STREAMING SF FILMS ON TV: CHOOSE WISELY

It seems like forever since I’ve posted here in Spacefreighters Lounge and a lot has been happening. But unless you’re a regular listener of my screen review podcast My Moviehouse My Rules, you’ve probably missed my recent takes on some big SF films available for streaming on your home television screen.

Let’s start with the film causing the most excitement, WONDER WOMAN 1984, directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot and Chris Pine. (By the way, this review contains spoilers, so if you hate reading the details of a film’s plot, you may want to skip out now. But I’m about to save you some money on HBO/HBO Max and two-plus hours of your time so you might want to read on.)

So much was wrong with this movie I hardly know where to start. How about with the premise? An ancient artifact is unearthed which acts as a kind of Alladin’s lamp for all who touch it, granting the greatest desires of their hearts. 

A failed businessman (Pedro Pascal—GAME OF THRONES, NARCOS) steals the artifact from the museum where Diana (Wonder Woman) works and proceeds to use it to take over the world, but not before both Diana and her insecure colleague Barbara (Kristin Wiig) have wished upon the “Dreamstone” without thinking things through.

Diana’s heart’s desire, of course, is to have her greatest love, Steve (Chris Pine) returned to her. The problem is he must take over the body of some poor shlub to make that happen. (As my daughter said, “What the Quantum Leap is going on here???”) Barbara, on the other hand, desires only to “be like Diana.” Only she doesn’t have the core values that we see instilled in the young Wonder Woman early in the film on her home island of Themycira.  Barbara ends up as the supervillain Cheetah, an “apex predator” to rival the superheroine she once admired.

In the meantime, the businessman, Maxwell Lord, believes he’s found a way to outsmart the consequences of using the stone, which always exacts a price from those who wish upon it. He becomes the stone itself—yeah, I know—and people wish on him. He becomes ever more powerful until the story comes to a head when he gains access to a worldwide broadcasting system which allows him to have everyone in the world wish at once. As you might imagine, contradictory wishes make for chaos. Wonder Woman must save the day!

But, oh, no! The stone has demanded the price of Diana’s superpowers in return for granting her wish. She is gradually growing weaker. (And if you watch any superhero movies at all, you know this is a theme. Love, attachment to a mate, is a sure way either to get that mate killed or to lose yourself as a hero. Something about sex draining your energies. Who thinks up this stuff anyway? Oh, yeah, right! 40-year-old virgin fanboys.) So, she and Steve must give up their dream of being together—again. (If you remember, Steve had to die in the first Wonder Woman movie.) Diana renounces her wish, gets her powers back, kicks Cheetah’s ass, then finds a way to use the worldwide broadcast network to get everyone to renounce their wishes and stop the chaos.

It even works on Maxwell Lord. The sight of his son, lost and alone in a world gone crazy, is somehow enough to bring him around and he renounces his wish and lives happily ever after. Really? There are no consequences for him? It was bad enough this character was so derivative—echoes of WALL STREET’s Gordon Gecko or a recently twice-impeached high official or any other soulless loser you’d want to name—but that he was so easily redeemed and left unpunished went against my grain. What are superhero movies for if the bad guy doesn’t get his just desserts?

And no consequences for Steve and Diana hijacking that guy’s body for a week? We see the guy on the street later; he seems fine. Just a Goldilocks and the Three Bears moment—somebody’s been sleeping in my bed (and wearing my clothes and taking my body for a spin)?

Then there were the mistakes of moviemaking that made this film hard to watch. Jenkins apparently thought the 80s represented “the height of Western civilization and society” and wanted to give Wonder Woman a chance to deal with the villains of that time. Seriously? I lived through the 80s and I can’t think of anything to recommend that era. The hairstyles and clothes were awful; with a few exceptions the music sucked; fueled by conservative politics, individual greed, unemployment, and interest rates were all sky-high. In this movie we’re forced to relive all of that, including and especially the spectacle of Chris Pine in horrible 80s clothes.

The first Wonder Woman movie introduced us to a thrilling heroine with a fight choreography all her own. Diana has little opportunity to do any of that in this movie. The action scenes are few and far between, giving Gal Gadot no chance to show us what she can do. Even the big fight scene with Cheetah is disappointing. Mostly, Diana is reduced to saving kids, and in one laughable scene she nearly squashes some tykes getting them out of the way of an armored vehicle they should easily have seen coming miles away down a dusty road. Couldn’t mom have just yelled, “Hey, you kids, get out of the damn road!”

But I guess you get the picture. I wouldn’t waste your time on this one unless you just have nothing else to watch. This one’s a No-Go.

 Jones and Clooney in THE MIDNIGHT SKY

For a better SF home night at the movies try THE MIDNIGHT SKY. This Netflix Original film is directed by George Clooney and stars the usually drop-dead gorgeous actor as a haggard, bearded astrophysicist waiting out the end of the world in an isolated research station in the Arctic. The scientist is suffering from terminal cancer (much like the world, which is being swallowed by radiation from some unnamed disaster, likely a nuclear war). His one last remaining task is to warn off a spaceship returning from a successful mission to explore a previously unknown moon of Jupiter where life has miraculously been found. (Okay, that requires a leap, but why not? Let the CGI guys play.)

Clooney calls the movie a cross between GRAVITY (the Oscar-winning space film by Alfonso Cuaron in which he himself starred) and THE REVENANT. (You know, the one where Leonardo de Caprio is almost murdered but survives by hiding in a dead bear. Mark L. Smith wrote the screenplay for both THE REVENANT and THE MIDNIGHT SKY.). But to me it has more parallels with an old-school film someone is shown watching part-way through this one: ON THE BEACH, starring Gregory Peck. In that film, the U.S. and Russia have let loose the nuclear dogs of war and the last outpost of life is Australia, waiting while a cloud of deadly radiation makes its way around the globe toward it. That film’s director was the redoubtable Stanley Kramer, and it provides some of the most unforgettable science fiction images of the Cold War. I think Clooney doesn’t do such a bad job with the same emotional feels here—the isolation, the fear, the despair—both as a director and as an actor.

THE MIDNIGHT SKY has some plot twists that give it extra interest, including flashbacks utilizing actor Ethan Peck (Gregory’s grandson, known for playing Spock in CBS All Access’s STAR TREK: DISCOVERY) as a younger version of Clooney’s character. But it does require some suspension of disbelief to think we have a hidden treasure trove of lush life on an as-yet-undiscovered Jovian moon out there just waiting to rescue humanity. Even if that humanity’s Adam and Eve would be David Oyewolo and Felicity Jones. (Yes, the supporting cast is great—it also includes Kyle Chandler, Demian Bechir and newcomer Caoilinn Springer as Iris, a young stowaway on the Arctic research station. Clooney can command just about anyone he wants when he’s making a movie.)

The film might be a little slow—all the weight of SOLARIS without the “scenery” if you take my meaning—but it is atmospheric and thought-provoking, like the best SF films should be. You’ll like it if you like Clooney, Peck, any of the rest of the stellar cast or post-apocalyptic SF in general. Definitely a Go.

Check out the rest of my podcasts (New Screen Reviews with Old School Attitude) here, or on my Facebook page for My Moviehouse My Rules with new posts every Wednesday!

Cheers, Donna

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE SLOW APOCALYPSE

Well, here we go again,cleaning up after the second monster hurricane of the season to hit North Carolina. Although Hurricane Michael roared in from the Gulf, rather than the Atlantic, as far as the battered central and eastern counties of the Carolinas are concerned, it didn’t make much difference. They’ll still got hammered by destructive winds, plenty of rain on saturated ground, and the threat of storm-generated tornadoes.

Destruction from Hurricane Michael in the Florida Panhandle (NBC News).

 Michael came ashore on the Florida Panhandle as a Category Four storm—the strongest storm in history to hit there—and pretty much flattened that part of the state. It left behind tens of thousands without power in Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia, and is expected to remain at tropical storm strength until it finally blows out to sea today. Experienced weather-watchers are in awe of not only the storm’s power, but also how quickly it built over the very warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico in a matter of a few days.

Again it appears our little patch of ground in the mountains was spared the worst of the storm’s effects. We had rain, which we needed, but not much wind. No flooding. No washouts. No tornadoes. We were lucky. So why are you reading this weather report, when The Weather Channel is much more grimly interesting?

The short answer is because, as writers and readers of science fiction and SFR, we are all concerned with the future. And what we are seeing right now—on our television screens if not outside our windows—is a sign of what is to come. 

These two megastorms—Florence and Michael—hit North Carolina after the warmest September on record for the state, in the warmest year on record so far. That is not a coincidence. Neither is it a coincidence that the eastern counties of North Carolina have been devastated by flooding numerous times in the past few years, including just two years ago with Hurricane Matthew, which was said to be a “hundred-year” event. And yet North Carolina state government policies, as well as Federal flood insurance policies, encourage routine rebuilding of coastal communities and flood-prone communities along river basins further inland, as if these storms were isolated, once-in-a-lifetime incidents.

I’ve had notes for a post-apocalyptic SFR novel called Higher Ground on my computer for years. The story follows a group of refugees from a catastrophic event that inundates the eastern coast of the U.S. as the survivors struggle to reach safety in the mountains of Appalachia. But I no longer believe we will see that kind of single, horrific event—an earthquake and tsunami, say, or a meteor strike like in DEEP IMPACT (1998). 

 

A disaster of this magnitude is doubtful. We'll likely drown by inches.

I believe now, to paraphrase T.S. Eliot, that the world will end not with a bang, but with a whimper. The storms will keep coming, growing worse and worse. More and more people will lose their homes, their businesses, their lives. Due both to budget constraints and lack of political will, our collective ability to help them through state and national programs will diminish, until we can no longer do so at all. 

People displaced by the flooding and the destruction will become refugees within our country, those with resources able to start over, those without left permanently adrift. The coasts will be left to the rich; the inland towns will be abandoned. The “higher ground” will be coveted, driving up land prices and crowding out those who can’t afford them. (In fact this last is already happening: Western North Carolina has experienced a steady influx of mostly wealthy retired Floridians since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.)

The process will be gradual, but it will be relentless. Just as relentless, by the way, as global warming. Which is real and the inevitable result of our love affair with fossil fuels, the combustion engine and unfettered development. This is not politics, it's science. Don’t believe me? Look at your television screen or out your window. The future is now.

Cheers, Donna

Two releases and a giveaway!

You've never read
bedtime stories like these

Today is release day for my collection of erotic bedtime stories from the Penguin Random House romance imprint, Loveswept! What's this, you say? FANTASY, on Spacefreighters Lounge? 

Yes! But don't be fooled by the cover. In BEFORE SHE WAKES, you'll also find: 

• "The Dragonfly Prince," a post-apocalyptic, recombinant-DNA story based on my sci-fi romance novel THE OPHELIA PROPHECY. 
• "Raven Takes a Pearl" and "The Kelpie's Prize," both steampunk stories. 
• "The Garden Rules,"' a contemporary story that incorporates a fun piece of nanotech. 
•  "Willa and the Wisp," a paranormal set in post-apocalyptic New Orleans. 

That leaves a single pure-fantasy story (but...DRAGON SHIFTERS!).

Big shoutout to Laurie, who served as beta reader on this one (and, well, all the other ones). I am VERY pleased with reviews so far. This from one of my favorites: 

Pure INDULGENCE!! ... Each world was so interesting that you just couldn't help but be sucked in ... Grab this now and be prepared to be whisked away to fantastical lands! I know I was captivated throughout! (The Jeep Diva book blog)

I think I had more fun with this than I ever have with a writing project. I began it as a writing experiment. And even later when my agency encouraged me to get serious about it, I never intended to seek a traditional publisher. So I tossed out all the "rules." Each time my internal critic would nag me that a particular scene or plot twist was just going too far, I very intentionally shoved her out the door and did what I wanted. And I think that's coming through in reviewer comments. Here's another example:

For those readers with a sense of adventure who are looking for a change of pace and aren’t afraid to go there, Before She Wakes is a wonderful, sexy, titillating trip to the other side of speculative fiction, that side you’ve been curious about but until now, haven’t been brave enough to try. Be bold. Take the plunge. And have some fun. (Books, Bones & Buffy book blog)

If you'd like to test-drive this one, you can read the most sci-fi story  ("The Dragonfly Prince") free. 

Sworn enemies. Dark secrets.
One last hope for peace.

And in related news ...

I got the rights to THE OPHELIA PROPHECY back earlier this year, so it has been out of print for a while. This new story collection got me motivated to get it out there again. (Especially considering "The Dragonfly Prince" was my editor's favorite, and it's a favorite of Goodreads reviewers as well.) So this is a double release week! The best part is it has a lovely new cover (by the fabulous Danielle Fine) and a significantly lower e-price than the original release. For the time being it's only available for Kindle. 

In celebration of the releases, I'm giving away 3 e-books. You can choose the title that you prefer (keeping in mind OPHELIA is Kindle-only for now). In the comments, name a fairy tale you think would make a great SFR retelling, OR list what human/animal transgenic organism you think would be the coolest to see. (I'll know your choice of books based on that. Be sure to give me a way to contact you!)

Happy release day!