Tank Girl was barely a blip on the radar when it was released in 1995. It flopped both with critics and audiences, only recouping in US$6 million of its $25 million production budget. Critics tended to agree on its faults: ...
Read More »Nostalgic Impulse: Akira
Any list of most influential and greatest anime will inevitably feature one name above all others. Some have favourites that supersede it (indeed, I myself do) but no other film can claim as singular an impact on bringing Japanese animation ...
Read More »Utopian future: Is this the end of dystopian fiction’s reign?
Publishing industry insiders are predicting that 2017 will find readers turning to happier tales of escapism and hope. As a result, genre publishers are talking about the This is a big shift from the pessimistic dystopias that have dominated bestseller lists ...
Read More »The end of the world as we know it: The apocalypse in SFF fiction
Dystopia and other post-apocalyptic tales have long been popular in the SFF world. From YA dysfic to scifi horror (robots! aliens! WMDs!), writers have great fun imagining all the weird and wonderful ways society, the world, even the universe, as ...
Read More »Mad Max: Fury Road
The fourth installment of George Miller’s post-apocalyptic series Mad Max sees Tom Hardy taking up the mantle of the titular Max. The film has been awarded almost universal acclaim, praising the acting, directing, and depth for a blockbuster action film. ...
Read More »The Fire Sermon: The next YA dystopian thriller to be optioned for film
I was pulled into the hype surrounding The Fire Sermon by its clever marketing campaign – well, clever and prolific. It sounded like a fun (can we call dark dystopias ‘fun’?) premise and I was excited to read a novel ...
Read More »Is Star Wars science fiction or fantasy?
The debate over whether Star Wars is more fantasy of science fiction has waged since 1977. Despite being a massive Star Wars fan (to the point where I saw The Phantom Menace 7 times at the cinema), I never really ...
Read More »The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – Remember who the real enemy is
I have a tendency to resist anything that is really popular. Call it stubbornness, narrow-mindedness, or plain stupidity. Whatever it is, it is a character flaw I am aware of – although not actively trying to rectify. I finally gave ...
Read More »Digested viewing: Thor: The Dark World, Ender’s Game, and Mad Max
It has been a busy few weeks for me socially speaking (I know, poor me), so it was nice to have a weekend devoted to much film watching. I saw Thor 2: The Dark World and Ender’s Game at the ...
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