Tag Archives: Sci-fi

#270: Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

11 Friday Apr 2014

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In 1914, Milo Thatch
Has got a hare-brained scheme to hatch,
A trip to find an ancient book
To reach Atlantis, but the hook
Is none will pay him to dispatch
A team to reach this awesome catch.
 
But, led by one Helga Sinclair,
Thatch meets a quirky millionaire,
Who lost a very costly bet
To his granddad. To pay the debt,
He’s funded Milo’s whole affair
To find Atlantis deep somewhere.
 
Aboard the great sub (quite a feat),
The linguist has a chance to meet
Commander Rourke, who heads the mission;
Vinny, who likes demolition;
Mole, a burrower; and Sweet,
The kindly doctor for the fleet.
 
Deep underwater, soon they find
A monster that comes from behind.
This huge Leviathan attacks;
The sub is wrecked, but they make tracks
And reach a cave that is designed
To reach Atlantis, once it’s mined.
 
Once more is said of those with names,
Strange fireflies burst into flames.
The fire spreads; to flee from it,
They find an old volcano’s pit.
From there, within a couple frames,
They reach the truth of Milo’s claims.
 
They’re welcomed to Atlantis by
The Princess Kida, who’s not shy.
Impressed at what Milo can read,
She takes him to a sunken screed
That notes a crystal power supply,
But Rourke butts in as our bad guy.
 
He and the crew start acting rash;
They’ll sell the crystal just for cash.
Once Rourke has hurt Atlantis’ king,
He still locates that crystal thing.
It bonds with Kida in a flash,
And giant stones fall with a splash.
 
They pack up Kida to depart,
But Milo’s pleas to have a heart
Create misgivings in the many;
Rourke and Sinclair haven’t any.
Before the city falls apart,
They must bring Kida back, to start.
 
Thatch leads a team of those who stayed
On flying fish ships, unafraid.
They battle Rourke, who’ll get out soon
If he escapes in his balloon.
When Thatch flies in to Kida’s aid,
Rourke’s killed by his propeller blade.
 
That same volcano starts to wake,
So all our heroes make a break.
When Kida’s back, she forms a shield,
And soon the lava has congealed.
The crystal, which can give and take,
Lets Kida go for Milo’s sake.
 
Though most died in this enterprise,
We still have all the named good guys.
While Milo stays, his friends return,
Concealing what their group did learn.
The crystal on which life relies
Now floats above Atlantis’ skies.
­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_____________________
 

Atlantis: The Lost Empire is an outlier among Disney movies. It has no princesses, no musical numbers, and no cute and funny animal sidekicks. Mole doesn’t count. It also has a different kind of animation, more angular and intentionally reminiscent of old pulp magazine tales. While there’s much humor throughout, Atlantis is more mature than most Disney films, with hundreds of people dying, albeit off-screen. This large number of redshirts makes it almost funny that only the good characters with names end up living.

The characters are actually what attracted the most criticism when Atlantis was released. The film is like Indiana Jones crossed with a caper film, and the latter’s habit of collecting a team of uniquely skilled individuals for the mission is well utilized. While I personally like all the characters, it’s true that most of their backstories, if any, are glossed over so quickly that any development is relegated to humorous character moments, like Cookie’s grease-based cooking or Dr. Sweet’s chiropractic assistance for Milo’s neck. The voice acting, though, is spot-on, with Michael J. Fox as Milo, James Garner as Rourke, Don Novello (“Fr. Guido Sarducci”) as Vinny, Phil Morris as Sweet (Disney’s first animated African American character), and Corey Burton as Mole being the stand-outs.

Watching it again, I was reminded of other films, particularly Prometheus. The scene in which Milo gives a presentation about their mission’s goal to the unimpressed crew, which was commissioned by an eccentric millionaire, is suspiciously similar to the same scene in the much later Ridley Scott film. As for the action scenes, they are extremely well-done, if implausible at times, and critic Roger Ebert wrote that the finale “stands by itself as one of the great animated action sequences.”

The main issue for me is the whole “explanation” for Atlantis itself. The advanced power source Milo seeks turns out to be a sentient New Age-y crystal thing that protected Atlantis against the flood, which its misuse supposedly caused. Using this New Age crystal as the film’s MacGuffin is just not as successful as, say, the Biblical ones of the first and third Indiana Jones movies.

There are many unanswered questions. Where did it come from? If it’s sentient, why would it allow itself to be misused so terribly? Why did it give Kida back but not her mother? On top of these questions, there are others. The crystal was under Atlantis, which was underground, so what provided daylight? Even if Atlantean was the root of every language, how could they speak perfect English, having not been exposed to its modern development? If Atlantis sank 10,000 years ago, how did Plato know about it?

Despite these problems, Atlantis: The Lost Empire was an entertaining new direction for Disney that sadly didn’t deliver as executives had hoped. It remains a cult classic and a worthy addition to my list.

Best line: (Packard, over the intercom, like something from MASH) “Attention: Tonight’s supper will be baked beans. Musical program to follow.”

 
Artistry: 5
Characters/Actors: 7
Entertainment: 8
Visual Effects: 8
Originality: 6
Watchability: 8
Other (New Age themes) -8
 
TOTAL: 34 out of 60
 

Next: #269 – The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

© 2014 S. G. Liput

 

Innerspace (1987)

03 Thursday Apr 2014

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Lieutenant Tuck Pendleton has a new mission:
To go on a small rabbit-themed expedition.
A skilled team of scientists miniaturizes
Both Tuck and a sub to the smallest of sizes.
 
Before they can put him in their bunny’s body,
A break-in confirms that security’s shoddy.
A doc carries Pendleton in a syringe
And flees Mr. Igoe, who makes people cringe.
 
When shot, the doc puts Tuck inside one Jack Putter,
A hypochondriacal, worrying nutter.
When Tuck contacts Jack through his eyes and his ears,
It fills Jack with all kinds of overwrought fears.
 
Escaping from Igoe, Jack follows Tuck’s lead,
In hopes that the government’s help will succeed.
But they overhear that Tuck’s air will run out
If they don’t get a chip that was stolen, no doubt.
 
They then visit Lydia, Tuck’s ex-girlfriend,
A reporter with key information to lend.
They choose to not say the location of Tuck,
But Igoe shows up, throwing Jack in a truck.
 
Jack meets Mr. Scrimshaw, who gives him a pitch
On shrinking technology making him rich.
The moving truck’s back door is somewhat ajar
So Jack swings away into Lydia’s car.
 
They find and tie up Scrimshaw’s tech-selling goon,
The Cowboy, who they learn will meet his boss soon.
To make sure their rendezvous still will take place,
Tuck somehow gives Jack the suave Cowboy’s own face.
 
The next morning, Scrimshaw almost gives the chip,
But Jack’s face reverts when he can’t get a grip.
Then Scrimshaw shrinks Igoe to launch an attack
On Tuck’s tiny sub once he joins him in Jack.
 
When Putter and Lydia fight through a man,
They shrink all the bad guys because…well, they can.
While they try to deal with a miniature foe,
Tuck’s being assaulted by Mr. Igoe.
 
With air running very low, Tuck’s almost bested,
But drops to the stomach, where Igoe’s digested.
They all hurry back to the lab with the chips
And re-enlarge Tuck and his smallest of ships.
 
With everyone safe, Tuck and Lydia marry,
And yet there’s still danger to which they’re unwary.
So Jack follows them to save each newlywed,
Not scared anymore to drive full speed ahead.
_______________________
 

Innerspace is a comedy, sci-fi, action, adventure, romance, and bizarre buddy movie all rolled into one. Joe Dante’s films are known for being quirky, to say the least, but Innerspace remains one of his most straightforwardly entertaining movies and the only one to win an Academy Award (for best Visual Effects). Dennis Quaid with his triangular grin has all his usual 1980s charisma, but it is Martin Short that steals the show as the neurotic Jack Putter. His comedic input is what makes Innerspace better than other Dennis Quaid sci-fi films like Dreamscape or Enemy Mine.

Meg Ryan’s Lydia also has some good scenes, as does Robert Picardo as the Cowboy. As a fan of Star Trek: Voyager, I get a real kick out of seeing the holographic Doctor (a much more stolid role for Picardo) smoking Cuban cigars, speaking in a foreign accent, and letting loose on the dance floor. (Nerdy trivia note: Though they didn’t really have a scene together here, Picardo and Wendy Schaal, who played Jack’s co-worker, were a couple on the Voyager episode “Real Life.” I at least thought that was cool.)

The special effects are quite well done and blow away anything from the old Fantastic Voyage. While the convoluted plot makes sense for the most part, there are a few continuity issues. Spoiler Alert (I know the whole poem is a spoiler, but I didn’t mention this): When Tuck enters Lydia’s body through a kiss with Jack, he winds up somehow in her womb to see his own child growing there; he later returns to the mouth at just the proper time for another kiss to return him to Jack. I may not know a lot about anatomy, but I don’t think the mouth and the uterus are that close to each other. Was he just wandering around aimlessly in the space between spaces? Why is Tuck’s sub the size of a fat cell at the beginning but later “large” enough to be picked up with tweezers?

Despite these minor issues and some thankfully restrained language, Innerspace is a joy ride through the human body. Tuck’s and Jack’s different perspectives on the things each of them do are priceless, and the end leaves open the possibility of a sequel that never materialized. Still, Dante and Spielberg gave us some great laughs and thrills in Innerspace.

Best line: (Tuck, speaking to Jack in his ear) “I’m right here, inside you, inside your body!” (Jack, standing up) “Oh, God! Somebody help me! I’M POSSESSED!”

 
Artistry: 5
Characters/Actors: 6
Entertainment: 9
Visual Effects: 6
Originality: 4
Watchability: 8
Other (frequent language and innuendo): -5
 
TOTAL: 33 out of 60
 

Next: #277 – The Jungle Book

© 2014 S. G. Liput

 

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

25 Tuesday Mar 2014

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A grown John Connor roams around,
Still fearing Judgment Day,
The deaths of billions by machines
He thought he’d kept away.
 
But soon a female Terminator
Travels back through time
To kill still young resistance members
Ere they reach their prime.
 
This T-X hunts for Katherine Brewster,
A lovely local vet,
Who’s caged the drug-addicted John
Because he was a threat.
 
Meanwhile, another Terminator,
Like the one John knew,
Arrives just in the nick of time
To save her right on cue.
 
He locks up Katherine, then saves John,
Who flees with her inside.
The T-X shoots her counterpart
And steals a massive ride.
 
An epic chase ensues, which leaves
A trail of vast destruction.
The good cyborg slows down the bad,
Then gives his introduction.
 
He tells John he has been sent back
To guard Katherine, of course,
But John is now in danger from
A much more deadly force.
 
They try to tell the girl the truth,
But she is none too pleased.
They drive to Sarah Connor’s grave,
With Katherine feeling seized.
 
They pick up weapons just in time
For cops to cause delay.
And Katherine’s met by that T-X,
Who’s killed her fiancé.
 
The good cyborg saves them again
And tells what will occur.
He killed John in the future
And was reprogrammed by her.
 
For Katherine will be Connor’s wife
And second-in-command.
As Judgment Day looms very close,
She gives him a command.
 
They go where Katherine’s father works.
He’s just released Skynet.
The T-X comes to shoot him down
So he can’t stop the threat.
 
The good and villainous machines
Face off, and she prevails.
She tries to turn him bad as well
But ultimately fails.
 
Katherine and John are told to fly
To distant Crystal Peak,
Where they believe they’ll find the way
To stop this that they seek.
 
The T-X follows them again,
But their ally arrives
To mow her down and blow her up,
And neither one survives.
 
They think that they’ve found Skynet’s core
To blow it up as well,
But Crystal Peak’s a bunker that
Will shield them for a spell.
 
They realize Judgment Day could not
Be stopped; it never could.
They simply had to live through it
And fight for what is good.
____________________
 

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines seemed like an unnecessary add-on when it first came out. The filmmakers could have left well enough alone after the huge success of T2, but they had to keep milking this franchise for all it was worth, with or without James Cameron. Yet T3 is one of those sequels that is surprisingly good once you give it a try. It follows the second film’s precedent, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger returns as a reprogrammed Terminator to save John Connor once again from a more advanced cyborg. While this plotline is familiar, the filmmakers take it in some unexpected directions with well-spaced revelations throughout the movie.

Kristanna Loken is appropriately laconic and lethal as the T-X, as is Ahh-nold, who gets some great one-liners and self-referential moments along the way. The main drawback for the second film was the human protagonists. Sarah Connor had gone nuts and her son was quite frankly a punk, but in T3, Nick Stahl fills the role of John nicely, even if he’s now a haunted drug addict on the run, and Claire Danes as Kate is my favorite of the new cast. Since no one in the film’s universe has seen the Terminator films, her reactions are priceless, from her initial shock and anger to her transformation into a robot-slaying Rambina. Her relationship with John isn’t really developed into a romance, but it’s at least set in motion with a clearly defined end.

The action and effects are outstanding, with the epic central chase being one of the best and most destructive car chases ever. The clever ways that Ahh-nold gets rid of the T-X and the myriad of explosions make it an excellent popcorn blockbuster.

Of course, there’s a good amount of unnecessary language and violence, especially when the T-X suddenly jams its arm through someone’s chest to drive a car from the back seat (bleh). The movie has its worst stumble, though, at the very end. While the first Terminator ended with tension and a looming threat and the second film had somewhat of a happy bittersweet climax, this film’s final scenes are just plain depressing. Almost the entire world is nuked by Skynet, and now the characters have nothing to look forward to except a long, painful war, plus John’s foretold demise. It’s an okay setup for another sequel (Terminator: Salvation, which I have not yet seen), but, by itself, it’s a weak end to an otherwise awesome action flick.

Best line: (John, after Kate zealously shoots down a drone) “You remind me of my mother.”

 
Artistry: 4
Characters/Actors: 6
Entertainment: 9
Visual Effects: 9
Originality: 5
Watchability: 7
Other (language, violence, and poor ending): -8
 
TOTAL: 32 out of 60
 

Next: #286: Crocodile Dundee

© 2014 S. G. Liput

 

The Iron Giant (1999)

17 Monday Mar 2014

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When Sputnik orbits Earth, October 1957,
There’s a giant metal visitor that plummets from the heavens.
When it scares a screwy fisherman, the man warns Rockwell, Maine,
An alien’s invaded, but they think he’s gone insane.
 
But Hogarth Hughes, a spunky lad whose mother’s working late,
Goes out that night and finds the giant in a sorry state.
Young Hogarth saves him from the wires of a power station,
And soon he finds he’s earned the giant’s love and admiration.
 
Once Hogarth brings him home so he won’t wander through the wood,
He teaches him of Superman and how he should be good.
Meanwhile, one Kent Mansley, who is with the government,
Suspects that something big’s around, which he must now prevent.
 
He tracks the robot to the house of Hogarth and his mom
And even rents a room there. Hogarth’s disgruntled but calm.
The giant must eat metal from the junkyard’s Dean McCoppin,
Who’s quite dismayed when Hogarth and his giant robot drop in.
 
While Mansley lets his paranoia fuel his panicked search,
He finds a photo Hogarth took that leaves them in a lurch.
Kent gets the Army there at once, but Hogarth is too smart.
Both he and Dean disguise the giant as some junkyard art.
 
When Mansley’s shamed, Hogarth then plays and aims his small toy gun;
This makes the giant shoot a beam that’s more deadly than fun.
The giant flees and soon is being shot by Army tanks.
He tries to save his human boy but crashes in snow banks.
 
When he’s afraid that Hogarth’s dead, the giant goes berserk.
It goes into attacking mode; man’s weapons will not work.
But Hogarth lives and tells his friend he has the right to choose
To not destroy; the giant heeds the tiny Hogarth Hughes.
 
But Mansley still is paranoid and orders down a nuke,
And yet the bomb will kill them all; he earns a harsh rebuke.
The giant flies into the bomb as all the people tremble.
Though Hogarth’s sad to see him go, he may yet reassemble.
____________________________
 

The Iron Giant is a science fiction animated film that also works well as a period piece, presenting the paranoia and fear of the Cold War era in a way kids can understand. Honestly, most of those details flew over my head when I first saw it because I was too busy watching the awesome giant robot that every young boy would love to have. The giant is surprisingly likable as a character, and his climactic sacrifice and survival are actually quite affecting.

The film’s storyline shares many aspects with Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial: boy finds alien creature, befriends and hides said creature from parent, government comes looking for it, and creature dies but doesn’t. Yet, while E.T. was basically helpless and at the mercy of overly curious scientists, the iron giant is a fifty-foot-tall menace that the Army assumes is there to level towns and such. This policy of shoot-first-ask-questions-later is irritating but understandable, considering the era involved, with the Russians having just beaten the U.S. to space with Sputnik.

While the animation is not nearly Disney quality, it is serviceable to the story and doesn’t detract much from it since the plot and characters are more important. The CGI giant is mixed nicely with the hand-drawn people and backgrounds, but my VC found the animation distracting. There’s also some very funny parts, such as Hogarth’s reaction to coffee; this helps to make the film more kid-friendly since it does tackle some more adult concepts. After all, a child is interrogated and drugged by a government agent, and the threat of a nuclear holocaust is made very real in the finale. (Wouldn’t there be some effects from an atomic bomb exploding in the atmosphere, though?) Plus, some repeated minor language and crudity earned The Iron Giant a PG rating, which my mom was wary of when it first came out.

It doesn’t have the magic of E.T., and I don’t appreciate the oft-repeated falsity that “guns kill” (people do), but it’s an enjoyable romp, intentionally reminiscent of 1950s alien films, with endearing characters and a great lesson of choosing one’s own purpose.

Best line: (Mansley, as Hogarth is grunting in the bathroom trying to hide the giant’s separated hand) “You know, this sort of thing is why it’s important to always chew your food.”

 
Artistry: 5
Characters/Actors: 7
Entertainment: 6
Visual Effects: 6
Originality: 5
Watchability: 6
Other (mild language and anti-gun message): -4
 
TOTAL: 31 out of 60
 

Next: #294: Apollo 13

© 2014 S. G. Liput

 

The Day after Tomorrow (2004)

16 Sunday Mar 2014

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Antarctic ice begins to crack;
A climate expert takes some flak
For saying global warming may
Cause worldwide tragedy one day.
 
But this Jack Hall is proven right;
Disasters happen overnight.
The temperature begins to drop
Around the world and doesn’t stop.
 
In New York City, Sam, Jack’s son,
Observes strange weather has begun.
It’s raining there for days on end,
And even worse events portend.
 
Japan is struck by giant hail;
Tornados in L.A. assail.
New York is flooded by a wave
That makes the streets a massive grave.
 
While Sam takes shelter with his pals,
More weather strikes diverse locales.
Jack sees three hurricane-like ice storms
Will rage till Earth’s climate transforms.
 
A freeze descends on New York, so
Survivors flee across the snow,
But Sam and company decide
The library is where they’ll hide.
 
Jack leaves with friends to find his son,
Despite his warning everyone.
Meanwhile, Sam’s almost on a date
As he grows close to one classmate.
 
When Laura needs some medicine,
Sam knows a ship that’s floated in.
He faces wolves (we need a villain)
To bring her back some penicillin.
 
They’re threatened by an instant freeze
And get in as they lose degrees.
They burn the books to keep them warm,
While Jack takes shelter from the storm.
 
At last, Sam’s rescued by his dad,
Who is relieved to find the lad.
Now that the storms no longer rage,
We must survive this new ice age.
_____________________
 

I think that any viewer, whether they believe in global warming or not, can agree that The Day after Tomorrow is shameless environmental propaganda that offers a sensationalist scientific explanation that even global warming proponents have decried as faulty science. Climatologists have stated, even in the film itself, that the cataclysmic events that occur would happen over hundreds of years, not days, if they happened at all. Still, as a special effects extravaganza, it’s just as impressive as director Roland Emmerich’s other film Independence Day. It borrows many aspects of this earlier film, including an initial destruction of aircraft (this time with ice rather than fire) and the death of a First Family member (this time the President himself rather than the First Lady).

Unlike Independence Day, though, The Day after Tomorrow has a much more serious and realistic tone, despite its unrealistic premise. There’s plenty of humor too but none of the campy stylings of the earlier alien invasion film. The film’s main draw is its sequences of impressive destruction: tornados ripping through downtown Los Angeles, a huge wall of water flowing around New York’s skyscrapers, etc. Some of these scenes have attained semi-iconic status, like the obliteration of the White House in Independence Day. If one ignores the half-baked climate change explanation and just takes the upheaval at face value, it’s actually a very entertaining film.

While Sam’s revelation of his attraction to Laura seems rather out of place and overly personal amid the worldwide disasters, I actually think the scenes featuring Jake Gyllenhaal, Emmy Rossum, and the others in the library are the most engaging parts. It’s always fun to see various absurd calamities happen to fictional people, but it’s even more interesting to follow the characters as they survive the aftermath. This survival aspect is something Independence Day didn’t have and something that has been highlighted in other such films, like The Impossible and Gravity.

The beginning and the very end are the main stumbling blocks, where the global warming message is proclaimed too loud and clear for my taste. After all, they seem to blame the Vice President, when his reaction to the one scientist’s claims is rather understandable; even if he had listened and cut down fuel emissions and whatnot, the disaster came fast and furious and couldn’t really have been averted by him. There are also some moments of utter stupidity, like when someone takes their gloves off in freezing weather to support a friend’s weight on broken glass! Yet, ignoring the environmental evangelism, The Day after Tomorrow is a feast for the eyes, at times more thrilling than Independence Day, and with an appreciated lack of objectionable content.

Best line: (Brian, as two other survivors argue over burning Nietzsche’s works) “Uh… ‘scuse me? You guys? Yeah… there’s a whole section on tax law down here that we can burn.”

 
Artistry: 5
Characters/Actors: 5
Entertainment: 7
Visual Effects: 6
Originality: 5
Watchability: 7
Other (brief language and silly concept): -4
 
TOTAL: 31 out of 60
 

Next: #295: The Iron Giant

© 2014 S. G. Liput

 

I Am Legend (2007) / World War Z (2013)

13 Thursday Mar 2014

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Robert Neville is the last
Survivor of a medicine
That wiped out most three years ago;
The rest are mutants with pale skin.
 
He drives through New York’s empty streets,
His only friend a dog named Sam.
Although he tries to find a cure,
So far his efforts are a sham.
 
One day, while scavenging for food,
He has a close call with the freaks,
Who cannot live in broad sunlight
And only let out yells and shrieks.
 
He captures one of them as well
To test a new experiment.
He thinks his serum doesn’t work
And starts to doubt his efforts spent.
 
A mutant traps him, and, in fleeing,
Robert sees Sam get a bite.
He takes her home to try his cure,
But he must strangle her that night.
 
At first, he’s numb and wants revenge,
Which fails as well, but he is saved
By healthy Anna and a boy,
The company that he has craved.
 
He doesn’t share her faith-filled hope,
But he defends her when night falls
And mutants come to storm his house.
The three then hide behind glass walls.
 
When Robert sees his serum works,
He sacrifices his own life
To stop the creatures and let Anna
Carry it to end the strife.
Or:
When Robert sees his serum works,
He gives his test case back, unsure.
When all the mutants let him live,
The three of them leave with his cure.
_________________________
 
Gerry Lane’s a family man
Amidst a breakout of disease
That turns infected ones into
A zombie horde that will not ease.
 
His family narrowly escapes
A Newark rooftop just in time.
They’re safe aboard a U.N. ship,
But Gerry’s course turns on a dime.
 
If they stay safe, he has to go
And help a doctor find a cure.
They go to South Korea, where
The doc is killed, and they detour.
 
In Israel, a wall’s been built;
They had the foresight to prepare.
But sound attracts the zombie crowd
And makes them climb without a stair.
 
Jerusalem is lost, it seems,
But Gerry saves a soldier girl.
They manage passage on a plane
And fly above the hostile world.
 
But there’s a zombie on the plane,
And things get quite out of control.
Yet Gerry throws a live grenade
And blows the undead out the hole.
 
The plane goes down somewhere in Wales,
But Gerry and the girl survive.
They find a W.H.O.,
Which verifies that they’re alive.
 
Then Gerry wants to test a theory
Which may help with quarantine.
The zombies may ignore the sick;
Disease may keep us all unseen.
 
They have the samples of disease,
But that wing’s filled with the infected.
He sneaks by zombie-crowded rooms
And almost gets through undetected.
 
Trapped within a small glass room,
He gives himself a bad disease.
He opens up the door again
And walks through zombie hordes with ease.
 
Once cured of what he gave himself,
He spreads the news he chanced to find.
This helps the soldiers to fight back
And saves what’s left of all mankind.
_____________________
 

I’m not big on the genre of zombie movies. I’ve never seen Night of the Living Dead or The Evil Dead or The Walking Dead or any movie or show with “dead” in the title (as far as I know). Thus, most of what I know is based on things I’ve read or heard, but one common factor that has mainly kept me from such films is its penchant for violence and gore. The concept of the living dead is interesting to me, but it’s not worth slogging through buckets of blood or body parts. Therefore, I’ve included these films as two of the most restrained members of the zombie genre.

I put I Am Legend and World War Z together because, after seeing the latter, I was struck by several similarities between the two. Both are based on well-received science fiction horror novels. Both involve several startling jump scenes and a worldwide pandemic of a mysterious disease that turns many or all of its victims into mindless monsters that throw themselves wildly against windshields. Both include a sympathetic family man trying to find a cure, and both end with the protagonist locked in a glass room.

I Am Legend is a melancholy picture of an empty New York, starring Will Smith as Robert Neville. Unlike Gerry Lane in World War Z, Neville loses everything in his search for a cure, and Will Smith makes the pathos of his situation very believable and touching. The film includes both one of the most intense and one of the saddest scenes ever, namely Neville’s first encounter with the infected (which feels like an edge-of-your-seat first-person-shooter video game) and his killing of his beloved dog, on his birthday no less. This sad scene ranks up there with Old Yeller as far as traumatic canine deaths.

A main problem with I Am Legend is the end. There was no need for Neville to kill himself, since he could have fit in the little niche in which Anna and Ethan hid. I much prefer the abovementioned alternate ending, which is much less depressing, though it diverges from the book on which the film is based.

World War Z features actual zombies, rather than the more vampiric mutants. While some people have stated that fast-moving undead are a cliché now, the sight of the rushing zombie hordes is admittedly unnerving.

Though my VC refused to see it because of her dislike for Brad Pitt, I thought he did a decent job as Gerry Lane, though not as good as Will Smith’s performance. Yet, while I Am Legend has many scenes that dwell on what he has lost, World War Z is a much more straightforward action movie (with most direct acts of violence thankfully offscreen), the pace of which hardly slows down enough to let the implications of this global disaster sink in. Yet Gerry’s family survive, unlike Neville’s, and so does he, which makes the end a little happier, if equally ambiguous. On the other hand, Neville actually found a cure for the disease, whereas Gerry’s solution is just to prevent its spread, leaving everyone already a zombie to just be exterminated. Plus, unlike I Am Legend and a similar epidemic film Contagion, we never learn where the zombie outbreak came from. (I blame the Sumatran rat monkey.)

Both have some language and violence, and the very concept of a disease wiping out most of the world’s population is inherently sobering, but both manage to excite, thrill, and believably create these frightening what-if situations.

Best line from I Am Legend: (Neville, speaking of Bob Marley) “When they asked him why – he said, “The people, who were trying to make this world worse… are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness.”

Best line from World War Z: (Jurgen Warmbrunn in Israel) “Most people don’t believe something can happen until it already has. That’s not stupidity or weakness, that’s just human nature.”

 
Artistry: 6
Characters/Actors: 6
Entertainment: 7
Visual Effects: 7
Originality: 5
Watchability: 6
Other (language, violence, and subject matter): -6
 
TOTAL: 31 out of 60
 

Next: #297: Horton Hears a Who!

© 2014 S. G. Liput

 

The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)

12 Wednesday Mar 2014

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A boy named Henry disappears
And learns he travels through the years.
He comes and goes at random times,
Buck naked, prompting several crimes.
But, through his travels here and there,
He meets a lovely girl named Clare.
 
She loves his future self she knew
From many a childhood rendezvous;
In turn, he meets her as a kid.
As romance blooms, he’s glad he did.
His odd condition causes dread,
But love prevails, and soon they’re wed.
 
His sudden exits take their toll,
Although they’re out of his control.
But Henry makes it up to Clare
By making her a millionaire.
The lottery allows the two
To buy a home that Henry knew.
 
When they attempt to have a child,
They lose a few, and both are riled.
The babe time-travels too, it seems,
Too soon, a loss which breaks their dreams.
Thus, Henry tries to save Clare pain
And has a vasectomy, but in vain.
 
His wife won’t take kids off the shelf
And so conceives with his past self.
This time, Clare gladly bears a daughter,
Alba, who’s just like her father.
Though all seems well, there looms the thought
That one day Henry will be shot.
 
They saw his future self once, hurt,
A fact he knows he can’t avert.
He treasures every moment till
Clare’s dad hunts deer and shoots to kill.
His wife and daughter know he’s near;
His past self lives and might appear.
_____________________
 

The Time Traveler’s Wife is honestly a very weird romance, but it also is one of the most bittersweet movies I’ve ever seen. Many elements are downright strange in an oddly clever way, such as Clare getting pregnant by Henry’s past self or marrying his future self, but other scenes had me and my VC on the verge of tears. The scene where Henry meets his dead mother on the train is particularly a tearjerker, but that shot toward the end of his handprint fading on the window touches me deeply as well. The continuous shot of the couple’s five years with Alba is also a nice artistic flourish.

According to my VC, Eric Bana is certifiably “cute” as Henry DeTamble and much more faithful and likable than in his earlier role as Henry VIII in The Other Boleyn Girl. Rachel McAdams is equally attractive, and the two make a great pair. (McAdams was also in the recent About Time, playing a time traveler’s wife, so she must enjoy such roles.)

Most of the undesirable elements are in the first half hour, mainly the profanity and Henry’s unfortunate need to steal clothes after every time jump. Even if these thefts are justifiable, the mere concept of a protagonist stealing clothes is problematic; I didn’t like it in Man of Steel, and I don’t like it here. Not to mention, he and Clare sadly fall into bed right after meeting; it would have been better if they had at least gotten to know each other more. (I know Clare knew Henry, but he didn’t know her at all.) Despite these grievances, The Time Traveler’s Wife is quite a unique love story that is both beautiful and heartbreaking.

Best line: (Henry’s past self) “Where’s Henry?”
(Clare) “Uh, I left him sleeping. I needed some time away from him.”
(past Henry) “How’s that working out for you?”

 

Artistry: 8
Characters/Actors: 6
Entertainment: 6
Visual Effects: 7
Originality: 7
Watchability: 5
Other (language and aforementioned elements): -8
 
TOTAL: 31 out of 60
 

Next: #298: I Am Legend/World War Z

© 2014 S. G. Liput

 

Independence Day (1996)

10 Monday Mar 2014

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A giant object nears the earth and freaks us humans out.
We’ve all suspected aliens, but now there is no doubt.
When several ships break off from it and hover over cities,
The world debates what they should do in jittery committees.
A pilot in the desert by the name of Russell Casse,
Who insists he was abducted, fears they’ve come to kill our race.
 
Then David Levinson, a tech who’s skilled in playing chess,
Discovers there’s a countdown that is unknown to the press.
He has his Jewish father drive him that night to D.C.
In hopes his ex-wife Constance might enable him to see
The President Tom Whitmore. When he warns the President,
They leave the city just before a terrible event.
 
In every major city with a spaceship overhead,
The aliens shoot beams that cause destruction as they spread.
The government reciprocates but cannot harm E.T.
Because a shield surrounds the ships, which shoot them as they flee.
A Captain Steven Hiller, whose own lover did survive,
Prevails against one alien and captures it alive.
 
The President and David and the rest on Air Force One
Then fly off to Nevada, where some research has been done.
Apparently at Roswell, these same aliens were caught,
And their captured ship’s been studied ever since it first was brought.
When Steven brings the creature, they do surgery until
It massacres the doctors and confirms they’ve come to kill.
 
Though all seems lost since many, like the First Lady, have died,
Smart David comes up with a plan he hopes will turn the tide.
Both he and Steven fly the spacecraft to the mothership
To spread a harmful virus that will make their defense slip.
Meanwhile, everybody, counting Whitmore too and Casse,
Prepares to fight the vessel that is headed for their place.
 
When David sends the virus, all the vessels’ force fields drop,
So Casse goes kamikaze, bringing E.T. to a stop.
When Steve and David blow the mothership back to the stars,
They crash to earth and hug their wives while smoking big cigars.
America then tells the world how best to blow away
The enemy from whom we claim our independence day.
___________________________
 

Independence Day is the epitome of a big special-effects-laden summer popcorn movie, back before the Transformers films gave that genre a numbing bad name. At first, it seems like a campy alien movie spoof with a host of comedic touches, such as the opening song being R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).” Plus, our first attempt to communicate with them involves bright lights because…well, they must have seen Close Encounters. Then, when the aliens actually attack, the level of absolute devastation takes the audience aback with the sheer scope of it all; after that, the two tones go back and forth, such as when they introduce Brent Spiner’s geeky Dr. Okun at Area 51 only to brutally kill him off in a scene reminiscent of the Alien movies.

Considering the immensity of the destruction here, which is actually quite sobering, it’s surprising that the writers infused so much campy humor into the proceedings, helped by Jeff Goldblum as smartest-person-in-the-room David Levinson, Judd Hirsch as his stereotypically Jewish father, and Will Smith as the brash pilot Steven Hiller. They each have some moments of drama as they think about the apocalypse that’s upon them, but most of the time they’re there for laughs or to deliver amusing action movie slogans.

Director Roland Emmerich has a penchant for destruction, and he puts special effects to good use in that department, though they’re not perfect. If you want to see government buildings blown apart spectacularly, this is your movie. Despite many disaster movie clichés, some elements have found their way into other films. For instance, Spielberg’s aliens in War of the Worlds look suspiciously like the ones in this film. The end is quite satisfying overall, even if the President’s speech about July 4 becoming the world’s Independence Day wasn’t well-received overseas. Still, it’s an American movie, so what the heck?

Overall, it has some foul language and some less-than-moral elements, and there are too many underdeveloped characters for viewers to really get emotionally involved with the story, but, as entertaining blockbuster fare, Independence Day is pretty impressive.

Best line: (news reporter in Los Angeles) “Once again, the L.A.P.D. is asking Los Angelenos not to fire their guns at the visitor spacecraft. You may inadvertently trigger an interstellar war.”

VC’s best line: (Constance, referring to a career) “Haven’t you ever wanted to be part of something special?”  (David, referring to their marriage) “I was part of something special.”

 
Artistry: 3
Characters/Actors: 6
Entertainment: 8
Visual Effects: 7
Originality: 4
Watchability: 6
Other (language): -3
 
TOTAL: 31 out of 60
 

Next: #300: The Godfather (that’s right)

© 2014 S. G. Liput

War of the Worlds (2005)

22 Saturday Feb 2014

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A narrator reveals that hostile aliens are hard at work;
So let us watch their conquest through the eyes of Ray, a selfish jerk.
He’s immature and slovenly; his ex-wife knows this (hence the ex),
And when she leaves their kids with him, their presence only serves to vex.
Both Robbie and his sister Rachel aren’t too happy being there,
And Ray ignores them overall until a storm creates a scare.
 
The lightning strikes the same location twenty-six alarming times.
When Ray investigates the place, from underground a tripod climbs.
The giant alien machine starts zapping people left and right,
And Ray recovers both his kids and drives until it’s out of sight.
His ex-wife’s empty house is where they hide and try remaining calm.
The three are woken in the night by loud explosions, like a bomb.
 
The next day, Ray emerges to a sprawling field of plane debris,
And learns the foe is everywhere, at home and out across the sea.
The three set out for Boston, where they hope to find Ray’s former wife,
And dead or desperate folks abound and make them each fear for their life.
Their car is fiercely taken (since most vehicles no longer start).
They then attempt to take a ferry, which turns out to not be smart.
 
A tripod rises from the river, capsizing the ferryboat,
And tentacles reach down to snatch the men who dare to stay afloat.
Escaping from this massacre, they all continue on their quest,
But Robbie wants to join the fight to stop the uninvited guest.
He gives his father little choice, and Ray is sad to see him go,
But he and Rachel flee and join a man with shelter down below.
 
This Harlan Ogilvy soon proves that he has clearly gone insane,
And rants about survival and the chance to fight their own campaign.
They’re rattled by some narrow shaves with aliens and periscopes,
But Harlan’s thirst for vengeance and his folly threaten all their hopes.
He freaks out when he sees the foes collecting blood from human slaves,
And Ray feels he must silence him before his ranting digs their graves.
 
But Ray and Rachel still are found; a tripod lifts her in the air.
Her father follows with grenades and frees the captives from their snare.
Again with Rachel, Ray continues into Boston’s wrecked downtown,
And sees the aliens are dying, helping us to take them down.
He reconnects with his ex-wife and Robbie, whom he’s glad to see.
The narrator reveals that germs brought down the hostile enemy.
__________________________
 

Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, the most advertised and successful of the three film adaptations released in 2005, is gripping, thrilling, frightening, insightful, and compelling. From the opening/closing narration by Morgan Freeman to the uniquely grainy cinematography to the inclusion of the very real threat of an EMP to wipe out all electronic devices, it’s a modern retelling of H. G. Wells’ classic story that is also the best adaptation I’ve seen so far. Tom Cruise is at his best as Ray Ferrier, and Dakota Fanning is entirely believable as his increasingly traumatized daughter Rachel. In the words of the judge from The Shawshank Redemption, Tim Robbins plays Ogilvy as “icy and remorseless,” but also with a wide-eyed edge when threatened. (It’s a shame he and Morgan Freeman never got a scene together.) The special effects and the design of the alien tripods are also well-done and often unnerving.

The drawbacks are the bad language (though it’s a bit more understandable under such extreme conditions) and, basically, the character’s story. The main goal of the film is to show this harrowing what-if situation through the eyes of a single American family, an objective that is mostly well-realized. The main problem is that the family the writers chose is unnecessarily dysfunctional, and Ray, as mentioned in the poem, is a juvenile jerk. While he has a positive character arc, particularly when he realizes what a poor father he is, unable to even sing his daughter a decent lullaby, I think the filmmakers could have chosen a more relatable guy who was less of a lowlife. He saves his daughter, but there’s little indication what his relationship with his kids is going to be like from now on. Plus, the subplot with Robbie wanting to abandon his sister to participate in a fight he can do little to help and somehow surviving it all is weak and makes Robbie even less likable than he already was. Also, the changes in the alien plot, adding in the burial of the tripods eons ago to be ready for the invasion here and now, is a little unbelievable, considering they must have learned on their first visit about the microorganisms that would later kill them. Still, War of the Worlds is an engaging, if rather morbid, feast for the eyes, and, in my opinion and my VC’s, creams the original 1953 version for special effects and entertainment value. (My VC would have it even higher on her list.)

Best line: (Robbie) “What is it? Is it terrorists?”
(Ray, speaking of the tripods) “These came from someplace else.”
(Robbie) “What do you mean, like, Europe?”
(Ray) “No, Robbie, not like Europe!”

 

Artistry: 6
Characters/Actors: 7
Entertainment: 7
Visual Effects: 8
Originality: 5
Watchability: 5
Other (language and weak elements): -8
 
TOTAL: 30 out of 60
 

Tomorrow: #312: Where the Wild Things Are

© 2014 S. G. Liput

Planet of the Apes (1968)

17 Monday Feb 2014

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Four astronauts learn what deep space is
And journey to faraway places.
One doubts his own worth
In a message to earth
Before joining the others in stasis.
 
When Taylor and Landon awake
With Dodge once they crash in a lake,
One’s died in her sleep
And then sinks to the deep,
And the ship they are quick to forsake.
 
A wasteland is all that awaits
For the three, who are in dire straits.
They journey and climb
For a very long time,
In search of their uncharted fates.
 
Their trek has brought them to this planet,
Two thousand years since they began it.
The cynical Taylor
Declares mankind’s failure.
It can’t get much worse now, or can it?
 
They locate a jungle and men,
Who are savage and voiceless, but then,
They’re ambushed and hunted
And chased and confronted
By apes in an overgrown glen.
 
First Landon is knocked out and caught,
And Dodge is unluckily shot.
They catch Taylor too,
But he cannot speak due
To a neck injury that he got.
 
He’s caged, but a keen chimpanzee
Named Zira is startled to see
That he’s trying to talk,
But the leaders all balk
When she thinks about setting him free.
 
She talks to Cornelius, her beau,
Who has theories that few others know
Of man’s contribution
To ape evolution
That leaders refuse him to show.
 
When Taylor gets out and tries fleeing
To guard, shall we say, his wellbeing,
Every ape simply gawks,
When he’s caught, but he talks!
This generates much disagreeing.
 
Cornelius and Zira are thrilled.
Dr. Zaius, a chief, wants him killed.
Considered a freak
All because he can speak,
Poor Taylor remains yet strong-willed.
 
He’s tried to determine his fate,
But it’s quite a one-sided debate.
They all want him slain
Or to cut up his brain,
Like Landon, who’s now a blank slate.
 
Cornelius and Zira as well
Are threatened and so they rebel.
Helping Taylor escape
From this land that’s gone ape,
They all flee to where no one can dwell.
 
But Zaius and soldiers give chase
To an ancient prohibited place.
Cornelius tries telling
His theories compelling,
But Zaius wants all proof erased.
 
While Taylor’s allies don’t defect,
He leaves with his girlfriend unchecked.
He learns on a dime
This was Earth the whole time:
There’s the Statue of Liberty, wrecked!
_________________________
 

Planet of the Apes is a classic of the sci-fi genre and features one of Charlton Heston’s many iconic roles. I haven’t given much attention to the recent remakes because, while they can hype the story up with more impressive special effects, they probably can’t capture the classic moments and themes like the original. The ending is now one of those unsurprising surprises, but still carries much of the weight it did when the film was first released in 1968. Though certainly not up to today’s standards, the simian make-up is still impressive for the time, and the film is strengthened by some unique camera angles, a fitting score, and some thought-provoking concepts. Rod Serling’s involvement as a writer is actually quite obvious, since it plays like an extended episode of The Twilight Zone, complete with the shocker climax.

All that being said, it is weak in other areas. Many sequences run on too long, from the three survivors journeying through the desert to the drawn-out chase scene when Taylor tries to escape. I also don’t really care for the screenplay obviously comparing the dogmatic orangutans to fundamentalist Christians during the reimagined “Monkey Trial.” Also, for all its uniqueness, I find the core notion similar to a portion of Gulliver’s Travels, in which Gulliver arrives on an island of intelligent horses who look down upon savage humans called Yahoos. Even so, Planet of the Apes offers an interesting juxtaposition of man and animal that still manages to be engaging and provocative decades after its initial release.

Best line (and a famous one): (Taylor) “Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!”

 
Artistry: 7
Characters/Actors: 6
Entertainment: 5
Visual Effects: 4
Originality: 7
Watchability: 5
Other (long, somewhat boring parts): -4
 
TOTAL: 30 out of 60
 

Tomorrow: #317: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

© 2014 S. G. Liput