Splice (2009)

Genre : SF
Country : Canada/France

Cast :
Sarah Polley : Elsa Kast
Adrien Brody : Clive Nicoli
Delphine Chanéac : Dren

Director :
Vincenzo Natali

Summary

Two young scientists are told they have to stop their groundbreaking project, namely the creation of a new life form by combining different animal DNA's. They decide to continue their work secretly and develop a new strategy by using human DNA.

My opinion

Why the fuck did you make her in the first place? Huh? For the betterment of mankind? You never wanted a normal child because you were afraid of losing control.

The premise of this film seemed ideal to make a sort of variant on the "Frankenstein"-theme. The creation could well be a success, but the consequences and the non-calculated risks would again provide abuses and lead to probably a not so happy end. Eventually this movie began in a highly intriguing way with the manipulating of DNA. This allowed the two top scientists, Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast, to develop a new organism from which they could fabricate certain products that could cause a revolution in the fight against all kinds of deadly diseases and disorders.

Obviously there were some ethical issues involved and after a while it was succinctly made clear that the entire project was put in the freezer. Well ! That's how I understood it anyway and afterwards I was surprised to see that there was a press conference with an introduction of the two new lifeforms in a room full of press people and fellow scientists. The lifeforms looked like misshapen hunks of meat and resembled giant wriggling meat maggots. There was no comparison with the existing species from which they had taken the DNA. One of these two hunks of meat also underwent a sexchange and thus a painful fight was shown where blood and slime residue got thrown all over the front row. Actually that was the only gore part of the complete movie.
 

The two top scientists refuse to stop with the project and they begin their own private experiment by using human DNA. And that's where the movie takes an incomprehensible and terribly wrong turn. The creature is born in an artificial womb where Elsa gets attacked as she tries to save the unborn and then she goes into a sort of epileptic condition. Why that was and what actually happened is unexplained. The creature looks pretty realistic in its early stages and more than once it made ​​me think back of other SF movies with cheeky abnormal creatures in labs. Comparing "Alien" with this movie however is a bit too far. But eventually it grows out to be a jumping mouse with a lizard tail and a sharp sting. It's also equipped with two pairs of lungs to survive in open air as well as under water. 

What started to nerve me is the behavior of Elsa as a strict educator along one side and a distressed woman with an unfulfilled wish to be a mother on the other side. It came so far that she performed an amputation of the tail because she felt threatened. Also there was the jealousy as the creature began to show affection for Clive. Not so difficult since Elsa used DNA of her own. This was now really short-sighted in a deontological way. 

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

We then underwent successively the following storylines: Clive has sex with the creature, the creature dies and is buried, a male variant appears suddenly and rapes Elsa, murders Clive and Elsa finally crushes it with a huge rock. As a final result, Elsa is pregnant with a new specimen and gets a fortune so scientists can study her body. Well well well, we really didn't see that one coming.

 
Conclusion: An excellent start, an annoying and tedious middle and a totally weird and insane ending. Dren (the inverse of NERD) was in the early stages nicely formed by the CGI and in the final stage I really could appreciate the unfolding of her wings. Eventually she mostly had a carnival cartoon-like appearance with a rubber sheath over her head. But the erotic development was a bridge too far for me and gave rise to meaningless and superfluous scenes. This movie isn't exactly a high flyer. And they could have made so much more of it !

 
My rating 4/10
Links : IMDB

After Earth (2013)

Genre : SF
Country : USA

Cast :
Jaden Smith : Kitai Raige
Will Smith : Cypher Raige
Sophie Okonedo : Faia Raige

Director :
M. Night Shyamalan

Summary
One thousand years after cataclysmic events forced humanity's escape from Earth, Nova Prime has become mankind's new home. Legendary General Cypher Raige returns from an extended tour of duty to his estranged family, ready to be a father to his 13-year-old son, Kitai. When an asteroid storm damages Cypher and Kitai's craft, they crash-land on a now unfamiliar and dangerous Earth. As his father lies dying in the cockpit, Kitai must trek across the hostile terrain to recover their rescue beacon. His whole life, Kitai has wanted nothing more than to be a soldier like his father. Today, he gets his chance.

My opinion


I've heard stories of Earth. A paradise. Until we destroyed it.

As a SF fan I found the images shown in this film sometimes simply beautiful. The landscapes, futuristic buildings and high-tech spaceship. Not that the images could match that of "Oblivion". And that's about it, because the story on its own was pretty boring ,annoying, not exactly masterful and inventive.

The magic box with computer effects was used repeatedly and delivered some gems of images. Like the free fall and the pursuit by the giant eagle. The part in the nest with the attack by the lions was also nicely done. Only the Ursas couldn't convince me. The story was predictable and monotonous. It surprised me that the giant eagle didn't return Jaden out of gratitude.

About the acting I can be short and concise. Will Smiths role didn't need any performance skills. Setting up an emotionless expression on his face the whole time isn't that hard to do. No fear and no feelings. A military commander, who follows his son remotely after the crash and gives advice once and a while. The only acting he showed was when he had to put on a painful grimace and experiences flashbacks. About Jaden I can be even shorter: he paid very good attention to his father's performances in other films. A plastic face without a lot of emotions and no acting talent. Apparently this movie and the help of his father is just a way to lead him to eternal fame.

I like most movies in which Will S. acts and I think that the weak point in this movie is his son Jaden. In "The Pursuit of Happiness" it was bearable. But that was because of his childlike innocence, I guess.

My rating 3 /10
Links : IMDB

Upside Down (2012)

Genre : Romance/SF
Country : Canada/France

Cast :
Kirsten Dunst : Eden
Jim Sturgess : Adam
Timothy Spall : Bob Boruchowitz

Director :
Juan Solanas

Summary 

Adam is a seemingly ordinary guy in a very extraordinary universe. He lives humbly trying to make ends meet, but his romantic spirit holds on to the memory of a girl he loved once upon a time from another world, an inverted affluent world with its own gravity, directly above but beyond reach... a girl named Eden. Their childhood flirtation becomes an impossible love. But when he catches a glimpse of grownup Eden on television, nothing will get in the way of getting her back... 

My opinion

Up-top, they always win, And down-below, we always fail.

Occasionally you come across a movie you don't really know what to expect of and you assume that it will be a tedious kitschy romantic pulp. And then you're pleasantly surprised by the overall concept and brilliant visualization of an imaginative world. I admit it's a modern version of a forbidden love between two people. Usually it's the stable-boy who begins an impossible relationship with a lovely girl of nobility. In Titanic it happened on a sinking boat, in Romeo and Juliet on a balcony and in "You've got mail" the internet was used. In this movie the difference between classes is represented by the two opposing worlds. Adam is the one who gets around the laws of gravity by a chemical formula, so he can rejoin with his beloved.
 

I could live with the fact that it was sometimes rather far-fetched and hugely simplistic. And it wasn't such a disaster that the ending was all schmaltzy and romantic. It's not that I'm watching a romantic movie every week. Thus, a dose of romance once a year won't hurt. The fact that pollen collected by bees of both worlds is the basis of the secret recipe, is a bit farfetched. The laws listed at the beginning of the film were already violated within the first 20 minutes. Wouldn't it be so that eating the fruit from the other side could cause irreparable injuries resulting in internal burns? If the air from one world touches a building in the other world, wouldn't that start a fire ? Let alone the little wonder they've conceived at the end. Isn't that made of matter from both worlds? But that's just nitpicking, I guess.

The Special Effects and the way the opposing worlds are portrayed, is sometimes breathtaking. It's so realistically portrayed that I sometimes got acrophobia. It's not exactly a place where I would stay. I would be clinging myself to anything i could grab the whole time. In other words I am blown away by the visuals.

The rendition of Adam by Jim Sturgess was convincing enough. The images as he arrives in the office were magnificent. The commitment he has to find a solution were admirable. Kirsten Dunst aka "Spiderman" his sweetheart, is always nice to look at and you can always see how extremely in love she is, just by looking at those bright shining eyes. For me, the perfect choice to play "Eden". Besides a delicious pun to call her like that in analogy to the Garden of Eden. She's obviously a representation of the forbidden fruit. Timothy Spall was for me the best casted person as Bob Boruchowitz. The only employee of the wealthier upper world, who tried to welcome Adam, and ultimately becomes the savior at the end.

A Romantic film wrapped in fantasy and SF. A film in which the old message is proclaimed that ultimately love can conquer everything. A nice change after all the SF and horror violence I see lately.

My rating 7 /10
Links : IMDB

Tyrannosaur (2011)

Genre : Drama
Country : UK

Cast :
Peter Mullan : Joseph
Eddie Marsan : James
Olivia Colman : Hannah

Director :
Paddy Considine

Summary
The story of Joseph, a man plagued by violence and a rage that is driving him to self-destruction. As Joseph's life spirals into turmoil, a chance at redemption appears in the form of Hannah, a Christian charity shop worker. Their relationship develops to reveal that Hannah is hiding a secret of her own with devastating consequences to both of their lives. My opinion

Hannah: I feel safe with you.
Joseph: Nobody's safe with me.

This was a damn good movie. One that holds you tight and won't let go. One that shakes you up and once again points out that your everyday life isn't so bad. A fairly heavy movie with partner violence as an emotional topic, intertwined with a religious layer. It's not exactly a movie you should watch if you are in an emotional dip, because it's actually a terrible dark depressing film.

The acting performance of Mullan and Colman was overwhelming and impressive. 2 Tormented souls who find each other and ultimately find support in each other. Joseph a terribly aggressive loner who apparently already battered his wife and now lives in a daily haze of alcohol. It's in such a drunk moment that the aggression and rage appears once and while in such a terrible way that he even kicks his faithful dog to death. Or he starts threatening a teenager in a pub. Eventually, he runs into a secondhand clothing store, where he meets Hannah. A deeply religious woman who is a victim of sexual violence and abuse by her husband. Despite that they are actually opposites, they try to cling to each other and support each other.

The strength of the movie is its realism. The image of rage and violence. I don't think any of the images or segments used in this movie is exaggerated. It's not an easy film to watch and it leaves a bitter aftertaste. But the film touched me deeply and was full of intense feelings.

The best part was the funeral of Joseph's friend, where everyone in the pub is drinking a beer and someone sings a sensitive song on his guitar. A time when you briefly see the two main characters flourishing, and that they can enjoy the simple things in life.

My rating 8 /10
Links : IMDB

No One Lives (2012)

Genre : Horror
Country : USA

Cast :
Luke Evans : Driver
Adelaide Clemens : Emma
Derek Magyar : Flynn

Director :
Ryuhei Kitamura

Summary
A gang of ruthless killers abduct a couple. Only they come to a shocking discovery that things are not what they seem.

My opinion
This movie was a pleasant surprise. The beginning was like so many other movie in this genre. Only it took an unexpected turn after a while. What started as a revenge movie in which a couple is abducted by a member of a gang of thugs, quickly turns into a knockout competition for these idlers. The male part of that couple isn't an ordinary guy, it seems. Turns out the crazy gang has found an even more crazy serial killer as an opponent. I haven't seen a film that was directed by Kitamura, but I'm sure going to take a look at some of him. It was a fast and furious movie which wasn't boring for a moment.

It's not really a horror movie. It's more an action packed slaughter movie with some gore fragments. Although the gore isn't that heavy anyway. The majority of the images isn't really explicitly placed into the picture and is rather suggestive. The script was excellent. This because of the plot twists and sometimes different way of working. I found Luke Evans resplendent in his role as "Driver". Only he was a little TOO perfect: he always looked neat and tidy, he was terribly clever and smart, was damn fast in carrying out a plan and set up traps in the field. For example, I found it a bit exaggerated that he had placed booby traps and firearms/bows at strategic locations in the forest in a jiffy. And those traps were also triggered by switches under the boards on the terrace. Amazingly.

The best and most beautiful captured image is the moment he slides out of Ethan's dead body. Now ... if you think further about this, it's again a bit excessive. He'd have an immense job in order to slaughter the latter... and he would certainly fell out of it at the time this behemoth was carried into the van. But that's again splitting hairs.

The only thing that bothered me were the two female gang members : the daughter of the leader and his mistress (I suppose). Two annoying nasty bitches who deserved to be eliminated too. The final battle with the vaunted Flynn was put on the screen in a excellent way and the denouement was surprising. For once evil wasn't defeated and goes further on the similar path. An open end and therefore a follow-up which is enormously welcome for me.
Not groundbreaking or earth shattering, but a surprising and pleasant pop-corn material.

My rating 6 /10
Links : IMDB

The World's End (2013)

Genre : SF/Comedy
Country : UK

Cast :
Simon Pegg : Gary King
Nick Frost : Andy Knightly
Rosamund Pike : Sam Chamberlain

Director :
Edgar Wright

Summary
20 years after attempting an epic pub crawl, five childhood friends reunite when one of them becomes hell bent on trying the drinking marathon again. They are convinced to stage an encore by mate Gary King, a 40-year old man trapped at the cigarette end of his teens, who drags his reluctant pals to their home town and once again attempts to reach the fabled pub, The World's End. As they attempt to reconcile the past and present, they realize the real struggle is for the future, not just theirs but humankind's. Reaching The World's End is the least of their worries.

My opinion 

Andrew Knightley: I haven't had a drink for sixteen years Gary.
Gary King: You must be thirsty then.

British humor. You love it or you hate it. But I must admit that this movie pleased me after a while. The first 15 minutes you have to go through persistently because it seems to go nowhere and it looked like it would be a boring movie. But as soon as Gary King starts to get going it was tremendously funny and absurd sometimes. Some conversations were hilarious. The fact that he is suffering from a temporary memory deficit all the time. Also the camera-work began to surprise me with the special transitions and the way of filming.
 

As more alcohol is consumed, the conversations were even more absurd. And then it went for me beyond the limit of the absurd into utterly ridiculous.

The moment the "as ink pots filled" alien duplicates appear on the scene and were beaten to shreds by the four bar pendants, the level dropped a bit and it was all a bit too surrealistic. It was like a flashback to a Dr.Who episode on television years ago. The aliens who appear to have swallowed a flashlight look totally crappy and ridiculous. The only thing that retained were the absurd conversations of the roguish 4. And thus I still do find it a palatable film by Simon Pegg and his companions.

My rating 6 /10
Links : IMDB

Pacific Rim (2013)

Genre : SF/Action
Country : USA

Cast :
Charlie Hunnam : Raleigh Becket
Rinko Kikuchi : Mako Mori
Idris Elba : Stacker Pentecost
Ron Perlman : Hannibal Chau

Director :
Guilermo del Torro

Summary

When monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity's resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes - a washed up former pilot and an untested trainee - who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind's last hope against the mounting apocalypse.

My opinion

Haven't you heard Mr. Beckett?
The world is coming to an end.
So where would you rather die? Here? or in a Jaeger!

This was an entertaining relaxing mind-to-zero movie. Best you lie back in your cozy seat to enjoy this one after a stressful week. That means you have to close one eye for the meaningless story and the abominable acting. The whole movie has the "We will prevail" attitude. For a moment I had a real "Top Gun" deja-vu moment when the doomed couple triumphantly returns after a dramatic fight with two Kaiju's. There's even a nod of approval from an arch rival. The latter hates the male half of the victorious couple and rather sees him evaporate from this world. Maverick and Iceman probably nodded approvingly at this crucial moment. 

The superfluous speech by Stacker reminded me of Bush on the rubble of the Twin Towers and sounded so ridiculous patriotic. The whole movie was indeed a tribute to "The Transformers" that had a fun time fighting Godzilla-like aliens. The movements of the Jaegers were in fact already amply addressed in "Real Steel" in the recent past. The predictability was obvious. Especially when my wife already said in the beginning: "Oh, no, I bet that one of the twins won't make it?" And five minutes later it seemed she was right. It was no surprise that the spectacular ending would follow the mandatory Holywoodian directives : a dying ex-Jaeger sacrifices himself so that the hero and heroine can manage to get their robot through the connection at the last minute and then as a cherry on the cake, the supposedly dead hero pops out of the water.
 

Why was this movie so good you wonder? The bloody slick and beautiful made action scenes. This was pure enjoyment every time. Both in and under water, it looked phenomenal. Most overwhelming were the parts where the battle took place on the mainland. Trucks, containers and supertankers were tossed around like Matchbox cars, compressed as tender buns and used as a destructive weapon against the  dinosaur monsters. The CGI looked stunning except that it was sometimes hard to distinguish what happened in close-up moments. Without the special effects, a movie like Pacific Rim would be difficult to achieve. This was the ultimate prove you can create images with computer images in a convincing and realistic way.  It all intrigued me so very much and never lost my attention for a moment.
 

What really surprised me was the fact that there is a evident romantic tension between Raleigh and Mako, but they didn't fall for the old cliche to let those two lovebirds fall into each others arms. That would have ensured a gagging shiver-moment for me. I also liked the two totally crazy scientists. They were so terribly annoying and played in such an excessive way. But that made me like them even better at the last moment. Especially when they are standing next to each other after the final triumphant victory, with their nervous puffs and a moronic smile.
The humor wasn't present very strongly, but when Hannibal Chau holds his boastful speech about the fact that he knew that the baby Kaiju wouldn't live much longer, because the lungs weren't developed completely, and he still ended up being swallowed by it : now that was funny !
 

A CGI spectacle around a kind of empty story ...

My rating 6 /10
Links : IMDB