I have loved some of Ridley Scott’s movies (Blade Runner, The Martian, Alien, just for a few examples), but he has no authority to talk, in my opinion. His output is wildly uneven; always brilliant to look at, but often overblown or absurd (Prometheus, Gladiator). He has wasted a ton of movie studios’ money on flops,…

I guess you might say that it subverts it as it relates to K, in that he turns out not to be the chosen one. But there is actually a chosen one and I think it’s heavily implied that she will become the focal point of the eventual replicant revolution (in a movie we’ll probably never see). So I stand on my critique.

The worst thing about Blade Runner 2049 was the chosen-one plot. The world of 2049 was really well imagined and, for the most part, satisfying. But having the story return to Deckard and Rachael — who turned out to be secondary characters in the original story (which I still find one of the most remarkable parts of…

The funny thing is that the actual history is much more interesting than the fantasy, and it makes Barnum — as a character — much more compelling than the vanilla lead you describe (I haven’t seen the movie, so that might not be correct). Oh, if only Stephen Sondheim had written this one; imagine “Assassins,” but with…

I am with you on this. The worst thing about ROTJ (and the first trilogy), in my opinion, was having Vader turn. It was poorly set up, his character didn’t really support that outcome, and by killing him off immediately, the movie seemed to excuse his terrible brutality and murderousness throughout the first trilogy.…

If Episode IX redeems Kylo Ren, after all of the death and destruction he personally wrought, that would be the true nihilism. Kylo has shown himself to be a monster (and he admitted to being one); just because he’s conflicted doesn’t mean he is really salvageable. Kylo turning to the light at the 11 and 1/2th hour of…

Did you notice that among Rivera’s laundry list of “requirements” for raising complaints about disgusting behavior like what he did to Midler is that there be “some contemporaneous corroboration”? In fact, quite a few of the women who have complained about this kind of behavior — such as at least one of Roy Moore’s…

That is a cool idea, and Strange being in the mix makes it more likely to play out that way. He’s not a puncher, unlike the rest of the Avengers.

I may be wrong, but I could swear that Gunn has been talking at length about his story plans for GoTG Vol. 3. I guess that might mean that he is only writing, not directing. But I highly doubt that.

Though I have stopped watching the show, I spent more time than I should have thinking about your question. I resist the idea of a retreat to the “dark ages,” mainly because it’s becoming more and more clear that there was never any such thing; it’s only because we didn’t used to have good records for the period from…

Is Nicholas Pegg related to Simon Pegg?

This isn’t meant as a diss against Waititi, a director and actor whose work I really like. But, while seeing his admittedly singular vision guiding a Marvel movie is really cool, he is less the innovator than this piece suggests.

The *Real* unpopular opinion is this one: There is nothing wrong with Portman’s performance or her chemistry with Hemsworth. Their scenes together are fun, at least before the plot mechanics bring everything down. And, particularly in The Dark World, she has some comic moments that I think she plays fine. Maybe not as…

Depends on which episode you’re watching. Which is kind of the point of my comment.

I think that you are worrying unnecessarily. Styles in TV storytelling change, just like styles in everything else. In the 60s through most of the 80s, the style was continuing shows where there are few or no carryover plot elements from one week to the next. From this we got “City on the Edge of Forever,” but we also…

That is a good and interesting point. For an impactful event where Kirk lost his soulmate in a hugely personal way, the story is weirdly unimpactful going forward. The events are never mentioned again. Edith Keeler is never mentioned again. Kirk is back lip-locking with hot alien women in Season 2 with nary a care in…

Good piece. People have short memories. They forget that Kelly was the head of the Department of Homeland Security at the beginning of the Trump administration, when the initial travel ban was signed. Nothing about that suggested that Kelly would do anything other than commit completely to his boss’s agenda. Nothing…

I haven’t seen the movie yet, so I may wind up disavowing this comment. But saying that the movie’s greatest flaw is that it doesn’t have a deep, emotional core (paraphrasing) ... that doesn’t sound like a flaw to me. If anything, it sounds like a great step forward for this series. The first two Thor movies are both…

I realize that JNT had a serious problem with “The Five Doctors” when Tom Baker refused to participate, but using the “Shada” footage was the least satisfactory solution to that problem. It left fans hungry for the rest of a never-to-be-completed Baker story; it was transparently a work-around for a missing Baker; and…

The Devil’s Rain is great!