prequel

Cannes Film Festival 2024: FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA
Cannes Film Festival 2024: FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, is a prime example of how to craft a narrative expansion that ignites a creative spark worthy of praise.

THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK: An Underwhelming Appendage to TV's Greatest Series
THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK: An Underwhelming Appendage to TV’s Greatest Series

The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel film to The Sopranos, never quite reaches the heights of its television show predecessor.

HANNIBAL RISING: Anti-Fascism Without Ideology
HANNIBAL RISING: Anti-Fascism Without Ideology

Hannibal Rising poses the question about what kinds of monsters we make of ourselves by settling for the aesthetics of political virtue.

Marvel's Killing Joke And The Unsuspecting Film Industry
Marvel’s Killing Joke & The Unsuspecting Film Industry

Slowly, over 11 years and 22 feature films, not to mention some admirable TV shows sprinkled in between, Marvel has been training audiences to return to their screens again and again.

THE DARK CRYSTAL: AGE OF RESISTANCE: A New Age of Familiar Fantasy
THE DARK CRYSTAL: AGE OF RESISTANCE: A New Age Of Familiar Fantasy

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is the bold kind of fantasy that is more than welcome from the Henson studio in the 21st century.

Rubber Duckies And Killing Kittens: Why Has Mainstream Film Become Fixated on Backstory?
Rubber Duckies & Killing Kittens: Why Has Mainstream Film Become Fixated On Backstory?

With more and more sequels, prequels and spin-offs hitting our screens, Luke Walpole examines the focus on backstory in cinema.

SOLO and How STAR WARS Solved its Prequel Problem
SOLO & How STAR WARS Solved Its Prequel Problem

The view on the 1990s Star Wars prequels is synonymous with hubris, failure, and shoddy filmmaking, that is until Disney came into the picture and changed the image completely with its latest additions to the franchise Rogue One and Solo.

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY: A Solid If Underwhelming Star Wars Entry
SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY: A Solid If Underwhelming Star Wars Entry

Too heavy in its fan service at times, Solo: A Star Wars Story is not a terrible Star Wars entry, with enough fun moments to please.

Take Two: Rebellion And Evolution In Ridley Scott's ALIEN: COVENANT
Take Two: Rebellion And Evolution In Ridley Scott’s ALIEN: COVENANT

In the latest of our Take Two series, we tackle Alien: Covenant, the Ridley Scott thriller that tried to balance science fiction with philosophical intrigue.

LEATHERFACE: A Dull Beginning for a Great Character
LEATHERFACE: A Dull Beginning for a Great Character

Predictable and boring, Leatherface fails to give viewers and fans of the franchise a gripping, riveting, startling movie on how a serial killer family is born.

ALIEN: COVENANT & The Problem With Prequels
ALIEN: COVENANT & The Problem With Prequels

The original Alien left many questions unanswered, which upcoming prequels will address. But do we even need those questions answered?

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY: Anything But Rogue
ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY: Anything But Rogue

Despite initial scepticism, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a vividly presented and brilliantly executed standalone Star Wars film.

OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL: A Scarily Good Horror Prequel
OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL: A Scarily Good Horror Prequel

Is this any way to sell a board game? Hasbro’s perennial moneymaker “Ouija” is the basis of Universal’s micro-budget horror franchise in the making, and it’s hard to imagine a game manufacturer working any harder to discourage people from buying its product. The 2014 release Ouija opened at number one, and a followup was inevitable.

OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL: Between Two Worlds

Horror is in an extremely interesting place at the moment. Thanks to the rise of video-on-demand platforms and new technology, barriers between creator and distributor are disappearing, the amount of independently-made films are rising and the availability of these films is quite accessible. The trade-off of this is the problem of quantity over quality, which has meant that, much like the exploitation era of filmmaking in the 1970’s, every new or original film that is successful is followed with a string of derivative imitators, looking to cash in on genre recognition or fans looking to branch out on that particular subject matter.