Tag: Sci-Fi

Spectral (2016)
PG-13 | 1h 47min | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi | 9 December 2016 (USA)

A sci-fi/thriller story centered on a special-ops team that is dispatched to fight supernatural beings.
Director: Nic Mathieu
Writers: Ian Fried (story), Nic Mathieu (story) | 1 more credit »
Stars: James Badge Dale, Emily Mortimer, Bruce Greenwood

This is a Netflix movie meant to compete with the sci-fi action military genre of Edge of Tomorrow and Good Kill. I’m pleased to report that the effects, the acting, and even the concept makes the grade.

The spectral enemy is fascinatingly made. They really do look like ghosts as the title suggests. Spectral comes from “spectre.” The director Nic Mathieu has done a stellar job here. I’m not sure I’d give it as much praise if it were a wide-spread theater release but as a Netflix military action sci-fi, it is a rocking fun time! Some may find it over simplistic and it could have used more ghosts and kills I thought. No film is perfect.

It has a pretty good cast (see above) but my favorite actor is Bruce Greenwood. He always takes a movie to a higher place. He was great with Ashley Judd in Double Jeopardy and I thought he should have won an Oscar for his role in the indie film Wildlike. You can read my review of that film here. At any rate, I recommend this film mow streaming on Netflix.

7/10

spec·ter
ˈspektər/Submit
noun
noun: spectre
a ghost.
synonyms: ghost, phantom, apparition, spirit, wraith, shadow, presence; More
something widely feared as a possible unpleasant or dangerous occurrence.
“the specter of nuclear holocaust”
synonyms: threat, menace, shadow, cloud; More

Upon hearing the mention of this film on a podcast with Movierob, I was prompted to watch it for the first time. The special effects were as good as any other film and the Terminators were just as cool as II. I don’t know why the critics didn’t care for it because this critic enjoyed it immensely.

Terminator Genisys (2015)
PG-13 | 2h 6min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi | 1 July 2015 (USA)

When John Connor, leader of the human resistance, sends Sgt. Kyle Reese back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor and safeguard the future, an unexpected turn of events creates a fractured timeline.
Director: Alan Taylor
Writers: Laeta Kalogridis, Patrick Lussier | 2 more credits »
Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke

The director is Alan Taylor, known for Game of Thrones and Thor. The direction is good here, the lines are heard and the characters seem to be working in unison. Other than that, it looks like any other Terminator film, maybe a shade darker.

If you can get the timeline in semi-focus, you’ll understand what’s going on. I’ll leave that up to you because I really didn’t mind the hodgepodge of events and people coming and going younger and older, most notably Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’s cgi at its best. Emilia Clarke plays Sarah Connor and you may have seen her in Game of Thrones and Me Before You.

This is a great action film. It’s not perfect but I still recommend it as a fun, worthy part of the franchise.

9/10

At time of writing this it’s available streaming on Amazon Prime.

In Spider-Man movies there are constants and there are variables. This film is no different from any previous reboot or sequel that way. The variables are basically that, Peter Parker is a junior in high school. He’s in love with Liz, not Mary Jane. There a new villain named Falcon and the entire film revolves around the Avengers and Tony Stark. See, there are some difference even though it’s another Spidey flick.

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
PG-13 | 2h 13min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi | 7 July 2017 (USA)

Peter Parker, with the help of his mentor Tony Stark, tries to balance his life as an ordinary high school student in New York City while fighting crime as his superhero alter ego Spider-Man when a new threat emerges.
Director: Jon Watts
Writers: Jonathan Goldstein (screenplay), John Francis Daley (screenplay) | 10 more credits
Stars: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr.

I used to be put off by superhero movies because of the gargantuan budgets they burned up. I’ve recovered from that now. I go into them like a 16 year old kid just wanting to be entertained and you know what I am much much happier! Having said that, just like always, I am in shock about how much money was burned to make this film. No doubt they will make it back, so it’s ok. It is exciting and there is a lot to awe at. The effects alone are worth a ticket. The story is where I struggled. There are a few twists that you may find to be poor-writing as I did. I won’t get into spoilers but they revolve around a certain un-named-here family member of Liz.

The director is known for Cop Car (2015) and was born in 1981. Nothing wrong in being a young director.

The cast is a palette of thousands along with the 12 credited writers. The main three are Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, and Robert Downey Jr. Tom Holland reminded me so much of Lee Evans in Mouse Hunt:

You might also remember him from There’s Something About Mary

Holland was great: young, little, eager, wiry. I loved him alongside Naomi Watts’ as her oldest son in the Impossible.

He has come a long way! I don’t know what else to say. There won’t be an Oscar but hey this is Spider-Man, WHO CARES? He kicked ass. Go Holland.

Robert Downey Jr. and Michael Keaton were just themselves playing the roles we are used to from them. No changes or surprises. Notwithstanding, great!

For comic book fans and people just out to have a fun Summer day at the theaters, I recommend this to you. It’s not perfect but I know most will not mind that, I didn’t.

9/10

Disney has been writing new stories with Disneyland as a backstory for years now. The worst that comes to mind is the Haunted Mansion. Tomorrowland falls into the “backstory of Disneyland” category. The trouble here is that people don’t share a concept for Tomorrowland. Instead of pushing it aside and making a movie disconnected from the “land” at Disney, to the right at the end of Main Street, They’ve attempted to tell us all the backstory that never was. I think it’s that common insult to Disneyland fans that derails the bus to best picture. They’ve also had mixed success with remakes in the past 2 decades. Having said that, if you can get beyond their puny rationale for what the real life Tomorrowland is, there is a pretty great story here to be enjoyed. So far, the reviews I’ve seen have not been kind to this movie. I have a different take, it’s a pretty great movie. The lofty ideal of hope in movies springs eternal. One of the reasons I love movies is because they often make me feel hopeful.

Tomorrowland gives you a good feeling about the past, present and future. There’s also a personal charge to decide your own fate. These are just a few of the positive messages in the film. If you’re like most people, you’ve read the nasty reviews and seen the low ratings. Don’t pay them any mind. This is a movie for the future citizens of the world. They may have lost points by trying to tie it so closely to Disneyland. It’s slow at times and the characterization is not as good as say: Escape to Witch Mountain. Still, there is a fun “ride” here in the form of a movie. Because they tied it to Disneyland in title and theme, it lost points with me. Never tell a church going person what church is. At the same time, the legions of moviegoers with expired, yellowed Disney passes in their wallets are too strongly connected to the real land. This is one director’s vision and we are all directors. If you can set that aside and see it as its own movie, it’s pretty good. Not excellent but pretty darn good.

Fans of the original Jurassic Park are likely to love this one. There isn’t much new in the way of a twist though. I remember the build up back when the first came out, people came out to the movie in droves. It really was like waiting in line for a ride. It was an original idea my Michael Crichton and everyone wanted to see the giant lizards. It was basically three things that made that movie popular: 1) The dinosaurs, 2) The action, and 3) the story. On all three levels I still give the first one a 5/5. This new one is good, very good. It is a rollicking rode for sure and worth the price of a ticket. At the same time it really lacks in the story department. I went in hoping to get something new and fresh that made me think about dinosaurs. In between the guttural dinosaur special effects, it just isn’t there.

Having said that, I doubt moviegoers really care about that. The dinosaurs and there, in full tech regalia. I’ve always thought dinosaurs were cool. I like to watch them but in real life they aren’t there. I even think museum bones are a bit boring now thanks to this franchise. I felt the need to explain to my 8 year old that dinosaurs were extinct. It seems kids in the past 20 years have seen them so much on the silver screen, they seem real. I loved the movie, I offer no spoilers except to say you’re gonna love the dinosaurs and the action. Some stories don’t need to be improved upon, maybe that’s what the makers of this Jurassic Park were thinking.

I don’t know if it is my advancing age or the inclusion of several laborious scenes set to synthesized music but I nodded off twice during the film. I did like it though, it certainly took an original spin on an age old robot theme. This film dispenses with the question of whether we can create AI. Instead it looks at what AI may think of us after having been created. Then yet another question arises: will AI agree to the station we assign it? Ex Machina is a very slow movie but it is clever and interesting if you are rested, at least I am sure it would be. It raises ethical questions about the manufacture of model-figured women who are not human but created to serve. I couldn’t help but recall the Stepford Wives.

There isn’t an original theme but the directorial choices are peppered with new stuff. The special effects are captivating. There are some jabs at Google and the collection of information. The maker says he was able to secure millions of cell phone data banks because the providers steal it and he threatened to expose them unless they shared. This was far fetched in my opinion but an interesting wake up call that Google and cell phone companies probably have far too much on us. Google execs and programmers are the new Howard Hugheses (plural sp?). In this film they are very scary, almost to smart for their own good. What’s more, they’re making female robots, often fully naked on screen, that are devoid of morals. This could be interesting for some. For laborious scenes and general lack of original theme, it lost 2 stars from me.

George Lucas struggled for years to make people believe in his vision. He is an amazing filmmaker and an example to all of us who have visions that are outside the norm.

Lucas started his career with an odd futuristic movie that not many people “got” only to follow that with “American Graffitti,” a 50’s nostalgia flick that also got mixed reviews. You would think at this point, since he is in a career that relies upon public approval, that Lucas would have adopted the most popular genre and tried to gain fans through addressing that. But he didn’t.

Instead he spent years working on a high budget space movie unlike anything the public had seen or approved of throughout history. It was Star Wars, released in 1977. I was 8 years old when I saw Star Wars the first time, and my mind was blown, along with the minds of every other kid about my age. I saw Star Wars 17 times as a kid. The movie was part of my psyche. I remember playing the soundtrack record and reciting lines from the movie as I did.

Since then, Lucas has been able to do whatever he chooses with film. His story is truly an amazing thing. Oh, and one other tidbit that brings his story home to me is the fact that he was born close to me in Modesto, California . . . not on Mount Zion or other place like that.

There are countless kids (including adult kids) that Star Wars has amazed. Thanks for believing in your vision George.

Below are 30 pieces of little-known trivia about Star Wars that fans of George Lucas might enjoy: (source)

THE MAKING OF STAR WARS

1. The first trailer for the film hit cinemas six months before it was to open – with tag lines such as “the story of a boy, a girl and a universe” and “a billion years in the making” – as executives hoped to drum up some interest in a film they had little faith in.

2. Made on a budget of $11m (5.5m) it made $215m (108m) in the US during its original release, and $337m (170m) overseas. The final film in the franchise – Revenge of the Sith – cost about $113m (57m) to make.

3. It was originally called The Star Wars, but “the” was dropped fairly early on in the creative process.

4. The full title Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope first appeared when the film was re-released in 1981.

5. Director George Lucas originally had a contract with Fox for $150,000 (75,941) for writing and directing Star Wars. But he cannily insisted on total control and 40% of merchandising – something the studio agreed to because they had no idea of what a phenomenon Star Wars would become.

6. The famous – and often imitated – opening crawl for Star Wars was co-written by Brian De Palma, the director of Scarface. It begins “It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.”

7. Sir Alec Guinness made a ton of money from the film having recognised its potential success and negotiating a deal for two per cent of box office takings. He also refused to do any promotional work for the film.

8. Anthony Daniels as C-3PO and Kenny Baker, who played R2-D2, are the only actors credited with being in all six Star Wars films.

9. Harrison Ford was far from George Lucas’ first choice to play Han Solo as the director had wanted completely new faces for Star Wars. Ford had already starred in Lucas’ American Graffiti.

10. The original release date was set for Christmas 1976 but major delays in filming saw it pushed back. The Fox studio had threatened to close down production when filming over-ran by more than two weeks.

11. Ralph McQuarrie created the paintings which were used to illustrate how the Star Wars universe could look. He started out as a technical illustrator for Boeing.

12. The Wookiee Chewbacca was inspired by George Lucas’ beloved dog Indiana – an Alaskan malamute.

13. Lucas once said that the shape of the Millennium Falcon was based on a hamburger.

14. George Lucas based the character of Han Solo on his friend Francis Ford Coppola.

15. The droids R2-D2 and C-3PO are said to be based on the 1958 Akira Kourosawa film Kakushi toride no san akunin (The Hidden Fortress). Other characters in Star Wars were also drawn from the film including Han Solo and Ben Kenobi.

MARKETING AND MERCHANDISING

16. Cinemas in the US were press-ganged into buying the film after few took up the option, with the threat that they wouldn’t get The Other Side of Midnight – a widely-anticipated adaptation of a Sidney Sheldon novel. The Other Side of Midnight, starring Susan Sarandon, was a box office flop.

17. Publicity supervisor Charles Lippincott was aware of the power of the sci-fi fan, going along to conventions to talk about Star Wars and what audiences could expect. He was largely credited with bringing in huge opening day audiences.

18. The merchandise for the film was not in place to accommodate the demand for the first Christmas rush after the film’s release. Lucas and merchandise company Kenner Toys hit upon a novel idea with the introduction of early bird certificate boxes. These were basically empty boxes that promised the receiver they would get the figures once they had been made. They sold for $16 at the time and the actual figures arrived two months later. Limited edition packs were re-released in 2005.

19. More than 250 million small action figures were shipped in the eight years after the first film, going to countries across the world. In the first year alone 42m were sold.

AWARDS

20. Composer John Williams won an Oscar for his score for Star Wars. The music was later named by the American Film Institute as the greatest film score of all time.

21. A New Hope was the only one of the six films in the franchise to be nominated in the Academy Awards best picture category. It lost out to Woody Allen’s Annie Hall.

MISHAPS AND MISCELLANEOUS

22. Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, was involved in a car accident following primary shooting. His face was damaged making reshoots impossible. Hamill later said he only broke his nose and reports that his face was reconstructed were wide of the mark.

23. Anthony Daniels was injured during his first outing as C-3PO when a leg piece fell off his gold-coloured costume and shattered – stabbing him in the foot.

24. On the first day of filming in the deserts of Tunisia, the country experienced its first major rainstorm in 50 years and a rest day had to be called.

25. When filming moved to Elstree it was hoped the earlier problems encountered in the desert would be finished. But a new problem arose in the shape of the strict British working conditions adhered to on set. Lucas says that filming had to close at 5.30pm on the dot, unless he was in the middle of a shot – when he could ask workers to stay for an extra 15 minutes.

Darth Vader costume
Darth Vader was played by British actor Dave Prowse

26. One of the most famous bloopers from the film is when stormtroopers burst into a room and one of them hits his head on the door frame. Fans of Star Wars and the blooper have spotted hundreds of “mistakes” throughout the Star Wars franchise but many can only be spotted by the most eagle-eyed viewer.

27. Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca, worked as a hospital orderly in London before being cast as the Wookiee. He was said to have got into character by copying the mannerisms of animals he visited at the zoo.

28. David Prowse, the 6ft 7ins actor who plays Darth Vader, had problems filming lightsaber scenes as he kept breaking the poles that were used as stand-ins for the weapons. In the sequels, fight co-ordinator Bob Anderson stepped into the costume to film the lightsaber scenes.

29. George Lucas wanted his sets to look worn and scuffed but the studio cleaning service continually cleaned and tidied up after a day’s filming – much to the director’s dismay.

30. Lucas’ stress levels reached such a height that he thought he was having a heart attack. He was diagnosed with hypertension and exhaustion and told to rest – something the punishing schedule would not allow. One can only imagine his life insurance quotes now.

wow.