geek

Netflix and Take A Pill (timotheories presents: Watch Culture)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Internet culture is cool right? Reshoots and disputes and set leaks galore.

Oh wait, nope, that’s not cool at all.

It’s all just a hype machine and it sucks. Because legitimacy of so many of the films coming out right now aside (read: Justice League, Baywatch, Pirates of the Caribbean), we don’t need to spend hours upon hours of our time reading click-bait themed single paragraph articles from buzz sites, tweeting from similar newsfeeds that should be reporting on politics, and binging on YouTube video theories and opinions. I mention this because we’re talking about things which haven’t even come out yet.

It’s weird though, because culture has shifted.

You probably didn’t notice it, did you?

Yeah, funnily enough, the notion of hyping movies has been around for a while. You see dear readers, there used to be a time when we would get on a hype machine ahead of a release date, but we didn’t have a place to vomit all of our millions of ideas about it. And people didn’t capitalize on all of the theory, using their particular geek skills to funnel people Then the internet came along. And we lived a happy place between hype and geek culture for a few years.

So what happened and where’s the shift?

Culture Conundrum

Well, I think at some point publishers of ideas, and cultural icons realized that the volume of new content being created reached far beyond their own individual capacities to give opinions on it, so they instead choose to focus only on the new and glamorous, adding in their two cents as it were. Luckily for the vast majority of us, technology has shifted too and our attention spans for the new and novel are increasing, so we don’t have time to look at everything. We instead spend five minutes on one thing we care about, to then move onto another five minutes segment about the thing we care about.

Content creators benefit from this in a big way, and everyone is happy. Because we can all share in that hype machine, never really contributing anything in the way of constructive feedback and driving our subscribers to purpose.

Which is why I decided to introduce a new series of video posts called WatchCulture into the mix. In this series, I will be sharing brief recommendations on movies which have been around for more than a year, and which I think you should watch for your own cultural edification. These are going to be short videos on film, music, art, etc., which fit into the cultural norm, but the difference is that instead of saying netflix and chill, I’m going to ask you to take the red pill.

theories Summarized

You can thank André Lindo, the producer of my Cross Talk series, for this idea, and a greater insight into my own thoughts and feelings on what culture we should be consuming at any given time. Expect to see Watch Culture episodes cropping up every week, very soon.

But for now, I’ve no more theories to share. Only well wishes and a hope for a new tomorrow.

Tim!

 

 

Jennifer Lawrence In Winter’s Bone (Star Trek Beyond review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

When you finally receive your geek badge, it’s a wondrous thing. And with it comes all the trappings of geekdom – insider knowledge, scrutiny of any associated media, and a sense of family.

Artists which are capable of tapping into that pulse usually produce the most interesting content, though not always perfect, for sure. But much closer to what that specific crowd is really after than a run of the mill director. That’s where the magic happens.

 

 

 

Star Trek Beyond (2016)

Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin,  Sofia Boutella
Director: Justin Lin
released on blu-ray November 1, 2016
******* 7/10

startrekbeyondposter

IMDB: 7.2
Rotten Tomatoes: 84%, Audience Score 82%
The Guardian: ***/*****

 

Justin Lin is a Taiwanese American director who is best known for his work on The Fast and the Furious franchise (movies 3–6), Better Luck Tomorrow, and now Star Trek Beyond. He is also known for his work on television shows like Community and True Detective. But I bet you didn’t know that the character of Han was ripped right out of Better Luck Tomorrow and dropped directly into The Fast and the Furious franchise – Which means that they are in a shared universe.

Another interesting tid bit, Lin’s second feature film Annapolis, shared stars Tyrese Gibson and Jordana Brewster, who are also staples in The Fast and the Furious franchise.

I mention these things because Star Trek Beyond happens to be a continuation in another series of films, one with a rich history of both film and television iterations. In other words, while Lin had a major hand in shaping The Fast and the Furious films, Star Trek has been up and running without him for quite a while now. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Consider for a second that Beyond is written by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung, the thirteenth film entry. And Pegg is also currently portraying Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in the rebooted series.

Pegg had mentioned on several occasions that he and Jung worked with the fans to help flesh out the story of this film and that Beyond wouldn’t have worked if it weren’t for the support of Star Trek supporters. Additionally, the film is dedicated to the memory of Anton Yelchin, who portrayed Chekov in these new films, and who died a month prior to the film’s release. As well, original cast member Leonard Nimoy, was given a dedication, as he also featured in the reboots, but unfortunately died during pre-production of this film.

This says a lot of Lin’s ability to bolster a fan base and work with the actors to foster a family environment.

So what about the movie though? Well, I’ll get right to the point, in the spirit of Beyond’s own directness. This movie is fun, straightforward, and showcases a better chemistry amongst it cast of youthful star trekkers than we saw in the previous two films. I will say this though, the plot isn’t nearly as interesting as I would have hoped.

Effectively, the film starts with the USS Enterprise taking a break at the 3 year mark of their 5 year journey. Kirk wants to be promoted to Vice Admiral and turn his captain seat over to Spock, while Spock and Uhura are on the rocks. We later find out that this is because he has recently discovered that his counter-part Ambassador Spock has died and he wants to leave for the small Romulan colony and help repopulate his species. Then a survivor from a spaceship appears and the Enterprise is assigned to bring in other survivors. It turns out to be a trap. The ship is attacked, the majority of the crew abandons ship, and the bridge crew are stranded on a planet called Altamid. It turns out a warlord named Krall is at the centre of this and he wants to destroy the Federation.

I won’t reveal the plot twist, but I will say this, it is very reminiscent of the 2009 Star Trek reboot. And for that reason, it loses some points with me.

Pros: It embraces the spirit of the original series, focusing on it’s cast of characters, costuming, and terminology to set a stage similar to how the TV show felt, albeit longer and with much better special effects.

Cons: If you take away the action sequences, fighting, and CGI, you’ll quickly notice how much this feels like a TV episode of Star Trek, and then the plot becomes more of an issue.

Runtime: 2 hours 2 minutes

Points of Interest: Starbase Yorktown is a reference to the original name of the starship in Roddenberry’s first drafts of the TV show script. Alice Eve who played Dr. Carol Marcus in Star Trek: Into Darkness is surprisingly missing from this film and no mention is made of her, though she was part of the 5 year voyage. Kirk makes a toast to absent friends at the end of the film and we quickly see the shot move to  Anton Yelchin.

I really enjoyed this movie but it’s important to consider it in the scope of the Star Trek universe. For those who liked the two most recent J.J. Abrams movies, it might be harder to take this one in, and for those who enjoy older Star Trek, it might make you nostalgic for another television series. But overall, this film sits well within the canon.

Simon Pegg told this cute little anecdote about new character Jahlah (Sofia Boutella). They had originally intended to create this strong independent female character stranded on the planet of Altamid. But they couldn’t land on a name, so they just inserted Jennifer Lawrence from Winter’s Bone into the script. Over time this kept getting shortened, but a name wasn’t chosen. It finally got to the point that J-Law was being said aloud and it was agreed that Jahlah was the right name.

It’s decisions like this that Star Trek fans get a kick out of, and why the franchise is much beloved. Those easter eggs make all the difference, and the universe created a little more more nuanced. Justin Lin gets that, and I hope you do too. But that’s just a theory.

Tim!

Freaks ‘n Geeks (Geekologie)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

It’s wisdom time, it’s wisdom time! Coming right at ya from Edmonton Alberta, Tim is writing about a geekier side of the internet today.

vna

No, not Video & Arcade Top 10 dear readers. But who here remembers THAT show?!?! If you haven’t seen it before, please do me a favour and take a peek on YouTube. I reacquainted myself with it today for the purposes of this post and was surprised to find that the adult hosts involved with the show were just as embarrassed to be on the show as I was to re-watch it and ruin my childhood in the process.

I mean those kids do not look happy to be there. WTF.

I know that is a trope of our culture now, but seriously, don’t go back and revisit something from your childhood if you haven’t consistently looked after it over the years, it never ends seems to end well for anyone.

Unless it’s been nostaligified and repurposed into something other than what it you’re used to seeing. Know what I mean?

“No Tim, we don’t know what you mean, and everytime you write something like that, we know you are leading up to an idea!”

You guys are so smart, always knowing what I am thinking before I am going to share it. It’s like you are interested in pop culture too. Which I think is a very good thing. Heck, my instagram description states that I am a cultivator of the arts. Visual, theatre, pop… You name it, I love it and live it. But I never leave it. Not unlike a certain website that I’m prone to visit in my spare time occasionally. Haha, spare time.

Have you ever been inspired by something and wanted to emulate it’s qualities for yourself? Well, Geekologie is one of those blogs that I think every dedicated writer of the web needs to visit and take notes from in order to become a better contributor of valid content.

Here is a entry from Wikipedia about the website for your reference dear readers.

Geekologie is a popular geek blog dedicated to the recognition of gadgets and technology. Each article is coupled with humorous commentary about the featured story or item written by the blog’s only author...

Geekologie is updated multiple times a day with articles on gadgets, video games, consumer electronics and popular culture related to games and movies. Gmail, Google’s webmail service, as well as many other RSS readers, has included Geekologie as a default RSS feed, pulling the latest articles which appear at the top of all user’s mailboxes...

Geekologie has been around for almost a decade, a decidely long period of time for anything that exists online. But don’t let that fool you into thinking it is outmoded or irrelevant, because the author of the articles is constantly updating the content to provide us with information from around the web. He/she continues to be an anonymous entity which also adds to the mystery, though there have been several (hundred) indicators that the Geekologie writer is male.

Well a lot in fact, but I don’t want to assume when it comes to anonymity.

So why do I really like this blog and think it is a good one for any writer to look at? Because GW (Geekologie writer) consistently produces content, maintains a certain rhythm in the flow of their posts, and they have trademark writing habits that make the experience unique from other platforms, but provide a sense of familiarity.

For instance, they hate robots, but love dinosaurs in an oddly sexual way. They use phrases like “keep going…” if you want to read the full article, or “hit the jump” if you want to see the attached link, or “one more shot” if there are multiple images to view. And they ALWAYS thanks one of the subscribers or commenter’s at the end of the post with a funny quip. Whether the person(s) thanked is real or imagined, I haven’t quite figured it out, but I expect it and appreciate the humour most of the time.

It reads a bit like a college frat party hooked up with a xcore gamer and a mad scientist, but I think you’ll like it if you haven’t already heard about it. And I’m willing to bet even if you haven’t, you’ve stumbled across an article or two accidentally without realizing.

So hit the jump, and spend some time with some articles that are fresh off the internet and maybe you’ll learn something, and at the very least you’ll laugh. I bet you might pick up a theory or three.

Tim!