Spoilers. Four million years ago, stagnating proto-humans were close to extinction until a rectangular, black monolith appeared, altering them, making them smarter and more violent, and allowing their descendants to become the dominate species on the planet. But those descendants have now become stagnant as well. In early 2001 (though earlier in the sequels), another
Dr. Tim Mason (Roger Pryor) is at the forefront of frozen therapy, but his demonstration promised more than it could deliver, so he and his nurse/fiancée Judith Blair (Jo Ann Sayers) head to the long abandoned, secluded home of the inventor of frozen therapy, Dr. Leon Kravaal (Boris Karloff). There, in a hidden underground camber
At an archaeological dig, Hu Bayi (Mark Chao) volunteers, along with other soldiers, to accompany Professor Yan and his daughter Ping (Yao Chen) down a dangerous tunnel. These leads to fire bats, avalanches, and a mysterious temple, and also the deaths of most of the party. Several years later Bayi and his childhood friend Wang
The biggest mistake of Revenge of the Sith is making it so self-serious. It wants to be a Shakespeare tragedy, which is odd for a series based on afternoon serials. The second biggest was Hayden Christensen. Granted, the actor never had a chance, But Ewan McGregor managed to elevate his poor dialog while Christensen drags
In Perfectlandia, where the perfect people live their perfect lives, the outside world upsets perfection when a damaged Data reveals a Federation spy mission. The Federation is working with the Son’a, an aggressive species that violates many Federation rules, to screw with the perfect folks. Captain Picard and company must discover why Data was damaged,
It’s ten years after the close of the breach in Pacific Rim and Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), the previously unmentioned son to the first film’s stern, dead father figure, is threatened with jail or a return to the jaeger program. He chooses the latter and joins ever-squinting Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood) in training a bunch
Prof. James Houghland (Charles Hill Mailes) has invented a new technology for that newest of new products: the television. Multiple companies want his invention, and secretive people threaten him. During his demonstration, he is murdered. Nelson, the chief of police (Henry Mowbray) has many suspects, including Houghland’s assistant Dr. Arthur Perry (Bela Lugosi), medical experimentalist
In 2176 on a partially terraformed Mars, Police lieutenant Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge) is discovered by the Martian authorities to be the only occupant of an arriving train. She recounts the events leading to the situation: Ballard, her commander (Pam Grier), Sgt Jericho (Jason Statham) and two new officers (Cleas DuVall, Liam Waite), arrived at
This film has a vast advantage over the other two prequel films: it has parallel stories. The Anakin stuff is again pretty bad, with Christensen putting in a career-mutilating performance as he and Natalie Portman utter uncomfortable “romantic” dialog. But with this film, if we removed the bad material, there’s still something left. Obi-Wan has
After a terrorist kills Christopher Pike and escapes with extra-super-duper beaming to the Klingon home world, Kirk is sent to kill him. Kirk decides instead to capture this mysterious man… OK, it’s Khan. We all know it is Khan. The second Abrams-verse Trek film has all the same positives as the first, and all the
Taylor (Charlton Heston), Landon (Robert Gunner), and Dodge (Jeff Burton) survive the crash of their spaceship on an alien world in the far future. They quickly discover that apes are the intelligent and dominate life form, and the primitive, mute humans are thought of as pests. Taylor is taken captive, where chimpanzee scientist Zira (Kim