What is On Jeffs' Mind

Just thought I would do a top list for the year in Movies and Television for me. Inspired by Rico’s recent Treks in Sci-Fi podcast in which he listed his top movies and and TV shows for the year.

Movies – 2009

I was looking over the list of movies for the year, and I think this year may have been the year I had seen the least amount of movies in recent memory. Looking over the list, there just was not a lot of big blockbuster movies that are usually my favorites. I suspect a big reason for that might be the fallout from the writers strike a year or two ago, and also the bad economy. Looking through the list, saw about 14 movies for the year (two on DVD), so not much to choose from for my top 5 list, but still a bit tough to choose. There were some great movies this year, but overall disappointed with 2009 for movies. So here is my List of my favorites for 2009

1. Star Trek

I only saw this movie once, and will admit I left the movie theatre feeling a little uncertain about my feelings, but with more reflection and reading what others had said, this was a great movie, and most likely my favorite for the year. I was so excited for this movie to come out, and for the most part it delivered for me. The casting was very well done, with only a role or two that for me did not work. The story was fast paced, and the way they fit this into the Star Trek time line was very novel, though left a bit of a tear in my eye. This movie I was anticipating a lot for it’s release to DVD and actually was a catalyst for me to get Blu-Ray. For as big of a Star Trek fan I am, I am surprised I have only watched this the one time, but that will be remedied very soon.

2. Terminator Salvation

For the longest time, my idea of the Terminator was really just limited to Arnold Schwarzenegger, but after watching the TV series, I was really opened up to the potential of this series. I was really anticipating this movie, and a lot, almost as much as Star Trek. This movie really delivered for me, I went into this movie really pumped and I left the theatre very excited as well. I really liked the idea of going to a time when Judgment Day had happened, and when the Terminators ruled the world. Christian Bale was fantastic as John Connor, he brought so much intensity to the role. I was also very impressed with Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese as well. His role of Chekov in the Star Trek movie was limited, but he really had a large part in this one, and he delivered. I know some have panned this movie, but I really cannot find any weaknesses in it to me, just a real solid movie to me.

3. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

I felt that this was a very solid followup to the first Transformers movie. Plenty of action, great story, and brought back all the characters from the first movie. I found the action sequences between the Autobots and Decepticons much easier to follow in this movie from the previous. The humour elements were still there as well, and not over board, and the story moved along pretty well.

4. Trailer Park Boys countdown to Liquor Day

The Trailer Park Boys is a real guilty pleasure for me. I really enjoyed this movies, and carried on the Story really well. I had missed the last TV movie they had, but I was able to catch up pretty fast with this movie. The way the filmed this one felt different from how the series had been filmed, and even the first movie, but it gave the movie a feeling of a more  theatrical release. I always enjoy comedies such as this, and always like to laugh a bit at this form of humour. Certainly this is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I had plenty of laughs the whole way through, and ranked as a memorable movie for me this year.

5. Avatar

I just saw this movie, so it was fresh in my mind. This was the most expensive movie ever made, and it certainly shows it. I saw the Digital 3D release of it, and it was stunning. It was the first 3D movie I had ever seen, and must say I was impressed with the technology. I must admit, I was not blown away by this movie as some were, and took a bit of back and forth for it to get on my top 5 list. After some debating in my head, I had to include it, as for the most part I enjoyed this movie, and probably my only real complaint on it was that I felt it was a bit long. The story was simple, but the message was powerful, in how we treat earth. I had seen some previews, and was worried that the Na’Vi might look to animated, but they really fit in the movie. I suspect that this movie will be around for a long time, and will be a bench mark for other movies, and probably a staple in a lot of peoples video collections.

Honorable Mention: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

A lot of people really disliked this movie, but for me, I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. I really only know about Wolverine and the X-Men from the movies, so I don’t know all the back story in the comics, so a lot of the hangups others had, I did not. I might get in trouble for saying this, but I felt it was better then some of the X-Men movies. It met my expectations and had a good time watching it.

Regrets

My regret for 2009 in terms of movies, was that I missed the latest Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I am not really a Potter fan, but had seen all the movies up to this last one. I was in the middle of moving at the time, so my schedule just never allowed for me to get to the theatre for this one. Hopefully I can see this one before the next one comes out.

Television 2009

For my complaints on the lack of big 2009 Movies, I found the 2009 TV season to be really great, and much more difficult to come up with my top 5 for the year.

1. LOST

All I can say is wow. Season 5 was incredible. They took the series in a direction that I really enjoyed, and every episode was solid. I can’t recall how many times I was left with my mouth hanging open after an episode. The writers and producers of this program are very creative, and did things I could never imagine. Season 6 will be the final season, and it will be so bittersweet. When this series comes to an end, I will miss it a lot, as everything about it is top notch. What they did with season 5 and how they handled the Losties who are on the island and the ones who were not was fantastic. This show is great, one of my all time favorites.

2. Terminator:  The Sarah Connor Chronicles

The second season of this series in one word was awesome. So how are we rewarded, it is canceled. I must admit I was really disappointed when it came to an end, as another great show, ended well before it’s time. It took me a bit to really warm up to the characters in the first season, but I really came to accept them in their roles. The Addition of Bryan Austin Green to the series in season 1 was great, and I found he had a strong character in season 2, which led to the most shocking scene of season 2. The second season was non stop, and left me waiting with much anticipation for the next episode. The Arc about the mysterious Terminator working for the corporation left me fascinated, as really never knew what to think of her. Sarah s search into Skynet was awesome as well, with her uncovering clues here and their. The really chilling John Henry Terminator was fantastic as well, and the clash for Johns attention between Cameron and Riley was great as well. This was a great series, sorry to see it go, but at least I have both seasons on DVD.

3. Fringe

This show started up last year in the fall, and I really enjoyed it. It has some great elements to it, with a heavy nod to the X-Files. Just like LOST, it is a JJ Abrams show, so there is plenty to watch in each episode, and plenty to think about after. The ongoing story arc is that the FBI agent Olivia Dunham is investigating weird Fringe Science cases that are linked by something called the pattern. She is getting help from Peter and Walter Bishop, a father and son team so to say. Walter is sort of a mad scientist, who had come up with a lot of the science they see in some of the cases they are investigating. All the major Characters have interesting pasts, which makes the show all the more deep. Walter was in a psyche ward for a number of years, and not all there, Peter has a checkered past with some real mystery to him, and Olivia seems to have a very close link to the pattern from her childhood. Great series, hoping it will be around for a long time.

4. Flash Forward

Started in the fall, this quickly became a real favorite of mine. Sort of similar to LOST in that we are introduced to a large cast of characters, and a big series wide mystery that drives the show. Basically at the start of the show, everyone has blacked out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, and had a flash forward to May of 2010 where they saw a glimpse of what their life would be like at that time. An FBI task force was setup to investigate this and was dubbed Mosaic, and so far have been investigation leads and people in hopes to solving the mystery. The cast is fantastic, they story line is great and keeps me wanting to come back for more. Hoping the ratings stay strong for this one, as need a replacement for LOST when it signs off later in the season.

5. The Office

I really like The Office, and this past year has been great. Last season they went through a whole storyline of Michael Scott leaving Dunder Mifflin to start up his own paper company the Michael Scott Paper Company, the episodes were so great. This season we pickup with Dunder Mifflin going through some tough times due to the economy, and the series really does mimic what happens in the corporate world. The cast is always great, with Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute being my favorites, but I am really liking Andy Bernard as well. They have the show well cast, as you can see these characters in the places we work, they really do have a good read on the business and working world.

Honorable Mentions: The Mentalist/Castle

Two crime dramas with cool twists on them. With the Mentalist, the lead character Patrick Jane is a lot of fun to watch. He has a great skill of observation, and how he goes about helping the team solves the cases each week is great. The Mentalist also has a really awesome supporting cast that plays off well against Patrick Jane, great series. Castle is another new favorite of mine, and another crime Drama. Richard Castle is a Crime Novelist and his unique perspective he brings makes each episode a lot of fun to watch. Both shows are similar but different

Regrets

Cancellations, I really hate them, especially shows that I enjoyed. Two NBC shows jump out at me as being very disappointed at being canceled. The first one was a show called Life, another quirky police drama, that had a two season run. Fortunately they were able to bring the show to a conclusion and answer the questions. The other show was called Crusoe and was about Robinson Crusoe. It was a really fun action adventure show, with great sets and lite stories that most anyone could enjoy. Those with Sarah Connor Chronicles and the a lesser extent Knight Rider made me feel a little down about the 2009 TV season when it came to canceling shows I watched.

My other regret was the ending of Battlestar Galactica. Not so much that it ended, but that I felt it sort of limped out and don’t really miss it. I know some of the final episodes were very dramatic, but I found the answers to the over all arc and theme of the show to be a bit of a let down.  The second part of the series seemed to get wrapped up in its myth, and sort of tossed all the action oriented and stand alone episodes to the side.  I missed those elements as the series seemed aimed more at the non sci-fi viewers in this last season. The final season episodes at times came across very dramatic to the point of elitist, in the sense that they were determined not to tell a story with some action elements or even in a sci-fi manner. I will probably not be popular for saying this, but the final episode had some great moments, but other parts the story wrapped up very predictably and pedestrian. Caprica is to come, but what I have seen of it so far from the DVD sneak peek, it is heavy on the elements I did not enjoy much in BSG.

Tags: Avatar, BSG, Castle, Crusoe, Flash Forward, Fringe, Harry Potter, Knight Rider, Life, LOST, Star Trek, Terminator 4, Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Mentalist, The Office, The Trailer Park Boys, Transformers, Treks in Sci-Fi, X-Men: Wolverine

Last night was the final BSG of the Ron Moore re-imaged series. To be honest, I was not really sure what I was feeling after it had ended. Probably the feeling I was feeling most was disappointment, but not really sure why. I spent some time after reading peoples posts on forums, and they were heaping a lot of praise the final episode, but for me, I was just not feeling the same as others. There were some nagging thoughts in my head, and how some things unfolded did not feel satisfying to me. Sleeping on it, and reading some more this morning, has changed my perspective somewhat, and I am more satisfied with the finale now.

Spoilers below, some buffer space in case you do not want them

Really like the Galactica, great ship. The episodes that stand out the most for in the series are the ones where the Galactica shepherds the fleet through difficult places

Like in the Original, the relationship between Apollo and Adama was an important one for me. Even though it was not as cordial as in the Original, I could tell the Apollo and Adama cared for each a lot, and even when they were at odds, the son and father relationship was still there.

Apollo/Lee was my favorite character on the series. I really liked the qualities that the character had, and would be ones that I would like to have. He stuck to his beliefs, even if they went against his fathers and the presidents. I liked Lee the most in his pilots role, and weird to say, that I missed him a bit when he left the military and went into politics.

Spoilers ahead, I tried to warn you…

Before the finale they had an 1 hour special, and went through the series, talk with the actors, the creators, production people and network execs. The only thing I really pulled out of it, is that I felt at times maybe the people working on this, took it far to seriously. I can never really understand why some actors seem to have a fear of something that is Sci-Fi related. Some of the actors stated that since it was Sci-Fi, they were not sure if they wanted to do it, and that they wanted it to be more then what is typically found in a Sci-Fi show. I guess some of those statements disappointed me a bit, maybe this show will help change some peoples mind about the genre, but even if a show is not as deep and thought provoking as this one, it should not be dismissed just because it is Sci-Fi. I do hope some of these actors appear in other genre work, as I think they have a lot to add.

The first part of the finale dealt with some flashbacks of Caprica, and I did not really care for them. This second part continued on with them. I must say, I really did not care for the scenes with Tigh and Adama in the strip club. It just took me out of the show, maybe just to real world for me, not sci-fi enough. I really hated the scene later where Adama is outside the club puking on himself, I found myself smirking and laughing at the scene. The scenes with Roslin and the younger man I did not like as well, just made me feel less about the character, and I think at this point of the series, those types of scenes don’t really add much. I could have done with none of the Caprica scenes, none of them really added anything for me, maybe they added them in to promote the new series Caprica coming out. I would have preferred to stay in the present, as none of those story lines did anything for me, and did not care about any of them.

The confrontation between Galactica and Cavil and the Cylons was fantastic. I really liked that they mixed the Old School Cylons and the New School Cylons, such a great visual. The shots of them running down the halls were great. The differences between the two were cool, as the older style were clumsy and awkward, and the newer ones much more graceful in their moves. The scenes when Galactica fist arrived at the colony were great as well, I just marvelled at how much the Galactica could take in terms of an assault, and then to take the ship and ram into the colony was so cool. I did wish that there would have been more scenes with Vipers and Raiders doing battle, as I have always loved those scenes in both series.

My one little grievance with the battle, was I felt they were able to save Hera a little to easily. Basically Boomer had a change of heart, and returned Hera to Helo and Athena. It was a nice touch that she did it to pay back Adama, and she knew it was her last act. But after that exchange it seemed a little to easy for the rescuers to return back to Galactica. When they reached Galactica, and they started showing scenes of Roslin looking for Hera, I knew that it would tie in with the Opera scenes, and that Baltar and Six would actually be saving her, and not taking her away. When I first saw the Opera Scenes a few years ago, I was interested to see how that played out. It might not have been a real wow moment in the finale for me, when that scene was explained, but it did tie in nicely. It was nice to see Baltar and Six redeemed to a certain degree, and that they were not villainous as the Opera scene may have alluded to.

The show sort of slowed down for me when they reached Earth. It felt sort of like the last Lord of the Rings movie, with multiple endings, and me just wondering when we would get to the actual conclusion. The scene with Kara and Lee was nice, and even though I was a bit disappointed the way they handled Kara, that was a nice way to bring her to an end. I sort of went to bed unsatisfied with that story, but sleeping on it, and the explanation that she was an angel, and that her work was done is ok with me. The explanation that Head Six and Head Baltar are angels as well is ok with me. Maybe not a real startling revelation, but seems to fit in with the story. How it relates with God as we know him, I am still thinking about it, and most likely will discuss with my friend Rick,as I am sure he will have some great in-site to it. If I look at the Original series for some idea, I might think of Kara/Head Six/Head Baltar as maybe similar to the Beings of Light that the original crew encountered. I sort of figured as well, that when they did find Earth, that it would be in the past, and it is sort of cool, that we have Cylon in us .

Probably the scene that made me smile the most, was when they sent the fleet into the sun. The homage to the Original series, and the music in the back ground was very moving for me being a Original series fan. It was a great scene, and it might be the one I remember most from the finale.

So over all, even though after I watched the episode, I was disappointed, with some sleep, I feel more satisfied with it. There was no real big twists, or anything that made me fall out of my seat well watching. But for the most part it wrapped things up in a nice manner. Great series, looking forward to some of the other series that will be spun from this. Probably gets me really excited for another re-imaging of the Original that has been rumored.

Tags: Battlestar Galactica, BSG, Galactica