Interstellar

There are some movies that are hard to review. It doesn't mean that such movies are of high quality. It is just that writing about it can reveal too much and take away from the pleasure if the movie was one for the ages. This is one such movie and I will do my best not give too much away about this one.

The Earth is ravaged by blight and humanity's hope for survival looks bleak. It is evident from the posters and trailers that some space travel is involved in search of a solution. Throw a wormhole into the picture and the possibilities are endless. As you watch the film you hope for another Contact but as your excitement grows the finale kind of leaves you a little deflated. Maybe the weight of expectations flattened the balloon.

Rating: * * + 

Poster licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

Katniss Everdeen makes her way back to screen after the disastrous end to the Quarter Quell. She finds herself deep beneath the ground in District 13th with the rebels. Advised by the rebel President Coin and cajoled by her friends and advisers, she reluctantly agrees to become the face of the revolution. Thanks to being a movie you are spared the whiny inner dialog of Ms. Everdeen. But the movie makes up for that with its boring pacing and uneventful screenplay. A book that easily could have fit in a single movie is dragged across two films with no real reason other than greed. The only saving grace is that you got to see Philip Seymour Hoffman one more time.

Rating:: * +

Poster licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia.

Edge of Tomorrow

Director Doug Liman hit upon this original idea of making a movie that resembles a video game where you have no control over the players. He then roped in Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt to play the leads and lend sex appeal. For two hours you watch Tom die, live, die again at different points as he tries to stop an alien race from annihilating the human race. Unfortunately, you are not given an option of playing as an alien.

Rating: *

Poster licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia.

Snowpiercer

Global warming was imminent and humans in their infinite wisdom decided to fix things. The result is a sudden ice age and the only escape is being on a self sufficient train that runs endlessly on a round the world trip. Even in these close confines of a train, a class system arises and there is the inevitable revolt. The film evoked critical response regarding how this a reflection of current society and class division. However, the point is lost of people that there is nothing original in this route and is a topic revisited over and over again. And if you sit through to the end, you will definitely be reminded of Omelas if you have read it. In fact, if you haven't read it go pick up a copy and ignore the film.

Rating: * +

"Snowpiercer poster" by impawards.com. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia.

Cloud Atlas

Reading David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas left me thinking that this is one book that meanders all over the place and could never make a coherent film. The Wachowski siblings of course proved me wrong.

In 1849, a young lawyer has a brush with slavery and is dying of a mysterious illness on ship while harbouring an escaped slave. In 1936 a young composer is slaving away under an arrogant maestro while composing his own masterpiece. San Francisco in the 1973 sees a journalist trying to unearth a conspiracy. Present day London finds a publisher running away from gangsters in the most amusing fashion. A futuristic Seoul in 2144 shows a genetic clone discovering that she is human. And then there is the really far away time set in a post apocalyptic time. A film set over multitude timescapes that has been stiched together to make a coherent whole. 

Rating: * * +

"Cloud Atlas Poster" by May be found at this website. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia.

Prometheus

A group of humans and an android find themselves on a remote moon after discovery of a star map that promises to answer the human origin question. Predictably the crew find themselves treading murky waters and to their "surprise", alien creatures. The plot tries to go philosophical with Noomi Rapace's character's questions about faith and God interwoven in to the quest for the answer to human creation. However the prequel to the Alien franchise goes beyond its ken and tries to answer questions it has no business or need to ask. But the film is gorgeous to look at and that alone makes it worth a trip to the cinemas.

Rating: * *

The Adjustment Bureau

The night David Norris (Matt Damon) loses a US Senate seat, he finds his true love in a restroom only to lose her soon after. However, he runs in to her randomly on a bus only to find mysterious forces keeping from the woman of his dreams. Soon you are faced with the question whether every life has a destiny or is there a “man” with a plan nudging things behind the scenes. Unlike Inception, which has a cool concept but uses recursion for a plot, this film has a storyline to back it up.

Rating: * * *

Moon

A distant future and the moon has become the next frontier for energy. Sam Bell toils away in solitude at the moon station, ensuring all harvesting is in ship shape waiting for his three year contract to complete. Strangely, conversations with Earth are not in real time and everything is recorded and “mailed” over. The only day to day contact he has is with GERTY, the robot voiced eerily by Kevin Spacey. And slowly things start to go bump in the Moon and the expected unraveling occurs. A film with a solid premise but the plot is a little too transparent.

Rating: * *

The Fountain

Past, present and future collide in this film as each time stream's protagonist searches for eternal life to save his love. The doctor races against time to find a cure for brain tumors so that his wife can be saved. A warrior trudges through the jungles of Peru to find the tree of eternal  life to save his country. An astronaut flies through space in an encapsulated bubble with  an aged tree in hope that a dying star can save it. A film that explores man's thirst for eternal life but yet doesn't examine the meaning of having it.

Rating: * * +

Inception

It must have been the IPAs that I got through earlier in the evening that had me collapsing spontaneously into this latest Chris Nolan movie about dreams and dreams within dreams. It was a big struggle staying in the moment as I was being pulled deeper into the cold warmth of the theatre. With waves of the beery subconscious running through me, the plot helmed by the capable Di Caprio was taking form - the kind that a Chris Nolan can attempt to build and not many others. Dreams are as elusive a subject as any and here it was being manfully deconstructed & subsequently constructed by an A-Team with the sole focus of understanding and influencing life. Brilliant premise. However, through my brief phases of consciousness, I felt that the linkages, those that are critical to any strong plot, were destined to play second fiddle to the brilliance of the premise. It doesn't really matter, there are no alibis in dreams.

Rating: * *                                           

PS: Michael Caine is in the movie for all of 2 scenes. Ellen Page is irritating.

                                

Sleep Dealer

A not too distant future is shown in the movie, with a solid wall being thrown up between Mexico and the USA. Now the way for migrant workers to cross the border is through cyberspace. In an almost Matrix like setup, worker bees plug themselves in to the network and move robots across the border performing all kinds of labor from construction to baby sitting. It is in this world that three disparate individuals meet by chance. One of the better sci-fi films in recent times.

Rating: * * +

Avatar

Avatar is indeed a spectacle, especially if one has 3-D glasses on. It actually reminded me of the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games - one has seen it all before, but it gets more extravagant & spectacular as the years go by. The colours, images, the magnificent wild beasts & birds, and the elegant movement of the Na'vi people are all beautifully constructed. 

Well, is it the "path breaking" film that its being heralded as? Certainly not. Well maybe, if you were born recently or never watched any of the legendary sci-fi / fantasy films over the years. Conceptually, it's all familiar ground and therefore making it nothing more than "exciting". 

In my mind, nothing can take away the title of "path breaking" from The Matrix.

Rating: * * +

Timecrimes

Héctor (Karra Elejalde) stumbles in to the past and meets himself, setting off events that slowly spin out of control. A film that expose the complexities involved with time travel through a simple plot.

Rating: * * +

Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan

What would you do if you accidentally defeated a race of genetically advanced humans who are bent upon subjugating mankind to their whims and fancies? Logically one should obliterate them. But James T. Kirk (William Shatner) nobly leaves them stranded in a deserted planet. Now their leader Khan is back seeking vengeance with disastrous consequences for the Starship Enterprise. And to think this was one of the better Star Trek films...

Rating: * *

Star Trek

James Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto) and company are young green horns setting foot for the first time on an Enterprise Starship. Faced with the threat of Captain Nero (Eric Bana) and his futuristic ship, the crew have to dig deep into their future to pull themselves out of this one.

Expectation did not come into the picture for someone who does not bear the weighty past of the Star Trek. Yet the film felt more Star Wars than Star Trek.

Rating: * *

Sunshine

50 years into the future and mankind has forgotten the warmth of the sun. Eight astronauts are sent out to the center of the sun with a payload to reignite it. As they near the star, as usual man's best laid plans start to splinter. And so does the crew. A film that could have made its way into the list of great sci-fi flicks but stops short in spite of the fine cast and crew.

Rating: * *

The Wild Blue Yonder

A sci-fi movie experiment created by splicing together NASA footage and underwater film of the Antarctic Ocean glued together by an over the top narrator. The experiment failed in my book.

Rating: +

Renaissance

The year is 2054 and every body speaks English in Paris. Everything is recorded and no one is ever alone. But not even the ever present camera can show where Ilona Tasuiev, a young promising scientist, has disappeared. Her employers, Avalon, a giant conglomerate that peddles eternal beauty wants her found no matter the cost. Karas, a cynical and jaded captain among Paris's finest finds himself in hot seat. The only clues he has are a trail of dead bodies.

A beautifully etched anime where the artist has done some brilliant work in pure black and white. Thankfully the film was not just eye candy but had excellent voice overs by Daniel Craig and Ian Holm and a cunning plot.

Rating: * * *

The Island

Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean and Steve Buscemi all have two things in common. They are all fine thespians but also made the mistake of signing up to feature in Michael Bay's futuristic pile of pure unadulterated shite.

Rating: *

Children of Men

It is the year 2027 and humanity is infertile. Mankind has forgotten the sound of a child crying. The playgrounds are silent. The only music around is despair. The movie is about what happens when there is a ray of hope in this bleak landscape.

The bleakness of the landscape is reflected in the eyes of Clive Owen who has outdone himself. The ray of hope is seen in the smile of Michael Caine.

Rating: * * +