The Marvels (2023) Review
The catastrophic $237 million loss that confirmed audience withdrawal. Body-swap premise, Captain Marvel continuation, and franchise collapse.
Genre: Space Opera (Page 2)
ActionAvengers: Infinity War (2018) Review
Two billion dollars on the strength of accumulated franchise capital. Forty characters, the Snap that wasn't depicted, and structural failures.
ActionCaptain Marvel (2019) Review
Flat performance, press tour damage, decorative feminism, and the protagonist who is actually the villain. The film does not reward straight-through viewing.
ComedyThe Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (BBC TV Series, 1981) Review
Peter Jones as the Book, Douglas Adams's voice intact, and the Vogon poetry torture. Dated, charming, better than the movie.
FantasyFilms With the Best Worldbuilding
Twenty films that build worlds you believe in before anyone explains them — from Blade Runner's environmental history to Princess Mononoke's moral complexity. Six core worldbuilding techniques extracted from the best in cinema, with craft lessons fiction writers can apply…
AdventureStar Wars: A New Hope (1977) Review
A New Hope is the film that created modern blockbuster cinema, and it did so by being something very specific: a myth engine. Lucas wasn't writing charact.
ActionStar Trek: First Contact (1996) Review
First Contact is the best Star Trek film after Wrath of Khan, and that's a significant statement given how many entries the franchise has produced. What separates it from the rest is a structural decision that most franchise filmmaking refuses…
Artificial Intelligence2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Review
2001 was a genuine achievement when it was released in 1968 and it remains technically remarkable today. Kubrick built a visual language for space that influenced every serious science fiction film that followed.
AdventureThe Empire Strikes Back (1980) Review
Empire earns its 8 by doing what no Star Wars film before or since has managed: it takes the universe seriously. Lucas's original Star Wars is a myth engine, archetypes, simple morality, the pleasure of a world with clear rules.
ActionThe Fifth Element (1997) Review
The Fifth Element is a perfect film. Not a perfect science fiction film, not a perfect action film, a perfect film, period.
DramaThe Expanse Review
By the standards that matter, world building, political complexity, character depth, physical realism, sustained narrative tension, nothing else in the genre comes close. Then Amazon bought it, and the same show with largely the same cast and creative team produced…
AdventureDune Parts 1 & 2 Review
From inside the book, these are the right criticisms. The short version: Villeneuve made two visually extraordinary films that get many of the big things right and a handful of things badly wrong.