This summer will be a big one for science fiction in Hollywood, and I’m looking forward to seeing many. Here are my Top 10 Upcoming Science Fiction Films for 2012:
This list comprises nearly all of the major sci-fi film releases for the rest of the year. If I left anything out, or if you have an issue with the order, feel free to comment. In this list there are five sequels (7, 4, 3, 2, and 1) and two remakes (9 and 8), only leaving three original films (10, 6, and 5). I will soon be posting individually about most of these, if not all of them, previewing each one.
I watched most of X-Men Origins: Wolverine last night and noticed something extremely discouraging about the way the special effects were handled: it seemed as if the entire film was taking place on some other planet, because the laws of physics were being thrown out the window.
Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy the X-Men franchise, and I really liked the story in Wolverine, but I believe the special effects people who worked on this film went entirely overboard. It is understandable that some things that the mutants do are extraordinary, and the audience must suspend disbelief because of their supposed “mutations,” but many of the stunts in the film were completely ridiculous.
X-Men Origins - Wolverine (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)
For example, multiple times we see Wolverine cutting through objects seemingly effortlessly, and with very exaggerated results. In his battle with Zero and the helicopter, this happens multiple times. Wolverine is on his motorcycle (which he rode out of a building that was exploding) and rides right by a Hummer, reaching out and slicing it with his claws. It’s not only that the claws slice right through the side of the vehicle, seemingly without any reaction from Wolverine (including any backward movement from his arm, per the Newtonian Laws of Physics), but also that this cut, which goes through the length of the Hummer, including the tires, causes the vehicle to fly up into the air and make the helicopter swerve out of the way. Then, to top that, Wolverine climbs on top of another Hummer, which is shot at by the helicopter, and as the vehicle explodes he is able to propel himself up to the helicopter. He not only slices the blades of the chopper but also lands on it. Zero watches him in slow motion to the side of the helicopter, reaching up to cut the blades, and then somehow Logan is able to alter his trajectory in mid-air and land on the helicopter as it is crashing to the ground. Then as he is walking away from the crash (he jumps off just in time) he slashes into some gasoline on the ground, causing a fire which burns its way to the helicopter and makes it explode.
Another example, possibly even more extraordinary: In his fight scene with Gambit on Bourbon Street, Logan is looking up at Gambit on a fire escape. He decides to slice at the bottom of the fire escape support with his claws, making it begin to fall. However, instead of just letting it fall off the side of the building, the stairway suddenly comes off of the building right next to Logan and stays straight up in the air as he quickly slashes over and over again, cutting off a few feet of the bottom of the stairwell each time. Gambit stays on top of the fire escape as it hangs in midair, straight up, defying gravity, until he gets to the bottom with Logan.
One more example: In the final scene, when Logan cuts off Deadpool‘s head and both parts of him fall into the middle of the reactor, his head, still emitting lasers, supposedly spins around as it slowly falls, making a perfect helix of the circular reactor. This seems like just lazy CGI; it would take nothing to put a simple perfect helix into a computer and tell it to animate that. In reality, the laser would be spinning every which way, pointing up, down into the ground, and would fall at 9.8 meters/per second, not the 30 seconds it took to fall to the bottom of an 80-foot reactor. Those are exaggerations, but the math was certainly not there.
You may be able to see some of these examples in this trailer.
It’s almost like the producers of this film forgot to hire a science adviser; I saw these inconsistencies the very first time I saw the movie in the theater. This is certainly why I like my science fiction to be written by scientists, and the best have been: Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke were all scientists in one form or another first, and then used that knowledge to write science fiction.
One lesson to be learned from the ridiculousness of this film and the best science fiction writers of the present and the past: Even though it’s called science fiction, the very best is based in science fact.
“The Ugly Little Boy,” much like “Nightfall,” is a very famous and well-anthologized story, and one that Asimov counted among his own favorites. It was published in Galaxy Science Fiction in September 1958 as “Lastborn,” and then anthologized in Nine Tomorrows in 1959 under the current title.
Image via Wikipedia
The story is about an experiment in time travel, in which a Neanderthal child is brought forward to our time, but must be kept in a single building which serves as a bridge between the two times. To bring him out would take enormous amounts of energy and would cause time paradoxes, so he must be kept there for study. To care for him the company hires a nanny, named Edith Fellowes. At first she is disgusted by the child (who she names Timmie), but eventually she comes to love him and treat him as her own.
However, the company that brought him to our time only sees him as an experiment and he is scheduled to be sent back to make way for another experiment. At first, Edith tries to smuggle Timmie out of the building, but is repulsed. In desperation, she returns to the past with the child.
The story was expanded into a full-length novel by Robert Silverberg in 1990.
“Nightfall” is a widely popular story, often listed as one of the greatest science fiction stories of all time. It was published by Astounding Science Fictionin 1941 and it was voted the best science fiction short story to be published before the establishment of the Nebula Awards in 1965 (and therefore not eligible for one). The story was adapted into a full-length novel by Asimov and Robert Silverburgin 1990.
Asimov says in his autobiography that the story was inspired by a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown!
The editor of Astounding at the time, John W. Campbell, thought that, on the contrary, men would go mad. So the story’s primary theme is the juxtaposition of the two theories. It takes place on a planet with six suns, on a day in which there will be darkness for the first time in two thousand years: five of the suns have rotated to the other side of the planet, and the sixth will be eclipsed by the planet’s satellite. The story revolves around a certain columnist’s interactions with a group of scientists who believe that this darkness will cause widespread madness and the destruction of their civilization. The fear is of the “Stars,” which to people who have never seen them before would cause great anxiety.
The story puts in proportion the stars we see every night and take for granted, showing that they are beautiful and much more mysterious than we often realize. And isn’t that what every great story is supposed to do, put things in better perspective?
One of the most important people in the history of science fiction was John W. Campbell, Jr. (1910-1971). Campbell was the editor of Astounding Science Fictionfrom 1937 to 1971, and through this editorship influenced many of the most famous writers in what is considered the Golden Age of Science Fiction.
Campbell published Lester del Rey‘s first story in 1938 and, in 1939 alone, published an early story of Isaac Asimov‘s (“Trends”), A.E. van Vogt‘s first story (“Black Destroyer”), Robert Heinlein‘s first story (“Life-Line,” famously published on his first attempt), and Theodore Sturgeon‘s first story (“Ether Breather”).
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction wrote, of Campbell, “More than any other individual, he helped to shape modern sci-fi.” Asimov said that Campbell was “the most powerful force in science fiction ever, and for the first ten years of his editorship he dominated the field completely.”
Robert A. Heinlein was the first recipient of the award in 1975, possibly compensating for the fact that Heinlein never won a Nebula Award for any specific novel. L. Sprague de Camp received it in 1979, Clarke in 1986, Asimov in 1987, Ray Bradbury in 1989, Lester del Rey in 1991, Hal Clement in 1999, and Harlan Ellison in 2006. The SWFA has done a pretty good job of awarding these to older contributors before they die, getting to many of it’s recipients often only a few years before their deaths. This lifetime achievement award is one of the highest honors a science fiction or fantasy author can receive, and I can only dream about receiving this award at the end of my career.
If you have read much of my blog, you will be able to tell that this selection was not hard for me at all.
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) was easily the most prolific science fiction writer of all time, in my opinion. He was one of the Big Three science fiction writers (with Heinlein and Clarke) and was named a Grand Master of Science Fiction and has lent his name to more things in science fiction than any other author.
At official count, Asimov’s bibliography numbers at more than 500 books and his books have been published in every category of the Dewey Decimal System except for Philosophy (and it could be argued much of his fiction is philosophical).
His most famous works are the Foundation Series, which was combined with his Galactic Empire and Robot series‘ to create one entire fictional universe of nearly all his science fiction stories. His works have been the basis for two big-budget films, the first being Bicentennial Man, starring Robin Williams, which is based on his story of the same name. The second isI, Robot, starring Will Smith, which is not based on a story of Asimov’s but incorporates characters and themes from Asimov’s work, including the Three Laws.
As far as science is concerned, Asimov had a Doctorate in Biochemistry from Colombia University, and was on the faculty at Boston University from the mid-1950′s until his death in 1992. His personal papers are archived at the university, filling up 464 boxes and 71 meters of library shelf space.
Asimov coined the term “robotics” in 1941 in his short story “Liar.” He thought it was already in use, being a derivative of the word “robot,” but the Oxford Dictionary credits him with it’s creation.
Asimov did not only write science and science fiction: Beginning in the ’60′s he wrote 14 history books, as well as Asimov’s Guide to the Biblein two volumes, Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare, Asimov’s Annotated Paradise Lost, and Asimov’s Annotated Gulliver’s Travels. He also wrote books on humor (as well as books of jokes), books of limericks, and mystery stories.
Bearing his namesake are various things, including an asteroid, a crater on Mars, a science fiction magazine, a literary award, and an elementary school in Brooklyn.
Orson Scott Card (b. 1951) is the only author of the five on my list that is still living, and compared to the other four is very new to the scene, despite being 51 and being active since the late 1970′s. Card’s most famous novel is, by far, Ender’s Game, now a staple of the modern science fiction genre.
Ender’s Game is a novel about the preparation of children from a young age to lead soldiers into battles in space, against aliens called “buggers.” The book won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1985 and the Hugo Award in 1986, and is currently under development in Hollywood, with Card attached to write a new script himself.
Card is unique among science-fiction writers in that he is very religious, having been a lifelong practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and he is the great-great-grandson of Brigham Young.
Thankfully I still have at least one of my favorite science fiction authors in Orson Scott Card, since Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, and Wells aren’t writing too much anymore. Hopefully Card keeps writing for years to come, so I don’t run out of things to read.
Arthur C. Clarke, CBE (1917-2008), one of the “Big Three” science fiction authors (with Asimov and Heinlein), is most famous for his 2001: A Space Odyssey, written in conjunction with the Stanley Kubrick film. Clarke, probably moreso than Asimov or Heinlein, contributed to science through papers as well as his fiction, and in the long run this may be the majority of his legacy.
2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the most important science fiction works of all time; many consider the film to be the best science fiction film ever made. However, what is not widely known is that both the book and the screenplay were co-written between Clarke and Kubrick; Kubrick had a much larger hand in the book than is thought, but the idea is essentially Clarke’s.
As a predictor of the future, Clarke is seemingly unmatched among his colleagues. While the idea of the geostationary satellite is not his, Clarke popularized the idea that they could be good communications relays. He also published a book in 1962 called Profiles of the Future, which included a series of essays for various magazines in which he attempted to predict the near future as it pertained to science and scientific discovery. While he, of course, got many things wrong, he was also correct in a good many areas, and the book has been updated and reprinted multiple times.
He was the primary initiator of the trend toward “social science fiction,” the addition of politics and sexuality to the traditional science fiction, and led the movement toward including more literary themes.
Heinlein, the scientist he was, also predicted some things in his work, but not as authors such as Wells or Asimov might. Heinlein’s specialty was simply seeing the much wider effects of advances in technology or other changes to the current state of society. On a more logistical note, he did foresee international nuclear stalemate (the Cold War), nuclear power dangers, and interstate highways. Inventions foreseen include mobile phones, waterbeds, screen savers, teleconferencing, and hand dryers.
Robert Heinlein was the realist of the major science fiction authors. While he exhibited many characteristics of the other writers, he had a much more worldly style, showing much more of the grittier, dirtier side of science fiction. He very much complemented other authors such as Asimov and Clarke.
