Shadows of the Empire ost

In the mid 1990´s, Lucasfilm released a "Star Wars" event in the form of a new storyline called "Shadows of the Empire". It had all the merchandise of a movie, but without the movie. It had a pocket book, a CD with orchestral music, a Nintendo 64 videogame and action figures.

The CD with the soundtrack of the non-existent movie was sort of the pride of my Star Wars collection. It had the original John Williams theme and had original themes made to match imaginary scenes in the book. The new themes were composed by Joel McNeely who also had made one amazing soundtrack for the "Young Indiana Jones Chronicles".

Somehow i always imagined that Joel McNeely would be the sucessor of John Williams after he retires.

But eventually i think the title of a John Williams sucessor was split between Michael Giacchino (Star Trek 2009, Rogue One), John Ottman (X-men 2, Solo) and Joel McNeely (the Orville).

Irulan - A Dune Story - poster concept

I just felt it needed to be done :)  as i love this movie so much!

Star Trek VI - novelization from the movie

"Star Trek VI " was the first Star Trek movie i watched on theaters on 1991. It left quite the impression, it never lost its bite, and it never gets "old", which is funny ´cause it´s a movie which talks mostly about age.

"Star Trek" its always best when it tackles about real world issues, and in this case was no exception. As any kid growing on the 80s, we always had the looming threat of the nuclear war looming in our nightmares. The "Usa Vs Soviet Union" theme was everyday issue since airing of the the movie "Day After" in 1982. I watched "Rambo II" and "Rocky IV" on theaters so the cold war was always something to discuss about in school. So, when the Chernobyl accident occurred, our folks discussed "now this is it", the end of the world is near. It didn´t, soon followed Perestroika and slowly the nuclear war menace was vanishing from our nightmares (only to be replaced to nightmares about calculus tests).

So, "Star Trek VI" was riding this wagon. The villains Klingons were always proxies for the "otherness", the "bad guys", the savage villains to be defeated. May it be the "huns" or the "soviets" or "biker thugs", they represented the adversary for the idealistic humans from the Federation. Like a comic strip "Sev Trek" once said "Someone has to make us look good". So, in "Star Trek VI", the Klingons "chernobyl" exploded, leaving them vulnerable and wishing to end the cold war, only to have saboteurs from both sides trying to stop the incoming peace. War is profitable and some people were addicted to it and unwilling to change, Captain Kirk included.

The novelization of "Star Trek VI" follows the pattern of many book novelizations. Pick some scene from a movie and extend it in both ends. Make it start before the scene you know from the movie and let it end after the same scene. In some cases it works brilliantly and in some cases, becomes a little tiresome cause such scene was just fine as it was.

In this book, some extra elements were added to make Kirk be angry with the Klingons. In the third movie of the series, Kirk´s son was killed by the villain Kruge and this is reason enough to make him hate all the species.In this book, Kirk´s former girlfriend Carol Marcus was also wounded by a Klingon attack, making Kirk extra angry, a fact which is repeated a little too often on the book, which makes the movie a little lacking in comparison, as no mention of Carol is made or implied.

Aside of that, everything else that works very well on the movie, works very well here. As most characters have "thought balloons" making the story even more personal. The drama is there, the urgency is there, and so the stakes.

In short, this story never gets old. :)

Alien Isolation (2014 game)

I consider this 2014 "ALIEN" game to be a masterpiece that deserves more attention than it got.

In the story, which serves as a sequel to the first ALIEN, take place while Ellen Ripley is drifting in her 57 cryo sleep and her daugher Amanda leaves to a remote space station in search of info on her location.But, that giant space station,  Sevastópol, also had astronauts who visited the planet in which the Xenomorph ship has crashed and brought Aliens on board. So chaos ensues.

To make things worse, the Station has a central Artificial Intelligence which remote controls the servant androids, the Working Joes, which are buggy as hell, so they can be andomly friendly or violent.

That´s the stage for this gigantic game. As Amanda, you must solve the mystery of the station, search for Ripley´s black box, outsmart the ALIEN who can hear you just fine and fight crazy robots. I nearly had a heart attack playing this game. This game will lead to anxiety attacks as you can´t drop a paper clip without leading the ALIEN to your vicinities.

If you missed this game, i recommend you that you give it a go. I think thiso is a worthy ALIEN sequel. No Prometheus nonsense, no Fasbending, no nothing.

Rama - 1996 PC Game from Sierra

In 1996 "Sierra" games were killing it on the PC gaming area. They were beautiful and creative, considering the hardware limitations of the time.

At the time i had just read  Arthur Clarke´s "Rama" series, about an mysterious alien ship who were collecting species around the universe for its alien Zoo, humans included. So Sierra released a massive computer game about those books, in a beautiful box with 3 CDs, complete with filmed actors and CGI scenarios,  in which humans astronauts board the passing ship "Rama" and explore its environments. I recall having a blast, spending weeks solving the (not so difficult) puzzles and riddles.  Arthur Clarke himself appeared to give tips from time to time to the gameplay. If you´re into retro-gaming, they may you have a good hunt!

Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain

I loved this book when i read it in the 1990s. "Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain".

In 1991 i was working far from home and a long train journey was necessary.. I was binge reading a whole collection of Isaac Asimov´s books to the level of obsession. (what better way to enjoy a subject?).So, the original "Fantastic Voyage" was a 1966 movie in which Asimov was hired to write a novelization. In that story a miniaturized ship with a full crew of scientist must dive in the bloodstream of a man to save him navigating in between several organs. 

 In 1987, Asimov wrote the sequel, which is a full self contained adventure on its own.In the (HIS) story, a miniaturized ship is inserted into a dying man´s bloodstream to save him, i mean, save a discovery he made, and they need to navigate his brain and rescue the info before he dies completely to death. I had a medical book about the brain beside me to understand all the biological terms and brain architecture, i felt like a scientist myself.

The catchphrase "The situation scalates quickly' surely applies to the story. If you find this book into a dusty bookstore, be sure to get your copy.

My Star Wars collection

Greetings fellow nerds! Allow me to share with you a few pieces of my Star Wars collection i have gathered over the years.

I played this amazing game to the ground on the PS1, with graphics ahead of its time, well used John Williams soundtrack, and all and all, the first filmed Star Wars footage in decades. Along with "Galactic Battlegrounds" for the PC, and "Episode III" for the PS2, this is my favourite Star Wars game :)

"Empire at War" was another beautiful game that kept me awake for many many nights. In front of it, an Eaglemoss Batman and a Eaglemoss Darth Vader

This was a gorgeous visual guide that included many things from the Expanded Universe, such as comics and books, but after the "Force Awakens", they were removed from the canon. Still, many things from the Old Republic are sure to be revisited in future Star Wars installments.

The Marvel Star Wars comics drawn by Al Williamson are a labor of love. The inks are so perfect tgat the colors, both old and new, nearly hurt it.

Now, the 1990s Dark Horse Star Wars comics were born for the colors, and they use it with beautiful effect.

A "Power of the Force" Luke Skywalker. A great desktop companion. :) 

Star Wars Episode VIII leaked title

Rey told Finn: Thank you, my friend (and kissed his forehead).

 

Now Finn must face his greatest challenge!

 

 

 

Train to Busan

Greetings fellow nerds.

Allow me to recommend this movie i watched yesterday, "Train to Busan" which is by far  the best movie i saw this year.  It´s a south Korean survival horror movie, in which passengers of an speeding train witness a zombie outbreak, and must head to the last quarantined city of Busan.

Koreans are the masters of tearjerking TV melodramas, and they use all their talents in this small but sharp masterpiece. Its like "World War Z" meets "28 days later" on a doom train.

Well, South Korea has some of the best TV dramas, the best K-Pop songs, best dance coreographies and now have the best zombie movies too.  :)  Here´s my recommendation, have your kleenex ready.

Spoilers for the ending of "Spiderman Homecoming"