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CWRU Sci-Fi Marathon liveblog 2025
Spent this past weekend at the 50th CWRU Sci-Fi Marathon, sharing a dark auditorium with a bunch of fellow nerds, liveblogging about bad sci-fi and resolutely ignoring everything happening in the rest of the world. Seemed like a good time for it.
One bonus feature I didn’t manage to blog live: Space montage with a recitation of all the Marathon films over the past 50 years.
This year I used the OpenVibe app to auto-crosspost my liveblogging to both Mastodon and Bluesky. For the most part it worked really well, although (a) I couldn’t thread posts on both sites at once, so I didn’t even try, and (b) the screen for adding alt text has some horrible strobing glitch. Seems to be a new-ish app, they’re actively adding features, so I hope that gets fixed soon.
I wore my on-theme sweater. It was a hit:
Jan 17, 2025, 19:32
- Construction blocking a chunk of campus
- Get past it, but can’t figure out which way to go
- Walk in circles for a bit
- Spot 2 guys carrying snacks + pillows!
- “I think you’re going where I’m going”
Jan 17, 2025, 19:47
Brought my new on-theme sweater.
(Would not have thought DP&W was out long enough for the Film Society to get a copy, but it’s the last one in the lineup!)
Jan 17, 2025, 20:04
First on the docket is Ready Player One. Mom’s only heard good things about it? I’ve only heard bad ones! We’ll see if it averages out.
Jan 17, 2025, 20:21
Aw, we’re getting some commemorative Anniversary Speeches first. Including at least one guy involved in launching Marathon #1.
The print of Terminator we’re getting is an original, the reels lent from a museum in London! Sweet.
Jan 17, 2025, 20:45
Beautiful montage of SF movie/TV clips of people yelling “50 years!” In various contexts.
I really hope it’s online at some point, I want to share it around.
[Note from the future: The montage on Youtube!]
Jan 17, 2025, 23:11
RP1 was fun! There’s plot stuff you can’t think about too hard, but a lot of the jokes landed, and the “evil corporation conscripts people to play video games for profit” arc was all too real. Had to check: it predates Axie Infinity! Impressive.
Jan 17, 2025, 23:15
Bechdel pass, phone please stop autocorrecting Bechdel, the few major women did exchange a few lines!
Cop-out that they won Key 2 without Artemis kissing a girl, though. And that IRL Artemis was a stunningly attractive thin young white woman whose only “flaw” was a cool birthmark.
Jan 17, 2025, 23:22
Schedule check: It Came From Outer Space was scheduled to start at 10:50.
Saw Duck Dodgers before RP1, and now a Flash Gordon trailer. Foreshadowing one of the Surprises? (I feel like one’s gotta be Attack of the 50 Foot Woman…)
Jan 17, 2025, 23:23
Okay, trailer for a movie about a giant tarantula, that’s gotta be 50 Foot Woman foreshadowing.
[Note from the future: It was foreshadowing for Surprise 2, but not in the way I thought]
Jan 18, 2025, 00:55
It Came From Outer Space: Solid movie! From 1953, you can tell they’re figuring out How To Make A Sci-Fi Movie from the ground up, but the story and acting hold up.
Bechdel fail, because 1953.
Jan 18, 2025, 00:59
The pre-movie feature was “The Fixer” from the 48 Hour Film Festival, which I assume I’ll be able to find and link from YouTube when I’m on a real computer again.
Anyone who finds it before me, feel free to reply with a link!
[Note from the future: Ta-da! The rules are, the whole thing had to be written + filmed + edited within 48 hours, featuring only people who lived in the same house.]
Jan 18, 2025, 01:02
Schedule check-in: Surprise 1 was supposed to start at 12:30 am. At least half an hour behind! Stay tuned to find out how much worse it can get…
Jan 18, 2025, 02:59
Surprise 1: Mars Attacks. I’ve seen it before, almost certainly at a past marathon…decided this was a good time to rest my eyes.
Internet says it’s a “Bechdel pass by virtue of one conversation” film.
Jan 18, 2025, 03:08
Schedule check-in: The Black Hole was supposed to start at 2:35.
Jan 18, 2025, 04:56
Got maybe 20 minutes into The Black Hole before deciding it was another skip. Slept much better through this one than Mars Attacks! It didn’t have much in the way of pounding music, or screaming, or explosions.
Bechdel fail, it has fewer women than the movie from 1953 :(
Jan 18, 2025, 04:59
Schedule check-in: just started One Million BC, supposed to start at 4:30.
Jan 18, 2025, 06:20
1milBC was…simple! Refugee from the Angry Tribe gets picked up by the Hippie Tribe, meets a girl, learns the lessons of Sharing and Vegetables, eventually brings this all back to his people.
Also, they fight a lot of sized-up footage of pet lizards.
Jan 18, 2025, 06:26
1milBC was mostly nonverbal. Chars mimed a lot, occasionally yelling 1-2 words at a time. I was fully expecting a Bechdel fail.
Then in the last act two women have this exchange (translated out of Caveman):
– “Volcano!”
– “Volcano?…Volcano!!”
So…a pass!
Jan 18, 2025, 06:30
Schedule check-in: This Island Earth was supposed to start at 6:05. Holding steady at “half an hour ish” behind.
Jan 18, 2025, 08:03
Bailed on This Island Earth (seen it, with MST3K even). Planning to sleep through Terminator next! Very considerate of someone to stack the ones I’ve seen in the early morning.
Jan 18, 2025, 08:07
Schedule check-in: T2 was supposed to start at 7:50. Trailers already playing, so we’ve made up some time somewhere.
Jan 18, 2025, 08:19
…never mind on the schedule, we did a 12-minute cartoon first. (Porky and Daffy trapped in a hotel.)
Jan 18, 2025, 10:46
Terminating accomplished. Apparently there’s hot debate over its Bechdel passing, so I’ll just link this page.
Jan 18, 2025, 11:22
Saturday Morning Cartoon Break, I had forgotten this from previous years but remembered after the first couple clips, is just a montages of commercials and opening themes. If they hit you in the nostalgia, you sing along.
Crowd favorite: Spider-Man. Not surprising!
Jan 18, 2025, 11:26
It only went through the ’90s, the last two OPs were the Powerpuff Girls and Jimmy Neutron. So for the current undergrads in the audience, I assume it was 100% “historical curiosity” and 0% “nostalgia.”
Wonder if they’ll bring it forward in future years, or…not?
Jan 18, 2025, 11:29
Yes, I recited along with the whole PPG opening. Still got it.
Schedule check-in: WALL-E was slated for 11:15. Trailers already running, so we may have made up some time. (First trailer: Hello Dolly. Because it rhymes.)
Jan 18, 2025, 11:38
Wait, no, probably weren’t counting the requisite Pixar pre-movie cartoon (Presto And His Bunny) against the start time. Actual movie only starting now.
Opening scene is depressingly more plausible than ever.
Jan 18, 2025, 13:21
WALL-E: still good, no surprise.
Bechdel fail unless you reeeeally read against the intended gender coding of the robots.
Jan 18, 2025, 13:25
Watching it 15+ years later, what stands out is “the planet would re-wild way more within 700 years” and “a spaceship would not keep an all-automated society working smoothly for 700 years.”
Especially when they’re regularly ejecting hunks of un-recycled resources into space D:
Jan 18, 2025, 13:42
Schedule check-in: just started The Day The Earth Stood Still, scheduled for 1:10.
(After another montage of cartoon openings. Most recent of this batch was SpongeBob…)
Jan 18, 2025, 15:24
Good choice to play The Day The Earth Stood Still a while after Mars Attacks, it meant the audience had a great time yelling “AKK AKK AKK” at key moments.
Had an afternoon nap through a lot of it, somebody better fill me in on the Bechdel status.
Jan 18, 2025, 15:26
(Earth Stood Still has been at the marathon 6x before, good chance I’ve rated it on the test before…)
Now optimizing the stage so a live keyboardist can improvise the score for The Lost World!
Jan 18, 2025, 15:29
The guy doing the live scores for silent films is Jeff Rapsis, on his 4th Marathon performance. More about his ventures.
Jan 18, 2025, 15:35
Schedule check-in: The Lost World supposed to start at 3 pm, trailer going now! (We’ve also been promised a live score for a Coco the Clown short.)
Jan 18, 2025, 17:39
The Lost World was a great time. Live music was enhanced by the crowd supplying “raaarr” noises for fighting dinosaurs. Jocko (credited “as himself”) MVP.
Impressed with the stop-motion dinosaur action. Cute romantic twist at the end.
Jan 18, 2025, 17:43
Bechdel fail, because 1923. And there’s one character where I legit couldn’t tell if he was in blackface, or just a poorly-lit black actor.
[Note from the future: it was Jules Cowles, so, blackface.]
…and now a bonus cartoon, WALL-E from the POV of a background maintenance bot! Cute.
Jan 18, 2025, 17:46
Schedule check-in: 2001 was supposed to start at 5:05.
Another “seen it, gonna try to sleep through it” film.
Jan 18, 2025, 19:25
Woke up in time for the Animaniacs parody of A Space Odyssey. Thought I successfully slept through the movie, but I guess there was an intermission and now there’s more movie? Rude.
The nice instrumental soundtrack was lovely to sleep to, too!
Jan 18, 2025, 20:17
Okay, NOW it’s over.
Another one w/a heated Bechdel debate. Does it count if the conversation is in a secondary language, no subtitles, so you can’t know it’s Not About Men unless you go out of your way to translate it yourself?
Jan 18, 2025, 20:22
2001 has a character named Pool who dies, so the audience was thrilled at this early cameo of Deadpool.
Surprise 2 was slated to start at 7:50! We’re back on our regularly-scheduled schedule slip.
Jan 18, 2025, 22:21
Surprise 2 was the original Godzilla! We’ve had a respectable Giant [Prehistoric] Monsters theme going, including the Mechagodzilla cameo in RP1, so I’ll allow it.
Bonus: Bambi vs Godzilla as a chaser.
Jan 18, 2025, 22:39
Schedule check-in: Buckaroo Bonzai was supposed to start at 9:45.
Pre-movie cartoon: Buckaroo Bugs.
(Bechdel fail for Godzilla, ftr, surprising no one.)
Jan 19, 2025, 00:26
Buckaroo Banzai failed to grip me. End theme was catchy, at least?
Internet claims it was a Bechdel pass, but I did watch long enough to see the one exchange between the female characters, and it was about…the male characters. Come on.
Jan 19, 2025, 00:31
Schedule check-in: DP&W was scheduled for 11:45. (Lead-in: other Ryan Renolds trailers, then “Falling Hare”.)
It’s been less than 6 months since I saw it! But that was good enough I’m ready to watch it again.
Jan 19, 2025, 02:50
And credits! Multiverse saved, Honda Odyssey destroyed, fourth wall gently tapped.
Bechdel fail, it had half a dozen cool women, and yet none of them managed to talk. Wade does monopolize a conversation.
[Note from the future: Wow, the only Bechdel passes were from fairly minor one-off conversations, and not a single one of these had a female lead? Come on, Film Society, we deserve bad sci-fi schlock about women too.]