My pick for the movie Hugo

Hi all,

I watched Moon two nights ago, the last of the five movies nominated for this year's Hugo. The other nominees are: Up, Avatar, District 9 and Star Trek.

Up is an animated fantasy film with some science fiction elements. It is about an old grump who is about to be forced out of his home by developers. He attaches a whole lot of helium filled balloons to his house and it floats to South America. A not very bright or skilled scout hitches a ride with him. They befriend a supposedly extinct big bird and try and rescue it from a demented explorer and his huge pack of talking dogs. I laughed out loud on a few occasions, with the humour aimed at both adults and kids.

District 9 Set in South Africa a decade or so after a huge spaceship arrived carrying a million alien refugees. The refugees now live in a ghetto in Johannesburg and are no longer welcome. The movie starts, in documentary style, with attempts to evict and move them 200 miles away. It follows the ignorantly racist manager of the move. He is sprayed by alien oil and begins to turns into one of them. His multinational employer wants to use him for alien weapons research and decides to dissect him. He escapes and finds refuge among the aliens. This movie had magnificent special effects, with believable renditions of aliens appearing in almost every scene. It also gets you thinking about boat people etc.

Everyone has scene Avatar, the most overhyped science-fiction film in history.

Most people would also be aware of the Star Trek franchise. The new Star Trek movie rebooted the series by going back in time and annihilating most of the Vulcans, so the Universe in which all the other Star Trek movies and series were set has been forever changed. A real fun action movie that injected much needed life into a tired franchise.

Moon didn't play at my local cinema so I had to watch it on DVD. I think if more people knew what it was actually about, they would go and see it. But to tell you what it is about would give away the intrigue of the first third of the movie. It is set on the moon at a mining facility manned by one person. I initially had doubts about whether they would leave one person at a moon base by himself, but then the story explained why. This film really got me thinking. It is more of an ideas film, a bit like Inception, than a special effects feast like Star Trek.

I will rate the five nominees on the following: Originality, scientific believability, special effects, whether they got me thinking, and enjoyability.

Originality.

1. Moon
2. Up
3. District 9
4. Avatar
5. Star Trek.

Scientific believability.

1. Moon
2. District 9
3. Avatar
4. Up
5. Star Trek

Special Effects

1. District 9
2. Star Trek
3. Avatar
4. Moon
5. Up

Thinking

1. District 9
2. Moon
3. Up
4. Avatar
5. Star Trek

Enjoyability

1. Star Trek
2. Moon
3. District 9
4. Up
5. Avatar.

So Moon will get my vote. I suspect Avatar will win by default as more people have seen it than the others, especially Moon. Although I enjoy big budget special effects science fiction, I remember more films with an original and thought-provoking plot.

Graham.

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