Summer SciFi Thread

Yeah, especially since they've cast quite a bit older. One of the most interesting aspects of the book was realizing just how young these kids are when being subject to all this. Not that 12 is a prime time for soldiering, but it's sure as hell better than starting at six.

The Spartans started at seven. Look where it got them...

Sent via mobile; apologies? Nah, I apoliguze fir nathing. Naught evin soelibg ir rfgffhgf mustskfdscsvbf!
 
Yeah, especially since they've cast quite a bit older. One of the most interesting aspects of the book was realizing just how young these kids are when being subject to all this. Not that 12 is a prime time for soldiering, but it's sure as hell better than starting at six.

Put up yer dukes!

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Granted, Card's nuts, but how is Ender's Game an apology for Hitler?

Maybe not for Hitler himself, but for the Nazi rank and file, maybe. Ender's actions at the end provide a commentary on the nature of warfare, as he quite literally doesn't know what he's doing. He really was "just following orders," and so were those who were held responsible for Nazi war crimes. They weren't really all that more aware of the true consequences of their work. While the results are presented as abhorrent, Ender himself is blameless.

At least that's the best analysis I could pull out of my ass. I'm a bit baffled too really.

Edit: Alternatively, Ender himself is a Hitler figure, and it's only because of his genocide of the Buggers that he's ultimately able to bring them a fuller existence in the sequels, just as the creation of the state of Israel couldn't have happened without the Holocaust. This is, again, coming out of my ass.
 
Maybe not for Hitler himself, but for the Nazi rank and file, maybe. Ender's actions at the end provide a commentary on the nature of warfare, as he quite literally doesn't know what he's doing. He really was "just following orders," and so were those who were held responsible for Nazi war crimes. They weren't really all that more aware of the true consequences of their work. While the results are presented as abhorrent, Ender himself is blameless.

At least that's the best analysis I could pull out of my ass. I'm a bit baffled too really.

Edit: Alternatively, Ender himself is a Hitler figure, and it's only because of his genocide of the Buggers that he's ultimately able to bring them a fuller existence in the sequels, just as the creation of the state of Israel couldn't have happened without the Holocaust. This is, again, coming out of my ass.
You know, that edit is disturbingly close to Card's expressed religious views. So you might have something there. I don't think Card was all that religious in 1989, though. His far-right wing insanity came later in his life.
 
I just can't see how it can be made into a movie ...

Somehow I don't think the zero-gee sparring matches and games will be in the movie.

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I saw Europa Report (you can rent it on Amazon Instant before it hits theaters) and it was a terrific movie. Very good hard sci fi flick, just what I've been waiting for since Moon came out.
 
Somehow I don't think the zero-gee sparring matches and games will be in the movie.

_________

I saw Europa Report (you can rent it on Amazon Instant before it hits theaters) and it was a terrific movie. Very good hard sci fi flick, just what I've been waiting for since Moon came out.
They will be, they'll just be special effects cluster****s with no redeeming qualities. Probably.
 
Thor: The Dark World

November 8th

Thor_-_The_Dark_World_poster.jpg


Marvel's "Thor: The Dark World" continues the big-screen adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, as he battles to save Earth and all the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy that predates the universe itself. In the aftermath of Marvel's "Thor" and "Marvel's The Avengers," Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos...but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness. Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all. (...again)

Directed by Alan Taylor
Chris Hemsworth
Natalie Portman
Tom Hiddleston
Stellan Skarsgård
Idris Elba
Christopher Eccleston
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Kat Dennings
Ray Stevenson
Zachary Levi
Tadanobu Asano
Jaimie Alexander
Rene Russo
Anthony Hopkins

Youtube trailer
 
I'm really curious as to what that ancient enemy is (being a bit of a Thor fanboi).

Rumor has it it's Thanos, who showed up at the end of The Avengers. But I am not a Thor fanboi...

Sent via mobile; apologies for my adopted brother... he can be SUCH a bother!
 
Somehow I don't think the zero-gee sparring matches and games will be in the movie.
.

the movie poster has the spherical battle room that they're going to use (which does various things towards "the enemy's gate is down" and all, but whatevs.

what won't be in the movie is Ender's dream game (guess it's called "mind game"), which really highlights the best part of the books

I'm going to laugh* my ars off when the movie is a bunch of the valentine political theory (rand paul 2024!) and garbage 3D scenery for the battle room.

spoiler on book
Spoiler :
dollars to donuts the movie isn't going to have little kids killing each other (ender killed like 2 kids), immediately breaking each others' arms, digging through a giant's eye with his bare hands and killing it, etc

that's what made the book great to me--it's a lot lot darker when you raise 6 year old kids to ruthlessly kill an entire species of enemy aliens and lying to them the whole time. Heck, I bet it won't even try to say ender's brother was too crazy to go to battle school. It'll just lauch Ender up there and have him lead the glorious humans to some super space 3D battle, after little 3D battles in the battle room. With harrison ford being a hardars on ender.


*by laugh I mean cry myself to sleep
 
But I didn't think that either Thanos or the Dark Elves predate the universe. The only Marvel entity that easily fits this description is Galactus.
 
I'm pretty sure Marvel studios can't use Galactus, since he first appeared in a Fantastic Four comic and Fox has all the FF rights. If you've seen Iron Man 3, you know they're not above significantly altering their villains..
 
Granted, Card's nuts, but how is Ender's Game an apology for Hitler?
These two articles explain the idea better than I can.

I don't think Card necessarily had Hitler in mind when he wrote Ender's Game. He, of course, steadfastly denied it after reading the original version of Radford's article. But the effect of the moral system propounded in the book - and the similarity of the protagonist's actions to those of anybody committing genocide - mean that the effect is the same.
 
These two articles explain the idea better than I can.

I don't think Card necessarily had Hitler in mind when he wrote Ender's Game. He, of course, steadfastly denied it after reading the original version of Radford's article. But the effect of the moral system propounded in the book - and the similarity of the protagonist's actions to those of anybody committing genocide - mean that the effect is the same.
Yeah, I kind of picked up on the Hitler Youth parallels when I was reading the book myself, but sort of set them to one side to enjoy the book. It's a shame Card is batcrap insane, becuase his first two novels, Ender's Game and its sequel, Speaker for the Dead, are very good. I believe he won back-to-back Nebula awards for them. Everything he's ever written since has either been terrible, or so terrible it's entertaining in an entirely different way than he'd planned.

Didn't the character Harrison Ford is playing in the book flat-out state his job was terrible and that he was turning these kids into monsters, but he didn't have a choice because the "Buggers" - I understand changing the name to "Formics," but it causes my nostalgia gland to wither - were going to do the same to humans? I didn't think of it at the time - I was, what ten when I first read it, I think? - but that is eerily similar to "we have to wipe out the Jews before they wipe us out." The fact that the clearly monstrous Peter is the most interesting damn character in the book certainly doesn't help.
 
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