Sci-Fi Malady

We conclude James Cameron July with a discussion of the film Solaris. If you like slow, heady, philosophical looks at the human condition, the criteria of life, love and mental realities we create, this is the film for you. If you like action, this is certainly not it. Solaris asks questions about the reliability of memory, the filtering impact time has, how well do we truly know our friends, family and spouses, do we love and remember the real person or a stylized version of that person, as well as dabbling in the criteria of what is and is not sapient life and what rights it has. Solaris is slow, but if like movies that ask big questions and let you draw your own answers, this is science fiction at its best.

James Cameron July continues as we discuss The Abyss. This movie isn’t dated at all. Fears of Russian military attacks, nuclear submarines, it doesn’t scream 1980’s at all. That aside, this film is a testament to old school film making, with a focus on character, tension and score that is epic and on point. While there are clearly plot holes and this isn’t his best work, The Abyss is a quality film. The problem with this film is that it is not memorable. It simply exists. It is the Vanilla Ice cream of the movie world. No matter how high quality vanilla ice cream is, it is still just vanilla ice cream.

We kick off James Cameron July by discussing the blockbuster hit Avatar. You can blast this movie for many things, ripping of Dances With Wolves, a weak plot, average acting, boring and under developed characters, but it was undeniably a financial and artistic success. Avatar set records at the box office and revolutionized film making with innovative use of CGI and 3D. This movie is a decade old and is of higher quality in those areas than films made today. It is also a tremendous achievement in world building. It is a shame that this master class in the usage of CGI, 3D, score and world building was not paired with a more fully developed and original script.

July, or the last half of July and part of August, is James Cameron month at Sci-Fi Malady. We have already looked at ALIENS and Terminator, but this month we will look at his other films, such as Avatar and The Abyss and more.

This one really isn’t a Sci-Fi movie, despite the Ragemaster’s best attempts to convince us. However, it is a well done action movie. District B13 is Taken meets Die Hard, meets Escape from New York. It is a fun, entertaining action film. This one wraps up Sci-Fi Malady’s summer vacation and leads us into our theme for July, James Cameron films.

Sci-Fi Malady’s summer vacation continues with our review of The Host. It is a monster movie that makes a commentary on the evils of big government, society as a whole, and the goodness inherent in individuals. Mostly though, it is a Cloverfield Monster movie.

Explosions. Bad science. An idiotic premise. Generic, repetitive score. Bad acting. A weak, clunky plot. The Wandering Earth has it ALL. Or nothing. I guess it depends on what you are looking for in a movie. The Wandering Earth starts off with the premise that the sun will have a helium flash and turn into a red giant, a couple billion years early. To avoid certain death the Earth will be turned in a generational star ship by putting engines all over the surface. It will then fly to Alpha Centauri over 2500 years. The rest of the movie is downhill from.

While there some nice notes about how humanity might unify in the face of a crisis, far to little time is spent on that and far to much time on pointless action. This movie sucks and is the modern Armageddon, with less believable science.

Well here is the thing, I don’t know anything about this film, because I didn’t get to watch it and because I had half my teeth removed the day before recording it, I wasn’t involved in recording it…so I probably shouldn’t have written the show notes. But trust me, Thomas and Mark have made a great podcast and you will love it.

It is summer and that means vacations for many people. Sci-FI Malady is no different. In the month of June we are travelling around the world reviewing different sci-fi films from different countries.

A little late, but we wanted to give everyone time to see the movie so that we could do what we do and give spoilers. Ok, if you haven’t seen the movie, stop reading, seriously, stop reading now, because fat Thor was amazing!.

Enggame was a masterclass for wrapping up multiple storylines while setting up the playing field for whatever phase 4 of the MCU will be. Tony Stark received one of the all time greatest death scenes a character can hope for. Steve Rogers finally does what makes Steve Rogers happy, Thor teaming up with The Guardians of the Galaxy is a fantastic pairing that should make for a wonderful movie. Doctor Strange’s lines at the end of Infinity War and to Tony before battle nor carry more gravitas than ever, and the writers set up a perfect pitch for what Captain Marvel will be doing in her sequel.

Avengers Endgame is a three hour movie that never felt like a three hour movie. it was enjoyable, well paced and had an ending that made many cry, as well as one of the greatest climactic battle scenes ever in film. It was a cultural event and it will be decades before something like this comes around again. The last time something did was probably Empire Strikes Back. It wasn’t a perfect, it has flaws that we will discuss, it was essentially a time travel reset button flick that jumped five years ahead. The time jump led to world building and significant character developments that occurred off screen, which is always bad. Professor Hulk was cool but ham fisted and we miss what we should have seen in Phase, Bruce Banner’s journey to becoming professor Hulk. Tony Stark changes from rogue, billionaire genius playboy philanthropist to family man, off screen, Captain America learns to deal with failure, Thor gives up and becomes fat., Black Widow is running the Avengers. All this occurs off screen. The reset button eliminates all consequences save Black Widow’s death. However, none of these flaws matter as Endgame is fun, entertaining and story that always remembers to focus on the central characters that we have come to love. Endgame focuses on completing the stories of Tony Stark and Steve Rogers and rightfully makes them the biggest heroes in a story about Earth’s biggest heroes. For all these reasons it is an excellent film and precisely because it does these things can overcome being a time travel reset button film that leaps forward in time five years.