AND NOW... A FEW (MORE) WORDS ABOUT SEROKS
 
Congratulations to Andrea Abulencia, whose presentation of her paper--at the POSTHUMANITIES IN ASIA: THEORIES AND PRACTICES International Conference held at the Umeda Campus, Kansai University, in Osaka, Japan, on June 8 and 9--was, in her own words "well-received."

For the record, the paper is entitled "Pirated Identities, Real Fictional Selves: The Posthuman Clone Narrative in David Hontiveros' Seroks Iteration 1: Mirror Man as Philippine Contemporary Science Fiction," as can be seen in the image below.

Once again, thanx so much to Andrea and all you other mighty fine folk who continue to spread the good word...

you can't drink just six,

Dave

AND NOW... A FEW WORDS ABOUT SEROKS
 
I've just been informed that Andrea Abulencia, who chose SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man as the subject for her thesis in 2016, has written another paper on it.
And this time, she's presenting her paper at the POSTHUMANITIES IN ASIA: THEORIES AND PRACTICES International Conference being held at the Umeda Campus, Kansai University, in Osaka, Japan, on June 8 and 9.

And while I've always been both thrilled and humbled every time something I've written is chosen as the subject for an academic paper, I've never made announcements before.
This time though, the paper's being presented.
At an international conference.
In the land of Ultraman, kaiju, tokusatsu, and the late, great Satoshi Kon. (All of whom/which, incidentally, were referenced in SEROKS.)
For all that, I thought it was blog post-worthy...

So, if you happen to be in the Osaka neighborhood this coming weekend and presentations of academic papers are kind of your thing, then hey, check out the conference.
And tell Andrea (now a teacher at the University of Asia and the Pacific; hope the presentation goes well!) you read about it here at the Iguana!

And before I wrap up, I'd just like to say thanx so much to all you mighty fine folk like Andrea, who find resonances in my writing, and help spread the word about them.

Dōmo arigatōgozaimashita.

you can't drink just six,

Dave

10 Slots for the Best Horror I've Seen in the Past Year
[9 of 10]

ANNIHILATION

(February 2018)

"Isn't self-destruction coded into us? Programmed into each cell?”

Alex Garland’s Annihilation (based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer) is heady, horror-tinged science fiction, the kind we need far more than the N^th iteration of some tired SF franchise.

And while some may wonder at its inclusion here, I think it’s quite clear to those who frequent the Iguana that my definition of “horror” has always been very broad, allowing for diverse moods and tastes, from quiet elegance to raucous bombast.

Think of Annihilation as the horror of science, of nature gone horribly awry.

And not in the ‘70’s “animals go wild, nature vs man” schlock cinema sense (though there are flitting shades of that sensibility here), but rather in the sense of the horror of chaos, of the terrible, maddening possibility of having everything we take for granted twisted into unnatural and terrifying shapes.

Garland captures a grotesque beauty here, the awful majesty of seeing the mundane transfigured into the bizarre and the alien, his vision helped along tremendously by the soundscape laid down by Ben Salisbury and Portishead’s Geoff Barrow (the duo also scored Garland’s Ex Machina and Black Mirror’s “Men Against Fire”).

Plus, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Natalie Portman.

Need I say more?

(Annihilation OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2018

Candidate #5

ANNIHILATION

(February 2018)

"Isn't self-destruction coded into us? Programmed into each cell?”

Alex Garland’s Annihilation (based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer) is heady, horror-tinged science fiction, the kind we need far more than the N^th iteration of some tired SF franchise.

And while some may wonder at its inclusion here, I think it’s quite clear to those who frequent the Iguana that my definition of “horror” has always been very broad, allowing for diverse moods and tastes, from quiet elegance to raucous bombast.

Think of Annihilation as the horror of science, of nature gone horribly awry.

And not in the ‘70’s “animals go wild, nature vs man” schlock cinema sense (though there are flitting shades of that sensibility here), but rather in the sense of the horror of chaos, of the terrible, maddening possibility of having everything we take for granted twisted into unnatural and terrifying shapes.

Garland captures a grotesque beauty here, the awful majesty of seeing the mundane transfigured into the bizarre and the alien, his vision helped along tremendously by the soundscape laid down by Ben Salisbury and Portishead’s Geoff Barrow (the duo also scored Garland’s Ex Machina and Black Mirror’s “Men Against Fire”).

Plus, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Natalie Portman.

Need I say more?

(Annihilation OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

¡Qué horror! 2014

Candidate #9

COHERENCE

(September 2013)

"[Coherence] started with a test to see if I could shoot something without a crew and without a script.”
--James Ward Byrkit

Well, let me come right out and say that Mr. Byrkit and company aced this test.

The set-up’s simple: a group of friends get together for a dinner party, on the night that Miller’s Comet passes.

And what Byrkit and his cast manage to improv out of a limited budget, notecards, and short character descriptions is an exquisite Twilight Zone Chinese puzzle mindf*ck feature debut.

To say any more would be to say too much…

Seriously.

“We are visitors.”

--Em

(Coherence OS’ courtesy of impawards.com.)

PIMP MY STUFF
SEROKS ITERATION 2: ONCE IN A LIFETIME

All right, the time is almost upon us...

I’ve been informed that SEROKS Iteration 2: Once in a Lifetime is currently in the process of actualization (i.e. it’s at press even as I type this).

SEROKS Iteration 2: Once in a Lifetime follows the original SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man.

It, like its predecessor, is a collection of short stories set in the dystopic future world I first visited in the Palanca Award-winning “Kaming Mga Seroks.”

As with the first Iteration, the stories are by yours truly, with accompanying illustrations by the mighty fine Alan Navarra, all brought to us by the Visprint crew.

Keep your ears tuned for another announcement when the book’s ready for dissemination and it becomes available in bookstores across this grand nation of ours…

Huzzah!

Plus, if you have yet to pick it up, please check out SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man at those aforementioned bookstores... 

(SEROKS Iteration 2: Once in a Lifetime Front and Back Covers and SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man Front Cover by Alan Navarra; the Iteration 2 images are the original files Alan sent me, so I imagine they may look slightly different in the final print.)

PIMP MY STUFF
SEROKS
 
In case this is all new to you, SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man, from Visprint, is a collection of linked short stories all set in a dystopic future world where everything can be pirated, even people, a world first seen in my Palanca-honored SF short story, "Kaming Mga Seroks."

It's got illustrations by the mighty fine Alan Navarra, and, as can be construed from the full title, it's also the first in a series of SEROKS collections.

For those who are interested in reading the original Palanca awarded short story, it can be found online here, at the mighty fine InterNova, run by the mighty fine Michael Iwoleit. (Look! Downloadable as a PDF!)

And, courtesy of Alan, we're giving you the first look at SEROKS Iteration 2: Once in a Lifetime.
Crazy-awesome, yeah?
And for those who've read Iteration 1, yes, there will be more Dolores in Iteration 2...

you can't drink just six,

Dave
 

PIMP MY STUFF
SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man
 
And now, copies of SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man have been spotted at National Book Store, Greenbelt.
I can only assume that it's also to be found (or soon to be found) in other NBS branches across this great land of ours as well. And again, if you don't see it on the shelves, then please, ask for it.

SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man, from Visprint, is a collection of linked short stories all set in a dystopic future world where everything can be pirated, even people, a world first seen in my Palanca-honored SF short story, "Kaming Mga Seroks."

It's got illustrations by the mighty fine Alan Navarra, and, as can be construed from the full title, it's also the first in a series of SEROKS collections.

For those who are interested in reading the original Palanca awarded short story, it can be found online here, at the mighty fine InterNova, run by the mighty fine Michael Iwoleit. (Look! Downloadable as a PDF!)

PIMP MY STUFF
SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man
 
I've just received some intel indicating that copies of SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man have been spotted at Fully Booked.
I can only assume that it's also to be found (or soon to be found) in other bookstores across this great land of ours as well. And if you don't see it on the shelves, then please, ask for it.
That's SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man, from Visprint.
It's a collection of linked short stories all set in a dystopic future world where everything can be pirated, even people, a world first seen in my Palanca-honored SF short story, "Kaming Mga Seroks."

It's got illustrations by the mighty fine Alan Navarra, and, as can be construed from the full title, it's also the first in a series of SEROKS collections.

For those who are interested in reading the original Palanca awarded short story, it can be found online here, at the mighty fine InterNova, run by the mighty fine Michael Iwoleit. (Look! Downloadable as a PDF!)

PIMP MY STUFF
SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man
 
Ten years ago, my SF short story, "Kaming Mga Seroks," was honored with the Palanca.
In early 2013, SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man, will be released in bookstores nationwide thanx to the mighty fine Visprint crew.
It's a collection of linked short stories all set in a dystopic future world where everything can be pirated, even people.
It's got illustrations by the mighty fine Alan Navarra, and, as can be construed from the full title, it's also the first in a series of SEROKS collections.

For those who are interested in reading the original Palanca awarded short story, it can be found online here, at the mighty fine InterNova, run by the mighty fine Michael Iwoleit. (Look! Downloadable as a PDF!)

We'll have another update early next year once SEROKS has landed in bookstores.
In the meantime, have a Happy Christmas/Mayan Apocalypse, and here's to a very Merry 2013.

PIMP MY STUFF
"KAMING MGA SEROKS"

My Palanca Award-winning short story, "Kaming Mga Seroks," can now be found online here, at the mighty fine InterNova, run by the mighty fine Michael Iwoleit. (Look! Downloadable as a PDF!)

I mention this not only to help shed light on both the piece and the InterNova website, but also because there are plans afoot at the moment that will open up the dystopic future world I first visited in "Kaming Mga Seroks" to further scrutiny.
When those plans come to fruition, you'll be sure to hear it here at the Iguana.
In the meantime though, if you're at all interested, please check out the original short story.

DISTRICT 9
(Review)

Originating from South African director Neill Blomkamp’s 2005 short “Alive in Joburg,” District 9 quite possibly owes its existence in its current form to the fact that the Peter Jackson-produced Halo adaptation Blomkamp was meant to direct, died one of those nasty Hollywood deaths you sometimes hear about. (Or, as Blomkamp puts it, “imploded.”)*
So there’s a fair amount of sacrifice that went into the foundations of the District 9 feature, but let me assure you, it’s an astounding triumph for independently-produced science fiction cinema.


It’s been 20 years since a damaged extraterrestrial spacecraft settled above Johannesburg, and the marooned aliens (referred to by the derogatory term “prawns”) have been forced by circumstance and bureaucracy to live in a slum, the titular District 9.
But the time has come when the government, apparently no longer able to withstand pressure from an unsympathetic public, is readying to forcibly evict the aliens to District 10, a barbed wire-enclosed reserve far away from the human population.
And even as the eviction operation is mounted—led by MNU employee Wikus Van De Merwe (a terribly impressive Sharlto Copley, in his first feature role; incidentally, Copley was the producer on “Alive in Joburg”)—a two decade-long plan is about to come to fruition in the heart of the alien shantytown.
Those are the bare bones of District 9’s plot, and if the film only had that to offer, it may very well have already been an excellent film in its own right.
But the fact that Blomkamp (and co-writer Terri Tatchell) are able to create a very palpable reality for the narrative to take place in, while infusing the material with potent social and cultural commentary (and still manage to present its audience with destructive alien weaponry and things going ka-blooey), makes District 9 a very important genre film, one that has emerged as one of the best titles in this rather lacklustre summer.


Partially presented in interviews and documented footage from the eviction operation, District 9 is a powerful cinematic experience, a sombre document of a world which—despite first contact already having been made—still looks awfully like our own unenlightened one.
District 9—like Ronald D. Moore’s reimagining of Battlestar Galactica—is hard-hitting science fiction which is timely and relevant, managing to take on issues and problems that plague us in the here and now.
Unlike BSG though, much of the dialogue in District 9 is improvised. Keeping that in mind, it becomes clear that that’s another notch, not just in Copley’s belt (for creating a believable and authentic character, and for being and speaking for that character in front of the camera), but in Blomkamp’s and editor’s Julian Clarke’s as well, for finding the movie amidst all the multiple takes and improv.


“From [Neill Blomkamp’s] first pitching of me to what “Alive in Joburg” was going to be, which I produced for him, I got it. I got the world. I got the whole thing, and the project resonated with me very closely. Growing up in South Africa there is a lot of pain, and there is a lot of stuff that has been dealt with there in ways that it hasn’t been dealt with in other countries.” -- Sharlto Copley

Science fiction, at its best, is cautionary, warning us as a species of where we could end up, if we’re not careful.
It’s a sad statement that District 9 isn’t even cautionary science fiction, not when you live in a world where poverty is rampant, where people live in corrugated tin shacks, and rummage through mounds of garbage for their livelihood and next meal.
It isn’t cautionary when the unscrupulous and opportunistic can be found, not just in the slums, but in the board rooms as well.
It isn’t cautionary when our race’s history repeatedly describes our tendency to alienate and ostracize, to keep at arm’s length that which is different, that which is other.


District 9 is a stunning achievement, and the fact that it’s Blomkamp’s debut feature makes it all the more astounding.
This is relatively inexpensive science fiction (at a reported production cost of $30 million, it was made for 15% of the budgets of either Revenge of the Fallen or Terminator Salvation) that actually has something to say, that can spark discussion and debate.
This is science fiction worthy of the name, and is a resounding triumph, not just for producer Peter Jackson, but for the pair of feature freshmen at its centre—Blomkamp and Copley—who we’re likely to hear more of, in the days and years to come.


* Yes, it’s entirely possible Blomkamp would have still made District 9, even if Halo had happened, but given what this man’s clearly capable of, I’d like to think a post-Halo District 9 would have been saddled with a bigger budget, and if that were the case, it wouldn’t have been the same District 9 we’ve been so thoroughly blessed with…

Parting shot: We also have Fran Walsh to thank for District 9, as it was apparently her idea (thrown at Blomkamp in the Jacksons’ kitchen following the Halo adaptation’s “implosion”) to expand “Alive in Joburg” into a feature film.
Fran Walsh rules!!!

Parting shot 2: Copley actually has a feature he’s directed, Spoon, which is already completed and waiting in the wings for release. Copley describes it as “… a supernatural thriller. It’s a guy who suffers from a medical condition and blacks out when he gets stressed, and weird things happen every time he does, and he’s trying to piece together what is going on in his life.”
All sorts of potential awesome, yes?


(District 9 OS’s courtesy of impawards.com; images courtesy of filmstarts.de.)

CHRYSALIS
(Review)

Paris, 2027.
David Hoffman (Albert Dupontel, from Irreversible and Un long dimanche de fiancailles) is an operative for EuroPol who is roped back into the grind when Dimitri Nicolov (Danny The Dog’s Alain Figlarz), the criminal Hoffman has been after for a while now, resurfaces.
With a new partner in tow (played by Marie Guillard), all Hoffman has to go on is a dead, unidentified girl in the morgue, with some strange markings around her eyes.
Thus does Julien Leclercq’s Chrysalis kick off.


Now, first off, Chrysalis is one damned pretty picture.
The cinematography by Thomas Hardmeier, coupled with production design by Jean-Philippe Moreaux, gives us one of those gorgeously realized future worlds, sleek, and slickly photographed.
This also isn’t some mindless popcorn foray into science fiction. Chrysalis isn’t about snazzy, scene-stealing, and ultimately heartless CGI.
But while it is about something, it sadly falls short of actually being about something, if you know what I mean.


Perhaps the most frustrating thing about Chrysalis is that the film’s central mystery, which propels the narrative forward, is readily apparent, and yet approached by the script in a measured, oblique manner.
As soon as the dead girl’s identity (and the circumstances of her disappearance) are revealed, all the apparently disparate story elements—which include a young girl named Manon (played by Mélanie Thierry), who is apparently recovering from an accident which we see in the film’s pre-opening credits sequence—will fall into place for the alert viewer. Past this point however, Chrysalis continues to unfold as if its mystery still had any currency with its audience.
And though I wouldn’t go so far as to describe it as “plodding,” Chrysalis plays as if its 94-minute running time were significantly longer.
And because it takes so long to get to its climactic reveal, we’re left with a distinct absence of any sort of fallout from the revelation. And it’s a heavy, life-altering kind of revelation, but because the film’s spent too much time on other things (like keeping the integrity of its “mystery” intact), we get no sense of the true gravity of the situation.


And while Dupontel makes for a capable protagonist in the “tortured, guilt-ridden cop” school of movie leads, his performance also hits a snag when a massive event takes place in Hoffman’s life, and we get no real, tangible sense of the change in the character.
Again, I hesitate to use a term like “one-note,” as far as Dupontel’s performance in Chrysalis goes, but it does seem to lack some much-needed nuance, particularly in the film’s third act.
Granted, Dupontel handles the physical demands of the role well, and the bathroom beat-down with Figlarz is a highlight, but I wish I’d seen more texture, more vulnerability, in Dupontel’s Hoffman.


Like Christian Volckman’s Renaissance, the science fiction convention that Chrysalis uses as its springboard, is ultimately about a kind of immortality.
But beyond a few possibilities—delivered by the narrative in an almost dismissive manner, courtesy of The Pretender’s Patrick Bauchau—the film again doesn’t seem to significantly delve into the underlying ideas of that convention.
Then, not only is the emotional potential of the climactic reveal severely blunted by the narrative circumstances surrounding it, but the final confrontation is precipitated not by any extraordinary investigative work, but rather by mere happenstance, making Chrysalis’ ending even more vaguely dissatisfying than it already is.

However, flaws and all, I would still recommend Chrysalis, since its intentions are certainly noble, and an undeniably ridiculous amount of skill and artistry clearly went into its making.
This is very good cinematic SF, people, something we need a lot more of these days, and I, for one, can’t wait to see what Leclercq comes up with next.

Parting shot: Reviews of Renaissance and Danny The Dog can be found in the Archive.

(Chrysalis OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

ALTERED (Review)

ALTERED
(Review)

Brought to us by the Eduardo Sánchez half of the directing duo behind The Blair Witch Project, Altered kicks off with a night-time hunt conducted by three rednecks, who manage to bag their quarry, something that is definitely not a regular animal.
What happens from that point onward, as well as the pivotal event that set all of this in motion, informs the rest of Altered, a very effective, old school, low-budget science fiction/horror movie that, though marginally flawed, plays so much better than Project.
For one thing, we’re actually given real, significantly more substantial characters to consider, and that makes a world of difference.

Jamie Nash’s script (from a story by Nash and Sánchez) effectively paints a group of once-friends, all still tied together by their traumatic past. Think something along the lines of Sleepers, but with a genre bent, with some freakiness and gore thrown in for good measure.
Nash puts together a script that keeps the thrills at just the right pitch, while simultaneously giving us the impression that that singular moment in these men’s shared past has indeed affected the trajectory of their very lives, and is the sole reason that has brought them here, to this night which we see chronicled in Altered.

Additionally, the performances--by Without A Trace’s Adam Kaufman, October Road’s Brad William Henke, Project’s Mike C. Williams, Paul McCarthy-Boyington, and Catherine Mangan--are commendable, more honest and textured than your average genre movie, with the rapport of the principals palpable on the screen.
Sánchez also keeps the mystery intriguing and involving, as the narrative gradually unwinds, slowly letting us in on exactly what’s going on, as well as what went on, a decade and a half ago, that brought us to this very moment. He also gamely proves that he can do wonders with an actual script and not some gimmicky combo of shaky cam and clever marketing.


As much as I enjoyed Altered though, it’s still not all goodness and light.
There are moments when, in the stalwart aim of keeping the tension going, the film’s principal setting--a house--seems to be far larger than it should be, as individuals (and other things) seem to lose themselves for varying stretches of running time.
The narrative also has the annoying tendency of having things go from bad to worse because of dumb-a$$ decisions. Granted, they’re not the sort of decisions made out of stupidity, but rather those made based on emotion, but when they happen repeatedly, the distinct urge to yell at the on-screen idiots is difficult to keep a lid on.

Still, when all is said and done, Altered is a neat little genre trip that’s worth your time and attention, something to perhaps occupy your time while we all await Sánchez’s follow-up, Seventh Moon, starring Amy Smart, and again written by Jaime Nash.

There’s also The Objective to look forward to, the new film from the Daniel Myrick half of Project.
Hopefully, both movies will be as good--or even better--than this one.

(Altered DVD cover art courtesy of amazon.com; image courtesy of blogcritics.org.)

reVIEW (47)
RENAISSANCE

Paris, 2054.
Young and extremely brilliant researcher Ilona Tasuiev is abducted, and her employer, the Avalon Corporation (“Your friend. For life.”) is desperate to recover her. Enter Lt. Barthélémy Karas, a cop only too willing to bend—or break—the rules to get the job done, and you have the basic set-up for Christian Volckman’s neo-noir animated film, Renaissance.
Executed via motion capture, in the stark contrast of chiaroscuro, this is one of those gorgeously-realized sci-fi futurescapes that pulls you into its environs with startling ease. The downside of that, of course, is that the narrative has to work doubly hard to be worthy of the production’s awesome visual palette.
To be fair, there is a story here, complete with cautionary underpinnings; I’ve long believed the best sci-fi stories are the cautionary ones.
Where Renaissance fumbles a tad though is the pacing of its narrative, which is slightly uneven, making its 105-minute running time feel vaguely longish. Still, if you’re patient with your cinema, Renaissance has a nice—if not sunshiny-happy—pay-off.
Renaissance is also guilty of servicing some of the genre tropes a little too slavishly; Karas getting involved with Ilona’s sister Bislane is both painfully predictable and achieved with an off-handed and almost insulting convenience. (Though the neat reversals pulled off by that aforementioned pay-off may arguably be more than enough to balance out the script’s more clichéd moments.)

And there is the matter of Renaissance’s voice cast.
Almost always, when it comes to a foreign animated film, I will insist on watching the English-subtitled version. (With a foreign live-action film, always.)
The English dubbing on Renaissance though, is exceptional, not at all displaying the overly theatrical—and in some cases, childish—flourishes you usually find in dubbed animation.
And there are notable names here, mind: Daniel Craig, Ian Holm, Jonathan Pryce, Catherine McCormack. The talent at the other end of the mic is top-notch, certainly worthy of Renaissance’s eye-widening visuals.

Ultimately, Renaissance may be slightly flawed, but it’s nonetheless an exceptional piece of animated sci-fi that furthered the cause of stylized storytelling in modern cinema, a wave that began with Kerry Conran’s Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and barreled on with the mainstream success of such entries as Sin City and 300.* (Closer to Renaissance’s animated home of course, are Richard Linklater’s Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly.)
Renaissance also won the Feature Film Award at Annecy 2006 and the European Fantasy Film Grand Prize at Fantasporto 2007, so that should count for something, yes?

* Fans of the digitally-created artificial environs of this brand of storytelling are advised to check out the Wachowskis’ Speed Racer (review in Archive), and can also look forward to Frank Miller’s upcoming take on Will Eisner’s The Spirit, opening on Christmas Day 2008.

(Renaissance OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

VEXILLE – 2077 NIPPON SAKOKU
(THE ISOLATION OF JAPAN)
(Review)

The year is 2077, and it’s been a decade since Japan’s decision to refuse regulation of their robotics technology, precipitating the country’s withdrawal from the U.N. and the rest of the world. But the manoeuvres of Daiwa Heavy Industries, Japan’s leading megacorp, will cause a squad of S.W.O.R.D. operatives led by Commander Leon Fayden (Shosuke Tanihara, from Takashi Miike’s Gokudo Sengokushi: Fudo) to infiltrate Japanese territory to discover exactly what has been taking place within their borders.
This is the basic premise of Vexille – 2077 Nippon Sakoku, and it turns out to be a solid exercise in scifi anime.

Granted, personality is scarce, particularly from title character Vexille (Meisa Kuroki; Chakushin Ari Final), who is little more than a cipher, and Leon, who is arguably, even less.
But this is, after all, the kind of anime where all the characters really need to do is look cool, while most of the heavy lifting is done by the high-flown scifi concepts and the visuals.
It’s to Vexille’s credit though, that an intriguing layer of humanity is injected into the plot when the current situation in Tokyo is revealed. That pocket of emotion proves enough to both fuel the narrative and balance the excellent, adrenaline-laced action. (And even when the emotional blackmail bomb—which you just know will eventually be deployed—goes off, it still bloody works.)
The presence of music tracks by the likes of The Prodigy, Underworld, DJ Shadow, and Dead Can Dance, as well as soundtrack supervisor DJ Paul Oakenfold, also manage to spike the proceedings nicely.

Armed with a great Death Star trench-inspired sequence and curious echoes of Dune and Blade Runner, Vexille is brought to us by Fumihiko Sori (Ping Pong), who was on the visual effects team of James Cameron’s Titanic (working on CG characters), and acted as producer and visual effects director on 2004’s Appleseed.
Co-writing the script with Haruka Handa, Sori manages to explore the dire consequences of a monopoly of power, and how true immortality can be found in the legacy one leaves behind.
Stumbling in a couple of spots—particularly in a pivotal climactic decision that seems to come from nowhere, and the manner in which Leon drops off the narrative’s radar for a significant section of the film—Vexille’s script nonetheless powers an anime that plays some familiar sci-fi riffs just differently enough to warrant some serious attention.

(Vexille – 2077 Nippon Sakoku OS courtesy of sgforums.com; image courtesy of tiff07.ca.)

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA:
RAZOR
(Review)

I’m honestly not sure if I’ve said this ‘round these parts before, but I honestly find it a strange and wonderful thing that the one television show I’m into at the moment that has the most relevance to the post-9/11 world I actually live in is the show that’s not even set on this planet, the show that takes place in the deeps of outer space, which boasts spaceships and killer robots.
I am, of course, talking about Ronald D. Moore’s redux of Battlestar Galactica, and with the fourth and final season on its way, Moore and company decided to produce the feature-length Razor, which was broadcast on the SciFi Channel, then subsequently released on DVD.

Kicking off with a montage of scenes from past BSG episodes which take us from the Galactica’s initial discovery of the ill-fated Battlestar Pegasus, on through the deaths of three of its skippers (Cain, Fisk, and Garner), till it gets Lee Adama at its helm, Razor quickly settles down to its narrative’s “present,” which sees Lee re-organizing the Pegasus under his command.
We then cut back and forth between that present, and Razor’s other main timeframe—ten months earlier, where we witness what Admiral Cain (a thoroughly magnetic Michelle Forbes) had only previously recounted in the BSG episode, “Pegasus”: how the Pegasus survived the initial Cylon surprise attack, and the events on-board in the aftermath of the attack. (There are also brief jaunts to two other timeframes—the first 41 years earlier, where we see the tail end of the Razor webisodes, as a young William Adama stumbles on a Cylon secret; the second depicting an event also mentioned in “Pegasus”—but for the most part, we shuttle back and forth across that 10-month divide.)
Serving as the narrative bridge between those timeframes is Kendra Shaw (Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen, from TV’s Home and Away), who comes on board the Pegasus on the day of the attack, and through the catastrophic trial-by-fire, becomes a kind of protégé to Cain. Ten months later, she is chosen by Lee to be his X.O.
Given her function as the bridge, Shaw becomes Razor’s main focus, and the means by which the narrative explores its main themes: the difficult choices that are made in times of war, and whether the cold, inhuman mask worn by the military during wartime is indeed a necessary evil.

Despite the narrative focus on Shaw though, we do get to have the father and son Adamas, as well as some Starbuck, some Roslin, and very briefly, some Cylon Sharon.
Razor also gives us back some of Pegasus’ dearly departed, notably, Cylon Gina. One of Razor’s most provocative elements, in fact, revolves around the reason for Cain’s cold and brutal treatment of Gina (as seen in “Pegasus”).
We also get to see some old school toaster Cylons (yahoo!), and that tantalizing climactic reveal regarding Starbuck and her so-called “destiny.” (Of course, admittedly, the source is suspect; this wouldn’t be the first time a Cylon distorted the truth—or outright lied—to confuse and mislead. Still, the claim must give one pause, considering Season 3’s finale shows us Starbuck telling Lee she knows where Earth is, and she can lead the fleet there…)

Now if all this is a bit heady for the uninitiated, yes, Razor may very well be a load of gobbledygook for anyone who’s never seen a BSG episode before. But take my word for it, the show is most definitely about something. This is science fiction with substance, timely and mature, which is a whole lot more than can be said for your average Hollywood SF.
So if you haven’t yet been immersed in the world of BSG, the three previous seasons are all available on DVD, so get on out there, check them out, then catch Razor, so all the above will make sense.
And if you’re already strapped in for the BSG ride, then you know exactly what I mean, and you’ve probably already seen Razor.
And like me, you’re also probably chomping at the bit to see Season 4.
Well, not too long left to go.
Now if only the Lords of Kobol would see fit to have the WGA strike reach a quick and fair resolution, so we can all see those final 20 episodes sooner rather than later.
So say we all.

(Battlestar Galactica: Razor DVD cover art courtesy of amazon.com; image courtesy of ew.com.)