The Sequel We Deserve: Galaxy Quest…2 or the Show?
In a recent Flavorwire interview, Mark Johnson, the producer of Breaking Bad (a show I’m told is really good), offered this little gem: I wish… It’s complicated. I can’t get into it because it only gets me angry, because I’m so proud of that movie… For a while there, and someday we may actually get […]
Retro Nostalgia: Gattaca (1997) and Framing the Multivalent Ethical Dilemma
Before Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca (1997) begins in earnest, we are compelled to think about its underlying ethical dilemma: is a meritocratic system based on (mostly pre-selected) genetic variables justified, even if that means denying some people equal access simply because their genes say there is something wrong with them? If you have seen the film, […]
Retro Nostalgia: Mars Attacks (1996) and Its Detached Timestamp
Long-time viewers of science fiction film will likely recognize Tim Burton’s homage to 50s/60s SF cinema. How could they not? From the narrative undertones of the Cold War’s nuclear fears to its borrowing and twisting of the narrative structure of H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds and its 1953 adaptation, which helped solidify a developing SF cinematic […]
Retro Nostalgia: The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), the Hero Scientist, and the Possible Utopia(?)
There’s something truly nostalgic about SF narratives that make the scientist the hero. There aren’t a lot of those narratives left, if we’re honest. Characters use science, sure, but they are rarely the creators of science, or its purveyors. But not the old school SF movies. Oh no. In a lot of those stories, scientists […]
Retro Nostalgia: The Dark Crystal (1982) and the Necessity of a Remake
When I first saw The Dark Crystal over a decade ago, I recall feeling amazed by the story. As kids, I think we have a tendency to open ourselves to imaginative possibilities that adults have closed themselves off to (possibly because adults have “seen it all”). Watching The Dark Crystal as a kid was like jumping headfirst into […]
Retro Nostalgia: Legend (1985) and the Power of Innocence
(A different subtitle might say this: “A World of Oppositions, Stricken By Their Equilibrium.” This, of course, assumes I will follow Jason Sanford‘s story-title-generation process for these features. I’ll leave artistic license aside for now…) One of the curious things about Ridley Scott’s 1985 fairy tale — appropriately entitled Legend — is how desperately it clings to its fairy […]