Oblivion

Hard sci-fi and cinema do not necessarily go together. This expansive genre which requires immersive world building is not generally suited to contracted film format. An hour and a half or two hours is not long enough to sufficiently develop the speculative world and tell a decent story in it. Hard sci-fi is better suited to novels or games which have much longer to develop their story. David Lynch's adaptation of Dunecaptures the mood of Frank Herbert's master work but the story and details of the universe were left on the cutting room floor.

However it looks like Hollywood is trying again, with forthcoming film adaptations of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and a mooted version of Iain M Banks’s A Gift From The Culture. Before that, we have Tom Cruise in high tech, post apocalyptic action adventure Oblivion which has more than a few touches of hard sci-fi to it.

Mostly it handles the genre well, mainly because the premise is simple and does not require much world building. In the future Earth has been devastated in a war with an alien race known as the Scavengers. Most of humanity has either fled to Titan or lives on the TET, a giant space station in orbit above the Earth. Jack (Cruise) lives on Earth and works maintaining a fleet of robotic drones which protect devices which harvest Earth's water for fusion power. Jack has strange dreams of his life before the war with the Scavengers which his colleague Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) refuses to discuss with him. When a human space ship from the pre-Scavenger war days crashed on Earth Jack is surprised that the drones kill the human survives. He saves one woman who resembles someone from his dreams. Together they must find the truth to Jack's past and real purpose of the TET.

Oblivion is filled with motifs familiar to hard sci-fi. There are alien invaders that make noises reminiscent of the Combine's radio chatter from Half-Life 2. Computers up to no good, more than a little like 2001's Hal. Matrix-style resistance leader encouraging the hero to discover reality. Flyers that behave like Dune's ornithopters and drones that appear to have been designed by Aperture Science.

All this is well trodden ground for sci-fi fans, but the question is: can the story compare with novels or games which have a lot longer to develop their characters and world? The short answer is no. The story behind Oblivion (despite being engaging) is not as nuanced as that you find in a novel. It might be slight unfair to expect it to be, but the need for action sequences and the mainly linear narrative prevent Oblivion from becoming a world the viewer can really feel they inhabit. There are too many unanswered questions, which I will not go into here for fear of spoilers, but a bit more world building and explanation would have made a big difference. That said it is already a long film and is well paced, what the story needs could be the undoing of the whole film.

As an action adventure film with sci-fi elements Oblivion works well. The story is exciting and immersive, the performances are good and the special effects are very good. The sound design is especially strong, adding to the tension and brilliantly characterising the non-human characters. The movie uses the entire film-makers toolbox to bring the sci-fi world to life which is one of the film's great strengths. Another is that the high budget of a Hollywood blockbuster allows for the sci-fi elements to be beautifully realised.

As an example of hard sci-fi Oblivion comes up lacking and I feel this has more to do with the problems of putting hard sci-fi onto film. The world is not sufficiently developed and there too many issues left hanging. The story is complete in the sense of a film but lacks the full realisation that I would expect from a novel or game. Oblivionis a strong attempt to make a hard sci-fi which works very well as a film. Whether it answers the question as to how well hard sci-fi can ever be put onto film is more difficult. In part, it illustrates the problems of hard sci-fi on film and in part it shows how hard sci-fi can benefit from being on the big screen.

Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock is frequently held up as an example of games being a genuine art form and not simply populist entertainment. The 2007 original was a critical smash hit, beautifully designed with Art Deco architecture and lavish set pieces. The player experienced a strong sense of foreboding as they walked through the halls of Rapture, the sunken city of the first game’s setting. However, apart from the game's design, what players really remembered about Bioshock was the gripping storyline and strong characters. Rapture had mystery and shocking revelations. As the player explored the game's setting, so too did the narrative develop.

Bioshock was brilliant, but how do you follow on success? With more of the same - this prompted criticism that Bioshock 2 was just a carbon copy of the original. Now Irrational Games are back with a third instalment, Bioshock Infinite, and things are a little different. This game is set in 1912 in Columbia, a city floating in the sky. The player inhabits the role of DeWitt, a man with a mysterious past and the series staple special abilities. As before the player uses a series of historic weapons and super powers to fight through an usual and beautifully designed setting.

In some ways, the narrative techniques in Bioshock Infinite are the same as the previous titles. In all three games, you arrive in a setting where significant story events have already taken place. These events are filled in by recordings, which the player collects as they explore the environment. This allows for backstory and development of the supporting characters to be filled in around the main plot. Also like before, the game's principal villain is developed through booming addresses, as the player fights their way through hordes of minions.

The key difference between Bioshock Infinite and the previous titles in the series is Elizabeth, a woman who accompanies you throughout the game. Her character is partly built up through recordings hidden around Columbia, but also through dialogue scenes with the protagonist, which are some of the game's strongest moments. Elizabeth is a well-developed heroine with strong motivations and emotional responses to the player's actions. The first time the two of you experience combat together, Elizabeth is visibly repulsed by DeWitt's slaughter of NPCs.

The story unfolds similar to before. It is structured around a series of set pieces in confined spaces, where game challenges must be overcome to advance both plot and character. The player is guided between these set pieces by objectives that must be completed in each location. As before, the player is offered choices along the way which alter the outcome of the narrative. This gives the player the ability to shape the outcome according to what they feel DeWitt's personality is. Our understand of DeWitt as a protagonist is developed through flashbacks, dialogue with Elizabeth and recordings but ultimately the player gets to decide what sort of person he is and receive an ending which reflects this.

As before, the dialogue is well written, with period detail, and the voice actors do fantastic work bringing their parts to life. The recordings hidden throughout Columbia have especially strong dialogue, despite the fact some of these characters have limited screen time, their personalities are effectively built up through these short monologues.

Many of the strong storytelling elements from previous Bioshock games are present in Bioshock Infinite, but new features have also been added to develop the narrative and setting. Having two protagonists and dialogue between them allows for greater character development and a more complex story. The relationship between DeWitt and Elizabeth is more complex than Delta’s relationship with his daughter in Bioshock 2, and Jack’s relationships in the original. There is a lot here to delight fans of previous Bioshock stories, and a lot of new ideas which push the envelope further.

The Hydrogen Sonata

Subliming is mentioned in almost all of Iain M. Bank's Culture novels, but not until now has he explored the concept in any detail. It forms an important part of the plots of novels such as Look To Windward and Surface Detail, but we actually know very little about it. In the universe of the Culture, subliming is the civilizational end game; the point where a species collectively checks out of this universe and passes onto some other dimension, outside even the multiverse structure mention in Excession. Sublimed beings become so vastly powerful and complex that they care little for the trivial affairs of species still bound to this physical plane. It is a concept common to many science fiction universes, from ascension in Stargate SG1 to first ones of Babylon Five.

Banks’s latest novel, The Hydrogen Sonata, focuses on the events surrounding the subliming of the Gzilt, an pan-human civilization that nearly became a founding member of the Culture ten thousand years earlier. Mysteriously, they opted not to join at the last minute but have enjoyed close ties to the Culture ever since. Now, on the eve of their subliming, a message has been delivered which could shake Gzilt society to its foundations. Only one person can verify if this message is true: QiRia, the oldest person in the Culture who was present ten thousand years earlier when the Culture began. A Gzilt by the name of Vyr Cossont, who met QiRia twenty years ago, is dispatched to find the truth behind the message. She teams up with a band of Culture ship minds (mainly one called Mistake Not...) to, in typical Banks style, travel around some of the galaxy’s more unusual spots to find QiRia. Meanwhile she is pursued by members of the Gzilt military who are intent on keeping the message secret in case it threatens the subliming.

This book follows on from trends in the last three Culture novels: firstly the events mainly take place outside the Culture itself. Culture ships, drones and avatars are involved, but the majority of the dramatic plot focuses on events elsewhere in the galaxy. Secondly, this is his third consecutive novel with a female protagonist, and Cossont is one of his most engaging protagonists to date, flawed with youth but also strong and determined. This story also explores a few fundamental aspects of the Culture universe. It deals with the events around when the Culture was first established and gives some more insight into its history. It also explains much more about what is involved with subliming, how species and individuals sublime, what happens to what they leave behind – these are all themes of this novel.

As usual, Banks’s imagination is front and centre, and he takes the reader on a journey to many bizarre and original places. Included this time are rivers made of sand, an airship devoted entirely to pleasure, mountains of sound and sculpted moons, which are described in beautiful detail in the book.

The Hydrogen Sonata is one of Banks's stronger novels. It lacks the flaws of the weaker ones, mainly sub-plots that do not join back up to the main plot. This novel also tones down the sex and violence to a degree but still manages to keep the story extremely entertaining. This book is more thoughtful, similar to philosophical Excession rather than the explosive Consider Phlebas or the violent Surface Details. The ending is perhaps a little predictable but does have strong emotional resonance. I would certainly urge any fans of science fiction, and especially Banks's other writing, to read this novel.

A Scanner Darkly

Generally on this list I am not playing favourites, as it is already a list of my favourite films, but a few films really do stand out as making a big impression on me, and A Scanner Darkly is one of them. I love everything about this film, from the animation, to the writing, to the music, to the source material. I feel like it is one of those films which has been made especially for me.

A Scanner Darkly is based on the Philip K. Dick novel of the same name and it stands in the grand tradition of sci-fi films based on Philip K. Dick novels. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep became Blade Runner, We Can Remember It For You Wholesale became Total Recall, Minority Report, Paycheck, The 6^th Day, the list goes on. A Scanner Darkly is perhaps Dick’s most personal work dealing with his own issues of drug abuse and paranoia. It is a deeply personal story which best defines the themes which run through all of his other writing.

Set in the near future where everything we do is recorded and monitored, A Scanner Darkly follows Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves), an undercover cop investigating the supply of a new drug called Substance D (street name Death). Death is a metaphor for all serious drugs and the long-term effects of taking Death are serious brain damage, paranoia, confusion, loss of self and eventually death itself. During the course of being undercover, Arctor has become addicted to Death and is loosing himself. As part of his undercover work investigating a Death dealing ring, Arctor is assigned to investigate himself (as his superiors do not know his identity). During the investigation, Arctor grows increasingly confused and paranoid. The ring he is involved with is centred around James Barris (Robert Downey Jr) a Death dealer and general paranoid nut case.

My favourite aspect of A Scanner Darkly is the animation. The actors were filmed against a green screen and then the backgrounds and characters animated over their performances, a process called interpolated rotoscope. This gives the animation a surreal, cartoonish edge but still capturing extremely life like performances. Everything from the colour to the background design is set up to convey Arctor’s deteriorating mental state.

The animation style perfectly suits the strong performances from the film. Reeves is great at looking perpetually confused and worried, Downey Jr is stunning as the psychotic Barris. His insane thought process, played out through the film’s wonderful dialogue, is both hilarious and terrifying. The character also perfectly plays off Downey Jr’s real life drug woes.

The supporting cast of Winona Ryder and Woody Harrelson are also excellent. Special mention must go to the latter for delivering my favourite line of film perfectly: “What if they came in through the back door or the bathroom window, like the infamous Beatles song?”

This film is everything that is great about Dick’s writing: dark, surreal and painful. It is desperate cry for help, muffled by the cruel world it takes place in. The animation is stunning and the visuals suit the story and mood perfectly.

The 5th Element

Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm and Chris Tucker now that is an unusual cast. Throw in direction from Luc Besson and you have a very interesting movie. The 5^th Element is an ode to over the stop style, a poem dedicated to visual sensation. Every set piece is lavish. Every scene is beautiful.

 

The plot is more than a little daft. Every three hundred years a Great Evil will arise to destroy the world, unless a weapon can be used to stop it. This weapon involves the four accent Greek elements (fire, water, earth and wind) and a 5^th element, the universe’s perfect being, played by Milla Jovovich. In the 23^rd century the Great Evil (personified by a black fiery planet) is returning and the elements must be united in Egypt to stop it. Unfortunately a warlike alien race called the Mangalores destroys the 5^th Element. Humans recover a small fraction of the creature and clone a woman called Leeloo, who promptly escapes and winds up with Korben Dallas (Burice Willis), a former police offices and cab driver. Together with Father Vito Cornelius (Ian Holm) and obnoxious oversexed radio DJ Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker) they try to recover the accent stones, which symbolize the other four elements, and stop the Great Evil who has hired industrialist Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman) and the Mangalores to stop them.

 

Ridiculous plot aside, the main appeal of the 5^th Element is Luc Besson’s visual style, given complete free reign in his colorful futuristic environment. Everything in this film is a treat for the eyes from 23^rdcentury New York City with its flying taxis to alien opera singers. The costumes are especially good, special mention must go to Chris Tucker who wears this get up and raps. That clip pretty much sums up everything you need to know about the film.

 

The consideration to detail in The 5^thElement is amazing. By the end of film Besson and Jovovich were able to converse in the supposedly accent language they invented for Leeloo. However, it is not just visual treaties, the performances are excellent, moving from heart breaking to hilarious. This film walks the difficult line dividing serious and silly. It is both funny and touching. Gary Oldman is brilliant as ever, play a villain he gets to revel in being evil. Willis and Tucker are the perfect double team, one subtle and nearly silent, the other flamboyant and larger than life. Jovovich is also excellent as Leeloo who is both fascinated and terrified of our world. Her relationship with Dallas forms an important emotional core around which the film is anchored.

 

The 5^th Element is the perfect rainy day movie; it is fun, over the top and self-assured. The actors are director are all at the top of their craft and clearly enjoying themselves. This one film that is beautiful from start to finish.