Science Fiction

A Film for True Sci-fi Fans

  • Title: The Fountain
  • IMDB: link

“Finish it.”
“But I don’t know how it ends.”

The Fountain is hard to understand, difficult to discuss, and almost impossible to explain, but I’ll do my best to review the latest from writer/director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream).  In a year almost devoid of science fiction, here late in the year we get something dazzling.

The film takes place in three time periods.  Two of the time periods are fictional, the Aztec jungles in 1500 involving a Conquistador (Hugh Jackman) and his search for the Tree of Life, and the floating space bubble in 2500 involving a bald monk (Jackman) nursing a dying tree as it floats into a dying star surrounded by a nebula.

The third of the story is in the present, or near future, as a doctor (Jackman) experiments on apes in a desperate obsession to save the life of his wife Izzi (Rachel Weisz) who is slowly dying from a brain tumor.  Though the two other tales fit together more easily, it is this tale which is the heart and soul of the film.

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Haven’t I Seen This Before?

  • Title: Deja Vu
  • IMDB: link

deja-vu-posterA cop goes back in time to prevent the murder of a woman who will give birth to the future leader of the human race and lead them against the machines run by Skynet … um, I mean a woman who, well, isn’t really that important at all.  But she’s cute, so there’s that.  Yeah…

When a ferry explodes killing Naval officers and civilians, ATF agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) is called in on the case.  The discovery of a woman (Paula Patton)  killed moments before the explosion leads Carlin on the path of a terrorist (James Caviezel), but even if he succeeds he can’t save the girl.  Or can he?

A new top secret military project (headed up by Val Kilmer and Adam Goldberg) allows a team to look back exactly 100 hours into the past to discover the events that led to Clarie’s death and the identity of the terrorist.  Doug joins the team to find the identity of the killer, but also begins to wonder if it might not be possible to journey through time and chance the past.

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Dune – Extended Edition

  • Title: Dune
  • IMDb: link

David Lynch’s 1984 film adaptation of the bible of all sci-fi epics, Frank Herbert’s Dune, has met much criticism over the years for being incomprehensible, indulgent, untrue to the book, and just plain terrible. Love it or hate it, Dune is back in print on a DVD that features its original 2 hour and 15 minute theatrical version as well as the nearly 3 hour TV cut (in Widescreen) that has actually been known to cause some faithful sci-fi fans to Gom Jabbar their own eyes out. If you don’t know what Gom Jabbar means, don’t fret; you’ll still be able to follow my review better than your first three viewings of Dune itself.

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Serenity Soars on DVD

  • Title: Serenity
  • IMDB: link

serenity-dvdA TV show made into a movie; a movie made into a DVD.  Although a hit with a small and vocal fan base (and a fair amount critical support), Joss Whedon’s sci-fi western never found a home and was cancelled after only twelve episodes.  Whedon’s drive and the fans furvor wouldn’t allow the series to die and Universal Pictures stepped in to provide the opportunity to continue to explore these characters in a feature film now available on DVD.

In a year that brought us Episode III of the Star Wars saga, Speilberg’s re-interpretation of War of the Worlds, the clones of The Island the best movie of the genre by far is Joss Whedon‘s Serenity.  The well designed and lived in ‘verse of the television show is recreated and retold as a cinematic event that still stays true to the original tale while adding layers and depth to the original story.

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Duum

  • Title: Doom
  • IMDb: link

DoomHey I got an idea, let’s take a first person shooter video game and make a movie out of it. Hmmm….I don’t know.  Yeah, and we’ll get I don’t know like Jean Claude Van Damme, or wait I know The Rock to shoot up a space station of zombies and aliens. I don’t know, sounds pretty dumb.  Hey, people shovel in dumb morning, noon and night and beg for more. Explosions is entetainin’, the movie can completely suck and they’ll still love it.  Hell go do what ever you want I need to sign Hillary Duff and the Olsen Twins to a new reality tv project.

Maybe that’s not how Doom got made, but sure seems likely to me. This is a terrible awful movie folks. I’ll make the same offer I’ve made before with movies this bad.  If you were planning to see this just give me your ten bucks and I’ll beat the crap out of you.  Trust me; it’s a much more humane solution. I know this is the part where I’m supposed to tell you what the film is about, so here goes…

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