First off, this sci-fi film is not the second in the Divergent trilogy. Rather, it’s a head-scratching indie-sci-fi (a growing sub-genre that I’ve loved ever since I discovered the movie Primer — check it out if you like tying your brain in knots). Anyway, set mostly over the course of a single evening’s dinner party,…
Category: Sci-fi
Movie #15: Amazing Spider-Man 2
I had really loved the first instalment of this latest reboot of the Spider-man series on the big screen. I thought the combination of director Marc Webb, along with lead actors Andrew Garfield (as Peter Parker/Spider-man) and Emma Stone (as Gwen Stacey) gave an indie-film freshness to the non-superhuman parts of the story. While all…
Movie #10: The Congress
I guess it’s not surprising, but so often with independent films with sci-fi themes, you are never quite sure what you’re going to get. Being science fiction gives them the license to go almost anywhere with story and character because the anchoring concept can be something totally out-there. The Congress is an odd blend to…
Movie #9: Divergent
Riding on the dystopian, young-adult coattails of The Hunger Games, Divergent was another series to make it to the ranks of blockbuster movie adaptation. Even before reading the book, I was skeptical of the premise. In a future-Chicago, society has split everyone into factions based on individual ideals (e.g. the selfless belong to the Abnegation…
Movie #5: Snowpiercer
What would the world, society become if there were only a handful of people left? That’s probably the first question to be answered by a post-apocalyptic science fiction movie like Snowpiercer. Director Joon-ho Bong (who mastered the creature-feature in his Korean-language hit, The Host) adds a bit of a high-concept twist by taking a futuristic…
Movie #4: Her
Though not entirely new (remember 80s film Electric Dreams? I didn’t think so), the concept of romance between a man and his computer is somewhat intriguing (and so clearly inspired by all those people turned-on by the voice of iPhone’s “Siri”). Writer-director Spike Jonze’s version puts Joaquin Phoenix at the heart of this boy-meets-OS tale,…
Movie #3: Ender’s Game
I’m the first to admit that I did not love Orson Scott Card’s seminal sci-fi novel on which this movie was based. It was well-written, but I didn’t enjoy the brutal bullying and could never buy into how “mature” these pre-teen characters were supposed to be. The story of Ender Wiggin begins with Earth having…
Movie #2: About Time
I may not be a fan of romantic comedy, but I make exception for the British take on the boy-meets-girl movie. The blend of dry wit with heart-warming sentimentality has made writer-director Richard Curtis a master of these movies, having been responsible for some of my faves such as Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a…
Movie #1: World War Z
Once again, the movies on my watch-list have piled up and I need to spend another summer catching up. Where to begin… well, while I love science fiction in general, there are only two subgenres of sci-fi that I don’t love: zombies and post-apocalyptic survival. So, it is either foolish or maybe gutsy that I…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 