I’ll admit it upfront that I’m a fan of Andy Weir, the author of the book Project Hail Mary. I enjoyed both the book and film version of The Martian, which he also wrote, along with his novel Artemis. So, with those biases admitted, allow me to tell you about the science fiction adventure film Project Hail Mary.
Read MoreAfter a meteor hits a lighthouse a mysterious shimmer appears and grows in the area around it. Natalie Portman plays Lena, a military veteran, and biologist, who is part of a five-woman team that enters “The Shimmer.” There they discover an environment of strange mutating plants and animals.
Read MoreReleased worldwide on December 22, 2017, Bright quickly became one of Netflix’s most popular streaming choices. Set in an alternative universe where fantasy and magic are real, Will Smith plays Daryl Ward, an LAPD police officer paired with Nick Jakoby (Joel Edgerton), the nation’s first orc officer.
Read MoreTom Taylor, appearing in his first movie, plays Jake Chambers an eleven-year-old who sees visions of another world. These visions include an evil Man in Black seeking to destroy a dark tower and a stoic gunslinger fighting against him. Everyone dismisses these visions as bad dreams caused by the death of Jake’s father a year earlier.
Read MoreIn Spider-Man: Homecoming, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) struggles to balance high school, girls, family, friends and more while learning to be Spider-Man. Before he can achieve that balance he must face the Vulture, played by Michael Keaton.
Read MoreIn the film, Riley is a photographer and through much of the movie takes pictures of Jenai, the beautiful Icelandic scenery, and around Reykjavik. Beyond that, the movie has spectacular cinematography.
Read MoreThe Guardians of the Galaxy movies are based on the Marvel comics that date back to 1969. While I’m not a big fan of movies based on comic books, I enjoyed the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie mainly because of the humanity of the characters and the overall humor of the movie. This humanity and humor has continued into the second movie …
Read MoreIn the not-too-distant future, the line between human and machine has blurred, and most humans have cybernetic enhancements. Hanka Robotics is the world leader in augmentative technology, and they have developed a mechanical body, or “shell,” that can integrate a human brain with a cybernetic body.
Read MoreFollowing a fairly standard formula of boy longs for a girl that is out of his reach, boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, but forces beyond their control might tear them apart forever, the movie targets teens and young adults with a mixture of near-future science fiction and romance.
Read MoreFive thousand passengers and crew are asleep in hibernation pods aboard the starship Avalon on a 120 year voyage to planet Homestead II. However, just thirty years into the trip, a malfunction awakens passenger Jim Preston (Chris Pratt). Later Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence) awakens. Unable to return to hibernation, the two face living the rest of their lives together on the ship as it travels in deep space.
Read MoreTwelve alien spacecraft arrive over different parts of the globe. World governments make first contact but are unable to communicate. Like all the nations of the planet the United States government wants to know one thing, what do the aliens want? In desperation, the military reaches out to linguist Louise Banks, played by Amy Adams.
Read MoreAndy Weir wrote The Martian as a series of blogposts on his website. Science grounded readers of the blog offered comments and suggestions. When blog readers wanted to download the entire project for reading, Weir put the posts into one file and uploaded it to Amazon. In a few months, The Martian topped the Amazon science fiction bestseller list. Four days later a Hollywood agent called asking about movie rights.
Read MoreGuardians of the Galaxy is based on the Marvel comics, dating back to 1969. Generally, I’m not a fan of comic book movies. The stars of these films tend to be nearly indestructible superheroes, and this leads to implausible plots about how they might be hurt …
Read MoreLiterature is a springboard for ideas, insights, and intellectual growth, but science fiction rarely aspires to or reaches such heights. When I first read the novel as a teenager, it provided insights into how a society might be organized, and in the years since, it became one of the springboards for my own writing. I’m not saying the novel is great literature, but it is superior science fiction.
Read MoreThe film takes place in a dystopian future after a pandemic that causes vampire-like symptoms. Those infected can live for twelve years, and during that time, they are very strong and heal quickly. The government decides to exterminate infected individuals in order to contain the virus. All this is backstory; the film begins after most infected individuals have been killed.
Read MoreWikipedia says it well, “The film begins with a Broadway-style number ‘So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish’, sung by the dolphins of the world, who are aware of the Earth's impending doom. At the end, they all jump out of the oceans and into space, leaving Earth for good.”
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