Awake not Woke!

Since it's a completely different origin story with "character changes," I looked at it from "another universe in the multiverse" perspective: I kind of liked this movie when I watched it on TV when I was a teenager and kind of liked it. But now seeing it as an adult, I kind of get why many people didn't like it. Some acting & VFX/CGI scenes kind of look weird in some scenes. Kind of liked the dark aesthetic & little bit of body horror elements (obviously they didn't go far enough to actually make it feel disturbing; wish they would).

It's like a Korean Shyamalan movie

The beginning is really good and believable. The main character gets intrigued, then worried, then scared, and because of his fear, he becomes clumsy, makes mistakes, etc. Very believable human reaction to the threat. This is the only good thing I have to say about this movie. But then, it takes FOREVER for us to see the first monster. This is the main problem I had with the movie: everything takes FOREVER, and once something finally happens, it just keeps going on, and on, and on, until it quickly becomes either boring or annoying. Because of this problem, the OST has to keep repeating forever during many scenes, which becomes insanely annoying, too. When you finally see the first monster, wow! It looks so cool for the first five minutes, and then it magically starts looking like crap, as if an entirely different team took over the CGI or the budget was slashed halfway through the monster scene. It sucks, and every CGI effect from that point on sucks big time. And then comes the girlboss. Oh... my... f***ing God! Yes, the fearless, better-than-any-man, capable, ace-shooter, perfect-car-driver girlboss (seriously, make a drinking game out of every f***ing time she pulls off a perfect U-turn at full speed), etc. Of course, she has to be the one with the biggest gun in the whole movie (LOL), and... she NEVER shuts up! And by that, I mean she never stops yelling and screaming in the most annoying way possible. Seriously, her insufferable voice pierces your skull so badly that you'll want to kill yourself just to make it stop. Both the final sequence and the ending suck ass, too, more than you can imagine. I only watched this turd because I was completely fooled by the trailer. If you watched the trailer and you thought "wow, this looks good!", believe me, it ISN'T.

Typical road trip buddy comedy but without the comedy. Both the main male characters are rather unlikable and annoying. It's not too woke other than maybe some DEI. After 40 minutes and not a single laugh I didn't care to continue. Another one that's not so much a bad movie as it's just not for me.

Pre-Woke Era

It’s still subtly woke, but not offensively so. On the surface, there’s obvious anti-Christian, pro-Islam and pro-lgbt agenda. It exists in the movie, so I should mention it. Beneath the surface there is agenda that doesn’t slap you in the face like the previous elements but also exists. I leave that one for you to discern. If you supplant the film narrative with your own, you can insert your preferred world view and vilify whomever you wish. Is that woke then? Dunno. At least this film exists as a middle finger to the establishment regardless the party in power. It’s watchable. Entertaining. And subtly woke. Pretty bad ass too in an anti-hero sort of way. Not entirely shabby. Give it a look if you haven’t already.