[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/hurt_locker.mp3] Alfred Hitchcock once said that there’s a big difference between surprise and suspense. I hope he won’t mind if I paraphrase a little. If I were sitting here talking about movies, and my desk were to explode because someone planted a bomb here, that’d be a surprise. Now, if you as the audience knew… Continue reading IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! The Hurt Locker
Category: Reviews
Preview: Star Trek Online
Fans of Star Trek, brace yourselves. Cryptic Studio’s Star Trek Online is just around the corner. Some are already scrambling to get lifetime subscriptions and all the extra goodies they can, whereas I’m just trying to determine if this game is worth my time and money. From what I’ve seen of the open beta, it… Continue reading Preview: Star Trek Online
IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Gattaca
[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/gattaca.mp3] In the early days of science fiction, the aim of its creators was not to impress the audience with bombastic explosions or cutting-edge computer graphics. While the overall goal was to entertain and engage and thus earn a living, they didn’t have the aforementioned crutches upon which to lean. They had to rely solely… Continue reading IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Gattaca
Game Review: Brütal Legend
What isn’t awesome about this artwork? NOTHING THAT’S WHAT. I, like Yahtzee, love Tim Schafer. We’ve taken turns talking about how great he is. I grew up on games like Day of the Tentacle and I adored Full Throttle. Psychonauts quickly grew on me (after my fingers healed up) and when Tim finally returned with… Continue reading Game Review: Brütal Legend
Movie Review: Daybreakers
Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a current movie. I blame my job schedule and related finances. Anyway, when I got a couple of movie passes for Christmas, my wife and I debated what we’d go see. We settled on Daybreakers and, well, anything I say here is going to sound a lot… Continue reading Movie Review: Daybreakers
IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! A Terminator Retrospective
[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/terminator.mp3] Now that the latest film is available on Netflix, as well as the television series, I’d like to discuss the rise and fall of the Terminator franchise. Examining what worked in the various stories of this mythos and where things went a bit wrong, or a lot wrong, should only take a few minutes.… Continue reading IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! A Terminator Retrospective
IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Battlestar Galactica
[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/bsg.mp3] In recent years, for one reason or another, many stories in speculative fiction have been ‘rebooted’. In most cases the ‘new’ versions of the stories have suffered from either not being very well executed, getting called out for disregarding the established histories and characterizations of the source material or both. Transformers, Star Wars and… Continue reading IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Battlestar Galactica
IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! The Mutant Chronicles
[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/mutant_chronicles.mp3] Adaptations are a good way to cull an established audience from one medium and transplant them into another to generate more revenue and attention for a given work. Just look at the success of The Lord of the Rings, Iron Man and even Twilight. Novels, comic books, even toys have had some success moving… Continue reading IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! The Mutant Chronicles
Trek through Trek: The Animated Series
You might be expecting me to discuss Star Trek: The Next Generation next in this series, but that would be disingenous to the actual chronological order in which the universe of Star Trek developed over the years. For 2 seasons, the blink of an eye by the standards of some series, Star Trek returned to… Continue reading Trek through Trek: The Animated Series
Game Review: Mass Effect
“Don’t argue with me. You’re the one who killed the last keg, so you’re getting us a new one!” In preparation for the upcoming Mass Effect 2, I thought it would be appropriate to see how this new series of sci-fi role-playing games began. As a caveat, I played the first game on the X-Box… Continue reading Game Review: Mass Effect
