Halo Nightfall Trailer.

Finally a proper live action Halo series is coming!

Arnold with a thank you message for Terminator fans.

Avengers: Age of Ultron Trailer released!

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje to join Game of Thrones cast.

The actor is set to join the HBO series for it’s upcoming fifth season. Known mostly for his role as Mr Eko in ABC’s LOST, he’s a really terrific actor and it’s great news. Hopefully he gets a lot of screen time. Fans are already speculating which character from the books he might play.

Dawn of The Dead.

Dawn of the Dead stands tall as the holy grail of zombie films. Alongside Romero’s original zombie flick, Night of the Living Dead, it has virtually no equal in terms of innovation and influence. In fact, it may have been even more influential than its black and white predecessor, as it was the first film in which nearly all the zombie tropes that we know today are present.

A vicious satire of consumerism, this late 70s horror classic takes place largely in a shopping mall. After the dead come to life all over the country, a group of survivors grabs a helicopter and hunkers down in the mall. Unfortunately for them, it seems to be a gathering place for the restless dead, who keep pouring in by the hundreds because of “Some kind of instinct. Memory of what they used to do. This was an important place in their lives.”

This is the first realistic example of a band of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world emptied of people and law enforcement, and we get to see them do what we would all do in such a situation: grab all the free stuff. Some of the films best and most pertinent scenes involve the characters gleefully breaking in to stores in the mall and picking up items to carry off to their own secure den they have made. We see them grab handfuls of candy, try on clothes, take money from the cash register and play games at the arcade. The sheer excitement they experience when running amok in the mall with no consequences is both fun to watch and also slightly disturbing.

Upon initial viewing it might seem somewhat offensive to witness the way that Romero dehumanises the zombies, with the Dr. Millard Rausch on the TV talk show telling us all about how the zombies are just “idiots” and need to be destroyed, as our own heroes run circles around them shepherding them around the mall like brainless morons in order to trap them and keep them in. However, if anything this shows us how our own big corporations and thoughtless capitalism view the masses and the hypocrisy of our own heroes as they cheerfully indulge in their wildest consumer fantasies when running around the mall breaking into stores and stealing things. When the chains of civilization and its discontents are off, rational, sane people act like animals, adopting an every-man-for-himself survivor mentality and taking everything they can. When our heroes laugh at the idiotic zombies as they stumble around, are they any better themselves? Are the biker gang any less bloodthirsty than the zombies? The film tells us that the dead find themselves flocking to the shopping mall because it had great meaning to them in their lives, suggesting that their most primal subconscious need is to consume, and yet the still-human characters find themselves at the mall too, going into a frenzy of a shopping spree.

Italian Horror director Ruggero Deodato bookends his masterpiece Cannibal Holocaust with the line “I wonder who the real cannibals are.” It’s one of my favourite final lines from any film and it speaks about how willing the media company in the film is to exploit the disgusting footage that Professor Harold Monroe brought back of the exploitation of the Amazon natives for entertainment. A similar line could be said of this film: I wonder who the real zombies are. Romero holds a mirror up to our ugly consumerist culture, and everyone is to blame. Even this film, which simultaneously revels in and exploits what it ultimately condemns. The problem is bigger than any one issue.

Dr. Millard Rausch, Scientist: This isn’t the Republicans versus the Democrats, where we’re in a hole economically or… or we’re in another war. This is more crucial than that. This is down to the line, folks, this is down to the line. There can be no more divisions among the living!”

A scathing indictment of thoughtless consumer fetishism, it’s a cut above the average horror fair and undeniably one of the best zombie films put to screen. Overall this is among greatest horror films ever made and is still as relevant today as it ever was.

Star Wars Episode VII Concept Art leaked.

Over 30 images in total have been leaked recently, leading to tons of fan speculation. They’re all looking pretty retro-space-opera to me, which is nothing but good news for fans of the original trilogy.

Top 10 best Androids.

Maybe you’re an android right now and you don’t know it. After all, creating realistic recreations of ourselves is something that human beings have been fascinated with since the dawn of our species. One day soon, we will undoubtedly achieve truly lifelike robots indistinguishable from regular humans. Until then, all we have is speculative stories.

This list is for my top 10 favourite androids in film and TV. I’m keeping the criteria specifically to androids that have an almost total human appearance. Future lists of top 10 Robots and A.I programs are incoming.

Maria (Brigitte Helm) – Metropolis.

One of the first artificial humans on screen is the evil Maria from Fritz Langs Metropolis. Made way back in 1927, this silent film was light years ahead of its time in both special effects terms and sci-fi themes. Definitely worth a watch if you can get hold of it.

Andrew Martin (Robin Williams) – Bicentennial Man.

I always liked this film ever since I saw it as a kid, and it was one of my first introductions to robot-android themes that have fascinated me ever since. In the wake of Robin Williams’ death, a lot of people are revisiting his filmography, but this film is still underrated and features one of his least over the top, more subtle performances as an android that wants to become human. It’s also noteworthy for being a sci-fi film with no action or violence, which probably didn’t do it any favours at the box office but definitely helps it stand out against less poignant, more crowd pleasing techno thrillers of the late 90s and early 2000s.

David (Haley Joel Osment) – A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

An often underrated and unfairly dismissed Spielberg-Kubrick collaboration that doesn’t really get the respect it deserves, this early 2000s Sci-Fi film features the only child actor on this list as a little boy android who fulfils the role of a surrogate child for wealthy parents who wish to have a son. Haley Joel Osment is brilliant, and totally convincing as a programmed robot with a humanoid appearance, and gives the best performance in the film. At first, he is quite creepy, but definitely earns the audience’s sympathy when he is cast out into the big bad world and must fend for himself.

Ash (Ian Holm) – Alien.

One of my favourite actors, Ian Holm gets perhaps the best “surprise, he was a robot all along!” moment in cinema, in a movie that already had audiences on the edge of their seats. The alien may be the star of the show, but Ash is a great villain and helps add to the films already deep gender themes. The more you watch, the creepier the character becomes. The fact that you know the reveal is coming only adds more subtlety to a great performance.

The Gunslinger (Yul Brynner) – Westworld.

A somewhat underrated cult classic, Westworld was a prototype film for all sorts of science fiction tropes that didn’t yet exist. One of the films many pioneering concepts was its android villain, known as the gunslinger: a creepy, emotionless cowboy with a deadpan stare and slow, plodding walk. Made just over a decade before Arnold’s defining role as the Terminator, Yul Brynner is one of the most convincingly eerie and emotionless androids ever captured on film. A really good performance with minimal emoting in a film that was ahead of its time.

David (Michael Fassbender) – Prometheus.

By far and away the best android in recent memory, Michael Fassbender is on top of his game as the android aboard the titular ship Prometheus. Once again, Ridley Scott’s film may be all about alien life on the surface, but the really compelling alien life is the life which we created ourselves. Pretty much stole the show and one of the best things about a film that disappointed many fans.

The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) – The Terminator.

No list of androids would be complete without Arnold’s breakout role. Arnold plays the titular killer android with a brilliant robotic stoicism and unrelenting force as he pursues Sarah Connor with the single-mindedness of a programmed executioner. This is the trope codifier.

Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) – Blade Runner.

Definitely one of the deepest portrayals of an artificial human on the list, Roy Batty is phenomenally acted by Rutger Hauer and remains one of the best sci-fi characters in all of film. Roy never asked to be created, but now that he has essentially gone past his use by date, it’s “time to die” and he is condemned to be “retired”. Having gone AWOL, he and the other replicants spend the film searching for their creators in an attempt to prolong their lives. Despite being a villain, his only motivation is basically to survive.

Data (Brent Spiner) – Star Trek: The Next Generation and subsequent films.

Easily the most likeable android on the list, we get to know Data very well by the end of the 7 seasons and 4 films he appears in. Sometimes he is a bit wacky and is used for comic effect, but quite a few episodes give him great depth and nuance. I’d put him on my starship crew any day. Always played wonderfully by Brent Spiner.

And now for a potentially controversial choice for my favourite android in film and TV…

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Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) – Blade Runner.

Deal with it.

Runners Up:

Bishop (Lance Henriksen) – Aliens.

Another android from the Alien franchise. Bishop doesn’t have much personality but is well portrayed by Lance Henriksen – and who could forget that wicked knife trick?

Chitti (Rajnikanth) – Enthiran.

This batshit crazy Indian film has to be seen to be believed. Claimed by many to be India’s most expensive film at the time of release, this move features hilarious over the top action scenes as well as romance and typical sci-fi themes of what it means to be human. Rajnikanth gives two radically different performances as Dr. Vaseekaran and his android creation Chitti. Tensions rise when they both fall for the same girl. Crazy over the top action and a great performance make this arguably the funniest android on the list.

Pris, Rachel, Leon, Zhora (Daryl Hannah, Mary Sean Young, Brion James, Joanna Cassidy) – Blade Runner.

Of course I had to include the other replicants from Blade Runner. Whilst Roy Batty may be at the heart and soul of the film, the others all leave lasting impressions.

Gigolo Joe – A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

It would feel wrong not to mention the other great android from A.I. Also one of my favourite Jude Law performances.

Alien: Isolation Launch Trailer.

The game is out now! I just picked up this bad boy this afternoon(specifically the “Ripley Edition”). The review will be up soon.

Twin Peaks is back!

Blade Runner reference in Alien: Isolation.

I was already pretty stoked for this game, but now I can’t wait!