Netflix Instant Movie Reviews- The History of Future Folk
Review
It's like Flight of the Conchords if Bret and Jemaine were from another planet.
The History of Future Folk is about an alien named General Trius who crash lands on Earth with intent to conquer it, but instead winds up falling in love with music and starting a folk band. Just thought I'd throw a quick summary out there since it was enough to get me watching this one, but please, if you require more assurances, feel free to read the rest of this review.
A lot of independently made movies suffer from a very specific syndrome: awesome concept coupled with poor execution. Hyper-aware of the comedic potential for Future Folk's concept, I kept my expectations low, and was pleasantly surprised.
Watching Future Folk is like watching a family film at first. General Trius has taken on a human identity and fathered a child with his human wife (don't ask how that biology works). He has a boring day job and tells his daughter stories of his home planet Hondo before bed, as if it were an imaginary place. It becomes clear fairly quickly that Hondo is real, and that General Trius is still trying to save his fellow Hondonians from a mass extinction event approaching their planet.
The pacing of the plot is excellent. It feels like a sci-fi thriller, but with a comedic sense of timing, and scenes of meaningful character development blended in. The two main characters are very endearing and have great on-screen chemistry, even though they have essentially polar opposite personalities.
Visually the movie is nothing special. Effects are used sparingly, and grade just above “not terrible-looking”. Don't go in expecting that because there are aliens, there will be all kinds of amazing tech and weird science going on. There's a little, but it's very minor and doesn't merit an explanation for the audience.
The best part of this movie was the music. I immediately wanted to download the soundtrack after watching it. The songs were catchy and fun, sometimes worth a laugh, and other times more serious.
Bottom line: This movie has a ton of heart, way more than I would ever have expected from an offbeat sci-fi comedy. Definitely worth a watch if you are in the mood for some quirky humor.
