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Star Trek Discover S2E5

The opening montage is done well to show events from the last episode are being handled but we won’t necessarily know the details for some time. A mystery has been set forth and we just have to sit on it. The graphics of an approaching nebula once again make heavy use of the color red (a graphic depiction that I’m beginning to believe represents a limited budget for space backgrounds this season). The opening shock had an impact, and Burnham’s response was right on point. A conversation in the first act was particularly dramatic; it’s a coin toss for me about whether it was perfectly tense or unnecessary. The dialogue felt spiteful rather than deliberate but that would definitely fit with the characters in play.

 The episode proceeds to bring Tilly to some of her most human scenes yet. Netflix’s Stranger Things guest star with the Upside Down featuring this episode. I will say this episode features one of the coolest visual sequences ever in a Star Trek series. There is a meta forming about how Starfleet is organized that confuses me immensely and I dislike it for it enables only negative storylines so far. The Starfleet Admiral linking the bureaucratic shuffle through the episode is well cast so I’m not too ruffled by the politics. The conclusion of the episode was a good link to the rest of the season but certainly, the end of this episode has clear dividing lines between it and the first five episodes of the season.

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Star Trek Discovery Review S2E4

The writing for “An Obol for Charon” is spectacular and there were no moments where I felt sharks were utilized. At two points I even cried; information provided by the Star Trek Shorts came in handy this episode as well. This episode connected all of its story threads in a wonderfully intelligent way. Visually the episode was fantastic with CGI on part with that of Star Wars or other big budget productions. I still prefer a different focus on the art but they do not lose me in the depiction of gravity or celestial objects at any point. I can’t really extrapolate more on the episode for I really enjoyed it. If Discovery has even one more episode on this level of quality the entire series is worth watching. 

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Star Trek Discovery S2E3 Review

This episode jumped more sharks than are available at an Indonesian restaurant. As with the first season, whenever Star Trek Discovery tried to give us the slice of life of a Klingon it falls very flat. Meanwhile, the Tilly storyline unfolded in an interesting way where her reactions could easily be seen as the same anyone else would have. I appreciated some personality quirks of hers being highlighted by other crew members – it’s the refinement of a character well done that makes this possible. The third wheel of the episode revolved around Burnham and more of her relationship with her family. All in all this was a very soap opera episode. 

Visually the episode didn’t need a lot of set graphics but the Klingon world splash screens looked like they were pulled from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. There was a very cool space shot at the end but the craft it zoomed in on, based on the dimensions of the ship they displayed going into it, meant they left Star Trek and used some Time Lord science to make the interior fit which completely pulled me out of the moment they were hoping to show off a nice cool vessel.  

Oddly, this episode’s dialogue was well written and paced to keep things moving along. Tilly’s path was the best, Burnham is excellent at her scenes even if the other major character – justifiably so – was deliberately flat in performance this episode. The Klingons though could easily have had this episode to themselves and been better for it. The pace of the reveals, twists, and a truly stupid set piece at the end with an even more ridiculous conclusion to the climax were based on notions of tribalism that seem cheaply done. While tribalism and a bit of a backwards view of outsiders is the Klingon M.O., it seems done in a way disrespecting the fact that they are still a space-faring race.  

To embellish my thought on this way beyond its welcome would be unfortunate, so here I go. If I were to write the Klingons as a xenophobic militaristic race, I’d justify their claims with seeking biological purity, which would also justify some hostilities portrayed in the episode. Further, competition is argued for in capitalism as a motivator and they could flush out their discussions of the old ways from that angle. Instead, it's all delivered as a flat “Want the old ways, humans bad” and that is it. No arguments, no justification, and straight to the ‘we disagree so let’s fight’. It really killed every scene because I kept hoping for more of a species the show clearly is going to make a centerpiece of this season once again.  

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Star Trek Discovery S2E2

Dialogue jumps a little bit especially when poking fun at scene setting in the second episode of Star Trek Discovery. In this episode in the middle but the opening and ending are quite well done. An early scene reveals a plot twist that was both inevitable but its details unexpected and they carried a lot of weight that wasn’t played on again in the episode. The second mission sets up a routine clash with the prime directive, or as this episode chooses to call it “Order Number 1”. I do enjoy getting more background on Earth’s history between my viewing days and the warp era and this episode delivers a bit of that. In an overall unfulfilling clash of ethics, we see another example of science vs religion on display and early dialogue subtlety worked well and was restrained enough not to force the issue while setting it up; but later scenes rush it quite a bit.  

Graphically the episode is beautiful and a particular asteroid belt moment was excellent. There was little in the space department for this episode worthy of showing off and the planetary sets were definitely showing the limits of both script and budget. There is one thread in place for Tilly that has the most satisfying parts of the episode and seems to be a longer arc for her. This episode for her is more powerful, and for Saru as well, as both their stories are made better by the Star Trek shorts which aired before the season. The season’s mystery continues to be mysterious at the end and I eagerly venture boldly on to episode 3. 

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Review: Star Trek Discovery S2E1

The returning of Star Trek Discovery to my screen was a welcome one even if season one was a unique and wild ride. This season opener played well on my attachment to certain characters and laid out the fallout from previous episodes quite well. On its own merits, it did very well as establishing a new captain and laying the framework of competition for that position in the rest of the season. I well and truly enjoyed the lead in for Spock’s story this season and, naturally, the meta being revealed before the end of the episode. It was made more on point by the season trailer immediately after the episode.  

Visually the episode was amazingly stunning; in a way on par with big budget productions. The realistic visuals of the ship exterior of another vessel brought me back to the brilliant art of Battlestar Galactica’s grittiest episodes and made me care, in a very nerdy way, about the ship and its history and schematics. This has never happened to me before. Even with the most alive ship in TV history, the Battlestar Galactica itself, I knew its story because the show told it and I never pursued further. The brilliant design and unique personality of its captain led me to want to know more. 

I will say some of the dialogue was pointedly efficient and came off as forced early on, and later was a bit of a shark jump. Regardless, unlike the first season that took a few episodes to hook me, I’m in.

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John Wick 3 -Spoiler Free Review

In honor of the Year of Keanu (2019) as it has become known by future historians I went and saw John Wick 3 last night. Due to the gore and graphic nature of the violence that was above and beyond the first two films I’m glad I didn’t go see it after dinner. The violence aside it has great moments where the series gets to make fun of itself and gave a fantastic performance by classic cast members and the standout newcomers led by Hallie Barry and her menacingly adorable dogs. 

Despite the violence, the film used familiar and new settings in stunningly unique ways. While watching the film with a New Jersey native many of the scenes were of public places very familiar to any resident of the small town we call New York City. Whether they actually went to Morocco or used leftover sand dunes outside Vancouver the desert setting for some parts were also strikingly beautiful in a way the gritty and dark Wick series had not yet been. 

This film both jumps the shark at the end but makes up for it in the best story John Wick has told so far. With both his past, present, and future getting glimpsed in touching, shocking, and sometimes thought-provoking ways. Hallie Berry had perhaps the best story beat the Wickverse has brought to us. I want far more of her in Wick 4, or even franchise this out with her character getting standalone films. 

Animals served a big part of this film and it was amazing to see on screen respect given to them by the assortment of assassins who encountered them (especially the horses). There were moments where it was obvious that the horses were CGI, or displaying a discomfort that was filmed once and repeated on screen in relatively short time frames. I’m giving the benefit of the doubt that a horse wasn’t actually that disturbed and they continued filming a scene around it - but it was obvious and broke me out of the choreography in those moments. 

With a great story, even greater cast, but some unnecessary steps towards gore I’m going to give an arbitrary score of 88/100. 

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E3 Standard Hype Post

The fun and games of E3 have come and gone for the most part. My favorite reveals for games I will be buying were for Planet Zoo, Evil Genius 2, Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, and Watch Dogs Legion. Among the games I’ll be watching friends play are The Outer Worlds, Cyberpunk 2077, Borderlands 3, Wolfenstein Youngblood, and maybe Dying Light 2.  I’m a creative gamer and Planet Zoo is definitely in that theme. If Frontier follows the DLC pattern of Planet Coaster and Jurassic World: Evolution I’m going to be very pleased with the options for massive environments and truly diverse rosters of animals in the same exhibits. My biggest fear is rooted in Planet Coaster’s ability to hog all my power and I have a pretty beastly rig; will these animals and their unique needs/reproductive history/poo animations eat up my computer even more? We are an eternity out from release this fall in the gaming world so I’ll just be patient.  Evil Genius 2 is a wacky hotel in the front, evil lair to dominate the world in the back base building and henchmen deploying game full of ridiculousness. I can’t wait to lure an infiltrating spy into a shark tank. And the sharks better get fricken laser beams.  Star Wars gets my time because I am weak. I’ll admit it; the combat looks amazing and the missions look slightly more open in how you accomplish them than a truly linear railroading game design. Set before Episode 4 I’m going to enjoy freeing some enslaved Wookies on Kashyyyk.  I enjoy open world games that give me a vehicle and a real-world location to explore. I played the first game set in Chicago immediately after I took a trip there and immediately fell in love with being a tourist all over again. London is a great city to explore at the pace of an elderly character named Helen. I can’t wait to deploy her nifty robo-spider onto the faces of many an enemy.  The Outer Worlds revives the great questing and world exploring of Fallout and Skyrim from Obsidian Entertainment, creators of Fallout: New Vegas. Who needs to run for President as a Democrat when you can just play this game and lead a rebellion against megacorporations colonizing planets at the edge of human-inhabited space?  Cyberpunk 2077 = More Keanu Reeves.  I’m interested in more great dialogue and humor from Borderlands 3 but I’m tired of the actual gameplay. This is going to be a great one to watch on Twitch or Youtube to see Clap Trap face down his true nemesis: stairs.  After Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus I’m ready to see more Nazi scum face their deaths at the hands of liberating insurgents with more plot armor than Mario. With Wolfenstein: Youngblood I expect more great mechanized warfare and spray and pray bullet battles with the genuinely touching storytelling of The New Colossus built into the production. I was surprised at the amount of heart in The New Colossus and truly look forward to seeing that in play with B.J. Blazkowicz daughters at the lead characters seeking their father in Nazi-occupied France.  Lastly I I was taken in by the marketing for Dying Light and let down by the actual game. The publisher driven expansion into a standalone battle royale variant further disappointed me. The game is still great even if the storytelling was weaker; I’m hoping with Dying Light 2 they’ll learn from their mistakes and it seems to put your character on the clock with being among the infected will incentivize some riskier paths in the parkour-driven world.