Writers: What To Learn From Marvel
2 10 2018Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: Avengers, books, Marvel Comics, movies, tv, writing, writing advice
Categories : Writing, Writing Advice
Writers: Find These Shows And Mine Them For Ideas
17 04 2017Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: horror, reviews, tv, writing
Categories : Writing, Writing Advice, Writing Ideas
My Prayer For Spec-Fic
9 06 2016Oh Lord, are You there? My soul thirsts for You. Could You give me a Double-Gulp helping of You?
I yearn for a sf movie without “Star” in the title. I yearn for something that JJ Abrams hasn’t tainted with his signature TV cinematography and Slusho world-building. I yearn for Damon Lindoff to live a productive and happy life without the ability to write.
Some movie worthy of a franchise that isn’t already populated with 70 year olds from other franchises. A movie without The Wilhelm Scream. A movie that wasn’t produced simultaneously with three of its sequels. A movie smart enough to have its own language and culture, yet still smart enough to not hide its MacGuffin behind the name “Unobtanium” and keep its villains out of military uniforms and business suits, just once.
Something that doesn’t happen in a high school either midwestern or Asian.
I so thirts for a horror movie without a death in a car where an arm punches through the driver’s chest. Without someone crawling on the ceiling. Without a garish, flat spiritworld where everyone just smiles creepy or sings songs in public domain. Without the Christian being a hypocrite or worse. Without an explanation of why the monster came to be. Without being a disappointing remake.
Without lush childrens’ storybook styling to remind us this is a Metaphor.
People know when a movie is going to suck. They go anyway to be part of the event and be able to discuss the merits of the movie. Even M. Night Shamalan has had little effect.
Could we have a spec-fic show that’s brightly lit? In a nice, clean world? An original world without characters from story books?
Can we have real teenagers who act and speak like real teenagers? Who have sharp-eyed, meddling, loving adults involved in their lives? Can we have actual old people?
We spend our lives making money. We give this money to movies and books and TV. The art is consumimg our lives, yet is made of parts long dead. Now not only is it a zombie (slow moving), it’s and being further shaved of its face and features so it can shamble into China and digest the Chinese.
I can’t be the only one who feels this way, Lord of Hosts, Host of All Media.
And get people to turn off their tablets in theaters, too.
Amen.
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Tags: fantasy fiction, fantasy movies, fantasy novels, horror, horror novels, movies, Science Fiction, science fiction movies, speculative fiction, tv
Categories : Unsettling Questions
Why I Walk Out Of Movies…
7 01 2014When my prior experience with a director annoyed me…
Or my friends or reviewers I respect say something will annoy…
I am leery of wasting my time with it. The world is full of stuff and I need filters to help me sift through it.
Here’s the first fifteen minutes of “Helix”, the new series starting on SyFy. I applaud SyFy for actually putting on actual, well-funded science fiction. So I watched…
When you can say key dramatic dialogue before the characters, this is bad. I said “progress” and “his brother” in the first seven minutes.
The first scene with is a direct lift of “Don’t Fear The Reaper” from that version of “The Stand” with Rob Lowe.
Then the stereotypical butchy-lookin’-woman-saying-libtard stuff who was maybe lifted from the original movie of “Andromeda Strain”? At minute nine, the woman said “frack”.
Then I read: Ronald Moore, producer.
I hate Ronald Moore. I hated him on Star Trek. I hated BSG for its entire handwavium premise: Half-cylon? How does that happen, BSG fans? Anyone? I hate that he tries to make Deep Significant Points and screws up so badly.
I respect that he tries. God how he tries. He believes in what he’s doing. Unlike say, the asses behind “Prometeheus” who after dozens of drafts and millions of dollars still got the distance to the nearest star wrong and left the mistake in.
Ronald Moore is a light-weight. This show? God, it’ll have to do a lot to keep from being another squandered opportunity.
Comments : 3 Comments »
Tags: BSG, helix, horror, novels, ronald moore, Sucks, SyFy, tv, writing
Categories : Uncategorized