Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews (Page 1)

Before viewing The Animatrix I had assumed it was an animated version of the original groundbreaking SF film. Thankfully, it avoids falling into that trap, instead opting to tell separate stories set in and around the world of The Matrix. To give credence and an added authenticity to the project, The Animatrix is produced by Larry and Andy Wachowski, creators and directors of the film trilogy. The first four of nine segments are also written by the successful partnership.

First up is Final Flight of the Osiris. This is entirely computer generated, and the superb quality and attention to detail is almost worth the money alone. Remember the "I know kung fu" training sequence from the first instalment? This begins with a sensual samurai sword fight, before we're thrust into a high-speed chase aboard the Osiris. The crew are forced to flee when they witness giant drilling machines attempting to bore through the surface to the human refuge. In an original twist, the mission is a disaster, and they are unable to issue a warning.

There is a dark and downbeat atmosphere to most of the stories here, which in this instance is as it should be; major turning points in life and the consequences of war seldom have a happy theme. And talking of war, The Second Renaissance Part I & II shows the events surrounding the war with the machines, created by man. After one robot kills and becomes a martyr, political 'do-gooders' decide that machines have rights too. The robots construct their own city, and their economy threatens that of the humans so severely that man launches an attack on the city, with devastating reprisals.

There are some serious images here, not seen in animation outside of Manga and Pink Floyd's The Wall. During riot scenes a woman's clothes are ripped off and she is violently clubbed, revealing a robot body beneath her outwardly human appearance. Robot bodies are bulldozed into a mass grave, a particularly poignant depiction after news stories in recent years from war-torn countries.

Whereas Renaissance is a mix of Japanese anime and CGI, Kid's Story is animated using a modern comic book style, with quick cuts and streaks successfully creating effective flowing movement. A new slant is put on an early scene in The Matrix. A high school boy is receiving answers to his questions via computer, but then the agents arrive for him. An escape is attempted via skateboard, and the boy is obliged to take a literal leap of faith.

In Program an ancient Japanese combat simulation proves to be a fight for survival when a friend appears to turn rogue. World Record is a strange one. A runner, attempting to beat his own best time, sustains a serious injury and briefly wakes up in the real world. The machines put him under again, but the athlete appears to suspect a new enlightenment.

Beyond is one of the best here. A girl loses her cat and traces it to a run-down and abandoned warehouse building, which the local kids insist is haunted. A broken lightbulb flashes on and off, it rains perpetually on one part of the building, and in one area the kids have fun in an antigravity field. The anomalies are a glitch in the Matrix program. An imposing truck arrives with a cleanup team.

A Detective Story is an anime version of film noir, with a private eye being tricked into tracking down a top hacker known as Trinity. If there is one example here which lets the side down slightly, it's Matriculated, wherein a group of humans attempt to capture and convert machines to their way of thinking. A good idea in principle; however, the virtual reality-like program utilised is just an excuse for some smart-arse kaleidoscopic computer animation running around, which lasts far too long.

Over all, The Animatrix is an original concept and an exceptional package. With extras including director commentaries, making-of documentaries on each segment, biographical profiles, a video game trailer, a documentary on anime, and DVD-ROM features, it's well worth anyone's interest. And the sound quality takes some beating.

(Review originally written by Ty Power for sci-fi-online 2003)

Bombed out in space with a spaced out bomb! Talby, Doolittle, Pinback and Boiler comprises the remaining crew of the Dark Star, a deep space craft which clears the way for human colonisation. The mission is to blow-up unstable planets with ‘smart bombs’, of which there are twenty. The men have been together for so long that they are unkempt and pretty much uncaring. Talby dreams of seeing the ultra-rare Phoenix Asteroid, Doolittle misses his surfboard, and Pinback is actually an imposter. When an asteroid storm causes damage to the automated systems, the intelligent Bomb 20 arms itself and begins a countdown to disaster. The answer might lie with Commander Powell, but Commander Powell is dead and in the cryogenic freezer after his seat mechanism exploded. Time is fast running out, but Powell’s memory isn’t what it was when he was alive...

In 2004 the 30th Anniversary Special Edition emerged, nicely packaged and presented on a single disc, but with very little extras. Seven years has passed since then, and so an updated version of Dark Star is well overdue. This release is over two discs, and incorporates more than three hours of additional features. The film has been sourced from a new 16 x 9 35mm transfer, with frame by frame digital restoration of the video master to vastly improve the resulting picture. The soundtrack has also been digitally enhanced and restored to Dolby 5.1.

Sticking with the extras, disc 2 is entirely taken up by Let There Be Light: The Odyssey of Dark Star, an almost 2-hour length documentary which explores the four year journey from conception to theatrical release. With John Carpenter’s main partner on this project, Dan O’Bannon, sadly no longer with us, you would expect there to be a lot of Carpenter material. Although the documentary is very thorough, the vast majority of the reminiscenses and anecdotes are told by O’Bannon’s widow and Brian Narelle, who played Lt Doolittle. There are audio recordings from an old Carpenter interview, but there are no accompanying pictures of the man himself, and the recording is subtitled due to the sub-standard quality. Dark Star was first released in 1974, 37 years ago, so I suppose like any old film it becomes increasingly difficult to find people to dig for recollections. Plus the fact that some people just don’t want to be reminded of their past.

The biggest disappointment, extras-wise, is that there is no audio commentary to accompany the film by John Carpenter. For a huge Carpenter fan like myself this is a major oversight. I find his other film commentaries highly entertaining He is not afraid to be self-deprecating and tell his audience what didn’t work, and there is normally a great deal of insight and information surrounding the process of filmmaking. They really should have made it worth JC’s time, as it would have rounded off an almost perfect release. Having said that, there is a plethora of other extras crammed on to disc 1: A lengthy interview with Brian Narelle (Doolittle); the final interview with Dan O’Bannon; a commentary by super fan Andrew Gilchrist; a 3-D guide to the Dark Star ship; a written intro by Dan O’Bannon; Trivia; the original film trailer; and the highlight for me, a lengthy interview with SF writer Alan Dean Foster. Foster novelised Dark Star whilst still a new writer. He is my personal favourite SF writer, and I have read nearly all of his books. It’s nice to hear him recount how he was invited to the premier of the film, and had a burger across the road afterward with John Carpenter, sharing dreams of success which were literally just around the corner.

And now to the film itself. This should be on every Carpenter/O’Bannon fan or historical film collector’s shopping list. As far as the casual mainstream viewer (or even SF fan) goes, you’ll be sorely disappointed if you’re expecting a big Hollywood production with spectacular stunts and special effects. This began as a student project while John Carpenter was still at film school. With help he was determined to see it through to a theatrical release. Even then it took four years, primarily because he kept running out of money. Consequentially, it was released on a shoestring budget. The film has been described as a parody of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, but present day parodies are blatant comedies. This is closer to dark humour; it’s quirky but there are no laugh-out-loud moments, except perhaps the celebrated feeding the alien sequence. I tend to regard this as a valuable piece of nostalgia. It’s highly entertaining without being exciting. Of course John Carpenter went on to great things, such as Halloween, Escape From New York, Assault on Precinct 13, The Thing, and many others. But let’s not forget where he came from.

This is the most comprehensive release of Dark Star thus far. The Blu-ray version, released shortly after, sacrifices the excellent Alan Dean Foster interview with an alternative version of the film (so that we have a Director's Cut and the Theatrical Release). The picture is phenominally crisp and there are nice menus.

(Review originally written by Ty Power for sci-fi-online 2011)

Klaatu arrives in America in his spacecraft (like you do!) to persuade the peoples of Earth to change their violent ways or risk annihilation. With atomic power capability utilised for bomb-making, the Earth is perceived as a threat to the peace and stability of other worlds. When the world leaders fail to agree on a venue, Klaatu melts into the populace to learn a little about everyday life and opinion. He approaches a renowned professor, who agrees to collect together the leading minds on the planet. Coupled with this, Klatu organises a worldwide demonstration of power. But has he reckoned on the primitive fears of mankind?...

This is arguably the best of only a handful of classic science fiction films to emerge in the fifties. Cold war paranoia spawned a veritable hoard of tales blaming the Russians in all but name - and their own atomic testing - for even the smallest petty ills. However, The Day the Earth Stood Still (from 1951) is the only example to expose this paranoia for the foolish and dangerous fright-mongering it truly is, and to leave the audience with a feeling of positive hope for the future. Even so, it takes threats on a massive scale to force the leaders of the world to consider change on a global scale. Who can blame poor Klaatu; if you were shot on your arrival and suffered worse before your exit, wouldn't you resort to threats to get your message across? Sometimes you have to talk to people in the only language they can understand.

The main strength of this picture is its simplicity of style, which lifts it well above period films of its ilk and ensures that it still stands up well today. It's a straightforward story intelligently realised.

Michael Rennie's portrayal of the visitor Klaatu is beautifully understated. He looks and fundamentally acts the same as other men, and yet he is subtly different. The odd comment here and there threatens to betray him, but he never seeks to hide his true feelings and the fact that the citizens of Earth are gearing towards their own destruction. Everybody is suspicious of their own shadow; when Klaatu first makes his appearance as Mr Carpenter at the boarding house, even the boy Bobby believes him to be a government agent searching for the alien.

Also wisely kept simple are the special effects which, particularly in this era, can make or break the project. The spacecraft as it approaches its landing point is shown as a disc of light, and the model shot of the touchdown is filmed in distance overhead perspective. The saucer set and its extending ramp are impressive, and GORT, the robot guardian, is mainly kept to longshots and extreme close-ups, rendering its presence large and oppressive.

The movie is full of defining moments, such as Klaatu completing complicated mathematical equations on a blackboard as a way of gaining the professor's attention. There is the poignant visit to a military graveyard, and the scene where the boy persuades Mr Carpenter (Klaatu) to take him to see the spacecraft. Not realising his companion is the ship's operator, Bobby asks about propulsion. A man in the crowd overhears Klaatu's "hypothetical" explanation and ridicules him, to the amusement of others close-by. The fact that nothing is actively played for laughs or is overtly ridiculous, means this film succeeds on all levels. It is undeniably a genre classic.

There's some nice dvd extras: Commentaries, Remastering Comparisons, Theatrical Trailer, and Movie Tone News of the time, reporting on the multi-nation Japanese peace alliance. This might very well have gained maximum points, but the sound quality could have been better, and the Region 1 version contains a making-of documentary, curiously absent from this release. But don't let these quibbles turn you off.

Invest in a copy now, or your world will be annihilated.

(Review originally written by Ty Power for sci-fi-online 2003) 

In a future society, where war has been avoided by the use of a feeling-repressant drug called Prozium, Neo ... I mean John Preston is a talented Grammaton Cleric (government agent) charged with the responsibility of seeking out illegal sense offenders and issuing immediate punishment. Death. After killing his own partner for reading poetry, he begins to question his own motives, Uncontrollable circumstances cause him to be late taking his dose of prozium, and once he begins to experience genuine feelings he finds there's no going back. But how can Preston survive among his own officers long enough to bring them and this totalitarian society down?...

In this modern age, there's no such thing as a totally original idea. Everything is at least partially based on a previous concept. Equilibrium is a film brought to us by the makers of Minority Report and Speed. The Minority Report connection is plain to see. There is a very Phillip K. Dick feel to this entire film, evident in the serious near-future society which is somehow twisted. This movie has also been compared much with The Matrix. The long coats, humourless faces, and excessive use of firearms and close contact fighting further confirm the fact. There is even an element of the early George Lucas book-turned-film, THX 1138, in which people are kept subdued by drugs, and physical sex and standard procreation is prohibited by law. However, there is another source that Equilibrium borrows from so heavily that I'm truly astonished no one appears to have noticed it before.

Master storyteller Ray Bradbury wrote a novel in the fifties called Fahrenheit 451 (which is the temperature at which paper burns). This was immortalised in a marvellous film in the seventies by Francais Trauffant. The plot was that books and literature of any kind is outlawed by government. People are told what to think and are obliged to watch a set minimum amount of hours TV every day (that's law now, isn't it?). Citizens report anyone suspected of having books, and the fire brigade arrives to summarily burn them. One such fireman keeps a book out of curiosity, only to get bitten by the literary bug. He finds himself in the same situation as John Preston, except his contact with the underground isn't so cut and dried. These people recite to each other individual classics by word of mouth, so they can be passed on and not lost forever to mankind.

Okay, so there's a lot of similarities here, but Equilibrium manages to spark its own slant of originality. There's much to appreciate in what first appears to be a blatant rip-off. Firstly, everybody wears dull colours and lives in a monochrome environment; this is a good way of displaying the general lack of emotional senses. Hidden rooms with concealed artefacts then suddenly seem blindingly bright with promise. The feelings, when displayed to us through John Preston, are subtle and so all the more potent. A sunrise, the touch of human skin, the petting of a puppy dog; all come across powerfully. For me, this film is more about the regaining of the human soul, than it ever is about the fighting. Of course, the fighting helps (there's even a shoot-em-up scene copied straight from The Matrix). It's very well choreographed, and there is even a training explanation why one skilled man can mow down hoards of machine-gun-wielding guards! I particularly liked the hand-to-hand fighting with guns at the conclusion.

It's almost ironic that this is no different to any other so-called ideal society, whose utopia must be maintained with an iron fist. The realism juxtaposes with the exaggerated fight scenes, producing a film well worth a viewing.

As far as the extras go, short seems to be the order of the day. Aside from a director's commentary and a director & producer commentary, there is only a short trailer and a series of very brief TV spots. If the behind-the-scenes feature had been at least 30 minutes duration I might have considered giving this release an extra point, but at only four minutes it hardly warrants that description at all. This is a "I did this film because it's ... er ...very good" series of quotes from the actors. It was hardly worth the effort, and a complete waste of film. My granny could have done better.

Sorry Momentum Pictures, but if you're going to add extras, do it like you mean it. Where are all the outakes, the cut or extended scenes, the biogs, the picture galleries, the in-depth interviews and demonstrations from the artistes behind the scenes? It's a good job the film is so good.

(Review originally written by Ty Power for sci-fi-online 2003) 

For no other reason than to alleviate boredom, an unknown aggressor toys with the Earth prior to its planned destruction, by directing freak weather conditions and laughing uproariously like the egotistical megalomaniac he is. American football star Flash Gordon and Dale Arden are hit by the sudden conditions, causing their pilot to be lost, and obliging Flash to crash land the light aircraft... on the laboratory of ex-NASA scientist Dr Hans Zarkov. The seemingly mad Zarkov manages to get them on his rocket which he aims at an anomaly in space he believes is attacking the Earth. They are soon arrested and taken to a palace where different races are paying fealty to Ming the Merciless, Emperor of the Universe. When Ming heartlessly kills a man, Flash disrupts the proceedings and for his troubles is sentenced to death in a gas chamber. Not a good day for anyone ... even a square-jawed hero. Can he escape and rescue the doctor from his mind conditioning and Dale from her fate as a concubine? Stay tuned, same time, same DVD to find out!...

There are two ways the making of this film could have been approached. One was to play it serious and hard-hitting, to reinvent the old comics and serials from the 1930s, the other to pay tribute to the serial's regular slices of ham and drama. With the former idea the format would have had to be spot on to succeed, but thankfully they chose the latter.

This loud and colourful tongue-in-cheek version throws an open nod and wink in homage to the black and white days of Saturday morning kids cinema, with thrills, spills and kills. The balance is just right. The characters are all played purposefully over-the-top (particularly Brian Blessed's portrayal of Prince Vultan of the Hawkmen, which is like a cross between Santa Claus and the Jolly Green Giant), and Melody Anderson's Dale Arden flits between helpless girly and action heroine. Who can forget the immortal line, "Flash, I love you, but we only have fourteen hours to save the Earth!" Believe it or not Max Von Sydow's Ming is the most intelligently understated acting, even though he's supposed to be the evil villain.

Watching this movie is like a game of Who's Who. Aside from the aforementioned, there's Timothy Dalton, Topol, and shorter appearances by Peter Wyngarde, Susan Danielle, Robbie Coltrane, Peter Duncan, and the excellent Richard O'Brien.

The accompanying soundtrack by rock giants Queen fits the mood of the piece exactly, being both quirky and dramatic. You can tell that they all fully entered into the spirit of the thing to achieve a piece which undoubtedly enhances the whole.

DVD extras include a trailer, a Mike Hodges interview, photo gallery, and an episode of the original Flash Gordon series, starring Buster Crabbe (which gives you an inkling of just how well this film has captured the mood).   I doubt very much that this is a film people will want to watch over and over, but it is great fun. All together now, "Flash! Ah, ah ..."

(Review originally written by Ty Power for sci-fi-online 2005)

John Carpenter is an accomplished storyteller (writing, directing and composing the music score for the majority of his movies) and a rare talent, so the release of a collection of seven of his best projects is welcome indeed. For anybody interested in delving for the first time into the works of the great man this is a fantastic place to start.

Lt. Ethan Bishop is assigned to Precinct 13 in Anderson, which is being systematically shut- down and moved elsewhere. Only a skeleton crew of the captain, a desk sergeant and two administration women are in place. Bishop is understandably expecting a quiet night, but chaos is about to descend in a manner he could never have predicted. A handful of dangerous prisoners are being transported by bus to another location, but when one of their number falls seriously ill they are obliged to divert to the nearest police station - namely, Precinct 13...

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) was the first of a number of films Carpenter would make with a siege theme. He also incorporated a strong woman character (Leigh, named after Leigh Brackett - the writer of Rio Bravo) which he always felt was very important.

There's an element of wry humour present, especially in the scene when the hot potato game is played to decide who goes into the sewer through a manhole cover to seek escape. This is also Carpenter's first full music score, and he produces a memorable theme said to be influenced slightly by Led Zeppelin's 'Immigrant Song' and the music from the Dirty Harry film.

This was also the first film Carpenter had total control over; something he would insist on from this point onward. The film was released to a muted response in America. The MPAA made Carpenter cut out the scene wherein the little girl is shot dead. This he did, but only in the version sent to the MPAA, thereby sneaking the film out intact.

Extras on this disc consist of a Q&A with John Carpenter & Austin 'Bishop' Stoker, a Carpenter Commentary (always worth listening to, believe me), a Photo Gallery, Trailers and the Music Score. Verdict: 8 out of 10.  

Fifteen years after the young Michael Myers brutally stabbed to death his teenage sister, Judith, Doctor Loomis - who has followed the subject's case and tried to break through to him without success - is on his way with a nurse to the sanatorium from which Myers is due to be transferred. When they arrive the compound gates are open and patients are wandering around. Fearing the worst, Loomis rushes off toward the building. The nurse is attacked and the car stolen. Michael Myers is on the loose...

Halloween (1978) is often referred to as the granddaddy of slasher movies. This title is meant to be complimentary, but in my opinion is a little unkind considering some of the hack 'n' slash, gore-for-gore's-sake excuses for movies which emerged afterward. Admittedly, it did unknowingly set the ground rules for what was to become known as the Teen Horror Flick.

Halloween is a very stylish horror with more creepy than violent moments. There is very good use of lighting, to chilling effect. The idea of a completely silent masked psychotic killer is infinitely more frightening than, for instance, the wise-cracking Freddy Krueger, who came later.

Various in-jokes and names are present, including some in homage to Psycho. Shortage of space prevents me passing-on a hundred and one fascinating facts about this film, suffice to say it's a true classic which opened to mixed reviews. As with most of his films, Carpenter proved to be a man ahead of his time. Word of mouth would make Halloween a sensation, and for twelve years the highest grossing independent film of all time. By the time news of its phenomenal success filtered through to him, Carpenter was well into his next project.

Extras on this disc consist of the Halloween Unmasked 2000 documentary, Trailer and Bios. I'm not certain if the two-disc 25th anniversary edition is incorporated here, but it's a shame if it isn't - leastways for the always entertaining John Carpenter commentary. Verdict: 10 out of 10.

The little town of Antonio Bay is preparing for its centenary celebrations, but it has a dark secret. 100 years before, the Elizabeth Dane ship, lost in a thick bank of fog, crashed on the rocks at Spivey Point, misdirected by a campfire intended to ground the vessel. The vicar of the church discovers the diary of Father Patrick Malone when a brick falls from the wall of the vestry. The writings give credence to the possibility of the fog returning, bringing back the dead crewmen seeking revenge for cold-hearted betrayal...

Keen to follow-up Halloween with another scary tale, Carpenter borrowed a true event from the 1700s when a ship laden with gold was lured on to the rocks by the locals. The crew was drowned and the gold stolen. The Fog (1979) is therefore essentially a supernatural tale of revenge.

Jamie Lee Curtis returns to the Carpenter fold after her debut in Halloween; this time she plays an older character and shares the credits with her mother Janet Leigh of Psycho fame. A couple of other actors from Halloween also return: Nick Castle and Nancy Loomis, and Dan O'Bannon returns from Dark Star. Oscar winner John Houseman is also in the cast, but the biggest plaudits should go to Adrienne Barbeau (Carpenter's then new wife) as the sultry-voiced Stevie Wayne, who manages just the right balance of calmness and urgency - another very strong female character. Many times Carpenter has enjoyed Hitchcock-like cameos in his movies, but in The Fog he has a brief talking park as the church handyman.

The pacing of this movie is spot on, with early shocks and scares being only part of the steady build-up to the church siege conclusion. The dead mariners from the Elizabeth Dane are kept in darkness or backlit in the fog so that they are nearly always seen in silhouette, the active principle being that less is more. Also greatly enhancing the atmosphere is the very impressive music score, easily one of his best.  

Extras on this disc include: the documentary Tales From the Mist and trailers. Again, where's the Carpenter commentary (available on the special edition version of The Fog DVD)?  Verdict: 9 out of 10.  

Snake Plisskin ("I thought you were dead!") is an ex-Special Forces hero who is currently serving life imprisonment in a maximum security penitentiary for robbing the Federal Reserve Depository. He is offered a complete pardon in exchange for rescuing the President from New York, where his plane has crashed. New York is a walled-off prison where gangs and hardened criminals have made their own hierarchy. To ensure his co-operation Plisskin is injected with two minute capsules; if he doesn't return with the President within 22 hours the capsules will dissolve setting off fatal heat-sensing charges. The President's location tracker proves to be a false lead, and Plisskin eventually discovers via a character called "Brain" that the man has been taken by the Duke of New York, a powerful and ruthless gang leader. But Snake can be pretty ruthless himself, let down by the government he fought for he cares about nothing but his own welfare...

Upon its release, Escape From New York (1981) went up against Raiders of the Lost Ark, but was incredibly well-received for a relatively small picture and still made the huge return of $50 million.

Snake Plisskin is a great character, an anti-hero who sneers at the establishment and whose quiet tones are reminiscent of Clint Eastwood. The plot, settings and lighting are once again near faultless, and it's amazing we have so many big names (Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Harry Dean Stanton and of course Kurt Russell from Carpenter's Elvis in his first action figure role - although Avco wanted Charles Bronson) in a movie budget reportedly between 5 and $7 million.  

Making another welcome return is Adrienne Barbeau. Nick Castle co-wrote the script with Carpenter and is mainly responsible for the low-key dark humour in the film.

A fascinating fact is that the matte painter of the movie was none other than James Cameron, later director of The Terminator, Aliens, Titanic and others.

Shooting took place through the nights between 9:00pm to 7:00am. It would be Carpenter's and Avco's most ambitious project to date.  

Extras on this disc include the Return to Escape From New York documentary, a John Carpenter interview, trailers, a thoroughly entertaining Commentary with John Carpenter and Kurt Russell (Carpenter himself is always interesting, entertaining and brutally honest, whereas Russell obviously enjoyed himself immensely, citing Snake Plisskin as his favourite acting part), and Snake's Crime (the deleted opening scene - the robbery itself, which is an exciting piece but doesn't really fit in with the rest of the story). Verdict: 9.

JR MacReady is a helicopter pilot and part of the crew of a US Antarctic research station. When a Norwegian helicopter mysteriously crashes whilst chasing and trying to kill a dog, the station takes the animal in and allows it to wander. MacReady and others fly to the Norwegian base to find out what took place. They discover it uninhabited, bleak and cold. A huge area in the ice has been cut away to reveal part of what appears to be a spacecraft. A man-sized block of ice is taken back to the US base where it accidentally thaws out. When the dog is placed with the sled dogs they cower in fear as it erupts into a hideous creature. A flame thrower destroys it, but this is in fact a shape-shifting extraterrestrial which can take the form of any living thing. When attacked it reveals its previous forms in a sickening amalgamation of twisted body parts. From that moment on, the station becomes a hotbed of fear, panic and ultra-paranoia, as nobody knows who to trust. MacReady thinks he has the solution, but is he too late...?

Upon its general release, The Thing (1982) bombed. Cinema-goers were apparently appalled and disgusted by the hideous shape-changing scenes - missing the point entirely. E.T. had just been released and the public was not ready for Carpenter's intelligent and well-crafted monster flick after such a popular and benign alien from Spielberg. However, a few years later critics began to reassess the film, and it picked up a huge following retrospectively.

The premise of a shape-shifting creature is said to have inspired the T-100 from Cameron's Terminator 2, particularly the scene when it loses substance and goes through one shape after another. There was also an episode of The X-Files which was heavily influenced by The Thing. Dark Horse comics published a continuation of the story, which also brought a new audience to the film. Carpenter has toyed with the idea of a sequel ever since, but in semi-retirement he's unlikely to get around to it.

The fantastic array of extras on this disc include the 80 minute Terror Takes Shape documentary, the thoroughly entertaining (again) commentary with John Carpenter and Kurt Russell, Production Background Archive, Production Art and Storyboards, Location Design, Outtakes, Production and Post Production Notes, Cast and Filmmakers' Notes, and Cast Production Photos. Phew! Verdict: 10 out of 10.

When the last guardian of the forgotten sect, The Brotherhood of Sleep (a religious organisation kept secret even from the Vatican), dies he leaves a key to a Catholic priest. The key opens a door into the basement of an abandoned church. Inside is a large canister which appears to contain a green sludge. The priest asks a college professor of theoretic physics to investigate, and he agrees, taking along a handful of his students. They discover via an old manuscript that the canister is seven million years old and can only be opened from the inside. The substance it holds is the essence of pure evil - Satan itself, if you like. As the students attempt to study it, the sky begins to change, and hoards of mysteriously psychotic homeless people surround the building, making it a prison. The green substance begins to spread its contagion by spraying in the face of its victims - while the survivors try to barricade themselves in a room - preparatory to bringing through Satan's father, the Anti-God...

Although the eighties was awash with horror films (most of them franchises or inferior copies), thereby losing this one somewhere in the middle, Prince of Darkness (1987) was well- received by the public and most Carpenter fans. A small contingent saw this moment as the beginning of a slide in talent by the director, but I think those people simply saw this as students versus demon, missing the intelligently written script which explores anti-particles, tachyon transmissions, and differential equations - along with questions such as what is Man's place in the universe, and where does he fit in with science?

The important thing here is that Carpenter was making a film that he wanted to see - which is all any writer, director or artist of any kind can do. It is proof of his conviction in this regard to know that he turned down big-money directing jobs on Top Gun and Fatal Attraction.

I'm led to believe there's only a trailer on this disc as extras; so where is the John Carpenter commentary which is freely available on the Momentum region 2 release? 8 out of 10.

John Nada is a homeless and jobless drifter who comes to town looking for labouring work. He finds refuge with a large destitute homeless community, but it is soon mysteriously attacked and destroyed by riot police. Most of the individuals are taken away. When Nada witnesses a similar raid on a nearby building, he waits it out before entering to look for clues as to what the purpose of the raid was. Inside he finds a pair of sunglasses which changes everything around him when he puts them on. A percentage of the population actually consists of aliens with skeletal faces, and just as importantly all advertising and media is subversive brainwashing aimed to instruct the populace with messages such as Consume, Procreate, Submit, Obey, No Independent Thought, and on the money, This Is Your God. When Nada meets Frank he has a hard time convincing him, but a scrawled message, They Live - We Sleep, convinces them that there are others who know the truth. The problem is how does this small band of rebels open the eyes of the world...?

As with Prince of Darkness, the budget for They Live (1988) was only $3 million and the shooting schedule 8 weeks. For the part of Nada Carpenter recruited experienced wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, whom he had seen at a Wrestlemania event. Taking a chance paid off, because Piper brings much more than brawn to the part.

Keith David (who had appeared in The Thing) was alongside him with Meg Foster. Mind you, Piper's profession did help when Carpenter scripted-in a seven minute alleyway brawl because he wanted to out-do The Quiet Man as the longest on-screen fight.

As with his previous film, Carpenter composed another excellent mood-enhancing music score. Releasing the film just prior to the 1988 elections was either inspired or a very lucky happenstance, because it proved to be a hit at the box office - seemingly the only Carpenter film that audiences 'got' straight away.  

An inherent message in the film about not selling-out for big financial success was not lost on Carpenter fans, who know that he has never been close to doing so. There was talk of a sequel to They Live, titled Hypnowar, but it was never made.

Extras on this disc consist of a Making of... featurette, a Commentary with John Carpenter and Roddy Piper, and Carpenter, Piper and Meg Foster profiles. 9 out of 10.

So John Carpenter has enjoyed a successful, but sometimes uncomfortable career. But he has remained resolute and has a formidable arsenal of fine films in his canon.

If I were to choose seven films to represent his finest work, I would select those included in this set. They are strong and diverse achievements. Although the majority of extras available out there in the retail world are here to compliment the films, there are a couple of individual releases which are much more packed with special features, especially on region 1. However, this isn't a huge problem, as most avid Carpenter fans such as myself will already have these remastered films, and for those coming to John Carpenter afresh - as I said at the top of this piece - there's no better place to start than here.

(Review originally written by Ty Power for sci-fi-online 2008)

It's what every fan of The Matrix movies want... more! More eye-opening revelations, more plugged-in discovery, more realms of bold possibility, as the trilogy that set a new standard in moviemaking now sets a new standard in DVD gift sets with The Ultimate Matrix Collection...

By now everyone's seen The Matrix, right? What do you mean "What's The Matrix?" So let's explore exactly what's on these discs.

This 10-DVD collection comes in two formats. The one I'm presently reviewing is a nicely-presented slip box incorporating five of the cardboard-type DVD cases and a detailed booklet describing by title the assembled features and breaking the films up into chapters.

In case you've been in another galaxy for the last century, the first film in the trilogy has Neo discovering that what he thinks is the real world is in fact a computer program created by machines which have humans wired-up like batteries to power their vast city.

The Matrix comes as an excellent 2-disc set. The first contains a new digital transfer of the film, a written intro by the writer/director Wachowski Brothers, and three new commentaries (one from philosophers Dr Cornel West and Ken Wilber, the other from critics Todd McCarthy of Variety, John Powers of Vogue and David Thomson, author of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film). The second disc has a feature length documentary called The Matrix Revisited, 3-hours of audio music (made up of 41 tracks) called The Music Revisited, featurettes Behind The Matrix, and Take The Red Pill, Follow the White Rabbit (containing 17 featurettes originally linked in branching to the film, CD ROM material and Web Links).

The Matrix Reloaded is also a 2-disc set. After an innovative, intelligent and thought-provoking first film, this one tries to be too clever and simply ends up complicating the situation. However, there is a number of outstanding set pieces and these alone are worth seeing the film for.

The first disc contains The Matrix Reloaded film, with introductions and commentaries as per The Matrix. The second disc has Enter The Matrix (23 live action sequences shot for the video game, which tie-in with the overall structure of The Matrix trilogy) with Niobe and Ghost the main characters. There's also I'll Handle Them (Behind the scenes of The Great Hall sequence), The Exiles (explaining the backgrounds of the peripheral characters), Unplugged (the multiple Mr Smith fight), Teahouse Fight (where Neo is tested before seeing the Oracle), and Weblinks. The best section on this disc is Car Chase, wherein the Freeway Sequence is picked apart from concept to realisation. The motorcycle stunt woman is fearless, and the choreography and computer plotting is fascinating.

The Matrix Revolutions is the third of the trilogy, a generally action-packed but messy conclusion where the accepted exaggeration of the first two films went a little too far.

Again it's a 2-disc set for this one, with the movie and commentaries as per the first two films. Disc 2 is again packed with features. Crew explores set construction, artists, lighting and the 2nd film unit, Hel uncovers stunts, wire work, working extras, and explosive and physical effects. Siege describes making the machines a reality, computerising sequences, storyboarding the final scene of the Mifune character, constructing the IPU mechanical fighting machine, and the new actors for this film. Super Burly Brawl plots the shooting of the last fight scenes between Neo and Smith. New Blue World is about creating Zion, on-screen graphics, and constructing a fist fight in the real world. The Aftermath describes the music composition, shooting two films back to back and coding for cutting, sound effects, and rendering the visual effects.  The Animatrix contains nine short films (see my review of last year) totalling 89 minutes, and bonus material on a single disc. There are director commentaries on four of the films. Scrolls to Screen is a nice documentary on the culture and history of Anime. Creators is a text feature on the directors and segment producers. There is also a short featurette on each of the short films. This is a great disc with some extremely diverse stories in terms of style and content.

The final 3-disc section is called The Matrix Experience. The first disc is The Roots of The Matrix, an in-depth and surprisingly interesting documentary exploring the philosophies of the concepts covered in the trilogy. This disc also has another feature which investigates and theorises on the plausibility of the science behind the fiction.

Disc 2 contains some of the best material in this set. A long documentary called The Burly Man Chronicles (apparently a working title for some of the shoot) covers a countdown in approximate days of the training, set building, computer rendering, planning, acting, filming and a thousand and one other tasks carried out, all in the name of making a movie (or two, as this covers the back to back films). Every area is viewed or covered in some way, but never lingers long enough to make you lose interest. Furthermore, there's 21 White Rabbit branching link featurettes with the documentary. This, more than any other feature I can think of, will astound you with just how much is involved in presenting fictional celluloid for our viewing pleasure. It is extremely big business.

The Zion Archive, the final disc for this set, is the definite weak link here. Aside from semi-interesting concept artwork and storyboards, the majority of the rest comprises of TV spots and trailers for each film in the trilogy. The Rave Reel gives us music and computer imagery resembling a sophisticated Windows Media Player, and The Matrix Online shows and describes moments from the website game.

So, a lot to get your teeth into then. This set is a Matrix fanatic's dream. There's certainly a lot of attention to detail. However, I'm obliged I think to reduce my marks by a point from 9 simply because this is not a mainstream release. You would have to eat, drink and sleep - in fact, live and breathe - The Matrix to fork-out for more than 35 hours of bonus material. Nice idea though.

(Review originally written by Ty Power for sci-fi-online 2004)

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all you see and hear. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits...

I know more than a little about the original version of The Outer Limits. Believe it or not, I'm too young to remember its first airing in 1964, but it was sporadic at best. In 1980 BBC2 showed every episode. They were out of sequence, and moved from a regular early evening slot to a late night one for no explicable reason. But I didn't care. I couldn't get enough of them. I've loved this quality anthology series ever since, and it has for years sat in my all-time top five TV programmes.

Okay, so I appreciate the show. But why is it so good? Well, first and foremost the scripts are so strong; even those considered to be weaker knock spots off other shows of this format. Although The Outer Limits was devised by producer Leslie Stevens (he also wrote the pilot The Galaxy Being), the show's major success was undoubtedly down to Joseph Stephano, one of the best scriptwriters of his time. Not only did he write many of the best episodes, but also received co-credits for many others for his tightening of those scripts, making them compatible with the show.

The "Bear", which was what insiders called the monster of the week, was almost universally well-handled. Simple optical effects and good camerawork combined to make the creatures more threatening or otherworldly. One of the reasons why this series works so well is that everything is played straight. There is no underlying tongue-in-cheek "No, we're not convinced by the monster either!" attitude.

This first season DVD set incorporates 32 45-minute self-contained stories over eight discs (four titles on each disc). This differs slightly from the region 1 version which has been around for at least a couple of years now. That had four unlabeled two-sided discs, with only a microscopic A or B to distinguish each side. Don't expect any extras here (Isn't more than 27 hours of viewing enough, for goodness sake?!), and there is only the original mono sound. I surmise that to cleanup the picture would have significantly increased the cost of the set, but rest assured that only a couple contain minor scratches. On the whole, the picture is pretty much pristine.

If I were to list every good story it would take over this entire review, so here are just a few classic episodes. In The Zanti Misfits, a Zanti official contacts Earth saying that a penal ship will land and that they should not approach it. The area is cordoned-off, but a criminal and a runaway wife break through and end up stumbling across the craft. A Zanti creature emerges to warn them off and in the confusion the Zanti criminals make a bid for freedom. This is a well-written tale by Stephano, but the appearance of the Zanti turn it into a classic. The ant like creatures with humanoid features are creepy but make you smile at just how well they are realised.

In The Invisibles an undercover government investigator infiltrates a secret society where humans are hosts to parasitic creatures which are taking over positions of power. Again this is credited to Stephano, but shame on the producers for not crediting Robert Heinlein, because this is undoubtedly based on his novel The Puppet Masters.

In The Sixth Finger, a man volunteers to undergo a scientist's experiments in advancing man's evolution hundreds of years. He becomes much more intelligent, but to others his metamorphosis makes him so inhuman that he appears to them as a monster. Guest stars in this season include: Robert Culp (the ultimate jobbing actor), David McCallum, Martin Landau and a multitude of other faces many of whom you will recognise (Neil Hamilton, Commissioner Gordon in the camp sixties Batman series, is one of them).

In short, this is pretty near brilliant stuff. Go out and buy it. "We now return control of your television to you, until next time..."

(Review originally written by Ty Power for sci-fi-online 2005)

Riddick, a dangerous convict, is being transported aboard a civilian spacecraft to a new location. The craft becomes damaged by space debris and is forced to crash land on a nearby planet. The captain and others are killed, leaving Fry and Johns in charge of a group of survivors. After a run-in with subterranean creatures, they feel safe in the knowledge that three suns will bring constant light. However, once every 22 days the suns align behind other astral bodies, creating sustained complete darkness. At first they hide away inside a construct left by the previous settlers, wiped-out by the creatures. But their sources of light cannot last forever. They need to make the journey to their wrecked craft and carry the heavy power units to an intact ship left behind by the vanished people. It seems like a suicide mission, especially when they have to rely on the multiple murderer, Riddick, who with unique implants is the only one who can see in the dark...

This film borrows from so many sources it's amazing it works at all, and is not subject to immediate derision. But work it does. You could say Pitch Black is a construct of so many ideas that the whole gives the impression it's something entirely new and original. The dangerous convict being transported comes from Con Air (a brilliant, purposeful over-the-top satire); the transported convict being relied upon for help is straight out of John Carpenter's Assault On Precinct 13 (there's that name again); and the empty settlement and dark-loving, ferocious and lightening-quick creatures must have brought an ironic smile or grimace from James Cameron in regards to his Aliens masterpiece. Even the views from the planet surface reminds me of the computer-generated terrain created for the early Planetary Traveller DVD. But who cares; nothing is totally original in this day and age.

Pitch Black made quite an impact with science fiction fans upon its cinematic release. In retrospect, the film company has seized on Vin Diesel's Riddick as the winning element, hence the Dark Fury and The Chronicles of Riddick follow-ups. But it is not the man but the look and feel of the product that wins through. This success is down to a number of factors: the low-key mood; the over-bright, sun-washed look of the planet surface; and the manner in which the creatures are kept mainly to the darkness, so you see more movement than detail, are just a few examples. A couple of things don't work. Fry's crisis of conscience is a mite overacted, and the holy man's faith in God's protection being severely tested has been portrayed in so many films that it merely induces a groan from this reviewer now.

Comparing this Special Edition version with the original DVD release, I found there were not too many differences. The widescreen and 5.1 sound are the same, the two commentaries are the same, the Making of Pitch Black is the same, and the trailers too. What's new is an Introduction by the director, an early Scene from The Chronicles of Riddick film, a Trailer for the game Escape From Butcher Bay, the Making of the Dark Fury animated film, and The Johns Case Log (computer diaries tracking Riddick).

You would need to be a Pitch Black fanatic to buy the DVD again for what amounts to a handful of minor extras. If you're buying the film for the first time, however, I would strongly recommend this release.

(Review originally written by Ty Power for sci-fi-online 2004)

Delos is the ultimate theme park holiday resort. For $1000 a day customers can live out their fantasies in one of three controlled zones: Romanworld, Medieval World or Westworld - interacting with other holidaymaker role-players and state-of-the-art robots. Friends John and Peter live out the dream in Westworld... until things begin to go seriously wrong. When minor technical faults escalate, the resort robots carry out their programming with no thought or consideration to the safety of the guests. For John and Peter that means fleeing for their lives from a relentless killer gunslinger...

Here we have a movie which sets the benchmark, showing every aspiring filmmaker how it should be done. Westworld is in my top dozen films of all time, and it's easy to see why when you examine the inherent structure. It's based on a book by Michael Crichton, bestselling author of The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, The Terminal Man and many others. However, a good book does not necessarily transfer smoothly to the big screen. One of the strongest attributes Westworld possesses is the fact that it works equally successfully as a western, science fiction, technological thriller, disaster movie, action adventure and, in places, feel-good light comedy - whilst maintaining an essentially genreless mainstream stance.

If I only had one word to sum-up Westworld it would be Fun. Right from the off, we're caught up in the enthusiasm of first-timer Peter Martin, reflected in the knowing smile of his experienced friend John Blane. We soak-up the ambience of the old west in the form of course whisky in the saloon, horse riding, a shoot out with a gunfighter, the pleasures of the cathouse, a jailbreak and a bar room brawl. The scientists running operations behind the scenes are shown in brief snippets with no wasted dialogue, so as to not detract from the main events hotting up for our protagonists.

Similarly, we're kept up to speed with some events in Medieval World, and in particular a guest's fatal confrontation with the Black Knight. The escalating tension as we approach the conclusion has the same feel as the film Duel - also from the early seventies. This is not only due to the tight script but exemplary acting. There's not a single bad word to be said about Yul Brynner's portrayal of the black-garbed robot gunslinger. It's just so powerful, and it's this performance alone which turns a good film into an excellent one. I simply cannot sing his praises enough.  To paraphrase the movie tagline: Boy, have we got a movie for you.

(Review originally written by Ty Power for sci-fi-online 2008)