ESA’s Mars Express takes viewers on a flight over Xanthe Terra, a highland region just north of the equator. The film is a mosaic created from images taken during single-orbit observations by Mars Express’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). The images were combined with topography information from a digital terrain model (DTM) to create a three-dimensional view of the Martian landscape. The main feature in this video is Shalbatan Vallis, a 1300 km-long (~800 mi) outflow channel that transitions from the Southern Highlands to the Northern Lowlands.
There are two amazing things about this video. First, as large as the area clearly is, compared to the rotating image of the planet in the very beginning, the features we see are completely dwarfed by Valles Marineris (the huge canyon south of Xanthe Terra). And second, the amount of detail is surprisingly ample. I wonder how much an exogeologist would be able to deduce?
I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again: it is a very good time to be a space geek. 🙂
(Also interesting to me, at least, is that since the video is silent, my brain started playing the main theme from the movie Gravity. Space imagery must be accompanied by majestic music now?)
It really packs a lot into its minute-and-a-half running time. I can’t figure out a single thing that’s extraneous or out of place; everything fits either into disco or Discovery, even the tempo change at the end. Ha! 🙂
Hm. Not very many fantasy elements, merely the large cyclopian monster on the arena. Other than that it reminds me of Game of Thrones and not in a good way, sadly.
I’m looking forward to another trailer—at least I’m hoping we’ll get another one—and a few more details, since at this writing it still doesn’t look like there will be a theatrical release in Finland.
Finally, a PSA since some people on the Internet seem to need it: this version of Sonja does not wear a chainmail bikini. I am not an expert in armor, but I do know what chainmail looks like, and this isn’t it. This is scale mail of some sort.
According to IMDB, this version of Red Sonja is already out in Australia, Greece, and Kazakhstan, with releases coming in the U.S. (Aug 13, 2025), Ireland (Aug 18), and Thailand (Aug 21).
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For a long time, superheroes and mutants were kept apart in Marvel Cinematic Universe screen adaptations due to contractual hassles. No more! Wolverine & Deadpool started opening doors and pulling characters from their earlier, separate silos into a more comprehensive world.
The Fantastic Four is now getting a new adaptation. The group’s gone through a few attempts before. I haven’t seen the 1994 version, but it looks like the lovechild of ST:TOS, the original MacGyver series, and Indiana Jones. I am okay with the 2005 and 2007 adaptations as far as the characters and actors are concerned. Alas, the 2015 abomination was dreadful all round, except for Michael B. Jordan and Kate Mara.
The upcoming movie looks to integrate the Fantastic Four into the MCU. Here’s the teaser trailer…
It seems quite cheesy at first—very sixties, and the tv show intro that the full trailers start with is so corny. The Silver Surfer and Galactus seem appropriately celestial, but these clips don’t really give us much; they just imply a run-of-the-mill slugfest. I’ve gathered that’s not all, though, that the multiverse is somehow involved.
I do like Pedro Pascal’s work, but I can’t quite see him as Reed yet. Vanessa Kirby should also be fine as Sue, but I know next to nothing of Joseph Quinn (playing Johnny Storm) or Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm; although technically I have seen him in Andor s1, but am drawing an absolute blank on his role).
A month to go and I still have no idea whether it’s worth seeing this on the big screen. MCU’s really struggling lately.
FF:FS is set to premier on July 25, 2025.
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Alexander Skarsgård and cast of Murderbot TEASE what to expect from All Systems Red adaptation by Radio Times on YouTube
I haven’t yet seen the latter; I’m saving it for just the right time. (It’s Eurovision week, and as Finland entirely and utterly unofficially has two representatives this year, I have more incentive to stay up wayyy past my usual bedtime three nights this week. I’m almost too old for this shit, but not yet!)
Despite digging, I haven’t been able to find exactly when the episodes become available. keydekyie on Tumblr very kindly reminded the world that Apple lists the next day as the air date to avoid confusion due to different time zones, so the first episodes actually dropped on Thursday at 9 p.m. EST.
Woot! Although in Finnish time, that’s 4 a.m., which is definitely not the easiest of viewing times. (It’s been a long while since being 7 hours ahead of EST felt this hard.) OTOH, it means we could see each new episode over breakfast… That’s an intriguing thought…! Anyway, we *still* need to decide whether we want to see one episode a week, or whether we’ll wait till the end to binge it all at once.
Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.
The article is definitely worth a look, especially since (at this writing) it has more photos than IMDB. Way more. And they look great! I mashed up some of them into a collage, below, mostly for my own enjoyment:
We still don’t see much of the company or Corporation Rim even in these first look photos, but it looks dark and imposing (top left in my mashup). I assume the other spaces with orange accents are either the Preservation Aux habitat down on the planet or their hopper, or (less likely) the DeltFall survey habitat.
Readers of Murderbot books know that Preservation is everything Corporation Rim isn’t when it comes to human rights and comfort, and it’s fantastic how the set design has implied that with a paler, more cheerful color scheme and with plants (bottom right in my mashup). Looks like some of them are edible, but some look decidedly decorative.
A tidbit that’s definitely not from the first Murderbot book is revealed by the first look article: “One of the funniest sequences in the series involves […] a human indentured servant who has been alone too long in the reaches of space and makes the mistake of trying to seduce the uninterested security unit.”
Err. Hm. I could see why they’d want to include the scene (as a further hint of how SecUnits in general work), but mostly I can’t see how it could add more than confuse. We’ll have to wait for the series to dissect it further.
The clip doesn’t reveal much, just that Murderbot doesn’t have a bellybutton or nipples.
But the trailer!
(Confession: My very first thought was ‘Murderbot has a stupid voice’—sorry, Alexander—followed by ‘but I’m sure I’ll get over it’.)
The writing team has included Murderbot’s favorite show The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. For real: we’ll actually get to see some of the show, and it looks fabulous! And what a cast—according to Vanity Fair, Sanctuary Moon stars John Cho, Jack McBrayer, Clark Gregg, and DeWanda Wise.
Also, they’ve kept Murderbot’s inner dialogue—woot!—and the Preservation team looks and feels absolutely bang on. They even have colorful rugs on their mission! Plants and rugs lugged along on a planetary survey—if that doesn’t tell you anything about Preservation’s attitude towards life in general, I don’t know what will.
I’m ridiculously excited about the Murderbot series. (I had to force myself to go back and delete a whole bunch of exclamation marks from this post, if you can believe it!) I really, truly hope it’ll be good, and no-one’s marketing-directored it to death. So far it’s looking promising!
Gosh, I never did talk here about the Star Wars cinematic universe series Andorbeyond posting the trailers back in 2022. Long story short: we watched it, loved it, and have seen it more than once. Good quality all round; in fact, it’s my absolute favorite in the Star Wars tv-verse. The only question was how long will it take to make more…!
Finally, finally, there are trailers and a release date for Andor season 2. Here’s the first:
The trailer music is obviously picked for the lyrics, but it’s an odd choice in terms of mood. But there’s dancing, joyous dancing by the look of it, and Cassian cleans up nice. Clearly a lot of rebellious things also happen. Looks, props, and costumes are good, too, from what there is to see. Some new, atypical environments like the grain field grabbed my interest. It’s good to see so many returning faces among the cast.
And the second trailer:
Andor | Official Trailer | Final Season Streaming April 22 on Disney+ by Star Wars on YouTube
The city in a valley with concentric, star-shaped walls is fascinating; I’d like to see more of that. It has the feel of a medieval castle city, except HUGE. Mon Mothma’s growing terror is chilling to watch; Genevieve O’Reilly is one of my favorites in the series, and she continues to do an amazing job.
A pretty tantalizing behind-the-scenes video has also been released:
Ok, wow. I knew from elsewhere that season 2 will cover multiple years, but somehow I’d missed that the events here, over four years, take us into Rogue One. Sounds too fast, almost, but we’ll see how skillfully they’ll create the overall arc.
Season 2 of Andor is set to stream on April 22, 2025, with a three-parter of a premiere. This time it seems the episodes are grouped and released in threes, with the final bunch released on May 13, 2025. We’ll definitely have to spring for another few months’ worth of subscription.
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In the past few weeks, Marvel has been actively marketing Captain America: Brave New World—understandably, as the movie opens next week. (Already!) I thought these two featurettes below were worth linking to. (Note that a spoiler warning is in effect!)
We get a few more glimpses of President Ross’s Red Hulk, more walk talk—in fact, SO much war talk—and perhaps a few second’s worth more of Sam Wilson.
More tantalizingly, however, a fleeting hint that appears at the very end of the older of these clips (the one saying Get Tickets Now—cue to the 1:20 mark) seems to be saying that Joaquin Torres from the MCU series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (played by Danny Ramirez) will get his own wingsuit. And, indeed, the IMDB cast listing confirms it: he’ll become the next Falcon. That should be interesting, since we’ve only ever seen Sam’s take on how to make use of the wings.
BNW releases on February 14, 2025 in the U.S.
Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.
Sounds like the plot will be grimmer than the teaser intimated. There are a few funny moments, too, like the Marvel Cinematic Universe prefers, for instance when Sam lands with a *whump* in the middle of a handful of soldiers guarding a mansion, quips “Wait for it”, and just pauses while the concussive blast from his landing knocks the soldiers back.
Liv Tyler makes a comeback as Betty Ross according to IMBD, even if we haven’t seen her yet—yay! In the cast listing there is also a whole bunch of new-to-me characters with superhero names, like Sidewinder (played by Giancarlo Esposito), Rachel Leighton / Diamondback (Rosa Salazar), Samuel Sterns / The Leader (Tim Blake Nelson), and Ruth Bat-Seraph / Sabra (Shira Haas). Looking forward to finding out more about them.
On one hand, topic-wise this would not be my nr. 1 pick for entertainment while two wars are being fought in Europe: the teaser mentioned shifting global power, and now this official trailer straight-up talks about coordinated terrorist attacks and President Ross being a wartime president. Brr.
They are also clearly trying to imply something by the repetitive division of the screen into two halves during the trailer. It could be just a way to stuff more material in, of course, but I suspect something more nefarious is intended, especially with the line about the President’s inner circle being compromised, the scratching “Reset Ross Reset America” on the wall, hints of brainwashing or other kinds of manipulation, etc.
On the other hand, the MCU movies really aren’t that deep or complex even when they pretend to be. I’m sure they’ll serve a nicely enough wrapped-up solution, if not in this movie, then in a future installment. A simple, black-and-white action romp may be just the thing to while away a couple of hours.
Just one little snarky hint to President Ross, though: if you don’t want a variable out there that you can’t control, do not be a president. A soldier should know that.
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Based on director Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies, the spin-off series Dune: Prophecy premieres in a few days on HBO (also to stream on Max). Here is the official trailer:
Dune: Prophecy | Official Teaser – Influence | Max by Max on YouTube
Dune: Prophecy | Official Teaser 2 – Control | Max by Max on YouTube
Ok, wow. Not sure how to unpack it all.
I read the original Dune trilogy at an impressionable age, so I have fond memories of the world, even if I wasn’t then able to grasp all the bleaker implications. I’m also in general of the opinion that published stories including—if not especially—the SFFnal ones need more women who are active in their own right.
On one hand, D:P is specifically a creation story for Bene Gesserit, i.e., it should be full of active women. As Bene Gesserit can use their training for impressive physical feats as well as truthsaying, it should also have potential for women being awesome, which is always, well, awesome. 🙂
On the other hand, while I find their training conceptually intriguing, the major goal of Bene Gesserit is a breeding program. Women used as broodmares turns me off (as does considering men little else than sperm donors or cannon fodder), and the fact that the perps here are women makes it only very slightly better.
Furthermore, these clips have numerous unsavory-to-me details: e.g. the imperative “Sisterhood above all” sounds incredibly obnoxious, dancing around a fire pseudo-mystic claptrap, screaming with messy hair and scribbling edgy art projects in black borders on unhinged. (Then again, trailers always lie, so who knows.) Nor do I care for brutalist concrete architecture, nor an arid planet after a desolate one—there just doesn’t seem to be enough variety in this supposedly interstellar empire’s culture or environments.
The main foil seems to be this scruffy dude. He generates no interest at all in me, just a fleeting bafflement of how can someone apparently lacking merit of any kind have the gall to appear before the emperor looking so scruffy. (Harrison Ford’s Han Solo at least had the charisma and skills, even if he supposedly was scruffy-looking. He was well cast; the young Solo wasn’t. On the basis of these clips, this dude isn’t either.) What is this great power he’s supposedly gifted with, anyway? Being able to bore others to death?
Olivia Williams and Emily Watson (playing the founding sisters of Bene Gesserit, Tula and Valya Harkonnen, respectively) plus Mark Strong (as the emperor) are the only actors I remember seeing elsewhere. In addition, I have previously seen the work of only one of the named series writers.
Also, while in general I want my entertainment to involve brainy plots, at the moment I’m not too keen on stories about power acquisition, political intrigues, or backstabbing.
All of the above put together (plus my lukewarmness towards Villeneuve’s adaptation) means I will nope out of D:P. I really would’ve wanted to like the movies more, and consequently this series, especially since it tells us more about Bene Gesserit.
Anyone here planning to see D:P?
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Co-Geeking 
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