Science Fiction | www.jaredmobarak.com

REVIEW: ゴジラ [Gojira] [Godzilla] [1954]

2014/05/112014/05/11 Jared Mobarak

“I’m telling you the sea just exploded” Only nine years after the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the atomic bomb, the first science fiction kaiju film was born. Manifested as a hybrid Tyrannosaurus Rex, Iguanodon, and Stegosaurus, the creature ゴジラ [Gojira] [Godzilla] took shape in the mind of special effects designer Eiji Tsuburaya. A giant beast released from the sea’s depth due to hydrogen bomb tests destroying its natural habitat, its ability to survive on land and water shaped its name from the words gorilla (gorira) and whale (kujira).…

REVIEW: X-Men 2 [2003]

2014/05/062014/05/07 Jared Mobarak

“Nature laughs last” This is the one—the superhero movie unequaled in the decade since. The Dark Knight comes close, but it’s hard to hold Christopher Nolan‘s trilogy on par with the rest when it exists as a beast all its own. Only The Avengers and Captain America: The Winter Soldier found a way to match its scale and precision, falling ever so short on the emotional depth chart. X-Men 2 is simply a perfect storm of everything you could want in a film let alone one steeped in comic lore.…

REVIEW: X-Men [2000]

2014/05/052014/05/06 Jared Mobarak

“What do they call you? Wheels?” It’s hard to believe-fourteen years gone-that X-Men was the comic book property used to usher in our current “golden age” of superhero movies. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised considering it’s probably the most relatable due to its being devoid of flying aliens, radioactive spiders, and Gods. No, short of Batman transforming the memory his parents’ murder into the life of a vigilante, mutants are the most “human” creation Marvel or DC has created (at least to someone with barely a cursory knowledge of…

REVIEW: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 [2014]

2014/05/022014/05/03 Jared Mobarak

“You still blow dry your hair every morning?” It’s time to embrace the comic aspect of comic book films. I’m sorry, but it is. Christopher Nolan‘s time on the Dark Knight Trilogy is over and while we’d like the comic genre’s big brother graphic novel to imbue the dark conflicted nature of an Oscar worthy film, it doesn’t necessarily mimic the medium’s tone. We’re talking costumed heroes fighting a rogue’s gallery of mutated baddies with special powers who wreak havoc, never die, and engage in a never-ending cycle so that…

REVIEW: Under the Skin [2014]

2014/04/252014/05/07 Jared Mobarak

**POSSIBLE SPOILERS** “Do you want to touch my neck?” Some movies require you to take a pause so they may settle into your consciousness and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that those are generally the good ones. It could be because the story is abstract or opaque and needs deciphering. Or perhaps it took an unexpected twist from initial preconceptions or mid-viewing hypotheses and you must now reconcile its reality with failed assumptions. Jonathan Glazer‘s Under the Skin, however, surprised me due to something I did expect: its silent,…

REVIEW: The Machine [2014]

2014/04/212014/04/24 Jared Mobarak

“Some people can’t give up hope even if they know it’s hopeless” With so many writers and directors keen to give us a look at a future ravaged by an impending war between man and his creations, it’s always a breath of fresh air when someone decides to show the potential of an evolutionary leap towards harmony. That’s not to say Caradog W. James‘ film The Machine is devoid of violent carnage at the hands of bloodthirsty militaristic bureaucrats sitting behind desks as their employed scientists crack the code of…

REVIEW: Transcendence [2014]

2014/04/152014/04/16 Jared Mobarak

“They say there’s power in Boston” With a trailer digitizing Johnny Depp and electronic machinery created out of thin air, it’s an understatement to say I was surprised the beginning of Transcendence introduced a world without power. I thought the film was about new technology and the advancement of artificial intelligence harboring a potential for hubristic power grabs and the genocide of organic thinking/emotional response. Instead I saw broken screens on the street and a shop owner wedging a chewed-up keyboard into the gap between his door and the ground…

REVIEW: Captain America: The Winter Soldier [2014]

2014/03/312017/11/03 Jared Mobarak

“I thought you were more than just a shield?” Despite what’s been said the past couple weeks, Marvel still hasn’t released that “A” film quite yet. Don’t get me wrong: the universe they have created is unparalleled and possessed by a consistency of success on par with Disney’s other child Pixar, but has there been a The Dark Knight? An X-Men 2 even? Not yet. The closest we’ve come is probably The Avengers for finding a way to integrate the many disparate storylines into the series’ most standalone feature to…

REVIEW: The Abyss [1989]

2014/03/252019/01/08 Jared Mobarak

“You have to look with better eyes than that” Even the most rudimentary research into the production of James Cameron‘s The Abyss yields horror story upon horror story as frustrations shattered personal lives and behind the scenes decisions fought against its genre, budget, and appeal. There’s the writer/director basing lead character Lindsey Brigman on producer Gale Anne Hurd only to find himself marrying her previous to filming, separating during pre-production, and divorcing months before it’s release date. That opening weekend itself was pushed from July until August to complete special…

REVIEW: Divergent [2014]

2014/03/182014/03/21 Jared Mobarak

“Faction before blood” Like it or not, the twenty-first century has brought cultural alterations. For instance, the conversation about futuristic dystopias and/or social upheaval no longer includes 1984, Brave New World, or Fahrenheit 451. Our contemporary equivalents are now The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, and Divergent. They may not be at the same reading level, target the same demographic, or prove as smart and prophetic as the former trio, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t relevant or effective. All except for one thing impossible to ignore: their delivery method.…

REVIEW: RoboCop [1987]

2014/02/162014/04/17 Jared Mobarak

“The future has a silver lining” It started with a passing thought by screenwriter Edward Neumeier as he walked by a poster for Blade Runner—a movie his friend explained was about a “cop hunting robots”. What if he combined those two nouns to make a robot cop? A machine with the computational power to judge right from wrong tinted gray due to a latent morality combined with the extra strength and invincibility being constructed out of metal could provide? Yes, please. Partnered with Michael Miner, however, their dystopian script was…