On A Star Wars Kick

Hey Wanna B's, I don't know if it's the fact that the new movies are about to be made, but over the last few months I've sought of had my interest in Star Wars come back to me. As a child of the 80's I grew up loving the original three films, and watched them over and over growing up, I even remember watching the Ewok spin off films though I can't remember much about them. Anyway I consider myself a fan of the Star Wars universe, but I am no where near the level of the "true fans" my knowledge pretty much ends with what is on film.

At the recommendation of a guy who is heavily into the expanded universe books I decided to purchase the three audio books that make up what is known at The Thrawn Trilogy. This past weekend I just finished book two Dark Force Rising. All I can say is holy $**t, what an amazing ride these past two books have been. The Thrawn Trilogy takes place five years after the events in Return of The Jedi, the rebellion has formed the new republic but all is threatened by a Grand Admiral who is rallying the empire for a comeback. It took a couple of chapters of book one to get back into things but these audio books are so well produced and include great voice over work that sounds just like the characters including Luke, Leia, Han, C3PO, Lando, and more. In addition to each character sounding pretty good, the audio books also include music and sound effects that make the story feel even more authentic, there are times I forget where I am while listening and feel as if I'm watching a brand new movie starring my favorite Star Wars characters from thirty years ago. Like the original trilogy the first book sets things up nicely, but book two is where everything is happening and leaves off with an oh shit moment that has me ready to start book three right away. I know J.J. Abrams had said he would not be doing expanded universe stuff, and the fact that the actors are a lot older now it wouldn't work anyway, but I wish they would have done these stories as film back then, it really would have been a great addition. However it is available to read, or if your like me and are too lazy I highly recommend the audio version off of Audible.com like I said all the audio is amazing and really adds to things.

Okay while on the subject of Star Wars, I have one other thing to add. I recently decided to purchase season one of The Clone Wars animated series. I remember watching the five minute mini cartoon series that used to air on Cartoon Network a couple of years ago, and I did like them, though it was more of a tease than anything else. I had heard good things about The Clone Wars CG series and I know it has come to the end with a five series run, so I finally decided to put down about thirty dollars and buy season one off Amazon instant viewing service. Visually I was amazed from the first episode, the 3d computer generated characters and environments look great, but I wasn't truly invested in the story until a few episodes more into it. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it from the start, but I feel like I was missing something as there were characters just thrown in that I didn't know who they even were. I'm thinking maybe there was a movie or something that must have aired before the first episode that I probably missed, but anyway it's not important. I am now up to episode ten and the show has gotten better the more I watch. It takes place between episodes II and III and focuses on The Clone Wars, with many episodes starring the well known characters such as Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padme, and even dare I say it Jar Jar Binks. However the cool thing about this series is that it sometimes puts those characters secondary to the actual clone troopers and in many episodes shows us they are more than just tools to be killed in a war and each one has their own unique identity, and place in the force as master Yoda would say.

 I know allot of people crap on the prequel films, myself included at times, but I think allot of the issues was trying to fit too much into two hour films leaving allot of gaps in story, however with an animated series these characters have been more thoroughly fleshed out and the whole story can be told which is something tv shows still have over movies. In the end I am happy with the purchase and plan on buying the remaining seasons as time goes on and as long as they seem to follow the same high standards of what has come so far.

Man of Steel

Hey all, after waiting what seemed like forever for me, the much anticipated Man of Steel finally came out this past Friday. Now my mind had already been made up long ago that no matter what I would go see this film, but I couldn't help but go to the Rotten Tomatoes website and see what the reviews were. I was shocked to see it was only at a 56% rating and the critics didn't seem to care for it. I'm thinking okay whatever, I mean it is a super hero film, and up until only recently critics seem to usually take a giant crap on the genre anyway so take it with a grain of salt. What really pisses me off is some of the comments these so called "critics" make, particularly that this Superman movie is too different from past versions. There is just no pleasing you f'n people is there? I mean Bryan Singer's Superman Returns comes out six years ago decides to go the route of paying tribute to Richard Donner films and every one's bitching and moaning that it's a clone of the Christopher Reeve films, so now we get a completely new vision from Snyder, Goyer, and Nolan, and one of the chief complaints is it's too different. I get the feeling that most of these reviewers have been doing this since the '78 Superman came out and they retire at the end of the day to their nursing homes to go watch some Charlie Chaplin or something, good for them, but they need to adapt to the times, and I personally think that's what has happened with Superman in this latest outing Man of Steel.

Okay, now that I got that out of the way, lets move on. I was going to wait a week or so to go see this as to avoid the crowds and what not of first weekend releases, but the kid inside of me couldn't wait any longer than Sunday morning, so I decided to go to a matinee showing. A pleasant surprise is that the matinee price was only $7 so even if the movie didn't live up to my expectations that have been building over the past year $7 was a price I could live with. I was shocked to find that at 11 O'clock AM on a Sunday morning the theater would be so crowded but it was, and I was lucky to get a seat in a decent spot by getting there fifteen minutes early. If the Sunday morning crowd is any indication I can easily guess who will win this weekend box office. So after an eternity of trailers the movie finally begins, and there is no down time, things take off immediately.

Visually the movie is great, and we see this right from the start as we are treated to a glimpse into the world of Krypton. The planet looks like Pandora from Avatar, but with high tech skyscrapers and ships filling the skies. The soundtrack wasn't bad but not really memorable like the original films we've all come to love over the years. We get to see Jor El (Russell Crowe) as much more than just a scientist as he does his fair share of butt whooping and stunt work while trying to save the newly born Kal El from a dying planet and an insurrection from general Zod. After the Krypton sequence and escape of baby Kal El the movie fast forwards thirty years later to a grown Clark traveling the world under alias as to keep his powers secret. All the origin Smallville stuff plays out in flashback sequences similar to the way Nolan's Batman films were done. I like this approach and there were some real tender moments between young Clark and ma and pa Kent as Clark went through some growing pains.

The big theme of the movie is how the world would handle the presence of a being from another world with great powers and I like this theme as it seems like a very real issue to deal with should someone like a Superman actually arrive. Lets face it most of us wouldn't take it to well, it is human nature to think we are the superior beings and at the top of the food chain, not to mention those with high religious beliefs. The movie also brings Supes into a more modern era with an uneasy military and lots of destruction from intergalactic terrorists courtesy of General Zod. Once Zod arrives on Earth the rest of the movie is pretty much non stop action and although it can be a bit much on the senses at times, I still loved every moment of it.

So I guess you can tell I pretty much loved it, the real question is did it live up to the hype? For me that's an easy yes. I mean just think about this one question for starters, how can you make a man in tights who flies around feel bad ass? Henry Cavill pulls it off big time. At the same time I do kind of miss the bumbling Clark Kent moments at the Daily Planet, but the way this movie ends it looks like we may get those come a sequel if made(crosses fingers it happens). Something else that brings this movie up a notch is no Lex Luthor, yes he is one of Superman's greatest villains, but it has been done to death on tv and film and I for one was glad to see a threat that could actually hurt the man of steel without using glowing green rocks. I'm not trying to take anything away from prior Superman films, although I have been quite vocal in the past that I don't think the original one was that great, I mean we didn't even see Superman for the first hour or so in that movie and by that time I wanted to just go to sleep. However it was good for it's time, but now we are in a new era of super hero movies and I think Man of Steel is a welcomed addition in this new era. DC hasn't done as well as Marvel with it's comic book movies aside from Batman, but I hope all that will change now that we got what I consider a great Superman movie.

Chillin With B June 2013 Status Update

Hey all B here, just wanted to give you an update. I haven't posted in a week or so, been in the middle of moving and just got internet turned back on the yesterday. Once things get settled down will be posting again, plan on seeing Man of Steel when that comes out so that may be my next review. Also downloading the game Marvel Heroes for PC as I write this so I'll tell you what I think of that after playing it for a while. Until next time hope all is well, later Wanna "B's".