Summer of Sci-Fi

Lately I’ve been taking a little sidestep from horror and reading/watching a lot of great science fiction films, novels, and comics:

Moon (2009):

Moon is director Duncan Jones’ (aka David Bowie’s son) debut feature film.  I first heard about/became interested in Moon when I saw that it got a 9/10 on bloody-disgusting.com a few months ago, and once I saw the trailer I was completely sold.  People that know me or have read some of my past reviews probably know that I am a sucker for minimalist stories with 2 characters in one room (such as Hard Candy, Blair Witch, Open Water, I Am Legend, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Raymond Carver, etc…) so this love combined with my love for creepy robots, government conspiracies, unreliable narrators, and great soundtracks = LOVED IT.  Overall this movie kept me guessing and it didn’t give me the obvious or what I expected, which I think made some people disappointed, but I found it more ballsy. I highly recommend this film and can’t wait to see the next film in the Moon series!

For more about Moon check out this interview http://bit.ly/45KYQ4 and follow Duncan Jones on twitter @ManMadeMoon

Sunshine (2007):

Sunshine presents a film about a crew aboard a spaceship heading towards the dying sun with a mission to save humankind. Similar to my love for Moon, I always find myself drawn to stories with isolated individuals that ask those ever present philosophical and psychological questions of what it means to be human.  Questions about morality, ethics, insanity, loyalty, formation of a social contract, etc… are all present in this film. On top of that, the film was visually brilliant and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Visually and thematically there are moments throughout the film reminiscent of Kubrick’s 2001, Alien, and even Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination. Overall I think it’s pretty safe to say that any Danny Boyle movie with Cillian Murphy in it is made of win.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008):

My friend Lindsey (check out her blog: http://apocaknits.wordpress.com/) recommended The Hunger Games to me and I loved it! As you can tell from my previous reviews, a dystopian/battle royal story is right up my alley, and I always love a book with a female badass, so this book totally rocked my face. It’s like Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” meets Lord of the Flies meets Battle Royale and it is EPIC! I don’t want to give too much away but I can say that this book totally sucked me in and I could not put it down. The second book of the trilogy, Catching Fire, is scheduled to come out in September and I CANNOT WAIT to get my hands on it.  I’m really not good at this cliffhanger ending/waiting anxiously for the next book and I can see myself diving over people and punching babies to get a hold of book two.  Go read this book now! well maybe read my review of Zot! first, and then go read it!

Zot! The Complete Black and White Collection by Scott McCloud (2008):

I dabbled in comics throughout my childhood, but it wasn’t until high school that I really got hooked. In an art class my freshman year of college, my professor handed me a copy of Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud and I was in complete awe.  Last year, I finally got to meet my hero in person when he and Jeff Smith presented a conversation at the Wexner Center for the Arts.  At that point I had only read his more historical/theoretical comics, and when the mammoth 576 page Zot! collection was released in 2008, I was excited to finally read some of Scott McCloud’s fictional work.

What I enjoyed most about this collection is seeing the progression of his beautiful art (towards the end of the collection there are some amazingly beautiful hyper detailed panels) and reading his cute anecdotes between story arcs throughout this giant collection.  What I admire about Scott McCloud is that he’s not afraid to experiment and this collection has a little bit of everything (ranging from the fantastical futuristic superhero to the everyday down to earth teenage romance, from the ultra-philosophical villains to the questioning of sexual identity, from the super detailed art to the abstract/digital).  My favorite arcs in the collection would have to be “Planet Earth” and “The Season of Dreams.” I don’t want to give anything away, but I’d have to say that they are some of the best stories that I have ever read!

At the end of the collection, Scott McCloud said that he’s thinking of working on a graphic novel next, so I am exceedingly anxious to read his next work.  For more Scott McCloud, check out his website/blog scottmccloud.com or follow him on twitter @scottmccloud.

“I think that at the heart of most genres is the desire to escape to a new world every bit as convincing as this one, yet safely removed from this one’s daily pain, while at the heart of most progressive narrative movements is the desire to meaningfully reconnect with that pain, or to strip away the illusion entirely and rethink the nature of the creative act itself.” -Scott McCloud

~ by deepfreezebatman on July 30, 2009.