Fancy Fembot

Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.


Inception is EASILY the best movie of the summer. If Tron ends up being a dud, Inception could claim best movie of the year. I personally wasn’t that excited about the film at first. The trailers reminded me of movies that I’d seen before. The first movie that popped into mind was Dark City. When I heard the premise of the film, The Matrix, Total Recall, Vanilla Sky and 12 Monkeys in that I could never really tell what was the real timeline or all if it was in his head. The fact that this movie reminds everyone of The Matrix isn’t accidental. Nolan said that he was inspired by The Matrix and submitted this movie to be made around that time.





Christopher Nolan, known for The Dark Knight and The Prestige, lured mainstream audiences to this movie by disguising it as a heist film… that and Leonardo DiCaprio. (He and Joseph Gordon-Levitt will be on my annual Sci-Fi Man Fest list this year!) DiCaprio is our man character Cobb, The Extractor. All of his team have fancy heist titles which not only reflects their role in the team but can be also seen as different parts of Cobb. This is if you see the movie as all a dream of Cobb’s and no one is real. I’m fascinated with the teams designations. Arthur is The Pointman, Saito is The Overseer, Fischer is The Mark, Ariandne is The Architect, Eames is the Forger, Yusuf is The Chemist and Mal is The Shade. This team is put together because Saito needs Fischer to not take over the family business. Because some organization will be able to tell if the idea is implanted in Fischer’s mind, the team has to arrange an elaborate scheme to make it seem like Fischer came up with the idea himself. This is the faux inception that needs to be planted in order for the job to be a success. As the film progresses, I got the feeling that the inception job wasn’t the job at all. It became clear that the actual desired inception was for Cobb to let go of his wife and do whatever it takes to get back to his kids so that he can get closure and redemption.





I loved the layers of the movie. It enjoyed picking apart and differentiating the different dream layers. My circle of friends named these levels ourselves: Level 1: “Reality” or Plane Level, Level 2: Van Level, Level 3: Hotel Level, Level 4: Hoth Level and Level 5: Limbo Level. Some people who believe that the Plane Level is reality will think there are only 4 levels. I believe it was all a dream so there are 5. There is also something about time travelling slower the based on what level of dream state you are in. These layers of dreams are very Dante’s Inferno. I even entertained the thought that everyone was dead and this reality was their way out of purgatory. That thought reminded me too much of the Lost finale and I wanted to punch someone so I let it thought go.





Mal, Cobb’s wife was one of the most interesting characters. She was dead and her appearance was always a manifestation of Cobb’s imagination; an shade or ghost of guilt. As a manifestation of his wife, she was a bit unreasonable and quite crazy. When we learned of how she died and heard her plea for Cobb to kill himself because he was still in a dream, something about it made sense. It felt true. Another thing that stood out to me is that when she was making this plea, she showed Cobb their children in the same sitting, face turned away position as they were in when he left them for the first time. At the end of the movie, the children were in that same position waiting on him so that he could see their faces when they turned around. This, coupled with the totem spinning at fade-to-black made me believe that the whole movie was a dream. Speaking of the totem. Why didn’t Cobb have his own? If he was a dreamer before she died and no one was supposed to ever touch another person’s totem, why did he have hers instead of his?





I’m sure I can go on forever. Carl of Robotcast, Eric of Doctor Who: Mostly Harmless Cutaway and I had a lengthy discussion on Inception. We threw caution to the wind, opened our minds and nitpicked at Inception until our hearts were content. It makes for great listening.


Check it out here: Sci-Fi Party Line #74 Inception


This movie has generated a lot of thought and raised a lot of questions. I’ve put a few links below for further reading. Enjoy.


Inception: Official Website
Spoilerific new infographic explains the 4 ‘kicks’ of Inception
‘Inception’ Ending and Theories: What Just Happened?
The Neuroscience of Inception
Inception proves good sci-fi movies can make money. More please!
Hans Zimmer Extracts the Secrets of the ‘Inception’ Score

I can’t tell whether M. Night Shamalayn’s The Last Airbender was a success or failure. If I’m reading the numbers on IMDB correctly, an estimated $150,000,000 was spent on the film. Box Office Mojo states that the movie made approximately $123 million domestically and $27 million in the foreign market. Looking at these numbers simplistically he made his money back on the film but no large profit… yet. Does the industry see this as a success and will they continue to give him money even with fan backlash and poor ratings?



The critics were hard on this movie. Roger Ebert gave this movie a half star out of five and hoped “that the title proves prophetic”. IGN gives Airbender one and a half star out of ten and says
“The title Avatar isn’t the only thing that The Last Airbender has lost in its transition from the small-screen world of animated television to the realm of would-be franchise feature film making. Also gone, unfortunately, is any semblance of heart or drama or, really, anything of interest at all.”
The critics of Rotten Tomatoes gave this movie 8% out of 100%. Box Office Mojo’s readers are more forgiving. They gave the movie a B-.



On a five star rating, I’d give Airbender a two star rating. I didn’t bother with seeing the 3D version because, like Clash of the Titans, this movie added 3D after the fact. I wish studios would quit wasting money on this. In addition to not falling for the 3D version, I went in expecting it to be a kids film. I also went in without having ever seeing the animated series that it was based on. I also went in having seen The Happening a couple of months prior and the carried with me the disappointment of M. Night’s latest films. I thought that after those, Airbender had to be great or at least ground breaking. Sadly, it wasn’t. As much as I wanted to like this film and as much as I wanted to leave the theater shouting “M. Night is back! Grovel before is feet!” It just didn’t happen. This movie was painfully mediocre. It was beautifully shot. The costuming was excellent. Even the premise was compelling. He had some really great actors but for some reason, it just didn’t come together.



I’m a little obsessed with understanding why this film didn’t work. It had EVERYTHING. M. Night had an extensive budget. Parts of this film was shot in Greenland. The visuals were vast and crisp. The Firebenders were powerful looking and felt like a force to be feared. He had access to any actors that he wanted. I liked Noah Ringer as Aang but for the life of me I can’t figure out why M. Night would cast a kid from Dallas, TX. Nicola Peltz as Katara seemed fresh off of the Disney Channel and pulled me out of the experience every time she would deliver her lines because it felt like she was delivering lines. After Dev Patel replaced Jesse McCartney, I’m sure this became the reason how we got a massive Indian cast for the Firebenders. His family had to match him. In fact as I watched the movie, I began to wonder if this was the first mainstream science fiction film that had such a large Indian cast that wasn’t in stereotypical Indian roles? If so, I think this is the only reason this movie is ground-breaking. Also, while I loved seeing Aasif Mandvi in the movie, I was totally distracted by him because I expected him to crack jokes. Instead he was a bad guy. He was believable but I giggled every time he was on screen.



Instead of going with a story twist, M. Night did a casting twist. Many people believed that Airbender should have had an all Japanese cast and were upset that some of the roles were given to Caucasians. There was also an uproar about M. Night being racist because he cast dark people as the bad guys. There also seems to be a general feeling of frustration with M. Night amongst movie-goers. There are a lot of articles claiming that M. Night has run his course as a director. A lot of people are claiming that he doesn’t have what it takes to make a great film anymore. One reporter even confronted him with this sentiment. His response was that “I think if I thought like you I’d kill myself”. (Would that be Seppuku where you die with honor as to not cause anymore shame or the American kind where you are considered a coward?)



The latest M. Night controversy is his new movie The Devil. It appears to be a horror movie about a bunch of people stuck in an elevator. I’m not seeing a lot of enthusiasm about this film. In fact, when the trailer was previewed at Comic-Con, it was met with booing from the audience. Is this collective M. Night fatigue? Is his career in trouble or is it a bunch of loud fanboys creating negative buzz? I won’t bother seeing The Devil mainly because I’m just tired of not being entertained. The real question is will you pay to see another M. Night movie?


Listen to Carl and I talk more about The Last Airbender on The Sci-Fi Party Line Podcast.


http://www.thelastairbendermovie.com/

If the AMC remake of the The Prisoner left you wanting more then you should give Persons Unknown a chance. The show starts off with a handful of people waking up in a hotel not knowing where they are or how they got there. They don’t really have much in common other than they are there in a deserted town where they can’t escape. The town looks innocent enough but is fire proof, they can’t burn the place down or give a signal for help. It also looks like they can just walk out but the town has an invisible, electric pain gun- styled barrier that prevents them from leaving. There is a group of cooks that mysteriously show up to make them meals. There is also a night manager in the hotel but he claims to be just as ignorant of what’s going on as everyone else. The rest of the town is filled with clothes and tools for them to live life until their captors decide what to do with them. Until then, they are being watched by ominous cameras in the ceilings.



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There have only been three episodes of the third season of True Blood and the show has made history with one of the most disturbing sex scenes on television. Facebook, blogs and Twitter was littered with WTF after the airing of “It Hurts Me Too”. The real questions is how are they going to top that?

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[Lost Finale Poll. VOTE!]


1) What is the island?
The island is a place that you cannot get to unless you are invited by its guardian.


2) Who is the guardian?
To our knowledge and in this order: a crazy murderess called Mother, Jacob, Jack and Hurley.


3) Where is the island?
It is thought to be some where near Australia. In truth it is always moving which is why it is so hard to find.


4) How do I find and get to the island?
You cannot get to the island unless the island needs you. It is hidden by a powerful electromagnetic force that keeps it off the radar. Most people will never be able to find the island.


5) What is this electromagnetic force and why does it need to be guarded?
It is called “the light”, “the Source” or “the heart of the island”. It is supposed to be the life-force of all humanity. It is believed that if all of humanity has access to the light that they will diminish it. Supposedly, if the light goes out, evil will reign the world.


6) That’s it? Then WTF was the whole 6 year drama about?
Yes, that’s it. No one really knows and you were screwed.


7) Are all the people on the island dead?
It is my personal belief that after Juliet set off the bomb (season 5 finale) that everyone died. You don’t set off any type of hydrogen bomb, modified or not, and not destroy your immediate vicinity, not to mention the radiation poisoning.


8) That’s bullshit Cat! They were alive in season 6. What about the events that took place in “island present” and the “flash sideways”?
Ok, fine. Daniel modified the Jughead bomb’s core so it would react with the electromagnetic force on the island. It did not work as planned and some how all of the Losties were moved to “island present” time.
The “flash sideways” doesn’t exist in reality. It is a purgatorial or limbo existence. (Lostpedia had this definition on their website but removed it. If you go to http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Purgatory , you will find an extensive entry on the “flash sideways”.)


9) Is the “flash sideways” purgatory?
It depends on how you define purgatory.


-If you define purgatory as the state of those who die in God’s friendship, assured of their eternal salvation, but who still have need of purification to enter into the happiness of heaven.
The “flash sideways” is everywhere & nowhere in time and can be described as purgatory. The Losties where ghosts walking around the “flash sideways” until they figure out that they where dead. The candidates and loved ones agreed, off-screen, that they would meet in this place to “move on”, as lead by [the] Christian Shepherd, into the light.


-If you define purgatory as a celestial waiting room where Christians are punished so that they may atone for their sins before passing into heaven. Purgatory is very unlike hell in that it is simply temporary.
This totally describes the island and all the madness that “The Others”, Jacob, Smokey, etc put “The Candidates” through. The island happens to be “real life” so can’t be called purgatory… or can it?


-If you just want to relax and take the writers at their word. The “flash sideways” is just a place that isn’t purgatory because it isn’t controlled by God but the Losties. They created this place, they wrote their own ticket for their soul’s departure.


10) Ok, so what is the “flash sideways” again?
It was a Lindelof and Cuse primetime public circle jerk. :-D


11) Why were these people brought to the island in the first place?
Jacob, the island’s guardian, needed a someone to take his place. He somehow picked these then people influenced things in their lives so that they could be on Oceanic Flight 815 to crash on the island and partake in the island saga.


12) Why did he pick so many people? Why didn’t he just explain the island to one person & perform a transfer of power?
Jacob was in constant battle with his brother Man-In-Black (MIB also known as Samuel) because MIB wanted to leave the island. Because Jacob wouldn’t let MIB leave the island, MIB vowed to kill Jacob. MIB told Jacob that he’d kill him and anyone that was a candidate to replace him. I assume that with so many people, MIB didn’t know who to kill. He didn’t just kill everyone because not killing the Candidates was part of “The Rules”.


13) What are these “Rules”?
They could never leave the island.
They could never kill one another.
Assumed rules are that they could not kill candidates for island guardianship. And that they would live forever, a really long time or until someone took their place.


14) WTF was the smoke monster?
Apparently, MIB, not being pure of heart, was thrown into “the Source” by Jacob. After his entrance, he exited as black smoke. No one really knows the mechanics of the black smoke, how it happens, why it can assume the shape of any dead person & access their memories or how he retains his own memory of his time as a human.

Also, leaving the island was a desire of MIB as a human. It is never revealed why as the smoke monster he wanted to leave the island. People always assumed it was for evil and that he would destroy the world.


15) Jack went into “the light” and didn’t turn to smoke. What is up with that?
He was “aborted” from “light” and gingerly placed on some rocks outside of the cave with “the light” just like MIB.


16) Desmond went into the light and did not die, turn to smoke or get laid gingerly on the rocks outside of the cave. Why?
Desmond, somehow survived an electromagnetic explosion which not only gave him the ability to predict death but time travel (or at least his send his mind through time). Him being able to withstand electromagnetic events is the reason why he could go into the heart of the island unaffected.


17) If Desmond could withstand “the light” why didn’t he put the cork back into the island instead of Jack?
Jack needs to be a hero. I believe even the writers was sick of Jack’s whining and gave him the hero’s death that he had such a hard on for.


18) Then what was the whole Charles Widmore experiment about?
Desmond was lead to believe that if he did what he was supposed to do on the island that everything would reset and he would transport to the “flash sideways”. He thought the “flash sideways” was the prime reality. Instead, he was responsible for making everyone in the “flash sideways” aware that they were dead and needed to “move on”.


19) What was Charles Widmore’s role in everything?
He started out as an “Other” and took orders from Richard Alpert. He had an off-island relationship that resulted in Penny’s birth which got him kicked off the island by Ben Linus. Every since then, he searched for the island to get revenge on and kill Ben Linus. Widmore was so aggressive that he sent mercenaries to the island to kill everyone. Eventually he was visited by Jacob. Jacob told Widmore about his struggle with MIB and the importance of getting Desmond back to the island to fulfill his role and save humanity. Charles was rewarded with a bullet to the chest by Ben Linus.


20) Who were these “Others”?
They were also known as “The Hostiles”. I believe “The Others” have been on the island as early as the murderess Mother which was supposed to be the classical Roman era. They are a combination of people who crashed on the island with Claudia (Jacob and MIB’s real mother) and indigenous people whom may have lived there the whole time or arrived there by an arranged accident by Jacob. Due to the warhead’s introduction to the island in 1954, women became unable to get pregnant on the island. “The Others” seemed to have gotten organized under Richard Alpert’s rule and are vicious when it comes to protecting the island. They killed a US Army unit in 1954, purged the Dharma Initiative in the 1970′s and were extremely aggressive with the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815.


21) Wait, the US Army was on the island?
Yeah dude. Pay attention. Back in 1954, they wanted to use the island for weapons testing. That’s where the “Jughead” bomb came from. The audience finds out about the bomb after Ben turns the donkey wheel and the island skips through time.


22) What was the “Dharma Initiative”?
DHARMA stands for (Department of Heuristics And Research on Material Applications). They were “a large-scale communal research compound where scientists and free-thinkers from around the globe could pursue research in meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, electromagnetism”, etc. They found the island with Eloise Hawking’s Lamp Post. Dharma survived on the island for about 20 years until the truce with The Others failed. The Others, lead by Dharma traitor Ben Linus, killed the entire Dharma crew including his own father. “The Others” now live in and use the resources left by Dharma.


23) Why wasn’t Michael or Walt in the finale?
Uneducated and ridiculous answer: Because Hollywood hates Black people.
Uninformed answer: My guess is because Malcolm David Kelley now looks like a 30 year man and they couldn’t find a way to write around it.
Actual answer: I don’t know.


24) Who is alive in “island present”?
Hurley, Ben, Kate, Sawyer, Claire, Aaron, Frank, Milo, Richard, Michael*, Walt, Rose, Bernard, Penny, Desmond, Eloise.


25) What was the statue about?
It is a statue of the Egyptian Goddess Taweret also known as Tuat. She is the goddess of birth and re-birth. We still don’t know who built it and for what purpose. We do know that it was destroyed when Jacob brought Richard Alpert to the island. He flung the Black Rock ship through the air which crashed into the statue and broke it. Jacob also lived in the chamber below the foot of the statue.


That was fun! Most of the answers I knew, some are speculation and some are just for laughs. I fact-checked and quoted a few things using Lostpedia. It’s a great resource if you still have questions about LOST. Namaste!

Now that the finale is over. Was Lost worth it?

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Summer is fast approaching so here’s a list of movies that I’m interested in seeing. I’m not as excited about movie offerings as I was last year but Tron makes up for it… even if it premieres WAY in December.

March 5 – Alice in Wonderland (I still haven’t seen this and I’m not particularly excited about it.)
March 19 – Repomen
March 26 – Hot Tub Time Machine, How to Train Your Dragon
April 2 – Clash of the Titans
April 30 – A Nightmare on Elm Street
May 7 – Iron Man 2
May 14 – Robin Hood (maybe…)
May 28 – Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time (maybe…), Survival of the Dead
June 11 – The A-Team, Karate Kid
June 18 – Toy Story 3
June 30 – The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (Shut up! Not one word!)
July 9 – Predators (I forgot this was coming out.)
July 16 – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Nicolas Cage)
July 30 – The Adjustment Bureau (Philip K. Dick)
November 19 – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (I guess I should step up reading efforts. I’m still on Book 4, chapter 28.)
November 24 – Red Dawn? (I didn’t know they were remaking this!)
December 17 – Tron Legacy
December 22 – The Green Hornet

The only thing that I’m really, truly excited about is Tron, Iron Man, A-Team and possibly Clash of the Titans and Harry Potter.

Second Life is remodeling and reinventing itself for the better. It’s not the same “Wild West” we once one knew and loved but different is not always bad. Read the rest of this entry »

This list includes Made-for-TV movies, mini-series and Direct-to-DVD releases only if they were aired on TV. The other criteria are I have to have seen the movie and it had to be released between the years 2000 – 2009; this is a decade list.





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It was a hard list to make but here are my top ten movies of the decade. The criteria are that I have to have seen the movie, it has to be science fiction (no fantasy or horror) and it had to be released between the years 2000 – 2009.



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