This post contains spoilers. It also will come off as negative to the point of sounding harsh. Apologies. I generally don’t like to post negative reviews. What’s the point? So let me say right off that I did not hate Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. But the movie does not really work. As a writer, I want to understand why. Luc Besson’s science fiction I’ve been a fan of Luc Besson’s movies since the 1980s, when I first saw his first feature....
The story and the telling of the story are two different things. In other words, the narrator and the character in the story are not necessarily the same person. Oh, they have the same name and all that. But the narrator knows the story she is telling, while the character within the story does not. This provides opportunities that few writers explore. I’ll use an old classic movie as an example of what I’m talking about....
When I saw the news on Twitter that David Bowie had died, I started to cry. It was the middle of the night, but I couldn’t sleep anymore. I tossed and turned with “Heroes” echoing in my head. Very sorry and sad to say it's true. I'll be offline for a while. Love to all. pic.twitter.com/Kh2fq3tf9m — Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) January 11, 2016 Here it is, three days later and I’m still trying to process it....
It’s not that we need a second screen, it’s that we have an inadequate first screen. If we’re watching a great movie, we’re engrossed, swept away. We’re not even thinking about the phone in the pocket or purse. We’re not wondering what’s happening on Facebook or Pinterest. We’re not even thinking about that. That’s the point, isn’t it?
This video struck me in a profound way. Only a few hundred people have been in space, but they share an experience that changed them, changed how they see the world. Maybe we need to send into space more people, from every culture, every nation, so they can bring home what they’ve seen, what they’ve experienced – not the technology, but the perspective. The overview effect. h/t Upworthy, via Patricia Tallman....