sci-fi Archives - Screen Wolf

Electric State (2025)

Posted on April 3, 2025April 3, 2025 by fenrisfil

Today I am reviewing the huge £320m budget “Electric State” movie from the Russo brothers on Netflix. It’s worth noting as these Netflix movies usually go straight to streaming or just have a limited release. That means they don’t need to spend the extra 50% of the production costs for P&A. This may explain why they are happy to pay so much up front, however without a full theatrical release the movie can only find value on the streaming service itself. I won’t be too critical of the business model because Netflix are by far the most successful streaming service, so they seem to know what they are doing. Plus, they are actually making original content. Even if it’s only because they don’t own many IP’s of their own, it’s still a good thing.

Anyway, the Russo’s are of course the directors behind some of the biggest MCU movies. They are returning to that franchise for “Doomsday” and “Secret Wars”. No doubt Marvel hopes they will change the MCU’s flagging fortunes. “Electric State” is based extremely loosely on the 2018 graphic novel by Simon Stålenhag. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely provide the screenplay, Stephen F. Windon cinematography and the music is by Alan Silvestri. The cast includes Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, Stanley Tucci, Anthony Mackie, Woody Harrelson, Alan Tudyk, Holly Hunter, Giancarlo Esposito, Brian Cox and many more. The huge cast of relatively famous actors may explain part of the budget. Anyway, let’s dive in.

Man Vs Machine

The movie is set in an alternative 1990’s, after a war between humans and robots in the 1980’s. The aftermath of that war sees the robots all contained in one particular area “The exclusion zone”. Meanwhile the “Neurocaster” technology used to defeat them, which allows humans to jack into a global network and take control of their own robot drones, has gone mainstream. In this future the majority of people are happy to live most of their lives in a vegetative state while controlling their robot drones. Our protagonist Michelle (Bobby Brown) lives an unhappy life with her foster father after her parents and brother are killed in a car accident during the war.

One day a robot turns up at her house claiming to be controlled by her brother and asking her to go and find him. She leaves determined to find out the truth about what happened to him. To do so she has to find a way into the exclusion zone. The only person that may be able to help her is a black marketeer (Pratt), that has a business smuggling items out of the zone. What they find though is a scandal that could unravel society as she knows it. Something Ethan Skate (Tucci,), CEO of the company that created the neurocaster device and drones will do anything to prevent.

The Abused Robot

While this movie is visually imaginative, there is little truly original here. There is no real depth to the setting or story. The first thing of note is the robot sentience and war. There are basically two versions of a war between robots and humans you see in 99.99% of science fiction movies/tv. The first type is basically the Skynet version, where an AI goes rogue and just randomly decides to wipe out or dominate humanity. The trope predates The Terminator, but that franchise did it the best. The second version is the abused robots fighting for their civil rights. This is actually the more common trope and includes things like The Matrix (Revealed in the third movie), the Kaylon from the Orville and the Geth from Mass Effect. It’s worth noting, this generic trope was not in the source material. In that, it was a civil war between human factions both controlling drone robots.

The setting in the 80’s/90’s is however in source material. But here it feels very much like a gimmick. Ultimately, it doesn’t feel that different to the 50’s aesthetic of the Fallout franchise. Again, we’ve seen this before. It does give an excuse to play some 80’s/90’s tunes on the soundtrack, but they don’t really add much outside of being retro. Soundtracks like that are actually trickier to pull off than you may think. James Gunn does it well, as does Tarantino. Usually when someone imitates the vibe, it feels like they picked tracks at random off “Greatest hits of the decade” compilation albums. This is the case here. Random 80’s and 90’s songs thrown in just because. The goofy style of the robots meanwhile is just an 80’s version of Fallout. It’s fine, but there is nothing fresh here.

The Popcorn Factor

It’s important to note, none of the above is a deal breaker. The film is still entertaining. This is a family adventure movie with a sci-fi setting. These movies don’t really need to be ground breaking. Unique would be nice, but entertaining is more important. The characters here are all likable, if a little shallow. The robots do look good and the environment is well designed. The action is reasonable and there is a little bit of humour in the mix too (Mostly supplied by MCU Alumni Pratt and Mackie). The due is really the best thing about the movie. It does get a little strange at the end… but mostly it works. Pratt effectively plays the same character he plays in everything, but that’s most of Hollywood these days.

Giancarlo Esposito also plays generic Giancarlo Esposito. Woody Harrelson meanwhile plays a giant peanut, which ends up a lot less interesting than you may imagine. Both are descent in the roles, but you would expect that (At a bare minimum). Like much of this film it is uninspired, but well polished. Millie Bobby Brown is okay as the lead, certainly better than she was in Godzilla Vs Kong. I’m not convinced she should be leading a big budget blockbuster, but she did fine. Ultimately, this is a movie that kids should enjoy and parents won’t hate. It’s not great, but it’s a lot better than some reviewers have suggested. What it isn’t however is inspired, original or worth $300m. I give this a fairly strong 5.5/10.

Mickey 17 (2025)

Posted on March 11, 2025March 11, 2025 by fenrisfil

“Mickey 17” is the latest movie from writer/director Bong Joon-Ho. It is his first feature as sole writer, though the movie is an adaption of the novel “Mickey 7” by Edward Ashton. According to Ashton the director made a lot of changes to the source material and those changes are not hard to figure out. Cinematography is provided by Darius Khondji and music by Jung Jae-il. The movie was originally scheduled to come out in 2024, but was delayed due to the strikes. The timing ended up being unfortunate because it’s pretty clear early in the film they thought the 2025 would look quite different….

Robert Pattinson stars as “Mickey Barnes”, a passive, low intelligence deadbeat loser. Mickey is dragged into trouble by his association with lowlife grifter “Timo” (Steven Yeun). After finding the need to flee Earth to avoid a loan shark’s vengeance Mickey signs up to be an “Expendable” for a colonization mission. This uses cloning and memory upload technology to effectively grant him immortality at the cost of having to do all of the jobs on the mission where death is all but guaranteed. His life would be bad enough but it is further complicated when an accident leads to a new clone being printed while the old one is still alive. This is considered a major crime. The colonization mission meanwhile is complicated by a first contact situation and the stupidity of the missions leader.

Afternoon Nap of the Clones

This movie is a major disappointment. The best moments are in the trailer. What isn’t in the trailer is all the cringe and really anything to do with the actual plot. Cloning ends up not really being key to any of it. Nothing to do with the cloning leads to either Mickey’s contact with the planets native species or the downfall of the movies antagonist. Rather it is just a gimmick, and as such is there to trick you into watching a largely unrelated film. Now to be fair, the first act is pretty focused on Mickey’s various deaths, but they are all in the trailer (Which mostly focused on this first act) and barely factor into anything. Mickey doesn’t develop as he goes on, instead his “Printing” just occasionally throws up personality quirks.

The question “What is it like to die?” seems something reasonable to ask Mickey. Yet we are told that he uploads his memories to a backup periodically, not on death. He shouldn’t remember any of his deaths or really any of the trauma involving his deaths. This presents many nasty plot holes and the movie doesn’t help itself by bringing constant attention to it with that recurring question. Indeed, it never really explores the technology at all. We are meant to believe they discovered immortality and instantly banned it for fear of duplicates. It’s pretty flawed logic. Having one expendable on the crew never really made sense. They use him for experiments and to cure a virus they could almost certainly cure via other means, but when another expedition member dies people seemed shocked that Mickey can’t just take all the risk all the time.

Two Dimensional Characters

None of these characters have any kind of depth to them. Mickey (1-17) shuffles through life (And death) like a zombie letting everyone else make every decision for him. He is passive and non violent, painfully stupid. His character barely evolves through the story and by the end he’s still letting others make decisions for him. His more renegade clone is the opposite as far as passiveness goes, he takes matters into his own hands at every opportunity. He is however, still and idiot. His girlfriend, Nasha is a walking cliché. Totally lacking any kind of charm, narcissistic, selfish, constantly horny and better at everything than everyone else. She controls every aspect of Mickey’s life that isn’t controlled by the company he signed his life to. Nasha and Mickey 18 are the actual heroes of this story and neither of them are likeable.

Steven Yeun’s “Timo” had potential to be an interesting character, but is pushed so far into the background you will probably need to remind yourself who he is half the time. The scientists are all largely cartoon characters, comically goofy or detached. The worst characters though is the painfully obvious Donald Trump stand in, horribly overplayed by Mark Ruffalo. As a primary antagonist, choosing a real life figure the writers clearly despise and have no respect for means that the villain of the story is also the biggest idiot. This gives the story no stakes as he literally just defeats himself. His wife does all his thinking for him and she too is an idiot. All these characters are idiots, but you do notice the women are always the less stupid and more capable. It’s as current year as you can get.

Any positives?

Robert Pattinson does deserve credit here. Pattinson is thoroughly convincing in this role. It’s just a shame his main character is the dampest of nothings to ever be in a movie. Where his talent comes through is in the contrast between Mickey 17 and 18. They are polar opposites of characters (Though neither are very bright) and they really feel like different people through his performance. Frankly Pattinson deserves to be in much better movies, but given the actor got his break from the “Twilight” series, I guess he is used to that. Sadly the rest of the casts performances range from barely passable to catastrophic.

This movie had a budget of $118m, which is at least visible on screen. The environment does look good and the alien (*Ahem*, sorry, “Native”) species looks both sufficiently “Alien” and relatively original. Sadly, the species is largely used for laughs. Their plot treds it’s most obvious path and fills up the final and most predictable act of the film. The confrontation is never offered any real tensions and certainly no stakes. The audience is fully aware of the species intentions and things are only escalated by the unbelievably over the top level of stupidity from Ruffalo’s Trump parody and his advisors.

The cloning concept would also be a positive, but it is barely explored, mostly used for laughs and ultimately just an excuse to have Pattison play two characters. It eats up the entire first act and while this is the best part of the movie it is also, as previously mentioned, perfectly summarized by the movies trailer. The brief look at the history of the technology gives a glimpse at a different story, one frankly far more interesting than this.

Post Mortem

The novel this movie is based on is more focused on the relationship between the two Mickey’s. The other characters are very much in the background and lacking the extreme cringe of the film. Mickey isn’t a complete idiot in the novel either. Instead he spent his youth studying History, something his world no longer considers a skill. That Mickey would have been a far more interesting character. The novel does examine what it means to be immortal in such a disposable way and goes a lot deeper into the perils of colonization. Basically, it is actually a science fiction story. The film however is not genuine sci-fi. It fails to ask questions and just spams the viewer with things that have already aged badly. It could just as well be any low tier genre TV show or movie of the last 10 years.

Sadly, this has taken over from “Wolf Man” as the most disappointing movie I’ve seen in 2025. I wouldn’t say it is worse than that film, but I had higher expectations. This was after all from an Oscar winning director, but then the Oscars aren’t what they used to be. However, I’ve enjoyed several of his movies before. Directors can have missteps, but this isn’t just a bad movie. It is filled with every modern day cliché you can shake a stick at. Worst of all, the film is painfully boring! This doesn’t give me much hope for future films from the director. This is a low 4/10. When the trailer is better than the movie, all you have is a missed opportunity.

Dark Skies (2013)

Posted on October 20, 2023October 20, 2023 by fenrisfil

Tonight’s horror movie is the Blumhouse produced, Science Fiction Horror “Dark Skies” from 2013. Written and directed by Scott Stewart, who previously helmed the underrated “Legion” back in 2010. The movie stars Keri Russell, Josh Hamilton, Dakota Goyo and Kadan Rockett as the “Barrett” family, with support from Jake Brennan and J.K. Simmons.

The movie begins with a relatively ordinary seeming family in an ordinary seeming suburban town. The father “Daniel” (Hamilton) in unemployed and seeking work. The mother Lacy (Russell) is attempting to support the family in her job as an Estate Agent and the two boys seem relatively well adjusted with a close relationship where they talk to each other with a walkie talkie. Into this a number of strange occurrences start to happen.

Things That Stack Themselves Geometrically In The Night

One night various items in the kitchen are found stacked up on top of each other in complex patterns. With the family asleep while this was happening they suspect it is someones idea of a joke, but there is no sign of forced entry. The following night after activating their alarm the family a woken up when every sensor is tripped at once and all the family photos are stolen. This is just the start and following this each family member at some point or other ends up behaving strangely and losing time. Several flocks of birds converge and crash into the families house and despite activate their alarm system and installing cameras strange events continue to happen in the house and bypass this security.

Meanwhile through all this the pressures clearly start to get to the family. Eventually Lacy begins to suspect alien activity may be the cause (After investigating the bird situation and finding similarities with cases claimed to be aliens). After discovering geometrics shapes burned into the flesh of their kids Daniel accepts something beyond his comprehension is going on and they seek help from a UFO export, “Edwin Pollard” (Simmons). Here we get an exposition dump that leads us to the final act. The family is about to have one among them abducted and it’s up to them to stop it.

50 Shades of Grays

The plot for Dark Skies is pretty straight forward. Strange events occur until they can’t deny what is happening anymore and go for the exposition dump and a last stand. Who is going to be abducted is actually fairly obvious but the film tries really hard to swerve us. This is a one of those cases where movie makers obsession with subverting expectations actually makes the movie predictable instead of surprising. These days the biggest twist you could have in a movie would be to just play everything straight. But despite that, the movie doesn’t revolve around this twist so the predictability of it doesn’t harm it.

The character writing isn’t particularly good here, though the older boy’s struggles with puberty is quite endearing. The father is a bit of a jerk and his determination to believe the existence of aliens is utterly preposterous is grating. The thing is of all the far out explanations for things, Aliens is the most likely to be real. I mean it’s not like Lacy was telling him it was ghosts, demonic possession or the underpants gnomes. It’s a really big universe out there and many scientists have been of the opinion that alien life exists for a very long time. Indeed the drake equation (For calculating the number of technically advanced Alien Civilizations in our Galaxy) has been around since the 60’s. Skepticism I could get, but given just how crazy the events they were dealing with are I found his extreme reaction to the possibility unrealistic.

Tension and Boredom.

While the characters aren’t terribly well written, the actors do a pretty good job of bringing them to life. The events themselves are pretty well staged and it builds some solid tension. These are filmed in ways that would have cost virtually nothing and yet manage to present a solid amount of horror and mystery. It’s a classic approach to Sci-Fi horror that I appreciate. BY the end of the movie we gain some proper glimpses of the Grays and they look sufficiently scary. The soundtrack adds to this tension well with it’s minimalist approach and intense bursts of noise. These days many sound tracks are more noise based than melodic so this may have been a bit of a trend setter (I’d have to investigate that one further).

Overall, this is quite a mixed bag. The plot and characters are not actually that interesting and the pacing feels a bit plodding in places. I feel like this would have been better had they not waited so long to get to the exposition dump as without that there really is little story progress between each event. The way those events are presented are solid and almost makes up for the rest, but not quite. With a better script this could have been something great, but instead it’s ended up merely above average. This is a strong 5.5/10. Well made, but frankly a little boring.