The opening day screening I went to of this well-promoted, well-reviewed, big budget film was at was in a giant theater but I was literally the only person in the room, which boads very poorly for the movie industry as we know it. A lot of the movies I see these days I'm the only one in the theater. It's sort of surreal.
If you're someone who gave up on big dumb franchise action movies long ago and can't imagine you'd ever like one again the movie's probably not for you. It's only "amazing" in as much as it succeeds at actually doing what it set out to do well, which is rare in the genre, but it won't win over people who are just done with the genre period.
If you are someone like me who keeps giving big dumb franchise action movies a try off and on, even though they almost always let you down, because you hope they might be enjoyable dumb fare, and maybe even kind of good, this is that mythical unicorn you've been hunting. It delivers.
Bonus points for having a comedy sidekick and an animal companion who are fun rather than annoying and remind you why filmmakers keep attempting these tropes. I'll probably go see it again in a week or two.
Note that I have an unlimited movie pass subscription at my local multiplex chain, so the economics of me going to see something in the theaters are atypical, and my ambient level of frustration is thus lower than the typical budget-conscious movie goer. Due to missing the standard showing I was coming for I had to see this one in 3d, and while that was really cool for about three shots of the film it made a lot of other shots have needlessly blurry parts and was not worth the $3 upcharge.
