Tag Archives: Sci-fi

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

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

11 Tuesday Feb 2014

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A wealthy family’s pleasure cruise becomes a new occasion
For horror and for trauma of the dinosaur persuasion.
So businessman John Hammond, who has learned from his mistakes(?)
Has decided to dispatch a team for his creations’ sakes.
 
He tells ol’ Ian Malcolm (you remember him, of course)
That some dinos have survived and somehow found a lysine source.
But John’s nephew Peter Ludlow wants to profit from the brutes
And remove them from an island, where the beasts have put down roots.
 
Malcolm tells John that he’s crazy when John offers him a spot
In a survey expedition that still has an open slot.
But when Malcolm learns his girlfriend is already part of it,
He departs to rescue Sarah, who is too headstrong to quit.
 
Though he finds her in one piece, he nonetheless is horrified
When he finds his daughter Kelly has, in secret, hitched a ride.
But then, once they’re all together, a whole helicopter fleet
Drops off Ludlow and his hunters, who are not at all discreet.
 
Malcolm, Sarah, and two others help to free the poachers’ prey
And they take a baby T. rex, who’s too hurt to run away.
While they try to heal the infant, Mom and Dad arrive on edge.
Once they have him, they then push our heroes’ trailer off a ledge.
 
All survivors band together, both the bad guys and the good,
And the body count starts rising, as most viewers knew it would.
One is stepped on; one just walks into an open mouth (which shuts);
One is nibbled by what’s equal to a thousand paper cuts.
 
Yet eventually, they make it to a radio that works,
But a male T. rex is captured as the villain Ludlow smirks.
He then has it shipped by freighter to a San Diego dock,
But the boat arrives by crashing and is lifeless, to his shock.
 
Then the T. rex male emerges, and he’s frankly mad as heck,
And his rampage through the streets leaves San Diego in a wreck.
But, with baby Rex, both Ian and his girlfriend lure the beast
To the ship again, where Ludlow ends up being Junior’s feast.
 
They return the giant creature and its child to the isle,
And mankind at least will try to keep his distance…for a while.
___________________________
 

The Lost World: Jurassic Park, which has an oddly flipped title for a sequel, has the same kind of thrills, chills, and kills that made the original such a success, but it’s missing something, namely intelligent characters. I mean, honestly, except for Ian, everyone is way too stupid to participate in such a dangerous mission. From wandering off too far to go to the bathroom to freaking out over a snake when a T. rex is right on top of them, the hunters are just plain dumb. One supposed expert tells everyone not to wander into the tall grass, but, when everyone else does in panic, he follows them and pays with his life! Even the Velociraptors are dumbed down, having apparently lost their ability to open doors.

Still, a clever script, restrained language, and some impressive, if somewhat violent, creature effects help to move the story along at a brisk pace, and the action sequence with the T. rexes attacking a trailer is particularly riveting. I also believe this one is better than the third film, which suffered from a short length and recycled plot elements. After all, in that one, Sam Neill was too stupid to wait for a check to clear before journeying to a dino-infested island, a mistake Vince Vaughn was at least smart enough to not make in this film. Also, Lost World manages some originality, which other films later drew from. The aforementioned “long grass” scene was reimagined with pygmies in 2001’s The Mummy Returns, and the line “There’s a dinosaur in our backyard” seems suspiciously similar to “There’s a monster outside my room, can I have a glass of water?” in 2002’s Signs. While not perfect, The Lost World is still a worthy addition to the Jurassic Park franchise, and, as for the original film, readers may see it somewhere higher up on the list.

Best line: (Malcolm to Ludlow) “When you try to sound like Hammond, it comes off as a hustle. I mean, it’s not your fault. They say talent skips a generation. So, I’m sure your kids will be sharp as tacks.”

 
Artistry: 5
Characters/Actors: 4
Entertainment: 6
Visual Effects: 6
Originality: 6
Watchability: 5
Other (language and violence): -3
 
TOTAL: 29 out of 60
 

Tomorrow: #323: The Road to El Dorado

© 2014 S. G. Liput

 

City of Ember (2008)

20 Monday Jan 2014

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The city of Ember lies deep underground,
And all believe they’re the last humans around,
For some huge disaster that stays undefined
Has forced man below “for the good of mankind.”
This city of light bulbs can thank its creators
For granting it one of the best generators,
Supplying its power for as long as it takes,
So its citizens won’t know of mankind’s mistakes.
These Builders provide some advice, it appears,
For leaving the town after two hundred years.
They give this dear box to the city’s first mayor,
But it somehow gets lost, till it’s found by a pair
Of teens who’ve lived here since before they remember,
But suspect that perhaps it is time to leave Ember.
 
This Lina Mayfleet swaps jobs with Doon Harrow
So she can run messages through the streets narrow.
While Doon’s thoughts of working in Pipeworks are mixed,
He hopes, through his efforts, the power can be fixed.
For blackouts are frequent as lights start to flicker,
And food shortages make the citizens bicker.
Down deep in a closet, Mayfleet finds the case
And pieces together the rules put in place.
 
Both Lina and Doon, out on tunnel patrol,
Just barely escape a gargantuan mole,
And later they find that, while food’s getting rare,
The Mayor has stocked full his own secret lair.
They dig ever deeper and find that their fathers
Once tried to leave Ember (since no one else bothers),
But failed, since they didn’t know where they should go,
But, thanks to that box, Doon and Lina now know.
 
Once Lina accuses the Mayor of stealing,
He wants them arrested to hide his dark dealing.
So Lina and Doon, with her young sister Poppy,
Knowing the Builders were careful, not sloppy,
Find clues in the Pipeworks, and, with their instructions,
Review and complete their escape’s reconstruction.
Meanwhile, the mayor fears his future’s not bright,
And, back in his bunker, the mole proves him right.
 
The children, with faith as their ultimate guide,
Take the way out, which includes a flume ride.
They find the earth vacant but bright and alive,
And invite Ember up, where they once more can thrive.
____________________________
 

City of Ember, based on the novel by Jeanne DuPrau, completes the trilogy of young adult books-turned-movies here at the bottom of the list, which also includes Eragon and Inkheart. City of Ember is higher than these others because it avoids some of their obvious flaws, neither feeling too rushed nor annoying me with its departures from the source material, perhaps because I haven’t read DuPrau’s bestseller. But, even as a film on its own, it succeeds best in creating a believable world brought to life by an impressive set design. The acting is also quite good across the board with Saoirse Ronan and Harry Treadaway being quite believable as Lina and Doon, not to mention Bill Murray’s hammy performance as the mayor.

Like the two previously mentioned fantasies, City of Ember never got the sequel it deserved since neither critics nor audiences embraced it. While many referred to flaws and unanswered questions in the plot, I think the film did an excellent job at revealing (through National Treasure-style clue-finding) just enough to keep one interested while peeling more away as the characters discover things for themselves. It certainly has fewer open mysteries than Prometheus did.

The score, while less memorable than Eragon’s, is nice, but the special effects are a tad inconsistent. I thought the people of Ember were unusually apathetic, but that doesn’t necessarily surprise me, considering how many people tend to act like sheep in situations they think are out of their control. There are also some very interestingly photographed scenes, such as the initial passing down of the box and the dropping of the rock at the end. Also, did anyone think the mayor’s comeuppance was reminiscent of Paul Reiser’s end in Aliens? While the finale inexplicably has the heroes’ riding down waterfalls and yet somehow ending up aboveground, the end nevertheless had me wanting more. Many adults may write it off as kids’ fare, but City of Ember is a decent dystopian adventure that was sadly left by the wayside.

Best line: “Ours is the only light in a dark world.” (the end of Ember’s pledge of allegiance)

Artistry: 5
Characters/Actors: 5
Entertainment: 5
Visual Effects: 4
Originality: 4
Watchability: 5
 
TOTAL: 28 out of 60
 

Tomorrow: #345: Entrapment

© 2014 S. G. Liput

Prometheus (2012)

18 Saturday Jan 2014

Posted by in Movies

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An alien humanoid visits the Earth
And drinks a dark liquid that helps to give birth
To the whole human race, by inducing decay
Of the alien’s body, to spread DNA.
 
In the future, some scientists find common bonds
In ancient cave paintings; a star corresponds,
So Elizabeth Shaw and Holloway too
Think their creators are out there. (Do you?)
So they tell Peter Weyland, a dying patrician,
Who sends them and others on this expedition.
 
They fly for two years to the farthest of places
Till David, an android, awakes them from stasis.
Their ship, the Prometheus, lands on a moon,
And Holloway’s eager to find something soon.
Thinking they’ve found their progenitors’ home,
They enter a hollow, gargantuan dome.
They find some black urns, but not what they seek,
So David takes one, and the rest start to leak.
They do bag a guillotined alien head,
But a storm sends them back to their vessel instead.
 
Two redshirts are left and don’t live through the night,
For that liquid spawns something that gives us a fright.
Meanwhile, poor Holloway’s given a drink
That David has spiked with that dangerous ink.
He’s sick by next morning, and things go awry
When Holloway says that he’d much rather die.
But Shaw was impregnated by him last night
And has a machine cut her open (that’s right!)
And take out an odious, squid-like offspring.
She then locks the door to trap the gross thing.
 
Shaw finds out that Weyland is onboard, and why?
He hopes that his makers can help him not die.
They visit an alien Dave found asleep.
Dave tries to communicate, but talk is cheap.
The alien kills all but Shaw and prepares
To take off for Earth. Though our DNA’s theirs,
These Engineers somehow decided to spread
This liquid to Earth to kill us instead.
The alien tries to fulfill now that mission,
But Prometheus’ captain won’t give him permission.
The two ships collide, leaving Shaw the last here,
For she sics her own offspring on that Engineer.
With poor David’s head, she takes some other ship
To find further answers on some other trip.
__________________
 

I was originally not going to have Prometheus on my list because of the language, some very disturbing scenes, and quite a few unanswered questions. Yet Prometheus is the kind of film that keeps one thinking, and, after much consideration, I think I at least have some good theories to satisfy that last point.

I think the black liquid is a powerful mutagen, which is much more severe when ingested. That seems to answer questions like “Where did that snake thing come from?” (from the worms that were exposed to the fluid), “What happened to Holloway and Fifield?” (Holloway was experiencing a slower version of what happened to the alien at the beginning, and Fifield, who did not ingest it, was simply going berserk), and “What happened to the Engineers?” (I tend to think there was a leak, and they killed themselves in the same way Holloway preferred to die. The fact that the head, when reactivated, started breaking down seems to back up this theory.) The fact that the Engineer did not end up in the chair where one was found in Alien tells me that the crew of the Nostromo must have landed on a different planet, perhaps to be visited and set up appropriately in Prometheus 2. Someone else might have very well figured all this out already, but my coming to my own conclusions allowed me to better appreciate the film, though there are still a few unanswered questions about David’s motivations and such. The film left my VC a bit confused at first, but, upon a second viewing, she better understood and liked the film.

The outstanding special effects are light-years ahead of the original Alien, and, though Prometheus takes some cues from its predecessor/sequel, such as ending with a countdown and killing off nearly everyone, it also is able to stand alone, as director Ridley Scott wanted all along.

As a Christian, I don’t believe for a second that aliens created mankind, but this assertion in the film is tempered by Shaw’s unconvincing but sincere faith and her pointing out that someone must have made the Engineers. I find the gruesome, abortion-like surgery scene to be messed up on way too many levels, and Peter Weyland’s death scene seemed very abrupt considering everything before it, but the rest of the film mostly makes up for its faults.

Best line: The aforementioned quote questioning, “Okay, who made the Engineers then?”

 
Artistry: 7
Characters/Actors: 6
Entertainment: 5
Visual Effects: 10
Originality: 6
Watchability: 5
Other (violence, especially surgery scene): -7
Other (confusing elements): -4
 
TOTAL: 28 out of 60
 

Tomorrow: #347: Despicable Me

© 2014 S. G. Liput