Attending Vul-Con 2018

As usual for me I will be attending Vul-Con this year in Vulcan Alberta. It is a Star Trek Convention that occurs in the 'Star Trek Capital of Canada' (which is sanctioned by Star Trek's owners: CBS).

This will be my first official convention of 2018. I have been attending the convention in Vulcan since 2013 and it is my favorite by far. The small town atmosphere is awesome and it is far less restricting than the big conventions.

It will be occurring July 27-29. if you are in the area I highly recommend it if you are a Trekkie.

And I will be attending the Edmonton Expo September 21-23 in Edmonton Alberta.

My review of ‘Solo’ and ‘Deadpool 2’ and talking ‘Innerspace’

Solo:

*** SPOILERS***

Going back to 1989 we were introduced to a young ‘Indiana Jones’ played by the late River Phoenix in the film ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’. For 15 minutes we learned how he got a scar on his chin, his first time using a whip, the origin of his fear of snakes and after 15 minutes we leapt ahead a few decades to the Indiana Jones we all know and love played by Harrison Ford, for the rest of the film. As much as River Phoenix did a good job we wanted to see Harrison Ford for the film. Likewise for me when ‘Young Indiana Jones’ came to TV in the early 90’s: I never watched it. If I want to watch Indy I want it to be Harrison Ford. Ford IS Indiana Jones.

Now we have this new ‘Star Wars’ film called ‘Solo’ which is about a young Han Solo. When I originally heard of this film I was not excited for it. In fact my response was “Why?”

There are certain things that should not be touched and a backstory movie about Han Solo without Harrison Ford should not have been done. Ford IS Solo and he was not in this film at all. The cast:

Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo: Woody Harrelson as Tobias Beckett: Emilia Clarke as Qi'ra: Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian: Thandie Newton as Val Beckett: Beckett's wife, a fellow criminal and member of her husband's crew. Phoebe Waller-Bridge as L3-37: Lando's droid companion and navigator.

Now the cast is good enough, in fact Donald Glover is amazing as a young Lando, but I didn’t want to see anyone else playing Solo. Ehrenreich was alright as a young Solo (other than he seems a lot shorter than Harrison Ford) but this film would have been better in my opinion if it had been a split movie with an older Han completing a mission his younger self began decades earlier. It could have been a film with flash back scenes like the TV series ‘Lost’, and that way Ford could have been in it. It could have been pre-Force Awakens.

The story was ok, nothing great. I really don’t like the notion that Han was the money that founded the Rebellion. Han and Chewies first meeting kinda fell flat for me and the ‘Kessel’ run did not live up to the legend it was in my mind all these years.

 

Solo was an alright ‘Star Wars’ film, but it was not great. Some critics have slammed the film and have called it a flop. I definitely do not think of it as a flop. Unfortunately for ‘Solo’ they had some stiff competition such as ‘Avengers’ and ‘Deadpool 2’. Also why did they release it only 5 months after ‘The Last Jedi’? They should have kept it as a Christmas release and I think it would have done better at the Box Office

I’d give it a solid 2.5 stars out of 5.

 

Deadpool 2:

 

*** SPOILERS***

Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson / Deadpool: Josh Brolin as Cable: Morena Baccarin as Vanessa: Julian Dennison as Russell Collins / Firefist: Zazie Beetz as Domino: T.J. Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead: Jack Kesy as Black Tom Cassidy:

Now this was a fun and funny film. Ryan Reynolds once again was born to play this character. The addition of Cable was great and I look forward to future installments in the X-Universe of movies with Brolin’s ‘Cable’.

This film as almost as good as the first, but the first film did an amazing job introducing the character and having it as an origin story.

 

There’s not much more I can say other than if you liked the first ‘Deadpool’ you will like this one.

I give it a solid 3.5 stars out of 5.

 

 

 

And finally the ‘Space’ channel up here in Canada has cancelled one of my favorite news/entertainment programs: Innerspace. This was a show similar in style to ‘Entertainment Tonight’ which aired weekdays. The hosts would interview celebrities, go to conventions and other places to bring us geek entertainment news. I have been watching this program for 9 years now and I have had the good fortune of meeting the hosts at a couple of conventions now. They have always been welcoming and kind to us fans.

Bell Media made a big mistake by cancelling ‘Innerspace’ and it will be missed.

 

Nitpicking: Avengers Infinity War

***SPOILERS FOR ‘AVENGERS INFINITY WAY***

It has been some weeks since I initially watched ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and I have seen it a total of 4 times. I maintain it is the best Super Hero and Marvel movie made to date.  But like all things it is not a perfect film and here is a list of some nitpicking things I found with Avengers Infinity War:

-         “Get this man a shield”. So all film I was waiting for that moment because it was in the trailer. In ‘Captain America: Civil War’ Cap left his shield with Tony. It was made with vibranium and since Wakanda is full of vibranium and the King did say to get Cap a shield I assumed it would be as cool if not better than the original…nope. Instead he has 2 cocktail trays attached to his arms. So disappointed. I would have loved to see Cap using a triangle shield (from WW2) or his energy shield.

 

-         What’s up Hulk?:

So Banner can’t get it up? Performance issues? By ‘it’ I mean the Hulk. Why would the Hulk cower in a fight? Maybe it is leading into the Banner/Hulk for Avengers 4? I just didn’t buy it that the Hulk would shy away from a fight.

-         Why not throw a bone to the MCU Television series?

When shit was going down in NYC why didn’t they take the opportunity to have Luke Cage show up? Daredevil is still MIA, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, Agents of Shield and Punisher didn’t have to be there but why not include Luke Cage? It would have kicked ass when Banner is having his initial performance issues if Luke Cage would have come running in and taken on the brute bad guy. And he could have went with Banner to join up with the Avengers…just saying they have these Netflix shows tied in with the MCU so why not use a character from them to help legitimize the Netflix series? And Luke Cage would have been the perfect addition.

-         What happened to Valkyrie?

So they established this kick ass African American /Asgardian character in ‘Thor: Ragnorok” and she is nowhere to be seen in this film.  It is assumed she escaped with half of the Asgardians before Thanos destroyed their ship but it would have been nice to see her. Or Lady Sif…

Just a few nitpicks but as I said in my review of this film: it is as perfect as any MCU film has got to date.

The Dark Knight: 10 years later.

I never understood all the hype and praise placed on this movie; some of it yes but not all. When I hear people say “The Dark Knight is the best comic book movie ever made!” my response is always “What?” There are far better comic book movies than that one. Now don’t get me wrong I do think it is a good movie, but is it the best comic book movie? No it is not and here is why:

-         The Joker: Heath Ledger was mesmerizing as the Joker and some have said he was the best person to have taken that role. Unfortunately I think the same people are caught up in his performance knowing it was his last before his unfortunate death prior to the release of the film. Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton’s 1989 ‘Batman’ film is so much better than Ledger. Nicholson brought the Joker to life in a way that had never been done before. He truly captured the essence of the comic book’s clown prince of crime. Ledger played up the Joker in a way that was not what comic book fans expected from that character. He was good but not as good as Nicholson.

 

 

-         Two-Face: I love this character and I was excited he was introduced in this film. But no sooner do they introduce him they kill him off and somehow Batman is the bad guy at the end of the day…WHAT??? Two-Face would have made for a great villain in his own Batman film and was completely wasted here.

 

 

-         People having to decide who lives and dies: The whole Joker rigging the two boats to blow up and leaving it to the people and prisoners on the boats to decide who dies was just dumb and very un-Joker like. Joker is an agent of chaos and does not care about what people will decide…he kills for fun and laughs and to get under Batman’s skin. The whole ship sequence was an attempt of Director Christopher Nolan to make this film deeper than it really is.

-         Batman the bad guy: So Commissioner Gordon and Batman its best for everyone that they do not find out the truth about Harvey Dent/Two-Face so Batman takes the wrap for killing Dent and everyone Dent killed prior to his death…WHAT?? It was such a stupid plot twist and again an attempt to give the film a deeper meaning than it really had.  

 

So what comic book films are better than ‘The Dark Knight’? Here’s a few:

-         Iron Man

-         Avengers

-         Avengers Infinity War

-         Every Captain America film

-         Spiderman (2002)

 

‘The Dark Knight’ was a great comic book movie, but definitely not the best.

Nuff said.

-Chris

Avengers Infinity War Review

 

***SPOILERS***

I have to spoil some things so if you have not seen the film yet then maybe wait to read this. Now that I have said that I must say that this is (in my opinion) the best super hero movie ever made. This film may even slide into my Top 5 favorite movies of all time (still debating that list).

The lead up to this film has been 10 years and 18 films in the making. Marvel studios has made some really great choices during that time and everything paid off for this film.  There could be some nitpicking stuff I could throw out there (Where’s Lady Sif? Why would Odin have a replica of the Infinity Gauntlet in his collection if it hadn’t been made yet for real? Maybe Thanos got his idea to build a gauntlet with the infinity stones from Odin?) but I’m not going to nit-pick. This film had a lot of great characters, the story was amazing, the villain was the real star of the film and he was outstanding, the ending was both shocking and heart breaking. This film had all the ingredients for a great film.

Josh Brolin as Thanos was so well cast. Thano’s motivations in some weird way made some sense and made him an interesting antagonist to watch. Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Pratt and all the other cast members brought their A-game and delivered on so many levels. The Russo brothers (directors of the last 2 Captain America movies) did their best directorial work for this film and delivered the impossible to the world. This film is what ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ is to Star Wars fans: Simply the best.

 

5 Stars out of 5 *****

 

Can't wait for 'Ant Man & The Wasp' and 'Captain Marvel'. But it does suck having to wait for the conclusion to 'Infinity War' which will not be until May 2019.... :(

Goodbye TV Dad and good riddance

So this week Bill Cosby was found guilty of sexual assault on women with many more lining up to testify against him if necessary. My question is why? Why did he drug and assault these women? I understand being a man and wanting to have some fun but why drugs? Why assault? He is rich enough I’m sure he could have hired some high end prostitutes where ever and whenever he needed so why drug women and assault them? The simple answer would seem to be he is a monster. Only monsters assault and drug people for their own selfish desires so clearly he is one. And like all monsters he deserves to be locked away forever.

This realization makes me sad. Like most kids raised in the 80’s watching ‘The Cosby Show’ was a weekly event. And when his show became syndicated it became daily viewing. Bill Cosby as ‘Cliff Huxtable’ was the dad everyone would want. He was loving, funny, reliable, goofy, wise and forever patient with his kids. He not only was a great dad he was also a great doctor. Also Cosby hosted ‘Kids say the darndest things’ and Jello commercials, he produced ‘Fat Albert’ and starred in the film ‘Leonard Part 6’ (which I loved as a kid) and so on. So Bill Cosby was always there in my life….now he’s gone and good riddance to him.

Buddhism and me

(Continuing from my last post 'Where is God'?)

Now don't get me wrong I do believe in heaven. The universe is so complex and fascinating that there has to be something else when we die, there just has to be. We do not simply blink out of existence. Maybe God created the earth and gave us it and decided to leave us to our own devices; live and learn. Maybe he (or she) decided long ago to cut us loose, let us live and learn from our mistakes in life, have our lives be what makes us into the people we are for heaven. If that is the case then maybe God simply cannot pick and choose when to interfere, when to strike those down who deserve it, when to make his (or her) presence known.

When I met with my pastor for the first time he asked me if I thought I would be going to heaven when I died. I answered yes. he was a bit surprised that I was so sure as most people answer that question by saying "I don't know". I explained that once in 1997 a few months after my Grandpa passed away he came to me in a dream. This was no ordinary dream; I cannot relate into words why I feel this one was different it just was. I knew then that my Grandpa had saw my sorrow and guilt from heaven and he came to me to show me he was fine, and to tell me that he loved me. I awoke from that dream and cried and felt better than I had in months. So if my Grandpa was somewhere else after death he had to be in heaven. He was a great man and did good in his life; he was also quietly Christian and kept his beliefs to himself (I later found out), so the only logical conclusion is that he was in heaven. So if I live my life like he did I will be there too when my time comes. I don't know if my Pastor completely agreed with my analysis but it is what it is and no one can change my mind about that. But what if there was another explanation...

So after my Uncles death and my daughters statement about God I decided to study other faiths and see if I could find an answer. So I came to study Buddhism. Buddhism does not deal with heaven or God, and is more of a belief system than a religion. Buddhism deals with karma and reincarnation. If you do good in this world and create good karma you will be rewarded in this life or the next. And reincarnation means that when our journey ends in this life we will have another one. And if we create good karma in this life we will enjoy a good life in the next. But if we create bad karma in this life or a previous one it will affect us later in this life or the next. So in that theory if we die young in this life it could mean that karma has dictated that. Maybe the reason why someone dies unexpectedly is because they did something bad in this life or previous lives. For example: Maybe a man who dies suddenly at the age of 40, but was for all intents and purposes a good person, died because he took a life in a previous life. Maybe he was a solider fighting in a war in another life and because he killed a 40 year old man then he will die in this life as a 40 year old. Its karma coming full circle. But because he was a good man in this life he will live a full life in the next.

I honestly don't know what to believe. I call myself a Buddhist Christian because I believe in certain aspects of both but cannot commit fully to either. One day I will find out for myself, just hopefully not anytime soon.