Aliens, an Astronaut and a surprise Charlie Hunnam bring the action to Comicpalooza 2016

The date may have changed this year for Houston’s foremost celebration of the geek-dom and nerd-rule, but one thing about Comicpalooza stays the same: The comic and pop culture convention is still ginormous. With 2000 hours of programming compressed into three days, every year Comicpalooza’s event schedule seems to grow exponentially.

To help organize the fun and interactive chaos, the con designates programming by genre tracks. From anime, comics, films, literature, art, gaming, sports and science, convention-goers could probably focus on just one interest and still have enough to do the entire weekend, but I think it’s better to play the convention field, maybe literally if you feel like a game of quidditch.

So whether you’re an autograph collector, budding author, or cosplay artist here are just a few highlights from the weekend you might want to fit into your schedule, with special emphasis on both big stars and Houston’s own creative talent.

Get Face Hugged by Aliens
Game over, man, because the ultimate event of this year’s Comicpalooza will be the 30th anniversary Aliens cast reunion (yes, we’re all that old) with Sigourney Weaver, Bill Paxton, Paul Reiser, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Jenette Goldstein, William Hope, Ricco Ross, Mark Rolston, Daniel Kash, and Cynthia Scott all attending. Besides autographs and photo opportunities, the cast will participate in an Aliens Q&A session Saturday at 2 pm. You might need to lineup early for this one.

First person to request the whole cast do their best variations on “Nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure,” wins my undying nerd respect.

Meet A Real Space Woman
Since H-town is also Space town, the Comicpalooza programmers perhaps feel it’s their duty to present many real science discussions and panels under their science faction and education tracks. Before meeting the Weaver, the woman who has probably been in Hollywood outer space more than any other actor, why not meet real astronaut, Dr. Shannon Walker, who’s logged 163 days in space, 161 of those days on the International Space Station. She’s be a part of a panel discussion on Friday.

Take a Page from the Literary Track
The stars aren’t just from the movie and television realms, so don’t miss meeting some great writers, who might even offer advise on your own creative endeavors. There’s plenty of authors and graphic novelists of all genres to choose, from but be sure to check out hometown favorite Mat Johnson, whose Loving Day will soon be a Showtime series. He will be hosting a panel with bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon titled “Working on Novels vs. Comics” on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Hugo and Nebula award-winner Ken Liu will be contributing to several panel discussions and giving the solo presentation “Chinese SF in Translation: Conformance, Estrangement, and Translation as Practice and Metaphor.” I believe you’ll automatically receive some grad school credit for attending that one.

Have Some Weird Fun
Weirdness in all its lovely permeations will bloom throughout the weekend, but I always enjoy the quirky little presentations and performances sometimes hidden in the schedule. For example, every year I try not to miss what local thespians Classical Theatre Company are doing. For the Bard’s 400th birthday, they’ll be performing two dramatic readings of one of his lesser known works, William Shakespeare's Star Wars, (parts one and two) by Ian Doescher.

See a Flick or Learn How to Make Your Own
Besides showing 1,200 short films and several features during the Film Festival, Comicpalooza will also host film education programs presented from the likes of SWAMP, the Houston Film Commission, the Houston Cinema Arts Festival and NASA. If you didn’t get to see the finalists from the first annual CineSpace 2015 back in November, don’t miss the screening on Friday. On Saturday, local artists and first place winners, Mary Magsamen and Stephen Hillerbrand will answer questions about their film Higher Ground after a screening.

One Very Surprising Guest
Anyone paying attention to Houston con news or Sons of Anarchy and Pacific Rim star, Charlie Hunnam, news might be aware that the actor was recently in Houston on Memorial Day weekend for the Space City Comic Con. And while what happened here wasn’t quite as action-packed as giant robots fighting equally giant space monsters at sea, there was a bit of a kerfuffle. But the story doesn’t end there, because late Tuesday Comicpalooza announced that Hunnam, wanting to make it up to his disappointed fans, is coming back to Houston to try again.

Hunnam will offer free autographs to the Sons of Anarchy VIP ticket holders from Space City Comic Con and Wolf Studios will honor unredeemed VIP photo op vouchers from Space City Comic Con. Though Comicpalooza and Space City Comic Con are mightily unaffiliated, Comicpalooza officials stated they will issue one free adult 3-day pass to each of those Sons of Anarchy VIP ticket holders.

Will there now be peace in pop culture convention land? Head on down to George R. Brown Friday through Sunday (June 17-19) to see.

The Aliens cast reunites at Comicpalooza.

Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in Aliens

Courtesy photo

The Aliens cast reunites at Comicpalooza.

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Movie Review

Avatar: Fire and Ash returns to Pandora with big action and bold visuals

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Oona Chaplin in Avatar: Fire and Ash.

For a series whose first two films made over $5 billion combined worldwide, Avatar has a curious lack of widespread cultural impact. The films seem to exist in a sort of vacuum, popping up for their run in theaters and then almost as quickly disappearing from the larger movie landscape. The third of five planned movies, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is finally being released three years after its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water.

The new film finds the main duo, human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his native Na’vi wife, Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), still living with the water-loving Metkayina clan led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). While Jake and Neytiri still play a big part, the focus shifts significantly to their two surviving children, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), as well as two they’ve essentially adopted, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion).

Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who lives on in a fabricated Na’vi body, is still looking for revenge on Jake, and he finds help in the form of the Mangkwan Clan (aka the Ash People), led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). Quaritch’s access to human weapons and the Mangkwan’s desire for more power on the moon known as Pandora make them a nice match, and they team up to try to dominate the other tribes.

Aside from the story, the main point of making the films for writer/director James Cameron is showing off his considerable technical filmmaking prowess, and that is on full display right from the start. The characters zoom around both the air and sea on various creatures with which they’ve bonded, providing Cameron and his team with plenty of opportunities to put the audience right there with them. Cameron’s preferred viewing method of 3D makes the experience even more immersive, even if the high frame rate he uses makes some scenes look too realistic for their own good.

The story, as it has been in the first two films, is a mixed bag. Cameron and co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver start off well, having Jake, Neytiri, and their kids continue mourning the death of Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in the previous film. The struggle for power provides an interesting setup, but Cameron and his team seem to drag out the conflict for much too long. This is the longest Avatar film yet, and you really start to feel it in the back half as the filmmakers add on a bunch of unnecessary elements.

Worse than the elongated story, though, is the hackneyed dialogue that Cameron, Jaffa, and Silver have come up with. Almost every main character is forced to spout lines that diminish the importance of the events around them. The writers seemingly couldn’t resist trying to throw in jokes despite them clashing with the tone of the scenes in which they’re said. Combined with the somewhat goofy nature of the Na’vi themselves (not to mention talking whales), the eye-rolling words detract from any excitement or emotion the story builds up.

A pre-movie behind-the-scenes short film shows how the actors act out every scene in performance capture suits, lending an authenticity to their performances. Still, some performers are better than others, with Saldaña, Worthington, and Lang standing out. It’s more than a little weird having Weaver play a 14-year-old girl, but it works relatively well. Those who actually get to show their real faces are collectively fine, but none of them elevate the film overall.

There are undoubtedly some Avatar superfans for which Fire and Ash will move the larger story forward in significant ways. For anyone else, though, the film is a demonstration of both the good and bad sides of Cameron. As he’s proven for 40 years, his visuals are (almost) beyond reproach, but the lack of a story that sticks with you long after you’ve left the theater keeps the film from being truly memorable.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash opens in theaters on December 19.

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