‘It Ends With Us’, The Instigators’, ‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ | Movie Review

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4) — Will Blake Lively unseat her husband’s Marvel film, or will you be staying home to check out the new Batman animated series? ABC4’s Film Critic Patrick Beatty is here to tell us what to see and what to skip.

It Ends With Us

“It Ends With Us” is a romantic drama based on the best-selling novel by Colleen Hoover. Blake Lively plays Lily Bloom, a florist opening up her first shop in Boston who falls in love with Ryle, a neurosurgeon who seems like the perfect guy.

Lily had grown up in an abusive household, and trauma bonded with a homeless boy Atlas who dreams of a life outside of their town. As an adult, Lily bumps into Atlas again and all of the old feelings come to the surface, but Ryle’s abusive tendencies are becoming too common, and Lily will have to choose whether she tolerates it, or moves on.

This is an earnest look into what abuse can be in relationships. Whether it’s parents or spouses, the insidiousness of abuse comes from the subtlety and nuance that are only covered on the surface in this story. I believe the relationships and thought the acting was done well, particularly the actress who plays the young Lily Bloom, Isabela Ferrer. Some incredibly powerful and thought-provoking moments only work on one level, but the story doesn’t delve deep enough into them and I wish it did.

Overall, this is one that book lovers will enjoy seeing, but I had some major issues with how they handled the ending and the clunky dialogue throughout. If you never knew about this, you won’t miss much.

See It or Skip It? See It For The Fans

The Instigators

In “The Instigators”, Matt Damon plays Rory, a depressed father close to killing himself. His therapist, played by Hong Chou, is trying to help him see the value in himself and his life, but he decides to do a robbery to help pay for his family’s future.

He meets Cobby (Casey Affleck) at the heist meeting, where they will be stealing money from a wealthy and corrupt politician (Ron Perlman). When the heist goes bad, and Rory’s therapist gets caught in the middle of the chaos, these two will have to settle their differences if they want to get the money out.

Doug Liman is an incredible director, and we see this a lot with the action sequences here. I love the car chases, and how suspenseful they end up being. There’s some good chemistry with all the lead actors and they are acting their roles well, but the issues mostly stem from a somewhat uninteresting plot that doesn’t kick into high gear.

This is a film you can have playing in the background and still be entertained. Is it worth a theater ticket? Probably not, but it is definitely worth checking out once it comes to Apple TV+.

See it or Skip it? See It On Streaming

Batman: Caped Crusader

Out on Prime Video now is the new reimagining of Batman in an animated series brought to us by “Batman: The Animated Series” creator Bruce Timm. In this, we see a return to an old detective era, and Gotham is shown as a 1920s pigstye. I loved how they brought a new visual palette to the Batman universe and setting it in an earlier time period works great for true detective stories.

The long list of Batman villains return, but with new looks, and altered origins that feel fresh but continue to honor the legacy these characters bring with them. I’m very sad the late and great Kevin Conroy was unable to be a part of this show, but Hamish Linklater takes on the impossible task with his own interpretation that again, pays tribute to the old while bringing in the new.

The only issue with “Caped Crusader” is that there are just not enough episodes. I wish they were able to continue the 20+ episode seasons, or at least 15, because some of the stories could have used more time to breathe. There are a couple of moments that I feel are ignored that I feel are important, hopefully, we will see those come to light in the next season. Overall, this is a See It.

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Note: See It or Skip It is proudly owned and produced by Patrick Beatty. ABC4 is a broadcast partner, but the show, its content, and opinions are independently created.