The Sci Fi Guy

The 2008 Scifi Guy Summer Science Fiction Movie Preview

Well, last year I put together a preview of summer movies, so I figured I’d do the same thing again this year and highlight some of the soon-to-be-blockbusters for the Summer 2008 movie season.

Soon to be released

Iron Man - Had enough movies derived from your favorite comic books? Apparently Hollywood doesn’t think so, and probably for good reason – movies like Batman Begins, X-Men, Spiderman, and all the others have been hugely successful. Now Robert Downey gets a chance to play the ultra-tech hero, Iron Man. The premise is pretty straightforward: world-renoun weapons designer Tony Stark (played by Downey) gets to build a suit of armor to stave off mankind’s arch nemesis. Simple. Straightforward. Comic book to movie goodness. Expect this one to be the official starter of the blockbuster season. Releasing May, 2008.

Speed Racer – This one just looks terrible. A mix between hokey kid-friendly storyline and modern super motion video styling. I was never a fan of the original TV series, so I guess it’s not surprising I’m expecting bad things from this one. For the Lost lovers, it features Matthew Fox. For all I know, Speed Racer could be the biggest movie of Spring, but I really hope it’s not.  Releasing May, 2008.

… Further Out …

The Incredible Hulk – Are you sensing a trend in science fiction productions? The recipe is almost too good to be true – built in audiences, already established goofy plot twists, and basic carnage. As if one comic-book movie weren’t enough, Edward Norton takes on the role of angry-green-hero Bruce Banner. As usual, I’m expecting bad things.  Look for it some time in June, 2008.

The Happening -  M. Night Shyamalan is back, this time with a family running from a disaster and trying to sort out how they’ll survive. Post apocalypse or dead people? We’ll have to wait and see – as with most Shyamalan flicks this one is pretty deep under wraps. Coming in June, 2008. Personally, I loved Signs, The Village, Unbreakable, and The Sixth Sense, so this will likely get a viewing just based on past performance alone.

Wall-E – Disney makes a foray in to science fiction kids films with this animated flick. Odds are it’ll have the usual Disney formula in place – quirky characters, colorful scenes, and a feel-good moral at the end. Perfect recipe for a good flick and a great performance at the box office. Also on the plate for June, 2008.

Hancock – Super hero comic book movies: Meet your match. Will Smith takes on the role of Hancock, a super hero that just can’t do good. Unlucky, irresponsible, just plain tired of the demands of the ordinary mortals. It’s a parody on Superman that deserves a watch. Of course, Smith is standard issue summer blockbuster science fiction faire: Independence Day, Men in Black, and i, Robot all stand to prove he’s as capable of drawing crowds in as he is playing the loveable main character. Check out the funny Hancock trailer here. Slated for the 4th of July Weekend.

 Also on deck … 

Hellboy 2 (I don’t know why… ugh…)

Journey to the Center of the Earth (3-D… Because the movie would be terrible in 2 dimensions.)

The Dark Knight (Batman Begins gets a sequel, starring recently deceased Heath Ledger as The Joker – likely to be an enormous box office success, and probably on par with the quality of the first revised-Batman tale)

… And of course, X-Files 2.

If you can’t tell, I’m a little jaded by the upcoming selections. There’s so much great SciFi being written in novels that I can’t understand why the push is on comic books these days. I guess it’s just easier to take a comic book audience to the movies than it is to get a reading audience there. Hopefully I’m wrong about a couple of these and they turn out to be good movies. Only the summer will tell.

Philip K. Dick Reader Reviewed (Part 1)

I know this is going to be a multi-part review because there’s so much to chew through. Reading the Philip K. Dick Reader (an anthology of short and medium-length stories) was a lot like the first time I delved in to Asimov’s I, Robot. There’s so much here, and each story is so entertaining, that you just wish the book kept on going!

Truthfully, up until about 2 weeks ago, I had never read an entire Philip K. Dick story. My friend Nikki bought me The Man in the High Castle for my birthday, so I gave it a fast read and was thoroughly impressed. Follow that with a little travel (I love reading on planes & trains – perfect opportunity) and the Philip K. Dick reader was a perfect companion.

The Dick reader opens with a story called Fair Game about a man fearing for his life while running from an enormous eye. He realizes that mankind has always seen these creatures, in the highest mountains especially where all the greatest religious thought has emerged. Well, it’s a short story, so I won’t ruin it for you, but let’s just say that Fair Game starts the anthology off with a good sizzle.

The anthology was constructed in a way where stories did seem to flow from one to another… For instance, many of the post-apocalyptic stories are tied together, as some of the UFO-ish tales are as well. What’s also really stunning is how many of Dick’s movies have made it to the big screen. The Golden Man is obviously the foundation for the movie Next starring Nicolas Cage. We Can Remember it for you Wholesale is the foundation for Total Recall, Paycheck is the inspiration for the movie of the same name, as well as The Minority Report. The movie Screamers was inspired by Second Variety. Just thinking about how much Philip K. Dick has influenced contemporary science fiction cinema is almost unbelievable – and the stories truly are well designed, well crafted, and visceral. Dick has the same sense of humanity that the other great science fiction authors I’ve come to love do. It’s not about gizmo’s and gadgets (well, there are a couple of them) – it’s more about the characters themselves.

The Golden Man is a great example – and really the movie Next only stole one small part of the concept. The man itself is a genetic mutation – think X-Men. Meanwhile, there exists a powerful government organization that for 50 years has been protecting humanity from what might be the next genetic leap (and subsequently the downfall of mankind). Finally this “Golden” man becomes discovered – and he has the ability to predict his own future (notice the tie-in with Next – that’s about all there is). The character of the Golden Man is simple, straightforward, and ingenious, and his ability to predict soon in to the future makes him a both terrifying and captivating opponent for mankind.

I’ll do some more writing on some of these stories in a bit, I just wanted to get some fast thoughts out there.

X-Files 2!

It’s news to me – there’s an X-Files movie sequel on its way – and it’s close to being delivered! There’s no trailer, no plot synopsis – this one is being held pretty tightly under wraps. Check out the X Files 2 IMDB page for some more details. At least they got David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson back aboard. Other cast members include Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly, and rapper/actor Xibit (Pimp My UFO?) Best of all it’s a Chris Carter product, so hopefully it’ll ratain the same quirky nerdiness and fun as the original X-Files had (not the later Robert Patrick episodes after the show had jumped the shark).

Release date looks like it’s set for July 25th – only a few months off.

Comments are back up

Well, after much deliberating, I’ve reactivated comments on Scifi-Guy. I’ve implemented some new anti-spam measures, so hopefully that’ll help defuse some of the clutter. If it gets out of hand again, I’ll try something else.

More updates to come.

Lots of new stuff to cover!

I’m writing this post to tell you about the posts I’m going to post. Get it?

Anyways, I’ve enjoyed a great couple of weeks of SciFi-ness, and I’ve got plenty of things on the horizon. I can tell you I’ve just broken in to the world of Phillip K. Dick, and I’m amazed. I was given a copy of his 1962 Hugo Award winning novel, The Man in the High Castle, and devoured it within a weekend. I’m such a huge fan of alternative-history stories, and frankly I’m amazed it took me this long to be shown this extraordinary work. I’ll have a full write up soon. I turned right around and purchased a Phillip K. Dick collection of short stories (a “Reader” as the cover leads you to believe) – including numerous short stories that have inspired films such as Total Recall, The Minority Report, and Paycheck. Even the stories that didn’t seem to find their way to Hollywood are great.

I’ve also picked up another Larry Niven book that I haven’t gotten a chance to start – but I was really blown away by Ringworld (which is, alas, another book that I’ve read recently but haven’t had the chance to review). And to top it off, I Am Legend is out on DVD, I just watched Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001, and I still don’t know if I want to bother seeing Jumpers (which I’ll have to wait for on DVD anyways). And just for fun, I also snuck in a re-viewing of Star Trek IV – the one with the whales and San Francisco in the early 90′s. There’s some great comedy mixed in there – proving once again that the best SciFi is the stuff that captures the humanity of the genre. (“Well double-dumb-ass on you!”)

On the TV front, Lost is a brief hiatus which is probably a good thing – this season was going quickly and I think I want a little time to soak it all in. Michael still sucks, and I still can’t figure out what to think of the current Locke persona. Good guy, bad guy? [spoiler] And we’re killing off the French chick? Ouch. She waits 16 years to meet her daughter and then gets caught in some crossfire. The fact that it’s returning in a few short weeks is great news – I’m glad the writers strike has been resolved and things can return to normal… Jericho also wrapped up another short season – I hope CBS decides to hang on to this little underdog.

Well, like I said, there’s plenty of work laid out for me to get to in the days and weeks to come. I hope you’re all enjoying a fine weekend!

Mourning Arthur C. Clarke

Science fiction is, by all accounts, a relatively infantile genre of writing. From the earliest true masters, such as Jules Verne, we were given glimpses in to the depth and span that this genre can attain. One of the truly gifted authors of the science fiction genre was Arthur C. Clarke. He was able to combine incredible depth and foresight in to his stories, while also preserving the sheer humanity of our next adventure.

I only recently began expanding my reading in to Clarke’s impressive resume of science fiction tales, and so far only have one review up, Rendevouz with Rama. I can admit that something about Clarke’s work seemed larger than I was comfortable with – like he was a stoic author that merely appealed to the classic masses of science fiction culture. Truth be told, the Rama novels (I’ve read them all since that initial review) are stupdendous. Furthermore, I just recently re-watched 2001: A Space Odessey by Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick. Again, 2001 is a masterful piece of science fiction that blends the alien and the unknown with the human-scale, and with an artistry that has been mimicked since but never captured.

The New York Times just published an interesting article further analyzing what Clarke meant to the science fiction and literary world, titled, For Clarke, Issues of Faith, but Tackled Scientifically. I think it’s an interesting read – and it does point out something inherent within the thread of many great science fiction storytellers – there is something significant about the universe. In Rama, it was the answer of the question of our lonliness and isolation in the universe. In 2001, it was a question of our origins. It reminds me greatly of Orson Scott Card’s stories that touch at the notion of god and humanity, but without the pleading and placating that is so common in non-science-fiction material. Perhaps there are answers, but perhaps it’s the journey for those answers that is worth far more than the result itself.

I will make sure to revisit the Clarke section of the bookstore and pick up a few more titles that pique my interest and share my thoughts with you. If you would like to learn more about Clarke’s life, the NY Times has a very lengthy and comprehensive obituary on the man. In the meantime, let me just end by saying, Mr. Clarke, you will be missed, and thank you for all you’ve given us.

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Golden Path

A couple weeks ago, I received an email from a company called ChooseCo, which are the publishers of the Choose Your Own Adventure books. They asked that I take a glance at a new book that will be released in April, 2008, titled The Golden Path by Anson Montgomery, so of course I accepted. I can barely describe the joy I experienced when I started flipping the pages, once again, of a Choose Your Own Adventure book.

As a child of the 80′s, Choose Your Own Adventure books were a staple of my youth. They provided a unique and interactive way of reading, and empowered the reader to make decisions and face the consequences of those choices. Of course, the best part about CYOA books probably comes in the fact that they were immensely re-readable, because the different choices can result in vastly different outcomes.

When opening up The Golden Path, I was amazed at the level of sophistication that this story enjoys. The premise is this (hijacked from the back cover):

It starts with a simple call in to the headmaster’s office on a perfect fall day. It turns into a search for your missing parents that takes you and your two best friends on a trip into the hollow Earth. Part thriller, part travelogue, part personal quest, The Golden Path: Volume One weaves a labyrinthine journey as you search for answers to the truth about your past and the clues to your future…

Some aspects of the book deal with some pretty sophisticated issues, such as a changed world order where government agents are on the lookout for anything suspicious, and where things like personal flying vehicles are par for the course. One interesting aspect of The Golden Path has to deal with the fact that this is obviously a book written to today’s youth… Where I grew up in a “Cold War” era, it’s interesting to note that this book deals with issues that might be much closer to home – government oversight, environmental calamity, and the emergence of technology as a standard part of kids’ lives today.

Reading The Golden Path reminded me of the joys of being in middle school and flipping open my first Choose Your Own Adventure novel. The intro-chapter is a little lengthy for my taste (I don’t remember having to go so far to get to a choice!) but it does the job to establish the world these kids live in. Some of the characters seem archetyped from the Harry Potter books (of which I haven’t read), but I think the effect is worthwhile as long as it gives kids something to ground themselves with – and gets them to read!

If you’re looking for a nice bit of nostalga, or you’re looking for a pre-teen “thriller” for a child in your life, I can definitely recommend jumping back in to this unique niche and giving The Golden Path: Volume One a try. Should be in stores on April 25th.

The Lost Theory that goes Above & Beyond

So, there’ve been lots of Lost theories. They’re in a dream. They’re all in purgatory. The island has a force field around it. There’s nothing special about the island nor anything else that’s happened and can all be explained by common phenomena. Etc. Etc. Etc. Probably since the first episodes, theories have come and gone in quick sucession. Some have survived rigorous scruitiny, others have easily been obliterated by totally obvious glitches in their foundation.

Then there’s this new theory that my buddy sent me. It’s called the Mirror Matter Moon theory, and I’ll be honest, I can’t figure out what I think of it yet. The creator has done a lot of work to sort out this theory, which basically implies that the island is actually a snow-globe dark-matter world that ocassionally intercepts points on the Earth during it’s tour around our planet… Like I said, I can barely even get where this guy is going, so don’t waste your time on this site – go check it out and see what you think.

Could this be the definitive Lost secret? We’re dealing with something that theoretical physics only mustered up in the last decade or so? I’m curious to see as episodes develop if there are further strengths or weaknesses to this theory, because I tend to believe Occam’s Razor will apply to Lost in the end – the simpler explinations will be the right ones. This Mirror Matter Moon theory is actually pretty simple in it’s fundamental premise… It just requires a dozen pages of explaination to sort out the little details.

Lost: Desmond is the key

Season 4 of Lost, ABC’s survive-on-an-island scifi drama is in full swing, and I’ll admit, this season does not disappoint. They’re practically giving away clues and revealing the nature of not only the island. Last night’s episode features Desmond, our favorite Scottish drunk/hero doing another dance through space and time. Personally, I believe Desmond is the key to numerous mysteries in Lost, for several reasons:

• Desmond has been the only character to demonstrate precognitive powers as we experienced in the famous season 3 line, “Charlie, you’re gonna die.” While his powers may have been limited to visions of Charlie, it does demonstrate that somehow Desmond has powers beyond most of the other characters. Even Locke has been hard pressed to keep on the island’s good side.
• Desmond experienced that flashback episode where he was actually transported back in time – this is the episode where him and Penny get their picture taken together. At the time, I thought it was a stand-alone episode – something along the line of Hurley seeing his made up friend in slippers or Jack seeing his dead father. But the elderly woman that was with him in that episode demonstrated forecasting and precognative capabilities – could Desmond really have been traveling in time? I think, thanks to Farraday’s comments (the physicist now on the island), it’s clear to understand that there’s a power in Lost that has to do with the time traveling and time dilation capabilities of the consciousness.
• And of course, last night’s episode provided us with a really amazing look at the powers of the island, and the complexities of traveling to and from there. If I had to guess – something about Desmond’s trip to see Penny has to do with him getting sent to military prison… We’ll see if that one plays out.

My biggest point in the importance of Desmond to the Lost story has to do with his relationship to Penny – and Penny’s father. Mr. Whidmore was seen last night purchasing the ship’s log for the Black Rock – the TNT-toting vessel trapped in the middle of our island. The seller? Hanso. I’m just saying – I think Whidmore set up the trip around the world and knew Desmond would go through with it just to prove his worth to him – and Whidmore used Desmond to (a) get out of his daughter’s life and (b) discover if the island really did exist.

Desmond is the key to this whole thing people. I’d say comment away and let me have it, but thanks to the spam army, comments are disabled. Drop me a note at dave | at | evokemg -dot- com if you’ve got some thoughts on this, or post up a response on your own blog and I’ll dialogue with you there.

Scifi Throwback: 12 Monkeys

Back in the 1990′s, Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, and Madeline Stowe showed up to put together a strange (soon to be cult) movie called 12 Monkeys. Thanks to a little On Demand magic, I cued it up, and was reminded of what a well put together movie they’d really invented.

For those that haven’t seen it – 12 Monkeys basically tells the tale of James Cole, a prisoner in a bleak future where man kind has been forced underground by the emergence of a destructive virus that’s wiped out 99% of the population. The remaining civilization (if you can even call it that) is relegated to bleak citcumstances, but somehow along the way they did invent time travel. Cole must now travel to the past – where he meets Madeline Stowe, psychiatrist extraordinarre, and where his mind begins to unravel on him. Part of his mind thinks he was sent to the past to uncover the secret actions of the “Army of the 12 Monkeys” – the political terror group that unleashes the virus on mankind. But the other part of him believes that he’s actually crazy – that the future he believes he’s from is just a figment of the imagination. Sure enough, we get a little dose of Stockholm syndrome on the part of Stowe, and Brad Pitt’s character accuses Willis’ of creating the reality by which Pitt is now enacting.

Overall, 12 Monkeys is a complex story, and has enjoyed reasonably good cult success since it’s release in 1995. The film features little in the way of advanced computer graphics or sophisticated special effects that are so often deemed prerequisites of contemporary science fiction. Rather, 12 Monkeys does much of what Kevin Spacey’s K-Pax accomplished by creating a sincere doubt in the mind of the audience as to the validity of the alternate realities that these “time travelers” (or in K-Pax, dimensional travelers) are explaining.

Could it be possible that time travelers are sitting in the worlds’ mental institutions? Sure, why not. We’re all sci-fi fans here, right? If you haven’t done it in a while, dust off your copy of 12 Monkeys and give it another go, and if you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and set aside a couple hours to rent this great 90′s science fiction story.