After two theme months May will definitely not be a theme month. I will have theme months in future. There will be another remake month. This time I could have done Planet of the Apes, Rollerball, Judge Dredd and Total Recall too. There are also other remake set I like to do when movies become available. I really like to write about Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Other themes could be Star Trek and Dr Who. This year is 50th anniversary of Dr Who so I have to do something about Dr Who.
I will try something new from now on. Youtube has trailers for most movies I write about. I will start to post trailers as teaser day or two before blog post. This way you know what will be coming and can watch the movie before reading the post. Other benefit will be that you can see what movie looks like to get better idea about it. I will try this for little time and if it seems working and I can easily find trailers I will continue this.
Lately I have written longer and longer posts. Next post (after trailer) will be almost thousand words long. I have aimed for four hundred words. If it feels like I write longer but I will write something to get to four hundred words. I am not sure if I should also have upper limit. It could make posts better if I write only certain points of movie. With I am Legend there were few things I left out because post started to get quite long for my taste.
I remembered that Charles Manson called his group Family. I am not sure if Omega Man was about Charles Manson and his group. I didn't feel like that. But I don't know what it was during that time or how people felt about Charles Manson back then. Other thing I learned about Omega Man is that the interracial kiss was big deal when movie was released. This shows how far we have come because I didn't see anything special in it.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Monday, April 29, 2013
I am Legend (2007)
SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie I am Legend (2007)
This movie it third movie adaptation of Richard Mathesons's novel I am Legend. First one to use that name. This time Will Smith is Robert Neville, last survivor of plague that turned infected into light-sensitive wild animal. I call them vampires from now on because no better name was given during the movie. They are called dark seekers during movie but I however prefer name vampire. They are bit like supervampires from Blade 2.
This time plague was caused by cure for cancer which was not what it was expected. It turned people into raging wild animal and cure evolved into airborne disease. Cancer is not single disease but group of conditions called cancer. For that reason there won't be universal cure for cancer even if term is so often used. The cure sounded reasonable for someone who don't have real knowledge in there matters. How ever I don't think anything could really change humans that much that plague did in this movie. Even if you aim for change like that. Vampires physique was too much apart from humans to be realistic.
Vampires could have been more realistic and movie would not have lost anything. Now vampires are bit overkill with their superhuman speed, strength and agility. They were like wild animals in almost every way. Some say that they have still some human features left but I think that is because those who say that don't know what wild animals are capable of. I think only thing vampires did in movie, that wild animals don't do, was that they had dogs. Other things they did you can find from animal kingdom also. Vampires were just more advanced. Neville didn't think vampires were as capable as they were, but that don't make them much more than wild animals.
Alternative cut makes them more humans than theatrical cut. Alternative cut is few minutes longer. It has one scene extended, one extra scene and alternative ending. I didn't watch both versions back to back and compare it. I trust on what I found from internet on this one. Extended scene and extra scene could have been in movie and that would have changed nothing. Extended scene introduced something for alternative ending. Extra scene just repeated what we learned from trap scene. Vampire can plan and build traps.
I like original ending better. In both endings Neville, Anna and Ethan escape to Neville's laboratory where they find that vampire woman is cured. In original ending Neville takes blood from cured vampire and gives it to Anna. Then he put Anna and Ethan safe place, takes hand-grenade and explodes the laboratory. Anna and Ethan survive and they find colony of uninfected humans. In alternative ending leader of vampires paint butterfly to glass door and Neville realizes that vampires want the cured vampire back. Neville takes infusions from cured vampire and it turns into vampire again. Then he give it to vampires and vampires leave them. Then Neville, Anna and Ethan go to seek other survivors.
I like original ending better because it is consistent with rest of movie. Alternative ending makes vampires more human than they are in rest of the movie. Alternative ending indicates that vampires hunt Neville only because he has taken them to test subjects. When Neville finds error of his ways they leave him alone. Vampires could have learned to live with their disease but nothing in movie before alternative ending indicates that. They are raging wild animal during movie. Original cut also shows that leader of vampires loves cured vampire. Alternative cut takes humanity of vampires too far. Original cut also indicates that they are not as wild animals as Neville thinks but it doesn't underline humanity as much as alternative ending.
Last Man on Earth is favourite movie out of these three. It was first version which may have something to do with that. This would have worked better if I didn't know what story is about. With all CGI this is looks best and if you don't count vampires this is quite realistic. This is only one where top scientist don't waste three years to find cure only to find out blood transfusion is the cure. In this the cure is not that easy. Last Man on Earth studied most how plague effects on society and it had most realistic disease victims. I totally missed point of Omega Man. It might be about something that happened at the end of '60s. But I don't know what it could be. I have no idea which version was closest to source material. If I could show these to unspoiled person I would show I am Legend first. Then Last Man on Earth. I would skip Omega Man. I am Legend benefits most if you don't know the story. Last Man on Earth works even if you know the story.
This movie it third movie adaptation of Richard Mathesons's novel I am Legend. First one to use that name. This time Will Smith is Robert Neville, last survivor of plague that turned infected into light-sensitive wild animal. I call them vampires from now on because no better name was given during the movie. They are called dark seekers during movie but I however prefer name vampire. They are bit like supervampires from Blade 2.
This time plague was caused by cure for cancer which was not what it was expected. It turned people into raging wild animal and cure evolved into airborne disease. Cancer is not single disease but group of conditions called cancer. For that reason there won't be universal cure for cancer even if term is so often used. The cure sounded reasonable for someone who don't have real knowledge in there matters. How ever I don't think anything could really change humans that much that plague did in this movie. Even if you aim for change like that. Vampires physique was too much apart from humans to be realistic.
Vampires could have been more realistic and movie would not have lost anything. Now vampires are bit overkill with their superhuman speed, strength and agility. They were like wild animals in almost every way. Some say that they have still some human features left but I think that is because those who say that don't know what wild animals are capable of. I think only thing vampires did in movie, that wild animals don't do, was that they had dogs. Other things they did you can find from animal kingdom also. Vampires were just more advanced. Neville didn't think vampires were as capable as they were, but that don't make them much more than wild animals.
Alternative cut makes them more humans than theatrical cut. Alternative cut is few minutes longer. It has one scene extended, one extra scene and alternative ending. I didn't watch both versions back to back and compare it. I trust on what I found from internet on this one. Extended scene and extra scene could have been in movie and that would have changed nothing. Extended scene introduced something for alternative ending. Extra scene just repeated what we learned from trap scene. Vampire can plan and build traps.
I like original ending better. In both endings Neville, Anna and Ethan escape to Neville's laboratory where they find that vampire woman is cured. In original ending Neville takes blood from cured vampire and gives it to Anna. Then he put Anna and Ethan safe place, takes hand-grenade and explodes the laboratory. Anna and Ethan survive and they find colony of uninfected humans. In alternative ending leader of vampires paint butterfly to glass door and Neville realizes that vampires want the cured vampire back. Neville takes infusions from cured vampire and it turns into vampire again. Then he give it to vampires and vampires leave them. Then Neville, Anna and Ethan go to seek other survivors.
I like original ending better because it is consistent with rest of movie. Alternative ending makes vampires more human than they are in rest of the movie. Alternative ending indicates that vampires hunt Neville only because he has taken them to test subjects. When Neville finds error of his ways they leave him alone. Vampires could have learned to live with their disease but nothing in movie before alternative ending indicates that. They are raging wild animal during movie. Original cut also shows that leader of vampires loves cured vampire. Alternative cut takes humanity of vampires too far. Original cut also indicates that they are not as wild animals as Neville thinks but it doesn't underline humanity as much as alternative ending.
Last Man on Earth is favourite movie out of these three. It was first version which may have something to do with that. This would have worked better if I didn't know what story is about. With all CGI this is looks best and if you don't count vampires this is quite realistic. This is only one where top scientist don't waste three years to find cure only to find out blood transfusion is the cure. In this the cure is not that easy. Last Man on Earth studied most how plague effects on society and it had most realistic disease victims. I totally missed point of Omega Man. It might be about something that happened at the end of '60s. But I don't know what it could be. I have no idea which version was closest to source material. If I could show these to unspoiled person I would show I am Legend first. Then Last Man on Earth. I would skip Omega Man. I am Legend benefits most if you don't know the story. Last Man on Earth works even if you know the story.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
The Omega Man (1971)
SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie The Omega Man (1971)
Charles Heston is Neville, last man on earth. Plague has taken other humans. Those few that have survived plague are turned into light-sensitive albino religious cult called Family. They are not vampires as in The Last Man on Earth nor they are zombies. Movie doesn't tell if they have lost their mental abilities or not. Some of them seem to lost but their leader Matthias had same ideas before he got plague. Matthias and one other member of Family have clearly kept their mental abilities but others seem to lost them. But that is not clear. Like is with point of the movie. I am not sure what it is.
Because plague victims are not vampires this time Neville uses more modern weapons. He hunts Family by day and by night Family gives him hard time. This time plague is biological weapon released during war between Soviet Union and China. Neville was working on antidote. When he got sick he too experimental antidote and that worked. That was too late for others. Others got sick and died or turned into light-sensitive albinos.
Matthias made his own religious cult among survivors and called it Family. Family wants to destroy all modern things because they think those gave them punishment. They hate Neville because he is the last thing from earlier times. Family has problem that plague still kills them. Not as fast as those who dies right after they got plague, but some time later. It is not clear if they know this or not. Matthias doesn't want to be cured. He sees that humans deserve the punishment and doesn't want to get back to earlier times and being normal human. When he founds out the cure, he kills the cured kid and goes after Neville who can cure everyone.
Family rather have their faith and destroy everything from the past than be saved from plague that will eventually kill them. Religious cult theme is underlined with what happened to Lisa. Lisa was uninfected when Neville found her. She was against Family and wanted to cure plague victims. Neville was only immune human. Others will get plague sooner or later. When Lisa gets it she turns into family member. She changes totally and eventually betrays Neville. Like I said earlier it is not clear how plague works. Early in movie Family can only move during night and they have problems with bright light. In the end they don't have problems with bright light anymore.
In the end Family kills Neville but this time cure is not lost. Neville save some cure and gave it to small group of uninfected kids before he died. I am sure there is lot of symbolism in the ending with Neville dying in fountain looking like crucified and giving cure made from his blood to small group of kids but it is totally lost in me. Probably the spear also had some deeper meaning. This might be a good movie for someone who understands all symbolism. I just don't understand it and it doesn't help this movie that I saw better version of this story before this movie.
Charles Heston is Neville, last man on earth. Plague has taken other humans. Those few that have survived plague are turned into light-sensitive albino religious cult called Family. They are not vampires as in The Last Man on Earth nor they are zombies. Movie doesn't tell if they have lost their mental abilities or not. Some of them seem to lost but their leader Matthias had same ideas before he got plague. Matthias and one other member of Family have clearly kept their mental abilities but others seem to lost them. But that is not clear. Like is with point of the movie. I am not sure what it is.
Because plague victims are not vampires this time Neville uses more modern weapons. He hunts Family by day and by night Family gives him hard time. This time plague is biological weapon released during war between Soviet Union and China. Neville was working on antidote. When he got sick he too experimental antidote and that worked. That was too late for others. Others got sick and died or turned into light-sensitive albinos.
Matthias made his own religious cult among survivors and called it Family. Family wants to destroy all modern things because they think those gave them punishment. They hate Neville because he is the last thing from earlier times. Family has problem that plague still kills them. Not as fast as those who dies right after they got plague, but some time later. It is not clear if they know this or not. Matthias doesn't want to be cured. He sees that humans deserve the punishment and doesn't want to get back to earlier times and being normal human. When he founds out the cure, he kills the cured kid and goes after Neville who can cure everyone.
Family rather have their faith and destroy everything from the past than be saved from plague that will eventually kill them. Religious cult theme is underlined with what happened to Lisa. Lisa was uninfected when Neville found her. She was against Family and wanted to cure plague victims. Neville was only immune human. Others will get plague sooner or later. When Lisa gets it she turns into family member. She changes totally and eventually betrays Neville. Like I said earlier it is not clear how plague works. Early in movie Family can only move during night and they have problems with bright light. In the end they don't have problems with bright light anymore.
In the end Family kills Neville but this time cure is not lost. Neville save some cure and gave it to small group of uninfected kids before he died. I am sure there is lot of symbolism in the ending with Neville dying in fountain looking like crucified and giving cure made from his blood to small group of kids but it is totally lost in me. Probably the spear also had some deeper meaning. This might be a good movie for someone who understands all symbolism. I just don't understand it and it doesn't help this movie that I saw better version of this story before this movie.
Monday, April 22, 2013
The Last Man on Earth (1964)
SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie The Last Man on Earth (1964). DISCLAIMER!!!! I am not scientist and not authority on evolution. If real biologist, who knows evolution, say I am wrong, believe him/her. What I write is how I understand it. And I might be wrong.
Vincent price is Morgan, last man on earth. Plague has turned other humans to zombie like vampires. They have vampire weaknesses. They can't stand sun, garlic or mirror and wooden stakes kill them. They move and act like zombies. I don't know what they eat because they are not after blood or brains. Movie was released four years before Night of the Living Dead. I am pretty sure George A. Romero got some inspiration for his film from this movie. Vampires of this movie are so much like zombies that this movie had to have some inspiration of their creation.
Morgan has had the whole earth by himself for three years. He wakes up at mornings and goes to hunt vampires. When night falls he fortifies to his home and hope vampires can't get in. He gets his eats canned food which he found from supermarkets and fuel from abandon cars. It is unclear how long until food become uneatable and he start questioning why he does what he does. He can't kill all vampires and he can't find other survivors.
It was not always like this. He was scientist that tried to find cure to plague that kills people. Nothing cured or gave immunity to plague. Officials started to burn dead plague victims. Getting infected is dead sentence and officials collect all infected they know. Morgan's daughter gets ill. He wants to keep her out of doctors had because he know they would take her away. His wife can stand situation and calls doctor. When he gets back home he finds out that her daughter is dead and taken to be burned at pit.
When her wife got ill he decide to not let them burn her. He buries her dead body but finds out soon why officials burn dead bodies. His wife rises from grave and comes back. Society has stopped working because everyone is too scared to leave their homes. Finally he ends up being only one not infected. Unlike normal vampires, these vampires are turned into vampires by plague like disease. No biting or eating is required. There are also no zombie rules since those were introduced four years later.
One day Morgan finds Ruth another survivor. He takes her his home where him finds she is infected too. He learns that Ruth have medicine that keep her from turning into zombie-like and lets her walk during daytime. When they discuss he realizes that there might be cure in his blood. He gives her his blood while she sleeps. This cures her. There is cure for disease. Ruth tells Morgan why he is there. There is society of not zombie-like vampires. When Morgan has killed vampires, he has also killed them. Tonight is the night when they hit back.
Ruth know Morgan is the cure but she can't stop other killing Morgan. Morgan doesn't help this. He sees them as freaks as he is the last human. When Morgan is killed, Ruth is last real human left. She hides this fact.
In flashbacks Morgan's boss says he thinks plague is some sort of evolutionary process. Here is what I think that meant. Based on what we saw on movie plague had three effects on humans. Some were immune. It turned some to zombies this is group that I called earlier zombie-like vampires.. Third group it turned vampires without making them lose mental abilities. I assume medicine Ruth took make her resistant to sunlight, garlic and mirrors. There must be very little of that medicine because others didn't walk on daylight. Because vampires hunted zombies I assume there was more difference than only medicine.
There is common misconception that evolution is survival of the fittest. This movie shows how the fittest doesn't always win and survive. Immune people like Morgan were strongest in this movie. They didn't have any weaknesses. Their problem was that there were too little of them. Strongest could now reproduce, so weaker took its place. Vampires had vampire weaknesses but because there was so many of them they could collaborate and win fittest ones. Zombies were the weakest ones. They had vampire weaknesses and lost their mental capacity. Vampires won them easily. Plague turned human race into weaker using evolutionary mechanisms. Evolution is not always to survival of the fittest. Sometimes conditions change so much that fittest is not the one that survives. In real life that is what happened to dinosaurs.
Vincent price is Morgan, last man on earth. Plague has turned other humans to zombie like vampires. They have vampire weaknesses. They can't stand sun, garlic or mirror and wooden stakes kill them. They move and act like zombies. I don't know what they eat because they are not after blood or brains. Movie was released four years before Night of the Living Dead. I am pretty sure George A. Romero got some inspiration for his film from this movie. Vampires of this movie are so much like zombies that this movie had to have some inspiration of their creation.
Morgan has had the whole earth by himself for three years. He wakes up at mornings and goes to hunt vampires. When night falls he fortifies to his home and hope vampires can't get in. He gets his eats canned food which he found from supermarkets and fuel from abandon cars. It is unclear how long until food become uneatable and he start questioning why he does what he does. He can't kill all vampires and he can't find other survivors.
It was not always like this. He was scientist that tried to find cure to plague that kills people. Nothing cured or gave immunity to plague. Officials started to burn dead plague victims. Getting infected is dead sentence and officials collect all infected they know. Morgan's daughter gets ill. He wants to keep her out of doctors had because he know they would take her away. His wife can stand situation and calls doctor. When he gets back home he finds out that her daughter is dead and taken to be burned at pit.
When her wife got ill he decide to not let them burn her. He buries her dead body but finds out soon why officials burn dead bodies. His wife rises from grave and comes back. Society has stopped working because everyone is too scared to leave their homes. Finally he ends up being only one not infected. Unlike normal vampires, these vampires are turned into vampires by plague like disease. No biting or eating is required. There are also no zombie rules since those were introduced four years later.
One day Morgan finds Ruth another survivor. He takes her his home where him finds she is infected too. He learns that Ruth have medicine that keep her from turning into zombie-like and lets her walk during daytime. When they discuss he realizes that there might be cure in his blood. He gives her his blood while she sleeps. This cures her. There is cure for disease. Ruth tells Morgan why he is there. There is society of not zombie-like vampires. When Morgan has killed vampires, he has also killed them. Tonight is the night when they hit back.
Ruth know Morgan is the cure but she can't stop other killing Morgan. Morgan doesn't help this. He sees them as freaks as he is the last human. When Morgan is killed, Ruth is last real human left. She hides this fact.
In flashbacks Morgan's boss says he thinks plague is some sort of evolutionary process. Here is what I think that meant. Based on what we saw on movie plague had three effects on humans. Some were immune. It turned some to zombies this is group that I called earlier zombie-like vampires.. Third group it turned vampires without making them lose mental abilities. I assume medicine Ruth took make her resistant to sunlight, garlic and mirrors. There must be very little of that medicine because others didn't walk on daylight. Because vampires hunted zombies I assume there was more difference than only medicine.
There is common misconception that evolution is survival of the fittest. This movie shows how the fittest doesn't always win and survive. Immune people like Morgan were strongest in this movie. They didn't have any weaknesses. Their problem was that there were too little of them. Strongest could now reproduce, so weaker took its place. Vampires had vampire weaknesses but because there was so many of them they could collaborate and win fittest ones. Zombies were the weakest ones. They had vampire weaknesses and lost their mental capacity. Vampires won them easily. Plague turned human race into weaker using evolutionary mechanisms. Evolution is not always to survival of the fittest. Sometimes conditions change so much that fittest is not the one that survives. In real life that is what happened to dinosaurs.
Friday, April 19, 2013
The Thing (1982)
SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie The Thing (1982). DISCLAIMER!!! I am not a biologist. I might get something wrong on that area.
Movie starts with Norwegians hunting dog from helicopter. Dog manages to get American science camp. One norwegian kills himself with grenade by mistake and other tries to warn Americans. I assume Norwegians were scientists. It is strange that they didn't speak english. Other norwegian starts shooting the dog and americans because they are on the way. Americans kill norwegian because they think he has lost his mind. For some strange reason they let the dog wander around science camp. Like they don't care about their scientific experiments.
Americans go to Norwegian camp where they found burned corpses, frozen corpses and one strange corpse with two head. What happened in Norwegian camp was what happened in The Thing from Another World with exception that Norwegians didn't win. I have understood that new The Thing is prequel to this movie and tells what happened in Norwegian camp. I haven't seen that and it is not available at the moment. So I can't tell anything more about that.
Americans study what they found from Norwegian camp. Finally they put the dog with other dogs. When dog is left with other dogs it turns to nightmarish monster and starts to infect other dogs. Americans, which I stop calling Americans from now on, kill monster. Blair, the main scientist, finds out that the thing infects other species and start to imitate them. If it is left to civilization whole planet would eventually be infected. Men don't know who is human and who is imitation. Blair kills rest of the dogs and destroys their radio, tractor and helicopter. Men are cut from rest of the world. Others think Blair lost his mind and lock him away.
Men don't trust each other and the thing kill them and infect them one by one. After they figure out who is human and who is not they go to check Blair. They left Childs alone to main building. They find that Blair has escaped and that Blair is imitation. Question here is was Blair human or imitation when he destroyed their transports and radio. I think he was still human. It don't make much sense for the thing to destroy ways to escape to civilization. The thing could have infected everyone one by one and then move to next camp. But one open question is had it done that already. Men could not contact any one via radio during the movie. Dog came from norwegian camp and norwegian had found flying saucer. But something had happened to other camps too.
They see Childs running from main building and someone destroying generator. Blair has been building flying saucer. Men destroy it. They decide to burn down everything because they are going to die anyway and they don't want the thing to survive. After burning everything and killing Blair imitation only two guys survive. Mac who is the hero of the movie and Childs. We know that Mac is still human but we can't be sure about Childs. Childs were left alone and he might be infected. Movie leaves Childs and Mac waiting for freezing death. If Childs is imitation he will survive until rescuers come.
We did see that imitations can talk. They were like real humans until they were discovered. This makes the thing quite capable. It came from another world and it still can imitate humans so well that real humans don't know any difference. I wrote in my Alien posts how parasites are specialised. The thing is even more extra ordinary than aliens. The thing can be like other species not just use them as hosts. Compared to the thing aliens became believable. Just think about how complicated it has to be to get all memories, behavior and language from species from another world.
Movie starts with Norwegians hunting dog from helicopter. Dog manages to get American science camp. One norwegian kills himself with grenade by mistake and other tries to warn Americans. I assume Norwegians were scientists. It is strange that they didn't speak english. Other norwegian starts shooting the dog and americans because they are on the way. Americans kill norwegian because they think he has lost his mind. For some strange reason they let the dog wander around science camp. Like they don't care about their scientific experiments.
Americans go to Norwegian camp where they found burned corpses, frozen corpses and one strange corpse with two head. What happened in Norwegian camp was what happened in The Thing from Another World with exception that Norwegians didn't win. I have understood that new The Thing is prequel to this movie and tells what happened in Norwegian camp. I haven't seen that and it is not available at the moment. So I can't tell anything more about that.
Americans study what they found from Norwegian camp. Finally they put the dog with other dogs. When dog is left with other dogs it turns to nightmarish monster and starts to infect other dogs. Americans, which I stop calling Americans from now on, kill monster. Blair, the main scientist, finds out that the thing infects other species and start to imitate them. If it is left to civilization whole planet would eventually be infected. Men don't know who is human and who is imitation. Blair kills rest of the dogs and destroys their radio, tractor and helicopter. Men are cut from rest of the world. Others think Blair lost his mind and lock him away.
Men don't trust each other and the thing kill them and infect them one by one. After they figure out who is human and who is not they go to check Blair. They left Childs alone to main building. They find that Blair has escaped and that Blair is imitation. Question here is was Blair human or imitation when he destroyed their transports and radio. I think he was still human. It don't make much sense for the thing to destroy ways to escape to civilization. The thing could have infected everyone one by one and then move to next camp. But one open question is had it done that already. Men could not contact any one via radio during the movie. Dog came from norwegian camp and norwegian had found flying saucer. But something had happened to other camps too.
They see Childs running from main building and someone destroying generator. Blair has been building flying saucer. Men destroy it. They decide to burn down everything because they are going to die anyway and they don't want the thing to survive. After burning everything and killing Blair imitation only two guys survive. Mac who is the hero of the movie and Childs. We know that Mac is still human but we can't be sure about Childs. Childs were left alone and he might be infected. Movie leaves Childs and Mac waiting for freezing death. If Childs is imitation he will survive until rescuers come.
We did see that imitations can talk. They were like real humans until they were discovered. This makes the thing quite capable. It came from another world and it still can imitate humans so well that real humans don't know any difference. I wrote in my Alien posts how parasites are specialised. The thing is even more extra ordinary than aliens. The thing can be like other species not just use them as hosts. Compared to the thing aliens became believable. Just think about how complicated it has to be to get all memories, behavior and language from species from another world.
Monday, April 15, 2013
The Thing from Another World (1951)
SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie The Thing from Another World (1951).
I usually tell how you can tell science fiction movie is from 50's because everybody works towards common goal. Well, this movie is different. This movie has more modern themes. This begins like normal 50's science fiction movie. Everyone is one big happy family. Military and scientists work together. They even take one reporter to science station and let him hang around. However everything changes as story goes on. One another not so 50's thing is that this have strong female on 50's level. She have the other role in movie than just to be saved. She actually helps men to fight the thing and give useful information to them.
Scientists have found crashed flying saucer near north pole. They ask military to help digging up the ship and help studying it. While military destroys the flying saucer, they manage to save one passenger inside ice block. When they got back to station storm traps them inside science station and cuts their communication to small messages periodically. This is when we begin to see more modern themes. Military guys want to have orders what to do while scientists want to study passenger. Someone sets heater on ice block and the thing is set free. They found out that it is intelligent humanoid plant.
Leader of scientists wants to study life form no matter the cost. He is ready to sacrifice whole human race to know more about the thing. Just to underline Frankenstein theme the thing look much like Frankenstein monster. Leader of scientists finds a way to grow the thing's seeds by feeding them blood. Military guys try to find way to kill the thing when they got orders to keep it alive. Tension between scientist and military guys grow. Everybody is happy while the thing is locked inside green room. But it escapes from there and turns the heat off. Their commands are to keep everyone including the thing alive but military guys decide to kill it to save themselves. Leader of scientist tries to prevent that but in the end military guys electrocute the thing and burn all seeds.
This movie has themes that are almost standards in modern science fiction but not so common in 50's science fiction. Scientists are ready to do anything for science. Military wants to study potential weapons. In this they don't mention that people are expendable if they can study the thing. Leader of scientists think that way. Nowadays this is on shadow of genre changing remake. It should not be. This is good movie one its own and worth watching. I don't know how genre changing this movie was. It have themes that are common in later movies but which I don't remember from other 50's movies.
I guess you have seen the pattern. This april is scifi remake month in this blog. That was not original plan but I realized that many movies I planned for this month were remakes or had remakes. When I check could I do whole month of this. I even found movie with two remakes. That movie well be on monday's post and remakes in last two posts of april.
I usually tell how you can tell science fiction movie is from 50's because everybody works towards common goal. Well, this movie is different. This movie has more modern themes. This begins like normal 50's science fiction movie. Everyone is one big happy family. Military and scientists work together. They even take one reporter to science station and let him hang around. However everything changes as story goes on. One another not so 50's thing is that this have strong female on 50's level. She have the other role in movie than just to be saved. She actually helps men to fight the thing and give useful information to them.
Scientists have found crashed flying saucer near north pole. They ask military to help digging up the ship and help studying it. While military destroys the flying saucer, they manage to save one passenger inside ice block. When they got back to station storm traps them inside science station and cuts their communication to small messages periodically. This is when we begin to see more modern themes. Military guys want to have orders what to do while scientists want to study passenger. Someone sets heater on ice block and the thing is set free. They found out that it is intelligent humanoid plant.
Leader of scientists wants to study life form no matter the cost. He is ready to sacrifice whole human race to know more about the thing. Just to underline Frankenstein theme the thing look much like Frankenstein monster. Leader of scientists finds a way to grow the thing's seeds by feeding them blood. Military guys try to find way to kill the thing when they got orders to keep it alive. Tension between scientist and military guys grow. Everybody is happy while the thing is locked inside green room. But it escapes from there and turns the heat off. Their commands are to keep everyone including the thing alive but military guys decide to kill it to save themselves. Leader of scientist tries to prevent that but in the end military guys electrocute the thing and burn all seeds.
This movie has themes that are almost standards in modern science fiction but not so common in 50's science fiction. Scientists are ready to do anything for science. Military wants to study potential weapons. In this they don't mention that people are expendable if they can study the thing. Leader of scientists think that way. Nowadays this is on shadow of genre changing remake. It should not be. This is good movie one its own and worth watching. I don't know how genre changing this movie was. It have themes that are common in later movies but which I don't remember from other 50's movies.
I guess you have seen the pattern. This april is scifi remake month in this blog. That was not original plan but I realized that many movies I planned for this month were remakes or had remakes. When I check could I do whole month of this. I even found movie with two remakes. That movie well be on monday's post and remakes in last two posts of april.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
War of the Worlds (2005)
SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie War of the Worlds (2005) and all the other versions of this story.
This movie is hard to analyze. There is so little to analyze. Whole movie is a depressive trip to end of the world drowned into 9/11 imagery. There are many scenes and stages which are clearly from 9/11. Like one where air plane crashed to neighborhood. There doesn't seem to be any other theme than 9/11 and escaping horrors of 9/11. Characters doesn't grow during movie. They just lose everything and try to survive from alien machines. Movie starts with 9/11 imagery goes to nightmarish hell where aliens do what ever they want. Only during last 10 minutes something positive happens when our hero manages to destroy one alien machine and after that bacteria start to kill aliens. Before the end army manages to destroy one malfunctioning alien machine. Then it is all over.
Movie shows alien invasion from perspective of divorced man who tries to take his childs to their mother. Only thing that changes between characters is that son starts to respect his father. Nothing else changes between them. Father and daughter doesn't change anyway even when they go to hell and back. I didn't like how son was there like nothing had happened after last time we saw him. He made father to choose between him and his sister during battle between army and aliens. He wanted to join battle and father had to let him to not lose daughter. Scene ends in fire and audience is let to believe that son was killed. Son waiting them like nothing happened in the end ate impact of that scene.
Aliens are reduced to nightmarish monsters. We learn almost nothing about them. They have planned this for ages because their machines were under cities when they attacked. Aliens are so evil that they fertilize their plants with human blood. Their plant are red and grow fast. This makes areas they control look like red hell. In the end bacteria kills them. If they had their machines here for ages, one would assume that they should know about bacteria or should have done some tests.
This movie has potential to be better. It is rare that this high-profile movie is this depressive and dark. Problem is that there are no happy moments. Chemistry of main characters doesn't work for this kind of movie. I don't mean actors chemistry. Main characters are divorced father and his kids who doesn't want to be with him. This means that even light moments are uneasy at some level. In the beginning we see how kids don't want to be with their father and father doesn't care much about kids. In next lighter scene we see how much better mother lives with his new man than father lives and father doesn't know anything about his kids. During next lighter moment son tells that father is taken them to mother because he wants to get rid of them and son tries to join passing military and leave father and daughter alone. Next lighter moment comes at the end when father and daughter get to mother, her new man and her parents. In this scene there is feeling that everybody is glad that daughter survived and are uneasy that father is there.
There is only one interesting character in this movie. He is Tim Robbins as creepy guy in cellar. Cellar scenes are best ones in movie. They tone down destruction and you don't know what to expect because you are now sure what creepy guy would do. Because son is not there to tell how bad father is, father and daughter seems like real family. The only little promise of happiness for father during the movie.
This movie is hard to analyze. There is so little to analyze. Whole movie is a depressive trip to end of the world drowned into 9/11 imagery. There are many scenes and stages which are clearly from 9/11. Like one where air plane crashed to neighborhood. There doesn't seem to be any other theme than 9/11 and escaping horrors of 9/11. Characters doesn't grow during movie. They just lose everything and try to survive from alien machines. Movie starts with 9/11 imagery goes to nightmarish hell where aliens do what ever they want. Only during last 10 minutes something positive happens when our hero manages to destroy one alien machine and after that bacteria start to kill aliens. Before the end army manages to destroy one malfunctioning alien machine. Then it is all over.
Movie shows alien invasion from perspective of divorced man who tries to take his childs to their mother. Only thing that changes between characters is that son starts to respect his father. Nothing else changes between them. Father and daughter doesn't change anyway even when they go to hell and back. I didn't like how son was there like nothing had happened after last time we saw him. He made father to choose between him and his sister during battle between army and aliens. He wanted to join battle and father had to let him to not lose daughter. Scene ends in fire and audience is let to believe that son was killed. Son waiting them like nothing happened in the end ate impact of that scene.
Aliens are reduced to nightmarish monsters. We learn almost nothing about them. They have planned this for ages because their machines were under cities when they attacked. Aliens are so evil that they fertilize their plants with human blood. Their plant are red and grow fast. This makes areas they control look like red hell. In the end bacteria kills them. If they had their machines here for ages, one would assume that they should know about bacteria or should have done some tests.
This movie has potential to be better. It is rare that this high-profile movie is this depressive and dark. Problem is that there are no happy moments. Chemistry of main characters doesn't work for this kind of movie. I don't mean actors chemistry. Main characters are divorced father and his kids who doesn't want to be with him. This means that even light moments are uneasy at some level. In the beginning we see how kids don't want to be with their father and father doesn't care much about kids. In next lighter scene we see how much better mother lives with his new man than father lives and father doesn't know anything about his kids. During next lighter moment son tells that father is taken them to mother because he wants to get rid of them and son tries to join passing military and leave father and daughter alone. Next lighter moment comes at the end when father and daughter get to mother, her new man and her parents. In this scene there is feeling that everybody is glad that daughter survived and are uneasy that father is there.
There is only one interesting character in this movie. He is Tim Robbins as creepy guy in cellar. Cellar scenes are best ones in movie. They tone down destruction and you don't know what to expect because you are now sure what creepy guy would do. Because son is not there to tell how bad father is, father and daughter seems like real family. The only little promise of happiness for father during the movie.
Monday, April 8, 2013
The War of the Worlds (1952)
SPOILER WARNING!!! This Post spoils movie The War of the Worlds (1952) and all the other versions of this story.
The War of the World is based on science fiction novel by H.G. Wells published 1898. There is also infamous radio adoption of same story by Orson Welles from 1938. This is third legendary version of same story. I don't know much about H.G. Wells novel so I can't say how much of scientific inaccuracies are from book and how much from writers of this films. I also don't know how correct science was when movie was made. Movie also has quite religious tone which might be turn off to some science fiction fans. How ever you can see religious tones as they are what characters think because main story is quite scientifically correct. If you for get that Martians don't exist and couple minor things.
I see this movie rather as recovering from second world war movie than red scare movies. Movie looks lot like pictures and videos from second world war. Especially when we see destroyed cities and hear what happens else where in world. I don't see red scare themes in this movie. This movie is about fighting against unstoppable enemy and what happens when everything is lost and you just wait for inevitable. You can see that this is a movie from 50's when everyone works towards common goal and no-one has hidden agendas. Everybody seems to know almost everyone and everyone can go almost anywhere.
What makes this movie a classic science fiction movie? I think it is because this tries to be emotional than other movies and is more character driven than average science fiction. And it can deliver that. Story is not that important for movie. It rather moves from strong emotion to another and have horror movie flavors sometimes. Story itself is simple. Martians came to earth. Nothing can stop them. Last hope is lost after scientist run into rioting mob. When all is lost martian ships start to fall down and Martians die. Rioting mob scene is one of my all time favourite scenes. Until that point everyone has worked towards common goal. After it seems like nothing can stop Martians, last hope is lost when rioting mob attacks scientist and steal their cars and destroy they equipment. Showing that large angry mobs don't always act on their best interest.
After that scientist accepts that all is lost and start to search for his girlfriend that they can spend their last moments together. Martians are in city destroying everything. Scientist and girlfriend finally found each other and wait that Martians destroy the church they are in. Then it happens. Common bacteria start to kill Martians. From storytelling point of view this is cheap solution. But it works because that could actually happen. That happened when Europeans found new world. That time it happened other way. Old world diseases killed new world people.
Special effects are worth mentioning. It is hard to believe that this is from 1952. Some effects are ages but mostly effects look good still today. Sets are excellent and expensive if you compared them to other science fiction. everything is done with real movie standards.
The War of the World is based on science fiction novel by H.G. Wells published 1898. There is also infamous radio adoption of same story by Orson Welles from 1938. This is third legendary version of same story. I don't know much about H.G. Wells novel so I can't say how much of scientific inaccuracies are from book and how much from writers of this films. I also don't know how correct science was when movie was made. Movie also has quite religious tone which might be turn off to some science fiction fans. How ever you can see religious tones as they are what characters think because main story is quite scientifically correct. If you for get that Martians don't exist and couple minor things.
I see this movie rather as recovering from second world war movie than red scare movies. Movie looks lot like pictures and videos from second world war. Especially when we see destroyed cities and hear what happens else where in world. I don't see red scare themes in this movie. This movie is about fighting against unstoppable enemy and what happens when everything is lost and you just wait for inevitable. You can see that this is a movie from 50's when everyone works towards common goal and no-one has hidden agendas. Everybody seems to know almost everyone and everyone can go almost anywhere.
What makes this movie a classic science fiction movie? I think it is because this tries to be emotional than other movies and is more character driven than average science fiction. And it can deliver that. Story is not that important for movie. It rather moves from strong emotion to another and have horror movie flavors sometimes. Story itself is simple. Martians came to earth. Nothing can stop them. Last hope is lost after scientist run into rioting mob. When all is lost martian ships start to fall down and Martians die. Rioting mob scene is one of my all time favourite scenes. Until that point everyone has worked towards common goal. After it seems like nothing can stop Martians, last hope is lost when rioting mob attacks scientist and steal their cars and destroy they equipment. Showing that large angry mobs don't always act on their best interest.
After that scientist accepts that all is lost and start to search for his girlfriend that they can spend their last moments together. Martians are in city destroying everything. Scientist and girlfriend finally found each other and wait that Martians destroy the church they are in. Then it happens. Common bacteria start to kill Martians. From storytelling point of view this is cheap solution. But it works because that could actually happen. That happened when Europeans found new world. That time it happened other way. Old world diseases killed new world people.
Special effects are worth mentioning. It is hard to believe that this is from 1952. Some effects are ages but mostly effects look good still today. Sets are excellent and expensive if you compared them to other science fiction. everything is done with real movie standards.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008)
SPOILER WARNING!!! This Post spoils movie The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008).
This is not science fiction classic I talked about last post. This seemed to be good time to watch remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still. My plan was to write how much worse this was and how bad this is. This was not as bad as I expected. This is far from original movie but not total disaster. Fact that I watched original few hours before this helped this movie. This movie redid some scenes so faithfully that it helps if you know the scene from original movie. For example scene where Klaatu comes from ufo doesn't make much sense, if you don't remember original movie. Original movie explained why Klaatu was shot. In this movie he was just shot. Original also explained robots actions in that scene. This movie didn't.
That was one problem of this movie. This wanted to redo scenes from original movie when it didn't suit perfectly to story line. Another is Keanu Reeves. He is perfect as alien who don't think too much about humans. He drops the ball when alien sees that humans are worth saving. He says the words but nothing indicates that he feels like that.
Original movie was about mutually assured destruction. This has more environmentally conscious message. This time Klaatu came to save the earth. His contact on earth tells him that people know where they are heading to, but are not willing to make necessary change to save them and planet. Klaatu sees that if planet dies humans die too and if humans die planet survives. There are so little places capable of containing complex life that every place counts. Klaatu is just doing his job even when he doesn't want to kill people. This is what this movie got right. What comes after Klaatu sets destruction of human race has some problems.
Klaatu tells how he tried to reason with leader of world. Americans didn't let Klaatu to do that. Why that would stop alien that had powers Klaatu had? If he wanted to prevent destruction of human race he could have easily just walked to United Nations head counters. I think other nations would have wanted that and pressured americans to allow that. When he is decides to destroy people this easily it doesn't make much sense why he hangs with humans so long that he almost gets killed himself. We get to set cemetery scene and visit to scientist with blackboard scene. We get to see how single mother and her step son found common ground. Almost when it is too late Klaatu sees that human race is worth saving. He stops destruction sequence, disables all electronics and leaves.
Disabling all electronics doesn't make much sense in this movie. Klaatu did that in original movie to get attention. In this he does that and leaves. He don't stay to give his message. Only few people know what the whole thing was about. Does that mean that earth can only be saved it we stop using electricity? Not a good selling point if movie tries to have environmentally friendly message.
What I really like both in movies is that Klaatu's people is not made better than us. In first one they had to create robot police force that destroys aggressors to prevent themselves destroying each others. In this they change only when they had no other choice. Humans are coming to point where Klaatu's people changed. Klaatu just didn't want to take gamble that we won't change.
This is not science fiction classic I talked about last post. This seemed to be good time to watch remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still. My plan was to write how much worse this was and how bad this is. This was not as bad as I expected. This is far from original movie but not total disaster. Fact that I watched original few hours before this helped this movie. This movie redid some scenes so faithfully that it helps if you know the scene from original movie. For example scene where Klaatu comes from ufo doesn't make much sense, if you don't remember original movie. Original movie explained why Klaatu was shot. In this movie he was just shot. Original also explained robots actions in that scene. This movie didn't.
That was one problem of this movie. This wanted to redo scenes from original movie when it didn't suit perfectly to story line. Another is Keanu Reeves. He is perfect as alien who don't think too much about humans. He drops the ball when alien sees that humans are worth saving. He says the words but nothing indicates that he feels like that.
Original movie was about mutually assured destruction. This has more environmentally conscious message. This time Klaatu came to save the earth. His contact on earth tells him that people know where they are heading to, but are not willing to make necessary change to save them and planet. Klaatu sees that if planet dies humans die too and if humans die planet survives. There are so little places capable of containing complex life that every place counts. Klaatu is just doing his job even when he doesn't want to kill people. This is what this movie got right. What comes after Klaatu sets destruction of human race has some problems.
Klaatu tells how he tried to reason with leader of world. Americans didn't let Klaatu to do that. Why that would stop alien that had powers Klaatu had? If he wanted to prevent destruction of human race he could have easily just walked to United Nations head counters. I think other nations would have wanted that and pressured americans to allow that. When he is decides to destroy people this easily it doesn't make much sense why he hangs with humans so long that he almost gets killed himself. We get to set cemetery scene and visit to scientist with blackboard scene. We get to see how single mother and her step son found common ground. Almost when it is too late Klaatu sees that human race is worth saving. He stops destruction sequence, disables all electronics and leaves.
Disabling all electronics doesn't make much sense in this movie. Klaatu did that in original movie to get attention. In this he does that and leaves. He don't stay to give his message. Only few people know what the whole thing was about. Does that mean that earth can only be saved it we stop using electricity? Not a good selling point if movie tries to have environmentally friendly message.
What I really like both in movies is that Klaatu's people is not made better than us. In first one they had to create robot police force that destroys aggressors to prevent themselves destroying each others. In this they change only when they had no other choice. Humans are coming to point where Klaatu's people changed. Klaatu just didn't want to take gamble that we won't change.
Monday, April 1, 2013
The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
SPOILER WARNING!!! This Post spoils movie The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951).
I didn't remember I had this movie It was still unopened. I found it when I went through my collection looking for another movie. When I went through my collection I picked up few other movies. I won't hang myself into another theme month, but you could expect posts about classic science fiction movies during april. Some may be classic only in my books.
This is one of my all time favourite science fiction movies. This is one of those movies where space aliens are peaceful and humans are the aggressive party. This is not your average aliens come to earth and then it is war which humans win scifi movie. This is what could happen if both parties want to have peaceful solution. Compared to average science fiction movie this have better production values. If you want to see best two scifi movies from 1950's, this is one. War of the Worlds is the another.
Flying saucer lands to Washington. Klaatu, the alien, was shot during first encounter by too trigger happy solder. Gort, the body-guard of Klaatu, showed his powers, but nothing worse happened. Klaatu wanted to talk with all nations on earth. Due politics this was not possible. Politicians could not get to same page even on this sort of issue. Klaatu escapes and tries to find different way to deliver his message. People fear that Klaatu is actually from Soviet Union or at least he is there to destroy the earth. Military tries to study flying saucer and Gort with very little success.
Klaatu manages meet scientist who promises to help gather meeting Klaatu wants. Scientist ask for show of strength before meeting. Klaatu disables all electric devices that can be disabled without casualties all around the world. People start to fear Klaatu after this and military does not want him alive anymore. One of people Klaatu was living after escape learns that Klaatu is alien and tells that to military. Military manages to catch Klaatu but not without killing him. Gort gets Kaatu's dead body and makes it alive with machines inside flying saucer. Meeting is held outside flying saucer. Klaatu delivers his message in the meeting.
Klaatu tells his people have created robot police force that acts against all aggression. Robots have power to destroy all aggressor and this power can't be taken away. Robot army have forces his people to learn to live in peace. If humans act aggressively against other planets they will have to face this police force. Because this is 1950's science fiction all implications of this police force are not mentioned. This movie was made during early days of threat of nuclear war. Robot police force does same thing as mutually assured destruction. As we saw humans learned to live more peacefully after that. But as we have also seen humans learned to be violent in other ways.
I can't stop wondering if robot police force is that good idea after all. How that force could find who the aggressor is? Could you make police force to kill someone if you could make them mad enough to become aggressive? How people feel living with constant threat from police force? I would like to see movie from world where Klaatu came from. It could be similar to what we got after 9/11. I started to think maybe remake studies these themes. I checked trailer and it didn't look promising.
I didn't remember I had this movie It was still unopened. I found it when I went through my collection looking for another movie. When I went through my collection I picked up few other movies. I won't hang myself into another theme month, but you could expect posts about classic science fiction movies during april. Some may be classic only in my books.
This is one of my all time favourite science fiction movies. This is one of those movies where space aliens are peaceful and humans are the aggressive party. This is not your average aliens come to earth and then it is war which humans win scifi movie. This is what could happen if both parties want to have peaceful solution. Compared to average science fiction movie this have better production values. If you want to see best two scifi movies from 1950's, this is one. War of the Worlds is the another.
Flying saucer lands to Washington. Klaatu, the alien, was shot during first encounter by too trigger happy solder. Gort, the body-guard of Klaatu, showed his powers, but nothing worse happened. Klaatu wanted to talk with all nations on earth. Due politics this was not possible. Politicians could not get to same page even on this sort of issue. Klaatu escapes and tries to find different way to deliver his message. People fear that Klaatu is actually from Soviet Union or at least he is there to destroy the earth. Military tries to study flying saucer and Gort with very little success.
Klaatu manages meet scientist who promises to help gather meeting Klaatu wants. Scientist ask for show of strength before meeting. Klaatu disables all electric devices that can be disabled without casualties all around the world. People start to fear Klaatu after this and military does not want him alive anymore. One of people Klaatu was living after escape learns that Klaatu is alien and tells that to military. Military manages to catch Klaatu but not without killing him. Gort gets Kaatu's dead body and makes it alive with machines inside flying saucer. Meeting is held outside flying saucer. Klaatu delivers his message in the meeting.
Klaatu tells his people have created robot police force that acts against all aggression. Robots have power to destroy all aggressor and this power can't be taken away. Robot army have forces his people to learn to live in peace. If humans act aggressively against other planets they will have to face this police force. Because this is 1950's science fiction all implications of this police force are not mentioned. This movie was made during early days of threat of nuclear war. Robot police force does same thing as mutually assured destruction. As we saw humans learned to live more peacefully after that. But as we have also seen humans learned to be violent in other ways.
I can't stop wondering if robot police force is that good idea after all. How that force could find who the aggressor is? Could you make police force to kill someone if you could make them mad enough to become aggressive? How people feel living with constant threat from police force? I would like to see movie from world where Klaatu came from. It could be similar to what we got after 9/11. I started to think maybe remake studies these themes. I checked trailer and it didn't look promising.
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