The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017)
Genre: Animation
Director: Charlie Bean, Paul Fischer
Voices of: Jackie Chan, Dave Franco, Fred Armisen, Justin Theroux, Olivia Munn, Michael Peña
Duration: 101 minutes
Class: U
KRS Releasing Ltd

The third instalment of The Lego Movie franchise is based on the Lego Ninjago toyline and is loosely based on the TV series.

Justin Theroux and Jackie Chan voice the evil and good forces in The Lego Ninjago Movie.

The film’s plot features a battle for Ninjago City. Young Master Builder Lloyd (Dave Franco), aka the Green Ninja, along with his friends, also secret ninja warriors, are called to action.

These include Kai, Master of Fire (Michael Peña); Jay, Master of Lightning (Kumail Nanjiani); Cole, Master of Earth (Fred Armisen); and Zane, Master of Ice (Zach Woods).

Led by Master Wu (voiced by Jackie Chan), they must defeat the evil warlord Garmadon (Justin Theroux), who also happens to be Lloyd's dad. Pitting father against son, the showdown tests these fierce modern-day ninjas as they learn to check their egos and pull together to unleash their inner power.

The film received mixed reviews.  The critics’ consensus on Rotten Tomatoes reads: “Despite ample charm and a few solid gags, The Lego Ninjago Movie suggests this franchise’s formula isn’t clicking like it used to.” Chris Agar of Screen Rant was quite unamused. He said: “The Lego Ninjago Movie is an underwhelming series instalment hamstrung by a thin script and weak characters that don’t leave much of an impact.”

However, the film went down quite well with other critics.

John Nugent of Empire magazine wrote: “Three films in and the Lego franchise remains hugely entertaining – though it could do with being less of a chip off the old block.”

And A.O. Scott of The New York Times commented: “The latest instalment in the nearly foolproof Lego movie franchise is a fast-moving mélange of brazen corporate promotion, winking pop-culture cleverness and earnest lesson-learning.”

Released in the US on September 22, the film has so far grossed $51.5 million in box office takings.

Ratings
IMDB: 6.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 53%
Empire: 3 stars

The Ritual (2017)
Genre: Horror
Director: David Bruckner
Starring: Rafe Spall, Robert James-Collier, Sam Troughton,  Paul Reid
Duration: 94 minutes
Class: 15
KRS Releasing Ltd

This adaptation of Adam Neville’s 2011 horror novel revolves around a college student named Luke (Rafe Spall) who is haunted by the death of a friend during a convenience store robbery in which he was too afraid to intervene.

Rafe Spall and his friends take a wrong turn in The Ritual.

To mark his passing, he and three friends go on a hiking holiday in Sweden.

When one of them sprains his ankle, the group takes a shortcut through a spooky forest, where very nasty supernatural things start to happen.

The film has received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the fact that even though the premise may not be ground-breaking, it feels  distinctly different to the Blair Witch movies, even though it involves lost campers and supernatural goings-on.

Dennis Harvey of Variety pins down the film’s success to director David Bruckner, who is here debuting his first solo directorial feature.

Harvey writes: “Though well cast and competently written, The Ritual  owes its primary effectiveness not so much to story or character per se as to the unsettling atmosphere Bruckner and company have eked out of the forest itself.”

Andy Lea of The Express also liked the film’s witty dialogue and likeable performances, while Wendy Ide of The Guardian described the film overall as an “enjoyable gory horror” and said that this “walk in the woods proves effectively scary”.

The film, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, was released in the UK on Friday the 13th, but it still has to open in major markets.

Ratings
IMDB: 6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 72%
Empire: 3 stars

Geostorm (2017)
Genre: Sci-fi thriller
Director: Dean Devlin
Starring: Abbie Cornish, Gerard Butler, Mare Winningham, Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Andy Garcia
Duration: 109 minutes
Class: 12A
KRS Releasing Ltd

Dean Devlin makes his feature film directorial debut with this disaster sci-fi action film.

The world is once again in peril in Geostorm.

After an unprecedented series of natural disasters threatened the planet, the world’s leaders had come together to create an intricate network of satellites to control the global climate and keep everyone safe. But now the system built to protect the earth is attacking it and a worldwide geostorm is expected to wipe out everything and everyone in its wake.

The film stars Gerard Butler as  a satellite designer, Abbie Cornish as a US secret service agent, Ed Harris as  US secretary of state and Andy Garcia as the US president.

The film is being released in the US and Malta on Friday.

Ratings
IMDB: 7.0/10
Rotten Tomatoes: N/A
Empire: N/A