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 I remember this exact point coming up in a documentary I watched recently (sorry, but I don't recall which one it was). I mean -- "How do you advertise a movie at your theatre WITHOUT a poster?!"
In any event, the posters eventually showed up and a good time was had by all. As always, thanks for reading ... and May The Force Be With You!  Be still my beating heart! As I've already mentioned this morning, I grew up a DC guy, so I'm totally psyched for the upcoming Wonder Woman flick starring Gal Gadot. Admittedly, I wasn't all that thrilled with her original casting as the Amazonian princess, but she turned in such a killer guest spot in Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice I wrote off all of my reservations. One thing I've consistently cautioned is for readers to never get too excited based on previews (aka coming attractions). They're designed by the best sellers of snake oil, and they've proven that they can convincing make gold from scat when given the opportunity. Wonder Woman's trailers have been very good, suggesting that this origins feature will truly present a beginning based on Diana Prince's long-established history, so let's be thankful for small miracles. In any event, here's the trailer that's currently driving mankind to its knees: As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!
Stardate 05.30.2017.C: For What It's Worth - A Thought Or Two About Guardians Of The Galaxy 25/30/2017
 Hmm.
Well, regular readers at SciFiHistory.Net will know my Number One Confession: I grew up a DC guy. For clarity's sake, I'm not necessarily passive or disinterested in All Things Marvel; it's just that I'm not as familiar and/or "connected" to their various properties. I do think that -- in a general sense -- they make some pretty kick-ass movies, though not all of them have been up to what I suggest is the "smell test." For this reason, I don't regularly review their motion pictures as I think that there are folks far better skilled than I to do so, but from time-to-time I will post some random thoughts on their latest release. In that vein, I did see Guardians of the Galaxy 2 over the Memorial Day weekend, and -- despite how visually exciting all of it was -- I ended up feeling largely "meh" once all was said and done. As much as I love cocky characters, even this franchise's first installment left me a bit puzzled. I think the cast is exceptional, and I think that writer/director James Gunn does some pretty spiffy stuff with all of them. Chris Pratt is certainly a box office star in-the-making, and Dave Bautista's Drax is probably my favorite consistent laugh in both of the flicks. I couldn't say 'why' exactly but Zoe Saldana just doesn't seem all that comfortable in her role, and the talking raccoon and Groot really seem tired one-note inspirations as the adventures wear on. (Again, I'm not trying to pick a fight with any Marvel regulars; I'm just giving my honest reaction.) What worked amazingly well in the sequel, however, was the ongoing sentiments of "family" tied to each and every character. Gunn's script very cleverly found ways to involve all of his players into that theme, and that thread alone probably makes the film worth a single viewing even if comic book films aren't always too your liking. When so much of your feature relies on computer generated graphics, it's nice that these players are ultimately telling you a story centered on humanness in such a convincing way. And Kurt Russell? He's the bomb. I've been a fan of his work all the way back to his days with Walt Disney in the 1970's, and kudos on his casting as I'm at a loss to suggest another actor who might have been able to handle so much misdirected menace from his character Ego and still come off as likeable when the script required it. Granted, I'm not entirely certain Gunn thought all of these elements through (why would a god who could make stuff out of thin air still keep corpses hidden on his world for others to find?), but it's all told with such glee you probably won't even notice a few missteps here and there. So again ... not a review ... but just a few thoughts about Guardians. As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!  It's precisely because little stories like this one that they say "hindsight is 20/20"!
Interesting little side note: I'm reading a book right now that deals peripherally with the founding of the movie industry (circa the 1920's), and one of the interesting observations the author makes is that the film business is one of the only venues wherein the producer puts out an amazing stash of capital to complete a project only to then have it sit "in the can" (as it were) for three, six, or even twelve months (on average) before knowing whether or not the market is going to embrace it and give him a solid return on the investment. Now, I could quibble with the mechanics of that statement, but I'll leave it be for the purposes of bringing it up here: stories don't always connect with audiences the way the storytellers originally intended, and given Science Fiction's track record up 'til the days of the first Star Wars film I suppose I can understand how so many insiders passed on the flick. Of course, knowing what we know now about the true legs of one of filmdom's most beloved franchises it's pretty easy to suspect all of those studio suits would want a do-over, if they could get one, no? As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!  Greetings and Happy Tuesday to all SciFiHistory.Net readers! I'm trying to play a bit of catch-up this morning, what with the three-day Memorial Weekend now behind us, so coming in from our "Friends Of SciFiHistory.Net Department" this morning is Jessica Osborne's review of V.E. Schwab's "A Gathering Of Shadows." For those interested, you can access her thoughts on the piece by following the link right here.
As always, thanks for reading, and live long and prosper!  The Ice Pirates is one of those films that from time to time drops onto my personal radar in that I get asked if I’ve ever seen it and do I think it was the funniest thing ever. The answers to those questions, respectively, are “yes, I have seen it” and “no, I really didn’t find it all that memorable” except for a few points worth mentioning.
First, Pirates gave one of television’s most affable guys – Robert Urich – the chance to appear in a bona find SciFi/Fantasy film, and despite the second-rate plot and third-rate laughs he survives fictionally to fight another day. Urich’s was a welcome face from 1970’s/80’s/90’s television – a charming fellow who could comfortably switch between a somewhat predictable ‘tough guy persona’ and the sensitive romantic type. While his shoulders were certainly big enough to carry a genre release, Pirates’ script (from Stanford Sherman and Stewart Raffill, who also directs) meanders through too much goofiness to salvage a solid leading man performance much less even a good secondary one. Urich ably winks and nods through most of the shtick – as do emerging genre-favorite Ron Perlman, the chunky John Matuszak, and funnyman Michael D. Roberts – and perhaps it’s his machismo that prompts so many fond memories of the film. Second, Pirates’ set decoration is actually fairly good if not consistent for the B-Movie material that occupies much of the plot. (Basically, it’s the future, and water is in short supply, hence the need for “ice pirates” to steal frozen stores from the rich in order to provide fluid to the poor.) John M. Dwyer is credited with set design (with Ron Foreman and David M. Haber as art directors), and Pirates is chocked full of props, gadgets, and gizmos downright lifted from other low budget Science Fiction project of its era. I’ve read that the film was originally slated with a vastly larger budget – one which was slashed when the script somehow morphed from dramatic to comedic – and I suspect all involved behind-the-scenes were all too happy to plunder MGM’s warehouses for anything they could use to bring this particular universe to life affordably. Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that I do like Pirates’ central thread, that of a band of merry rogues being stealthily put into service of the galactic crown precisely because those working outside of the system can seemingly accomplish more than the loyal agents within. It’s that same kind of appeal that lifted the original Star Wars (aka “A New Hope”) several years earlier, so director Raffill certainly had a solid foundation upon which to build a second-tier space saga … but, alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Still, Pirates persists to this day in finding small audiences that sing its jolly praises. After all, where else can you find Urich, Roberts, Perlman, the lovely Mary Crosby, and an up’n’coming Anjelica Huston (looking absolutely fetching in a borderline bondage outfit) together on the silver screen? Granted, they may’ve walked the proverbial plank, but they proved a likeable ensemble that deserved better than they got from this spacey imitator.  Well, OK, maybe it's not entirely accurate to say that Freddy Krueger maintained a connection to Star Wars but Krueger actor Robert Englund certainly did, encouraging his then-roommate Mark Hamill to try out for the film when the role didn't fall his way. That is a pretty nifty connection in and of itself.
As always, thanks for reading ... and May The Force Be With You!  I grew up in a small Illinois town that didn't get Star Wars the first week of its release; I'm not entirely certainly when we did, though I suspect it was about a month after the film had been out. In any event, I do remember receiving and reading the first Marvel issue before seeing the feature up on the silver screen, so I was definitely already interested in the further adventures of Luke Skywalker. Of course, once I did see it, I couldn't stop thinking about it!
As always, thanks for reading ... and May The Force Be With You!  I've read that George Lucas was so concerned about what he had accomplished with the first Star Wars film that he brought in all of his 'director buddies' for a screening to see what advice they could offer; if my memory is correct, I think it was Brian De Palma who thought the film was a total wreck and would ruin what reputation Lucas had established in the industry. I know that few people truly believed in the finished product, but no one definitely predicted what the box office reaction would be. I guess all of us fans should thank our lucky stars that Lucas persisted and ended up delivering one of the greatest feature in all of cinema history.
As always, thanks for reading ... and May The Force Be With You!  So far as this knucklehead is concerned, this project has major, major potential!
In my youth, I grew up being a fanatic about the greater phenomenon of UFOs (aka Unidentified Flying Objects), and I couldn't get enough books to read on the subject. Now, I won't trouble readers here with what I think about flying saucers and/or their potential occupants and/or what it all might mean to us, but I will share that Deadline the other day reported that Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis has turned his eyes toward the skies for a ten-episode, direct-to-series event on the Air Force's often misunderstood Project Blue Book. Essentially, the United States Government needed some agency to investigate the rash of reported UFO sightings, and thus Project Blue Book was initiated. The venerable Dr. J. Allen Hynek spearheaded much of the investigations, and while he was known largely as a debunker of UFOs early on it was his participation with Blue Book that made a believer out of him. Color me excited about such a television event. As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper! |
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