SCIENCE FICTION’S COMEBACK! [movie trailers]

Sci-fi never went anywhere, but as far as good Hollywood films are concerned, heavy-science-fiction blockbusters have been few and far in between. And no, Transformers and Battleship have no science-based elements in them so they don’t count. Nor should they be considered any good for that matter.

Fiction is one thing but Speculative Fiction has to address its core idea from an exploratory, hypothetical point of view and not simply sugarcoat the invasion cliché, which is largely what the majority of Hollywood studio produced sci-fi has equated to. Anyone see the Total Recall reboot? Not exactly the mind-trip I was expecting.

Having blah blahed, the movies below look so cool that I’m willing to forget my finicky attention to detail, just so long as I’m entertained, which these sweet trailers have already achieved — Hurry up and come take my money!!!

Epic, and the cast est magnifique:

Monsters and giant robots — classic — you can’t go wrong really. Guillermo del Toro must surely be a fan of Gainax’s aptly indecipherable anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion:

Apocalyptic stuff; speaking of which:

Not loving the obligatory trailer voice, but The World’s End looks like fun, marking the third installment of Edgar Wright’s trilogy of comedies, following after Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007). Fried gold.

Elysium is District 9 writer/director Neill Blomkamp’s second feature film. It stars Jodie Foster and Matt Damon in the title role which alone has me excited to see how well he fits the genre. Elysium seems to have the strongest message of all these movies.

Ender’s Game looks like it could be a faithful adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s 1985 science-fiction novel of the same name. Unfortunately because of that, I already know how the story ends. It’s good. Besides, I think I’ll go just to see Sir Ben Kingsley play Mazer Rackham, a half-Maori war hero in space:

Way to rock that full-facial moko Sir.

If I had to choose, Riddick would be my least favorite of the list because it looks way to similar to Pitch Black. Early days yet, but so far all this trailer does for me is make me think about Pitch Black, and Radha Mitchell, and if I’m thinking about Radha Mitchell I’m not engrossed in the story. There it is David Twohy. I can’t believe you killed her off. The world needs more Radha Rani Amber Indigo Ananda Mitchell!

I’m not sure of the politics of their society, but The Purge certainly is a good premise for a science fiction thriller. Plus, Ethan Hawke.

Technically a superhero movie first and foremost; The Wolverine’s theme seems to hark back to genetics and what it means to be human — a sciencey narrative. For some reason the Japanese trailer kicks the American’s.

Man of Steel… Just looks good. Kryptonians be warned:

The new Robocop movie (slated for 2014) directed by Brazilian director José Padilha (Elite Squad: The Enemy Within) looks, well, there’s no trailer yet but I can comment on Robocop’s armour, and I don’t see the authority. Original Robocop Dutch director Paul Verhoeven (Starship Troopers, Total Recall) had a knack for social satire and absurd violence. I can’t imagine this reboot honouring that and no one can reproduce Peter Weller’s inspired performance, so I’m not holding my breath for this, but we’ll see.

And last but not least; good news for Halo fans, you’re finally getting that live-action Halo you’ve been clamoring for. World of Halo will be a TV series for Xbox and will be executive produced by Steven Spielberg. Forward Unto Dawn was awesome, so this could be too: