THX 1138

Impressions before seeing it
I'd been curious about it for a while. Outside of Star Wars, George Lucas really hasn't directed that much in spite of being around for over 40 years, and I wanted to see what his one non-Star Wars sci-fi film was like.

How was it?
To be honest, I was kind of bored. Like the original Tron, it was probably revolutionary for its time, but becomes uninteresting in today's film era, and I've already seen Equilibrium and that movie put THX 1138's concept to much better use. I felt no sympathetic connection whatsoever to the characters. I understand that the society depicted mostly lacks emotion and personality due to the mandatory medication everyone takes, but even when certain characters went off it and began to feel again, there wasn't enough there for me to start finding them interesting. Where Equilibrium has its defectors enjoying art and music, all we really get here is THX and LUH lusting each other, with no concrete examples of why this attraction would or could exist because they still don't have very full personalities. It actually plays, surprisingly, like a Stanley Kubrick film - 2001: A Space Odyssey, to be exact, which similarly has little characterization and minimal dialogue.

But that being said, 2001 is a visual feat, and THX 1138 is not without directorial prowess. Lucas' camera work and editing produce some interesting effects that create claustrophobia, surveillance awareness, and mechanical viewpoints. It almost feels like this movie was directed by a robot - and given its characterization, perhaps written by one, too.

Recommendation
In a purely technical, directorial sense, THX 1138 is superior to any Star Wars movie, but Star Wars is way more entertaining, and Equilibrium way more effective in its execution of the "stunted emotion society" concept. I think THX 1138 is only worth watching if you are a student of film looking to observe as many types of filmmaking as you can. It's a good one for the study list, not so good for a fun night at home.

Futurama - Volume 5

Like Family Guy before it, Futurama is a show that didn't really need to come back. It wasn't serialized, it didn't end with some agonizing cliffhanger, it had probably been gone long enough for fans to get over the loss, and for me personally, the four straight-to-video movies were a satisfying enough return that I would have been okay without a new season. But on the other hand, it also didn't need to be canceled and I always enjoy FOX's mistakes being rubbed in their faces, so here we are.

I'm not sure if the writers got rusty during the hiatus or if it's predominantly a new writing staff, but I have to say I was disappointed with the humour. Maybe they're just getting older and their tastes have changed, because the show is now similar to current episodes of The Simpsons in that it tries more frequently to either take the characters seriously or rely on the tired stereotypes of their personalities. Even an episode involving Leela stranded on a planet with Zapp Brannigan - which should have been gold because Zapp is such a ridiculous character - went in the wrong direction and failed to be funny, and footage of the show within a show, "The Scary Door", had a much funnier intro than its actual content. In most cases I probably got one small laugh per episode, if that.

However, I still found this season watchable because they did have some cool and interesting science fiction story ideas, which was part of the show's original appeal anyway. And there is some obvious fan service present in the show's attempts to bring out nearly every minor character seen in Futurama's first run, but as a fan it's kind of hard not to smile with nostalgia when Hedonism Bot saunters into the room. I wouldn't recommend checking out this set for the comedic value, but if you just really enjoy science fiction then I'd say think about it.

Best Episode: The one I probably laughed the most at (but again, small laughs) was "The Futurama Holiday Spectacular", in which we get three short stories about Xmas, Kwanzaa, and Robanukah. But I think my favourite overall was "The Late Philip J. Fry", where Fry, Bender, and The Professor take a long journey through the future in a one-way time machine. That one was memorably cool, if not funny.

Super 8

Impressions before seeing it
Like Cloverfield before it, Super 8 kept its trailers mysterious so that they didn't really betray what it was about. Mystery = interest, and it was getting good reviews, so high expectations.

How was it?
This was one of those movies that I was already liking in the first five minutes. It reminded me of The Goonies (and, I assume, Stand by Me, though I still haven't seen that one) because it was kids bordering on childhood and adulthood in a serious situation. These kinds of movies come with that wonderful sense of nostalgia for what it was like to be a kid and still feel like what you were doing was as important as what the grownups do. Even if it does take place in 1979, before I was born.

To explain it briefly, six kids are filming a movie when a crazy train crash happens right next to them. What they find spilling out of the cars, and the repercussions of the accident, lead to a lot of trouble and weird stuff happening.

With Spielberg producing, it's probably no coincidence that Super 8 feels like a Frankenstein of Spielberg films: there are elements of E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, War of the Worlds, and maybe even a little Jurassic Park. And let's not forget that he also produced The Goonies, which I mentioned above. To some that may make J.J. Abrams look like a hack for writing this, but it's better to borrow a little from each than to take a lot from just one. Anyway, I'd say this film is just as much mystery as it is sci-fi. We see a lot of weird things going on without an explanation for them, and we don't get a good look at the crazy alien monster until late in the movie. But as fun as all of the special effects and action and weird occurrences were, I just liked watching the kids be kids. Amidst all the chaos, Super 8 is really just six kids trying to make a movie, and since I am fascinated by filmmaking, that was fine with me. As a bonus, you even get to see their finished short film in its entirety during the end credits.

Recommendation
I can see this one making my top 10 of 2011 list, unless 10 more really awesome movies come out in the next 6 months. Highly enjoyable, and all those child actors actually held up really well in the acting department. I'm going to go with the typical movie blurb line and say "If you only see one movie this summer, see Super 8!"

Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel

Impressions before seeing it
I can't remember where I first heard about this one, but the impression I got from the synopsis was that it was just three guys in a bar talking about time travel paradoxes the whole time. It speaks volumes about my nerdiness that I was interested in that.

How was it?
So this movie is about three friends, two of them nerds and one of them a cynic, who go to the pub one night and, after meeting a woman from the future (Anna Faris) who came to fix a time leak, discover that entering the pub's bathroom takes them back and forth through time.

I love time travel adventures, so I thought this movie was a lot of fun. Like Hot Tub Time Machine, which I also loved, there are a few references and tributes to other time travel movies, most notably Back to the Future (notice the watch-glancing pose on the poster?). Being the nerds that they are, our heroes know a bit about how to handle things, such as making sure not to come in contact with your past or future self, and not interfering in ways that could change the future, but that doesn't mean it's a breeze for them because they can't control where in time the bathroom takes them.

For a lower budget British movie, it was fairly well done, though there were a few things toward the end that didn't quite make sense to me. I'm not sure if they were flaws or if I'm just stupid. And as part comedy, I wouldn't consider it a total success in that department but not a total failure either, and my rule about that is that it's okay for a comedy to be unfunny as long as there's something else to enjoy about it, and of course this movie is full of time travel action. And, again, it's not unfunny, just not hilarious.

Recommendation
Fans of time travel should really enjoy it. I think Hot Tub Time Machine was funnier, but that's just my sense of humour, and for those who like variety, Hot Tub only went to one place in time, while FAQ goes all over the place. But both should be seen!

Battle for the Planet of the Apes

Impressions before seeing it
Part 3 was a slight low point and part 4 was an improvement, so I figured this one could go either way.

How was it?
I was hoping for an epic, climactic battle, but I ended up being bored for most of it, and for a series conclusion, the big battle was on a small scale and really not very exciting. Let me back up by saying the plot feels stretched and drawn out. You could probably explain everything that happens in about three sentences. Some of the series mythology was filled in and explained, and that was good, but Battle's ultimate purpose and relevance to the Apes saga was unclear because their explanation of it was in the form of a rhetorical question at the end of the movie. They try to bookend it with the Lawgiver ape hundreds of years in the future telling the story we're seeing, but that future doesn't really solidify any outcome one way or the other, rendering the entire battle moot. The battle doesn't have a winner, because the movie is about whether apes and humans can get along, and instead of trying to answer that question, it just goes, "Can they?" I suppose you can pretend that it's trying to throw the question at the viewer to get them thinking about apartheid and equality, but I personally was not satisfied. I'm perfectly fine with ambiguous endings if they are appropriate, but this one was ambiguous in a bad way. Even the titular battle cannot really be described as a "battle for the planet", because that makes it sound like the entire planet is at war when in reality it's only a couple hundred (if that) humans and apes in one location. Yawn.

Recommendation
To recap: Movies 1 and 2 are really cool, 3 is kooky but watchable, 4 is dark but has some cool moments, and this one (5) is just plain underwhelming. I would recommend the first four without hesitation, but the last one need only be seen by completionists.

Double Feature: Tron and Tron Legacy

I'm combining both of these movies into one post not only because I watched them back to back, but because I don't have too much to say about the original. Maybe I was too impatient to get to the much cooler looking sequel, but I was a little bored in parts. The story was nothing special and the characters felt flat except for Jeff Bridges' Flynn. The special effects, while outdated, do give the film its own unique look and were probably revolutionary at the time. Or maybe not, because the black and white characters with their superimposed coloured light suits reminded me of silent film director Georges Méliès' hand-painted frames back in the days before they had actual colour film. It wasn't a bad movie, but the danger of making something about technology - especially computer technology - is that it becomes easily outdated. I don't even think you'll be missing much if you skip it and go straight to the sequel.

One reason for that is because Tron Legacy has been put so far into hyperdrive that it bears very little resemblance to Tron. The entire digital world has been redesigned to look cool and sleek, and new vehicles and locations have been added that were not even hinted at in the original. I'm not complaining, I thought this was an improvement, though die-hard fans of the original might be appalled that the only connection between the two movies is pretty much the characters of Flynn and Tron (Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner, both reprising their roles, which is good because I hate seeing roles recast). However, Tron Legacy is definitely a blockbuster and not, say, an art film. Like the first one, the special effects and action take more precedence over story and character (though I did feel that characters were more fleshed out and sympathetic this time), but my biggest problem was that the main character had a bad case of "Action Hero Syndrome". What I mean is that at every opportunity, Sam (Garrett Hedlund) has a catchphrase or a one-liner or a cocky remark ready, and many of them were actually bland and generic. In a way, that may have made it more realistic because not everyone is that sharp and quick, and normally I praise accuracy, but I don't think it should apply to one-liners. If you're going to spam your audience with hero-isms, at least make them witty or funny. Also present in the sequel is a younger, computer-animated Jeff Bridges playing the villain, which fooled me at first (I thought they were simply using the wrinkle removal technique used in Benjamin Button, but maybe Evil Flynn was in too many shots for that to be practical) but then became more noticeably fake-looking later on. That is probably the only thing that might date the special effects of Tron Legacy in a few decades, when we have perfected the art of photo-realistic CG humans. We're getting close, but we're not there yet.

Recommendation
I think Tron should be seen at least once, if only for the look back at what used to be considered an amazing, technologically advanced work of art, and Tron Legacy is a nice follow-up because of the huge leap in special effects proficiency. Both movies have a pretty high nerdiness factor, but in spite of that they're only here to be fun and look good, and of course the sequel is much better at accomplishing that.

Escape From the Planet of the Apes

Impressions before seeing it
Even though I've had the awesome Blu-ray box set for a little while now, I had only seen the first two movies (and loved them). But after the way the second one ended, I had no clue how they could have done another three movies, so I literally didn't know what to expect.

How was it?
It started off well enough, with the same sort of opening as the first two, but boy did it go to some weird places. I'm not kidding when I say the entire first half of the movie is constructed as if it were a comedy. The writing, acting, and even the camera work are, in many places, working together to create intentional jokes and silliness. I wouldn't have a problem with this if it were a stand-alone movie, but obviously it isn't and the first two Planet of the Apes movies were nowhere near this hammy or light-hearted.

The second half was better because it was mostly dramatic and much closer to what these movies should be. I liked that the story was almost the exact negative of the first movie. Maybe that was the reason for the comedy, because the first one was so dramatic and they wanted to keep up with the opposites... More likely I'm just giving them too much credit.
If they're going to keep certain story elements for each movie, I was hoping for a cool ending reveal like in the first two, but Escape didn't really deliver in that department. I mean there was a reveal, it just wasn't a cool one. But being a big fan of the first two movies, I still had fun watching this because of some connections to those, and because my nerdiness is fairly loyal. ...Wow, I think I just got through this whole post without spoiling a single thing about the movie.

Recommendation
As of this point, I would suggest that anyone looking to get into these movies should consider stopping after the second one to avoid disappointment. However, there's still entertainment value here, and you may be curious enough to want to know what happens next, though in general this installment seemed unnecessary. I didn't hate it though, and I'm still planning to watch the last two. I'll let you know how that goes.

Battlestar Galactica - Season Three

At the end of season two, we took a startling but very interesting jump a few years ahead, where much of the crew is living on New Caprica. It lasted for about five episodes in season three, and they were a great five, but I was pleased when it ended and everyone was reunited again. It could have gone on too long, but it didn't. I was also pleased to see Roslin return to the presidency, coming full circle in bringing things back to normal again.

Looking at the season as a whole, it was actually kind of epic if you consider what everyone went through in those 20 episodes. In a couple of dark episodes, some established characters died, the fleet came closer to finding Earth, four of the final five Cylons discovered themselves and each other in a very cool scene, and loyalties between humans and Cylons were split further when signs pointed to them co-existing peacefully as a better solution. There wasn't a bad episode anywhere; I love these characters too much to get bored with them.

Best Episode: There were so many great moments this season: The crew reuniting on The Galactica after escaping New Caprica, Adama challenging Tyrol to a boxing match, Kat's heroic rescue through the radiation belt, Adama's reaction to Starbuck's birthday card, all of the sweet moments between Adama and Roslin, and the last few minutes of the season finale (which, while I predicted the twists and reveals, still awed and excited me because of the way everything was executed.) I guess I'll go with the finale, "Crossroads: Part 2", where Baltar's trial comes to a close after a strong speech from Apollo, four people simultaneously discover they are Cylons, and after correctly guessing that and who was piloting the ship ghosting Apollo, my world gets rocked anyway.

District 9

Impressions before seeing it
A fake documentary about aliens trapped on Earth? What a cool idea!

How was it?
This was one of those times where, minutes into the film, I was already thinking "this movie is awesome." And I didn't stop thinking it, even when it decided to shift genres around the halfway point and become a sci-fi action thriller. Well, maybe that's a drastic way to say it, but I personally was expecting more of a drama than an action-packed thrill ride. Not that I was disappointed, or that it didn't wear both hats.

There are some scenes that are difficult to watch. As in any good "war" movie, there is gruesome violence and senseless killings. The aliens (known as prawns), like anyone else in their situation, are pissed off at the way they're being treated and just want to go home. The movie allows you to sympathize with the prawns but you can also see why humans fear and hate them, and that's exactly the boat you need to be in to best take note of the racism themes. The sympathy allows you to realize we're not above them, and the fear forces you to admit that perhaps there is a problem if you're capable of thinking of others as monsters. It just wouldn't work if you only felt one or the other.

Furthermore, I think the stronger message is that we could abolish racism if we would simply work together. It's that simple. Our hero, Wikus, didn't truly have his feet in both camps until he started to turn into a prawn, and that's when he found that they had a common goal. They hatch a plan and agree to work together, but notice how horribly everything goes wrong the moment Wikus makes a selfish decision to take matters into his own hands. It's not because he's a scew-up (well, maybe that's partly true), it's because every individual is stronger when they can form a team combining their strengths. Fighting is pointless, if we work together, everybody wins!

And if you're opposed to having morality messages thrown at you, that's okay too, because this movie is also just awesome as a piece of entertainment.

Recommendation
It's definitely worth checking out. Probably one of the best movies of the year so far.