2012…

…Or Let There Be Disaster

Let’s admit: it is hard to be a God in the 21st century. After all, mankind has survived everything by the turn of the millennium. Human life on Earth did not come to an end, despite the revengeful efforts of our nature-goddess Gaia, or despite those various forces of outer space, whether they were in the form of a meteor storm or an alien invasion. What can a poor Hollywood script-writer do? Let’s just go and destroy the whole planet Earth and humans altogether with the aid of our latest CGI! Sounds cool, eh?

I had no great expectations to go and sit in a “disaster movie”, but this film well succeeded in descending even below those disastrous depths I was prepared for. All I wanted was to see a film, where all this nuisance we call Earth and humankind would finally and irrecoverably get eradicated. Instead, I was foolishly self-sentenced to two and a half hours of audio-visual torture by some script-generator of our ever-so-angelic film industry.

But let’s save you from spoilers, though I doubt there would be any. We have seen the same boring plot countless times before in the cheapest B-movies – presented in more interesting ways. And we enjoyed them without the disturbing “politically correct” über-garnish so typical of Hollywood. First, there is the ever-present silly depiction of our typical oh-so-lovable American family. The “Wise and Old President of the United States” is now necessarily as black as ebony (but he’s still the man). Then, interestingly, there is a helpful People’s Republic of China. Only those poor Russians did not go through any plastic surgery: they have been evil and ugly ever since the cold war (and they still do not have a shave).

At least we can’t say there’s no disaster happening. There is. Hopefully, they will release a proper director’s cut version one day, just to do away with the drooling background plot of two hours, and keep the spectacular scenes of about half an hour.

Moon

“The Last Place You’d Ever Expect to Find Yourself”

Despite being a low-budget feature film of a debuting independent filmmaker, it definitely had an unforeseen promotion by the recent lunar discovery of water. The film was much awaited by all those science-fiction (SF) fans who were craving for an atmosphere that movie-making gurus in Hollywood tended to ignore.

Moon lives up to the expectations you set up after watching the official trailer. The film is a success both in terms of the atmosphere and the plot. The atmosphere almost immediately, though subtly, transports you back to the greatest “classical” SF films made in the age of the 1960’s to the 80’s. It is all carefully executed by the recurring SF themes of space travel, exploration, solitude, a fear of the unknown, and insights into human psycho-physiology. Added to these, the creators of Moon re-applied some earlier cinematographic techniques that had been made redundant by the advance of CGI. The result may seem and sound ambivalent at first, but it is altogether a poignant story that will catch the attention of a hard-core SF fan and an average film-buff at the same time.

Moving further to the dark side, being one of those nostalgic SF fans, we cannot hesitate to have a closer look at the peculiar effort of the director Duncan Jones. He customized the script to fit the protagonist who in turn rewarded us with a dazzling performance on screen. There are no over-indulgent dialogues or artificial action sequences that would measure up to today’s filthy standards. But, on a deeper level, SF fans will clearly notice that there are no questions asked about the macrocosm (“the world outside”), apart from those ones that originate in the sentimental microcosm (“the world inside”) of Sam, the main character. The tagline of the movie is well-placed, but the plot is too simplistic to reach the depths of such classics as, for instance, Silent Running, from which the film unmistakably gained references.

The official trailer is one of the rare gems that is well-edited and does not contain distressing spoilers.

Moon, 2009, directed by Duncan Jones, starring Sam Rockwell
www.moon-movie.com

Code 46

In a world where the DNA pool of the “human kind” has extremely degenerated, travel and reproduction are regulated by strict terms. Any violation of these terms draws serious consequences. There are massive cities scattered around the globe with all those decent ones, while the outlaws are living in the vast deserts and sunken villages outside. Only those with a papelles can travel from one city to another. In this world, a man and a women breach the strictest rule: Code 46.

And so on… The film itself is a bit of a Gattaca, a bit of a Bladerunner, or you could name any other anti-utopia, or dystopia, if you like. But here, in Code 46, it’s not the plot that counts but the subtle depiction of a future society through a relation of two persons, through pictures, through a language. It’s bitter like life, but not dark. It’s almost ethereal.

Code 46

Egy olyan világban, ahol az „emberi nem” génkészlete rendkívül elkorcsosult, az utazást és a szaporodást szigorú szabályok kötik meg. A szabályok megsértése komoly következményekkel jár. Szerteszét a földön hatalmas városok vannak, bennük a jóravalóakkal, odakint pedig a számkivetettek élnek a kiterjedt pusztaságokon és a lezüllött falvakban. Csak azok utazhatnak egyik városból a másikba, akiknek van papelles-jük. Ebben a világban egy férfi és egy nő áthágja a legszigorúbb szabályt: a 46. törvényt.

És így tovább… Maga a film egy kicsit gattacás, egy kicsit szárnyasfejvadászos, de felhozhatnánk akármelyik másik anti-utópiát is, vagy ha úgy tetszik, disztópiát. A Code 46-ban viszont nem a cselekmény számít, hanem egy jövőbeli társadalomnak az a hajszálfinom ábrázolása, ami két ember kapcsolatából, képekből, és egy nyelvből szűrődik ki. Kesernyés, akár az élet, ám nem sötét. Majdhogynem tündéri.

Moon (trailer)

There’s still hope for thoughtful SF out there:

Katyń (2)

Translated the review for Katyń: see the “pages” on the sidebar.

Katyń

I picked up a leaflet of the screening of Katyń.

I watched it this morning. Not much to say. It is depicted through a personal drama. I remember a review that made me not to bother too much about the film last year.

The review was right. I can understand the underlying intention of the script-writer or director but, yeah, it’s a bit confusing.

I can only set our Szabadság, szerelem as an example (Wolność i miłość – Liberty, Love, but the moronic international title is Children of Glory). It is about one of the most important historical events of Hungary, and it is depicted through a series of personal destinies as well, but in a way that you can follow both the characters and the historical event. What’s more, they took really good care of the official English subs on the DVD, so don’t worry.