Tag: life-forms

Project Hail Mary

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 18 March 2026
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Directors – Phil Lord, Christopher Miller – 2026 – US – Cert. 12a – 156m

*****

Hail Mary, Full of Grace. A school teacher is sent to a star 12 light years from Earth to determine why it is surviving the emergent life form killing all other stars, including our sun – out in UK cinemas on Friday, March 20th

“What is 2 + 2?” Rudely awakened from cryogenic sleep by the ship’s computer (voice: Priya Kansara from Polite Society, Nida Manzoor, 2023), Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling from Blade Runner 2049, Denis Villeneuve, 2017; La La Land, Damien Chazelle, 2016; Drive, Nicholas Winding Refn, 2011) comes under a barrage of questions designed to check his medical status. While he is perfectly healthy, his fellow crew members – the captain (Milana Vayntrub) and the pilot (Ken Leung from Joker: Folie à Deux, Todd Phillips, 2024; Lost, TV series, 2008-10; Rush Hour, Brett Ratner, 1998) – have died in their sleep chambers. Who is he, how did he get here? Memories come flooding back, building a picture of his past and revealing the answers, even as he goes about his mission.

Back on earth, Grace was a middle school teacher.… Read the rest

Tags . unshakeable belief, academic paper, administrator, aircraft carrier, alien technology, Amy Pascal, Andy Weir, Astrophage, Blip A, breed, captain, caree, catch, Christopher Miller, communicate with him, conference of scientists, crew, cryogenic sleep, debate, died in their sleep, dimming star, double act, Drew Goddard, Earth, eat stars, embrace difference, emergent life form, Eridian, exchange names, five legs, Hail Mary, incoming object, intractable opposition, James Ortiz, Ken Leung, life-forms, light years, Lionel Boyce, long shot, memories, middle school teacher, Milana Vayntrub, mission, molecular biologist, novelist, one-way mission, Petrova line, Phil Lord, pilot, Priya Kansara, Project Hail Mary, projectile, rapid cooling of the Earth, rocket fuel, rocks, rocky, Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, school teacher, sci-fi, science, science fiction, security, SF, ship’s computer, single cell organism, sleep chambers, spacesuit, spider, star, Star Virus, sun, sun dimming, US, Venus, walkway, work together

Features Live Action Movies

Mickey 17

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 6 March 2025
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Director – Bong Joon Ho – 2025 – US – Cert. 15 – 134m

*****

Contracted to have his fleshly body reprinted, and his memory restored every time he dies, the expendable Mickey is assigned to a ship run by a right-wing power couple who plan to colonise a distant planet – science fiction adaptation is out in UK cinemas on Friday, March 7th

The snow has given way beneath his feet. Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) has plummeted through several layers of ice and now lies helpless on a subterranean ice shelf. His best friend Timo (Stephen Yuen) comes to rescue him. Sorry. To retrieve mickey’s his gun, but leave Mickey himself there to die. Because, after all, it’s easier to reboot Mickey and upload his memories. His friend can’t but help to ask, “Mickey, what’s it like? To die?”

Left alone in the planet’s underground ice caves, where he’s already seen a fellow crew member attacked by cow-sized, insect-mammals for which will later be named “creepers”, Mickey 17 expects to be digested alive by the alien life forms. Of course he does – that’s what happens in movies about alien life on other planets. However, the script has some surprises in store, and the creepers, who are set to play a much bigger role in the story, don’t so much play the role of unfriendly monster as that of the misunderstood race of indigenous outsiders in relation to invading, would-be colonisers.… Read the rest

Tags 3D flesh printer, abomination, adaptation, alien, Annamaria Vartolomei, bereavement, bespectacled, body, Bong Joon Ho, brave new world, bullet in the head, check it’s safe, colonise, colonisers, colony, contract, corporate, creature feature, creepers, crew, databank, death, death penalty, debt, Default, died, digested alive, dirty work, dissect, distant planet, Earth, election, elite, elites and exploited minions, ethics, expedition, expendable, expendable Mickey, fights to the death, flashback, flesh, flesh printer, food business, girlfriend, Holliday Grainger, hypocritical, Ian Hanmore, ice, ice caves, ice shelf, indigenous, insect-mammal, invading, left to die, lethal situations, life-forms, life-threatening, loan shark, Mark Ruffalo, medical, melting pot, memory, memory restored, Mickey 17, misjudge, mission, molten lava, monster, mortality and immortality, multiple, multiple death, narcissist, niche, outsider, Patsy Ferran, payments, pictogram, planet, plummet, political debate, politician, polyamory, power couple, pragmatic, presumed dead, psychosexual, pull the trigger, raw waste, reboot, reconstitution, recycling, redhead, refuse, relationship, report, reprint, rescue, research, rich and poor, right-wing, right-wing couple, rights, ripe for plunder social structure, Robert Pattinson, ruthless, science fiction, scientific knowledge, sex position, shoot yourself, snow, South Korea, space debris, spaceship, Stephen Yuen, stick-figure, task, technology, thriller, Toni Collette, underground, upload, US, vaccine, voyage, waste chute, What’s it like? To die?

Animation Features Movies

Lightyear

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 14 June 2022
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Director – Angus MacLane – 2022 – US – Cert. PG – 107m

**1/2

Stranded on a hostile planet, Buzz Lightyear sets out on a series of missions which eventually lead to his first confrontation with the evil Emperor Zurg – plays in the Annecy Animation Festival 2022 which is taking place in a 100% on-site edition this year right now as a Screening Event on Friday, June 17th, and opens in UK cinemas the same day.

A caption at the start explains that this was the favourite film of child protagonist Andy (from Pixar’s Toy Story franchise) and the reason he got a Buzz Lightyear toy in the first place. Other than that, though, this is a completely separate and self-enclosed film.

As the literal meaning of its title implies, Lightyear delivers a narrative that races through vast periods of time at a stretch, so that we and ace space pilot Buzz Lightyear (voice: Chris Evans) and his colleague Alisha Hawthorne (voice: Uzo Aduba) land their spaceship on an unexplored planet which turns out to be populated with hostile life-forms, specifically (1) plant tendrils which burst out of the planet’s surface and try to drag anything they can back under the ground and (2) giant, flying bugs.… Read the rest

Tags 3D animation, accident-prone, alien, aliens, Andy, Angus MacLane, animation, Annecy, Annecy 2022, base commander, beneath the planet, beneath the planet’s surface, bugs, Buzz Lightyear. Lightyear, cat, CG, CG animation, Chris Evans, convict, creature, creature feature, Dale Soules, defences, Disney, drag, elderly, escape, expectations, failure, family name, flying bugs, franchise, fuel, fuel mixture, games-console CGI, gay, giant bugs, giant flying bugs, grounded, hostile, hostile life-forms, hyperspace, hyperspace jump, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Keke Palme, landing, lesbian, LGBT, LGBTQ, LGBTQI, life-forms, living up to expectations, monsters, one-man craft, one-man ship, outer space, partner, Peter Sohn, pilot, Pixar, planet’s surface, plant tendrils, political correctness, prospect of failure, race, racial bias, reputation, robot, robot cat, robotics, sci-fi, science fiction, sex sex relationship, SF, space cadet, space opera, space pilot, spaceship, speed, Star Wars, stranded, tacky, Taika Waititi, Tim Allen, time, title, toy, toy action figure, Toy Story, turnip, under the planet’s surface, underground, unexplored planet, unstable, US, Uzo Aduba, voice, voice acting