Year Of The Western! #2 The Searchers (1956)

I forgot to mention in the previous post that I am going to be watching all 30 of these films in their production order. I originally planned on just picking at random but I feel like that may be doing an injustice to some of the later titles as they had 10, 20 years to build upon what came before them. 

Also, I feel like that film making technology and styles change a great deal so I would not want to inadvertently judge an older entry versus a newer one based upon what may well have been the norm for making a film at that given time.  It would be like me judging This Island Earth against Star Wars.

With that being said, let's dive right into my feelings on...

Film #2 The Searchers (1956)

Here is the imdb.com cast listing. Here is the wikipedia page about the production. 

Let me start by saying you may not get more American Western than John Ford directing John Wayne. This is purely opinion (please feel free to point me in a direction if that statement is not mostly accurate), but when I think of the older westerns, Ford and Wayne come to mind first. 

Tentatively, I was thinking this would be more in the mold of the traditional western, and if you happen to watch this out of the corner of your eye, you would be correct. It has a former soldier, on a mission to save a family member from some less than good Comanche Indians, but what it actually is though, is more of a study about a man who has fought in two wars (as a Confederate in the Civil War, and implied, the Mexican Revolutionary War) and has nothing to show for it. 

Ethan Edwards (Wayne) returns to his brother's family and their homestead in 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War. There he gets reacquainted with his extended family, mainly his two young nieces and 'adopted' nephew Martin Pawley (pre-Jesus and pre-Star Trek Jeffery Hunter). Shortly after, he is approached by a local Texas Ranger and called into assist with some cattle that had been stolen from a nearby farm. While the group is out, it becomes clear it was a ploy by the Comanche to lure the men away so that they can raid the homesteads. Edwards returns to find his family's home smoldering, the adults murdered, and the nieces taken by the Indians. This sets in a motion a 5 year journey for Ethan and Martin as they cross the painted desserts and snow covered mountains for any small sign that their family members may be alive. 

Ethan is not a likable man or one worth cheering for. He doesn't much care for authority and he hates Indians. His hatred of them is so much that you wonder during the course of the film if he really cares about the missing family or he just needs another reason to never stop going to war. He even tosses Martin's possible mixed heritage in his face calling him a 'carpet head' on more than one occasion. However, this doesn't mean you can't feel some sympathy for him. He is haunted and stunted. Even when he is trying to do the right thing, he has to insult someone or push them away. 

This example below is about midway through the film when another member of his search party (not Martin, he is the dark haired kid), believes they found the older of the two nieces and wants to rush the Comanche camp and save her.  

He protected the younger men, boys really, from seeing the mutilated body of a young girl. Even though he is shouting them down for asking questions, he is trying to do the honorable thing. "...As long as you live, don't ever ask me more..." That softer broken delivery of that line is where Ethan shows there is more than his hard case exterior. And it is one of my favorite parts of the film.

Another favorite part of the film? Monument Valley. 

This is the second thing that comes to mind when I think of American Westerns and this film is filled to the brim with beautiful wide shots and long-takes of the valley. The VistaVision Technicolor process make it look like you could take almost any outdoor shot and turn it into a painting.  

After doing some reading on this film and realizing that it inspired many of the film makers I love and their future works (i.e. George Lucas was inspired by the homestead fire here and used it in Star Wars IV for when Luke comes to find his family burned) and how this one is on many, many, Best Films Of All Time lists, I can say I appreciate what it did. I can't say that I loved it.

The pacing in the film is odd. Again, I can forgive it because much like Johnny Guitar, that might just be the way the studios did back it then, but it feels much more noticeable in The Searchers. There are stray story beats that don't really add to the overall experience (there is a sore spot towards the middle where Martin writes a letter back home and explains how he accidentally got married to a Indian woman that ultimately doesn't affect the outcome in any significant way) and for a film that is to supposed to take place over the course of five years, you have a hard time seeing how much time has passed until the very end when they give John Wayne some convincing graying hair. 

I wish I could say that I loved The Searchers. I wish I could say that from the first beautiful shot of the doorway opening to Ethan's approach to the homestead, to the final shot of him standing alone as the doorway closes, that this would have been just one of those Great Films that knocks you on your ass and you stare at it gobsmacked and realize that you are having a singular experience that only this film creates. But I can see why others do. There is a lot to love here. I just feel like the parts don't equal up to the whole.

I have a feeling that in the remaining 28 films there will be ones that will send me over the moon and a few that will leave me flat. That is the fun and exciting part about this for me, I just don't know what I will love until I get there. And the important part is that I keep Searching...

Western Checklist (nowhere near official or scientific):

• Weird gang member names? The Comanche Warchief was named Scar (and was a blue-eyed jewish actor).
• Beautiful Landscapes? Yes, yes, 1 million times yes. 
• 1956's horses terrified? There were some horses that were chugging through 3 foot deep snow that had to be mad, but not scared. I am pretty sure John Wayne may have actually shot a buffalo though. That thing didn't drop like a prop.
• Odd musical cue's to denote whimsical comedy? Yes, but not as many as Johnny Guitar. There was also a comedic fist fight near the end that was enjoyable but didn't add much to the film.
• Does a building catch on fire? Yeah, the one homestead, some teepees, and John Wayne throws a glass of tequila at stove that causes a LARGE fireball that I don't know if it was intended to be that that scary. 
• How many Ernest Borgnines? Zero, sadly. We did get John Wayne's son, Patrick Wayne, as a US solider with the worst line delivery ever. 
• Does it have a theme song with the name of the film in the title? No, but it does have a theme song named The Sons of the Pioneers.

Rating:

I would give this 3 out of 5 tin stars. Interesting direction with the main character being hard to root for and hard to care about. John Wayne, when not just shouting at people, is very believable in his need to keep going even if the end doesn't really get him what he wants. I can appreciate the coming of age portions for Jeffery Hunter's character even if his performance is borderline annoying at times. The long shots of the dessert and the panning shots during the action sequences are beautiful and hold up. Your mileage may very!

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Year Of The Western! #1 Johnny Guitar (1954)

So, remember that time I said that 2017 would be the Year of the Western? And then I went about watching everything else but westerns? 

On our latest episode, we had some fun making up rules to a drinking game you guys could play along with as you listen if you want to get silly hammered in the span of ninety minutes or so. One of the rules was for every time I mention it is the Year of the Western but have not yet watched a western, to take a drink.

It is funny and amazing how you set out in January with a simple goal of watching 30 films within the year (why that's just 2.5 films a month!) and then you go chase robots or squirrels or something else all summer long and now it is October (why that's just 10 films a month!) with no progress at all.

The original reason I was going to dig deep into westerns this year is two fold. First, I openly admit this is a large blind spot in my film viewing and wanted to correct that. Secondly, with Rockstar Games releasing Red Dead Redemption 2 this year next year, why not get ready to soak in that experience with the genre and films that have inspired those developers to make a second game set in the Old West?

With that being said, I want to try to get through all 30 before the end of the year because it feels appropriate that I gave my word, and like a lot of characters in westerns, you are only as good as your word.

So, let's put on our boots, our trusty hat, and ride off down the trail. We may not know what is waiting for us, but the journey will be worth a few drinks to tell the tale down at the saloon later.

Film #1 Johnny Guitar (1954)

Here is the imdb.com cast listing. Here is the wikipedia page about the production. There is a lot of crazy behind the scenes stuff involving the female leads in this film that it is worth reading about and would make a pretty interesting film on its own.

What was I expecting out of film named Johnny Guitar? I thought I was going to get a mysterious stranger with a dark past that didn't want to be troubled until he was drawn into a fight that he didn't want to have. What I ended up getting was a much more complicated story about strong female characters, a messy love triangle, and the fear of outsides, progress, and change.

The beginnings of the plot (and please bear with me as I ham fist my way through this) is that Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden) has been requested by Vienna (Joan Crawford) to her saloon/casino to play music and possibly more. Vienna's place, conveniently called Vienna's, is not located near a town and was purposefully set up with the knowledge that the railroad would be coming through soon, which would cause her location to boom due to the increase in population that would follow quickly after. The nearby locals are lead by the firebrand Mercedes (Emma Small), who believes that Vienna is bad for the town and wants the saloon shut down. Vienna's place takes all kinds and does not care where the business comes from, be it from the locals or the gang of four lead by the Dancin' Kid (Scott Brady). So when a stagecoach gets robbed and Mercedes's brother is killed, she just assumes that the Dancin' Kid and his gang did it and that Vienna is in cahoots with them, even though she has no evidence to prove this. The Marshall gives 24 hours notice to Vienna to close her operation and for the Dancin' Kid and his gang to leave town.

This plot sets up some interesting things I had not considered in a western before. Like (spoiler) the gang didn't actually rob the stage coach, so they were actually innocent until they felt their hand had been forced and decide to rob the town bank with less than 24 hours to leave the area. It's easy to assume that a Hollywood western production from 1954 would be very black and white in it's characters and plot, but Johnny Guitar is very much more gray, and all the more interesting for it. Vienna is only looking out for herself and doesn't owe the town anything and doesn't care who spends money at her place. The Dancin' Kid is more of a charming (at least he thinks he is) rogue than criminal to start. Johnny Guitar at first seems like he is just there to get paid but then you find out about why he answered the call to work for Vienna and what past he is trying to put behind him.

It is unfortunate that this film is titled Johnny Guitar at all. This film is more about Vienna and the part of the world she carved out for herself and how she did it. Joan Crawford is simply commanding in her performance. The men in the film make it known that they wouldn't listen to a woman, but they listen to Vienna. When the posse of town folk show up to her bar, she walks out to the staircase with a gun in her hand with the intent to use it if they attempted to come up to the second floor. The Marshall takes a bottle of whiskey and breaks it against the back of the bar to show he means business about his 24 hour deadline. Vienna stares him down and says that before he leaves, he owes her for a bottle of whiskey.... which he pays for.

This sequence, later in the film, is when Mercedes (which should also be noted is stellar in her performance too) comes with the posse to confront Vienna about her alleged involvement with the bank robbery committed by the Dancin' Kid's gang.

  

In a time when films were filled with a lot of orchestral scoring, the decision to let just the single piano play while Vienna's place is being searched against her will (even though she knows she it will happen and can't stop it), holds up very well even today. The choice to have her wear white, a striking reminder of her innocence of the crimes she is being accused of (well, to a degree... she has some secrets of her own) is in stark contrast to the majority of the black funeral outfits the posse wears, it is hard not to see what this film is saying about the dangers of the mob mentality. 

When the film does finally start checking off items you need to have in a western, it does so in a subversive way. While it would be safe to assume that Johnny Guitar and the Dancin' Kid would eventually come to blows and have a shoot out to end the film, that isn't the case. There is a shoot out, but between Vienna and Mercedes. All the remaining men step aside and watch the outcome. It is a bold decision and it pays off really well.

This is a great start to the 30 films I will be watching because it completely upended what I thought I would be getting out of a western. I need to thank Kevin (shameless plug incoming), my co-host on the Twilight Zone podcast we do, Strange Highways, for putting this list together. His knowledge of the genre is vast and he knew I was looking for some boundary pushing films. This fits the bill nicely.

Western Checklist (nowhere near official or scientific):

• Weird gang member names? One guy was named Turkey.
• Beautiful landscapes? Plenty. They can't just make nature now like they used to. The Trucolor process used for this makes all the solid colors pop wonderfully.
• 1954's horses terrified of explosion nearby? Sadly, too many to list here. There is sequence in the mountains where the gang is trying to get ahead of the railroad's demolition of the rock face and I just felt bad for the horses. No green screenin' here, folks.
• Odd musical cue's early in the film to denote whimsical comedy? Yes, thankfully it only happens two or three times. This film is better than that.
• Does a building catch on fire? Oh yeah, what else are guys on horses going to ride by at night time?
• How many Ernest Borgnines? One and he is great as the heel of the gang. 
• Does it have a theme song with the name of the film in the title? Yes, and it was featured in Fallout: New Vegas.

Rating:

I would give this 4 out 5 tin stars. Surprisingly forward thinking with the focus on two strong female leads that give lights out performances. The pacing is a little slow and some of the other actors are a little wooden, and that might just be an artifact of film making at that time, but it does take me out of the movie at times. Highly recommended!

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Alien: Covenant Review (Super Heavy Spoilers!)

Beautiful and Confusing. Possible tagline?

I struggle with how to present my thoughts on any media that I review. I understand it is a skill that will only get better with practice and repetition, but I often feel like I hit the canvas with large splotches of emotion and not many detailed lines of definition.  My challenge is to take those reactions and provide form and structure to them. When I am presented with something like Alien: Covenant, that task is made geometrically more difficult.

I can start by saying this: it is a better film than Prometheus. I have spent more money and time in a theater being frustrated and disappointed by other attempts at rebuilding franchises that I also enjoy other than this one. That is a backhanded compliment for sure but I need to state that before going further.

Now a little world building of my own.

I love Alien. I love Aliens. Hell, I am in the minority here, but I love Alien3 (This one). I grew up watching Aliens on a shitty VHS loop and it got better every time. There is just something about the combination of space, a dark industrialized future, and body horror that just just puts a smile on my face.

See the smile? I was star stuck (I got to meet Jonesy!)

So when the Prometheus trailer came out in early 2012, I had a lot of hope. A prequel to Alien being helmed by Ridley Scott that was dealing more with the Engineers than the Xenomorph? Color me there.

Man, I still want to see the movie that is promised by this trailer.

I remember walking out of the theater after Prometheus feeling like that time when you told your co-worker Brad you would go see their Weezer Only cover band play live and they kinda sucked but you had to smile and tell them that you really liked that they all wore sweaters like that song about sweaters because you needed to say something nice because you aren't a monster, but then on the way home you listened to Pinkerton over and over again just to feel feelings again.  

I really wanted to love Prometheus. Really wanted. Really really wanted to. There are things to love about it. Cinematography-wise, tt is a beautiful looking film. Ridley Scott picks the right people that know how to make space look awesome. The ship itself is so clean but functional. The Engineers themselves are very Roman statuesque and make you question the origins of beauty and perfection. The medical pod surgery scene is still truly horrific and belongs right along side the original chest bursting scene in Alien. 

But the story has plot holes, the character's motivation and decision making are muddled, and as much as Ridley Scott said that Prometheus is 'not a prequel to Alien,' it had to cram a bunch of Alien imagery and an actual Alien into it. 

Pointy head and second mouth? Must be a Prometheuslien. 

In my opinion, Prometheus wanted to have its cake and chest burst through it too, but failed on both sides. It is not enough a standalone film that it can be watched away from the original Alien and enjoy on its own merits and it is not enough of an Alien movie to really add anything of substance. Oh, this time an alien comes out of the chest of another alien? Ooooh, depth.

You can accuse me of being petty in my picking at the seams of Prometheus and I won't deny it. I will just say this before moving on: why make a film to answer a question and then not really provide an answer? 

Alien: Covenant wants so desperately to be that answer. You get the feeling while watching it that it solely exists to fix Prometheus. Like, I am surprised that Michael Fassbender, as returning android of questionable intents David, didn't turn towards the audience during this film and say, 'See? We had obviously had the answer the first time around but were saving it till now so that it would look even more clever later.'

This is borne out at the very start of the film as we get a conversation from a newly activated David and a younger Peter Weyland (a slightly less wrinkled Guy Pearce reprising his role from Prometheus) that I believe was put there to band-aid over why they had Guy Pearce in old man make up in the first film. There is a conversation about creators and creation, but that is ground that was previously covered in the last film and is also handled better later in the middle of Covenant.  

The movie then moves forward and follows the familiar beats of its predecessors. After the essential crew of USCSS Covenant are awoken early (7 plus years too early in fact) due to a ship emergency. While addressing the aftermath, they get a distinctly human signal from an undocumented planet close by. Newly promoted leader Oram (Billy Crudup, not given much to work with sadly) makes a decision to go check out the signal against the protests of Daniels (Katherine Waterson, with a short haircut that can't help by make you think of Ellen Ripley), who does not want to risk the 2000 other crew in hypersleep and the hundreds other ready to go human embryos simply on faith (as much like Elizabeth Shaw from Prometheus) that this previously unknown world will be a better fit than the one their settlement mission was heading towards. The rest of the crew is forgettable outside of cowboy hat wearing pilot Tennessee (Danny McBride, gives a surprisingly warm performance that did not have to resort to his use of over the top reactionary tendencies when facing opposition) and the ship's android Walter (Michael Fassbender pulling double duty and the MVP of the film).

The exploratory crew sent to check out the distress signal handle themselves better than the comedy of errors that was the crew of Prometheus, but not by much. I still will never understand the tendency of people that know THEY ARE ON ANOTHER PLANET THAT IS NOT EARTH but will still stick their face near any bulbous object that could emit spores or worse. 

What can I say? I'm a hugger.

They find the crashed Engineer ship that we saw at the end of Prometheus (Side question: why do those ships always crash land like someone is playing intergalactic horseshoes?). People end up inhaling things (or ear-haling?) they shouldn't. Things grow inside them that want out like they are college age kids that can't wait to get out their parents' body cavi- house. These things (when fully grown, remind of the Tooth Fairies from Hellboy: The Golden Army) start attacking the ground team and lead to their transport ship being blown up. Then David, in full-on Skywalker Cloak, literally shows up to shed light on the danger and lead them to safety.

He leads them to a dead necropolis of an Engineer city that is one of the more arresting visuals in the film. I don't understand why this large man-made (pale-marbled-looking-being made?) structure wasn't noticed by the Covenant crew before they decided to land their dropship. If the place was within walking distance of their landing site, I think it should have showed up on a scan of the surface.

Then again, this is their future nav tech.

It is learned that it has been 10 years since the events of the last film and David has been keeping busy with playing wind instruments, drawing and documenting bugs, and figuring out the true nature of the Engineers' biological (or illogical as they never affected people the same way twice in Prometheus) weapons. I do enjoy this portion of the film as it gives Fassbender time to accentuate the differences between the emotionally damaged but intellectually superior David and the more grounded, protective, and observational Walter. David views Walter as a brother and Walter views David as an outdated and out of touch model.Their interactions and interplay are worth the price of admission alone and it makes me wonder if Fassbender is going to be cursed forever in giving really solid performances in lackluster films.

This is also the portion of the film that feels like Prometheus 2: Sorry While We Clean Up The Mess. It fills in the gap between that film and Covenant, and for a brief moment it gives us a much more interesting story that is literally swept away in a swarm of CGI chaos.

But we didn't pay our hard earned money to get a philosophical and introspective look at what it would mean for creators to be faced with their 'lesser' creations, Goddam it, we have to see a Xenomorph do Xenomorph things.

Like sing and dance.

The last third of the film switches into Alien overdrive. The set piece involving the terraforming transport ship and the Xenomorph does get the adrenaline pumping. Scott can still dazzle us with his grasp of action and the characters involved acted realistically and bravely. But when the solution to your alien on a spaceship problem is pretty much the same as in both Alien and Aliens, it feels a little lacking. I guess if it ain't broke don't fix it, but I already have those films, so I was hoping for something different and didn't get it here.

Speaking of already having those other films, that is where I have some of my biggest problems with Alien: Covenant. Let me make a quick check list of things we have already had from the previous movies (not counting the xenomorphs themselves) but has to be brought back here:

• The title sequence of letters appearing line by line like in Alien
• Previously mentioned weird distress signal
• A dropship sequence with sassy female pilot
• Previously mentioned dropship destruction due to alien interference
• A computer system referred to as Mother
• People splitting up for no good reason
• Previously mentioned horseshoe crash landing of a Engineer ship
• Androids working with their own nefarious self interests
• Androids that are actually good guys but you didn't know it at first 
• A drinking bird bobbing up and down
• The hopeful score from the start of Alien
• The main theme of Prometheus
• Someone stupidly putting their face in front of open facehugger egg.
• David playing the main theme of Prometheus on a wind instrument (He must have heard the music in the first movie he was in)

Here is a list of things that are new to this film:

• A John Denver song that is not 'Leaving On a Jet Plane' that leads them to a crashed ship (too soon)
• James Franco (kind of)

          and

• Shower Sex.... that turns into Shower Terror, then Shower Murder. 

I understand that some of the things I mentioned above are callbacks and are well intentioned and don't feel out of place, but they do pull me out of the viewing experience. Again, it feels like Ridley Scott wanted to show people that his is more than his 1979 original but other than being more technically proficient as a filmmaker, (and make no mistake, this film is beautifully shot and the direction is spot on.Scott has not fallen into George Lucas bad habit territory), it brings nothing new to the table. In fact, tying the origin of the Xenomorph back to mankind to start kind of ruins the mystery and terror of the perfect organism.

Ultimately, I will place this film fourth in my ranking of the Alien films. It is not a bad film and I know the above paragraphs make it sound like I hated it. I didn't hate it. It just broke my heart. Not for what it is, but for what I hoped it would be.  

Actual image of the moment my heart broke.

Your mileage may very and maybe this film with feel better with repeated viewings. I know it is a losing proposition to constantly compare current releases with things you grew up with and love dearly (warts and all), and I try not to fall in that trap. However in this case, if Scott is trying to constantly remind us of Alien, Aliens, and Prometheus, then how can I not help myself from comparing them to this? 

Please let  me know in the comments below if you agree, disagree, or just want to fist fight me over my thoughts of this film. 

This is Paul Steadman, last living survivor of Invasion Of The Podcast's Review of Alien: Covenant, signing off. 

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Special Collectors Edition! 

This week on Invasion of the Podcast: Episode 96 - Got it, Got it, Need it! Paul and Joe talked about collecting everything from toys to comics to human souls. Okay, I made that last one up. But they did cover a broad range of all the things that people collect. After listening to the episode I thought it would be fun to share a little about my 20 plus years of collecting. 

You collect comics don’t you? 

Well, no I don’t. I read comics. It sounds pretentious but it’s true. Now I want to make it clear I’m not putting down collectors here. It’s just that to me comics are to be read. In fact I’ve had friends be utterly perplexed by the way I treat my comics. Sure I bag and board them but I’m not delicate when handling them. I read my comics. I take them with me places. I even sometimes eat while I’m reading comics. Its inevitable that those comics are going to have some wear and tear. If you really want to know if I truly loved a comic just look at its condition. It probably looks like it’s been beat to hell and is moments away from falling apart. I’ve even bought second and sometimes third copies of things simply because I’ve read the original over and over. Ironically as someone who will always be a die hard physical comic book guy I have to admit that the beauty of digital comics is that no one is buying them to collect them. Those comics are being read. That’s what comics are for. So while I own a lot of comics I don’t collect comics. 

Just a few of the comics I own that have been lovingly re-read over the years.

1989 or the year of Batman…

I discovered comics the year before the Michael Keaton film came out. To say that there couldn’t have been a better time to become a comics fan than around the release of that movie would be a complete understatement. Bat-mania (as it has often been described as) was really gripping the country. Batman was everywhere. And while I was reading comics I started collecting everything else Bat-related. I was buying t shirts. I was collecting the Topps movie cards. I was even eating Batman cereal. At the time my brother worked at the local movie theater in our local mall. There were a lot of perks that came from my older brother’s employment. One of the coolest of said perks was that I got to see Batman a day earlier than everyone else in my hometown at a midnight screening. Cooler still was that I received one of my most cherished collectables from that theater. I was given the actual film trailer for the 89 Batman. It came in the box from Warners along with a letter instructing the theater on what films to play the trailer with. It is unlike anything else in my collection and is one of my favorite memories of my teen years. 

A letter from Warner Brothers with instructions on which films to attach the trailer for 1989's Batman to. 

The actual film trailer and box it came in!

What do I collect? Almost everything.  

In 1993 I graduated from high school and started my first year at college. That year I received one of the most memorable Christmas gifts I have ever been given. Knowing how much I loved Star Wars, and how much I regretted not having taken care of my toy collection as a kid, my Mom surprised me with a number of vintage Kenner Star Wars toys that Christmas. She had bought a collection of figures and playsets as Christmas gifts for me and I quickly found myself starting to collect vintage Star Wars toys. Another year or two later Kenner would start producing a new line of Star Wars figures and I started buying those. Since I was often in the toy sections again I also found myself buying other toy lines as well. It would typically go like this, “Hey, those Batman: The Animated Series figures look pretty awesome. I need those in my life.” or “Wow, McFarlane is putting crazy details into those movie maniac figures. I have room on the shelf for some of those.” I no longer collected just Star Wars. I was picking up Marvel Legends, DC Directs, Happy Meal toys, Lego sets, etc. Basically if I thought it looked cool I bought it. In recent years I’ve gone back to mainly focusing on Star Wars. However the Funko Re-Action figures have caught my eyes with their Kenner style figures. They just announced they’re going to be doing a line of Batman 66 figures in that style too. That’s pretty much a guarantee I’ll be buying those. And after Christmas this year I found quite a bit of the Ghostbusters line (2016 & 1984) on clearance. So, I’m collecting those now too. So I guess I’m really not just collecting Star Wars. You could say I collect just about anything. 

Here you see some of my Batman: The Animated Series Collection
and Justice League Animated Figures. Or The Bruce Timm-verse if you will. 

Some of my Marvel Legends figures and proof that
 I'm the only person who liked Superman Returns.

Bespin Luke!!!!!

My all time favorite toy is the Kenner Bespin Luke Skywalker action figure. Despite having come with a yellow lightsaber I loved that figure unlike any that had come before or after.  As a child I collected multiple copies of the figure. For a brief period, whenever I would get a new Star Wars toy, I would lie to my Mom and tell her I had lost Bespin Luke just so I could get another. I would also sometimes tell her she was thinking of a different figure. “No Mom, I got Luke in X-wing pilot outfit last time. I don’t have a Bespin Luke.” I don’t know how long this went on for. What I do know is that one day I came home from school to find my Mom had made a discovery under my bed. She had found a shoe box of just Bespin Luke figures! With all the shock of a mother who had found porn in her son’s room my Mom tried to understand why I had lied about Bespin Luke. I didn’t have a good answer for her. All I knew was he was my favorite. Thirty-seven years later I still feel the same way. Over the years I have compulsively collected the character. If there’s a new Bespin Luke figure on the peg at the store there’s more than a good chance I’m buying it. When I got married almost five years ago my wife gave me an on card Kenner Bespin Luke Skywalker figure as a wedding gift. Last year I was able to meet Luke Skywalker himself - Mark Hamill - and have him sign it. If I had to sell everything in my collection it would be the one piece I wouldn’t sell. Chances are I would take that money and buy more Bespin Luke action figures anyway. 

Just one of the shelves devoted to Bespin Luke. This photo
was taken 5 years ago so the collection has grown. 

The Gentle Giant 12 inch Bespin Luke.
The Kenner Original is next to it for size. 

Me, Bespin Luke, and my best friend Mark Hamill. We hang out all the time. 

Okay, that’s all for now. I plan to share more of my collection with you in the future but I want to know more about what you guys are collecting. Tell me in the comments! Right now my entire collection is in boxes because we are trying to sell our house. So I need to hear about all of you out there enjoying your collection. Remember, sharing is caring. And of course thank you for reading!

Shameless plug time! Be sure to also check out the horror webcomic www.thesaturdaynightslasher.com by myself and Ryan Kacsandy. We return with our new format on Saturday May 6th! Be sure to catch up before the next chapter! 

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A long time ago in a cartoon far far away...

I recently have had the time to sit down and binge through the Star Wars cartoon "Rebels", which now is in its 3rd season on Disney XD. Prior to jumping into the show I had always tried to immerse myself into as much Star Wars expanded universe material I could find. I read books, comics, watched other cartoons, video games and even the fan made you tube videos. The big difference with Rebels and its predecessor Clone Wars is that its considered cannon. meaning it was recognized in continuity by all other Star Wars after it. I'll get into it in a second. Between the large gaps of years in star wars films and trilogies there was A LOT of material that was made of content. So after Lucas sold the rights off to Disney a lot of work was cultivating to make a new trilogy of movies and other content. One of those things was this show Rebels. Rebels takes place in between the times of episode 3 and episode 4 and tells the tale of how the rebellion was born. Now normally I'am  a skeptic of any of the prequel material that took place in the cannon universe. Meaning; the prequel trilogy that told the tale of Anakin Skywalker was taken with a grain of salt as "New", when we all knew what happened. We just got to see it played out. I am not going to get into clone wars right now but it did a better job telling a story about the time before episode 4 than the prequels did. It could be attributed to the fact that it was spanned over 6 season and 3 series in early 2005 that were amazing but not part of the final store component. But I'm talking too much about clone wars this is about my adventure with Rebels. So, I figure I should explain what finally made me get my galactic shit together as a Star Wars super fan and watch this show in 2017, considering it came out in 2014.In all honesty it was Rouge One, because Disney had the expanded universe balls to include so much cartoon content into a major live action Star Wars motion picture.  So this will be my first Blog as the notorious "Star Wars guy" among my friends and for season 1.

The Characters. Let's start with Ezra Bridger.

Ezra is for the most part the main protagonist of the Rebels show. He is a Human from the planer Lothal, which ends up playing a part in a lot of the Rebels episodes. He is in his tweens  to teenage years maybe 13 when you first meet him. He has a very Luke Skywalker feel to him, He is clearly there to grab the relation of the younger audience but the do it very well. Ezra is a survivor like many heroes in the star wars universe and he stands out among a lot of characters as someone you can relate to regardless of your age.

Ezra is discovered in the first episode/pilot (which is about an hour or so long)of season 1 by the crew of the Ghost.Which is lead by Captain Hera Syndulla.

Hera is the no nonsense pilot of the Ghost and the leader of a rag tag group of characters who you fall in love with over the course of the 3 seasons. She is an excellent character for the series and I feel the writers hit a home run with the question "What would happen if we combined Princess Leia with Han solo who would we get?" you would get Hera Syndulla. She has all the charm and leadership of Leia and she is the best pilot I've seen since Solo. Plus, who doesn't love the Twi'leks? and if you pay attention in Rouge One they call for "General Syndulla" over the rebel base comm in a scene. Awesome Job on the promotion Hera!

The Next member of Ghost squad that has to be mention is Kanan Jarrus. Kanan is clearly the second in command of the crew of the Ghost and also the assumed love interest of Hera.

 A lot of story line and reactions make them an item with out it being a plot point on the for front. which I like. its almost unspoken. they care for each other and its not a major story point. When you meet Hera's father in an episode its very endearing to see Kanan go from Jedi Knight to nervous boyfriend. Oh, Yeah. Kanan is a Jedi! They do a good job in the pilot leading up to it because Kanan feels like a smuggler at first but the moment shit gets real he pulls the saber out. Kanan also ends up taking on the relucant task of mentoring Ezra once he discovers he is force sensitive. surprise.

Garazeb Orrelios or Zeb for short is a Lasat mercenary companion of the crew of the ghost.

Zeb is a great character that you really see evolve over the 3 season. I'll get into the relation of it more later but he really reminded me of Jayne from Firefly. But, Zeb is also the Chewbacca character in a sense of being the muscle side kick. His species, Lasat have a history with the empire. The interaction between Ezra and Zeb in the first season was a very older/younger bother that I feel is relate-able to a younger audience or even an older one like me who used to pick on his little brother. 

Sabine Wren is the specialist of Ghost squad. She is a teenage Mandolorian girl who has a artistic flair and is just as dangerous as Boba.

Sabine has a lot going on. She is a Mandolorian first and for most which has a lot of clout in the Star Wars universe. She carries a dual pistol blaster combo like Jango and has very customized Mandolorian armor. As the episodes go on she changes her armor style with her art work and her hair. She is a very dynamic character that definitely speaks to a generation and I feel like she is a perfect addition to the show to have a relate-able character for a younger female audience.

The last member of the Crew is Chooper or C1-10P (Chop) their Astromech droid.

Chopper is clearly the R2D2 of the group and he offers much of the comic relief but always comes out in the right. Chopper can also be seen in Rouge One in the background at the rebel base.

So this is the crew of the ghost. The rag tag group of characters who decided to take harassing the empire to a full time job. It takes a few episodes but they join the small growing rebellion. Season 1 does a great job of getting you to fall in love with all of these characters and hope they can thwart the empire. The show does a great job of bringing in villains such as Grand Moff Tarkin and Lord Vader himself (voiced by James Earl Jones) to create a real sense of threat and tension for these new characters and place them on playing field with Luke, Han and Leia. Each episode builds on the legacy of the rich history of Star Wars with new characters you fall in love with as some of the stories stand alone and some bring you back into a world already flushed out with characters like Captain Rex and Ahsoak Tano returning to the fold to tell their story after the Clone Wars. At 22 min an episode it is a must watch for Star Wars fans.

Passion
Strength
Power
Victory
The Force shall set you free.

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Crazy Wall Post!

"I told you to track Phil Collins."

Everything is connected! It all means something! Red String! Someone has taken the time to lay out a bunch of possibly connected material on a wall using their arts and crafts skills to the fullest.

On the most recent episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, cool robot arm haver, Agent Phil Coulson, walks into a room in which a wall is covered with all sorts of events that supposedly have him at the center of it all (which is very likely for a guy who's job is to run towards the strange and dangerous). This was left by a bad guy for him to find and to point the way towards the next piece of the puzzle.

Two things occurred to me:

1. A text message (or an evite) with the directions to the location where you want to have your showdown is just more efficient and effective in 2017. And probably just more polite.
2. I will never be so cool as to drive someone batty enough to devote an entire wall to me. 

TV Tropes calls this specific kind of display: String Theory. This appears to be mainly a creation of storytellers to show a brief glimpse into the working of a character's mind. With today's technology, I don't think this kind of set up would be needed when you can just save it all to the cloud or make a nice Power Point presentation to show other crazy people. You might be hell bent on revenge or getting to the bottom of a bigger mystery, but that is not an excuse to not get organized! 

I wanted to take a moment and look at a few of my favorite String Theory maps.

5.) Memento's Memory Wall Map 

The first photo is to remind him to put the map up.

This is actually the most practical of the maps I will be talking about as it serves a an actual purpose: Leonard can't make any new memories due to a blow to his head from an attacker the night his wife was murdered. So he has to take photos and write notes on their backs every time he gets a new piece of information. This seems like a good idea in theory, but what if you can't remember why you wrote something down in the first place? I can barely remember what I walked into a grocery store for as soon as I step foot in there, let alone key information about tracking down a murderer that I keep forgetting about. Good luck Leonard, I am sure this will all work out in the end without any sad ramifications.

4.) The Flash's Dead Mom Map 

This isn't an actual map, it is the CW's weekly broadcast schedule for all their super hero shows.

Barry Allen got into forensic science so that way he could one day catch his mother's killer (I would say and he and Leonard should be friends, but I don't think that would work out) that caused his innocent father to go to jail. This map is hidden behind an ACTUAL map of Central City (as DC has a hard time with geography) that he happens to keep in his crime lab at the police station he works at. No one else is supposed to know it is there, as the case is technically closed, but a janitor could bump the map and Barry would be in hot water. Also, as Barry is a scientist, he should have a better way to store and sort through his information. And he would know that newspapers degrade. This is all supposed to point towards The Man In Yellow (sorry, this one). I don't think this map actually helps at all as the Reverse Flash finds Barry. Maybe he had a more organized map.

3.) Deadpool's Rampage Map

Two Guys, A Girl, and a Murder Place.

This one I can let slide as Deadpool as a character is chaotic and all over the place. Trying to map his thought process would be like to trying to herd cats. Props to Wade for trying to keep track of all this information when all he wants is Francis. For someone that can break the fourth wall at will, why didn't he just look at the end of the movie for Francis? Would have saved him some time but I think he would have been bummed to miss out on all the killings and the Zamboni ride.

2.) Who is Mysterion?

Still a better line up than the upcoming Justice League Movie.

Clearly Professor Chaos has been doing his homework about who the new masked vigilante is in town as you can see he a bunch of research photos to left and a wall map to the right, but I appreciate his attention to detail by keeping his main cork board free of needless clutter...

..and when to separate topics.

1.) Charlie's Conspiracy Room 

Charlie, who has always struggled with the written word, gets a mail room job. He believes he has found out some big conspiracy that is costing the company a lot of money. He tries to make it all make sense in the only way Charlie can, by not just mapping his 'facts' onto a wall, but the entire mailroom. He destroys the other entries on this list for just how passionate he is about trying to figure who PePe Silvia is. 

To his credit, his theory does go down the rabbit hole further than he would know. 

What are some of your favorite String Theory moments from pop culture? Hit me up below and I may make a wall map of the responses.

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Introductions, Nostalgia, and a new Friday the 13th

I’ll be honest. I’m terrible with introductions. Seriously, just ask my wife. If I had a nickel for every time I screwed up an introduction I’d have… Well, I’d have less than a dollar. I mean it would be a larger amount but I just don’t know that many people. You’ll just have to trust me on this one. I’m awful when it comes to the formalities. Hell, I didn’t even start this with a proper greeting. Let me start over. 

Hello! 

That’s better. I added an exclamation point so you know I really mean it. 

My name is S. Louis King. The S stands for Steven but I prefer to go by Steve. I am the writer and half of the art team of the horror webcomic The Saturday Night Slasher. However, if you’re reading this you might know me from my two guest appearances on Invasion of the Podcast. If not then let me just say that I’m just a guy who loves Star Wars, horror movies, and comic books to a possibly unhealthy degree. Joe and Paul were nice enough to ask me to contribute to the Invasion of the Podcast blog. From time to time I’ll be chiming in here with whatever is on my mind. I hope you’ll join me here and check out all the cool content Paul and Joe are putting together. 

Oh, I almost forgot. It’s very nice to meet you. 

See, I told you I was terrible at introductions. 

Earlier this past week there were reports that production is ramping up on a new “Friday the 13th” movie.  As someone who considers himself a fan of the series I was excited to hear the news. Now, I won’t lie here. I don’t love every movie. In fact if I was to average the series out as a whole it would most likely have a pretty dismal overall rating. Still, there’s something about another return to Camp Crystal Lake that excites me. If hard pressed as to why it excites me I suppose it would be because I find the movies fun. At their heart they’re thrill rides. But that’s really just the surface level. Under that surface my desire for another Friday is really based in nostalgia.  A desire to return to the days of my teenage years when many of my late Saturday nights were spent watching these movies on basic cable. As someone who was once told he was Mr. Nostalgia I guess it’s a fitting enough reason. Nostalgia however, or too much of it, can of course be a bad thing. I don’t watch “South Park” but the term “member-berries” has become a part of the cultural lexicon. I can’t help but wonder though if there is there a way that nostalgia can be a good thing. Can that nostalgia benefit new works in the series? If you’re still reading this then you probably already knew my answer would be yes. With that in mind let’s take a look at how nostalgia could work for this new Friday the 13th.  

Oh, I should also mention that these are just observations I’m making as someone who enjoys the movies. I’m not looking to play armchair producer here. I think there is way too much of that out there as it is. The movie is in production and running full steam ahead. Whatever this new movie is going to be has already been decided. So this really is just for fun at this point. Let’s get started, won’t you?  

1. Own your nostalgia. Right from the start I say own up to the fact that you’re a child of the eighties. There’s equity built into the era from which that hockey mask and machete come from. Instead of worrying about modernizing the character and/or the story for contemporary audiences I say set the movie in the 1980s. Put Jason (and possibly Pamela) in the time where they were at the height of their cinematic dominance. Don’t use it to wink at the audience but treat the film as a period piece. Look at Netflix’s “Stranger Things” use of period and how it informed the story they were telling. From a production standpoint I imagine most of the story will take place at Camp Crystal Lake which probably would look the same in 1987 as it does in 2017. The wardrobe and props department might have to work a little harder to match the era but it could be worth it. Think of it like a long lost sequel that no one has seen. The marketing possibilities alone could make it worth doing.

2. Don’t reboot and just forget about continuity. Really this goes hand in hand with owning your nostalgia. While it is yet to be confirmed I believe that this film is another reboot. Whether it's a soft or hard reboot will be the question. But does it have to be rebooted at all? I say no. If I go back a bit to my introduction to the franchise I started with Part 4 which at the time was unironically titled The Final Chapter. I can unequivocally say that I was undeterred by not having seen the first three movies. More importantly, the campfire montage at the beginning of that movie was the most effective introduction I could have had. It told me everything I needed to know and made Jason out to be the ultimate boogeyman. The opening to Freddy Vs. Jason used a similar device to reintroduce us to the character and set up that film’s premise to great effect. And let’s not kid ourselves here. One of the more ridiculous aspects to the series was its half hearted attempts to keep continuity between its entries. Instead of worrying about retelling the origin or trying to fit both Mrs. Voorhees and Jason into the story like the 2009 reboot, take a note from part 4 and use the 12 existing films cache to your advantage. You have over thirty years of brand recognition. Use it. 

3. Jason is your star!  I’m going to jump genres here for a second but if you look to 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens," whether you loved the film or not, you can’t deny that the film gave its characters great introductions. From “Chewie, we’re home.” to ending the film with nothing but the silent gaze of Luke Skywalker; the returning characters were given wonderful reveals to the audience. Jason deserves the same in this new film. People should cheer when they first see his face. Or rather mask. In retrospect I think the best example of this was the teaser for “Jason Takes Manhattan.” A genius piece of marketing to be sure yet I can’t think of a moment in the films with a payoff like the one in that trailer. When it comes to this new film keep that teaser trailer in mind. Seriously, Jason is your star. Treat him as such. 

4. Leave the origin alone. Part of using nostalgia to your benefit is realizing that some things should be left alone. Many of the reports about this new film seem to indicate that Jason’s father - Elias Voorhees - is going to be a part of the movie. Again, I realize these wheels are already in motion. Nonetheless I feel this is a mistake. Perhaps this new film will prove me wrong on this point. The history of similar film series however say otherwise. Remember when Michael Myers went from being the shape to having a convoluted backstory involving the cult of Thorn? Or when Freddy Krueger suddenly had a daughter and we found out that his true origin involved him making a deal with some poorly animated dream demons? How about when Jason was blown up and started possessing people and could only be stopped by… Oh you know this one? I’ll leave it alone then. The point I’m making here is that Jason already has a pretty good origin. Leaving it alone may be for the best.

5. Let your effects crew go nuts! This seems like it should go without saying but one of the hallmarks of the series was the inventive ways in which Jason dispatched his victims. One might even argue the same could be said for the way his final girls (and Tommy Jarvis for that matter) dispatched Jason. Nevertheless, even the weakest entries in the series had at least one great special effects moment. “Jason Goes to Hell” starts with our goalie obsessed maniac being blown up so spectacularly it would make Michael Bay hard. Part 8 features a wonderfully tongue in cheek boxing match that ends like a game of Rock’em Sock’em robots gone terribly wrong. And who could forget that awesome liquid nitrogen head dunk from “Jason X”? Say what you will but these were memorable moments that stand amongst the best in the franchise. I realize that its fashionable these days to scream for the use of practical effects. I also realize that it’s just not that simple to do. The cost of practical effects is high. It makes the life of your cast and crew significantly harder. If I can play devils advocate for just a second though maybe just consider the benefits to using practical effects.  Look at Fede Alvarez “Evil Dead” remake. That movie pushed the limits of in camera effects. There’s no CGI in that movie. That decision worked not only artistically but it also excited horror fans to see the movie when they might not have otherwise. “Evil Dead” made triple its budget domestically and almost matched that total overseas. Sounds pretty good doesn’t it? My point is that there are many talented effects people out there who would knock this movie out of the park. Take a chance (ie spend the money) to see what amazing work they could pull off. You might even get more than one of those memorable sequences I was talking about above. I for one am looking forward to see what they can come up with.

The thirteenth “Friday the 13th” movie is slated to be in theaters on October 13th 2017.* 
I’ll be in the theater that night. I hope to see you there. 

Okay, that about wraps up my first blog here at Invasion of the Podcast. I don’t know when my next blog will be going up but I hope that I’ve made enough an impression that you find yourself wanting a little more. 

If nothing else we at least got the introduction out of the way.  

Sincerely, 

Steve

Shameless plug time! Don’t forget to head to www.thesaturdaynightslasher.com to check out the webcomic from myself and Ryan Kacsandy. We’re on a break right now but we have the first thirty pages of the story up on the site to read. 

Also…

You can also reach me at slking13@gmail.com or yell at Paul and Joe. They’ll pass it along to me I’m sure. 

*UPDATE: Two days after this blog was posted the film was canceled and put on hold indefinitely. If the film goes back into production the next available date specific opening would be April 13th, 2018. 

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