Movie Review: Star Trek Beyond (2016)

Copyright: Paramount Pictures

This film has the drive, the familiarity and it has just enough unique charm to make it a great family adventure set in the Star Trek universe. Jason Lin, its director, must have a very in-depth knowledge of the popcorn genre and how the same can be rehashed to seem new and exciting.

But, Lin is not a snake oil salesman and there are no cheap gimmicks in the film. Simon Pegg and Doug Jung wrote the film as if they made a very long episode of the original TV show, making the plot simple and self-contained. Star Trek Beyond begins when a lonely shuttle reaches the Federation’s newest and biggest space station Yorktown. Its single crew member pleads with the authorities to come to the rescue of the stranded ship and the captain and the crew of the Enterprise takes up this challenge.

When they arrive at their destination, a very cruel fate awaits them. Just like that, Lin takes Enterprise and does horrible things with it, making the process of the ship breaking apart a very visceral feeling. The Enterprise goes down and the crew scatters across the unknown planet. In a TV show, this would be one of those episodes where the crewmembers are left stranded on some strange and dangerous world, but here, there are no cheap locations here. Instead, the full force of AAA production is there to support the film and all of its glorious action scenes.

The casualty of this approach is the loss of the contemplative nature of Star Trek, but to be honest, J.J. Abrams is the surgeon who removed that part when the reboot began. The same is true when it comes to the ever-important (at least to Trekkies) lore. Now, there are just a couple of throwback moments referencing the original cast and practically nothing more.

The film ends as a satisfying blockbuster experience which went nowhere in terms of any intellectual or emotional ideas. At the completion of the story, the actors might have very well taken out bottles of Coca-Cola and revealed that the entire film is one giant commercial. But, Lin did the film in such a splendid manner that the lack of any substance really does not make a huge difference to the overall fun experience it provides.

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Adventure, Sci-Fi,

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Coming Soon: Incarnation

An independent film from Serbia, incarnation looks like an interesting psychological thriller, mixed with some lo-fi science fiction. The plot sees a young man who he is somehow forced to revisit the same moment in time in a city he does not recognize. Here, he is chased by four men in masks who are determined to kill him every time, while on the other side of reality, he finds himself in a hospital as a patient with no memory about who he is. 

The film was directed by Filip Kovacevic as his first film and hopefully, Incarnation will get some kind of a distribution deal. Check out its trailer below. 

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coming soon, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller,

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Film Review: Extinction (2015)

     Copyright: Vertical Entertainment

The best way to describe the movie Extinction is to perceive it as a weird dream about a script about a time after a zombie apocalypse. The film opens in the present time, where an outbreak of some kind transformed patients into rabid killers, brought the army onto the streets and people were being evacuated to the protected zones.

Two friends, Patrick and Jack, along with a pregnant woman, try to reach safety. A decade later, society has fallen apart and the world has entered a new ice age (for whatever reason), most are dead, but Jack and Patrick are neighbors, living apparently secure lives while one of them is also raising a child, the nine-year-old Lu.

But, here’s the twist – the two men are not communicating with each other in any way, even though only a road separates the two houses.

The twist-based approach isn’t something new in zombie films. Ever since The Walking Dead revived the interest in the genre and started the latest zombie craze, there have been numerous films trying to find a fresh angle from which they can present the same theme. One of the latest ones was Maggie, which relatively successfully went for the father-daughter family drama as the main cornerstone of the plot.

Extinction and its director Miguel Ángel Vivas went for the mystery of a broken relationship between two friends, which obviously had to be something huge if it managed to overshadow the death of the human civilization. Vivas, who previously worked on a home-invasion thriller called Kidnapped, placed a lot of attention to the characters and their state of mind. This is why almost half of the film passes while we see how Jack is a caring father to Lu while Patrick gradually goes insane. Flashbacks examine their relationship and slowly move to the present point.

But, Vivas had to use some horror elements as well, so in one moment, additional survivors and new infected mutants come onto the stage. From then on, the film switches gears into the standard under-siege flick, dispersing almost all potential about the two main characters the director tried to build. Both Matthew Fox and Jeffrey Donovan present solid characters, but their acting stop being important in that point.

As the action unravels, the film goes full bore into the action-survival mode, which doesn’t really leave a lasting impression mainly because the entire film (both houses and the small surrounding area outside) looks like a giant sound stage with plenty of fake snow. In this environment, the panic, fear, and the confusion, in my opinion, just don’t connect that well with the audience.

Like a dream of the zombie movie, Extinction dares to innovate but lacks the cognitive effort needed to make whole the different random parts it tries to encompass.

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drama, Horror, Sci-Fi,

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Film Review: Self/less (2015)

Copyright: Focus Features

There are several key points to this film which really remind me of the movie Limitless, and it’s not just because of its name. In both films, fringe science unlocks something incredible for the main protagonist, but also opens the door to something really dark once the protagonist breaches its chrome and shiny surface. 

In both films, the main character is a person full of energy and the will to live, but who is somehow bound to their current, undesirable state – in Limitless, it was the lack of professional drive that kept its main character down.

In Self/less, the main character is Damian, an incredibly wealthy old man who is coming to the end of his natural life. But Damian can’t accept the notion of mortality that easy, so he seeks a company offering a chance to start all over, using a device that transfers his mind into a new, synthetic body, grown from scratch.

With death being the only other alternative, Damian decides not to shuffle off his mortal coil and accepts the offer of Professor Albright, who’s classic style for fashion is only eclipsed by his thinly wielded evil interior, which the film foreshadows way too much.

At the moment of the switch, the character of Damian passes from Ben Kingsley to Ryan Reynolds. While Kingsley is in the driver seat, the film possesses a nice aura of mystery and intrigue, because the veteran actor does presents really well powerful characters which are dislikable but understandable. Here, Damian’s struggles with missed opportunities and grim possibilities, and Kingsley makes it works. The director Tarsem Singh makes the introduction in a subtle but engaging fashion, making the audience invested in Damien’s plight.

But, once the transition takes place and Reynolds becomes Demine, Self/less just loses it. I like Reynolds, especially his comic talent, but here, he simply melts into the bland surroundings in which the film takes place from that point on. Damian moves to New Orleans, but the film quickly ends up being filmed in plywood houses in the suburbs, small country roads and abandoned warehouses turned secret medical labs, as if the scenes from affordable actions movies like Bangkok Dangerous were suddenly offered to Singh at discount prices. Like the predictable story and uninteresting twists, from that point on, Self/less glides into a really mediocre thriller. This final element really makes the film a spiritual continuation of the equally flawed Limitless.   

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Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller,

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Crowdfunding Push: iSyndrome

A new interesting crowdfunding campaign is looking to make a short science fiction film with the topic of terrifying psychological disorder called iSyndrome. The film plans to focus consciousness and the way it is represented in the minds of individuals, but also in a wider cultural context. The iSyndrome official Indiegogo page states:

iSyndrome is a 20-minute narrative short film about a young and brilliant brain researcher suffering from Depersonalization Disorder, losing his mind. His wife, a post-materialist researcher, tries everything she can to save him, even if it means reaching the end of life, and going to the heart of consciousness. 

Barak Shavit, an Israeli filmmaker is the man behind this film and it’s impressive to see him go for the mixture of science fiction and hard-hitting drama. Films like these are usually difficult to pull off because most see Sci-Fi as a collection of tech gimmicks and visual amazement that is not primarily cerebral in nature, where the added drama often feels forced and unnecessary. But, Shavit seems to have a clear vision and has already measured up the atmosphere he desires to achieve, making iSyndrome seem very promising.

Currently, the film raised around 30% of its target. Visit the film's Indiegogo page and see how you can help make iSyndrome come to life.

If you're looking for exposure for your film-related project, contact me right here.

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Crowdfunding, drama, Sci-Fi, short,

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Film Review: Ex Machina (2015)

Copyright: A24

When I heard about Ex Machina, I was really looking forward to seeing it, mainly because of one name – Alex Garland. 

As an experienced writer, Garland worked on a number of sci-fi-ish things, including excellent films by Danny Boyle. But, when I saw it, I realized that the whole film indeed resides on a single name, but that’s not Garland, but one of its three main actors, Oscar Isaac.

In the film’s plot, a young coder meets a strange and reclusive IT genius who is working on a secret project in his mountain villa/research complex. There, the same coder meets Ava, an AI in the form of a robot. His task is to use the Turing test and determine if she/it is really fully conscious and self-aware.

Garland made Ex Machina like he would write a novel. The dialogues are smart and dependent on the notion that no one in the audience actually knows much about the Turing test (film tries to brush this aside, but doesn’t do a great job at it). The characters are layered and the Machiavellian plots are ripe all over the place. But, in the end, Alicia Vikander just does not show anything else than a robot. This machine-to-human transition is exceedingly difficult and often fails when it is approached directly and head-on. On the other hand, films like Her, who approach it sideways and through relatable characters, tell the basic Ex Machina story in a much better way.

The only great thing going for Garland in the film is Isaac. After A Most Violent Year, I can easily say that this man has all that is needed for a very cerebral acting star. His character is distant as any imaginary tech genius and possibly a sociopath, but also someone who the audience can practically touch through the screen. Isaac glides thought the role, unlike the other two characters.

Ex Machina feels and delivers like any Twilight TV show episode would – there is some cool cinematography, some tension and a heavy-hitting twist, but all failed to impress as a whole.

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Sci-Fi, Thriller,

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Film Review - Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Copyright: Warner Bros. Pictures

At one point in the Mad Max: Fury Road, a character calls bullets “anti-seeds” because you plant one and then watch something die. This is not a big part of the film, nor did its director George Miller put some special emphasis to this idea, which is delivered in less than 20 seconds and then never mentioned again.

But, as soon as I heard it, I thought to myself that this is a pretty interesting idea, but more importantly, one that I never heard before. It made sense instantly while, at the same time, it was very original and funny in a dark way. I had one of those “why didn’t I came up with that idea first?” moment. Its morbid, biting, and comical wisdom is like the entire film. In it, there is nothing spectacularly new or never seen before. But, as a whole, it’s an anti-thesis to the idea that big blockbuster films need to be stupid or made by Christopher Nolan.

Essentially, George Miller took the story of Mad Max 2 and made it into something perfectly crafted for the Millennials, but he did not cater to their short span of attention like AAA action films usually do. He also didn’t do what Nolan does and try to show them how shallow or self-centered they are by making even more shallow and self-centered films. Miller made a film that is relentless like a rabid dog and lost in oneself like an addict before an OD shot. In it, the action is not something that happens; it is the only thing that happens, but this does not rob the film of depth or meaning. Like the anti-seed idea, it’s cleverer that the audience, but the audience does not feel this in any negative way.

In fact, like Dredd 3D, it injects its sense of purpose through action, violence and machines breaking up and exploding. In an endless post-apocalyptic desert, a single man tries to run and escape a warrior society that captured him. On his path, he meets a woman called Imperator Furiosa driving a War Rig and looking to escape from the same society, carrying a precious cargo. The man does not care for her, but he will help her to make sure he stays alive. Film like The Rover show us how it can begin in the Australian outback. Films like this one shows us here it will end up.

In Mad Max: Fury Road there is no sugar coating and no attention grabbing. Like a face submerged in a bowl of water, there is only the now because the next breath might flood the lungs. In the desolate, savage and sand-covered space, the escape is not a plot device, but the plot itself. It does not want to stop and it can’t stop unless War Rigs occupants are victorious or dead. This film is like Transformers made by a person who does not care about the focus group feedback and producer cuts. It only needs to roll out and its tires have to dig deep into the ground because that is its only purpose. Stay moving, stay alive, and continue to watch. But it’s not serious about itself, or any of its characters. At the place and time where they exist, being alive is a transient category. All along, glorious cinematography and 3D effects paint the movie in every tone of the Ultraviolent specter. And then the film ends.

No one will fall asleep during this film. Some might leave it, but no one can ignore it. The same is true for the entire Hollywood industry, where a myth about the idea that blockbusters have to be only a certain type of film (I mentioned already the stupid vs. dark dichotomy). George Miller showed with Mad Max: Fury Road that gripping cinema only needs to grip you and its authors can choose among many ways it can do this. This film’s grip will leave on most people burn marks that will last for days.

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action, Adventure, Sci-Fi,

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Film Review: Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Copyright: Warner Bros. Pictures

In many ways, this movie is similar to Kim Jong-un. Sure, he looks clumsy, fat and has a weird haircut that makes him look even fatter, so it’s really easy to make fun of him (unless you’re living in North Korea or working in Sony).

Jupiter Ascending, just like the chubby Kim, also practically begs to be ridiculed. It is also dumb and over the top in its decisions, probably thanks to a hugely inflated sense of self-worth which is most likely present in both entities.

But, unlike the petit dictator, Jupiter Ascending is not malicious. In the cinematic reference space, for me this means that it does not practice any form of false advertisement. It presents itself just like it truly is and does not use any tricks during its entire length that would show otherwise. In fact, it is a fairy tale, like the ones Lana and Andy Wachowski use to make when they forever changed the movie industry with the Matrix (the first movie, not the horrid series that followed, not counting Animatrix).

Here as well, the audience is introduced to an ordinary woman called Jupiter, who works as a cleaning lady in Chicago. But one day, she is swept away by a flying boots-wearing alien hunk that is there to save her from assassins and bounty hunters from outer space. This begins a huge adventure, sweeping the galaxy and covering many exotic and foreign places.

The Jupiter Ascending film is a space opera in its truest sense. Granted, it is not a masterfully crafted space opera like Guardians of the Galaxy, but it still provides beautiful images and action packed romance story. Sure, it’s characters are flat and the plot is silly, but who goes looking for deep-impacting drama in a film that features skating anti-gravity boots that make it “easy to go down, and hard to go up”? While many of its details could be improved, the main purpose of the film is crystal clear and readable from the first moment when Mila Kunis, who plays Jupiter, falls into the bulky arms of Channing Tatum.

Actually, I’m really glad to see that Lana and Andy Wachowski chose to continue to make films like this. While it might seem that they are going in the direction everyone else is taking by creating popcorn blockbusters (or at least trying to), the opposite is true. Films like Interstellar do not only bring with it absolutely no essence whatsoever (where they are exactly like Jupiter Ascending), but actually produce a strange, negative narrative dampening field, where a movie like that can be declared a masterpiece, although it would be more suitable as a Scientology instructional video on black holes and feeling good about dead parents. In works like the Interstellar I believe true stupidity lies, and that is the one that masks itself in higher knowledge and spiritual presence. I’m afraid that we’ll begin to see more and more films like that, which terrifies me.

Jupiter Ascending is not the smartest film in the world, but it does not hide anything about itself and honesty is always a great thing in art, even if it is soaked in science fiction pulp and undeveloped teenage fantasies.

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action, Adventure, Sci-Fi,

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Film Review: Spring (2014)

Copyright: XYZ Films

Spring movie will not work as a horror film, it dawned on me almost from the first moment the main character Evan enters a conversation with his friends in a bar and right after his mother dies.

Immediately, in a very self-aware and awkward way, the script is trying to convey the idea that it is very much in control of its inherent horror tropes and ideas. It will not cater to our expectation as a horror-loving audience, it body proclaims through witty dialogues and by sending its main character to a part exile, part road trip to Italy.

There, Evan meets a mysterious, but beautiful girl with whom he shares a love of being a smart-ass. But, in the distance of their growing relationship, something is amiss and it involves monsters, but also hurt puppy feelings. Here, the focus of the film is much more honest and relevant. As Even tries to get laid, but then not much later, tries to hold onto the woman of his life, the narrative structure of the film is solid.

But then, the whole supernatural-bodily terror vibe of the Spring movie as a horror has to be shown and like parents returning home too soon to find their child making out with the babysitter, it kills the mood. Here, the film feels forced and robbed of all spontaneity which it otherwise wears with pride when it comes to, for example, acting.

I’m almost under the impression that Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who directed the film, got stuck with the horror genre through some production deal with the devil and had to make it work. The same can be seen in many aerial shots made by a helicopter drone which would be better suited for a medium-budget tourist commercial of the same area.

In the Spring movie, the beautiful shots of the Italian coast just look like they were shot because the directors had to take that damn drone, so they crammed its footage into the film no matter how needed (or completely unneeded) it actually was.

But still, there is a spark of really potent energy in this film. I was most impressed by its quirky and unexpected humor, but also by the general vibe of other films that feature an American lost on the old Continent. Unfortunately, these bright spots were drowned by the unnecessary long ending sequence and the horror angle that just was not there. While films like Housebound and Suburban Gothic use elements of humor and characters that don’t fit into their new surroundings and make them work with the horror and the tension, this one mishandled it all the way through.

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Horror, Romance, Sci-Fi,

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Coming Soon - Monsters: Dark Continent

A few years back, when Monsters came out, it really made an impact on me as a slow-moving, indie drama/social commentary set in a very imaginative science fiction world. Now, Monsters: Dark Continent takes place a decade later when the alien infection spread to the rest of the world.

This time the plot is set in the Middle East, where a US army fights both an insurgency and the aliens at the same time. I'm hoping that some of the same grim feel and subtle US foreign policies metaphors that the original included will be present in this part as well.

Tom Green is directing the film as his first full-length piece, which comes out today, on April 17, in the US theaters. Check out the trailer for Monsters: Dark Continent below.

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drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller,

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Coming Soon: Ex Machina (2015)

Copyright: A24 Films

For me, the most important thing about Ex Machina is its writer/director Alex Garland. Garland already proved himself as a great writer in films like Sunshine and 28 Days Later.

Now, he is making his directorial debut in a story about a reclusive computer genius who summons a younger computer genius named Caleb to his mountain home. There, Caleb discovers a synthetic life form called Ava that might or might not be fully self-aware, sparking the plot of this compact-looking sci-fi thriller.

Ex Machina comes out in the US on the 10th of April and you can watch its trailer below.

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coming soon, drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller,

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Film Review: Chappie (2015)

Copyright: Columbia Pictures

So far, Neill Blomkamp’s films weren’t works of art that felt completely organic to me.  When District 9 was hailed as the future of a gritty, dark, socially sentient science fiction, I wasn’t convinced that it truly had a real message to transmit. Instead, it seemed to me that Blomkamp figured out how his work can seem deep and meaningful while it had nothing new to say, apart from the fact that people tend to be racists and savage in many different circumstances.

His new film Elysium was, for me, the crown evidence for this theory. In this awkward mixture of Hollywood A-list actors and high-budget CGI, Blomkamp delivered a shallow story that neither sold its drama nor its action. It was District 9 all over again, but it lacked the charm of a small production set in a real exotic, turbulent location.

This is why I was even less excited when I heard that the same director was making a movie called Chappie. To me, it seemed like he decided to retreat even further back into his original breakthrough film and I doubted it could result in something interesting. I was completely wrong about that.

In Chappie, Blomkamp dug deep to reconnect with a totally personal narrative, free of forced social commentary. In his new film, a tale of a police robot that gets hijacked and reprogrammed so it develops full consciousness, is funny and fun, but still managed to deeply resonate with something in me which differentiates between a living thing, and those things that are not alive (or so I judge them).

In the whirlwind that follows after the mechanical birth of Chappie, the childlike robot is left with Ninja and Yolandi, South African street gangster (and in real life, two of the core members of a band Die Antwoord). These two act as surrogate parents to the intellectually young Chappie, who grows up in a matter of days under their completely opposite directions. The additional element is Deon, a young and idealistic programmer who created Chappie’s intelligence and dreads to see him joining a criminal lifestyle.

In its course, the film deals with the nature of life, death, violence, creativity and the needs of individuals that come into conflict with the needs of others around them. At moments, Chappie’s growing up is hilarious (the segment with stealing cars), while in others it is totally terrifying and even disturbing. All these ideas are fantastically presented by the incredible acting skills of both Yolandi and Ninja. I knew that they were great performers, but in Chappie they show an impressive range that covers deadly serious, sadistic to a scary level and completely goofy, especially in Ninja’s case.

The larger narrative ideas of the plot seem irrelevant when they are is compared to the character of Chappie itself. Like Wall-E and other great robot characters, I experienced the film from his perspective and it was an impressive ride. For me, the entire Chappie movie was a vessel that delivered a complex, believable character to whom I could relate completely, even though he (or it) is not even a human being.

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action, Sci-Fi, Thriller,

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Crowdfunding push - Extinction: Prologue

A new post-apocalyptic short film is looking for crowdfunding help in realizing its vision of a deserted and destroyed planet Earth. The film’s Indiegogo page states:

Twenty-five years after a cataclysmic event killed most life on Earth, a lonesome wanderer discovers an abandoned housing complex in the middle of a forest. There he meets another survivor – a weird old man who constantly talks about a long-lost friend called "Matthew". When the hermit is willing to share his greatest treasure, the wanderer decides to stay for a while. However, there is more to this strange place than meets the eye, since the apocalypse unleashed something that was hidden for a very long time...

Although it is not too original in its setup, Extinction: Prologue is being produced by the Avenir Film Company and judging their ambitious teaser, they seem really capable of making a nice post-apocalyptic story (especially in the area of photography and how they position and operate the camera in the shots). Also, they are aiming for more films in the same narrative universe (another sign of ambition). Currently, their campaign crossed 30% of the funds they are looking for, and if you think you can help them, check out their official page.

If you're looking for exposure for your film-related project, contact me right here.

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Crowdfunding, Sci-Fi, short,

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MFM Interview: Ferand Peek

Ferand Peek is the director behind the excellent independent sci-fi short film called Mis-Drop. The piece, apart from being very engaging to watch, also offers a glimpse into a combo of filmmaking techniques that offer a way of producing a movie that both looks and feels like its counterparts from the big production companies. I got an opportunity to talk with Peek about Mis-Drop and other things, especially those concerning the production of this little sci-fi gem.

Movies, Films and Movies (MFM): Mis-Drop is one of the most interesting Sci-Fi short that came out in recent years. Tell us more how this film came about? Who had the initial idea and how did the project move forward after that?

Ferand Peek: The idea for Mis-drop came during a time of my life when I was working as a contractor in sound in the film industry and had applied several times, and been rejected, for funding from the state-run Film Commission here in New Zealand. All the scripts I had written for them were for the kind of movie I thought they wanted to see (a contemporary drama with local content) but this was in no way the kind of movie I was really into or wanted to make.

Around this time I landed a good contract working on-set on a local TV show and I saved some money to put into a film. As soon as I made the decision to do so I knew it HAD to be a sci-fi film, but the question remained: how to make a film that looked and felt like the kind of big-budget sci-fi that I love on the very modest budget I had available?

The answer was firstly to do a short, and secondly to tell it all in one shot - from a camera that exists in the world of the movie. That way I knew I could have something really cool (which would have been insanely expensive to do in CG) happen just off-screen. So maybe you hear it, or you see it in reflection, but it is compromised in a way that saves money. Also coming from a background in sound I knew that much of the scale of the film could be sold with really great sound design.

Writing the movie was very quick, and we shot the film about 8 months afterwards. This was all very exciting and gratifying but it also used up all my money so to finish I needed to find help from a post-production house to assist with the CGI and compositing. But to get to that stage I knew I had to be able to show people something better than a rough-cut or I would always have to be on their shoulder telling them what they were supposed to be seeing at any point.

So I locked myself in my room for 6 months and taught myself how to composite. I took this (fairly rough comp) down to Wellington and showed it to the wonderful people at Park Road Post who got right behind it. In fact they went out of their way to help me find another vendor (Workshop FX) to do the CGI while they took on the compositing, grade and sound mix.

Workshop FX delivered quite quickly and it was a really amazing experience getting to experience being a director with them. With Park Road it took much longer as being a pro-bono job it was always at the end of their list of priorities. While this was often frustrating it actually led to an even more amazing opportunity to upskill my own compositing as I tried to push the project along and eventually, when the Hobbit movies came along, work for them on that project while also getting to finish my own movie.

So it was a really long slog to the finish line, but as a result I've been contracting in VFX for several years now and growing as a film-maker as I get exposed to the world of post-production which was an unknown to me before starting this film.

MFM: Let’s talk a bit about the production of the film itself. While it uses CGI in a very savvy way, it still had plenty of it. What was your take on using it in the film, meaning do you wish you had more or are you satisfied with the current end result when it comes to CGI use?

Ferand Peek: In terms of the CGI, my focus with it on this film is really borne from a dislike of bad visual effects. I wanted my mantra to be 'if it can't look real, don't put it in'. I dislike watching sci-fi movies where the CGI is average. You can kind of see where they were going with it, but it always pulls me out if it's not flawless.

So I'm happy with the amount of CGI in the film. Ideally I'd love to do as much as possible physically, but on a budget with this subject matter it's just impossible so you always have to find ways to cheat. In my case that was making a lot of the big CGI only visible in the reflection on his helmet (of which the glass is entirely a CGI fabrication). Of course there are always things I would like to be better and things I still look at and cringe just a little. But I always go back to the fact that the final product so far beyond what I ever thought I'd be able to achieve so I am very happy with the film.

MFM: Military science fiction seems like a very popular topic for short films, including both fan fiction set in things like the Halo universe and completely original pieces like your film. Why do you think this is the case?

Ferand Peek: I'm not really sure why military sci-fi is so popular in film other than perhaps a natural male preoccupation with conflict, war, and huge toys (guns and tanks, etc.)

MFM: What did you learn while you made this film? What would you share as your personal words of wisdom with other filmmakers looking into working on similar projects?

Ferand Peek: In terms of what I learned on this film: a little bit of money goes a long way towards getting really world-class assistance. Often if you are producing a passion project all you need to give someone is the ability to put food in their mouth and they'll pretty much waive the rest of their fee if they think it's a cool project. But you got to be prepared for it to take time. It can be good, quick, or cheap but you're only ever allowed 2. So if you want it to be good and you've got no money it won't be quick. You're always going to be at the bottom of the priority list. But in saying that if you can put in a finish deadline you'll be amazed out how everyone becomes motivated in the last couple of weeks to help you meet it.

MFM: Mis-Drop made its way to movie festivals, while it was also noticed by audiences online. Are you pleased and/or surprised with the things it accomplished?

Ferand Peek: So far I've been pretty pleased with the reception Mis-drop has received. There is something quite special about putting something out into the world, to become part of the culture, and have it well received. Especially by fans of the genre (who are really the people I made it for).

MFM: Will you try to convert the success of Mis-Drop into something new? This goes both for you personally and the universe in which the film takes place (possible sequels)?

Ferand Peek: Of course I'd love to make a feature inspired by the project, especially as it has struck people as so unique. There has been a lot of interest in the idea so now it's down to me to come up with the best possible version with which to try and bring to fruition.

MFM: Ferand Peek, thank you very much!

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Interview, Sci-Fi, short,

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Crowdfunding push: Albion

After We Are Soldier, here is another Sci-Fi short that seems really interesting. It includes crash landings and ancient relics, which is a solid starting point while adding the Arthurian legend sprinkles even more flavor onto it. This is what the official Albion Indiegogo page states:

A long friendship will be put to the test when Arthur and Eric crash on the continent of ALBION. They are occupied in the search for an ancient artifact, but when they stumble across a native of the hostile world, a struggle for power will come to the fore and both of our heroes will have to decide – who returns home, and who DIES. This is the origins of - KING ARTHUR.

Albion - Indiegogo Campaign Video from Joshua Eley on Vimeo.

Although the notion of Sci-Fi in the woods isn't too exciting, the feel of the pilot for this short film has a few things going for it, including the crucial atmosphere of danger and discovery, along with a welcomed focus on the characters. Albion just began their campaign and have currently passed a few percent of their targeted budget of 1000 British pounds (which is pretty modest). Check their Indiegogo page here and see if you are interested in helping out.

If you're looking for exposure for your film-related project, contact me right here.

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Crowdfunding, Sci-Fi, short,

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Film Review: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Copyright: Walt Disney Studios

Guardians of the Galaxy movie is a merciless beast. It mainly targets the generation that fondly remembers the 80’s, but does this in a sort of haze. In this memory mist, things like cool cartoons and funky music are present, while things like chemical attacks of Iran-Iraq war are inconspicuously missing.

This comes from the fact that this nostalgia is being sold to people who were kids in that weird decade, or just leaving their true childhood. Those born in the early 70’s have nothing to do in this historical fantasy, mainly because they most likely didn’t play with spike-hair trolls or weren’t that amazed when they got their first Walkman in 1986.

In many other aspects, the film is coldly calculated to please its demographics. It plays on its own absurdity and lack of fame when it comes to popular culture (not many have heard about characters like Rocket before 2014) and its distance from much bigger franchise series made by Marvel. On the other hand, it dumps names, places and characters seemingly without any sense of tact, even to those viewers who are not familiar with the wider universe (who are the majority). But, with much cunning and no apparent strain, it is feeding every part of the demographics, like a great Pixar film, giving chunks to kids, teenagers and adults alike.

Guardians of the Galaxy is simply an unhateable film. Its director James Gunn is a much bigger scholar of Hollywood than anyone could imagine just a few years ago when he made art like Super, a movie that is both small and risky. He is so sly in this manner that he even opens the film with a kid losing his mother to cancer, following by an out-of-space dance routine to a catchy pop tune. This is seemingly strange, but under the surface, Gunn is obviously one of those people who can listen to corporate metrics about the audience and then cram some unexpected things in there to improve the test viewer scores.

On the other side of the lens, Guardians of the Galaxy cast was also predefined. Only one among them who was designed to stand out was Chris Pratt as Peter Quill or Star Lord. Everyone else is CGI constructed or wearing so much make up that they character could be interpreted by any actor in the world. This was a chance for Pratt and Gunn to take a huge chunk out of that blockbuster pie and they did it with a samurai sword.

Still, unlike the similar but god-afoul Interstellar, this corporate child is fun to watch. It doesn’t preach and it doesn’t bore, which is very nice to see. While it is definitely a merciless corporate product of market share expansion into new comic book asset waters, it’s still very enjoyable.

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action, Adventure, Sci-Fi,

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Crowdfunding push: We Are Soldier

Military science fiction is a genre where independent films of the 21st century really entered a new domain of possibilities. Recently, I wrote about a miniature masterpiece of effective cinema called Mis-Drop and it perfectly shows indie potential when it comes to these kinds of stories. Now, a project about a similar militarized dystopian future needs help with its completion. The official We Are Soldier Indiegogo page states:

A former violent criminal, forcibly reprogrammed to be a mindless Battle Drone, regains his self-awareness in the heat of battle and must escape the clutches of his own forces whilst maintaining his newly-found humanity, or die trying.

This is the story of We Are Soldier, an ambitious, independent Sci-Fi thriller set in the not-too distant future.

Led by myself Lee Asquith-Coe (Writer, Director), we have assembled a crew of the finest quality armed with years of experience and talent. From our DoP, to our Armourer, our VFX Supervisors, Prosthetics, Production Design and Pyro, our team is a skilled and committed one with a shared vision - to create an exciting and dynamic movie that can hold its own against the big boys.

The existing short trailer shows promise when it comes to pacing and cinematography, which is especially evident in the combo of low light and menacing music (done really well for the promo video). Currently, the crowdfunding campaign reached 25%, so check out how you can help if We Are Soldier looks interesting to you.

If you're looking for exposure for your film-related project, contact me right here.

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action, Crowdfunding, Sci-Fi,

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Film Review: The Maze Runner (2014)

Copyright: 20th Century Fox

Wes Ball, who directed this movie, plays his first cards with a lot of style, and also some guts. He doesn’t go the way I expected him to, opening his film with some kind of an info dump. He stripped away almost everything, and opted for presenting a completely bare, almost raw experience.

A young man wakes up in a middle of a field called the Glade, surrounded by boys of different age. He lost all of his memories, but immediately recognizes that others are organized in Lord of the Flies kind of society, but only this one lives in relative harmony. 

The only problem is that they are surrounded by huge walls, and the only way out of this place is through the Maze, an incredible, constantly changing structure that is full of dangerous creatures.

With this minimal verbal setting, the film drives on, basing itself on experience, not knowledge. The audience gets to find out new things along with the main character Thomas, which feels very organic. This is how he gradually learns the power balance in the Glade, shared between a teenage version of hawks, doves and owls archetypes, which differ in their approach to social structure and governance. But at the same time, all strive for the exploration of the Maze and hope to find a way out.

Played by convincing young actors, primarily Dylan O'Brien as Thomas, but also Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Will Poulter, The Maze Runner movies keeps its traction for almost its entire duration. Because of this, it manages to come off as a serious film, clear of many young adult tropes that saturate films like those in the Hunger Game series.

While The Maze Runner 2014 is basically built on the same teenage angst-leaden material, it strips it down to a much emptier space, where it’s easier to be drawn into the story, and where there are also fewer deterrents like shabby romance subplots. Instead, Ball chose to focus on camaraderie and friendship, which is very refreshing. In this aspect Maze Runner is even more successful than Ender's Game, a film that was supposed to be mostly about a boy's dedication to his friends. The only substantial flaw in this adventure film is its corporate designed ending, which jams a generic Sci-Fi explanation (using, ironically, an info dump method) into an emotional and violent outburst, resulting in an overflow of sappy feelings which Ball so successfully avoided up to that point.

This marketing-research powered mud pie of an ending is additionally enhanced with an idiotic order for the audience to come back to the movie theaters because there is a second part coming our way. In it, a character pronounces a line straight from early James Bond villain textbook, which was designed (I guess) to intrigue the audience and keep it guessing, but fails to do everything except seem silly. This extremely sour cherry on the top of that mud pie really spoiled my solid experience of the film, even more because it was a completely unnecessary move.

Without that crippling last 10 minutes, Maze Runner could have made the best young adult adaptation of 2014.

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Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Young Adult,

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Film Review and Ending Intepretation: Predestination

Copyright: Sony Pictures

My first association to Predestination was the movie Time Cop. Now, after I saw it, I feel like one of those people who, after hearing the word “Mars”, immediately things about the candy bar, not the planet. In the same fashion, Predestination has almost nothing to do with time cops running around the past busting crime before it happens.

Instead, it talks about personal growth and change in the setting that disposed of all the regular constraints of both time and matter. Michael and Peter Spierig, signed under the name of Spierig Brothers, made this film five years after their list project, Daybreakers, which didn’t impress me too much, mostly because of the bland characters it featured. Now, they are again experimenting with core science fiction ideas (Daybreakers was more about Sci-Fi than horror) but with a lot more success.

In their new story, based on a Robert A. Heinlein short piece, an agent working for a time traveling anti-crime organization hunts a man called the Fizzle bomber who continues to evade time alterations and manages to blow up more than 11,000 people in New York in 1975. The agent, known only as the Bartender, meets a man one night in a bar where he is working, and the man tells him he will tell him the most incredible tale in the world.

The really cool thing about Predestination is the fact that it drives home the issue of personal possibilities that arise from one of the most basic time travel paradoxes, all the way into the very natural but still very weird waters. All gimmicks are developed so that they seem very minimal both in visual and narrative terms, so no one should expect Time Machine level of CGI grandeur. After seeing it, I had the feeling that the complete process remained logical and predictable, which makes this film is without a doubt a pioneer in time travel genre. This fact alone is a pretty bold thing to do in today’s movie market.

The only visible down side to this is the fact that Predestination movie might see predictable in general when it is perceived and experienced as a thriller. But, Spierig Brothers managed to harness that wind of predictability and instead of fighting it, use it to fill their sails. This made the film more similar to a mystery drama than a time travel action-adventure, and the main actress Sarah Snook should be commended for the way she delivered an extremely unique role.

In this Predestination review I wouldn’t stand against interpreting this film as an adventure, but I would have to call it a one that carries the viewer into the realm of personal self and the things what truly defines it.

Predestination Movie Ending Explained

Spoiler Alert

To understand Predestination and its ending, it is important to look at the passing of time in the film as a continuous development that never really begins or ends. Instead, it has a continuous cycle. At the end of this cycle, the character of the Bartender finally chases down the Fizzle bomber in the laundromat. He realizes the he is in fact him from the future, and who somehow became certain that killing people would further diminish crime. The Fizzle bomber tries to stop the Bartender from killing him by saying that this already happened, and that the only way to break the cycle is to learn to love him. The Bartender decides not to heed his advice and kills him. He then returns home in his present year of 1975.

But, his time travel briefcase didn’t decommissioned properly, and it is implied that Robertson rigged it so that it didn’t because he needs the paradox to continue. The Bartender, alone and broken, gradually decides to start to use the briefcase because he misses the past versions of himself too much. This leads to him slowly slips into psychosis (which is a side effect of uncontrolled time travel). Because of this impact of time travel, he loses his mind and slowly becomes the Fizzle bomber (aided by his knowledge of chemistry and physics from his youth), completing the circle.

The entire cycle is continuously supported by Robertson as a means of assuring that the entire paradox continues to function.

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drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi,

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Neary's Void - A short movie by Dillon Schohr

When it comes to weird stuff happening in the desert, LA filmmaker Dillon Schohr is definitively not a stranger to short movies which feature these elements.

But, unlike his last desert film Alone, this time Schohr sets his piece into the realm of science fiction, but underline this with a good and very developed soundtrack, as well as some fine photography that uses the natural contrasts of this arid land. In his latest short film, story follows a man who witnesses a stranger doing something strange in the remote area.

Soon, the story splits, and although I am pretty much in the dark when it comes to the narrative and its purpose, the presentation of it is very smooth, and it even managed to remind me of Banshee Chapter, a great atmospheric feature length piece. Watch Neary's Void right here.

If you're looking for exposure for your film-related project, contact me right here.

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Sci-Fi, short,

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