Prometheus (2012)

Film directed by Ridley Scott

Two anthropologists (?) or scientists anyways find cave paintings that show a star map to the same planet that was the focus of Ridley Scott's and James Cameron's "Alien" and "Aliens", respectively. Needless to say, stuff gets scary and stuff gets really really gross. I really don't want to give too much away as the thin plot needs every subtle surprise it can afford if you so choose to undertake this gross/fear-fest. Seriously, don't even watch the trailer or you will figure out the entire movie after the first few minutes. 

Have you seen the classic sci-fi horror, "Alien"? Then you've essentially seen "Prometheus". This is pretty much what a friend of mine told me and, after seeing the movie myself, I have to agree totally. That being said...it was visually amazing and if you don't mind some pretty gross scenes, the movie is psychedelic sci-fi + H.R. Giger gothic wierdness. It also happens to feature what could be my all-time favorite android since Bishop of "Aliens" or Jude Law's "Gigolo Joe" from "Artificial Intelligence: A.I.".

Still, I would recommend waiting until this one makes it to DVD or even the SyFy channel.

Well, fellow Earthlings, I know I was brief today, but that's all folks!

Space out!
--Liam

The Last Question

Short story by Isaac Asimov, 1956

What happens when we run out of fossil fuel energy? Well I guess there's always solar power if nothing else. But what happens when the Sun dies? Or when ALL of the suns die? Isaac Asimov (who may in fact be the best sci-fi writer of all time) has the characters in this short story asking the same question. For, as depressing as it sounds, the universe will one day end. Right? Fortunately, the characters in this book have Multivac, an all-knowing computer (like a less funny version of Deep Thought from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"). Over a long span of time, several humans ask Multivac if there is any way to "reverse entropy" and stop the eventual fadeout of the universe. Is there an answer? You'll have to read the story to find out. 

Luckily it's online right here and here, depending on which font and size you prefer.

I found this story through StumbleUpon. After scrolling through to get an idea of length (by the way it's not terribly long for a short story, but perhaps a bit for the inexperienced online reader) my eyes became intrigued by the breaks in the story and variation of character names. When I finally got to reading it I was blown away by Asimov's extremely far-reaching predictions and the believability that they held. A great read.

By the way the artwork above is by ~Dragonfly22 and was found on DeviantArt with the artist's explanation.

Omega Boost

Video game by Polyphony Digital, 1999

"Omega Boost" was a great PlayStation game I played a lot in middle and high school, simply because it was one of those games you could throw in and casually play over and over again. In the game, you fly around in your giant robot spaceship and shoot up other robot spaceships and, for some reason, this never gets old. But the review of this game is besides the point. Here is what I really want to bring to your attention:

THE INTRO SEQUENCE.

The intro to this game is so cheesy awesome I just had to share it. It's hard to get a full idea for the plot from just watching it, but if you had access to the manual that comes with the game you could piece together that a rogue artificial intelligence is trying to go back in time and make itself more powerful. But YOU, key-tossing, giant-robot-flying, COOL GUY, are not going to let that happen. 

Enjoy the hard rock music that doesn't seem to fit the video. Fortunately some more appropriate Static-X appears in the actual game. If you would like your own copy, it's around $20 new, and a measly dollar-or-so used, on Amazon.

Star Wars: Tales of the Bounty Hunters

Anthology edited by Kevin J. Anderson, 1996

If you've seen Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back...OK let's be real, you've seen it. Remember that short scene with all of the bounty hunters on Vader's ship? The authors that took part in this anthology had enough from that scene to write pages on these guys. Not only do you learn where each of these villains come from, but their (mostly) futile attempts to catch Han Solo during Episode V are described as well. If you read the whole book, you get five totally different stories, only sharing the aforementioned scene from Episode V in common (and a few other encounters between each other).

I found this book at a hospital on a "free books-shelf" [AWESOME]. What's neat about this collection is you don't have to read the whole book to enjoy it. I did, of course, but each story is great by itself too. If you're not a big Star Wars fan the first "tale", IG-88's "Therefore I Am" by the editor, is an awesome sci-fi story by itself. You don't really need to know anything about the Star Wars universe to get it and it's classic homicidal robot madness. If you ARE a Star Wars fan I would recommend the second story in the anthology, "Payback", Dengar's tale. It includes a fair amount of lore on Han Solo's past as well as other locations during Episode V and was definitely my favorite in the book.

I've seen this book in most bookstores and it's not expensive. It's definitely worth a look for at your local library at least!

Well that is all for today's posts, Space Homies. I hope to bring you more next week.

Until then,

Space Out!
--Liam

Moon (2009)

Film written/directed by Duncan Jones

So somewhere in the not-too-distant future, a wealthy corporation has set up a mining facility on the Moon. Only one person is needed to operate it and they do so in 3-year stints. Our protagonist, Sam Bell has almost reached the end of his 3-year tour and he is incredibly anxious for his replacement to show up so he can go home and see his family.

Well, not only is he anxious, he is hallucinating. Three years in isolation will do that to someone who only has himself and a computer to talk to (he is unable to communicate live to anyone on Earth for reasons explained in the film). Anyways, Sam eventually meets his replacement (or does he?) and let's just say things don't work out as planned.

I didn't hear too much advertisement or talk about this movie when it came out, but I loved it. The story was classic sci-fi. No unnecessary action scenes or special effects, just a great story. It was well-casted, too. Sam Rockwell ("The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", "The Green Mile") plays the protagonist and creepmeister Kevin Spacey voices the paranoia-feeding computer, GERTY.

Oh yeah and it was written and directed by David Bowie's son. 'NUFF SAID.

Watch the entire movie for free through Crackle.com right here: