The Letters to the Editor department is intended to be a forum for our readers to express their own opinions and ideas. While we appreciate the many complimentary letters we receive each day, you won't find them on this page. Instead, you will find letters that go beyond or even contradict what we have written, letters that offer a different perspective and provide a different view of science fiction. If you would like to submit a letter, please use our feedback form or send a message to scifiweekly@scifi.com.
-- Craig E. Engler, Editor
Mononoke Deserves A Wider Release
ast weekend I saw Princess Mononoke for the first time. I thought it was so good that I went back for seconds. Actually, the word "good" (or any other adjective that I can think of) doesn't do the film justice. It's a classic movie that is unfortunately suffering because Miramax doesn't realize what it has. As a matter of fact, during the past weekend Mononoke made about $10,000 per screen on just 38 screens, beating The Bone Collector, the box office leader, by nearly $4,000 a screen.
Also, I'd like to say that although I agree with Tasha Robinson's review of the film, there are a couple of things I have to disagree with. First, I think Gillian Anderson was a good choice for the part of Moro. Robinson commented that she thought it odd since the part was played by a male in the Japanese version. What she doesn't realize is that, strange as it sounds, the Japanese voice actor is a female impersonator.
Also, I want to mention that I think both Billy Bob Thornton and Claire Danes both did excellent jobs with their characters. I never heard a "twang" in Thornton's voice like so many people talk about, and I don't hear the problem with Danes' voice, either. I can't say how it compares to Tarzan, because I've never seen it, and hopefully I never will. While the dubbing did have areas people might think a bit silly, they're easy to pass over, as this film does a much better job than most.
Neil Gaiman's translation of the script was excellent. I for one have never seen a subtitled version of Mononoke, but from what I hear, the dialogue remains as true as any translation can be. Sure, there may have been some expository dialogue not in the original, but considering how much the average American or Canadian knows about the Japanese culture, it actually helps the viewer.
Justin Graham
jgraham_70@hotmail.com
Gaiman Is A Perfect Fit For Mononoke
would like to comment on the review concerning the English adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke.
One point about the script that was passed over completely in the review is, I think, a large part of what made this movie great: this movie is very, very Japanese, and Neil Gaiman managed to avoid Americanization almost completely.
In addition, his lyrical writing style fit perfectly into the story, yet wasn't overwhelming. Another writer of his caliber and renown might very well have tried to showcase himself (or herself). Gaiman avoided this as well, simply lending yet another amazing talent to the team working on this movie.
And one point about the animation and the imagery of the movie. Yes, it's beautiful, and that's important. But let's consider why, exactly, so much care was taken to make this movie visually beautiful, in every scene. This movie aims to make the viewer sit back in awe, and to evoke the sacred, in images such as that of the Great Forest Spirit. Thanks to the talent of the artists and animators, Princess Mononoke has been a success in this as well.
This movie's success may very well open up new avenues in American animation, once it becomes clear that animated features don't have to be sweet and innocent and "child-safe."
Irina Ruden
iruden@brynmawr.edu
Bring More Anime To America!
hy didn't Miramax open Princess Mononoke to a wider audience? I mean, there are damn good anime stories just crying for mass exposure in American cinema and all we get (all we can get) is what's at the video store. And sometimes that's not enough because the big chains like Blockbuster have this dim-witted view about NC-17 being smut instead of mature adult material. How I would love to see Princess Mononoke instead of the tripe and crap that Hollywood seems to love to unload on us because they thought it was a sure thing. It's time for the bigwigs both in Hollywood and the cineplex theater corporations to swallow their collective pride and let not only great anime but also other excellent foreign films of all genres be distributed on a wider basis instead of the art house and major cities circuit. I live in a small town in Northwest Florida and it's damn near impossible to get movies beyond the usual mass market appeal junk into the theaters without pulling some major teeth and bucks. This narrow-minded view by the major film distributors that mass appeal American movies are the best has to stop! If they can have the nerve to show such turkeys like The Omega Code and Dudley Do-Right, then they should also show us anime and Hong Kong action films as well. It's only fair to us, the discerning movie viewer. We should raise our voices and demand this. I don't know if I can take another dose of The Bad Brendan Fraser Film Festival.
James K Chambliss
WeirdArchives@excite.com
Final Fantasy VIII Is No Fantasy
disagree with your high praise of Final Fantasy VIII. Square has sacrificed a lot to add the 3-D graphics that the game uses. The story is weak, and there is a lack of a powerful villain. The junction system is the worst of any system the series has ever produced. Square has started using Final Fantasy just as a big name. The job system created in III (not released in the United States) and revised in V is the best system the series has created. The way jobs were used in Final Fantasy Tactics in addition to the 3-D world of VIII would have created an excellent game. The story also seemed to be lacking for all the resources available to present it. Since Final Fantasy IV, the stories have been growing more and more like a movie, but in VII and VIII the story was weaker than previously because Square seemed to put more time in making the movies than developing a good story for them. Another problem with the game is the fact that the menus are silver and unchangeable, where in the previous games there were either blue or changeable to multiple different colors or styles. While a decent role-playing game, Final Fantasy VIII doesn't deserve to have the name Final Fantasy.
Daniel Rasmussen
rasnet@rconnect.com
Bullock Is Too Tiny To Play Wonder Woman
n your recent news section you related that Jon Cohen and Joel Silver want Sandra Bullock to play Wonder Woman. Am I missing something? Wasn't Wonder Woman an Amazon? I don't doubt that Sandra could remember the lines, but they would need a lot of special effects to make her appear "Amazonian." I suggest they ask Julie Strain (6'1", muscular, beautiful) and skip Bullock. Maybe if they hire two tiny actors to co-star (Tom Cruise as Superman and Brad Pitt as Aquaman) they could pull it off. Now that I think of it, Leonardo DiCaprio would make a great Gleep.
Lance Kirby
lancekirby@home.com
Regarding Mars And Pork Chops
've gotten a lot of e-mail questioning whether the technical schemes I
developed in my novel The Martian Race (to appear Dec. 3 from Time Warner) are
correct.
The clue lies in the "pork chop" plot given in the book--which is how
real
planetary orbits are calculated and presented. I got mine directly from the orbital calculating fellow (John Connally) at NASA Houston.
So the whole plot hinge does swing rightly. That's the point--the book
looks
at how Mars would really be, done in a tricky, dangerous way--an adventure
we
could seek within a generation.
Gregory Benford
Lousy Shows Don't Enrich Anything
ow does Dillon Cocks think that science fiction is going to enrich our lives (Issue No. 134 "SF Should Enrich Our Lives") if we accept second rate work? He's right, science fiction feeds on my deep seated desire to be "out there," but this is also supposed to be a carefully crafted entertainment. Will future space explorers be chosen for their looks, or ability to articulate good dialogue? Of course not. But he misses the point: that's reality. This is science fiction! Badly written, or badly acted or badly filmed doesn't feed my need, it makes me squirm. When your attention is taken away from the story by dialogue that clangs on the ear, or by being presented with some ridiculous inconsistency, our lives are not enriched. Lowest common denominator entertainment degrades. And for that we already have Jerry Springer.
Jay Phillippi
jdrp@cecomet.net
Leave Soap Opera Out Of SF
want to agree with Dillon Cocks' Issue No. 134 letter "SF Should Enrich Our Lives." I don't watch SF for soap opera-like stories (who is with who now? etc.) They may make good stories, and sometimes it may even work as a SF story, but that should not be the main focus all the time. I agree that believable characters are important, but when character interaction, relationships, etc., become more important than the SF element, then the story has failed as good SF. I generally judge a movie or book by taking out the SF element and seeing if the story holds up. If it does, especially with none or few adjustments, that it is not good SF. If I wanted to enjoy those types of stories I would not be interested in science fiction. That is why I didn't like most of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes. A friend of mine liked ST:TNG not because it was SF but because it was a soap opera.
I do enjoy some "soap opera" SF stories, I just don't want them to become the mainstay of all SF. I still want my wonderment at exploring the weird, bizarre, fantastic, exciting unknown. And a good space battle or two.
Michael Miller
RyanKCR@Juno.com
The X-Files Is Heading For Disaster
he news piece about a possible season eight of The X-Files and Frank Spotnitz's interview were the most depressing things I've read recently. It is hard--no, impossible--for a show to be consistent in terms of quality for over four years (as Babylon 5 fans found out the hard way), but I can't recall any other show like The X-Files whose crew constantly refuses to read the writing on the wall. Let me be blunt: what Chris Carter and company have been doing since season six debuted shows deep disrespect for viewers in the most shameless way imaginable. When Spotnitz was asked if season seven will be the last season he responded that it depends on the actors--not, mind you, the ability to tell new stories. In other words, he's sure they'll come up with something (undoubtedly another pale remake of their older episodes, something we've had plenty of in the last two years). Chris Carter is even worse, stating that he is "not steering The X-Files toward a conclusion just yet" because of a possible eighth season. (His official excuse: "there are a lot of great stories left to tell." Yeah, right.) The way Carter handled the show's mythology in the sixth season was an ugly manipulation of the viewers. Just look at the two-parter "Two Fathers"/"One Son," which ended the entire consortium conspiracy arc in the middle of the sixth season. Why did they do that? It was a gimmick designed to keep viewers watching, never mind how it hurt the show's continuity or how it made the following mythology episodes irrelevant and unnecessary.
The X-Files deserves a lot of credit for bringing the mainstream audience closer to science fiction. It's a real shame seeing the show's crew wasting this credit so they can make more money. If Chris Carter had kept his promise to end the show after season five with the movie (which I actually liked) and maybe keep the story going with movie sequels, I would have been happy. I'll even take this argument further--if the show had ended after season six with maybe "Two Fathers"/"One Son" as the finale, you probably wouldn't hear me complaining. But in light of everything I've heard and seen so far, I'm pretty sure season seven will be a big disappointment to put it mildly, and I'm positive an eighth season will be a total disaster.
Raz Greenberg
saabhfd@hotmail.com
End Star Trek Now
have read numerous statements from various people on different message boards that can be paraphrased as "Make no
question about it, there will be another Star Trek series after Star Trek: Voyager."
My question: Why? With ratings dropping steadily each year and a market already saturated by reruns of earlier series, there are more than enough indications that the existence of Voyager was already one trip to the well too many. Oh, I don't doubt that Rick Berman has ideas for Trek Show five, but I cannot fathom why Paramount would approve it any time within the next decade, if ever.
And Trek fans should be thankful for that. Do we really want Star Trek to look like a cash-greedy factory spitting out new MacSpin-offs every few years?
A fifth Trek series would once again have to perform the daunting feat of being new and original while not straying from what fans expect Star Trek to be, while maintaining continuity with hundreds of previously existing episodes and trying to attract new viewers. Good luck.
Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation have already entertained us while stimulating our imaginations through exploration and opening our minds to the possibility that the human race will overcome modern difficulties. In short, Star Trek has fully accomplished what it set out to do. Now it is time to move on.
The talent and effort that would be spent on creating a new series in an old universe could be much better spent by creating an entirely different SF program. The possibilities are out there for shows as revolutionary in our time as Star Trek was in the sixties.
Every great work of literature features a strong beginning, a strong middle, and a strong end. So far, Star Trek has had a beginning, a middle, another middle, another middle, and so on. But make no question about it: someday, Star Trek will end. It is only a question of when and how. Let's give it a good, strong ending while it still has some life left in the writing, and while at least some of the fans
are still watching. Do you want it to fade away years from now as one of those forgotten shows no one knew they were still making? Me neither.
Argus Skyhawk
arguss@usa.net
Janeway Needs A Foil
ot to belabor the ongoing debate about Captain Janeway as a good/bad captain, but I think the real problem is with the surrounding characters and the lack of focus in the series' writing.
The original series had three main characters. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. The special effects by today's standards are cheesy and hokey. There is dated dialogue and outdated concepts, but the strength of the original series was the three main characters.
In a series with eight main characters, the potential for drama gets watered down week after week. A weekly series is not a soap opera. So Janeway is fine, it's just that she needs a counterbalance in the show. Like a Dr. McCoy. Somebody that gets emotional, angry, maybe even violent. Everybody on the show is too wooden. Occasionally the series has its moments, but it could be better. Placing a sexy Borg is good for a couple episodes, but it's not going to save the series.
To prove my example, let's look at the success/failure of two other science fiction series. The X-Files has two main characters: Mulder and Scully. All the other characters make The X-Files myth what it is. They add to the ongoing story. Imagine what The X-Files would be like without the Cigarette Smoking Man, Krychek, or any of the other foils? It would be dull. If Skinner always agreed with Mulder, the stories would be dull.
Take the Star Wars series. The characters had a foil in the Empire. Vader was the main bad guy, with the Emperor as the real evil guy behind the scenes pulling strings. In The Phantom Menace, George Lucas sets the story for the entire trilogy, but the movie itself was lacking a complete story. The main characters didn't have a central villain to face. Secondly, there was no foil character for the heroes. In other words, there was no Han Solo type character. It was Star Wars with a bunch of Lukes. They were all goody-two-shoe good guys, there was not a questionable good guy like Solo. So the movie overall will probably fit in with the whole series, but individually it isn't strong on its own.
Again, the main problem with Voyager, or any bad science fiction, comes back to conflict. If your main character is having very little trouble your audience gets bored. Janeway needs a foil in every show. A constant pain in her rump.
Dave Graham
dgrhm@hotmail.com
