Category Archives: Science Fiction

Star Trek Into Darkness

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With every new trailer, poster and interview the crew of the USS Enterprise tease us senseless. They play with our hopes and spurt out just enough information to keep us wanting more. And yet, in truth, it’s a game we’re all too happy to play.

The new international trailer is no different with plenty of tidbits, more than a few red herrings and our only question left unanswered; is Benedict Cumberbatch playing Khan Noonien Singh?????

For those of you who might not know Khan was a relic of the eugenics wars, a sad reminder of humanity’s less than stellar past in the Star Trek universe. A genetically engineered superhuman from India that controlled a quarter of the Earth before escaping into space towards the end of the war. Originally appearing on the Star Trek series episode “Space Seed”, played by Ricardo Montalban, he later made the move to the big screen in Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan (widely considered – well, at the very least by me – to be the best Trek movie).

The secrecy has given the movie plenty of buzz and could quite possibly be an ingenious marketing ploy which will have fans of the series and movies running to theaters in droves. Everyone loves a good mystery. Even the cast by the sounds of it.

“Benedict doesn’t even know who he’s playing,” joked Damon Lindelof one of the trio that penned the script for the movie. A joke that’ll keep Bad Robot Productions and its partners laughing all the way to the bank come May 17th.

Watch the new trailer below.

[youtube:http://youtu.be/yhz4A5BCMAA%5D

 

“I am better,” he tells Kirk.

“At what?”

“At everything.”

He sure exhibits the arrogance of Khan.

Like I said, in truth we’re happy to play the game and not know the truth. There’s a reason they’re called spoilers. We should give our thanks to Mr Abrams for two things; the tantalizing mystery surrounding Cumberbatch’s character and…this:

 

Star Trek Into Darkness  opens May 17

Cloud Atlas trailer

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The Wachowskis and Run Lola Run director Tom Tywker have endeavoured on an ambitous feat with Cloud Atlas. Their first six-minute long trailer was clear evidence of that. Six stories interconnected, past, present and future meld by, what I gather, memory. Whether this is an embedded memory passed through generations in our DNA or an artificial memory passed through the words in a book I don’t know but it is certainly something to watch.

Based on David Mitchell’s 2004 novel the book’s six stories are meant to blend seemlessly into a single, continuous narrative with each actor portraying multiple roles to underline the theme of connectivity.

Watch both the extended and theatrical trailers below.

[youtube:http://youtu.be/xKZj6lA9ICs%5D

 

[youtube:http://youtu.be/tHixZqciYyk%5D

 

In theaters October 26

Dredd’s first trailer

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(via Collider)

This looks awesome. While I enjoyed Stallone and Lane’s version in the 90’s (I was a big Stallone fan when I was kid, the man could do no wrong. And yes, I liked Demolition Man.) this is a league apart. However, trailers have been known to lie before. At best we know the movie has 2 minutes of good footage.

[youtube:http://youtu.be/hFwLbVE0nWM%5D

 

Karl Urban takes over from Stallone as the eponymous judge, jury and executioner. And Game of Thrones fans will recognise Dredd’s foe as none other than Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) herself. If her stint on HBO is any indication then I’m sure she’ll make an utterly delectable villain.

Here’s the official synopsis:

Dredd takes place on a fictional Earth created as a result of the Atomic Wars. Survivors of this period are living in Mega-Cities, which protects its citizens from the Cursed Earth, a radioactive desert environment populated by mutants. The main story takes place in Mega-City One, where the police who are now called judges have the power to use police brutality to some extent to fight extreme murders. One man, Judge Dredd (Karl Urban), a senior law enforcement officer, teams up with a cadet called Judge Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) to track down a terrorist organization lead by Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), who is responsible for selling a reality-altering drug called Slo-Mo.

With the brand name still wrapped up with Stallone’s 1995 flop Lionsgate are playing it safe by releasing Dredd at the end of summer, away from any possible major players that might cut into its audience. However, Brad Pitt’s Killing Me Softly opens the same weekend and it’s quite likely there will be some overlap of audience. So which will cinema-goers choose? Which will rule that weekend?

Dredd opens September 21.

Total Recall TV spot

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A new TV spot for Len Wiseman’s remake of Paul Verhoeven‘s (Robocop) sci-fi action Total Recall (based on Philip K. Dick’s short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale) has found its way online. The 30 second spot has no new footage with the exception of Farrell’s line at the end and is, in fact, just a splicing of the trailer which was released. Wiseman’s take on the 90’s classic (it’s part of my childhood) seems more action packed than the original and his vision of the future far cleaner, in a sense, than the one perceived by Verhoeven. Check out the second TV spot and the official trailer below.

[youtube:http://youtu.be/wvONjj7i5zc%5D

 

[youtube:http://youtu.be/sWMhADqlPYg%5D

 

It seems the remake will not be visiting Mars but instead focus on the conflict between EuroAmerica and New Shanghai. The choice is not exactly self evident as all the action in the original happened on Mars but keep in mind that this is an “action thriller about reality and memory” so geography (or is that astronomy?), in my opinion, doesn’t matter. It’s all about who you are and who you can trust and in a post-Inception world we expect the answering of these questions to blow our minds.

Here’s the synopsis:

“Total Recall is an action thriller about reality and memory, inspired anew by the famous short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick. Welcome to Rekall, the company that can turn your dreams into real memories. For a factory worker named Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell), even though he’s got a beautiful wife (Kate Beckinsale) who he loves, the mind-trip sounds like the perfect vacation from his frustrating life – real memories of life as a super-spy might be just what he needs. But when the procedure goes horribly wrong, Quaid becomes a hunted man. Finding himself on the run from the police – controlled by Chancellor Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston), the leader of the free world – Quaid teams up with a rebel fighter (Jessica Biel) to find the head of the underground resistance (Bill Nighy) and stop Cohaagen. The line between fantasy and reality gets blurred and the fate of his world hangs in the balance as Quaid discovers his true identity, his true love, and his true fate.”

If you’re still hankering for a bit more Kate Beckinsale showed off a short clip of her kicking Collin Farrell’s ass when she visited The Ellen DeGeneres Show. It’s about 5 minutes 39 seconds in.

[youtube:http://youtu.be/oR7kVD2C6f4%5D

 

And here’s the trailer of the original (where they did go to Mars):

[youtube:http://youtu.be/WFMLGEHdIjE%5D

 

Incidentally, a remake of Paul Verhoeven’s Robocop is currently in development at MGM. Gary Oldman has signed on as the scientist that creates Robocop with Joel Kinnaman of TV’s The Killing inheriting the title role from Peter Weller.

Total Recall opens August 3.