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midohacus
Reviews
The Rook (2019)
Good inspite of the lead character
An interesting concept with interesting characters but let down by an unlikable main character. I spent first couple episodes asking myself who I was meant to be rooting for as in less than half an episode Myfanwy goes from being an alright center point to the story, to someone you dislike and don't care about. The other characters (King, Queen and other Rook (gestalt)) are all more likeable and shown in tangential situations to get you thinking about their morals and motivations, but get less screen time each.
Some of the mundane scenes showing the Gestalt being homogeneous and not doing anything related to narrative, seem a bit superfluous. I feel the scenes where they are affected by each other across distances plays out more interestingly on the Gestalt concept.
The Crossing (2018)
Excellent premise ... skippable delivery.
The first episode sets you up ready for a great series of investigating the event, adjusting to the refugees, the impact/interaction of a seaside town, working through the implications of the news they bring and etc. The tired, old hat and predictable bit near the end of episode one, setting up the antagonist(s), makes you start to readjust expectations. From episode two it starts to reveal itself to be generic schlock, with the premise just loosely being plugged into a storyline like someone doing a madlib. The main characters are about as lacklustre as the plot, and the secondary characters feel like simple filler to pad out the time. Exception being the couple (Caleb and Rebecca) who seem to have some depth and are enjoyable.
Infinitum: Subject Unknown (2021)
Does repetition well.
Thoroughly enjoyable sci-fi which had me constantly thinking and trying to figure out the interactions, reality etc. I feel there are some elements which you could really argue over e.g. If an element is stimuli/manipulation, glimpse of realities or something else.
There is a blurb at the end about how this was done during a pandemic lockdown, I think I had known about this back when it was first released but had forgotten that fact by the time I watched it. The well paced repetition meant that while watching it I was too focused to notice it was almost solely the main character.
My one grievance/irritation is that early on the character is at an openable window and seems to be oblivious that windows can be opened. Shouting through a closed window instead of shouting out an open window?!
Liked that the main character looked like a normal person e.g. Minor wrinkles etc.
Clara (2018)
Drama, with scientists
This movie being classified as Science Fiction feels inaccurate. It both has science and is fictional, but doesn't really have any "science-fiction" except the teeny tiniest dollop at the end.
I imagine fans of drama will get much more enjoyment from this movie than your typical sci-fi fan, in which case maybe it is in realm of a 6 or 7 out of 10. For me it was a boring 3 out of 10.
It revolves around a scientific topic (search for extra terrestrial life) so a lot of the characters are scientists / professors / researchers and they talk about science but it is all very much contemporary science rather than speculative fictional science. I feel if this is sci-fi, then you could say the Facebook movie was sci-fi too since it was also scientists do science.
I Think We're Alone Now (2018)
Slow and unimaginative
The first half hour establishes the movie well. Nice visuals, nice audio, nice pacing. You get an idea about the characters, the general nature of apocalypse, see some practicalities of this post-apoc world, and some signs how people affect each other/cause change.
The following half hour or so, just drags this out with no real point other than increasing run-time.
The last twenty something minutes just slaps a 'twist' on the table, which is rushed through like they realise it isn't much of a twist. Had the 'twist' been done within the 45 minutes and in small reveals, then it could have delved deeper and made a reasonable movie, possibly even making it 'scifi'
Project Ithaca (2019)
Novel premise
An enjoyable scifi movie. Seeing the imdb score worried me a bit, but the opening scene managed to get my interest so I continued. A couple of moments of wooden acting early on when the characters meet each other, but after that thankfully was all pretty decent.
Was bit surprised when a character was french/spoke french, as stereotypically movies would make that type of character eastern european. Seemed like a refreshing decision to break the mould but now I see it is a Canadian film so may have just been convenience.
I will say how they handled some of the 'delicate' aspects of characters' history was nice. Conveyed enough without being blunt.