Category: Film
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High Stakes Boredom
One thing which has begun to bother me about a lot of recent science fiction and action films is that they always go straight to putting the whole world in peril. In Guardians of the Galaxy the climax is an attempt by the villain to destroy the Good Guy Planet. In Interstellar the hero is…
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The Harmonic Convergence of Geekery
There are science fiction geeks. Hi, my name is Jim and I'm a science fiction geek. ("Hi, Jim!" says everyone gathered in the church basement.) There are typography geeks. I'm not a typography geek, though I am a fan. (I lack the knowledge to be an actual typography geek.) ("What a poser!" thinks everyone gathered…
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Congratulations, Brian!
Now that he's made the announcement on his own 'blog, I guess the secret's out: The Emperor's Blades is coming to HBO! Congratulations to Brian Staveley — you're in the big leagues now, Brian! Gonna have to get yourself a beard and one of those Greek fisherman hats! Watch the interview with Brian here.
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Leveraging Our Desires
My kids have recently become enamored of the TV show Leverage, watching it via Hulu and Netflix. If you're not familiar with the series, it's basically an updated Mission: Impossible. Each episode centers on an elaborate caper performed by our slightly shady heroes, typically aimed at righting some wrong. To make the episodes interesting, the…
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Season of the Witch
It's Halloween today, and I notice that Google has chosen to celebrate the day with a "Google Doodle" of a witch busy at her cauldron. I've written about Halloween witches elsewhere, but one of the links off the Google page (this one) reminded me of something I've come to detest in modern supernatural fiction. In…
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Hugo Congratulations
Congratulations to this year's Hugo Award winners: John Scalzi for Best Novel (Redshirts) Brandon Sanderson for Best Novella ("The Emperor's Soul") Pat Cadigan for Best Novelette ("The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi") Ken Liu for Best Short Story ("Mono no Aware") Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Mary Kowal, and Howard Tayler for Best Related Work…
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Belloq’s Obsession
Recently I was listening to the soundtrack for Raiders of the Lost Ark and talking about the movie with my kids when I had a thought. Just after Indy's epic fistfight with the Giant Bald Guy at the airplane, the movie cuts away to a reaction by Indiana Jones's villainous rival Belloq. Belloq sees something…
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Deep Thoughts on Stupid Movies
Being a bunch of science fiction geeks, my family went to see the big-budget giant monster movie Pacific Rim this past weekend. Much fun was had. But, as so often happens, I got to thinking afterward. Pacific Rim is a very stupid movie. The monsters are nonsensical, the giant robots are nonsensical, and the entire…
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Movies I Want (Part 2)
A while back I listed five classic science fiction novels that I'd like to see made into films. Here is a second list of five. I'm trying to limit myself to stories which could easily survive the Hollywood process and still retain some of their original appeal. • Ringworld, by Larry Niven. The story is…
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Movies I Want (Part 1)
Science fiction has won the battle. Until the 1980s, big-budget science fiction films were few and far between. Now SF movies make up a significant fraction of the movies released by Hollywood. It's a safe, dependable genre, like romantic comedies or thrillers. Legions of effects creators, makeup artists, and prop builders can earn steady incomes…
The Cambias Digression 