“Prometheus” was a prequel to “Alien,” that tries to explain how the killer alien originated. While visually interesting, the story suffers from a lack of focus and clarity. The overall theme of “Prometheus” revolves around discovering that the people who created the alien were called Engineers, and they share the same DNA as humans. These […]
“Monsters vs. Aliens” isn’t great, but it’s not bad either. Despite its flaws, it still follows the eight segment, mini-movie structure that forms the backbone of today’s screenwriting. Look at every movie as a series of eight distinct mini-movies. For a 120 minute movie, that divides into eight 15-minute segments, but it’s really the segments […]
One of the best ways to build suspense and anticipation is to create a mystery, and one of the best ways to create a mystery is to reveal something a little bit at a time. In good movies, there\’s more than one mystery. First, there’s always the mystery of the villain’s goal. Most movies end […]
Initially, every hero starts out with selfish reasons. Then he or she eventually learns to like and understand others. Finally in the end, the hero isn’t just fighting for his or her goals, but to save the lives of loved ones as well. In “The Terminal,” Tom Hanks plays a man trapped in an airport […]