Tag Archives: Science Fiction

Lanterns: OutKast [S1E3] – TV Review

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TL;DR – We go full-flashback episode this week, but they make it work.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the HBO Max service used to view this series.

End Credit Scene – There is a making-of and trailer after the end credits.

John falling.

Lanterns Review Introduction

Today, we are looking at a style of episode that can be quite tricky: the flashback. This is when we put the current narrative on hold to jump back in time and give some more context around a character or an event. They can be fraught because putting your narrative on hold can feel indulgent, be a sign that you have not explained things properly, or worse, it can derail your entire story. Thankfully, we miss these potholes today.

So, to set the scene, it is 2016, and we begin with John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) falling through the air and landing on a pile of mattresses. It is a unique entry into what might be the most important interview in his life. Waiting for him is an unassuming lady, friendly but with a stare that pierces through you. Lianna (Laura Linney) has many questions, including, “Do you feel fear?” Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Off-Hour [S4E6] – TV Review

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TL;DR – For me, this is an episode that failed most narrative levels.  

Rating: 1.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service used to view this series.

The USS Enterprise with a countdown chronometer.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Review Introduction

Well, when I sat down to watch last week’s Level-Five Transporter Accident, I didn’t know I was sitting down to watch what was apparently the most divisive episode since Janeway and Paris had salamander kids. This week we shift to a more serious episode as our homage voyage among the stars ends up in 24-Land.  

So, to set the scene, the Alpha shift is looking forward to the end of the week and for Beta shift to take over. Everything is going fine until everyone spots a slight navigation oddity. But before anyone has time to process it, the USS Enterprise is rammed by a slipstream wormhole and yanked into its wake. Ripped from their heading, badly damaged, separated crew, and slowly shutting down. Worse, if they don’t find a way to stop, the ship will be ripped apart at the subatomic level. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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The Dog Stars – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A fascinating exploration of what it means to be human.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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

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

A ruined Denver City Hall.

The Dog Stars Review Introduction

In recent years we have seen a large rise in post-apocalyptic stories, especially around viruses, making their way onto the screen. Some of these are incredibly thought-provoking works of art, such as Earth Abides, Station Eleven, PLUR1BUS, and season 1 of The Last of Us. But others still have not hit the mark, such as Greenland 2, Silent Zone, In the Lost Lands, and season 2 of The Last of Us. At their core, these stories work best when they are interrogating humanity once all the niceness has been stripped away, and I hope this is what we get today.        

So, to set the scene, the world ended. A flu pandemic ripped through the world before we knew what was happening; most of humanity was dead. Hig (Jacob Elordi) was a commercial pilot in the old world, a world where his wife and child once lived. Now, he is mostly alone, using his plane to go out and hunt for supplies for himself and Bangley (Josh Brolin). They are surviving, but they are not living. Can you move on after such a tragedy, when there are human raiders or worse waiting out there? Can you find hope in a humanity that has been brought to the precipice of extinction? Now, before we jump into the review proper, I want to make clear that I have not read the book this is based on, so my review will not be covering the adaptation, but I have added the book to my reading list after watching the film.  

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Lanterns: Trust Fall [S1E2] – TV Review

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TL;DR – I feel that this episode is a good encapsulation of the style of story that we will be getting for the rest of the season, and if that is the case, I will be very happy.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the HBO Max service used to view this series.

End Credit Scene – There is a trailer after the end credits.

Hal Jordan walks into a town hall meeting about himself.

Lanterns Review Introduction

Well, the Pilot of Lanterns certainly landed a whole whack of mystery on us, intriguing at every turn. It is the kind of episode that says, “trust us, we know what we are doing”, and given the creator’s past work, you kind of believe them. But today we start getting into the weeds and seeing if that does start to pay dividends.  

So, to set the scene, at the end of Pilot we were hit with a flash forward to 2026 with a very dead Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) sitting on the high school stadium at Rushville, Nebraska. We start today back in 2016, with Hal berating John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and sending him on busywork back to Coast City to get his Lantern. Meanwhile, Hal starts exploring the town, wondering why William Macon (Garret Dillahunt) knew to kill those four aliens, because that is not something you do on a hunch when he discovers the whole town in a meeting. This meeting is probably very much about him. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Level-Five Transporter Accident [S4E5] – TV Review

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TL;DR – They are puppets.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service used to view this series.

Credit: Puppets by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Review Introduction

It feels like Season Four of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is on a mission to see how many different films they can create their own version of. For example, last week’s Casablanca homage with The Case of the Chiaroscuro. But of all the inspirations, I was not expecting The Muppet Show.   

So, to set the scene, Scottie (Martin Quinn) hopes to set a new record for the longest transport as the USS Enterprise makes a slow trip to Vulcan while on pirate patrol. Scottie needs Spock’s (Ethan Peck) help, but he is struggling to centre himself. Everything was going well until the puppet Scottie was using caused a feedback surge, and soon the cast is teleporting away. When Spock arrives back on the ship, he can’t find anyone until he notices something felt move, because all the crew have been turned into puppets. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – The Case of the Chiaroscuro [S4E4] – TV Review

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TL;DR – This could have been a very silly episode of Star Trek, but there was some real heart and design that helped elevate the story.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service used to view this series.

End Credit – There is a mid-credit scene

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Review Introduction

It feels like this season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been all about the curveballs, and today’s entry is no exception. It uses sci-fi technobabble to explain why a whole episode is broadcast in black and white. But as silly as this sounds, it is a choice that I can’t help but love seeing played out.

So, to set the scene, the USS Enterprise is on a secret mission near the border of Klingon Space. The Angelo-1 probe lost power and slipped past the border near the Mat’Aaran system, which could reignite a war if found. Una (Rebecca Romijn), Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), and M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) have slipped across the border in a shuttle hidden because the local sun puts out energy that affects visual receptors and makes things hard to spot on scanners. But that scanner issue can cut both ways, and the shuttle is forced to hide on Mat’Aar XII, an occupied Klingon planet, to avoid a D7 battle cruiser. The crew must blend in with the local population until a window of escape can be found. But Una discovers that she might be wrapped into the fabric of this world more than she expects. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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The End of Oak Street – Movie Review

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TL;DR – This 80s homage film triumphs on one important facet: Anne Hathaway fighting dinosaurs.  

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.

A dog looks up to see a weird light.

The End of Oak Street Review Introduction

Now, if you know me, I make absolutely no apologies that I am a dinosaur fiend when it comes to media. Give me your Jurassic Parks, your Dinotopias, heck, you want to add dinosaurs to Star Trek, I am here for it. But if you are going to add dinosaurs to a film, they can’t just be a token addition; they need to mean something, and thankfully that is not an issue today.

So, to set the scene, in 1982 there is a quintessential suburb in America called Flowervale that does all the stereotypical things. They have block parties, the kids ride around on their bikes, and neighbours get upset with dogs pooping in their yards. On Oak Street in this suburb lives the Platt family: wife Denise (Anne Hathaway), husband Greg (Ewan McGregor), daughter Audrey (Maisy Stella), and son Brian (Christian Convery). They are the perfect nuclear family on the surface, but in private the cracks in Denise and Greg’s relationship are threatening to become a gorge. But all of that changes one night when the lights start to flicker, everyone’s ears pop, and odd noises start coming from the forest. That’s when the screams start.

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Greenland 2: Migration – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A quasi-religious themed sequel doesn’t live up to the first film, unfortunately.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime subscription used to watch this film.

John escapes from a radiation storm.

Greenland 2: Migration Review Introduction

Back in 2021, I was entirely surprised by a film. Greenland took what could have been a run-of-the-mill disaster/apocalypse film and filled it with real emotional weight. It even made it onto my best film list for that year. Since then, I have been wondering if they would go back to that world, and while we didn’t get an Australian release, I am glad to finally be getting a look at it today.  

So, to set the scene, in the five years since the Clarke devastation, fragments still impact the Earth, causing all sorts of radiation issues. John Garrity (Gerard Butler), his family, Allison (Morena Baccarin), and Nathan (Roman Griffin Davis) are still living in the bunker under Thule Airbase in Greenland. But things have stretched on longer than anyone expected, and they are now surviving by salvaging the ruins of humanity that wash up. The hope was to wait for the radiation levels to drop, but already large areas of North America have been made uninhabitable due to it. But when the tectonic plates shift and the base is destroyed, the Garrity family and the handful of survivors must make a mad dash across a waring Europe to reach the Clarke creator, the one place potentially free of radiation.  

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Human Best Friend [S4E3] – TV Review

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TL;DR – Star Trek tries to do a Farscape episode; it has its moments, but it had completely fallen apart by the time the credits rolled.  

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service used to view this series.

End Credit – There is a mid-credit scene

An Andorian and Edosian partying.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Review Introduction

Throughout the history of Star Trek, there has been the ‘shore leave episode’. They are a staple of the franchise, and there have been the highs of the titular Original Series episode Shore Leave and the lows of Deep Space Nine’s Let He Who Is Without Sin… Today Strange New Worlds is taking a swing at it and commits a bit too much in places and not enough in others.

So, to set the scene, back in Valles Marineris, it was mentioned that the crew has been going over six months without a break, and last week’s dive into horror, The Griffin Incident, probably didn’t help the situation. Understanding that tensions are fraught and the crew is heading into a difficult negotiation to end the civil war on Rodaxia, Pike (Anson Mount) decides that all the Alpha Shift needs to take some recreational leave. Thankfully, the hotel planet Cesnar is along the way. A planet whose atmosphere is intoxicating and brings everyone along on a journey. I mean, what is the worst that could happen if the whole bridge crew is high at the same time? Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – The Griffin Incident [S4E2] – TV Review

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TL;DR – This is an episode that leans hard into horror.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service used to view this series.

Warning – Contains scenes which may cause distress.

The USS Griffin hanging quiet in space.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Review Introduction

Throughout the history of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, it has had the habit of dipping into different genres for a surprise episode. See, for example, the musical episode Subspace Rhapsody. But there is one genre that they have danced around but never dived into: supernatural horror. Well, today is the day it commits.  

So, to set the scene, Spock (Ethan Peck), La’An (Christina Chong), and Kirk (Paul Wesley) are all hitching a lift home with each other from the Future Federation Leader’s conference. When they pick up an odd distress call coming from an asteroid field. Of the many things they were expecting, nothing prepared them for the USS Griffin, a ship lost for nine years, light-years away from its current location. They beam aboard, and for some reason the ship has power when it should have lost it years ago, but things take a turn when they have only one hour to find out what happened to the ship before it all shuts down. Even more so when someone lurks in the hallways with them. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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