Month: August 2019

Terminator: Dark Fate

Posted on by dubiago

So, there’s another new Terminator movie coming out. This one is a bit different, as it features the return of James Cameron. Presumably, it wipes out all of the sequels since Terminator 2–kind of like how Disney wiped out the Extended Universe of Star Wars after they acquired the property.

It’s “Sci-Fi” in that it’s a good “What if?” story, though most of its soul is wrapped up in action since the time travel stories are all a bit mangled and tired given that this particular trope is replete throughout them all. They get time travel about as “right” as Rick Berman did in all of Star Trek (e.g., the only way we’ll truly find out how time travel works is if we ever master it).

I’ll probably see this one in theatres–there’s always a hope that this will turn the whole series around in a way that the others hadn’t.

Terminator: Dark Fate – Official Trailer (2019) – Paramount Pictures

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Thrawn: Treason

Posted on by dubiago

This series Zahn has constructed has been a wonderful one. It has been a true pleasure to delve into the world and thoughts of Grand Admiral Thrawn.

While the scope of this particular trilogy doesn’t seem to hold, for me, the same scope and grandeur as the tales of Thrawn pre-Disney, and I also knew of his ultimate fate (to this point) in Star Wars: Rebels, the overarching trilogy was a great origin tale for he and the Chiss.

This particular trilogy holds the interesting distinction of being exclusively from the perspective of the Empire. Despite knowing it was headed by a despotic dictator in Palpatine, I got the feel of Thrawn and company as being the “good guys”. Definitely an odd, and fascinating, position to be in after reading everything Republic/Rebel/New Republic in perspective.

He showed loyalty towards the machine, but he also showed loyalty towards his crew—and the Chiss—at the same time. I didn’t get the impression of him as being one of the “boot-lickers” that was described in the original trilogy novel adaptation of “A New Hope”. Fitting for his character, as becomes obvious over the course of this trilogy.

I hope this isn’t the last we see of Thrawn.

Space: Above and Beyond

Posted on by dubiago

I forgot how awesome a series this was. It came out a year and a half or so before Starship Troopers, but same basic premise; humanity has to fight off a threat from space after its colonies are brutally attacked.

The show runners were Glen Morgan and James Wong, of X-Files fame. Overall, very much better than Starship Troopers–the movie, at least.