That's it exactly. That's the missing part of the tone I couldn't place. It's 1/3rd Avengers, 1/3rd Star Wars, and 1/3rd Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Hans Landa is terrifying. However, I think that part of that is not just that he has no qualms about his work, but the joy he takes in it, and how good he is at it. He's the evil Nazi Sherlock Holmes, and if that wasn't bad enough, over the course of the movie you start to realize that Nazism is only the excuse he…

I think the real problem is that different backstories work best for different villains, because different types of villains are used as different kinds of tools in a story. What's more, as the story expands, a particular villain's role may change, so their old backstory might need to be expanded as well. And the more…

The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers:

Yeah, I always expected Short Round to show up in a later Indiana Jones thing as a grown up total bad-ass. Imagine a new set of Indiana Jones style adventures, starring a grown up shorty in the swinging 60s or the bad-ass 70s, with an older Indy as his mentor. Shorty vs. the Commies, Shorty vs a mad American general,…

Mr. Plummer, I just wanted to say I greatly enjoyed the piece and would like you to continue doing more in a similar vein.

Name Suggestions:

I would add that in general, modern American audiences love Awe, but have great trouble with Whimsy. We can be brought to it, usually by making us laugh at the whimsical elements through comedy. The full expression of whimsical thought breaks all sorts of normative boundaries, engaging many defense mechanisms. By…

There's a lot of questions there, but I'll take one of them: Why not start with the sword? The reason is twofold, one for each pilot: Lack of Knowledge, and Lack of Confidence. Remember that Raleigh hadn't been in Gypsy for years, ever since Yancy's death. He had no part in the repair and retrofitting when the sword…

The fishermen had dragged her body in from where they'd found it out at sea. From the helicopter I could see her sleek form floating in the clear blue-green water of the shoals beneath the boats. Thin humanoid upper body, long sharp-finned lower body. She dwarfed the fishing boats that bobbed above her. Her head was a…

I have not now, nor will I ever, purchase a DVD of any SyFy original movie. However, if each of them came with an MST3K commentary track, I would buy 9 out of 10 of them. If there were host segments, I would buy ALL of them.

I would add a STEP 0A: Delete Civilization V from your hard drive.

First, thank you for replying. Many wouldn't, preferring instead to hide behind the mask of the crowd. I appreciate your honesty and candor. io9 is one of my favorite sites as well.

Normally I don't respond to trolls, but you make me curious. How did you come to be here, on this website, at this article, and that was what you thought you had to add to this discussion? A small, one might even say petty barb tossed at the followers of a particular politician. I could make a lot of unfair…

If you fear that future, then stand by your faith in the Emperor, Brother Chaplain.

Amazing. Astounding. Awesome. All these words are so drained of power they can barely describe what this is.

Of course you do. He looks more like David Tennant that way.

You know, it never occured to me until now, but it's so obvious.

This is not a difficult question. The future is over-determined by so many possible factors, many of which were historically beyond human understanding and control, that it is only recently that any thoughts about the far future could be useful. In fact, it may have even been detrimental to think too far ahead until…

Well, io9 has covered more documentary topics like this particular film before. Of course, this being Fred Ollen Ray it is a bit sensationalized, but he gets the essential facts right. And considering the major legal changes the incident caused here in California, particularly in Hollywood, I'd think it might fall…