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jlandgraf
Reviews
The Creator (2023)
Propaganda?
It seems like the overall goal of the movie is to villify the US government and the US armed forces. It is so wrong and unintelliglble on so many levels which is why it smacks of propaganda to me. For instance does the US military really set it's own objectives? No!
The US government and armed forces fight for freedom not slavery as the movie hammers. There is no consistency anywhere in the movie and all sides seem to take offensive actions towards all players but just happen not to hit key assets for their sides.
There is no good AI story here. Just that the US government and US armed forces are bad guys and blindly out to take away freedom and AI technology wherever it is found. A sad bad joke of a movie. Skip it if you can and save yourself a big downer.
Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962)
Just Slightly Ahead of its time
I am giving this movie a generous 8 out of 10 simply because it really seems to be a forerunner of the ideology that formed Star Trek. It starts out with an optimistic view of humanity unified and at peace. War is behind us, and the focus has become the peaceful exploration of space. It originally presents ideas and scenarios that Star Trek later seems to copy. The similarities between this plot and the "Shore Leave" episode from Star Trek are more than coincidental in my view. The alien here seems to be even more complex though. It loses points when the alien intelligence and the plot seem to get muddled. Rather than a consistently evil enemy, this alien more often than not seems to be as much a powerful benefactor as anything, and their rush toward destruction seems counter to the original premise of a peaceful humanity.
The Planet (2006)
Why can't we make good sci fi anymore?
Even with it's low budget this movie could have been worth watching if there was a story to tell here. It started out pretty good, and fairly engaging and believable. The actors and characters were interesting although there wasn't much character development. My favorite scene was when they were all eating their rations. Some seemed to hate it, and some seemed to think it wasn't too bad. The story starts out very airtight. And then...
And then it dipped into a little horror which is usually a death sentence for most sci fi. Suddenly no scientific basis for any of the goings on. No real believable end game for the villain? No real explanation of what's going on. Generally if a movie has to use the F word for every other word it usually spirals down from there too. I still get offended believe it or not. I often wonder what inspires people to make bad sci fi? Isn't there a universe of fantastically good stories out there? Don't people feel like they are wasting their time and everyone else's when they put out stuff like this. Why do we get so much mediocre sci fi like this? No female actors/characters either? None at all? This had the makings to be another "Predator" but alas fell far far short.
My final comment - poor editing and finally too low a budget to build a real campfire? What gives?
My advice for any low budget sci fi movie production companies out there. Make sure you got a good story before you start, and edit out bad special effects - it's better we see nothing than something that looks fake or ridiculously fuzzy.