Alien: Romulus

Alone on a colonized world pestiferously ill-suited to humanoid habitation, boldly caring for a kindly android who tries his best to raise her spirits.

A miraculous day defiantly emerges when temporal quotas are efficiently attained, but the corporation cruelly refuses to honour its word and perniciously adds on 5 to 6 years.

Her friends have a radical plan to circumvent slavery with audacious cunning, take a ship and resourcefully hijack cryostasis equipment to reach a far away world.

The daring plan is put into action and the required tools industriously discovered, but a serious hiccup objectively impedes their smooth star sailing across the universe.

For they've accidentally landed upon a virulent space station isolated and hauntingly adrift, whereupon mad elaborate experiments were viciously conducted to catalyze evolution. 

Indeed Weyland Corporation after all of these sequels has finally obtained their sought after serum, which unnaturally transforms biological organisms unfit for space into model citizens.

The same android schematic from the original Alien even malevolently pursues the despotic objective. 

Scientifically mutate contemporary DNA.

To create invincible übermensch. 

Fortunately, the opportunistic marauders aren't so blind to the disastrous potential, and valiantly ignore the robot's plans to bring the formula back down to their planet.

Note that as the excessively rich attempt to make cyborgs hundreds of thousands may be permanently damaged, if you want to give your life for the experiment wisely make sure they're giving you at least $20 million (or try to outlaw that kind of thing). 

Alien: Romulus looks back to its roots and even reanimates the alien from Alien, while paying homage to Aliens and Alien: Resurrection in its bleak horrifying yet hands-on testament (Walter Hill also produces). 

I'm not saying they aren't really cool movies I even bought the Quadrilogy over 20 years ago, but the possibility of escape of the collective reimagining of the cultural codes responsible for Weyland remain unchallenged. 

I thought Alien, Aliens, and Alien: Resurrection made me care more about their characters, that those films gave them more room to develop, genre films that focus on developing minor characters are so much cooler (and rewatchable).

Alien: Romulus spends a lot of its time developing the android Andy and the lead hero.

While indirectly commenting on education and cyborgs. 

There's a lot more to the movie than that. 

*If you're hoping that doesn't happen with the baby, it does.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Geez Louise.

The spirit of the '90s lives on.

It hasn't been replaced by some mad bigoted dysfunctional totalitarian complex.

Writers and directors still seeking a reasonable balance amongst the levels harmoniously sustained with heartfelt respect.

Racist discrimination isn't dominating.

Neither is elitist pretension. 

In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, posthaste, which holds a coveted place within the mass market, and is theoretically quite influential in terms of meaningful intergalactic liberty.

Within an ingenious megalomaniac seeks to reinvent ye olde planet Earth, with genetically modified animals, but the results are not utopian (Chukwudi Iwuji as The High Evolutionary). 

He's such a piece of shit that he doesn't try to fix the ailing society he's created, instead since it isn't ideal, he decides to utterly annihilate it.

He can't accept that the creation of a world has too many variables to cohesively caress, and that manifold multivariable mutations naturally challenge strategic planning.

You can't just destroy tens of thousands of lives if your perfect world lacks ornate distinction, that's tens of thousands of murders on your hands, if you create life, it happens to be living.

That's what he does though, that motherfucker, the Guardians fighting him along the way, while offering glimpses into Rocket's (Bradley Cooper) past, the Evolutionary's most gifted creation.

A ship is self-destructing, everyone must flee and move quickly to avoid oblivion, a voice shouts out to save the higher lifeforms at which point I thought elitism had won the day.

But an alternative voice rich with multilateral concordance soulfully contradicts it with compassionate equipoise. 

And the animals locked down upon the vessel are also freed and led to safety.

In the end, there's an awesome party which looks like it must have been fun to attend, different species from different walks of life exchanging observations and jokes and memories.

We were taught long ago way back when to value life in all its form, and not to condescendingly judge those whose grades lacked brilliant correspondence. 

Not to let them run the show but certainly to give them a salient voice, not everyone fluent in microbiology, but generally aware of ways and means.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 cherishes life and celebrates community, regardless of I.Q or test scores, or biological resiliency.

In a wild unpredictable way that isn't preachy or overwrought.

I may have to pick up a copy.

Along with Avatar: The Way of Water.

🦝🐘🐻🦏🦛🦑🐄

Jurassic World Dominion

Back to the old power and megalomania hellbent on global domination, this time having genetically engineered giant locusts which habitually feast on various crops worldwide.

Various crops which happen to have been resolutely cultivated with Biosyn seeds, Biosyn having created a market (like Monsanto?) for its grain, then proceeded to wipe out every form of competition.

Dr. Wu (BD Wong) realizes catastrophe's afoot but can't seek redemption without looking bad, let millions of people starve to death or risk losing face, he wants to make amends but can't think of how to do so.

He's denied by his wicked boss (Campbell Scott as Lewis Dodgson) whose evil intent is rebelliously disputed, as both Jurassic World and Jurassic Park alumni converge on his remote laboratory. 

Doctors Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and Alan Grant (Sam Neill) representing scientists generally seeking to promote knowledgeable wonder, like the bourgeoisie they rely on funding to make spiritually prosperous cultural contributions.

Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Mr. Grady (Chris Pratt) are more hands on and take a practical approach to living with dinosaurs, like versatile independent conscientious workers they promote sustainable communal life.

Thus, the mad elitist seeking to monopolize global food production, is courageously challenged by worker and middle-management who daringly obscure his psychotic vision.

But Jurassic World Dominion is also about a world where dinosaurs abound, multiple species fortuitously finding a way to generally adapt to divergent ecosystems.

I suppose it would be a grandiose ecological disaster of intensified colossal invasive magnitude, but thoughts like that kind of spoil the fun, and contemporary and ancient species alike seem to be getting along so well in the film (it's just a movie).

I was almost teary-eyed to see Laura Dern and Sam Neill back at it, after so many intervening years, was but a wee lad when the original came out, I was reading the book at the time, which I thoroughly loved, it's my favourite Michael Crichton.

Apart from the requisite mayhem and the inevitable hoopla of the traditional blockbuster, there are some really cool animal scenes, especially one where Dr. Sattler sees a baby, and says, "you never get used to it".

People who love animals know how true those words are, and that even if you see wild turtles or zebras or water buffalos every day of your life, the experience never gets old or tiresome, it's irrefutably exciting each and every time.

That scene made the film for me and it was also really cool to see the two casts converge.

The likelihood of their plan succeeding: it's up for debate.

Certainly not without the aid of Ms. Watts (DeWanda Wise) and Mr. Cole (Mamoudou Athie).  

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Jurassic World, back at it.

Dinosaur-related shenanigans, check.

Some dick trying to cash in on the genetically reincarnated beasties: you got it.

Those who care about preserving both the independence and integrity of dinosaur kind, primed, and ready to go.

Consistent death-defying escapes mixed in with a ludicrous plot that unravels like a particularly intriguing series of Bazooka Joe comics?

Yuppers.

Although the dinosaurs, as in the actual dinosaurs, having been left alone to exist freely on Isla Nublar, still make for a stunning cinematic extravaganza, their wild unpredictable prehistoric codes of conduct generating thrilling exceptional naturalistic exhilarations, that make the unrelenting poaching of elephants, rhinos, lions, tigers, bears, and others, seem even more horrendous, as even more are illegally deprived of life each day.

A UN army to stop them?

I'd greenlight that idea.

Yet, for the next Jurassic World sequel, might I suggest 25 minutes more pure dinosaur, and 25 minutes less human interaction?

Still include plenty of Zia Rodriguez (Daniella Pineda), Franklin Webb (Justice Smith), Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), Claire Deaning (Bryce Dallas Howard), Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), and Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), but take it easy on the maniacal conspiring.

Plus, the ending, spoiler alert, suggests dinosaurs will be proliferating partout in Jurassic World 3.

Considering how many were saved from the island, that's a bit ridiculous, unless all the dinosaurs who jumped off the cliff to freedom swam to land and survived, the numbers simply don't add up.

Not including those who can fly.

Methinks more time should be spent on the script for future instalments as well.

I was super happy to see James Cromwell (Benjamin Lockwood) but then he had to deliver the worst dialogue imaginable, over and over again.

He deserves so much better.

Even the first half of Ian Malcolm's speech isn't that tight, although his statements at the end of the film make an impact, as if they reserved the best writing for the last 2 minutes, hoping the rest would be overlooked as a consequence.

Even with the impact, they still make you think the world will be overrun with dinosaurs in the next movie, when those who were shipped off the island weren't exactly handpicked by Noah (I assume dinosaurs lay a bunch of eggs at a time, but how often do they breed and how closely do they watch their young? [elephant moms carry their young for 22 months{mama turtles lay then take off}]).

What happened to Lowery (Jake Johnson)?

He didn't die in the first/fourth film.

He was cool.

The Indoraptor may be a prototype, but it's also a highly refined predator bred to kill and kill.

And kill again.

I don't think turning the lights out would fool it.

Plus, the auction doesn't make much sense.

None of the dinosaurs they're selling apart from the Indoraptor prototype have been genetically conditioned to follow commands, and a bunch of them are herbivorous by nature.

How are you going to turn something that eats grass and plants all day and isn't violent into some strange breed of instinctual vegetarian mercenary?

And how could you trick elite arms dealers into thinking that's a great idea?

Even if it'd make a funny Will Ferrell movie.

And wouldn't one sniper bullet put a dinosaur mercenary out of commission?

If you could weaponize herbivores wouldn't a deer be more suitable option?

I can't believe I'm thinking about these things.

Plus, if Eli Mills (Rafe Spall) is managing the fortune that built Jurassic Park etc., why would he take so many idiotic risks to pick up what probably amounts to spare chump change?

The payouts he had to make after Jurassic World fell apart weren't astronomically high in speculative comparison.

A fun movie to watch lacking in structural cohesion, perhaps Fallen Kingdom's writers made internal and personal sacrifices to narratively lampoon the miserable ethical foundations of global weapons manufacturing, deliberately not thinking things through to sharply critique plutocratic ambitions, while betting on making a shit ton of money meanwhile?

The do-gooders are still awesome.

And the dinosaurs too.

My favourite dinosaur: the stegosaurus.

Always has been.

😌

Blade Runner

Learned an important lesson from Blade Runner this evening. After Rick Deckard is almost killed by Leon, his boss Bryant arrives to jovially inform him that he looks like hell. At which point, I realized that when someone has been through hell, it's important not to pamper them, if you happen to be involved in a working relationship with them. What's more important, is belittling and ridiculing them, so they won't start thinking that perhaps they should be doing something else for a living. Belittling and ridiculing them reminds them how shitty things are and keeps them focused upon that particular version of how things are; pampering them tries to ease the pain, the pain which such heroes need in order to successfully perform their monumental tasks, and, without which, might make them think, hey this no-pain situation is nice, I'd like it to continue: wrong, hero, it can't continue, get used to the pain, the abuse, it's coming and it ain't lettin' up for no god-damn shits and giggles. Plus, it gives you the chance to tell your boss to go to hell, which is what working's all about.

Blade Runner really is an exceptional film. The mood, the pacing, the ambience, the monosyllabic dialogue, the phenomenal standout performances from the supporting characters, the sets, the attention to detail, the gloom, the hard-boiled humanity, the realism, and the poetic lines poignantly delivered by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), all contribute to the development of a cohesive aesthetic that never grows old. Like the themes of identity, birth, parenthood, labour, regeneration, and being that radiate throughout. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in the rain; it's a pity she won't live, but then again, who does?