growing up, i was a big batman fan. the first tim burton movie was one of the few movies we had on vhs that i was allowed to watch during my younger days, i saw all the subsequent live-action movies (plus mask of the phantasm) in theaters, i was a religious viewer of the animated series, and you could scarcely walk through my bedroom without tripping over batman action figures.
batman vs. predator (comic 1991-92) writer: dave gibbons artist: andy kubert
honestly, my biggest complaint is that although the art style is pretty great (and nostalgic for anyone who’s read any 80s and 90s batman comics), for whatever reason they decided to make everything way too dark, and it’s frequently actually difficult to make out what’s happening as a result.
thor (2011)
“your ancestors called it magic and you call it science. well, i come from a place where they’re one and the same thing.”
thor and guardians of the galaxy are the two marvel franchises i still mostly (mostly) uncomplicatedly like, which probably isn’t the most surprising, right? that i would continue liking the space bullshit ones? i really hope that isn’t surprising, otherwise i’ve done a very poor job of establishing my brand.
what i’ve always liked about thor specifically is the way it combines high fantasy and science fiction tropes. i’ve written previously about how that doesn’t make it immune to reinforcing the sort of hegemonic narratives that the rest of the mcu reinforces, but it’s still different. it’s tolkien-style ruling class apologia rather than just literally u.s. army: be all you can be or the few, the proud, the marines with the branding removed. i’m not saying that makes it okay, but it does at least make it less grating.
1x01 “strange new worlds”
this was so good i literally cried. this is easily, and i mean easily the best first episode of a star trek series. and as much as i like nutrek better than a lot of others who have been fans of the franchise since the golden age, this just blows everything else out of the water in terms of making me like holy shit star trek is back.
this series is like they took all the best parts of tos and discovery, and a lot (not all, but a lot) of the best parts of tng and tossed them in a blender and said “here you go!” it’s like the much better series the first episode of discovery teased us with but we actually get to keep it this time. and that is more or less what i was hoping for, but never in my wildest dreams did i imagine that it would just immediately be that, right out of the gates. this was breathtaking.
i’m struggling to remember the last time i allowed myself to be this unguardedly hyped for something, and having that thing just so resoundingly live up to that hype… i can’t stop gushing about it??? i am literally incapable.
2x01 “amok time”
a landmark episode in terms of character development for spock and worldbuilding for vulcan. i don’t love the essentialism around mating and reproduction, obviously, and i would love for nutrek to follow up on how pon farr affects queer vulcans. but spock and kirk fighting with those stupid american gladiator things is just joyful. b-rank
2x02 “who mourns for adonais?”
like, it’s not the worst or anything, but why do so many of these kinds of episodes just have to absolutely hinge on some female crew member we’ve never met before falling head-over-heels for the villain? you get one of those, and you burned it on “space seed,” and i actually really liked it but it happens over and over and i just can’t stand it. (okay, fine, technically you burned it on the second pilot but i’m not counting that as much because almost everyone was a new character we didn’t know and she actually got lines and a chance to actually do her job and stuff.)
alien (movie 1979)
i love this movie.
i love the whole aesthetic. i love the grimy future as envisioned by the late 70s. i love that space travel is slow and laborious, unromanticized. i love that everybody is so dang human without it having to be a character study. just show them unfreezing and eating dinner, it’s not that hard.
i love that ripley is deeply human and an action movie goddess in equal measure. i love that she’s vulnerable in believable ways but shown to be easily the most competent and capable person in this movie and probably basically any other movie. i love that she saved the hecking cat. i know it’s literally the screenwriting shorthand for “this is a good guy,” but i love it here. i love what it says about her specifically. also, y’know, kitty!
the first duty of every star trek reviewer is to the review! whether it’s scientific review or historical review or personal review! it is the guiding principle on which reviewing star trek is based! if you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened in these episodes, you don’t deserve to wear that uniform!
sorry, that speech happens this season and i couldn’t resist.
5x01 “redemption, part 2”
this is where the real meat of this two-parter is. the klingon civil war just absolutely explodes, and worf is in the thick of it. meanwhile captain picard assembles a fleet to blockade the romulan/klingon border and faces off with commander sela.
the a plot has worf grappling with his place in his native culture and realizing that while he values that culture more than maybe any other klingon we’ve ever met, he holds some principles that are in opposition to the vast majority of his fellow klingons and that’s okay. he’s tried so hard for so long to be the perfect klingon, whatever that is, but at the end of the day all he really needs to be is lieutenant worf. one of the bravest, most honorable characters i’ve ever seen in any medium.
the a plot also features worf being kidnapped by the duras sisters who then attempt to seduce him over to their side and um yeah i don’t know if i’ve mentioned this enough but i really am going to need them to step on me please thank you.
4x01 “kobayashi maru”
this episode had a lot to do and did all of it fantastically well.
it gave us our first full episode of captain burnham, and gave her a believable obstacle to overcome as she’s struggling to delegate and to let go. it updated us on the political situation within the federation and it didn’t just do that with lines of dialogue, we got to physically see starfleet academy reopen, discovery delivering dilithium to worlds that have been cut off from the federation, etc. so now we have the overall arc of what’s going on with the federation and starfleet over the next season.
fathom events was doing a screening in honor of the thing’s 40th anniversary, and obviously i had to check it out. i can’t pass up an excuse to see one of my favorite movies on the big screen. it’s just not allowed.
but because i’m me, i’ll take basically any excuse to get all autistic about something and read/watch/etc a ton of it at once, so here we are!
who goes there? by john w. campbell jr. (novella 1938)
the group tensed abruptly. an air of crushing menace entered into every man’s body, sharply they looked at each other. more keenly than ever before–is that man next to me an inhuman monster?
the vast majority of this novella is multi-paragraph monologuing by like two or three characters, and it’s occasionally genuinely a bit difficult to imagine everyone else just standing around & listening patiently? especially when blair is the one monologuing. yeesh.
things do get a bit more interesting towards the end of the novella when there’s less talk and more action, but only a bit. honestly, i don’t want to yuck anyone’s yum, but it’s a bit surprising to me that this story developed into not one but two drastically more famous films.
i mean, the premise is obviously inherently interesting, but if you’ve seen the 1982 film adaptation first (which, let’s be honest, you have) the novella just… doesn’t have much to offer you? i actually think the movie improved on its source material to such a degree that the original story is just super underwhelming. c-rank
the thing from another world (movie 1951)
“please doctor, i’ve got to ask this. it sounds like, well, just as though you’re describing some form of super carrot.”
the first time i saw this i gave it quite a bit of leeway because having already seen the 1982 version felt kind of unfair. a rewatch unfortunately didn’t bear that out. it’s not just that the 1982 version is better, this is… just kind of super not great? it feels much longer despite being over 20 minutes shorter, likely owing to its relative lack of characterization and glacial (sorry) pace.
having now read the story both films are based on, i’m actually surprised by how little it has to do with the original story? when i first saw them i figured maybe the 1982 film just drastically expanded upon a rather threadbare story, but actually quite a few details like many of the characters’ names, the general nature of the alien creature, and everyone’s paranoia were lifted right from the novella, though most of them were expanded and improved upon. this version feels like it deserves a “suggested by” credit rather than a “based on” credit.
to end on a positive note, this does portray a couple being slightly kinky, which i didn’t know was even allowed in 1951? so, there is that! c-rank
the thing (movie 1982)
“you don’t wanna hurt anybody!”1
i love scifi/horror, especially from around this period. actually, fuck, i might just be thinking of this and alien. that being said, please please please feel free to recommend me movies with similar vibes and quality if there are such things!!2