Movies

With a script credited to Lindelof, Jeff Jensen, and director Brad Bird, Tomorrowland feels like a concept or idea (or a philosophy, even) that was fleshed out into 15 minutes of story in writer's room. That 15 minutes of story was nestled into the movie's ending, and 90 minutes of "robots-are-chasing-you-run!" were tacked on ahead of it. A movie that knew where it wanted to go, but had no idea how to get there.

Because uniting to fight boredom takes teamwork, Paramount has just made a Devastator out of a bunch of star writers to revamp the Transformers franchise, and Robert Kirkman is among them. The team, led by Akiva Goldsman, includes Kirkman, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (Iron Man) Zak Penn (Pacific Rim 2 and X-Men: The Last Stand) and Jeff Pinkner (Lost, Fringe) So yes, this is pretty much the superhero franchise dream team. They'll sit around thinking about ways to make the Transformers cool. I got one word: Victorion..

And in doing so, might very well create the most beautiful looking sci-fi film ever

After attending an afternoon showing of Mad Max Fury Road, I stood outside the theater in a daze. I was almost literally speechless, and my PTSD continued as I hopped in a cab to go to a dinner engagement. Fury Road's insane, relentless, vivid and non-stop car chase was so senses shattering that it felt weird to actually BE in a car in the real world. I kept expecting the taxi to rear end a war rig or see an Interceptor career towards us at a 45 degree angle or have a Polecat suddenly dip towards our cab, lobbing a grenade. The real world suddenly seemed like a distant echo of the thunderous one that had seared itself on my eyeballs for the last 120 minutes. My visceral reaction was so different from how I felt after any number of recent CGI extravaganzas. I'd forgotten about Age of Ultron by the time I crossed the street. I left Guardians of the Galaxy humming "Ain't no Mountain High Enough" and loving raccoons, but the plot quickly receded into the rearview mirror. Perhaps this is because of my own subconscious processing of real images as opposed to animated ones — the practical effects of Fury Road are so much more memorable and powerful—and expensive.

Phil Lord and Chris Miller, after having a number of smash hits like The Lego Movie and the 21 Jump Street franchise under their...

Okay one more comics-to-movies announcement for the day, and this one is pretty unsurprising—ever since Tony-winning producer Vivek J. Tiwary wrote The Fifth Beatle,...

Storied French publisher Humanoids—publisher of many classics by Moebus, Jodorowsky and Bilal—has gotten into the graphic novel to movie race with a three picture...

A round-up of Entertainment headlines for the week's end

Youthful veteran star, 18-year-old Asa Butterfield has been tapped to play Spider-Man in the MCU/Sonyverse, according to Latino Review. Spidey's role in the MCU is not yet known but he'll probably appear in Captain America; Civil War because everyone else is, as well.

George Miller makes a triumphant return to his seminal franchise

Another X-Men spin-off is on its way

For us, we get to see Mad Max: Fury Road with the rest of the critics who are getting it screened tonight, for you,...