JJ Abrams Revolution

Lucky Day

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from the creator of Lost comes the new post apoc Thriller

With the Voice as a lead in Revolution has been killing its time slot (if you don't count Monday Night Football on ESPN and the phantom Seahawks catch). For a new show its strong arming its competition.

If you don't know Revolution is a post-apoc thriller - what happens when the lights go out? No, the earth wasn't hit with a giant solar storm like we had in the 19th Century. If I say anything more it would be a spoiler.

apparently anything that runs off gas doesn't work either. (There's no really good explanation for that, other than the car batteries don't work (no one thought of hand cranking them to get them started).

The show is pretty derivative. It will have you reminded of Lost, Hunger Games, the Postman, Terra Nova, I Am Legend, etc. etc. The use of Lost like flashbacks to reveal character aspects is more like Lost than even Person of Interest. The lead actress was one of the finalists to play Katniss in the Hunger Games so having her walk around with a bow is by design.

As my buddy points out the show is "ok". I have to agree with hi. Nothing excites me about this yet although all the swordighting reminds me of the fisticuffs in Star Trek and that's fun. I find the teenagers really annoying. My favourtie character so far is the Insurance Investigator.

But what I can't stand is all the product placement. 15 years into the future and the find ways to make a big deal out of products that no longer or exist or don't work.

What do you think?
 
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I've been recording and watching so far. We'll see how it goes. At this point, I think Last Resort shows more promise, although both shows require you to not think too deeply.

I think that the premise is not that electrical service is gone (which would allow for generators) but that all electronic devices are fried, like a global EMP. That would account for your cars, but I'm not sure an EMP-esque event would fry simple devices like spark plugs. Of course, we're talking 15 years after the event now and an EMP would fry all the electronics at the refineries so fuel would be non-existent by "now".
 
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JJ Abrams is a big drop in the sea of plagues infecting entertainment.
 
No you won't. While you may be a stubborn *&^@% #~£€%! when debating. You don't seem like someone who would want bad things to happen to others. And I've known your online persona for 6 years almost now. :)
 
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Hence the smiley :)

That said, if he made a movie about his entire career - I bet I'd like the ending!
 
They offered the pilot for advanced viewing on Hulu+ (or Amazon Prime, can't recall) ... so we watched it a month ago. It was good enough that we said we would give it enough chance, but not to the point where we even figured out what night it was on. So last week we started watching on Hulu again ... and didn't make it more than 15 minutes. We needed to pause for a bit ... and nobody cared enough to go back.

The big problem was that the main character - the shameless Katniss knock-off - is not engaging as a character or as an actress ... so there is little pull. They have not made a good enough case as to WHY we should really care. Boring ... yeah, last resort looks better.

This one I see going the Terra Nova route. Even if it gets good it will be too late.
 
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Well its not as expensive as Terra Nova I'm betting . The shows so far is better than Flashforward and The Event which isn't saying much and I never got into Jericho. I do like the kick butt uncle and I like seeing Elizabeth Mitchell again. Terry O'Quinn got himself a new show which doesn't look like its going to last.

Person of Interest is great and I'm still interested in the backstory of the Michael Emerson character. I'm not sure how long they can keep up with this premise before the show runs out of steam and the body count reaches the population level of the city of New York.

I'll give Revolution some time just because of the glut of reality shows and singing competitions they throw at us. I just thank God I get 12 minutes of Adventure Time a week.

I'll have to check out Last Resort I guess. There are already 3 episodes aired it looks like.
 
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I'll have to check out Last Resort I guess. There are already 3 episodes aired it looks like.
Nope. Only 1 episode has aired so far.
 
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It has some promise, but I fear that it may be marred a bit by its choice in main characters and the way in which they are developing the setting. For all its faults, I greatly find myself preferring much about Jeremiah to this.
 
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It will have you reminded of Lost, Hunger Games, the Postman, Terra Nova, I Am Legend, etc. etc.

Lost - tried, never got hooked, boring and forced mystery
Hunger Games - is a masterpiece movie I adored
The Postman - um… never heard of that
Terra Nova - a show about dinosaurs… without dinosaurs. But with unrealistic MENSA IQ kids as it's Spielberg's show and as such I hated it.
I Am Legend - you mean the cultural slap in the face to every one of us who loved the book and still keep The Omega Man videotape as the most precious treasure? One of the most stupid if not the #1 stupid Hollywood's remake?

In my case it's four minuses and one plus. I'll skip that show. Sorry.
 
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Hunger Games - is a masterpiece movie I adored
Since you mentioned Hollywood remakes … did you see the Japanese movie Battle Royale, a cult classic from 2000? If not, you should. Hunger Games is often compared to it. Although HG is not a remake as such (each movie is based on a novel by the same name) and the themes are a bit different, the similarities are nonetheless striking.

I've seen both and liked both for what they were, though, comparing both, the nod must go to Battle Royale.
 
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Yes I did and comparing those two is unfair.
Battle Royale's target audience are (frustrated) teachers. If you're a teacher, you'll adore this movie after suffering stupid students where you can't do nothing about it just suffer more and more. Subaudience are kids who "don't belong", dunno how to describe it better. "Unpopular" kids will love this movie (it's not the only movie that deals with modern trends like sillicon boobs, for example Verhoeven's Starship Troopers is another such movie where he massacres all those perfect looking plastic surgery "models").
Also Battle Royale is not a sci fi movie about some "unperfect future" but is set in unperfect today's society. Unperfect? Or maybe perfect?
It's also a masterpiece.

Hunger Games on the other hand brings some other stuff, the society went into roman empire era and we practically have Spartacus' slavery story with futuristic gladiators there, then we have not just plain gore and bloodbath but also emotions involved. Those emotions are the reason I say it's a masterpiece. See… If the main role was played by Megan Fox or Jessica Alba, that movie would probably be crap. As those two cannot express emotions, their job is to "look nice" in movies. Currently Hollywood is full of such pale actresses. But here we have America's best kept secret as the lead character where she just confirmed that the stellar performance from Winter's Bone wasn't just a case of luck. Dunno who could do a better job that J. Lawrence did, maybe N. Portman? Finally the target audience for this movie is the whole family (except minors ofc).

Sorry but my nod can't go to a specific movie here. Both are awsome and highly recommended. And as I posted for some other movies in catch-movie thread, hopefully JDR won't notice ;), I must give both:
A
 
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Since you mentioned Hollywood remakes … did you see the Japanese movie Battle Royale, a cult classic from 2000? If not, you should. Hunger Games is often compared to it. Although HG is not a remake as such (each movie is based on a novel by the same name) and the themes are a bit different, the similarities are nonetheless striking.

I've seen both and liked both for what they were, though, comparing both, the nod must go to Battle Royale.

Hunger Games is pretty derivative of a lot of things including BR but no one seems to mind and its partly intentional. Her first source was Theseus and the Minotaur, and recent discoveries of cannibalism in Knossos may lead some credence to the story. She first got the idea while watching news reports of the Iraq War and worrying about how the constant barrage was effecting this generations kids (much like Viet NAm). Fortunately, the stories themselves aren't overtly political (except maybe the last one).

Lost - tried, never got hooked, boring and forced mystery
Hunger Games - is a masterpiece movie I adored
The Postman - um… never heard of that
Terra Nova - a show about dinosaurs… without dinosaurs. But with unrealistic MENSA IQ kids as it's Spielberg's show and as such I hated it.
I Am Legend - you mean the cultural slap in the face to every one of us who loved the book and still keep The Omega Man videotape as the most precious treasure? One of the most stupid if not the #1 stupid Hollywood's remake?

In my case it's four minuses and one plus. I'll skip that show. Sorry.

you're a member of this site and you haven't heard of The Postman?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119925/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Postman

I haven't read the book but knowing David Brin (of the Killer B's) its probably as long and plodding as the movie.

could care less what you think of Lost or Terran Nova. First was great!!! second was good. Your loss.

I Am Legend? No, I always refer to the book as the basis for any movie or story that borrows its premise (Night of the Comet, Fallout I, that Twilight Episode with Burgess Meredeth, etc.) including the three movies that are based on it including the two you mentioned (The Last Man on Earth).

If you don't like it, don't watch it. Don't judge it on its merits then - just what some dude (me) on the internet says. And I'm not exactly giving it a ringing endorsement here.

On another note I missed that other show. "Taken" with Liam Neeson was on and I hadn't seen it yet. I skipped it when it was at theaters but its built such a buzz that I had to watch it - I was busting a gut the whole time (we had watched Unknown the other day and aside from being a Bourne rip off IMDB users listed 190 other issues with it - so I wanted to see the real reason Neeson got that role).

Will Last Resort be replayed anytime this week? Maybe on a cable channel?
 
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Will Last Resort be replayed anytime this week? Maybe on a cable channel?
Don't see any repeats, but it looks like ABC has the whole episode up via stream. Here.
 
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:D The Killer B's are David Brin, Greg Bear and Gregory Benford - three of the more popular "new" Sci-Fi writers of the last little while. Bear's "Blood Music" was highly rated so I started reading some of their work and then I found out Brin did The Postman.

The movie has less than stellar reviews for good reason - its another 3 hour Kevin Costner epic - but that doesn't mean it doesn't have good qualities and advances the post-apoc genre to the point where its themes aren't copied. To say any more would be spoiling it.

its a feel good story where some nut gets an idea to restore America to its previous glory in a world where the survivalist militias have taken over in the post-apoc vacuum of power.

its worth a look if you ever have time in your busy life - it gets endless airplay on cable it seems. I'd probably recommend book since the movie is so slow.
 
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That page doesn't seem to exist.
 
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