George Miller’s latest opus in the “extended Mad Max Universe [TM]” is Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The film delivers two things Australian audiences love: fast cars and, um… Greek mythology (?). Yep, Miller takes a page from the likes of Theo Angelopoulos (Ulysses’ Gaze) and the Coen Brothers (O Brother, Where Art Thou) by…
Pandemics, post-apocalyptics, zombie dramas, dystopians – choose your preferred genre label here – generally seem to go all out large or small and intense. If you are one of those readers who simply must have delivered a very finite scientific explanation of how the world all goes to hell, you may find that you tend…
James Cameron’s fingerprints are evident on the cyborg action romance Alita: Battle Angel; although Robert Rodriguez (Machete) directs and co-wrote the screenplay with Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island). The film is based on a manga series by Japanese comic book artist Yukito Kishiro. Originally announced in 2003, production on and release of the film were repeatedly…
The future world looks fairly simplistic. Mankind has been transformed into a superficial society in which the truly kindhearted population has nestled in one or another oasis, while the riotous part indulges in looting and hanging out in a striptease/dance temple or drug centers. Also choosing names will be simpler in that period, as it…
From The Hunger Games to Divergent, dystopian films aimed at tweens have made serious coin; so why wouldn’t producers keep pouring money into them? They follow a familiar storyline where youngsters are outcasts. And so to the latest incarnation, The Darkest Minds. Based on the popular YA novel by Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds starts…
Maze Runner: The Death Cure concludes the generic dystopian saga based on the popular series of novels written by James Dashner. And unlike a couple of other YA adaptations, at least here the producers resisted the temptation to split the final film into two parts. We were first introduced to a group of heroes, known as…
Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” (part of the final movement of his Symphony No. 9) is a thorough examination of the emotion of joy as being heavenly in origin and available to mankind through a loving God. In A Clockwork Orange, however, it represents a thematic extension of 15-year-old protagonist Alex’s psychological conditioning. As the vicious…
A compelling doomsday scenario underpins the dystopian drama, The Way Out. Mankind is hanging by a thread after a civil war 15 years earlier. The air is polluted. Facemasks are mandatory for survival outdoors. Unless sanctioned, travel is banned outside one’s “zone”. All clothing is synthetic. Food is of a low quality and in short supply, while much…
It is April 1984. Comrade 6079, Winston Smith (Tom Conroy), has a thought, starts a diary and falls in love, but Big Brother is watching his every move. You see, he is not allowed to think for himself. He has to tow the party line at all times and subversives are outed and disciplined for thought…
– The Divergent Series: Insurgent – DVD, Blu-ray & on-demand from 12 August 2015 We have 3 prize packs* thanks to eOne Films. *(Valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE THE DIVERGENT SERIES: INSURGENT raises the stakes for Tris as she searches for allies and answers in the ruins of a futuristic Chicago….
