Science
Fiction and Action Thrillers!
by
Kristin Battestella
These
new and old, film or long form science fiction and action spectacles
with memorable stars are a hodgepodge of space ships, disasters,
aliens, robots, and more. Something for everyone!
Earthquake
– Despite the older
phones, analog equipment, suave seventies corduroy, tacky wallpaper,
and patterns everywhere; we can see the genre influence of this star
packed 1974 disaster yarn written by Mario Puzo (The
Godfather) on films like
Independence Day. The
titular rumblings begin
early for engineer Charlton Heston (Planet of the Apes), his cranky
wife Ava Gardner (Mogambo),
and
an Afro sporting
Victoria Principal (Dallas)
as terse conversations introduce the drama. Higher up cops chew out
George Kennedy (also of that other disaster flick Airport '77), and no one believes
the scientist who thinks the big quake is imminent even amid fleeing
animals, reservoir perils, and landslide action. Yes, the actress
reading flirtatious script lines meta falls flat. The age difference
between rough Chuck and ingenue Genevieve Bujold (Anne of a Thousand Days) is
ridiculous – almost as bad as his father-in-law cum boss Lorne
Greene (Battlestar
Galactica) looking as old
as his onscreen daughter Ava. However, there are enough seismic
sciences, probability curves, and scale debates alongside a whiff of
social commentary regarding ignored Mexican victims, so-called
religious freaks, negative treatment of soldiers, homophobic slurs,
and racist insults. Red tape at the top contributes to the situation
with officials worried over public panic and implausible evacuations,
but certain action is laughable, too – be it the trailer full of
cows going off the overpass or crumbling models of famous buildings
and hello faux splatter in that disturbing elevator mishap. Green
screens and matte backgrounds are at times obvious, yet most of the
effects actually aren't bad, with green smoke and orange fire
creating eerie glows. Of course, these two hours will be slow for
those expecting the disaster quickly, and the story does stall with
inadvertently over the top seriousness and too many characters that
should have been combined cluttering what's important before the
tolling bells, trembling bridges, falling bricks, smashed cars, and
buckling highways. It's interesting how these crisis scenes are also
done sans dialogue – there's no news coverage, authorities are
non-existent, and some of our disparate people never even meet. This
starts with detail but becomes haphazard, bouncing from scene to
scene with dam releases, sparking wires, and seemingly significant
players disappearing in the chaos. Ironically, today such movies are
one visual sensation after another desensitizing spectacle for the
entire ninety minutes! Aftershocks damage supposedly safe buildings
where the rescued gather, crowds remain in peril, the military is
portrayed as crazy, and one anonymous kid with a transistor radio
tells us this disaster is the worst ever. Sadly, we've seen far worse
than this fiction, and shootout injuries, looting assaults, dangling
scaffolding, and claustrophobic tunnels may be upsetting for some
younger audiences. The big watery consequence should probably have
happened earlier, gas and fire damage are unrealistically minor, and
this is both of its time in lacking a narrative resolution yet
progressive with some seventies cynicism and a few dramatic
surprises. We love it when our stars rescue puppies, and only
Charlton Heston can save the day – because he must rescue not one,
but two babes. After all, an earthquake is the perfect time to break
up, and most importantly in a crisis, that megaphone is announcing
where the hot coffee is available.
Didn't
Think It Was *That* Bad
Saturn 3 – Underground Titan
bases, a twenty-two day eclipse, cut off communication, and evil
robots spell doom for Kirk Douglas (The Man from Snowy River),
Farrah Fawcett (Charlie's
Angels), and Harvey Keitel
(Bugsy) in
this 1980 British tale
with not terrible but obviously influenced by Star
Wars celestial
illustrations and space graphics. That futuristic faux serious
marching, foreboding mission preparation, and emergency radio chatter
opening, however, is all unnecessary hype. Rather than showing a
murderer switching places with the real pilot over a failed psych
test, just begin with the supply run landing at this sheltered
assignment and leave the ulterior intentions unknown. The duo here
has chosen this cool but behind schedule hydroponics lab with its
artificially blue tinted water and green lit plants, and of course
the talk of never having been to earth or how nice it would be to go
outside and breathe real air happens in the shower! Such sheer robes,
nudity, sex, and drug experimentation stir the tense dynamic between
this older gent, younger woman, and new younger man amid ominous
device sounds and spying on the monitors by all parties. Weird scene
transitions and epic music at the wrong times under estimate the
mature audience and don't need to try so hard when our newcomer is
unmistakably blunt about his desire; jacking in interfaces, blasting
hoses, and sliding the giant head in and out of the robot cavity make
for better symbolism. He's building this demigod robot with brain
tissue and advanced connections to replace half the couple – who
overhear this obsolete talk and fear the end of their idyllic. Can
they toss their problems out the airlock or will kindness be their
undoing? Scary injuries, creepy surgeries, and dogs in peril are
well-filmed tense when the cast is allowed to stew, argue over who
has the more violent tendencies, or foolishly think one of them can
control such intelligent machinery. Again, knowing the new guy and
his toy are trigger happy takes away some of the fun when playing
chess with the machine leads to something more sinister, but our
sassy robot with the laughably tiny little head and giant oversize
body takes charge with a creepy machine re-assembly. References to
Hector, Troy, and the original fight over a woman accent the man
versus man, man versus nature, and man versus himself conflicts while
a touch of blood and gore add danger. Did we need the robot terror on
top of the chilling human story? The narrative unevenly wastes time
with the commonplace machine chase instead of dealing with the
personal elements, meandering with random running down the hallways
and under the deck grate attacks that ironically give Aliens
inspiration.
Editing or behind the scenes troubles are apparent and an expected
twist that should have come much sooner pads the final twenty minutes
with spectacle when the
taut science fiction triangle is interplay enough. Although its flaws
prevent this from being a totally well told SF parable, the juicy
defeat of man at his own science remains late night entertainment.
Should
Have Been Better
The Kettering Incident
– Lovely forestry, mysterious lights, hooting owls, mountain fog,
and past abductions open this 2016 eight episode Australian series
starring Elizabeth Debicki (The Night Manager)
before
London blackouts, nosebleeds, and creepy phone messages. Journal
entries record the hours missing, but security footage captures
actions unknown amid strobe sounds, distorted camerawork, and unaware
travels to eerie Tasmania. Aurora Australis, frozen birds, and UFO
snowglobes in the general store add to the awkward homecoming,
bizarre happenings, threatening letters, and small town who is who as
local pubs versus bonfire raves reflect generational clashes and
radical environmentalists protest the logging industry. Older homes,
dusty case files, big computers, and the often down internet create a
backwater mood as newspaper clippings, retro tunes, and decades old
unsolved crimes lead to more abductions, hidden drugs, crooked cops,
and under the table deals. Thunderstorms, reflections, ruins on the
ridge, hazy dreams, and surreal colors askew nature while affairs,
police egos, power outages, strange science, and cancer diagnoses
divide the community. Cover ups, stonewalled investigations, phantom
blood samples, and tense family relations interfere as mysterious
rashes spread and moss grows indoors. Dogs turn on their owners, rare
plants bloom, and high radiation counts contaminate fish, but ghostly
static on the radio, chainsaw mishaps, night vision goggles, and
geophysicist readings uncover catatonics and whispers of who knows
what. Desperate men – accustomed to ruling over disposable
daughters and drinking mothers or bar maids useful only for hitting,
cooking, or sex – take matters into their own hands despite
electromagnetic fears, screams in the woods, poison bogs, altered
blood types, and multiple moons. From the ill but edgy cops and
doctors to missing girls and suspicious sleepy inlets, unfortunately,
this has a lot of cliches often seen in commonwealth television.
Lacking procedures, tainted crimes scenes, and cryptic doctors bend
for plot conveniences, and our lead isn't piecing the case together
but preposterously meddling as dramatic effect requires. While it's
pleasing to see strung out and realistic looking people; no one asks
how everything is interconnected nor shares information. If they
worked together, the mystery would be solved in six episodes.
Instead, Lost
style
montages, red herrings, and tangents pad the weird occurrences,
delaying important clues and stretching disbelief as smart police and
scientists are made stupid with unaccounted for people sans alibis,
fingerprint clues, and stolen evidence ignored. This isn't billed as
science fiction, so the straying focus and point of view changes
become window dressing as Antarctic connections and Dyatlov Pass
similarities are tossed in with unnecessary sex scenes. Apparently,
people won't share information unless they have sex, the hermit in
the woods is never questioned, and established information is
literally forgotten until the final hour. Dramatic asylum
cliffhangers are easily resolved, and never held suspects unravel the
intriguing underground evidence, craters, stolen weapons, and bio
tech company bribes. Voiceovers resolve actions and revelations that
were obvious all along – telling events rather than having the lead
discover anything for herself. Maybe
the lack of communication is part of the moral here, but the
unlikable dumbing down and bait and switch genres take on too much
flab. Empty shocks meant to sustain weekly viewing are better to
binge marathon, for this doesn't know who its audience is and
therefore underestimates not one, but two potential viewing groups in
anticipation of a second season to explain everything. Those
expecting a crime thriller will find the science fiction outcome
annoying, and today's sci-fi audiences will be irritated at the slow
potboiler pace not putting the fantastic at the forefront.
A
Disappointing Skip
Star Wars: The Last Jedi –
The themes, pacing, and characters for this 2017 Episode VIII from
writer and director Rian Johnson (Looper)
are very disjointed. John Boyega, newcomer Kelly Marie Tran, and
Benico del Toro (The
Wolfman) are lost in an
irrelevant subplot of intergalactic casino races, contrived theft,
and star destroyer stealth attacks made useless by The Resistance's
slow crawl through space. Domhnall Gleeson's cranky General Hux
doesn't so much pick off the fleet as they merely sacrifice
themselves one by one with dumb counter attacks while purple haired
Laura Dern (Jurassic Park)
is wasted and Oscar Isaac does little but redundantly repeat the
elder ladies' jejune wisdoms. There were several moments to fittingly
send off the late Carrie Fisher, but instead, The Force goes even
further beyond what we ever thought its mystical capabilities were.
Daisy Ridley's Rey and the utterly lame Kylo Ren play telepathic
footsie for most of the movie – I really
hope
they aren't related –
while poor Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker is sort of there...maybe. Too
many characters old and new enter or exit without deserving time. For
all the female fronting, the cardboard women tropes are obviously
written by a man and don't seem like characters in their own right.
Each is defined by what the men around them need – sacrificing,
motherly, crushes, babes blowing on dice, or alien maids. Even Leia
is repeatedly stressed as Luke's sister being her most important
value. Gwendoline Christie's tough Captain Phasma is easily defeated
in one scene, and CGI covered Lupita Nyong'o is reduced to a hologram
call. More silly animated animals, easily dismissed villains, and
lengthy purely for the spectacle sequences litter the screen while a
major female character's narrow escape from an exploding ship on a
stolen shuttle is told
by another male
character rather than shown.
Although rebel numbers dwindle constantly, there are somehow plenty
of people to keep fighting while the overlong two and a half hours
plus battles over whether the space action or Jedi plot is more
important. Despite so many should be enjoyable people and dazzling
designs, this is incredibly busy for being so boring. It's also
disappointing, even angering, to hear there is no overall trilogy
sequel plan and that each director can do his own thing – leaving
these films to meander as long as it pleases Disney to manipulate
Star Wars
fans. In low budget horror, problems arise when one writer/director
has no second checks or balances, and this makes for expensive,
glaring issues here amid lifted elements of Empire
and Return
of the Jedi as
Last
tries
to be a personal middle a la The
Two Towers but
grasps for air rather than giving us anything to hold.
I'm still nicknaming VI as
just Jedi and
shortening this to
Last –
as in the last Star
Wars movie I'll see at the
box office for the foreseeable future. The
rehashed but recognizably fun Episode VII launched something new and
Rogue One came
full circle where we never knew possible. I'm still thinking of this
one, but for all the wrong reasons, and I wish we just had The Thrawn
trilogy as films instead.
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