Hey folks. Here we have the third trailer for the upcoming movie Elysium, which is set to be released on August 9th. I’m sure everyone’s familiar with the plot already. And if not, this trailer does a pretty good job of getting you up to speed. So enjoy it, because after the disappointing Man of Steel and an adaptation of Ender’s Game which I don’t plan on seeing, this movie may be all that’s left to fill my quota of summer sci-fi blockbusters!
Category: Movies
The Ender’s Game Controversy…
If you’re the kind of person for whom science fiction is irrelevant, or if you’ve just been living under a rock for the past few months, it might come as a surprise that there are people who are looking to boycott the release of Ender’s Games. Granted, Card has been an opponent of gay marriage for some time, but its really only been with the release of the movie adapted from his 1984 novel that this has become an issue.
In response to the upcoming release, groups like Geeks OUT! have started the campaign called “Skip Ender’s Game”. Citing Card’s views, and his involvement with the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) – which supported the Defense Of Marriage Act – Geeks OUT and others like them are hoping to prevent Card from benefiting financially from the movie’s release.
Of particular concern is a statement made by Card in 1990 in an essay entitled “The Hypocrites of Homosexuality”:
Laws against homosexual behavior should remain on the books, not to be indiscriminately enforced against anyone who happens to be caught violating them, but to be used when necessary to send a clear message that those who flagrantly violate society’s regulation of sexual behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society.
In 2009, he stated that homosexual individuals “suffer from tragic genetic mixups,” and that the term “homophobe” is used in order to imply that opponents of the “homosexual activist agenda” are mentally ill. Card stated in 2008 that “[t]here is no branch of government with the authority to redefine marriage.” On July 8, 2013, Card wrote in Entertainment Weekly that the gay marriage issue is “moot” due to the Supreme Court decision on DOMA, and that eventually, gay marriage would be legal in all fifty states
All of this has generated its fair share of controversy and has led to some degree of distancing and disavowal. For starters, Lionsgate Films – the studio responsible for the movie – announced that Card would not be taking part in the Ender’s Game film panel at San Diego Comic Con in July 2013 with the other principal cast and crewmembers of the film.
In addition, hoping to dampen the flames of controversy, Lionsgate released the following statement:
As proud longtime supporters of the LGBT community, champions of films ranging from GODS AND MONSTERS to THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER and a Company that is proud to have recognized same-sex unions and domestic partnerships within its employee benefits policies for many years, we obviously do not agree with the personal views of Orson Scott Card and those of the National Organization for Marriage. However, they are completely irrelevant to a discussion of ENDER’S GAME. The simple fact is that neither the underlying book nor the film itself reflect these views in any way, shape or form. On the contrary, the film not only transports viewers to an entertaining and action-filled world, but it does so with positive and inspiring characters who ultimately deliver an ennobling and life-affirming message. Lionsgate will continue its longstanding commitment to the LGBT community by exploring new ways we can support LGBT causes and, as part of this ongoing process, will host a benefit premiere for ENDER’S GAME.
This is an argument that many have made, that since Card’s views on homosexuality don’t appear in the book itself, that it is not relevant to either it or the movie.
And Card himself even made a statement in response to the proposed boycott, claiming the his story and his stances on gay marriage are two entirely separate issues:
Ender’s Game is set more than a century in the future and has nothing to do with political issues that did not exist when the book was written in 1984. With the recent Supreme Court ruling, the gay marriage issue becomes moot. The Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution will, sooner or later, give legal force in every state to any marriage contract recognized by any other state. Now it will be interesting to see whether the victorious proponents of gay marriage will show tolerance toward those who disagreed with them when the issue was still in dispute.
Once again, Card has declared the issue open and shut and has asked for tolerance for his past stances. Personally, I can’t help but feel that the studio has missed the point entirely, and the Card himself is taking a rather hypocritical stance. Asking for tolerance for your opinions and beliefs are one thing, but he and his colleagues actively campaigned to deny equal rights to others.
And though plenty of people have questioned whether or not a boycott is even likely to be effective, the issue seems to be snowballing. Not only is the studio taking notice, but Card’s own statements have only seemed to add fuel to the fire. And of course, a studio needs to reach beyond fans of the franchise and genre when doing adaptations, but given the way the controversy is growing, it’s not unreasonable to suspect they will have a hard time drawing people in.
And I admit to being heavily conflicted. While Card’s views were known to me before the movie was announced, his involvement with NOM and the many statements he’s made, not to mention his perception of the issue as being “moot” and over with, have led me to seriously reevaluate my opinion of the man. Like many sci-fi readers, I read and enjoyed Ender’s Game thoroughly. Had I know where the man stood at the time, would I have still bought it or enjoyed it nearly as much?
Not an easy question to answer, and it raises the uncomfortable specter of multiple, overlapping issues. Amongst them are censorship, free speech, hate speech, endorsing intolerance, and precedent. Personally, I think I’m going to skip the movie now. Too bad too, I was interested in seeing what they did with it. And as you can see, I can’t resist posting some of those stunning visuals! But on certain matters, I am just not flexible where intolerance is involved.
And given the way Card espoused tolerance and humanity in his classic book, even towards one’s enemy, I think it would be reasonable for him to reconsider his past involvements. After all, tolerance is about accepting the things you don’t approve of. If you expect people to extend that acceptance to you, you better be willing to show some yourself.
Sources: blastr.com, (2), IO9.c0m, skipendersgame.com
New Trailer: The Hobbit – The Desolation of Smaug
While I have yet to see the first installment, and generally disapproved of Peter Jackson’s decision to release this comparatively short story as a trilogy, I would be remiss if I didn’t post about the new trailer. And as you can from see from this 2 minute spot, the next installment promises plenty of action, adventure, and some serious divergences from the source material.
In the last movie, the characters had just survived their encounter with the cave Orcs, Bilbo found the One Ring and “won” it from Gollum, and the company was on its way to Mirkwood. In this installment, things appear to climax when the band of merry dwarves, a hobbit and a wizard reach Smaug’s lair. Some serious changes are showcased with the addition of Legolas (who wasn’t even in the first book), mini battles that didn’t happen, and lots more portentous talk that connects it all to the original trilogy.
And word around the campfire is this is what Jackson really has planned for the rest of the series – Game of Thrones-like diversions from Tolkien’s text that are clearly designed to sex the material up, hint at what was to come with the War of One Ring, and make the whole thing feel like a fantasy miniseries instead of a single story. While I’m sure I’m going to catch the entire trilogy at some point, I might sit the theatrical version out again…
But that’s just me! Enjoy the trailer and, if you’re so inclined, the movie on the silver screen!
New Trailer: Elysium!
Last weekend, while the wife, our friend and I were all watching the new Star Trek movie, a number of trailers came on that made us antsy for other “coming attractions”! One of them was one I instantly recognized and began saying the title of long before they flashed it across the screen. Months back, when this movie was first announced, I posted the trailer here because it looked to have all the things I love in sci-fi story. And they have since come out with a longer, more detailed trailer which I share now…
Elysium tells the story of a dystopian future, set in 2154, where the wealthy and privileged live in an orbital colony that is peaceful, serene, idyllic, and sees to all their needs (and looks a lot like the station from Space Odyssey). Meanwhile, the remaining 99% of humanity live planetside, where pollution, environmental collapse and economic ruin have made Earth into a veritable hellhole.
Enter into this Max De Costa (played by a cueballed Matt Damon), a man who is near death who comes to learn of a secret that could topple the whole system and achieve a degree of social justice. In order to do this, he has to break into Elysium, a facility that is heavily guarded and run by Secretary Rhodes (Jodie Foster), and undergoes a radical surgery to get an exoskeleton and some powerful weaponry permanently attached.
Directed by Neil Blomkamp – the South-African director who brought us District 9 and provided visual effects for such shows as Star Gate: SG-1, Smallville and Dark Angel – this movie clearly boasts the same kind of gritty, realistic texture he has come to be known for. And after the 2008 Financial Crisis and the subsequent Occupy Movement, it’s message is pretty timely and likely to be well-received.
As for me? You can keep your social commentary and comparisons to other movie franchises, I wanna see me some exoskeleton battles! Enjoy the trailer:
The Future is Here: The Electric Hover-Bike!
Inventors Chris Malloy and Mark DeRoche turned quite a few heads back in 2012 when they displayed their hoverbike prototypes to the world. But, you know how it is with cool, new ideas. Its only a matter of time before it catches on and others are coming up with their own versions of it. And that’s exactly what happened at Prague convention center this week, where a design firm unveiled their own concept of the hoverbike.
The design firms goes by the name of Design Your Dreams Flying Bike, an amalgamation of three Czech engineering firms who joined together to fulfill a shared childhood dream. Last June, the firm shared their design specs for the electric bike which would be capable of vertical takeoff and hover-flight. And less than a year later, their efforts have resulted in something functional, and very, very cool!
Granted, the prototype isn’t quite as sleek and sophisticated as the original drawings themselves. But the project is still in the early phases, and already it has shown that the concept works. Using six horizontally mounted propellers, the 220-pound electric bike was able to lift itself into the air while an engineer on the ground controlled it with a handheld remote.
According to Milan Duchek of Design Your Dreams, the prototype will fly remotely with a dummy on the seat for now, but a version that can be piloted by a human will be ready this fall. In addition, the design team said that the final product should be as easy to maneuver as a regular bicycle, but will also have the ability to fly for between three and five minutes, using solely electric power. It will include “foolproof” stability control for takeoff and landing, and a fly-by-wire system that isn’t susceptible to outside interference.
Though the prototype bike looks like a homemade version of something out of Star Wars, the designers told the press that their inspiration came from two Czech works of science fiction: a series of books by Jaroslav Foglar about a boy with a flying bicycle, and a 1966 Karel Zeman film based on a Jules Verne novel.
Bad news though: even when the flying bike is complete, it won’t be available for commercial use. According to the engineers who built it, the purpose of the project was to bring a flying bike to fruition to see if the technology would work. Or as DYD engineer Ales Kobylik said:
Our main motivation in working on the project was neither profit nor commercial interest, but the fulfillment of our boyish dreams.
Hard to argue with that kind of logic. But for those who absolutely must own one, early indications put the cost of the prototype in the low five-figures – say, anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000. Make the team an offer, we’ll see what they have to say 😉 In the meantime, check out this video of the hoverbike performing a demonstration in Prague:
Star Trek Into Darkness
Hello folks! This weekend, I finally managed to get my butt to the movie theater to catch a summer blockbuster. It was the first time in months, perhaps a year, that the wife and I caught a movie on the big screen. And as my geekiness demanded, the movie we caught was the second installment in the J.J. Abrams relaunch of the classic franchise: Star Trek Into Darkness. And while I am obliged to provide a review, I am also bound by the spoiler code, so what I am about to say shall be as vague as I can possibly make it.
As I’m sure you all know, the second act in any series is meant to be the dark one. And while it is hard to top an event like the loss of an entire planet – Vulcan getting obliterated in the first film – this movie really did revolve around a certain downturn in the series. In addition to their being the concept of the enemy within, there is also the prospect of impending war, of vengeance overpowering good reason, and people sacrificing who and what they are in the process.
Not only did all this call to mind some of the larger ethical concerns arising out of the “War on Terror” – such as vengeance vs. justice, preemptive violence, and being rulec by fear – there was an even a dedication at the end of the film to all veterans who have served since September 11th, 2001. Apparently, this was because the makers knew the movie would be released in 2013, when many soldiers overseas would be returning home.
And of course, the movie was also an homage to the second installment in the original series. As I was forewarned going in, though not in any detail, this movie pays tribute to The Wrath of Khan in many places. While this was to be expected – I too suspected as much from several early hints – it did get a little tedious at times. After awhile, it didn’t so much feel like a wink and a nod as much as a repetitious pattern.
Still, the pace of the film, the big reveals, and the way it all played into the original story arc, but again with changes due to the temporal shift that took place in the first movie, all made for a very exciting and awesome experience. A couple of times I looked over to my wife and whispered “I knew it!”, and I quietly screamed my applause at the end. She laughed, I explained things to her, it was all good!
So if you haven’t seen it yet, and consider yourself a Trekkie, geek, fan of action sci-fi, or all of the above, get on out and catch this movie before the summer is out!
New Movie Trailer: Man of Steel!
We are now just one week way from Man of Steel‘s official, theatrical release. And in honor of this final lap, the studio has chosen to release one last, beautifully produced, trailer. And unlike the other trailers, which focused on Clarke’s upbringing, his quest to find his true identity, or showcased how the people of Earth would react to his presence, this one is action and nothing but!
It starts with a fair bit of footage from Krypton, where we see more of the apocalyptic event that required that Clarke be sent away, and then moves to Earth, where the same forces that took his homeworld threaten to consume his adopted world. And it’s abundantly clear from this and the last trailer that in this relaunch, unlike the originals, that Zod is at the center of it all.
Krypton’s destruction was no mere accident, and the evil Kryptonians were not mere exiles. Interesting angle…
Enjoy the show, and let’s all be ready for when it comes out. This is one relaunch I actually intend to see!
Barely Political’s Star Trek Parody
Here we have the hilarious satire group that produces musical parodies under the name “The Key of Awesome”, back for more with a parody of Star Trek. Most likely made in honor of the honor of the successful relaunch of the franchise, here we see Spock and a lady Vulcan subordinate come together for Pon Farr. And of course, its all done to the tune of a particular slow jam, with hilarious results!
I have yet to see Into Darkness, but I’m lobbying hard to accomplish this that weekend. How can I be expected to do reviews and keep up with the latest in pop culture and science fiction if I don’t occasionally get out to see a vastly overpriced relaunch??? Enjoy the video:
More Terminator 5 News!
Despite rumors that T5 was stuck in a development phase known as “development hell”, Mr. Terminator himself recently came forward to offer an update which set the record straight put fans of the franchise in a much better mood. In a recent interview with Metro magazine, Arnold Schwarzenegger claimed that the movie was on track and that they are busy writing the script for it as we speak.
In addition, he claimed that other projects which will be involving him in the next few months were green lighted and getting the go-ahead. This included the much-anticipated T5, as well as some other sequel/relaunches:
We’re writing it now. There are three projects being written that involve me. One is Terminator 5, the other is a Conan movie that Universal is doing and there’s the sequel to Twins, which is called Triplets. We’ll all look quite different in that. The third triplet is Eddie Murphy, so figure that one out.
Really? Still doing the Conan relaunch, huh? And Twins too? Wow, these are a few candidates for download! I can see the Conan relaunch making sense, given how poorly the last relaunch did. But isn’t there a statute of limitations on how many times you can relaunch a series? Or did I just make that up?
In any case, no indications have been given yet as to what role Arnie himself will be playing. No doubt that is a detail which the studio will keep closely guarded until they finish hammering out the script, or figure it out for themselves! But we can safely assume that he was referring to Patrick Lussier and Laeta Kalogridis when he referred to the writers.
One thing is clear. Whatever they make couldn’t be much worse than the last two Terminator movies. Let’s just hope they ditch the continuity thing and go back to their roots on this one. That’s what Superman Returns did and I can’t recommend it enough. Though not everyone liked that relaunch, it did present a good idea for franchises that were tired and washed up: Make a movie that picks up where the last good one left off and pretend like the abortive sequels never happened.
And while they’re at it, do you think could Hollywood should relaunch Predator and Alien, preferably to a point before AVP was spawned? There’s a concept that has huge potential, but for some reason can’t seem to express it on the silver screen!
Source: IO9.com
How Iron Man 3 Should Have Ended
I just can’t resist posting the latest from HISHE whenever they come up with a new movie spoof. For those who have yet to see Iron Man 3 (myself included), it may not make much sense, and does come with a warning that it contains some spoilers. So if you haven’t seen it yet, do so this weekend (like me), and then come back and we’ll all have a good laugh together.
Otherwise, enjoy the clip and – for the love of God – don’t tell the rest of us why it’s hilarious! I for one still plan to see it and hope to realize it’s significance for myself. Enjoy!
Stories by Williams 