Jumper

After seeing a trailer for this movie a few weeks ago I decided to check it out without reading any reviews and again I'm glad I did.
This film appears to have caused a problem for some regarding the amount of unanswered questions remaining when the end credits roll but from what I could deduce, these people probably have no concept of the multiple movie story arc scenario.

This looked to all intents and purposes like part one of something, yes the story was left open but this is now a common factor in a lot of films nowadays with doors always left open for potential sequels.

Anyway enough "jumping" to the end of this story (apologies for the weak pun), our story starts in a common everyday American high school (Ann Arbor in this instance) with your common everyday run of the mill geek who wants the girl but doesn't really know how to go about it.

Queue Hayden Christensen as David Rice who during an attempt to woo long-time love interest Millie (Rachel Bilson), falls through the ice on a frozen lake but ends up teleporting himself to the local library. After realising this is no fluke and a few practice runs to perfect his skills, he goes on a little shopping spree after robbing several banks by Jumping into their vaults.

Unfortunately after 8 years of jumping from place to place he has been noticed and now a group known as the Paladins are on to him. Led by Roland (Samuel L Jackson), the Paladins are Religious fanatics who for centuries have tracked down and killed countless Jumpers believing them to be an abomination against god.

David has also been noticed by Griffin (Jamie Bell), a fellow Jumper who has been fighting back against the Paladins and in particular Roland, hunting them down and killing as many in return as he can.
Will they form an unlikely alliance in an attempt to bring down the Paladins....?
I'll leave that for you to discover yourselves but I would recommend that people ignore the bad reviews and give this movie a chance, the cast are all very good but Jamie Bell in particular steals the film as the wise cracking Griffin.

The Jumps are really well done and the film has a nice pace to it nipping from one exotic location to the next in double quick time. Character development is minimal but I believe this is due more to the fact that this is setting itself up to be part one of something bigger.

If handled correctly, Jumper could make an interesting addition to recent Sci-Fi lore as the concept is very good and the main character have a lot of potential.

Remember....Anywhere is possible.

Felgercarb Rating 8/10

Cloverfield

I tried to stay away from all the hype and spoilers surrounding this picture, not even watching the trailer until last week visit to the cinema where it previewed before AvP2. The whole idea appealed to me and so many times you can overdose on internet spoilers and theories which eventually ruin a lot of films.

I am so glad I did this as Cloverfield, the latest project from JJ Abrams, was refreshingly different and I for one fully enjoyed it.

On arrival at the cinema we were asked by a member of staff if we were prone to motion or car sickness as several people had been affected by this and forced to leave the theatre. This just made the whole experience more enjoyable, the thought that I might lose my lunch watching this film reminded me of the old 50's B-movies and their buzzer in the seat shock tactics.

The largely unknown cast were superb and the film was well shot. I have always been a big fan of the handicam being used in film as you really get a feel for being in on the action.

Running around the streets of Manhattan not quite knowing what it is that has hit the city, this film plays well on the underlying unease left behind after the terrible events of 9/11 without ever really eluding to past events. When our protaganists grasp what is actually happening, they are galvanised in a fight to find their friends and get out of the city alive.

My one complaint, well maybe that is too strong a word as I really do like this film....my only down point was that we saw maybe just too much of the creature, far better are the moments when we catch a fleeting glimpse of the beastie.
In a media driven world with everything on film within minutes though it would have be unrealistic for the news crews in helicopters not to get a good shot, so i'm overall i'm happy.

The film has a nice pace to it as well and character development is well done, you really get a feel for the central characters and sympathise with the plight they find themselves in.

All too often in movies of this genre, the action ends up as a gung-ho fight between the military and an "unknown enemy", whereas with this film you get the impression that the military are just as clueless and helpless as the civillians.

Some people are not going to like this film, some will be confused....others just dizzy and a little nauseaus.
I have faith though that if you are the kind of person who is reading this blog, then you will most probably be the kind of person who will love this film and appreciate the subtle elements that go into the making of a good movie.

It's still alive....

Felgercarb Rating 8/10

AVPR

Or Alien Versus Predator: Requiem to give it it's full title.
Went to the cinema last night to see this the latest instalment in the AvP "franchise", not really expecting that much to be fair after the disappointment of AvP and I wasn't really surprised to be left feeling that way again.

Not sure how to put this film in a nutshell so this may ramble slightly or end abruptly but here goes....

Viewers of 2004's Alien versus Predator will remember the end sequence of the "hybrid" bursting free from our "hero" Predator, well this sequel begins there with the newborn hybrid suddenly sprouting into a full size beastie and killing the crew of the Predators ship forcing it to crash land in a quiet mountain town in Colorado state.

One of the biggest problems I had with AvP was the woefully short gestation period of the Aliens and unfortunately this has been shortened still further for this movie. To add to this we now have the "hybrid" replacing the Queen as the sole matriarch of this bunch of Aliens, laying eggs directly down the throats of pregnant women. These then seem (in a matter of hours) to burst the stomach and grow to full size, spreading like wildfire.

The problem with this notion is that such a rapidly spreading parasite such as this would be uncontainable and by now the entire universe would have been colonised by sheer weight of numbers alone.

Whilst on the subject of the "Hybrid", what makes it that way in the first place?
Why just because the host is a Predator does the chest burster become 50/50 instead of just pure Alien?
Surely any chest burster coming from a human being should look partially human then.

This is just one of the many holes easily all too easily picked in this chapter of the franchise
with what could have been a good old fight between two movie favourites ending up as a plethora of reasonably well thought out set pieces, intermingled with meaningless background story, leading to a film that just doesn't really make much sense.

You just do not care about any single resident of this town and to be honest, you feel a sense of relief when they are wiped out one by one. In fact some of the best moments of the film are watching these "dumb asses" get wasted.

The only saving grace for the film is the Predator sent to clean up this mess (an unwitting metaphor for the whole film methinks). He is very cool and we don't see enough of him.

Hopefully this will signal a dignified death for this chapter in the Franchises history. Take my advice, do yourself a favour and go out and buy the original Alien quadrilogy and the original Predator film, watch them and be happy in the knowledge that there was a time when Alien/Predator films were pretty damn good.

Felgercarb Rating 6/10

Davros to return to Doctor Who in series 4?

**** Possible spoiler alert ****

Whilst looking through the news section regarding Doctor Who figure releases on doctorwhotoys.net I came across this possible series 4 spoiler....

"Series 4 figures will be released in redesigned packaging. Each figure will feature an accessory.

The RRP for the figures is set to rise by £1 from its current £6.99 to £7.99

Series 4 figures should be out around June 2008. Look out for a Sontaran Gift Set, 12" Sontaran figure and a Murder Mystery Set out in June. Also a new Radio Controlled Davros S4 figure available in 5" and 12" formats."

Looks like the cat maybe out of the bag.

Doctor Who figures

My collection continues to grow....

Star Wars Celebration Europe

Well what a weekend that was, just got back from the Star Wars Celebration Europe event at the Excel centre in London.
The biggest ever official convention in this country was also my debut troop as a member of The Rebel Legion

Again big thanks to all the guys from the Legion who made me feel very welcome and helped me through....
The first batch of pictures can be found on my Flickr page (Click here to visit).

And remember, the force will be with you....always!

The Rebel Legion

Hurrah....
I am now a fully fledged member of The Rebel Legion.

VOTE SAXON!

....or not, whatever floats ya boat.

HEROES SPOILERS

As of this Monday just gone (23rd April), the fantastic Heroes returns to our screens, well American screens anyway.
If you do not have access to download the programme "box fresh" from the US and are wondering what will happen well....

I for one am not going to ruin the surprise for you.

Tempus Fugit....

Well that was a weird period....
Been away sorting some stuff out but now it's time to get back on track

Most of my time has been taken up with the art that is Star Wars costuming, after deciding to go to Celebration Europe this July, I thought it might be fun to try and get a costume together for the event.

After researching a few clubs and costumes I decided upon a Han Solo costume from the Return Of The Jedi in an attempt to join the Rebel Legion costuming club, after first joining the forum and introducing myself I was soon wrapped up in a highly entertaining way of life.


Everybody on the board has been really helpful and at the end of the day all their hard work and dedication is for the good of several charitable organisations.

Click on the links in this post to visit the CE and RL websites to find out more.

I have also updated my Flickr page with photo's of my Han Solo blaster project.

Legal Doctor Who Downloads....

****Courtesy of Monkey Bites****


Zudeo Announces Deal with BBC

Doctor Who, The League of Gentlemen and Invasion Earth are coming to your computer desktop via BitTorrent -- except this time, legally.

Azureus, the BitTorrent client software developer, has announced its first content distribution partnership. BBC television shows and original productions will be distributed to users of Azureus' new Zudeo file-sharing service in the United States.

This is the first ever content distribution partnership for the BBC. When Azureus debuted Zudeo earlier this month, the company promised that several mainstream content distribution partnerships would be announced over the coming weeks. Well, those weeks have come, and this is the first partnership that Azureus has announced. The company says that more partnerships will be announced shortly.

Zudeo, which launched on December 4, is a platform for distributing high-definition and DVD-quality video content over the internet. Normally, this would be prohibitively expensive due to the bandwidth requirements for pushing such large files around. However, the distributed architecture afforded by the BitTorrent protocol makes it possible to pass around high-def videos using far less bandwidth. BitTorrent, (the company which invented the protocol and makes the software application of the same name -- I know, kind of confusing) is planning on launching its own content download store next month, and we may see the iTunes Store and the mysterious still-in-beta Venice Project taking off into HD-land soon as well.

Personally, I find this exciting. There's been a lot of bark in high-def IPTV lately, but very little bite. Things are heating up now, and they'll really take off next year when all of the other promised video-on-demand services launch.

Azureus mentions these BBC titles in its press release: Red Dwarf, Strange, Invasion Earth, Little Britain, Doctor Who, Fawlty Towers (starring John Cleese of Monty Python), Coupling, Keeping Up Appearances, League of Gentlemen and Ideal. No word on the full line-up just yet.

David Tennant named 'best Doctor Who'

As a long time reader of the Doctor magazine i was surprised to seen that Sir Tom of Baker has been knocked off his perch as the number one Doctor.
David Tennant is good, but for me it is still Tom everyday of the week....
Anyway read the article below and make up your own mind!


****Courtesy of BBC News****

Fans have named David Tennant the best ever Doctor Who in a poll, beating Tom Baker into second place.

The Scottish actor, who made his debut last Christmas, received 28% of votes cast in a survey of 4,000 readers of Doctor Who Magazine.

"This is a real honour, and I am totally gobsmacked," he said.

Baker, who played the character from 1974 to 1981, has topped every previous poll conducted by the magazine, except in 1990 - when Sylvester McCoy won.

"This is an incredible result for David, and shows how quickly viewers have taken to him," said editor Clayton Hickman.

"The iconic image of Doctor Who has always been of Tom Baker in his floppy hat and long, multi-coloured scarf, but it looks like that's been replaced."

Fans voted Tennant's predecessor Christopher Eccleston into third place, while Paul McGann received the fewest votes of the 10 actors to play the Doctor on TV.

Full results below....

TOP FIVE DOCTORS

1. David Tennant - 28.2%

2. Tom Baker - 26.5%

3. Christopher Eccleston - 11.4%

4. Jon Pertwee - 9.6%

5. Patrick Troughton - 8.8%

DOCTOR WHO

Cool video - Decent use of soundtrack....

"Is it a bird, is it a plane?"

....No it's a really good film!
Went to watch Superman Returns last night at the Odeon in Lincoln with Ryan, and yes it is as good as I had hoped for.
The trailer had really made me want to see this film but as we all know sometimes the trailer is actually the best bits of the film and the rest is disappointing.
Thankfully this was not the case with this film, which is very enjoyable with a good blend of humour, action and the continuing love triangle between Clark, Lois and Superman, which is now kind of a love square with the introduction of Richard White (Scott from X-Men).

When Bryan Singer left the X-Men behind a lot of people were gutted, myself included as I really enjoyed the first two X-Men movies, but the third turned out better than expected and allowed Singer to turn his talents to bringing the man of steel back to the big screen.

Singer should also be credited for his chose of the lead roles, which proved to be inspired.
Newcomer Brandon Routh was excellent in his dual roles of Clark Kent and Superman and reminded me of the late great Christopher Reeves portrayal in the original film, which for me personally was nice as to me and my generation Chris Reeve IS SUPERMAN.
Kate Bosworth's portrayal of feisty reporter Lois Lane was also a plus for the movie, I went into the movie not really knowing a lot about Ms Bosworth having never seen any of her previous work but was pleasantly surprised her performance and on screen chemistry with Routh.
Eyebrows were raised when Kevin Spacey was cast as Superman's Arch enemy, Lex Luthor (mine included) but yet again Spacey delivered a great performance as the slightly unhinged, property mad Luthor. Spacey easily manages to convey the air of menace lying just below the surface of Luthor and is charming and funny when needed, then brutally vicious when confronting the man of steel.
With a great supporting cast, including Frank Langella and James Marsden great action sequences and excellent special effects to back them up, this film delivers on all fronts and I highly recommend it to anybody.

Felgercarb Rating - 9/10

The DALEKS are back HURRAH!!

The Daleks made a pretty spectacular return to Doctor Who on Saturday night and I for one was overjoyed to see them back.
Well done to the BBC for managing to keep it quiet as well. I am a regular visitor to the forums at Outpost Gallifrey and although I try not to read spoilers sometimes you just can't help yourself.
After THE SCUM, (sorry THE SUN) ruined last years stories by leaking them in the papers, it made a refreshing change to actually be surprise by the climax of an episode. As the Sphere was activating, speculation in my head was rife as to what was inside, Cyber controller Lumic or maybe Adam from series one....But a little corner of my mind dared to whisper the word DALEKS.

It was like being a little kid again when low and behold the sphere opened and out came everybody's favourite space dustbins....

Now the DALEKS by themselves is one thing but throw into that mix THE CYBERMAN and well I don't think I need to say anymore.

Worst episode ever?

It has taken me three days to fully digest Saturday's episode of Doctor Who, and after careful consideration, weighing up all sides of the argument....
I have to say that in 30 years of watching the Doctor in his various regenerations that this episode is possibly the worst on I can remember.
By 7:05 0n Saturday night, I wasn't sure whether or not I had slipped into some sort of coma and was hallucinating or whether this was just bad television.
By 7:15 I had realised that it was indeed just bad.
I have been a great supporter of RTD's work in the past but Saturday's episode was a definate low point, and looked like it had been written by a 10 year old.
Now I'm all for kid's being involved and encouraged, after all they are probably going to be key if this series is to continue to be successful, by all means let them design a monster for a Blue Peter competition but it seemed like the episode was subsequently written around the kid's creation! Whatever happened to the little tyke's being given a Blue Peter badge instead?
As a northener I am a big fan of Peter Kay but the camp Abzorbaloff was just a step off the deep end. Anyone remember Ken Dodd in Doctor Who....????
This current series seems to lack the drive and creativity of the first series, don't get me wrong there have been some great episodes (School Reunion & The Girl In The Fireplace were excellent) but to many seem to depend on alien visits to Earth and what is the fascination with aliens in fat human guise?
Hopefully the series will quickly get back to the high standards set in the first series, and with the excellent David Tennant in the title role we at least don't have to worry about the Doctor.
Billie Piper's exit from the series may be seen as a loss to most people but I think it will be good for the series to get away from the whole domestic thing for a while. To many stories are driven by Rose and the Doctor is just a bystander which works occasionally but not to the level it is currently being used.

Christopher Eccleston's Doctor said, "I don't do domestic" and hopefully RTD and Co will quickly realise that Doctor Who is at is best when this is the case.

X-Men III - The Last Stand?

Went to see the new X-Men film last Tuesday night with Ryan and i must say i was pleasantly surprised.
With a new director at the helm, i wasn't quite sure whether this third installment would live up to the previos two but thankfully my fears were alayed.
I can fully recommend this to anyone wanting a good comic book adaptation.
The most important thing is to make sure you stay in your seat until the end of the credits....

THE END?

Felgercarb Rating - 8/10

Can you find the Krillitane code?

Strange going's on at Deffry Vale School.
Mickey needs your help again, this time to crack the puzzles and destroy the hidden Krillitane code.

Click on the link above to visit the Deffry Vale School Website, and remember....

Eat more chips!

Torchwood House

So things are hotting up in DOCTOR WHO....



A visit to Mickey Smith's site brings up a new video from the man himself. This time he needs help to identify some missing satelites using the observatory @ the Torchwood House seen in last night's episode 'TOOTH AND CLAW'. Just what has Mickey discovered?

WHO's landed in my garden?

Look what i got for Easter....

No it's not the real Doctor but one of the range of excellent new Doctor Who figures from Character Options. Now anyone who remebers the last holders of the license from the BBC (Dapol), will remember that their figures did not always bear the most realistic likeness for the characters but, as you can see from the photo on the left that this new range have captured the look of the the new series beautifully....

Due to the massive popularity of the return of the show, the first issue of these figures is already becoming hard to find in shops, with many turning up on ebay already.

New ranges are promised including the new look Cybermen and the TARDIS playset.
Here are a few retailers well worth a visit if you want to purchase any of this 'Fantastic' collection.

STAR STORE

10th PLANET

GALAXY 4

Series Two arrives....

Been away a while so here starteth the updates....

The trailer for the second series of DOCTOR WHO has appeared on the BBC and on the Official website and an air date of 15th of April has been announced. The trailer looks gr8 and hopefully this second series will continue the excellent standards set in series one. Filling the shoes of the 'FANTASTIC' Christopher Eccleston will be a difficult task indeed and many of us still wish he would have stayed at the helm of the TARDIS for at least of second series, but....in David Tennant we have an excellent actor who has been superb in everything i have seen him in previously, (particularly enjoyed Casanova!) and who as has been well publicised is an actual fan of the series! This new series sees the return of K9 and the wonderful Elizabeth Sladen as iconic companion Sarah Jane Smith (man i adored her as a kid) as well as the 'NEW' CYBERMEN....



Still not entirely sure about the design of the new Cybermen, still looks a bit comic booky to me....

Sci-Fi Doctor Who Mini site.

The SCI-FI Channel has launched its new Doctor Who mini-site featuring a brief "about" section with basic facts about the series. These include a "characters" section with biographies of the Doctor, Rose, Captain Jack, Mickey and Jackie (and the actors who play them) as well as the TARDIS, an episode guide to the first series, and a photo gallery. More will obviously be added if the show does well and continues to a second year.

Tom Baker says....

Further to my recent post on Tom Baker being the new voice of the BT text service, Ryan showed me this website where someone has used the service to create film quotes jokes and "Bakaraoke" where Tom sing's songs. Well worth checking out if you are bored @ work.

Chewbacca to play Major League Baseball?

Following the end of the Star Wars movies, it would seem that one of it's characters, CHEWBACCA has opted to carve out a new career for himself playing Major League Baseball. The 7 foot tall Wookie was pictured recently, pitching in a game leading to speculation that more of the Star Wars universe will end up turning to sport for their futures, with C3-Po rumoured to be a referee at the forth coming FIFA World Cup in Germany.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA T-Shirts added

A new range of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA themed t-shirts are now available to buy from the shop. Featuring various slogans from the classic 70's Sci-fi series. E-mail me requests and I can put whatever you would like to say (within reason) 0n a shirt in the instantly recognizable Battlestar font.

Battlestar Galactica Season Two

Well the new season of Battlestar Galactica starts tonight for me on Sky Two as I missed the premier on Sky One last Tuesday. Hope it lives up to what was an excellent first season....

Doctor Who Spoilers!

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE
No Doctor Who spoilers!

Especially after the Sun newspaper completely ruined season one for everybody with their so called "scoops".