Giant Freakin Robot

Some of the greatest feats in cinema , made by the greatest directors Hollywood has had to offer, have been of the science fiction genre. On the flip side, a lot of the worst atrocities to ever make it past the greenlighting stage have also been science fiction movies. To go from Alien to Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem, you have to take a big mental step backward. I find you can judge someone based on the distinction of them saying, “I liked The 5th Element” as opposed to, “The 5th Element was a good movie,” both of which are poorly-thought out sentences anyway. But if anyone knows anything about bad sci-fi more than the fans themselves, it’s the guys behind MST3K and Rifftrax, Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett.

Rifftrax recently held a “Worst Movies of All Time” online survey, which received over 500,000 votes. People on the Internet pointing out shit they think is terrible? What a crazy idea! You can be damned sure the results revealed a lot about what we already know as people, such as Twilight and its sequels being the Worst Movies of All Time. But you didn’t need a list for that. Just a functioning brain.

But you might not have paused to think that almost a third of the Top 25 films would be sci-fi flicks. Even removing fantastical movies in the superhero genre (Batman and Robin, Catwoman), non-science eco-horrors (The Happening, Birdemic), and moronic video game movies (Super Mario Bros., there are still eight genre films whose obvious errors cemented their laughable fates.

With only seven months until its release, Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium is quickly becoming one of the standouts in a year full of interesting science fiction movies. The social allegory involving Matt Damon’s Max trying to find salvation on an orbiting space station while Sharlto Copley’s Kruger is pursuing him has captured the imagination of sci-fi genre fans. Now you can take a first look at Sharlto Copley’s villain character – Kruger – in the image below.

It’s a slow road to production but casting for Guardians of the Galaxy is just hitting its stride. Last month, the shortlist for casting the character Peter Quill/Star-Lord revealed Joel Edgerton, Jack Huston, Jim Sturgess, Lee Pace, and Eddie Redmayne were up for the role. Now it seems like Marvel has whittled down their selections to Jim Sturgess and a surprise entry not on the shortlist, actor Zachary Levi.

It’s interesting Zachary Levi surfaced as a contender to play the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy because he was once up for the role of Fandral in the movie Thor in 2011. His commitments to his TV series Chuck on NBC proved to be problematic for Levi and Marvel because he was replaced by actor Joshua Dallas. Now that Thor: The Dark World has shown a scheduling conflict for Dallas, Levi was cast to play Fandral in the sequel film. If Levi gets the role of Star-Lord, he would play two different characters in the Marvel universe.

One of the most anticipated movies of 2013 has to be J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness. The title of the sequel film to the Star Trek reboot suggests the overall tone of the film and what will test the strength of the crew of the Starship Enterprise. But how bleak will the new Star Trek film end up being?

In an interview, J.J. Abrams talks about the direction of Star Trek Into Darkness, what IMAX 3D will give to the movie-going experience, and the criticisms surrounding his use of lens flares.

The reason why Abrams loves movies is the communal experience around going to a theater with a full audience. The energy from the film translates to an experience everyone can relate to. For Abrams, going to the movies should always be a good time for everyone in the audience. But as dark as the title Star Trek Into Darkness suggests, the film will be a strong and rewarding experience for everyone who watches it. Abrams reveals,

“The characters are a group of people who have recently come together and find themselves up against this incredibly terrifying force. His name is John Harrison and he is sort of an average – that is what makes him so scary – he is just an average guy who works in an organization called Starfleet, and he turns against the group because he has got this back-story and this kind of amazing secret agenda. After two very violent attacks, one in London and one in the US, our characters have to go after this guy and apprehend him. And it is a far more complicated and difficult thing then they ever anticipated. “Into Darkness” is very much about how intense it gets and really what they are up against.”