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Month: December 2011

[Television Review] District 17

District 17 should have existed just to see how long it would have lasted before it was Fireflied. (Yes, I made it up.)
District 17 created by Ron Moore was a one hour procedural that asked the question: What happens if we have no science but instead used magic instead.
The answer is Law & Order meets Harry Potter or if you’ve seen the fan made videos: The Aurors.
The idea while an interesting one hits and misses.

[Doctor Who Mini Review] The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe…


I enjoyed this Christmas Special better than last years and the year before and the year before. Ever since Christmas Invasion the tone of these specials has been old over the map from the stupid Racknoss to the loud and over blown Titanic Episode to the Scrooged-eseque episode from last year. The Christmas Ep with the fake Doctor wasn’t so shabby until Temple of Cyberman showed up with their giant steampunk Cyberman Robot.

[Movie Trailer] Prometheus

So the week of blockbuster trailers is at an end and Prometheus while half the length of The Hobbit and certainly less dialogue manages to get across enough information that i09 has up a frame by frame post in case you missed anything.

Having endured Alien^3, Alien Resurrection and AVP 1 in the theaters(after the giant T-Rex scene across the ice, I said enough was enough and rented AVP 2), I honestly hope this film puts the franchise back on course, after the jumping the tracks with Alien^3 the series as a whole has been steadily going downhill to the point where they couldn’t even do Aliens in a Small Town USA correctly in AVP 2.
And, just for those who missed the original Alien trailer in ’79:

[Movie Review Quickie] Mission Impossible 4 and The Dark Knight Rises Prologue

Enjoyed Mission Impossible 4 and The Dark Knight Rises Prologue.
Someone on the interwebs recommended Brad Bird for James Bond and after seeing how he pulled off the action and the locales, I have to agree. After the Incredibles it was either Bond or Mission Impossible.
MI:4 is not M:II. There aren’t stunts for stunts sake and after seeing it in IMAX, I’m waiting to see someone push the envelope and film the entire movie in IMAX.
One must wonder if Cruise’s life did not implode/explode several years culminating on Oprah’s couch if MI:4 would have beaten out Sherlock Holmes, instead, MI:4 got beat by CGI Squirrels, CGI Squirrels I might add that have more screen per movie theater. My normal stomping grounds of Lincoln Mall had no MI:4 but a crap load of squirrels.
Everyone performed fine in MI:4, Paula Patton probably the stand out since she got the meatier of the roles while Simon Pegg from MI:III is now a full fledge agent and new comer Jeremy Renner pulled off his analyst role well. If Cruise does step away from the role, I think Renner could pull it off when he’s not Avenging some costumed villain. I enjoyed the nods to previous MI movies, it’s nice to see they’re not completely forgetting what happened last time.
The only downside of the movie was the villain. I think previous MI movies (including M:II) had better villains or at least they were given more screen time instead of just getting beat up by Cruise in a car park.
As for The Dark Knight Rises Prologue: I enjoyed it. Bane’s voice has been making the rounds on the interwebs as of late with the big question: Will Nolan alter it if no one can understand it. I have to say I managed to understand 3/4ths of what Bane said in the prologue. The voice is great idea to an extent but there are lines in there that are lost.
Overall, MI:4 is worth seeing IMAX, as far as I could tell every single set piece scene was filmed in IMAX.

[Plotting About] Fate is the waiter*.

*Found on the dry erase board before the Rhody Writing Group’s December Meet Up.
So, with 2011 coming to a close, the current status on the WIP is:
The WIP DEATH BAR count is:

I’m happier with my WIP than I was last year, it’s taken the entire year to get up to 25k but at least it’s with constant feedback from the group every few months. I’ve loosely plotted out a series. Once this WIP is done, the Zombie novel is next.
Rhody Writing Group continues to grow, we had eleven people at the last meet up. Once we pass January and get past my bro’s wedding, I’m going to schedule once a month write ins for people who are working on pieces that just want to get away for a few hours and write in a group.
In other news, big trailers are dropping lie flies over Apple’s Trailer Page, The Dark Knight Rises, Wrath of the Titans and the Alien Prequel Prometheus is getting a mini 30 second countdown tease to the trailer that drops on Thursday. Few have complained about a countdown tease to a trailer but more than a few have pointed out this is Ridley Scott returning to Sci-Fi after Alien and Blade Runner, if this doesn’t inject some sort of heartbeat into this franchise they’re doing it wrong.

[Viral Video] Save Greendale

Community has been one of the better new shows on NBC in the last few years.
I’d be shaking my fist at CBS for moving Big Bang Theory to Thursday Nights if I actually watched Big Bang Theory but the characters drive me up a wall. Instead I’m shaking my fist at the eroding ratings due to both shows going to head to head with each other since NBC hasn’t canceled Whitney and instead gave it a full season.
So, with the mid season here, NBC said Community be returning it sometime in 2012 here’s a lovely video to tide us over until sometime in 2012.