Sci-fi

ANON

Cert 15 Stars 2

This beautifully crafted but inert sci-fi thriller is more interested in its high concept ideas than offering a compelling narrative, likeable characters or sense of mystery, fun or spectacle.

It’s set in a bleak future world, online wireless technology allows total surveillance by the government.

Clive Owen is at his monotone worst as a cop investigating a super-hacker whose skills are used to disguise a serial killer. Identified only is Anon, she’s played by Amanda Seyfried on similarly low key form.

Andrew Niccol writes and directs with concrete self importance, leaving 1997’s Gattaca the high watermark of his career.

MUTE

Cert 15 126mins Stars 2

This derivative sci-fi thriller is beautifully designed but an ambitious structure of two criss-crossing stories results in a disjointed and un-engaging journey.

Strong and silent Alexander Skarsgard plays a mute barman searching for his missing girlfriend, lumbering through the seedy criminal world of Berlin, forty years in the future.

Meanwhile Paul Rudd and Justin Theroux are mercenary military medics who drink and banter during surgery in a manner reminiscent of Robert Altman’s M.A.S.H. One is desperate to relocate to the US and the other is happy to stay in order to indulge his dark impulses.

So visually and tonally different are these strands, they rub against each other without much in the way of action or humour, and generating static but no thrill power.

What comedy exists is launched in broad stabs, mostly from Rudd, and I suspect the occasional minor absurdity springs from the far reaching impact of cult British comic, 2000AD.

Women are even more mute than Skarsgard, being mostly confined to the background even when the plot is nominally concerns their wellbeing.

The dark neon style is borrowed wholesale from Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and lacks invention or a sense of it’s own identity.

Director Duncan Jones is honest about being influenced by Scott’s 1982 masterpiece, though frankly they’d be no denying it. He certainly isn’t the first and won’t be the last. But the more closely Mute parades its primary visual source, the more we recognise it’s lack of identity.

Mute doesn’t possess the strong authorial voice, sharp storytelling or acute mind of its heroes. The script doesn’t question what makes us human, or make a highly politicised anti-war statement. This isn’t noir, or satire or action adventure. As towards the end it drowns in sentiment, I still wasn’t sure what it is.

Described as a spiritual sequel to his intriguing 2009 debut, Moon. Sam Rockwell cameos in the same role here but his presence serves to remind us how Jones has struggled to deliver on his early promise. Neither 2011’s Source Code or 2016’s Warcraft were as interesting, rigorous or successful in their execution.

After the extraordinary Blade Runner 2049 became a big budget casualty last year, it’s easy to see why distributors where wary of putting this into cinemas. Big budget sci-fi films not based on an existing book, film or even game have suffered in recent years.

So fair play to Netflix for giving it a platform for audiences to see it. I just wish it was more involving and gave me something to shout about.

NATIVE

Cert 12A 85mins Stars 1

Crossing the galaxy seems to take eons in this suffocatingly soporific sci-fi, which is indulgent, portentous and stage bound.

Rupert Graves and Ellie Kendrick play humanoid alien scientists who leave their home world to colonise a world light years away.

Their biblical names point to where the story is headed and there should be a ban on films naming the lead female character any variation of Eve.

They perform slow space-yoga, and stare moodily into middle distance waiting for anything to happen.

Plus the script flies in the face of convention by bravely having the pair express their every thought. Communicating telepathically is no excuse for the banality of their conversations or their stilted delivery.

The budget seems to be on a pair with an episode of Dr Who, but without the quality of design, writing or performance.

There may be life out there but you won’t find much here.

FLATLINERS (2017)

Cert 15 Stars 1

Way back in the summer of 1990 and flush from the mega success of Pretty Woman which made her a global name, Julia Roberts starred in a horror about medical students who experiment in life after death.

This laughably poor and lifeless remake sees Ellen Page struggling to inject some vitality into a brain dead script while everyone tries to keep a straight face.

McMafia star James Norton fronts out his embarrassment at being involved, and Keifer Sutherland has the dubious distinction of appearing in both versions.

This is dead on arrival.

ATTRACTION

Cert 12A 117mins Stars 3

There’s a breathless lack of subtlety in this teen sci-fi romance which sees a high school girl have a close encounter in down town Moscow.

Riffing on Romeo and Juliet, star crossed lovers see their worlds collide when a giant alien spaceship is shot down.

Russian TV star Irina Starshenbaum makes her big screen debut as our heroine Yulia, and Rinal Mukhametov plays the alien object of her affections.

Yulia is sweet, sarcastic and sparky, almost singlehandedly giving life to a startlingly unoriginal script. She’s also considerably sharper than her father, the much put upon colonel in charge of protecting civilians from aliens, and vice versa.

The poor bloke is on much surer ground dealing with the potential destruction of planet Earth than teenage hormones. 

An innovative production method maximises the minimal budget, providing decent CGI for a fraction of the usual Hollywood cost. Along Yulia’s fresh faced energy, they’re the biggest selling point of this big screen attraction.

 

REVOLT

Stars 2 Cert 15

There’s not much personality on show in this functional sci-fi thriller, which despite being only 83 minutes long is very keen on using slow motion. 

Lee Pace and Berenice Marlohe are the actors who have been parachuted in to save the weak script. He plays a soldier with no memory and she a doctor who can handle a gun.

They team up to save survivors from an alien invasion which has devastated humanity, and discover Jason Flymyng’s war photographer lying around.

Shot on location in South Africa, our sympathies lie mostly with the elephants.

MARJORIE PRIME

Cert 12A 99mins Stars 3

Pay close attention to this ghostly sci-fi drama which will test your memory as well as your patience.

Lois Smith plays an 85 year old widow of failing health who has a computer programme possessed of artificial intelligent to keep her company.

Marjorie has directed it to learn to adopt the personality of her husband as she remembers him.

And having not yet lost her marbles she insists it projects itself in hologram form as the handsome young version of her man, when he looked like Jon Hamm from TV’s Madmen.

With a cast including Geena Davis and Tim Robbins, the performances are as tasteful and highly polished as the decor in Marjorie’s elegant and expensive Los Angeles beach front home.

Moving at a hypnotic pace, the stage bound script toys with time and questions the relationship between thought and identity, often making us feel as if we’re eavesdropping on someones deeply personal and very expensive therapy.

 

 

 

BLADE RUNNER 2049

Cert 15 163mins Stars 5

Prepare to see things you’ve never seen before in this astonishing sci-fi sequel.

In Brit 1982 Brit director Ridley Scott and star Harrison Ford created the most influential sci-fi film of the last 35 years.

I love the original Blade Runner so much I was consumed with gut wrenching nerves immediately before seeing this new trip to Los Angeles of the near future.

Attempting to compete with a visionary masterpiece seemed an act of absolute folly by new director Denis Villeneuve. And so it proved, the Canadian will just have to settle for making the best sci-fi film of the decade.

It’s a visually majestic, brilliantly acted, emotionally arresting and deeply humane epic which wrestles with questions of memory, identity, and the meaning of love and life.

Ford reprises the part of Deckard. As a Blade Runner he was employed to hunt and kill powerful slave androids, called replicants.

However the lead role is occupied by broodingly charismatic Ryan Gosling.

Villeneuve has asked for the plot not to be revealed, but it’s safe to tell you Gosling plays a Blade Runner called K who is employed by the LAPD.

While on an assignment, the hired killer makes a discovery which challenges the world order and makes him question his own beliefs.

There’s a strong spiritual core plus environmental concerns and social commentary are stitched into the rich fabric its incredible design. British cinematographer Roger Deakins will surely receive his 14th Oscar nomination, and hopefully an overdue first win for his mesmerising work.

There are impressive flying cars, fist fights, gun battles and people being punched through walls.

But this is an intense and serious minded odyssey for grown ups, one without the easy pleasures of a light hearted romp such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

I haven’t stopped thinking about this masterpiece since I saw it, and I probably still will be in 2049.

Nemo’s Fury is an exciting digital reinvention of Jules Verne’s classic steampunk adventure novel, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. 

Download for free to your smartphone or tablet, search your app store for ‘Nemo’s Fury’.

A mobile interactive fiction game employing a bespoke combat system and hundreds of original illustrations, Nemo’s Fury is inspired by the 1980’s role-playing gamebooks such as ‘The Warlock of Firetop Mountain’, of the Fighting Fantasy series which celebrated its fortieth anniversary last year.

Each player joins the legendary Captain Nemo on board his fabulous submarine, the Nautilus, on a wild voyage of adventure, intrigue, loyalty, and betrayal.

There’s mayhem, monsters, maelstroms and murder as Nemo takes you from the South Pacific to the Northern Atlantic via Antartica and the Red Sea. And if they survive long enough, the player will of course fight a giant squid.

Available on your smartphone or tablet, (but not yet your desktop), click on your app store below

Or go to Nemo’s Fury for more info

VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS

Cert 12A 136mins Stars 3

Take a holiday trip to a city in space with this spectacular looking sci-fi adventure.

War is threatened when aliens kidnap a space police commander, so a pair of glamorous intergalactic agents blast off to save the universe.

It’s based on a 1970’s French comic which was one of the key influences of the original Star Wars, and everything feels very familiar.

However we’re never bored because there is always something glorious to look at. It’s a non-stop parade of dazzlingly beautiful aliens, spaceships and planets.

But even mad French director Luc Besson is so busy gawping like a tourist at the amazing sights, the story is lost in the rush to see what’s around the next corner.

After her astonishingly poor performances in last year’s superhero fiasco, Suicide Squad, model turned actress Cara Delevingne rescues her fledgling career with a terrifically smart, sexy and kick ass performance.

As Sergeant Laureline she has to carry the story due to her co-star being horrifically miscast.

This big budget blockbuster needs leading man swagger, such as Chris Pratt provides in Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy.

Instead we have Dane DeHaan, an intense actor well suited to small indie movies but is skill set is utterly wrong for the role of Major Valerian, and who lacks the authority required for the role.

Nor does DeHaan have a shred of romantic chemistry with Delevingne. Plus Valerian is noticeably more dim and less effective than his subordinate Laureline, but the script never sees this as a problem.

Popstar Rihanna makes a brief appearance as an adult entertainer, she has multiple costume changes and her stunt double does good work.

Clive Owen, Ethan Hawke, Rutger Hauer appear game for a laugh and for some reason jazz composer Herbie Hancock beams by as the Defence Minister.

The city of a thousand planets is a lovely looking place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to go back.

 

WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES

Cert 12A 142mins Stars 5

There’s no monkeying about when the fur starts flying in this epic end to the sci-fi trilogy.

It’s a mean, meaty, and hair raising action adventure which doesn’t hang around and becomes increasingly tense and spectacular as the explosive conclusion approaches.

And it’s far superior to this year’s other monkey movie, the disappointing Kong: Skull Island.

This is a rare beast of a series, improving in quality from good to great to gripping.

In 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, scientific experiments led to apes talking, and in 2014’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the humans were mostly wiped out by a virus.

Now the remainder of humanity is on the warpath and the talking apes are being hunted to extinction.

Caesar the chimp is a thoughtful tribal chief who abandons his responsibilities and sets off on a mission of personal revenge with a small group of friends.

When he’s confronted with the consequences of his disastrous failings as a leader, father, and spouse, Caesar seeks to redeem himself and save his tribe.

Heading a strong cast and reprising his role as Caesar, Andy Serkis provides the powerful emotional heart of this film with another mesmeric and masterful performance.

He is the king of motion capture technology, the process which convinces us the apes, gorillas and orang utans exist as living, breathing, and bleeding creatures, not just animated computer pixels.

Woody Harrelson brings a controlled menace to role of Caesar’s nemesis. He plays a crazy army colonel who has established the power of life and death over his troops.

Using humour to light the darkness is Steve Zahn as a stray ape in a beanie hat, and young Amiah Miller is a slight, sweet presence as mute human, Nova.

An ambitious script owes as much to British classics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai as it does to westerns such as Clint Eastwood’s The Outlaw Josey Wales. And there are unmistakable references to Vietnam war epic, Apocalypse Now.

This is a world of difficult choices and painful consequences, filled with madness, torture and death. Even older primary school kids may struggle with the heavyweight tone of a film pitched far ahead of films featuring spangly spandex superheroes or wise cracking giant robots.

Though the Hollywood jungle drums suggest this may not be the end of the story, the emotional finale guarantees you’ll go ape for this chest beating brute of a blockbuster.