Reconstruction

Moana is gorgeous to look at, but it's too faithful to the animated original's storyline (and even camera moves) to offer anything new to the tale. Catherine Laga'aia makes a great bright-eyed protagonist, but Dwayne Johnson can't nail the swaggering demigod Maui's charisma in live-action.

Who would have thought it, but the seventh movie in the Despicable Me franchise may be the best one yet, as Minions & Monsters uses those little banana-loving dudes to make an ode to early Hollywood and to the power of cinema and storytelling.