Father's Day

I have refrained from posting endless amounts of comments with my thoughts on the upcoming Scottish Independance referendum. Sure I’ve commented in passing here and there but I haven't shared the multitude of scaremongering posts from the No campaigners or the perhaps overly patriotic Yes campaign. That said I made my choice long ago and regardless of the outcome, change needs to happen whether it's as a whole the United Kingdom or as an Independant Scotland the country has gotten to the point where many things need changed before the existing system completely collapses.


My Dad was a very patriotic man, perhaps overly so and I didn't ever understand it growing up. Perhaps the result of a lot of resentment for being forced to listen to too much bagpipe music or The Corries in the car when he drove us places, or with the insane number of castles or battlefields in the highlands that I was dragged around regardless of the weather. I probably became somewhat disillusioned with the notion of patriotism because of all of that, but a part of me was always proud to be Scottish. Scotland as a nation has a proud heritage of innovating inventions, pioneering advancements in science from the very beginning to the present day. As both a Scot and a scientist I am extremely proud of these achievements of our nation, so I guess some of the patriotism stuck after all!


So why have I refrained from commenting on the referendum quite as vocally as others, because the vote takes place on the anniversary of my Dad's death.


My Dad died on the 18^th of September 2007 and the day they announced that the vote would take place on that day my heart both sank and swelled with pride. If my Dad was alive today he would have been marching on the side of the Yes campaign and quoting the Declaration of Arbroath at any given opportunity (something he did so regularly as I grew up that it's ingrained in my brain for all eternity) and I would have loved to have seen him do all that, even if I did spend most of my days rolling my eyes at it. I know my Dad would be very proud to share “his day” with the possible start of a new independent Scotland and that when the day came I would be proud to stand up and cast my vote in his place, not because I felt obligated to fulfil his wishes but because I had come to realise that he wasn't all that ridiculous after all.


So yes, I will be voting Yes on the 18^th of September and if that is the majority then I hope it is the start of something magnificent, that our great and proud nation can soar even higher if given the chance to change for the better. We've done so much in the past, we can do even more in the future and I can't wait to see what exciting adventures that might bring. If however the vote rules in favour of the No campaign then I hope they have the grace and humility to continue to move Scotland forward as a nation and not resort to even more cruel and unnecessary bullying of those who don't agree with them.


For some of us, the 18^th of September is a much larger day in our lives than this vote and I am scared for the future, that the results of the vote may result in a day that already means so much to me and what little family I have left being turned into nothing more than a cruel joke that mocks the man we mourn on that day. So whilst I respect that my friends have to make their own choice on this day and I won't judge them for making a different choice from me, I hope they understand and respect that I have a whole lot more riding on it than most.


I wish you were here to see this Dad, 

Happy Father's Day.

Teenage Mutant Ninja... Shrek?

Since their creation back in 1984 the world has seen many incarnations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Every generation has THEIR turtles, being only one year older than the turtles myself I have witnessed first hand most of them as I am unashamedly proud of my early years obsession with all things Ninja Turtle and have kept a close eye on the ever evolving revamps they've had over the years.

From the original comic book, the first animated series and live action films of the 80s and early 90s the franchise was never limited to just one style, genre or even age group even from the very start, so it's hardly surprising that it has been constantly rebooted over the years. It's also no great leap to assume that hollywood's latest obsession of rebooting and remaking existing franchises instead of coming up with new material would eventually make it's way to yet another big screen outing for our mean green fighting machines!

So who could possibly take a product of the 80s with a large childhood following that are now conveniently in the key age range that most action blockbusters aim for and make it gritty and dark and well basically do what they did with Transformers and make an 80s cartoon into a movie for grown men... with lots of fighting and presumably some explosions, boobs and maybe a vague resemblence of a plot incase anybody isn't destracted by all the action! Oh I know, lets just hire Michael Bay and he can do everything exactly the same as he did on Transformers... including hiring Megan Fox!

Yup, as soon as that news hit, geeks all around the world thought Megan Fox was going to be the thing that ruined the new Turtles movie... guess what folks, it turns out she probably isn't going to be the worst thing in the movie!

The release of the trailer for the movie started out looking and sounding so much like a trailer for a Transformers movie that you would be forgiven for thinking it was just that until you got far enough into it to see a glimpse of Turtle! Now I know film makers have distinctive styles and it's to be expected to see similarities but come on... when the trailer even sounds like a Transformers movie, that's probably not a good sign! Now don't get me wrong, I actually kind of enjoyed all three Transformers movies, not because they were good films, but simply because they made my inner child and outer geek very happy with all the shiny exciting "real" looking Transformers! plot wise, yeah they pretty much were all stinkers!

Despite the blatant Transformers rip off feeling to the trailer, even that wasn't the nail in the coffin to my excitement for the new movie, I was still getting excited and totally prepared to give it a chance as any true geek and lifelong Turtles fan would! That was until I saw the face of Michaelangelo!

Look at it, that is not our beloved, dorky, pizza eating, skateboard riding, sewer surfing party dude! That's Shrek with a turtle shell!

Now I completely understand they wanted to go darker, more mature, take a slightly different route with the film to make it worth rebooting again, but what the hell were the designers thinking! It barely looks like a Turtle, if it didn't have a shell I really would just think Shrek, Ogre, hell I even thought for a second that it was the most hideous thing i'd seen since I was traumatised by the appearance of Sloth from The Goonies as a child!

The over all appearance of the Turtles looks pretty good, and it's really only the face that seems to let them down, with the brief glimpse of Leonardo immediately before Michaelangelo looking less grotesque but more like the The Dragon Lord (from the short lived live action Turtles TV series of the late 90s) and still not really very Turtle like!

I have to say I am really dissapointed in this discovery and I can honestly say I don't know if it will be possible to sit through an entire film where beloved characters from my childhood have been turned into hideous Shrek like creatures, I think the constant distraction the hideous appearance will cause will just constantly rip me out of the moment and cause myself and others to simply not enjoy the film.

I always feel bad slating the hard and presumably very time consuming work all the animation team have put in to create the Turtles in this film, to map them over the live action actors who wore those huge bulky suits on set - so I will say this, I am absolutely not criticising the quality of the work. From the brief look at the quality in the trailer it sure does look like they have done a great job to blur the lines between reality and CGI and for that I applaud them, but I cannot forgive the horrific disfigurement of my beloved childhood characters!

Have a look at the trailer yourself and let me know what you think about the new appearance of the Turtles and if you agree that Megan Fox might be off the hook if this one absolutely fails at the box office!

The Slayer's Return - A look at the Comic Book continuation and Review of Season 10 Issue 1

When Buffy The Vampire Slayer left the airwaves back in 2003, many were left heartbroken as many geeks are when a beloved tv show gets cancelled or runs it's course.  In the case of Buffy, the story seemed somewhat complete with the complete destruction of Sunnydale. This wasn't of course the end of the story of these characters and for one more year we got a few glimpses into the new world order of the Slayer line with the continuation of the spin off series Angel.

It wasn't long of course until Buffy returned in full canonical glory. albeit in a new format, with the 2007 release of the Season 8 comic book with Joss Whedon himself back at the helm. Having ventured into the Comic Book format during the run of the TV show with many non-canon stories, The Buffyverse did briefly have a canonical stint in this format with the futuristic spin off mini series Fray about a Slayer in a less than perfect future version of earth. It was in the Fray mini series that the Slayer Scythe featured in Season 7 of the TV show first made it's appearance. How do we know the world of Fray is canonical? Well that's easy because midway through Season 8 fans of the mini series are treated to a Buffy/Fray crossover story arc which does not disappoint.
 
Season 8 took us on a wild overtly fantastical ride where the extent of the writers imagination was no longer limited to what the television show's budget could stretch to producing believably. This of course  got many fans excited about the new possibilities for storylines but did admittedly aim a little too big on occasion such as giant mystical deities and let's not forget the giant Mecha Godzilla/Dawn hybrid - whilst the latter was an amusing homage to the Japanese Kaiju/Mecha cinematic culture the giant deities were perhaps a step too far! Season 8's 40 issue run (plus 3 one shot releases) ended in 2011 with Season 9 following shortly after and this time everything came back to basics after the writers also felt Season  8 had gotten a little far from the core Buffy style and had taken the opportunity granted by the destructive climax of the Season 8 Finale to shake things up rather dramatically once again.

Season 9 separated the gang and had everyone off solving their own problems, including the introduction of the Angel & Faith comic book into the mix as well as 2 mini series runs for both Spike and Willow. These were all written with the intent that the fans could read as many or as little as they liked of the books released under the Season 9 banner and not lose out if they chose to focus on only one release as key elements that were relevant to the overall story line were always summarised where necessary when something had happened in another book that you may not have been following.

Overall both Season 8 and 9 were both fantastically enjoyable reads for the fans of the show who wanted to continue with the characters storylines and don't detract from the TV show at all, however that said, both 8 and 9 always felt like a seperate entity being in a new format and had having just re-watched the tv series yet again from the beginning in it's entirety it's clear some aspects of the show didn't always translate to the new format quite so well.

This last week saw the long awaited release of Season 10 and without giving anything away, the first issue had me laughing out loud many times as I read it and was very pleased to discover it had truly captured the missing spark of the TV series that was occasionally lacking since the format change.

With pop culture references, jokes and characteristic snarkyness being totally on point throughout the issue as well as a few surprise returns of familiar faces, I had a smile on my face from start to finish of issue one and was left excited and very optimistic for the future of the Comic Book Buffyverse. Season 10 looks like it's going to be a fun ride!
 
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If you haven't yet read any of the comic book continuation of the Buffyverse you can find trade paperback collections of both Season 8 and 9 at your local Comic Book store, large chain book stores and online retailers and you should be able to catch up by the time the first trade paperback of Season 10 becomes available if not sooner!

New to the comic book format? not sure if you'll like the change in style? well there's even a solution to help ease you across to the new format. The first 19 issues of Season 8 were also made into what is known as Motion Comics, artwork from the comic books is taken and converted into a video format, occasionally animating some elements and adding an audio track with voice actors performing the roles of the characters. Sadly no more than the first 19 have been produced at this time but the ones that have been made are available to purchase on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download and are a great way to get through the first half of Season 8 very quickly!