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‘Search for Life in Space’ hits the big screen

"Search for Life in Space"
“The Search for Life In Space” touches on several frontiers in astrobiology. (MacGillivray Freeman)

What better way to celebrate 40 years of NASA’s interplanetary Voyager mission than with an eye-filling movie that brings the decades-old story up to date?

“The Search for Life in Space,” an IMAX 3-D documentary that opens at the Pacific Science Center today, begins with the twin Voyager probes’ exploration of the solar system and beyond. Voyager’s “Grand Tour” got off the ground in 1977 and continues to this day.

The film touches on astronomer Carl Sagan’s campaign to send a message to extraterrestrial civilizations that may someday come across the probe, in the form of a Golden Record that was launched aboard each of the two spacecraft.

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5 cool ideas from the visuals of ‘Valerian’

Valerian duo
Valerian and Laureline (Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne) make off with a treasure taken from a virtual marketplace in “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.” (STX Entertainment)

Does director Luc Besson’s latest movie, “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets,” live up to his sci-fi cult classic, “The Fifth Element”? Mmm, no. But the visuals and fictional tech concepts are literally out of this world, and well worth seeing.

“Valerian” has been getting decidedly mixed opening reviews – mostly due to the plodding plot and what some have called the anti-chemistry between the two lead actors, Dane DeHaan as Valerian and Cara Delevingne as Laureline. (To be fair, “The Fifth Element” got similarly mixed reviews when it premiered 20 years ago.)

The visuals are over-the-top, but the problem with “Valerian” may well be that it takes itself too seriously. The heroes and the villains are too earnest, in contrast to the cartoonish baddies in “The Fifth Element.” Ironically, a new movie based on a comic-book classic isn’t comic-bookish enough.

The best way to experience the movie is to set your expectations accordingly, and then let the computer-generated visual effects wash over you for two hours. Here are some of my favorite moments, based on the visuals as well as what they say about technologies to come.

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How tech wizards created ‘Planet of the Apes’

Andy Serkis in "War for the Planet of the Apes"
A comparison of motion-capture footage featuring Andy Serkis and the character he plays in “War for the Planet of the Apes” shows how the actor is transformed into an ape. (Twentieth Century Fox / Weta Digital)

“War for the Planet of the Apes,” the latest installment of the blockbuster movie reboot, is all about revealing the humanity in Caesar and his legions of gene-altered apes – but it takes legions of wizards to make sure that humanity comes through.

Fortunately, there are wizards galore at Weta Digital, the special-effects studio behind film extravaganzas ranging from “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” to “Avatar” and the upcoming “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.”

Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor Dan Lemmon said “War for the Planet of the Apes,” opening today, set a new bar for his New Zealand-based team.

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XPRIZE recruits all-star science fiction team

Future airplanes
Artwork shows what airplanes could look like in the 2035 time frame. (NASA / Boeing Illustration)

The non-profit XPRIZE foundation has recruited an all-star lineup of science fiction masters, including Seattle authors, to help create a series of fictional “road maps” for future innovations – and the first project, focusing on air travel, is already waiting in the wings.

Sixty-four creative types from nine countries around the world – including writers, directors and producers – have joined the XPRIZE Science Fiction Advisory Council.

Marquee names include Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, author of “The Handmaid’s Tale”; Andy Weir, who wrote “The Martian” and the upcoming “Artemis” novel about lunar settlement; and Darren Aronofsky, the director of “Pi,” “The Fountain” and “Black Swan.”

At least a half-dozen of the advisers live in the Seattle area.

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‘Alien: Covenant’ delivers the gory goods

'Alien: Covenant'
“Alien: Covenant” expands the film franchise’s monster menagerie. (Twentieth Century Fox)

Spoiler Alert: This item avoids discussing major plot twists in “Alien: Covenant,” but wait until after you see the movie to read it if you want to stay totally in the dark.

We’ve seen enough “Alien” movies by now that we pretty much know what should be coming, and “Alien: Covenant,” the latest installment in the space-horror franchise, turns the dial up to 11.

There are new ways to pick up alien infections, new ways for incubating monsters to pop out of their hosts, and new ways for the crew members of the colony spaceship Covenant to fall for alien set-ups they totally should have seen coming.

If only they had watched the first “Alien” movie from the year 1979, they could have saved themselves a lot of grief in the year 2104.

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Star Wars alert: First trailer for ‘Last Jedi’

Did you feel a disturbance in the Force? As if millions of Star Wars fans suddenly cried out in delight? That upswing in the midichlorian count was caused by the release of the first online trailer for “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” teasing us with the silhouette and voice of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker.

The two-minute clip was released today in conjunction with a weekend-long Star Wars Celebration in Orlando, Fla.

Without getting too spoilery, let’s just say that the trailer picks up the story where the previous installment, “The Force Awakens,” left off. Skellig Michael, an island off the coast of Ireland that served as a monastic redoubt centuries ago, comes in for a lot of screen time.

Daisy Ridley, who was introduced as a swashbuckling rebel named Rey in the previous film, also gets a lot of screen time in the trailer. Skywalker is clearly giving Rey counsel on the Jedi ways, but apparently not the counsel she was hoping for.

“I only know one truth,” we hear Hamill saying in a gravelly voice, worlds away from the boyish tone he had 40 years ago in the very first Star Wars movie. “It’s time for the Jedi … to end.”

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‘Life’ movie sparks reality check about Mars

Planetary protection officer in "Life."
Rebecca Ferguson plays Miranda North, a planetary protection officer aboard the International Space Station, in the movie “Life.” (Sony Pictures Digital Productions)

Let sleeping Martians lie, particularly if they have a strong grip: That’s one of the lessons you could take away from “Life,” the first monster movie set on the International Space Station.

The movie – which opens today and stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson and Ryan Reynolds – blends the gory horror of “Alien” with the harrowing suspense of “Gravity.” It’s a tour de force of simulated zero-G acrobatics (done mostly with ropes and wires). And it’s an orbital illustration of Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong with having an alien on board does go wrong.

Purists may have questions about just how wrong it goes. Could a minuscule life form brought back from Mars really get that big that quickly? Is it really possible to combine neural, muscular and sensory functions in one cell? And just how easy is it for things to come loose (or get loose) on the space station?

The deepest question may well be, does this nightmare have any chance of happening in real life?

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‘Life’ draws upon worst-case space scenarios

Scene from 'Life'
An astronaut administers a shock to an alien life form in a Petri dish aboard the International Space Station, in a scene from the movie “Life.” Bad idea? (CTMG via YouTube)

A real-life organism provides the inspiration for the alien monster at the center of “Life,” a horror movie that’s set on the International Space Station. But you’d never guess which one.

Would you believe … slime mold?

“We used that as a model, working with the effects team, but ramped it up enormously,” said Adam Rutherford, who served as a science consultant for the film. Moviegoers can get a glimpse at the results in the online trailers for “Life,” which opens in theaters on March 24.

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No virtual Carrie Fisher in future Star Wars films

Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher portrays General Leia Organa in “The Force Awakens.” (Disney / Lucasfilm Photo)

Spoiler Alert: This item avoids discussing major plot twists in any of the Star Wars movies, but wait to read it if you want to stay totally in the dark about “Rogue One,” “The Force Awakens” or Episode VIII or IX.

Don’t expect Carrie Fisher to make a virtual appearance as General Leia Organa in the yet-to-be-filmed installments of the Star Wars saga.

That’s the word from Lucasfilm, which issued a statement today via its Star Wars website.

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Amazon wins share of Golden Globes spotlight

Jeff Bezos at Golden Globes
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos laughs during the Golden Globes, with supporting-actor nominee Simon Helberg at left and presenter Matt Damon at right. (NBC / Golden Globes via YouTube)

Amazon’s billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos, is becoming a regular at Hollywood award ceremonies like tonight’s Golden Globes, and now he’s becoming an inspiration for the jokes as well.

Bezos is attending the free-wheeling festivities by virtue of the 11 nominations that Amazon Studios picked up this year, including five for its TV shows and five more for “Manchester by the Sea,” an Amazon-backed theatrical release. Another movie with an Amazon connection, “The Salesman,” was up for best foreign-language film.

One of the video productions, “Goliath,” picked up a best-actor award early in the evening for Billy Bob Thornton’s portrayal of a washed-up lawyer trying to redeem himself. Toward the end of the show, “Manchester” star Casey Affleck won the Golden Globe for best actor in a dramatic movie.

But for Bezos, the biggest nod of the night may well be the joke that Golden Globes host Jimmy Fallon shot his way.

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