Picks Of The Month May 2013

Welcome to another edition of my entertainment picks of the month! Be sure to check these items out to keep yourself entertained in June.

Movies:

Chernobyl Diaries is the tale of a group of globe trotting youngsters on vacation who eventually agree to participate in an "extreme tour" of the abandoned residential areas left behind from the tragic Chernobyl disaster. Things get a little sketchy when they encounter a military road block along their designated tour route and decide to take an alternate, unauthorized path into the area.

From there we're treated to a tour of the abandoned residential areas and even a little history on the event itself. Things take a horrible turn for the worst when the tour vehicle (not surprisingly) fails to start! Now forced to spend the night in the ghostly abandoned residential district, this thrill tour gets seriously extreme.

I don't want to say anymore about the plot due to spoilers, but I have to say the events are pretty predictable after that. Despite my ability to predict the film at every turn, I did have fun with it. It has a great pace, getting to the point quickly and not holding back on the action after that. I recommend the film for a quick Saturday night scare or your warm up for a horror marathon.

Star Trek Into Darkness picks up some time after the original series reboot film, dropping you head first into the Enterprise's latest mission of exploring a strange new world, setting the film's action packed tone early on. From there the Enterprise is summoned back to Earth to deal with a threat from within their own ranks that threatens the fate of humanity and our other neighboring races.

I'm a big Star Trek fan, but I wouldn't call myself a purist. The movie lacks any sort of moral or political thoughtfulness that the series is so well known for. There's also a lack of nerdy science fiction theory. That being said, if you can put these things aside to enjoy an action flick set in the Star Trek universe then I have no doubt you'll enjoy the film as well. The visuals are really stunning and the actors did an excellent job with their roles. While it was a an exciting play on an old villain in this new reboot universe, I hope the next film delivers something more thought provoking.





Television:

The kids and I love The Aquabats Super Show! The show follows the misadventures of the famous rock band and crime fighting super hero group The Aquabats as they battle everything from mutants, mad scientists, aliens, paranormal entities, and everything in between. I love the costume designs, especially with the monsters as well as their over the top special effects. This show is strange and hilarious. They also do some awesome music too! They're the best band in the world you know. I highly recommend it if you have a weird sense of humor, children to watch it with, or are generally an awesome person overflowing with awesomeness.

Star Trek Continues may have its home online, but it feels so darn close to a continuation of the original Star Trek series that it fits right in to my television category. Their premier episode "Pilgrim of Eternity" is a follow up to the episode of the original series "Who Mourns for Adonais" where the crew of the Enterprise encounters and is held captive by the Greek god Apollo, played both then and again by Michael Forest. In the new episode, Apollo appears to have aged considerably in the year or so since their original encounter. He now seeks the help of the Enterprise in finding a planet to spend the rest of his now mortal days amongst other mortals. Kirk is of course hesitant and distrusts Apollo, rightfully so considering the events of their original encounter. Again, I hate spoilers, so you'll have to watch the episode yourself to see how things play out.

Their sets and cosumes are so spot on that it honestly feels a little odd not seeing Shattener, Nimoy and crew on the screen, but while the voices and faces may be different you can tell the actors worked hard to emulate the manerisms of each character as close as possible.

Right now they have only produced a single episode but more are in the works. For more information on their project you can follow them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/StarTrekContinues and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/TrekContinues

Handheld games:

I spent most of my 3DS time last month scratching my classic Sonic the Hedgehog itch with Sonic Classic Collection, released for the original Nintendo DS. This is currently the best source for playing nearly perfect versions of the classic Genesis titles on the go. Why nearly you say? You can find out in a few days when I post my full review of the game here.








Console games:

I've been all over the place this month, dabbling in a bit of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, Mass Effect 1 &2, and a bit of Soul Calibur V. I'm sure there are several others I'm forgetting to mention, but I plan to put together a review of some of them this month so stay tuned for that.

That's it for May. Thanks for stopping by and may the rest of this month be more entertaining than the last!