Community Run Forums for Starship SF - SF/40 Festival DISCUSSION THREAD

Feb 6^th, 2015 at 8:12pm

L.A. Connection Offline
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For those attending the Festival, please post your reviews, notes, comments etc.!

Here is the schedule of events: http://bostonscifi.com/schedule/

« Last Edit: Feb 7^th, 2015 at 1:34pm by L.A. Connection »

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Reply #1 - Feb 7^th, 2015 at 1:34pm

L.A. Connection Offline
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Anyone attend last evening? Going today?

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Reply #2 - Feb 8^th, 2015 at 2:02am

Jay Seaver Offline
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Behind on my writing, and didn't want to do it twice, so I'll stick to one or two sentences here (and post when the blog entries are up):

FRIDAY

Robot Overlords - The sort of bland thing you get with readily-available decent CGI - smoothly produced but not a bit of originality to be found. Ben Kingsley showing up for a paycheck is still more fun to watch than most actors really trying, though.

Alien Outpost - A movie with this much action and gunfire really shouldn't be so boring.

SATURDAY

Matt Mercury - I've seen a lot of bad tongue-in-cheek "tributes" to the sci-fi movies/TV of previous eras, but this is one of the most leaden.

"Painting the Way to the Moon" - An entertaining documentary featurette that isn't afraid to paint its accomplished subject as a bit of a loon.

The History of Time Travel - As faux-documentaries go, this is pretty good. It waits a bit before springing its gimmick and then rides it just long enough to keep from wearing out its welcome.

Uncanny - An interesting little man, woman, and robot chamber piece that might work better if the romance didn't seem so unlikely.

Suicide, or Lulu & Me in a World Made for Two - Likely the artiest thing at the festival, and a little much, but a pretty nifty fantasy (especially for us silent-film lovers).

I must admit to being worried about tomorrow - there's reason to be worried about everything from "web series" to "they're really playing another movie by the guy who inflicted Sol upon us?" - but Saturday had enough good material to be counted as a win.

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Reply #3 - Feb 8^th, 2015 at 1:14pm

L.A. Connection Offline
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Well done report, Jay.

Anybody else here attend?

« Last Edit: Feb 8^th, 2015 at 2:19pm by L.A. Connection »

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Reply #4 - Feb 9^th, 2015 at 12:47am

Drew Offline
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Drew wrote on Feb 9^th, 2015 at 12:46am:

adding a couple more - generally agree with the comments made

The Well - some sort of screening issue means I missed the first 10 or so minutes (based on the runtime given). The plot feels familiar (Tank Girl, for one), but the performances made up for that, about a couple of stragglers trying to outwit and survive in the midst of a desolate and dried out Oklahoma (I think) desert. Major points for showing who the characters were instead of telling

I liked Robot Overlords more than Jay did, the plotting was pretty conventional/predictable, but the character/ship design and some of the other story elements I thought were pretty innovative and interesting. though I kept flashing back to Ed209 from Robocop in certain moments..

Matt Mercury - Like an old school s/f serial script remade with CGI and costumes that look like they were raided from Sid & Marty Krofft. Pretty hammy acting, and not much sense to be found, but fun.

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Reply #5 - Feb 9^th, 2015 at 1:16am

Jay Seaver Offline
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Full blog post from Friday is up

SUNDAY

"Limbo" - Well overshadowed by the two shorts that preceded it, this web/TV pilot was frustrating for not just being an incomplete story, but for not even doing the work of establishing its mythology.

Mystica: A Quest for Heroes - This, on the other hand, would be a pretty good pilot, although it's being billed as the start of a film series. Rough at points, and pretty basic swords-and-sorcery stuff, but a mostly-game cast and hints that it could develop into something pretty good.

Blessid - This local production is unlucky in that I saw a movie that took its fantastical hook and did great things with it just a couple of weeks ago (everyone see Spring when it gets a wide release). A capably-shot indie whose various bits of story don't wind up fitting together very well.

Shadows on the Wall - Deserves credit for being much better than the director's previous movie Sol (a festival disaster a couple years ago), although the first hour is a real grind to sit through. It feels like the folks involved wanted to make hands-on hard sci-fi like Primer without having much understanding of the material at all, and there is some grade-A stupid all the way through before actually building some suspense toward the end.

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Reply #6 - Feb 9^th, 2015 at 11:13pm

Jay Seaver Offline
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MONDAY

Boy 7 - An entertaining little thriller from the Netherlands, but kind of predicable. As in, the two or three of us there could follow along perfectly well even though the DCP (?) apparently lacked subtitles.

(For crying out loud, this sort of thing doesn't happen at other festivals!)

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Reply #7 - Feb 10^th, 2015 at 2:35pm

L.A. Connection Offline
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Any tidbits about the Marathon that have trickled out during the Festival?

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Reply #8 - Feb 10^th, 2015 at 3:57pm

sas Offline
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I saw "Robot Overlords." While it wasn't as entertaining as "Grabbers," I still enjoyed it. It would make a good light-weight marathon choice.

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Reply #9 - Mar 10^th, 2015 at 12:37am

Jay Seaver Offline
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A month later, the full rundown of Day 3 is up. Fortunately, the rest of the week will go fast with just one feature per day for me (and likely fewer diversions to review stuff playing in theaters).

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Reply #10 - Mar 10^th, 2015 at 9:16pm

Jay Seaver Offline
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Day 4 wrap-up. It was a weird one.

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Reply #11 - Mar 10^th, 2015 at 11:26pm

Jay Seaver Offline
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Drew wrote on Feb 9^th, 2015 at 12:47am:

Matt Mercury - Like an old school s/f serial script remade with CGI and costumes that look like they were raided from Sid & Marty Krofft. Pretty hammy acting, and not much sense to be found, but fun.

Amusingly, I got a letter from the director where he mentioned that aside from some backgrounds and the "lima beans", pretty much everything there was practical. "Amusingly" because, well, I was not kind to him, his co-producer/wife, the cast, etc. in the review.

Shame he made such a terrible movie, because he seems like a nice enough guy. Matt Mercury does sort of demonstrate how this sort of warts-and-all pastiche really does both the filmmakers and the people they claim to be paying tribute to a disservice; it's at its most interesting when playing with its own cool original idea, and I have to think that the people who made the original movies would be more impressed by fans striving to make the movie they were trying to make, rather than just recreating the ones they did.

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Reply #12 - Mar 15^th, 2015 at 1:39pm

L.A. Connection Offline
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Jay Seaver wrote on Mar 10^th, 2015 at 9:16pm:

Day 4 wrap-up. It was a weird one.

At this pace, will we get to the Marathon by April?

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Reply #13 - Mar 16^th, 2015 at 10:14pm

Jay Seaver Offline
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I hope so, but there's been a bunch of other stuff in actual current release to write up. Plus, it's not like this is exciting material to write about.

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Reply #14 - Mar 16^th, 2015 at 10:38pm

L.A. Connection Offline
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Jay Seaver wrote on Mar 16^th, 2015 at 10:14pm:

I hope so, but there's been a bunch of other stuff in actual current release to write up. Plus, it's not like this is exciting material to write about.

Wait, is that a TRUE statment or a precursor to April Fools?

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