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This reboot is a great example of how you can remake a classic with everything looking great on paper... You can have a bunch of elements that sound like they'll be great... But you still need the magic ingredient: that magical x factor that somehow pulls it all together and elevates the project to something truly great. It's the difference between a bunch of mashed up ideas and components and a singular vision that captures an audience and stands the test of time. Conan 2011 is missing that magic. And it shows. In every aspect, this movies compares unfavourably to the original 1982 film.

Perhaps most notable is the score and sound design. You don't realize how much these matter, until you feel the difference they make. The original had a soaring, thundering score. It was full of pounding drums, and dramatic horns that heralded the coming of something epic. The minute the opening narration came on and was followed by that score you knew you were in for a ride! It set the tone for Conan the barbarian of 1982 to become a cultural sensation, a true fantasy epic! Instead, 2011 we get a generic, throw away score, the places this film is a firmly mid rate action adventure film of the era that easily gets lost amid countless other titles released around the same time. You never really feel like you're watching Conan... You just feel like you're watching... some movie. Any movie.

And the sound design is no better. Over exaggerated splattering and cracking sounds that make me feel like I'm watching something cheap and gimmicky. The original was full of down to earth old school sound effects. The loud swoosh of a sword. The muddled thud of that blade impacting leather armor and flesh.

And this really is a good summary of how the films compare in other ways. The original had less elaborate fight choreography, but the fights felt more kinetic and impactful. The original had to rely on practical effects and the limitations of old school filmmaking. Yet the effects that they got onto the screen hold up even today pretty well. Whereas the 2011 release is full of glossy video game CGI that already looks very dated after just a little over a decade.

Even the acting and performances... Arnold was never known as being a particularly good actor, but I have to say I really like his Conan. It has a fitting personality. Jason Momoa's Conan? ... I have no idea WHO this character is, BUT HE DOESN'T FEEL LIKE CONAN. Now I don't know as to what a comic or Robert E Howard accurate version of the character should be like... But personally I would have preferred something closer to Khal Drogo and less like the generic protagonist we got here. There were a few decent to good performances in this film, but nothing as close to the iconic Thulsa Doom provided to us courtesy of James Earl Jones, nor do we get a heroin on par with Valeria. Even the side characters were better in the original. Better written and better portrayed. Even Conan the Destroyer had much better characters... Who can forget the likes of Zula, Bambata, Akiro, or the comic relief of Malak?

It's not a complete failure of imagination... Steven Lang tries... But he doesn't have much to work with like he did in Avatar to make a compelling villain. The character of Marique is... Unique and interesting, but written inconsistently, coming off at times equally as silly as she is disconcerting.

Probably the best thing this film has going for it is the violence. There's plenty of blood. A good amount of gore. And several eye-winsing moments. The original had to work within the limits of censorship at the time, even being r-rated. And the sequel managed to score a PG rating while still including some toned down blood and action compared to the original. But in 2011 almost anything goes... Sadly CGI blood and gore makes it feel more like an installment in the Final Destination franchise than brutal sword and sorcery. The animated series Primal does a better job summoning the spirit of Conan than this movie... At least for me and my tastes.

I didn't know this was possible. An X-Men franchise film that is equal parts Dark Knight, District 9 , and classic Western. And it works. So well.

These are top tier performances from all on screen. Jackman, Stewart, and one of the best child actor roles ever put to film. The concept here is so bold. The execution so precise and quality. The spectacle of an "R rated super hero movie" isn't wasted. It used to fill effect. Not for shock, but to tell the story in a way that couldn't have been done justice otherwise.

This film made me angry. Why? Why. Couldn't all the X-Men movies have been treated with such reverence and respect? Why couldn't they all have had such gritter kinetic action sequences? Why couldn't they all have had such depth?

It took nearly 14 years, but a legitimately good X-Men movie finally graced the screen. While the first three movies seem to be in competition to create the worst superhero movie ever (hard to beat the original, although Last Stand does come really close), things started to turn a corner with the Wolverine Movies and First Class.

While the Wolverine movies were far from great, they did feature entertaining action, a fair number of laughs, and enough character-building to hold up without scrutiny. The dialogue also may not have been great, but at least lacked any cringe inducing lines for which the original trilogy are notorious (Wolverine manages to make it the entire film without Hugh Jackman being forced to ask Victor "do you know what happens to a sabertooth that gets stabbed by adamantium claws, bub?") The results? Movies that my family found "watchable" and "not too bad". High praise compared to the "how much longer is this going to last" questions we literally found ourselves asking in the originals.

But, First Class was something... different. Not great, no, but also not bad at all. Uneven, for sure, and still having some corny moments, but the main characters and action were reasonably.... Pretty good. We also liked how they took a prequel and intertwined it with real historical events (the Cuban Missile Crisis). Interesting, and orders of magnitude better than anything X-related we'd seen up until then.

Days of Future Past takes everything that was good about First Class and dials it up, while taking everything that wasn't as good and, if not eliminating them entirely, mitigating them substantially.

The acting is... actually pretty good throughout, with some really good performances from Jackman, Fassbender, Lawrence, and McAvoy, as expected. But also improved performances from Stewart, McKellen, and Page, despite playing much diminished supporting roles. And Dinklage? Of course his performance is a good as it could have been, given what he had to work with for the character. Expected nothing less from him, so no surprise there, but also could have been better utilized and given some more prominent lines. His exchange with Nixon is the highlight and hit just as hard as it needed to.

Oh. Yeah, Nixon is in this! Following the original story of Days of Future Past from the comics, the team is trying to prevent a dystopian future (heavily influenced by the Terminator storyline). In this adaptation, we have Wolverine's consciousness being projected back in time, rather than physically traveling through time. Back to the 1970's, in fact, just as the Vietnam War is wrapping up, but also apparently when an assassination sets into motion the events that lead to the war between humans and mutants and the robot sentinels that eventually take over. Where was this sentinel program in the original trilogy timeline, you ask? The answer is: don't ask. Continuity across films here is far from perfect.

But that's OK. Because there are way more historical connections for your brain to identify and appreciate, and distract from those pesky connections to the rest of the series. Look, if you can overlook "Victor" and "Sabertooth" being different characters, then you can't complain about convenient plot devices that, you know, heal spinal injuries but somehow suppress mutant powers. Everything from Nixon, to the Kennedy Assassination, to the fashion and feel of the 70's are there for nostalgia and antiquarians alike to chew on.

But what the movie does do fairly well, in spite of those obvious continuity problems, is to nevertheless connect itself to the original trilogy, the Wolverine spinoffs, and to its sister film First Class. We not only get to see both cast members on the screen, but even some nice play back and forth between the different versions of the characters. Including one particular scene in which we get to have a direct exchange between Stewart and McAvoy where both really do their best work in the series to date. Nice.

The finale's action is suitably epic, but without the "army of CGI baddies" that its spiritual cousins in the MCU loves to rely upon. Instead, we get a few 1970's era sentinels, a tense assault/standoff dynamic, a real spotlight on the best on-screen version of Magneto we've seen BY FAR up to this point, and a touching and character-based emotional climax rather than one based on pure action.

Is it perfect? No. But the imperfections here do feel like things this film was married to thanks to the earlier films, more than the fault of the film itself. Of course they have to show some stupid-looking or cheesy mutants. Of course they just can't figure out how to write Storm's character... so she's just, you know, there, with barely a line. Of course Bobby isn't a good character. Of course there are more characters in the future than they are able to get us to care about (or even give us names for... comic/cartoon fans will know, but the rest of the audience will be like "OK, I see... 'fire guy' and 'portal girl' and ... ugh, oh the metal guys from the earlier films, who was he again?").

But, hey. This movie doesn't have to be perfect. It's a masterpiece simply by being what no other title in this franchise has managed to be thus far: actually, legitimately GOOD. Not just enjoyable for what it is, not just "not bad" or "PRETTY good", but GOOD. And I could see myself possibly upping that to "really" good in the future, assuming it ages well for me. But for now, this is more than enough. Well written dialogue, witty one-liners that actually land rather than backfiring and inducing eye rolls, effective balance of humor and action, a real doubling down on the dramatic elements, and a story that's both good in concept and in practice... It's leaving me with a lasting good feeling that I was able to get this far in my binge of the franchise (in release order).

... of course, that could get diminished down the road here, because I've still got Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix to sit through. This is like getting the 7th course of a meal where the first 3 courses were inedible, the next too just meh, and the 6th course pretty good, but finally something that's really good... but knowing you've still got dessert coming up, and that "squid ink ice cream" got called out on the Yelp reviews you've read as something you know you're not looking forward to. Well, at least there's still Deadpool!