Like Tears in Rain: Meditations on Science Fiction Cinema Read Online Free Page A

Like Tears in Rain: Meditations on Science Fiction Cinema
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by the Raspberries, to The Runaways’ energetic “Cherrie Bomb,” not to mention Tyler Bates’s epic original score—gives the movie a certain insta-classic quality by balancing modern sounds with a healthy dose of nostalgia.
    Star-Lord’s introductory sequence on the planet Morag demonstrates Gunn’s competence as a director right away, from the well-choreographed action of Quill’s escape to the polished feel of the wide opening shots of the tomblike world and the augmented-reality technology necessary for Star-Lord to navigate it. Pratt earns a few laughs right out of the gate, doing what he does best; stellar actor Djimon Hounsou makes an appearance as Korath the Pursuer; the otherworldly Star-Lord mask is a given an immediate closeup, to ensure that its red-eyed stare becomes as iconic as the film itself seems destined to.
    It never really slows down from there on out.
    John C. Reilly makes a couple amiable appearances as a Nova Corps officer, with Glenn Close portraying his commander-in-chief, Nova Prime. Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel steal much of the show by lending their voices to the wildly lovable Rocket Raccoon and sentient tree-thing Groot, respectively.
    And by the end of the film’s two-hour runtime, you’re left buying it all—to the fullest extent possible. Instead of just having Rocket be a fast-talking, clever raccoon, the script mentions that he’s the result of experimentation using cybernetic uplift technology. Instead of Gamora (Zoë Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) having a petty, baseless sibling rivalry, we’re told that only one of them is Thanos’s daughter by blood; Gamora might as well have been called his prisoner of war, her family having been slaughtered by the Mad Titan (voiced and portrayed via MoCap by the inimitable Josh Brolin).
    The backstories of Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) and Groot are   slightly  less developed, and the film does its best to avoid the matter of Quill’s crown-prince-of-Spartax heritage—but given Gunn’s deft handling of the material that’s present in the film, I can’t help but feel all this will be handled sufficiently in the inevitable sequel. Ultimately, I suppose, the villains are the film’s one weak point. Benicio del Toro’s The Collector feels criminally underused, despite his space fortress serving as one of the main settings of the film’s second act. And Lee Pace is a bit of a caricature in his turn as Ronan the Accuser, who acts as a kind of Darth Maul to Thanos’s Sidious, to draw an all-too-easy comparison.
    But   Guardians of the Galaxy  is, at the end of the day, something fresher and bigger than a mere  Star Wars  pastiche. Given its place within the larger context of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it has free reign when it comes to making Starkian references to pop culture and the recognizable DNA of blockbuster filmmaking. And it makes full, unabashed use of its lead’s strengths. When Quill hollers, from the cockpit of his starship Milano , “They got my ‘dick’ message!”—well, you don’t have to roll your eyes. Because this flick has so much heart, and contributes to the fun-loving genre that is home to everything from  Raiders of the Lost Ark  to  Back to the Future , the audience is willing to follow Star-Lord and his ragtag team of Guardians anywhere.

What Is to Give Light
    The Cultural Legacy of Jodorowsky’s Dune
     
     
     
    Jodorowsky’s Dune  (Frank Pavich, 2013) is the bittersweet story of one tremendously ambitious filmmaker’s aborted attempt at bringing Frank Herbert’s seminal space opera to the big screen. Alejandro Jodorowsky describes his efforts as stemming not only from an emphasis on art before commerce, but also from a desire “to create a prophet . . . [an] artistical, cinematographical god.” His early career suggests that he was capable of making such a film:  Fando y Lis  (1968) incited rioting upon its release, and was subsequently banned by the Mexican
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