True Blood: Season 4 Premiere

I'll say it right off the bat- I love this show. It's because of its no holds barred attitude. When you tune in every week, you really have no idea what they're going to throw at you. All you know is it's going to be a fun ride. This season appears to be no different, so I wanted to go over some of the twists from last night's episode. Spoilers ahead.

Fairy Land
At the end of last season, Sookie went off with her cousin Claudine to Fairy Land. It looks great when she gets there, but it takes her all of 5 seconds to figure out something is whack in Fairy Town. She manages to escape with her grandfather, who thinks he's only been there a week. It's really been 20 years. There's these glowing fruit things, and if you eat them, you're stuck. Sookie didn't, so she's fine, but Grandpa did. When they get home, he ages 20 years in a few minutes. Bummer. The real question is- how long has Sookie been gone, since Fairy Time is different than Human Time? The answer is a little over a year. Everyone in Bon Temps thinks she died at the hands of a Vamp (I.E. Bill). Jason (who's a cop now!) sold her house to a mysterious realtor company. What else has changed? This was my favorite development from the episode.

Bill's New Job
Bill has been busy during Sookie's absence. He's living in a fancy house now. Eric even listens to him at one point, which threw up a major red flag. At the end of the episode, he's addressed as "Your Majesty". We didn't see Queen Sophie Ann all episode, so the best guess is that she died during her duel with Bill at the end of last season. This is a major departure from the books. I figured they'd do something with Bill, because he kind of becomes a minor character from here out. I'm interested to see where this goes. No doubt Eric is planning a mutiny.

Tara's a lesbian now
Tara has been living in New Orleans for the year. She's a cage fighter and dating another female cage fighter. Everyone seems on the internet seems to be freaking out about this. I totally called it right away. Is anyone really surprised? Good for her, I say. I wonder how she'll fit into the story this season if she's this removed from it.

Merlotte's
It turns out Sam shot Tommy in the leg. Tommy has been living with Hoyt's crazy mom and appears to have changed his ways. Say what? How'd that happen? Sam has joined a group of Shifters and appears to be enjoying himself. Hmm. I'm guessing this doesn't go well.

Jason
Jason is a cop now. Weird. Andy is a V addict. He tries shaking down Lafayette for some, but Lafayette says he's clean. Jason is also still taking care of Hot Shot. No word on where Crystal is. She also shows up in the books later, so I bet she'll be back. While there, Jason gets clubbed over the head and locked in a refrigerator. It looks like he's getting the storyline from the book.

The Witches
Jesus has Lafayette join a covet of witches. It's headed up by Fiona Shaw (Aunt Petunia from the Harry Potter movies). She appears to be different than how she is in the book, but give her time. On Lafayette's first visit, she re-animates a dead bird and seems really happy about it. I bet there's plenty of crazy to come.

Hoyt/Jessica
Hoyt and Jessica are still playing house, despite Hoyt's mother repeatedly trying to kill Jessica. Jessica appears to be restless. In one of my favorite scenes of the episode, Pam says that it's because Jessica's a hunter and can't be caged. Sooner or later, she's going to have to acknowledge that. This is one of the main themes of the show, that vamps can't really fight their true nature. No matter how much they lie to themselves.

The end
Eric can freely enter Sookie's house now. Turns out he owns the real-estate company that bought the house, so he no longer needs an invite. He declares that she's "his" now. That can't be good.

There's tons of good stuff here. I'm really looking forward to where the show goes and how much of the book they'll keep in this season. Till next time, drink up.

Super 8 (Spoilers)

Watching Super 8 is like listening to a cover song. The original was great. The new version hits all the right notes and sounds the same, but something is missing. It feels...empty. And that's how I felt watching this movie. It's clear that J.J. Abrams (a guy whose work I mostly admire) is trying to do nothing more than recreate a Steven Spielberg movie from the 70s. It's kind of like E.T. meets The Goonies. It's like watching one of those fan made mash-ups on Youtube. You can appreciate that the makers love the source material, but theirs pales in comparison to the original to the point of being embarrassingly silly. And I came to this conclusion about 10 minutes into this thing. Then I realized there was still almost 2 hours left.
The main problem here is the characters. They have no personalities, just sort of things that happened to them. There's the kid who's mom died, the kid who pukes, and the kid who lights stuff on fire. These are not personality traits. Also, the kids have little impact on the story. It feels like the real movie is happening around them, but we don't see very much of it. By the end, I didn't care whether they lived or not.
This brings me to another point. When you don't show us the antagonist of the movie until the end, it better look damn spectacular. Or at least, we should have a sense of why we're afraid of it, like in Jaws. I think that's what they were going for with this, but here, it feels like a cheap gimmick. When we finally saw the alien thing, I laughed. It looked like a mash of really bad FX of aliens from other movies. This movie had so much hype surrounding it, I'm not really sure what would have sufficed, if anything.
This film is also so littered with cliches, it feels like it was written by a two year old. There's lines of dialogue like "I'm just trying really hard to save your life," and "You don't get it, do you?" Really. I feel dumber for having listened to you. Thanks. I realize they're kids, but even kids don't talk like that. Not to mention the numerous plot holes and flat out unbelievable situations that kept popping up. Sorry Abrams, but a truck won't derail a train. I'm also pretty sure that bikes and microwaves don't translate into "hull of a space ship."
I felt like this movie was a two hour attempt to manipulate me into liking it, based on my nostalgia for Speilberg's glory days. Sorry, guys, I'm not buying it. It's sad. I figured if anyone would like this movie, it'd be me. I love classic Spielberg like ET and Close Encounters and Raiders of the Lost Ark. This is none of those. It's a shell. A carbon copy at best. I don't think my opinion will matter, most will want to see it regardless. Just don't say I didn't warn you. I mean, God forbid we try something new instead of repackaging the classics. And while we're at, J.J., cool it with the lens flares. Jesus.