On Heroes, HRG Will Be Elle’s Father Figure

You can watch six short clips from next week’s Heroes finale at IESB. They’re mostly things you would expect after this week’s episode, but HRG has a fatherly chat with Elle the zappy girl. Juicier spoilers come from Watch With Kristin: Fans won’t mourn one person who dies for good (I’m guessing Maya.) But another…

Strap A Pair Of Rockets To Your Back

When 2005’s Zathura tried for a retro science fiction feel, this smoking jetpack was a key element. Zathura flopped both critically and at the box office, but it features old-school visual effects from James Cameron buddy Stan Winston, who’s currently working on Iron Man’s armor. A gallery of cool jetpacks from other movies after the…

Grampa’s Robot Enforcer

Japanese researchers tested out a new robot designed to take care of elderly people, at a Waseda University lab today. Despite its 244-pound bulk and menacing pincer-arms, the battery-powered Twendy-One is supposed to handle old people gently. [Photo by Koji Sasahara for AP]

Techno-Virus Turns Man’s Penis Into Giant Mecha-Cock

Tetsuo: Man of Iron is one of the freakiest movies ever to come out of Japan, and this is its freakiest moment. A businessman becomes infected with some kind of techno-virus, which starts turning him into a machine. When he makes out with his girlfriend, his penis becomes a giant power drill that threatens to…

Indiana Jones and the Old Man Pants

Harrison Ford, Shia LeBouf and Steven Spielberg are currently filming Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, although these photos make us think it might be better titled Indiana Jones and the Old Man Pants. Just check out the waistline on Indy’s pants. Then note that the cobwebs on his hat might not be fake at…

100-Year-Old Inventor of the Taser Goes to Space, Makes Movie

The Tom Swift adventure novels have been optioned by former Nickelodeon executive Albie Hecht for a new Web, TV and film franchise. Tom Swift has been zooming around the universe and building retro-gadgets in nearly 100 books for roughly a century. What’s taken Hollywood so long to pay attention? These books have inspired at least…

Chuck Breaks Out Of Its Rut

NBC’s spy show Chuck finally showed signs of breaking out of its rut last night. Bryce, Chuck’s college buddy, came back from the dead. Literally. Bryce originally downloaded the spy database into Chuck’s brain and used to date Sarah, the CIA agent Chuck is now sort-of-dating. So bringing Bryce back helps to launch a love…

Bionic Woman 1.0 Wasn’t Afraid to Be Tough

In this clip from the original 1970s run of the Bionic Woman, you’ll discover something that’s missing in the new show. No, it’s not baggy grey sweat suits. Star Lindsay Wagner may look unathletic here (not that I could do any better), but she clearly takes pleasure showing off her bionic abilities. We never see…

Science Fiction Movies Sold Out In 1982

The decade that began with 2001: A Space Odyssey was the heyday of smart, socially relevant science fiction, writes Grady Hendrix in the New York Sun. Back then, science fiction films looked down on The Man. But today’s corporate sci-fi spectaculars are The Man. The turning point came in 1982, when the candy-munching E.T. crushed…

Please Don’t Send Our X-Men Directly To DVD

Rumors are swirling that Fox will be making several X-Men direct-to-DVD movies that delve into the origins of some of the minor characters. After the swift kick to the crotch that was X-Men 3: The Last Stand, this franchise just can’t take it anymore. Expect a slew of crap like X-Men Origins: Jubilee and X-Men…

3 Reasons Why Aliens Are Lame

Sucky aliens are a big reason why most science fiction is so embarrassing. It’s no accident that the two most acclaimed science fiction shows of the past decade, Firefly and Battlestar Galactica, don’t feature aliens. Here are some reasons why most aliens are so stupid. The silly talk. Jar-Jar Binks is the poster-monster for this…

GE Sponsors Your Cyber-Spine

We’ve got some artificial body parts, some bad brains, and some serious toxic sludge in the state of Washington for you in today’s science news headlines. General Electric is investing in artificial spinal discs that could replace parts of your diseased backbone. The springy metal discs are inserted directly into your spine and use a…

Futurama’s Big DVD Comeback Is a Cosmic Suck

Futurama was canceled by FOX four years ago, but thanks to the online agitation of its fan base, the show has been resurrected as a series of four feature-length direct-to-DVD releases. The first of these, Bender’s Big Score, hits the market today, and boy, does it essentially suck. OK, feature-length money plus feature-length production schedule…

A Planet of Cute, Human-Hating Aliens

New Line Cinema announced today that it will be distributing Planet 51, Europe’s biggest CGI film ever, in 2009. The $60 million dollar film features astronaut Captain Chuck Baker landing on a planet filled with 1950s-era aliens who live in complete fear of aliens, namely Chuck himself. Gallery of cute aliens after the jump. This…

Youth Without Youth, Francis Ford Coppola’s new art film, is stealth science fiction. It’s the story of a 70-something Romanian academic who miraculously becomes rejuvenated after a lightning strike. But its dense metaphysical themes and non-chronological storytelling will probably keep most SF fans away. [SciFiScanner]

Secret Identities Explained

Super-mutants fighting to save the future on Heroes are having to resolve all their issues in speeded-up time. The writer’s strike has forced show lead Tim Kring to wrap up in 11 episodes a plot arc he expected to unfold over 24. So last night’s episode felt a little frantic, with characters making bizarro decisions…

Who Would Win a Mutant-on-Mutant Smackdown: Sylar or Magneto?

Heroes has borrowed liberally from the universe of Marvel’s comic book X-Men. Both TV show and comic book are about super-heroes who gain powers through genetic mutations. And both have their bad guys. Heroes’ Sylar is a mommy-obsessed nerd who wants to be the most powerful mutant in the world. X-Men’s Magneto is a mutant-supremacist…

Behold the Tragic Beauty of the International Space Station

The International Space Station may be beautiful, but it has tragically been scorned by true interplanetary exploration enthusiasts as a money-sucking boondoggle. This month it enters the final stages of its complex assembly even though it’s scheduled to be phased out by 2017 (and presumably allowed to burn up before plummeting into the sea). Nevertheless,…

Futurama DVD Hits Shelves Today

It’s an exciting day for Futurama lovers. The show’s been on hiatus since it was cancelled four years ago, but the long-awaited fifth season comes out on DVD today. Bender’s Last Score features evil nudist aliens, robot-on-robot porn, and some wildly geeky hidden messages. [Wired]

Four Years From Now, Iraq War Is Much Worse

The book version of acclaimed webcomic Shooting War just came out. Set in 2011, Shooting War follows a videoblogger to Iraq, where the war continues, worse than ever. The comic, originally posted at Smithmag.com, explores the (bleak) future of mainstream media as well as the mainstreaming of bloggers and vloggers. The book version adds 110…