Space Oddities

1972 saw the release of a beautiful yet little-seen science fiction film called "Silent Running". In 2022, celebrating 50 years, it is one of the most influential genre films ever made. Why is it so influential? I offer some possible answers on my piece over at NeoText.
https://neotextreview.com/culture/quiet-influences-the-vast-reach-of-douglas-trumbulls-silent-running/

So, I have just finished watching the 1979 Quatermass serial, which means that I have watched every single Quatermass TV production (I skipped the films except for the movie version of Quatermass and the Pit). I understand why critics and fans weren't crazy about the 1979 serial - the final two episodes drag and sometimes go nowhere - but I liked it. It had some powerful, scary moments, and while critics complained that Quatermass is now weak and helpless - well, that was the whole point! He's a man out of his time.
And, of course, the serial is another example of the whole Quatermass franchise is probably the most influential science fiction TV production ever made, providing inspiration for Babylon 5, The X-Files and Dr. Who, among others.
I ordered the script for the original 1953 serial "The Quatermass Experiment" - only the two episodes of the original serial are available for viewing, the 2005 version didn't impress me, and I have no interest in the 1955 film). After reading it, my Quatermass experience will be truly complete.

I think it's been over 20 years since I last saw the Babylon 5 pilot film "The Gathering", and recently I found the time to dig in my DVD collection and give it another go. As it happens, the disc is from a German edition which contains the original 1993 version of the pilot, rather than the 1998 remastered version, and it's a surprisingly neat piece of history. Not perfect - the script tends to drag a bit - but an interesting viewing experience especially from historical perspective. In particular:

* The show's digital effects were the subject of much ridicule even at the time the show was on air, but some of the pilot's CGI hold up surprisingly well, especially the opening shots and the climatic scenes , with the arrival of the Vorlon fleet. The rest does, unfortunately, look quite blocky and dated - but it must be remembered that CGI was hardly standard when the pilot aired and armed with what was back then less-than-advanced equipment (Amiga computers), the special effects team did an impressive job, paving the way for many future productions.
* The Star Wars influence on the pilot is HUGE. All the bazzar/casino scenes are strongly reminicent of the alien cantina in Episode IV, which in itself owed a huge debt (as did the whole Star Wars franchise) to the French comics "Valerian and Laureline". I heard many speculations about "Valerian" influencing "Babylon 5" as well, but I never actually saw it until I re-watched the pilot. If "Valerian" really was an influence, I guess it was the late comic book artist Peter Ledger (who drew the original sketches for Babylon 5) who brought it over.
* "Alien" and "Aliens" were another important influence - one revolution that "The Gathering" really brought up was was the dimly lit corridors of the station, so different from the bright neon lights of the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (and the later "Deep Space Nine") are a clear and cool legacy from Ridley Scott and James Cameron. To the best of my recollection, this didn't last, and the show went for a more colorful approach in its standard run. Perhaps this darkness just made things hard to watch (certainly on early 90s TV sets).
* Another potential revolution that went nowhere: the orignal score by former "Police" member Steward Copeland offers an extremely cool mix of pop and rock. During the show's run (and in the 1998 re-edit) this approach was abandoned in favor of the more traditional symphonic "Space Opera" score by Christopher Franke. Maybe Copeland was just too expansive for the show's budget?
* Speaking of budget, one element in the pilot that obviously suffered from poor funding is the wardrobe department. You just can't get away with people wearing early-90s jackets in a futuristic space station.
* Many changes took place between the time the pilot aired and the time the show went on air, notably in the cast - and although the ditching of Johnny Sekka had to do with health problems and that of Tamlyn Tomita had to do with contract issues, both actors feel like don't really "belong" with the rest of the cast or their surroundings. A pity for Tomita's character Takashima, though - because her character obivously had its own interesting arc to follow (the character of Ivanova, who replaced her, was a more complex person, but one with a simpler narrative).
* Jerry Doyle and Peter Jurasik, on the other hand, not only feel right in their element but also share a great chemistry, given the pilot script's best lines of dialogue. "The Gathering" also provides important historical context (easy to miss in first viewing) about what drives Londo's character and the Centauri race in general.

New review by me at All the Anime - Joe Sutliff Sanders' new book on Batman: The Animated Series is a much-needed addition to the study of animation and comics, even if it isn't everything fans and scholars could hope for.
https://blog.alltheanime.com/books-batman-the-animated-series/

New! My review of Rutu Modan's brilliant graphic novel "Tunnels" is now up at Tablet Magazine.

The Subterranean Brilliance of Rutu Modan’s ‘Tunnels’ Israel’s leading graphic novelist excavates the conflict-ridden landscape of her country, with a hat tip to Indiana Jones

I am glad to report that one of the major projects I have been working on for the past year has finally gone live - a bibliography of sources about Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki at the Oxford Bibliographies database. All major academic institutes should have full access.

Hayao Miyazaki "Hayao Miyazaki" published on by null.

Undersea Super Train: Marine Express - seeing the supergroup of Osamu Tezuka's Star System in action is always fun and there are some cool animated segments and a catchy 70s theme song. Alas, Tezuka couldn't help but surrendering to his worst storytelling instincts, throwing everything into the mix and hoping something would stick, resulting in a story that wasn't very logical to begin with, and ended up unbelievably stupid. Pity, especially since influence on subsequent productions is strongly felt all throughout the film.

And now, my detailed review of "Weathering With You" and why I wasn't as enthusiastic as other critics.
http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/reviews/weathering-with-you/

My review of the Israeli spy thriller "Tehran" is now up in Tablet Magazine.
https://tinyurl.com/yyj92rnv

Going over old emails I found this - a piece that I submitted for the consideration of some publication following the debut of Ready Player One (the movie). It wasn't accepted for publication, but I still like it.

Sky Captain and the World of Ready Player One
***
Steven Spielberg’s latest film Ready Player One, an adaptation of Ernest Cline’s love letter for the geek culture novel, gave me many flashbacks even before I got to see it. These flashbacks had nothing to do with the film’s endless parade of references to the blockbuster cinema of the past 40 years; in fact, they had very little to do with the film itself and more with the critical reaction. Critical consensus around Ready Player One, at the time of this writing, seems to be that it is directed with great skill and that the director clearly had lots of fun doing his job this time around, but also that the abovementioned endless references to past blockbusters feel too blatant and self-indulgent.
Now, why does it all sound so familiar? Oh yes, it was 14 years ago, when Kerry Conran’s Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow came out. Like Ready Player One, Conran’s film was a super-slick visual adventure which took its audience on a long journey of references – this time to the ancestors of the blockbuster cinema that Spielberg’s film salutes, notably the film serials and cliffhangers of the 1930s and 1940s, but also timeless classics like Metropolis (1927) and The Wizard of Oz (1939). And as in the case of Spielberg’s later film, critics have praised (although somewhat reluctantly) Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow for its directorial confidence and vision, but also dismissed the film’s homages to past cinematic works as empty exercises in artistic indulgence.
Why do critics seem to have an allergic reaction for this kind of cinematic nostalgia? Any form of art that clings to the past, and does so without a hint of cynicism, is bound to arouse suspicion among critics who tend to view it as devoid of innovativeness and sophistication. Yet, even back in 2004, one can’t help but wonder just what it was that made critics so bitter. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow can hardly be blamed for introducing nostalgia to the modern blockbuster era, and Ready Player One is certainly not guilty of it either. The modern blockbuster era has pretty much built itself on the foundations of nostalgia, from the stylistic arsenal of George Lucas’ Star Wars (1977) and Spielberg’s own Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) to the very plot of Back to the Future (1985) – a film which, not incidentally, gets a major reference in Ready Player One.
The difference, perhaps, is that in both Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Ready Player One, nostalgia becomes the end rather than the means. These films proudly announce their love for past genre works rather than conceal it: instead of carefully weaving together pieces from individual past films, they emphasize the individuality of each piece, and do so in the loudest manner possible. Conran’s and Spielberg’s films even do it using a very similar narrative – the quest for the heirloom of a missing or dead scientific genius, who created an entire world composed of references to the films of the past. The two films also share thematic similarities: Ready Player One takes place within a virtual world while Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow celebrated virtual filmmaking – one of the most-hyped elements in the film’s promotion was its then-innovative use of digital sets, with the actors never interacting with a physical prop or landscape.
Does the unapologetic love to the geek culture of the past and present really make both films as shallow as claimed by their critics? An examination of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow reveals that, underneath the film’s many references to serials and comic books, there is something of a cautionary tale about geek culture getting out of control. The film’s antagonist, after all, is perhaps the biggest geek there is – one who makes fantasies of giant robots, unmanned aircraft and genetically-engineered beasts come true, only in the most monstrous manner imaginable. In a similar, and far less metaphorical manner, Ready Player One warns against the stage in which geek culture moves out of the fandom territory and becomes the domain of greedy businessmen. Yes, critics can raise a skeptic eyebrow at this message coming from the director who made millions directing blockbusters throughout most of his career – but can anyone still seriously argue that Spielberg’s blockbuster films are all about business and nothing else? Ready Player One can be seen as a statement by him about his own struggle to keep the geek culture innocent, even when working for big corporations.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was a commercial failure upon its initial theatrical release; Ready Player One appears to fare better at the box-office at the time of this writing. Yet beyond its technical innovation of virtual sets (which was adopted almost immediately by subsequent productions), the influence of Conran’s film found its way to several key genre films – with most of them, interestingly enough, referring to it with a dark twist. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the most obvious example: The Avengers (2012) borrowed one of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow’s major visual props – the flying carrier (a reverse reference, as Conran’s film also alluded to the original Nick Fury comics, but compare Angelina Jolie’s role in the film as the no-nonsense carrier commander to Cobie Smulders’ role in Whedon’s film – the similarities are striking). The Russo brothers’ Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) went further in adopting Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow’s theme of evil as a machine that can’t be stopped – now spiced with a healthy dose of political paranoia. Almost a decade before the MCU went into production, Whedon has borrowed the same theme for his own film Serenity (2005), along with other elements from Conran’s film as the direction and setting of the climactic battle with the greater evil’s henchman and the character of the “good geek” who supports the protagonist with dire consequences. A dark take on the same character can also be found in James Cameron’s Avatar (2009), even played Giovanni Ribisi who played the role in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
With the release of Ready Player One, Conran’s film deserves to be re-examined. Much like Spielberg’s recent film, it demonstrated how great love for the geek culture does not necessarily mean ignoring the darker sides of this culture. I’m guessing that future analysis of Spielberg’s film will reveal a similar theme.

Weathering With You - the visuals are, as expected, stunning, and the film, as expected, carries a considerable emotional punch, but compared to the director's previous film, "Your Name", the narrative here has some problems doing the heavy lifting. The film tries very hard to generate a sense of urgency, and is only partly successful. The film's attempts to build an appropriate atmosphere are also not 100% successful (mostly due to the presence of way to many pop songs in the soundtrack) and the moral subtext is, how shall we say, weird.
Good film, but not the masterpiece it could have been, or the masterpiece that "Your Name" was. A detailed review may follow.