STREAMING REVIEWS: The SciFi Spectrum
Here are two new drops on Amazon Prime that’s highlight the diversity of shows that fall under the SciFi genre. One is a futuristic monster film that stars Chris Pratt, the other an ambitious anthology that relies on solo acting.
The Tomorrow War (Amazon Prime) – It would seem that this film answers the question of what do you do while Jurassic and Guardians are on hiatus. For Chris Pratt, the answer is getting to star in what is essentially a monster film, The Tomorrow War. Sure the title will have us presuming there’s a time travel/SciFi premise to the narrative, and you wouldn’t be wrong there; but at its core, it turns out that this is really a futuristic monster film in the tradition of such 1990’s films like Alien and Predator. In Tomorrow War, it’s the appearance of the white spikes that we anticipate, and relish the moment they come onscreen. Think Abominable Snowman morphed into an fast-moving, alien-type CGI creation, and you’ll come close to what director Chris McKay has conjured up with his special effects team.
I mentioned time travel? Premise has to do with the character Chris Pratt portrays spending time with his family in 2022, when a soccer game they’re watching on TV is halted by the entry of time travelers from 2051, asking for help, as the future saw an invasion of these white spikes and the human race is about to be eradicated. There are also Daddy issues times 2 to stretch the running time of this monster outing. To be fair, it is all watchable; but you can’t help feeling this is all coasting time for Pratt in between the big film franchises he stars in. To make matters worse, Pratt is asked to deviate from his smart-aleck, eager-beaver personas from these two franchises, and be a more sympathetic, vulnerable character – you decide if you think he pulls it off, because I felt it’s either too much to ask of him, or he was just being lackadaisical.
Solos (Amazon Prime) – Eight episodes that are high-concept, but may be a challenge for most viewers. That’s about as honest as I can be about this anthology that would have series such as Black Mirror as it’s inspiration, but with radical differences. All episodes are set in the future, and the operating premise of the series’ producers are to harness well-known actors to act solo throughout each episode. They’ve got the likes of Morgan Freeman, Anne Hathaway, Helen Mirren, Anthony Mackie, Constance Wu, Dan Stevens, on board; and so my hopes were high for a number of the episodes. But unfortunately, while the actors may be ready to put commitment and effort in their appearances, I have to be frank about the facts that 1) the screenplays don’t often have the kind of traction to sustain our attention, and/or 2) some of the performers are overreaching with the material on hand.
Helen Mirren’s episode is one of the more successful episodes – despite being strapped to the seat of a spacecraft, she wonderfully uses her hands, gestures and facial expressions to stay animated and keep us rapt in her performance. The weakness here would be the running time, as there were several moments when they could have satisfactorily brought things to a close, but didn’t. In Anthony Mackie’s episode, he interacts with his clone, and that’s a great way of pushing the boundaries of the solo actor concept. The last episode actually goes Duo, as Morgan Freeman and Dan Stevens star in this one. Soliloquies have always been challenges for audiences when they go on for far too long – and here you have a concept that purposely extends the soliloquies. Ambitious series, but can’t say it’s fully successful.
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