Aquamarine (2006)
Jun 21, 2006Mermaid Teen Romantic Comedy
Young Adult fantasy in which two girls befriend a mermaid. A film very much made for teenage girls, bubbly, silly and lightweight
Dune Entertainment
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Jun 21, 2006Comic-Book Superheroes
Brett Ratner inherits the X-Men franchise from Bryan Singer for the third film in the series and promptly killed it off (after this point everything became prequels featuring Young X-Men). Ratner's handling of the superheroic action lacks Singer's exhilaration or any affinity for the characters
Eragon (2006)
Feb 11, 2007Epic Dragon Fantasy
A dragon fantasy adapted from a popular book series that has Lord of the Rings wannabe stamped all over it and only unimaginatively follows in Peter Jackson's footsteps
Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties (2006)
Nov 10, 2006Lazy Talking Cat
Where the first live-action Garfield film approximated the original comic-strip and its focus on a cat delivering sarcastic lines, this sequel pitches everything down to the level of an inane children's film
The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
Jun 21, 2006Backroads Brutality
Wes Craven's Backwoods Brutality classic gets a gore-drenched makeover from Alexandre Aja. One of the better amid the 2000s fad for horror remakes where the original is dragged into the modern day in some interesting ways
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
Jun 25, 2007Comic-Book Superheroes
The 2005 Fantastic Four was an amiable entry among the Marvel Comics adaptations of the 2000s. This sequel substitutes lowbrow comedy and renders the great character of the Silver Surfer as a CGI cartoon
Hitman (2007)
Dec 15, 2007Videogame Adaptation/Action
Disappointing film adaptation of the videogame from Xavier Gens that comes with unremarkable action scenes, a script filled with holes and Timothy Olyphant miscast as Agent 47
The Hills Have Eyes II (2007)
Mar 8, 2009Backroads Brutality
Sequel to the 2006 remake of Wes Craven’s Backwoods Brutality classic (not to be confused with the sequel that Craven made to his original), this is premised around a series of extremely gory set-pieces
28 Weeks Later (2007)
May 27, 2007Post-Holocaust/Zombie Outbreak
I was cautious about hailing 28 Days Later as a modern classic; this sequel is in fact a much better film. Newcomer director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo draws it out into a series of superbly sustained suspense sequences
AVPR: Aliens vs Predator Requiem (2007)
Jan 19, 2008Alien/Predator Series' Crossover
Second of the Alien/Predator crossovers and the absolute nadir of either series. Gone is the suspense of either series' earlier entries and the creatures are now no more than standard monsters in a teen horror film
Sunshine (2007)
Apr 19, 2007Solar Expedition
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland make a big serious SF film about a solar expedition, which works with great scientific rigour until the shows heads off at a tangent and falls apart in the latter third
Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)
Jan 19, 2008Singing Chipmunks
The squeaky helium-voiced Chipmunks are brought to life via CGI in this live-action film, featuring the chipmunks causing chaos, cracking smart-ass one-liners and lots of pee and poop jokes. The results are excrutiating
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)
Dec 14, 2008Alien Visitor
An interesting if uneven remake of the 1950s SF classic from Scott Derrickson that smartly updates the story from the Atomic Age to a post-9/11 era where it now delivers a modern environmental warning
Jumper (2008)
Feb 23, 2008Mental Teleportation Abilities
Doug Liman makes a film that has a great concept – a secret world of people with the mental ability to teleport anywhere – that emerges as no more than a slickly polished effort that does nothing with its premise
Max Payne (2008)
Oct 19, 2008Videogame Adaptation/Vigilante Cop
Based on the popular videogame, this is fairly much Death Wish by way of Jacob's Ladder and proves an underwhelming delivery of its promise
The X Files: I Want to Believe (2008)
Sep 24, 2008The X Files Film Spinoff/Psychic Priest/Organ Harvesting
The second theatrical spinoff from The X Files, a dismally dull entry where one wonders how the people who created one of the great tv shows of the 1990s got it all wrong
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
Apr 29, 2009Comic-Book Superhero
After the disaster of X-Men: The Last Stand, the decision was made to give a whole film over to the series’s most popular character, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, and to go with a prequel that told his origin story. Largely a film that exists as a series of superheroic action scenes
Aliens in the Attic (2009)
Oct 20, 2009Children vs Alien Invaders
A family film about a group of kids discovering alien invaders in their attic. A film that is largely construed around a series of slapstick set-pieces.
Night at the Museum 2 (2009)
May 24, 2009Museum Exhibits Come to Life
Sequel to the Ben Stiller hit offers more of the same with a bigger museum and more exhibits come to life but little else
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
Nov 2, 2009Possessed Cheerleader
Karyn Kusama directs a black comedy from a wryly funny Diablo Cody script in which Megan Fox is a cheerleader who becomes possessed after a devil worship ceremony gone wrong
Avatar (2009)
Dec 20, 2009War Between Human Colonists and Aliens
James Cameron’s film was a smash phenomenon. Cameron has relocated the plot of Dances With Wolves on another planet and uses motion capture to create one of the most dazzlingly realised alien worlds on film
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009)
Oct 1, 2010Singing Chipmunks
The first of the sequels to Alvin and the Chipmunks. Marginally less grating than the first film but that's being relative – all the things that one hated the first time are back
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)
Dec 13, 2010Epic Fantasy Adventure/Magical Otherworld
Another lacklustre entry in the banal Lord of the Rings Lite franchise from C.S. Lewis's books, a plodding run of the mill fantasy adventure for the most part. The mediocre reception killed off interest in the series
Black Swan (2010)
Jan 14, 2011Ballet Psycho-Thriller
Award-winning Darren Aronofsky film about the rivalry between two ballerinas. At heart though, this is no more than a Brian De Palma psycho-thriller with pretensions
Gulliver’s Travels (2010)
Jan 13, 2011Land of Little People
Jonathan Swift's classic tale of a man in a land of miniature people is turned into a comedy vehicle for Jack Black and outfitted with a series of vulgar and pop culture gags
Never Let Me Go (2010)
Nov 17, 2010Organ-Harvesting Dystopia
This has a similar scenario to Michael Bay's The Island but also at 180 degree remove - where Bay was loud and bludgeoning, this approaches the idea as a subtle British childhood pastoral
Predators (2010)
Jul 17, 2010Action/Humans Hunted by Alien Sportsmen
Despite being hamstrung with Adrien Brody in Action Hero mode, this is a hard-edged film that goes some way to rescue the Predator franchise from its novelty crossovers with Alien(s)
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)
Feb 14, 2010Greek Myth in the Present Day
Chris Columbus seeks to emulate the success of the Harry Potter films with this adaptation of a Young Adult series about the children of Greek gods. The film falls apart due to Columbus's typical banal cues and effects overkill
Tooth Fairy (2010)
Jan 27, 2010Tough Guy Becomes a Tooth Fairy
From the top wrestling superstar in the world in the early 00s to movie action hero to being dressed in a pink tutu with fairy wings, it is hard to believe that Dwayne Johnson’s box-office star would have ever recovered from this family film embarrassment that sees him cast as a fairy
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
Aug 12, 2011Planet of the Apes Prequel
Reboot of the classic franchise, a loose remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Thanks to some remarkable CGI effects, the apes entirely outshine the humans
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (2011)
Jan 20, 2012Singing Chipmunks
It may say how doomed the Western world is that people have paid to watch three films so far all centred around these annoyingly cutsie helium-voiced chipmunks. This is marginally less annoying that the preceding two
X: First Class (2011)
Jun 5, 2011Comic-Book Superheroes/Origin Prequel
An X-Men origin story that serves as the occasion to recast the series with younger actors. This works far better than the previous two films, integrating the characters in a strong story, although is quiet at the superheroic action
Hitchcock (2012)
Dec 1, 2012The Making of Psycho
A non-fiction film about Alfred Hitchcock and the making of Psycho. The script does a great job nailing the psychological undertows and the parts are brought to life with several tour-de-force performances
Prometheus (2012)
Jun 9, 2012Alien Prequel
Ridley Scott's promised prequel to Alien. The first half creates epic mystery but the answers provided are not nearly as interesting as promised, while the latter half disappointingly settles for doing the Alien standard with decidedly lesser effect
Chronicle (2012)
Feb 11, 2012Found Footage Psychic Powers Film
Essentially a Found Footage version of a teen underdog discovers psychic powers film like The Fury or Akira. Nothing original, just a novelty of approach conducted with conviction
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
Jul 12, 2014Planet of the Apes Prequel
The Planet of the Apes series excels itself and stages a massively exciting inter-species war. The CGI/mocap apes come with an extraordinary range of nuance - quite whether it is performance or animation is up for debate but the results are outstanding