Category: Movies

  • Movie Review: A Quiet Place

    Civilisation has fallen. Blind monsters roam the wildlands and haunt the cities, hunting for prey with their ultra-sensitive sense of hearing. Holed up in an isolated farmhouse and surrounded by monsters, a family of farmers must use their wits to eke out a living. Things come to a head when the mother becomes pregnant, forcing…

  • 12 Strong and the Choice Between Drama and Realism

    12 Strong is everything you expect from a Hollywood movie about the American military machine. Featuring tough-talking soldiers, rugged wind-swept valleys and mountains, and enough explosions and gunfire for a small war, 12 Strong accomplishes what it set out to do: honour the first American Special Forces troops in Afghanistan. Just don’t treat it as a ‘true story’.…

  • Thor: Ragnarok and the Rejection of Myth

    The rot of Marvel Comics has finally crept into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not just the rot of Social Justice — the rot of mediocrity. On paper the movie sounds awesome. Thor, the God of Thunder, must defend Asgard and the Nine Realms from Hela, the all-powerful Goddess of Death. However, he is stranded on…

  • The Dark Tower Movie Won’t Come Close to the Dark Tower Novels

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjwfqXTebIY&w=560&h=315] Watching the Dark Tower movie trailer, I understood immediately that Hollywood had once again taken a beloved franchise and warped it into something barely recognisable. Part of these changes are necessary. Adapting a novel into a movie requires requires the filmmakers to make massive changes to fit the new medium. It is a…

  • Retrospective: Ghost in the Shell (1995)

    When I first watched Ghost in the Shell, I was impressed by the fluid animations, the detailed visuals, the melancholic atmosphere and the slick action scenes. A dozen years later, after watching it again, I picked up the finer points my teenage self didn’t: the post-cyberpunk ethos, the characterisation, the tight storytelling, and most of…

  • Movie Review: A Silent Voice

    Movie Review: A Silent Voice

    A Silent Voice is an excellent movie marred by flawed execution.