‘Sci-Fi’ Archives
Avatar
After almost 3 years, I went back to watching a movie in a movie theater, and what better movie than Avatar? It's definitely worth it, since we won't have 3D TVs for a while, at least at an affordable price. I pretty much knew what I was getting before I watched it. It's a cool looking movie with great effects, but a lame or unoriginal story. I [...]
District 9
This sci-fi movie is an action/horror story with clear social themes of racism. The aliens are clearly discriminated against due to their look. But this is not even a subtext, since it takes place in South Africa. Even though the politics are the basis for the premise of this story, this is mainly an action movie. The first part is all setup, [...]
Timecrimes
In another list of best sci-fi movies, Timecrimes was paired with Primer as the best time travel movies. Timecrimes' approach is different though, it doesn't try to explain the time machine, it only cares about what happens to the time traveler. What happens in this story is that there is only one story line happening, however we see it [...]
Primer (re-watch)
While reading and discussing about a list of best sci-fi movies of the decade, I was reminded of one of the gems of this decade, one that I already reviewed here. But I've always wanted to re-watch it a second time and try to work out the timeline in Primer, with the help of a few links. SPOILERS WARNING!! This movie is all about the concept [...]
Pandorum
After watching the sci-fi movie Moon, here's another sci-fi movie. This time it's the thriller/action/horror kind of sci-fi. Here's why you should watch it. It has good action scenes. It's very mysterious and tense throughout the story, so you will not be bored at all. The mystery is solved half-way through, and it's a very satisfying one. At [...]
Serenity (re-watch)
And finally we get to one of my favorite movies of the last few years. I've reviewed this already, but after re-watching it I want to delve deeper into details. Also since it's been a few years already, I can spoil the story. Since this movie has to appeal to people who've never watched the show before, the prologue explains the history of [...]
Moon
Moon is in the category of sci-fi movies that do not contain action, or cool flashy CGI effects. It's just a story that takes place in the future, where technology is advanced and taken for granted, and it explores some interesting themes that would not be possible in the present. The pacing of this movie is slow and it basically stars one [...]
Star Trek
I'm in the middle of watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, so it's appropriate that I watch the newest incarnation of the franchise. I have to say I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. It felt very refreshing to have the original characters re-cast as young characters, but at the same time there's still a link to the past, in the person of "our" [...]
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
I've been pretty happy with the straight to DVD DC Animation movies so far, some I liked more than others, but the quality in general was good. Unfortunately I was very disappointed by this latest release. The worst part is that the animation looked cheap. The style was a bad mish mash of the original comic story's artist Ed McGuiness and a [...]
Wall-E
Pixar is always synonymous of quality, but after the masterpiece that was The Incredibles, I had a tough time comparing anything else to it. Until Wall-E. This is a great film, both from the filmmaking perspective and story wise. Wall-E is a great character, he's just a small robot and he barely says 2 words in the movie, but he is a full [...]
X-Files: I want to believe
I liked X-Files the show, I actually watched all episodes of that series. I admit there were a lot of problems with it, especially in the latter seasons. But I liked the characters and I was excited to watch it. The first movie happened during the good years, so I really liked it. I thought it made for a good entertaining movie, but it also [...]
Batman: Gotham Knight
Everyone will compare this DVD to Animatrix. The concept is similar, a series of short stories animated by famous Anime production companies, direct to DVD to bridge the gap between two successful movies. The difference here is that Batman is a very well known character, and there have been many stories about him. So there isn't anything new in [...]
Southland Tales
When I first heard of this movie I was excited. I loved Donnie Darko, so I was very curious to see Richard Kelly's follow up. Then news of the bad reception at Cannes and the delay in release lowered my level of excitement, but I was still determined to watch it and judge it by myself. I wish I hadn't... This movie is a mish mash of many [...]
The Heartbreak Kid
I don't even know why I watched this, there's not much that would usually interest me. I am not a huge fan of Ben Stiller, though I don't dislike him. I guess Michelle Monaghan is pretty and has been in good movies that I liked (Gone Baby Gone, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), but I am not a fan of her either. The Farrelly brothers have never wowed me [...]
The Man From Earth
The Man from Earth (2007): An impromptu goodbye party for Professor John Oldman becomes a mysterious interrogation after the retiring scholar reveals to his colleagues he is an immortal who has walked the earth for 14,000 years. This is my favorite indie movie of the year. This movie had a very low budget, it has no action scenes, in fact the [...]
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Su…
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007): The Fantastic Four learn that they aren't the only super-powered beings in the universe when they square off against the powerful Silver Surfer and the planet-eating Galactus. I don't know why I keep watching these kinds of movies, I guess the comic fan in me wants to know about them. This was [...]
28 Weeks Later
28 Weeks Later (2007): Six months after the rage virus was inflicted on the population of Great Britain, the US Army helps to secure a small area of London for the survivors to repopulate and start again. But not everything goes to plan. I wasn't a big fan of 28 Days Later, but I liked it enough to want to check this sequel out. This story [...]
Transformers
Transformers (2007): A war re-erupts on Earth between two robotic clans, the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, leaving the fate of mankind hanging in the balance. The more I think about this movie the more I hate it. It started out fine, focusing on the earth characters (the soldiers and the Witwicky thread), spreading out the robot [...]
The Host
The Host (2006): A monster emerges from Seoul's Han River and focuses its attention on attacking people. As for most of the good Asian films, this is a very weird one, but enjoyable. This is a monster movie, where the monster is very clearly depicted, instead of only showing it in a few scenes, or just showing parts of it. The tone of this film [...]
Sunshine
Sunshine (2007): A team of astronauts are sent to re-ignite the dying sun 50 years into the future. This was a very pleasant surprise. A great sci-fi space travel story that I haven't seen since the Solaris remake. This is a very specific subgenre, lead by the original Russian Solaris and 2001. These are all very philosofical works, and though [...]