The A To Z Of SFF: C Is For Captain America: Civil War

Rob and Clive explore the point where the Marvel Cinematic Universe splits in twain. Yes, it’s time to talk about the Civil War. Are we #TeamCap or #TeamIronMan? Or like everyone else, #TeamSpidey?

DO WE REALLY NEED TO MENTION THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR HERE??? WELL, DO WE???

The A To Z Of SFF: D Is For The Dark Crystal

Rob loves the beauty and artistry of Jim Henson’s fantasy epic The Dark Crystal. Clive thinks it’s staid and a little bit boring. Who’s right? can they both have a point? That’s not going to help Curiosity make up its mind, is it?
Join the crew as they pick apart the film most people call “that one that doesn’t have David Bowie and his bulging tights in it.”

 

 

Here’s a clip, to give you an idea of the flavour of the piece…

The A To Z Of SFF: M Is For Midnight Special

 

Jeff Nichol’s masterful SF road movie gets the once over from Rob and Clive. Do they embrace the mystery, or does the film maybe leave a little too much unexplained? One thing’s for sure… it’s a hell of a ride.

 

Clive mentions Alex Roman’s short film The Third And The Seventh as an influence on the climax of Midnight Special. Check it out below. It’s a beautiful thing.

The A To Z Of SFF: Story Of Your Life

Let’s talk about some proper SF, with a nose around Ted Chiang’s Nebula-Award winning short story Story Of Your Life. If you want discussion on the challenges of living in a deterministic universe or Fermat’s Theorem of Least Time, then do we have a treat for you!

If not, don’t worry, we’ll be back to the zap guns and little green men soon enough.

 

 

Hey, if you want to read the story in question, lucky you! Check it out here (If you like it, we do urge you to buy the collection of stories in which it’s housed for yet more head-mangling goodness).

The A To Z Of SFF: S Is For… STREETS OF FIRE

 

The boys celebrate their rescue from CycloMedia’s clutches with an exploration of a truly joyful piece of cinema. You could argue that Streets Of Fire isn’t SF or fantasy. Rob and Clive would argue otherwise.

We’re back. let the revels begin. Let the fires be started.

A Is For Ace Trucking Co.

 

Obscure, yes, but among the 2000ADdicts Ace Trucking Co is a highlight. Defiantly weird, Ace Garp and his crew inhabit a universe that could only come from the mind and pen of Massimo Belardinelli. Join Rob and Clive on the Great Mush Rush as they celebrate one of the British comic scene’s more selectively popular strips.

We’s truckin’, lugbuddies!

The A To Z Of SFF: A Is For The ABC Warriors

 

Atomic. Bacteriological. Chemical. No, not the laundry schedule for the Ulysses (although Clive’s socks do require extra attention after a week in a vac-suit cleaning CycloMedia’s solar panels). We’re talking about classic 2000AD strip The ABC Warriors. They’ve been a constant feature of the comic since 1979, so there’s a lot to talk about. Join the robot revolution!

The A To Z Of SFF: A Is For A.I. Artificial Intelligence

 

A.I was planned and prepped by Stanley Kubrick, then taken over by Steven Spielberg after the auteur’s untimely death. The resulting film is a strange mix of the two director’s signature styles, and even now it polarises opinion. Rob and Clive take a detailed look at the film, its themes and the inhumanly excellent performance of Haley Joel Osment.

Let’s go in search of the Blue Fairy…

(we apologise for the state of Rob’s voice. The space lurgy has him in its snottily-tentacled grasp…)