How Star Wars Conquered the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of a Multibillion Dollar Franchise, by Chris Taylor (author), Nick Podehl (narrator)

Brilliance Audio, October 2014

In 1973, George Lucas sketched the first notes of what would become his epic space fantasy movie, Star Wars. More than four decades on, Star Wars has become a $37 billion movie franchise and media empire, and an enormous cultural force.

Taylor gives us both the history forward from that beginning through the making of the films and the sale and rebirth of the franchise under Disney, and the path from the middle class kid growing up in Modesto to the man who made that first Star Wars film and its two sequels. (No, it wasn't originally called A New Hope; I saw the first movie when it first came out. And yes, Han Solo did shoot first, whatever George Lucas now wants us to believe.) Both Lucas' own story, and the story of the Star Wars franchise, are complicated, confusing, and fascinating. Taylor gets quite thoroughly caught up in the story and his own pursuit of it, and makes it reasonably inviting for the reader or listener to jump on that ride with him.

The Martian (The Movie), by Ridley Scott (director), Drew Goddard (screenplay), Andy Weir (book)

Matt Damon (Mark Watney), Jessica Chastain (Melissa Lewis), Kristen Wiig (Annie Montrose), Jeff Daniels (Teddy Sanders), Michael Peña (Rick Martinez), Sean Bean (Mitch Henderson), Kate Mara (Beth Johanssen), Sebastian Stan (Chris Beck), Axel Hennie (Alex Vogel), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Vincent Kapoor), Benedict Won (Bruce Ng), Mackenzie Davis (Mindy Park), Donald Glover (Rich Purnell)

October 2015

This is the movie adaptation of Andy Weir's book, The Martian. The Mars expedition Ares III is going about its research business on Mars when a storm descends on them, both earlier and more powerful than originally predicted. In the scramble to get people and essential equipment into the MAV for liftoff and return to Hermes, an antenna is broken up and part of it driven at high speed into Mark Watney. He doesn't return to the MAV, and telemetry from his suit stops abruptly. He's been killed. With great reluctance, pushing everything to the last minute, Commander Lewis finally gives the order to lift without him.

But Mark isn't dead.

When he regains consciousness, withs the storm over, he realizes what's happened, that everyone believes he's dead, and he's stuck on Mars. As he repairs his equipment and treats his wound, he faces the fact that he has equipment intended to sustain six people for a month, and he's got about four years before the next manned mission from Earth arrives on Mars. And when it does arrive, even if he were still alive, it would be landing thousands of kilometers away from him. After assessing his supplies and resources, and the challenge he faces, he sums things up thus: "I have to science the shit out of this."

And he does. With determination, humor, ingenuity. He works out how long the available rations will last. He takes the potatoes intended to be part of a "home-cooked" Martian Thanksgiving dinner, and starts serious farming, creating soil out of Martian dirt, human waste, and water that he manages to manufacture without actually blowing himself up. He uses everyone else's entertainment files to keep himself sane--even though there's way too much disco music and seventies tv. He salvages Pathfinder.

It's over a month before the ongoing satellite study of Mars picks up the evidence that Mark Watney isn't dead. It takes longer to work out a means of communication.

The entire country, and then the whole world, starts pulling for a rescue of Mark Watney.

This is wonderful sf adventure, a competent person morality tale of the kind science fiction has loved since at least the 1930s, and in the end, it's a positive, hopeful view of humanity. It's well-written, well-acted, and as faithful to Weir's excellent novel as is possible in the space allowed by a commercially viable movie. There are no fantasy perfect human beings here, but no cheap villains, either. Imperfect people of good will do their best, as far as they can figure out what that is, and they won't quit doing it.

A completely satisfying, enjoyable movie. Highly recommended.

Edge of Tomorrow, screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, and John-Henry Butterworth, directed by Doug Liman (Village Roadshow, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, 3 Arts Entertainment; Viz Productions)

Released June 2014

Groundhog Day meets every high-tech war movie you've seen. And, really, too violent for my tastes; I don't do war movies. My nerves don't handle the sound and images well.

But this, honestly, is very good.

Tom Cruise plays US Army public relations officer Major Cage, thus neatly dodging any anger of active combat while Earth is being invaded by aliens known as the Mimics. Earth is, by the way, losing, but a nifty new combat exoskeleton has been developed (or perfected; I do believe these are being worked on now, in real life), and the United Defense Forces win a victory at Verdun. Moral and enlistments soar.

And the UDF CIC decide Major Cage needs to be embedded, to report directly from the latest attack on the Mimics. He refuses, tries to blackmail the general, and gets unceremoniously stripped of his rank and sent off as a private to a combat unit.

Guardians of the Galaxy, written by James Gunn and Nicole Perlman, directed by James Gunn (Marvel Studios, Moving Picture Company)

Released August 2014

This is a Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form nominee for the 2015 Hugos.

This is not a movie with any deep thoughts in its head. It's pure, fun, over-the-top adventure, with colorful space battles and explosions.

Peter Quill is kidnapped from Earth as a kid in 1988, and raised by an interstellar criminal gang. As an adult, he steals a mysterious orb sought by a fanatical opponent of a recent peace treaty, Ronan the Accuser. After some entertaining and bizarre events, Peter, along with Rocket the genetically engineered raccoon, Groot the walking tree creature, and Gamora, a trained assassin whose adopted father Thanos hired her out to Ronan, wind up in prison. It's after they break out together, having picked up Drax, who wants to kill Ronan, along the way, that things get really  dangerous. (Fortunately, Gamora would also rather kill Ronan than work for him.)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier, screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, concept and story by Ed Brubaker, directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (Marvel Entertainment, Perception, Sony Pictures Imageworks)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form 2015 Hugo nominee

Captain America fights Hydra and confronts the deadly Hydra agent the Winter Soldier, who turns out to be [spoiler].

It is, mostly, an exciting movie. It's also very loud and very violent. "Very violent" is a thing that doesn't really work for me. While this is partly a moral thing, and partly an aesthetic thing, it's also to a significant degree a question of how much and what kind of overstimulation my nerves can take when I am not having a good day emotionally and go to the movies to distract myself.

But this is an exciting movie with lots of neat superhero stuff. I have to admit I did not really warm to Captain America, who seemed very contained and distant, but it is an exciting movie that gets the adrenaline pumping.

The level of violence was too high for me to fully enjoy the Neat Superhero Stuff, though.

Overall, not really my cup of tea.

Trailer:

Interstellar, screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, directed by Christopher Nolan (Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures, Lynda Obst Productions, Syncopy)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form 2015 Hugo nominee

Interstellar is visually magnificent, exciting, thought-provoking, and a bit long.

It pains me to say that last bit. I wanted to love every second of it. In the end, I couldn't, though I did love most of it. Parts of it did just drag, and there's no way around that.

The basic story, especially its opening, is familiar. A near-future Earth is struggling against drought and famine, and nearly everything is being sacrificed to food production.  Former astronaut Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is now a struggling farmer with two children, daughter Murphy (played by Mackenzie Foy at age ten, Ellen Burstyn as an adult), and son Tom (played by Timothée Chalamet at age fifteen, and Casey Affleck as an adult. He's appalled by the shrunken prospects facing his children, though Tom, at least, doesn't seem to share his father's distaste for life as a farmer.

Hugo -- Martin Scorcese (director), John Logan (screenplay), Brian Selznick (book)

Cast
George Melies                             Ben Kingsley
Hugo Cabret                               Asa Butterfield
Isabelle                                       Chloe Grace Moretz
Mama Jeanne                              Helen McRory
Station Inspector                         Sacha Baron Cohen

Hugo Cabret is a twelve-year-old orphan who lives in the walls of the train station in Paris in the 1930s. His father was a watchmaker; his uncle maintained the clocks in the train station. They both taught Hugo their craft; his uncle has now disappeared. Hugo keeps his uncle's disappearance unnoticed by maintaining the clocks himself, and steals food from various vendors in the station to eat. He also has a few treasures rescued from his father's shop after his death, most importantly a life-sized clockwork man, and the notebook the elder Cabret kept of his efforts to repair the clockwork figure.

Puss in Boots

Director: Chris Miller
Writing Credits:
      Charles Perrault (character)
      Brian Lynch, David H. Steinberg, Tom Wheeler, Jon Zack (screenplay)

Voice actors:
      Puss in Boots -- Antonio Banderas
      Kitty Softpaws -- Selma Hayek
      Humpty Dumpty -- Zach Galifianakis
     Jack -- Billy Bob Thornton
Jill -- Amy Sedaris
Imelda -- Constance Marie

Jar Jar Binks Must Die . . . and Other Observations About Science Fiction Movies, by Daniel Kimmel--A Review

Fantastic Books, ISBN 9781617200618, March 2011

First off, in the interest of full disclosure, I need to tell you that Dan and I have been friends for years, and I received a free copy of this book from him. There's no pretending I'm completely objective, here. On the other hand, Dan and I have been arguing vigorously about science fiction, fantasy, and movies for all those years, too.

This is a collection of criticism and commentary about science fiction movies that Dan has written over his years as a movie critic. He's added some updating, new critiques, and some additional material, tying it together into a knowledgeable, educational, and entertaining discussion of science fiction movies, their value, and their significance.