The first two episodes of my radio drama for Glamour & Shadows are live!

You can see a trailer here: https://www.societycasefiles.com/radio-drama.html

​The episodes are on Band Camp (link is with the trailer above). Thanks!

The below is spoiler ridden and explains why I personally hated The Last Jedi. I'm writing this down so anyone who would like to understand my position may do so. If you loved the movie A LOT, don't bother to read this. I'm not going to argue any of the points below. Your enjoyment has no bearing on my hatred and in fact, I'd rather you have had a great time than try to convince me I'm wrong. 

Also, only read this post if you're not insanely passionate about the new Star Wars outings. This will just make you angry and why bother? Speaking of that, I'm writing this down because people have thought my opinion was totally unfounded or not well thought out. Believe me, I paid attention to the movie and there was plenty about it that I found to be lacking for a huge blockbuster movie.

​MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW!!!!

So Destiny 1 came out in September of 2014. They made some serious mistakes. There was some super over powered weapon that unbalanced PvP and a DRAMATIC lack of content at launch. The game didn't really feel 'complete' until they released the Taken King. THEN it was a pretty engaging experience and it took them an entire year (Taken King came out September 2015).

Now, they've released Destiny 2 and somehow, it's like they just bleached their brains of what they did before. In less than a month, the people I play with have experienced all the content. We've done the raid a few times, though admittedly we didn't finish it yet and we've played through the story mode of the expansion while also nearly maxing out (and the expansion came out on Tuesday). 

Ultimately, Bungie learned NOTHING from Destiny 1. Destiny 2 is easy mode to the extreme. PvP lacks play modes from the first game. It is not a step back, it's a total start from the beginning. And as a result, I can't imagine how it will survive. Did we get another game which should've been released in 2018 instead with all the parts ready to go? What are they doing? And charging for 3 hours of more content? In this environment?

It's like Bungie is secretly working for EA and wants this game to fail to make Anthem seem all the more awesome.

​I didn’t start out watching the Marvel shows right away. In fact, I didn’t give Daredevil a shot until I noticed who played Matt. When I realized he was in Stardust, we got through the season in a week. Season 2 promised Elektra and The Punisher and both of them proved to be pretty amazing. All around, a great introduction for a season all on his own.
 
I admit I got deeply into The Punisher when the show came out. We watched the first several episodes in one sitting and ultimately got through it all in 3 days over the course of 1 week. There was a lot to like but for me, there were plenty of problems which culminated in an ending I did not appreciate, enough so that I ended up not liking the show. I would not likely watch it again.

Here are our 2017 October movies! We rated them from 1 to 5 then put in what Rotten Tomatoes gave them.

I've seen a lot of plays in my time but any time I have the chance to catch a production of Frankenstein, I take the chance. Considering what my book 'The Midnight Turn' is about, this should come as no surprise to anyone. I'm a massive fan of the story and have indulged in some great (and otherwise) stories inspired by the original classic.

I stumbled on the New Muses production quite by accident when I was out at coffee recently. When I got home, my wife and I immediately decided to get on board for a Friday viewing. I personally expected a very different experience in that I had this vision of a larger space but when we walked in, I was pleasantly surprised. We were able to sit right up front and were pretty damn close to the action. It proved to be one of the most effective uses of this style of theater I'd been to.

I think people lose sight of what a movie is supposed to be about. It's entertainment. Often times, entertainment is not perfect. A musical track may not be mixed the way you wanted it, maybe the bass was a little light or you didn't like how they buried the background singer. Someone else may have a different opinion on both points. Movies are in the same boat but usually, when we don't like a film, we don't watch it again and again. 

Some films are once and done. Some dramas, difficult biopics, whatever the case may be (I'm thinking something like Syriana but don't necessarily mean to pick on that). Others get people coming back to catch things they missed or simply because they enjoyed the experience so much the first time, they couldn't resist. A great example would be any Star Wars movies. When people dislike them, they still revisit 3+ times. And yet some would call the prequels failures.

Those who have visited my sites or seen my work probably know how I feel about the MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. I’ve written a few big ass blog entries discussing it in various points of the game’s evolution. They called me at home for the game I wanted (at least, the initial release). The story telling elements and choices were fantastic.
 
They gave us eight games we could play with our friends. Each of those eight has a light and dark path. Gender and species plays a part in your experience and there are enough nuances to give you MANY hours of entertainment. I’ll provide some crazy examples below of my time playing the game before diving into the latest expansion: Knights of the Eternal Throne.

Halloween is my favorite holiday and so we celebrate it pretty much throughout October. I take my real vacation at this time and we try to watch 1 movie for every day of the month. These are horror movies only on the list I'm about to share. We saw other stuff in October (like Jack Reacher and I watched a couple of things one off) but we focused on random, scary stuff.

Please note that our rating system is not based on great movies. We rated them according to the cheesy horror flicks that they were. A 5 star movie for us does not hold the same place in my heart as say, Inception but in the scheme of what we saw, it means we were thoroughly entertained. The exception to that rule is Extraordinary Tales, which I absolutely LOVED.

Anyway, what you're about to see below is the movie we watched, the rating we gave it (1 to 5) and what Rotten Tomatoes gave it. Enjoy!

Star Trek got a reboot a while back with new actors playing 'iconic' roles from the Original Series aired in the sixties. Why did I need to start this review like that? Because the writers sure didn't remember where their work came from. Or at least, they forgot where some of their characters came from.

While the supporting roles of Doctor McCoy, Sulu, Chekov and Scotty are left relatively untouched, key other characters are dramatically impacted by the modern day. As if they need to apologize for what Gene Roddenberry created, they have nerfed Captain Kirk, buffed Uhura and altered Spock...well, a lot. 

In this latest installment, Star Trek: Beyond, they have taken steps to at least get original again (they didn't bring back Harry Mudd or Klingons) but in so doing, they just...found something flat. It falls into the trap of other big budget titles which rely on character interactions to save them from poor story telling. You go to see people talk to each other (like Thor 2--people want more Loki, they don't care that the dark elves have been basically imprisoned for thousands of years and shouldn't have better technology than the culture which thrived through that time). Let's look deeper.