Category Top 10 and More

Jun 3 2012

The Alien Movies Ranked

The Alien movies are some of the most well-loved films in science fiction and with the upcoming prequel Prometheus about to be released in the U.S., here are the films that preceded it in order of my personal preference:

1. Alien (1979) Ridley Scott’s sci-fi/horror masterpiece set the standard for this genre. Over the years I have come to regard this one as the best of the bunch because of how well it works. These are the elements that work: the claustrophobic feel of the freighter ship, the slow, but scary, build up to the mystery of what is on the planet that the crew land on and what exactly is picking them off. The infamous chestburster scene is still effective to this very day. The director’s cut on DVD and blu-ray is also very good and even shows a scene where Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) finds Captain Dallas in a cocoon after being attacked by the alien and burns him alive to put him out of his misery.

2. Aliens (1986) James Cameron created a sci-fi war epic that is one of the best films ever made. It created the image of the space marine that is so prevalent in films and video games today and is a great thrill ride from start to finish. The main character Ripley was joined by Newt (Carrie Henn), Hicks (Michael Biehn), Hudson (Bill Paxton) and others that  audiences grew to love. The extended edition shows the back story of the colony Hadley’s Hope and how the aliens took it over. On a side note there will be a video game next year entitled Aliens: Colonial Marines for the PS3 and Xbox 360 that will continue the story.

3. Alien 3 (1993) An underrated David Fincher film that is striking in its visuals and feel. Lone survivor Ripley crash lands on a  prison planet and is followed by a single alien that proceeds to wipe out the prison population harkening back to the original film.  I think this movie is excellent and unfairly hated because fan favorites Newt and Hicks were killed off. Many wanted a follow up to Aliens and instead got a dark almost existential film about Ripley at the end of her rope. This film had a video game adaptation for the Super NES in 1993 that actually played like a side scroller action game with lots of guns and aliens to fight. Quite different from the actual movie. There is also an alternate cut of the movie available on blu-ray and DVD. It restores a subplot of one of the prisoners worshipping the alien and releasing it when it was trapped by Ripley and shows the alien bursting out of an ox instead of a dog as in the theatrical version. Definitely something for fans to check out.

4. Alien Vs. Predator (2004) I’m putting this one ahead of the 4th film Alien: Resurrection since it is simply a better movie. Why it is hated so much is strange. A very good film that shows predators coming to Earth to hunt aliens in the south pole that they placed there as a rite of passage for their young. The set up with the archaeologists finding the eggs and alien queen in the underground temple is great and the battles between the two franchise monsters is lots of fun.

5. Alien: Resurrection (1997) The last Alien film with Ripley. It is set 200 years after her death and has her cloned to extract an alien queen from her body. It has interesting concepts with Ripley actually having alien DNA and blood in her system. The scene where she finds the previous versions of herself is both fascinating and disturbing. The movie returns to the idea of multiple aliens chasing down a rag tag group of mercenaries trying to escape a doomed ship. Seeing Ripley finally returning to Earth is also a nice way to finish her story.

6. Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem (2007) This entry is the only real misfire of the bunch. A follow up to the much better Alien Vs. Predator, the idea of a predator/alien hybrid sounds okay but looks kind of dumb when seen on film. The characters are very forgettable and the whole thing feels more like a bad Syfy movie of the week. Although it is neat to see the aliens crawling around a present-day town in Colorado, since most of the other movies are set in space and the future. I get the feeling that under another director this would have been so much better since the core story of a single predator hunting down aliens on earth is good and there are some good battles between the creatures.

C.S. Link

May 16 2012

Top Ten Season Finales

As the traditional TV network season dies down, many shows will conclude their seasons with memorable finales. Many sci-fi, fantasy and horror shows have had some of the most-talked about finales that included thrilling cliffhangers, WTF revelations and dramatic game-changing developments. WARNING: Major Spoiler Alerts Ahead.

10. “Lucifer Rising” Supernatural (Season Four); Sam and Dean Winchester are betrayed by their allies who want to bring about the coming apocalypse by unleashing Lucifer upon the Earth.

9. “How To Stop An Exploding Man” Heroes (Season One); the show fell apart after its terrific first season but many episodes from that season are still great including the season finale that featured several super-powered heroes confronting the power-stealing villain Sylar.

8. “Zero Hour” Star Trek: Enterprise (Season Three); the conclusion of the season-long Xindi arc finds Captain Archer and the Enterprise crew on a last-ditch, desperate gamble to prevent the alien Xindi from destroying Earth. Aside from all the action and ship battles, the episode had a surprise ending which unexpectedly stranded our heroes on an alternate Earth during World War II.

7. “Over There, Part 2” Fringe (Season Two); Olivia Dunham and Walter Bishop continue their mission in the parallel Earth to retrieve Peter Bishop. Viewers are treated to a fascinating look at another Earth with doppelgangers, advanced tech, quarantine zones and many alternate cultural Easter eggs, plus a nefarious plot to destroy our universe. The cliffhanger was pretty nifty too with Olivia trapped in the parallel universe while her sinister double takes her place.

6. “Die Me, Dichotomy” Farscape (Season Two); the show’s main character, lost-in-space astronaut John Crichton, had a neural chip implanted in his brain by his enemy Scorpius in order to access Crichton’s hidden knowledge about wormholes. Throughout the episode, Crichton battles himself as the chip asserts control of his mind and makes him attack his friends and results in the death of his would-be lover Aeryn Sun. After a doctor finally removes the chip, Scorpius appears, takes the chip and leaves behind a helpless, broken Crichton on the operating table so he can live with the agony of what happened.

5. “Chrysalis” Babylon 5 (Season One); this season finale would prove to be the swan song for the show’s main character Jeffrey Sinclair (replaced off-screen in season two by John Sheridan) as ominous events unfold. Sinclair’s station security chief unsuccessfully attempts to stop a conspiracy to assassinate the Earth Alliance president. His efforts leave him shot and in critical condition. Meanwhile, the mysterious aliens called the Shadows emerge and attack an outpost of one of the major races, thus setting the stage for a deadly galactic war. Towards the end, Sinclair’s ally D’Lenn undergoes a physical transformation to fulfill a prophecy as Sinclair laments elsewhere that “nothing’s the same anymore.”

4. “Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II” Battlestar Galactica (Season Two); fleetwide presidential elections are held pitting President Roslyn against the enigmatic Baltar. An issue of the election and the series itself is whether or not the fugitive humans should abandon their quest to find Earth and settle down in a discovered habitable world. The episode jumps ahead more than a year later and shows how miserable the humans are living in their makeshift shanty towns. Things get much worse when their enemies, the robotic Cylons, arrive on the planet and the humans’ new leader Baltar surrenders the colony to the Cylons.

3. “Through The Looking Glass” LOST (Season Three); the final minutes are a true game changer for LOST. The castaways are trying to find their way off the mysterious island as flashbacks show a despondent Jack Shephard back in L.A. at the end of his road. For a while it was the standard format for the series, feature flashbacks on certain characters while advancing the present-day plotline. However, aside from the foretold death of a popular character, LOST stunned fans with the revelation that the episode’s flashback was actually a flash forward and that Jack was desperate to return to the island.

2. “Call To Arms” Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season Five); the peaceful Federation goes to war with the Dominion in this exciting season-ender. This development is a first for the Star Trek shows, which often preached peace above all. Viewers were treated to an effects-laden spectacular as hordes of Dominion ships attacked the Deep Space Nine space station. The episode ended with so many outstanding closers, each of which would’ve sufficed as any show’s final moments. For example, the episode could’ve just ended with Captain Sisko’s speech to his Bajoran colleagues that he will return, or with Dominion lackey Gul Dukat being “welcomed” to the station, or with Dukat’s discovery of Sisko’s baseball indicating that Sisko and company are coming back. The episode then topped itself with a final breathtaking scene of Sisko’s Defiant warship joining a vast Starfleet/Klingon armada ready to do battle.

1. “The Best Of Both Worlds, Part 1” Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season Three); this was the first and best cliffhanger shown on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The cybernetic and invulnerable Borg race begin an invasion into Federation territory with the goal of reaching Earth. Despite their best efforts, the Enterprise and its crew are nearly powerless to stop the Borg, which leads to a crisis of confidence faced by Captain Picard. Meanwhile, First Officer Riker has to contend with an overly ambitious officer/Borg specialist who is out for his job. The tension runs way overboard as Picard is kidnapped by the Borg but the true jaw-dropping moment comes when the Enterprise crew attempt a rescue. They find that Picard has been horribly transformed into a Borg, who then coldly orders the Enterprise crew to surrender. Equally as chilling was Riker’s three-word response, which ends the episode…to be continued.

Honorable Mentions:

“Besides The Dying Fire” The Walking Dead

“Redemption” Star Trek: The Next Generation

“The Jem’Hadar” Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

“Basics, Part I” Star Trek: Voyager

“The Parting Of The Ways” Doctor Who

“Shock Theater” Quantum Leap

“The Fall Of Night” Babylon 5

“The Day We Died” Fringe

“Evil Is Going On” True Blood

Waldermann Rivera

Mar 16 2012

Top ten Sci-Fi Video Game Franchises

 

With the release of the highly anticipated Mass Effect 3 video game fans have another game to obsess about. Stunning graphics and creative storylines have created popular franchises like Halo, Mass Effect and Resident Evil. These are the best science fiction-based video game franchise to date.

10. Doom (PC/N64/PlayStation/Xbox): The FPS (first person shooter) that made FPSs mainstream, fighting demons on Mars and various other locales has never been more fun.

9. Gears Of War (Xbox 360): On the planet of Sera, grizzled soldier Marcus Fenix and his compatriots battle vicious aliens known as the Locust Horde that emerge from beneath the surface of their world. this game has been very influential in other games featuring third person combat.

8. Halo (Xbox/Xbox 360): Hugely successfully FPS series that launched Microsoft’s original Xbox console in 2001, players suited up as the super soldier Master Chief fighting a collection of alien races known as the Covenant out to exterminate humanity.

7. Metroid (NES/Super NES/Gamecube/Wii/Gameboy): Pioneering video game heroine Bounty Hunter Samus Aran fights space pirates and parasitic metroid aliens in one of Nintendo’s classic franchises.

6. Dead Space (PlayStation 3/Xbox 360/Wii): Wonderful survival horror set in space. Aliens that reanimate human corpses into hideous creatures called necropmorphs, as well as alien artifacts that cause people to go insane give this series a feel reminiscent of the Alien and Event Horizon movies.

5. Resident Evil (PlayStation, PS2/PS3/Xbox 360): This survival horror classic series that has players fighting everything from zombies created by the T-Virus to genetically mutated beasts and people and animals infected by the ancient las plagas parasites in Resident Evil 4.

4. Mass Effect (Xbox 360/PS3): Epic storyline of humanity’s coming of age in a galaxy of some friendly and some not so friendly alien races is reminiscent of Babylon 5, this action-packed RPG concluded the saga with the new Mass Effect 3.

3. Resistance (PS3): The FPS launch title Resistance: Fall Of Man has spawned an excellent franchise. Set in an alternate universe where WWII never happened, the Tunguska incident of 1908 caused aliens to overwhelm Russia and then Europe in 1951 and eventually the U.S. in later games.


2. Half-Life (PC/PS3/Xbox 360): Nuclear physicist turned freedom fighter Gordon Freeman is a thinking man’s action hero that fights inter-dimensional aliens who occupy Earth.

1. BioShock (PS3/Xbox 360): Taking place in an underwater utopian city gone wrong drenched in 1940s decor, this FPS with genetically manipulated baddies was an instant classic when released. The highly anticipated third game in the series BioShock Infinite will be set in a city in the clouds in 1912.

C.S. Link

Feb 14 2012

Top Ten Sci-Fi Film Couples

It’s that time of year lovers! In commemoration of Valentine’s Day, here are the silver screen’s most romantic couples in the world of science fiction. The films they appear in aren’t always romances, actually, one of the entries on this list comes from a gritty, action-packed movie. The fact is there aren’t many sci-fi romantic films, so the focus is on the characters in a sci-fi film. Either way, these characters made for memorable couples and romances.

10. Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese (The Terminator): OK this is a bit of a stretch. Romance in The Terminator? The one with all the explosions and darkness? Yes, it isn’t apparent when Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) first saves Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) from the T-800, but as the movie progresses, the two begin to bond, culminating in a tender and passionate love moment.  Their brief encounter comes as a welcome relief in the midst of all the gore and gunfire and leads to humanity’s savior, their son John Connor.

9. Jake Sully and Neytiri (Avatar): Blue alien love baby! This film presents every sci-fi geek’s wish of having a big blue alien as a girlfriend. The love between Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) builds gradually. Initially she’s disgusted by him but then starts to admiring him until love took hold.  And towards the end, viewers see that her love for him is transcendent even after she sees Jake in his frail human form.

8. Superman and Lois Lane (Superman and Superman II): From the moment that Superman (Christopher Reeve) saved intrepid reporter Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) from the helicopter accident and made his world debut, she only had eyes for the big boy scout. The sweeping romance continued in the sequel but ended in one big copout.

7. WALL-E and EVE (WALL-E): This is one unconventional romance, it’s between two robots but that’s science fiction. Ultimately the two exemplify the notion of opposites attract. WALL-E is a curious, Chaplinesque garbage robot, EVE is a suave, tough, and pristine scout robot. Naturally, he falls head over tank treads for EVE but she only comes to love him during the film as they save humanity.

6. Henry  and Claire DeTamble (The Time Traveler’s Wife): Relationships are hard, but how much harder is it when your husband has a genetic abnormality that makes him time travel uncontrollably throughout his lifetime? That’s what viewers see when Henry (Eric Bana) literally pops in and out of the life of Claire (Rachel McAdams), even on their wedding day! Warning: the ending is a tearjerker.

5. H.G. Welles and Amy Robbins (Time After Time): This underappreciated sci-fi film has H.G. Welles (Malcolm McDowell) time traveling to San Francisco in 1979 to track down Jack the Ripper. Along the way, the sweetly naive Welles meets strong-willed, modern  bank teller Amy (Mary Steenburgen) and they soon have an affair. The chemistry the actors shared was obvious (they even got married in real life for a time) and made the film more special.

4. Cornelius and Zira (Planet Of The Apes and Escape From The Planet Of The Apes): Their relationship wasn’t the center of attention in the first film but forms a strong foundation in the third film. Across the first three Apes films viewers see a tender, loving simian couple who strongly respect and cherish one another. Sadly, this makes the end of the third film so heartbreaking when they are brutally killed. It’s still hard to watch Zira’s (Kim Hunter) final moments when she embraces Cornelius’ (Roddy McDowall) body as she dies.

3. Doc Brown and Clara Clayton (Back To The Future, Part III): Marty McFly’s time-traveling partner (Christopher Lloyd) is trapped in the 1880s but finds existence there to be rewarding thanks to a chance encounter with schoolteacher Clara (Mary Steenburgen again). She gets extra bonus points from us since she’s a big science fiction fan! The tortured choices that Doc faces on whether or not to return to the present or stay with his true love really do a number on him. But alas, love conquers all.

2. Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa (Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back): Who would’ve thought of it? A scruffy, unpolished smuggler and a headstrong, independent space princess falling for each other. Han (Harrison Ford) and Leia’s (Carrie Fisher) relationship lift the first Star Wars sequel with their romantic tension and squabbling that reaches a climax when they first kiss passionately while fixing the Millennium Falcon. Plus, as every fan knows the film has one of the greatest comeback line to “I love you.”

1. Starman/”Scott Hayden” and Jenny Hayden (Starman): Poor Jenny (Karen Allen) is still mourning the death of her husband when she gets the shock of her life when he is reborn in front of her. Actually the resurrected Scott is a stranded alien (Jeff Bridges) who takes her husband’s form and enlists her help to get back to a rescue spaceship. Like any romantic road trip picture, the two don’t quite connect at first but begin to like then love each other. What helps the romance are the passionate performances by both actors, John Carpenter’s direction and the haunting yet uplifting score by Jack Nitzsche.

Finally, let’s give a shout out to those without a beloved on Valentine’s Day and mention the big screen’s best would-be lovers. In an ode to unrequited love in the realm of science fiction that honor goes to Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and Inara Serra (Morena Baccarin) from Serenity.

Annette DeForrester

Dec 30 2011

Best Of 2011

Short and sweet here’s our rankings of the best (and worst) in sci-fi, fantasy, comics, etc. in film, TV, etc.

Best Sci-Fi TV Show

Fringe, with all the mind-bending twists, parallel universe visits, inter-dimensional funkiness, and John Noble’s brilliant portrayal of half-mad scientist Walter Bishop, this show has outdone The X-Files It’s a shame its ratings are plummeting making a fifth season not guaranteed. Please Fox, if you intend on canceling it, give the creators time to wrap up the show.

Best Horror TV Show

The Walking Dead, just the premiere episode in its second season made it scarier and more terrifying than anything shown in theaters. With many contenders for the title like Supernatural, True Blood and American Horror Story, The Walking Dead ate out the competition.

Best Fantasy Show

Finding Bigfoot–just kidding! Actually it’s a tie between True Blood and Game of Thrones. Sure the latter has many horror elements like vampires and witches, but the entire Sookie and the Faerie angle took the show into the fantasy realm.

Best Documentary/Reality Show

Prophets of Science Fiction, airing on the Science Channel offers viewers involving examinations of the lives of sci-fi literary greats and how their works influenced culture.

Best Cancelled TV Show

Stargate Universe, it’s too bad Syfy got impatient with this program thatdecided to jettison all the cowboy antics of previous Stargate shows and concentrate on the wonder of space travel. One truly got the impression that the people onboard the ancient starship Destiny were out exploring the unknown. Too bad viewers never got a proper series conclusion, which is nothing new with genre shows even on networks supposedly dedicated to them. But that’s another rant.

 

Best TV Character

Walter Bishop (John Noble) in Fringe. His mad scientist antics are very funny while also full of pathos. As stated online everywhere it’s a crime Noble hasn’t been nominated for an Emmy.
 

Most Missed TV Character

Castiel from Supernatural, our favorite deadpan angel sadly bit the dust shortly after the seventh season premiere. His death has overshadowed the rest of the season, even the supposed death of the Winchester Boys’ surrogate father Bobby.

Most Improved TV Character

The Eleventh Doctor as portrayed by Matt Smith in Doctor Who. After a shaky first season, Smith has grown comfortable with the role and showrunner Stephen Moffat has let the wild complexity of time travel define this show.

Best Series Finale

V, technically it was only a season finale but the show was cancelled. Nevertheless, people who still tuned in watched in glee as hated characters,especially annoying teenage son Tyler Evans (who incidently gets the title for Worst TV Character), get killed and the aliens apparently conquered the Earth with some kind of cosmic enrapturing that left most of the populace in a trance-like state of alien worship. Cool, the bad guys won!

Worst Series Finale

Smallville gave fans who waited ten years for Tom Welling a.k.a. Clark Kent the moment to finally put on the Superman suit and the show did not deliver it right. Sure Welling ripped open his shirt at the very end to reveal his S Shield and there were a couple of bad far away CG shots of Superman but that figure could’ve been anyone!

Best Sc-Fi Film

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, a genunine surprise given how disappointing Tim Burton’s 2001 remake was. This emotional film reinvigorated the franchise and took it in a new direction in a way that was better done than most ofther reboot attempts, including J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek. Also the year’s best film line was heard in this movie: “NO!”

Best Horror Film

Insidious, made by the creators of Saw and Paranormal Activity used many ingredients for a memorable horror movie: creepy kids, demons, haunted houses, ooh time to sleep with the lights on.

Best Fantasy Movie

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II brings the film saga to a spectacular finish. Now the question remains will Potter mania stand the test of time? We think so.

Best Animated Film

TIE: Kung Fu Panda 2 and The Adventures of Tintin, Steven Spielberg gives us another rousing adventure film in the vein of Indiana Jones but using beautiful animation but Kung Fu Panda 2 had more heart in its story of Po the panda trying to discover his roots and inner self.

Best Super Hero Film

Captain America: The First Avenger, everything could’ve gone wrong but instead was a nearly perfect rendition and ode to one of Marvel’s earliest heroes.

Best Super Hero On Film

Captain America from Captain America: The First Avenger, see above and add in Chris Evans’ heartfelt portrayal of an average man who only wants to do good and became someone greater.

Biggest Disappointment

Green Lantern could’ve been so great but it wasn’t. In a summer with a patriotic hero, a larger than life thunder god and retro mutants this film presented a tepid origin story with forgettable villains and the 3D stunk. Unbelievably a sequel is still being planned.

Best Guilty Pleasure/Action Film

Battle: Los Angeles, the basic message of this alien invasion story told from the point of view of grunt marines is KILL, KILL, KILL! But there were many tense moments with great and gritty action sequences. Many claimed it was a mashup of Black Hawk Down and Transformers and they were right.

Best Use Of 3D In A Film

Transformers: Dark of the Moon may be dumb, noisy and be stricly for watching stuff blow up, but the 3D was nearly perfect and added depth to the film.

Best Trailer For An Upcoming Film

Prometheus, seriously we just don’t get tired of seeing this preview about Ridley Scott’s return to the Alien universe.

Best Comic Book Event

DC’s The New 52, was the game changer for the comic book world. It updated all the DC characters with a comprehensive reboot and the company’s aggressive push into digital online comics could pave the way to comics’ salvation.

Best Comic Book

Justice League, Jim Lee’s vivid art and the restructuring of the team’s personalities and relationships made this a can’t-miss comic.

Best Super Hero In Comic Books

TIE: Superman and Spider-Man, both flagship characters had their ups (Superman updated again but this time the changes largely work and readers are given two distinct versions of the character in his two books) and downs (Spider-Man is still suffering the damage of Marvel boss Joe Quesada’s boneheaded decision to have Spidey make a deal with the devil and erasing his marriage, still the Spider-Island story arc was whacky fun) yet continue to shine no matter their trappings. Honorable mentions go to Batman, The Flash and Captain America.