The Real Origin of Batman

Been going through the "fun" process that is applying to teach in a new country... PLEASE smash my head in with a rock or other hard object!!!... When my friend Mike sent me this.

It is too funny!

Source here, be sure to check it out.

I used to praise Bruce Timm?

So we were renting some movies to put on in the background of our work.

Among them was one of Bruce Timm's latest direct to DVD movies.


Green Lantern: First Flight.

I haven't been 100% about Bruce Timm's efforts after his ongoing DC animated TV series. So far the only of these movies that I have slightly enjoyed was Justice League New Frontier.

Well I can now safely say Green Lantern is the worst thing (other then maybe Gotham Knights) Timm has done.

There was not a single good moment in this production.

Yeah I agree with that look Hal. It really was puzzling just how bad Green Lantern was.

The movie was one none stop action sequence, but with no framing or intelligence. We had NO idea who any of these characters were (even having read the comics it was pretty lame). There was next to no plot.

The worst part of all, the none stop action consisted of nothing more then someone shooting an energy beam and the other person blocking with their energy device, harmlessly deflecting the attack. Repeat several more times... Until the Green Lanterns needed to win the fight, and suddenly they'd out will through an adversaries defenses.

I'm really starting to wonder if I should seek out Bruce Timm projects anymore?

Wonder Woman was good I'm told. So we'll see if that can redeem things a bit.

Finally a good Sci-Fi Film!

Not quite the first official post of 2010 I'd planned, but I've been kind of busy doing the stuff for future posts... So my Tassie adventures will have to wait for a slower day.


I went with the Clan of R (of whom my partner Lady R is the youngest daughter) to the theatre the other day to catch James Cameron's Avatar.



HOLY *BEEP* it was awesome!!!


I went in pretty cold turkey. All I'd seen on the film was the single TV teaser shown in NZ, which is about 20 seconds long and makes the movie look pretty stupid (the Kiwi's have a skill at doing this in editing their teasers for movies though... everything that has come out since I've been down under has failed to appeal due to bad teasers).

I knew the basic premise it was going to be a environmental driven film, and guessed before entering that the soundtrack would likely be a James Horner. This was about it. None of which prepared me for what I was going to see.


Having avoided the hype going in, I could easily get on the band wagon now... to an extent.


Overall it was an excellent film, but NOT perfect. It also sadly didn't change how I'm going to watch movies.


I'll start on a negative about the experience, but not the film. Despite the hype around the new 3D aspect of this film, I seriously did not enjoy it!

When I left the theatre my eyes hurt, and I developed a headache later as a result (though my genetically inherited migraine genes are more to blame for the last part). The Clan oh R complained about eye pain too.

The 3D effect worked for the forest and wilderness scenes, and definitely created a neat effect there. However in human created environments, like inside buildings and spaceships the scenes had a very disconcerting fuzziness and blurring on the edges and backgrounds. Writing in these places in particular was hazy, and if your like me, trying to "focus" on them won't help focus them. It was the movie's controlling what I was "focusing" my depth perception on I found very disconcerting, as I have mild cataracts, and this movie mimicked it perfectly. Yet moving my eyes didn't fix the problem, like it would in real life... My constant instinctive trying to fix the problem caused me no end of fun during view I assure you!

If you have perfect eye sight pay attention to this effect if you watch the film, and imagine having this problem in real life too!

So I'm not a huge fan of the 3D part of this film.

The effects and CGI on the other hand... Just when I'm thinking I'm on my way to getting okay at CG stuff. Watching this movie made me want to cry myself to sleep, and throw my puter into the rubbish bin. It is definitely a work of special effects art!

The alien planet and its creatures were the highlight of the film. Both in design and execution. Apart from the horse like mounts of the native, everything about the planet was just incredible and fun to watch in an exploration and wonder sense. It conveyed exactly what I feel when walking through an real earth forest (been doing that here in Tassie a lot this week). Hopefully a few none nature inclined members of the audience will pick up some of this sense of awe of the nature world from the film... I loved every second on Pandora.

One of the factors that blew me away unexpectedly, was the soundtrack. Due to his own admitted tendency to write music the same way (as it is music as he thinks it should be), I'd written James Horner's scores off a while ago. Sure I can appreciate that the man has a certain style he sticks too, but once you owe the first fresh versions of these sounds from the 1980's you don't need to buy new barely different versions afterwards.

Avatar despite having a definite Horner feel to it, has an astonishing score, and one full of all sorts of new things from Horner (for me anyway... I guess he picked up a few new tricks in the last couple years, but this was their mega polished presentation). It pleases me greatly to have a NEW Horner album to listen to after so many years, and yet revisit some of his style from the 1980's (which as of late I've decided is my Golden age of scores. More on this in a future post)

The plot was very enthralling, but flawed, and this is why you won't catch me saying Avatar was the best movie ever or other such praise. I'll save my reservations for a minute.

Immediately as the film began revealing the rather bleak future for humanity Cameron forecasts in this universe, I found it relieving that others share my complete disdain and disgust for baseline human nature and more specifically corporate America. The environmental themes were excellent, and I loved how the native spiritualism was more a simplified version of food chain energy exchange then religious nonsense.

Most of what I heard about Avatar before seeing it, was about the "indigenous people" metaphors in the film, and how one smart white man saves the day. Watching the film, I found this argument absolute BS. If anything this film was about how cooperation from diversity and difference comes strength.

Yes the natives needed the human to help them defeat the advanced army they faced, but this is why they were the sympathetic side of the story. If they'd been self sufficient, the story would have been humans trying to stop them from taking over the Earth. The natives gave as good as they got from the "superior white man", if not for them he'd have had no salvation, no army to fight to save the planet, and no means of harnessing the native terrain and animals.

Speaking of characters, I liked the gimmick of the main character being crippled. Overall the cast was just stereotypes and archetypes, but they functioned the story pretty well. Too much Joss Wheadon like characters with their greyscaling would have gotten in the way of Cameron's environmental and society messages... which I think can not and should not have been greyscaled. So good on him for sticking to simplicity on this front.

Where this movie fell apart for me was the end climatic battle. It is basically a more gritty, gory, and sexy Battle of Endor from Star Wars. A tribal hunter/gather culture battles a Space Age mechanised army. Now though this film does it much better then Star Wars, it still suffers the same problem.

SPACE age opponents should not be dumb enough to fight in a manner hunter/gathers can even really participate. Without spoiling anything, the end fight on the human side should have revolved around the best quote from an earlier Cameron film. "Nuke the site from orbit... it's the only way to be sure".

That said and done, I REALLY enjoyed the battle once I disengaged my brain, and let the flawed situation play out. For you see I have a very key weakness in Sci-Fi. The instant spaceships start shooting at each other, I enter a blissful state. Replace the good guys spaceships with Pterodactyls, and well Pterodactyls shooting at spaceships and vice versa. I'm kind of forced to enter a foaming at the mouth love of the piece!!!

So in a year that saw several shit attempts at Sci-Fi it was good to see one that was finally really good (okay and District 9, watched it on the plane, and it was as an overall film better then Avatar, but depressing and not fun. Might talk about it later too)

The Primeval Paradox

Well TV has gone and done it again! It has not only gone and ruined one of the few shows I do watch, but it was then cancelled to boot!


The show in question was the British sci-fi "drama" Primeval.

If you had asked me, up until this week anyway, what my favourite current running TV show was, I'd have answered Primeval. Not that I watch it (or much of anything else) on TV. I have instead been buying it on DVDs from the UK (thanks to Clare!), and watching them marathon style.

The basic premise of the show couldn't have been better targeted to my interests. Holes in time start, literally, ripping open allowing creatures from prehistory (and the future) to start wandering into present. Inflicting all sorts of needless property damage whilst trying to eat all the humans they encounter! The government fearing a world wide panic attempts to cover up the ongoing temporal crisis, and hires a team of ragtag specialists to deal with the "creatures" (their tagline for all the animals no matter what) ghostbuster style.

The first season was amazing. Well if you consider it was for all intents and purposes a serialized B monster movie. I wouldn't say it was a rival for the likes of say West Wing, but considering how silly the concept was it was executed alright (though I personally think if the audience were there, this premise could be done incredibly well and serious to match West Wing as a serious concept, but alas... it is only me). What made this early season very strong was the mix of tongue and cheekness about itself, and the interesting interactions between the lead character and the "villian".

Not that the first season didn't have a dud or two out of its mere six episodes. The second episode is a chore beyond the awesome army introduction. The 1st season's short run helped it in many ways. They introduced and established the temporal disaster quickly, and efficiently. A slick style that would be lost with the bigger later seasons, which tended to draw out their singular story arcs to the point of boredom.

Additionally the first season is where the majority of what made the show's temporal crisis interesting occurred. Season's 2 and 3 didn't do a whole lot towards progressing or explaining the "anomaly" situation. Apart from the first episodes of each of these seasons, which were cool, but I got the hint the writers had changed their mind on how the "anomalies" were going to resolve and play out in the interest of extending the show. In other words the first season was carried out well as they weren't sure if they'd get picked up beyond the 2nd season. When they were they decided to for go resolving anything expecting the good times would roll...


My favourite factor that made the show watchable beyond the CG "dinosaurs" (which were always the best parts) was the lead character, palaeonotologist Nick Cutter. A combination of good casting and breaking some of the sterotypes about scientists made Cutter my favourite fictional palaeontologist of all time (apart from perhaps Dr. Challenger).

Actor Douglas Henshall was able to infuse a sense of intelligence and insight into sometimes very cliche and unrealistic behaviour for a scientist (or anyone with common sense for that matter!), to the point you could swallow it. More to the point, UNLIKE Sam Neil's Dr. Grant, Dr. Cutter was kick @$$. He wasn't a bumbling twit, technophobe, or unable to use his prehistoric know how when confronting the creatures in the flesh.

Dr. Cutter was as much action hero as scientist, and it was just plain cool. Plus his past dark connection to the crisis (in the form of his wife) made him a very compelling character. Which sadly wasn't otherwise abundant in the rest of the main cast.

However just outside the main cast, was the series ongoing antithetical character Helen Cutter, Dr. Cutter's former wife. In the first season Helen was played with such delicious caginess. She was neither evil nor good, but someone with her own agenda and interests invested in the time crisis. Which we never did learn, beyond her having travelled throughout all of history and the future exploring the time holes.

Sadly she lost this great enigmatic angle in later seasons, where they just played Helen as a evil big bad. Though the tense and complicated relationship between Helen and her husband Nick was always present, and made for excellent moments.

Where the show was at its best was in the season 1 finale. Not only did it have the coolest creature vs. creature battle of the show (the Gorgonopsid above being assaulted by Primevals trademark creature the "future predator"), but the coolest twist I'd seen in a show since Battlestar or Angel.

What started as a chilling bit of pre-destination time travel (where the characters realize in the pilot episode they had stumbled across some of their own graves, which get filled as a consequence of the creature battle), but this is immediately followed by a huge whammy of a paradox in which all of time is altered, except Nick and Helen.


Season 2 had an amazing opening episode, following up the paradoxes effects. The episode perfectly captures what it would feel like if you were suddenly thrust into a completely altered world. We the viewers are forced to suffer alongside Nick Cutter through the complete helplessness and frustration of his situation. To top it all off the only person he cared about, the new love interest, no longer exists (at least as he knew her), and he has no idea what took her or "his" world away from him.

I thought it was only to get better from here. The creatures were getting cooler (this premier had Raptors), we had a fascinating angle on the time travel, and a big personal crisis to solve.

What could go wrong with this setup?

How about not following through with this premise!

Sadly the writers and producers of Primeval looked at the popular American shows of that time, LOST and Heroes. Next thing you know, Primeval suddenly took a 360 from the subtle sci-fi premise with a B monster movie hook, to an over the top end of the world storyline. Sadly this end of the world story had nothing to do with the time holes, but instead a dumb covery up conspiracy that put brain boxes on the time monsters to use them to take over the world...

Certainly nothing as cool or subtle as the 1st seasons mere threat of time falling apart. The show become rather formulaic, with the time holes becoming normal, and not something the characters or even the show treated with awe or mystery any more.

Sadly this form of storytelling emphasised one of Primeval's on going weaknesses. That of failing to make the human part of the story interesting. Any part with Cutter tended to be very watchable, but beyond him the other main characters were dreadfully cliche and predictable. They also didn't have very defined roles or skill sets.

Fro example the show's resident geek character, started in the first season as a palaeo student, and thus and had this annoying tendency of competing with Cutter for the science moments. Suddenly in season 2 (which could have been argued to be part of the paradox) the geek suddenly became the tech savvy genius of the operation. It filled a key niche that had been missing from the show, and it was one time it was a positive change, but it was inconsistent even after this.

In the 3rd season this role swapping was taken to an extreme. Suddenly the new Archaeologist, who was added to the show for a gimmick they only explored once (in the best episode of the last season), suddenly could break complex computer codes and create complex laser containment systems. The new cop leader could do everything from fly helicopters (which at least had a great tongue and cheek acknowledgement) to break into high security fortresses mission impossible style (no tongue and cheek explanation).

The problem with these ubber talented swiss army knife characters was that it took the "human" element out the show and turned them into nothing more then walking talking plot devices. Which made for boring 45 minute rehashed B monster movies with no situational tension as any character could fix the problem.

The worst turn on the show though in season 3 was the loss of actors. Due to the studio trying to extended the show longer then initially planned (or at least so I get the impression), many of the key actors wanted out of the show. It just so happened every single one of these were the key people to the show's premise.

First Nick Cutter died. A not very easy to bring back method of departure (if at all... which I suspect was the plan). In the end this show was really about him and his "relationship" with the time holes (through both his wife and the paradox). Killing Cutter meant in a sense ending the show's relevance. On a side note, I couldn't help but get the impression the actor left not only due to the show going to long, but that he felt it had already lost its relevance by ignoring season 1's finale.

Next went Claudi Brown, in an even worse departure that clearly indicated the actress wanted out, but was willing to appear once and a while in a guest star capacity. As the key crux of the paradox her departure marked that the writers had completely given up on ever resolving this thread.

Finally with season 3's finale Helen Cutter was killed off. This was disastrous to how the show had established itself functioning. Helen for all intents and purposes had become the story telling engine by which any threat or menace from the time crisis would be revealed. With her passing you immediately saw the show degrading into simply a monster of the week formula.

Worst of all these were all the characters worth watching the show for. With the exception of the new addition Danny Quinn, the shows cast was pretty cliche and/or boring. Everything good about the 3rd season in the end boiled down to Danny who was the sole remnant of fun left in the show (beyond the creatures).

The consistently excellent facet of Primeval I will miss, is the creatures themselves. The effects by Impossible Pictures were second to none. The monsters themselves in some cases could steal the miserable episodes they were in (the Giganatosaurus at airport would have been a complete waste of film otherwise...).

Despite the fact the carnivorous creatures always had an insatiable appetite for humans, some of the best episodes were the clever and creative ways the writers could make none predatory creatures threatening. The Dodo episode from season 1 is a true highlight, where the threat comes from a previously unknown parasite the extinct birds carried that is extremely dangerous in humans. Or the Pteranodon who is accused (by the government agents) of killing golfers, but in reality is just a fish eater trying to find a mate (and accidentally distracting the team from the real killer).

I will miss the show for being the first (and so far only) to have Dinosaurs and prehistoric animals in an ongoing sci-fi episodic show. It (until the 3rd season) tended to always entertain me, and bring a smile to my face.

Yet it will always have the tinge of being unfinished, and worse not fulfilling its potential...

Possibly. One idea that has been bouncing around in my head of late is a possible tie in to a certain small Tyrannosaur's life. As he deals with weird things all the time, and more to the point would make a good instant Dinosaur fighter in the modern era...

To those Traumador readers out there (and Primeval fans) would you be interested in Primeval: Traumador?

As you can see the effects, none animated, are not beyond my abilities...

More Than Meets the Eye

June has become a very important month for hallmarks and events for me in New Zealand. Sadly none of them are happy memories, and making them worse their all pretty much independent events (meaning I've had a few too many dramas down here!).

The only commonality between them is they all were part of my progression in becoming a teacher. Yet today I stumbled across a random unifying thread that ties them all together.

It was one year ago I became a registered Teacher in this country. This led to the long epic issues I had with immigration and be paid. Not something I wish to remember really. However my immigration papers need renewing here one year later. So on my way into to town to get some of this paperwork done, I stumbled across a funny reminder of another June event in my past life.

It was two years ago this up coming week that I failed a very critical posting. At the time it was the worst thing that had ever happened to me, and caused me a lot of pain and hardship in getting my Education degree. In hindsight it was a minor hickup in my life, but at the time very traumatic, and I don't miss that year of skool one bit!

Like you can see, not really related issues. Yet they became connected in a silly way today...

Driving into town today, I passed through Dunedin city square (called the Octagon). I couldn't help but notice the centre piece statue, Robert Burns, had be modified thusly.

To start off with, I am not a big fan of Robbie Burns as the mascot of this city. He never once in his life visited New Zealand, that alone Dunedin (his nephew lived here is the vague connection). Furthermore there are plenty of cool local people who deserve the recognition of being the main statue in town. They also did more worthwhile things then write stupid bar poems...

Anyways with my disregard for this statue in mind, as I drove by it I couldn't help but be curious. I assumed the defacement of Robbie was tied into a local support rally for the ongoing Iranian civil disorder.

Man was I wrong...

Getting closer I discovered it was a clever viral ad for Transformers 2.

Someone has "transformed" (pun intended!) Robbie Burns into Optimus Prime. A change for the better here in Dunedin if you ask me!

So how does Optimus Burns tie together my two dark anniversaries?

Well I was in town solely due to my immigration stuff of last year. So that is its part in this "tale" I've constructed.

As for 2 years ago, the only good thing to happen to me on the day I failed (I was in a dreadfully depressed mood let me tell you) was it was opening night for the first Transformers movie. So I went to see it, and it miraculously pulled me out of my dark brooding unhappiness.

Despite the fact it is an awful film, I really love it. It holds a special place in my heart like Independence Day. I'm wrong for liking them, but they were key morale boosters in tough times of my life. One of the odd powers of film I guess...

Needless to say I'm primed (oh! second pun intended!) for the new Transformers. Even though I'm sure it'll be pure cheese like the first one...

Oh and that is the end of my tale of two dark Junes... this June has been brilliant in comparison, and has seen no dark events go down in my life... yet anyways...

This was not the first viral ad I'd hit for the movie (I'm still not sure if this was some nerdy students prank, or a move by the movie theatre DIRECTLY across the street from Robbie's statue... probably the latter, but in this student town you never know).

Glendon over at the Flying Trilobite did this awesome Autobot Trilobite called fittingly Trilobot. Which was my first real reminder the film comes out very soon!

(Speaking of Trilobites you have to go check out Marek's 2 part article on Trilobite eyes and vision. Here are your complementary links to Part 1 and Part 2 :P)

Speaking of the deep dark past, here is my lame attempts at a transformer from 2 years ago! Before you compliment me on anything here, the only thing I did was make the water. The robot and bridge are models that come with Carrara. I simply redid the robots shaders.

I thought someday I might revisit the giant battling robot genre, but it hasn't come up yet. Who knows after seeing Transformers 2 I might be re inspired, and this time bringing my new 3D kung fu to the table!

Wandering Imagination

It is weird. I think this has been one of the quietest periods on my blogs since I started doing them way back in late 2006 (has it already been almost 3 years?!?). I guess I needed a blog break, and to be frank it has been nice.

I feel a little guilty not getting Traumador out of Canada (I'm sitting on lots of cool adventures of his...), but my inspiration was low.

At the same time it doesn't mean I haven't been doing stuff.

After the rather informative discussion started by Peter over at ART Evolved, I've tweaked my Pterosaur inspired by advice and insights provided by Evolved crew member Nima (check out his awesome blog!).

The main changes are in the hips (something I'd been meaning to do anyways), the wings attaching to the sides now instead of the legs, and the shape of the wings which were curved backwards.

It still has a way to go, but I'm at least happy with the body, legs, and wing texture/transparency.

Of course anyone paying attention will realize I haven't done a ton to Mr. Pterosaur. The immediate question is what have I been doing with my creative spare time? I raise the question as I need to rationalize just to even myself.

For those who don't know, I suffer from a light to moderate case of attention deficit disorder, and as a result I have a tendency to drift from project to project. Normally Traumador's life is varied enough that I can keep up my gusto for his blog. However recently I had an old problem (that had gone dormant for a while) come back.

A fun fact about Craig: If he sees a good movie it can complete redirect his imagination and creative efforts towards new genres.

Now in the last few years this hasn't been an issue. So few things have taken my fancy,and those that have, lent themselves well to Traumador.


However this year saw the release of the first semi-descent (semi is sadly the key word this time) space epic in years. Well sadly taking Traum to space just wouldn't work for anyone I think... So I kind of lost the plot as it were.

Notice how Craig veered right off course and started building spaceships (here is the latest version of MY Enterprise by the way).

Sci-fi has always had a powerful draw for me. Especially given my wanting to be a computer animator on a Trek project (had I succeeded I may well have worked on the new Trek *tear*).

Meaning this is the first real challenge to my Dinosaur focus the last 3 years (which is amazing... back in the 1990's, the heyday of space epics, I'd veer between genres every couple of weeks!).

Though it hasn't been good for Traum, and is most likely the cause of my blog break, an my reactivated Sci-fi bug has led to some real progress on a long dormant (and overdue) project. My last movie Delta Patrol.

Filmed back in 2006, not only does the movie need 100 or so effects, but it hadn't even been completely put together... till this week!

I'm happy to say the rough cut is nearly done, and that soon I'll be aiming to crank out 1 effect a week (mostly laser shots and live action effects for now... I have a lot of spaceship modelling to do before the outright effects. This above picture is a sample of my current modelling efforts). Meaning realistically Delta Patrol won't be done till next year, but I can't say for sure.

I was really worried it'd take a while for my recent space obsession to wear off, and Traum would be in mothballs for months. Fortunately a great Traumador like film came out, and was way better then the let down that was Trek.

That was of course Night at the Museum 2.

Go see it! It is all the fun of the first film, but this time for the whole movie! After the first 15-20 minutes setting up the situation, this movie just keeps on delivering hilarious museum themed adventure and fun.

The great part was it doesn't resort to any gross or adult style humour. It is all family friendly, and not that I'm opposed to racy content, it was nice to see a innocent production in this modern era (especially after some of the dodgy jokes that somehow made it into the Ice Age 3 trailer before Museum).

So full on production on Traum resumed an hour ago. This being your sample of tonight's 3 images. Hopefully I'll have the post up in no more then 4 days...

It was perfect timing that Traum would get movie backup. Delta Patrol has received a much needed boast of work on it, but at the same time I should sit back and think about how to tackle the astronomic project of modelling the space stuff (pun intended).

So expect a flood of stuff, as I hopefully reemerge onto the blogging sphere in full force!

Bolding Going Where Trek Has Sucked Before...

So I finally broke down today, and saw the new Star Trek.

I had been reluctant to go for two big reasons. Well one reason and a suspected byproduct of that reason.

J.J. Abrams. I have yet to see a production of his that hasn't infuriated or disappointed me (Trek as you'll see is no exception but it ALMOST wasn't).

Most of the time I get annoyed by his claiming great imagination over his audience, but in reality it is just him not bothering to present key information, and thus we're left with only part of a plot or story (LOST and MI3 for example... "Oh I'm so clever, cause I know the secret and the viewers don't").

I'm sorry, but that is not imagination or cleverness J. J. that is called lazy and hack cheating. A good writer (like Joss Wheadon for example) puts the clever imaginative twist in plain sight, and keeps the audience from seeing it TILL a key moment. Abrams doesn't bothering showing it all typically, leading many (such as myself) to believe he is actually just making it all up as he goes or not knowing at all.

Not only was I worried immediately upon hearing of his attachment to the Trek reboot, but also JJ's declaration that he was not a Trek fan but rather a Wars fan. Now Wars has long been a dead franchise in my eyes, due to the destructive exploits of Lucas in 1999 up to the present. I was really worried Trek was heading down this road too. More to the point I couldn't see why J. J. couldn't just make a new Wars film. Trek and Wars are and should always be very different entities. Diversity is a strength not a weakness.

Well the good news is this was not a total Warsification of Trek.

I in fact nearly enjoyed the film. That is until, funny enough till, they pulled a blunder move of a VERY Trek variety. One that surprised me, but I'll tell you about that when I get there.

So my take on the new Trek movie (don't you love this pic, I had to use it in this post... even if there is no reason other then it is cool as).

On the surface it is shiny and visual stunning movie. Though as they spent 3 times as much making this film as any other single production of Trek, you'd hope it'd look as good or better.

They did succeed on this front, and I was always pleased with the visuals (though my head was hurt by the quality of the effects... but this is normal for a good film... if my head's not hurting that means the effects suck. As I can make them... I'm looking at you The Core!)

As a BIG Starship fan, the majority of the ships were flashy and pretty, and pleased me very greatly.

I loved the new look for the Enterprise, and she is among my favourites of the Enterprise lineage (even if this was a remodelling of the A model). The other Starfleet ships we get to see (sadly usually fleeting shots) were equally pleasing (and very Starfleet Battles). There were even some beautiful Klingon D7s the Kobayashi Maru simulator (though why they called them Klingon warbirds is beyond me?!?), which was my favourite of the little touches.

The interior sets for the Enterprise, Earth, and Vulcan were all perfect and made the Trek universe look as impressive as the previous shows had attempted to imply (with their fraction of a budget).

Sadly Nero and his renegade mining ship didn't quite accomplish this.

They would have fit more in a Star Wars movie, as yes they looked "impressive", but they had no feel of functionality or realism. Something I associate with Star Wars. From the unfathomably complicated spikiness of Narada mining ship, which was so over the top (much like the Reman ship from Nemisis) and couldn't be comphrended when looked at. To its hallow interior connected by railess bridges?!?

One thing about Trek I've always liked is that things tend to feel plausible (even if not really). In Wars it is often the opposite, they solely exist to make for cool action scenes (but if you thought about them would be dangerous in everyday use!)...


The first half of the film was by far the superior, and up until the "jump the [ice] shark" moment, I was starting to dig the new film version, and wondered if I was going to have to admit I was wrong. Sadly I was right in the end, but I'll get there.

The new feel of the Enterprise and Starfleet was very welcome. It was slightly more military, but yet rooted in a Trek philosophy (the quote from the movie "Starfleet serves as a peace keeping, humanitarian, and exploration force of the Federation" struck the right balance I felt).

In fact, it was right on the mark of my teenage favourite incarnation of Trek, Star Fleet Battles. This was a board game created in the dead period of Trek back in the 1970's. They redid the original series universe as a slightly more conflicted and militarized place. One that the new movie mirrored very well, especially during the mobilization of the task force in the beginning of the film.

The character development of many of the mains was fantastic, and long needed. Unlike any other branch of Trek the original series crew never really had their back stories fleshed out (other then in Trek 5, and that's best forgotten). Considering this was supposed to be an altered reality, I thought Kirk's origin in this film as a troubled fatherless kid worked better then, the implication later on in the movie "normal" Shatner Kirk had a loving supportive dad.

The character interaction in the first half were really compelling, and I enjoyed how Kirk didn't really endear himself to anyone but McCoy.

The action in the this first act were also amazing. The crew's entire (mis)adventure around Vulcan was easily the highlight of the movie.

Right after the clear ending of act 1 I sat in my seat thinking "wow this new movie is great!", but sadly the feeling was stripped away from me quickly.

One of the best character interactions of the film sadly concludes with the film falling to pieces. Kirk and Spock have a great argument about how to solve the huge stellar threat. A character confrontation that draws in all the other characters.

This extreme tension between Spock and Kirk had huge potential I thought, and would be fun to see played out and be resolved I thought. Sadly we were delivered a HUGE cheat, but not in a typical Abram's style...

The conclusion of the Kirk vs. Spock argument had me nearly scream like Shatner...

Rather then get a great character driven second half of Kirk and Spock have to work out their differences and learn to be friends... Spock (acting captain over Kirk as acting first officer) orders the crew to "Get him off my ship"... to which you think to the brig right Spock?

No suddenly Kirk is shot out of the ship in an escape pod (no explanation... straight from the 'get off my ship" line. to a Enterprise floating in space shot with a pod suddenly shooting off the side). Here the pod crash lands in the middle of... well essentially Hoth... and Kirk has to wander 14kms to an "outpost". Is that cool with the regulations Spock? Ironic as the argument was Kirk not wanting to follow the rules...

A minute into his wandering the snowy abyss suddenly he is chased by a Wampa... er sorry a... 4 legged 4 eyed subspecies of Wampa which within seconds is eaten by a red ice monster (why red?!?)... which I shall call the Ice Shark. At which point the film jumps the shark (literally once if I recall correctly. Kirk tumbles over it at one point).

Kirk in the end is saved by none other then Leonard Nimoy, and this is where the movie begins to ROYALLY SUCK!

Now based on everyone I talked to, and a few reviews it was Nero and his villainous plot that were the weak link in the film. However in reality it is Leonard Nimoy as future Spock who really kills the film

Sure Nero is pretty cardboard, and a lame rehash of the Voyager 2 parter Year of Hell (one of the few good episodes of Voyager), but he in the end served the purpose of being a problem for the Enterprise to stomp on.

Nimoy on the other hand is a film wrecker. The brilliant Kirk Spock conflict proceeds to be resolved by future Spock basically telling them they have to kiss and make up because that's how it has always been... KHANNNN... no wait... SPOCKKKKKKK!

Seriously the second half of the film ends up being future Spock centric (despite his only being in 10 minutes of the film really) with everything revolving around future Spock and his future ship. This was bad enough, but Nimoy's presence destroys all the potential beautiful subtle highlights of the latter end of the film. Including stealing the triumph from Scotty's triumphant debut, due to Nimoy ending up becoming the miracle and Scotty merely his worker.

Though that said Simone Pegg as Scotty is the highlight of act 2. However I was furious that all the great Scotty trademark talents in this new "alternate" reality are now just things future Spock tells him to do. Not even in a clever way, like Spock cluing Scotty into his potential, Nimoy just blatantly tells him "this is how my Scotty did it".

This didn't just infuriate me, but it boggled my mind. Didn't Paramount fire the previous head of the Trek franchise, Rick Berman, to give the series a fresh new start and feel? The way Abrams disappointed me, and cheated creatively, felt more like an old Berman style move.

Berman had an unhealthy obsession with time travel. One that would eventually do in his last Trek show Enterprise. In the first 3 seasons of this show the characters would constantly be exposed to things in the future, that we the audience already knew about, and thus result in the characters have unreal reactions to these things in their own time.

It defeated the whole purpose of seeing the "early days" of the Trek universe as key first encounters would have characters say "ah yes the [insert key alien or event], I heard about that in the future." Why bother having a show set around these first encounters if you're going to cheat the characters (and thus us the audience) of the dramatic and situational thrill of that first encounter.

The key character moments of this film are stolen through this. Kirk and Spock don't naturally resolve their conflict. They only do so because Kirk is told in the future he is Spock's friend, and that's what he should do now. What the hell was the point of this Kirk meets Spock story then?!?

I seriously felt cheated out of what had the set up to be a great movie. So much so that, in the end send off of the film with Kirk returning to the Enterprise to lead the crew into their next adventure, I sat there seriously yearning to follow them on THIS adventure... Why did I sit through the waste of time about future Spock's adventure? I didn't want to see his resolution, I wanted to see the new Enterprise crew do stuff!

Time travel aside (which should never be mixed with Space epics anyways! It should only be used for Dinosaur movies or those featuring DeLoreans) the other problem with the film was the big bad format.

Ever since Star Trek 2 writers of Trek films have insisted on having singular central villains for the Enterprise crews to take on. In Wraith of Khan this worked, Khan was a very memorable and effective counterpoint of Kirk. It was also a story that let most of the crew have a purpose.

However ever since Trek 2 and Khan none of the villains have really stood up well, and most weren't any good. Yet the writers seemed to think this was what made for a good Trek movie...

Which misses the point. Good Star Trek TV series episodes have central problems that might involve a villainous character, but they are merely a part of it. This means that though a character or two might have a personal investment in defeating the villain, the rest of the crew have something to do. More to the point often there is no personal investment, and those villains serve as an opposing crew (or in essence an evil Enterprise). This lack of one on one confrontations often lead to Trek's best stories and moments.

Trek 6 was the most brilliant incarnation of this (and in a movie) where there are several villain characters scattered throughout the plot, but they are not set up on a big bad pedestal. They are merely there to be overcome.

This new Trek film collapses as the end fight and confrontation end up being 90% Kirk and Spock trying to take down Nero, while the rest of the crew hide on the Enterprise behind Saturn. I seriously cheered at the Enterprises 1 minute intervention in the end of this battle, as I wanted to see the Enterprise and her crew win the day. Not the two star actors running around the bad guys ship...

Instead of Nero and his ship Narada flying around destroying planets, I would have much rather seen a feature film version of the classic Trek episode "The Planet Killer". You can even see how they could have simply used Nero's ship for an updated planet killer (planet killer being this thing here and the Narada being the Thorn bush in space above).

In this format we would have had an epic problem, a similar setup for Kirk and Spock being put in command earlier then they should have(if you went with Captain Pike pulling a Commodore Decker), getting in a big personal scrap over command style, and coming together using their own and the crews' talents to save the day and the universe. In other words a great Trek story.

Instead we had this hijacked midway through, to rehash one of the worst Trek conventions around. Resulting in my feeling shafted.

Because again, I didn't leave the theatre hating the new Enterprise or her crew. Rather I desperately wanted to see where they were flying off to next at the end of the film, and what they were going to do.

Hopefully next time I'll get that.

Good TV?!? Oh wait its old and cancelled...

Ever since the debacles that were Firefly (cancelled way too early) and Battlestar Galactica (jumped a shark being held in the air by a giant squid that was sitting on an aircraft carrier that itself was on fire... because fire is exciting like Battlestar was supposed to be) I don't watch TV anymore.

The funny part is TV doesn't even try to put up a fight. Its latest entries have been equally stupid as Battlestar or dumber. Lost the show where they make it up as they go, all the while claiming their so much smarter than the audience because they ARE making it up. Or Heroes the show which couldn't tell a story if not for time travel plot devices (I'd argue plot creating in fact... no time travel= no plot) to save its life. Sure I haven't actually watched more than a couple episodes of either, but I caught the trend and than had it confirmed by reviews I've read.

So it is nice to find a rare gem amongst this garbage. Mind you this show went the Firefly route. Cancelled. Fortunately 3 seasons afterward.


That show is Veronica Mars. Man is it good! Granted I just finished the first season, which by all accounts is the best. So it might go a little down hill from here. Still the first season was worth it alone.

The premise is in a very rich people town in California a software billionaire's daughter was murdered a year before the show. The murdered kid's best friend was Veronica, who herself is the daughter of the local sheriff. Veronica's dad is convinced that the billionaire was the killer, despite a worker at the software company confessing to the crime. Due to the billionaire being a local hero Veronica's dad is forced from being the Sheriff, and so he sets up in town as a PI with Veronica as his assistant. So throughout the show Veronica continues her own investigation into her best friends murder of course finding her father was right just not in a way either of them realize. All the while to make money Veronica takes on side cases from her fellow high school students and teachers.

I love it because it is a "real life" Buffy type show (in fact this is one of Joss Wheadon's favorite shows, and he makes an appearance in either season 2 or 3!), and it is written on that level. All the characters are believable and compelling. Even the bad ones.

Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect is how all the main high school students have regularly turning up parents and home lives. In Buffy the other characters home lives were alluded too, but rarely shown. In Veronica we get to see why every kid is the way they are through their home life.

Also the "real life" Batman aspect appeals to me. A big part of Veronica's high school life is seeing the bullies and asses have justice and revenge served on them. Yet at the same time she is just a teen, and makes plenty of big mistakes along the way.

Topping it off her father is played by Enrico Colantoni who is among my favourite actors.

So I guess TV still has a few diamonds in the rough. Now if only these guys would do a Sci-Fi show. Maybe it won't get cancelled till its second season too!

The Dark Knight... Pure Batman!

(I don't give too many spoilers... that's for you Peter so read this!)

Well just saw The Dark Knight (stupid late release in New Zealand!), and it was simply awesome! Definitely in the best superhero movies of all time, and my favourite movie of this year (though Kung Fu Panda put up a fight against both this and Iron Man).

First off I'll say Heath Ledger's Joker is indeed the awesome, and is everything I could want in a non-Mark Hamil Joker (the Bruce Timm cartoons still being my favourite super hero thing ever. better than the comics and any movies... though this movie nearly does it in parts!). Even if not for Ledgers death I'm sure his take on part would be getting a lot of praise... Just maybe not the over the top oscar talk it has been getting.

This emphasises the only problem with the movie. It has been over hyped. ALOT!

Yet unlike the Star Wars prequels it didn't leave a bad taste though, and in fact had me really into it for the most part. It just wasn't a surprise like Batman Begins was.

So if you haven't seen Dark Knight don't go in expecting the greatest movie ever when you do. It has flaws. Batman Begins was a much better product overall, and could be argued as being better than its sequel due to this. However when The Dark Knight was hitting its stride it was way cooler and more fun!

What I enjoyed the most is that unlike most Superhero movies that start strong and than kind of putter out towards the end, The Dark Knight started weak and got better all the way to the end. I LOVE where the third movie is heading... Though I will admit using just Batman mythos characters I'm not sure who the bad guys will be (in a way. I have my suspicions but that'll have to wait).

Rather than give a bunch of spoilers or ramble about stuff I'm sure is being talked about everywhere, I wanted to say my favourite part was not actually the Joker. Which is "funny" (pun intended) as he is my favourite comic book villain, and Ledger's version is great. Given all the hoopla going on everywhere else I wanted to emphasis the other thing that worked in this film, and that was...

The Dark Knight himself!

In Batman Begins we got a very select sampling of the character of Batman. For the Dark Knight they pulled out all the stops and give us tons of the classic essential moments in live action.

There's the night club confrontation, jumping on a moving car, using normal materials around him to turn an impossible situation around, and many more I won't spoil. When you watch it though pay attention to how every time Batman appears in this movie he is covering a lot more of the classic Batman spread than the first film.

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I'm sure one of the most underrated scenes by most people is the detective work that he does early in the film. Something I felt was sorely lacking in the first film.

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Perhaps the only aspect they didn't do enough of was gadgetry. My buddy I went with didn't like how he didn't adapt to a few things despite hitting them ALOT through the movie. Also the one big gizmo towards the end, though cool, was kinda a let down). I add I hated how *spoiler* he didn't use a SINGLE batrang in the whole film BOO! I love those things!

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At the same time in the first movie it was a VERY gadgety Batman, and it was cool to see in this film him not having to rely entirely on high tech stuff to be a hero.

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So yeah definitely go see the Dark Knight, and pay attention to all the cool Batman moments in addition to the Ledger stuff you've no doubt being hearing about non stop. Just remember it isn't perfect!

Hulking Out...

Well given my recent problems with New Zealand Immigration (mostly solved now thankfully!) I've had a lot of rage and anger.

Now if there's one thing I tend to do is bottle these up and release it when there's a lot more of it stored up. Due to this tendency I've had a soft spot for the Hulk ever since I got in comics earlier this decade.

In fact it was this issue of the Ultimates, the one where the Hulk comes out in style to do battle with the Ultimates, that was my first comic purchase. Until than I'd been borrowing my friends copies of things to read. It is still among my favourite single issues of any book, and definitely my favourite Ultimates issue.

So great was my love of this issue, and Ultimate Hulk that I did something I've never done for any other Marvel character. I actually picked up regular Marvel Hulk for a while... Even more surprising I enjoyed it for that while (till the last few issues).

So how did The Incredible Hulk pan up to my expectations

Well in one word it SMASHED all my doubts.

This movie was so much better than the last Hulk movie.

At the same time it had a few things I wasn't crazy about. To be honest I liked Eric Banna as Bruce Banner a lot more than Ed Norton. Don't get me wrong Norton does fine in the role, and is watchable. I just liked Banna more (partially because he can act and be different in movies unlike Norton).

Otherwise the movie was spot on what it needed to be!

The part I enjoyed the most was how his origin mixed elements from most of the Hulk's incarnations. They had bits from the 60's comic, 80's TV show (actually there was a TON of hat tips to the show throughout the movie if you missed them), and most important the mission statement of the Ultimate verse.

In the Ultimate universe of Marvel 90% of heroes (and many villains) owe their creation and origin causing events to a Super-Human research and development. I'm really digging the way these new Marvel Studio movies are grabbing key Ultimate concepts, and building their Avengers along the same lines as the Ultimates (who are of course the Ultimate Avengers, just Mark Miller thought Avengers was a dumb name for the team as their not "avenging" anything).

Liv Tyler as Betty Ross was much better than I expected. In fact she comes across as rather intelligent which I didn't think she could do.

William Hurt as General Ross was the number one human highlight of the movie. He struck the balance that made Ross a great villain, but one we couldn't quite hate.

The Hulk though takes the cake as the best thing about the movie. Which is the way it should be. Sadly in the last Hulk motion picture the Hulk took a background role. This movie he has plenty of fights, and their extremely satisfying!

The end fight is everything I love in a fight. It also has the my favourite use of a Comic characters catch phrase in a movie for "HULK SMASH!". I won't ruin it for you, just go see it!

Tony Stark coming to General Ross at the end about the Avengers wrapped it up nicely, and definitely has me excited for Avengers, as I think it'll start off with the Avengers trying to take down the Hulk just like Ultimates #5.

Stark's appearance does require one to quickly compare his movie to Hulk's. Sadly I have to say that Iron Man was still a bit better. I'd say the key reason is that Bruce Banner just isn't as fun to watch as Stark. Especially given the casting difference too. Ed Norton is Ed Norton (sadly in 2005 I was forced to watch EVERY Norton movie made up until that point by my roommates) you're not getting anything too interesting. Downey on the other hand was too much fun to watch.


My finally thought is related to the future Hulk villain they set up in the Abomination's creation. The funny part was Mr. Blue was taken directly from the regular Hulk I was reading in 2003 so this movie was tailored very heavily from ALL the Hulk I'd read. However as clearly their setting up the Leader, the next Hulk movie enters territory of the character I hardly know (the only Leader story I read was so bad that it caused me to dump reading regular Hulk).

The Music of My Childhood at last!

The annoying thing about soundtracks is that their a specialty music niche. At the best of times I'm lucky if I can get my hands on the music of a movie close to after seeing it. With the advent of the internet things are getting much better, and a lot of the big franchises are now pushing their music before the release of the film (this trend being one of the few cool things to come of The Phantom Menace).

Most modern movies typically release their score. Though they can still be frustrating to get, and still sometimes aren't released till WELL after the movie. Transformers being a good example (finally 6 months after the film was the score put out).

In the case of older films, well before the digital expansion of the music industry, getting their music was only a fantasy up until recently...

Two of the big Dinosaur movies of my childhood had music that has been on my wish list since I was 10.

Finally a decade and half later I've gotten my hands on them!
Ringo Stars spoof of Caveman/Dinosaur epics has one of the catchiest and cute themes ever. Helping forever etch this song into my musical psyche was its use in the introduction to my fav video game of all time, Dinosaur Wars on the Amiga. In it a Ringo style caveman walks along the screen to the song until suddenly the music stops the caveman turns to the audience, screams, and is instantly squished by a Tyrannosaur foot and leg from off screen.

This CD was released in 2005, but as it was a specialty label I didn't catch wind of it until a random internet search last year. It wasn't till this week when whining about wanting the album that Rhonwyn suggested I check on Itunes for it. I have the best girl friend ever! She not only suggested the place to get it, but also let me use her account and puter to download it. All for the low cost of $14 NZ! It would have cost me almost double that to ship it down here!

Caveman while making my wish list was more for the cute theme song than the whole album. It also is by a composer that hasn't ever been on my radar.

My other acquisition this week on the other hand has been at the top of my list forever...

Jerry Goldsmith's score to Baby Secret of the Lost Legend, has been a lost legend in and of itself!!!

Sentimental aside. This was the first film I ever saw in a theatre (that I can remember anyway). Though an awesome Dinosaur film for its time, it was also a little brutal for 4 or 5 year old me. The part were the daddy Sauropod gets blown away by the Army was a very traumatic scene, and I can still remember how terrified I was of seeing the Dinosaur pumped full of lead... However once I was older 8-9ish this was a staple film of my childhood rentals.

This film had two major themes that have been in my head since those young me rentals. Their in my top 20 themes of ALL time, and my favourite of Goldsmith's. Which is saying something. I love Goldsmith. He was way more diverse and talented than John Williams, and I have many favs of Jerry's, but the themes from Baby are always in my head.

The foremost being the action suspense theme. Whenever I find myself humming a "made up" soundtrack for something I inevitably base it on this brilliant bit of Goldsmith. Now that I have it my plagiarism finally comes home... Not having it in pure listenable form made it sort of imaginary if that makes sense ;p

Also the theme for the adult Sauropods is the music of finding a Dinosaur for me. The scene where the heroes come across the Sauropod in the swampy clearing for the first time is up there in the greatest Dinosaur scenes ever filmed. Aside not sure why those always have Sauropods in them? Their not even my favourite kind of Dinosaur.

For the last couple of years I'd futilely check every 6 months or so on the Internet for a possible release of this score. Nothing other than a substandard bootleg, and a unbelievably expensive special edition Jerry Goldsmith compilation album that had the adult theme on it, but costing $200!

So like usual in the cycle the other day I plug this into Google to be astonished by real hits!!!

After all this time it had BEEN released... Haza! Than I track down the company that is selling it... It was released exactly a month ago from when I found it. Perfect I think time to get me a copy. Till I see the most dreaded words on these sort of releases. SOLD OUT!!!

There is this unbelievable stupid aspect to soundtracks of collectors wanting them to be collectors items... So the record labels print ridiculously small runs. Like in the case of Baby a mere 3000 copies. Meaning that unless you're on top of it, and buy in the first few days of an albums release you're hooped. I missed Ghostbusters by a day!

Needless to say I was way too late on finding out about this one to buy a copy (for less than $100 bloody dollars!!!).

Thankful salvation came in the form of Alex who helped me secure a copy of the disc (for way less than a $100!!!!). He is the dude!

Now I can listen to music easy having two of my all time most wanted scores of all time. All that remains is Ghostbusters... Stupid limited runs!