film criticism by maryann johanson | celebrating 25 years: 1997–2022
Our expectations are a lot higher now after the unexpectedly wildly inventive first movie… and this sequel delivers, digging with witty subversion into Hollywood’s glorification of its male heroes.
Damian Chazelle finds a dreamlike reverie amidst rocket-powered mechanical brawn. As wonderfully, nerve-wrackingly exhausting as it is movingly intimate.
Could have been assembled entirely from clips from other movies — mostly the Star Wars prequels — and would have been better if it had been.
The wonderfully weird, hilariously morbid “World of Tomorrow” crams in more disturbing, sinister science-fiction ideas than a decade’s worth of blockbusters.
The highlight is the absolutely astonishing “World of Tomorrow,” which crams in more SF ideas than you’ll find in a decade’s worth of summer blockbusters.
Thrilling intellectually and viscerally, full of stirring notions of what humanity is capable of, and full of hope. A wonderfully refreshing sort of SF.
In this pile of adolescent heavy-metal-deep pseudo-sci-fi philosophy, the meaning of humanity depends on how “cool” something looks onscreen.
Star Wars is stuck “a long time ago”: in a 1950s mindset that was already outmoded when the first film was released in 1977.
You’ve seen this all before — it’s Toy Story meets The Matrix — just not done in Legos.
Postcard-pretty, unusual for a science fiction flick, but shockingly derivative.
