Saturday, December 3, 2016

Star Trek: Discovery, My Hopes and Fears

I've got to say, as hardcore Trekkie, I am absolutely thrilled at the prospect of a new series.  Let me just summarize most of what we know about it currently for those reading who may not be checking their phones hourly waiting for more news. 

The series is going to be called Star Trek: Discovery.  It will be an arcing story set in the Prime Star Trek timeline (not the divergent J.J. Abrams timeline from the recent movies).  It will take place aboard a ship called the Discovery, approximately ten years before the original Star Trek series era and somehow involves a historical event that has been mentioned in previous canon.  Rather than an ensemble cast, it will mostly center around a female lieutenant commander who has yet to be cast.  The captain of Discovery will also be female.  The lead will also likely be a person of color, and at least one other character, Lt. Stamets (played by Anthony Rapp) will be openly gay.  Currently the only other confirmed characters cast so far are Lt. Saru, played by Doug Jones, and (my favorite so far) Captain Georgiou of the U.S.S. Shenzhou, played by Michelle Yeoh.  Other yet to be cast characters include a British doctor, a Klingon captain, two admirals. 

Now, the Micah breakdown of this information. 

I, for one, can not begin to say how excited I am to see a return to the Prime timeline.  Let's face it- Into Darkness was trash.  The 2009 movie that kickstarted the J.J. Abrams filth (referred to as the Kelvin timeline in official publications) was passable, but still not that great.  I haven't wasted my time or money on Beyond.  I was super excited to see that Bryan Fuller was spearheading the new series, and pretty bummed to find out he later stepped down due to scheduling conflicts.  Hopefully he molded the first little bits well enough that whoever steps in can't screw it up too bad. 

It's about time for some more diversity in Trek.  Yeah, I realize we've had both a black man, and a woman in charge of previous series, but most crews don't come across as being multinational, even if they are, and when they do, they're usually from largely white or largely English speaking countries.  The inclusion of an Asian woman in the main cast is refreshing, and Michelle Yeoh is awesome.  There were a few negative comments popping up in various places online about the choice of sticking an Asian character on a ship with an Asian name, but really, when you think about it, the population of China makes up about a sixth of the world's population, which will probably still be true in 200 years.  The odds of having a Chinese captain on a Chinese-named ship are actually pretty good.

Now, one thing that I would really want to say to the show's producers- "DON'T DO TO GAYS WITH LT. STAMETS WHAT YOU DID TO NATIVE AMERICANS WITH CHAKOTAY!!!"  I mean, I liked the character of Chakotay, he seemed like a nice guy and a competent commander, and I'd rather have worked under him that Riker... but damn... even their Native American expert they brought in to help create the character was a fake Indian.  I don't want to see Lt. Stamets prancing around in a feather boa or leather fetish gear while blasting The Village People over the ship's comm system.  Please no more bad cultural stereotypes. 

Lt. Saru is being played by the guy who played Abe in the Hellboy movies.  I'm a little annoyed that he's a new species we haven't seen before.  This is the 23rd century, and the franchise stretches out a hundred years into the past and future.  Why not stick to the list of aliens we've seen before?  Surely there's something here you can make him instead

Closing thoughts.

I'm cautiously optimistic.  Star Trek is my life, let's be honest.  I'm less of a fanboy and more of a worshiper.  This series needs to be GOOD.  We NEED Star Trek on the small screen, because that's where it works best.  I loved all of the Prime timeline movies, but truthfully, as good as they were, their story-telling abilities were limited.  Wrath of Khan and First Contact were incredible films, but they don't quite add up when they're stacked against "The City on the Edge of Forever", "The Measure of a Man", "Chain of Command", "The Visitor", or "In the Pale Moonlight".  It's also unlikely that modern movie-going audiences would understand or accept the cerebral qualities of a good Star Trek story. 

Star Trek is back where is needs to be. 

Saturday, October 31, 2015

31 Days of Horror, Part Three!

October 25th, Housebound
Centers around a hot chick who's placed on house arrest at her mother's home after attempting to rob an ATM.  It's got a few jump scares, but it isn't really scary.  Great film though, and the last 30 minutes or so are very entertaining.

October 26th, The Shrine
This one was at worst, mediocre, at best, it was "not bad".  Mostly about some people investigated the disappearance of some guy who disappeared in some small European town.  It had it's creepy moments, and a good twist near the end.

October 26th, The Omen (making up for Oct 17th)
I finally got around to seeing this classic horror film.  It was great to see David Warner and Patrick Troughton in this one.  I also feel like a number of end-time, low budget Christian movies borrow heavily from this one.

October 27, Trick 'r Treat
Hey, look- it's Helo from Battlestar Galactica!  Creepy pumpkin kid kills some people.  There was also a thing with vampires in this series of short, interconnected stories.

October 28th, Wyrmwood
I thoroughly enjoyed putting my brain on silent and watching this zombie-killing post-apocalyptic piece of ART!  I also enjoyed the hour or so the female protagonist was cuffed to a wall.  This one also ended with an interesting take on the traditional zombie movies.

October 29th, The Lazarus Effect
This sounds better in theory than it actually was in practice.  I did like another performance from the guy in the previously reviewed movie "Creep" although he was much less creepy this time.  Wait a sec- I saw this movie in the 90's and it was called Flatliners!

October 30th, Zombi 2 (AKA, also known as Zombie, Island of the Living Dead, Zombie Island, Zombie Flesh Eaters, and Woodoo)
This is one of those classic Italian horror films that are all the rage.  It was actually pretty fun for an atypical zombie movie.  The zombie vs. shark fight scene was incredible though.

October 30th, Garfield's Halloween Adventure (making up for October 20th)
Don't judge- the old man was creepy as hell.  I actually vaguely remembered this one from when I was a kid.  I didn't know Garfield could sing.

October 31st.... Dunno.  
Check back in the morning and there'll be something here, I think. I'm about to take my daughter Trick-or-Treating!!!

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

31 Days of Horror, Part Two!

October 11th, The House of the Devil
This movie had a great retro feel to it.  If you're a fan of 70's horror you'll want to check it out.  It  ranks high on the eye-candy scale as well. 

October 12th, Creep
This was a found-footage style movie with some really awkward, yet very creepy moments.  It centers around a man (with, allegedly, a terminal illness) who hires a freelance videographer to record a message, allegedly for his unborn son.  Definitely a fun, suspenseful film.


October 13th, Hellraiser 3
Ok, by now I have to confess that I'm loving the Pinhead movies so far.  This one is similar to the last few, although it starts to deviate toward cheesiness near the end (but it doesn't stray tooo far.)  Pinhead really knows how to tear up the dance floor in a club.

October 14th, Scribbler
Ok, so be fair, this isn't really a horror movie, but geez, it sure looks like it on Netflix.  Trippy cover art, a chick with multpile personalities, unsolved murders, and a dark, gritty tone make it an easy mistake to make.  It's more like a superhero origin story... with lots and lots of eye candy.  

October 15th, It Follows
Ok, so basically, it's about a sexually transmitted murderous ghost thing.  If you catch it, it will very slowly walk towards you and kill you unless you pass it on to someone else (and it will eventually work it's way back to you after it kills them, unless they don't pass it on).  I spent most of this movie trying to think of ways to beat it (like flying to Germany, go to a brothel, pay for a Japanese businessman to go right after me, etc.)

October 16, Hellraiser: Bloodline
It's like all the other Pinhead movies, except in SPACE!  This one was definitely a bit different than the last three, but still pretty enjoyable.  I do have a hunch however that the Hellraiser movies are all downhill from here.

October 17th, We skipped this night to go to a bonfire.  What kind of losers seriously do nothing but watch Netflix all month?  ;-)  We did doubles later in the month to make up for it though, so stay tuned.

October 18th, Ravenous
Not completely sure how "horror" this is, although it involved cannibals, Native American mythology, and that one guy who usually plays the sneaky/creepy/spineless guy in whatever he's in (Stargate: Universe, 28 Weeks Later, Once Upon a Time.)  It was also a period piece, set in the 1840's.  Imagine Dances with Wolves with less Indians and people eating human flesh. 

October 19th, Dark Skies
At first, I was wary, because who wants to watch a horror movie with a PG-13 rating?  It was yet another take on the classic UFO abduction mythos.  It wasn't great, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated.  

October 20th, Pretty sure we skipped this night too.  Expect another double review in the next entry!

October 21st, Friday the 13th
The hockey mask and the murderous monster behind it have become so iconic, so imagine having neither of them around in the movie that kicked off the Jason Vorhees franchise?  

October 22nd, The Taking of Deborah Logan
Do you like creepy old ladies and jump scares?  Do you like demonic possession posing as Alzheimer's?  You should look into this found footage/documentary style film.  

October 23rd, Tales from the Darkside
Part one of this three-part movie:  Be nice to the creepy student who's obsessed with ancient artifacts.  Part two: Be nice to cats.  Part three: It's ok to keep deep, dark secrets from your significant other.  

October 24th, Stake Land
I really enjoyed this post-apocalyptic vampire/monster movie.  It centered around a boy and the hunter (and general all-around badass) who rescued him making their way through a monster infested countryside.  There were also some asshole cultists. 



31 Days of Horror! Part One!

Can the wordy intro, we've got a lot of ground to cover.  My girlfriend and I are watching a horror film every night of October.  Here's the list and a three sentence review. 

October 1st.  Banshee Chapter
Creepy as hell movie involving drugs, government tests, number stations, and a character based off of Hunter S. Thompson.  First movie we watched this month, and in my opinion, the best so far.  It's low budget, and directed by that guy who played Spock in the crappy J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies.

October 2nd. The Babadook
Also good, creepy, and enjoyable, although I thought the ending was weird at first.  Once I read up on it a little though and realized what it actually signified, it went from weird to cheesy.  Not an awful film by any means, but not as great as a lot of people give it credit for.

October 3rd. Oculus
The most distracting part of this movie was watching Amy Pond fake an American accent.  The second most distracting part of this movie was Starbuck being Amy's mom.  It's worth a watch though, even if you don't drool over Amy Pond and Starbuck like a geeky fanboy.

October 4th.  Re-Animator
First of all, Jeffery Combs is awesome, and if you don't agree, you suck.  Second, if you're a huge H.P. Lovecraft fan, don't expect this to be anything like the book... well... maybe a little... but there are definitely parts I don't remember reading.  Third, this movie has some great, over the top absurdity involving naked corpses and a zombie cat.

October 5th.  Feeding the Masses
This movie is terrible.  This movie is terrible.  I got it on sale when Blockbuster was clearancing out their old movies.

October 6th.  Hellraiser
This movie hit really close to home... (not really).  Pinhead is definitely one of the best horror villains though, and I absolutely loved seeing Andrew Robinson in his prime.  It's refreshing seeing a horror movie villain from that time who a.) isn't a mute, b.) isn't someone's retarded child, c.) has a better shtick than aimlessly following someone around with a knife/hatchet/machete until they trip over something and get killed.

October 7th.  The House at the End of Time
This is definitely one of the happy surprises on the list, as we pretty much just picked it at random without knowing anything about it (we didn't even know it was entirely in Spanish).  I don't want to give away too much, but I will say at the end, I was thinking that it could have very easily been a science fiction plot.  I'm left wondering if the TARDIS might have been parked outside the house, just out of range of the camera.

October 8th.  Hellbound: Hellraiser II
I enjoyed delving a little deeper into the Hellraiser mythos, although, to be honest, I fell asleep watching this one.  It was good, I was just tired.  I saw it a couple of years ago though and I remember wanting to see more of the creepy, hellish dimension that Pinhead calls home.

October 9th.   Nightmare on Elm Street
Ok, confession- I fell asleep on this one too, which is kind of funny given the subject matter.  I should go back and finish it at some point, but I think that Simpsons episode probably summed it up enough.  It was nice seeing what all the fuss was about though.

October 10th.  Let the Right One In
Children are already creepy... especially vampire children.... but the pale boy was somehow creepier.  I'm sure there's some weird subtext buried in this movie about the onset of puberty or something- I don't know.  Get that damn kid a tissue though, seriously.  

That sums it up for now.  Part Two will be out before Halloween and Part Three will probably be out November first. 


Wednesday, April 1, 2015

That Other Terminator/Avengers Mashup We've All Been Waiting For!

I did this in response to an IO9 video mashup contest thingy.  It's similar to an earlier video I did, but I think it's much better. 

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Technology... Wow!

Ok, I'll be completely honest here. I've been pretty lazy about blogging but, I got a new phone recently and it has really good voice recognition. I'm testing it now just talking casually like I would to anyone to see how it works. so far, it's pretty damn impressive. Now I can ramble on about whatever anytime I want. This is the future people. If only I could get it to spell Astraea right, I would be very happy.

Monday, October 27, 2014

The Avengers/Terminator Mash-Up We've All Been Waiting For!



 This is the sort of thing I do when I get bored.  I started a Vimeo account just for this, because Youtube would probably immediately pull it.  



Avengers/Terminator mash-up! from Micah Heath on Vimeo.