The New Musings of a Quiet Geek

Finished the first season of   Star Trek: Picard . Loved it! Is it a rehash of   The Next Generation? No and I don't blame Patrick Stewart for not wanting to do that. He compared this project to his involvement in the movie Logan and wanting to give Picard the send off the the movie afforded his other character of Charles Xavier. So far it's held up. Even if the show hadn't been renewed for a second season. The premise of the Romulans trying to eliminate all synthetic life, and infiltrating Starfleet to do it, is a mixed bag for me. I have no problem believing they would go to any length to accomplish their goal. Not their first time infiltrating Starfleet. (See "Data's Day" which does reference Bruce Maddox co-creator of what I'm calling "Soong Type 2" androids.)  The passing explanation of why the Romulans distrust synthetic life sort of makes sense but it doesn't really explain why, say, the Vulcans don't share this fear given the...

Watched Elizabeth Banks'   Charlie's Angels   last night and, while not the  Skyfall of the franchise I was hoping for, there was good mix of action, seriousness and humor. The action sequences were on par with the James Bond and Mission: Impossible franchises.  (Like Tom Cruise, newcomer Ella Balinska did her own stunts...). I read that Drew Barrymore didn't want her Angels having guns despite the originals carrying them as former cops. (Hell, Julie the Model carried one even before she became a licensed PI...) What I didn't expect was Kristen Stewart would fill more of a comic relief role. Instead of the dark and broody persona I've come to expect from watching her as Joan Jett in  The Runaways and in movies such as Camp X-Ray, was replaced by an Ellen DeGeneres impression that gives Kate McKinnon a run for her money. (Whether it was intentional or not, I'm not kidding...) I realized this was done because Balinska's performance was seemingly inspired...

Saw   Birds of Prey... or I guess it's   Harley Quinn   now... As it should've been in the first place after watching it. (Unless we're using the episodes of   Murder She Wrote   that Angela Lansbury wasn't actually in as a base reference...) Margot Robbie once again shined as the character straight from her creation in  Batman: The Animated Series. I loved the interpretations of Rene Montoya, Huntress and Black Canary and hope this leads to a proper Birds film. Making Batgirl No. 2 Cassandra Cain a pickpocket makes sense (It was interesting having Victor Zsasz featured in the movie when Cassandra's father, David, is the other big assassin in "Bat-verse.") but did she have remind me so much of Short Round from the  Indiana Jones  films? Under Harley's guidance, she changes her look to Jubilee from the  X-Men  movies by the end of the film... Ewan MacGregor played Roman Sionis, also known as Black Mask as you'd expect a mobster...

It's been a turtle's age since I last blogged so I have a few things to catch up on... 1.   Captain Marvel- Great first female-centric film from Marvel. Is it better than Wonder Woman? No. But we can't all be first, can we? What this film does have is a mostly female '90's soundtrack that is suspiciously like my Pandora mix and that is second only to the soundtrack from  the classic film   Boys On The Side.   I am disappointed they didn't go whole hog and stuck in Nirvana and REM. I realize Warner Brothers owns the good stuff ( Birds of Prey could potentially rock...) but all you needed was 2 more women! GOOSE! The cat who's really a Flerken stole the show. The barer of the Captain Marvel title when I was growing up Monica Rambeau appears as a pre-teen and the original was gender bent and played by Annette Benning. (It's funny that the two female Avenger leaders I remember from my childhood were aged down like Monica or aged up like Janet Van ...

I'll discuss   Ant-Man and the Wasp   in a minute but there's still a handful of thoughts about my viewing of   Ocean's Eight I want to relay first...  When the all-female Ghostbusters  came out, there was the usual "raping of childhood" complaints.   Ocean's Eight sidestepped many of these issues by being a spin-off of a remake that was already done. Sandra Bullock played the sister of George Clooney's Danny Ocean. (There was mention their father was als in the business. A reference to Frank Sinatra?)  Also, if you want to do a all-female action and/or comedy movie, the heist genre isn't a bad way to go. Soundtracks are usually "just there" for me. They seem to be usually selected for their beat and tempo and not their lyrics. Lindsay Lohan's Herbie: Fully Loaded  was particularly noticeable in this regard for me  but I was admittedly in a bad mood that night since I had rather watched   The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe   ...

This post will focus only on   Solo: A Star Wars Story. Star Wars   has always had controversy going back to the old, old Star Wars vs. Star Trek  debate.  It's funny that   Solo   was directed by Ron Howard as franchise creator George Lucas once recognized Ron's brother Clint during a casting session as Balok of the First Federation in the early Star Trek  episode "The Corbomite Maneuver." I bring up this old argument only to point out when comparing the two as I've felt  Star Trek  (at least on TV. Harve Bennett dumbed down the franchise for the movies long before   Star Wars fan JJ Abrams did...)   that Trek was more intellectually stimulating while Wars was pure Good vs. Evil fun.  Solo  is a shining example of this and sunlight-deprived  nerds are up in arms. A friend pointed out to me the movie explained too many mysteries.  According to the internet, the biggest, most controversial, reveal was wh...

For many reasons, including no time or ambition to do so on my part, I have not posted in awhile but I was told recently that people actually enjoy reading this so I have returned and have a few things I want to discuss. 1. The first season of  Black Lightning  ended awhile ago but was quite enjoyable. Time will tell but at least for now, the writers have found a formula unlike other superhero series from Smallville  to the present shows on The CW and Netflix. One way to look at it is they haven't finished the setup. Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning may have one daughter Anissa who has joined his fight as Thunder but Jennifer still technically isn't Lightning yet.  (Yeah, Black Lightning AND Lightning? But given her electricity-generating power, what else would you call her? Generator Y?) And the big bad Tobias Whale doesn't seem to be finished yet. Hopefully, he won't become another Lex Luthor but, in some ways, he already is... With viewers now seeing the in...

Checking my Facebook Memories this morning, it is apparently the anniversary of my review of Jessica Jones .  In many reviews of  The Punisher ,  Jessica Jones  is the pinnacle all other Marvel Netflix (or in some cases, Marvel shows on any network but that's a post for another time...) must be held to. I'll tell you straight out, I personally enjoyed both seasons of  Daredevil  more so... (Hell,   The Punisher   had a less annoying support cast...) For reasons I didn't consider back then and don't care about now, comic books in the '90's saw the creation of more violent  characters to presumably dispel the notion comics weren't just for kids. Ironman, Thor, Captain America and, perhaps ironically, Batman got more gritty counterparts and the Punisher (and Deadpool) was created. Like most superheroes, Frank Castle's origins begin with the death of a family member; in his case, ALL OF THEM. In comics, it was due to be caught in the cross...

Wonder Woman   filled me with new optimism that DC might have finally figured out what they were doing. Justice League doesn't reach that level of goodness but, for me, wasn't a huge letdown either. Combining different heroes into a team in live action was done with The Avengers so this movie had the opportunity to fix the flaws. Some they did, some they didn't. One of the things I got tired of in Avengers  was the constant fighting amongst the team. "Hey! I see super-powered person! Let's fight!" Zack Snyder, or someone, realized he'd better get that out of the way and made  Batman v. Superman  first which is certainly one way to go.  In   Justice League itself, most infighting started because Aquaman is an ass. (Having Alan Ritchman play the character on  Smallville  then voice Raphael and now be cast as Hawk on  Titans  tells at least me something.) Now that I think about it, the team was comprised of "Daddy," "Mommy" and ...

It's all come down to this. The Defenders event series did what they purported to do. Introduced 4 separate characters and successfully combined them into fight a bigger evil. Or did they? The Hand was an obvious choice of a villain given their history spans time and their reach spans the globe. One thing I had trouble with at first was The Five Fingers of The Hand was comprised of a North American, South American, African and two Asians. Why no Europeans? It seriously did not occur to me the two "Americans" probably left K'un L'un prior to the discovery of the New World until later. I'm disappointed in myself... (Incidentally, these original creations are the closest Marvel equivalent to DC's Ra's Al-Ghul or Vandal Savage I can think of which I find a bit mind twisting...) There's a debate going on just how much of the previous series you actually need to see to understand what's going on. Just  Daredevil  season 2? Both seasons? Both season...

Spider-Man: Homecoming finally brought in  an actor in Tom Holland who could actually convincingly play a high school student AND could play the guilt-ridden yet wisecracking during battle Spider-man we all grew up with. Both factors in to my dubbing thee Sir Best Spider-man Film Ever... Composer Michael Giacchino incorporating the 1967 theme music into the score was awesome and better than when Sam Raimi randomly placed it into his movies. It occurred to me having Robert Downy, Jr. reprise his role as Tony Stark could be interpreted as an unintentional homage to  Spider-man and his Amazing Friends since the character appeared in the pilot of that show... I'm of two minds when it comes to them skipping the origin. I mean we've seen it. Twice. But...it was weird that the only real reference was when Peter acknowledged that Aunt May was having a rough time lately. May seemed to straddle the line between "having a rough time" and being the cool single aunt with mo...

Looking back in the archives, I haven't done a concert review since 2010. To give you perspective, in the review, I mention the opening act has a MySpace page... Last night, though I knew it was coming, I bought my ticket at 4:30pm for the 8:00 show of  Steady On: Lilith Fair at 20  with Sharon Goldman from New Jersey, Lara Herscovitch from CT (Given that she gave Goldman crap for being from Jersey, I'm guessing Hartford area. This song I'm listening to now mentions Litchfield...) and Maine artists Ronda Dale and Lisa Redfern. I was surprised to note I was not the only man that went solo. Turns out, they were the husbands of the artists! Goldman and Herscovitch started this tour after a conversation at a folk festival in Florida. They didn't spell it out but I'm guessing they bring in local artists to join them at their different stops? In his introduction, the head of the venue's board described these artists as "next generation" of artists from t...

Wonder Woman  is the first real critical hit for the DC film universe.  It can't be ignored that star Gal Gadot and director Patty Jenkins gave us the Diana we remembered and loved. What's not widely known is Zack Snyder, who directed 2 of the previous 3 DC films, helped write the script. When  Man of Steel  came out, he was not shy in admitting he thought Superman was a really boring character and gave us a version of the character that didn't immediately know what he was doing as he's been portrayed on screen for the last fifty years. From a film perspective, this does make for a more compelling character but from the comic nerd perspective, it still enrages people to this day despite the fact you finally see the vision by the time  Batman v. Superman  came out...  My point is Snyder apparently does not hold the same criticism with Wonder Woman. It is true that, unlike Superman, she's always been portrayed as a bit fish out of water and unsure of h...

As I was organizing my thoughts for this review of  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ,  I checked to see if I had written a review of the first one. I had but it was ridiculously short. (Those who know me probably remember I was less than a year out from a horrible month of seizures so my brain wasn't working great...) The first question anyone asks is: Was it as good as the first? To be honest and fully accurate, yes and no.  The "Hey! This is new and different!" mystique is gone but Ego the Living Planet is definitely an improvement as the villain over Ronan the Accuser. Of course, this is partially due to making Ego the father of Peter "Starlord" Quill but this change was perhaps more necessary than  anyone first believed. If James Gunn had kept Quill's father J'Son of Spartax, he and his forces would have been too similar to Ayesha and The Sovereign. Add the Ravagers and it would have been a clusterfuck of alien armies. That's Babylon 5, not  Gu...

Late last week, I finally discovered the first season of the X-Men  related TV series  Legion.  The main character, David Haller is told he's a schizophrenic but he later discovers he's a mutant with a very high potential for psychic abilities. On the show, he's shown that he's only slightly more powerful than Jean Grey as he can do things she can't...unless she loses control and lets loose. Haller and his friends face threats on two levels. From a government agency randomly known as Division 3 and a parasitic mutant known as The Shadow King (real name Amahl Farouk.) In my review of X-Men : Apocalypse , I noted the title villain shared elements of this character and actually said: Oscar Isaac was very good as the title villain. To me, the story combined elements of the comic fight with him and also elements with the villain Shadow King, another powerful Arab mutant who will probably never be used on his own, as referenced in Storm's introduction and Xavi...

When I wrote my blog post on the previous Netflix series, Luke Cage, I noted it was only about 90% as dark as Daredevil  and Jessica Jones. Iron Fist  is only about 90% as dark as that series. While that does make me question the Mature rating, I have no problem with that. I feel in the mood to structure at least the beginning of this review on my feelings on complaints I've heard 1. The acting and writing: I'm sure my bar is lower than others but I feel people who feel the strongest about this have never watched movies on Lifetime or Hallmark. (Oddly, I read a comment on Twitter from a complainer that he had higher hopes for Cloak and Dagger on Freeform than  Inhumans on ABC. Special effects budget, sure but writing and acting? I think that's an iffy wager at best but I digress.) Finn Jones and Jessica Henwick are great as Danny Rand and Colleen Wing. Danny to me is just as a 25 year old man who spent 15 years cut off from the world as he knew it in a monastery (...

Because both Netflix and Twitter are down, some thoughts on the Netflix series Luke Cage 1. I would say it was only about 90% as dark and broody as Daredevil and Jessica Jones . Whether it's a coincidence hardcore DC fans on Twitter didn't gush about it as they did the previous two series is hard to say. Also, were there more scenes set during the day or was that just me? 2. Also hard to say is just who the Big Bad of the show was. There are really 3 possibilities: Cottonmouth Stokes who you could easily argue was just forced into the family business; Willis "Diamondback" Striker, the disgruntled half-brother of Luke Cage; or the villain left standing, Councilwoman Mariah Dillard?  The obvious choice is the last one but remember, Darth Vader is much more recognizable than Emperor Palpatine... Anyway, the fact it isn't in your face also adds to the ways the show was able to differentiate itself just as much as the change in setting and definitely the music... ...

Regular readers of this blog know my love of Terry Brooks and his Shannara books. Some readers may have caught my rant on the Rizzoli and Isles TV series being irritatingly different than the books. Why change Maura's serial killer mom to a gangster dad? Why change Warren Hoyt's name to Charles? (I do appreciate now the series is definitely it's own thing now in it's final season.) I had caught most episodes of the new Shannara Chronicles series when it originally aired and was pretty intrigued. Yes, most of the characters were not how I visualized them when I read Elfstones of Shannara back in high school (Reading the World of Shannara reference tome, I discovered my mind's eye was always wrong on that score anyway...) but the characterizations were spot on which is definitely more important. Yes, people who haven't read any of the books published recently may complain about the "cameos" made by remnants of our 21st century world but since it was ...

I was on a blogging break when Netflix dropped the awesome Daredevil TV series but I will briefly say that was 1000 times better than the movie version of the character starring Ben Affleck and his future, and now past, wife, Jennifer Garner. Recently, Marvel Comics and Netflix released another series: Jessica Jones.  Unlike the former and upcoming series based on the characters of Luke Cage and Iron Fist, Jessica debuted in a comic, coincidentally called Alias which is the name of her detective agency, in my lifetime. Like Luke Cage, X-Men Jean Grey and Kitty Pryde and others, she has superpowers but doesn't have a super identity. In the comic, she has super strength and can fly. In the TV series, the second ability is greatly downplayed but could easily appear in future appearances. Krysten Ritter pulls off the darkly comic role spectacularly. (Watching her on The Talk this afternoon I also realize she's incredibly tall...) David Tennant is deliciously creepy as the vill...

The controversy blowing up the internets right now is which is better: DC or Marvel comic movies.  This was exacerbated the other day when WB made the apparent announcement that the DC movies won't be action comedies (Like the more popular of the Marvel movies) but stay with a more dramatic tone.  (Case in point hardcore DC fans like the Green Lantern movie even less than the average movie goer...) Then there's a third group (Seemingly headed up by DC groupies) that wonder why we can't get along. I personally am a fan of both but let's face it, liking two sides of anything literally equally isn't likely or even likely possible.  To that end I've been pro-Marvel since I was like 6 years old. I watched both SuperFriends  and Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends but liked the latter more. Truthfully, with my admitted bias, it holds up just a bit better to this day. On the other hand, Marvel has not put out a cartoon of Justice League 's quality since. (Yeah...