leebutler Action, Adventure, Animation, Family, Fantasy, Mystery, Review

Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender (2026) – Bent

Released: 25th July
Seen: 3rd August

From 2005 to 2008, the animated TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender was released to massive love and acclaim. It was a huge hit series, widely considered one of the best animated series of all time and spawned countless imitators. It also has spawned a stunning amount of attempted reboots, from the successful follow-ups like The Legend of Korra to the much less successful (indeed, downright hated) live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender movie made by M. Night Shyamalan and the middling live-action series that’s been rated as “Fine” by most critics. It seems obvious to anyone looking at this that the franchise is at its best and most loved when animated. Of course, eventually they were going to probably do something to follow up the adventures of Aang the Avatar and so we got Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, a perfectly fine animated movie that fans are gonna love… which is all it had to do, I guess.

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leebutler Action, Adventure, Review, Sci-Fi

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) – Incredible

Released: 30th July
Seen: 1st August

It’s been 5 years since we last saw Spider-Man in the cinema and boy, it set a high bar. Spider-Man: No Way Home was an undeniable highlight of the post-Endgame MCU era, not only for its ability to weave nostalgia for previous iterations into a truly compelling narrative, but also for being a gut-punch of a film that shifted the course of the franchise. It absolutely changed how Spider-Man was dealt with in this universe due to the world-changing final moments where Dr Strange made everyone forget who Peter Parker was in order to save the world. Personally, I put the film in my top 10 list of that year and I still think Willem Dafoe’s return to the Green Goblin role should’ve gotten him an Oscar nomination (Just saying, he would’ve been a far better nomination than JK Simmons for Being the Ricardos). Any follow up film that Spider-Man had was going to have a lot to live up on not only a narrative level but an emotional one. Fortunately, Spider-Man: Brand New Day manages to meet the standard set by the previous movie in a truly fascinating and compelling way.

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leebutler Adventure, Comedy, Review, Sci-Fi

Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie (2026) – The Review

Released: 20th February
Seen: 29th July

From 2007 to 2009, Nirvana The Band The Show was uploaded to the internet (No relation to the band that gave us Smells Like Teen Spirit; that’s kinda the joke). There were 11 episodes spanning between 10 and 20 minutes, and it must’ve been popular because a decade later Nirvanna The Band The Show (Spelled with two ‘n’s from here on out, another one of their more subtle jokes) would turn into a full-on sitcom lasting for 2 seasons. The whole thing is a bit of a cult hit and I will admit I’d never even heard of it before this film came into my life so if you’re looking for information on if this is a good adaptation of the TV series then you’re not going to get that information here. I can’t compare and can’t even find a legally available copy to watch (because copyright law is totally well thought out and shouldn’t be changed at all /s). Fortunately, I don’t think you really need to have watched the TV series to appreciate Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie because it’s good enough to stand on its own.

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leebutler Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Review, Sci-Fi

Mortal Kombat II (2026) – Round 2, FIGHT!

Released: 8th May
Seen: 28th July

In 2021, a new adaptation of the video game Mortal Kombat came out. While its release was mildly hampered due to the pandemic (it was delayed and then released simultaneously in cinemas and on HBO Max because of that plague we all lived through and seem to want to pretend didn’t happen), the film did well enough and got moderately good reviews. I enjoyed it well enough but found it to be a little bit of a lore dump overstuffed with exposition that no one actually gives a fuck about because, while the lore of Mortal Kombat is surely fascinating, it’s not the thing that anyone really remembers about that franchise. The big thing was that we didn’t get to enjoy the tournament-style fights that the game franchise was known for and that felt like a big mistake… Well, Mortal Kombat II clearly heard everyone saying how much they wanted the tournament and decided to give us exactly that, and it’s a better movie because of it.

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leebutler Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Review, Sci-Fi

Masters Of The Universe (2026) – IT HAS THE POWER!!

Released: 10th July
Seen: 26th July

The history of He-Man begins in 1982 with the release of the first toy line which was a massive hit. The toys came out with a mini comic attached that gave some backstory that would then explode with the release of the He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe cartoon series which was basically just a glorified toy advertisement but a toy advertisement that was insanely popular and would become a touchstone of 80s kids entertainment. It was the kind of series that was so undeniably huge that it had to be turned into a film at some point, which it was in 1987. That film was something of an infamous bomb, though like a lot of weird 80s movies that were attached to nostalgic properties it became a bit of a cult hit. After that movie it seemed like the Masters of the Universe were relegated to being occasionally rebooted in animated form but wouldn’t get another crack at being a movie until 2026 when Masters of the Universe came out and also bombed… which sucks because it’s actually amazing.

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leebutler Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Review

The Magic Faraway Tree (2026) – Whimsical

Released: 23rd March
Seen: 23rd July

Enid Blyton might be one of the most prolific authors in history, if we are to believe she wrote everything accredited to her (there’s controversy on that, but that’s for someone else to address). Between 1922 and her death in 1968, she is the credited author of 762 books which include such beloved series as the Magic Wishing Chair, Noddy and The Magic Faraway Tree. The Magic Faraway Tree is particularly memorable to people of my age (my guess is specifically those who lived in Australia and Britain) thanks to a short-lived TV series The Magic of the Faraway Tree, based on the books with one of the most strangely memorable theme tunes from the era. It’s one of those stories that feels like it was always destined to be a charming feel-good children’s film if they ever got around to making one… well, they got around to it and lo and behold, it does exactly what you would want such a film to do.

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leebutler Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Review

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) – Player 2

Released: 1st April
Seen: 20th July

In 2023, Mario and Luigi made their grand transition from the world of video games to the world of animated films. The Super Mario Bros. Movie came out to massive fanfare, becoming the second-highest-grossing film worldwide of 2023 (just behind Barbie) and it basically proved that you could take this 40-year-old game series and make a film out of it that wasn’t an instant joke. The delightful bright coloured world of the Mushroom Kingdom was so enjoyable and inviting that it really shouldn’t have shocked anyone that it would go on to make over a billion dollars and, once it made that billion, it shouldn’t have been a shock that a sequel would be announced. Now we have The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and while it might not be as delightful as the film that came before it, it’s still a lot of fun.

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leebutler Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Review, Romance

The Odyssey (2026) – Let’s Do The Odyssey

Released: 9th April
Seen: 20th July

In the 8th century BC, Homer wrote the epic poem The Odyssey. The poem spanned over 12,000 lines and told the story of a warrior trying to make his way back home, a story that would go on to be one of the most adapted tales in history. It’s been told as a straight-up epic, an opera, a crime comedy by the Coen brothers, a futuristic animated cartoon, if you can think of a way for someone to retell the story of The Odyssey, it’s probably been done. Probably the obvious way to tell the story is as the grandiose epic, after all an epic poem deserves an epic adaptation and this one has already had a few of those before… but until now, it hasn’t been thrown into the hands of a cinematic icon like Christopher Nolan who seems to revel in proving to the world that he’s one of the greatest filmmakers of all damn time.

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leebutler Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Review, Sci-Fi

Project Hail Mary (2026) – Rocks

Released: 19th March
Seen: 1st July

One of the most beloved stories that cinema keeps going back to is “Man interacts with aliens”. It’s a time-tested story that allows for so many variations, from the whimsical wonder of ET to the nightmarish horror of The Thing, cinema has run the gamut of ways to show a human having to deal with a creature from another planet, figure out how to communicate with said creature and either save or destroy it. It’s been done so many times that we’re almost out of new alien designs that we can use before repeating ourselves. So one would think that another film about a human going to space and spending the entire time interacting with an alien would feel at least a little rote, a little repetitive… somehow, Project Hail Mary manages to feel fresh while also being charming as all hell.

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leebutler Action, Adventure, Drama, Review, Sci-Fi

Supergirl (2026) – Averagegirl

Released: 25th June
Seen: 25th June

Roughly one year ago, Superman returned to us. After the absolute disaster that was the DCU, we were given a Superman who cares and there was much rejoicing. It was a genuinely charming movie with one of the best Superman actors we’ve had since the Christopher Reeve-era and I do not say that lightly. I named that film the second best film of 2025 and the performance of Superman was my third favourite performance in that same year. It was a genuinely great work of art that showed that there was space in the modern era for a kinder sweeter Superman. The ending of that film had a brief moment for Supergirl (Milly Alcock) who came to collect her dog Krypto and showed that this universe’s Supergirl was a bit of a drunken disaster who we would eventually get to spend an entire movie following. It was exciting, it seemed like it should be fun and now that film has come out and… it’s OK, it’s a genuinely OK movie but it should be so much better than OK.

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