Reviews

Baikonur is the most famous Soviet cosmodrome and this beautiful comedy is set nearby where local Kazakh people live off space debris that literally falls down from heavens.

One of them manages to save the French astronaut who gradually gets into the space program as a potential Russian astronaut.

German director Veit Helmer had access to Baikonur training grounds and the infrastructure so he manages to capture its majestic beauty and its rich retrofuturist texture. There are great contrast between native Kazakhs still living low tech lives and their neighbouring cosmodrome but there are also many things that connect the together since both seem to be forgotten by the rest of the world that leaps forward.

The film is poetic, gentle and funny with a crazy brass score. I really liked it a lot and in this case the mix of ethnic comedy and elements of space travel and astronautics actually feels natural and wonderful.

A.I. Rising is visually impressive sci-fi film about an astronaut taking a long trip to Alpha Centauri accompanied by a custom made android. What the trailer sold me as a space opera with the ticking clock and protagonists running against time is still there sort of, but in essence this is a very adult and smart relationship drama about male ego and their attitude to relationships and how those things affect them.

I found the story to be really poignant and intriguing. Up until now, we had a lot of films questioning if a person can really fall in love with a machine and have a meaningful relationship. In this film, the possibility of relationship is tested to its furthest horizon.

Stoya is lovely as the android. Her role brims with eroticism and yet the film is not exploiting her porn background by any means. To the contrary her role is very meaty and sensual and she was very lucky to step out of the adult industry info stuff that is this brainy and multi-layered. Hope her next non-porn ventures bring her a project to match this one.

The guy is a bit hammy and has an accent but the overall background e.g. him being Slavic sold these things to me. So in general this film is well acted and the roles were pretty demanding at that.

So the story is a relationship drama in space and the execution is just awesome. The production design is grungy and lived-in and photography is very vivid and beautifully lit.

A.I. Rising was made on a low budget but it certainly isn't lacking. It's a smart and arty sci-fi tale that provides food for thought. It's sexy and smart and quite political at that.

Battle Angel Alita watched in 3D was a literal blast. I waited for a while to see a hardcore action sci fi made with the use of most advanced CGI. Blomkamp was doing that but he is relegated now and of course Cameron originated it. And eventually via Cameron that kind of stuff resurfaced in Battle Angel Alita.

I was completely sold on the character and got so immersed that I forgot it was a CGI performance capture. It was so well done that in some instances included short bursts of hamminess which made it all the more human and now I feel that director Robert Rodriguez left those blunders on purpose.

The world of dystopian post-war future is lived-in, worn out, with sporadic technical advances and loads of all mechanical things that sort of managed to prove their worth as time went by with all the EMPs and whatnot.

The world is very old school in its anime approach, and very adult in its noirish stylings in certain sequences, especially the clashes when Ido is chasing down the city ripper.

When action commences, we would've been getting hard-R stuff if people weren't fully or partly replaced by robots. Beheadings happen very often, limbs get cut off and ran over. Overall this is very hardcore, spiritually and visually aligned with anime and the way we imagined it brought to life.

My biggest qualm was the ending. Alita was definitely set up to be the opening film in a trilogy or something along those lines. Thus I miss the final climactic fight. We have one, but the story went on afterwards and it felt as if another one should be ahead. But there was no futher climactic battle. However, I didn't feel cheated because some strong emotional moments stood there instead of the final boss fight.

Anyhow, a lot of strands were left to be resolved later on and I hated it. I like my blockbusters well rounded and self sustained.