Yimou Zhang, stop doing collaborations with America, right now. When two European bandits stumble across China’s greatest defensive achievement, The Great Wall, while looking for “black powder”, they discover a terrible and world-ending secret. Well this was pretty dumb. I think the film drops the ball almost immediately with two small points. We open with…
Tag: science fiction
Review: Passengers
Star power alone can’t push this slow moving spaceship. An ark of five thousand stasis-sleeping passengers, on a trip to a new planet to call home, suffers from damage to its systems, waking two people while there’s still ninety years of travel remaining. They find the task of getting to know each other complicated with saving…
Review: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2D)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a gift to all fans of the franchise and sets an inspiring precedent for Disney and LucasFilm’s efforts. Set before the events of Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope the story sees a young woman, Jyn, roped into the Rebel Alliance due to her connection to the evil…
Review: Arrival
Director Denis Villeneuve continues a startling winning streak with high-concept sci-fi Arrival. A language specialist has her life changed when the world is visited by twelve monolithic alien objects, hovering above the ground with no sign of intent. Brought in to try and communicate with the entities, she finds the experience and the trials inexplicably…
Review: Westworld (1973)
With the new HBO television series Westworld coming to our screens now, I really wanted to return to the original that inspired it, Michael Crichton’s own written and directed Westworld feature from 1973. I haven’t watched this film in years, maybe even fifteen years, but I always remember it fondly. Fondly enough that in hearing…
Review: Star Trek Beyond (2D)
Star Trek Beyond, for better or worse, takes Trek’s new action orientation and gives it a more traditional feel. We reunite with the crew halfway through their five year mission into deep space, but while their captain and crew are reluctant and tired from the experience they find themselves in the middle of a war…
Review: Independence Day – Resurgence
Probably Roland Emmerich’s best film since Day After Tomorrow, but I’m not sure what that means… his practiced method of “bigger is better”, doesn’t run true here… Exactly twenty years since they first attacked Earth, the aliens are back for revenge. Humanity has spent the time preparing for the worst by reverse engineering the technology left…
Review: Independence Day
How can a movie be so silly, exciting, emotive, hearty and stupid all at the same time? Independence Day is surely the lightning that director Roland Emmerich has been forever trying to rekindle. In 1996, July 2nd, aliens arrived on Earth with only one goal in mind: total annihilation. It is up to a scientist-turn…
Review: Star Wars – Force Awakens (2D)
Oh boy. Dear reader, you are probably chomping at the bit to know what I think of the newest, Disney-funded installment of Hollywood’s best blockbuster franchise. But you are also likely not wanting too many spoilers… so I will give you a short opinion and rating now, and you can stop reading further. Star Wars: The…
Banter: Force Awakens Predictions
Hi everyone, Cinema Cocoa here with a very short, off-the-cuff post about Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I would like to make a handful of predictions about the film’s story before it releases, and see if I get any of them right. This post will be used for bragging rights, I won’t lie. I feel…