I'm have a sci-fi moment. Actually more like a long moment. I think it started when Rian Johnson first announced he was making a science fiction film.
I am a huge fan of Rian Johnson. If you're wondering who he is, he is the writer director of Brick, Brother Bloom and Looper. Brick is one of my favourite films of all time and a film I wish I wrote. Both Brick and Looper are genre twisting film (Brothers Bloom is a con man film so I haven't quite figured out what the twist is). Genre twisting is the reason why I love the Coen brothers too. Brick was a detective noir story centred arounf high school kids. Looper is a hitman man time travel science fiction story.
TWIST!
But this isn't about Mr Johnson, not today. This is about sci-fi and why I keep coming back to the genre time and time again.
Warning this may sound self indulgent. Whenever I write short stories they always seem to lean towards science fiction or something odd. I can't write a straight forward story or at least I don't think I have written one. Science fiction is about escapism and the imagination (this is just my opinion) and thats what I try to include in my stories. Even though I am currently obsessed with The Good Wife and Boardwalk Empire at the moment I keep writing sci-fi stories. This puzzels me.
I am currently reading Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by a master of science fiction, Phillip K. Dick. If you don't know him, he wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which is better known as Blade Runner. Many of his books have been adapted. This book got me thinking about other futuristic and alternative universes. The future doesn't have to be so far fetched as some films make it out to be. This brings me back to Looper. In my opinion this film was a work of genius. The future is believable but also futuristic enough for it be looked at as just a film. Yes I understand people's issues with it such as supporting characters and the lack of their development, BUT I don't understand when people say that 'it didn't live up to the hype'. The film and its makers simply created the film, but they did not market it, that was the distributors job. This is the same thing that happened to Quentin Tarrantino's Inglourious Basterds. But that survived because of the name attached. Whenever I say Rian Johnson, no one knows who is he so hes over looked shall we say and then everyone just says the same old thing. The film did NOT market itself. The film stands alone.
I'm not a fan of those unrealistic future stories and films, in a way they have to be believable. In fairness I researched the film and I know the director's work but I understand that not everyone does that. But I've said it and I'll say it again, just like all those 5 star reviews and good critiques out there, Looper is a good film. But I suppose its more of a film for people who love cinema. Just my opinion.
