Movies

http://badassdigest.com/2013/06/12/film-crit-hulk-smash-the-age-of-the-convoluted-blockbuster/

This expresses a lot of feelings I've had regarding movies of late, and my disappointment in them, and the direction the industry seems to be going.

Here's an excerpt regarding Star Trek: Into Darkness, and the scene where Spock screams Khan's name:

WHAT’S THE CEILING ON THESE KINDS OF EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCES? WHY DIVORCE THE EMOTION OF THE MOMENT BY TURNING IT INTO REFERENCE? BY TRYING TO FEED OFF AN ASSOCIATIVE MEMORY, IT INHERENTLY ROBS THE SCENE OF ANY SINCERITY BY INVITING THE DIRECT COMPARISON. IT IS “COVER BAND” FILMMAKING AND IT’S THE PERFECT METAPHOR FOR A FILM MIMICKING THE THING IT WANTS TO BE, INSTEAD OF ACTING LIKE THE THINGS THAT INSPIRED IT.

This is poignant to me as a fan of sci fi, because I think the essence of sci fi is examining humanity through the lens of a different world, and I feel that that's severely lacking in a lot of contemporary sci fi and sci fi rehashes. It's all tech fetishism and plot contortions to justify flashy action scenes. Action movies with fancier guns.

Something I've enjoyed recently was the anime series Psycho Pass (season 1, anyway -- Season 2 was handed off to a different studio and seems like a train wreck so far -- But season 1 tells a complete story, so feel free to watch it and just drop the series afterward). It's a little bit like Minority Report, in that there's tech, the psycho pass system, that predicts criminal behavior, but with psychoanalysis instead of psychics.

It's a lot philosophy, and examining what makes us human, as you get to know the characters, and the friction between their nature and personalities, and the society created by the psycho pass system. And then the friction between the characters, as they all have their own feelings about the society they inhabit.

Like real people, who argue about politics.

There's a definite antagonist, and he does some terrible stuff, but you can sympathize with his motives, if not his methods. I'd hesitate to call him a villain. It's not a conflict between good and evil, like you get with the fantasy genre (I don't like fantasy), but conflicts between people trying to make the best decisions given imperfect options.

Like real people, who argue about politics.

It's what I think of as "proper" sci fi.

Got this in a fortune cookie:

Circumstances do not make the man, they merely reveal himself to himself.