When I first heard the news about the new Star Trek movie in production, I wrote on this blog my feelings about the project.
As a Star Trek fan, particulary one who has been without new Trek since the (un?) timely demise of Enterprise, obviously those feelings were positive. Giddy, even.
And the fact that the new Trek movie would go back to the series' roots and tell the story of how Kirk, Spock and McCoy first met? I can say it: I was fucking elated.
I also wondered who they could possibly get to play the young Kirk part, a role that catapulted William Shatner to fame (and infamy) through his over the top performance.
And it seems that that question has been answered.
And check out the thread at blogcritics.org on which other actors the fans would like to see in the movie.
Not to steal any thunder away from Superman (this is the week of his Return after all, and I will be blogging about the movie as soon as I've seen it), but Apple posted the teaser trailer for Spiderman 3 today.
And holy shit it looks good.
Check out the trailer here.
Why are you still reading this? Go. Now.
I was looking through some articles on wikipedia tonight, in response to a thread going on a friend's blog about the art teacher Tamara Hoover who was fired for some topless photos of her that surfaced. Or maybe she was really fired because the school board didn't like that she was gay.
Both the article and the comment thread can be seen here.
But while looking through the related articles, I came across this gem about animal sexuality. The article is interesting, and sometimes funny, but the picture really speaks for itself. Apparently they were in the midst of filming a nature show when the kangaroo .... well .... he was alone.... You know what I mean.
Here's the link.
Labels: funny
Pretty much all moderate-to-hardcore Trek fans were aware that there were multiple pitches being thrown around during the demise of Enterprise. Pitches that took Star Trek in different directions; some used new characters, while others re-imagined old ones; some were for tv series, others were for feature films; some stuck with cannon, others threw it right out the window.
What those same fans know is that all of these pitches died without so much as a whimper when the powers that be at Paramount, tired of the miserable ratings that Enterprise was getting (I still liked it!) and bored with a franchise that even I'll admit had gone somewhat stale, let the latest series die and closed the door firmly on Trek. Supposedly for good.
But with the recent announcement of an 11th Star Trek feature film currently in production, a feature that tells us the story of a young Kirk, McCoy and Spock, how they met, and how they ended up working together, (see my post on I wonder who is going to play Kirk) there has been renewed interest in some of the other pitches that were being thrown around.
One such pitch was a complete reboot of the Original Trek, told in the same style as Ron Moore's brilliant and extremely popular Battlestar Galactica re-imagination: Using established characters and universe but removing ALL cannon, and completely starting from scratch. It would probably not be such a notable idea, except that it was co-written by JMS of Babylon 5 fame.
Mostly due to the fact that because there will now be a movie made telling a similar story, the treatment has been made available for all who care to read about it. Read the article and download a copy of the treatment here.
This is a must for any Star Trek fan, both because of what might have been, and because rumour has it that Abrams Trek movie, due out in 2008, is largely based on the plot.
I just came across a story about a new movie being made based on The Greatest Cartoon Ever: Gatchaman, known in North America and for my entire childhood as Battle of the Planets.
Apparently an animation studio out of Hong Kong is going to begin production of a completely CG version of Gathchaman sometime next year. If its done with anywhere near the quality of FFVII: Advent Children, this is going to be awesome.
I can't begin to describe how excited about this I am. I can remember tearing home every day to watch this show, and to this day it remains one of those silly adorations from childhood that I haven't been able to shake. There are a surprisingly lot of those, btw. Think I want a do-over on my chilhood much?
I am such a fan of this cheesy old cartoon that when the series was released on DVD in both Japanese and English, Superwife bought me the boxed set. And now I can sing the theme song multilingually. Feel free to call me on that one.
Read the story here.
And here's to hoping this puts me one step closer to getting Superwife into that Princess costume I've mentioned before.
Every fan of the Superman movies remembers Marlon Brando's turn as Jor-El, Superman's Kryptonian father.
In my estimation he was memorable more for the over-acting than anything else. But that's likely what made it impossible for Brian Singer to cast anyone else in the role for the upcoming Superman Returns.
So what do you do when the actor you need for the part has been dead for over 2 years?
No, you don't dig him up, as one of my more creepy little voices wants to suggest.
You spend a ridiculous amount of money and time securing the rights to use the dead man's likeness and then painstakingly re-create the actor's movements and voice using old footage and very high tech CG animation.
Check out how Brando was brought back to life in this video.
I for one can't wait to see how it turns out when the movie hits theaters next week.
If you haven't seen X-Men: The Last Stand, you'd assume from all of the whining going on, that it's a bad movie.
You'd be wrong.
Making a movie adaptation of a comic book isn't simply converting the stories and characters from paper to film. And it certainly isn't taking one plotline directly out of a comic and writing a screenplay from it. And if it was, exactly which of the myriad, overlapping, continuity-bending plotlines should be chosen to write that screenplay from anyway?
Making a movie adaptation of a comic book is finding out the truth of the characters from all of those myriad, overlapping story arcs and creating a gestalt for each that stays as faithful to the stories they reside in as possible, within the confines of a few hours of cinema. Something that the first X-Men movie did well, the second did much better, and I think this third film does best.
So I am boldly stating, in blatant contradiction of what some so-called fans are saying about it, that X-Men III is a movie for the fans.
And here's why in my spoiler-free review:
The movie's central premise hinges on the discovery of a cure for mutancy, created from a mutant whose own ability is to suppress the mutant gene in others. Magneto and his band use this 'cure' as a rallying cry to wage war on the
In the film, we are reunited with many of the characters from the previous movies, with at least one glaring omission. Some characters have changed more than others, but all in direct response to the events of the preceding films. We also get to meet a few other mutants that have been notably absent from the first two films. And almost all the characters are true to the personalities fleshed out over years of development in the comics (or at least as faithful as they can be given the constraints of film - see comments above).
And now let's get the whole Phoenix thing out of the way, shall we? Every X-fan knows that Jean Grey comes back as the Phoenix. If you somehow didn't know about this, then you are not a fan, ergo I am not ruining anything for anyone that matters. And Famke Jansen is all over the trailers and posters (and toys, and slurpee cups, etc etc) anyway, so unless you live in a cave, you knew Jean Grey was in this movie.
Now. Prior to seeing the movie, I wasn't sure how they would handle the whole Dark Phoenix Saga, as it was a very complicated (and probably tied with Crisis on Infinite Earths for most beloved by comic fans) plotline. But the writers came up with a way to bring Jean back, introduce the Phoenix into the story in a meaningful way, and manage to keep the whole interstellar connection out of things. Here's one minor spoiler for you: The Starjammers aren't in this movie. All things considered, I think this major part of the movie was handled very well.
The action sequences are spectacular, the characters are true to their roots, and the franchise delivers its most intense storyline yet.
There are more than a few holy shit moments in the film, as certain things happen to certain characters that no one sees coming.
But the biggest problem I have with those whiners that I was talking about earlier is that the entire movie is basically one big valentine for the fans. I won't give anything away, but there are so many little touches that were painstakingly put into the film to satisfy the fan base that allowed this franchise to be so successful in the first place, I can't believe that fans have anything to complain about.
But I guess you can't please everybody.
I have been reading the X-Men comics for over twenty years, on and off, and after watching the movie a second time today, I don't think I would change one thing about it. (Okay, maybe one thing that had to do with Rogue, but whatever.)
So, if you are a fan of the previous movies, the comic books, or just like a great scifi/action flick with a real story, X-Men III is the movie to see.
And I haven't even brought up the special ending after the credits.... If you do go see this movie, stay through the credits for a coda regarding one of the main characters!
'Nuff said.
"It is true that somewhere, in some communities we do find promoters of terror, people who use cultural, religious symbols to perpetrate violent crime. They abhor open societies, pluralist societies, democratic societies, because they advocate the exact opposite: a closed, homogeneous, dogmatic society.
"But they and their vision will be rejected. … It will be rejected by men and women of generosity and goodwill in all communities.
That quote was taken from a speech delivered by Prime Minister Stephen Harper earlier today, in a decidely non-conservative statement, in response to the recent arrests of 17 people for allegedly plotting to attack public buildings in the Toronto area.
I didn't vote for the guy.
His way right wing conservative religious views made sure that I wouldn't.
I am staunchly against conservatism and all that it stands for: harsher penalties for criminals, greater tax breaks for higher income earners and corporations (at the expense of the lower income majority), the reduction/removal of rights for women and minorities, the use of religion to justify political decisions, etc, etc.
But that being said, either Stephen Harper is mellowing with the realization that he is a conservative leader in a liberal country...
Or at the very least, his speech writer is.
Read the full article here.
Labels: rants
I had a really great first Father's Day today.
Superwife made me breakfast and bought me some nice presents, ostensibly from my 11 month old daughter. I got the LOST tie in book, Bad Twin, that I have been dying to read since it came out, as well as the Sting DVD Bring on the Night that was just re-released.
And those are really nice presents.
But I received the gift I got that I could put no value on driving home from Hamilton today.
Superwife and Trin were in the backseat playing by throwing the ball back and forth, and every time my wife withheld the ball from her, Trin would squeal and yell Dadda, or Dad.
Dadda.
Maybe she doesn't know for sure that Dadda isn't everything; she will point to a tree, our globe, the tv, the dog, and me, and say Dadda whilst pointing at each. But I don't care. She says Dadda, and I got to hear it on my first father's Day.
What could be a better present than that?
Superwife made me breakfast and bought me some nice presents, ostensibly from my 11 month old daughter. I got the LOST tie in book, Bad Twin, that I have been dying to read since it came out, as well as the Sting DVD Bring on the Night that was just re-released.
And those are really nice presents.
But I received the gift I got that I could put no value on driving home from Hamilton today.
Superwife and Trin were in the backseat playing by throwing the ball back and forth, and every time my wife withheld the ball from her, Trin would squeal and yell Dadda, or Dad.
Dadda.
Maybe she doesn't know for sure that Dadda isn't everything; she will point to a tree, our globe, the tv, the dog, and me, and say Dadda whilst pointing at each. But I don't care. She says Dadda, and I got to hear it on my first father's Day.
What could be a better present than that?
Labels: family
I thought all banks were supposed to be evil. That it was their sole purpose to find new and more incomprehensible ways to steal money from their customers. I mean honestly, who ever heard of a bank actually admitting fault and giving back a customer money??
Well today my wife and I received a cheque for a not completely insignificant amount refunding a very small portion of mortgage fees paid on a house we sold years ago. Apparently the
And they cut us a cheque for the difference.
I should probably point out here that this sort of thing never happens to us.
Ever.
We actually think of ourselves as The Break-Even Kids. Meaning there's probably an expensive car servicing or similar cost in our very near future.
I almost tore the letter from the bank up when I first saw it, assuming that it was an invitation to join their latest monthly fee plan, or a bid to guilt me into buying even more life insurance.
Of course, the downside to this is that now every time I do get one of those stupid offerings, I'll be opening it up like a sucker, expecting there to be a cheque inside.
Labels: family
Dear Trinity,
I've often heard people talk about how everything happens when they close their eyes for 'a second', and I always figured their perception of time is just more skewed than they would like to think. As in, "I looked away for a second, and she crawled all the way across the living room", or something similar.
It turns out I was wrong. Because I closed my eyes for a second and in that instant, you've gone from being a tiny, fragile newborn infant to a 22 pound, communicative, laughing child, complete with her own personality and everything!
I can't believe that the first year of your life is almost complete.
It boggles the mind.
You become so much more important to me each month, each day, each moment I get to spend with you. I don't know how I have the capacity to keep up, but somehow, there's more room to love you even after I think there can't be any left.
My working nights continues, and everytime I get up after sleeping the day after a shift away and see you light up like a newborn star as soon as you see me, my heart just melts. I love how much you love me.
So just in case you wonder after a particularly embarrassing moment spent with me (maybe you caught me singing or saying something completely uncool in front of your friends) if there was ever a time when you loved me for me, there was indeed.
And I can't wait for your first birthday. Your Mom and I are going to throw a little party, and invite your family and some of our friend's over to celebrate with you. We're going to buy you too many toys and likely regret letting you feed yourself your own birthday cake, but we can't wait for it.
And of course, this will be the first year of many that we'll be telling you that all of those fireworks being let off are not in fact for those Americans celebrating Independence Day, as people would have you believe.
They are, like everything else, just for you.
Love Daddy
ps And this month I have created a separate site for my letters to you (letterstotrinity.blogspot.com), but for now I will keep double posting my monthly letters here as well. This way, when you are actually old enough to read them, you can skip my ramblings about videogames and comic books, and get right to the good stuff.
I've often heard people talk about how everything happens when they close their eyes for 'a second', and I always figured their perception of time is just more skewed than they would like to think. As in, "I looked away for a second, and she crawled all the way across the living room", or something similar.
It turns out I was wrong. Because I closed my eyes for a second and in that instant, you've gone from being a tiny, fragile newborn infant to a 22 pound, communicative, laughing child, complete with her own personality and everything!
I can't believe that the first year of your life is almost complete.
It boggles the mind.
You become so much more important to me each month, each day, each moment I get to spend with you. I don't know how I have the capacity to keep up, but somehow, there's more room to love you even after I think there can't be any left.
My working nights continues, and everytime I get up after sleeping the day after a shift away and see you light up like a newborn star as soon as you see me, my heart just melts. I love how much you love me.
So just in case you wonder after a particularly embarrassing moment spent with me (maybe you caught me singing or saying something completely uncool in front of your friends) if there was ever a time when you loved me for me, there was indeed.
And I can't wait for your first birthday. Your Mom and I are going to throw a little party, and invite your family and some of our friend's over to celebrate with you. We're going to buy you too many toys and likely regret letting you feed yourself your own birthday cake, but we can't wait for it.
And of course, this will be the first year of many that we'll be telling you that all of those fireworks being let off are not in fact for those Americans celebrating Independence Day, as people would have you believe.
They are, like everything else, just for you.
Love Daddy
ps And this month I have created a separate site for my letters to you (letterstotrinity.blogspot.com), but for now I will keep double posting my monthly letters here as well. This way, when you are actually old enough to read them, you can skip my ramblings about videogames and comic books, and get right to the good stuff.
Labels: trinity
If you have been a fan of the Silent Hill series, easily the scariest videogame franchise ever made (as I am), you were expectantly awaiting the release of the Silent Hill movie, which came out a little over a month ago.
I have been eagerly anticipating this movie ever since I heard it was being made, and dirty prick that I am, I downloaded a theater recorded copy rather than wait for the DVD to come out. Which is okay, because I'll be buying the DVD when it comes out later this year anyway.
I even posted about my anticipation of this movie twice before, once last July and again this January as more details of the film began to come out.
The first thing to know about this brilliantly realized adaptation is that you will likely have to figure out what was going on after the movie has ended.
And in order to help me describe the intellectual effort that you will need to understand the movie, I'll use the story of something once said to me to demonstrate:
A few years ago a person in my life and I were discussing Chinese food places. Not being originally from this town, I had asked this person where the best place was to go and had tried out his recommendation. It stunk. The food was greasy and tasted like dogfood. Not being one to mince words, I let this person know what I thought of his recommendation, whereupon I was told to try a more generic place, as he likened what I was looking for to be 'The McDonald's of Chinese Food'. I'm pretty sure he wasn't trying to be insulting, but sometimes I'm easily offended. It felt like he was letting me know that his tastes were more refined than mine, and he was entitled to look down on me for my choices.
So why use an analogy about Chinese food to distinguish between two groups of genre movie fans?
Because there are those that like for there to be layers to their movie experience that only reveal themselves after consideration, long after the movie has ended.
And then there are those that want predictable storylines that don't require them to turn on their minds for longer than the few seconds it takes to get another beer out of the fridge. Sort of 'The McDonald's of Movie Experiences', if you will.
This movie is definitely for the former group.
For an exciting change of pace, I won't post my review of the movie, nor will I ruin it by explaining what it was really about.
But I will say that if you're a fan of either the Silent Hill videogame franchise or genre films that make you think about what is actually going on, you should go see this movie.
And if you really need it explained afterwards, there are plenty of reviewers out there that can do your thinking for you over at Yahoo Movies.
Silent Hill is by far the most faithful videogame to movie adaptation ever made, and the bulk of the people that didn't like it are people from that second camp that would have been better off skipping the movie and watching 'Pimp My Ride' instead.
Labels: gaming
I think that its shit like this that my wife talks about when she says that high technology is being poorly used.
She often laments that modern technology seems to be doing little these days to actually better society and more to find new and innovative ways to get consumers to consume.
Although I do argue with her, I know in a fundamental way that she's right. But we are married, so I am obligated to take the opposing viewpoint on the subject of every conversation just to keep things fresh. You know what I mean.
But even though as a society we're no closer to a cure for cancer, at least we can buy 36 different medications to increase metabolism to generate weight loss and thereby skip the whole eating healthy thing. And if I want to chase away restless leg syndrome (think I'm making that one up?), well there's a pill for that too. Man, can a guy get depressed thinking about things like this.
However. To the pointmobile!
I came across a post on The Dog's Breakfast tonight (lovely, lovely lady, btw) that showcased a beta site that uses facial recognition technology to compare a user uploaded image to digital images of celebrities.
Of course, I was compelled to try it out.
And what celebrities do I look like? First, John Denver, pictured above. Maybe its the hair.
Other celebrities that came up, but with lower matching percentages, were Arthur Ashe, Andrei Sakharov, Andre Agassi, and Matthew Fox.
Uh-huh.
I'm thinking this is one technology that could use a little tweaking.
Check it out yourself here.
Labels: rants
Yesterday the real threat of acts of terrorism on Canadian soil was narrowly averted, thanks to an exhaustive investigation by the RCMP and CSIS.
17 men were arrested for making preparations for a major bomb attack against Canadian institutions. Major like three times the explosive force of the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995.
There are links everywhere about this very major news but here are two of interest: the 'story in pictures' from the Toronto Star, and the Wikinews article are both excellent.
I have been pretty vocal about my feelings of the so called American war on terror; I think its nothing but a smokescreen to make some rich oil barons and military contractors richer.
That statement is not in the slightest to belittle the events of Sept 11, which horrified all Canadians including myself, as much as it did our American neighbours.
But what does belittle the tragedy of that day is a president who uses the public's shock and outrage over that horrific event to justify an illegal war that has now lost all credibility in the face of the man's repeated lies.
And to compound that offense, American citizens have been bamboozled into giving up many of the rights that make that country so great as barter for a greater feeling of security. I ask you America, do you feel a hell of a lot safer now that that bargain has been struck?
I recently had a conversation with a coworker about my feelings on the Iraq and Afghan wars and it occurred to me that most Canadians really aren't very well informed as to how far the American politicians have gone to erode the freedoms of their citizens as justification for defending against terrorist threats. I can only hope that that ignorance does not come back to bite us in the ass as we deal with the now very real threat that exists to our nation's security.
Because now it can finally hit home for Canadians that even we are not safe from attacks of terrorism.
And I can only hope that cooler heads will prevail in the face of this news. In light of what has been happening to those same southern neighbours lately, I for one am not the least bit interested in my government taking away my rights as an excuse to defend against threats like these.
I have read 1984 and I have no desire to live in that world, nor do I want that for my daughter.
Hopefully all Canadians can be grateful that our law enforcement was able to avert this disaster and understand that it is so important that we resist the impulse to hand over our rights in exchange for more security.
Because if we become terrified, hasn't the objective of terrorism been realized?
17 men were arrested for making preparations for a major bomb attack against Canadian institutions. Major like three times the explosive force of the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995.
There are links everywhere about this very major news but here are two of interest: the 'story in pictures' from the Toronto Star, and the Wikinews article are both excellent.
I have been pretty vocal about my feelings of the so called American war on terror; I think its nothing but a smokescreen to make some rich oil barons and military contractors richer.
That statement is not in the slightest to belittle the events of Sept 11, which horrified all Canadians including myself, as much as it did our American neighbours.
But what does belittle the tragedy of that day is a president who uses the public's shock and outrage over that horrific event to justify an illegal war that has now lost all credibility in the face of the man's repeated lies.
And to compound that offense, American citizens have been bamboozled into giving up many of the rights that make that country so great as barter for a greater feeling of security. I ask you America, do you feel a hell of a lot safer now that that bargain has been struck?
I recently had a conversation with a coworker about my feelings on the Iraq and Afghan wars and it occurred to me that most Canadians really aren't very well informed as to how far the American politicians have gone to erode the freedoms of their citizens as justification for defending against terrorist threats. I can only hope that that ignorance does not come back to bite us in the ass as we deal with the now very real threat that exists to our nation's security.
Because now it can finally hit home for Canadians that even we are not safe from attacks of terrorism.
And I can only hope that cooler heads will prevail in the face of this news. In light of what has been happening to those same southern neighbours lately, I for one am not the least bit interested in my government taking away my rights as an excuse to defend against threats like these.
I have read 1984 and I have no desire to live in that world, nor do I want that for my daughter.
Hopefully all Canadians can be grateful that our law enforcement was able to avert this disaster and understand that it is so important that we resist the impulse to hand over our rights in exchange for more security.
Because if we become terrified, hasn't the objective of terrorism been realized?
Labels: politics
In spite of the great deal of razzing and name-calling it has cost me over the years, I have made no secret of my fandom of arguably the world's greatest bass player, Sting.
The guy led one of the most popular rock bands of the 70's and 80's, has written some of the more prosaic lyrics in popular music, and has been a major force in raising awareness for issues such as third world poverty and the deforestation of the rain forest (before they were what all the cool kids were talking about – I’m looking at you Bono).
And there's not one song of Sting’s that I don't like. Well, maybe 'Rock Steady'. Sorry Gordon, but that song sucks.
I read an article by the aging rocker recently that he wrote back in '99, in response to his coming across some of his old lyrics, and in forgetting that he had written them, marvelling at how good they were. (The point of this diatribe will not be to further illuminate the man's enormous ego)
In the article, Sting makes a good point: He was cool. Really cool. The kind of cool that makes you want to be this guy. And why not? He's super rich, women adore him, he's still dining on that whole 'six hour tantric sex' rumour, and he lives in a castle. A castle for chrissakes! (Okay, for the very picky it's actually a 500 year old manor house, but close enough)
So what happened to him over the years? Personally, and for whatever its worth, I think his cool never left. It just mellowed a bit.
And the thing about my appreciation for this guy isn't any of those external things that have given him a permanent entry in the global lexicon. It’s the music that he's put out, both with The Police and without them. His music has always spoken to me in a way that few other musicians could.
I remember lots of times when I was a kid escaping into the Police’s music to get away from the harsh realities of my home life and all of the abuse that came along with it; almost forgetting everything else in the killer bass lines of albums like Zenyatta Mondatta and Synchronicity and the smooth jazzy reflections of The Dream of the Blue Turtles and Nothing Like the Sun.
And I can remember listening to albums like The Soul Cages and Ten Summoner’s Tales all the time when I was a dirt poor teenager living on my own, and even though I had plenty to feel shitty about, I could get completely lost in his spirited melodies and thoughtful lyrics.
And now that I am a completely neurotic, happily married father, I still like to listen to his stuff, old and new, and can’t help but get carried away. Hell I even liked Sacred Love so much that I went to see him in concert (for the second time) on his tour with Annie Lennox.
So imagine my enthusiasm when the news came out that he will be putting out a new album this year. Yay! Shout Police/Sting fans worldwide, including me. But like me, the shouting they will be doing will be of another kind entirely when they find out that
- a) Sting’s new album is based on 16th century lyrics
- b) the entire album will be performed solo, on the lute
- c) yes, I said lute
I am not sure that even I can follow the guy on this musical experiment, and if I can’t I can’t imagine who can.
But if his days of being cool are now officially over (as the whole lute thing does tend to suggest), at least we’ve got over thirty years of great music to remember him by.
Check out Sting's article at theonion.com that started this whole thing in the first place.
Labels: music
