I was just noticing that the Star Trek movies always give it a near miss.
Star Trek IV: Almost hit by Bird-of-Prey.
Star Trek (2009): Almost hit by Romulan tunneling beam.
Star Trek Into Darkness: Almost hit by a crashlanding warship.
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I had not noticed that, glad you pointed it out! (Need to go back and watch some movies now)
âLet them fight.â
Is Magneto the only supervillain who got to trash both monuments during two separate incidents? (Not counting gratuitous âsmash all the monuments at onceâ assaults like Independence Day.)
Whaaaaat? In all my years cruising this net, this is only the second Niven reference I can recall. As a fan, I wholeheartedly agree and I award you 2Pi internets.
But, going one further, why canât they just come up with something completely original? (ok, Iâll concede that almost nothing is new, just recombined. but why not a new remix?) I understand the big budget shows cost a lot to make, and the makers are reluctant to risk that much cheddar on an unproven story, but where is their artistic drive?
Maybe weâre both asking the wrong question, and it should be, âWhy innovate when you can make money doing the same thing over and over?â For respect? Whatâs that worth? (And I would answer, a lot, but probably less than $1M).
That was really, really great, thank you.
Iâve watched RLMâs review of The Phantom Menace more than I have watched The Phantom Menace.
I understand the big budget shows cost a lot to make, and the makers are reluctant to risk that much cheddar on an unproven story, but where is their artistic drive?
Big hollywood movies like this really arenât meant to be artistic, theyâre meant to make the studio and actors lots and lots of money.
Itâs probably a lot of fun, too. For the actors: scream, make grimaces, collect your paycheck. Post production CGI dudes do most of the hard work for you. For the director and producer, CGI means big set pieces can be realized, so you can just write a series of those and call it a day. Itâs easy money.
If you want creativity, you have to go elsewhere.
One movie I was thinking about lately was Kahaani, out of Bollywood. Hitchcock meets India, itâs a great movie. Maybe we need to leave the US to find the bigger budget, more creative stuff.
The military and Hollywood? But they told me it was the Jews.
Oh, donât be silly. We all know that in real life, if a 300+ foot tall daikaiju began decimating a US city and killing its inhabitants, the actual response would be to contact the municipal animal control in order to have the beast captured and released into its natural habitat. The only reason why in movies we see the US military involved in defending a US city from attack is because of military-funded propaganda.
Yes, and lets stop with the endless productions of Shakespeare, Ibsenâs The Doll House, and for crying out loud, can we just end the endless remakes of Aida and The Ring?
Seriously, human beings tell stories. It is what we do. And part of what we do is to tell the same stories, over and over, with variations. Ask for more or different variation, but asking people to stop retelling the same stories (in any given medium) is just beating your head against the brick wall of what it is to be human.
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I think all of the Rishathra is going to be difficult to transition onto the silver screen.
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âDoes this bridge make my butt look fat?â
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Not at all! The Japanese have already figured this out.
When I was a kid reading the Known Space stories, I thought it was unrealistic how much people drank and did it with aliens. Now that Iâm all grown up, I think I need to have more sex with aliens.
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Looks interesting, thanks for the tip.
The world wasnât able to handle Dr. Manhattanâs big blue dong, I donât think theyâre ready for a faithful adaptation of Ringworld.
I would say they could just cut out that part of the novels, but that was a pretty frequently discussed topic, they would be cutting a lot. Then again, the whole âThis trade deal will reinforce the friendship between our two peoples. Now, do you have any warm â â â â â holes that I may stick my dick into?â aspect was always pretty weird.
And thereâs the fallacy. The problem isnât that thereâs military in a movie where a threats warrants making use of the military, but that movies increasingly get tailored this specific formula. Thank Lee for super hero movies, or it would be worse.
At least it feels that way to me, always like the good old day of cold war scare movies, where plucky nurse, weird scientist and brave soldier work hand on hand to save planet USA from aliens.
Letâs not forget his other bread-and-butter, looking cold and calculating.
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Tokyo destroyed? Check. Giant monsters battling? Possibly? Bryan Cranston looking aghast? Check. New York destroyed? Bonus points!
I donât mind remakes as a rule, Iâm just sick of the now seemingly endless parade of them in short order, especially in SciFi when there are so many great works of literature that could do well on the silver screen since they seem to have trouble coming up with any really new ideas. Haineux, Grand Budapest was delightful, youâre right, Wes Anderson usually does a fantastic job. Omems, I know right?! I canât believe how many people I know who have never even heard of Nivenâs works. Jandrese, yes the Rishing could definitely make some people uncomfortable, but that could actually be a bonus for the movie as long as they arenât too gratuitous.
Itâs more than the âickâ factor of seeing people get it on with crazy freaky space aliens, but also that the whole concept feels like a futuristic version of the 60âs free love movement. Itâs anachronistic futurism.
And frankly itâs seriously in danger of playing as bestiality on the big screen unless they water down the aliens to Star Trek style people with funny bumps on their forehead. I donât think Nessus ever Rished, but some of the other species are pretty out there.
If you want to do Known Space stories, I think the Fleet of Worlds would be a better place to start. It would be much easier to translate to the big screen and fewer problematic areas like breeding for luck and Rishathra. The only issue is lots and lots of CG with the Citizens, or some very clever puppeteering (heh).
