REVIEWS HOME FILM
W W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U K | 065
Star Wars:
Episode IX -
The Rise Of
Skywalker
It ends here
Release 20 April
Director J J Abrams
Cast Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega,
Oscar Isaac
Distributor Walt Disney
Certificate 12
Format •The Skywalker Saga gang get
back together for one last adventure,
as Rey (Daisy Ridley) and co head off
on a frantic quest to stop Kylo Ren
(Adam Driver)’s First Order and the resurgent
Sith from rallying behind Emperor Palpatine
(Ian McDiarmid).
There’s some fun banter between Rey, Finn
(John Boyega) and Poe (Oscar Isaac) as their
hunt takes them across the galaxy, via a host
of lovingly-realised aliens. Poe gets some
tantalising hints at a back story with Keri
Russell’s mysterious Zorii, but ultimately he and
the potentially Force-sensitive Finn are left with
slim and unfinished stories.
That’s because The Rise Of Skywalker is
really interested in Rey and Kylo Ren, and their
conflict is at the heart of the film. Their wave-
pummelled lightsaber battle is one of the best of
the franchise, and the final all-out-war between
the Resistance and the First Order is a grand
spectacle. But the film wastes time course-
correcting from The Last Jedi and lacks any real
surprises, ending on a note that feels rather flat
and predictable.
Abigail Chandler
Sea Fever
Part Lovecraft, part
The Thing
Release 24 April
Director Neasa Hardiman
Cast Hermione Corfield, Dougray Scott,
Connie Nielsen
Distributor Signature Entertainment
Certificate 18
FormatSea Fever opens with a
fully dressed woman – Siobhán
(Hermione Corfield) – plunging into
the ocean gasping for breath. She
has a recurring nightmare about drowning,
and another is about to come true as she
begins course fieldwork on a fishing vessel.
Fear of drowning pervades the film. The
ship’s owner Freya (Connie Nielsen) informs
Siobhán that “fishermen don’t swim... ’cause
it’s better to go fast” – and also tells her that
the traces of bioluminous phytoplankton visible
in the boat’s wake at night are said to be
the glowing tresses of the legendary Niamh
Cinn who, lovesick, “gave herself to the sea”
where she now dwells forever. This blurring
of science and myth characterises Neasa
Hardiman’s Sea Fever, which acquires a literal
meaning when something monstrous attaches
itself to the hull, bringing with it parasitic
infection and deadly fever. At this point the
film reveals a seaborne equivalent of Ridley
S c ot t ’s Alien (1979) and John Carpenter’s The
Thing (1982), with Siobhán desperately trying
to figure out what is plaguing the ship.
In Hardiman’s yarn, a hadopelagic
creature brings the Lovecraftian dread, while
the crew anchor everything in realism. In
between, this is a tense affair, with moments
of awe to offset all the icky body horror.
Anton Bitel
Phase IV
Ant man
Release 6 April
Director Saul Bass
Cast Nigel Davenport,
Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick
Distributor 101 Films
Certificate 12
FormatFamous for designing
the iconic opening credits of
many a Hitchcock film, Saul Bass
directed only one feature during
his career: this cerebral sci-fi which begins
with a strange celestial alignment, before
shifting to the inner space of Earth’s ant
communities (shot in extraordinary close-up
by Ken Middleham).
With increasing alarm, biologist Ernest
Hubbs (Nigel Davenport) and game theorist
James Lesko (Michael Murphy) observe
these rapidly organising and evolving insects
from within an experimental station set deep
in the Arizona desert.
“This is a serious game,” insists Hubbs,
whilst declaring war on the ants where
Lesko, on the other hand, just wants to
communicate with them. Yet the ants both
emulate and outplay the humans in moves
that are conducted with giant chess piece-like
structures (and a queen).
This graduated series of first contacts
falls somewhere between the previous The
Andromeda Strain (1971) and the later
Starship Troopers (1997) and slightly more
recent Arrival (2016), and ends merely hinting
at a fourth phase in which humans merge
with ants.
Bass’ alternative ending – included here –
offers an extended freakout vision of such
a hivemind.
Anton Bitel
064-065_SFN_170 Theatrical Home Film.indd 65 17/03/2020 19:01REVIEWS HOME FILM
W W W. S C I FI N OW.CO.U K | 065
Star Wars:
Episode IX -
The Rise Of
Skywalker
It ends here
Release 20 April
Director J J Abrams
Cast Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega,
Oscar Isaac
Distributor Walt Disney
Certificate 12
Format •The Skywalker Saga gang get
back together for one last adventure,
as Rey (Daisy Ridley) and co head off
on a frantic quest to stop Kylo Ren
(Adam Driver)’s First Order and the resurgent
Sith from rallying behind Emperor Palpatine
(Ian McDiarmid).
There’s some fun banter between Rey, Finn
(John Boyega) and Poe (Oscar Isaac) as their
hunt takes them across the galaxy, via a host
of lovingly-realised aliens. Poe gets some
tantalising hints at a back story with Keri
Russell’s mysterious Zorii, but ultimately he and
the potentially Force-sensitive Finn are left with
slim and unfinished stories.
That’s because The Rise Of Skywalker is
really interested in Rey and Kylo Ren, and their
conflict is at the heart of the film. Their wave-
pummelled lightsaber battle is one of the best of
the franchise, and the final all-out-war between
the Resistance and the First Order is a grand
spectacle. But the film wastes time course-
correcting from The Last Jedi and lacks any real
surprises, ending on a note that feels rather flat
and predictable.
Abigail Chandler
Sea Fever
Part Lovecraft, part
The Thing
Release 24 April
Director Neasa Hardiman
Cast Hermione Corfield, Dougray Scott,
Connie Nielsen
Distributor Signature Entertainment
Certificate 18
FormatSea Fever opens with a
fully dressed woman – Siobhán
(Hermione Corfield) – plunging into
the ocean gasping for breath. She
has a recurring nightmare about drowning,
and another is about to come true as she
begins course fieldwork on a fishing vessel.
Fear of drowning pervades the film. The
ship’s owner Freya (Connie Nielsen) informs
Siobhán that “fishermen don’t swim... ’cause
it’s better to go fast” – and also tells her that
the traces of bioluminous phytoplankton visible
in the boat’s wake at night are said to be
the glowing tresses of the legendary Niamh
Cinn who, lovesick, “gave herself to the sea”
where she now dwells forever. This blurring
of science and myth characterises Neasa
Hardiman’s Sea Fever, which acquires a literal
meaning when something monstrous attaches
itself to the hull, bringing with it parasitic
infection and deadly fever. At this point the
film reveals a seaborne equivalent of Ridley
S c ot t ’s Alien (1979) and John Carpenter’s The
Thing (1982), with Siobhán desperately trying
to figure out what is plaguing the ship.
In Hardiman’s yarn, a hadopelagic
creature brings the Lovecraftian dread, while
the crew anchor everything in realism. In
between, this is a tense affair, with moments
of awe to offset all the icky body horror.
Anton Bitel
Phase IV
Ant man
Release 6 April
Director Saul Bass
Cast Nigel Davenport,
Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick
Distributor 101 Films
Certificate 12
FormatFamous for designing
the iconic opening credits of
many a Hitchcock film, Saul Bass
directed only one feature during
his career: this cerebral sci-fi which begins
with a strange celestial alignment, before
shifting to the inner space of Earth’s ant
communities (shot in extraordinary close-up
by Ken Middleham).
With increasing alarm, biologist Ernest
Hubbs (Nigel Davenport) and game theorist
James Lesko (Michael Murphy) observe
these rapidly organising and evolving insects
from within an experimental station set deep
in the Arizona desert.
“This is a serious game,” insists Hubbs,
whilst declaring war on the ants where
Lesko, on the other hand, just wants to
communicate with them. Yet the ants both
emulate and outplay the humans in moves
that are conducted with giant chess piece-like
structures (and a queen).
This graduated series of first contacts
falls somewhere between the previous The
Andromeda Strain (1971) and the later
Starship Troopers (1997) and slightly more
recent Arrival (2016), and ends merely hinting
at a fourth phase in which humans merge
with ants.
Bass’ alternative ending – included here –
offers an extended freakout vision of such
a hivemind.
Anton Bitel