Sunday, December 28, 2014

Here Is My 100th Post Here, To Finish 2014 With

So here we are at the end of 2014. We had a very geeky Christmas in my household. Some good new pieces added to my Star Wars and Dr. Who collections.

A lot to look forwards to in 2015.

New Avengers movie and Ant-Man (Which I think will be better than a lot of doubters are predicting) from Marvel.

The cinematic universe will also expand with more Agents of SHIELD and the Agent Carter limited series as well as the NetFlix series of Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones and The Defenders.

At Denver Comic-Con this year we are getting another former Doctor, as well as two cast members from Firefly, so already there is a lot to look forwards to.

Marvel Comics is doing a new Secret Wars that will expand to just about every reality we have ever seen in the Marvel universe.

Of course the year will finish up with the new Star Wars movie, which has the potential to reignite the franchise.

I am sure there will be some surprises waiting for us as the year goes on, just as I know I have not covered all the geeky stuff there is to look forwards to in the coming year.

Feel free to comment with anything you are looking forwards to that I have not mentioned.

Friday, December 26, 2014

'No Wonder You Keep Getting Invaded'

I can actually say a few positive things about this year's Doctor Who Christmas Special 'Last Christmas'.

First off it was not as bad as it could have been. In fact it was better than many of this past season's regular episodes. Regretfully that is not saying much. Last Christmas fits in well with the lowered story quality we have been seeing recently. It was more concept than story in the end. The bigger problem is it was a concept we've seen before, dealing with levels of dreams, getting trapped in one's dreams and where reality begins and dreams end.

Now we did get some fun lines. My personal favorite was:"There's a horror movie called Alien? No wonder you keep getting invaded."

I am starting to think they might be stabilizing Capaldi's Doctor finally. It took a whole season, but
he did feel more like the story knew just who this Doctor was for once. We can only hope that this impression stays with the next season.

I liked the dream crab concept, but as with any time I have ever seen fiction play with the dream world, there were just too many aspects that didn't make sense, lacking any fully realized logic. That always seem to happen when anyone tries to deal with the dream world though.

I kept hoping we would get a good punch line revealing that the whole last season had just been a dream and that Moffat had been messing with us the whole time. I might have been able to forgive him for his may mistakes this last year if he had done that.

The ending was... It just was. Nothing special or overly interesting really. No hints of what is to come this next season. In some ways better than what we were given last year, but once more that is not saying much.

Last Christmas was a forgettable entry in the Doctor Who Christmas specials that just helps to defend my idea that Moffat needs to step down before he fully ruins the franchise.

I am a little worried that it seems as if Doctor Who is bigger than ever now at the time the episodes are falling in quality. That is not how you get a franchise going strong.

Monday, December 22, 2014

I Still Just Cannot Get Into Batman

Over the years I have had friends who are big Batman fans and have tried to get me into Batman, yet I have yet to find any Batman comics that have interested me. The character itself actually turns me off for some reason. He has always felt like a character that they never fully figured out. I remember one issue where he goes off on how big of a loner he was... Yet he has his own little band of heroes all based around his persona as well as being a member of the Justice League. It came off more of Bruce Wayne whining than anything else.

So today we received our December Loot Crate and in it we got a recent issue of Batman with a exclusive cover. I went a head and read the comic. Wow was it ever annoying. I have no idea what the big appeal about Batman is. This issue featured the Joker as the villain and I was way unimpressed. The Joker was more a bad horror movie cliche than anything close to an interesting character.

There was nothing at all appealing to me in this comic.

I'm still trying to figure out the 'kryptonite gum' logic. That just seemed too convenient.

So I am going to stick with Spider-Man and Marvel comics. I find Spider-Man to be the far more interesting character and one that I can relate to.

I still rate The Dark Knight as one of the most overrated super hero movies ever. Outside of Heath Ledger's impressive take on the Joker, there is nothing in that movie that is worth watching. But the fans loved it and boosted it to a huge success. Batman clearly has a loyal fan base that I do not see eye to eye with.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

"Thank You For That Report, Stephen"

Still have the song 'We'll Meet Again' stick in my head. For those of you who have not seen the final episode of The Colbert Report, go and watch it. It was a really impressive send off as Stephen ended his nine years of hosting. As he started singing, former guests just kept appearing on the stage to join in the singing. It really was something to see.

During the show Stephen killed death, and therefore became immortal. The show ended with him standing on top of the studio, Sting (sword from Hobbit/Lord of the Rings) in one hand and Captain America's shield in the other, when Santa pulls up next to him with Abraham Lincoln (Who we learn is really a unicorn) and Alec Trebek. Stephen rides away to wherever with this motley little group as he gives thanks to everyone.

It really felt like a true end of an era. It will be interesting to see what he does with hosting The Late Show. I am fairly sure that the character of Colbert is retired for now. What will the real Stephen Colbert be like? Will we be able to watch him as himself?

I also feel sorry for Larry Wilmore who will be hosting the replacement show The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore. It is not going to be easy to fill that time slot after what Stephen Colbert created. While the initial ratings will most likely be good, Wilmore is going to face a huge challenge and most likely the critics will not go easy on him.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Let's Not Jump to Conclusions About Episode 7

If you have not seen the teaser trailer for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, then go and watch it before you read the rest of this post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOVFvcNfvE

So what can you tell from that minute and a half of footage? Next to nothing really.
What we can tell is that there is new look for the stormtrooper armor. We get a new take on the astromech droid. There are updated x-wing fighters. There is some big bulky speeder bike that a female character rides. The sith has a funky new style ligthsaber that looks to me like it would take the fighter's own hand off if he slipped up even a little. And of course what we already knew, the Millennium Falcon is back.

With all of that I can tell you 100% nothing about the story or the actual quality of the movie. We are not given enough there to be able to make any level of reliable speculation about the movie, yet I have seen people say it is going to be horrible and are fully upset now about how bad they know it will be and those who are already sure it is goign to be brilliant. Yet none of them have seen anything more than that one trailer.

Several of those who I have seen dislike the new movie from just the trailer have been ones who were angered by what J.J. Abrams did with the Star Trek movies. I will right now defend the Abrams' Star Trek movies. While I very much am aware of the many times in those movies that logic was ignored, somehow I find it easy to overlook all that and enjoy the movies. The way those movies were made make them much more enjoyable for me than any of the old Star Trek movies. Yet somehow the diehard Trekkies all seem to hate what Abrams did and that appears to be clouding their ability to give him a chance with Star Wars.

I am not a fan of the title. The Force Awakens does not inspire me in the least. I find it hard to tell anything from that title. I do hope they have planned the new trilogy out well enough that the title will work in the end with the full storyline.

No matter what we all already know that Episode 7 will dominate at the box office and that we will get the rest of that trilogy as well as the other two stand alone Star Wars movies they have planned. The prequel trilogy did not kill the franchise and it would be hard to end up with anything as bad as Episodes 1 and 2, both of which were blockbusters.

We have a year to wait. So next year around this time I will most likely be writing my review of the movie itself. That is when I will know if Abrams pulled it off, but not until then.