Star Trek Beyond

So, is Star Trek Beyond the Fast and Furious shit show we sci-fi fans all thought it was going to be? Well, a little yes, but mostly no. Surprisingly, the main problems with the film aren't poor actor chemistry or too many stunt scenes (although there are a lot of the latter).

The essential trouble, if you could boil it down, would be the story. Quite honestly, it’s very clumsy bordering on being nonsensical. The main villain, Krall, is essentially the equivalent of a big dude whose shadow is looming over the city in an arcade game’s intro. Even his “plot twist” later is pointless.

Unlike Khan’s character in 1982's Wrath of Khan, Krall has no legitimate beef with the Federation. Khan was marooned by Kirk on Ceti Alpha V, which then became a barren world. There most of Khan’s crew grew sick and died. Krall, on the other hand, is basically Tom Hanks from Cast Away. His revenge is akin to blaming a root for tripping him.

All that being said, Beyond is a true summer blockbuster. Explosions dart the black recesses of space, and photon torpedoes bloom as miniature suns. Hell, even the Beastie Boys have an actual plot inclusion that will sure to be a crowd-pleaser.

But what makes this still Star Trek to me are the characters and their love for one another. A moment between Spock and Bones on their unspoken friendship really got to me. As Zachary Quinto’s Spock mourns his predecessor’s passing, the audience feels a sense of reverence. Just one question: How many times are they going to blow up the Enterprise?

An Anime Dark Age

There's always been slow years in any entertainment medium, or even in a historical context. That’s just life. However, with the topic of anime for the last ten years or so, I have to say that quality products are down to a minimal trickle. The age of Akira has passed.

Like any complex phenomenon, multiple factors are at work. But first I’d simply like to highlight what anime used to mean for me. I was born in 1989, so while much groundbreaking anime had already come out, it wasn’t really until 1998 or thereabouts that I actually recognized what anime was. You see, collectively we as a culture had been watching anime since the 60’s with Astro Boy and the 70’s with Speed Racer… but we all just thought that they were drawn weird. Even Voltron in the 80’s suffered with this assumption.

By 1998 Pokemon finally came out, and with that came the licensed anime. Pokemon, as ridiculously simplistic as it was, was the first show to have all the hallmarks of anime on American television. Then the floodgates opened on Cartoon Network. Ronin Warriors, Outlaw Star, Gundam Wing, Rurouni Kenshin, Yu Yu Hakusho, and of course, Dragon Ball Z.

Anime back then had humor, sure. But if you look at the overall arc of its style from the 80’s to the end of the 90’s it mostly had one thing in common: being badass and having an unapologetic macho streak. Being the non-historian that I am, I suppose I’d place the beginning and end to awesome anime as a general trend from 1984’s Fist of the North Star to 1998’s Cowboy Bebop.

Then you get into the stuff they never dared show on Toonami, which ahead of its time as it was, still was a children’s programming block. Radical content like Akira, Ninja Scroll, Ghost in the Shell, Vampire Hunter D, Demon City Shinjuku, and Wicked City blew away my teenage mind when I brought them home from Blockbuster. It wasn’t just the bloodshed, it was the manic yet masterful way these titles were drawn. Not with fancy computer algorithms either, but hand-drawn frame by frame just like the great Disney animators of old.

Now with big exceptions like the Hellsing Ultimate reboot and Attack on Titan, I really think mainstream anime has lost its way. No longer can I show a bunch of friends a new anime and expect their jaws to hit the floor… instead, I can expect a shrug. Which is fitting, because that’s what Japan itself seems to be doing. Katsuhiro Otomo and Satoshi Kon have been replaced with Ouran High School Host Club and Lucky Star. Unfortunately, this is not an aberration, it’s the status-quo now.

I’m not that smart, but if I could, I’d give Japan some advice. That being, stop overworking your animators like glorified sweatshops and listen to their creative input for once. Stop producing garbage for the lowest common audience. Yes, stupid high school comedies might be good for business on paper, but it’s a dead end. Go back to your roots. Don’t just make everything CGI. Tell a story worth telling. Finally, be badass again.

The public death of American Christianity

Words have meanings. That’s as simple a fact as admitting that some things are so and some things are not so. In 2016, however, the definition of a “Christian” has officially become nonsensical and irrelevant in the United States. Obviously, there are always gray areas… probably hundreds of them. Yet with the inevitable rise of Donald Trump as the Republican nominee, all rules have been broken.

Quite honestly, the religious right or “moral majority” has always been hypocritical to some degree. This is due to the founder of the movement, Jerry Falwell, being largely unaware of basic theology in a way that other evangelicals like C.S. Lewis and Billy Graham never were. These cracks were evident from the 80’s. Civil rights for minorities was shunned, wars were lobbied for, and the rich were made richer and the poor were made poorer. When you have an ignorant teacher, you create ignorant students.

This long assembly line of pious stupidity helped create the America we are held witness to today. The tragedy of it all is that conservatism, and yes, even the GOP have a proud history. While the two parties did fracture ideologically in 1964, it is a fundamental truth that the “man who freed the slaves,” Abraham Lincoln, was indeed a Republican. How far they’ve gone into the Wilderness!

Even men like Ronald Reagan, someone I thought was dramatically overrated, kept the Oval Office dignified. When Reagan called the Soviet Union an “evil empire,” it wasn’t just an insult. He was protecting something noble. He talked about us being a “City on a Hill,” a Biblical phrase his Christian audience well understood.

If Donald Trump had been president then, I honestly have little doubt that he would have engaged in MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction). And, quite frankly, I wouldn’t have blamed him for it. That’s because Donald Trump isn’t trying to protect something near and dear to him. He is trying to win… by scorched earth if he has to. When Trump says that we as Americans have to collectively lower our moral standards and torture to fight enemies like ISIS, he is saying he doesn’t care if he fights evil with evil.

The bottom line is that Donald Trump is not a Christian. While we are rightly admonished in the Gospel for talking about a speck of sawdust in a brother’s eye while we are stricken with a plank in our own, we are also called to speak out against false prophets. If Donald Trump is just a “politically incorrect” truth-teller, then I’m Donald Duck. He wants pure power.

When Trump says he’s never asked God for forgiveness, when he calls Mexicans “killers and rapists,” when he refuses to denounce the Ku Klux Klan, when he mocks our veterans, when he says that we need to ban all Muslims from America and even create a “database” to identify them, and when he says he wants to actually target the wives and children of terrorists, I have a Biblical duty to call out this monster.

I will never be a conservative. I am a liberal and proud of it. That being said, if you voted for Reagan or look up to Lincoln, and call Jesus as your savior, you cannot vote for Donald Trump. It’s better for you and Christendom that the Republican Party lose the White House than lose its soul instead.

“Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” -Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

“Christian love draws no distinction between one enemy and another, except that the more bitter our enemy’s hatred, the greater his need of love. Be his enmity political or religious, he has nothing to expect from a follower of Jesus but unqualified love. In such love there is no inner discord between private person and official capacity. In both we are disciples of Christ, or we are not Christians at all.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

Gay Marriage is Biblical

Progress is a good thing. As a black man, would you rather be enslaved in 1860’s antebellum South, or live free in the modern day Union? Would a woman rather subsist without the right to vote in 1910, or flourish in today’s America? These are easy questions for a reason. That reason, put simply, is that humans can improve themselves. We can become nobler.

The controversy of gay marriage never bothered me as an atheist. From that perspective, as long as there wasn’t a victim, it was okay. However, since becoming a struggling Christian, morality has become stickier. The issue of holiness and purity has thrown a wrench into my thinking. For a while, I was actually against it, maintaining that gays could only be Christians if they didn’t act on their feelings. Then I started actually thinking.

Similar to interracial marriage in the 1960’s, gay marriage has been called “unnatural” and “ungodly” by conservatives. I have seen compilations of racist and anti-gay quotes on websites with their sources and dates taken out… and you literally can’t tell them apart. They’re the same argument, just from a different era.

Are there verses in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, that speak against same-sex attraction? Yes, I admit this. Perhaps the most quoted is Leviticus 18:22 “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” Yet Leviticus also instructs us to stone our children for disobedience. We don’t follow this stipulation anymore.

Beyond that, what is the core of the Gospel? It is Jesus and His love for us all. Constantly throughout the New Testament, Jesus contradicts the rule obsessed, outwardly focused Pharisees. When a woman is brought to Jesus for adultery to be stoned, Jesus forgives her sins instead, a revolutionary act. Is it possible that the Church’s teachings on gay marriage are a little too similar with the Southern Baptist Convention’s support for slavery and racial segregation?

But what really changed my mind and cemented my beliefs about gay rights was this: I knew gay people. Once you know someone personally, it’s harder to hate them, or deny them rights. I’ve always been a liberal in the truest sense of the word; I believe in liberty for everyone. To me, Matthew 7:16 is proof alone that gay marriage is moral and even biblical. “You will know them by their fruits.”

Think about it. By 2015 haven’t we seen tender and loving same-sex couples? Haven’t we seen children being adopted by gays and being cherished? Haven’t we seen gays bravely serve in the military? I’ve seen it. The truth is that if gay marriage was evil, you would know it. I think love is love, and I believe God agrees.

Castlevania: Genesis versus SNES

Whereas Capcom only released a small handful of games for Sega’s 16 bit console, the Sega Genesis, Konami was much more gracious with their licenses. Besides Street Fighter 2, Capcom really only gave Strider and Ghouls n Ghosts to Sega, and that was in the company’s early years. Konami, on the other hand, essentially released their whole library on the Genesis. Where to even start? Heck, I’ll just list em’ all. Contra Hard Corps, Castlevania Bloodlines, Tiny Toon Adventures, Sunset Riders, Snatcher, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Rocket Knight Adventures, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist, Lethal Enforcers, and Sparkster. What a pixel-perfect treasure trove!

As great as the list above is, believe it or not there were even more Konami games released on Nintendo’s 16 bit console, the SNES. So, what I’ve decided to do here is simple: I’m going to compare just one franchise from both systems and see how they stack up against each other. This isn’t to prove which console is better (if you read this blog at all, you’ll know my favorite console is the Super Nintendo), it’s just for fun.

1A: Super Castlevania 4

Ah, Castlevania. What a legendary series. It’s the ultimate in 2D horror. Coming from the 8-bit NES, Castlevania 4 looks positively stunning… especially considering this was released very soon after the SNES’ launch in 1991. Gamers were right to drop their jaws at the power of Nintendo’s 16 bits. I liked this game so much that I even put it in my top 50 games of all time.

There’s just one problem: It might not be as great as I remembered it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad game or anything; it’s just slightly underwhelming compared to Sega’s Castlevania Bloodlines. My main problem with the game is its atmosphere. It’s just not scary or really even that creative.

You see, it’s almost as if the game designers were told by Nintendo to not make the game “too scary.” I mean, the game’s bad guys are just so boring. They include empty coffins and tables… yes, tables. Even the game’s bosses make me drowsy: Mummies and a dancing ghost couple… yawn.

Also, while I’m at it let me complain about the sprites themselves. They look ugly. I know it’s supposed to be gothic, but the sprites are just too large and gangly for their own good. Simon Belmont looks like a basketball player who crapped his shorts when he walks.

Finally, we get to the slowdowns. Yes, I know this was an early SNES game, and that Konami hadn’t quite figured out the system yet, but it’s still an issue. There are whole rooms that don’t just stutter, but move in a constant haze of slowness. The “Mode 7 room” as I call it, with the room looking like a rotating tube, is impressive, but it practically brings the game to a halt. The same slowdown happens every time you attack a mud man in the caves.

I know it sounds like I’m being hard on the game, but no Castlevania on the NES had these problems. I still love Castlevania 4 though, I would just have to say it’s no longer my favorite Castlevania.

1B: Castlevania Bloodlines

What a step up from Castlevania 4! Yeah, Bloodlines (or Castlevania: The New Generation for you Brits) is on technically inferior hardware, but it doesn’t matter. The colors pop off the screen and you’ll witness the Genesis push itself to the limit without any slowdown whatsoever.

For starters, I just like the graphical aesthetic to the game. The colors aren’t grimy like they are in the SNES version, they just look more vibrant to me. While the sprites may be slightly smaller, they don’t look awkward like Castlevania 4. Also a huge improvement is the creativity of the enemies themselves. They look positively nightmarish. From a massive hellhound whose howl breaks apart glass that you must dodge, to a seemingly beautiful princess that transforms into a giant disgusting moth, Bloodlines just has more creativity.

One of my favorite parts in the game has to be the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Here, you’ll fight a demonic Gargoyle boss as the tower beneath your feet rotates 360 degrees. Bloodlines is full of cool touches like these. Like when you enter stage 6’s Castle Proserpina and you have to navigate where you’re going through a split mirror effect.

Quite honestly, Bloodlines is just more daring than Nintendo’s effort. For the first time in Castlevania history, you’ll see copious amounts of blood as you behead harpies or spill the guts of zombies with your whip or lance. Yes, I said whip OR lance. In Bloodlines, you can actually pick one of either two characters and each has slightly different branching paths and weapons.

All in all, I really underestimated Bloodlines on the Genesis. It’s more than just a solid Castlevania translation, it might be my favorite in the series.

A godless poem

The unbalanced neurons send a shockwave across my being,
I feel every jagged bit of thought.
A spirit drowning in a great gulf.
Another day.

A strong start, but a weak finish.
A good deed, but a wasted hour.
Cut off from the divine source.
I can’t stand it, I want to jump out of my skin!

Where is God?
Busy pleasing corporate men and their unimpressive genitals with Bush.
Busy playing golf with Obama as drones bomb desert flowers.
Too busy to even exist.

I’d break out of that bleeding void, tear the ribbons of this tapestry with my bare hands,
If it meant I could see His face.
A glimpse, just a glimpse and, like Bonhoeffer, I’d crawl naked up to the gallows.
Come, Lord Jesus!

Ikiru

“What have you been up to?” That’s the question I dread most when I bump into an old acquaintance. Truthfully, for the last seven years, I’ve accomplished little. A few part time jobs here, and a few classes there. Certainly not enough to impress someone that I didn’t want to see in the first place. As I make up an excuse to end the conversation, I’m left wondering if I’ve just been spinning my wheels.

Luckily for me, I’m not the only one that’s had this problem. In Akira Kurosawa’s drama, Ikiru, a bureaucrat by the name of Kanji Watanabe has spent 30 years of his life as a glorified rubber stamp. A rubber stamp for giving citizens the run-around, no less. It isn’t until he gets an x-ray and discovers he’s stricken with terminal stomach cancer that he begins to change.

Of course, not all change is good. At first, Watanabe tries to shake up his monotonous past by getting drunk and flirting with prostitutes in the night. Here, he’s a stumbling and lost man. It isn’t until providence leads him to talk with an energetic young toymaker that he’s inspired to make a real difference in life.

For his six months left on Earth, Watanabe fights government waste and corruption, and even stands up to a gang, to have a park built for children. Using all his reserves of strength, he succeeds, and finally dies at peace on a swingset. As an aside, Ikiru, produced all the way back in 1952, has sensational acting and an eye for the subtle. When Watanabe started tearfully singing “Gondola no Uta” I nearly cried myself.

Ikiru and Watanabe’s life’s message is this: It’s not too late to change. What a Christian message! Look at Peter, who denied Jesus three times, yet became the rock of the church. Or look at the thief on the cross. He didn’t even have half a year, at the last possible minute he was redeemed.

Ikiru also shows the feebleness of the institutions that are supposed to protect us. The film shows us clearly how politics is not our salvation. To put it another way… the people you elect don’t give a damn about you. Bob McDonnell and John Edwards are just the guys that got caught.

Still, what I come back to is this: Watanabe is us. Every one of us. We are all clocks ticking away. Not all work is equal. For many toil in a haze, barely alive. We’re not dead yet. Let us live and love one another.