Category: Film review
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TOP GUN: MAVERICK
Strap yourself in as the blockbuster of the summer as this breathlessly exciting sequel blasts you along on supersonic waves of nostalgia, extraordinary aerial photography and the unrelenting charisma of star, Tom Cruise. Inspirational, respectful of military service, and a paean to can-do team spirit, Top Gun: Maverick is a high-fiving, high flying celebration of the…
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James Bond 007: Top 10 villains
10. Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) At 6 ft 4 in tall, Lee brings stature as well a smooth sophistication to his role of a former KGB agent turned world’s best assassin who charges one million dollars per kill.His favourite weapon is a gold cigarette and pen combination which…
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GHOST IN THE SHELL (2017)
Beneath the glossy exterior there’s not much spirit to be found in this curate’s egg of a sci-fi action thriller. A hard working Scarlett Johansson stands at the centre of the spectacular visuals, but even the Avengers star can’t bring the soulless storytelling to boil. The story is based the acclaimed Japanese cyberpunk comic strip which was followed by a successful big screen…
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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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Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD
Told with humorous candour by it’s creators, this thrill-powered documentary blasts through the groundbreaking history of seminal British sci-fi comic, 2000AD. It was launched as a short term cash grab on 1977’s Star Wars-inspired craze for sci-fi, and no-one expected it to be still be around in the year 2000, never mind in rude health in 2015. My first exposure occurred in…
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Ex Machina
Sexy, sharp and stylish, this brilliant British sci-fi thriller explores man’s relationship to machines with verve, wit and polish. Precision-tooled to perfection with sumptuously seductive design, it combines the brains of Blade Runner, the gloss of James Bond, and the sly satire of cult comic 2000AD. This makes it an astonishingly assured directorial debut by Alex Garland,…
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CAPTAIN MARVEL
Strap yourselves into your cinema seat for a cosmic and colourful sci-fi action adventure ride, Disney delivers the 21st superhero smash from its Marvel Cinematic Universe. A member of the alien elite military unit, Starforce, the Captain Marvel is on a mission to locate a secret device on Earth, where she battles shapeshifting aliens while being pursued by US…
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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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GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: VOL 2
Brace yourself for cinematic hyper-speed as Marvel’s bickering band of galactic outlaws return in another loony tunes outer-space adventure. Once again the inadvertent heroes have to save the universe, this time from a celestial being who wants to recreate all life in his own image. The Guardian’s first adventure in 2014 was a £600 million box office supernova, and this…
Chris Hunneysett author 