03-05-2018, 11:31 PM
This is a slow-paced movie about a meteorite hitting Earth and setting up a zone where genetic mutation/experimentation takes place. Overall, I found it to be a fairly smart movie, and the ending was intelligible and at least fairly happy.
It could've been a scary zombie/monster movie but wasn't. The two or three monster encounters are at the level of fighting terrestrial wildlife. Mostly, it's two hours of scientists exploring a weird zone and backflashes examining why each person was willing to go on an apparent suicide mission.
It reminded me quite a bit of 2017's Arrival: slow and thought-provoking. The would go well together in a back-to-back viewing, though they're utterly unrelated.
This movie is a gold mine of Orions Arm ideas. "The Shimmer" and experimentation on local life very much could've been the work of an amoral transapient. Seriously, the idea could've been lifted from some of the horror stories of old OA where modosophonts were often victims of cruel transapients.
Overall, I think the movie was too slow for my taste and trying too hard to be artistic when a more direct storytelling would've done just as well, but I'm glad I saw it. It was an interesting sci-fi film.
PS: The Shadowrunner in me wants to cheer "White phosphorus grenades for teh win!"
It could've been a scary zombie/monster movie but wasn't. The two or three monster encounters are at the level of fighting terrestrial wildlife. Mostly, it's two hours of scientists exploring a weird zone and backflashes examining why each person was willing to go on an apparent suicide mission.
It reminded me quite a bit of 2017's Arrival: slow and thought-provoking. The would go well together in a back-to-back viewing, though they're utterly unrelated.
This movie is a gold mine of Orions Arm ideas. "The Shimmer" and experimentation on local life very much could've been the work of an amoral transapient. Seriously, the idea could've been lifted from some of the horror stories of old OA where modosophonts were often victims of cruel transapients.
Overall, I think the movie was too slow for my taste and trying too hard to be artistic when a more direct storytelling would've done just as well, but I'm glad I saw it. It was an interesting sci-fi film.
PS: The Shadowrunner in me wants to cheer "White phosphorus grenades for teh win!"
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
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"Everbody's always in favor of saving Hitler's brain, but when you put it in the body of a great white shark, oh, suddenly you've gone too far." -- Professor Farnsworth, Futurama
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"Everbody's always in favor of saving Hitler's brain, but when you put it in the body of a great white shark, oh, suddenly you've gone too far." -- Professor Farnsworth, Futurama