The Sci-fi Films To Look Forward To In 2013 277
brumgrunt writes "Not every sci-fi film released in 2013 will be a sequel or franchise movie. Den Of Geek has highlighted the ten sci-fi movies that might just offer something a little different from the PG-13, family-centric norm."
The list includes Elysium, from the writer/director of District 9. It's "set in 2159, where Earth has become so hopelessly overcrowded that the richest members of society live on a luxurious orbiting space station." There's also After Earth, directed (but not written) by M. Night Shyamalan, which stars Will Smith and his son Jaden. They "crash land on Earth at some point in the future, by which time it's become a dangerous place devoid of human life." And, of course, there's Ender's Game.
ah, Ender's game (Score:4, Funny)
The sci fi movie to ender all sci fi movies...
Re:ah, Ender's game (Score:4, Interesting)
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I once asked a friend what that book was about. He blurted it out and told me the ending. "Thanks, now I can't read it" says I.
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You should have read it anyway. The ending was easy to work out early in the book and it was still enjoyable to read.
Re:ah, Ender's game (Score:4, Insightful)
Exactly. It's not supposed to be a big surprising revelation for the reader. It's supposed to be a revelation to Ender, but just confirmation of growing suspicion to the reader. At least that's how I read it. There were far too many hints to the reader for it to have been intended as a surprise, and I'm usually the guy who does get surprised by these sorts of things.
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They're going for dramatic tension where the audience knows almost the entire time(if not actually the entire time).
They're overestimating the audience. Virtually nobody remembered the way the original War of the World's ended when they saw the remake in 2005.
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Anyone else concerned that Ender only gets 5th billing, whereas Valentine is in 2nd pos...? Hmmm...
No, as there's no numbering in the article ;)
Bean actually did (Score:5, Informative)
Read Ender's Shadow (parallels Ender's Game, but from Bean's point of view) and you'll see that he definitely does figure it out. In fact, ho not only figures it out, he figures out *why* it's being kept secret, and doesn't tell the others. I suspect a few of the others may have figured it out too.
Re:ah, Ender's game (Score:5, Insightful)
unfortunately Ender's Game didn't age well. It was awesome when I read it in the early 90's. Now, not so sure.
Some of the main plot points depend on us believing that a smart psychopath 13-year old assumes great powers by posting wise articles on the Net. Well the Net is really here, and we have Slashdot and Twitter and blogs... we can post wisdom until cows come home and no great powers will have been gained.
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we can post wisdom
[mythbuster]well, now, *there's* your problem[/mythbuster]
Re:ah, Ender's game (Score:5, Interesting)
" Well the Net is really here, and we have Slashdot and Twitter and blogs... we can post wisdom until cows come home and no great powers will have been gained."
I couldn't disagree more.
Consider Nate Silver. (See his wiki entry if you don't know who he is.) He is a smart guy who started off with baseball predictions, but his prominence shot up after he "posted his wisdom" essentially nailing the last presidential election state by state. There is no doubt that this lead to his prominence today (at a relatively young age).
Secondly, regarding the rest of "us", I'm still waiting to find this wisdom of which you speak. And no, the occasional needle in the haystack does not count.
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The unrealistic assumption in the book is that you can stay anonymous on the NET once your voice starts to matter. That would never happen in reality - the moment you gain enough influence to show on the radar you are toast (metaphorically or even literally).
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Yep. Ender's Game (the novel) is essentially two adolescent fantasies (Kid Saves The World From Alien Baddies, and Plucky Kids Save The World From Government Baddies) uncomfortably fused into one. When I was late adolescent in the late 70's and read the original short, I thought it trite. When I was (well) post adolescent in the mid 80's and read the novel - my opinion went down considerably. Th
Re:ah, Ender's game (Score:5, Interesting)
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Eh, the kids were asking for it...
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I suspect its going to be an action and special effects demo reel with as thin a layer of plot "frosting" as possible. Like the latest star trek movie.
Its kind of like hoping for a Ringo / Aldenata / Posleen movie.. it would just be a sci fi horror gore-fest shoot em up, pretty boring compared to the books.
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Haven't see it yet, but isn't that sort of the whole premise of The Hunger Games?
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Haven't see it yet, but isn't that sort of the whole premise of The Hunger Games?
Good point, hadn't thought of that. Haven't seen it either, but after a brief bit of research, it seems like the movie version upped the age of most of the younger characters. At least, most of the adolescent characters are played by people in their early twenties, and the pre-adolescent characters are played by adolescents. I suppose they could do likewise with Ender's Game, but then they'd be ditching the contrast between age and intelligence -- all of the kids are supposed to be incredible geniuses just
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LOTR were books about language. The movies stripped out everything. There wasn't even a single song in all of the books.
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The sci fi movie to ender all sci fi movies...
I think that once Hollywood dies from all these sequels, remakes, and rehashes, I'll prepare a little speech. I'm sure there's a few things they'd want to have said and I don't mind being the speaker for the dead.
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Is it weird that I noticed virtually all of Orson Scott Card's books have a description of a nude boy in them at some point?
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you mean someone wrote a story that, for once, didn't include slavish amounts of pro-minority/female empowerment style political correctness at the expense of the suspension of disbelief? How refreshingly different! I'm glad he was able to include realistic depictions of people belonging to those groups, having both something to offer as well as flaws, within the context of their true natures instead of making them out to be super heroes because of their skin or gender. Most movies/books do the latter nowa
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No, I wasn't referring to Ender's Game directly. Back then, it just seemed a good story, albeit with a lot of prepubescent male nudity. After Card decided to spell out just how much he loathes and fears homosexuals, well, a lot of the subtext of Ender's Game starts to make more sense.
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When I read it, I knew nothing about the author and assumed it had more to do with military culture, hazing, and bullying than anything else. I still think this was the intent. These days "loathing and fearing" homosexuals is attached to anyone who criticizes one in unrelated areas, or doesn't say how wonderful they are at every opportunity, so I don't know just how 'egregious' his statements really were.
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From what I can tell, he mostly follow the typical position of Abrahamic religions. Homosexuality is a sin, governments who legalize gay marriage should be destroyed. Also at one point he supported keeping laws banning homosexual behavior, apparently he doesn't anymore.
Not surprising considering he's an important LDS member.
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It's rather interesting actually... his personal views on homosexuality and such do leak into his writing a little bit if you know to look for them, but but I think he still comes off better in that regard than most other popular authors if you consider the writing alone. The simple fact that he's willing to write gay characters, and even give them the occasional POV without making them sound like *completely* horrible people... that's more than a lot of other authors will do. I still can't bring myself to
After Earth : no thanks (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't intend to contribute to a Movie Star promoting his son into Movie Star II, I'll rather go and see Elysium or Ender's Game.
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Well, at least he's trying to get his son to work for a living . . . Instead letting him blow all his dad's loot on drugs and whores, and becoming another Hollywood gossip story casualty . . .
Son promoting worked well for Kirk Douglas . . .
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Re:After Earth : no thanks (Score:5, Funny)
Re:After Earth : no thanks (Score:5, Insightful)
And why would you refuse to see something based on that reason? Jealousy? Envy? Throughout all of history, men have brought up their sons to do what they do. Blacksmiths, doctors, etc, all taught their sons their trades. Acting is a trade too. You were not lucky enough to have a father who could teach you things that would make you very wealthy. Mr. Smith's son is. Deal with it.
Lest they forget... (Score:2)
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Not even the Mayans thought the world would end when their calender did.
Even if they did, whats their track record. Hmm wiped out. Not looking good. You'd think they would have predicted and avoided that.
The classic psychic / mindreader defense. "So whats your name, what brings you here?" "If you're so good at prediction, why don't you tell me?"
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I can see the future! Shall I predict yours?
Ehh, are you really good?
Yes sir!
Then why didn't you predict me saying no to you?
But I am very good sir!
Yes, yes thank you and have a pleasant day!
Man he seemed surprised... It is always the same isn't it? Maybe it's a flaw in the educational system. Maybe we should have a fortune teller at the end of high-school as a sort of e
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The Forever War... (Score:5, Informative)
... didn't make that list but it shows up in IMDB as being available in 2013 [imdb.com].
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Both sides, after several thousand years of war: "oh, we thought you wanted the war! Oops, nevermind!"
As if the ancient causes of a war would even matter by that point. c.f. today's middle east.
Totally caved? Re:The Forever War... (Score:3)
I didn't see it that way. In the story, the "Ohhh!" moment didn't come until Human++ thinking (the emergent mind of a cloned population) could see things from a different perspective. In aggregate, contemporary Humans are sharply bounded in their ability for rational decisions (as per your Middle East reference; notable but not unique, any long running conflict could serve as a similar example). Haldeman was suggesting that Human++ thinking could work better than what we can do now, or a
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(I'm looking forward to checking out Forever Free, I just learned about that in this thread.)
I wouldn't bother, seriously. It has an ending worse than the Dark Tower series' descent into 'Oh look these robots are flinging about Harry Potter (TM) snitches!'. I loved the Forever War, but this 'sequel' is one of the few books that has made me embarrassed for reading it.
On the other hand, Forever Peace, which is by the same author but is not a sequel (different universe, different take on war but similarly thought-provoking to the Forever War), is excellent and well worth reading. You can pick up all t
Re:The Forever War... (Score:4, Insightful)
Many people felt that the "Starship Troopers" book was facist claptrap, and apparently the people behind the movie were some of them, so they turned it into a farce.
IMHO, "Starship Troopers" is the story of The Bug War as told by a World War II veteran. "The Forever War" is the story of The Bug War as told by a Viet Nam veteran.
Side note... In "Forever Free" it was interesting to see them make the armaments (especially the fighting suits) of "The Forever War" seem quaint and cute.
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One wonders how the people with the rights to one of Heinlein's best let such people gain creative control of it.
When the book came out (it was considered one of his teens' books) people said, aghast, "But...but...but you glorified the military!"
"You're damned right I did."
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Heinlein and EE Doc Smith both spent a fair amount of time disparaging the pee-pul, and both were bullish on capitalists.
I don't think either would have recognized most of today's industry leaders as capitalists. They were both big on "good pay for good work," "enlightened self-interest," and the like. I think the concept of a company that exists pretty much solely to extract value out of other working companies, saddling them with debt, sometimes to the point of bankruptcy, would have been shocking to th
Re:Only superficially related (Score:5, Insightful)
The contradiction is only apparent since that is not what ST was about. It was about the idea that you cannot have social responsibility without first being willing to make a personal sacrifice for the greater good, and that letting those who aren't willing to do so have a say in the society is detrimental. In the novel, such willingness is shown through federal service, but that service was not necessarily military. Also, about military citizenship, people in the military were not allowed to vote. It is only after service that franchise is gained, so nobody in the service can be running the country.
This novel is similar to SiaSL in that contemporary social norms are challenged. In our democracy it's automatically assumed to be a fundamental right that everybody gets to vote, and Heinlein challenges this. Also at the time our army was a conscripted force, still mostly segregated by race, and with deep divides on ethnicity. Women at the time had a very peripheral role in the military. Heinlein used the concept of a completely volunteer force that is integrated by race and ethnicity, and in which women serve equally. The idea of a free person is taken so far that a soldier could legally quit to avoid being sent into battle, since you can't force a person to be willing to sacrifice for the good of the society. Many concepts of the novel were quite socially progressive for its time, and some these are still now.
And of course the strongest connection between the two novels is that Hershal in SiaSL and the teacher in ST are both considered to be the voice of Heinlein speaking through his characters.
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Seriously?
I loved Starship Troopers. The whole movie was a brilliant commentary to the political situation in the US, and litteraly dripping with sarcasm. I mean, they even cast the main actors for their horrible acting performance. In that sense it was very true to the book, which, in its own time, was a great commentary on fascism.
Re:The Forever War... (Score:4, Insightful)
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I read that the writer of the screenplay didn't finish reading the book. It was too depressing.
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"After Earth"? As in Dougal Dixon's book? (Score:3)
The description of said movie makes me think it's directly inspired by Dougal Dixon's After Earth book (available at http://www.amazon.com/After-Man-A-Zoology-Future/dp/0312194331 [amazon.com] and other stores). A *great* read, I must say.
Now, that movie shows promise... or it would, if Mr. ObTwist weren't involved. Still, getting to see a the heroes mounting a rabbuck might be worthwhile.
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Can it save the film from the "SOMETHING HAPPENS... nothing much happening... SomeThinG HappeNs... nothing much happening... SOMeTHiNG HAPPpENs... nothing much happens... SOMETHING COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED HAPPENS... the end" that typifies his films?
How that guy was ever let near a camera, let alone given the power to command where one was pointed is beyond me. He is sort of like the anti-Michael Bay, and like all polar opposites, exhibits completely different and yet completely kinds of suckage.
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I cannot comprehend why he is still allowed near movies in any capacity...
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I've though for a while now that Shama- Shamus- Shamla- the Sixth Sense guy could have a had a comeback if he just found some good scripts and directed those. He knows how to put a movie together. Even stuff like Signs and The Village were fun to watch until you got to the bad twist ending. The guy can present a bad story well, as weird as that sounds. Unbreakable is still one of my favorite films.
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I concur, except for Mel Gibson's acting. I don't think there's any director capable of slapping MG back into proper acting, at all.
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Glad I'm not the only one who has trouble pronouncing that name.
The closest I can get is 'Charlatan'.
People still know who I'm talking about.
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If only Will Smith could have been cast in some earlier film about a mostly depopulated earth...
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"Ali"?
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The Legend of Bagger Vance. It's like four people on a vast empty tract of grassland.
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Used to have a copy of that book. No idea where it went. Sheesh. $129 for a new copy? Out of print and dwindling supplies, I guess. $8 for a used one, though. I'm tempted.
I remember the text being really anti-human and how Nature would never make the mistake of intelligence again after humans were gone. Cripes, lighten up, dude. I'm a complete, black-heated misanthrope, but even I don't advocate human extinction. I just want people to wake the fuck up. We have a lot of untapped potential.
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After Man. My mistake.
Look Forward To? Maybe Not... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'll steer clear until they A) are thoroughly and positively reviewed by trusted peers, and B) become available on at least one of the streaming services I subscribe to.
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"90 minute suck-fests"? If *only* ...
Sitting through 90 minute suck-fests can be an enjoyable way of spending an afternoon out at the movies, or a lazy night in front of the TV. But it's almost impossible to do these days - all they seem to make is 210 minute suck-fests...
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Moonrise Kingdom: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/moonrise_kingdom/ [rottentomatoes.com]
Ender's Game (Score:2)
Is there still time to stop this movie from being made and/or released?... Heck, I'll pay full ticket AND blu-ray price to see it never happen. Who's with me? If we give them enough money maybe they'll go away without ruining stuff.
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Starship Troopers is better if you pretend it's a completely unrelated story that happens to have the same name, and then you watch it anyway - as a comedy.
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See also too: "I, Robot"...
Cloud Atlas comes out this month, not 2013 (Score:2)
Also two films with Tom Cruise and Will Smith? Nope.
Worse, the Will Smith film is filmed by M. Night Shamalamadingdong.
Bit early - try again after Christmas (Score:3)
Bit early for this, isn't it? A lot of titles are TBA until after Christmas.
As it is, there's a decent Sci-fi flick probably still playing near you (or will be playing at a later date); Looper.
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A second for this movie - definitely worth watching, keeps you guessing how the whole thing's going to be resolved until the end. One of the better science fiction movies I've seen in quite a while.
The Last Mimzy (Score:2)
Alfonso Cuarón (Score:2)
I read through the list feeling more and more cynical. Adaptation of best seller, staring on Screen Saint Thomas. Plotless CGI movie. High concept CGI movie. Comic horror movie. And so on... Some of these will have their fans, I guess, but I find it hard to care about them.
Then the last one on the list is a new movie from Alfonso Cuarón. Finally! If you've seen Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban or Children of Men you'll know this is the only big name director who understands all the little touch
We're there any good Sci Fi movies this year? (Score:2)
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'Good' depends mostly on your taste, doesn't it?
And you didn't note how you rated those two titles - which are about as different as movies get to be and the latter can't really be called Sci-Fi at all - so that's no help.
So I'll try and go by audience reactions over here where I live.
The Lockout was skippable
Prometheus was visually neat but story-wise quite underwhelming. Still, if you enjoyed the Alien(s) movies, might as well hit this one up.
John Carter was skippable.
Chronicle had promise but ended up
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You forgot District 9, which I would recommend. Good plot: actually gives the viewer some things to think about, as opposed to "aliens bad, people good" type stuff. Good visuals: special effects and CGI believable, also the camera switching technique was interesting.
Sci-fi fans won't spend money anyway (Score:2)
And, when they do they're just going to hyper-analyze and bitch about ever little detail trying to make themselves feel smart. Go check out imdb.com forums on any sci-fi movie released in the last 10 years. If I were a Hollywood producer, I sure wouldn't put *my* money up to get one made.
Glad to see overpopulation is the focus in Elysium (Score:2)
This issue is chronically ignored, but the fact remains that earth is finite and no matter how "carbon neutral" we all try to be, at some point we'll create too many people to both have those people and any kind of natural environment as well. If we had orbiting colonies today, the rich would go there to escape the clutter, pollution, violence, corruption, etc. of life on earth. Maybe Elysium will be like the Idiocracy for future generations.
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From what I've heard of the movie before, overpopulation in particular isn't the focus of the movie so much as general environmental destruction and wealth inequality. In any case it should be a good old-school dystopian sci-fi movie and piss off right-wingers so I call that a win/win.
6 degrees of will smith (Score:2)
I doubt Smith would do anything other than PG-13 with his son, or without ... his days of doing anything edgy vanished with Six Degrees of Separation. In my opinion, he's on the Adam Sandler plan of "make a bazillion dollars doing the least challenging acting roles possible."
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I'm no Will Smith fan, but comparing him to Adam Sandler, that is totally uncalled for.
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yeah, that was a bit harsh.
i've never seen the fresh prince make a fart joke.
of course, i've only seen like 10% of Smith's movies because I can't stand watching the guy's one-dimensional affectations, but hey, i'm a dick.
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After seeing I robot, I simply can't trust him to do science fiction.
Whatever happened to... (Score:2)
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Rama (Score:5, Insightful)
Devoid of human life (Score:2)
Please no more sequels and re-makes (Score:5, Insightful)
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Sounds like what you're hoping for is for movies like C to be made. Hopefully you pledged for it when it ran, then:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1282316546/c-299792-km-s [kickstarter.com]
It's slowly, but surely, coming along.
It may be a total bust, mind you. But at least they've got your dislike for CGI budgeting covered.
Neuromancer is not in the list ? (Score:3, Interesting)
Hmmn ..:P
I was under the impression that Neuromancer was coming out in 2013 ? The director is the same guy who directed Splice. I was looking forward to that.
Hyperion (Score:5, Interesting)
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I quite like Will Smith. He's the same character in every film I've ever seen him in, but I still like him.
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I don't care who is in a film as long as the film is good. One my favorite films is Primer starring the indie filmamker who wrote/directed it, and a bunch of his friends. :-)
Well, there are some actors who rub me the wrong way, and I will avoid films with them in it unless it has seriously positive word of mouth from people I know and trust on these matters.
I can even be converted. Kiefer Sutherland grated on me when he was young (don't really know why... just one of those things), but then I got a kick out
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As for "After Earth", well... it's just kind of a shame M. Night Shamylan keeps getting money
He seems like a talented-enough director... but what kind of imbecile writes a plot where aliens who are advanced enough to achieve FTL travel - yet too stupid to wear basic protection against water, a substance deadly to them - want to invade a planet literally drenched in the stuff??!
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As for "After Earth", well... it's just kind of a shame M. Night Shamylan keeps getting money
He seems like a talented-enough director... but what kind of imbecile writes a plot where aliens who are advanced enough to achieve FTL travel - yet too stupid to wear basic protection against water, a substance deadly to them - want to invade a planet literally drenched in the stuff??!
Okay, good, I'm glad I'm not the only one who was screaming "THE ENTIRE FUCKING ATMOSPHERE IS FULL OF WATER YOU FUCKBAG!!".
I'll be able to go back to Silver City on Nov 7, when the restraining order lifts.
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Okay, good, I'm glad I'm not the only one who was screaming "THE ENTIRE FUCKING ATMOSPHERE IS FULL OF WATER YOU FUCKBAG!!".
So much for suspension of disbelief, eh? :p
I'll be able to go back to Silver City on Nov 7, when the restraining order lifts.
Do tell...! :D