Saturday, June 28, 2008

The 10 Worst Top-Shelf CG Cartoon Movies Ever Made

Today, unanimously beloved animation powerhouse Pixar will release their latest work for nerds, movie critics and children around the world to fawn excessively over, Wall*E. It’s a reminder that we live in a golden age for animated movies, where the best of them have universal appeal to kids and adults alike and sometimes are considered among the b

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The 13 Best Movie Robots

With Wall-E dropping nationwide today, we've been thinking about the best robots to ever pour out their mechanical hearts on the big screen. We put together this list, which is only as good as our frail human bodies allowed it to be.

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Saturday, June 14, 2008

Battlestar Galactica - "Revelations" Reviewed

Earth - The Final Frontier


I'm disappointed. I expected an inhabited Earth, even if primitive. Did Ron Moore get a lobotomy during the Writers Strike? Did he forget about the basics of a TV series, like continuity? Is he trying to make BSG so much NOT like Star Trek that he's willing to re-invent the show every week?

It's not bad enough the characters change sides every week. It's not bad enough the story has become convoluted. It's not bad enough the producers are hell bent on finishing the story after just 4 seasons. They finally make to Earth and its completely destroyed, scenes right out of "Planet of the Apes". To top it off they've cut us off for the summer, maybe even until Spring 2009. To be honest it's starting to lose my interest.

I know I'm being hard on the show, but every week it feels like they are busting the bubble. I believe whole-heartedly the number one reason why scifi shows fail is they complicate things too much. BSG is there. Right now viewers are asking themselves "now what?".

Here's a theory. In last weeks episode "The Hub", Laura's fading in and out of reality every time she cylon ship jumps. Maybe, just maybe, "Revelations" was all part of that illusion. It doesn't make sense they would reach Earth, a barren, uninhabited Earth with 14 episodes left. Their quest wasn't to just find Earth, but to find the thirteenth colony. They'll probably introduce some survivors.

Last night's summer finale wasn't much of a cliffhanger. They made it to Earth, it's uninhabited. The people and cities have long died out, caused by things we can only speculate at this point. Our first clue should have been they didn't detect any orbiting satellites. Second, if dozens of space vehicles suddenly showed up in our atmosphere, the governments of the world would have greeted them with deadly force. I would have liked that scenario better, a modern day Earth fighting to defend itself from an unknown force from space.

A different scenario would have been to have a modern day Earth, and have them sneak to Earth without being detected, blend in. Oh, but that's what they would do on Star Trek, so that's out.

Our story would seem to be at the end, for the most part. The four sleeper agents in the fleet have been identified. The humans and cylons appear to have reached an agreement to not fight anymore, but I'm sure we haven't seen the last of the war.

Since we know they still have another 14 episodes to show, there's must be more surprises waiting for us, like who is the unidentified cylon model. Does D'Anna know? She knew there were only four in the fleet, but she did see five faces.

To steal from my review of "The Hub", maybe the ghost of Christmas past, present, and future will visit Ron Moore over the break, and show him the error of his ways.


Regards
John Crawford

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Sunday, June 8, 2008

Battlestar Galactica: The Hub Reviewed


It was sometimes difficult to differentiate Laura's dreams from reality. Every time the cylon ship jumped she went off into lala land. As the episode went on, her dreams became more apparent as to its purpose. In her dreams she is living her last moments dying from Cancer. But her reality is she's very much alive. In her dreams she is lead around by one of the Colony's spiritual leader, seeing her self in the 3rd person. It had the "ghost of Christmas future" feeling, letting Laura know that she has not and does not love anyone. In another dream the guide comments on how her friends are comforting each other, and 'at least you (Laura) had not taken that from them... yet." So every time the ship jumps she see herself slowly dying and suffering miserably, because she doesn't love anyone, at least in her dream.

She eventually find herself with Baltar when he is injured during the fight with the other cylon ship. He is very calm about things; he confesses to her his "guilt", the guilt of inadvertently giving the cylons the access codes which led to destruction of the colonies.

Laura is visibly shaken to hear Baltar's revelation, and seeing his lay there bleeding badly, she removes the bandages. He pleased with her not to do it. The ship jumps, and Laura has another dream, Her guide puts things in perspective about her plight. She says "I'm not saying that Baltar's done more good than harm in the universe, he hasn't. the thing is, the harder it is to recognize someones right to draw a breath, the more crucial it is. If humanity it going to prove itself worthy of surviving, it can't do it on a case by case basis. A bad man feel his debt just a keenly as a good man..... Just love someone." With that said, she watching herself die and only Admiral Adama is there.

As she returns to reality, she is frantic as she realizes that she is letting Baltar die. She rushes over to him and puts more bandages on him to spot to the blood that is now dripping from his side. Like Scrooge waking up a different man on Christmas morning, Laura has an epiphany.

Meanwhile, Cavil unboxes D'Anna. She's not a happy camper, and has a score to settle with the Cavil's that had her boxed and placed into cold storage. She asks why she has had to go through the download again, and is told there is a cylon civil war, with the Ones, Fours, and Fives against Twos, Sixes,and Eights. One of the Eights (Boomer) has crossed sides with Cavil, and informs them the rebel ships are going to destroy the Resurrection ship. To their surprise, D'Anna kills Cavil, but Boomer escapes. A few minutes later, Helo and another Eight rescue D'Anna and take her to their ship.

The plan to destroy the Resurrection ship is a success, as is the recovery of D'anna. Despite the mistrust among the cylon and human pilots, things work out. Helo and the Eight share an awkward moment, and he breaks her trust to fulfill his orders from the President by taking D'Anna to the President.

The President wastes no time getting to the question of who the final five are. D'Anna knows what Laura wants to hear. Laura is shocked by D'Anna's inquisitive answer that "she is a one of them." There is a momentary pause as Laura doesn't quite realize what she just heard. D'Anna quickly recants her statement, as she only wanted to see the look on Laura's face and her reaction. She goes on to say that she will reveal the names ONLY after she is safely back in the fleet. The Scifi channel had allot of people fooled on that as it ran in the previews for a week.

To be honest I am happy Laura is not a Cylon, that would be a let down. I still believe it is someone we haven't seen yet or someone we only see rarely, like Tom Zarek. Now it's not possible, but my personal choice for the 12th model was Ellen Tigh. She's not in the infamous "Last Supper" picture; there's an empty seat next to Saul Tigh. Not to mention Saul's been "seeing her" when he visits the Six in the Brig. Ellen conspired with the cylons during the occupation of New Caprica. The only catch is that she would have downloaded to the Resurrection ship when she was killed. So that's out. Also we still don't have an answer to this one "The dying leader will know the truth of the opera house."

At the end, we see Husker (Admiral Adama) reading a book waiting at the rendezvous point, there's a blue shimmer in the shadow. The Cylon ship with the captive crew has returned. Adama docks with the cylon ship, and is greeted with open arms from Laura. She tells him she loves him, he says "it's about time." Has Laura learned the true meaning of Christmas?

While the Cylon centurions are just robots, the lady that is playing the hybrid is to be commended. Her entire legacy is spent in this pool of goo, babbling incoherently. That has to be some hard lines to memorize.

Then we have Baltar (James Callis) and Laura (Mary McDonnell) trying to talk to the hybrid. You can just imagine how hilarious that was to film, cause they were just botching it royally. Even funnier was Baltar speaking to the centurion.

It was good to see an episode where things moved. last week's episode was definitely a shakeup. The Episode: Sine Qua Non was one of those episodes that you just scratch your head and wonder what else they completely change. The best way to describe this episode is that it's a Chinese fire drill. If you don't know what a Chinese fire drill is, it's something a car full of kids (or immature adults) do. They pull up to a STOP sign (or red light), then everyone gets out and changes seats. Each fourth season episode of Battlestar Galactica is turning out to be its own one Chinese fire drill; Sine Qua Non being the craziest one yet.

Last weeks changes. Let's see, Lee Adama is now the President. Admiral Adama resigns, Colonial Tigh is now in command of the fleet. The Six in the brig is pregnant. The other Six died after being shot by Athena. At the end of last week's episode, the Cylon Base Ship jumped with President Roslin. They find the raptors that jumped with them, damaged and some crew members dead. And we have Admiral Adama (Husker) sitting in a Raptor reading a book waiting for the Cylon Base ship to return, meanwhile the rest of the fleet jumped.

Hopefully, next week's episode "Revelations" will bring all of the elements back together. By the way, scifi.com is calling "Revelations" the "mid summer finale, so it looks like we won't see any new episodes for a few months.


Regards
John Crawford

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