In the geeky corners of movie fandom, one hears legend of the odd-numbered Star Trek curse. It is said that the odd-numbered films in the series cannot hold a candle to the weaker even-numbered counterparts. With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, director James Gunn subverts that space-opera curse. He delivers as strong an odd-numbered … Continue reading Review: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ – An Emotional Farewell to Gunn’s Guardians Team
Review: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Serves as Both a Thrilling Ride and a Poignant Ecological Critique
James Gunn and the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise always felt out of sync with the MCU. Despite featuring prominent characters with close ties to Thanos, the Guardians occupied a more violent and comedic corner of the franchise. Nevertheless, Gunn's vision remains the only one to fully work within the MCU, as he could serve … Continue reading Review: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Serves as Both a Thrilling Ride and a Poignant Ecological Critique
Review: ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Brings Fun Nostalgia and Easter Eggs Galore
The curse of the video game movie seems over. A string of successful hits turned around the genre in the past few years. Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, Uncharted, and Mortal Kombat all landed positive praise. The Last of Us just dominated television. However, none of these hold a candle to the worldwide appeal of Super Mario. … Continue reading Review: ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Brings Fun Nostalgia and Easter Eggs Galore
Franchise Rewind: A Second Look at Style Over Substance of ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’
Coming off the revitalization can be tricky for any filmmaker. Working off another's script can be even more difficult. Yet the task assigned to J.A. Bayona appeared to be a strong match on paper. During my initial viewings, I quickly soured on the film. In the name of fairness, I revisited Bayona's dino adventure, scripted by Colin … Continue reading Franchise Rewind: A Second Look at Style Over Substance of ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’
Review: ‘Jurassic World Dominion’ Brings Back Visual Wonder, While Struggling with Story
The Jurassic Park franchise deserves most of the credit for making me love the movies. Steven Spielberg's masterful sci-fi monster movie is my favorite film and remains a technical marvel. It works as an all-around masterpiece of action, adventure, sci-fi, and drama. For everything it gave to the world, it also opened Pandora's Box when it came … Continue reading Review: ‘Jurassic World Dominion’ Brings Back Visual Wonder, While Struggling with Story
Franchise Rewind: ‘Jurassic World’ Thrives as a B-Movie But Stumbles When Reaches For a Point
Seven years after Jurassic World revived the franchise, we are approaching the end of Colin Trevorrow's trilogy. With that in mind, we're rewinding the tape to look back over the franchise. The new trilogy has introduced dozens of new characters of questionable quality, but the undeniable success of Jurassic World brought audiences back to Isla Nublar. The action-adventure … Continue reading Franchise Rewind: ‘Jurassic World’ Thrives as a B-Movie But Stumbles When Reaches For a Point
Review: ‘Lego Movie 2’ Cannot Recapture the Awesome, Falling Flat as a Sequel
Despite some good Tiffany Haddish and great sight gags, The LEGO Movie 2 cannot live yo the first feature. Check out our review of The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part at We Bought a Blog.
Review: ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ is One Big Dino Pile
Earlier this week, I sat down and rewatched my favorite film of all-time, "Jurassic Park." The classic 1993 film, directed by the iconic Steven Spielberg, is often regarded as a landmark blockbuster. The film held the title as the highest grossing domestic film in US History until it was passed in 1998 by "Titanic." As I … Continue reading Review: ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ is One Big Dino Pile