THE 'SUPERMAN IV' COMIC THAT'S BETTER THAN THE MOVIE

Superman IV: The Quest For Peace seems to have been generally regarded as the worst superhero movie ever, until 1997 when Warner Bros. and DC had a double whammy with Batman & Robin and Steel.  (Though, perhaps those two even lost their positions at the top of the stink pile to 2004’s Catwoman.)

The Quest For Peace certainly merits it’s unwanted membership in this group of movies that DC would rather forget.

It is pretty poor- a hodgepodge of well-meaning but ultimately ill-fitting anti-nuke rhetoric and the worst bits of camp humour from the school of Richard Lester, churned out on a fraction of the budget of any of the previous entries in the series. The movie throws away any semblance of verisimilitude in the Superman mythology and bestows upon the Man of Steel abilities that make the audience laugh and roll their eyes in equal measure.

So, say you’re a Superman completist, annoyed at the missed opportunity represented by Quest For Peace, but still intrigued by exploring this misguided entry in the series a little more.  Well, there’s a comic book I’d recommend.

The official DC adaptation of the movie sees legendary Superman artist Curt Swan illustrate a comic written by Bob Rozakis.  I recommend this comic to any Superman fan in general, though not for the usual reasons. If you’re expecting a post-John Byrne or Grant Morrison style Supes, then I wouldn’t hold my breath as this comic absolutely follows the plot of a bad movie.  However, there’s 2 things it does which make it a lovely little novelty and well worth a look.

Firstly, Swan sticks with his own style of pencilling our old friend in the red cape, ignoring any likenesses of Christopher Reeve, Mariel Hemingway and indeed, eh-hem, Jon Cryer(this differentiates this work from the Denny O’Neil-penned Batman adaptations of the 90s, which featured art that faithfully captured the look of the films, nipples and all).  Only the requisite costume design for Nuclear Man survives from the imagery of the movie and if one were to quickly flick through this comic’s pages, it could easily be mistaken for just another 70s or 80s edition to the Superman comic book canon(or perhaps even earlier, as Swan’s style was already looking slightly dated).
Secondly, as with many novelisations, computer games or comics adapted from a movie script, the original screenplay is tweaked here for the purposes of entering a different medium, meaning Rozakis was able to make a lot more sense of the film’s more ridiculous moments.

It’s a short comic, owing to it's basically existing as a tool to get kids to see the live-action version, and therefore a little more accessible than the movie.  Things that don’t work when enacted with low-budget 80s optical effects or when uttered from the mouths of otherwise respectable actors, tend to work much better here on the brightly-coloured pages of a comic book.

We don’t blink an eyelid at the dumbed-down escape of Lex Luther from a prison quarry here because, well, it feels like an old-school comic from a more innocent time- which is probably why it helps to forget that this comic is from the not-so-innocent 1987.

A Lex Luthor, clearly written for Gene Hackman’s unique take on the character, can be interpreted differently because, we don’t hear Hackman’s raspy comedic delivery and so the voice coming from this man’s mouth could easily be Clancy Brown’s or Kevin Spacey’s.  And as for his appearance, we have a compromise of a Luthor that doesn’t look like Hackman, but also isn’t depicted as totally bald, as he features the red hair that’s occasionally been bestowed to him by artists intermittently through the decades.

Bob Rozakis and Curt Swan sort of put the filmmakers to shame with their comic adaptation for, whilst some of the film’s snappier and even playfully risque dialogue is missing in Rozakis’s version, he does rewrite much of it into a clearer, more logical narrative, which in turn is illustrated by Swan in a manner that leaves few questions asked.

Much of this is aided by the re-incorporation of deleted scenes, whose omission from the film contribute to it’s occasionally confusing plot.  So, amongst other things, we get to see the sort of proto-Bizarro character who was played in the excised footage by Casualty and Game of Thrones actor Clive Mantle.

So many of the movie’s more foolish moments are either improved, explained away or just flat-out removed here to honestly create something that’s much easier to take seriously.

The nonsense of Mariel Hemingway flying through space, without suffocating or having the blood vessels in her lovely face just rupture all over Nuclear Man, is gladly gone.

In fact, when a human does get brought out into space, it’s young Jeremy, the kid whose letter to Superman got the plot rolling and yet, in

the film, falls into a narrative black hole, his character being completely forgotten about.  And yes, in the comic, Jeremy is in a space suit.

Remember one of the film’s most insane moments, when Superman rebuilds the Great Wall of China with…um…well, by looking at it?  Yeah, well here he uses his super speed to rebuild it brick-by-brick.  Far less crazy an idea and it’s in keeping with Supes’ established powers.

And then there’s Nuclear Man’s powers, amongst which is his ability to be born wearing an ultra-80s super suit.  The film briefly touches on a ludicrous explanation for this.  The tiny little container that Lex’s Superman-clone-jelly-shit is kept in for it’s voyage into space apparently has a costume-weaving computer in it.  I must admit that this idea tickles me, but it’s just dumb.

Swan depicts Nuclear Man coming into existence, rather more believably, naked.  After which, he is presented with a costume by Lex Luthor and Lenny.

In this same scene, it’s noted that Nuclear Man knew to come to Lex’s lair due to genetic memory inherited from the Bizarro-like creature that was created earlier, thereby explaining away another plot-hole of the movie, albeit stretching our suspension of disbelief to the limits.

This comic demonstrates how a fresh set of eyes can help improve, if only slightly, a work that has previously lost it’s way.  Examples of similar improvements go back as far as Fantastic Voyage, which had it’s novelisation penned by none other than the great Isaac Asimov.  In hiring a giant of high-end science fiction to write a version of a sci-fi flick that plays pretty fast and loose with the realms of scientific plausibility, they should have expected considerable changes to the story.  Coz they got them.

The Fantastic Voyage novel delves into detail about the possibilites of ‘shrinking’ that had naturally been overlooked by the movie, pain-stakingly examining the reaction of shrunken matter to both light and even the perception of time.  Asimov also completely changed the ending to one he found more plausible.

I wonder what other adaptations are out there.  What other cinematic offerings have gotten re-interpreted in other media with results that shine a light on the failings of the source material?

All this said, I don’t personally believe Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, is utterly devoid of positive factors.  It’s great seeing Hackman back as Lex Luthor, and indeed almost worth the admission price to see his fun, villainous rapport with Reeve one last time.
And, whilst perhaps belonging in another movie, the messages about nuclear warfare and the transformation of noble newspapers into corporate entities certainly have their heart in the right place.

Also, how many other movies show us Superman flying around Milton Keynes?

DC COMICS & THE WORLD OF REBOOTS: Just Make A Better Sequel

These days, it seems Hollywood studios must have a red button in their boardrooms that’s labelled ‘Reboot’.  At the first sign that a movie from a potential or even established franchise performs below the studio’s expectations(which these days means nothing short of opening weekend record breakage on a global scale), then that big old red button gets a corporate fist slammed down on it.  Panic!  Run away!  Re-cast!  Hire David Goyer!  Do something!

            Because, clearly, if a movie isn’t quite what every single human being on the planet wanted, then the only possible way to manage any future property dealing with the same material is to completely scrap it and start all over.  Effectively pissing away all that money you spent on the original in the first place.

This is a relatively recent phenomenon and an unsettling one.  Had this philosophy been in practice when Star Trek: The Motion Picture was released, then we would never have gotten Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, one of the most successful and well-regarded sequels of all time.

ORIGINALS ARE DEAD: Sequels. Remember those?

The Motion Picture was received poorly by critics and even amongst many disappointed fans who had shelved out the cash for their cinema tickets.  However, it made enough money so that the filmmakers could go ahead and make another one.  Taking on board complaints about the previous movie, they went and made it’s follow-up more fitting with what hungry Trekkies had really wanted in those wilderness years between the cancellation of their beloved show and the franchise’s ressurection on the big screen.

Khan’s producers didn’t panic and start all over again, effectively remaking Motion Picture.  They didn’t decide that, because Motion Picture didn’t quite nail it, that it’s very existence would hurt any future Trek outings.  No.  The Wrath of Khan has the Roman numeral II in it’s title, suggesting they weren’t pretending the previous Enterprise adventure had never happened.
They didn’t freak out.  They just learned from mistakes and made the next one better.

Imagine a world where this still happened regularly- a world where Tom Jane got another official shot from Marvel at punishing the shit out of criminal scum and where we didn’t need to see Uncle Ben’s murder occur twice in 10 years, under vaguely different circumstances.

It is warranted occasionally, of course, where the first attempt at bringing material to the screen has failed so obviously that there is clearly nowhere to go with that same continuity.  And if there has been a fairly significant amount of time passed since the last movie, wherein the very movie culture itself has changed enough that the material can stand a new approach filtered through an updated lens.  The movie Dredd fits both of these criteria, being a film that was very justified in it’s completely evident separation from 1995’s Judge Dredd.

DREDD: When reboots are necessary.

But perhaps, where this approach of completely scrapping continuity from a film that slightly underperformed is at it's most misguided is in the DC universe and their treatment of the Green Lantern character.

Their rebooting of Batman from Bale to Batfleck grew from a mix of Bale not wanting to continue in the role and the fact that Nolan’s universe doesn’t quite lend itself to the fantastic, thereby making it’s interaction with a world of flying Kryptonians and cybernetically enhanced high school football players, fairly jarring and unworkable.  All this means that we can understand DC’s recasting of the Dark Knight and indeed have it feel not drastically different from when Kilmer replaced Keaton.

But it’s the apparent dismissal of DC’s 2011 movie, Green Lantern, that is just flat-out foolish.  No matter what one thinks about the only movie outing of the emerald guardian, it is nevertheless a movie that establishes the character, providing a bit of groundwork already done and dusted for a potential Justice League movie.  And yet, it seems as though this movie is not to be included in the new continuity established by Man of Steel.

Good grief, DC.  Why not let Green Lantern be your Star Trek: The Motion Picture?  Learn from it’s mistakes(amongst which, I don’t think anyone would include the casting of Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan), and go make a better follow-up.  Why throw away the work that was put into that movie?  Lose the CGI suit and design him a physical costume maybe, but at least get something from it.

DOES THE JOB: Reynolds as Green Lantern

If indeed, they go to the extreme of not only scrapping Ryan Reynolds as Jordan, but actually scrapping Jordan altogether in favour of another Green Lantern, they’ll have done two things incredibly wrong.

One- they’ll be completely disregarding DC canon by establishing the Justice League without one of it’s true founding members, namely the original silver age Lantern, Hal Jordan.

And Two- they’ll have just wasted an entire movie, it’s multi-million dollar budget and a decent bit of casting.

Don’t be stupid, guys.  Get Mr. Reynolds on the phone.

Otherwise, face the reality of Kevin Feige and Joss Whedon laughing at you chasing your own tails, well into the future.

SAMEY MOVIE COVERS #1

Today- flags, moths and stitches.

MONSTER MADNESS PREDICTION

Having revealed my James Rolfe fandom in the last post, I just wanted to share a little prediction about this year's Monster Madness season of reviews, so as to have written proof in case I'm right! Coz.....ya know, I love this shit.
After the last of the Gamera reviews goes out tomorrow (Sat, 19th), there will be 11 days left of Monster Madness 2013.  I predict these 11 days will consist of the Child's Play franchise and the Alien franchise, with Prometheus and the AVP flicks squeezed into 1 review.
There. Now, if only Ladbrokes or Boylesports took money on this shit.

HALLOWEEN- I LOVE THIS SHIT

It goes without saying that we Irish like it when we actually get to legitimately lay claim to an international export.  It is therefore with no degree of modesty that certain Halloween-loving Irishmen proudly claim that Halloween is ours!

The original festival itself was celebrated in Scotland and Wales as well as Ireland, so not necessarily originating in Ireland but it’s global popularisation is down to the Irish diaspora.  It was Irish immigrants who brought the custom to the United States and once the Americans got their hands on it…well, to say commercialisation would be an understatement.

It saddens me that our neighbours in England haven’t gotten to enjoy the ghoulish, fun rituals of Halloween as much but certainly American homogenisation through pop culture seems to be sorting that out.  It wouldn’t surprise if, in some years, the British can’t remember a time they didn’t celebrate Halloween.
And knowing that the form of this festival which we celebrate worldwide today came from this country just seems so appropriate to me.  As I associate the holiday with the Irish landscape- both rural and urban.  When I think of Halloween, I think of that artificial haze created by wayward teens throwing bangers(what Americans call firecrackers) for days on end in the build-up to the night of the 31^st.  As much as this anti-social behaviour is dangerous and I assure you, thoroughly illegal, it certainly helps the atmosphere.

As a child, out trick-or-treating, the smoke from those quarter sticks of dynamite would permeate the night so extensively, that every street in our town had a sort of…well…fog. Which, obviously, on Halloween night is just fucking awesome!

            Plus, the Irish just know how to celebrate Halloween.  My mother used to get what she called ‘Halloween Grub’- oddly chosen items of food which the Irish generally wouldn’t eat at any other time of year.  These ranged from the obvious- such as Barmbrack (a traditional Irish cake served at Halloween, which would have a ring or, rather unhygeinicly, a coin placed somewhere in it for the kids to find.  Ummm…yeah!) to the bizarre- such as coconut milk and monkey nuts.  Yeah, that’s right.  I said monkey nuts.

Monkey nuts: As far as we can tell
just regular peanuts

For me, the flavours of these foods go hand-in-hand with the smell of rubbery monster masks getting steamed up on the inside by my breath.  Purely innocent, I assure you.  No S&M jokes, please.

Then, I hit my teens and dress-up became a thing of the past but something new existed- horror movies!
As a child, even the notion of a horror movie frightened me.  I most certainly was not a child desensitised to screen violence or scares.  This is an element of my youth I now value tremendously as it never really left me.  For, as jaded and well-versed a horror fan as I now am, a genuinely scary and well crafted piece of horror cinema can absolutely work on me.  I’m an easy mark where that’s concerned- quite easily made jump.

People who brag about watching a horror flick and not jumping clearly have missed the point.  That’s like sitting on a rollercoaster and trying not to have your stomach swayed or jolted in any way.  Why get on the fucking ride, if you’re gonna be like that? I watch horror moves because I want to be scared.

And as my teens went on, I would reserve some extra special spooky treats for myself, to watch throughout the evening of October 31^st.  But in later years, I've developed a different attitude to my Halloween viewing and this is due, in no small part, to my enjoyment of internet movie critic James Rolfe.

Every October since 2007, Rolfe has released ‘Monster Madness’, a month-long series of horror movie reviews, that start on October 1^st and end on Halloween.  Through Monster Madness, Rolfe made an excellent point.  Why limit ourselves to one night?  One of the joys of Halloween is the shift in the seasons- the brown leaves and cooler weather following on from the heat of the summer.  And indeed, he’s now started to open Monster Madness with the greeting ‘Happy October’.  View the Monster Madness 2013 Promo here.

And so, here we find ourselves in the midst of October, the halfway point really.  And yes, I’m in full Halloween spirit, treating the entire month as my own private horror movie festival.

Two nights ago, I watched Drag Me To Hell and tonight I’m taking in The Devil Rides Out(alternately titled The Devil's Bride- nowhere near as good a title), a Hammer classic which does the rare thing of using the early 20^th Century as it’s setting rather than the usual Victorian era used by films of it’s ilk.  Plus, Christopher Lee's a goodie!
Haven’t seen it in years and since I last saw it, it’s screen writer Richard Matheson has died.  So I might just have a beer tonight with the movie, to toast the man.

Having started this blog last October, as I was in a similar mood, I sort of abandoned it after a month or so, through pure lazyness.  Well, I’m back for the time being.  Inspired by my favourite time of year.  Not the night…but the Month of Halloween.

BEST FICTIONAL AMERICAN PRESIDENTS

With the American Presidential race in it's final stages, here's a countdown of some of the most entertaining fictional US screen Presidents.

12. President Marshall - Air Force One

Having been in about 50 per cent of everything that was awesome in the 1980s, Harrison Ford sadly spent most of the 90s with his lip quivering, telling people to get out or off of various things, usually his house but in this case, his plane.

Despite Ford’s increasing shitness at the time, here he is in a movie penned by Andrew Marlowe (End of Days, Hollow Man, Castle) and starring a villainous Gary Oldman so it’s kind of a movie you can’t fuck up.  And true enough, even though I sit there not wanting to like it, I do.

But it’s just the idea of seeing the guy who inhabited the role of Tom Clancy’s right wing wet dream Jack Ryan now be an action hero President (as Ryan actually became in Clancy’s books) that makes me uneasy.

11. President Beck - Deep Impact

Not much for the character to do here other than make some speeches to calm the doomed masses but Morgan Freeman rocks it hard with this performance.  Most of us would vote for him anyway.
The really important thing about this, of course, is the notion of an African American President.  It seemed like a daring casting choice for Mimi Leder in 1998.  And I went to see this at age 13, thinking that a black President seemed unlikely.  10 years later, I found that the American electorate could very pleasantly surprise me.

10. President Shepherd - The American President

Written in a coked-out haze by Aaron Sorkin, this romantic comedy quickly mutates into a decent political drama.  Michael Douglas is great as the President(otherwise he wouldn’t be on the list) but what’s something of a distraction to post-West Wing audiences is Martin Sheen as his Chief of Staff.  Every time they’re on screen together, I find myself confused as to why Sheen isn’t the President.

If nothing else, this is a great historical treat for West Wing fans.  We see the idea for the TV show coming together in Sorkin’s wonderful drug-addled brain.  Many characters can be picked out right away as prototypes for the show- elegant, funny and very tall woman as press secretary, flawed but trustworthy Irish Chief of Staff and a young idealistic curmudgeon in the mix who keeps reminding the old guys what it means to be a Democrat.  (Special mention for Anna Deavere Smith, who was in this, the West Wing and even Dave- Hat Trick!)

The truly proto-Bartlet scene is Shepherd’s speech in which he calls out his Republican challenger in a stirring war cry.  Awesome.

The challenger is played by Richard Dreyfuss, fairly appropriately, as some years later he would portray Dick Chaney.

9. President Whitmore – Independence Day

Well, it’s a cheesy, stars and stripes-waving explosion fest but a damn entertaining one.  So what better President to have in this alien invasion movie than Bill Pullman’s idealistic ex-fighter pilot who’s bad at lying.

Warrior enough for the gun nuts in the audience but suitably guilty and hesitant enough about his war-like acts to still be sympathetic to the rest of us.  Even liberals almost cheer when he utters the right wing orgasmic catch phrase ‘Nuke the Bastards’.  Almost.

His first lady, Mary McDonnell, would later herself become President in the pretentious but addictive Battlestar Galactica re-imagining.

Rather than post the corny scene from the movie, here's Pullman putting a different spin on the same speech.

8. President Stillson (Possible Timeline) – The Dead Zone

Like a warped version of the West Wing, we get to see Martin Sheen (the first Uncle Ben on our list) play a different kind of President.  Bartlet gone mad?

The minds of David Cronenberg and Stephen King come together here to make a truly haunting horror story with help from a great central performance from Christopher Walken, as a man who sees the future, and Michael Kamen who provides one of his best scores.
When the possible future of Greg Stillson becoming President is revealed, it’s finally realised what a dangerous individual he is.  He’s got to be stopped.

A lovely little coincidence in this is Walken’s character talking about the headless demon in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, whom he would later portray.

7. President Dale – Mars Attacks!

A beautiful contrast to Independence Day, released the same year, Mars Attacks! just took the piss completely.  And a suitable foil to that year’s President Whitmore was President Dale.

Jack Nicholson as the President. Holy Jesus.
However, if you find yourself thinking how someone with a demeanour like Nicholson’s (which is great for LA detectives, Gotham City arch-villains and…well, Lucifer) could get elected President then I would take a look at the last 4 out of 5 Republican Presidents.  Yeah, I’m excluding Gerald Ford coz he was just funny.

With Glenn Close as a Nancy/Hillary hybrid, the stage is set for a pretty fucked up White House.  And that’s before the planet Mars decides to attack.

This is a fantastic sci-fi comedy. My kind of movie.

(Clip contains spoilers)



6. President Muffley - Dr. Strangelove

The man who sums up the tone of Dr. Strangelove, Muffley is a sycophant on an international level trying to stop the insanity which he presides over as president from bursting forth globally.

Whilst, it can be argued which of Peter Sellers’ three performances is the best here, President Merkin Muffley set something of a benchmark for political leaders in satire.

5. Unnamed Presidents - Escape From New York/LA

John Carpenter doesn’t seem to hold a lot of hope for the future. If I had once been married to Adrienne Barbeau and lost her then neither would I.

My favourite director’s take on the US Presidents of the future is pretty bleak.  The wonderful Donald Pleasence plays the first one, combining the very electorate-friendly geniality of Loomis from Halloween with the megalomaniacal menace of Blofeld from You Only Live Twice.  And as unlikable a character as he is, there’s a slight satisfaction in seeing him gun down Isaac Hayes’ The Duke.  In the first clip here, we see the President being tortured by the Duke.

The second President that Carpenter gives us is an unstable Bible-bashing nutcase, an eerie prediction of George W. played by Cliff Robertson – the second of two Ben Parkers on our list.  Terrifying, hilarious and incredibly entertaining.

Both of these actors are sadly not with us anymore.

4. President Dave(Fake President Mitchell) – Dave

It’s such a ridiculous concept, you just have to go with it.  This 1993 play on Dumas’ The Man In The Iron Mask, shows us what could be when a corrupt, uncaring Republican President falls into a coma and his conscientious Capraesque doppelganger takes the reigns.

With some disturbing scenes which effectively show us a coup d’état, it’s important to consume that grain of salt in order to get the message that writer Gary Ross is constructing something of a fairytale.

3. President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho - Idiocracy

A film that’s finally getting the respect it deserves, Idiocracy is a broad comedy that actually has a disturbingly important point to make- mankind’s getting dumber.

And in the idiot-populated world of tomorrow, an ex-porn star has become President.

            Terry Crews can often be seen dispensing baddies of various non-American backgrounds in Sylvester Stallone movies but is equally well known for his comedy roles.  He’s brilliant and utterly hilarious here as the larger than life, slightly terrifying President of the crumbling land of buffoons.

And, as this list is based on entertainment value, he makes the number 3 spot.

There's very few clips out there that haven't been ironically re-cut by some gobshite, so here's the trailer.

Honourable mention to President NotSure.

2. President Benson – Hot Shots! Part Deux

Having served as Admiral in the first Hot Shots!, Lloyd Bridges had worked his way up to the top by the time of the sequel.  A wonderful example of the cartoon-like rules that the Abrahams/Zucker team brought to their psychotic worlds, Benson is a President whose war-battered body is mostly made up of random textiles and the body parts of his fallen enemies in the field.

A testament to Bridges’ sheer lovability, every other word that comes out of his mouth in both Hot Shots! movies is gut-bustingly funny.

Same story with clips, I'm afraid.

1. President Bartlet – The West Wing

There was only ever going to be one winner.  Had this list been based on performance as President, rather than entertainment value- Bartlet would still be number one.

A hybrid of the values Aaron Sorkin wanted from a President and Martin Sheen’s own liberal Catholic(almost a contradiction in terms) personality, Jed Barlet’s an erudite New Hampshire native of privileged background but with an enormous sense of devotion to people of all classes.
In the same way Boston Legal’s Alan Shore is the superhero of lawyers, Bartlet is an equally impossible figure that represents all the right virtues and even flaws that make a man perfect for the Oval Office.

Sorkin’s shows can be criticised for the long-winded speeches and convenient competence of the characters but he’s trying to teach the American people something with them. The lesson is that this is how administrations should act.

It’s idealised for a reason.  Let’s see the White House be all it can be.  A ridiculous fantasy, yes.  But most of the best stories are.

Our clip sees the Democratic President at his best, addressing a room after a member of his staff has asked him how he intends to beat a Republican challenger.

DEFINING SPACE OPERA - And confusing myself in the process

By Ciaran McNulty

I warn you.  We’re about to get nerdy.

I recall an argument from my teenage years.  Amidst the other kids’ conversations in the Dundalk school yard that day about football, night clubs and girly bits, there could be heard a heated discussion about which Sci-Fi creation was better- Star Wars or Star Trek.  I stated that there couldn’t be an argument as Star Wars was far better.  I still feel there is no argument but for completely different reasons.

For, as my love of Star Trek has increased tenfold since then, these days I find comparing the two is unfair as they now seem to me to fit into two different genres.  Star Trek is absolute Science Fiction, whilst Star Wars is not quite as easy to define.

Trek takes ideas from present technology and then leaps forward with them, offering examples of where such tech could take us in the future, for better or worse- surely the definition of Sci-Fi.

Star Wars, however, does nothing of the sort.  It’s a fable that could as easily be set in Medieval times with swords and horses and it is in outer space with lightsabres and starships.  The technology has no baring on plot- even something like a Death Star destroying a planet could be translated, in another time and setting, as a battleship or army attacking a community.

Therefore, the films Star Wars needs to be held up against are fantasy flicks like Lord of the Rings or myth-inspired fare like Jason and the Argonauts or Clash of the Titans(More on Harryhausen in a later blog)- stories that are life lessons shrewdly fed to people throughout the centuries in nifty dramatic packaging.

Of course though, Star Wars has been lumped into another genre as well, hasn’t it.  For it was in connection with George Lucas’ tale of Rebels, Stormtroopers and Jedi that I first heard the term ‘Space Opera’.  If Star Wars has a place in Science Fiction, it is in this sub-genre, where it actually sets a near-perfect example.

Space Opera, it would seem, can be a broad term as technology can be a vital part of the story or it can be incidental.  All that really defines the Space Opera is the setting and the nature of the story.  A dramatic and exciting tale which chooses the stars as it’s setting.

An example of Space Opera with a purer Sci-Fi emphasis can be seen in Firefly.  Here we have a definite Space Opera, with spaceship battles/chases aplenty but at the centre of it all, an examination of how Western and Eastern cultures could homogenise in the future.

Now, that’s some Futurism and not the sort of thing we’re going to get with something set in a galaxy far, far away.  For whilst Star Wars can play political allegory with it’s votes of no confidence in Chancellors and transformations of democracies into evil galactic empires, it is never a prediction of Earth’s future and makes no leaps of imagination with how our present culture and technology will evolve.  It happily distances itself from the plausible.

And of course, Firefly went for realism by cutting out sound effects in the vacuum of space, not in keeping with the flash-bang of your typical Space Opera.

Which brings us to the other end of the genre.  Whilst the term Space Opera has something of a grand and refined sound to it, many examples of this type of movie are anything but (just check out some early 80s efforts from Roger Corman).  The gleeful lack of fidelity to scientific plausibility in these trashier Space Operas is what sets them apart from the likes of Hard Sci-Fi, as the use of space adventures become nothing more than an excuse for violence and nudity.

However, in order to gain the moniker, all kinds of Space Opera - from Battle Beyond the Stars to Battlestar Galactica - must fall into that category of a ripping galactic yarn.  What quite a lot of them share with Star Wars is their adaptability to any other environment where, in this case, they just happen to take place in outer space.

So, what actually qualifies as Space Opera?  Well, John Carter seems a prime candidate.   It strays away from Star Trek-like pure Sci-fi and delves into the more morality-tale oriented realm of Space Opera with it’s emphasis on mysticism and the allegory of European-Americans and their interaction with Native Americans. However, is this potential Space Opera really set in space?  Not really.

It seems, creator of the source material, Edgar Rice Burroughs was less concerned with Carter’s method of getting to Mars than later authors would be, instead content to use astral projection, bypassing the space between Earth and Mars.

JOHN CARTER OF MARS: Not quite Space Opera but still remarkable.

And where Space Operas triumph is the fun they have on the journey between the planets.  The starscape is a playground for screenwriters wherein to have lazer battles between spaceships and even tense (albeit slow moving) extra-vehicular activity in space suits.

And proof again of the broad nature of the genre is it’s over-lapping of other genres.  Movies involving Superman and Green Lantern are obviously in the superhero genre but also clearly delve into Space Opera.  Green Lantern’s climatic scenes see a normal man endowed with super powers of galactic origin going toe-to-toe with a gigantic alien enemy at the centre of our solar system- without a space suit. And very importantly, such fare tend to be planet-hoppers of movies.

The more varied planets and spaceship environments in a Space Opera the better.  After all, travel from one location to the next means more outer space action on the way.

It’s a difficult genre to define and proof perhaps that pigeon-holing movies is just a silly idea.  Remember though, that this thought process stemmed from my anger at people comparing Trek and Wars.  In order to prove that they shouldn’t be compared, I’ve discussed the nature of certain types of Sci-Fi entertainment and how some of it opposes the other thematically.  Either way, I just love talking about this shit.

But roughly 900 words later and I’ve confused myself.  What the hell is Space Opera? Maybe it should just all be called Sci-Fi.  Agree with anything I said? Or think I’m talking crap? Feel free to comment below, whilst I crack open a beer and watch David Lynch’s Dune.  Yeah, that’s another one.
Check out the opening scene of DUNE!
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