Five Pros/Five Cons - The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy

Well, we’ve come to the end of the year and the decade… whew. While the year (and decade) had it’s share of ups and downs, I can say that “I Maaaaade It!” I’ll do a year-end post later, but I thought I’d touch on the latest topic of these Decembers: Star Wars. Yes, I bet y’all are pretty tired from hearing about the franchise. I honestly thought I’d post more after the Rise of Skywalker, but I kinda didn’t. While there are other things on my mind, I just didn’t know what else to write about. So, I thought about starting a new thing here: 5 likes and 5 dislikes.  Yeah, I know other sites do this, but I wanted to do something new especially when a now-complete trilogy is on my mind:  the Star Wars’ Sequel Trilogy.

I bet we now all have an opinion on the Sequel Trilogy. I’ve touched on the last two movie a bit here, but I haven’t gone into detail about them yet. I think this post should do it! So, the plan is to talk about the six things I liked and the six things I didn’t like about the Sequel Trilogy. If you’re new to Star Wars or this new trilogy, Wikipedia should help you out. You could also watch the Original trilogy since these movies are more or less revamps of those movies… guess what might show up on the Dislike list. Let me get the good stuff out of the way, though.

Favorites - 14 Favorite Force-Wielders from Star Wars

Well, we got a couple of weeks to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It seems like I’ve been in a Star Wars frenzy lately. The Mandalorian is on Disney+, and yes, I am enjoying yet another streaming service. I played the retro game Star Wars: Jedi Knight 2 – Jedi Outcast and finally beat the dang thing. Seriously, what was up with those Nar Shaadaa levels? That Street level wanted to make me break the TV! Anyway, another game I just finished was the recent Star Wars: Jedi – Fallen Order. Thankfully, Respawn has finally given EA a pretty cool Star Wars game.

 I think I got a couple more posts about the franchise in me. While there may be more movies left to go, it looks like Episode 9 will be the last for the Skywalkers. One of the coolest things about the franchise was the Force and the Jedi/Sith conflict. You had a lot of cool characters on both sides of the conflict. This list will be about my favorite Force-wielders in the franchise. I didn’t want to split up the whole Jedi/Sith thing since I’m kinda lazy tonight. Besides, some of these Force-wielders have towed that light/dark side line. It’s also not in order, but I will put the favorites up top.

"It's a Video Game!" - Assassin's Creed: Rogue

Well, it has officially gotten cold… in more ways than one. Seriously, it was 54 degrees one day and over one night, we got  rain, sleet, and snow! It’s not even winter yet and TN is getting snow. At least this gives me time to catch up on some movies, tv shows, and of course, video games. I finally finished Assassin’s Creed: Rogue during this time, so that’s next on the AC docket.

AC: Rogue was released on the PS3 during November 2014 right at the same time AC: Unity was being released. I guess Ubisoft wanted to make some more money off of the PS3 for one last time. Since Ubisoft was concentrated on making Unity the big one, Rogue was much smaller in scope. It’s pretty short (only six sequences) and takes a lot of assets from AC: Black Flag. Even though it’s small in scope, it touches on a lot in the franchise in an interesting way. Reviews were decent for the game but some felt it was a cash grab at the time. Is it truly that or something more? I’ll elaborate below.

In the Present Day, Rogue pretty much picks up sometime after Black Flag. You’re “Nameless the Game Tester” again. Because of some weird hack at Abstergo Entertainment (kinda made to tie into Unity), you’re pretty much trapped in the building. You’re being ordered around by Osto Berg and his underling to go back into the Animus and live the events of Assassin-turned-Templar named Shay Cormac. Yeah, we get to play on the bad side… sort of.

Favorites - Seven Creepy Moments from Non-Horror Video Games

Now, I’m not the biggest fan of horror games. It’s not that I don’t like them, I’m just not that interested in them. If it has a lot of zombie shooting, there is a chance that I won’t play it since I kinda of want more than that. That doesn’t mean I don’t like horror themed games. I own Vampyr on the PS4, and I think The Wolf Among Us could be considered to be horror. By the way, I finally was able to finish that game. I wish it got a sequel.

 I think I like it more when RPGs include horror elements. Heck, most RPGs tend to mix in a lot of genres together to make something pretty memorable. So, I’m going to go into detail about 7 scary moments from non-horror video games. I was going to go all out and make this a longer list, but I then hit a block when it came to finding scary moments in non-horror games. Besides, this just leaves me to get a little more detailed on these moments and levels. So, let’s start out with what’s probably my first big scare in video games.

1. The Final Level from Spider-Man

“RAWR!!! DIIIIIEEEEE!!” Imagine hearing this for an hour. That’s how long it took me to beat a pretty short final level on the PS1 version of Spider-Man. I hadn’t even ate food for Thanksgiving yet because this thing held me up! In the level, all you gotta do is swing away from the pretty freaky combination of Dr. Octopus and Carnage (Carn-Ock? Doc Carn?). Beating those two separately was hard enough, now I gotta face a merged version of them? While it would’ve been interesting to actually fight them, running from them kinda sounds better.

Anyway, while running like a coward sounds simple, you have to swing, climb, and run your red and blue butt off. You’re jumping over pipes, climbing walls, and running. I think there were a couple of times where I was like “All right, take me!” or something like that. I think I also only got to really beat this once since my PS1 ultimately gave out on me. It’s definitely one memory from I PS1 days I have still held on to.

Movie Talk - Universal Studio's Creature from the Black Lagoon Movies

"Man, these folk coming up and interrupting my fun time with myself!"

Next up for the spooky month is a look at one of the final Universal Studio Monster: The Creature from the Black Lagoon or “The Gill-Man.” The Creature (“Gill-Man” sounds lame) came about in the 1950’s when horror was trying to branch out from the supernatural. Now, you had mad scientists doing bad science, nuclear tests gone wrong, beasts from eons ago inflicting havoc, aliens coming from the sky, and all sorts of mad hysteria. Universal Studios wanted to get in on that action, so the Creature was born. The Creature movies were the last few movies that Universal Studios did in this branch of horror. It’s a monster whose influences can be felt today. Just look at Abe Sapien from Hellboy and the beast from The Shape of Water for examples.

The Creature was featured in three movies: Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Revenge of the Creature (1955), and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956). Now, I saw the 1954 film a long time ago. It was one of the only Universal Monster movies they had at Movie Gallery. When my sister got the collection, I watched it as well the second movie. I didn’t even get around to watch the last movie until a couple of days ago when I marathoned them all. So, how did Universal’s last Monster fare out in his movies?

Movie Talk - Universal Studios' Dracula Movies

Dracula: Hmm... I'm quite good in the novel, it seems.

Well, it’s time to return to the Universal Monsters once again. Since I’ve gone through my favorites like the Frankenstein Monster and the Wolf Man, it’s time to touch upon the Count himself: Dracula or Vlad the Impaler. He was the one who started it all with Dracula released in 1931. Even though he’s not the first vampire to hit screens (there was Nosferato in 1922), he’s definitely the most remembered and most parodied.

Now, of all of the monsters, he’s probably my least favorite. Even though he was the one who got this all started, he’s on the low end of the list. He’s not bad, per se, but he lacks something the other monsters don’t lack. I think it has to do with the fact that he is just an evil predator. He’s just going around taking advantage of anyone and killing them. The rest of the monsters have more going on than just being destructive. The Frankenstein Monster’s a destructive but naïve dude, the Wolf Man is a dude struggling with the beast inside, and the Gill-Man (who I’ll get to later) is just a dude who wants to be left alone… and get a hot lady on the side. Drac’s just evil and that’s it. Still, are the movies good? Let’s find out.

On today’s list is the following: Dracula (1931), Dracula’s Daughter (1936), and Son of Dracula (1942). Now, I do remember seeing Son of Dracula when I was younger. I hadn’t seen the 1931 movie until a few years ago when my sister got us that big collection. As for Dracula’s Daughter, I didn’t see it until a few days ago where I watched all three movies back to back. I was going to watch the Spanish version of Dracula, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. It’s basically the same as the 1931 version but with Spanish actors. The same sets are even used for it.

Weird Star Trek Episodes - Impulse aka "Twilight of the Dead(?)!"

Well, Halloween is upon us, and the usual “Look at Somewhat Scary Things” has started. Let’s face it, “Look at Somewhat Scary Things” has been a thing this year if you look at the state of the world. Anyway, I’m not here to talk about what Lafreeze, the Orange Lantern is doing today. I wanted to find and look at some horror-themed Star Trek episodes. There aren’t many unfortunately. If I hadn’t talked about Enterprise’s “Resurrection” a few years back, that would be a contender. I then remembered that Star Trek tried to do zombies at some point, so I set out to watch that.

"Impulse" is the 5^th episode from Season 3 of Star Trek: Enterprise. This is where the show started to take a turn for the better with its season-long Xindi arc. At this point, Earth gets attacked by a new race called the Xindi. Starfleet sends the Enterprise into the Delphic Expanse, the region of space where the Xindi live. It also a region that has weird space anomalies, and this is something that the Vulcans have experienced. They lost a couple of ships in there and what they saw through ship logs was pretty disturbing.

"It's A Video Game!" - Assassin's Creed: Unity

Well, it’s October, and I actually feel like throwing some horror-themed stuff on here. Before I get to those things, I wanted to return to the Assassin’s Creed franchise for a bit. I did think about talking about the more recent games first, but I can’t skip the “awesomeness” of games like Unity, Rogue, and Syndicate. Which reminds me, I need to finish Rogue one of these days. I heard that it’s even not a long game, but still. I got a little more time on my hands now, and yet… I kinda don’t care much about ‘ole Shay Cormac. Before I get to that game, I got to touch upon my most recent play of Assassin’s Creed: Unity.

Assassin’s Creed: Unity was released November 2014 on the Playstation 4 and Xbox One (not to be confused with the Adjective-less Xbox). Ubisoft wanted to innovate and use the power of new consoles, so we got no watered down version of it on the PS3. While things didn’t work out at release (you can look that hilariousness up yourself), that wonder and awesomeness did eventually show up. The game also includes multiplayer co-op, which is something I rarely care about. When the game was released, it got a mixed reception thanks to a lot of glitchy code and messed up graphics. Ubisoft did eventually patch these problems, but the damage was more or less done with some folk. So, now that I’ve more or less finished the patched thing, what do I think of the Adventures of Arno, Man of Boredom?

Random Thoughts On... Adventures of Superman (Black and White Era)

Well, I’m at the end of Superman Month. This month has been okay for the most part. It had its highs as well as some lows. At least I was able to get most of what I wanted to do done.  I would’ve ended off the month with my last post, but I didn’t get to finish watching the rest of this show’s second season until today. What is it, you may ask? Why it is … (finds announcer’s voice)… The Adventures of Superman!

So, I haven’t watched too many Superman related things before the 70’s. In fact, I don’t know where I first heard about this show. It could have been on the Superman documentary that was released around the time Superman Returns was being made. I’m not sure. All I know is that I hadn’t seen any of this show until about a couple of months ago. When the DC Universe app finally popped up, it was one of the first shows I added to my watch list. So far, I’ve only seen the first two seasons of the show which are the black-and-white seasons. So, I’m pretty much going to give my thoughts on these two for now.

Favorites - 10 Favorite Superman Movies

Well, I’m at the end of the month, and I gotta admit I’m kinda beat. There were a couple of other things I wanted to talk about, but most of those will have to wait. I’ve needed to get some house work done. Also, I’ve had some personal stuff draining me a bit. I’m fine, but I’ll get better and do better too.

Anyway, since I finally got caught up on the recent Superman animated movies, I wanted to do a different list. I wanted to list off my favorite Superman movies, and I’m not stopping at live-action either. While Superman doesn’t have as many movies as that Dark Knight guy, there are at least 10 out there I can throw on a list. They may also involve that Dark Knight guy, but considering the villains in those movies are mostly Superman villains, they apply. This isn’t going to be in any order, but I’ll list some major favorites off in the beginning. First, I might as well mention a couple that didn’t make it. Whether they’re honorable is a matter for debate:

• Superman Returns – Yeah, it’s up here and you pretty much know why. While the cast (except for Kate Bosworth) was nice and that plane sequence was awesome, this was a subpar entry. The story homaged Superman: the Movie way too much. Also, it made some changes to Superman that felt kinda weird. Even Superman’s reason for leaving Earth in it was weird. Add that fact that it felt like it didn’t know what it wanted to be. Tying it to the Donnerverse wasn’t the best move.
• Superman 4: The Quest for Peace – Speaking of the Donnerverse, we have its worst entry. Yeah, some could say that Superman 3 is just as bad, but I can at least find some good things in that movie. Not so here. Yes, Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman are in good form here. Also, the concept of Superman facing nuclear proliferation was good. Unfortunately, this was a Cannon Films production. The effects were lazy, the story had problems, and quite a bit got cut out of the film.
• Superman: Doomsday – I had to add DC’s first official animated movie to the list. While the movie did house some nice visuals, had an okay story, and a fine cast, it was just okay. The fact that’s a really loose adaptation doesn’t help matters. Also, what they replaced with that story wasn’t really up to snuff. By the way, what was up with Superman’s face??? Those lines… why? At least we finally got a better adaptation of that story years later.

Tales from the 50 Cent Bin! - Superman: Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite

Next up for the month is a return to the 90’s. I could probably say that the early 90’s were good for the Man of Steel. I’d probably say that the post-Crisis in general was pretty good. Yeah, you’d get some bad stuff here and there, but you get that in every era. Superman was powerful but not too overpowered, he got on with Lois, and he had a nice supporting cast of characters.

I was looking for a small arc to do, and I stumbled upon this story. “Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite” was released during November of 1990. It crossed over into the three books at the time: Superman #49-50, Adventures of Superman #472, and Action Comics #659. It was especially a momentous occasion since something major happened in Superman #50. The writers were Jerry Ordway, Dan Jurgens, and Roger Stern. On pencils, you mainly had Ordway, Jurgens, and Bob McLeod (of the clan McLeod). On Superman #50, you had other pencillers enter the fray like Curt Swan, John Byrne, and Kerry Gammill. So, what happens when Superman loses his powers and gets engaged? Oh yeah… that happens here.

Tales from the $3.99 Bin! - Superman: The Final Days of Superman

Next up for the month is trip to the 2010’s. These years have been weird to the Man of Steel, haven’t they? His origin’s been revamped at least twice in the comics, he’s had his identity outed, he’s shacked up with “Amazonian Hotness”, and he died… again. Yes, that actually happened. Right before DC Rebirth started, it was decided to put the New 52 Superman “out to pasture.” In other words, the dude gotta go since we got this older, wiser, more-Supermany Superman over here to use now. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of what was done with Superman in the New 52, I gotta say that I was a little sad to see him go. Then I read Peter Tomasi’s and Dan Jurgens’ run on the Superbooks and I kinda forgot about that dude.

“The Final Days of Superman” crossed over all the Superman related books except for Supergirl (Action Comics #51-52, Superman #51-52, Batman/Superman #31-32, and Superman/Wonder Woman #28-29). Peter J. Tomasi was brought into write this 8-issue crossover. As for the artists, they varied a lot. We had dudes like Mikel Janin, Ed Benes, Jorge Jimenez, Doug Manhke, Paul Pelletier, and Dale Eaglesham on pencils. I’ll just list the inkers below since this going to take a while. So, what happens when someone decides tries to mix “The Sandman Saga” with All-Star Superman?

Movie Talk - The Death of Superman/Reign of the Supermen

Next up for the month is a return to DC’s Animated Movie Universe. While I’ve seen a few of them like the Batman ones and a couple of the Justice League ones, they haven’t been on my radar much. I don’t know if it’s the changes to the animation or the fact that they were heavily inspired by the New 52. While I did like that era of comics, it wasn’t all good. One thing that definitely piqued my interest was that they were going to do the Death and Return of Superman once again. Now, DC had tried this before, but Superman: Doomsday was just okay as a whole. It would’ve been nice if it felt like a true adaptation, though.

The WB released The Death of Superman in 2018 and it’s sequel, Reign of the Supermen, in 2019. The voice cast is more or less the same it’s been for this DC animated universe. We got Jerry O’Connell as Superman, Rosario Dawson as Wonder Woman, Jason O’Mara as Batman, and Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern.  There are some new voices too. Lois Lane is voiced by Rebecca Romijn, Jerry O’Connell’s wife. Lex Luthor is voiced by Rainn Wilson, Superboy is voiced by Cameron Mohonagan (Joker from Gotham), Steel (John Henry Irons) is voiced by Cress Williams (Black Lightning), and Patrick Fabian is Hank Henshaw.

Trade Tales! - Superman: Godfall

Next up for the month, I decided to skip ahead to the 2000’s. I’ll get to the 90’s later. The early 2000’s is one era I really haven’t gotten to yet. Heck, I haven’t even re-read the Death/Return stuff yet. There’s always something else to do and read. Other than some things like Greg Rucka’s run, For Tomorrow,  and Birthright, this era is mostly a blank. So, I decided to jump right into this one with Joe Kelley’s last stint with Superman. Joe Kelley had been writing Superman since 2000. He was the one who wrote Action Comics #775 which featured one of the best Superman stories.

Since Kelley was leaving, he wanted to go out with style. He teamed up with Aspen Comics  which was headed by the late Michael Turner. Basically, Kelley wanted to see Clark on a bike like he was Kanenda from Akira… seems cool, don’t it? The arc, “Godfall,”  was contained in Action Comics #812-813, Adventures of Superman #625-626, and Superman #202-203.  Kelley and Turner handled the story. Talent Caldwell, who’s known for his work on Fantom, did the pencils. Jason Gorder did the inks. Peter Steigerwald and a couple of others handled the colors. Turner also did the awesome covers.

TV Talk - Krypton

Next up for the month is a bit of a review on the now-cancelled show, Krypton.  It aired from 2018 to 2019. When I first heard that Syfy (formerly known as the Sci-fi Channel) was going to make a Krypton show, I have to say that I wasn’t that interested. It was mostly because I didn’t have Syfy at the time. At least I was thinking that it was finally time that Syfy started to air sci-fi shows again. Let’s all forget the fact that NBC thought the channel should be a place for the WWF… more like WTF on that decision.

When I heard that David S. Goyer and Geoff Johns were involved, I got a little interested. Since Goyer was involved, I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to tie into the DCEU or not. I know some fans on Twitter were happy and then saddened when it was revealed that the show wasn’t mentioning the movies. I think that worked out in the end, though I don’t know if that was even going to happen. The only stars I knew of were Colin Salmon (who looks like the peeved version of my uncle Andre), Ann Ongbono (Wonder Woman). Everyone else is a blank to me, but for some reason, I thought I saw Zoe Kravitz in the trailer. I then realized it was someone else (Georgina Campbell).

When the show was put on DC Universe, I made plans to watch it there. I only watched the first episode and then got sidetracked with other things. When I realized that the first season was being marathoned on Syfy, I DVR’d the whole season and was able to watch it and the second season there. So, what happened on this possibly (fingers crossed) short-lived show?

Tales from the 50 Cent Bin! - Superman: The Secret Years

Next up for the month is a trip to the 80’s… sort of. We’re still in the Bronze Age, but this story came out right as Crisis on Infinite Earths was ramping up. I guess one could consider this a farewell to a certain pre-Crisis feature of the Superman mythos: Superboy. Superman’s early adventures were still a thing even in the 80’s. Either he was getting into trouble in Smallville or hanging out with the Legion of Superheroes. I don’t know if there were any that talked about his college exploits. I know that there’s was a back up in Superman called “Superman: The In-Between Years.” Then, there’s this four issue story.

Superman: The Secret Years ran from February 1985 to May 1985. Bob Rozakis, the writer of the other college Superman backups, wrote this story. On pencils, we got Curt Swan, the face of Superman throughout the Bronze Age. On inks, we got Kurt Schaffenberger. Schaffenberger used to do inks for Superboy stories. Then, we got the covers drawn by Frank Miller… yeah, that Frank Miller! So, what happened during Clark Kent’s last years in college? Ohyeah, here’s a little mood music… 

Trade Tales! - Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore

Well, it’s another September… so that means I get to gush on the Man of Steel himself. This month, I’m pretty much going back to basics this time. There’s no certain theme this time around. I think I’ve played those out anyway. The plan is to look at a story from each decade and some non-comic material as well. So, I might as well start off with the first (?) time DC tried to revamp Superman in a modern age!

In early 1970’s, comics were changing and trying to be more modern. That era became what’s known as “The Bronze Age.” Marvel was doing more thing with their characters.  DC was also trying to revamp their heroes a bit. Batman got thrown back into his dark, pulpy roots. Green Arrow and Hal Jordan were doing their “Hard-Travelin’ Heroes” gig. I think Wonder Woman had something going on too, but I’m not sure. Then, we get to Superman, who at this point, is pretty much “God in a Cape.”

The Superman books got new editors and they decided to get rid of a lot of the Silver Age goofiness that was around in the 60’s. Julius Schwartz, the editor of Superman, got Dennis O’Neil to come in and write Superman for this new era. Basically, the idea was to bring those god-like powers down a bit and revamp him. He didn’t stay long on the book, though, and his issues of Superman (#233-238, #240-242) became known as “The Sandman Saga.” The issues were then put into a collection called Kryptonite Nevermore. Assisting O’Neil was Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson on the art. Artist Neal Adams did the covers to these issues.

Mini-Music Reptrospective - Jamiroquai Part 2

Here is are the rest of Jamiroquai's studio albums. I also got a ranking of all the albums from least favorite to favorite. 

A Funk Odyssey (2001)

This is probably my least favorite album from the group. Something about it just feels off. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who thought that. Even reviews from that era were mixed on this one. It really sways into the techno/disco side of things, and most of the songs don’t stick with me at all. Now, they do try to do some new things and use some different sounds. Only a couple of songs here really come  to mind. The rest are fine for the most part.

Favorite Songs:

• Little L – Of the fast songs on here, this one and another one are the only ones that really hit with me.
• You Give Me Something – This is another fast love song. It’s cool and funky, but that’s about it.
• Corner of the Earth – This is one of the songs where the group tries to use a different sound. iN this case, it’s Bossa Nova… not Chevy Nova for you 1990 TMNT movie fans out there. It’s slower, not funky, and just more spiritual. Heck, Jay Kay is wearing Native American regalia in the music video, something that would probably get him into trouble these days. Still, it’s a pretty cool song.

Mini-Music Retrospective - Jamiroquai Part 1

You know, it’s been a while since I’ve geeked  out on some music here. I don’t have a lot of favorite artists, but there are some I tend to go back to from time to time. You can find most of them here on the blog. One group I’ve been listening to a lot has been… (checks Google)… Jamiroquai. If you don’t know who they are, you can do two things: look up that music video with the white room and moving floor, or check out that Napoleon Dynamite dance scene. Yeah, it’s those dudes. That “Virtual Insanity” music video was my first intro to the group, and that was pretty much it for a long time.

For those not in the know, Jamiroquai is a British funk and acid jazz group. Acid Jazz basically mixes funk, disco, R&B, and soul into a blender. They also started to add a lot of house and techno music to their repertoire in the 2000’s. Their front-man, Jason “Jay” Kay, is pretty much known for the wacky hats he wears, his soulful voice, and some of the dancing he does. While the group has some success in the US, they do much better on the UK charts. They’ve released eight studio albums between 1992 and 2017.

“Virtual Insanity,” “Canned Heat,” and couple of other songs were the only ones I heard for a long time. I think it was a couple of years ago when I decided to check out the rest of their discography starting with their first album, Emergency on Planet Earth. Since then, I’ve been listening to more on my iPod. Since I’ve finally gotten to listen to their latest album, Automaton, I thought I’d quickly talk about their albums and list off some of my favorite tracks. I was going to originally do a favorites list, but I couldn’t do it.  Besides, I think I would’ve thrown most of their first two albums on there.

"It's a Video Game! - Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag

Well, it’s time to step back into the world of Assassin’s Creed for a bit. Right now, I just got off from playing the newest game Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. Yes, I haven’t gone back to Unity and I haven’t even touched Syndicate yet. I think Ubisoft knew that I’m casual fan of Greek mythology or something. Something had to keep me playing for that long! Anyway, before I started on that 80+ hour venture (yeah, it took that long and I haven’t even touched DLCs yet), I finally finished today’s subject, Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag.

Black Flag was released on October 9^th, 2013. It was put on both current and next-gen consoles, but I got it for the PS3. While Assassin’s Creed 3 wasn’t the best game, it did introduce a new mechanic to the series: naval battles. Ubisoft took that mechanic and made it into its own thing for this game and another one I’ll get to next time. They also decided to throw pirates into the mix, and pirates are always cool… unless you’re Johnny Depp these days. So, what happens in “The Adventures of Kenway 0.5 and Nameless Game Tester?”

The present day story for Black Flag takes place a year after the events of Assassin’s Creed 3. If you don’t remember that crappy ending, let me remind you: Desmond Miles is “deaded.” The Templars find what’s left of him and essentially exploit his remains in order to find more Isu artifacts. You end up playing as a nameless game tester who’s been hired by Abstergo Entertainment in to surf through the memories of Edward Kenway, the father of Haytham Kenway. While you end up “testing” the newest pirate game out, other familiar parties end up contacting you throughout the game.

In the past, you end up in the early 18^th century during the Golden Age of Piracy. You’re Edward Kenway, an up-and-coming pirate with goals of getting gold. With an Assassin uniform he pilfered from a traitorous Assassin, he uses his ship (the Jackdaw) to sail the high seas and go on many adventures. You end up coming across historical pirates like Blackbeard, Ben Hornigold, and Mary Read. He has no stake in the Assassin/Templar fight and only gets involved because he hears about the Observatory, something that could bring him a lotta wealth. Edward does end up coming across a character who has weird ties to the Observatory called “The Sage."  He more or less ends up as Edward’s antagonist during the game along with Templars and other nefarious folk.

TV Talk - Battlestar Galactica Overview and 13 Favorite Characters

Well, as some weird song states, “it’s been a long road, getting from there to here.” I think this should do it for my long look at Battlestar Galactica. Hands down, this is one of my favorite shows ever. So much was done right with the themes, acting, action, and effects. Since I’ve talked about my favorite episodes, I need to end this run of the BSG-verse with my ranked list of favorite characters. Before I get there, I want to quickly go through the pros and cons of the show. Yeah, you can go to my other posts for that, but here’s a quick summation of them all.

PROS

BSG came at the right time for me. It took the basics from the original show and did its own thing with it. We weren’t running into weird aliens or planets that also housed human life here. Ron Moore and David Eick tried to create a world that felt like our own current one. The show touched on a lot of themes like politics, religion, faith, survival, morality, and technology. It helped that the acting was well done and that the characters were pretty interesting. While they were our protagonists, they weren’t perfect. They would stumble and fall from time to time, but they would do their best to help one another.

The action was also pretty well done. If there’s one thing that actually didn’t change much from the original show, it was the Galactica’s look and the Viper’s look. The space battles felt like current-day dog fights. While the CG wasn’t as great with things like the robotic Cylons, it was good for its time. It even got better as time went on. Finally, I think we can all say that composer Bear McCreary brought a certain style to the show with his music.

TV/Movie Talk - Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

Well, it took me a while to re-watching this one again. I’ll get into why down later, though. Battlestar Galactica: The Plan was released on DVD during October of 2009. I didn’t end up seeing the movie until it aired on Syfy in early 2010. I haven’t done much research in this, but it was shot alongside the final episodes of the show. The idea for the movie was to show what the Cylons’ plan was for humanity. That shouldn’t have been too complex to know: they wanted to blow them up! Still, the creators wanted to add a little more to the mythos. They even got Edward James Olmos to direct the 112 minute feature.

The movie revolves around Cylon #1 or “Cavil” (Dean Stockwell) as he and the rest of the Cylons plan humanity’s destruction. Cavil also has plans for the Final Five Cylon models (the ones that helped the Caprican Cylons with resurrection) to see what they’ve done to humanity. The fall happens but plans change when it’s revealed that a group of humans (the BSG and the fleet) are still alive. We then see Cavil and the other Cylons scheme and plan to take down the fleet over the first two seasons. Meanwhile, on Caprica, a Cavil model tries to befriend Anders, one of the Final Five. It all ends pretty much where “Lay Down Your Burdens” ends with the two Cavils being shot out into space.

Favorites - 14 Favorite Battlestar Galactica Episodes

Yes, I’m still on a bit of BSG surge. Y’all know how it is! It’s something that’ll take a while to kick. Now that I remember, there is Caprica to look forward to…. (sigh)… and now I think my problem has cleared up by thinking about that show. I’ll touch upon “One Frak to Live” one day, but not today. I’ll probably get to something else like a certain movie crossover starring a knight and some amphibians next.

Before I get to Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, I wanted to touch upon my favorite episodes of the series. It’s been a while since I’ve done some favorite lists.  It took me a long while to get to this and this is going to be a tough list to do. I’m even including the mini-series and movies here as well. You gotta count them since they were pretty much glorified two-parters. Since ranking these will be too tough, I’m just sticking to chronological order for this one. I’m also including 14 episodes (as well as two-parters) since I couldn’t stop at 13. So, how do I not rank most of Season 2’s episodes on here?

TV Talk - Battlestar Galactica Season 4

Hmm... seems messianic with less emphasis on the "messi".

For my final post this month, I might as well go out with a bang. It’s back to Battlestar Galactica for this one. I had been wanting to finish off the show with Season 4, but I couldn’t find the dang DVD set for a while. Thankfully, I found them. It’s literally been 10 years since I’ve ever watched this season especially the final episodes. It felt like the end to something special especially since I was getting ready for my final semester of college. Season 4 of BSG was split between 2008 and 2009. While it kind of started with the movie, Razor, it officially didn’t start until April 2008. 10 episodes aired in 2008 while another 10 aired in 2009. I was pretty much glued to the set for the final season.

So… how do I talk about this without spoiling the fact that Kara Thrace came back from the dead in Season 3? Oh… well, Starbuck, who unfortunately left us in the middle of Season 3, suddenly shows up in a nebula where the fleet is surrounded by Cylons. Also, four of the final five Cylon models are revealed, and it is a shock to them and the audience. I’ll won’t spoil them, though. Let’s just say it’s all a a bit of a mess at the end of Season 3. The fleet was still in shock over Baltar’s trial, and it’s revealed that Roslin’s cancer is back.

Season 4 picks up with what happened and rolls with it. Kara isn’t trusted at first, but she’s then sent out with others since she may know where Earth is. Lee accepts a new role in the fleet’s government. The newly revealed Cylons do what they can with their new knowledge. Also, Gaius Baltar gets even weirder. We even get a Cylon civil war that causes some models to possibly help humanity. To keep from spoiling more, the fleet do reach their destination, but it’s far from over. Not only do they have to deal with internal matters, there’s still the threat of the Cylons.

Random Pictures of the Month - 12 Things Battlestar Galactica Has Taught Me

Well, I'm at the end of my journey of looking at the rebooted Battlestar Galactica. Since I haven't done this section in quite a while, I thought I'd just post some pics and some lessons that BSG taught me. These may or may not be real lessons, but you never know.

1. Sometimes, fan service is good. Seriously, Richard Hatch (RIP) knocked the role of Tom Zarek out of the park.

2. Don't tick off the really nice ones especially when they've gone through some stuff. That Mutiny arc was awesome.

3. If this show and some personal experience has taught me, blondes can sometimes be trouble.

Trade Tales! - Hawkworld

Next up is a return to the DC Universe. This time, I’m looking at a character I’m not a big fan of: Hawkman. I don’t think he’s a lame character even though his mask is sometimes weird. All I know about the character is that he is pretty screwed up continuity-wise. And I thought Superman’s continuity  had issues!  I know that Carter Hall (or Katar Hol, whatever floats your boat) has gone through changes over the years. I even remember running across the confusion in Zero Hour, a crossover that was supposed to end the confusion. Spoilers… It apparently didn’t and this story here is kind of what started it.

A few months back, I was looking through some cheap trade paperbacks. I came across Hawkworld, a three-issue prestige miniseries written and drawn by Tim Truman. I had heard about the story, though I may had been confusing it with the series that spun out of it. Either way, the artwork looked nice, so I decided to pick it up. The miniseries was released in 1989, and it was supposed to be a total reboot of the character in the same way Man of Steel was to Superman. Truman, who has done a lot of work, wrote and penciled the mini. Inks were done by Enrique Alcatena and colors were done by Sam Parsons.

Movie Talk - The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day

Next up is a quick look at a franchise I’ve sometimes talked about here: the Terminator franchise. Yeah, I’m jumping on the Terminator bandwagon since that new trailer for Terminator: Dark Fate was released. I thought it looked fine, but I want to see more before I make my decision on it. We’ve been burned before with this franchise, so I can’t blame fans for sitting this one out. Thankfully, I’m sitting the possibly “meh” entries out for this post. Today, it’s just the first two movies: The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

T2 is what introduced me to the franchise. I know I’ve seen it on TV plenty of times. I even rented it as a kid, though I never got to watch it unfiltered. In fact, I think this is the first time I’ve seen it without it being edited for TV. I didn’t see the first movie until a few years later on TV as well. Since I had the time, I decided to watch them over the weekend. I have T2 on DVD while the first movie was relegated to Netflix. It’s also the first time that I’ve seen the extended edition for T2.

Weird Star Trek Episodes - Endgame aka "All Good Things... Version 2.0"

Young Janeway: Are our uniforms going to look that bad?

Old Janeway: Well... yes. If there's one bad thing "All Good Things..." brought into existence, it's this crappy uniform!

All this talk about the Game of Thrones final episode has got me thinking about other final episodes. Last episodes tend to range from “what the heck was that crap” to “that was pretty good.” Even some of the best shows end up having a bad ending. I’ve never watched Dexter, but that’s one that gets thrown around a lot. Sci-fi franchises have also felt this. For every “All Good Things…,” you’ll get a “These are the Voyages….” This stuff just tends to be random. Then, there are the ones that just “whelm” you. They’re not good nor or are they bad. In Star Trek’s case: it’s one thing: “Endgame.”

No, this doesn’t involve Captain Janeway flinging Mjolnir at the Borg Queen because that would be too cool. “Endgame” was the series finale for Star Trek: Voyager and it aired May 21, 2001. At this point, I was catching up with the show through reruns on UPN. We only had the station for about a year, so I didn’t start watching VOY properly until the end of the sixth season. We even got a few surprises in the finale like Alice Krige reprising her role as the Borg Queen. I know I liked this back when I first saw it, but why did have a whelming feeling when I saw this a couple of years ago?

Trek Novels - Star Trek: The Captain's Table Book 4 - Fire Ship

“Today’s post is the start at a look at an anthology series that was released throughout 1998 called 'The Captain’s Table.' The basic premise is that there is a special bar called The Captain’s Table and captains of all sorts come and relax for a bit. Six books looked at the different captains at that time… I’m going to try to look each book during the next few months…” 

So... I really got behind on this one. I think I started reading it sometime last year, but other stuff got in the way. Next, I lost track of the dang thing. When I finally got around to finishing it, let's just say that  it took longer than I thought it would take. So, Game of Thrones has come to an end. While I’ve only seen one episode and bits and pieces, I’ve enjoyed all the furor that’s been said about the last season. It’s even making me want to revisit something that’s related to the book I’m talking about today. I’ll probably talk about that later this week, though. I’m still not that interested in seeing more  GOT especially since I have a lot of other things I want to see.

I haven’t read too many Voyager novels. While I do have a couple, I haven’t gotten to them yet. Today’s pick is Fire Ship from The Captain’s Table collection. As you can tell by the cover, it’s all about Captain Kathryn Janeway, someone who’s not exactly one of my favorite characters. I think I know why it took so long to get to this one. The book is written by Diane Carey, who I almost got mistaken for Diane Duane, another Trek novelist. Carey’s done quite a few Trek novels, and some were even novelizations of episodes. It’s not stated when it takes place, but I looked online and it says that it takes place right before the episodes, “Year of Hell.”

Random Thoughts On... The Netflix Godzilla Anime Trilogy

In a couple of weeks, the G-Man will be returning to theatres. Yeah, it took five years, but Legendary Pictures has finally gotten another Godzilla movie out. From what I’ve seen and heard, this looks like it’ll be fun especially since a certain King will grace its head(s) once again. For this month, I was originally going to do a list of my favorite Godzilla films. I haven’t seen them all, so that’s gotta wait. Yes, I’m such a bad Godzilla fan. Instead of that, I decided to revisit and finish the anime Godzilla trilogy on Netflix. I can safely say that it’s… okay?

Alright, let me start off at the beginning. Toho Co., the ones behind the Godzilla movies, announced that they were going to do a trilogy of animated Godzilla movies. Toho Animation worked along with Polygon Pictures to bring these movies to life. The first movie, Planet of the Monsters, was released in 2017. Its sequel, City on the Edge of Battle, was released in 2018. The final movie, The Planet Eater, was also released in 2018. It didn’t make it to Netflix until 2019, though.

I was moderately interested in the movies. When I found out the first one was on Netflix, I immediately watched it. It took a while for me to get around to the sequel, though. As for The Planet Eater, I actually decided to re-watch the first two movies and it as well this week. I guess I felt I was missing something the first time around with the first two. I’ve also briefly talked about the first two here as well. I wasn’t a big fan of them and now that I’ve finished watching the trilogy,… eh.

Trade Tales! - Serenity: A Shepard's Tale

Next up for the month is a return to the Firefly franchise. Outside of the TV show and movie, I haven’t ingested other Firefly material. I think part of it just has to do with the fact that I got other stuff to do. It is out there if you look. There are novels, Dark Horse Comics has had the license to do stories with most of Joss Whedon’s properties and Firefly is one of them. Whedon’s even been involved with a few. I ended up coming across this somewhere and something about it really struck my fancy: Shepard Book.

Derrial Book (played by the late Ron Glass) was the Serenity’s holy man. He’s a Shepard which is a priest or pastor in the Firefly universe. While he was a man of God, he seemed to do well with the pretty shady crew of the Serenity. Even he had some shades himself especially if you remember his little moment with “kneecaps.” We never found out more since the show got cancelled. When he was brought back for a bit in the movie, he met an unfortunate end. Since he was pretty popular, the Whedons (Joss and Zack) decided to do a graphic novel surrounding his origins.

Serenity: A Shepard’s Tale was released in 2010. Joss provided the plot while Zack handled the story and dialogue. Chris Samnee, who I know from his run on Daredevil, handled the artwork. The colors were done by Dave Stewart. The letterer was Michael Haesler. Finally, the awesome cover art was done by Steve Morris. So, what did this Shepard get up to in his youth?

"It's a Video Game!" - Star Wars: Bounty Hunter

Well, it’s time for the obligatory Star Wars post. Originally, I wanted to revisit and finish Star Wars: the Force Unleashed on the PS3. Then, I suddenly remember this old gem from my teen years. I saw it on Playstation Network and had to play it again. I don’t know what any of us expected when we saw a familiar figure dressed in Mandalorian armor in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. I thought it looked kinda cool, and hey, Jango Fett lived up to that coolness even though he gets beheaded at the end of the movie. Thankfully, that wasn’t the last time we’d seen Boba Fett’s daddy.

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter was a third-person action shooter that was released in 2002, sometime after AOTC was released on video and DVD. It was developed and published by Lucasarts during what was pretty much their zenith. They were churning out all sorts of Star Wars games throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s. While you would get something horrid like the Masters of Teras-Kasi (ugh), you’d also get good games like KOTOR and Jedi Academy. They even got Temuera Morrison (Jango Fett) and Leeanna Walsman (Zam Wessell) to reprise their roles here. We even get Clancy Brown voicing another bounty hunter and Corey Burton doing a pretty good Christopher Lee impression.

Bounty Hunter takes place a decade before the events of AOTC. I don’t know how canon this is, and until someone shows me something else, I’m counting it! Count Dooku puts outs a bounty for Komari Vosa, a Dark Jedi who’s the head of the Bando Gora. Jango Fett and another Mandalorian bounty hunter, Montross (Clancy Brown), answer the call. You pretty much end up going all over the galaxy looking for clues, shooting folk, and taking other bounties along the way. On your journey, you have your friend, Rozzatta, feeding you info. You also run into another bounty hunter named Zam Wessell, “and I definitely see her and Jango’s partnership lasting for a long time…”

Oh yeah... that happened.

TV Talk - Star Trek: Discovery Season 2

Well, it’s that time of the year where I get to gush (?) a bit on sci-fi related stuff. I don’t know where a bounty hunter looking for a rouge Jedi fits on that list, but I can fit it on there, dang it! Before I get to the thing that may have wrecked my wrist, I think it’s time for some more Star Trek.

If I remember correctly, Star Trek: Discovery didn’t start out well. While I liked the first season, I’ll admit that it had some pretty big problems. While you’d think I’d itch and moan about its canonicity (is that a word?), the fact that the suits looked different was the least of its issues. At the end of Season 1, we got an inkling of something cool: the original USS Enterprise (Constellation-class, by the way). Yeah, it was updated a bit, but my baby looked good! During the break, we got more behind-the-scene stuff coming out. Honestly, I mostly blocked most of it out, but the whole thing about the writers was pretty messed up. When it started to air on All Access, I was in for it all especially since they took no breaks this time.

Now this is what I call a remix!

The biggest news that came out of the break was that we’d be seeing some old characters return. It was revealed that Anson Mount would be playing Captain Christopher Pike and that he would be a major part of the series. I had only seen Mount on Inhumans, so I didn’t know what to expect. We also found out that Spock would be around and he would be played by Ethan Peck, the grandson of actor Gregory Peck. I think everyone was worried about this one since we got another one in the iconic role. We also got an inkling that things could start to look more familiar. Did they succeed in making a better season?

So, where has Burnham gotten herself this time?

Season 2 starts off right after the end of Season 1. Since the USS Enterprise is somehow damaged, Capt. Christopher Pike is given temporary control of the USS Discovery. His mission is to investigate seven time anomalies that have recently sprung up across the galaxy. He also reveals to Michael Burnham that her adoptive brother, Spock, has gone on leave for some reason. It gets revealed (pretty early so it really ain’t a spoiler) that Spock is somehow connected to these anomalies and something called “The Red Angel.” We then get a season that searches for answers, displays fan service, makes explosions, tells some dang good stories, gives us an awesome captain in Pike, sticks to the freakin’ landing in the end, and does annoy me in some places. This is a second season Trek, after all.

Movie Talk - Ant-Man and the Wasp/Captain Marvel

Well, we got four days until Avengers: Endgame is released. Now that I’ve looked at Infinity War, it’s time for the other two that’s come out. When it comes to Ant-Man and the Wasp, I actually skipped that one for the theatres. I’m not a fan of the character, so I thought I’d save watching it for Netflix. As for Captain Marvel, I just saw this one last Saturday. I was a few minutes late (missed the trailers and Carol’s training session with Yon-Rogg), but I got there right in time.

Ant Man and the Wasp

Ant-Man and the Wasp was released during of July of 2018. Instead of the movie taking place after Infinity War, it takes place sometime before those events. In the movie, we catch up with Scott Lang, Henry Pym, and Hope van Dyne after the events of Civil War. Scott’s been on house arrest while Henry and Hope have been on the run. They reluctantly recruit Scott on a mission to see if they can find Janet van Dyne (the original Wasp) in the Quantum Realm. Unfortunately, they have to deal with a few threats. The FBI is looking for them, some lame crook wants their technology, and a former SHIELD agent called Ghost wants their tech for herself.

Movie Talk - Avengers: Infinity War

Well, we’re on the precipice of a big event… the release of Ma starring Olivia Spencer. I don’t know where this movie’s gonna go but—oh yeah, there’s that independent movie featuring the Avengers and Grimace’s evil cousin, Thanos, being released on April 26th. That’s the one I might not be able to see that day because I haven’t gotten my ticket yet. I don’t think Liz would even  be into a possibly 3-hour movie either. Anyway, we’re definitely in the endgame now. Before I get there, I wanted to look at the other Marvel movies I haven’t talked about here. So, it’s Avengers: Infinity War for this post. The other two will get their own post.

 I saw Infinity War last year when it was released at Pulaski’s theatre. I also recently re-watched it on Netflix. I did plan on talking about it last year, but I never got the chance to. It’s pretty much what the MCU has been building up to over the last 6 years. Here, Thanos and his Black Order start to form the Infinity Gauntlet, a device made up of six powerful stones. When put together, the wearer has the ability to rewrite reality. Since this is a major threat to the whole universe, the Avengers aren’t the only heroes on deck for this one. We got Doctor Strange, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Black Panther, and Spider-Man to thwart this threat. Would it be enough to stop Thanos and his reign of terror? Well, since Avengers: Endgame is about to be released, you can kind of guess that unfortunate answer.

TV Talk - Green Lantern: The Animated Series

(From TeamFourStar’s Dragon Ball Z Abridged)

Vegeta: What are you doing, Nappa?

Nappa: I’m cuddling it, Vegeta!

Vegeta: It’s Dead, Nappa!

Nappa: NOOOOOO!!!!!!

Well, it has come to this. When I started this little themed phase, I came up with the title of “The Yay, the Okay, and the Nay” of Green Lantern. If the live-action movie’s the “nay,” those two animated movies are the “okay”, then guess what gets the “yay?” It’s Green Lantern: The Animated Series, a show I completely missed out on when it was airing.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series (or GLTAS for short) aired on Cartoon Network as part of the network’s “DC Nation” hour. It aired along with stuff like Young Justice and Beware the Batman. 26 episodes ran between 2012 and 2013. While it was created because of the live-action movie, it didn’t tie into the movie and had its own continuity. It was heavily based off of Geoff Johns’ run on Green Lantern which was still going at the time. It was also completely done in CG which was a first for Bruce Timm, the producer. Unfortunately, due to the reception of the live-action movie and poor toy sales, the series was cancelled. Outside of Teen Titans Go!, all those shows that were a part of that DC Nation block got the ax… hrmmm.

I was never able to watch the show since I was working and we had no cable. Also, the animation made it seem that it was going to be aimed for the little ones. I think it was 2014 when I first ran over this show on Netflix. I decided to watch the first episode… and then was pretty much hooked until the end. I was also regretting not liking the animation now that I had seen it in action. The show was probably the thing that got me to check out Johns’ run on Green Lantern. Back in 2016, I threw it on a list of TV shows that got axed too soon and it was right at the top. I don’t know if you can tell, but I really liked this show.

Movie Talk - Green Lantern (2011)

Well, it’s been a couple of years since I’ve seen this movie. My Green Lantern phase is still going and I had to touch on this movie eventually. So, I’ll just start at the beginning with the live action version of Green Lantern.

I don’t remember when I first heard there was a GL movie coming. I don’t think I was that excited about it, though. I didn’t see it in theaters since word of mouth said that the movie was bad. I still remember the Cinema Snob’s Midnight Movie feature where he said the villain was a literal piece of crap. The first time I laid eyes on the film was actually after my grandad’s funeral in 2014. We were at my uncle’s house the day after his funeral and I didn’t feel like going to church that day. It was playing on TNT and I came in sometime around the last act, I believe.

I ended up finding it in a cheap bin in 2016. I eventually got around to watching it…. and then turned it off at the halfway point. I actually think I was going to sleep, so it wasn’t making me stay up. Eventually, I finished it and then lost track of the thing for a couple of years. I ended up finding it at my sister’s house last week, so I decided it was time to give this thing another watch. I gotta say that I was surprised this time.

Green Lantern was released during the Summer of 2011. It starred Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, Temerua Morrison as Abin Sur, Blake Lively as Carol Ferris, Peter Sarsguard as Hector Hammond, Mark Strong as Sinestro, Angela Bassett as Amanda Waller, and Michael Clark Duncan as Kilowog. In the movie, Hal Jordan is an irresponsible test pilot who becomes the first  human Green Lantern for his sector. He’s given a ring that has the power to do anything he can imagine. He must face his fears as Parallax, the yellow entity of fear, threatens Earth and the universe as a whole.