(The following review is spoiler-free)

There’s something to be said for a franchise entry that doesn’t play it safe. Considering how many sequels and reboots are greenlit solely for brand recognition or continued recognition, an installment that actually tries to re-envision its source material and add new twists to its story deserves some commendation. On that level, let’s give Terminator Genisys its dues. The movie contains plenty of twists and surprises (many of which were ruined by the trailers) that offset the conventions of the series, and it acts as both a continuation and a new entry point for the franchise.

Unfortunately, most of my praise ends there. The plot, which follows JJ Abrams’ Star Trek by being both a reboot and a sequel, is woefully convoluted and never fully explained. Unlike Star Trek, which has had a mostly-linear continuity and was not significantly affected by time-travel before the Abrams films, the Terminator films are already burdened with a complicated (and, if we’re being honest, inconsistent and illogical) history of time-fuckery. By adding yet another layer of time-travel complications and alternate timelines onto a series with already-questionable continuity, the inconsistencies in time-travel logic and the overt complexity of the plot proves too much to handle.

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(This review covers both parts of the Mockingjay film adaptation. It does contain spoilers)

The Hunger Games series proves that the book isn’t always better. By removing all of the inner-monologues and allowing Jennifer Lawrence to imbue Katniss with a sense of gravity and maturity that her written character lacks, the films present a more consistent portrayal of their world. As they continue, they become more confident in changing details and expanding on the universe. While Catching Fire gives us some glimpses behind the curtains to see what the Capitol is up to, Mockingjay Part 1 benefits the most from this change-of-perspective.

Mockingjay was by far my least favorite of the books. If I were to choose one reason, it’s that it’s a story about a wide-scale conflict told entirely from the perspective of a character who is not especially involved. Because Katniss is relegated to creating propaganda for the war and rarely in the field actually fighting, most of the successes and failures of the war effort are relayed to her by other characters, bypassing the most significant drama of the series. Instead, we’re left with Katniss constantly mulling over her feelings for Gale and Peeta while the actual culmination of the series occurs off-page.

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(This review is split into two halves. The first section is spoiler-free. Then, below, I will delve into some specifics for those who have seen the film)

SPECTRE is a continuation of the look, feel, and character-centric storytelling present in Skyfall, and on that level, it is a roaring success. Everything from the stunts to the cinematography to the editing to the set pieces are terrific, some of the very best in the series. Despite its 2 hour and 30 minute runtime (long even for a franchise that is notorious for 2-hour-plus entries), SPECTRE flies by, never feeling like it’s wasting your time.

But before we start talking in-depth about all that SPECTRE does right, the elephant in the room needs to be acknowledged: yes, SPECTRE has some narrative issues. As I’ll go into further below in my “Spoiler” section, quite a number of story elements don’t hold up to scrutiny. It’s not difficult to pick SPECTRE apart, as one plot hole or illogical plot string just leads to another, and soon the whole thing is unraveling like a ball of yarn. It can really make you wonder if the screenwriters were paying any attention to these issues at all.

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