Fringe season 2 premiered last week! YAY! The promised weird off between Leonard Nimoy and John Nobel was not present. :( Bummer. The episode started off a bit slow, but it picked up by the end.
I think that my favorite fringe line is still from the pilot, agent Charlie Francis sees the cow in the lab and asks “is that a cow?” But that’s just on obvious question, of COURSE its a cow. Walters best cow line "The only thing better than a cow, is a human. Unless you need milk. Then you really need a cow." See, now THATS funny. But I like Agent Francis’s line better, the question combined with his delivery is just great.
I would not call “Dune” the worst movie ever, but to me it was certainly the biggest let down ever.
I just (re) read “Dune”, and was halfway through “Messiah” when Andy let me borrow his “Dune” DVD. Its been years since I saw the movie, and thought that with the book fresh in my head, now would be a good time to watch the movie again.
So before I review the movie, let me just hit some highlights of the book, this will help you understand why I don’t like the movie.
In Frank Herberts “Dune” universe there is a feud between House Atreides and House Harkonnen. The Atreides represent “good” and “fair” and “beauty”, while the Harkonnens represent the opposite. A classic battle between the light and the dark.
In this universe, gender roles are not what we would expect in some ways. Yes, its true that bloodlines follow the father (patriarchal), and House heads have wives AND concubines, both with legal rights, but this is all a facade. In war and politics women are considered equals, they are not frail creatures that need men to protect them. In truth, the women are in control of the Universe, and the men don't know it. The Bene Gesserit (a female order) have been surreptitiously influencing the House bloodlines for hundreds of generations for their own hidden motives. The Bene Gesserits train young women to be members and make them stronger in the process. They teach them to be stronger both mentally and physically.
In the book, Jessica is a Bene Gesserit that has been wed to the Duke of House Atreides, Leto. Well, not “wed” as she is a concubine. Their love is so strong that she defies the Bene Gesserit leadership and gives birth to the Dukes son (the hero) instead of a daughter as she was ordered. Thats right, Bene Gesserits can do that.
So, on to the movie…
First, what I liked about the movie.
They made it. I love that there is a Dune movie, its a great story and it had great potential as a movie, and in fact as a franchise.
They cast Sting as Feyd-Rautha. My initial reaction was “ho hum”, but Sting did a great job of capturing the character.
What I don't like about the movie, in no particular order…
The Harkonnens represent the bad guys. Yes, I get it. Every time you show the Harkonnens the scene lighting is dark. The Harkonnen Duke is clearly insane, this all points to “he is bad”. Is it really necessary to make his face be covered in sores? Really? It was just over the top. I kept thinking of Jar Jar Binks, as in “stop clubbing me with the stereotype, I GET IT.”
The Atreides represent the good guys. They value human life over property. In one scene Duke Leto is more angered at the near loss of 12 workers than he is at the loss of a harvester; ok, he is a “good guy”. The Duke loves his son (Paul, the hero) and his son loves him, this is very clear in the book. But in the movie you wonder “Is Leto a pedophile?” Seriously. They portray him as a crazy eyed zealot. It FEELS like their intent was to show Leto as a strong, but fair leader, as he is in the book, (think Jean-Luc Picard) but they missed, miserably. In the movie he comes across as a pompous, hot headed, weirdo. When Leto and Paul talk they give each other awkward lovers smiles. Weird. I will chalk this up to “bad acting”.
And speaking of bad acting… The entire movie is just one huge pot of bad acting, lightly sprinkled with the occasional scene that doesn’t make you cringe.
In the book, Jessica (the Duke Leto’s true love) is a strong Bene Gesserit, do yourself a favor, DO NOT MESS WITH HER. She will hurt you. But in the movie she is a weak simpering woman that cries a lot and needs protection. :| What the frak!? (The only story spoiler coming up…) In the book when Leto dies both Jessica and Paul are pretty devastated, I mean for good reason right? But they are on the run from the Harkonnens and don’t have time to mourn. At one point Jessica breaks down for a short time (measured in single digit minutes) and allows herself to mourn and cries for her dead Leto while they are resting. She then composes herself and continues being the strong matriarch and future reverend mother. In the movie she is ALWAYS crying or on the verge of crying. She is a weak, frail person that needs protection. Why would you do that to her character? What purpose does that serve? I can only imagine that the director just fell into stereotypes rather than create a faithful reproduction of her character.
The first time we meet the Fremen, they are in the desert, under the hot Arrakis sun, in robes. ROBES, and sandals. Now, if you haven’t read the book you may be thinking “So what, they were dressed like Arabs, what's the problem?” Well in the book, no Fremen would go out at NIGHT into the desert without a stillsuit, let alone during the day. This was a huge error with no purpose.
While I have lots of small things that annoyed me about the movie I will bundle them all up into two criticisms:
1) This should have been a multipart movie. There is no way that you can fit the entire story into a single movie AND do it justice.
2) The special effects should have been better.
ok, maybe three things:
3) The acting. OMG the acting. The problem is that many of the actors in the movie are considered to be good actors, I can only blame David Lynch, the director. What a tool. Producer De Laurentiis hoped that Dune would be the next “Star Wars” and it COULD have been, but not with Lynch at the helm.
So is the movie worth watching? Yes, very much so. But its just not all that it could be. :(
BBC America will be premiering Torchwood:Children of Earth this July. Here is the trailer:
It has a “Fringe meets Children of the Corn” feel to me, but the interesting part is that this will mark the beginning of season 3 of the series! How did this make it into season 3 without me noticing? Weird. Apparently it airs on BBC America as well as HDNet in the US.
Guess that I am going to have to set a season pass for Torchwood and catch up on the first two seasons before season three starts.
Well, it glows under ultraviolet light, FTA “She and four other beagles all produce a fluorescent protein that glows red under ultraviolet light.”
They mixed the beagle with a sea anemone. Read the article its pretty interesting. The cool part is that they used a retrovirus! ZOMG! StarGate Atlantis FTW! (Season two by the way.)
There’s lots of buzz around about the new trailer for “Moon”. Some good, some bad, but my favorite is
“You know there needs to be a movie where, for once, humans and robots are fighting because its the humans who go crazy and the robots are just trying to defend themselves.” PaulC agrees!
While the trailer does feel a bit “2001” to me, I will reserve judgment until I see the movie.
The lead is played by Sam Rockwell who you may recognize as Zaphod Beeblebrox, he also played the disco dancing bad guy in “Charlies Angels” and opposite Angelica Huston in “Choke”, funny movie. Anyway I like Sam and am looking forward to the movie, here’s the trailer.
So, your company name is “Cyberdyne”. Yes, THAT Cyberdyne. Wikipedia says this about Cyberdyne
“The Cyberdyne Systems Corporation is a fictional company depicted in The Terminator films, as well as various novels and comic books all taking place in the Terminator universe. They are responsible for the genesis of the supercomputer Skynet, the primary antagonist of the Terminator series, and its armies of machines.” You know, they created these:
Ok, so you like the name, its no big deal, you can call your company Cyberdyne.
Then you come out with a product. An exoskeleton.
Ok, this is not cool man. You should really consider better marketing. But no, instead you name the product “HAL”. Yes, HAL. You know, the Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer that went paranoid and killed the crew in “2001: A Space Odyssey”. Now in fairness, he had a good reason, HAL was programmed to give "accurate processing of information without distortion or concealment". (Clearly Clarke adhered, at least loosely, to "Three Laws of Robotics", would you expect anything less?) But THEN he is told to keep the existence of the monolith a secret, so he is required to lie, OR, he could just kill the crew. So he kills the crew. THAT HAL.
So to recap: CYBERDYNE has created an exoskeleton and named it HAL.
“Mr. Christen, I have a Mr. Nostradamus on line 2, he wants to talk about the coming apocalypse.”
And in fact has been since this day in 1992. I wont do an Issac Asimov tribute, I don’t feel that I could possibly do it any justice.
BUT, I would suggest the following video, its an interview form 1986 and its wonderful. Even if you don’t like Asimov, you should check out the video and note the hair on the female interviewer, its pretty awesome! :)
Update: Her name is Marilyn Mach Vos Savant, in 1986 she was rated the most intelligent person alive, apparently her IQ was something like infinity plus one (167-230).
Frederik Pohl, the 89 year old SCIFI editor/writer has a new blog that is oddly appealing. His posts so far have been personal (why its hard for him to write, physically), political (why he voted Obama) and historical (remembering Arthur C. Clarke).
Come on, admit it, you have stayed up late wondering "Who would win in a battle, the Galactica, or the Enterprise?". Just to set the stage, I mean the new Galactica and the original Enterprise. From a technology standpoint the new and original Galacticas are basically the same, I just like Olmos better. :)
Well it turns out that the gang over at dvice have been wondering the same thing and they put this nice comparison together for us. Its an interesting article that really highlights the philosophical differences between the technologies.
While I basically agree with the articles individual points, and I would like to agree with its conclusion, I can't. In a ship to ship fight, I think that the Enterprise could win. Kirk would swoop in, throw a few photon torpedoes and phaser the crap out of Galactica faster than Adama could say "what the frak...". On the other hand, if Adama saw Enterprise coming... Yes, Galactica would win, easily. Adama would launch vipers, fire broadside into Enterprise and be done in time for a quick drink in the Officers Mess. So I guess that it all comes down to warp detection. Would Adama see Enterprise inbound?
Hopefully Andy will be able to sleep at night now that this has been put to rest, I know I will.
As you almost certainly know, the final season of Battlestar Galactica starts tonight on the SciFi channel. Hanson and I just finished watching the previous season last night in preparation for this momentous final season. My jummpin jammerz are laid out, the munchies are ready, and the DVR is set to record it on the HD channel.
I am amazed at how well the new BSG turned out. I was less than impressed to see Edward James Olmos cast as William Adama, but now I can't imagine anyone else in that role. He is one hard hitting mother-frakker who is beyond reproach and is not above a good old fashioned fist fight if that's whats called for! Now, as a management style, it leaves a bit to be desired; BUT, as the military leader of the last hope for humanity? Bring. It. On.
The original Adama as played by Lorne Greene was a no nonsense, uh, like a, uhm, sort of, whew. What was he? Sure, he made decisions, but he would SMILE while on the bridge!!! He was like your Grandfather, you did what he told you to do, but only because the crazy old guy deserved respect because of his age. But the new Adama, you do what he says because THAT is the chain of frakking command people! And without it, we are no better than the Cylons! Now get your butt into that tutu and dance like... Oh, wait... Where was I...
So I am really anticipating tonight's kickoff of the final season of Battlestar Galactica. But the fact that its the final season is bittersweet. On the sweet side, there will be closure to the story. Who is the final Cylon? What happened to Earth? Is there an Earth 2? (I loved that show) And of course the bitter side, its the final season. :( BUT, not to worry, there will be a NEW series that takes place 50 years earlier that explains the back story! YAY!
From TrekMovie.com we get this sad news; Majel Roddenberry, wife to Gene Roddenberry, who appeared in every Star Trek series and every movie, even the pilot episode where she played "Number One", has passed away after a short battle with leukemia.
Majel also played Nurse Chapel in the original series, the computer voice in all Star Trek shows, and Lwaxana Troi in NG and DS9. Apparently she also appeared in '50s shows "Bonanza", "Leave it to Beaver" and "I love Lucy", but certainly her fans will remember her for her Star Trek roles.
According to TrekMovie.com she had completed her role as the computer in the upcoming Star Trek movie, so it sounds like we will get one more performance before she is gone forever. :(
, and now I have Zombies on the brain. :) 
