This was previously published in Watch The Skies fanzine – January 2021
The lost Star Wars film.
A very Star Wars look, right?
Diving into 2021 does not mean we’re charging forward and looking at something new. In fact, this is a retro view that I had somehow missed along the way. Like 40 years missed along the way. I admit I’m not a super fan when it comes to all things Star Wars. Yes, I saw the original films when they came out. Yes, I had a ton of the toys. No, I’m not a member of the Jedi church. I love them and they hold a place within me even if I don’t keep up with every single release. It’s a film (and TV show and book and toy…) franchise like no other and it turns out that something really interesting was tacked onto it. Fantasy.
That’s right, fantasy. George Lucas commissioned a fantasy film. He wanted this fantasy film to be shown before or in association with Empire Strikes Back. You read that right. Empire Strikes Back – tied directly to a swords and horses fantasy film. It was made, it was shown, then it was lost.
Recently, during the preparation for a discussion about the influence of films on fantasy gaming I was digging for clips and information about various movies I’ve watched or heard about over the years. There are a lot of excellent films out there is you love fantasy. Then I stumbled onto a thread about fantasy and Empire. That’s how I came to know about Black Angel.
The age of Black Angel is part of why I wanted to put it here, along with the story of how it was made, lost and subsequently recovered. It is a very moody piece. The scenery is amazing. The background music is haunting. There is a look and feel to this film that is undeniable. In the notes about the film it was revealed that parts of the crew for the movie Excalibur watched this and took copious notes. The look and feel of Excalibur and Black Angel are quite similar. Some of the techniques used in Black Angel were picked up and used in Empire as well.
As a fan of the history of science fiction and fantasy it’s a neat treasure that’s available for free. The mood, the look, the sound all make Black Angel worth the short run time.
I have written in the past questioning the “we won” thought process of geekdom taking over the world. I am happy that there are so many geeky things in the world now. I love that so many things have cropped up and made their way to the public eye. Seeing so many things creates this feedback loop wherein I start to wonder if I’m really seeing fandom or if what I’m seeing is a naked cashing in on something that has reached the level of ‘fad’ and will soon fade into the background again. I will say now that I work very hard at NOT being that fan. You now, the one that claims if you didn’t suffer enough or if you aren’t a fan of precisely the right thing or you haven’t been into it long enough that you’re not truly a fan. That’s a load of crap. If you took up your geeky hobby or fandom last week you’re still a fan. You don’t have to be a fan of the same things I am, nor do you have to enjoy them the same way I do.
As with anything that pushes to the forefront of popular culture, levels of quality come into question as well. Sure, I saw a full set of Dungeons & Dragons dice the other day at the dollar store. Does that make them good dice? Does that make them bad dice? I didn’t buy them ~ I have no idea what the quality is. What it does mean is that if there’s a kid out there that wants some new gaming dice and he can scrounge up a buck, he can buy some. I’m happy for that. The dice may or may not meet my quality standard, but my standard has evolved over time. I’m really digging for quality now.
I am looking for high quality when it comes to the game I hold dear and how it is represented. A while back I posted wrote a couple of pieces about sword and sorcery films. I listed the top ten, and then added to (or amended) that list when I went hunting for newer material. One film conspicuously absent from my list was the Dungeons & Dragons movie.
Yes, blue lipstick guy.
Insert heavy sigh here.
For anyone that doesn’t know about it, New Line Cinema put out a Dungeons & Dragons film back in December of 2000. I was really excited to see it. I wanted it… I was willing it to be amazing. My Jedi mind trick failed or my will was not strong enough or maybe the time just wasn’t right. I loath that movie. It’s terrible AND didn’t do much more than pile ridicule onto fans at the time. Bear in mind this was a full eight years before the MCU’s first film came out (Iron Man – 2008) and still a year before the first of the LOTR series hit theaters (Fellowship of the Ring – December 2001). This movie did every single thing I feared about putting D&D forward into the public view. Big names were in this film. Jeremy Irons won an Oscar. Seriously. I’m not a fan of Mr. Irons, but they got an Oscar winner in there. I was also not a fan of casting one of the Wayans brothers in the movie. It has nothing to do with diversity – I think there should be more of it. It has everything to do with putting a stand up comic in as comic relief and not writing *any* clever lines to help him. He was hands down the worst character in the film – and yes I’m counting blue lipstick guy. The movie was just not good. Seriously, on a $45M budget it made back less than $16M domestically. That’s a bomb. I think it speaks to the strength of the brand that they were able to get funding for another two films (and YES, the third one did drop direct to DVD). It didn’t help matters that the following year’s release of Fellowship showed what a fantasy movie could look like. LOATHE IT.
What brought all this bile up you might be thinking.
I am filled with trepidation. A big name utterly failed to help the last one. There’s a lot of interest in D&D since the Stranger Things series came out… but… it could just go so very, horribly wrong. I find myself right back where I was twenty years ago. I so very, very much want this movie to be amazing. I want it to be “Fellowship” good. I have no faith in Hollyweird. The crusty old people pulling the purse strings will mess this up somehow. I say this based on the film adaptation of Ready Player One specifically, but not exclusively. There was an entire segment of that movie that could have (and should have) revolved around the D&D part that was written into the book. It’s not like D&D is unpopular right now. Rather than use that an entirely new section was written in as a homage to some other director and a film adaptation from 40 years ago (The Shining). My only glimmer of hope is that Joe Manganiello has also been said to be attached as one of the story creators. Joe has been very public about his love of the game and the fact that he continues to play.
A lot of people claim they love, respect, adore, play Dungeons & Dragons but I don’t see it. They’re going to screw this up… again. I don’t want them to, but I fear they will. I so very, very much want this to be amazing. I’ll have to revisit this post after I see the movie. It’s scheduled to release in the US in May of 2022.
I’m almost certain we’ll be back in movie theaters by then.
This was previously published in Watch The Skies fanzine – November 2020
As we wrap up our final fanzine of 2020 I wanted to move away from some of the things I have been recommending lately that definitely skew younger and generally more positive. Saying you ‘should’ be watching this one will be considered a stretch by more than a few folks.
The Titan is a cerebral science fiction film that appeared under the radar back in 2018. Starring Sam Worthington, Taylor Schilling and Tom Wilkinson. The film, set in the relatively near future of 2048, is the story of scientific research to save the human race by expanding into space. Normally when you see this theme it involves either finding a Goldilocks planet (and getting there) or going to a distant planet and changing it to meet our physical needs. This film does neither of those things, but rather comes at the problem of adaptability by attempting to change the biological function of the people going to the planet.
The characters in the film are all forced to look at and deal with what physical adaptation means, how that effects many of the aspects of life and how to change their lives here before departing the planet. There are a number of times where one could draw comparisons to somebody like Frankenstein attempting to manipulate the core of what makes us live. There are also a number of questions about what actually makes us human. Do humans have to breath oxygen? Are you still human if you can’t speak? If you can’t see the way others do? If you can’t remember the people you love?
The movie is not action based. The characters are diverse. The special effects and body prosthetics toward the end of the film are very well done. Yes, there are a number of plot holes and unanswered questions when we get to the end of the film. I can’t say that this was one of the best films I’ve seen, but it certainly meets the criteria of giving a lot of things to talk about. If you have access to Netflix, you should be watching The Titan.
It’s been almost a decade since I moved off strictly paper and onto an e-reader platform. I’ve been writing about it for just as long – back when the Pretend Blog was a Live Journal page and not my own site (check it out if you’re into old news). I’ve long been considering what I want to have as part of a physical collection of things in my home and what I don’t have a desire to physically handle. There are some things that are inherently tactile, and those that are not. There are some that you’ll want to have a copy of, just to be sure you’ve always got access to that copy of it.
Books, and many other forms of entertainment media fall into this category. I’m going to tie books and movies and television together on this one as electronic media actually makes the same argument for a physical copy of something in each case. The most recent thing that has come up for debate is animation or films. Here in the digital age we (nominally) have access to all the media that has gone before. Remember a show from your childhood? Look it up and check it out. Want to watch an entire ‘season’ of a show without waiting? Binge it on Netflix. Have a tradition of watching something every year? Just flip on the TV and go! Right?
Well ~ that’s what’s gotten everyone’s attention right now. “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” will NOT be shown on network TV this year for the first time since 1966. That’s right – 54 years in a row and not this year. Television has been part of the American household for so many decades at this point that there are generations of people that have watched the same shows as part of their favorite holiday season. It is something they never miss.
They never miss until some massive corporation decides they want you to pay for it again and again rather than allowing the ‘payment’ to be in the form of watching advertising. Apple has decided they’re going to miss it this year. Sure, there’s some Byzantine way to give up some of your personal information and sign up for a “free” version of a service and watch the show on your computer – IF you can get the app to load right, if your internet is strong enough for streaming like that, if you have a device that allows more than one person at a time to watch comfortably, if you really feel like going through all that…
Not so much…
There’s this assumption that everyone is on board with paying for all these services and bending technology to their will in order to enjoy the chosen form of media. Then there’s the assumption that people will only want to see that when the company that has purchased the rights says it’s acceptable to see it. Then you will be able to see it, but only in the way or format that the company that purchased the rights deems acceptable. There are now content warnings in front of old movies. Smoking is listed under movie ratings now in case you don’t want your child to see that. They control and edit what version of the media you get to see.
It’s the way things are moving. I’m not entirely opposed to the way things are moving. I think there are a few things that border on the ludicrous, but the truly ridiculous generally resolves itself over time. What worries me is that people consider this loss of continuity in media to be the loss of their personal tradition. Wrapping up your tradition (happiness?) in something that belongs to others is dangerous.
It was Halloween season and we were down for good old scary movies. I wanted to show my daughter a great older movie the other day and was disappointed to discover that I didn’t actually own a copy. Fine, we’ll pull it up on a streaming service and watch it there. Only it’s now behind a pay wall. I can subscribe for an additional $5 per month OR I can buy a DVD copy off Amazon and have it shipped to me for about the same cost. There are times when owning a personal copy of something really matters. I don’t want to wait until some corporation decides it’s time to watch a movie. I want to allow our family traditions to grow and develop and continue without the influence of whatever is going on in the general media.
So I’ll be ordering a copy of ‘great pumpkin’ on DVD to be sure we can watch it when we want. I’ll get a copy of the movie that’s good enough to stick in my memory for 15+ years. I’ll be sure that when I want to watch something, read something, listen to something that I’ve got a copy here. Most of these things will still be digital, but they’ll be here when the time is right.
This was previously published in Watch The Skies fanzine – October 2020
It’s October and ‘spooky’ season is here. This year is looking like it’s going to play out differently than years past. I suspect there will be a greater number of folks than normal staying in and looking for some entertainment that matches the spirit of the season.
I happily recommend the horror / comedy Vampires vs. the Bronx. This movie is the story of three friends living in a neighborhood that is rapidly changing. They’re faced with routine challenges of daily life combined with the encroachment of a corporation that is trying to buy out all the business and people they know. The heroes are attempting to save the local shop they’ve grown up in from being pushed out. While canvasing for an upcoming party they discover the truth – vampires are behind the big business and need to be stopped!
The story is a fun romp. The villains are clearly the villains, the hero is clearly the hero. The issues kids deal with are part of the story as well. It’s nice to see a horror story that doesn’t immediately discount the use of cell phones and their place in our current society. It is reminiscent of Stranger Things, but on a lighter, shorter story arc. There is danger not just from the vampires, but also from day to day life. If you’ve got a tween or an early teen this is definitely a film that should be checked out for the Halloween season.
A magical door opens. The space on the other side is clearly someplace… else. Could be in a summoning circle, could be in an ancient basement or it could be at the back of an old closet behind the coats. I’m not always a fan of portal fantasy, but they can be very enjoyable.
I saw the movie title “Monster Hunter” pop up the other day and I was interested. I have been a fan of the Monster Hunter International book series by Larry Corriea. There are guns and tough guys (and tough women) that stomp out and blow up the bad guys. They’re a fun romp.
The movie I saw the trailer for was not for that. It’s a video game adaptation. Video game adaptations are usually pretty weak, but they’ve been striving to get better in recent years. The film makers are likely banking on the draw of Mila for this one. She’s in charge of a military unit that gets drawn into a mystery portal and end up going toe to toe with all the video game monsters. I will likely find this one when it comes to some streaming service.
The next one I saw… I know a number of Nick Cage fans, but this movie looks like it’s begging for a mystery science theater type set up. Really. I can’t see how this will be anything other than a Saturday afternoon kung-fu flick. Having said that, on some distant Saturday afternoon I suspect I’ll grab this off some streaming service, grab some popcorn and prepare myself to be stunned…
This last one can only loosely be called a portal fantasy. Crossing over from life to death is certainly going someplace “else” as stated above but is generally not the same as the two movies listed above. It IS a Pixar movie, so I’ll be watching this one when it comes out as well. Definitely worth checking out the new trailer for this one too.
This article was originally published in Watch The Skies fanzine – September 2020
I gave sincere consideration to putting the Netflix movie Project Power in here this month. It seemed like pandering to me. Diversity is extremely important. Representation in science fiction, fantasy and comic book based stories matters. Project Power is a great science fiction action movie – go watch it – but it’s not what I’m going to emphasize today. Today we talk about the Spanish movie Unknown Origins.
Unknown Origins is the story of a detective who must find a serial killer. The serial killer is recreating comic book origin stories as his murder scenes. The detective’s best hope in cracking the case comes from the nerdy comic book loving son of a fellow officer. It’s part buddy cop film and part love letter to comics and cosplay. As the story unfolds we get to dig deeper in to the lives and relationships that drive each of the people involved in this case while trying to solve the mystery.
This movie has a lot of very fun moments in it. I’m not going to give any specific examples as I don’t want to give any of the best lines away – and there are a couple of very good lines in there. It’s not a long movie, clocking in just around an hour and a half, but it packs a lot of stuff into a very short time. The creators have a few bits that land in the area of stereotype, but then they knock the edges off of them and give a few touching moments in the film. It definitely has a viewpoint that could be called ‘defensive’ as far as comics and cosplay goes.
The mystery itself is very, very well written. I thought I had it all figured out and was completely wrong. I had used some of the clues laid out in the movie, but I didn’t pick the right ones. I asked my wife to tell me her theory as soon as she thought she had it figured out. She used a different set of clues that were laid out in the background and came up with an incorrect answer as well. I have seen at least one other review out there that said they’d figured out the mystery right away, essentially as soon as they saw that one character. Perhaps I need to watch more mysteries, but to me it was refreshing to have a mystery that kept us guessing right up to the big reveal.
I recommend watching this movie in the original Spanish with subtitles. I watched the trailer with English dub and it just lost something in the translation. I also recommend hanging around until the very end. There’s a post credits scene, just as there is with any good comic book film!
No, I’m not going to the beach. No, I’m not going to the desert either. I really don’t like that kind of heat and I definitely don’t like that much sand. I’ve been to the desert before. I don’t like it. “It’s a dry heat…” is the common refrain. Yes, so is my oven. I don’t want to climb in there either.
This is about the latest film adaptation of Dune for the big screen.
I know that many folks won’t remember so I’m going to start off with pair of links. Around five years ago I found this film that was all about the version of Dune that never got made. I wrote up a bit about it, but have since reconsidered certain aspects of my stance on that film. It is worth knowing the story of the first attempt to get this movie made because a lot of other films rose from the ashes of that attempt. I posted it here.
Second, I wrote about how loaded 1984 was in terms of movies. I was fourteen that year and it was absolutely the sweet spot for movies for me. There were easily a dozen movies that have had a lasting cultural impact. We’ve got access to a huge number of these films still and a number of the franchises are still going. I wrote it up here, and on that list was a little film called Dune. And they’re making it again.
So, here we are in 2020 (the year of suck) and there’s another version of the movie being made. I get it, Dune is a huge, sweeping story with lots of space (see what I did there, space… ok, I’ll stop) for story telling and interpretation. There is at least one, perhaps two generations of people that have not seen the 1984 adaptation and that’s a lot of money to leave out there. Computer graphics have rocketed forward (… I… I clearly can’t help myself) and give a huge number of options that were certainly not available when the earlier film was made. There are reasons why somebody would want to make another version of Dune.
This relates to another conversation that I’ve had off and on with other fans as well. When you come to something, either film or book, in your life’s journey really matters. I’m not going to attempt to argue for never recreating a film nor will I argue against mining the same thing over again. There are a handful of instances where the version of something I really like is actually a remake of something much older that I didn’t know existed. I don’t like the original as much as the remake version that was the first one I saw, “my” version. It happens.
I wish they’d spend the money on something new. Yes, I know there are all those fans that haven’t seen the old one in a theater. I’m not sure banking on those fans to go to the theater is such safe money these days. It seems like those days of red carpet premieres might be gone for good. Who knows?
I showed the trailer for the new movie to my daughter and one of her friends. I wanted the opinion of young fans. My daughter was aware of the older version (though she told me that she definitely didn’t ‘hang around’ while I was watching it) and her friend had never seen nor heard of the story at all. My wife watched along with us, then I asked for opinions.
“Well, they’ve got money. They’ve got some very famous actors in there.”
“It’s so dark. Why can’t we see any of what’s going on. It needs to be brighter.”
and lastly, from my wife, “I’ll have to see what they do with it. I like the old one, but it wasn’t nearly what the book was. I should pick that one up again and see what in my memory is the book and what has crept in there from the movie”.
I explained to the kids that they’d had money for the old one too. They seemed impressed that that “old guy” from that super old band The Police had been in the movie too. They didn’t really recognize any of the other folks, but they got the idea. Then I ran the video that I’m going to link below. The reactions amounted to, “OK, we see what you’re saying”.
My biggest issue with a remake is just that – it’s going back and using the same recipe. It’s going to have to work extra hard to be fresh and worthy. Things like how horribly dark all the movies are these days (a fad I hope) aren’t substantial changes and are decidedly not good. It’s not just my ‘old eyes’ either. One of the kids asked why she couldn’t see anything on the screen. that kind of dark just doesn’t help the aesthetic at all. It’s a desert planet – the sunlight might make it, I don’t know, super bright? Just a thought.
I was happy to find that somebody had made a video cut using bits of the old movie version and putting them up side by side with the new version. This film person has a host of side by side cuts like that posted to his channel. I think looking at the side by side will show in terms far better than I am able to string together by way of text what bothers me about remakes. Not only have I seen it, but there are in fact parts of the “update” that are not necessarily better. Check it out for yourself and see what I mean:
What do you think? See the new one? Stick with the old one? Watch them both and compare them at length?
10a is in reference to my top ten list of sword and sorcery movies that I posted back in (checks notes… wow, that long ago?) June. I listed sword and sorcery movies that are my favorites. I was, and am, happy with this list.
As things go on the internet, more than one person declared that I was somehow “wrong”. I’m still not sure how I can be wrong about what *my* favorites are, but there you have that. It was also pointed out that a significant number of my choices were from the 80s. By significant they meant 80%. The other two on the list were even older (50s and 60s).
Have there been NO sword and sorcery films since the 80s that are worthy?
It’s a complicated question. Being that the list is MY favorites, uh, no. Simple answer. The simple answer is not always the best answer though. It’s been something that’s rattled around in all that empty space at the back of my noggin since the question was asked. I’ve started to look for, look at, and consider other fantasy movies and have found two others that I rather enjoy. They don’t crack the top ten but I’ve found worthy sword and sorcery is out there.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Seventh Son (2014) is the story of the seventh son of a seventh son who is recruited in the battle against the queen of all evil witches and her minions. Julianne Moore plays the queen of witches, Mother Malkin. Jeff Bridges plays the professional monster hunter Master Gregory. There are a couple of small plot twists in here that I won’t give away. It’s a challenge to say more about the plot after that… it’s a little thin. It is however filled with shape shifting monsters, sword and staff fights and magical spells. The computer generated effects don’t generally get in the way of the movie. All in all, fun to watch (and up on Netflix at the time of this writing).
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) is the story of a rogue boy taken from the streets and brought into the life of a prince by the man who becomes his father (the king). This prince must then unravel the mystery of who is behind the threat to his adopted father’s kingdom and stop the villain before he unwittingly destroys the world. There’s not a ton of magic in this movie, but the magic is central to the plot. Jake Gyllenhall plays the parkour prince really well and having Ben Kingsley as part of the cast is always a giant plus in my book. It is a movie inspired by a video game (and at one time held the world record for most expensive film in that category) but don’t let that be a knock against it. It was a well done movie that is not overwhelmingly stuck in the psuedo-European model of swords and sorcery (and available on Disney+ at the time of this post).
I’m going to continue to hunt for good sword and sorcery films. I do love that genre so. Are there any you think are worthy that I’ve completely neglected?
