Hey, watch your tongue on "A Perfect Getaway". 'Twas an engaging thriller with gorgeous Puerto Rico scenery (who wouldn't want to visit there?) and a terrific performance by Tim Olyphant. Also, Thor was in it, so, respect, huh?
5. Thor: The Dark World.
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Christopher Eccleston plays Malekith, leader of the dark Elves of Svartelfheim, plus Mr. Eko from Lost is Kurse, another evil elf, with horns on his head. If director Alan Taylor can pull that off while being even halfway serious, I'm onboard.
4. Ender's Game.
The kid from Hugo and the girl from the True Grit remake go through military space school while Harrison Ford yells at them, all in preparation for an alien insect attack that may or may not ever happen? These are the things of which classic sci-fi is made. I was going to say it's like a younger skewing Starship Troopers minus the shower scene, except that one of the key setpieces of both book and movie is a shower scene, albeit one in which people get hurt rather than made happy. Not exactly the movie you'd expect to reunite Ben Kingsley and his underage Hugo costar Asa Butterfield, but here it is.
3. Star Trek Into Darkness.
Even though its director has pissed off to master the franchise he prefers, let us not forget how warm the reboot made us feel three years ago the moment we realized it hadn't been irrevocably fucked up. Benedict Cumberbatch may not look much like Khan, and may or may not actually be Khan, but whatever his space birth certificate turns out to reveal, we know he's no match for the patented Kirk dropkick. Can Chris Pine pull that off? Fire him up by telling him he's Rob Liefeld's choice to star as Rob in the Image movie, and he'll find the motivation for sure.
2. Pacific Rim.
I still prefer Guillermo del Toro's name for this film, Giant Fucking Robots Against Giant Fucking Monsters. And I'd rather Charlie Hunnam, who lost me immediately as the star of Nicholas Nickleby (and is probably here as a favor to del Toro regular and Sons of Anarchy costar Ron Perlman), weren't involved. But will it matter? Doubtful. Plus Idris Elba and Rinko Kikuchi are pretty kickass, and the apparent determination to make "kaiju" a household word is yet another step in the global nerd conquest of everything. Godzilla may be in the works, but they're not likely to get to Jet Jaguar until a few sequels in, so this is the rumble you want in theory if it isn't quite in name yet.
1. Elysium.
Another stylish sci-fi class-struggle parable from District 9 director Neill Blomkamp, with Matt Damon as a shaven-headed working-class guy on an overpopulated earth in which downtown LA is shown covered with tent encampments, even atop the skyscrapers. Inadvertently exposed to toxic radiation, he's given a mechanical exoskeleton to help him capture a rich bureaucrat played by William Fichtner and infiltrate Elysium, an off-world space station created for the richest 1%, where disease can be eradicated and everything is perfect. When the Saw sequels took on our health care system, the franchise got some late-in-the-game steam, so a bigger and more ambitious project with that issue at its heart may do even better. Rumor is there'll be screenings of the entire movie at Comic-Con 2013, given how well that strategy paid off for District 9. The Comic-Con presentation last summer felt like a bid to seize the Occupy Wall Street momentum, but movies react slowly to change; I'm hoping the economy won't tank again to make it more relevant, but if it does, more ticket sales could happen.
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141 comments
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I keep forgetting Elysium is coming out this year. That's a definite opening day watch for me.
But as much as I love Neill Blomkamp, Pacific Rim is still at the top of my list. I grew up on kaiju movies, still love kaiju movies, and have been waiting forever for a film that can make all the mundies see what I see in the genre, and I think Pac Rim just might be it.
And yeah, I just called non-geeks "mundies." Do something about it.
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The ONLY mixed signal I get from Man of Steel is the tone. If it's too serious, it'll be like dead weight when Superman is meant to SOAR! But from the start, this has been a very Batman Begins operation.
First they hired an extremely perfect director for the project. Superman demands a visual director, which whether you like Snyder or not (and I've never understood the hate) he is in spades. Next they started casting, and they seemingly nailed it for each part. I remember thinking when Batman Begins was in production, that they got the guy who directed Memento and than cast the same actor I would as Batman if I were making the movie and then Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson (they never fooled me, I walked in knowing he was Ra's), etc. I've gotten the same vibe with Man of Steel...needless to say, I'm very optimistic about this film.
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So if I read things right: Elysium is preemptively pissing off some for perceived left-wing politics, while Ender's Game is preemptively pissing off some for perceived right-wing politics.
Topless Robot, Fair and Balanced.
I can't take Pacific Rim seriously. It just looks SO MUCH like Neon Genesis Evangelion and if they wanted to make an Evangelion movie they should have just made an Evangelion movie.
@LealahLupin3 If it didn't have Del Toro's tentacles everywhere, I wouldn't even bother with it, but I'm intrigued.
@LealahLupin3 You do know giant mecha came long before Evangelion after all, right? To which the Eva units aren't even mecha per say. Evangelion would make an awful live action feature. This was realized a long time ago. They've been eating up the remakes in Japan, but to the rest of the world, it's too esoteric for a mainstream sell.
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@LealahLupin3 Look at it this way - if they'd made an Evangelion movie, they undoubtedly would have fucked it up, changed several key elements, ended up with a movie that is sort of similar to but not nearly enough like the source material and we'd all have wished they just made their own version and called it something else.
This is that movie.
@DrAbraxas @LealahLupin3 Good question: too early to tell since it isn't out yet. The possibility of such masturbation may actually make me go see this.
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Technically, Evil Dead 2 isn't a remake as much as the first few minutes retcon Evil Dead 1.... jus' sayin'.
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Considering how pissy the MPAA rating board has been getting lately, the NC-17 rating might have been because someone said "aw, fuck" after stepping on a tack.
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@arivalscientist you didn't get the memo? the part of vin disel is now played by rodriquez
@kwyjibo I think it's pretty safe to say 'genre' is another term used for speculative fiction. No need to start picking nits with it using this article.
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@Canadian.Scott@kwyjibo This right here. When someone says a "Genre" film, they mean a film that can be classified as part of a genre, that was made with the intent of attracting people that are already part of it, but usually it's used as short hand for "nerd bait."
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@Canadian.Scott @kwyjibo That's a lot. They all need an umbrella genre. I suggest "Cyan & Orange".
@kwyjibo Valid point. But based on the talk we had yesterday, i think for us, "genre" means anything sci-fi, horror, fantasy and all their sub-genres. But i think we should probably get in the habit though of not saying it.
@kwyjibo @Gallen_Dugall oh this - I was thinking about how all the big sci-fi writers now-a-days are no longer in the sci-fi section with the shelf after shelf of Star Wars books
frankly I don't get LYT, but then I never got Rob either
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@Gallen_Dugall @kwyjibo This article isn't marketing, is it? Why wouldn't the headline just say sci-fi?
@kwyjibo not shame - marketing, if you take "sci-fi" off of it you quadruple your sales.
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@Canadian.Scott @DrAbraxas @kwyjibo What? The article title says "10 genre movies..."
Which genre? "Genre" itself is not a valid genre. There is an unfortunate trend amongst sci-fi creators to avoid calling their work sci-fi because they're ashamed of being associated with schlock.
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@DrAbraxas @Canadian.Scott @kwyjibo Correct! I will give him/her credit for the great Simpsons reference in their user name.
@DrAbraxas @Canadian.Scott @kwyjibo Either way, this is a very odd question with little context...
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GI Joe 2's more compelling than about half the stuff on this list. Pacific Rim and Star Trek are the two I'm looking forward to the most, but Riddick might be interesting from a trainwreck standpoint because they keep trying to take a character that worked well in isolation into an epic hero and it just doesn't work.
Man of Steel... who the heck knows. That movie has more question marks than a Riddler cosplayer.
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I'm waiting for the Guillermo porn parody Pacific Rim Job: Sweat, Stink and Saltwater
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10. Call me back when Jane Levy has a chainsaw hand and goes back in time.
9. Yes.
8. First time I’ve heard of this. Maybe I’ll catch it as a rental.
7. Rental
6. I’m such a Superman junkie that I willingly suffered through 10 seasons of Smallville, of course, I’ll be going to see it even it is made by Zach “Sucker Punch” Synder.
5. Yes.
4. Rental
3. Midnight showing with my dad.
2. Oh, Guillermo, you had me when you showed me a giant robot punching a giant monster in the face.
1. Rental
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@arivalscientist On that recommendation I may take my mother to see it - seems like the sort of thing she'd enjoy
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@Gallen_Dugall @arivalscientist
Make no mistake.........it's still a Zombie movie.........so if she doesn't like gore and heads being blown off..........
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@arivalscientist Husband is taking me to see it this weekend! I'm really excited about it, actually. I think it looks like a ton of fun.
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I tell people that it's the Wall-E of Zombie movies.................But I think that this movie has done something unique, it's a date movie with Zombies
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@cliff.roswell@arivalscientist@rabidronnieWait a second, there is a Zombie Museum?
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/KNJaEYv.gif[/IMG]
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@Kozmik_Pariah @arivalscientist @rabidronnie
The book is a bit more intense........
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@arivalscientist @rabidronnie I went to an advance screening last night for free (thank you, Pittsburgh Zombie Museum!), and had the same thought. I was actually going to wait to see it when it hit home video, as I was on the fence about it, but my ex (who isn't into zombie movies at all) wanted to see it. Plus, free.
I was very pleasantly surprised at the film, charming, lovable, hilarious. Definitely a date movie for everyone!
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Definately the quirky, fun stuff.........It also mirrors the love story........I actually got to ask the director about the similarities at a Q&A screening and he mentioned that he was a huge Wall-E fan and did throw a little of it in the movie
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@arivalscientist @rabidronnie Wall-E as in adorable, quirky, and fun, or Wall-E as in surprisingly preachy about environmentalism? Because those are both very possible/divergent considerations.
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Judging by some of the comments on this article, it seems 'Ender's Game' is gearing up to be the Chik-Fil-A of summer movies. There will probably be boycotts at theaters and protests in the media. Other than that, I'll probably go see it. Hell, I've courted controversy before. I saw 'Passion Of The Christ' when it played in theaters simply to see what all the hubbub was about. It was interesting, just a gored up version of the crucifixion, but I didn't come out of the theater wanting to burn down synagogues. I'm pretty sure 'Ender's Game' will just be a movie. No more, no less. As for Orson Scott Card, yes his opinions are noxious, but just because I like an artist's work doesn't mean I'd want to share an apartment with them.
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@skrag2112 There's a difference between someone being an asshole and someone being a politically active asshole. If Card was merely homophobic and annoying but didn't try to force his opinions on people, I'd be OK with seeing the Ender's Game movie. But since he's on the board of NOM actively working to ban gay marriage, I don't want my money going towards his cause.
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This is how I feel. I simply don't want to give that man any money. If that means I miss out on an amazing book series and a fantastic movie, so be it. There are other books and films out there.
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@skrag2112 I'm going to have to agree with your position on this. I'm not a fan of Card's hatred of the LGBT community (among his other opinions), but I don't feel anything in Ender's Game reflects it. Aside from that, if I chose to not read or watch things because I disagreed with the opinions or actions of the artist, I'd probably be cutting out a large swath of media I normally take in. (For one thing, I'd sadly never be able to watch Chinatown or Rosemary's Baby ever again.)
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@mrm1138 @skrag2112 the Ender series is all about getting to know your enemy and not being afraid of what is different which is what makes his stance towards the LGBT so mind-boggling.
