No Such Thing as Miracles

While that was certainly an enjoyable finale, chockful of stuff that was just plain “cool,” I’m not sure it did much to advance the story, instead just filling in some of the holes created by the season three finale a year ago. In a broad sense, this episode served to highlight the transformations some (but not all) of the characters have undergone since we first met them in 2004. I’ll get to the “cool” stuff in a minute, let me handle some old business first.

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Indiana Jones & the Lost Kingdom of the Beaver

Dr. Jones and I took a weekend trip down to Allegheny State Park for some hiking and camping, little did we know we’d find ourselves smack dab in the midst of Beaver Central. Our campsite, situated in a small valley flanked by dense forest, featured not one–not two–not three–but at least four beaver dams, two of them sizable. The largest of the three looked like it’d been blown apart by some well-placed park ranger dynamite.

beaver dam

That would’ve been cool to see. Anyway, it was a good time and place to recharge the proverbial “batteries” of life, though that newfound energy was quickly sapped by a return to work on Tuesday. No matter, as I have pictures to remember the fleeting moments of peaceful tranquility, broken only by random, repeated chipmunk attacks and the ever-present fear of bear maulings. Enjoy the image gallery: click here.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull | ?

director: Steven Spielberg
starring: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Shia LaBeouf, Karen Allen, John Hurt, Ray Winstone, Jim Broadbent

Indy 4I’m not sure where to begin with this review. My mind was all over the place during the movie, and it’s still going in a million different directions now, as I write this, struggling to reconcile the power of nostalgia with what might’ve been a much less than perfect fourth entry into the Indiana Jones franchise…an entry almost twenty years in the making. It’s strangely affecting on an emotional level to walk into a movie theater and see Indiana Jones posters on the walls; it’s like walking into my childhood. And I think that resonance the first three Indy films have, two decades prior, largely informs my approach to this review.

This review is going to contain some mild spoilers, so if you want to go in with a completely unbiased viewpoint, stop back after you see it once–and you should definitely see it at least once. I don’t spoil any big plot points, so if you must know more, continue onward.

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Bad Mojo

Almost four years ago, in the early days of Lost yore, it would not have have been a stretch to imagine the show’s final episode containing a scene of our castaways finally touching down on the mainland, reunited with their families and loved ones and at last free of the harrowing trials and tribulations of an extended stay on a mysterious, deserted and deadly island. Although we’re only a third of the way through Lost’s fourth season finale, some imagination revision might be in order.

cargo bay opens

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Locked In

In “The Shape of Things to Come” two weeks ago, Ben’s confrontation with Charles Widmore hinted at the concept of a temporal chess game in which the two of them have specific parts to play while adhering to a certain set of rules or standards. Widmore “changed the rules” of the game by killing Ben’s adopted daughter, as if to say Charles didn’t follow the script laid out for the players. Knowing what we know from the many flashbacks, flash forwards and sheer coincidence that brought all the castaways together, can we infer everything that’s played out in four seasons of Lost was all preordained, to a certain degree? Are all of the characters locked into a destiny decided for them long before they ever took their first breath out of the womb? Tonight’s episode certainly wouldn’t dissuade one from thinking just that.

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Iron Man | A

director: Jon Favreau
starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges, Terence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow

Iron ManStoried comic book hero + crew respectful of source material + great actors – Hollywood = a nearly perfect movie. Iron Man, based on the long-running comic book series of the same name, comes to the screen having been bankrolled and produced solely by Marvel Entertainment. This is a big endeavour for a non-Hollywood entity. Marvel Comics being the group from whence the comic originated, and having seen the dreck that sometimes results from Hollywood comic book adaptations (see: Ghost Rider, Captain America, The Punisher, X-Men 3, etc.), they took it upon themselves to make sure the ironclad warrior got the proper big-screen treatment.

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Ghosts of Lost-mas Future

After last week’s slam-tastic Ben-centric show, it’d be hard for any subsequent episode to compare, let alone one focusing on the now-interminable love affair between Jack and Kate. I know, ladies, you love it, but wouldn’t you rather see giant clouds of black smoke violently uprooting trees and tossing commandos through the air whilst a middle-aged megalomaniac looks on in grim satisfaction? Wait, don’t answer that.

Jack & Kate

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ROAR!

Due to its presentation as footage from a consumer digital recorder, Cloverfield has no film score, with the exception of the composition “ROAR! (Cloverfield Overture)” by Michael Giacchino that plays over the end credits. Similarities between “ROAR!” and the music of Godzilla composer Akira Ifukube have been noted, and it’s been suggested that Giacchino’s overture is a tribute to Ifukube’s work. [Wikipedia]


Michael Giacchino
Cloverfield
Release: 2008

Check out the music vis a vis the movie’s end credits below. An extended version of the overture is now available for download on iTunes.

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