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Science Fiction: Films & TV

That's the kind of movie I enjoy.
Especially with the famous faces in walk-on parts.
 
In the U.S. a movie sneaked into the theaters without noticed called “Jules” staring Ben Kingsley, Harriet Sansom Harris, and Jane Curtin where a lonely “ gray “ type alien lands in Kingsley backyard looking for companionship

I think from the trailer these three people think they can dress the alien up for a normal human life.

Strange ?
 
Last night, we watched Saturday the 14th with Richard Benjamin.
Utterly silly, badly made 1980's dross. It was fantastic!
Silly, yes, utterly crap effects, sure. But cheesy 80's fun, like Troll or whatever.
 
T.I.M. : Another film about a rogue AI in an android chassis. T.I.M. (Eamon Farren) is a "Technologically. Integrated. Manservant", Abi (Georgina Campbell) is a prosthetics engineer hired to improve T.I.M. so she's given one to help around the house. Her husband Paul (Mark Rowley) is less than gruntled with this but agrees to hand over various passwords to make life easier. From then on they are both like mice in a trap. And TIM has a nasty method of dealing with mice. There's a lot of horror in this film but most of it is of the psychological variety as TIM gaslights the couple after it develops romantic feelings towards Abi. TIM's gardening skills soon prove useful in his other ventures. The basic ideas behind this are well worn tropes but the narrative unfolds here is important plus there's also pretty good performances from the lead trio. Directed & Co-Written by Spencer Brown. On Netflix. 7.5/10.
 
By chance I ran across a 2016 movie called “ Arrival “.

Supposedly, the octopus aliens want the human race to help them with a problem in 3,000 years.

What a movie mess, are we watching the past, present or future ?

The aliens don’t give any information about themselves, but after they give their “ help “ message, they leave.

What a dumb movie. !
 
charliebrown said:
By chance I ran across a 2016 movie called “ Arrival “.

Supposedly, the octopus aliens want the human race to help them with a problem in 3,000 years.

What a movie mess, are we watching the past, present or future ?

The aliens don’t give any information about themselves, but after they give their “ help “ message, they leave.

What a dumb movie. !
Click to expand...

Hey! It's a great film, all about communication.

Here's my review from 2016:

Arrival: Saw a preview of Arrival last week. Truly original in how it dealt with communication between Aliens & Humans. The Aliens design isn't original, they look like Kang and Kodos from The Simpsons minus the eye and mouth. But are much eerier, even Lovecraftian. They have seven tentacles and are dubbed Heptapods.

Amy Adams is the linguist who along with scientist Jeremy Renner try to open communications with the Aliens. Forest Whitaker is a US Army Colonel. Alien Starships are well imagined as are the interiors with switching gravity directions. Could be an Oscar in this for Adams and Special Effects & Production Design Oscars as well.

Do they come in peace or to set us at each others throats? See the film! 9/10.
 
So having bonded with the octopus aliens, can the Amy Adams character see the past, present, and future all at the same time as the aliens do not see time as linear ?

Allen time not being linear seems to be a big point in the move.
 
charliebrown said:
So having bonded with the octopus aliens, can the Amy Adams character see the past, present, and future all at the same time as the aliens do not see time as linear ?

Allen time not being linear seems to be a big point in the move.
Click to expand...

Yep, she became capable of seeing rime as being non-linear. She got access to info and persuaded Shang to call off the attack on the alien ship.
 
Watched Arctic Void (2022) on Prime last night.

Two American documentary makers and their, slightly mysterious, hired cameraman are taking a tourist boat to one of the Svalbard islands.
Things start to feel slightly "off" though, which the jovial bonhomie of their larger-than-life captain/tour-guide cannot dispel.
In a flash, the captain and other travellers disappear, leaving our bemused trio struggling to make sense of an unreal situation.
Taking the RIB ashore, they discover an abandoned Soviet-era mining complex (the real-life Pyramiden), where the whole second half of the movie takes place. It's a wonderfully evocative backdrop for a creepy film, with its long corridors and big empty rooms ringing echoes of The Shining's Overlook Hotel. For an obviously low-budget movie, the natural scenery and buildings all look absolutely amazing and the atmosphere was suitably spooky. When the big reveal comes though, which pushes this movie firmly into the sci-fi category, I found it hard to accept and, as is increasingly common these days, the ending left me feeling rather short changed.
Still, well worth a look for some terrific eye-candy and a very decent first two-thirds.
6.5/10 from me.


arctic.png
 
The Creator. Another tale of Rogue AIs. This time they nuked LA. While the US has banned all AIs they are still welcome in New Asia where AIs, Simulants (AIs with human faces) and humans live together in harmony. The US wages war on the AIs and New Asia both by covert means and open attacks. A commando, Joehua is senr undercover in an attempt to capture Nirmata, New Asia's chief AI architect, he falls for Nirmata;s daughter Maya but remains loyal to the US. He is extracted too soon and the pregnant Maya disappears presumed dead. Five years later he is shown evidence that Maya is alive and is sent in again to destroy an ultimate weapon created by Nirmata and to recover Maya and their child. Not everything is simple though, the weapon turns out to be a Simulant child capable of physical and mental growth. Joshua now seels another path. Some interesting analogies with the Vietnam War as AIs are butchered including AI & Simulant Buddhist monks in bombing attacks and Mai Lai type massacres. An interesting examination of what it is to be Human and to be aI, differences and similarities. Some good Blade Runner influenced city scapes and concepts along with advanced weaponry, giant tanks, jet-powered Ospreys. The most impressive being Nomad, a platform which floats above the clouds, lighting up and raining death down on it;s targets. Quite a few plot twists and surprises as the narrative unfolds. A pretty good film but the influences of (rather than homages to) other films are including Terminator, BR and even Apocalypse Now are obvious, this perhaps, prevents it from being original enough to qualify as a classic. Directed by Gareth Edwards, who co-wrote the screenplay with Chris Weitz. 8.5/10.

In cinemas.
 
For those who have Disney Plus, the first episode of the new season of “ Loki “ was confusing.

Loki jumped through so many realities, I got lost in the story.
 
ramonmercado said:
Hey! It's a great film, all about communication.

Here's my review from 2016:

Arrival: Saw a preview of Arrival last week. Truly original in how it dealt with communication between Aliens & Humans. The Aliens design isn't original, they look like Kang and Kodos from The Simpsons minus the eye and mouth. But are much eerier, even Lovecraftian. They have seven tentacles and are dubbed Heptapods.

Amy Adams is the linguist who along with scientist Jeremy Renner try to open communications with the Aliens. Forest Whitaker is a US Army Colonel. Alien Starships are well imagined as are the interiors with switching gravity directions. Could be an Oscar in this for Adams and Special Effects & Production Design Oscars as well.

Do they come in peace or to set us at each others throats? See the film! 9/10.
Click to expand...
Yup. I was skeptical on preview but it was very creatively done and I was moved. It's a thinker cum heartshaker..
 
charliebrown said:
For those who have Disney Plus, the first episode of the new season of “ Loki “ was confusing.

Loki jumped through so many realities, I got lost in the story.
Click to expand...
I've just watched Episode 3 of season 2 and am now thinking I should really have watched season 1 again first, because I'm losing track of the characters...
 
I find the long dialogues between Morbius and Loki meaningless.

I forgot where but to talk 5 minutes on how to eat lime pie, for what reason ?
 
Bodies - The same body is found in the same place in London in four different time periods; 1890, 1941, 2023, and some time in the 2050s. It's investigated by four different police officers. I'm four episodes in to this eight part Netflix series and nothing is getting done for the rest of the day. Not by me, anyway.
 
PeteByrdie said:
Bodies - The same body is found in the same place in London in four different time periods; 1890, 1941, 2023, and some time in the 2050s. It's investigated by four different police officers. I'm four episodes in to this eight part Netflix series and nothing is getting done for the rest of the day. Not by me, anyway.
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Loving it. Can't wait to watch the next episode tonight.
 
Watched "65" on Sky last night.
Adam Driver is a suspiciously humanoid and technologically advanced alien, whose spacecraft is damaged by an asteroid fragment and crash-lands on an uncharted planet.
It is revealed almost immediately that the planet is Earth, but 65 million years ago and the space-rock that bisected his ship is a fragment of the big one, that Driver's instruments warn him is due to hit in a matter of hours. Driver and the only other survivor of the crash - a young girl (Ariana Greenblatt) have to yomp some 12 km across the badlands to reach the other half of the spacecraft, in which they hope to find an escape pod.
Naturally, on the way, they have several run-ins with a quite a menagerie of dinos, which provide a few moderate (12-rated) scares.
Credit where it's due, the velociraptors were more convincing than those in Jurassic Park, still being vicious little buggers, but dog-sized.
My favourite scene was where the girl wants to rescue a cute little herbivorous dino that had become stuck in a tar-pit. Driver knows it would be a futile gesture, but she is so insistent that they manage to get the creature free - only for it to be ripped to pieces by the raptors.
Much of the remainder of the 92 minute run-time is rather predictable though. There is, what I presume was, a nod to the ancient alien hypothesis at the end i.e. once the dinos were wiped out, did Driver's people revisit this planet where the air was breathable and kick-start the human race? Well I suppose that, with his rather striking looks, Driver does look slightly Neanderthal, but not so much like a homo habilis, let alone a primitive ancestral mammal. OK, let's not get too picky. This is lightweight sci-fi fluff, which shouldn't be analysed too deeply.
Looks amazing in UHD, but for the rather facile plot, it's only a 6/10 from me.


adam.png
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
…let’s not get too picky. This is lightweight sci-fi fluff, which shouldn't be analysed too deeply.
…it's only a 6/10 from me.
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Concur.

lt looked like an SF film that had been made by someone who had a good budget and CGI team, but who hadn’t seen an SF film since 1959: An interstellar spacecraft collides with suitcase-sized rocks? And they bounce off with minimal damage? Driver’s backpack looks like a cereal-packet novelty? He sets up intruder detectors in a 10-foot circle around himself?

Uncork a bottle, disconnect your critical faculties and enjoy some decent visuals and jump scares.

maximus otter
 
maximus otter said:
Uncork a bottle, disconnect your critical faculties and enjoy some decent visuals and jump scares.
Click to expand...
That is basically what I did when I watched it on DVD recently.
I didn't expect much, because Driver isn't what you'd call a classic leading man for a major film.
6/10 is probably what I'd give it too.
 
PeteByrdie said:
Bodies - The same body is found in the same place in London in four different time periods; 1890, 1941, 2023, and some time in the 2050s. It's investigated by four different police officers. I'm four episodes in to this eight part Netflix series and nothing is getting done for the rest of the day. Not by me, anyway.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this! 3 1/2 episodes in. I'm hooked!
 
I don't think this has been mentioned anywhere on the board that I know of. I've recently been watching a series called Upload on Prime. Near future stuff, people near death can upload to a digital afterlife, but the process destroys their bodies. That description makes it sound like some kind of dark cyberpunk thriller, but it's generally a light comedy with some thriller aspects thrown in. If you're looking for something to binge, I'm watching the last episode of season 3 now and I've loved it.
 
For those who can get Disney Plus, the 2nd season of Loki ended and my opinion it was a disorder mess.

I had to turn to the internet to understand the possible ending.

Loki in Norse Mythology becomes Yggdrasil who controls all worlds and become a supreme god.

If someone has a better idea, let me know.
 
charliebrown said:
For those who can get Disney Plus, the 2nd season of Loki ended and my opinion it was a disorder mess.

I had to turn to the internet to understand the possible ending.

Loki in Norse Mythology becomes Yggdrasil who controls all worlds and become a supreme god.

If someone has a better idea, let me know.
Click to expand...
I loved this season. My first thought was Yggdrasil, and I see no reason to question that. I feel that was what was implied by the way it was shown. It was always going to be weird.
 
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