Showing posts with label SCIENCE FICTION. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SCIENCE FICTION. Show all posts

Monday, November 8, 2021

RAISED BY WOLVES

 
RAISED BY WOLVES - Ridley Scott, legendary director of Blade Runner and Alien, has returned to series television, offering an unsettling potential vision of our closest neighboring planet. Two androids have landed and camped out on that barren world, intending to recreate the human race. Kepler-22b is real, but Raised by Wolves (2020) was written/ created by Aaron Guzikowski, with the support of the aforementioned, as producer. Amanda Collin’s star shines bright in the role of Mother. As a shapeshifting necromancer, she’s into some extremely warped stuff, but I am here for it. Travis Fimmel stars as Marcus/ Caleb, and has even managed to bring about the future mullet. Musically, the score creates a backdrop of disconnected unease. Kepler-22b scenes are intercut with events occurring on a post-apocalyptic future Earth. The film has a specific aesthetic, evoking but not directly referencing Blade Runner or Alien. That is supported tonally by virtual and physical SFX which are some of the best ever to have been made. Big TV networks and movie studios have typically shied away from Sci-Fi/ Horror, like this one. It will be great to (hopefully) see this trend continue.  I’ll admit - I feared showrunners completely lost their way in the hodgepodge finale of Season 1. Also, too often Mother wanders aimlessly, but does not accomplish anything. But overall, I loved it - as a collective entity. Despite some of it's flaws, and my complaints.  Expect the 2nd season to be available for streaming on HBO in early 2022.










Monday, June 17, 2019

TOP SCIENCE FICTION MOVIES



TOP SCIENCE FICTION MOVIES - This is a subjective collection of best films: with dystopian, invasion, militaristic and mind-bending themes. As always originality is key, and appreciation for breaking new ground, which was taken into consideration when writing this listicle. Each of these flicks takes its place in the cannon of films which have propelled the form forward, in a genre where technology and innovation is key.

Metropolis (1927)
Wealthy citizens of Metropolis reign in luxury, while subterranean workers toil underground, operating machines which power the city.


The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
An alien emerges from a flying saucer and implores humans to join him in peace, or pursue their present course and face obliteration.


2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
A scientist investigates a buried artifact on the moon. He hears a high-pitched radio signal when sunlight hits the obelisk.


Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
To his wife’s dismay, an electrical maintenance worker becomes obsessed by subliminal messages about/ begins to make models of/ a unique-looking mountain known as Devils Tower.


Star Wars (1977)
In the midst of a civil war, an apprentice discovers a hologram hidden inside an android/ recorded by a princess, with instructions to destroy a colossal space station.


Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Upon discovering underdeveloped bodies in giant seed pods, townspeople conclude they are being replaced while sleeping, and an extraterrestrial life form is responsible.


Alien (1979)
A commercial spacecraft receives a distress signal, crash lands on an alien moon, finds a derelict ship and enters it, to discover a chamber containing hundreds of large egg-like objects.


Blade Runner (1982)
A former police officer tracks down and retires bioengineered replicants who are on Earth illegally, in a polluted future world devoid of animals.


The Thing (1982)
On an Antartican outpost, recovered data leads a group of researchers to an alien spacecraft, which has been buried in the glacier for 100,000 years.


The Terminator (1984)
A cyborg assassin and resistance soldier time travel backward, to save the future mother/ leader of the resistance, against a mechanized army with plans to wipe out the human race.


Starship Troopers (1997)
A hostile species is discovered while colonizing new planets, and after the insectoids kill millions with a bomb, an invasion force is sent to battle them. 


The Matrix (1999)
A programmer is offered the choice of a blue pill, to return him to his former life, or a red pill, which will reveal the truth about the Matrix.


Minority Report (2002)
Prescient beings previsualize crimes when they receive visions of the future. But sometimes, one of them has alternative visions, known as minority reports.


Children of Men (2006)
When a husband is contacted by his estranged wife, he is called upon to protect the one and only woman capable of pregnancy, since a plague wiped out human fertility.


Inception (2010)
Extractors use experimental technology to infiltrate the subconscious, to gleen information through a shared dream world.


Gravity (2013)
An astronaut takes her first spacewalk and is bombarded by space debris, which sets off a chain reaction of events as she attempts to save her own life.


Interstellar (2014)
Unknown beings positioned a wormhole near Saturn. This left a path open to twelve potentially habitable worlds, located near a black hole.


Ex Machina (2014)
When a programmer wins a prize, he visits the isolated home of his company’s CEO. He forms a relationship with a human-looking female robot, who is locked up in a separate compartment.


Arrival (2016)
As twelve spacecraft surround the Earth, a linguist is called upon to communicate with two seven-limbed aliens, researching their complicated circular symbols.  

Saturday, May 26, 2018

BLADE RUNNER 2049


Blade Runner 2049 - Thirty years after the first film, a blade runner makes a discovery that might lead to war between humans and replicants. Blade Runner 2049 a science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve is coming to HBO this month. It’s a sequel to the 1982 film Blade Runner which received 5 Oscar nominations and won 2 of them. Written by Fancher and Green, the film stars Ryan Gosling, Based on Characters from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick









Saturday, May 12, 2018

ULTRAMAN


Ultraman - A science control officer battles alien and monster threats, to protect the Earth and defeat these intruders. Ultraman first appeared on Tokyo Broadcasting System in July 1966. The concept was imagined by Tsuburaya Productions, the SFX creator of Godzilla in 1954. Because, why not? Yeah.








Sunday, April 29, 2018

WESTWORLD

WESTWORLD – The 2016 premiere season was the most-watched of any HBO original series. It’s based on a 1973 scifi Western, written and directed by novelist Michael Crichton, in his first theatrical feature. Westworld is a futuristic park where visitors explore fantasies artificially without personal consequence, no matter how illicit the delight. The series has been praised for its visuals, story and performances. Evan Rachel Wood stars as Dolores Abernathy, the oldest host still working in the park. In her burgeoning self-awareness, she discovers her artificiality and the hidden powers at play in running the park. Finally in 2018, SFX have caught up to enable a film fantasy portrayed visually in a way that’s believable/ stunning. It wouldn’t have been possible to realize the author’s vision in 1973. Since filmmaking needed 45 years to catch up. 











Sunday, April 30, 2017

ALIEN

ALIEN - A commercial space vessel receives a distress call, and encounters an alien life form, that is killing them one by one. The 1979 classic which spawned a franchise was written by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett; directed by Ridley Scott and starred Sigourney Weaver.