sci-fi scrounging

within the week, i decided to catch up on some films i've been meaning to watch but never got around to watching them, especially on the big screen. so this dvd fare will do.

funny but it seems i've stacked up on sci-fi pala. yes, i am interested in the genre but it also depends on the kind of science / technology it's purporting. mas gusto ko yung sci-fi na slight alteration ng current reality, not the too far out there type -- unless maganda ang istorya.

anyway, here are some.



THE ISLAND
d. michael bay
c. ewan mcgregor, scarlet johannson

i knew there had to be some good reason why ewan mcgregor would make patol such a film. i go by his gut feel of getting projects -- there must be something good about its story. and i was right. he was right, too.

i braced myself when i saw in the obb that michael "laging 2000 decibels ang sound fx editing" bay ang director nito. i prepared my earplugs. yes, ganun kaingay lahat, as in LAHAT ng films niya noh. google niyo na lang, or imdb.com.

noon pa napukaw ang interes ko ng film na ito. the gattaca-like setting/set-up interested me, as i liked GATTACA, and the pitch (or half of it) was interesting: the lure of a promised land ek where people will win a lottery to go to this promise of paradise. pero of course there's more than meets the eye. kaya lang, that was not revealed in the trailers, kasi mega-spoiler pala siya. kaya di rin siguro ako naengganyo ng husto noon dito kasi nga bitin ang premise.

but i like what happened. the story is good pala. it turns out those who are in that gattaca-like place are living organ donors, clones of people who paid 5 million dollars to have their clones made as their insurance policy -- so they could live longer. bale iha-harvest ang kelangan sa clone at ipapalit sa client, eg palit ng liver, heart, etc. kung anuman ang mag-malfunction na sa natural body ng client. ganda ng konsepto! kaya lang, instead of being in a vegetative state, yung clones binuhay na ng todo kasi di gumagana ng gusto ang organs, so they lived like humans, implanted with made-up memories, at fully-functioning humans sila in a controlled society. galing! kaya lang, si ewan character nga "nag-malfunction" kasi bigla siyang nagkaroon ng curiosity na tuklasin what's beyond their life ek. questioning reality, the usual philosophical meanderings baga. what sci-fi work is without those philosophical chorvas? stuff of sci-fi nga ang ganyan e, parang cautionary tale sa present o warning for the future ek. basta. happy siya. kaya rin likes ko ang sci-fi. makes me think and rethink some things in life.

bet ko ang kuwento. ganda ng effects, ng visuals lalo na nung nakalabas na sila sa gattaca-like society nila. it's still set in the future, but just an altered version of our present ito. at maganda at seamless ang halo ng realism at futuristic. hindi siya sobrang calling attention to itself unlike most sci-fi flicks. ito seamless. ang ganda! basta. you have to see it to know what i'm talking about. cute ng details. galing ng pd at dop work combined. it worked well for me.

all in all, happy ito. watch watch watch!





RESIDENT EVIL
c. milla jovovich, michelle rodriguez

kung sinuman ang nakaisip na gawing pelikula itong video game na ito, tanga siya.

ang pangit. walang katuturan. wala na ring epek sa akin si michelle rodriguez. matagal na kaming break. kasalanan ng bad role niya sa BLOODRAYNE. at saka wala na siyang bisexual mystique sa akin. i divorce you michelle. chos.

simple lang kuwento. clandestine government science genetic experiments gone wrong. self-extermination, self-preservation. kill all people. dead people become zombies. swat-like soldiers with high-powered weapons try to kill dead people. they all die. almost. fast forward to sequel. pero wala akong kopya nun kaya di ko na tatyagain. ech.

tho interesting sa akin how they explained kung bakit nagiging zombie ang patay. kasi the human body is full of electricity and this virus they were injected with or inhaled triggered the electric chorva of the body, making it come alive but without any intelligence or soul, only the very basic instinct for survival, which is to eat. ewan lang kung bakit ang kakainin ng zombie e tao rin. parang walang explanation dun. or i was yawning when they were explaining it. wotevah.

chaka. sayang pera.




WAR OF THE WORLDS
d. steven spielberg
c. tom cruise
story from the novel by h.g. wells

i'm sure there's a perfectly good philosophical reason chorva as to why there are aliens who buried their metal monsters on earth and activated them via lightning storms one day to rise from the ground and annihilate the human population and make human blood the fertilizer of the earth for its supposed repopulation. i have to read wells' novel.

i'm sure there's a perfectly good technical and scientific reason why all of a sudden, towards the end of the movie (after 85 percent has been shown), the metal monsters began malfunctioning, making it easy for the US army troops to blast them with their puny bazookas and whatnots until the metal monsters were damaged, destroyed, and in one scene, its ET driver opened the door and just...dropped dead, dramatically (complete with nakalaylay ang lifeless hand chorva). punyeta pinatay niyo si ET! waaaaah. ET phone home, uwi patay. asar.

yes, i have to read wells' novel for that, too.

what we have in the film is just a lot of people running, metal monsters zapping, and tom cruise battling it out acting-wise with dakota fanning. nothing more. and that weird deus ex machina appearance of tim robbins as a semi-crazed man who wanted to blow the aliens to bits. hanlabo men. uwi na ko. ay, asa bahay nga pala ko. uwi na sila. yoko na.

sayang ito. i have to read the novel. even the narration that explains some things was not able to explain the most crucial things. hanlabo.

one thing's for sure. spielberg's still that kid in a man's body with a big budget and a head inside a sci-fi fantasy. let's try to top ET, shall we? after 20+years, hindi pa rin achieve, spielberg. you let me down. sobra. i so heart ET. pero hanggang dun na lang yata ikaw. MINORITY REPORT was a fluke. nadaan ka ng kuwentong magaling ang pagkaka-edit. philip k. dick just laid out the perfectly good sci-fi short story for you there; all you had to do was film. same with AI na pagkahaba-haba ng unnecessary act 3 ng dramaturgy mo (may act 4 na nga eh!). with that, you ruined brian aldiss' super-beautiful short story ("supertoys last all summer long").

waarrrhhh!