Greetings, Programs!
The film will have music by Daft Punk!
Thanks to JG for getting me my fixx!
Keep on beepin on~
Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
STAR TREK: same destiny, different universe =)
STAR TREK. A ton of fun, like a brilliant 20-year high school reunion with old friends, only, y'know, you WANT to go. A clever and welcome departure from the take-no-chances pseudo-continuity of the STAR TREK universe as we've known it for 40 some-odd years.
I'm not gonna hold back here, so beware that you're entering ***SPOILER*** territory...
Abrams, Orci, and Kurtzman take a tired (but for my money, still enjoyable, when done well) TREK device, time travel, but this time, use it to CHANGE history, creating an alternate timeline. The source of this time anomaly is in the STAR TREK universe we've known for decades (aka TREK Prime), in whicn Ambassador Spock embarks on a mission to save the Romulan homeworld from destruction, racing to keep its sun from going supernova. Alas, he arrives too late to save Romulus, but attempts to contain the supernova using Red Matter, each drop of which can apparently spawn a black hole. Of course, this Red Matter, deployed into the expanding supernova, results in the creation of a singularity that sucks Spock's ship, along with a massive Romulan mining vessel, out of spacetime in the 24th(?) century, and deposits them in the 23rd. The Romulan ship is immediately confronted by a Federation Starship, the U.S.S. Kelvin, its first officer, one George Kirk (father's name, Tiberius =). The Romulan captain, Nero, blames Spock for the destruction of his homeworld, and seeks his ship. When Nero finds that the Kelvin has no knowledge of Spock's whereabouts, he orders its destruction. His Captain captured and presumed killed, First Officer Kirk takes command, orders everyone, including his pregnant wife, to abandon ship, and pilots the ship on a collision course into the heart of Nero's behemoth. He sacrifices himself to buy his crew time and safety, but not before he and his wife agree to name their newborn boy James.
Although I feel like some of the details surrounding this movie's choice of time jumping phenom are a bit clunky and/or thin, I hafta say that I love the way the movie, and the characters, come together to lay the groundwork for so much potential TREK goodness.
Looking forward...
This does NOT obliterate the stories and continuum that we all grew up with. Those stories have happened, and will continue to have happened, no matter what is written for the crew of the Enterprise that we meet in this movie. We've seen this before in TREK-dom. They are separate, parallel, timelines, in the way that the "Mirror, Mirror," aka evil goateed timeline and the WRATH OF KHAN (TREK Prime) timeline are.
There are at least two beautiful things that come out of this...
1. Destiny. In at least two timelines, this Enterprise crew, this particular bridge crew, is fated to be together, and under the leadership of James T. Kirk. In the TREK Prime timeline, Commander Spock served as Captain Pike's first officer on an Enterprise mission to a planet of beings who abducted the captain to study and test humanity. Years later, after the Kirk has taken the Captain's chair, Spock defies the chain of command to come to the aid of his former captain, paralyzed and ailing, confined to a space wheelchair that allows him to communicate only thru electric signals (see original series episodes "The Cage" and "The Menagerie," and maybe FUTURAMA =).
Anyhow, Kirk's Enterprise crew was NOT Pike's Enterprise crew. None of them step up to claim friendship, loyalty, or experience with the Captain. Which means to me that the crew that we know and love was assembled after Pike captained the Enterprise, before, or perhaps early on in, Kirk's five year mission.
Now, the event which spawns the divergent, alternate timeline of the movie is the encounter of the U.S.S. Kelvin with Nero's mining behemoth. This encounter ends badly for the Federation, with the loss of a starship and the death of two of its captains within a dozen minutes. The second, George Kirk, gives his life and his ship to buy time for the survival of his crew, fleeing in shuttles, including his wife, who gives birth to James during George's last seconds of life.
Enough drama for ya?
So, James is pre-emptively robbed of years of fathering. I'm a little fuzzy on the influence of Kirk's dad in the Prime timeline, but I could imagine it leading to his joining the Federation a few years earlier than he does in this movie. In the movie, he bums around Iowa, working at giving the local Academy trainees a hard time (which could be good or bad, depending on if you're female)... Something of a GOOD JAMES T. HUNTING punk.
When Pike, an old friend of George Kirk, challenges James to do something with his life and join Starfleet, he jumps on the last shuttle out. On board he meets cadets Bones McCoy and Uhura. What are the odds?
Three years and one overly cavalier performance in the Kobayashi Maru simulation later, on board the Enterprise, Jim and Bones meet Pike's bridge crew, including one Sulu, Chekhov, and Mr. Spock. When the communications officer proves deficient at xenolingusitics, short skirted Uhura is ordered to take his place.
That's almost everybody. What are the odds?
Later, after the destruction of Vulcan, Spock chooses a pretty harsh disciplinary measure to demonstrate his authority as acting Captain (Captain Pike having been abducted by the enemy), and launches Kirk in an escape pod to the frozen surface of a moon in the Vulcan system. The pod computer notifies Kirk that there is a Starfleet outpost nearby and he should await retrieval. Of course, he sets out on his own.
After a STAR WARS-y attack by two higher-ups in the local food chain, including a requisite sci-fi/horror vagina beasty, we learn that this is the same planetoid on which Romulan blue-collar baddie Nero deposited timeline-jumping Spock Prime, in an overly romantic execution of poetic justice.
Both Kirk and Spock Prime are deposited on the same frozen moon by two different individuals. AND, we soon discover, the moon is home to a Starfleet outpost currently manned by one Montgomery Scott, apparently exiled to this duty after some transgression or other at the academy. Also, the one man in the universe at that time who could assemble just the device/s necessary to get James Kirk back on board the Enterprise in mid-warp.
What are the odds?
Do you see what I, and the movie, are getting at here? It's a notion that you'll have seen many times in comic books and alternate history fiction. That certain individuals, and sometimes certain teams of individuals, are destined for unique roles, and greatness in those roles. Sure, our sample set is only two timelines out of infinity, but MAN, the odds that this new timeline stretches are pretty frickin astronomical. I've gotta believe that this crew of Starfleet officers and cadets is a must-have in 99 out of 100 timelines in the STAR TREK multiverse.
Kee-razy. Maybe you don't need to think about it that way. Cuz there's more than enough going on minute to minute in the movie to enjoy without this extra level of... I dunno... romance, I guess. But for my money, and my comic book incubated sensibilities, this level is a wonderful bonus payoff.
Frack. That simple notion took longer than I anticipated to spell out. I suppose I should be surprised, eh?
I'll hafta save point number two for a next post.
Keep on beepin on~
I'm not gonna hold back here, so beware that you're entering ***SPOILER*** territory...
Abrams, Orci, and Kurtzman take a tired (but for my money, still enjoyable, when done well) TREK device, time travel, but this time, use it to CHANGE history, creating an alternate timeline. The source of this time anomaly is in the STAR TREK universe we've known for decades (aka TREK Prime), in whicn Ambassador Spock embarks on a mission to save the Romulan homeworld from destruction, racing to keep its sun from going supernova. Alas, he arrives too late to save Romulus, but attempts to contain the supernova using Red Matter, each drop of which can apparently spawn a black hole. Of course, this Red Matter, deployed into the expanding supernova, results in the creation of a singularity that sucks Spock's ship, along with a massive Romulan mining vessel, out of spacetime in the 24th(?) century, and deposits them in the 23rd. The Romulan ship is immediately confronted by a Federation Starship, the U.S.S. Kelvin, its first officer, one George Kirk (father's name, Tiberius =). The Romulan captain, Nero, blames Spock for the destruction of his homeworld, and seeks his ship. When Nero finds that the Kelvin has no knowledge of Spock's whereabouts, he orders its destruction. His Captain captured and presumed killed, First Officer Kirk takes command, orders everyone, including his pregnant wife, to abandon ship, and pilots the ship on a collision course into the heart of Nero's behemoth. He sacrifices himself to buy his crew time and safety, but not before he and his wife agree to name their newborn boy James.
Although I feel like some of the details surrounding this movie's choice of time jumping phenom are a bit clunky and/or thin, I hafta say that I love the way the movie, and the characters, come together to lay the groundwork for so much potential TREK goodness.
Looking forward...
This does NOT obliterate the stories and continuum that we all grew up with. Those stories have happened, and will continue to have happened, no matter what is written for the crew of the Enterprise that we meet in this movie. We've seen this before in TREK-dom. They are separate, parallel, timelines, in the way that the "Mirror, Mirror," aka evil goateed timeline and the WRATH OF KHAN (TREK Prime) timeline are.
There are at least two beautiful things that come out of this...
1. Destiny. In at least two timelines, this Enterprise crew, this particular bridge crew, is fated to be together, and under the leadership of James T. Kirk. In the TREK Prime timeline, Commander Spock served as Captain Pike's first officer on an Enterprise mission to a planet of beings who abducted the captain to study and test humanity. Years later, after the Kirk has taken the Captain's chair, Spock defies the chain of command to come to the aid of his former captain, paralyzed and ailing, confined to a space wheelchair that allows him to communicate only thru electric signals (see original series episodes "The Cage" and "The Menagerie," and maybe FUTURAMA =).
Anyhow, Kirk's Enterprise crew was NOT Pike's Enterprise crew. None of them step up to claim friendship, loyalty, or experience with the Captain. Which means to me that the crew that we know and love was assembled after Pike captained the Enterprise, before, or perhaps early on in, Kirk's five year mission.
Now, the event which spawns the divergent, alternate timeline of the movie is the encounter of the U.S.S. Kelvin with Nero's mining behemoth. This encounter ends badly for the Federation, with the loss of a starship and the death of two of its captains within a dozen minutes. The second, George Kirk, gives his life and his ship to buy time for the survival of his crew, fleeing in shuttles, including his wife, who gives birth to James during George's last seconds of life.
Enough drama for ya?
So, James is pre-emptively robbed of years of fathering. I'm a little fuzzy on the influence of Kirk's dad in the Prime timeline, but I could imagine it leading to his joining the Federation a few years earlier than he does in this movie. In the movie, he bums around Iowa, working at giving the local Academy trainees a hard time (which could be good or bad, depending on if you're female)... Something of a GOOD JAMES T. HUNTING punk.
When Pike, an old friend of George Kirk, challenges James to do something with his life and join Starfleet, he jumps on the last shuttle out. On board he meets cadets Bones McCoy and Uhura. What are the odds?
Three years and one overly cavalier performance in the Kobayashi Maru simulation later, on board the Enterprise, Jim and Bones meet Pike's bridge crew, including one Sulu, Chekhov, and Mr. Spock. When the communications officer proves deficient at xenolingusitics, short skirted Uhura is ordered to take his place.
That's almost everybody. What are the odds?
Later, after the destruction of Vulcan, Spock chooses a pretty harsh disciplinary measure to demonstrate his authority as acting Captain (Captain Pike having been abducted by the enemy), and launches Kirk in an escape pod to the frozen surface of a moon in the Vulcan system. The pod computer notifies Kirk that there is a Starfleet outpost nearby and he should await retrieval. Of course, he sets out on his own.
After a STAR WARS-y attack by two higher-ups in the local food chain, including a requisite sci-fi/horror vagina beasty, we learn that this is the same planetoid on which Romulan blue-collar baddie Nero deposited timeline-jumping Spock Prime, in an overly romantic execution of poetic justice.
Both Kirk and Spock Prime are deposited on the same frozen moon by two different individuals. AND, we soon discover, the moon is home to a Starfleet outpost currently manned by one Montgomery Scott, apparently exiled to this duty after some transgression or other at the academy. Also, the one man in the universe at that time who could assemble just the device/s necessary to get James Kirk back on board the Enterprise in mid-warp.
What are the odds?
Do you see what I, and the movie, are getting at here? It's a notion that you'll have seen many times in comic books and alternate history fiction. That certain individuals, and sometimes certain teams of individuals, are destined for unique roles, and greatness in those roles. Sure, our sample set is only two timelines out of infinity, but MAN, the odds that this new timeline stretches are pretty frickin astronomical. I've gotta believe that this crew of Starfleet officers and cadets is a must-have in 99 out of 100 timelines in the STAR TREK multiverse.
Kee-razy. Maybe you don't need to think about it that way. Cuz there's more than enough going on minute to minute in the movie to enjoy without this extra level of... I dunno... romance, I guess. But for my money, and my comic book incubated sensibilities, this level is a wonderful bonus payoff.
Frack. That simple notion took longer than I anticipated to spell out. I suppose I should be surprised, eh?
I'll hafta save point number two for a next post.
Keep on beepin on~
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
LOST: Catch a falling star, put it in your pocket...
I believe that a baby black hole "powers" the Island. It's the perfect not-completely-understandable might-as-well-be-magic spacetime-bending theoretic-physically-kinda-possible phenomenon to pseudo-scientifically account for most of the weirdness associated w the Island and inflicted upon our Losties.
Also, have you caught the (to my mind, unusual and conspicuous) choice of lullaby for Aaron? "Catch a falling star, put it in your pocket...?" I think that's what happened with/to the Island. A black hole was created within it or collided with it from space.
As much as I'd like for fresh-off-the-sub Daniel to be something other than our ragged Daniel (like a twin, or his own father, or a future/older Daniel) I think the "simplest" explanation will probably prevail. That he *is* our ragged Daniel, just cleaned up after a couple years off-Island playing the role of premier DI scientist in the civilized world.
I would LOVE for him to have been the scientist who developed the Lamppost, which is what I hoped for when Eloise first introduced it... but how would that have happened...?
Our ragged Faraday would join the Orchid work crew and get into the wheel chamber, or at least to those bore holes that penetrated into the chamber, to access the "negatively charged exotic particles," and with a coconut and bamboo time machine, launch himself farther back in time, and maybe off the Island, to become the DI scientist who develops the Lamppost, which leads the DI to the Island.
Y'know, that could've happened already, sometime between 1974 and 1977, but a LOST time jump seems to require and discharge a lot of energy, so it's unlikely it could've been done secretly or quietly...
MAYbe... it hasn't happened yet. MAYbe, our ragged Faraday *has* been a kinda wacko Charlotte's creepy uncle hermit in the DI on the Island for three years, and crisp future F.O.S. Faraday has returned to the Island coincidentally/fatefully/because he'd already experienced what's about to come—the Swan Incident that sends ragged Faraday farther back in time (to become the DI sage who creates the Lamppost) and returns crisp Faraday and the Losties to the present day...
I like that.
Which of course means it's totally wacked and wrong.
A few posts back, I mentioned the cop-out idea of the Island being the site of a shipwrecked spaceship or spacetimeship. It's kind of a cop-out, cuz it sort of cheapens what sacrifice and faith and crises of faith that the Losties and Others have had to endure. But, y'know, I'm finding more and more potential in the idea. It doesn't have to cheapen the harrowing and inspiring experiences of our favorite characters because the Island doesn't have to be the cause of everything. People, and their beliefs and greed and relationships, do. The Island could be a cosmic McGuffin. A little REPO MAN, but of course, I don't think of that as a bad thing.
So, maybe the black hole is the power source of the spaceship that crashed into the Island millions of years ago. OR, the spaceship, with an exotic particle drive, is the falling star that's put in a dimensional pocket on earth. Over time, geology and the spacetime bending-force of the black hole/hyperdrive caused the Island to overgrow the extraterrestrial technology, to the point where you can't tell where one ends and the other begins. I originally thought the Orchid would be the stardrive and the Swan would be a regulator for its power. The Orchid would have been designed to push the spaceship thru time and space. Early Islanders (or crash survivors?) would discover the damaged Orchid chamber and rig a primitive workaround interface from available materials, the Wheel, to try to reactivate it.
Ben and Christian and Widmore speak about moving the Island somoewhat matter-of-factly, as a last resort defense against outsiders. So, we can assume that in the Island's history, turning the wheel moved the Island safely thru space, without jumping thru time. The chaotic power of the Orchid was regulated to do that. However, when Ben turns the wheel, what about the Island is different? The Swan. Its energies have been completely released in the detonation of hatch. Without the Swan's regulating energies, the Orchid's power when released by Ben affects both space and time, and the time skipping begins. When Locke turns the wheel, he is in a time before the loss of the Swan's energies, so the wheel turns as it should and the Island is returned to a fixed point in space time.
I'm a little less happy with the idea of the energies of the Orchid and Swan working in tandem by design since Jughead showed up on the scene. It seems like the concrete block in the Swan must be Jughead's resting place. And that notion makes me want to say that Jughead is the Island-tainting cause of the Swan's weird EM phenomenon, which would mean that there were no Swan energies before Jughead was buried there in the 50s.
Of course, that doesn't have to be the case. The site could have been home to an Island-natural/spaceship-tech spike or weirdness in the EM field, and that weirdness and the radiation from the damaged Jughead could have interacted with each other to produce even greater weirdness, with unexpected effects on the Orchid phenom and Island-moving.
Or... I could get a life. Y'know, whichever.
Also... Doesn't that crate that the Shadow Pact is hauling around look vaguely... coffin-sized? Or could we say... Sarcophagus-scaled? Anyone up for resurrecting an Island leader, or offering up a vessel to a lost/fallen/dormant maverick Egyptian demi-god? Or something?
Alien mummy?
Right. Shutting up...
Now.
Keep on keepin on~
Also, have you caught the (to my mind, unusual and conspicuous) choice of lullaby for Aaron? "Catch a falling star, put it in your pocket...?" I think that's what happened with/to the Island. A black hole was created within it or collided with it from space.
As much as I'd like for fresh-off-the-sub Daniel to be something other than our ragged Daniel (like a twin, or his own father, or a future/older Daniel) I think the "simplest" explanation will probably prevail. That he *is* our ragged Daniel, just cleaned up after a couple years off-Island playing the role of premier DI scientist in the civilized world.
I would LOVE for him to have been the scientist who developed the Lamppost, which is what I hoped for when Eloise first introduced it... but how would that have happened...?
Our ragged Faraday would join the Orchid work crew and get into the wheel chamber, or at least to those bore holes that penetrated into the chamber, to access the "negatively charged exotic particles," and with a coconut and bamboo time machine, launch himself farther back in time, and maybe off the Island, to become the DI scientist who develops the Lamppost, which leads the DI to the Island.
Y'know, that could've happened already, sometime between 1974 and 1977, but a LOST time jump seems to require and discharge a lot of energy, so it's unlikely it could've been done secretly or quietly...
MAYbe... it hasn't happened yet. MAYbe, our ragged Faraday *has* been a kinda wacko Charlotte's creepy uncle hermit in the DI on the Island for three years, and crisp future F.O.S. Faraday has returned to the Island coincidentally/fatefully/because he'd already experienced what's about to come—the Swan Incident that sends ragged Faraday farther back in time (to become the DI sage who creates the Lamppost) and returns crisp Faraday and the Losties to the present day...
I like that.
Which of course means it's totally wacked and wrong.
A few posts back, I mentioned the cop-out idea of the Island being the site of a shipwrecked spaceship or spacetimeship. It's kind of a cop-out, cuz it sort of cheapens what sacrifice and faith and crises of faith that the Losties and Others have had to endure. But, y'know, I'm finding more and more potential in the idea. It doesn't have to cheapen the harrowing and inspiring experiences of our favorite characters because the Island doesn't have to be the cause of everything. People, and their beliefs and greed and relationships, do. The Island could be a cosmic McGuffin. A little REPO MAN, but of course, I don't think of that as a bad thing.
So, maybe the black hole is the power source of the spaceship that crashed into the Island millions of years ago. OR, the spaceship, with an exotic particle drive, is the falling star that's put in a dimensional pocket on earth. Over time, geology and the spacetime bending-force of the black hole/hyperdrive caused the Island to overgrow the extraterrestrial technology, to the point where you can't tell where one ends and the other begins. I originally thought the Orchid would be the stardrive and the Swan would be a regulator for its power. The Orchid would have been designed to push the spaceship thru time and space. Early Islanders (or crash survivors?) would discover the damaged Orchid chamber and rig a primitive workaround interface from available materials, the Wheel, to try to reactivate it.
Ben and Christian and Widmore speak about moving the Island somoewhat matter-of-factly, as a last resort defense against outsiders. So, we can assume that in the Island's history, turning the wheel moved the Island safely thru space, without jumping thru time. The chaotic power of the Orchid was regulated to do that. However, when Ben turns the wheel, what about the Island is different? The Swan. Its energies have been completely released in the detonation of hatch. Without the Swan's regulating energies, the Orchid's power when released by Ben affects both space and time, and the time skipping begins. When Locke turns the wheel, he is in a time before the loss of the Swan's energies, so the wheel turns as it should and the Island is returned to a fixed point in space time.
I'm a little less happy with the idea of the energies of the Orchid and Swan working in tandem by design since Jughead showed up on the scene. It seems like the concrete block in the Swan must be Jughead's resting place. And that notion makes me want to say that Jughead is the Island-tainting cause of the Swan's weird EM phenomenon, which would mean that there were no Swan energies before Jughead was buried there in the 50s.
Of course, that doesn't have to be the case. The site could have been home to an Island-natural/spaceship-tech spike or weirdness in the EM field, and that weirdness and the radiation from the damaged Jughead could have interacted with each other to produce even greater weirdness, with unexpected effects on the Orchid phenom and Island-moving.
Or... I could get a life. Y'know, whichever.
Also... Doesn't that crate that the Shadow Pact is hauling around look vaguely... coffin-sized? Or could we say... Sarcophagus-scaled? Anyone up for resurrecting an Island leader, or offering up a vessel to a lost/fallen/dormant maverick Egyptian demi-god? Or something?
Alien mummy?
Right. Shutting up...
Now.
Keep on keepin on~
Saturday, April 25, 2009
a snapshot from IFFB 2009...
Actor Kevin Corrigan and writer/director Robert Siegel help raise wrist awareness!
Siegel penned the story to Aronofsky's THE WRESTLER (which I loved and everyone should see) and wrote and directed tonight's IFFB flick, BIG FAN, starring Patton Oswalt and Corrigan. Corrigan is one of my favorite indie actors, who won a special place in my entertainment-consuming heart with a one-time role on FREAKS AND GEEKS. Every time I saw him in the movies, it was, "Hey, it's that guy from that FREAKS AND GEEKS episode who makes the fake IDs!" Later it would be, "Hey, it's that guy that Mark Ruffalo is the bizzaro version of!" Even in the most passing of supporting roles, he always contributes to the story- and world-building experience of a film. I really like what he brings to his characters, y'know, a certain, gruff, no-nonsense, "I'm TALKin' here" I-don't-know-what. A little Joey Pants, a little Robert DeNiro, maybe a dash of Nicholson. Me being the fanboy that I am, I had trouble actually putting my appreciation for the talents of these filmmakers into a sequence of words that made coherent sense, but I can only hope that given the plot and characters of the film we had just watched—a devoted superfan comes face-to-face with one of his idols, with less than fantasy-fulfilling results—Corrigan and Siegel understood that. Thank Colbert, tho, cuz even though I had difficulty putting sentences together, by offering them the Wriststrong bracelets I'd brought for them, I managed to create at least an outline of an exchange that led to the photographic evidence above.
If you're in Bostonia this weekend, check out the Independent Film Festival of Boston! Lotsa good crack up on those screens!
Keep on keepin on~
Siegel penned the story to Aronofsky's THE WRESTLER (which I loved and everyone should see) and wrote and directed tonight's IFFB flick, BIG FAN, starring Patton Oswalt and Corrigan. Corrigan is one of my favorite indie actors, who won a special place in my entertainment-consuming heart with a one-time role on FREAKS AND GEEKS. Every time I saw him in the movies, it was, "Hey, it's that guy from that FREAKS AND GEEKS episode who makes the fake IDs!" Later it would be, "Hey, it's that guy that Mark Ruffalo is the bizzaro version of!" Even in the most passing of supporting roles, he always contributes to the story- and world-building experience of a film. I really like what he brings to his characters, y'know, a certain, gruff, no-nonsense, "I'm TALKin' here" I-don't-know-what. A little Joey Pants, a little Robert DeNiro, maybe a dash of Nicholson. Me being the fanboy that I am, I had trouble actually putting my appreciation for the talents of these filmmakers into a sequence of words that made coherent sense, but I can only hope that given the plot and characters of the film we had just watched—a devoted superfan comes face-to-face with one of his idols, with less than fantasy-fulfilling results—Corrigan and Siegel understood that. Thank Colbert, tho, cuz even though I had difficulty putting sentences together, by offering them the Wriststrong bracelets I'd brought for them, I managed to create at least an outline of an exchange that led to the photographic evidence above.
If you're in Bostonia this weekend, check out the Independent Film Festival of Boston! Lotsa good crack up on those screens!
Keep on keepin on~
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