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Going ‘Back to the Past’ is No Stormy Ride In This Tribute

A long-awaited follow-up to a beloved TV series, Back to the Past delivers time-travel spectacle, nostalgic fan service, and lingering questions about destiny, even if some ideas feel better suited to a longer format.

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Mild spoiler alert

No prior knowledge of the 2001 Chinese TV series A Step into the Past is required to enjoy Back to the Past (尋秦記). Those familiar with the series will spot how the film connects to its small-screen origins, though the transition isn’t seamless. The budget behind the more ambitious stunt work doesn’t always disguise the green screening, and a bit of suspension of disbelief is definitely required. Still, it’s manageable. My lingering question is how much of Ken’s troops and equipment were conveniently waiting to be teleported along with him. There is an answer, and I won’t spoil where the technology came from.

Although the film took many years to reach screens following the series finale in 2001, fans of the historical drama about Hong Siu-lung (Louis Koo), a modern man trying not to distort the past too much for fear of altering the future he knows, will feel right at home. Over the course of the series, he becomes part of a trusted inner circle and is eventually made Grand Tutor. Much of the story revolves around avoiding temporal paradoxes, and anything essential is neatly recapped in the film’s introduction.

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A Geek’s Essential Guide to the Sundance Film Festival 2026

Sundance remains one of the few major festivals still offering a meaningful online component. Here are five geek-friendly picks to watch for, from philosophical sci-fi and midnight body horror to an AI documentary that feels uncomfortably timely.

Sundance Film Festival Marquee From one corner of the world to another, Sundance remains one of the few major festivals that still keeps a meaningful online component. For anyone who can’t travel to Salt Lake City, Utah, the at-home run is scheduled for one weekend, from January 29 to February 1, 2026.

Other festivals that have confirmed online offerings include Chattanooga and Panic Fest. Virtual access is often geo-locked due to licensing agreements. Some viewers use VPNs to get around those restrictions, but that’s a personal call, and not one I’m about to moralise for you. For geeks who must see a film, the cleanest option is often the most annoying one: wait until it’s legally available in your region.

With that in mind, here are five essentials I’m keeping my eye on, including one title that should be available online.

In the Blink of an Eye

In the Blink of an Eye Movie Poster This isn’t necessarily a time travel film, but it plays with time the way memory does. Past, present, and future overlap as three lives cross paths in ways humans can’t fully grasp.

In the distant past, a Neanderthal family struggles to survive after being displaced, doing what they can to protect their children with little more than primitive tools. In the present day, Claire (Rashida Jones), a driven post-grad anthropologist studying proto-human remains, begins a relationship with fellow student Greg (Daveed Diggs). And two centuries later, on a spaceship bound for a distant planet, Coakley (Kate McKinnon) and a sentient onboard computer confront a disease afflicting the ship’s oxygen-producing plants.

This one sounds more philosophical than anything else. Mortality, legacy, maybe reincarnation, it’s all on the table. Life can disappear in the blink of an eye. That’s true whether it’s an asteroid, an illness, or a single choice made at the wrong moment.

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A Nerd’s Guide to the 2026 Victoria Film Festival

The 2026 Victoria Film Festival leans into ghosts, grief, food, memory, and absurdity. From haunted vacuum cleaners to intimate documentaries, this year’s lineup proves smaller festivals still take the biggest creative risks.

No new introduction is necessary for 2026 Victoria Film Festival as it continues to treat locals to a curated selection of films from around the world. Although the genre plate is not often full, there’s usually something curious worth checking out. This year, the focus is on tales of terror.

And padding out this list are other works of interest that should satisfy even a foodie. For those unable to make it to this corner of the world, keep an eye on your local arts theatres, many of these films are likely to travel. If I had to select only one must-see, it’s A Useful Ghost. Not for the romantic comedy angle or its Valentine’s Day slot, but because it sounds so absurd it demands to be witnessed.

The links below lead to additional information, spoilers possible, and ticket pages for those attending.

A Magnificent Life

The Vic / 12-Feb / 3:00 PM

Sylvain Chomet is a filmmaker who loves paying tribute, not just to people, but to entire creative worlds. From his affectionate portrait of Jacques Tati in The Illusionist to his fascination with artistic spaces, his films often feel like handwritten letters set in motion.

Here, Chomet turns his attention to Marcel Pagnol. Outside France, Pagnol may not be a household name, but his influence across literature and cinema is immense. There’s a question hovering over the film, does this echo It’s a Wonderful Life in spirit? Whether that lands will depend on how modern audiences connect with a figure so deeply rooted in French cultural memory.

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Starfleet Academy’s Dilemma: Is It Star Trek or Saved by the Bell Set in Space?

Starfleet Academy wants to be a fresh doorway into Star Trek’s far future, but it can’t resist the gravitational pull of school-drama archetypes. The debut episodes hint at big franchise shifts after The Burn, then pile on teen dynamics, shaky lore checks, and a few welcome returns.

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Spoiler Alert

These days, the handlers of Gene Roddenberry’s creation, Star Trek, are no longer bound to his original vision. With Starfleet Academy, the franchise leans into new themes and familiar narrative shapes, recycling tropes that are usually left unspoken. After all, humanity has always been about boldly going somewhere new. This time, though, it might just be back to school. Whether the writers should lean into that idea is debatable. There are elements here that work, and others that stumble. Everything hinges on where the focus ultimately lands.

After finding Star Trek: Discovery very much not my cup of tea, I missed one important detail. The Federation is rebuilding. Following The Burn, when most of the galaxy’s dilithium was rendered inert, interstellar travel collapsed. Worlds became isolated. New wars erupted over developing new alternative power sources, or the promise of something better from individuals who try to deliver hope.

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Altered Turns Cyberpunk Eugenics Into a Quiet, Uneasy Family Drama

Director Timo Vuorensola trades spectacle for restraint in Altered, a mutant-versus-normal sci-fi drama led by a committed Tom Felton performance that keeps the film emotionally afloat.

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Spoiler Alert

Tom Felton gives it his all in a cyberpunk eugenics drama about a fractured society where mutants and normals exist in constant tension. Altered marks a shift from what Timo Vuorensola, best known for Iron Sky, usually delivers. Instead of pulpy action excess, this film leans into a youth-focused formula, with Felton firmly at its centre. He plays Leon, a paraplegic mechanic who moonlights as a cat burglar while acting as a father figure to Chloe, played by Liza Bugulova.

Their bond is established quickly through necessity. She distracts, he sneaks, hacks systems, and steals crystalline energy sources that power advanced technology. Living outside the city, they survive by relying on each other in a world where people either fend for themselves or form uneasy alliances. The dynamic is effective, and their mutual dependence carries the film from beginning to end.

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Top Ten Animated Films You Must See in 2026

2026 is stacked with animated films from around the world, from high-concept sci-fi to nostalgic franchise returns. Here are ten releases to watch, sorted by date, and why each one might matter.

2026 is shaping up to be a huge year for animated films. If it’s the ill-fated number three (Star Trek fans will get the reference), hopefully the Angry Birds and Minions can weather the storm. But as for other works, there’s plenty to choose from. For some studios, they are finally taking the risk, but we still don’t have a date for one particular film that I’ll address at the end.

And I’m not limiting myself to works coming out of the Los Angeles area. Also, maybe those movies I’ve been reporting on as still not getting a North American release may see movement. I’m not holding my breath for it, but you never know! This year, this list reflects not just what’s coming, but why it matters.

Meikyū no Shiori

Release: January 1, 2026 (Japan)

Directed by Shōji Kawamori from a screenplay by Taichi Hashimoto, this high-concept science fiction drama treats smartphones as literal gateways to alternate realities. After Shiori Maezawa breaks her phone, she finds herself trapped inside an alternate Yokohama, a world where another version of herself already exists, and is making a mess of things. It’s a quietly unsettling premise that bends identity, technology, and isolation into something intimate and strange.

Charlie the Wonderdog

Release: January 16, 2026

When a boy’s best friend, who happens to be a cat, is abducted by aliens and returned profoundly altered, chaos follows. Charlie, the family dog, is suddenly forced into hero mode as the world tilts sideways around him. It’s goofy, loud, and oddly sincere, balancing superhero parody with the simple question of what loyalty actually looks like when everything changes. This is a movie that looks heavily inspired by Pixar, and yes, there are tacos.

Les Légendaires – Le Film

Release: January 28, 2026 (France)

Based on the popular French comic series, this fantasy adventure reunites the heroes of Alysia, once legendary warriors now trapped in the bodies of ten-year-olds after a magical catastrophe. When the sorcerer Darkhell threatens the world again through the mystical Gaméra tree, the group must come together, reputations in tatters, childhood awkwardness and all, to fix what they broke. As a beloved franchise that leans hard into classic European fantasy beats, what’s to lose?

Goat

Release: February 13, 2026

Sony Pictures Animation delivers an all-animal sports comedy set in the brutal world of roarball, a full-contact league dominated by the biggest and fastest creatures around. Will, a small goat with oversized ambition, earns a spot on a pro team and promptly disrupts everything. It’s a familiar underdog story, but the setting and kinetic animation style suggest it could be sharper than expected.

Doraemon: New Nobita and the Castle of the Undersea Devil

Release: February 27, 2026 (Japan)

The 22nd-century robot cat returns for the franchise’s 45th feature, reimagining one of Doraemon’s most beloved underwater adventures. When Nobita and friends set up camp on the ocean floor, they stumble into a hidden civilization and awaken the ominous Devil’s Rock Castle. Nostalgia meets modern animation tech in a story that leans heavily on friendship, curiosity, and the terror of things stirring beneath the waves.

Hoppers

Release: March 6, 2026

Pixar finally swings for something truly offbeat. Scientists develop technology that allows humans to “hop” their minds into robotic animals, and a nature-loving teenager uses it to protect a threatened habitat by becoming a mechanical beaver. It’s strange, playful, and philosophical in that very Pixar way, even if comparisons to horror games will inevitably sneak into the discourse.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

Release: April 3, 2026

Inspired by the Galaxy games, Mario, Luigi, and company head into space to face Bowser Jr. among the stars. Bright, energetic, and unapologetically colourful, this sequel expands the Mushroom Kingdom in every direction at once. Whether or not it dodges franchise fatigue, it’s hard not to be curious about how far Nintendo is willing to let this universe stretch.

Coyote vs. Acme

Release: August 28, 2026

Rescued from limbo by Ketchup Entertainment, this long-delayed Looney Tunes project finally sees the light of day. Wile E. Coyote sues Acme Corporation over decades of catastrophic product failures, resulting in a legal comedy built on slapstick logic and deep self-awareness. It’s an oddball entry in a crowded year, and one of the few mainstream animated films willing to get genuinely satirical.

Forgotten Island

Release: September 25, 2026

DreamWorks explores Filipino folklore in a story about memory, friendship, and identity. When two youths are stranded on the mysterious island of Nakali, they discover that returning home may require sacrificing the very memories that bind them together. Early materials suggest something quieter and more emotionally driven than the studio’s usual output, with real potential to surprise.

The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender

Release: October 9, 2026

Set between The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, this long-gestating animated feature finally gives Aang his own post-series story. With a new global threat looming, the now more experienced Team Avatar must step back into action. After multiple delays and shifting release plans, there’s hope this one finally lands, and lands well.

The throughline here isn’t nostalgia or spectacle alone, it’s ambition. As for where Studio Laika’s Wildwood is, that’s because there’s no official distributor yet. Analysts are saying it will have to release soon. And when studios are clearly willing to experiment again, for this fan, all I can say is that it’s about bloody time!