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#726 – Alien Weekend (2024)
Alien Weekend (2024)
Film review #726
Director: Taylor King
SYNOPSIS: Four friends stumble upon an alien egg that crash lands onto Earth, and try to protect it from the government, evil aliens, and everybody else…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Alien Weekend is a 2024 sci-fi film. Violet and her three friends witness an alien craft fall to Earth while out on the road. It turns out to contain an alien egg for the last female of their species, and Violet takes it to protect from another race of evil aliens, and the government who want the egg to experiment on. The result is a kind of road trip movie sprinkled with some teenage banter and sci-fi antics that mix comedy with some coming-of-age realisations. Emerging from a humble production and without much of a budget, it’s easy not to expect much from this film; but nevertheless I did have a good time with it. The characters are quickly recognisable as having distinct personalities that fall into very typical roles, but they still provide a clash of personalities and personal dilemmas that mix well. I don’t think there’s anything too unique in the characters or story: any detail is skimmed over that reveal anything too personal, but there’s specific scenes which are dedicated to giving characters emotional moments and development which are nice enough, if a little inorganic, as you can feel the specific objective of the scene over everything else happening within it.
As I said, I felt the film was quite funny: it’s not smart humour, but there’s enough quick one-liners or clapbacks that get a reciprocal quick laugh before moving on. There’s enough of these put together to see the film through the runtime, if nothing else. Some of the supporting characters are a little weak, and there comes a point where I think there’s too many of them to cohesively bring them together; some are fine though. There are points too where characters don’t appear for a good portion of the film, and their purpose gets waylaid. The big thing that would have improved this film is some more direction to bring out more impact from the scenes, as it sometimes feels like the point gets lost amid the purposely inane dialogue. For example, a lot of the camera shots are very straight-on and without any focus, and since a lot of the scenes are empty of in pitch-black, there’s barely anything to focus on. The acting itself isn’t too bad, but I think better direction with it would have had benefits; I can see why people might bounce off the irreverent teenage slang thrown at you at the beginning in vast quantities
But overall, I enjoyed this film more than I expected: it’s fun, silly, and hits enough emotional depth and development of the characters to make it worthwhile taking this journey with them. It’s not able to do anything too exciting with it’s budget, but enough moments to keep things fun until the end.
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#699 – Cash Storm (2024)
Cash Storm (2024)
Film review #699
Director: Dan Lantz
SYNOPSIS: A bank robbery goes wrong when the robber’s van is sucked up by a tornado, causing over a million dollars of banknotes to swirl around. A pair of scientists want to test their machine which can theoretically stop tornadoes, and a pair of influencers who want content, all have to work together somehow to get want they want and survive the deadly cash storm…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Cash Storm is a 2024 film. As a deadly tornado rips through a central American town, a bank robbery goes wrong when the robber’s van crashes and sucked into a tornado, creating a deadly storm of money. Meanwhile, a pair of scientists who want to test their machine than stop tornadoes (or something), and a pair of influencers who are chasing the tornado for content. The three groups end up having to work together to save themselves from the deadly storm. Despite having the premise of being a disaster film, it is a comedy film with a small production and budget. A majority of the film can essentially be summed up as pointless bickering between the different characters: very little else happens. Given that each of the different characters has their own objectives and motivations, there is a bit of scope for their characters to develop and accomplish something, but the back-and-forth of the story means that it never really goes anywhere, and is just stalling until the machine can stop the tornado.
There’s very little to recommend this film as it is unremarkable in every respect: the comedy doesn’t produce any real laughs, the acting is flat, the story is threadbare and the effects are amateurish. It gets one or two mild laughs, but runs out of juice fairly quickly and doesn’t do anything really outlandish or creative with the premise to make it memorable in any way.
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#695 – Escape from the 21st Century (2024)
Escape from the 21st Century (2024)
Film review #695
Director: Li Yang
SYNOPSIS: Three schoolfriends discover that after swimming through a toxic spill in a lake that they have gained the ability to transfer their consciousness twenty years into the future by sneezing. There, they find their lives very different from what they imagined…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Escape from the 21st Century (Also called Evacuate from the 21st Century) is a 2024 sci-fi film. In the year 1999, three schoolfriends end up with the ability to travel forward twenty years into the future, after swimming in a lake containing a strange chemical that has spilled into it. In the year 2019, they find their lives are a lot different than they expected, and a biotech company is ruining the future. Also of note is that the story takes place on “Planet K,” which is just planet Earth, but the days are twelve hours long. This doesn’t affect the plot in any way, I believe it is just to get around Chinese censorship (where the film was made). Explaining any more of the story seems like a futile effort; it’s a coming-of-age story mixed in with so many overlapping elements, time travelling and silly reference that makes this film an absolute rollercoaster ride from beginning to end. It is relentlessly paced as the characters zip back and forwards in time, getting involved in fights, daring escapes and everything else. I think the best comparison I could give is it’s a mix of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World with Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, just a mish-mash of jumping about constantly between different settings and styles. This is not a bad thing at all though: it’s colourful, vibrant, energetic and just lots and lots of fun. It would be very easy for such a film to devolve into a mess, but clever connections, callbacks and sharp writing make it flow almost effortlessly. I don’t really know what I expected, but it felt surprisingly good.
There’s an overall slickness to the film that although not perfect, is nevertheless clever and competent. The visuals and CG sometimes fall short, but it’s all constantly changing anyway, so it doesn’t really linger. The soundtrack is also such a incoherent mix, ranging from Joan Baez’s “Here’s to You” and Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding out for a Hero.” Somehow though, it still just works. The fights are again fun and action-packed and still manage to get in some slick callbacks. There’s not a whole lot of bad things to say about this one; it’s just a really fun and wild ride full of colour, imagination and sharp writing. Maybe it doesn’t manage to say anything deeper, but that’s perfectly fine, it’s a great experience.
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#661 – Kalki 2898 A.D.
Kalki 2898 A.D. (2024)
Film review #661
Director: Nag Ashwin
SYNOPSIS: In the year 2898 A.D., a post-apocalyptic Earth is ruled by the supreme ruler Yaskin from The Complex: the last surviving city on Earth. Ashwatthama, who has been cursed to wander the Earth as an immortal for six thousand years, meets a young girl named Raia, who escapes being taken to The Complex. She unknowingly brings him the gem from his forehead that was taken all those years ago, and when he places it back where it belongs, finds out that a woman is bearing the prophesised Kalki, who will bring about a new age. The two then seek out to find this woman and protect her from Yaskin’s evil forces…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Kalki 2898 A.D. is a 2024 Indian sci-fi epic. As a starting point, the film is heavily based around the rich Hindu scriptures and religious texts, featuring various figures and events. It’s not wholly necessary to know about them in order to get into this film, as you can get the general gist of the characters and the backstory, but it definitely feels overwhelming at the beginning of the film if you know next to nothing about it (like me). Essentially, the film is set in the year 2898, in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that you’ve seen in many times before, so that part is at least familiar. Ashwatthama, an immortal who has been cursed by Kirshna to wander Earth for six thousand years after attempting to kill the princess Uttawa’s child, and his divine gem is taken from him. Having to watch humanity’s decline over that period, Ashwatthama is reunited with his divine gem by a chance encounter with a young girl named Raia, he learns that the prophesised child Kalki, is to be born to a pregnant woman, and heads out to protect her, as Kalki is destined to usher in a new age for humanity. If I had to compare it to Western cinema releases, I would say it’s a mix of Mad Max, Marvel’s Avengers, and The Lord of the Rings. It’s made to be an epic, featuring a large cast of characters, large scale structures, locations, battles, the works. Clocking in at nearly three hours, it’s a fairly standard runtime for Indian cinema, but definitely the kind of runtime reserved for the aforementioned epics in Western cinema. The world is established fairly well, alongside the situation of the people living there. Again, it might be fairly typical if you’re used to western cinema, but it is something less undertaken in Indian films, and I think the incorporation of Hindu scripture helps with that transition.
The problem with the film is that there are too many disparate characters that the film introduces, and spends the first half of the film wandering about the world as the characters bump into each other rather aimlessly. As mentioned, the world is established decently enough, but there’s not too much direction with regards to what we are supposed to be doing there. The second half of the film brings things together more, towards a finale filled with epic battles and a showdown with the villain. The epic battle between two opposing forces really does feel like something you would see in Lord of the Rings or some such, leading me to feel that the film just imitated a typical Hollywood-style climax. Even worse, the film describes itself at the end as continuing in the “Kalki Cinematic Universe,” which just reinforces the point that it’s trying to mold itself into a very specific format, and not trying to be self-contained. The trouble with trying to square up to Hollywood blockbusters is that it never looks or feels on par with the; inviting the comparisons, but all the worse for it. The CG is noticeably rough at points, and the large-scale shots don’t quite look convincing enough. The characters never really come into their own either, as they’re often spaced out and large amounts of time passes in between seeing them, and take too long in establishing where there place is in the film. The big example of this is Bhairava, a bounty hunter is a scoundrel and a villain right up until the last scene of the film, where he suddenly flips.
Kalki 2898 A.D. is an ambitious cinematic attempt that synthesises Western cinema epics with traditional Hindu foundations. Having the biggest budget of any Indian film at the time of release, it aims high, but a muddled story, awkward pacing, and disparate characters fail to really bring everything together, and elevate it to the level of its ambition. Might be more interesting to someone who appreciates the incorporation of Hindu scripture and figures, but will probably draw comparisons with more successful films to Western viewers.
