http://www.ironsky.net/site/

Space Nazi’s? Really?
Fans of SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW will want to keep an eye to the skies for this space epic being produced by Energia Productions on a micro-budget. This film looks amazing so far – offering up some grand 3D and green screen visions that thrill me to no end.

http://www.projectarbiter.com/

What happens when some truly creative folks get together and make a dream happen? PROJECT ARBITER!

Some talented folks got together and are producing a really fun and exciting alternate history, sci fi action film that promises to kick much butt! The drive and determination of these talents really makes me happy. It’s great to see people get together to do something they love – no matter how difficult the challenge may prove to be at times.

ARBITER has a fantastic, real world look and comes through on pushing the boundaries of sci fi with a real world feel. The filmmakers love of film comes through loud and clear and their efforts shine. I hope this outing to make a 20 minute funding short proves to be profitable and fruitful – getting them backing for a big budget, feature film. It will be a blockbuster for sure.

Toys are being made already! 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hazel-fantasy/with/5384991556/

From the site:

“Project Arbiter is a sci-fi espionage story that demonstrates how a small quiet victory tips the balance of power and foretells the outcome of World War II. Created by a group of passionate and innovative filmmakers, the Project Arbiter team is skilled at mastering limited resources while aspiring to high professional standards, especially with regard to the end result, the quality of what you experience on-screen. We hope you will join us in realizing our goal to make a rich and compelling short film.”

12 Monkeys
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114746/
Directed by Terry Gilliam

Now, time travel films are hit or miss. The genre is filled with both ends of the spectrum ranging from brilliant and fun to sad, pathetic, weak and ridiculous. 12 MONKEYS is definitely on the “brilliant and fun” end of the swing, handling the time travel motif well and being very smart about the concepts and storyline. This blast from the past holds up really well and is one grand time travel film and takes the French short La Jetée (1962 – movie link) on which it was based to a new level.

Terry Gilliam creates in his usual playful style, weaving a dark and grim dystopian view of a horrid timeline. This wasn’t pure fantasy, but a creepy vision of a dead world desperately trying to dig themselves out from under.  The Gilliam hand can be seen in the “future” world, but is much lighter in the word of the present and the combo works well.

Bruce Willis is “volunteer” James Cole, one of a small handful of survivors of a massive, worldwide killer virus.  He’s sent out into the post-apocalyptic environment to collect samples and completes his mission so well that his scientist jailers decide to use him for an even bigger one – journeying back through time to get details about the cause of the viral outbreak. Willis’ standard and strong performance as the unwilling lab rat time traveler is perfect. He’s not an action hero, just someone trying to do what he’s asked to do so he can get out and away and find some sort of piece.

Madeleine Stowe plays James Cole’s psychologist Katheryn Railly and transforms from a person who is planted firmly in the real world to someone who isn’t entirely sure of what is happening around her. The performance doesn’t come off as campy at all. It’s very real and intense as her well structured world falls apart around her.

Brad Pitt’s performance as the completely insane Jeffrey Goines is the best of all, however. Mad as a hatter, dear Jeffrey has plans. Big plans. And the voices in his head confirm that they are great and amazing plans, indeed!  This role must have been so much fun for Pitt. He’s an absolute loon.

The film explores many of the standard time travel ideas, but manages to bring some interesting and entertaining story points into play that take it to a higher level. Much of the interest is created through the writing, not the special effects. This makes it a stronger entry into the time game and takes it above simple science fiction.

If you have not seen 12MONKEYS, give it a go. I don’t think you will be disappointed. If you have not seen it in a while, you may want to revisit it – I was surprised at just how well it held up.

AVATAR (2009)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/
Directed by James Cameron

( As always, this is a spoiler free review. )

As of December 2009, with an estimated budget of US $230,000,000, this is the most expensive movie ever made. And it’s all worth it!

I have not felt this way about a movie in a long time. I sat in my seat at the IMAX theater in San Francisco’s Metreon complex slack jawed and wide eyed as the movie began and remained that way for the whole of the film.

This film was a magical wonderland for me. It succeeded in transporting me up and away from everything – suspension of disbelief complete and mind fully sunk into the word Cameron and several heavy hitter F/X houses managed to create for us all to enjoy. And enjoy I did. This movie blew me away on many levels and while I didn’t find it to be a perfect film, it was well worth the price of admission. Easily the best film I have seen in many years.

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a Marine with a mission – to help talk some sense into the indigenous people creatures of Pandora with the help of his body avatar. Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) has little to no faith in him, but he manages to make things work. Enter Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) daughter of the tribal leaders, Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) money obsessed corporate puppet and Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) military madman and you have a party.

Have we seen it before? Sure. But never done like this.

40% live action and 60% photo-realistic CGI, high end motion capture technology makes 3D creature come to life on the screen in an amazing way. I watched the film and forgot about the 3D aspect almost immediately. It was fun seeing the real actors reflected in their 3D counterparts as well. Facial features and actions translated beautifully to the 3D “puppets” and the performances were reflected to an almost eerie perfection.

The film project was supposed to come on the heals of Titanic, but the 3D tech just wasn’t up to the standards Cameron wanted. After seeing Gollum in the Rings Trilogy, Cameron thought that the tech was up to the challenge and decided to try it all again. When I think about the scope and work involved in this movie, it blows my mind. The movies creature effects, future tech vehicles, world creation and integration raises the bar for anything we see from here on out.

The story was familiar, but well done. The “Bad” want something from the “Good” and are willing to do anything it takes to get it. The “Good” need to fight for their own survival both physically and culturally. This plot could have been a silly snooze fest, but it wasn’t. It was a fun and interesting venture and was presented well. The “Bad” tend to get a little cartoony at one point and removed me from the film (“Let ‘em find another tree to live in!” :::evil laugh:::) but I managed to get through it and back into the movie relatively unscathed.

All in all, this film will go down as a “masterpiece”– sitting along side the likes of Star Wars and E.T.  With a domestic total of $73,000,000 as of Dec. 20, 2009 a mere few days after it’s release, it’s well on its way to making it’s money back.

AVATAR was an amazing trip for me. It made me feel like a kid again – wide eyed with a renewed sense of wonder and excitement. Amazing.

Surrogates (2009)
Directed by Jonathan Mostow
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/

Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) and Peters (Radha Mitchell) are FBI investigators in a world were surrogate, robo-humans venture out and live the day to day while the real humans stay at home plugged into machines. Crime has dropped to record low levels. Sexually transmitted disease worry is a thing of the past. But, when someone dies when their surrogate is killed and the safety of all humankind is in jeopardy, the hunt for the truth is on.

Yeah…familiar, for sure, but the execution is well done and Willis sends out awesome “Willisness” as the near future plays out for the audience. The mystery element rolls along and is fine and entertaining for the most part, but the real fun for me was in the way the science fiction side of things was handled. Things seemed just far enough into the future to be believable and understandable. Unlike MINORITY REPORT, people drove Prius’ instead of driving around in tube cars and worked in regular jobs with standard computers instead of holo-screens. They also walked from point A to point B without having to fight in slow motion while connected to wires.

The basic fight in the film was between those wanting to use the robo-likeness surrogates and those who thought surrogates should be abolished. Again, believable. Willis kept things on the down low and there were no catchy one liners to muddy the waters.

Things get a little gray around the edges if you think about them TOO much, but all in all this was an entertaining and fun sci fi film worthy of big screen viewing.

First, let me say that this is not your usual, giant robot anime. There are no monsters. There are no powerful and magical battles being waged between tall haired tweens. While it does fall into the  fantasy and science fiction genre, it approaches it with a real world flair and concentrates on people more than just amazing flying machines.

Enter the world of THE SKY CRAWLERS – an alternate timeline in another world. A battle is being fought between two factions and children-beings called Kildren fight within it. They may live forever – no one knows. They know that each day may be their last. And, they don’t care. They fight when called on and spend the rest of their time waiting to fight again. Grim, indeed.

But, there’s more.

If you are a fan of GHOST IN THE SHELL, PATLABOR or JIN ROH, you already know about Oshii and the deliberate pacing of his films. He takes time with them and lets the viewer take everything in. Sounds and interactions take on a quiet strength that makes you take stock in what’s really going on.  The characters wander through their world and take on a realistic and sometimes fatalistic quality that strikes a chord when watching.

But, it’s not all character and plot development. It’s dogfights and amazing design. The propeller driven fighters the Kildren fight in are based in a real world design and are very believable. This isn’t X-Wings and things of fantasy. These machines look like they could be built and flown today. The vehicles are rendered in 3D while the characters are drawn (a style I love!) and the blend works very well. This is something Oshii does in many of his films and it works really well. The dogfights are amazing and choreographed very well.  They could hold their own in the world of cinematic air battles.

Fans of Oshii are also familiar with something else as well. The feeling that you missed something somewhere along the line. You follow MOST of the plot, then something that is introduced somehow misses the thought process and you find yourself thinking, “I don’t get it.” And, a second later, you shrug and think, “Yeah, but, I don’t really care. This is really cool,” and move along.  If you’ve seen GHOST IN THE SHELL, think about long strings of dialogue about th “Puppet Master” and his plans and ghosts and the meaning of life. Yes, now you get it. It never reaches THOSE proportions, but prepare for that watching CRAWLERS – it’ll happen, I’m sure, but you won’t care because it’s so much fun to watch.

Oddly, the folly work and sound design on this film struck me as well. I found myself wondering if Oshii had players acting out each scene so he could get the proper sound for the scenes. It was real and well done and really helped to lock me into a real world feeling even though the film was animated.

Half way through the film (rented through NETFLIX) I muttered, “That’s it, I gotta buy this film,” out loud. I think that sums it up rather well. If you’re a fan of Oshii, real world anime, World War II dogfight films, or alternate time line fantasy, you’ll love THE SKY CRAWLERS.

Special SKY CRAWLERS Promo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfmSZPrcudc

Immortel (ad vitam) (2004)  Enki Bilal
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314063/

Comic artist ENKI BILAL has managed to bring his artwork to life in this visually stunning film. Sci Fi on steroids, this film blends 3D and live action to create an amazing movie about a God trying to find a woman to mate with. Strange tale indeed, but well worth sitting through. The story is a bit…”off the tracks” at times, but the visuals had me drooling. If you’re going to bother making a brave new world, why not go all out? That’s just what Bilal does. His artwork transfers nicely to the screen. The 3D is well done which is something that could have been a real deal breaker here. If they could not keep the 3D level high, the movie would have been a flop. As I said, the story is a bit bonkers, but it holds interest and acts as a thread for the visuals to dance along.

The sets, visuals, character design and industrial designs are flat out amazing. Fans of  Luc Besson’s THE FIFTH ELEMENT will want to add this to their queue at once. The film presents an amazing landscape of true science fiction that left me feeling pleasantly removed from this reality and transported into a delicious dreamworld.

Star Trek (2009)  Director: J.J. Abrams
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0796366/

Aw, the hell with J.J. Abrams and STAR TREK. So what – he did some production and things with LOST and FRINGE and ALIAS and CLOVERFIELD. He actually wrote the main themes for some of the shows he’s produced. He’s done some acting and writing in a lot of them as well. Does that mean he should be given the chance to Direct STAR TREK- one of the more beloved franchises around?

Well….the movie was fantastic, so I guess it worked.

STAR TREK worked on every level. There was a fantastic mix of action and story and the characters were true to their history,  yet the film had some new depth that worked well. The plot was slippery at times, but managed to keep me entertained and “in the show”, which was a plus. I never found myself checking the time or muttering, “What? What the hell was that?” under my breath.

Was it Oscar material? Naw! But, none of the STAR TREK franchise movies are. The film is good clean fun with cool effects, delightful space battles and re-introductions to some dear old friends. This film is a must see on the big screen if you can, but I heard that it was slightly difficult in the IMAX presentation so be careful there. I have not had this much fun seeing a film in a long time.