The third instalment in the Trek reboot embraces its inherent whimsicality. However, the narrative is all too familiar, borrowing numerous tropes from similar films in the sci-fi genre.
Action flick Bastille Day opens with a naked Frenchwoman (Stéphane Caillard) strolling through Paris. We soon learn that her nudity is intended to serve as a particularly dramatic distraction, allowing pickpocket Michael Mason (Game of Thrones’ Richard Madden) to pilfer a few wallets and passports at the orders of a local fence (Eriq Ebouaney). With…
Growing up watching children’s television in the early ‘90s, it was practically impossible to get through a week without being treated to a parable – or if you were unlucky, a lecture – about prejudice and xenophobia. Cartoons would obliquely or explicitly address issues of racism, religion and even AIDS in the context of a…
We often see the dehumanising effects of war observed in film; the loss of one’s innocence through unimaginable and uncharacteristic actions or events. However, in such settings, rarely is this gaze cast upon the most intrinsic form of innocence – childhood. Beasts of No Nation follows the transformation – or corruption, rather – of young Agu…
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is a lengthy hike indeed: the film stretches over nearly two-and-a-half hours, chronicling the life of Nelson Mandela from young revolutionary to iconic leader. A half hour in, I was dreading the next couple hours; the first thirty minutes thrusts its way through a checklist of Mandela’s early life –…
Thor: The Dark World is a film all about gods but, like its predecessor, it’s at its best when it focuses on the foibles of humanity. The film’s first half is spent primarily on Thor’s plane of Asgard – and somewhere called Svartalfheim (Gesundheit!) – and it’s mostly a slog. There’s some overly-serious exposition about…
Watching Prometheus upon release, it was hard not to sympathise with scientist Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green). Having spent years hoping to find the “Engineers” who brought about the genesis of mankind and left cryptic messages painted on cave walls, he found himself filled with existential despair, upon finding only their corpses. I walked out of…
Guillermo del Toro usually brings his own unique designs to blockbuster filmmaking; Pacific Rim, surprisingly, feels more like a pastiche. It’s visually a hodge-podge of Godzilla, Neon Genesis Evangelion and the Matrix sequels, and is filled with overt references – there’s a Star Wars quote, and GLaDOS from Portal voices the film’s computers. The lack…
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