CategoryScience Fiction
Does a Lack of Empathy Make You More Efficient?
Robocop (2014) tests out that thesis when Murphy, now a robocop, is matched against actual robots
Robocop 2014: A Good Movie Hampered by Bad Timing
The 2014 remake of RoboCop is considered a failure by most. I disagree. It has its problems but it is pretty solid in many respects
I, Robot Review, Part 3: Why Must Robots Always Enslave Us?
Even after watching the movie several times when I was younger, I’d still forgotten that Robertson wasn’t the main villainLast time, Spooner’s investigation into Dr. Lanning’s apparent suicide led him to Sonny, the robot who claimed it could dream. It turns out that Sonny’s dream isn’t a dream at all, but an image programmed by Dr. Lanning. It was meant to lead Spooner to a storage area where all the older robots were being kept. Once Spooner finds the exact spot where he was supposed to be standing in Sonny’s dream, he plays the hologram Dr. Lanning recorded before he died. The hologram program is simple. The doctor recorded certain responses that are triggered by the right questions. Spooner begins talking to the hologram until it tells him what he needs to know. Dr. Lanning’s hologram says there’s going Read More ›
Spaceman Review, Part 3: Inside the Chopra Cloud at Last
There has to be a gem inside this film somewhere because, despite all the problems, I still found myself rooting for Jakub and Lenka
Spaceman: Along Came a Spider and Sat Down… Well, Maybe
The spider is an alien with a somewhat complex relationship to people and toilets
Spaceman: World Is Ending. Worse, an Astronaut’s Wife Wants Out
It’s not clear just what role the threatening Chopra Cloud plays and that complexity dogs the storyNetflix recently released a film called Spaceman, starring Adam Sandler. It’s… interesting. The first time I watched it, I hated it. The second time I watched it, I hated it less. I can appreciate what the movie was trying to do, and Adam Sandler puts on a fine performance… most of the time. But there were just too many plot holes and too much meaningless rhetoric for me to really enjoy the story. The movie is based on a 2017 novel, Spaceman of Bohemia by Czech author Jaroslav Kalfař. It begins with a Czech astronaut flying toward a mysterious, purple anomaly called the Chopra Cloud. The Cloud had appeared in the sky a few years previously, with no known reason. Read More ›
Dune, Part Two: A Good Movie But a Bad Set-Up for Part Three
When Paul avenges his father and settles an old feud, the threads of the story start to connectLast Saturday, we talked about how the writers did an excellent job setting up Feyd-Rautha as a worthy adversary for Paul. However, their decision to make Chani a skeptical antagonist—opposing the man she supposedly loves—has already created numerous problems for the story, and those problems continue to stack up. By the time we reach the conclusion of the film, I don’t know how the writers expect to create a Part Three that will be in any way, shape, or form consistent with the source material. In Part Two, Paul and the Fremen finally launch their final assault on the emperor. As in previous retellings of the story, Paul uses his father’s stash of atomic weapons to blow a hole in Read More ›
Dune, Part Two: At Last, Feyd-Rautha Becomes Relevant
The treatment of Feyd in this version is more satisfactory than in any previous one. We are prepared for Paul’s confrontation with him
Invisibility Isn’t Science Fiction; It’s Interesting Engineering
Things are visible only when light strikes them but light can sometimes be manipulated so as not to strike them, with remarkable results.Invisibility is one of those interesting concepts that started out as imagination: What if I were invisible? Or— in the hands of a storyteller — what if my character were invisible? Tolkien famously made it a power granted by the Ring in The Lord of the Rings. The concept is used in science fiction too, for example, in the form of the cloaking device: However, as science fiction writer Douglas Adams (1952–2001) noted satirically in Life, the Universe, and Everything, in everyday life, “The Somebody Else’s Problem field is much simpler and more effective, and what’s more can be run for over a hundred years on a single torch battery. This is because it relies on people’s natural disposition not Read More ›
Dune, Part Two: Paul Becomes a Hero — Very Reluctantly
Some departures from the book work better than others. The “reluctant hero” trope simplifies a complex political situation but at a cost
Dune Part Two Succeeds Brilliantly — But Dooms Plans for Part III
The difficulty is that the changes made for the film have warped the core story so much that it’s going to be nearly impossible to follow the source material from here on out.
Dune 1984 Offers A Strong Finish to a Unique Adaptation
I’d go as far as to say that, while not all of David Lynch’s adaptations worked, the film is, overall, better than the book
Dune (1984) vs the Classic Sci-Fi Novel: What Worked, What Didn’t
For some scenes, the film was an improvement on the book; for others, writer David Lynch might better have stuck with the originalLast time we talked about the opening of Dune 1984. The Hollywood Strike has delayed the sequel to the current remake till March but the classic is worth revisiting in the meantime, both for its successes and failures. The 1984 writer, David Lynch, made various changes to the story that gave the viewer a clearer understanding of what was going on than Frank Herbert’s classic 1965 novel did. After the first two scenes, which help establish the situation in the world of Dune, the Reverend Mother flies to Caladan to test Paul Atreides with the painful Gom Jabbar. I’ve agreed with his choices so far. His opening showed the viewer why the Reverend Mother chose to visit Paul when she Read More ›
Where Did Dune 1984 Succeed? Where Did It Fail?
The Hollywood Strike postponed the release of the sequel to the new film version of Dune until March so, for now, let’s have another look at the 1984 version
Alien Resurrection Part 4: The Good, the Bad, and the… Bizarre
In a single moment, Purvis becomes one of the most heroic characters in the entire franchise
Alien Resurrection (1997) Part 3: Call Up the Reluctant Robot
Amid the harrowing crew escapes, Call survives being shot because she’s a robot. She somehow has sentience and hates being a robot
What AI Will Probably Really Do to White Collar Businesses
The tech media are full of scare stories but we can look at what happened when advanced technology hit blue collar industries as a guide
Will the Driving Force for Space Exploration Be a Religious Cult?
