Author: Carina Nilma

Office lackey day-job. Journalist for The AU Review night-job. Emotionally invested fangirl.

Film Review: Wonder Woman 1984 is fun blockbuster escapism but not as emotionally gripping

When 2017’s Wonder Woman directed by Patty Jenkins was released it was considered the lighter, more fun of the films in the DC Extended Cinematic Universe. It brought us this portrayal of a character that was full of optimism and hope. The latest release sees Jenkins return to direct the follow up, this time setting…

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The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 8 leaves us on an unexpected different cliffhanger of sorts

In this high stakes season finale, Mando must try to rescue Grogu from the clutches of Moff Gideon. It won’t be easy and the odds are stacked against him. Can he manage to get the kid back safely or will he and his team be defeated? Beware spoilers ahead in this episode review. Din Djarin…

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First Impressions: The Expanse Season 5 reaffirms why it’s one of the best sci-fi shows ever

If you’re a fan of science-fiction, you’d be hard pressed to find a show that’s more faithful to the genre than The Expanse. Originally a novel series written by James S. A. Corey, the series is set in the far future where humanity has colonized various parts of the solar system. The series predominantly focuses…

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The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 7 has a character take a surprising turn

The penultimate episode to season 2 has a few surprises but is nowhere near as outlandish as some of the previous episodes.  Beware of spoilers in the review ahead. Working at a prison scrapyard smashing up larger pieces of old Empire ships into smaller pieces, a prison droid approaches Mayfeld (Bill Burr) and orders him…

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The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 6 has surprising reveals and raises the stakes

As we edge ever closer to the season finale of The Mandalorian it’s becoming apparent that the back half of this season has really upped the ante. We shift focus back to the quest at hand and knowing full well that a certain villainous ominous character is looming. Spoilers ahead if you have not seen…

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The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 5 sees an animated fan favourite go live action

The latest episode of The Mandalorian sees creator / writer / director Dave Filoni not only get to bring a treasured animated character from 2D into live action 3D but simultaneously cement himself as a creative force to be reckoned with. Spoilers ahead with our episode review.  Mando (Pedro Pascal) and the Child have finally…

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The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 4 has a big reveal that closes some canon gaps

We’ve now reached the halfway point of The Mandalorian Season 2 and interestingly this episode decides to return us to the planet where it all began. As we delve into this review, beware of spoilers.  The Razor Crest is in dire need of repairs and despite Mando (Pedro Pascal) wanting to find Ahsoka Tano he…

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The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 3 has betrayals and double-crosses on sea and in sky

Mando’s quest continues in this episode as we finally reach Trask. This time around he is once again finding both himself and The Child in jeopardy. However there are plenty of other shenanigans going on in the galaxy and Mando once again ends up bartered into helping out. Spoilers ahead so proceed with caution. After…

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The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 2 opts for sci-fi scares

Fans of The Mandalorian will now be settling in for a week to week drop of episodes now that Disney Plus has regained everybody’s attention. In the latest episode of Mando and the Child, the show throws a variety of things into the mix but the most prominent of all is it ramps up the…

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The Mandalorian Season 2 opener “The Marshal” leans into western themes and fan service

. Fans of The Mandalorian need wait no longer, the highly anticipated first episode of Season 2 is now available on Disney Plus. The return of the show comes amid a turbulent year for big studios and will be a welcome addition to Disney’s arsenal since they have had to shuffle some of their releases…

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Disney and Disney+ are gearing up for your attention in the last months of 2020

  News coming out of the House of Mouse has been coming pretty thick and fast as we near closer and closer to the end of the year. So we’re going to distil down some of the key things to keep a lookout for as we edge closer to 2021. We’ve picked out a handful…

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Film Review: The New Mutants is painfully full of dialogue and not enough horror scares

The New Mutants was going to be Fox’s attempt at re-invigorating the X-Men franchise, or at least, it probably was before it got bogged in production issues and a merger with Disney. The film, now released some two years later, gets dropped into cinemas whilst a pandemic is happening, which is probably a metaphor for…

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Will fans of The Boys be satisfied by Season Two?

Amazon Prime Video decided to take a leap last year into the superhero genre with The Boys, an adaptation of the comic book series by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. The series is set in a universe where superheroes are capitalized and monetized by the shady corporation Vought International, and led by the unstable and…

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Is Season 2 of The Umbrella Academy on Netflix worth watching?

There’s something weird, wacky and wonderful about a series that doesn’t pull its punches. The Umbrella Academy introduced us to a misfit family of people adopted and brought together for their special powers to try and stop the end of the world. Season 2 which has just landed on Netflix has us following the Hargreeves…

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Interview: Director Shannon Murphy on her debut feature film Babyteeth

Director Shannon Murphy has spent much of her initial career cutting her teeth on television productions. Most notably Killing Eve, Rake and Offspring are amongst her filmography credits. The young Australian director will finally have her debut feature film Babyteeth releasing in Australian cinemas from 23rd July. The film is an adaptation of Rita Kalnejais’…

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Artemis Fowl

Is Disney Plus’ new kids film Artemis Fowl worth watching?

Based on the 2001 book series by author Eoin Colfer, Disney have finally released their latest adaptation onto their streaming service. The film was originally delayed from an August release last year to April 2020. Then the Covid-19 pandemic caused a closure of cinemas globally. Now, finally, the film finally receives a release on Disney Plus…

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Is Steve Carrell Netflix comedy series Space Force worth watching?

With the creative pedigree of both Steve Carrell and The Office’s Greg Daniels behind Netflix’s latest comedy series, and attach that to a send-up of the recently canonized Space Force, the newest military branch of the United States defence forces. The result is a series that doesn’t entirely misfire but also fails to reach the…

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Is David Spade Netflix comedy The Wrong Missy worth watching?

The latest film to be trotted out onto Netflix’s new rotation is The Wrong Missy. Straight up, you should know that this project comes courtesy of Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions team, so that might immediately throw up some questionable flags to begin with. Bankrolled by the streaming giant, predominantly set in Hawaii (presumably as…

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Is Alex Garland’s high concept sci-fi thriller Devs worth watching?

Devs is the sort of television mini-series that demands your full attention. This is for a couple of reasons. The first being that the subject matter of deterministic universes and philosophical questions of free will are topics that will leave you in deep thought long after the show ends. The second being that this show…

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Is the new Netflix film Extraction starring Chris Hemsworth worth watching?

Extraction sees Aussie Chris Hemworth team up with writer Joe Russo (of the Russo Brothers) and debut director Sam Hargrave for a brutal and bloody action thriller for Netflix. This isn’t a unique story, it sees a teenage kid of a Mumbai drug lord get nabbed and held for ransom by an opposing drug lord….

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Altered Carbon

Netflix Review: How does Altered Carbon Season 2 compare to the first?

Back in February 2018 Netflix launched the streaming series adaptation of Richard K Morgan’s novel of the same name, Altered Carbon. We called it a nuanced and detailed Blade Runner for the small screen. The series sees humanity’s evolution into a digitised age, where memories and human consciousness can be backed up onto a digital…

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Birds of Prey, Margot Robbie and our ongoing need to push the feminine to the fore

When Suicide Squad (2016) hit our screens it was mostly panned by critics and audiences didn’t favour it much either. But one universally acknowledged good thing in that movie was Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Harley Quinn. After that film’s release Robbie had been adamant she was keen to continue discovering more about this character. Lo…

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Star Trek: Picard

First Impressions: Star Trek: Picard strikes a tentative but intriguing balance between the old and the new

Star Trek as a franchise has been going for more than fifty years and its fans are definitely known for their passion and devotion to the characters and stories. One such character is Captain Jean-Luc Picard, portrayed by Sir Patrick Stewart. A new series from CBS All Access, created by Alex Kurtzman, and distributed by Amazon Prime…

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Film Review: Underwater is a sufficient but sometimes suffocating disaster film

January can be a bit of a dead zone for films, so it’s not a huge surprise that Underwater has ended up in this release period. A film that Disney, courtesy of its Fox acquisition, wound up with. It was completed back in 2017 and has been waiting for a better time to be released….

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Sex Education

Netflix’s Sex Education Season 2 matures but remains wildly fun and refreshingly honest

Sex Education was a sleeper hit for Netflix in 2019. The show starring Asa Butterfield, Ncuti Gatwa, Emma Mackey and Gillian Anderson and a whole bunch more, finally brought some real world teenage angst about relationships to the small screen. Otis (Butterfield) whose mother Jean (Anderson) is a sex therapist, decides to team up with…

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Film Review: Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker is full of fan service but lacks wow factor

Who would have thought that the space opera that is Star Wars would span 42 years, multiple generations of fans and be the tentpole blockbuster series and franchise behemoth that it is today. It began with A New Hope in 1977 and the introduction of Luke Skywalker. It ends with The Rise of Skywalker in…

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Film Review: 6 Underground is what you get when Michael Bay ups his own Bayhem

When director Michael Bay gets handed $150 million from Netflix to make a movie you can be guaranteed that he’s going to make something pretty insane. Where in the past he has felt a little hamstrung by studio expectations or interference, his latest effort feels like a return to form. For Netflix, 6 Underground is…

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Film Review: Frozen 2 is a strong sequel that affirms family bonds with the courage of venturing into the unknown

It’s a tough ask for a sequel to be as good, or better than its predecessor. Obviously Disney is resting high hopes on Frozen 2 to be as big as the original 2013 film, and box office numbers so far are already looking promising with $127 million in the US and a worldwide launch of…

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Film Review: Arctic Justice is an adequate family movie with some take home messaging

It’s the wrong time of year for us to be having an animated kids movie set in the arctic coming to our screens. However there is slim pickings for families in the lead up to Christmas, so for those wanting to keep their little ones entertained comes Arctic Justice. The film has been marketed overseas…

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Film Review: Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is a messy darker watch that fails to live up to its potential

Back in 2014 Disney decided to release a movie about one of their most iconic villains. Maleficent, the evil fairy and protector of the Moors was a rather ambiguous character in the film adaptation. Toeing the line of an antihero, as she fought to protect her realm against the twisted King Stefan whilst also befriending…

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