TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

Something bothered me right before I watched Denis Villeneuve's new film  Arrival : the trailer to the upcoming sci-fi flick Passengers . It's a film I've been anticipating for quite some time, and perhaps I'm going in with blind admiration for it's two leads, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, the current gods of movies. The trailer hooked me; these two in a spaceship already promised my butt in the seat. But then it kept going, revealing more and more about the plot that I would have gladly wanted to find out when I was seeing it for the first time. Hollywood trailers revealing too much gets enough publicity though...the ones that don't need more press for the ones that do to not succeed. The marketing for Arrival was perfect: it revealed the most sensational, attention-grabbing aspect of its product (an alien invasion) but gave you no more, and no less. So when you see Arrival , don't come expecting Independence Day 3 , expect a quiet, somber exercise in ...

If you've stepped outside in the past month, or have consumed a beverage, gone on the internet or have generally been alive in the year of our lord Joss Whedon, then you will know another little robot movie has been getting quite the buzz. While that review is coming out in the next week or so, I'd like to serve up to you a little side dish of cerebral intelligence, a smaller movie that's gotten rave reviews and an expanded release date: Alex Garland's directorial debut Ex Machina. Other movie critics have been very discreet in revealing the plot summary, but...I don't think so. This movie doesn't have a Fight Club type twist, but maybe if you don't think too hard about what the "twist" could be it'll come as a surprise to you. So I'll go ahead and give you the skinny: Domhnall Gleeson's Caleb is an intelligent programmer who works for Oscar Isaac's Blue Book, a Google-esque search engine, wins a lottery and is selected to come vi...

Several weeks ago in early July, I claimed that this film would  be the next big thing in science fiction. Was I right? Well not exactly. Here's something I didn't take into account for: the budget. When your budget enters the nine digits you know sometimes that size and scale will come before the characters and storytelling. But wow, with "Elysium," what size and scale. Still retaining the gray and brown color palate for a ravaged Earth as he did in his directorial debut "District 9," which shocked everyone with four Oscar nods, Neill Blomkamp displays what he does best (well, with two movies anyway) a dystopian universe with an underdog hero who becomes strapped with some serious tech. But that's where the similarities end. I have deep respect for any writer/director who can craft a movie solely out of their imagination, and not rely on any other sources. Blomkamp partly does this; he takes the decidedly American topics of  healthcare, the 1%, etc....

Science fiction peered over its glasses in interest when the seventh "Star Wars" movie was announced in what feels like years ago. The genre, and let's be real here, has had only a few gems in the past few years, obviously "Inception," "Avatar" and "I Am Legend" have provided memorable genre astounding moments, but movies like "Prometheus," the grandson of the "Alien" series was received lukewarmly with critics and fans alike. Remakes last year like "Total Recall" and "Dredd 3D" underwhelmed audiences, perhaps because they don't want to see retreads of their science-fiction staples on the big screen. Before "Inception" and "Avatar" however, was "District 9." A wholly original sci-fi tale cleverly wrapped with themes including xenophobia, poverty issues and social problems, "District 9" also provided gorgeous (if grotesque) special effects and a riveting stor...