Nov 192010
For those like me who can’t wait until “TRON: Legacy” comes out, there’s one thing I can offer up: Daft Punk’s “The Game Has Changed,” the tune used on one of the movie trailers. At least, one and a half minutes worth of it:
http://idolator.com/5654182/daft-punk-tron-legacy-2
This is best listened to with headphones.
Also worth listening to with headphones is the trailer for next years “Battle LA,” an alien-invasion flick. While the trailer looks good, it’s the extremely dark and dire music and sound effects that really set the mood.
[youtube ORb3zC8z94w]
The music here is “The Sun’s Gone Dim” by Icelander Johann Johannsson.
13 Responses to “Sonic Nerdgasm”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
When I first saw the title, I was hoping it would be a film that took an interesting alien invasion revisionist history take on the Battle of Los Angeles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Los_Angeles
It is a good trailer, though, and I’ll look forward to the film.
Apparently the 1942 Battle of LA plays some part in the movie. That was an early recon or something.
Oh, great…”Skyline” Mk II…which was “Independence Day” Mk II, …which was Pal’s “War of the Worlds” Mk II. 😀
“Skyline” is not exactly getting rave reviews:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/skyline_2010/
What is always funny about these new alien invasion movies is that the alien invaders have the technology to go from one star to another with ease, but somehow the US military will defeat them through cunning, bravery…and maybe a computer virus.
At least in Wells’ WOTW and the Pal movie, you get to see just what a military technological gap in regards to Earth and Mars of only a few hundred years would look like.
“We have Sherman Tanks, a Flying Wing…and Big Fission Bombs!”
“That’s nice…we have Heat Rays, Meson Neutralizers, Magnetic Lift Systems for our War Machines…and an Impenetrable Protective Shield that can take a direct hit by your fission bombs with no trouble at all.”
Now extrapolate that out to getting into a interstellar war sometime with a technology a few thousand…or maybe even a hundred million…years in advance of yours:
“We have Abrams Tanks, a Stealth Flying Wing, and Big Fusion Bombs!”
“That’s nice… we’re going to induce a solar flare on your sun so severe that it will sterilize the entire surface of your planet, then stick our own ecosystem in to replace it.”
And that’s about how it would all end up; the relationship between a wasp nest and a can of Raid Wasp Killer insecticide. 😀
BTW.. I actually saw a “TRON Legacy” Lightcycle toy out at our local K-Mart around two weeks back. It sure didn’t turn my crank by any means.
Pat;
Probably closer to the mark than you think actually….
The producers of Battle for LA are planning on suing the Skyline folks because they had apperently hired them to do the effects for B4LA. From what I’ve gathered so far the effects were not quite what they wanted and the let them go and went with another company. Which seems to be behind the rapid release of Skyline since they HAD all the effects and just needed to bolt another story onto it :o)
Randy
Why do aliens always invade LA? I’d much prefer to chose somewhere nicer. They always display such a lack of imagination, not only as to choice of location but as someone else mentioned, method. Now, if I was a naughty alien, I’d just move an asteroid’s orbit. Something big enough to cause the end of civilisation but not quite an iceage (unless of course I liked iceages). Alternatively, a few subtle virii made in the lab and released into the wild would remove those troublesome humans and preserve the ecosphere.
Wheres the Doctor when you need him?
> Why do aliens always invade LA?
Because most of the major “alien invasion”movies are made by Hollywood… which is right next to LA.
> if I was a naughty alien, I’d just move an asteroid’s orbit.
Been done. “Footfall.”
> Wheres the Doctor when you need him?
On the BBC, being irrelevant. Dr. Who makes more use of Deus Ex Machina than ST:TNG did.
> Because most of the major “alien invasion”movies are made by Hollywood… which is right next to LA.
Yeah, funny that, innit? Shows rather a lack of imagination, doesn’t it?
> Been done. “Footfall.”
One of the most boring novels ever written. Too long, too trashy and of course, oh, so middle-class Americana’.
> On the BBC, being irrelevant. Dr. Who makes more use of Deus Ex Machina than ST:TNG did.
Still solves the problems, saves the planet, usually gets the girl (or another one) in the end. I’ll take Dr. Who over most Hollywood trash. I’ve yet to see a good SF movie out of Hollywood for years. Sector 9, I suspect which is South African for goodness sake! Will be I suspect, better than this one…
> Shows rather a lack of imagination, doesn’t it?
That’s Hollywood for you. A bigger leftwing echo chamber you’ll not find.
> One of the most boring novels ever written.
Now I know you’ve either not read it, or are just fibbing.
As to Dr. Who: Since when does he “get the girl?” Best I can tell, he *never* seems to get the girl. It’s entertaining enough eye candy, but pretty devoid of any real cleverness or intellectual merit.
And did you mean “District 9?” It had its charms, but it was as jam-packed full of ridiculously dumb plot points and bad science as any other flick.
> That’s Hollywood for you. A bigger leftwing echo chamber you’ll not find.
If Hollywood is left wing why does it keep pumping out jingoistic American feel good movies? I haven’t seen a “left wing” Hollywood movie, I believe.
> Now I know you’ve either not read it, or are just fibbing.
Nope. Used to be a big Niven and Pournelle fan and then I grew up and realised all they are preaching is the same old, same old, America rah, rah! Crap. Pournelle even plagiarises other authors.
>As to Dr. Who: Since when does he “get the girl?” Best I can tell, he *never* seems to get the girl. It’s entertaining enough eye candy, but pretty devoid of any real cleverness or intellectual merit.
I admit the new series has veered somewhat in that direction but the Golden Age stuff of say Troughton, Pertwee and Baker were excellent. Even today, the story is the essence. Not the special effects. Something Hollywood loses sight of. Invariably Hollywood’s stories are simply the same rehashing of the same stuff, over and over and over again.
>And did you mean “District 9?” It had its charms, but it was as jam-packed full of ridiculously dumb plot points and bad science as any other flick.
As usual, you miss the point. Where was it made? Who was it made about? What was the story it was telling. I know many South Africans who find it far too painful to watch. It tells them what Apartheid was really like and they see one of their own, become a “Prawn” (read Black) and he suffers because of it but still acts nobly because he finally understands what it is to be a member of the underclass. Thats a story that Hollywood couldn’t tell. They’d make the hero Bruce Willis and he’d just kill and blow his way out of every situation.
> If Hollywood is left wing
*IF???*
Name a Hollywood movie or TV series made in the last 20 years where a fictional Republican politician was portrayed as the hero.
> America rah, rah!
Yeah, yeah, I know it’s horrible for American authors to write about Americans and/or write with an American mindset. Well, when the aliens show up and start attacking, I guess we can all expect the massive space battleships of the New Zealand Planetary Defence Forces to come to the worlds rescue.
> It tells them what Apartheid was really like and they see one of their own, become a “Prawn” (read Black)
I was unaware that white South Africans are regularly getting squirted with spaceship fuel and having their DNA being re-written to turn them into blacks. How fascinating! I was not aware thast black South Africans are actually a separate *species* from white South Africans, and that they are by and large genetically incapable of any real independant thought.
The fact that you are so twisted up in your anti-Americanism that you cannot recognize that a movie like “District 9” had major plot holes is just… sad.
A flying saucer hovers for *years* above a third-rate nation… and the Chinese, Americans, Russians, French, Brits, Indians don’t duke it out to take control of the thing and tear it apart to learn its secrets? A human starts to turn into an alien – with utterly alien physiology – and isn’t promptly killed by biotoxins or a massive immune response?
Yeah, it was entertaining enough eye candy, but it was no deeper than Dr. Who. Which is to say… about as deep as the text on your screen.
> *IF???*
Name a Hollywood movie or TV series made in the last 20 years where a fictional Republican politician was portrayed as the hero.
*IF*
If its Left Wing why do we see a succession of Hollywood movies which keep on reinforcing all those tired, old, hackneyed American values, including of course that the US Military or knowhow can defeat any alien invasion that arrives on Earth? Why does every action movie have some thug who prefers blowing up things and killing people than actually talking to them? If Arne, Bruce, Steven, etc. aren’t card-carrying members of the Republican Party what are they?
> Yeah, yeah, I know it’s horrible for American authors to write about Americans and/or write with an American mindset. Well, when the aliens show up and start attacking, I guess we can all expect the massive space battleships of the New Zealand Planetary Defence Forces to come to the worlds rescue.
More than likely they’ll offer them a bong and they’ll get stoned together, mate.
You keep complaining that _your_ American mindset isn’t represented, be on screen or perhaps even in books yet its obvious that it is.
> I was unaware that white South Africans are regularly getting squirted with spaceship fuel and having their DNA being re-written to turn them into blacks. How fascinating! I was not aware thast black South Africans are actually a separate *species* from white South Africans, and that they are by and large genetically incapable of any real independant thought.
You really do have problems with allegory. Its interesting that you can’t see it but everybody else in the world can see it. Utterly amazing.
> The fact that you are so twisted up in your anti-Americanism that you cannot recognize that a movie like “District 9″ had major plot holes is just… sad.
I never claimed it didn’t have “plot holes”. Virtually every movie has them. I was looking at the overall story. As for being anti-Americanism, *YAWN* – the usual resort of the desperate American who just can’t sustain his argument in the face of criticism. “Oh, dear, Mummy! Mummy! The big bad boy is being anti-American!” Sheesh!
>A flying saucer hovers for *years* above a third-rate nation… and the Chinese, Americans, Russians, French, Brits, Indians don’t duke it out to take control of the thing and tear it apart to learn its secrets? A human starts to turn into an alien – with utterly alien physiology – and isn’t promptly killed by biotoxins or a massive immune response?
Yeah, it was entertaining enough eye candy, but it was no deeper than Dr. Who. Which is to say… about as deep as the text on your screen.
So, you really think it would be worth going to war over such a matter. You really have no understanding of how the real world operates, do you?
> why do we see a succession of Hollywood movies which keep on reinforcing all those tired, old, hackneyed American values, including of course that the US Military or knowhow can defeat any alien invasion that arrives on Earth?
A: Hollywood makes movies *primarily* for the American audience.
B: An alien invasion where the US military cannot defeat them means basically that *nobody* can defeat them. So with the exception of WotW and similar, that means the aliens win. And that’s depressing, and those movies don’t do good business. As Hollywood has repeatedly found – and yet failed to learn from – with its recent succession of anti-Iraq-war movies, movies that are just plain depressing don’t turn a meaningful profit.
> Why does every action movie have some thug who prefers blowing up things and killing people than actually talking to them?
Ummmm…. ACTION MOVIE.
> you really think it would be worth going to war over such a matter.
Worth it? Maybe. Would it happen? Well, let’s see. According to all the protestors during the early phases of the Iraq War… it was a, let’s see now, oh, yes, “war for oil.” And oil is fricken’ chump change compared to the fusion reactors, anti-gravity generators, deflector screens and warp drive the floating derelict in District 9 had.
So, yeah, Major nations have gone to war for a *lot* less than control over technology that would give the owner complete dominion over the entire solar system.