DAVE MADE A MAZE (2017) is a whimsical adventure comedy about a frustrated artist who decides to build a cardboard maze in his living room, only to become trapped in it as it takes on a life of its own. When his girlfriend leads a rescue team into the maze, they discover it is far larger than they imagined, and it is alive. This was a fun movie that gets an A++ for childlike wonder and set design and a B for storytelling. The end result is fun if a little flat, but overall I liked it quite a bit.

There’s a great deal of inventiveness about this movie, from the fantastic design made out of cardboard and household objects to the booby traps that kill some of the maze’s visitors (who spurt confetti and wool instead of blood and guts) to the engaging scene that brought Dave and his girlfriend back together. There’s a lot of silliness to the character interactions, which you just run with as it’s part of the show. While I didn’t fall in love with the protagonist and his girlfriend, I was rooting for them–particularly Dave’s friend Gordon, who brought a lot of personality to the film.

There were some distracting elements, such as the documentary crew (some of Dave’s friends) who come along; the odd ending that doesn’t resolve much, outright abandons two characters, and leaves the maze’s effects permanent (belying the childlike fun that fuels the story atmosphere); and the lack of character development, as the solution to the maze is a reflection of the answer to Dave’s character flaw, though once it’s accomplished, aside from Dave’s relationship with his girlfriend, nothing much seems to have changed.

So while DAVE MADE A MAZE wasn’t as fulfilling nor deep as I’d hoped, it was a lot of fun, with some amazing visuals, loads of weirdness, and plenty of wonder. Overall a B+ for me.

MORTAL ENGINES (2018), based on the novel by Philip Reeve, rolls out like a Mad Max movie for the YA crowd. The film adaptation is fairly derivative of other films, but overall it worked for me. After reading bad reviews, I went into it with low expectations and had fun with it, hoping for another READY PLAYER ONE and getting something much tighter and emotionally engaging.

Hundreds of years after a fantastic weapon called Medusa destroyed civilization, the last cities are equipped with engines and treads and roam the earth competing for the last resources. This Darwinistic game is coming to a close as the big cities have gobbled up the smaller ones. To survive, London has come to mainland Europe in search of fresh hunting grounds.

When London devours a small mining town, Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar) boards the city and attempts to kill Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving at his Hugo Weaving best), an archaeologist working on a secret project involving old tech. After historian Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan) stops the assassination, he ends up stranded with her and learning about her past and reasons for wanting to stop Valentine, resulting in him joining forces with her.

I understand the movie is very different than the books, but it worked for me. The world building is pretty incredible, the action sequences are put together well, and the characters, while fairly lightly developed, are nonetheless engaging. Shrike, the last of the Lazarus Men, is actually more emotionally engaging than all the rest put together, he’s a great addition to the film. There were plenty of obvious jokes that fell flat for me (like statues of Minions being confused in a museum as ancient deities, and our current time being called the Screen Age), everything rolls out pretty much how you’d expect, it’s got a real YA bent, and it’s pretty derivative even for mainstream Hollywood, but in the end I didn’t care, I just enjoyed it for what it is. Overall, a B+ watch for me.

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS (2018) is an entertaining take on an interesting period of English history, in which both Scotland and England were ruled by strong women, Mary and Elizabeth. While every aspect of the film exudes competence from the settings and costumes to the cast (Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, Guy Pearce, Jack Lowden, etc.), there’s a lack of a transcendent story line that ties it all together, resulting in a film that moves in fits and starts.

In the 1500s, Henry VIII’s daughter Elizabeth I is queen of England, while Mary, who’d been wed to the French king, lives in France. When the king dies, she returns to Scotland to claim her throne. Through the bloodline, she actually has a strong claim to England’s throne as well. A Catholic taking the throne in Scotland causes turmoil, and if Mary were to become queen of England, it might provoke civil war. Meanwhile, both Mary and Elizabeth struggle as women in a masculine world, as marrying would mean surrendering independence and power.

The film offers quite a bit of promise in the cordial but strained relationship between these two monarchs, but much of the film deals with Mary struggling with consolidating power in Scotland. Everything works well for the viewer except after the terrific setup, the plot stumbles from one challenge to the next without a cohesive narrative tying it together. For me, this made MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS a pretty good, but not a great, movie. Overall, I give it a B+.