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Ishmael (30 KP) rated The Murdstone Trilogy (a novel) in Books

Sep 10, 2017  
The Murdstone Trilogy (a novel)
The Murdstone Trilogy (a novel)
Mal Peet | 2014 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This novel is often hilarious. It makes fun of the SF/F genre but can still tell an engaging story. (0 more)
It is my opinion that the author got lost in the weeds near the end of the novel. (0 more)
Strong Start ...
Philip Murdstone enlists the help of Pocket Wayfair, a sorcerer's assistant from another realm, to help him write a trilogy of high phantasy. Things become a bit entangled when Pocket comes around to collect his due.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) in Movies

Mar 4, 2018 (Updated Mar 4, 2018)  
The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
1955 | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
7
6.8 (4 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The original Hammer horror movie; the studio did actually know how to spell 'experiment', but the title refers to the 'X' certificate that all self-respecting horror films had at the time this was made. Astronaut comes back from space a changed man; the rest of his crew mysteriously vanished - just what went on out there? Professor Q must figure it out before the mutation afflicting the astronaut reaches its final form.

Actually really, really tame as a horror movie by modern standards, obviously, but also of great historical interest as the birth of a legend in British cinema. One can't help suspecting the TV show was a lot more thoughtful, but this still works pretty well as an SF movie, and an influential one at that, and the juxtaposition of B-movie SF ideas and images with post-war Britain is interesting. Imported American star Brian Donlevy is not very good as Professor Q (original writer Nigel Kneale claimed he was on the sauce all the time); Richard Wordsworth is mesmerising as the doomed astronaut.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Annihilation (2018) in Movies

Mar 17, 2018 (Updated Mar 17, 2018)  
Annihilation (2018)
Annihilation (2018)
2018 | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
6
7.0 (72 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Visually striking, cerebral SF-horror movie, notable for being released via Netflix rather than cinemas in most of the world. Ex-soldier-turned-biologist Natalie Portman joins a mission into a mysterious zone where the laws of reality seem to be breaking down.

You can kind of see why Paramount got cold feet and requested changes to the ending in particular, for it is weird and wilfully enigmatic (rather beautiful too, of course), but then the whole movie spurns the obvious elements of outlandish splatter the premise suggests in favour of a weird and unsettling atmosphere (the director has suggested it was inspired by H.P. Lovecraft as much as the stated source novel). Kind of derivative, but not necessarily in a bad way; probably a bit too chilly and intellectual for its own good. Obviously the work of the same director as Ex Machina; one day Garland will figure out how to make an SF movie that doesn't just play with ideas in a rather sterile way, and then he may produce something really exceptional.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated IO (2019) in Movies

Jan 20, 2019 (Updated Jan 20, 2019)  
IO (2019)
IO (2019)
2019 | Drama, Sci-Fi
6
6.3 (12 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Rather derivative SF movie that takes bits of Interstellar, The Martian, Z for Zachariah, etc, and comes up with something commendably thoughtful but honestly rather stodgy and predictable. Earth has been all but abandoned because the air's gone bad; a young scientist struggles to find a way that life can survive. When it seems that the planet is to be abandoned entirely she must choose whether to leave on the last ship or take a leap of faith.

Not one moment of this film will genuinely surprise you; but the production is competent, and it never actually collapses into silliness, which is impressive given how seriously it takes itself. None of it is honestly what you could call badly made, and it looks very nice - and kudos to the makers for fighting the perception that all SF films must either be horror movies or action-adventure. This isn't either of those, but on the other hand it isn't dramatic, funny, or romantic either. Not as profound as it thinks it is; mostly just dull.