About frakin' time!

It's Sunday, a day of resting and watching TV. I thought I'd give a tip about a really good show.
Season 2 of the great new science-fiction-series Battlestar Galactica premiered a couple of days ago. (The series is a remake of the old Battlestar Galactica from the '70s. I haven't seen the original.)
This is a great show in many ways. It's a tight, well written storyline that spans the entire season. You can't miss a single episode. The characters are really good and interesting. Starbuck, the hotshot fighterpilot with cigarstump in her mouth at all times, and Chief, low in rank but is in charge of the landing bay. The series also explore interesting angels of the military versus the civilian government.
Basic plot outline: There is 13 colonies. Cylons, a sort of robotrace once created by mankind and that later rebelled, causing a big, big war. Peace has ruled for some time between the Cylons and mankind, when the Cylons out of the blue (40 years later) attack the 13 colonies and wiping out everyone. 50 000 people survive, and escape. The surviving fleet include a big warship called Battlestar Galactica, aswell as a lot of smaller civilian ships. We follow the crew of the Battlestar Galactica.
I think one of the most interesting aspects of Battlestar Galactica is the realism. All the effects aspire for some sort of documentary feeling, with handheld cameras, imperfections and so on. The story is kind of primal. We need to survive, that's it. And it's a tight call. The human race loose the war, before it has even begun. The series deal with democracy and the people try keeping up a functioning government, even though it's a crisis. Throw some mytical aspects into the mix, and some really cool action and you've got it.
Check it out, and don't miss the free podcast in iTunes from producer and creator Ronald D. Moore. It's just like a DVD-commentary. Very interesting.
May the lords of Kobol watch over you. So say we all.

It's clobberin' time!

The adaptation of Fantastic Four for the silver screen has almost only gotten bad reviews. Wired called it lazy and full of fluff. Others have called it inept, goofy, bad, etc. I want to disagree, but mostly to the fact that goofy would be a bad thing. To my mind comic book movies aren't goofy enough. The two Spider-man-movies are excellent adaptations. I really like them, even though Peter Parker/Spider-man isn't even a third as goofy as in the comic. All them witty remarks, bad jokes. The nerdiness. Of course there's a lot of seriousness in comic books too. And that has been explored very well in many movies, like the forementioned Spider-Man 1 & 2, and X-men 1 & 2, and the Hulk. This movie, The Fantastic Four, brings up an other side of some comic books. The goofiness, if you will. The funny dialouge. Sure, the movie felt kind of rushed sometimes, especially nearing the end. Nice tempo up to two thirds of the movie, and then it rushes through the end. Wouldn't had hurt anything to slow it down, take some time to explain some things, characters motivation. (Dr.Doom for example.) Critics has said that F.F. totally misses the opportunities to explore deeper issues like how to handle fame, or power, or love. And it does. The movie doesn't go very "deep", and to me that's not necessarily a bad thing. It felt almost sort of "fresh" in comparison with what some would call "deeper" comic book movies. There was alot of entertainment, alot of thrilling action and basically a lot of good times.
About the casting. Overall good casting, I'd say. Especially Chris Evans as Johnny Storm/Human Torch and Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm/The Thing. I'd say those two where better than O.K. They where right on the money. Jessica Alba as Sue Storm/Invicible Girl wasn't so good. Didn't really work, I thought. Didn't really believe that she'd be a superscientist. Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic was allright. Kind of the same nerdy, abscent-minded-but-still-sharp kind of guy. Finaly, Julian McMahon as Vincent von Doom. He was good. Too bad his character wasn't explored enough.

All in all, I enjoyed this movie a lot. It certainly wasn't the best comic book adaptation I've seen. Far from it. The movie had a lot of problems. But it was the same kind of enjoyment I get from reading a random comic book. Very entertaining. Don't like pulp, don't go see it. Enjoy pulp? Run to the cinema, dude.

Flame on!