Review: Star Trek (2009)

[Late posting due to some personal issues on my part. A review of Star Trek Into Darkness is forthcoming as well but it may be a short while]

Star Trek Into Darkness is upon us, weird ass name and all. Now you know that I’m going to try some way to see it opening weekend come hell or high water I totally saw it opening weekend. But before [we review it] I thought it’d be fun to revisit the film that revived the Star Trek franchise. It was 2009 and, at the time, it was extremely controversial due to the decision that it would not be a sequel or follow established continuity but rather a reboot. Actually this was known for some time prior to the filming that the studios really wanted to basically have the adventures of Young Kirk and Young Spock…I don’t know exactly who would want to see that, but there it was. Thankfully J.J. Abrams was the director tagged to tackle the project, though this too was controversial since Abrams repeatedly admitted that he was NOT all that into Star Trek and was more of a Star Wars guy. But luckily Abrams is a talented guy so he was able to come out with something that both Stark Trek and non-Star Trek fans both said “Yeah…pretty good.” In fact this film was the most mainstream the franchise has pretty much ever been. Which is sad.

Now prior to this film there had been ten Star Trek films, six featuring the original cast and four featuring the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation (Deep Space Nine couldn’t have films made because they would have been so awesome and metal that they would likely have melted both the projectors and the faces of the audiences nationwide). The last few weren’t…they weren’t well received. This reboot was successful but was it actually any good?

Full review after the jump.

[WARNING: Full spoilers in this review, but seeing as this movie is four years old at this point I gotta say I don't feel that bad about it]

Anime Review: Princess Tutu

I’ve finally got around to this anime, which is probably the single most suggested series I’ve gotten in over a year. I hadn’t gotten to it sooner partly because it’s been on my list but fairly low, partly because I was somewhat hesitating because it aims at a young demographic, and partly because I tried watching it on Netflix but was turned off by the English voice acting for the main character and instead waited for the DVD to creep up my queue. But I’ve finally watched it so I’m happy to review it.

Princess Tutu, which was suggested by a fan named LaTonya as far back as early last year, is an original anime series created by Hal Film Maker in 2002. A twenty-six episodes, evenly split into two seasons, it was licensed by now-defunct ADV Films. It currently is being licensed by AEsir Holdings but the DVD I watched was the ADV Films copy (this will be important later). This show is clearly in the magical girl genre, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like; young girls given powers from some magical source. Sailor Moon is probably the most well known in the west but it’s a pretty varied genre with all sorts of shows under its umbrella.

So anyway with all the time it took for me to actually watch this show I have to ask: does it live up to all the hype?

Full review after the jump.

Review (Rant): Iron Man 3

Despite having started writing them in the past I’ve obviously never reviewed the first two Iron Man movies. Let’s do that right now.

Iron Man: It was funny action packed, featured a smartly written lead character that was well acted. While the villain wasn’t super memorable in the grand scheme of things it’s was okay because the rest of the movie was so strong.

Panda Score: 4/5

Iron Man 2: Robert Downey Jr. is great as Tony Stark, as is Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer and Don Cheadle as War Machine, but the villain was pretty weak and uninteresting and the whole film felt unnecessarily bloated due to tie-ins with upcoming non-Iron Man films. It was fine but it was a letdown from the first one.

Panda Score: 3/5

Okay. So Shane Black, writer of Lethal Weapon and director of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (which helped revitalize Downey’s career) takes over for Jon Favreau as director. This will be the first post-Avengers Marvel Studio film which means that “Phase Two” officially begins now. It’s a tall order but we’re expecting this film to be both a sequel to the previous Iron Man movies as well as a follow-up to one of the biggest films in history. Does it succeed? Can it possibly succeed?

Full review after the jump.

[WARNING: This review is not only extremely spoiler filled but it also contains one of the most frothy nerd rants I’ve ever done. DO NOT continue reading if you are planning to see this film and/or if you’re not a jaded, bitter nerd like I am]

Summer Movie Preview '13

[UPDATE: Wow, I totally forgot Man of Steel. Because I am dumb. Oh I totally wrote it but I forgot to actually put it up. It’s fixed now.]

It looks like I’m doing another Summer Movie Preview, just like last year. Though I missed out on seeing a few of the films last summer, and others I simply didn’t review, the whole thing was fun and I enjoyed doing it. As I’ve said before I think that the Summer movie experience begins in May, which means I’m really cutting this close. But hey, it’s technically still April. As I said last year these are not reviews; it’s just me talking about movies coming out this summer that appeal to my nerdy side. There might be some films I missed that should go on this list but for now this will do. Notice that the Fantastic Four reboot still isn’t around. When is that happening, Fox?

Click below for more.

Fake Review: G.I. Joe - Retaliation

This is the original post I uploaded on April 1st. I don't think it really fooled anyone, and it wasn't up very long, but I sure thought it was funny. So I'm putting it back up for shits and giggles. feel free to compare this fake review to the real one from earlier this month. But remember: this was a joke and not at all my actually feelings about this flick.

 Fake review after the jump. 

Kickstarter Weekends: Emily and the Strangers, Code Monkey Save World, The Return

Well I think enough time has passed to justify another Kickstarter Weekend. Again, just like last time, the term “Kickstarter” is out of place because there’s another Indiegogo project on the agenda (for close almost identical reasons as last time). Maybe I really should change the name, especially since Indiegogo actually sent me a shout a while back thanking me for sharing This is Normal. Which means that Indiegogo (or at least whoever runs their twitter account) is nicer than Kickstarter. But I’m too lazy to make a new graphic this month so for now the name will remain.

Before we look at the new projects let’s look back at what happened with the projects from last time.

Sweethearts of the Galaxy: Funding Successful!

Final Earnings: $36,071 ($35,000 Goal)

I have to admit: I was thinking this one wouldn’t make it. Happily it turns out I was wrong and Sweethearts of the Galaxy will be made! It was close but a win is a win. Series co-creator Michael Premsrirat thanked me for spreading the word and mentioned that the tone would be “Whedonesque”. And you likely know how much I dig Joss Whedon. Seriously.

Jason Coffee’s Warhawks: Funding Successful! 

Final Earnings: $21,838 ($21,000 Goal) 

The real life story behind this project, of the later writer Jason Coffee, was what really moved me last time. I’m very happy to report that the man’s unpublished works will indeed live on through the hard work of his friends. I hope things work out well for them as they continue going forward.

This is Normal: Funding Successful!

Final Earnings: $31,185 ($30,000 Goal)

It felt like it happened down to the wire but This is Normal successfully made its goal. This should be a very unique movie experience and I’m glad to have helped it, even if it was ever so slightly. I’m happy for Ryan Welsh who, like I said last time, I used to know. But I will admit there’s a certain amount of jealousy on my part in regard to the somewhat stalled status of my own projects and goals (and this feeling will only increase when we talk about today’s third project).

Three new crowd funding projects after the jump.

Nerd Rage #14: The Dark Age of Comics

"I'M NOT GAY!!!"

This is blog entry #250 for Beta is Dead. Now I honestly don’t think that 250 is a milestone to throw a party over but I still decided to do something a little more personal and a little bigger than my usual entries. Over the years I’ve take a lot of pit shots at what is known as The Dark Age of Comic Books, or to more specific the 90s. This is also referred to as The Iron Age of Comic Books by people who remember this period a little more fondly than I do. Anyway I’ve decided that, if I’m going to crack the jokes, I should explain why I have a problem with this particular era of comics.

For more info on the other Ages of Comics click here.

We should probably start by talking about the era itself. The range of this period is heavily contested however most would agree it began in 1986. This as the year that two masterpieces came out: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. Both were dark, gritty deconstruction of the classic (i.e. “campy”, “corny”) idea of what it is to be a superhero. They were also both really good, especially Watchmen which is a contender for the greatest superhero story ever told. This was also the year that DC Comic’s mega crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths, another beloved classic, was released. The series rebooted the entire DC Universe, cut all ties to the Silver Age and Golden Age and, while not starting from scratch, was supposed to be a more modern interpretation of their world. This was really what this era was shooting for in the following years: a fond farewell to the days where comics were for kids and embrace a more mature, more complex and above all edgier style.

Yeah, that sounds good on paper.

The end of this era is probably the most debated of any other era in comic books. For one many, many people firmly believe that the Dark Age never ended and we’re still there today. However others believe that it ended between 1995 and 1996 as those years saw the debut of Astro City, which was a reconstruction of the good aspects of superhero comics from the Silver Age, and Kingdom Come, which was itself a deconstruction of the Dark Age and the antiheroes that populated it. 1996 was also the year of the Comic Book Crash, which we’ll talk about today. Still others point at 2000, the debut of Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel Comics’ “Ultimate” line. Either way the idea is that by the late 90s the industry had gotten tired of the antiheroes and the dark and grittiness of the times and were moving back towards a more lighthearted vision of what it means to be a superhero. So now that we know the "when" we should look at the “why”.

Guns, tits, and pouches after the jump.

Beta vs. The Ages of Comics

"F**k you, car; I'm Superman!"

As I mentioned in previous posts I’m approaching blog #250 (this is #249, not counting the April Fool’s Day post that has since been taken down). I don’t want to make a huge deal about it, since it’s not the huge milestone #200 was or #300 probably will be, but I still wanted to do something special. To that end I decided to do a Nerd Rage post regarding my least favorite era of comic books: The Dark Age of Comic Books, or more specifically the 1990s. You may recall me bitching about how annoying I found 90s comics in the past. However it has occurred to me that it’s difficult to talk about any age of comic books out of context. I know many of you are not comic book fans and may be a little lost. So for this post I’m going to, very briefly, look at all of the ages of comics form 1938 to present day.

A few things to keep in mind: 1) There is a lot of debate over when which era begins and which era ends and in some cases whether or not certain eras ever ended (such as the Bronze Age). So when reading this blog take in mind that this is how I view the divide and that other people may have it different. There’s no exact answer here. 2) I will likely not go into much of any of the detail for the Dark Age of Comics here, since I’m saving that for next time, so save any comments you may have about that for later. 3) I’m only going to sum up the Ages, not go into specifics. As such I’ll be doing A LOT of summarizing and leaving A LOT of information out. I’m not a comic book historian and there are a lot of resources out there that go into far greater detail than I ever could. So If I leave something out take that in mind before you start criticizing me in the comment section. 4) I'm mostly talking about superhero comics today, mainly because I'm significantly more knowledgeable about them than other genres from back in the day.

More after the jump.