Posts Tagged ‘sci-fi’

Movie Review: (2004) Primer

PrimerPrimer is an interesting independent film with a strange and hard to follow plot. After watching the first 10 minutes or so I found myself somewhat bored yet I couldn’t look away. There are very strange time-travel themes in the plot with many a paradox. Even now, after watching the entire film, I don’t completely understand everything that happened. I found the movie enjoyable because it made me think. At the same time I was left feeling unfulfilled at the ending. Without giving away too much of the plot I will try to outline things. Four friends help each other build machines in a garage, trying to invent something that will bring in some venture capital. Two of the friends decide to build something without the other two knowing and accidentally end up building some sort of time machine. From that point on the plot becomes fairly confusing and never entirely clears up. If you enjoy a movie without all of the flashy special effects of the standard sci-fi and/or a movie that will get your brain moving then this is a good choice.

Overall I will give it a C+ It was interesting, but in the end it didn’t make much sense and left me feeling like there was no reason to watch in the first place.

Movie Review: (2008) The X-Files: I Want To Believe

The X-Files: I Want To Beleive

I just got home from seeing The X-Files: I Want To Believe. It was somewhat disappointing, which I actually expected. Chris Carter has said all along that this movie would have very little to do with the over-arching storyline of the series, which is a disappointment. Toward the end of the series there was fan outcry that the alien plotlines were too dominant, when the series ended many fans claimed this was why. I was on the opposite side of the fence, I felt that the main plot was so much more interesting than the earlier season’s ‘Freak Of The Week’ episodes. This movie felt largely that way, like an earlier episode of the show, with very few ties to the actual show other than the characters of Mulder and Scully. I feel like they wanted to make it friendly to people who never watched the show, there were very few references to the main story arc. Don’t get me wrong, it was awesome to see Mulder and Scully together again, working on a case. I would have much rather had a lore filled movie than this. I get the feeling that fans are now going to say “this movie didn’t have anything to do with the storyline of the show” and will be disappointed at this fact. The same fans that cried about the plotline when the show was in it’s later years, begging for a return to the freak of the week mentality of the earlier seasons. As I was leaving the theater I heard one guy saying to his friends “I actually thought that was a horrible movie, it didn’t have anything to do with the show.” I think a large part of the failure of this movie will be the fact that it was released only 1 week after The Dark Knight, which was bound to be more popular.

Overall, I would have to give the movie a C rating; it just didn’t feel right. Here’s hoping that if they go ahead with another movie, they will return to the main plot at least a little bit.