Tag Archives: movies

Review of “Jurassic World: Rebirth” (2025)

rebirth

© James Pyles

In my last review, I mentioned getting two movies from the public library. The second was Jurassic World: Rebirth. I almost want to say “reboot” because we get a whole new cast of characters, most notably Scarlett Johansson playing the mercenary Zora Bennett.

The film takes place a few years after events in Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) starring another Marvel movie alum Chris Pratt as Owen Grady. Dinosaurs are now sharing the planet with all the other 21st century life forms including humans. However, due to changes in oxygen, temperature, and so on, most dinos are living in areas somewhere near the equator. That’s a convenient way to limit their exposure to people, but it was previously established that at least some dinosaurs can live in colder climates.

Well, this is entertainment.

Spoiler Alert! If you haven’t seen the film and want to be surprised, read no further. You have been warned.

The movie starts in 2008 in a dinosaur genetics lab on Île Saint-Hubert. In previous films, we’ve already seen that audiences got bored seeing the “same old dinosaurs,” so the big money people demanded that the scientists create ever more exciting (and more dangerous) hybrids. The lab has a stupid accident, dropping containment and all hell breaks loose.

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Review of “Captain America: Brave New World” (2025)

brave

© James Pyles

Last night, I watched a couple of movies I got from my local public library branch. The first one was Captain America: Brave New World (2025). I have to agree with the opinions of most of the other folks who have long since seen this film. It wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t great either.

Spoiler Alert: Before I go on, be aware there are plenty of spoilers below. You have been warned.

I should say that I’ve never seen any episodes of the TV show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) nor do I intend to. I’ll assume that the little bits and pieces in the movie I didn’t understand such as who the heck Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) was supposed to be were introduced in that series.

It seemed a little improbable that Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford) was President of the United States given how hostile and aggressive he had been across his military career. Then again, there were a few small parallels to our real-life President Donald Trump, so maybe it wasn’t such a fantastic leap.

The movie, from what I understand, was styled after any number of political thrillers involving dark conspiracies. That said, I think Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) did a better job in that arena.

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This is NOT a Review of “Poor Things” (2023), but…

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Photo: Yorgos Lanthimos. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures – Emma Stone as Bella. Yeah, that’s an infant brain transplanted into a woman’s body.

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I’m sure I’ve heard about the movie Poor Things (2023) before. I guess I just wasn’t paying attention to how vile the plot was. I hadn’t given it a thought at all until I read the Bounding Into Comics article OPINION: Hollywood’s War On Men Is A War On Their Audience.

Poor Things…

is a 2023 science fantasy black comedy film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and written by Tony McNamara. It is based on the 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray. The film stars Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, and Jerrod Carmichael.

According to Wikipedia (I know, I know), the plot goes…

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Review of “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022)

mav

© James Pyles

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So I finally got a chance to watch Top Gun: Maverick (2022) on Blu-Ray last night. Excellent film. It’s not the sort of movie I would normally review for a science fiction / fantasy blog, but it’s just so much fun.

I haven’t seen the original Top Gun (1986) since it was in VHS in the late 1980s (yeah, I know) and I remember almost nothing about it. I was worried that would cause me to have problems understanding the current film, but that wasn’t an issue.

After all, the movie had to appeal to young audiences who had probably never seen the original. There were enough cues to point back to the first film and make plain how those events were attached to what’s happening in the “present.”

Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is apparently living in a dilapidated aircraft hanger endlessly repairing a vintage P-51 Mustang. He’s also test piloting an experimental aircraft as a contractor for the Navy, a plane that’s supposed to be capable of flying Mach 10 (roughly 7672 mph/12348 kph).

He’s only supposed to test the craft at Mach 9 on that day but the project is about to be scrubbed by Admiral Cain (Ed Harris) who wants to divert funding to an unmanned experimental aircraft.

Maverick, out to save the project, launches and achieves Mach 10 over the Admiral’s orders, but then exceeds that speed and destroys the aircraft. Apparently, he’s able to bail out without dying (this movie frequently violates the laws of physics), and before Cain can ground Maverick, new orders come in for Mav to return to the Top Gun naval aviation school we saw in the first movie.

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Review of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness (2022)

multiverse

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Last night I watched Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).

I got the Blu-Ray from my local public library so it didn’t cost me a cent. I was concerned because the film has mixed reviews and I didn’t necessarily want to waste my time on a turkey (like just about every Marvel TV show on Disney+ to which I thankfully do not subscribe).

It was…okay. Actually not bad at all, although somewhat flawed.

Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t seen the movie and you hate spoilers, stop reading now.

Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has a strange (no pun intended) multi-dimensional dream (part and parcel for Dr. Strange in the 1960s and 70 comic books) where he is trying to reach some sort of goal with a young girl (America Chavez played by Xochitl Gomez). Some dark force is trying to take her powers and he becomes too injured to help her. Chavez comes nearer to the goal but is then stopped by the creature. Strange believes the only way to stop the creature from stealing her powers is to steal them himself. Then he wakes up. It was a dream.

Or was it?

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Why Is It Hard To Make a “Superman” Movie?

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What happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)Getty Images

Just finished reading an interesting article at Forbes called DC Films Still Doesn’t Know What To Do With Superman. Apparently, the relatively recent successes of Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and now Joker haven’t rubbed off on the Man of Steel.

In fact, Dani Di Placido, who wrote the Forbes story said:

But the future of Superman is murky, the studio reportedly unsure how to make the character “relevant to modern audiences.”

Like my previous commentaries on Captain America and particularly my two on Superman, HERE and HERE, he appeals to audiences across time because his values are timeless. How does “timeless” ever become irrelevant?

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Charlie’s Angels 2019: A Brief Commentary

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Promotional photo from the 2019 film “Charlie’s Angels”

First of all, I haven’t seen the 2019 version of the movie Charlie’s Angels in theaters now, so this isn’t a review. I might have seen the 2000 movie, or some part of it, starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu, but I don’t have a clear memory. I definitely saw multiple episodes of the television series in the 1970s and 80s, originally starring Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett (then billed as Farrah Fawcett-Majors), and Jaclyn Smith. I don’t remember the show being terrifically good, but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen an episode.

The current incarnation stars  “angels” Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinksa along side a plethora of “Bosleys” including Patrick Stewart.

The main reason I’m writing this is that I came across a scathing review called Why ‘feminist’ films flop on what appears to be a pretty conservative news outlet. I mean the author Maren Thom really pulled out all the stops. That made me curious about the movie (I wasn’t before and in fact, I didn’t even know it was in the theaters until I looked it up), so I started doing some reading.

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What the Heck is a “Neffy Award?”

neffy

Screen capture of a portion of Mike Glyer’s online fanzine “File 770”

Having (finally) successfully subscribed to Mike Glyer’s File 770 online SciFi fan newzine, I find that most of what this rather prolific blog puts out doesn’t catch much of my interest. Of course, with WorldCon Dublin coming up next month, a lot of the content is focused there. They also put out a tremendous number of articles about various awards, again, most of which I don’t have an interest in.

However, I did pause to read Neffy Award Ballot Is Out. I’d never heard of the Neffy Awards, so I looked them up.

But before that, I took a look at the ballot, which lists science fiction and fantasy works nominated in a number of categories. They include Best Novel, Best Shorter Work, Best Book Editor, Fanzine, TV Show, Movie, Anime, and so forth. Needless to say, I didn’t recognize any of the names and most of the category entries. Oh, I have heard of “Game of Thrones” and I used to watch “Supergirl,” but that was about it. This reminded me that as a “fan,” I’m probably really lacking in keeping up with what’s current (to find out what I’ve been reading and watching lately, go to my Reviews page).

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Is Harrison Ford The Only Indiana Jones?

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Promotional image for the 1981 film “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

This morning on the radio, I heard a clip from an interview with actor Harrison Ford where the host asked him who he’d like to see play Indiana Jones after Ford retired from the role. Ford replied no one. When he goes away, Indy goes away, too.

The fifth and last Indiana Jones film starring Ford is slated to come out in 2021, though after 2008’s Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I think Indy’s getting a little long in the tooth for this sort of thing.

The DJ on the radio program I was listening to thought Ford was being arrogant in making such a statement, but I think he’s spot on. It’s not just that Ford originated the character and is terrific at it, but the first Indy movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark came out in 1981, and the only other Indy movie worth a damn (in my opinion) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade hit the theaters in 1989.

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Haven’t Seen “Endgame” Yet and Other Updates

endgame

Promotional poster for “Avengers: Endgame” (2019)

No, I haven’t seen Avengers: Endgame yet, and unless I go with my sons and grandson, I probably won’t see it in the theater. Yes, I’ve heard it is THE film to see, blowing away all of the other Marvel superhero movies, so I’m certainly stoked. I know my ten-year-old grandson is stoked. Hopefully, if I see it while it’s in the theaters, I’ll find a way to sit through a three plus hour film without a potty break.

I’m not particularly interested in spoilers, but given various complaints about how last year’s Avengers: Infinity War ended, I did write a commentary with a few predictions, though of course, I wasn’t (very) seriously suggesting that my crystal ball was any better than all the others.

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