In the late 21st century Earth was diseased, polluted, and vastly over-populated.
(The camera shows over-crowded, garbage-riddled, crumbling dirty cities with smoke-filled skylines)
Earth's wealthiest residents fled the planet to preserve their way of life.
(This is where the camera pans out moving away from Earth and focusing over a massive ring shaped structure orbiting the planet Earth... This is...)
ELYSIUM...
(Supported by a star shaped spike structure that extends from a central core to the the massive ring. The inside of the massive ring made up of huge curving landscapes consisting of beautiful grassy lawns, huge white houses and sparkling water bodies. A virtual paradise compared to the hell that earth has become...)
So starts Elysium. An artificial space habitat built by the "have"s, to keep away the "have-not"s and still enjoy the best that money and technology can offer. Sterile air, open beautiful spaces, Robot servants and Medical technology that can "re-atomize" your body to heal any and every disease or injury within minutes...
And there is the Earth. The abode of the "have-not"s. Congested, over-populated, polluted. Tightly controlled by robot police, and many of the population serving the companies that enrich the "have"s who are the Elysium citizens, even the basic necessities like medical care are hard to come by. The squalor and the living conditions are clearly apparent in the garbage-riddled landscape, the crumbling buildings where people live, the over-crowded hospitals and public places...
One such have-not is Max. As a kid he has always dreamed of buying a ticket to the beautiful and fabled paradise of Elysium. Once involved in criminal activities during his early youth, now he works hard as an assembly worker in Armadyne Corp, an armaments company that provides not only the weaponry for Elysium and the police force on earth, but also designed the controlling system of Elysium itself. One day he meets with an accident while at work. Exposed to lethal dose of radiation, he has mere five days to live. And all the company gives him as compensation is a vial of capsules that would make his final days painless, and relieves him of work.
The only thing that can save him is a Med-bay - a near magical technological marvel that can re-atomize your body cells and cure any disease within minutes. The only med-bays available are on Elysium. So he approaches a smuggler named Spider, for whom he has worked before, hoping to get himself smuggled into Elysium. But Spider asks him to perform a last job for him. A job so daring and dangerous, that no person in his right mind would take it up. But Max would. He is going to die anyway. What has he got to loose? They plan to steal secret information off a high-profile Elysium citizen, and use it to buy their way into Elysium. But they land up obtaining information that's so confidential that soon they are being man-hunted for it...
The movie succeeds pretty nicely as an action flick. Though it starts off slow, it soon picks up pace and hardly ever slackens thereafter. Some slow motion action shots are quite breathtaking. Though it is not your run of the mill action flick that starts off with a bang and involves superheroes and over-the-top action sequences, it does offer some nice sci-fi action eye-candy - some pretty cool futuristic armaments, fighter droids, and some very good action sequences.
Most of the actors have acted pretty well. Which was to be expected considering that the star-cast boasts such brilliant actors like Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Alice Braga and William Fichtner.
But I liked this movie more for its concept. There are few sci-fi movies that succeed to present ideas that are possible in the foreseeable future. To make you realize with horror and trepidation that - "OMG, this may happen; it may really happen in a few years"... (One such movie I had seen before is Repo Men [2010] - another dystopian sci-fi action flick). Elysium is one such movie. If you look beyond the action and the sci-fi entertainment it offers, you may realize that what has been portrayed in the movie may very-well happen in the near future. The way our population is growing exponentially, and the economic divide between the haves and the have-nots widening every day, the day is not far when we might be thrust into just such an exploitative dystopian social structure... Maybe we already are living in such an exploitative economic system - economic slaves enriching the already rich "haves". The over-population will simply make it worse in the the near-future...
The writer and director Neill Blomkamp says that it is a comment on the contemporary human condition. "Everybody wants to ask me lately about my predictions for the future," he says, "No, no, no. This isn't science fiction. This is today. This is now."... In a way, he is right...
My Ratings: 3.5
This is a movie about a manned mission's Last Days on Mars. So this makes it one of the few movies that says it all in the title itself.
Aurora Mission...
Duration: 6 months...
Remaining time: 19 hours...
It is their last excursion out in the sands of the Red Planet. Kim, an ambitious and now disillusioned scientist, is busy collecting the last samples they would take back home. Samples, that she dejectedly observes, are as sterile and fruitless as the ones they have been collecting for the past 6 months... As she is driven back to base by the team 'chauffers' (would the term "Rover Driver" sound funny?) Campbell and Lane, another scientist, Marko, prepares to go out. He claims that he needs to check "a Gamma sensor that's not responding", something he confesses he forgot to check. As he heads out, Kim, his obvious rival, becomes suspicious. She checks his workstation. What she finds out implicates two things: one - Marko lied, and two - he may have stumbled upon a profound discovery... And then disaster strikes...
The story is strictly okay. On the sci-fi front, it does not explore any new ideas. On the action front, it does not add any unnecessary and unrealistic stunts. On the thriller-horror part, it delivers shocks and jolts with the pitch-perfect timing. The characters are neither too shallow, nor too detailed. Some of the characters are well-sketched enough to fit into the plot. <Spoiler> The idea that the very first discovered extra-terrestrial bacteria should turn humans into zombies, is quite preposterous, not to mention a bit difficult to digest... </Spoiler>
The special effects are quite nice. The spaceship, the base and the rovers are depicted very nicely. Can't comment on the depiction of the Mars itself. Never been there, you know ;-P... But it looked too drab, like some desert on earth itself viewed through an orange red filter. Maybe the red planet is as arid and drab as depicted in the movie? Who knows? The sets and props of the insides of the rovers and the base are good enough enough. Some of the scenes shot through the dark, abandoned and wrecked corridors and rooms of the Base well shot enough to make one's hair stand on end.
Almost all the performances are good enough. Liev Schrieber, who plays the role of Vincent Campbell, steals the show. He fits the role of the reluctant protagonist like a glove on the hand - so much so that he almost defined the character by his performance. I also liked the performances of Olivia William (as Kim Aldrich, the scientist), Elias Koteas (as Brunel, the leader of the team) and Romola Garai (as Lane).
This is the second sci-fi movie of this year (2013), that I liked because it steers clear of unnecessary dramatics (the first one was Europa Report - which is a better movie than this one though). And therein lies its charm... It refrains from taking the well-trodden path of a typical action-packed horror-thriller in space. It keeps everything low-key. And yet manages to deliver thrills and jolts at exactly the right places and manages to maintain a steady pace. There is action, yes, but its pretty realistic. No extraordinary stunts. No super-human feats. And yet, it manages to entertain. In short the movie is very well executed and well directed.
In short, it is certainly worth a watch at least once.
My Rating: 2.5
No. This is not about the World's End. Or is it?
The World's End is a pub at the end of what the teenagers of Newton Haven call the Golden Mile - a pub crawl that covers 11 other pubs before terminating at this one. On the day of their graduation, Gary King and his 4 buddies decide to "conquer the Golden Mile", drinking a beer in each of the "twelve pubs along a legendary path of alcoholic indulgence"... They never manage to finish it...
That was 20 years back. Flash forward to the present. All the 4 friends are busy and settled down in their respective professions. And Gary King? He is institutionalized. Trying to come to terms with the disappointment and meaninglessness that life has become. But there is the business of the Golden Mile. The crawl they started but never finished. Unfinished business.
So Gary decides to go and finish it once and for all. But of course he cant do it without his 4 buddies. But its "Gary fucking King". The guy who, according to his best pal Andy, can do anything... So Gary visits each one of them. And using his obnoxious charm, manages to convince, persuade and at times emotionally blackmail them to join him in their 20 years old quest.
So the four friends find themselves back in Newton Haven, following the indomitable and insufferable Gary King. And while they are at it, they stumble upon a conspiracy that threatens to change their world...
This is one movie that, for me, defies classification. It is the concluding part of the famous Flavours Cornetto Trilogy (though, it is in no way related to either of the 2 predecessors). But unlike its prequels, it is not really a parody. It is a good comedy. At the same time it is quite an interesting piece of "social science fiction". It boasts some pretty cool action scenes. But best of all, it paints the characters of the 5 friends quite well. The shattered promise of youth, the nostalgic collective memories of a bunch of friends before life separated them, their trip down that memory lane, and their unresolved hopes, conflicts and desires. The movie manages to capture all this very nicely.
The script is well written. Much detailed and well crafted than either of the predecessors. Hats off to the Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. Edgar Wright's direction is, as always, awesome - bearing the unique signature that anyone who has seen the other two movies in the trilogy would quickly recognize.
Simon Pegg plays the role of the cocky, obnoxious and gritty Gary King. That Simon Pegg is a great actor has been evident in the previous two movies from the trilogy. But this one exhibits equally great acting skills by Nick Frost. He plays the role of the adorable but grumpy Andy, Gary's best buddy. The rest of the actors have played their parts well too.
The movie picks up very nicely and never once slows down.
The dialogues are at times funny ("What the fuck is WTF?"), and witty ("He used to ask me what I wanted to do with my life.told him I just wanted to have a good time. He thought that was funny. It wasn't meant to be."), and at times serious enough to the point of being philosophical ("How can you tell when you're drunk if you're never sober"). Sometimes they are a commentary on us humans and our idiosyncrasies ("Your reliance on profanity is a measure of your immaturity as a man and a species.")... That's what I liked a lot about the script... It has a lot of substance to it.
The action is at times intense. As compared to the other two movies in the series, the action sequences in this one are very professionally shot. Many action movies rely on the shaking of the camera to portray intense action. This one avoid the shaky camerawork. Instead it portrays the fight sequences very lucidly and in detail. Its fun to watch, except if you can make yourself digest the fact that all the five protagonists who are bashing up so many people, are supposed to be in their middle ages, with no indication of their acquaintance to martial arts.
Compared to the other two movies in the trilogy, this one has the best climax. The climax of Hot Fuzz was, according to me, a serious botch up. The climax of Shaun of the Dead was simply mediocre. But the climax of this one is well executed. It wraps up the story to a very satisfying and logical conclusion.
The science fiction part of the movie does not necessarily consist of an original premise. But the idea is well executed. The main idea is to make a social commentary on the vagaries of the human race, while proclaiming our right to be free to mess up ourselves the way we please. Which the movie sets forth pretty effectively, using comedy or satire as a medium.
According to me, this one was the best one of the three movies that make up the Flavours Cornetto Trilogy. And its certainly worth a watch at least once.
My ratings: 3.5
Some Sci-Fi movies are about ideas and the science of the future. Some, or rather most of them are about high-tech action based in the future. This movie is about the the pursuit of discovery, and how far can a team of humans go, in order to make that discovery...
I am a sucker for Sci-Fi movies. The ideas and the science in them appeal to me. While trawling through the net for prospective Sci-Fi movies of this year, the name "Europa Report" caught my attention. The title itself sounded so appealing. I have always been fascinated by Europa. With its shiny white surface covered with red patches and what looks like scratch marks, I find it most intriguing among the four famous "Galilean Moons" of Jupiter (so named because they were first discovered by Galileo). So I dived in without even looking up its trailer...
When the movie started, I was a bit disappointed to know that it used the Found Footage format, making use of footage from various stationary and hand-held cameras to tell the story. I have seen one found footage Sci-Fi movie before - Apollo 18, and I was a bit disappointed by it. No doubt it had its share of thrills and suspense, which are a hallmark of any good Found Footage movie. But the basic premise, the idea behind the story did not appeal to me at all. Plus, Sci-Fi movies are a lot about eye-candy - VFX, beautiful outer-space locales, a spanning panorama of stars, fancy space-ships, the works... And one can't expect good VFX in the found footage format because of the stationary camera and its comparatively mediocre ability to capture good visuals.
But by the time the movie ended, it left me feeling mildly enthralled. The movie's story had managed to invoke in me the awe and wonder I had felt as a youngster, every time I would let my imagination soar at the prospect of travelling through space, wondered what we would find out there...
The movie does not weigh itself down with an over-ambitious scientific idea. Its premise is quite simple. A team of six astronauts embark on a voyage through interplanetary space to Europa - one of the moons of Jupiter. Their mission: to search for signs of life under Europa's crust of ice.
The mission is being sponsored and executed by Europa Ventures, a private firm. For a welcome change, NASA is nowhere involved - its a privately funded mission. The footage from the various cameras on board the spaceship are being broadcast back to earth.
The first half depicts their journey through the vast chasm of space that lies between the planets. The movie captures well the enthusiasm of the crew. And its infectious. After all, they are going farther than any Man has ever gone before. But like any ground-breaking voyages, this one is full of perils. The first disaster strikes, when halfway through, they loose all communications. While trying to repair the comm modules, one of the crew members is lost. All the exhilaration of the unique voyage suddenly dies out. The harsh reality of the perilous nature of the voyage suddenly dawns upon them all. But this will not be the last disaster they face... The stakes are high, for, if successful, they believe that their discovery could prove to be a most profound one in Human history. So they press on. How the crew members face one difficulty after another, and how they press on against all odds, and the sacrifices they make in pursuit of their discovery, is what fuels the rest of the story.
The found footage format does put a damper on what could have been a very good movie experience. But there are moments in the movie which not only justify the found footage format, but actually take advantage of it to give an entertaining movie experience. For example, this is one of the very few rare Sci-Fi movies which explains and portrays the use of centrifugal force to generate artificial gravity in zero-G. Its a nice little scene where a guy is shooting a personal tour of the ship for his kid. The guy hands the camera to his colleague, and then climbs the stairs from the ground (which is the inner surface of the rotating ship) towards its center of the ship, and as he ascends, he begins to float. And while he floats, we can see beyond (or above?) him, another astronaut descending (going upwards in reverse) at the opposite end of the ship.
There are moments when the found footage format does get on the nerves though. And it doesn't help that during the first half, the story keeps toggling to and fro between flash-back and flash-forward, giving us a sneak-peek of impending disaster. It gets a bit confusing at times. One has to concentrate on the timeline displayed in months : days : hours format every time the story switches back or forward in time.
If you have seen the movie Mission to Mars, then you will recognize the similarity of the plots. To be frank, Mission to Mars scores over Europa Report, because it was shot in normal format. So it was able to render some really awesome sequences (the space walk rescue attempt is one of my most favourite sequences in that movie). But it loses to Europa Report in one aspect. Its climax was too over-done for my taste. But Europa Report has managed to maintain rationality in its somewhat action-wise subdued but utterly realistic and believable climax. And in the end, it does manage to answer a question raised within the movie itself: "Compared to the breadth of knowledge yet to be known, what does your life actually matter?"
On the whole a really nice Sci-Fi flick. Worth watching at least once...
My Rating: 3.5
After watching Children of Men directed by Alfonso Cuarón, I was eager to watch his newest release Gravity. And the wait was worth it!
For a movie named 'Gravity', most of it takes place in an absence of it. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are a part of a team of astronauts on a mission to do some repair-work on the famous Hubble Space telescope, when disaster strikes. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are the only survivors. And in the cold, dark and empty loneliness of Space, with communications and vital instruments down, they have to battle against seemingly insurmountable odds to survive and get back to Earth.
If I were to describe the movie in minimum amount of words, I would call it "visually stunning". I am glad I watched it in 3D. People associate 3D with action scenes where fast moving things hurtling towards the camera appear as if they are actually coming straight at you. I was under the same misconception until I saw the movie Sanctum in 3D. Much of that movie is shot within caves and under water, where most of the scenes have a dark background. This makes the feebly illuminated portions stand out. And it looks even better in 3D, where the contours appear so well-defined. The lights playing over the huge caverns, or on the surface of the water way above (when the camera is under water), or on the bubbles floating around, look almost magical in their clarity, thanks to the 3D effects. Same is the case with Gravity.
In Space, everything is either dark, or very brightly illuminated by the naked sun rays. This contrasting interplay of light and darkness makes things stand out very nicely in 3D. Most of the movie takes place in orbit around the Earth. The slow graceful movements of the astronauts in space is captured very nicely. So are the various objects, large and small, floating around in empty space. It all adds up to a very stunning visual experience.
The views of the Earth as the backdrop, from far above in orbit are stunning. So is the depiction of the space shuttle and the ISS. The movie depicts the rare beauty of the Earth and the nature from space, even as the tense story-line moves from one catastrophe to the other.
In spite of being a Sci-Fi movie, it does not have your distant planets, fancy star-ships, aliens or super-advanced technology. The director has tried to keep it as near to the present-day science as possible. Though I am not sure how much of the science portrayed in the movie is realistic or actually plausible, it does not seem improbable to the layman. The harsh and dangerous environment of space is the villain and the indomitable human spirit to survive against all odds is the true hero of the movie.
For most of its part, the story hurtles along at break-neck speed. It does slow down a bit in the second half, which many of you might find a bit boring. But its worth the wait as the story once again picks up speed as it approaches the climax.
The characters of both the protagonists are neither too shallow, nor overly well-defined. But at least they are sketched realistically. Both Sandra Bullock and George Clooney do justice to the characters with their great acting skills. Sandra Bullock's acting is especially nice.
The story is not as complex as some other Space disaster-survival movies like Apollo 13. But the visual effects are ground-breaking and worth the money.
My Ratings: 3.5
Our life, the world we build for us, our entire system works on our hope for the future. All our plans, expectations, speculations are based from future's point of view. But what if there was no future to look forward to? With no hope for the coming tomorrow, our system would slowly but surely decay and collapse. This is the premise on which Children of Men is based.
The movie starts with the protagonist viewing a news report in a bar. Its the news of a famous celebrity who passed away. Its a kid. He was famous because he was the last kid to be born. In the future, mankind has inexplicably lost the ability to give birth. Everyone has, for some reason become sterile. And this has lead to a slow but certain Global Meltdown. As the protagonist comes out of the bar and walks away, there is a blast in the bar. It is one of the regularly carried out arsonous acts carried out by the Foogies (for Refugees) against a totalitarian government regime.
This is how the movie starts. The lead protagonist's ex-wife asks him a favour. He has to arrange for a pass to get someone out of the country. He manages to get the pass, but it turns out, he will have to personally escort that someone. Somewhere on the way, things take a turn for the worse. And while trying to cope with the sudden turn of events, he realizes that his mission is much more important and critical than it appears.
The story is based in a hypothetical future. So it certainly is a Sci-Fi movie, but without the aliens and the hi-tech stuff. And the story never really explores the why and the how of the apparently sudden sterility of the entire human race. It has some very breath-taking action. But its not your usual action flick. The direction ensures that the main theme of the movie never gets lost in the action scenes and the depiction of a future gone bad.
The movie starts with a bang but soon looses momentum for a while, as the stage is set, and the character-building happens. This initial character and story-building is nice if you don't mind the slow pace. And then suddenly the movie picks up speed. And then it hardly ever slows down...
The protagonist has to get involved in lots of action and intrigue. But he is never depicted as an action hero. He is a normal empathetic human who is doing what has to be done, like a normal human. neither are the antagonist portrayed as totally evil. The characters in this movie are more realistic shades of grey, instead of the usually shallow black and white ones that most simplified movie plots depict.
The director Alfonso Cuarón (director of the famous recent movie Gravity), pretty nicely depicts a world where hope is lost and all is shot to hell. And yet, we are shown the human side of things, where common people try to survive against all hopelessness and unnecessary violence. Even the violence is depicted with empathy, where we feel the unnecessariness of it, and the shock of its sad aftermath. And in spite of its dark dreary background, the movie gives us a message: that however dark and hopeless the future may appear, there is always hope...
On the whole its a pretty decent flick. Much better than your run of the mill Sci-fi action movies that attract so much audience. This is certainly not for everyone. But if you like sensitive movies, that add a pack of pretty slick action, pace and suspense, then you will certainly enjoy this movie the way I did.
My Ratings: 4
This movie is not about Monsters.
It has aliens. And Soldiers fighting them. But it is not about Aliens. And it is not about war. And certainly not about Humans fighting Aliens.
And its less of a Sci-Fi movie, more like an art flick. Somewhat like the movie The Road, only less intense, less apocalyptic, less tragic and much more positive.
If you are expecting any of this masala (spicy) stuff in this movie then I recommend you go watch something else. You and this movie may have compatibility issues.
If you are still reading on, it probably means you are open to watching something that is more substantial, subtle yet meaningful than the mindless movies that depict the above mentioned scenarios. If so, then this little piece of audio-visual treat may surprise you.
In defiance to what its name and its story-line may suggest, its about a little voyage. Involving two humans. One is a photographer. Another is the daughter of his boss, a big-shot publisher. He is unwillingly entrusted the responsibility of leading her out of Mexico and back into US across the "infected zone".
Science-wise, the premise about the aliens and how they appeared on earth is sadly quite shallow. Nor is the depiction of the aliens original or inspired. But it does no injustice to the story-line which uses the alien "infestation" as a base to build upon, nothing more.
The characters of both the protagonists are complex and very well-sketched. He is a care-free soul, unscrupulous when it comes to savouring the little joys life has to offer. She is a some-what disillusioned woman, probably searching for a meaning out of the meaningless chaos that life sometimes appears to become. The chemistry between them is depicted pretty nicely.
The dialogues are pretty thought-provoking. The one I liked best was a sequence where the lady asks the photographer (who is dying to get a good shot of an alien's attack) "Doesn't that kinda bother you, that you need something bad to happen to profit from it?" And his answer to her is mind-blowing. I wish I could quote it here, but that would ruin your experience of actually stumbling over it during the movie.
The script and story are well-crafted enough. For instance, the sequence about how they loose their only chance to leave Mexico via a ferry ride over the sea, is both comical and tragic.
The post-apocalyptic scenes of a countryside ravaged by calamity are sometimes visually stunning, sometimes subtle, beautiful and touching. Its a pretty slow movie. Don't expect quick and stunning action from it. It has a slow but enjoyable pace of its own.
The direction and photography are technically pretty amateur, crude, by commercial movie standards. Yet the story is depicted with maturity and empathy. The visuals are artistic and pleasing. In spite of its slow pace and not much action involved, some of the scenes build up the suspense pretty nicely. It makes good use of the background score and audio effects to do that.
And in the end, we are left to wonder, who exactly are the "Monsters" in the movie?
This is a little unknown gem. It was released in 2010, and I don't remember ever hearing about it. Like all the best movies I have ever seen... yes yes, I know I am repeating the phrase... I did "stumble upon this" one too, while trawling for such unknown gems over the net. And am I happy about this find.
My ratings: 3.5
