The story is pretty predictable after that: the drone Jaegers fail big time and the kaiju return with the biggest kaiju ever and Jake and Nate have to learn how to put aside their differences and save the world as a team. It’s a near rip-off of the plot of the first film, where two characters who start off disliking each other end up being perfect for each other, and in fact, if Pacific Rim: Uprising was a romcom it could actually work.
Read MoreIt’s the relationship between Atari, Chief and Spots that really fuels the film. Anderson and his team punctuate the movie with intense close-ups of both the dogs and Atari, deep in thought, tears coming to their eyes as they think about the beings they care about.
Read MoreSo what was Spielberg and his team to do? Arguably, there are two routes: engage with Wade’s freaky behaviour and lay his flaws bare, or trim out the objectionable stuff and make a piece of entertainment. Spielberg and screenwriter Zak Penn, perhaps unsurprisingly, go with the latter. So was this the right move, or a missed opportunity to drag Cline’s problematic ideas into the light?
Read MoreVisually, A Wrinkle in Time can be pretty exciting – just like how Disney managed to inject a kaleidoscope of colours and eye candy for Alice in Wonderland… but does it work here? I’m not sure it does; the colourful overtones don’t match L’Engle’s weirdly dark book.
Read MoreThe problem with a lot of modern horror-thriller sci-fi films is that it’s quite obvious which characters will survive and which ones won’t. I think, over the decades, plot twists that seemed original are much more commonplace now, but Annihilation avoids most of that by telling the audience the result of the expedition in its very first scenes. Self-destruction is briefly mentioned in a line of dialogue but it’s a pervasive theme throughout the entire film, and one of its strengths is showing how each character deals with death and pain and how they ultimately choose to end their fight.
Read MoreSadly, despite the potential, what Jones delivers with Mute is a classic example of a passion project that should have stayed on the page. The film is admirably small-scale, when a lot of futuristic science fiction aims to make big statements about humanity. But taking a narrow, Black Mirror approach to the story can’t save it from an emotionally distant main character or a repetitive, fractured plot. At times, you can almost feel Jones waffling over what to include in his story: more of Alexander Skarsgård gazing listlessly at reused sets from Blade Runner 2049, or more of Paul Rudd’s obnoxious mustache.
Read MoreIt turns out that this shouldn’t be a surprise. The form of representation offered by Ryan Coogler’s new film is a powerful one. Even though the Black Panther character isn’t the first black superhero to lead his own film, Marvel’s latest outing makes some new and important strides in how it handles race in this genre. Most visibly, it puts a comparatively huge cast of black actors in all the central roles, something that is still rare in films of this size. And narratively, the status of black and African people - including the competing ideas on how to improve it - is deeply woven into the story. It doesn’t feel painted-on, as socio-political issues too often are in superhero films (even in the Marvel universe – I’m looking at you, The Winter Soldier).
Read MoreSuch is the fate of The Cloverfield Paradox, a stunningly well-cast sci-fi based on a Black List script, which seems to have undergone so much re-tooling, at every stage of production, that it barely resembles a completed film. There are plenty of ideas on display here (literally: the film crams in quantum entanglement, meeting your doppelganger, outer-space espionage, an energy crisis, mind-controlling worms, and more). But most of the concepts are hurriedly introduced and then abandoned, leaving behind an experience that feels like a generic mashup of every sci-fi release from the past thirty years.
Read MoreHow disappointing, then, to see Landis so casually rip up his rulebook to make a quick buck in league with Netflix, the hottest brand in entertainment. The result is Bright: a loud, incomprehensible and utterly tone-deaf action thriller with an admirably bonkers – though ludicrously heavy-handed - concept.
Read MoreHow satisfying, then, to see the follow-up to The Force Awakens deliver on that promise. The Last Jedi proves that the franchise is a lot more flexible than some may have expected. Oddly enough, one of its most significant themes is failure: last-ditch plans go awry, searches for information end up fruitless, and characters give up their faith. Events don’t follow a familiar path. All of a sudden, one of the most straightforward (and lucrative) film franchises in history becomes challenging to interpret. And it’s one of the most exciting things the series has done in years.
Read MoreDel Toro isn’t taking the risk for shock value. He wants to stage an adult relationship, and explore what it really looks like for two outcasts, even ones from different (or fantastical) species, to fall in love. In an age when historically marginalized people are slowly finding it easier to express themselves and be comfortable in their own skins, The Shape of Water feels incredibly timely - even though it’s set decades in the past.
Read MoreSet against the rage-inducing structure, annoying performances and embarrassing scripting of Batman v Superman, Justice League initially feels like a major step forward from its predecessor. At the very least, the new film has some internal logic and the ability to sustain a train of thought about a character or a plot point. But this is a limp improvement – being mostly functional doesn’t create a lot of thrills.
Read MoreAnyone who knows the previous movies by Ragnarok’s director, Taika Waititi, will recognize the style of humour here instantly. There’s a deadpan, bantering quality to the writing that I loved, seemingly born just a much via improvisation than by a writer’s room. Waititi also doubles down on the wacky possibilities of his outer-space setting, resulting in some space-time gags that wouldn’t be out of place in Doctor Who. One of my favourites involved a weird mashup of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the scary tunnel scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – yes, you read that right. It’s awesome.
Read MoreBranagh himself directs and stars as Poirot, and from a production standpoint, the whole affair is visually rich and full of fine performances. But somehow, Branagh’s version still lacks a distinctive voice. The film experiments with camera angles and re-stages certain scenes, though they don’t illuminate the proceedings more than a traditional presentation would. The structure of the film also poses problems, moving the plot forward at a jerking pace that hints at some heavy re-editing after the initial test screenings. Murder on the Orient Express is never not watchable, but if Fox is hoping to spark a series of Poirot mysteries on the big screen, it may require a few more of Poirot’s “little grey cells”.
Read MoreSadly, the feature-length experience of the film offers none of that joy. Unlike its genre brethren (The Core, The Day After Tomorrow or 2012), Geostorm is a deadening facsimile of earlier apocalypses. The main characters are only once physically threatened by the storms they’re racing to stop. The filmmakers woefully underuse their core concept - a malfunctioning weather-controlling satellite network - wasting opportunities to see wild remixes of typical weather. The cardboard characters interact as if they’ve all wandered into the proceedings from other movies. And perhaps most disappointing, they spent so much godforsaken money on Geostorm that it can’t even aspire to the kind of grubby, homemade production value that might bring a smile to your face, in the vein of Birdemic or Troll 2.
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