Views from Medina Road

I saw "Sky Captain [etc]" over the weekend, and was duly impressed by the visualization of a fantasy world. I'm nowhere near as expert on early comics and films as are Howard and Lawrence, who wrote the review I posted, but I can recognize the homage aspects of the film, and I can less agreeably accept the Hollywood fantasies of expert piloting (through the caverns of New York City) and the good guy/bad guy policy in which the heroes of the film are never killed or injured. What I wish for, seeing such a film, is some alternate project in which such sophisticated CGI effects are used to create a true alien or futuristic world that is believeable, in the way that the best literary SFnal fantasies are believable. Have I missed such a film? Will any one ever be made?

Similar reactions to the latest Myst game, Myst IV: Revelation, which I've 'played' (an inadequate word) for about 3 hours now. The Myst games are determinedly steampunk, imagining fantasy worlds with primitive, intuitively comprehensible technology (which details and settings you have to figure out to solve the puzzles). I keep wishing for an equivalent game that makes you figure out truly alien technology, understand alien worlds or an alien mode of comprehension. I may easily have missed such a game, since I determinedly have not pursued the gaming field beyond the Myst franchise; I might become sucked up and abandon books altogether. I enjoy Myst games every year or three, but that's enough; my heart belongs to print.