I’ve just posted my third (and probably final) guest article of the week over on the Futurismic blog, discussing the role of escapism in science fiction movies.

Click here to read ‘Guilty Pleasures’.

When I first saw trailers for James Cameron’s Avatar, I was worried. Big blue CGI aliens? It didn’t sound promising. But then yesterday, I saw Avatar on a big screen, in 3D, and it blew me away. I loved every minute of it.

Yes, the plot’s predictable – a conflicted and otherworldly outsider joins the tribe, falls in love with the chief’s daughter, beats the tribe’s most skilled warrior, and leads the tribe to salvation – but so what? It’s an archetypal plot, one that our ancestors have probably been recycling since the dawn of campfire storytelling. It’s the hero’s journey. It’s a basic story of primate tribe dynamics, and it runs through our myths, from the Greek legend of Prometheus, through early sci-fi, to films such as Dances With Wolves, and Pocahontas. To complain about its unoriginality is to miss the point, as Cameron isn’t crafting something entirely new: instead, he’s reinterpreting the myth for our times, incorporating contemporary elements such as “shock and awe” bombing and commercial environmental exploitation.

Continue reading “Avatar: Film Review”

How many movies or TV series end with the main characters riding off in a flying car? So far, I’ve been able to think of only seven:

1. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
2. Grease
3. Back To The Future
4. Thelma & Louise
5. Repo Man
6. Vroom
7. Blade Runner

Can you think of any more?

What’s your favourite “guilty pleasure” sci-fi film? Which DVDs do you reach for on a Friday night? My top ten include (in no particular order):

• The Matrix
• Independence Day
• The Terminator
• Back To The Future
• Armageddon
• Dark City
• Serenity
• Highlander
• Aliens
• The Abyss