What I currently think of the new Thundercats cartoon

Thundercats has to be one of the best cartoons I've watched if not the best. I literally grew up watching the original cartoon and so did most kids in Pakistan who had access to cable television.
I too developed the feeling of familiarity with the characters as did any hardcore fan growing up with the series.

But I'm not really going to get into my love for the original Thundercats. Just that it was an important part of my life and many others in Pakistan and around the world. It is accepted that the 1980s cartoons made an impact on children like no other cartoons of any other time. See this post for more on that.

The point is that I was a loyal fan I was of the original Thundercats franchise and I want to discuss how I feel about the remake version as a strong fan of the original.
From my experience of adding prequels/sequels or doing remakes of classic material, the result is usually negative or at least not as good as the originals. Note most of the time, not always.

That also goes for film adaptations of books as well. They are almost never as good as the books or whatever the original adaptation of a franchise is.
For this reason I anticipated the remake of TC not to be as good as the originals. From what I've seen so far, it turns out I was right.

This doesn't mean the series is all bad, just not as good as the original. It's also too early to judge the entire series just yet, but from what has been shown so far in the first season I can give my rating on.

The animation is a serious improvement. Not that the original animation was bad. It was great, including the coloring. But I wasn't too crazy about Lion-Os long untidy hairstyle, nor his baby boy's diaper-looking outfit.

I think the new hairstyle looks terrific on Lion-0 and his new outfit looks much better than the original.

Even Wily Cat and Kit are much better in outline and that's true for just about everyone else save for snarf who looks like a Poke'mon. Snarf's downgrading from a wise old companion into a silent mute is one of many things wrong with this show.

The characters' behaviors and dialogue are a gross downgrade from the original. Panthro for example is a hard stiff, over proud soldier wanna-be compared to the original series. Not only is he disloyal, he's too unfriendly and stubborn and all this doesn't help fans connect/relate to the character.

Character downgrading and poor dialogue is a serious negative flaw in the series.
Snarf was turned into a mute because many fans were irritated by his dialogue. Instead of turning him into a mature companion like Cringer, he just had to be made a mute.

The mutants are also a bit of a disappointment. In the original series they used to make me laugh with their clumsiness and complaints.
I know we haven't seen the other mutants so far, but seeing how different Slythe is from the bossy, reckless villain like the other mutants, it's unlikely they will have any of their comical traits.

Instead we see Slythe as a cold, pure evil fighting machine. Even Mumm-Ra had humor as a villain with his childish irritation and recklessness.

Some of the first few episodes were also terrible in plot line and storyline. I really hated the episodes Song of the Petalars and Old Friends. Song of the Petalars was mixing a complete fairy tale with a good vs evil science fiction/fantasy theme. Old Friends was too long of staying on a muddy sea and bad animation of the water.

I also hated the way technology was made to look like some magical concept. Technology isn't some machinery doing wonders built from scratch. It takes thousands of years for technology to sophisticate. I didn't like how it was disbelieved upon as if it's magic.

I really don't understand the idea behind this "technology."

Lion-O's character and personality as leader of the Thundercats has completely changed. When Wily Cat and Wily Kit turn to him for help he shuns them away, claiming he's not their "baby sitter." A prince and heir to his father's throne rejects pleas for help from his own subjects!

Instead Lion-O's sole reason for continuing is the quest for revenge of his father's death. It's not that different from the original character. The original one was equally reckless and impatient, but at the same time defensive and protective of his subjects as his rightful duty.

The fact that he's reluctant to even show concern for the Thundercubs is an utter downgrade. Aside from the animation, there are some other great improvements. Mumm-Ra looks more serious and evil. He no longer has the attitude of a pampered child always wanting his own way and fussing about everything. He has a deeper and sinister voice and a more confident personality.

Another great improvement about him was his weakness change. In the old series his weakness was his own reflection. That was simply a childish aspect of the original series that has been thankfully dropped out. When I used to play Thundercats games in my head as a child, I used to pretend Mumm-Ra's weakness was sunlight as it seemed more realistic to beat a demonic monster by sunlight than his own reflection.

It's also good that the new series has a proper back story that the originals left out. Not only was the back story in the original series vague but also had constant plot changes. The plot at first was to seize the Sword of Omens by the villains. This changed to try and destroy it, which in turn changed to destroying the Thundercats and taking over third Earth.

The new series has a direct and more realistic plot of gaining more power. The back story is much more realistic as well and we have a clear beginning with how the battle between the villains and the heroes all began. A battle for control and resources.

In overall from what has been shown so far, I'd give this series a five out of ten average, though that may change as the series progresses.

How I would have done the Star Wars blu-ray releases

I don't think I need to go out and buy the Star Wars saga on blu-ray to report the most recent changes. Not only has it all been discussed but we've seen the video clips of the most known changes. Note the word most changes.

Amongst the changes there was less discussed were the presence of Sabulba in Jabbah's palace and Luke Skywalker's light saber turned white again in A New Hope.
When Lucas actually had the chance to make an improvement in this edition, he actually had to make it worse.

Instead of adding deleted scenes in the original movies, he had to try and connect them even more to his beloved prequels and make changes that worsened the original films.
What would I have done in his place for this new release?

Firstly I would have left the puppet Yoda alone in The Phantom Menace. I can understand the need for digital replacements in the next two episodes as he engaged in physical combat but in the first episode he did nothing of that sort.

In A New Hope I would have replaced Obi Wan's scream with a growl like that of Emperor Palpatine in Revenge of the Sith. The latest scream is terrible and unimaginable that a wise old Jedi would use it.

I would have also gone ahead and inserted the deleted with Luke Skywalker and his friends to give audience a better understanding of his desire to leave Tatooine and the background of Biggs Lightyear.
I would have done the same for the Empire Strikes Back. Perhaps not necessarily deleted scenes in this case but added a new scene of an imperial probe droid dispatched to Hoth being attacked by a Wampa creature as mentioned in the novelization, just to make the movie more dramatic.

According to the novel, the probe droid came into a Wampa lair by accident which caused the Wampa creature to attack it, ending in the probe droid shooting the creature to death.

As for Return of the Jedi I would have left everything else alone save for maybe the Ewok's eyes blinking since it did add a little realism and is not much of a change.
Deleted scenes would have been a nice edition assuming there were some good scenes worth adding. Those would have been my corrections.

The X-Files resist or serve game review

I am an avid fan of the X-Files to this day but was not such a hardcore video game fan. My interest in video games was more or less gone by the year 2000.
Aside from a few games such as GoldenEye 007 and survival horror games which was really just the Resident Evil game series.

But since I'm a huge X-Files fan and saw snapshots of this game online, I had to see for myself. I was lucky since this game was just like Resident Evil with it's own storyline and many other differences. What a great way to enjoy playing two of your favorite characters in your favorite genres.

Weather you're a fan of Resident Evil or the X-Files or both, this game is a must play for you. However, despite it's great storyline and scenarios for each character, the game is not without faults.

Since this game is survival horror and like Resident Evil, it lacks realism. Take for example shooting a wall or a window. Not a scratch or a bullet mark. Only enemies react when shot. I know making the game is more realistic is expensive and time consuming, but realism is still what makes a game more appreciated.

On the subject of guns, most weapons used in the games, including automatics have cheap sounds and effects. This will give you a definite answer that realism was definitely not on the producers agenda, but rather good gameplay and storyline which the game meets.

I also dislike some secret keys and items that are impossible to find and to proceed with the game unless one looks up these things. A specific key in this game took me hours to find until I found the answer online. I cannot imagine myself finishing the game if I did not.

Other fans complained about the graphics. I agree the graphics could have been better but I'm not complaining.
Also this game does not compare to Resident Evil with many difficulty levels and weapons choices. I finished the game with both characters' scenarios and there was nothing more to do. It does not offer unlockable items and scenarios like Resident Evil. Once you've finished it there's nothing more to do with it.

Otherwise it's a great game and highly recommendable by me over most of PlayStation 2's fancy and boring games.

Overkilling The Wicker Man remake

I first saw The Wicker Man in December 2007 on TV when I was on a month's vacation in Karachi.
We actually opened it in the middle of the movie. One of my parents likes Nicholas Cage's movies and I also got an interest in it. A little later the movie had my complete attention. To see the suspense and the creepiness of the island and the realistic scenario of how easily people can revert to savagery just be situating themselves in a remote area away from the modern world.

Since I did not get to see the movie from the beginning I did not know the title and so I looked it up and then rented it on DVD upon my return to North America where I live.
The movie was a great and realistic horror/suspense movie for fans of such genre to enjoy.

It was upon looking it up that I also discovered the movie was actually a remake of a 1973 version with Christopher Lee in it. I saw the 1973 version on YouTube and was rather puzzled to see comments mocking the remake while praising the original. To me it was them describing the remake when praising the original and describing the original when mocking the remake.

I thought that something is wrong with me, but now I realize it's not me. Some fanatics of originality have a way of underrating remakes and overkilling them even though the original Wicker Man needed a remake. A remake that made up for the original's poor dialogue, cheap acting, childish soundtracks and songs which the lovers of the original found to be "creepy" and "realistic."

The remake had no such. It had no childish singing or cheap special affects that the original had. The "sacrificing" scene was also violent as opposed to the original where the victim didn't even offer any resistance to the cult that was killing him.

I can understand why The Wicker Man is not so popular. I myself wouldn't buy it since it is one of those suspense/horror movies you wouldn't want to see more than once.
But to call it a bad movie or compare it to the original is a joke. This movie had everything needed for a good suspense horror and gave us a brief insight to Celtic mythology, though I have to mention I sense possible stereotypes in the movie.

Readers would have to watch both movies to better understand what I mean. The only negative things about the movie is it calls for sequel due to the way it ended. The other negative thing is the mysterious mother and daughter Nicholas Cage sees in the beginning who disappear without a trace as well as those strange dreams he has, also unexplained.

With or without these mistakes, the 2006 version of The Wicker Man is superior to the original in every way and met it's ambitions as a remake that the original so miserably failed in.

Pros and cons about changes to the original Star Wars movies

Star Wars was and probably always shall have an important place in my life. I saw the first movie a few times now and then with fascination but fully understood it at age seven when my uncle showed me the whole trilogy and also got me my very own set on VHS which were pirated but just as good.

The franchise and it's characters had a kind of familiarity in them like almost no other franchise that you have. From 1993 onwards Star Wars had a place in my heart and soul.

Then I first saw the special edition of Star Wars in 1997 when one of my relatives bought The Empire Strikes Back on VHS for me when visiting from the UK.
This was when I was living in my home city Karachi until the year 2000 when I moved out of Pakistan.

I told my relative I already have it but he explained this is the special edition. I didn't quite understand until I put it on and saw Lucasfilm's short presentation on the special edition and on into the movie with all the changes.
I was thrilled and I immediately wanted to see the other two movies in their special edition versions. Even before then, I recall hearing all the big talk from adults about Star Wars, that it has been improved.

Again I didn't know anything until I viewed my VHS copy of The Empire Strikes Back. Since I loved it and thought the updates were absolutely brilliant, I hoped to get rid of my original trilogy VHS set and have them replaced with these special editions.

At that time any preference of the original versions to the special editions was simply unthinkable. And seeing the 1997 special editions, I still think highly of them. The reason is they were mostly improvements to the empty original versions that really needed improvements such as the mouth of sarlaac in the pit of carkoon in Return of the Jedi.

But purchasing the latest DVD editions as well as reading the history of changes in the original Star Wars trilogy, I started to have second thoughts. While 1997 special editions were a leap forward for the Star Wars trilogy as well as met the standards of a next generation audience, George Lucas did go too far when he actually cut out sounds and dialogue from the original versions.

I totally agree with the improvements in the special effects, some of which the 1997 special editions failed to catch. For example the light sabers in the 1997 releases were still dull color whereas the DVD versions had them polished and glowing all up to the standard to appease the fans.
I simply cannot enjoy the movies unless the special editions to their fullest.

But seeing how at least half of the changes made by Lucasfilms on the original trilogy hurt them more than they improved. If it were up to me, I would have added improvements to the originals, including suitable deleted scenes, while leaving the original footage and dialogue alone.
I however did prefer the newer ending in Return of the Jedi. It's a well suited ending for a well loved and important saga which ended in restoring freedom to an entire galaxy.

Now with the latest news about the blue-ray releases, I may rent it to see if it's worth buying, though I doubt it, especially seeing some terrible changes made to the original triology.

I think if Lucas had just released the 1997 special editions on DVD with a few slight corrections, I doubt we'd have fans screaming today for the original unaltered versions.
Lucky for me I have a pirated DVD copy of the 1997 special edition of The Empire Strikes Back copied from a laserdisc in perfect print and wide-screen format with a laserdisc scene selection menu.

Even the cover art is copied from the laserdisc and the disc itself had the Empire Strikes Back logo neatly printed on it. It's even better than buying an officially released version with poor cover art.

But coming back to deleted scenes and the negative edits, I think Lucas has damaged the originals to the point that there will be no single version loved by all fans which is why I see fans including myself extracting their favorites scenes from the original cuts and the updated cuts and combining them to satisfy themselves.

With modern technology being available to more than just professional filmmakers such a dream is not far away.

Planet of the Apes DVD box set review

I'm not a such strong fan of the Planet of the Apes franchise but at the same time I have a good liking for it. I like the concept, plot lines, philosophy and other themes that make me enjoy and appreciate the franchise. Also given that I love science fiction more than any other form of literature or media.

I have to also admit that I don't get entertained by movies and games as much as I used to, so yes a lot of my spare time can be wasted on boredom.

So once or twice a year I rent/purchase a movie or a game to bring me out of my boredom. Seeing all the classic Planet of the Apes movies almost a decade back on television and on VHS, I thought of it as a good set of films to add to my then limited DVD collection to help keep me out of my boredom during my spare time.

Add to that all the movies were being sold at an affordable price of about forty dollars.
I can't state that I didn't like the DVD box set but at the same time it was definitely not worth my money. I wasn't too crazy about these movies to start with. I actually only liked the first two movies in the series, but I'm not sure if even those two are worth buying.

The problem with the first film Planet of the Apes is while it's filled with good acting, philosophy, dramatic twists etc. it still lacks action and events must take a long time to proceed for the audience to understand the theme of the entire saga.

The problem with the other three movies is they take three intelligent apes from the first two movies back in time to modern Earth using a wrecked spaceship that humans somehow could not repair. If you watch Taylor (played by Charlton Heston) and his crew members monitoring their spacecraft sinking into the lake, Taylor replies "we're here to stay" in response to his crew member reporting their ship has completely sunk.

So one main error of the filmmakers is ruining the saga's realism by giving apes who can barely build towns and guns the ability to pilot let alone repair a ship that can fly at light speed and go backwards in time.
And if it was John Brent's ship that was used to travel back in time, it only hurts the realism even more since that ship was terribly crippled and was beyond repair.

Even if these errors weren't there the whole time travel concept kills the realism of the story just as much.

The story continuing in Escape from the Planet of the Apes not only by this time has taken away the realism from what was supposed to be a science fiction movie series, but also declined the plot and storyline with boring scenes that drag the movie till an ending climax.
This is the same for Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and the Battle of the Planet of the Apes, although I did prefer this one due to it's action sequences.

But aside from that, the last three films are still poor in quality. I found Beneath the Planet of the Apes to be the best one because it balanced out action sequences with dialogue and adventure which the first movie mostly lacked.

So in a box set of five films in which I really end up enjoying one or two films at the most, I answer the question of is it worth buying with a simple no. And since I watch these movies very occasionally or at best in the company of a friend/family, I am not too keen on them and I do plan on selling them soon.

My personal recommendation to readers who are interested in this film franchise is to rent each film and watch them in chronological order to feel the excitement of watching them once. Other than that I do not recommend them being purchased. I don't mean to suggest they are completely bad. As mentioned, there were good things in the series and without a doubt they were far superior to the terrible 2001 Planet of the Apes remake.

But again, even these classic movies are certainly not worth more than a few dollars of your hard earned money.

If you're a hardcore fan, then it's best to purchase them second hand (used) and save money. After all they are the same movies that you saw on TV and/or VHS but in a different format, giving a full improvement in sound and picture quality.
There's also an additional documentary disc included in the set on the making of the series which is interesting to watch once, but not really a must have in my opinion.

If you think you'll be watching these movies from time to time, I still recommend getting them second hand or simply renting them. It is simply not worth buying the DVD box set brand new as I did and for the price I did. You can trust me on that.

Youtube's annoying 'upgrades.'

YouTube is probably my favorite website. It offers so much entertainment that television offered except you don't have annoying adds in the middle or in between shows and the best part being you get to watch what you want when you want.

The advantages a YouTube account offers is more than any video rental/sale store like blockbuster or any other can offer. But then comes the negative part. A negative part that can so easily be removed if it was not for the carelessness of the webmasters.

In the first years of YouTube (YT) gaining popularity, it was somewhat easy to use. All the control panels were clearly visible and easy to operate. But then YT starting going through upgrades to try and make things easier, which were also successful in the beginning.

For example, gaining access to your account controls were simplified. But then these unnecessary upgrades kept going on every few months. Most people did not complain, at least from what I noticed.

In 2009 things started to heat up amongst users when YT introduced the beta channel. This resulted in many users posting videos and petitions protesting the move. Regardless, YT proceeded with the move, but through a different path of individually changing channels.

The 'beta channels' did not turn out to be as bad as perceived, at least in my opinion. I found it saved a person lots of energy by playing the user's videos and favorites directly on the channels.
I'm sure the new comers would find this feature somewhat easier.

But then YT seems to get all excited with their upgrades and decide to further change the site, making it so much more difficult to navigate through. Related videos and other videos uploaded by the user were available in the sidebar. Now, all the other uploads by the user are tucked away on the top with a button to display/undisplay them.

On the right side instead of other uploads by the user and related videos, you have a bunch of adds, which gives an indication of money making. I'm not going to get into the subject of corporate takeover, even though that's what seems to be happening slowly to YT.

But the point is these 'upgrades' actually feel more like downgrades. To rate a comment or reply to it or flag it, you must take your cursor to the comment to do such things. Before all these options were displayed right on the comment.

The video description instead of being placed on the side of the video is also now tucked away below the video screen and required you to press a scroll down bar. By clicking the description and video category drop down, they appear, pushing all the comments and replies even further down.

Before video responses to another video were clearly visible below the video screen. Now, they are found in the heart of the comments! So if you have several responses to a video, you have to search through the video comments to find them.

Then there is accessing your account which requires you to take your cursor onto your user name and click to display options. Previously, all you had to do was take your cursor to your user name and select your options. Navigating through your account options is so difficult.

Your commutations with other users was so simple. But with the latest 'upgrades' (downgrades), selecting the various features such as your in-box, comments, friend invites etc. requires more navigation.

How does YT expect people from an older generation or newcomers to operate within their system? I have been on YT for more than three years (my first uploads were in the summer of 2007) but even I as a regular user have difficulty adjusting to these 'upgrades.' Even if you are not a YT member, you'll find navigating through videos with these 'upgrades' has become more complicated.

Upgrading the site every few months at such a fast pace doesn't seem beneficial at all to me. I feel after their previous updates a few months back, the site was as good as it could get, but with the latest update, it's become a real hassle using the site.
If YT feels it necessary to upgrade, then it should be done once a year at the most, with an explanation of why they're doing it.