I HAVE TO SAY…

Below is a slightly edited version of the podcast episode. You can listen to the full episode above, by clicking play, or listening wherever you get your podcasts.

Today, I have to say…I want to be a hater. 

Though I’m all for spreading positivity, I think that negativity has a place too. You can’t have sunshine without the rain, and all that. Today, let’s get into five movies that I love to hate.

These are movies that I hate but I just couldn’t stop watching. Movies that I like to bring up, just so I can talk about what I didn’t like about them. Though for some of them, if you catch me on a good day, I would consider them a guilty pleasure. There’s a fine line between love and hate after all. 

The Flash (2023)

The Flash starring Ezra Miller came out in 2023. On Rotten tomatoes, it has an 62% critics score and an 81% audience score at the time that I’m recording this.

This movie has blaring controversy attached to it, with Ezra Miller being the lead and not being recast even with their alleged grooming and other alleged situations along those lines.

And to be honest, the fact that they weren’t recast affected how I walked away from the movie. It wasn’t something I could get past because of some of the jokes the movie portrays.

There’s a scene where The Flash is catching falling babies out of a hospital that had blown up, and it just didn’t land for me at all. I didn’t think it was even a little funny, and when he put one of the babies in the microwave, I was turned all the way off. I really hated it. I still hate it. I don’t understand the sense of humor and given who the person who did that is, I found it extra unfunny. 

That aside though, I think the movie was fine. It was engaging. It was appropriately humorous for the most part, aside from when it was trying too hard to be funny. The slow mo was well used, and I enjoyed the story being told.

And then in the last five minutes of the movie, the progress and the character growth was completely unraveled by the actions of Barry, and it made me feel like I wasted my time. Like why did we sit through all of that, how did he go through all of that, eventually accepting the past for what it was, just to not learn their lesson and do it all over again?

Overall though, I think DC fans would like this movie. I don’t hate it as much as I hate the other movies on the list, but I do think what I hate about this movie was an easy fix and it’s disappointing the studio refused to make that change.

Black Adam (2022)

Black Adam, released in 2022, starring Dwayne The Rock Johnson is a movie that I genuinely liked when it first came out, though I’ve always acknowledged it’s not really a good movie…but as I have continued to explain my love for it, and as I’ve rewatched it since the first time, I’ve grown up a little, okay? 

On Rotten Tomatoes, at the time I’m writing and recording this, the critics gave Black Adam a 39% and the audience gave it a 87%.

The movie is really not good, no matter how much I wish it was or how hard I pretend it is. Although on a good day, I will sit down and watch it with enthusiasm. 

There’s too much going on in this movie.

We have the son and mother duo who live in an occupied state and are on the search for an archaic object and during the hunt for it, the lead awakens the slumbering Black Adam who then proceeds to kill everyone that he can and it just happens that everyone he kills are members of Intergang, which is the criminal organization that is occupying the state.

The Justice Society led by Hawkman also makes an appearance in this movie, trying to stop Black Adam.

At the same time, the leads are trying to deal with the occupation of their state by Intergang.

All of this fit into one movie resulted in a lot of disjointed plotlines that were forced to fit together, ultimately cracking the integrity of the movie…and what’s disappointing about that is that there is potential here.

There’s themes around revolutions and freedom and a loose idea that people are the result of their environment. That “getting over” the past isn’t quite as simple as that, but the movie has too many heroes in an unproductive way.

Black Adam is fighting the Justice Society who is trying to protect the citizens and let’s be real, they were trying to protect their own interests. But Black Adam is also working with this family (a mother, her son, and her brother) and out of nowhere starts to care about them because of some cheesy dialogue and reasons that aren’t explained but are needed to move the story forward.

And then we get action sequences from the Justice Society to provide humor that isn’t actually needed. And we get action scenes of them saving people, and I guess we see them doing it because Black Adam couldn’t…because he’s not a hero yet?

I don’t know…I think the problem is that they made Black Adam an anti-hero when he should’ve been a villain. If they were set on making Black Adam an anti-hero, at the very least they should’ve reduced the Justice Society’s roles down, though I did laugh at how campy their scenes and the writing were. They also introduced a spark between two of the Justice Society members, which was so unnecessary and added nothing into the plot, and it was somehow also unexamined at the same time…but I digress.

And you know what I just remembered that pissed me off about the movie. One of the characters of the Justice Society passes away and it just felt completely avoidable…like I’m talking the writers in the writing room did not have to write it like that, at all.

And this indirectly leads me to my biggest gripe with this movie, which is that there is no real backstory or depth within this story or the characters. We’re introduced to these characters and are thrown into their current situations and are expected to just get on board without any reasons for why we should care or be invested, which made that death feel even more…I don’t want to say undeserved, but when you think about how Tony Stark went, we had years building up to that moment so it felt…like you felt something…um. Maybe I’m biased because I am an Iron Man fan, but even if you weren’t, I feel like you would still feel something. But…because we didn’t know these characters, it just felt even more like… “Okay, we’re just doing anything here.”

Black Adam’s character is the one who gets the most backstory, and though I found it interesting, it didn’t do much for me with how it fit into the rest of the story. It felt like two different stories were being told, and the only connections were half baked parallels.

And then, Black Adam had sudden character development that came out of nowhere, and he honestly didn’t even sacrifice or go through anything in the present day to get the ending that he got.

And then on top of that there’s an even bigger bad than the immortal Black Adam.

The movie just has an identity crisis, wanting to center Black Adam, who is technically a villain, but give him an unexamined redemption arc. But he’s also not the main villain or the main hero…the movie really needed to do a better job with the world building and the explanation of the characters and it needed to have a better focus on the story that it wanted to tell instead of forcing a few different storylines to fit together because in my opinion…ultimately, it doesn’t work.

Don’t get me wrong, the movie is entertaining and as someone who waffles between loving and hating this movie, I get why the audience score is high, though I still think 87% is very generous.

So, believe it or not, I don’t know if I hate to love Black Adam or love to hate it, but I do know it’s not great and I can’t recommend this movie, in good faith. 

Mercy (2026)

Mercy (2026) stars Chris Pratt and is about a man who gets arrested for the murder of his ex-wife and is on trial with an AI judge.

Anyone who is guilty above a certain threshold, I believe it’s 80% guilty, automatically goes on trial with the AI judge. The person gets strapped to a chair and has a certain amount of time to explain their case on why they’re innocent, and if they can’t get the AI judge to lower their likelihood of being guilty, they will be executed by an injection.

On Rotten Tomatoes, this movie has a 25% critics score and a 82% audience score.

Not gonna lie, the idea of it interested me because unfortunately I can see our reality going into this direction one day if the AI bubble doesn’t burst. But from the trailer, I had alarm bells going off. I was interested to see how the movie would play out and curious about if there were going to be lessons or commentary about AI in it.

So I turned it on, found out that Chris Pratt’s character is a cop…and more alarm bells were ringing.

To be completely honest, the whole time I watched the movie, I was wondering what the point of the movie was, and I don’t mean there was no plot, because there is a plot. I just felt like there was an ulterior motive with the messages the movie is trying to tell and the whole time I was watching it, I was trying to see through whatever it was it was attempting to say because it was clear to me it was eventually going to say something.

As I’m about to stop bracing myself, thinking that  I’m in the clear and this is just typical copaganda, nothing out of the ordinary or to be alarmed about in the US… and actually, the movie is actually shocking me with the direction it goes in…but then the final line of the movie is said, and I wish I continued bracing myself. 

Let me back up for a second though. If it’s not clear, the entire movie Chris Pratt’s character is in a chair with access to an AI judge who has access to the world. At this point, the world is basically a surveillance state and it’s required that every system goes through the same network otherwise it’s considered illegal if that makes sense…at least that’s how I understood it.

So the judge can pull up phone logs, cameras, and call people on a whim, who are required to answer because the government is calling them and provide anything that you say that you need to solve the case. In theory, you would have the resources you need to be able to defend yourself, except there is one glaring piece of information that has bothered me about this entire movie.

And, it’s not the fact that this could’ve been poetic justice in a way, since the character who is in the chair and is hours away from being injected to his death created this system in the first place.

It’s the fact that he is a cop! Throughout the movie, he’s able to call his partner and ask her to walk around the crime scene so he can see what’s going on. He’s able to mobilize the police force to track down suspects so he can personally interrogate them. And he’s also an officer, so he’s used to high pressure situations and knows what to look for when solving a case.

I want to know if the average person can find success in a situation like that. What is their experience like in the chair?

The mystery though was interesting. Watching him solve it, getting more into his backstory and even the action that occurred did have me locked in.

The body count on this movie was ridiculous. The amount of destruction and casualties rivaled a superhero movie for almost no reason, and the movie does parallel scenes from other action movies.

And another thing! At some point, the AI starts to sympathize with the main character which, for storytelling purposes whatever, but emotions are quite literally the reason this whole AI judge system was put into place. Humans are emotional and make mistakes and the AI is supposed to be logical and free of error, but the movie proves that that’s not the case?

And then something happens that further proves that the system of having an AI judge is flawed because it has its own blind spots. AI and technology 101, a system can only be as good as its coding and if its coder has blind spots, those blind spots can be coded into the AI, but that’s besides the point.

Though it wasn’t 100% the AI’s fault, the AI didn’t even consider what the truth was to be a possibility, and someone innocent was executed and that’s the problem. That’s another flaw in the AI’s design.

And you know how this movie ended?!

With the lead character saying, “You know, sometimes humans and AI get it wrong.”

Are you kidding me?????

It pissed me off so bad because why would that be the conclusion after everything that happened?

I’m honestly still mad about it because if that stupid ass line wasn’t in the movie, I would actually like it and maybe recommend it in good fath.

So yeah, I will hate on this movie when an opportunity presents itself because for that to be the ending was so lackluster and clearly indicative of the fact that people know AI isn’t perfect and don’t care, and want people to “get over it” and “suck it up” even though the whole premise of using the AI is that it’s supposed to be damn-near perfect. It definitely shouldn’t result in people’s deaths.

So…I think if you can see through propaganda, it’s a fun time if you just accept it for what it is, but I fear for the ones who cannot because I truly don’t want people thinking AI making mistakes leading to someone’s death is okay. Even if it’s just one person.

Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

Fantastic Four: First Steps came out in 2025, starring Pedro Pascal among others. It has an 86% critics score and a 90% audience score [on Rotten Tomatoes].

When it was first announced that we were getting a Fantastic Four movie, I was excited because it’s been years since the one with Jessica Alba and Chris Evans came out. And actually we had one with Miles Teller and Michael B Jordan that came out in 2015 and that one was just…so anticlimactic…so yeah. It was time for a relaunch in my opinion.

But from the first trailer, something about it had me uneasy…I didn’t like that the vibe was somehow simultaneously futuristic but also gave 60s vibes. I wanted to see it in theatres, but I wasn’t in a rush to, and because of conflicts and hearing other people’s reactions, I ended up waiting to watch it once it streamed.

And I didn’t like it! I hate to say it, but I really didn’t like the movie at all. Visually there were some stunning shots, the acting was great, as expected, but storywise, it really fell flat for me and I wish I had the same experience that everyone else had.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s on the episode for a reason, because I’m not shameful in the fact that I hated it, but from what I’ve seen it’s an unpopular opinion.

First off, I really really think that this should’ve been an origin story. I hate that it wasn’t an origin story, and I know that origin stories get tired, but I think it was fitting for this one to get one since it’d been 10 years since the last “Fantastic Four” project.

Not being an origin story aside, to me, there was just something missing in this movie. 

There wasn’t really chemistry between the leads and though they talked like they knew each other for a long time, I didn’t feel it and it’s because they glazed over so much of it. 

The pacing of the movie was also off. We had moments where a lot was going on followed by moments that were pretty slow paced and then things would speed up again, and I just found it to be boring, despite all of that.

There’s a few storylines going on with the baby and then Johnny Storm trying to crack a code, and the introduction of the Silver Surfer…

My brother also pointed out that Ben’s character has a random crush that isn’t explored much and we don’t see much of the issues he has with being The Thing.

And in my opinion, a lot of these characters fall flat. There are pockets of humor, like most Marvel movies have, but underneath that, we don’t get to know these characters. I’m sure you know what I’m going to say, but the reason why the characters fall flat for me is because we didn’t get a true origin story! 

Like with Black Adam, in this movie stakes were established and you either have to get on board or get left behind, and I was left behind. I just found the movie to be dull despite how colorful the scenes are. 

My brother said he thinks that he realized he doesn’t really like Fantastic Four characters because The Incredibles do it better, and I’m starting to think he’s on to something.

But my biggest gripe with this movie is the ending, (I think I’m sensing a theme here) because when Susan is able to save her baby through sheer force and the power of being a mother, I just….eh…

And I get it. Motherhood brings out adrenaline. Loving a child is powerful, I get it.

But in this movie, it had my alarm bells ringing (again) and I just didn’t find it to be as revolutionary or groundbreaking as other people did, especially now, in a time when women’s rights are being stripped and abortion access is being taken away.

Maybe I’m too woke, but I don’t care, it really rubbed me the wrong way and I feel crazy that I haven’t seen anyone else comment on it.

Maybe on a rewatch, I’ll feel differently, but something about it that’s hard for me to articulate threw me off…I really just think it’s the idea that women have to be superwomen too. She’s not the only person with powers, there’s a literal man made of rocks, but she is the only one who is strong enough and capable of saving her child? She has to do the labor of it? Sacrifice her body and her life? I don’t know…

I wish I liked this movie more than I do, but I really hate it! And I think it’s because my expectations were too high based on other people’s reactions. So it might be irrational of me, but I blame public opinion for why I hate this movie. Because I think if i went in with different expectations, I wouldn’t have been so…dissatisfied with what it ended up being.

Materialists (2025)

Materialists, starring Pedro Pascal, Chris Evans, and Dakota Johnson came out in 2025. It got a 78% critics score and a 66% audience score.

I saw this movie on streaming and had already heard that it was “broke boy propaganda”, but I was curious and wanted to see it for myself to see if I would feel the same way.

And I hated this movie as much as I’ve heard other people do!

It’s just…I’m not a fan of one of the lead’s acting and though I understand this character was supposed to be stiff and clinical and cold, the acting didn’t do it for me.

But it wasn’t just the acting. I think that the message the movie tried to tell could’ve been achieved in a different way,

I know that money isn’t everything and relationships do require a level of compromise and elements of conceding sometimes, but I think that point would’ve landed better if I actually felt like the two who end up together should’ve ended up together.

With romance movies or movies with heavy elements of romance, you have to leave the reader or viewer or whatever rooting for the couple to end up together, or at least be invested in the story of if they end up together and Materialist didn’t do that for me.

Choosing to go after your dreams, even if it means you earn less money is fine just as chasing after money is fine, but if you’re trying to make a relationship work with someone who fundamentally values the opposite of what you value, it’s just not going to work because of love and willpower. 

I didn’t believe that the two who ended up together actually had chemistry and I didn’t believe that they would overcome their differences. It wasn’t just a communication breakdown or an argument or something that is fixable that happened between them.

They have two different interests and two different lifestyles and I just don’t see how it could work or why she made the choice that she did. It would’ve been more compelling if they all ended up alone to be honest.

And I know that this is a commentary about dating culture these days. That people are so caught up in the idea of something vs. the reality of it. That people are looking to check boxes etc. etc. but it didn’t land for me. 

Though this movie is an original concept, this story has been told before and I really think it would’ve been more endearing if the characters themselves were more likeable. Maybe the point is that they’re unlikeable, it is called “materialists” after all, but it just further convinced me they all would’ve been better off doing some self reflection.

And to stress, my problem with this movie isn’t that she chose the man with less money. I think the “broke boy” allegations are a little cynical and I don’t see this movie being that in the way other people have talked about.

But my problem is that the love story itself was unconvincing (and I think because it’s unconvincing, it sparked” broke boy” propaganda allegations) and I think all of this is because of the writing…

The quote people pull out from this movie is “When I see your face, I see wrinkles. Grey hair. And children that look like you. I can’t help it.” And it doesn’t do it for me…yeah he’s envisioning forever. Yeah he’s envisioning a family, but I just…it doesn’t do it for me.

And then in the rest of the speech, he lists all of the reasons the shouldn’t be together, staying on theme because the reasons are materialistic, but I don’t remember if in that speech or throughout the movie we get any swoony speeches detailing how much he loves her, how much he’ll do anything for her or anything like that…and if there was a scene like that, it didn’t stand out to me because I don’t remember it.

And then, there’s a subplot following the main female character’s career as a matchmaker and how one of her clients was being harassed with someone she was set up with. And I get it was meant to further the narrative that you can’t use statistics and methodical approaches as a way of knowing someone’s character. That even people who look good on paper can be horrible people, and it is a reality that women dating face…but it didn’t really move me…

I think it’s fair to say that I genuinely hate this movie and mourn what it could’ve been.

That’s all I got for you today. Thank you for reading!

Next week I’m planning to talk about how Social Media and Fandoms are Ruining TV. I might just focus on reality tv. I might be talking about tv in general, but we’ll see.

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