The corporation funding the mission to investigate the moon in Prometheus (2012) may have a different agenda from what the crew supposes.
Read More ›
What never grows old is the belief that They are out there — one foot in faith, one in science, and a great future in the world of the imagination.
Read More ›
While the film begins well, it eventually falls into the trap of spectacle over substance. But I recommend it for the music, the acting, and the visuals.
Read More ›
Cooper says that the mysterious “They” have “evolved.” How in the world did natural selection select the fifth dimension?
Read More ›
Last Saturday, we looked at Cooper and his crew landing on the first of three planets that might sustain human life. Humanity’s time on Earth is running out, and Cooper’s crew has been tasked with finding it a new home. The first planet they tried turned out not to be so ideal, and that one trip cost them decades of valuable time thanks to relativity. The planet was too close to a black hole, which meant that it had created a dramatic time shift. On Earth, over twenty years have passed since their mission began. Now the crew is traveling on to the next planet. The extra time spent on the first planet has left them with just enough fuel Read More ›
Interstellar succeeds in the difficult task of creating sympathy for an initially unlikeable character via a harrowing plot turn.
Read More ›
Interstellar’s visuals and music score are excellent but more backstory would have helped orient the reader. We are largely left to guess how disaster occurred.
Read More ›
The political commentary is on the nose but lazy writing took much of the punch out of the ending. Still it may be worth your time.
Read More ›
With all of the city’s criminal records downloaded into his mind and his dopamine levels nearly zero, Murphy meets the press…
Read More ›
The film implies the existence of the human soul, as that seems to be pretty much all that Alex Murphy has left as he begins a new life as a robocop.
Read More ›
Last time, Spooner’s investigation into Dr. Lanning’s apparent suicide led him to Sonny, the robot who claimed it could dream. It turns out that Sonny’s dream isn’t a dream at all, but an image programmed by Dr. Lanning. It was meant to lead Spooner to a storage area where all the older robots were being kept. Once Spooner finds the exact spot where he was supposed to be standing in Sonny’s dream, he plays the hologram Dr. Lanning recorded before he died. The hologram program is simple. The doctor recorded certain responses that are triggered by the right questions. Spooner begins talking to the hologram until it tells him what he needs to know. Dr. Lanning’s hologram says there’s going Read More ›
In the end, I wanted Jakub and Lenka to restore their relationship. So, if you have a couple hours, give Spaceman a try. You just might find that gem.
Read More ›
Adam Sandler gives a marvelous performance at a key point, but the script doesn’t give a specific moment that tells the audience what changed his mind.
Read More ›
Netflix recently released a film called Spaceman, starring Adam Sandler. It’s… interesting. The first time I watched it, I hated it. The second time I watched it, I hated it less. I can appreciate what the movie was trying to do, and Adam Sandler puts on a fine performance… most of the time. But there were just too many plot holes and too much meaningless rhetoric for me to really enjoy the story. The movie is based on a 2017 novel, Spaceman of Bohemia by Czech author Jaroslav Kalfař. It begins with a Czech astronaut flying toward a mysterious, purple anomaly called the Chopra Cloud. The Cloud had appeared in the sky a few years previously, with no known reason. Read More ›
Last Saturday, we talked about how the writers did an excellent job setting up Feyd-Rautha as a worthy adversary for Paul. However, their decision to make Chani a skeptical antagonist—opposing the man she supposedly loves—has already created numerous problems for the story, and those problems continue to stack up. By the time we reach the conclusion of the film, I don’t know how the writers expect to create a Part Three that will be in any way, shape, or form consistent with the source material. In Part Two, Paul and the Fremen finally launch their final assault on the emperor. As in previous retellings of the story, Paul uses his father’s stash of atomic weapons to blow a hole in Read More ›
The portrayal of Chani in Part Two is, however, much harder to understand. If she doesn’t believe in the Bene Gesserit religion, why is she there on Arrakis?
Read More ›
Invisibility is one of those interesting concepts that started out as imagination: What if I were invisible? Or— in the hands of a storyteller — what if my character were invisible? Tolkien famously made it a power granted by the Ring in The Lord of the Rings. The concept is used in science fiction too, for example, in the form of the cloaking device: However, as science fiction writer Douglas Adams (1952–2001) noted satirically in Life, the Universe, and Everything, in everyday life, “The Somebody Else’s Problem field is much simpler and more effective, and what’s more can be run for over a hundred years on a single torch battery. This is because it relies on people’s natural disposition not Read More ›
Overall, Paul’s reluctance, in this version, to be the Fremen’s leader enables him to earn their respect over time while doing more ordinary tasks.
Read More ›
For example, if the Bene Gesserits are the true power behind the throne, why do they need a Kwisatz Haderach to cement their power?
Read More ›
The rainstorm Lynch introduces at the end, implies, refreshingly, that there was more going on in Dune than just the plans of men.
Read More ›