Let’s set expectations first. Full disclosure, I am in love with the original Blade Runner. It’s up there with Oldboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, and Fight Club (I was a hormonal teenager) in the list of films that changed my life. Given my adoration (and of course, Blade Runner 2049 being a sequel
Tag: Sci-Fi
Arrival
Arrival, in a way, is the anti-thesis of your standard, run-of-the-mill, alien invasion movie. The extraterrestrials here don’t enter earth’s atmosphere with a bang — there are no explosions to herald their (pun not intended) arrival— they do so with a whimper and that’s just what makes their presence all
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
NOTE: In my best effort, this review is spoiler-free. Want your viewing experience untainted? This is not the review you’re looking for. *Jedi wisik ng kamay* For geeks who are feeling a bit anxious about Star Wars: The Force Awakens, let’s set things straight, the movie is not disappointing (not
The Martian
For a movie that’s basically about being stranded, all alone, in a desolate planet where everything can kill you, The Martian, ironically leaves its audience very alive and inspired largely due to its beautiful and exciting setting, greatly charismatic lead performance, and its overall hopeful story about humanity. Written by Drew Goddard (The Cabin in
Ex Machina
Finally, the dark deft sci-fi writer Alex Garland directs his own dark deft sci-fi movie, and it feels like Stanley Kubrick’s sequel of Her. Sleek, heady and visceral, the psychological thriller Ex Machina exposes people’s unarticulated anxiety about the potential and power of the rapidly evolving technology we use today.
Hindi Sila Tatanda
Malay Javier’s Hindi Sila Tatanda is an indulgent play at sonic and visual euphoria. The film has earned that merit. It is technically subversive, too; beginning as an innocuous slice-of-life coming-of-age with scenes that are mistakably Sundance-mold, until it plunges to a more sci-fi/genre film vibe, and finally pulls back.
Snowpiercer
Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho marks his momentous English-debut in Snowpiercer, a subversive, genre-melding and timely contemplation of an all-consuming society, confronted with an earth-wide layer of permafrost that renders humanity to near-extinction. What success The Wachowskis’ have achieved with their multi-dimensional odyssey that is The Matrix, Bong successfully achieves here with only
