Books, movies, politics, and whatever I want

Friday B-Movie Pick: Justice League: Gods and Monsters

Friday, January 22nd, 2016

Justice League: Gods and Monsters
Yet another example of excellence from DC Comics animated movie team.  This is an alternate universe where the Justice League is made up three, and I use the term loosely, heroes.  Superman is the son of General Zod, not Jor-el, Batman is a vampire (created by Science!), and Wonder Woman is one of the New Gods.  All them have no issues what so ever in killing bad guys.  Just to set the tone for this universe a bit more firmly, Amanda Waller is President.  Ya, it’s a dark reflection of the DC Universe.  Things only get worse when the Justice League starts getting framed for killing scientists.  In the end, it’s a wake up call for the League, with some help from Lex Luthor, who seems to be crossed with Stephen Hawking in this setting.

Friday B-Movie Archive

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Friday B-Movie Pick: Terminator Genisys

Friday, January 1st, 2016

Terminator Genisys

Starting the new year with the latest in the Terminator francise. Once again, they are moving forward with the premise of changing the timeline doesn’t always work the way you want it to. Ya, I’m going to do spoilers, so quit now if you care. This entry has some delightful (to the fan base at least) almost scence for scence sequences from the orginal. Plus it has Arnold Schwarzenegger playing a T-800 series who has been guarding Sarah Connor since a T-1000 tried to kill her as a little girl. The flesh around the machine ages, which is how they explain using a current Schwarzenegger for the aging robot.  The special effects are great and the fights are epic.  Well worth the popcorn and rental.

Friday B-Movie Archive

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Monday Book Pick: The Martian

Monday, December 14th, 2015

The Martian by Andy Weir

A fun SciFi adventure read. By adventure, I mean someone else in a huge amount of trouble, very far away from me. Quick summary, astronaut Mark Watney gets left on Mars when his team has to leave Mars in a large hurry because a really big sandstorm is about to tip over their ascent vehicle. He’s injured on the way to the ascent vehicle, knocked out with his bio monitor destroyed. So it looks like he’s dead to the rest of the team. Watney’s challenge is to survive long enough to be noticed, and then rescued. This reminded me of a Heinlein juvenile, which is a good thing. A fun and engaging read.

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Monday Book Pick: The Desert and the Blade

Monday, November 30th, 2015

The Desert and the Blade by SM Stirling
The latest in his Change series. This trilogy is the coming of age story of the Crown Princess of Montveil and her companions, which includes the young Empress of Japan. The forces of evil were defeated in North America by the late High King, but won in what used to be North Korea. Evil doesn’t want Reiko to obtain her own magic sword (Orlaith already has her father’s magic sword), which is the conflict of the novel. Of course there are battles, including one bloody huge one against hordes of eaters under the sway of an evil sorcerer. A good read, in which characters introduced in the last novel are grown, and new allies are introduced. It also sets the stage for the next giant novel in the series.

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Friday B-Movie Pick: Jupiter Ascending

Friday, November 13th, 2015

Jupiter Ascending

It’s Friday the 13th, but I’m not going with the horror genre. First I’m not a big fan, and I just listed some classics in the Halloween movie list. Going with some finest kind Space Opera instead. Jupiter Ascending from the Wachowski clan, and it has what you expect. Reality isn’t what is seems, excellent special effects, and lots and lots of action. My quick take on the film, a Dune/Soylent Green cross over. I can see why it didn’t do well in the theaters. Too complex, competing members of the same Royal household, overseen by a large and uncaring bureaucracy. It would be helpful to have a score card in order to keep track of who was working for which faction, with the changes of loyalties listed. I kept track of it all, but then I’ve read Dune about a half dozen times. Plot aside, it was also a visually stunning movie, with dog fighting space fighters flying amid Chicago’s sky scrapers, massive space vessels, and lots of aliens and human hybrids. There were giant flying lizard men, elephant and mouse human cross overs, and some clockwork androids. There was even a goth Asian chick riding a hover bike. One of the main characters was a human/canine mix that literally lost his wings. If you are a huge SciFi nerd like I am, you’ll like this movie.

Friday B-Movie pick archive

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Star Trek returns to the small screen

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2015

Yet another Star Trek series is coming in 2017 on CBS All Access.  Those last two words are the interesting part of that sentence.  The premier will be on broadcast TV, the rest of the series will be on their streaming video service.  My guess is that they figure that SciFi nerds are more likely to be cable cutters anyway.

The article really doesn’t say much about the show itself.  That’s pretty much limited to “… introduce new characters seeking imaginative new worlds and new civilizations, while exploring the dramatic contemporary themes that have been a signature of the franchise since its inception in 1966.”

This will bring the number of Star Trek TV series to an even half dozen.

  1. Star Trek
  2. ST: The Next Generation
  3. ST: DS9
  4. ST: Voyager
  5. ST: Enterprise
  6. ST: To Be Announce

The original series was  the best of the shows.  TNG was good when it wasn’t being preachy.  DS9 did it’s best work when it did what Babylon 5 did previous season.  I called ST:V ST:Lost in Space, which it should have been.  I liked Enterprise.  Especially in the third season, when they told some excellent multi-show story arcs.

If I had to guess, I’d say this new series will have more influence from the last two movies (third in the works).

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Monday Book Pick: Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Monday, October 12th, 2015

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card

In honor of Columbus Day, today’s pick is an excellent alternate history novel.

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Friday B-Movie Pick: Predestination

Monday, April 27th, 2015

Predestination

Movie version of the classic Robert A. Heinlein short story, “All You Zombies.” Remarkably true to the story, down to the dialogue, with an added layer of complexity added to make the story movie length. A very well made movie based on perhaps the best time travel story ever written.

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Monday Book Pick: A Call to Duty

Monday, March 30th, 2015

A Call to Duty by David Weber and Timothy Zahn

This is the first book in the Manticore Ascendant series, which is a prequel series to the Honor Harrington series. It takes place in the early days of the Manticoran Star Kingdom, when the Manticoran Navy was not so powerful or well funded. It took a couple of chapters to get me hooked, but one it picked up, I didn’t want to put it down.

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Monday Book Pick: Roswell, Texas

Monday, January 26th, 2015

Roswell, Texas by L. Neil Smith

This is a graphic novel, set in one of L. Neil Smith’s Libertarian universes. In this reality, Santa Ana was killed by a long range rifle shot from the Alamo, allowing the people in to escape, and the Republic of Texas to survive. Flash forward to 1947. There is a mysterious crash near the Texas town of New Mexico. Four Texas Rangers are sent to investigate, along with various military units and spies from various nations, including the California Republic, the Third and Half Reich, and a much smaller United States. It’s a fun read, and Ranger William Bear doesn’t just get the girl, he gets the girl.

Monday Book Pick Archive

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