#excited for bruce boxleitner to appear

[arc-trooper]

I started babylon 5 and I am really enjoying it so far

[365days365movies]

May 7, 2021: TRON (1982)

Starting to leave lo-fi sci-fi with this one.

Can I just say, I am VERY excited for this one. Mostly because it’s hard to get more ‘80s than this movie, specifically in terms of computers. I’ll explain. Y’know Jurassic Park? Yeah, the same movie I’ve brought up far, FAR too many times this month. Is...is that my favorite sci-fi movie? Shit, it might be? I’ve read the books, I’ve seen the movie COUNTLESS times...I’m pretty sure it is! Huh. Go figure. Anyway, where was I?

Oh, right! Remember the most irritating character in the movie? This is, in my opinion, older sister Lex Murphy. In the book, for the record, she’s a VERY different character. She’s the youngest sibling amongst the two, and she’s a sports nerd who hates dinosaurs. And she’s also the most annoying character in the book, so at least they kept that consistent. However, you may be saying to yourself: “Jesus, this dude really loves Jurassic Park. Even in the intro for Tron, he’s talking about it. Why the hell does he keep bringing it up?”

Well, allow me to explain. When I was 9 years old, I was super into two things: dinosaurs and reading. You may think that I wasn’t very popular in school as a result. And the truth won’t surprise you. Anyway, on January 3rd, 2001, it was a cold morning in the supermarket when

...OK, lemme get to the point. IT’S A UNIX SYSTEM!

See, this moment when Lex hacks into the computer to reactivate the locks (a task given to Tim in the book, but whatever) does two things. One, it makes Lex relevant in a film and story where she’s almost entirely unneeded. And two, it established something in the minds of movie-watchers everywhere: a completely misguided idea of what computer programming is.

And this is just one of MANY examples of Hollywood weirdly representing computers to the public. This was kind of a trend throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, as computers were beginning to become available to the public. Examples are:

WarGames (1983), dir. John Badham

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), dir. James Cameron

Revenge of the Nerds (1984), dir. Jeff Kanew

Weird Science (1985), dir, John Hughes

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), dir. Russo Bros

That last one isn’t a great example, and it’s not even within the right time period. I just love Arnim Zola, and he NEEDS TO RETURN to the MCU. Goddamn it, I want this guy back, complete with his full robot body! COME ON FIEGE, LOOK AT THIS GUY! That last one may or may not be my fanart for the character with my own design NEVERTHEGODDAMNLESS!

Look, all you gotta do is connect the various machinations of Arnim Zola to the foundations of AIM, which is easy given their link in the comics. Zola and his fellow Paperclip scientists helped fund Aldrich Killian’s AIM, and the project to give Zola his sick-ass robot body eventually wound up being a part of the project that would create the hovering robotic chair used by this guy.

THIS IS ALL I’VE EVER WANTED PLEASE

...Ahem.

Anyway, the weird-ass ways that Hollywood’s represented computers, hacking, and all other associated things can be traced back to 1982, when the first film to use mostly computer generated imagery for its setting was created. This was, of course, Disney’s TRON. And while I haven’t seen it before...I’ve see its sequel in theaters?

On a related note, Tron Legacy might be a mediocre film with a mediocre soundtrack, but GODDAMN DO IT LOVE THE FUCKING VISUALS. It’s genuinely my favorite aesthetic. That whole “outlined in light” thing? Goooooooh, BABY, how I love it.

Style over substance, but OH THE FUCKING STYLE

Anyway, despite that, I’m looking forward to seeing where the whole thing came from. I dig that style, too. Is there a name for those aesthetics? Let me know, so I can devote my life to it forever. Anyway, shall we get started?

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap

So, we start this movie off with a BANG, jumping into an arcade where two kids are playing none other than Lightcycle, and jumping into said Lightcycles to meet one of the drivers, Sark (David Warner). A sadistic program, he takes great pleasure in executing programs in Lightcycle races.

One of these programs, in fact, is being brought into imprisonment now, to be set against Sark in a race. The program, Crom (Peter Jurasik), speaks with fellow prisoner Ram (Dan Shor), where we get some idea of the lore of this place. Many programs believe in “the Users”, god-like figures who they believe created them and tell them what to do. However, the mysterious Master Control Program is rounding up the programs that believe in Users, taking over their functions or executing them. Diggin’ the lore so far.

In the real world, we meet Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), a computer programmer commanding his own program, Clu (also Bridges), and...look, I’m not sure what they’re doing, but OHHH. IT’S A UNIX SYSTEM, BABY. The beautiful bullshit that this movie uses to denote computer activity and programming, it’s...MMMMMMMMMCHEF’SKISS, it’s so FUCKING GOOD!

Anyway, Clu’s apparently being sent to find some information, but he’s caught by Master Control. Jeff Bridges shows off some pretty over-the-top acting, but it’s charming as hell. Clu’s interrogated by Master Control Program (also Warner), and killed, or “derezzed”. This frustrates Flynn, but why?

Well, we get a clue from MCPs concentration with Ed Dillinger (David Warner), who arrives at his office in the COOLEST FUCKING HELICOPTER I HAVE EVER SEEN. I will never make enough money to have this helicopter, but maybe one day I can do it to a car, holy shit. Anyway, Dillinger lands and enters the ENCOM building, where he speaks with his computer table, which contains MCP.

Is this a thing with computer programmers? Do they, like, physically talk to their programs, and the programs talk back? Is this a thing that happens? Are the conversations interesting? Are IT people literally computer-whisperers? I gotta talk to my friends in computer sciences and IT about this.

Apparently, Flynn’s been snooping around their servers for a specific file, and they’re trying to stop him from getting that file. Meanwhile, in an office in the building, a man named Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) is blocked out of the system in an attempt to flush out Flynn’s location. Bradley’s summoned to the office for what seems like a routine interview, but is actually more of an investigation. Doesn’t go anywhere.

On a side note, by the way, it would appear that MCP is somewhat in control of Dillinger. Although, how and why is unknown. In any case, he’s attempting to amass power. Additionally, the fact that he’s directly speaking to one of the Users is...interesting. And on a second side note, Bradley is preparing something, a security program called “Tron”. That might come up later.

MEANWHILE, elsewhere in the building, a group of scientists are conducting an experiment to digitize solid matter and transport it into computers. It succeeds with an orange, much to their delight and celebration. One of these scientists is Lora Baines (Cindy Morgan), Flynn’s ex-girlfriend and Alan’s current girlfriend. They go to the arcade to reconvene with Flynn, much to Alan’s irritation.

Flynn not only owns the place, he’s also a game whiz, brilliant computer programmer, and recently fired ex-employee of ENCOM. He’s also been sneaking into the ENCOM system, and he details exactly why he’s moving against them. While working for ENCOM, he had started writing programs for some very complex video games, which could’ve have made him quite a bit of money. But Dillinger stole his files, and uses it to climb up the ranks to Senior Executive of ENCOM, while Flynn lounges in relative poverty. He’s planning on getting into the system to get evidence of Dillinger’s wrongdoing.

The trio plots to take down Dillinger and get the evidence together, breaking into ENCOM that night. Meanwhile, Dillinger’s meeting with Walter Gibbs (Barnard Hughes), a co-founder of the company, and one of the other scientists who made the digitizing machine. Dillinger says YOUR TIME IS OVER OLD MAN, and brushes off his concerns about he’s handing the company.

He’s not the only one with issues, as MCP decides to take over FOR Dillinger. Apparently, Dillinger’s talents are stealing data and creating Cybernet/HAL 9000. Good job, buddy. But that may end, when Alan goes to finish and install his program, Tron, which will hopefully take MCP down. Meanwhile, Lora and Flynn go to the basement with the digitizing machine. At the computer terminal, MCP decides to stop Flynn by...well, you know where this is headed.

Yup! Flynn’s brought into the computer by Lora’s machine, and is digitized and put into the game grid. And since we’ll be spending a lot of time there, I think I need to acknowledge something: I really love how this movie looks. The CGI is rudimentary, but it’s used surprisingly well. Consider that this is also made in an era where this is the kind of imagery that computers could literally generate at the time, and you’ve got a pretty great movie in-context.

Flynn, now in those spiffy program duds, is sent by the MCP to compete in the Game Grid, under Sark’s supervision and tutelage. He’s thrown into the brig with the other imprisoned programs, where he learns more about this world. Once brought into the throes of the Game Grid, he’s told that those who believe in the Users are to be trained poorly, ensuring their inevitable death. Meanwhile, those who renounce their belief will be spared. And of all the programs who still believe in the Users, there is none quite as powerful...as Tron (Bruce Boxleitner again).

We see Tron’s badass skills in Ultimate Frisbee. And OK, it’s not Ultimate Frisbee, but you throw discs that contain all of your essence and all of the things you’ve learned in your time there. You basically pour your entire essence and being into the disc as you throw it. So, really, it is Ultimate Frisbee, according to that one dude who’s REALLY into Ultimate Frisbee.

Flynn is commanded to play one of these games, and he winds fairly easily. However, when he defeats his opponent, he’s almost about to die. However, Flynn refuses to finish him off, leading Sark to do so instead. And Sark is tempted to kill Flynn as well, but he holds off at the last moment.

Flynn finally gets to meet Tron, where he feigns being a program that knows of his User, Alan. Of course, Tron looks exactly like Alan, which is why Flynn blurts out his name. But as they’re discussing this, Flynn, Tron, and fellow prisoner Ram are sent to compete in the Lightcycles. And, yes, I’m now looking for a game like this on my phone, because GODDAMN to I love Lightcycles. Can’t WAIT for the Disney World ride, oh my GOOOOD. 

So, our guys get in the Lightcycles, and they outmaneuver Sark’s guys. They’re actually able to escape the arena and the Game Grid, making it outside the citadel. They encounter a, uh, bitstream, and soak up some energy before moving on. On the way, though, they’re nearly killed by Sark’s guys in tanks, and Tron is separated from Flynn an the unconscious Ram.

Flynn and Ram finds a place to rest and hide, and Flynn discovers that, as a User, he actually has the ability to somewhat manipulate the reality within the computer, and he makes a version of MCPs ships, the Recognizers, which resemble the villains in Flynn’s game that Dillinger stole. Now realizing that Flynn is a user, Ram asks him to help Tron, before dying and disappearing into pure code. Whoof.

Tron, meanwhile, ends up finding an input/output program named Yori (Cindy Morgan), who helps him in his escape. She takes him through the city, where we see some interesting designs for control programs, almost like a Hunger Games Panem sort of deal.

Flynn has trouble driving his ship, as he meets a “bit”, a small bit of data that only answers in yes or no. He, too, ends up in the city, and you start to notice that this film has a really heavy influence in our cyberpunk concepts and fashions today. Honestly, I really dig this whole thing. Kevin uses his programming powers to disguise himself as one of Sark’s guards, while Yori and Tron find their way through the main citadel of the guards.

They make their way through to the access tower, where they ask the program Dumont (Barnard Hughes again) to let them access the interface that will allow them to speak with the Users, specifically Alan. Reluctantly, Dumont agrees to let Tron through, where he goes to the access port. Which, for the record, looks awesome. He goes to speak with Alan, and he does that one pose. Y’know, the famous Tron pose that’s on the poster?

Yeah, that’s the good stuff. Anyway, he gets information written onto his disc that’ll allow him to kill MCP. Neat. And unfortunately, that’s exactly when Sark and his guys show up, taking Dumont away as Tron and Yori escape. Yori gets them onto a Solar Sailer, a device that will transport them to the central computer. Tron fends off some of Sark’s guys with video game noise kicks, and the Solar Sailer arrives to take them away.

Sark chases after them, but the pair manage to outrun his very cool-looking ship. MCP threatens to destroy Sark for his failure, but he promises that he’ll be able to get them. On the ship, Tron looks down at the side to see Flynn hanging on. Turns out that he was one of the guards that attacked the two. Tron pulls him up onto the ship, and Flynn reveals that he is, in fact, a user. He also reveals that Users aren’t exactly the gods that programs believe them to be.

Anyway, how’s Dumont doing?

Ah.

Well, the Recognizers find Tron, Yori, and Flynn, and chase after them on the light beam the Solar Sailer is on. However, with his User powers, Flynn manages to get the Sailer onto a different beam, while pulses on the original beam destroy the Recognizers.

Doesn’t end up mattering much, though, as Sark finally catches up and intercepts the group. The Solar Sailer is destroyed, and Yori and Flynn are thrown in the brig with Dumont, who’s still alive! Can’t say quite as much for Tron, apparently. But, again, I can only assume that Ton is still alive. We’ll see, though. Sark denies Flynn’s identity as a User for some reason (I mean, MCP told you who he was, but OK), and he sentences them all to death. Outside the ship, of course, is Tron, who’s hiding and waiting for the right time to strike. And that is when we finally see him.

Glorious. Absolutely goddamn glorious. MCP is taking the remaining programs that believe in Users, Dumont included, and incorporating them into his mass. Meanwhile, Sark has found Tron, and the two are fighting with a classic game of Ultimate Frisbee. Tron nearly defeats Sark entirely, but MCP revives him, and gives him the power to take out Tron. He grows gigantic, and it looks genuinely really convincing.

Flynn prepares to take out MCP once and for all, and kisses Yori just beforehand, which is weird as shit. He jumps into the program, and controls it just long enough for Tron to throw his disc at it and land the finishing blow. And with that, MCP is ended, and the threat of take over is gone! The I/O towers light up, and the Video Warriors have won! Don’t ask me what that means, I study birds.

And with ALL OF THAT DONE, Flynn gets the proof he needs from a print-out that, to be honest, I feel like he could’ve just typed up himself. It doesn’t look like that much. But, still, MCP is gone, Dillinger’s screwed, and Flynn now gets a cool-looking helicopter of his own, as the new CEO of ENCOM. And from there, he will become a deadbeat dad that abandons his kid to live in computers forever. Or something like that, it’s been a while since I’ve seen Tron Legacy.

And that’s Tron, a goofy movie of its time, but one that’s a lot of fun all the same. And with some effects that, to be honest...I actually really liked! But more on that...IN THE REVIEW! See you there!

[thisbentleyplaysqueen]

Aight so none of you asked but here’s my Percy Jackson series fan cast

This is the first one I’ve ever done so I have no idea how this works. Also, I like the idea that the children be unknown actors so I only did the adults! Let’s get started!

Sally Jackson

Jennifer Hudson!!! The absolute queen! I think she would make an awesome Sally Jackson mainly because I love her acting and she deserves better after Cats.

Gabe Ugliano

David Cross. Honestly I’m not sure why I thought he would be a good Gabe...I think it’s because he was the bad guy in Alvin and the Chipmunks and that kinda stuck with me. I think he could pull off “jerk face step-dad”.

Chiron

Michael Sheen! Honestly the beard gives me ‘mentor that has been around for thousands of years and is honestly trying to keep this sixth grader from being killed by a “kindly one” on a field trip’ vibes. Also, he can do American accents (Prodigal Son is a great example). Not sure how he’d look as a centaur because my brain will not allow me to view that, so we’re just flying blind here.

Mr. D

So I’ve been a big advocate that Danny Devito should play Mr. D because if you listen to “Another Terrible Day” from the musical, to me that just screams Danny Devito. He could so pull it off!

Hades

Keanu Reeves just seems like he would be an awesome king of the underworld. He would threaten to trap Percy and his friends and I would clap just because it’s Keanu. Gah, I love him.

Poseidon

I don’t know if this is because I associate him with Aquaman or what, but honestly I want to see Jason Momoa as God of the Sea! Also, he could wear a Hawaiian shirt, chill and vibe, and wouldn’t have to go through the dangerous process of having abs on screen, so it would be great for him!

Zeus

GAH! Just... let me see Jeff Bridges as the King of the Gods! Look at him! I may know him as the Dude, the mentor from the Giver, and Kevin Flynn, but I would love to see him as an uber serious god who’s pissed because some kid stole his lightning bolt (we kinda saw that in the Giver and when Kevin Flynn Saw Some Things in Tron: Legacy, but I would like to see more).

Athena

I love Stephanie Beatriz, and it would be really cool to see her as the Goddess of Wisdom who does not approve of Percy, especially when it comes to her daughter. If not her, then I definitely would recommend Adria Arjona. In fact, now that I think about it, I would love to see her as Athena over Stephanie (but I love them both).

Hermes

I really think Tyler James Williams would be a cool Hermes. Also his ending in Whiskey Cavalier (where he presumably died or was kidnapped but we don’t know because it got cancelled) shows he deserves better. I would love to see him in this role!

Apollo

Will Smith would be an awesome Apollo! That scene from “The Titan’s Curse” where Apollo is driving his car across the horizon? I just see Will Smith. He would be so much fun!

Artemis

I just remember that in most scenes Artemis is portrayed as a young girl, about the same age as her Hunters. When I thought of that, all I saw was Erin Kellyman from her role as Enfys Nest in Solo. I would love to see her as Artemis!

Hera

I love Octavia Spencer and she serves “Queen of the gods” vibes at all times. I’m here for it!

Ares

Gonna be honest, this was my brother’s suggestion but I think Terry Crews would be a pretty cool Ares. I’m just curious about how he would pull of the biker vibe...

Aphrodite

I know in the book it says her appearance is always changing and I honestly do not have the strength to assign what actors would make a good Aphrodite so we’re just gonna skip this one.

Hephaestus

I love The Rock, and I would be happy to see him in any role in this series, but my brother suggested Hephaestus and I think it’s a pretty cool idea.

Aunty Em/Medusa

Honestly every time I thought about Medusa, I just thought of the White Witch lady from Narnia, so Tilda Swinton it is.

Mrs. Dodds

I honestly have no idea. For some reason, I can’t think of an actress that can pull off a southern accent that matches my image of Mrs. Dodds. So.....we’ll just move on.

Crusty

Ned Dennehy played Hastur in “Good Omens”, and he did such a good job of making my skin crawl. Those vibes are needed for Crusty the bed seller/ apparent child torturer.

Charon

This is another pull from “Good Omens” but Brian Cox did such an amazing job as Death! His voice just mixed with how I thought the ferryman of the Underworld, so bring him back for another death-related role!

And finally...

Kronos

Okay, so my brother made a suggestion of Andy Serkis as Kronos (since he is mainly just a voice character and ends up taking Luke’s form in the books if I remember right), and I could definitely see that! He voiced Snoke in Star Wars, and was the crazy white villain in Black Panther, but also (because I’m a total nostalgic) I just thought of someone who I could see voicing Kronos that I love so much....

BRUCE BOXLEITNER! For those who don’t know him, he’s mainly known as the voice of Tron in literally ANYTHING in the Tron franchise. He’s got this deep voice that would work so well for Kronos. Also, I miss seeing him in things that I deeply enjoy. Miss you king.

And that’s about it! Thanks for joining my excited rant. 

[karazor--el]

Supergirl bosses preview 'delicious' Lex Luthor, Alex's 'unexpected' sacrifice

You can expect a bit more levity when Supergirl returns on Sunday.

The CW drama’s fourth season has been pretty dark so far. Admittedly, most of the heaviness makes sense because the season is exploring our country’s very real immigration debate and racial divide via a story about big bad Agent Liberty (Sam Witwer), who is stoking fear against aliens in National City. When we last checked in the show, Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) managed to capture Agent Liberty, a.k.a. Ben Lockwood, and send him to prison; however, the fear-monger’s incarceration only bolstered the xenophobic movement he was leading. Furthermore, in the wake of Ben’s capture, Colonel Haley (April Parker Jones) and the President (Bruce Boxleitner) demanded Supergirl reveal her identity to the world or leave the DEO, which put Kara in a very uncomfortable position.

Sure, we left things in pretty dark place, but showrunners/executive producers Jessica Queller and Robert Rovner assure us that there will be a few breaks in the clouds in the back half of season 4 — especially in the 12th episode, which sees Kara and Nia (Nicole Maines) visit Nia’s liberal hometown and family.

“There’s a lot more lightness,” Queller tells EW. “I mean, it’s very serious themes that we wrap up with, but we have more humor and levity in some of the upcoming episodes.”

Below, EW chats with Queller and Rovner about Nia’s superheroic arc, Jon Cryer’s debut as Lex Luthor, and why we won’t see original cast member Jeremy Jordan — who jumped down to recurring status last year — in the back half of the season.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I was going to start off by asking you if Supergirl’s current identity crisis would play a big role in the back half of the season, but then the new promo shows Colonel Haley declaring that Kara Danvers’ life is over. Should our takeaway be that Haley does figure out Supergirl’s secret identity?

JESSICA QUELLER: There are going to be some twists and turns to that answer that you’ll have to tune in for that are very exciting and, I think, surprising in the upcoming episode.

ROBERT ROVNER: Keeping Kara’s identity secret becomes a big story point in the second half of the season.

Alex’s job at the DEO is also at stake in this situation. What kind of position does this put Alex in?

QUELLER: What I was just alluding to really is a sacrifice that Alex makes to protect her sister that’s really unexpected and we hope the audience will find very compelling that’s in the upcoming episode.

At this point, we haven’t seen too much of Red Daughter. Will that dangling season 3 thread become even more important in the back half of this season?

ROVNER: Very much more. The Red Daughter story becomes, well not front and center because we have a lot of stories going, but it plays a much bigger role. We’ll get to see a lot more of her and see her origin story in the second half of the season.

What can we expect from that origin story?

ROVNER: It’s cool. We kind of take a different narrative approach to it, so I think that’s exciting. We get to see kind of what is Red Daughter’s core beliefs and why she believes them.

QUELLER: Also, something that you’re going to see is that it may not appear so right now but all of our big bads and storylines are going to dovetail, including Red Daughter. So, they’re all of a piece, and how those pieces fit together are hopefully going to be pretty exciting.

It seems as though the construction of this season is more complicated than previous ones. Have you found it harder to plot out the entire thing?

QUELLER: You know what the funny thing is? It feels like it’s come rather easily because we had a very strong vision from the beginning and we also had a lot to say, a lot of stories we were passionate about telling, and issues that we were passionate about exploring. We knew where we were headed from the beginning. So breaking the stories, although they are ambitious, have happened pretty smoothly.

DIYAH PERA/THE CW

We also know that Nia is moving closer to becoming a superhero in this back half, too. In the most recent promo, Brainy approaches Nia about her destiny. What role does Brainy play in helping her realize who she is meant to become?

ROVNER: Brainy is familiar with her future ancestors and gives Nia some insight into the extent of her powers and, as a good super friend, wants to help usher her into being a hero. But it’s a team effort and we’ll get to explore what’s been keeping Nia from embracing her powers. We’re going to get to go with Nia to see where she came from and meet the rest of her family in 411, and we’re very excited about that. Kate Burton plays her mother, and we get to meet her and her sister, and her father, and get to know much more about the family Nal.

I’m not sure what I was expecting from Nia’s family, but the new pictures from “Blood Memory” definitely surprised me. What is Nia’s relationship with her family like?

QUELLER: We can’t tell you too much about it, but one thing that we’re excited about is going to the town where she was raised, and we’re going to see that it’s a very sort of liberal oasis. It’s a small town that’s always been very welcoming of aliens and where aliens and humans live in harmony. In fact, one of her parents is human and one is alien. Going home and seeing those dynamics and seeing a place [like that] will be a little break from all of the intense hatred and politics that we’ve been experiencing in National City. Then, we’ll focus on the family dynamics and what exactly has been holding Nia back from owning herself as Dreamer.

Did you as the writers enjoy that break from the unpleasantness and bigotry in National City?

QUELLER: It was. It was a very special episode and very relationship-oriented, and it was really, really wonderful to explore Nia’s origin story, I guess, and learn more about who she is and where she comes from.

The midseason finale ended with Agent Liberty behind bars. What kind of threat does he pose now? Are we mostly dealing with his Children of Liberty now?

ROVNER: It’s that, and he’s trying to make himself a martyr to kind of continue his narrative of humans being vulnerable at the hands of aliens. He’s fomenting that fear as we begin the second half of the season, and it continues to escalate all season.

QUELLER: His following just grows and grows. As we saw when he went to jail, he was sort of hailed as a martyr and a leader. Instead of public opinion turning against him, it just grew stronger.

What can we expect from Supergirl’s take on the iconic Lex Luthor, played by Jon Cryer?

ROVNER: We’re super excited about the introduction of Lex Luthor into our world and Jon Cryer’s portrayal of the character. I think that he’s the biggest supervillain we’ve had the show, and his plans will kind of touch every character and impact the entire season moving forward once he arrives.

QUELLER: The character is not that dissimilar to what we’ve seen in canon. He just [has] a sparkle in his eye and is smarter than everybody in the room and 12 steps ahead of everyone, and just a large, delicious villain.

Has Jon shot anything as Lex yet, and if so, what can you share about his portrayal?

ROVNER: He starts shooting at the end of this week. We’ve had wardrobe and makeup tests, so we’ve seen Lex Luthor incarnated, but we haven’t seen the performance yet.

QUELLER: But we’ve had lots and lots of talks with him. We’re all on the same page, and he’s just going to be awesome.

In the fall, it was reported that you working on a plan to bring Jeremy Jordan back as Winn once his Broadway show, American Son, wrapped in January. Were you able actually bring to make it work, and will we see him in this back half?

ROVNER: We love Jeremy Jordan, we love Winn. It looks like, in terms of our storytelling, something we’d like to do at the beginning of next season as opposed to this season. We have a lot of stories that coincided with his availability at the end of the play. We don’t want to short shrift Jeremy or the character. So, we think it’s something that’s better served in season 5.

Supergirl airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on The CW.

EW.

[adamwatchesmovies]

TRON (1982)

TRON is more stimulating visually than story-wise but that's still enough to warrant a watch.

Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) resents his former employer, ENCOM. In order to expose Ed Dillinger (David Warner), who now heads the company thanks to the programs he stole from Flynn, our hero, his ex-girlfriend Lora (Cindy Morgan) and fellow ENCOM engineer Alan (Bruce Boxleitner) sneak into the building and accidentally uncover the company's self-aware A.I., Master Computer Program. It attempts to silence Flynn by digitizing him and transporting him inside The Grid, an exotic computer world.

TRON was one of the first movies to make extensive use of computer generated images. For this, it has significant value. Today you can’t bat an eye without seeing CG creatures or a few scenes where the sky has been digitally edited to match footage from a previous shot. This pioneer is enjoyed in the same way that you do a Harryhausen special effect. They're cave drawings compared to today’s standard but that actually works in the film’s favor, giving it a distinct look and feel.

The graphics fit for 2 reasons. First, the film's view of computers as a whole is crude so the effects match. Secondly, they're consistent. There aren’t any scenes where the famous light cycles appear in detail and the next they look mostly like a series of flat textures. At no point do you see any shot that sticks out and pulls you away from the film. There is also a sense of excitement seeing history in the making. You don't know how they pulled it off.

What prevents TRON from being great are the story and some of the performances. All of the “computer talk” in TRON is nonsense. Humanoids are called programs, there’s references to bits and games, but don’t think too much of it. They might as well be elves and fairies. While some of the wooden acting kind of works, since the programs Flynn interacts with aren’t supposed to be very sophisticated and it makes a nice contrast between him and the A.I.s, the stuff in the real world is rarely convincing. Additionally, the story is uneven. The beginning is slow and full of exposition, information that's largely unnecessary by the end, as the picture features a number of characters that should've been exed, like Lora and Allan, who never join Flynn in the computer adventuring.

Despite some of the hiccups, there’s a lot of cool visuals and TRON has a strange appeal. The distinct look of the computer world, with its black-and-white images accentuated with lines of color and computer-generated backgrounds, are quite striking. It’s for these that TRON earns itself a recommendation, not for the story, which is unremarkable and jumbled. (Theatrical version on the big screen, February 2, 2014)

[nonbinarysasquatch]

Babylon 5: The Gathering

“There is a hole in your mind.”

Non-Spoilery review:

Let’s face it: The Gathering is a terrible starting point. Sure, I like it well enough (in fact, I like it a great deal) but Babylon 5 is my favourite tv series ever.

I remember back in the 90s catching glimpses of Babylon 5 and hearing things about it here and there. But I’m fairly certain it wasn’t until the SciFi channel aired The Gathering (in 2000) that I actually caught any of it. I… was not blown away. I was still curious about the show because of the things I’d heard about it but it wasn’t like I watched The Gathering and was suddenly DYING to watch more of it.

Watching it now… I think it’s fine. Some of the acting is either too stiff or too campy (even from Patricia Tallman who I love.) A lot of the humour doesn’t work, the pace is too slow and the story isn’t that exciting. At least on a surface level.

The CGI: Yeah. It’s dated. But this show wasn’t some big budget production and the CGI was necessary. People will probably also speculate on the possibility of their being a remastered version of the series and the answer is: no, probably not, probably never. The DVDs are probably all we’re ever gonna get. The original masters of the series were lost in a fire, making what would be an expensive and not very profitable restoration anyway, even more expensive. It’s far more likely there will be a reboot of the series than there will ever be an HD release of the series. There’s just no money in it and B5 only becomes more obscure year by year.

Chances are if you are a new viewer, you’ve just watched the special edition of the episode. I’ve seen the original version but it’s been a while. In my opinion, the special edition is better, even if neither are amazing. There are folks out there who don’t agree and that’s fine. The main differences are, completely different score, some bad effects edited out and some of the humour edited back in. Londo’s opening narration is also different, being entirely rewritten and re-recorded.

Spoiler time (Ro13):

Obviously, the main reason this is hard to watch is because so much feels wrong when compared to the rest of the series. The characters, the ones who return anyway, are off and largely seem less likable than they later will, though a lot of that is deliberate.

It’ll be interesting to see reactions to Delenn’s changed appearance. The idea of Delenn changing genders as well as becoming part human is interesting. In retrospect, I’m not sure I would’ve been comfortable with the way JMS would have handled the concept of gender but it could’ve been interested.

God, I always cringe at Sinclair telling the guy to “stick to the list.” Sure, the guy probably doesn’t want to get eaten but that whole thing is just WEIRD and doesn’t really match things we see later in the series. If you want to make a series about not being xenophobic, it’s probably best not to start it off with apparent xenophobia.

Jeff is probably the closest to how the character will be portrayed throughout season one. I’ll be perfectly honest, in that back in the day I wasn’t into Sinclair as a character. Not until his story was completed in War Without End. I unequivocally preferred John Sheridan. Today… well, I still prefer John Sheridan and that’s mostly because Bruce Boxleitner has a more charismatic onscreen presence. But there’s no question that on paper, Sinclair is the more interesting and sympathetic character and Michael O’Hare plays him brilliantly. I absolutely love the scene where he describes the battle of the line to Carolyn Sykes. It’s the best scene of this episode.

(To be clear: I love each and every Babylon 5 character dearly… Maybe not Lennier. I… have complicated feelings on Lennier. He’s that good friend you used to have who really disappointed you that one time and you have a hard time remembering the good times because they just FUCKED UP SO BAD. And his choices reflect on who he was. It stings worse than anything Londo did because you never expect much from Londo. I expected better from Lennier.)

Laurel Takashima… I really don’t have many thoughts on her. Had she stuck around she would’ve been Control, suffering some version of Talia’s fate. Tamlyn Tomita’s performance is fine and I’m curious what JMS would’ve done with her in Season 1. One thing I’m going to lament going forward is that The Gathering is as diverse as the cast ever really gets.

Garibaldi. Ah, file under conflicted character feelings. When later learning that JMS had often given Garibaldi aspects of the late Jerry Doyle’s personality… well, let’s I wasn’t shocked. But I don’t think there’s much to remark upon Garibaldi in the Gathering. He’s basically already the character he’s going to be, complete with distrust of telepaths.)

Delenn is pretty weird in this first episode. One thing I’ll talk about during season one is how weird the Minbari are towards Sinclair, assuming they know he’s Valen. I feel like JMS really fleshed out the Minbari over the course of the series (even retconning in a third caste.) They don’t really feel quite right here. Delenn is a strong contender for my favourite character (it waves between Delenn, Ivanova and G’Kar) but obviously she’s not the character she’ll become, even ignoring the makeup.

G’Kar… G’Kar is also kinda removed from his season 1 portrayal but it’s less of a problem than it is with Delenn. After all, he’s *supposed* to be seem like a bit of a villain at first. But aside from that Andreas Katsulas hasn’t quite owned the role just yet. I used to hate that G’Kar comes to Lyta about the telepath thing but upon repeated rewatches I’m more OK with it. I have a lot of feelings about the Narn and G’Kar’s character arc.

Dr. Kyle. I really like Benjamin Kyle. I think it would’ve been interesting to see an older character sticking around on the show. I mean, I love Stephen Franklin (even if I think Richard Biggs was guilty of falling into hammy soap opera acting from time to time) but I do think Kyle would’ve brought something different and it would’ve been interesting to see where JMS would’ve taken the plot of him having seen a Vorlon.

Lyta Alexander. I *love* Patricia Tallman. But as I said above… not all of her performance is great here. The telepathic arc is one of my favourite parts of the series (which is part of why I don’t hate Season Five like so many people do, not that telepath colony story is amazing… I just don’t hate Byron and that arc as much as most people. I think it’s fine and I think Season Five is pretty much on par with Season Two, though definitely a step down from Three and Four.)

And Londo. Man, I love that his big hair in this was literally a practical joke (JMS was still new at the whole show runner thing and when he was showed the hair he approved it just to not seem like an asshole.) I’m curious how new viewers will feel about Londo. I think after first watching the series, he was my favourite character but over the years he’s slipped a little. He’s a more traditional tragic figure. Makes terrible decisions but doesn’t change course until it’s too late to avoid his fate. But as I get older… I don’t know. The trope appeals to me less.

Rating: 7.75 (based on a combination of quality and importance)

Bechdel Test: Fail