Terminator Salvation

Apparently, in the future, the robots are taking over. And whether it ends up being the Cylons or Skynet, humans are pretty much screwed.

The culprit in the Terminator series is, of course, Skynet. According to the Terminator timeline, we have until 2016 before the robots become sentient and start blowing us up and enslaving us. The one hope for humanity is John Connor, who organizes the resistance against the machines and saves the human race.

In the original Terminator, the machines sent back the original Terminator robot to destroy John’s mother, Sarah Connor, before he was born. In this, the fourth installment of the movie series, John Connor (Christian Bale) must prevent the death of Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), now a young adult, who is destined to father him when he’s sent back to the past to protect Sarah. Confused yet?

It’s not really that confusing in the movie. The backstory is spelled out well enough to keep from losing a casual fan of the series, and probably enough to orient someone who hasn’t seen any of the other movies. There are several nods to the original movie, including stills of the original Sarah Connor, Linda Hamilton, and an appearance I wasn’t expecting at all.

The plot itself is fairly simple, woven around plenty of action, explosions, and loving shots of John Connor being thoughtful, angsty and/or heroic, as well as dirty, sweaty, and banged up. The entire movie has a burned-out, apocalyptic feel—appropriately enough—with a partially desaturated color palette and barren, desert landscapes. The performances are reasonably good, most notably Sam Worthington’s turn as Marcus Wright, the cyborg who thinks he’s still human (although Worthington, an Australian, suffers a bit of accent slippage here and there). Bale is as pretty as ever, though he has a disconcerting tendency to slide into his Batman voice, which is a little over the top even for Batman.

Speaking of Batman, Salvation marks Bale’s entry into a second major franchise. It also offers the same opportunity to Yelchin, who plays not only Kyle Reese in this film, but can also be seen as Pavel Chekov in the new Star Trek.

Overall, Salvation is one of the better installments in the Terminator series, though I’m still partial to the recently and unfortunately canceled Sarah Connor Chronicles. Salvation is intended to be the first in a new trilogy, and offers a promising start if this plan plays out.

X-Files--The Comics

The X-Files has been absent from TV screens since 2002, but with the arrival of The X-Files, I Want to Believe in movie theaters last year, the series has been revived in comic book form.

The X-Files comic books are published by Wildstorm Comics, with the first issue having arrived in January of this year. So far, the series consists of stand-alone stories of two issues each, echoing the formula of the earlier days of the TV series. The artwork is quite good, offering familiar faces to fans. The stories aren’t bad, but could be better. The two-issue per story format limits the strength of the individual narratives, so the plots are weaker than they could be if given a 4- or 5-issue arc.

One confusing element to the comics is that they’re dated 2009 in the slug lines, and Mulder and Scully make use of modern technology that never appeared in the original series (flash drives, for example), and the Lone Gunmen make appearances in spite of their canonical deaths in Season Nine. One has to conclude that the timeline exists independently of both the series and the recent movie, as many important events from both are ignored.

While these comics could be stronger if given longer arcs, they’re still an entertaining return to the world of The X-Files.

New Starbucks Cups

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a Starbucks fan. Recently, they've come out with two new reusable cups that I really like. (Yes, I'm that pathetic. I'm writing about the CUPS.)

The first is a reusable hot beverage cup. It's easy to use, with a twist-top instead of the flip-tops that are so hard to keep clean. It's also the first reusable cup that they've made in a Venti (as far as I know, anyway, and the barrista at my local Starbucks backed this up). I love my twice-weekly Starbucks fix, but I always feel a little guilty at the waste of the reusable cups. But I also wanted my Venti, and the cups only went to a Grande size. So this was an exciting find. Which should tell you something about the relative level of excitement in my life as a whole.

The other new cup is a reusable cup for cold beverages. With a two-layer, insulated design, this cup looks exactly like the disposable cold beverage cups. The straw is made so it won't fall out of the top of the cup, and it, too, comes in Tall, Grande and Venti sizes.

Movie Review--Star Trek

Wow. That's all I really have to say. But for the sake of actually writing, you know, a review, I'll say a little more.

I'm a Star Trek fan from way back. If I say how far back it'll totally date me, but let's just say my memories go all the way back to original series. I was excited about the first movie, even more excited when Wrath of Khan came out, followed Next Generation religiously for several years, loved Deep Space Nine, and then lost interest in Voyager. I wanted Enterprise to re-spark my interest in this long-time fannish love, but it failed in spite of the presence of Scott Bakula. When I stopped paying enough attention to even notice when Captain Archer had his shirt off, I knew it was time to let it go.

And then came this weekend's reboot.

Having gotten mired in the increasingly convoluted world of Lost, I had understandable trepidations when JJ Abrams stepped up to take over the Star Trek franchise. When the previews starting coming out, I started nourishing a cautious optimism.

My optimism was rewarded when I saw the movie this weekend.

This re-visioning of Star Trek balances respect for the original series and its characters with a need to move forward into a tone that fits better with today's cinematic expectations. The movie tears along at a crisp clip, introducing characters in such a way that an old-time Trekker like me is quickly snared by nostalgia, while those new to the series, like my son, aren't lost. The characterizations of the original crew are just new enough to work in the new milieux, and just enough like their previous incarnations that you recognize them as soon as they arrive on-screen. The plot is a bit convoluted and would probably collapse under close scrutiny, but the combination of time travel and alien involvement is classic Trek (actually, more accurately, it's classic Next Generation). One sequence struck me as a bit over the top, falling a bit too far into slapstick, but overall this was a fine, fine ride. So fine, in fact, I'll probably be going to see it again.

Starbucks Via

A few months ago, Starbucks ventured into the world of instant coffee. This would seem to fly in the face of everything Starbucks stands for. After all, the quintessential coffeehouse experience involves slow, loving coffee production, ensuring just the right amount of foam on your latte, and a relaxed drinking experience. Instant coffee? That's for people who don't really appreciate the complexity of the coffee experience.

At least it might seem that way for those of us for whom instant coffee means Sanka or Nescafe. Let's face it--that stuff really isn't worth of the name "coffee."

Starbucks Via totally is.

Via is packaged in single-serving portions, 12 to a box. For $9.95 a box, this might seem steep, but that's less than a dollar per cup for coffee that's frankly pretty damn good. The coffee inside isn't the weird, styrofoam-like pellets of many instant coffees, but is "soluble, microground" coffee. It looks like actual coffee grounds, but much finer even than espresso. It dissolves easily in hot water, not leaving lumps like flavored instant coffees (think General Foods International Coffees). Just heat up your water, pour in your coffee and stir, and you've got a cup of java just about as good as the regular drip at Starbucks.