Man of Steel: Review and future of the Franchise.

The Man of Steel opened on June 14 and the fans loved it from around the world. However nearly anyone with a title of critic wither earned or not has been critical in one way or another about the movie.  Oh well, what can you expect from the critics when they know that DC aligned movies, DC’s movie division at Warner Brothers and DC Comics seem to be heading in different directions (Check out the recent issue of Superman Unchained.#1 and the Video clip from Stacktastic reviewing Superman Unchained at the bottom of this blog.). This can cause a lot of confusion for any fan. The comic books are going in one direction and Warner Brothers is going in another. Neither side seems to want to play ball with each other. In fact it has been mentioned that the people at Warner Bros do not respect the talent at DC.

However it cannot be denied, that putting Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder in charge of making the movie, Man of Steel was the right choice. Below is a review that I think is truly a fan review. Not only do I agree with this review but it hit all the points pro and con that I felt about the movie.

Beyond the great job of Nolan and Snyder look at who they gathered for this ensemble of great actors.

Henry Cavill as Superman/Clark Kent ( He will be the only Superman for this generation)

Four-time Oscar® nominee Amy Adams (“The Master”),

Oscar® nominee Michael Shannon (“Revolutionary Road”),

Academy Award® winner Kevin Costner (“Dances with Wolves”),

Oscar® nominee Diane Lane (“Unfaithful”),

Oscar® nominee Laurence Fishburne (“What’s Love Got to Do with It”),

Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer, Christopher Meloni,(Law and order SVU)

Academy Award® winner Russell Crowe (“Gladiator”).

The music is by Academy Award®-winning composer Hans Zimmer (“The Lion King”).

Directed by Zack Snyder

Produced by Charles Roven, Christopher Nolan (Dark Knight Trilogy), Emma Thomas and Deborah Snyder. The screenplay was written by David S. Goyer from a story by Goyer & Christopher Nolan

Everyone was great in their roles and this is one of my strongest reasons for liking this movie even if some of the special effects such as the fight scenes were a little heavy handed.

Not surprisingly, Warner Bros Pictures has already greenlit a sequel to the film and is reportedly fast-tracking it for a 2014 release.

The Wall Street Journal, citing "knowledgeable people close to the studio", claims that WB is looking to fast-track MAN OF STEEL 2 for 2014 and plans are back on for JUSTICE LEAGUE to hit screens in 2015. WB was previously holding onto all future plans for their DC cinematic endeavors until they saw how MAN OF STEEL performed, and it looks like they got the answer they wanted.

 StarPulse.com goes on the say

“The studio reportedly already has a deal in place to bring back director Zack Snyder; and screenwriter David S. Goyer's deal is said to include not just penning "Man of Steel," but writing the film's sequel AND the highly anticipated "Justice League" movie, which would bring together DC Comics superheroes including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Flash, to name a few.Screenwriter Will Beall wrote the first draft of the "Justice League" script already, but it was reportedly scrapped, according to Gamma Squad.The "'Man of Steel' is more than just a franchise for us, it really opens up the door to do combinations of the DC Comics characters," Warner domestic distribution head Dan Fellman told the Wall Street Journal. "We can build them up like Marvel did and benefit from the history of DC."

We can only hope that this is the case but as I said before we are dealing with a group of people who find it hard to get along.  Here is an interesting take on DC comics and Warner Bros. problem with creating a definitive storyline for Superman from Stacktsastic.

The Movie I have been waiting for ...Pacific Rim.

I have to say that the first time I saw the trailer for Pacific Rim, I was in awe. It reminded me my younger days watching shows like Gigantor,  Neon Genesis Evangelion, Rah Xephon, Gun Buster, other fantastic anime robots.)

Synopsis of Pacific Rim:

In the near future, giant monsters identified as "Kaiju" have risen from a crevasse in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in a war which takes millions of lives and quickly consumes humanity's resources. To combat this new threat, a special type of weapon is designed: massive robots, known as Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. As time passes, even the powerful Jaegers prove almost defenseless in the face of a relentless enemy.

On its last stand and on the verge of defeat, the remaining defending forces of mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes—a former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi)—and the weapon they are teamed to pilot; a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the early trials of the mechanical titans...Wikipedia

It  also brings to mind that I have forgotten more than I care to remember. Many feel before you watch Pacific Rim a primer of movies should be viewed.  EMPIRE Magazine shared their list of movies and shows that one should watch before the movie but their comment section share fan responses on what one should watch prior to Pacific Rims such as  goosebumps comments ...

"Oh, this is not even the correct list of movies to see before Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim. This is an entirely another list, more suitable for introduction of movies like Rolland Emmerich's Godzilla. For Pacific Rim, you should do a list of animes like Mazinger Z, Voltus V, God Sigma, Gundam, Patlabor, and especially Neon Genesis Evangelion. You may even add Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Those are the correct list of introduction to Pacific Rim.                                                        

However, Del Toro speaks about the fight sequence and tries to play down any anime connection.

   "In creating Pacific Rim, I wanted the fights to have structure, like the wrestling matches of my childhood, so each fight brings a very different kind of aesthetic and a different dynamic. The first fight is very operatic, theatrical: Wagnerian. It happens in the middle of an iceberg-strewn sea, in the middle of a storm, with huge waves crashing on the Jaeger and Kaiju. We worked really hard at making water a character in this movie, frequently referring to Hokusai or the Fuji wave, and trying to make the water enhanced and add to the drama. This fight tries to quote the majesty of a painting by Goya called the Colossus."

Sounds more like Wagner's  Der Ring des Nibelungen or Ring cycle...not to be confused with Lord of the rings by Tolkien.

Whatever the case I will see Pacific Rim...if for no other reason than I grew up on old Godzilla movies and I just love Giant robots.

Dragon One

Celebrating World of WarCraft with Fallon, Day and Hardwick and the WoW gang.

Celebrating WoW With Jimmy Fallon and the World of Warcraft

With some help from Felicia Day, Chris Hardwick and Warcraft players all around the world, Jimmy celebrates one of the best video games of all time. Now as a novice, I find the World Of Warcraft mythos a little daunting. so here is a little history of World of Warcraft.

"World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans World of Warcraft takes place within the Warcraft world of Azeroth, approximately four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard's previous Warcraft release, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Blizzard Entertainment announced World of Warcraft on September 2, 2001. The game was released on November 23, 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise.   "Wikipedia

So what is MMORPG?

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a genre of role-playing video games or web browser based games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world.
As in all RPGs, (Role playing games) players assume the role of a character (often in a fantasy world or science-fiction world) and take control over many of that character's actions. MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player online RPGs by the number of players, and by the game's persistent world (usually hosted by the game's publisher), which continues to exist and evolve while the player is offline and away from the game." Wikipedia

 Next... why play World of Warcraft?  Thanks to Mila Kunis on Jimmy Kimmel's late night talk show she shares her excitement for the game which seems to overflow to everyone. Like all celebrities there are pitfalls as she shares with Kimmel.

(If nothing else this might get people to read my Blog)

To find out more about World of Warcraft you can go to the link listed below. This is how I initially began playing WoW. It is  where I started. If you are a pro at WOW....just enjoy the Mila Kunis video clip.

 Beginner's Guide -what is World of Warcraft

Dragon One.

Matt Smith's farewell to the fans, cast and crew of Doctor Who

Matt Smith's farewell to the fans, cast and crew of Doctor Who is greatly appreciated by fans like me. It is also a reminder of how hard it is for me to see a new Doctor taking the place of the departed Doctor and learning to appreciate his/her unique quirks and idiosyncrasies.   I've come to accept that all of the various incarnations/Doctors as singular variations of the one true Doctor. Each Doctor/actor adds a different aspect to this one true persona we've come to know as the Doctor.  Never the less each Doctor's regeneration saddens me a little because I've enjoyed all the different qualities in each one of them as well as the actors who played them.  Take for example the last three Doctors, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith. Each portrays the Doctor revealing different aspects of the true Doctor's persona.

Side Note: Most of what I will share with  you is paraphrased as much as possible from "Doctor Who Doctors - Television Troupe wiki...quite awesome

Ninth Doctor

The Ninth Doctor was played by Christopher Eccleston. His personality was brooding most of the time  but  he was a very sassy veteran. covered in Survivor Guilt as a result of survuving the time war. Sometimes he could be lovably affable and showing great affection and empathy for people. He was prone to mood swings and dressed , like a street-smart Doctor with close-cropped hair and beat-up leather jacket. . He made a Heroic Sacrifice that the Fifth Doctor would be proud of, and was generally fantasti

Time travel is like visiting Paris. You can't just read the guidebook, you've gotta throw yourself in! Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers - or is that just 
me? Ninth Doctor... 

Tenth Doctor

The tenth Doctor's line "Beware the Nice Ones" is an adaption of the John Dryden quote, "Beware the fury of a patient man." personified.

The Tenth Doctor played by David Tennant was rather manic: prone to speaking very quickly, peppering his speech with pop culture references and foreign words, and going off on long rambling tangents. Despite his bubbly personality, he could and did subject villains to a Fate Worse Than Death if they passed up the one chance at redemption he always offered them. He hated his past self for his actions in the Time War, and would become very cold whenever he was confronted with it. He certainly seems more innocent than his previous incarnation, but is later revealed to be a little on the Cute and Psycho side. His more child-like nature also winds up being the cause of a lot of his suffering throughout his time as the doctor. Lastly he apologized a lot. particularly when he realizes that someone's about to die.  ..."I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." His end was bitter sweet, like Five before him, his regeneration into the next Doctor. Everything wound up fine, but he died crying, scared, and alone.

You need to get yourself a better dictionary. When you do, look up "genocide". You'll find a little picture of me there, and the caption'll read "Over my dead body"! Tenth doctor

Eleventh Doctor

The eleventh Doctor was played by: Matt Smith He was known as the adorkable, but very dangerous old man. Frequently tripping over his own tangled thoughts, words and limbs, Eleven is definitely a lot more alien than many other incarnations. On the one hand, he happily enjoys his unexpected youth, hopping and skipping all over the place, and is usually very friendly, goofy and personable. He can have childish impatience and childish glee in both non-serious and serious situations. On the other hand, he can be extremely tense, guarded and secretive, and very liable to snap into a violent Tranquil Fury mode if you hurt him. 

He has a distinct air of an old man in a young man's body, trying to relive his youth despite not blending in as well as his younger, more sociable companions. It is clear that this doctor dislikes  Linear time and he actively hates having to wait for things in chronological order, or having to bother remembering the natural order of centuries when talking to humans. In "The Power of Three", we see that just sitting still on a planet for a few days annoys him more than anything, leading him to manically rush off, paint Amy and Rory's fence, kick-up a football five million times (or so he claims) and cut the grass... in about an hour. He also was know for some bad-ass boasts...and I loved each and everyone of them.

• • In "The Eleventh Hour":
    Doctor: Hello. I'm the Doctor. Basically... run.
  • In "The Time of Angels":
    Doctor: There's one thing you never put in a trap if you're smart. If you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow there's one thing you never ever put in a trap: Me.
  • In "The Pandorica Opens":
    Doctor: Look at me! No plan, no backup, no weapons worth a damn. Oh, and something else I don't have. Anything. To. Lose! So, if you're sitting up there in your silly little spaceship with all your silly little guns, and you've got any plans on taking the Pandorica, tonight, just remember who's standing in your way. Remember every black day I ever stopped you, and then, AAAAAND THEN... do the smart thing. Let somebody else try first.
  • In "The Doctor's Wife".
    House: Fear me. I've killed hundreds of Time Lords!
    Doctor: Fear me. I've killed all of them.
    • In the same episode:
      Doctor: You gave me hope and then took it away. That's enough to make anyone dangerous. God knows what it will do to me. Basically... RUN!
  • In "A Good Man Goes to War"
    Doctor: Good men don't need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many.
  • In "The Rings Of Akhaten":
    Doctor: "I walked away from the Last Great Time War. I marked the passing of the Time Lords. I saw the birth of the universe and I watched as time ran out, moment by moment, until nothing remained. No time. No space. Just me! I've walked in universes where the laws of physics were devised by the mind of a MAD... MAN. I've watched universes freeze and creations burn. I have seen things you wouldn’t believe. I have lost things you'll never understand! And I know things. Secrets that must never be told. Knowledge that must never be spoken. Knowledge that will make parasite gods BLAZE! SO COME OOOOON THEN! TAKE IT! TAKE IT ALL, BABY! HAVE IT! YOU HAVE IT ALL!"

 There's something you better understand about me, because it's important and one day your life may depend on it: I am definitely a madman with a box!  The Eleventh Doctor

Gonna miss you Matt as the Doctor.

Table Top fun for the Geek in you

 As a late participant in Table Top games for geeks like Magic: The Gathering, Munchkin or Descent I am fascinated how they are played. Tabletop games according to Wikipedia  is a general term used to refer to board games, card games, dice games, miniatures war games, tile-based games and other games that are normally played on a table or other flat surface.

The term is used to distinguish these types of games from sports and video games, which today enjoy more popularity than most tabletop games. The term is also used to distinguish role-playing games from role-playing video games and LARPs, although role-playing games may not necessarily require a wide playing surface.

Thank goodness for Geek & Sundry. Geek & Sundry is a commercial YouTube Channel. It was launched on April 2, 2012 by actress Felicia Day, with Kim Evey and Sheri Bryant as part of YouTube's 100 million dollar original channel initiative. In June 2012, Forbes Magazine suggested that "if successful, it could help blaze a trail for the future of network television." The channel was originally based around three unscripted programs produced by Day, The Flog (hosted by Day), Sword & Laser (hosted by Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt) and Tabletop (hosted by actor Wil Wheaton).

Table Top is a  weekly board gaming show hosted by Star Trek: TNG Wil Wheaton aka Wesley Crusher.   Wil in every episode,  briefly explains the game to us the audience  and then he and his guests, usually web or TV personalities, celebrities,  and super geek/nerds play the game. During the game you get side bar like insights from the participants.  The show itself has been described  as a fast paced “Celebrity Poker” for board games and we get to join them as they play.  I love to watch the show when I have time and so I am sharing one of my favorite episodes... Resistance.  It premiered on April 18th with Felicia Day, Amy Okuda, Ashley Clements, Allison Scagliotti.  Enjoy...Thanks Wil and Felicia