Mini Movie Reviews: May 2025
- Matt Quill
- May 25
- 8 min read
Updated: Jun 18
A quick rundown of my thoughts on the movies I've seen throughout May 2025
Title: Until Dawn
Plot
One year after her sister's disappearance, Clover (Ella Rubin) and her friends find themselves trapped in a horror-filled time loop with new monstrosities visiting each night. Their only chance of survival is making it through the night alive.
Despite being an adaptation of Supermassive Games' PlayStation horror title of the same name, Until Dawn is a fresh story, set within the same world.
Pleasingly enough, Until Dawn wastes little time getting you into the action. Introducing its cast of characters and their ties to each other early on, before pinning them down, and the blood-drenched deaths start flowing. The characters themselves are a strong enough group, with enough about them to keep you invested and hoping they survive their unfortunate ordeal.
The nightmares themselves are diverse enough, with a good helping of gruesome kills and rather tense scenes scattered throughout. It feels like a more horror-focused mash-up of Happy Death Day meets Cabin in the Woods (Though not quite as good).
There are a few inconsistencies within the rules the film establishes, and the tease of how this haunted location will affect people is never fully explored as much as you'd hope. The variety of horrors does a good job of keeping tensions high, but some deaths feel much more horrifying, whilst others start to feel corny in comparison, although, to be fair, they never feel out of place.
Until Dawn is a fun but flawed horror romp. The interchanging horrors keep things fresh, with a good amount of tension and fear packed in. Despite the entertaining premise and scares, the film's reveals and reasoning left me underwhelmed and wanting more.
Title: Thunderbolts*
Plot
After a group of mercenaries stumble into a trap, they decide to team up to tackle a greater mission.
Since Avengers: Endgame, Marvel has been on a bit of a quality rollercoaster, dropping new series and movies aplenty to middling results. Does Thunderbolts*, like Shang-Chi and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, deliver a good time? Or is this cobbled-together team-up another misfire?
Much like the Guardians of the Galaxy started, Thunderbolts* is also a collection of Antihero rejects, this time collected from other Marvel projects you may have forgotten, like Yelena (Florence Pugh) and Red Guardian (David Harbour) of Black Widow, U.S Agent (Wyatt Russell) and Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, as well as Ghost (Ava Starr), last seen in 2018's Ant-Man and the Wasp.
It probably isn't many Marvel fans' go-to choices for a new team, but together, these mercenaries form one compelling team. There's plenty of distrust within the group, with conflict and jokes that help you warm to the crew rather quickly.
Yelena acts as the narrative's central anchor and makes for a compelling lead. New addition Bob (Lewis Pullman) is also an excellent addition to the MCU. Red Guardian is also a welcome return, dishing out fatherly wisdom, whilst living his best life, showcasing his heroism and delivering many of the film's best jokes.
The film is paced really well, and the muted colour palette mirrors the film's themes. The action is pretty good too, with well-choreographed fights and skirmishes. The finale goes for a more personal climax instead of going the typical big spectacle showdown, and the film is all the better for it.
Though I still wish I'd have gotten to see Ghost and U.S Agent's characters explored more, they are present enough, getting involved in their fair share of action, emotion and jokes. Yelena is a great character choice to lead the film, and her conflicted mind echoes many of the group's thoughts.
Saying Thunderbolts* is Marvel's best film since Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 feels like a disservice. This team-up of Marvel Antiheroes works surprisingly well, and it's a more emotionally wrought journey than many might expect. It delivers on everything you've come to love with the best of Marvel, from enticing fights, funny moments and great characters. Thunderbolts* casts the limelight on many of the MCU's forgotten members and shows us how great their characters can be when backed with a great story and the right company.
Title: Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning
Plot
The Entity, a God-like AI, threatens to wipe out the human race, but is this threat one mission too far for Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF crew?
"I'm starting to think these missions are fairly possible." That's the running joke we all know and love about Tom Cruise's ongoing Mission: Impossible series. Despite being on the eighth film in the series, adrenaline junkie Cruise continues to raise the stakes, bringing bigger action and more adrenaline to our cinema screens with each outing.
The Final Reckoning serves as Part 2 to the previous (and excellent) Dead Reckoning, but also acts as a closing chapter to the long-running action series. Picking up mere months after the end of Dead Reckoning, the ante has been upped with the Entity now threatening nuclear decimation and the ticking clock set just days away from the end of humanity.
As you'd expect, the film is packed with action, and for a film clocking in just shy of 2 hours and 50 minutes, it rarely takes its foot off the accelerator. Keeping the adrenaline high while taking time to keep tensions high and the clock ticking down to the last second.
The established team return to the action alongside Hunt (Cruise) with Benji (Simon Pegg), Grace (Hayley Atwell), Luther (Ving Rhames), and the addition of the last movie's assassin, Paris (Pom Klementieff), joining forces to help thwart their greatest threat yet. The group dynamic still works well, and Pegg helps add some laughs to the show, but this is still primarily the Ethan Hunt show and (fittingly) swansong. Featuring plenty of previous movie montages and flashbacks (Though perhaps a little more than is needed), as it tries to tie together the previous films, with Mission: Impossible 3 being connected more to the plot than you may expect. Other connections are also made, but lack the pay-off I think they intended. It's not a choice that harms the film in any way, but it also doesn't add much to it either, outside of being a nod to missions past.
Alongside Cruise, the real stars of the show are the stunts, and just as you'd expect, Final Reckoning delivers the goods by the spade full with two rather amazing set pieces involving a submarine and a bi-plane sky battle that will have you jaw-dropped, on the edge of your seat as the chaos unfolds.
Although the complete package may not be as thrilling as Dead Reckoning, The Final Reckoning still delivers one hell of a conclusion to a long-standing action series. Backed by astounding set pieces, a strong narrative and adrenaline-pumping action to keep you satisfied throughout the long run time. If this truly is the series send-off, then it's one great way to bow out.
Title: Final Destination: Bloodlines
Plot
When a recurring nightmare haunts Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), she returns home to find answers, only to discover that Death is more closely connected to her family than expected.
When Final Destination was released in 2000, there wouldn't have been many people who predicted the series would go on to become a recognised horror franchise, spawning a sixth film 25 years later.
Famed for its creative and elaborate deaths, Final Destination Bloodlines doesn't stray from that core idea, dishing out guts and gore by the bucket load.
Bloodlines starts very strong with an opening disaster inside a high-rise restaurant, which delivers the death spectacle you know and love as it buckles you in for the death ride you're about to embark on.
The story is effectively straightforward with Stefani discovering her family should never have existed after her Grandmother escaped death, with Death on the hunt to claim each member of her bloodline.
The main family are pretty great and bounces off each other well, with Erik (Richard Harmon) helping lighten the mood and delivering a good amount of laughs in between Death's gruesome escapades.
Just like people go to Mission: Impossible for the stunts, people go to Final Destination for the creative deaths, and Bloodlines doesn't fall short in that category either. There is plenty to satisfy your blood-craving itch as people are killed in unthinkable ways, whilst still keeping its lighter tone intact.
Because Death can be anywhere, Bloodlines does a great job of creating a tense atmosphere throughout, making small things like walking through a revolving door a tense affair. Because of that fear running throughout, when Death finally does come knocking, the events that unfold are horrifically captivating in the best way.
Final Destination Bloodlines is a surprisingly good time. It's a simple yet captivating horror experience that delivers exactly what you expect. Running at a (literal) breakneck pace, backed by a perfect on-the-nose soundtrack, and dropping some great deaths to rival the series' best. Bloodlines is a pretty damn great experience you shouldn't pass up.
Title: Lilo & Stitch
Plot
After genetic alien superweapon Stitch (Chris Sanders) escapes custody and crash-lands on Earth, it forms an unlikely bond with a lonely young island girl called Lilo (Maia Kealoha).
Since 2015, Disney has released just shy of 20 live-action remakes of their beloved classic animations. Lilo & Stitch is the latest in that venture, and whilst I enjoyed the animated feature back in the day, it never became a staple in my life the way it did to so many others. Is this retelling a trip worth taking? Or is it another live-action rehash that's best avoided?
For those unaware, Stitch, also known as 'Experiment 626', crash-lands in Hawaii and poses as a dog to a local village girl and her sister to avoid capture from galactic authorities.
This time around, the focus is put more on the sister's relationship with Lilo's older sister Nani (Sydney Agudong), doing all she can to take care of her younger sister in light of their parents' death. It's not a big change, but shifting their relationship to be the central point is a good choice, and it helps add a deeper emotional connection to the film.
The real draw of the film is the ever-cuddly and mischievous Stitch, and he's just as chaotically cute as you'd hope, reliving the best antics from the animated classic, but truly shines when paired with the brilliant Lilo (Maia Kealoha) as they help each other grow and inevitably create plenty of havoc.
That's not to say the film isn't without its faults, a few people with miss the inclusion of dropped side characters like Captain Gantu, but I understand the choice to help streamline the Galactic council plot. The bigger upset comes with the third act, causing the film to lose a lot of its steam as everything comes to a head, whilst some moments that pull on your heartstrings seem to be lacking, making them feel more like a feeble pinch than the emotional punch they should be.
Lilo & Stitch is at its best when it focuses on the family heart of its film, with Lilo & Stitch shining whenever they share the screen together. It slows down a bit in the third act, but still provides a lot of laughs and emotion before that. It may not overshadow the animated classic, but it's still a good time that's bound to open the gate for a new wave of Stitch lovers.
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