A John Scalzi SciFi Thanksgiving
Here in the United States it's Thanksgiving, when we all sit around with family and friends, eat a 48,000-calorie pile of food, and then collapse in front of the television to watch football. It's an American tradition, and I guess somewhere in there we maybe think about all the things we're thankful for. Since this is a column about science fiction and movies, I thought I'd make a list of the things I'm thankful for as far as those two things are concerned. It's pretty short (Hey, if you're reading this on Thanksgiving, you're probably groggy from tryptophan anyway), but just because it's short doesn't mean it's not sincere. So, without further ado: Things I'm thankful for in the science fiction movie universe.
• I'm thankful for computerized special effects, which at this point are advanced enough to make even the cheesiest direct-to-DVD science fiction crud look passably respectable. Maybe some people miss the era of wires and clunky practical effects, but I'm not one of them.
• I'm thankful for Will Smith. He's made sure there's at least one watchable (not necessarily good, but watchable) big-budget science fiction movie a year, for, what, most of a dozen years already? Yes, I know, Wild Wild West. Hey, he was young. He needed the work.
• I'm thankful for Darth Vader. In the last 30-some years, has there been a better villain in all of film -- not just science fiction film, but film in general? I tell you, there is not (Hannibal Lecter comes close, but dude. Vader could use his Force powers to feed him his own liver with a nice Chianti). Vader is so badass that he survived George Lucas turning him into a whiny loser in the prequel trilogy. Think about that.
• I'm thankful for science fiction B-movies from the '80s. Sure, there are better things in life than a home theater double feature of Buckaroo Banzai and The Hidden, but not all that many if you really want to think about it.
• I'm thankful that Charlton Heston decided to make Planet of the Apes, The Omega Man and Soylent Green, thus giving the previously A-list-free genre of science fiction flicks a measure of respectability (and his own career a boost, I might add). I don't think Heston gets enough credit these days for what he did for science fiction.
• I'm thankful that Ridley Scott is the guy who currently has the rights to The Forever War, since that means the chances of the movie being worthy of the book have gone up exponentially.
• I'm thankful for Wall-E -- the best silent movie (the first half of it, anyway) of the last 70 years or so, depending on whether you count Modern Times as a silent movie or not. Chaplin would have proud; either that, or sued Disney for stealing his charcter.
• I'm thankful the world hasn't turned into a Road Warrior-like post-apocalyptic mess yet. Although from time to time on the freeway one of those battle scenes seems like it would be fun, especially if it targeted the jerk going 45 miles an hour in the fast lane.
• I'm thankful I'm almost 40 years old and still want a lightsaber and a speeder bike.
• I'm thankful AMC lets me write about science fiction movies, which I love, and that you folks drop by to read what I have to say. Thanks, AMC, and thank you.
Anything you're thankful about in the category of science fiction movies? Don't be shy -- share!
Winner of the Hugo Award and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, John Scalzi is the author of The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies and the novels Old Man's War and Zoe's Tale. He's also the editor of METAtropolis, an audiobook anthology on Audible.com. His column appears every Thursday.
I am thankful that Aggie Guerard Rodgers was the costume designer for Return of the Jedi; otherwise, we might never have had the "Slave Leia" outfit...
I'm thankful for a new season of Lost in January. It'll cleanse the palate from the abysmal current volume of "Heroes." Parkman and the turtle? Hiro's a ten-year-old? What happened?
--Nick Nadel
Five Original Movie Superheroes That Will Smith Should Study
http://blogs.amctv.com/scifi-scanner/2008/11/five-original-movie-superheroes.php
I'm thankful for dirty, bleak, minimalist and believable science fiction finding its way toward success (I am Legend, Children of Men)
And I'm certainly thankful for Natalie Portman's navel in Attack of the Clones, possibly the best thing one can find in the whole Trilogy.
I am thankful for Fritz Lang's Metropolis, the first science fiction movie. I am thankful for my Grade 7 teacher having us watch it so many years ago as many many other sci-fi and fantasy movies.
I'm thankful for Alien Nation, Enemy Mine, and The Adventures of Pluto Nash. Yeah, I said it. Despite popular belief Pluto Nash was/is actually an excellent and well done sci-fi film. Period.
I'm thankful for Steven Spielberg and his work on some of my favorite sci-fi movies.
I'm thankful that the Japanese weren't too pissed off at America, in a culture-to-culture way for Astro Boy to become really popular.
I'm thankful that almost 40 years later, word got back to America that the Japanese were doing great things in animation. (Yes, word got back sooner in a small, hand-to-hand sort of way, but come on... when Dexter's Lab first started airing, most of the Americans had no idea that they were watching an American interpretation of a Japanese interpretation of an American art form!)
While I'm at it, I'm thankful for Genndy Tarkovsky & Craig McCraken. (possibly misspelled, because I'm not so thankful that I'm actually going to go check how to spell their names.)
(I'm thankful for those things outside the Sci Fi they allowed too, but if only for the Sci Fi, it would have been enough)
Still on the animation topic, I'm thankful for Yoko Kanno, for telling me what the future sounds like.
I am thankful Will Smith and Barry Sonnenfeld's careers survived Wild Wild West, which, when you think about it, was only one script shy of a good movie.
And here's the frightening part: Sonnenfeld said he had to overhaul the script to improve it to that point.
Personally, I think he should have just scrapped it and said, "Hmm... Cowboys in a steampunk movie. How about another MIB?"
I'm thankful for The Ghost In The Shell and Serenity, both of which - in different ways - restored my faith in science fiction movies.
I'm just thankful for Forbidden Planet. Proved scifi movies didn't have to B movies.
Though totally unthankful that I've recently turned 40 and still don't have a light sabre or speeder bike...
I'm thankful that Paramount was smart enough to deep-six the Berman/Stewart/Spiner triumvirate and gave J.J. 150 million dollars to reinvent TREK.
I'm thankful that I have a communicator already.
I'm thankful for TV on DVD, without which one-season wonders like Firefly and Wonderfalls would only be pleasant yet fading memories.
You spread the tryptophan myth ;_;
It's been Snoped.
I am thankful for the desperation of Netflix and Hulu for streaming content, because it forced them to scrape up some of the low-budget, minor, awful, and oddball SFF that I would be embarassed to be seen renting, if I could find it. I love the stuff from the bottom of the barrel.
I am thankful for the movie reviews of Murray Frymer back in the day, because he really got SFF and B movies.
I am thankful for John Carpenter introducing wire-fu into US movies (in Big Trouble in Little China). I count wire-fu as fantasy anyway, and it makes regular SF more fun, too. Heck, I am thankful for John Carpenter.
I am thankful for Roger Corman because what would we have without him?
I am thankful I've found a soulmate who totally gets it when I point to the light fixtures in our local Cheesecake Factory and say, "Eye of Sauron."
I'm thankful for the forthcoming remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Not because I'm looking forward to it, though I am a little bit, but rather because it allowed me to re-discover the original after 20 years.
I'm thankful for the new Star Trek trailer, which gives us hope that the new movie might just live up to its impossibly high expectations.
I'm thankful for the Rod Taylor version of The Time Machine.
I'm thankful for 28 Days and Alien, and thankful there hasn't been a mash-up movies (yet) where the Earth's population has to fight off zombie aliens.