Showing posts with label Science fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science fiction. Show all posts

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Signs

I refer my favorite weekly science mag Vidusara in search of good sci-fi , movies to watch, and that's how I got to know of Signs. The review on the mag was impressive enough to persuade me to see the movie. The movie was really good in many aspects.

Lets start with the plot. Graham Hess (Mel Gibson)  lives in a large corn farm with his son and daughter. He had been a priest, but after the death of his wife in a terrible accident, he no more has faith in god. His son suffers from asthma, and his daughter is hydrophobic. his younger brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) has come to live with them after the tragedy, leaving his baseball career behind. One morning, they are all shock to see a massive crop circles in the corn field. They first think it to be a hoax by a neighbor, but what follows the incident along the next few days  make them think otherwise. Strange figures appearing and disappearing at the farm in the dark, their dogs acting weird, other crop circles and UFO s appearing all over the world, and some other happenings that I wouldn't rather tell you so as not to spoil things for you, convince them of a possible alien invasion.   The plot flows on with how they face what comes for them in the end.

What I liked ,most about Signs is the suspense and thriller effect it generates. Sound effects, lighting,camera angles, pace, and the feeling of anticipation have been used to cause an optimum effect on the audience, and above them all is the brilliant acting performance of all key characters.     

Signs is more of a thriller/suspense movie, discusses deeply about man's faith, under the cover of a plot involving an alien invasion.   So why don't you have a go at it too?        

Friday, March 26, 2010

Contact

A problem with many American science fiction movies that they are mainly action/thriller movies with just a touch of science. But Contact is truly an exception in the science plays a bigger role in it.

The plot is woven around Dr. Eleanor Arroway, [Jodie Foster ] a scientist determined to capture some radio signal transmitted by any extra terrestrial intelligence. She has a hard time continuing her research, with the majority of her fellow scientist and even sponsors thinking she is on a wild goose chase.

But the whole world gets exited when she eventually does receives an encoded signal apparently transmitted from the star Vega. The message shows the video  Adolf Hitler's welcoming speech at the 1936 Summer Olympics. Apparently the TV tranmition of that speech had reached far out in the space, received by some alien beings, and transmitted back to the earth. Further decoding of the message reveals a set of instructions to build a very sophisticated machine that is believed capable of transporting a single person to Vega.

Over much discussion and argument, the Federal government decides to build the machine. After some dramatic incidents, Dr. Eleanor eventually becomes the Earth's representative who would volunteer to go in the machine. What she discovers after the machine is activated with her in it is,.....................

I consider this to be the best sci fi movie I have seen so far, though Jodie Foster's performance as the main actress was not much impressive and the end of the movie was a little awkward.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Moon

Moon is a great science fiction-psychological thriller movie,one of the greatest I've ever seen. It presents the tragic destiny of person,fallen victim to a world driven by advanced technology and,let's say,greed.

Sam Bell(Sam Rockwell)is all alone on the moon,working for a company called "Lunar Industries",gathering Helium and sending to earth,to fulfill earth's energy demand.He is stationed on a base automated by a very sophisticated technology,with an equally advanced robot named Gerty.

There's only two more weeks to finish his three year contract on the moon and he is very excited about going back to his wife and daughter. Some how there has been no live communication between the earth and the moon he has only been able to communicate with recorded messages.Sam has also been having hallucinations since recently. He sees teenage girl around,now and then.

One day he gets on a rover and goes to the Helium harvesting machine to get the next load ready to be sent to earth in a capsule. As he gets close,his hallucinatory girl appears on the path,and Sam crashes the rover on the harvester in his confusion. He just manages to put his helmet on before loosing consciousness.

When he later wakes up in the infirmary of the base,Gerty tells him of the accident,but Sam Doesn't remember it. Sam is also told that a rescue team from Earth to repair the damaged harvester he is not allowed out side the base.

But Sam gets ever so suspicious when he accidentally overhears a live communication between Earth and Gerty. He sabotages one of the gas pipe of the base and persuades Gerty to let him out to fix it.

Once out side,Sam heads for the harvester instead. There he finds some one unconscious in a rover,his own double!

He brings the unconscious man to the base and gets Gerty to put him in the infirmary and give necessary care.

When he recovers, the two identical men start accusing each other for being a clone.But they eventually get over the grudge and start working together to unearth the mystery behind their existence. What they find out is........

Well,watch the movie! It's a masterpiece! One distinctive feature of this film is that there is only one human character in almost the whole film. One another thing is that the whole plot takes place on the Moon. Sam Rockwell does do justice to the character of a man working alone on a lifeless planet,shut away,only to face a totally unacceptable reality in the end.





Directed by Duncan Jones
Produced by Stuart Fenegan
Trudie Styler
Written by Nathan Parker
Duncan Jones
Cast Sam Rockwell
Kevin Spacey
Dominique McElligott
Music by Clint Mansell
Cinematography Gary Shaw
Editing by Nicolas Gaster
Studio Liberty Films
Stage 6 Films
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics
Release date(s) 23 January 2009 Sundance)
17 July 2009 (UK)
Running time 97 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English
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