RZ-9 is a 2015 SF movie about a crappy future. It's written by director Iain Carson and David Rhoades. They pluck a few ideas out of a hat, pack them into an action film, but never flesh them out too well. They spend more time shooting guns than telling a story. It's the first feature for the both of them, maybe they'll get better. It's a bit into the future and some terrorists blow up Los Angeles. A couple of years later a guy named Paterson, working as a drone driver, is troubled he's being asked to bomb civilians. Then he finds himself on a watch list because of his religious affiliations so he uploads a virus into the operating system at the drone HQ. He goes on the run, taking his sister with him, and gets saved by the resistance. He's killed about 50 minutes into the movie but his sister keeps going with the resistance. RZ-9 is a soldier who keeps following them. He lets the sister go and she goes onto to work against the government. There's plenty of gun shooting and fighting in the woods. The IMDb says the movie is 90 minutes, the YouTube version is only 77 but they cuts off the end credits which is fine with me, it gets me done sooner. I speeded it up myself after a bit. It's mostly pretty dull, there's no good reason to recommend it. It gets a 2.6 on the IMDb but I gave it a 2, it's certainly not a 3.
The 2015 Fantastic Four re-imagines the Marvel characters world. It's directed by Josh Trank who wrote the screenplay with Jeremy Slater and Simon Kinberg. Reed Richards and Ben Grimm are kids in school. Reed is a boy genius who invents a transporter. Ben works with him and 7 years later they get scholarships to the Baxter Foundation where they meet Sue and Johnny Storm. They all work on the transporter with Victor von Doom. Tests reveal a different world from which they hope to gather resources to save the Earth. The team wants to travel to there after a monkey survives the return trip but the Baxter Foundation's supervisor, played by Tim Blake Nelson, says they will send NASA people there. Disappointed and drunk they sneak in and travel to the parallel world. The ground explodes with green glowing goo and everyone gets blasted with something that gives them superpowers. Victor is left behind in the pulsating green energy goo. When they return to the Baxter building they are taken to Area 57 where they're put under observation. Reed runs away and time passes. Johnny, Sue and Ben get help controlling their powers and they go looking for Reed. They find him and bring him into the group. They go back to the parallel planet and rescue Victor. He's turned into something attuned to his new world. He wants to put a stop to the plan to suck resources from the parallel world so Reed and his team try to stop him. They all return to the parallel world where there's plenty of fighting and CGI. It's all dark and bleak and that's not the Fantastic Four I remembered. It doesn't seem to have many fans, not me that's for sure, and it gets a deserved 4 on IMDb. I wouldn't recommend it and wouldn't need to see it again.
It seems like YouTube is holding back the good films this week, or I haven't dug down deep enough. I usually find something I haven't seen in the first couple of pages when searching for science fiction movies on YouTube. Territory 8 is a 2013 film written and directed by Kelly Schwarze. I hadn't seen either of the movies he'd already directed and probably won't. This movie is about a chemical weapons research lab that has an accident. One of the two scientists finds a sick woman outside the lab. They bring her in and find out she's part of the group of people that were quarantined in Territory 8 after they were contaminated by an airborne chemical weapon accident. The survivors are all slowly dying and everything has been covered up by the company. One of the scientists tries to help her and wants to use the untested cure that the other scientist has been working on. Soon after the angry survivors show up and there's a battle in the facility and nearly everyone dies. It's mostly not worth watching. It gets a 2.4 on the IMDb for a reason. It's kind of dull and even at 2 times the normal speed it seems to drag.
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