This book was giving me the warm-and-fuzzies from the first two sentences of the introduction: "If there's a common theme to the essays in this book [...] it is this: science fiction films are worth discussing. Better yet, science fiction films are as worthy as any other kind of film for serious discussion."
Yowza! Preach it, Brother!
As Mr. Kimmel points out, this seemingly normal and obvious attitude is a rarity in discussion of SF films -- among reviewers, in the viewing public at large, and perhaps especially among people who create SF films. It's still a common practice for the producer, director, publicist, star, etc. of any half-way sophisticated and thoughtful SF film to proudly declare that their movie "isn't science fiction" because it's about people, or relationships, or social issues, or whatever. That is, if a movie is SF, then it's dumb entertainment, and if it isn't dumb entertainment then it ipso facto isn't SF.
So it's great to have a intelligent, knowledgeable voice like Kimmel's discussing SF films without being embarrassed to speak the phrase "science fiction." A man who knows movies and also knows SF, both on film and off.
Here are a few of the highlights in the book for me:
A fascinating discussion of how the various film versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers have reflected the profoundly different historical periods in which they were produced.
A compare-and-contrast of The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Thing from Another World (both 1951), showing how they reflected starkly different attitudes towards scientists and toward the unknown.
A look at the existential implications of The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), and the movie's ultimate turning away from despair and towards a book-of-Job brand of religious faith.
An interesting examination of the arguments for and against calling The Time Traveler's Wife (movie, 2009) science fiction (Kimmel ultimately decides "for").
And, of course, the indisputable opinion of the title; that execrable abomination of a character must indeed die.
As a pretty hard-core SF movie fan, there were only a few films mentioned in this book that I haven't seen, and most of them I've seen several times over. But that level of involvement with the subject matter is by no means necessary to enjoying the book. Indeed, the book might be even more fun for a reader who can use it for viewing recommendations.
I suppose some readers will disagree with Kimmel's opinions from time to time, but personally I found that his tastes coincided pretty closely with mine. To my joy, he lambasts This Island Earth (1955) as a silly and illogical clunker, unredeemed by its expensive special effects, and he likewise agrees with me in admitting that Creation of the Humanoids (1962) is a "guilty pleasure"; a fun movie that combines laughable flaws with some genuine earnestness and sophistication. And likewise again with his opinions of E.T. ("It was just Spielberg pushing our buttons"), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (shallow, despite its gee-whiz visuals) and of Spielberg in general ("a showman rather than an artist").
I recommend this book to anyone even slightly interested in SF films, and I wish I could force it onto those who are disdainful of the genre.
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Top reviews from other countries
Stanley Z Greenspan
Great book, love Dan's writing
Reviewed in Canada on August 26, 2015
