Archive for the 'The Future' Category
November 4, 2008 - 1:30 am - Posted by Administrator
Maria Lidon directs and co-stars in this Spanish science fiction film (in English) about an expedition to Mars which crash lands on the surface. Faced with certain death, the international crew of astronauts is forced to consider extreme measures.
The script for Stranded is actually quite good save for a few “scientific liberties” which detract from the realism. And the cast includes a few gems including Vincent Gallo [Buffalo ‘66, Goodfellas] as the pessimistic engineer, Maria De Madeiros [Babel, Pulp Fiction] as the determined medical officer, and Joaquim de Almeida [Clear and Present Danger, 24] as the level-headed Fidel Rodrigo. As accomplished actors, they all do a remarkable job with difficult space-oriented terminology. Stranded’s primary downfall is the badly dubbed voices of Director Lidon’s character Susana Sanchez and co-star Daniel Aser’s character Herbert Sagan. I don’t know if they dubbed their own performances or had other voice actors handle it, but they are terrible. The stilted scientific dialog doesn’t ease the task, and it shows. The late Johnny Ramone plays a small part as the co-pilot Lowell who stays behind on the mothership in orbit and actually gives a better performance than Lidon or Aser.
Now lest you think I’m being unduly harsh, I will say this low-budget space flick does a remarkably good job portraying realistic spaceflight scenarios on a severely limited budget. The indoor sets look like they came right off the international space station. The outdoor scenes look a lot like Mars, although the low resolution computer graphics begin to show when we’re subjected to views of the planet from orbit.
The pacing of Stranded can be a little slow at times, the story building from the crew’s initial resignation at their plight, through desperation to survive, and culminating with an amazing discovery on the red planet. It’s that amazing discovery that seems to be the entire purpose of the script, and it takes a while to get there. The time that could have been spent building character definition is ultimately wasted on sequences of petty arguments that prove inconsequential to the outcome.
Personally, I think young directors and writers would benefit the most from viewing Stranded. It’s a textbook low budget science fiction movie that can teach you a few tricks, and most certainly shows a few examples of what to avoid.
** Two stars.
Posted in 2002, Alien Contact, Surprise Ending, The Future, Two Star Rating | No Comments »
October 17, 2008 - 2:24 am - Posted by Administrator
Rollerball is another bleak 1970’s depiction of a totalitarian future society. This time around it’s a corporate controlled world where war has been outlawed. Rollerball even leaves the existence of the United States as we know it in doubt. Corporations and the Executives make all decisions… every decision. Whether you can remain married to your wife for instance. Even books are tightly controlled.
James Caan plays Jonathan… the superstar in a futuristic sport called Rollerball. He has learned the lessons of corporate rule in a very personal way. Despite being handsomely paid and living a life of luxury, he yearns for a simple life with the wife his corporate rulers have barred him from seeing. His arranged relationship with an exotic beauty who doubles as his corporate minder leaves him empty. And yet Jonathan finds himself conflicted. He finds his only joy in life when he’s on the Rollerball floor, the sport which keeps him prisoner to a life he doesn’t want to lead.
It is 2018 and Rollerball is the violent spectacle which fascinates millions and costs players their lives. Players on skates are paired with riders on motorcycles. Their arena is a circular track where they compete against foreign corporate teams in a race to put a metal ball the size of a shotput into a two foot goal. The record for deaths in a single game is nine. Fans around the world watch the games on multiple-monitor flatscreens which hang on the wall, applauding every violent act. John Houseman plays Bartholomew, the villainous CEO in control of Jonathan’s team and his life. When Jonathan’s worldwide popularity peaks, Bartholomew demands his retirement from the game.
No player is greater than the game itself.
Jonathan has become a threat.
After a single viewing, Rollerball can be easily compared with other science fiction flicks of the sixties and seventies like Soylent Green, Fahrenheit 451, and Planet of the Apes. After a couple of views it becomes apparent that Rollerball is actually superior in many respects. Portraying the mythology of an invented sport onscreen cannot be easy, but Rollerball director Norman Jewison pulls it off nicely. And if you can suspend your disbelief enough to buy the totalitarian nature of Rollerball’s society, the characters ring absolutely true in their words and actions. The hardest part to swallow is the overt nature of corporate control. It is an absolute contrast to movies of today, where corporations control our thoughts, minds, and purchasing habits from the shadows, many times without our knowledge. Every time I watch Rollerball, I wonder “Why wouldn’t everybody be revolting?” I mean, if Microsoft took over the world, we would all fight that, right? The gameplay sequences in Rollerball are excellent and are another reason I find this movie superior to others of the era… many of which seem to stretch on for hours without anything happening. Jewison takes advantage of exotic camera angles, tracking shots, and slow motion to dramatic effect.
One unfortunate misconception is a tendency by those unfamiliar with the movie to somehow confuse the game of “Rollerball” with the schlock sports-entertainment event roller derby. If you are unaware, the two are nothing alike with the exception of the skates and the shape of the track. One is a syndicated show for blondes who can’t find acting work, the other is an excellent science fiction movie.
In Rollerball, the questions abound–if you’re the biggest sports superstar in the world, do the rules really apply to you? Is a ‘Utopian’ society really Utopia? It should be noted that the 2002 re-make of Rollerball is absolutely horrendous and shares very little with the original aside from a title. Avoid it at all costs.
****Four Stars
Posted in 1975, Four Star Rating, The Future | No Comments »
August 12, 2008 - 1:43 am - Posted by Administrator
The fourth installment of the Terminator series, Terminator Salvation is presently scheduled to be released in the summer of 2009, pushed back from an original Christmas 2008 release date. If first appearances are any indication, this installment will be a whole new beginning for the Terminator series.
For the first time, John Connor [Christian Bale–Dark Knight, Reign of Fire] will be the star of the show. No Arnold. For the first time, the Terminator world will be post-apocalypse, not a present day teetering perilously close to the brink.
In the trailer John Connor’s voiceover says “This is not the future my mother warned me about.” I’m running on pure speculation here, but I believe he is making reference to a darker, more horrific vision of the Terminator universe. The trailer seems to insinuate that John (and most of humanity for that matter) is a prisoner in a Skynet prison. He must escape with a female companion–likely Bryce Dallas Howard in the role of Kate Connor first played by Claire Danes in Terminator 3. Together they must face a post-apocalyptic world which Sarah conveniently forgot to tell John about.
According to a blog entry by director McG at the Terminator Salvation website, Arnold Shwarzenegger and James Cameron have been consulted regarding their ideas for the future of the franchise, and Christian Bale is reportedly working on the story as well. According to Visual Effects Supervisor Charles Gibson, McG is attempting to incorporate elements of the horror style as well so viewers can expect this installment to be scarier. Anton Yelchin has been cast as a teenage Kyle Reese, and Sam Worthington as a character named Marcus Wright.
This edition of the Terminator series reportedly happens after Judgement Day, but prior to 2029–the date when Skynet starts producing the Arnold-model T-800. We’re promised our introduction to the bigger, nastier T-600–the cyborg Kyle Reese alluded to in the original Terminator movie when he talked about the early terminators which were easy to spot because they had rubber skin.
For Terminator fans who were never big on the cheese-and-one-liners dimension of the original Terminator films, this one seems to be a departure from that. Terminator Salvation will be a meaner, darker type of science fiction, more serious in tone and bleaker in texture. On the downside,there seems to be a rumor floating around that Terminator Salvation will get a PG-13 rating. Let’s hope not.
Posted in 2009, Artificial Intelligence, Environmental Disaster, Post-Apocalypse, Robots/Cyborgs, The Future, Time Travel, coming attractions | No Comments »
August 11, 2008 - 2:54 am - Posted by Administrator
At the turn of the millennium, we all felt like we were on the verge of something big. And we were… the dawn of a new era in science fiction. In 1999, The Matrix became the first movie to encapsulate the concept of cyber-punk virtual reality and display it in a slick motion picture geared for a broad audience. The natural downside of such a large audience is the audible murmur from too-hip-for-the-room haters, sci-fi purists, and nerds. However, The Matrix’s gigantic audience and box office totals don’t lie… it was the first movie of it’s kind.
The Matrix really became a coming-out party for the Wachowski Brothers as a directing duo, and the signature role Keanu Reeves was looking for when he starred in Johnny Mnemonic. Second time’s the charm I guess.
Torn from the pages of a comic, The Matrix is the story of Neo. He’s a corporate grunt in a nothing job with a one bedroom apartment. Or is he? Through a series of encounters with strangers, Neo (Reeves) is tempted to test the boundaries of the reality he’s been living. A choice - the blue pill or the red pill?
Neo’s choice leads him to an awakening that first-time viewers are not prepared for. I distinctly remember my roomate saying as we walked out of the theatre “Dude, when he woke up in that pod… I was not ready for that!”
The most-intriguing plot point of the Matrix storyline is that physics do not apply. When you’re immersed in a computer-generated world, anything is possible. And of course that point lends itself to a visually flashy and action-packed film. Bullets by the bucketful, martial arts up your ass. Carrie-Ann Moss co-stars as Trinity, a bad-ass chick in latex and Neo’s love interest. Laurence Fishburne is the guru–Morpheus, the man with the answers, and the cool shades.
Morpheus sends Neo on a sort of vision quest to fulfill his destiny. Much like the Star Wars series, the story touches on spiritual themes when Neo visits “The Oracle”. And his battles with Hugo Weaving’s Agent Smith are some of the greatest fight scenes ever choreographed. Weaving’s speech patterns and teeth-baring grimace nearly steal the show.
Not since The Road Warrior (Mad Max 2) has a movie so singlehandedly defined it’s genre. The styles worn by the actors have saturated pop culture, the special effects have been mimicked but rarely equalled, and the concept of virtual reality or synthetic immersion has now been fully crystallized in the film-going consciousness.
***** Five Stars
Posted in 1999, Artificial Intelligence, Environmental Disaster, Five Star Rating, Post-Apocalypse, Robots/Cyborgs, The Future, Virtual Reality | No Comments »
March 22, 2008 - 8:44 pm - Posted by Administrator
Any movie where New York City is one huge ghost town is alright with me. However, I Am Legend feels like a re-write too many on a concept that’s nearly overdone at present–the concept that thinking, feeling humans have disappeared and the world is populated by mindless, blood-thirsty beasts, devoid of emotion and feeling.
Will Smith stars as Robert Neville, the last known survivor of a plague that began as a viral cure for cancer. In 2009, the plague nearly wipes out the human race. Neville is left as the lone remaining human in New York City, the rest of the inhabitants having been transformed into ‘zompires’ by the virus. OK, they’re not really called ‘zompires’ but they might as well be. I Am Legend’s screenplay was co-written by co-producer Akiva Goldsman–producer of such winners as Deep Blue Sea, Starsky and Hutch, and Poseidon. Goldsman’s screenplay was in turn based on a screenplay by John William Corrington for 1971’s Omega Man starring Charleton Heston, which was in turn based on the novel by Richard Matheson. Why the studio would decide to bring a classic science fiction novel to the big screen by borrowing from a badly-done version of the story from the seventies is beyond me. Perhaps it’s Goldsman’s penchant for lame remakes. Note to Goldsman: you’re standing on the shoulders of giants and ruining what they’ve achieved.
Couple the remake-prone producer Goldsman with a director [Francis Lawrence] whose only credits are music videos, and you’ve invited disaster. I look forward to the day when movie studios understand that classic science fiction stories need to be produced and directed by auteurs with singular uncompromised vision, not thrown together from fragments of screenplays and helmed by whomever happens to be free to direct/produce at the moment that fits the studio’s schedule. It’s about more than money.
Robert Neville spends his days in New York City hunting for food and having conversation with his only friend… his dog. He maintains a sense of normalcy by watching DVDs–one at a time–which he faithfully retrieves from a video store each day, talking to the mannequins he’s arranged in the store as if they were real humans. He has recorded a message which is repeatedly broadcast on the radio–a plea for anyone who hears it to meet him on the pier at midday. His wait for a response stretches into it’s third year, and Neville keeps busy by continuing his work as a biologist in his basement lab, working on a cure for the virus which has turned nearly six billion people into “darkseekers”–blood thirsty mutants with compulsively violent urges. They are powerfully allergic to light and stay inside in the day, coming out at night to feed on blood.
The problem with movies like I Am Legend is, there is only one reasonable outcome… the lone survivor of the apocalypse will eventually discover he’s not alone. Knowing that in advance, it can get pretty frustrating waiting for the other humans to show up when the story moves at a snail’s pace like this one does.
There are lots of great special effects, and the city of New York makes a great character, even when it’s empty, but the story just didn’t hook me. The computer-animated nature of the “darkseekers” gives a sense of artificiality to villains who would have been far scarier had they been more human. Neville’s flashbacks to his prior life are annoying as well. The whole movie I kept thinking they would have been better-served to have just told the flashback part of the story first, then progress to the post-apocalypse part of the story in linear fashion instead of flashing back and forth the whole time.
In the end, making this bad adaptation of Richard Matheson’s story only ensured one thing–that this story will eventually be adapted again. Let’s hope they get it right next time.
Posted in 2007, Pandemic, Post-Apocalypse, The Future, Two Star Rating | No Comments »
March 9, 2008 - 9:35 pm - Posted by Administrator
Looking at the Mad Max trilogy as a whole, a few unusual things stand out. First, it’s one of the rare series flicks where episode two [The Road Warrior, aka Mad Max 2] was seen by a vastly larger audience than the original. And second, despite going through a transformative series of changes in tone, the Mad Max trilogy has single-handedly re-defined the post-apocalyptic film.
Director George Miller reportedly worked as an Emergency Room doctor in his native Australia to raise the money to film Mad Max. Through wise use of story and setting, the lack of funds barely shows–or at least not any more than your avergae low-budget movie. Max [Mel Gibson] is an Australian cop in a near-future where society is at it’s last stand. Roving gangs of bikers and hot rodders roam the highways of the Australian outback. Max and his fellow officers are the final hand of authority, attempting to maintain order from behind the wheel of their police interceptors.
Early in the movie Max chases down a gangleader named “The Night Rider”. With a methodical patience he hounds the Night Rider on the highway, bumping him from the rear, eventually causing him to lose control and crash in a fiery explosion. When Max’s family is killed by the gang in retaliation, he dusts of his ultimate pursuit vehicle, the co-star of the movie, the Ford Falcon Coupe XB GT, a car which has been manufactured by Ford in Australia since 1960. Not be confused with the US or Argentinian vehicles of the same name.
What ensues is a violent chase movie, set against the backdrop of rural Australia. Which brings me to an aside… In The Road Warrior [aka Mad Max 2] and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome [Mad Max 3], George Miller’s story, co-written by Byron Kennedy, does explain the post-apocalyptic nature of the setting to some degree, however Mad Max appears to happen in a world that is not-quite-post-apocalyptic–the grass is still green, crops are still growing, and most social order still exists. And then at the open of The Road Warrior, the world has been destroyed by a nuclear war. Unless I’m figuring wrong (which I could be), a nuclear war happened some time between Mad Max, and The Road Warrior. They should make a movie out of that story!
The real thrill of Mad Max is the amazing chase scenes and dozens of crashes, explosions, and violent death scenes. Max pursues the members of the gang relentlessly, never giving mercy, and never feeling a thing. Mad Max wasn’t a sensation at the box office, but it should be noted Mad Max arrived at about the same time as HBO and exposed a whole generation of young fans to a movie they probably wouldn’t have seen otherwise. And an interesting side note, the movie was originally shown to American audiences with Mel Gibson’s voice dubbed because producers were afraid Americans wouldn’t understand his Australian accent. The voice track has since been restored to Gibson’s original.
In essence Mad Max is a car movie. The soundtrack is little more than pistons and percussion, plus the cop sirens sound badass and futuristic somehow. Add in the right-drive Australian pursuit vehicles, and it’s a car-lovers paradise. As a childhood fan of movies like Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry, and Vanishing Point, this one sat well with me growing up.
The tone and story are considerably different in each of the sequels, and if you’re like me, you may find yourself liking one and disliking the others. Originally, the sequel was released in the United States as “The Road Warrior” and only recently was it re-titled Mad Max 2, presumably to maximize DVD sales of Mad Max to an audience which has never given it more than cult status.
**** Four Stars ****
Posted in 1979, Environmental Disaster, Four Star Rating, Post-Apocalypse, The Future | No Comments »
February 24, 2008 - 4:32 pm - Posted by Administrator
Children of Men is a rare example of a science fiction concept that’s so intriguing and unique, I decided I had to see it just because it was different. It’s 2027 and the scourge of mankind is none of the usual suspects… not cancer, not HIV, but unexplained infertility. It’s been 19 years since a human was born on planet Earth.
As with most of the science fiction films of the George W. Bush era, the post-apocalyptic storyline neccessitates the incorporation of concepts from the headlines, including homeland security, the erosion of civil liberties, and citizen internment. Many scenes were reminiscent of the imprisonment of the Jews as widely depicted in the war films of the last several decades. Children of Men is a virtual study of our society’s deepest darkest fears at a time when western ideas are reviled, technology is suspect, and religious fundamentalism is at an all time high.
Theo Faron [Clive Owen] works for the Government and his ex-wife Julian [Julianne Moore] is a member of a radical anti-government insurgency. Together they find themselves transporting a young British girl with one remarkable attribute–she’s pregnant. And hence my dislike for the movie. Like most of the grey science fiction concepts of late, nothing much happens other than “let’s go here, now we have to run away“. Repeat twelve times.
Director Alfonso Cuaron [Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban] did a great job of building the universe and filling the back story through the incorporation of background elements like billboards, media reports, and even graffiti. Britain is the last bastion of civilization (and only modestly civilized at that) and the government has implemented mandatory fertility testing. Non-compliance is a crime. Citizens are urged to report suspicious activity. Believing infertility is a punishment from God, religious groups urge repentance. All are introduced in the background.
Unfortunately, all that heavy symbolism (and the stunning sobriety of Clive Owen as hero Theo Faron) didn’t do much for my viewing experience. I must be the rare exception to the rule, because nearly every science fiction fan I’ve talked to thought Children of Men was the second coming of cinema. I didn’t care for it.
Children of Men is bleak and beautiful, well-crafted and thought-provoking. That said, I still thought it was boring and below-average. That unique and intriguing concept I mentioned at the beginning is all this movie really has at the end. An interesting situation filled with cardboard characters.
** Two Stars **
Posted in 2006, Environmental Disaster, Pandemic, Post-Apocalypse, The Future, Two Star Rating | No Comments »
February 17, 2008 - 7:33 pm - Posted by Administrator
Runaway is another of a litany of Michael Crichton concepts that were done about twenty years too early.
Tom Selleck stars as a police officer–an expert in robotics–in a near-future where Amercian life is saturated with domestic robots. Although they perform all the menial tasks that nobody wants to do, they occasionally go haywire and require intervention from Sgt. Jack Ramsay [Selleck]. When Ramsay discovers robots which appear to have been programmed to kill, he goes on a search for Dr. Charles Luther [Gene Simmons], a madman in possession of computerized mini-shells the size of a bullet that function like a guided-missile. Kirstie Alley appears in a supporting role as a pawn in Luther’s evil plan.
Runaway falls short in so many areas… I remember seeing it as a kid and being plugged into the movie until about twenty minutes in. I was transfixed by the images of a near-future where everybody has their own robot. But once the story begins to pursue Luther and his ‘heat-seeking’ bullets, I somehow lost interest. Re-watching as a grown man, I still feel the same way. The story is told in a super-realistic method which is a movie-making technique I’ve always loved. Unfortunately, Runaway was made in 1984 in a pre-cell phone, pre-internet time, so watching today… the movie doesn’t stand up. From Ramsay’s laser weapon in the beginning of the movie, to the refrigerator-sized computers, everything that’s meant to look futuristic now looks dated.
The special effects crew on Runaway used existing technology (presumably for budgetary reasons) to depict the robotic action and the shortcomings are obvious. The arachnid-style six-legged robot minions that so many are familiar with from this movie are literally dropped onto some of the actors to nearly laughable effect. Although they look cool, the robots can’t really do anything else and their most dramatic tactic–attacking in swarms–is brought into the movie too late. The soundtrack couldn’t be more stereotypical eighties either–cheesy synth.
For all it’s defects, the concept for Runaway–a cop who has to fight rebellious robots–is one that could be re-done well.
** Two Stars
Posted in 1984, Artificial Intelligence, Robots/Cyborgs, The Future, Two Star Rating | 1 Comment »
January 9, 2008 - 10:20 pm - Posted by Administrator
OK, so I’m gonna admit right up front, I had about five beers and a couple of margaritas in me, and it was about one thirty in the morning before I finally sat down to watch Final one night. I think I DVR’ed it from the Independent Film Channel if I remember right. It’s possible that I don’t because of the beers and margaritas, but if you’ve been reading much of this blog, you probably already know I’m full of shit, so no point pretending I’m informed now.
Occasionally I take notes while I’m watching movies so I can refer to them later when I blog it. Here’s what I wrote for Final:
I don’t know if I can buy Denis Leary in this type of role.
What the hell is going on in this movie?
What the fuck?? Is that Jim Gaffigan?
Is something going to happen soon?
This is a science fiction movie without special effects!
After that my writing trails off on the page and ends in a stain that can only be the drool from where I fell asleep at about three am.
Here’s the deal. Final is one of those concepts that was borne out of a love for science fiction, minus the money to do it properly. Final is as low-budget as they come. Denis Leary is Bill, a man who wakes up in something that’s not quite a prison, but a little more than a hospital. We do not know exactly what Bill’s malady is, but we are treated to flashbacks from his life where he appears to be going through a very tough time. He’s the outcast of his family, he’s broken up with his fiancee, his father has died, and eventually he flashes back to his own apparent attempted suicide.
His therapist Ann (Hope Davis) is in charge of deciding whether he’s “recovering” or not. She begins work figuring out why he has delusions of being cryogenically frozen for four hundred years, and why he believes he will soon be executed. Just as you’re about to go, “OK, what the fuck??” and hit the stop button on the DVR, the story unfurls itself all at once and you find out that Bill hasn’t been frozen for four hundred years, but he is going to die soon.
The pacing in Final is terrible. Nothing seems to happen for the first half of the movie, then they reveal, like, ten plot points all at once, then there’s a long slow slide to the end. It’s like Denis Leary said “I’ve been frozen for four hundred years” and the doctors said “No you haven’t. Seriously.” Then as the movie viewer, you go “OK, whew. Cuz that would have been weird.” Then the Doctors say, “Instead you’ve been in a coma, your mom died, your girlfriend abandoned you to a science experiment and got remarried, we froze you, there was a terrible epidemic that ravaged the world, now we woke you up, but we have to kill you so we can save the world with your tissue cells because you were frozen before the pandemic burned into the human genome.” And all of that is revealed in less than five minutes. Nothing else happens. And the entire movie (except the brief flashbacks) happens in the hospital. Jim Gaffigan plays a hospital orderlie who hardly ever speaks.
But then maybe I was just drunk.
** Two Stars
Posted in Pandemic, Post-Apocalypse, Suspended Animation, The Future, Time Travel, Two Star Rating | No Comments »
January 7, 2008 - 12:36 am - Posted by Administrator
After the world witnessed the horrors of the second World War, the science fiction genre became a psychological sounding board, reflecting nuclear nightmares and a fear of technology. Moviemakers populated their films with mushroom clouds and UFOs, harbingers of our inevitable technological doom. These are the movies I grew up with.
Unknown to me were the movies of the previous generation, the post-World War I movies which portrayed the horrors of the day. Poison gas attacks. Things to Come is one of those movies.
Filmed in 1935, and released in 1936, as Europe was on the brink of another World War, Things to Come is the story of one hundred years in Everytown, a city which is popularly believed to be a thinly-veiled London.
Things to Come is based on The Shape of Things to Come novel by H.G. Wells, and the movie was written by Wells himself. Director William Cameron Menzies [Around the World in 80 Days, Gone with the Wind] was said to have entertained Wells suggestions during the production process as well.
The story covers a timeline that stretches from 1936 to 2036, and that timeline is the main shortcoming of the script. The movie becomes an unceasing parade of new characters and they can become laborious to keep track of. In the beginning, Everytown is an idyllic community of peaceful citizens. They spend Christmas in fear of a war which eventually decimates the city. The war goes on for thirty years and is followed by a plague called the “Wandering Sickness” which runs rampant for years more. They slowly become isolated from the world, communication is cut off, and the survivors shun technology. Things to Come is, to my knowledge, the first post-apocalyptic science fiction film. Although many would argue Metropolis deserves that honor, this is the earliest one I ever saw which looked… dirty. Like Mad Max. A crucial component for any post-apocalypse picture.
Eventually the local techno-phobe warlord who rules Everytown is surprised by the appearance of a stranger in possession of high-technology–most notably, futuristic airplanes. The stranger is able to convince the citizens of Everytown that social order is making a comeback in other parts of the world, and technology plays a big part of it. He brings a message of hope for a future tech-savvy civilization–”Wings Over the World”.
After Everytown’s World War I-era air force is easily defeated by the highly-advanced Wings Over the World Air Force, the citizens embrace technology whole-heartedly and begin rebuilding Everytown Utopian-style, underground and highly futuristic. The movie comes to a conclusion in 2036 as humans prepare to send our first astronauts to the moon via a giant “Space Gun”, as yet another group of techno-phobe citizens threatens to revolt.
Many have called Things to Come cheesy, the story preachy, and the dialogue corny. All of those things are true at times. Honestly the choice of costumes for the futuristic characters is a little too Flash Gordon for my taste. I don’t get into the whole Toga-and-Shoulder-Pads look. And the dialogue is generally too wooden and, well, 1930s-ish. However, the real legacy of Things to Come is the look. If you were mesmerized by the visuals in the otherwise-terrible “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” then you will enjoy Things to Come. The first time I watched it, every ten minutes I had a light-bulb moment… “Oh, so that’s where they got the idea for that…”
Director Menzies would go on to contribute to the motion picture industry primarily as a producer, and especially in the field of Art Direction and Design. His flair for the artistic shows. The sets, models, and locations used in this movie are nearly unparalleled, and I had to keep reminding myself that this was a movie filmed in 1935. In Things to Come, you’ll see portrayals of Auto-Gyros (an early type of helicopter), super-highways, flying wings, elevated monorails, moving sidewalks, flat screen video monitors (transparent no less), and more. Watch for the 2036 scene where the guy turns on his video monitor to show his granddaughter what Everytown used to look like, and you can see through the screen from the back. Prophetic. Keep in mind, this is during a time when nobody had a television.
Anyway, this is not your movie if you need today’s special effects and dialogue. The sound is especially bad in this movie. But if you can appreciate it for its occasional moments, definitely check it out. It’s a science fiction classic. If I could split it up, I’d give it three stars for story, but four stars for the look.
Posted in 1930's, Four Star Rating, Post-Apocalypse, The Future | No Comments »
