I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.
After 20 years of dormancy of alien technology left on Earth after the events of Independence Day, the alien presence suddenly returns. It is a resurgence, if you will. There are far more specifics involved in the plot, I guess, but none of it really matters. This movie is about one thing and one thing only: awesome science fiction fight sequences.
We get this, eventually. Until then, it is mainly just Continue reading Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) Movie Review
Note: Spoilers for Sunspring are in this in-depth review. The video is embedded below if you want to watch before you read.
In Sunspring, director Oscar Sharp engages in a cinematic experiment. The goal: to create an award-worthy short film using a script written by an artificial intelligence. The result: glorious sci-fi chaos. Feeding the A.I. with dozens of science fiction script .txt files and a series of prompts given for a sci-fi filmmaking competition, the small cast and crew used the resulting script to shoot the short in one day.
“In a future with mass unemployment, young people are forced to sell blood,” Thomas Middleditch’s H begins, upon pulling a book out of a drawer and thumbing through it. “It’s something I could do.”
This is perhaps the most Continue reading An In-Depth Analysis of Sunspring (2016), The Short Film Written By A Computer
In 19th century London, Alice Kingsleigh (Mia Wasikowska) is whisked back into Wonderland. Again. Because, you know, money.
Alice Through the Looking Glass loses much of the charm that could be found in 2010’s Alice in Wonderland, although that film had problems of its own. This sequel is hampered by many elements that were not handled with enough care.
The narrative as a whole is problematic in that it shares very little resemblance to the source material that bears the same name. This aside, the plot simply carries little weight throughout the length of the film. Not to mention that Continue reading Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) Movie Review
In The Jungle Book, the live action adaptation of the famous Disney retelling, a boy (Neel Sethi) raised by wolves is put in danger by his own humanity, as the bloodthirsty Bengal tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba) vows to kill the child.
CG burdens many films, which become over-dependent on them for spectacle’s sake. In the case of this film, the Continue reading The Jungle Book (2016) Movie Review
Note: I’ve tried to make this review as spoiler free as possible. That said, one person’s reaction is another person’s spoiler. I can’t make this 100% devoid of spoilers. Proceed at your own risk.
Star Wars – The Force Awakens is directed by J.J. Abrams, and it is the first new Star Wars film in 10 years. Easily the most anticipated movie of the year, The Force Awakens could have been the biggest disappointment since, well, The Phantom Menace. Thankfully, this is not the case.
This part is unavoidable, but it must be mentioned. Continue reading Star Wars Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015) Movie Review
On the Star Wars subreddit, a post from Lumpawarroo quickly become one of the top ten reddit posts of all time. This post was about Star Wars character Jar Jar Binks.
Yes, that Jar Jar Binks. The character that ruined Star Wars for everybody back in 1999 with The Phantom Menace.
However, he may have been much more than meets the eye. Looking back on the prequel films, Lumpawarroo developed an extensive fan theory that posits that Jar Jar is really a powerful Sith Lord.
I know, that sounds crazy. But… Continue reading Star Wars Jar Jar Binks Sith Fan Theory Explained/Reaction
In The Martian, astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is abandoned and left for dead after a storm hits the surface of Mars, forcing the manned mission he is a part of to be scrubbed. On the way to the rocket, Watney is struck by a satellite dish that was blown off of their equipment, knocking him unconscious. As the rocket fires up into space, dwindling shots linger over Watney’s empty seat as the rest of the crew braces against the force of the ascent.
Then, we get an extended, wordless scene of Watney waking and staggering back to the HAB, the only oxygenated facility on the planet. The scene is entirely carried by Damon’s non-verbal acting. He pulls shrapnel out of a wound in his side, whispering pleas under his breath, just hoping that Continue reading The Martian (2015) Movie Review
Reed Richards (Miles Teller) is a child with a dream: to create a teleportation device and change the world for the better. After his prototype device is disqualified from his high school science fair, scientist Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey) hires him to work on a government funded device of the same ilk for the sake of accessing a nondescript alternate dimension dubbed “Zero.”
From there, Fantastic Four is a haphazard jumble of plot points inserted abruptly with no sense of pacing or flow. The opening sequence with Continue reading Fantastic Four (2015) Movie Review
In 1982, savant children battle for the fame of becoming an arcade game champion, an event being filmed for the sake of a time capsule that will be shot into space. Brenner (Adam Sandler), the savant-iest of savant gamers, gets a tie score with hot shot Eddie (Peter Dinklage) and must face off against him in a round of Donkey Kong. Brenner loses by a nose, which seemingly demoralizes him into leading a washed up life of attending Mississippi Institute of Technology and becoming an electronics installer.
Meanwhile, Brenner’s dopey friend “Chewy” Cooper (Kevin James) is President of the United States. That’s right, Continue reading Pixels (2015) Movie Review
“High Octane” is seen being forcibly tattooed onto the back of Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) in an early scene of Mad Max: Fury Road as part of his new label as a slave “blood bag.” The same tattoo may as well be stamped across the entire film. This fourth Mad Max installment is essentially a nonstop car chase across the post-apocalyptic desert wasteland. There is only a handful of chances to breathe, during the four or five fade-to-black ellipses, before we are thrust back into the merciless, saturated orange of the barren landscape.
Amid the onslaught of cars ripping other cars to shreds and drug-fueled white-painted grunts pitching themselves at other cars with explosive sticks, Continue reading Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Movie Review
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