21st - went to see The Dive as part of Odeon’s Scream Unseen program. Main problem was that it wasn’t a horror film and, while going to see unknown films can often expose you to different films you might not have gone to, this just made me conclude that it isn’t a film I’d have gone to the cinema to watch or watch on telly even if the remote was broken and I couldn’t change the channel. It’s like a dull 127 Hours with too many forced errors and bad decisions. It looked beautiful though - an example of “every frame is a painting” but it wasn’t enough to save it.

31st - decided I might as well see Meg 2 as my friend I often go to the cinema with is on holiday and would prefer Blue Beetle. I was moderately entertained by the first one and this time it’s directed by Ben Wheatley whose films I have liked a lot although usually his more folk horror outings. Unfortunately, the scrip was laughably bad. It was like it was written by an AI trained purely on the Dictionary of Clichés. I can only assume the script, the bloodlessness (literally and metaphorically) and the broad acting were because they thought they had to bowdlerise the film to make it acceptable to the Chinese censors. The box office suggests it worked although it seems a bit condescending to the Chinese audience and pretty much anyone else who sat through it.