Science Fiction

City of Ember

  • Title: City of Ember
  • IMDB: link

“In the city of Ember, the sky was always dark.  The city of Ember was old, and everything in it, including the power lines, was in need of repair.”

Hollywood has a thing for kids saving the day.  From Hoot to WarGames, in films it seems the only ones paying attention to upcoming disaster are the next generation.  In this same vein comes City of Ember.

For more than 200 years the city of Ember has substained life.  Now the generator which keeps the underground city lit has begun to fail and it falls to two young tweens (Saorise Ronan, Harry Treadway) to save the day.

Like most films about kids saving the world the film is a bit of a mixed bag.  The story, adapted from the Jeanne DuPrau novel, allows for some imaginative set design teen adventure, but doesn’t offer much more than an amusing ride.

Over the course of the tale we learn that children pick their life-long professions out of a sack at the age of 12, the mayor (Bill Murray) knows more about the increasing power losses than he’s saying, and that most adults (as in most films like this) have absolutely no idea what is going on.

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Flash Gordon #1 (of 6)

  • Title: Flash Gordon #1 (of 6)
  • Comic Vine: link

“My name is Flash Gordon and I think I’m about to die.”

Recent attempts to revive Flash Gordon for the new millennium have been less than impressive (see the now defunct Sci-Fi Channel original series).  Now Flash is returning to the comic pages with a new series from Ardden Entertainment.

Written by Brendan Deneen with art by Paul Green this first issue reinvents the characters while also returning them to their roots.  Here Flash Gordon is a professor and adventurer, Hans Zarkoff is a mad scientist, and Dale Arden is a agent for the CIA.

Flash is approached by Dale and her gorilla-like partner who believe Hans Zarkoff is working on a Weapon of Mass Destruction.  The truth behind the circumstances is far more complex and Flash and Dale end up with Zarkov in his experimental space ship only to find themselves not in Kansas anymore as they travel through a portal to another world.

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The Clone Wars

  • Title: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
  • IMDB: link

“You’ve got spunk… I hate spunk!”
—Lou Grant, The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Taking place between Episode II: Attack of the Clones (read the review) and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (read the review) this new animated film follows Generals Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) and Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) in their continuing battle to put down the resistance of the Separatists and their near-endless supply of droid armies.

When Jabba the Hutt’s (Kevin Michael Richardson) son is taken hostage Anakin, along with his spunky new tweenage padawan Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein), is sent to retrieve the young Huttling from Count Dooku’s Dark Jedi assassin Asaji Ventress (Nika Futterman).  Control of Hutt space in the Outer Rim could be a deciding factor in the war and the Republic can not afford the Jedi to fail.

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I Want to Believe

  • Title: The X-Files: I Want to Believe
  • IMDB: link

“Let’s just say that I want to believe.”

The abduction of one of their own and arrival of a psychic (Billy Connolly) on the scene leads Agent-in-Charge Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet) to ask for the help of a former member of the bereau with experience in the paranormal.

Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), now a brain surgeon, is asked to bring in her former partner from the wilderness.  Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) is living like a hermit cutting clippings of unexplained activity out of newspapers.  Reluctant at first, he agrees under the condition Scully comes with him.

Fans of the show should feel right at home here in terms of tone, mood, and storytelling.  Those unfamiliar with the mythology of the show should still able to follow the events, though you may miss some of the layers of the film, and specific moments added just for fans.

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Dark City

  • Title: Dark City
  • IMDb: link

“That’s what Science Fiction and Fantasy is for, after all; to take one behind the scenes,
to force one to reinvent the paradigm. And Dark City does that in spades.”
—Neil Gaiman

I’m a big fan of The Matrix, but I’m a bigger fan of Dark City. Released more than a year before Neo took the red pill to the delight of audiences everywhere, writer/director Alex Proyas presented a similar tale of a man trapped in a world where nothing is quite what is seems. Although not as widely known (more than six times the number of people have taken the time to rate The Matrix on IMDb), it is a superior film in almost every conceivable way. Released in 1998 we mark the occasion by reviewing the DVD ten years later.

Back in the spring of 1998 I was in the middle of a particularly brutal college semester and looking for a few hours respite.  Checking the paper I discovered the local $1 movie theater was showing a film I had missed, Dark City.  Taking a chance, I went.  I went back the next night as well.  And the third night I dragged my two roommates and went back again.  I long ago lost track of the number of films I have seen over my lifetime, but I can count on one hand the films which have had this reaction on me.

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