Prometheus Trap (2012)

In the distant future, somewhere in space, the two-person crew of a military scout-ship are awakened from their stasis pods by their android assistant.  He quashes their hopes of having reached their home planet with the news that they have been diverted to find a lost transport ship named the Prometheus, and recover its cargo.

The crew naturally wonder what could be so important that they have been diverted so far off course.  It soon proves that finding out will be no easy matter: most of the transport's crew are dead, and the ship's android is exhibiting very odd behaviour ... behaviour that their own android will soon come to understand far more closely than he would like.

This low-budget film is basically "Groundhog Day, but grim and in space".  I was pleasantly surprised by it overall.  The cast are all competent in their roles - this is something that is not guaranteed when you're in budget film territory - and the director has clearly studied Alien for tips on getting the most out of limited resources.  I'm certainly not saying it looks like a big budget movie, but it does look pretty much as good as could be expected, and the visuals are only outright bad on one or two brief occasions.

Of course, we are in low budget territory so there are some issues with the film.  The dialogue's a bit awkward at time, the pacing is a bit slow, and the (few) action-ish scenes are quite stilted and unconvincing.  Still, if you're willing to put up with a few flaws in the execution, there's a decent if downbeat little science fiction story here.

Falling Skies, Season 1 (2011)

When alien spaceships arrive at the Earth, human governments initially react with caution and restraint, in the hope the visitors may be friendly.

Six months later, those governments no longer exist, the the basic unfriendliness of the aliens has been well established for the rag tag "soldiers" of the 2nd Massachusetts, a resistance unit formed of all those willing to fight, be they trained military, former history teachers, or 13 year old boys.

Even after half a year, little is known of the enemy - six legged creatures the resistance calls "skitters" - or their agenda on Earth.  There are a number of strange elements to the alien's behaviour: why are their robotic troopers bipedal when they are not, for instance, and for what possible reason would they have human slaves gathering scrap iron? 

Of course for many members of the resistance, the "why" of the situation isn't that important.  They focus entirely on keeping themselves and the civilians they defend alive against threats both alien and human.  But of course for those in positions of authority the "why" is a nagging question, since to understand your enemy's motives will help you predict his plans ...

Falling Skies draws heavily on the American War of Independence, to the point of having its main character be a professor who specialised in the period.  Personally, I found his frequent speeches likening their struggle to various 18th century battles got a bit annoying, especially since they ignore some important differences between the two situations: British troops in the 1770s did not have quite the same technological edge that the aliens enjoy, for instance.  A better comparison might have been the Vietnam War, though of course that would have taken a lot of guts for them to do!

My occasional sighs over the "Ra-ra!  Freedom!" speeches aren't a major strike against the show, but there is another issue that I do think is worth mentioning, and that's a character who is introduced in the second episode.  He's clearly going to be a major player in the show, and we're just as clearly meant to find him to be this charming rogue.  The thing is, he's also (in the best case) turned a blind eye to his men committing rape.  So frankly, I hate him and I very much doubt the show will ever acknowledge his awfulness, let alone have him atone for it, so I fully expect to keep hating him for all five seasons.

If that character's not a deal breaker for you, this is an otherwise decent "alien invasion" TV series.

Jessie and Jamie Are Not Together (2011)

Jamie and Jessie are room-mates and lesbians, but - despite the assumptions of many people they know - they aren't a couple.  Jessie would rather like that to change, but she seems rather more comfortable pining unrequitedly while sabotaging her own relationships and getting snippy at the oblivious Jamie for her sexual promiscuity, than in ... well, in doing anything to actually make them into a couple.

But now Jamie will be leaving for New York in only two weeks, so if Jessie ever wants anything to happen, she has to make it happen now.  Will she rise to the challenge?  Or will she just keep singing mediocre songs about how she doesn't have the girlfriend she wants?  Heck, is Jamie even actually the girlfriend she really wants?

You may have noticed the reference to songs, because yes, this is a musical ... well, if "there are four or five short and not very got song and dance numbers in it" really makes a film a musical.  For my money, they needed to commit much harder to this element of the movie (and write significantly better songs), or ditch it entirely.  Probably the latter, since that would be easier.

I must confess I also found it hard to warm to Jessie.  She spends most of the film resenting the woman she claims to love and indulging in a lot of toxic "nice guy-isms".  And I guess I can see that that's maybe the point, and that moving past that toxicity is essential for her growth as a person, but even if that was the goal, the execution just wasn't that enjoyable to me.

Sanctuary, Season 2 (2009)

Season one of Sanctuary ended with one of their team kidnapped and brainwashed by the nefarious Cabal, who were on the verge of launching an all-out assault on the Sanctuary network.  Dr Helen Magnus and her remaining team aren't going down without a fight, though.

You might think that's the sort of set-up that could easily take up most or all of the second season's 13 episodes, but it's actually resolved in pretty short order, with the team soon back to their previous "weird thing of the week" missions until a double-parter at the end of the season sets up next year's cliffhanger.

The above provides a pretty good summary of why Sanctuary doesn't work as well as it, to my mind.  It's a little too comfortable being comfortable but ultimately disposable episodic SF.  Yes, individual characters have some developments, but they don't really have arcs because arcs require longer term planning than the show seems interested in.

Genre TV was in a very different place in 2009 than it is now, and back then this aura of being "okay if unambitious" wasn't really a big problem for the show.  But a lot has changed the past decade, and I'm afraid Sanctuary has been left behind by a new generation of shows that - even if they stumble from time to time - have the attraction of being ambitious.  Or are just plain more fun.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018)

Thomas and the other Gladers have escaped their prison, learned about the terrible pandemic that turns almost every human being into a deranged and violent lunatic, and about WCKD, the organisation that has been systematically torturing them in pursuit of a cure.  Or so WCKD's agents claim, anyway.  Frankly, given the extravagant resources they've invested in lethal booby traps and nightmarish prisons, I can't blame (most of) the Gladers for being sceptical.

Betrayed by one of their own, the Gladers are now torn between trying to rescue captured friends and to get a small community of 'immunes' to an isolated location where they can rebuild civilisation, away from the infected.

There will come a time when I can talk about the Maze Runner films without mentioning the mind-boggling stupidity of the books they're based on.  Today is not that day.

The first and second films did a fine job of turning James Dashner's drivel into tolerably entertaining action movie nonsense.  This one, alas, can't quite make us three for three.  Just like the characters are torn between multiple goals, the script feels like it is being pulled in multiple directions and to support too many possibilities.  Maybe WCKD really do want to save the world!  Maybe they might even succeed!  Maybe not, though!  This creates a movie where there's a lot of stuff happening, but not much sense that it's effective stuff.  Spectacle over substance, which can work when the spectacle is really smart (*cough* the Fast and the Furious franchise *cough*), but which this script doesn't really manage.

At 150 minutes, it also outstays its welcome a bit, I think.

I've given this a Qualified Recommendation, but the qualification is "only watch this if you have seen the first two films and are invested in the characters' fates".  If that's not the case, I'd say give the whole trilogy a miss.

Boardwalk Empire, Season 1 (2010)

Atlantic City, 1920.  It is the eve of Prohibition, and Nucky Thompson, County Treasurer, eagerly anticipates the country going dry.  Not because he's anti-alcohol himself (though he certainly says the right things in public), but because he's got the right location and all the contacts necessary to become a prime conduit for the illicit booze that's about to come flowing into the country.  There is real money to be made, and Thompson intends to make it.  Of course, when you deal with criminals, you can expect complications to arise ...

Boardwalk Empire is one of a number of highly-regarded shows about criminals that popped up in the 2008-2010 period, along with Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy.  Based on this first season, it deserves the accolades.  It's got a great cast (Steve Buscemi is always good value, and while most of the rest of the cast are not as recognisable or as well known, they all know their craft), and the scripts are pretty tight and taut.  I could definitely see it spiralling out of control in later seasons but that's not an issue here.

Are there any reasons you might not like the show?  Well, it is about some pretty unethical people, and a lot of not very nice things happen.  It is also a show set in 1920, so characters express a lot of noxious opinions about race and gender politics.  This is not generally the behaviour of characters we are supposed to find sympathetic, but there is quite a bit of it.

This is a good crime drama.  I'm looking forward to season two.

Poseidon Rex (2013)

Several unsavoury types are looking for undersea treasure, but their explosives-based approach succeeds only in revealing an aggressive CGI dinosaur, which promptly eats most of them.

A group of tourists find the one survivor, who persuades them to join his search for the loot, despite the fact that a local crime boss expects the treasure to be handed over to him.  You'd think "killer monster" and "killer mobsters" would be enough to put people off, but not these guys!

Spoiler: most of these idiots (and most of the mobsters) are gonna end up as monster-chow.

Poseidon Rex is a bad film, though I must give it a couple of very minor kudos for occasionally being bad in novel (if stupid) ways.  Novel but stupid feature #1 is the movie's complete disinterest in having an heroic lead.  There is a lead, but he's no hero: arguably he's got more than a tinge of villain in him, but apparently we're supposed to cheer him on.  Novel but stupid feature #2 is that the titular monster is ... well, just a dinosaur.  Sure it rampages around killing people, but as soon as the military turns up, it's all over Rex Rover.

Oh, did I just spoil the end of the movie?  Well, I'm not going to apologise: you are really better off not watching this anyway.