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FlickFilosopher.com

film criticism by maryann johanson | celebrating 25 years: 1997–2022

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Blade Runner

question of the weekend: what movie would you delete the dialogue from so you could just enjoy the visuals and music?

Sat, Aug 07, 2021
11 comments

This might be a movie you love and want to experience on a different level. Or it might be one that would only be improved if you could delete the dialogue. (My choice is one of the latter…)

| 11 Comments

curated: why so much movie criticism, and the movies themselves, are so awful these days

Sun, Jun 06, 2021
15 comments

“[T]he denial of mythos is everywhere in our culture, and it can partially explain why so much of our approach to everything artistic, challenging, or mysterious seems reductive, dull, and unimaginative….”

| 15 Comments

Pokémon: Detective Pikachu movie review: destined to be Legendary

Tue, May 07, 2019
no comments yet

Designed to cash in on the popular mobile game, this kiddie noir nevertheless sparkles with charming originality. Gentle enough for tykes but with satirical bite for grownups, too. Downright adorable.

| Leave a comment

Alita: Battle Angel movie review: ‘Rollerblade Runner’ with a Strong Female Character(TM)

Wed, Feb 13, 2019
2 comments

Devoid of personality and soul, this hellish Frankenstein monster of processed entertainment product wallows in a stew of borrowed ideas and imagery and does absolutely nothing fresh with them.

| 2 Comments

The Titan movie review: bad science, worse science fiction

Wed, Apr 18, 2018
2 comments

The science is ludicrous, the story is almost entirely free of drama, and the finale descends into the hoariest, most ridiculous clichés of the genre. But the future smart-house porn is lovely.

| 2 Comments

Maze Runner: The Death Cure movie review: cute boys at the end of the world

Wed, Jan 24, 2018
7 comments

The Auto-Tuned boy-band version of the apocalypse. You will forgive that every plot point that isn’t a cliché is in fact a plot hole because the hero is so dreamy and impossibly perfect, right?

| 7 Comments

Blade Runner 2049 movie review: a rickety retro replicant

Mon, Oct 09, 2017
141 comments

Visually, this dying future world is immersively hellish. Intellectually, though, its ideas haven’t kept up with the rapidly evolving science-fictional conversation.

| 141 Comments

Ghost in the Shell movie review: more like ghost in the meh-chine

Wed, Mar 29, 2017
107 comments

Trite characters, very well-worn clichés of SF cinema, and a mystery that is completely transparent. All about production design, and even that is familiar.

| 107 Comments

curated: we’re catching up to science fiction

Tue, Jan 10, 2017
1 comment

A key Blade Runner date is “happening” in 2017…

| 1 Comment

Morgan movie review: AI why?

Mon, Sep 05, 2016
1 comment

Eschewing the compelling SF questions it raises, Morgan resorts to violence and would-be cleverness, and makes concrete what it should have left ambiguous.

| 1 Comment
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