On Tuesday, 8 October 2013, I went to the Embassy Cinema in Waltham, Mass., to screen Gravity. The space-based drama is the best movie I’ve seen in theaters so far this year.
Drama in space
Gravity‘s plot is fairly straightforward — after a major accident, astronaut Ryan Stone is stranded in orbit and must find a safe way back to Earth’s surface. As a well-executed character study and survival thriller, Gravity stands out after a summer of sequels, reboots, apocalypses, and gratuitous urban destruction.
Co-writer and director Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Children of Men) keeps the pacing taut at a lean 90-minute runtime. He successfully balances the wonders of seeing Earth from space (worth a 3-D or IMAX ticket) with a focus on Stone’s emotions. The visual effects around the orbital disaster are excellent, with a convincing mix of live action and computer-generated imagery.
Star Sandra Bullock, who has been better known for physical comedy than for her range, conveys Stone’s reactions to her predicament, from joy to horror to sadness and determination. George Clooney is his usual affable self as Matt Kowalski, an astronaut who initially guides Stone. These actors have enough charisma to fill the screen as needed.
Despite some scientific liberties taken for the sake of storytelling, such as with orbital mechanics and physiological degradation from time spent in microgravity, Gravity feels realistic, if not as much as The Right Stuff or Apollo 13. I’d put this movie with 2001: A Space Odyssey and Moon as good speculative fiction. As an SF thriller, it’s also not far from Alien or Outland.
Overall, I’d give Gravity, which is rated PG-13 for violence and language, a 9 out of 10, four and a half out of five stars, or an A-. I recommend it for any fans of serious science fiction and the aforementioned actors.
Of the previews I saw, the remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty with Ben Stiller looked decent, and I’m of course looking forward to The Hobbit [2 of 3]: the Desolation of Smaug. I was also pleased to see a strong Godzilla trailer recently, but I’m less certain about literary adaptation Ender’s Game and superhero sequel Thor 2: the Dark World.
This past summer was much better for genre television than for movies. Thanks in part to counterprogramming by cable channels, there was a wider range of decent content on the small screen. The fall TV season is equally promising. (Note: Some of the articles linked to below contain “spoilers.”)
Shows that got bumpedtomy “B” list include the postapocalypticDefianceandRevolution and bodice-ripping potboilers such as Starz’s Da Vinci’s Demons and TheWhiteQueen (and the upcoming Reign and Shakespearean Hollow Crown). While all these shows have decent casts, strong production values, and arc-driven storylines, the quality of the writing still varies significantly.
I haven’t been watching various Doctor Who alumni on BBC America’s Broadchurch, but PBS’s Silk has been OK, We’ll see whether Starz’s pirate swashbuckler Black Sails or BBC’s Atlantis (from the creators of Merlin) can match Spartacus or Magic City for period drama.
More mysteries
Janice and I have also been watching PBS’s Masterpiece. Of the mysteries, I still prefer the original Inspector Morse and sequel/spinoff Inspector Lewis to the prequel Endeavor. After the darkly riveting Bletchley Circle and reruns of the superlative Jeremy Brett version of Sherlock Holmes, we’re waiting on the return of Foyle’s War,Sherlock, and Elementary.
I’m looking forward to the return of Castle and White Collar (despite their dips toward soap) and the prescient Person of Interest, as well as the bittersweet series finales of the fun Psych and Warehouse13. I’m afraid the new Ironside will run into the same difficulties as the recent attempted remake of Kojak.
Paranormal prodedurals
Speaking of paranormal activities, there’salso the Buffyesque Grimm, which I prefer to other fairytale-themed shows (including Dracula and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland). Da Vinci’s Demons has had a frothy mix of history and pre-steampunk conspiracies.
I don’t know where Sleepy Hollow will fit in this subgenre. New procedurals include Joss Whedon’s return to TV with Marvel’s Agents of Shield and robot/cop partners on Almost Human.
In othernew shows, Believe could be good, and it has some of the X-Files/Fringe vibe. Tomorrow People and Star Crossed are more responses to the rise of metahuman melodramas, but whether they will be more like Heroes, which started strong but ended badly, or the underrated Alphas is yet to be seen.
Food, glorious food!
For reality shows, we’ve watched “food porn” such as Phantom Gourmet and TV Diner, as well as occasional shows on the Food Network and Travel Channel. We’ve also watched Top Shot All-Stars, American Ninja Warrior, and some documentaries. However, I’ve avoided the current wave of shows exploiting geekdom.
Animation nation
I’m still pleased with the Seinfeld-style antics on The Looney Tunes Show, franchise continuations Dragons: Riders of Berk and Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles, and atmosphericnewcomerBeware the Batman. Disney/Marvel may dominate live-action, but its Avengers Assemble and Hulk and the Agents of SMASH aren’t animation I’d recommend.
This fall, I’m looking forward toAvatar: the Legend of Korra and more DC Nation shorts. Younger audiences might appreciate Kung-Fu Panda: Lgends of Awesomeness, Monsters vs. Aliens, Teen Titans Go, SheZow, and Rabbids Invasion. Note that most of these are now computer-based rather than 2-D cell animation.
Coming soon: Game transitions and more movie musings….
On Tuesday, 13 August 2013, I met former co-workers Ken G., Bob R., and Michele & Paul D. for dinner at City Streets in Waltham, Mass. We then went to Lizzy’s Ice Cream on Moody Street for dessert and our latest “Escapists” book club meeting.
I’ve enjoyed every China Miéville book I’ve read so far, and Kraken is no exception. Fans of modern urban fantasy will enjoy this look at an alternate London, where apocalyptic cults duel in the shadows and a museum curator stumbles in his flight from inhuman assassins.
Mieville’s social sarcasm, thicket of allusions, and linguistic acrobatics are all present, if somewhat toned down from his other novels. I’d compare Kraken favorably with Gaiman’s American Gods for its mythic lyricism, punctuated by banality and violence. Like any visit to the strange creatures under museum glass, it’s worth a visit, taken with a grain of salt….
On Saturday, 13 July 2013, I met Josh C. at the AMC Burlington Cinema 10 for a morning matinee of Pacific Rim. The kaiju movie was entertaining, and even though it might not have the most original story of the year, it was a nice change from other franchise entries.
Giant monsters vs. robots
I’ve been a fan of giant monster movies since childhood, with the Japanese Godzilla and Gamera in their kid-friendly prime back in the 1970s. Since then, I’ve come to appreciate the more serious allegories around the rubber-suited actors and remote-control vehicles tromping through meticulously detailed urban dioramas.
Plot:In Pacific Rim, huge aliens (kaiju) invade Earth through a dimensional rift in the seabed. Humanity builds giant robots (jaegers, or hunters) in response, but the nascent world government decides to shut the program down and instead spend resources on giant walls around vulnerable cities. Let the battles begin!
As with most monster movies, the kaiju represent the result of environmental destruction, and humanity must band together to remedy the situation. There are conspiracies, setbacks, and massive mayhem, but the heroes eventually realize what must be done….
Cast: All the archetypes of kaiju films (and their siblings in anime) are present: the hotshot pilot, the grizzled veteran, the cute but kickass girl, the mad scientists, and a few more sketchy characters needed to ultimately figure out the enemy’s motivations.
Sons of Anarchy‘s Charlie Hunnam plays Raleigh Becket, a onetime jaeger co-pilot who is brought back for a last stand against the kaiju. He’s a pretty straightforward hero, mentored by the charismatic Idris Elba (Thor) as Stacker Pentecost and partnered with the winsome Mako Mori as Rinko Kikuchi, who has also suffered personal loss.
More noteworthy are Charlie Day channeling J.J. Abrams as Dr. Newton Geiszler and Torchwood‘s Burn Gorman as Geiszler’s sparring partner Gottleib. Hellboy‘s Ron Perlman, no stranger to monsters or director Guillermo del Toro, nearly steals the movie as the flashy Hannibal Chau, a dealer in kaiju organs.
While there is some token character development, Pacific Rim rightly focuses on the monsters and robots. Each jaeger crew is a national stereotype (but without the jingoism of many U.S. action flicks), and there are few surprises but many thrills in the ensuing fights, both in and out of the jaegers.
Direction:Del Toro wears his love on his sleeve for the same movies I grew up on. He keeps a brisk pace to the action and avoids overindulging in romantic subplots or too much pseudoscience. Flashbacks provide exposition, and while older monster movies relied on long stretches of exposition, Pacific Rim doles out explanations throughout its runtime.
Del Toro also avoids the “found footage,” shaky-cam style that had become popular with The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, and Troll Hunter, allowing us to see full-body shots of the kaiju-jaeger battles, which were nicely choreographed. There are also some good human-scale duels.
Visual effects: Speaking of scale, while the monsters and robots are rendered with computer-generated imagery, they are more ponderous and distinguishable than in the recent Transformers flicks. The design of each kaiju resembles a real animal, and each jaeger design is unique. I can easily see toys or models based on these being popular.
Ratings: I’d give Pacific Rim, which is rated PG-13 for violence and language, a B+, three and a half out of five stars, or an 8 out of 10. It was one of the most satisfying action movies of this year so far, and I’m glad that it wasn’t a sequel or a reboot.
I’d recommend Pacific Rim to any fan of kaiju, giant robots, or action-filled speculative fiction. We also saw several trailers, of which only the fantasy Seventh Son (not to be confused with the Orson Scott Card novels) looked interesting of those I hadn’t seen before. The next movie I hope to catch in the theater is the dystopian Elysium, and I look forward to the next iteration of Godzilla.
On Saturday, 8 June 2013, I met former co-worker and fellow blogger Ken G. at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston for the Creation Star Trek show. While I’ve been to several genre entertainment events in the past few years, this was the first purely Trek gathering in some time.
There were relatively few vendors at the con, partly because the space opera franchise hasn’t had many new installments lately, the Star Trek: Into Darkness reboot sequel notwithstanding. Most of the fans we met preferred the original continuity, from the short-lived 1960s television series through Star Trek: Nemesis and Enterprise.
We went to lunch at Café Jaffa, from where we could watch people gathering for Boston’s Pride Parade, for which Star Trek: the Next Generation alumna Denise Crosby (Lt. Tasha Yar) was the marshal. I may have been in a Deep Space Nine/First Contact uniform, but I felt underdressed amid the colorful costumes.
Back at the con, Ken and I sat in on writer Morgan Gendel’s panel on the Next Generation episode “The Inner Light,” which I appreciated more after learning how the show won a Hugo Award. As I’ve noted before, The Next Generation is still my favorite TV Trek because of its professional but idealistic crew that became a surrogate family. “The Inner Light” was a good example of the strength of allegorical and episodic storytelling, compared with today’s arc-dominated dramas.
After that, Michael Dorn and Suzie Plakson regaled the audience with stories from their time playing ill-fated Klingon lovers Worf and K’Ehleyr. They also politely but firmly declined to return to those roles, saying that too much time has passed.
We hung out for a short time during the auction, and then enjoyed seeing George Takei, a.k.a. Capt. Hikaru Sulu. He responded to a question about his favorite movie featuring the original series cast with Star Trek VI: the Undiscovered Country, in which Sulu got to be in the opening and closing scenes as captain of the Excelsior. Takei also noted that John Cho did a fine job in J.J. Abrams’ recent films.
In addition, Takei acknowledged that he has help with his popular Facebook posts, which cover sci-fi, humor, and politics. As an Asian-American and a speculative fiction fan, I appreciate Takei’s activism and roles. Trek continues to have a fan base that’s wonderfully diverse in terms of age, gender, and ethnicity, and I hope that the movies can become more heroic and restore the franchise’s popularity.
Brent Spiner and Gates McFadden then took the stage to talk about their time as android Data and Dr. Beverly Crusher on Star Trek: the Next Generation and various theatrical roles. I had seen most of the actors at this con before, but never so many in person together.
Ken and I grabbed dinner at Tossed in the Shops at Prudential Center. Back at the con, we had photo ops with Mr. Takei and LeVar Burton, a.k.a. Geordi LaForge. I didn’t get autographs this time around, but the photo ops were personalized souvenirs.
Ken, LeVar, and Gene
I was glad that we were able to get tickets to the headline event of the con, a reunion of much of the Next Generation cast, with William Shatner serving as moderator! Apparently, Patrick Stewart (Capt. Jean-Luc Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Capt. Will T. Riker), and Wil Wheaton (En. Wesley Crusher) weren’t available, but I’d seen two out of the three before anyway.
Shatner may have a big ego, but he has aged surprisingly gracefully and has been a good interviewer. His charisma and sense of humor helped the unruly crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701D and E in conversation. Everyone made fun of Sir Patrick’s initial pretensions as a Shakespearean actor.
Crosby, McFadden, and Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi) talked about their struggles with sexism in the first season of the show in 1987. Despite creator Gene Roddenberry’s humanism, The Next Generation had a less-than-auspicious start, leading to McFadden and Crosby’s departures. McFadden eventually returned, and Crosby made some memorable cameos.
Snarky Spiner and deep-voiced Dorn demonstrated how they and Frakes would joke around with their costars on the set, leading to several frustrated directors. With prompting from Shatner and Sirtis, who vied for control, earnest Burton and Dorn recounted how the “Code of Honor” episode was terribly racist, but they stuck with the show, which gradually improved. All of the actors said they liked fond spoof Galaxy Quest.
Ken returned to the convention the next day to get more autographs. Also in attendance were Nichelle Nichols, the original Lt. Nyota Uhura, and Deep Space Nine‘s Rene Auberjonois (Odo) and Nana Visitor (Maj. Kira Nerys). The only living members of the core casts of the original series and Next Gen whom I haven’t yet met are Leonard “I’m not Spock” Nimoy and Wheaton.
The convention might have been pricey, but I enjoyed it more than Into Darkness and was pleased to learn that Creation plans on holding it again next year. In the meantime, live long and prosper!
Gene's Worlds 