{"id":33385,"date":"2025-05-27T05:00:17","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T09:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=33385"},"modified":"2025-05-26T21:29:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T01:29:30","slug":"have-i-got-a-story-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/27\/have-i-got-a-story-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Have I Got a Story for You"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been so busy lately with a lot of annoying stuff so it\u2019s been hard to concentrate on what to write my posts about.\u00a0 I don\u2019t feel like talking about current events today.\u00a0 Let\u2019s talk about the movies.\u00a0 I feel I\u2019m unqualified to discuss the state of cinema because in the last five years I\u2019ve gone to so few movies.<\/p>\n

But I do think I can talk about what direction science fiction and fantasy movies should go in.\u00a0 I guess I\u2019ll start with where it shouldn\u2019t go.\u00a0 And that would be the way it\u2019s currently proceeding.\u00a0 What we see for the most part are movies that provide a science fiction setting (interstellar civilization, advanced technology, humanoid robots) but uses it as a backdrop to play out sociological scenarios of interest to the film makers, specifically, wish fulfillment about various sexual and race grievance issues.\u00a0 A good example is Disney\u2019s decision to turn their various Star Wars productions into propaganda films for why women and blacks are the only acceptable heroes in the galaxy far, far away.<\/p>\n

This is a really dumb strategy.\u00a0 They took a wildly popular and lucrative franchise and tanked it in the name of race and gender equity.\u00a0 And this with a franchise whose primary market were white boys.\u00a0 Let us say this was ill-advised.\u00a0 So, there is the counterexample; what not to do.\u00a0 Now what would be popular and lucrative?<\/p>\n

Well, it probably doesn\u2019t take a genius to say write a story that plays to the people who like science fiction (boys and men) and make it imaginative and exciting.\u00a0 Look at the original Star Wars movie for a simplistic and not highly original plot that allowed the audience to get lost in the likeable characters and impressive special effects and smile along to the space opera that followed.\u00a0 And there are hundreds of old pulp stories from Barsoom to Dune that do exactly that.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s weird aliens or human galactic empire or some combination of the two we want to see the same story dynamic that\u2019s been around since the Odyssey.\u00a0 We want to see the hero on his quest to:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Find his way home.<\/li>\n
  2. Or, save the princess.<\/li>\n
  3. Or, defeat the evil sorcerer.<\/li>\n
  4. Or, invent the FTL drive.<\/li>\n
  5. Or, whatever! As long as it\u2019s not boring and doesn\u2019t involve girl bosses and racial grievances.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And it\u2019s about time that someone put together another science fiction (or fantasy) franchise to replace the tired ones that are currently limping along.\u00a0 Star Wars is tapped out.\u00a0 The Republic, the Empire and the Rebellion have become stale and boring.\u00a0 Nobody cares.<\/p>\n

    As have the superhero movies.\u00a0 We\u2019ve used up everybody\u2019s interest in Marvel\u2019s and DC\u2019s stables of 1940\u2019s to 1960\u2019s spandex wearing heroes.\u00a0 It\u2019s enough.\u00a0 Nobody is clamoring for more Captain America or black Captain America or Gay Hispanic Spiderman or She-Hulk or any of this.\u00a0 It\u2019s now a bore.<\/p>\n

    And it doesn\u2019t have to be legacy space opera.\u00a0 Although I wouldn\u2019t mind a Doc Smith or a Heinlein storyline.\u00a0 It could be anything as long as it appeals to the male audience that enjoys this genre.\u00a0 It needs action, adventure and maybe a pretty girl that needs saving from some fate worse than death (like middle-management cubicle captivity).\u00a0 Add in some lively music and lots of cutting-edge special effects and you\u2019ve got a billion-dollar hit.<\/p>\n

    Hey Elon Musk, if you want a trip to Mars make a movie about a trip to Mars that gets people excited about it.\u00a0 You\u2019ll even make a pot of gold while doing it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I\u2019ve been so busy lately with a lot of annoying stuff so it\u2019s been hard to concentrate on what to write my posts about.\u00a0 I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,239,237,4,243],"tags":[913,43,44,265],"class_list":["post-33385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-movie-reviews","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-movie-reviews","tag-hollyweird","tag-movie-review","tag-sci-fi","tag-science-fiction"],"yoast_head":"\nHave I Got a Story for You - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/27\/have-i-got-a-story-for-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Have I Got a Story for You - 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