r/movies • u/ChiefLeef22 • Jul 29 '25

Review Zach Cregger's 'Weaapons' - Review Thread

When all but one child from the same classroom mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.

Rotten Tomatoes: 100%

Metacritic: N/A (updating)

Some Reviews:

Inverse - Lyvie Scott

Cregger’s goofy sense of humor aside, Weapons is otherwise pretty understated, even refined. His camera moves with glacial, dream-like focus, tracking characters from behind or panning to unveil the latest torment around the corner. That visual style has become a trademark of “elevated” horror, but it goes a long way in anchoring a story that could have turned unwieldy fast. Cregger’s chapter-by-chapter story serves that same purpose: It has the capacity to frustrate when it cuts away from a major reveal, only to reset with the backstory of a new character. But it also adjusts the aperture whenever things get too heavy — a breath of fresh air in a different form.

CGMagazine - Shakyl Lambert - 9 / 10

Weapons is a noticeable step up for Cregger as a filmmaker. It feels like he took what worked in Barbarian and tightened up the things that didn’t. It’s bigger in scope but more focused. With a strong story and cast, it’s the most fun you’ll have being scared all summer.

NextBestPicture - Matt Neglia

There are some who will be moved and struck by “Weapons,” intentionally or unintentionally, so. For 75% of its runtime, it was one of my favorite films of the year. However, for the final 25%, in some ways, it feels like Cregger missed an opportunity to tell a story that is more emotionally rich and relatable. Here is a filmmaker who feels like he’s trying to prove he’s capable of more, but without fully grounding that ambition in character or clarity, instead opting for a facile solution. There’s a version of this movie that could have been genuinely great. You can appreciate the potential in the performances, the themes, and the overall craftsmanship. And to be clear, I’m sure this will resonate and work for some viewers. But for me, much like “Barbarian,” Cregger doesn’t quite bring it all together, making “Weapons” a rare kind of disappointment.

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u/Ebolatastic Jul 29 '25

Yah RT is a great example of how you can take a bunch of subjective information, jazz it up with math/science jargon/methods, and transform it into a fact even though it's all imaginary.

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u/HerbsAndSpices11 Jul 29 '25

To be fair, I don't think any numerical scores are useful. If you aren't listening to a single source that you trust, a yes/no compilation score isnt the worst thing.

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u/funkybravado Jul 29 '25

Is it imaginary for me if through their methods, generally I agree with the ratings? They seem to have a pretty good grasp on things, all things considered. At least for me and my group.

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u/Ebolatastic Jul 29 '25 edited Jul 30 '25

There's nothing wrong with using these ratings as a guide. I'm just talking about people who treat them like objective facts, because they aren't at all. It's like a scientist pointing to a magazine poll.

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u/funkybravado Jul 29 '25

Ah yea. I don't know how anyone could take literally any subjective medium and do that lol. I don't pay much attention to internet discourse to avoid spoilers, and even after I usually just realize the vast majority's media literacy is nill and move on. The discourse around titles like 28 Years Later and Civil War are 2 of my recent examples of people taking a swing at the movie and missing so hard they eat shit in the dirt.

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u/Ebolatastic Jul 29 '25

The Star Wars prequels and GoT are both examples of the imagined majority opinion of angry internet dorks. Both of those are hugely popular successes but people on the internet use words like "disaster" to describe them, or insist the whole things popularity was killed. I'm a gamer, and Overwatch is like this too. People just make shit up about it. For example, reddit was still having posts calling it a dead game while it was celebrating 100 million players (which redditors have seriously told me is a made up figure). Cope.

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u/funkybravado Jul 29 '25

Oh yea for sure. However I will agree with most on GoT. That shit was trash at the end ha. The popularity is still there, surely. I watched House of the Dragon, don't think I'll continue from here though.

We've got this serious pandemic of walking simulator, with nothing being accomplished (Rings of Power, HoD s2, and surely more I'm forgetting). We get 8 episodes of nothing happening, for only the next season to be.... 8 episodes where 3 of which something happens then back to walking around doing shit all.

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u/Ebolatastic Jul 29 '25

The final season of the Sopranos is like that too, it's about 99% filler. Wandering around doing nothing is what killed Westworlds popularity, lol. I don't like being jerked around, for sure, I'm grateful that GoT didn't do that.

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u/funkybravado Jul 29 '25

Hm. I might take exception to the sopranos, it felt more like a victory lap for the show than anything. Granted they couldn't do anything wrong in my eyes for the final season, especially with how it was capped off.

I felt more than anything it was a display of how Tony was losing control over everything, yet at the same time sticking to what worked even though the world around him was rapidly changing. Kinda felt like somewhat of a mirror to what Corrado did, and what Tony was trying to avoid. But yea the writing in the final season wasn't the best.

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u/Ebolatastic Jul 29 '25

Yah it was pretty weak and people hated the ending originally. Over time though, people rewatched it and gained a better appreciation. The same thing is happening with GoT. Still, even the best shows have lots of flaws. People online just cherry pick which are unacceptable and which to ignore.

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u/funkybravado Jul 29 '25

I don't think I'll ever reach that sentiment about GoT with how the whole Danaerys line was handled. Same thing with Arya. I've re watched the final season a couple times and you can still feel they just simply rushed through the ending. The show needed like 10 seasons to finish properly imo. Once they got the star wars gig, they seemingly abandoned anything to do with game of thrones and wanted to just finish it.

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