Tag: Space

REVIEW: ‘Mickey 17’ is a clumsy creation from Bong Joon-ho

Bong Joon-ho’s follow-up to “Parasite” is unfortunately, no awards contender.

The latest from the South Korean filmmaker is a dark sci-fi action-comedy centered on the character Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson). Needing to flee Earth because of a loan shark, Mickey boarded a spacecraft to a new planet, and took a job known as Expendable, where he does repairs in awful conditions.

In the case of death, his memories and personality has been downloaded, and his body can be recreated, allowing him to live on. The movie picks up with Mickey now on body 17 and surviving a dangerous incident where he should have died. As a result, an 18th Mickey is made. In doing so, their combined presence alters the course of the future for the a space colony.

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REVIEW: ‘Alien Romulus’ successfully returns series to its roots

As much as I like Michael Fassbender, I’m glad he was nowhere near this “Alien” entry after the last two.

Set between 1979’s “Alien” and 1986’s “Aliens,” “Romulus begins on a space colony called Jackson’s Star where the protagonist Rain (Cailee Spaeny) resides with her surrogate android brother Andy (David Jonsson). Life for the two is difficult, as they do grueling work on a harsh mining colony to pay a debt.

They get a chance to leave, though, when they join with a group of friends on a sort of escape mission that involves getting some equipment from a defunct space station. It’s necessary to go there as it will allow them to make a long space voyage, but unfortunately, a certain life-form is waiting for them.

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REVIEW: Mildly amusing ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ never fully takes off

Scarlett Johansson makes it two in a row with space-themed films, following up her appearance in 2023’s “Asteroid City” with this summer’s “Fly Me to the Moon.”

This time around, Johansson plays an advertising ace named Kelly. Because of her record of success in marketing, Kelly is recruited by a mysterious government agent named Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson) to bolster the public’s perception of NASA.

It comes at a time when NASA is looking to forge ahead on its Moon mission, despite losing the loss of public interest. Kelly starts turning that around, much to the chagrin of by-the-books launch director Cole (Channing Tatum). However, Kelly starts winning him over, too.

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REVIEW: ‘I.S.S.’ has some suspense but execution is clunky

The International Space Station may bring astronauts to the final frontier, but as this film shows, they are still very much tied to what’s happening down on Earth.

“I.S.S.” centers on six characters aboard the station in Earth’s orbit. There are three American astronauts: Kira (Ariana DeBose), Gordon (Chris Messina) and Christian (John Gallagher Jr.), as well as three Russian cosmonauts: Weronika (Masha Mashkova), Nicholai (Costa Ronin) and Alexey (Pilou Asbæk).

Kiras is the newest to the station and is still adjusting, but she finds everything going smoothly on board as the crew gets along and stays busy. That is until they all witness massive explosions and find out that a major war has started. Each group then receives notice from their nations to take over the station.

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REVIEW: ‘Guardians 3’ is a bit of good, a bit of bad, and a bit of both

Director James Gunn has given us one last ride with the “Guardians” before he ships off from Marvel to DC.

It may not be on the level of the first two, but it’s nice to see these characters again.

This time around, the crew is setting up a new shop on the world Knowhere. Well, most of the crew is. The captain of the Guardians, Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), is in a rough spot. While it’s been some time, he’s still mourning the death of Gamora (Zoe Saldana), who was killed in the Infinity War.

Peter is thrust into action quickly, though, when an unknown being attacks, specifically targeting crew-member Rocket (Bradley Cooper). Rocket is severely injured and to save him, the Guardians have to take on a powerful foe who is connected to the raccoon’s history. As part of the mission, the Guardians get help from an alternate Gamora, who came from a different timeline.

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Best of the Decade: Sci-Fi

This is a series called “Best of the Decade.” It’s a list including 10 movies that I found to be the best in a specific genre from 2010-2019.

Whether films were part of established franchises or simply stand alone features, this past decade was pretty darn good for sci-fi. Here are some of my favorites from the past 10 years.

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REVIEW: ‘Ad Astra’ is in the upper echelon of the space adventure genre

A star studded cast like this deserves to be on a grand scale film across the stars. That’s what we get with the new sci-fi “Ad Astra.”

The movie takes place in the fairly distant future, with mankind now able travel to the Solar System’s inner planets regularly and launch long range expeditions beyond the asteroid belt. The film follows Roy McBride, an experienced and fearless astronaut working for the United States’ Space Com.

However, Roy still lives in the shadow of his father Clifford (Tommy Lee Jones), a great, accomplished American space explorer who went on a venture to the outer reaches of the solar system near Neptune. The expedition was lost, though, decades ago, with the crew written off as dead. When power surges begin hitting the earth generated from a powerful space ship engine, Roy is tasked with finding out if his father is still alive and if so, if it’s the lost ship starting these power surges.

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