Release date: 28th Oct 2013 (US) / 25th Oct 2013 (UK) Director: Gavin Hood Starring: Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin The original novel, “Ender’s Game” is an extremely popular book, loved by both hardened scifi fans and other readers alike. Needless to say that when it was announced that there was a $100m+ film adaptation […]

Our first film review this year is for a film which I very nearly passed by. I was aware that the 2004 novel “Cloud Atlas” by David Mitchell had been a success amongst scifi readers (and the literary world in general) but was cynical about a film adaptation, believing it would be messy, convoluted and confusing. If I left the review there, it would be pretty accurate, but in retrospect it has made much more of an impact than I initially thought.

Dealing with religion in works of science fiction can be a tricky subject – after all, who can predict the complex and unpredictable patterns of culture in a matter so integral to the human psyche? Or what kind of funny robes they'll wear?