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kaneknight
Reviews
The Dresden Files (2007)
Its greatest flaw is that it's not the books.
Jim Butcher's series of novels entitled "The Dresden Files" is clever, fast-paced, intense, and imaginative. Harry Dresden is a professional Wizard--The only one in the Chicago phone book--Who narrates his adventures in the form of detective novels. Dresden himself is a Private Investigator who consults for the Chicago Police Department, who consults on their stranger cases.
And that is just about where the similarities between the book series and the TV show end.
The TV series features a Wizard named Harry Dresden, who is more of a Private Eye with a magic hockey stick. He still works with CPD's Karren Murphy, lives with a ghost named Bob, and Morgan, Warden for the White Council is still breathing down Dresden's neck. All these characters are changed, often down to their basic characters.
And if you can get past all that, this series is still pretty great.
Jim Butcher wrote amazing novels, and this series will never stack up to it, but it's a fun series which is written intelligently and contains a portion of the charm of the series.
"The Dresden Files" takes place in a sort of "World of Darkness" Style Chicago--Everything is similar to the world we know, but not quite. There are Vampires and Werewolves and ghosts and Dragons lurking outside our perception. Dresden is sort of an intermediary between the mundane and the Supernatural. He's not particularly adept with magic (This element of the Dresden Files may simply have been changed for budget reasons), but he's more knowledgeable than the average Joe.
Dresden's clients range from the clueless to those who are, themselves, Supernatural. More often than not, he finds himself in the thick of things the hard way. Bob, arguably his closest friend, a is ghost who lives in a skull, and is a constant source of information. Murphy relies on him to solve the unexplainable, but firmly refuses to believe Dresden when he talks about magic. Morgan is a Warden, similar to the police, and serves as a sometime ally, sometime thorn in the side.
Dresden relies on some tools of his trade fairly often, namely his hockey stick Which replaces the "Wizard's Staff") and his shield bracelet, but primarily, he relies on his wits to get him through. Dresden comes off as incredibly limited compared to both his enemies and his allies.
While the show has some good visuals and nice action, the best element of the show is the interaction between the characters. Harry is a sort of tarnished White Knight, a do-gooder who is frowned upon for his actions and decisions. Morgan is the straight-and-narrow type who plays off Dresden well, as does Bob, whose morals are often questionable at best. Lecherous, snide, and often "cranky," Bob cares for Harry, and looks out for his best interests more often than not. In fact, Bob may well be the most compelling of the supporting cast; though he's morally ambiguous at points, he takes actions that it's likely he wouldn't consider, were Dresden not in the equation.
All in all, the biggest flaw of the series is simply that it's not the book series. It's a solid TV show which still shows depth and character.
Highlander: The Source (2007)
Following in the steps of Highlander 2
Highlander was always more of a "Cult" thing than a series of classic movies, but the franchise has been both entertaining and compelling. The movies have always been dogged by the obvious misstep that was "Highlander 2--The Quickening," in which Connor and the Immortals are instead aliens from another planet.
Highlander: The Source can easily stand beside that as a contemporary, a rival for "Worst of series," and an all-around mistake. While not quite the worst movie I've ever seen, I might have turned the TV off halfway through if not for the almost "Train Wreck" qualities going.
In short, this is another movie that, if the series continues, fans will wish to ignore to the fullest possible extent.
The plot is simple enough that it could have been drafted and revised on a cocktail napkin: Duncan MacLeod et al seek "The Source," a sort of Holy Grail for Immortals. Standing against the band of heroes is the obligatory Guardian, who could ruin the movie alone through a series of bad visual effects and worse acting. Set slightly in the future, there are many elements of various science fiction genres, usually not in a positive sense. The Post-Apocalyptic world seems two dimensional, cardboard, and almost comical.
The storytelling, similarly, seems hollow and empty. The usual flashbacks and action, and even the wit has been stripped for a more linear storyline. That in and of itself would not be so horrible, were there a story here that felt like it merited telling. Characters that were exquisitely developed during the Highlander series seem as shallow as the visual effects. The movie almost borders on self-parody.
And in the end--Well, I don't want to spoil how it turns out for anyone brave enough to still watch this movie. Suffice to say, it's as much a let down as the rest of the movie. I'd also like to note the butchering of the Queen tracks so heavily associated with the Highlander series.
I hope to God there is another movie, so that the series does not end with this wretched piece of garbage. Highlander: Endgame would have been a strong place to leave it, or a springboard to more movies that actually merited watching. This is shameless.
Uchû no kishi Tekkaman Burêdo (1992)
Good in any format; best in the original
I first encountered this series through the UPN version of Teknoman. It was a decent telling of a fairly standard story: Aliens invade Earth, and a plucky team of humans, alongside their mysterious ally (Blade, Slade, or D-Boy) fight back against this alien foe (Radam in the original, Venomoids in the English translation).
Unfortunately, the story kind of left us Americans hanging, and it would be years before I had a chance to actually see the ending. In other parts of the world, the show did run to completion.
The problem with detailing the story is that there are multiple versions, with slightly different tellings. As an example, in the Japanese version, D-Boy is lying about not knowing his past. Most of the references to his past in the US and UK version, however, are treated as though he suddenly remembers it. in other words, it's more consistent with amnesia.
Most of the plot points are similar in both versions. The Radam have set up to invade Earth, using the Orbital Ring (A space platform around the planet) as a platform to launch their attacks. Nobody on Earth knows exactly what is happening until D-Boy arrives. He is badly injured after crashing to Earth, and claims he has no memory of his past. He is rescued by Aki and Noal (Starr and Ringo in Teknoman) and taken back to the base of the Space Knights. Nobody believes him when he says that only he can fight the Radam until he transforms into Tekkaman Blade.
Tekkaman Blade (Teknoman) is the product of the Radam. Tekkamen normally serve as the commanding officers of the Radam forces, and while the Radam are dangerous, the Tekkamen are all but unstoppable. Using a special crystal, each can develop armor, weapons, and phenomenal strength. With the exception of Evil and Omega, each Tekkaman is named after a type of weapon (Axe, Rapier, etc.).
Blade's power is phenomenal, but it is soon discovered that he has limits. He can only remain transformed for 30 minutes, or his mind is reverted to that of a beast. Before his time limit is up, he becomes incredibly weak and vulnerable. Later in the series, the Tekset process threatens his health and then legitimately begins to take away his memory.
On Earth, General Colbert (Galt) wants to get his hands on D-Boy to discover the secrets of the Tekkaman process. Commander Freeman (Jamison) protects him from the military, and gives him a home. D-Boy is not interested in friends, and remains taciturn through much of the story, though he grows closer to many of his allies. Noal doesn't trust him at first, as he is potentially incredibly dangerous.
Over the course of the first few episodes, a trap is laid in which D-Boy's crystal ends up shattered. The Space Knights are resourceful, and attempt to create a machine to compensate. The result is Pegas, Blade's battle partner. He acts primarily as Blade's Transformation chamber and a sort of space-age steed, but is capable of fighting or performing other tasks.
The real meat of the story begins when Tekkaman Evil shows up. Evil is Blade's twin brother, and is considerably powerful. He discovers Blade's Time limit, and uses it to set him loose on the planet. Jamison uses the resemblance between D-Boy's Sister (Myuki or Shara) and Space Knight Milly (Tina) in a desperate attempt to bring him back to his senses. Blade nearly kills her in the process, leaving him afraid to transform and risk losing control.
Blade is fighting his family, save for his father and his little sister. His father was rejected by the Tekset process, and used his last moments of life to save D-Boy and cripple the Radam ship. His sister is also rejected, but attempts to help Blade before she dies.
Two "Sol Tekkamen" are created, but they are weak compared to Blade. Both are capable of firing weapons which resemble Blade's "Voltekker." while they are capable of handling many threats, much of the story relies on Blade as the only one who can stop his own kin.
The Teknoman version of the series is pretty damn good, but the Japense version is better. The English version features some pretty heavy editing (The US one moreso than the UK), and leaves out some things which make the plot a bit more dramatic. Blade begins to risk his health just by transforming, and then later, his memory. With literally nothing left to lose, he takes on Tekkaman Evil, and finally, Tekkaman Omega (His older brother) in a fight that leaves him wheelchair bound and apparently amnesiac.
The series is rather amazing, especially given its roots as a remake (Or a reboot, more appropriately) of Tekkaman: The Space Knight. I'm not normally a fan of Anime, especially of the Armored Hero or Giant Robot genres, but this is a show that has some serious mainstream appeal, with well-paced plots and sufficient action and drama.
Media Blasters has released both the English (International) version and a subtitled Japanese version of the series, though the final discs for both are yet to be released (Amazon lists the final release of the JP version in August). I highly recommend this series, though I must warn that the English Version's release is pretty terrible in terms of sound and picture. While the visuals on the Japenese version suffer from being dated, and the limitations of the original media, they are still really strong, and the soundtrack does not suffer at all. The JP version also features on of the OVAs that were released between TB and TB2 (Though I'm not a fan of Takaya and Shinya as Digimon). Another worthwhile note is that the English intro on the English discs has been replaced with the Japanese intros, even though the "Teknoman" Theme appears in the show a lot.
Omega Doom (1996)
Decent popcorn Sci Fi flick.
Honestly, I only really picked this up because it came as sort of a "B-Side" to "Blind Fury," a movie I enjoyed very much when a friend of mine showed it to me several months before. I figured "What the Heck?" I wasn't losing any money by watching the B-Side of a movie I wanted to buy anyways.
first things first. Don't expect heavy action or high end effects like "The Matrix." Don't expect an intricate plot like Babylon 5. And don't expect it to knock your socks off. This is a B-Movie CLEARLY made on a B-Budget. If you go in expecting it to be Shakespeare, The Matrix, Bab 5, or any other earth shattering experience, you WILL be disappointed.
What should you expect? Expect rainy day TV-level sci fi flick. Expect a post-apocalyptic world that in many ways resembles the wild West. Yes, this movie has a lot of things in common with Westerns. It's hard not to pick up on the similarities from the first scene right up until the end. I don't like giving plot spoilers, so I won't get specific, but you can see it there very plainly if you watch it.
All in all, it was entertaining. It's a low-budget movie to watch with friends or a cheesey flick to amuse yourself when there's nothing on TV.