Well, I’ve seen Prometheus twice now and it is incredible. I can happily announce that it only improved on second viewing. There is a lot to talk about with this one so here we go.
The first, and admittedly unfair, thing about Prometheus is that it is director Ridley Scott’s attempt at a loose prequel to his own 1979 masterpiece, Alien. However, it is important to associate Prometheus to Alien only as loosely as possible. The story does occur in the same universe and Prometheus does lay some groundwork for what will go on to happen in Alien, however Prometheus is an entirely different animal with its own unique story to tell.
I’m two seasons into my journey through the entire series of LOST. I found Season One to be riveting entertainment, and couldn’t wait to see where the series was going to go next. Here are my thoughts, without any overly heinous spoilers.
Season Two centered on the mysterious hatch, the survivors’ encounters with “The Others” and a few new characters integrated into the increasingly complex web of back stories.
The story picked up immediately where the previous episode ended; Locke, Kate and Jack descended into the opened hatch, and Michael, Jin and Sawyer were left adrift after their raft was destroyed by The Others and Walt kidnapped. The dual cliffhanger ending to the first season created great forward momentum for the entire second season that never let up. Read more…
I don’t usually like to include comic book heroes in sci-fi discussion, but the premise of a team of genetic mutants teaming up to save the world is undeniable. Nothing against these characters, I just don’t want “sci-fi” and “comic book” to become synonomous.
The X-Men cannon is among the most decorated comic book franchises of all time. On top of its storied comic book roots, X-Men has logged five major motion pictures and an immensely popular animated series to boot. What X-Men has accomplished is impressive considering that it emphasizes an ensemble of heroes rather than an individual.
X-Men: First Class is the fifth film entry in this catalogue and brings some new blood to the table. While, each previous film has delivered varying degrees of X-back story, First Class is the first to be set primarily in the early 1960s, 1962 to be exact, which is right around the time that X-Men was first realized in comic book form. Read more…
Is LOST sci-fi? I guess there’s some debate about what genre LOST falls into, however, I warmly accept it as science fiction, acknowledging that other bits are mixed in. Here are my thoughts on Season One of this game-changing series. This one goes out to all the Losties and Lostaways.
Recently, I was able to borrow the massive tome that is the complete series on Blu-ray (score!) from my friend Cody. Originally, I had the idea of watching the entire series and posting a diary-style entry every 5 episodes or so. Then I actually started watching Season One and flew through ten or so episodes before ever seriously thinking about stopping to write anything.
Prior to starting this adventure, all I had seen of LOST was the pilot and a smattering of episodes somewhere in Seasons 2 and 3. These episodes mark the times in my life when I was daft enough to think I could get into LOST well into the middle of the series. Obviously I couldn’t. Read more…
As a Christmas present of sorts to myself, I decided my next review would be of one of my all-time favorites (of any genre), Aliens.
Getting the obvious out of the way, Aliens (1986) is the James Cameron-directed sequel to the Ridley Scott-directed Alien (1979). This is a huge movie, and I mean that in a few different ways. It was a smash hit, operating on a much grander scale than its predecessor and it ups the action, suspense, carnage and of course, the runtime.
Speaking of runtime, there are two cuts of this film, and while the original theatrical version is wonderful on its own, the 1992 Special Edition is Aliens at its most perfect. Clocking in at a whopping 154 minutes, this longer version of Aliens is completely without filler, a rarity for “extended cuts.” It’s a lean, mean two-and-a-half hours of “here comes the good part.” Read more…
The third and latest incarnation of The Thing recently hit theaters. Not having seen either of the two predecessors, I thought it looked promising. I haven’t gotten around to seeing the new one, but I did finally see John Carpenter’s 1982 version. Carpenter’s was the first remake of The Thing From Another World (1951), directed by Christian Nyby and Howard Hawks.
It is obvious that Carpenter had some serious affection for the original. He made a point of featuring footage from the film in his 1978 debut, Halloween. While I haven’t seen the 1951 release, I gather that Carpenter’s has become the definitive version, and that is certainly for good reason.
The Thing is one of several notable collaborations between Carpenter and actor Kurt Russell (Escape From NY, Big Trouble in Little China, Escape From LA), and as usual, the two really hit it off here.
Set in the desolate frozen tundra of Antarctica, a US research team is pitted against an enigmatic, shape-shifting alien, mistakenly uncovered by a team of Norwegian scientists. The themes of isolation, cabin fever, distrust and deception build to a bloody and pyro-maniacal conclusion. The Thing plays out like a cross between Agatha Christie’s 1939 mystery novel And Then There Were None, and Ridley Scott’s 1979 film Alien. Its terror builds steadily throughout the picture before erupting violently and magnificently.
The film dabbles in the subgenre of “body horror,” popularized by David Cronenberg. These films feature characters undergoing dramatic and graphic physical change. Carpenter doesn’t take quite the psychological approach to The Thing that Cronenberg did with nasty little films like Videodrome (1980) and The Fly (1986), but that’s no knock. Cronenberg is an artsy director, and that just isn’t the film Carpenter made here.
For a 1982 film, the visual effects are rather good. The demented forms taken by the alien when it’s between hosts are memorably unsettling. In fact, I would be surprised if James Cameron didn’t find some inspiration here for his T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
That said, The Thing is not for the squeamish. Gore is served up in a variety of ways. There is gross-out gore, more-subdued gore and another kind somewhere in between those that suggests something really gnarly happened just off-screen. Did I mention death by napalm?
It’s a decidedly gruesome spectacle, but the gore-to-terror ratio never rises too high. Having a slightly more sensible ratio than true splatter-fests such as Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead (1981), makes The Thing a more sensible, grounded experience that viewers can take as a serious piece of sci-fi/horror.
Performances are surprisingly strong in The Thing, and definitely better than your average horror movie. Keith David and Wilford “Diabetes” Brimley, among others, star with a thickly-bearded Russell in the ensemble cast.
The Thing earns a hearty recommendation, and is a thoroughly well-rounded production. The Thing packs some disturbing moments and genuine terror, and should be essential viewing for any genre fan. Bonus points if you watch it after the snow starts to fall.
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