Rick and Morty For A Hundred Years Rick And Morty Dot Com.

There are two kinds of people in this world (Earth C-137): those who absolutely love Rick and Morty, and those who I pretend exist in a parallel universe where they love Rick and Morty, which I can do because that’s exactly the power of the show. Because it is a sci-fi cartoon with a backbone built around multi-verse theory, Rick and Morty is a show that can do whatever it wants.

The adultswim show that aired on December 2, 2013 is just over halfway into it’s second season and was renewed in August for its third. No surprise there. After one season, the show had already become adultswims’ trinket necklace left to it by it’s late grandmother that actually turned out to be worth way more you ever could ha

ve gotten for it on ebay. That’s because it has the most value element in the world in it. Collaboration. (Aww)

Rick and Morty actually started as a sketch

meant only get a shock factor reaction from the audience by one of the show’s creators, Justin Roiland. Originally a grotesque spoof on Back To The Future, the animated sketch called “The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti” was noticed by Community creator, Dan Harmon. With Justin’s art and vocal stuttering’s- I mean stylings and Dan’s unmatched wit and storytelling ability, the duo took the sketch from over the top gross to stellar comedy.

Rick and Morty follows the story of Rick Sanchez, an alcoholic scientist who happens to be the smartest man in the universe and his dim-witted grandson, Morty, as well as the rest of the family. As they travel through the universe, their stories incite more than a little laughter but kick you in the heart just as often. The power of the show is that even though it’s jokes per minute count is off the charts, it weaves in very real issues as well, like suicide, failing marriages, molestation, insecurity, etc. However, all of this together means that even the fourth or fifth time you watch an episode, you pick on new jokes and subtle plants, making it easy to introduce and watch with friends who have never seen it, at least not in this universe. For a dumb looking show, it’s one of the smartest sci-fi series on TV at the moment and from the looks of it, it’s here to stay. Just like you, in that chair as you watch the pilot for yourself right now: http://www.adultswim.com/videos/rick-and-morty/pilot/ 

Frequency

Frequency is a film about a police officer named John Sullivan who is down on his luck. His father, Frank, is dead, and he no longer has any zest for life. One night, after his girlfriend leaves him, he finds his father’s old police radio and turns it on. He begins messing with the signals, and somehow makes contact with his father exactly 30 years in the past, on the day before he died. Before the connection cuts out, John is able to shout out the circumstances that led to Frank's death. Frank is skeptical about the situation, and believes that he is being messed with, however, when the circumstances brought up in their conversation prove true, Frank believes and trusts John's words, escaping the fire to safety. Since John was able to warn Frank away from danger, his father's death never occurs. However, it is not without consequences. Since John and Frank were able to alter the past, life in which they know it suddenly changes. John's altered future is one in which his mother, in turn, has been murdered by a serial killer. Now John in the present and Frank in the past must communicate via radio to try to solve the mystery of the killer's identity and change the outcome again.

Frequency is one of my favorite films of all time. It is a great piece, built around a realistic and caring father/son relationship and ordinary characters who are trying to accomplish extraordinary things in order to change the past. The movie has a lot of heart and you really learn to care about the characters and worry about what will become of them. I also very much admire the uniqueness of the plot. It is both interesting to contemplate the complexity behind it, as well as to watch. It is a little slow to take off, but once it gets going, there starts to be action at every turn. It is definitely one of those movies that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Akira

I first saw Akira over winter break last year in a movie theater near my home town. It had been over twenty-five years since its original debut in Japan but after seeing it for the first time, I understood why it is so critically acclaimed to this very day. Not only was the animation far ahead of its time, Akira revolutionized the genre and allowed more animation like it to be localized to a western audience, specifically the U.S.A.     

The story takes place in the year 2019, where the original Tokyo has been destroyed in nuclear war and has been rebuilt as Neo-Tokyo. The plot revolves around Shotaro Kaneda, the leader of a motorcycle gang, and Tetsuo Shima, his best friend. Throughout a series of strange events, Tetsuo is transferred to a top secret government facility where they run tests on him and discover that he has the potential to use unbelievable psychic powers. Consumed by his own incredible strength, Tetsuo goes on a rampage, destroying everything in his path. He learns about a being that is very similar to himself named Akira, who has been locked away by the government and goes on a mission to confront him. Meanwhile, Kaneda must try to talk sense into his friend before the entire city is destroyed again and millions of lives are lost.  

Akira pretty much set the standard for Japanese animation after its initial release in 1988. It is action packed, over the top, and a hell of a lot of fun. It is very bloody and violent which some people say distract from the complex story that is going on around it but I disagree. It might be because I have developed a strong stomach for gore over the years, but I thought the violent scenes, especially the most brutal ones, really complimented the movie overall as it is an epic animated science fiction thriller. The animation is still breathtaking to say the least. In a time where animators didn't have the luxuries of the advanced technology we have today, it is unbelievable how much work and dedication went into creating this movie. From intense fight scenes to serene pans of landscapes and environments, Akira really nails it in every sense of the word.    

Overall, Akira is a classic in Japanese animation and it's hard to think what animation would be like today if this masterpiece was never created to inspire thousands of animators working today.

The Divergent Series---- Divergent to Insurgent

   

The Divergent Series was written by Veronica Roth.

DIVERGENT is a thrilling action-adventure film set in a world where people are divided into distinct factions based on human virtues.

The society that Beatrice "Tris" lives in is divided into five fractions.

These are: Abnegation, Erudite, Dauntless, Amity, and Candor.

Divergent was directed by Niel Burger and produced by Douglas Wick, Lucy Fisher, Pouya Shabazian. 
 This coming March 20, 2015 the second movie of the Divergent Series --- Insurgent will be released.

Insurgent is said to be filled with even more action than the last however, there has bee some rumors that the book ending could be altered to please fans. As opposed to leaving the fans such as myself with a said ending of a lot of the main characters dead, producers are searching for a more "happy-ending" causing an array of feels amongst fans. There is much that is expected of this movie by many fans such as myself.

I personally feel that the books are more intriguing then the movie maybe because I know certain things are going to happen..

Twilight Series
Hunger Games Series
The Maze Runner
The Divergent Series

Have all disappointed me in at least one way or another ... but have occasionally made up for it who knows .. We'll see. Until next time!

Happy Spring Break.

Jupiter Asending

Jupiter Ascending, released February 6th, can be added to the list of box office failures that sare seemingly hitting theaters nonstop in early 2015. Directed by the Wachowski Siblings(Lana Wachowski and Andy Wachowski), this film was expected to be a must see sci-fi action adventure for moviegoers, with the latest visual effects and all-star cast. Sadly, this was not at all the case. The first week was an absolute disaster for the film. With an estimated 200 million dollar budget, opening weekend brought in under 50 million dollars in both domestic and foreign theaters.

(Here comes the plot summary. Try to bare with me)
This film is about a woman named Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) who is a struggling cleaning woman for rich residents of the city of Chicago. One day, during a routine surgery operation, she is attacked by aliens that are posed as human doctors. Luckily she is saved by an alien adventurer by the name of Caine Wise (Channing Tatem). We then find out that an alien prince by the name of Balem (Eddie Redmayne) wants Jupiter dead so that he can inherit a production plant on the planet Jupiter and rights to the Earth. If she is left to live Balem will not receive his inheritance due to the fact that Jupiter is a genetic reincarnation of his mother, the recently deceased matriarch of his house. The movie follows the many attempts made by the royal family to kill Jupiter or trick her out of her ownership of the Earth. The movie concludes when Balem is killed by Jupiter and she returns to the Earth. We then realize she is going to continue living her life as an everyday house cleaner, not at all acknowledging that she is the supposed queen of Earth.

The plot is outrageously hard to follow while watching the movie. Even after I saw the film I needed to read multiple plot summaries from various websites to try and half understand what was going on. Another aspect of this movie that had a negative impact on the overall quality was the ridiculous dialogue. There were many scenes that were supposed to either be epic or romantic but if the viewer paid any attention to what the characters were saying the effects were ruined. For example, in one scene that is supposed to have a mystical effect a side character by the name of Stinger Apini (Sean Bean) is explaining to Jupiter how she is the Queen of the Earth. During this scene a swarm of bees surrounds Jupiter without touching her. Apini then says that bees were put on Earth to sense royalty, and that is why she was not stung. Seriously?! This is an actual interaction between two characters in this movie. The dialogue is poorly written and is only interesting in a shocking humorous way.

Sure, this film looks really good. The animation and visual effects are spot on, but that is quite honestly all this film has going for it. The acting was also slightly underwhelming. I was really hoping that with such a star studded cast there would be something to look forward to, especially from Eddie Redmayne who is nominated for an Oscar for his performance in The Theory of Everything. Those hopes were crushed when he began speaking in a ridiculous and dry voice that he maintained for the entire movie. Tate and Kunis did not do a terrible job; however, their performances in no way added to the film.

To be quite honest I was very disappointed with this movie as a whole. Besides the expensive budget and flashy visual effects there was not much going for the film. Yes, there were big name actors; however, their performances were all adequate at best. The plot was extremely confusing. Every time there was an advancement in the story it was forced and usually made little to no logical sense, even for a science fiction film. I would not recommend wasting the money to see this film in theaters.

3/10

Final Part of Time Traveling Trilogy 'Back to the Future Part III' Review

After recently watching Back to the Future Part I & II, I naturally wanted to see the final part of an enjoyable trilogy. One thing I wish I hadn't seen was the theatrical trailer for Back to the Future Part III; that was forced upon the viewer right after the Part II movie, before the credits rolled. The reason is that after seeing Back to the Future Part III, I soon realized the trailer showed most of the best scenes and lines from the movie.

Here is the Trailer for anyone that is interested: 

Back to the Future Part III's conflicts are pretty similar to the first two parts, and this film has a goofier and kind of cheesier feel to it as well.  If someone just watched Part III without watching the first two films, I can't imagine anyone liking it nearly as much.  The main reason being that this film plays off fan favorite parts from the other two films. Especially the over used catchy line said by, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) & good pal, Emmett Lathrop "Doc" Brown (Christopher Lloyd).  They both say "Great Scott!" multiple times throughout all three parts.           

I do believe the ending of this trilogy was satisfying for anyone that saw all three parts. 

I would rate Back to the Future Part III: 7.2/10.  

Part three was no where nearly as good as parts one and two. I wish they made the third parts story and conflicts not so similar to what we have already seen in the previous two films. I guess the franchise went with the,"if it aint broke, don't fix it" strategy.  Rating wise though Back to the Future Part III, received a rating of 73% from Rotten Tomatoes, compared to the 96% that Back to the Future Part I was given.

Overall this is a great trilogy.  I enjoy the balance of thrill and drama with the right mixture of comedy and that is one thing all of these films did real well.  If somehow someone never saw any of these films, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND seeing the Original!  

If I just saw Back to the Future Part III without seeing the first two installments I would rate the film: 3.5/10.  You need to see these films in order to fully understand and enjoy the ride of this popular time traveling trilogy. 

Evolution of Science Fiction Films

Since I was a kid (probably too young to have seen it) Alien was one of my favorite movie. This movie spawned my love for the science fiction genera. Since my viewing of that classic terrifying Sifi film I was introduced to Terminator, 2001 A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, and the Matrix, to name a few, and I loved them all. Although in the past few years I’ve noticed a change in the stories and morals in Sifi films, so I did some research.  What I found was that the historical situations of the time affected the type of story told.

The first real trend I noticed in science fiction films started in the 50’s and 60’s. For the most part the Sifi movie coming out in this time period involved outer space or aliens, The Day the Earth Stood Still in 1951, Invasion of the Body Snatcher in 1956, and 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968 and even in television shows like Star Trek. These movies dealt with outer space because they all came out during or around the Space Race. The space race was between Russia and America to be the first nation to send man into the cosmoses.

The next trend I noticed started in the 80’s and continued through out the 90’s. During this time, technologies in computers and genetic alteration were advancing greatly and faster then ever before, and the Sifi genera took advantage of this. The movies shifted from space to the idea of “beware the machines” with movies like Blade Runner in 1982, The Terminator in 1984, Robocop in 1987, and the Matrix in 1999. The idea that playing god will backfire also emerged during this time with movies like Jurassic Park in 1993.

Toady however, the ideas of science being dangerous are on the decline, making it harder for the movie industry to make Sifi films like they used too. This can bee seen in the recent and generally underwhelming remakes of classic Science fiction movies.  Where will the genre go from here is hard to tell, we just have to wait and see. 

We Can Relate

           If there was one movie I spent my whole summer re-watching and picking apart, it would definitely have to be Divergent. The movie is originally based upon the trilogy series, by Veronica Roth. When I first heard about this movie I thought, great, another Hunger Games movie. And although I like action movies, how could Divergent be so different from The Hunger Games? They both had the same main plot: A world in the future ran by a new government system. This government system dividing their people into different sections. Of course I read the books first, but I wanted to see how the film portrayed the book and if the writers would stay true to the original book and its theme or if it would be made into something that was basically a replica of The Hunger Games.

When I finally watched the movie, I thought it was very good. It was almost, if anything identical to the book, which I was very pleased with. The movie focuses on Beatrice Prior. It immediately starts with her and what role she plays in society. In her world there are five factions that rule. Each of these  factions focuses on a certain quality in personality. The Abnegation are selfless, the Candor are honest, the Amity are peaceful, the Erudite are knowledgable, and the Dauntless are brave. Beatrice was born in abnegation and feels as if she is too selfish for the Abnegation. When she finally takes her test to figure out what faction she belongs in, she finds out she is Divergent, which means she does not fit into any one category. However, being Divergent is very dangerous and she is told to tell no one. Because of this and how she feels out of place in Abnegation, she finally chooses Dauntless. As the movie goes on the audience is able to watch her develop into someone new, strong, and brave. However along the way she finds out how dangerous being divergent is. But once she finds out what the Erudite are up to, she decides that being Divergent was never her weakness, but instead her strength. By discovering this, Beatrice, or now known as Tris, is able to fight back against Erudite from killing innocents, as well as Divergents. 

While this film is able to draw in the audience by the interesting ideas of factions, as well as the action packed scenes, it is the character of Beatrice (Tris) that really resonates with the audience. Beatrice admits to being selfish, however it is how she recognizes this that she is able to conquer it. And by embracing being Divergent, she is able to help save thousands. Her character is very relatable and it is not a predictable character that you see in many action packed films, such as The Hunger Games. In the Hunger Games, Katniss is made out to be more shy and hates being the center of attention. Nor does she, eventually, want to lead a rebellion. She hates everything that has happened to her world, however she does not want to be the person to lead the change or fix it. Now in Divergent, Tris is more outspoken, does not care if people see her or not. And although she hates everything that has happened to her world, she is ready to fight and is ready to be the person to lead. And the fact that Beatrice does not initially fit in with her world only makes her more determined to figure out who she is. Her character helps teach people everywhere that even if you don't fit in, you shouldn't conform to the norms. She teaches us to be who we are, even if we are hated for it. And that is someone we can and want to relate to.

District 9

When my friends told me we were going to watch District 9 I just assumed it was some spin off of the Hunger Games series.  It was of course a different and unique science fiction action packed film that I was shocked I had never seen.  Nominated for 4 academy awards, District 9 is the story about an alternate Earth where a ship full of alien invaders land in South Africa and disturb the people.  The story follows the Wikus a bureaucrat who is appointed by his father-in-law to monitor the aliens and head a project of relocation so they are further away from the main city of Johanasberg disturbing the public.  He is later infected by an alien virus and action and drama occurs.

The movie was directed by Neill Blomkamp and uses fictional stock footage, mocumentary, fake interviews, and other documentary/news like tactic to tell parts of the story.  It was a very interesting way of telling this story. One of the producers behind the film is Peter Jackson who is most famous for his work on the Lord of the Rings series and The Hobbit.  Although the movie was a success, it was a surprise since it had a very unknown cast and relatively modest budget.

What I found very interesting about the film was it's political undertones.  It often referenced and brought up the subject of gun control, government and leadership in the Africa's, as well as immigration.  I think the aliens in this movie were directly a symbol of illegal aliens within our country, as well as other countries.  It was a large debate in the movie about kicking the aliens out of Earth because they are clearly invading our space and territory.  However it was brought up later in the film that the aliens - although not the most helpful to humans - had their reasons to leave their home planet and could not go back.  This obviously brings up illegal immigrants traveling to other countries to escape persecution, and crime filled nations.

The movie was good and did lose to Biggalow's The Hurt Locker, but I wouldn't have given Distric 9 the Oscar anyway.  It was enjoyable but I don't think I would watch it again.  It was a unique way to tell such a different thought provoking story and it was effective but it was a bit boring for my taste and I did not end up liking the main character.  Although my friends really enjoyed the movie.  Maybe I'm just more of a rom-com kinda guy.

Star Wars

I am a huge star wars fan.  I love 4, 5, and 6 and own them on DVD and while I don't hate 1, 2, and 3 like many star wars fans, I find them entertaining, but I cannot accept them as real star wars movies.  I was introduced to star wars at a young age and never looked back.  I think what makes star wars so amazing is because it changed the sci-fi genre and what was possible from movies.  Star wars was first released in 1977, the same year as encounters of the third kind, and it looks amazing.  For 1977 the effects look amazing and the universe is very creative.

Watching star wars for the first time is like nothing else, you are transported into another world field with new and amazing technology and the most wonderfully strange creatures.  The characters are great  and each movie is a thrill.  Watching Luke Skywalker transform from a farmer's son to a Jedi is fantastic.  While 1, 2, and 3 are as good they are very fun to watch and the fight scene between Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of the most epic fight scenes ever.  If you haven't seen star wars that is sad and you should watch it right now.

Epic fight scene: