Pulp Fiction lit a fuse that blew up sometime around Grindhouse. Bouncing from the ma-cheese-mo of the 80’s flavoured Expendables, to the pure red 70’s marinated Hobo with a Shotgun and Super 8 somewhere in between, we’re getting riffs, recreations, reflections and deconstructions of film era underbellies, slowly creeping up to the present day. Now, with Manborg, we’re right up somewhere ‘round 1998, presented with what is meant to recreate that VHS tape you found misplaced in the corner concert film section of a pawn shop. In a world being rapidly flooded with these rehashed nostalgia bombs, Manborg is challenged to represent a new era/aesthetic of re-re-re-rehash, and to be more entertaining than many of the other films in the running.

Thankfully for Manborg, it is half man, half cyborg, all Manborg.

In the future, mankind is has been desolated by an army of nazi-robot-vampires. One soldier watched his brother die at the hands of Draculon, master of this evil armada. This soldier, killed to the point of death, eventually wakes up in the crazy-techno future, discovering that his body is now… look, listen, okay people, this film is called Manborg. I don’t really know why I’m explaining this plot to you. I didn’t see it for the plot. You aren’t going to see it for the plot. Me describing the plot isn’t going to change whether or not you will ever see the film. It’s a non-factor.

So here are the factor-factors that I’ll let rain.

First off, the word “shenanigrams” is used twice in the film. Specifically, it is used by “Justice”, a jean-vested, war-painted gunslinger with an incredibly fake Aussie accent and an inability not to crap-boogie dance while killing things. He lives within an entirely green-screened world where all the humans look like unlockable Mortal Kombat skins and all the monsters look like Napalm Death t-shirts. Steven Kostanski, make-up and effects artist on most Astron 6 films and director of Manborg, said his main inspiration were those corny FMV cutscenes found in old 3DO, PS1 and PC games. While Steel Harbinger may have been what he was going for, I would say the end product is more in-tune with those feature films GWAR released for their fans. Trashier than gross, cornier than grotesque, but revelling in garbage like so many smiling synchronized swimmers in a glamorous Hollywood soundstage pool.

Laser noises are relentless, and individual characters seem to carry their own ridiculous aura of tropes, like Mina’s Ninja Scroll-like action gestures or #1 Man, a Liu Kang-looking fighter overdubbed by Dragon Ball Z narrator Kyle Hebert, and The Baron, who is a Cenobite looking fellow who’s more preoccupied with a secret crush than speaking without syntax like the rest of the cast. Manborg does not give up, and its schlock is of a flavour that has yet to be exploited in the bulk (but oh, I bet it will be soon.)

All that said, Manborg isn’t a perfect recreation of the poopy pastiche. It’s more like a mixtape, highlighting elements of crap like sleazy synth, muddy action and crude TOOL-esque claymation, instead of just becoming it. It’s too tongue-in-cheek, too self-aware and even dare I say it, too smart, but unlike so many other films in this recent post-post-modern subgenre, not simple self-gratification. The only time the veil of crud really obscures enjoyment is when some lines become inaudible over the warped fuzz, which may be a joke within itself, but is one of the rare flat ones if the case.

In 2008, Kostanski directed the short Lazer Ghost 2: Return to Lazer Coast, which, with the exception of going without green screen, is exactly what should be expected from the more-than-trailer film, Manborg. If you felt Lazer Ghost made its ten minutes worthwhile, then there’s good reason to suit up in some used hockey gear and strap it down with duct tape, because Manborg is only six times longer.

The Toronto After Dark Film Festival has announced the first wave of feature films slated for this year’s event. The Canadian genre fest features some of the best and most off-beat horror, sci-fi, action and cult cinema from around the world. Some of the highlights from the recent announcement include creature wrestling feature Monster Brawl, Canadian splatterfest Father’s Day, claustro-pocalyptic The Divide, full-throttle anime Redline and horror anthology The Theatre Bizarre.

The sixth annual edition of After Dark has a new date and a new venue, a move that will likely please fans. TADFF will officially return to the Halloween season this year, running from October 20-27. The fest has also left its long time home at the Bloor Cinema (due to ongoing renovations) in favour of the entirely suitable Toronto Underground Cinema.

You can get a taste of this year’s offerings in this awesome sizzle reel put together by Toronto After Dark.

Toronto After Dark 2011 runs October 20th – 27th. For ticket info and to see the full list of announced films, be sure to visit the official Toronto After Dark Film Festival website here.

While mugging a young woman on her way home, a gang of South Londoners are ferociously interrupted by what they think is a meteorite striking a nearby car. Seeing the youths distracted, the woman makes a run for the nearest building which happens to be her home: nicknamed The Block. Upon closer investigation, the gang discovers the object that struck the car was not a space rock at all: it’s an alien.

Thus begins a game of cat and mouse between the gang and the stranded alien which ends with the youths victorious and parading the corpse through the apartment complex. They take it to one of the upper apartments for safe-keeping and are startled to see more ‘meteorites’ striking the ground around the apartment complex. Determined not to let their home become invaded, the youths set out to destroy the alien intruders. After all, they reckoned, they’d already killed one. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy, right?

The producers of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz have managed to make this movie enjoyable despite the obvious attempts to make a social statement. Setting that aside, the movie is full of action and suspense and just the right amount of creature effects to make you wince and jump at the appropriate moments. Although no release dates have been announced, I would be very surprised if this movie was not coming soon to a theatre near you.

Series Four’s “The End of Time” (4.17) marked the departure of show-runner Russell T. Davies and actor David Tennant from the revived version of BBC’s science fiction classic Doctor Who. Together, these two men have been accredited with bringing The Doctor and his adventures in space and time back into the everyday lives of British schoolchildren. For most, “The End of Time” was appropriately named, as many swore off Doctor Who with the departure of Davies and Tennant.

But for Steven Moffat, this was just the beginning. Writer of fan-favourite episodes such as “The Empty Child” (1.9), “The Girl in the Fireplace” (2.4), “Blink” (3.10) and “Silence in the Library” (4.9), Moffat’s inventive story-lines, original characters and terrifying monsters shattered all expectations of a Doctor Who script, gaining him an incredible following. On paper, Moffat was the right and proper choice as the successor to show-runner Russell T. Davies, and 2010 was the year when he proved it to all the naysayers.

With the eleventh incarnation of The Doctor (Matt Smith) and companion Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), Steven Moffat hit the ground running, creating one of the most entertaining collections of episodes in Doctor Who history. With an impressive amount of critical praise and fan approval, its understandable that his sophomore effort is one of the most highly-anticipated television shows of the year.

This year’s sixth series of Doctor Who starts with the episode “The Impossible Astronaut” (6.1), the first of a two-part story written by Steven Moffat. Here The Doctor is reunited with his recently-married companions Amy and Rory (Arthur Darvill) — months after their honeymoon — as well as the enigmatic archaeologist River Song (Alex Kingston). They are brought together via numbered letters that request their presence in 1960s America, a mysterious summons that The Doctor is unsure about, to put it lightly.

Over the course of this episode’s forty-five minutes, Moffat does what he does best; There are terrifying monsters, well-developed companions and enough timey-wimey-wibbly-wobbly stuff to rival some of the greatest Doctor Who out there. The first ten minutes of “The Impossible Astronaut” didn’t feel like a premiere at all but, rather, a finale. I was crying about a minute after the opening credits. Let’s just say something “very not good” happens to one member of the TARDIS team, and the others react appropriately. I would elaborate on this moment, as it will surely effect the entirety of series six, but in the words of River Song: “Spoilers!”

Throughout the episode, I was struck by how much Matt Smith and Karen Gillan have grown into their roles as The Doctor and Amy, respectively. Despite being the youngest actor to play The Doctor, Smith is able to exude an oldness that is unrivaled by his predecessors. His Doctor occasionally displays the childlike curiosity and playfulness that endeared him to his audience in the previous series — but The Doctor within “The Impossible Astronaut” is largely wary and accusing. It feels as if something happened to The Doctor in his absence from Amelia’s life. Within this absence, the one thing that I have been dreading about the future of Amy Pond comes into fruition. Despite this slight disappointment, I was pleased to see Gillan’s portrayal of The Doctor’s feisty partner-in-crime has been largely perfected. Is it just me or is the duo of Eleven and Amy up there with Four and Sarah Jane in regard to chemistry and storytelling?

Amy isn’t the only companion to The Doctor in this series, as Rory Williams (or Pond) and River Song take more permanent positions on the TARDIS team. There is a unexpected moment between River and Rory, as they discuss River’s placement in The Doctor’s time-stream. Here River discusses the complications of living out of sync with The Doctor. Rory and the audience don’t learn anything new about River, but they are provided with an emotional context to Dr. River Song — and this pushes the ending of “The Forest of the Dead” (4.10) into an even more tragic, heartbreaking light.

Even though River is speaking only of herself in this scene, her conversation with Rory illuminates the nuances of the relationships between those in the TARDIS, even those we thought were cemented out previously in “Amy’s Choice” (5.7). There has never been a married couple within the TARDIS before Mr. and Mrs. Pond. This scene alone suggests that there may be a reason why married companions have previously left The Doctor after they’ve become engaged to another man. The addition of Rory as a permanent companion — the first male companion in decades — is a wise choice on the part of Steven Moffat, as he provides a large amount of the laughs in this episode. His pseudo-internship on the TARDIS is amusing to behold. Remember Rory’s reaction when he entered the TARDIS for the first time? You should keep that in mind when Canton (guest star Mark Sheppard) says, “It’s bigger on the inside.”

The “Big Bad” of the opening two-parter — and it is rumored that they’re the central antagonists of the entire series — are unnamed within the first episode itself, but it is well-known to any Doctor Who nerd worth their salt that these monsters are called The Silence. They’re one part The Gentlemen from Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s “Hush” (4.10), one part Dementors from Harry Potter, and edging up on the Weeping Angels in terms of the sheer terror that they provoke. Every time The Silence show up on screen, the hairs on the back of your neck will be standing at attention.

This episode is very much reminiscent of “The Time of Angels” (5.4) and “The Pandorica Opens” (5.12) in that it is epic in scale with elaborate narrative arcs and characters on the brink of disaster — all while maintaining a decidedly ‘Part One’ feel. Steven Moffat told director Toby Haynes to film this premiere episode as if it were the first part of a finale — and this comes across like gangbusters. The TARDIS team is brought together only to be separated and placed on the chessboard that is Doctor Who’s sixth series. To say that I am intrigued as to where Steven Moffat moves his chess pieces is an understatement. And I’m sure you will agree with me wholeheartedly when Amy Pond picks up a gun in the  last moment of “The Impossible Astronaut” — and pulls the trigger.

Because this overview of “The Impossible Astronaut” was mostly spoiler-free, I thought I’d share a little hints as to what’s to come in the first episode:

Ten Teasers For Doctor Who’s “The Impossible Astronaut”:

1. Amy is keeping two secrets from The Doctor.
2. The Doctor tries to pull a “Blink” with Rory’s DVDs.
3. For Mr. and Mrs. Pond, it’s been a while since “A Christmas Carol”.
4. For The Doctor, it’s been much, much longer.
5. “River, make her blue again!”
6. The Doctor attempts white wine, despite hating red wine in “The Lodger”.
7. The Doctor and I share a theory about “special straws”.
8. Remember that moment when The Doctor pokes Rory in “The Big Bang”?
9. “The legs, the nose and Mrs. Robinson.”
10. Star Trek: The Original Series ended in 1969. You should keep that in mind.

“The Impossible Astronaut” and the sixth series of Doctor Who is coming to SPACE in Canada on April 23rd, 2011, at 8 p.m. It will be preceded by the Doctor Who specials, starring the tenth incarnation of The Doctor (David Tennant) and the entirety of Steven Moffat’s fifth series.

The new season of Doctor Who begins in a little over two weeks on April 23. I don’t think I’ve quivered with this much anticipation since the new series began five or so years ago. I went into the last season with mixed feelings. I had full confidence in new head writer Stephen Moffat, but was worried about the loss of David Tennant. All I can say now is, David who (yes, pun intended)? Matt Smith brings a wry humour, energy and more delicious darkness to the Doctor, and he is more than matched by Karen Gillan as his sexy and intrepid companion Amy/Amelia. They are now by far the best pairing. And while I sometimes miss just having the two of them share the screen, the additions of extra companions Rory and River Song work very nicely. The trailer offers a few clues to upcoming episodes.

Doctor Who Season (Series) 6 begins April 23 on SPACE, BBC and BBC America

If you find yourself in or around Paris, France between now and March 13th, I am extremely jealous of you. Paris is, of course, a wonderful and historic city in its own right (one that I would be happy to visit at any time), but there is a very special art exhibition taking place at the Fondation Cartier. The spectacular exhibit, titled Moebius: Transe-Forme, is an expansive collection of the work of vaunted comics illustrator, cartoonist and artist Jean Giraud, also known as Moebius.

Even if you don’t know his name, you are certainly familiar with his work. Giraud has been hugely influential on modern science fiction, fantasy and cyberpunk. Best known in North America for his work in early issues of the cult magazine Heavy Metal, over the course of his career the artist has collaborated with an array of visionary creatives like Stan Lee, Alejandro Jodorowosky and even George Lucas. Filmmaker Ridley Scott attributes Giraud as one of the key inspirations for the look and feel of Alien and Blade Runner, films that in turn were influential in their own right. One need only look at movies like The Fifth Element and games like Deus Ex and Omikron: The Nomad Soul to see the long reaching impact of his work.

The exhibit runs until March 13th at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, France.

See some photos from the Moebius: Transe-Forme Exhibit below:

See more at designboom
Photos by Olivier Ouadah

Karl Urban in full Judge Dredd garb. (Click to enlarge)

Director Pete Travis’s (Vantage Point) next theatrical venture, Dredd, just welcomed another cast member to the upcoming comic reboot. The Playlist confirms that Lena Headey (300, Game of Thrones) will be playing the main antagonist in the film. Dredd is based on the popular British comic book character Judge Dredd, created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra.

Karl Urban (Star Trek, Red) plays the title character and is joined by Olivia Thirlby (Juno, The Wackness). Filming is currently underway in South Africa and everything looks great based on set descriptions and fan photos. Add to that the decent reviews of the screenplay penned by Alex Garland (Never Let Me Go, Sunshine) and Dredd is shaping up quite nicely. This reboot of the franchise will have no link or association to the disastrous 1995 Sylvester Stallone Judge Dredd film.

Urban has stated on record that Dredd himself will never be seen with his helmet off (just like in the comic) and said that the film will contain some serious action elements. Adding Headey to the cast certainly increases my interest in the production, she was extremely solid in The Sarah Conner Chronicles. Her character in Dredd, Ma-Ma, sounds like it will be a complete 180 for her appearance and performance on screen: “The matriarch of a drug gang, who deals with a reality-altering narcotic known as SLO-MO… as described in Gardland’s script as being heavily made-up and scared, in her later 50’s/early 60’s, and enormously fat.” Sounds like it’ll either be a solid win or a horrible prosthetic job.

Dredd is currently filming and is set for a 2012 release.

http://futurecon.wordpress.com/ – for anything and everything you may want to know about the event

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=139174186106216&ref=ts — for info on Facebook!

http://edthesock.com/futurecon.htm — to register!

Dress code in effect for the banquet (appropriate costume or semi-formal attire)

For more info check out the official Facebook event page here.

We spoke with David at length about his character, what viewers can look forward to for Season 2 of Stargate Universe, what’s on his dork shelf and an array of other thoroughly geeky topics.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Our thanks to David Blue for taking the time to talk with us. For more info be sure to follow him on Twitter @DavidBlue and while you’re there follow us too, @DorkShelf.

Stargate Universe premieres Friday, October 1st at 10:00 PM on SPACE

Horror and science fiction genres have long been used as metaphors for problems and issues of the real. Our fear of the dark, our concerns over long wars, issues of poverty and strife, and our possible demise can be explored in many ways more readily through genre film. With that in mind, science fiction films of late have been exploring the more human side of the present and the future. Monsters is set in the not-too-distant future. A space probe carrying samples from an alien planet crashed in Mexico; six years on, the northern half of the country is an infected zone, with seemingly little progress being made by authorities to contain the species that have evolved. In fact, it has become a way of life. These octopus-like creatures are part of the new vernacular and semiotics, and while many Mexicans have fled, some stay and simply deal with the new reality.

Andrew Calder is a photographer. Samantha, The daughter of his boss is stuck in southern Mexico, and he is charged with getting her back to the US. Of course, the journey does not go as planned, and the two find themselves in imminent danger. But the aliens are merely a symbol of a greater reality. The West frequently is at war or has some military presence in countries for long periods of time (Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan) with little understanding of the long-term consequences for the resident population. Soldiers can go home; civilians cannot. They must continue to eke out an existence in countries that have been all but decimated.  These are people who are used to monsters, be they alien or human.

The film is set up as both intimate and epic; this is a worldwide problem reduced to visage through a few lost souls. Andrew is trying to take his prize-winning photograph that will secure his career; Sam has obvious sympathy for the people who must live in this environment, and does not enjoy her status as “poor little rich girl.” Playing the camera close and in hand, director Gareth Edwards does not leave his subjects alone for a second. As Andrew and Sam travel overland through the hot zone to try and reach the new “great wall” built to keep out the aliens (yes, a pretty obvious metaphor, but it works perfectly,) and their situation becomes more desperate, they are as stripped away as the land and people around them. By dealing with such long-term trauma as oppose to most science fiction films that only deal in the immediate, Edwards is asking serious question as to the benefits to the West of war, how we treat those in countries with less, if this was happening in the West would the aliens have been eradicated, or are we content to let tragedy happen as long as it doesn’t happen to us. While the ending is more than a little too precious, it is a film worthy of multiple viewings and serious contemplation.

There is a moment near the end of Splice when you see the creature in all its frightening glory, this odd hybrid with just enough human to have won your empathy for the majority of the film, and it is about to exact its revenge for mistreatment, when you finally understand what Mary Shelley was trying to tell us in the 19th century: Playing God is a bad idea.

Vincenzo Natali is one of Canada’s great unsung science fiction filmmakers. His films such as Cube and Nothing are an odd yet entertaining and thought-provoking mix of comedy and terror, and probably because he’s Canadian, Natali looks at one of the most controversial topics in the scientific community, human cloning, and creates an intimate science fiction horror film. Indeed, the larger politics and almost expected scenes with protestors screaming about God and the Bible on Parliament Hill, or great debates between scientists and politicians (which one might see in a Hollywood film) are missing. Natali takes the politics to the family level, focusing on the creators and their strange creation. It is this kind of intimacy that is necessary in order to understand an issue as large as cloning. (For the literary version, I recommend Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, which also achieves this kind of intimacy.) This is certainly his most gorgeous looking film to date, and by forgoing the usual cheap thrills of monster films and often over-the-top Hollywood-style science fiction films that rarely question the status quo and instead make completely unbelievable works, Splice asks the truly hard questions about the future of science and how it will change what it means to be human. It’s Natali’s best work since Cube.

Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley play Clive and Elsa, a husband-and-wife scientific mastermind team who specialize in mixing up the DNA of various animals in order to create new pharmaceutical products to cure humanity’s ailments. While they have approached their employers about the possibility of throwing some human DNA into the mix, no one will give them the funding. Elsa talks a reluctant Clive into a secret experiment: they will secretly combine the DNA of several animals with human DNA. Low and behold, their experiment works and an artificial womb gives birth to Dren, a human-bird-horse-I don’t know what else hybrid. Clive and Elsa try to hide her in a storage room, but when rumors start to circulate, they take her to an old barn in the Ontario countryside. Somehow, the huge barn becomes more of a prison than the tiny lab.

Dren is quite a unique movie monster; her proximity to humans makes her both a sympathetic character, and also a chilling one. Through her, Natali is asking questions about cloning that are rarely broached: as clones would allegedly begin as small offspring, who will raise them and how? Do we treat them as children, or experiments? Clive and Elsa first bond with Dren as parents, but in the end they are not her parents, but her creators – and there is a world of difference between these two roles. The former is nurturing in order to allow the offspring to survive on its own; the latter is controlling, wanting their own vision to supercede any independence of the creation. Perhaps this is why Nietzsche said that God is dead; creations are more trouble than they are worth (creators too). How can you separate your emotions from your work when the thing you create is alive and sentient? How can you hope to control it? Are there things that science simply should not do?

Natali keeps the film clicking along at a good pace, and is careful not to indulge in more extreme character actions or unbelievable situations. He treads the fine line of a film that is just believable enough to get the audience’s attention, and sci-fi enough for us to think this could never happen. Or could it? Perhaps it already is in some corner of the world.

Matt Smith as the new Doctor Who

When the BBC announced five years or more ago that they would be remounting the classic Doctor Who series, I was both thrilled and scared. I was raised on British television, and Doctor Who was always my favourite. While it has its ups and downs, I longed to be the Doctor (never the companion – for some reason I could never relate to them), flying about the galaxy for danger and adventure. When I found out that Christopher Eccelston would be playing the Doctor for at least the first season, I knew at least we would be getting a stellar performance. Eccelston is one of the finest actors of his generation. And certainly from him I was not disappointed. Although I am not quite that raging Rose Tyler fan that everyone else seems to be, I liked her well enough and enjoyed the first season immensely.

When David Tennant came on board (whom I admit I had not heard of before), the first episode had me completely on side. I loved Eccelston’s Doctor, but I also loved Tennant’s. A bit more eccentric, a lot more fun, he raced through like a teenager on Ritalin and blazed a fiery trail. But something happened: perhaps because he burned so bright at the beginning, he burnt out too fast. That being said, there were some great episodes in his last season, such as Midnight. But I began to tire of Tennant, and of executive producer Russell T. Davies. The last few stand-alone episodes were pretty bad overall, and what kept coming through Tennant’s Doctor was a massive ego; I don’t know if this was just Tennant or how the character was written, but if he said “I’m sorry” to someone one more time I would have kicked in my television.  Yes, you are a time-lord and yes you know everything about everything, but have a little humility, please. Also, the goofiness was going too far. Tom Baker could pull it off; Tennant could not. The last special was particularly horrible, and the last ten minutes were pretty much Davies’ wank-fest to himself. Yes, you revived the series, great. Let’s move on shall we?

And move on we have. Steven Moffat wrote a few of my favourite episodes of the first four seasons (not the least among them Blink, the best DW episode so far, starring the now famous Carey Mulligan), so I was looking forward to his intelligent and subtle writing. But then of course there was going to be a new Doctor. Matt Smith was not only unknown to me, but pretty much unknown to anyone outside those who frequent London theatre. So ill in bed two weeks ago, I waited with bated breath until finally I could download the first episode onto my computer.

And you know what? It rocks. The first episode was not so big a story that we couldn’t get to know the new doctor and the new companion, but not so small that I wasn’t a little breathless and scared at times. (Seriously, anyone putting twins in anything since The Shining knows how to scare). The second episode was just as good; and if that’s the future Queen of England, I’ll certainly be applying for citizenship when I move to London in the fall. And the third episode was okay, but if I could send one message to Moffat it would be: enough with the bloody Daleks! I feel like they’re the go-to episode when the well runs dry. We get it, they’re evil, let’s move on to newer evils shall we? But again, great guest cast of Bill Paterson and Ian McNeice (and yes, Moffat did not write this one, but he is executive producer. Buck stops with him).

But the best part of the new series is indeed Matt Smith. He is more than just a breath of fresh air. He had me after just five minutes on screen. His doctor is not egotistical, or trying so hard to be the coolest, smartest, most all-around incredible time-lord that every lived. He’s just himself. Yes he’s smart but he doesn’t show off; yes he’s a nerd, but not a geek; and most of all he is effortless. The more I think of Tennant’s Doctor, the more of think of the ball and chain he proverbially would carry for all to see. Smith’s Doctor is who he is; there is no age in him, as time seems to be no longer a linear construct (more like the wibbly-wobbly ball that it is). If things do not go as planned, if he has to sacrifice a larger future battle for a smaller present one, he deals with it. He gets angry, but with good reason, and he doesn’t carry the fires of Gallifray around with him. When his alienness separates him from his companion, he doesn’t use it as a tool, it’s just the way it is. Some have accused Smith’s Doctor of being too laid-back; I just think he isn’t trying so damn hard. And that is what is making Smith fantastic. I still am not sure about the new companion; Karen Gillan seems all right, but Amy Pond might be a little too close to Rose Tyler for my taste (then again, the character did work as a kissogram, which adds a nice naughty touch to the character.)  But I have high hopes that this will be one of the best seasons yet.

And as a friend of mine said to me after the second episode – David who?