Category Archives: science fiction

Underworld: Evolution

Posted on December 12, 2006

This fast-paced sequel almost, but not quite, escapes from the middle of a trilogy syndrome. I enjoyed it, the focus was entirely on keeping the plot moving with the action properly serving it rather than big booms and blood used as irrelevant eye candy. Len Wiseman (director, co-writer and husband of star Kate Beckinsale) and Danny McBride (co-writer) even pretty much resisted the temptation to indulge the romantics between Michael (Scott Speedman) and Selene (Beckinsale)

Underworld: Evolution picks up right after the end of Underworld, with Selene realizing that Kraven will be coming for them to pay for Victor’s death. She’s right but Wiseman and McBride elevate the conflict by centering it on the history–the founding–of the Death Dealers (vampires) and Lycans (werewolves) and Selene’s place in it. Somehow (not explained here), two brothers in 13th century Central Europe become the first of each clan after being bitten by the respective animal. William, the werewolf brother, cannot return to human form nor control his violence and so their father traps him and imprisons him “for all eternity” in a secret location.

Marcus, the bloodsucking brother, infects their father (played here, 800 years later, by the elegant Derek Jacobi) and now decides (again, the rationale is not given) that the time has come to free William. He has the ability to take another’s memory by drinking their blood (unique to him? not sure, not explained) and so gets all caught up by drinking Kraven’s blood. Selene, it seems, is the key, the only person who actually knows the location of William’s prison.

The finale is a massive confrontation between Selene and Michael and William and Marcus. Plenty of blood but smartly done. Michael, remember, is a hybrid of both, er, hybrids and, before the end, Selene is transformed into one as well. Despite this seemingly final victory, the last scene left me feeling vaguely unfulfilled and hopeful that rather than the announced prequel McBride and Wiseman will finish this story next.
Beckinsale, of course, is ultrahot in her leather gear.

recommended

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Alien Nation

Posted on July 7, 2006

In 1988 science fiction was coming on strong in Hollywood, Star Trek: The Next Generation was a hit on TV and Schwarzenneger couldn’t make movies fast enough. So when Rockne O’Bannon (who went on to do the TV series from this movie and create the cult hit Farscape) turned in the script for the SF/cop thriller Alien Nation I’m sure it didn’t take much to get a greenlight from the studio execs.

James Caan was just getting back into the movie groove after taking off the mid-80s and he’s a really good fit for Detective Matt Sykes. Angry and arrogant, absorbed by his work, he sees a backdoor way into the investigation of the movie-opening murder of his partner by Newcomer hoodlums.

Newcomers are the alien slaves who, three years before, captured control of their starship and landed it in the California desert. They’re just beginning to be integrated into American society (in much the same ways as previous immigrant waves were) and the LAPD brass jump up a Newcomer patrolman to detective as a PR move. Caan grabs Sam Francisco (Mandy Patinkin under some serious facial appliances) as a replacement partner.

Alien Nation (alienation, get it?) is in the long tradition of mismatched cop partners who over the course of the investigation bond and realize that their differences are trivial, they’re really brothers under the skin. Swap the science fiction for comedy and I’m reminded of Nolte and Murphy in 48 Hours. Nearly 20 years later this still stands up well.
recommended

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Superman Returns

Posted on July 7, 2006

I’m as big a cartoon superhero to movie geek as the next guy and, since I was going to Seattle the next day, we decided to see Superman Returns on opening night. Goes against my policy of paying $10 per ticket to see movies but why not?

Why not? Because somehow Bryan Singer, who gave us great movies like The Usual Suspects and X-Men (1 and 2), decided to make a film that was more melodrama than action drama. Sometimes it was enjoying, like the ethereal, waltz-like flight Superman takes Lois Lane on when they first see each other after his return.

Two and a half hours of movie with only one scene where Superman confronts Lex Luthor is the best example of why this didn’t work for me, especially when our hero’s solution to Lex’s kryptonite-infused new continent is a simple use of a super power with Baldie on a completely separate set.

The conflict which takes much more of the screen time is a put upon, more in the eyes of the audience than the characters love triangle between Superman, Lois and hubby/Perry White nephew Richard (or rectangle if you throw in Clark Kent). Brandon Routh really does seem to have been cast for his resemblance to Christopher Reeve than any particular talent. Kevin Spacey give Lex a different twist than, say, Gene Hackman but as Bill Humphries wrote “A bald Kevin Spacey is not a Sufficient Villain.” Kate Bosworth is okay as Lois but a bit insubstantial, I’d go for Erica Durance (from Smallville) any time.

mildly recommended

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X-Men 3: The Last Stand

Posted on July 1, 2006

The final movie that Marvel will make using this main group of mutants, The Last Stand is a good but not great movie. I like that its darker than the first two but the level of conflict doesn’t match up, nor are the special effects especially innovative or stunning.

One problem that Bryan Singer, who directed the first two X movies, handled better than Bret Rattner does is integrating the extremely large cast into the movie rather than simply attempting to impress the audience by showing weird mutant powers. A good example is the ice skating scene, having a teenage boy freeze over a fountain to cheer up a girl. This type of scene injects stop energy (as Dave Winer might put it) into the movie, and there are too many of them.

Last Stand is fun and a nice wrap for the Xavier-Magneto conflict arc. But I really blame Rattner and his writers, Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn, or maybe Singer for jumping ship to do Superman Returns. Which was another disappointment, but that’s for a review I’ll post soon enough.

Frankly, the core of this movie was Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, Famke Jansen’s Jean Grey and Halle Berry’s Storm and the movie went all over the place to show as many new mutants as could fit.

recommended

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Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Posted on June 18, 2006

I finally saw Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith last weekend and I can’t say it was worth the wait. Or worth seeing sooner. George Lucas made the darkest movie of his career but there were too many nods to the fans, lazy shortcuts and simply overdone acting.

not recommended

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Stealth

Posted on May 11, 2006

I expect that smart planes are not too far off though I don’t believe any American military officer would be so cavalier with the destructive power Tinman has in Stealth. Then again, Hollywood is not the Pentagon and overzealous military men are stock movie characters. Someone has to create (or exacerbate) the crisis, though, and Sam Shepherd is more than grizzled enough for the role.

Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel and Jamie Foxx pay the three hottest young pilots in the Navy and after a training period with a hot new fighter jet are deployed to a carrier somewhere to the south of China. Arriving just after them is a variation on their planes with no human pilot, driven instead by a brand-new artificial intelligence.

Another thing Hollywood rarely worries over in these big budget actioners is realism so over the remainder of the movie the jets fly thousands of miles in a single mission. But really that’s besides the point, which is flashy, fast, tight flying over varied, rugged terrains and lots of big explosions. Some sexy skin from Biel and Foxx.

I actually think, as long as one ignores the ridiculous exaggerations (did I mention the deathdealing North Korean soldiers?), Stealth is a moderately enjoyable movie. The pace is decent and the visuals sharp but in the end it doesn’t have enough originality or sustained excitement.

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The Chronicles of Riddick

Posted on April 22, 2006

The producers of Pitch Black knew they had to do something after the movie was a big hit and Vin Diesel saw the chance to co-own a potential big budget science fiction franchise. The Chronicles of Riddick was not bad at all: original designs for space ship designs and other computer graphics, a role tailored for Diesel and a worthy opponent in the outrageously powerful and mean Necromongers.

Decent supporting cast too. Colm Feore as the half-undead leader of the villains, Thandie Newton as his Lady MacBeth-ish wife, Judi Dench as the ethereal Elemental, Karl Urban as an ambitious Necromonger captain and Keith David as the key link to the Pitch Black story. The earlier movie was, after all, more of a scifi horror flick where this is a more straightforward actioner.

Too bad the movie cost over $100 million but only took in about $60M. No final two parts of the trilogy for you, Richard E. Riddick! Which is a shame, I really would like to see where writer/direcctor David Twohy planned to go from his quite unexpected twist ending.

recommended

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Posted on March 25, 2006

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a comic novel which I’d been looking forward to seeing on the big screen for years which sadly turned out a huge disappointment. No doubt that Douglas Adams created visuals and action challenging to CG technology 25 years after first publication and complex characters and wordplay difficult to translate at any time; Adams dying before the screenplay could be completed was another nail.

That the director (Garth Jennings) was mostly known for music videos and the writer (Karey Kirkpatrick) for kiddie flicks two more. The flailing plot ending up elevating a minor bit (the Arthur/Trillian romance, which was not in the novel) as the climax one too many. The bad result: not much of a surprise and spoiling what could have been a five movie series. At least Marvin was cute.

not recommended

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Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Posted on March 5, 2006

This is one of those movies I wouldn’t pay to see in the theater but, for free on cable, is hard to pass up. There was plenty of hype from the cast–Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie–and because this is the first time every shot was made in front of a blue screen, with no sets or outdoor locations, all of the scenery filled in by computer like one more class of special effect.

Still, I barely watched to the end of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and wouldn’t have if it wasn’t short, under 100 minutes without the final credits, and I wasn’t waiting for the climactic season ending Duke-North Carolina basketball game. Special effects and an Indiana Jones-ish retro-SF style only take you so far; you still have to make a movie, with plot, pacing and acting.

Set in a world that never happened, a 1940s without a World War II as best I can guess, dozens of giant flying robots appear in the skies over Manhattan. Rumbling, stomping through city streets, leaving only after our hero Joe “Sky Captain” Sullivan (Law) shows up in his little fighter and blows up two or three. Meanwhile intrepid gal reporter Polly Perkins (Paltrow) stumbles on a scared German scientist who can only whisper that she must find someone named Totenkopf before dying. Of course they used to be in love, until she betrayed him, and now they’ve got to team up again to save the world.

Jolie shows up about half way in as the commander of some wild secret British flying aircraft carrier–who was Polly’s rival for Sullivan’s affections back in the day–with an eyepatch and a surprisingly bad accent. Giovanni Ribisi, showing he doesn’t always have to act as if the amphetamines were extra strong that day, is the science geek/best buddy and Bai Ling, always covered head to toe in a leather flying suit and goggles, is barely recognizable in a few scenes as the mysterious leader of the robot squads. The only other recognizable name in the cast is Michael Gambon, fresh off his first run as Hogwart’s headmaster Dumbledore, mostly on the other end of the phone as Polly’s editor.
The weirdest thing is that the villian, Totenkopf, is played by the long-dead Sir Laurence Olivier! We only ever see him on strange video screens and I’m not sure the voice is actually Olivier though no one else is credited. The reason for using him is not clear to me at all but Ebert gives it a weak thumbs up.

The problem with Sky Captain is that writer/director Kerry Conran really doesn’t know how to make a movie. I understand that he plotted and planned this film for many years, even spending a few years making a six minute proof of concept that got him studio funding, but producer Jon Avnet–who has directed a number of times himself–should have given Conran much stronger guidance.

not recommended

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The Day After Tomorrow

Posted on December 18, 2005

Roland Emmerich is a guy who does big movies, taking steps into the arena with Universal Soldier (Jean-Claude Van Damme AND Dolph Lundgren, plus a just before Law & Order Jerry Orbach) and Stargate and then whacking them out of the park with Independence Day (I have the DVD, should watch it again and do a write up), Godzilla (er, this was a clunker–but a big clunker) and The Patriot (Mel Gibson before he went completely round the bend), you go the whole SF ecological disaster theme, and Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal are doing some pretty good work these days so I had hopes when this was coming to theaters.

Sadly The Day After Tomorrow didn’t live up to those expectations, not for me, not at the box office where the $185 million take likely barely covered the production tab, and with terrible reviews and word of mouth I doubt the DVD sales added much more. Which is a shame because TDAT has the blockbuster ingredients but Emmerich got the proportions all wrong. Really wrong in a big way.

Quaid and Scottish scientist Ian Holm (Bilbo himself!) see outsized weather changes which could be precursors of a new ice age, even confronting a Dick Cheney-like US Vice President who sloughs them off as ridiculously alarmist. Then the storms start. Monsters. So big that astronauts up in the International Space Station see them blotting out huge chunks of the nothern hemisphere. So cold that people freeze solid within a couple of seconds’ exposure.

The trouble is that Emmerich stretches every trouble past the breaking point. Some examples:

  • Quaid’s wife (Sela Ward) is not just a doctor, she’s a pediatric oncologist, and rather than evacuating with the rest of the patients and staff she insists on staying behind when an ambulance for her eight year old patient–who can’t travel without one–doesn’t come. So Ward sits and reads him a story.
  • Gyllenhaal’s love interest (Emmy Rossum) isn’t satisfied with helping a stranded French speaking mom and child as a tidal wave is closing in on them on the streets of Manhattan but after getting them to safety rushes back to the taxi to grab a purse with their documentation.
  • Quaid sets off to rescue Gyllenhaal (holed up in the New York Public Library) with his two research teammates. After losing their pickup truck outside Philly and setting out roped together on snowshoes, supply sled roped behind them, the sled crashes through thin ice and pulls a grizzly Jay O. Sanders in as well. Fine, Sanders can cut the rope and release the sled. Is that good enough for Emmerich? Of course not! Sanders has to cut himself loose and plunge to his death too. Puh-leeze!

The whole movie is more or less at this level. No room for subtlety and by ruling that out, any real dramatic tension is out the window as well. About the only thing really interesting or entertaining about TDAT is the computer special effects; to extend a meme, the disaster porn.

not recommended

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