Entries Tagged 'Science-Fiction' ↓

Fan fiction, or fanfic, is a literary subgenre where super-obsessed viewers of a given TV show or film write their own stories, based on the characters and conventions of that film or show, exploring new or different narrative directions that don’t appear in the original. (For example, in Lord of the Rings, having Frodo and Sam trying to kill, and take the throne from the king, Aragorn.)

Slash is a subunit of fanfic, typically written by women, that enages the otherwise straight male characters of a narrative in homosexual sex with each other. For example, at each rest stop, having Frodo toss Sam’s salad.

Without question, one of the longest ongoing and most voluminous bodies of slash belongs to the original Star Trek universe, which, for some reason, compels fans to create bodice-rippers based on the misadventures of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock.

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Check 1, check 2, check 3.1415926535….: Spock keeps the beat

Hip-hop is truly an advanced form of human culture, both musicologically and conceptually. In fact, when you think about the formal proposals it makes, it’s so out there, I’m starting to wonder if it’s actually human culture.

Indeed, as of late, I’m inclined to believe that, like the Pyramids, the Mayan calendar, the Sungbo Eredo, and pretty much everything white people didn’t come up with first, hip-hop was brought to Earth by advanced life-forms from outer space.

And now, with help from Doobybrain.com, I finally have proof.

It’s a hard life, being Star Wars bounty hunter Boba Fett, going from star system to star system in your spaceship, Slave I, digging through wretched hives of scum and villainy on a thousand known worlds. Sure, if things get too hectic, you can ignite your Mitrinomon Z-6 Jetpack and blast off, but sometimes you need to really…open up…set yourself free…what a feeling….

This looks very familiar: C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) in The Clone Wars

Please: I want someone to tell me, and I want you to be honest:

Am I a bad person because, after looking at the trailer for Lucasfilm Animation’s upcoming CGI series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, I feel almost nothing, except, perhaps, the loss of animation director Genndy Tartakovsky?

Tartakovsky (b. 1970) helmed the similarly-titled, Emmy Award-winning Star Wars: Clone Wars. The microseries aired on Cartoon Network from 2003 to 2005, much as the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars will run there this fall. (Tartakovsky first became known for the long-running Samurai Jack and Dexter’s Laboratory on that animation channel.)

I saw Clone Wars when it was released on DVD in 2005.

I’m still reeling from it.

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That’s more like it.

There’s nothing like a movie that knocks it out of the park on the very first trailer. That wasn’t The Incredible Hulk, though. It was too dark, it looked cheap, and, aside from a geographically fruity rendition of Harlem’s 125th St., was completely uninteresting.

They get it right on trailer 2, above. What comes through is a very pissed, very destructive Hulk, in action. You don’t need more than that! It’s not in the mind-blowing league of Iron Man or Speed Racer, but they’ve got my money, baby. Opens June 13th.

Come on: What more do you really need to know?  : )  Just click on it.

As you can see, it’s nearly time for lunch in the Old West…or, rather, time for a brutal slaughter!

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A funky minute of play from the video game Jedi Outcast. Here, Sariss, one of seven Dark Jedi, loses her cool over, and her noggin to, self-trained Jedi master and rebel operative Kyle Katarn. Yeah: Nerds rule.

Go ahead, Elastigirl: Look behind the door….

Here’s more proof, as if you needed it, that you can make anything look like anything else with a skilled-enough editor. On this trailer, a 22-year-old film student named Breanne (YouTube member name: forensicator8) decapitates director Brad Bird’s 2004 Oscar-winning masterpiece, The Incredibles, changing it from a high-spirited romp into a fever dream of dread.

Think of it as a meta-reversal on Rob Ryang’s 2005 Shining trailer, which reframed the terror of Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, giving it back as a cheesy-but-tender father-son dramedy. Now, I’m just waiting to see if some Gandalf out there can turn Last Year at Marienbad into a high-speed action movie. Impress me.

A scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey (MGM, 1968)

Arthur C. Clarke, perhaps best known as author of the 1968 novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, and co-writer, with director Stanley Kubrick, of the eponymous film released the same year, died today in his home in Sri Lanka. He was 90.

2001 is my favorite film of all time, and has been since I saw it in the seventh grade, with commercials, on a 25″ black & white TV, a viewing upon which, even in such primitive conditions, the movie did no less than totally blow my mind.

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