It might not be Oscar-caliber cinema, and hardcore fans of the game with encyclopedic knowledge of the game may have a bone to pick, but it’s big and loud and gruesome and not afraid to have fun. The bar for video game movie sequels isn’t very high, but this one not only clears the bar, it twirls it around like a bo staff.

The Devil Wear Prada 2 plays the hits. It’s a glossy, charming, and razor-sharp follow-up to the beloved 2006 original.

The Sheep Detectives is a very sweet, and often quite moving, family comedy about grief and death. I know that sounds weird, but director Kyle Balda and screenwriter Craig Mazin are mostly successful at threading that needle, with the broad humor of some of the human characters being the film’s weakest aspect. The sheep characters Lily and Sebastian have compelling arcs that highlight the movie’s themes of acceptance and growth. As dark as the story can sometimes get, there’s still enough warmth and wit to make The Sheep Detectives appropriate for younger audiences.

Baltasar Kormákur delivers a compelling survival thriller with both Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton throwing themselves into their adversarial roles. Theron crafts a relatable and grounded performance bolstered with emotional sensitivity and physical prowess, while Taron Egerton proves his worth as a weirdly menacing antagonist. Immersively conceived and nerve-rackingly realized, Apex is a visually-commanding action film bursting with impressively dynamic stunt sequences.

Michael, or Bohemian Jacksody, is a film of listlessness and inhumanity that can’t help but suck the energy out of the room. No matter where you come down on Jackson as a person, this film is entirely the opposite of what he was, both as an iconic performer and a controversial tabloid figure. Who would have thought that such a carefully controlled, estate-permitted biopic might actually do more damage to an artist’s legacy by making him so uninteresting?

Riz Ahmed makes for a vigorous lead in Aneil Karia’s contemporary British-Indian Hamlet, which loses its emotional clarity beneath an intriguing exterior. Its use of silence and intimacy grants it a fascinating texture, but the film never challenges or re-invigorates Shakespeare’s greatest work, ensuring that it ends up somewhere in the middle of a lengthy pile of adaptations.

Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel deliver two brilliant, diametrically opposed performances in Steven Soderbergh’s gentle art world caper.

It’s the least Charli XCX movie yet, with her disappearing into her role so completely that it's often breathtaking to witness, but it's also the one that marks her arrival as an essential voice.

As ugly as it is amusing, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy takes the kind of tonal swings you rarely see from a Hollywood studio.

David Lowery’s latest is a visually fascinating chamber piece with great performances from Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel.

There are some funny lines peppered throughout, but more often than not, it feels like the easiest and most simplistic version of this story rather than going for something either truly darkly subversive or hitting the emotional heights it’s going for.

Though mostly played straight, Faces of Death has a wicked sense of humor that’s used in a commendable manner. It’s not overplayed, but always lurking under the surface, and it provides some of that aforementioned twisted fun.

Exit 8 can feel inspired, but only in fits and starts.

If you think ballerinas using their dance skills to fight and kill bad guys sounds fun, Pretty Lethal does deliver on its premise. However, it takes too long to get going, and is ultimately a somewhat amusing trifle instead of the more fun spectacle it could have been.

Led by immaculate performances, it’s one of the most delightfully nerve-wracking rabbit holes you’re likely to tumble down this year.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ditches an engaging story in favor of a pipe-bursting amount of Easter eggs, but that’s not an all-together bad thing.

Bob Odenkirk’s presence helps create a sense of gravitas even when the film is straightforward, adding soulful dimensions to a fairly simple character in whose hands guns and explosives are as much tools of violence as they are instruments of a righteousness long lost to moral compromise.

They Will Kill You is a modern action gem with a knockout leading performance by Zazie Beetz, who more than cements her status as a star of the genre we ought to see more of.

A tale of miserable spouses plotting each other’s demise, it doesn’t always work, but its action comedy stylings are enough to keep it entertaining even when it swerves into ugly excess or extraneous subplots.

The sequel to Bollywood’s biggest hit is bigger, longer, and just as vicious in its on-screen butchery, but has far less artistry and visceral allure. The continued spy-revenge saga runs a mind-numbing four hours, during which it sheds all semblance of human drama in favor of naked political propaganda that reveals the emperor has no clothes.

Project Hail Mary is a rollicking sci-fi blockbuster celebrating how much we can accomplish when we work together… and how much meet-cute mileage you can get out of watching Ryan Gosling befriend a rock alien for two and a half hours.

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is an agreeable, if unnecessary sequel which, through its larger scale, proves that less is often more.

Effectively moody, but disjointed and over-reliant on played-out horror audio gags, Undertone sounds better in concept than it plays on screen.

War Machine has just enough juice to prevent it from being a Snore Machine.

In depicting both Pagnol and Chomet’s search for authentic truths within their stylized works, it’s a perfect marriage of subject and form.

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man offers a no-frills wartime backdrop for Cillian Murphy to make a stirring return as Tommy Shelby, with Barry Keoghan standing toe-to-toe with his Irish compadre in a moving match-up. Serving up some dry humor with a few boisterous action set pieces and a thumping contemporary score to boot, director Tom Harper and writer Steven Knight don't color outside the box, which should please fans of the series.

Scream 7 packs in plenty of satisfying slasher action, and may even bring some lapsed fans back into the fold by focusing down the scope of that action after Scream 6, but the new ideas it does bring to the table are either too thin to fully explore or ill-advised enough to detract from the success the movie does find in playing the hits, the deep cuts, and the killer tracks.

Psycho Killer may "have a Hulk," but it's also a parade of missteps and missed opportunities.