Author Archives: JD DeLuzio

Newspace

This week’s format: Science Above; Nerdery and Fandom Below.

Mars Yard in UK tests the Mars Rovers:

Check the fridge for Professor Jones:
The first successful transplant of a transparent 3-D printed skull took place.

You Will Go To The Moon…
Someday. Maybe. In the meantime, you can vote on NASA’s new spacesuit design.

Saturn Envy?
Astronomers have identified the first ringed asteroid in the solar system. It is one of the Centaurs, and has a feature hitherto associated with the gas giants.

Lonelier than a Youtube troll:
Newly-discovered planetoid joins Sedna in orbiting our sun, just beyond the Kuiper Belt.

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Movie Discussion: Divergent Noah

In a world where people are divided into distinct factions based on human virtues, Noah is given a divine mission: to build an Ark.

No, wait. In a world ravaged by human sin, Tris Prior is warned she is Divergent and will never fit into any one group.

Or something like that.

This would be the place to discuss Divergent or Noah.

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Weekend Review: Beasts of the Southern Wild

Some time has passed since we’ve reviewed an older film for Weekend Review, and Beasts of the Southern Wild, the magical realist drama that the Chicago Tribune‘s Michael Phillips called “the most divisive film of 2012,” seems a good choice, with its blend of drama and fantasy and its SF-seeming setting. The independent movie received the Camera D’Or at Cannes and the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, among numerous other awards. Its star became the youngest person ever to receive the Oscar nomination for best actress. Critics, overall, were positive, and American President Barack Obama called the film “spectacular.”

Others found Beasts offensively condescending and sentimental, or argue that the inhabitants of its off-grid community come too close to the Noble Savage stereotype. Academic/activist bell hooks, whose work I admire, is among those who consider elements of the movie racist and sexist. Cole Smithy awarded it zero stars– a rating it shares with Battlefield Earth!.

So, what do we think?

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Newspace

One of Jack Chick’s most notorious and ironically-beloved tracts, Dark Dungeons, will become a low-budget film. Learn how role-playing games lead to suicide, witchcraft, and poor fashion choices.1

This is one limited run you won’t want to miss!

UPDATE: Lost footage from Bakshi’s 1978 adaptation of Lord of the Rings has surfaced!

New on forthcoming Star Wars and Avengers movies, weird Texas, space detente, and cunning cosplay, below!

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Arrow Review: “Suicide Squad”

It can be interesting to see a secondary and tertiary characters take center stage, and Diggle has been one of the show’s best additions to the DCU. Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of the season’s stronger episodes. Still, we have an impressive number of guest-stars in what may be a pilot for another potential spin-off.

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Continuum Review: “Minute by Minute”

Continuum returned Sunday night (in Canada—it will be arriving onscreen elsewhere very soon). “Minute by Minute,” available to many of you in its entirety, here, answers questions from last season’s cliffhanger finale and, of course, gives the show another new direction. However, I’m confident the people making this show know what they’re doing. The characters, of course, may not have a clue.

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