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Non-Review Review: Battleship

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Darren

Battleship is a big American blockbuster. And, to be fair, it falls pray to a large number of the pitfalls of those sorts of films. There’s more action than thought. There’s lots of CGI filling the scenes. It rigidly adheres to a formula. It’s characters aren’t developed beyond shallow archetypes. However, I can forgive most of these flaws because Peter Berg actually makes this fun. I can very honestly and shamelessly admit that this was the most fun big dumb blockbuster that I’ve seen since Independence Day or perhaps The Rock. And that’s quite a compliment. It’s never anything more than it claims to be, but does well not to take itself too seriously.

Something to sea...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Alexander Skarsgård, aliens, battleship, Berg, blockbuster, Brooklyn Decker, cgi, film, Hopper, liam neeson, michael bay, Movie, non-review review, peter berg, review, Rihanna, Stephen Hawkins, Taylor Kitsch, transformers, United States | 7 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Signs

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Darren

You know what? Even though history and experience has retroactively soured the movie, with M. Night Shyamalan’s career entering freefall and Mel Gibson’s personal problems clouding his career, I kinda like Signs. In fact, I’d go so far as to argue that the movie represents Shymalan’s last good film. That said, it’s a well-constructed and engaging little thriller that is, unfortunately, hugely flawed. Some of these flaws are so fundamental that they’re hard to ignore, but I think that this movie was the last time that Shyamalan demonstrated a real organic talent and skill for film making.

Shine a light on it...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: abigail breslin, Alien invasion, aliens, belief, film, Filmmaking, films, Joaquin Phoenix, M. Night Shyamalan, Mel Gibson, Movie, Movies, non-review review, review, Rory Culkin, signs, Sixth Sense, spirituality, the war of the worlds, unbreakable, war of the worlds | 2 Comments »

Don’t Leave Us Hanging: Going Out on a Cliffhanger…

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Darren

So, I saw the final episode of V last night. Talk about disappointing. The series throws us a giant big cliffhanger and then… boom! It’s cancelled by the network in what has been referred to as a “bloodbath.” What makes it more frustrating, though, is the fact that the cancellation was quite probable even as early as last year, so it wasn’t as though the series was cut down in its prime without any warning. The cast and crew knewthat there was a fairly significant chance that this episode would be the last to see the light of day… and they ended on a whopping big cliffhanger anyway. I can’t help but feel a little bit disappointed.

After two years, the visitors are sent packing...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: aliens, arts, cancelled, cancelled tv shows, cliffhanger, cliffhangers, lost, Meaghan Rath, Programs, Sam Huntington, Scrubs, Season finale, Television, Television network, television shows, tv shows, v, V (tv show), visitors | 6 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Darren

The Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a wonderful science-fiction premise, so it’s really no wonder that the story has been taken to the big and small screens so often. It’s a great example of how a story can strike different notes in different eras, and how something can easily be about one thing in one era, and take on an entirely different meaning in a later one. The 1978 adaptation is a wonderful piece of high-concept science-fiction, which skilfully takes the ideas from the original classic film, and shakes them around just a little bit.

It's a scream!

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: aliens, body horror, edgar wright, films, horror, invasion, Invasion of Body Snatchers, jeff goldblum, Kevin McCarthy, Leonard Nimoy, Movies, non-review review, Pod People, review, shaun of the dead, Veronica Cartwright | 3 Comments »

Is Avatar a Revisionist Take on Aliens?

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Darren

I know this isn’t exactly a new idea, but it’s one I’ve been mulling over quite a bit lately – especially since my aunt picked up the Alien Anthology on blu ray for Christmas. It’s been fairly frequently remarked, on-line and in-print that James Cameron’s Avatar bears remarkable similarities to his Aliens. However, it’s not the similarities that interest me, it’s the differences which reveal quite a bit. Most fascinating – at least to me – is the idea that Avatar represents an attempt to revise Cameron’s work on Aliens.

Killer queen...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 20th Century Fox, alien, aliens, avatar, Entertainment Weekly, films, james cameron, metafiction, Movies, revisionism, Sam Worthington, sequel, shared universe, sigourney weaver, Unobtainium, Viet Cong, xenomorphs | 10 Comments »

Annihilation: Conquest (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on November 17, 2010 by Darren

This is the tenth in a series of comic book reviews that will look at the direction of Marvel’s shared universe (particularly their “Avengers” franchise) over the past five or so years, as they’ve been attempting to position the property at the heart of their fictional universe. With The Avengers planned for a cinematic release in 2012, I thought I’d bring myself up to speed by taking a look at Marvel’s tangled web of continuity.

Perhaps it was the novelty of Marvel’s Annihilation crossover which lent the series its appeal. It took some of the more often overlooked space heroes of the Marvel Universe and tied them all together as part of a gripping narrative fighting against the extinction of life itself. It was loud and bright and colourful and frentic – it was perhaps the best crossover that Marvel have produced in the past five years or so. So I was very much anticipating the sequel, Annihilation: Conquest – hoping that it could be another breath of fresh air in this long trek through Marvel’s shared universe. Unfortunately, it seemed that a lot of energy of the original was gone – the series couldn’t help but feel somewhat anti-climactic.

Feel the Wraith...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: aliens, andy lanning, annihilation, annihilation conquest, borg, captain marvel, Comics, conquest, cosmic marvel, dan abnett, games, marvel, marvel comics, Marvel Super Heroes, nova, phalanx, quasar, Roleplaying, ronan, Star Lord, starlord, Super Heroes, ultron, wraith | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Predators

Posted on July 9, 2010 by Darren

It must be genuinely one of the toughest and most unforgiving tasks in moviedom to produce a belated sequel to a beloved franchise. Even Spielberg and Lucas messed up in producing the long-delayed Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or Lucas’ prequels to Star Wars. The original film has just been lying there so long that it has built up its own legacy and reputation – to the point where it’s arguably not so much a film as a legend. Okay, maybe the original Predator and the modern Predators shouldn’t really be classified as legends in the same way as the earlier examples (or, say Chinatown and its disappointing follow-up The Two Jakes), but this is undeniably a cult franchise. The good news is that – while far from perfect – Predators actually lives up to its legacy quite well.

Preying for a way out...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: action, adrian brody, adrien brody, alice braga, alien, alien vs. predator, aliens, aliens vs. predator, avp, film, hish, horror, laurence fishburne, Movie, Nimrod Antal, non-review review, predator, predators, review, robert rodriguez, topher grace, Yautja | 11 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Alien³

Posted on July 5, 2010 by Darren

Alien³ is generally regarded as an inferior Alien film, and the start of a slippery slope that would lead us through Alien: Resurrection into Aliens vs. Predator and even Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. It’s also regarded as something of a hiccup in the career of David Fincher, and an example of how meddling from greedy corporate executives can potential derail the rise of a young talent. That’s a lot of pressure for a single film to carry – particularly one which has enough trouble standing on its own two feet. However, I am quite fond of this particular incarnation of the franchise. Not enough to call it a “classic” or even “great”, but enough to argue that it was a relatively brave and ultimately valid experiment for the franchise – much more so, arguably, than the fourth film.

It’s an emotional reunion, to say the least…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alien, alien 3, alien franchise, alien trilogy, aliens, charles dance, charles durning, david fincher, films, Movies, non-review review, review, sequels, sigourney weaver, xenomorph | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The War of the Worlds

Posted on June 24, 2010 by Darren

Stephen Spielberg helmed something of a loose science-fiction trilogy in the early years of this century. A.I. and Minority Report are still relatively contentious (perhaps the former more than the latter) when it comes to discussing the place of his modern output in the context of his wider filmography. However, it’s the third film of the three which I’ve always been most fascinated with, despite the fact it has been mostly forgotten on his somewhat impressive list of accomplishments. Never afraid to stick up for a film that most people seem to have just shrugged their shoulders about, I’m going to stand up for the not-quite-so-little-but-not-so-big-you’d-notice-him guy. I think that War of the Worlds is the best film Spielberg has directed in the last decade.

This invasion hasn't got three legs to stand on...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: adaptation, aliens, film, h.g. wells, hg wells, invasion, mars, martians, Movie, non-review review, review, spielberg, stephen spielberg, the war of the worlds, tom cruise, tripods, war of the worlds | 11 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Planet 51

Posted on April 21, 2010 by Darren

Planet 51 is an enjoyable little animated film. It mostly skirts by on it’s rather interesting premise (what if an astronaut landed on an alien world exactly like fifties America?) and razor-sharp pop culture references (I wonder how many kids are going to get the references to E.T. let alone Alien or 2001: A Space Odyssey), but it’s ultimately let down by the fact that nobody involved seems to be trying too hard… or at all, really. The film relies on its intriguing premise to carry it, which it just about does, but it’s hard to feel that there isn’t so much more that could have been done.