Bloodshot (2020)

Leigh Whannell's Upgrade took the done-to-death Robocop/Venom story (a killed cop or war hero or aggrieved boyfriend is resurrected with super-enhancements) and brought it back to high-octane life, so it's possible, but Bloodshot, this big screen launch of a Valiant extended universe, tries to tell the same story, throwing in some memory manipulation stuff, but this turns Vin Diesel's Bloodshot into a hard-to-care-about automaton and turns the villain into a kind of Kermit the Frog, a beset "memory" theatre show producer - in a movie that feels more dated than 1987's Robocop with a seen-it-all-before male notion of cool (slow-motion swaggering and Blue Steel pouts as the superhumans disperse smoke grenades and slam fists into concrete), delivered with scenes of tired universe-building exposition, some not very Marvel-lous attempts at humour, in cheap-looking studio lots or against lifeless cgi backdrops.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

The Iron Giant (1999)

A giant robot descends from the sky and befriends a boy in this delightful animated movie, Brad Bird's directorial debut, with a story a little bit like E.T. crossed with the 50s paranoia of, say, The Day The Earth Stood Still; it is a largely hand-drawn boys-own adventure and a refreshing break from the computer-generated polish of the Pixar-dominated contemporary animated film world.

★★★★☆

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Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

The Star Wars prequels (Episodes 1 to 3) would have benefitted from some of the sass and verve, humour and energy that this space adventure has packed into its two hours, with Chris Pratt the unlikely Skywalker space pirate teaming up with Yoda raccoons and Jar Jar Binks trees to save the universe from some kind of Vader light sabre glowing Death Star thing.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS