AVPR Booooo!

I just got done slogging through Aliens Versus Predator: Requiem and I just realized I was robbed of two hours of my life. I'm never going to get them back. Ever. Damn you Brothers Strause!
I didn't even go into the movie with high expectations. I was expecting it to be a bad movie, but it turned out to be even worse. The characters were paper thin, the action (which was what I was hoping would redeem the move) was slow and boring, and the plot was found crying in shame in a corner somewhere. The movie attempted a climax with a short tussle between the predator and the predalien (really guys?) but simply fails to be remotely interesting.
Sure there was blood and guts, we even got to see a pregnant woman and a kid get taken out, but that's all the movie had going for it. The movie had no pace to it. Things just kind of kept happening and the aliens (both kinds) eventually started killing people. Characters I didn't care about, and these were main characters, got killed off and I just shrugged my shoulders. Bleh. This movie doesn't even deserve this long a rant. So once again, damn you brothers Strause! Stealing my hours like that. Bastards.

Sci-fi: 1
Pop: 1
Action: 1

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The Lawnmower Man

Have you ever wondered what it takes to become a god? I hear all you need is some good drugs and some crazy gaming. That's what The Lawnmower Man was pitching anyway. Starring Pierce Brosnan (James Bond, Remington Steele) and Jeff Fahey (I guess he's been in Lost?) this early 90's flick takes the concept of Virtual Reality (VR) and runs with it. Jeff plays an idiot gardener who turns genius under Brosnan's scientific nudging. The effects aren't great and neither is the mood created by the movie, but I can't help thinking it would make Kurzweil cringe a little to know that a cheesy movie from 92 almost parallels his ideas of the Singularity. The Singularity is the idea that technology will eventually start to progress so quickly that we will no longer be able to control it, and it will begin to advance independently. I've read that Kurzweil thinks we'll be melded to machines and become immortal when this happens. Ahhh... How ideas get recycled.
The Lawnmower Man will never be a popular classic but it definitely deserves a place on the shelf of sci-fi classics. It takes a simple technological idea and runs with it and holds together to the finish.

Sci-fi: 4
Pop: 2
Action: 1

Jump to Lulu.com to read my book, @Genesis.

Aeon Flux

It's always a freakin' virus, isn't it? Zombie movies: Virus. Post-Apocalyptic movies: Nuke or Virus. Greatest threat to humankind? Virus. No, it's not aliens, or even ourselves that serves as the easiest of plot devices, it's the virus. Poor bastards get used and abused for every damn story, just like in Aeon Flux that begins with mankind being almost wiped out over 400 years ago by some kind of virus.

Charlize Theron as an assassin (who looks good in that tight black outfit, by the way) who wants to set the dystopian Bregnan society straight by killing off their evil leader. She's almost kills her target, thinks twice, and later gets to know him biblically. Long story short, bad guy ends up being good guy and they're all clones that, for some inexplicable reason, retain memories of their old lives. All in all it wasn't a blockbuster but the cinematography was good (lots of cool, conceptual graphics and use of shapes and colors) and the concept was interesting enough. It's an interesting, if unrealistic play on the ideas of immortality.

Sci-fi: 2.5
Pop: 3
Action: 3.5

Jump to Lulu.com to read my book, @Genesis.

Let it begin!

As with all things fun and exciting, one must carefully pick a staring point. Since pubcorpron is all about fiction and movies I had to find a good movie to kick things off, hence Battlestar Galactica. For those who don't know (for shame if you don't!) Battlestar Galactica inspired a TV series, one in the 80's and one still running. It also inspired a video game, but we won't go into that.
Anywho, the movie was fun and had a great concept behind it. Who doesn't like a story about the human race's struggle for survival against shiny, metallic aliens? The action sequences were a little weak, and I could have done without Muffit (stupid little robotic dog kept me thinking about Jar-Jar Binks the whole time), but other than that Battlestar Galactica was a good time. Hail the human race!

Sci-fi: 3 (space-opera)
Pop: 3
Action: 2.5

Jump to Lulu.com to read my book, @Genesis.