“MaXXXine” was one of the most anticipated movies of the summer- and it failed to live up to the hype. It’s the third installment in a trilogy directed by Ti West, and is meant to be a direct sequel to the first movie, “X”. While it has similar themes to “X” and the second movie of the trilogy, “Pearl”, it fails to capitalize on those themes and build an interesting story around them. ‘MaXXXine”, which is set in the 1980s, follows Maxine Minx, a former porn star who is trying to become a horror movie star. Maxine, and other characters, are also contending with the ongoing Night Stalker murders. The movie certainly has some of the classic aspects that we’ve come to associate with 80s movies, but it relies too heavily on pop culture references. This reliance on dated references results in the film lacking a realistic, atmospheric setting that was present in West’s other movies, especially “Pearl”. The plot of the film was genuinely interesting, but struggled from prolonged moments of predictability, especially in the third act. The lackluster plot wasn’t helped by the shallow and underdeveloped characters. The acting was good, and Mia Goth and Giancarlo Esposito provided standout performances, but even they couldn’t make up for the fact that many of the characters weren’t as fleshed out as they should have been. Maxine, in particular, felt underdeveloped and was never given a chance to grow throughout the film. Maxine was also a main character in the first trilogy installment, “X”, and it felt as though several of her established character traits from that film were ignored in “MaXXXine”. Overall, “MaXXXine” isn’t a bad movie, if one were watching it simply as a run of the mill slasher movie. However, it pales in comparison to its predecessors in Ti West’s trilogy, and makes for an underwhelming, clumsily executed conclusion.