Jack Attack Tuesday – Sequel Talk and Old TV Shows
Jack Attack Tuesday
Sequel Talk and Old TV Shows
I’ve made no excuses for the fact that I absolutely love the Lord of the Rings trilogy, yet despise the Hobbit films. and this week I finally caught a trailer for The Battle of the Five Armies. What a crock of shit this is. It’s actually astounding how far Peter Jackson has fallen with these films, sacrificing the brilliant character work, structure and pacing of his previous films for a George Lucas-esque CGI riddled cash-grab. Look, I hated part one, and I won’t watch part two after I saw how it ends. Part three, I won’t lie, will probably get seen at some point, if only to see the connective tissue to Fellowship and judge the entire film based on that (petty I know but fuck you Peter Jackson, I’m no sitting through 3+ hours of this crap). I believe there is a special circle of hell reserved for artists who squander their given talents, and whomever decided on stretching a 200-page children’s book into 10 hours of bloated bullshit should be sent there immediately.
On the other side of the fence, I had to talk about the trailer everyone else is talking about, and that’s for Star Wars – The Force Awakens. In a word…wow. JJ has been a serious hit-or-miss director for me, simply astounding with his creative input on Cloverfield and the Star Trek reboot, but missing the mark on Super 8 and Star Trek Into Darkness. His talents are evident, but his perspective is sometimes weaker than I believe it should be, and while he is a creative force, I think sometimes his films fall into nostalgic cliches rather than trailblazing on their own. Cut to Black Friday, where I sat in front of my computer, turned the volume all the way up and was transported for a minute-and-a-half. The first thing I was absolutely overjoyed about was the fact that it looked as though these scenes were shot on-location, and in studios with real, tangible things in front of the actors. Already, that’s an immense step-up from the prequels. Seeing the female character ride a speeder bike with an engine that looks like it may have been scrapped from a podracer looked and felt right. The badass lightsaber with guard was…well..badass. But most of all, the Falcon and the Star Wars main theme…I can’t really explain the feeling I got watching those 7 seconds of the trailer. This looks fun, something that I feel was sorely lacking in the prequels. Also, I think that right out of the gate, we are going to enjoy this story more because we don’t know what the fuck is going to happen. That was part of the wonder of the original trilogy, which was completely spoiled in the prequels. Consider me pumped, and I can’t wait for next year.
I needed something to rewatch coming into December, as this month is an absolute shit-show at work, and I figured Twin Peaks would calm me down after dealing with the endless droves of customers at work. I’ve had a weird relationship with David Lynch’s work. I respect the guy immensely, but overall I find a lot of his films to be too difficult to enjoy. I watched Peaks around 8 years ago and four episodes in I’m already finding I forgot a ton of stuff. I think, given the new era of television, my TV watching habits have changed so drastically that I’m seeing a lot more foreshadowing and symbolism in the show than I did on the first run. This is a pretty great show, even if the ending leaves a lot to be desired.
Yes, Bat-Fans, the Adam West/Burt Ward Batman series is finally here, and I have it. Every episode. Every WHAM/BAM/KAZOOM! Every single cheesy “fishing trip” that Bruce and Dick go on. I love it. I can’t explain how much I am loving this show. As a Batman fan, this couldn’t have been a better package, with each episode having a solid restoration, and even some plot-lines shining some light on different characters, despite some of them being a bit ridiculous. If you’re a Batman fan, this is essential stuff. If you’re not, I’d probably skip this, because I can see a lot of folks finding this to be too grating, and I totally get that. For me, though, this is where it’s at.
This week was a lot of re-evaluating stuff I’d already seen, but that’s just how it goes. Don’t expect too much else over the next four weeks, I’ll be back with meaningful content after the first of the year, but still plan on giving you your weekly Jack Attack until then, it just may not be as innovative as, say, calling out movies for their bullshit. Until then, Binge On!