Sci-Fi – Movie Meister Reviews

October 10, 2025 leebutler Action, Review, Sci-Fi, Thriller

M3GAN 2.0 (2025) – She’ll Be Back

Released: 26th July
Seen: 8th October

In 2023, the world was introduced to a dancing robot who killed people and her name was M3GAN. It’s kind of wild how much of a global phenomenon this little doll became, but she was everywhere. She pretty much instantly gained icon status and became a camp superstar; people dressed like her for Halloween, and everyone was excited for more adventures with this murderbot. All this is especially surprising when you consider that M3GAN was released in January, which is notorious for being a dumping ground for movies, particularly those in the horror genre. It was such a great film that I put it at number 7 on my Best list that year, and I’m not the only one who put it up on that pedestal. M3GAN was pretty much guaranteed a sequel the second opening weekend finished, and now 2 years later, M3GAN 2.0 has graced us with its presence, and while I’m not going to pretend it’s bad, it’s certainly nothing like I expected.

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October 2, 2025 leebutler Horror, Review, Sci-Fi, Thriller

War Of The Worlds (2025) – War Is Hell!

Released: 30th July
Seen: 30th September

In recent years, a new genre called “Screenlife” has grown in popularity, resulting in films like Missing, Searching and Host where all the action takes place on a computer screen. When done right, it can be a truly fascinating way to tell a story, allowing the viewer to jump from video calls to emails, and even see messages being typed and deleted, giving a glimpse into a character’s mind. It’s simple, effective and genuinely a versatile way of making a film… however, when done badly, you get something like War of the Worlds, a contender for every “Worst of 2025” list that you’ll see in a few months.

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July 17, 2025July 17, 2025 leebutler Action, Adventure, Review, Sci-Fi

Superman (2025) – Doing Good

Released: 10th July
Seen: 16th July

Superman info

An image of the Superman poster on the left sidem, on the right the information "Directed and written by James Gunn" and "Starring: David Corenswet, Nicholas Hoult, Rachel Brosnahan"

Now that it’s officially over, we can admit that the DCEU was an interesting experiment that went off the rails almost instantly. A franchise born out of an attempt to play catch-up to Marvel, it tried to be the alternative to the MCU in every way. If Marvel was bright and colourful, the DCEU was dark and dour. If the MCU took its time to build up to major events, the DCEU would do major event films pretty much right away and fill in the blanks afterwards. If the MCU was good, the DCEU was… bad, for the most part. That entire franchise was bad, and one of the elements that will probably age the worst in hindsight was its portrayal of the big Blue Boy Scout, Superman. Don’t get me wrong, Henry Cavill was a pretty great embodiment of what a superhero should look like in terms of physical mass, but there was something that always felt like it was missing from the character, a specific trait that made Superman an icon that has lasted for nearly a century… kindness. The DCEU seemed devoid of the notion of kindness and light, and thus it felt like Superman was just flat out wrong. Well, now DC is under new movie management and to restart the cinematic universe, James Gunn has brought us a brand new Superman and remembered to stop and pick up a little bit of kindness on the way.

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April 22, 2025 leebutler Horror, Review, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Companion (2025) – Hearty

Released: 30th January
Seen: 21st April

One of the best things in a good horror film is a twist, a moment when the narrative takes a sharp left-hand turn out of seemingly nowhere and takes the audience on a thrill ride. There’s been a few recent horror films that have been spectacular at this, things like Barbarian where it set itself up as a film about two people stuck in an Airbnb overnight and ended up being one of the most demented films of the year or The Perfection which took the concept of a ‘twist” and dialled it up to 11 to see just how many twists it could fit into 90 minutes without the audience losing its mind. Today’s film, Companion, is a terrifically twisted take on the romance film that takes a few big swings and mostly makes them work.

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March 19, 2025 leebutler Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Netflix, Review, Sci-Fi

The Electric State (2025) – Shockingly Bland

Released: 14th March
Seen: 16th March

In the last few decades, filmmaking has gotten more expensive. It was not that long ago that the idea of spending even $50 million on a single film sounded insane, now you’re lucky to find a film that costs under $100 million that isn’t an indie film. According to Wikipedia, there are 89 films that (adjusted for inflation) cost over $200 million and only six of those films are pre-2000. This is a crisis state that’s setting up films to fail and put hardworking filmmakers out of jobs and it doesn’t help when a film that costs $320 million to produce is as meaningless and forgettable and undoubtedly financially devastating as The Electric State.

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February 22, 2025 leebutler Action, Adventure, Review, Sci-Fi

Captain America: Brave New World (2025) – Brave And The Bold Choice

Released: 13th February
Seen: 16th February

In 2018, Thanos snapped his fingers and destroyed half of the universe. By doing so, he simultaneously created a point we could mark as the peak of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the gift of time, we can pretty much state that Phase Three (AKA the era between Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Far From Home) has been the best phase of the MCU, but its absolute peak can pretty much be pinpointed to Infinity War and Endgame, two films that felt like the end of a cinematic crescendo that had been building for a decade up to that point. They were great movies, truly proof of what this genre could be like at its absolute best and probably one of the dumbest moves that Marvel made in terms of story because the problem is that once you hit a high like that, what happens afterwards?

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January 12, 2025 leebutler Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Family, Netflix, Review, Sci-Fi

Vengeance Most Fowl (2025) – Splendid

Released: 3rd January
Seen: 5th January

Wallace & Gromit Vengeance Most Fowl INformation

In 1989 the world was introduced to a lovable cheese-obsessed inventor named Wallace and his silent sentient super-smart dog named Gromit in the Oscar-nominated short film A Grand Adventure. Little did anyone know at the time that they had created a pair of cultural icons who would go on to be a major part of British pop culture for the next 35 years and counting. The charming little claymation characters and their somehow both subdued and wacky adventures would end up being the stars of a well known trilogy of shorts that included The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave (the last two getting Oscars) and eventually made their way to the big screen with the 2005 film The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit. It’s been almost 20 years since then and apart from one more short it’s been very quiet for Wallace & Gromit but now they’re back with their new film Vengeance Most Fowl and once again they’ve proven that charm and a little bit of clay is a match made in heaven.

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September 21, 2023 leebutler Action, Adventure, Review, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Blue Beetle (2023) – Delightful

IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Released: 14th September
Seen: 19th September

The DCEU is dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of its burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourners who continually scream for the Snyderverse to be revived. It is dead and will have its final death rattle later in the year when Aquaman 2 comes out before all the toys are thrown out and we restart this experiment again with a brand new man in charge of everything. Perhaps that well-known death of the franchise explains why Blue Beetle will soon be limping past the finish line just barely making its production budget back… which is a massive shame because Blue Beetle is absolutely awesome from start to finish.

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May 20, 2022July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Moonfall (2022) – Eclipsed

Released: 3rd February
Seen: 19th May

Back in the late 90s, one of the biggest names in Blockbusters was Roland Emmerich. The man made Independence Day, a film that not only showed that there was a new master of the blockbuster but also made so much goddamn money. Independence Day was the highest-grossing film of 1996, its visuals are some of the most remembered images from 90s cinema (the shot of a single beam of light destroying the White House alone is etched into the memory of everyone who was around in 1996) and it basically elevated Will Smith into a global cinematic phenomenon… yeah, Roland Emmerich kinda fluked it with that film because he’s really never been that good since, and Moonfall is just proof that he needs a new schtick.

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May 19, 2022July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Firestarter (2022) – Fizzles

Released: 12th May
Seen: 17th May

In 1980, Stephen King released his eighth book, Firestarter, which did what most King books tend to do and became a major hit. As is also inevitable with all King books, it was adapted into a film back in 1984… this would be an adaptation that Stephen King hates, only unlike his hatred for The Shining he wouldn’t be alone in his dislike of 1984’s Firestarter.

That film was fairly universally panned by both critics and audiences and remains one of the lesser adaptations of Kings work, which means it’s one of the few works of his that probably warrants a second attempt at adapting since they clearly didn’t get it right the first time… so, see you all in about 40 years when they try again because they didn’t get it right this time either.

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