Over the course of three films, Neill Blomkamp has demonstrated a consistent interest in the body and the effects of the world upon it. “District 9” featured transformation into the undesirable while “Elysium” highlighted the inscription of class divisions onto the body. Chappie continues this conceit but with a reversal of Blomkamp’s debut — rather…
A good comic book property can’t sit idle for long, nor should it. Having waited an eternity (eight years) 20th Century Fox is finally poised to forget about 2007’s “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” and reboot their family of superheroes with The Fantastic Four. Unfortunately, much of it appears to be an origin…
The future is often grim when featured in sci-fi movies, but in the latest X-Men pic, X-Men: Days of Future Past, it’s the past that’s particularly depressing. Well, okay, it’s the future, too. For the seventh X-Men movie (as long as you count two lackluster Wolverine spin-off movies that clearly intended to be counted), Bryan…
With mutants on the edge of extinction due to their systematic elimination by the Sentinel program, long-time enemies Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen) realize the only way forward for their survival is to unite themselves in the past. The man to convince their younger selves (James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, respectively) this…
If the title of X-Men: Days of Future Past didn’t confuse you, maybe the story line of the hotly anticipated movie will. Today, the war between mutants and humans is in full effect and the only way to change the current situation is to undo what was done. To that end, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is…
Neill Blomkamp can surely write and direct an original science fiction movie as evidenced in the visually captivating “District 9.” But with the ante raised — a true Hollywood budget, a bona fide movie star starring and a coveted summer release spot — can he deliver again? With Elysium he proves he’s got the imaginative…
It’s hard to imagine a movie called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter being highbrow cinema, but that’s exactly what director Timur Bekmambetov aspired of for his follow-up to 2008’s cult-hit “Wanted.” Unfortunately, in spite of its silly title (which hearkens back to grindhouse-era exploitation cinema), the film rarely cracks a joke and its über serious tone…
