2019 – Page 5 – PopCult Reviews

TV Review – Star Trek: Picard Season One, Episode Two

Star Trek: Picard (CBS All Access)
Season One, Episode Two – “Maps and Legends”
Written by Michael Chabon & Akiva Goldsman
Directed by Hanelle M. Culpepper

I’ve read some criticism of Picard that is worth some thought. Longtime fans of the Star Trek franchise are disturbed at the portrayal of the Federation as xenophobic and exclusionary. This isn’t very reassuring when you look at Gene Roddenberry’s original vision of a utopian multi-species society where all peoples were accepted. But, I think it is worth examining what happens over time when such an organization goes through changes in leadership and the landscape upon which they operate shifts. The reticence of the Federation to aid the Romulans makes sense because they have little trust in this adversary. They allowed their ambition to give them an excuse to step back. Maybe there was thought among some of the leadership that this would enable new worlds to leave the Romulan Empire and join the Federation.

Media Moment (02/01/20)

So A24 is looking at developing the film Under the Skin into a television series. I have to say that is an unexpected move but I am sort of into it. The film, based on the novel by Michael Faber, is a minimalist creepy horror picture about an alien walking the Earth disguised as a human. Her purpose is to seduce people and bring them in as food for her own species. The movie doesn’t have much dialogue and relies on the powerful mood developed by director Jonathan Glazer.

Comic Book Reviews – Jughead’s Time Police (2019)

Jughead’s Time Police
Reprints Jughead’s Time Police #1-5
Written by Sina Grace
Art by Derek Charm

In the 2010s, Archie Comics underwent a major reboot that saw new variations on the iconic character and his friends spinning out. It began with Afterlife with Archie, a Walking Dead-esque mature horror take on the students of Riverdale. Since then, there have been several supernatural books as well as some updated humor books, trying to make Archie relevant for the 21st century. Jughead has been the star of his own rebooted title plus an alternate-reality horror book, Jughead: The Hunger. Time Police may sound like one of these new ideas, but it is a reboot of a mini-series from the 1990s.

TV Review – Star Trek: Picard Season One, Episode One

Star Trek: Picard (CBS All Access)
Season 1, Episode 1 – “Remembrance”
Written by Akiva Goldsman & Michael Chabon & Alex Kurtzman and James Duff
Directed by Hanelle Culpepper

Fifteen years prior, in 2387, a disaster occurred. A star in the Romulan Empire went supernova wiping out Romulus and leaving billions stranded as refugees. During the aftermath of this event, Captain Jean-Luc Picard abandoned his post on the Enterprise to aid in the crisis. Since then, he has become a hero to a large faction of displaced Romulans but has cut ties with Starfleet. He growls at one point that Starfleet, as it exists now, is not the organization he once committed himself to. You could see this path unfold on The Next Generation as Picard would frequently move to follow his principles over the commands of his superiors.

PopCult Media Moment (01/24/20)

Last weekend, I reviewed Disney’s The Black Hole, a terribly flawed science fiction horror flick with some great ideas embedded within. I did a little internet sleuthing and found out a sequel was in the works starting back in 2009. Director Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy) was set to helm the film with Jon Spaights (Prometheus, Doctor Strange) writing. While the film was in the scriptwriting stage, Disney bought Lucasfilm and decided to drop the remake. It was said at the time Spaihts’ script was “too dark for Disney.” Since then, Disney has been busy with many other projects.

Movie Review – Honey Boy

Honey Boy (2019)
Written by Shia LaBeouf
Directed by Alma Har’el

Filmmaking as therapy is a common theme in autobiographical movies. Just recently, I reviewed Pedro Almodovar’s Pain and Glory, which served as an outlet for the director to talk about aging and his physical ailments. Actor Shia LaBeouf similarly uses film as confession & therapy, though more intimate and raw than Almodovar. LaBeouf, if you don’t know, was a child actor on the Disney Channel before he reached higher levels of fame in Michael Bay’s Transformers films. The film jumps between these two periods, fictionalizing or obscuring the details, so it’s not about LaBeouf specifically.

Movie Review – Pain and Glory

Pain and Glory (2019)
Written & Directed by Pedro Almodovar

Pedro Almodovar is no strange to autofiction in his cinema, that doesn’t mean he’s always factually honest with us. Almodovar is very much an impressionist, more interested in the emotions and underlying psychology of events in our lives. Pain and Glory is the most obviously autobiographical, Antonio Banderas playing a version of the aging director. This is a meditation on the physical changes that come with time, how our bodies are both vessels of pleasure and suffering during our lives. The structure is that of interconnected short stories, vignettes centered around the protagonist that allow him to reflect and reconnect with people from his past.

TV Review – Servant Season 1

Servant Season 1 (Apple TV+)
Written by Tony Basgallop
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Daniel Sackheim, Nimrod Antal, Alexis Ostrander, Lisa Bruhlmann, and John Dahl

A few months ago, I posted reviews of the first episodes of a handful of Apple TV+ shows, and overall I wasn’t very impressed. The entire slew seemed very derivative of already popular shows from the past (The Newsroom, Game of Thrones, etc.). I was intrigued by Servant, a horror series produced by M. Night Shyamalan. Despite my intense disappointment with that director’s recent output, I figured he was producing so he couldn’t screw the show up too badly. The first couple episodes were a little rough going, it took some time to get a feel for the tone the series was going for. By the end of the season, they had me hooked, and I am ready for season two to get here.

Media Moment – 01/18/20

The Batman (2021)

So Warner Brothers are making another iteration of Batman because the Affleck version sucked. I am all for new interpretations of characters as long as the latest version brings something creatively rich to the table and isn’t merely a retread of things we’ve seen before. I am not a fan of most Batman films, and I definitely try to read them through a critical lens that is least favorable to the Batman character. Batman is a wealthy white man who is allowed to transcend the justice system and inflict violence on criminals, with the readers/audience being given the excuse that he had a lousy childhood. I think there is an excellent argument to be made that the same compulsive gimmicks present in the Rogues Gallery are just as present in Bruce Wayne’s psyche, but I digress.

PopCult Media Moment (01/11/20)

I am getting major Safdie Brothers vibes from the aesthetic of this film. It has me intrigued.