Ant-Man spoiler free movie review

Behold, in the year of our lord 2015 a hero will emerge that may at first go unnoticed because of his stature.  Word will spread of his deeds and his renown will grow!


Saw Ant-Man this weekend.  Let me tell you, it was great.  I think I enjoyed it more than age of Ultron.  It just hit the right note.  I am not a huge Ant-Man comics fan.  I did read the Scott Lang origin story and an issue where he gets a job working for Tony Stark.  Classic Ant-Man was never really my thing, though.  I worried about Marvel's ability to put up a hero that would be believable in a battle against super-powered opponents.  I saw the movie because I trust Marvel.  They have not abused that trust to this point. 


This movie should have come out on Father's Day weekend as Fatherhood is a huge theme in this movie.  It covers absent fathers, distant fathers, step fathers, father figures, and redemption.  I think it handles the relationships pretty realistically, even in the context of and separated from realism, comic book universe. 


The action was amazing. They really surprised me with how they handled the fight choreography and the use of Ant-Man's powers.  They managed to make the combatants in the fight completely serious and still infuse humor into the fight scenes.  In the climactic fight scene you don't get the Spider-man, I am not really taking this seriously, banter (that is fine for Spidey, it his thing).  The characters are fighting and it feels like a fight,  hate on one side, and a defensive attitude on the other, lightened up by secondary scenes and plays on setting.  This created the perfect tone. 


Go see this movie, heck, take your dad to see this movie, you both will enjoy it immensely.  If you don't have a dad, take someone else's.  My girls took me, and the movie was all the better for it. 

Movies you can't not watch

Every so often while flipping through channels, I will stop on a movie I have seen so many times before.  The rythemic clicking of the remote pauses and eventually the remote goes down and I watch the movie again.  The wife will always ask why I am watching the movie again.  I guess I should come up with some answers. 


Starship Troopers-  Yes, the acting is horrible, and yes, Denise Richards went off the deep end and even looking back wasn't really that great.  Yes, the action sequences are unbelievable and amazingly cheesy (flip six three hole, come on!).  No, the movie is not like the book, but that might have to do with a generic alien bug movie being proposed to the studio and them saying to add some dialogue and change the name to Starship Troopers.  Despite all of that, it is an amazingly fun movie.  When the in movie commercial about joining up comes on and asks if I would like to learn more, I always think that I would and wish that I could push the button on my TV.  Regardless of everything going against it, the movie works and just feels right.  Would you like to learn more?


300- This is just an awesome guy movie.  The sound track is guitars, it is narrated by a guy with an eyepatch, it has amazing fight scenes and cool monsters.  I don't really think I need to defend myself on this move that much, but one final thing.  Before the movie is over, you will see a god bleed. 


Flash Gordon-  Maybe it is the Queen soundtrack, but this movie is a non stop joy ride.  Nostalgia may play a part in this one as I remember watching it all the time when I was a kid as well.  Flash was awesome, from playing football in Ming's hall to making friends with the hawkmen and flying in on the flying motorcycle, this movie is non stop.  The Chick that plays Ming's daughter is amazing as well.  They don't show this on TV enough.  Plus, Flash is going save everyone of us. 

What are your favorite, can't help but stop and watch movies?

Nineties BlogFest

Dave over at "Dave Wrote This" is hosting the 90s Blogfest today and we are participating.  So here are my entries for favorites of the the years 90-99.  I will list a book, movie, and maybe a bonus category. 

1990-Arnold rocked the theater in Total Recall.  A film that taught us that three is better than two and how to file for divorce.  I have been meaning to read Dan Simmons novel Hyperion for years.  I really need to and that makes my choice for the year.  Bonus goes to Back to the Future III for finishing the series strong

1991-  Orson Scott Card continues the Ender series with Xenocide.  Arnold promised us he would be back and he was with a vengence in Terminator 2.  I loved TV in 1991 and a gem that gets overlooked is the fox show Herman's Head. 

1992-  Vernor Vinge is now a household name (wait, he isn't, but in my house...Oh, I have a bunch of geeks in my house) anyway, this is the year that Vinge published Fire Upon the Deep.  In movies we suffered through Alien 3 and Lawnmower man, but get Universal Soldier as payment.  Huge X-men crossover with executionor's song where we find out cable has been cloned.  This was in order to double the number of pouches and therefore double Rob Leifeild's income.
 
1993-Sure Jurassic Park overshadowed them but, Army of Darkness and Batman: Mask of the Phantasm came out this year.  Kim Stanley Robinson was rocking the world with his mars series.  On TV we see the Saved by the Bell Graduation and The premier of Beavis and Butthead.

1994-  So, Street Fighter wasn't exactly what we were expecting.  But generations were gapped in the first next generation move Generations.  Generations.  Generetions.  No books really tickled my fancy this year, but maybe I am missing a good one let me know.  On TV, Babylon 5.  I didn't catch it until many years later, but wow, just wow.
 

1995-  AOA, that is right Age of Apocalypse.  Most crossovers suck, but Marvel showed us how to do it right as Bishop, a man displaced in time, explores a world where Charles Xavier is killed before he can form the X-Men.  Not to overshadow this at all, but Neal Stephenson had been working on his own masterpiece, Diamond Age.  Oh yeah and you might have heard of a little movie from Japan called Ghost in the Shell. 

1996- You may have missed my favorite movies this year because you were watching Vampirella and Leprachaun 4, but I liked Black Mask and Mars Attacks much better.  It isn't a book published in 1996 but I read The Hobbit, LOTR, and Watership Down for second times this year.  X-Files and Sliders were happening over on Fox. 

1997-Welcome to the world Buffy, I enjoy your show and your scooby gang.  Before it was a hit HBO show, George R. R. Martin was publishing a book with the title Game of Thrones.  In the movies, take your choice of Event Horizon, Fifth Element, and Gattaca, not to mention Starship Troopers. 

1998-Two sleeper hits from this year were Dark City and Soldier.  In books we get new Vinge and new Martin, unfortunately Martin did not keep this pace for future books.  Pokemon invaded America. 

1999- Yeah Galaxy Quest and Matrix, but I want to talk about Iron Giant, Existenz, and the 13th Floor.  What, you haven't seen any of these movies.  Do yourself a favor and have a way awesome party like it is 1999 movie party.  Check out Cryptomonomicon by Neal Stephenson while you are partying.  DS9 goes off the air but I wasn't watching because Farscape was rocking my world. 

This list makes me feel old.  Did I miss your faves or do you agree with mine?  Let me know in the comments. Be sure to sign up for my Scare Me! Blogfest happening on Halloween.  

Hanna-2011

What is a Hanna movie review doing on a science fiction blog, you might ask.  The rude answer would be that I can put up a review of whatever I want, but the better answer is that there is a science fiction element to this movie.  I won’t give away what that is, but I am sure most people can figure it out pretty early in the movie. 

The plot-  Think Bourne Identity but with a 14 year old girl.  While the concept wasn’t completely original, I am looking at you Cassandra Cain: Batgirl, it was a deviation from your normal Bourne thriller.  It is more of a surface type movie as if you stop and think about any one part too much it will start to break down.  For example, the father hides the truth from her.  While it creates tension between the characters and sets Hanna up for the hero’s journey, it just doesn’t make sense for him to do that.  His goal for her would better be achieved if Hanna knew the whole truth.  But the movie moves along at a fast enough pace that you don’t really think about things like that while you are watching it. 

The Acting-  Saorise and the incredible Hulk due a pretty good job in this one.  The little British girl made me want to jump in the screen and throttle her, so I guess she was playing her part dead on.  The actors were all pretty good and well directed. 

The Action-  Some of the best fight choreography I have seen in a movie.  They tried to make the fight scenes as realistic as possible it seems and they succeeded for the most part. 

Overall it was a fun movie.  I watched with the wife and oldest daughter.  It is rated PG-13 for violence and it seemed fine for my oldest.  I would say 10+.  Give this a watch if you enjoyed Bourne, Soldier, or Cassandra Cain Batgirl.  My 10 year old gets bonus points for calling the last line of the movie.  I saw it coming too, but she called it out loud. 

Thankskilling

There just aren’t that many movies about Thanksgiving, especially horror movies.  Thankskilling aimed to change that.  I guess what was made could be called a movie, so, in that way, they succeeded.  I had heard so bad it is good things about this movie for a while.  It was horrible yes, but did this make it good?  Yeah, It kind of did.  The acting was horrible, the camera work wasn’t great, the turkey was horribly fake, but it looked like everyone was having a great time.  The plot was horrible and I especially love that the kids survive the night only for the Turkey to steal a car and track them down.  This movie wasn’t even trying to take itself seriously. 

It isn’t rated, but it is easily an R movie.  So children and pregnant women should not watch it. 

The Noughties

I would normally link to Dave Wrote This instead of giving the URL of http://davewrotethis.blogspot.com/2011/10/announcing-noughties-blogfest.html, but alas I am updating from work due to lack of proper planning on my part.  The image would also normally by hyperlinked and probably will get that treatment in the near future.  Enough excuses from me; on to the list. 

I will be listing what I believe was the best Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror film or book  for each year. 

2000-  You know Pitch Black came out of nowhere to be way cooler than a really cool, waited for it all my life X-Men movie, Fantasy would be Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and over in Japan a little movie called Ju On was making waves in the horror genre.    Book-I Think A Deepness in the Sky just slips past Cryptonomicon.

2001-  Donnie Darko fits all categories on movie, special mention to Spirited Away.    Book-  I am tempted to give it Martin and his Song of Ice and Fire entry, but Clarke gets an honorary for 2001 here. 

2002-  Equilibrium, is the Sci-Fi film of the year, but look for Imposter as well. Fantasy- LOTR; TTT.  Horror Bubba Hotep.  Book-  I think American Gods does a pretty good job representing this year.

2003-  Not a great year, But X2 tops the list for SciFi.  Fantasy-Big Fish, hands down.  Horror-It wasn’t an awesome year hear and I have not seen Wrong Turn, but that is considered the best on offer.  Books-I say you go with Kiln People by David Brin. 

2004-  Spiderman 2, but I almost went with Eternal Sunshine… or Butterfly Effect.  Fantasy-  House of Flying Daggers.  Horror-  Goes to the Dawn of the Dead Remake and special guest star of Infection a Japanese movie.  Book- Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, hands down. 

2005-  Serenity.  Fantasy-Mirror Mask.  Horror- The Descent.  Book-HP Half Blood Prince, but I am reading Never Let Me Go right now, so…

2006-  Children of Men, Fantasy- Pan’s Labyrinth, Horror- The Host (Korean).  Book  Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi

2007-  The Last Mimzy.  Fantasy-300, pure awesome.  Horror-Grindhouse double feature.    Book-World War Z, Max Brooks. 

2008-  It wasn’t Tokyo Gore Police, but might be Iron Man.  Fantasy-The Tale of Despereaux.  Horror-Let the Right One In.  Book-. Anathem, Neal Stephenson

2009- Moon.  Fantasy-The Lovely Bones.  Horror-Drag Me to Hell but also watch The Orphan.  Book- The Wind Up Girl, Bacigalupi, really the best book of the year, in my opinion. 

Hope you enjoyed the list.  I haven’t seen or read everything and welcome your input on glaring omissions. 

10 worst SciFi/Fantasy/Comic book movies

Today, Alex Cavanaugh is hosting the 10  worst movies Blogfest.  As my sight is themed, so shall be my list.  I could almost fill the entire list with comic book movies from the 90s, but I think I will stick to one obvious choice.  So here we go.

10.  Roger Corman's Fantastic Four-  This one apparently was never meant for human consumption.  The studios paid Corman to film this low budget hokefest so that they could retain the film rights.  The new Corman could do it for under a hundred bucks, so they wouldn't be losing much money.  I feel sorry for Corman, then I remember all the schlock he has produced and feel better.  None of the actors new what was going on either, though.  I do feel sorry for them.  Not lower on the list due to never being released.  You might also like the 90s Captain America Movie, the 90's Justice League movie, or eighties tv Spider-man movies.

9.  Catwoman-  While we are on comic books lets look at one of the biggest disappointments of all time.  Halle Barry is very hot and she has been able to act outside of comic book movies.  When it was announced that this vixen was going to play Catwoman, I think every fanboy was looking forward to it.  Then the movie turned out to not be a movie about The Catwoman and just a movie loosely based on the comic book character.  By loosely based, I mean she had a similar costume.

8.  Roland Emmerich movies in the past decade-  Of all of the ones that I have seen, Eight Legged Freaks was the best and belongs nowhere on this list,  10,000 BC, Day After Tomorrow, and 2012 are all crap though.  I mean they are all spectacles to behold as they are beautiful high budget films, but this just goes to show you that you do need a well written story and good direction.  And an editor.  And scientific consultants.

7.  The Happening/Avatar-    I will admit that I was an M. Night apologist.  I even kind of like Lady in the Water a little, sort of.  But, the happening was total crap and it was supposed to be horror and it was just dumb and we had watched it right after being disappointed in sweeney todd at Halloween scary movie fest.  Avatar-The last Airbender shoves entire season of awesomeness into one two hour movie.  Who whould have thought that the parts they cut out would have been what made it awesome.  Well that filme franchise is dead.

6.  Sweeney Todd-  I know some people loved this movie, but I was not one of them.  It was horrible.  I hope that Bonheim-Carter, Depp, and Tim Burton never work together again.  Please!

5.  The Transformers Franchise-  My immediate response was that I liked the first movie.  But then I made the mistake of thinking about it.  I have never watched this movie a second time.  I have not seen the third movie but it is going to be available on DVD about 3 months after hitting theaters and that is never a good sign.  The second may be the worst of the three as it made absolutely no sense.  A huge complaint of mine is how over complicated the robots where.  I couldn't tell what the heck was going on.

4.  The new Nightmare on Elm Street-  Hey, I have an idea, lets get that guy from the watchman to play freddy!  Turns out they also needed a guy from the watchman to write a movie.  How do you remake an iconic 1980's slasher film in order to relaunch the franchise?  Not like this.  Again, they threw money at it in the hopes that people wouldn't notice the writing.  How much do writers make, it can't be that much.

3.  Starship Troopers 3-  I loved the book and the movie for Starship Troopers.  The second movie, while disappointing wasn't that bad, but the third movie is a disaster.  Oddly, they first movie is my favorite and it is the only one I don't own, as I have a penchant for picking up really bad movies.

2.  Mortal Combat Annihilation and Uwe Boll video game movies-  Video game movies are another genre you could almost fill the list with or even just Uwe Boll movies in general, but let us not give him any more time and move on to the movie that Annihilated the Mortal Combat film franchise.  MK2 was following up on the successful MK1 movie.  The only people that went to see this film were people, like me, who played the game and liked the first movie.  I honestly asked for my money back (they said no).  It was the only movie I ever went to that people got up and left in the middle and didn't come back.

1.  Necropolis- I picked this one up out of a bargain bin on VHS.  It might be the worst movie ever made, but that does give it some entertainment value.  All those people trying to bring back the 80s should check out this movie and realize what they are really trying to bring back.  I gave this movie away and it was given away again by that person.  I imagine that this movie is making the rounds and one day, you too may get the chance to view it.  Just a little preview of the horribleness.  A witch trying to raise the dead has demon servents and she has to grow additional breasts so she may feed them.  No kidding.  So bad, you have to see it.

Be sure to check out the other blogfesters!

MIT lists the 5 worst (hard) Scifi movies evar

The prequel "The Day Before Tomorrow" didnt do so well.

For the whole story check out MIT's Technology Review for what they found wrong with these movies and a cringeworthy line from each.  Their list is as follows:

5.  2012
4.  The Lawnmower Man
3.  Day after Tomorrow
2.  The Core
1.  Mission to Mars

I have seen all of these except The Core.  I will have to say that Mission to Mars was my favorite of the bunch.  I think its scores went down with the MIT crowd because the film makers were promoting it as being scientifically acurate before it came out.  I am not sure that Lawnmower man belongs on this list as I am not sure how "hard" it is.  The short story that it is based on is really good and has absolutely nothing to do with the movie. 

How We Watch Movies

The new format is dead, long live the new format!

Several years ago, I stopped listening to CDs.  Well, except for occasionally in the car.  You see, I got an MP3 player and just put my entire song catalog on my computer.  Today, I wouldn't even think of purchasing music in store.  Tower Records and several other records stores are out of business because I wasn't the only one to think this way. 

I will not buy a blue ray player because I see the same thing happening with movies.  I have an HDMI cable running from my HD capable video card to my HDTV.  The DVD's I do have, have been backed up on hard drive.  Memory is so cheap.  With cload computing, I won't even have to waste space on my personal drive and my library will be available wherever I happen to be.  Netflix will stream on my computer, or over my computer through my HDMI cable to my TV, or over my Wii to my TV.  Blockbuster is dead and FYE might be next.

I see a world where TVs are connected to the internet and physical copies of movies are just wasted space.  Currently my DVD player is kind of sucky and makes the movies too dark, so I copy everything on to my hard drive and watch them using my computer over my TV.  I don't have to pull out my DVD boxes and shuffle through cases to get what I want.  I don't have to worry about the disc being dirty or scratched.  I don't have to worry about a disc not being in its case or putting it back when I am done.  So, Why would I spend money on a Bluray player? 

Machine Girl-A to Z

Have you ever watched a movie and thought, "this needs more blood spray?" Then the Machine Girl is for you. 

Ami's brother is being bullyied and dies, so Ami goes out for revenge.  She loses her arm in the process and it gets replaced with a machine gun.  The quest for revenge must be accomplished. 

If you can laugh at violence, than this movie is really funny.  It might fall on the guy spectrum of movie as it is completely ridiculous in the amoung of violence and blood.  This movie is gory just for the sake of being gory.

Would You Like to Play a Game?

Cover of WarGames [Region 2]

I watched War Games with my oldest this weekend.  I had told her about it previously and she was interested in the game Thermo-Nuclear War.  Joshua, the computer in the movie, sadly, didn't seem to interest her as much as the computer in real life, but she half watched it. 

I think part of her lack of interest comes from never feeling the chill of the Cold War.  The whole world being destroyed by nuclear missles was a very real fear in the 80's.  As she is growing up in the age of computers the thought of a computer learning doesn't phaze her either, all though she is well aware that computers and robots will one day rise up against us if the zombie apocolypse doesn't happen first. 

The movie aged well with me though.  Matthew Broderick still looks 16 and what ever happened to Ally Sheedy?  I can look back at the history of it all and identify with it.  I have used computers where you had to dial in to get another computer.  Actually, I may appreciate this movie more as an adult.  It had a message without being overly preachy.

How about a nice game of chess?

Friday Science Fiction Quiz: Reds

Being one (or perhaps more appropriately having had been one) I’m always happy to see redheads make good. I told Budd last year that I had an idea for a quiz here that focused on redheads in science fiction. And being a guy, let's focus on the ladies, shall we?

A very top-rate No-Prize to the person with the most correct answers. Don’t be a douche and use Google or Wikipedia either.

The Quiz

1. Alyson Hanigan is famous for playing Willow on BtVS. She’s married to another Whedonverse person. Who?

2. Eva Habermann played Zev and was part of the misfit crew of the starship in this German-Canadian TV show.

3. Mila Jovovich had her first big break in this 1997 science fiction film.

4. Felicia Day is known for Joss Whedon’s “Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog” and the web-comedy “The Guild”. She’s also known for being pretty popular on twitter. How many people are following Felicia? More than: a) 50,000 b) 300,000, c) 1,000,000 d) 5,000,000

5. This past season or two, Anna Torv has been pressed into double duty playing Agent Olivia Dunham in two different universes on the show “Fringe”. What is the common internet nickname for the alternate-universe character?

6. In the second season of “The X-Files”, Special Agent Dana Scully is kidnapped. When she returns what does she come back: a) pregnant, b) with a chip in her neck, c) with cancer, d) harboring alien-human hybrid DNA.

Good luck!

I Saw Tangled and It Was SciFi

We all know the story of Rapunzel.  I even know the original version that is much more violent.  I have never thought of it as science fiction, but Disney's movie Tangled may have changed that.  Warning, here there be spoilers.

I finally got around to watching this.  I was on a father/daughter date with my youngest (the oldest is mad because she wanted to see it too), and I kind of wanted to see something else.  Boy was I mistaken.  It might be my new favorite Disney Princess movie.  Tangle was very good and very funny. 

On the way home, as my daughter was nodding off, I came to the conclusion that Tangled was a scifi movie.  "A drop of the sun" falls from the sky and up blooms a "magical" flower.  The flower makes the witch young and is found and harvested to save the life of the pregnant queen.  The queen is healed but the baby is born with a head full of blond hair (king and queen are dark headed).  Turns out the hair is "magical as well."  You have to sing to the hair to make it heal.  If the hair is cut, it dies and the hair still attached the the head turns brown. 

A drop of the sun is obviously a meteorite with a seed of a otherworldly flower.  Singing to the flower makes it happy and it then releases some sort of rejuvenating radiation.  When the flower is turned to tea, the organism living in the flower's DNA is released and embeds itself in the fetus of the queen.  Rapunzel has a symbiotic organism that lives inside her.  I guess the alien symbiote needs its own oxygen or it uses photosynthesis to live as it expresses itself through the hair.  As these tendrils are cut the whole branch dies.  When all of Rapunzel's hair is cut the organism can no longer exist.  It dies, but with its remaining strength forces some healing essence through a tear drop. 

Want more proof?  The hair grabs and lets go of things.  It is able to move on its own.  Usually only when Rapunzel wants it too.  So the symbiote is acting in concert with Rapunzel's wishes.  A side effect of the symbiote would be Rapunzel's ability to talk to chameleons. 

Sure the movie takes place in the fantasy kingdoms of Happily Ever After, but that does not change the fact that it is a scifi movie.  Arthur C. Clarke said it best, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."  What the characters see as magic is really just an alien organism.

In closing,  Tangled is a great movie whether  it is SciFi or not.  It is clever and funny and just a whole lot of fun.  Disney hit a home run on this one.  I would suggest going to see this one and you don't even have to have a kid with you.

NASA lists the most ludicrous SciFi Movies

Image via Wikipedia

NASA has named 2012 the most ludicrous science fiction movie ever.  Anyone that has seen this movie is not surprised as science was not consulted at all in this movie.  Mt. Everest was submerged, yeah!  Check out TG for the entire article.  Or check out motherboard.tv for a full list with trailers. 
Worst movies:
1. 2012
2.  The Core
3.Armegeddon
4.Volcano
5. Chain Reaction
6. 6th day (but what about Total Recall)
7. What the @$#% do we know

Best list:
1. Gattaca
2. Contact
3. Metropolis
4. Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
5. Woman in the Moon
6.  Thing from another world
7. Jurassic Park


With criticism comes praise as Gattaca gets two thumbs up.  I think I might get along with those NASA guys.  Actually I had an Astronomy professor that had worked for NASA and I got along with him famously.  What movies do you think belong on the most ludicrous list?

Greek Accents

I have watched a lot of movies recently involving ancient Greece; both Clash of the Titans, Troy, 300, and last night the last half of Percy Jackson.  I have come to the conclusion that the Ancient Greeks spoke with an British accent.  Only actors from the UK have a chance at any of these roles.  I am pretty sure the ancient Greeks didn’t speak English at all, so why the actor discrimination.    If you want foreign actors to play these roles get Greeks with Greek accents.  I know we are the movie going public and can’t tell the difference, but put some effort in here. 

Maybe it is because these are Hollywood movies and Hollywood only knows about British actors.  Maybe when they do a movie in the UK about the ancient Greeks they use American Actors to give us that foreign sound.  No, they probably use Australians.  I wonder what Australia uses?

I don’t see this changing and really see it going further with the Thor movie coming out, as I believe most of the Norse Gods will have British Accents as well.  The Doctor from Doctor Who is an alien and he has British accent but that is a British show so it is therefore excused.  In Star Trek:  The Next Generation, we had a Brit playing a Frenchman. 

Hollywood, there are more accents other than the ones from the British Isles.  Sure India was a British Colony but I doubt that the entire country of India is populated by people with a Londoner accent.  Obviously realism doesn’t matter when making these movies so just cast whomever from wherever.  Don’t put the accent litmus test into the auditions.  I am sure that there are women that will say that Hollywood should but Gerard Butler into every movie, but that is something different altogether. 

SciFi I Am Thankful For

Image via Wikipedia

Jeffery Beesler over at his World of the Scribe has a blogfest going on about thankfulness.  Be sure to go to his site and check out all the participating enteries. 

For the SciFi Media take on thankfulness I am going to pick a book and movie that I am thankful for, past, present, and future.  So here it goes. 

Past- For movies I would have to go with Flash Gordon and Starwars.  I am thankful for them for getting me interested in the science fiction medium.  As for books, I am thankful for Dune for igniting that same love in books, or maybe reigniting. 

Present-I am pretty thankful that they are finally making a sequel to Tron.  As books go I am thankful to the creative team on Fables and am quite thankful that I got Windup Girl as a free Download (I need an e-reader so I can read it).

Future- I am very excited to see Sucker Punch and am thankful that Zach Snyder is getting the freedom to do it.  I am also thankful they got Karl Urban to play Judge Dred.  In the book front it is hard to see the future, but I am thankful we have people like Neal Stephenson and John Scalzi carrying that torch. 

So what books and movies are you thankful for?  Or, what are you thankful for in general?  Let me know. 

10 Science Fiction/Fantasy/Comic movies that should be made

This is a blogfest post for Ellie Garrett's Top 10 films they should have made. 

1. I will start with the ubsurd-Yeast Lords.  They were already filming scenes for this in the movie Gentleman Broncos, so why didn't they just film it to completion to be released as a two disc set on DVD.  Sure it would have been horrible, but in an Ed Wood, we totally know that it is horrible type way. 

2.  In 1985 Clint Eastwood should have played Wolverine.  Sure he is too tall, but so is Hugh.  Special effects sucked back then but they could have done it better than the origins movie. 




3.  Armor-  This little known John Steakley novel is Awesome military sci-fi.  I love this book.  After watching Terminator TSCC I will say that you cast Bryan Austin Green as the lead. 

4.  The Wheel of time-  Hey Hollywood, you sick of trilogies, then try out this on going series that will keep you filming for 10 years.  Great thing about these books is that you can cut away at them (especially in the later books) and the fans won't care in the least.  In fact, cut everyone but the top 10 characters. 

5.  Ender's Game-  Uncle Orson is very protective of his baby and has full creative control over the rights.  Hollywood, just do the movie the way he wants it done, it will be successful.

6.  I Am Legend-  Don't tell me that they have made this movie three times, because they haven't.  I would give this to a Japanese psych horror director, maybe the guy that did Audition. 

7.  Mists of Avalon-This would have to be a trilogy but the story is just so epic.  Not sure who could play the actors, but I am sure that Gary Oldman would make a great Kevin Harper.

8.  Predator:  Permanent Midnight- This is a great installment in the predator series and would work well as a stand alone movie. 

9.  Spiderman 2099-  Why remake/reboot the same old spiderman.  This future take on spederman is pretty awesome and could reinvigerate the franchize.  I pick Wilmer Valderrama to play Miguel.

10. Terminator:  TSCC-  Bring back the cast of this show and finish up the story line in one humdinger of a movie. 

A Comparison of Legion and Clash of the Titans

I recently watched both Legion and the new version of Clash of the Titans. While neither movie is great, they do have a common theme; The relationship between humans and their creator(s). Both deal with man abandoning his god(s) and then being attacked by those self same god(s). I found it interesting and probably wouldn’t have noticed it If I hadn’t watched the two movies so close together.


Movies and literature are sometimes able to reflect what our society is feeling or our current trends. They often do so in a subtle way (zombies=commercialism/social conformity). I won’t pretend that either Legion or Clash of the Titans were subtle, but what were the movies really saying and what does that reflect about current society.

In Legion, God is tired of mankind and just decides to wipe us off the Earth. He sends down angels that are more like demons to possess and kill as many people as possible. The title of course comes from the bible quote “My name is legion, for we are many.” The quote deals with a possession by demons. It is worth note that the actual Greek word used is more like country or the space between two limits or an empty expanse (Wikipedia). The movie specifically applies the term legion to the angels that God has sent down to wipe out mankind. The hero is, of course, a fallen angel. The actual roles of good and evil are turned on their heads. The baby, is a Christ figure, but he comes not from a virgin birth but is a child born out of wedlock after the father runs off.

Clash of Titans goes farther. Man is tired of being ruled by the Gods and rebels against them. Mankind is sure of the existence of the gods and actually has encounters with them, but wants to cast them aside. Even though they realize that they were created by the gods and that the gods can destroy them they rebel against their worship, mostly for prideful reasons. The queen felt she was more beautiful than Hera or some goddess, I can’t remember, and the king wanted the people to bow to him and not to Zeus. The people who still chose to worship the gods were represented by the crazy “the end is nigh” guy.

As you can see, both movies question religion and the role of a God or gods. In the end of both movies we find the gods caring and forgiving and willing to pass along the rule of the land to humanity. In both movies, the gods seem willing to take a back seat and fade into nothingness. This, I think is the intended reflection on society. Humanity, currently would like to give up on the whole god system. As a whole, we want to become our own gods. People are mislead to believe that science can explain life, while it can’t. I am not sure these movies realized what they were doing. Actually, I am pretty sure they didn’t. So, there is no way of knowing if they were celebrating or critiquing it.

Regardless of the movie themes of God giving up on us or us giving up on God, the outcome is the same. People no longer have faith, or have misplaced their faith in man. As a Christian, I feel it is encouraging that these movies were not well accepted. Maybe the messages of these movies don’t represent our society.

Or maybe I just over analyzed two mediocre movies.

ANOKS: The Ring & The Blair Witch Project

This installment of A Nightmare on Kel’s Street brings two movies that I really liked that I thought would make an interesting juxtaposition: “The Ring” and “The Blair Witch Project”.

When I first watched “The Ring”, I found it to be an incredibly well-done horror yarn, and I still do. Naomi Watts as a single-mom that inadvertently stumbles into a cursed videotape (see, just like in “Vacancy” nothing good comes from the VCR). The curse plays out that you’ll die in 7 days, unless of course, you show the video to someone else.

The horror elements are really well done – the plot unfolds at a good pace with some good twists, the tape is really disturbing, the evil Samara is really creepy, and the horse on the ferry… don’t get me started about the horse on the ferry. Though perhaps, my favorite thing was gorgeous cinematography (something rarely brought up in horror flicks…) – taking place in the Pacific Northwest, the whole movie seemed to take place in a muted palette of greys and blues. 8 stars

I think it’s interesting to contrast that movie to “The Blair Witch Project” – which was certainly a phenomenon about a decade ago. The premise is that a video (I can’t remember, was it also a VCR tape?!?!) is recovered from a lost group of slackers that went off into the Maryland woods in search of a local legend, the Blair Witch.

This film couldn’t be more different than “The Ring” – whereas “The Ring” was gorgeously shot and had great production values, “Blair Witch” relied on a home-video-esque handheld shooting that certainly tested audience’s motion-sickness defences. Also, by using unknown actors, the filmmakers really tried to capture a sense of “realism”. Moreso than most, this movie has really been put through the ringer (get it? oh nevermind…) of popular opinion. At first a phenomenon and then receiving the all-too-predictable backlash of “it’s just a gimmick movie”. I’m glad that I hadn’t seen it or thought about it in a long time, because you know what it is? Scary. 9 stars

All horror movies ask you to suspend your disbelief but in different ways. “The Ring” is a gorgeous and creepy and visually disturbing and asks you to put aside the idea of a cursed videotape and spirits crawling out of televisions. “Blair Witch” does of great job of tapping into the very common feeling of “hey, did you hear that?” coupled to an active imagination. There’s very little “action” and almost the whole movie plays on fear and mounting psychological anxiety. It’s very easy to get creeped out when you’re alone in the woods at night — and so the leap you have to make for it is pretty small.