The Conjuring 2 relies heavily on low-budget creepiness. It is based on the allegedly true story of a haunting in England, in which a house started to misbehave and a spirit occasionally channelled itself through a young girl. This scenario is used not so much to preach important truths about the afterlife, but to creep people out and occasionally make them jump in their seats.… Read the rest
Can we all just agree that Magneto is beyond redemption? Sure, it’s all very ironic that someone who survived the Holocaust is now a big believer in “Übermenschen”. And admittedly, his main philosphical argument with Xavier is interesting. If an oppressed minority has enough power to seize control, should they do so?… Read the rest
Eye in the Sky is a tense thriller with a moral dilemma at its core: is it okay to sacrifice a few innocent people if you know that this decision will save a larger amount of innocents further down the line?… Read the rest
Deadpool started out as a fairly generic mercenary in the Marvel comic book universe during the nineties. I am not sure at what point he picked up the moniker ‘the merc with a mouth’, but he ended up changing into a morally dubious smart-ass who was always looking out for number one.… Read the rest
10 Cloverfield Lane is a movie best seen knowing as little as possible about it beforehand. That makes it hard to review. I saw the trailer, which was very well made and misleading in a good way, but it contained shots that I had remembered and knew would be coming up at some point.… Read the rest
Mockingjay – Part 2 didn’t seem likely to be the best part of Katniss Everdeen’s story. First off, it was based on the final book in the Hunger Games trilogy, considered the weakest by a lot of readers. And that book was split into two movies, which could easily be interpreted as a cynical cash-grab rather than something artistically motivated.… Read the rest
There are no happy ever afters, as long as someone can think of a new story to tell. The heroes from the original trilogy were last seen celebrating at the end of Return of the Jedi, but it turns out that they have had a pretty rough time of it since.… Read the rest
Gone Girl director David Fincher is no stranger to twisty tales that are heavy on the moral ambiguity. (Also see: Se7en, The Game and Fight Club.) His latest movie is two-thirds of a thriller that is successfully tense, though you are likely to figure out where the story is headed before it arrives there.… Read the rest
James Bond is a dick. That much is clear from the opening scenes of Spectre, the latest 007 movie. Bond endangers a large amount of innocent bystanders – in fact, he no doubt caused the death of one or two off-screen – and he murders someone who may just have been a pilot-for-hire.… Read the rest
Watching a botanist try to survive on Mars against all odds is funnier than one would suspect. When Mark Watney (Matt Damon) gets left for dead by his team during a mission gone wrong, things seems hopeless. A lesser man would possibly just give up and expire, but not this guy.… Read the rest
