There has been a lot of hullabaloo on the news lately regarding Kanye West’s humiliation of Taylor Swift on VMA. For those of you who don’t know what happened, Taylor Swift won a very prominent award when Kanye West conveniently came on stage, stole the microphone and said that Beyonce should get “Best Video” cause she had the best video in the competition in his opinion. Taylor was left standing in the midst of West’s outburst and never got to finish her acceptance speech until Beyonce later invited her on stage to do so. Apparently, Kanye finally issued a personal apology to Swift after his rude acts on national television.

I must say, I am very disappointed in his actions. While I’m not the biggest Taylor Swift fan he stole the spotlight from her when she rightfully deserved that moment. I’m glad Beyonce was there to save the day, though.

Obviously being a drunkard on television isn’t always the best thing. I’m sure West has learned a valuable lesson out of this.

I’m sure everyone has heard of the fairly famous anime series known as Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z or Dragon Ball GT in their life time. Not only was it a pretty violent 80s-90s anime series, but it was also one of the longest running series ever to grace the television screen. We all love, remember, and adore all those infamous beam-spamming scenes and unrelenting hollering matches.

Much to my surprise I discovered back in March and April that they created an actual live action rendition of Dragon Ball…this movie being titled Dragon Ball: Evolution. If you don’t want anything divulged about this film because you haven’t seen it yet, then I would advise against reading this unless you like spoilers.

Overall I really liked the movie for its entertainment value; however, I found a lot of it to be quite inaccurate with the TV series…granted we all know that not every movie created (that has its own TV series) fits the history correctly. First and foremost…I do not remember seeing Goku’s grandfather ever making an appearance in the Dragon Ball or Dragon Ball Z series…by the time Goku was born…or at least 3 years of age, his grandfather was killed and this movie displays him as a teenager. So technically that aspect of the film sort of contradicted the rest of the Dragon Ball Universe—yeah that does bother me a lot, only because I grew up attuned to the series. Not to mention they kept pronouncing “Gohan” (Goku’s grandpa) wrong.

Anyway, other little pet peeves in the movie that really bothered me. First of all, Piccolo did not have any noticeable antennae…he’s a Namekian, you’d think those would be mandatory to have. Even though that was a major disappointment for his character I am really happy about the actor that was hired to play him. James Marsters; if most of you don’t recognize the name, you may remember him as the vampire Spike from the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was very impressed with his performance because he fit the character perfectly.

The other characters were done superbly as well. Goku seemed to have the exact same personality as his anime counterpart granted they mentioned nothing of him being a Saiyan, Bulma, Master Roshi, Chi-Chi and Yamcha also had personalities similar to that of their anime counterparts. One thing that really angered me though was the absence of the character Krillin…who is technically supposed to be Goku’s best friend and the most powerful of the human fighters.

Overall, I found the movie to be very entertaining; however, it has received a great deal of negative reaction from a lot of die hard Dragon Ball Z fans. Voting on IMDb has given it a rating around 3.3 out of 10. So if you are the type of Dragon Ball fan who isn’t to concerned with the movie following the anime universe, then you’ll probably like it. Although if you are a die hard fan who wants it to fit the series exactly, you’ll likely be disappointed.

Like a few of Enya’s albums, a lot of people form the idea that a lot of her music is very similar and redundant a lot of the time. Even though I do not share that narrow view, I do find parts of the album Shepherd Moons to be rather repetitively similar. Like her first album, there is a various assortment of fast beat songs and slow beat songs (granted the slow beat ones are more prevalent) as well as very memorable pieces like Caribbean Blue, How Can I Keep From Singing?, Lothlorien, and Book of Days.

Despite how similar a lot of the songs are in this album, like Enya’s first album it achieved a great deal of success when released. Three hit singles were released in its success which are the three bold songs stated above. In the United Kingdom, Shepherd Moons reached #1 album, while in the United States it was in the Top 20 Musical Hits, coming in at #17. Conveniently the album was a major success and managed to sell at least 12 million copies world wide!

Due to the songs in this album being more laid back and slow as compared to her previous, I prefer listening to this batch of music on rainy days where everything seems almost slow and sleepy—in fact, it is fairly good meditation music if you enjoy that sort of thing.

So all in all, I give this album a rating of 4.0/5.0. While it is not my favorite, it is a very relaxing CD to listen to—but then again, Enya’s voice is always relaxing to listen isn’t it?

The famous Celtic – New Age singer Enya has produced many albums over the years. Ironically, I find my favorite to be her first breakthrough CD known as Watermark, an iconic musical selection that has received many top ratings across the world for its unique, haunting, and beautiful qualities.

Now some background on this enjoyable CD. After its initial release back in 1988, it quickly reached the top of the charts and managed to receive wonderful applause across many countries. Eventually, two or three singles were released from this CD—one of which being a very iconic song normally referred to as “Sail Away”, which is actually named, Orinoco Flow. Other renown singles are Storms in Africa, and Exile. In fact there have been many different renditions of the particular song Orinoco Flow, one done by another one of my favorite singing groups Celtic Woman.

There is not a single track on this CD that I do not like, it’s relatively well rounded when it comes to Celtic/New Age music, yet still containing essences of similarity between the tracks. Like in most of Enya’s albums, the opening track titled Watermark is mostly a calm and soothing instrumental with some background vocals performed by Enya. Gradually, throughout the CD the music continues with various pieces—some being more up beat, others being very meditative and calming. The track I enjoy the most is the haunting and bittersweet track Exile that appears in the Steve Martin film, L.A. Story. Even if you don’t get this CD I definitely recommend listening to this particular song, it is honestly one of Enya’s best works.

Overall I give this CD a 4.8/5.0. Enya’s first album is definitely worth buying, mainly because it has a bit of everything and even if you don’t like this type of music, I think you may like certain aspects of it.

After much searching I was finally able to find someone who was going to Comic Con this year that shares the same love for Japanese Giant Monsters (Kaiju Eiga) as I do. After 25 years of experience in commenting on Japanese film and popular culture whether it be online, on the radio, on television, or at various festivals; author August Ragone is bringing his inspiring knowledge to Comic Con!

1) What is your role in the convention this year?

I’m attending as a “Professional” on the behalf of Chronicle Books, much as last year, to promote “Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters,” I will also be hosting a presentation of 200 rare, behind-the-scenes photos from his “kaiju eiga”, called “Godzilla & the Master of Monsters.”

2) How long will you be attending?

I will be signing on Saturday at 2pm and presenting on Sunday at 1:30pm, but I’ll blow into town on Thursday.

3) What are you hoping to bring to people’s attention through your presentation?

To showcase the drive and genius of Eiji Tsuburaya — to give them some perspective as well as a better appreciation of the scale of his films. That’s the goal.

4) Do you have a website where people can learn about you?

Folks are encouraged to check out my blog, “The Good, the Bad, and Godzilla” — which will feature all of my obsessions — at http://augustragone.blogspot.com

August Ragone will be at Comic Con on the weekend of July 25th and 26th and his presentation on that Sunday will be held in Room 8. Be sure to attend his wonderful tribute presentation to Eiji Tsuburaya, Japan’s famous Master of Monsters. Not only will you learn about a phenominal man who took monsters to a whole new level, but you will learn about a genre of films that deserves a lot more credit and admiration than they are given.

After the wonderful success of the first Transformers movie back in 2007, I knew that I was going to see the second installment of the apparent trilogy as soon as it came out in theaters.

Overall I was fairly pleased with every aspect of the film—the musical score, the characters, the plot. There were a few things that I was a bit disappointed with though, but the entertainment factor in this film negated its annoyance a bit.

Conveniently, the movie picks up where the first film left off, although if you haven’t seen the first I would recommend it so you know how the characters have developed. The movie jumps right into the action, in fact; most of this entire movie is one big action packed fest of machines, brawling, and gun fire. Not that I don’t enjoy that, but it seemed extremely different from the first movie because of the drastic action content. I almost felt as though the plot was a bit rushed with all the destruction, but later in the movie it seemed to all balance out.

Another thing that bothered me was how the writers seemed to just throw characters from the first movie into the mix without much explanation. If there is anything I despise in a movie, it is characters with lose ends.

One thing I especially loved in this film were the slow-captured scenes. Or in other words, the climactic scenes where just the music could be heard in a background of explosions, yelling, and fighting. It makes the movie so much more heartfelt and beautiful when there are scenes such as those. Not to mention it kept me wanting more and more. Again those scenes were graced with a wonderful musical score similar to the one in the previous movie.

Overall, just so I don’t give too much of the movie away, it was a pretty good film. Lots of action, believable characters, wonderful musical score, great plot, and a highlight—tons of humor! Outside of a few small issues, I can honestly say that this film will probably spark the life in a third movie, so us Transformers fans will have more eye candy in the future!

IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 3.9/10

Rotten Tomatoes’ consensus:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a noisy, under plotted, and overlong special effects extravaganza that lacks human touch.

Obviously, there are mixed feelings about this film, despite what positive or negative things you may hear online, give the movie a try.

There are so many things to do online! Shopping, chatting, browsing, learning. Naturally it is a place in which people can interact on a much broader scale. Observing the growth and interaction in fan-based communities has developed into a hobby of mine throughout the years, until I created a community of my own dedicated to Kaiju (Japanese Giant Monsters). It was always my passion to create a forum where people could talk and interact regarding topics like Godzilla, Mothra, Ultraman, Gamera, and many other fantasy-oriented topics.

Another thing I dreamed of creating was a site that focused on fan fiction, fan art and other fan-made creations revolving around that specific genre of science-fiction/fantasy. Since writing fan fiction has been a pass time of mine for the past several years, I figured it would be practical if I found some way of integrating both Kaiju and Fan Fiction together into one website. And that is how Kaiju Galaxy came into existence.

As the years passed, both myself and my staff decided to aim Kaiju Galaxy not only in the direction of promoting Kaiju and artistic endeavors, but to help people improve their writing skills by allowing them to post their work on the message board and receive critiques from other writers and artists.

Here is the mission statement of the website that backs up what I previously stated:

“Creativity extends beyond reality as our talents and passions allow us to concoct magnificent pieces of imagery and emotion. Kaiju Galaxy is a website dedicated to Kaiju (Japanese Giant Monster) fans’ desire and aspiration to create wonderful pieces of work whether it be fan fiction or fan art aimed at both improving their writing and/or artistic skills as well as receiving a chance for others to review their accomplishments.” - written by, myself.

Kaiju Galaxy is a fan-base of growing avid monster enthusiasts, so if you’ve ever been a fan of movies like Godzilla, Gamera, Ultraman or Mothra—feel free to join. The site as a whole has an area dedicated to fan fiction and fan art (which is still under construction) not to mention a blog where individuals contribute pieces of writing analyzing the movies or other concepts relating to the various franchises. It is a site created by the fans, for the fans.

Watch as the interactive community grows—I will post updates every now and then about events taking place!

Main Site

Forum

Blog

When most people hear the words “technology” or  “anime” I’m fairly sure the first thing that comes to mind is the country Japan. We all know that they are a hub for massive amounts of new technology as well as an exciting source of many forms of medial entertainment.

Ever since I was a small child I’ve dumbfounded people with my passionate affinity for Japan. That desire for knowledge and excitement allowed me to enhance my ability to instruct people about the many facets of the country that they were not aware of. People always viewed me as some sort of nerd with no mission in life; however, I valiantly continued on my course—soaking up every piece of information I could regarding the country I adored.

Japan seems to be underestimated, not to mention criticized, for its history despite having a very rich culture that dates back far beyond the legacy of our own country. With the slightest grain of salt people assume that Japan is some sort of horrific nation that is ruining our economy and brainwashing our people with their newest forms of technology. Granted most of those ideals are adopted by older generations who were present during World War II, it doesn’t change the fact that their ideals are slightly misplaced.

People need to see that there are some good aspects to things that seem evidently bad. People need to understand that there is so much more depth to something than just what the rumors say. It is similar to how a person views a relationship based two-dimensionally on how an individual looks and how successful they are. They do not look beyond that, at the depth of the person in question.

There are always fun and exciting things to learn about any given country or culture. Whether it spans from their technology, their entertainment, or even something as simple as their history. The thing is, I’m not afraid of learning something new everyday, the question is, are you?

Stay tuned to the pages of Japandamonium for fun and exciting snippits about Japan!

So many wonderful guests will be attending Comic-Con this year, and one that really caught my eye was the science fiction and fantasy artist, Jerry Vanderstelt who has been an inspiration of mine for quite some time.

For those who don’t know who Vanderstelt is, he is well-known for producing the art for the box office hit trilogy The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) for New Line Cinema. Not to mention he has done art for Lucasfilm Ltd. as well. Along with that he has produced art for various publishing/book companies such as: Ace, Roc, Pocket, and Scholastic Books. For those of you interested in getting published or enhancing your artistic experience, he is a very good person to look to at the event. After all it is recommended that we aspiring artists look at other more experienced people in order to become aware of the necessary actions of becoming better at what we do.

I’m fairly sure he’ll be promoting and/or selling his famous art at Comic-Con, so I definitely recommend everyone check out his prints. Plus he may be promoting some art related to the new Hobbit movie that will be released at some point in the future. It’s not everyday one gets to see an artist of that immense integrity. Especially one who’s worked on Lord of the Rings! I mean come on, who could be better than that!?

Most of my friends and acquaintances by now know that I’m not too fond of a lot of modern music. I’ve already created an article discussing the hit group Celtic Woman, who are well known for taking classic pieces and modernizing them a bit. Of course the next amazing performer I have to discuss is the famous Celtic singer, Enya Brennan. (Whose full name is: “Eithne Patricia Ní Bhraonáin”)

Since her debut in 1988 with the hit album entitled Watermark, Enya has been one of the leading singers professionalized in classical, new age, and Celtic music. Originally a member of the well known Celtic singing group Clannad, Enya eventually decided to pursue a solo career in the late 80s. Today, Enya lives in Ireland where she works independently on her music. Unlike most celebrities, she prefers to work privately and rarely conducts live performances which is what makes her so unique.

So if you absolutely have no idea who the heck Enya is, it is likely that you do and don’t realize it. Movie director Peter Jackson decided to recruit Enya back in 2001 to record and compose music for the box office hit, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). Many other songs composed and performed by Enya were featured in other movies as well.

Here is a list of her many albums:

1.) Enya (1987)
2.) Watermark (1988)
3.) Shepherd Moons (1991)
4.) The Celts (1992)
5.) The Memory of Trees (1995)
6.) Paint the Sky With Stars(1997)
7.) A Day Without Rain (2000)
8.) Amaranthine (2005)
9.) And Winter Came…(2008)

If you want to sit back on a rainy day and listen to beautiful music that is soothing and relaxing, Enya is a very good choice. I have three of her CDs and I will be writing up reviews for each of them, so keep your eyes open! I’m in a very Enya mood!

When most people put the words “Japan” and “TV Series” together I’m fairly sure the only thing that comes to mind is some sort of anime series, or perhaps some television comedy with horrific English dubbing. Well those were two things I generally thought of when thinking about Japanese Television series…until I was recently proven wrong, that is.

Most people know by now that I have a strong affection for Kaiju movies (Japanese Giant Monster Movies), and I managed to stumble across a television series dedicated to Giant Monsters titled Ultraman Nexus. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Ultraman, granted most people I’m sure have heard of it at one point in their lives, it is a story revolving around good light and evil light finding a home on the planet Earth from deep in space. Both lights infect certain people, and the good light who is meant to fight the evil light is named “Ultraman”. While it may sound odd to most, it actually has some great plotlines and wonderful characters.

In this series, the main focus is around the leading character Kazuki Komon—who is a typical adolescent who is trying to find his way in life. His passion is for helping people and when his usual job seems to go wrong, Komon is approached by a special organization dedicated to fighting off evil monsters (the dark light) and decides to join them in their noble cause. That is all I’ll divulge of the pretty enjoyable story.

Anyway, at first I thought Ultraman Nexus was going to be some cheesy Japanese drama or whatever, and I was proven wrong! Which I am glad that I was because this is my newest addiction! What I enjoy most about Nexas is the believable characters…the in depth development whether it be the plot or the actual people. Not to mention it has great special effects, and a phenomenal musical score!

Overall, I have high praise of this series, and I definitely recommend it for people who are either Kaiju fans like myself, or fans of Japanese entertainment in general!

Along with my latest Star Trek obsession, the beloved movie industry decided to revive yet another one of my favorite movies, X-Men, this time with X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

I was expecting this movie to be different than the original X-Men trilogy due to the fact that it took place before those movies, much similarly to the Star Trek movie being a prequel to the original series. Again, if you haven’t seen this movie and do not want spoilers, I recommend not reading this post. Thank you!

Anyway, the movie starts out very slowly—which did kind of bother me because I’m used to most X-Men movies starting out rather quickly. For some odd reason it seemed to really lag in the area of introducing Wolverine and his brother. Despite that slight set back the movie tends to pick up after awhile.

One thing I enjoyed about this movie over the other three is that the government seemed more involved secretly in the plot. It was a nice twist and it once again gave humanity almost a villainous attribute that remained a constant theme throughout the rest of the film. Another thing I enjoyed was getting to see Patrick Stewart on screen once again, reprising his role as Professor Charles Xavier. Not to mention like the other movies, it has a powerful musical score that is very dynamic and exhilarating!

For the sake of the movie’s story, plot and characters that’s all I’m going to say because I don’t believe in giving out too many spoilers! But I will say that I really enjoyed the film, yet another wonderful installment of the X-Men series!

It did maintain a steady balance at number one in the box office until it was trumped by Star Trek, lowering it to number two. Here are the current online ratings for this movie:

IMDb: 6.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 5.1/10

Unfortunately this movie isn’t receiving very hefty ratings from online fans, although I would not let that detract you from giving this movie a chance. After all, everybody finds something they like and dislike in everything.

If you haven’t seen the new Star Trek movie and do not want spoilers—I recommend that you do not read this post because it may contain a few small spoilers. Since I am a die-hard Trekkie, I thought it’d be logical (Ha! Spock moment) to post something pertaining to the movie’s current standing.

Seeing the premier of the newest Star Trek movie directed by J.J. Abrams has been the first time I’ve set foot in a movie theater in nearly three years. I must say that I am very happy that I finally did break that relatively boring trend. While I assumed that this Star Trek movie would be similar to the ones before it, I was clearly mistaken. This movie greatly surpasses what all Star Trek fans are used to, yet it manages to capture that original feeling that Gene Roddenberry (the creator) conveyed.

Overall, I love how the characters were portrayed in this movie. From time to time it is easy to see an echo of the characters that were prominent in the 60s as well as the movies in the 80s. We get to see the origins of pretty much all the characters, especially Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Uhura. Not to mention they have a very believable villain, which is always nice. Another plus to the movie is the strong musical score, plot, and several appearances of the original Spock (Leonard Nimoy).

Despite many of the strong points to this film, many people will find it difficult to grasp since the story has a lot to do with temporal paradoxes and alternate realities—something well-known to many avid Star Trek fans. Just remember when watching the movie that it is an “alternate reality”, which is a good thing because if it wasn’t it’s safe to say that everything that has happened in the rest of the Star Trek series would not exist in the way in which we are aware. (I’ll leave it at that, I don’t want to expose too many spoilers)

Here are some of the latest ratings this movie has received:

IMDb: 8.5/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 8.1/10

Also, this movie maintained a position at Number 1 in the Box Office for quite some time.

Overall, Star Trek has appealed to both dedicated long-time fans, and new fans alike! If you haven’t seen it already, I definitely urge everyone to give it a try. It is an exciting adventure that introduces the original characters most of us fans are fond of. I mean…heck… I’ve seen it twice already and enjoyed it even more the second time!

If anybody wants a good laugh, the first and foremost movie I recommend is the Larry Charles satire film Religulous (2008) starring the political comedian Bill Maher.

This entire movie focuses around the idea of religion being satirized. The title is the first root that signifies that the film is one giant comedic joke, being derived from the words “religion” and “ridiculous.”

I found the film to be quite entertaining, I definitely recommend it for people who are especially not affiliated with any sort of religion. If you do have any religious beliefs, it is likely that you’ll be greatly offended by this movie because Bill Maher drills each religion with a slew of difficult questions.

Here are some of the ratings:

IMDb: 7.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 6.3/10

Due to the film’s controversial content, it has received both positive and negative acclaim. If you watch it, you’ll either love it or hate it.

Much to my dismay, it has been announced that the famous Russian rock/dance/pop band t.A.T.u. is finally parting ways. Apparently the two performers, Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova, are pursuing solo careers beyond the confines of t.A.T.u.

After the young and exciting band started back in 1999, the two Russian performers were instructed to appear as lesbian lovers in order to promote the band. There have been three albums released featuring famous memorable songs such as: Not Gonna Get us, All the Things She Said, All About us, and How Soon is Now? After their temporary hiatus back in 2004, t.A.T.u has been continuing their lucrative and entertaining tours around the world.

After the completion of their upcoming album “Happy Smiles,” the group is going to finally part their ways. I definitely recommend sampling some of their music because they are a truly unique foreign group that has achieved its performing mark in the world. Hopefully this is but another small hiatus for these two wonderful women, I would really like to see more music from them in the future.

Many eyes, whether it be on fan message boards or beyond the Internet, have been intently focused upon the new Star Trek movie hitting theaters on May 8th. After a several year hiatus succeeding the 10th film Star Trek: Nemesis, J.J. Abrams (producer of Cloverfield) decided to pick up this everlasting franchise and is boldly going where no one has gone before with Star Trek.

Across various communities online there has been a great deal of positive feed back regarding this movie—hopefully it won’t be a disappointment. Abrams is trying to accomplish something very difficult because it isn’t often one can take completely new actors and actresses and convey the feeling the original stars produced. I’m relatively positive about this.

Apparently, Leonard Nimoy (actor who played the original Spock for those of you who don’t know) is rumored to be apart of this movie somehow. Which is definitely exciting!

I’ll keep everyone updated on this movie, and when it comes out I’ll definitely make a review!

Let us celebrate my fellow Trekkie fans!

By now, I’m sure everybody has heard about Christopher Paolini’s best selling trilogy called the Inheritance Trilogy. (Granted apparently there is a rumor out there of a fourth book, which would negate the trilogy concept). But the point is that these books have been out on store shelves since the latter part of 2001, and now they’ve even made a film out of the first book (in 2006), obviously titled Eragon.

Okay I am going to be straightforward with this. The film was very ridiculous when comparing it to the actual book—mainly due to the fact that the movie is rushed when the book in all actuality is Lord of the Rings-sized. Obviously the directors thought they could take a gigantic novel and squash it down into a 104 minute movie.

This film received pretty low ratings across the internet:

IMDb: 5/10
Rottentomatoes: 84% rotten with a rating of 4.1/10

If you do end up watching this movie, make sure you definitely read the book first. Or if you prefer movies over books, I suppose you could just watch the film too. Nevertheless, personally I don’t find this movie to be that bad when it comes to acting and stuff; however, I do feel that it has a very weak musical score. A film like this should have a very epic and adventurous score, yet it seemed somewhat bland to me.

Overall the movie is alright, nothing spectacular, nothing down right ridiculous. It’s a good flick to watch on a rainy day.

Many people consider me to be a fan of movies that have the knack of becoming box office failures. Granted I don’t enjoy looking at it from that perspective. However, there generally tends to be an ounce of truth in what those people say. Unfortunately, one movie that many people deem a “box office failure” is the film directed by Rob Bowman dedicated to the Marvel Comic character Elektra (2005), which technically is a continuation of the 2003 film Daredevil.

The premise of the movie follows the character Elektra Natchios (played by Jennifer Garner), who is resurrected from the dead in order to fulfill a quest. Technically she is given a second chance at life and ends up being an assassin until she receives an assignment to assassinate a family. Eventually, Elektra develops an emotional bond to this family of two (a father and daughter) and ends up unable to perform her task. So instead of continuing her work as an assassin, Elektra eventually develops an attitude that places her more in the heroine category that pits her against a great evil that rises.

I will be honest, when I first watched this movie it was not in theatres, instead I bought the DVD. I would have never known how large of a box office flop this movie was until I actually looked it up online. Here are a couple ratings I found:

IMDb Rating: 4.9/10
RottenTomatoes: 3.7/10 – 9%

I was originally astonished because I really enjoyed this fascinating film. Apparently, most people who despise this film are quite familiar with the archaic comic series in which this film was derived from. Since the movie doesn’t play along with the original story the comics possessed, people got angry because of the difference.

When I look at a film, I enjoy looking at the positive aspects. It is true that each movie has its downfalls and setbacks—but what’s the point of focusing on those when there are clearly good points? Elektra may not conform to the original story arcs; however, the movie still has a great story with amazing actors and actresses portraying the characters, wonderful special effects, and a phenomenal musical score.

I definitely recommend this movie especially if you are NOT familiar with the comic series. Sometimes we have to take a gander beyond the numbers and see the actual quality in a film.

Classic horror films were some of the most memorable cinematic features to grace the television screens back in the 50s. One familiar film I sat down and watched the other day was the original classic monster movie, Rodan (1956). It definitely reminded me just how creative and meaningful films like these are despite the modern consensus regarding archaic special effects.

Rodan was created by the Japanese film company, Toho, a couple years succeeding the original Godzilla movie. Similarly to Godzilla, Rodan’s focus honed in on the story of a giant creature (this time the creature being a giant pteranodon/pterodactyl) being eradiated as a result of nuclear testing. Granted this movie seemed to have no relation to the Godzilla film, and purely was in its own universe.

As much as the main concept between the two movies was similar, Rodan differs from Godzilla in many varying ways. One of the main obvious reasons is that Rodan was released in color—when many movies during the time were released as standard black and white films. So this film marked the introduction of the Kaiju (Giant Monster) Franchise into the new world of color.

In order to be the astonishing success that Godzilla was, special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya knew that he had to climb toward new goals in order to flabbergast the audience. For example, a lot of the destruction demonstrated in the film is more aerial than actual physical destruction as seen in Godzilla. It gives the movie the same feeling of ‘nuclear disaster’, just in a different, more unavoidable manner.

This movie became fairly well-renowned and still is today along with other classics like previously mentioned Godzilla (1954) and Mothra (1961). In fact, the monster Rodan became such a well-revered character that he was brought back in several other movies, granted all of which were appearances in Godzilla films.

Rodan is absolutely fun to watch. It has action, horror, romance and even some comedy mixed in! I’m sure there is something in this production that everyone can enjoy, it’s just a matter of looking beyond its age and accepting the fact that it is one of the original monster-flick masterpieces.

Don’t you just love sitting back late on a Saturday night and watching old television shows? One of the oldies I remember with high regard was the original “Star Trek” series featuring the award-winning actor William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk. Instead, however, of focusing on the entertainment value of this series of “Star Trek,” I would really like to hone in my magnifying glass on the symbolism within this fascinating series.

While “Star Trek: TOS” (The Original Series) had dazzling special effects for its time, its emphasis and underlying theme was more or less (in my belief) to give humanity a more positive outlook on what the future holds. Ever since the dawn of the human race people have always had the yearning to discover new things. No doubt the five-year voyage of the U.S.S. Enterprise upholds that timeless tradition all the way into the 23rd century.

Another special quality this series possessed was its sense of character-unity or I guess it could be simply called character diversity. As we all recall, the Civil Rights Movement was one of the most pre-dominant events during the late 1960s, and “Star Trek: TOS” began in/around 1966. Gene Roddenberry (the creator of the show) made sure that characters from different nationalities were featured. Memorable examples such as: Uhura who was of African-American descent, Chekov who was of Russian descent, and Sulu who was of Japanese descent. Not to mention Spock, who was not even human. This great example of diversity was one of the first pebbles that initiated the avalanche in the media regarding using foreign characters.

“Star Trek” captured the imaginations of many people during its 3-year span on television; however, due to lower ratings during its third season, “Star Trek” was taken off the air. Despite this set back, the success of The Original Series lead to six more “Star Trek” series, and 11 motion pictures.

This is the type of series people enjoy watching on those cold rainy days where they have plenty of time to do nothing. I absolutely love “Star Trek: TOS,” and I definitely recommend it for avid science-fiction fans, not to mention people who are also interested in the history of cinema.