Nerd Culture Podcast

The nominees for this years Academy Awards are out and there are some interesting additions, and drama causing omissions.

I’m going to list the nominees for the major categories, and include both my prediction for who will win, as well as who I want to win.

This is a long post so click More for the nominees and my picks

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It’s the holidays so I have a bit of time to catch up on my film list. Oh and someone pointed out that I should call Spoiler Alert on some of these reviews. Sorry if I annoyed anyone!  🙂

Chernobyl Diaries

Released: 2012

Directed by: Bradley Parker

Written by: Oren Peli (screenplay) & Carey Van Dyke (screenplay)

Starring: Jesse McCartney, Jonathan Sadowski & Olivia Dudley

Plot: Six tourists hire an extreme tour guide who takes them to the abandoned city Pripyat, the former home to the workers of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. During their exploration, they soon discover they are not alone.

For: Cool poster / Uri character is fun / The abandoned city is well done

Against: Uses a documentary type film style, but never explains why, or who is holding the camera / Very boring, it takes 55 mins for anything interesting to happen / Why do they find Natalie alive? The eviscerated Uri, but she doesn’t have a scratch! / The ending is ridiculously stupid! / A good idea wasted.

Favourite Scene: The group gets back to find the van gutted and the video of what happened / Natalie gets taken again (and the creepy kid)

Rating: 1.5 Lukes

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Since I hadn’t done one of these posts in awhile, my last Spotlight On (#7) was actually films that I’d seen some time ago. This batch are ones that I’ve watched more recently 🙂

Argo

Released: 2012

Directed by: Ben Affleck

Written by: Chris Terrio (screenplay), Joshuah Bearman (article)

Starring: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston & John Goodman

Plot: A dramatization of the 1979-1980 joint CIA-Canadian secret operation to extract six fugitive American diplomatic personnel out of revolutionary Iran.

For: Very well directed. Affleck is a far better director than he is an actor / The Argo read through is awesome, I would love to see this actually get made (but of course it wont) / Mark steps up to the plate at the airport / Alan Arkin is awesome (as always)

Against: Not as gripping as I expected. It is entertaining but could have been so much more. For example, instead of chasing the plane down at the airport (which apparently never happened) why not just radio the plane from the tower and demand that they not take off?

Favourite Scene: The Argo read through, and every scene with Arkin.

Rating: 4 Lukes

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Silent House

Released: 2011

Directed by: Chris Kentis & Laura Lau

Written by: Gustavo Hernández (original film story), Laura Lau (remake screenplay)

Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese and Eric Sheffer

Plot: Sarah, her father and her uncle are getting their lakeside retreat ready for sale. But things take an ominous turn and Sarah finds she is unable to contact the outside world as events become increasingly freaky in and around the house.

For: A couple of scenes are well done / Elizabeth is great as always

Against: Very predictable, her father is practically drooling everytime he looks at her / 2 Directors, never a good sign! / Not even slightly scary

Favourite Scene: Sarah uses the flash to see.

Rating: 1 Luke

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The official Man of Steel trailer is out and the interwebs are abuzz with what seems like equal part joy & outrage.

Despite my reservations towards Zack Snyder as director, I am growing more and more excited for this film as we get closer to its June 14 2013 release date, and this trailer is definitely helping fan the flames.

I’ve watched this quite a few times now and I have a few thoughts, the most important being that I now think I know what the storyline is.

This is only a guess so I’m not calling spoiler alert 🙂 but I think the basic plot is this:

Jonathan teaching Clark that the world will fear him, and the emotional damage caused when that actually happens after the rescue of the school bus, leads Clark to a life of solitude and loneliness. Until Zod arrives.

That’s right, I think Zod will arrive on Earth, along with a couple of Kryptonians (well at least Faora), and attempt to take control, much like the New Krypton/War of the Supermen storyline.

It is Zod who will finally reveal the truth to Clark about his true heritage and then use that to try and recruit him to his side. After being initially tempted, Clark will then become Superman in order to combat Zod and his evil plans, but because of Zod’s misdeeds the world will initially fear Clark and arrest him, only for him to either convince them of his goodness and release him, or call on him to help (like Hancock), or both.

In defeating Zod Clark will lose all connections to his birth planet, but will be happy that he defended his adopted one.

They’ll also have a scene with Clark inside the Fortress of Solitude with his eyes closed smiling, as he finally finds the place he can relax from all the sensory input.

There you have it. I may change it slightly as more tidbits are revealed, but I can’t wait to see how accurate, if at all, I was, and especially can’t wait to see this film.

Likes/Dislikes about the trailer:

Likes – Every action scene looked cool / Martha calming Clark down when his super hearing kicks in / Clark and Lois holding hands
Dislikes – The promo version of the S shield looks weird, a little over done (although the suit version looks fine / Cavill still doesn’t look convincing as Supes / and of course the ‘Maybe’ uttered by Jonathan

This simple piece of dialogue is what has caused the outrage I mentioned at the start of this post, and to be honest I really don’t see what all the fuss is about. There are 2 reasons why I’m not launching into a total Nerdrage over this scene.

1. The detractors are right, the Jonathan we all know and love would never say this. It just wouldn’t happen. But this isn’t the Jonathan we all know. This isn’t the comic or Donner version. It is a brand new take and to be honest, I think he’s a bit of a dick. And although part of me wants to scream at this portrayal, the other part is interested in seeing how this goes.

2. We don’t know what he says after this bit. It could be something like “Maybe. But that’s not who you are Clark and that’s why you’re going to become the great man I know you will.” Hopefully not something as clunky as that but you get my drift.

Anyway, that’s my opinion on the new Man of Steel trailer. I’m excited! What’s yours? Let me know with a comment!