Category: Science Fiction
The Laws of Gravity: How the awesome wonder of the universe was weighed down by mismatched spiritualism
Let me start off by acknowledging that aesthetically, Gravity is one of the most radical entertainment experiences that popular cinema has seen in recent years. There can be no denying the significant technical feats achieved by the director, Alfonso Cuaron, the genius cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki, and no doubt numerous other crew members unfairly relegated to…
Stanley Kubrick: Remembering the past, present, future, and the eternal return of the family in four films
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Stanley Kubrick may have been correct in assigning Richard Strauss to the apes and Johann Strauss to the spacemen. Standing somewhere in the middle of this evolution, I wonder which creature has it worse, the screeching primate or the cosmic amphibian. Certainly, our robotic dullard of the future could…
Robots in Cinema: Artificial Intelligence and the Moving Image
The recent release of the trailer for the new Robocop remake started me thinking about the many films that deal with notions of artificial intelligence and robotics. From Frankenstein to Transformers, the creation of consciousness (accidental or otherwise) has been a part of the popular imagination for well over a century. While many have merely…
Sunshine: A Valentine’s Day letter to a film that deserves more love
A brief Valentine’s Day letter to a film that has received far less love than it deserves, Danny Boyle’s Sunshine (2007) – published early to keep the day for my long-suffering better half 😉 Dearest Sunshine, I am writing to you on Valentine’s Day to express my total dedication to your radiant power, and to…
Early Superhero Movies: 1920 to 1948
I’m no expert on superhero films and even less on the comic books that spawned them, but the recent release of The Dark Knight Rises on Blu-ray started me thinking about the historical development of the cinematic superhero. As a result, I’ve come across what appear to be some of the earliest incarnations of cinematic…