Part 4: Challenging Convention

By PopMatters Staff

As cinema went completely commercial, abandoning art for artifice, true aesthetic acumen was hard to come by. Luckily, for the movies included herein, it was their difference, as well as their diversity, that helped them stand out from the rest of the high concept hackwork. [21 June 2007]

Titanic: 10th Anniversary Edition

By Jesse Hassenger

While it's understandable that after raising one of film history's most massive success stories from the depths of potential financial ruin, Cameron might rest on his laurels a bit, you sometimes get the feeling that he has spent a good chunk of his post-Titanic life still thinking about Titanic. [14 December 2007]

Dark Angel: The Complete First Season

By Cynthia Fuchs

Max was like, queen of the one-liners; what you wish you could think of, she would say. [28 May 2003]

Ghosts of the Abyss (2003)

By Jennifer D. Wesley

Bill Paxton's banal banter and overacting alienate us, as we try to ignore him and focus on the live-action images of Titanic. [24 April 2003]

Dark Angel

By Cynthia Fuchs

Her beigeyness is relevant here as well: Alba is on record as being Spanish-Mexican-French-Danish, but more to the point, [her character] Max Guevera is a non-white-girl starring in a world where the people in power are still overwhelmingly Caucasian. [1 January 1995]

Dark Angel

By Cynthia Fuchs

In Dark Angel, Max's apparently tireless pursuit of her weird past... means that she's always trying to define herself as part of something, a race, a community, a politics.

Mixed Media: Avatar dir. James Cameron (trailer)

Short Ends and Leader: Avatard

Avatar looks unreal, a stellar combination of CG, live action, motion capture, and pure artistic imagination. The technology Cameron is using puts other examples of the rendering technique to shame. The characterization is real, the face and mouth movements 100% flawless. [21 August 2009]

Short Ends and Leader: Terminator 2 - Judgment Day (Skynet Edition): Blu-ray

While this is not the first time the movie has been offered in a "special edition" package, the sheer wealth of material here is enough to make a motion picture aficionado sit up and shout "No More!" [16 May 2009]