Scifi Methods

Films based on lesser-known graphic novels (ie the ones that aren't Batman, Spiderman and The Avengers) can be a sticky thing to handle. Taking a story from a medium based overwhelmingly on visual style and depicted action, and transplanting it into a medium where it is easy to over-depend on visual style and action brought us creations like Sin City, 300 and The Crow. Not necessarily a bad thing, and the fact that this film is directed by the author of the graphic novel on which it as based gives it a good start, but if you summarise the other information you have about Oblivion before seeing it, it starts to become a lot more worrying...

The 2010s are a popular decade in science fiction, and according to Hollywood the next few years are going to be turbulent. Never mind the nuclear holocaust of 1997, or the exciting bureaucracy of the ‘late 20th century’: it’s the latter half of this decade in which the blackened skies of dystopia shall descend. After all, we have...

Our first film review this year is for a film which I very nearly passed by. I was aware that the 2004 novel “Cloud Atlas” by David Mitchell had been a success amongst scifi readers (and the literary world in general) but was cynical about a film adaptation, believing it would be messy, convoluted and confusing. If I left the review there, it would be pretty accurate, but in retrospect it has made much more of an impact than I initially thought.

Like every westerner in their twenties with no imagination, I want to live in Japan. Not just any Japan – I don’t want to spend 60 hour weeks teaching English as a foreign language whilst coked-up business executives try to grope me (even if it is my fantasy). No, I want to live in dark, corrupt cyberpunk Japan.

South African director Neil Blomkamp may not currently be amongst the most well-known film makers in the world, but the Science Fiction genre is certainly lucky to have him as a contributor. After making a series of stand-out short films (see below), his breakthrough into mainstream success was with low-budget production “District-9” which firmly held it's place amongst the blockbusters of 2009 and delivered a much-needed fresh and engaging approach to scifi filmmaking. His next film "Elysium" starring Matt Damon, is scheduled for release in August 2013

Int. day. A YOUNG INTERN enters a HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE’S OFFICE carrying a TRAY of COCAINE and MINIATURE PROSTITUTES. The WALLS and FURNISHINGS are made of expensive MAHOGANY. The EXECUTIVE PRODUCER is lying underneath his EXPENSIVE LEATHER CHAIR. An unopened bottle of ANTI-PSYCHOTIC MEDICATION lies on the DESK.