Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a
difficult one.

There's a surprising quality in the props.

From the aliens themselves, to their rusty chains and shackles, to the ship-like folds in misty metal, though here in starships. The girls, in a blue and magical expanse of starlit space... flee these shackles and make haste for the nearest planet, that seems to resemble Earth.

They find a host there, living in an old fortress in the jungle.

He appears chivalrous initially, but something seems a little off, and they soon find out what...

Once again they're shackled, and soon hunted, through the jungle surrounding.

There are zombies, robots - androids of sorts, old trophy rooms, lush forests, beaches, beds, stone and silk and sensual moments atop a table.

It's theatrical, and adventurous. Predictable, with aged laser effects, explosions, and deadpan acting in battle, but still...

I like the style, and I like the girls, and the production quality's impressive for a movie of the sort.

I like science fiction like this, filmed in a way that keeps you outside the story, as an onlooker more than an inhabitant. It doesn't look the most real, yet it's aesthetically appealing in all ways. Both props and characters.

The magic of movies, even on the B-movie level, is in a way all the more real when it's somehow more real; more like this. Where even if the props aren't the most realistic they're well-made enough to resemble the fantasy. It mildens the terror, but conveys the intent.

They're intricate. It's creative, and wholesome.

The girls remind me a bit of Axa too - that female warrior braving dangers in a similarly war-torn postapocalyptic world. Searching for love, living for the moment, and having plenty a sensual or adventurous encounter along the way.

Though here there's two. A golden duo through and through.

Elizabeth Kaitan and Cindy Beal. That's who.

What a title too btw. Pretty cool.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

Been a while since the last longer bit of writing around here! I've been caught up, on catching up, on reaching up, on dreams and stuff...

Participated in the Flash Forward Jam this year - glad I made time for it this time! Even if it was just a simple thing. On the same week as my nephew stopped by, and good buddy Andreas came over for the weekend, hectic but good times.

Had a killer headache smack dab in the middle of it all, and actually bought a pack of painkillers for it - for the first time in my life. They worked, and so interactions and recreations and rations and all things but inactions went on, though I am a little disappointed I couldn't just weather out the pain as I usually do. It's cause and effect after all. If you get the effect you're better off considering the root of it all, and doing something about that.

Typically these sessions of PAIN seems an ideal time for rest - if you can't just steel up and fight through anyway. On office days I've managed - though maybe I just never actually had that bad a one on a day that really mattered - until now. Not on days I was bound to be a bit more physically active at least. Walking around and stuff. It's easier at the office; especially when you're working from home.

It went well anyway, and on the bright side I do now know that such temporary chemical discomfort reduction drugs really do work, and just that knowledge is bound to reduce the level of stress I feel leading up to more important events... which may end up reducing the amount of headaches I get when said events are over and said tension starts to dissipate. Though sleep's a way healthier opiate.

In other news we're finally welcoming in Spring around here, and Walpurgis! When peeps traditionally gather around campfires and have a good time. I know my nephew did. We've never actually celebrated this day within the family. I'd planned to work today, as I usually do on Mondays, and had totally missed checking the calendar for red days when I planned for some particular happenings this week.

Usually a 'free day' on the office whiteboard's a welcome symbol of rest and refreshment, but this time I met that whiteboard with shock...

But all's been rescheduled. All is good. The shock dissipated, I adjusted plans accordingly aaand I don't think I even got a headache from it.

My exercise regimen isn't going as steadily as I'd like it to otherwise. I'm tired. Maybe it's a Spring thing. You feel like you've been tired enough each winter but then comes this hopefully short-lived phase of yawny days that we on eve face, and until the pollen particles settle and the world's green for real there's always that odd underlying sense of fatigue that permeates all. I slept like nine hours yesterday...

Summer's coming though!

I'm taking my first trip up North next week, and a trip to Poland a week after that - to celebrate a cousin's 30th birthday. I've started taste-testing again, and mystery shopping a bit more, and playing TaskMaker when I should be doing other things - though still going steady with daily movie reviews, and check out this pretty fascinating set of pictures from the past.

If you're ever at the movies Renfield and Dungeons & Dragons really surpassed my expectations recently too - in different ways.
Both feelgood films. Recommended.

Speak to y'all soon. Time to go watch a Peter Pan movie. And/or sleep.

Even our own oceans are full of alien life, just imagine...

It's getting interesting again! Back to origins, and Zoro... this is the One Piece I love.

Don't let the surroundings distract you. It's the fight that matters after all.

AKA Sixty-Five Million Years Ago A visitor Crashlanded On Earth.

I understand why they settled for the shorter title now! Though the runtime's not long enough. Gotta give a concept like this a proper runtime. And time to build initially, at least.

It has a melodysheep level intro, holy shit... that's the highlight of the movie. The vast expanse of space where all glows and sparkles, and the planet's seen in detail like never before...

Reminds me a bit of Dune too. Similar sense of escapism, albeit a bit less luxurious and barren a foreign world there...

It almost feels like we have a need for new worlds these days. When we have all these movies with empty space. With voids to colonize, to escape our race... where everything just gets shittier and shittier.

Seems to be a big cinema trend these days. Though they never portray the future - or the alien - as an entirely good thing. It's like we subconsciously yearn for our demise too. I wonder what these trends really mean.

Envisioning a future - good or no - is fun though. Nothing's off limits to the imagination - though such things considered you'd think they could have taken the concepts here even further. Though the tech's futuristic it's not unrecognizable. Like is that a ferrofluid bedside table tablet?

The ship looks good. The planet looks good. The progression's realistic... though the cute little dinos getting crushed whilst whimsically running after their prey, and the big ones getting stabbed in the eye by a little girl (Ariana Greenblatt - she's not so little after all huh!)... they could've conveyed the threats better. They make the dinos seem... well, dumb.

I like the plot, but it feels like they left out some key details there too. Beginning and end. And the moments on Earth were... isolated.

Wasn't the dinosaur world a thriving one?

It's strange, seeing their occasional encounters more in the light of horror than adventure. I appreciate the harshness coming across occasionally - like with that little cub they dragged out of the muck - but if they wanted harshness they could've taken it way further too.

It's less a world of wonder than that other big dinosaur franchise - and I'm glad - they did something different, but it feels oddly one-sided and inauthentic, even if the CGI's great.

Adam Driver's tendency to keep spraining or dislocating something gets a little annoying too. And yet despite this his wounds have little impact on the progression, or the outcome in the end.

I don't know... I want to love this, but it didn't go all the way like it could've. Not with the future, not with the past, not with a lot of things.

It reminds me a bit of After Earth - that movie with Will Smith and his son. It was similarly good-looking - and similar - but just didn't carry all the way.

I wouldn't say any cast's too small to make a good film - it's always impressing when they manage a movie with but a few - but... something's lacking. This feels less impactful than it should have. More visual than raw.

Didn't realize at first at exactly what point in our history as a species 65,000,000 years was btw! The dinosaur part I knew, but the asteroids?
I SHOULD have known...

Anyway the movie overall? Great concept. Mediocre execution.

 rated 3.5/5: not bad at all