This article contains minor spoilers for God of War Ragnarok and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
In 168澳洲幸运𝓀5开奖网:Star Wars: Episode 1 -ꦑ The Phantom Menace, Jar Jar Binks leads Qu🍎i-Gon and Obi-Wan to the edge of a lake. They’re on Naboo, a green planet with a ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚtemperate climate, and it looks like a shallow Midwest swimming hole.
But, then 🌳Jar Jar jumps up and dives in and the Jedi follow. Under the mundane surface, we see a glowing underwater city. Though Otoh Gunga underwhelms when they actually reach its sparse CG interiors, the shot of the three of them swimming down toward the bioluminescent orbs that make up the aquatic metropolis has been burned into my brain since I first saw Phantom Menace in the theater at age five.
I grew up loving fantasy and sci-fi. Star Wars, Harry Potter, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Lord of the Rings were all seminal series for me. As a young kid, I saw Sorcerer’s Stone, Fellowship of the Ring, and Attack of the Clones in theaters in the space of a year. Each showed off new wonderful worlds and made me a lifelong lover൲ of speculative fiction. I also grew up in a small town and my desire to pursue things like writing, directing, and acting gave me a longing for the city. Sci-fi and fantasy cities were th🐷e best of both worlds.
A city in the sky? Cool. An airship, which is basically a self-conta✃ined🍸 city in the sky? Cool. A city underwater? Even cooler.
I’ve loved seeing underwater cities pop up in some really popular recent big budget art. Though I feel like we’ve been waiting for a new BioShock forever, other media has taken us to different nautical locales. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hit its stride for me when Shuri traveled to visit Talokan, the underwater city inhabited by Namor and the Talokanil. The movie look⛄s best in its underwater sequences and this is the best, and most involved, of the bunch.
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:God of War Ragnarok has a similar, but significantly shorter, expedition to an underwater settlement. While searching for the Norns — Norse mythology’s rough equivalent of the Greek Fates — K♔ratos, Freya, and Mimir find a Kelpie on the edge of a lake. They climb on its back and the🍸 magical horse runs across the water, then bears them quickly downward into the depths of the lake. There, they find a magical structure formed from gold strands. Inside, the Norns, who predict every action Kratos, Freya, and Mimir take throughout the conversation. It’s not quite a city, but it’s certainly an aquatic surprise.
And, now, James Cameron’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Avatar: The Way of Water is playing on big screens across the world (though I sadly haven't seen it yet). While the trailers have only shown a fraction of the sights in Big Jim’s three hour and twelve minute blockbuster, one of the key dynamics the movie is set to explore is the relationship between the Na’Vi who live on the land and the Na’Vi who live in the sea. Will we see some sick ass settlements and maybe a big marine city? Almost certainly, and I’m ready for it.
This is what sci-fi and fantasy can do. Speculative fiction can take us to places we’ve never been befor෴e. But, honestly, I’d be happy to just visit underwater cities over and over and over.