Despite some strong moments, an overall disappointing film. There are many similarities to this movie and “The Empire Strikes Back,” (and also a few major moments in “The Return of the Jedi.”) However, they take what you might be expecting and go a totally different direction. Sometimes this works beautifully, but more often it doesn’t.… Read More »
A beautiful looking sci-fi film that starts off strong, but runs too long and starts to wear out its welcome. I have no memory of ever seeing the original “Blade Runner.” Either I never saw it, or I saw it and it made no impression on me. (I did read up on that film before… Read More »
After a slow start, things suddenly pick up before reaching a suspenseful, but familiar, climax. With the exception of one brief harrowing sequence, the fist portion of this film moves quite slow. While this would be the ideal time for character building, it’s used more for sci-fi imagery. Spacewalks, equipment checks, and tech talk are… Read More »
An entertaining, but redundant, third chapter in the new Star Trek film series. While that plot wasn’t bad, it just feels like something they’ve done to death. Kirk and crew must stop a madman bent on mass destruction…which has been the basic plot of all three new “Star Trek” films. It just feels like I’ve… Read More »
A twenty-year wait for a sequel to “Independence Day” is rewarded with a weak new chapter that attempts to hide its lack of originality by just making everything bigger. The spaceship is bigger. The alien is bigger. The swath of destruction is bigger. While some of the grand spectacle works, most of it brings nothing… Read More »
Very deep, breathtaking, emotional, and occasionally, boring film. This movie doesn’t hold your hand very much. You have to pick up pretty quickly on the ways of a famine-stricken, dustbowl Earth, and then take a crash course in astrophysics, the theory of relativity, wormholes and supermassive black holes. The heart of this film is the… Read More »
Solid movie, with great special effects but a bit too much ambiguity in the climax. The film has a solid, but generally predictable plot. The human characters are well acted, but never truly fleshed out. Only Gary Oldman seems to have any standout emotional beats. The ape characters have much more interesting story arcs. The… Read More »
Good concept, solid acting and good execution, but the film doesn’t quite deliver in the end. The time-travel element is the heart of the movie, but there are plenty of holes in it. As long as you can ignore these and just enjoy the story, this isn’t much of an issue. Tom Cruise is still… Read More »
A bit better than I expected, but doesn’t measure up very well with the original “Robocop.” Standing on its own merits, it’s an OK film. There are a couple good action sequences, but nothing that’s very memorable. The plot seems to lose direction late in the film and quickly heads for a subpar conclusion. Gary… Read More »
Well-put-together film, and is strong in many aspects. The acting is top-notch, with Sharlto Copley making the most of every scene that he’s in. Matt Damon and Jodie Foster also deliver. The effects are excellent, creating a believable futuristic world that features people living in squalor and others in decadence. The story is pretty good,… Read More »