Total Recall (1990) Review
Total Recall is one of the great entertainments in science fiction cinema, and its pleasures are specific instead of generic. The women around him are sharply written and sharply performed.
Tag: Space Colonization (Page 3)
1960s2001: 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.
DystopiaBlade Runner 2049 (2017) Review
Blade Runner 2049 is visually extraordinary and narratively inert. Denis Villeneuve and Roger Deakins built some of the most stunning images in recent science fiction cinema, the orange desolation of post-collapse Las Vegas, the grey protein farms extending to the…
1990sThe 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.
1980sBlade Runner (1982) Review
The theatrical cut of Blade Runner, with Deckard's voiceover narration intact, is the correct version of this film. That position is unfashionable.
AdaptationDune 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.
2010sPrometheus (2012) Review
Prometheus wastes one of the most visually gifted directors in contemporary cinema on a script that requires its characters to be catastrophically stupid. These are supposedly the best scientists humanity could assemble for a trillion-dollar mission to find humanity's creators.
Class AllegoryThe 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…
1990sArmageddon (1998) Review
Armageddon is Michael Bay's most complete expression of Michael Bay: maximum volume, minimum coherence, emotional manipulation deployed at maximum intensi. The scientific inaccuracies in Armageddon are not the casual inaccuracies of a film that chose story over accuracy.
1970sStar Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) Review
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is the most expensive screensaver in cinema history. Paramount gave Robert Wise a budget that dwarfed the entire television.
2000sAvatar (2009) Review
Avatar is a white savior film wearing the costume of environmental progressivism, and the combination is more offensive than either element alone. The Na'vi, despite everything that makes them extraordinary, apparently needed Jake Sully.
2010sInterstellar (2014) Review
Interstellar is a bad film that has convinced a large number of people it's a profound one. The misdirection is accomplished through scale: everything is so large, so loud, so visually ambitious, so heavily scored that the emptiness at the…