Tag Archives: Post-Apocalyptic

Silo: Solo [S2E3] – TV Review

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TL;DR – Today’s episode is all about the tension between flexibility and rigidness, and it was a fascinating discussion.

Rating: 4 out of 5.
Eyes peer out behind a door.

Silo Review –

In the first two episodes of the season, The Engineer & Order, we got to catch up on what was happening in both of the Silos. Now that we have our grounding, it is time to start propelling the narrative forward. Well, that is what we will explore today.

So, to set the scene, back in The Engineer, Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) managed to survive cleaning and walked through a valley of corpses to the next Silo over. In it, after much exploration, she finds the one person left alive in Silo 17 called Solo (Steve Zahn). The only problem is that Juliette discovers that the fracture point for Silo 17 was when someone didn’t clean, and that caused the rebellion and deaths. And then it dawns on her, this is what she just did to Silo 18. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Earth Abides: Alone Review – Exploring an Unique Take on Post-Apocalyptic Themes

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TL;DR – This is a good start, but it was all set up, and I will need to see how it develops before I really can take a look at it.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Stan service that viewed this series.

A mobile phone with the text message 'I Love You' on the screen.

Earth Abides Review –

Well, if there is one genre that has had an interesting way of times, it is the post-apocalyptic. On the one hand, we all just went through a pandemic, so that is very much on our minds in a way that shows like The Last of Us had to change core parts of their lore to make them work. Yet we have also found joyous explorations of comradery and self-exploration in shows like Station Eleven, which have been almost cathartic to watch. But can you find new space in that genre? That is the question we will ask today.   

So, to set the scene, the world of today is a very interconnected beast, and that brings with it a bunch of benefits and problems. In that world lives Ish (Alexander Ludwig), a geologist who lives out in the sticks, finding mineral deposits that haven’t been harvested yet. But on this day, as he tries to find some new pyrite deposits, a rattlesnake bites him and only just makes it back to his house before he passes out. He manages to ride out the poison in his cabin, barely, but when he wakes from his trauma weeks later, he comes out into a world that has dramatically changed from the one he left. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.   

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Silo: Order [S2E2] – TV Review

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TL;DR – We get to see a society on the brink of collapse, where years of lies have come home to roost

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this series.

Juliette Lives Graffiti.

Silo Review –

While the opening episode, The Engineer, was all about what happened to Juliette, I wondered if we were just going to keep following their story. However, the casting list showed me that we were still going to stay linked to the Silo from the first season in some capacity. Well, today, we see just what those links will be.

So, to set the scene, after being set up by Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins) and Robert Sims (Common), Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) was forced to go outside and ‘clean’ in the season finale. However, she does not clean and just walks away, breaking centuries of tradition. Also, Nichols was well-liked in many sectors of Silo, and people were upset and asking questions. The whole Silo is on the cusp of rebellion. Everyone just saw Juliette walk over that hill, and everyone, especially those down below, wanted to know what that meant. Is it safe? Can they all leave? What else is management lying about? Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Silo: The Engineer [S2E1] – TV Review

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TL;DR – The episode where Rebecca Ferguson gets stuff done.   

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this series.

Juliette walks across the surface.

Silo Review –

I was unsure what to expect when the first episode of Silo, Freedom Day, dropped. I had not read the original novels by Hugh Howey, so when we went down the rabbit hole that was the mystery of the Silo, I was captivated by which turns the show would make. Now that we have seen the first season, I am even more fascinated by where the show can go from here. Well, after a long wait, it is time to see just what they will do as we dive back underground and see what waits in store for us.

So, to set the scene, after being set up by Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins) and Robert Sims (Common), Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) was forced to go outside and ‘clean’ in the season finale. However, thanks to some work from Martha Walker (Harriet Walter), Juliette’s suit was fitted with tape that actually worked so that the poisonous air would not leak in. It is here where she discovers not only is there still a barren, poisoned world on the surface, but their Silo is not the only one. Not knowing how long the tape will last, she runs to the next Silo over, only to discover thousands of dead bodies spilled across the ground. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Transformers One – Movie Review

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TL;DR – By taking the series back to the basics, they found the core of what makes Transformers so compelling.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

The surface of Cybertron.

Transformers One Review –

If there has been one modern series that I have had such a mixed experience with, it is Transformers. For every Bumblebee, we get a Dark of the Moon and more. But thanks to those cartoons of my youth, including Beast Wars, I still have a deep fondness for the series and always turn up to see if this is the film where they nail it. Today, we are shifting things up with a new animated film that goes all the way back to the start, to a time when there were no Autobots and Decepticons.  

So, to set the scene, a long time ago, on a planet far, far, away, we are introduced to two miners deep in the depths of Cybertron. For millenniums, Energon ran freely on the planet. Still, after a disastrous battle with the killed all the Primes bar Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm), and the Matrix of Leadership was lost, the wells dried up, and now nearly everyone has to delve into the dangerous mines to keep the city of Iocon running. While Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) is just a miner who does not even have a cog to let them transform, he dreams of finding the Matrix of Leadership and saving the city. This gets him in trouble quite a bit, and he often needs to get bailed out by his best friend, D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry). But when the pair get banished to the basement depths of the city, they stumble across an old beacon being unknowingly kept by B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key). They have a choice: do nothing or risk going onto the dangerous surface and changing their lives forever.     

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The Wild Robot – Movie Review

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TL;DR – This is a stunningly beautiful film that hit me with a wave of emotions as if I were standing by the seaside watching them roll in.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a post-credit stinger.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Roz surrounded by butterflies.

The Wild Robot Review –

It is school holiday time here in Australia, and that usually means a web of family films gets unleashed into the cinemas. Many are quite average fare, just looking to entertain the little ones for an hour or two in air conditioning. However, every now and again, you find something exceptional, and this is what we will be looking at today.

So, to set the scene, in the potentially distant future, a bunch of otters find a very peculiar item washed up on shore. It is a box with some contraptions. After some exploration, they accidentally set it off to discover it was a ROZZUM unit 7134 (Lupita Nyong’o) personal assistance robot. She is now activated and is not looking for a task. The only problem is that she does not speak wild critter, and they are all afraid of her. But when a bear attacks, she accidentally crashes into a goose nest, leaving only a single egg behind. Roz has to look past her programming with the help of Fink (Pedro Pascal), a local fox who would be happy to eat the issue away and Pinktail (Catherine O’Hara), an opossum who knows about motherhood. Because the little Brightbill (Kit Connor/Boone Storm) needs to eat, swim, and fly, all before winter sets in. Because if he doesn’t leave on migration, he will die.

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A Quiet Place: Day One – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A gripping work that holds onto you from those first minutes and never lets up as the world collapses around it.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this movie.

The Aliens arrive in the sky.

A Quiet Place: Day One Review –

It is time to step back into this universe that oscillates between complete quiet and a riot of explosions. I fundamentally enjoyed both A Quiet Place and its follow-up, A Quiet Place Part II. However, both of those films looked at how this apocalypse would affect a small town. It is now time to take this roadshow to a large city, which is, in fact, one of the largest cities in the world, and see just what would happen.

Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) lives in a hospice counting down her days on earth through the prism of forced poetry when one of the nurses, Reuben (Alex Wolff), convinces her and her support cat Frodo (Schnitzel & Nico) to come into New York City to see a play. While there, the puppet show had to be finished early because something was going down in New York, and the Hospice wanted them all home, which was when the first explosion hit.

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Kalki 2898 AD – Movie Review

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TL;DR – This is a film that had moments of dire boredom but also had me sitting on the edge of my chair. I wish we got more of the latter than the first.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film

The Complex hovering over everyone.

Kalki 2898 AD Review –

Back when RRR came out two years ago, I realised that I needed to watch more Telugu Language films, and I have been found wanting on that front. Well, if I am going to dive back in, a substantial mythological/Science Fiction romp is 100% right up my alley. Today, we are going to come into this movie with a slight outsider perspective with all its strengths and weaknesses.

So to set the scene, back in the ages past, in 3102 BC, two groups, the Kauravas and the Pandavas, fought for the throne. But when Ashwathamma (Amitabh Bachchan) attempts to kill an innocent, lord Krishna (Krishnakumar/ Arjun Das) curses him to walk the world as an immortal, being never able to die until Vishnu’s last avatar returns. Thousands of years later, in 2892 AD, the world was scorched, and the only city left was Kasi, which lived under the shadow of The Complex, a vast megastructure in the sky. It is a brutal world where everyone is trying to make enough units to get into The Complex while they act with impunity, killing anyone and stealing all the women able to bear children. Bhairava (Prabhas) is a bounty hunter in this world, but when he captures a fleeing Luke (Harshith Malgireddy), little does he know the new trajectory his life will now be on and the dangers he might have incited.

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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It is a film that roars to life and explodes on to the screen, captivating you with every turn.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit sequence.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Furiosa stands alone in the desert.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Review –

Well, this was always going to be an interesting film for me. The last entry in the Mad Max Saga, as we are now calling it, Fury Road, blasted onto the world and had a profound effect on me. It is one of those rare films that I have watched over and over again, and each time, I found a new detail I had missed before. It is in my Top 10 Films of All Time list for a reason. This means that there was some trepidation when I walked into the theatre wondering how a prequel to that film could stand up, but the second my seat reverberated with a motorcycle roar, I knew that I was in for something exciting.

So, to set the scene, a young Furiosa (Alyla Browne) is living in the green land of many mothers when she comes across three bikers who have discovered their hidden sanctuary. Being captured, her mother (Charlee Fraser) chases Furiosa across the desert till they make it to the roving camp of Praetorian Jack (Chris Hemsworth). He sees her value as the one person who knows where the place of abundance is and brings her into his collection, which is where she first meets the leader of the Citadel, Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme).

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Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While you can feel some tension in the script at times, this is still a solid entry into the franchise with characters you care about and a world you want to explore.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Noa rides through the ruins of the old world.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Review –

Without a doubt, I have loved the Planet of the Apes reboot films. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a great foundation, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was this sad meditation on the legacy of trauma, all before ending the trilogy with this grand biblical epic of War of the Planet of the Apes that hit the big 5 out of 5 stars. So, there was a bit of hesitance to come back to this world after such a long time and a new creative team, but thankfully, I had nothing to worry about.

So to set the scene, we open with the final funeral of Caeser, a leader who brought his people out of danger and into a new promised land but was unable to enter himself. Led by Maurice (Karin Konoval), it is a solemn event, but it is the start of something, and you see that in the world several generations later. It is here where Noa (Owen Teague) and his friends Soona (Lydia Peckham) and Anaya (Travis Jeffery) climb up through the ruins of the old world to find eagle eggs. They are a village of eagle trainers, and Noa’s dad, Koro (Neil Sandilands), is the leader who sings to the new eggs. However, when Noa sees an Echo (human), little does he know the carnage that is following in their wake and how his world is about to change forever.

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