Today was a Fantasy/Fairytale triple feature.

The Mermaid (2016)
Tale of Tales (2015)
Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)

The Mermaid was ok. The comedy was goofy Hong Kong slapstick stuff, but there were a few times I was laughing hard.

Tale of Tales was a strange movie. It was enjoyable, but I probably need to watch it again to appreciate it.

I never bothered to watch Jack the Giant Slayer before, because I thought it got bad reviews. But it was fun. A typical big budget, popcorn flick with lots of action and great special effects.

Hmm, I never really thought about the clothes that seriously-you'd think they would get washed more often than shoes, but I suppose everyone washes differently.

Do go to Hannibal if you get the chance. It was a random, spur of the moment thing for us. What we had planned to do was closed, so we did the trip down from southern Illinois and spent the day there. Bought the whole package ticket, that includes the museum, a ride on the paddle boat and the admission for the Twain replica houses/historic houses plus the cave. Worth the cost, for sure. But ok, I should be a good host and remind ourselves that we should probably stick closer to the thread topic.

Has a fantasy tag, so it's good to go!

I've already worked my way through eight episodes of Star Trek: Voyager this month, and they have been a mixed bag, ranging from excellent ("Remember") to good ("Flashback") to very bad ("False Profits"). I'm finding the show very frustrating, especially since it partly coincided with the superior Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

That show manages to pull off a balance of episodic and serialized storytelling. It also allows its characters to grow, adapt, and change. By the end, characters who start out frivolous (ex. Bashir and Quark) have realistically gained complexity and weight while still retaining some of their sillier qualities. The main problem I'm having with Voyager is how little the characters change and how shallow a lot of the characterizations are. With the exception of Janeway, the Doctor, and Tuvok (I love Vulcans, perhaps because I'm a very emotional person), I don't really connect with any of the characters, nor have I noticed that their episodic adventures have changed them in any way. Sure, Harry Kim has developed a friendship with Tom Paris and been forced to confront several strenuous ordeals, but these experiences don't seem to inform his character.

Well, I do have to end on a positive and say that I'm enjoying the show. I just want it to be better since it had the potential to be great.

Voyager is my 2nd favorite Trek series with TOS, of course, in the #1 slot. But, yeah, it *can* be a frustrating show. I'm absolutely *not* a fan of the Borg and consider them a lazy writing crutch so I was quite upset when "Seven of Nine" joined the cast in season 4 (I see you're in S3 which has quite possibly some of the worst episodes of the entire series - it gets much better). While I grew to better "like" the character, overall it just didn't work that well for me as I felt it became "The Seven of Nine" show for a while with a over reliance on the character (see "Borg: Lazy writer syndrome" or "Data: is he *that* good?"). Even so, there are a few Borg based episodes in Voyager that are actually quite good with the best use of that adversary in any Trek series. Considering the Borg are from the Delta Quadrant, where our crew is "stranded," it's only natural for them to run into the race but, IMHO, it got out of hand. Then they had to go and do a few "Q" episodes (only 3 total and nowhere the number in ST:TNG but IMHO even 1 is too many). Another character I dislike and feel is essentially a writing crutch.



Fortunately, the Doctor, and his growth as a character, pretty much makes up for many of the series deficiencies but they became over-reliant on *his* character in S7 (is that a common Trek writing fault? Hmmm....). Surprisingly, to me, Neelix grew as a character and wasn't the "comic relief" I felt he would become. I also like Janeway as a captain. There are times when she suffers from weaknesses in writing/characterization (episodes where she just can't seem to make a decision and/or comes off a bit wishy-washy) but overall she's a strong character that works well at the helm of a Federation starship. Harry Kim, Tom Paris, and B'Elanna Torres felt underused and there only as filler/B-line story material. Chakotay's character *should* have received some of the work done with Seven-of-Nine as far as being friction to Janeway's directives but they watered him down once the Maquis became "friendly" with the rest of the crew. All that good antagonism was gone (and later given to Seven-of-Nine). Tuvok is... well Tuvok. Consistently written and a good character although the writers *did* rely on some "standard" Vulcan story tropes.



Wow! That all makes it sound like I *don't* like the series. I *do* it's just that I look at it as a whole which works rather well in spite of weaknesses in some scripts and characterizations.

I'm about halfway through my BR copy of Star Trek S3. The visual quality of these updated seasons is simply amazing. The improvement in the image is much like the jump in quality of Band of Brothers BR over the DVD. Color is superb with sharp images showing little grain - and that only in some of the matte/process shots of the Enterprise. Audio is also good, although I don't care for the fake stereo mix and default to the original mono.

I've always considered S3 of TOS to be somewhat weaker than the first 2 seasons in spite of containing some of the series best episodes. It's been several years since I've watched the series and am finding S3 *far* better overall than I remembered with only a couple of "bad" episodes so far. "Spock's Brain" is *not* one of those (I've always liked that one). Of course a "bad" episode of TOS is superior to much of what passes for "good" TV these days.

Herbert! Herbert! Herbert!

I am not Herbert.

Frighteningly enough, *that's* the next episode I'll watch! And I'll stick to my comment - even *that* episode is better than much of what I've seen on current TV shows.

Here's a interesting trivia note about Voyager and their trip home.

In the TOS episode "That Which Survives" (S3/E17), the Enterprise was thrown 990.7 light-years from the planet they were investigating, then returns in about 1 day. 7 seasons of Voyager were based on the idea that it will take 70 years to travel 70,000 light-years. With the rate stated in this episode, Voyager should've covered that distance, and returned home, in little over a month.

Uhura: Mr. Spock! Are you all right?
Mr. Spock: Yes. I believe no permanent damage was done.
Uhura: What happened?
Mr. Spock: The occipital area of my head seems to have impacted with the arm of the chair.
Uhura: No, Mr. Spock. I meant what happened to us?



Meanwhile, back on the planet:

Sulu: Once in Siberia there was a meteor so great that it flattened whole forests and was felt as far...
Captain James T. Kirk: [interrupting] Mr. Sulu, if I'd wanted a Russian history lesson I'd have brought along Mr. Chekov.

I just watched an incredible movie on B-Movie TV - Alien Warrior (1986). This poster does a pretty good job of describing it.



If you like really bad B-movies, and need a good laugh, do yourself a favor and check it out on YouTube.

Advanced Search on IMDB is a Godsend. Yesterday I was wondering what sci-fi or fantasy had a horror tag, and found a ton. Tonight I was wondering what had an action tag and found a ton more.

Just finished Rodan (1956). Watched the original Americanized version; man what a hatchet job. They chopped 10 minutes out of it and added an incessant narrator. In spite of all that I still enjoyed it. Pretty sure I recognized Paul Frees as one of the English dubbers. It did whet my appetite for the original version.

I own Rodan, the dubbed version, and though I've never seen the original, I love it.

Just rented The Purge, on Amazon Instant Video. I've never seen any of them before, and while I didn't outright love the movie, I did like it. I thought it was worth the $3 rental fee.

Keye Luke and George Takei are among the dubbers of RODAN.

I think Keye Luke was the narrator.

I really liked Tale of Tales as well, as I think I posted earlier.
I also own Jack the Giant Slayer on 3D Blu-ray. Maybe I should watch it then. I've kind of always skipped over it because of bad reviews as well, but bought the 3D version when it was really cheap one day.

You two need to watch the original. It's very good.

This release (amazon link) has both versions with the original in a in very good remastered version, unfortunately the American version appears to be the same old Classic Media release that looks rather overprinted and worn out. The original is in Japanese with English subs. Both are FS as originally displayed in theaters.

It comes with War of the Gargantuas, also in original and English versions in anamorphic TohoScope 2.35:1 transfers with prints that are good but each has issues. They're still very watchable.

It's stuff like this that makes me watch those American versions on occasion.

I tried watching Batman v Superman a couple nights ago. Totally not my style for an action film. Style over substance just didn't work for me. Each scene is basically a single piece of a puzzle, which I didn't care for either. If I was in film school, this would be an easy movie to break apart for a paper.

I ended up only getting 25 minutes in before giving up. There's no way I can sit through 3 hours of this.



So then I tried watching the latest X-Men movie. I guess that was slightly better? I stopped it after 20 minutes but I plan on picking it up again at some point. I've never been too thrilled with the younger cast and Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique doesn't do it for me, compared with the original.

Overall, it was a bad and draining night of movies for me.

^Your description of BvS pretty much cements my resolve to *not* purchase a copy of this until it's $5 or less. I'd dislike everything you've pointed out.

Yes, I'll make the purchase because I'm a completist and "need" it for the collection in spite of knowing I'll likely only watch it *once* to make sure it works.

I don't think I've watched the latest X-Men movie and don't know for sure if I even own a copy yet. My grandson came in last weekend wanting to watch the first trilogy, which we did. I mostly enjoy those, but while I'm a bit familiar with the characters I'm not a reader of the comics so don't know just how authentic the films are.

**EDIT**
I checked my Amazon orders and found I *did* purchase a copy of X-men: Days Of Future Past but it's not yet in my database. That means I *may* have watched it and just don't yet have it entered. A very common occurrence as I do bulk updates every couple of months and only *after* a viewing. I need to start putting things in when I get them and just mark them when they've been watched since the database application I use supports that.

I thought BvS was amazing.

i started the day with logans run. now working on the invisible man films, starting with the original of course

Not a terrible idea, and there are gaping flaws, plotholes and out-of-character bits throughout. However, Wonder Woman is done fairly well. Also, I found it far more enjoyable than Man of Steel for two main reasons: extremely lowered expectations in general, and the distance from MoS meaning that it was both clearly alternate-alternate universe and didn't rehash/mess with origins.

I might actually try and watch Returns/Steel/BvS when it arrives from Target just to see what I think with even more hindsight...

DoFP I enjoyed (20% for time travel, 70% for Quicksilver, 10% other). Apocalypse we missed at the theater

I watched Logan's Run last year and was sort of disappointed. It's one of those frequently brought up sci-fi movies you must see as a fan of the genre but I kind of thought it was eh. Perhaps because now it's not that unique? I'm not sure, but definitely not getting a repeat viewing from me.

I was going to ask for more information, but remembered this from earlier:

...which I can echo. Plus the horrible (critic and many "fan") reviews, which lowered my expectations further - essentially the opposite of Dark Knight - and allowed the film to exceed my hopes somewhat. But I still couldn't get past some really dumb assumptions and moments. Plus, it was long enough and not quite engaging enough for my daughter (c.f. Civil War) which always makes me mindful of flaws.

Tomorrow, my Transformers collection will be complete, as far as I'm concerned. The original series box set is due to arrive tomorrow, and I already own the movie, plus all 3 Japanese series. Now if only Zone would come out on DVD.

As I'm excited about my new purchase, I just watched A Plague of Insecticons on Tubi TV. I only have one episode left to go in Season One, 'Heavy Metal War', one of my favorite Season One episodes, because it introduced the first combiner, and my personal favorite one, Devastator.

I need to get around to watching it at some point. I don't think it's a BD title for me--either rental or digital-credit purchase. The digital version is 20 bucks, which isn't great, but you can add Man of Steel for five bucks, which seems about right for that one, though I don't hate it.

I like it, but I saw it as a kid, and it's pretty dated. And I agree the material has been covered since then.