I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate the producers of Caprica for creating a really charming, ingenious opening sequence. It basically tells the whole backstory of the show in a minute. Let’s be honest opening themes or sequences are a dying art these days. Most shows forego a proper opening and just throw the title at the screen and get on with it. This is understandable as they want to use every last airtime available to tell their stories. It’s just that it was a joy for me to watch the opening sequences of older shows like the A-team, Knight rider, Airwolf, Star Trek, DS9, Voyager and some of the more modern ones like Chuck, Stargate SG1 and Atlantis, so it was really refreshing for me to see this creative new opening of Caprica. I tip my hat to the producers of Caprica for breathing a new life into a dying art. Here is the opening itself: I definitely agree with one of the commentators on youtube this opening definitely pulls you in:
Ok I like to point out to everyone what I believe is the best new show of the season. That is Human target, I know I know the name is kinda lame, I thought so as well at the beginning but right from the first minutes of the pilot the series throws you into the middle of the action and rarely pauses to take a breather. It is refreshing to see another old school 80’s style action show on the air. I believe we were missing such a show, I know we have 24 but that is considered as serious drama while you can categorize Human Target as action, comedy or tongue in cheek action.
The three lead actors are really good, Mark Valley as the charming assassin, spy (anything you want him to be and he’ll be), Chi McBride as his lovable boss, and Jackie Earle Haley (yup Rorscharch from Watchmen) as the mysterious Guerero. The show even has its own opening sequence which most shows lack these days, although I have to applaud the producers Caprica for their ingenious opening sequence. Anyhow, I have just two words to say to everyone: Watch this show (That’s three words actually )
This show seems to be the one show this season that really separated its fan base. There seems to be three groups battling it out over the internet, the lovers, the haters and the neutrals who like all the shows. While I didn’t necessarily liked all the episodes so far, I found the show enjoyable enough to like it so I consider myself in the group that likes all the Stargate shows so far.
What I don’t understand is the belief of some people that it is wrong for Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis fans to like the new show or that the Haters must hate all the other shows. While I could easily go the Shatner way and say: It’s just a show, I won’t because I believe that is rude for the fans, it may just be a show but lots of people are invested in it, therefore have the right to criticize if its not something they expected. We should also be aware that the producers told everyone before the show started to air that it will be a totally different show, so our expectations should have based on these descriptions.
One thing I would advise the producers to do in the second half of the season is to amp up the action a little. I know it is a drama but Stargate at its heart always had action.
Good news everyone, Chuck is back with back to back episodes. After watching the first episode I realized how I missed chuck bartowski and his friends. Although I have to take this moment to say something to the producers without trying to spoil too much, but what they did to Emmet Millbarge was unnecessarily cruel in my opinion. Yeah the guy was a jerk and a little eccentric but he didn’t deserve that, it wasn’t really in the spirit of Chuck and unnecessarily tragic I believe. Other than that I believe it was a solid episode, lets hope chuck becomes a tv mainstay for NBC for years to come. Among all the reality crap these days it is getting harder and harder for shows like Chuck to survive but through our help I believe it will. Go Operation Bartowski.
So will this be the year that we actually make contact, no one knows, but I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy new year. Let’s hope this year see less deaths more happiness, less tragedy, less political bickering, less discrimination, less worldwide aggresion and less oppression of the weak. Instead more happiness, comfort, help to the poor, and an all around relaxed world. People should just chill out and enjoy their lives, they only have one.
This is a small criticism aimed for those teachers that still continue to use memorization as a way of education. As a wannabe teacher I would like to say that no memorization is not an effective way of teaching. Memorization is the easy way out, as teachers we must make our students analyze and think about topics not blindly recite the definition or texts related to it. I believe this is the reason why more and more people around the world are increasingly becoming depoliticized, they don’t know how to analyze or look at different points of view.
Analysis is important for both the personal growth and the betterment of a person as a whole. We must infuse our students with the ability to form a proper judgment, the ability to think, to look at multiple points of view to properly function in this life. With memorization we only make them mindless robots, who say the same thing all over again like a parrot without thinking about it. This demolishes the ability to start proper discussion without resorting to cliches or known facts.
So what I want to say to educators all over the world, make your students think, make them analyze don’t turn them into educated zombies. Education is nothing if it doesnt develop a persons way of thinking, skills of analysis, and ability to make rational decisions. All of these go hand in hand but all of it start with proper education. This education should not be limited to university only, it must start from junior school, only then can we truly develop as a person, only then can we break our chains and be truly unique instead of an automaton with a brain. Every teachers goal should be to create fully functional people for the society not brainless, thoughtless machines that only think in a single way and only look at the world through horses glasses.
Throughout the summer and fall season I watched many different shows and movies and I want to continue to review the good and bad aspects of these shows and movies.
To Start first of all the new Star Trek movie was as epic as I had hoped and was definitely the best movie of the year. Although no one can replace the legendary original cast the new bunch did extremely well. The standouts for me in the cast were Chris Pine as captain Kirk, Bruce Greenwood as Captain Pike, Zachary Quinto as Mr Spock and especially Karl Urban as Bones McCoy. It was a honor and pleasure to see Leonard Nimoy again as Mr Spock showing his gravitas and literally passing the torch to Zachary Quinto’s Spock. Although the story was not as strong as I hoped the camaraderie and the optimism of the film together with the solid cast made it an epic adventure. In these times of dark, gritty and broody films it was a nice change of pace. I have to say a few things about Chris Pine, he definitely has stardom in his future this young guy doesn’t just rely on his good looks but also does manage to act. He has a bright future ahead of him. Also Karl Urban’s portrayal of McCoy reminded me why Doctor McCoy was such a joyous character and why he is a necessary part of the crew. His McCoyisms were a joy to watch and he definitely needs more scenes in the sequel. The only one of the cast that I’m unsure about is Anton Yelchin as Chekov, he is not bad but looks a little too young and the producers seem to rely on his accent too much for comic relief. One thing I didn’t like about the film was the usage of a brewery as the engine room, this is a starship not a factory guys can we please have our old warp drives and warp cores back together with a proper engine room. Anyways here is a toast to JJ Abrams and the new guys on a job well done: keep on trekking guys.
Ok here is the official teaser trailer for the second Transformers Film:
What is it with Michael Bay and falling asteroids, I mean does he have to show us in every film that he has directed Armageddon. Apart from that looks solid, although that huge transformer kind of looks stupid.
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