March 2008 - Cult Fiction

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Cult Fiction - March 2008

Inspiration for Sci-Fi Movies

March 26th 2008 21:38

Star Wars AT Walker comparison to real life

Found on BoingBoing, this slick post from Io9, where the inspiration for some of the most influential sci-fi movies is nailed down.

Above, the AT-AT walkers from "The Empire Strikes Back" were apparently inspired by cargo lifters that George Lucas saw at a dock. You can imagine the young Lucas imagining the cargo lifters breaking free of their steel tethers, stumbling into the city, causing mass havoc.

But what about hot fudge? The way it oozes and creeps over cold ice cream? Apparently, this delicious semi-liquid inspired James Cameron to base the T-1000 on the texture of hot fudge. From the article:

"I wanted the effect of the T-1000 to look like a spoon going into hot fudge; it dimples down, then flows up over and closes. That's the look I wanted. You have to work with the viscosity in order to get that look just right."

If you go back and watch "Terminator 2" now, you'll see that the CGI for the T-1000 look oddly dated. Which is disappointing because I remember blowing a gasket the first time I saw the futuristic robot pass through those bars.

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Posted By: Cibbuano - Category: Massive coolness!

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The Japanese Manga version of Star Wars is a violent, gritty affair...

March 18th 2008 04:19

Some would just say it's straight up better than the American comic book adaptation, which I had back in the 80s. Yeah, I liked my comic, but the colours were weird and the faces of the stars didn't really come out that well.

From starwars.com, a comparison of the Japanese manga version, to the original comic, including a critique of how the original made several flaws:

Darth Vader kills the admiral with the Force in the original Star Wars comic

Compare those simple frames to the frenetic energy and violence, Japanese-style:

Japanese Manga star wars darth vader kills

Wow - incredible... using just simple lines and frames, the Japanese version carries a lot more humour and weight. For example, the Star Wars site uses the infamous cantina scene to show how the Japanese used years of fanboyism to really create the cantina:

Star Wars Tatooine cantina Japanese manga

Oh, hello ladies! Nice to see you here, too. I'll just step up for a drink. Hey, I don't like your face either!

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Posted By: Cibbuano - Category: Massive coolness!

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The Forever War

March 6th 2008 01:08

Warning: this post contains spoilers of the plot of The Forever War!

The Forever War is #1 on the Orion SF Masterworks series, and it earns its place on the list by being a rich novel, deep in social commentary and originality.

Written by Joe Halderman, it's taken to be a criticism of the author's own experience in Vietnam, where conscription forced unwilling participants to a war that many saw as needless.

The Forever War mimics those sentiments, but blows it up as the plot of a thousand-year space opera... Halderman dissects the warring society for all its worst qualities: high taxation, propaganda, tactics that treat infantry like pawns.

But above all of that, the most delightful aspect of Halderman's novel is the time travel.

In order to fight against the alien race, called Taurans, who are light-years away (much like Vietnam was across the ocean), the humans send their ships through wormholes, which means the ship travels much faster than the speed of light.

The crew stays in stasis while this is happening, but the relativistic speeds mean that when they return, hundreds of years have passed by on Earth, while the crew has only been gone for a few months.

And so, ironically, the main character, Mandella, who is not much of a soldier, fights in one campaign half-heartedly, then returns to Earth as a hero of the war, rich on paper because his wages have accrued massive interest.

Unfortunately, Earth has changed in the meantime... taxes are set at 90% to pay for the war, overpopulation has made employment exceedingly difficult, and the streets are filled with roaming thugs.

Mandella signs up for the army again, gets sent to one engagement, gets shot down immediately, wakes up in the infirmary and another few hundred years have rolled by.

Everyone he's ever known on Earth is gone. Furthermore, to combat overpopulation, the entire race is homosexual, relying on artificial means to have children.

Terrifying? Perhaps... but so wildly believable. Hundreds of years from now, what will the future be like? Will the Earth be overpopulated? Will countries use war as a way of deflecting human attention?

Are we going to greet aliens with missiles and laser beams?

While we don't have laser weapons yet, advances in science is making it more possible by the day.

Halderman's novel is a triumph of ingenuity, a riveting read that makes you cackle wickedly at what might be. This is what makes science fiction great.

We can only hope that they don't do a film adaptation. Unless, of course, I'm attached to direct.

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Posted By: Cibbuano - Category: Massive coolness!

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