My goodness, I hope that this is true. Unless you're Luke Skywalkering me. Please don't Luke Skywalker me. The Last Jedi went exactly how we thought it would go. Basically, like Empire Strikes Back. Bad guys gain an upper hand, but the movie ends with a glimmer of hope as someone looks out into the stars. Of course, Rey wasn't necessarily genre savvy, so she didn't know that, and Luke's criticism was pretty valid in that context, just not necessarily when it's directed toward the audience
As we all know, all Marvel villains who aren't Loki lack that special something to make them memorable. Except Kilgrave from the Netflix series Jessica Jones proves that common assumption wrong. Actually, I feel really guilty about saying this. He's an R-rated villain, and he's completely depraved. He successfully gets us talking about real-world problems, but at the same time his charm and charisma glorify those real-world problems. It kept me up late one night, disturbed by how someone so de
Ah, yes, that old blog entry. Raise your hand if you remember it? Do you recall how terribly that turned out? I still discover little enclaves on the internet that were convinced that I intentionally wrote a guide to being an abusive spouse. Surely I would never want to bring that up again if that's how people are going to react. Well, apparently I never learn, because I'm writing up that entry again. What could possibly go wrong? Oh yeah. But anyway, I've learned something in all my
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bTpp8PQSog When I was a little boy, my father had two things in the basement. The first was a whip hanging from the ceiling rafters. The second was a personal library filled with old books, with yellowed pages feeling soft and tender under my fingers. Among those books were classics from Jules Vern, books about science, history books, and so on, but as I write this I vividly remember pulling out an Indiana Jones chose-your-own-adventure book from eye-level
"Do not grieve, Admiral; it was logical. The needs of the many outweigh..." "The needs of the few." "Or the one. I never took the Kobiyashi Maru test until now. What do you think of my solution?" "Spock..." "I have been and always shall be your friend. Live long...and prosper." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DWdaMvUQhg When Spock died, I did not cry. I was aware, from a logical standpoint, that it was genuinely as sad as fictional deaths come and that the execution was perfec
When I was about eight or nine years old, I picked up a book called The Andalite Chronicles. I had seen similar books with teenagers turning into animals lining the library shelves. That was before the library burned down, but I always remembered those images. It was exactly the kind of thing to catch a little boy's attention. I didn't know what the stories were about, or what the pitch was, and what the implication was that they could turn into animals. Personally, I didn't even expect the
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNsHRUVwKwg Recently I wrote a letter to a friend describing my walk with Christ, and I had a few confessions that I was afraid would lose me my friendship, since my life isn't always rosy. At risk of being preachy, I also expressed my encouragements as well, and I wanted to tell her of an inspiring figure for me whose character I think she's growing into. Victor Hugo spent around seventy pages of his epic Les Miserables going into strenuous detail on t
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihVPxjno3Yw The greatest man anyone can ever encounter is his father, and let us pray that our fathers are good men. In these men rest the foundations of every future adult. For no one was this sacred duty more important than Jonathan Kent, and few could have qualified for the tremendous task at hand for him and his wife, Martha. His son was no ordinary boy, who would grow up to become no mere man. There are good fathers and bad fathers, terrible fathe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8RCQDDsMpU Let's reword that statement: "If you strike me down, I will become more MANLY than you could possibly imagine." Ever since Princess Leia pleaded over hologram message "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi; you are my only hope!" he has become a household name. When he first appeared, he had just that right amount of mysteriousness about him. In so many ways, it was certainly human, and looking back I think Alec Guiness did a better job than even most fans ga
I really wanted to like this movie. I had every reason to look forward to it. Idris Elbe received a Golden Globe nomination, and if nothing else the subject matter deserved my respect. Mandela was a great man. Normally biographical dramas about great people make for good films. Unfortunately, there isn't much to say for this movie. While I can agree that Idris Elba's performance was good, that's about the only good thing that I have to say for this movie. It was pretty easy to put my finge
When Goyer pitched Nolan the story for Man of Steel, Nolan stopped everything he was doing because he realized he had just stumbled upon the freshest idea since Marty McFly invented Rock'n'Roll. I had my doubts because I really didn't like having "Mr. Batman" connected to Superman, because I didn't want the Man of Steel to live in the shadow of the Dark Knight. However, I acknowledged that Mr. Nolan loves to play with characters, explore what their meaning, and play with the big moral question
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXRmJyIyJbM For some time my favorite Johnny Cash song was "A Boy Named Sue" until in 2010 my history teacher introduced me to this. Mr. Lehman wasn't a very sentimental person, but he was very sincere about a lot of things. Behind all that cynicism was a man who cared a lot and, in spite of his low opinions of everyone, valued them dearly and believed in doing the right thing. In a similar way, I balance an ongoing disappointment with humanity with a belie
Maieutism is an old Greek idea that truth is innate within the mind. This is tied to Plato's ideal that the universe is based upon archetypes such as math, and that everything is a derivative thereof. Since the human mind is capable of reason, he considered it to be a higher reality than the physical world because it suggested to him that the mind, especially a reasonable mind, required less integrating to get to the root archetypes. Understanding of greater truths had to be obtained by reaso
Dear Reader, One of the greatest things about science fiction is that it presents the reader with extreme ends begs to ask questions about them, and through these questions they explore deeper questions about life itself. One of science fiction's signature elements, robots with artificial intelligence, might seem like a pitch removed from the reality of our everyday lives, but the presence of these themes has served the purpose of altering the very way we see the world. Science fiction has int
We were both young when I first saw you I close my eyes And the flashback starts You're standing there On a balcony in summer air See the lights See the party, the ball gowns You're the diamond angel in the crowd I bid adieu How I wish you knew That I was Romeo, and we were both rebels Your father said "Stay away from Juliet" And I was heading down the staircase My right told me "no" Juliet if only we could have a time alone I'll be coming All there's left to do is run I'll be the prince a
I don't know you personally. I can't see into your hearts, and know whether you're good to your neighbors in your daily lives. Perhaps this storm has only brought the worst in you. Regardless, stop it. What you're doing is wrong, and disrespectful to all who have lost so much. On a side note, I would like to wish my sister a happy birthday. Ironically, I had phone conversations with just about everyone else in the family but her. Man, I feel pretty bad about that. However, I think that
I went to this movie knowing full well that I would like it. Bruce Willis claimed that it was the "best film [he had] ever been in," which is a pretty tall claim for an actor immortalized by a span of works that is not only great, but crowned by "Die Hard", commonly acknowledged as not only the definitive Bruce Willis movie (which it is), but the definitive action movie of all time. So with that in mind, this is a pretty tall claim from one of the trusted big guns that was put into this film.
Recently, while on another forums site, I was discussing on a subject about politics. Feeling it necessary and relevant to the topic, I posted bonesiii's mega-blog entry, "The Debate Guide". There was another member who frequently posted on the topic, and also the only one who seemed to have any political opinions whatsoever, who I had had good discussions with, but when she saw what I had posted, her response was this. This was my response: More can be added to that. Our opinions
This is probably the first time that the main draw for a superhero film (if you can call Logan such) has been its cinematography. For those of you who saw the one-time-only black-and-white showing of Logan, congratulations; you saw something truly beautiful. For the rest of you who missed out, too bad, but at least it will be available on blue ray. Before I go into Logan itself, the subject of quality black and white cinematography demands some address of color photography. They require two co
Sure, Dark Knight was really gritty. But it was pompous and pretentious. It was really annoying, and had terrible editing. It's considered the best comic film of all time due to a really, really good performance, but I don't think that it makes the movie itself perfect. It has some huge flaws with the story. It feels pretty incomplete. And ultimately, it takes itself so seriously and sees itself as such a relevant film when in reality it doesn't have much of a human element. You don't loo
One does not simply walk in the shoes of Lincoln. He is not a role like Luke Skywalker, who was an original creation that one could cast anyone before because we had no idea what a Luke Skywalker was. No, this is the man whose face we literally see every day on the faces of five doller bills and pennies. Many actors have come and gone playing him, but the part of Lincoln has, as far as I can recall, always been a supporting character in civil war movies, someone whose presence was limited bec
Seriously. That face. That stylishness. She could become iconic if she took on some ambitious acting decisions. Also, she looked a heckuvalot like Audrey Hepburn in her first movie, Mirror Mirror, and I'm a total sucker for Audrey Hepburn lookalikes. I really want them to succeed. And I really liked her in the movie Stuck In Love, which I recommend as a pretty good indie film. C'mon Hollywood! Put her in more stuff! And not garbage like that City of Glass movie! Speaking of that movie, there
Let me be clear. No, I will not watch Venom. No interest. Zero. None. He's a pretty cool villain, but I want his origins done right. I want him to show up in a storyline with Peter Parker. Peter Parker must be a well-developed character who has gone through multiple character arcs. The symbiote should be the stimulus that takes him to a new level. After all, it messes with his personality. It's a cool way to take a character that's normally light-hearted and make him a little more seri
