What is up with fandom?

The Internet has become the single greatest and the single worst invention humanity has ever crapped out. Ever. On the one hand, it is a conglomeration of the totality of human knowledge and a place for humans to act social, even if actually being social scares the poop out of them. On the other hand, it’s given nearly everyone on the planet a voice that can be heard by nearly everyone else on the planet. No, this isn’t some pro-censorship article. What I’m driving at is that the whole situation is simple metaphorical audio physics. When you get one voice by itself, that voice doesn’t have to be very loud in order to be heard, but when you get billions, suddenly all of the voices have to be louder in order to be heard above all of the other voices, which in turn increase in volume, which in turn causes the original voice to increase in volume, and I’m pretty sure you can see where this is headed. To compensate, and by natural design, we homosapiens tend to congregate with those others who share similar interests and beliefs as our own. This cuts down the amount of noise that we have to be exposed to in order to find Internet voices that are saying things that we find interesting, or entertaining. It’s not a perfect system, but it does work, most of the time.

Where am I really headed with this? Well, as a huge Trekkie,I tend to listen to other Trekkie Internet voices when I’m online and recently, my Internet has been blowing up over an event that’s been more polarizing than that time that Paramount announced that the next Star Trek show was going to be a prequel to the Original Series. In case you haven’t been following the event, I will recap. I do want to point out that I will try to remain as neutral as I possibly can here as the events that I’m about to share are not designed to be the sole direct focus of my thoughts. Now, a few years back, I think it was in 2013, I caught wind of a Star Trek fan film that was seeking funding via crowd sourcing called Star Trek: Axanar.  According to the pitch on Kickstarter, it was meant to take place several years before TOS started and focus on the exploits of Garth of Izar, a very minor character from TOS that only shows up once. They did their initial crowdfunding campaign successfully, made a promotional short to give people a feel for the quality they were going for and everyone was pretty happy by the end of it all.

Fast forward to December of 2015. Axanar dropped the Star Trek monicker at the behest of CBS and Paramount, but that month, they both decided to lay a lawsuit against the group making the film. This is the initial event that set off a firestorm of epic proportions within the Star Trek fandom. I don’t wish to imply that there hadn’t been some brushfires previous to this, but this single event caused the sleeping volcano of animosity to erupt in a way that no one thought possible. Suddenly, there were producers of fan shows making rude and snide comments about the crew of Axanar. Said Axanar crew tried to remain civil for a time, but then certain ‘official’ Trek news sites started playing an agenda against the production. Fans were equally divided. Some were very much pro-Axanar and some very much against. And because of our wondrous Internet, thousands upon thousands of people were speaking up to contribute their opinion. Things got very messy very quickly.
Now there are a lot of minute aspects of the
lawsuit debacle that I could delve into, but they’re pretty trivial at this juncture and doing so is not the main purpose of this article. The last pertinent piece of information that needs to be discussed in order for us to finally move on is that just last week, JJ Abrams announced to the public that CBS and Paramount had agreed to seek a settlement with the producers of Axanar and that as part of that settlement, a list of officially endorsed fan film guidelines would be drawn up and published for the world to see. This should have been a moment of great rejoicing for Trekkies the world over, and indeed there was a lot of rejoicing. I myself let out a sigh of relief, but we’ll get to that in a little bit. In the few days following that announcement, certain producers of other Star Trek related fan productions started speaking their minds about the impending settlement situation. One in particular expressed that it was folly on the parts of CBS and Paramount to simply give up on the lawsuit and that the crew of Axanar got off far too easily. The same individual implied that the failure of one of his own projects was due to the lawsuit, which it was indirectly, and then tried to lay some blame at the feet of the fans over his non-Trek project failing to reach it’s funding goal, citing a lack of fan support as one of the primary reasons for the failure.

What does all this have to do with my point? I know I’ve taken a roundabout path getting to said point, but there is a reason. See, this entire fiasco has brought lo light just how fractured Trek fandom has become over the years. I should know, I’ve taken a bad attitude towards certain productions that I have found fault with in the past, but it’s gotten especially bad since there haven’t been any more shows on TV, but the question is, should it really be this fractured? Sure, there are going to be versions of Star Trek released that aren’t going to be entertaining to so some fans and that will be very much so for others. It’s the nature of entertainment, everything is constantly trying to evolve in order to stay fresh. How does the lawsuit play into this? Well, once the final iteration of Star Trek was cancelled, Enterprise, fans no longer had that weekly fix to look forward. That’s where these fan productions stepped in to fill a gap. They made episodes and full-length movies as labors of love to give the fans something to satiate their cravings for new Star Trek stories. I’m not personally associated with any of the individuals involved in a lot of these recent incidents, but I’m sure at their core, their only real desire is to make good and entertaining Trek, and to pay homage in their own way to the show(s) that sparked their own imagination and that got their creative side fired up in the first place.

My point is, shouldn’t that be the attitude of all Trekkies? Call it a little naive, but at the end of the day, shouldn’t we support, at least in attitude, those who have dared to gamble making a product that brings most of us joy and entertainment? Sure there are going to be some fan productions that we don’t enjoy for one reason, or another, but that’s the nature of the entertainment business. There are a lot of fan productions being made and as fans shop around, they’re able to find those ones that they enjoy. The fan film model is an extremely stressful and uncertain one, and I believe that we should appreciate the efforts of those trying to enrich our lives through their efforts, not tear them down. The Trek fandom needs solidarity, especially in these critical times as CBS and Paramount seek to figure out exactly how to allow fans to wield this unique creative outlet. I’m not saying that this change in attitude will, or even can happen overnight, but I think it’s something that Trekkies need to work toward. If Trekkies present a united front of fandom, then the powers that control that beloved property are more likely to listen to what they have to say. So next time you might find yourself in a discussion about Trek fan films, especially with me, try to keep in mind that we’re all just imperfect beings trying to make it in an imperfect world, and at least pay respect to those who are attempting, in their own way, to make that world a little better for others.

My Favorite MCU Film

Well, we’re officially knee deep into summer blockbuster season, for better or for worse, and we’ve already gotten a new MCU film for the year. It’s been a couple of weeks since Captain America: Civil War came out and I understand that it’s been doing pretty well in the box offices. As my personal homage to this “cinematic event” I thought I would share with you my thoughts on my favorite MCU film. Now, I’ve seen all of the phase one films up to the first Avengers movie. I’ve seen all three Iron Man films as well. But this particular film still manages to maintain a special place in my heart. Let’s take a look at, possibly the most underrated MCU film ever, The Incredible Hulk.

In the distant year of 2008, Marvel comics made the, for the time, bold decision to try and weave their various film properties into a single universe. It had been done before, see Star Trek, but never for film, and never in the scope that Marvel envisioned. So, in that year, they released the first two of a series of interrelated films that would become known in later years as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film franchise currently spans 13 films with another four to be released by the end of next year. This is truly an ambitious undertaking. So why does Incredible Hulk stand out so much to me?

Let’s look at some of the other films in the franchise thus far. Ironman was a good first film. We were right in the middle of Nolan Batman and Ironman is about as close as you can get to that in the Marvel pantheon while still staying kid friendly. But, it was an origin story through and through. There’s the first Thor film. To be honest, both of those films have been such a snooze fest to me that I barely remember either of them. It’s not necessarily that they were bad films, but Thor is not my cup of tea as far as superheroes are concerned (reference Mary Sue). Captain America is slightly more memorable to me, mostly because I really like all things World War II, but again, it was an origin story and I find those to be pretty boring in high doses. And then there’s the old piece of resistance, Marvel’s The Avengers. Look, I know that everyone collectively lost their cookies over this movie, but it lacked a certain finesse in its storytelling elements and, quite frankly, cramming seven superheroes in one movie can be a little disorienting. It had some okay spectacle and there was some good humor, but I guess the Avengers just aren’t my style either. Always been more of an X-Men guy myself. I could go on, but that could take forever and I think we’ve established a decent cross section of data here. Besides, that covers phase one of the MCU so what makes Hulk different from the rest of these movies?

Sure, they’re all pretty good films in their own right, but they’re all origin stories. ALL. OF. THEM. The first Ironman we see how Tony Stark decided to become the titular character. Thor we see how Thor crosses over to our realm for the first time and falls for Natalie Portman (The most unbelievable aspect of that movie, by the way.) Captain America, same thing. Take the serum, fight the Nazis, get frozen and then suddenly it’s 2010. Even the Avengers film was kind of an origin film. Will they figure out how to work as a team in their ‘first major engagement together’? What I’m saying is, in three years, we got four origin story films. It took four films to finally lay the groundwork for all of these characters. Now, I know what you’re probably saying, “But that’s a lot of mythology to bring together!” Okay, I’ll concede that one. That is a ton of mythology to tie together, but it speaks to an epidemic in comic book films today. How many films have shown the origin story of Batman? Four. How many for Spider-Man? Three, perhaps four depending on what happens with the next film. Superman? Well, two for that one, but he’s an outlier here. The point is, even though it was still fresh at the time, we’ve seen so many origin story films by now that for the sake of this discussion, it needed to be brought up, but why?

Incredible Hulk did something seriously gutsy for a comic book film, it didn’t approach the film from the origin story point of view. The origin of the Hulk is covered, but it’s done so in flashbacks during the opening credits sequence. It did what no very few other superhero films have dared to do and assumed that the world collectively knew how the Hulk came to be. I wholeheartedly applaud this approach! We live in a world where these characters have literally become our pantheon of demigods and there are very few people living on this planet who don’t know the origins of these superheroes so wasting millions of dollars and months of people’s time is a little superfluous. Now having said all of that, there was a wee bit of an origin story going on in the film, it just wasn’t focused on the Hulk. Instead, it was focused on how Abomination came to be. I can give a little bit of a pass here because I think only diehard fans of the Hulk are really going to know who that character even is. I didn’t even realize that they’d lifted him straight out of the comics until I was researching this article.

That brings me to my next point. The writer did a wonderful job incorporating existing characters from the comic mythology. Betty Ross, the Abomination, Leader: all of these characters got great representation in the movie. And while we’re on the subject of representation, I thought that the nods to the 70s TV show were a really nice touch. The theme song got worked in there! Whenever I hear those somber notes, I feel like I can almost understand the agony that is the Hulk’s existence. The use of the green eyes in the spotlight was taken directly from the show and Lou Ferrigno makes a cameo. The writer knew that a lot of his audience were going to be familiar with the show and he did a great job integrating all of the good elements of that show into the film so that audiences would have some common ground with the universe that he’d created.

There’s a huge aspect of this movie that I feel gets dropped afterward with the Hulk’s subsequent appearances and it’s on that, at least in my mind, solidifies Ed Norton as the best Hulk of this millennium and that is that his performance is very dynamic. Chalk it up to the screenplay if you want, but Ed Norton’s portrayal gives some amazing depth to the character. There’s a struggle going on inside Banner’s mind between the logical and ordered Bruce Banner and the chaotic and deadly Hulk. There’s a desire to rid himself of this burder and we see that struggle and the side effects of that struggle. PTSD is extremely well represented in this film and it’s handled well. It’s an aspect that I feel is absent in other film portrayals of the character, and that’s too bad because it helps me as an audience member, connect to the character more.

Following that train of thought, I also enjoy the growth we get to see Bruce Banner got through in the movie. He starts as a man at odds with his existence. There’s this hidden piece of himself that he sees as a cancer and he’s trying to find a way to remove it, but by the end of the film, we see him embrace that side of himself as he learns to harness his abilities. He accepts that ridding himself of his mutation is just not an option and he starts to learn to integrate that aspect of his being into his life instead. Again, Norton’s performance really drives this home. Speaking of, one of the other aspects of Norton’s performance that I enjoy is how he approached the character in general. Mark Ruffalo is the mild-mannered, soft spoken genius Banner and that’s fine, but Norton is the plucky, bumbling and uncoordinated Banner that really captures the total package when I think of Bruce Banner as a character. Again, Norton’s performance is just more relatable and I like characters to which I can relate.

Let’s talk about Bruce and Betty real fast. I understand that Norton is kind of a pain to work with so I don’t know if the chemistry between the two was natural, or forced, but it was great! The body language that the two actors used towards one another, the tones of their voices all convey a warmth and a caring that goes beyond mere friendship. You really get the impression that these two are soulmates who want only to be together, and you feel the conflict as they come to accept the reality of their existence.

It all makes for a great story, which I’ve discussed a little, but not at length. I like the way this movie is structured. It takes its time and does things deliberately. There aren’t really any wasted frames in this film. Every scene, every line of dialog serves the story and they serve it well. I love that we get half way through the film before we even get to see the Hulk fully for the first time. The film treats it as an event and because of that, viewers are rewarded with a truly exciting moment to take with them. We get to work through a little bit of a mystery as the movie unfolds and we’re made to try and guess how things are going to play out and I like that aspect of things as well. In all, I could see where some might take the slower pace and call it plodding, but i’d call it methodical, deliberate and well executed.

Finally, and you knew that it was going to come up, let’s look that the Hulk for a minute. I’m not even going to do the 2003 film the courtesy of giving any thoughts, but I prefer the look of the 2008 Hulk over subsequent installments. The animation is done in such a way that I can tell that the animators were attempting to make the Hulk look more realistic in this movie. The Ruffalo Hulk looks way too cartoony for my tastes and it could almost be argued that it looks so cartoony that it almost makes the character look like a parody of himself. And since we’re on special effects, there were some really amazing ones in this movie. There’s great use of slow motion and bullet time, which are two effects techniques that tend to get abused more often than not. There’s great lighting and the scenery even manages to be interesting throughout. All-in-all, a total package there as far as I’m concerned.

Hopefully now you understand why I’m willing to make such bold claims concerning this movie. I know that I’m in a minority here and that most didn’t find it very good, but where most see a slow, plodding snoozefest, I see an intelligent, witty, and well executed film that stayed true to its roots and delivered a top notch viewing experience. I highly recommend that you dust this one off and give it another watch. I guarantee that you won’t be disappointed!

Gotham: Lost Opportunity?

To all you folks watching the blogoshpere and stopping in, welcome! My regulars may have noticed that I’m a day late once again, but I’m thinking that Thursdays might just become the new release day as I have far less conflicts in my schedule and more time to really dwell on what it is that I want to tell you guys.

This week, I take a contrarian stance simply for the sake thereof, but also because I think it’s a point of view that gets overlooked quite a bit. By the title you already know that this entry is all about the hit TV series Gotham. As a disclaimer, I just want to say that I really enjoy the show. I find that period of Batman mythology severely overlooked and quite fascinating. However, that does not mean that I find it totally without fault so we’re going to look at one that left me feeling really disappointed after the first season.

For those who aren’t familiar, Gotham is the story of Jim Gordon and his time as a beat detective for the GCPD before he began to move up the ranks, eventually becoming commissioner. Again, it’s a period in Batman mythology that is widely unexplored. This brings me already to the main point that I’d like you to dwell on (It’s going to be a really short article.). Jim Gordon is not a superhero per se. He’s a regular guy. The closest thing that he has to a superpower is his ability to seem incorruptible.

The first season of the show followed this train of thought and as a result, Gotham felt more like a procedural drama than a comic book show. “But wait! It’s about a comic book universe! Shouldn’t it be a comic book show,” you maybe saying. Well, yes, it should be a comic book show, but that doesn’t mean that it has to feel like a comic book show. The first season did a really great job incorporating elements of the Batman mythology while still managing to remain grounded in the idea that the things happening in the show are not so farfetched that they couldn’t happen in our own world. This approach was fresh and exciting, at least to me.

Let me just say that I love procedural crime dramas. I grew up on Law & Order, NYPD Blue, In the Heat of the Night, and various others. These days, I really enjoy NCIS, Criminal Minds, Lie to Me, and a whole slew more and there’s definitely a reason for that. The procedural part of the genre designation entails that the viewer is going to work through the mystery with the characters as the episode unfolds. I really enjoy brain teasers and so I take a great deal of satisfaction from that aspect of those types of shows. And for the first season of Gotham, that’s how the show felt. There were mysteries to be solved each episode and I felt like I was invited to work through the cases alongside the character. Again, a really fresh take on the Batman mythos.

Then season two happened. The producers of the show were getting pressure from the network to make it feel more like the comics and the films and that’s where the show kind of died. It lost that unique identity that only a Batman show could assume and it became just another humdrum comic show. The show jumped the shark with the introduction of Mr. Freeze. He’s a great villain in his own right, but using him as a character in the second season just seems a little too soon in the show’s progression. But the entire tone of the show changed with that move. Now it feels like writers and producers are just trying to shoehorn in all of these villains that we’ve come to love for no other reason than to attract more viewers and that’s pretty sad.

I do have other grievances with the show as well. For instance, I’ve always liked the idea that Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent were roughly the same age, as in Batman:The Animated Series because this gave them an invested relationship and upped the dramatic tension between the two characters. I’m also not a huge fan of Fish Mooney. I feel like the character is just a boldfaced attempt to pull a Harley Quinn and introduce a show character that gets adopted into the comic mythos. The character is not even terribly interesting to watch after the first dozen episodes or so.

That’s not to say that Gotham isn’t without its strengths. I appreciate the ambiance that the show creates with each episode. The sets and locations, the lighting and the music all make for a very Batman-esque atmosphere. The focus on the Penguin was a brilliant idea from the start and Robin Lord Taylor plays him exceptionally well. Along that line, the inclusion of Edward Nigma was also a brilliant idea as seeing his progression from mild mannered clerk to criminal mastermind is really interesting. The use of the (presumed) Joker was a ton of fun because having those red herrings hinting at Batman’s greatest foe kept me wanting to see what happened next. These are all elements that started in the first season. The only element that was lacking emphasis at that point was a metaplot arc, but even then, between Gordon’s work as a detective week-to-week, Penguin’s rise to power within the criminal underground and mystery of the Wayne murders, there was plenty to go around.

Am I saying that Gotham is inherently a bad show? No. In fact, it’s still an entertaining show to watch. What I am saying is that there was an experimental Batman show being produced last season that, unfortunately, died a rather quick death and that’s a tragedy. I think if the experiment had been able to continue unaltered, we would have eventually ended up with a great show instead of one that’s just good. So here’s to the Batman show that we all need, but not the one that we actually deserve.

My Favorite movie... FOR NOW!

In light of the fact that I leveled up yesterday, I figured that I would take an opportunity to really indulge myself for this week’s post. That’s also why this one is a day late. I do apologize. Anyway, I figured that I would go ahead and review my favorite movie, not in one genre, or under any other general criteria, but my overall favorite movie.

I toiled for days trying to figure out exactly which movie fits that bill. There are a TON of REALLY good movies out there, spanning numerous genres and from various eras of cinematic history so choosing just one turned out to be a pretty difficult task. As usually happens, the idea sparked a line of thought that I hadn’t expected, which was, upon what criteria do I rely in order to decide what my favorite film is? It’s an extremely subjective thought exercise, but a fascinating one all the same. Everyone has a favorite movie. Perhaps they’ve never thought enough about it to vocalize which film it is, but given some time and thought, every person could come up with that one. I’d be willing to bet that in more cases than not, the person would say something to the effect, “I know it’s not that great, but I just like it.”

Why is that exactly? Even I, who have a pretty high standard for good cinema, like a film that most write off as mediocre at best. So what drives us to learn to love these less-than-brilliant films so much that their very existence trumps that of other, superior films? I can’t speak for everyone out there, but I am always willing to use myself as a guinea pig in the pursuit of the human condition so let’s see what my favorite film has to offer and maybe that will give us a glimpse into the phenomenon.

Obviously, from the picture, the move that I decided was my all time favorite movie is Star Trek: Insurrection. It’s no secret by now that I’m a HUGE Star Trek fan. If there’s any doubt, reference some of my older posts now. Go ahead. I can wait… Done? Okay. So even by Star Trek movie standards, Insurrection is considered pretty weak, that holds true with most fans as well. So here’s the start of the analysis, the background. The film was released in 1998. I was in high school at the time and I didn’t have cable. This was before everyone lived on the Internet too so I didn’t even know that the movie had been released in theaters until it had already left them.. This was also my pretentious phase where I claimed that my favorite movie of all time was Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Go ahead a laugh. No, really, get it all out of your system now. I got nothing, but time here. Anyway, I had some pretty sound reasoning behind this opinion. For one, I thought the concept of exploring our spiritual origins and the questioning the existence of a supreme being were pretty ballsy concepts. Two, for all of its faults, Final Frontier had some excellent and really memorable character moments. Lastly, I’m a contrarian! If that hasn’t already been established, perhaps you should go back and catch up on a few things.

My tastes have evolved a great deal since I was in high school and the advent of blu-ray really made Frontier show its age in all the wrong ways. However, even at that time, and once I got Insurrection on VHS, it always ranked among my favorite movies ever. As I said, it was generally panned by critics and audiences were left feeling underwhelmed after watching it, but I always get a kick out of this movie. I promise, I’m not crazy, my psychologist cleared me. There are just a number of things going on with Insurrection that hit on my particular sensibilities.

For starters, I grew up on Next Generation. Hence, I got used to Star Trek being a vehicle for ideas. I had seen many of the other Star Trek films at that age and, indeed, I had seen a lot of movies in general at that age, but I was doomed from the start with my Trekdom and Star Trek just resonates with me more than movies from other genres or franchises. Back to the point, I liked shows that used their storytelling and analogy to open my own mind to different ways of looking at the world. Insurrection in my opinion, uses the mechanics of Star Trek storytelling better than any other Star Trek movie ever. If you watch the original series, the shows weren’t always very action packed.. They used great story elements and good ideas to entertain. It was smart and while I really enjoy most of the Trek films, a lot of them rely heavily on action. I’m not saying that a Star Trek movie should be completely devoid of action. I’m simply saying that when it comes to Star Trek there needs to be a balance between action and ideas, and Trek is at its best when the action serves the ideas. Insurrection does this extremely well. It’s not completely devoid of action, but the action that does exist serves the ideas upon which the plot is build. In this way, Insurrection is one of the most Trek-y entries in the Star Trek cinematic universe.

Much like my previously stated high school favorite, Insurrection has some phenomenal character moments. Generations introduced us to a Data that could feel emotions, but in First Contact, he was too busy being a badass for audiences to really explore with him what that really meant, but Insurrection gave us fantastic opportunities to explore this new facet of Data’s existence. And what’s more, it used an actual child to frame that exploration through the innocent eyes of a childlike Data. Sure, it’s kind of blatant, but it works. As Data is trying to reconcile where his emotions fit with the life he already knows, he starts with the basics and learns from someone who, by default of youth, is going through the same things. Picard also gets a breath of fresh air in this movie, which is good. First Contact introduced us to a Picard that would stop at nothing to avenge himself against the Borg. It was heavy stuff. Insurrection gives us a Picard that hearkens back to his roots. We get to see him smile, laugh, and even crack wise. It’s pretty refreshing when coming off the previous film and its dark tones and themes. My favorite moment from the film has to be the scene where Geordi gets to watch a sunrise without the use of his prosthetics. I just felt like Levar Burton nailed every aspect of that scene. He seems to be feeling a genuine joy as he gazes out on the majestic scene.

The last aspect of this movie that really puts it on top of my favorites list is the theme. Insurrection explores the idea of aging and death. It looks at some of the extremes that we go to in order to preserve our youth. This resonates a little more poignantly with me now that when I was in high school as I think we all tend to think a little more about our own mortality as we age. But the film explores this theme in a thoughtful and sometimes hard hitting way. To understand that, you need a little premise. There’s a group of aliens living on the literal fountain of youth. There’s another group who are so decrepit that they need the fountain in order to survive as a species. Caught in the middle is a hapless bureaucrat who sees an opportunity to leave a lasting mark on history with a new scientific discovery. Picard and crew step in to thwart the efforts of the guys who want to rip the aliens living on the planet away from their fountain. That’s the nutshell. The metaphor being used is that of the forced relocation of the fountain of youth guys. The question is asked, how far can we go to accomplish a thing before we consider it to be wrong? It’s a pertinent question to ask even today. We see pockets of oppressed people vocalizing and politicking their agendas and we have to ask ourselves, just how far are people allowed to go until we consider it to be wrong? It’s a solid theme and an interesting look at the human condition, which really ties well to the original philosophy that Roddenberry held when he first envisioned his show.

There are a number of other things to love about this movie.. The special effects are really amazing, for the most part. That’s saying quite a bit considering when it came out and the extensive use of CGI. There are some great humorous moments in the film that never fail to bust my gut. Worf goes through puberty. That could be its own show and I’d watch it every week! Of course, I’m a music guy and there is some out of this world music in Insurrection. Jerry Goldsmith composed the music for the film and he did a fantastic job! Every note is a joy to listen to.

Critics all said that the movie plodded along too slowly and that it was a snooze fest. I actually kind enjoy that it takes its time to build the plot slowly and deliberately. It doesn’t rush to just get things done. They said that it lacked too much on the action front. I would retort that Voyage Home had next to no traditional action sequences whatsoever. I could do this for a while, but you probably get the point.

So what did we learn? Well, you’ve just gotten an extensive insight into how I view cinema. But we’ve also learned that when it comes to movies, we all have drastically different and unique sensibilities. Everyone is going to have a different approach to movies and for that reason, we’re all going to have that favorite that makes no logical sense to anyone else, but that speaks to us in a way that captures our imagination. That’s all I’ve got, but I’d love to hear your thoughts and find out what some of your favorite movies are. Who knows? Perhaps I’ll review one! Kidding, but feel free to comment so that we can add a few more data points to this discussion!