Anya Taylor-Joy Archives | Otaku No Culture

Just One Star Shy: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Strangely Incomplete But Always Joyful

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie delivers colourful cosmic spectacle and plenty of familiar Nintendo charm, but its thin worldbuilding and safe storytelling keep it from reaching the same spark as its predecessor. It’s breezy, playful, and entertaining, even if it leaves its bigger ideas floating unresolved.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie may be all fun and games for the brothers spending their time in a new world, and as the only plumbers in Princess Peach’s realm, they’re helping keep the peace rather than fixing faucets. But none of them are exactly equipped to deal with their ruler’s current existential woes. When Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) admits she doesn’t know where she came from, the story quietly opens a larger mystery, one it only partially resolves.

That thread leads into the absence of Rosalina (Brie Larson), whose kidnapping by Bowser Jr. sets the events in motion. He leans fully into the shadow of his father, eager to prove himself through familiar cruelty. When this sequel is straightforward and paint-by-numbers, there’s not much to be excited over.

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Furiosa Needs To Be More Like John Wick If This Franchise Is To Continue

Not even Mad Max can escape the inevitable franchise fatique that defines Furiosa. Had it offered something new in this prequel story that put it in par with Classical mythology, then some folks wouldn’t be screaming about it.

Furiosa A Mad Max Saga Movie Poster I really wanted to enjoy Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, but sadly, it didn’t have the same wow factor as Fury Road. When it clocks in at 148 minutes, I left the theatre feeling more exhausted than anything else. It could’ve been trimmed down to a more respectable run time, but I suspect writer/director George Miller didn’t want to. While he’s the master of the cinematic spectacle, it seems he can benefit from learning what to leave up to the imagination. With this latest, he may have fallen the way of George Lucas.

Some franchises are better off not continuing. But when every film has Miller involved, maybe he should’ve let Fury Road be the high-note to end at. Instead of offering prequel tales a la The Clone Wars, which is what this latest felt like, just offer a miniseries to flesh out those characters whom audiences love.

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Breaking Down The Super Mario Bros. Movie – Not Quite the Smash It Should Be.

The only good part of The Super Mario Bros. Movie is in how Mario Kart gets reimagined.

Spoiler Alert

Before The Super Mario Bros. Movie came to the fore as the better motion picture, Super Mario Bros existed. It’s almost confusing to know which film is being talked about, since there’s two missing words to distinguish between the two. But for those in the know about the older work, perhaps it’s best not to. That live-action take reimagined the game as a gangster flick, and not everyone enjoyed it.

After Wreck It Ralph, fans were wondering when we’d get a motion picture that’s truly a love letter to Nintendo’s product line. The nods in this latest showed what’s possible with the cameo. The game is about a plumber saving the princess from Bowser, an evil turtle who is holding her hostage. In this take, the changes to the story are different.

The movie version (voiced by Jack Black) puts the citizens of each world into a prison, and Mario (Chris Pratt)’s brother is the latest victim. Um, what happened to honouring the game? This movie directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic for Illumination Entertainment and Nintendo set out to build a cinematic universe rather than respect the original premise. Although they stick in plenty of references to this company’s past games and Easter eggs to distract, only the hard core will know.

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Examining Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho

The glamour of the era and the music in Last Night in Soho s as delightful and sinister as Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge.

Universal Pictures
4K Edition available to purchase on Amazon USA

Edgar Wright‘s Last Night in Soho plays better after watching the bonus features in its home video release. This movie is more of a coming-of-age drama than a horror film and I can see this work easily fitting into the same universe as Disney’s live-action Cruella. This work’s emphasis on fashion is key to my theory.

Even thoughts of Suspiria come to mind because of the colour palette and catapulting of Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) to an era not everyone knows. She somehow manifests, if not dreams, of 60s London. Instead of appearing in her own corporeal form, she’s in the body of her singer idol, Sandy (Anya Taylor-Joy). The two experience the seedier side of Soho district, hence the title. The glamour of the era and the music is as delightful and sinister as Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge–but minus Christian’s perspective of All You Need Is Love and saving the starlet from her demons.

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Foundations are Shaken in The Witch, A Movie Review

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By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Robert Eggers directorial debut in the historical film The Witch is more than haunting. To watch a Puritan family descend into madness is a spine-chiller. As an audience, most will notice why. But how many people will pick up on the fact that this movie is set before the Salem Witch-Trials? The fact the craze happened as a result of misplaced fears and due to consumption of diseased rye is a detail deserving to mention. Without this knowledge, trying to understand this film will have some folks wondering what kind of point Eggers is wishing to make.

The film certainly highlights the hysteria that occurs after William (Ralph Ineson) and his family is told to leave by the village council. After an argument over sanctuary, the entire clan departs. One detail an eagle-eyed fan of CW’s Supernatural will notice is that the Governor is played by Julian Richings (who plays Death in the television series). Could this nod be an intentional foreshadow of what’s to come?

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