The year kicked off with 'Mars Attacks' [more], Tim Burton's gleefully sick homage to bubblegum cards and 50's B-Movies; fast paced, violent, camp and funny, a non-stop assault on every humour gland in the body. Apocalyptic in vision, it seamlessly blended it's large entourage of famous faces with stunning Harryhausenesque aliens. Where else can you see Jack Nicholson cop it twice? Who would dare have Tom Jones feeding fluffy animals, Slim Whitman saving the world or a troop of boy scouts mercilessly crushed to death. Perfect? Ak ak ak!

Similarly bizarre and almost as satisfying was 'The Frighteners' with Michael J Fox. Before dismissing it out of hand, it should be pointed out that, being a Peter 'Bad Taste' Jackson film it moved at a cracking pace, full of amusing yet gory touches and expertly sliding from slapstick to slapsick (sic) without missing a beat. Whilst lacking the hardcoregore of 'Braindead' or the artistic brilliance of 'Heavenly Creatures' it's nice to see that New Zealand's finest (male) director hasn't sold out to the Hollywood factory and produces quirky yet commercial films.

It could hardly have escaped anyone's attention that all three 'Star Wars' [more] films got a long awaited re-airing, complete with Mr Sheen print restoration, rumblesome THX sound and added CGI pazzazz. Has twenty nostalgic years (in the case of 'A New Hope') treated them kindly? Yes. And no. The restoration is a delight but the 'tweaking' a travesty - slapping the CGI on 'Star Wars' is like painting lipstick on the Mona Lisa to make her look nicer; it's tacky. 'The Empire Strikes Back' retained it's dignity and now looks better than ever but oh dear, what on Tattoine were they dropping when they approached 'Jedi'? Still for anyone whose formative film-going years were spent in the company of Messrs Solo, Skywalker, Vader et al, nothing can beat the joy of being given the opportunity to catch them on the big screen once more.

Financial success of the year went to 'Men In Black' [more], a likeable comedy without any pretensions, it was fast, funny, original and short. Attention to background detail, as in 'Mars Attacks', was superb and and would help sustain repeat viewings. The main faults were an unsatisfactory ending, the woeful under use of Linda Fiorentino (although one can feel a sequel coming on here) and a feeling that somehow it could have been a lot more manic. Still, a good solid commercial piece of pie.

Of all the films of the year, the most spectacular and yet disappointing was Luc Besson's 'The Fifth Element'. Ditching Jean Reno for the box office chubby charms of Bruce Willis was not as bad a move as it first appeared (although let's face it Jean would have been better) and the film excels on every visual and aesthetic level. Resolutely French, there is not a single design fault on show and it is hard to imagine a more impressive and bizarre range of sets, props and characters. The claustrophobic influence of Moebius is prevalent and the Gaultier costumes scream kitsch style. The action is frantic, the pace swift and the direction assured. All set for film of the year and then, bang, Chris Tucker's immeasurably irritating performance farts the whole thing away. C'est la vie. For more on Besson click here.

The only film close to the mighty 'Mars Attacks' was Stuart Gordon's poorly distributed 'Space Truckers' [more], finally  given a (limited) theatrical release following a number of hassles regarding it's making. Grimy, camp, outrageous and far from politically correct, even Dennis Hopper is out- weirded. Big bangs, big gags and even a motorised penis, utter bliss. This is one gem of a film - do not let it slip away, rent it on video and weep that you missed it on the big screen.

Another limited release (although perhaps understandable) was Abel Ferrera's 'The Addiction', a sobering and depressing black and white vampire film that deserved far more attention than it received. Not a chuckle in sight but compelling and thoughtful, if occasionally a little pretentious in the philosophy/social commentary department. Not a film to double bill with Cronenberg's masterful 'Crash' [more](unless you are seriously sick), a tight, beautiful and perfectly formed examination of people you really wouldn't like to meet on the motorway - persuasive perversion with Ballard and Cronenberg mixing like blood and semen on a dashboard.

Sadly it was not all good news. The dreaded slack sequel effect was back with a vengeance. Spearheading the megabuck, product placement enhanced, brain dead genre, 'Batman and Robin' burst onto the scene eschewing Tim Burton’s distorted and perverse vision for a more burger friendly slice of blandness. Anyone expecting things to improve were in for a very sharp jolt indeed, for what followed was not only the worst film of the year but quite possibly of all time. Edward D Wood jnr would have begged an Alan Smithee credit if he had helmed the travesty that was 'The Lost World' [more]. Spielberg's direction was lacklustre, dull and ineffective, the script was simply 'writing by numbers', the acting dire, the editing slack. There was no tension, no suspense, little sympathy for the characters, and the foreshadowing was painful. The dinosaurs looked good, although they should have done, they cost enough. Two and a half bum numbing hours of your life spent with a grimace on your face. Beneath contempt.

Paul Andersons 'Event Horizon' was a noisy, nasty Hellraiser-in-space, wonderfully made, relentlessly paced and left a very unpleasant aftertaste. It worked because it set out to disturb, and really did induce feelings of tension and nausea. So although far from enjoyable, the film's approach to it's audience was one of the most original seen for a long time, especially in Hollywood, and for that it deserves praise.

Loud but leisurely was David Lynch's long awaited 'Lost Highway' [more] and it was worth every frame. Surreal and disturbing, funny and nasty in equal measure it's a techno enhanced version of Maya Deren's 'Meshes of the Afternoon' and just as oblique, bizarre and ambiguous. A visual and aural assault on the senses, no one but Lynch could produce a work of such sheer style. Not, it has to be said, to everyone’s taste, but undeniably the work of genius.

Genius was notably absent from 'The Island of Dr Moreau', a Val Kilmer bodged movie that saw much abused director Richard Stanley (writer/director of 'Dust Devil', probably the most intelligent horror film of the last twenty years) thrown out, forced to return to set as a masked extra and then made to endure the once great John 'Manchurian Candidate' Frankenheimer chew the cud with his script and kow tow to Mr Kilmer, Mr Brando and co. Avoid.

'Spawn' - yawn.

John Woo finally got to make the American film that could compare with his extraordinary Hong Kong output - 'Face/Off' [more] is science fiction opera, any realism is purely accidental; it's characters whirling through aria's of violence and introspective identity crisis. Woo [more] has the rare ability to induce strong audience responses to characters and then blend these with extreme, excessive and beautifully choreographed action, which produces a film that is poetic, religious, emotional and exhilarating. Over two hours in length, it flashes by.
 
As the year came to a close the spectre of another 'Alien' film reared it's ugly head in the form of 'Alien Resurrection' [more]. But hang on - isn't that bonkers French artist Jean Pierre Jeunet [more] directing, helped along by most of the 'City of Lost Children' crew? Hopes were high. Sadly, whilst being a vast improvement on 'Alien 3', there was just too much in the way of baggage to save this. Not bad by any stretch, and it looked great, but the unnecessary decision to include every alien and plot idea from the first three made it appear to be no more than an 'Alien' shopping list: chest burster- tick, face hugger- tick, android- tick....

And, to herald the new year (drumroll please) 'Starship Troopers' - $100,000,000 of gratuitous violence with effects that immerse you into their world, not bludgeon you with their showy "look at me" technique. Director Paul Verhoeven mixes the post-modern fascism of 'Robocop' with the visceral 'war-is-hell' theme of his earlier 'Soldier of Orange' and then turns everything up to eleven. Never less than entertaining, although it could have been camped up even more, it's a miracle that it received a fifteen rating given the disembowelling, decapitations, acid burns and brain sucking on show. A real hoot, though not for your granny. Is it 'Space: Above and Beyond' with visceral excesses, or a savage indictment of fascistic propaganda? The jury's still out on this one.

So, a good year for sf films? Certainly from a Hollywood perspective - science fiction is 'in' in a big way, the genre being a perfect medium for big budgets, fast action and special effects that just keep on improving. From a quality point of view, Hollywood still insists on a commercial rather than artistic stance, and this has resulted in many directors compromising their films in order to bring in the box office takings, produce sequels and encourage vast quantities of merchandising. However, this year has also proved that integrity need not be pushed aside, and that talented directors such as Burton, Lynch, Jackson and Woo can produce hugely entertaining and enjoyable films that are also well made and intelligent.