Kaka

A nicely civil detective story with a hero who surprisingly doesn't fight, shoot, or make cool jokes, and yet for two hours the viewer is quite entertained by a solid plot, good actors, and a decent script. A smart crime drama with an easy-to-grasp plot premise where someone has done something in an unassuming small town and an uninvited guest in the form of Eric Bana must find out who, what, how among the old-timers – something like Prisoners, mixed Hell or High Water. Similarly grounded and relatively raw, but unlike the two aforementioned hits, here the individual props and directorial handwriting are not quite up to scratch.

100 percent Malick. Slow, thoughtful, philosophical. The way of the warrior without fighting – well, at least outwardly. A spiritual film that is harmed in places by over-exposure and appalling length, but it's another one of Terrence Mallck's messages that are certainly not for everyone, but it will find its fans. A film where there are more nature sounds than movie noises.

Guardians of the Galaxy had more heart, better jokes, and a story that went somewhere and fit into its universe, Suicide Squad is a bunch of weirdos who don't fit in anywhere. Yes, it can’t be taken seriously, and some of the jokes and winks are exceedingly subtle, but it won't suit everyone. If someone had told me it was Guy Ritchie's side-kick on drugs, I might have believed them, but it wouldn't have changed my rating at all.

The alternative approach failed grossly. Loki is overwrought, disjointed, muddled, cheap-looking in places, with action on the level of 1990s pop culture TV flicks. The seemingly super-clever script is a patchwork of everything that has been better executed in other Marvel movies, with more emotional barrage. Instead of a fearsome villain, Loki is a soulless figure jumping from one meaningless world to another. Nothing holds together, nothing makes any sense and nothing matters to the viewer. I finished watching it only out of respect for the now classic films, otherwise it's a turn off in the middle.

And there was be no meaningful finale, unfortunately.

A total dud and a road to hell. Unless the last episode comes out with some completely transcendent and disarming finale, explaining this whole mess full of weird monsters, time jumping, alternate realities and an unconventional love story, or at least a hint of it, it can't be considered anything but a sophisticated comic parody, unfortunately probably unintended.

It's an interesting psychological game. The viewer has no idea how and why, but this episode is entertaining.

A real-time documentary odyssey about aging and dying in an uncompromising performance by a controversial filmmaker who isn't afraid to push the envelope and doesn't flinch at moments when others would be cutting and turning their cameras away so that the viewer has to "guess" the rest. Gaspar Noe conveys a complex experience in a different style that suits some, while others will walk out during the screening. Vortex is not about seeing it more than once, it's about experiencing it in the cinema just once, even though it's very difficult, even unbearable at times.

Woody Allen French style. A little less chatty and funny, but more fragile, romantic and thoughtful. In both cases, though, it's a terrific mix of cinematic entertainment and life wisdom about relationships since the world as we know it.

A retro intimate alternative to Michael Bay's The Island, but Without the monstrous budget, cool set pieces and train axles flying down the highway. Never Let Me Go is a slow, seemingly ordinary romantic film with an uncompromising dose of the raw reality of an alternate version of the present world where the basic rules of medicine and human life are, in some fundamental ways, constructed very differently. The sad violins work, the pensive glances into the sunsets also work and so do the inner monologues. A smart and aware film that drags a bit in the middle, but the final 20 minutes are a reliable wrap-up and a confirmation that this is something you won't soon forget.