28 Weeks Later (2007)

28 Weeks Later (2007)
Rating: ★★★½
May 27, 2007Post-Holocaust/Zombie Outbreak
I was cautious about hailing 28 Days Later as a modern classic; this sequel is in fact a much better film. Newcomer director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo draws it out into a series of superbly sustained suspense sequences

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)
Rating:
Mar 8, 2012Comic-Book Avenger/Demonic Superhero
Ridiculous sequel to the Marvel Comics adaptation with an indifferently written script assembled from cliches, forgettable action scenes and Nicolas Cage giving one of his silliest performances in ages

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Rating: ★★½
Nov 9, 2013Marvel Comics Norse God Superhero
Sequel to Thor that earranges the same basic elements much more satisfyingly than the first film – the actors (with the exception of a tranquilised Natalie Portman) seem more at home in their roles and a director who is more confident with the effects and superheroics. That said, it is starting to feel like Marvel is shuffling the same plot ingredients around between films

Pacific Rim (2013)

Pacific Rim (2013)
Rating: ★★★½
Jul 12, 2013Giant Mecha Robots vs Giant Monsters
Giant mecha robots beating the crap out of giant monsters – what's not to like? In comparison to the Transformers films, Guillermo Del Toro looks to find the soul of the robot jock – in essence, Transformers for grown-ups

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Rating: ★★½
May 2, 2015Marvel Comics Superhero Team-Up
The first Avengers film came with a massive anticipation in seeing the characters come together and the snappiness of their interplay; here this seems more flat, while the rest is overrun by wall-to-wall action

Zootopia (2016)

Zootopia (2016)
Rating: ★★★★
Mar 12, 2016Disney Animation/World of Talking Animals
With Pixar having slumped into terminal sequelitis, Disney now seems to be out-Pixaring Pixar at the sort of films they used to do best. Set in a world that imagines what might happen if animals lived in cities, this is an ingenious reworking of the talking animals premise that overflows with visual ingenuity and warm humour

The Jungle Book (2016)

The Jungle Book (2016)
Rating: ★★★
Apr 23, 2016Jungle Boy
Live-action remake of the Disney film, one that takes the Babe approach of giving the animals life through top of the line CGI effects. The results are impressive with the animals emerging as distinctive characters (far more in fact than the film's single human) thanks in large part to near-perfect voice casting

Finding Dory (2016)

Finding Dory (2016)
Rating: ★★★½
Jun 25, 2016Pixar Animation/Talking Fish
Pixar have never been the same since they were overrun by sequelitis; this sequel to Finding Nemo goes a good way to recapturing their heyday. This is not perfect but has a winning array of new characters and some delightfully madcap comic set-pieces

Star Trek: Beyond (2016)

Star Trek: Beyond (2016)
Rating: ★★
Jul 30, 2016Intergalactic Adventures
Gene Roddenbery created a tv series that was about boldly going, confronting different ways of life. The choice to hire the director of The Fast and the Furious films to helm the film made for the show's 50th anniversary says how wrong-headed the reboot series has become – all about cool young leads and hurtling effects sequences

The Dark Tower (2017)

The Dark Tower (2017)
Rating:
Oct 21, 2017Stephen King Adaptation/Portal to a Parallel World
Filmmakers have struggled to bring Stephen King's Dark Tower series to the screen for years. Under Hollywood's No 1 worst screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, we get an utterly mangled version that has little resemblance to the books and yet makes little sense if you haven't read them

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Rating: ★★
Feb 3, 2018Marvel Comics Norse God Superhero
The third of the MCU's Thor films. This time Kiwi director Taikia Waititi gives much more of a comedic emphasis where you get the impression the intention has been to push the film in the direction of Guardians of the Galaxy. On the other hand, the superheroics are routine

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Rating: ★★
Nov 3, 2018Marvel Comics Superhero Team-Up
Marvel’s third Avengers film, uniting almost every superhero under their roof, resulting in some thirty characters on screen and a plot that becomes a blur of changing locations and superheroic punch-ups

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022)
Rating: ★★
May 27, 2022Videogame Adaptation/Supersonic Alien Hedgehog
Sequel to the hit videogame adaptation, this offers up fairly much the same mix of elements as before - a cutely anthrompomorphic creature and Jim Carrey going to rafter-rattling excess