Robots and Vamps

She Said…

Admission: I never saw the original…. I know what you are thinking, “How can that be? We thought you were a geek!” Don’t worry, I still am, but I wasn’t always. Unfortunately, I have been sheltered and I just don’t have a lot of classic movies under my belt. So here is my fresh and unspoiled view of the 2008 version.

I liked it. It wasn’t great, it wasn’t terrible. It was just good. I liked GORT; it was huge and menacing and cool! All of the actors were decent. No-one did a bad job. The Pinkett-Smith talent machine has produced another little star in Jaden. Keanu was good as Klaatu, but I was disappointed that he didn’t say “Whoa”, not even once.

There was a not so subtle message about being Green, which worked well as a reason that an alien race might want take our planet away from us. That would be a really hard lesson to learn, “Recycle and stop using up all of your natural resources or we will send millions of tiny metal bugs to devour you and everything you have built.” (shudder, I hate bugs!) Say, where did I put that recycling bin?

Side note: Before the movie, there was a trailer for Monsters vs. Aliens,(which looks great btw) and one quote stuck out in my mind and had me chuckling to myself,  ” Why do the Aliens always land in America?”

Why is that? Specifically, why do they land in New York? Everything bad happens to New York. How many times has Giant Stadium and Yankee Stadium been destroyed in the movies? Far too many! I say let’s give those poor New Yorkers a break and destroy some other cities.

He said…

I have seen the original The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) many, many, many years ago and I thought it was alright. It was never one of my favorites but understood it was one of the holy grails in Sci-Fi lore. Am I upset that it was remade? No. Was it time for a remake? Sure. Was the new version better than the original? Nope.

The updated version of The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) is a movie that can’t figure out which way it wanted to go. Does it want to be a Summer Movie Specials Effects extravaganza or movie with a well thought out message. My impression is it that tried to be both and did not succeed in either.

The first half was good. The mysterious arrival of globes all over the planet and the two beings that emerge, Klaatu and GORT, provide a great set up. Keanu as the emotionless Klaatu is perfect. Jennifer Connelly as Dr. Helen Benson is average at best. She plays up the doe eyes and is way too hot to be a scientist.  But I can suffer through.

After Klatuu escapes from the military base the movie goes down hill. These aliens are just plain stupid. Their big revelation…they want to destroy the Earth because humans do not have the capacity to change.  Ohhh…Ahhh.  Their response is to unleash robot bugs in order to destroy everything but then Klaatu suddenly realizes there are two sides to human beings and that we can change.  Yippee, we are saved. Klaatu then quips, “Oops, sorry about killing all those people and the huge mess, my mistake, we will be leaving now, thanks for the tea, cheerio”. Just stupid.

Hollywood should have learned one thing from the summer movies, audiences are not stupid. Mix  good material with your Sci-Fi flick and the movie goers will respond in huge numbers.

And yes, I need to spend more time educating my wife in all of the Sci-Fi greats.  I tried to get her to watch the original Planet of the Apes last week but she fell asleep.  It will be a long process.

Please check out Geeks of Doom 13 WTF Moments From ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’ Remake.  This is hilarious.

She said…

Oh, this troubles me so. I was so excited when I heard HBO was airing True Blood. The show is based on the Southern Vampire Mystery Novels written by Charlaine Harris. Yes, I have read all of the books. Yes, I loved them. Hence, my dilemma. I have trouble separating this show from the books. I can deal with small differences and additions to the plot, but when the show veers sharply from the plot I tend to get a little perturbed. I know, I know. I need to learn to separate the book from the TV adaptation. They are not the same things and books do not translate exactly to the screen. But it is so hard when it is a story you love.

Alan Ball has done a great job setting up this world of Vampires living out in the open. Bon Temps and all of the scenery so far is just how I imagined it. I have gotten used to the characters appearances and they are not far off from what my minds eye had created.

I understand that some of the characters lives needed embellishing since the books are written from Sookie’s point of view only. However, I do not like the roads some of these characters have taken. Tara started out obnoxious and ended up coming across as just dumb and Sam has taken some strange turns with his love life, but I guess I can live with that. At least Eric and Bill appear to be representing their characters well. As a huge Eric fan, I don’t know if I could handle any major changes for him. One change I wish Mr. Ball could have worked out was the death of Lafayette. I am really going to miss him.

I will say that the last 2 episodes of the season were the best. They had me in stitches. The introduction of new characters has thrown me for a loop in the past but Jessica is just hilarious.

So long story short, I am looking forward to next season which will air in the summer of 2009. By then I hope to have separated the show from the book in my mind enough to enjoy it more. The show is good, really good. It is a show about Vampires after all, and you all know how I love my Vampires. It just isn’t living up to my lofty expectations.

He said…

My name is Matt and I am married. Part of the marriage vows is to love, honor and tolerate each others geeky habits. Trust me, my wife has had to put up with Star Wars for over 10 years. So, I did read the first Charlaine Harris Southern Vampire Mystery book, Dead Until Dark, and I watched the entire season of True Blood.

I was very lukewarm on the novel. I was not crazy how Ms. Harris sets up the plot in her book. The big events develop as the story goes on and there is no foreshadowing. You can do this once in awhile but not with every revelation. This negates any tension through out the book and the big reveals are more ho-hum. My other criticism of the book was that Ms. Harris created an interesting society of vampires but spent very little time in their universe. Her premise that vampires lose their humanity as they grow older and really do not care about human affairs and only sees us as food was interesting, but not near fully explored. Maybe it was just me but I was more interested in Bill (horrible name for a vamp by the way) than I was with Sookie. But then again, I am not the target audience for this novel.

HBO / Alan Ball fixed all my issues with the book. There was foreshadowing all over the place. For example, the viewer discovered who the killer was several episodes before Sookie did and you could feel the tension when the killer was on screen. The big reveal with Sam was better set up and it wasn’t so unbelievable when Sookie learned about his secret. It is also my understanding there was some set up for second season.

Alan Ball changed some characters and others were added to further explore certain aspects of this universe that the novel did not. The vampire society was opened up more and we were allowed to see behind the curtain. All in all, I am glad watched the TV series and plan to watch the next season.

In my opinion the TV series was superior to the book, which is strange, since it is usually the other way around.

What is your take?

She Said…

This show is OK. Since I am a big fan of JJ Abrams’ LOST I was hoping for more. I really like the premise of the show and being a sucker I will probably continue to watch, waiting for it to pick up speed and get better.

Is it just me or is Agent Olivia Dunham weird? She may even be weirder than Walter. At least he is supposed to be weird. Olivia (maybe she is a robot!) is lacking personality and emotion and mostly just looks confused to me. I really prefer to watch Walter and Peter’s interactions. They seem more realistic and provide some comic relief, albeit a bit corny. I like Broyles too, but I keep waiting for him to take someone to the Island or don his Lieutenants uniform and reprimand some cops.

He Said….

If J.J. Abrams wasn’t involved with this show then it is likely that I would have given up on it . I really don’t like episodic nature of show of having to wrap up everything in 45 minutes and, for most part, the stories are forgettable. I was expecting more of Lost, not X-Files lite. At least X-Files had a main arc and individual episodes that kept the show interesting. The “monster” of  the week episodes of X-Files were not my favorite and unfortunately Fringe is only full of “Monster of the week” episodes.

Who are the bad guys? The Pattern, ohhhh scary, and Blair Brown (Nina Sharp) with a robotic arm, ohhhh double scary. Come on, give me the Cigarette Smoking Man or The Others.

I also think that most of the characters are not well written or cast. The lead, Anna Torv, only has 2 expressions, confused and staring off in distance confused. John Noble, as Dr. Walter Bishop, is the one saving grace. I really like him as the crazy mad scientist. Joshua Jackson as Peter Bishop is hot and cold but overall does a decent job.

My advice to Fringe, cut out the killer butterflies and eighty-year old babies, and follow up on the premise laid out in episode 4, The Arrival. I was about to give up Fringe when this episode aired and it has held my attention since. It showed a promising overall arc but they are now on episode 10 and my hope is again fading. If things don’t picked up soon I don’t expect there will a second season.

RaV ranking: 2.5 out 5 (episode, The Arrival 4 out 5)

There seems to be quite a bit of fuss over this season of Heroes. In our house alone there are differing opinions.

He said: Heroes has made it to episode 7 of season 3 and I am about done with this show. It is a shell of it’s former self. The pacing and plotting of the show is absolutely horrible. No one who dies stays dead…everyone switching powers like they are swingers…stupid side quests that are equal to some bad Scooby Doo episodes. I keep waiting for the Arthur Petrelli to pop a “and I would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for those meddling kids” quote. The only character worth watching is Daphne Millbrook AKA The Flash. Do yourself a favor and go watch The Incredibles again.

Ranking: 2 of 5

She said: While I certainly don’t think the show is up to its previous standards, I don’t hate it. I still watch it and wonder, “Where is this all going?”  The plot is all over the place, and everything seems a bit schizophrenic. The characters are a shell of their former selves.  But, I still want to know what happens next. So I say definitely not as good as the first season, but still an OK show to watch and I am going to try and hang in there on the hopes that it will return to its former glory sometime soon.  But I won’t hold my breath.

Ranking: 3 out of 5