Writer and director Rian Johnson (Looper) has delivered in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the second film in the sequel trilogy. Johnson takes over from J.J. Abrams, who is due to direct Episode IX. Following the events of The Force Awakens (2015), Rey (Daisy Ridley) starts her training under the surly and powerful Jedi Master Luke…
I want to do something different with Blade Runner 2049. Rather than discuss the plot, the acting, and the score (which are all excellent by the way), I want to take a step back a bit. Blade Runner (1982) wasn’t the first dystopian sci-fi movie (or even the first noir sci-fi), it was a groundbreaking…
I never thought I would ever ask the following question: “Mr. Scott, could you draw a line under the whole Alien franchise and concentrate on other projects? Please?“. As an Alien fan of the first order, I was deeply disappointed about this film. In hindsight I thought Exodus: Gods and Kings was even better. It’s…
Death becomes her. That’s a rather facetious reference to what kicks off the key character’s journey in this dramatic sci-fi horror – a re-imagining of the 1990 film of the same name. Five medical students are obsessed by the mystery of what lies beyond the confines of life. They decide to undertake a daring and…
Visual effects aside, there’s nothing much to get excited about in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. This fantasy sci-fi is based on a comic book series, and is written and directed by Luc Besson (Lucy). It’s the 28th century. Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are a team of special operatives charged with…
This is the third and climactic chapter in the recent trilogy about apes versus humans. There was Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes in 2014 and now War for the Planet of the Apes. But Planet of the Apes goes back to 1968, when Charlton Heston was…
Is there really nobody else wondering why the female characters in a King Kong movie are so attracted to this giant ape? Honestly, I’m always asking myself the same question. Is it because Kong “King of all places he appears in” is such an impressive appearance, radiating power and protection? Or is it its primitive…
If you can follow the intricate (at times maddening) plot in Transformers: The Last Knight then “You’re a better man than I, Gunga Din!”. At least that is until Anthony Hopkins’ character pulls together the threads well into the film. It is the fifth film in the series, following on from 2014’s Transformers: Age of Extinction. …
Right off the bat, here are three reasons you should see Alien: Covenant: Ridley Scott is back. The xenomorphs are back. If you’ve seen Prometheus, it will finally make sense. Yes, Ridley Scott is once more in the director’s chair to take us back into the dark, unforgiving world of the Alien franchise. The result is, thankfully,…
Talk about throwing the kitchen sink at a movie – it appears the filmmakers behind Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 have pulled together every cockamamie idea they could think of and left it there on screen for the world to see. The heart of the story is a familial relationship concerning a megalomaniacal father,…
