![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Sci-Fi Saturday
Nov. 10th, 2014 09:22 amI spent my Saturday watching three (3) science fiction movies, one in a theater and two on pay-per-view. Herewith are my thoughts:
Interstellar
Wow! I was really impressed by this movie. You kind of know the first 30 minutes - in a fairly near-future, Earth is dying and our ex-test pilot Matthew McConaughey is stuck as a farmer out west somewhere. Apparently there's been a war - New York City is no more and an outfit called the New New York Yankees are playing baseball in high school stadiums. Matt finds out where the last remnants of NASA are hiding, and volunteers to use his Right Stuff to fly their spaceship in search of a new home for humanity. (Conveniently, somebody, presumably friendly aliens, has dropped a wormhole in orbit around Saturn.)
The story roars off from there. Much like 2001, the ending is more mystical than hard science, although sufficiently advanced science can look like magic. Matt Damon plays a shifty scientist, and overall I found it well worth watching.
Space Station 76
This movie was billed as a spoof of 1970s SF movies. It's not - it's a 1970's styled relationship piece, set on a space station out of a 1970's movie. I didn't find it very funny, and frankly it's such a non-commercial project that I wonder how it got made in the first place.
Europa Report
This is another hard SF film in the spirit of Interstellar. It came and went quickly at the theater, and was well-hidden on my DVR. However, it's another great movie. Six astronauts in a highly-realistic (with one quibble) vehicle blast off to visit Europa, Jupiter's ice moon. There's a highly unrealistic total communications failure which gets one astronaut killed and sets up the "found footage" gimmick of the movie.
The mission itself is fascinating, and the basic plot shares quite a bit with your typical horror movie. However, all the characters make intelligent decisions, so I was okay with that. Overall, another highly-watchable movie.
Interstellar
Wow! I was really impressed by this movie. You kind of know the first 30 minutes - in a fairly near-future, Earth is dying and our ex-test pilot Matthew McConaughey is stuck as a farmer out west somewhere. Apparently there's been a war - New York City is no more and an outfit called the New New York Yankees are playing baseball in high school stadiums. Matt finds out where the last remnants of NASA are hiding, and volunteers to use his Right Stuff to fly their spaceship in search of a new home for humanity. (Conveniently, somebody, presumably friendly aliens, has dropped a wormhole in orbit around Saturn.)
The story roars off from there. Much like 2001, the ending is more mystical than hard science, although sufficiently advanced science can look like magic. Matt Damon plays a shifty scientist, and overall I found it well worth watching.
Space Station 76
This movie was billed as a spoof of 1970s SF movies. It's not - it's a 1970's styled relationship piece, set on a space station out of a 1970's movie. I didn't find it very funny, and frankly it's such a non-commercial project that I wonder how it got made in the first place.
Europa Report
This is another hard SF film in the spirit of Interstellar. It came and went quickly at the theater, and was well-hidden on my DVR. However, it's another great movie. Six astronauts in a highly-realistic (with one quibble) vehicle blast off to visit Europa, Jupiter's ice moon. There's a highly unrealistic total communications failure which gets one astronaut killed and sets up the "found footage" gimmick of the movie.
The mission itself is fascinating, and the basic plot shares quite a bit with your typical horror movie. However, all the characters make intelligent decisions, so I was okay with that. Overall, another highly-watchable movie.
