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having nothing better to do at the moment than sift through my ever increasing streaming playlist and backlog of 'stuff i recorded from telly but haven't got round to watching yet' i have come across some gems. many would come under the heading of 'nothing much happens, but its moody and looks good and is vaguely futuristic'. plus theres so much more apocalyse/doom stuff out there than i ever realised! not all of it zombies!

Everything beautiful is far away.

A guy, a girl, and a robothead hike across a desert planet in search of a mythical lake.

(this review from imdb sums it up well)

it's a low-budget indie sci-fi/fantasy. a little bit of romance in there as well.
if you expect to see a dystopian world with lots of conflicts or a survival journey for a better world or life, you won't get it in here.

it's a light movie, pretty straightforward. there is nothing much happening in this movie, you don't really get a huge conflict, which gives me positive vibes to the story, and somehow uplifting.

the cinematography is great, and I love the bright colour.

I think we're alone now

The apocalypse proves a blessing in disguise for one lucky recluse -- until a second survivor arrives with the threat of companionship.
Apparent sole survivor of a never explained 'plague', Del spends his days going from house to house removing and burying dead bodies, cleaning up, purloining their batteries, food and books and cataloguing the books in the town library.

when young Grace arrives in town she stays to help him, despite him rather being alone. but grace has a secret...

again, its quiet, unassuming, a bit weird in the last third of the film but peter dinklage and elle fanning are great in this.

The Endless

Two brothers who escaped a ufo cult as youngsters and drawn back for a visit after a mysterious videotape arrives implying the cult is about to being taken.
on arrival everything is fine and everyone is happy living a communal life, selling their craft beer.
but there is something weird going on in the night sky, and someone or something is delivering tapes and polaroids from the near future, and why do people find it so hard to leave?

very low budget, no big effects, no scary aliens or extreme blood n guts, but an intriging mystery.
 
Time Trap: Students go looking for their professor who has disappeared. He was searching for hippies who disappeared in the 1970's. A bit like the old woman who swallowed a fly. It involves an underground cave where time operates differently from on the surface. Ancient cavemen, conquistadors, cowboys and the missing searchers come into conflict with each other. Even a traveler from the future arrives. Entertaining SciFi drama directed by Mark Dennis and Ben Foster from a script by Mark Dennis. 7/10. On Netflix.
 
Anyone on here watching 'Tales from the Loop'? First episode very good not sure after that but interesting
Seen first three episodes so far. It has a nice aesthetic but is a bit boring. First episode best so far. However there's only 8 episodes so I'll give the rest a go.
 
Emergence: Small town Police Chief Jo Evans finds a ten year old girl at the scene of an aircraft crash. Electricity had cut out just before the crash. Fake NTSB agents try to take the girl away, then imposters pretend to be her parents. Meanwhile the real NTSB have taken away the wreck and claim it was an unmanned drone. The girl is suffering from amnesia and Jo names her Piper. Piper apparently has special powers. Good pilot episode. 8/10. On Fox TV.
 
Into The Night: Officer from NATO HQ hijacks a plane and makes it fly west, into the night. Seems something is wrong with the Sun, people die as it rises. The motley crew (and passengers) on board the plane face many challenges as they circle the globe at high latitudes, landing to refuel as they seek out an underground shelter. 8/10. On Netflix.
 
Into The Night: Officer from NATO HQ hijacks a plane and makes it fly west, into the night. Seems something is wrong with the Sun, people die as it rises. The motley crew (and passengers) on board the plane face many challenges as they circle the globe at high latitudes, landing to refuel as they seek out an underground shelter. 8/10. On Netflix.
Quite enjoying this too.
 
Dark/Web

An anthology of stories about tech run amok (uber style app that wants to turn it's driver into a vigilante, the horrors of dating apps etc). The tales are bookended by a group of old school friends who come together to look for a missing friend, Molly, whose disappearance may have something to do with her work on a top secret government tech project.
In the background there are reports of rolling blackouts, cyber terrorism, air traffic failures. And are they connected too?

And for buffy fans there are appearances from the actors who played xander, glory and darla.

On amazon.
 
Larry Niven's Ringworld in the pipeline (again)

Amazon’s Ringworld Moves Forward with Game of Thrones Director
The sci-fi classic Ringworld is being adapted by Akiva Goldsman with Alan Taylor on board to direct.

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By Don Kaye|May 14, 2020|

It was rather quietly announced last September that screenwriter and producer Akiva Goldsman had signed a deal with Amazon and its producing partner MGM to develop Larry Niven’s classic 1970 science fiction novel, Ringworld, as a series. Now Goldsman confirms that the project is steadily moving forward.
Goldsman revealed in an interview with Collider that he is currently working on the script for the show, and that Alan Taylor is attached to direct the pilot. Said Goldsman, “Hopefully that will turn into an actual set of moving pictures, but God knows.”

https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/amazon-ringworld-moves-forward-game-of-thrones-director/
 
We're a few episodes into The Expanse, that's a refreshingly 'hard' sci-fi show.

I almost gave up on it, due to the heavy-handed politics, glacial pace of the main story-arc and the paucity of likeable characters. Glad I stuck with it though. I'm now at the start of series 4 and things are really getting interesting and developing rapidly!
 
Ringworld? At last!
 
I enjoyed it quite a bit, but there were sections when it dragged on, sure.
It has a bunch of interesting characters, just ripe for a film or TV adaptation.
I imagine the Puppeteer will be CGI. Or guy in an ostrich costume with puppet heads? I've tried to read it several times and never got further than half way.
 
Aerials: UFOs appear in the sky over Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. No contact is received from them. They also appear iver cities across the globe, communications are disrupted, internet is down. Then electricity goes and cars won't start, suggesting an EMP. Aerials is mostly set in the house of a couple, the woman is Western, the man is from Dubai.They discuss the possible reasons for the arrival of the aliens. Their views are coloured by cultural differences. TV announcers call for calm, deny that people are being abducted by aliens. A bizarre insurance salesman calls, offering insurance against accidents etc caused by ETs. Nothing much happens in the film which is largely an exploration of the clash of cultures. There is some evidence of aliens through flashing lights and weird silhouettes. Written and Directed by S.A. Zaidi this film failed to impress me, 4/10. On Netflix.
 
2036 Origin Unknown: A Science Fiction Thriller which mixes the tropes of AI getting out of control with the discovery of Alien technology. 2030, Martian One attempts to land on Mars but a strange electrical storm damages the shuttle, the AI, ARTI, won't allow manual override and the ship is destroyed. 2036, great strides in AI development has largely made humans redundant in Mission Control (people are seemingly unaware of ARTI's actions) at the United Space Planetary Corporation. Mack (Katee Sackhoff) is really just a back up to ARTI. Indeed the AI decides to launch a lander from a Mars satellite , only Mack's intervention prevents disaster. A Rover from the lander detects a strange signal and detects an apparently Alien artifact. This film borrows from 2001: A Space Odyssey in spaceship design as well as themes, some scenes unfold like a homage to Kubrick's classic. Conspiracies, sibling rivalry, an AI taking on itself to carry out military actions but also quite a bit of philosophising. Some plot twists and surprises. This might have worker better as an hour long episode of an anthology series. Still, Writer/Director Hasraf Dulull delivers a watchable SF thriller. 6/10. On Netflix.
 
Armed Response: An AI again, has it gone rogue or just been subverted? A secret military facility goes dark. A special ops team goes to investigate and finds the guards slaughtered. CCTV footage show them being killed by invisible assassins. Most of the action takes place within the base, dark corridors, rooms, ventilation shafts, the killings continue as the team try to solve the mystery and are themselves picked off. Some gruesome scenes with arms ripped off, shootings, stabbings, strangling and torture through sensory deprivation. A few plot holes and things go ridiculous at times in a rather confused script. But it's just about watchable. Directed by John Stockwell. Showing again on SyFy, Saturday 30 May 00.30.
 
Seen first three episodes so far. It has a nice aesthetic but is a bit boring. First episode best so far. However there's only 8 episodes so I'll give the rest a go.

Agreed. I tried to get into Tales From the Loop, but the glacial pace and annoyingly long silences with "meaningful" looks just got on my nerves.
May watch the remaining episodes, if I'm really bored some time.
 
Cameron is planning 5 Avatar movies in total. What a way to spend your twilight years.
 
Are they still flogging that one trick pony?

Indeed. Dances with Smurfs - in space.

The original Avatar was undeniably spectacular - probably the best 3D effects I've seen on the big screen (loved the Roger Dean floating mountains), but let's face it, the plot was utterly facile and to milk it for five sequels doesn't sound promising.
 
Indeed. Dances with Smurfs - in space.

The original Avatar was undeniably spectacular - probably the best 3D effects I've seen on the big screen (loved the Roger Dean floating mountains), but let's face it, the plot was utterly facile and to milk it for five sequels doesn't sound promising.
I hope they will get a decent team of scriptwriters in, then our fears may be baseless.
 
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