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FANTASIA17 REVIEW: Sequence Break [2017]

2017/08/012017/08/03 Jared Mobarak

“Let the void look into you” Introversion and high anxiety are real and can be triggered by the tiniest of things or the lack thereof. Oz (Chase Williamson) has struggled with both his entire life, that insecurity in social situations driving him towards the world of videogames. The joy of solitude playing them and being good at them brought him into a society of like-minded individuals and ultimately a career as mechanic to dinosaurs of derelict arcades past. Was he happy? Sure. Things could always be better, but isn’t that…

FANTASIA17 REVIEW: S.U.M.1 [2017]

2017/07/302017/07/31 Jared Mobarak

“We will fight for our future. Your future.” It’s been decades since a new world order changed Earth forever, an alien invasion by creatures known as the Nonesuch forcing humanity underground. The old guard who survived remembers the war that drove them subterranean, memories of life on the surface and the beasts that present-day generations hope to never encounter. If any of them do want to risk their lives for a glimpse of the sun they’ve only heard about through stories, though, they can enlist in the military and become…

REVIEW: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets [2017]

2017/07/262017/07/27 Jared Mobarak

“We can forgive, but we will never forget” Sci-fi fantasy Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is the most expensive European and independent (anywhere) production ever at approximately $200 million dollars—high enough that writer/director/producer Luc Besson pretty much leveraged his distribution shingle EuropaCorp before bringing STX on as a partner to defer costs and get it into theaters. Now questions are floated about whether it can ever turn a profit after “bomb” proved too weak a word to describe its reception by the American box office. The odds…

REVIEW: Spider-Man: Homecoming [2017]

2017/07/062017/07/07 Jared Mobarak

“Guy in the chair” Here’s an unpopular opinion for you: I enjoyed The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Yes, the one with a blue Jamie Foxx. The only reason I bring it up is to say even I was dreading the proposed villain team-up spin-off and inevitable trilogy capper seemingly arriving at a place wherein Peter Parker’s parents would reveal themselves as being crucial to whatever really happened with that fateful radioactive arachnid. But that doesn’t mean I wanted another reboot. It was bad enough Sony already scrapped one failed attempt at…

REVIEW: Transformers: The Last Knight [2017]

2017/06/222017/06/23 Jared Mobarak

“You’re running out of tomorrows” Fact: Transformers: The Last Knight is its franchise’s most entertaining entry. While I definitely felt ready to nod off during my original trilogy refresher course this week—and actually shut my eyes a couple times during Age of Extinction—this latest installment had me wide-eyed and interested throughout its 149-minutes (the series’ shortest runtime since its 144-minute original). Sometimes that interest was in the insane retrofitted King Arthur plotline padded by manageable excess, but mostly it was attuned to an unhinged and manic Anthony Hopkins having a…

REVIEW: Transformers: Age of Extinction [2014]

2017/06/212017/06/23 Jared Mobarak

“I know you have a conscience because you’re an inventor like me” There’s a problem when the first, expository-heavy hour of a three-hour Transformers action extravaganza shines above the rest. Michael Bay has looked upon this franchise from the start as an excuse to put explosions and destruction onscreen alongside cheesy and sometimes offensive comedy to satisfy the young children of parents (uninterested in shielding their ears from the oft swear word) that grew up in the 80s. He excelled at this mix with the first installment, casting the sarcastically…

REVIEW: Alien: Covenant [2017]

2017/05/272017/05/28 Jared Mobarak

“One wrong note eventually ruins the entire symphony” I was in the minority with Prometheus in 2012, declaring its brilliantly nuanced story diving beneath its genre conventions as the best entry in the Alien franchise since the original. It was spirituality-tinged science fiction whereas Ridley Scott‘s 1979 classic was character-based horror with palpable emotion-laden terror. Both were disparate worlds that fit together if not reliant upon each other. Scott found this new success in large part to screenwriter Damon Lindelof and the decision to scale back Alien references so that…

REVIEW: Flash Gordon [1980]

2017/05/182017/05/19 Jared Mobarak

“No Vultan … it’s a rational transaction! One life for billions.” Star Sam J. Jones is the first to admit Flash Gordon is corny and full of camp. No one is disputing this fact and some say screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr. (he who was responsible for the Adam West “Batman” series) wrote it that way intentionally on producer Dino De Laurentiis‘ request. (Semple has since stated that he feels this was a mistake since sci-fi legend Alex Raymond‘s source material was never meant to be portrayed this way.) But Jones…

REVIEW: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 [2017]

2017/05/042017/11/02 Jared Mobarak

“It’s not ripe” The world of Guardians of the Galaxy proved a necessary shot of comic and action adrenaline for the Marvel Cinematic Universe back in 2014. It gave a breather from the Tony Stark crew, allowed the voice of an outsider in James Gunn to permeate the Hollywood machine, and introduced a level of sky’s-the-limit promise and potential as far as aliens, planets, and scope (Thanos isn’t Earth’s random enemy, we’re just standing in his way of much bigger goals beyond our comprehension). Its success came via its characters,…

REVIEW: The Fitzroy [2018]

2017/04/292017/04/30 Jared Mobarak

“Rent or the beach with you!” In an alternative universe where WWII ended in widespread annihilation—England left under a perpetual cloud of poisonous chemical—life’s creature comforts have all but been erased. The gas mask becomes your best friend and survival hinges upon a hermetically sealed container whether it’s a home, commercial business, or submarine (the logistics of how oxygen is pumped in and carbon dioxide pumped out the type of pedantic thought able to ruin the fun of filmmaker Andrew Harmer‘s post-apocalyptic black comedy you should avoid). Thanks to Mildred…

REVIEW: Rupture [2017]

2017/04/252017/04/27 Jared Mobarak

“You will feel it soon” It’s taken ten years, but Secretary director Steven Shainberg has finally followed-up Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus. The result is Rupture, a body horror-lite tale about a woman held captive as part of an experiment meant to unlock humanity’s hidden potential to evolve beyond our current state. Written by Brian Nelson (the two share story credit), its script seeks to mess with our expectations as it does its prisoner Renee (Noomi Rapace). We’re to cultivate a sense of paranoia with surveillance dominating the…