I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you!
When I requested this book I think what I was looking for was a book that could give me some background information on sci-fi movies. What I got was more than a little background. I might even say a bit too much.
I like watching movies, and I think I've seen an average amount of sci-fi, so I hadn't expected to feel so dumb while reading this. All these movies/actors I hadn't even heard of! (I've to admit that films from the '50s are not my speciality and I haven't seen a great deal of them).
There is a lot of detail, and a lot of films are mentioned (their plots are spoiled, so if you don't want that, you should pass this book). But, really, there's a massive amount of films in it (also the less successful movie adaptations like The Hitchhiker's Gide to the Galaxy).
The first chapter is Metropolis, the last one Avatar, and in between they travel through a century of sci-fi films. There were moments where I didn't really understood the classification of the chapters. There's a chapter on erotic sci-fi, that's clear. But, there are also two chapters on time travel, but they are far apart, and I didn't really see why some movies wound up in the first and others in the second chapter. The chapter on Independence Day also comments on MIB (and a lot of other films) but is the only combining factor in this Will Smith?
Overall, it was a bit of a struggle to finish this for me, but I think there's a group of people that will really like it. But you'll have to know a lot on sci-fi already or be really interested in it to fully like it.
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