Summer of Sci-Fi: part 3
The summer of Sci-Fi is still going strong…
Blindness (2008):
This film takes “an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind” to the extreme! Fernando Meirelles’ Blindness is about the unraveling of a society plagued with an unexplained epidemic of blindness. I’m such a sucker for dystopian science fiction, and this film really impressed me. Gritty, disturbing, provoking, and overall kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. In a time where visual culture bombards our every waking minute, I found this film especially poignant. Of course it seems like I always find out that behind a great film is a great book, so now I really want to check out the 1995 Portuguese novel by Josè Saramago that inspired the film. If you’re a fan of Children of Men (and who isn’t!?) then I highly recommend this film.
Event Horizon (1997):
Paul W. S. Anderson’s Event Horizon is a British sci-fi horror film about a crew of astronauts’ journey to recover a spaceship that mysteriously disappeared for 7 years. Although the effects are a little dated, I really enjoyed this film and picked up on the horror and science fiction references right away (The Haunting, The Shining, Alien, 2001, etc…). Since I’m a huge horror and haunted house fan, I loved the idea of a haunted ship, which was even equipped with a creepy naked dead lady in a bath tub and a tidal wave of blood. Laurence Fishburne is such a badass in this movie! “Fuck this ship!” and the New Zealand dude from Jurassic Park makes an incredibly creepy villain! Overall I loved this film and if you’re looking for a new guilty pleasure, then this is the film for you.
X-23: Innocence Lost (2005):
I bought a few issues of NYX back in 2003, but between switching teams in the middle and collectors making it hard to find and super expensive, I never got the chance to read the first appearance of X-23. I always thought see looked like a badass so I decided to check out her origin story, collected as X-23: Innocence Lost by Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, and Billy Tan. To my surprise, I found out this story made for me! Part WE-3, part Gunslinger Girls this story is super sweet with its combination of government super weapons and young girl assassins. I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with Wolverine.. I love adamantium skeletons and he’s pretty hardcore, but I also get sick of him being thrown on every X-men team ever and I enjoy reading comics where he gets shot in the crotch. So I think the invention of a girl Wolverine is ingenious and she’s pretty much my new favorite X-Men character.
For more X-23 check out her very first appearance in X-Men: Evolution on hulu: http://www.hulu.com/watch/84367/x-men-evolution-x23#x-0,vepisode,1
The Omega Man (1971):
Boris Sagal’s The Omega Man, is very loosely based on Richard Matheson’s novel I Am Legend, and is the second film adaptation, after Vincent Price’s The Last Man on Earth. I think this film started out really well. I loved the opening scene of Charlton Heston speeding around in a hot car (similar to the opening of the Will Smith I Am Legend film) and style and tone seemed pretty dead on. Where this film lost me was with the portrayal of the vampire/zombie plague victims. When the film stuck to the original story there are some really amazing moments, but when it starts to deviate it just turns into lameville. Because I’m such a huge Richard Matheson fan, I won’t really be pleased with any film adaptation, and it seems like The Omega Man could’ve been really sweet film, but in the end, I prefer The Last Man on Earth over this.
For more sci-fi reviews, check out my previous posts: Summer of Sci-Fi Part 1, Summer of Sci-Fi Part 2
It’s been a great summer for sci-fi and I think I’ll be able to squeeze in one more round of reviews before classes start. I’m pretty new to the Sci-Fi genre, so if you have any recommendations, please send them my way.
