I strongly disagree.
HALO is the premier sci-fi franchise of this generation - and that can be backed up quite simply by looking at the vast number of expanded-universe materiel available to be consumed.
Six - soon to be seven - games.
Seven well written novels that are completely canon with the rest of the materials - and only one of them is a novelization of one of the games... the rest being written by all-star authors like Eric Nylund, Greg Bear, and Karen Traviss.
Ongoing special comic miniseries coming out of Marvel's presses at fairly regular intervals.
The Halo's universe is tightly controlled - which is far what you can say for any Star Trek or Star Wars novels who's authors are allowed free reign as long as they spell Spock or Vader correctly.
While games like Mass Effect try to blow your mind with crazier and crazier aliens and powers and tech, Halo stays grounded in a reality we can appreciate - just a reality with jihadist aliens that want to erase humanity.
OMG! A tabloid ***lied*** to us all?
I'm crying silent tears of bewilderment... I really am.
There's no reason a new STAR TREK show couldn't work - as long as the studio doesn't strand it on the CW, surrounded by the drivel that 'network' puts on... which is what was wrong with the last two TREK series: not enough eye-balls to warrant the huge expenditures required.
VOYAGER was on UPN, followed by ENTERPRISE in the same place... on a 4th tier network, instead of syndication like TNG and DS9.
I know syndicated drama has fallen far out of favor, but it's the best way to get your product in front of the most people without a major network taking a risk on it.
Fuller is a cool cat, so I'm glad he has ideas... and while I appreciate Singer's fandom of TREK, he's gone a bit wonky - what with his persistence on raping the not-yet-cold remains of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA after Ron Moore's (past TREK honcho, BTW) successful run on it.
Spartans aren't really people? Bloody hell... if you're gonna try and take a dump on a billion-dollar franchise, at least try to learn something about it.
Inside each MJOLNIR armor is a living, breathing human being who has had some surgical enhancements - ceramic strengthening of their skeletal system to withstand the stresses of wearing a tonne of armor plate that can respond faster than the synaptic processes of normal people... neural augmentation to speed up reflexes during combat... genetic modification to reduce the body's stress and shock responses... etc.
Regardless of such radical procedures, each Spartan II soldier is still 100% human and not a cyborg or any other such construct.
If you suck at the game, that's fine... but please don't malign a superior fiction purely due to your lack of understanding.
The Halo expanded universe is the modern Star Trek or Star Wars - no new SF fiction in the past decade has built such a vibrant, detailed, structured universe.
You mentioned Fallout as an example in your first response... but what does Fallout have outside of the video games? Nothing... it can't support fiction outside of the game - no novels, no comics, no videos, no toys (that I'm aware of).
I would suggest to you that you pick up a copy of the Halo novel "Fall Of Reach" - either in paper form or download (free or otherwise) and then tell us that Halo is 'bleh'... and no, it's not a novelization of the Halo: Reach game.
Obviously, you haven't checked out the expanded Halo universe through all the media I listed above - people like you who say it's 'meh' are the ones who have only played one game, or who've not even finished a full campaign.
The Halo novels are some of the best/solid franchise SF out there, and are more solidly controlled than Star Trek or Star Wars as each story is thoroughly cross-checked against all other media by 343 Industries - which means everything is absolute canon... unlike Star Wars/Trek novels where you can pretty much make up anything you want as long as you get the primary characters right.
As for Iron Man, that can't be really considered a stable comparison because the suit gets different abilities whenever a writer needs something cool... and then all of that gets retconned once a year or so - so the abilities of Tony's armor aren't squarely defined.
Did someone say power armor?
Why does everyone use Iron Man as the go-to example of power armor when concepts like MJOLNIR from the Halo series (games, comics, novels, videos, toys) or Heinlein's original powersuits from his novel Starship Troopers is more fleshed out?
As for UAV technology... well, let's hope the Pentagon invests in an encrypted command/control system for those going forward - so there's no more embarrassing Iranian hijacking of million dollar intelligence assets.
Short of the Covenant's 'steered' plasma technology, this is the best thing to give a Spartan :)
Other awesome sauce: Madsen drives Steve McQueen's Mustang from BULLITT.
It's a nice stylistic touch from J.J. - who seems to love his classic cars e.g. the Corvette Stingray in his TREK reboot.
***drool***
Primo CGI in 4K resolution :)
Before you nullify gravity... one must determine if gravity is a particle or a wave - and science is nowhere near that, I'm afraid.
MAD from above-water ASW patrols is a decent counter measure, yes.
However, the captain of the submarine attached to the carrier battlegroup would really rather not go around actively pinging the aquatic environment - mainly because that's as good as saying "Here I am! Shoot me! I really don't mind!"
Silence is king in sub warfare - where battles can be lost by a crewman farting too loud.
Normally, I have zero respect for Russian military crapware - but the Kilos are the world's quietest subs, and therefor *are* a super weapon when employed correctly... and why we should really be worried about states like China and Iran possessing them.
And... you're wrong about needing a nuke to kill a carrier.
U.S. aircraft carriers are the #1 capital ships in the world - engineered to be VERY hard to sink... so the number of conventional torpedoes you'd need to fire at one and the number of different vectors you'd need to shoot from make a conventional explosive torpedo attack a losing proposition when you consider that ASW forces will take you out before you can get off enough ordinance.
But... sneak up slowly in a Kilo and whack a carrier with a nuke?
Adiós, muchachos (including a great deal of the carrier support group - destroyers, frigates, tenders).
Ah... but the Soviets weren't as aggressive as the Chinese are.
In the good old days of the Cold War, the Soviets were always dependable because they did what was in their best interest, but eventually they realized that their system couldn't be upheld.
The Chinese are very shrewd and calculating - the smart kind of crazy, if that can be used.
Maintaining their hard-on for taking back Taiwan while also building up navy assets in an attempt to dominate waters from India in the west to Australia in the south and Japan in the north - that's not the action of a country looking out for it's own best interests... that's the profile of a nation looking to grab territory.
Oh, and those Kilos you so easily dismissed?
Go over to Janes or any other defense-related site and you'll see that the current-gen Kilo worries a lot of people, including long-view/veteran commanders.
The latest anechoic coatings combined with the absolute silence of battery power makes the sub virtually indiscernible from the surrounding sea water if the Kilo is making less than 15 knots.
A correction: the Chinese navy possesses 12 Russian-built Kilo class submarines which are as silent as shadows - which are very worrying to the U.S. Navy as once they're on battery power (at least the 10 next-gen models), they're virtually undetectable to passive sonar.
These Kilo subs will be what gives the U.S. a moment of pause if China decides to take Taiwan by force - as a Kilo is capable of taking out a carrier with a nuclear torpedo.
Might I suggest you take some anger management classes?
Shane is psychotic, disrespectful, and answerable unto only himself - he has zero interest in the greater good... only what's good for him.
How can you idolize someone like that?
A neanderthal with a shaved head that beats his chest and doesn't give a shit about anyone?
1) Doesn't give a shit about Hershel and his family and his property
2) Doesn't give a shit about Lorri's feelings about him and will try to hit her over the head with a club and rape her whenever he feels like it
3) Doesn't give a shit that he's psychotic - living in total denial
Rick is the one who's making the hard choices... trying to balance his family's needs with the needs of the group and what Herschel wants for his own family.
Those are the truly hard decisions: it doesn't take any brains to pick up a gun and shoot walkers while yelling out every though that crosses your twisted mind.
That people cheer for Shane makes me worry for humanity - you're a manifestation of every jackass that talks smack in forum articles... the type that say the moon landings were fake and get pissy when offered proof.
Shane is psychotic, disrespectful, and answerable unto only himself - he has zero interest in the greater good... only what's good for him.
How can you idolize someone like that?
A neanderthal with a shaved head that beats his chest and doesn't give a shit about anyone?
1) Doesn't give a shit about Hershel and his family and his property
2) Doesn't give a shit about Lorri's feelings about him and will try to hit her over the head with a club and rape her whenever he feels like it
3) Doesn't give a shit that he's psychotic - living in total denial
Rick is the one who's making the hard choices... trying to balance his family's needs with the needs of the group and what Herschel wants for his own family.
Those are the truly hard decisions: it doesn't take any brains to pick up a gun and shoot walkers while yelling out every though that crosses your twisted mind.
That people cheer for Shane makes me worry for humanity - you're a manifestation of every jackass that talks smack in forum articles... the type that say the moon landings were fake and get pissy when offered proof.
The laser is powerful enough to cause eye damage to Mars' native UFO pilots, and thusly NASA will rack up some pretty hefty fines from the Martian Air Traffic Safety Board.
What you really need to worry about is the Al Qaeda plan to steal Curiosity's plutonium core so they can build nukes (and just because they can send people to Mars ahead of Curiosity doesn't mean they're sophisticated enough to make their own damn plutonium).
What you really need to worry about is the Al Qaeda plan to steal Curiosity's plutonium core so they can build nukes (and just because they can send people to Mars ahead of Curiosity doesn't mean they're sophisticated enough to make their own damn plutonium).
Now, let's all hope that both the builders and the controllers at JPL both used metric in all the calculations - instead of one side using metric, and the other using Imperial (U.S. standard i.e. inches/feet/miles).
Wouldn't want a Mars Climate Orbiter-style failure for this wee beastie, now would we?
Wouldn't want a Mars Climate Orbiter-style failure for this wee beastie, now would we?
Yes... we DO need a Doctor Who movie.
Something big budget and epic in scope - in essence, what Doctor Who has never been, and what's kept aficionados of quality science fiction from enjoying anything to do with the good doctor.
In it's current and past iterations, the special effects have been laughable (beyond any measure of good cheese)... the stories thin... and the marketing horrendous.
Yes... my last paragraph is bound to piss off Who fans - but it is what it is.
I finally thought I could get into the Whoverse this past summer with the relaunch of Torchwood that had some American-size budgeting attached - but the story writing was so hackneyed and one dimensional that I gave up half-way through.
Russel T. Davies should be let nowhere near this movie... even so much as getting a court order barring him from getting within one mile of the production facilities/offices.
I'm not opposed to the BBC having influence as they can turn out solid product: OUTCASTS was a brilliant show that was victim in scheduling screwups.
Even I - someone who's opposed to the Whoverse to date - can see the potential for a successful movie franchise if it's taken seriously... if the material is given the kind of heft that can at least deserve to be spoken in the same sentence as Star Trek.
Make no mistake: that's not the case now.
Doctor Who material over the past 30ish years can't even touch the 60's Trek material, let alone later iterations.
A Doctor Who with lavish effects, solid story, and acting with gravitas?
Yes, please.
Something big budget and epic in scope - in essence, what Doctor Who has never been, and what's kept aficionados of quality science fiction from enjoying anything to do with the good doctor.
In it's current and past iterations, the special effects have been laughable (beyond any measure of good cheese)... the stories thin... and the marketing horrendous.
Yes... my last paragraph is bound to piss off Who fans - but it is what it is.
I finally thought I could get into the Whoverse this past summer with the relaunch of Torchwood that had some American-size budgeting attached - but the story writing was so hackneyed and one dimensional that I gave up half-way through.
Russel T. Davies should be let nowhere near this movie... even so much as getting a court order barring him from getting within one mile of the production facilities/offices.
I'm not opposed to the BBC having influence as they can turn out solid product: OUTCASTS was a brilliant show that was victim in scheduling screwups.
Even I - someone who's opposed to the Whoverse to date - can see the potential for a successful movie franchise if it's taken seriously... if the material is given the kind of heft that can at least deserve to be spoken in the same sentence as Star Trek.
Make no mistake: that's not the case now.
Doctor Who material over the past 30ish years can't even touch the 60's Trek material, let alone later iterations.
A Doctor Who with lavish effects, solid story, and acting with gravitas?
Yes, please.
Yes... we DO need a Doctor Who movie.
Something big budget and epic in scope - in essence, what Doctor Who has never been, and what's kept aficionados of quality science fiction from enjoying anything to do with the good doctor.
In it's current and past iterations, the special effects have been laughable (beyond any measure of good cheese)... the stories thin... and the marketing horrendous.
Yes... my last paragraph is bound to piss off Who fans - but it is what it is.
I finally thought I could get into the Whoverse this past summer with the relaunch of Torchwood that had some American-size budgeting attached - but the story writing was so hackneyed and one dimensional that I gave up half-way through.
Russel T. Davies should be let nowhere near this movie... even so much as getting a court order barring him from getting within one mile of the production facilities/offices.
I'm not opposed to the BBC having influence as they can turn out solid product: OUTCASTS was a brilliant show that was victim in scheduling screwups.
Even I - someone who's opposed to the Whoverse to date - can see the potential for a successful movie franchise if it's taken seriously... if the material is given the kind of heft that can at least deserve to be spoken in the same sentence as Star Trek.
Make no mistake: that's not the case now.
Doctor Who material over the past 30ish years can't even touch the 60's Trek material, let alone later iterations.
A Doctor Who with lavish effects, solid story, and acting with gravitas?
Yes, please.
Something big budget and epic in scope - in essence, what Doctor Who has never been, and what's kept aficionados of quality science fiction from enjoying anything to do with the good doctor.
In it's current and past iterations, the special effects have been laughable (beyond any measure of good cheese)... the stories thin... and the marketing horrendous.
Yes... my last paragraph is bound to piss off Who fans - but it is what it is.
I finally thought I could get into the Whoverse this past summer with the relaunch of Torchwood that had some American-size budgeting attached - but the story writing was so hackneyed and one dimensional that I gave up half-way through.
Russel T. Davies should be let nowhere near this movie... even so much as getting a court order barring him from getting within one mile of the production facilities/offices.
I'm not opposed to the BBC having influence as they can turn out solid product: OUTCASTS was a brilliant show that was victim in scheduling screwups.
Even I - someone who's opposed to the Whoverse to date - can see the potential for a successful movie franchise if it's taken seriously... if the material is given the kind of heft that can at least deserve to be spoken in the same sentence as Star Trek.
Make no mistake: that's not the case now.
Doctor Who material over the past 30ish years can't even touch the 60's Trek material, let alone later iterations.
A Doctor Who with lavish effects, solid story, and acting with gravitas?
Yes, please.
Can I start selling real estate on it yet?
I'd really like to get ahead of the people trading 'homesteads' on the Moon.
"Hot springs, pouring mineral-laden water into the sea and warm water vapor into the atmosphere." See? Brochures practically write themselves!
I'd really like to get ahead of the people trading 'homesteads' on the Moon.
"Hot springs, pouring mineral-laden water into the sea and warm water vapor into the atmosphere." See? Brochures practically write themselves!
