scifi

'Hancock' flies on Will Smith's super talent

2009-01-01T12:06:15-06:00

Hancock probably could not be considered anything more than a halfway decent scifi/fantasy movie if it weren't for Will Smith. The concept is interesting enough, but the storyline ends up falling a bit short, even compared with your basic superhero movies. Yet with Will Smith's performance, you almost don't notice.

Without spoilers, I feel safe noting the premise of the movie: Hancock (Will Smith) is a sloppy, careless guy with superhero powers. Smith makes this guy truly compelling, though. He's tragically lonely and hates his life so much he drinks heavily just to blot out the clear perception of it all. At times you almost want to cry for him. And that's all Smith.

In fact, I'd say that Will Smith's performance is more key to this movie than Robert Downey, Jr.'s performance is to Iron Man. There's plenty of humor in the story, but Smith actually plays it straight ... which of course makes it all the funnier.

Now I'll take a moment to note that Charlize Theron is one of my favorite actresses, so it should not surprise for me to say that she brings some fun to the movie. Charlize Theron is one of those actresses who brings a lot to even the smallest role. And yet she never tries to upstage anyone ... which of course makes her all the more compelling.

The Blu-ray is high quality. I didn't poke around much at the extras. If you're a Will Smith fan, then this is one to see. He does not disappoint.

Battlestar Galactica Season 4 premieres in a few hours

2008-04-03T23:38:13-05:00

I can hardly wait. Hence this tweet-length post.

Laura's unofficial sci-fi geek Lords of Kobol lineage DVD collection

2007-12-06T09:32:14-06:00

Some items are must-haves for any science fiction fan (and aren't all geeks and geekettes to some extent sci-fi fans?). We already know that Battlestar Galactica is the best show on television. Now we can celebrate not just this fabulous show in high-definition video, but those shows and movies that led to its creation (according to me -- Ron Moore may have different ideas).

Let's start at the top:

Battlestar Galactica - Season One [HD DVD]
If you've stumbled across the show broadcast in HDTV on the UHD cable channel, you know that Galactica is really something else when you can see all the detail.

Price: $69.95
Blade Runner (Five-Disc Complete Collector's Edition) [Blu-ray]
Caprica Six, meet your cinematic ancestors -- the angry existentialist Ray, the touchy Leon, the cheerfully desperate Pris and the ass-kicking Zora. And, of course, Rachel. (I couldn't be offering a spoiler on this 1977 movie, could I?) You have to wonder if we'd have Battlestar Galactica if we didn't have Blade Runner. Remastered, re-edited by Ridley Scott, this is the definitive edition.

Price: $27.95 for the 5-disc Blu-ray set, $66.95 for the Blade Runner (Five-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition) (aka the special edition with dead tree material added)
Firefly - The Complete Series
The mood of Galactica wouldn't be possible if it weren't for Firefly, which aired a few years before. This sci-fi classic series was ill-treated by the television, but lives on in gorgeous DVD video that upconverts very nicely, thank you.

If you haven't seen Firefly, you're in for a treat. These characters you will love -- they will be your friends for life. I swear!

Price: $39.99
Cowboy Bebop Remix, Volume 1
You couldn't have Firefly without Cowboy Bebop. This anime series manages to surprise you. And the music is pretty cool, too.

Price: $17.49

Happy Holidays, Space Cowboy!

This is part of a larger holiday geeky gift guide I posted on BlogHer.

Battlestar Galactica back in space

2006-10-22T21:16:48-05:00

I'm a little astonished — and I suppose I should be embarrassed, but I'm not — by how I behaved watching Battlestar Galactica this past Friday night. Exodus: Part 2 was one of the most exhilirating and most moving episodes of the entire series so far.

It was one of those episodes that makes the exceptional pilot miniseries — which I just saw again last night showing it to a friend who was a Babylon 5 fan but she never had seen any Galactica — almost pale by comparison.

Chris at Monolithic Sketchbook writes:

I was so worried at the end of the second season of Battlestar Galactica that the whole of season 3 was going to be Hogan's Heroes in space, only minus the comedy and 90% of the color. But so far, the writers have done nothing but surprise me at every turn. This week's episode Exodus: Part2 was one of the best episodes of the entire series, and set a new standard for TV visual effects.

* spoilers follow after the jump*

biggestron writes:

The “Exodus” conclusion was really the resolution of a cliff-hanger introduced at the end of Season 2 last spring, but it was done so well that it had me in tears at some points and shouting alone in my home at others. Moore kills off his characters, destroys his settings, and puts his surviving characters through hellish trials that all come across as entirely real while remaining compelling at the same time. This episode he apparently pulled out all the stops - he admitted in his podcast that he put himself in a financial hole doing the special effects for this 2-part episode - and it shows. If this episode does not win at least Hugo award I would be surprised.

Really, the whole show knocks other television shows of any genre out of the water, and this episode was a real topper.

James Bow writes:

I gasped when Galactica jumped into the atmosphere of New Caprica to launch its (very effective!) surprise attack.

That was the moment when I was jumping up and down, screaming. That was just amazing! It's screaming down, belly flat, blazing through the atmosphere. Vipers launch. And then the Galactica jumps away when only a few hundred feet above the surface, leaving in a cloud of vapor and a crack of thunder. I didn't see that coming. No way.

All the battle scenes in the series are excellently done, but this topped them all so far. —And I'm not one for the big effects stuff, mainly because it can get boring. As Claire says:

Not into space battles (though why wouldn't you be?)? Rest assured, there's lots of story and character development framing everything. There's some seriously cool drama afoot.

And that's what Battlestar Galactica is all about. Characters. Story. People.

Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money is one of a few bloggers who question the tactics that led to the destruction of the Pegasus, which, if a ship had to be destroyed, would have been preferable to the Galactica. Of course, they'd have to rename the series Battlestar Pegasus, which really doesn't have the same ring to it, so never mind that notion.

What really connected with me, though, was the ending of the episode. Tigh is clearly left haunted by what he did. And Starbuck — to have what you believe to be your child, a child you only reluctantly accepted but finally came to love, to have her suddenly taken away by the real mother....

The hangar deck is full of celebration. The crew carries Adama on their shoulders, a hero's honor. And though they've just escaped a horrific, brutal, Nazi-like occupation, where death was staring them in the face every day, both Tigh and Starbuck stand apart, isolated in their own loss, their own devastation. I cried both times I watched it. (Thank you, SciFi, for doubling up your airings.)

And for YouTubers out there, here's a pathetically low-res clip of what really must be seen in full broadcast, if not high-definition.

So you Galactica fans out there, here's a question: Is Starbuck pregnant? (Pic from Dark Thoughts.)

Battlestar Galactica getting Lost?

2006-10-07T12:36:02-05:00

Warning: Spoilers

After last night's season 3 opener, I'm a little concerned about my favorite show on television, "Battlestar Galactica." The show is starting to resemble "Lost," which from my perspective is not at all an improvement.

I'm not just talkling about the tents and stress monkeys in the jungle. It's the whole arbitrariness that comes across in sequence after sequence of surprises with very little tension. The show used to be terrific at building tension. Whether it's seizing the ore on a hostile asteroid or finding water or holding red alert for several days while Cylons continue to find the fleet within 33 minutes of arriving anywhere or two strong military commanders poised to take their ships into full battle against each other, the show built great anticipation of what was going to happen next.

Now we get surprises, not suspense. This happens, then this happens, then this happens. We see very little planning and feel very little of what the characters want -- which is very un-Battlestar Galactica. The show had been great at portraying all sorts of fascinating, complicated characters, which made for messing up the clean Good Guys/Bad Guys kinds of delineations that can make such shows boring. No, you found yourself sympathizing with a villain at times, disliking a hero at times -- because these were people. Even some of the Cylons were interesting people.

The Cylons have gotten boring now. Now, except for the Sharons and the now-deceased-soon-to-be-resurrected Caprica Six, they're one-dimensional Nazi caricatures. They're not even interesting interacting with each other, which strikes me as a missed opportunity.

Baltar is getting interesting again, though. (There's one villain who can be sympathetic.) I find myself wondering what he's going to do, now that he's gone and signed the death warrants of just about all of the rest of the cast.

On the upside, though, the performances are very good, despite the dull script. Oddly, it's the special guest stars who are most disappointing. Lucy Lawless' Number Three is truly despicable without really doing anything, which speaks to her talent as an actress, and Dean Stockwell is his usual charismatic self on screen, but his role is rather one-note as Cylon grand inquisitor, and Lucy has little to do but sneer at people. Here are these big stars, at least for the scifi/fantasy television realm, and they just don't seem to have much to do besides act as plot points and scenery.

Ultimately, though, what really bothers me is all this time spent on "New Caprica." Sorry, but just because "Lost" does the tent city thing doesn't mean Battlestar should emulate it.

Please, Ron Moore! It's not "Tent City Galactica"!

I'm not sure about this turn in the Starbuck storyline, either. Her love affair with the sports star was pretty boring, yes, but this mommy-prison stuff with the Cylon who has the creep sweats is on the dull side, too. Starbuck needs to move. Let her move! (Read IGN's Katie Sackhoff interview.)

I just hope Adama can mount a rescue and save the show. The first two seasons, which are now out on DVD, get better and better with each viewing. Galactica doesn't need to go back to the Twelve Colonies, but in my view the show needs to go back to its home, in space, in fascinating characters, searching for Earth.

For some other takes:

DougMcHone at CoffeeSwirls had his first viewing of the show:

So I sat down and expected some space battles, some intrigue, something entertaining. What I got was a heavily politicized show, with the Cylons being seen as an occupying force and the humans seen as the heroic insurgency. There was talk of torture and rape against the insurgents and the Cylons said that they just wanted the humans to accept their way of life so everything could be better for all parties.

He blames "the liberal media." For more amusingly silly political takes, there are PostWatch's outrage at DCBlues' equally silly take on the new season, and Devilstower's interpretation that Americans are Cylons. Really, in this day and age of cracking the human genome, if there's a "bigger message" to take away from Battlestar Galactica, it's the question of what makes us human (though I confess that the torture that's been used in many episodes throughout the show, by heroes and villains alike, has proven to be rather timely, alas). As for New Caprica standing in for Iraq -- sorry, I just don't see it. But if you look at the posts out there, there seems to be a lot of political angst about his show. It's a political season, I guess.

Update: Galactica is really back now.

Women kicking butt in Aeon Flux

2006-09-24T22:22:37-05:00

Warning: Spoilers. (Not much, but hey, I warned you.)

So I saw Aeon Flux on DVD the other night. Given the mediocre reviews and lack of box-office love the film, um, enjoyed, I really didn't expect much. I wanted to see it mainly because of the production design I saw in the commercials. And because of Charlize Theron. And (okay okay) because I'm something of a scifi nut.

What I didn't quite expect was the heart of the story being driven by female characters. As you know, the norm in sci-fi movies is to have maybe a couple of interesting, perhaps powerful women who have their moments of personal power, but in the decisive cumination leave matters to the (male) hero. Not so in this movie. Aeon is unmistakeably the motivator of just about all the action here, and she's the one who comes through again and again, all the way up to the conclusion. (And, for the most part, the other major action characters are women as well.)

Charlize Theron brings a lot of presence to her performance. Her intensity practically leaps off the screen right at you. You can see it even in the NLE exports (i.e., raw out of the editing system) used in the making-of featurettes on the DVD. She doesn't phone in the performance, like some actors would in a similar movie, and she doesn't go for the easy campy out. She plays it straight, and as a result she carries this movie. Without her and the wonderful-yet-minimalist production values, this would be yet another forgettable B-movie you see only on the Internet Movie Database but never in the store, let alone theatres.

She's also astonishingly graceful in what is an extremely physical performance. I imagine the guys will appreciate her outfits even more. Very skin-tight, boys. But I thought more interesting was what she does, and how she does it. Aeon is a character of intention and purpose -- which, of course, is perfect for a story where all the certainties are not quite what they seem.

Still, first and foremost it's an action movie. The culmination isn't all that unusual. Explosions, guns -- lots of guns (though not the orgy The Matrix offers).

No, Aeon Flux is not a scifi classic. But it's a heckuva lot better than most of the stuff that passes for scifi on the big screen these days. And it's nice to see a women's vision of the future, without the usual phallic imagery and gizmo obsession. (I assume the fact that the producer, director, storyboard artist and star are women plays into that.) It's worth seeing, in my book.

Unfortunately, the website is yet another web 1.0 wonder, replete with Flash domination, un-asked-for music (so don't go there with your speakers turned up, or you'll rattle your monitor off the desk) and the usual brochure-ware offerings. If it weren't for some deliberate search-results skewing by Google, I doubt the site would even merit any pagerank. (Too many generations of website cloning, it seems. Wink wink. It'll make sense if you've seen the movie.)

Star Trek: Stale special effects? Or gay soap opera?

2006-09-15T18:00:48-05:00

This little gem turned up as the top video in Technorati this morning.

Hardcore fans will recognize the episodes, but compiling it all here adds a new dimension of whimsical fun.

Do I really think Star Trek: TOS has a hidden homosexual agenda? Of course not. (I hope not. William Shatner is just too cute in the 1960s.)

But given Paramount's tassled-loafer inspiration of re-doing all the special effects in the classic series, they're almost begging for slashy and other take-offs. If they don't respect their own cultural treasures, why should anyone else?

Meanwhile, regarding the rumors of William Shatner's participation in a rumored Star Trek prequel, TrekWeb quotes "Bill Shatner" from WilliamShatner.com:

"I know nothing except that where there's rumblings there's gas, and in this case the gas is coming from J.J. Abrams and none of it seems to be directed in my direction. If any gas comes my way, I will post it immediately and you all will know. Until then, hold your breath -- because this gas is odiferous."

On that movie, Lance Mannion has an interesting take -- except for the part about Leonardo DiCaprio as Christopher Pike. Noooooo! The star of The Beach should stay far away from Star Fleet Academy (though maybe he'd be okay as a Romulan).

Special effects: The Final Frontier

2006-09-05T09:54:25-05:00

Why is it that the studios cannot leave enough alone? Apparently, Star Trek: The Original Series (ST:TOS to Trekkers and Trekkies out there [I'm of the latter, thank you very much]) is getting a makeover, not only being remastered for HDTV but also getting all the effects shots redone.

There's no direct link to the email update I received, so I will simply quote from the SciFi news page the entire PR blurb:

The original 1960s Star Trek series will receive a high-tech makeover and return to broadcast syndication for the first time in 16 years, with digitally remastered episodes, Paramount announced. In honor of the show's 40th anniversary, CBS Domestic Television is releasing all 79 episodes with new special effects and music on 200 stations, beginning Sept. 16. The first batch of episodes will be chosen from a list of fan favorites.

The original special effects will be replaced with computer-generated images, including the exterior of the Starship Enterprise, based on the exact measurements of the original model, now resting in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The main title sequence will also be redone with new effects and a new digital stereo soundtrack re-recorded by an orchestra and a female singer. William Shatner's classic original recording of the 38-word "Space, the final frontier ..." monologue has been remastered and continues to open each episode.

All of the space scenes, alien landscapes and ships—including the Romulan Bird of Prey and Klingon Battle Cruisers—will be updated as well. The remastered episodes have been converted from the original film into a high-definition format, which gives viewers a clearer, crisper, more vibrant picture, even when viewed in standard definition.

Will the Star Trek series ever be the same?

Looking at the revisionist releases of Star Wars and its sequels, with not only "new" effects but entirely new (boring) scenes added and even replacement of the actor playing the Emperor (though the new Emperor was good), I worry that the original Original Series will be lost to the dustbin of history.

It's really a shame, since part of the real charm of ST:TOS is how it's so much a product of its time -- the miniskirts, the overt paternalism and chauvinism, the actors so young and vivid ... and, yes, the dated special effects, which really aren't all that bad, when it comes down to it.

Will "updating" the Romulan ships add anything to Star Trek? Will making our dear, beloved Enterprise NCC-1701 fly more like Picard's Enterprise and fire photon torpedoes with new CG subtlety seem like a modern show?

Will re-recording the title music help, or make the show seem alien to fans?

Maybe I'm just too much the geek. After reading Herb Solow and Robert Justman's book on how Star Trek was made totally on the cheap, I can appreciate the vigor and charm of the show even more. This decision by the tassled loafer set in Paramount to "update" Trek leaves me feeling uneasy....

...and wanting to rush to Best Buy and snap up those current box sets of the series before they're lost to the Orwellian world of special effects updates.

For a more sarcastic take: Blowing Smoke.

For TOS prequel movie casting news: The Houston Chronicle.