TheRetroCritic

Talking about the movie Annihilation today.

Based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer and directed by Alex Garland, Annihilation is a science fiction film about a team of researchers who are sent into the mysterious Area X: a gradually expanding coastal area surrounded by an inexplicable shimmer. Unlike the book, the film slowly builds to the team's entry into Area X, instead of throwing you into the unknown right off the bat. Natalie Portman is Lena, a biology professor and ex-US Army soldier whose husband (played by Oscar Isaac), who was believed to be dead, comes back to her one day after going into the "shimmer" himself. Lena and four others, including Jennifer Jason Leigh's psychologist, are sent in to explore as increasingly unexpected events start to occur. Adapting this story was never going to be easy as there's a myriad ways you could approach it. This could have been a very arty, impenetrably abstract affair or an Alien -style straight-up horror movie or even something else entirely. Garland ma

George Lucas' Star Wars "prequelogy" finally came to its epic conclusion back in 2005 which saw the long awaited birth of Darth Vader come to fruition. Was it all worth it? Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith definitely took a page out of Attack Of The Clones in that it prioritised big, visually impressive action sequences over anything else though an important concern, this time, was of course linking everything together in a way that makes sense. Good old Ian McDiarmid finally gets a chance to go full Palpatine in this one which leads to some enjoyably hammy, shamelessly over-the-top dialog and scenes. The dodgy Chancellor's slow yet meticulous way of getting into Anakin Skywalker's head is pretty masterful and you definitely buy that Anakin would turn to the Dark Side at the hands of this lightning-spraying ghoul. As for Hayden Christensen, he does a decent enough job this time and, at the very least, looks convincingly pissed off. The plot this time is

After the mostly negative feedback The Phantom Menace received, George Lucas nonetheless continued his prequel trilogy with Episode II: Attack Of The Clones , a vastly bigger, slicker and more action-packed effort.  Anakin Skywalker now all grown up, it was up to newcomer Hayden Christensen to take over the role from the wildly unpopular Jake Lloyd and the result was... another wildly unpopular performance fans are still talking about to this very day in hushed tones. Anakin's courtship of Padmé, which inexplicably included talk of sand ("it's coarse and rough and irritating"), did not help matters as the script's more romantic scenes definitely stood out as slightly clumsy. That said, the film around poor old Anakin looked so good and was so entertaining, even a wooden Christensen couldn't hurt it too much even if it did rub quite a few Star Warsians the wrong way. The film means business from the get-go as it learns from The Phantom Menace's mist

To say that there was a lot of anticipation for George Lucas' Star Wars prequels back before they were released would be sugar-coating what was probably one of geekdom's all-time biggest events. Seeing the rise of Darth Vader could only be awesome. ...right? Well let's just say that if ever there was a way not to start that trilogy, The Phantom Menace was it. Not that it didn't deliver anything of value but the backlash that followed the film was so huge that it made everyone very worried for the rest of the prequels. Jar Jar Binks became the single most hated Star Wars character of all time and The Phantom Menace, by extension, the most hated Star Wars movie of all time. But was that backlash an overreaction or was it somewhat deserved? While I'd love to say that The Phantom Menace was in fact a misunderstood gem, one can't deny just how inept parts of this movie are. Yes, Jar Jar Binks was a bad idea from the start: his bumbling antics unfunny f

Not sure why the trailer opens on a truck but otherwise... Looks pretty good :P

Top 10 Biggest Black Swan Lols from TheRetroCritic on Vimeo .

The trailer for Thor promised epic camp the likes of which hasn't been seen since Flash Gordon  and a lot of it looked like they probably would not work for a second. Frost giants? Yeah that won't be silly at all... And yet there I was, witnessing Norse Gods in shiny gold armour riding horses along a glass rainbow bridge, taking it all in and not even batting an eye. The entertainment value of the whole thing was such that I could easily go "nothing wrong here" and suspend my disbelief like I've never done before to accommodate this ridiculous, yet somewhat irresistible mythological superhero epic. For one thing, Asgard looks amazing: this is Marvel on a grand scale and, upon its release, it was probably the most ambitious superhero film ever made. Yes, when you take a step back it's like: "what is all this?" but if you allow yourself to go with it, you'll just love this visual feast. It's almost a shame Thor has to go to Earth, esp