Tomorrowland movie review.

“There are two wolves that are always fighting. One is darkness and despair. The other is light and hope. Which wolf wins?”

The answer to that question posed by Britt Robertson’s Casey Newton is “whichever one you feed.” By that analogy, which wolf does the future feed? Once upon a time, the future was once a wondrous and fantastical place that we embraced with open arms, but nowadays, that future seems more and more like that: fantasy. Our outlook is much bleaker in the wake of sudden epidemic, national divides, energy crises, and so much more. Nowadays, it appears the wolf of darkness is winning.

However, in an effort to combat the more pessimistic blockbuster fare about the future, along comes Brad Bird with a refreshingly optimistic and wholly original idea in the form of Tomorrowland, a concept he conceived with JJ Abrams alum Damon Lindelof. In a way, this film feels like Disney’s answer to Interstellar, creating in an of itself a very heady film with infectious adventure to spare.

Brief thoughts on Mortdecai.

You ever have that one movie you see trailers for and think “Hmm. That looks forgettable, but kind of fun”, but then find yourself surprised by the actual movie’s heated critical hatred?

That was me in the case of David Koepp’s caper-comedy Mortdecai. When I initially saw trailers for it, I thought it looked like a cute, harmless time waster, so you can imagine how curious the comparatively scrutinizing reviews for this film made me.

So, to satisfy my curiosity, I rented the movie. Despite my initial hopes for an enjoyable diversion, never could I have imagined this movie being such a catastrophic error of judgment by all involved parties. Sadly, that’s exactly what Mortdecai turns out to be; a movie as unruly and ghastly as the main character’s moustache.

Mad Max: Fury Road movie review.

Part sequel, part reboot, Mad Max: Fury Road is the long awaited passion project of Australian director George Miller, whose last film in the Mad Max series, the disastrous Beyond Thunderdome, came thirty years prior to this one.

Of course, it isn’t that uncommon for sequels to emerge after long waits of their own, including an eleven year gap between the second and third Toy Story films, but three decades? It’s certainly something of a testament to the popularity and passionate acclaim towards the Mad Max films that it was able to even be conceived on paper, let alone get green lit.

I can’t consider myself a fan of the original trilogy, as there’s only one film in that series I actually like, but I do see the appeal behind it, as well as the tremendous hype and critical adoration this fourth entry has generated. While I can’t call it the instant action staple that so many others have…. This movie is such a great time that I don’t care. This is the equivalent to a steampunk David Lean fever dream… and I love it!

Avengers: Age of Ultron movie review.

Flashback to 2008. The first Iron Man film had been released, the film was a breath of fresh air, a creative and often hilarious switch up to the usual superhero flick. However, at the tail-end of its credits, the film yielded the promise of what was then unthinkable… an interconnected universe uniting the heroes of Marvel.

Before The Avengers debuted in 2012, many of us assumed that it would crash and burn. What Marvel was attempting was a big risk that threatened to sink their ongoing film series once and for all. What a difference it made when we saw the film. The film was a runaway success, setting box office records across the globe, and was near-universally acclaimed. The film set unreasonably high expectations for all future superhero features that would follow, and sadly led to numerous studios attempting to cash in on their moves.

Flash forward to now, and Marvel’s second phase of films (to be concluded with Ant-Man in July) brings its heated boil to a bang with their next major crossover, Avengers: Age of Ultron. Once again under the direction of Joss Whedon, the new installment of Marvel’s ongoing saga proves to be a peculiar case. What it may lack in the consistency in quality and refreshing simplicity that the original film had, it makes up for with arguably higher highs.

Cinderella movie review.

The year was 2010. James Cameron's Avatar had become the highest grossing movie of all time. The 3D revolution was on a meteoric rise. Johnny Depp could actually open a successful film back then. It was the perfect opportunity for Disney to release Tim Burton’s revisionist adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. Despite receiving mixed reviews, the film was a commercial success, grossing a billion dollars worldwide, and ushered in a new era of films trying to copy its success.

Soon every film was attempting the same formula. Soon came Universal unveiling Snow White & The Huntsman, while Disney themselves would release another retelling of one of their classic films with Maleficent, and this cash cow clearly shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.

So, with so many films competing to see who could produce the most “original” and “gritty” revision of a classic fairy tale, it’s nice to see Disney try something refreshingly familiar and light-hearted with Cinderella, directed by Shakespearean thespian Kenneth Branagh. However, to boil Cinderella down as merely a carbon copy of its animated counterpart does it little justice, for it is both a faithful yet divergent adaptation of the classic story.

Very brief thoughts on the awful The Cobbler.

Forgive me if my write up today is going to be particularly short, but frankly, I don’t plan on giving this movie any more attention than it deserves. The movie doesn’t work… At all!

Chappie movie review.

Neill Blomkamp clearly has no shortage of fascinating ideas as a filmmaker. For years he’s specialized in truly original, high-concept sci-fi that seeks to blend social allegory with visceral imagery. His 2009 feature-length debut, District 9, blew critics, audiences, and box office expectations away through its mixture of documentarian slice of life meant to elicit comparisons to Apartheid, as well as a graphic action experience that questioned mankind’s disturbing (and all too real) thirst for stronger weapons technology. It’s even more surprising just how fantastic a movie it was in every technical sense, made with a modest 30 million dollar budget that puts most 100+ million action flicks to shame.

His follow up, Elysium, did not live up to those high expectations that Blomkamp set for himself, but it certainly wasn’t lacking in creativity and thought provocation, so you could have easily deemed it a fluke loss.

However, with his latest film Chappie, I’m starting to question if it was actually District 9 that was the fluke victory. While I admire Blomkamp’s unashamedly high-concept premise, Chappie is by far the director’s most heinously underwritten and unruly film yet.