Gareth Edwards Archives | Deep Focus Review

Jurassic World Rebirth

Brian Eggert — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 23:28:48 +0000

Listen to the audio version of this review. Jurassic World Rebirth further proves that Steven Spielberg invented the visual language of modern blockbusters, and other filmmakers merely speak in it. Rather than create something new, director Gareth Edwards spends 134 minutes paying homage to Spielberg and his 1993 original, Jurassic Park. But more than just the masterful first film based on Michael Crichton’s book, or even its now-six sequels, Edwards also nods to Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) in a recapitulation of iconic Hollywood imagery. No slouch himself, Edwards—the helmer of Monsters (2010), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), and The Creator (2023)—devises almost nothing new here. What seems new stems from recycled ideas that never really worked in the first place, such as genetically altered mutant dinosaurs. Rather than take the time to stretch his talent, Edwards falls back on the same reverence for Spielberg that directors Colin Trevorrow and J.A. Bayona displayed in Jurassic World (2015), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), and Jurassic World Dominion (2022). And yet, even though Edwards’ visual nods to Spielberg and Rebirth‘s story autocannibalize the Jurassic series, it manages to be more purely entertaining than the last […]

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The Creator

Brian Eggert — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 23:04:49 +0000

In The Creator, the year is 2065, and people have built massive structures that reach beyond today’s skyscrapers, travel by hovering motorcycles and cars, and take shuttles to the moon. Humanity has also created artificial intelligence robots, which, when regarded head-on, appear indistinguishable from people. Some serve as police officers and factory workers; they even have emotions. Despite the advances in technology in these futuristic surroundings, when Joshua, the hero played by John David Washington, discovers that an unprecedented “simulant” child—the resident Chosen One played by Madeleine Yuna Voyles—can turn off a television with her super-computer brain, he’s amazed. He has never seen anything like it. Yet, any viewer with a smart TV and a virtual assistant like Alexa or Siri knows it’s no big deal for modern-day technology to turn on/shut off an appliance with a simple voice command. To be sure, The Creator doesn’t boast many bright ideas; most of them, it borrows from better films about artificial intelligence and what it means to be human. Even so, the production boasts a visual luster and scope that renders even its most thematically banal scenes into stunning set pieces. The product of director Gareth Edwards, who co-wrote the screenplay […]

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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Brian Eggert — Fri, 16 Dec 2016 00:00:30 +0000

Walt Disney Studios exploits their acquisition of Lucasfilm properties to the fullest with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the first of several planned spinoff features to take place outside of the regular “Episode” series. Set just before the events of George Lucas’ original 1977 blockbuster, the Jedi-free film continues in the tradition of demystification as the prequel trilogy by setting up events in A New Hope. And while Rogue One hopes to answer several lingering questions, it doesn’t have a significant bearing on the other films beyond a marginal expansion of the mythology, allowing fans to say, “So that’s how that happened.” The primary difference between the abortive prequel trilogy and Rogue One is quite simply this: the new film isn’t terrible. Actually, it’s rather good within the finite limitations of its concept, which I plan to discuss in detail. Consider yourself forewarned that this review will reveal plot specifics, since an examination of how the story is just filler leads to my determination that, no matter how well-made or refreshingly self-serious, Rogue One is, conceptually, disposable entertainment. Director Gareth Edwards (Monsters, 2014’s Godzilla) helms this grim wartime space opera that doesn’t have the charm or breeziness of last […]

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Godzilla

Brian Eggert — Fri, 16 May 2014 00:00:38 +0000

Taking a cue from Skyfall, which paid homage to its franchise’s 50-year history by compiling its standard formulas into a singular yet artful amalgamation, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures celebrate the 60th anniversary of the King of All Monsters with Godzilla. And like the last James Bond film, the new production embraces the best aspects of Godzilla’s various interpretations and long history, beginning with Toho Films’ 1954 original Gojira, director Ishiro Honda’s sobering disaster film steeped in an anti-nuclear commentary. Along with hints of environmentalism similar to those in Honda’s original, the franchise reboot also honors the lighter “versus” sequels, such as Godzilla vs. Mothra (1964) and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974), which put Godzilla against other large kaiju (the Japanese term for colossal monsters) in epic, and corny, city-destroying battles. Following that strain, the new film also reestablishes Godzilla as a heroic figure, even though it also contains a degree of disaster movie sensationalism borrowed from Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin’s notoriously dim remake from 1998, all but disowned by Godzilla enthusiasts and Toho alike. At the helm is British filmmaker Gareth Edwards, whose $250,000 indie debut Monsters was an underdeveloped romance set against a landscape ridden by giant alien […]

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Monsters

Brian Eggert — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 00:00:38 +0000

When a NASA space probe sent to find proof of alien life within our solar system returns, it breaks up in our planet’s atmosphere upon reentry, leaving debris marked by alien “infection” scattered through the northern part of Mexico and into the southwestern sections of the United States. The contaminated pieces of the probe manipulate local biology, resulting in humongous mutations that prove dangerous for nearby populations, namely humanity. Thousands have died. The U.S. military sends jet fighters to stop the creatures, which have grown to monstrous proportions, but they’ve ingrained themselves into the neighboring biosphere beyond control. Like something out of King Kong, the American government builds an immense wall at the border to keep the infection out. Some refuse to leave their homes within the Infected Zone, while others can’t wait to escape. Writer-director Gareth Edwards’ Monsters was made for a mere $250,000, yet the above setup describes a film with blockbuster ambition, filled with expensive effects and big-name stars. But this independent production comes by way of Magnolia Pictures’ genre distributor Magnet Releasing, which picked up Edwards’ picture after its premiere at the South by South West Festival. A combination of the verité sci-fi setting of District […]

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