Recent Netflix

Some interesting Science Fiction I've watched recently. Descriptions are mostly from Netflix, click any title to open in Netflix.

Upside Down - Adam lives on a poverty-stricken world, while Eden (Kirsten Dunst) is from its affluent twin planet, and their love sparks an interplanetary incident. Social stigma, family and government forces work to keep them apart, but they'll stop at nothing to be together.  The two planets revolve around each other with a large corporate building at the center that joins the two, or that each planet has its own incompatible gravity - things from one planet will burn up if you attempt to somehow move them to the other planet.

Delete - A viral threat almost triggers a nuclear meltdown, giving reporter Jessica Taylor and her hacker friend Daniel an inside track on a grim reality: an artificial intelligence has become a conscious entity with the sole purpose of destroying the world. Seth Green in a small role. Really high production values, good acting, great sets and mostly feels like a plausible story, except if an AI really has that much power, it would have employed traffic cameras and satellites sooner and sent more people (not just police) after them. Only when they tried to do a smoke effect did it feel like they weren't able to pull it off.

Invasion: Earth - Earth becomes a battleground in a full-scale intergalactic war when the Royal Air Force erroneously shoots down an unidentified flying object. With the planet's future at stake, can the world work together to protect itself? Still watching this one, haven't fully worked out what's going on here, but it's interesting.

TiMER - In this comedic fantasy, science has facilitated the search for a soul mate via biotechnological implants that count down to the moment one is supposed to meet his or her match. But Oona (Emma Caulfield) is worried: She's nearly 30, and her TiMER isn't ticking yet. Will her dream guy get snatched up by someone else? John Patrick Amedori co-stars in this film from first-time writer and director Jac Schaeffer. This isn't heavily sci-fi, it's just a romantic comedy set in the real world where one additional technological element exists. But I liked it.

Safety Not Guaranteed -
A team of journalists (including Aubrey Plaza and Jake Johnson) are dispatched to find out who's behind a classified advertisement seeking a companion for time travel, with payment on return. After tracking down their oddball prey, the team has to decide how best to approach their subject. Does he actually have a time machine? Do you actually care? An interesting movie that keeps it low-key and doesn't try to be more than it is. It's that low-key approach that makes it feel very relatable.

Battlestar Galactica - Deep in the universe, cybernetic Cylons have all but wiped out the human race, laying waste to the Twelve Colonies of Man. Cast out, the few survivors aboard the Battlestar Galactica search for a so-called 13th colony: the mythical planet Earth. This TV series grabbed me from the start. It's overall uneven (and long!) and leaves some questions, but I liked how completely they had defined this universe.

Caprica - Set on planet Caprica decades prior to the war fought in Battlestar Galactica, this sci-fi series follows the work of tech tycoon Daniel Graystone as he tries to assuage his grief over tragedy by developing cyborgs he dubs Cylons. In the style of BG, this single-season show was filled with twists and turns and constantly shifting alliances.