Rampage - Movie

Rampage - Movie



Definitely science fiction.

An Injected pathogen turns a laboratory rat into a monster which destroys a space station. The last surviving crew member was to return to earth with only the pathogen but due to the aggressive monster, the escape capsule bursts during re-entry which releases the pathogen.

A chimp, a wolf, and an aquatic gill-breathing animal turn into monsters due to the pathogen and how the protagonist bring back peace on the planet is the rest of the film.

Exaggerations apart, the film is threatening. Nature is contained but it has its own equations and balancing points. Though gene editing can be thought as a solution to the growing number of gene-based diseases and genetic disorders, isn't it quite clear that it is definitely not the way to fix things?

When Jurassic Park hit the theatres in 1993, it raised an important question. "Is science the only best way to fix the issues of mankind?". But this film ignores to raise that question. So between 1993 and 2018, 25 years have gone.

Which means, it has taken 25 years for people to realize that Earth has been spoiled beyond recovery. Now there is no turn back. Science is the only way to survive from this dying planet. I believe, this is the message the film intends to convey. There cannot be a news worse than this. 

Hush - Movie

Hush - Movie


"A Quiet Place" is not the first of its kind.

"Hush" is a 2016 American Horror movie in the line of horror without dialogues.

A writer who is deaf and cannot speak resides in an isolated house in the woods. She intends to spend her time in composing her 2nd book.

Because of the isolation, she becomes a victim to a psycho killer. Being a psycho, the killer slips into a hunting mode looking to spice up the kill. He first willingly allows things to fall in her favor. When he gradually advances on her, with her disability how she saves herself is the rest of the story.

This 80 minutes film looks clean, crisp and in a proper mix. A couple of more characters might have let the film loose balance.

Please inbox me on the things I have not written here.

Cosmos - A Spacetime Odyssey

Cosmos - A Spacetime Odyssey


One of my favorite documentary in Netflix is "Cosmos - A Spacetime Odyssey".

If I was allowed to travel back in time to my 17th age and asked to choose my study, I probably would have chosen Physics than Engineering as a first step towards becoming a theoretical physicist.

It is only because of the abundant chances it offers to study the physical nature of the boundless universe. Even though I belong to the community of people who don't prefer accelerating things towards extinction in the name of science, I honestly think that physics is a means to understand life better on the planet.

Physics offers perspectives and visions which one cannot perceive in the flow of life. Life and its chaosity as we live through compel us to not look back and get a glimpse of what we are going through. Instead, it makes us all yield to the competitions, emotions and survival challenges.

"How do you find time to write poetries and novels?" is one question thrown at me every now and then. It is self-explanatory.

In Netflix, this more-than-a-dozen-episode long documentary is available in HD print. Neil Degrasse Tyson has done a very extraordinary job of hosting the documentary with his excellent skills in conveying complex concepts of physics.

I lost count of the number of times I have seen these episodes back to back. It is one series I would love to watch any number of times.

Even though the series doesn't touch anything very complex like Einstein's relativity or Schrodinger or Quantum entanglement or multiverse, it has the much-needed basics with which one can quickly jump into the endless ocean of the physics of Cosmos.

The Cloverfield Paradox - Movie

The Cloverfield Paradox - Movie


This one is a 2018 American Sci Fi horror film. If you don't understand Quantum Entanglement and EPR paradox, you probably may not able to enjoy this film and its twists and turns.

For those who are driven by a never-dying intellectual curiosity, this film would only fall short but if you are not the one, you better stay away from this. Don't go to this movie.

Be aware that the measurement of time that we have now is only for a convenience to organize all known logical entities around us. There is no such thing called time but there is something called reality.  Reality is a by-product of spacetime. The fact that, how much it bends to a given set of physicality defines the dimension of time. This is how time works in every part of the observable universe.

To say in short, when the crew of a space station accidentally tears open a spacetime fabric, an alternate reality takes over. How they find back their way to Earth is the rest of the movie.

But again, if you are not familiar to EPR paradox and Quantum Entanglement, please do NOT go to this movie. You will understand nothing.

Real Steel - Movie

Real Steel - Movie


Why do all the good science fiction movies appear to have been evolved from a short story or a novel written by a writer/novelist (like me ;))?

Jokes apart, are you perceiving what I am perceiving? Are you deriving what I am deriving?

"Real Steel" was originally written by American author and screenwriter, Richard Matheson. Apparently, rumors say that he sold his original work "Steel' for a whopping $850,000 in 2003. Yes. That is what I am talking about. You are a millionaire celebrity with just one original idea away.

The film is wonderful. A dumped bot saves a small boy. He considers it a lucky piece and doesn't want to leave it estranged. Well, That's the max of emotions that one can expect from a Hollywood movie.

Now the bot is ready to fight and bring good fortune to both the father and the son.

I am wondering how much excited Richard would have been when he first conceived this idea? Bots punch each other in a ring! Interesting isn't it?

One of my roommates bought a Google Mini. It worked amazingly. It sincerely obeyed his commands, ran his songs for him from youtube, remembered his todo list and so on. Impressed by its performance, one of his friend - one of my other roommate - too bought one. Problems began to surface. The minis got confused between their owners as their voice recognition software was not that great, revealed the secret notes of one with the other and so on.

But why do I bother so much to have it a mention here? You know it right?

Gerald's Game - Movie

Gerald's Game - Movie

"Gerald's Game" was first written as a novel and later adapted into a movie.

This was written by Stephen King.

Gerald brings his wife to his guest house. What begins as a kinky-game between them ends up in a nightmare. Jessie who is cuffed to the bed frame remains immobile for two days since Gerald succumbs to death due to excessive intake of viagra.

In the two days, Jessie experiences delusions that takes her back to her teen days. She recalls the day her father behaves in a weird manner with her on his lap.

Confrontations between Jessie and the delusional counterpart of Gerald and Jessie carries the rest of the film until she finally escapes the guest house and allows herself to be saved by the neighbors.

The screenplay handles a certain degree of Freudism. I liked the movie especially because this is another movie which was made out of a novel work.

A Quiet Place - Movie

A Quiet Place - Movie

Happy to see again a story written by writers turned into a movie.

This story was originally written by writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods.

The film has very minimal dialogues and yet, holds the audience. Having a pregnant woman as one of the characters in the story is becoming a standard for 'good' horror these days and this film is no exception to that thumb rule.

The precinct of the movie is dramatic. Can't imagine a shop selling gadgets that can shout loud in a place where noise is forbidden. Can't imagine a protagonist who sets out leaving his pregnant wife at home and without telling her anything about the small electronic thing that he has created in his backyard to keep the monsters away.

Overall the film is different. Amidst people who firmly believe horror can only be a ghostly thing, this is a very different attempt.

Ready player one - Movie

Ready player one - Movie

"Ready Player One" is a futuristic movie by Spielberg. Each one in his Jurassic Park series was all extravagant. He has maintained his 'standards' in this film too.

This film is actually a novel work by Ernest Cline. Happy to see writer's/novelist's works being consistently taken for a film adaptation. Much of the films in the recent past have been adapted ones.

Andy Weir's The Martian,
Jeff Wandermeer's Annihilation,
Ted Chiang's Arrival are to name a few.

The idea of a futuristic society in which people have given up trying to beautify things and have learned to live with the dirt which becomes a motivation factor for virtual world is not an unimaginable piece of fiction.

Looking at the rate in which humans decay the planet, it is only a few decades away.  In my perception, we would be the last generation to have enjoyed breathable oxygen till our 20s.

This film is a whopping 120 mins long. A little over 2 hours which is pretty longer than usual. But thanks to the interesting gaming plot which keep us captivated.

Gravity - Movie

Gravity - Movie


Light is temporary. It is weak. It is finite. It is confined. It is bounded.

Whereas Darkness is persistent. It is strong. It is everything yet nothing. It is everywhere. It is unorganized. It is unordered. It is not classified. It, by nature, doesn't show things which we call 'hiding'.

Wisdom symbolized by light must be the greatest misunderstanding ever. Innocence symbolized by darkness is the ultimate truth.

The film Gravity would be quite meaningful if seen from a philosophical angle. As a science fiction, it may at first sound like a stranded astronaut in space trying to return to Earth. To me, it metaphors a philosophical side of life.

Matt Kowalski's (George Cooney) character in the film is just that. When he slips into the darkness knowing that the rope that holds Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) cannot hold two at a time, he makes a lot of sense.

Ryan Stone's want to return to Earth can be taken as greed for earthly life which in philosophical terms is merely a curse.

Social norms are fictional by-products of this obsession. We all are simply stuck in this obsession's various microscopic levels. Socializing is that complexity of immersing ourselves into this obsession where there can never be a return.

Berlin Syndrome - Movie

Berlin Syndrome - Movie


There are people who go on tour alone. I have always wondered how that is always possible for them? No fear on the strange places and people and the strange things that can happen to them?

Clare goes on a tour to Germany. What develops into a one night stand with Andi later turns into a nightmare for her. Andi locks her in his unbreakable room and keeps her almost like a prisoner cum sex-slave.

She initially resists and gets even hurt on a couple of occasions trying to escape but later succumbs to his psychic attitude. In his apartment, she finds albums of his previous kills.

Andi is different. Though he enslaves Clare, keeps his limits with his girl student who approaches him. He also keeps his distance from his friend's wife who tries to seduce him.

Strange characters indeed. In my opinion, it doesn't happen to everybody. There is a reason why destiny is said to be pre-determined.

The Lazarus Effect - Movie

The Lazarus Effect - Movie


How would it be if you could bring back dead people alive? A group of scientist develops something in the lab called "serum" with which they bring back a dead woman alive.

But the serum leads to increased brain activity and what she does to her colleagues is the rest of the film.

The film presumes that brain activity is directly proportional to the depth of conscious. The more the brain activity, the deeper the conscious. With the increased brain activity, she could control objects remotely, bend iron rods, cause a power surge, telepath and much more.

Interesting sci-fi element.

One can take this film as the best example for a sci-fi movie taken at a bare minimum cost employing not more than just 4-5 actors, a very small laboratory, and a dog.

I loved it.

This has been categorized under supernatural science fiction.

The Titan - Movie

The Titan - Movie



I sat on this with many expectations but was disappointed. Titan is one of Saturn's moon. It has an atmosphere but that offers only a hostile ecology for life as how it exists on our home planet, Earth. It cannot by any law of physics sustain a human life and therefore was curious how the film is going to prove it otherwise.

The idea is to give humans the required abilities to survive that hostile eco-system. "Forced evolution" is how the idea is called as in the movie.

Arguable!

The movie says that it can be possible to successfully implant the required abilities through scientific methods that can sustain life on a moon like Titan. To me, it is a crazy idea but offers a sci-fi element.

Finally, only one homo-titanian successfully lands on Titan but what is the purpose? He without a female homo-titanian cannot sustain life on Titan. So what is the point is deploying just a single homo-titanian on Titan? How a single homo-titanian can ensure the sustenance of life on the moon? He can he form a colony? How can he inhabit the land mass?

No answers.

I should say, whoever developed this vision didn't think it through.

Automata - Movie

Automata - Movie

This is a 2014 Spanish-Bulgarian movie. Antonio Banderas plays the role of an Insurance officer.

How long would it take for AI to acquire capabilities of self-repair and self-construction? This is the storyline of the movie.

Rumors say that Facebook once had to abandon an in-house artificial intelligence experiment after two of its robots began talking to each other in a language they invented on their own that too, ON THE FLY.

Robots thinking on their own is only a dumb curiously stupid scientist's stupid attempt away. Just like how some deadly viruses were bio-engineered to target humans by some stupid scientist in the Amazon forests. It is just a stupid humanly move away.

This movie is scary. Anthonio's acting is extraordinary. I have seen only a few of his movies and my presumption was not very good on his acting skills. This movie changed my picture of his skills.