Critical Mass: 'Ghost in the Shell' is a hollow spectacle, 'Boss Baby' is fired
Ghost in the Shell and The Boss Baby are poised to give Beauty and the Beast a run for its money at the domestic box office, but did they also conjure decent movie reviews from movie critics? With so many new and holdover titles entering theaters this weekend, EW wants you to make good choices at the movies, so consult our Critical Mass reviews guide below before heading to the multiplex this weekend.
Opens March 31 in theaters nationwide.
EW’s Leah Greenblatt says:
If there’s anything Sander’s ravishing set pieces fail to sufficiently color in, it’s the story’s emotional stakes. Major’s search for her identity; the reason the bad guys are bad and the good guys do good; the future they’re all fighting for: None of it matters much, beyond that we’re told to accept that it does. The deep-dive mythologies and intriguing moral quandaries raised by the script aren’t so much explored as exploded in a flurry of high-gloss action sequences and vaguely deep koan-of-the-day dialogue. Eventually the movie gives up the Ghost, and settles for a gorgeous shell. B
Rotten Tomatoes: 51%
Metacritic: 52
Opens March 31 in theaters nationwide.
EW’s Darren Franich says:
But there are worst case scenarios, instances where empty cynicism dissolves into sour snark, where the pretense at self-awareness becomes its own retrograde stupidity. Consider the cultural devolution from something like Wicked - a lacerating female-first deconstruction of an old children’s story - to Oz, The Great and Powerful, the story of a money-obsessed con man with a heart of gold who gets the good girl by vanquishing all the bad girls. Consider the whole quotemarky “It’s just a joke!” tone of online discourse, the rise of smirking insincerity as a political mode and an intellectual dialectic. And then there’s The Boss Baby, merely mediocre yet disturbingly familiar, for we are all Boss Babies now. C
Rotten Tomatoes: 41%
Metacritic: 49
Opens March 31 in theaters nationwide.
EW’s Leah Greenblatt says:
The movie is nicely shot and sympathetically acted, but there’s an odd lack of stakes and urgency, considering their mission-the real-life couple did, in fact, save some 300 lives over the course of the war-and scarcely a moment or character that strays from the familiar. Even at its most engaging (those cubs!), Zookeeper can’t help evoking the dozens of films that have told these stories before, and better. B
Rotten Tomatoes: 56%
Metacritic: 58
Begins streaming March 31 on Netflix.
EW’s Chris Nashawaty says:
As Will (Jason Segel) tries to sabotage his mad-scientist father (Robert Redford) and get [Rooney] Mara’s Isla to share her secrets, the movie turns into a plodding, somber thriller minus the thrills. [Charlie] McDowell, who co-wrote the script with Justin Lader, had an intriguing what-if idea. But it feels like they never figured out what to do with it. The Discovery is a puzzle of a movie. Unfortunately, it’s the kind of puzzle you get half way through and decide to move on to something else. C+
Rotten Tomatoes: 56%
Metacritic: 58
EW’s Chris Nashawaty says:
Once in the castle, Belle and Beast both quickly (too quickly) change: He goes from cruel captor to fellow booklover; she goes from fiery inmate to besotted Stockholm Syndrome victim in time for their love to save the day. Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s musical numbers are peppered throughout along with some new ones by Menken and Tim Rice. Like so much about Condon’s film, the new songs are perfectly fine, but they’re just not transporting. More than movies or theme parks, Disney has always been in the business of selling magic. I wish there was just a little bit more of it in this Beauty and the Beast. B
Rotten Tomatoes: 71%
Metacritic: 65
EW’s Chris Nashawaty says:
Cranston’s Zordon tells the teens that an evil fallen Power Ranger (think Darth Vader) named Rita Repulsa has been reawakened from way back in the day and is about to destroy their peaceful seaside town of Angel Grove (and the rest of planet Earth) in her search for the coveted all-powerful Zeo Crystal. During her quest, she will summon a humongous gold beastie called Goldar. It’s all gibberish, really - blockbuster Mad Libs where you could easily substitute “Zeo Crystal” with “Infinity Stone” and “Goldar” with “Apocalypse” or “Kraken” or “LEGO Joker.” The only thing that makes this battle-heavy second half orgy of green-screen destruction remotely interesting is Elizabeth Banks’ Repulsa. A cackling sadistic crone with a sweet tooth for gold and insult comedy, Banks’ baddie gives the leaden fight scenes some adrenalin and winking humor. You can tell that she knows exactly what kind of film she’s signed up for and she’s decided to have a ball with it. Which, come to think of it, is pretty much how anyone should approach this movie if they want to have a good time. B
Rotten Tomatoes: 47%
Metacritic: 44
EW’s Chris Nashawaty says:
As for subtlety, there isn’t a whole lot of that either. The team starts dropping bombs and wreaking havoc on the island, letting you know that the real monster is man himself. Meanwhile, Reilly and the mighty Kong are left to save the picture. And mostly, they succeed. Or, at least, well enough. Kong swats the military helicopters out of the sky like a giant swatting pesky flies. Jackson barks his great vengeance and furious anger. Hiddleston smolders and briefly wields a samurai sword. Larson takes surprisingly few pictures for a photographer, but she does get her Fay Wray moment. And Reilly delivers sorely needed punchlines between exposition about Kong and the island’s backstory. The rest are, more or less, just bodies lining up for the body count-although some of the kills are surprisingly clever and not worth spoiling. Meanwhile, Kong does his thing and does it well. The poor misunderstood guy seems destined to keep proving to humankind that he comes in peace. I kept waiting for a single tear to streak down his big hairy cheek. B-
Rotten Tomatoes: 78%
Metacritic: 62
EW’s Chris Nashawaty says:
It’s not giving anything away to say that from this point on, Life is basically a zero-gravity bodycount flick - And Then There Were None in space. The crew tries every way it can to kill the thing, but Calvin won’t die. I kept waiting for Jeff Goldblum to show up on their communication screen to say, “Life...uh...finds a way.” Espinosa stages some clever scares and creative kills while the crew make one bone-headed decision after another in their bid to survive (they have a particular knack for opening hatches when they should stay closed). Then again, watching smart people make dumb choices is one of cinema’s deepest pleasures. Life isn’t a great movie (in fact, it’s kind of a mess). But it is a really fun one. Somehow it manages to keep pushing enough joy-buzzer buttons to keep the audience on edge until the last scene. If it feels like Life succeeds in spite of itself, the important thing is that it succeeds. B+
Rotten Tomatoes: 66%
Metacritic: 55
EW’s Chris Nashawaty says:
Logan is essentially a road movie, but it’s a dark one (and a very long one). More than ever, Jackman’s Logan seems like he’s at an existential dead-end, and he’s never exactly been a barrel of laughs to begin with. Mangold shoots the film in a grungy, south-of-the-border Peckinpah palette. There isn’t a lot of hope in the movie. The stakes aren’t grandiose, no one’s saving the world. They’re saving this one special - and very, very violent child (although there will turn out to be others like her). Since Laura’s mutant physical gifts are so identical to Logan’s, there’s a melancholy to their relationship. She’s the daughter he never slowed down enough to allow himself to have. The loner has to learn to put someone else first. It’s both as manipulative and hokey as that sounds, but occasionally it works well enough that you might find yourself getting choked up against your better judgment. B-
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Metacritic: 77
