Science Fiction: Films & TV

[eburacum]

In my headcanon, Avatar exists in the same universe as The Killing Star by Charles Pellegrino. Since Pellegrino worked on the design of the spaceship in Avatar, this is not impossible. The antagonist aliens from The Killing Star would make good antagonists in the Avatar series, and would certainly liven things up.

 

[Ladyloafer]

SPACE FORCE

Netflix. Starring Steve Carroll and john malkovich.

Space Force are the sixth branch of the USA military headed up by Steve Carrolls General Naird .
The goal: 'Boots on the moon'.

John malkovich is head scientist Adrian Mallory.

Billed as a comedy but more of a dry satire. There's a few slapstick moments and some laugh out loud but mostly it's just quietly amusing.

The two leads have a good banter and the other somewhat clichéd characters are all pretty good (science nerds, go getter 'spaceman', really irritating PR guy, moody teenage daughter).

It has a big budget look but is (mostly) earth based so doesn't have big silly fx.

It took me a couple of episodes to get into it but then I enjoyed it.
7/10.


10/10 for the space Force camo uniform being images of the lunar surface.

 

[ramonmercado]

SPACE FORCE

Netflix. Starring Steve Carroll and john malkovich.

Space Force are the sixth branch of the USA military headed up by Steve Carrolls General Naird .
The goal: 'Boots on the moon'.

John malkovich is head scientist Adrian Mallory.

Billed as a comedy but more of a dry satire. There's a few slapstick moments and some laugh out loud but mostly it's just quietly amusing.

The two leads have a good banter and the other somewhat clichéd characters are all pretty good (science nerds, go getter 'spaceman', really irritating PR guy, moody teenage daughter).

It has a big budget look but is (mostly) earth based so doesn't have big silly fx.

It took me a couple of episodes to get into it but then I enjoyed it.
7/10.


10/10 for the space Force camo uniform being images of the lunar surface.

It is enjoyable but as you say more of a dry satire. The rather droll Brigadier along with the Staff-Sergeant is now providing more humour, it does get better as the series proceeds.

 

[ramonmercado]

Pandora: Has the feel of STNG about it. A Star Fleet style Academy but much more casual, emphasis more on Diplomacy but very much Military as well. Students wear civilian clothes. Jax is the sole survivor of a mysterious attack on an archaeological colony. She joins the Academy where her uncle is a professor, actually he's also a covert Intelligence Officer. There are a lot of conspiracies and mysteries about in this series. Not least of which is that Jax isn't totally human. A bit teenish nut I can't understand why this is rated so low on IMDb. The individual ratings for the 13 episodes run from 5.2 to 8.5. 7/10. On SyFy Channel.

 

[GNC]

Surprised you haven't covered this one, @ramonmercado : The Vast of Night, lots of buzz about it, talk of the new Donnie Darko, but it's not quite as impressive as that. It is nicely done on a tiny budget, mostly by having dialogue in place of effects, but it basically winds up with exactly the same ending as...

Spoiler: A certain movie

Close Encounters of the Third Kind, only they couldn't afford aliens, just the UFOs.

Obviously made by enthusiasts, but that's not always enough.

 

[ramonmercado]

Surprised you haven't covered this one, @ramonmercado : The Vast of Night, lots of buzz about it, talk of the new Donnie Darko, but it's not quite as impressive as that. It is nicely done on a tiny budget, mostly by having dialogue in place of effects, but it basically winds up with exactly the same ending as...

Spoiler: A certain movie

Close Encounters of the Third Kind, only they couldn't afford aliens, just the UFOs.

Obviously made by enthusiasts, but that's not always enough.

Haven't seen it. Will put it on my list.

 

[GNC]

Good! If you do see it, try and explain what the title is supposed to mean.

 

[Bigphoot2]

Surprised you haven't covered this one, @ramonmercado : The Vast of Night, lots of buzz about it, talk of the new Donnie Darko, but it's not quite as impressive as that. It is nicely done on a tiny budget, mostly by having dialogue in place of effects, but it basically winds up with exactly the same ending as...

Spoiler: A certain movie

Close Encounters of the Third Kind, only they couldn't afford aliens, just the UFOs.

Obviously made by enthusiasts, but that's not always enough.

I liked it and I feel we'll be hearing more from the director and cast but for me

Spoiler

The UFO at the end was too "modern" looking. I would have preferred a more retro '50's Day the Earth Stood Still type of flying saucer.

 

[GNC]

I agree, especially how careful they were to make everything look retro and analogue otherwise.

I knew Sierra McCormick from the horror/action movie VFW, or rather, I recognised her name, she looked completely different! Bit of a chameleon.

 

[ramonmercado]

The Last Days of American Crime: A near future dystopian U.S., the government plans to broadcast a signal which will make crime impossible, attempted transgressions will result in a debilitating headache. (Don't ask it's not really explained.) Crime is rampant in the period leading up to the signal broadcast. bank robber Bricke (Edgar Ramirez) has messed up his chance to escape to Canada and his mob bosses have a hit out on him. He is approached by Kevin Cash (Michael Pitt) and Shelby Dupree (Anna Brewster), a consummate femme fatale, with a plan to pull off one last heist. A menage a trois develops as the film stumbles across sub-plots, unlikelihoods and non-sequiturs. Some really good fight scenes, shoot-outs and car-chases in the film but quite often they do not advance the narrative. Also gory and violent, some very disturbing scenes. There's a good film struggling to emerge from this morass but it would require a significant cut in the 149 minute running time. Directed by Olivier Megaton from a screenplay by Karl Gajdusek. 5/10. On Netflix

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

Anyone on here watching 'Tales from the Loop'? First episode very good not sure after that but interesting

Just completed all 8 episodes.

I liked the classic sci-fi themes: esoteric research, time-travel, AI, robotics, alternative dimensions etc. but the pace was grindingly slow, with far too many long "meaningful" silences. Also, with the stories focusing largely on teens and pre-teens, the overall feel was of young adult/teen-read material (the exception being the episode Parallel, which contained mature themes). Quite poignant at times and the robotic hardware is nicely imaged.
Episode 2 Transpose was my favourite.
The oft-repeated piano theme music sounds like a bit of a rip-off of Tangerine Dream's Ricochet 2!
Not exactly world-changing sci-fi but worth a look - if you have the patience.

 

[Ladyloafer]

Just completed all 8 episodes.

I liked the classic sci-fi themes: esoteric research, time-travel, AI, robotics, alternative dimensions etc. but the pace was grindingly slow, with far too many long "meaningful" silences. Also, with the stories focusing largely on teens and pre-teens, the overall feel was of young adult/teen-read material (the exception being the episode Parallel, which contained mature themes). Quite poignant at times and the robotic hardware is nicely imaged.
Episode 2 Transpose was my favourite.
The oft-repeated piano theme music sounds like a bit of a rip-off of Tangerine Dream's Ricochet 2!
Not exactly world-changing sci-fi but worth a look - if you have the patience.

I finally got round to finishing it too.

It was intriguing and I liked the overall setting and complete ambiguity about the nature of the Loop. And the vague sense of timeless ness. and the robots.
It is overall a story about people and connections. But really quiet people who don't say much and are all quite sad.

Mightve been better with shorter episodes.

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

I finally got round to finishing it too.

It was intriguing and I liked the overall setting and complete ambiguity about the nature of the Loop. And the vague sense of timeless ness. and the robots.
It is overall a story about people and connections. But really quiet people who don't say much and are all quite sad.

Mightve been better with shorter episodes.

Agreed. Good comment that all the players seemed sad.
I would go as far as calling them downright morose. There didn't seem to be much fun or joy in any of the episodes.

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

Nightflyers is worth the trip. Ep 6 - "The Sacred Gift" is particularly good imho.

I loved the retro SF parts of Ad Astra, pirates on the moon, lunar-buggy battles, crazed monkeys roaming a drifting spaceship.

Two episodes in, but can't say it's really grabbed me yet.

Did you notice how Melanthea (Jodie Turner) is very much the Barbarella character, with every shot showing her in a partial state of undress and focusing on her backside and acres of cleavage!

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

Finally reached the end of Nightflyers.
It was, I'm sorry to say, a bit of a grind.
Martin's short novella could have made a half-decent 90 minute movie, but to stretch the flimsy and derivative plot out for 10 episodes was unforgivable.
A clear mash-up of Event Horizon, The Black Hole and Saturn 3, with some other scenes ripped mercilessly from The Shining, Alien, 2001 a Space Odyssey and several of Iain M Banks's ideas.
Lots of gratuitous body horror every 15 minutes or so, to coincide with US commercial breaks, very little of which helps to progress the plot.
Outrageous blaxploitation of Jodie Turner (Malanthia), who seemed to be contractually obliged to show as much flesh as possible in every possible scene.
Oh and I guarantee you will feel short-changed by the (non-) ending.
A couple of redeeming features: the telepath gets some caustically witty lines and it was great to see Blakes 7's Josette Simon doing sci-fi once more.
Overall, very disappointing though and only worth watching if you're desperate to kill almost 8 hours of lockdown time.
3/10 in my book.

 

[ramonmercado]

Freaks: As it opens this could be just another film about a crazy/cult father, Henry (Emile Hirsch), who keeps his seven year old daughter, Chloe (Lexie Kolker), indoors, telling her that the world outside the house is dangerous. We quickly learn that though that Chloe has telepathic powers, indeed quite a few people have ESP, including Chloe's grandfather Alan (Bruce Dern) who runs an ice cream truck. This is another world where mutants are feared, persecuted and imprisoned. They are referred to as Abnormals. Time bubbles, invisibility, slowing down bullets and missiles are just some of the mutant powers which are displayed. But there are means of suppressing them and the Abnormal Defense Force which hunts them down shoots first despite their claims of wanting to help. The action scenes are well executed and Hirsch, Kolker and Dern (at his demented best) put in good performances. Interesting and worth watching but doesn't really add anything new to the Maltreated Mutants trope. Co-Written and Co-Directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein. 7/10. On Netflix.

 

[MrRING]

 

[GNC]

The motto of 2020: "Well, we're in Hell... but we're good!"

 

[Mythopoeika]

Looks to be... most excellent and righteous!

 

[gordonrutter]

A timeline of future movies.

The bar on the right is the distance between now and when the movie takes place. The bar on the left is how long ago the film was made. I'm assuming the Star Trek refers to the recent JJ Abrams reboots.

 

[ramonmercado]

Project Power: A new drug hits the streets - Power. It gives you superpowers but is unpredictable. There's a conspiracy - a shadowy corporation is behind it - using ordinary people as beta testers, state agencies turn a blind eye to this. A cop, a dealer and an ex-soldier seeking his missing daughter unite to fight the dark side. Nothing particularly original in this but it's well acted and directed, the screenplay falls down at times, more could have been done with the corruption angle. Good the CGI effects are convincing. An interesting SF thriller. Directed by Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman, written by Mattson Tomlin. On Netflix. 7/10.

 

[ramonmercado]

Tenet: Spys at the sharp end of Black-Ops, Time Travel, a Bond style Super Villain Sator (Kenneth Branagh). We even get Michael Caine as a senior MI6 spook. But mainly we see The Protagonist (John David Washington) and his sidekick Neil (Robert Pattinson). Great portrayals of teams of agents moving backwards through time whist other teams move forward. At different times in the film we see some scenes from differing directions. Difficult to explain, you have to see it. Also munitions which move backwards throgh time, nasty if you get shot by them Elizabeth Debicki is Kat, Sator's estranged wife who has her own agenda for helping The Protagonist. Great battle scenes, (watch buildings reconstruct themselves!) car chases, again back and forward in time. I'll have to watch this again to fully understand it. Written and Directed by Christopher Nolan. 9/10.

 

[Swifty]

Flash Gordon episode 1 (1936)

 

[ramonmercado]

At First Light: A girl has an encounter with a UFO while drowning in a lake, she emerges changed, endowed with super powers. She can heal levitate throw cars around but finds the powers difficult to control. An ex-boyfriend helps her to escape. Yes, the MIB appear. Elements of Close Encounters, The Man Who Fell To Earth and Starman coalesce to form an interesting but slow moving SF film. Written & Directed by Jason Stone. Showing again on SyFy Channel Thursday 24 September, 9 pm. 6/10.

 

[GNC]

Lovely podcast here with Mike Hodges talking to Mark Kermode about Flash Gordon:
Podcast

Loads of great anecdotes, plus a debunking of the idea that Sam J. Jones was dubbed, Hodges says it was 95% his own voice and Jones didn't recognise it (!?!).

 

[gordonrutter]

So apparently there is a TV series of Isaac Asimov’s coming out next year. Who knew!

 

[ramonmercado]

Freaks: You're One of Us: Another dark tale of mutants suffering oppression. Starts with an incident at a school, pupils fleeing, armed police present. A hole in a building wall, shaped like the continental U.S. Dr Stern enters a room, comforts a crying child. Not just comfort though, mutants are kept on pills to suppress their powers. Some revolt but they are up against Dr Stern's sinister agency. Another X-Men clone but it's not bad. Differing types of mutants, invulnerable, controlling electricity, able to levitate and super-strength. Some good scenes of bullies getting their comeuppance and a car illegally parked in a disabled space being casually pushed aside. Directed by Felix binder from a script by Marc O. Seng. On Netflix. 7/10.

 

[Ogdred Weary]

Underwater, monsters attack a near(ish) futuristic underwater drilling station in the deep ocean. Hit many sweet spots for me: deep ocean setting, Sci fi/horror meld, variety of monsters, goes straight into the action. It's not exceptional in anyway but does what it does well, if not with much originality. You'll guess where it's going several steps ahead of the plot. My only real complaint was the monster designs feeling a little samey.

 

[gordonrutter]

So apparently there is a TV series of Isaac Asimov’s coming out next year. Who knew!

Sorry missed out a word! TV series of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation coming out next year.

 

[GNC]

Sorry missed out a word! TV series of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation coming out next year.

Isaac Azimov's Coming might have been entertaining too.