‘Mute’ Review

The production history of Mute, a new sci-fi thriller now debuting on Netflix, dates almost as far back as director Duncan Jones’ film career does. Mentioned around the time of his outstanding first feature Moon, Jones would instead deliver the terrific Source Code as a follow-up, and then spend years working on the Warcraft movie. Though there were some flashes of visual invention, Warcraft was ultimately left looking like a big-budget misstep on Jones’s CV upon its summer 2016 release, but events seemed to be headed in a positive direction when he quickly bounced back into finally getting Mute made the following year. Now, after a minor blip that saw it bypass theatres, we can all see if this is a pleasing return to form (and the world of Moon) for Duncan Jones? Alas no, it most definitely is not.

‘Captain America: Civil War’ Review

Marvel Studios’ thirteenth film, and the one that kicks off their third official “phase”, finds them embracing their original concept of a shared cinematic universe like never before. Their success has been so great that they now appear to be operating on the same assumption the Harry Potter series did from its third entry onward; that audiences are all now totally familiar with the characters and this world, and know the previous stories. There’s no entry point for new viewers now. Marvel are using this film to draw from previous events, and explore new ones that affect multiple characters throughout their universe, and introduce a couple of new names to boot.

October Horror: Halloween Marathon 5 – ‘Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers’ (1989) + ‘Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers’ (1995)

Arriving just a year after Halloween 4, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers initially appears to be taking the same route Halloween 2 did in picking up from right where the previous film ended. This notion is quickly dropped though, and is really just an excuse to explain how Myers survived the mine shaft explosion we last saw him in.

‘Ant-Man’ Review

I’ve mentioned a couple of times before how I’ve wanted a visionary director to join the Marvel studios brand and manage to do something interesting with their increasingly homogenised output. Someone who could make a film with visual style and personality unique unto itself yet still fit within their established cinematic universe. And I really thought Edgar Wright was that filmmaker. It’s depressingly telling that he was removed from Ant-Man just before shooting began, further cementing the notion that Marvel don’t want directors who’ll bring something distinct to one of their movies, and replacing Wright with the much more anonymous Peyton Reed (Yes Man, The Break-Up).