Stop Talkin' About Comic Books Or I'll Kill You - Ookla The Mok

How can you not love this song!

"I don't care if Spider-Man's a clone!!" LOL

Popcorn for One: A Review of STAR TREK (a few spoilers)

So okay, I'm a sucker for STAR TREK (ST), especially the original (OST) series with Shatner, Nimoy and company. I've lost count of the number of times I have seen all the episodes. I also enjoyed NEXT GENERATION & ST: DS-9, and the first two seasons of VOYAGER, although I'll admit that after the pilot & first few episodes of ENTERPRISE, both Donna and I gave up. I've also seen all the previous Big Screen ST films, at least once and several a few times when they started making the rotation on television. It was obvious from my initial viewing of the "Under Construction" trailer prior to last year's San Diego Comicon that I was going to be psyched for this movie.

As a fan of LOST and CLOVERFIELD, I was willing to give J.J. Abrams the benefit of the doubt on his take on the franchise. He admitted he wasn't a fan, and frankly, that might be a good thing, especially as the film takes things in a different direction. These are not the characters I have followed since high school and I'm fine with that. Maybe part of the problem with some of the earlier ST films was that we were already overly familiar with Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the rest of the bridge crew. We could almost guess what their reactions would be in any given situation. For a 'new generation' (pardon the expression) of fans to accept the series it had to move into new ground.

In the first few minutes of the movie a gigantic spacecraft emerges from a wormhole and engages a Federation ship. From that point, all bets are off. The appearance of the Romulan ship, commanded by Nero (Eric Bana) changes events and creates an alternative timeline. The characters we knew from OST are not the characters we are introduced to throughout the film. The names are the same, but almost everything else we knew has been changed.

The James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), and Dr. Leonard McCoy (Karl Urban) we see here are for the most part closer to the 'classic' ones we knew. Spock (Zachary Quinto), or NuSpock as he as been branded in fan circles, is by far the most radically different from how we knew the Vulcan portrayed Leonard Nimoy. As both characters appear in the film, the versions are easy to compare. Sulu, Checkov, Uhura and Scotty are all here, with Uhura (Zoe Saldana) given quite a bit different persona than we saw from Nichelle Nichols. It will be interesting to see in the sequels (which I'm sure we can expect given this movie's critical success and box-office) where the different characters go from this point.

I liked the new actors, and thought they did good jobs in the roles. I don't think I'm the only one who will be willing to see some more of the new Enterprise crew.

DCU: Green Lantern CORPS - Floyd Was Here

Just because it is so cool!

I"ve added both GREEN LANTERN and GREEN LANTERN CORPS to my pull list at Nuclear. Love the way both titles are going with the leadup to BLACKEST NIGHT.

Whoa! Got over a dozen freebies for FCBD. Hope you scored some goodies this past weekend! I"ll try to have some reviews and comments later this week.

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE (with spoilers)

Hugh Jackman owns the role of Wolverine. I can't imagine another actor doing the role at this point and hope I won't have to for a while. Equally good in the film is Liev Schreiber, who stars as Logan's brother the villain Sabretooth.

If you aren't a comic book fan, you might be surprised by some of the things revealed in the opening sequence of the film. That I won't giveaway! You might also want to stick around after the credits start to role, as there are a couple of extra goodies. Just don't expect to see Nick Fury or Tony Stark show up. They aren't that sort of spoiler, just a couple of moments to show "what happened to..."

As you may know, if you have read anything about the movie, this takes place a few years before the incidents in the first X-MEN film. We see a couple of characters that appear there and understand why they react as if they don't know each other after an initial meeting. The movie is filled with mutants, some of whom I'm familiar with and others I'm not, so I can't say how faithful they are to their four-color characterization. I do know that one character is pissing off the fanboys and I can understand why. Even though I've never liked this character I think he is ill-used and this ruins him for future appearances. (Think Darth Maul!)

One last thing about particular mutants in the movie. I think it was a mistake to use The Blob in the film, since the scenes with him (after earlier ones where he is unidentified) stop the film for comic effect and it doesn't work. It's basically Wolverine fighting Fat Bastard! The same information could have been introduced without resorting to jokes about an obese man.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie and think that it works. Not amazing, but a decent summer movie for action fans. If you enjoy super-heroes and can overlook some of the minor things I've mentioned I recommend you check it out. Give you something to do until STAR TREK opens next week!