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[jshackles]

It's a new year, so new thread!

Let us know what movies you've watched this year, and what you think about them! This is a great place to get recommendations from others, or just share why you thought The Last Jedi was terrible.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

I watched Barbie the other day. That movie goes places yet it doesn't really properly land with what it was trying to accomplish.

Just the Matrix for Boss Chicks tbh. 6.5/10

 

[Lunarorbit]

Started watching high plains drifter last night and Clint rapes a chick in the first 10 minutes. My wife wasn't down with it so I put on Joe Kidd which he made the year before.

When she fell asleep I finished high plains. Both really great. Finishing high plains made the story make so much more sense.

 

[jshackles]

Movie 1: Wicker Man (2006) - Watched Jan 5th, 2024
Movie 2: Your Name (2016) - Watched Jan 9th, 2024
Movie 3: Godzilla Minus 1/C - Watched Jan 30th, 2024
Movie 4: The Frozen Ground - Watched Feb 8th, 2024
Movie 5: Bubble - Watched Feb 10th, 2024
Movie 6: Crimson Tide - Watched Feb 16th, 2024
Movie 7: Raising Arizona - Watched Mar 14th, 2024
Movie 8: My Worst Neighbor - Watched Mar 21st, 2024
Movie 9: Imaginary - Watched Mar 29th, 2024
Movie 10: Kong vs Godzilla: New Empire - Watched Apr 2nd, 2024
Movie 11: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country - Watched Apr 5th, 2024
Movie 12: Armageddon - Watched Apr 15th, 2024
Movie 13: Spy x Family Code White - Watched Apr 25th, 2024
Movie 14: The Dark Tower - Watched Apr 29th, 2024
Movie 15: City Hunter - Watched May 2nd, 2024
Movie 16: Encino Man - Watched May 5th, 2024
Movie 17: Detective Conan and the Million Dollar Pentagram - Watched May 13th, 2024
Movie 18: Men in Black - Watched May 19th, 2024
Movie 19: Goodfellas - Watched May 20th, 2024
Movie 20: Night at the Roxbury - Watched May 22, 2024
Movie 21: Austin Powers - Watched May 22nd, 2024
Movie 22: Detective Conan Black Iron Submarine - Watched May 25th, 2024
Movie 23: Dune Part Two - Watched May 25th, 2024
Movie 24: Detective Conan The Time Bombed Skyscraper - Watched May 28th, 2024
Movie 25: The Hobbit - Watched Jun 6th, 2024
Movie 26: Arcadian - Watched Jun 7th, 2024
Movie 27: Beyond Reanimator - Watched Jun 7th, 2024
Movie 28: Fellowship of the Ring - Watched Jun 8th, 2024
Movie 29: The Two Towers - Watched Jun 9th, 2024
Movie 30: Return of the King - Watched Jun 10th, 2024
Movie 31: Blast from the Past - Watched Jun 16th, 2024
Movie 32: Down Periscope - Watched Jul 7th, 2024
Movie 33: The Humanity Bureau - Watched Jul 18th, 2024
Movie 34: So I Married an Axe Murderer - Watched Jul 26th, 2024
Movie 35: Longlegs - Watched Jul 27th, 2024
Movie 36: I Saw the TV Glow - Watched Aug 1st, 2024
Movie 37: Ace Ventura Pet Detective - Watched Aug 11th, 2024
Movie 38: Ace Ventura Pet Detective: When Nature Calls - Watched Aug 14th, 2024
Movie 39: Howl's Moving Castle - Watched Aug 15th, 2024
Movie 40: Son in Law - Watched Aug 17th, 2024
Movie 41: My Neighbor Totoro - Watched Aug 19th, 2024
Movie 42: Longlegs - Watched Aug 26th, 2024
Movie 43: Extreme Job - Watched Aug 29th, 2024
Movie 44: Porco Rosso - Watched Sep 7th, 2024
Movie 45: Officer Black Belt - Watched Sep 14th, 2024
Movie 46: Jackpot! - Watched Sep 15th, 2024
Movie 47: Leprechaun 4: In Space - Watched Sep 15th, 2024
Movie 48: Hitman Agent Jun - Watched Sep 17th, 2024
Movie 49: Leprechaun 5: In The Hood - Watched Sep 17th, 2024
Movie 50: Velocipastor - Watched Sep 19th, 2024
Movie 51: Leprechaun 6: Back to Da Hood - Watched Sep 19th, 2024
Movie 52: House on Haunted Hill - Watched Sep 26th, 2024
Movie 53: Ghoulies - Watched Sep 27th, 2024
Movie 54: La Larona - Watched Sep 27th, 2024
Movie 55: Gremlins - Watched Oct 1st, 2024
Movie 56: Spookies - Watched Oct 3rd, 2024
Movie 57: Amityville Horror (2005) - Watched Oct 3rd, 2024
Movie 58: Fright Night (1985) - Watched Oct 4th, 2024
Movie 59: Critters - Watched Oct 10th, 2024
Movie 60: Thir13een Ghosts - Watched Oct 10th, 2024
Movie 61: Once Bitten - Watched Oct 13th, 2024
Movie 62: Weedjies Halloweed Night - Watched Oct 17th, 2024
Movie 63: Munchies - Watched Oct 17th, 2024
Movie 64: The Faculty - Watched Oct 21st, 2024
Movie 65: Johnny Mnemonic - Watched Oct 21st, 2024
Movie 66: Hereditary - Watched Oct 24th, 2024
Movie 67: Return of the Living Dead - Watched Oct 26th, 2024
Movie 68: Nightmare on Elm Street - Watched Oct 31st, 2024
Movie 69: Airheads - Watched Nov 3rd, 2024
Movie 70: Am I Racist - Watched Nov 3rd, 2024
Movie 71: The Ghost Snatchers - Watched Nov 4th, 2024
Movie 72: Castle in the Sky - Watched Nov 6th, 2024
Movie 73: Wedding Singer - Watched Nov 10th, 2024
Movie 74: Detective Conan: The 14th Target - Watched Nov 20th, 2024
Movie 75: Now You See Me - Watched Nov 22nd, 2024
Movie 76: Chain Reaction - Watched Nov 29th, 2024
Movie 77: The Invisible Raptor - Watched Dec 10th, 2024
Movie 78: The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim - Watched Dec 13th, 2024
Movie 79: Pom Poko - Watched Dec 13th, 2024

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Conflicted. It's definitely propaganda but it's good. Took almost the full runtime but I stopped seeing Matt Damon and started seeing his character by the end of the movie.

Recommended to anyone who finds themselves saying "I'd like to watch an inferior version of Prisoners".

3/4 thumbs up.

 

[bender]

American Fiction - Loved it. It's a little dry but smart and very funny.

 

[Andyliini]

Sisu

Went in expecting a slasher movie with lots of meme potential. That's what I kind of got, but it was an entertaining 90 minutes with no boring points or too much repetition. It's always a pleasure to see a lonely man fight and survive agains all odds, though this has some of that spaghetti western fairy tale flavour, so it doesn't have to be all that serious or realistic most of the time.

I enjoyed it, far more than I have wirh the director's previous films.

 

[Burning Blade]

Just watched Barbie the other night. Now I will preface this by saying I knew there was going to be some woke bullshit in there, and there was. However, despite that the movie was fantastic. It was really clever, well written and well acted and directed. The humor definitely had a female lean to it (I mean it’s Barbie ffs), but overall the knife cut both ways pretty evenly throughout the movie. I have to admit that the movie is amongst the best I’ve seen in the past few years, and it was certainly the funniest.

 

[clarky]

Sisu

Went in expecting a slasher movie with lots of meme potential. That's what I kind of got, but it was an entertaining 90 minutes with no boring points or too much repetition. It's always a pleasure to see a lonely man fight and survive agains all odds, though this has some of that spaghetti western fairy tale flavour, so it doesn't have to be all that serious or realistic most of the time.

I enjoyed it, far more than I have wirh the director's previous films.

I thought this started well enough but just went completely off the rails into the relm of fucking stupid.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

Conflicted. It's definitely propaganda but it's good. Took almost the full runtime but I stopped seeing Matt Damon and started seeing his character by the end of the movie.

Recommended to anyone who finds themselves saying "I'd like to watch an inferior version of Prisoners".

3/4 thumbs up.

What's the movie? The image is all bugged out for me.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

What's the movie? The image is all bugged out for me.

Stillwater. (Image fixed)

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Saw the beekeeper in imax

 

[Insane Metal]

Society of the Snow

Really good movie. Very faithful to the real story, great acting, great cast.

 

[Andyliini]

Twins
This was the first time Arnold Schwarzenegger did a more lighthearted comedy film. His contrasts work great with Danny Devito, creating some funny situations. The script is not anything to write home about, and while there are a couple of twists, they are predictable and can be seen from a mile away. I had fun with it, altough the company that released the local Blu-Ray should really up their game. The disc is completely devoid of extra stuff, and the picture and sound quality are weak. Sucks to live in a small market...

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Twins
This was the first time Arnold Schwarzenegger did a more lighthearted comedy film. His contrasts work great with Danny Devito, creating some funny situations. The script is not anything to write home about, and while there are a couple of twists, they are predictable and can be seen from a mile away. I had fun with it, altough the company that released the local Blu-Ray should really up their game. The disc is completely devoid of extra stuff, and the picture and sound quality are weak. Sucks to live in a small market...

I wish more companies would take more care in doing Blu-ray/DVD/4K for their movies and shows

I wish they would have meaty extras, at least 10 hours Max and 6 hours minimum of Extras.

Also yeah I ran into that same issue before with audio and visuals too. Gladiator is a good example

 

[AJUMP23]

LIFT - mediocre. super smart thieves with the right motives and dumb everyone else.

 

[12Goblins]

Conflicted. It's definitely propaganda but it's good. Took almost the full runtime but I stopped seeing Matt Damon and started seeing his character by the end of the movie.

Recommended to anyone who finds themselves saying "I'd like to watch an inferior version of Prisoners".

3/4 thumbs up.

Could you elaborate?

 

[JimmyRustler]

John Wick 4

Putting aside all the ridiculousness of the plot and everything that is happening (blind Donnie Yen, sunrises being 30+ minutes etc.), why did this one need to be so long? Almost 3 hours... really? This is crazy. Action flicks like this should be 90 minutes tops. Get you act together... damn...

 

[NeverYouMind]

John Wick 4

Putting aside all the ridiculousness of the plot and everything that is happening (blind Donnie Yen, sunrises being 30+ minutes etc.), why did this one need to be so long? Almost 3 hours... really? This is crazy. Action flicks like this should be 90 minutes tops. Get you act together... damn...

I also watched John Wick 4 recently and even my brother who is a huge fan of the franchise was just puzzled by it. The movie seemed to want to be Cyberpunk at many moments and John Wick constantly teaming up with the two specialists trying to hunt him down and then using the rules of the high table while also breaking them was absurd. The worst offender was that card game with all of them and the German high table member drawing Five of a Kind (an impossible hand). It was wierd seeing the Yuri Boyka (Undisputed) actor don a fat suit to play that German and kick Keanu's ass while running away. The next worst offender was the endless stairway that Wick rolled down with no attempt to stop despite a potentially fatal time limit. On top of that the "happy ending" was thematically inconsistent with the series.

Another set of movies I watched was Speed and Speed 2: Cruise Control. I liked the sequel infinitely more than the original. It helped that an entire cruise ship was the setting for the second film and it had so many disaster film tropes. Jason Patric and Willem Dafoe also played much better written characters in the sequel than the comical characters Keanu Reeves and Dennis Hopper played in the original. On top of that, in the original film Jeff Daniels (the partner) outclassed Keanu's poor acting by such a large margin that it made him look bad.

 

[JimmyRustler]

I also watched John Wick 4 recently and even my brother who is a huge fan of the franchise was just puzzled by it. The movie seemed to want to be Cyberpunk at many moments and John Wick constantly teaming up with the two specialists trying to hunt him down and then using the rules of the high table while also breaking them was absurd. The worst offender was that card game with all of them and the German high table member drawing Five of a Kind (an impossible hand). It was wierd seeing the Yuri Boyka (Undisputed) actor don a fat suit to play that German and kick Keanu's ass while running away. The next worst offender was the endless stairway that Wick rolled down with no attempt to stop despite a potentially fatal time limit. On top of that the "happy ending" was thematically inconsistent with the series.

Speaking of the fat guy... The biggest laugh of the movie I had when he did the spinning kick on Keanu. Shit, even thinking about it now makes me laugh. That was so stupid.

But yeah, the movie was something else. Given that many of the guys behind it have a background in stunts I figure they just wanted to have fun here.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning- Part 1

An absolute clusterfuck of boring plot, boring characters, stupid scenes, weak sauce action. My God, what have they done to MI?

 

[JimmyRustler]

Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning- Part 1

An absolute clusterfuck of boring plot, boring characters, stupid scenes, weak sauce action. My God, what have they done to MI?

Have you seen MI2? Also, most of the characters are known from the past movies… and the action is legit given that they did a lot of actual stunts instead of CGI…

But hey, it’s ok to be wrong.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Have you seen MI2? Also, most of the characters are known from the past movies… and the action is legit given that they did a lot of actual stunts instead of CGI…

But hey, it’s ok to be wrong.

I saw all the MI movies, this is by far the worst.

 

[DKehoe]

Anyone here seen Poor Things? I saw it last night and really enjoyed it. After watching The Curse recently it was interesting to see Emma Stone in such a radically different role. Ruffalo and Defoe are great too but Stone's performance is the standout one of the film.

 

[Doom85]

I saw all the MI movies, this is by far the worst.

Dead Reckoning (7) is a step down from 4-6, but it’s still really great.

MI 2 is mostly shit, the only “redeeming” aspect is the final act which is really stupid but has a few fun moments like the motorcycle “fight”.

1 and 3 are both really good, but they had the problem the original three films did of focusing solely on Ethan as a character and virtually everyone else is one dimensional. 1 is carried by a few solid action/suspense set pieces, and 3 is carried by Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s excellent performance as the villain.

But 4-7 are all just extremely well balanced action movies. Pretty much all the characters get good development, solid action/suspense scenes, some good comedy here and there, etc. MI 4 and beyond changed my view of the series from, “oh, those movies, yeah some of them were kind of fun” to “holy shit, when does the next one come out?! This series slaps!”

 

[diffusionx]

I bought a Peacock subscription to watch that playoff game last week so I decided to see what else is on the service and saw Five Nights at Freddy's.

I've never played a FNAF game but I think it's a great premise for a horror movie. I was expecting a sort of shlocky-smart horror movie like M3GAN, what I got was actually this really weird movie that tried and failed to tell this personal family story. It was really disappointing, the characters didn't even have a chance to be creepy.

 

[GreenAlien]

Pathaan 2023



This is a pretty amazing high budget indian action flick. It's all about rule of cool, not realism. Unfortunately, with 150min runtime, it could have used some trimming..
Apparently this is part of some sort of cinematic spy universe, but I haven't seen any of the others yet.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Warcraft

May be o e of the few but I really like this flick. Granted, I know jack shit about the Warcraft lore. The effects are pretty good and the plot entertaining enough (minus the stupid love story). Have a soft spot for the ending where guy get respect from the orcs. Good stuff. Shame it bombed. Would have liked the see another one.

 

[bitbydeath]

Leave the World Behind

I thought this was a really good movie, but then it just ended…

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Watched hijacked, it's bad.

 

[NeverYouMind]

Warcraft

May be o e of the few but I really like this flick. Granted, I know jack shit about the Warcraft lore. The effects are pretty good and the plot entertaining enough (minus the stupid love story). Have a soft spot for the ending where guy get respect from the orcs. Good stuff. Shame it bombed. Would have liked the see another one.

I saw it a few years back and the pacing and execution were good. Sadly, a lot of the target audience (WoW players) was really nitpicky about authenticity. Still one of the better movie adaptations of videogames.

 

[Insane Metal]

Prob gonna see Beekeper this weekend.

 

[Sidney Prescott]

Rewatched Good Will Hunting. The dialogue in this film is incredible. It's one of the few I feel I have walked away from having learnt some life lessons and changed my perspective on a lot.

 

[NeverYouMind]

Rewatched Good Will Hunting. The dialogue in this film is incredible. It's one of the few I feel I have walked away from having learnt some life lessons and changed my perspective on a lot.

I am not sure what you mean by that but I still use this line:

 

[ÆMNE22A!C]

The Creator.


Cliche/boring.

Didn't even finished it.

Great underused underlying theme used as a pretext for some inter personal cliche emotional simple af story etc etc

Disappointing.

 

[AJUMP23]

The boys in the boat. Serviceable sports film. But nothing amazing. I felt the girl in the movie was overly earnest but overall a watchable film.

 

[bender]

Rewatched Good Will Hunting. The dialogue in this film is incredible. It's one of the few I feel I have walked away from having learnt some life lessons and changed my perspective on a lot.

It's not your fault.

 

[John Marston]

Dream Scenario with Nic Cage.

I heard it was supposed to be an Ari Aster project and it shows

Cage modifies his voice ever so slightly and his character is so endearing.

Although the 3rd act let me down a bit it was overall a great journey.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

It's not your fault.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

The boys in the boat. Serviceable sports film. But nothing amazing. I felt the girl in the movie was overly earnest but overall a watchable film.

I watched this yesterday. I'm in the same boat as you. Can't remember any of the characters except the crazy cute girlfriend. I think a super formulaic story like this has to have great dialogue and characters, but this script was bland AF.

I give it + marks for not being made for "modern audiences" though.

 

[bender]

 

[Doom85]

I watched this yesterday. I'm in the same boat as you.

Well, now I have to see this movie, I had no idea you two were in the film! Let me know which boat you’re in during which race so I know where to look out for!

 

[Kenpachii]

Beowulf 1999.

Fun sunday movie, acting is pretty mid, cgi is dog shit. and it just didn't age well at all. Still fun to watch.

6/10.

Jumanji welcome to the jungle 2017

I like the actor choice, even the kid actors where good.

Sadly they went for character swapping which kind a made them all dog shit actors that just was annoying to watch most of the time. Jokes also didn't hit that well and the story was kind a iffy to say the least.

To long in my opinion and could have used more different enviroments then just a jungle, had trouble focusing for the entire duration.

5/10

Mary Poppins Returns.

Absolute loved the first one, and realized there was a second one. Watched it and yea it's just more of the same but without the magic.

They basically just rebooted marry poppins really, the main actor marry poppins was actually well cast she felt like her in every way, everybody else just felt like b actor replacements from the origin movie. The magic worlds felt less impactful and the songs + chimney guy was less interesting. The main story was interesting, but just not well executed.

All with all if u like a different take on marry poppins in a more modern way i guess, here u got more. but for me it just felt like it waters down the first movie which is a classic. It wasn't a bad movie, but yea didn't like it that much. Great for die hard fans i guess.

6/10

 

[ÆMNE22A!C]

John Marston and M mortal

Did you both saw The Creator?

I don't know. I really really liked the sci-fi design and that doesn't happen often. The androids, tank/military stuff and that flying ship were ace <3.

I mean, I was entertained and worth watching for that alone imo seeing it reminded me of Blomkamp's style.

But the focus on the moral stuff between west vs east, the wife and the "wow I'm bonding with the weapon" stuff.... Zzzzzz

Such a shame imho.

What are your thoughts?

People were shitting on Elysium for it's obvious subtext but that movie is soooo much awesome.

/Rant

 

[Grildon Tundy]

John Marston and M mortal

Did you both saw The Creator?

I don't know. I really really liked the sci-fi design and that doesn't happen often. The androids, tank/military stuff and that flying ship were ace <3.

I mean, I was entertained and worth watching for that alone imo seeing it reminded me of Blomkamp's style.

But the focus on the moral stuff between west vs east, the wife and the "wow I'm bonding with the weapon" stuff.... Zzzzzz

Such a shame imho.

What are your thoughts?

People were shitting on Elysium for it's obvious subtext but that movie is soooo much awesome.

/Rant

I saw The Creator, too. A+ visuals but story and characters that were strangely unengaging. I felt more for the android girlfriend who has like three minutes of screentime than the main characters.

I rewatched Elysium not too long ago and liked it much more this time around. The subtext doesn't seem any more obvious than District 9's, and D9's reception was much warmer, so I don't get it.

 

[ÆMNE22A!C]

Agreed. Fuck, most of OATS is more engaging.

I also rewatched Elysium recently as well as D9 and Chappie. I don't get the hate for Chappie. It has Hugh Chapman with a mullet pushing his fucking mech through the whole movie and it's glorious lol!

 

[mortal]

John Marston and M mortal

Did you both saw The Creator?

I don't know. I really really liked the sci-fi design and that doesn't happen often. The androids, tank/military stuff and that flying ship were ace <3.

I mean, I was entertained and worth watching for that alone imo seeing it reminded me of Blomkamp's style.

But the focus on the moral stuff between west vs east, the wife and the "wow I'm bonding with the weapon" stuff.... Zzzzzz

Such a shame imho.

What are your thoughts?

People were shitting on Elysium for it's obvious subtext but that movie is soooo much awesome.

/Rant

I did watch it. I was also disappointed with it.
I've already shared my thoughts on the film in another thread, so I'll quote myself:

If were to sum it up it would be, mostly style over substance. Mediocre story, with some nice visual effects.

The production values were fairly good, but it's the sort of CGI that draws attention to itself and doesn't convincingly blend into the live-action elements.
Art design and world-building were all over the place. Given the themes of AI dominance and personhood, the way those themes were portrayed was kind of sloppy.
I get they were trying to go for this stylish blend of old and new tech, but it just didn't work for me. Seems like they were more concerned with making things look cool, rather than making things be more visually cohesive.

The writing was rather uninspired. The plot is pretty much textbook sci-fi, peppered with the usual tropes.
Taking the premise AI vs humanity, but instead casting humans as the aggressor had potential, the execution was clumsy imo.
I just couldn't take the idea of these incredibly advanced machines being so helpless against the evil human westerners seriously lol

Not much in the way of memorable characters either.
From the offset, the film tried to make me care about the characters they spent little time building. Characters were dying left and right and I just couldn't care less.
Performances were decent enough, but I didn't feel an emotional investment in the characters or their motivations. Which made all of the emotional moments feel a bit cheap and unearned.

Spoiler

• Why would there be a sweatshop filled with Asian workers making incredibly human-like androids?
• Why would a rear naked chokehold be an effective means of incapacitating an advanced police android?
• Why would designing a child android even be a big deal if it's already possible to design and simulate any other age group or behavior type?
• They have the technology to bring back humans from the dead for limited periods, but that one guy was crying over his "dead" robot girlfriend when he could've probably restored her into a new body.
• Considering that a sentient AI being able to hack and cripple the human's offensive capabilities is essentially the plot of the film, why even use any form of computer technology at all?
• On top of that, the choice to use ballistics and warheads seems like complete overkill when EMP weapons would've been just as effective against the machines without all of the needless destruction and loss of human life.
• There is tech capable of replicating any human face onto an android, so why not use that to hide your identities when you're on the run with wanted pictures of you everywhere?
• Joshua already betrayed the USA, but they still allow him to ride along with Alphie? Come on...

I understand it's sci-fi, but there were far too many inconsistencies that I struggled to suspend my disbelief for most of it.

 

[ÆMNE22A!C]

I did watch it. I was also disappointed with it.
I've already shared my thoughts on the film in another thread, so I'll quote myself:

Great analysis A++

Totally agree with everything.

Thanks for sharing Mortal.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Barbie

Was not too keen on seeing this until I heard some praise here and there… So I thought I’d give it a go.

Well, I dunno what I was expecting but I basically got what I originally thought I would. Hollywood, is it so hard to make a feminist movie WITHOUT taking a shit on motherhood and men in general? Can’t a women be strong without a man being weak/retard at the same time? I don’t get it. Midway through I actually thought this movie would come around and give a message of equality after all but nope… What a shitshow… But then again, it’s Hollywood. Why should their messaging in 2024 be any different than in macho movies of the 80s. Shameful just that people buy into this shit not realizing they’re being played. Or maybe they do and just don’t give a damn because now the roles are reversed.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

John Wick 4

I don’t know what is happening with the movies I watch….

Taken not as part of the JW world this is a super fun, competent movie, with some incredible imagery (these blacks in 4K blu-ray must be insane).

On the other hand as compared to other movies, especially the original it seems the punch is lost the more bloated the movies become.

Some plot points are stupid or downright silly:
Everyone is talking about rules but then Marquis can just send everyone after John to make sure he doesn’t make it in time for a duel?
At some point they have to switch to original languages, and then back to English - just silly and unnecessary.
The scenes in Paris are downright silly for someone that lives there: bunch of dudes with a huge table will close down Trocadéro to talk (closing Opera Garnier and Louvre is more probable)? John goes out of the metro at Place de Varsovie when he can grab it easily all the way to Montmartre?

8/10 as a standalone, 5/10 as part of the series.