Today I will be reviewing the maze runner. And I would put this down as one of the best dystopian book series in recent movie history, and this is down to the fact that it has a very good plot which is full of mysteries and excitement from start to finish.

Plot

The basic plot starts with a teenager waking up inside an underground elevator with no recollection of his identity. He is greeted by other male teenagers who greet him in a large grassy field, that they call the Glade. The Glade is enclosed within an area by large stone walls is by tall stone walls. The boys within the glade have formed a rudimentary society, with each person having a dedicated role within this society.

The members of this society are lead by Alby, who lets the new teenager know that everybody recalls their name eventually, but never their past. The new boy learns that the only way out of the glade is through a maze that surrounds the glade. During the day, there are Runners who go into the maze to try and determine a route in which they can escape from the maze, but they have only until nightfall to return to the glade before the maze closes, with the knowledge that no one has ever survived a night in the maze, which has some techno graphic called “Grievers” roaming around once the doors close.

The New teenager eventually remembers his name to be Thomas, and becomes one of the runners after an unfortunate events with the other runners having being stung by grievers, and becoming a hero after surviving a night in the maze and saving the leader Alby whilst killing a griever in the process of surviving the night.

The story also takes a turn after the first-ever girl arrives in the elevator, with a note saying that she is the last one to enter the Glade. This eventually leads to the original members of the society turning on Thomas and the new girl, as things seems to have changed significantly since their introduction into the glade. This is especially evident when the boys are attacked by grievers in the glade, with this being the first time such an event has happened in the entire time the teenagers lived in the glade.

In a bid to find a way out of the maze, Thomas discovers and uses a beeping device that was received from the griever he killed, noticing that the beeping from the device is leading them to a certain section of the maze.

The ending of the film is one that is not predictable based on how the film started, and it explains that the boys have been monitored as part of an experiment the entire time. After the discovery that the boys have been monitored throughout the film by the a company trying to save humanity from a disease, there is a shock ending due to one of he key characters being killed by an infected member called Gully who tries to kill Thomas. Eventually we find out that what the survivors learnt at the end was only a cover up which is evidently leading up to the next film.

All in all, the film is full of excitement and is quite unpredictable in the way which things play out. I believe the fact that the viewer follows the events of what is going on at the same time as the protagonist, only helps in helping the viewer relate to the story.

As a fan of dystopian films, I believe that this film and its series is one of the best within this category.

Please comment below, and let me know whether you enjoyed this film as much as I did.

The film begins with an opening narration that explains the Earth was being observed by extra-terrestrials with immense intelligence and no compassion. As man dominated the world without doubt, much like microorganisms swarming in a drop of water, these beings plotted to take it all from us.

The story follows a Divorced dockworker, Ray Ferrier  (Tom Cruise), who works at a dock site in Brooklyn New York, and his daughter Rachel and son Robbie. Ray's pregnant ex wife, Mary Ann, drops the two off at the beginning of the film.

Later in the night, there is a a strange storm and lightning strikes into the middle of a local intersection, disrupting all technology and electricity. 

Ray joins the crowd at the scene of the impacts, where a massive alien war machine emerges from the ground and uses powerful energy weapons to destroy the entire area, with almost everyone around being incinerated. 

Ray goes back to his children, and steals a van that had just been repaired, in order to get the kids back to their mothers home for refuge.   

That night, they take shelter in the basement, but they soon hear a strange roaring noise followed by an explosion, which destroys the house, he eventually finds that this was an aircraft that had been crashed in the night and eventually learns that this type of event is happening everywhere.

Ray learns that the attacks are coming from alien war machines “tripods” which have are covered by a protective shield that renders all human weapons useless, and also learns that the aliens have travelled through lightning into the tripods in order to protect themselves from human weapons. This makes it very clear how advanced the planning was from the aliens, and the fact that they had studied humans very well before the attack.

The story carried on with Jack encountering the tripods several times, only to witness that the humans are fighting a losing war, and on this journey learns that the aliens are trying to make the earth inhabitable like their home planets with masses of red coloured vegetation starts to appear everywhere, whilst harvesting humans to feed their crops.

Towards the end Ray is captured by one of the tripods but eventually manages to escape, and later on it becomes evident that the aliens become sick and weak, due to what is explained as their immune systems being unable to handle the countless billions of microbes that inhibit the earth.

I enjoyed this film in particular, as the original idea goes much further than a basic alien invasion movie. In fact one of the earliest stories detailing a fight between mankind and extra-terrestrials, with the original publishing of the story being in 1898.

In fact the author H.G. Wells said that the plot arose from a discussion with his brother Frank about the catastrophic effect of the British on indigenous Tasmanians. What would happen, he wondered, if Martians did to Britain what the British had done to the Tasmanians.

And if you look into the film/story very closely, the details of British imperialism are everywhere. From the very well planned invasions after observation of the inhabitants of earth, to the aliens (British) trying to turn the  new land into their own by planting their own vegetation, whilst disregarding the indigenous settlers as nothing more than pests (intelligent being with no compassion), and we all know that the key failure of the British empire was down to being incapable of handling the environmental factors of the lands that they invaded.

I believe the film is more interesting when you look at the film with the perspective of the aliens playing the role of the British empire, which invaded so many parts of the world with such strength and force, whilst showing little to no compassion to the people who originated in those lands.

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The film follows the story of Jack Harper, Sixty years after a race of extra-terrestrial scavengers destroyed the Moon and invaded Earth. Humanity won the war, but nuclear weapons and the loss of the Moon left most of the Earth uninhabitable. Jack is a technician who has been sent back to Earth to service drones used in the fight against remaining scavenging extra-terrestrials. 

The story takes a turn when Jack rescues a survivor after witnessing a spacecraft crash, and he finds a woman which he has been seeing in his recurring dreams, this starts to make him question the reality he lives in and recognise that not all is as it seems.

Jack is then eventually captured by what he thought were scavengers, only to learn the truth of what is going on, and the fact that he is being used by extra-terrestrials who have cloned him, to wipe out the last of the surviving human race, who in reality lost the war.

I have to say that I personally enjoyed the film to a certain extent, and if you have watched a few other complex dystopian films, then you may find it slightly predictable.

The one thing the film captures very well is its scenery, the picture it displays of a destroyed earth looks very realistic and high quality. If I was judging this film based on the quality of the scenery, then I would regard this film higher than a lot of other post-apocalyptic films, but unfortunately I am not reviewing this film based on its art.

Overall, the film was relatively average in terms of its storyline, and there was nothing that really surprised me from the story at least not until the end, and even then, the story was slightly underwhelming. The story also had quite a happy ending, which is not something that I necessary look for in dystopian films.

Even with one of my favourite actors (Morgan Freeman, the film was underwhelming, but this mainly being down to its mediocre storyline. I would still say that the film is worth a watch if you haven’t seen it, as I would always encourage people to form their own opinions.

in todays post, I am going to discuss one of the most interesting and action filled dystopian films out there. Made in the 90s, it has a very 70s vibe to it, and I much prefer this film to the 2012 remake.

The film tells the story of construction worker Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who suddenly finds himself embroiled in espionage on Mars and unable to determine if the experiences are real or the result of memory implants. 

The basic plot starts in 2084, with Douglas Quaid is having troubling dreams about Mars and a mysterious woman there. His wife Lori is dismissive of Mars, where there is an active rebellion towards its governor. Douglas visits Rekall, a company which implants false memories of vacations, Douglas chooses a holiday to Mars as a secret agent. but the procedure goes wrong because Quaid unknowingly has suppressed memories of actually being a secret agent on Mars.

Following this event Douglas’ life takes a very weird turn as he is attacked by and kills his colleagues, and then his own wife attacks stating that their marriage is nothing but a false memory implant.

Douglas spends the start of the film trying to make sense of his reality, whilst being pursued by “the agency”, and as the film goes on everything he originally went through with the Rekkal implant starts to play out in “reality”, and this puts into question the actuality of all of the events that follow the experience he had at Rekkal.

The film is full of many twists and turns, as well as strange characters, which makes it stand out against other dystopian films, as the characters are very creative considering that its set in 2084, which is not far away enough for a society on mars in my opinion, but would probably felt more real on it’s release in 1990.

If you are a fan of dystopian films then you will certainly enjoy this film as it constantly keeps you guessing whether all of the events are the result of the implant or actually happening for real, even to this very day, there is an ongoing debate trying to make sense of the film which is quite awesomely strange.

In my opinion Douglas is asleep throughout most of the film, as the events which he experiences at the start of the film when he has the Rekkal memory implants, mirrors the plot of the whole film, this in turn with the fact that his best friend and wife turn on him after he has experience with the memory implant seems to support this argument.

One of the key things I enjoy from this film is how creative some of the scenes are, and the imagination of what a mars society would look like in 2084.

With all of this being said, I would encourage you to watch this film and form your own opinion on what’s actually happening at each point, and the key question on whether Douglas ever leaves Rekkal or whether the entire film plays out in a memory implant.

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Todays post is on one of the most chilling post apocalyptic films of the 21st century.

28 days later.

The plot is very straight forward, and starts off with animal activists who free chimpanzees from a laboratory, not knowing that the chimps have been infected by the “rage virus”. The virus spreads at an astronomical rate, devastating the entire Great Britain to a complete collapse in its society.

The main protagonist of the film is Jim, played by Cillian Murphy. Jim awakens from a coma 28 days after the start of the catastrophe, only to find a deserted London where he initially thinks he is completely isolated, only to soon be attacked by a group of humans infected with the rage virus.

Fortunately he is rescued by other survivors, and throughout the story manages to find other survivors who have been lucky to escape. But like in all zombie films, the danger shortly becomes other surviving human beings once the risk of zombies has been stabilised.

This is definitely one of the best zombie films out there, just based on the manner in which the film plays out. it carries an intensity from the very beginning, and keeps its audience drawn right until the very end, as the situation constantly changes, and Jim must be on his feet to adapt to every event that is presented to him.

The film is slightly different to my usual reviews, as there is always hope of Jim being able to survive this situation, as opposed to the constant hopelessness of most dystopian films, and it even has as much of a happy ending as you can get in such a situation.

I definitely recommend this as a must watch for anyone who enjoys post apocalyptic films.

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Today I will be writing about a film I am happy to watch over and over, and this is equilibrium by Kurt Wimmer.

The film follows John Preston who is played by Christian Bale, as an enforcement officer in a future in which emotions and artistic expressions are banned and citizens take daily injections of drugs to suppress their feelings.

The story takes a turn after John accidentally misses a dose, and starts to experience emotions. After initially being such a brutal emotionless killer as an enforcement officer, John begins to moderate his actions and questions the morality of his job, whilst trying to remain undetected by the suspicious society in which he lives, as showing an ounce of emotion would get him caught, with all his actions being under constant surveillance.

John eventually joins and begins to assist the resistance movement that he initially intended to destroy, whilst using the advanced martial art skills he was taught as an enforcement officer.

The concept of this film reminds me of 1984 by George Orwell in which people are expected to behave in certain way based on how they have been educated, but the difference in this society is that they are assisted by a drug which helps them behave in the manner that is required by the reigning regime. The use of such a drug is not very hard to imagine with modern anti-depressants that help to control emotions.

The key question the movie asks is whether human beings would be better off without emotions, as so many wrong decisions are made based on emotions, and the fact that there has never been global peace in all human history supports this idea.

But the film also highlights that as much as there are negative emotions, there are also plenty of positive emotions that drive good actions from human beings, and without the positive emotions that we feel, then life would pretty much becomes pointless.

Thanks for reading, any feedback is appreciated.

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Today I am reviewing one of the most interesting and inventive and perhaps disturbing dystopian films out there.

I will start by saying that if you are a fan of Dystopian films and have not seen this, then I strongly recommend you do so after reading this review.

The basis of the story focuses on Alex DeLarge as the leader of a gang of "droogs" (Georgie, Pete and Dim) with his key interests mainly consisting of rape, ultra violence and Beethoven.

The droogs enjoy a very extreme lifestyle which involves getting heavily intoxicated and committing all sorts of crime, with no considerations for their victims.

One night after getting heavily intoxicated, the gang enjoy a night of crime which involves a fight with a rival gang, beating a man to the point of crippling him, and one of it’s most disturbing scenes to which they rape the mans wife whilst singing “singing in the rain”.

Following this unsavoury night, Alex is mey by and cautioned by his probation officer, and thereafter only leads the droogs to commit petty crimes, much to the groups discontent, as they are used to committing high profile crimes.

Alex senses the groups discontent and responds by attacking them, and this action ultimately leads to the group turning on him in the middle of a violent burglary, as he ends up being arrested as they flee, and is ultimately sentenced to 14 years imprisonment.

2 years into the sentence, he is offered an experimental aversion therapy for rehabilitating criminals, to which he accepts, but not long after this regrets his decision. But by the point he realises the phycological effects, it is too late, and he is unable to even think of sexual or violent crimes without feeling sick.

Alex consequently loses his free will, and after it is clear that he is incapable of committing his previous crimes, he is retuned to society, only to find that the world is a much scarier place now that he has lost his ability to act violently towards anyone.

The film has a few more twists and turns beyond this, which I will not write about, lest I spoil the movie for those who have not watched it.

The movie itself had a big reaction when it was initially released, even going as far as being banned in the united kingdom after mass protests and the rape of a dutch girl by a group of men singing “singing in the rain”.

The massive controversy that followed the release of the film, has today made it one of the most famous crime dystopian films in Great Britain. The film keeps its audience entertained and entices an emotional connection to the character, as you go from hating the protagonist, to feeling sorry for him.

The film does not seem to have any direct message, but is definitely not for the faint hearted. Personally I think that the film depicts a message of human compassion to violent criminals, especially in todays justice system which some serious crimes are only treated with very relaxed sentences, much to the publics annoyance.

I refer to a trial I saw recently involving a police officer ‘PC Harper’ who was dragged for over a mile to his death after responding to a burglary involving a group of young criminals, sadly the criminals were only let off with lenient sentences, even smiling in court, much to the publics annoyance.

Not to get off subject about the film, but I would be interested in everyone’s opinions on the message they get from the film, so please let me know.

As always, thanks for reading and please subscribe for more.

On today’s post I am going to discuss movie I re watched recently. It is more of a family friendly film, as opposed to the usual content I like to write about which has no happy ending, and is usually set in a bleak hopeless society.

The movie has a very straight forward concept in which a group of scientists create an underground city/society to prevent the extinction of humankind.

A box is passed to the mayor which consists of the instructions of returning to the surface, and this box is to be inherited by every succeeding mayor, and will open after 200 years.

Unfortunately the box is lost over time, along with it’s knowledge of getting back to the surface world.

The people who occupy the city carry on living there with no knowledge of the surface world and a rapidly deteriorating world, which is losing it’s power supply, and food rations dangerously low.

The main protagonists are a pair of teens Lina Mayfleet, and Doon Harrow who are played by Saoirse Ronan and Harry Treadaway respectively. They both work to unearth the secret of getting out of the city once they discover the box left by scientists well over 200 years ago.

Though whilst working to uncover these secrets, they are pursued by the greedy and corrupt Mayor Cole, who is played by Bill Murray, who has hidden food rations for himself, and is happy to let the rest of the city die, to escape by himself.

As I mentioned at at he start, this is more of a feel good film, and is more family friendly. The film is filled with plenty of fun, excitement and comedy coming from Bill Murray role as the mayor.

I would rate this film at around 7/10, due to the fact it is slightly more predictable than other other dystopian films, and it is one which you can watch with the family.

The film definitely has it’s interesting moments, but would be enjoyed more by a younger audience as it needs a bit of imagination in order to entice it’s audience, as well as it’s main characters being quite young.

Personally the film makes me think as to whether human beings are as simplistic as the film suggests, as if people would happily live in this city over a period of 200 years without an ounce of curiosity of what exists beyond what they know. Though this being a family film, you have to overlook certain areas of the plot which have flaws.

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Hi All,

In today’s post I am going to discuss one of my personal favorite dystopian books/film of all time.

If you are a fan of dystopian films, then this novel/film is an absolute must watch as it is a very well laid out story which has an intensity that lasts throughout the entire film.

The story follows the journey of a father and his young son who are trying to survive a very bleak post apocalyptic world, that has fallen victim to an unspecified cataclysm that stops all vegetation being able to grow. In turn causing an agricultural disaster that results in all means of food being destroyed, and in the years after this event, all of civilisation is completely lost.

The remaining survivors result to desperate methods to survive with the worst of those methods being cannibalism through hunting other human beings.

The story goes into a lot of detail of the difficulties that the two main characters (only referred to as man and boy) come across, with fighting starvation being a constant struggle, along with running from other humans who mean to harvest the man for food, and do worse to the boy before killing him as well.

The constant threat of other humans is clear from the start, as the man and boy are almost caught by a group of cannibals, and with only two bullets in his gun the man puts the gun to the boys head as he knows that killing him would be a much better result than being caught by those who mean to harm them.

The story consists of various events which emphasise what a horrible place the world has become, with the man seeming constantly paranoid to his son, due to his experience since the end of civilisation.

The boy having only known this bleak world tries to have a more positive outlook even with very little hope of a good outcome with the current state of this world.

Both the book and film are very intense, with the book having a lot more detail and describing events that would be deemed too horrific to put on film. And with this being a dystopian film, there is unfortunately no happy ending in this post apocalyptic world, but this is what makes this genre so interesting.

The story itself does not seem too far fetched from reality, especially with how I have seen most of society behave with COVID-19. Examples such as people trying to out-buy each other on toilet roll suggests key survival instinct in human beings with a very selfish “me first” attitude.

This suggests that if things became desperate enough, there are people out there who would result to unspeakable acts, and do whatever it takes to survive (cannibalism not out of question).

As it is a personal favourite, I am giving this story a solid 9.5/10 because I thoroughly enjoyed it, and have watched/read it several times, whilst enticing my imagination of living in this world.

Please share/subscribe for more, and let me know your thoughts once you have watched/read this story.

Thanks for reading.

Sorry for the lack of posts of recent, I will aim to post at least twice this week and so on going forward.

Today I am going to talk about another top dystopian film, Elysium.

The film is set in 2154, in which society is split by two groups. You have the vast majority who live on an over populated earth which is subject to poverty, and very poor living conditions. And then there are those who are extremely wealthy that live on what is practically paradise, a space habitat called Elysium.

Elysium is completely the opposite of the partially destroyed earth, as it has advanced technology such as med bays which are able to cure all illness and disease, as well as reversing the aging process and regeneration of body parts.

The protagonist of the film is named Max Da Costa, who Is played by Matt Damon. Max lives on earth on earth under the squalid conditions, with a job which only allows him to scrape through.

The story gets interesting when Max has an accident at work and is told that he has 5 days to live before his body will be overwhelmed with radiation poisoning, and is only given medication which will only mitigate the symptoms of radiation poisoning before it kills him.

knowing of the medical capabilities on Elysium, Max takes on his only chance of survival, which is being smuggled onto Elysium, and in the process triggers a notion to bringing equality to both worlds.

I must say that this film was very enjoyable to watch, as it relates itself to what is currently happening in the world around us today, with the world having a small minority of the rich who have the vast majority of wealth available.

It also reflects on those who are born in poorer areas of the world, and are willing to risk anything for the hope of a better life by means such as being smuggled under dangerous situations just to make it into a better country.

The film itself definitely keeps you thinking throughout, and has a very big political message behind it, but I’ll let you judge for yourselves on How you interpret this message.

In terms of rating, this would be a 7/10 from myself, as it is enjoyable but not specific to my taste on dystopian films. But as always I would encourage you to watch this film and form your own opinion.

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Today I am writing about one of my favourite dystopian films, and maybe one of the best written dystopian books.

The book written by the one and only George Orwell, whilst the film directed by Michael Radford.

The protagonist of the film is Winston Smith, who lives in an unsavoury reality In the superstate of Oceania.

Winston lives under constant surveillance of “Thought Police” in the capital city of the territory, and works for the ministry of truth, with his job being to rewrite history in accordance to the ruling party and its supreme leader Big Brother.

Winston resides by himself, and is tormented by the painful memories of his past, as well as his suppressed desires. Due to this, he keeps a diary of his thoughts therefore breaking the laws of the thought police and creating evidence to his thought crimes.

The story takes an interesting turn when he begins an illicit affair with another member of the outer party, who’s name is Julia. Although he initially suspects her to be a strong outer part member and hates her for it, he finds that they both share certain views of the world they exist in and how they both despise it.

His life is improved with the introduction of Julia, and they both manage to keep their affair secret and undetected.

although eventually, they find that the thought police are much smarter than they anticipated, as things take a turn for the worst.

Personally, I was intrigued by both the book and the film. The intensity of how it is both written and executed is brilliant as it sucks you into this dystopian reality and you can feel the emotions that the characters go through every moment.

It is a story that keeps you guessing what is going to happen, and although there seems to be a possible hope of a better outcome, the control of big brother and the thought police is far too great to resist, even for these wilful characters.

As a fan of Dystopian films, I would absolutely encourage fellow enthusiasts to read the book and watch the film, if you have not already done so.

I guarantee you will enjoy the idea of this world, due to the detail input by George Orwell, and the various ideas that are presented in this world.

it may be a biased view, but I would personally rate the book 9/10, and film 8/10, as naturally the book encourages your brain to think more creatively about the events of this world.

Thanks for reading, any feedback is appreciated.

Today I’m going to discuss one of the most famous dystopian movies out there, and one which I have always found interesting in terms of the outline of the story.

The basic concept of the film is the story of John Anderton, who is the head of the precrime division, in which mutants named precogs are able to predict crimes before they occur, thus allowing the precrime division to prevent crimes before they occur.

The story takes a turn when John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise is himself predicted to commit murder within the next week, on a man that he doesn’t know.

Suspecting he is being framed, John works to try and prove that there is a conspiracy on how the minority report is produced, and works to avoid that the prediction of the precogs has no certainty to it.

if you have not seen this film then I would definitely recommend it has as a must watch in the dystopian category.

the movie puts into question free will vs fate, and has the audience working to try and predict whether John is on a path to committing the very crime which he is convinced he would never commit, or whether he will be able to prove his innocence.

The ending is very interesting and not one that I predicted personally.

I have seen this film multiple times, and would rate it a solid 8.5/10 in this dystopian category.

Thank you for reading.

The first film which I will discuss on this blog is called the lobster.

This is a 2015 film starring Colin Farrell as a man who’s wife has just recently left him for another man.

He is taken to a hotel, in which he is told that he has 45 days to find a partner otherwise he will be transformed into an animal of his choice, to which he chooses a lobster.

David is accompanied by his brother who has been transformed into a dog, making the outline of the film even stranger.

The hotel has various rituals in which they ultimately try and encourage people to couple up, whilst banning activities such as masterbation which would prevent attractions between single people.

The only way in which people are able to extend their stay at the hotel is to capture “loners” which are single people who have escaped the hotel and live in the woods adjacent to the hotel.

Following David’s story in this dystopian world is very interesting, as the entire movie has a very weird feel to it, and allows the audience to put themselves in the shoes of the protagonist and imagine how they may handle the various situations in which David finds himself.

This film may not be to everyone’s taste, but if you are a fan of dystopian films then you will most likely enjoy the concept of this world and the general outlay of the film.

I would definitely recommend it as a watch to anyone who likes to throw themselves into a world of imagination that is away from the common ideas of film.

personally I would rate the film 8/10, as it was to my taste, and the idea of the film is very unique.

Colin Farrell executes the role of David very well, and displays good character development from start to finish.

Please let me know your thoughts, once you have watched this film.