Reilly2040's Blog

After the slight misfire of season 2, its become the norm for Heroes to take a bit of a kicking.

Now I had the same problems as most people with season 2. Hiro’s character had most of what made him likable removed, the Claire/Flying Boy plotline was a bit dull, etc, etc. However with Season 3 I’ve generally felt Heroes has been back on form. Its a bit of a shame for me to be continually reading complaints about the show, while I think its improved a lot over last year.

While I’m still not completely sold on Sylar being revealed as a Petrelli, I’ve otherwise been really enjoying this year. Hiro’s been back on form, and teamed up with Ando where he belongs. A lot of the misfiring plots from season 2 have been forgotten, and the introduction of Arthur Petrelli as the new villain of the piece has been a big success.

I like the grey area with the Heroes being forced to side with the untrustworthy Angela against her even-worse husband. Sylar’s struggle against his nature has been interesting (although I’m hoping to see him renewed as Heroes’ number-one boogeyman by the end of the season) and the idea of flipping the characters in general has been interesting (I loved some of the Peter stuff earlier in the season).

There’s been some issues granted. Aside from the Sylar/Petrelli revelation, I’ve found Claire fairly annoying again this year. Her plotline about not wanting to sit on the sidelines hasn’t really worked for me, although I did enjoy the episode with her, and both her mothers being held captive by the puppet master guy.  Mohinder also seems to be staying true to form by siding with the nearest available villain each year.  Surely the guy should’ve figured out by now that he’s a lousy judge of character? (ok, I know he’s desperate, but then he’s the one who shot himself full of that experimental syrum)

Overall I’m loving the heck out of this season.  Its just a pity that its taking such a kicking elsewhere.

Well, that was easier than I thought. The local Woolies had clearly only just put out a new case, so I grabbed all the figures I was missing. And with the prices down to £4.50 each, and a 20% voucher they’re currently giving out, it only cost me about a tenner.

I must admit, I’m very impressed by the likenesses. While I’m not hugely fussed about the two Robots of Death, there’s no doubt they’re spot on with their TV counterparts. It is a bit rubbish how you’re buying the same figure (effectively) twice though. Especially when you look at the Magnus Greel/Mr Sin pack which contains two figures, both detailed, a robot arm, the disintigrator gun, spare head for Magnus Greel, and Mr Sin’s knife. The Silver Voc that comes with just the figure and robot foot looked pretty stingy by comparison.

The Mr Sin figure is ace though. Absolutely spot-on likeness.

And I do love the now-complete Robot. Amusingly, has leg hinges are a bit loose, which combined with him being a bit top-heavy means getting him to stand is a bit fidgety and he ends up looking a bit awkward, which I think is pretty accurate given the giant robot suit the actor had to work in during the episodes themselves

I must admit, while I’d heard of the original Survivors, I’ve never actually seen it. So I went into last night’s first episode of the remake blind, not really knowing what to expect, other than the basic stuff in the Radio Times blurb about society falling due to a Flu virus and people having to re-learn how to live a basic non-technological lifestyle.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and am really looking forward to the second episode tonight.   I loved the slow buildup to everyone being wiped out, as you saw things getting slowly worse and worse, and the Government struggling more and more to keep a lid on things.

The deserted city streets is something that’s fairly familiar now, thanks to films like 28 Days Later, but I loved the imagery of the two characters kicking about a football on a deserted motorway.  

The surprising thing though, was how little planning most of the survivors had.  The vast majority of the characters headed out into the world without even mentioning some kind of supplies.   It was only when Paterson Joseph turned up that I breathed a sigh of relief, that here was a character that had actually put some thought into the situation, stocked up on useful supplies, and was heading out to the country.

Of course, that’s probably deliberate.  We are presented with some characters that are going to be hideously out of their depth (Al and Tom specifically) and work against the group as it’ll add to the drama.  It’d just have been nice to have seen, for example, Julie Graham’s character with some Tesco bags full of tins in the back of her car or something.

And then, at the end, we get hit with the twist that the plague seems to have been man-made for reasons we don’t yet know.  Its perhaps a bit unnecessary.  I suspect there’s going to be plenty of drama just from watching the characters try and survive.  It was definitely unexpected though, and I’ll be interested to see where it leads.

Finally, as someone who enjoyed Bonekickers for all its daftness, surely I can’t be the only one who got a chuckle out of things ending up on fire or exploding around Julie Graham

(It certainly robbed poor Shaun Dingwall’s funeral scene of any emotional impact in my house – it might’ve been an idea if she’d just buried him instead).

Grrrr. I hate these collect-a-figure things. Marvel Legends were famous for doing them. Basically, each figure in a wave would include a piece of a much larger figure, so by collecting every toy in the wave, you’d have all the bits to put together the final figure.

As a result, I’ve got random bits of Sentinels and Galactus’ legs kicking around the house.

Annoyingly, the classic Dr Who figures are doing the same thing. This time, you get a bit of the robot from Tom Baker’s debut story (cunningly entitled: “Robot”) with each figure. And the problem is that I really love that story and want that figure.

Usually I’m pretty good at resisting these things, however after finding the elusive 6th Doctor figure (probably my favourite of the 3 classic Docs in this wave. Its a great likeness), I find myself now owning most of the bits. And what I’ve got looks really cool.

I don’t even want the Robots of Death figures, but I’m trying to justify them to myself purely for the purposes of getting the giant robot legs. Gah!

And here it is. The conclusion of the story arc started in issue one of this monthly, as we get the final confrontation between Zayne, Lucien and Haazen.

Its no secret that I love this series. Its one of my favourite monthlies (only slightly behind the GL titles) and its currently the only one of the Dark Horse Star Wars books I’m getting (budget cuts meant Legacy got dropped). For me, its got a great combination of action, mystery and, most importantly, humour that really give it a great Star Wars feeling. Sometimes I think the humour of the films gets lost in some of the expanded universe stuff, but its in this book in force (pun unintended).

I found this a really satisfying end to the main driving arc of the series thus far. Lucien and Zayne’s fight was great to see (and showed how far Zayne’s come in terms of his Jedi abilities since the early issues), and I loved Lucien’s final fate (and the fact that the Darth Sion comment appears to have been a red herring). Zayne turning his back on the Jedi Order (as they’d turned their backs on him) in order to stick with Griff rang true to me, and I’ll be really interested to see what direction this series takes now. They’ve been careful to keep some plot threads on the back burner (Rholan, Jarael), and they’ve still got the backdrop of the Mandalorian war with the Republic, and the Revanchanist movement to play with.

A brilliant series, and I’m glad they didn’t drag out the Covenant plotline past its due date. If you like Star Wars, you should really be checking this series out, and next month’s issue should be the perfect jumping on point.

I’m completely hooked on Fallout 3 now. While my PC does struggle a bit with combat in the open air of the wastelands, I’m still getting performance good enough most of the time to enjoy the game.

Most recently I’ve just completed a series of quests at Rivet City in the game. This kind of thing I really love in these games. Rivet City is actually a beached aircraft carrier that a group of settlers have turned into their home, due to the security it offers. Its a great location, that’s exactly the kind of thing I love in RPGs. There’s something very grand about it, yet quite real at the same time.  Its a really nice concept, and I loved the sight of it when I first found it in the game and exploring it and finding out Rivet City’s history was a lot of fun.

Ok, so it actually leaked a couple of days ago, but last night saw the new trailer for Star Trek hit apple.com in glorious HD, allowing us to get our first proper look at the film.

I’m officially getting excited now, and more annoyed than ever that its been held back until next summer.  Its a great trailer, and I must admit, while a lot of attention has (rightly) been given to the near-perfect casting of Zachary Quinto as Spock, I’m really liking the look of Chris Pine as Kirk.   If you’d asked me a year ago I’d have probably been very dubious about a new Trek film recasting the classic roles (although don’t get me wrong, from a mass market point of view, I very much understand the reasons for doing so), but I think this could really work.  If I have any complaints, its that I would’ve liked to see a bit more of Karl Urban’s McCoy in the trailer (and Simon Pegg’s Scotty), but really, the focus had to be on Kirk and Spock for the first trailer, so I’m hoping to see more of them in later trailers (heck, we’ve still got about 6 months of hype that’s only just starting).

As predicted, the brief glimpses of the new Enterprise we get look good.   And I love that shot of Kirk finding the half-constructed ship and looking up at it.  That’s pretty iconic.  I think the bridge is looking a lot better as well.  I’m still not completely sold on the style, but at least its recognisable in terms of its layout.

A really solid week this week with DC’s releases. Green Lantern Corps means I’ll be reiterating my usual “Peter Tomasi rules”-type review.

We pick up with part 2 of the Sins of the Sapphires arc. However, the story actually opens with Kryb, the Sinestro Corps member being hunted by Kyle and co, and we find her claiming the child of her latest victims, one of whom is a Green Lantern. Kryb is a brilliantly creepy creation. Its a really terrifying idea that she’s going around snatching all these kids and killing their parents. I’m not sure what happens to the kids she snatches, but I suspect its not going to be pleasant. Seeing the GLs led by Kyle catch up to her is powerful, and you know they’re not going to be easy on her. Especially given that she’s just killed a fellow Corps member.

The main meat of this month’s story though lies with Guy, Sodam and Arisia leading the Guardians to Zamaron on a “diplomatic mission”. Of course, ulterior motives are abound, and the Guardians are quick to admit to Guy that this is also a spy mission to see exactly what the Zamarons are up to. Things get worse when later on Scar admits to Sodam that he’s there to level the place if things go wrong.

Of course, the Guardians are their usual selves, and are only there to get their own way: the Zamarons immediately ceasing tapping the love portion of the emotional spectrum. The Zamarons, unsurprisingly telling them to get stuffed. This, combined with recent events in the title involving Kryb and others, result in the Guardians passing their latest of the new laws, forbidding Green Lanterns to get involved in physical relationships. Yup, that’s going to go down well. The fallout from this one is going to make the lethal force law look like a walk in the park.

We also see that the Zamarons have been capturing the missing Sinestro Corps rings, along with a few of the female members of the Sinestro Corps (notably Karu-Sil, and Fatality) and are attempting to purge them of their fear and instill them with love. Its another plan that’s probably not going to end well. The fact that the Zamarons are basically brainwashing them is quickly picked up, and serves to underline how the “positive” side of the spectrum has its own dangers. We know from the previous Star Sapphire storyline that tapping a power from the extreme end of the spectrum will cause that power to consume you (something Atrocious and his Red Lanterns are actually relishing), so you wonder exactly how its going to backfire on the Zamarons.

Another great issue. This title goes from strength to strength, and is easily a match for the main GL book. I’m really looking forward to seeing this latest law from the Guardians blow up in their faces.

The other big DC comic of the week for me, was Action Comics and the latest part of the New Krypton saga. The action picks up where the last issue of Superman left off, with Doomsday (and the implication being that Sam Lane has purposely sent Doomsday into the fray) crashing the meeting Clark setup between the Kryptonians and the UN.

Of course, while Doomsday has fought Clark to a standstill in the past, this time he’s up against a large group of Kryptonians and gets summarily pulverised, and its announced Doomsday’s finally dead. However, given that Doomsday’s whole origin revolves around him dying, and evolving so it doesn’t happen again, I imagine the next time he turns up he’s going to be very nasty to go up against. Perhaps this is Geoff Johns laying the seeds for revamping the character, who’s been increasingly overused since his first appearance, and has as a result lost some of his impact.

There was a big shock in this issue, in the form of the new Nightwing and Flamebird. Specifically Nightwing. Back in the Fortress of Solitude, we find a few of Zod’s troops trying to find the Phantom Zone Projector, so they can release Zod from his imprisonment (you know the whole situation with Zod is just going to get steadily nastier from here on), however before they can get to it, they’re stopped by Nightwing and Flamebird. However, the most interesting thing, is how they’re stopped. Specifically, when Nightwing uses his tactile telekinesis to dismantle one of Zod’s men’s gun.

Tactile Telekinesis is, of course, not a traditional Kryptonian power. The only character who’s shown it before is Kon-El, Superboy. And he only had it because he was an imperfect clone of Clark (infact, his DNA was a splice of Clark’s and Lex Luthor’s, however his Kryptonian DNA seemed to be becoming more dominant, with him displaying more and more of Clark’s powers, especially during the Teen Titans run).

Is this signalling that Kon-El has somehow returned from the dead, after being killed by Superboy Prime during Infinite Crisis? I for one would be very happy if he is back, but his death seemed pretty final. However, if its not him, then I imagine a lot of Superboy fans are going to be very unhappy about this tease.

Can’t wait to see what happens next.

Smallville’s one of those series I’ve got a love/hate relationship with.   Sometimes its really brilliant, usually when dealing with elements of the Superman mythos, and other times its a real chore to sit through (most of the Clark/Lana stuff).

Catching the teaser for next week’s episode on Youtube though, its hard not to be excited about this:

I really hope this doesn’t turn out to be another Zod, because that looks spot on for Doomsday.

The design side of things of the new Star Trek film has come across as a bit of a mixed bag so far. I love the fact that the uniforms are very true to the 60s original, but I’m not sure about the bridge of the Enterprise seen in the same promo shots (although unlike some, I don’t have a hard-and-fast “hate it” opinion yet. I need to see more of it).

With the advent of the new Enterprise hitting the net last night, it seems to capture this “mixed bag” concept well. There’s a lot to like in the new design. Its recognisably the Enterprise, and the saucer seems to be lifted from the motion picture refit (Ent-A) which is a good thing. I like how it seems to have retained the turbine-type-things in the nacelles from the original, and the deflector looks like its a raised dish (again, like the original) but with the blow lighting of the refit, which I think looks quite neat.

However, the mammoth vent-things on the nacelles (which meet the pylons) really ruin the look of it for me. Granted, this is just one shot, and it’ll probably look better in motion, and in other promo shots, but they look too much like something added to make it look different. Changing the slope of the neck joining the saucer and engineering sections doesn’t bother me as much, and the pylons now sit right at the back of engineering as a result.  To me, the whole engineering section doesn’t quite work in terms of its lines.  

Of course, for me, they never bettered the movie refit design anyway

I imagine though, that following the first trailer and seeing shots of the new Enterprise in action, I’ll decide it looks really cool afterall