Tales from Apocalypse

Wasn't sure what to expect going in to this one. With a 5.4 rating, no reviews, and no list of the five shorts included, it could've been garbage.

I'm happy to say it's not garbage! Although there's not really any new ground broken, all 5 of the shorts are visually striking and thematically related, and all tell their stories efficiently but effectively.

Here's the rundown, with my rating: Alone - 7 of 10 - a really nice version of a standard sci-fi trope Cradle - 6 of 10 - well done, with a notably dark ending Lunatique - 8.5 of 10 - fantastic, feels fresh, and I'd love to see a full length version; only downside is the music, which was jarring and trite New Mars - 6 of 10 - feels like an episode of Black Mirror, with a bit less impact AI-pocalypse - 7 of 10 - timely and overall nicely done, but something was lacking.

This is proper story telling without the CGI bells and whistles that seem to ruin most modern sci-fi films. The Gorge being a case in point. A really good film up to the last thirty minutes when it turns into a load of fantasia style Disney nonsense.

The ideas may not be wholly original but then what is? Every classic sci-fi movie has echoes of some ancestral forerunner. Even though these are vignettes there's more character development than you get in many feature length movies. You actually care about the characters and what is happening to them.

Highly recommended for those who prefer plot and dialogue rather than the size of the special effects budget.

The short stories started very strong. With the first story "Alone" making great use of the short story format. Allowing for great story telling and convincing visuala. However, they progressively got worse. The twists in the later stories (the ones that had them) were extremely obvious. And it wasn't until the end of all the stories and I was able to count them up... was I sure if stories two and three were two separate stories or one longer story.

Finally, the last story was down right awful. It's concept of what the 4th dimension was 1950s B-movie bad.

Watch the first two... maybe the third story if you really want to but, do yourself a favor and stop there.