This is probably my favorite sci-fi film and in my top 5 favorite films outright. Set in near-future cyberpunk Los Angeles, Deckard is a bounty hunter for the police who “retires” replicants, or artificially-grown almost-human creatures. The setting design and cinematography are greatWhile there is the question of what it means to be human, it’s not told all too explicitly, which I think is a good thing in movies. Though, it does just touch on less than the novel, though that should be expected and I think is fine, again because it’s a film. In fact, I thought the film was an improvement over the novel.
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
I thought Blade Runner was a relatively self-contained movie and needed no sequel, so I wasn’t expecting much from 2049, but I was pleasantly surprised with a story and directing faithful to the original film.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
This is probably among my top 5 favorite films I’ve seen. It follows the British naval ship HMS Surprise hunting the French Acheron set in the early 19th century around South America. A very fun movie with great acting and a great bromance by Aubrey and Maturin, played by Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany, respectively.
Metropolis (2001)
An aristocrat in a futuristic art-deco-styled city, shortly after announcing “the culmination of humanity’s long history of intellect and science,” the Ziggurat creates a self-aware AI to be his ultimate weapon to rule the world. She awakens and begins to love (think more storge) one of our protagonists Kenichi. Her programming misfires and brings her to begin destroying the world and humanity when she remembers her love for Kenichi and destroys herself to save him and the world. There is some noticeable, but not awful, 3DCG in large moving pieces, and I’m not the biggest fan of the character design, but I appreciate the art deco style for some of the backgrounds are really nice (see my favorites here).
Waterloo (1970)
An epic recreation of Napoleon’s final battle notable for its lack of CGI and therefore use of real actors and effects for the thousands soldiers, horses, and explosions. A masterpiece.
Napoleon (2023)
This Ridley Scott and Joaquin Phoenix rendition portrays the Corsican legend as a clumsy, low-energy, totally improper Napoleon. Unlikely it is you walk away with any sense of why he should be one of the most written-about figures in history. You get about even screentime of Napoleon’s victories and losses, when his record was 60 wins and 7 losses, giving little context as to why coalitions of multiple European nations were required to eventually defeat and exile Napoleon. It’s really inexcusable with modern CGI not to show more battles when you’re depicting Napoleon of all people. The victories you do see come first, followed by only losses, giving an impression Napoleon spent as much time gaining power as he did losing it.
The battle of Austerlitz felt shallow, hardly showing any real strategic depth and focusing on a maneuver that cost the allied Russian and Prussian forces 200 men of the 36,000 lost in the battle. Egypt felt mostly like wasted screentime, only meaningfully serving to show how he felt after Josephine cheated on him. The mercy rule forbids me from continuing, so I’ll just say I’m not sure for whom this movie was made, and you should watch Waterloo (1970) instead.