Prometheus

Prometheus, it's Ridley Scott doing science fiction, so I'm excited about this movie. There aren't many good sci-fi films, the last one was Inception. Hopefully this one is just as good, but going by the trailer, and Scott's classic sci-fi movies Alien and Bladerunner, this one has lots of promise:

Skyfall (Bond 23)

Anyone who knows me well knows I'm a James Bond fan. I've read all the Fleming novels. Casino Royale is one of my favorite movies of all time. It is a film series that has only ever gotten better as it went along. So I was very excited to watch the press conference online at MI6 regarding the new movie, Bond 23, now offically known as Skyfall.

The cast is pretty exciting, with Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Dame Judi Dench, Naomie Harris, Berenice Marlohe, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney and Ben Whishaw. I have a sneaky suspiscion that Mr. Fiennes will be Blofeld, but I'll wait and see.

The press conference did say there would be no Quantum organisation from Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, which is a shame. I wanted to see Bond infiltrate them.

Film locations include Britian, Scotland, Istanbul and Shanghai.

Sam Mendes directing and screenplay by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan. David Arnold will score the sound track.
I'm one excited individual.

William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review

This year I’m eligible for the Ditmar Awards' William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review for contributing editor and reviewer for Albedo One, specifically for promoting Australian speculative fiction in Europe and internationally. I have been in this role since 2007, and have thoroughly enjoyed my time with this very professional magazine and I plan to be with them as long as they'll have me.
 
I've been asked by several Ditmar nominators what Australian titles I have reviewed in that time (this is by no means a complete list of my reviews), and so decided to include them on my blog for ease of access:

Issue 33 (2007)

• Year’s Best Australian SF & Fantasy Vol 1, Ed. Bill Congreve and Michelle Marquardt, Mirrordanse Publishing

Isssue 34 (2007)

• Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror 2006, ed. Angela Challis and Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Brimstone Press
• Geodesica Asecent, Sean Williams with Shahne Dix, Voyager
• Geodesica Decent, Sean Williams with Shahne Dix, Voyager

Issue 35 (2007)

• Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror 2007, ed. Angela Challis and Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Brimstone Press

Issue 36 (2009)

• Year’s Best Australian SF & Fantasy Vol 4, Ed. Bill Congreve and Michelle Marquardt, Mirrordanse Publishing
• Angel Rising, Dirk Flinthart, Twelfth Planet Press

Issue 37 (2009)

• Voices, ed Mark S. Deniz and Amanda Pillar, Morrigan Books
• The New Space Opera, Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan, Eos Books

Issue 38 (2010)

• The Opposite of Life, Narrelle M. Harris, Pulp Fiction Press
• Horn, Peter M Ball, Twelfth Planet Press

Issue 39 (2010)

• Monster Blood Tattoo 1: Founding, D. M. Cornish, Omnibus Books
• Phoenix and the Darkness of Wolves, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Damnation Books

Online Reviews (all 2010)

• Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #46, ed. Mark Farrugia
• Grants Pass: A Post Apocalyptic Anthology, ed. Jennifer Brozek & Amanda Pillar, Morrigan Books

More Australian (and internatinoal) reviews will continue to appear in future issues. If you wish to nominate me in the above category, and I will be very grateful if you do, you can do so online here.

Harry Potter 7 Movie Review up at Albedo One

Yes, my reviews at Albedo One have kicked up a notch, with their new and exciting revamped website delivering all kinds of reviews, and very few of them from me. My latest however is Harry Potter and the Dealthy Hallows Part I movie review. Read it here.

Inception Review on Albedo One Site

My review of Inception is now available online at Albedo One.

Inception

I saw Inception the other night. Absolutely brilliant movie, like the Matrix mixed with the Jason Bourne movies. I'll review it soon for Albedo One for their new online movie reviews content.

District 9 versus Avatar

I recently saw both these movies for the first time back-to-back, District 9 in a friend's home theatre so big it's like being in Gold Class cinema, and Avatar in a 3-D cinema. I really enjoyed both films, and Avatar was my first 3-D experience, but only one left a lasting impression on me. That film was District 9.

Avatar was great, I don't think I have ever seen anything that makes another world come to life like it did except for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. It didn't fall into the trap of having too many digital effects in every scene, a mistake George Lucas made with his Star Wars prequels. Visually the world of Pandora was great, believeable except for the floating rocks which were never explained and totally in contraction to not only the laws of physics, but the technology present elsewhere in the story. I liked the alien biology, inspired by undersea creatures on our world. The best way to sum it up is as Aliens meets Titanic (both of which I think are much better films from the same director).

My problem with Avatar is that if it wasn't a visual spectacular I would have felt I had seen it all before. Essentially the plot is the same as Dune, and while the characters are interesting and it is easy enough to empathise with their motives, I had no real contenection to them emotionally like I did, say with The Lord of the Rings, which I mentioned earlier, or the Harry Potter movies. The biggest problem however was that all the ideas in the story I've read hundreds of times before in science fiction novels. Still, really enjoyable, don't get me wrong about that, I just don't think I'll race out and watch it again anytime soon.

District 9 however had a premise that initially turned me away. If aliens can come all the way to Earth they won't be refugees, they'll conquer us as is always a flaw in movies like Independence Day and its like. However as soon as I started watching it I realised it was a farce on South Africa's Apartheid era. The slums with all its the crime and subculture was exactly how I remembered my experiences with that kind of living that I encountered in Kenya many years ago, and I found myself laughing at little elements in scenes that my friends didn't pick up on, such as the operations of the Nigerian warlords. It felt like a story Douglas Adams would have wrote if he were a white South African.

The story was overly graphically violent, which has never appealled to me in movies, although I know this is a personal taste. The story was strong and made me laugh with its mockumentary style. It was refressing to see a film shot in Johannesburg, as I'm so over watching science fiction movies set in New York, Los Angeles or Washington DC (and District 9 even makes a joke about this). The themes too were so much more poignent and original than Avatar, and the characters felt more real. What District 9 had over Avatar were ideas that I hadn't seen before, in fiction or movies, and so for me made it the much better movie for this genre.

Regardless, I'd recommend both films to those who like their sci fi and their action.

Quantum of Solace

Being a big James Bond fan I raced to the cinema to see Quantum of Solace, but ended up getting there a week after it was released, because well let's face it, I'm a dad now and arranging my time can be a challenge.

Regardless, this was an excellent film, certainly Daniel Craig's contribution to the series has to be the best the Bond franchise has ever seen. I was moved by the depth the writers, actors, director and producers have given to the characters, and how Bond grew through this film and Casino Royale before it. Nothing is over the top (for an action film I mean), no end of the world, no silly gadgets, not bland throw-away lines.

Watching Quantum of Solace was reminded of the Jason Bourne films, which I also thought to be excellent, and how both series are now continuations of their previous films, exploring the impacts Bond and Bourne have on their own lives as assassins, and the people it has made them become.

Certainly looking forward to the next Bond film, scheduled for 2010.