Comments on: Movies Seen Recently: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Beyond the Time Barrier, Arena

By: RK

RK — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 02:39:24 +0000

In reply to Nathan. Aargh The Awful: a new episode released every Wednesday on... Netflix? Amazon Prime? HBO Max? Hmmm...

By: Nathan

Nathan — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 15:47:19 +0000

In reply to RK. I would watch the hell out of an America 3000 series, provided it focused on the Bigfoot creature as the true protagonist.

By: RK

RK — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 14:44:37 +0000

Considering that Gul Dukat was basically the main heavy of Deep Space Nine much as Rogor was the main heavy of Arena and Quark was a sleazy bartender who did some moonlighting as a black marketeer much as Weezil was a sleazy barhop who did some moonlighting as an underground fixer, I kinda figure Marc Alaimo and Armin Shimerman were just happy to get a steady gig that allowed them to go on playing more or less the same characters on TV as they'd been in the movie for a regular paycheck (which was probably more than they ever got paid for their parts in the movie). I'm not exactly into sports movies myself, but the science fiction setting and similar dynamics between several of the principal characters did indeed make Arena feel a lot like watching a double-length episode of Deep Space Nine without any commercial breaks. Arena is otherwise pretty forgettable as low-budget flicks go, but I'll bet Alaimo and Shimerman did occasionally say something like "We've done this kinda thing before, haven't we?" while they were playing Gul Dukat and Quark. Of course, in addition to having more of a real budget, being a seven-season TV series meant Deep Space Nine had a lot more time to flesh out its characters and setting, such that even though Quark was more of a comic relief character and Gul Dukat really only became the main villain in the final season, they each had a significant number of admirers in the fandom (and unlike Arena, the show actually had a fandom). Deep Space Nine is more than a little like a continuation of Arena set in the Star Trek universe. It's something like taking the Will Smith version of I Am Legend and making some stories set in a world very much like that story's into a series... which is kinda what happened with The Walking Dead. Of course, if television (and now, streaming services) can make a highly watchable series based on the premises of an otherwise forgettable low-budget movie, I'd be interested to see what kind of series could be made using the premises of America 3000 or The Purge or maybe The Book of Eli. (All right, so that last one was actually a pretty good movie, but then so was the director's cut of I Am Legend. Either way, I'd like to see the television/streaming series that could be loosely based on it.)

By: Nathan

Nathan — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 04:25:00 +0000

In reply to Zsuzsa.

Well, the graphic novels WERE French, so…

But yeah, it was advertised as a big deal — at least, as big a deal as something that wasn’t part of a cinematic universe or based on a property known in the U.S. could be. Reportedly a budget of $177.2 million, and a U.S. box office of $41.2 million (worldwide $226 million).

By: Zsuzsa

Zsuzsa — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 19:07:12 +0000

Was Valerian actually a major theatrical release? Because I feel like, as a sci-fi fan, who was hanging around other sci-fi fans in 2017, I ought to have at least some vague memory of it coming out. But I’m drawing a complete blank here.

I was also kind of amused by the trailer’s description of it as “The Graphic Novel that Inspired a Generation.” My reaction was, “Which generation? Are we talking like third generation video game console here?”