Back again for another highly opinionated — some might even say downright cranky — look at the week in fantasy. You’ve been warned!
AND THE OSCAR DOESN’T GO TO…
Much has been made of the fact that the Oscar nominations were announced this week and, having had the number of Best Picture nominees raised from five to ten, three of the nominees turned out to be genre movies: Up, Avatar, and District 9 (four if you include Inglourius Basterds).
Others have rightfully pointed out that this really wasn’t that much of an achievement, since they were three (or four) wildly critically acclaimed films that also wildly exceeded their box office expectations — exactly the kind of movie that usually is nominated.
In other words, the Academy would have had to be really, really biased to ignore these films. And that is absolutely true.
It’s also true that while the Academy nominated these films for Best Picture, they pointedly ignored all the actors in genre films, notably Zoe Saldana in Avatar and Lorna Raver as the gypsy woman in Drag Me to Hell (who had buzz, but was probably always a very long shot).
Lorna Raver in Drag Me to Hell
My response: duh! Of course the Academy is biased against genre films! They’re a group of some 6000 older industry professionals, most of whom don’t work in, and obviously don’t appreciate, genre filmmaking.
And so what? This is precisely why genre aficionados have their own award ceremonies.
I happen to love the Oscars, but the thing that annoys me about them every year is how people ascribe these grand meanings to the Academy’s judgment — and nurse resentments over movies and performances they feel were “slighted.” Yes, they call it the “best” picture, but it’s all just someone’s opinion. How could any group of human beings make an objective, factual statement about anything as subjective as film? Isn’t that screamingly obvious?
One thing I don’t believe is that the voting is corrupt — that awards can be “bought,” that they’re not the genuine opinion of those involved. Yes, there’s politicking, yes, Academy members are swayed by “buzz,” and they probably also vote for and lobby for friends.
Still, I think you can make a good case that the Oscars generally honor pretty decent films — much of what most educated film-goers think of as the “best” for the year (although not usually my personal tastes).
And for the record, I’ve judged many award contests myself, and the one thing they all had in common is that the people involved take it very, very seriously. It’s like jury duty: from the outside, you think, “That’s crazy! People are morons!” But once you participate, your faith in your fellow human beings usually goes up a little, not down.
(All this said, I’m personally still a little tickled District 9 was nominated for Best Picture, since it was easily my favorite film of the year.)
DOES ANYONE REMEMBER JIM HENSON’S THE STORYTELLER?
With the news that SyFy is producing a series of fantasy films based on classic fairy tales and legends (the first of which, Beauty and the Beast, premieres on February 27th), I couldn’t help but be reminded of Jim Henson’s The Storyteller, a live-action/puppet hybrid series that starred John Hurt as the narrator (and, later, Dumbledore himself, Michael Gambon).
The show ran in 1988 as part of the failed The Jim Henson Hour (but won several Emmys anyway).
I loved this show!
In my opinion, one of the minor tragedies of the life of Jim Henson is that as he moved farther away from the Muppets, and closer to the fantasy themes that clearly spoke to him the most, his work became increasingly less popular with mainstream audiences (at least at the time of creation — much of the work, like The Dark Crystal and The Storyteller, has since become cult classics).
The irony is that I found his work here to be far richer and more sophisticated, and the puppetry far more impressive, than anything he ever did with The Muppets.
I haven’t seen The Storyteller in ages — why don’t I own this? — and I was a little worried it wouldn’t have held up. I don’t know why I was concerned. It’s amazing what they were able to do without CGI:
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THE IDIOT BOX
On Friday, Smallville goes all Watchmen as Clark tracks down the former members of the Justice Society of America, in a special “two-hour event” that co-stars Pam Grier. (Friday, 8 PM, The CW). Here’s the trailer:
This weekend, it’s a rerun of “Touched” (a decent episode) on Legend of the Seeker (syndicated, check local listings). And hey, I have an interview with Bridget Regan in the works!
On Tuesday, we have the last episode of The Jay Leno Show (10 PM, NBC). They thought this was going to save their network? Now that’s television fantasy!
On Thursday, we have the debut of a new show, Past Life, which is sort of paranormal Cold Case — detectives use past life regression to solve long-dead crimes. I’ll have a full review next week, but suffice to say, it’s pretty by-the-numbers (9 PM, Fox).
Also on Thursday, there are new episodes of The Vampire Diaries (8 PM, The CW) and Supernatural (9 PM, The CW), which has a Valentine’s Day ep entitled “My Bloody Valentine” about a real-life Cupid run amok (although the title is also a cheeky reference to the movie Jensen Ackles starred in last year. Get it?)
Well, this week’s flame has sputtered out, but join me again next week when I promise I won’t be nearly so cranky.
Oh, who am I kidding?!
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Anyway, the world completely ignored me (as it so often does). But I re-watched Poltergeist recently, and while the special effects are sadly dated — wow, we really thought that scene at the sink when he tears his face off looked cool?!? — I still think the movie more than holds up.
But here’s the thing: I can really have breakfast with my friends! I do it almost every Sunday!
Q: What ever happened to Andre the Giant, who played Fezzik in The Princess Bride? — Tom, Shoreline, WA
In fact, I consider it a cheat when a book or movie has a “prophecy” that, through “courage” or mere stubbornness on the part of the hero, doesn’t ever come true. I think it’s one of the (many) flaws in The Return of the Jedi: Darth Vadar, the Emperor, and even Yoda spend half the movie confidently talking about how that’s it, it’s over, Luke’s going to give into the Dark Side of the Force — only to have it turn out that, nope, that was just the Emperor’s wishful thinking!
Yes, I understand that most of the key players involved in The Lord of the Rings will be involved with The Hobbit. On paper, you have to admit, “There’s no way these movies can suck! They just have to do exactly what they did before! How hard is that?”
So did it also include degrees of a “soul”? And what was all this emphasis on one species — namely, us — being so spankin’ much “better” than everything else anyway? Sure, there are clearly differences in intelligence, but isn’t all life “equal” in a way too? After all, we don’t take away a human being’s rights just because they’re mentally disadvantaged; a baby is afforded special protections precisely because it can’t protect itself.
But he is misremembering. In the DVD commentary, Peter Jackson calls the scene a “visual trick,” pointing out that, “Very briefly, Christopher Lee’s eyes are actually glued onto Ian McKellen’s face…You also hear Christopher Lee’s voice — it’s blended in with Ian’s. We did want people, at least the uninitiated, to think that this possibly was Saruman.”
A: The Oracle would strongly agree with The Lord of the Rings and Earthsea, but would also enthusiastically add A Song of Fire and Ice by George R. R. Marin, the first Kushiel trilogy by Jaqueline Carey, and (yes) The Chronicles of Narnia and The First and Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (but not the third trilogy, which is almost unreadable).
Q: Another question: what is fantasy? For me, it’s not just supernatural. Magic has to be part of that reality. For example, The Dragonriders of Pern series isn’t strictly “fantasy” to me — the planet has spaceflight. Though the dragons can traverse space and even time, my memory is that this ability is never framed as magical, and no other magic seems to exist. — Robert
Q: I remember a few years ago, It’s a Wonderful Life was shown constantly on television, but this year it wasn’t. What gives? I thought the movie was now part of the public domain. Did everyone get sick of it? — MAGPIE, Toronto, Canada
Q: With Pirate Latitudes, Michael Crichton’s terrible posthumous novel, currently stinking up bookstores and bookshelves everywhere, I think it must be asked: was Crichton always a hack and we just never noticed before? — Eartha, The Earth
A: The Oracle agrees with you that Star Trek was mostly all over the place when it comes to transporter technology. That said, one answer to your question can be found in the question itself: the first two episodes you cite are all about the complications, ethical and otherwise, that come from having the transporter create “doubles.” So it stands to reason that, just as with human cloning, this might not be research the Federation would pursue (or even allow).
You’re right that the question of Xena’s “royalty” was originally unclear — although there’s considerable (and compelling) debate about whether the warrior Atreus is 
A: Actually, they didn’t invent Irene Adler. She’s taken from the Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes short story, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” and she is, in fact, the only women to have bested Holmes (and one of only four people total to have done so!).
Personally, I’ll never miss a movie by either director. Even their “failures” are almost always enormously interesting.
I’ve interviewed Xena mastermind Rob Tapert twice in the last year, and both times he’s talked about how truly “different” his new show, Spartacus: Blood and Sand (co-starring Lucy Lawless, coming on Starz January 22nd) really is.
Think about it: it was released just as the swine flu epidemic was gearing up. It’s hard for me to imagine worse possible timing. Who would want to pay money to be scared by something that people were thinking might actually happen in real life? Had the movie been widely released and promoted, I could even see them accused of being irresponsible (it would’ve been irresponsible!).
A: Ralph, I think every fantasy or sci-fi author does have some fans like this — at least once he or she reaches a certain level of fame. And the reason why, as you suggest, has to do, in part, with the anonymous nature of the internet, but also just the nature of geekdom. As much as the Oracle (a geek to my core) hates to admit it, there might be some truth to the stereotype that a small sub-set of geeks has, well, social problems. We’re all best off ignoring them, because all they really want is attention — since, obviously, they have no friends.
A: Interestingly, while most of the events in The Chronicles of Narnia do not have exact years and dates, author C.S. Lewis did create a “time-line” of Narnian history before he died in 1963; it was published in 1979.
Q: Your article that mentioned the mynock in The Empire Strikes Back got me thinking about how ridiculous that scene is where they put on those flimsy breathing masks and basically go out into deep space (albeit in the belly of a space slug). Or am I missing something? Would the fact that the space-slug is reportedly a silicon-based life form make a difference? — Tom, Seattle, WA
