Sunday, September 29, 2013

Watch it or Buy it: Star Trek Into Darkness


Watch it or Buy it Quickie DVD Review

So I did a bad geek thing and I watched this movie without watching the first one. That doesn't mean I didn't have a Star Trek foundation but most of my days watching this show were of TNG. So even though I didn't have all the background for this movie, I can honestly say this movie is still worth the buy. This movie has its sins but it was a great action ride and an enjoyable story. It has all the appropriate amount of sci-fi tech, explosions, and emotions! The casting is also quite good and by now, everyone knows I have a thing for casting!

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Watch it or Buy it is The Fandomonium's attempt to save you time and money with real life reviews handed to you at the speed of light.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Tuesdays with Tarinae 9/24

Tuesday with Tarinae bringing you this week in geek... 

Surreal Mother Geek 

I learned about this little nugget from listening to the latest episode of Beaucoup Pop. Written by Diana Pressnell and illustrated by Brett Hatfield this book is a self published geek twist to the nursery rhymes that many of us grew up on. For example This Little Piggie...as retold into This Little Cultist and a full out (AMAZING) Cthulhu/Lovecraft twist.

 This book comes with a variety of Easter eggs hidden throughout for children and adults alike. It is also a great way to introduce your little one to the world of geek. On top of all of that Diana's husband is an iDeveloper and has developed an app that goes along with this book and provides reading support for your little independent readers. I just think this is awesome! Check out all the details on their website, The Surreal Mother Geek.

Warcraft Movie News

Deadline.com has reported that Colin Farrell and Paula Patton have been offered casting roles in the new Warcraft movie that is set to start filming in 2014. This is major news for WoWrs who have been waiting for this movie for a long time. There are still over 8 million people who play and we are all really hoping this works out. As a sidenote, WoW Insider had a great guess that Colin Farrell could be Medivh, the mad 'wizard', but I am not sure about Patton. It is worth noting this movie is set in the Warcraft timeline rather than World of Warcraft, and yes, there is a difference.

Diablo III Auction House

More Blizzard news comes to us in way of the announcement that Blizzard will shut down both in-game and real money Auction Houses in Diablo III. They argue that this takes away from gameplay because it should be determined that if you go out and kill things you will get the "epic lootz". I don't know whether this is effected in part by the release of the console version or not but I know there are some who are disappointed about this news. I enjoy in-game auctions but I hate micro-transactions that need me to spend real money.

Disney's Live Action Cinderella
Tip Credit: Kentucky Geek Girl

Disney has announced that it is doing a live action Cinderella. Disney is a princess animation kind of thing. It is rare (ever?) they screw up a Princess telling when it is done in animation. So here is to hoping that all of the newly acquired live action companies (Marvel & Lucas Films) has inspired them to greatness.

Image Credit: Comingsoon.net
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Drop a line and tell me what you found out this week in geek life!

Sunday, September 22, 2013

The Eclectic Geek Podcast: Episode 0

Episode 0: Introductions, Digressions, and Tangents, OH MY!

So Natasha of Kentucky Geek Girl and I got together and we made a podcast. It might be a thing we plan on doing. You should give it a listen! The podcasts will be cross posted to each blog and are hosted on Pod-O-Matic so you can always check it out there!




The Eclectic Geek Podcast for the geek who loves everything!

Sunday, September 15, 2013

The J.K. Rowling Surprise!

A recent surge in circulation of an internet article has resulted in rejoicing followed by immediate heartbreak with that only to be followed by joyful news. The article in question is a Story Carnivores article about J.K. Rowling having confirmed an 8th Harry Potter novel and it starts off with:
Yahoo News and the New York Times today confirmed that J.K. Rowling is writing the eighth Harry Potter novel, and is already 75% done with the manuscript. Details on the storyline are hush hush, but Rowling is said to be revealing more about the upcoming HP novel later this very week in a press conference in Scotland.

The thing that has been the catch point for this is that the article was indeed, posted on April 1. Sorry, no digs for that awesome piece of news. Given the time of year this article made a comeback, I of course fell for it (cue immediate heartbreak) only to realize early on I had been duped.

However, this news was followed rather quickly by an announcement that while J.K. Rowling is not continuing the saga of our favorite teenage wizard, she has decided and committed to writing a Potterverse screenplay, Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them!

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was—according to the in-universe lore—a Hogwarts textbook written by one Newton Scamander, a magizoolist, and published in 1927. Scamander was born in 1897 and was interested in magical beasts from an early age, and that his mother bred hippogriffs. Any flashbacks will likely include the humble horklump, a rather gross bristly mushroom-like creature, which Scamander apparently dissected as a youth. Rowling has also mentioned that the story starts in New York City; that and the date evoke the delicious possibility of some American-style Jazz-age wizardry.

The movie, based on the textbook from Hogwarts, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has had all of the excitement of the past 15 years re-kindled in people young, small, and famous including the cast of the other 8 movies. Evanna Lynch who played Luna Lovegood posted this on Twitter:



It is just thrilling to think we can all get back into the thing that is so magical and such a literary milestone in our lives. These books changed everything for me when I was 13 (I was late to the game). On top of this most exciting news, we also have the new paperback art release for the 15th anniversary! If you need a break from life, just sit back and relax...let yourself enjoy being a Potterhead again!


Sources include: Time Entertainment & Story Carnivores

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Tuesday with Tarinae 9/10

Tuesday with Tarinae bringing you this week in geek...

Netflix for eBooks?

I found this write up of the new program/app called Oyster. This program will provide eBooks for reading just as Netflix supplies movies for a flat monthly rate. This program is backed by several large publishers including HarperCollins and Algonquin. It is also only intended to be an iOS program, sorry android? I can say that while this is awesome, you should still check your local library for downloadable eBooks. Lexington has over 8000 titles to offer.

Upside Down Movie Trailer

Apparently this has been out for a while but I juts came across this while watching the previews for What Maisie Knew. This looks awesomely trippy and from a youtube commenter, "Kirsten Dunst really loves upside down kissing, doesn't she?"


Allegiant Teaser

The conclusion to Veronica Roth's best-selling trilogy, Allegiant (Divergent #3), releases October 22. This teaser was recently provided, check it out and read these books if you haven't!

Image credit: Entertainment Weekly

Releasing last week was an e-Book novella, The Transfer: A Divergent Story!

Coldplay Releases Catching Fire Song


Friday, September 6, 2013

Movie Review: The Mortal Instruments - City of Bones


The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is a movie that has been adapted from the New York Times Bestseller City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. It is a young adult novel/movie that is set in a world of Shadowhunters, demon hunters that have been blessed by the blood of the angel Raziel. This grants them the ability to use runic symbols to boost their power and used angelic blades to slay their demonic foes.

In this first installment we meet Clary Fray (Lily Collins), our heroine. She is a teenage girl who lives a normal life with her mother (Lena Heady) in their small New York apartment. She is living the normal life until she
ends up in the Pandemonium Club on her birthday. There is where she sees a boy (Jamie Campbell Bower), about her age, murder one of the other club goers. Clary's world is unraveling as she realizes she is only one who can see him and after a confrontation she finds that club-goer wasn't even human. This is the key point where life changes for Clary and she realizes she is a Shadowhunter and she is cast into a dangerous world and an even more deadly plot.

The book captures a lot of what this movie failed to provide ultimately living up to the adage that the book is always better than the movie; that doesn't give slight to this still enjoyable movie. The star of this movie was simply Lily Collins. She was a magnificent cast as Clary and captured a lot of the confused, lost, and in love emotions that wash over Clary as she starts out on this journey. Some people don't like Clary as a character but I find that in the City of Bones, she is well rounded and realistic and Collins pulls through a lot of that in her work.

The rest of the casting and characterization of this movie was dismal at times. I had a explicitly difficult time while watching Jamie Campbell Bower portray Jace. There were times when I thought he was
inappropriately clothed for action in his want-to-be skin tight leather that had strange baggy parts or his greasy mop of hair being put off as sex appeal. This was all very distracting to someone I find has good acting skills but lacks the attractive qualities of Jace Wayland.

But that wasn't the only thing that fell flat in the way of people. This movie completely demolished one of the most amazing characters in the entire world Clare has created: Magnus Bane. Godfrey Gao was an attractive choice for our favorite warlock but he didn't bring any depth to this character that exists in every book. Instead his voice was very shallow and his attitude albeit vain and disconnected wasn't Magnus Bane. Magnus has an intriguing story that makes you want to know about him and that didn't come from Gao.

Did I also mention that Kevin Zegers was a little weird and old for the role of Alec? The role of Alec in this movie (unlike the book) was emphasized to be a little more homoerotic than that of a parabatai.

Oh, you don't know what parabatai is? The movie failed at explaining that the bond between Jace and Alec was deeper than that of blood, brother or friend. They underwent a bonding ritual of Shadowhunters that means they see their own life as the life of the other, nothing is more deep and sacred than this bond. But you wouldn't know that from watching this movie; you also wouldn't know much about the world at all really.


The book had a way of explaining this world to Clary and introducing her to things like Serpah blades, steles for runes, downworlders, etc. that the movie did not. The movie just thrust Clary into a world and she seemed to know everything like she had been a part of it for years which left people who hadn't read the book without explanation and with a lot of confusion. You would also be inclined to think that Shadowhunters are a bunch of tattooed bad asses running around invisible but that isn't the case either.

Overall, I find that I am extremely critical of the things this movie failed to provide in ways of information or satisfaction but that doesn't mean I failed to enjoy it. Quite the opposite, I still really enjoyed the film within its own merits. I went in to, yet another, book to movie adaptation with very low expectations. I knew this was a book they could screw up but while they did not hit the nail on the head, they still managed an entertaining movie and a good film.

*Image credits to Shadowiki, TMI Fandom, & TMI Source

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Featured Read: Dateline: Atlantis by Lynn Voedisch

Dateline: Atlantis by Lynn Voedisch

Publisher: The Story Plant (September 10, 2013)
Age Group: Adult
Pages: 285 (e-Book)
ISBN-13: 9781611880885
Genre: Action/Adventure

When you think of what a geek read is and a book summary tells you that this is a female Indiana Jones, you know you have struck gold. While I'm not too much on the Indiana Jones train, I am no stranger to the fandom and am still a fan of the action/adventure clue based tales. Stories about the buried empire are sure to be a thrill ride! Check out this book set to release for Kindle next week!
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DATELINE: ATLANTIS is a contemporary fantasy featuring a female Indiana Jones who dives underwater and accidentally finds what just might be the lost world of Atlantis. After she and her photographer document fabulous pyramids under the Caribbean sea, they return to their newspaper in the Los Angeles area, only to have all their evidence stolen. The sea rolls back and reclaims the ruins, and their photographer is kidnapped. Someone doesn’t want the undersea world found.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Featured Game: Diablo III

September 2013 | Game Feature

Diablo III Console Release
Release Day: September 3

Blizzard's long time running game, Diablo, is releasing its third game for PS3 and XBox this coming Tuesday. This game has been out for computer play since May of 2012 and is expected to have a PS4 release in 2014 as well.

Diablo III is a sequel to Diablo II that was released in 2000. The setup for this game is in Sanctuary some twenty years after the events of Diablo II. After a mysterious star falls from the sky, our hero Deckard Cain has disappeared into the depths of the crater left in the star's wake. You are called to duty at a time when the dead are rising from the star and are sent off to the crater.

This is the setup for the journey that will try and test your character at every turn. I have not made it very far into the story chapters as I have a tendency to die but the journey must go on! Check out this video from the official game guide that explains the story and game play and be sure to game on tomorrow!


Also be sure to check out the Shattered Soulstone podcast for resources and news!