Star Trek - Review

Well, I was waiting for it very eagerly for quite some time now. I was worried not sure what to expect. I've been a "Trekkie" from the time I was a kid, we used to watch the Star Trek episodes with William Shatner & Leonard Nemoy and the rest of the Enterprise crew... From there most us us got hooked to the Next Generation and it's crew.

Star Trek has been an epic saga of 3 Generations, Jim Kirk's & Jean Luke Picard's Enterprises and of course the prequel which was called "The Enterprise". I guess what made me so intrigued by this movie was that it was touching on turh which is really close to the original storyline. The characters were not some unknown new crews but the good old crew of the original enterprise with new actors playing the parts.

We all knew that Leonard Nemoy has a major part in this movie.. But no one knew why... Keep reading, I'll tell you.. But at your own risk.. :D

All I can say is that the movie is very well made and thouroghly enjoyable... It starts with a Romulan ship destroying a Federation ship captained by George Kirk and then chronicles the lives of Jim Kirk & Spock as they become members of the crew.


Chris Pine plays the role of Jim Kirk & Zachary Quinto plays Mr. Spock... Both of them do a excellent job of playing these roles with extremely similar charateristics that you have a tough time distingushing them from Will Shatner & Leo Nemoy.


Unfortunately I cannot go further on this story without telling you too much... So I'll stop here and say, Star Trek fan or not, go watch the movie.. It's really good fun..

Caution:THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

Ok so here's the deal.. Star Trek released 4 comics before the release of the the Star Trek movie, which are actually a prequel to it.

Spock is now an Federation Ambassador on Romulan and has brought peace between Romulus and Remus. They discover a star which is going Super nova and potentially destroying Romulus and the rest of the galaxy. A mining ship captained by a Romulan, Nero sees the way this star destorys a small moon near it and offers to help Spock in his quest to stop the star from destroying the Romulus.

He goes to Vulcan and with the help of another Federation Ambasador, Jean Luke Picard, tries to convince them to give him a sample of "Red Matter", a substance that can destroy the star without destroying the rest of the galaxy.

Spock gets a special ship made with the help of Jeordy and heads for Romulus. So, long story short.. They are too late..Romulus is destroyed.Federation ships are sent to help with the rescue, of course enterprise is one of them. Captained by, Data.

Nero in anguish over loosing his home world and family turns into a mad man and with his crew decide to destroy the federation world. Enterprise holds him off while Spock destroys the star, but eventually his Ship (which is now enhanced with some Borg adaptive sheilds) and Spock's ship are pulled into the worm hole that is formed by the destruction of the star..

Well, that's where the comics leave us and the movie begins

CAUTION : STOP HERE IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE YET!!!

So Nero's ship comes out on the other side of the worm hole to find a Starship with Kirk's father on board. It destroy's that ship and kill's his dad, The captain.

Jim Kirk & Spock grow up and eventually join the acadamy. Suddenly all the main cast most of whom are still cadets are pulled onto the Enterprise to stop Nero as he tries to destroy Vulcan.

Around this time, Spock from the future emerges in this time zone and is captured. Eventually Vulcan is destroyed.

So, the story is great, the rest of the galaxy is saved, the enterprise crew come together to begin their missions and the Future Spock stays back to help re build the world that was destroyed.

But here is where my questions begin..

If Nero destroyed Vulcan in the Past.. Then how does Spock go to Vulcan in the future to stop the Star from going Super Nova?

Of course even bigger question. So does this mean that the entire Star Trek series of the past is no longer valid. Because, with no Vulcan.. most of the storyline falls apart.

Of course if that were the case then there may not have been a Nero in the future who wanted to avenge Romulus' destruction, as he would not have had Spock to blame for it. And then the changes in the past could not have happened..

Well it's a flaw in the story in my opinion. You can't change the past without the future changing too.. It does not make sense.. Every Action has an Equal and Opposite Reaction.. That's Science..

Ok.. So, this has been an extremely geeky blog.. No excuses.. I'm a huge Star Trek fan. I was devastated to see Data killed in the Nemisis movie. Seeing him the comic was great. I knew they'd figure out a way to get him back... That's what the protype was there for anyway.. :)

All said and done.. Go see the movie.. It rocks, even with it's flaws...

4 Out of 5 for JJ Abram's STAR TREK.. Way to go.. for a side story in the long running Saga.

I'm Going Home

This is the second time I'm going home from the States..

It's been just 8 months since my last trip.. But it feels like it's been ages..

This flight will be my last as Bachelor.. Here's to a new life with new experiences..

Hope things are better than ever..

:)

Cheers.. (Just a presonal blog..)

Rahul..

About RBlah

Last Updated: Friday June 3rd 2011

Hello, Welcome to my Blog!

If this is your first time here and your wondering where you landed, read on... 
Otherwise, enjoy yourself and please do leave some comments on your way out




Rahul's Blah - My Creative Outlet to the world


What is Rahul's Blah - My blog today is my creative outlet. It's just something that I do that's completely different from my day to day work. I'm a movie buff, a couch potato at times, so blogging about Movies and TV series just made sense.


You will find reviews to  most recent movies or TV series. But If I thought the trailer sucked, be sure that I'm not going to watch or review it. I watch movies that I find interesting and my reviews are my honest opinion about them. On occasion I write about Cricket, if I find something that peaks my interest.


What the Heck are the other categories then? - These other categories in my blog are rarely updated. These were my contemplative moods when I just felt like writing. You might see some strange posts where I tend to ramble, I call these Random Musings. Don't worry though. I don't do too many of those posts anymore. If you find those bad, don't even read the Personal blogs... They were times when I wanted to vent or write about my life and the Blog seemed like a great outlet.


Who Am I? - Well I'm Rahul. I've been a blogger since 2005, since I got out of college and didn't have anything better to do (you can be sure none of my blogs these days sound remotely close to what you will read in my older blogs). I've always loved to write and my Blog has been a great retreat through the years. It's my creative outlet and just a way for me to get my thoughts out there. 


I consider myself a fun loving, easy going guy. I love a good laugh and will do anything to see the next person laugh as well. I crack a few jokes, I act crazy, at the end of it if you have a smile on your face it's worth it. I'm in IT and work as a Technical Architect, but this blog has nothing to do with that side of my life. This is just fun, laughs and a good time. 


Please browse, read some of the reviews, if you like them leave me some comments or drop by again.


My Favorite TV Shows
1. F.R.I.E.N.D.S
2. Any sitcom that can give me a laugh (Two and a half men, Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, Just Shoot Me, How I met your Mother... you name it, I've probably watched a couple of episodes)
3. Battlestar Galactica
4. AVATAR - The Last Air bender
5. Star Trek - Deep Space 9
6. Star Trek - The Next Generation
7. Star Trek - Voyager
8. Stargate Atlantis
9. Stargate SG-1
10. Heroes


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Rahul Murali Venkataraman

Location: Irving, Texas

Home Town: Chennai (Madras), India

Pages: facebook.com/rahulmv

Slumdog Millionaire - Review

I decided to go watch this movie after hearing a few mixed reviews, some said they couldn't watch it, some said it was great. All things said and done, and knowing the theme of the movie, I went anyway.

The movie left me speechless...

Yes, It was good..
Yes, It was dramatic..
Yes, It portrayed a part of India, that we don't talk about.

But, I didn't know what to say.. There are not many movies that leave me this way..

The movie is about this boy Jamal, a slum dweller/beggar/thief in Bombay who goes on KBC and gets all the the way to the end.

The movie, revolves around a police investigation (yes, the normal Indian movie Police interrogation, full with the violence and beatings) which questions how an ill-literate boy from a Mumbai slum knew all the answers to the biggest of Indian quiz shows..

Using this medium, our protagonist takes us through his life, from the slums to the streets, gangs, whore houses and all the way to a call center as a chai-walla.

It shows us some of the harsh facts of life on the street in India, some things which we might conveniently want to ignore.

The movie would have definitely struck a cord with an Indian audience, But for the language. The movie is made in American English, with a few lines of Hindi thrown in for good measure.
What is does is two things though.. It creates a disconnect between the actors and the language, but it opens up the movie to the global audience.

(My Suggestion : Please remake this movie in Hindi, the exact same way.. Am sure it will be just as brilliant)


That's where I actually felt strange though.. This movie watched by people all around the world, some how causes me pain. I don't say what they say is far from the truth. But it's only one side of India... A few minutes showing the rest of the country may have helped alleviate this feeling, but might have taken the impact out of the story.

All in all, I'll say watch at your own risk. There are a few scenes not for the faint of heart. But I'll give it a 4 out of 5

Rahul.

PS : Kudos to the Young actors who played the roles of Jamal Malik(Ayush Khedekar), Lathika(Rubiana Ali) and Salim Malik(Azharuddin Ismail).. They were all brilliant

On The Offside There Is GOD...

Many years ago, Rahul Dravid famously made the statement, "On The Offside, There is GOD, then there is Saurav Ganguly". This statement was reflective of the batsman whose smooth timing on the offside was better bar none. That was a phase of Saurav's career where he wasspoken about in the same breath as Sachin or Lara. Of course their careers have gone in different directions since, Saurav's career has been a colorful one.


I was planning this post ever since the day Saurav Ganguly announced his retirement, but I wanted to wait for his final innings to get a complete picture of the man. His retirement series was as colorful as the rest of his career, it showcased the Saurav of old, but with definite aspects of the man who came back to regain his place in the team and show that he is made from a harder metal than many made him out to be.

What defines this man? What makes him so special to us? Ganguly, Good Or Bad, has always managed to evoke a great deal of emotions from the Indian Fan.

• He was the fluent opening bat who came to the middle with Sachin to create the most explosive opening partnerships of their times. It was a time in Indian cricket when you felt that if these two guys clicked, India would win, but were they to fall, that would be the end of the game, most of the time.
  
• He was a spinners nightmare. Anyone who has seen Saurav in his prime, must have seen him waltz down the track and loft them out of the ground. He did it with such consistency and such grace that it was inevitable that if a spinner bowled when he was at the crease, he was going to get hammered.
• The style of batting did not change from One Dayers to Test matches. He was the graceful and explosive middle order batsman, who brought some difference to a middle order filled with right hand batsman.
• He was a useful military medium bowler who bowled those innocuous slow deliveries that every batsman felt he could whack him out the ground... but, landed up getting themselves out.

This was Saurav of the old, the man who was an integral part of the team in the '90s... But with the dawn of the new millennium the world came to see him in a all new light. This man, took over "arguably" one of the toughest jobs in the Cricketing world or maybe even all of sport. He took over the Captaincy of India. A time when fans were disgusted with the skeletons that were falling out of the closets of their cricketing superstars.

But for the new captain, who some where in his consciousness must have felt like a lamb to slaughter, took up the job and made the team his own. One might even say he took to it like a Duck takes to Water.. (Note : I know it sound ridiculous, and it's one line with two cliches, so forgive the puns. Ridiculous Sentence Intended!)

He took the team to the knockout trophy in Kenya and managed to go all the way to the finals. What Ganguly managed, weather he managed to win or otherwise, was to build a team with attitude, a team that went where no Indian team had gone before, a team that was not scared to tread on tradition and wanted to win at all cost. He infused the team with energy and brought out an aggressive streak that was always evident in his batting.

He took the team all round the world, he beat all comers (at least once). He made sure the tag of Tigers At Home and Bunnies Abroad was buried and the world just spoke of them as Team India. That was perhaps Ganguly's greatest achievement, he turned a bunch of talented individuals into a team. An image to this respect that stays in our mind was the huddle on the cricket ground at the fall of a wicket. They all get together to push one another on.


But, for all the good that was happening in the team, Ganguly's fortune changed. With a change in the team management came Greg Chappell. I guess there can be no talking about Ganguly without referring to Chappell. During the 2003-04 tour of Australia, Ganguly visited Chappell to get tips on improving his batting, that relationship evolved into a partnership that was supposed to take India to the next level, but landed up being a battle of the egos. They both lost that war. But Ganguly was the bigger loser, being stripped of his captaincy and losing place in the side. But in retrospect, that one year in the wilderness toughened him. He was no longer the fluent and hard hitting batsman of old, so he re-designed his game and became a gritty accumulator of runs. The new Ganguly was more consistent, more reliable and so much more calm. It was noticeable that this was not the man who bared this chest in the holiest of holy places in English Cricket .. Lords.

The new Ganguly reached the old heights, that his previous avatar had been touching on a consistent basis and at times he even surpassed them. The registered his first and only Double Century in Test Cricket and also notched up a century in front of his home crowd at the Eden Gardens.

All in all it was a career of 3 parts. One young man making is way in the game and turning heads. A gritty leader who was India's best Captain and the Hero re-invented who came back to reclaim his glory. In his captaincy, Saurav Ganguly had made the team his own, so much so that the team that we see today on the field and some of the guys we look to as our cricketing superstars were groomed by him, they are all His Boys. It was evident in his last test match, when Dhoni handed him the captaincy for the last 3 overs that, it was the place he felt most comfortable. At the top of the tree, as the leader. You could see the smile. The man who took Indian cricket to it's greatest heights only for him to fall to his lowest of lows was back at the top of the mountain and he was leaving the cricketing world, with his head held high, as the best Left Hand Batsman India has ever had, a legend in his own right and as the King of Kolkata and for a brief while, all of India.

Rahul.

Also Read : Writing A Cricket Eulogy

A YouTube Video to Watch - Scab

I saw this You Tube Video on the You Tube Screening Room. Initially thought it was disgusting, but it was one of the most hilarious short movies..

Check it out below...