28 posts tagged “science fiction”
I couldn't find the right movie poster, so the one to the left is for an animated feature, not for the new movie with Robert Downey Jr. As most people who have seen this have said, the movie is a very fun ride. Downey's performance made the character compelling, and the high-tech eye candy was a lot of fun.
Overacting, really bad stage fighting, and laughable costumes (like anything made in 1973), but you gotta love it. I borrowed this from a friend because I hadn't seen it in years and Strix had never seen it. Watching it again makes me want to read the book it was (loosely) based on, Make Room Make Room, by Harry Harrison.
This morning while waiting for the plumber, I finished The Amber Spyglass, the third book in the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, by Philip Pullman, the series which started with The Golden Compass.
I was, unfortunately, mildly disappointed with this ending to the imaginitive series about multiple worlds and an eternal struggle between control and freedom. This book was imaginitive and did tie up the loose ends, but somehow dissatisfying. It is perhaps because after much anticipation, some of the solutions seemed a little too easy, a little too pat, and a little too much like Pullman was tired of his own material.
That also seems evident in how scattered this book was, running in different directions and not really sticking to the central story.
Still, overall I enjoyed the series and would recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy or science fiction.
Remember, remember, the Fifth of November
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot
I know of no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Set in the not too distant future, V for Vendetta is the story of a masked man who takes on a totalitarian regime which has taken over Britain. It is Guy Fawkes vs. 1984. It's a very powerful story, and the backstory of how the world came to be the way it is unfolds throughout. It isn't often you are brought by a story to root for the terrorist, but V does it.
The language is high, and the story makes you think. It is not a story for those who don't wish to consider that the world we live in is not as we perceive it, or to believe that we can be manipulated by those we trust to lead us in the face of national tragedy.
The Lost Room is a Sci-Fi Channel mini-series, which usually doesn't bode well, but my mother, who's here to visit for the week, saw the first part of it and said it was good, and Strix picked up a copy cheap on Black Friday.
After watching all several hours of it, I'll say that it's not only good, but very good, but ultimately dissatisfying. It seems clear by how nothing is tied together at the end of the miniseries that this was meant to be a pilot for a TV series. The loose ends are too purposeful and conspicuous. Still, it's worth watching, I think.
The idea is that something supernatural happened in a hotel room in 1961 that caused all of the objects in the room to take on magical properties. Some of these magical properties are highly useful, and some are not. Combining the objects causes new properties to emerge.
A sizable but secretive number of individuals are seeking the objects, which have become scattered across the U.S. and presumably around the world, to some extent. Two distinct factions exist. One faction wishes to destroy the objects, thinking that they are too dangerous to allow to exist. Considering that the objects are indestructable, it is never explained how they plan on accomplishing this. Another thinks that if they collect all the objects and restore the room, they will be able to communicate with God. There's no explanation as to why they believe this, except that the objects all have mystical powers.
The main character is a police detective, who inadvertantly comes across one of the 100 or so objects, the key to the motel room. The power of the key is that no matter what door you use it to open, it takes you into an alternate-universe version of the motel room, mostly devoid of the objects. Then, willing to be anywhere in the world, opening the door again will lead you to that location, so long as there's a doorway there. The implications are interesting and well explored in the mini-series, which is well-written, well-directed, imaginative, and displays some admirable acting.
My only complaint is that the story isn't complete, and apparently Sci-Fi Channel, in their usual display of stupidity, chose not to pick it up as an ongoing series. Thanks again, Sci-Fi.
My mother is here for the next ten days, visiting, and in honor of her being here we bought the first season of the Heroes TV series. I hadn't seen any of it, yet, but she thought I'd like it. I've just watched the first ten episodes in a row, so suffice it to say I like it. It's the best TV since Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Where is the farthest you have ever been away from home? Did you get homesick?
Submitted by Melissa.
I once astral-projected into the Large Megellanic Cloud, where time was dilated due to the fact that the cloud is moving away from the Milky Way, and spent millenia fighting Xarlacon, a galactic tyrant, and his interstellar army of zombie cyborgs. I was homesick for a time, but after a few decades came to know the planet of Kralatal as my home, and it was really my home after I defeated the Rylik Empire and was crowned the Galactic Benefactor. It's hard to be homesick when you're ruling in peace and harmony from a diamond throne for five hundred years.
Now, it's not that I'm sorry to be back on Earth, but sometimes I miss my royal cook's version of Palantool soup. It's hard to get the seasoning right when the leaves of Qwelintine trees just aren't available here.
Now, aren't you glad you asked?
I'm sick today, so here's a post from the past. Originally posted on my old blog on May 13, 2006:
Okay, I didn't actually watch Overdrawn at the Memory Bank. I watched the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode featuring Overdrawn at the Memory Bank. I saw part of the movie on the Sci-Fi Channel once, and thought that it had some interesting concepts in it, but it was extremely poorly written and had terrible production value. Now I know why: it was actually produced by a public broadcasting station in New York! How they ever got Raul Julia to star in it, I haven't the faintest idea.
On a side note, this movie is not on the Internet Movie Database Bottom 100 List, though its score is low enough. Apparently, made-for-TV movies aren't eligible. It has the same user-rating score as It's Pat, which is my vote fo the worst movie ever made, at 2.3 out of 10 stars.
I'm taking an on-line instructor certification class, and there is a section in it about pencil-and-paper scenario problems. It gave an example, and then I was required to go ahead and answer the example. Here's the question, paraphrased:
Your spaceship has crashlanded on Planet Omega-5, in the Beta Quadrant. Everyone is okay, but your ship is smashed up, and you are stranded. A scout ship is due to fly near the planet in four days, but after that it won't come again for five years.
After salvaging what you can from the wreckage, you find that you have the following items:
- A sheet of aluminum, 4 feet by 12.
- A coil of copper wiring.
- Spacesuits for everyone in your team.
- Two months' supply of food and water.
- A first-aid kit.
- A clipboard and paper.
- A rubber raft with an outboard motor.
- 12-Volt batteries.
- 24-Volt batteries.
- A laptop computer.
- Your ship's mascot, Bob (a dog).
So, tell us your plan for signaling the scout ship.
I've already written and submitted my answer for the class. You tell me your answer in the comments, and I'll tell you my answer later.
They're making a movie of The Time Traveler's Wife, and I sincerely hope that, since this is one of my favorite books, they don't screw it up.
Rachel McAdams is set to play Clare, the title role, and Eric Bana for Henry. I don't know much about McAdams, but Bana seems to be a good actor with the "intense" aspect that would be needed for the role. I'm a little more concerned about relatively untried director Robert Schwentke, whose only major English-language film was Flightplan. Does he have what it takes to do this very challenging story right on the big screen? I guess time will tell.
