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science fiction

Source Code * Duncan Jones (2011)

Ah yes, another scifi with a difficult story. Perhaps I had better seen this film of Duncan “Moon” Jones when it came out. Now it is pretty much overshadowed by similar films such as “Transcendence“, “Oblivion“, “Interstellar“, “Sunshine” and especially “Edge of Tomorrow“. The story is quite a bit like that of the latter title.

In “Source Code” an elaborate theory is worked out to explain how a soldier kan keep repeating eight minutes in a train to find the person who bombed it. The result has some obvious similarities with “Edge of Tomorrow” (or actually the other way around of course) which works with a similar theme.

I actually find the title of the film and the concept that is given the term “source code” the weaker part of the film. The eight minute repeat is worked out well enough, however there are no surprises in the story.

A film to see if you cannot get enough of the ‘difficult’ scifi genre (because that is what is becomes with so many titles).

Children Of Men * Alfonso Cuarón (2006)

However this film is from 2006, it is the pre-last full-length film of the director of “Gravity”. “Children Of Men” is also a sci-fi, but a wholly different from the space adventures of “Gravity”.

In an initially bleak, but lateron downright apocalyptic future, mankind has become infertile making a cult of the young. This infertility is only one of the problems. There is massive inequality. In the UK the situation is the least bad of the globe and many go their to test their luck. These immigrants are aggressively kept apart from the original inhabitents who enjoy a relatively good life. Activists try to change the system and persuade the former activist (and now bureaucrat) Theo to assist in their cause.

The atmosphere of the film is descent and the story makes easy links to our own time thus making “Children Of Men” a film to think about.

Resident Evil * Paul W.S. Anderson (2002)

This film starts as a high tension sci-fi thriller, but inspite of that tension, it is not that good. The too eleborate introduction to the film promises more story than is needed. Halfway the film drops into an unimaginable zombie slasher causing another drop in level.

In some future a big company has a big underground laboratory for secret experiments. Something does wrong, the AI defence system takes over and a small group of soldiers has to enter the city to shut down the main computer. Anderson apparently could not choose a genre and he goes from sci-fi thriller to gory horror to drama to action, coming to an unbalanced, not too well acted and story-wise uninteresting film.

I guess this film is for people who feel like some mindless action.

Transcendence * Wally Pfister (2014)

And another scifi with an elaborate story. Groups of scientists are working on artificial intelligence. A group of activists sees the dangers of this development and do they best to prevent the scientists from reaching their goals. A rapidly working couple are Will and Evelyn Caster (Johnny Depp and Rebecca Hall) who have created a super computer connected to the internet. Will gets injured during an attack and his wife continues their efforts with a far-reaching method.

“Transcendence” shows the dangers of AI that not only have almost unlimited calculating powers and access to information (due to the internet), but also (self-)awareness. Even when the AI system tries to do good, this does not mean that the results will be good for mankind. Unlikely alliances are forged to fight the AI system.

The film is quite good and at points though-provoking. The story is not as hard to follow as films that Christopher Nolan directed and Wally Pfister cooperated rather than the other way around as this time, so I guess this Johnny Depp may appeal to a larger audience.

Edge Of Tomorrow * Doug Liman (2014)

Ain’t that somethin’? Another ‘mind-bending’ scifi spectacle with Tom Cruise that I saw ‘by accident’ and again the film is pretty entertaining. Perhaps I should revise my view on Cruise?

Mankinds fights an alien occupying force for which again that Matrix-like humanoid robot form is used. Tom Cruise ends up in a final battle that can only be lost. Then we are all back to square one.

The story is not as complicated as that of “Interstellar” or “Oblivion”, but the first time ‘that typical thing’ happens it is surprising nonetheless (try to watch the film without knowing). This element is worked out nicely with good placed jokes and a slowly evolving storyline. There is plenty to enjoy for lovers of scifi action. The “minics” look a bit too much like the Matrix “sentinels” but a bit more evil.

Funny, thoughtful and nicely executed. A nice film to see when you feel like scifi action.

Oblivion * Joseph Kosinski (2013)

I do not think I had heard of this “mind blowing epic” before my girlfriend brought it home. Perhaps this is because Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman are not actors that make me want to watch a film and the director is a new with only two finished films. The box reminded my girlfriend of “Interstellar” and indeed, the two films are quite alike.

In “Oblivion” we are a century ahead in time and after a war with alien invaders, humankind now lives on one of the moons of Saturn. The earth is only used for its resources, since however men won the war, the earth was mostly destroyed and highly radio active because of the use of nuclear warfare. The only people on earth are people who take care of the maintenance of the machinery. Jack (Tom Cruise) and Julia (Olga Kurylenko) are two of those. Operating from a futuristic house/base high above the clouds, Jack goes to the surface for his maintenance and Julia is his operator. Jack’s occupation is not without hazard. Then when another craft crashes to earth, things slowly start to be different from what Jack was always told and towards the ends an ‘Interstellian circle’ is presented to the viewer.

The story of “Oblivion” is less ‘elaborate’ than that of “Interstellar” and in total “Oblivion” is not as good. I might have rather seen them the other way around. Still, in both films the surrealistic atmosphere that makes me think over some things works and the drama works too. Therefor I suggest that when you saw “Interstellar” and liked it, you might want to watch “Oblivion” as well. Or when you found “Interstellar” is bit too much, “Oblivion” might suit your better.

Nice detail. The film is based on a graphic novel and the author of this novel is director of this film.

Interstellar * Christopher Nolan (2014)

Just back from seeing “Interstellar”. An impressive film! Perhaps I should better wait a bit before writing the review. On the other hand, why not just when I am still full of it?

At the opening titles I noticed that it took two Nolans two write this story, but the two also worked together on “Memento“, “The Prestige” and two Batman films. What you first hear about the new Nolan is how complex it is. Actually I think it is not more complex than “Inception” and having seen that film a couple of times the story is original, but not hard to follow. “Interstellar” shows an earth of which expiration date has run out and NASA is secretly trying to find a way to save the human kind on another planet. The search involves a worm-hole that seekers are sent through to find an inhabitable planet. The concept of the worm-hole allowed Nolan to play with the concept of time, since the gravity of the worm-hole also affects time. Also time is seen as a dimension and added to this is a fifth dimension.

The first three quarters you will hear a lot of scientific theories about gravity, time, worm-holes, etc. Then in the last quarter the film takes the turn that probably leaves a lot of people clueless. I must say that here the film becomes both brilliantly found, but also rather forced in complexity and not entirely credible. Yet, the story makes a wonderfull circle that may not be completely unexpected, but well done.

There is quite a bit of drama in the film. The cold, scientific facts are balanced heavily by human emotions of the love of a father for his children, the drama of loosing a loved one, lies and the like. There are quite some tear-jerking scenes that actually work.

All in all “Interstellar” is an impressive film and certainly a worthy follow-up for “Inception”. Contrary to “Inception” there is no necessity to see this film on the big screen (however some scenes will look better), but I do recommend to put this title somewhere high up your wish-list when you like space spectacle and especially when you like the work of Christopher Nolan.

Pacific Rim * Guillermo del Toro (2013)

A film of Guillermo del Toto with Ron Perlman, that has got to be something, right? Perlman indeed is great, but his character is in the film rather short. Of Del Toro I can only conclude that this is not his best film. By far…
It is not like “Pacific Rim” is a terrible movie, but here we obviously have a massive production in which a good director aims for the big, American audience. “Pacific Rim” is a scifi spectacle that might have been better without the big bucks.
A century ahead larger than life aliens are taking over the world. They come from the ocean where ‘our side’ of a wormhole is located, which is called “the breech”. In order to defend itself, mankind developped larger than life robots, operated by human beings. Of course these machines are human-formed, quite like the machines that are used in “The Matrix” to defend Zion. Del Toro came up with a highly unlikely way of operating that initially only seems to add some sort of “Inception”-like element to the film, but lateron it looks like he needed this element to explain another twist in the story, but it still makes the way of operating quite silly. The story is as predictable as a drive to work, but fortunately Del Toro managed to sneak in some elements of his own visually and message-wise.
The film is not boring or bad, but might have come from any Hollywood blockbuster director. Now I get a bit of a “Dune” feeling…

Man Of Steel * Zack Snyder (2013)

So this is a Superman film, right? Quite different from what I expected! “Man Of Steel” is actually a pompous scifi spectacle. It looks like it has to be some sort of prequel to the normal Superman films, but Snyder opens all registries to make use of each and every special effect imaginable. From computer animated weird worlds to Matrix-like fighting scenes. We do not see Superman helping people (well, not often), but fighting his adversary.

The result is a pretty much over-the-top science fiction film that may perhaps not be boring (there is little time for that), but has little to do with how we used to watch Superman. A true Hollywood production of our time.

Nineteen Eighty-Four * Michael Radford (1984)

I do not suppose that I read the book (perhaps for school, but I think not), but the story is famous enough that even I understood some of the unexplained details. It looks like I never saw the film either by the way.
I do not suppose I will have to tell you much about the story. In a totalitarian future regime, “the party” tries to brainwash people so that entire society will be the benefit of “the party”. A man and a young woman (consciously I think) rebel by developing an affair. Once caught, the brainwashing takes violent forms.
The film has a rather desparate atmosphere which fits well to the story. The story is in many ways still current, so I can definately recommend my and the next generation to watch it. Of course it all looks quite 1980’ies, but that is (to me) certainly no problem.