Tag Archives: SciFi

Movie Review – Geostorm

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TL;DR – Its, well it’s, ok, it’s not great, it’s not awful, it’s just ok.

Score – 3 out of 5 stars

Geostorm. Image Credit: Warner Bros.

Review –
So there is a satellite system that controls all of the world’s extreme weather, with a flip of a switch you can take out that cyclone barrelling towards the Australian coast, that heat wave over Paris gone, that mark-5 tornado, what mark-5 tornado. It all sounds great, but if you can see the flaw with this plan, well you can see where the film is heading. Overall, it has been a while since I have seen a big scale disaster film, maybe 2012 was the last one, so it was at least interesting to visit this genre. However, just be prepared that this is science-fiction, not science-fact film, I’m pretty sure there are some laws of thermodynamics that get thrown to the wolves to make this movie happen, nor do we have enough material to build a partial Dyson sphere. So overall I found Geostorm to be well fine, it had some things I liked and some others that I didn’t, and mostly they cancelled each other out. So today we will look at both sides of Geostorm, the good, the bad, and the surprisingly Scottish.


So to set the scene, in 2019 global warming sent the plant into a spiral of extreme weather events which killed millions. Looking death in the face, the world on the brink of destruction put aside years of amenity to create the ‘Dutch Boy’, a series of satellites around the world, designed to stop the extreme weather events. The main engineer of the project was Jake Lawson (Gerard Butler) a man who is equal parts brilliant as he was obstinate, and after many years of work his brother Max (Jim Sturgess) who is employed by the White House was forced to fire him after a bad Senate hearing. Well three years later, and a couple of weeks before Dutch Boy is meant to be officially handed over to an international oversight team, a village in the heart of Afghanistan is discovered to be completely frozen. The Dutch Boy system had never failed before, and given the potential fallout from the lack of trust, or even a cascade of failures, it was a serious issue. So the Secretary of State Dekkom (Ed Harris) recommended to President Palma (Andy García) that there is only one person for the job, yep fired former main engineer Jake, so up he goes, but the clock is ticking.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Choose Your Pain

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TL;DR – Today we meet our final main cast member, and delve into the lives of some of the others, oh and maybe a new villain.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Choose Your Pain Banner

Review –

This was an interesting week for Star Trek Discovery, and not just because it is episode five and one of the main cast only just showed up. No, it was interesting because we got to see a deeper side as to what drives a number of the leading characters. So let’s dive in, and as per usual just a warning that there may be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: The Butchers Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry

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TL;DR – We start to see the beginnings of redemption arcs and internal conflicts, but we are still hitting the same tone each week.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

The Butchers Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry

Review –

It is the fourth episode of the new season, and if nothing else it has been such a great feeling being able to nerd out with other people over new Star Trek. This week is an episode where we get a bit more of the same, but we also get to see a bit of the direction the season is heading in.

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TV Review – Rick and Morty: Season 3

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TL;DR – This season elevates the show to heights I couldn’t imagine, the strongest season so far.

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

P.S. – Of course there are post-credit scenes

Rick and Morty banner

Review –

I can remember the first time I watch Rick and Morty, my brother had said I had to watch this weird cartoon that he had stumbled across. So the first episode I ever watched was Anatomy Park, which was this odd sci-fi romp with Hepatitis C being the good guy. It was a weird mess, which is to be expected when you jump in for one episode midway throughout a season. However, a couple of months later the whole season dropped on Netflix, and I thought I’d give it another go, and boy was it worth it. So today we are going to take a look at its third season which finished up over the weekend.

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Movie Review – Blade Runner 2049

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TL;DR – Visually stunning, and a wonderful follow up to a true Sci-fi classic.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Blade Runner 2049. Image Credit: Warner Bros.

Review –

Besides Star Wars later in the year, I don’t think there has been a film as anticipated in the sci-fi world more than Blade Runner 2049. As I mentioned in my retrospective of Blade Runner (see retrospective) the first time I watched the original was just the other day so I came into 2049 with that whole story being very fresh in my mind. Which turns out was a good thing, because Blade Runner 2049 is not just a sequel in name only. So without getting into spoilers here, you may want to go watch the first film in preparation of seeing it here, not that you should need an excuse to see one of the most transformative science fiction films of the last century. I do have to say from the start that I went see Blade Runner 2049 at a premium showing (Gold Class for those in Australia) which I paid for, and I went during the middle of the day when there is usually fewer people. However, still with all this, I was in a session with a couple that loud talked throughout the film, in the quiet contemplative moments, and even answered an unmuted phone at some point. So while I am professional, I can’t put aside the possibility that this might have impacted my perception of the film. Now overall I really liked Blade Runner 2049 but it is hard to talk about it without hitting spoilers, hell even the cast list is a spoiler at this point. So just for the sake of precautions be prepared for [SPOILERS] ahead if you have not seen the film, which you should.

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Exploring the Past – Blade Runner (1982)

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TL;DR – The legacy of Blade Runner is not overstated, even if parts of the film have not aged well.

Blade Runner. Image Credit: Warner Bros.

Review –

I continue my look into the gems of films from the past that I missed the first time round by today looking at the most topical of films Blade Runner. Like 2001: A Space Odyssey (see review), Blade Runner is one of those films that came out before I was born, so I missed it the first time around, and due to its content it didn’t get a lot replay on TV as I was growing up. Now while I haven’t seen the film before today, I have read the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? As well as this, Blade Runner has appeared in so many countdown and best of lists, and multiple parodies and had homages have been made of it over the years. So even though I have never see the film, I have seen so many separate bits that I have probably seen a decent chunk of the film over the years. So with all of this I was a bit apprehensive before sitting down and watching it, would it live up to the huge cultural impact it has had, well could anything really, let’s find out. Now before we go on just a moment of clarification, the version I saw was The Final Cut, which as far as I can tell is the cut that Ridley Scott prefers, so there is likely to be differences between this and the theatrical release.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Context is for Kings

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TL;DR – We finally get into the heart of the series, and see both the goals and the pitfalls of the upcoming season.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Context is for Kings

Review –

So after last week’s almost preview two part-er The Vulcan Hello (review) and Battle at the Binary Stars (review) this week we finally get into the season proper as we get an introduction to the USS Discovery and its crew. This also lets us into the main tension for the season and we can start to see some of its potential, and also some of its problems. So with that in mind let’s jump in and look at Context is for Kings, now there may be some [SPOILERS] coming up if you have not already seen the episode.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Battle at the Binary Stars

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TL;DR – A great follow-up, showing up the direction the show is going to go, and the coming conflict.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Battle at the Binary Stars

Review –

So this is part two of our two-part opening entry into Star Trek Discovery, and if you want to know more about part one, you can read up on our review of The Vulcan Hello Here. Battle at the Binary Stars, not only has the battle that the title suggests, but it also takes the groundwork of the last episode and propels it forward. Now because we are starting to getting into the heart to the season just a warning that there will be [SPOILERS] ahead if you have not seen the show yet.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: The Vulcan Hello

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TL;DR – A good intriguing start, looking forward to seeing where we go from here

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Star Trek Discovery

Review –

So here we are, and boy is it great to be talking about a new Star Trek episode again, it has been too long. This is a universe that is so full of potential, it was just unfortunate that it all kind of fizzled out in the 2000s, but it is a new decade and a new time in TV, so maybe like the original series in syndication Star Trek can finally find a home on TV that helps it flourish. Now I have only seen part one of this two-parter before writing my review, so some of the things I say here may be fixed in the 2nd part or later in the season.

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TV Review – Orphan Black: Season 5

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TL;DR – Boy does it finish in a way only Orphan Black could, it has been a ride sestras, one hell of a ride.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Orphan Black: image Credit: Temple Street Productions.

Review –

Goodness, we actually got here, an end to the wonderful sci-fi series, I say this because the track record of sci-fi shows I love getting their final goodbye is not high. But today we are going to break down the final seasons and look at the things that did work and what didn’t, and take a look at how it all finished. So if you have never watched Orphan Black it is a story about clones, which is not a spoiler because you find that out in the first episode. However, because this is a story about clones it means that lead actor Tatiana Maslany plays at least five main distinct roles throughout the series, and more amazingly each of them feels like a real character. The main story revolves around Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany) who has to juggle her past life and impersonating Beth Childs (Tatiana Maslany) who committed suicide in front of her, Alison Hendrix (Tatiana Maslany) who just wants to be a suburban mum and is not ready for her world to explode around her, Cosima Niehaus (Tatiana Maslany) who has devoted her life to science only to find out she herself is a science experiment, Rachel Duncan (Tatiana Maslany) who has lived her life knowing she was a clone and has a detached uncaringness towards her sisters, and Helena (Tatiana Maslany), who has been abused and tormented all her life and turned into a weapon to unleash on her sisters. The seasons revolve around trying to unpick the Dyad Institute and Neolution and more, what are their plans for the clones, and the world.  At this point just a reminder that we will be looking at the season as a whole so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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