SF at the Movies - June '11

You know the drill - a head's up about what Sci-Fi goodness is out this month - release dates and trailers provided.

X-Men: First Class

Released 1/6/11



Green Lantern

Released 17/6/11



Tranformers: Dark of the Moon

Released 29/6/11



That's it y'all - have a great June!

Stuff Transformers 2 part 2

Ok, it's been a while since part 1 now so let's roll with this huh? Here are the new Autobots introduced in the film.

Jetfire











I did like this quirky character and hid decision to switch sides to the Autobots - which seems logical. He points out that always talking about destruction and death gets dull after a while, plus I'm starting to wonder why anyone would consider being a Decepticon when the Autobots always win with significantly smaller numbers - oh well, this guy was good and morphing with Optimus was great.

Sideswipe










A fairly minor character, but nonetheless a pretty cool one with his dual swords and quote of 'Damn, I'm good!' after finishing off a Decepticon. Seems like he was brought in to replace the equally flashy Jazz who died in the first movie. He didn't have an awful lot to do, but he certainly added more than just another generic robot to the team.

Skids and Mudflap











I liked these on first viewing, but they get tiring after a while. Their takedown of Devastator was quite amusing and to see them transform from the ice-cream truck into the new vehicles was great. I don't see what else you can do with them, but they were fun characters.

Arcee










I did like the motorbike triplets as they added a good amount of variety to the Autobot team. With a lot of the robots looking the same with slightly different colour schemes. it was good to have a vivid set of robots that were a different type and also a different gender to the rest of the crew - these really hooked me into the idea of the new Autobots and NEST.

Well I think that's it, apart from the little one that fancied Megan Fox, but I think he's just as well left alone.

Back soon folks!

Stuff: Transformers 2

Another of my blog posts looking at the cool things that appear in Sci-Fi movies and the like. This time Transformers 2, which was one of the most enjoyable films of last year. The movie saw autobots now working alongside humans in a special operations unit and an ancient menace that threatened all of planet Earth

That and a ton of new 'Non-Biological Entities' so let's have a look at 'em.

The Fallen
















The titular villain. I'm not an 'of old' Transformers fan so this character was new to me as were pretty much any of the characters not in the first movie. The Fallen is a 'Prime' like Optimus, though much older and more powerful. He also has far greater abilities such as teleportation and gravity manipulation. He was also apparently Megatron's master and after resurrecting him used him to attack Optimus as he can 'only be killed by a Prime' whether that is a power thing or a Macbeth style prophecy is unclear. Nonetheless he is eventually defeated by Optimus and his plan to harvest energon from the sun, create an army of new decepticons and wipe out the human race is ended.

Soundwave








Another returning character I didn't know. I love the idea of a transformer sattelite, i thought it was really clever and didn't see it coming. Soundwave worked really well as a behind the scenes menace, informing Starscream of NEST's plans and directing the decepticons to land.

Ravage






One of Soundwave's minions this dog like decepticon kept popping up everywhere you went, there did seems to be a lot of animal like creatures growing in the Fallen'#s lair so maybe this was one of them I don't know.

Reedman






From Soundwave comes Ravage, from Ravage comes err Reedman, is that really the name for this thing? OK, anyway I loved this robot, the idea of a completely flat profile so as to be nearly undetectable was genius and a great way for them to infiltrate the base. I wasn't to keen on it's construction from tiny robots, I'd have preferred it assembling from component parts or slithering like a snake before building up, but you can't have everything I guess.

Devastator








Yes there was one of the same name in the first film, but there's anly so many nasty names you can use before starting over. This was the first 'constructicon' we've seen in the movies, combining from a number of transformers to make one giant monster of a villain. Fortunately it did have a purpose and not just there for kicks, it waqs used to expose the energon harvester hidden under a pyramid, and got pretty for before being blown up by the good ol' US military!

Rampage












I'm a bit confused now, apparently this one is part of Devastator, yet he also fights Sam and Bumblebee on his own, I must me mixing up the film because I'm sure those things happen at the same time. Nonetheless I did like this one with the design of the 'whippy things' on his arms intriguing and it made for a fun fight scene.

Scalpel








I didn't really like this one to be honest with you. While I love the fact that there are tons of new cybertronians and with variety I think the sheer number of different forms was a bit baffling and some of them for me just got annoying. The Doc was able to resurrect Megatron quite easily it seems and then interpreted information from Sam's brain leading to the final battle.

Alice







Another 'alternative form' this decepticon posed as a human to lure Sam into a position where she could extract the information from him necessary to carry out the Fallen's plan. I wasn't entirely convinced by the human skinned terminator... I mean transformer, but apprently this kind of thing already exists in transformers continuity so I guess that's ok.

Right - that was even more than I thought, I think I'll cover the Autobots in another post sometime. There were a ton of other Decepticons, some hadn't even bothered to transform, but it lead up to a big battle at the end - which the autobots won. Given that they are outnumbered, but always outclass the decepticons it's a wonder more of the enemy don't do a Jetfire and switch sides. Anyway, more from me soon - I'll leave you with som more images of the decpeticons.

Grindor









Demolishor

SF at the Movies - May/June/July 09 + Word out to my people

Well it's been a long time since I've posted here and an apology again to all r4eaders who expect to actually see something here on a regular basis. Things are starting to return to normal and with the holiday season approaching I anticipate more time to dedicate to the blog. You'll know about these already, but I like to keep up traditions and so here are the contents of my latest 'at the movies' post.

Star Trek

Released 08/05/09












A movie taking us back to the lives of Kirk, Spock and the original cast brought back to life by a new cast and a new director. J.J. Abrams seems to want to put his stamp on everything and Star Trek is the latest brand to succumb. The movie was bold and daring and made good use of the character's quirks without pandering to the typical self-referential dialogue these types of films go for. The plot was exciting and dramatic, and the enemy was intense. The whole 'enemy from the future' angle was very fitting to the genre, but I did find the whole alternate timeline it throws up a little bewildering from a fan perspective - still very enjoyable though.

Terminator Salvation

Released 21/5/09












The latest addition to the famous franchise took us right into the scenario only glimpsed in the previous movies - the war between humans and Skynet. The setting and the casting were very well done, you got a real sense of the impact of the war on the survivors and a glimpse into more groups than just the resistance. John Connor was well placed as an enigmatic soldier, but not yet the leader figure he would become. The inclusion of Marcus Wright, a terminator who thinks he's human, and the reintroduction of Arnie via CG made this film a non-stop action thriller well worth seeing, and a worthy follower of the Terminator saga.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Released 24/06/09












Not necessarily the best of the movies out, but certainly one of the most enjoyable. The movie starts with a force of Autobots, allied with the U.S. Military taking out Decepticons hidden on Earth. We see Sam, the hero of the first movie, heading to Uni, but as he goes he finds a piece of the allspark, which burns information into his mind and attracts the attention of a powerful figure - The Fallen who sets a plan and raises a Decepticon army and resurrects Megatron to fight the Autobots to get his hands on a power source that will make him invincible...and destroy humanity. Very, very entertaining.

OK - enough of that, I've a feeling I missed something, let me know if that's the case. Lastly I'd like to put the word out for some of my readers who are following the blog on Facebook and on here. Most are personal friends of mine but it's been good to know that other people read this blog so I'd like to thank:

Cleo and Clayton - who have been following the blog for a while now

Chrissy for commenting and for reading - you can read her excellent blog, chronicling her TV-watching adventures HERE

Jayson for being my first follower on Blogger - read the best and latest Sci-Fi news at Nerdvana

And...erm...Hockey HotChicks, I'd like to thank er...them too!

Species of the week #2 - Transformer

OK, I'm slipping behind already, but I'll try and catch up with some more species found in the wide worlds of science fiction. This week's article could be technically be noted as not an alien since the species in question are of course machanical in nature, but since they are alive, intelligent and independent I think I'll let them get away with it, oh and they are also undeniably cool!

Transformer


























Designation: Sentient
Homeworld: Cybertron
Average Height: Varies on an individual basis

I can't claim to be a long time Transformers fan and readily confess that my enthusiasm for this species comes almost solely from the new film. The notion of a living species with mechanical components instead of organs is a fascinating one and gave the film a strength that carried over from the former cartoon series and popular toy. The transformers have a diverse and wildly varying continuity which I'm going to mostly skirt around, though I will try and avoid making direct claims based on the film as they may differ from older continuity and inevtiably annoy someone.

The Transformers are a living mechanoid species from the planet Cybertron. How they came to be is a mystery even to the species themselves as it is long shrouded in their past. Some believe they were formed from a natural interworking of cogs and levers, eventually developing into full mechanoids. Others believe that they were created by God like beings to serve in their battles, still other that the life giving Allspark provided them with life. However it happened the Transformers are most definitely alive.

They are gifted with the most incredible abilities. They processors can handle information at incredible rates and their weapons far surpass the most advanced of Earth's technology. Their most amazing ability is to change shape to attack or disguise themselves. All they need is an image of a construct (say a car) vaguely similar to themselves and instantly transform into an exact replica of it, perfectly disguised. When not in this they reside in "protoforms" often vaguely humanoid, but still clearly mechanical and clearly alien.

The history of Cybertron and it's inhabitants is a long and tortured one with multiple accounts and histories branching far and wide. But the central core of their lives for many millenia has been the two factions of the Autobots, led by the benevolent Optimus Prime and the Decepticons, led by the power hungry Megatron. This war has ravaged their world, flung them accross space and eventually lead them to Earth where they have often carried out their war hidden among the humans, this war has defined Transformers for a long time and will for years to come.