The Banana Splits Movie (2019) - Movie Review

Doing a gritty reboot of a previously straight form of media is such a cliché at this point, it’s become one of the best warning signs that an imagined revival of a popular series is going to suck hardcore. Some films may be able to pull off the idea, like the first Brady Bunch movie, but even that was less about grittiness than it was updating for the times. So you can imagine what happens when someone takes a seemingly-forgotten Hanna-Barbera series from the 60’s and tries to turn it into a horror movie.

Ex Machina (2015) - Movie Review

Once the fear response wears off, human inquisition starts about what exactly it is. Add to this our conflicting need for companionship, and it results in posing the big question: What counts as human? Speculative fiction owes about ¾ of its internal organs, and maybe 6 fingers, to this notion because it has resulted in some of its greatest work based on it. Take this notion about “what is human?” and give it to one Alex Garland, a man who might be one of the optimistic in terms of humanity as a species. Best known for his work with director Danny Boyle, and that kick-arse Dredd movie from a couple of years back, he has a thing for including characters, even villains, who are willing to help heal the world in the face of oblivion; It’s just that they went about in very different and morally opposing ways. Putting these two together has, apparently, lead to a highly acclaimed production that is being compared to seminal sci-fi works like 2001 and Solaris. As you can probably tell by my blog background, this sci-fi geek really hopes that its hype is justified.