Sci-Fi
Noah’s Barks pages relating to the sci-fi (science fiction) genre.
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RoboCop
I don’t believe in perfection in art. The only point in attempting it is to just raise the standards for perfection even higher. But if you forced me to pick some movies I think come close to perfection, RoboCop would be near top of the list. The fact that this movie tries so many things… (read more)
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Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Yeah, there’s a lot of dumb shit in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, but unlike The Force Awakens it still has the soul of Star Wars despite a weaker screenplay, which is more important. It’s not simply an adventure plot in space; it’s a film that still has the magic of the previous two,… (read more)
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Dark City
Dark City starts out so good, the kind of nuclear neo-noir it needed to be to breathe life into the genre. But what starts as an atmospheric, slightly surreal mystery story progresses into larger-than-life action about psychics and aliens. It’s a fucking obnoxious mess made more so by Kiefer Sutherland’s absurd overacting. “Sway” and “The… (read more)
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Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory
‘Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory’ features beautiful animation, a likable cast until half of them are discarded, and media’s least-believable love triangle ever. (read more)
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Seconds
Some compellingly trippy, symbolic imagery here and there, but overall Seconds feels like an extended episode of The Twilight Zone that didn’t need to be extended—at least when it comes to its themes, which seem to deliver the broad message of, “life’s what you make it” with an unrelated, unforgiving pessimism added on top for… (read more)
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Day of the Dead
This movie’s reputation is bullshit. No one could ever explain how Night of the Living Dead is supposedly better, and even Dawn of the Living Dead gets a run for its money. Day of the Dead contains everything in the previous films, does it in less time, and still finds room for more subjects like… (read more)
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12 Monkeys
Sci-fi stories about the futility of attempting to change the past are nothing fresh, but 12 Monkeys dresses its thought experiment up in a moebius strip story and a tech-noir thriller atmosphere. In spite of this, the diffident screenwriters view their own ideas as lunacy and introduce tasteless comedy while taking the easy ways out… (read more)
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The Dig
‘The Dig’ was conceived with names like Steven Spielberg and Orson Scott Card to be LucasArts’s magnum opus. The final offering was a modest, commercial failure. What happened? (read more)
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Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium
‘Phantasy Star IV’ is the final entry in the "classic" style of its franchise. What have we lost in the wake of ‘Phantasy Star Online?’ (read more)
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Metropolis
Metropolis is a theatrical tribute to Osamu Tezuka that does the manga legend a slight disservice by delivering truly gorgeous animation with an ultimately shallow story. (read more)