Tag Archives: Space

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 review

13 Saturday May 2017

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“We’re not friends, we’re family.”  Huh, where have I heard that before?

by Thom Yee

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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 images courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Honestly, it’s starting to feel a little weird that we live in a world where I can talk to my mom about Rocket Raccoon.  At this point, I could probably even talk about Rocket Raccoon with your mom.  We geeks are really getting spoiled right now.

So anyway, the original Guardians of the Galaxy did did very well with us here at GOO Reviews, but the farther we’ve all gotten from it, the more I’ve personally learned to… well, not to dislike it, but to not love it SO much.  Guardians of the Galaxy is a movie defined by extremes, its most visible and memorable elements probably being its colourful comedy and its general wackiness, and though those extremes aren’t necessarily that surprising given that it is a comicbook movie, it still lacks some of the nuance that’s allowed the best superhero movies to endure (even as the most enduring superhero movies usually come across as far more sanctimonious and self-serious).  That doesn’t mean Guardians isn’t well remembered or that it couldn’t or shouldn’t be your favourite superhero movie, but Guardians was the type of movie that left me feeling extremely satisfied at first but ultimately somewhat empty, like a really, really great fast food meal.  Continue reading →

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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story review

14 Saturday Jan 2017

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There were Asian people a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away? 

by Thom Yee

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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story images courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

If there’s one thing that’s rarely been central to (or at least pre-eminent in) the Star Wars movies, it’s an actual war. Star Wars has always involved its fair amount of physical conflict, but mostly it’s been about things like an individual hero’s journey, lightsabers, the Force, Gestapo-like imagery, whiny little protagonists, the tougher and smarter princesses they love, smooth-talking scoundrels, and funny mascot-type characters, and even the fall of the Empire (spoiler alert?) wound up being a battle where a bunch of adorable little bears were running around in the middle of the conflict zone, adding questionable value to the Rebel forces’ efforts. In fact, the only time I ever felt like there was a genuinely large-scale battle shown to us in the movies was in the opening scene of Revenge of the Sith when Anakin and Obi-Wan rescued Palpatine, the theretofore unrevealed would-be Emperor of the eventual Empire (spoiler alert again?), and that took place when the galaxy still had the Jedi Order around to keep the peace, clouded by the dark side though they and their Council may have been. Continue reading →

Arrival review

19 Saturday Nov 2016

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The kangaroo did it

by Thom Yee

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Arrival images courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Most people don’t know this about me, but I didn’t grow up speaking English. That might not be a huge, shocking surprise given my Chinese surname and the… let’s go with “inward-looking nature” of my people, nor is it likely a huge stretch of the imagination to then conclude that my first language might have been Chinese. In my  case, it was a dialect of Chinese that you probably wouldn’t even recognize if I specified which (and I’m not going to), and looking back and thinking about my parents, both second-generation Canadians who were more comfortable speaking English (if at all?), it seems like a strange choice for them to have raised me in a Chinese-speaking environment. What I remember most of my first few years speaking Chinese was a great deal of isolation from all of the people I met who spoke English, then a brief a period of transition as I adapted to English and entirely forgot Chinese, followed by a great deal of isolation from the Chinese community of which I was allegedly a part (a feeling that continues to this day). I like to think sometimes that those early experiences with conflicting languages and incompatibilities gave me a unique perspective on grammar and the process with which I put sentences together, but really, I think it was mostly just an experience that made me hate everyone and the world around me. Continue reading →

Star Trek Beyond review

30 Saturday Jul 2016

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It’s been a long road getting from here to there

by Thom Yee

star-trek-beyond-head3We’ve been pretty fond of J.J. Abrams’ rebooted Star Trek here at GOO Reviews, with 2009’s Star Trek, the first entry in what’s now officially known as the Kelvin Timeline, still a standout favourite among the many movies we’ve covered here. Generally well received by critics and fans, it’s the movie that revitalized Star Trek as a viable franchise after it had been, more or less, run into the ground, its last ongoing series, Enterprise, not even airing on a major network as it eked out four seasons-worth of episodes to an audience that had long been growing tired and apathetic towards the whole… well, enterprise (and let’s not even get started on that opening theme song). Continue reading →

Star Wars: The Force Awakens review

16 Saturday Jan 2016

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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before

by Thom Yee

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Star Wars: The Force Awakens images courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

What if a child grew up without seeing Star Wars in the same way that society sees it? What if a child found far greater meaning in the other stories he grew up with? That child would be me.

I don’t get Star Wars. I mean, I get it, it’s not like there’s some abstraction that makes it hard to interpret or understand, and I can see how it’s vast array of post-movie product offerings — toys, books, clothing, ornaments, lifestyle accessories — have allowed it to become such a big deal, but I don’t get why it’s become such an all-consuming behemoth of an intellectual property or why it’s managed to gain fan warship at a level and with a reach so far in excess of any other franchise that doesn’t count the Bible or Dianetics amongst its works. Continue reading →

The Martian

10 Saturday Oct 2015

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It’s just botany, not rocket science

by Thom Yee

The Martian images courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

The Martian images courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

“When Ben and I first came on the scene there were rumours that we were gay because it was two guys who wrote a script together. It’s just like any piece of gossip… and it put us in a weird position of having to answer, you know what I mean? Which was then really deeply offensive.

“I don’t want to, like [imply] it’s some sort of disease – then it’s like I’m throwing my friends under the bus. But at the time, I remember thinking and saying, Rupert Everett was openly gay and this guy – more handsome than anybody, a classically trained actor – it’s tough to make the argument that he didn’t take a hit for being out.

“I think it must be really hard for actors to be out publicly. But in terms of actors, I think you’re a better actor the less people know about you, period. And sexuality is a huge part of that. Whether you’re straight or gay, people shouldn’t know anything about your sexuality because that’s one of the mysteries that you should be able to play.” Continue reading →

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

07 Saturday Mar 2015

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He’s not really dead. As long as we find a way to remember him.

by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Images courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Particularly with our most cherished film franchises, it’s easy to (over) analyze the choices made and the possibilities of our favourite series’ continuing adventures. Should Harrison Ford return for one more Indiana Jones or should Chris Pratt reboot the series? Should George Lucas have invited constructive criticism and handed the directorial reins off for the prequels the way he did on the original trilogy? Should we learn about the Enterprise crew’s academy days or do we need to see Shatner again?

These are all enduring questions, debatable even years after the producers have made their final decisions and the finished products have hit the screen. Fans don’t want to see their beloved stories ruined, retroactively or otherwise, and producers don’t want to lose their cash cows. Continue reading →

Interstellar

15 Saturday Nov 2014

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My apologies to Matt Damon

by Thom Yee

Interstellar images courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

Interstellar images courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

There are a lot of stories surrounding Interstellar, mostly because of director Christopher Nolan. There are stories about the technical detail Nolan displays in the film’s direction and in its science; there are stories about the film’s place in the pantheon of Nolan’s almost universally well-received movies; and there are stories about Interstellar being Nolan’s most ambitious film yet. But mostly the biggest story seems to be that Interstellar sucks. And that it got beaten at the weekend box office by a Disney movie.

If you didn’t see Interstellar this past weekend, that wouldn’t be a huge surprise. Interstellar’s opening was obviously never going to compare to Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy $100 million plus openings (because no Batman), but even compared to Nolan’s overtly intellectual Inception, Interstellar pulled in about $15 million fewer dollars. Continue reading →