Nerd Elitism or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Non-Nerds

Some of you may have missed this Facebook post from comic book artist Tony Harris (Ex Machina, Starman), I know I did. So if you don't know about it, check out this article from Bleeding Cool that reposts the entire thing and comments.

If you're first thought is tl;dr, here are the cliff notes. Harris talks about how fed up he is with female cosplayers that cosplay with high sexual attributes and have no background knowledge of the characters that they are dressed up as. He seems to throw the idea out that girls who look down on nerds are cosplaying as an excuse to dress like sluts and that they don't care about the culture that they are cosplaying in.

Here's the major issue that I have with that assessment. If the girl really doesn't care about that culture, why are they dropping down the cost of passes for the Con that they're at and whatever the cost of buying the costume or materials to create the costume (which add the cost of time)? They can wear a bra and skirt with cat ears on Halloween and save a good amount of money. If they're at San Diego Comic-Con and wearing a Power Girl costume, they have to care at least a little about this stuff. 

Something brought up in Rich Johnston's above article is the inevitable spread of nerd culture into the mainstream. When The Avengers came out back in May, I can't tell you how many of my friends who poke fun at my fandom (lovingly of course) were coming to me wanting to know what they should read to better understand these characters that they are seeing on the screen. 

I don't want to live in a nerd world where only I understand the things that I love. I would love for the nerd stuff to make its way deeper into mainstream culture. I love this stuff and I want more people to love it too because it's so damn awesome. There's this elitism in nerd culture that only nerds are allowed to like nerdy things. I personally love it when I can get an inherently not nerdy person to watch (and enjoy) and episode of Doctor Who or read an issue of Deadpool. 

It's almost as if when people are aren't nerdy like nerdy things, it lessens its meaning to us. Let's see if we can follow that string of logic. If other people who aren't like me like the things that I like, I can't like it as much. Did that make sense to you? Because I just wrote it and I'm scratching my head over that insanity of a sentence (both in concept and grammer, I know).

All I ask is that we get along. Those who don't have the same appreciation for what we appreciate don't lessen it. Let them do their thing and you do your thing. We don't need to rant about how they are "ruining" nerd culture because they aren't.

Review of "Skyfall" - James Bond gets old, but ages like good scotch

Before I begin this post, I want to confess something that will make most of you out there in internet world cringe. I have not seen any James Bond movie made before 2002's Die Another Day. I know, I am disgusted with myself as well. I have an absolute appreciation for the character and the understandable legacy that 007 has left. The issue is that there are 19 movies and none of them are on Netflix and the blockbuster near me has closed down. It is an issue that I intend to remedy soon, but for now, we'll have to accept this fact.

Now that I've gotten that off of my chest, let's move on to talking about the 23rd film in the Eon produced franchise, Skyfall and 50 years of Bond.

The film opens on Bond being Bond, the one, two punch feel that we got from the intros to Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace continues in  Skyfall. And then, after an intense action sequence, the moment we see in the trailer occurs and James Bond dies. Except not, thank god, because that would be a really short movie. But Bond can't stay dead, because an attack on MI6 brings him back into the fold. This of course, after an absolutely beautiful title sequence featuring an amazing theme song by Adele.

Side bar: The music and title sequences for the three Daniel Craig James Bond films have been wonderful, especially after the god awefulness that was Die Another Day. Alright, back to the matter at hand.

The theme of this movie seems to play on the 50th anniversary of Bond and we see many connecting concepts, the main one being that Bond is getting old. He is having trouble being as physical as he once was, a fact that Javier Bardem's villain, Raoul Silva, brings up to Bond. Will Bond be able to do what he does best? Yeah, probably.

Basically, Skyfall was an absolutely fantastic film, definitely worth the price of the ticket. Sam Mendes took this film and did not disappoint with the product. We get to see some characters return to the franchise that have been absent from the last couple films and of course, there are some fun nods to the fact that Bond has turned 50 (50 year old Macallan anyone?).

Second side bar: Anyone who's seen this movie and a fan of Doctor Who, would you agree that Ben Whishaw could possibly be a contender for the 13th Doctor? I could see it. (Incidentally, Whishaw was also in the film Cloud Atlas, also currently in theaters). Ok, return to everything.

Another thing I enjoyed from this movie was Albert Finney's character as Kincade, the game keeper to Bond's childhood home of Skyfall estate. As great as he was, I can't watch that role without thinking of Sean Connery (imagine Connery blowing away some bad guys with a sawed off shotgun and then saying "Welcome to Scotland", GOLD). The idea of Connery's cameo was thrown around, but Mendes thought it would take audiences out of the story to have the original Bond back as an entirely different character (which I totally understand, but I mean, it would have been great).

The Verdict: Go drop down your two bits as soon as you can. This is a great movie for fans of Bond. It's great to bring non-Bond fans into the fold. Check it out.

The Return of Alderaan Places and a "Cloud Atlas" Review

It's been a couple months shy of a year since the last post on Alderaan Places, but you know what, it's time to start again. I figure that there's no better way to return than with a review of the new film by The Wachowski's (The Matrix Trilogy) and Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run), the Sci-fi/Drama epic, Cloud Atlas.

The film, an adaptation of the 2004 novel of the same name by David Mitchell, follows 6 intertwined stories, utilizing an ensemble cast of Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving and Jim Sturgess among others. The cast members play various roles across the 6 stories.

The first thing I need to bring up about the film is that it is not for the casual film goer. This 2 hour, 52 minute film does require all of your attention to keep track of what all is happening. Mitchell said it best in a Wall Street Journal interview that, unlike the book, the film "Stay[s] in each of the six worlds just long enough for the hook to be sunk in, and from then on the film darts from world to world at the speed of a plate spinner, revisiting each narrative for long enough to propel it forward."

That being said, the film is not too unwieldy. Though the actors are playing different characters in each story, the connected characters are meant to be the same soul and it shows through similarities and evolution of the various characters.

That's the second thing that blew me away about this movie, these actors didn't come in to play a great role, they came in to play up to 6 great roles. The makeup crew deserve an Oscar for their work on this film. They utilized amazing prosthetic makeup to make changes between the actors in different stories. It helped the story not feel so static. For a few actors, they made flawless changes in race or gender that made you second guess who you thought you were seeing.

The film was an epic masterpiece of Science Fiction that doesn't feel like Science Fiction film. This film comes across as an absolute labor of love by the directors and I urge EVERYONE to get out and see this film while it is still in theaters.