The Second Annual Nova Awards - 2014

The Signal

Directed by: William Eubank

Written by: Carlyle Eubank, William Eubank and David Frigerio

Starring: Brenton Thwaites, Olivia Cooke, Beau Knapp and Laurence Fishburne

Not really sure what to make of this one. There was a smart and fresh film in there somewhere, but I suppose some poor choices and pacing issues hurt it along the way. It's hard to know how much to give away, too, so I'll just say "aliens." It's an interesting take on the sub-genre, and it doesn't give in to explaining everything or wasting too much time on holding back on "the big twist" (though there is one). There are plot points that are revealed slowly and expertly throughout the film to lead to the occasional paradigm shift which keeps it very watchable.

But in between all this, at the heart of the movie, is a few cliché and bland characters who get dicked around for over 90 minutes. It also tries to get a little too deep for its own good, even when the whole "THX 1138" vibe was going well for it.

**.5/****

Lucy

Directed by: Luc Besson

Written by: Luc Besson

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman and Min-sik Choi

A movie about a powerful character is nothing new, in fact, it's all we see today in the superhero era. What propels this film above average is what she decides to do with it; something that hasn't been focused on in advertising. It allows this film to be smarter than it appears and for the most part I enjoyed it. It's also pretty funny.

But I can't go any further until I discuss the elephant in the room: the "we only use 10% of our brains" line. First of all, I have to do my best to clear up this factoid. Humans use 10% of their brains at any given time. Our brain isn't one big processor that can be used at different capacities. Most of it is used for sight, smell, hearing, regulating metabolic functions, and so on. We use ALL of it, just different parts when we need to. This wouldn't be so egregious as far as the movie is concerned if it wasn't its driving force complete with Morgan Freeman giving actual lectures in the movie to smart-looking people about these "scientific facts." Or if the movie didn't have movie theater sized title cards that say "10%" and "20%" and so on as the movie goes along. Or if it wasn’t in block letters on the pester (see above).

Surprisingly, in the end, it didn't bother me too much. Because the movie really does have some fun things for her to do. They're not scientific, they're magical; but there's still a great progression and it serves as above-average science fiction in the consequences and dialogue that surround her powers. It reminds me greatly of one of my favorite quotes, from Arthur C. Clarke. It's spoilerish, so don't read it if you haven't seen it:

***/****

Automata

Directed by: Gabe Ibáñez

Written by: Gabe Ibáñez and Igor Legarreta and Javier Sánchez Donate

Starring: Antonio Banderas, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Dylan McDermott

Autómata follows Jacq Vaucan (Antonio Banderas), an insurance agent for a robotics company, as he uncovers some disturbing trends from some robots that are not supposed to break the two laws, I mean "protocols," that govern them: they are not to harm humans and they cannot alter their own programming.

There are obvious similarities in this movie to "I, Robot" and perhaps "Blade Runner," but honestly it's getting very difficult to release a movie about robots that doesn't bring to mind another movie. In fact, this movie does a great job of demonstrating the broad science fiction theme of "singularity" that many movies only pretend to do by talking about them. Where those movies fail, this one shows us the singularity, which is the progression of intelligent life reaching the point where it can approve upon itself. This is of course a significant hypothetical idea, for if a race of beings could get smarter and smarter, who knows what this would lead to for them, or for us, the humans.

There are a couple interesting turns in the movie, but mostly it's a pretty simple plot where you have to keep an open mind and listen to the ideas. It's not a perfect movie by any means as often the motives of characters don't make a lot of sense, and also, being one of my pet peeves, there is an extended cliché sequence where the main character (and us) have legitimate questions that will not be answered for the seemingly sole purpose of it not being the ending of the movie yet. Antonio Banderas does well as the rugged hero and I'd love to see more from him in this kind of role. Middle age is doing wonders for his onscreen persona.

***/****

Sci-Fi Talk with Jibbs

Automata has a 6.1 on IMDb, and I get it, it's a dry film (yuk yuk, it takes place in a desert). I guess I've always been forgiving of films that bring rich ideas to the table and know how to execute them. This movie is very rich. There's a danger of robots overtaking us as the dominant species of the planet, but they're pacifists (thanks to the first protocol) to the very definition - many are killed point blank range and do nothing. They're better than us.

But we've seen this all before. it gets more interesting, though. Besides just augmenting themselves in this movie, they also create a pet robot. The robots don't harm anyone, but they're programmed that way. Despite this, they have a philosophy and set of morals on why killing is wrong, something that wasn't required. But in a great twist, this pet robot actually kills a bad guy at the end. Is the pet to blame for doing the deed? Or the robots who programmed him, surely they're to blame for allowing the pet to make its own choices? In that case, what about the ones who created the robots, us the humans? Except we're now twice removed from this murder. Whose fault is it? Which society? Whose set of morals?

The robots gave free will to its creation, something we never did. It's good stuff.

The Maze Runner

Directed by: Wes Ball

Written by: Noah Oppenheim and Grant Pierce Myers and T.S. Nowlin
Based on a novel by James Dashner

Starring: Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Will Poulter

The Maze Runner is one of the latest YA book series that are trying to cash in on the big screen for years to come. But unlike most of them, this one is actually pretty good. It doesn't pander to young people's need to see a blank copy version of themselves on the screen to save the day like Divergent and it's not dull pretentious crap like The Giver.

The Maze Runner is a lot like Lost, and I mean that in a good way. It starts off with a bunch of guys inexplicably stranded in an enclosure that's surround by a giant maze. After this, the movie expertly spaces out information for us and twists along the way. The action is almost decent, the characters avoid clichés the best they can, but the suspense and intrigue will get you through the movie. Also, if you're worried about not getting a satisfying ending with a series that is almost certainly going to dick us around for years to come, you don't have to worry because quite a bit happens at the ending of this movie.

***/****

Sci-Fi Talk with Jibbs

There's some really cool genetically (and mechanically) engineered monsters in this movie, as I mentioned before for the H.G. Giger award. This movie's a pretty good mix of low tech vs. high tech. Nothing really in between.

Sci-Fi Talk with Jibbs - Lucy Edition

I've always been a big fan of sci-fi stories that follow a personal (or sometimes larger) progression from normality to ascension. There's a great episode of Stargate: Atlantis where McKay is becoming smarter and smarter as he reaches "Ascension," where he will pass to a higher plane of existence. The hope is that along the way he'll become smart enough to stop it from happening. Of course this goes back to an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where Barclay has the same problem. He remarks something like "It all seems so simple now," as if the universe could make sense if we could only be enlightened or step out of it for a moment. It's not so much about the journey, whether it's philosophical or action-packed, but where are we going as a character or a species? This is something we won't find out in our lifetime (hopefully), but in movies like Lucy we get this in fast-forward and wait in anticipation to see just how far it (we) can go. And Lucy goes pretty damn far.