Science Fiction

Doctor Who Classics #6

doctor-who-series-4-6-coverThe latest Doctor Who Classic Series featuring the Sixth Doctor, Peri, and his penguin private eye companion Frobisher comes to an end as the threesome head to the planet of Zazz for the Lorduke’s 21st birthday bash. However, on arriving on the planet they run into the Lorduke’s brother, an exiled mad scientist who believes he can escape the planet’s gravity by use of a rocket powered by an erupting volcano and who unintentionally has released a plague of self-replicating robots who could quickly overrun the entire planet.

Taking the TARDIS back in time The Doctor discovers the history of the self-replicating robots who have adapted and evolved into a full civilization over 20 generations from a single repair robot that crash-landed on the planet’s moon thousands of years before.

Using what little he has at his disposal, including the volcano rocket, and taking a page from the Pied Piper of Hamelin, The Doctor devises a crazy but workable solution to the problem.

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Safety Not Guaranteed

  • Title: Safety Not Guaranteed
  • IMDb: link

safety-not-guaranteed-poster

Time travel stories are tricky and the number of movies that intelligently discuss the topic are outnumbered by hundreds that don’t (for proof look no further than the pathetic likes of The Time Machine, Timeline, Black Knight, Freejack, and the truly awful adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s A Sound of Thunder). Thankfully, director Colin Trevorrow‘s Safety Not Guaranteed doesn’t fall into this category. Instead, it produces one of the year’s most unexpected and memorable films.

Seattle Magazine reporter (Jake M. Johnson) sells his editor (Mary Lynn Rajskub) on the idea of doing a puff piece on a man  (Mark Duplass) who posted a classified ad looking for a companion for time travel. Roping in two interns (Aubrey PlazaKaran Soni) to do the actual work, Jeff heads to the coast for his real purpose of a paid vacation and reconnecting with his teenage girlfriend (Jenica Bergere), but the story the threesome uncover turns out to be far more interesting than they expected.

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John Carter

  • Title: John Carter
  • IMDB: link

john-carter-blu-rayJohn Carter may not have been the box office bonanza Disney was expecting, but the film (based on the stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs) was one of my favorite films of the first-half of 2012.

The film stars Taylor Kitsch as a reluctant Civil War hero turned prospector who found himself miraculously transported to Mars and caught up in a war between the martian cities of Helium and Zodanga.

Over the course of the film John Carter will be captured and made a part of the the tribe of Martian Tharks, fall in love with a Martian princess (Lynn Collins), and uncover the secret that the mysterious group known as Therns want so desperately to be kept hidden. For more on the movie check out my original review.

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Pro-MEH-theus

  • Title: Prometheus
  • IMDB: link

prometheus-posterIf all you want out of Prometheus is a great looking sci-fi adventure that asks big questions about the history of life on Earth (without the slightest interest in answering them), has a couple of disturbing Alien sequences the series is known for, and shows us where Aliens come from, well this movie was made just for you. If you wanted something more than the bare minimum, like an engaging story that doesn’t feel the need to talk down to its audience every step of the way, well, then this probably isn’t the summer flick you’ve been hoping for. But, hey, at least it’s better than Alien 3.

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Men in Black III

  • Title: Men in Black III
  • IMDB: link

men-in-black-3-posterWell that was… in 3D. I wonder how many film series will find themselves resurrected for the soul purpose of cashing-in on Hollywood’s latest love affair with 3D. If Men in Black III is any indication (a franchise that died a decade ago only to have it’s undead corpse dug up and trotted out to make a few dollars at the box office) perhaps movie studios may want to be a little more selective in choosing which movie series to resurrect.

Men in Black III isn’t a bad film. It has some enjoyable moments (like Bill Hader‘s cameo as Andy Warhol) and some nice performances. Hell, Josh Brolin playing a younger version of Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones‘s character) is almost worth the price of admission by itself. Almost.

However, the story is stuck in neutral with a generic time travel adventure involving a grizzled alien (Jemaine Clement) out for revenge. Much like Tommy Lee Jones (who only appears on-screen in a limited role this time around), the film simply feels tired and only vaguely aware of what’s going on.

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