The perils of offering too much information…

…specifically, when it comes to a trailer of a film:

Set to be released later this year, The Hunt clearly owes a great deal to Richard Connell’s 1924 short story The Most Dangerous Game. It is my opinion Mr. Connell’s work is one of the most adapted stories ever.

The original story involved a hunter who falls overboard while in the Amazon, swims to an island, and there finds a palatial estate run by two Russians. One is mute and the other chillingly tells our protagonist he will be released into the wilds and hunted down.

The story was a big success and in 1932 RKO pictures released the first adaptation of the story in a movie by the same name. The film was produced by the same people behind the original King Kong and, if you look close enough, you’ll see that in some of the jungle scenes of The Most Dangerous Game (the film), are identical to those used in King Kong!

Since that first film, and as I mentioned above, there have been innumerable adaptations of this general story, where a seemingly powerless person(s) are hunted by people with weapons and they turn the tide in time…

These are but two examples (and fairly recent ones) of the use of The Most Dangerous Game plot. Essentially, any story you see which involves people hunting others for sport, you’re dealing with a story inspired by Richard Connell’s famous short story.

The point of this entry, however, is not to present the history of this particular story but rather point out something that is very bothersome: A movie trailer giving away an entire film’s story.

I mean, come on…!

Why bother going to see this movie as almost everything seems to have been spoiled in the above trailer? We learn who the bad guys are, what they’re up to, who the protagonist is, and we even see that the two have a confrontation in her mansion toward the end. Along the way we also learn about how a few of the “prey” get killed and…

sheesh.

Why do movie studios insist on giving everything away? Can they not make a trailer that leaves a few surprises?

Which reminds me of the trailer that most egregiously, IMHO, gave away everything: The original trailer for Terminator 2. Here it is:

I mean… wow. Watching this trailer today I’m still furious about how much was given away of the story.

Remember: The first Terminator had Arnold Schwarzenneger play the bad guy and, if you were to watch that film and Terminator 2 one after the other (and without any prior knowledge of what goes on in them), director James Cameron does a masterful job of keeping the fact that Arnold’s Terminator in the second film is “good”. In fact, Cameron made it appear he was just as bad this time around as the first film, hunting his “prey” (this time John Connor) while, simultaneously, a mysterious other individual, who looked an awful lot like Michael Biehn’s Kyle Reese from the first film, was also tracking the boy down.

This all leads to a point in the film where, in a mall, the young John Connor is trapped between Arnold’s Terminator and the mysterious Robert Patrick character. We figure Arnold’s Terminator would try to kill Connor and then…

….surprise…!

Arnold’s Terminator turns out to be the good guy this time around!

It would have made for a terrific twist to audiences back in 1991… except that damn trailer gave it all away.

I recently watched, for the first time in years, Terminator 2 and was astonished by just how much effort James Cameron put into making that twist work.

Too bad the studios decided to chuck the movie’s biggest surprise by revealing it in the trailer.

Doctor Who Season 11, A (Mildly) belated review

I’m a Doctor Who fan. Been one since the early 1980’s when I first saw the show. At that time, the show featured the delightful Tom Baker in the titular role and he was incredibly charismatic, goofy, weird, and exciting. Here are some of the comedic highlights of his run…

Tom Baker’s Doctor Who proved so popular they even got John Cleese into the act. This is his cameo from City of the Dead

It is my belief that Tom Baker’s Doctor Who was so iconic it influenced many of the Doctors to come. Where before the Doctor was an older, usually more “serious” person, this lighthearted, youthful, and at times very odd personality would find its way into future Doctors. That series, which began all the way back in 1963, ended its run in 1989.

In 2005 a new version of Doctor Who began and, in my opinion, did quite well for itself through at least three Doctors, those played by (in order) Christopher Eccleston (a wonderful run yet sadly short lived as he played the Doctor only the first new season and apparently left the show because of friction between himself and the show’s runners), David Tennant (a great run and plenty of well written episodes plus the benefit, for much of the run, of having the delightful Billie Piper as his companion), and Matt Smith (who also had the benefit of acting opposite the equally delightful Karen Jillian as his companion for much of his run).

When Matt Smith departed the show, Peter Capaldi took over the role and his run, I hate to say it, wasn’t quite as good. Mr. Capaldi was fine in the role, I felt, though his Doctor seemed to draw more inspiration from the pre-Tom Baker Doctors (older and more stern) than those who came before him. Alas, the stories weren’t quite as memorable and, as has become clear, part of the magic of Doctor Who is the interaction the Doctor has with his companions. In the case of the Tom Baker years, he had wonderful companions he could “bounce off” of and, during the Eccleston/Tennant/Smith years we similarly had a string of strong, interesting companions, which I listed above.

The big news following the imminent departure of Mr. Capaldi was that Jodie Whittaker was taking on the role of the Doctor, making her the first female to take the lead role. Here is her first appearance as the Doctor, along with Peter Capaldi’s exit…

I was all for it!

I set the DVR and taped the entire 11th Season of the show plus the New Year’s Special and, over the summer and whenever I had a chance, watched all 11 episodes and…

…Ho boy.

To put it bluntly: As excited as I was with the prospect of a female Doctor, the 11th season of Doctor Who simply wasn’t that good.

As I mentioned above, having a strong actor play the lead role is important but so too are the Doctor’s companions. This time around, sadly, the three companions Ms. Whittaker’s Doctor flies around with are… well… they’re not terrible but they never really distinguish themselves all that much either.

For that matter, Ms. Whittaker’s Doctor, as written, is too much of a cypher, often daffy and never quite fearsome or as engaging as I hoped, often running around breathlessly and/or aimlessly.

Don’t get me wrong, the season wasn’t a complete disaster by any means. There were decent episodes and moments here and there but, overall, I’m not too surprised to see the ratings for this season hovering between the 5-6 stars out of 10 for viewers at IMdB with only two of the episodes rising to a little over 7 out of 10 (you can check the IMdB ratings for individual episodes here).

Though I just offered negative critiques of the actors, my feeling is they performed as well as they were asked. The show’s problems, as they often do, lie with the writers/scripts.

The episodes in Season 11 of Doctor Who, in my humble opinion, were mostly -beware, I’m about to use an incredibly complex literary critique here- blah.

The stories were never as exciting as one hoped they would be though some featured intriguing situations -the most intriguing of which was the Doctor meeting up with Rosa Parks in segregated America. Even sadder was the fact that this season featured some very established and relatively big name actors who were promptly wasted in mediocre episodes. I’m referring specifically to Chris Noth as a Trumpian fool in the mediocre Arachnids in the U.K. and Alan Cumming playing King James in the equally mediocre The Witchfinders.

Still and all, as I said the season wasn’t a total disaster. My hope is that the writers/producers/directors learn from their mistakes and give audiences better overall episodes.

I really like the idea of a female Doctor Who and feel Jodie Whittaker can do the role justice.

Please, just give her better stories!

Wow… just… wow.

Yesterday it was revealed that President Trump, while delivering a speech for Turning Point USA, a college Republican group, a doctored Presidential Seal appeared behind him…

For those who can’t see the Seal very well and are unfamiliar as to how the real one, here ya go. The fake seal is on the left:

Image result for presidential seal altered

A closer look at the fake:

President seal fake.jpg

Among the things to note: The two-headed bird at the center of the fake seal is a Russian Imperial symbol. The bird holds golf clubs (!) in its left claw while grasping money in the other. “45 es un titere” is Spanish and, translated, states “45 is a puppet”.

You can read more in this article by Hayley Miller and published at Huffingtonpost.com…

Trump stood in front of Presidential Seal doctored with Russian symbol, golf clubs

At first Turning Point USA tried to brush this off by saying that someone simply made an error and took a picture off the internet and didn’t realize it was a fake and slapped it on the screen behind Trump.

Yeah, right.

Later on it was stated the one responsible for this “error” was fired.

This was no error. No how no way. You have to search quite a bit online to stumble upon this image and, along the way, you’ll find plenty of high quality graphics showing the actual Presidential Seal.

No, this was someone sticking it to Trump in front of a welcoming crowd. It also shows why Trump, IMHO, is in trouble as a candidate: Now people who supposedly are with him are mocking him.

It’s one thing to be feared. It’s quite another to be ridiculed.

Rutger Hauer (1944-2019)

Yesterday news broke that actor Rutger Hauer had passed away on July 19th at the age of 75.

Pretty much anyone familiar with the man and his work will likely remember him for one role and one scene in that one role, which occurred during the climax of the 1982 film Blade Runner

The most amazing thing about that speech is that Rutger Hauer apparently wrote it himself!

But there was more to Mr. Hauer’s career, much much more. One can look at his IMDB page (click here) and you’ll find a robust fifty year career as an actor.

To me, his most memorable films were those released in the 1980’s. Not all were great and some, it could be argued, were cheesy crap… and yet the presence of Rutger Hauer in the films seemed to elevate even the cheesiest of films and make them more. A sign, if one needs such a thing, to realize what a special screen presence he had.

Among my favorite Rutger Hauer films not Blade Runner (which is easily in my top 3 for Hauer films), his violent bad guy turn in 1986’s The Hitcher

What made the film so fascinating is that Hauer’s John Ryder was the purest of evil, a person who for no reason at all terrorizes C. Thomas Howell’s Jim Halsey and, like the boogeymen of these type of horror films, is in all places at all times… and is especially hard to kill. An absolutely chilling film!

Rutger Hauer’s first “American” film would be the Sylvester Stallone starring Nighthawks. His role here was not too dissimilar to that of Ryder in The Hitcher. A handsome man with the purest of evil in his heart…

While he mostly played bad guys, Rutger Hauer could also play good guys. He was especially great in the Richard Donner directed 1985 film Ladyhawk

I could go on and on with films I’ve loved with Rutger Hauer in them but I’ll end on two. These two films will never be confused with cinematic classics, but I really liked both of them. In the first, Rutger Hauer gets to play a distant relative to Steve McQueen’s Josh Randall from the TV series Wanted: Dead or Alive. Truthfully, the ties to the original Western TV series are minimal other than the name, but it sure is fun watching Rutger Hauer go up against Kiss’ Gene Simmons!

Finally, and moving into the 1990’s -and more specifically 1992, we have the cheesy monster-on-the-loose thriller/horror film Split Second. Look, the film isn’t very good… and yet there’s something about its goofiness and Rutger Hauer’s cool-as-a-cucumber attitude that makes this one of those films that is far more enjoyable than it has any right to be…

One last thing before I go: If you’ve read my novels, there’s this character within the books named B’taav. When I created him years ago, he was fashioned after Rutger Hauer, David Bowie, and the French actor Jean Marais.

In my heart, though, he was mostly Rutger Hauer.

Pleasant dreams, Mr. Hauer.

You will be missed.

Haunting…

So I’m here writing my latest book and generally suffering through the frustrations of trying to once again create something new while simultaneously dealing with all the fixes to my home and general tight time to do it all…

…and then I stumble upon this, the 50th Anniversary release -and remastering by Tony Visconti, David Bowie’s long time producer- of the first big David Bowie hit, Space Oddity.

Yeah, haunting is the right word…

The video seems to mix footage from David Bowie’s 50th year anniversary concert (that’s Bowie with the reddish hair) with footage which seems to have been taken during the Let’s Dance years (or thereabouts) in the 1980’s. That would be the more black and white-ish footage with Bowie having the much fuller hairdo.

The new Visconti mix, IMHO, is terrific. The drums in particular sound very crisp. The reverb upon Bowie saying “Liftoff” could be a little much to some, but I didn’t mind.

Terrific stuff.

Makes me all the sadder that we’ll not hear any “new” material from Bowie… other than stuff that’s already in the vaults which hasn’t seen the light of day.

I’ve mentioned it before and, what the heck, let me post it again: One of my favorite buried treasures by Bowie, the original version of Candidate, which until the 1990’s and during the Ryko Disc releases of his previous material, hadn’t seen the light of day.

Originally intended for the Diamond Dogs album, I absolutely love this version of the song!

More Tesla stuff…

…so turn away if it doesn’t interest you!

Today and for the first time since getting my car several months ago I finally wound up using one of Tesla’s “superchargers”…

Related image
Not a photo of the place I went but close enough…

Located in a garage in a nearby mall, I wound up using the supercharger because a) it was rainy and I don’t like to use my own charging system when the weather is inclement (I’ll explain below) and b) My Tesla’s range was running low and why the hell not give the supercharger a try already?

I have to say, it worked out smooth as can be.

First off, I put the supercharger station in my navigation map (a very easy process) and the car automatically started to “prepare” my batteries for the supercharger. My understanding is that this involves heating the batteries up a bit (I’m not a battery technobrain so I could be completely wrong!) so that when the supercharger is employed, the batteries charge up that much quicker.

I got to the supercharger, backed my car in (I still haven’t used its auto parking feature… I wonder if I ever will?), then as I do at home opened up the charging port and plugged the supercharger in…

Image result for charging a tesla 3
Again, not a photo of my car being charged but close enough… if you ignore the fact this takes place outside and I did the charging in a large parking garage and my car is black. Otherwise, spot-freaking-on…!

…and was delighted to see the charge time listed at something like 40 minutes for nearly 200 miles of range!

My vehicle has a range, if I were to charge it to 100%, of something like 310 miles and when I began the charge, I was down to something like 89 miles left. A not insignificant amount (I could have easily made it back to the house and charged up later on) but the weather, as I said, was rainy and I don’t like to charge my car in such weather.

See, I don’t have a garage but I do have a carport which covers the vehicle. Thing is, the plug, a 240 Volt plug, is at the side of the house. Parts of it, therefore, can get wet even though they have covers. I know the plugs and cables are meant to take some weather but at an (over, perhaps) abundance of caution, I prefer to charge up when the weather is clear, day or night, rather than risk anything happening to my car (my baby, at this point!).

So we left the car charging and entered the mall. My wife needed to get her newest glasses adjusted (they were too tight so we had them loosened but over a few days of use my wife realized they were a little too loose so she had to get them tightened up a little bit) and we were done and finished with something like 20 minutes left of charging to go.

We decided to walk the mall at it was while doing so I received an alert from the Tesla app on my phone.

The alert stated the car was nearing its full charge and I should get to it and unplug it. Should I not do so, any time over 5 minutes left with the car plugged in would incur additional fees.

Which made total sense.

After all, one doesn’t go to a gas station, park before a pump, fill your tank, and leave your car there all day. There are others who may want to use the pump or, in this case, charger and its just plain rude to leave your car there when its done charging.

We returned to the car and it had ten or so minutes to go until it reached its “full” charge . Tesla advises you to not use the 100% charge level unless you are going on a long journey. Mine is set at 90% or about 284 miles of range.

While waiting another 10 minutes wasn’t a crippling inconvenience, we decided to stop the charging and head home. Little time had passed but already things outside were looking a little brighter and with the car currently showing a 250 miles or so range (all done in 30 minutes!) there was little worry about getting stuck anywhere.

So, yeah, I’ve finally experienced Tesla’s supercharger system and its easy as can be.

Since getting my Tesla, I’ve been eager to take a long trip in it but, unfortunately, simply haven’t had the ability to do so. Regardless, I’ve checked out the Tesla supercharger maps (they are available in your car and its easy to get the car to find and offer a navigated path to the nearest one to you) and know if I should take a longish trip there are plenty of places to stop and get charged at.

Yet until today, I didn’t know how the process would play out.

It does so very easily.

I can’t wait to take that first long trip!

Dog days of summer…

One of the more difficult summers I’ve ever experienced and yet in the past days I’ve found it also one of the more… uninteresting?

We had some free time last weekend and it looks like we’ll have some this weekend but, looking at the films out there… wow.

I stated this before and I’ll repeat it now: What a boring summer movie season…!

Which brings me to this: Perhaps its a sign of becoming older and finding the films being released simply aren’t aimed at you.

Mind you, there is at least one film at this moment I’m sorta/kinda curious to see, Crawl. That’s the people-in-peril-during-a-hurricane-because-alligators film.

Crawl is set in my stomping grounds, Florida, and the thing that’s kept me from jumping to see it -other than the fact that I’m the only one in my family who goes for horror- is that the commercials sure do look like the movie was made by people who have never been to Florida.

I know, I know… not everyone knows about Florida or Hurricanes and maybe I should just let it go. It’s a freaking horror film, right?

Check out his review by Sezin Koehler and presented on the blackgirlnerds.com website:

Crawl gets everything wrong about Florida, hurricanes, and even alligators

Ms. Koehler goes at the film from the perspective of someone who indeed does live in Florida and its interesting that she notes the audience she watched the film with -Floridians I assume- were ultimately laughing at the absurdity presented.

The main thing I saw in the trailer I posted above was the idea that in Florida there’s a basement/crawlspace under a house.

As Ms. Koehler notes and what is indeed true, homes in South Florida, which lies essentially at sea level, simply do not have basements. To have them is to have a nice place that will get flooded, period.

Also, noting the homes in the commercial, wood houses don’t last in Florida. They are made of concrete because when a hurricane comes through, wood homes are done.

Back in the 1920’s, when Miami Beach was first starting to get red hot, there were many buildings built and a lot of them were built of wood. In 1935, a massive hurricane hit the Keys/Florida and much of that architecture was blown to pieces.

Builders learned their lesson and we’ve had other hurricanes since then and most of the “new” stronger buildings proved more capable of withstanding the forces of a hurricane.

But a category 5 hurricane? Trust me folks, if you live in Florida and other areas affected by hurricanes and you hear there’s a category 5 heading toward you… flee.

Get the hell out of there.

Yet this movie presents, which I wasn’t aware until reading this review, that a category 5 hurricane appears to come out of literally no-where and its effects on the wood home this movie takes place in simply doesn’t fit with the effects of such a hurricane.

I will further agree with Ms. Koehler on one more aspect, which she concludes her review with: There was potential there for a decent story but, truthfully, if they had only spent one moment of time researching Florida and hurricanes, they might have created a film more rooted in reality.

The Snyder Cut of Justice League…

Way, waaaay back in 1927 acclaimed German director Fritz Lang released his latest film, Metropolis. The film’s opening day release… didn’t go well.

At all.

In fact, critics and audiences did not like the film. Noted science fiction author H. G. Wells, the man who wrote the seminal The Time Machine, War of the Worlds, and The Invisible Man, wrote a scathing review for The New York Times panning the film. The review began with the line: I have just seen the silliest film (If you’re curious, you can read the full review here).

Immediately after the film’s debut, UFA, the German studio which financed the film, feared they had a major flop on their hands. The film cost them a lot of money to make and if their investment failed to bring back residuals, they would be bankrupt. Almost immediately after the film’s debut, studio hands began trimming Metropolis down from its initial 2 hours and 22 minute run time.

The film didn’t do terribly over its initial release but over the ensuing years, a most curious thing happened: The film developed a strong following. This prompted many to try to find the cut scenes from Metropolis. Unfortunately, back in 1927 when those cuts were made, there was no sense of film permanence. The scenes that were cut back then were discarded without much thought.

Famed musician Giorgio Moroder spent considerable time and effort looking through various versions of Metropolis available and put together a what was for that time the most complete version of the film. He then enlisted several famous musicians including Freddy Mercury and Pat Benatar, to create a soundtrack to this version of the film. In 1984 Giordio Moroder’s version of Metropolis, complete with this new soundtrack, was released to theaters. It had a very big influence on me, not least of which was inspiring the creation of my first major work, The Dark Fringe

Though Moroder’s reconstruction of Metropolis was incomplete, the opening frames of the film, wherein it is noted that Metropolis remains incomplete and scenes were still missing, inspired a new generation to pursue those pieces. But it wasn’t until much later, 2008 in fact, that a gentleman by the name of Francisco Peña discovered a full-length copy of Metropolis in the archives of the Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires. He brought it to the attention of others and this almost complete (it still lacks at least one short sequence which was too degraded) version of the film was finally released to the public (you can read about that in this article by Larry Rohter and presented in The New York Times).

Today, you can purchase a wonderful copy of the film that restores, as best as possible given today’s technology, Metropolis to its original version.

Many decades after that initial release of Metropolis, director Richard Donner was hired to undertake an ambitious project: Make a film version of the beloved comic book hero Superman. But the movie’s producers, Ilya and Alexander Salkind, were interested in making not one but two films at once: Superman and Superman II. The strain of doing two films at the same time became a little too much given the deadline to release the first film. Director Richard Donner abandoned work on Superman II after completing approximately 60% of it to focus on completing Superman. However, once that film was completed Mr. Donner was fired by the Salkinds and he was unable to finish his work on Superman II. Richard Lester finished the film and was listed as its director, though it was clear much of Richard Donner’s work remained within it.

Given the quality of Superman, fans for years were curious to see what Donner’s version of Superman II would be. Some twenty six years later, Warner Brothers allowed work to be done to finish -as best was possible given only 60% or so of the film was completed- the “Donner Cut” of Superman II. It was released in 2006 and now people are able to see the theatrical cut of Superman II along with Donner’s version… though the later features an ending which likely would not have been used had Mr. Donner been allowed to finish the film.

Fast forward to a few years ago. After much controversy upon the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Warner Brothers found themselves extremely nervous about director Zack Snyder’s take on the DC Hero pantheon. While BvS made a ton of money, a vocal contingent of fans and most critics hated the film. In fact, so vociferous were the critics that Warners desperately tried to “fix” the subsequent DC Comics movie release, Suicide Squad, to avoid the critical savaging BvS received.

While there were many who hated BvS, there were also many, like me, who liked the film. Indeed, I feel Warners did Mr. Snyder no favors releasing a cut down version of the film to theaters. When the Ultimate Edition, or rather the “Director’s Cut” of BvS was eventually released, it was clear this was the superior product and what should have been released in the first place.

Mr. Snyder continued working on Justice League. While nearing the end of his work, tragedy would strike his family. Mr. Snyder’s adopted daughter committed suicide and the director stepped away from the film. Joss Whedon, known for Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, and the first two Avenger films, already at work doing script fixes on JL, was given control over the film.

He began re-shoots and when Justice League was eventually released in 2017, it was met with shrugs. It was an “ok” film, to me, and it did decent box office but nothing like what the studios felt it should have. Many have stated the film was a flop and lost considerable money but with a cumulative worldwide gross of $614,729,668 (this is according to IMDB.com), I wonder if it did indeed lose money.

Who knows.

Regardless, the Joss Whedon “take” on Zack Snyder’s film was the version of the film that was released and, to date, that’s the only one available to be seen.

Which brings us to the point of this entry: Zack Snyder’s version of Justice League.

At first and shortly after the theatrical release of the film, there were many who clamored for the release of Zack Snyder’s version of the film. There were many who scoffed at that. There was no Zack Snyder version of JL, they said, and those asking for it were either misinformed or foolish to think such a thing existed.

But over time, statements from those actually involved in the making of the film filtered out and it soon became clear there did indeed exist some kind of at the very least rough cut of the film. One suspects this rough cut is likely missing some special effects work -a not insignificant thing- yet certainly one can today feel comfortable assuming there is more Zack Snyder Justice League in Warner’s film vaults than there was Richard Donner Superman II.

The critics of Zack Snyder -and there remain many out there- continue to throw cold water on the whole affair. While many now acknowledge there is at least a rough cut of Snyder’s JL, they wonder why people still bother.

Let it go, they say. Or Warner Brothers will never spend money to complete a version of this flop. The studio wants to move on and so should you.

Move on.

I’ve read this sentiment more than once and it seems to be one of bigger arguments made by people who don’t care for Zack Snyder’s work nor the idea there may be more of it out there.

Give it up already.

But… why?

Understand, I don’t know if the Zack Snyder version of Justice League is good or crap. And while I pointed out the tortured history of both Metropolis and Superman II above, in no way do I mean to suggest Snyder’s version of Justice League will turn out to be remotely as classic as these films are considered today.

Yet… why deny others who are clearly interested in seeing this film their opinion and hope that Warners can eventually be convinced to release this version of the film? Why brush them off with a “get over it” type statement?

If there weren’t those who gave a damn, we would never have seen the full or director versions of Metropolis or Superman II.

Further, the interest in the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League is somewhat unique. There is nowhere near the same level -if at all- of interest or fan attention to David Ayer’s original cut of Suicide Squad. Or Gareth Edwards’ original version (with the original ending) of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Or the Josh Trank’s cut of Fantastic Four.

There most certainly exist versions of these three films in the vaults of the studios that financed them yet public attention is not there for them as it is with Justice League.

I suspect this is due to the fact that, unlike the others listed above, Mr. Snyder had two films in the DC universe under his belt and people therefore had a history to judge his third film on. They found what was released lacking and want to see what he would have released, had he been able to.

But you know what? I’d be curious to see those director’s cuts of the other films as well! As a film fan, I’m fascinated with the process of making movies and I’m incredibly interested in seeing something that never was… yet could have been.

Here’s the bottom line for those who say “get over it”: If (a BIG if) the Zack Snyder version of Justice League is eventually released… how will it affect those who hate Zack Snyder’s DC work?

Not at all.

For those who have no interest at all in seeing Zack Snyder’s Justice League can go right on ignoring it. I can pretty much guarantee you absolutely NO ONE will force you to see the film. So if you think Zack Snyder’s work is crap and the film Gods conspire to release a Snyder Cut of Justice League, feel free to completely ignore the thing!

But why take away others’ interest and curiosity because you don’t give a shit about it?

If this is true…

…its absolutely crazy that it was leaked to the media.

Written by Caroline Graham and posted to dailymail.com.uk:

Black Woman who will be the next 007: Lashana Lynch takes over the famous code name

Lashana Lynch previously appeared in Captain Marvel. My understanding (I didn’t see the film) is that she was quite good in it.

According to the above article (sorry to spoil everything), Daniel Craig’s James Bond, at the start of the new Bond film, is officially retired. He is brought back in to see M because of whatever problems need his attention and it is there that he finds Ms. Lynch’s character has taken over the 007 codename.

Directly from the article:

A movie insider said: ‘There is a pivotal scene at the start of the film where M says ‘Come in 007’, and in walks Lashana who is black, beautiful and a woman. ‘It’s a popcorn-dropping moment. Bond is still Bond but he’s been replaced as 007 by this stunning woman.

First off: I’m OK with this concept. It sounds like fun!

On the other hand… how the hell did the studios let this rather large whopper of a plot point escape?!

Can nothing be kept secret anymore? If indeed Ms. Lynch is revealed as a “new” 007, that is indeed a “popcorn-dropping” moment designed to shock and delight viewers…

…only now the cat’s out of the proverbial bag and absolutely no one is going to be shocked anymore.

I know the internet makes it hard to keep secrets. One tiny slip and the entire world knows what’s going on.

If this is indeed true, its a shame this secret has been revealed while the damn film is still being made.

Why such hate…?

Perhaps that’s too strong a word. Perhaps instead of “hate” one could use “dismissal” or perhaps “antipathy”.

Yes folks, this is another Tesla entry.

Yesterday we went to the car dealership which is taking care of my younger daughter’s car so we could get a loaner vehicle. She drives a small sedan and the fuel injection problem it has requires parts which won’t come in until Tuesday. Since we need a car for Monday and Tuesday, they offered us the loaner.

My daughter hoped to get this particular company’s SUVs as a loaner. She likes the look of the car and, one day, might consider it when she decides to trade in her car. As good fortune would have it, we were offered the SUV model as a loaner. It was a brand new 2019 edition, to boot.

Because it was a loaner we didn’t expect to get a top of the line all-bells-and-whistles version and, indeed, what we got was a very bare-bones SUV. I drove my car home and my wife and youngest daughter drove the SUV so it wasn’t until later on, when we decided to go grocery shopping, that I had a chance to try the car out.

I… didn’t like the vehicle much. Not much at all.

Again, we were given a bare bones loaner. The car’s interior looked quite cheap, with cheap cloth seats that were only manually movable to a not very impressive dashboard and monitor. But I could look past those things, knowing that if in some future date we entertained trading her car for one of the SUVs we’d get one with a better interior.

What I couldn’t look past was the driving.

The engine felt puny. The sound of it running was loud. It barely had any pickup. In all ways, and in my opinion, driving it was not much fun.

Which brings us to Tesla and my Model 3.

I’m spoiled.

There’s no two ways around it.

I’ve been driving since 1982 and from that point until early this year I’ve driven a large number of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars. There’s some I loved. There’s some I hated. There are some I barely remember.

It wasn’t until early this year, when I traded in my Mustang convertible (a lovely retro looking vehicle) that I had my first -and thus far only- prolonged experience with a Tesla/electric vehicle.

Since getting my Model 3, I’ve driven five ICE cars: My wife’s, my eldest daughter’s car followed by the one we traded it in for (the later being a hybrid), my youngest daughter’s car, and now this loaner.

I’ve come to realize that my Tesla drives better than any of those ICE cars, no question about it.

As good as the Tesla 3 is, I nonetheless cannot say the same for all electric vehicles. I haven’t driven the Volt or Bolt. I haven’t driven the Leaf or Kona. I cannot say how or even if those vehicles also drive better than, or at least comparably with, my Model 3.

What’s so great about my Model 3?

The drive is so smooth. The silence is incredible. The sudden acceleration, when you need it, is amazing. Even though I don’t have a performance model, the acceleration in my Model 3 is beyond anything I’ve experienced in any ICE car I’ve previously driven.

Then there’s these factors: You don’t have to go to gas stations anymore. You don’t have to worry about fuel injector problems (which is what my youngest daughter’s car seems to have a problem with). You’re done with oil changes.

I noted to my wife my disappointment with the loaner car and that a large part of the disappointment is related to my being spoiled with the Model 3. I told her getting the Model 3 was not unlike moving from a Nokia flip phone to an Apple iPhone.

The differences are that stark.

The other day, Motor Trend awarded the Tesla Model S (the sedan) the “Ultimate Car of the Year”, an award given out of consideration of 70 years of vehicles (you can read the full article here). Meanwhile in the UK, Autoexpress.com.uk gave Tesla’s Model 3 the “Car of the Year 2019” award (you can read the article here).

The point is this: It seems people are becoming more and more aware of Tesla vehicles and those who experience them are converting. This has certainly happened to me.

I can’t see myself going back to a ICE vehicle. The Tesla is that much better.

But I’m not everyone.

The Tesla’s are expensive cars versus many other vehicles out there. Though the most basic Model 3 goes for around $37,000 and as such is not super expensive, getting other options will bring the price up and maybe out of many people’s budgets.

So all is good, right?

Not quite and it does, in a very roundabout way, bring me to the point I was alluding to way up at the start of this post.

Why the hate?

I frequent many boards, some of which focus on Automobiles. I love the umbrella of websites tied in with Gizmodo.com. I’m a sci-fi fan/writer so naturally I like hanging around websites that focus on all things sci-fi, from TV to movies to books and games.

If you go to the site and look at the upper bar, you’ll find the other websites associated with Gizmodo. One of them, Jalopnick, is devoted to cars.

Clearly the writers on this site love vehicles of all kinds and its a blast to read information on vehicles old and new. That love, however, doesn’t seem to flow quite as well toward Tesla.

To date, I haven’t seen any articles from them noting the awards Tesla cars received. To be fair, maybe such an article is about to show up, but it seems odd they wouldn’t note a publication like Motor Trend giving the Tesla S a best of 70 years award. Seems to me its a fairly significant piece of automotive news, no?

Worse, at times, are some of the comments left by readers.

I’ve long felt that in many matters, opinions are just that: Options. What to you is great may to someone else be terrible and vice versa. In that respect I can understand people who have tried driving Tesla vehicles and coming away not as impressed with the cars as I am.

To each their own!

But I’ve seen people write as if they have an axe to grind. Understand: This is not unique to Tesla vehicles nor am I naive enough to believe that’s the case.

There are those who seem to go out of their way to expound on what they see as Tesla’s failures. A couple of years ago there were articles about how Tesla cars had misaligned parts. They were relatively minor, but they were worrisome. There were also articles about bad paint jobs. In the time between originally seeing these articles and now, I haven’t “new” stories that state this is a continuing problem with Tesla vehicles. I suspect Tesla addressed the problem and, perhaps, it is now not so much a problem.

Certainly I haven’t noticed any such problem in my vehicle!

And yet I see comments which state this remains a problem even though, again, I haven’t seen any new 3rd party articles saying this was the case. Quite the contrary, I’ve seen articles which note that these issues no longer seem to be the case.

Yet the slams against the company continue. Perhaps some are trolls and nothing more, getting a thrill out of stirring things up. Perhaps they simply cannot stomach the idea of gas powered vehicles being worse than (I’ve heard this one before) a “fancy golf cart”.

In the near future, say, 10 years from now, I’m certain not everyone will convert to electric, though I strongly suspect there will be a significant amount of such vehicles on the road versus today. If, and its a BIG if, demand for Teslas continue unabated while sales of ICE vehicles falter (as they have been doing of late), the other car companies will have no choice but to follow Tesla’s lead.

Before I finish this, let me be clear about one thing: I’m not committed to Tesla and Tesla vehicles alone. I’d love to see other electric vehicles make it to the market. There’s nothing better for a consumer than seeing competition in product. Usually that results in lower prices and better overall product.

So far, it feels like Tesla is blowing away the competition for electric vehicles yet I hope other companies join the fray.

I would love to see more options. I would love to see us move away from the old tech of ICE vehicles and their pollution and move into the cleaner energy afforded by electric vehicles.

Maybe soon.