Category: fantasy
REVIEW: Wonder Woman (2017)
Diana (Gal Gadot), Princess of Themyscira, travels from the safety of her home to the front lines of World War I to aid American spy Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) and to confront and defeat the war god Ares - whom she believes is responsible for creating the conflict in the first place. It beggars belief ...
GUEST REVIEW: Wonder Woman (2017)
When it comes to cinema, I prefer to read and hear a plurality of voices. To contribute in a small way to that variety of voices, I have invited some other writers to review new and classic films on this website. I am thrilled that the first-ever guest critic on FictionMachine is Australian science fiction and fantasy ...
REVIEW: The Mummy (2017)
Military officer and part-time antiquities thief Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) uncovers the buried prison of 5,000 year-old Egyptian princess Ahmanet (Sofie Boutella). By accidentally releasing Ahmanet, he becomes the chosen vessel for the evil god Set to physically enter the world - unless he, archaeologist Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis) and the mysterious Dr Henry Jekyll (Russell ...
REVIEW: The Mummy (1999)
In 1926 Egypt, an expedition to the desert ruins of Hamunaptra accidentally unleashes a 3,000 year-old mummified priest from ancient Egypt. While the priest Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) revives himself, adventurer Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) and librarian Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) race to find the means of defeating him. The Mummy, a 1999 loose remake of ...
REVIEW: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)
Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites), the son of William Turner (Orlando Bloom), seeks the mythical Trident of Posiedon in order to remove the curse that keeps William aboard the Flying Dutchman. Joining him on his quest are astronomer Carina Smith (Kaya Scodelario), and Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) - who is on the run from the ...
REVIEW: King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)
Orphaned at a young age and raised in a Londinium brothel, Arthur (Charlie Hunnam) grows up to become a low-level criminal kingpin. When the waters around the castle Camelot magically recede, revealing a sword embedded in the rock, the ruthless King Vortigern (Jude Law) orders all men of a certain age to try and pull ...
REVIEW: Tale of Tales (2015)
A queen eats the heart of a sea monster in order to magically bear a child. A vain king's attempts to seduce a beautiful young woman are manipulated by a pair of elderly sisters. A father's obsession with an enormous flea brings his own daughter to ruin. These three fairy tales, all originally adapted by ...
REVIEW: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)
Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) returns, thrown into a race against the Spanish to discover and claim the fabled Fountain of Youth. It is a race that will see him reunited with former lover Angelica (Penelope Cruz) and rival pirate Captain Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), as well as bring him face to face with Edward "Blackbeard" ...
REVIEW: Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Walt Disney Pictures has developed an immensely lucrative franchise in recent years adapting and recycling its classic animated features into live-action films. Following in the footsteps of Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent, Cinderella and The Jungle Book comes perhaps the most ambitious of them all: a live-action take on Beauty and the Beast, one of the ...
REVIEW: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007)
With Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) now controlling the Flying Dutchman and its monstrous captain Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), the age of piracy seems set to violently end. That is, unless the united pirate lords - including Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat), the recently resurrected Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and the recently deceased Jack Sparrow (Johnny ...
