Original Science Fiction Blockbusters of 2013

Oblivion A Lesson In Remembering

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n April 19th, 2013 "Tron: Legacy" director, Joseph Kosinski, opened his second film to Science Fiction audiences. His film was about a man who is having trouble reconciling partial memories of his past, his present situation on a destroyed Earth, and his future. The film stared Tom Cruise, Andrea Riseborough, Olga Kurilenko, Melissa Leo, and Morgan Freeman. Kosinski drew inspiration from many Sci-Fi tropes of past films. "Oblivion" spent 70 days in the theaters and brought in a grand total of $286,168,572 in world wide ticket sales. Only 31.1% were in domestic box office sales while the other 68.9% or $197,061,337 were earned in foreign ticket sales. 

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n art as in science, we all stand on the back of others.  We filter our perceptions through the grid of our experiences.  Kosinski has done this by taking, what he thought were some elements of his favorite films of the sci-fi genre and skillfully wove these concepts and tropes to build a story that if it doesn't make you think, it will definitely entertain you. 

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After Earth ~ A Review of Tale Of Father Finding His Son

Sony / Columbia released on May 31st 2013,  what they had hoped would be a huge success for them. After all, Will Smith is a big star and has for many years, has been a  summertime box office draw. What happened instead is that this $130 million Science Fiction coming of age story barely got off the ground here, in the United States. Domestically, "After Earth" made $60,522,097 and $183,321,030 in foreign ticket sales. "After Earth" walked away with a grand total of $243.8 million world wide. 

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ost critics hated "After Earth." The Rotten Tomatoes website gave the film a paltry 11% and had some harsh remarks about the film in general, and more pointed attacks on either the director (M. Night Shyamalan) or the main star, Jayden Smith. While I wouldn't consider the film epic in any manner, I did find the film entertaining. 

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This is not your typical Will Smith film.  No sly remarks thrown in, no happy go lucky "Prince of Bel Air," no Captain Hillard whose charisma and appeal we saw in "Independence Day."  No, this is a Will Smith playing a father whose life and his son's life are in grave danger and how he is unable to save the day himself.  On one hand, we have Kitai working to defeat his greatest opponent in this film, and that is himself.  In a Jedi/Zen sort of way we are instructed that "Fear is not real. It is a product of thoughts you create. Do not misunderstand me. Danger is very real. But fear is a choice."  Jaden Smith plays his part perfectly.  

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Pacific Rim ~ Apocalypse Canceled

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n July of this year, Guillermo Del Toro took a childhood fantasy about the monster films he watched as a child and gave them an updated new look. Instead of focusing on one Kaiju, Del Toro focuses on several in "Pacific Rim." Like the other Sci-Fi films discussed in this post, DelToro's monster mash failed to make back its $190 million production budget in domestic dollars. "Pacific Rim" made $407,545,104 in world wide ticket sales. The studios, however, like domestic dollars to pay back production costs. While Guillermo's baby made $305.8 million in foreign sales, the film barely made $101.7 million in the United States. 

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ritics had more favorable comments toward "Pacific Rim" giving the film a ripe 72%, while the users gave it a solid 80%. Partial credit for the film's success goes to Travis Beachamt, who co-wrote the screenplay with Del Toro. 

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uillermo del Toro is a complete fan boy and loves to bring stuff from his childhood to the silver screen in bold new ways.  From "El Laberinto del Fauno" ("Pan's Labyrinth"), "Hellboy," "The Devil's Backbone," and the films that he has produced such as "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark," and recently "Mama," all depict a certain sense of Guillermo del Toro's longing for the days of his childhood and his sense of philosophical justice that he brings to his films.  "Pacific Rim" is not epic, but it is impressive and awesome.  He and Beacham bring action and adventure, characters designed to be liked and sympathized with, and in some cases, unexpected comic relief that brings to mind the days before our innocence was lost.  Overall, "Pacific Rim" is that movie that the whole family can enjoy and not feel guilty about having to watch a completely mindless action film.

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Elysium ~ Somewhere Over The Wheel In The Sky

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nticipation for Neill Blomkamp's sophomore film Elysium had been building up during the first half of the year. The question on fan's mind was what social cause was BlomKamp going to take up in "Elysium." He took on racism and apartheid in "District 9." Now his focus is on social inequality. The distinction between the haves and the have-nots is clear and pointed in "Elysium." 

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ritics were a little less kind to Blomkamp's efforts giving the film a 68% fresh rating on the Rotton Tomatoes web site. The film was released on August 9th, 2013 which was the same weekend that Disney's Buena Vista films also released its animation kid pleaser "Planes." Overall, "Elysium" fell short domestically only bringing in just over $92 million and $180.5 million overseas. Elysium was in theaters only 59 days and brought in a total of $272,712,297 worldwide. 

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ax De Acosta (Damon) lives in a world with little hope.  Los Angeles of the future is nothing more than a giant favela.  Max's world is a place where knowledge is power, and it can be uploaded or downloaded from a computer, into, or out of our brains.  He works in a factory where profit is job one, and safety be damned.  Max who is more of an anti-hero, an ex-con, an orphan, and he is a product of his environment.  A former car thief now on probation, Max is working at a factory that makes security robots.  The factory is owned by corporcrat and CEO, John Carlyle, and top citizen of Elysium, who stands aloof above the workers in his factory.He dismisses the board of directors with a swipe of a finger and demands from his underlings more work and more profits.  While on the floor below Max is doused with a lethal dose of radiation and now has a true motivation to seek the medical attention that only citizens of Elysium can afford.

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Gravity ~ Review of Sandra Bullock's Impressive Performance In Free Fall

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ne would think that a film of an individual floating in space, pretty much alone would make for a boring movie. "Children of Men" director, Alfonso Cuarón proves this thought a fallacy. "Gravity" kept the audience on the edge of their seats. The film is in theaters as of this writing. The film is entering its second weekend and is already approaching the $80 million mark. "Gravity" opened strong with $55 million in domestic sales. As of this writing, "Gravity" boasts over  $102 million in worldwide box office sales and the critics at Rotten Tomatoes a solid 97% wile users of the website gave it only 90%.

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ith its message of hope and the films allusions to evolution, Alfonso  and his son Jonás wrote a story that is essentially a roller-coaster ride of a film. The film stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, however, Sandra Bullock is excellent as she portrays a women dealing with the idea of death and the search for a reason to live. Many of us face this question on a day-to-day basis; not a space catastrophe, but the basic question of why are we here. She handles these questions with a believability that resonates with the audience.

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one of these have made their production budget back from domestic dollars, except perhaps "Gravity." I don't know if this is because of very high production budgets allotted to the film's director, or is it because the audience is voting with their wallets and just not venturing out to see these films..Going to a theater to see a film is costly and can be a pain in the ass. Science Fiction films this year, for the most part, were entertaining and worth watching, if not on the big theater screen, or IMAX, but are worth watching on a rented Blu-ray or DVD. Each film had a message and each had its own set of flaws that made the film unique in Sci-Fi genre. I liked each film for different reasons and found that each invoked different emotions upon watching them with my family. The goal of these films are to entertain and distract the viewer from the unrest on foreign soil, or from the inability fo our own government from going broke and shutting down.

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After Earth ~ A Review of Tale Of Father Finding His Son

“I heard stories of Earth, It was a paradise, but we destroyed it.”

We have been watching the trailers for "After Earth," and we get the idea that this is a film about the typical hard-ass of a father character, and the typical son trying to prove his worth to his dad.  "After Earth" is that and a lot more.  These types of films can be played out in many ways and that is what makes "After Earth" a bit different.  The film stars Will and Jaden Smith, father and son in their second outing together.  Not really publicized as in the past, but not really hiding it, is that one of the scriptwriters, and the director of this Sci-Fi, battle against the elements, is none other than M. Night Shyamalan.  Don't let that throw you off, "After Earth" is solid and runs about one hour and forty minutes and is rated PG-13.

Told chronologically out of order, and with plenty of flashback sequences that remind one of another Will Smith flick, "I Am Legend,"  we are told bits and pieces of a much deeper story. Obviously, Jaden Smith is our protagonist, Kitai Raige, son of the famous war hero played by his real father Will Smith.  Cypher Raige, who is a General in the Ranger Corps, is tough as nails and fearless.  As in typical father and son bonding films, Cypher is distant, serious, and seemingly unfeeling.  Kitai, on the other hand is in desperate need of some fatherly approval.  Aren't we all?  Kitai, we find is the best in his class, but too immature to be promoted to Ranger.  The history of the human race unfolds as Kitai tells of the ruin of Earth and humankind’s new manifest destiny to inhabit other worlds.  They built Arks and left, now living on Nova Prime: the world the Earthlings escaped to about a thousand years before.  A planet where, apparently, some alien race decided to leave them a genetically engineered present.  We find the Raiges on the night of Cypher's brief homecoming.  We see a few family moments to give us insight into the dynamics of this somewhat dysfunctional military family.  I don't know if this is true of all military families; however, the relationship between father and son in "The Great Santini" comes to mind.  Realizing that he may be losing his family, especially his son, Cypher sets off to lead one more training mission before announcing his retirement.  When isn't it right before someone's retirement that all hell breaks out?  Taking his kid along on this little vacation trip, the two find they get more they bargained for.

Father and son speed off to their destination in a ship of dubious design, reminding one of a giant Manta Ray.  As much as Kitai wants to please his father, he is after all a 14-year-old boy with all the curiosity that comes with that age.  During the flight, when he should be sleeping, he is out and about exploring the ship and ignores a big red 'Restricted Access' sign.  Why he does that is anyone's guess.  I look at my own teenager, and I immediately understand.  At this point, we are introduced to the film's main antagonist, a creature known as an URSA.  Looking something like a cross between a bear but kind of like a spider, there is one caged in the back of the ship, and Kitai is both drawn to, and scared by the creature.  Like "Jaws," you don't actually get to see the creature in action right away.  "TheBook of Eli" writer Gary Whitta does something that one may think is perfect this time around, he brings out the creature at just the right time.  Throughout the story, Whitta's script leaves both subtle and not so subtle hints that there is danger on the horizon.  The creature is worth the wait and the CGI gives us a monster that could give one nightmares.

Predictably, there is a problem with the flight and their spaceship is brought down.  Crashing on the forbidden planet Earth, the Raiges are the only survivors.  Locked into his seat, on order by his Commanding Officer (his father), Kitai is the only one who makes it through the crash in one piece.  Cypher is broken and in peril, and now he must rely on his son to fetch from the other half of their ship's broken fuselage, the second emergency beacon.  The beacon is about a thousand kilometers away in a land fraught with danger and it is up to this young cadet with no real experience to save their lives.  Shyamalan gives us two stories going on simultaneously, Kitai's travels and encounters with the elements, and Cypher's attempts to fix his femoral artery in his broken leg while trying to guide his son through the landscape, which are infested with creatures that have evolved unchecked by man for over a thousand years.  Not to mention the URSA creature that, although is blind, tracks its prey by the scent of fear.  Director Shyamalan's choices for filming locations are exotic and beautiful.  Filmed in Utah, Northern California, and Costa Rica, Shyamalan presents his viewers with the sheer beauty and grandeur of Mother Nature.  We don't see much of this anymore with worlds now totally recreated on a green screen set.  The art direction for "After Earth" is different, reminding one of the sails of a ship and is organic in nature. Minimalist by design so as not to distract the audience from the main focus – the relationship of a immature son and his estranged father.

This is not your typical Will Smith film.  No sly remarks thrown in, no happy go lucky "Prince 

of Bel Air," no Captain Hillard whose charisma and appeal we saw in "Independence Day."  No, this is a Will Smith playing a father whose life and his son's life are in grave danger and how he is unable to save the day himself.  On one hand, we have Kitai working to defeat his greatest opponent in this film, and that is himself.  In a Jedi/Zen sort of way we are instructed that "Fear is not real. It is a product of thoughts you create. Do not misunderstand me. Danger is very real. But fear is a choice."  Jaden Smith plays his part perfectly. I suppose that Gary Whitta and M. Night Shyamalan wrote Jaden's part to augment the looks of fear and abandonment that he portrays throughout the film. Or, did they write his part to show off his defiance that most teenagers have at that age. Either way, we see a Jaden Smith who is more mature in both his acting skills and in his personal confidence. Kitai, developing from the wild, uncontrolled child running around like a chicken with his head cut off, to a young man who acknowledges the gravity of his situation and that he is in a fight for survival. Will's character has his own problems to contend with.  Besides having to do self-surgery, keep an eye on his kid, and check via flying probes for the URSA creature, he struggles with his own shortcomings as a father.  We find out, that Kitai had an older sister who died tragically.  Actually, both Raiges must come to terms with this death and how they dealt with it in the past and how they as a family must find a way to use that event as place of bonding.  Trapped with a broken leg in the front part of the craft, Will’s character must do his emoting with his face and show us the anguish that he is going through.  

I found the emotional interaction between father and son go from extremely harsh, to that with an aura of respect, while remaining firm. The shift is seen slowly throughout the film as we see some tender moments between Kitai and his wounded father.  In some cases kind of sappy yet not exceedingly so. 

The decision not to feature M. Night Shyamalan's name in the publicity was a wise one. Although his films make money worldwide, Shyamalan is mostly derided since his 2002 film "Signs" where he promised us a big scary monster and failed to deliver. He has been struggling in the eyes of critics ever since. Those days may be over, or, maybe not.  After all is said and done, this movie is ultimately targeted at the teen audience or families with younger teens. Both Smiths offer characters that family members can relate to. With Father's Day on the horizon, I can see why this film was released now. "After Earth" was designed to bring families together in a fun inviting sort of way.

In theaters May 31, 2013.

Movie Data

Genre: Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure

Year:  2013

Staring: Jaden Smith, Will Smith

Director: M. Night Shyamalan 

Producer(s): Caleeb Pinkett, Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith, James Lassiter, M. Night Shyamalan

Writer: Gary Whitta and M. Night Shyamalan

Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 100 minutes
Release Date: 5/31/2013

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