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fantastic four (2025) review, spoilers for all 4

if theres anything this movie proves its that when marvel has any kind of competition they start to try at least a little bit. this movie's aesthetics are the biggest success this movie has. it shows that marvel maybe couldve started trying a little harder to make quality nice looking movies a long time ago and didnt want to even bother. the vintage aesthetic here, the set design, the graphics, the slight grit a lot of this movie has. why couldnt more of their movies have more of a stylistic edge like this.

the story for this movie isnt astonishing, isnt gonna blow your cock off, fully reinvigorate the mcu like i think they hoped, but its adequate. I like these smaller stories for marvel, and this is alreayd bigger in scale. They go to space and meet a giant cosmic god and a weird silver surfer lady, thats ALOT. but the execution feels more homely, more friendly. the conflict goes from, oh my god this space god is blowing up earth into oh my god this space god wants to take my baby. which imo.... is the most emotional and human driven story we've gotten in the mcu in a long time. a lot of the stuff with the silver surfer and johhny storm feels clumsy, how they deal with the public feels unrealistic and corny. but the stuff with sue storm and reed richards and their baby, feels very heartwarming and real. Im unfortunately a sucker for a mom protecting her child type storyline. I love that kind of conflict, i love those kinds of stories. id rather this than deadpool and wolverine or doctor strange 2 misery. i think this movie holds up on it's own, i like the characters, i like the setting i like the conflict. its not amazing, but its also not completely obnoxious and fatiguing. there arent ten million plot threads, but i dont know if i want that. im giving this movie maybe more credit than it deserves too, because all the mcu stuff ive seen in the past three or so years has been so abysmal.

i might be compltely reaching with this one but i wouldnt be surprised to find out that marvel maybe made this movie the way it is a little bit because of superman. I know they only came out less than a month apart, but i can imagine that marvel got some info on how they were doin this whole superman thing and decided to change their shit. They were doing rewrites in 2024 as well, so maybe. Superman noticably skips an origin story and establishing characters, something this movie also skips over rather quickly. superman noticably focuses on themes of empathy, humanity and love. These things are also a big part of fantastic four just in general as who they are as characters, but i wouldntttt be surprised if the studio approached the story for this one in a particulrly kind and empathetic family way because they overheard some shit about superman. this is obviously me just speculating, but its hard to watch this movie without that lens. it doesnt hurt to compare i guess.

this movie isnt as good as superman. superman has more to offer for fans and other audience goers, its a decently more compelling story and i think the characters are a little stronger. but these movies have drastically different tones. James gunn has that edgy, bombastic tone to his movies. theres snips, and sarcasm and quips and yelling. more engaging and punk rock.its like riding a six flags rollercoaster. this movie by comparison, is a peaceful walk in the park. its a smooth, pleasant to look at. kind, soft and warm. its like the fantastic four are taking me on a classic johhny quest style adventure. the stakes are high, but you always know the characters will do the right thing. its more exciting action set pieces are genuinely very nice, certainly not as humongous and punk rock as superman. but i kind of like that. after years and years of marvel bullshit movies where everyone everywhere all the time is in the movie and they die and they come back and blah blah blah and it doesnt even matter. this movie is just simple, straight forward. you know the stakes, you know the characters and you arent expecting john krasinki reed richards to show up and die. fuck me. i think the only reason i like this movie more than other mcu stuff is actually looks and sounds pretty nice. my eyes ddidnt hurt while i watched it :) i like..... how this movie looks... more than superman....

i think this movie is a solid 6/10. zeenor approves.

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superman review (spoilers for superman. spoilers for spiderman 2.)

the first half of this movie i wanted to leave the theater i was so fatigued. you get thrown into this movie so hard you're left with a bizarre sense of whiplash for a good while. then clark kent and lois lane start arguing about events you didn't even get to see and i really start to feel like i should've read the junior novelization. i know a little bit about superman but I dont know this guy all that well. not to mention most of the live action superman interpretations we've gotten in the past 15 years haven't exactly been everyones cup of tea. i watched zach snyder's man of steel when i was like 10 and it was so bad and so boring I fell asleep and when i woke back up I left the room and probably played with my superhero toys. a movie so bad I said "i can do this myselffffff". i don't want an origin story, but I also don't want to feel like i missed two previous seasons. clark kent is in so much promotional material for this movie, but there are only about two scenes maybe where hes actually clark kent working at the daily planet. more scenes with him as clark kent might help ground him more in humankind, tying back to the theme of this whole damn movie. overall a good movie. competently made. i just wanted a few scenes of lex luthor cutting a ribbon for the new metropolis hospital and seeing the public cherish him for being an awesome businessman. why are all these twinks agreeing to work for him???? huh??? its better than man of steel thats for sure, 7/10.

I'm not qualified to be too critical of this movie, I traditionally don't like superhero stories about guy flying around space and shooting giant lasers and traveling between planets and dimensions and shattering people in half with their hands and we meet geeblor from planet larrhrthaz. I think this comes from my irrational distrust towards sci-fi and maybe justified hatred towards portraying superheroes as quite literal gods. My favorite superhero stories end up being focused on the characters and the very real, human struggles they go through. The only reason I care about Spider-Man is because of all the human stuff that comes with him. Sure it's cool that he's a spider man, but you see yourself in a character like Spider-Man. We've all been the guys who is late, the guy who doesn't have a dollar to his name, the guy who can't get the girl, the guy who's aunt's house is being foreclosed on. On Spider-Man's birthday, he's poor as fuck, he has no money, he visits his Aunt for his birthday and she stuffs a 20 dollar bill in his hand demanding that he takes it. She cries because she knows she doesn't really have any money, she just barely has this 20 dollars to give him. Spider-Man sees the foreclosure notices on the table. When Doctor fucking Octopus is holding his aunt hostage climbing up the side of a bank building, the reason his aunt was a the bank was because SHE WAS TRYING TO GET A BONUS FROM THE FUCKING BANK!!!! At the end of the movie, they don't even save the house. The house Spider-Man grew up in! She has to move out??? Devastating, emotional, deeply empathetic and human. This movie has a taste of that, and I don't even want as much human suffering as spiderman, I just want more. This movie lacks emotional depth. I loved the ending, that was inspiring and uplifting and fun. But it didn't resonate with me, it didn't stick with me. James Gunn is amazing at making the audience empathize with quirky, dark and unexpected characters. I don't empathize with Superman as much as I do with some of his other characters. I want more, I desperately want these people to give me a reason to care about these characters and this universe. So far, i don't have a reason to be truly and completely passionate.

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batman forever (1995) review (spoilers for batman forever.)

y'know its not everyday that they build a giant horrifiyng realistic bat animatronic for val kilmer (my condolences to his family) to stare at, and then cut the scene out of the movie. in zeenor's eyes this makes this movie a 0/10 y'know, but my mommy always used to say don't cry over spilled milk. or dont cry over animatronic bats they took out of movies.... fuck.

this movie is special because i dont think any movie (other than batman and robin) has managed to match this movie's energy. the camp performances, the weird set design and aesthetic choices. Jim carrey's riddler is an indisputably iconic performance, in all the wrong and right ways. All the choices this movie make are simultaneously the best and worst. at least it's consistently weird. this movie also has the title of being the only real live action batman franchise so far to show us a robin origin story, which really doesn't mean anything unless you're a freak like me. this movie is a joy to watch, it makes no god damn sense. it reeks of the bombastic loud 90s era it was made in. it's almost a time capsule of that time. I recommend it just for that reason, and then additionally just to bear witness to to what is a perpetually unusual movie. disney and warner brothers wouldnt have the balls to make a movie like this now a days. honestly sony could.

4/10 on the zeenor scale

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dinner with andre (1981) review

a movie thats about nothing, but yet everything. its about life and art, class and wealth. is art what provides us our living? is it even enough money to live? is art really art when its in service of wealth? what makes art art, and what makes it valuable to you. but more succinctly, this movie quite literally just watching a conversation between two very very different people. what im about to say is horrifyingly degrading to this material, but you could put this damn movie on like a podcast and listen to the conversation itself. you will miss some really amazing performances in the faces. but the conversation is at many points funny, maybe even frightening and illuminating of the class difference between the two people in this conversation. I think this is a great watch as long as you are expecting that its quite literally a conversation between two people, with some really amazing performance moments, about art, life and purpose. I love when Wallace Shawn's character says that a good day for him is to wake up and find that the coffee he left overnight does not have a dead fly or bug in it. I think this is the kind of movie that might make you either feel a little sad, because there really isnt any happy ending climax. Its rather drab, slow, maybe peaceful. I think this movie is at least an overall enjoyable watch, pleasant to put on, pleasant to listen to, pleasant to look at. Just listening to a nice conversation might be grounding i guess. if you also have consistent psychological breaks. this movie is jsut on youtube right now. zeenor very much so approves 8/10 zeenor

10/10 for listening to in the background while you draw

[zeenormoviereview]

the batman (2022) review, spoilers 4 batman and silence of the lambs

I almost didn't see this damn movie! I saw the initial teaser trailer and riddler concept art and thought we were getting another gray and shallow zach snyder nightmare. I saw that riddler and I said "oh no please not again someone put me out of my misery". But I saw it in theaters and was so overwhelmingly pleasantly surprised. It's so ridiculous how I was unsure of this movie but it pulls inspiration from some of my favorite movies ever. I feel like an absolute fucking idiot dumbass even making this comparison (despite lots of other people making the comparison, and the deleted joker scene feeling ESPECIALLY inspired) but this movie has a very similar tone to Silence of the Lambs. Silence of the Lambs is one of my favorite movies ever, and has such a specific tone, and overall feeling that not many other movies have replicated. This movie somehow gets a little close. Silence of the Lambs has that downtrodden, wet fall season feeling that weighs and sticks with you for some time. But it deals with violence in such a specific way, being careful about how it shows its full hand until the very end when it explodes. Hannibal Lecter breaks free! We are stalked through Buffalo Bill's horrifying house! The Batman captures this constantly on the edge feeling very well, feeling like he's playing a sad game he just can't seem to get ahead in. I really love the idea of Batman's character being inspired by someone like Clarice Starling too. Brings a lot of vulnerability. It also pulls heavily from The French Connection, another movie I love love love. The chase sequence with the Penguin reminds me of the long, destructive chase scene in The French Connection. French Connection is another movie thats dripping in style and tone. It also pulls from Batman Year One and The Long Halloween. The latter of which is also somewhat inspired, again, by Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal Lecter. I guess I'm saying this movie made some very very smart choices. I guess I'm saying I'm completely biased. :(

I really like all the performances in this movie. Robert Pattinsons' mumbling, borderline emo, edgy, maybe even overly serious batman performance works so well for me. When his parents integrity is questioned and he feels like everything he's done is for nothing, you really start to see more of that desperate, unhinged aspect of his character come to the surface. But you also see that vulnerability in his performance. I like how this movie deals with the conflict between wealth and class, and how that influences Bruce's perspective. In this movie it's almost a weakness that prevents him from catching onto The Riddler's plan quick enough. Speaking of which, i really fucking like this Riddler. I completely understand why so many people could not take this performance seriously, but I really really liked it. I feel like he brought the tone of the movie together in a way I wasn't expecting. This movie can sometimes feel like it takes itself wayyy too seriously, and I feel like Paul Dano's honestly fucking wild kooky campy Riddler performance tied it up in a nice bow. We are supposed to take his character somewhat seriously if the movie is going to have any kind of stakes, but also this is a batman movie with a character named the riddler. I let this movie have the freaky riddler because everything up to this point has been so grounded, felt so real and slowly convinced me (at least me) that a weird freak like this could exist. The Pengin is the same thing. Colin Farrell's performance is one meatball sub away from a Sopranos parody, but he's so fucking good in this movie. This movie despite it quite literally being so dark all the time I can't see SHIT, lets its performances shine and have fun. I would say these performances are maybe the closest we've gotten to a true Willem Dafoe Green Goblin Spider-Man camp fucking soap drama type bullshit performance we've gotten in years. Or zeenor is losing his mind. Venom fucking 2 might actually take the crown on that, Woody Harrelson as carnage is one of the most freaky performances ive seen on the silver screen in a while. Just really good actors committing to very evil performances. Jeffrey Wright as Lt. Gordon is very good. I like him so much. very good. I love the cinematography in this movie. I love the soundtrack to this movie. THE SOUND DESIGN IN THIS MOVIE. this movie just sounds really nice overall, just super pleasing to the ears. I would recommend this movie just because it sounds really fucking good. Not many movies sounds this good. This movie just looks really nice I cannot stress that enough. Its sad, and grim and gritty. I'm biased, I really like this movie. 8/10 zeenor DEFINITELY approves

I understnad why people dont like this one. Its 3 fucking hours long. Sometimes you can't even see stuff on the screen its so fucking darkly lit. the riddler has livestreams that I thought were really funny and didnt break my immersion and made me like the character more, BUT i recognize for many people they did not have that experience. they saw the riddler's viewers recommmending what silencers to buy and they roller their eyes and maybe left the theater to take a piss cause the damn movie is three hours LONG. and i want those people to know that i understand... i see you...haha... if you arent immediately getting into emo batman something in the way and accpeting that into your heart it probably makes the rest of this movie feel like an absolute slog. i did not have that experience, but you also have to remember .. . .. . ...

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hannibal (2001) review, spoilers for fucking hannibal movie and book

You could say that it's disappointing that the sequel to Silence of the Lambs is bad. But really, what did you expect when the book its based off of is even worse! You wouldn't believe it, but Ridley Scott was the one who made some very smart, sane decisions when adapting the book, written by Thomas Harris. The scariest part about this movie is that hannibal lecter is really scary.... :( no way .

im not gonna fuck around this movie blows my balls its so bad. its paced so horribly as soon as you think things might be getting interesting, it slows right back down to a confusing, pointless crawl. so confusing, so pointless you almost forget what the story is even about in the first place. who im even supposed to care about? hannibal is SOMEHOW the character you root for most in this movie. Mason Verger (a evil sexual predator who hannibal lecter manipulates into mutilating his own face), becomes the villian. A bizarre character who has paid people to raise large hogs that will tear hannibal lecter apart and and eat him, that is once Mason Verger gets his hands on Hannibal. So now this weird freak is trying to kill Hannibal Lecter, and you kind of just root for Hannibal. Clarice Starling is a disgraced FBI agent after a string of embarrassing and career destroying sting operations. I think shes very badly written in this movie, and Julianne Moore being recast as Clarice Starling obviously shows that Jodie Foster lacked confidence in the project and script. I don't know if Foster had this role, it would've fixed the fundamental issues with her character, but I can't help but feel that it could've been better than Julianne Moore's cold and stiff performance.

Jonathan Demme, who directed Silence of Lambs and provides most of the atmosphere and beautiful choices present in that movie, read the book and refused to direct. You'd think when so many people refuse to get involved because the story is so bad, that you take a step back and hire in different screenwriters or trash it. But this movie was being made by Dino De Laurentiis, an evil, suspicious individual who has more in common with Harvey Weinstein than he does with dinosaurs, despite what his name might suggest. The storytelling choices I've been avoiding talking about is the gorey, sensationalist ending this movie has that pop culture websites like to call "one of the most shocking movie moments!". Hannibal Lecter breaks into Paul Krendler's house and kidnaps Clarice Starling. Hannibal heavily drugs Clarice Starling, dresses her in expensive fancy clothes. He has a dinner party where he cuts open Paul Krendler's head while he's still awake, takes out a piece of Paul's brain, cooks it, and then feeds it to Paul. Then Clarice confronts Hannibal, the police show up, Hannibal escapes again, and Clarice is left confused and sad. Movie ends, hannibal is on the run and clarice is still standing there saying "what the fuck". You'd probably already be saying to yourself, "what the fuck that sounds like a horrible ending whats even the point of the story?" I'd like to remind yah this is the Ridley Scott ending. this is the good ending.

in the FUCKING BOOK. Hannibal Lecter drugs clarice and does all this freak psychological stuff on her in order to "heal" her trauma, kind of just brainwashing her. (also maybe implied he is brainwashing her into his sister who died as a child. i dont want to elaborate on this). then they have the dinner, and then? clarice confronts him and then pulls her tit out. Now they are lovers i guess I had to double check this on wikipedia because when I read it I couldn't believe it. apparently he stopped psychologically manipulating her? uhm? no more drugs? and they live in a mansion together? and apparently have SEX ALL THE TIME. Thomas Harris having to emphasize that "she isnt being manipulatedddd they are in love...". there are no words im literally speechless its so bad. NO WONDER NO ONE WANTED TO MAKE THIS FUCKING MOVIE NOT EVEN RIDLEY SCOTT WANTED TO DO THAT ENDING. ridley scott specializes in making freak stuff, and he didnt wanna make the freakiest thing of all. anyways this movie fucking sucks, the book sucks even more. everything sucks.

3/10 fucking movie

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kpop demon hunters (2025) review, spoilers

this is one of those movies i wanted to wait a few years to watch. i was already seeing crossover art of this with avatar the last airbender. the kind of art you'd see in 2015 on an instagram fandom account that posts stolen artwork. not a good sign. i like to be able to watch things without being completely bombarded with material from it. i tried to avoid posts about this movie, until i was forced into a social situation where i had to watch it. god is not merciful. I love representation of women, especially strong korean woman characters like these. I just wish these characters were more depthful and three dimensional. I know these totally relatable girls loveeee to eat, relax and be over the top and quirky. But really, I want more of the why and how. I know they said being in Huntrix makes them feel loved and seen, a chance to let their creativity run wild!!! where are the scenes that actually show this? or do they just say it out loud?Emphasis on the word SAID, in this movie characters love to just tell you how they feel! directly to the audience. Sometimes with Rumi's story they find interesting visual ways to communicate this info, but most of the why and how is characters saying "being here gives me purpose". after the like third of fourth scene of rumi and jinu walking around and talking but not really doing anything. at all. these scenes look beautiful, but i dont care. because its characters just deliberately saying how they feel, what they want to do. jinu is the only character with a truly, completely fleshed out backstory and even THAT is communicated in the most direct way possible. im not sure why i should care about rumi. its sad her mom died, but that AGAIN IS COMMUNICATED TO THE AUDIENCE THROUGH AN EXPOSITION DUMP GIVEN BY A HUNTRIX FAN AT THE BEGINNING OF THE DAMN MOVIE. it never has any real relevance later in the movie, this mysterious "celine" figure who trained them and knew rumi's mom only shows up like three times?

i understand the theme of these girls being raised to strengthen the honmoon and kill demons, and they aren't supposed to deviate from that!!! classic superhero moral situation, where maybe the thing you were told you are supposed to do your whole life actually isn't as noble or right as you though it was. buttt this theme makes no fucking sense with the movie. Because if we try to follow this thread through the movie, then we find that Rumi and Jinu are the only demons we are supposed to actually sympathize with?? the movie ends with rumi being allowed to be her true demon self :3 yas!!! but what about all those other suffering souls who are implied to be taken advantage of by Gwi Ma?? nah the climax of the moive the big battle they kill all those guys or whatever haha sucks to suck haha.

this movie has great visual design, looks beautiful but oh my god I dont find it funny. I dont find anime reference humor funny, i dont find the exaggerated faces funny, i dont find lusting after men humor funny, i dont find exaggerated eating sequence funny, eating ramen funny moment. its all very 2016 humor coded which ironically, maybe lines up with when this movies was produced. 10+funny relatable girl comics for girls, read now on pinterest. minus the funny relatable food girl ramen humor, i want more movies like this with a strong creative vision and interesting ideas. i just want to be invested in the characters and story, and this movie lacks the overall depth i wanted. its well designed visuals put a expensive, shimmering, outfit on a half decomposed, hollow chested corpse. in the end, it makes the whole thing feel cheap . 5/10 for zeenor