Geekklesia

The TL:DR version - My Final Ranks: https://boxd.it/1JTjC It seems that a lot of the folks I follow have put together their list of the top Marvel Films. Now that Avengers: Infinity War is out, I thought it was probably time for me to at least take a stab at a list of my own. But with eighteen films to work with, it seemed to be a very overwhelming task.  So I decided to apply a very simple methodology to my ranks: First, I looked at the films releases by the "Phases" as ordered by Marvel: Original Release List: Phase One Iron Man (2008) The Incredible Hulk (2008) Iron Man 2 (2010) Thor (2011) Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) Marvel's The Avengers (2012) Phase Two Iron Man 3 (2013) Thor: The Dark World (2013) Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) Ant-Man (2015) Phase Three Captain America: Civil War (2016) Doctor Strange (2016) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2...

Now that a few weeks have passed, and I have had the opportunity to see Captain America: Civil War twice, there are some thoughts that I believe are present. A number of bloggers and other critics have noted that neither Steve Rogers/Captain America nor Tony Stark/Iron Man are 100% correct in their views. Neither individuals nor institutions can be trusted to provide competent, reliable oversight for people with power. Personal responsibility: I find it interesting that in discussing the Sokovia Accords, which would limit the Avengers to act only when they had clearance from a UN panel, Steve Rogers claims to accept that in order to act he must be willing to live with the consequences. In other words, he sys he is willing to take responsibility for the results, good and bad, of his actions.   Speaking to Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, he says "This job... we try to save as many people as we can. Sometimes that doesn't mean everybody. But if we can't find a wa...

I have mentioned here and elsewhere that I am not fully a comic book geek.  My younger self was entertained by the small reading collection maintained at my aunt's house for her grandchildren (who were themselves closer to my own age than my cousins), but I never really maintained anything other than small collections of limited run series (like Ambush Bug and Car Warriors ).  Even today, I have more comic books than I have ever in my life owned, but will most likely be culling that down to a very small, non-negotiable pile of less than twenty or so in the next few months.  I have read my fair share of Superman, Batman and Justice League comics, and I faithfully watched the Superfriends cartoons on Saturday Mornings (I preferred the Wonder Twins to Wendy and her idiot brother). So it should come as no surprise that I consider myself "conversant, not fluent." A couple of years ago, I saw Man of Steel and didn't hate it. It didn't cause me anger when a young, un...

[Please forgive the stream of consciousness aspect to this post.]  We are now just two weeks away from the release of Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens in the US. I've been reflecting on this event for a while now. I was eleven years old when the original Star Wars movie (now branded as Episode 4: A New Hope ) was released and I saw it, that first, fateful summer of 1977. Then in 1980, this was followed by Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back . A new decade, and a darker turn, with an unbelievable (at the time) reveal. In 1983, I had just finished my Junior year of High School, and my best friend at the time and I were among the first in line to see the conclusion of what is now seen as the "Original Trilogy," Episode 6: The Return of the Jedi. There was  no camping out at my little theater near Texarkana, Texas. In fact, when I pulled up, we were the first to arrive. But rather than starting the line, we went back and sat in the car. When others arrived, ...

Last weekend, I was able to pull off a rare treat for myself: I got to see two movies, as it was Memorial Day and I had the time.  My wife and I together went to see Tomorrowland , and then on Monday I soloed at Mad Max: Fury Road (while she went to see Age of Adeline ). The two films together are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to our possible futures.  On the one hand, Tomorrowland wistfully presents us with the possibility thaht our future can be bright, hopeful and full of promise, while the latest installment (NOT reboot) of the Mad Max franchise is as far to the other side of the spectrum as one can get: dark, grim, violent, uncertain in morals or promise of a better life. Most reviews of Tomorrowland I have seen have not been positive. They seem to focus on the positive message of the film. When I was a kid, this was the future I was promised: gleaming skyscrapers, high-speed monorails, jetpacks and flying cars.  As I grew up, I discovered post...

Last week I broke my ankle slipping on some ice. Since I wasn't going anywhere for a while, I decided to catch up on a movie I hasn't seen when it first came out, but one I had heard many good things about. That movie was M. Night Shyalaman's 2000 exploration of what makes a superhero or a supervillain, Unbreakable , starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. WARNING! The below synopsis and analysis contains spoilers! My initial thoughts were that in this film, every character is in some way broken. David Dunn (Bruce Willis) is dealing with a personal sacrifice he made twelve years ago that has apparently limited his future. His grief over this loss leads to a restlessness that causes his relationships with his wife and son to be broken as well. Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), unlike David, is physically broken. He has a rare condition that leads to brittle bones, which means he is highly susceptible to injury. Although deeply embittered by his condition...

I had been looking to this week for a few days. Friday is my birthday, and although my wife was scheduled to be out of town this week at a conference, she was due to return on Friday night, and we would be celebrating on Saturday, with a visit to an Irish pub in town.  While she was away, I thought about spending a little "me time" at my favorite big box book store just browsing. I should have seen it coming. First, we had been pounded two weekends previously with snowstorms which forced us to cancel many of our church activities, something I really dislike doing.  I also had to learn to shovel a precariously steep driveway at our home so that we could get out when the roads were clear enough. Not once, but twice. The second time, I didn't get as much cleared, and on Monday night (two days before my wife's trip), I slipped on a patch of ice, and went down hard. Not quite twenty years ago I severely sprained my right ankle, and thought at first that I had done the ...

For some time now, I have been collecting quotations, lines from movies, television series, books, etc. that illustrate defining values of what I and others have taken to calling "Geek Theology." When I run across them, I like to post them on the various Geekklesia social media outlets (Facebook and Google+), but I'd like to start posting them here, grouped by themes. Darkness and Light "Once you let the darkness in, it never comes out." -- ARROW, season 2, episode 17 "Birds of Prey." Sarah Lance/Black Canary: "I spent six years in the darkness, and I looked into the eyes of the devil, and I gave him my soul." Ollie/Arrow: "Let me help you get it back." -- ARROW, S2, episode 21: "Seeing Red" Barry Allen/The Flash: "Turns out no one can outrun pain. Life is tragic. But it's also precious and sweet and extraordinary and the only way I know to honor my mom's life is to keep running." -- THE FLASH, S...

In a recent article in USAToday , writers Scott Bowles and Andrea Fuller report on the idea that original stories seem to get eaten up by "sequel-itis" and "reboot raves".  To bolster their argument, they bring out an impressive assortment of statistics: Original films accounted for just 39% of box office from 2003 to 2012, down from 65% in the 10 years before. So far this summer, original stories account for just 30% of sales. Original movies accounted for less than half (47%) of the top summer releases from 2003 to 2012, down from 70% the decade before. Pacific Rim  cost the studios $190 million while only earning $94 million as of the publication of the article. They quoted University of Nebraska film professor Wheeler Winston Dixon, who is generally unhappy about the trend: "Films routinely cost $100 to $200 million, and with that kind of money at stake, who has time for originality? It's much safer to bank on a franchise."  On the o...

I love bad genre fiction. I enjoy movies like National Treasure and the Mummy franchise, as well as the subpar movies based on comic books and other big-budget, low-rent script CGI-fests. I also like the purple prose of stories from the pulp era of the 1930's and '40's that are long on action and short on logic. By all rights, this shouldn't be the case. My degree is in film and television production, and I enjoyed classes in film and television criticism.  But I still loves me some low-brow entertainment. Why is that so? That's a valid question and one I really couldn't answer exactly until after the premiere of the third Mummy movie with Brendan Fraser.  Then, someone who I don't normally agree with actually helped me crystallize my thinking. To be clear, I don't agree with his conclusions, but in modifying his approach, I came up with the following theory: we were wired to enjoy a little visual junk food every now and again. My theory is ...

On the 237th anniversary of American Independence, my wife (who I lovingly refer to as the Princess Bride) and I saw The Lone Ranger.  I had very high hopes for this film, based on the articles I had read and the trailers and other promotional items available.  There were a couple of things I wasn't crazy about prior to the film (like the scene with Silver in a tree wearing the Lone Ranger's hat, and Tonto saying "Something very wrong with that horse"), but for the most part, I was excited. In a previous post, I discussed the idea of the Western as an "American Fantasy genre," (an idea I credit to the guys at the Strangers and Aliens podcast) and I consider the Lone Ranger character as a highly venerated member of that pantheon.   A little history is in order at this point. The Lone Ranger began life on the radio. in 1933, on radio station WXYZ in Detroit, The Lone Ranger debuted. It was part of a trio of radio adventure series developed by Fran ...

( Note:  this is a review I previously recorded for The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast with Paeter Frandsen) The Western has been considered by many people as an American mythology.  It features very archetypal tropes like good versus evil and law and order versus crime and chaos.  In 2010, writer director Kevin Eslinger produced the 16 minute short film titled Nickel Children (not to be confused with the 2005 feature film The Nickel Children ), which could be variously called a steampunk or a weird western film.   The basic plot is that in the late 1800's Kansas, a young orphaned boy is held captive with other children for the pleasure of adults. The boys are forced to fight each other while the grown ups bet on the winners and losers; the girls dance with heavily made up faces to entertain the men. For a 16-minute indie film shot in only five days,  Nickel Children has a lot of promise.  The costuming...

( NOTE:  I previously recorded this as a response to the "Westerns: The Original American Fantasy Genre" episode of the Strangers and Aliens Podcast ) I never thought much about it before listening to the episode. As a Texan, I grew up with a great appreciation for the Western as a genre; that probably started with reruns of The Lone Ranger and other shows on TV. Speaking of The Lone Ranger , it started off as an Old Time Radio program. The creators also launched another  OTR program that featured the great grand-nephew of the Lone Ranger: Brit Reid, also known as the Green Hornet As an adult, I've developed a fondness for the "Weird Westerns," which are Westerns that have been "nerd-troped" by taking the classic Western and adding supernatural, horror, sci-fi and straight up fantasy elements. The best examples of this are The Wild, Wild West TV show and Cowboys and Aliens . Looking at Western movies, especially those of John Ford, they em...

LiveJournal Tags: music , TV , television , movies , SF , SciFi , Sci-Fi , Science Fiction , soundtracks , Geek Pride Day In celebration of Geek Pride Day, tomorrow (May 25), I am loading up my mp3 player with my favorite geeky tunes. Below is the playlist (with some additional comments as I felt necessary). A-Team Song Airship Pirate by Abney Park (Abney Park is a steampunk-themed band) Battlestar Galactica Theme (from the original 1979 series) Breathe by Abney Park Buck Rogers in the 25th Century by Neil Norman Buck Roger’s In The 25th Century ( this is the TV version of the theme)  Cup Of Brown Joy (Tea Bag Remix) by Professor Elemental (a british hip-hop song extolling the joy of tea) Dragnet 88 by The Art Of Noise  Existential Blues by “T-Bone”Tom Stankus (digs into philosophy and turns the Wizard of Oz on its head) Florin Dance by Mark Knopfler (this is from The Princess Bride Soundtrack –my #2 favorite movie) Green Hornet by Al Hirt Nerdy Girl by Nerdy...

Technorati Tags: Podcasts , Strangers and Aliens , The Sci-Fi Christian , The Spirit Blade Underground , Christianity , SF , Faith , Sci-Fi , SciFi , Science Fiction , TV , Television , movies I enjoy listening to my mp3 player on my morning commute.  Often, I check out Old Time Radio series, but increasingly, my player has featured podcasts covering a multitude of topics.  Lately, three have bubbled up to the top of my playlists, as they focus on science fiction and fantasy TV shows, movies,and other forms of genre fiction.  Now I know that there are a lot of podcasts that cover these subjects, but these three do so from a Christian perspective. A few years ago, I had wanted to produce a podcast of my own along these lines, and actually managed to put together three episodes before Everyday Life concerns killed the project.  That’s why I’m glad these three have picked up and run with the idea, and done so in  a way that makes my efforts look really puny by...

(This is the text of an audio review I provided to The Spirit Blade Underground podcast.  You can find the episode here .) Metropolis is not the first science fiction film. According to my copy of Phil Hardy’s The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies (1984), that honor goes to the Lumiere short film “The Mechanical Butcher,”  produced in 1895. It is, however, probably one of the most important science fiction films in history.  Its influence is seen in many films even down to what we might call the modern era. German film director Fritz Lang had just completed an epic six-hour film version of the Nibelungenlied that was critically as well publicly well-received. To follow up, he wanted to make a film about the future. 1 He and his (then) wife, the writer Thea von Harbou, set about working on the story of class struggle that would become the core of Metropolis.  When he and von Harbou and producer Erich Pommer traveled to New York to promote Die Nibelungen ...