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The Capture (2017)
If you like Black Mirror,
If you like Black Mirror you'll probably like this film. It is about a small group of scientist who take a group of terminally ill people and give them a compound that causes them to die at the same time. When they do this they also manipulate time and space and capture what came to take these souls to the other side as they call it. What they end up with is not what they expected. The film presents ideas (a lot of them) and people make bad choices (much like every episode of Black Mirror) they all have had horrible things happen to them in the past which is why they all worked on this experiment.
The three scientist and the girl that appears are all very different people with different motivations making it hard to tell who if anyone is right in their actions. They each have a choice to make that will effect the out come of the experiment and the one scientist Louis is the most interesting character of the group as he constantly explains his thought on the universe, dark matter and death. The other two characters are conflicted due to personal loss.
There are some heady concepts in the film, if I can compare it to anything other than Black Mirror Shane Carruth's Primer would be the one film I would say is in the same vein. Over all a good entry into independent science fiction.
Arrival (2016)
Great, sci-fi about life and love.
While most sci-fi involving aliens has de-evolved into ID4 or that horrible sequel The Arrival is a breath of fresh air. The writing, acting, directing is all at the level of top film making. At the core of the story it's not about alines, world destruction or any of that BS, it's about a personal story (Amy Adams) her journey through this event has you on your toes the entire film.
The learning of language and what the aliens want is just a set-up for an emotional gut punch I'm still thinking about days later. This is how sci-fi should be done. One of the closet film I can think of is Contact - even thought I think that this is a much better film. The ending will have you reeling for days afterwards but the reason why is because it leads you into the next part of the story and makes you think about what is to come next, which all great sconce fiction makes you do.
Doctor Strange (2016)
Another Marvel Classic
Just saw Dr. Strange and I'm still trying to process everything I just saw. A total visual treat that keeps in line with the old school Ditko / Lee era. Astral planes, different universes, everything you could want they managed to pull. I always thought a Dr. Strange film may play a bit off center to be a successful studio film yet Marvel managed to pull it off.
Center is BC as Dr. Strange - he gives a great performance as does the rest of the cast. The acting, directing and over all visuals are top notch. While the script is a bit predictable and at times very a to b to c - all the element works.
Magic is always something that is hard to pull off in films yet when done right (H. Potter) such as they have done with Dr. Strange the end result is... dare I say a magical film experience.
Black Road (2016)
Not sure what to think
This was a really confusing film experience. I love sci-fi and low budget sci-fi so I watch this film. There were some great ideas and concepts but part of the problem was maybe there were too many ideas. The break-up of the US, enhanced AI, refugee camps. Then the film shifts into some-type of noir thriller?
While the CG is OK and the directing and acting are at times competent - this film starts off OK and slides into a very boring film about people we really don;t care about.
It suffered the same fate as most small budget sci-fi, we don;t care about the characters and the there is a real lack of humanity and interest. It's about the human side of things (even in sci-fi) and that's what really made this a failure for me.
Star Trek Beyond (2016)
Good, wanted it to be great
Big fan of Star Trek, loved the first reboot (2009) didn't like Into Darkness - and was hoping for the Trek team to rebound with this one.
They kind of did.
I really enjoyed the first act of the film - and the attack on the Enterprise was amazing, thrilling and a lot of the action character driven. The way the group was spilt up then had to find their way to each other was also great.
Which leads us to what really kept this from being a great Trek film, the villain and his motivation which was the same motivation as the previous tow Trek films. Come on guys how many times is someone going to have to get their revenge against the Federation. This trope has become tired and isn't what Trek is all about. It's about discovery not revenge.
Everything else about the film is spectacular - the CG, the acting, the directing all amazing. But next time let's get a better villain and not rehash the same one from the previous three films.
The Mind's Eye (2015)
Good attempt at 80s body horror
From the start this is a film that wears its influences on its sleeve. It wants to Scanners and It wants to be an 80s film. Not a bad thing to strive for. The feel of the film achieves that as does the subject matter yet the details are what lets the film down from being what it set out to be.
the acting is good (even though a little over dramatic at times) the effects are good and so is the music - if there is one thing that holds the film back it is the writing.
For example when the lead goes on the run, he goes to hide from his pursuers at his father's house. They would never look for him there? It's points like these that hold the film back from really being something great.
Obviously this is a low budget film and the film makers did a good job on working with what they had. Maybe on their next film (since I see that the actor and director have worked together before) they can take a little more time and fix the script problems and really make a sci-fi / horror classic.