Movie Monsters By Decade

Stumbled across this on imgur. Worth sharing. Did anyone doubt that this decade is crazy about Zombies? Truly, with three shows simultaneously running in the TV that's the confirmation of the obvious. With a show like The Walking Dead bringing the Zombie apocalypse that great to the screen, I can only welcome that first place. As the pic shows slashers, ghosts and vampires all had their peaks. Even creatures in the 1950s - must have something to do with the dawn of the nuclear age. Have a look for yourselves and Happy Halloween everyone!

Click link above. This one is too damn small.

The Long Way To Episode VII: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

What a great movie that was once again. The most 'complete' episode of them all. Meaning one that can be watched in its own right without worrying about the before and after. But if you're like me, you watch them all.



What really got me again was the fantastic soundtrack. It brings back so many memories.

Star Wars IV starts with one of the most iconic scenes in science fiction. Princess Leia Organa's diplomatic vessel is fleeing through space. In a scene without cuts the small ship speeds past above the viewer's perspective and then the screen is filled by an never ending Star Destroyer. You instantly get it - the space nazis have arrived. The Star Destroyer is under command of Grand Moff Tarkin and the infamous Darth Vader.

The Imperial Forces manage to capture Princess Leia. But she saved an SOS call in R2D2 who then along with C3P0 is shot to Tattooine in an escape pod. To find Obi Wan Kenobi, the last Jedi Knight. On the way the androids make company with young Luke Skywalker and later, with mercenary-smuggler Han Solo and his hairy companion Chewbacca. The rest is history.

Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo

These are the ingredients which made the first Star Wars in 1977 such a hit - adventure, camaradery and romance. What I especially appreciated were the clean camera shots and timeless design of uniforms and interior. It still stands the test of time. Light sabers are as cool today as ever, probably even more so.

Episode IV: A New Hope is a classic space opera with a clear black and white idea of good and evil. Empire troops remind me of the Nazi devils in their appearance, attitude and ruthlessness whereas Luke is the innocent young hero (another fantasy trope) while Leia and the Rebel Alliance stand for the civilized, democratic good of the galaxy. Everyone wants to see them succeed in their fight against the Empire. And at the end, by destroying the ultimate weapon in the galaxy, the planet crushing Death Star, it feels like the whole Galactic Empire is shattered to pieces. That feeling of victory is probably what makes this movie feel so 'complete'. Yet, as demand topped all expectations, sequels were made. And these two classics - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi are the next on my list to watch.

The Long Way To Episode VII: Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

Just watched Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith this evening. So I better write this down now while my impression is still fresh.

The Galactic Republic headed by Chancellor Palpatine is in brutal war with the secessionist movement (publically) lead by Count Dooku, played by the brilliant Christopher Lee. It's clones vs. androids.

The movie starts with a fantastic space battle for which Star Wars is so famous for. An android army took Palpatine hostage and it requires the Jedi Obi Wan and Anakin Skywalker to rescue him from the clutches of Count Dooku. Quite early in the movie it comes to the death of Dooku by hands of Anakin. He was commanded by Palpatine to execute Dooku after he beat him in single combat. Anakin's passing to the Dark Side is getting accelerated in this movie. Matter of fact, this movie is less about the fall of Anakin, the annoying youngster, and more about the rise of Darth Vader, coolest villain in the history of science fiction.

Wookies, everyone loves them.

And there's more fan service: Yoda travels to the planet of the Wookies and fights alongside Chewbacca! The Deathstar is developed and build. Mace Windu with his ridiculous purple laser sword get thrown out of a Coruscant skyscraper!

The visuals and the story climax in this Episode released in 2005, three years after Episode II. I really feel that this was by far the best movie out of the prequel trilogy. Much is explained to make the smooth transition to Episode IV: A New Hope. Like the birth of Luke and Leia, the heroes of the original trilogy.

It's master vs. apprentice in The Revenge of the Sith

Episode II and III really put my mind at ease. While Episode I was too weird, II was a respectable Star Wars movie and III a good Star Wars movie with many emotional moments for fans. I look forward to watching the original trilogy in the coming days, which serve more romance and fairy tale and no diplomacy at all. And I am getting really intrigued to delve deeper into the Star Wars lore - I'd love to know more about the origin of the Jedi and Sith conflict. While Wikia is quite big I'd be interested in a kind of expanded universe reading list. 

Here's the trailer for the aptly title Revenge of the Sith.

The Long Way To Episode VII: Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

As the wife is not here currently I am using my spare time to watch through the Star Wars movies. And yesterday I watched Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

First: I think the title is misleading as there is an attack on The Old Republic by the android forces of Count Dooku and his secessionist movement (of course the infamous Trade Federation from Episode I is on board here too). The Clone Army turns the tide of the battle towards the Republic, but Yoda realizes at the end of the movie, that all of it is part of a much larger play. Hence, the attack of the clones has only just begun.

But one thing after the other.

Episode II takes place around 10 years after Episode I. Anakin is grown into an annoying teenager and is the padawan of Obi Wan Kenobi. The Force is strong with him, but he has major temper issues and just doesn't stand up to the Jedi's high standards of self-control. Anakin and Obi Wan travel to Coruscant where they become bodyguards of Senator Padme Amidala, the former queen of Naboo (yeah, that is right, former queen as she had only two legislative periodes, so much for monarchy). Anakin is still deeply in love with her. For Padme, however, he will always stay the little boy from Tattooine as she says at their first meeting. But this is about to change.

While all the diplomacy and bureacracy still plays a major part in the movie, the tragic love story between Anakin and Padme is where the movie shines. It's also the parts with less CGI I might add.

High five, Episode II features backstory on the coolest bounty hunter in the galaxy!

There are heartpoundingly good scenes in this movie. Compared to the original trilogy everything might be a little over the top in terms of action and special effects, but once you accept that, it is possible to enjoy these scenes to the fullest. For example: When an assassin tries to kill Padmé before she delivers her speech to the senate. There's disgusting bugs and a crazy chase through the skyscraper landscape of Coruscant with high velocity - remember, they have flying cars there.

On the political level intrigue and corruption rule the galactical senate and Chancellor Palpatine gains more and more power. This peaks in him getting overpowered rights to command the newly discovered army of clones. Which are clones to the greatest assassin and bounty hunter in the universe: Django Fett, father to his genetically identical son Boba Fett, whom every old Star Wars fan loves. Palpatine, secretly a Sith Lord, also widens his influence on young Anakin. There is a lot of character development in this episode: Anakin, on a quest to free his mother from slavery on Tattooine, gives in to his anger and kills a whole village of Tusken Raider who were responsible for the death of his mother. He broke the Jedi codex and is since considered trustworthy less and less. It's the beginning of a tragic downward spiral.

The love story is good actually.

All in all Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones is a much better Star Wars movie than Episode I. There's less Jar-Jar, less parliament talk and more fairy tale. Characters progress and lots of lore is mentioned. Special effects and CGI in 2002 also looked better than in 1999. And the movie stars Christopher Lee, one of the greatest fantasy and sci-fi actors the face of this world has known, who just recently passed away.

Here's the official trailer for your viewing pleasure:

The Long Way to Episode VII: Refreshing the Star Wars experience: Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens starts this Christmas on the big screen. Born 1986 I grew up with Star Wars. First with the good trilogy, which I've seen numerous times. Then came the 'new' one which covered episodes I to III. I've seen it once, I think, as I thought it was quite inferior to the magic of the older movies. Well, with Episode VII done by Disney and J.J. Abrams I am not sure what to expect. It can't get worse than Episodes I to III. Or The Hobbit movies... Which were all sufficent reasons to go to the cinema but didn't stand the comparison with the original movies (or Tolkien's slim children's tale which Peter Jackson raped into three movies larger than his Lord of the Rings movies).

So what will I do? I will watch all of the six Star Wars movies from Episode I to VI and blog about my experience watching them again. Then, and now it gets interesting, I plan to read through the original way the story developed further after Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. I am of course talking about novelist Timothy Zahn's so called Thrawn Trilogy. I read (part of) it during my teenage years and now finally got the missing book in my hands. That will be a tight schedule as about two months remain and I still have two Hyperion/Endymion books to finish first. I also have no idea about how relevant The Clone Wars animated series or The Force Unleashed games for example are to the canon and I doubt I can also watch and play through these in time. But we'll see how far I get until the release of Episode VII.

The Force Awakens is revisionist in that the Thrawn Trilogy will be treated as it never were. I want to see how the story 'really' continued and then be able draw a comparison. Follow me on this journey, if you like.

And why not directly begin? Yesterday evening I watched Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

You could say that at least now I got the worst behind me. Jar-Jar Binks... I forgot how annoying this character is. I think it is mostly Jar-Jar's fault that fans like me never appreciated this movie. And while we're in rage mode already: Too much cgi. When it comes to digital characters in this 1999 movie I have to think they were generated with a Dreamcast console. That's what it looked like. Should've better used some of the old puppets.

So now that that's out of my system let me get to the things I enjoyed about the movie. The story starts rather dull: There's an intergalactic republic and taxation disagreements with the mighty and seemingly corrupt Trade Federation puts the small democratic world of Naboo under military siege. It's a democratic world, yet it has a matriarch - Queen Amidala. The Council of Jedi from Coruscant, the city planet that is the galaxy's hub of diplomaxy, suspect something larger behind this than taxation disagreements and send two of their Jedi emissaries - Qui-Gon Jinn, graciously played by Liam Neeson, and the young Obi Wan, played by Ewan McGregor. It comes as it has to and they are dragged in a struggle for power and become Amidala's bodyguards. As it later turns out, the Sith, the anti-thesis to the righteous and exalted Jedis and long believed to be gone from the universe, are behind this. The remarkable Darth Maul, one of the best things in this probably weakest Star Wars movie, poses a real challenge to Qui-Gon and Obi Wan, and ambushes them on the backwater world Tattooine, where they meet the child slave Anakin Skywalker. Qui-Gon instantly notices that The Force is strong in the young Anakin Skywalker. The Pod Racer-race scene where Anakin wins his freedom and enables Qui-Gon to repair Her Majesty's space ship is the most exciting scene in the movie. I remember there even was a video game based on that scene on Sega Dreamcast (there it is again). The group travels to Coruscant where a brief skirmish in parliament for the withdrawal of troops from Naboo leads to nothing (you could as well watch any United Nations session to understand where the filmmakers got this idea from). On Naboo the battle between humans alongside with amphibic creatures against the Trade Federation's android army begins. Here it is notable that this scence was created before the cinematic world knew Peter Jackson's The Lord of The Rings which defined how scenes of armies battling each other have to look for eternity. So it looks rather comic. In the end the two Jedi face Darth Maul, Qui-Gon dies, Obi Wan kills Maul, Anakin with the help of R2D2 destroys the orbital android command space station and the war is won. Meanwhile on Coruscant senator Palpatine is elected the new chancellor. Obi Wan becomes Jedi Knight and Anakin despite Yoda's reluctance the padawan (pupil) of Obi Wan.

All in all the movie was not as bad as I remembered it. It wasn't a particular great movie, but it managed to appease fans with nostalgia like the appearance of Jabba The Hutt or C3PO who was created by the young Anakin. Jar-Jar Binks is and will always be terrible. I can't understand how they put some crude joke ruining every scene like him in. I heard there's an improved version of the movie in which loyal fans cut all the Binks crap out. I am now more interested to see how Anakin slowly turns into Darth Vader. I'll post my impressions then as well.

Here's the trailer for you. And in case you want a 20 minute summary of all the movies, just click.

Thoughts after reading Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons.

Hyperion is a far future science fiction novel by Dan Simmons released in 1989. The book was well received and won the Hugo Award. The story follows seven pilgrims on their journey to the labyrinthine world of Hyperion.

cover art for the first novel

On this backwater world The Shrike, a mysterious creature worshipped by some as a god, watches over the Time Tombs. These tombs were send back through time from a possible future to save or annihilate human kind. Each pilgrim has his/her own reason to wish for an audience with the Shrike and the first book tells the tales of each pilgrim while they are on their journey to meet their fate.

There's Lennart Hoyd, a catholic priest on search for his missing mentor, there's Martin Silenus, the poet who's the only one who know Old Earth before its destruction in the Big Mistake. There's the soldier, Fedmahn Kassad, a Palestinian from Mars and the Jewish scholar, Sol Weintraub, who hopes to save his daughter from the backwards aging disease Merlin's sickness. The Consul, who's not introduced by another name in the entire two books, has reasons that go far beyond mere diplomacy. The detective, Brawne Lamia, seeks truth for the murder of her lover. They are lead by the Templar Hed Masteen, prophet of a futuristic religion and captain of a so called Tree Ship. Besides the pilgrims there is a wider cast of supporting characters that detail the different galactic factions of humanity, the autonomous artificial intelligence 'TechnoCore' which governs all tech intergalactic human civilization relies on and the Ousters, pariahs once human, now mutant barbarians that were driven out of The Web of human colonized planets.

This is how fans imagine the Templar Tree Ship Yggdrasil.

The backstories are all worth reading and bring understanding of the wider universe Simmons created. This is a world in which so called 'far caster' technology allows for instant transportation spanning light years of travel. Good old faster than light-travel (called Hawking's Drive after contemporary professor Stephen Hawking) plays a secondary role here. 'Fatline' technology is something like a universe (here called The Web) wide internet. Simmons does not introduce these terms, he takes them for granted so it takes a while for the reader to understand all the hard sci-fi terms.

Hyperion was split in two books for reasons I do not know. The story continues in The Fall of Hyperion released a year later in 1990. While the first book covers the pilgrim's motives and the journey the second plays in the Valley of the Time Tombs, where the pilgrims fight for their survival, the second book introduces a new character, narrated in the first person, who in his dreams sees what is going on with the pilgrims on Hyperion but also participates the interstellar diplomacy section of the story. This sounds complicated and results in use of tempo which is at times a little confusing. Overall, however, it is working.

Simmons' Hyperion Cantos pays tribute to John Keats, a 19th century poet from England, in very interesting ways. Not unlike Stephen King, who created his magnum opus The Dark Tower after a poem by Robert Browning , Simmons achieves to take inspiration from the past to create something completely new in a science fiction world.

The four armed time travelling menace called The Shrike.

My verdict after reading the first two books is a good one. The book introduces a fantastic world with believable characters and reminds even a little of the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series by George R.R. Martin in terms of realpolitik and war. Ideas like the huge planet wide labyrinth keep the experience fresh and mind expanding. The Shrike, also referenced to as The Lord of Pain, is more than a simple killing machine like the Terminator and its motives, if it has these, are never clear. I was very well entertained and started reading the third novel in this four part series, Endymion, the same day. So Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion get a clear recommendation for sci-fi fans from me.

On a side note: At this point I don't want to draw a comparison with Frank Herbert's Dune series, which involves similar elements, just yet. Will include these thoughts after finishing the series. There's also a TV show coming.

What I want to do with this blog. Again.

After a long break this blog has shown renewed activity in the past days. I decided to give this blog another go. I am currently (still) going through unstable times in my life, which lead to the break down of this blog a year or so ago. I blogged in the past and I thought it would be a waste to not continue as this is also writing practice for me and one way to stop my English proficiency from falling apart (my mother tongue is German I remind you).

The core concept of the blog remains the same.

As I am a reader of mostly Stephen King, fantasy and science fiction literature I want this to be the place to leave my afterthoughts in written form for the wider net public but also myself.

I don't play as often and as fast through video games as I did in the past, but still I'd like to comment on my progress as a patient gamer. As I have a huge back log of games and only spare money the platform of my choice remains the good old Xbox 360. For now.

For a year or so I (re-)started playing Magic The Gathering which has become one of my favorite activities to do with friends and family. I don't claim for myself to be an expert, but to be a regular casual player participating in pre-releases at the local game store and every once in a while in an official Friday Night Magic. So why not share my thoughts on Magic as well and publish a few decklists while am at it?

I also enjoy good movies. And with good movies I mean action, fantasy, science fiction, etc. movies old and new. My favorite actor remains Arnold Schwarzenegger, so that should give you an idea of what to expect. I'm not a 'cineast', my foremost priority when watching a movie is to be well entertained and in the best case to be immersed and taken away. When it comes to classic movies considered masterpieces by the wider public I admid there are some gaps to fill on my behalf (e.g. watched Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey for the first time a few months back and was blown away). Which gives me even more to blog about.

When thinking of TV shows I must admit I am very focussed on American TV shows. These, to me, usually have the best narrative structures and most convenient episode lengths. My history with this medium is from Lost and Prison Break to newer shows like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones (the book is superior, no argument). My favorite show, however, remains The Walking Dead.

As I said I am going through some tough times and I re-discovered my roots in Heavy Metal and Rock'n'Roll as well. My specific taste seems to be power and thrash metal from the 1980s and 1990s, but sometimes there are unexpected exceptions like the latest Iron Maiden album 'Book of Souls'. In any case, listening to guitar music has a healing effect on my psyche and delivers a sense of freedom. As a German I also have the advantage of living (relatively) close to the Wacken Open Air, Europe's biggest metal festival. Anyway, so there'll be posts on metal, too.

Lastly, politics. ... No, I'll try not to get into this here. Let's spare us endless and frustrating discussions.

Today is Back To The Future Day

Marty McFly and Doc Brown drove their DeLorean precisely to today, 30 years ago. And there's a special message from Doc Brown. Might be a good opportunity to watch this classic again.

Edit: Well, the message was taken off YouTube, so have a look at the trailer for the original movie.

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens 3rd Trailer

Star Wars Ep. VII: The Force Awakens

Like many I am excited for the new Star Wars movie, the year's biggest cinematic event (even though I'll doubt it can replace Mad Max: Fury Road from my personal number one spot of 2015). Well, two more months to go and there's a new trailer. It looks damn good to me. The new characters look authentic to the Star Wars universe and Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher (briefly) and Chewbacca show up. Certainly worth the watch. Here it is:



On a side note: There has been a continuation of the Star Wars saga for years, which is rejected now by Disney's revisionist movie. I'm talking about the so called Thrawn trilogy by novelist Timothy Zahn. I bought all three novels and plan to read them in the near future. To know how it's really supposed to be... Similar to Game of Thrones where the show is a simplification of the novels, but we'll see how this goes.

Great Literature Quotes - Ummon from Fall of Hyperion

"The Lord and the Colonel" by Alex Ries. Another great scene from the 2nd book in this four book series.

There's a lot of truth to be found reading between the lines. I want to capture some unique moments from novels in this new category of my blog. Currently I am reading through Dan Simmons' fantastic Hyperion cantos and in the middle of the second book I stumbled across these words of mystery and wisdom. Ummon, one of the great artificial intelligences in this far fiction series on why Old Earth (our planet) was destroyed:

The Earth was needed elsewhere
in our experiments
so we let it die
and spread humankind among the
stars
like the windblown seeds
you were

Poetic.

Run All Night - Taken fans get what they expect

Decided to spend the evening watching the latest Liam Neeson actioner Run All Night.

It's one of these 'one man army vs the world' kind of roles Neeson plays so casually. As ex-mafia hitman Neeson's character Jimmy Conlon is forced to shoot the son of his old friend, the head of a powerful family, after a heroin deal goes horribly wrong. Mob boss Shawn Maguire, played by Ed Harris, is none for forgiveness and declares to do the same and kill Conlon's son Mike. This is the basic plot for a movie that develops into the killing spree that paints the night red we came for.

The suspension in Run All Night is similar high as in Neeson's Taken movies. There are some interesting camera moves in the film as well. Best of all for me was how convincingly Neeson and Harris play two life long friends who turn into arch enemies. With Run All Night Taken fans get exactly what they expect and that's good to me.