The Billionty-Oneth Geek: Older Than 8 Since 1991

As promised, just a short follow-up on the Martian , the movie which was released last month.  I wrote a longer review of the book (here). The movie is pretty enjoyable, and although it shifts a few scenes around, it stays pretty much true to the book at least as far as big scenes and bullet points go.  I mean, there are things that just won’t translate well to the big screen, so they kept a lot off.  Specifically, going into details with all the different math calculations and science.  They really streamline it all, and show you things, instead of bore you with details. There were a few problems I had with the movie though.  I think the main one is the passage of time.  They did a good job with Watney, letting him appear more primal as the movie progresses, but pretty much everyone else looks the same.  So even though 400 days or so have passed, it just looks like a week to everyone but Watney.  The progression of time was also poo...

After several decades spent away from the genre, Ridley Scott makes his triumphant return to sci-fi with the much anticipated Prometheus .  Though the marketing approach sought to create a connection with Scott’s original Alien , the actual connections are few.  Although it takes place within the same universe, the direction of the movie is totally elsewhere. In Prometheus , we follow Holloway and Shaw, two archaeologists on Earth who discover ancient cave drawings around the world.  Normally, there would be nothing to it, but they find strong similarities between the drawings despite being oceans apart.  They interpret these drawings not just as pictures, but rather as a map to our supposed creator or creators.  With this in mind, they, along with a crew from the Weyland Corporation, embark on a journey galaxies away, following this map to our supposed creators.  They are led to a moon called LV-226 (not to be confused with the more familiar an...