Category Archives: Science Fiction

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3     3 stars

I continue with my catch up on Marvel movies I missed with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, the third iteration of these heroes who are always there to save the galaxy, courtesy of writer/director James Gunn. This one could be called the one where Rocket finally realizes that he is a racoon. While it has all the action and the wisecracking of the earlier two movies of 2014 and 2017, it does have a more somber tone to it. Both Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and Rocket (Bradley Cooper) are in a funky mood near the beginning, and the end of the movie feels like the gang is breaking up. The heroes are tasked with a mission to save the life of Rocket who has been gravely injured. They must retrieve a computer file from a ship that seems to be made of living tissue that belongs to the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji). We are introduced to Rocket’s backstory while he is in a coma and find out that when he was a small racoon cub, he was captured by this villain for the purpose of experimentation to produce a perfect species. (This explains Rocket’s extraordinary powers.) Now the High Evolutionary wants to capture Rocket again to learn his secrets, but in the meantime, he tries to destroy an entire civilization that he created since they are not perfect. (Does that sound like a familiar theme?) So, the stakes are certainly high enough to deserve the Guardian’s attention. The membership of the Guardians has expanded since the first movie with past differences being put aside. They include Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Nebula (Karen Gillan), of course a full-sized Groot (Vin Diesel), Kraglin (Sean Gunn) and Cosmo the Spacedog (Maria Bakalova). The movie is worth seeing based on the emotional way that Rocket’s story is told. However, the overall tone feels off with Peter Quill and others going through internal struggles that take away from the usual upbeat feel of these movies. Of course, the soundtrack features a variety of popular seventies rock music as always. The special effects are quite impressive which explains why Guardians earned a Best Visual Effects Academy Award nomination. The ending feels like this is the end of the franchise, though of course, you can’t be sure.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse      4 ½ stars

Later this year we will have the newest Spider-Man film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day in theaters. So, I took this opportunity to see the second film of the Spider-Verse series, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, made is 2023. While related, the Spider-Verse series has its own take on the web shooting super-hero. The creators, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have made a universe with a multitude of Earth timelines where superheroes and supervillains can freely travel between them, and each has its own unique Spider-Man. (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller also were the directors of Project Hail Mary.) This new film took a trio of directors to create it: Joachim Do Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson. In the previous Academy Award winning film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse our Earth’s Spider-Man, teenager Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) battled supervillains and met Spider-Woman Gwen Stacey (Hailey Steinfeld) from one of the other Spider-Verses. But now Gwen has been chosen by an elite squad of Spidey’s to help in the battle against a menacing supervillain called The Vulture, but first she returns to Miles’ Earth to help Miles with a troubling situation. Both superheroes are struggling with their crime fighting roles while keeping their secrets from each of their parents. Miles’ Spider-Man has had to deal with The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), an annoying villain who creates black holes at will, using them for his own type of crime. The Spot says that Spider-Man is his nemesis and is out to get even with him for destroying his life. Despite being grounded by his police officer father (Brian Tyree Henry) and mother (Luna Lauren Velez) for so many unexplained absences, young Miles ventures into the Spider-Verse to join the hundreds of other Spider-Men to track down and defeat The Vulture. Unfortunately, Miles learns that things are a lot more complicated in the Spider-Verse since as we know, in a multi-verse (or a time traveling situation) there is a space-time continuum and if it is upset, disaster can ensue. You cannot mess with a canon event! And poor Miles is at the center of it all. One of the attractions of the series is the fluidic nature of the animation that uses a fuzzy, colorful fast-moving appearance during the action sequences, and there is plenty of action to be sure. The characters constantly swing among the buildings of NYC rescuing the inhabitants while somehow not sustaining injuries despite getting beaten and falling from great heights. The movie also features voice performances from the likes of Oscar Isaac, Issa Rae, Shea Whigham, Daniel Kaluuya and Jake Johnson (as Peter Parker, but with a baby girl with Spidey powers). Despite the movie being 2 hours and 20 minutes long, it turns out to have a cliffhanger ending. Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse was planned for a 2024 release date, but that has been delayed until 2027. So, there is still plenty more Spider-Man to come!

Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary             4 ½ stars

He has been half of a duo in a decades long love affair, a Brooklyn school teacher who makes it a habit of getting high, a man with a doll for a girlfriend, an astronaut walking on the moon and a man who started life as a doll. This time around Ryan Gosling is both a schoolteacher and an astronaut in Phil Lord’s and Christopher Miller’s buddies in space movie Project Hail Mary. Gosling occupies the screen for the entire movie going from well-regarded scientist to public middle school teacher to astronaut to savior of humanity and looks good while doing it. We first find Ryland Grace (Gosling) waking up after a long sleep on a spaceship while sporting a long beard not able to understand where he is. He sees a giant star and realizes that it isn’t the sun so he must be a long way from home. Then he discovers that he is all alone as the rest of the ship’s crew has not survived. Through effective use of flashbacks, we learn the background of his story. Grace was a biologist who published a theory that water may not be necessary to sustain life on other planets, was ridiculed for it then became a schoolteacher in Brooklyn where he inspires his students in science. When it was discovered that there is a space bacteria eating the sun that will eventually make life on Earth extinct, Grace is recruited by Eva Stratt (Sandra Huller of Anatomy of a Fall) to join in the massive research project she leads, to stop the bacteria and save the planet. The team discovers that the bacteria has spread to many stars in the galaxy except for one that has escaped this fate. Thus, if it can be discovered what is unique about this distant star and its planet, a cure could be found. A spaceship that can travel at near light speed is built but before the journey to the mystery planet begins, circumstances change leaving Grace as the best option to join the crew and figure out why that planet was spared. The catch is that there is only enough fuel to get there and not to return, so it will be a one-way trip for the crew. They will have to send their “solution” back to Earth using a deep space probe. (Of course, there are a few credibility issues with the science, such as the large amount of open space inside a spaceship meant to be crewed by only three people.) But that is only half the story. Upon reaching this planet, Grace meets another spaceship that is manned by a lone being from another civilization suffering the same fate as Earth. This species is very different from anything on Earth, having a different chemistry that doesn’t depend on water and looks like a pile of rocks with rock arms. Grace and “Rocky” as he is called cannot share the same atmosphere and have completely different languages, but that doesn’t stop the pair from gradually becoming acquainted and finding a way to work together to solve their common problem. So, it turns out to be a buddy in space movie. “Rocky” depends on the puppetry of James Ortiz who created the puppet and does the translated voice as well. Everything is done to make Rocky appear cute and endearing to the audience so that he feels like another character. Through their struggles, Grace and Rocky grow to really care for each other and as we see they would lay down their life for the other. Besides being an entertaining sci-fi movie, Project Hail Mary gives a message about forming bonds and caring for others that are very different from us. And it likely couldn’t be done nearly as well without the star qualities of Ryan Gosling who has hardly missed in his film roles yet. (Let’s forget about Only God Forgives.) The movie also respects the scientific process and the scientists that work to increase our understanding of the natural world, something we can use today. It is bound to be one of the big hits of the year.

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Avatar: Fire and Ash        3 stars

As incredible as it sounds it has now been seventeen years since James Cameron brought us Avatar, his spectacular CGI-3D movie about the blue-skinned inhabitants of a distant planet called Pandora and the efforts of humans to dominate and exploit it for its natural resources. The humans developed a technology that allowed them to blend in with the alien race in copies of their bodies. Then in 2022, came Avatar: The Way of Water, which followed a family of the Na’vi race who flee from their own tribe and come to live with the Metkayina, another tribe that has a close relationship with the sea and the creatures that dwell there. Both movies were noted for their colorful and overwhelming special effects using body capture technology and their tales of exploitation of native cultures by a technologically superior race in the search for valuable resources (an indictment of corporate greed). Cameron’s latest incarnation, Avatar: Fire and Ash continues the story, with most of the same characters and the same astounding special effects of the first two films. We follow Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), the fearless Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and their family through family drama, their dealings with their Metkayina hosts, adventures with some incredible animal inhabitants and the inevitable conflict with their human pursuers, who seem to never learn from their past experiences. Meanwhile, Jake’s enemy, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), has not given up on tracking down Jake, who he regards as a traitor for “going native”. (You may remember that Jake and Quaritch were both humans who now inhabit Na’vi bodies, able to breathe the air of Pandora that is toxic to humans.) The movie feels like it has little to add to the story, featuring much of the same conflicts and action that we’ve seen before despite its three and a quarter hour running time. One very notable addition though is the villain, Varang, who leads her tribe, the Mangkwan, who prey on the vulnerabilities of other Na’vi tribes and steal whatever things of value they can find. Varang is ruthless and smart as well, able to adapt to new situations. It doesn’t take long for her to see the value in allying herself with the vengeful Quaritch. Oona Chaplin is perfect for the role of this native leader. (Chaplin is the granddaughter of the legendary Charlie Chaplin.) Overall, this third iteration seems like more of the same including the relentless greed of the humans and the spirituality of the native Na’vi. Of course, the movie did not need to be nearly this long. The word is that James Cameron is planning on two more movies in this series (each probably over three hours). I feel that the story has been played out and it is time to move on to something else. We will see if he follows through on this plan.
 

Downsizing

Downsizing         2 stars

I saw two movies recently that can be classified as social satires, one of which was very well done and the other while having great intensions falls far short.  Downsizing, from 2017 takes place in the near future when a technology is discovered that allows people to be shrunk in size to only a few inches tall.  The promise is that this will save the planet from environmental catastrophe by reducing the human footprint and allow people to live in luxury in a place called Leisure Land because their cost of living is reduced to a tiny fraction of normal.  It stars Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig as the couple willing to embark on this adventure when he becomes disillusioned with his job.  The movie has a few funny moments but loses its satiric edge as it seeks to deliver a message on the inequalities of this new world and the dangers of overconsumption.  By the end of the movie I just wanted to say: Ok I get it. There are always injustices in the world!  The movie was by director Alexander Payne who in the past has given us great movies like “Sideways” and “The Descendants”.  Something did not go well with the idea for Downsizing.

Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant

Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant.        3 suns

For my final film of the festival, I saw something really bizarre: Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant in the Midnight section. In this British comedy a young woman gets pregnant via engaging in a sex act with the neighbor boy who is half alien as a result of his mother being abducted by aliens before he was born.  The comedy all centers around the very exaggerated trauma that a woman goes through while pregnant.  There is plenty of screaming and vomiting and slimy fluids involved while the young woman keeps blaming the half alien for her trouble.  There is even a vacuum cleaner involved in a bizarre abortion attempt. We get a peek at what an alien penis looks like and after many antics the baby alien finally arrives.  The movie was a riot in the theater, and the actors even brought baby alien with them and allowed fans to have their picture taken with him.

Rock Springs

Rock Springs.      4 1/2 suns

One movie getting a lot of buzz here is Rock Springs by director/ screenwriter Vera Miao. This movie is in the Midnight section that is reserved for the very weird, sometimes gory films. Rock Springs certainly fits that description as it concerns an Asian mother, her daughter and her mother-in-law who move into an isolated home in the woods only to discover that there is something monstrous hidden in the woods. I can’t say a lot about it without giving away the plot but can say it concerns a small forgotten chapter of the racist history of the US. I really liked the way the story was told in chapters from different characters’ points of view and in a non-linear fashion. It is a monster movie that ends with a hopeful message. And the special effects were very impressive.

Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!

Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!       4 1/2 suns

I was especially pleased with Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! by Japanese director Josef Kubota Wladyka and starring Rinko Kikuchi which follows married couple Haru (Kikuchi) and Luis who regularly compete in competitive Latin ballroom dancing in Tokyo.  But then Luis suddenly dies leaving Haru all alone.  Fortunately, Haru’s sisters encourage her to get back out on the dance floor where she soon is taken up by her new dance instructor who is world famous and who also happens to be married.  One can see that this situation will lead to trouble and the movie does not disappoint.  It is an honest depiction of how hard (and messy) it is to deal with grief while delivering on many humorous situations.  It also includes some fantasy like aspects drawing from Japanese culture.  I enjoyed seeing the blending of the Japanese and Latin cultures which is a real thing in Japan. So far this is my favorite drama of the festival.

A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place                     2 ½ stars

Last year’s hit monster movie, A Quiet Place, was a type of post-apocalyptic movie in which humanity has been nearly wiped out by ravenous creatures that have ultra-sensitive hearing, but are completely blind.  Thus, the remaining humans can only survive by remaining absolutely quiet in all that they do.  The story focuses on one family living in a house in the woods who have learned to live without talking and raising food without making any sound.  This movie was well received by critics and audiences, but there was too much for me to get over.  There were good performances I am sure, but the holes in the plot were obvious, like how could they possibly raise a field of corn without making any noise.  And there is no real background about how this all came about.  Any good horror movie has to provide some explanation for how the disaster came to be.  I actually enjoyed this year’s Bird Box more than A Quiet Place.  The movie earned an Oscar Nomination for Sound Editing, presumably for the sounds that the monster makes, but I feel like I’ve seen this before in horror movies.  It may have been the best horror movie of 2018, but then I couldn’t find one from last year that I really liked.

Ad Astra

Ad Astra                               4 stars

Ad Astra is last year’s emotional and grand science fiction movie that starred Brad Pitt as an astronaut sent on a mission to make contact with a rogue astronaut who is threatening the solar system.  It is a quiet contemplative film while also containing moments of intense action.  Past movies it has been compared to include Apocalypse Now and 2001: A Space Odyssey.  It opens with a thrilling scene where astronaut Roy McBride (Pitt) is helping in the construction of an enormous space antenna when disaster strikes sending him hurtling toward earth.  Later, he learns that a series of electrical disruptions may be due to a lost space mission sent to Neptune twenty years earlier that was commended by Roy’s father, Clifford (Tommy Lee Jones).  The Space Command has decided that Roy is the best suited to try to make contact with the rogue mission.  The movie has a realistic feel to it and the events in space seem to be plausible.  Private interests seem to have taken hold on the moon that even leads to space pirates with raiding parties!  The movie really succeeds with the quiet performance of Pitt aided by a fine Tommy Lee Jones.  There is also a small role for Donald Sutherland that is carried off well.  So, see Ad Astra for the role that Brad Pitt was not nominated for.