REVIEW: Kong: Skull Island [2017]

“Eating’s for the living” It’s amazing how a film’s success can create a tidal wave, but that’s exactly what Gareth Edwards‘ Godzilla did in 2014. We’re talking critical acclaim, half a billion dollars at the box office, and a rejuvenated plea for monster flicks. Well the first two are fact, the third merely hope on behalf of Legendary Pictures. Because their investment isn’t just sequels, it’s about a “MonsterVerse” so important to them that they got Universal Pictures to give Kong: Skull Island‘s rights to Warner Bros. so a single…

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REVIEW: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story [2016]

“Rebellions are built on hope” George Lucas used to say years ago that the original Star Wars trilogy was but three chapters of an epic nine-part saga. It dealt with the Skywalker family, beginning in the middle to introduce a passing of the “Force” from father to son. Lucas would eventually make the first three chapters as a prequel series used to tell the tale of Anakin Skywalker’s descent towards the Dark Side for exposition into the stunning reveal his becoming Luke and Leia’s formidable foe in A New Hope…

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REVIEW: Godzilla [2014]

“Let them fight” The reason Gareth Edwards‘ rebooted Godzilla proves so effective is that it retains the thematic essence of its 1954 ancestor, Gojira. Still an over-arching metaphor for mankind’s hubris and wont to destroy everything it doesn’t understand out of fear, Dave Callaham, Max Borenstein, and multiple script doctors simply found ways to alter the DNA so it could be relevant for an American demographic rather than Japanese. I’ll be honest: we aren’t a country that enjoys watching foreign lands painted as the victim while we look on with…

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REVIEW: Factory Farmed [2008]

“I am required to carry out this task until completion: your orders do not override anything.” It’s always impressive to see what artists can do with limited resources and sparse time. The format provided by popular 48-Hour series occurring internationally as an exercise and a forum for up-and-coming auteurs looking to showcase their talent allows us just such a venue. In 2008, UK’s Sci-Fi channel sponsored a competition in London that bowed a short film from a group calling themselves Rebel Alliance. Led by Gareth Edwards, (who wrote, directed, edited,…

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REVIEW: Monsters [2010]

“I don’t cause it, I just document it” I’m not sure you can call it an alien invasion when we send a space probe out to find information, only to have it crash land over Mexico upon its return with extra-terrestrial life. America brought its new enemy to the world of Gareth Edwards’s Monsters, a human story of survival, fear, and love six years after the creatures have taken over the middle of North America, coast to coast. The area is now known as the Infected Zone and it shouldn’t…

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