A British American science fiction directed by Ridley Scott, starring Michael Fassbender, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride and Demian Bichir.
A ship of colonists are awakened from hypersleep when their ship is damaged in space. They hear a transmission of someone singing an American pop song and land on the planet to investigate. 2 of the crew members become infected with a substance which causes them to spawn alien-like creatures and one crew member blows up the landing ship while trying to kill one of the creatures. They soon meet a synthetic who has been living on the planet for 10 years.
Not bad, but it should have been much better. The complex plot held my attention, but the characters were all very shallow, except the synthetic from the planet. Although he was the antagonist, he was also the main character, filling a role usually reserved for human protagonists. I've noticed a trend in recent films in which robots are not only treated as people, but sometimes portrayed as being better than people. Just look at Transformers and AXL (which I want to see soon). The robots show emotion and form attachments like humans. Anyway, this film did not have enough aliens for me and the action scenes were a little too short. The CG looked impeccable, of course and it suffered from short shot syndrome (too many quick cuts). What happened to pans and tilts? Nobody does that anymore? I rate this adequate. You might want to check it out.
A British drama directed by Andrea Arnold, starring Michael Fassbender and Kierston Wareing.
A rebellious teenager wants to become a dancer. She drinks and dances in an empty flat after trying to free a horse. Her mother is dating a married man who becomes mutually attracted to the daughter. The young man who owns the horse begins a relationship with the main character as well.
Oh, man. Brits are crazy. The plot seemed like it was going nowhere most of the time, but had some hidden meaning that could probably only be understood fully by people in England. The characters all treated each other so badly, but were also very close. The exchange between the sisters at the end demonstrated this best: they hug and say "I hate you" to one another. I saw the sex scene coming a mile away, but won't ruin it. There was also a classic scene when the main character is in her mom's (and her) boyfriend's house. Lots of the video was shot handheld, but I think it kind of worked. The audio featured terrible music and close-mic breathing. I'm not calling the Brits wankers or anything, but their ideas are nearly incoherent to my Americanism. I was reminded of the works of Mike Leigh. Overall, a strange flick. I rate this adequate. You might want to watch it.
