Category Archives: Science Fiction

The Midnight Sky

The Midnight Sky             2 stars

The Midnight Sky, directed by and starring George Clooney was released at the end of 2020 during the pandemic but I never heard of it until over a year later. Judging by its media presence few people had seen it. This science fiction drama concerns a reclusive genius scientist named Augustine Lofthouse who has isolated himself at an arctic research station as a catastrophe threatens to destroy most of the human population on Earth. So you know right away that we are in for some heavy drama of the hopeless variety. Added to the mix is a group of astronauts and scientists who are headed back to Earth after a several years long mission to investigate the habitat on a distant moon of the planet Jupiter. Unfortunately, no one has informed the crew of the spaceship of the recent developments back home. So it falls on Augustine to find a way to contact them and reveal the bad news and warn them that they would be better off not returning to Earth. (Nevermind that his communication with the ship happens instantaneously despite the fact that the ship is still in deep space.) We are never told exactly what happened, but we assume there must be a radioactive atmosphere around most of the planet due to some human activity. The movie moves at a very slow pace and has an ominous tone to it that really gets depressing. There are a few flashbacks to the young Augustine where we find out he had a promising family life at some point and that it all changed leading him to a lonely life. Some harrowing moments are experienced by Augustine and by the ship’s crew that they manage to survive, but this does little to take us away from the doomed feeling we get from the film. There is nothing fun or for that matter thrilling about the movie. It certainly is no Gravity. There is a plot twist in the movie that I won’t describe, but will only say that I thought the filmmakers were setting this up in a deceptive manner by holding back certain facts until they are revealed at the end. I have not appreciated this type of plot device in other movies and was sorry to see it here. There must be better ways to treat the subject of global disaster than what The Midnight Sky has done. I will say that the special effects used to create the spaceship were impressive. If only they had been used in a better movie.

The Vast of Night

The Vast of Night              4 ½ stars

I first heard of The Vast of Night in the early days of the pandemic and finally saw it recently. This is a very low budget science fiction thriller set in a 1950’s small town in New Mexico. Two nerdy teenagers, Everett (Jake Horowitz) and Fay (Sierra McCormick) are not interested in the night’s high school basketball game, preferring to spend the evening talking about their technical pursuits like recording conversations on Fay’s new tape recorder and going to their night jobs as a radio DJ for Everett and a switchboard operator for Fay. But this is a night unlike any other when they hear strange sounds over the telephone and learn of bizarre reports of something in the sky. Things are slow through the first half hour of the movie but pick up as the pair track down older people who have stories from their past about strange happenings involving government UFO projects and disappearances of people. The film pays homage to some of the science fiction movies of the 50’s and uses some interesting techniques like filming with a camera soaring through windows and through the streets of the town. McCormick performs magnificently in one scene where she works the switchboard for what seems like ten minutes gradually picking up clues from callers that something is amiss. The scene is done in one continuous take. The film really picks up the pace in the final twenty minutes as the two get closer to the truth about what could be an alien invasion. This is the first movie made by Andrew Patterson who filmed it in Texas on a shoestring and came up with something that is truly original.

Animalia

Animalia 3 1/2 stars

Animalia is an unusual science fiction story set in Morocco about some strange happenings that lead to an alien presence that affects the natural world and humans.  Itto is very pregnant and is to be left alone in the family’s opulent mansion while husband,  Amine is away on business.  A state of emergency is declared because of odd weather happenings and Itto is forced to evacuate with some help from the local peasants, but the locals resent her expensive trappings and she is stranded in a village far from her husband. There she sees animals that behave strangely. We never actually see the aliens.  We only see the effect they have on people as those affected become blissful and content giving us the feeling that the world is about to change.  The movie is hopeful,  but exposes the distinction in people based on class differences.  The filmmaker,  Sofia Alaoui is French-Moroccan and previously made the sci-fi short,  So What If The Goats Die which I saw at a previous Sundance. The French title is Parmi Nous which means Among Us. Animalia won the Special Jury Award: Creative Vision. 

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga              5 stars

Mad Max. The name conjures up visions of gangs on roaring motorcycles and tricked out old cars racing through the desert wasteland after a nuclear holocaust has destroyed most of civilization. This is the world first created by George Miller back in 1979 with the release of Mad Max. Now we have Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the fifth installment of the series and it is as full of action and mayhem as any of the others. Plus, we get a fuller view of the life of Furiosa, the woman who raged across the desert against a murderous gang in the movie Fury Road that starred Charlise Theron nine years ago. Furiosa gives us the young hero’s origin story told over five acts and two and a half hours of car and motorbike chases with death defying stunts and murderous mayhem with some of the weirdest looking odd balls we’ve encountered since Fury Road. And it is the first time that Mad Max, last played by Tom Hardy, does not appear in the movie. For the first hour we follow the journey of the young girl, Furiosa (Alyla Browne) who is abducted from The Green Place, a sort of paradise in the desert, by a group of biker degenerates and brought back to the base of their outlaw gang, but only after Furiosa’s mother tracks them and kills almost all of them. There, she meets the leader of the gang, a self-absorbed psychopath named Dementus (Chris Hemsworth playing the villain in a most unusual casting choice). Dementus kills the mother, giving the young Furiosa the rage that so defines her character in the times to come. In this society, located in the Wastelands of Australia, the various gangs are led by warlords who rule cruelly over their subjects. They live in places with names like The Citadel, Bullettown and Gasland. These characters have some very descriptive names like The People Eater, Rictus Erectus and Scrotus. Eventually, Furiosa is traded to one of these warlords where she is to live with the leader’s harem of women. There, she learns the ways of the gangs, disguised as a boy, taking on a new role as a valuable sidekick to Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke). The adult Furiosa is played by Anya Taylor-Joy, the striking model from Last Night in Soho and The Queen’s Gambit. Taylor-Joy has an intensity in the role that can be seen in her face as she methodically goes about making repairs on the war-rig, stares down her enemies or puts a bullet in them. One feels the pain she goes through and can then better understand the actions of her future self in Fury Road. George Miller said that it was after seeing Anya Taylor-Joy in Last Night in Soho, that he knew he had found the young Furiosa. Taylor-Joy can seemingly easily handle maneuvering a car in the desert though she says she has never had a driver’s license. The action set pieces as imagined by George Miller are astounding in their execution. In one sequence we see a chrome plated diesel truck defended by the white War Boys from an attacking horde of bikers, some of them on hang gliders. One by one each attacker is picked off by physical assault, gunshot or being crushed by the truck’s wheels. This scene lasts probably fifteen minutes and is accompanied by a heart pounding steady beat the entire time. Such scenes are designed to get the viewers’ adrenaline pumping and they succeed. This is just one of the many thrilling action scenes brought to the screen. I understand that the story was actually written by Miller before Fury Road was filmed and that it took ten years of preparation to assemble the collection of hot rods, bikes and trucks to make such a wonder of a film. If you are a fan of action movies, this is the one you should not miss this summer.

Dune

Dune     4 stars

I finally saw 2021’s Dune by Denis Villeneuve having missed it in the theaters. It has to be one of the greatest challenges in making movies to attempt to bring Frank Herbert’s epic science fiction novel to the silver screen and Villeneuve was feeling up to it. In the story we follow young Paul Atreites who is destined to lead his house and people through a great struggle across the galactic empire. Timothée Chalamet with his ability to convey a dark sullen mood is excellently cast as Paul who is plagued with frightening visions of the future because he was bred to be the one to guide mankind through this period by the witches of the Bene Gesserit. If you are not already familiar with the book, I certainly can’t explain this complex story to you here, but I can say that the movie does capture the grand scale of Dune with the huge set pieces of the cities, the flying ships, the immense temples and of course the giant sand worms of Arrakis. The importance of Arrakis lies in its abundance of mélange, the spice that makes galactic space travel practical. There are some well staged hand-to-hand combat scenes both between armies and individuals that even show the effects of the Holtzmann shields. We get a good taste of the vastness of the Arrakis desert and the devotion of the Fremen to the land and their way of life. Many of the cast do credit to their Dune characters including Oscar Isaac as Duke Leto Atreites, Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, Jason Momoa as the charismatic and loyal Duncan Idaho and Stellan Skarsgárd as the obese and beyond evil Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. There are many other cast members who played their limited parts well that I can’t name here. For the most part the characters seem faithful to the book. One change was to make the Fremen scientist Liet Kynes a woman as played by Sharon Duncan-Brewster. The character was even expanded compared to the book. Two characters missing from the movie are Feyd Rautha Harkonnen and Princess Irulan. The nature of the story requires a certain quality of mysticism, especially with the scenes dealing with Paul and the Bene Gesserit, so there is not always a completely human aspect to the story. The movie is necessarily the first part of a pair of movies so while it ends on a hopeful note, it does not feel quite complete. We are still waiting for part two which is promised to show up next year. I am to understand that the job of playing Feyd Rautha will fall to Austin Butler (from Elvis). I look forward to seeing what he does with that. There have been other versions of Dune in the past and this one is likely the most faithful to the book, but we will have to see what Part 2 has to offer. Also, I have read that there is a prequel in the works that focuses on the origins of the Bene Gesserit 10,000 years in the past.

Nimona

Nimona                 4 stars

From the studios of Annapurna and Netflix comes the animated movie, Nimona, originally a graphic novel by ND Stephenson. This energetic story takes place in a futuristic medieval kingdom where knights wear suits of armor, carry swords that fire energy beams and ride around in flying cars through the streets of a busy metropolis. Everyone there is aware of the legend of Gloreth, who defeated a fearsome monster a thousand years ago and is still revered. In the present we meet Ballister (Riz Ahmed), a knight who has few friends, but is close to fellow knight, Ambrosius Goldenloin, a descendant of Gloreth. It is clear that the two men have a romantic relationship, with this being the most gay-friendly animated movie I can remember. Early is the story, poor Ballister is framed for a murder and the knights of the kingdom are tasked with hunting him down. But Ballister is befriended by a young girl named Nimona (Chloe Grace Moretz) who isn’t all she appears to be at first. Nimona is a shapeshifter, a being that is not human and can assume the appearance of any creature in an instant and is practically invulnerable to things that would be fatal to a human. She is also a thousand years old and the only one of her kind. Ballister and Nimona see something in each other with Nimona wanting to protect Ballister and clear his name of the crime. She protects him by changing into a rhinoceros, an ostrich, a small bird and even a whale among other animals and runs circles around the hapless knights. Besides fighting knights she loves to wreck things destroying structures and statues that get in the way and doing it all in a bright shade of pink. It is apparent that the character is a stand in for a transperson. She is reviled by all and at one point says she doesn’t know what is worse, knowing that everyone wants to drive a sword through her heart or wanting them to do it. Nimona is seen as a monster to the population, but we learn that this image is really a creation by a society unwilling to accept someone that is different from everyone else. She is alone in this world and desperately needs to connect to someone. Besides the message, the movie has plenty of comic bits for the kids and plenty of action that will keep their attention. The movie was originally a project of Blue Sky Studios, which was acquired by Disney. Disney apparently thought the film was too gay for them and shut it down at which point Annapurna took over to complete it. The LGBTQ nature of the characters will not be lost on anyone. Good for the filmmakers for having the vision to see the project through.

Dune: Part Two

Dune: Part Two                 5 stars

Do you remember back in 2021 when we saw the movie adaptation of Frank Herbert’s famous science fiction novel Dune, but then were disappointed to see that it only covered the first half of the book? At the time it wasn’t known how well it would be received or whether there would be another movie. Well, after waiting on the actors and writers strikes last year that delayed several movies’ releases into this year, we finally have the second half, Dune: Part Two by director Denis Villeneuve. This epic presentation of the classic book is truly a spectacle. The viewer gets his fill of action filled battles on a wide expanse, a reluctant hero seeking to find his true path, mysterious characters who talk of mysticism, a budding romance, some truly evil murderous villains, and those giant sand worms that roam the desert. In Dune (Part One) we left off with the dreaded Harkonnen’s invading the planet Arrakis and wiping out House Atreides, killing the Duke, so that they could control the spice, the most valuable substance in the galaxy. But unknown to Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgârd), the Duke’s wife, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) (who is pregnant and is able to talk telepathically with her unborn daughter) and son, Paul (Timothée Chalamet) have survived the invasion and are under the protection of the native people of Arrakis, the nomadic Fremen. The story is far too involved and there are so many characters for me to adequately describe here, but I can say that the movie captures the feel of the novel as we watch Paul Atreides grow from a confused young man to become the foretold messiah of the Fremen, known as Muad’Dib. He and his mother, Lady Jessica gradually win over the confidence of the Fremen with the help of a hallucinogenic substance called The Water of Life administered by the Bene Gesserit, and the belief of the Fremen leader, Stilgar (Javier Bardem). Along the way we learn that the Emperor (Christopher Walken) was behind the plan to annihilate the Atreidis family all along. And that the mysterious Bene Gesserit through their control of genetics for centuries have been manipulating these characters from behind the scenes. The central theme of the book is successfully portrayed in the movie and that is how the need for absolute power can corrupt and become destructive, a lesson that is especially relevant even today. Besides those portraying the characters I have mentioned so far there is a long list is A-list actors in Dune. Zendaya returns as Chani, the Fremen woman of Paul’s dreams, and Florence Pugh puts in a performance as Princess Irulan, the Emperor’s daughter. From House Harkonnen, there are the two nephews, Dave Bautista as Beast Rabban and Austin Butler as the psychotic Feyd-Rautha, who brags about killing his own mother. Léa Seydoux appears briefly as one of the Bene Gesserit and Anya Taylor-Joy makes an even shorter appearance as the adult daughter of Lady Jessica. The use of special effects is truly amazing in that an entire new world is created on screen with everything appearing immense in size. The gladiator arena on Giedi Prime filled with cheering bald headed male spectators is especially impressive and of course there are those giant sand worms. I recommend that you see the movie on the largest screen possible to get the total effect. Villeneuve’s movie bears no resemblance to the David Lynch 1984 movie called Dune which in my opinion was incomprehensible. It should be the standard for measuring all future science fiction epic movies.

The Beast

The Beast (La Bête)         4 ½ stars

The Beast by director Bertrand Bonello (Titane) has to be one of the most unusual films of the year so far and can be described as surrealistic. Based on a novella by Henry James, this science fiction drama is set in the near future at a time when AI has taken over society. Unemployment is very high as most available jobs are menial and meaningful jobs are hard to get. Technology also allows people to erase their feelings from past experiences that they find painful. Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux of Midnight in Paris, The Grand Budapest Hotel as well as the James Bond movies) applies for a better job, but in order to do so she must undergo a procedure that will make her relive and confront her past lives. (Yes. Reincarnation exists here.) It is while undergoing the procedure that she finds she is destined to be linked to Louis (Adam MacKay of 1917), a young man who pursues her both in the past and in the present. Louis is also present for a procedure so the two meet and find that they may or may not share memories of the past. For the rest of the movie this pair relive their past lives together, first in France in the early 1900’s when Gabrielle is married to a less interesting man and the couple run a doll making company and Louis is a sophisticated Englishman. Later, they meet in the early 2000’s when Gabrielle is a model in Los Angeles trying to get into acting. But Louis is a disturbed misogynist vlogger who is out to make women pay for his lack of success with women. Both actors give excellent performances in this movie that is about love (but only sort of). Seydoux plays each role very distinctly and often is on screen alone but makes each scene quite emotional. There are some interesting devices used in the film including pigeons, dolls, and fortune tellers and even a Roy Orbison song! I was never sure where the movie was headed but it kept my interest throughout. The dialogue is in both French and English. (Both actors are fluent in French.) At the end of the movie instead of rolling credits, a QR Code appeared on screen giving the audience the chance to view it on their phones instead of on the screen, but I wasn’t fast enough to catch it. Is this something we will see more of?