I never thought I would say this, but given the option, I choose the new Michael Bay movie over Quentin Tarantino’s latest any day. While Bay’s sci-fi actioner Transformers is fast and titillating, whatever made Tarantino tick is definitely broken in his stupid-ass grindhouse pastiche Death Proof. There’s a fundamental difference between giving the audience [...]
Archive for the ‘Sci-fi’ Category
It Was Good While It Lasted
Posted in Sci-fi on October 10, 2006 |
A trio of dead scifi shows, led by ABC’s Invasion, has recently re-emerged on DVD, so allow me for a moment to ponder on the causes of their premature demise. As ever, science fiction reflects its context, and these one-season wonders – Invasion, Threshold and Surface — are no exception. Misused genetics, raging hurricanes and [...]
Brought Back
Posted in Sci-fi, Television on June 18, 2006 |
Call me a sucker, but I think The 4400 is shaping up to be a helluva show. What at first seemed like a soapy Taken ripoff — as in, Brought Back — turned into a minor sci-fi classic during its second season, which is now out on DVD. It’s not just that the writing is [...]
Goldfish country
Posted in Sci-fi on September 2, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
Life is weird. Just as I was finishing Lucifer’s Hammer, the 1977 Larry Niven / Jerry Pournelle epic about a comet strike that floods the entire planet, Katrina hit New Orleans, and now it’s as if the novel’s happening right there on the evening news.
Breaking the waves
Posted in Sci-fi on August 15, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
I just read a brilliant little book. It’s called A Journal of the Flood Year, and it’s by David Ely, who wrote Seconds, on which the classic John Frankenheimer thriller is based. This is a science fiction story, but only in as far as Haruki Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland or some of the weirder Paul Auster [...]
The Official Revenge of the Sith Post (with Absolutely No ‘Shit’ Jokes)
Posted in Fuck-ups, Sci-fi on August 10, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve never wanted to know what made Darth Vader a bad man. The beginnings of Batman have never given me the kicks, and I couldn’t care less if Superman grew up in Ulan Bator. Not because I’m not curious, but because I’ve always had my own ideas. The original Star Wars trilogy gave me enough [...]
Of Tripods and Men
Posted in Fuck-ups, Sci-fi on June 28, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
Watching War of the Worlds, the new film by Steven Spielberg, I felt exhilarated — and then, as always, let down, battered and bruised like the sucker that I am. Act I is brilliant. Of course, one would expect nothing less from the man who, in mere 20 minutes, redefined the way cinematic combat is [...]
