After Earth

 

Danger is real, but fear is a choice. Father-and-son duo Will and Jaden Smith are at it again in After Earth, M. Night Shyamalan’s futuristic thriller about man’s return to the Earth after years of abandonment.

It has been a thousand years since mankind was forced off of the Earth by cataclysmic events, and the Earth’s ecosystem has evolved to become one of the most dangerous in the galaxy. So when teenager Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) and his father Cypher (Will Smith) crash land on Earth, it doesn’t take them long to realize the enormity of what they’re up against. With his father in critical condition, Kitai must lead the journey to the nearest signal post in order to call for help. Facing an uncharted world whose plant and animal life has evolved to fight off the threat of humans, Kitai has to grow up quickly—or die. Father and son must learn to trust each other if they hope to get off the planet alive.

 

 

Written by Gary Whitta and M. Night Shyamalan and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, After Earth will be released on May 31, 2013. This Columbia Pictures (Sony) sci-fi film is rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence and some disturbing images.

 

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

In The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, we return to the world of Katniss Everdeen—a bleak dystopia called Panem in which the Capitol holds an annual competition called the “Hunger Games” to keep the twelve subservient Districts in check. Every year, each District must send two children as Tributes to fight to the death in the Hunger Games, and the last Tribute standing wins.

Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Petar (Josh Hutcherson) have just returned home to District Twelve after winning the 74th Hunger Games in an unprecedented double victory. No sooner do they arrive than they are whisked back away from their families and friends, to participate in a “Victor’s Tour” of the other Districts. During this tour Katniss finds that the fabricated nightmare of the Games has been replaced by the real-life nightmare facing the oppressed Districts she visits. But under the Districts’ facade of loyalty a rebellion is brewing. As Katniss begins to understand the enormity of her role in the events, President Snow plans the historic 75th Hunger Games—and the fate of Panem hangs in the balance.

Directed by Francis Lawrence and written for the screen by Simon Beaufoy, Michael deBruyn, and Scott Frank, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire will be released into 2D theaters and IMAX on November 22, 2013. This Lionsgate action/drama/sci-fi also stars Liam Hemsworth, Lenny Kravitz, Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, Toby Jones, Woody Harrelson, Jena Malone, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amanda Plummer, Lynn Cohen, Patrick St. Esprit, Meta Golding, Bruno Gunn, Alan Ritchson, E. Roger Mitchell, Maria Howell, Stephanie Leigh Schlund, Sam Claflin, and Jeffrey Wright.

Pacific Rim

“We always thought that alien life would come from the stars. We never considered it might come from deep beneath the sea.” In Pacific Rim it is the near future, and monstrous creatures called Kaiju have been swarming out of the Pacific Ocean, sparking a years-long war that has cost humanity millions of lives and billions of dollars. Mankind’s greatest weapons against the Kaiju are the Jaegers, giant robots controlled by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even these fearsome constructions are proving powerless against the relentless assault of the Kaiju. Exhausted and on the brink of destruction, humanity’s leaders have no choice but to turn to an unlikely duo for help—a washed-up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi) piloting a legendary but obsolete Jaeger from the early days. Will their power be enough to save mankind from total annihilation?

Conceived as director Guillermo del Toro’s “beautiful poem to giant monsters,” Pacific Rim promises a compelling storyline and fantastic visual effects. “The Kaiju counted on the humans to hide, to give up, to fail,” rallies the leader of the human forces. “But today, we are canceling the apocalypse.”

Written by Travis Beachman and Guillermo del Toro and directed by Guillermo del Toro, Pacific Rim will be released in 2D, 3D, and IMAX on July 12, 2013. This Warner Bros. Pictures sci-fi action film also stars Idris Elba, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman, Robert Kazinsky, Max Martini, Clifton Collins, Jr., Burn Gorman, Larry Joe Campbell, Brad William Henke, and Diego Klattenhoff.

Total Recall

What is real? What is it that makes “reality,” well, reality? Total Recall, a new action thriller from Columbia Pictures (Sony) directed by Len Wiseman, explores this question in vivid detail. What if it were possible to take a “mind trip” from reality, and experience a dream that can create real memories? In Total Recall, a company called Rekall specializes in making this happen. For factory worker Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell), the possibility is just too enticing to ignore. Although Quaid has a beautiful wife (Kate Beckinsale) that he loves, his “real life” is very frustrating, and the thought of taking a mind-trip that would leave him with memories of being a super-spy sounds like a perfect escape from reality.

His visit to Rekall was a great idea until the procedure went terribly wrong, and the line between dream and reality got completely blurred. Suddenly, Quaid is a hunted man on the run from the police. With the leader of the free world, Chancellor Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston), out to get him, Quaid teams up with a rebel fighter (Jessica Biel) in an attempt to locate the leader of the underground resistance (Bill Nighy) and change the fate of the world. In the process, Quaid discovers his true identity, finds his true love, and learns his true fate.

Or does he? Based on the famous short story, “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale,” by Philip K. Dick, Total Recall is a mind-bender about reality and memory. As Quaid asks when confronted with the realization that what he is experiencing may – or may not – be real: “If I’m not me, then who the hell am I?”