L5: First City in Space 3D 1996

If you're looking for people evaporating in ("high technology") energy bursts, or gritty complex characters suffused with (yawn) adult tension and drama... or cataclysmic danger so obvious with a heroic quest so clearly laid out and evident that it (may as well, probably has) come to life from the pages of a comic book... with all due respect, please keep on looking, you're sure to find lots of what you're looking for. But as regards slapping this up against Blade Runner or Star Wars... please don't. Leave it be.

This is on an entirely different plane. It is low-key, the dialog is mostly narrated, the story deliberately paced, as slowly unfolding as a bedtime story. Hint! This IS a bedtime story, of a kind that technology has given us the ability to produce, but is seldom produced. The plot is surprisingly realistic -- in fact it more closely tows the line with what we sincerely desire in the thing called 'reality'. The concept of forward-seeing planners catching sight of and resisting a foreseen future disaster -- a shortage of water that might result in emigration back to Earth -- this is the 'real' stuff heroes are made of.

The perspective and the beauty shots of the colony are simply awesome, inside and out. This is a beautiful film for children with a story they can grasp and understand. And adults too... if they find themselves hyped with boredom fast forwarding thru the movie to jump onto IMDb and lob a 'sucks' review at it... just perhaps, it is time to switch to Decaf.