This week, Bevan tries to keep Matt and Mike in line and fails. We talk about old sayings and myths, religion, N.Ireland, Warhammer 40k and Magus the Red, Westworld, morality and if you could go to any world, where would it be.
Remember you can listen to us on Itunes
One of the highlights of the MCM Birmingham Comic Con is always the diverse costumes worn by the talented cosplayers that attend. The sheer breadth of costumes range from faithful recreations of those worn on screen to imaginative re-envisioning of iconic characters.
Here, in no particular order, is just a fraction of some of the fantastic costumes that were on offer at the convention last weekend.
All photos are by Peter Gatehouse, and are used with permission.
The now bi-annual MCM Birmingham Comic Con is probably the largest, if not the most popular, science-fiction convention in the midlands. This year’s MCM Birmingham Comic Con was quite possibly their biggest yet. Although the actual number of attendees has not been announced, it certainly felt bigger and busier than before.
The convention was so busy that it spilled out into the atrium and corridors surrounding the hall in the NEC where the convention was held. As such, it was not surprising to find groups of convention goers wandering around chatting with fellow attendees or – as was observed at one point – snoozing in the corner.
The system of collecting door tickets had once again been revised to attempt to streamline the process, yet issues still remained. Advance tickets had already sold out well before the weekend of the convention, yet hundreds of people were still hoping to buy a day-ticket on the door. Some of those waiting described it as a “shambles” with them waiting around until well after the doors had opened to learn whether they could buy a day-ticket or not. However, this new system meant you could walk straight into the convention, once you had your ticket.
Headlining the event were Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Sam J. Jones from Flash Gordon, and Jamie Bamber from Battlestar Galactica. Alongside these, stars from Red Dwarf stopped by, as well as Hannah Spearitt from Primeval (who seems to be at every convention these days). All of them were happy to sign memorabilia and have photos taken with their fans.
Since the last convention, MCM Birmingham Comic Con has evolved to accommodate different aspects of geek culture. The memorabilia area, which features stars of classic shows, was much smaller this year. This allowed for body painting, light sabre training (with real-ish light sabres) from Silver Sabres and themed vehicles, such as the Resident Evil car, to be included. There was also Robot Wars arena, a wrestling ring from SLAM, which seemed incongruous at first, and a glamour zone. Whilst the latter was carefully shielded from general view, it still managed to feel out of place.
As always, there were hundreds of traders. Although many of the traders were resellers, there some great little designers and creators to be found hidden amongst them, such as Second Skin Clothing and A. S. Chambers. The centre of the convention was devoted to the comics village, an area dedicated to independent comic writers and artists, such as Kate Mia White who had some fantastic wood-cut style artwork.
As always, quite possibly the greatest draw was the number of stunning costumes worn by the cosplayers. It was fantastic to see so many people making an effort to dress for the occasion, such as the number of men cosplaying as women and the Muslim family who were all dressed as American police. It was great to see such a variety of people happily sharing their love of sci-fi geekery, free from bigotry and stereotyping. Stuff that up your trumpet and blow it, Trump!
All photos are by Peter Gatehouse and are used with permission
In this episode Matt, Mike, Dave and Sean talk about Elitism in Geek Culture, Bullying, Donald Trump.. some politics and even Orange Fanta in different countries.
We are also giving a lucky listener a chance to win some N.Irish orange fanta and even some GP merch and some Tayto Crisps.. random I know but we are like that here at GP.
To win all you have to do is follow us on twitter ( @Geekpride1 ) and send us a comment with the #MakeMattGrateagain.
Winner will be chosen at random from the hashtags and sent out mid December.
Note: the # is spelt wrong because the right spelling is already taken.
Listen on ITUNES or on the links below:
On the 18th of November, Lego Dimensions released a brand new wave of add-ons to their game, inclusing a Story Pack, as well as a number of Fun, level and Team Packs. In this wave, we see characters and levels from the worlds of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Gremlins, Adventure Time, Mission Impossible, The A-Team, Ghostbusters, E.T. and Sonic the Hedgehog. I was invited to a Launch Event to try out the game and see just what the new expansions had to offer.
The event itself took place in a basement area, past a guarded door and following some steps to a below street-level room, where you had access to the main free-play area as soon as you recieved your pass and timetable. Dotted around the room were various Lego statues of characters who featured in Lego Dimensions, like the Doctor and Batman – which, as a Lego fan, I find are allways nice to see. There were also several televisions set up to allow you to play the game in your own time, showing off various levels and characters available to play in the various worlds of Lego Dimensions.
Attached to the main ‘hub’ area were little rooms dedicated to the new characters and levels arriving in the new Wave for the game. First of all, I was taken to a room to delve into the world of Adventure Time with Jake and Finn.
The room itself was set up like one of the lands from the television show, and the attendant was dressed up as one of the characters. Next up was the Mission Impossible room, where you were given a harness and set up in the iconic ‘room-drop’ pose to play a M:I themed level from a top-down perspective.
The whole experience was a little surreal, and in typical lego fashion some of the puzzles in the level were a little challenging with little or no explanation as to how to solve them.
The same went for the Fantastic Beasts, where you played the demo as if you had entered into Newt’s briefcase from the movie – since I was carrying on from a previous demo-playthrough, the game had characters growing and shrinking before I even touched the controls and I spent several minutes figuring out exactly what was going on (which isn’t really what you want to do, especially when you’re on a strict time-limit).
An interesting thing about some of the demos is that whilst some focused on new characters and new environments, some of them explored the new Battle Mode available in the new update to Lego Dimensions which now allows for even more multiplayer fun and challenges.
The three modes which were highlighted in the demonstrations were Capture the Flag – where you chose a character and rushed to capture the opponent’s flag – Objectives – where you had to complete a certain challenge to earn a point, like defeat certain enemies or evade a pursuing whirlwind or collect studs – and Tick, Tag, Boom! – where, after multiple failed playthroughs, we finally figured out that it was just a highly explosive variant of ‘tag’ (there is also apparently a mode called Base Bash, but it didn’t come up for me). Players could tackle these challenges one at a time, or set up a tournament-style match where arenas and modes would be randomly picked as you fought to score more points than the other players. Certain expansions now offer new arenas to enjoy, from the Pillow World of Adventure Time to the chaos of Carnival Night Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog.
Overall, I had fun and just time flew by as I went from demo to demo. WB Interactive really pulled out all the stops for this press event, recreating a cinema for the Gremlins to wreck (including popcorn being thrown at the press attendants when the demo was over) and Harry Potter’s cupboard under the stairs for you to enjoy. It was a great experience, and I’m glad I got to try out the new additions.
Yes there were some hiccups, but to be completely honest they were so minor it didn’t take away from the event as a whole nor the interesting new characters and features – for example, when playing at the Adventure Time booth, the game froze for a few seconds in the character selection sequence, but when we got it working again we had fun figuring out the new characters (I even managed to figure out something about the new DLC that even the attendant didn’t know, which just made my day).
So, If you are collecting the figures for this game, then Wave 7 is certainly worth the wait, with a whole bunch of new possibilities and new content for you to sink your teeth into as the game continues to improve and expand…and for those of you who have yet to feel the bite of the Lego Dimensions bug, it might be daunting considering the amount of content already out there.
However, if Lego is your thing then I definitely recommend collecting just to pick up your favourites. Because with more to come over the next year, and the game expanding into even more franchises – I mean, we now have an official Sonic Lego figurine – the possibilities really are endless.
The movie trailer is one of the most entrenched traditions of film publicism and advertisement. Every film is expected to have a trailer before it comes out. Every one. Hell, the concept of a trailer is so entrenched that TV series, video games, and even books have trailers produced nowadays. Though the latter of the three tends to be about as enticing as an open wound. These two to three minute snippets tell us what the film will be about, give us glimpses of the stars in action, and convey the tone of the story.
At least, they should do when done well. But there are just too many awful trailers out there.
Let me give my personal definition of what makes a good trailer. First of all, it really should match the tone and nature of the film. A laugh-along trailer with jovial music should not be shown for a dour drama. Pulsing dubstep and action cuts are inappropriate for the next Bridget Jones movie. And suspenseful and mysterious slow transitions do not suit whatever the next Fast and the Furious film is going to be. Even if they are pretty horrible.
Many trailers miss this mark. What triggered this annoyance at awful trailers was the trailer I watched for Arrival. Here is the one which, in particular, is terrible:
Arrival is a sombre, thoughtful, and paced film. It is not some schlocky action thriller about war and global politics. Honestly, I saw this trailer and went into the theatre expecting something a bit cheesy and over the top and was completely blown away by the incredible experience. The above, terrible trailer may have turned people off this genuinely beautiful film. All because its tone was so wildly inappropriate.
Annoyingly, the first trailer is much better at capturing the mood of the film, though it’s still a little more action-oriented than Arrival. But it’s my guess they were produced by different companies. More on that in a minute.
The second aspect of a good trailer is that it should convey what is great about the film. This is a sales pitch, essentially, and you only have a couple of minutes to capture the audience’s interests. There should be something – whether it be story, action, visuals – that captures the viewer and convinces them to see your film.
Now, John Carter of Mars is not a good film. At all. But it is not some drab and sombre science fiction… adventure, I want to say? Which is what this god awful trailer advertises the film to be. The film it shows is not exciting, or fun, and looks too ridiculous to be a thoughtful and emotional inspection of loss. There is literally no reason for the viewer to want to watch this film.
Finally, a good trailer is an aperitif for the film’s main course. It gives enough of a flavour of the plot – which is one of the main drivers of a film – without giving everything away. For a comedy film, it has some of the good jokes, but doesn’t just take every funny moment and cram them all in to three minutes.
An infamous bad example of this was the second Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer. Now, I am on record as one of the seven people who actually like this film, and I think there would be literally dozens of us if this trailer hadn’t existed. In the space of three minutes, the entire premise and plot of the film – which had, until this point, been kept relatively under wraps – is laid out and given away months before it will come out. Almost every damn detail!
Seriously, about the only thing they didn’t include in that last seventy seconds or so was the actual ‘death’ of Superman. It was such a stupid and awful move. Why would anyone want to go and see a film where the third act surprise is ruined? It’s like having the real villain of Goldeneye revealed in the trailer!
One of the big problems with trailers is that the creators don’t actually produce them. Studios farm out their films to production companies whose entire purpose is to make these trailers. And so you get cookie cutter, almost soulless trailers made to some marketer’s idea of what a trailer should be and how to sell to Joe Public, and not a thoughtful attempt to represent the film. It’s product over art, and so often produces something crass.
One of my favourite trailers of all time is the below teaser for The Incredibles. Some of you may not have seen it, but it is an almost perfect trailer: it conveys the humour and superheroic adventure of the film, it is funny and compelling, and it has basically nothing to do with the main plot. Seriously, I saw this and knew I would be watching it at the cinema the week it came out. Perfection.
My point, I suppose, is that the marketing of media is important. Not that there are any immediate video games that I can think of which immediately bring this point home. There is not just a deftness of touch and real thought that needs to go into something as important as the trailer, but an appreciation of what you are selling and to whom you are trying to sell it. And selling Arrival like a god damn Independence Day ripoff is a travesty.
Millions of dollars go into these films. Couldn’t they spend just a little more time and effort on the trailers and not produce god damn horror shows?
The long anticipated trailer for the live action adaptation of Disney’s classic Beauty and the Beast has landed and the internet lost it’s collective shit, including this king of geeks!
Never let it be said that I’m not a lover of Disney, in fact there’s nothing more I’d rather do than cuddle up with my honey and get lost in a good Disney film. Beauty and the Beast, has a special place in this hard stone heart of mine. To see the culminating work of Dan Stevens, Emma Watson, Ian Mckellen, Ewan Mcgregor, Luke Evens, Josh Gad and Emma Thompson in a breathtakingly brilliant 2 minute trailer had me squealing like some prepubescent teenager. It had me reaching for my Angela Lansbury single on cassette tape, yeah you heard me, cassette tape.
The trailer opens on a scene direct from the book (Belle’s father picking the castle’s white roses) previously not included in the animated movie, which is a fresh aspect on the classic. This scene also gives us our first brief glimpse of the Beast as he makes his thunderous entrance, well now, Belle’s dad is in the dungeon, so who comes into the castle to find out where her ‘papa’ has gotten to? You guessed it!
Belle wanders the castle in search of her father unbeknownst to her while she is looking around, things are looking back. “Look! A girl” “Yes I can see it’s a girl you fool” “She could be the one!” arguing back and forth, Ian Mckellan’s ‘Cogsworth’ and Ewan McGregor’s ‘Lumiere’ make their appearance along with the final reveal in all his hairy horned glory, the Beast!
Belle swapping places with her father, she decides to remain in the castle. At first she’s his prisoner but gradually with the help of Mrs.Potts, Cogsworth, Lumiere and Chip, the Beast finds himself drawn to Belle. Could she break the curse that traps his human form inside the monster? Soon he sets her free from his dungeon and allows her freely to roam the castle grounds…except the west wing!
After a run in with some vicious wolves, Belle starts to see the Beast in a new light “There maybe something there that wasn’t there before”. Problem with this so called love story mixed with Stockholm syndrome is where’s the over the top bad guy who’s not only in love with Belle but he has an over infatuation with himself….you must mean Gaston! Now in the trailer we only get to see a few seconds with him and Lefou. I’m guessing with an ego as big as Gaston’s he might not be best pleased with that but we could also argue that the best bits are left for the film, I swear if Gaston’s Song isn’t included in this film we riot!
The one scene I got caught up in the most is the ballroom scene made famous by Angela Lansbury’s immortal Tale as Old as Time song. Belle’s flowing yellow gown and the Beast’s proud blue frock suit, the two are seen dancing around the main ballroom for a brief few seconds but in just that little amount of time you can appreciate the care that has gone into the detail of one of the most memorable scenes.
Beauty and the Beast is released on the 17th March 2017 here in the UK and you can bet your nelly that I will be attending the premiere with bells on. Watch the trailer below, oh and keep your eye on the rose in the glass dome…I think it has some significance to the film…can’t for the life of me remember why.
https://youtu.be/iXfEc4wG208
Well it took until November but we may have the best film of the year on our hands. Arrival is a gorgeous piece of first contact sci-fi that is visually stunning, structurally bold and surprisingly emotional.
Equal parts affirming and mind blowing, the film tells the story of an alien race’s appearance on Earth and humanity’s attempt to communicate with the beings. Amy Adam’s takes the lead as top linguist Dr. Louise Banks while Jeremy Renner does wonderfully minimalist work as theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly. Seriously, respect to the man for knowing when to back off and let Adams shine. That ability to do your job well without detracting from the attention on the star is an underrated talent.
Seriously though, Adams is the star here giving a truly top-notch performance. This is a film that demands real range, given that it covers everything from motherly care to the horror-shock of encountering an alien species for the first time. Spending most of the film looking rather justifiably drained, this could be a career definer as Adams manages to convey a complexity of communication that is constantly butting up against the baser demands of the military folk involved.
That sense of communication is what really carries the film forward and serves as its central message. Placing a linguist at the head of the movie is a fascinating choice in that it turns Arrival so far away from the sci-fi films that tend to more commonly populate the market. There is but a single scene of what could really be described as action, the rest is all dialogue and wonderful visuals. What makes this angle work however is not just the excellent cast but the sense of fascination that the film itself seems to find in following the linguistic process of the story.
Guiding that angle at the helm of the film is the excellent Denis Villeneuve, of Sicario and Prisoners fame. I can’t claim to have seen the latter but I can attest to Sicario being little short of a masterclass in film-making. Bringing to life the screenplay crafted by Eric Heisserer, and adapted from Ted Chiang’s short story Story of Your Life, Villeneueve manages to keep the fascination on something that could very well have been pretentiously self-absorbed.
Instead, we are treated to a language lesson on the bizarre ink-like sigils of the film’s aliens, named heptapods. It’s a lesson that is, of course, of far more paramount importance than may first be realised and when Arrival rips the lid off its big reveal well, you can audibly hear the intake of breath in the cinema. The phrase mind blowing should in the future be reserved only for reveals of such calibre as, and I’m really trying not to spoil anything here, literally everything you have seen thus far comes into a whole new focus.
Now admittedly I left the cinema with more than a few questions, most of which I’m not sure could be answered without a serious delve into theoretical physics. And there is a certain sense of important queries being left unanswered that some may find frustrating. However, quibbles aside (and I do count these as quibbles given how answering said queries would shift the focus of the film to its detriment), this is some seriously smart sci-fi that also has a surprisingly touching heart to it. The emotional aspects bizarrely both are and aren’t at the core of the film, regardless they play out more effectively than I would have expected.
I cannot say enough good things about this film and I don’t want to continue rambling on so I’ll leave it here: Arrival is smart, sweet and deeply beautiful. One of the best films of recent years full stop, definitely one of the best sci-fi. Expect several Oscar nods in its direction, and well deserved on every level they will be. Villeneuve pulls it out of the bag once again and wrangles not just an excellent story but some amazing performances that come together in a film I just cannot wait to talk more about to those who’ve seen it.
Get on this one, you won’t regret it.
Featured image courtesy of Paramount Pictures
I’ve been following the progress of the Ghost in the Shell Hollywood live action movie like most anime fans, with a lot of trepidation. So far the track record for Western Anime remakes has been extremely poor (Dragonball Evolution) or the movies have not even been able to make it out of development (Akira).
I had assumed that the Ghost in the Shell adaptation would go the way of Akira and end up being shelved as quickly as the surge of complaints about the casting of Scarlett Johansson as the Major came in. Especially considering this was first supposed to be remade by Steven Spielberg who eventually passed on it. Amazingly though, as I watched the first trailer for it yesterday, it looks.. dare I say it.. brilliant.
Unlike many detractors of the film to date, I don’t have a problem with Johansson as the Major. Nowhere in the anime or manga was the Major ever referred to as being a Japanese unit and the creator also said the character preferred to have a ‘Stateless’ looking body (although he did give her a Japanese name: Motoko Kusanagi). I do have a slight problem with the fact that the only recognisable Japanese person I can see in the movie is Takeshi Kitano, but that’s a minor complaint because this movie still looks brilliant. There are some serious Bladerunner overtones with some Luc Besson thrown in for good measure. The body suit looks great, the supporting cast also look on point. Can this film prove that you can successfully make a Hollywood live action anime that isn’t awful?
I wouldn’t bet on it, but after watching the trailer I think I’ll be buying a ticket to see it.
Ghost in the Shell is released in UK cinemas on 31st March 2017. You can watch the trailer below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxeR9Nu0nQs
The Christmas season is now upon us. By now you’ve seen the new John Lewis Ad, that Coca Cola Truck has pulled into your town and the posters for the local panto have started going up. And what a better time for you to get your loved one a unique and amazing present. Choosing a gift couldn’t be easier these days. All you have to do is pop on eBay and search for whatever they happen to be fanboy(girl)ing over. What makes things interesting is clicking the “Sort” button and seeing what’s going for the highest price out there. If you won the Euromillions or are George Lucas this is the sort of stuff you can splash out on. So here’s Geek Prides fandom by fandom guide to the most expensive merch out there (as of 14/11/16)
Doctor Who
The Doctor has been with us for over 50 years making him one of the most iconic figures on the sci fi scene and giving us a huge array of merchandise to boot. Given the time scale of this franchise it’s not surprising that some of these collectibles are massively expensive and rare.
Coming in at £5,850.00 is an original Dalek Comic Artwork that was used for the Dr Who Dalek Annual of 1976. Not far behind for the princely sum of £4,000.00 is an autographed letter from the actor who portrayed the first Doctor, William Hartnell. For the same price of £4,000.00 you can buy a life sized Dalek for your collection but you have to be able to go and pick it up!
Star Trek
Again like Dr Who, Trek has ruled the airwaves for sci fi since 1966 making its original merchandise extremely lucrative for any discerning Trekkie out there. Most of the top range Trek merchandise is autograph related like this picture signed by the complete first family of Trek coming in at a whopping £12,7070.56. Whilst not vintage a Star Trek Pinball Machine based on the new 2009 JJ Abrams Reboot will set your nerd cave alive for the sum of £5,995.00. If screen worn costuming is your thing then the most expensive article of clothing is a uniform worn my Majel Barrett on Star Trek The Motion Picture which clocks in at around £4,210.69.
Star Wars
Brace yourself. Being the most popular sci fi opera movies of all time puts Star Wars collectibles way into the big leagues. This was after all how George made all the big bucks of the franchise. There are several holy grails out there for Star Wars fans; here’s just a few that scratch the surface.
At a mind blowing £472,709.94 is a collection of original Star Wars Movie Posters from the first three films; all of varying types and rarity.For a few hundred g’s less is a hand painted original Star Wars poster by Steve Kaufman signed by Stan Lee. That will set you back £337,649.96.
At a ridiculous £99,999.00 is a set of UK licence plates with KY10 REN. For that price you could buy a Maserati Quattroporte, Lamborghini Gallardo or a Ferrari F430 so you may have to seriously rethink your life if you’re buying these for your Nissan Micra.
Original Kenner toys in mint condition feature high up this list with one collector selling his entire collection of 70’s/80’s Star Wars vehicles for £50,000.00
Thunderbirds/Gerry Anderson Universe
Again like Trek and Who, the Gerry Anderson world of Thunderbirds, Stingray and Captain Scarlet will have many grown men with large bank accounts misty eyed with nostalgia so its not surprising to see some of these items reach big figures. Given the high demand during the initial release of these toys back in the 60’s and the early 90’s these continue to attract large sums online.
A lot of the rarest Thunderbirds items were manufactured and marketed in Japan such as this early Anderson offering the eponymous Supercar clocking in at a handsome £4,500.00. You’ve got to love that box art.
A rather unique item is this Lady Penelope Tea Set which would have delighted young female fans of International Rescue. This is going, mint in box for a FAB £2,650.00. Down the list we have a pair of Fireball XL5 puppets for £800.00 and a die cast UFO Interceptor in box for £599.99.
James Bond
Marketers and ad men were quick to realise that boys loved their toys and the adventures of James Bond really resonated with kids all over the globe who were keen to emulate their favourite British Super Spy.
Currently at £1,499.00 is a Sean Connery Action Man like figure complete with mini Walther PPK and bespoke Saville Row suit.
Possibly one of the most famous pieces of movie tie in collectable is the Aston Martin DB5 car by Corgi complete with actual working ejector seat and forward machine guns (which thankfully didn’t work) A mint in box AM comes in at a modest £350.00.
DC/Marvel
Comic Book collecting is another realm that we could devote an entire article to. Needless to say you’d need to be Bruce Wayne to casually decide to pick one of these original comics up.
The highest priced Detective Comics (DC) comic book is currently the first Batwoman appearance weighing in at £2,229.99.
At an eye watering £60,010.33 is a Batman #1 rated by the CGC (Certified Guaranty Company) rated 9.0.
Superman #1 is also an astounding £45,280.85 whilst a copy of Action Comics #17 will set you back £2,500.00.
Marvel titles also vie for supremacy in the vintage comic world with a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 with the first cover appearance of Spider-Man costing £31,774.85 and a signed Stan Lee copy of the first Iron Man appearance coming in at £25,423.02.
Makes you want to get back home and get searching the attic for some of those rare gems you had yourself as a kid. You never know you could be sitting on mini fortune.
Tell us about some of your most treasured collectibles? Are they worth a pretty penny like the stuff above or do they hold sentimental value? Let us know in the comments below.
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