Speculative Fiction: of the Movie, Streaming and TV format- 2017

From the Star Wars home page: "...the next chapter in the Skywalker saga: STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI.

THE LAST JEDI is written and directed by Rian Johnson and produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman and executive produced by J.J. Abrams, Jason McGatlin, and Tom Karnowski.

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI is scheduled for release December 15, 2017. "

This news just out today. Looks like Luke has more of a burden to carry than ever, no retirement for that guy! I have streamed several SF series in 2016 and will be catching up by posting my opinion here, as time permits. We can always link back to 2016's discussion.

What no-one seems to mention is that when the first film came out in 1977 (before it ever became 'Episode IV - A New Hope'), there was a lot of talk about how George Lucas had plotted out a nine-film sequence, of which this was hopefully the beginning of the central trilogy.

So does anyone know if the new franchise films have any relationship to the plot that Lucas had outlined for episodes 7, 8 & 9 (even if only on the back of an envelope somewhere)?

The last Jedi? Aw, man. Get my hopes up, sure.

I actually thought Rogue One did an artful job of supplying some Jedi backstory in the absence of any actual Jedi knights.

The Penultimate Jedi just didn't test as well, though Episode IX still looms.

>2 RobertDay:
I understand that Rogue One contained snippets of names, if not plot ideas, from Lucas's early drafts. I'm also curious if anything survives the original vision, even if only in broad outline, or if Disney are flying by the seat of their gilded pants.

>2 RobertDay: Yes, there was a rumoured trilogy of trilogies plotted out, but then Lucas licensed Timothy Zahn to write the Admiral Thrawn novels and that became the official third trilogy, which would never be filmed. But then the SWEU kicked off big time, in part due to the success of Zahn's books, and now with Disney owning the franchise, everything in the SWEU has been deemed non-canon and the films are retconning like mad...

I'm still in a funk because they blew off all those years of books and series which set up a wonderful future for the original characters.

>6 auntmarge64: Yep, I am disappointed that the pulp books on SW I read clandestinely in order to drop technical, story line & background bon mots with no seeming effort are now all for naught.

edit in : I didn't know that the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order Book Series existed. That would have provided a lot of background for the last VII installment I guess. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Jedi_Order

Does Star Wars, in any of its book/movie forms, have time travel yet?

>8 dukedom_enough: Of a kind (usually hyperdrive related): http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Time_travel

But not as a reliable and possible thing to do. And I hope it never does... as much as like time travel, that is the wrong universe for it...

lansingsexton ; asked {link below} back in the 2016 version of SF Movies etc. ; I've been watching Travelers on Netflix. I like it so far. Has any one else seen it?
http://www.librarything.com/topic/218207#5879487


Yep, I have seen the series and I liked it, in spite of the fact that time travel plot based series seem to dominate a lot of TV and online SF recently. Streaming data through a timeline busting infinitesimal "wormhole" requires less suspension of disbelief than a lot of SF devices for sure.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5651844/ link to IMDB review.

I liked the "OA" even more after streaming it on Netflix. A young women shows up suddenly in a small community after disappearing as a child. Not so unusual but when she left she was blind and now she can see. When she finally decides to confide to a small group of friends what happened to her while she was gone, {not much of a spoiler but I wanted to use the code for the 1st time} the tale is an astral projecting/captive by madman/love recently lost story than turns her group into Falun Gong like acolytes . This does not happen all at once but over a series of incidents. The last episode is a real twist that can leave you a bit confused but is not a trite "cliff hanger".

I read that there is going to be a second season of The OA so it looks like the story is going to continue. Neither series a "genre buster" like Stranger Things but both are entertaining.

Official trailer of The OA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvHJtez2IlY

Even though it is based on a lesser-known comic book, I give Legion this season's award for originality! It is written by Noah Hawley (who did the outstanding Fargo re-boot), and is a real brain-scrambler. Guy who has been mentally ill for most of his life (and institutionalized for most of his adult life) turns out to have very strong telepathic powers, and is recruited by a group of people with similar (but varying) powers. Of course, there are bad guys from the government out to get them. You're not really sure when he is dreaming, actually in the present world, or hallucinating. The production values are off the charts.

This month sees the 20th anniversary of Buffy the Vampire Slayer which however cheesy was a iconic show with an enormous impact.OK,so I cringed at times over the sophomore humour but though 50 years old I loved it and watched it religiously.Much to the bewilderment of my blase children who were aghast at their old mother watching what they called rubbish! lol.
Apparently Buffy fans are up in arms because Netflix may finally be dropping the series in April.
Dusty's guilty secret. I saw series two(where Angel becomes devilish once more,and we have the priceless Spike and Drusilla ''romance''} in a charity shop and just had to buy it just for nostalgia value.:0)

>11 drmamm: I just started watching Legion, and am hooked after two episodes. I really enjoy how the actor who plays David is doing a good job of appearing both crazy and likeable at the same time. I had heard that he is supposed to be Professor X's son, but haven't seen anything that confirms that.

Yesterday we had an extremely rare occurrance - work called off because of the blizzard. My husband stayed home too, so we watched the first 5 episodes of The Man In The High Castle, which is excellent. Very much looking forward to the rest of the episodes.

>14 Darth-Heather: Look forward to viewing that when it becomes available

I saw Independence Day; Resurgence at the theater some time ago but never reviewed it as it is a pale shadow of the original Independence Day which was very enjoyable flick. May be worth a look on DVD if you want to revive the original film's magic.

Just finished watching another Marvel Comic based series on Netflix - The Iron Fist. The story line is intriguing and well developed due to it being based on the Marvel comic series of the same name. Worth a watch if you are already a fan or find the scenario interesting is my guess.

The martial arts scenes are really the low parts of the series however in my opinion. I do not know martial arts but Danny Rand {the Iron Fist} would not make a pimple on the butt of Kwai Chang Caine, the Kung Fu priest portrayed by the late David Carradine! After reading the synopsis of the series Kung Fu on wiki I realized I missed a lot of the episodes and will probably seek out a streaming source some day. Whenever I have occasion to move large flower pots I still raise may arms, shake my sleeves to bare my forearms and then lift the pot - causes consternation some times ;-)

I see where the first trailer for what is being touted as the "Prometheus 2" movie; Alien Covenant" , is out. I look forward to its release but hope it includes the heroine from the original movie in some way. Aha! an "extended trailer" on youtube. I wonder who put it together? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX7URpWBNKE#t=52.063125

Looks like the nasty bugs have the same attitude as the original alien. Movie website: http://www.alien-covenant.com/

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets {links to official movie site}escaped my attention until yesterday when the trailers for the movie were released with a lot of online buzz.

Director Luc Besson also did Léon: The Professional, the Fifth Element{two of my favorite flicks}, La Femme Nikita and others. The movie website mentions the movie is based on the comic series Valérian and Laureline which Luc read as a kid and was very impressed with. A long lived French comic series; from 1967 - 2010 according to wiki.

Besson & company hired some of the same people who did the special effects on Avatar. Do click on the link to the movie site, preferably with something that has stereo sound {surprising theme song}. The newest trailer is there, on youtube and well worth the effort - a fun site to poke around on. This should be a knockout 3D event judging from the clips portrayed at the web site. It looks like the contest for biggest SF blockbusters of 2017 will be between Valerian and The Last Jedi {that's my bet}. Release date is July 21st 2017 in the USA.

I watched the trailer for Valerian and I thought it looked really awful. I have the feeling this is going to be a huge bomb.

>17 DugsBooks: I'm a big fan of the Valerian and Laureline bandes dessinées and while the film looks like it's got their spaceship and the backgrund spot on, the casting of the two leads doesn't match, the comics' dry wit is missing, and it all looks a bit 21st century generic space opera... I'll go see it, but I expect it to be awful.

>18 tottman: A lot of takers on that bet in Vegas probably. The " budget of €197 million" { just over $200 million edited- not a currency trader} will be a formidable obstacle to overcome but they really hit the internet with a blitz on promoting it.

>19 iansales: After viewing the trailer my first thought was for the poor ushers in the theaters in states where pot is legal now - they will probably have to remind numerous patrons that the movie is over. ;-) I missed the comic series completely but after a quick look around it appears Luc has a lot of content to draw on and that other films have already done the same.

>20 DugsBooks: A couple of volumes of the series were published in English back in the 1980s, and then an omnibus of three in the 1990s, but it's only in the past few years that Cinebook have been publishing the entire series in English. They also publish translations of The Adventures of Blake and Mortimer, which are really good. There was an animated series made of Blake & Mortimer but it was rubbish.

Here's a blog post on some of the bandes dessinées I own - or did own when I wrote the post... https://iansales.com/2012/11/02/drawn-strips/

>21 iansales: Nice stuff Ian. Makes me wonder why French classes in the USA didn't just dump a load of "Valerian and Laureline " comics in the library when I was in junior high. A lot of people probably would have learned some french translating them if any French to English dictionaries were about. Then again, educators probably still don't do that today.

>22 DugsBooks: I seem to remember learning French and German using some sort of sub-Simenon thrillers. In German, it was F192 hat verspätung, but I can't remember the author.

When I spent a year in Switzerland, I got several dozen issues of Atlan to try and recover my mostly forgotten college German. After half a dozen issues, I was reading pretty fluently. Wasn't much use for my conversational skills though.

...wandering even further off topic; right after reading >24 ChrisRiesbeck: comments I heard on public radio a news cast where kids in South America were being interviewed and responding in English they had taught themselves with a free app, Duolingo. Done with inexpensive phones evidently, the subteens put myself & maybe half the USA to shame. Cute radio program, reminds me of The Diamond Age.

If you are tired of all the comic based movies being made then by no means watch this movie teaser for Thor Ragnarok . Stated simply they cheated and used Led Zeppelin in the sound track and that will make you want to see the movie even if surreptitiously after the DVD comes out. Release date: November 3, 2017 (USA)
http://marvel.com/videos/watch/6318

>26 DugsBooks: Ooo! Birthday movie!

>22 DugsBooks: In my final seventh year learning French we actually got a REAL Frenchwoman once a week for conversational French,and she kindly passed round French copies of the Asterix graphic novels,and we loved it! I was hopeless at French anyway,but it did introduce me to Asterix and Obelisk! :0)
Much easier and more fun.than Balzac,Moliere and the French romantic poets!

>26 DugsBooks: They used a Led Zeppelin track for Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, IIRC.

>29 iansales:

That was a Trent Reznor cover of "Immigrant Song."

ETA: Karen O vocals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQtXsp4tIbw

>26 DugsBooks: ff.

Led Zeppelin Is Here to Make Every Movie Trailer Better

http://www.gq.com/story/led-zeppelin-movie-trailers

>29 iansales: loved the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movie series - great stuff, have not read the books yet. The movie was able to overshadow Zeppelin in that case ;-)

>31 artturnerjr: Zep's crew revitalizing that money machine!

New "The Last Jedi" trailer out a couple of days ago. A bazillion interpretations of the trailer online with any search at youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB4I68XVPzQ

>32 DugsBooks: Hollywood has only made the first book, the series of films of all three books was Swedish. I'm told the original translations were rushed and certainly I didn't think The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was very well-written. I didn't bother with the others. But I believe a new translation is available now.

>32 DugsBooks:

Zep's crew revitalizing that money machine!

And they're sitting on a (pecuniary and aesthetic) gold mine, let me tell ya.

>33 iansales: Yep, I just read the English subtitles while watching the movies but that was immersive for me. I was mesmerized by the strong female lead {seemed pretty unique at the time} and really drawn into the flick

::edit:: Aha, I see where my confusion comes from. I have not seen the 2011 "Hollywood" English language version! I thought it was weird anyone would remake the great Swedish flicks. Maybe I will give it a look sometime.

>33 iansales: The "Hollywood" English version of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was not bad at all. I was going to read the book but I talked to someone who read the book and then saw the movie and they said not to bother since the movie covered the book well.

I read The Girl who played with Fire and thought the book was quite good, perhaps there was a different translator. I would continue to read the series with no reservations.

>36 Lynxear: Yes, I thought the Fincher version quite good. Daniel Craig was a bit too much the macho man for the part, but it handled the plot really well.

>37 iansales: yes, I really felt sorry for the heroine in the book. Finally coming out of her anti-social shell and buying an expensive jacket for the man she thought loved her. But while he really liked her, he loved another and at the end went back to his love... so sad.

And in the book The Girl who played with Fire the character of the girl did not miss a beat from what I saw in the movie. I agree Daniel Craig was a miscast... they needed an aggressive reporter... not a spy with skills.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood has quite the buzz coming out on Hulu this month. I do not subscribe to Hulu but here is an interview with Ms. Atwood about the book and current movie.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/books/review/margaret-atwood-handmaids-tale-a...

>39 DugsBooks:

Thanks for that. I actually saw that article when it was first posted but never got around to reading it until now. If you're reading this and do not yet have a copy of Ms. Atwood's excellent and timely novel, I admonish you to go to your favorite place for buying or borrowing reading matter and obtain one posthaste.

>40 artturnerjr: Ashamed to say I do not believe I have read the book or seen the ,1990's ?, movie already out . I will put the novel on my TBR pile for sure - probably a waiting list at the local library.

I just finished watching the first season of The Expanse after starting the dvd service at Netflix. I was surprised at the detail in sets and special effects, I was expecting a less expensive alternative. The noir style threw me off at first and I thought the snazzy hat coiffed detective was perhaps modeled after the character from Altered Carbon. I enjoyed the first season but towards the end it seemed they were not sure where to go with the plot, maybe uncertainty over renewal was the cause. Look forward to season 2 when available.

The Netflix dvd's are not blu-ray and suck quite frankly in their menu design with the controls not text labeled and just odd symbols you have to figure out thru trial & error. Looks like waiting for renewal is a recurring theme for the series from what I have read.

I am also finishing up the Game of Thrones 6th season where it appears the movie has gotten ahead of Maritn's novels - I swear you see/feel the shift when that happens it seems. Have not seen Winds of Winter last episode of the season yet, I wonder if it is a precursor of the next novel. The dragons look great and there are extras on the {blu ray} dvds that show how they and special effects big battles etc. are done. Great series!

"The seventh season of the fantasy drama television series Game of Thrones is set to premiere on HBO on July 16, 2017 and conclude six weeks later on August " from wiki.

>42 DugsBooks: The Expanse is roughly following the plot of the first two books although the events of what occurred when Eros crashed into Venus seem to be lagging what was in the novels.

I've got some catching up to do on this topic:

>2 RobertDay:, Lucas handed over his outline for the Star Wars sequel trilogy as part of his Disney deal. It was considered and then discarded, to go in more of a fan-service direction. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/31/movies/george-lucas-criticizes-latest-star-wa...

>8 dukedom_enough:, I think the day Star Wars introduces time travel in its movies will be the same day I retire from following where it's headed. Like I've mostly done with Star Trek; since 2009 I'm content to wait for it on video, and the fervour is gone.

>15 DugsBooks:, the 2nd Independence Day movie was messy in the extreme. I've forgotten most of it already.

>18 tottman:, I'm sorry to agree, Valerian has the feels of future cult-status potential but it is not going to catch fire with North American audiences. The poor fellow who starred in Ender's Game and now in this, he'd better get well away from SFF in future I think.

>26 DugsBooks:, the Thor Ragnarok trailer has actually roused my interest in the Marvel franchise again, after I'd stepped away for a while. This one looks fun enough to nab me.

>40 artturnerjr:, I'm on it! Had The Handmaid's Tale on my TBR pile for ages, the TV series floated it to the top.

>42 DugsBooks:, I'm determined to ignore the last Game of Thrones seasons and wait for the books. So far, trying to do this successfully and spoiler-free is like trying to pretend the Internet doesn't exist.

Anyone looking forward to "Blade Runner 2049", coming October 6th? Most of my anticipation, SW aside, is for "Ready Player One" in March 2018.

The Expanse series has been above average for TV SF -- certainly for SyFy SF. I think it worked well to move the Avasarala character into the first season, both for plot reasons and to let us enjoy Aghdashloo's acting. Some of the secondary characters in the books -- Burton especially -- are more real in the TV version. A lot of the plotlines dropped make sense for TV. Some of things added less so, like what happens (no spoilers) on Meng's first trip from Ganymede.

Well, I've finally seen 'Rogue One' and I have to say that I'm impressed. This looks like an SW film made for grown-ups; look and feel is very different, the standard of cinematography is much higher in terms of shot composition, lighting and overall directorial guidance and the characters are not child-oriented in any way. The Rebel Alliance are depicted as terrorists and there are no happy endings. Only towards the end are original SW canon characters given walk-ons to establish continuity. And the faintly sarcastic droid seems to owe more to Iain M. Banks than George Lucas.

Finished watching the 2cd season of Killjoys over the weekend after binging thru the first season a week earlier. For me the series got off to a slow start with the first few episodes resembling animated computer hunter/shooter games - the soundtracks used during fight scenes are the same "staccato electronic beat" type used in "dungeon combat" of many computer games IMOHO.

The character development got a lot better by the end of the first season and the episodes flowed better for me with the change in editing and sound tracks. Enjoyed the second season and look forward to the third although the plot is somewhat predictable and the characters not really that nuanced at this point. Liked Killjoys but I would rank "Dark Matter" just above it if I were listing preferences.

Some more stuff on Alien Covenant out. >16 DugsBooks: I was pointed to this site by an article at Space.com https://www.meetwalter.com/ where you can design your android AI robot like the one to be in the movie. He seems like a wuss and will be no match for "David" the original.

Here is a link to the website with an extensive list of trailers. http://www.alien-covenant.com/trailer/ The website design is a little "busy" but has a lot of info if you want to delve into the detail.

The movie kind of snuck up on me and is being released this Friday May 19th in the USA - not sure if I will see it or not the first weekend. Depends on if I survive the dentist, make sacrifices to appease the gods for me! ;-)

...and speaking of gods, Neil Gaiman's American Gods is serialized and showing at STARZ in the USA. I was in doubt how the show could be produced with all the controversial "alt sex" scenes but then realized that the Wachowski siblings "Sense8" netflix series {now in season 2!} had broken down any financial or censor barriers to that. I don't get STARZ anyone seen the series? I read it is well accepted, I enjoyed the book. https://www.starz.com/series/americangods/featured

Big & New !!!

First trailer for the new Star Trek series, which has had trouble with lift off from what I read, is out and available at you tube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dxe_ugmIVM

>49 DugsBooks:, AG approved for its second season already. Can't see it either, but hopefully I'll somehow see it by the time they visit "House on the Rock" in Wisconsin. I've been there, what a crazy place.

Visually this new Star Trek appears to be miles ahead previous TV renditions; I don't know if that's better budget or how far effects have come. And even so the Youtubers are criticizing it as unprofessional looking - wow. Difference in generations showing through, maybe. I'll have to raise my standards.

Strange image you've captured, there: isn't that a Hellboy character?

>50 Cecrow: "Hellboy character" ....I was reminded of the Star Trek episode with the salt sucking monster in the disguise of a lady, The Man Trap. I read that the plot for the new series has been all over the place so I am not sure the photo is the final version of the crew member.

Saw the Blu Ray edition of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and was pleasantly surprised. No simplistic plot here as implied by the title, a complex situation with great characters. Having a "Harry Potter" background helps with sinking into the movie but I think it could stand alone very well. I had assumed the movie had aimed a little lower for the audience target but I was intrigued throughout - maybe I am just a fanboy however.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3183660/

Dark Matter Series 3 coming to the UK in June. Drool.

>52 Noisy: And in USA. And Season 3 of Killjoys :) Dark Matter starts 3 weeks earlier than Killjoys (longer season) so they will be running probably in tandem from June 30.

Meanwhile - anyone watching "12 Monkeys"? The 3rd season was as weird as the first 2 - and left the door wide open for season 4 even if it closed the whole Witness ark (well... depends if there will be season 4 - the thing may get blown wide open again).

>51 DugsBooks:, I couldn't get into Fantastic Beasts unfortunately. Smacked too much of "Look at this cool thing! Now look at this one! And this one!". Too much spectacle. I don't think it would have a leg to stand for an audience not already familiar with the Harry Potter world.

Wonder Woman is courting some excellent reviews leading up to release, and might spell some redemption for the too-dark DC line.

Saw Wonder Woman today and wow what a great movie! Easily the best DC adaptation and I would rank it up there with any superhero origin story. Gal Gadot was amazing. This is one I'll see again. So glad it lived up to the hype.

Since I had watched the Prometheus DVD earlier in the week I opted to catch the "plain jane" {no imax etc.} version of Alien Covenant at the movies. An interesting movie but I would wait for the blu ray dvd for this one unless you just have time to kill. Avoiding spoilers, I was looking forward to a lot of interaction with the "Engineers", the race of people who designed the alien virus but that interaction was limited.

Prometheus was better in my opinion and I liked that movie a little better each time I saw it {in spite of reviews}. I expected the series to zip off into an exploration of the engineers world expanding the "Alien" franchise universe but that direction was limited while Covenant fits in like the last piece of a puzzle as a prequel to the original Alien movie.

>55 tottman: Gal Gadot has a really interesting biography and the movie set records for the amount of money raked in on the first weekend, I look forward to seeing the flick.

>55 tottman: Interesting discussion on Wonder Woman at Pro & Con. http://www.librarything.com/topic/258655

>57 DugsBooks:

Why do you assume people would want to go there for a discussion? I haven't seen Wonder Woman yet and don't have anything to contribute at any rate, but a place where random misogyny is par for the course is the last place I'd want to have one.

>58 lorax: Just some background on WW that really piqued my interest and there was a discussion already in progress- you are right about the negative vibes the place exudes at times however.

I've just heard the disappointing news that Sense8 will not have a third season.

>60 paradoxosalpha: I am about half way through the second season and I suspected that might happen. The episodes are becoming a little redundant in structure; two parts didactic educational alternative lifestyles lessons and one part plot line advancement with concurrent SF theme development.

The series certainly kicked down a lot of doors for "mainstream series" topics however and was an exciting concept. Makes you wonder if the Wachowski siblings had plans for new directions/sub plots for the show - Babylon 5 and others had long plays.

>58 lorax: >55 tottman: Ok after popular requests; a reposting * crosspost of a Wonder Women background topic. {crossposts pay less than original posts?} ;-)

The story of the origin of Wonder Woman is stranger and more exciting than the comic in many ways. I just caught part of a NPR radio interview with the author Jill Lepore of the book The Secret History of Wonder Woman.

In the discussion with the author released today Jill Lepore explains "What 'Wonder Woman' Means To Modern-Day Feminism". Very entertaining, she explains Mr. Marston was raised by feminists and abolitionists and that was how he came up with the character. It is acknowledged he kind of delved into the bondage of Wonder Woman pretty deeply but even that was based on feminism history. She concludes that Wonder Woman is actually Margaret Sanger, who started Planned Parenthood. You will be glad to know the Catholic church also banned Wonder Woman. ;-)

Described in greater detail in a 2014 transcript of another interview with Jill Lepore ;

"The man behind the most popular female comic book hero of all time, Wonder Woman, had a secret past: Creator William Moulton Marston had a wife — and a mistress. He fathered children with both of them, and they all secretly lived together in Rye, N.Y. And the best part? Marston was also the creator of the lie detector."

Another very short poignant article on how a kid relates to WW . http://www.npr.org/2017/06/03/531397415/wonder-woman-shows-girls-that-men-arent-...

*getting old is terrible, your limbs become so weak you can't properly whip the proofreaders .

>61 DugsBooks:

It made me go back and re-view Scanners. My god, but that Whispers character must have been consciously modeled on Patrick McGoohan's performance in Cronenberg's film. I think Scanners holds up brilliantly except for the telepathic hacking into a transistorized mainframe.

I have never seen a complete viewing of Scanners, only parts when shown on TV as I remember but I think you have a point.

>63 paradoxosalpha: More and more I get the impression that Patrick McGoohan played himself in many of his roles; and he probably wasn't the easiest of people to get on with. When you look at his character in 'The Prisoner', he comes over to me as very driven and hardly sympathetic. The biography I read - Not a number - paints a picture of a man who came up through the school of hard knocks and never forgot it - or let anyone else forget it, either.

>65 RobertDay: I recently saw a episode from 98 of Colombo where McGoohan was the villain (he also directed several episodes during this period). Both Falk and Mcgoohan, old stagers by this time, seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely as they played off each other.

>66 justifiedsinner: I vaguely remember that one; I think I watched it (not being a Columbo regular) on the strength of McGoohan being in it, to see what he made of the role. I seem to think he dropped a 'Prisoner' reference into it at one point.

The last season of Orphan Black on BBCAmerica begins Saturday. This is a terrific series and includes amazing acting by the star!

"You're fired!"
http://variety.com/2017/film/news/star-wars-han-solo-kathleen-kennedy-director-f...

Finally watched the movie "Source Code", six years after it was a thing. Huh, that was a good one, what else have I missed?

>55 tottman: et seq: We went to see WW last night. I think my other half, whose birthday treat this was, was a bit disappointed by it. I liked the origin myth (especially the way the Greek pantheon was depicted, a bit Old Masterly), but I was less taken with the rest of it. It looked fantastic, of course; Gal Gadot was indeed excellent; and the supporting cast was strong. But even granted that this was a fantasy story, there were a whole pile of issues that I had, mainly with real world verisimilitude. No zip fasteners in 1918, for example. And I reckon the military advisors must've felt like voices in the wilderness, to judge by the number of inaccuracies I saw.

(I won't list them all, so as not to appear too nerdy; but the state of aviation in 1918 was not such that you could fly a group of senior military officials from Germany to Turkey at the drop of a hat and in the reasonable expectation that most if not all of them would actually arrive in one piece. And transferring stick-and-string fighter aircraft that sort of distance just would not happen. Everything would have travelled by land or sea, even the aircraft.)

The thing is this: I get irritated when technical details are wrong when they've been done in CGI. There is no excuse for such inaccuracies when you have no physical or economic constraints on what you show on screen - it costs the same to get it right as it does to get it wrong. And when I see film makers getting stuff wrong that I know about, it makes me ask 'what else have they got wrong that I don't know about?'

The reveal of the mortal identity of Aries was a bit yawn-inducing; not that I'd expected it to be who it was, but because the rationale of the mortal character's actions made no sense in light of their real identity.

UK readers might like to know that two of the filming locations were not listed in the credits (apart from "in London", which is stretching it a bit): the Turkish gas factory looks as though it was filmed at Tilbury Fort, on the Thames Estuary (the mountains of Essex were obviously inserted later), whilst the German gas factory looks very much to me like RAF Halton, near Aylesbury (though very much digitally extended in the final showdown). I compared and contrasted with the first 'Guardians of the Galaxy' film; part of that was filmed at the very modernist railway station at Liége in Belgium, with the footage then digitally extended so that only people like me who know the place could spot it. But in that case, Liége was listed separately as a filming location in the credits and the Belgian State Railways acknowledged in the "Thanks to..." section. English Heritage (Tilbury) and the MoD (Halton) (I presume, unless it's been sold off since the last time I was there) either missed a trick or are smarting somewhat.

Good news on the Sense8 front:
http://ux-origin.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2017/06/29/sense8-netflix-2-hour-fin...

Saw Morgan on DVD, good story line premise of "genetically engineered " person in the near future who for some reason can be treated as property - does not play well with others. Execution of not that original of a theme could have been better.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4520364/

Now time for a science, audio interlude. This transmission received recently by SETI, possibly a response to the Voyager probe?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sLDphibALow

>73 DugsBooks:, wonder if they're still playing that one on tour.

Watched the movie "Okja" on Netflix last night, which I thought might have some kids appeal given the cute super-pig. Not so much, in light of the cursing and violence. Turns out this is a movie largely geared to pleasing vegetarians and vegans, but it's also a simple story about a girl's love for an animal. Has a lot of good touches and cute moments in between the disturbing bits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okja

>74 Cecrow: Not sure, you tube has their most recent tours being in South America/Cuba and the music blues oriented as far as I have noticed. All very listenable however.

>75 Cecrow: Have that on my watch list.

I just saw the Wonder Woman movie. Not as good as I thought it would be. *Sigh*
I cannot stand films that are dark, not in content, but visually.

>77 davisfamily: Oh yes, one of my big bugbears recently. We're going to spend a fortune on the special effects but make it so dark, the audience can't see anything. Why? What's the point? They might as well have just filmed a black wall and saved themselves the money 🤔

O frabjous day!

Jodie Whittaker: Doctor Who's 13th Time Lord to be a woman

>79 LolaWalser: So so great!!

>79 LolaWalser: Fabulous! I'm having so much fun watching the various reactions on the internet :)

>81 tardis: You'd think that fans of a science fiction show (another possible debate there which we'll park for the time being) would be wholly comfortable with entertaining new and novel ideas...

All the more as it's not even new! As is well known, Sydney Newman, creator of the show, advised in 1986 that the Doctor "should metamorphose into a woman".

So chuffed right now. I'm hoping they pull all the stops out for getting quality stories. Given that a brilliant turn like Capaldi's (imo the best Doctor and actor of them all) was received less enthusiastically than his predecessors', there are stark limits to what sheer acting excellence can achieve.

Anybody who gets bent out of shape over a female Doctor is late to dinner. The "Missy" regeneration of the Master has been one of the show's better characters in recent years, so I have reasonable expectations that this will work nicely.

Oh, and agreed with >83 LolaWalser: about Capaldi's unheralded excellence, though I don't know if I can say he was the best.

Not to dampen the discussion re female doctor!!! Woo Hooo!

But the return of Game of Thrones to the screen was everything I hoped it would be!

I'm not a Doctor Who fan or following the Game of Thrones show (only reading them - spoilers galore these days); my excitement is for the new Apes movie that completes the trilogy, what one reviewer has called the best genre trilogy since the original Star Wars movies. Both of the first two entries were excellent and showcase Andy Serkis' best work to date.

I am sending notice that whosoever spills the beans about the 7th season of game of thrones , the ice king comes for thee!

I have never seen so many online articles giving complete details of the episodes. I try to wait for the DVD to come out - wonder if Martin will ever publish the next novel?

I think that Capaldi is a great actor and I like him in other stuff, but I thought he was a disaster as the Doctor. So much so that I stopped watching. I think it was largely what they tried to make his version of the doctor be, but it absolutely didn't work for me.

That being said, I'm very excited for the 13th Doctor and can't wait to see what Jodie Whittaker does with it! Happy to be able to watch again.

>88 tottman:

Wow, "disaster". There are a few Doctors I dislike rather strongly (Ten, Eleven, Five) but I would never call them disastrous. In case you quit early after Capaldi's debut, I'd suggest you at least take a look at season 10, where his persona is very different to what it was in Deep Breath. And if that's too much, Heaven Sent, from season 9, should at least move you from calling him a "disaster". That's the best hour and the best performance in the entire 54-year record of the show. Don't deprive yourself at least of that.

Capaldi wasn't served uniformly well with scripts and they took a while to settle on Twelve's characterisation (I'd say the watershed was in season's 8 Mummy on the Orient Express--a truly great story, btw), but he lent such depth and incredible emotional variety to everything I'd rather watch the least of his episodes to most others' "classics".

Sorry if I went too "true believer"... :) Just wanted to say, if you were turned off in the beginning of the season 8, there was much more and different after, including a few peaks of the show's entire run.

Thoughts about the trailer for A Wrinkle in Time? I thought Too Much Chris Pine, though maybe that won't reflect his screen time in the movie. The ball-bouncing bit was good.

Too Much Chris Pine

Ha! That could be the subtitle for the effing Wonder Woman movie! Decades of waiting and then that stupid mug gets plastered over the screen 80% of the time.

>91 LolaWalser: Indeed, Lola. Most of what was wrong with the WW film happened because of what Chris Pine's character did, or said, or said he'd done. Unless the zip fasteners on his trousers (in 1918) proved he was actually a time traveller. And things went downhill from there. You could never have made a telephone call from Belgium to London in 1918, even if there hadn't been a war on. And saying that it's a fantasy film doesn't cut it. I liked the fantasy bits (though ANOTHER bloody Final Battle Between Ultimate Good and Ultimate Evil tested my patience somewhat), but being a fantasy film doesn't excuse getting real world stuff wrong. Bah. Humbug.

...but being a fantasy film doesn't excuse getting real world stuff wrong.

I have to disagree there. If I'm accepting that Wonder Woman fought in WWII then I have absolutely no problem believing that the world in which that could happen has zippers and different telephones.

Wow. All this shade for a perfectly decent movie. WW was great... If you went in with no expectations. If all you went in with was rules, requirements, and RIGHT, of course it will suck.

It's a fricking popcorn movie, people. They are going to screw things up.
See also Independence Day (1995) for screw ups galore, but still a good popcorn movie.

Geez.

I like a good popcorn movie as much as the next person, too. But I get disappointed when I'm told to expect a great film and it turns into popcorn (in the case of WW, about twenty minutes in). My other half was also rather disappointed by it, and she wanted to see it. And she doesn't have my historical nose for detail. I think it's down to what Gilroy said: "If you went in with no expectations".

Perhaps it's a Brit perspective. WW1 and the Western Front in particular are pretty big features in our cultural landscape, and people fiddle with it at their risk.

Re: Doctor Who: I think the most important change is being overlooked - a new showrunner. Moffat was becoming increasingly tired and tiresome (and was anyway not as good as Russel T). As with the Sherlock series he co-wrote with Gatiss he had run out of ideas and he plots were becoming incoherent. So a clean sweep bodes well (getting rid of Bill Potts is also a plus IMHO).

>94 gilroy:

I've been looking forward to Wonder Woman (though not so much that I've seen it already, you understand). But if it really compares to the jingoistic craptacular awfulness of Independence Day, then I wouldn't be interested.

>96 justifiedsinner:

I'm more on edge about the new showrunner than the new lead. Fingers crossed.

>97 paradoxosalpha: Oh no, I simply used that for an example of mistakes happen. WW is a glorious flick. Could have used a little less of Chris Pine and his Patriarchal ways, not going to argue that. But it is definitely a superhero popcorn flick. Awesome score and lots of special effects, of course...

>96 justifiedsinner: Good point about the new showrunner. I think that is also key and another reason I'm looking forward to watching again.

>92 RobertDay:

ANOTHER bloody Final Battle Between Ultimate Good and Ultimate Evil tested my patience somewhat

To be fair, that's pretty much what superheroics are all about. Grand opera in a way, all Wagner all the time! I'm not one to notice details of uniforms but I know how annoying wrong details can be concerning other stuff so I sympathise.

Has anyone here read Wonder Woman: Amazonia? It's an "Elseworlds" story (outside the character's mainstream chronology) set in Victorian era. I'm convinced they filched ideas for the movie wholesale from there.

If the new Wonder Woman movie did nothing but prime the market for this, it would have been worth the bother, I think:
http://professorm.movie/

Saw Valerian last weekend and enjoyed the PG13 flick. There are numerous reviews online with the tone "why Valerian failed" etc. and all the while referring to how much money it made. A YA action romance story with lush background - the computer generated background also dissed but great IMOHO.

I saw the "3D" version and found out that we are being tricked by the teasers for current movies!! There are no Beatles tracks in the movie, those were only used in the advertisements, and I suspect the same for the Led Zep and other icons of rock that have been used recently. The theater* sound system was suspect also as it was certainly not nuanced as you would expect with the David Bowie "Space oddity" tune that did open the flick {ground control to Major Tom}.

Overall I considered it a great fast paced story with enamoring sub plots and SF evocative of 60's themes splashed liberally about with no "info dumps" explaining them or seeming necessary. Not the blockbuster I expected {no completely immersive sound track} but a movie that leaves you wondering when the next episode is coming up.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2239822/

* edited in for clarity

I saw Valerian today. It was fun enough, and I'd go to see a sequel. (Apparently several are queued up, though if this one can't make bank, they seem unlikely.)

Comparing it to Bresson's Fifth Element, I'd say that the lead acting wasn't as strong, and it suffered on that account. The visual richness was certainly there.

I just found out that a documentary movie about the Voyager space probes is premiering tonight on educational TV in the USA. It looks interesting I hope to see it.

Link to PBS site:
http://www.pbs.org/the-farthest/home/

Link to Space.com article that pointed me to movie:
https://www.space.com/37915-voyager-the-farthest-documentary-pbs.html?utm_source...

I saw Guardians of the Galaxy 2 on bluray and enjoyed the fast paced flick. 2 pulled some emotional strings through character development but not quite as effectively as GG1. If you like 1 you will like 2 and the addition of some new marquee actors {Kurt Russell, Stallone} make for an interesting couple of hours. Stan Lee once again makes a humorous cameo appearance with some aliens reminiscent of early Star Trek but may be from another comic.

>104 DugsBooks:, it's not unusual for movie trailers to incorporate "filler" music when their soundtrack is still being developed; in fact the reverse is more rare. Soundtracks are generally only scored against the final cut and its incorporation is one of the final stages of preparing the movie for release.

I was very engaged by the Rush track "Tom Sawyer" being appropriately used for the Ready Player One trailer, but that doesn't mean it'll be heard in the finished movie.

The release date for the Star Trek Discovery premiere is Sept. 24th and is set "about 10 years before Captain Kirk's five-year mission".

Oddly it appears that the only way to watch the $6.00 a month "CBS all access" is streaming on IOS , ROKU or other device - Bluray players will not be able to stream the series according to Sony who make my device. Seems like a big revenue stream is being missed unless they sell rights to Netflix eventually.

From what I gather at the series site, http://www.cbs.com/shows/star-trek-discovery/, there will be 15 episodes. I wonder what the resolution will be, 1080?, I bet not 4k.

Should be interesting none the less and it looks like the Klingons have taken on another permutation of appearance for this series!


:::Edited some poor writing, just have to endure the rest:::

>109 DugsBooks: Assuming that's a Klingon.

Mebbe he's a fancy Klingon. They might paint them blue for birthday celebrations or something.

>109 DugsBooks: Looks like a Black Lectroid to me.

>110 gilroy: >111 paradoxosalpha: >112 tardis: 42 second answer

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y7j4g2pRBZ8

If that's a Klingon, this is yet another iteration of Star Trek with no concern for its own history. Call it something else and then I'll watch it, maybe.

Saw the series by Marvel "The Defenders" over the past weekend and it was better than any of the individual characters series: The Iron Fist, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage. Maybe knowing their background made it better but there are no long expositions that I noticed - just fairly fast paced, tight stories leading to a finale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h3m7B4v6Zc

Why is it ALWAYS just the one woman? Why is it never three women and one guy?

And why is she the only one turning her butt to the viewer?

Decades of jeans ads? Just noticed guys sitting spreadeagle but not sure if that body posture is considered suggestive.

If you want a misogynist to hate out on watch Kurt Russel in G of the Galaxy 2 :-)

>117 LolaWalser: And why is she the only one turning her butt to the viewer?

Like you don't know.

:)

Dark Matter was cancelled after three seasons.
Killjoys was renewed for a final two seasons.

>109 DugsBooks: Update on where to view Star Trek Discovery. Evidently, after reviewing several articles, Netflix will stream Discovery the next day after each episode except in Canada and the USA. Called Netflix directly but the person who answered claimed no knowledge on the subject and said that he had no way to find out.

>121 gilroy:

I am not surprised - Dark Matter was running a bit in circles this last season.

I just discovered that Fox TV has a new SF/comedy series this fall, "The Orvillle". Doesn't look promising; suspect the entire season will have no more laughs than the trailer.

>124 dukedom_enough: I'll duck that one then.

>124 dukedom_enough: From what I understand, it's supposed to spoof the Star Trek world. I'm not impressed by it.

Though rumor has it, we may be getting a Galaxy Quest television series... (If only I could find that link.)

>126 gilroy: Maybe this is what we're getting instead?

>127 dukedom_enough: No, because Amazon has the Galaxy Quest series. They apparently switched writers lately?

>128 gilroy: Interesting.

>117 LolaWalser: Well for the women in the audience you have the open crotch view of 2/3 men...

trying to work up my courage to see IT in the movies. {scary clowns frightened me as a kid}

>130 Lynxear:

Are you sure that's "for the women"? How about asking women how they feel about the pose of aggressive man-spreading?

I read it as defiance, a full frontal challenge and assertion of dominance--a "drop to your knees and suck my dick" that in the context is hostile, not sexy. Her pose, otoh, is the classic "ass offering" female characters are expected to do regardless of what lip service is paid to their "strength". 'Cos the only real bosses around are the gazing male wankers. As is par for the course in the business...

An old problem much discussed, and I don't know who could have missed all the parodies of the last years:



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/11/avengers-movie-poster-sexist_n_1507914....

>132 LolaWalser: Well those men's poses don't work for this male, they must work for someone.

"I read it as defiance, a full frontal challenge and assertion of dominance--a "drop to your knees and suck my dick" that in the context is hostile"

I doubt many men see it that way. It is more of a casual approach for most. Men don't wear short skirts hence there is no need for the exaggerated leg crossing that women must learn.

>133 Lynxear: Pretty much everything men do is some form of willy waving at base.

>134 iansales: and women do nothing back?

>135 Lynxear: To the same extent? Not even close.

Sticking with the topic and under the sense of fair play; I remember my girlfriend staring at this album, when released, and explaining how much she liked the guy's butt. Nope, she had no interest in hearing the album! {True Story!} I think these days Bruce Springsteen & others inspire more wistful gazing.

Leon Russell - from the women fans angle!

>137 DugsBooks:

To me that looks more awkward and goofily humorous than sexy. Personally, I find the notion that women generally go mad for male butts is weirdly exaggerated and more of a strained attempt to claim somehow that women dehumanise men in the same way men dehumanise women (tits & ass, "leg men", shut up and look pretty etc.)

But there's no "fair play" when it comes to objectification. It's done to women (mostly by men) more than to men by women (forget personal life and locker talk, who rules the media, advertising, business, arts?), and it's done in a deeply unfair world with double standards of all kinds punishing women, not men.

For example, take another look at the picture in #115--off the bat we got one woman outnumbered by three men and she's posed (practically literally) as a piece of ass--there's more of her butt showing than her face. Betcha she's nobody's boss--you don't put the focus on the backside of people who are in command. The guys meanwhile are facing directly in front in a variety of poses, but none similar to hers. Can one picture them posed exactly as she is? I've never seen such a treatment of male figures outside the parodies I linked, which rather proves the point. In contrast, she could have been shown sitting or standing like any of them. That she isn't, that she's posed in exactly that "uniquely feminine" way, is a definite message.

It's interesting to compare this with Helmut Newton's Woman Examining Man. The shock of the first time I saw it decades ago wore off, but not completely, it still feels like the strangest thing. Because it is. Women CAN sit like that just as men CAN take the pose of the woman in #115; I mean, there's no physical reason they can't. Women CAN stare at men like that, appraisingly, but we simply don't recognise this type of power relationship as normal.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of anyone dehumanising anyone else and I certainly don't think all will/would be well when/if women treated men like men treat women. I'm just pointing out how USED we are to objectification and dehumanisation of women, so much we are blind to most of it.

>138 LolaWalser: Yep I thought it looked goofy also and was surprised when I found out it was Leon Russel and bought the album, appreciating his unusual artistic twists {true story nonetheless however!}

I am used to looking at Newton's stuff where no one can peer over my shoulder - great photo.

I agree women have the short end on objectification, even with the genius of Springsteen's "Born in the USA" cover.

I would say your quote of "drop to your knees and suck my dick" that in the context is hostile" was hyperbole {through my naïveté} but weren't those the exact words used, according to victims, by the jerk who was fired by Fox or whoever with a $16 million + severance paycheck? I experience very constrained social circles and was honestly shocked by that revelation.

>139 supercell: Well that is a wake up call! I never travel.

>139 supercell: I'm sure all nice options you're showing, but I don't click bit links. Could you put the real ones in?

Black Mirror won an Emmy for "San Junipero" episode. I happened to see it - pretty good.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4538072/

The Handmaids Tale, won a handful of Emmys. Link to NYT description.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/17/arts/television/emmy-awards.html

Finally caught last year's movie "Passengers" and did not find it nearly so terrible as I was led to expect. Lots of criticism about a certain action by the male lead towards the female but I think he demonstrates sufficient remorse, commits himself to sufficiently heroic action and offers enough of a repairing option to justify her response (I still kind of get it, though).

>144 Cecrow: I saw that flick and liked it also, I thought I had done a review but I can’t find it. Great special effects & in my opinion if a girl had woken up first she would have just as tempted to choose some company.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1355644/

>144 Cecrow: >145 DugsBooks:

Seems to me the criticism of that action was appropriate. Also want to note that a lurid, 1953 comic shared our modern view of the man's ethics, by portraying him as explicitly evil in a similar story.

A full version of "50 Girls 50" is here, though it's probably unauthorized. I first read it in the 1960s, in a paperback reprint of some of the classic EC Comics stories. Possibly NSFW images in that link.

>146 dukedom_enough:

Wow. That comic at least has the excuse of, well, "the fifties". But the movie made in this day and age... now that sounds disgusting and depressing. Glad to see it bombed.

But I'd be interested to see a more realistic approach to the plot. The guy defrosts the girl--and she rips the bastard's throat out on the spot, as he well and fully deserves.

And what if she's a lesbian? Or asexual? Or just--I know this is nigh unthinkable, but let's think it for a sec--never comes round to being into him at all?! He must resign himself to playing checkers and Monopoly with her for the next 55 years. Naah, too unreal--clearly ripping his throat out is the only logical outcome.

>145 DugsBooks:

in my opinion if a girl had woken up first she would have just as tempted to choose some company.

Except for SOME reason that's not the movie they made. :) "Women would do it too" is beginning to look like your default opinion, but what is it based on?
When was the last time you saw a movie about a woman behaving like this, and as the lead we are rooting for? For my part, I can say never. But a story with some guy stalking some woman, grabbing a woman, kidnapping her, raping her, interfering in her life to the extreme in a variety of ways because what the men want is the only thing that matters--and that ends up with the woman "falling in love" with the asshole--who can count the times.

>147 LolaWalser: My opinion is from the movie alone. I don't think the gender of the person pushing the defrost button was at play in 90 years of isolation as the only alternative.

I don’t remember any rape scenes. There was a sleeping beauty theme running about however.

I would have woken up people who might be able to engineer the stasis pods. Pretty cruel corporate enterprise when the girl had to use an ID from an officer to get the auto/robot health pod to revive the guy after his near death in space.

>148 DugsBooks: >147 LolaWalser:

Well, I suspect I probably would have woken someone. But I am thinking in terms of having company, not looking for sex. I wouldn't be selecting by attractiveness; I'd be trying to work out who was most likely to be able to help me hack the system.

Moral rationale for action: if my stasis pod has failed, heaven knows what else might have failed/be about to fail.

>148 DugsBooks:

That's the equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and going "lalalalala can't hear you". Yes, gender is totally and always "in play" with this eternal shitty story of men doing horrible things to women and women falling for them nevertheless. The movie sounds bad enough on its own but you can't ignore context if you are going to generalise about what women would do.

>149 Guanhumara:

I think it's fair to suppose most of us would freak out and be tempted to get company in misery but the ethical dilemma remains (given the technical premise that, apart from this one pod malfunction, the ship is in fine order and continues on its way). Does anyone have the right to, as it were, kidnap someone and so drastically force their life in another direction for their own benefit?

I say no, never. Other people aren't things to be instrumentalised for our pleasure and profit--that's what makes slavery unconditionally immoral.

The sexual factor only makes it creepier, it can't make it more wrong. As for rationalisations, either they are based on sincere conviction that a given course of action is necessary, or they are not, in which case they are mere excuses.

To spoil the movie a LOT more, it is a drama and not simply wish-fulfilment romance. The kicker is that the pod failure was only the first indicator of a sequence of mishaps that get progressively worse, but by the time this is made obvious to everyone awake, there's not enough time remaining for anyone else to be awakened and get oriented to help them. As it happens, exactly enough people (i.e. two) are awake to save the ship. So if he hadn't wakened someone else, that's everyone on board dead. While it doesn't justify his doing it (because he couldn't foresee that event), feelings afterwards about that circumstance could serve to excuse that second person's feeling more forgiving (since she'd otherwise be dead).

>151 Cecrow:

Yeah, we know that happens, cause it's a STORY.

While it doesn't justify his doing it (because he couldn't foresee that event),

Exactly this is the point. The guy's an asshole; it's just that assholes making this shit will bend over backwards to make his assholery "acceptable"--according to their lights, of course.

They threw another "acceptable" layer onto it even beyond that once the disaster is averted, in the form of, he rigs a method whereby she could re-enter hibernation. She opts out of course, as the ultimate sign that all is forgiven.

The good news is that she is properly and correctly pissed with him from the moment she discovers what he did, at least up until the disaster occurs and they're forced to work together. From initial reviews I thought they'd omitted that entirely.

The problem is in the sequence:
- she finds out what happened, she's done with him
- disaster strikes, they must work together
- he takes the more-likely-to-be-self-sacrificial role (although she's in no small danger herself)
- she saves his life with herculean effort (why? is she the one fearing loneliness now? She makes some statement to this effect, but is his company worth it? She hasn't suffered a year alone yet to feel the degree of desperation he experienced)
- now they have happy feelings together because they saved the ship and each other
- he rigs the hibernation solution. This is a non-factor now because she's forgiven him already, basically

The hibernation thing at least had to come sooner, like, almost immediately, where he can erase his action entirely on the spot and puts the choice in her hands. Tell the story from her perspective (as it is, it's largely from his): she wakes up, there's only this one guy around, and he sits her down to explain her choice. What does she feel - pity? Curiosity? I'd find that interesting to explore. Might be the kind of story a book would tell better than a movie would, I guess.

>153 Cecrow:

Um, no, don't see any "good news" about this but I'm getting freaking tired (and anxious, to tell the truth) about discussing something THIS basic. People, it DOESN'T MATTER what fantasies you entertain about other people (let's face it--women) forgiving you your shit. NOTHING justifies treating another human being like they are there for your pleasure. And fuck all noise noised to make it "acceptable"--that's the whole problem with our so-called entertainment to date in the first place. Can we move on from the notion that women are there to serve men and care for men and forgive and love assholes no matter what? I know it's in the Bible and all, but other ideas are available if we agree a just world is something to strive for.

>150 LolaWalser:
Does anyone have the right to, as it were, kidnap someone and so drastically force their life in another direction for their own benefit?
How is it made clear that his motivation is personal/sexual? (I haven't seen the film, I'm just interested in the premise.)

...given the technical premise that, apart from this one pod malfunction, the ship is in fine order and continues on its way...
What is the justification for this premise?
I agree with Dugsbooks that the shipping organisation's operating procedures appear ill-conceived. My technical instinct is "component X has failed. Ascertain cause before assuming everything else is OK". Heck, in a critical situation - such as being the only thinking being present! - I'd be strongly in favour of "check everything anyway". Although identifying the cause of the problem might take away the urgency of such an overhaul, sufficiently that forcibly recruiting assistance ceased being justified.

Please don't confuse a rationale with a rationalisation - I prefer to think before I act!

>154 LolaWalser:, I was only wondering by pursuing this whether the basic premise is redeemable for you in any way that leads to a story for a compelling movie? He wakes her up - now what? She can't murder him and then reboot the hibernating for herself, or we have no story. Well, actually ... maybe we do. But I was trying to see whether we can still do the save-the-ship thing. The pity/curiosity thoughts needn't lead to romance, which can be removed entirely; that's fair. I could see her being the brains of the story: this desperate oaf unfroze her, but now that it's done she brushes that whole question aside (along with him) to start inquiring whether his pod failure indicates something more serious is going wrong, and make that all the story's about.

>155 Guanhumara:, I think some dialogue is required (and can't even recall whether it's in the movie) for her to confront him with having selected her for being a young and attractive member of the sex he's attracted to, and what that blatantly says about his motives. If she saves their butts it's pure luck for him and a consideration he should have prioritized in the act of resorting to this loneliness solution, as you said earlier, presuming he'd had any foresight.

>155 Guanhumara:

The character and his motivations are mentioned above in this thread and discussed at length in various easily googlable reviews--you could, for example, click on Dug's link to IMDB. Spoiler: the crux of the problem aren't "operating procedures".

Please don't confuse a rationale with a rationalisation - I prefer to think before I act!

It was a valid remark given the context. Presumably you recognise rationalisations, like rationales, are also arrived at through the process of THINKING. THINKING, apparently, isn't some magical fail-safe guarantee of rightness and probity. Which is why I pointed out the importance of sincere conviction that what is being done is right and the best course of action for everyone concerned, not just one's selfish ass.

>156 Cecrow:
The movie you are feeling your way towards could be a very interesting one. Its essence is that of many "last stand" war movies: a guy or guys are called upon to sacrifice their future for the good of the community (in this case the ship's passengers) as a whole. That someone has to do it - understandable. But why them?

Make it about her feelings on being selected... what were his reasons? Horror - her future plans have gone...Pride - he thought she was the most competent... Fury - he was assuming she'd have sex with him... Indecision -should she wake her fiancé? He doesn't have any relevant skills, but they had always planned to make their life on the new planet together...

Make her situation central, rather than ducking it in favour of solely considering her response to him, and you have a very interesting movie.

>157 LolaWalser:
A rationale is a reasoned motivation behind an action - it may prove later to be incorrect (such as if the ship turned out to be fine), but is made in good faith.

A rationalisation is a line of reasoning assembled after the action, in order to justify it (he cannot rationalise that it was moral to wake her because it saved the ship, if that played no part in his decision to wake her).

As I said, I prefer to think BEFORE I act.

>156 Cecrow:

I was only wondering by pursuing this whether the basic premise is redeemable for you in any way that leads to a story for a compelling movie? He wakes her up - now what?

Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems you are saying the basic premise is simply "guy wakes up girl". But it's more than that--the premise of this particular story includes that he's hot for her and chooses her deliberately in hope (no matter how conscious or not) of some kind of relationship. That's where the problem starts. Now, it could have been about that problem and someone facing honestly their own weakness and PAYING for it, but instead they plowed that cart into the mud the whole way by having the girl despite everything and whatever little morality play was enacted, end up with the guy. They effectively not just excused but glorified being a selfish reckless asshole--because hey, you might yet save everyone's life AND get the babe.

Of course we can make up other stories about "person X wakes up person Y" (as I snarked in examples before ;)) and I don't see why they'd be any less interesting. Just think of the sheer number of variations on people and motivations possible. And even with the "lonely guy wakes up stranger in hopes of sex", I wouldn't mind seeing a serious and realistic treatment of such an event--anything, really, would beat the cliché.

Right, I guess it was intended at get-go as a romance and spun from there. But I liked "guy wakes girl" as a moral quandary to explore, where romance needn't be the fallout.

>159 Guanhumara:

A rationale is a reasoned motivation behind an action - it may prove later to be incorrect (such as if the ship turned out to be fine), but is made in good faith.

This is a totally arbitrary assertion. There is nothing definitional about a rationale that presupposes its being made in good or bad faith. A rationale is a reason for doing something; nothing more to it.

>161 Cecrow:

where romance needn't be the fallout.

But that's not the story they chose to tell, alas and alack. For like only the trillionth time in the history of narratives in any medium.

>162 LolaWalser:
A rationale is a reason for doing something; nothing more to it.
Exactly.

Not a rationalisation after.

You make me feel like Alice in Wonderland.

We should be friends.

:)

>160 LolaWalser: et. al...

I watched this Passengers movie recently and, while I was mostly entertained by the spectacle of it, in my opinion LolaWalser is absolutely correct, (spoiler-tagging the rest of my post because it's full of details about the movie).

The Chris Pratt (CP) character stumbles upon the pod containing the Jennifer Lawrence (JL) character, is immediately infatuated with her, (why? if I had to guess, I would say that all he has to go on is her looks), and is drawn back there again & again to obsess over her sleeping form while reading her bio and falling in love with her. Finally, though it shows him endlessly agonizing over this, (because he knows it's wrong - duh), he succumbs to the imp on his evil shoulder and wakes her up. At that point, he knew there were some occasional glitches in the ship, (elevators not opening level with the floor, roomba bots mindlessly bumping into walls, etc), but he had no clue of the wider systemic problems of which the audience is aware. It's also clear that he does not have enough misgivings about ship integrity to make acquiring help a factor in waking up JL. If that were the case, there were plenty of other, more qualified, people populating pods all around.

So the bottom line is obvious; he did it hoping to have sex and possibly a relationship with her. He also was not forthcoming with her what his reasons were for waking her up, but he did share those details with the robotic bar tender. Instead, he hides his vandalism of her pod from JL so she won't suspect that it was anything but another system malfunction that woke her up. She accepts his explanation and, as they hang out, romance blossoms until they have the sex he was hoping for all along. CP continues to feel guilty but does not have the fortitude to come clean - knowing how badly it will ruin his little paradise.

Now, CP happens to be mechanically inclined and has all along been trying everything he can think of to gain access to the bridge/command center. His efforts have been unsuccessful. JL does not have much to add as far as fixing the ship or gaining access so, again, the reasons for waking her up had more to do with CP's desires and longings and (dare I say it?) male needs, than any other motivating factor.

To add more insult to the situation, another pod malfunction coincidentally awakens the Lawrence Fishburne (LF) character, (another black character that Hollywood ends up killing off during the plot - but that's a whole 'nother discussion from this one), who just happens to be the Chief Deck Officer. Which, of course, means that he has the credentials to gain access to ship systems. Maybe CP should have vandalized his pod and left JL in blissful sleep? But that would have been a very un-Hollywood romance...

Writer #1: Hmmm, how about white boy pining for black man...?
Writer #2: No! No! No! - Better have him wake up the hot blonde instead! We can wake up the black guy with another malfunction to help the white folk save the day before killing him off - we won't need him for the denouement.
Writer #1: Brilliant!! I love it!!

Racist undertones aside, possibly the worst part of the entire premise is that JL forgives CP after she (inevitably) finds out the truth. It's such a typical 'boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl' scenario... An extra dollop of crap on top is that they ultimately build a beautiful life together as the ship continues to its destination. So, 'love' conquers all is the message, I suppose. I wonder how many mentally twisted stalker types out there watch a movie like this and find validation...?


It's really hard to refute the blatant sexism and perpetuation of women as (willing) objects of male desire with a scenario such as this. All in all, the movie was relatively entertaining from a Hollywood blockbuster perspective but this particular aspect of the tale was incredibly distasteful. I suppose one could make the case that that was the point of the movie - but I don't think anyone that wrote this very typical plot line could possibly be that deep of a thinker.

>166 ScoLgo:

Thanks, very interesting, I didn't know about Fishburne's character.

>166 ScoLgo:
So they had the clear option to make him act reasonably i.e. wake her because he has realised that the minor malfunctions are symptomatic of something majorly wrong that he needs her help with and eschewed that in favour of making him act like a selfish jerk? Wow.

I've also seen the film. Pratt wakes Lawrence because he fancies her. He agonises over the decision - ie, discusses with the robot barman - but does it anyway, knowing he is taking away any life she might have led on the colony world. When she finds out he deliberately woke her, she rejects him. But then the spaceship malfunctions or some shit and they have to work together to fix it and that makes it okay what he's done. So yes, the film is every bit as bad as people have been saying, and while the film-makers tried for commentary there's no ignoring the fact the movie has a skeevy premise.

OTOH, the CGI spaceship looks nice.

Probably my last post on the "Passengers" debate. Yep, Pratt was a jerk for his actions and I get that the plot being used to ameliorate that was sleazy in the eyes of many - cause for the harpoons thrown at it. I enjoyed the movie none the less, great special effects etc. Another ancient didactic plot device was used also, all the people who had sex in the movie died. ;-)

Star Trek Discovery

The messed with cannon (of course). One dumb thing that bothered me was the stupid scene of First Officer running through the ship half naked. Ok she just woke up and she has the strength to run all over. What the ship doesn't have a communication system? Just call the captain. Also the 1st officer goes to investigate a strange phenomena, comes back injured with a broken recording - and the captain doesn't put orders in place to be notified as soon as she can talk?

The Orville

So it's not great television, ground breaking or completely original. But I liked it. It is visually bright and colorful. I find it amusing. Just dumb fun.

>170 DugsBooks:

I enjoyed the movie none the less

Oh good for you. Fuck anyone who didn't.

>171 nx74defiant: I saw parts of the premiere Star Trek Discovery and it looked like it is going to be fast paced compared to the original. CBS has too many technical hurdles & paywalls in place for me to watch the series any time soon here in the USA so I am going to wait for it to become more available. Wonder how they will get around the first officer committing mutiny right away in the first episode?

http://www.cbs.com/shows/star-trek-discovery/

I watched most of the new Marvel offering of The Inhumans, mainly because I remembered the teleporting dog, Lockjaw, vaguely and fondly as a kid. Looks like it could be a bore however and I don't think I will go out of my way to keep up with series - just getting old maybe. Lockjaw is still neat though. Link to trailer.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n1v9eR42jY

Tickets for the Dec. Star Wars Last Jedi went on sale yesterday locally - new trailer out today.

New Star Wars trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/kJ36oNzD2zo

Space.com article on Trailer with speculative "reveals"

https://www.space.com/38420-the-last-jedi-trailer-analysis.html?utm_source=feedb...

>175 DugsBooks:, good trailer, lots to speculate on. And lots of suspicion that its cuts are misleading, particularly that final bit, but we'll see.

I've just finished bingeing on the Dirk Gently Holistic Detective series on BBCA. It started off so very silly, but really got quite deep in that there actually are consequences for actions, and the characters have to pay the piper quite often.

Really enjoyed it!

Finally saw "Blade Runner 2049" last night.

I'm coming to the conclusion that it's a Marmite film - you either love it or hate it. I'm reminded of an old fanzine cartoon: in the first frame, there's a queue outside a cinema that's showing a science fiction film and everyone in the queue has a glum face except for two science fiction fans. In the second frame, everyone coming out of the cinema has smiling faces and they're animatedly discussing it with their friends, except for the two fans who are crestfallen.

Personally, I thought that on the whole it was excellent (especially in comparison to the rest of the Hollywood fare that the cinema was going to be offering up over the next few months).

My bladder forgot it was 2 hours 48 minutes long.

Link to my review here: http://deepwatersreading.wordpress.com/2017/10/20/blade-runner-2049-directed-by-...

>178 RobertDay: Well I neither loved it nor hated it. It was OK but too long (yes, we get it, flying cars through a darkened cityscape already!) and the portentous music was intrusive at times, but it looked lovely (the great Roger Deakins I believe) and the story was interesting enough to hold my attention most of the time.

I liked it. It managed not to disappoint nor squander the expectations fostered by decades of appreciating its predecessor. (No mean feat, really.) It won't go down as a favorite-ever film (or even sf movie), but it was an afternoon well-spent and I wouldn't discourage anyone from seeing it.

>178 RobertDay: I thought it was very good, but some scenes were a bit long and some characters felt a little underdeveloped.
The music, cinematography and even the pacing all made it a very worthy succesor to the original.

>181 igorken: Given how many characters turned out to be replicants, there wouldn't really be the space for a lot of development. What you see is literally what you get...

>178 RobertDay: My bladder forgot it was 2 hours 48 minutes long.

LOL

My knees didn't. Had to wait for another 10min so crowds wouldn't see me levering myself up. Vain old man that I am.

One thing always bothers me: I don't trust other terrestrial drivers not to be loutish and careless and stupid. Putting traffic IN THE AIR seems like complete idiocy to me, even with AI controls in place because us monkeys love our carnage and mayhem.

>183 richardderus: Oddly, I never found the flying cars in BR problematical because there never seemed to be that many of them. Ordinary mortals had to rely 100% on that old-fashioned stand-by, the "wheel". In BR, only the police appeared to have Spinners; in BR 2049, that seems slightly extended to the plutocrat class, but that hardly seems to be causing more mayhem (at least, not in the traffic lanes...)

Now, for problematical flying cars, look at 'The Fifth Element' or the scenes in the 'Star Wars' prequels set on Coruscant...

>184 RobertDay: I'll mull that over...your observation makes the issue make sense. Thanks!

Starting in on the "Stranger Things 2" episodes on Netflix. Feels like a rough start, we'll see how the pieces come together.

Seems definitely set in 1984, judging from "The Terminator" in theatres and dressing as Ghostbusters for Halloween.

>187 supercell:, to me that suggests a huge vote of confidence in Rian Johnson from Lucasfilm. Which in turn suggests to me that the new film will basically echo Empire Strikes Back, same as the last one echoed New Hope. Consider what we've seen so far:
- Giant walker vehicles, check
- opposed by speeder vehicles, check
- a dividing of the party into two parallel stories, check
- one of which involves training a Jedi, check
- concluding with some kind of lightsabre battle and a temptation by the dark side, check

I guess now that he's shown he can follow the rules, they'll allow him a little slack. Maybe.

Which always makes me think of the review I saw of Empire Strikes Back, which amongst a few other things said "Lots of whizzing to and fro in oddball transport."

>186 Cecrow: I have started Stranger Things II also, albeit on my IPad instead of my home big screen/5.1 speaker system (Sudden discovery of health issue & operation has me in care of relatives for a while).

I like the episodes I have seen so far but it is difficult to match the suspense and surprises of the first season - still a must see however IMOHO.

I think you nailed the year of the setting. There is big group of ST fans who point out “continuity” errors - like a car used by one of the characters that was not made until a few years later and a scientist fan pointed out that the “land living tadpole” genus & species the kids tried to label a baby monster with was not created until two years later.

::edit:: Found link to story, and the authors of the series are from my state!

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/entertainment/article184498718.html

Another quantum of evidence that we're living in an SFnal Golden Age:
Scalzi's Old Man's War gets into development at Netflix, or the one place fans can trust to make the films and shows we want to see.

>190 DugsBooks:, I think this season was less about unfolding mystery and more about 'what happens next?' action, which didn't have the same pull for me. I thought the map thing was a bit of a stretch to give Winona's character something to do, a pale echo of her role in the first season, but I guess it worked.

>191 richardderus:, I sometimes trust HBO on that front as well

>192 Cecrow: I was no fan of Westworld but it gave me no justification to mistrust them making good SF. Thanks for pointing it out.

Netflix also have a TV adaptation of Altered Carbon in the works scheduled for February. Trailer & Teaser can be found on it's Netflix page.

Encountered a couple of other people in the theatre for The Last Jedi.

Lots of post-discussion, but nobody's trashing the acting so far that I've seen. Adam Driver I think is especially killing it with his portrayal and delivery, though I don't suppose it's Oscar worthy stuff.

Has anyone seen "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" ?

I haven't but judging from the reviews I have read this is nothing more than a continuous flash bang series with little plot to hold it together.

I have several bones to pick with every series in general... One is the weapons of war.

Why are the fighter craft only using cannon and no missiles??? You don't see one missile anywhere... air to air... surface to air... nothing?

Why do they sacrifice humans on dangerous missions when a droid could do the same job, perhaps even better.

I read in one review that bombs were dropped from space...really? I wonder how that would work in zero gravity?

I am getting less and less enamored with Science Fiction movies that are nothing more than brilliant action after brilliant action.... ohhh look at the beautiful explosion. Thor: Ragnarok was a bust for me... I almost nodded off in one sequence. On the other hand I did like Blade Runner 2049. I vaguely remembered the original Blade Runner but that did not really get in the way of the story for me.

"Downsized" looks interesting... at least it looks like it has a plot to it.

>196 Lynxear: You sound like one of those awful people who can't help picking holes. Just like me :-) I really enjoyed it - it looks good, it's exciting, and the characterisation is less two dimensional than the Lucas films. Yes, there are one or two bits that don't make sense if you want to be picky, but it did a good enough job of distracting me that it didn't matter too much. It's not hard SF, but then that's not what you're after in a Star Wars film, is it?

>197 mart1n: sorry but I am getting tired of flash/bang no-plot movies be them SciFi or not. They are like waking up in the morning and rechewing the gum you put on your bead post the previous night.... no flavor.

I just saw a recent Jackie Chan movie in a second run theatre based on the book titled The Foreigner originally titled Chinaman. The movie was every bit as entertaining as it was the first time... enough "action" to satisfy anyone but it had a coherent story. Pearce Bronson was excellent as well.

>199 mart1n: You have to bear in mind that it's a film aimed at children of all ages, so the plot wasn't overly complex, but there was enough of it to make the 2 1/2 hours feel like it wasn't too long (to my surprise).

>199 mart1n: I loved it. I thought the plot progression was exactly what should be happening at this point in the overall story.

>196 Lynxear:

Right? I see a general problem with SF TV/movies in that the space borne weaponry seems no more powerful, accurate, or long-range than what we had in World War II. They're superior to us in spaceflight capability; why do they have to fight at close visual distances, with unguided weapons that miss at those ranges? How can small spacecraft survive direct hits?

It's a bit of a relief when a production does better. In Aliens. the second of the series, Ripley famously responds to the team's initial setbacks with "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure." It's a good line in itself, but I thought: of course they have nukes; they can cross interstellar distances. Also, The Expanse gets it (more) right in the battle the MCRN Donnager fights in episode 4, where they launch their missiles and then...wait a while, because space is large and the enemy is still far away.

>201 dukedom_enough: I suppose the problem would be from a movie producer's perspective... How do I create a situation where I have all these powerful weapons and have a movie that would only last a few minutes?

I hate movies where a superior force attacks the earth and seems unstoppable for the first half hour but some bright light thinks of a solution to disable their whole force and wins the day.... Independence Day was an example of of this... How can a person introduce a computer virus into a computer system that they have no idea how it operates and they do it in about 48 hours.

It seems that TV productions are better than Movie productions. I suppose it might be that they last more than 2-3 hours so they can invent a better universe.

I am getting tired of constant battle scenes... most are quite boring.

I would like to see a full length movie of The Naked Sun with Elijah Baley and Daneel Olivaw as partners. The robot/human interaction is ripe for comedy and serious sleuthing... a great "buddy" movie.

>202 Lynxear: "I am getting tired of constant battle scenes..." Indeed. We went to see The Last Jedi over Christmas and the trailers were all for "Things Exploding!" and "Things Exploding 2!" even if the film - or at least, its alleged story - didn't seem to be a vehicle for action. (Ready Player One was the example that turned out to be not what I was expecting from the trailer.)

'The Last Jedi' itself came over as comparatively sophisticated and better than I had expected, though with the obligatory amount of whizzing to and fro in oddball transport, as someone once said. And as for bombers working in zero gravity, actually dropping bombs out of a craft in space - well, I can think of ways to do that, especially if you have unspecified super-science on hand, but why would you bother unless specifically told that that was what the Powers That Be want? (In this case, said Powers are the scriptwriters...)

The script was reassuringly witty in places (another surprise) and even the cute aliens weren't too irritating. Apparently, the reason for the cute aliens - the Porgs - was that the film crews were not allowed to disturb the native puffins on the island where they filmed the Luke Skywalker sequences (itself a World Heritage Site). So the filmmakers had to work around them, and digitised them into something alien but cute.

>203 RobertDay: Well, at best I will wait for the second run movie house showing and save 2/3 the cost of seeing it 'The Last Jedi'.

Well the accuracy of dropping a zero gravity bomb on a planet would have accuracy issues for sure as it circles the planet in a decaying orbit.... if you guided the bomb somehow then it would be a clumsy missile I suppose.

Ah, but they were attacking a very big spaceship by dropping bombs out of smaller spaceships...

You could make that work if the bombs were equipped with some sort of gravity amplifier, so that they would be affected by the gravity well created by a very, VERY big spaceship; but really, I'm justifying here something that's basically in the film because that's what the director/ producer/production designer wanted to have in the film.

It could have been worse. 'Alien: Covenant' has its spaceship damaged by a "neutrino burst". We despaired at that, and it was less than ten minutes into the film.

>205 RobertDay: Well, if there are enough neutrinos...but of course the humans would be killed by neutrino flux sufficient to damage hardware.

Soon after supernova 1987A was observed, I remember reading the gee-wiz fact that the neutrino emission alone would've been fatal at up to a billion kilometers distance.

I'm supposing there was artificial gravity inside the bomber itself. The bombardier wasn't floating around, she fell off the ladder, the trigger fell off and she caught it, etc. For the duration of their exit from the bomber, the bombs would fall straight down in that generated artificial gravity. After exiting, inertia.

I'm rereading Rendezvous with Rama and even that mass (billions of tons) would generate only a very small gravity (like 0.0001 m/s^s). Good luck with aiming bombs at that. :-)

>205 RobertDay: >208 Cecrow: Ok... maybe bombs in Space were possible. What would be the advantage of the use of bombs over missiles or high powered artillery both of which would be faster and more accurate, especially in ship to ship fighting. With bombs you would just have to accelerate your ship a bit and the bombs miss the target.... or maybe they can worm their way through defense shields somehow :)

>210 Lynxear: A bit like the force shields in 'Dune', then, which repel fast-moving objects but are permeable to slow ones, such as daggers...

Image ripped from this site which is complete spoilers: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/star-wars-the-last-jedi-2017

Ok, had/have some health issues but went to see the primo $16 edition IMAX 3D edition of The Last Jedi here recently. I liked the flick overall but to those who have not seen it yet I would advise a cheaper, maybe just digital sound version. I may need to find a different theater as I went on a week day long after the opening and it seemed the "crowd" was just there to make it seem the screens were full as the IMAX had plenty of empty seats.

As stated I enjoyed the flick but I think Disney aimed at too low of an age group for my tastes { I hear Quentin Tarantino is shooting for an "R" rated new Star Trek movie}. Many reviewers in economic news sites are explaining Last Jedi is one of the few holiday movies the whole family can attend without uneasy moments which is big on the bottom dollar for Disney.

I was confused at the story-line where the resistance is suddenly on the run again after they defeated the Empire earlier
And about those bombers irregardless of their effectiveness for anything but target practice, honestly only a true idiot would have sacrificed so many for so little. A part of aiming very low for age related sophistication IMOHO

I like the new character Rey and enjoy her kicking butt in a lot of the story, it appears the force has returned in a most potent way that negates having to have a great deal of training. I had an article point out to me that the last scene in the movie shows a kid dragging a broom across the floor using the force - I missed that

The fight scenes were good but the best are still those between Luke & Vader and those including Darth Maul. Great flick but I would have preferred more participation by Skywalker {sniffle}. Oh yeah, and did anyone else mutter "Picard Maneuver" in one of the battle scenes? http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Picard_Maneuver

I'm glad you mention the "most potent way" as this is one of my most troubling problems with the film. Add to your example Leia's self-preservation, Yoda's lightning from beyond the grave, Snoke's manipulation of Kylo and Rey, Luke's elaborate illusion from across the galaxy and I believe we're looking at a prime example of jumping the shark. Almost nothing is out of bounds now.

I watched the first episode of Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams on Prime. It's called Real Life and it's a glitzy, amazingly well-cast 45min episode starring Anna Paquin of True Blood fame as a futuristic lesbian supercop who has a flying car and lots of sex with her hawt wife.

Now here's what I think is cool about that: The character, Sarah, talks about that being a straight guy's SFnal fantasy world as she decides to go back in time to live as George, her straight male 20th century counterpart, as a "vacation." She needs to know: Is she expiating her survivor guilt by escaping to the future or is George expiating his survival guilt by escaping to the past? Since she's George and since George is her, this identity riddle consumes the meta level of the show's text.

Nothing about this resembles the Cold War we're-all-gonna-die plot of Exhibit Piece and yet the changes preserve the spirit of the original. As simple as this: What is reality? What defines reality if not experience? Can anyone rely on external criteria to define truth?

What would you do in George's place: Reality or reality are your choices, no way out, but in one you feel good and in one you feel bad but the feelings oscillate and there's no difference between...between...is there a between? Is, in fact, someone allowed to travel into time in different ways?

I've finished the Netflix Altered Carbon series. I cannot say don't watch it. I can say no one who does should watch the fourth episode, it's torture porn like the Saw franchise, and adds nothing to the value of the show.

Stylish and involving; very deeply disturbing look at human nature's darker, danker basements. As I recall the book, and I've only ever read the first one of the three, this is pretty faithful to the plot and spot-on as to characterization. Strong acting but pretty ~meh~ screenwriting IMO. Nudity (considerable nudity) skews female though we are shown male genitalia on more than one occasion; sex is entirely heteronormative.

Yer on yer own, grownups. I am not sorry I watched it.

>215 richardderus: The cable people have my internet screwed so I can't watch Netflix on my large screen TV. Can't wait to see Altered Carbon, loved the books, and don't want to ruin it by watching on a laptop!.

>216 DugsBooks: You're in for some super-sized body parts. And seriously...skip episode 4 entirely. ickyptooptoo