"Simple Gifts" from Appalachian Springs (Aaron Copeland)
"Simple Gifts" from Appalachian Springs (Aaron Copeland)
There are 3 science fiction series which absolutely redefined the genre (insofar as TV is concerned):
1) The original Twilight Zone, which presented a universe of philosophical questions.
2) Star Trek (TOS), which presented a multi-cultural universe.
3) Babylon 5, which revolutionized the way stories were told.
(I'll add a fourth: the original Dr. Who, but not for sci-fi reasons. The things they did with audio, given the equipment they had, was nothing short of revolutionary, and had long-term effects on the electronic music industry.)
NOTE: The site's down, so I can't see it. I don't know if these are in there or not.
@Scrivs: Haven't seen Appleseed 2 yet, though I think this came out before that. However, I [heart]ed Appleseed.
PS. Thanks for the fix.
Yeah, I tried to fix the title after I noticed the error, but... well, no editing functionality. :-(
Just wondering if anyone else had seen this movie and what they thought about its messages. It's by the same guy that did Appleseed.
My very short review: The movie takes place in the 2060's. Japan's been isolated from the rest of the world for 10 years because of their insistence on creating cyborgs and androids, an isolation they've chosen, creating shields to block themselves from satellites and stopping all incoming and outbound communications and transportation. A team from the UN is sent in to see what's going on, and they discover a people with exceedingly advanced technology, but one which came with a horrible price.
The film is basically a cross between Appleseed, Dune, and The Matrix. It's got a good story, once it gets toward the middle. The beginning is, unfortunately, very boring, but if you can stay awake past that, the film's not bad. The relationships between the characters are a lot like Appleseed in that pre-exising romantic relationships are at the core of all current relations between the heroes and villains. I also noticed a few homages to both The Matrix and Ghost in the Shell.
The film portrays a future in which people have been turned into machines, not by the addition of robotic parts, but by the molecular-level replacement of their biological components. While that offers advantages like no longer having to eat, immortality, and regeneration, it does offer some very distinct disadvantages, such as control from an outside source.
The animation in it is beautiful, as was Appleseed, but only if you like the almost-flash-animation look. While I wasn't crazy about the art, I absolutely loved the film's use of various colors to depict certain feelings. (such as the juxtaposition of what was considered to be a very "alive" environment with colors betraying a darker world).
Alright, so this was a longer review than I had expected. Overall, I give the film a 3.5 out of 5.
Various blogs. No one place specifically, but when someone post something like JoshAwesome's April '08 Mixtape... well, I can't help but take notice.
@themikehaynes: Part of my consideration regarding what a good adaptation of a comic to a movie is involves whether the transition from one format to the other has not diminished the value of the story. A movie can follow the comic (or graphic novel, whatever) to a tee, but if that translation is too strict you end up with a hokey, joke-of-a film (like the original "Captain America" movie made during the 80s).
Compared to what comic book movies meant a couple years back, things have definitely gotten better.
This just bore repeating.
So I finally dragged my procrastinating butt over to a theater this weekend and saw Iron Man, dragged somewhat unwittingly by a group of friends. The movie? Pure awesomeness. Pure. Unfettered. Awesomeness. Of course, the film would have been just as awesome had there been no "Iron Man" and it was just Robert Downey, Jr acting like a snarky playboy.
During the ride back, we tried to make a list of all the greatest comic book to movie adaptations, and came up with... a huge, senseless hodgepodge. No real list was made. However, some names kept coming, like (in no particular order): Batman Begins, Iron Man, the 80's Superman movies, Spiderman 1 & 2, X-men 1 & 2 (we almost threw the driver out of the car for suggesting X-men 3), Sin City, The Crow, 300...
As I said, no list was really made, so I'd like to know what you, the Chawlk community, think about this: Which do you consider to be the best comic-to-movie adaptations, and why?
My short list (which is far, far, far from complete) is pretty much what was mentioned above. Others named, but which I didn't agree with, were Spawn and the relatively recent Punisher film.
@estarla: You're disqualified for living in L.A., which is cheating.
Of course, I live in South Florida, and it's pretty much the same here (but since I don't live in Miami, it's not cheating, right?). Right off the bat I can only think of a few: Jim Carey, Kevin Costner, and Shaq. (I really don't the names of that many celebrities, so there's a fairly good chance I could have seen a lot more and not noticed).
I wouldn't be so sure about Fidel Castro, despite the reports to the contrary from the government.
*Pfft* I laugh at your flame wars. (Flies out in a Vorlon Cruiser, followed by a Shadow Death Cloud.)
As for the argument between the two, the problem with such a broad term as "Fantasy" is that it can be applied to anything. Technically, James Patterson writes "Fantasy", as does John Grisham, Stephen King, Margarett Weiss... Every fiction author writes fantasy. Some are just more honest about it.
As such, all science fiction technically falls into the "Fantasy" genre. Certainly not the "Magical Fantasy", "Medieval Fantasy", or if you will, "Tolkien-esque Fantasy" genre, which is usually what's being referred to when people speak of "Fantasy". Instead, it falls into a Science/Space fantasy, or "Science Fiction."
The genre is determined by the components of the story more than by the ethical dilemmas found therein. The fact that one genre tends to look more towards that than others is inconsequential. This is what the author, not the genre, brings to the table.
Of course, all "genre" designations are just marketing ploys for companies to see where in the book store to best place their authors. Why else would Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series be in "Fiction" instead of EITHER "Fantasy" or "Sci-fi", or Michael Crichton not in sci-fi, for that matter?
(Of course, here we get into the whole "Hard Sci-fi" vs. "Soft Sci-fi" argument, and whether to lump Military Sci-fil (David Weber) with something more thought-provoking (Gene Wolfe, Issac Asimov.)
Edit
Ozone42: I don't think most authors set out to make sci-fi about ethical/moral complications the future may bring... but I think it often happens naturally.
As a sci-fi author, I disagree with this. When planning out the story, usually an ethical/moral complication is at the root of the story, twin at least to the birth of the story which will carry the ethical/moral complication.
@Ozone42: Interesting thoughts. Can you get more specific? How would today's religions play into this, or would they be largely rejected? How would current tribal societies be affected, if at all, by the changes? Can you come up with a scenario for yourself? Can you describe what YOUR average day would be like?
@joshawesome and @Ozone42: Great, logical ideas. Now exercise your imagination a bit: what would an average day be like if you were born to that society. What kind of challenges would you see? What spectrum of ideologies would you come across? Would you try to rebuild the old system and technology? Would others? If rebuilding, how would you ensure that we had sustainable growth, and what mistakes from the past would you want to make sure were never repeated? What about art and music, what forms would they take? Would we see a return of the fireside story? Take the society you live in right now and make it the past of this new society. What social norms are kept? What norms are discarded?
1. The old one was. The new one, no.
2. There isn't one. (Or rather, basic barter economy, at best.) Economics deals with the production and distribution and consumption of goods and services and their management. If there's enough to go around, why the need for economics? Also, technological development is almost at zero and stuff has already broken down. Most people don't rely on technology anymore.
3. Basic infrastructure varies. Feel free to make some stuff up. I have my own ideas here, but I'll let your imagination run wild. But think: Population of NYC on a workday, one not-so-small-anymore planet.
4. Unsustainable infrastructure based on hierarchical dominion of plants, animals and humans. War and disease lead to a breakdown in the food supply chain, leading to mass starvation. War also causes a large number of deaths. After that, humanity's numbers diminish due to decreased birth rates
I'm in the process now of writing a comic. I've spent the past few months doing a ton of research in order to create a "realistic" world. However, my life experience and imagination limits what I can come up with, so I come here for help.
Here's the scenario: humanity' future goes feral instead of spacey. In 400 years (so, by 2408, or the equivalent, since the story is in a parallel world where our culture developed 60,000 years earlier, thank you Mr. Graham Hancock) we go from hierarchical societies to tribal (for the most part). Population shrinks from 6.5 billion to just under 20 million humans.
1) What aspects of current culture do you imagine will survive, and why? What other trends might be revived?
2) What do you see happening to us as a species, biologically?
3) What aspects of our culture will not survive or are unsustainable?
4) How will a tribal culture emerge from a hierarchical one?
Feel free to ask questions. I've been doing a LOT of research on this, and am looking for more things to get me thinking.
FYI: Story for the first couple of issues is done. The artist and I are developing a lot of the concept art now, which is why I'm asking this question here. I've come up with ideas, but wouldn't mind being stretched in other directions. The first run will be a 12 issue cycle that establishes the world, the ideologies, theologies, political conflicts, growth opportunities and interpersonal relationships. biological splits and the development of multiple intelligent species (with varying levels of intelligences) are also taken into consideration.
Frankly, I've not seen this level of TV nerddom in ages. I bow to this person's encyclopedic knowledge of the new Battlestar Galactica.
From the article:
[T]he final member of the twelve Humanoid Cylons “would probably need to be a more prominent character than those of the Four.” . . . [T]hat pretty much limits the field to Roslin, Admiral Adama, Lee, Baltar, and Starbuck. Of course, I also happen to think that revealing some of the above as being Cylons would also be…anticlimactic, and in some cases just dumb.
So, who's the last cylon?
"Lesson learned: NY has crazy shit going on. Stay in Florida."
Florida's got its own special brand of crazy.
"Z, a 4, a Q, another Q, a third Q, and... a Batman Symbol"
Wasn't there a South Park episode with something like that?
Given this resurgence of old threads, I'll go ahead and chime in: For me, it's tied between Bill Cosby (the hell with your "the times" talk: his topics are eternal!), Steve Martin (ever seen his stand-up acts?), and Penn and Teller. (Alright, that last one was a "for the heck of it", but they're awesome.)
I'm with RightOn about the movies. But, sketches... It's a tie between the Spanish Inquisition and the Dear Parrot.
Carl Orff - Carmina Burana
Igor Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring
John Cage - Fontana Mix
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Gesang der Jünglinge
Scrivs, if you liked the movie you will absolutely love the show, gorramit!
@Ozone: Yeah, sorry I forgot about Stargate. Actually, like Kamigoroshi, I too have the complete 10 seasons of Stargate (plus the original movie and the "Ark of Truth", as well as the 5 seasons of Babylon 5 + all the movies + the original 11 comics... yeah, I'm a geek), thought I haven't watched them all yet. Only watched half the 9th season, and that only because it was on a Shoutcast TV station for a while. (I got the series after falling in love with it, and it's next on my list of shows to ... study.) As for Farscape... I still haven't watched more than "The Peacekeeper Wars", which I liked, but the show's so damn expensive to buy!
Regarding Star Wars, it was cohesive for the movies, somewhat (except the big open-mouth kiss between Luke and Leah, then her saying "I knew all along" to them being brother and sister. That was just disturbing). But the universe there is such that it's very easy to build tales in it.
@Kamigoroshi: Feel free to talk about the books (so long as they tie in with shows. There are a lot of great, GREAT independent sci-fi books/series out there). As for G'Kar, don't know if you know, but both Katsulas (G'Kar) and Biggs (Dr. Franklin) have themselves passed to the place where shadows don't fall. (d. 2006 of lung cancer, and 2004 of aortic dissection, respectively. And FYI, Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi) announced in Megacon a couple of weeks back that Michael O'Hare (Sinclair) was severely sick, and not expected to recover.) JMS has said their roles would not be recast in any future series, and that there'll be comic-book tie ins explaining what happened to them. IIRC, something about that was explained during a comic given out at a San Diego convention a few years ago.
As for Serenity, the only sequels/prequels are in the form of comics. (mentioned in the original note). I don't think Whedon's planning to revive the series (and he might be too busy with the Buffyverse).
And the episode with the movie pitch was episode 200, I think.
Still haven't watched Dr. Who, and I shamefully admit to having forgotten about the awesomeness that is BSG, addicted to it though I may have been.
@All: For the record, I've been a total, TOTAL sci-fi geek all my life. Now that I can actually afford to buy the shows, I'm slowly collecting everything I can, to my wife's dismay (though she, too, enjoys the shows). Collection currently includes all of Stargate (including movies) all of Babylon 5 (including comics, movies, and some books), Firefly (including Serenity and all comics), Space Above and Beyond. (I've limited this to TV shows, since I also have all of the Matrix, Riddick, Star Wars, and other movie franchises.) My next acquisition target is ST:DS9, which was my favorite from the various series.
Finally, for those of you interested, check out Joost. I think all of the original Star Trek shows (ST:TOS) are available for viewing there, as well as all of the Babylon 5 spin-off "Crusade".
Just wondering what people's favorite science fiction show and/or franchise is here. I've recently been addicted to Babylon 5, particularly because of the underlying themes introduced. However, if I have to look at all-time favorites... well, frankly, I can't really say.
Part of me is attracted to the cohesiveness of franchises like "Star Wars" and "Babylon 5", part of me is attracted to the frontierism of "Serenity/Firefly", and part of me is still attracted to the polished Star Trek universe, inconsistent as it might be. Then, of course, there are little known past shows like "Space: Above and Beyond", "Earth 2", and even "Tech War" (though I'm not sure how many people still remember that short-lived series).
For the record, I still follow many of my old favorites via comics. For example, Dark Horse is coming out with a number of Serenity/Firefly titles (Those Left Behind and Better Days), as well as already having an amazing Star Wars collection. And I just noticed an increase of "Star Trek" comics in the comic store I frequent, which reminds me of the stuff I used to read as a kid. Whenever I was sick my mom would buy me comics to read during the day. The only problem with comics is that, for some strange reason, people feel the need to do crossovers. In fact, there was once an X-Men/Star Trek crossover which, I'm convinced, was only created because someone wanted this to happen:
(Edit: Just noticed this image is only viewable in 9R notes, not Chawlk.)
So the question stands: which are your favorites, and why? If you don't have a clear favorite, what tends to attract you to certain types of sci-fi?
Awesome.
Probably.
@ericastjohn: It was Pacman. I used to watch that one, too.
Big Fish: The ending, to me, seemed like what a beautiful death would be. This one had me crying like no move has ever done. It was suggested once that this was because I saw my life in his.
The line that hit me was when the son tells the father, during the last story that "Everyone was there. I mean everybody." After says goodbye to his wife for the last time, I start sobbing uncontrollably. (Heck, I'm teary-eyed right now, just thinking about it.)
Dead Poets Society: Not much crying here, but some.
Life Is Beautiful: A lot of crying here. I've never been able to sit through the whole thing.
The Notebook: Actually I haven't seen the movie, but the book had me crying.
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.
The Naked Gun (all of them)
Office Space
Dumb and Dumber
Disgusting.
Reading this list tells me very few of you have actually ever seen a bad, BAD movie.
Because I Said So was pretty damn horrible. A friend gave me Plan 9 From Outer Space for Christmas, but I haven't watched it yet.
Remember, in Plan 9, whenever characters are looking at papers in an "official" capacity, they're ACTUALLY READING THE SCRIPT.
@Seopher: FTW!
@Quietjune: Doug Funny on line 2 for you. (For a while, that was my favorite cartoon.)
As for my favorite obscure superhero...
First of all, if you really think Gambit is obscure, then Nighthawk could be considered obscure, too, so naming truly obscure ones (The Goon? The Mice Templars?) would probably be pointless. However, I'll go with Lonewolf from "Soon I Will Be Invincible".
I would have named this guy or this guy, but in this crowd they'd hardly be considered obscure.
By the way, The Green Lantern is about as obscure as Batman.
I'll probably watch this next week. That way it only costs $4.00 per person. (Mon, Tue, Wed -- matinée prices all day.)
» Anybody Seen Dr Horrible's Sing-along Blog? ... Last Reply: 5 months ago by Gnorb.
At the behest of Kamigoroshi, my wife and I watched it last night. It was awesome, and had us laughing a good part of the time. And the songs were actually catchy enough to make me want to sing them.
(Just as a sidenote, if you've watched this and enjoyed it, you'll likely be very interested in the book Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman.)