Greetings, earthling!
Or is that greeting too cliche? What other term should I employ? Terran? Mudman? Hairless Ape?
Rude!
How about "friend"? Awww, that's more like it! All sweet and saccharine and treacly.... I need to brush my teeth after that greetings!
So, yeah, I've been on a sci-fi binge lately. I thought I'd give y'all a quick run-down...
Saw a pair of films FINALLY! I may be the last person on earth to see these...
Overall, I thought it was very well done, had a great feel to it, and was visually robust. But honestly, it was pretty heavy-handed in the "emotional manipulation" department. And you know, I won't spoil it, but the ending really bugged me. And there were other aspects of the story that really bugged me as well...
Crap, I have to rant about it. OK, fine, I'm going to SPOIL some things here, so if you haven't seen it yet, BE WARNED... skip down to the Prometheus review...
So on the water planet, the whole "7 years of time passes for every hour we're on the surface" thing makes exactly no sense. Period. I don't care how close that planet was to that black hole, it it makes no sense. Their crew mate really stayed on the ship in orbit for 23 years, waiting for them? Nonsense. He would have left and went to the other two planets and then come back, plenty of time. Plus, they really wouldn't have noticed thousand-foot tidal waves sweeping around the planet, on their way in?
When Matt Damon attacks Matthew McConnaghey, that also made exactly zero sense. Why? Unless he was flat-out insane and just did it out of animal rage, it makes no sense. Plus, why rig the robot to blow up? Why falsify all the planet data? Why not just send out a rescue message? It all makes no sense.
And, the ending... the only reason I hesitate to rip the ending is, really, I'm not sure what I would have done differently, to improve it. So I will leave it be.
Bottom line, I give it a 6.5 out of 10. It was worth watching, but I'm not sure I'll ever watch it again.
Which reminds me of another movie...
OK, so I really went into this film wanting to like it. I was eager to enjoy it! It actually scooted along fairly smoothly, until the ship arrived on the planet, LV233 or whatever. Then the entire film toppled into the cinematic commode. This film has next-to-no redeeming qualities. The script is a chocolate mess of insipid dialog, fumbled concepts, sour-note casting choices and a nonstop string of the most retarded decision-making blunders I've seen in a movie of any genre.
When I say "nonstop", I mean literally, from the moment the "team" of "scientists" decided to park next to an alien compound on an unexplored planet, and go waltzing right through the front door. They take their helmets off (because, hey, the air seems breathable!), and then start poking and pushing everything they come in contact with ("Hey, what does this button do?").
"Hey, let's wake up this giant sleeping alien! Maybe he's nice!"
What a bunch of idiots. They deserved everything they got.
Nope.
Look, I'm actually going easy on this film. I could go scene by scene and ask you what on earth "they" were thinking... but I know how hard it must be to tell a big budget story, when you must have a couple dozen studio yahoos with their hands all over it, pushing it, pulling it, tearing it... so perhaps a lot of it was out of Ridley Scott's hands. But man o man, this was a turd. I can't believe "they" are going to make three more films in this series...
Moving on to books...
So I've things to say about these three titles....
Tuf Voyaging. George RR Martin (of Game of Thrones fame) penned this content back in the mid eighties, as a series of short(er) stories, which were then ultimately gathered into this title. It's creative and entertaining and intelligent, as is Martin's custom. I believe I mentioned this in a recent previous post, but you can imagine the main character Haviland Tuf as a blend of Tyrion Lannister and Ignatius Reilly. Or, if that does nothing for you, he's tall, overweight, without a hair on his body, incredibly intelligent, sharp-witted, yet with zero sense of humor, loves cats and is in charge of an ancient "Seed Ship", which can do and create many, many incredible things.
Reading about Tuf coming into possession of the Seed Ship, and what he travels around using it for, is terrifically entertaining (to me, anyway)....
Leviathan Wakes by J. Corey is predominantly a FANTASTIC sci-fi epic. Up until the end. Man, I don't know what it is about big, awesome, ambitious stories... sometimes they seem to go off the rails at the very end... this is another example. Like Redwolf Conspiracy and City of Stairs before it, I was all set to come in here and trumpet the praises of this book from the rooftops, and strongly urge you to drop everything and read it... but the last two chapters left me crestfallen.
Great characters, a great set of premises, great action, great dialog, a terrifically enjoyable ride... for *almost* the entire story.
I still recommend it, but honestly, I'm not sure I'm going to read the next volume(s)...
And I've started Redshirts, by the prolific John Scalzi, which won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2013. I'm 8 chapters in (30% of the way through - a fast read), and it's... good. It's light reading, humorous (in a mostly unforced way), but nothing to write home about. I was expecting better. I assume it gets really good - I mean, Best Novel? Not so far...
Comic Break. Click to enlarge!
So believe it or not, the Christmas Play that I wrote this year (called "Out There") is science fiction theme, too! It takes place on the moon...
I kid you not, it takes place on a lunar base. I thought the idea of talking about "peace on earth" while looking at the earth was too rich to pass up. That meant either the International Space Station, or the moon...
Now, hear me out here... you may recall the very first moon landing, back in July 1969, with Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong. Do you recall how Buzz Aldrin brought the communion elements with him on the trip? And that after the "Eagle" had landed, but before they got out to walk on the moon, Aldrin read from the Gospel of John and took communion? So there is a precedent for dealing with issues of faith on the moon...
So, yeah, a manned lunar compound, and handful of characters, dealing with "every day" issues that they brought with them (so to speak) to a very unusual place. Is there such a thing as "too far away" from home and/or God? Can God hear you on the moon, be with you on the moon?
The play is a Christmas play, in that it takes place on December 25, and hits the Christmas story. It also deals with other more universal themes of faith and belief, and what it means to be human. Plus a few surprises.
This year, I'm bringing in a couple of my actor friends from the San Diego acting community, to flesh out the cast, and play the lead roles. It's getting harder and harder as the years pass to fill out the cast from within the church. People are uninterested/unavailable, for various reasons, which is depressing but understandable. But this may be a great opportunity in disguise. Maybe I could start producing more elaborate, challenging plays, and bring in skilled veteran stage actors, and really kick things up a notch or three.
Or it could be the last play we do, who knows?
On the TV front, I've been watching the shows Gotham and Agents of SHIELD, with mixed results. In each case, I watched a half-dozen episodes, and thought "meh".... it was a mixed bag. Some great moments, mixed with stretches of clumsy storytelling, pedestrian dialog, and scattershot acting. But in the case of Gotham, the seventh episode was TERRIFIC and 8, 9 and 10 were great as well. I was soundly hooked. The cast and writing seemed to settle into a nice place. But then episode 11 was lame...
I wasn't sure what to make of it, so I dug into the show a bit, and discovered something interesting... the first season on Gotham is 22 episodes long... with 10 writers and 16 directors... I had no idea that was how the big boys made a series! I guess I'm naive, but I figured a writer or two, and one director, like a movie... but it seems as though every episode is treated like an independent feature. Different directors, directors of photography, editors, writers... man, what a machine. I had no idea it was such an involved process.
The cast is a mixed bag as well. I love some of the actors (Penguin, Riddler, Harvey Bullock, Selina Kyle), while others don't agree with me yet (Fish Mooney, Barbara Kean).
Anyway, going to give Agents of SHIELD more of a chance to hook me like Gotham did.
We'll see. Man, there's so much to watch!
So I'm going to be interviewed on Saturday 10/24 for the TGGeeks podcast. Me and Travis. I have no idea what I'll be asked, but I assume it will revolve around BTI and perhaps acting in general. But hey, I'll talk about anything...
Once it goes live, I'll post it here, so y'all can mock me mercilessly.
EDIT: Here is the interview:
/EDIT
We're set to begin filming on the new batch of BTI content in the next couple weeks. Jeff is chomping at the bit to get back on set.
Lots of other stuff going on, which I shall refrain from bombarding you with. Dangling participles and everything...
Good days ahead.
Adios for now,
Dave the Cruisin'
2 comments:
Hey Dave...how was the interview?..
It was fun, and over before I knew it... I remember perhaps 10% of what I said. I kinda spaced out. I hope I didn't embarrass myself.... we shall see.... MUAHAHAHAH!!!!
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