Sci-Fi
The Shape Of Water
The Shape Of Water director Guillermo del Toro is often cited as a ‘horror’ filmmaker. But to label him as such is an oversight. Yes, for much of his career he has used horror as a device to articulate his unique aesthetic and ...
Justice League
It’s too easy to take swipes at DC’s filmic superhero output compared to all things Marvel. They are different beasts and therefore should not really be compared. In fact DC’s biggest failings are born out of its biggest succes...
Annihilation
Annihilation should have been seen in cinemas. It is one of the most visually cinematic films in recent memory. But a paranoid studio head saw to it that what he considered to be an overly intellectualised piece of sci-fi would...
Blade Runner 2049
Within a matter of minutes of the opening of Blade Runner 2049 you sense this film has captured the essence of the original film. From the close-up of an eye, a vast, sprawling vista of a dystopian future and a world seeped in ...
The Dark Tower
They said it was unfilmable. The Dark Tower, Stephen King’s opus, the series of novels that is at the centre of the King-universe of almost all his stories. They said it would never get out of development hell with Ron Howard d...
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
It’s a funny old world. Back in 1991 Terminator 2 was just another Arnie action movie. Twenty-six years later, it’s acknowledged as a sci-fi classic. Set ten-years after the events of T2, Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton) is now in...
War Of The Planet For The Apes
There is a point around midway through the latest apes trilogy, roughly two thirds of the way through Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, where you realise you are no longer rooting for the humans to win. It’s a stroke of genius be...
Ghost In The Shell
Based on a manga and cult favourite anime Ghost In The Shell should be a slam dunk of a live action adaption. Especially given it stars Hollywood’s biggest grossing actress Scarlett Johansson and is directed by the visual prowe...
Logan
Hugh Jackman was never meant to be Logan, or his more popular alisa Wolverine for that matter. He was supposed to be played by Dougray Scott. Let that sink in for a moment. Let the horror and dread fill you at 17 years of Dougr...
Passengers
There is a strange sense of parallel universes that play out between Passengers journey to the big screen and the story of the film itself. In 2007 Jon Spaihts’ screenplay was on The Black List – a list of Hollywood’s mos...
Arrival
It is perhaps fortuitous, or perfectly planned, that as a certain orange faced leader of the world looks to alienate countries against each that Arrival should, arrive. Because it’s rare you encounter a science fiction film bas...
Metropolis
Based on Osamu Tezuka’s comic book by the same name, Metropolis was the first Japanese animie after Akira to be as big over here as it was over there. Penned by Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo and Directed by Rintaro, Metro...
The Man Who Fell To Earth
At the end of the day it’s all about Bowie. Nicholas Roeg’s iconic tale is based on a sci-fi classic novel of existential loneness in which an alien – Bowie – arrives on Earth with a plan to save his dying homeward...
Equals
It seems odd that a film starring former flavour of the month Kristen Stewart should be making its debut on the home formats. But if Equals proves anything it is that Stewart was, and is, a very dependable actress. A teeny fran...
Stalker
Since his untimely death in 1986, Andrei Tarkovsky has come to be seen as one of the most respected and influential of art house filmmakers. However, while the world cinema community are well within their rights to adopt Tarkov...
Solaris
Andrei Tarkovsky began work on his third feature film under something of a cloud. His previous film Andrei Rubiev had gone unreleased and the semi-autobiographical project that would later become Mirror was still struggl...
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
So here we are, the grand finale to The Hunger Games, the reason you’ve sat through close to eight hours of Katniss journeying all the way to the capital to put President Snow in his place. There’s no doubt that getting here h...
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is the second act of the Maze Runner trilogy adaptations. Ask any writer and they’ll tell you that the second act is always a tricky one. It’s the point where things have to get a little down and ...
The Martian
It’s a curious fact that Ridley Scott’s most engaging and commercially successful film in years doesn’t feel at all like a Scot Free product. Along with his brother, the late Tony Scott, Ridley Scott honed his filmmaking skills...
Mad Max: Fury Road
Define Hollywood Courage: The same filmmaker revisiting a franchise thirty years after the less than impressive last instalment and recasting it’s original, at the time, iconic star. George Miller apparently had the inspiration...
