I’m also in the middle ground of fans who like the third film, Rise of the Machines.  It’s nowhere near as good as T1 or T2, but it has its own kind of fun, and I enjoyed that a movie from a big studio would allow that kind of an ending.  But T3 is lumped in with many a third entry in franchises, and disliked by quite a few.  So the unenviable task for Genisys is if it can stand next to the original and Judgment Day.

As much as I was looking forward to a reinvention for the Terminator, it does not stand with those revolutionary films.  It’s not nearly as bad as Salvation, but I think I’d still prefer to watch Rise of the Machines over Genisys.  Which pains me to say, because this newest entry isn’t really bad, it just doesn’t live up to its potential.  If not for a few miscues it could have really been a great movie.

Genisys follows the basic story laid out by previous entries, and I swear a few nods to even the third and fourth films.  Going all the way to the 80’s original, human savior leads a revolt of humans in a victory over the machines that have enslaved and exterminated the earth’s population.  However, the program governing the machines, Skynet, launches a final offensive by sending back a Terminator cyborg to kill John’s mother Sarah before she can give birth to the greatest leader in human history.

John sends back Kyle Reese, one of his soldiers and the man destined to father John while in the past, to protect his mother and ensure his birth.  All this is as it was in previous movies, but now as we see Reese sent back, there is an attack on John, and history is changed from what we know it to be.  Reese has double memories of two timelines, another Terminator was sent back to protect Sarah at a younger age, and a few other mysteries linger as to what ramifications these changes have had.

This is just the latest in a series of franchise filmmaking to use the newest plot device, thanks to time travel, of “resetting” a fictional history so as to be able to explore familiar territory in new ways.  The first J.J. Abrams directed Star Trek film did this famously, or infamously, and might now seem to be a way to revitalize other franchises such as Terminator.  And honestly, it wasn’t too bad of an idea, but the execution was just a wee off.

The best I can surmise is that the more digital we get in society, and in movie making, the more the product suffers.  Just as in Jurassic World, digital special effects and a more modern look take away from what we’re seeing.  Watching that movie, and now watching this, I couldn’t help but think how much better the effects looked in the older versions.  This is especially true when you see the T-1000 of Genisys, a creation that doesn’t look nearly as good as his 1991 counterpart did.

These new movies lack that sense of feeling, of a world that’s lived in.  The best comparison would be the original Star Wars movie to the prequels.  The aesthetic is too clean, too refined.  In Genisys, we see future soldiers of humanity who are far more organized and uniform (even with their uniforms) than I remember in the original Terminator.

And in a movie about man versus machine, we need better actors than what we have here.  The person with the most personality is the cyborg for the love of Pete.  I really have nothing against Jai Courtney, except for the fact that he seems to be taking a lot of roles from actors who would be better suited for them.  Here we have a Kyle Reese who could be the stand in for a lower budget Terminator instead of an everyman like Michael Biehn or even Anton Yelchin (one of the bright spots of Salvation).  It’s a real downgrade for the character.

Emilia Clarke, girl from Game of Thrones, is in a tough spot as Sarah.  Who in her right mind would want to follow in the footsteps of Linda effin’ Hamilton?  But she does pretty good in the role, caught somewhere between the Sarah who has yet to discover her importance and the one who escapes from an institution and teaches her son how to save the world.

I will say that J.K. Simmons has a pretty interesting role, and when it is made known who he is, one can see where the writers are going with him.  It’s small for Genisys, but I have a feeling he becomes much more in future installments.  That’s if we can get there through this first movie in what is a proposed trilogy, and it makes the oodles of money it needs to.

A lot of the disappointment with the Terminator movies as we continue along, I think, stem from what could be described as a feeling that the movies are simply retreads of material we’ve already seen, and places we’ve already been.  Not just that, but also because there is quite possibly a gold mine of stories that could come out of the mythology, and we haven’t seen them because those in charge are playing it safe.

The thing about Genisys, however, is that the conceit of the story has the audience deliberately witnessing ground we’ve already covered as being essential to the plot.  It’s a mix of the aforementioned 2009 Star Trek and Back to the Future Part II.  I’m hoping it’s something that is a necessary hump to do what they need to do in order to move forward.  If not, it might be time to bring in new blood, er, circuitry, or abandon the series altogether before even the original films are tarnished.

As much of a retread is needed for this story to be pulled off, there was one twist that is a HUGE departure from the Terminator mythology, and they gave it away with second damn trailer released for the movie!  I don’t normally care about spoilers, but when you put in the trailer and ON THE POSTER that John Connor has been changed into a Terminator…W.T.F., indeed.  In a movie where we really have seen everything it’s got to offer, why give away the one thing that could have been a great holy shit moment?

One last note, and we have Marvel to thank for this trend, there is a small scene mid-credits. So, yeah.

The franchise isn’t yet terminated, but it’s going to have to be better than this to survive its own judgment day.

I first came across him through a movie. Spoiler alert, it’s not Blade Runner (starring Harry Ford). If you think it’s Total Recall (starring A. Schwarzenegger) or Total Recall (starring Jessy Biel) or Next (starring Nick Ca-age) you’re wrong. The year is 2006. The big movie coming out that summer was Transformers. I was looking forward to it for some reason I still don’t understand. Then saw the trailer and changed my mind. I had already started watching indie and art house movies by then and learned Richie Linklater had a film coming out with Keanu called A Scanner Darkly. Since I lived in central Delaware I assumed a small artsy movie like that would play there. Well, it didn’t. I rented it from Blockbuster ASAP and loved it. From there made the mistake of showing it to my friends that loved Transformers and no one liked it. PKD’s books came a few years later but the seed had been planted in my sub-consciousness.

Philip Kindred Dick was born December 16, 1928 in Chicago. He had a twin sister, Jane, but she died 41 days later unfortunately. His parents were Dorothy Kindred Dick and Joseph Edgar Dick. Joe’s job had them moving around and they ended up in San Francisco. Shortly after Joe was transferred to Reno, Nevada but Dorothy wanted to stay in California. They divorced. Dorothy won custody and raised Phil as a single mom. They moved to Washington D.C. Phil attended Quaker schools for a few years. They moved back to California in 1938.Two years later, when he was 12 he discovered a science fiction magazine called, “Stirring Science Stories.”

His high school years were spent at Berkeley High School with fellow legendary science fiction writer Ursula K. LeGuin. They didn’t know each other at the time however. Phil graduated and very shortly went to University of California Berkeley in 1948. He dropped out for medical reasons and married for the 1^st of 5 different times. His marriages were the following Jeanette Marlin 1948, Kleo Apostolides 1950 to 1959, Anne Williams Rubinstein 1959 to 1965, Nancy Hackett 1966 to 1972, and Leslie Busby 1973 to 1977. Also he has three children, Laura Archer, Isolde Freya, and Christopher Kenneth.

Kleo was heavily involved with liberal activism to the point, an FBI agent started stopping by and inspecting the young couple. They ended up being good friends with the FBI agent for the next few years.

He sold his first short story in 1951. Four years later he sold his first book, The Solar Lottery. He attempted to break into mainstream fiction. No one wanted any of it. Science fiction on the other hand fully embraced him and couldn’t get enough. In 1963 he won his only Hugo award for The Man in the High Castle. By this point he was done with mainstream fiction. He continued writing at the rate of a book or two published per year.

In the early 1970s, a woman delivered a package. It was analgesia for a dental procedure. She was wearing a Christian fish necklace. He opened the door and saw the fish or as he called it the, “vesicle Pisces.” This caused several months of visions that inspired the VALIS trilogy.

After an interview in 1982, he was hospitalized after having a series of strokes. March 2, 1982 life support was cut. He was the first science fiction writer published by the Library of America, a nonprofit publisher of American classics. His library colleagues include Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, W.E.B. DuBois, and Willa Cather.

PKD’s drug habit and addiction is pretty well-known. During the 1960s his home became a haven for counterculture hippies and whatnot. Apparently his drugs of choice were amphetamines and speed. After years of using he sobered up and wrote A Scanner Darkly based on his last few years of drug use. In 1970, his 4^th wife, Nancy Hackett, left him. He was lonely in a four bedroom home so he had teenage and college age hippies hang out at his home and get high. There was a regular crew of people that are represented in A Scanner Darkly. His writing output slowed down post going sober but his ideas remained just as bizarre and insightful.

Overall his career wasn’t amazing. He was a successful writer that made a living off it but was never fully appreciated until after he died. Phil didn’t live to see Blade Runner, which came out three months after he died. He saw special effects tests and loved it. It was apparently exactly how he envisioned his book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? If you look at a lot of PKD’s short stories and novels, they follow a similar formula. A regular man is caught up in a crazy situation where there’s heavy drug use that manipulates reality or perception of reality where the governing body of some kind is corrupt in some way. In addition there are two other storylines that may or may not interact with the core storyline but the central idea is fascinating and engrossing. Also the main characters have crazy names for example; Eric Sweetscent, Herb Lackmore, Lars Powderdry, Elvira Funt, and Reese Verrick.

The first PKD book I read was The Zap Gun. It was the wrong book to start with. While it’s enjoyable it’s a deep cut for a reason. Shortly after that I read Now Wait for Last Year and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. These hooked me for life.

Phil approached science fiction from a psychedelic, relatable and philosophical point-of-view. They manage to be very weird and out there yet feel grounded, real and human. PKD changed the scope of science fiction. There aren’t majestic chosen ones bound by fate. There aren’t giant space battles. There aren’t colossal space monsters. He wrote about mind-bending, reality-altering concepts that affect a person’s life and environment. The concept and themes fully engulf and consume everything in the pages. You see how it affects and morphs every aspect of that world. He plunged into your consciousness and challenged everything you knew and assumed to be real and tangible.

He tragically never got to see his work change the world. Let’s celebrate the life of Philip K. Dick, pick up one of his books and question your reality. You won’t regret it.

The Best:

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, 1974

The VALIS trilogy, 1978-1982

The Man in the High Castle, 1963

Where to Start:

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, 1964

Now Wait for Last Year, 1963

A Scanner Darkly, 1977

The Deep Cuts:

Counter-Clock World, 1965

The Zap Gun, 1965

The Crack in Space, 1963

The Solar Lottery, 1955

What do these futures have in common with each other?

The best/worst recurring motif is computer technology. They so wildly mis-predicted where technology was going in the best way. It’s pretty amazing. Computers at that time were still the size of a room and they predicted…they would stay exactly the same. Other pieces of technology are giant-sized or shrunken but the most technological thing of the 20^th century remained exactly the same. Except they had one major change, that made them terrifying overseers keeping humanity in line, the ability to speak. The most evil thing that a computer could possibly do is sound kinda like Dalek but not enough that it’s violating copyright. Also they kept humanity in line via many evil methods like deciding who lives and dies and other boring stuff like that. I imagine that was revolutionary and mind-blowing at the time but now it doesn’t quite have the same effect. Basically, it’s like CG now. Much like a beer, it doesn’t age well.

Some other themes are the rise of mega-corporations, the popularity of reality TV and the extinction of religion. You could say part of this is happening right now as you read this. The recurring theme for these businesses isn’t profit but morality…? These companies make society more moral and peaceful. How do they do that exactly? They create games involving people hunting and killing other people. It’s a mixed message but they tricked governments into giving them money somehow. I don’t understand how they even started. How does one propose creating a LLC that produces corpses? It raises questions and once you start breaking down it stops making any sense. Religion appears to have been replaced by these mega-corporations.

According to these films, people at the time were afraid of religion disappearing, computers talking, and corporations creating and policing morality. Two of these are legitimate and understandable fears. The other is talking computers.

How close are we to these futures?

Naturally looking at these films you’ll start to wonder, if it’s just around corner. Reality TV is unfortunately still very popular. It begs the question, where is reality TV heading? We have shows about Honeys’ Boo², Dynasties of Ducks, Cats of Fishing and Gene Simmons’ Jewelry. It’s only a matter of time until they’re completely out of ideas and revert to gladiator style fights for our entertainment. It appears on its last legs now but imagine, in 50 or 60 years what will it morph into?

The omnipresence of cameras recording every detail of our dull lives was spot on. However, we adjusted very quickly and seemingly don’t care or mind. In the movies, cameras are everywhere. Some are hidden and some are staring you in the face. In theory it is possible to record every second of a person’s life using security cameras, cell phones, laptops, camcorders, GoPros, webcams, google glass, etc. I think we should start giving a shit a little at least I mean, privacy is great. When you’re alone you can do anything…anything without the prying eyes of society judging you, privacy is necessary for us to function. Enough of that, cameras are everywhere and that was eerily accurate.

The status and power that corporations have is mentioned in the previous section. However, it appears corporations are unstoppable and growing stronger. I hate to say it but according to the 1960s version of a dystopian future…we are living it as you read this. I’m sorry this is how you learn. We can start by throwing away our phones or we can start tomorrow.

Would it be fun to live this future?

I saved the best for last. This is not a simple question of yes or no it requires some thought and patience. There are multiple things to consider here. According to the sections above this future involves mega corporations that produce morality through corpses, cameras constantly watching us, computers that talk in gravelly voices, and reality shows where people do ridiculous things against their will. On top of that everything has just slightly more rubble than now. It’s not a complete wasteland but it’s nearly done recovering through a disaster, compared to modern ones.

Since things aren’t as bad as they could be, this future might be worth it however. Here is my reasoning, it may appear bad but living in an oppression future would have one great benefit. That is, amazing Hip Hop and Punk Rock. Since the economy is not so great and people live in impoverished conditions, that breeds anti-establishment and honest music. I would want to live in this future. The music would be so good it’s worth the potential of being involved in a life-or-death reality show, oppressive corporations, and computers talking to me with creepy gravelly voices.

With all that said, Part 2 is coming soon. I’ll take a look at the modern idea of a dystopian future with The Hunger Games, Snowpiercer, and Doomsday.

I first heard of her only a few years ago when I discovered a Syfy movie called The Lathe of Heaven. When I hear of a Syfy movie my mind jumps to something consisting of forgotten 90s cultural icons, horrific CGI, pointless story, and colossal animals but this was different. The plot was intriguing and actually sounded good then I looked it up and saw it was based on a book. In place of watch a Syfy movie I bought the book. Prior to this however I didn’t like science fiction at all. Star Wars and Star Trek never hooked me as a kid thus kid version of me assumed science fiction was lame and boring. This book completely changed my mind. I had no idea science fiction could be interesting, engaging, weird, and cool. I started reading more of her catalog and started reading more science fiction. The Lathe of Heaven is the perfect sci-fi/fantasy novel. It’s extremely accessible, thought provoking, dense, and endlessly engrossing. Needless to say, it’s one of my favorite books.

Ursula K. Le Guin was born in 1929 to an anthropologist father, Alfred L. Kroeber, and a writer, Theodora Kroeber. Ursula was the baby and had three older brothers. Despite growing up in the Great Depression her family wasn’t affected by it. She has said that her parents were very encouraging and wanted their children to pursue what they loved. Ursula attended Berkeley High School, 1943-1947, where she attended and graduated with another notable sci-fi writer, Philip K. Dick. However, they didn’t know each at the time.

She received a B.A. in Renaissance French and Italian Literature from Radcliffe College in 1951 and a M.A. from Columbia University a year later. She continued down that path studying in France, but met a young historian, Charles Le Guin while there. They married later that year and he continued to get a Ph.D. and she became a French teacher. They had three children Elizabeth, Caroline, and Theodore.

She always had an interest in writing. The first short story she tried to get published was rejected but she was also 11. She stopped submitting anything for publication for a while but continued refining her skill. In the 1950s she wrote 5 novels but each was rejected for being difficult and inaccessible. She kept on writing. In 1961 things changed. She finally was published in The Western Humanities Review. Then had three more stories showed up in Fantastic Stories of Imagination. That was only the beginning.

She is mostly famous for The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) and The Lathe of Heaven (1972) and for good reason. They are truly classics of science fiction/fantasy. The Lathe of Heaven is a study of the difference between dreams, reality, and how we perceive it. It’s written in a stripped down, simplistic way so that you don’t have to be a fan of science fiction to fully appreciate and completely understand it. A high school kid that doesn’t like reading could read this and it will make complete sense. It strikes a perfect balance being true blue science fiction/fantasy and also being very accessible. The Left Hand of Darkness is on the opposite side of spectrum. It’s hardcore sci-fi. It’s not that accessible but it’s still great. This is a testament to her skill as a writer. She can go between complex and simplistic without losing anything in between.

One of the most important things to bring up in reference to Ursula K. Le Guin is glaringly obvious. She’s a prominent woman in the world of science fiction/fantasy. This may not seem like that much of an accomplishment but she is one of few women to reach godly levels in this arena. She’s won several Nebula, Hugo, and Lotus SF awards among other awards. The only other woman that writes sci-fi/fantasy that reached this level I can think of off-hand is Octavia Butler, and that’s unfortunately about it. It’s refreshing to see this just for diversity’s sake. If it’s possible for her to be successful in this field then that makes it easier for more women to join her and Octavia Butler up in Mount Olympus.

The role of gender and its effects on society is a frequent theme and backbone of her stories. Specifically, The Left Hand of Darkness, tackled this. It’s the story of an emissary visiting a world where gender is irrelevant, the people can switch between male and female. This of course has many shockwaves in that society. This and everything else she wrote utilizes psychology, sociology, and environmentalism to analyze and dissect society through a sci-fi/fantasy lens.

Mrs. Le Guin is without an ounce of doubt one of the best writers of the 20^th century. Her mark on science fiction/fantasy changed it forever. She added a much needed new and interesting voice to a genre that’s still prominently white men. Even now, she’s still writing and putting out great, intriguing work. If you haven’t read anything by her, do yourself a favor and start with The Lathe of Heaven.

We discuss James Gunn’s superb Guardians of the Galaxy, Luc Besson’s derivative Lucy, Doctor Who and Hercules.

We discuss Jodorowsky’s Dune, which might go down as the greatest “What Might Have Been” in movie history and Jonathan Glazer’s starkly gorgeous film Under The Skin.

There isn’t really any comparing these two, unless you get down to the most basic level of what these guys do. They make Art.

Dune is one of the first SciFi stories I ever read. It was the ultimate gateway drug. I couldn’t get enough. The scope and breadth of the story alone are massive. An entire galaxy, thousands of years, the many lives of Duncan Idaho, Leto the God-King, the essence of life…Jodorowsky chose well in wanting to give audiences something that would replicate the effects of LSD without having to actually drop acid.

And just to prove to you what an enormous impact this story has had on Artists on AND off-screen, here’s a song from Grimes’ Dune concept album Geidi Primes.

While I can totally see how Jodorowsky’s Dune would have been the ultimate drug-free acid trip, I wouldn’t want to go ANYWHERE NEAR drugs before watching Under The Skin. Or During. Or after. Or like, ever.

This movie is deeply unsettling, moving, intensely beautiful and terrifying. Johnansson’s nameless character stands apart, observing us and all our noise until her curiosity gets the better of her, and we begin to see through her eyes what it means to be human. It’s a quiet, lonely experience, one that had me pondering for days after.

Winner: I’m going to have to go with Under The Skin, barely. But see them both, for sure.

And be sure to check out Shaun and Glen on Counter-Blast, now on iTunes! They also have a Facebook page!

Go ahead, get it off your chest. I promise you I’ve heard it all before.

You finished? Okay great. My turn.

Love it or hate it, we are still talking about this show four years after it ended.

Were a lot of questions left unanswered? Most definitely. Were there some unsatisfactory character notes? Sure were.

So why is Lost so important even still today? Because, quite frankly, it was one of the first network television shows to take hard Science Fiction elements and make them palatable for the masses. Rod Serling would have loved this show.

Watching the pilot, wherein a ragtag (albeit ridiculously good looking) group of survivors waits for a rescue boat, I never would have imagined that 6 years later we’d end up with a Holy Man living in the base of a 4-toed statue while half of the original group were stuck in 1977 trying to reset time via hydrogen bomb. Yeah! That’s a thing that happened!

I can’t make this shit up.

So why did this show make us care about Science Fiction? I call it the Desmond effect.

The Jesus look – totally unintentional.

The introduction of the character Desmond Hume coincides with the introduction of the larger mythology of the show. Desmond is the harbinger, he brings the science and he brings it hard. The writers cleverly took this character, made him the coolest, most likable guy in the world (the accent was the cherry on top) and uses him to slowly infuse heavier and heavier science fiction and fantasy elements over the course of the show.

It’s Desmond who introduces the audience to The Dharma Initative and it’s fringe science, it’s Desmond who shows the audience prescience in his visions of Charlie’s imminent demise. It’s Desmond who Billy Pilgrims his way through season 4. And we couldn’t get enough of it. I know I sure couldn’t. I was drawn to Desmond’s story (and his undying love for Penny) like a fly to honey. The more invested I became in the character, the more I wanted to know about what was happening to him. What did Electromagnetism have to do with it? What about predestination? Why couldn’t he change the past?

This was also one of the first shows that really grasped it’s role as cultural phenomenon. It engaged the watcher. It left clues, encouraged you to dig deeper. Remember all the easter eggs around the Hanso Foundation? In the days before Twitter, the show engaged with it’s audience in a way that almost no show has before or since (maybe Community).

Granted, there was a lot of drama and love-triangle nonsense that got old after a while. And you know what? The writers addressed that. No one was allowed to be happy on this show! I think that’s why the ending was like a warm, fuzzy blanket I just wanted to curl up into. Happy Endings for everyone!

Define “Happy”

So say what you want about the ending, I’ve heard it all before. And you know what? I still love it.

If you want to know more, here’s an amusing little recap of the first 5 seasons. Here is my attempt to “summarize” 6 seasons of Lost.