Monthly Archives: October 2017

TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Choose Your Pain

Posted on by
3

 

TL;DR – Today we meet our final main cast member, and delve into the lives of some of the others, oh and maybe a new villain.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Choose Your Pain Banner

Review –

This was an interesting week for Star Trek Discovery, and not just because it is episode five and one of the main cast only just showed up. No, it was interesting because we got to see a deeper side as to what drives a number of the leading characters. So let’s dive in, and as per usual just a warning that there may be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

Continue reading →

Movie Review – The Foreigner

Posted on by
1

TL;DR – This is a movie with a lot of moving parts, some which are simply amazing and others that don’t quite work as well.

Score – 3 out of 5 stars

The Foreigner. Image Credit: STX Films.

Review –

The Foreigner is a really interesting film, because it is a film with a lot of moving parts, and it is delving into an area and setting you don’t see very often these days. However, while some parts of this film are simply amazing, others just don’t work at all, which creates a kind of juxtaposition. You’ll be sitting there during these moments of high intensity, or fascinating filmmaking, but then something from the story will just rip you out of it. So today what we will do after setting the scene is break down this juxtaposition.

Continue reading →

TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: The Butchers Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry

Posted on by
2

TL;DR – We start to see the beginnings of redemption arcs and internal conflicts, but we are still hitting the same tone each week.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

The Butchers Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry

Review –

It is the fourth episode of the new season, and if nothing else it has been such a great feeling being able to nerd out with other people over new Star Trek. This week is an episode where we get a bit more of the same, but we also get to see a bit of the direction the season is heading in.

Continue reading →

Explore It – Jacaranda Flowering time at the University of Queensland  

Posted on by
2

TL;DR – Today I explore the time of year that Brisbane turns purple.

UQ Jacarandas

Article –

There are a lot of benefits for living in Brisbane, the weather is nice most of the year round, we have some of the nicest beaches in the world a short drive away, and if you want to escape the heat you have the hinterlands. However, for me, my favourite time to be in Brisbane is the end of spring when the city turns purple as the Jacarandas (Jacaranda mimosifolia) come out to bloom. So today we are going to explore one of the best places to see the Jacarandas in full flower the campus of the University of Queensland which sits along the Brisbane River at St Lucia. Just a warning that there are a lot of images after the fold, so if you are on mobile you might want to check that you are on wifi.

Continue reading →

TV Review – Rick and Morty: Season 3

Posted on by
6

TL;DR – This season elevates the show to heights I couldn’t imagine, the strongest season so far.

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

P.S. – Of course there are post-credit scenes

Rick and Morty banner

Review –

I can remember the first time I watch Rick and Morty, my brother had said I had to watch this weird cartoon that he had stumbled across. So the first episode I ever watched was Anatomy Park, which was this odd sci-fi romp with Hepatitis C being the good guy. It was a weird mess, which is to be expected when you jump in for one episode midway throughout a season. However, a couple of months later the whole season dropped on Netflix, and I thought I’d give it another go, and boy was it worth it. So today we are going to take a look at its third season which finished up over the weekend.

Continue reading →

Movie Review – Blade Runner 2049

Posted on by
11

TL;DR – Visually stunning, and a wonderful follow up to a true Sci-fi classic.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Blade Runner 2049. Image Credit: Warner Bros.

Review –

Besides Star Wars later in the year, I don’t think there has been a film as anticipated in the sci-fi world more than Blade Runner 2049. As I mentioned in my retrospective of Blade Runner (see retrospective) the first time I watched the original was just the other day so I came into 2049 with that whole story being very fresh in my mind. Which turns out was a good thing, because Blade Runner 2049 is not just a sequel in name only. So without getting into spoilers here, you may want to go watch the first film in preparation of seeing it here, not that you should need an excuse to see one of the most transformative science fiction films of the last century. I do have to say from the start that I went see Blade Runner 2049 at a premium showing (Gold Class for those in Australia) which I paid for, and I went during the middle of the day when there is usually fewer people. However, still with all this, I was in a session with a couple that loud talked throughout the film, in the quiet contemplative moments, and even answered an unmuted phone at some point. So while I am professional, I can’t put aside the possibility that this might have impacted my perception of the film. Now overall I really liked Blade Runner 2049 but it is hard to talk about it without hitting spoilers, hell even the cast list is a spoiler at this point. So just for the sake of precautions be prepared for [SPOILERS] ahead if you have not seen the film, which you should.

Continue reading →

Exploring the Past – Blade Runner (1982)

Posted on by
3

TL;DR – The legacy of Blade Runner is not overstated, even if parts of the film have not aged well.

Blade Runner. Image Credit: Warner Bros.

Review –

I continue my look into the gems of films from the past that I missed the first time round by today looking at the most topical of films Blade Runner. Like 2001: A Space Odyssey (see review), Blade Runner is one of those films that came out before I was born, so I missed it the first time around, and due to its content it didn’t get a lot replay on TV as I was growing up. Now while I haven’t seen the film before today, I have read the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? As well as this, Blade Runner has appeared in so many countdown and best of lists, and multiple parodies and had homages have been made of it over the years. So even though I have never see the film, I have seen so many separate bits that I have probably seen a decent chunk of the film over the years. So with all of this I was a bit apprehensive before sitting down and watching it, would it live up to the huge cultural impact it has had, well could anything really, let’s find out. Now before we go on just a moment of clarification, the version I saw was The Final Cut, which as far as I can tell is the cut that Ridley Scott prefers, so there is likely to be differences between this and the theatrical release.

Continue reading →

Movie Review – It (It: Chapter 1) (2017)

Posted on by
2

TL;DR – No No NO No NO Nope Oh Hell NO

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

It. Image Credit: Warner Bros.

Review –
So originally I wasn’t going to go see It, as the week it premiered I was up to my neck with essays to grade, as well as this, I’ve never really been a fan of horror films in general. However, last week a good friend of mine wanted to go see It, so what the hell, what’s the worst that could happen … Now to make a couple of things clear before we start, I haven’t seen the original miniseries, nor read the book, so I can’t tell you how good of an adaptation this is, though given we are talking about Tim Curry and Stephen King I am going to assume there is a very high barrier this film needed to meet, which not all Stephen King adaptations this year have met, yes I’m looking at you The Dark Tower (see review). As well as this, as I said I am not a fan of the horror film genre in general, so that has probably affected how I looked at It.

Continue reading →

Map-It: Civilization VI Cities (Base Game up to the South East Asia DLC)

Posted on by
11

TL;DR – Today we chart out the Civilization VI City List in Map form

Civ banner

Article –

So today I continue with my Map-It series by following up on our Civilization Map-It project by this time looking at the city lists of each civ.  It was originally my aim to have all the cities on the big map, but after trying that out with just America it quickly became apparent that it would be hard to read and would clutter an already full map, and this is not taking into account the same city might appear on many different city lists. However, after a while I continued to want to see how the city lists come together and how they play out in geographical space so I decided you didn’t need to put them all on the one map, I could create an individual map for each civilization. Now naïvely I just assumed that I could just cut out the civilization maps from my big map, do a little touch up in places and go for it. Well … that was not the case, with most maps needing to be recreated from the ground up. Now pf course past me was a real pain for present me, but the lure of maps was too strong so here we are with every civilization’s city lists mapped out. Now before we start, I just want to point out that these city locations are not meant to be pinpoint accurate, the groupings and questionable locations of some cities make that impossible. Just think of this more of a general guide of where they are located.  Also for our mobile guests, there will be a lot of images incoming, so even though I have tried to keep them small, now would be a good time to check that you are using wi-fi and not data

Continue reading →

TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Context is for Kings

Posted on by
3

TL;DR – We finally get into the heart of the series, and see both the goals and the pitfalls of the upcoming season.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Context is for Kings

Review –

So after last week’s almost preview two part-er The Vulcan Hello (review) and Battle at the Binary Stars (review) this week we finally get into the season proper as we get an introduction to the USS Discovery and its crew. This also lets us into the main tension for the season and we can start to see some of its potential, and also some of its problems. So with that in mind let’s jump in and look at Context is for Kings, now there may be some [SPOILERS] coming up if you have not already seen the episode.

Continue reading →