August 17, 2017

Finally Watched: Fantastic Voyage

We all have those movies that we’ve been wanting to catch for the longest time, but for whatever reason have failed to do so. Either we keep missing it or nobody plays it anymore and you can’t find the home video release or streaming version. Well, I have a few of those, so I decided to make an article series about finally watching those movies. Introducing a new article series here at BW Media Spotlight:

As it says on the tin (semi-literally since it’s a drawing) Finally Watched is about finally watching those movies. And for our first entry we start with one that I haven’t seen despite ties to other versions of it. 1966’s Fantastic Voyage spun off an animated series (loosely based) from rising animation studio Filmation, and a video game which I own for the Atari 800. And yet I’ve never seen the movie. At my late grandfather’s house there was a copy of the book, the only sci-fi book I recognized in the bunch, so when we were dealing with their effects I was able to obtain it for my library. It was written by Issac Asimov, a legend of science fiction, so I assumed the movie was based on the book. But when I went to examine it for a Chapter By Chapter review, I noticed it is actually a novelization. As such, I didn’t read it until I saw the movie. Which I haven’t done for years.

Recently Cinemax did a free preview weekend and I happened to see the name in the television guide so I recorded it. I think I caught part of it once as a kid and wasn’t too impressed, but I’m an adult with…some…different tastes. And I’m really looking forward to watching this movie. Then you get a review of it to see what I thought. So it’s time to finally see this movie. I’ll try not to spoil too much in case someday you want to finally watch this movie as well.

RELEASE DATE: 1966

RELEASED BY: Twentieth Century Fox

STARRING: Raquel Welch, Arthur O’Connell, William Redfield, Steven Boyd, and Arthur Kennedy

SCREENWRITERS:  Harry Kleiner, Jerome Bixby, Otto Klement, Donald Pleasence, Edward O’Brien, & David Duncan

DIRECTOR: Richard Fleischer

GROSS REVENUE: $12 Million

IMDB SCORE: 6.8 out of 10

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 93%

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August 17, 2017

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Transformers Spotlight: Hot Rod

Yep, this is when the numbering disappeared.

Take your protoform to work day.

Transformers Spotlight: Hot Rod

IDW Publishing (November, 2006)

WRITER: Simon Furman

ARTIST: Nick Roche

COLORIST: Liam Shalloo

SELECTED COVER ART: James Raiz

LETTERER: Robbie Robbins

EDITOR: Dan Taylor

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August 17, 2017

BW’s Morning Article Link: Now This Comic Is Multimedia

Here at BW Media Spotlight I use articles, comics, and (when I get the chance) videos to examine storytelling. Trying to use more than one medium to tell a canon story (most licensed works are not canon or at least not integrated with the show) is hard work. There are a lot of elements, which is why few TV shows have tried, although some have, even letting game players affect a story’s outcome. So kudos to Jon Chad, who put together an original graphic novel that also utilizes other media in it’s story. I just hope it’s a good story.

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August 16, 2017

Today’s Comic> Robotech #1 (Titan Comics)

Usually when I do a Today’s Comic it’s in the same format as “Yesterday’s” Comic since the latter is a spinoff of the former. I haven’t done a lot of new comic reviews since I haven’t been able to get a new comic outside of a gift in years. I went for a job interview today and we’ll see how it goes and how that will affect BW operations if I get it, but I still have no money coming in. This was donated by my friend Sean because we were both big fans of the show.

I’m also doing an extended review because this is a new take on the classic series, although this first issue is a modified adaptation of “Boobytrap“, the first episode of the original Robotech show. Originally it was simply going to be an English dub of Super Dimensional Fortress Macross but they were too many episodes short of a full weekday season at the time. So Carl Macek grabbed two other shows, Super Dimension Calvary Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospedia, and weaved them together through Robotechnology and its power source called “protoculture”. If you never saw the original shows this comes off as three long tales of three different wars over protoculture and the various sciences that can be created from it.

While previous licensed Robotech comics (except for the two-issue special from DC, which came before the show and was based on the Macross model kids Revel brought over under the name Robotech) built off of the TV show or directly adapted episodes, Titan Comics decided to create a “bold new vision for the Robotech saga” and you guys all know how badly this has gone in the past. The first issue recently came out and today we’re going to take a look at it. There will be spoilers since I want to talk about the changes.

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Posted by on August 16, 2017 in Animation Spotlight, Television Spotlight, Today's Comic and tagged , , , , , , .

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August 16, 2017

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Voltron: Defender Of The Universe #4 (Devil’s Due)

“Ugh! Morning Breath!”

Voltron: Defender Of The Universe #4

Devil’s Due (August, 2004)

“Revelations” part 4

WRITER: Dan Jolley

PENCILERS: Mike Norton & Clint Hilinski with Tim Seeley

INKER: Clayton Brown

COLORIST: Brett R. Smith

LETTERING: Dreamer Design

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Posted by on August 16, 2017 in Animation Spotlight, Television Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , .

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August 16, 2017

BW’s Morning Article Link: ANOTHER Terminator Movie?

Terminator (character)

Terminator (character) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Some series just need to end or at least rebooted if they insist on keeping going. Nobody is sure if the Highlander franchise even has a set timeline anymore, and that should have stopped at one movie. The Terminator franchise, at least as movies, probably should have ended with T2: Judgement Day, although I guess a prequel wasn’t a bad idea. Terminator Genesis I can safely call a bad idea and I haven’t even seen it, nor do I think I need to. Some ideas are bad at concept.

Now ScreenCrush is reporting that there may well be a new Terminator prequel that will attempt to explain the reason the T-800s all look like Arnold, a story I don’t think we needed. Then again it’s coming after a sequel to Twins, which I liked when I watched it but that REALLY didn’t seen a sequel, especially this far from the original. Hollywood makes less and less sense to me every day.

Posted by on August 16, 2017 in Movie Spotlight and tagged , , .

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August 15, 2017

The Evolution Of Luigi

I promised you guys a commentary this week, but the only thing coming to mind is a rehash of an early posting AND an Art Soundoff v-log on continuity and I’m getting tired of repeating myself even without a certain book. So if Steve Wacker wants to spit all over continuity because he’s more concerned with his story that he can’t save it for characters that fit it, it just shows how little writers today care about the fans, the writers that came before, or making a shared universe that people can stay invested in. Besides, I’ve done enough raging lately, so let’s talk about something I like: Luigi Mario!

Originally created as the second player character for the first Mario Brothers and Super Mario Brothers games, there are plenty of us out there who really like Luigi and may even like him better than Mario. However, it’s only recently, with Nintendo’s “Year Of Luigi” marketing event and the Luigi’s Mansion games as well as his appearances in the sports titles like Mario Kart and Super Smash Brothers, that the green plumber has finally gotten a chance to really shine outside of Mario’s footsteps. In his last Break Down video for the Game Theorists, Furst takes a brief look at the history of the Player Two that earned a spot in our hearts.

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Posted by on August 15, 2017 in Video Game Spotlight and tagged , , , .

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