Category: Media

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Cliffhanger

Those three words flash across a TV screen:

TO BE CONTINUED

And I’m taken back to a couple of moments in my life.

Memorial Day, 1980: The Northpoint theatre in San Francisco, to see the second ever Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back.

Like my Mom had said later, it was like seeing old friends again, on the big screen.  I was enjoying the movie, and then had a weird feeling: the movie had run for close to a couple of hours, and then Boba Fett flew off with Han Solo in carbonite.  I wasn’t sure they had enough time to rescue him by the end of the movie.

And then the wild ending, from the lightsaber duel, the escape from Cloud City and the jump to hyperspace.

I fully expected the next scene to by Luke, Lando, Leia and Chewie rescuing Han from Boba Fett.

Instead, Luke got a new hand, Lando and Chewie flew off in the Falcon, and then…

THE CREDITS STARTED.

What?

What’s happening?

WHAT ABOUT HAN?!?!?!

3 years later, the cliffhanger was resolved.

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June 18, 1990: Star Trek: The Next Generation season finale.

“The Best of Both Worlds”, in which the Borg invade Federation space, the Enterprise intercepts, and Picard is taken and turned into Locutus of Borg.

I still remember how chilling it was when Picard first spoke as Locutus.

I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life, as it has been, is over. From this time forward, you will service… us.

Then three words were spoken by Riker:

Mr. Worf, fire.

Those three words mentioned above appear on screen.

3 months later, the cliffhanger was resolved.

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I’m glad this latest cliffhanger will be resolved next week.  Or so I hope.

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Ramblings

I finally watched Crazy Rich Asians.  Good movie.

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Clean up continues around the house.  More trips to Goodwill are planned in the future.

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The 1967 San Francisco Giants replay is finally finished.  I’m moving on to the 1939 New York Giants replay and continuing the 1917 MLB replay.

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February is right around the corner, meaning my birthday is coming up.  This year it falls on a Saturday, and will be our monthly Games Night.

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TNT has started showing Rogue One almost every other day.

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I’ve been feeling crappy over the last few days, so much so that I’ve skipped my daily elliptical for a couple of days.

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I forgot to get a haircut this past weekend.

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I really do fear commitment.

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I Don’t Get It

When the reimaged Hawaii Five-O premiered, I watched it for a couple seasons.  I got bored of it and stopped.

I’ve stopped watching the DC shows on CW, because I got bored of them.

I’ve drastically cut down on the number of comics I read on a monthly basis.

I don’t watch Star Trek Discovery.

I’m didn’t watch a full NFL football game once this season.

In all cases, they went on without me.

I see lots of people bemoaning Disney and their upcoming Star Wars projects, or people upset with Doctor Who because of the way the show is now.

So why can’t they simply walk away?

The whole ‘childhood ruined’ excuse is stupid for a myriad of reasons.

Hell, any excuse is stupid.  Walk away.

Being a consumer doesn’t mean that you HAVE to consume everything.

And shouting at the wind won’t make any of these corporations change their minds.

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Aquarium Scene

It was the aquarium scene in Aquaman.

There was something about seeing a little brown kid discovering his super powers while being bullied that simply made me smile and tear up.

Because I’ve been that bullied little brown kid.  But without the super powers.

I didn’t expect that.

As for the rest of the movie, I enjoyed it.  It wasn’t perfect, but it was entertaining.  There were a lot of predictable moments that I could see coming a mile away.

The movie looks pretty, certainly, but some of these shots lingered longer than they should have.  Some of the action shots looked bad.  Period.

And Black Manta was a frakking joke.  He reminded me of Gigan in Godzilla Final Wars.

Is it a must see?  If you’re a fan of Aquaman or Jason Momoa, by all means, see it.

I would rank it second among the DC movies, behind Wonder Woman, and slightly edging out Justice League.

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

That was a whole lotta fun.

I have to admit that I’ve not read a lot of Miles Morales as Spider-Man stuff.  I just haven’t made the time to do so.

But this was a really good movie, as good as any super-hero film that’s been released in recent memory.

I was floored by the post-credits scene, and loved the mid-credits scene.

In ranking the Spider-Man films, I would place it 3rd, after Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man 2.

Recommended!  Go see it!

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Ralph Breaks the Internet

I liked it a lot.

Admittedly I felt too tired to go see a movie this morning, and by the time I finally got myself out of the house and to the theatre, it was only 5 minutes until showtime.

I never get to the movies that late.

Anyways, I skipped the concessions because the line was long and I was already late, though there was the traditional 15 or so minutes of trailers.

I gotta say my favorite part involved the Disney Princesses, oddly enough.

And the credits scenes, mid and post.  Stick around for both.

A few of the voices surprised me, and one cameo… you’ll just have to see it.

Recommended.  Go see it!

 

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Excelsior

News came out today of the passing of Marvel’s Stan Lee, at the age of 95.

You knew it was coming, but it still hurt like hell when I found out.

As the day went on (holiday for us gubment workers) I decided to watch a Marvel movie, but I couldn’t decide which one, at first.  But then I remembered that we had also lost Steve Ditko, Spider-Man’s co-creator.

I ended up watching Spider-Man: Homecoming.

When Giacchino’s cover of the 1967 Spider-Man theme started, I started to cry.

Because after Superman, Spider-Man is my favorite superhero. And I never missed that cartoon when they started showing in on weekday afternoons.

Earlier this week on Facebook I referred to artist John Byrne as a God.

Stan Lee is a Titan.

“In Greek mythology, the Titans were greater even than the gods.” -Coach Boone, Remember the Titans

Sounds about right.

‘Nuff said.

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DST and Stuff

We go through this every GDMF year, yet for some reason, even though we ‘gain’ an hour of sleep, I always struggle for consciousness on the Monday after the end of Daylight Savings Time.

*continue drinking afternoon coffee*

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My co-worker dropped off an NFL Gameday Magazine that another co-worker picked up from the last Broncos-Raiders game, with Case Keenum on the cover.

I may not be able to say it in person, but thank you, Michael Q.

#fuckcancer

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I’m still trying to figure out what to watch during my elliptical sessions in the morning, once I finish off The Expanse Season 3.  I’m narrowing it down to the new Jack Ryan series or maybe a rewatch of Babylon 5.

In related news, I’m almost finished with last season’s DC Legends of Tomorrow.  It’s the one DC CW show that does not irritate me, which is sad.  I may give Black Lightning a shot.

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If you haven’t done so yet, don’t forget to VOTE tomorrow.  Please.

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It feels strange that for the first time in 3 years, I didn’t have to buy Star Wars movie tickets for me and my friends and family.

Meanwhile, SW Resistance has yet to really get interesting.

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Going back to The Expanse, I don’t know which faction or side (Earth, Mars, Belters, OPA) I’d want to be on, truth be told.  They’re all fucked up in one way or another.

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TV 2018-19 Update

Except for Doctor Who, I’m not planning on watching anything now.

As much as I liked The Gifted last season, I missed the premiere and the episodes for this season.

I did watch the premiere of Supergirl, but I have no plans to watch that regularly, though I’ll more than likely watch the Elseworlds crossover episodes on the CW.