Hoppers – Movie Review

TL;DR – A perfectly charming if conceptually muddied film.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid- and end-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

All the animals imitating a sound.

Hoppers Review Introduction

There was a time when Pixar could do no wrong, when every film they dropped was gold, and they were adored at the box office. We are no longer living in that era, with several of Pixar’s recent films being dropped straight to Disney+, which is never a good sign. But we are now jumping back to the cinemas with an original story, and that is worthy of checking out.  

So, to set the scene, Mable (Piper Curda) always grew up with a special connection with her grandmother (Karen Huie). She would take Mable down to a local glade where she could find her calm, watching the animals go about their lives. Well, Mable is now 19, her grandmother is now gone, and the spiteful mayor of Beaverton, Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm), is trying to destroy the glade to put up an expressway. Mable is fighting with all her energy, but no one else seems to care, which is when she spots a lone beaver doing something odd. She follows it back to Beaverton University when she discovers her professor, Samantha “Sam” Fairfax (Kathy Najimy), has created Avatar technology allowing you to enter a robot animal and understand the world around you. Well, Mable just needs one beaver to move back into the glade, and she can stop the construction … So maybe it is time to download herself into a robot and try to find that one beaver who can make a difference.

Continue reading

Star Trek: Section 31 – Movie Review

TL;DR – There are some interesting ideas here and some fun action sequences, but it is held back by serious pacing issues that occurred when they crunched this into a movie.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that viewed this film.

A Section 31 communicator.

Star Trek: Section 31 Review

Well, if there is one series of Star Trek that always seemed to get brushed aside, it was Deep Space Nine, and while a lot of people have come around on it in recent years, even the other Star Trek production teams at the time didn’t truly understand it, which meant that up until maybe Lower Decks, we have never seen the impact of the show on the broader universe. Well, almost never. Because there was one part of the show that nearly everyone since has picked up and run with: Section 31. Which would be great if that was not the one bit of Deep Space Nine that I didn’t like. Well, if Star Trek is going to dabble in making movies again, and they are going to use Section 31 as the base, then headlining it with Michelle Yeoh absolutely should be the best way to start it off.   

So, to set the scene, Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) was the Terran Emperor of the Mirror Universe, brought into our Universe before being sent far into the future. There, she was unable to live, and she was sent back to a time that would be more stable for her by The Guardian of Forever [sometime in the early 2300s]. Here, Georgiou has been living under the guise of Madame du Franc at the space station Baraam. But there is an alien selling a bioweapon Godsend, and a Section 31 team led by Alok Sahar (Omari Hardwick) was sent into to neutralise Georgiou and take out the weapons dealer. But of course, it all goes wrong.  

Continue reading

The Tomorrow War – Movie Review

TL;DR – An interesting film with a concept that intrigues you, delights you, and also kind of terrifies you.    

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime subscription that viewed this film.

The Tomorrow War. Image Credit: Amazon Studios.

The Tomorrow War Review

The Alien Invasion genre and the Time Travel genre are ones that you would expect to crash into each other more often than they do. But there are times when they crash into each other you get fantastic, weird works like Edge of Tomorrow. Today we get another entry into this world with a war that is coming in the future, but we are fighting it now.   


We open with Dan Forester (Chris Pratt) crashing into a city on fire. War has come to this land and left carnage in its wake. Twenty-eight years earlier, in December 2022, Dan is with his wife Emmy (Betty Gilpin), and daughter Muri (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) are watching the World Cup after Dan lost out to another private-sector job when an explosion happens in the middle of the final match. It was not a bomb, but Lt. Hart (Jasmine Mathews) and her team coming back from the future. They are at war with an Alien force, and humanity is losing. They need people from the past to jump to the future and help them fight, or all humanity is doomed.  

Continue reading

Movie Review – Ralph Breaks the Internet (Wreck-It Ralph 2)

TL;DR – A solid family film,with some great moments, but I am not sure it will have the same impact as the first film.     

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and post-credit scene

Ralph Breaks the Internet. Image Credit: Disney.

Review

Creating films about the internet is something we are seeing more of as filmmakers try to incorporate this major part of our lives into the cinematic landscape. However, because the Internet is something that is both instantly familiar but also completely abstract, it actually is a difficult task to pull off as long as you don’t mind adding a crane shot into a cable. In the last year or so we have had the bad with The Emoji Film, and the amazing with Searching (see review), and today we have another entry into the genre with Ralph Breaks the Internet, which while not amazing, is still a fun ride.  

Continue reading