Fire Broadside!

During the past couple of months I've watched a few movies of the sci-fi variety and I thought it'd be worth typing up some thoughts on them.

Tragically I ended up going alone to Pacific Rim. Sure I might have been a bit impatient, but still! I think you
know what the movie is about pretty much; giant mecha fighting giant monsters. This could so easily have become too silly for its own good or it could have taken itself too seriously, again ending up making the movie silly (the Transformers movies manage to do both at the same time!). Instead Guillermo del Toro finds the perfect balance and a movie about mecha fighting monsters becomes as fun and as awesome as it should be! It's hard putting my finger on exactly what it is that makes it work so well, but I certainly enjoyed myself and look forward to the sequal.

Something I really liked was that you had about five minutes of exposition at the start of the movie and then we got straight into kaiju fights! No gradual build-up, no origin story, just pure mecha fun from the get go! Brilliant! I really don't understand why the film didn't do better in the states. It didn't do badly at all, but I thought it could easily have been the big summer blockbuster. Did the average American movie goer miss the flag waving and patriotic undertones of movies like Transformers and Independance Day? Was the international cast and the main battlefield (Hong Kong, not NY or LA) off-putting? Or am I being a bit too prejudiced? ;)

Next up was Elysium, which I did manage to see with a couple of friends. After Neil Blomkamps first movie, District 9, was such a cool piece of cinema I had quite high expectations. I'd heard that the reviews were lukewarm but I went into the movie theater undeterred! It's about the poor, filthy masses down on Earth in contrast with the super rich and beautiful who have taken refuge to a space habitat (basically a Stanford Torus) called Elysium. Although the gritty style of District 9 is still very much intact you quickly realize that this is a different kind of movie. If District 9 was Fargo, Elysium is (the original) Total Recall . If District 9 was The Wire, Elysium is The A-Team. And I really do mean this in the best way possible! I think one reason for the lukewarm reviews is that this fun 80s style action movie can be hard to see behind all the grit and realism that Blomkamp loves so much. I was a bit confused as well at first, but when Sharlto Copley's evil sleeper agent character just became more and more over the top and insane it all clicked; "he's having so much fun doing this!". Despite the grit and the realistic design you really can't take this movie all that seriously - it's an action romp with superb sci-fi design and execution! Think about the plot a few seconds too long and you'll realize it's got holes like a sieve. But that's not the point! Just lean back and enjoy it.

With a lesser director Elysium would have been some kind of direct to video release, but Blomkamps amazing eye for detail raises it to a different level. The movie is full of all kinds of cool technology and designs, but they never insist upon themselves. This is really quite rare in modern sci-fi as every neatly designed gadget or gun have to be poured over by the camera, showing it in detail and how it works. Blomkamp simply throws all the cool stuff he likes in the movie but just allows it to stay in the background, which really helps with world building and, again, realism. And there are so many things that you'd like to just pluck out of the movie and put in your little sci-fi mini game! Just look at the different ships/hovercraft to the above.

If you don't know what I'm on about, consider the original Star Wars films. They had tons of background technology and designs that just were there and most of it you as the viewer never really understood or got a good look at. This probably had a lot to do with the cobbled together practical models used that often seemed to be a compromise between the concept art and what parts the model builders had knocking around. In the new prequal trilogy on the other hand, so many of the ships, gadgets and sets are thrust in your face, screaming "look at this awesome design I came up with! Please agree with me that this is awesome!! LOOK AT IT!!!", and to me this detracts greatly from a movie. I want cool designs, but I don't want to look at a showreel. Anyway, I quite liked Elysium and while it's not as good as District 9 it should be in every sci-fi fan's collection. 

I remember hearing about Europa Report quite a long ago, but feared it had died the kind of death movies you like to see usually do. So I was pleasantly surprised when it was released and made available for streaming. It's of the found footage variety but as the cameras are mostly fixed inside the spacecraft you rarely get the shaky cam that can be tiresome if used to much. It's about the first human exploration to Jupiter's moon Europa and we get to follow the crew through the journey and as they finally set down on Europa. The creators have gone to considerable length to make the movie as an accurate portrayal of space flight and that alone makes for an interesting movie. It's so rare these days to see something like this - the latest I can remember is Apollo 13 and (of course) 2001.

Europa Report is basically a "things go wrong in space" movie so you kind of know what you're in for, but what actually happens and how these problems are handled is what sets this movie apart. I don't want to move into spoiler territory so I'll leave it at that. It's also remarkable what kind of visual effects they've managed to achieve with the budget they had. The exterior shots are simply gorgeous! Especially during the landing sequence on Europa. Really spectacular stuff!

This is a film any sci-fi enthusiast would enjoy, but if you prefer hard sci-fi and perhaps enjoy real space flight it's an absolute must watch!

Hmm... that went on a bit too long. The next two will be quick.

I had heard so much bad about World War Z but I ended up thinking it was fairly good. It has almost nothing in common with the book of the same name, which really is the films great problem. Had it been released under any other name I think the reception would have been much better, now it simply seemed like people were angry that it wasn't the "real" World War Z and discounted it because of it. Standing on its own legs the movie adds a few things to the zombie mythology and it's actually pretty cool to see a zombie movie that is more like a classic disaster movie rather than a horror movie. Wouldn't mind a sequal.

Finally, I've watched Star Trek: Into Darkness. JJ Abrams does his thing and there are some cool scenes and pretty visuals. The cast is quite good (I liked Cumberbatch) and no expenses have been spared to make the effects spectacular. However, this is not Star Trek. It really isn't. And this is coming from someone who is really not a Trekkie in any sense of the word. I watched a bit of TNG as a teenager but that's about it. Recently I've started watching TOS and I quite enjoy it from a conceptual stand point. As a teenager I remember I thought Star Trek was mostly boring and not as action packed as Star Wars, but watching it now I like it because it is something different.

These two new movies really don't have anything in common with Star Trek except names, ships and uncountable nods and winks to the original series (really, it's starting to become a bit much). They could easily have been done as just generic non-Star Trek sci-fi movies and no one would have noticed. No one would have said "you know, Into Darkness really reminded me of Star Trek".The whole overarching concept of exploration and the future of humanity has been discarded in favour of explosions and silly plot twists. It's like rebooting Star Wars and forgetting about the Force. Or rebooting The Lord of the Rings and forgetting the actual ring! Basically, I think it's a waste of an IP when it's turned into generic action like this.

Yepp, I think that's about it when it comes to recent (new) sci-fi I've watched. I could perhaps throw in Agents of SHIELD in the mix, but it's on tv so... meh. Ok! So it is pretty cool and very Joss Whedon-y. In fact, I kept thinking "this is very much like Firefly" which in this case is a good thing. It could use a few generous scoops of grit though, as it feels much too sentimental. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing more!

There are a couple of characters missing still, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a  River and Simon (although Simon really seems to have been integrated with Fitz/Simmons)  and perhaps even a Book joining our merry band. :)

As for upcoming movies, we have Gravity by Afonso Cuaron, which looks absolutely fantastic, Ender's Game by Gavin Hood, which could go either way and Robocop by José Padilha, which also treads a fine line. Anything else in the next three or four months to look out for?

Anyway, what about Elysium? Well, the story is basically that Earth has succumbed to our misshandling of it and has become hot, dirty and over-crowded. The rich people have simply fled the planet and are living in a space station called Elysium - which is a beutifully realized Stanford Torus, yet another nod to the seventies - where they frollick in the artificial gravity and enjoy privileges like machines that can instantly detect (and cure!) cancer. Back on Earth Max De Costa (Matt Damon) has just been told he's got a terminal disease and don't have long to live, so he decides to try and get into Elysium. Jodie Foster plays the government official on Elysium who try to keep him out with the help of a bounty hunter named Kruger, played by Sharlto Copley - the lead of District 9. And that's the basic premise of the movie, but don't listen to me... watch the trailer:

Yepp... looks pretty neat, right? Looking forward to August are we? So that's Elysium. Definitely the movie to look forward to for me personally. 

What I also wanted to mention was SyFy's new series Defiance. It's a science fiction melange mixing Firefly, Mad Max and Babylon 5 with some interesting ideas crammed in. Perhaps I should have put Mad Max first as the show takes place on Earth that was inadvertently ruined by an alien fleet 30 years ago. It's not clear exactly what happened but it seems like there was a big battle that pretty much ensured mutual destruction and now a bunch of different alien races are stranded on a post-apocalyptic or post-terraform (although that's not the correct word since it was alien technology... extraforming?) Earth. 

While the Mad Max angle is obvious with the jury-rigged vehicles, evil raiders and a lack of resources I think SyFy really wants to grab the Firefly fans with this series. Besides the sci fi cowboy style that is fairly prevalent in the pilot it's a lot more than that, the backstory of the main character (a rogueish ex-military man who now make a living through salvage) and the general feel of struggling against the odds certainly make my Firefly bell ring. The city the show takes place in (and the name of the show itself) is even named after that fateful battle and there seems to have been some kind of military unit called yellow jackets. Hmm..

The B5 feel comes from the great mix of aliens and uplifted animals that live in Defiance. The Votans who came with the alien fleet was an alliance of different races and although they're all pretty much of the rubber forehead kind, and fairly stereotypical at that, I enjoyed the variety. I really liked the uplifted (?) orangutans though! Made me want to paint my ape gang for Jude Dredd. Here's a trailer:

In the pilot we get to know the main character, Nolan, and his feisty sidekick/adopted ailen daughter Irisa. They scavenge stuff from the alien spaceships that periodically crash down on Earth (quite often I assume) but after a run-in with raiders they find themselves in Defiance, which is very much a futuristic version of the frontiers town. We get to see the main factions in town and the obvious (at first, but probably more grayscale as the series goes on) bad guy is a scheming alien Castithan who also owns the local bar. His antagonist is a rich human who owns most of the mines in the area. Naturally they both have children and the human girl is in love with the Castithan boy... I see a lot of Capulet/Montague stories in the future, even though they fastforwarded it and changed the ending.

There's a betrayal and the towns energy shield is sabotaged just as they learn that an army of Volge are Theo Jansens's Strandbeest. It looks like the town is going to get wiped out, but luckily Nolan saves the bacon with some kind of alien power source that he scavenged in the beginning of the episode. He becomes the new town sheriff (I bet noone saw that one coming!) and at the end we get to see who the real bad guys are, including a bearded guy with some seriously silly looking glasses.
marching their way. I kind of liked the Volge although they pretty much looked like more cybered up locust from Gears of War. They had some neat walkers though, including one that reminded me of

The pilot was very much that, a pilot. And in my experience sci fi or fantasy tv pilots are rarely good in and of themselves as they have too much stuff to cover and get the audience hooked on. Neither plot nor character development is given enough time as there is an entire world to establish. This lends itself to one-dimensional characters and a very cliché script, but this is not anything I hold against Defiance. While some series, like Firefly, succeeds brilliantly in making an actual good pilot I think that is the exception rather than the norm.

All in all I think Defiance has potential, as long as SyFy actually dares to do something new. Right now the show is dangerously close to the cliché cliff but there are still enough interesting things in it for it to be able to break new ground. It'll be interesting to see the next few episodes.

Oh, and the series also ties in to a new MMO by the same name and apparently the tv show will affect what happens in the game and vice versa. Yepp. Here's another (live-action) trailer that shows more of the gaming side of the setting. Big bugs etc.

There we go.... some of my ramblings regarding sci fi on the screen. See ya!

EDIT: Well then... look what just popped up! AMC is apparently developing Ballistic City, described as Blade Runner meets Battlestar Galactica, taking place on a generation ship and being about crime. It sounds absolutely spectacular!

It is during these times that I usually discover new games outside my usual hunting grounds. Since my board game collection is still made up of predominantly FFG/ameritrash titles I tend to try and find something different. Combined with a feeling of needing more gateway games to introduce the hobby to non-gamer friends and family I ended up playing Ticket to Ride Europe, doing a solo run of Power Grid: The First Sparks and (finally) teaching myself Bios Megafauna.

I was black. Would have won if blue hadn't blocked the track from Moskva...

 

I played Ticket to Ride Europe with my wife and a couple of friends and it was a HUGE success! Sure, I'd read many times that it's one of the best (or simply the best) gateway game out there, but even so I was surprised by the great response. Even my wife who has always struggled to understand what joy I could find in "simple games" had a lot of fun with it and wanted to play again. This has pretty much never happened before so... neat! I've heard the 1912 expansion is very good but I think we'll have some more fun with the base game first.

My personal first choice for that "non-gamers gaming" evening was The First Sparks by Friedemann Friese. As you probably know it's a re-themed version of Power Grid where you try to gather food and spread your tribe of cavemen rather than building powerplants. It's been slimmed down a bit with some of the heavier elements removed meaning it plays in about an hour instead of two. In retrospect I realize my friends wouldn't have had any trouble grasping the mechanics, but I wanted to play it safe so brought Ticket to Ride instead. However, yesterday I set up a three player solo game of The First Sparks just to get the mechanics down and damn... that's a fun little game! I was only going to play through a couple of turns but ended up finishing it because it was so much fun. Looking forward to trying it for real!

Playing and enjoying Ticket to Ride Europe and The First Sparks would have made a great board gaming weekend, but reading through and learning Bios Megafauna might be what I take the most satisfaction from. It's designed by Phil Eklund who has made another favourite game of mine: High Frontier (session reports here and here) so I knew what to expect. Phil writes rules like technical manuals so that when you need to reference something during actualy gameplay it's great, but when you are reading it through for the first time it can be a bit confusing and... minimalistic. Having conquered the High Frontier the rulebook for Bios Megafauna wasn't all that difficult. In fact, I think it's an easier game to understand overall.

Anyway, you play as either mammals or dinosaurs (up to four players) and start out during the Mesozoic era and basically try to create creatures that are better adapted than your opponents so they can spread as wide as possible. As always in Phil Eklund's games the science is at the very core of the game so I'm looking forward to playing this with my biologist friends! I get the same feeling from Bios as I do from High Frontier - that the theme and mechanics are so well integrated that I really would have a hard time seeing how they could be separated. Awesome! Will play it soon and write a proper first impressions post.

Browsing through BGG and looking through my board game wishlist two games have risen as my (probable) next investments: CO₂ and Archipelago. I've mentioned CO₂ before but I don't think I've talked about Archipelago. It's what a traditional euro looks like after having gone through the filter that is Christophe Boelinger's mind. If his name sounds familiar it might be because I've been going on about his last game, Earth Reborn, quite a bit (here and here for example). Earth Reborn took a unique approach to skirmish board gaming and I think it's the best in that (admittedly small) genre. Archipelago seems to do to Puerto Rico what Eearth Reborn did to Space Hulk and from what I can tell it looks like huge amounts of fun! 

So yeah... don't worry though. I'll get cured of my ameritrash fatigue eventually and go back to the mountains of plastic. I just need a break to push some wooden cubes around. :)

In other news I've bowed out of the Infinity Paradiso campaign that I participated in. I did manage to make it through the first chapter but had to call it quits after that. The reason mainly being a simple lack of time but also me not being very much into playing games at a store. I'll see if I can scrape together enough friends to play a smaller campaign at a more leasurely pace in the comfort of our own homes. I am painting though! 

More on that later...

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