First Contact
dancing to ELO, Drax jumping into the mouth of a giant space beast for a laugh, Rocket nicking some batteries from golden aliens just to wind them up... But as the movie went on, I realised that once you get past all the characters hitting all the right fan buttons – and man, the movie is joyful when it hits the mark – there really is nothing much there. In fact, as Star-Lord and co were hanging around on Ego’s planet, with Kurt Russell explaining his grand plan, I caught myself thinking: with all that money and three years to think about it, this is all you could come up with? You can sustain a sketch show with nothing more than jokes, but a movie needs a little more story than this to tie it all together.
SFX I had a good time with Vol 2. It’s definitely all about the moment – but when the moments are as fabulous as “I’m Mary Poppins, ya’ll!” I can forgive James Gunn anything.
#LIFE... BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT
Adam Gurney, Facebook Re: Exobiology [SFX 287]. The Aliens
Role-Playing Game had an actual explanation for the Xenomorphs having acid for blood. Essentially they were electricity-based life forms, living off naturally occurring static electricity generated by air passing over their carapaces, which their blood stored as a kind of organic battery. They only consumed biological matter for growth purposes, shedding their exoskeletons about 10 times until they were fully grown, with Queens going through about 15 sheddings. It explained why they were able to go dormant for extended periods, as they were able to go into a kind of “standby mode”. If you watch the first Alien Vs
Predator film, you will see an allusion to this when the Queen is awoken by being electrocuted within the heart of the temple. SFX Thanks, Adam. Your letter’s even better when it’s read in a David Attenborough whisper.
#WHAT THE HELLBOY?
Scott James Facebook So now they’re rebooting Hellboy and promising a darker take with Neil Marshall directing. I didn’t watch the Hellboy films and think “yeah, they’re good, but more gore and violence would make them better.”
Hellboy always had a sort of whimsical, almost Brothers Grimm fairy tale quality. I understand reboots as being an attempt to take a property in a new direction when there’s something about the tone or style that needs updating or fixing. I don’t feel that’s the case with Hellboy. I’d be happy to find out they’re doing a final end to the current run of
Hellboy films with the current cast and crew, ’cos there’s nowt wrong with ’em as is.
SFX Yeah, it’s a shame del Toro didn’t get to complete his Hellboy trilogy. At least we have The Shape Of Water to look forward to, which sounds as though it definitely has a touch of Abe Sapien about it…
#WE ALSO HEARD FROM
Rob Graham, email Pleasantly surprised by the trailer for The
Orville, the Star Trek spoof that came out of nowhere and is now another must-see new show. Family Guy meets Star Trek? Sold!
Tonia Small, email When did Agents Of SHIELD get so good? Throwing everybody into a giant computer simulation and renaming the show Agents Of HYDRA has been brilliant. Is it wrong, though, that the show is better when the characters aren’t even in the real world? Hmm...
SFX As the great philosopher Freddie Mercury once asked, “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?” But that’s an existential puzzler for another day. See you next month!