I was so pleased to discover this gem.
There are two equally wonderful looking environments on this faraway-from-Earth planet. One is the stark, arid, mostly rocky area on which our stranded family of refugees crash-lands, where they create an orderly array of shelters from a bare-bones terrain that offers precious little in the way of building materials. And eventually they come to the second where earlier successful colonists landed intact and unfolded clean modern structures with comfortably rounded edges amongst a tropical paradise.
Then there is the story and the scripts. There are marvelously introspective scenes written for both the android parents and the human children, great dialogs and great monologues for all. They explore various important aspects of the mental and social evolution of human and humanoid species.
Special effects are as good as you would expect them to be from Ridley Scott. And thankfully, they are also few and far between as the focus is deliberately kept more on the characters, their development and interactions.
Finally, the cast is terrific. Not a lot of known names in it, but the unknowns shine. Travis Fimmel is thoroughly and appropriately creepy, altho you do have to frequently overlook the fact that he is the only cast member who has a noticeably American accent while the rest have noticeably UK accents. And it's easy to forget that minor quibble when stunning Amanda Collin is onscreen as the fierce and usually decisive lioness Mother droid, or when Abubakar Salim brings his gentle humor to the ethically thoughtful pacifistic Father droid. Niamh Algar is both tragic and heroic as the human medical officer; and Winta McGrath is brilliant as the boy being asked to grow into adult skills and responsibilities and understanding of the worlds he came from and has been thrust into far sooner than most boys usually are. The rest of the child cast is also excellent.
If all that is not enough for you, yes, eventually, there is also a version of a dragon.
It's easy to fall in love with this story and these characters whether you are a fan of the sci-fi genre or not. Enjoy.
There are two equally wonderful looking environments on this faraway-from-Earth planet. One is the stark, arid, mostly rocky area on which our stranded family of refugees crash-lands, where they create an orderly array of shelters from a bare-bones terrain that offers precious little in the way of building materials. And eventually they come to the second where earlier successful colonists landed intact and unfolded clean modern structures with comfortably rounded edges amongst a tropical paradise.
Then there is the story and the scripts. There are marvelously introspective scenes written for both the android parents and the human children, great dialogs and great monologues for all. They explore various important aspects of the mental and social evolution of human and humanoid species.
Special effects are as good as you would expect them to be from Ridley Scott. And thankfully, they are also few and far between as the focus is deliberately kept more on the characters, their development and interactions.
Finally, the cast is terrific. Not a lot of known names in it, but the unknowns shine. Travis Fimmel is thoroughly and appropriately creepy, altho you do have to frequently overlook the fact that he is the only cast member who has a noticeably American accent while the rest have noticeably UK accents. And it's easy to forget that minor quibble when stunning Amanda Collin is onscreen as the fierce and usually decisive lioness Mother droid, or when Abubakar Salim brings his gentle humor to the ethically thoughtful pacifistic Father droid. Niamh Algar is both tragic and heroic as the human medical officer; and Winta McGrath is brilliant as the boy being asked to grow into adult skills and responsibilities and understanding of the worlds he came from and has been thrust into far sooner than most boys usually are. The rest of the child cast is also excellent.
If all that is not enough for you, yes, eventually, there is also a version of a dragon.
It's easy to fall in love with this story and these characters whether you are a fan of the sci-fi genre or not. Enjoy.