The Star Wars movies are the crown jewel of franchise filmmaking, and sometimes it’s a little hard to see why. Look at it like this: Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back are classics for a reason. That’s a no-brainer since they are fun, fast-paced, and chock-full of memorable characters. So far, so good. Then Return of the Jedi hits us, and it’s really just about half to 3/4 of a good movie. That’s a little bit of a bummer, but we can live with it. After that, we have the Prequels inflicted upon us. These are the three films that almost killed the franchise stone... Read More

These are interesting times for science fiction. You can be excused for thinking that science fiction is just shorthand for an action movie set in space, or with aliens, or time travel. Yeah, we’ve had a lot of that, particularly with Star Trek Beyond and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.* But we’re also living in a bit of a miniature renaissance of sci-fi movies that intertwine hard science with the human emotional journey. Films like Ex Machina, Interstellar, The Martian, and Gravity all have a beating heart and something to say, even if their message is cloaked in androids or... Read More