film criticism by maryann johanson | since 1997
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.
Lex Scott Davis protests the Purge, Elle Fanning invents science fiction, Whitney Houston is eulogized in documentary form, and more…
Hollywood finds a way. To keep telling the same stories over and over again, that is. There’s too much going on in Fallen Kingdom, and yet somehow not enough, either. Still: dinosaurs!
Elle Fanning invents science fiction; Natalie Dormer overhears a murder; more…
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.
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A riff on the Hollywood conventions of a story we know very well already, with little new to say. James McAvoy’s mad scientist is fun to watch, though.
It looks lovely and Ian McKellen is amazing, of course, but it’s not very Holmesian. I suspect Holmes himself would snort in derision at its sentimentality.
A solid action fantasy more elemental and visceral than I expected, thanks to the potent presence of Luke Evans.
Like how Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman could have swapped roles in Les Misérables and it would have worked just as well…
