Hellboy 2 is fairly pure fantasy (I'm sure there's a term of art for the subgenre of fantasy concepts intersecting with the modern world - "urban fantasy"?). My problem with it was the loose and uninteresting story, the absence of a compelling adversary, more interesting in tramping around in the odd hidden world than following a narrative. Consequently, I found H2 a bit boring, and I've been unable to watch it a second time. H1, on the other hand, is highly re-watchable and operates effectively on 3 or 4 planes of entertainment: ensemble comedy a la Ghostbusters, compelling fantasy, superhero comic book action movie. It was I think a useful template for Avengers and should get credit for pioneering that style of comic book movie years before Whedon adapted it for his megablockbuster. Also, nothing damns a movie with faint praise like complimenting it on its production design. True. The movie industry is tough on science fiction. There's no real reason for it to have any fidelity to sci fi literature other than that it has been a reliable source for material. 2001 may be the only hard sci fi film considered a cinematic masterpiece. Maybe cinema only needs one as a reference point. There are other lesser known gems, like Moon from 2009. Lucas has to take the hit for cementing the subordination of sci fi to the exigencies of action movies. Almost no filmmaker is going to let physics or astronomy get in the way of a compelling story idea. Pitch Black is a good example. The only things wrong with that movie are the parts having anything to do with "pitch" and "black". Nothing about how the planet's surface is brought into total darkness makes the slightest bit of sense. But who cares? I know I don't. It almost increases enjoyment of the movie to be able to talk about how poorly that key element was conceived. The problem with Chronicles of Riddick was not just that it was such a radical departure from Pitch Black. It also stripped away the elements of Riddick's character that were most interesting, leaving behind a terribly bland and generic superhero.That's just one of the reasons it failed.
I'll only see After Earth if Will Smith yells at his son "WELCOME TO EARF!" when they crash land. Silly title withstanding Star Trek Into Darkness is probably my most anticipated film of this year as long as it's not a remake of TWOK. Pacific Rim a close second because when Idris Elba says that they're cancelling the apocalypse you better believe it goddammit. Oblivion looks decent. I like the director.
I missed this interesting-looking little independent sci fi found footage thriller starring Sharlto Copley: Europa Report, scheduled for an early August release.
Not sure...not even sure if it's coming out in the US. I'm going to guess fall since the promo is limited and that trailer keeps getting pulled.
Yeah, found out about that last week. Looks like some kind of combo between 2001 and that one Moon flick where the Moon was inhabited by crabs. But it looks awesome.
