LATEST ADDITIONS

Following the sudden arrival of a dozen alien spacecraft around the globe, linguistics professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is approached by the US military to aid them in translating the alien visitors. Together with a team of mathematicians and scientists (including physicist Ian Donnelly, played by Jeremy Renner), Louise discovers that the squid-like aliens, dubbed 'heptapods', communicate with complex symbols and starts working on a method of decoding their language. Meanwhile, tensions and paranoia about the aliens' true intentions see world governments isolating themselves from each other, leading to the possibility of a new global conflict.

Having established the rules of its shared cinematic universe, Marvel Studios now sets about shaking it up by introducing magic to the mix with the tale of a crippled neurosurgeon (Benedict Cumberbatch) who finds salvation in the mystic arts. While the actual story is nothing particularly new, the excellent cast and novel dressing (sparkling magical sigils and kaleidoscoping cityscapes) makes it feel fresh. It's also nice to see a comic book movie where the hero outsmarts the villain rather than simply beating them into a pulp.

While Hollywood doesn’t have a great record of making films based on videogames, we approached Assassin’s Creed with optimism, as the games have a clever core concept, evocative storylines and consistently cinematic graphics. Sadly, though, the script here hurtles along too fast and too blandly to develop characters, story, concept or frankly anything to any meaningful degree. Style is mistaken for substance, and there’s none of the balance between mystery, exploration, combat and tension that makes the games work. Nice production design, though.

This sixth and final instalment to a surprisingly resilient fantasy franchise picks up sometime after Resident Evil: Retribution, and seems determined to end the show with as much chaotic splatter as possible. The plot sees zombie butt-kicker Alice (Milla Jovovich), series returnee Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) and assorted cohorts (but not Jill Valentine) square off for a climactic confrontation with the Umbrella Corporation, in an effort to release an airborne antivirus that could stop the T-Virus dead in its tracks (sic), before the last enclaves of humanity fall to the undead hordes.