Silent Running

Silent Running is probably one of few sci-fi films to promote environmentalism, despite not having a single scene take place on earth.  In a fleet of spaceships belong to American Airlines, Freeman and his colleagues are supposed to be taking care of a bunch of trees and foliage, the last of it's kind since earth has apparently become devoid of plant life.  Freeman as a deep connection with the trees.  He plants, spends time in the forest, and eats the fresh fruit while everyone else eats pre made slop.  He says that he still does this to avoid become like everyone else, the main problem back on earth.  He says that everyone has lost their uniqueness, and he is doing what he can to preserve his.  At one point, they are ordered to abandon the forests and return home.  Freeman is outraged, and after killing one crew member, convinces everyone he cut the forests loose, even though he they are still attached and under his supervision.  Now, with everyone gone, he is floating alone in space, with only the forest and two robots to keep him company.  He gives the robots names, Huey and Duey, in an effort to silence his loneliness and boredom.  He plays cards with the robots, teaches them to plant, and talks with them often.  Eventually, he is discovered by the other humans after floating around space for what seems like a long time.  Knowing he would return to earth, become assimilated among the cookie cutter people and see the destruction of the last trees ever, he orders the robot to care for the forests and then kills himself.
     The movie doesn't offer any solution for earthly problems, or wow anybody with special effects.  Instead, the movie is both a possible outcome for the future of earth, and a look into the mind of someone obsessed with the environment.  It's clear that this movie was made by people who are at least minor treehuggers.  The fact that freeman would both kill and die to save the trees doesn't present any alternate opinions.  It's hard to believe that this film was intended to spark a debate about environmentalism or convince people to be more 'green.'  For one, all the really obvious product placements take away from any sincere message, and also by having Freeman kill the other crewmember trying to get rid of the forests, the movie makes environmentalists look bad if anything.  Also worth mentioning is the rapidly deteriorating mental state of Freeman as the movie goes on.  He seems a little crazy in the beginning, probably a product of a long travel.  However, as the movie progresses, so does his craziness.  Giving the robots names so they'll take the place of humans would suggest that he's losing his mind, especially when be plays games and has conversations with them.  Similarly to Dark Star, Silent Running's subplot is the internal time bomb of the main characters psyche.  This movie did have some funny bits, but the monologue delivery of Freeman and his unbelievable motivations make this a bit of a chore to watch.

Dark Star

Dark Star is a movie about the boredom and funny tribulations associated with long term space travel.  The crew of the ship, four guys that look like they belong at woodstock, are on a mission to destroy planets that aren't stable for human life.  Along the way they have to deal with boredom, annoying mascots, and worse of all, each other.  Each character has a different way of dealing with boredom.  One guy made an organ out of bottles and other trash.  Another character makes video diaries of himself talking about home and how annoyed he is with the other guys.  One source of entertainment on the ship is the beach ball mascot.  During one scene, Pinback tries to feed it, but ends up chasing it around the ship after it runs away, resulting in a drawn out and awkward moment.  Most of the dialogue in the movie is some kind of argument or one character making fun of another.  The whole plot of having to destroy planets is just a background idea until the end.  One of the missiles used to blow up planets, which also talks, refuses to launch and gets in an argument with the crew and the ship's computer.  After a deep philosophical conversation about the nature of life, the missile blows itself up, killing the crew in the weirdest ways possible.

     After watching this movie, it felt like it was either made by a two different directors, or had a long break in between shooting the first and second half.  The majority of the movie seems like it was intended to be a serious movie, excluding some aspects like the guys' beards and the beach ball thing.  The story and try hard acting seemed like a movie that was aiming to take it self seriously.  The last third or so of the movie might as well be from a different film altogether.   The serious tone was abandoned for a funny, dumb humor approach.  Instead of trying to have deep conversations, the characters started smart talking robots and space surfing.  It was unexpected, but it worked because it was genuinely funny.  The surfing bit was especially ridiculous since the film was so obviously a hippie, stoner movie.  No movie that wasn't made in the seventies would try to be a serious science fiction film, but still let the characters have big, dirty beards.  Also, the whole scene with the beach ball chase seemed like Pinback was tripping on acid or something.  All seriousness and lack thereof aside, the film looked surprisingly good despite having such a low budget.  Some of it was obviously cheap, such as the outside of the ship, space suits, and lack of many rooms or scene locations.  What space they did film in looked rather convincing, considering the budget and the time when it was made.  The parts that did look really bad and low budget only helped the film and it's humorous approach to the genre.

La Jette

La Jetee is as nontraditional as science fiction films get.  The entire twenty eight minute story is almost entirely told through still images.  The plot centers around a man who was taken prisoner after a war that required survivors the live underground.  Prisoners were subject to experiments in time travel, and when the protagonist is picked as a test, he is told to find help from the past or the future.  The man has a vivid memory of his childhood of a man being shot on a jetty, which is a sign that he is capable of going back in time..  Eventually, the experiment works and he travels to a prewar time and meets a woman whom he falls in love with.  After a number of trials, his handlers instead send him to the future to find a way to help their current situation.  The man gets a power unit from the future people and returns to his time.  After his return, he learns that he will be executed, so in a last ditch effort he contacts the future people and asks to be sent back in time permanently so he can be with the woman.  He ends up back in time at the Jetty where he spots his lady friend.  As he runs to her, one of the scientists who has followed him back in time shoots him.  His last realization is that the memory from his childhood was of his own death on the jetty.
     The most striking aspect of the film is that it is made up of almost all still images.  There is a narrator, but he doesn't speak much and only explains the general plot.  This leaves the viewer up to decipher the images and piece the story together themselves.  One scene in particular stands out in that it features a tiny bit of movement.  As the lady lies in bed, she looks like just another photograph until she opens her eyes.  It almost makes you do a double take since everything before was only pictures.  Also, the narration is very non intrusive.  His voice isn't too loud or accented, and he doesn't speak too frequently or infrequently.  It gives the viewer just enough time to figure out what is happening without getting bored or letting his mind wander.  The overall tone of the film is mystery and wonder, just like the man's childhood memory.  Time travel movies usually have some sort of twist, but when it's revealed that the man's memory was of his own death, heads were scratched.  It makes you wonder if, given the technology, if that would even be possible and what kind of crazy paradox that would create.  That's where this movie is really intriguing.  It has a clear beginning and ending, but still leaves it open to contemplation.

Total Recall

Total Recall aimed not so much to challenge people's idea of memory and humanity, but rather entertain the possibilities of future technology involving memories.  Quaid, played by Arnold, is a construction worker who visits a place called  Rekall to have memories implanted in his head.  These memories are like a vacation that you never took, but remember like you did.  After it seems like the machine fails, Quaid wakes up and believes to be a secret agent from Mars, which was the memory pack he wanted implanted.  Immediately after, he returns home and is attacked by his wife, who then explains that he is not who he thinks he is.  He runs away, gets handed a briefcase from a stranger, and hides in a building to evade the attackers.  He watches a video recording of himself explaining that he really is a secret agent from Mars and that he has to return to finish a mission.  He goes to mars and, after a fight with a bunch of dead guys, finds a women named Melina, who's name was in the briefcase earlier.  Quaid ends up in the middle of a sort of civil war, in which he learns the big bad guy Cohaagen is preventing a source of clean air from being turned on for all of Mars.  After a fight and some more plot twists, Quaid kills Cohaagen and reactivates the oxygen machine, making it possible for the suffocating people in the slums to survive.
     Contrary to Bladerunner, people in Total Recall can decide for themselves to have memories implanted.  If this were in a real life futuristic society, situations like Quaid's in which the recipient didn't know who he was would probably be pretty rare, unless the person was a memory addict or something.  These memories aren't something as profound as an entire childhood or years of someones life.  They are only vacations, a privilege for the (probably) upper class.  Based on the ridiculous amount of violence in this movie, the over the top acting, and the fact that the implanted memories are of trivial things, it's safe to say that this movie was more interested in the 'what ifs' of future technology rather than starting any kind of serious discussion.  Even parts of the movie that could have had some sort of political or environmental message, like the slums and lack of oxygen, are overshadowed by the 80's action movie cliches.  That's all this movie is, a fun and absurd action movie with some decent ideas that are never fully explored or realized.

Bladerunner

The question of whether or not memories and emotions make a human a human is central in Bladerunner.  The main character, Deckard, is tasked with destroying four replicants, which are basically robots that have implanted memories and a short lifespan.  Some replicants escaped their home/work turf and traveled to futuristic Los Angeles to try to permanently extend their lifespan.  Deckard first goes to Tyrell of the Tyrell Corporation, who has the most knowledge of the kind of replicant Deckard is hunting.  While there, he meets Rachel, a replicant who believes she is a human.  She and Deckard become acquaintances, and she tries to tell him that she really is human based off memories of specific photographs of what she thinks is a childhood.  Deckard offers up a quick explanation, but is nevertheless intrigued.  Meanwhile, two of the replicants, Roy and Pris, end up in the home of a man who is friends with Tyrell.  Roy convinces him to take him to Tyrell, who he eventually kills when he is denied a lifespan extension.  Deckard tracks them to the house, and them promptly kills Pris before Roy returns home.  They fight and run up to the rooftop, and when Deckard is dangling from the edge of the roof, Roy saves him before his life runs out.  The final scene is of Deckard leaving his house with Rachel and, after seeing an origami unicorn on the ground, experiences a flashback of a dream.  It is implied that there is a possibility that Deckard is actually a replicant.
     Bladerunner is like a old western movie set in a futuristic setting.  The sheriff, Deckard, is out hunting some lawbreaking bandits, the replicants.  However, instead of having clear cut good vs evil themes, Bladerunner is more ambiguous.  The movie is about memories, and what role they play in making some human.  Rachel is definitely a replicant, as she said so herself, but she looks, talks, acts, and thinks like a normal person.  She tells stories of her past life, and whether or not that actually happened, anyone but Deckard and Tyrell would likely believe that she is a human.  Because of this, most people would probably think that, for all intents and purposes, she is human.  The film definitely emphasized the more emotional aspects of robot/human debate, contrary to Total Recall which was all action and dead people.  The intent of Bladerunner seemed to be to make the audience question the definition of humanity, and what are the most important characteristics of people.  Clearly, the movie says that memories and personality are more human than looks or strength, and it makes a convincing argument.

Ender's Game

A recurring theme in Ender's Game is the morality of and psychological effects in using violence.  Right off the bat, Ender is getting in a fight he clearly didn't want to be in.  His explanation for this fight would be the main motivation for the commanders picking him as the main student.  He wanted to not only win, but win in a brutal fashion so as to prevent any future fights.  The audience gets the sense that Ender is a warmonger, a reckless and violent kid who just happens to be a strategic genius.  This idea that Ender is a ruthless killing machine persists until the first school when he accidently kills another kid who was bullying him, similar to the one in the beginning.  This is when Ender begins  to question his stance on violence.  He tries to leave the school but is talked out of it by his sister.  In a way, Ender's armor cracks and we see that he isn' so much a crazy warmonger, but rather just a smart kid thrust into a leadership position faster than he can realize what's happening.  It is here where the audience begins to see Ender's tendency to shy away from real world violence, a big difference from the games he played in the ipad looking things earlier.  Later, when he is at commander school, he begins to regain his confidence and vows to finish his training, but his emotional high doesn't last long.  The 'simulation' he is training on is actually controlling real ships and real people.  It isn't until Harrison Ford tells the truth that Ender actually did kill a bunch of aliens that his true personality comes out and he feels guilty and ashamed.  At first, he feels guilty for sacrificing all of the people in order to protect toe super laser, as most of the people in the fleet probably died as a result.  Once that initial shock wears off, he recalls his past communication with the alien queen and instantly feels angry.  Although his mindset earlier in the movie was kill or be killed, his views shifted once he was tricked into winning a war for good.  This is when the movie kicks into anti-war mode.  Ender gives a speech about how what they did to him was wrong, and that he should have been able to communicate with the aliens before any shooting started.  Because he believed that he had some sort of link between the queen, he thought he could have talked to her and negotiated a peace.  This is the main message of the film in his speech: war shouldn't be the first choice of action.  According to Ender, peaceful resolution should always be favored before violence.  In an effort to atone for his actions, he vows to protect the last eggs of the queen and try to preserve the species that he was tricked into destroying.  Even though the moral of the film might be a bit obvious and in your face, it still shows how responsibility and trust can be easily manipulated by people in power to fulfill their agenda.

Fanboys

Having seen Trekkies just afterward, Fanboys went from being just another mediocre comedy with a silly plot to a mediocre comedy with an almost believable plot.  The story is about four friends who travel cross country to break into Skywalker Ranch and watch the new Star Wars movie before it comes out.  The only reason they go is because one of them has cancer and they want to have a memorable trip for him, so off they went.  Of course, they only reason they went is because they are massive Star Wars fanatics, and they couldn't wait for the movie to open normally.  Even though this movie is a work of fiction, people who are super fans of things like Star Wars of Star Trek would totally do something like this, especially if they had nothing to lose.  If nothing else, this movie was made in favor of those super fans.  There was never a scene where you get the impression that the movie was making fun of or looking down on those people.  Even the Star Trek people that chased everyone around the casino seemed completely normal after seeing Trekkies.  Also, because Fanboys isn't really a science fiction movie like the rest we've seen, it was able to avoid the common cliches that many other films have.  However, it embraces the tropes common in other genres of movies.  There's the predictable ending, predictable character death, obligatory bad guys showing up at the perfect time, and annoying older brothers.  Despite the predicable plot, the movie could have done a decent job of respecting the real super fans out there if it wasn't for the terrible humor and jokes.  Whoever wrote the dialogue was either trying way to hard to get a laugh, or had no idea what actually made people laugh.  This movie could have been so much better if it was shot like a mockumentary rather than a straight up comedy, because the comedy part doesn't work.  The cringe worthy humor does nothing to relate to actual super fans and their passions.