Movies, Memories, and Musings

I was only 2 when this movie came out. Here we are 28 years later, I love sci-fi and all the fun directions it goes. From Star Trek, StarWars, Battlestar Galactica, Babylon5, Red Dwarf… and spoofs like Galaxy Quest and Spaceballs. All excellent, all well crafted, and all wonderful stories. A few have lasted decades and continue to grow in franchise. Many also inspired other movies.

Starting out, the first thing that jumps out is this feels very much like Avatar. Military going to places and assuming they are either hostile, or otherwise uncivilized and a threat, with one scientist on the team who actually gives a crap about the other culture/society/species being discovered. Like, if I was just chilling in my home area minding my business and a group appeared out of nowhere, pointing their version of a weapon, speaking a language i did not know…. YEAH i’m gonna be scared and react accordingly. I am a coward, so I’d probably just hide, but I imagine others would put up a fight…

The team that was sent made literally zero efforts to hide when they first approached the civilization. Literally just standing on the ridge with nothing but sand and sky. Little black blobs against the tan surroundings. The whole story evolves from there. For trying to be both stealthy and covert, the team did a terrible job. Not to mention the scientist got married on accident…well sort of married, he did not sleep with the girl offered, but later recognizes the insult of not sleeping with her…. Good job scientist BTW for not just going after the girl when offered. He took the high road in that situation and even when faced with the watching crowd, closed the curtain and gave the girl some respect!!

Given the technology for when this came out, the puppetry for the bison-like animal thing was actually pretty good. It’s not exactly mind-blowing, but it is fairly impressive. The costume beneath looks heavy too!! Like the puppets used in some Lion King on Broadway, so massive and expressive. Obviously different styles and uses but still so impressive to maneuver around a set with other hazards and people.

On that note, can we talk about the amazing CGI for the pyramid-ception when the alien/god arrives? In some ways, those scenes look better than the more recent Marvel movies. It is amazing what the 80’s did with the resources they had. I feel like if I was going to take a class or go into modern movie technology, I would want to learn the techniques they used. The animation for space, or seeming animation for space. The amount of detail used with the Ra masks and weapons was so intricate and defined. Perhaps I saw a remastered version and so my experience is a bit screwed, or romanticized.

Feels like many movies, specifically sci-fi, have a focus on heath and healing. More exactly, any method to increase the rate of healing and lengthen lifespan. The Stargate franchise introduces this concept by revealing a sarcophagus the has healing properties. Bring the scientist back from the dead, then the woman selected to be his wife also back from the dead later. I appreciate the urgency placed on the idea of healing life. I truly wish modern science and technology was as advanced as lol the sci-fi authors dreamed. Even research into cures…too bad some people are too scared to even hope for trying.