Horses are good company -- The Witcher

Foundation, tv show based on the Asimov books, season 1.

Professor Hari Seldon has developed "psychohistory", math that can predict patterns of future society, and his math has predicted the fall of the galactic empire. To counter the chaos that will follow, he creates the Foundation. The story here is complicated, focuses on a number of different people and places, and thus is rather difficult to summarize.

The good: It's just extremely beautiful! The blues and golds and teals!. It's well lit and gorgeous. There are 2 Black actors (Lou Llobell, Leah Harvey) and at least 2 queer actors (Lee Pace, and Harvey again), in the main cast. Lee Pace is so pretty, he struts around a lot and it seems like they make excuses to show him naked or nearly so.

There are some nice themes of embracing change and listening to Black women.

There's a particular hard Sci-Fi itch that this scratches: there are space ships of several types, a space elevator, a robot, a beautiful water planet, cool costumes.

The bad: This has Prestige Drama vibes, and they went too far with that, so it's heavy, nearly humorless, and way too slow. It is also sometimes confusing because it moves around in time. And it's not gay enough; the main relationships shown are hetero ones. I have some issues with the way the characters insist that clones are the same person, and we haven't seen people expressing a counterpoint to that, but maybe the show will eventually get there. (Clones are not the same person and this seems super obvious to me given that identical siblings exist fairly commonly in our world).

The ugly: There are some disturbing moments and images that seem to want to show us that the Emperor is capable of great evil, and again they go way too far with that, particularly when he describes to a person how he is going to torture her. Gross!! Then there's occasional body horror. Plus a whole sub-plot about a "defective" clone, again why.

So, a mixed bag. Overall I am finding it enjoyable enough to continue. I read all these books and many more Asimov books as a teen. I don't remember them well enough to compare to the show. Most of Asimov's work doesn't translate well to the screen because it's cerebral, more about the ideas than the characters, and for me was about the way it opened up ideas in my head. That was such a fantastic feeling of expansion!

Sick today and slept most of the day. I was able to shower, pick up my holds at the library, and drive my roommate to and from an automotive place.

Lately I watched:

Prospect - Netflix. Stars Pedro Pascal.

I absolutely loved this and highly recommend. It's an indie science fiction film with a cool aesthetic and great acting. The story centers around Cee, a teenage girl who is working with her father. They are journeying to a planet to harvest a valuable gem. They have 3 days to do so because they need to catch the last transport out of the system. Cee's father is a complex character, hard to pin down. He comes across as somewhat reckless, probably addicted to drugs, but competent in his job; a lot of this is conveyed with body language and facial expressions and line delivery. While on the planet, which has a toxic atmosphere, Cee and her father encounter some dangerous men, and the story shifts.

I watched some "making of" youtube videos that kuwdora recommended. This is an unusual film in that the actors wear helmets through most of it, and the film makers talk about the challenges involved in that such as controlling for reflections. The color of the film is a warm, slightly yellow-brown or sepia tone, which adds to this feeling of their equipment being old, patched together. You get the feeling that these people are poor folks living on the edges of society.

I was very impressed; I don't know why I hadn't heard of this movie before. Certainly now that it's on Netflix, it is easier to get a hold of, and Pedro Pascal has a career on the upswing, so maybe more folks will find this.

Wimbledon - 2004. Library DVD. Stars Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst and a bunch of other famous actors.

A light, sunny, low-conflict romance / sports movie. A nice movie to have on in the background and half-watch. Not a must-watch by any means, but cute if you are in need of a diversion.

A friend and I were talking about a very interesting trope in SF/F: an older character inhabiting the body of a younger person, or vice-versa.

Examples we could think of are:
-Five in the Umbrella Academy, who is an older man in the body of a teenager.
-Trevor Holden in Travelers, a very old man in the body of a teenager (the actor is somewhat older than the character though).
-Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character in "Third Rock from the Sun," which I barely remember and did not watch regularly.

-Freaky Friday films, which involve a kid/adult body swap.
-Big, in which Tom Hanks plays a kid in the body of a grown-up.
-13 going on 30, which I don't think I ever watched, or maybe did and forgot it.

I love Five and Trevor especially, and the actors do such a great job portraying these characters. There is a kind of confidence in movement and action that suggests these people are at ease with themselves, in a way that young people often are not. The trope touches on a fantasy of having a young body that has energy and health, paired with an older, wiser, soul; or conversely, having an adult body with its associated freedoms and respect, but with a sense of child-like wonder and play, as in "Big."

Five is in his own younger body due to time travel. His personality is that of a grumpy old man: he's caustic and impatient, and focused on getting things done. The actor is 16-year old Aiden Gallagher.

Trevor Holden is, in contrast, gentle and kind, willing to break rules to help other people, firm in setting boundaries. The body he's occupying is that of a popular high-school athlete. The actor, Jared Abramson, was about 30 when the show aired.

What do you think about this trope? Do you know of other examples?

A Quiet Place

A thrilling, interesting, and well-done monster movie. The monsters in this are very sound-oriented, so any noise will bring them running, and they will kill you and eat you. The family at the center of this movie has an advantage: their daughter is Deaf, and they all know ASL, so they can communicate without speaking. They have a number of survival strategies in place, and yet the monsters are formidable. The Deaf character is played by a Deaf actress. Starring and directed by John Krisinski. Content notes for: jump scares, guns, pregnancy and childbirth, child harm. The gore/blood is minimal. This is recommended if you like monster movies and thrillers.

Annihilation

A Sci-fi thriller featuring mostly women! A "shimmer" has descended over part of the US, and it is expanding. No one who enters comes out, except for Lena's husband, who shows up at her door after a year gone. Lena (Natalie Portman) decides to join the team of scientists going into the Shimmer to investigate. This is a horror-type movie where the people get picked off. It was pretty to watch and well-made, but a bit thin on characterization. Content notes for: jump scares, guns, some gore.

Source Code. 2011, 93 min.

LOVED this and not sure why I hadn't seen it before. A science fiction thriller by the director of "Moon". Air Force pilot Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up on a communter train not knowing where he is or what is going on. A woman is talking to him and calling him "Sean". He goes to the restroom, looks in the mirror, and sees someone else's face. Some similar themes to "Moon" about how technology can be used to exploit people.

Okja. Netflix, 2017.

I didn't like this; it seemed like a message move whose message was garbled. It's a science fiction movie with poor world building and the script needed a few more edits. Okja is a "super pig" being raised by a teenage girl in the mountains of Korea. The project is run by a corporation trying to create and market new meat products that are supposedly beneficial for the environment. From the beginning it didn't make sense: why would a food animal take 10 years to mature? That would be way too expensive and is completely unrealistic. Do some research if you're going to write about meat production.