I fully intended to watch Tron: Ares in the theater and write up a review. I even purchased a ticket. However, as it often happens, life intervened. I got sick, had to cancel my ticket, and then a week later I got sick AGAIN.
So instead, while convalescing I recently finished up watching Dark Matter on Apple TV, a show that’s been on my “to be watched” list for a long time.
The show is actually based on one of my favorite science fiction novels, Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. Years ago, I remember seeing a blurb about the book in a print edition of Entertainment Weekly and being immediately intrigued by the premise.
While I’m sure that many of us prefer to avoid spoilers before we dive into a story, it’s really, REALLY important with Dark Matter. In fact, I don’t even know how to provide a plot teaser that doesn’t give away any of the story’s best twists and turns. Still, I’ll give it a go:
In the show, Joel Edgerton plays Jason Dessen, a Chicago physicist who lives a pleasant but unremarkable life with his wife, artist Daniela Dessen (Jennifer Connelly), and their teenage son. And then, everything Jason thinks he knows about reality is violently upended as a mysterious abductor transports him to an alternate reality. And that’s just the opening of the story.
I know it’s somewhat cliche to say “the book was better,” but I do think that if I had to pick one of these two interpretations, I’d go with the original book. The show adds some expanded content that I appreciated (such as a larger role for Daniela), but I also felt that the show stuffed in some unnecessary fluff to expand the runtime.
As a fan of the book, it was definitely still worth a watch for me, and I binged the final few episodes and got caught up in the suspense (even though I already knew how the story would end). I’m appreciative of Apple TV providing a platform for high-quality sci-fi stories.
A Return to the Underground: Thoughts on Silo Season 2
Continuing the theme of sci-fi series on Apple TV, I also recently caught up watching the second season of Silo. I loved the first season of this series for several reasons. One, I’m a huge fan of Rebecca Ferguson and whatever she’s in. Two, I enjoyed the original novel this show is based on – Wool by Hugh Howey – and it was great to see it adapted for the screen. And finally, it’s just a great, suspenseful piece of science fiction.
The basic premise is, Ferguson plays Juliette Nichols, an engineer living in an underground silo in a post-apocalyptic future. There’s a lot of mystery surrounding why humans are living in this silo and why it’s so dangerous to go outside. Juliette becomes suspicious of what secrets the silo’s leadership may be hiding, and the truths she uncovers threaten to send the silo into a society-ending revolt.
The first season of Silo was great, and I recommend the second season as well. It didn’t feel *quite* as compelling as the first, but that could simply be because there’s not as big a twist this time around. I’m still invested in the characters and finding out what happens next season. I’m a little skeptical that next season appears to be a flashback, before humanity had to retreat into the silo, so we’ll see how that goes.
A Fresh Hunt: Predator: Badlands Proves Franchise Films Can Still Surprise
While I’m a fan of the Alien movies, I’ve never seen any Predator films. Despite this, I was intrigued by the good critical buzz surrounding the new film Predator: Badlands, and so I thought, ‘Why not?’ and bought a ticket to see it in the theater (and thanks to my AMC A-List membership, there’s no extra charge to see it in IMAX).
I really enjoyed this movie, despite having just a surface-level understanding of the lore. It’s a simple story well told, with a refreshingly tight runtime. There’s a limited cast of characters, focusing mainly on an alien hunter named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) and the humanoid robot Thia (Elle Fanning).
The scenery of the alien worlds was incredible, appearing to be a blend of real locations and CGI. I liked the camaraderie between the very serious Dek and the bubbly Thia. Watching this really makes me want to go back and watch the Predator movie Prey, also directed by Dan Trachtenberg.
To me, Predator: Badlands is a great example of franchise storytelling done right. It doesn’t feel like a lazy rehash of characters and storylines, and it uses special effects and action scenes to accent the story, rather than replace it.
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