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In the prosperous, optimistic days that followed World War II, Americans dreamed of a utopian future made possible by advances in technology. In this gleaming future, all menial labor would be performed by robot servants, sparking a new Renaissance as Americans found themselves unfettered from the need to work. But, during the counterculture movement of the 1960s and '70s, when many Americans began to distrust the government and other established institutions, robots and technology were increasingly viewed with suspicion and paranoia. Increasingly, visions of the future of human-robot relations tended toward the antagonistic, if not the apocalyptic, with the smarter, faster, stronger machines intent on supplanting human beings or wiping us out, altogether.
Whether you believe that we humans will always be able to keep our technology on a leash or you're of the variety that predict we will inevitably be challenged for supremacy of the earth by our humanoid creations, both of those future scenarios recently became closer to reality with the unveiling last month of the "world's most high-tech humanoid," a robot with lifelike features and expressions and working artificial human organs.
the future has arrived >> Posted 03.05.13 by BrentJS -
"The force is strong with this one."
The new year has brought one piece of incredible movie news after another for sci-fi fans, but none has sparked as much debate as Disney’s plans for its recently acquired Lucasfilm assets and the Star Wars movie franchise. January was dominated by questions and rumors about who would be chosen to direct the sequel to Return of the Jedi, currently titled simply Star Wars: Episode VII, with the month closing out with fiery debates over whether the man who reignited the Star Trek franchise for Paramount, J.J. Abrams, was the right choice to reignite Star Wars for Disney. Only eight days into February and the internet is practically melting down over the news that Disney is also developing solo movies featuring a young Han Solo and the mysterious bounty hunter Boba Fett.
With Star Wars on our minds, we decided that this would be a fitting time to find out how you would rank the original trilogy of movies — Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi — against other sci-fi movies of the same era. Put down those sabacc cards, pour yourself a glass of blue milk and choose the best sci-fi movies of the 1970s and '80s.
Rate the Top 10 Best Sci-Fi Movies (1970s - 1980s) >>
Posted 02.08.13 by BrentJS -
Polarizing sci-fi flick Prometheus may not have been one of the best movies of the summer to some, but it was certainly one of the most talked about movies, with audiences pouring over the many unexplained (or should we say vague) details. Ostensibly a prequel to director Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi classic Alien (or, considering the sequel that's in the works, Prometheus is actually the prequel to the prequel to Alien), the DVD and Blu-Ray for Prometheus is hitting shelves today, prompting us to consider which of Ridley Scott's leading ladies was the bigger bad-ass: Prometheus' Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) or Alien's Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver)?
The Rules: Though Prometheus is coming close to franchise-status with the eventual Prometheus 2 on the way, it wouldn't be fair to compare Rapace's Shaw with the entirety of Weaver's appearances as Ripley, so we'll just compare Weaver's Ripley from the original Alien and not the cargo-loading, Newt-obsessed, bald and basketball-savvy Ripley that arrived in later sequels. Gotta make it a fair fight.
check out the characters' strengths and weaknesses before weighing in on our poll >> Posted 10.09.12 by Ryan -
The question of how much director Ridley Scott's upcoming sci-fi movie, Prometheus is a prequel to 1979's Alien probably won't end until the movie opens in June. At WonderCon last month, screenwriter Damon Lindelof said that Prometheus would "will hopefully contextualize the original Alien so maybe you know a bit more," but said that a Prometheus sequel would "tangentialize even further away from the original Alien."
According to Scott, Prometheus will have "strands of Alien's DNA", which is clear from the inclusion of the "Space Jockey" creature from the original Alien, but is that enough to call the movie a prequel? The answer isn't cut and dried, and in an interview with Blastr, Lindelof explained why he doesn't generally like prequels and how Prometheus eschews the typical definition.
read lindelof's comments >> Posted 04.06.12 by Ryan -
Twentieth Century Fox has released an international trailer for Prometheus, director Ridley Scott's possible prequel to his 1979 sci-fi classic Alien. Scott has promised that fans of Alien will see "strands of Alien's DNA" in Prometheus, even if it will "absolutely not" contain any of the famous xenomorphs from the Alien franchise. That could be because Scott has included the "Space Jockey" character from the original Alien and has promised that Prometheus will explain that creature's story.
Set "thirty years prior" to the events of Alien, Prometheus follows a group of scientists and explorers that head to a remote planet on a mission to discover mankind's origins. The previously released trailer that arrived last December looked very much like Alien, and the latest trailer does too, mostly because there is very little difference between them both. Perhaps the latest look at Prometheus will convince Alien fans that what's important is not how the two movies are connected, but what matters is Scott's return to the sci-fi genre after a 30 year absence.
watch the trailer >> Posted 02.17.12 by Ryan -
Much of the credit for the success of Alien is owed to visionary director Ridley Scott, but it's hard to imagine the movie could have spawned a decades-spanning franchise complete with comic book and video game spin-offs if not for the enduring presence of Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley (TotalSciFi ranks Ripley as the #1 female sci-fi icon). While Ripley will not be making an appearance in Scott's highly-anticipated return to the Alien universe, Prometheus, Weaver admitted to being "curious" about the movie and told SkyNews that her input may have had something to do with the plot.
what did weaver say? >> Posted 01.23.12 by BrentJS -
If you even remotely follow sci-fi movie news, then you've no doubt heard several times by now that Ridley Scott's new sci-fi movie, Prometheus, is not an Alien movie and will "absolutely not" have the iconic black xenomorphs, yada yada yada. Well, call us crazy, but the new trailer for Prometheus looks exactly like an Alien movie, except without, you know, any Aliens in it. Need some proof? Well, one fan has edited a new teaser trailer for Alien in the style of Prometheus that makes a pretty convincing case for the two movies sharing more than simply "DNA."
watch the fan-made trailer for Alien >> Posted 01.09.12 by BrentJS -
After a week where 20th Century Fox released three preview clips for the trailer of director Ridley Scott's highly anticipated new sci-fi movie, Prometheus, the actual trailer has finally arrived online.
Originally set as a prequel to Scott's 1979 classic Alien (until Scott said it had "evolved" beyond the Alien franchise and into "a new, grand mythology and universe where this original story takes place"), Prometheus follows a group of scientists and explorers led by Noomi Rapace that heads to a distant planet in search of the answers to mankind's origins.
watch the trailer >> Posted 12.22.11 by Ryan -
There was a time when director Ridley Scott's upcoming sci-fi epic Prometheus was simply called the Alien Prequel, with Scott revealing in October of 2009 that the movie would take place "thirty years prior" to the events of his 1979 classic Alien. By April of 2010, Scott said that the prequel, then being written solely by John Spaihts, would be about "terraforming — taking planets and planetoids and balls of earth and trying to terraform, seed them with the possibilities of future life" and would concentrate on the "Space Jockey" creature found by Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt) in the early part of Alien.
Screenwriter Damon Lindelof (Lost) took over scripting duties in July of 2010, and the results led Scott to declare in January that the prequel had "evolved" beyond the Alien franchise and retitled the movie Prometheus. Scott declared that the new script had "a new, grand mythology and universe in which this original story takes place" though he admitted that Alien fans "will recognize strands of Alien’s DNA, so to speak."
In a recent interview with Filmophilia, Scott again claimed that Prometheus is "not" an Alien movie, and clarified his comments about the movie having "strands of Alien DNA."
will the classic Alien return? >> Posted 12.19.11 by Ryan -
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, a bootleg version of the trailer for director Ridley Scott's Prometheus was leaked online just as Twentieth Century Fox had released some new images and details about the upcoming sci-fi movie.
While bootlegs usually want for quality, the Prometheus trailer was beyond poor, shot, presumably by the uploader, right off a TV screen with the perpetrator's image often reflecting off the screen. Fox eventually worked to remove the bootlegged trailer, but the damage was already done according to Fox chairman and CEO Tom Rothman. He called the leak "heartbreakingly unfair" when he talked to MTV at the Gotham Independent Film Awards.
not an Alien prequel, says Rothman >> Posted 12.01.11 by Ryan