideal” type of wife. Birdman personally chose Jerome to marry Cherry in this arranged marriage because Jerome promised that Cherry would be able to produce a male heir. Birdman ominously tells Jerome that he has 101 nights to impregnant Cherry, or else Jerome “will not see the next spring” (Jerome will be killed.) “Now, hurry up and conceive,” Birdman tells Jerome and Cherry in his dismissal comment.
A montage of flashbacks show that ever since the wedding night of Jerome and Cherry, Jerome has come up with excuses to delay having sex with Cherry. Is he impotent? Is he not sexually attracted to Cherry? Is ne not sexually attracted to any women? The movie leaves it up to interpretation and never reveals why Jerome is avoiding having sex. Jerome is not overtly cruel to Cherry, but he does treat her like an obligation who has made him bored. Cherry is confused but does not complain, like a dutiful wife.
Cherry has an isolated existence. She has all the material things that most people would want. But she has never experienced romantic and passionate love. Her best friend (and only friend) is her maid Hero (played by Emma Corrin), who is very loyal to Cherry. Hero is also very observant and intelligent and knows a lot more than she reveals to most people.
One day, Jerome is visited by a restless and cocky friend named Manfred (played by Nicholas Galitzine), who is a recent widower. Jerome listens as Manfred complains about how Manfred’s deceased wife had been cheating on Manfred before she died. Manfred, who seems to be relieved that his wife dead, is ready to jump back into the playboy bachelor lifestyle that he had before he got married.
Manfred says with some envy that Jerome is very lucky to have a beautiful and doting wife such as Cherry. Jerome lies to Manfred by saying that he and Cherry have a passionate sex life. Jerome has an upcoming business trip and asks Manfred to look after Cherry while Jerome is away. Manfred asks Jerome out loud why he would leave his wife alone with Manfred. “Because I trust you,” Jerome replies.
This leads to Jerome bragging that Cherry would never cheat on him. Manfred, who thinks he’s an expert at seduction, has a hard time believing it. To prove it, Jerome makes a bet with Manfred: Jerome will leave the castle for 100 nights instead of the original plan for Jerome to only be away for only a few nights. And if Manfred can sexually seduce Cherry before Jerome returns to the castle, then Manfred can have the castle. Jerome and Manfred agree to this secret bet.
Jerome tells Cherry that he will be going away on a business trip for a few days, knowing full well that he will be gone for 100 nights. Sometime during his absence, Jerome tells her that he will be away much longer than he expected. While Jerome is away, Manfred schemes up various ways to try to seduce Cherry and gradually develops romantic feelings for her.
Hero sees right through Manfred and becomes a “third wheel” in his seduction manipulation. Hero is often nearby when Manfred would rather be alone with Cherry. Hero begins telling a long story to Cherry and Manfred to keep them entertained. This story becomes a “movie within a movie” in “100 Nights of Hero.”
The story is essentially about three strong-willed sisters, whose unnamed sea captain father (played by Jeff Mirza) wants all of daughters to become wives and mothers. The three daughters are Rosa (played by Charli XCX), Caterina (played by Olivia D’Lima) and Mina (played by Kerena Jagpal), with Rosa being the most independent minded of the three. One of the three sisters marries a merchant (played by Tom Stourton) while the sisters hide a big secret that could get them persecuted and executed as witches.
The “movie within a movie” aspects of “100 Nights of Hero” are hit and miss. On the one hand, the story of the three sisters has a certain level of suspense because Hero’s storytelling is constantly being interrupted, so she has to continue the story at other times. On the other hand, these interruptions are often clumsily handled in the movie.
The film also an awkward way handling the timeline for the Hero/Cherry/Manfred part of the story. There are few scenes where Manfred and/or Cherry have lost track of how many days have passed. What they think is a time period of only a few weeks turns out to be several weeks. It’s just the movie’s not-so-clever way of speeding up the timeline.
The most entertaining performances in “100 Nights of Hero” come from Corrin and Galitzine because Hero and Manfred develop an unspoken rivalry for Cherry’s attention and affection. There’s a lively and comedic spark to how Corrin and Galitzine perform in these roles that should keep viewers curious to see what will happen when Manfred tries to be sneaky about his seduction and finds it difficult because Hero always seems to be watching.
The real battle of wits isn’t between Manfred and Cherry. It isn’t between Manfred and Jerome. It’s between Manfred and Hero. (Corrin, Galitzine and Monroe all have executive producer credits for “100 Nights of Hero.”)
Monroe is adequate in her role as Cherry, but she’s the only principal character in “100 Nights of Hero” who has an American accent, which makes Monroe look miscast in a movie that’s supposed to take place in an era that existed centuries before the United States was formed. Grant is barely in the movie; his screen time is less than 10 minutes. And when he’s on screen, he’s behind a bird mask.
Charli XCX, who is best known as a music artist, makes her feature-film acting debut in “100 Nights of Hero,” which features some of her original songs, including “Everything Is Romantic.” Charli XCX’s acting is passably good, but Rosa doesn’t do much in the movie except pout and talk to her family members. In other words, it’s not a difficult role.
The narrative occasionally stalls and gets muddled in “100 Nights of Hero,” but the movie’s cinematography, production design and costume design are visually striking. The costume design is slightly reminiscent of some the wardrobe in “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Poor Things,” but there’s enough originality in Susie Coulthard’s “100 Nights of Hero” costume design for it to leave a distinct impression.
There’s some brief comic relief in the characters of three security guards (in armor suits) named John (played by Jordan Wallace), David (played by Michael Keough) and Sam (played by Jordan Coluson), who are in the background but occasional bumble and stumble when they see something unexpected. For a movie where sexual seduction is a big part of the story, “100 Nights of Hero” plays it very safe because there are actually no explicit sex scenes or nudity in the film. “100 Nights of Hero” can be considered a love story that isn’t so much about who ends up with whom but about the power of confidently being and loving who you are.
Indepedent Film Company released “100 Nights of Hero” in U.S. cinemas on December 5, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in an afterlife location called The Junction, the fantasy comedy/drama film “Eternity” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Latin people and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A dead woman must choose if she’s going to spend eternity with her first dead husband or her second dead husband.
Culture Audience: “Eternity” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and charming movies about the afterlife.
John Early and Da’Vine Joy Randolph in “Eternity” (Photo by Leah Gallo/A24)
“Eternity” skillfully blends comedy and drama in this unique tale of a dead woman who must choose if she’s going to spend eternity with her first dead husband or her second dead husband. The movie has some twists and turns. Some of these plot developments are predictable, while others are not. “Eternity” has a few tearjerking moments, but they aren’t laid on too thick.
Directed by David Freyne (who co-wrote the “Eternity” screenplay with Pat Cunnane), “Eternity” had its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. The beginning of the movie takes place in Oakdale, New York, but the majority of “Eternity” takes place in a purgatory-like place called The Junction. “Eternity” was filmed in the Vancouver area.
“Eternity” begins in the year 2020, by showing an elderly married couple named Larry Cutler (played by Barry Primus) and Joan Cutler (played by Betty Buckley) in a car that Larry is driving. Joan and Larry have been married for 65 years. They’re about to go to a gender reveal party for an unborn great-grandchild. Joan has medical tubes in one of her arms.
During this car ride, Larry and Joan argue about where they want to spend their next vacation. Larry wants to go to a beach in Florida for their vacation. Joan would rather go to a place in the Rocky Mountains. “We’re not really Florida people,” she says. The conversation turns somber when Larry switches the subject and says, “We have to tell them.” Joan says, “I know.”
The couple’s big secret, which they will eventually reveal to family members, is that Joan (who is a retired librarian) has cancer and is in the final stage of her cancer. Even though Joan is expected to die before Larry, he’s the one who actually dies first. It happens unexpectedly at the gender reveal party, where Larry choked on a pretzel and died.
Larry finds out that he’s dead when he ends up on a train that goes to a place resembling a train station called The Junction. It’s a purgatory (a transition place between life and eternity) where dead people go in the bodies that they had when they were happiest in their lives. Larry (played by Miles Teller) is in his mid-30s when he is at The Junction. Larry finds out that each person is assigned an afterlife coordinator (AC), who helps makes decisions on what type of afterlife the deceased person will choose.
There are different types of afterlife behind several doors at The Junction. For example, one afterlife where people are perpetually at a beach. Another afterlife is where people are perpetually at a nightclub. Another afterlife is where people are perpetually on a cruise ship. Another afterlife is where people are perpetually in a rural wooded area.
Each afterlife realm has a name that reflects its primary lifestyle. Some of the names include Capitalist World, Man-Free World, Surf World and Infantilization World. Various salespeople are in The Junction, where they act like real-estate agents trying to sell different eternity worlds to undecided people in The Junction.
Larry’s AC is outspoken and friendly Anna (played by Da’Vine Joy Randolph), who tells Larry the ground rules of choosing where he will spend eternity. The biggest rule is that once someone chooses a specific eternity and enters that realm, the person can’t change the decision. Anyone who changes a decision can be stuck in a dark eternal place called The Void. Another rule is that the dead people can’t use ACs or anyone else to pass notes or messages to other dead people. Communication between the dead people must be directly with each other.
Larry also finds out from Anna that most people stay in The Junction for one of three reasons (1) they can’t accept death; (2) they can’t decide which eternity to choose; or (3) they are waiting for a loved one to show up at The Junction so that they and the loved one can decide together which eternity to choose. Larry wants to wait for Joan at The Junction because he wants to spend eternity with her. Anna tells Larry to avoid going through any red doors, which are implied to be doors to hell.
While Larry is waiting at The Junction, he goes into a bar lounge, where he is served by an amiable bartender. Larry eventually finds out that the bartender is Joan’s first husband Luke (played by Callum Turner), who was newly married to Joan when U.S. military soldier Luke died in combat during the Korean War. Larry and Joan got married in 1955, two years after Luke died in 1953. Joan and Luke did not have any children together, although they had planned to start a family before Luke’s untimely death. In The Junction, Luke is in his late 20s, the age range that he was when he was married to Joan, which was the happiest time in Luke’s life.
It should come as no surprise that Luke has been waiting for Joan at The Junction. Luke’s AC is flamboyant and sarcastic Ryan (played by John Early), who has had a longtime rivalry with Anna, who also happens to be Ryan’s ex-girlfriend. When the inevitable happens, and Joan dies and shows up at The Junction. She appears in the body that she had when she was in her late 20s.
Ryan is also Joan’s AC. Ryan would rather see Joan end up with Luke in eternity, so Ryan will no longer have to look after Luke and because Ryan thinks Luke was deprived of a having a long life with Joan. By contrast, Anna wants Joan to end up with Larry because she thinks Larry and Joan have a more meaningful love story. Joan has difficulty deciding which husband to choose. Predictably, Luke and Larry begin competing with each other to be Joan’s eternity choice.
Even though Luke and Larry never knew each other when they were alive, they know enough about each other to feel that the other rival is the inferior choice. There’s also jealousy between the two men. Larry has been envious of Luke’s good looks and image as a near-perfect “war hero” who was more romantic than Larry. Luke has been envious that Larry had 65 years of marriage with Joan, with a family that includes the descendants of Larry and Joan.
Joan befriends an elderly Junction occupant named Karen (played by Olga Merediz), who gives Joan practical advice about life choices. Most people in The Junction are not in elderly bodies, but Karen (who was a closeted lesbian for most of her life) says she was happiest when she was 72. That was the age Karen was when and went on a three-month vacation with her female best friend/lover and was free to be who she really was for the first time in her life. Karen went back to her closeted life (which included being married to a man) after this vacation.
“Eternity” has an uncomplicated premise that becomes a little more complex because of how well the principal characters are written. Olsen gives the standout performance in the cast because of all the wide range of emotions that Joan feels and expresses throughout this story. Joan has to choose between an eternity where she can find out what life would be like during a marriage that was cut short, an eternity where she can continue in an imperfect but happy marriage that she already knows very well, or she can make another eternity choice that doesn’t involve spending her eternity with Larry or Luke.
Teller’s nuanced performance as Larry succeeds in showing that Larry has a lot more in his inner life than being just a “regular guy.” Larry is clearly meant to be the most “relatable” character in “Eternity.” Turner gives a solid performance as Luke, who isn’t just a “pretty face” but has a lot of passion and thoughtful romance to offer to Joan. “Eternity” has some laugh-out-loud moments and some tender emotional scenarios, as Joan spends time with Luke and Larry to make her decision. Larry and Luke also have a few moments where they get to know each other better in this purgatory environment.
Although it’s very believable that Joan was in love with Larry and Luke when she was married to each of them, it’s never believable that Anna and Ryan used to be lovers. “Eternity” tries hard to convince viewers that Anna and Ryan still have sexual tension with each other, but Anna and Ryan come across more like platonic “frenemies” rather than people who ever had a romantic interest in each other. However, Randolph and Early have great comedic timing as Anna and Ryan, since the purpose of Anna and Ryan is mostly to be the movie’s “comic relief” characters.
“Eternity” is not a manipulative film that tries to be all things to all people. The dialogue is often witty and incisive but never preachy or overly judgmental. Although a few parts of the movie feel repetitive, when it comes to Joan dragging out the time that she takes to make her decision, “Eternity” keeps viewers guessing about what choice Joan will make. And when Joan makes her final decision, “Eternity” unapologetically celebrates it. It’s a movie that takes an optimistic view about true love and how life choices—even if they are mistakes—are still worth learning from in anyone’s journey of being honest about the difference between what we want versus what we need.
A24 will release “Eternity” in U.S. cinemas on November 26, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on December 23, 2025.
Pictured from left to right: Shin Seung-ho, Kwon Eun-seong, Ahn Hyo-seop, Chae Soo-bin and Nana in “Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy” (Photo courtesy of Capelight Pictures)
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed South Korean city, the sci-fi/fantasy/action film “Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy” (based on the web novel “Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint”) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A mild-mannered office worker in his 20s, who is very knowledgeable about an obscure web adventure novel, is the only person who can predict what happens when the novel comes to life, and people are expected to complete various challenges or die.
Culture Audience: “Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of fantasy movies that look like video games, but viewers might be turned off by the movie’s messy and poorly conceived plot.
Ahn Hyo-seop and Lee Min-ho in “Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy” (Photo courtesy of Capelight Pictures)
“Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy” wants to be a clever sci-fi/fantasy film with meta references, but it’s incoherent and has drab characters. It’s about people trying to survive a terribly explained web novel that comes to life. The action is poorly staged.
Directed by Kim Byung-woo, “Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy” was co-written by Kim Byung-woo and Lee Jeong-min. The movie is based on Shing Shong’s 2018 web novel “Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint.” “Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy” was doomed to be a creative failure because it does not give viewers enough information about the web novel (“Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse”) that’s at the center of the movie’s story.
Within the first 10 minutes of the movie, viewers are plunged into the erratic and tedious survival story that’s supposed to be based on “Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse,” a web novel whose plot is known by movie’s protagonist. When this novel comes to life, the protagonist can predict certain things in advance, so then novel is supposed to be a “prophecy.” Certain main characters in “Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy” abruptly appear, disappear and re-appear, with no explanation. There’s a lot of exposition dumping in the movie’s dialogue, which still doesn’t answer a lot of questions.
The beginning of “Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy” (which takes place in an unnamed South Korean city) shows protagonist Kim Dokja (played by Ahn Hyo-seop), a mild-mannered loner in his 20s, who works in a boring office job in an unnamed industry. Dokja describes himself this way: “I went to a mediocre college and held mediocre jobs.” His current job is low-paying and temporary.
Dokja explains in a voiceover that he was an enthusiastic reader of the web novel “Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse” (also known as “TWSA”), which started off as a very popular novel. However, as more of the novel’s chapters were released on the web. readership rapidly decreased because fans thought the novel was becoming too unrealistic. Dokja says he eventually became the only reader of “TWSA.”
At this point in the movie, these are the only two substantial things that are mentioned about “TWSA”: (1) It’s a story about an apocalypse where a mysterious force gave people challenges to complete, or else die if they don’t complete the challenges. (2) A coldly arrogant warrior named Yu Junghyeok is always the last survivor in “TWSA.”
One day, Dokja decides to send the author of “TWSA” an Internet message with this scathing criticism: “Why did you make Yu Junghyeok the last survivor? Sir, your novel is the worst.” To the surprise of Dokja, the author of “TWSA” responds to Dokja’s message by replying: “I’ll do a special epilogue based on reader submissions. If you don’t like the ending, write the one you want.”
Dokja receives this message on a subway train when he is standing next to a co-worker named Yoo Sangah (played by Chae Soo-bin), who is also in her 20s. Sangah has recently quit her job at the office because she got a better-paying job somewhere else. That’s about all you’ll find out about Sangah in this movie because the characters’ personalities are so underdeveloped.
Suddenly, the subway train stops on a bridge. There’s an announcement over a public-address system: “Planetary system 8612’s free service has ended. This is the start of paid content.”
An entity named Bihyeong suddenly appears. Bihyeong is best described as looking like a floating Teletubbie with devil horns. Bihyeong is a bizarre and annoying character that is both giggly and menacing.
Bihyeong announces that everyone on the subway must pass the Prove Your Worth Challenge, which requires everyone to kill a living organism on the train within 10 minutes. Anyone who doesn’t do so by the deadline will die. The passengers in the subway are in disbelief.
To prove that this challenge is serious, Bihyeong use a laser to zap a passenger on the train who objects to this challenge. Chaos then ensues. Fights break out on the train. Some men start beating and kicking a defenseless elderly woman.
Somehow, Dokja gets ahold of a portable ant farm and shouts to anyone who’ll listen that people don’t have to be killed in this challenge—only living organisms have to be killed. He suggests they kill the ants instead, but there aren’t enough ants for each passenger to kill. Dokja comes up with a last-minute solution to that problem.
Several people die anyway, and only 17 people survive this challenge. How did Dokja know about these loopholes? It’s because this Prove Your Worth Challenge is from the “TWSA” novel, but Dokja seems to be the only one on the train who knew in advance what to do.
The ant farm belonged to a boy on the subway named Lee Gilyoung (played by Kwon Eun-seong), who’s about 6 or 7 years old. It’s presumed that any adults who were traveling with Gilyoung have died. But the movie makes Gilyoung more upset that his ants died.
Dokja, Sangah and Gilyoung are three of the survivors who make it out of the subway train. Yu Junghyeok (played by Lee Min-ho) shows up on the bridge and fights a little with Dokja, but then Junghyeok goes away. Junghyeok disappears for long stretches of the movie and then reappears with no explanation.
Three more characters from the “TWSA” novel also come to life: a former soldier named Lee Hyunsung (played by Shin Seung-ho); a warrior named Jung Heewon (played by Nana); and Junghyeok’s loyal ally Lee Ji-hye (played by Jisoo). Hyunsung and Heewon decide to help Dokja, Sangah and Gilyoung. People who survive a challenge are given a certain number of coins that can be spent on extending the coin possessor’s life or getting a superpower. The movie is inconsistent in the rules and rewards of these challenges.
Fights with mythical beasts (such as dragons) further muddle the already convoluted story. The visual effects in “Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy” are substandard. The acting performances are adequate, but they can’t save this misguided film. By the end of “Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy” (which hints there could a sequel), viewers will be underwhelmed by the characters and possibly still confused by the story. Whatever the imaginary “TWSA” is all about is probably better than the tedious drag that is “Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy.”
Capelight Pictures released “Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy” in select U.S. cinemas on August 1, 2025.
Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Vanessa Kirby, Pedro Pascal and Joseph Quinn in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” (Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios)
Culture Representation: Taking place in the late 1960s, in New York City and in outer space, the sci-fi/fantasy/action film “Fantastic Four: First Steps” (based on Marvel Comics characters) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans, Latin people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: Four astronauts with superpowers join forces against an evil, planet-eating god that lives in outer space and has recruited a silver-armored surfer to be his warrior messenger.
Culture Audience: “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of superhero movies, Marvel Comics, and action films where the superhero team is a tight-knit family.
Julia Garner in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” (Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios)
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is a step in the right direction for relaunching Marvel Comics’ Fantastic Four characters into a movie series for theatrical release. It’s an entertaining but not exceptionally outstanding improvement from 2005’s tepid “Fantastic Four,” 2007’s underwhelming “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” and 2015’s dreadful reboot “Fantastic Four,” which had completely new cast members from the previous “Fantastic Four” movies. Instead of being an origin story about how these superheroes got their powers, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” shows this quartet as an established group of beloved superheroes whose loyalties to family and the world are put to the test. Great action sequences and a unique plot outweigh the film’s mixed-bag chemistry and bland villains.
Directed by Matt Shakman, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” was written by Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer. The movie takes place sometime in the late 1960s in New York City (the home city of the Fantastic Four) and in outer space. The movie’s Earth is an alternate version called Earth 828. It’s revealed near the end of the film that 828 stands for August 28, the birthday of Fantastic Four creator Jack Kirby, who died in 1994 at age 76. (“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” was actually filmed in London and in Spain.)
The Fantastic Four, who all live together, are heroic astronauts who are at the forefront of the Space Race, which had the United States competing to be the world leader in outer-space travel. The Fantastic Four have the nickname the First Family of Marvel because they were Marvel Comics’ first group of superheroes to be members of the same family. Here are the members of the Fantastic Four, who all got their superpowers four years earlier, during a space mission that went awry because of a cosmic storm:
Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (played by Pedro Pascal) is the intellectual scientist/inventor of the group. His superpower is the ability to stretch like rubber for great lengths. Reed is the one who is most likely to obsess over scientific theories and mathematical equations to find solutions to problems. Reed also still feels guilty about the botched mission that made their lives anything but normal.
Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (played by Vanessa Kirby) is Reed’s level-headed wife. Her superpower is the ability to be invisible and to move large objects with her mind. Sue is the best out of the four when it comes to diplomatic relations with the public. She is also the head the Future Foundation, where she does a lot of work as a diplomat to help bring about world peace.
Johnny Storm/Human Torch (played by Joseph Quinn) is Sue’s impulsive, daredevil younger brother. His superpower is the ability to turn his body into a flaming torch and to shoot fireballs. Johnny is a bachelor who is considered the “heartthrob” of the group. And true to his Human Torch nickname, he’s a bit of a “hothead.”
Ben Grimm/The Thing (played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach), a former fighter pilot, is Reed’s best friend since their college days. His superpower is his extraordinary strength because the outer-space accident left him looking like a large man made of rocks. Ben is also a bachelor and is actually a gentle giant underneath his fearsome exterior.
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” begins by showing Sue finding out the results of a home pregnancy test that she’s taken. She’s pregnant, after two years of trying to conceive a baby. Sue shows Reed the results of the test. They are both happy but also cautiously optimistic because they don’t know if their child will be biologically “normal” or not.
Reed and Sue say to each other about having this child: “I really want to do this.” Sue then tells Reed, “Nothing’s going to change.” We all know she’s wrong about that because this movie would not exist if everything stayed the same for the Fantastic Four. Reed and Sue later find out that their unborn child is a boy.
Also living in the Fantastic Four household is a robot named H.E.R.B.I.E. (Humanoid Experimental Robot B-Type Integrated Electronics), who resembles the robot title character of 2008’s “WALL-E.” H.E.R.B.I.E. (voiced by Matthew Wood) is a helpful assistant with numerous skills that come handy in the lab, the kitchen or wherever he’s needed. H.E.R.B.I.E. also has the same qualities of being like a cute pet.
One of the best things about “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is that it’s not overstuffed with characters and subplots. The story is fairly uncomplicated and easy to follow, but there are some moments that get a little mundane and predictable. And, quite frankly, there are more fascinating and more appealing superhero groups in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), such as the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy.
A mysterious being called the Silver Surfer (played by Julia Garner), who is completely silver and travels through space on a surfboard, arrives on Earth, announces to the Fantastic Four that she has a message to deliver to Earth from a giant god named Galactus (played by Ralph Ineson), who lives in outer space and eats planets: “Your planet is marked for death. Your planet will be consumed by the Devourer … There’s nothing you can do about it.”
Marvel Comics and other on-screen depictions of the Silver Surfer made this character a male character. The gender swap of the Silver Surfer in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” results in a subplot of Johnny developing a physical attraction/infatuation with her. It’s later revealed that the Silver Surfer’s real name is Shalla-Bal. Flashbacks briefly show some of her personal background, but she’s still an underdeveloped character who doesn’t say much.
After the Silver Surfer delivers this gloom-and-doom message and leaves to go back to outer space, Johnny follows her to see where she came from, but she fights him off like he’s a stalker, because he basically is a stalker in this moment. Johnny is defeated and falls back down to Earth, but he’s smitten, even though the Silver Surfer barely talks to him. Maybe Johnny is attracted to the skin-tight metallic silver body suit that she seems to be wearing.
Later, Johnny describes her as a “sexy alien” and says he “had a moment” of connecting with her. It’s kind of a strange part of the movie because Johnny could have his pick of many women on Earth. But if this is the movie’s way of saying that Johnny has some kind of kink for outer-space aliens who don’t look entirely human, who are we to judge? Later, in a battle scene when Sue tells Johnny to kill the Silver Surfer, he quips like a dejected bachelor: “Just when I thought I met someone interesting.”
The Fantastic Four then travel by spaceship to track down Galactus on their own, as if no one else on Earth can go in a spaceship to find this monster. Official marketing materials for “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” have already revealed that the son of Reed and Sue is born in this movie. Fans of the Marvel Comics already know that this son will be named Franklin.
However, the birth of Franklin in this movie is definitely not like it was in the comic books. The childbirth scene is like no other scene in the MCU. What also sets “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” apart from other MCU movies is how it shows superheroes becoming first-time parents because most superheroes are never shown as parents. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” makes parental love the central focus of the movie’s biggest dilemma/conflict in fighting the villains.
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” has top-notch production design and very immersive visual effects. And there’s no doubt that the movie has a talented cast. Pascal, Kirby, Quinn and Moss-Bachrach all bring charismatic sparks to their respective characters while staying true to the characters’ original personalities from Marvel Comics. It’s just that the characters’ dialogue in this movie isn’t particularly special. Garner and Ineson are perfectly fine in their roles, considering the Silver Surfer and Galactus are very robotic in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” Almost nothing in this movie is shown or told about Galactus’ origin story.
Supporting characters include Lynne Nichols (played by Sarah Niles), the Fantastic Four’s chief of staff, who doesn’t do much except stand by and act like a loyal administrative employee. She’s a member of the Fantastic Four entourage, but Lynne isn’t the type of trusted “inner circle” employee who’s privy to all of the Fantastic Four’s secrets, in the way that Alfred Pennyworth is for Batman. Most of Lynne’s screen time consists of her reacting with approval to whatever the Fantastic Four are doing or have done. Another side character is Ted Gilbert (played by Mark Gatiss), the host/star of a “Tonight Show”-styled variety show called “The Ted Gilbert Show,” who makes commentary on his show about the Fantastic Four.
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” makes a half-hearted attempt to give Ben a love interest when he develops a mutual attraction to Rachel Rozman (played by Natasha Lyonne), who works for a community center. Ben meets friendly Rachel when he returns to his childhood home on Yancy Street. Some children behind a fence at the community center ask him to lift up a Volkswagen Beetle on a nearby street, he accommodates their request, and Rachel comes out of the building to talk to Ben.
The short interactions between Ben and Rachel are limited to only two scenes that are far apart from each other. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” has a few other scenes that show how lovelorn Ben feels isolated from having a “normal” life because of his physical appearance. This aspect of Ben’s personal life is really sidelined in the movie because the main focus is on Reed and Sue becoming parents.
The Fantastic Four are the MCU’s most serious-minded group of superheroes so far. Don’t expect any wisecracking comedians in this quartet. Some of their jokes fall kind of flat. The movie’s funniest character is Harvey Elder/Mole Man (played by Paul Walter Hauser), a former Fantastic Four enemy who has created a society of Moleoids, who live underground with him in a community called Subterranea. Harvey, who is depicted as an unpredictable eccentric, brings some comic relief to the movie. There’s an entire backstory about Harvey that the movie ignores because he’s not in the movie long enough to warrant a lot of information about his past.
The chemistry between the characters in this version of the Fantastic Four isn’t entirely convincing. Ben is supposed to be Reed’s best friend, but Ben spends more time hanging out with Johnny. As for any marital passion between Reed and Sue, there’s more heat generated from four lit matchsticks than any romantic love that these two spouses show on screen. In this movie, Reed and Sue seem more like very compatible co-workers than a husband and a wife who are supposed to be in love with each other.
Despite these shortcomings, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” isn’t boring. It’s certainly engaging in many ways, and it can be enjoyed as a stand-alone film—unlike other MCU films that make people feel like they need to watch several previous MCU films and TV series to understand what’s happening. In “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” the mid-credits scene takes place four years after the events in the movie and is a preview of 2026’s “Avengers: Doomsday.” The movie’s end-credits scene is a non-essential animated 1960s-styled homage to the Fantastic Four. Ultimately, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” isn’t top-tier MCU, but it’s better than the average superhero movie.
20th Century Studios will release “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” in U.S. cinemas on July 25, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place on Earth and in outer space, the sci-fi/fantasy/action film “Superman” (based on DC Comics characters) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans, Latin people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: Superman, who has an alter ego as journalist Clark Kent, battles against evil billionaire Lex Luthor.
Culture Audience: “Superman” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of superhero movies, DC Comics and action films that appealing interpretations on familiar characters.
Nicholas Hoult in “Superman” (Photo by Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros. Pictures)
The Superman franchise has a new lease on life with this engaging reboot. This superhero movie (which has Kyrpto as a scene-stealing dog) can get overstuffed with subplots, but it’s got plenty of thrills and comedic moments. The 2025 version of “Superman” is a promising step in the right direction for a new era in movies based on DC Comics.
Written and directed by James Gunn (who became DC Studios’ co-chairman/CEO in 2022), “Superman” is not yet an origin story. The movie takes place during a time when Superman (played by David Corenswet) is already a known superhero in Metropolis, the large U.S. city where he lives and works. (“Superman” was actually filmed in Georgia, Ohio, and Norway.) In the movie, caped crusader Superman is vilified through media manipulation from ruthless billionaire Lex Luthor (played by Nicholas Hoult), who wants his weapon-making company LutherCorp to profit from a European country’s invasion of a Middle Eastern country.
The movie shows through flashbacks and conversations the necessary details of Superman’s backstory: He was born with the name Kal-El on the planet Krypton, and then sent to Earth by his parents when he was baby before his parents died when Krypton exploded. He landed in a field in Smallville, Kansas, where he was found and raised by two working-class farmers—Jonathan “Pa” Kent and Martha “Ma” Kent—who gave him the name Clark Kent. Superman has X-ray vision, the ability to fly, and superpowers in strength and speed. His biggest weakness is an element on is planet called Kryptonite, which has poison effects on Superman if he is exposed to Kryptonite.
Thirty years after baby Clark arrived as a baby on Earth, Clark (also played by Corenswet) is now a somewhat socially awkward journalist at the Daily Planet newspaper. It should come as no surprise that Clark has been the only journalist to be able to get exclusive interviews with the mysterious and elusive Superman. Only a few people on Earth know Clark’s true identity as Superman. One of them is his journalist co-worker Lois Lane (played by by Rachel Brosnahan), who is dating Clark, but the couple decided to keep this romance a secret.
The beginning of “Superman” shows a bloodied and wounded Superman collapsed in the icy snow somewhere in Antarctica. His loyal “superdog” Krypto (a medium-sized male white mixed-breed dog with some Labrador retriever genes) enthusiastically jumps on Superman. A caption in the beginning of the movie mentions that Superman is wounded because three hours ago, he lost his first battle. It’s later revealed what that battle was.
Suddenly, giant stalagmites rise up from the ground, revealing a secret hiding place called the Fortress of Solitude that can emerge and submerge from its underground station. Robots and drones work in this fortress, where Superman is rescued by robots that take him to get medical treatment on an operating table. After an evaluation, Superman is told he only has 83% of his strength, but he is determined to leave and finish the fight, which ends up causing $22 million in property damage and 20 people needing hospital treatment.
During this medical emergency, Superman’s biological parents—Jor-El (played by Bradley Cooper) and Lara (played by Angela Sarafayan)—are seen in hologram form and talking in their native Krypton language. (In this movie, it sounds a lot like Latin.) This hologram recording will play a significant role later in the story.
Someone who has tracked Superman to Antarctica is The Engineer, also known as Angela Spica (played by María Gabriela de Faría), Lex Luthor’s robot that has been manufactured to be a mercenary with superpowers. The Engineer has been given the task of finding and destroying Superman. But by the time she gets to Antarctica, Superman has already left. However, Angela does see signs of the underground fortress.
“Superman” has several different storylines that don’t always mesh well together in the movie. There’s the storyline about Superman wanting to stop the European country of Boravia from invading a more economically vulnerable Middle-Eastern country named Jarhanpur. Boravia’s president Vasil Glarkos (played by Zlatko Burić) is a disheveled brute who is a stereotypical dictator.
There’s also a storyline Superman’s testy and volatile relationship with the Justice Gang: a trio of superheroes sponsored by the corporation LordTech. The members of the Justice Gang are arrogant Green Lantern (played by Nathan Fillion), impulsive Hawkgirl (played by Isabella Merced) and uptight Mr. Terrific (played by Edi Gathegi), who all think that they are better superheroes than Superman. The Justice Gang members are among Superman’s critics who believe that Superman causes too much destruction of property during his heroic deeds.
There’s a storyline of about LuthorCorp inventing a superpowered robot called Ultraman that Lex touts as being stronger than Superman. Ultraman is operated by a team of tech engineers in a control room with video monitors. The engineers all work under the direction of Lex. Ultraman wears a metallic-looking mask. And as soon as you see Ultraman, you don’t have to know DC Comics lore t know there’s going to be a big fight between Ultraman and Superman.
And there’s a storyline about Clark’s relationship with Lois, which has hit a rough patch because Lois has doubts that she and Clark/Superman are a good match for each other. Lois (who describes herself as a former emo rebel) has struggles with the ethics of pursuing stories about Superman while knowing the secrets that she and Clark know. One of the best scenes in the movie between Clark and Lois is when she challenges him to let her interview him as Superman.
The other Daily Planet co-workers who get speaking lines are somewhat underdeveloped in the movie. Jimmy Olsen (played by Skyler Gisondo), a nerdy photojournalist, gets the most screen out of all of these Daily Planet side characters. Daily Planet editor-in-chief Perry White (played by Wendell Pierce) is somewhat generic. Gossip columnist Cat Grant (played by Mikaela Hoover) doesn’t do anything significant and will be remembered more for her cleavage-baring wardrobe than any lines of dialogue that she has in the movie.
Lex’s girlfriend is a giggly social media influencer named Eve Teschmacher (played by Sara Sampaio), who constantly films herself and takes selfies when she tags along as part of Lex’s globe-trotting entourage. Eve might seem like a shallow gold digger at first, but the movie eventually shows that she’s not as dimwitted as she first appears to be. There’s also a dark side of her relationship to Lex that’s briefly shown when he physically assaults her.
“Superman” has some sly jokes that poke fun at the DC Comics franchise. There’s a snide comment made about people not being able to figure out that Superman looks exactly like Clark without glasses. The Green Lantern character is more buffoonish than how he’s usually depicted on screen, with the intention that audiences are supposed to laugh at Green Lantern than laugh with him. Mr. Terrific has a few memorable deadpan jokes.
A character who appeared in 2021’s “The Suicide Squad” (also written and directed by Gunn) and a character from 2026’s “Supergirl” movie make a brief and hilarious cameos. And the Krypto character (who is also from the planet Krypton) is not as trained as the Krypto depicted in DC Comics or animation based on the comics. In this “Superman” movie, Krypto (who does not talk, as he does in other versions of Krypto) is a lovable but very unruly companion, which can be a help or a hindrance.
There’s a fairly good balance of the comedic and serious moments. One of the tearjerking scenes involves Superman’s visit to his adoptive parents Pa Kent (played by Pruitt Taylor Vince) and Ma Kent (played by Neva Howell) when Superman has an identity crisis. Some viewers might think that the Justice Gang makes the movie too crowded with superheroes, while other viewers might think it’s important to show that not all of Superman’s opponents are villains.
Corenswet capably handles the movie’s lead duel role. Brosnahan also does a good job in portraying Lois as independent and a free thinker. But as far romantic sizzle goes, the Superman/Clark and Lois in this movie don’t generate a lot of heat. Hoult’s depiction of chief villain Lex is effective, but there are billionaire moguls in real life who are a lot more menacing. The truth is that the villains in “Superman” comics and movies just aren’t as interesting as the villains in “Batman” comics and movies.
“Superman” is not an overtly political film. However, the movie has pointed observations on how immigrants can be perceived and mistreated by those who are “natives.” Cultural supremacy is also inflicted by the story’s war villains. The cast members mostly have believable chemistry, whether they are allies or foes.
The movie’s visual effects live up to expectations. The movie’s mid-credits scene and end-credits scene do not tease what could happen in a sequel but are instead very short comedic scenes that aren’t crucial to the story. The 2025 version of “Superman” might not rank in the Top 5 as one of the all-time best superhero movies, but it’s certainly one of the best “Superman” movies that should please most fans.
Warner Bros. Pictures will release “Superman” in U.S. cinemas on July 11, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on July 8, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place on the fictional island of Berk, the fantasy/action film “How to Train Your Dragon” (based on the 2003 children’s novel of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a multiracial people, black people and indigenous people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: In a Berk culture where humans are supposed to hunt and kill dragons, the misfit son of Berk’s leader befriends a dragon and doesn’t want to kill any dragons.
Culture Audience: “How to Train Your Dragon” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the “How to Train Your Dragon” franchise and family-oriented fantasy films that teach respect for animals.
Gerard Butler and Toothless in “How to Train Your Dragon” (Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures)
The unsurprising live-action remake of the 2010 animated film “How to Train Your Dragon” has engaging performances and is more visually dazzling than its fully animated counterpart. The remake falls short in the personalities of the teen supporting characters. The sidekick teen characters in the 2025 remake just aren’t as amusing or as interesting as they are in the 2010 movie.
“How to Train Your Dragon” is based on author Cressida Cowell’s fantasy book series that began with 2003’s “How to Train Your Dragon.” The book series has spawned several feature films and short films. The “How to Train Your Dragon” book series is aimed at children, but the movies have wider appeal to many generations.
The 2025 version of “How to Train Your Dragon” reunites some of the same principal filmmakers who worked on the 2010 “How to Train Your Dragon.” Dean DeBlois, who co-wrote and co-directed the 2010 “How to Train Your Dragon” movie, returns as the sole writer and director of the 2025 “How to Train Your Dragon” and adds the title of producer. John Powell continues as the franchise’s music composer for the “How to Train Your Dragon” movies.
Unlike other live-action remakes of beloved animated films, 2025’s “How to Train Your Dragon” doesn’t make any drastic changes to the plot of the animated movie. This “play it safe” approach is fine, but it doesn’t leave room for doing anything groundbreaking or truly unique to the story. Fortunately, the remake has talented cast members who do the best that they can in bringing these characters to live-action life.
In both “How to Train Your Dragon” movies (which take place in an unspecified period time where there is no electricity or modern technology), the Viking humans on the fictional island of Berk are at war against dragons, which are blamed for killing hundreds of people. The human residents of Berk have retaliated by killing thousands of dragons. Dragons are also blamed for killing livestock that are used for Berk’s food supply.
The dragons come in many shapes and sizes. Most of them live in a secret underground nest that the Berk residents are trying to find. Night Fury dragons are considered the most dangerous and the most elusive dragons to kill. The most important residents of Berk are those who are the most successful dragon slayers. Anyone who finds the secret dragon’s next would be considered a hero in Berk.
The chief of Berk is Stoik the Vast (played by Gerard Butler, who reprises the same Stoik role from the animated “How to Train Your Dragon” films), a gruff and macho widower who hates dragons because his wife was killed by a dragon several years ago. Stoik is raising his and wife’s only child—a 15-year-old son named Hiccup (played by Mason Thames)—to become Stoik’s heir. But so far, Stoik is disappointed because he and many other residents of Berk think that Hiccup is a wimpy coward when it comes to many things, including combat and killing dragons.
Hiccup gets empathy from a grizzled blacksmith/dragon trainer named Gobber (played by Nick Frost), who sometimes acts more like a father figure to Hiccup than Stoik does. Gobber is also Stoik’s longtime best friend. Hiccup is an introverted, misfit loner who lacks confidence and wishes that he could get the respect of Stoik.
Hiccup shows skills in making things with his hands. To prove he has some worth as a potential dragon slayer, Hiccup makes a dragon trap that he places in a remote wooded area. This trap will lead to events that will change the lives of Hiccup and many other people in Berk.
Teenagers in Berk are trained to kill dragons. Gobber leads an elite dragon-slaying training program, which is also an intense competition. The winner of the competition is considered to be on the fast track to becoming a future leader of Berk.
Stoik pressures Hiccup to enroll in this training program, even though Hiccup doesn’t want to kill any dragons. The other teens who are in Gobber’s program are ambitious Astrid (played by Nico Parker); insecure Snotlout (played by Gabriel Howell); goofy Fishlegs (played by Julian Dennison); and bickering fraternal twins Ruffnut (played by Bronwyn James) and Tuffnut (played by Harry Trevaldwyn).
It should be noted that in this fantasy world, Berk is a place where people have varying accents, for no reason given. Stoik has a thick Scottish accent. Hiccup and Astrid have American accents. (Parker is British in real life.) Fishlegs has a New Zealand accent because Dennison is from New Zealand. Almost everyone else has English accents.
In the early days of the training program, Astrid is resentful of Hiccup because she thinks he is underserving scion who gets unfair advantages in life because of nepotism. Astrid, who comes from a working-class background, openly tells Hiccup that she plans to become the next chief of Berk when she’s old enough. Hiccup responds by saying that Astrid, not Hiccup, is the type of child that Stoik wants.
Snotlout has similar “daddy issues” because he desperately wants the respect and approval from his emotionally aloof father Spitelout (played by Peter Serafinowicz), who is one of the dragon-slaying warriors in Stoick’s army. Fishlegs is mainly the training group’s comic relief. Ruffnut and Tuffnut are bratty and try to outdo each other, but these two characters are less appealing in the 2025 version of “How to Train Your Dragon” than the 2010 version.
One day, Hiccup finds out that a jet-black, young male Night Fury dragon has been caught in his trap. Hiccup takes out a knife to kill it, but he can’t do it. Instead, he lets the dragon free from the trap. The dragon is hostile to Hiccup but doesn’t hurt Hiccup.
Half of the dragon’s tail is missing from a trap injury, which prevents the dragon from flying. Hiccup feels guilty about making the dragon disabled. And so, he brings food to the dragon and eventually makes a prosthetic that he attaches to the dragon’s tail so the dragon can fly. Hiccup names the dragon Toothless because the dragon has retractable teeth.
As already shown in the movie’s trailer, Hiccup eventually earns the trust of Toothless and learns to ride on Toothless like someone would ride on a flying horse. Hiccup keeps his budding friendship with Toothless a secret because he knows it’s taboo and he could get punished for befriending a dragon. The movie’s trailer already shows that Toothless won’t be kept a secret for very long.
The rest of “How to Train Your Dragon” plays out exactly like you think it will, if you’ve seen enough of these types of movies and especially if you saw the 2010 “How to Train Your Dragon.” The characters of Hiccup, Astrid, Stoik and Spitelout greatly benefit from live-action performances. Thames is especially good at making Hiccup believable in the action and dramatic scenes.
The 2025 version of “How to Train Your Dragon” excels the most in its visual effects, which are award-worthy. Toothless is even more adorable and soulful in the 2025 version of “How to Train Your Dragon” than he was in the 2010 version. The action sequences in the 2025 movie are thrilling, immersive and occasionally stunning. The 2025 version “How to Train Your Dragon” didn’t take any risks in changing major parts of the story, but sometimes it’s better not to mess with a classic.
Universal Pictures will release “How to Train Your Dragon” in U.S. cinemas on June 13, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on June 11, 2025.
Hannah John-Kamen, Lewis Pullman, Wyatt Russell, David Harbour, Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan in “Thunderbolts*” (Photo by Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios)
Culture Representation: Taking place in the Washington, D.C., area and in New York City (and briefly in Malaysia), the sci-fi/fantasy/action film “Thunderbolts*” (based on Marvel Comics characters) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Asians and multiracial people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A ragtag group of superheroes battle against a corrupt CIA director and a mysterious supervillain, as some of the superheroes cope with mental health issues.
Culture Audience: “Thunderbolts*” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and superhero movies that offer a more psychological perspective of the effects of superhero activity.
Pictured in center: Geraldine Viswanathan and Julia Louis-Dreyfus in “Thunderbolts*” (Photo by Steve Swisher/Marvel Studios)
“Thunderbolts*” could be subtitled “Therapy for Superheroes” because the overarching theme is how superheroes cope with depression, guilt and anxiety. Thrilling action scenes and wisecracking jokes are mixed with trauma bonding, to mostly effective results. It works well-enough in this superhero movie because of the talented cast and because the movie’s tone and direction handle these issues with enough realistic compassion instead of wallowing in mawkishness.
Directed by Jake Schreier, “Thunderbolts*” was written by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo. The screenwriting duo of Pearson and Calo is an inspired pairing because Pearson is mostly known for writing action films (including the 2021 Marvel superhero movie “Black Widow”), while Calo is known as an Emmy-winning co-showrunner for the FX on Hulu series “The Bear,” a show that mixes comedy with drama. “The Bear” tackles a lot of issues about how people are affected by families and childhood experiences. Many of these issues are in “Thunderbolts*” without the movie losing its superhero focus.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has become a complex web of stories that usually require seeing at least one previous Marvel movie to fully understand the plot and characters’ motives. In order for “Thunderbolts*” to resonate the most with viewers, it’s helpful for viewers to have at least seen “Black Widow” and the 2021 Disney+ limited series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” The 2018 movie “Ant-Man and the Wasp” and the 2019 movie “Avengers Endgame” are also suggested viewings, but they’re not essential to understanding the “Thunderbolts*” plot.
“Thunderbolts*” (the asterisk in the title is explained in the movie) begins by showing trained mercenary Yelena Belova (played by Florence Pugh), a native of Russia, standing on the top of the Merdeka 118 skyscraper building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In a voiceover, she’s heard saying in a morose tone: “There’s something wrong with me—an emptiness. I thought it started when my sister died, but it’s something bigger—a void. Or maybe I’m just bored.” Yelena then jumps off of the skyscraper.
Is Yelena suicidal? Maybe. But she isn’t attempting suicide in this scene. She’s testing her aerial limits before doing what she has vowed will be her last mercenary job for the U.S. government. As already seen in the prequel movie “Black Widow,” Yelena is the younger adoptive sister of Natasha Romanoff, also known as Black Widow (played by Scarlett Johansson), who were both underwent brutal assassin/spy training as children in Russia. They trained in a notorious facility called the Red Room. Natasha/Black Widow died at the end of “Avengers Endgame.”
Yelena is currently living in the United States (in or near Washington, D.C.) and works as a mercenary for hire dong covert missions. In the beginning of the movie, she reports to CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who made a brief appearance at the end of “Black Widow” and had a prominent role in “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” Valentina is corrupt and devious but hides her true nature by pretending with perky mannerisms and by saying that her life mission is to protect the people of the United States.
After this confessional monologue where Yelena says she’s feeling depressed, Yelena is seen invading a scientific lab and getting into fights to complete a mission to defeat people (scientists and armed guards) in the lab. One of the scientists who’s captured asks her why she’s there. “I’m in the cleanup business,” Yelena says in a deadpan voice. During this battle, one of the scientists says to Yelena: “Tell Valentina she’s making a mistake.”
What is this lab? And why does Valentina want it shut down? Those questions are answered in the movie. In the meantime, Yelena eventually tells Valentina that Yelena wants to quit the mercenary work because of job burnout. Yelena says that she would rather do more positive “public-facing” work where she gets to interact with people in more heroic and feel-good situations.
Also living in or near Washington, D.C., is boisterously loud Alexei Shostakov, also known as Red Guardian (played by David Harbour), who is Yelena’s adoptive father. Yelena goes to visit Alexei to tell him that she’s quitting her line of work. She hasn’t seen Alexei in years because of the events that happened in “Black Widow.”
Alexei is also going through his own depression issues for the opposite reasons: He misses being a “superhero” who works for a government, which is the status that he had in Russia about 30 years ago. Alexei and his former partner Melina Vostokoff (played by Rachel Weisz) raised Natasha and Yelena as a dysfunctional yet loving family of spies. Melina’s fate is shown in “Black Widow.”
Yelena sees that Alexei (a bachelor who lives alone) is living in a messy house, drinking a lot of alcohol, and operating a small business called Red Guardian Limo service, where he is the only employee and he has only one ramshackle old limo. The limo has the company slogan on the side of the car: “Protecting You From Boring Evening.” This slogan becomes a little bit of a running joke in the movie.
Alexei tries to hide his depression by pretending to Yelena that he’s doing well. She doesn’t believe him because she sees how unkempt Alexei and his home are. When Yelena tells Alexei that she wants to quit her job, Alexei is alarmed and disappointed. He tells her that he “would kill” to have the type of job that Yelena is about to quit.
Valentina is going through her own career problems. She is in the midst of impeachment hearings, where she denies all the accusations of corruption against her. In one of these hearings, she makes a statement what she has fully divested herself from any ownership in O.X.E., a company involved in secretive scientific research, but she still is a consulting member of O.X.E.’s board of directors.
Valentina’s main enemy in this impeachment proceeding is Congressman Gary (played by Wendell Pierce), who is leading the interrogations during the hearings. Congressman Gary only has a few scenes in the movie, but he’s made it clear that he doesn’t trust Valentina and he thinks she should be impeached. Anyone familiar with the Valentina character will already know that she’s the chief mastermind villain in “Thunderbolts*,” although she gets help from some other people whom she manipulates.
Bucky Barnes, also known as the Winter Soldier (played by Sebastian Stan), is also in Washington, D.C.—this time as a first-term U.S. congressman. In Marvel Comics and in the MCU, Bucky is a “frenemy” of Captain America and has been a mostly a hero but sometimes a villain. In the MCU, Bucky was born in 1925, but his Winter Soldier superpowers have extended his life and allowed him to keep his physical appearance as an adult under the age of 50.
Valentina wants Bucky to be her ally, so Valentina sends her loyal assistant Mel (played by Geraldine Viswanathan) to reach out to Bucky and see if he can be helpful to Valentina. Mel is a mostly wide-eyed sidekick. The more that Mel finds out about Valentina’s real agenda, the more that Mel starts to question if she should stay loyal to Valentina.
Valentina isn’t ready to let Yelena go when Yelena tells her that Yelena no longer wants to be an undercover mercenary. Valentina orders Yelena to do one last mission: Go to a secret facility that has O.X.E.’s most secretive assets, find out who’s been stealing the assets, and kill whoever is responsible for the thefts. Yelena reluctantly does what she has told but finds out it’s a trap set by Valentina, who lured some other people in the trap.
At this facility, Yelena battles with arrogant John Walker, also known as U.S. Agent (played by Wyatt Russell); tough-minded Ava Starr, also known as Ghost (played by Hannah John-Kamen), who has the ability to make herself invisible for a few minutes at a time; and mute Antonia Dreykov, also known as Taskmaster (played by Olga Kurylenko), who have all been villains at one time or another in the MCU. Taskmaster is not in the “Thunderbolts*” as much as these other characters. She remains the most mysterious character in the group.
For reasons shown in “Thunderbolts*,” Taskmaster eventually goes away in this battle. Yelena, John and Ghost find out that they are stuck in the facility with a confused and mild-mannered man named Robert “Bob” Reynolds (played by Lewis Pullman), who suddenly appears during the ruckus. Bob is wearing the type of outfit that hospital patients wear. It’s later revealed that Bob has a troubled past as a meth addict, and he is a survivor of childhood abuse from his father.
As already revealed in the marketing for “Thunderbolts*,” the people in this ragtag group of superheroes and anti-heroes are Yelena, Bucky, John, Red Dragon and Ghost. Bob (who doesn’t remember certain things) has sides to himself that are eventually revealed in the movie. Valentina has plans to introduce a “supersoldier” named Sentry who will do her bidding. The movie’s visual effects are adequately convincing but not outstanding.
Another running joke in the movie is how the group got the name Thunderbolts, which is a name that most of the members do not want for the group. There’s a scene where Yelena and Alexei reminisce about something embarrassing from her childhood that she doesn’t want a lot of people to know about her: When she was a girl, Yelena was part of a junior soccer team called the Thunderbolts, which never won a game. Compared to the highly admired Avengers, the superhero/anti-hero Thunderbolts are misfit underdogs, which is why Alexei thinks that Thunderbolts is a perfect name for them.
“Thunderbolts*” doesn’t have a lot of big surprises because the movie is very transparent about Valentina being the chief mastermind villain. There’s a big reveal at the end of the movie, while an end-credits scene shows the aftermath of this reveal 14 months after the reveal happened. What might surprise viewers the most is how deep the movie goes in intended tearjerker flashback scenes that show children being murdered or abused. (The violence against children is not seen on screen but is implied.)
There’s a flashback scene with childhood Bob (played by Clayton Cooper) and his unnamed parents (played by Joshua Mikel and Molly Carden) that is harrowing to watch. Valentina has her own disturbing flashback showing how she was trained from an early age to betray those who are close to her. (Chiara Stella has the role of childhood Valentina.) And Yelena, the movie’s “trauma queen,” has her own painful childhood memory depicted in a flashback scene. (Violet McGraw reprises her “Black Widow” role as childhood Yelena.)
The MCU has shown superheroes experiencing mental health issues before, but these issues were treated in a more superficial manner and were sometimes used as comedy. This tone of putting serious health issues in a joke-filled MCU superhero movie was most evident in 2022’s “Thor: Love and Thunder,” which got very divisive reactions from audiences. People who dislike “Thor: Love and Thunder” (written and directed by Taika Waititi) had a lot of criticism for how the movie infused comedy in areas that some MCU fans think should’ve had a more serious tone.
For example, Thor (played by Chris Hemsworth), the Norse God of Thunder, is shown being depressed in the beginning of “Thor: Love and Thunder.” That movie starts out with Thor abusing alcohol, overeating, losing his zest for life, and gaining enough weight to have a pot belly, because he feels lost and useless after the end of the epic war depicted in “Avengers Endgame.” Thor eventually is able to shed his fat and climb out of his depression, but this recovery is treated in a flippant manner where a narrator says that Thor goes from having a “dad bod to a god bod.”
“Thunderbolts*” takes time to meaningfully explore the psychological repercussions experienced by superheroes who have shady pasts where they were villains who murdered people. Yelena is struggling with massive amounts of guilt about what she did when she was a Red Room-trained assassin for the Russian government. Unlike the transformation of Thor in “Thor: Love and Thunder,” Yelena’s mental health struggles in “Thunderbolts*” don’t go away just because she starts doing good deeds as a superhero.
Bucky is supposed to be the unofficial leader of the Thunderbolts because he’s the oldest and most experienced member of the group. However, Yelena is the heart and soul of the “Thunderbolts*” movie. In many ways, she’s the leader of the group’s collective conscience—as tattered and conflicted as that conscience can be at times.
In “Thunderbolts*,” Pugh (who continues to excel in her acting performances) brings a soulful energy to her role as Yelena, who was more of a hardened warrior in “Black Widow.” Yelena is coping with depression but she isn’t entirely depressing because she still manages to say some comedic zingers to lighten the mood. She looks out for Bob (who is often in a fragile mental state of mind) and has some very effectively emphathetic scenes with him.
The other scene stealer in “Thunderbolts*,” is Louis-Dreyfus, who doesn’t play Valentina as an over-the-top villain but as a skilled con artist who is always working an angle that will be to her advantage. Even when things start to fall apart for Valentina, she remains relatively calm and projects an upbeat image. Valentina is masterful at putting a positive spin on something negative that she caused. This characteristic is most evident in the movie’s final scene, when Valentina makes a bold move.
The other principal cast members in “Thunderbolts*” stick close to their established personalities and handle their performances accordingly. Alexei continues to be the buffoonish comic relief. Bucky is mostly stoic and sidesteps the childhood trauma trajectory of the movie by saying he didn’t have any chldhood trauma. Even less is shown or told about the personal history of Ghost in “Thunderbolts*,” which makes Ghost a very underdeveloped character.
John is grappling with insecurities and loneliness because his wife Olivia Walker (played by Gabrielle Byndloss) has left him and has taken their underage son with her. A flashback scene shows that the marital problems had a lot to do with John being too self-absorbed in a personal scandal to be an attentive parent to his son. John wants to be the “alpha male” in any group that he’s in, so this personality trait will be problematic in many situations.
Pullman’s Bob Reynolds character makes his first appearance in the MCU. He leaves a memorable impression, although it’s very easy to figure out Bob’s purpose from the moment you see him in a hospital patient outfit in a secretive O.X.E. facility. If Bob had been seen first in regular clothes, then it wouldn’t be so easy to predict what eventually happens to Bob in the movie.
“Thunderbolts*” took somewhat of a risk by putting a lot of psychotherapy elements in what some people think should be a lightweight superhero movie. Without seeing the movie, some people might assume that these superheroes have become a bunch of wimpy whiners. Far from being about self-pity, “Thunderbolts*” takes a very mature look at what recovery from mental illness can look like for people who are expected to be strong for others but aren’t necessarily getting the psychiatric help that they need for themselves.
Walt Disney Pictures/Marvel Studios will release “Thunderbolts*” in U.S. cinemas on February 14, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place on the fictional island of Carpathia, the fantasy film “The Legend of Ochi” features a cast of working-class human characters and monkey-like creatures called Ochi.
Culture Clash: After a hunting attack separates a male baby Ochi from his mother, a teenage girl rescues the baby Ochi and goes on a quest to reunite the baby with his mother at the same time the girl looks for her estranged mother.
Culture Audience: “The Legend of Ochi” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and are interested in uncomplicated family-friendly entertainment where magical creatures are big parts of the story.
Willem Dafoe and Finn Wolfhard in “The Legend of Ochi” (Photo courtesy of A24)
“The Legend of Ochi” isn’t quite the epic adventure that this fantasy movie’s title implies. It’s a simple and sentimental story about woodland creatures, lonely humans, and family reunions with obstacles. The creature puppetry steals the show. Although there’s competent acting from the cast members, the movie’s biggest flaw is that not enough information is given about many of the characters and the island they inhabit.
Written and directed by Isaiah Saxon, “The Legend of Ochi” is his feature-film debut. The movie had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Saxon has a background in directing music videos and short films. At times, “The Legend of Ochi” looks like it could have been a short film, because there are parts of the movie that could have been removed and it wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the story.
“The Legend of Ochi” takes place on the fictional island of Carpathia, which is in an Eastern European country that is not named. The people in the movie speak with a range of accents that sound German, Russian, and everything in between. “The Legend of Ochi” was actually filmed in Romania in the Carpathian Mountains region.
In the production notes for “The Legend of Ochi,” Saxon says that Chinese golden snub-nosed monkeys were the main inspiration for how the Ochi creatures look in the film. The Ochi might also remind people of how the gremlins look in the “Gremlins” movies before the gremlins transform into monsters when doused with water.
Later in the movie, it’s explained that Ochi are mysterious creatures who hide in the woods. They communicate by making siren calls that sound a lot like the combination of a monkey screeching and a bird cooing. It’s later explained in the movie that when Ochi creatures talk in a collective chorus, the sound is magical and powerful.
“The Legend of Ochi” begins with exposition-dump narration from the movie’s protagonist: a girl named Yuri (played by Helena Zengel), who’s about 15 or 16 years old. Yuri is the only biological child of a pompous and domineering man named Maxim (played by Willem Dafoe), who lives with Yuri and her adopted brother Petro (played by Finn Wolfhard), on a farm. Petro, who is about 17 or 18 years old, was adopted by Maxim when Petro became an orphan at age 14.
Petro is conflicted between being loyal to Maxim or loyal to rebellious Yuri. There are also seven boys (ranging in ages from about 10 to about 14 years old) who have been entrusted in Yuri’s care by the boys’ families so Yuri can teach the boys how to hunt and become self-sufficient with military-styled training. The boys spend a lot of time with Maxim inside and outside the household, but he is not their adoptive father. Petro gets training along with the boy, but because Petro is more experienced than the younger boys, Maxim expects Petro to be a role model to the younger boys.
In the movie’s opening narration, Yuri has this to say about her life: “I was born on a small island in the Black Sea. Most people here live right from the land. It’s how we’ve always survived. For a long time, nothing much changed here. But things are starting to feel different. People say it’s a dangerous place. There are bears and wolves. And something else—something people feel is much worse.”
She is then seen going to a library and getting a 1992 book titled “Carpathian Beasts & Demons.” (The movie doesn’t specify what year the story takes place, but it appears to be in the early 1990s, before smartphones and social media existed.) Inside the book, there are illustrations of the Ochi as demon-like creatures. The illustrations indicate that humans have been battling Ochi for centuries.
Yuri continues in her narration: “For as long as I’ve known, I’ve fought them. I’ve never seen one myself, but I’ve heard them at night by going down from the mountain. I still don’t know the whole story. But since I was 4 years old, the one thing I knew for sure is that it destroyed my family.”
Maxim has repeatedly told Yuri that Yuri’s mother Dasha (played by Emily Watson) abandoned the family. Maxim also forbids Yuri from trying to find Dasha. “I’m going to find her!” Yuri shouts at Maxim during an argument at the family dining table.
The village where Yuri lives is a mixture of ancient and modern. People travel by horse-drawn carriages, but people also travel by car. Yuri lives on a farm and the people in the community “live off of the land,” but there are also contemporary grocery stores in the area.
Yuri lives in a household that does not have a TV or a computer. Her main connection to the outside world is music that she listens to on headphones. Her father and other people in the community are very religious. However, Yuri seems to be in defiance of her strict religious upbringing because she listens to death metal music.
One of the movie’s first scenes shows Maxim taking Yuri and some of his boy trainees into the woods for a nighttime hunting expedition. The purpose is to find and kill Ochi. “The Legend of Ochi” raises questions that the movie never bothers to answer. The biggest question is “Why are Ochi considered such a threat to humans?”
Another clue is a quick glimpse early on in the movie that shows a herder of Highland cows in a field. One of the cows is dead and appears to have been mauled by an unknown animal. Considering that there are wolves in the area, a wolf could have killed this cow. But the movie constantly shows that Ochi seem to be blamed and feared as the worst creatures and enemies of humans living on Carpathia.
Yuri mentions that there are wolves and bears in the area, but these wolves and bears are never seen in the movie. Based on what’s seen in the movie, the Ochi do not kill people, but people have been taught that Ochi will kill people. There is a curfew at night to avoid being near Ochi, who are mostly nocturnal creatures.
The only animals the Ochi are actually seen eating are insects. Humans don’t kill Ochi for food. Humans hunt Ochi simply because Ochi have been described for centuries as “predators” of humans. The point that the movie seems to be making is that if mythology is told enough times and for an extended period of time, people will believe it.
Yuri is the first person in her family to seriously question what she’s been taught about the Ochi creatures. During that nighttime hunting trip to kill Ochi, several of them are seen by Maxim and his squad of young people. Maxim orders them to shoot as many Ochi as they can. Luckily, none of the Ochi gets wounded. But in the chaos, a male baby Ochi gets separated from his mother. Maxim and his squad go home.
The next morning in a barn, Maxim gives a lecture to Yuri and the boys by telling them, “Last night was beautiful,” even if they didn’t hit any of their targets. Maxim warns them the demon is still upon them. “We are cursed with a wickedness.” And he tells them they must all give their hearts to “the cause.”
The isolation that Yuri feels in this male-dominated environment is obvious and doesn’t seem to faze Maxim. During this lecture in the barn, Yuri is crouched quietly on a perch, while the boys are gathered in unity around Maxim. He mentions the problems in some of the boys’ families (such as alcoholism, mental illness, poverty) that led these boys’ families to give Maxim the responsibility of looking after them. “You are all my sons,” Maxim says as he tells them he expects obedience and loyalty from them.
The boys who are not Petro barely talk or don’t talk at all. Their names are Ivan (played by Răzvan Stoica), Oleg (played by Carol Borș), Vlad (played by Andrei Antoniu Anghel), Gleb (played by David Andrei Bălțatu), Pavel (played by Eduard Oancea), Tudor (played by Tomas Otto Ghela) and Edi (played by Eduard Ionut Cucu), whose personalities are blank slates. In fact, the only people in the movie who have significant lines of dialogue are Yuri, Maxim, Petro and Dasha. As already revealed in “The Legend of Ochi” trailer, Dasha is a pivotal character in the film.
The night after the hunting trip, Yuri goes back to the area in the woods where Ochi creatures were seen. And that’s when she sees the lost male baby Ochi, who has a leg caught in one of the traps that Maxim and his squad set in the words. Yuri sets the baby free, and it runs away in fear. However, Yuri manages to coax Baby Ochi into a backpack and takes Baby Ochi home and hides it in her bedroom.
Yuri treats Baby Ochi’s leg wound. And slowly, Yuri and Baby Ochi learn to trust each other. One of their first bonding experiences is when Yuri shows Baby Ochi a caterpillar from her vivarium. When Yuri sees that the Ochi doesn’t hurt the caterpillar, she quickly figures out that Ochi are not as dangerous as she’s been told they are.
Although Yuri is lonely and wants to keep Baby Ochi as her friend, she knows the right thing to do is to return Baby Ochi back to his family. It isn’t long before Yuri (who is very unhappy living with Maxim) decides to run away from home to find Ochi’s family and to find her mother Dasha. Predictably, when Maxim finds out that Yuri has run away from home and has an Ochi with her, there’s a “race against time” hunt when Maxim and the boys go looking for them.
For an unknown reason, Maxim is dressed as a gladiator when he goes on a hunting mission. It seems to be the movie’s way of showing Maxim’s over-the-top, bombastic personality. Dafoe portrays Maxim almost at cartoonish levels, but the character becomes a little bit more grounded in the last third of the movie.
The Ochi, which are combination of puppetry and visual effects, have wonderfully expressive faces and a combination of intelligence and empathy. Baby Ochi is quite simply adorable and is by far the most charming character in the movie. Some viewers might not like the “cuteness” that the Ochi bring to the movie, but other viewers will welcome it once it becomes obvious that “The Legend of Ochi” is a sweet-natured family film and not an edgy movie.
That doesn’t mean it’s a perfect movie. A few scenes are very awkward and nonsensical. For example, after Yuri has run away with Baby Ochi, she goes into a supermarket to get (steal) some food. Even though she hides Baby Ochi in her backpack, he makes himself known when he reaches for some eggs, and some people in the store see him. Customers scream and run in fear.
That’s not what’s odd and ridiculous about this scene. What’s odd and ridiculous is that during this panic, a cashier takes out a shotgun that he had stashed near the cash register and starts shooting at Yuri and Baby Ochi. Who does that to an unarmed kid? Yuri gets away with Ochi in a rolling cart and crashes through the front window with the cart when store employees lock the front doors. She then steals a car in the parking lot because the car just happens to have the keys in the ignition.
None of this is really spoiler information because “The Legend of Ochi” is the type of movie where you can tell how it’s going to end the minute that Yuri runs away from home. The movie’s trailer also reveals that Yuri suddenly and inexplicably begins to understand the Ochi language, so she begins communicating with Ochi in this language, which is subtitled in the movie. The parallels between Yuri and Baby Ochi are obvious because this is a story about a child wanting to be reunited with the child’s mother, despite forces who don’t want this reunion to happen.
The movie’s performances are capable, although “The Legend of Ochi” doesn’t explain a lot of things about Yuri and her family. It should come as no surprise that Dasha has a very different version of why she stopped living with Maxim and Yuri. Dasha’s story of how she lost her left hand (which has been replaced with a wooden prosthetic) indicates that this family’s history is very dark and troubled.
Watson gives the best performance of the cast members, as is often the case with any her projects. It’s too bad that the character of Dasha is in less than half of the movie. Zengel is convincing as introverted teen Yuri, but she mumbles some of her lines. Wolfhard doesn’t have much to do as Petro, the quasi-mediator between the feuding Yuri and Maxim.
“The Legend of Ochi” has excellent cinematography by Evan Prosofsky and has some heart-tugging moments (including an emotion-stirring music score by Evan Prosofsky) that will either endear or irritate viewers. The movie follows a lot of familiar formulas but has a positive message (without getting preachy) about showing compassion for those who are misunderstood and mistreated. Despite the movie’s flaws, the story can’t be faulted for this overall impactful message.
A24 released “The Legend of Ochi” in select U.S. cinemas on April 18, 2025, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on April 25, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on May 20, 2025. “The Legend of Ochi” will be released on Blu-ray on July 8, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place on Earth and in a magical place called the Overworld, the fantasy/action film “A Minecraft Movie” (based on the “Minecraft” video game series) features a predominantly white group of people (with a few African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: Five people get caught up in the Overworld, where there’s a battle over a magical cubed crystal and a magical orb.
Culture Audience: “A Minecraft Movie” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the “Minecraft” video game series, the movie’s headliners and fantasy action flicks that use visual effects to distract from a weak story.
Piglins in “A Minecraft Movie” (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)
“A Minecraft Movie” should be called “A Minecrap Movie.” This adaptation of the “Minecraft” video game series is a sloppy mishmash of incoherent action, bad jokes and a messy plot. It’s also a flimsy excuse for Jack Black to sing forgettable songs. Even though this movie is geared more toward children than adults, it’s an insult to people’s intelligence, regardless of age. And there’s more idiocy to come: “A Minecraft Movie” has an end-credits scene that’s a thinly veiled announcement that a sequel has already been planned.
Directed by Jared Hess, “A Minecraft Movie” had the freedom to make an entirely new story because the “Minecraft” games are about users building their own worlds with their own rules and inhabitants. The common denominator in “Minecraft” (which is the best-selling video game of all time) is that things and creatures are look like cube-shaped blocks. Unfortunately, that freedom to be clever is squandered in “A Minecraft Movie.” Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, Neil Widener, Gavin James and Chris Galletta co-wrote the screenplay for “A Minecraft Movie,” which definitely looks like the screenplay suffers from “too many cooks in the kitchen” syndrome.
“A Minecraft Movie” is the type of movie where if you miss the first five to eight minutes, you might be confused for the rest of the movie. That’s because “A Minecraft Movie” begins with an overly long, rambling exposition dump from a narrator named Steve (played by Black), who says when he was a kid, he wanted to work in the mines to discover treasures. The only problem? Kids weren’t allowed to work in the mines.
Steve, who lives in a fictional U.S. city called Chuglass, grew up to work in a drab office in an unnamed job. (“A Minecraft Movie” was actually filmed in Auckland, New Zealand.) Steve compares how he is as an adult, compared to when he was a child: “Same shirt, same pants, no soul.” Steven revived his childhood dreams and went back to the mines. “This time, I was unstoppable,” Steven says.
During this mining excursion, Steve discovered a glowing cubed crystal and a glowing orb. When he put these two objects together, it opened a portal to a magical land called Overworld, which is described in the movie’s production notes as “a bizarre, cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination.” Keep that “imagination” part in mind when you see how little imagination this movie has.
Steve found out that he could create his own world, which he called Steve’s World, by using magical power that makes cube-shaped objects, similar to how people can build Lego objects. Some of the things he created included a loyal dog named Dennis and a casual restaurant called Steve’s Chicken Shack, which serves lava chicken. (Lava chicken is supposed to be spicy and hot, just like lava.)
Overworld has an area called Nether (which is Otherworld’s version of hell), where villains called Piglins (which look like pig mutants) live and have an insatiable desire for gold. The Piglins are led by Malgosha (played by Allan Henry and voiced by Rachel House), who is dressed like she thinks she’s the Grim Reaper. Malgosha is quite dull and predictable.
The Piglins tried to capture Steve and Dennis, but Steve and Dennis escape. During this escape, Steve give Dennis the glowing orb to hide underneath Steve’s waterbed back in Steve’s house on Earth. In hindsight, Steve thinks this was not a good hiding place. And he’s right because someone else ends up with the orb.
“A Minecraft Movie” then has a jumbled introduction to the four people who eventually end up joining Steve in Overworld to fight the Piglins.
Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (played by Jason Momoa) was a teenage world champion of a “Garbage Man” video game in 1989. Garrett acts like he’s stuck in 1989, including wearing a fringed leather jacket and singing along (very off-key) to Skid Row’s “I Remember You” when he’s driving in his beat-up car. Garrett lives and works in Chuglass, where he owns a video game store that’s close to getting evicted and going out of business.
Natalie (played by Emma Myers) and Henry (played by Sebastian Hansen) are teenage siblings who have recently moved to Chuglass because Natalie has gotten a job as the social media manager for Chuglass Potato Chips. Natalie is supposed to be about 18 or 19 years old, but she looks like she’s about 15 or 16. Henry is about 14 or 15 years old. Their single mother recently died, which is why Natalie and Henry have moved to Chuglass to start a new life.
Dawn (played by Danielle Brooks) is the real-estate agent who did the deal for the house where Natalie and Henry are living in Chuglass. Dawn (who is sometimes upbeat and sometimes sassy) also has other “side hustle” jobs, including providing zoo animals for parties and other events. She drives around in a car with the company name Zoo on Wheels, with some of the zoo animals in the car.
Garrett is desperate for money, so he goes to a place called Storage World, which is run by a sleazy operator named Daryl (played by Jemaine Clement) because Garrett thinks he can find something valuable in a box for an old video game called Cosmos. Garrett pays $900 in a Storage World auction for the box, but he is disappointed to find nothing of value in it. Instead, there’s a glowing object in the storage unit. Guess which glowing object it is.
“A Minecraft Movie” has a poorly written sequence of events to show how Garrett, Natalie, Henry and Dawn end up in the Overworld. Henry is a new student enrolled at Chuglass High School, where he’s immediately bullied by some other students for being a nerd. Natalie and Henry have very generic personalities that do not enliven this already limp story.
Vice Principal Marlene (played by Jennifer Coolidge) is the school official who meets with Natalie and Henry. She gives them an earful about having recently gone through a bitter divorce from her ex-husband Clemente, who is never seen in the movie. If you know that Coolidge has been typecast as playing flaky and weird characters, then you can easily predict what type of personality Vice Principal Marlene has and how she will act.
One day, Henry goes into Garrett’s video game store and thinks Garrett is so cool, he agrees to Garrett’s con game of saying he can be Henry’s life coach for $50 an hour. Henry is an aspiring rocket scientist, so he tries to impress his schoolmates by taking a life-sized skeleton model from biology class and attaching a jet pack to it. It’s a complete disaster, of course: There’s a big explosion that damages the some of the school’s property.
Henry is called into the office of Vice Principal Marlene because he’s in big trouble. Natalie is too busy at work and Henry doesn’t want her to find out. And so, Henry calls Garrett and asks Garrett to pretend to be Henry’s uncle who will be the adult to meet with Vice Principal Marlene about Henry causing this property destruction problem.
Garrett agrees to pretend to be Henry’s uncle, for a price. When Vice Principal Marlene sees Garrett, she acts horny and starts flirting with him. Later, the movie goes to unnecessary and very unfunny scenes of Vice Principal Marlene on a dinner date with a mute creature from Overworld.
Henry’s trouble at school leads up to a scene where he goes missing because he’s hanging out with Garrett but didn’t tell Natalie. Natalie panics when she can’t find Henry, so she calls Dawn to help her look for Henry. Dawn and Natalie eventually find Henry at Garrett’s house, shortly before Henry finds the glowing orb and the glowing cubed crystal in Garrett’s garage.
Even though there’s a handwritten note (presumably from Steve) saying not to put the crystal and the orb together, it should come as no surprise that curious Henry puts the crystal and the orb together. The portal opens and drags Henry, Natalie, Garrett and Dawn into the Overworld, where they meet Steve. If you don’t like the way this sequence of events is described, then imagine watching it all happen in the movie, where seeing it unfold is infinitely worse than getting a description.
“A Minecraft Movie” (whose visual effects are not as great as they should be) then becomes a chaotic blur of chase scenes and people inventing weapons in the Overworld to battle against the Piglins and other opponents. A place called Woodland Mansion is the key to getting the “heroes” back home. The movie gets even more tiresome when Steve and Garrett (who are both very loud and insecure) compete to be the “alpha male” of the Overworld. Meanwhile, the male characters in “A Minecraft Move” get the best action scenes, while the female characters spend half of their action scenes cheering on the male characters.
Throughout this dreadful movie, Garrett tells terrible jokes that shows he has a fixation on rear ends because he has say something vaguely sexual or violent in references to bottoms. For example, Steve breaks out into song about four times, which must’ve been something that actor/singer Black insisted on in his “Minecraft” contract, since he sings some songs (none of them award-worthy) that were written specifically for the movie. At one point, Steve sings his jingle for Steve’s Chicken Shack. Garrett’s response: “I have a small business too. And one thing I try not to do is have my jingles suck butt.”
The low-quality of the screenplay, the unimpressive acting performances, and the overall substandard filmmaking for “A Minecraft Movie” won’t make a difference to people who just want to see a “Minecraft” movie, no matter how terrible it is. Children under the age of 10 might be dazzled by the movie’s visuals, but experienced moviegoers can spot the raggedy computer-generated imagery in some of the scenes. “A Minecraft Movie” is a mind-numbing experience, which might satisfy viewers who don’t care about having an inventive story in a “Minecraft” world. People who care about preserving their brain cells should steer clear of this cinematic abomination.
Warner Bros. Pictures will release “A Minecraft Movie” in U.S. cinemas on April 4, 2025.
