Beware Doomstroke and Hawkbeast! Seriously? Sorry for the bad photos, but I couldn’t contain my joy over the sheer stupidity of this comic.

The one nice moment in the issue, however, featured Batman acknowledging the similarities in the personalities of Hal Jordan and Dick Grayson despite his very different relationships with the two characters.

Kevin and I got into a heated discussion about the nature of MLB All-Star voting last week after learning that Phillies left fielder Raul Ibanez was currently 6th in voting among National League  outfielders.  We agree that this is a travesty as Ibanez has incredible numbers in several statistical categories, but the nature of the voting system just seems to lend itself entirely to this kind of injustice.

Ibanez’s ranking may have to do with his transition from the American to National Leagues, but this hardly seems to hurt big name players who seem to get a free trip to the All-Star game every year, even when they aren’t actively playing (I’m looking squarely at you Manny Ramirez).

It generally seems like current season numbers are largely ignored. Part of this is due to the fact that voters at the ballpark have no practical access to stats while voting. It’s interesting to note that neither Jimmy Rollins or Ryan Howard went in their MVP years as starters.  Also, the Phillies were on the road until this past weekend, so it should be interesting to see if any of the rankings change once the team returns home and local fans can vote at the park.

Voting ends Thursday July 2nd, 2009.

So Termination Salvation is fine I guess. It’s a hard film for me to be enthusiastic about for whatever reason. McG incorporated some ideas that I think are pretty inventive and other ones that don’t make much sense to me.

Bryce Howard and Moon Bloodgood as is typical of these types of movie have very little to do in the film. Star Trek’s Anton Yelchin and Sam Worthington are stuck carrying most of the acting load and I think they get by.  Though for some reason Worthington kept reminding me of John Cena in the Marine and you’d think that would be a bad omen. Christian Bale’s role is less than you’d expect from John Connor and I spent the whole film wondering what the intense emotional scene was that led to his famous diatribe.  I think I missed that scene. Must have blinked.

I think part of the problem with the film is its lack of a specific villain. Skynet is a vague entity that sends lots of robots out to kill or round up humans. Unlike the previous Terminator films, there’s no specific new terminator more dangerous than ever actively stalking the humans throughout the entire film aiming to kill them. When the baddest terminator in Salvation finally shows up, I had to wonder why he was attacking John Connor alone given the setting of the fight.

And while I think the idea of the character Marcus in the film is kind of interesting, in the end I just never felt that invested in him as a character. Plus they ruined the twist surrounding his character in the film’s trailers. Thanks Warner Brothers’ Marketing department. You guys rule.

The film’s nods to the previous Terminator movies came across to me as heavy handed especially a particular musical cue. Though I did enjoy John constantly consulting audio cassette tapes left behind by his mother for guidance.

A large part of the appeal to this particular Terminator sequel is that we finally get to see mankind’s future war versus the machines that has been discussed since the first film. A major problem with this angle is that the future war was just done better on the Terminator: the Sarah Conner Chronicles. In the tv series, the humans were living underground like vermin fighting for their very lives. In Salvation, somehow the humans are maintaining air fields and utilizing futuristic planes. If the humans could create such planes, why aren’t the air fields prime targets for the even more futuristic flying robot Skynet terminator-plane-weapon-thingies? There’s a vague reference to the rebel base being surrounded by a minefield and some sort of magnet but it hardly seems like it could stop an aerial assault. Salvation’s humans are just too well armed for my tastes. Actually seeing the future war reminds me of finally seeing the Clone Wars in the Star Wars prequels. How much of a let down was it to realize the clones were all Boba Fett’s dad and basically prototype storm troopers? The future war was just better served by being shown in short glimpses in the previous films rather than under the steady spotlight of Salvation.

Some of the effects in Salvation are stunning but just as many were distractingly poor in my opinion. In the climax of Salvation, I think you get a little of both amazing effects like we’ve never seen before and cheesy CGI all in the rendering of the Terminator that Playmates at least is calling a T-RIP. One other highlight is that the giant f-ing robot terminator in Salvation is way cooler looking and easier to follow visually than any of Michael Bay’s stupid gymnastic Transformers. I’d like to think in 2009, however, we’ve moved past the point where we as an audience are impressed by the animation that studios can conjure up on a Mac.

And I’m no doctor, but the science behind the film’s concluding moments seems mighty convenient.

So in the end I think Salvation is hands down the worst film in the Terminator franchise, but it’s still better than a lot of science fiction films. It’s kind of a shame Salvation came out a week after Star Trek though, because it pales in comparison.

Also, I think trying to write basically spoiler free reviews of films is an effort in futility.

Ok so I maybe didn’t buy it or read it. But I just have to ask: Why would anyone pay $4 for a comic written by Chris Claremont in 2009? Seriously Marvel… your comics are too expensive and Chris Claremont hasn’t been a good writer in a long long time. Sorry Pete.

I’m sure many people would say the ugly sweater is one of the worst gifts to receive.  I disagree for many reasons.  First of all, people have ugly sweater parties.  Its not like you would want to go out and buy a sweater for said party.  If you received one at any point as a gift, you are golden.   Read more of this article »