Tagged: science fiction
Real Life Skynet: 2016’s Rise of the Robots!
These videos are making quite a stir this week as Boston Dynamics has released a new video of their top robot star “Atlas” in motion! Next to Atlas in the video you can also see a few of his creepy robot buddies are also ready for “action”.
The opening looks like a team of robot superheroes ready to hit the real world and kick some butt. From what I understand these robots are being developed for the military-let’s just hope they don’t fullfill the prophecy of Skynet! For now let’s at least enjoy the vision of some pretty incredible technology as science fiction slowly becomes reality…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh1dNSu9ZSE
Should William Shatner Return to Star Trek?!
Well, well, well, so William Shatner came out in the news this week stating that he’d be open to playing an aged Captain Kirk in an upcoming Star Trek film. Now we all know that Kirk supposedly bit the dust in ‘Star Trek: Generations’ back in 1994 in the most un-epic way possible. Yep he fell basically off a rock. Well maybe, just maybe, they need to give Shatner’s version of Kirk some redemption and let’s face it there’s plenty of ways he could come back or be found alive somehwere, somehow- I mean it’s Star Trek for cryin’ out loud!
I think if Shatner is down for it there’s no question let’s get him in one last movie before it’s too late. Better yet, how about the next movie follows not a reincarnated older Kirk, or a Kirk “Prime” character but perhaps just a leap in the future for Chris Pines Kirk? Now people may immediately say no one is gonna watch a new Star Trek movie without Chris Pine and Crew and I’d have to simply remind them that we’re talking another Trek flick with…..um….William Shatner! He’s everything that IS legendary about Star Trek. The people will come trust me. The 1995 Book series Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden had featured his character brought back to life in the Next Generation era. How great would that be to see that crew on the big screen again?
Here’s what Bill had to say about it all:
“I would play an old Captain Kirk, absolutely. You would have [to have] an interesting character, not a cameo, like ‘Here I am, aren’t I interesting?’ It’s the ongoing world, it’s the world within science-fiction. Yes, you age within the universe. Time goes on, but time bends, as well. There’s so many things you could do.”
He went on to state “How would they handle it, in science-fiction terms?” Shatner said on a podcast, which is produced by The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m older, I’m heavier, I’m — all the problems of age. So what did Captain Kirk do? Die and age? Doesn’t sound science-fictiony enough. Or maybe you make him really old. I don’t know. It seems to have beggared Abrams’ imagination.”
Let me also clarify this here as well, the upcoming “Star Trek Beyond”, helmed by The Fast & Furious’ Justin Lin looks like an atrocious insult to any longtime fan of Star Trek. The trailer is an embarrassment to the franchise name. It bears no resemblance to anything Star Trek related. It’s simply dumbed down Star Trek for the ADD generation. I’m hesitantly willing to give it a chance as it just might be the ploy of Hollywood to make the series ultra hip, totally sexy and overly action packed in the trailer. It’s like a lame ass Xtreme Star Trek Red Bull commercial.
But what the fuck do I know…Star Trek Beyond could be end up being “like the best thing ever, man”. But one thing I do know for certain is that something is seriously missing from today’s version of Star Trek. Star Trek used to set trends, not fall prey to conforming to the trends. We used to get cool cerebral sci fi tales with the action sprinkled in just the right places. I think getting Shatner involved just might be what the franchise needs to bring some of that old magic back and set the course of the Enterprise in a different direction that all of us Star Trek fans can appreciate….
Cool Comic Debut: Paper Girls #1 Brings us an ‘Amblin’ Style 80’s Mystery!
I just finished ‘Paper Girls’ #1 by hotshot writer Brian K. Vaughan and it’s one of best debut issues I’ve read in a long time. What’s even better is at it’s $2.99 cover price it’s a double sized issue filled with a great little story just waiting to burst into a retro ‘Amblin’ style adventure set way back in 1988. Not only do we get an intriguing story here but also some great artwork by Cliff Chiang. We follow twelve year old Erin as she heads out onto the streets to do her paper route in wee hours of the A.M. after a extremely peculiar dream, involving apples, aliens, winged astronauts and classroom demons speaking what seems to be gibberish. I love the way the dream sequence is played out in the pages here, with a ton of strange symbolism, conversations that seemingly make no sense and some frightening creatures, it really feels like an actual dream which is quite nice.
The setting in the morning is the night after Halloween, so as Erin hits the streets with her sack of papers she encounters some neighborhood bullies still roaming. Luckily three other paper girls arrive on rad bmx bikes to the scene to her defense. From this point Erin decides to ride with the girls on her route and discovers that the three of them too had been jumped by some strange “people” dressed as ghosts who stole one of their walkie talkies.
I don’t want to spoil any of the story as there are some cool surprises that develop along the way. But what I will say is this has the perfect setting for a lost 80’s flick and puts some cool supernatural elements in the mix that leave you longing for issue #2. A super solid debut and just the kind of comic book story that I love even if for some reason we get a bit of prominent product placement by the way of Apple computers. Check this one out, this issue gives you more bang for your buck too as it’s twice the normal size. A great scheme to get people to drop their hard earned cash these days on a comic book!
Comic Book Cover of the Week: The Hulk’s Vintage Magazine Career!!
So this week I wanted to take a trip down memory lane and showcase some of my favorite comic covers that are actually covers from the Hulk’s magazine career back in the late 1970’s. There were two, The Rampaging Hulk and The Hulk were both in magazine format and usually featured back up stories from lesser know superheroes or extra’s on the Hulk and many times his villains. These were extra special because the covers were almost always super spectacular paintings of the big ol’ green guy! So here a re some of my favorites check em’ out-they just don’t make em’ like this any more! These are truly INCREDIBLE!
Terminator: Genisys is Just Plain F#@kin’ Stupid A$$ Sh#t!
Oh man, oh man, I had my serious, serious doubts about Terminator: Genisys for quite sometime but some how magically at the last moment, while I watched the previews last night before the movie started, I wiped the slate completely clean and got myself fuckin’ pumped up for a new Terminator flick with Arnold back in the saddle! I mean that’s like a wet dream come true on paper for a nerdy nostalgic dude who grew up on shit like Predator, Commando & Running Man back in the ‘o so sweet 80’s!!!
But even I will be the first to admit that having a near seventy year old Arnold back as the T-800 was worrying the shit out of me. I mean how could they possibly think that would work in 2015?! To me it just seemed ridiculously stupid and nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. But to be honest Arnold was the ONLY thing about the movie that kept me from dozing off into a deep slumber at the 10 o’clock showing last night! I’m gonna be honest with all you Terminator fans out there this movie is just one huge ass annoying stupid mess that just never needed to be made. Ever.
Hell the last Terminator movie shouldn’t have been made, but somehow we still get this thrown on our lap. I’ve no doubt this flick is gonna be a HUGE box office bomb. It seems Arnold just can’t seem to pull in the crowds like he used to. Arnold however is seriously NOT the problem here. What we got is a giant stupid-ass time travel cluster fuck of a flick that’s a complete waste of time that doesn’t make a lick of sense. You don’t even want to attempt try and figure out this dumb ass fucking stupid turd of a flick.
Yeah folks, it seems they just ran out of anything resembling good ideas here, and it took three shitty Terminator movies to come to this realization. Add in the fact that we’ve got way too many different actors playing John Connor at this point who’re dancing around a lone outdated T-800 who just keeps making random appearances in these movies and a Kyle Reese who’s nothing close to being as awesome as Michael Beihn’s classic character was. Nope we’ve got a generic soulless version of Reese and John Connor here AGAIN, with Sarah Connor not being too much better, thrown into a confusing, overblown plot that tries it’s damnedest to shoe horn Arnold back into flick by any means necessary. None of these actors have any chemistry together.
I think it’d be fun to actually sit down and make a list of reasons why this movie’s plot is the most lazy pile of horse shit Hollywood has come up with in decades. You can defuse most of it’s major ideas in just a few seconds after they’re introduced. I actually think Arnold really could have been the aging T-800 cyborg with finesse instead of a lame inside joke the entire movie. It could have somehow all made sense if someone just took a second look at the wretched script. I always imagined an older Arnold playing the man who designed the T-800 in his own image somehow being incorporated into an intelligent science fiction flick with all the incredible action elements & charm of the first two movies.
It also leads me to the age old question how the hell is Kyle Reese John Connor’s father in the first place? Spoiler ALERT: Why the hell doesn’t this movie’s Kyle Reese question how the hell this is even possible when he finds out?! Seriously If I was Kyle in this movie I would have said “I call major BULLSHIT everyone, give me a damn DNA test and prove it or I’m outta here”!!!
Lastly without spoiling too much, the major antagonist in this movie was clearly a terrible attempt at a twist, and made it clear they’ve officially run out of anything remotely interesting regarding the franchise. How many times are people being sent back in time here before they just throw up their hands and give this shit up? So final words skip this flick, it will make you angry & confused. But it’s just barely worth checking out if you want to see Arnold one last time giving it his all, as it turns out he’s the only thing remotely interesting in the entire movie….
Power Lords Vintage TV Ad! The Coolest Action Figures of the 1980’s?!
I’ve raved here before about The Power Lords action figures from the 1980’s, they were probably some of the most bizarre action figures of that decade and that’s exactly why I needed them all!! Finally someone thankfully uploaded one of the vintage TV commercials that got me all revved up as a kid and I’m starting to think I need to hunt all these down again for myself! The Power Lords weren’t very well known and that’s probably because these action figures were creepy as fuck!
As a kid even I was a little off put by them in the best way possible-I mean the hero of the power lords is Adam Power a decent looking gentleman until he turns into a blue skinned, black eyed, veiny super powered weirdo!! Check out these classic adds, I’ve gotta say I love that animated sequence it opens with, if only they had a full on animated show back then!! Damn!
Now THAT’S what I call some cool action figures!! I must admit I had He-man go up against the Power Lords many times and Adam Power always won, then of course they teamed up and took on Skeletor & Griptogg!! Check out this awesome video to get a full on look at how cool the Power Lords mythos really was!!
It’s really no surprise that The Power Lords were created by Wayne Barlowe who gained a cult following for his book “Barlow’s Guide to Extraterrestrials” way back in 1979. It contains his visualizations of different extraterrestrial life forms from various works of science fiction, with information on their planetary location or range, biology, and behaviors, in the style of a real field guide for animals, such as Roger Tory Peterson’s guide to birds of North America. I may have to hunt down this book too while I am at it!! Barlow has also worked on creature designs for movies like Pacific Rim, Blade II, Both Hellboy movies, Avatar & The Hobbit!
Universal Dork Backs The Uncommon Geek!
Hey a quick message here as I’d like to let everyone know about one of my favorite blogs out there: Uncommongeek.com you can get the full scoop there for more awesome nerd news, but what’s even more exciting is that they just recently launched their youtube channel!
There you’ll be able to watch some great reviews, news and geeky discussions on what’s going on in the nerd world. These guys are really on top of things and I can’t wait to check out their very first full youtube show! So check it out Dorks and Geeks UNITE! And just to be clear the phrase “uncommon geek” is listed in the Urban Dictionary and this here is it’s official meaning:
Geek two: “Actually, I like both.”
Geek one: “Really? You’re an uncommon geek!”
JJ Abrams Universe ‘Star Trek 3’: Who’s Really Got The Cred To Direct?!
A couple nights ago I finally got to see Chris Nolan’s “Interstellar” and it was an incredibly thought provoking science fiction flick, one I’d love to sit an analyze for hours with friends on it’s meaning and scientific relevance. Movies like this are what often times I truly love about Sci-Fi, a great mind bender. Don’t get me wrong I’m totally down for the laser battling, space adventuring of Star Wars but a part of me hopes NOT to get too much of that in my next Star Trek movie. The reboot/sequel JJ Abrams did was a downright awesome movie, filled with action, great fx, the perfect amount of nostalgia but by the time the second movie came around, trying to recreate the Khan storyline I’d somehow began to realize that JJ was better suited for Star Wars than Trek. Let’s face it the two franchises are indeed very different beasts and for a moment during Interstellar I delightfully pictured a Christopher Nolan helmed Star Trek film in my mind.
So today as I think about entering the theater to see a new Star Trek movie I hope for something a little different, something perhaps a little more challenging to the mind. I think back to some of the classic original series episodes which the crew face threats or situations that truly perplexed them all (The City on the Edge of Forever, The Changeling, Amok Time, Obsession, The Corbomite Manuever). I’m talking classic plot driven science fiction. That’s exactly where I’d love to see Kirk & Spock head of to. Sure giant aliens are rad, and who doesn’t love a good space battle with two opposing ships blasting the shit out of each other?! Well sometimes I like my Trek with a little more mind and that’s why of the directors being considered to helm the next movie I’m really hoping they give Duncan Jones(who is indeed in the running) for the job.
Yes, David Bowie’s son has already given us a couple great, more mind bending science fiction movies. ‘Moon’ being one of my favorite modern Sci Fi flicks and ‘Source Code’ being a totally solid twisting puzzle of movie. I feel Jones could really deliver us a great classic/modern space adventure with nods to The Twilight Zone which also had it’s influence in some of the best original Trek episodes. “Into Darkness” felt a little like Star Trek for people with ADD and the last thing I want to see is someone like Justin Lin (The Fast and the Furious movies) taking the reigns, who is indeed a contender. So I’m putting it out there, endorsing Duncan Jones as the perfect man for the job, heck I’d say he could even write the thing. However even if he didn’t write it knowing he was at the reigns would give me hope for a good script to be approved and to get a truly unique science fiction adventure beyond the stars with the USS Enterprise!
Why Does the New ‘Mad Max’ Trailer Look So Awesome?!
I had to weigh in on this new Mad Max trailer and I have to admit I wasn’t the least bit excited about this whole thing. I haven’t seen much success by bringing back these classic movie franchises into the current world by way of rebooting or giving us the sequel we’ve “always dreamed of”. Let’s face it there have been a ton of less than impressive, totally forgettable films out there recently masquerading under the names of the movies we loved as kids. Most of them seriously, seriously suck. So to hear that a new Mad Max was on the way to me sounded like yet another weak ass attempt to yet again capitalize off of our nostalgia. But then the trailer dropped and it appears that Mad Max: Fury Road clearly ain’t fucking around!
So what gives? Why is this trailer so awesome?! Well for one it’s George Miller who’s directing, who also helmed the previous two Mad Max flicks of the 1980’s and it’s a continuation of his vision. Even if we don’t have Mel Gibson returning, who I think would have if he hadn’t turned into the world’s biggest douche bucket! Second he made it clear that he wasn’t focusing on modern CGI to bring this one to life, and the realism can clearly be seen in the trailer. He’s used 80% practical effects, with actual living human stuntmen, real car crashes and shot the film on location rather than putting everyone in front of a green the entire time.
By the look of the trailer you can see he’s using the prefect blend of CG and real world to make this one of the best looking, most exciting flicks(hopefully) of 2015. Let’s be honest here, I don’t think CG has much of a place in the action film genre, perhaps that’s why a great action flick is a dime a dozen these days. This is a breath of fresh air, and I’m starting to see a trend happening if even a little bit in Hollywood. Let’s hope this one has a great story to go along with it’s incredible visuals and action!
Don’t Put Shatner in The Next Star Trek!
Can you believe it-I’m asking for William Shatner to NOT be in the next Star Trek flick?! It’s something I thought I’d never say, but after hearing recent news that the original Captain Kirk might now be appearing in the next installment of the big screen Trek adventures I came to the conclusion that sometimes you have to just leave nostalgia alone. After an excellent reboot of the Star Trek universe that didn’t diminish or erase the original series/the movies, but rather connected them together perfectly and adding Spock Nimoy Prime to the equation successfully, somehow we still got the god awful sequel “Into Darkness”. This was a movie that somehow dumbed down the Trek mythos into a cheap action flick while totally ruining the legacy of the series number one villain Khan. Pondering what would come next in the series as a Trek fan for the first time wasn’t something that I was particularly excited about.
So now we have a Abrams-less Star Trek film and now they’re planning on putting William Shatner back into the equation. Sure this sounds like a possibly entertaining trip down memory lane, something that true fans might totally dig. I say it sounds a bit like a bit of a mess. They got lucky once adding Nimoy and for the most part pulling it off quite well. However I’d much rather just have an intriguing compelling science fiction adventure without all the corny business. Stop with the Khan, Shatner, Nimoy nostalgia while you’re ahead and just give us a solid trek through the unknown regions of the galaxy with the crew that you so carefully set in place. We don’t need William Shatner in these movies or any other original series actors. Let’s for this next movie forget about the past.
I’d love to see some new threats to the crew, hell I don’t even want to see a damn Klingon yet in this series! The reason why Star trek was “reset” was so that we could boldly go where no one has gone before. Adding Shat to the mix would be a cheesy move at this point, we already did the whole time travel thing once. Twice might not be quite as charming. They mentioned that Shatner could appear as the old version of Chris Pine’s Kirk-but really Pine’s Kirk is quite different than Shatner’s. To jam him in the movie would be just so that Shatner could be in it because they can.
There’s really no other other reason and it’s a shame for them it’s not as graceful as putting Mark Hamill in episode 7. Shatner is the real Kirk and always will be but I don’t think he needs to be on the Enterprise this time around-what do you think?
Universal Dork 