Tag Archives: Sci-fi

Movie Review – Mute (Moon II)

Posted on by
1

TL;DR – Compelling, brutal, it charts a world of extremes crashing together and the damage that it can do to people.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

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

Mute banner

Review –

Because of who you are, you live almost apart from the world. However, one day you meet someone who completes you, helps you to live your life, it is pure joy. Then one day that gets taken away from you, what would you do? Where would you go? Is there any length that you would not go to get her back? These are just some of the questions that Mute askes among the tapestry of future Germany. Today we will be exploring this fascinating film from Duncan Jones, a gritty neo-noir film of mystery and deception, but also a film dealing with some very real and present issues in the world today.

Continue reading →

Article – Why I Love Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Posted on by
69

TL;DR – From the setting to the characters to the story and themes, Deep Space Nine stands as one of the high points of science fiction

DS9 banner

Article –

This week we have the season finale of Star Trek: Discovery (see review) and it has been such a strong first outing for the new series. Because of this, I have been thinking back over the history of the entire Star Trek franchise and when I do that I can’t help but focus on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9). Now DS9 was always the odd one out of the Star Trek spin-offs for some. It aired at the same time as both The Next Generation and Voyager, so it never stood apart. It dealt with issues that the other shows either avoided or ignored altogether, and some felt started to walk away from the vision Gene Roddenberry established. Indeed, it was the first series where he didn’t have a direct control over the creation and direction of, though from all accounts he did approve of its creation. So what I want to do today is talk about the reasons that I love DS9, the setting, the characters, the themes, and the stories. But just before we move on DS9 has been off air for almost 20 years, but all that being said, I will be talking about the series as a whole so there will be [SPOILERS] going forward, however, I will also provide links to the Memory Alpha Wiki when introducing characters and races so you can explore it more if you are new to the show.

Continue reading →

TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Will You Take My Hand?  

Posted on by
7

TL;DR – In the end, we started with a group of people on a ship in space, and over the season, as adversity after adversity piled up, we ended with a crew.

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

Will You Take My Hand?

Review –

Oh wow, we have reached the end of Season One and what a season it was, there were jumps in time and space, war with the Klingons, even a sojourn in the Mirror Universe. Now all of this was like a freight train barrelling towards tonight’s finale and here we are. So today we are going to take some time to look at how the episode worked on its own, before looking at how the whole season worked as a while in an article a bit later this week.

Continue reading →

TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: The War Within, The War Without  

Posted on by
Reply

TL;DR – The season is hurtling towards the season finale and today is about putting all our ducks in a row waiting for next week’s growing dilemma.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

The War Without, The War Within

Review –

It is hard to believe that we are almost at the end of the first season of Star Trek Discovery, and that today’s episode is the penultimate entry for the season. Now, this more than any episode this season was all about getting everything ready for what I am assuming is going to be a massive season finale. Which is good because you can see where it is going in the future, but does leave this being one of the weaker episodes this season, but given the strength of the season it still is a fascinating one to watch. Now as always, we will be going into depth with the episode, so there may be [SPOILERS] ahead.

Continue reading →

Movie Review – The Cloverfield Paradox (God Particle)

Posted on by
Reply

TL;DR – Great casting, an interesting premise, and a fascinating history behind it, but there was something that just didn’t work The Cloverfield Paradox, and honestly it left me feeling a bit meh at the end.

Score – 2 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – No

The Cloverfield Paradox


Review –

So back in the day in the olden times of far way 2008, a little film called Cloverfield exploded onto the scene. Now I was not a big fan of it, but ‘found footage’ films are not really something I like so that was no real fault of the film itself. There were talks of a sequel but nothing ever came about in the years that followed, and then one day 10 Cloverfield Lane (see review) kind of appeared in 2016 with almost no promotion and it was amazing, one of our Top Films of 2016. So given there was some similarities but also differences between the two films that preceded The Cloverfield Paradox there have been a lot of discussions as to what their relationship was. Are they all connected together, or are they more like an anthology series, for example, American Horror Story? We today we get the answer … well, sort of, when the sequel to both films dropped on Netflix with no warning. So let’s dive in and take a look.

Continue reading →

TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: The Wolf Inside

Posted on by
1

TL;DR – Trapped in the Mirror Universe, old friends appear, and secrets are revealed … oh and an Andorian

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

The Wolf Inside banner

Review –

So before we start, because this is Part 2 I want to be clear from the start that there will be [SPOILERS] from both last week’s Despite Yourself (see review) and this week’s The Wolf Inside in this review. As well as this, because there are some big reveals that we have to talk about, if you have not watched the episode can I really recommend that you do that before you read this review.

Continue reading →

TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Despite Yourself

Posted on by
3

TL;DR – We welcome Chapter Two with a jump into the familiar and it was a delight to watch

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Despite Yourself

Review –

So Star Trek: Discovery is back for Chapter Two of its first season and as I have really been enjoying Season One so far I am really looking forward to seeing where the back half of the season takes us. If you want to read our reviews Chapter One’s episodes: See Here, and if you want to read our overview of Chapter One: See Here. Now just a warning that because of the nature of the episode we really can’t say much before we hit major spoilers, so after we set the scene this review will go [FULL SPOILER] so be careful if you have not seen the episode yet.

Continue reading →

TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Season 1; Chapter 1

Posted on by
5

TL;DR – A fascinating start to the new show, and a great platform to develop and move forward with.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Star Trek Discovery

Review –

So today we are going to take a quick look back at Chapter One of Star Trek: Discovery’s first season. Look to be honest, straight from the start I am just glad that I get to talk about Star Trek, and not just Star Trek, but really good Star Trek to boot, and I’ve not really been able to say that since Deep Space Nine. In our review today what I want to do it take a moment to look at four facets of Chapter One that I found really interesting, the story, the enemies, the technology, and then talk a bit about the future. Now let’s dive in and take a look at the story, and of course, because we are looking at this part of the season as a whole, there will [SPOILERS] here, so proceed with caution if you have not watched the whole season. To read our reviews of each of the episodes of Season One so far: See Here.

Continue reading →

TV Review – Black Mirror: USS Callister

Posted on by
1

TL;DR – This is a bleak dissection of fan culture and what would happen if you were given ultimate power, and it is a problem we need to talk about

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

USS Callister

Review –

So Black Mirror is one of those shows I have heard about and had full intentions to give it a watch, but whenever I went to take a look something else came up. Well, Season Four just came out on Netflix, so now is the best time to dive in. It does help that their first episode is examining the fan culture created around science fiction shows like Star Trek, a subject very dear to my heart. Now of course, just like I had been warned Black Mirror then took a knife and stabbed it in my heart and then held up a mirror to show me that I was the one doing it, so some complicated emotions happened during the watching of this episode. Look this is one of those episodes where it is best to go in knowing as little as possible and even my setting the scene is probably too much. So quickly before we move on, the acting is superb, they capture the essence of classic Trek warts and all, and it has something very important to say about how we relate to the media we consume, especially power fantasies. I do recommend.

Continue reading →

Movie Review – Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Posted on by
12

TL;DR – The Last Jedi is charting its own story and this is where its strengths and faults lie.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Star Wars The Last Jedi. Image Credit: Disney/Lucasarts.

Review –

Ok here we go, I didn’t think The Last Jedi was a fantastic film, nor did I think it was a really bad film. It was a film which had some aspects that really worked and some things that just didn’t, which made it a fascinating film to watch. However, this was also a problem for me because I wasn’t sure just how I felt about this film, and indeed for the first time this year, I actually went and saw the film twice before writing my review because I wanted to be sure about my feelings. Now in today’s review, I am going to set the scene and then give a general overview, and then we are going to go full spoiler with my analysis.

Continue reading →