Avatar: Cameron’s 3-D Masterpiece with 2-D Characters is Still a Worthwhile Ride.
James Cameron long ago reached that pinnacle of Hollywood Celebrity reserved for that oh-so-elite few who automatically inspire sprays of internet venom the second their name becomes attached to a project. The last straw for Cameron was the wild success of Titanic which ensured that if he chose to do so, he would never have to lift another finger or even change out of his pajamas again for the rest of his life to ensure an expensive roof over his head and warm meals on the table.
Unearned hate is the common backlash to mainstream success as the masses of unwashed internet talkbackers make feeble attempts to lend credibility to their sense of taste by hating someone or something that enjoys general mainstream succes. This makes Avatar, as one of Cameron’s most ambitious and expensive projects the perfect canvas for that giant bullseye of criticism even before the first frame of the film ever hit the internet.
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Surrogates Has Bruce Willis Break Type-Casting by Playing a Law Enforcement Agent.
I knew from the first trailers that Surrogates looked so incredibly cool that it had to have high probability of sucking. In a stunning turn of a events, Bruce Willis is playing a cop–well, an F.B.I agent this time. However, I’m happy to report that it’s not that bad, but it is a fairly unspectacular sci-fi thriller that was brimming over with a high concept and not whole heck of a lot more in terms of plot or action. I’m sure this is one of those films that will have its niche cult following in the coming years, But I think we’re looking at high concept, low box-office gross film.
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DragonCon 2009: Costumes and General Weirdness
One of the most phenomenal things about any Con is the vast amount of weirdness that comes out of the woodwork. Seemingly normal people use the occasion to costume themselves as their favorite fictional–or in some cases non-fictional– characters. In my years of going to cons I’ve noticed a distinct turn in this trend. As with this picture of the Flash and Superman, this supports my life long research into whether ANY human being actually looks good in tights.
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DragonCon 2009: Day One - Best Costume So Far, Initial Thoughts, and an Unexpected Gift from Above.
Day One - DK Pick for Best Costume: Sith Elvis!
Any of the literally dozens of loyal readers we have at Deviant Knowledge probably are at least aware of the the annual Labor Day idiocy that happens in Atlanta, GA each year called Dragon*Con. For those not familiar, formerly a smaller and more narrowly targeted affair, it’s now described on their own website as “the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US.” This year is my first opportunity to attend and after 14 hours on day one I was stunned by how huge and well run of a program this is so far. I’ve been to many cons over the years: GenCon, Star Wars Celebrations, several Trek, Doctor Who and general Sci-Fi cons and so far this seems to be about the most well-oiled of any of them–of course, hell is bound to ensue as the weekend hits.
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Peter Jackson’s District 9 is a Strong, Expert Drama Disguised as a Summer Sci-Fi Film
The trailers for District 9 sparked my interest as one of those guilty pleasure pulp-sci-fi flicks that come along every once in a while. I have no shame in admitting that I will continue to be an unashamed apologist for films like Independence Day, Starship Troopers or Total Recall. Instead, producer Peter Jackson and director Neil Blomkamp have surprised us with a first class character study wrapped up in an allegorical cautionary tale about morality and racism. It succeeds so wildy in this approach that I was completely blindsided by a powerfully good film shattering my complete lack of any real expectations. One of the small pleasures that I appreciate most in this life is walking into a movie expecting nothing and walking out grinning ear to ear completely blown away.
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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen — Damn You Michael Bay! A New Summer Cinema Low.
I believe that it may be in my best interests to forfeit my official position of being a mild Michael Bay apologist. Now I’m not completely bonkers, I’m not ranting on talkbacks about how he’s been snubbed for best director Oscars or anything, but the man is an entertainer. When he makes a film his number one goal is to do whatever he can to entertain the audience. Armageddon’s worst crime was not to moviegoers, it was to anyone with a basic knowledge of science. Other than that, I had a fun time with Armageddon. How often do you get to see Bruce Willis explode? With that out of the way, let me say that Michael Bay did not entertain me this weekend.
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Terminator Salvation: Officially The “Feel Disappointed” Movie of the Summer
First I guess I should warn anyone reading this review considering Terminator Salvation that I am a mild apologist for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Yes, I enjoyed that unapologetically even though I fully admit that it was a very pale followup to Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which I still consider one the greatest sci-fi action flicks of all time as well as number one on the list of most influential digital effects films of all time in the article I’ve been picking away at for the past 4 months chronicling the most influential digital effects films of all time. Okay, I’ll get around to finishing that article this summer. In any case, this makes it very difficult to reconcile the fact that even though I think Terminator Salvation is a much better movie than T3, I have some serious problems with it.
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V 2010: Leapin’ Lizards! The First Look is Promising!
Back in January we reported that ABC had greenlit a remake of the classic 1980s mini-series V. You can read my thoughts on the original work here V - Classic 80s Sci-fi Gets the Go Ahead for a Remake. I also expressed some reservations that the green light was on a remake rather than continuation or closure of the original story. I may have been hasty in that judgment after getting our first peek. ABC television has released some of the first trailers and promotional materials for the series and it’s not what I expected.
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Red Dwarf: Back to Earth The Cult Comedy Returns After a 10 Year Hiatus.
The legendary science fiction program Red Dwarf has now officially put three new episodes on the books after a ten year lay off since the cliff hanger ending of series 8. In traditional Red Dwarf fashion, show co-creator Doug Naylor completely ignores the cliffhanger and picks the story up 9 years later with no legit explanations of anything. For the vast majority of shows, this may seem like a cop out, but I prefer to look at it as completely inconsequential to the fact that we had another opportunity to revisit some of the most deliciously pathetic fictional characters ever created for television. Did the return do the show justice?
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“Push” Movie Trailer - Didn’t this used to be a TV series called “Heroes”?
Over the last few weeks, you may have seen the trailer for the upcoming movie Push in front of other films at the cinema. It is also available online here or embedded below. My initial reaction was, “Hey, this looks cool, but I liked it better the first time I saw it, when it was called Heroes.”
Now, I’ll be the first to admit, Heroes is by no means an original concept, it borrows heavily from comic book source material, not the least of which is the popular X-Men series, but the list of similarities between Heroes and the trailer for Push is utterly ridiculous. Has Heroes creator Tim Kring seen this trailer? Let’s take a “short list” approach and look at some of the “incredible” plot coincidences.
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