As usual I’ve been seeing a lot of movies.  However, most of the new releases have disappointed me.

“Brightburn”

Set in Kansas, a childless couple find an alien infant crash landed in the woods and decide to take him in and raise him as their own adopted child.  As he gets older, he starts to find out he has powers no other human has.  Sound familiar?  Basically evil Superman (a friend pointed me to this).  Did you see the trailer?  Then you saw practically the entire movie.  Seriously, the trailer covers most (though not all) of the major plot points that occur in the movie.  The rest is just filler of people questioning if the kid is evil or not.  Had the trailer not revealed so much, I might feel differently about it, but as it stands, nothing in the story surprised me.

“Godzilla: King of Monsters”

I do generally like Godzilla movies.  This one annoyed me.  A sequel to 2014’s “Godzilla” (and how many movies do we now have with that simple one-word title?) this one covers the state of the world five years after the appearance of the titans.  Now, even more of the giant beasties are waking up and wreaking havoc on towns leaving scientists, a possibly evil corporation, and governments to question why and what to do about it.  If you like giant monsters destroying towns and fighting each other, you’ll probably enjoy this.  Just check your brain at the door before watching.  I didn’t, and the application of physics and science only when it helped the plot — and at no other time — annoyed the crap out of me.

“The Dead Don’t Die”

I was so looking forward to this movie.  Typical plot of a zombie apocalypse hitting a small town, what’s not to love?  Zombies!  A great cast!  A comedy….well, not so much.  While some actors can give dead pan performances, this entire movie is dead pan (no pun intended).  Very dry and plodding, it has the air of something attempting to be more cerebral than it actually is.  Combined with some fourth wall breaking gags that just fall flat, the whole thing seems like a wasted opportunity.  I did enjoy Tilda Swinton in a rare comedic turn as the town’s quirky mortician.  Sadly, that was about all I enjoyed in this romp.