Everything J.J. Abrams touches turns to awesome! This is amazing, it looks amazing, it sounds amazing, that music is amazing...and I can't wait. I'm not a Star Trek fan really, and I bet there are some die-hard fans out there that are freaking out, but come on, this looks great!
Showing posts with label J.J. Abrams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label J.J. Abrams. Show all posts
Friday, March 6, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Fringe "No-Brainer" *SPOILERS*
When Fringe started in the fall, I was interested. They had the requisite weird J.J. Abrams ARG and commercials for Massive Dynamics, the strange little 3 second ads with an apple and two babies instead of seeds, or the hand with 5 fingers and a thumb. To be frank, it was all a little too weird and completely J.J. Abrams, and I loved it thoroughly. I was psyched for the pilot; I mean, a guy literally melts to death on the plane (Jason Butler Harner, who was fantastic in Changeling) and it crashes and now everyone is melted! Freakin' awesome. But then I lost interest, and I don't know why. So I decided, before bed every night, I would watch the episodes I had thought I didn't want to watch. I watched and I fell back into the groove. This show is fantastic! Even Anna Torv's, hopefully, lack-luster acting fits perfectly into the feel of the show. And when the hell did Pacey get hot? I was never one to get into Dawson's Creek or even The Mighty Ducks, but I never thought he was really that good looking. He caught the David Silver-I got into my 30's-hotness, and me likey.
And that little diatribe brings me to today's topic. Tuesdays episode of Fringe entitled, 'No Brainer'. One of the things I like about Fringe is that they don't shy away from almost making you throw up the granola bar you just ate. Like last week's episode, wherein a giant cold virus/slug thing crawled out of people's mouths, this week we get a computer program/virus that literally melts peoples brains out all over the place like so much vomit; yuck! The case begins with a kid who is online and gets this little pop-up that says, 'What's that noise?', which he of course clicks on. Suddenly his screen is filled with a melange of sounds and pictures that cause his brain to liquify. Oh, and Walter gets a letter from some lady who wants to meet with him, but Peter intercepts it because he thinks Walter can't handle some lady blaming him for her daughters death. Turns out that she just wants to know all about her daughter and Peter had nothing to worry about, so his outburst at Olivia was unfounded and he later comes over, drunk, to apologize and continue to flirt with her sister. Now storyline B is out of the way...back to the brain-fryin'.
So as Olivia is tracking down the victims, the kid and now a car salesman, Peter finds out through some melted hard drives, that the computer program was routed through a billion different ports and is currently being downloaded at her house. Her niece is playing with a little pony painting program and on comes the screen and the program and of course, they get there in time to stop her from melting her brain. But, the little webcam is on and someone is watching Olivia, who now knows that someone is remotely accessing it; why it's Andy from True Blood! We don't learn until later that this is the dad of the friend of the kid who died in the beginning. Next up to die is his ex-wife's husband and Olivia finds out that there must be a connection, though the car salesman doesn't fit. Turns out Andy (I don't remember the character's name) was getting back at people who wronged him by killing their loved ones. So the ex-wife and he had a nasty divorce, hence the killing of her husband; the kid at the beginning was killed because his father fired Andy; and the car salesman...I don't remember, I think he fired him or didn't hire him. His stupid son is so stupid he leads Olivia and Peter, who just had the aforementioned tiff, to the warehouse where daddy-dearest is staying in goes Olivia. Alone. Things come to a head and Andy shoots himself.
The ONLY thing that I don't like about the current storyline is the character of Sanford Harris. I don't get him. He supposedly is there to monitor the department that Olivia is now working in, the one dedicated to Fringe science, hence the name of the show. He also appears to have an ulterior motive, because Olivia put him in jail for raping some women he worked with, though he says he didn't rape them or molest them. In the first episode he was in, I think it was the slug one, he was yelling at Olivia saying she didn't know what she was doing and that he'd shut the department down and getting all up in Broyles face. Then he realized that she did, in fact, know what she was doing and laid off her. But in this week's episode he was right back at it! He was telling her that her job was to interrogate people, so get in there and do it! And she had 48 hours (I think he said this last time too) to get the case solved or he'd close it and bury the department...blah, blah, blah. So, I don't get the purpose, maybe there is more to come? But if they keep up with this, it's going to get old.
One thing they can keep up, is the little thing they are insinuating between Olivia and Peter. It's subtle and sweet and they have good chemistry; the kind of chemistry to make a good Mulder/Scully relationship. Since that's what I see this show as: the 'new', but different, X-Files. And that's not a bad thing...not a bad thing at all.
And that little diatribe brings me to today's topic. Tuesdays episode of Fringe entitled, 'No Brainer'. One of the things I like about Fringe is that they don't shy away from almost making you throw up the granola bar you just ate. Like last week's episode, wherein a giant cold virus/slug thing crawled out of people's mouths, this week we get a computer program/virus that literally melts peoples brains out all over the place like so much vomit; yuck! The case begins with a kid who is online and gets this little pop-up that says, 'What's that noise?', which he of course clicks on. Suddenly his screen is filled with a melange of sounds and pictures that cause his brain to liquify. Oh, and Walter gets a letter from some lady who wants to meet with him, but Peter intercepts it because he thinks Walter can't handle some lady blaming him for her daughters death. Turns out that she just wants to know all about her daughter and Peter had nothing to worry about, so his outburst at Olivia was unfounded and he later comes over, drunk, to apologize and continue to flirt with her sister. Now storyline B is out of the way...back to the brain-fryin'.
So as Olivia is tracking down the victims, the kid and now a car salesman, Peter finds out through some melted hard drives, that the computer program was routed through a billion different ports and is currently being downloaded at her house. Her niece is playing with a little pony painting program and on comes the screen and the program and of course, they get there in time to stop her from melting her brain. But, the little webcam is on and someone is watching Olivia, who now knows that someone is remotely accessing it; why it's Andy from True Blood! We don't learn until later that this is the dad of the friend of the kid who died in the beginning. Next up to die is his ex-wife's husband and Olivia finds out that there must be a connection, though the car salesman doesn't fit. Turns out Andy (I don't remember the character's name) was getting back at people who wronged him by killing their loved ones. So the ex-wife and he had a nasty divorce, hence the killing of her husband; the kid at the beginning was killed because his father fired Andy; and the car salesman...I don't remember, I think he fired him or didn't hire him. His stupid son is so stupid he leads Olivia and Peter, who just had the aforementioned tiff, to the warehouse where daddy-dearest is staying in goes Olivia. Alone. Things come to a head and Andy shoots himself.
The ONLY thing that I don't like about the current storyline is the character of Sanford Harris. I don't get him. He supposedly is there to monitor the department that Olivia is now working in, the one dedicated to Fringe science, hence the name of the show. He also appears to have an ulterior motive, because Olivia put him in jail for raping some women he worked with, though he says he didn't rape them or molest them. In the first episode he was in, I think it was the slug one, he was yelling at Olivia saying she didn't know what she was doing and that he'd shut the department down and getting all up in Broyles face. Then he realized that she did, in fact, know what she was doing and laid off her. But in this week's episode he was right back at it! He was telling her that her job was to interrogate people, so get in there and do it! And she had 48 hours (I think he said this last time too) to get the case solved or he'd close it and bury the department...blah, blah, blah. So, I don't get the purpose, maybe there is more to come? But if they keep up with this, it's going to get old.
One thing they can keep up, is the little thing they are insinuating between Olivia and Peter. It's subtle and sweet and they have good chemistry; the kind of chemistry to make a good Mulder/Scully relationship. Since that's what I see this show as: the 'new', but different, X-Files. And that's not a bad thing...not a bad thing at all.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Dharma Wants You
Dharma doesn't want me because I am a cheater! Yes, as I have said a million times, I like to cheat at games. I'm not proud of it...yes I am! I don't do anything else wrong except cheat at games...it's not like I smoke crack!
Anyway, LOST has these ARG (Alternate Reality Games) they do when the show is off-air. Last year it was really cool and was like a search for Flight 815 at find815.com. It starred this little known, to us, Australian actor Rodger Corser who played Sam Thomas a man searching for his partner who was a flight attendant on Flight 815. He is convinced she is alive and the the flight did not disappear and you go along with him on his search for her and the plane. It ends with him finding the plane on the bottom of the ocean; much like how the season began. I really wanted the show to tie in the characters because I just enjoyed seeing Rodger every week when I played and I was intrigued by his character.
Well this year is not that interesting...it's interesting, but not crazy cool! At least not yet. It's called Dharma Wants You and it is a recruiting operation. Basically every week or so comes a new 'test' and you play it and get ranked. Well, if you are like me and 'cheated' on some or all of the tests, you are deemed "Black Swan" for the last one. I don't know what that means really, and won't know until December something...
Ah hell, who the hell and I kidding...no matter if it's good or bad, I will watch and play this shit. One I love J.J.. Two I love LOST. And three I love ARG's.
I'm off to play the True Blood sweepstakes.
Anyway, LOST has these ARG (Alternate Reality Games) they do when the show is off-air. Last year it was really cool and was like a search for Flight 815 at find815.com. It starred this little known, to us, Australian actor Rodger Corser who played Sam Thomas a man searching for his partner who was a flight attendant on Flight 815. He is convinced she is alive and the the flight did not disappear and you go along with him on his search for her and the plane. It ends with him finding the plane on the bottom of the ocean; much like how the season began. I really wanted the show to tie in the characters because I just enjoyed seeing Rodger every week when I played and I was intrigued by his character.
Well this year is not that interesting...it's interesting, but not crazy cool! At least not yet. It's called Dharma Wants You and it is a recruiting operation. Basically every week or so comes a new 'test' and you play it and get ranked. Well, if you are like me and 'cheated' on some or all of the tests, you are deemed "Black Swan" for the last one. I don't know what that means really, and won't know until December something...
Ah hell, who the hell and I kidding...no matter if it's good or bad, I will watch and play this shit. One I love J.J.. Two I love LOST. And three I love ARG's.
I'm off to play the True Blood sweepstakes.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Fringe "Pilot"
Well, it is no surprise that I am a lover of the J.J. Abrams. I have waited for Fringe to come on since I first heard about it. I wasn't sure what to think at first, but I was pleased with what I saw the other day.
The show begins, yes again, with an airplane ride; however this airplane ride is significantly different from the one on LOST. There is a storm and people are freaking out (I would be doing this too), but there is one passenger who looks more distressed than the others. He looks like I did when I was going to L.A. this past May and thought I was going to hurl...which is weird because I don't get motion sickness; it was either the pilot subtley dipping the plane enough to not really notice or whatever the hell was wrong with my stomach at that point...So the guy next to him says something about it not being that bad and he grabs this box out from his briefcase (the guy freaking out, not the other passenger) and gets out this injector that looks like an insulin pen and injects himself. Apparently, that wasn't helping because he gets up and starts toward the bathroom, I think. The flight attendant gets up and starts after him, because the damn plane is crashing and all, and he's sweating and grasping at his collar. The attendant reaches him and grabs at his back and he turns around and he pulls his hands away from his face and HIS DAMN FACE IS MELTING OFF! He screams, she screams, everyone screams and people are melting and shit and it's simultaniously gross and awesome! The co-pilot opens the door, like a dumbass, and the pilot puts the plane on autopilot, like a dumbass, and he's all screaming what's going on, or something. Everyone is melting out in the fuselage and then the co-pilot turns around to the pilot and he's all melty and his damn jaw falls off! Awesome!
The remaining part of the story involves FBI agent Olivia Dunham who is a "Liaison" at the FBI, as repeatedly mentioned by that creepy guy who keeps appearing to people on LOST. She arrives at the scene of the plane crash, where it seems to have landed itself...it was on auto-pilot! It's all covered in plastic and foggy and everyone is melted away! Hooray! So Olivia and her coworker/man-candy John Scott arrive, separately, to the site and examine stuff. Later guy-from-LOST send Olivia out to a storage locker area to follow a lead and they find a bunch of garages full of lab animals and computers and shit. Some guy appears, they follow, and he blows the place up. Oh, and he's also the guy from the plane who fell apart, his twin at least. Well John gets blown up too and some chemical compound that was released starts to make him turn see-through and die. So Olivia's new mission is to find out a cure to this compound to save Keen Eddie.
Along the way she learns about a mad genious, Dr. Walter Bishop who worked with all this shit before and possibly knows how to cure John. Turns out that Dr. Bishop is in a mental institution because he was found incompetant to stand trial for the deaths of some people because of his experiments, or something. Well, Olivia can't go in to see him unless escorted by a family member, so she runs off to the middle east to find Bishop's son, Pacey...just kidding, it's a much more attractive and likeable child actor, Jonathan Jackson playing Peter. She blackmails him into believing she has junk on him and she'll release it if he doesn't play along, so he does.
So they go on a quest to find this cure to the compound. I won't go into that because I don't remember and don't want to look it up right now. Anyway, long story short, they save John, find the twin of the guy on the plane, John kills him because he was the one who was doing some shifty shit and he ends up dying in a car crash telling Olivia to ask herself why guy-from-LOST sent her to the warehouse out of everybody. Oh, guy-from-LOST asks Olivia to join his team too.
Despite my kind of lackluster review, I really enjoyed this show. I thought it was moody, entertaining, and J.J. I want to see where this is going and I want to know what's going on. I am not sure whether other people are going to convince FOX to keep it on, but then again, look at the X-Files. I'm interested in seeing some more of the characters backgrounds as well as some stand-alone stories; but there needs to be some mythology, I love mythology in a show.
I will watch again, and I hope you do too.
The show begins, yes again, with an airplane ride; however this airplane ride is significantly different from the one on LOST. There is a storm and people are freaking out (I would be doing this too), but there is one passenger who looks more distressed than the others. He looks like I did when I was going to L.A. this past May and thought I was going to hurl...which is weird because I don't get motion sickness; it was either the pilot subtley dipping the plane enough to not really notice or whatever the hell was wrong with my stomach at that point...So the guy next to him says something about it not being that bad and he grabs this box out from his briefcase (the guy freaking out, not the other passenger) and gets out this injector that looks like an insulin pen and injects himself. Apparently, that wasn't helping because he gets up and starts toward the bathroom, I think. The flight attendant gets up and starts after him, because the damn plane is crashing and all, and he's sweating and grasping at his collar. The attendant reaches him and grabs at his back and he turns around and he pulls his hands away from his face and HIS DAMN FACE IS MELTING OFF! He screams, she screams, everyone screams and people are melting and shit and it's simultaniously gross and awesome! The co-pilot opens the door, like a dumbass, and the pilot puts the plane on autopilot, like a dumbass, and he's all screaming what's going on, or something. Everyone is melting out in the fuselage and then the co-pilot turns around to the pilot and he's all melty and his damn jaw falls off! Awesome!
The remaining part of the story involves FBI agent Olivia Dunham who is a "Liaison" at the FBI, as repeatedly mentioned by that creepy guy who keeps appearing to people on LOST. She arrives at the scene of the plane crash, where it seems to have landed itself...it was on auto-pilot! It's all covered in plastic and foggy and everyone is melted away! Hooray! So Olivia and her coworker/man-candy John Scott arrive, separately, to the site and examine stuff. Later guy-from-LOST send Olivia out to a storage locker area to follow a lead and they find a bunch of garages full of lab animals and computers and shit. Some guy appears, they follow, and he blows the place up. Oh, and he's also the guy from the plane who fell apart, his twin at least. Well John gets blown up too and some chemical compound that was released starts to make him turn see-through and die. So Olivia's new mission is to find out a cure to this compound to save Keen Eddie.
Along the way she learns about a mad genious, Dr. Walter Bishop who worked with all this shit before and possibly knows how to cure John. Turns out that Dr. Bishop is in a mental institution because he was found incompetant to stand trial for the deaths of some people because of his experiments, or something. Well, Olivia can't go in to see him unless escorted by a family member, so she runs off to the middle east to find Bishop's son, Pacey...just kidding, it's a much more attractive and likeable child actor, Jonathan Jackson playing Peter. She blackmails him into believing she has junk on him and she'll release it if he doesn't play along, so he does.
So they go on a quest to find this cure to the compound. I won't go into that because I don't remember and don't want to look it up right now. Anyway, long story short, they save John, find the twin of the guy on the plane, John kills him because he was the one who was doing some shifty shit and he ends up dying in a car crash telling Olivia to ask herself why guy-from-LOST sent her to the warehouse out of everybody. Oh, guy-from-LOST asks Olivia to join his team too.
Despite my kind of lackluster review, I really enjoyed this show. I thought it was moody, entertaining, and J.J. I want to see where this is going and I want to know what's going on. I am not sure whether other people are going to convince FOX to keep it on, but then again, look at the X-Files. I'm interested in seeing some more of the characters backgrounds as well as some stand-alone stories; but there needs to be some mythology, I love mythology in a show.
I will watch again, and I hope you do too.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Coming Soon...Fringe! "Pilot"
I will be reviewing and discussing the pilot for Fringe tomorrow.
It was awesome!
People melted, turned invisible, their jaws fell off.
And J.J. tossed out some viral marketing in the form of Massive Dynamic advertisements!
It was awesome!
People melted, turned invisible, their jaws fell off.
And J.J. tossed out some viral marketing in the form of Massive Dynamic advertisements!
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