When it was announced that Luc Besson was getting back into driecting fully fledged sci-fi there was audible whoop in the office. This is, after all, the director that made the masterpiece that is Fifth Element. But Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets isn't quite the movie we wanted. Yes, it's visually stunning and it has the off-beat quirkiness that we have come to expect from Besson. But it's all a bit of a chaotic mess. It's definitely worthy of a watch, however, just don't go into this expecting to know exactly what is going on and when.
Most people think of Cloverfield’s brilliant marketing campaign way before they actually remember the movie, but it’s still worth watching this thrilling monster movie event directed by one of today’s brightest cinematic minds – Matt Reeves (War for the Planet of the Apes, the upcoming Batman film).
The film revolves around a group of New Yorkers that find themselves trapped as a terrifying monster falls on New York City. The survivors, with the help of a portable camera, attempt to document the atrocities that follow.
Now, while Cloverfield likely won’t go down in history as a sci-fi masterpiece, this handycam-riddled thriller has already gained quite a faithful cult following and received two distantly related sequels (essentially in name only, but still). If you’re looking to kill some time, you certainly can’t go wrong with Cloverfield. Just don’t think about it too much.
When Cloverfield came out, everyone was expecting the movie to be just another found-footage shock fest. While this is pretty much what it turned out to be, the footage may have been shaky but the mythos about a giant monster attacking New York was not. It turned out there are plenty of ways to do stories about the monster without recapping the original movie. 10 Cloverfield Lane does this - it's is a tense thriller with a nod to science fiction. For the most part it is a claustrophobic study into the human psyche, but when it finally changes gear it turns into something wholly different.
It wasn't looking good for World War Z. Its script was given a hefty rewrite, the ending was completely reshot to make it a little more coherent and the film, essentially about zombies eating people, had to adhere to a child-safe PG-13. The result is a movie that's a bit of a mess but is still watchable thanks to the star power of Brad Pitt and some sound scripting decisions by Lost scribe Damon Lindelof. Based on the book by Max Brooks, World War Z throws out the interview format of the novel but keeps the globalisation of the story - which means it really feels like the entire world has been overrun by zombies.
Yes, it’s a thinly veiled metaphor for the apartheid horrors South Africa faced in the ‘80s but what perfect way to showcase feeling alien in your own land by filling your movie with aliens? District 9 was the debut of visual effects artist Neill Blomkamp and it’s a riveting docudrama-styled ride through the slums of South Africa and beyond. With (naturally) superb visual effects and a brilliant central performance by Sharlto Copley as the shady government agent that’s after the alien’s advanced technology, District 9 is one of the most original sci-fi flicks to come out this century.
Bryan Singer’s original X-Men was a breath of fresh air for the superhero genre when it was released back in 2000. He managed to show the world that you can have a film about mutants that is also, well, intelligent. He improved on the formula with X2: X-Men United, switching the story so that it was about Wolverine - easily the most interesting of the X-Men. The introduction of William Strider (a menacing Brian Cox), the person who literally made Wolverine what he is, was a fantastic move - as was the notion that even though Magneto and Professor X are rivals in battle, their ideologies and goals are actually quite similar. Fantastic stuff.
After District 9, director Neill Blomkamp had a tough ask to make a movie that would live up to the brilliance of his debut. Elysium doesn’t quite hit the same heights, unfortunately, but it is a brave attempt at trying to create a sensible sci-fi movie. Matt Damon stars as Max, a man on a mission to try and bring some balance to a world where the rich and poor are severely divided. After a promising start, things do go downhill but it’s still an impressive, great-looking watch.
Robinson Crusoe in space - that was pretty much the elevator pitch for The Martian, a self-published novel that became a huge bestseller. Drew Godard adapts the book brilliantly for the big screen, keeping much of the dry humor and breezy nature. While Ridley Scott adds a little bit of sheen to the novel's rougher edges. But it's Matt Damon that steals the show as the shipwrecked Mark Watney who has to get his ass away from Mars.
Director JJ Abrams had the hardest job in Hollywood when he took on Episode VII. He had to appease the braying breed of Star Wars fanatics, as well as coax a whole new generation of fans to the franchise. He pulls it off by steeping the movie in the nostalgia of the Original Trilogy but also introducing new and exciting characters. Yes, it's pretty much a retread of Episode IV but cut it and it will bleed Star Wars, and that's the only thing that really matters.
Nobody expected James Gunn's superb The Guardians of the Galaxy to be as good as it was. Given it was about a bunch of Marvel characters that weren't mainstream and was directed by someone best known for b-movie horror, the odds were against it. But how wrong the world was: Guardians is a refreshing, funny and jam-packed sci-fi flick that's packed with retro references and the sort of space fun that's not been seem since, well, Star Wars.
