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Reviews
Stargate: Atlantis: The Seed (2008)
The headline summary on the main page is wrong.
The longer summary isn't much better. I'm going to do my best not to spoil anything...much.
Before the alien encounter that sidelines Jennifer happens, Richard Woolsey leads a meeting of main personnel. Jennifer, although appearing inattentive, reports the pursuit to find a cure for Dr. Beckett's condition has reached an end point but lacks absolute certainty of success.
Mr. Woolsey, more or less, orders Jennifer to revive Carson Beckett and administer the injections. Before Carson can be sent back to Eartn, Jennifer's condition worsens and he recognizes what is happening. Woolsey debates Carson about his ability to lead the medical effort to save Jennifer but reluctantly concedes the knowledge Carson possesses makes him the right man at that moment.
The rest is a race to solve the organisms control of more than just Jennifer as it threatens the whole city.
The characters involvement is very much true to the persona they've all earned as they race to save Atlantis and Jennifer.
Ice (2011)
There is a reason we have movies like this one.
Similar premise to The Day After Tomorrow, Ice faces the alleged threat of man made global warming and ends up with the world frozen over. More or less.
So, why did the 2000s, give or take a little time, produce reverse thinking movie warnings? This is simple and I'm sorry to say it is highly political.
The same people, the same political leaning parties across the world have consistently practiced climate fear for decades that has been wildly inconsistent in what is actually threatening. Through the 1970s and a bit beyond, the threat was we were causing a new ice age to emerge. Somehow and someway, there was a desire for some to persuade folks that both could be true.
The two main targets of these films are those who love disaster movies and those who are proponents of the party line no matter the evidence. Regardless of the plausibility, films like this reinforce the beliefs of climate conspiracy theorists. I know they like to shroud themselves in a belief they're following the science and science portends to be a rock in their corner.
One huge problem. Grab a science textbook from the last couple decades and one that is the most updated text available. Now compare.
The movies are good entertainment for some, at least, but Ice goes well beyond The Day After Tomorrow in implausible scenes and thus is about half as good. I liked Day After and I endured Ice.
Night Into Day (2020)
I hope the irony isn't that this comes true to some degree
Knowing this was filmed in 2020 or earlier, we know who was President. This movie plays on the theme that the US would be drawn into many wars and sought to scare us that the Orange man would cause nuclear war. The toxic rhetoric of the President is how it's put, or close to that, before any action begins in the nuclear way of things.
I mention irony because no matter what your position on the sliding scale of politics, one would have to be willingly lying to themselves to not understand how much closer the world is to such a disaster today.
At any rate, I was thinking this might be like the movies from the 80s. I'm terrible at remembering the movie names usually but I think The Day After was the American film with Jason Robards but the British film title escapes me. Both were grim looks at the closest a film could make nuclear war appear as it might be in reality. Something like that I hoped for here...turned out to basically be what General Hospital would've done with a nuclear storyline...except I rather enjoyed some GH back in the 80s.
Airplane vs. Volcano (2014)
In no way do I find this movie to be a 10, but it is very much rated too low, so I'm going 10 to help correct the overall score.
In *@as an Asylum production, this movie is a 10 if considered among the so-called B movies.
There are numerous good efforts by the cast with only one member's performance being typical of the Asylum's penchant for wooden or over-the-top delivery. The story is a bit crazy even when considering the standard set by the Asylum over a decade.
When choosing an Asylum movie the most important thing the viewer can do is to boost their ability to suspend their disbelief. Even the most mundane of common drama films will require the viewer to simply accept what they are seeing is realistically unreal.
Dean Cain and Robin Givens are quite good in their respective roles, though the film pushes Givens into the background after the opening scenes, before the opening credits. This movie meets my desired hope of finding a distraction from reality for 90 minutes!
Colony (2016)
The first and only time I've experience and understood hate watching.
I'm not going to intentionally spoil anything but I'm writing freely so it seems prudent to warn spoilers may follow.
Colony is a story about a family with a father who gets zero respect from his wife and children. It claims to be science fiction but is really just a dystopian society behind a big wall.
Will Bowman shares inside information with his wife as though discussing the details of operations should be normal conversation while eating breakfast. He does exceptional detective work and figures out there is a leak in his department very early in the series but he can't come to the conclusion he is the leak until it beats him over the head...multiple times.
If you loved hating Lori Grimes, then you're going to really love hating Katie Bowman. Sarah Wayne Callies may be portraying the most ignorant character in the history of television. It isn't really her fault as she seems to play the role she is being asked to do by the production staff on Colony.
The Bowman family puts a new spin on dysfunctional family. Katie Bowman is deceptive and completely unhinged in all the wrong ways imaginable. When Will finally confronted her, she doubled down on her deceit and obviously stupid decision making by lying more and accusing him of being equally deceptive. (He isn't and it is clear for all to see).
Apparently the writers want the viewer to believe her actions have all been based on Will's attempt to find their missing son without telling her his plan. If that situation were more developed, it is possible it would seem like he should have been more forward with her at the time. Just don't expect an intelligent viewer to accept everything she does following that to be even remotely reasonable.
The supporting characters are all flawed in significant ways except for the role portrayed by Amanda Righetti. Katie's sister seems to be the only intelligent player who manages to have sufficient instincts to actually still be alive.
The creative team behind Colony must have been shocked it was picked up to series as the story stumbled around for nine episodes with almost no advancement in the main plot. Which may be inaccurate to say because I'm not sure I can identify a main plot.
Is it to rescue the Bowman's missing son? Are they supposed to overcome an invading alien army we've never seen? It might just be a contrived story to create two sides of a conflict so they can work against each other.
It has been established that there are collaborators and a resistance. It is established that the collaborators will squash any resistance with force. I'm not sure it should take ten episodes to reach this place in any story. The pieces have been shuffled around the board a little but nothing of significance has changed or been revealed.
Is there supposed to be a mystery to who or what the aliens are in this story? There is never any doubt or foreshadowing concerning the identity of the main antagonist. The only exposure to the main antagonist has been one dead diplomat in an impossible to remove metal iron man like getup and an apparent factory on the moon.
The purpose of the factory isn't revealed in any way and there is no mysterious activity that would cause suspicion about what it may be producing. In ten episodes, there is one brief scene of the factory. A worker apparently becomes ill and is eliminated by staff at the facility.
Wait! I Know what the main theme is of Colony. It is an alien race is slowly converting humans into a race that will worship them when they fulfill the prophecy of Jesus only not in the way we've always expected it to happen.
At least I guess that is the main plot. It was in two or three scenes spread out over ten episodes. It would be easier to determine if the Bowman family hasn't has as many or more scenes where one of them went out to pick oranges off a tree.
Arthur & Merlin (2015)
An entertaining interpretation of the Arthur legend before he became a King
The quality is very high in fair comparison with other indie films. The story is entertaining and kept my attention for most of the movie. Anyone that wants to compare this to the typical Hollywood epic will find it lacking but only because of their own unrealistic expectations.
The acting is really above average if fairly compared to indie films as a whole. There are some minor characters who could make you cringe but like the better indie films some stand out. One particular scene was excellently portrayed by the actor playing the role. It is a moment when Merlin/Myrddin encounters someone from his childhood.
The story moves along well most of the time and is well paced. I'm mystified at the person who compares the length to a Lord of the Rings movie as this one is an hour and forty minutes. One would have to watch it twice to match the exact run time of Return of the King.
Those who want massive battle scenes, high end CGI and typical Hollywood budget films shouldn't waste their time. Someone who appreciates the art of cinema and solid storytelling will most likely enjoy this film as long as they're a fan of the genre.