Category Archives: Review

Reviews of sci-fi movies

Sci-Fi Movie Review: Prometheus

Review: February 17, 2013
[Prometheus. Released June 2012. Directed by Ridley Scott, Writers John Spaihts and Damon Lindelof. DVD/Blu-Ray released. As usual, this “post-viewing review” contains many spoilers.] The opening scene of Prometheus, which demands interpretation right out of the reel, is of a humanoid alien imbibing some kind of nanotechnology that transforms him (it?, there seem to be [...]
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Sci-Fi Movie Review: Paul

Review: March 3, 2012
[Paul. Released March 2011. Directed by Greg Mottola, Writers Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. DVD/Blu-Ray released. As usual, this review contains many spoilers.] This film is rated SFF, as in for science fiction fans. I’m tempted to say only for science fiction fans. Unlike Men in Black or Galaxy Quest, two other very good science [...]
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Sci-Fi Movie Review: Inception

Review: September 26, 2011
[Inception. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Released July 16, 2010. DVD/Blu-Ray released. As usual, the review contains many spoilers.] I’m going to try something unusually, um, structural for this review. It’s in keeping with a structural notion of dream levels used in Inception and it may help shed some light on the divide that separates the [...]
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Sci-Fi Movie Review: Galaxy Quest

Review: November 27, 2010
I’m guessing there are still people out there who like science fiction movies but have never seen Galaxy Quest. This review is a shameless plug. Galaxy Quest is a comedy, in fact, one of that very rare species, a science fiction comedy. It says something for Galaxy Quest that it is still available on the [...]
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Sci-Fi movie review: Splice

Review: November 21, 2010
[Splice. Directed by Vincenzo Natali. Released June, 2010. DVD/Blu-Ray released. As usual, the review contains many spoilers.] It looks like science fiction, but by the end it’s obvious Splice is a gothic horror movie. As science fiction it does have a modern biochemistry lab for a set, at least in the beginning; and the story [...]
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Sci-fi Movie Review: Moon

Review: October 23, 2010
[As usual, this spoiler-laden review is written with the assumption that most people reading it have already seen the movie. Moon is out on DVD and Blu-ray.] To start with a conclusion, Moon is a good science fiction movie that some people will like quite a lot. It’s an ‘indie’ film (an independent), meaning that [...]
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SciFi Movie Review: Avatar

Review: September 10, 2010
[James Cameron’s Avatar makes a reappearance this fall of 2010 (a 3-D limited theatrical release, a new set of DVD/Blu-ray disks, stories about sequels). It’s a good excuse to write about the movie, and assume that most have already seen it.] Avatar is no more ‘just a movie’ than the first Star Wars episode was [...]
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Sci-Fi Movie Review: The Fourth Kind

Review: July 1, 2010
Nobody, I hope, thought Close Encounters of the Third Kind was about real events. That movie was made to be realistic in a Hollywood sort of way but it was clearly a fable, a fabulous story. The Fourth Kind has other intentions. It resolutely, in-your-face, implies that it’s based on true events, close encounters of [...]
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Sci-Fi movie review: Surrogates

Review: May 26, 2010
[Surrogates. Directed by Jonathan Mostow. Writers Michael Ferris, John D. Brancato (two others). Released 2009, now in DVD and Blu-Ray. As customary for SciTechStory, this review contains many spoilers.] We get it: Surrogates (robots) bad; being human good. In fact, I’d wager most people more than get it before the opening credits are over. The [...]
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Sci-Fi movie review: District 9

Review: December 24, 2009
[District 9, 2009. Directed by Neill Blomkamp. Written by Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell. Released on DVD and Blu-Ray. This review is a post-viewing review and contains many spoilers.] Fortunately not every science fiction movie can or should look like a James Cameron production, an Avatar. However, it’s worth noting how closely Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 [...]
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Sci-fi movie review: Star Trek (2009)

Review: November 21, 2009
[Star Trek (2009), released on DVD and Blu-Ray. Directed by J.J. Abrams. Written by Robert Orci, Alex Kurtzman. This is a post-viewing review containing multiple spoilers, if for this movie, they can be called that.] This movie, Star Trek, the 2009 remake, or new universe, or whatever. It’s not a very good movie. As the [...]
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Sci-Fi Movie Review: 2012

Review: November 15, 2009
The world is coming to an end! In the epic disaster movie 2012, that’s an understatement. The sun is producing some new fangled type of neutrino, which superheats the Earth’s core, which causes the tectonic plates to shift, which cause earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and huge tsunamis. The forces of nature, as portrayed by tens of [...]
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