Pro player Soulkey's first person perspective in a game. Who wouldn't want to watch pro players this good? Warning: Soulkey is so fast it may cause seizures.
Perhaps I am just a cynical bastard, but doesn't it feel like even though the franchises and intellectual properties are the same, the actual spirit is gone? That perhaps all these old science-oriented and highly speculative properties have been reworked into highly stylized, Hollywood stories that are interchangeable from all of the dumb 'non-geek' works, but no one has noticed that style has replaced substance?
My most contentious example of this is the new BBC Sherlock series. Don't get me wrong, the music is great, the style is amazing, and the acting is impeccable. But does anyone else notice that Sherlock Holmes never actually uses intelligence or science to solve any crime? Ever? Thanks to fast-paced editing I think most people failed to notice that Sherlock either makes impossible guesses or says things that are completely obvious?
Oh yes Cumberbatch, I'm coming for you.
Episode 4 with Irene Adler is my favorite example. Sherlock steals Irene's phone upon meeting her and has 3 chances to guess what the 10 character code is to unlock her phone to get the information. He gets no clues but manages to guess SHERLOCKED and figures it out just in time!....Except how does that make any sense? (1) Irene Adler programmed the code before she ever met Sherlock in person (2) if she did genuinely become infatuated with Sherlock from afar, why would that mean she would make the code on her phone containing military secrets a pun dedicated to Sherlock? (3) Am I supposed to believe a super-genius like Irene Adler isn't going to make a code based on semi-random numbers and letters like Jm4!Q9b$ or something like that, that no one can guess? So Episode 4 ends with Sherlock using no science or deductive reasoning, but making a literally impossible guess to solve the mystery.
All the other episodes are essentially the same. In Episode 1 the killer actually finds Sherlock and tell him his whole plan, and Sherlock isn't even given the chance to outsmart him thanks to Watson. In Episode 2 the writers make a tongue-in-cheek reference to Sherlock's uncanny ability to get very specific things write by having Watson mock Sherlock for not knowing that the Earth revolves around the Sun, implying that Sherlock's knowledge is very specific to forensic stuff...and then the episode has Sherlock decode 16th century Chinese secret codexes and we're supposed to believe he would reasonably know this because the part of a normal human's brain that remembers pop culture and 4th grade science has been removed and replaced with a part that knows medieval East Asian wordplay...?
Seriously, watch any episode of Sherlock and what you'll find is that he never actually uses his intelligence to solve crimes; it's all just impossible guesses and then common sense (as in Ep 5 when he noted that the British scientist said, "I'll call you" which is an Americanism, instead of "I'll ring you," so Sherlock was able to deduce that he lived in America for a while...what a genius!).
It's rare that Americans do better than Brits at high-brow cinema, but RDJ's Sherlock is much more faithful than the BBC's, and not just because it takes place in the same time period as the books.
I know everyone loves Sherlock except me and another writer friend I know, but I can't get behind it. Yes, Sherlock does everything right EXCEPT the writing. The actual plot makes no sense, and in my mind what's the point? The whole point of the old Sherlock Holmes character was someone who uses intelligence and science to solve cases. What is the point of calling Benedict Cumberbatch's character Sherlock if he just fires off one-liners and improbable guesses?
The same could be said about a lot of revived nerd properties, such as the new Star Trek series. I'm not going to critique those as much because I think most people realize they are silly. I'll just say, why did Nero plot revenge on Vulcan for destroying his home planet in the future when he was in the past and could just prevent it himself? Or why did Old Spock not teleport off the ice moon when he literally lived next door to someone with a teleporter?
I'm not saying either of these are necessarily bad, but when people say geek culture has won I think we need to take it with a grain of salt. I mean, the new Sherlock is good; the pacing is great, but it comes at the cost of actual deductive reasoning. The new Star Trek has great action sequences and is funny, but what happens in the film is that Spock begins to explain something scientific and Kirk interrupts him in a way that is not only humorous but communicates to the audience that Spock is intelligent (without ever having to do anything intelligent) while Kirk is brash. In the 1960s Trek show, Spock would have gone on for 5 minutes explaining the logic and science behind something, which would have been boring, true, but it would have at least proven that there was some intelligence in the show. These properties are good in their own way but it seems that these 'nerd' properties have become famous by removing everything about them that made them nerdy.
Which isn't to say that our culture is totally bereft of nerdom. Stories which have a lot of thought behind them and don't compromise are available, just not as big as the more vapid ones. My favorite example of a great sci-fi film would be Sunshine, a gem by Danny Boyle (one of my fave directors) or District 9.
As far as books go, if you're looking for something to read (that isn't my work...hint hint) Ian McDonald's 'River of Gods' is an amazing work that is so filled with Indian culture and science knowledge that it reaches the point of pretentiousness. River of Gods takes place in 2047 India and it tells the story of 6 different characters from all different castes, classes and backgrounds in the holy city of Varansi on the Ganges river, as a conspiracy involving advanced A.I.s erupts during a war crisis with a neighboring Indian state (by the way, India has split up into different states who contend with each other). To say that this book is thick is an understatement, and I actually gave up reading it for a year because it was so thick on science and exploring Indian culture that I felt it ignored the central plot and characters. But trust me, the last 50 pages are worth it. It's as if the first 550 pages were all one giant set up to a punchline that lasts for 50 pages and blows your mind at every step. if you want a hard sci-novel that isn't just an empty crime drama but with gadgety things, it doesn't get any better than River of Gods
Currently I am reading the only book possibly thicker than River of Gods, which is 2312.
I can't even begin to explain this, suffice it to say it won the Nebula and Hugo award and practically every sci-fi award. It drives me a bit crazy because it is basically a science textbook that covers astronomy, physics, theoretical physics, optics, biology, anatomy. and a host of other topics and there is some vague story going on in the background. I am already mostly done with it and when I start a book I finish it damnit! There's only been one book that I refused to finish in my life, so I will work my way through 2312. If you are looking for a challenge it is worth picking up, and even if you don't finish you will at least pick up some interesting ideas to discuss with your smart friends, because oh Lord is this book thick with great ideas. So much so it has trouble fitting in a story. But what do I know? Did I win a Nebula or Hugo award? No(t yet).
