The Host

Alien body snatchers called Souls invade Earth possessing nearly all humans. A few humans are able to resist and even fight back. One Soul possesses a young woman named Melanie Stryder and meets strong resistance. Over time the relationship between Melanie and the Soul, that calls itself Wanderer, possessing her becomes cooperative and even friendly. As Wanderer learns more about humanity it’s attitude changes.

This movie is based on a book by Stephanie Meyer who also wrote the Twilight series. The movie is done really well. I have not yet read the book so I cannot say how well the movie follows it. I suspect not everyone will be happy with the alien body snatchers being referred to as Souls. The vehicles with chrome-like exteriors were kinda cool. There are some great sports cars in the movie especially the Lotus. I also like the Unimogs. I enjoyed this movie.

Cast includes: Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, Jake Abel, Frances Fisher, Chandler Canterbury, Diane Kruger. William Hurt, Boyd Holbrook, Scott Lawrence, Shawn Carter Peterson, Lee Hardee, Phil Austin, Raeden Greer, J.D. Evermore, Emily Browning, Mustafa Harris, Bokeem Woodbine, Alex Russell, David Lichtenstein

Available on: Google Play, Amazon, YouTube

Caprica

Caprica is about two families on the planet Caprica the Greystones and the Adamas. Both families are among those devastated by a terrorist attack. Each family responds to the attack in their own way. The attack is found to be the work of a small group advocating the worship of one God over the worship of many Gods which is the norm on Caprica.

With major advances in virtual reality Daniel Graystone decides to attempt to build an VR avatar of his daughter and offers the same to Joseph Adama but the one God group has different ideas for the VR technology. Greystone’s company is working on battle robots for the Caprican government and in an attempt to bring his daughter into the real world he attempts to install the avatar of his daughter into his prototype.  Here ends the spoilers!

Caprica is a 2010 spin-off prequel of the Battlestar Galactica series. It is set about 50 years before the Battlestar Galactica timeline. The show has a very complicated storyline but it holds together well. Effects are good enough but not amazing. There is some decent action but a lot of dialogue getting to it but a complicated storyline requires a lot of plot and character development. Caprica did and does offer the science fiction fan a few new ideas and that is rare. This is a really good show.

Cast includes: Eric Stoltz, Esai Morales, Paula Malcomson, Alessandra Torresani, Magda Apanowicz, Sasha Roiz, Brian Markinson, Polly Walker

Available on: Google Play, Amazon, Netflix

Automata

It is the year 2044. The Earth’s pollution damaged atmosphere has allowed solar flares to cause the progressive desertification and irradiation of the world killing over 99% of the population. Robots called Pilgrims were created to stop the desertification and rebuild but when they failed were made manual labor.

The robots are controlled by two unalterable protocols first they cannot harm any form of life, and second they cannot modify themselves or other robots. The reason for the first protocol is clear but the second protocol was so that robots couldn’t evolve.

The main character is Jacq Vaucan (Antonio Banderas) an insurance investigator for the robotics company. A robot is shot when it appears to be self-repairing and Jacq is sent to investigate…

This movie was done very well. All the actors did a really good job, except for Antonio Banderas who did great! The effects were nearly undetectable from live action. The story is classic science fiction done very well. All in all I am surprised this movie wasn’t a bigger hit. Enjoy it!

Cast includes: Antonio Banderas, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Dylan McDermott, Robert Forster, Tim McInnerny, Melanie Griffith

Available on: Google Play, Amazon, Netflix

Z Nation (Series 1)

A zombie virus has ravaged the world. One test subject has survived being infected and it is suspected his blood might hold the antibodies necessary to create a vaccine. A small heroic group must try to get the test subject from New York to the last lab operating that may be able to create the vaccine. The problem is the lab they need to get him to is in California and there is a lot of hostel territory between New York and California.

If you want zombies and the violence, blood and gore that are part of the proper zombie package Z Nation will be fun for you there is very little one can complain about in the effects department. I found the show fun but the acting is OK but not great (DJ Qualls is the exception, he did a great job!), and the story and lore are extremely predictable. It is more fantasy than The Walking Dead with some really silly Chucky-like and Sharknado-like scenes. There is even a little Cheech and Chong type moment. All in all despite a few groaners the show is reasonable fun.

Cast includes: Kellita Smith, DJ Qualls, Michael Welch, Keith Allan, Anastasia Baranova, Russell Hodgkinson, Pisay Pao, Nat Zang, Tom Everett Scott, Harold Perrineau

Available on: Netflix, Hulu

The X-Files

The X-Files is the section of the FBI that deals with unexplained phenomena. The unexplained include creature reports, conspiracies, time anomalies, UFO reports and many other situations. Fox Mulder and Dana Scully investigate the X-Files and over time and many episodes uncover many incredible situations and do their best to deal with them.

 

Robot and Frank

This science fiction movie is set a short time in the future. Frank is an aging expert burglar and ex-con. He is cantankerous and moody and is having some difficulties taking care of himself due to the onset of mental deterioration and dementia. Since his kids can’t adequately take care of him his son gives him a state of the art robotic companion to help him. The robot is programmed to among other things to provide theraputic care, help set a daily routine, and provide cogitative enhancing activities such as gardening and games. Frank rejects his robotic friend to begin with but soon warms up to it. Frank even finds new cognitive enhancing abilities he and his robot friend can perpetrate.

World War Z

A disease causing people to turn into zombies breaks out in several cities around the world.  Gerry Lane(Brad Pit) plays a former U. N. investigator who is trying to stop the global zombie pandemic. He then travels around the world looking for patient zero, the first case, since it is believed the first case is the key to stopping the infection. (spoilers limited)

I, Frankenstein

Frankenstein’s monster has been on the run fending off attacks by demons for 200 years. A policeman is killed trying to intervene in an attack in an American city and this causes the guardians of the human race, gargoyles, to intervene. They discover that the demons want Dr. Frankenstein’s ability to reanimate corpses to create hosts for more demons. Since the gargoyles and the demons are adversaries keeping the reanimation technology away from the demons is vital to them too because of what a demon army would do to the human race.

This movie is well done. This movie has some negative reviews out there and for the most part I can’t get through their jargon to figure out why. Don’t listen to the negative people out there. Judge for yourself but I enjoyed it. If you did not, why not? The effects were good, the lore was well thought out, There certainly was nothing wrong with the acting.

Happy New Year! Best of luck to everyone!

Cast includes: Aaron Eckhart, Bill Nighy, Yvonne Strahovski, Miranda Otto, Socratis Otto, Jai Courtney, Kevin Grevioux

Available on: Google Play, Amazon, VUDU, Netflix

Terra Nova TV Series

Terra Nova is about one families’ choice to join other colonists and go 85 million years back in time and begin the human race over again. The world they left was dying and the scientists hope is that doing so will create a parallel time stream where the human race does a better job taking care of the Earth. The Shannon family have to try secretly joining the colonists due to the fact they have a third child and the legal limit is two.

I like good science fiction and this is good science fiction. Excellent sets, acting, camara work, effects, and stories. This show has it all. Fox dropped it after the first season but Netflix may pick up their fumble and get a touchdown with a second season!

Cast includes: Jason O’Mara, Shelley Conn, Christine Adams, Allison Miller, Landon Liboiron, Naomi Scott, Rod Hallett, Alana Mansour, Stephen Lang

Available on: Netflix, Amazon

Primeval TV Series

Holes in time begin opening and the wildlife and atmosphere from those times are being released into the present. Few people know about the situation and protect our world from the dangers from the past and the future. When the holes open the heroic group races to evaluate the situation and eliminate any danger and to try to keep people from finding out and panicking or going through. The group also searches for a reason for the problem and a way of controlling or eliminating the threat.

Primeval is a BBC science fiction series. This show has a lot of special effects that do a great job of telling the story. The effects are as good as those on the Jurassic Park movies in my opinion. I appreciate the level of character development that allows the viewer to know the characters. This show is on my list of all time favorites! Check it out!

Cast includes: Douglas Henshall, James Murray, Andrew-Lee Potts, Lucy Brown, Hannah Spearritt, Juliet Aubrey, Ben Miller, Laila Rouass, Jason Flemyng, Ben Mansfield, Ciarán McMenamin, Ruth Kearney, Alexander Siddig

Available on: Netflix, VUDU, Amazon, Google Play