So there’s this meme that goes around Twitter every so often…
And you really have to wonder what the Torment Nexus actually is. Well, thanks to MatPat, we finally know: the Torment Nexus is a Star Trek transporter on a slow transport cycle.
Witness.
If hell could be made from technology, that would be it.
Blade Runner is, on paper, everything I should like in a movie: great Science Fiction ideas, incredible atmosphere, several wonderful performances, amazing special effects and art design, just a well done film. A landmark work.
But it is flawed.
Director Ridley Scott has tried recutting it five times that I know of, in an effort to wrest a perfect version of the film out of the footage he shot during production and has, so far, not succeeded. And, each time, I have watched each of the five cuts searching for that one perfect version I can finally love without reservation. And, so far, I have not succeeded.
The problem is, Ridley Scott was making the wrong movie. He wanted it to be a deep and introspective meditation on death and life and facing one’s mortality and such, so he shot it like an Art Movie, or at least shot a lot of it like an Art Movie and a lot of the rest like a Thriller and some like an Action Movie and some like a Sci-Fi Film Noir. It is, in a word, tonally incoherent.
The problem is, the script isn’t as deep as he clearly wants the movie to be seen as being, so he tries to fake it with portentous scenes, like the slow-motion death of exotic dancer Replicant Zhora and (in later versions) the running unicorn and so forth. These do not add any actual depth to the movie, but add the seeming of additional depth, just enough to fake it. And it’s so unnecessary.
He could have let the movie be what it was, a Neo-Noir Thriller with some Sci-Fi and Action elements. He could have presented the material with a director’s flair, but without the overly artsy elements, and let the performances of Rutger Hauer and Harrison Ford carry the emotional weight.
The phrase is “forcing it” or, if you will, try-hard. He forced the film to be something it was not, and so missed out on making it a perfect example of what it innately was. I should have liked to see a perfect version of what the movie was meant to be.
The G.I. Joe comics and television series, stories about America’s daring, highly trained special mission force, were always far better than given credit for. The comics were written by legit Vietnam vet Larry Hama, who was able to bring an authenticity to the details of both real-world and fictional military equipment that made stories about Dr. Mindbender, Roadblock, and Destro come to life.
And while the TV show always was more fanciful, it nevertheless dealt with a lot of adult themes, and had a lot of heart. Looper reminds us of some of the great episodes of this great show.
Well, the second half of Denis Villenueve’s well-recieved Dune movie is now in theaters.
Assuming things go well, the Geek Gab crew will be watching the movie this weekend and reviewing it on Monday night’s show: http://youtube.com/geekgab, 10pm Eastern, 7pm Pacific.
Geek Gab 