W♥M

We♥Comics!: Comic Conventions 2023

Planet Comicon Kansas City (March 17, 18,19) Read More Planet ComiCon Crowds in the thousands flocked to Bartle Hall in downtown Kansas City over the weekend to attend the three-day Planet Comicon Kansas City, the region’s largest and longest-running comic and pop …

As 2023 began, so did comic convention season, back in full effect, after the last several years of nothing, or scaled-back. At the end of January, the Angoulême International Comics Festival took place in France, the 2^nd biggest in Europe and third largest in the world, and stateside, Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle was very successful.

We’re sad that the long-running Spring and Fall Cons in Minnesota came to an end, but efforts are underway to resurrect them.

Some show schedules shifted as well, and the end of this month is the staring contest between MegaCon in Orlando and C2E2 in Chicago, both held on the same weekend. Two of the biggest shows in the country on the same weekend- unprecedented!

Here are a few of the major shows scheduled for 2023:

Planet Comicon Kansas City (March 17-19)

(tickets: Planet Comicon Kansas City 2023 :: GROWTix )

The Midwest’s first big show is this weekend’s gathering at Bartle Hall in downtown Kansas City. Celeb guests include William Shatner, Richard Dreyfuss, Cassandra “Elvira” Peterson, and Giancarlo Esposito, along with voice actors, authors, and wrestlers Kevin Nash and “Jungle Boy” Perry.

Comic creators attending include writers Garth Ennis, Roy Thomas and Chris Claremont, artists Patrick Gleason, Jim Steranko, Todd Nauck, TMNT’s Kevin Eastman, and many more. NASA astronaut Nicole Stott is among other special guests.

Megacon Orlando

Megacon Orlando (March 30-April 2)

(tickets: Buy Tickets | MEGACON Orlando (fanexpohq.com) )

Fan Expo runs this and many other shows around the country, including all the former WizardWorld conventions. Because Orlando is a large tourist destination, flights and lodging are plentiful, there’s plenty else to do and see, but this show is also very busy and large. We were there last year and were amazed at the size of the convention floor.

Celebs include Hayden Christensen, Rosario Dawson, James McAvoy, Chevy Chase, Christie Brinkley, John Cleese and Zachary Levi. Comic creator heavyweights include Frank Miller, Geoff Johns, Joe Quesada, Donny Cates, Frank Cho, Simone Bianchi, and Adam and Andy Kubert.

C2E2 Chicago

C2E2 Chicago (March 31-April 2)

(tickets: Ticket Information (c2e2.com)

Held in downtown Chicago at McCormick Place, this Reed Pop-run show immediately became a “must-go” on the convention scene and food, lodging, and entertainment, are all close by (though the trains still don’t run direct to the venue). We last hit the show several years ago and are overdue for another weekend in the Windy City.

Guests of honor are actors Chris Evans and Tenoch Huerta aka Namor.. Creators scheduled to attend include Arthur Adams, Gene Ha, Joe Staton, Kevin McGuire, Scott Snyder, Sean Murphy, Tony Daniel, and Kyle Higgins.

HeroesCon Charlotte

Heroes Con Charlotte (June 16-18)

(tickets: HEROESCON 2023 :: TICKETS | Eventbrite )

Founded in 1982, this large but small show remains one of the most comic-centric and fan-friendly shows in the country. Usually held over Fathers Day weekend, we loved being there over a decade ago, and can’t wait to return.

Celeb guests: none! This is a real old-school comic convention!

Creators attending include Alan Davis, Mike Grell, Ron Frenz, Lee Weeks, Bill Sienkiewicz, Michael Cho,Matt Kindt, Michael Golden, Rick Leonardi, and numerous others.

Comic Con International San Diego)

Comic Con International: San Diego (July 20-23)

(tickets: Badge Info | Comic-Con International: San Diego )

This is the show that defined the culture and brought the phrase “comic con” into general conversation. The country’s best-known entertainment and pop culture experience, hotels and tickets...err, badges are sold a year in advance through a very specific process, and of course, all is already sold out. World premiere screenings, A-list surprise appearances, and large-scale studio booths are just some of what’s in store.

Initial creator appearances have been announced (including Jim Lee, Jamie and Gilbert Hernandez, Frank Miller, Jock, and Dan Slott) with no schedule highlights yet announced, but anyone who is anyone, will likely be appearing.

Comiket Tokyo)

Comiket (mid-August / December)

(tickets: コミックマーケット100チケット販売について (comiket.co.jp)

Held at Big Sight in South Tokyo both in mid-August and again in December, The Comic Market (Comiket) is the largest comic-related gathering in the world.

Comiket primarily focuses on acting as a communal exchange place for self-published books, known as dojinshi. Japanese dictionaries define dojinshi as self-published material aimed toward like-minded individuals and they also invite any publication (books, music, films, software, etc.) published by individuals not available through standard commercial outlets.

Baltimore Comic Con)

Baltimore Comic Con (September 8-10)

(tickets: Baltimore Comic Con :: GrowTix )

Self-described as “America’s greatest comic book convention”, this like Heroes Con, is a true comic convention that focuses on the hobby, and is a perennial favorite among creators. The venue is in downtown Baltimore (close to the Ravens Stadium) with good infrastructure and plenty of amenities very near the venue.

Celeb /wrestling guests: none! Creators announced so far include Brian Bendis, Howard Chaykin, Frank Cho, Greg Hildebrandt, Al Milgrom, Louise and Walt Simonson, Steve Rude, and Mark Waid.

New York Comic Con)

New York Comic Con (October 12-15)

(tickets: Ticket Pricing and Info (newyorkcomiccon.com))

On paper, this is actually the biggest, most-attended show in the country (some say San Diego under reports their numbers to avoid fire marshall troubles). It takes over the huge Javits Center on Manhattan’s lower West Side and is another well-run Reed Pop show that often features many older classic comic creators as well as newer ones, and entertainment guests.

Guest lists have yet to be revealed but expect plenty of A-List names in all categories.

Lucca Comics and Games – Lucca, IT (November 1-5)

(tickets: Lucca Comics & Games - Molto più di un festival (luccacomicsandgames.com))

Europe’s biggest and the second largest in the world, last year’s show featured special guest Tim Burton and sold a record 320,000 tickets. This year’s show will be it’s 58^th annual, and will, as usual, present their highly regarded international awards of distinction (Yellow Kid Award, Gran Guinigi, etc).

Ticket prices are reasonable and creators appearing represent a wide selection of international artists as well as a few more familiar names, with the show’s gaming portion as or more popular, than the comic side. 

john ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Sci-Fi 2022: Andor, The Peripheral, and Quantum Leap

Read More Star Wars No one likes The Book of Boba Fett. The story is slow, and more than half of it is told in flashback. No one seems to know what the point of the new Boba Fett show is all about. ....

Andor (2022)
disney.com

It seems like no one is watching Andor… or at least you rarely hear people talking about this Star Wars new television show on Disney Plus. Maybe it’s because fans are tired of Star Wars or maybe they’re just not interested in this weird prequel to Star Wars: Rogue One?

For what’s it worth, I think Andor is possibly the best Star Wars television show since The Mandorian.

Andor is about Cassian Andor, five years prior to Rogue One. He starts off with an accidental murder, and follows his story of a grand heist. It’s weird but by episode 6 or 7, the show turned into a prison story. Personally speaking, I didn’t care for the prison story, but the overall story of building a rebellion against the empire is interesting. You can see how the empire started off as bringing order to the galaxy, but slowly turns dark and evil…

The cast is amazing, obviously some were from the film, including Forest Whitaker, reprising his role as a younger Saw Gerrera.

I really love the puppet master, Luthen Rael, who is trying to build this organized rebellion. That amazing starship fight at the end of Andor shows us that he is a real bad-ass! All this time the character is in the shadows and working behind the scene… but when it he’s forced to make a move - he can really throwdown!

Coming off the very disappointing (and boring) Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi television show, Andor was a true delight. It gives me hope that Disney is heading in the right direction, when it comes to quality writing… and I’m very excited to see what Andor Season 2 will bring to Star Wars canon.

Description:

The “Andor” series will explore a new perspective from the Star Wars galaxy, focusing on Cassian Andor’s journey to discover the difference he can make. The series brings forward the tale of the burgeoning rebellion against the Empire and how people and planets became involved. It’s an era filled with danger, deception and intrigue where Cassian will embark on the path that is destined to turn him into a rebel hero.

Read More Westworld HBO has been struggling to find its new hit show since Game of Thrones ended (and it ended badly). Westworld potentially could have been the next-Game of Thrones, but unfortunately Season 2 of Westworld was not good. …

The Peripheral (2022)
amazon.com

There is a great new Sci-Fi television show called The Peripheral that airs on Friday on Amazon Prime. The premier was October 21st, and currently we can only view up to episode 5. So far, I’m loving it.

The series takes place in the future, and centers around Flynne Fisher (played by Chloë Grace Moretz). She thinks she’s trying out some new VR game… but in reality, she’s remote controlling something. I don’t want to give away too much, but I’m sure if you look online, you can find out more.

The show was based on a 2014 book of the same name written by William Gibson and has a Westworld vibe… maybe because Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy serve as executive producers.

Although I am enjoying the show, there are some things that I don’t really think is realistic. For example, there are some some technology from the future that made its way to people in the past. Stuff like invisible cars or sonic blasters… yet no one in the show is surprised or calling in the government. There is also the issue of a hit squad trying to kill Fisher, but they were taken out by Fisher’s brothers and his squad. It was like, huh?

Fisher’s brother is ex-military, and his buddies are all former military… including a triple amputee character, so maybe they can take out a hit squad, but I didn’t really believe it.

Anyway, it’s a good show, I would try and tune in on Friday to see how the story unfolds. Sometime the show is super violent, but if you can stomach it, you’ll like the show.

Description:

The Peripheral centers on Flynne Fisher, a woman trying to hold together the pieces of her broken family in a forgotten corner of tomorrow's America. Flynne is smart, ambitious, and doomed. She has no future. Until the future comes calling for her. The Peripheral is master storyteller William Gibson’s dazzling, hallucinatory glimpse into the fate of mankind — and what lies beyond.

Read More Quantum Leap Dean Stockwell (American actor and recording artist), 85 Former Quantum Leap star Dean Stockwell, an Oscar- and Emmy-nominated actor whose stage, film and TV career spanned more than 70 years and 200 credits, has died ... via deadline.com …

Quantum Leap (2022)
nbc.com

You guys know I love the original Quantum Leap, so I was excited to see that NBC has brought the show back for 2022.

In the original series, Sam Beckett is trying to get home by leaping into random bodies. Each episode is a mystery, and with the help of Al, the hologram from the future, and the computer Ziggy, they work out the mystery and Dr Beckett leaps.

Unfortunately, they’ve decided to go in a different direction in the new show. In the new Asian Quantum Leap, Dr. Ben Song deliberately jumps into the past to save someone. The show is half in the past and half of it is in the future. I absolutely hated whenever you see the future. Who cares about the future characters?

The cast now is diverse, an Asian lead, a white woman hologram, they/them programmer, a black director, an Asian security person… it’s a whole rainbow roster. I hate it that they try and please everybody. I suppose none of that matters, but if only the stories and acting are good. The writing is predictable, and everyone gets so emotional. Think The CW, only on NBC.

The best episode so far is the latest, Episode 8. It’s about four runaway students from some sort of school and they get lost in the woods. In the original history, the kids are never seen again… so it’s up to Ben to save them all with the help of his girlfriend hologram.

Description:

Physicist Ben Song and a newly revamped team embark on a journey through time.

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vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

R.I.P. Nichelle Nichols (Star Trek)

Read More Nichelle Nichols Finally, did you know that Nichelle Nichols (the actress that plays Lieutenant Uhura) have released not one, but two albums ? I actually didn't know she was a recording artist until I started doing research for this article. …

Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed communications officer Uhura from the original Star Trek series, has died on Saturday. She was 89 years old.

We did see her at Wizard World Minneapolis in 2017, but were not allowed to take her photo. To be honest, I thought she looked worse for wear, requiring an assistant and wheelchair to get around.

For Star Trek and music fans, Nichelle Nichols releaesd two albums, Down to Earth and Out of This World.

Variety noted Nichols’ landmark moment:

Nichols shared one of the first interracial kisses in television history on “Star Trek.” That moment, with her co-star William Shatner, was a courageous move on the part of her, “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry and NBC considering the climate at the time, but the episode “Plato’s Stepchildren,” which aired in 1968, was written to give all involved an out: Uhura and Captain Kirk did not choose to kiss but were instead made to do so involuntarily by aliens with the ability to control the movements of humans. Nevertheless, it was a landmark moment.

There had been a couple of interracial kisses on American television before. A year earlier on “Movin’ With Nancy,” Sammy Davis Jr. kissed Nancy Sinatra on the cheek in what appeared to be a spontaneous gesture but was in fact carefully planned. The Uhura-Kirk kiss was likely the first televised white/African American lip-to-lip kiss.

Read more Musicians who died in 2022

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Strange Tales: Men and Crimes of the Future

Men (2022) Read More Alex Garland I am a big fan of A24, the film distributor/producer, ever since Alex Garland’s excellent film Ex Machina in 2015. To be fair, I’m a big Garland fan, owning all his films, including Dredd (owned this twice!), 28 Days Later …

Men (2022)
a24films.com

I love Alex Garland, I love A24, so naturally, I sought out this film. Men is a folk horror film. The Green Man element (the nature part) of the film really reminded me of former horror films like The Wicker Man and Midsomer… all under that folk horror subcategory.

Men is about a woman named Harper Marlowe, who is trying to heal and cope after her husband’s suicide. She goes on holiday at a nice quiet Cotson manor in a small village.

It’s anything but a relaxing stay, as slowly it becomes a horror story about a woman trying to survive all alone. At first, it’s just small, everyday out of place things, like seeing a shadowy figure on the other side of the tunnel. Seeing a naked man outside of an abandoned structure. Those kind of weird unsettling things.

While the first half of the film is slow-burning horror… the second part is more intense and in your face. It’s clear that someone, or perhaps something supernatural, is stalking Harper. Is it in her head or is it real?

Personally speaking, I would have prefer if the movie would have been vague about reality vs the supernatural… but at the end, it’s all supernatural, especially the end with the various birthing.

To me, how I interpreted the film, that the whole thing was in Harper’s head, down her her crashing her car.

Like Garland’s previous Devs television show, I thought the title was bad. My thoughts for Men is the same… the name is just a bad name for a horror film. I know it’s cliché, but they could’ve just called this A Haunting at Cotson Manor, and it would’ve been a better title.

Crimes of the Future (2022) Read More David Cronenberg I'm a big David Cronenberg fan, owning many of his releases on DVDs (including Rabid, Fast Company, The Brood, Videodrome, The Dead Zone, The Fly, Crash, Naked Lunch, Eastern Promises) so I'm really in no hurry to make …

Crimes of the Future (2022)
crimesofthefuture.film

I love David Cronenberg and own many Cronenberg films, including Scanners, Videodrome, and The Fly. I even thought eXistenZ was genius, but for whatever reason, Crimes of the Future didn’t sit right (pun intended for the weird chair in the film) with me.

I actually own Cronenberg’s student film Crimes of the Future from 1970, but it’s not related to the 2022 film… it only shares the title. In this new film, it’s about how humans have evolved beyond or adapted to their polluted environment.

The story is about this guy named Saul Tenser, who has this syndrome, where his body develops new organs. They would constantly remove these new organs and use the surgery as performance art. The whole thing is weird… but it’s definitely a Cronenberg concept of using surgery as a metaphor for sex (like how he used car crashes as sex in Crash).

While I think the concepts and ideas are interesting, it doesn’t make for a good story, in my opinion. The story doesn’t really go anywhere and it just felt boring to me.

Personally speaking, I wish Cronenberg would do more of a eXistenZ sequel, or expand, on the video game/reality story. You can certainly explore more and go further, because it’s a brand new world of Cronenberg’s creation and not bound by rules of the earth… even if it’s in the future.

If you’re looking for a fresh Cronenberg perspective, I suggest checking out his son, Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor. This is a hard-core science fiction/horror film that is a lot more exciting than Crimes of the Future. If you want to stay in the David Cronenberg films, I suggest watching Videodrome and Scanners… they are classic Cronenberg.

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vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

MegaCon Orlando 2022 recap (part one)

Read More MegaCon It was with heavy heart but great admiration to be present for the George Pérez memorial service hosted at MegaCon Orlando inside the sprawling Orange County Convention Center. …

Though it only may be the unofficial start of Summer, it is definitely the official start of comic convention season and we packed up our Avengers Quinjet to fly down to Orlando, FL for the Southeast’s largest show, MegaCon Orlando 2022.

Comic book shows have been held in Central Florida since the 70s, and this particular show began in 1993, with now-defunct publisher CrossGen purchasing it in 1999, and its current UK owner, Informa, taking charge in 2015 under its Fan Expo banner.  Fan Expo more recently also assumed all of the former Wizard World conventions, to host numerous cons in major US/Canadian cities. 

Because of the global pandemic, this four-day show was its true return to form, and with anticipation very high, attendance over the Thursday-Sunday event completely exceeded previous attendance records, as 140,000+ went to the gigantic Orange County Convention Center, resulting in very busy aisles, local traffic congestion and full parking lots, and elbow-to-elbow crowds on its busiest day, Saturday. 

All variations of pop culture were represented, from comics to sci-fi, horror to anime, fantasy to traditional and online gaming, and so much more.  Being located close to the Space Coast, NASA even had a display and hosted several science panels. 

Cosplayers were predictably everywhere, though instead of one large competition to showcase costumes, there was a daily afternoon Cosplay Runway for those to show off their elaborate designs. 

Celebrity guests over the weekend included the casts of Cobra Kai, Clerks, the Hobbit films, numerous voice actors and wrestlers, Lorraine Bracco, LeVar Burton, Gina Carano, Giancarlo Esposito, Brendan Fraser, Nathan Fillion, Caity Lotz, Jes Macallan, James Marsters, and Brent Spiner. 

Comic book creators included several marquee names as well as more recent artists, many traveling in from Italy, Spain, Germany, UK, South Korea, and Singapore and included: Alvaro Martinez Bueno, Greg Capullo, Donny Cates, Tony Daniel, Werther Dell'Edera, Tom King, Adam Kubert, Stanley Artgerm Lau, Inhyuk Lee, Tula Lotay, Marco Mastrazzo, Francesco Mattina, Frank Miller, Ryan Stegman, Mico Suayan, Ivan Tao, James Tynion IV, Ram V, and Zeb Wells, among many others. 

Many of the highest profile events were monetized and involved additional admission, though it was fairly easy to see celebrities in separate panels rather than together (i.e. all four Hobbit stars had their own panels, but their group discussion was at a paid premium).

Artist creator panels often doubled as a fan Q+A along with a friendly sketch duel, involving two or more talents, and there were tribute remembrance panels for recently lost major comic artists, Neal Adams and George Pérez, for fans to share their feelings and stories. 

How-to panels were hosted for those interested in creation of their own costumes, models, games, or tournaments, meetups and speeding dating, and official afterparties were also part of the busy schedule. 

We’ll get into a little more detail in a follow-up column, but it looked to be an overall huge success and the show has already confirmed its next dates- MegaCon Orlando 2023 will occur March 30-April 2.

(click any image to enlarge and see in full)

Unknown Comics booth

Human Claw Machine

sketch duel Bill Morrison v Alex Saviuk

Sketch duel Ryan Stegman v Ryan Ottley

Thing v. Hulk display

Masters of the Universe

1960s Batmobile

Cosplay

Cosplay: My Hero Academia balloons

Cosplay: Ghostbusters

Cosplay: Rocky Horror Picture Show

Cosplay: Warhammer

Friday Crowd at MegaCon Orlando 2022

Marco Mastrazzo, Marco Turini

Jim Shooter

Bueno Dell' Edera Tynion comic panel

Lorraine Bracco

Clerks cast

Ralph Macchio and the Cobra Kai cast at MegaCon Orlando 2022

 

john ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

A24

Read More Son Lux Max Tundra, No Age, The Ruby Suns, Rustie, Son Lux, Sun Airway, A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Taken By Trees, Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu), YACHT, and many more. …

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EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (2022)
a24films.com

A24 recently announced the Everything Everywhere All At Once Official Motion Picture Soundtrack by Son Lux (Ryan Lott, Rafiq Bhatia, and Ian Chang). The film was directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (aka “The Daniels”) and is about a Sci-Fi/Comedy adventure of a Chinese American woman (Michelle Yeoh) who can't seem to finish her taxes.

I haven’t seen the film, but obviously, you know I’ll eventually check out the film.

As for the soundtrack, it’s a massive 49 songs collection, featuring collaborations with Mitski & David Byrne in duet, Randy Newman, and Moses Sumney.

With so many songs (two years in the making and resulting in over two hours of new music), I believe the soundtrack is digital-only… at least for now. If they want to release it on CD, it would have to be multiple discs.

Read More Climax Gaspar Noé’s films are not for everybody. You have to keep that in mind, as you watch his latest film, Climax. The movie is just a very long dance sequence into hell. There is not much of a … Devs I think the show’s title, Devs, is a bad one. I didn’t know what that title would imply, and it took a lot of recommendations from friends and family, before I begrudgingly decided to check it out … Kid Cudi One of the artist songwriter/producer (and actor!) Kid Cudi (Scott Mescudi), has a new third album Indicud. If you're into the DJ/remix scene, chances are you've heard of Cudi, who was "discovered" …

X (2022)
a24films.com

I am a big fan of A24, the film distributor/producer, ever since Alex Garland’s excellent film Ex Machina in 2015. To be fair, I’m a big Garland fan, owning all his films, including Dredd (owned this twice!), 28 Days Later (DVD), Annihilation (Digital), and Devs (which is not available on Bluray at the moment).

Just to give you an idea, A24 is responsible for many of my favorite films, including The Witch (2016), Green Room (2016), Climax (2018), Midsommar (2019), and The Green Knight (2021).

X is like A24’s answer to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). The X film follows a group of filmmakers and actors, heading to a small town in Texas in 1979, to make a pornographic movie. Basically, they all get murdered in horrible ways.

The most interesting thing about the film is that it stars Mia Goth (who got her start in the porno-ish film Nymphomaniac) and Kid Cudi who plays the “man whore”.

While earlier, I dismissed the film for its lack of story, I suppose if you look closer, especially hearing the dialogues from the porno director, RJ. RJ continuously defends his porno film, saying that he’s making “art”, etc. It’s unconvincing, of course, but in many ways, perhaps the real director, Ti West, is saying that he’s making his horror film as “art”. It’s a horror film, let’s just leave it at that.

There’s also a little twist at the end of the film, which I won’t spoil, that surprised me and suddenly one of the character’s motivation and her dialogue made a lot of sense to me.

What is even more amazing is that the end of X isn’t really the end. Apparently, the film’s sequel, Pearl was shot back-to-back during production of X. The film will star Mia Goth again, as a younger pearl (I found out that she actually played Pearl in X, but under heavy makeup).

I’m definitely looking forward to Pearl… any A24 film, I will give it a try.

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Incomplete Films: Dune and Halloween Kills

Read More Star Wars Solo: A Star Wars Story is the latest effort in Disney’s master plan to schedule a new Star Wars film in theaters every year, with character-focused back story tales, supplementing the opposite-year’s main storyline. ....

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DUNE
legendary.com

Many say that Frank Herbert’s book Dune was unfilmable… but I think director Denis Villeneuve did a fantastic job with his adaption, at least the first part, of the book. David Lynch made an attempt at bringing the book to screen in 1984, but it’s hard to follow or understand… while Alejandro Jodorowsky (the man who made such cult classics like The Holy Mountain and El Topo) tried and failed to get his Dune version made.

While the action, the world, and characters, are all amazing, the problem with the 2021 film is that there is no ending, no resolution. The film basically ends at the point when Paul, from house Atreides, finds the people of Dune (actually the film only refers to this planet as Arrakis), the Fremen people.

My other problem with the film are some of the characters. Duncan Idaho is a cool, bad-ass character… but when it’s played by Jason Momoa, I just felt like he’s doing Aquaman. His colorful character didn’t blend in with the tone of the other moody, “serious” characters. The other character, Chani (played by Zendaya), who is promoted in the trailers, hardly appears in the film. Her role may be bigger in the next film, but in Part 1, she has like maybe four lines in the film.

As a result of the (lack of) ending, it just felt that Dune is an incomplete film. That’s my only complaint about the film. Otherwise, they did a great job in making the dense book comprehensible to the average viewer.

Watching the film, you can see that clearly the story and ideas inspired George Lucas to make Star Wars and other works (I can also see elements of it in George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones).

The 2021 film is so good that I’m inspired to re-watch the David Lynch film and seeking out the Sci-Fi mini-series… just to see the differences.

Read More John Carpenter Legendary horror film direct John Carpenter is currently on tour, can you believe it ? He’ll be stopping by the Myth, with a full live band, to play some of his film scores… including the very popular theme song for ‘Halloween’. ....

HALLOWEEN KILLS
peacocktv.com

You know I love John Carpenter. Carpenter’s original Halloween film inspired so many slasher films, like Friday the 13th. The latest Halloween film, Halloween Kills, is number 12 in the movie franchise. Halloween Kills is the sequel and 2/3 of the trilogy started by 2018’s Halloween film.

In this trilogy, it ignores all the previous Halloween films, including H20, except for the original film. If you follow that timeline, then 1978’s Halloween started the story… then 40 years later, Michael Myers, escaped from the psychiatric hospital, to go back on his murdering spree.

Halloween Kills takes place only minutes after the 2018 film, so I suggest you re-watch that for a refresher, so you can follow the story in the 2021 film.

Despite all the gruesome kills, this is an awful movie. Lead actress Jamie Lee Curtis spends pretty much the entire film in a hospital, while the town folks of Russellville is in the spotlight. Unfortunately, the entire town is written so poorly, that you almost root for Myers to kill them all. I hated everyone in the film, including the stupid kids, portrayed in the film.

Basically, the movie is about the townsfolk vs Michael Myers – and guess who wins? That’s the movie, unfortunately, you’ll have to come back for Halloween Ends to see how the story ends.

Perhaps when I see all three films, Halloween, Halloween Kills, and Halloween Ends, I can fully appreciate what they’ve done… but, right now, Halloween Kills seems like a filler. I almost feel like you can skip this film entirely and go straight for the ending (which won’t come out until 2022).

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Sci-Fi 2020

Read More Films As a Christmas gift to myself, I decided to get one of my favorite Scanners on Criterion Blu-Ray. This three-disc edition is a nice upgrade to my MGM DVD. I haven't had a chance to look over the special …

POSSESSOR (2020)
possessormovie.com

One of the goriest, most disturbing films of all time, Possessor came out on 4K/Bluray/DVD earlier in October 2020 … but I finally bought it recently. Wow, I would agree with Film Threat calling this film “the first great Sci-Fi Horror movie of the decade.”

I would put this film in the Horror category… the Sci-Fi elements comes from the technology that allows the Possessor, Tasya Vos, to take control of another person using a remote circuitry that is inserted in the victim’s head. In this film, it appears to be the future, but at the same time, all the buildings and furniture looks like they’re from the 70s… so you can’t quite place your finger on the timeline (however, according to the movie, it took place in 2008!).

The story is not perfect, for example, I’m more curious about how the authorities have not cracked down (or even aware) of this monstrous remote assassination company? Or the fact that there is not anti-possessor technology?

The film also suffers from pacing, with some scenes going on too long. For example, there are scenes that are so extreme and over-the-top, that it felt over indulgent on Brandon Cronenberg’s part. It’s like he wants to shock us, or daring the movie industry to censor him, or maybe trying to live up to his dad (David Cronenberg). Do we need to zoom in on a person’s head being bashed in and losing his teeth? Wait, we’ll turn it up a notch and poke out his eye. The camera does not flinch, it just focusses on the horrifying act. Maybe it wasn’t very long, but it felt like an eternity.

Speaking of which, it definitely feels like a (David) Cronenberg film… and although this is only Brandon’s second film, I am very excited to see more from this young director.

Otherwise, the film is very interesting. After seeing a successful assassination using the Possessor’s method, we’re briefed on Vos’ next assignment: possessing Colin Tate to murder his fiancé and her father. Of course, the problem is that Vos lost control of her host, shortly after the murders, and now Colin is trying to get to the bottom of this horrific crime.

The ending is pretty shocking… and I recommend checking out the Uncut version.

PS, I bought this film on Bluray, but realized that I intentionally bought the Rated R version. It is annoying, I wish Well Go USA would have just packaged the Uncut and Rated version onto one release.

PARALLEL (2018)
vert-ent.com

The Sci-Fi thriller Parallel came out in 2018, via the movie festival circuit, but it was finally officially release “in Theaters” and streaming media on December 11, 2020.

I have to say that this is a pretty indie smart Science Fiction thriller. The film reminds me of Time Lapse (2014), which is another low-budget film around a stationary camera that takes photos one day in the future. In Parallel, the story revolves around a station mirror that allows a person to enter into another parallel dimension.

Some problems I had with the film is how the group of four friends discovered the hidden room and mirror. I know the four friends are smart, but it seems really questionable how they all arrived in the same conclusion of this magical mirror.

Like television show, Counterpart, the two dimensions are the same… but there are minor differences. In Counterpart, the scientists made one small “Butterfly Effect” that made the two universes to be completely different. In Parallel, there are characters that doesn’t exist or have died early, so the two universes are not the same. However, if you take Counterpart’s logic that one tiny change could result in a completely different world… it doesn’t work that way in Parallel. So, accepting Parallel’s world as almost identical to the real world is not believable (especially if the dead person may have children or affected someone else’s lives…)

Anyway, the friends work out that one minute of the parallel universe time is actually three hours in their world. They also work out that every time they enter that other universe, it’s a completely different dimension - meaning that any mark they left in that other world is reset or completely gone when they re-enter the mirror.

The four friends took advantage of this other universe by using that time difference to work on their software. Then they keep abusing the portal for self-gain, like stealing money or ideas from the other world. For example, you can spend a few months in the other world to see what’s popular and then come back with that same “idea”. There are no consequences, because that other time cease to exist when they return back to their normal world (at least that’s the theory).

The story is fun, fast-pacing, and you can easily follow what’s going on. Things gets out of control when one of the characters is mortally wounded. I won’t go on about what happened next, but it does come to a very logical conclusion.

TENET (2020)
tenetfilm.com

One of the most anticipated films of all time, Tenet, finally came out on 4K, Bluray, DVD, and digital, on December 15, 2020. This Sci-Fi/Action thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan was delayed numerous times due to COVID-19, but when it was finally released, it failed to save cinema.

Maybe I’m just stupid, but Nolan’s high-concept and directional choices left me confused and disinterested in the story. I will try to explain the story, as to the best of my understanding. The film is about a CIA agent (unnamed), working for a secret organization, Tenet, trying to uncover the mystery of these bullets from the future. The bullets are reversed, so you don’t “fire” the gun, but “catch” the bullet, because of its “inverted” properties.

The film plays around with time and the idea of time. Nolan is no stranger to these concepts, considering that his first big breakout film, Memento, was told from the ending to the beginning.

While the concept of reversing time through these artifacts from the future, the story and dialogues are often confusing. You’re told that the world will end with this formula, some algorithm, but it’s a vague idea. Why was this formula so dangerous? Why are reverse explosions dangerous? You never quite understand. Most of the “technical” dialogues and characters talking are nonsensical to me. Maybe it’s because they’re British, but it’s shouldn’t be so hard to follow?

Anyway, the film is a mess, and I already hated The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar… so Tenet is Nolan’s third strike for me.

So, yeah, I don’t recommend Tenet. You’re better off enjoying any movie with a start, a middle, and an ending. Maybe Nolan is ahead of his time, but for the present time, I am not a fan.

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ facebook.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

TV: Devs and Star Trek: Picard

Still under relatively lockdown, and now with the George Floyd riots, I’ve been staying mostly indoors and watching long-form television shows.

With Scott Pilgrim vs the World returning to theaters for its 10 year anniversary in August 2020… Here are two recent Sex Bob-omb’s drummer Alison Pill’s Sci-Fi shows you can watch now… although I don’t recommend one of them.

Read More Movies The British horror film 28 Days Later came out at a time (2002) that there was a dry-spell in the Zombie movie genre. This film may have inspired the term “fast zombies” (all George Romero’s zombie films have always been slow-moving zombies)… …

DEVS
fxnetworks.com

I think the show’s title, Devs, is a bad one. I didn’t know what that title would imply, and it took a lot of recommendations from friends and family, before I begrudgingly decided to check it out. Spoiler alert, I really love Devs.

Going beyond the fantastic science fiction of a computer that can map the past (and therefore apply it to see the future)… the show is really about a love story. You don’t realize it’s a love story, until it hits you, and you noticed that all the clues were there.

All the actors were amazing, particularly Sonoya Mizuno as Lily Chan and Jin Ha as Jamie. Two Asian leads and they really carry the show.

I don’t think there will be a Devs Season 2, nor do I want one, as the ending to Season 1 is so good and wraps up the show nicely. Some shows shouldn’t go on more than one season, like Watchmen.

If you don’t take my word for it, take the writer/director/show runner Alex Garland’s body of work. He wrote: The Beach, 28 Days Later, Sunshine , Never Let Me Go, and Dredd. For the most part, I have enjoyed most of his films (particularly Dredd and 28 Days Later). I also own his directorial debut for Ex Machina.

P.S. Scott Pilgrim Sex Bob-omb’s drummer Alison Pill stars in Dev.

About:

In Devs, an FX limited series, a young software engineer, Lily Chan, investigates the secret development division of her employer, a cutting-edge tech company based in Silicon Valley, which she believes is behind the murder of her boyfriend.

Devs stars Sonoya Mizuno as “Lily Chan;” Nick Offerman as “Forest,” the CEO of Amaya; Jin Ha as “Jamie,” Lily’s former boyfriend; Karl Glusman as “Sergei,” Lily’s boyfriend; Zach Grenier as “Kenton,” Amaya’s Head of Security; Stephen McKinley Henderson as “Stewart,” one of the top minds working in Amaya’s secret development division; Cailee Spaeny as the young, brilliant “Lyndon;” and Alison Pill as “Katie,” the gifted quantum physicist and second in command at Amaya.

Alex Garland writes, directs and serves as executive producer of Devs along with Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich of DNA TV, Scott Rudin, Eli Bush and Garrett Basch. The series is produced by FX Productions.

Read More Star Trek You know I love Star Trek, so it is a sad day when I saw that original Spock actor Leonard Nimoy is dead. Live long and prosper. ....

STAR TREK: PICARD
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As many of you already know, I’m a longtime Trekker, and so, originally, I was excited about Star Trek: Discovery, you quickly realize this new Star Trek by Alex Kurtzman, is definitely not the Star Trek I wanted. It’s like whoever is making new Star Trek don’t understand the franchise creator Gene Roddenberry’s idea of a bright future.

ST:D Season 2 is one of the worst shows I’ve ever seen. You have characters saying “I like science!” to a bomb that destroys everything except for a “blast door”. It’s just stupid. Red Letter Media did a pretty good job making fun of it on their YouTube. You can tell they’re fans, who thought the new Star Trek so overdramatic and had terrible writing.

I gave Star Trek: Picard a chance, of course. ST:P is simply the worst Star Trek in my ranking… yes, even worst than Star Trek: Enterprise. Even though I didn’t love Enterprise, I still own the Bluray and DVDs, because I love Science Fiction and Star Trek. With new Star Trek, I just refuse to buy the DVDs or Blurays, because I’ve no interest in owning these depressing new Star Trek.

ST:P continues this dark universe, characters like Raffi is living as “white trash” trailer and addicted to drugs. Romulans can just teleport anywhere … why not teleport the characters out to their death prison or something? Plus, the most unforgiving thing about new Star Trek is that they say the F-word. Star Trek has always been all-ages. This new Star Trek is not for children.

Picard is just a bad show, I am not going to recommend it for Sci-Fi fans… and especially if you like Star Trek. If you like Star Trek, there is a show called The Orville, which is a Star Trek knock off… but they have an understanding of classic Star Trek. Or if you just want realistic Sci-Fi, The Expanse is an excellent show.

PS, Sex Ba-bomb’s drummer Alison Pill plays Agnes Jurati, an expert on synthetic life, is part of Picard’s crew.

About:

Star Trek: Picard features Sir Patrick Stewart reprising his iconic role as Jean-Luc Picard, which he played for seven seasons on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The new series will follow this iconic character into the next chapter of his life.

The series is produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment. Alex Kurtzman, Michael Chabon, Akiva Goldsman, James Duff, Patrick Stewart, Heather Kadin, Rod Roddenberry, and Trevor Roth serve as executive producers and Aaron Baiers (Secret Hideout) serves as co-executive producer and Kirsten Beyer as supervising producer. Hanelle Culpepper will direct the first two episodes of the series.

Vuart: Sheer F*** Hubris (2020)

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Sci-Fi and Fantasy Television shows of 2019

Watchmen Read More Watchmen Anyway, I'll be taking it easy today, maybe re-read The Watchmen as I just saw the movie in theater over the weekend and was really impressed. As an old comic book fan (especially when it comes to the genius of Alan Moore), I loved it - …

Read more Television.

WATCHMEN
hbo.com/watchmen

HBO’s Watchmen Television show is possibly my favorite TV show of 2019.

The TV show expands on the influential Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons comic book… and it totally works. Instead of re-telling the story in a television format (like how the movie retold the graphic novel), what the show producers did was tell a different story – one set 30 years after the original event. And they honor the original work, by keep in the giant squid monster and going with that idea (in the movie, they changed the ending). It’s clear to me, based on all the homages that the writers all knew (and are fans) of the source material. It’s the love of those things that expands into their story.

One of the coolest thing they did in the show was give Hooded Justice an origin story. And you’ll never guess who and why he wears the hood! It’s unbelievable smart how they answered all the questions you may or may not have about the first “super hero”. In the comic book, they reference the original Minutemen, but you never really got much of a back story for any of those characters… so it’s very cool that the TV show explored Hooded Justice.

As a big fan of the graphic novel, I’m going to have to give it a big thumbs up. I love the comic book, and seeing that story taken to the next step, I love it. Unfortunately, I feel sometime that fans unfamiliar with the comic book (or have only seen the movie), might not fully enjoy all the little Easter “Eggs”, or somewhat complicated plot in the show. The show might be too clever for the average viewer.

I don’t think show creator, Damon Lindelof, should do a Season 2, there’s really no good reasons for them to continue this story.

Witcher Read More The Witcher I also picked up The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, at Walmart, which came with a lot of bonus items like a DVD and Soundtrack (all at the normal cost of a game product). They are on the right track, I definitely …

WITCHER
netflix.com

Critics absolutely hates Netflix’s The Witcher. The reason is that they don’t generally love the source material (a series of fantasy books) and they don’t play the video games. Since they don’t know the books or games, there’s a disconnect and they’re just lost and confused. One critic was so bored, he or she skipped a few episodes to get the plot moving. One critic just cringed at all the nudity.

Sure, there’s nudity, and actress Anya Chalotra (Yennefer) is very comfortable in her birthday suit, but who cares? I didn’t mind it and I think it’s true to the Witcher universe.

I think the biggest problem I have with the show is that I might know too much about the world of the Witcher (via the CD Projekt Red’s games) and was very disappointed to see that the actress (Anna Shaffer) that played Triss Merigold isn’t a redhead (as seen in the game).

I also have a certain vision of Ciri (from the game) that didn’t entirely matched with actress Freya Allan. I know not everyone is going look like the video game, but c’mon, Henry Cavill, is a straight match for the video game version of Geralt of Rivia, even down his “hmph” and talking to Roach, his horse.

I guess it just comes down to if the actress is good, it shouldn’t matter what they look like.

Anyway, the wide divide of critics vs fans is obvious to me - this genre television is meant for fans and clearly not directed to “professional” critics. If you look at Rotten Tomatoes, this divide is also seen in The Orville (fans love it, critics hated it) and Batwoman (fans hated it, critics loved it). As a fan of the game and television, I would have to think that the critics just don’t understand.

Expanse Season 4 Read More The Expanse Song of the Show: "Heroes" by David Bowie BONUS: The Walking Dead: Season 6 (part one), The Expanse. …

EXPANSE
amazon.com

Possibly the best Science Fiction television show on air right now is The Expanse (no, it’s not Star Trek: Discovery). As I previously mentioned, I love this show.

In the world of the Expanse, there are three major factions: Earth, Mars, and the Belters… and the show is so smart (or rather the books it was based on is so smart), that it looks the long-term effect of living without gravity, etc.

Originally, SyFy produced the show. It was probably too expensive for the network and probably wasn’t worth what they were paying for their audience. The show looks fantastic, and the stories are amazing.

Admittedly, the show does take a little patience. The first three season of the Expanse is actually just the “setup” to what the Expanse is really about! It’s so epic, that it took that long to get to the point. Unfortunately, right when they got to the new worlds - SyFy cancelled the series!

There was a massive campaign, put on by the fans, to get another network to continue the series. Through a random chance meeting with the cast, Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, he decided to just finance the fourth season!

The fourth season sees our favorite crew, James Holden and his crew (Naomi Nagata, Alex Kamal, and Amos Burton) investigating this new planet. There’s complications, of course, Belters vs the Earths (Royal Charter Energy), and Holden caught in the middle.

My biggest complaint about Season 4 is that it seemed like a really short story. They’re basically stuck on this planet and eventually in these ancient ruins (built by the original creators).

My other complaint is the storyline with Bobbie Draper on Mars. It just felt like it wasn’t going anywhere… I know eventually her path will lead back to Holden, but it’s not in Season 4.

I love seeing Detective Joe Miller back, and I love the new villain, head security Adolphus Murtry. Although, if you ask him, he doesn’t think he’s the bad guy, he’s only looking to protect his crew.

Anyway, give me more Expanse!

Mr Robot Season 4 Read More Mr Robot After resisting the television show Mr Robot on USA Network, I gave in and watched the first season. It was pretty good, it did remind me of plot from Fight Club... and despite figuring out the “twist” midway into the first season …

MR ROBOT
usanetwork.com

I love Mr Robot. After a long two-year break, I was ready to get back into Mr Robot on its final season.

Unfortunately, I have not been loving Season 4 at all. I feel like maybe they kept digging a hole in the story, especially since they setup one lone hacker, Elliot Alderson against the Dark Army (a cyber-terrorist organization of hardcore killers and assassins). There’s no contest… and the only reason why Elliot is alive is that BD Wong (aka Whiterose) is allowing him to live.

I understand it’s just a television show, but I’ve always thought the story and characters were grounded in reality and I can relate to the interesting hacks that Elliot was pulling off.

With Season 4, the story appears to take place in the course of a day or two days - leading up to Christmas. In those few days, you see that Elliot does sleep or eat all day! There was that getting lost in a park in the middle of nowhere, the big police chase, getting kidnapped, and then the big White Rose hack. I mean, take a break from getting hit by a car and falling down a bridge!!! It’s just hard to believe.

The show also feels very different, starting with the episode with Darlene and Dominique. That ending of will they or won’t they make it on the plane is just awful. It’s like some bad romantic comedy.

Then there’s this alternate dimension episode, which felt really out of place for Mr Robot! I couldn’t believe it, and it just didn’t make any sense.

The final two episodes will air tonight (December 22nd), and, as of this writing, I have not seen it yet… but I’m not exactly looking forward to finding out how it will end.

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ facebook.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic