Category: Fantasy
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The Mysterious Island (1975)
This brisk sixty minute animated adaptation is hand drawn in the style of the famous TinTin cartoon series, and delights in its similar sense of old fashioned derring do. Faithful to Verne in its story, character, US Civil War-era setting and spirit of adventure, it sees am intrepid band of balloon-wrecked castaways and their dog…
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Mysterious Island (1995)
A lengthy and largely location-set TV adaptation of Jules Verne’s second Captain Nemo adventure, this Canadian & New Zealand co-production is underpinned by the intriguing premise, ‘what if Captain Nemo was the bad guy, a psychopath enjoys playing mind games with people instead of helping them?’ Staying true to the sweep of the novel, the…
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Mysterious Island (2005)
This Hallmark TV movie is an uninspiring adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic colonisation adventure novel which is chiefly remembered for featuring the return of famed aquanaut Captain Nemo. Reasonably faithful to Verne’s story, a starry headline cast of Patrick Stewart and Kyle MacLachlan is supplemented, or possibly squandered alongside screen stalwart Roy Marsden, TV stars…
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Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island (2010)
If I thought the 2005 version was poor, then this dull, cheap and silly Syfy channel produced and action-lite adaptation is without question the absolute nadir of Mysterious Island screen adaptations. Bermuda Triangle time-travelling It keeps the US Civil War escape, the hot air balloon, Captain Nemo and the island, and then introduces a Bermuda…
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ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL
This cyborg comic book action blockbuster grinds along under the weight of it’s many malfunctioning parts despite being manufactured by the groundbreaking director of Terminator 2: Judgement Day. To be fair, James Cameron only wrote and produced this young adult dystopian sci-fi, but it very disappointingly feels bashed together at great expense from discarded bits…
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SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE
Along comes a Spider-man as you’ve never seen him before in this deliriously entertaining animated spin on your friendly neighbourhood superhero. Joyous, thrilling and inclusive, it’s a pulsating neon kaleidoscope of jokes, action and invention as several versions of Spider-man team up to save the fabric of the universe being torn apart by the infamous crime lord,…
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MORTAL ENGINES
The latest blockbuster to rumble across the big screen from the makers of The Lord of the Rings trilogy is surprisingly clunky and run of the mill. Adapted from a series of books by Brit author Philip Reeve it’s a steampunk sci-fi fantasy epic set 1000 years into the future on an apocalyptic Earth. Icelandic…
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WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES
There’s no monkeying about when the fur starts flying in this epic end to the sci-fi trilogy. It’s a mean, meaty, and hair raising action adventure which doesn’t hang around and becomes increasingly tense and spectacular as the explosive conclusion approaches. And it’s far superior to this year’s other monkey movie, the disappointing Kong: Skull…
Chris Hunneysett author 