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Star Trek: Lower Decks – Series Review

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One of the things that I talk to my friends about is how the hell does the universe of Star Trek still exist? I don’t mean the franchise, I mean how has it not gotten destroyed by some kind of quasar or time travel problem.

Because usually in one of these series, we follow just one ship and they’re going to nearly end the universe on multiple occasions. But the Federation has perhaps thousands of ships all doing the same thing. All encountering the same problems. One of them must fail at some point to allow the universe to rip itself asunder.

That’s my little rant about Star Trek in general. I honestly have always admired the series from afar. It’s so chunky that I don’t know how to jump into it. I feel that way more and more these days. Genshin Impact and League of Legends confuse me.

Anyway, I have been pushing to watch more actual TV and not just the same youtube videos over and over again. So, I did what any reasonable person would do and made a list of twenty science fiction shows and rolled a D20. It fortunately landed on 11, which was Star Trek: Lower Decks.

I did not plan to watch all of it in two weeks but here we are. I have no regrets.

Our crew, T’Lyn, Tendi, Mariner, Rutherford and Boimler

The show concerns itself with the ensigns on the lower decks that do all the dirty work aboard a Federation starship. While the bridge crew goes to flute recitals, they’re hard at work cleaning everything up and stacking crates. They of course end up in all kinds of adventures and danger.

The series focused more on comedy than science fiction. Our main four for the first three seasons is endlessly optimistic scientist former pirate Tendi, the rebellious daughter of the captain Beckett Mariner Freeman, engineering cybernetically enhanced engineer Rutherford and finally desperate to prove himself ensign Bradward Boimler. These four carry the show for so long that when they finally bring in straightwoman Vulcan T’Lyn, it only serves to enhance the show with her deadpan delivery and reactions to everything else that’s going on.

It’s strange to find a show with no bad episodes. I can’t think of a single one that I actively disliked(okay, to be fair I skipped the second holodeck episode making fun of the new movies. I just don’t like the holodeck in general). Every character is interesting and never annoying. This can sometimes happen with multiple main characters, where you see that the episode is going to focus on X and you roll your eyes and pray for it to end.

Despite being a comedy, they manage to bring in some pretty great drama. Mariner has been around the block being impetuous and rebellious but it’s used to hide a pain that even she doesn’t want to acknowledge. Tendi and Rutherford’s backstories are really interesting. Watching Boimler’s growth into becoming the person he is at the end of the series is phenomenal. Every one of their voice actors always brings an energetic and fun performance.

It also does what a lot of newer Star Trek shows don’t do, which is show admiration for what came before without it turning it into constant self congratulating praise. When I think about the Chris Pine Star Trek movies I think about how often we had to stop in those just to admire the Enterprise. So many glory shots.

It also encompasses the joy of discovery and exploration. But that there are downsides to it like how most of the crew is brutally injured throughout the missions.

I know it’s not professional in a review to point out only the good things. But sometimes stuff is just good because it’s well made. Maybe my opinion would be different if I had seen every episode that was ever made but I have two friends who have done that and they both love this show.

Hunh, I wonder if that’s the Star Trek equivalent of “I’m not racist I have (person of color/LGBTQIA+) friends”.

Anyway, here’s Boimler going off on people who think the Federation is lame.

The Purge Movies Could Be More Interesting

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The Purge movies’ whole concept is that for one night in America all crime is legal. You can do whatever you want and in the morning everyone goes back to being normal. Because they’re horror movies, this mostly falls into the idea of murder.

I know already that’s a flawed concept in general. But let’s pretend that this thing could happen. Why does that version of America even function?

The minute the Purge night starts, you know that businesses would be pulling the most heinous insider trading scams they could. They would be dumping pollution into every single park, lake or ocean that they could find. Presidents could declare war without congressional approval! They could bomb whoever they wanted! It would be insane.

Even further than that, you could have kids drinking all kinds of alcohol and doing all kinds of drugs. Doing illegal street races throughout their towns.

I think they ought to make a story where all those things happen. I know they won’t because Hollywood is in the pocket of big businesses and is now using eco terrorists as the bad guys in a lot of action movies to make the climate change movement look bad.

In general, there are just so many more interesting stories you could tell. To that end, I don’t think that they should be straightforward horror movies anymore and instead become anthologies. Give different creators with different viewpoints a chance to tell a story in that world that they think is realistic. It could be really interesting.

Our Perfect Gentlemen

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(This is a preview of one of the stories that’s going to be in my collection of horror stories entitled A Heartbeat in the Darkness.)

It was an unfortunate thing that most people were happy about the missing child posters.  Though they would never say such a thing to the distraught parents.  They would place their hands on their arms and say it was such a tragedy and they were in their thoughts.  Meanwhile saying good riddance behind their backs at various social functions.  The one bit of sorrow was that their older daughter still wandered the streets putting up the signs.  A hopeless endeavor.  It made them sad because she was a good girl, so different than her brother.  People liked her.  Maybe if they had liked him a little bit more.  He wouldn’t have turned out this way.  

Or maybe he just needed a firmer hand than his parents had been willing to use.  At least that’s what the Pince sisters thought.  Two older women who had relaxed into a life of retirement with a nice little nest egg.  He was their current house guest.  Wasn’t he just so fine now, sitting in their living room across from them.  Serving them tea.  His smile so much better than that nasty look he had on his face at all times before.  Constantly frowning, constantly smirking and giving people the finger.  What a naughty little boy he had been.  

They had fixed it.  It had taken quite a bit of work but they had fixed it.  Just like that they had so many times in the past.  They had this down to a perfect science.  He would be their house guest for as long as they could keep him.  Not that anyone ever left by choice.

Night came and so the two sisters retired up to bed.  Leaving him downstairs by himself.  One of them gave a quick flick to the machinery on the wall.  It spun and the resulting slackening was near instantaneous.  

The young man’s arms fell to his sides, his mouth finally fell away from the rictus smile that it had been forced into throughout the day.  It was hard to decide which was the worse pain.  The ones in his arms, mouth or in his cut achilles tendons.  The rings that had been sewn into his skin and then laced with fine piano wires ached.  He was made uncomfortable by the IVs that fed him as there was no longer any use for his super glued together teeth.  

He sat like a doll that had been left in the corner.  His body limp and useless.  There was no escape.  No way to get out of here.  He remembered the day that he had broken in here.  Looking for something of value to steal and sell.  How he hadn’t heard the one sister behind him before she struck him with the encyclopedia.  Knocking him unconscious.  Where had she gotten that strength?  

He had woken up this way.  Covered in the rings.  His jaw clamped together.  They had kept him like a toy ever since.  That had been months ago.  He assumed that they had killed their husbands.  Were living off the life insurance policies.  How else could they have afforded this?  

He slept fitfully this night and every night.  His body wrapped up in its various pains and discomforts.  The next morning, he rose with the sun in his eyes.  But the women weren’t there.  He couldn’t hear them.  The day passed.  The IVs ran dry.  Still no sign of them.  There hadn’t been a day when they hadn’t come down to torture him and play out their sick fantasy so what had happened?  

Night came again.  He wondered if this was some trick.  If they were going to come back and hurt him in some way.  He sat.  A second day and night passed.  No sign of them.  By the third morning, he figured that they had died in their sleep two days ago.  Good riddance, you god damn monsters, he thought.  He knew he had to go now.  He knew there was only way to exit.  

He bent his body forward and began to pull.  

My Workout Plan for Hiking

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Before I started my hiking training program, I had a similar workout plan. I’ve adapted it to make this one. It goes by the weekday so that’s how I’ll do it.

Monday

Strength training(Arms)- I do three different weight machines at my gym with increasing weight focusing on my arms. I want to make sure that I can pull myself up to so that I can scale cliffs if need be.

Crunches(100)- After I stretch, it’s time for a hundred crunches. Taking it slow so I can really feel the burn. I want to make sure that I can reinforce my core and build up strength for the walking.

Squats with weights(30)- More core exercises and to get my booty just right.

Lunges with weights(30)- Building up leg and core strength.

Elliptical(15 minutes increasing)- I start at ten and every minute I put on another level of resistance. I get up to 8 minutes and 18 resistance before I start leveling off on a minute by minute basis.

Tuesday

Swimming- I bought the book, Swimming to Freedom: My Escape From China and the Cultural Revolution by Kent Wong and that ignited my interest in swimming as a form of exercise. In the well written book, he swims five miles through choppy water to get to Hong Kong. I wanted to somewhat get on his level. I mean, I won’t because he’s also a doctor and raised Jimmy and Freddy Wong who are phenomenal in their own right, but I can come close. I need to get right with this because I haven’t always been consistent in my swimming.

Powerwalking(30 minutes)- The community center I do my swimming at has a track and it’s not usually busy at the time I go. I can’t run anymore because I’ve fallen too many times and my ankles can’t handle the stress. However, I can powerwalk to the ends of the earth.

Wednesday

Rest. Why try and jump over hump day when I can just lazily roll down the other side of the hill.

Thursday

Almost everything is exactly the same except my weight machine exercises focus on my legs and I’m trading out the elliptical for the recumbent bike.

Friday

Same as Tuesday. Hopefully I’ll be building on the amount of laps that I’m doing.

Saturday/Sunday

One day of rest and the other day I’m either going to be powerwalking or if I have the time, I’m going to go for a hike. How else am I going to get ready for hiking without hiking?

So, yeah, that’s my workout plan. If you’re a hiker reading this and you have suggestions please leave a comment or email me at franklincotaauthor@gmail.com. Thank you.

Stagnation

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For the last three years, I’ve been trying to move out of my old apartment to finally live on my own. I’m not upset by the amount of time it took, I liked living with the various roommates I’ve had throughout the years but now it’s time for me to be on my own. Since I’ve been living on my own, I’m never going back. I will never live with another person again unless I’m in love or that person is need.

However, my last big endeavor was getting my degree in IT. I did that and that led to the job I have now and my moving out on my own.

Over the weekend, I was enjoying Star Trek: Lower Decks and doing puzzles. I finished with that and started to go into my room to play some Persona 3. It was then that I stopped myself and thought. I don’t have an actual goal. In that moment, I felt so lost and afloat.

Fortunately, several decades of therapy have prepared me for moments like this. I thought about that thought. Where did it come from?

I think it came from the idea that I was stagnating. That I wasn’t moving forward anymore. That there was no direction forward.

So, as I played Persona 3 because if I’m not going to figure out Tartarus who is? I thought about the next goal. First, I would like to move forward in my career at some point. Secondly, I would like to go to Maine and to Acadia national park to hike its many trails. For that I would need to train. Thirdly, I would like for someone to read my books and tell me that they like them. Whether that’s self published or through a publishing company.

Even if I hadn’t come up with this, I think that it’s important to have some kind of destination in mind. It doesn’t matter how long it takes to run the race. Just that you have a finish line. Something to go for.

I’ll let you know how this goes. The steps I’m taking, this website being one of them, to get to my various goals.

Best Tone for Batman

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Well, it’s certainly not that.

The thing with comic book characters is that their interpretation switches from author to author. What one person thinks can cause others define them in a certain way down the line. They bring their ideals and concepts to them.

So, what tone do I think is best for the Batman? Well, for me it’s a man that’s deeply hurt and wanting to do his best to help people. He can get angry but he’s not angry all the time. He’s done work on himself to deal with things throughout the years. He can crack jokes and smile.

The mask is off and the truth is that I think that the best tone for Batman is the one from the DCAU. From the picture above, this is his reaction to the Joker hanging from a catwalk over an inferno. The Joker is screaming for help and Bats is just casually looking down at him. Bemused above all things.

When he gets angry though, it’s chilling to see and that’s of course part of the wonder of the late and great Kevin Conroy. There’s one episode where Batman encounters this cruel man that uses children as his slaves to steal for him. When he eventually captures the man, Batman says that he took an oath to never become judge, jury and executioner but he sorely wishes that he was.

How does he handle his villains? He constantly seeks their rehabilitation and to help them. There’s an episode where the Ventriloquist gets released and tries to go straight. Batman spends a great number of nights hanging outside of his apartment to make sure that he doesn’t get dragged back into the underworld. As Bruce Wayne, he gives him a job working as a mail clerk in Wayne Enterprises.

It’s been said that if you can’t write a scene with Batman comforting a child, then you’re just writing the Punisher in a cape. And that brings us to the greatest scene with this Batman.

A dying psychic child has caused damage to a city and when she goes it becomes permanent and will essentially become a nuke affecting a huge swath of the city. Amanda Waller, who I’ll eventually give an entire post to, has a device that will kill her. Batman states that he’ll be the one to use it on her.

Ace has had encounters with him before and lets him into her hiding place. He finds her swinging on a swing set. She tells him that she read his mind and knows two things: that she will soon die and that he isn’t going to use the device on her.

She asks him to sit with her and he sits down on the swing with her and offers her his hand. She dies peacefully and the damage is reversed.

Perfection.

You have to keep the main things intact with Batman, the sorrow at the loss of his parents. The anger at the world for it but he should never be a monster. He should always be someone who is trying his best in an unstoppable war on crime.

At least that’s how I’ve always seen him.

A Moment in the Lives of Two Early Risers

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The sound of her leather jacket was soothing. She had done her makeup the night before and put her hair into a bun on top of her head. Wrapping it with a bandana. There was the crunch of gravel underneath her feet as she walked into the convenience store.

There was an old man standing behind the counter. He was reading a paperback novel. There was music playing on the overhead speakers. Given that it was morning, she bought a small sleeve of donuts. He had a pot of coffee going and she poured herself a cup. Adding her sugar and cream, she approached the counter.

“Morning,” he said setting down his novel.

“Good morning,” she said.

He looked at Julia. She was young, somewhere in her early twenties. She had bright red lipstick and her skin was pale. She wore a buttoned down dark blue shirt with white polka dots tied at the waist. Black boots and black leggings.

She glanced at him. He had a Santa quality about him. Was probably a grandpa. He wore a black Motley Crue T-shirt and jeans. He had tiny reading glasses perched on the edge of his nose.

He glanced at the clock. It was five in the morning.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what’re you doing up so early, dressed so fine?” he asked.

“Couldn’t sleep,” Julia said. “Thought I would take my bike out for a ride. Go see the sun rise.”

“That sounds like a helluva morning,” the old man said.

“I noticed your sign has different hours. You shouldn’t be open this early.”

“Couldn’t sleep so I figured I could make some money to early risers like yourself.”

“That’s fair.”

“Where are you heading to see the sunrise?”

“West Quoddy Head lighthouse. I’m racing the sun.”

“Funny, isn’t it? The most eastern point in America is called West Quoddy. Interesting.”

She held out a twenty.

“Keep it,” he said. “You have a good ride. Wish I was your age again. Sounds like you’re having fun.”

“I am and I don’t want to short a small business, especially one run by such a gentleman,” Julia said.

“Fair enough.”

He took the cash and gave her her change. She offered her hand and the took shook. She walked out of the store and threw her leg over her bike. She started it up, revved the engine and took off down the road.

The road to the lighthouse needed people to be wide awake. The coffee was a boon to her. She got to the lighthouse and parked her bike in the parking lot. She climbed the small hill and waited.

There were others there with her. They were doing the same. Waiting for the sun. Waiting for a new day full of promise.

She thought about the breakup that she had gone through recently. How for so long, she had felt wrong and foolish for breaking up with him. He had done such a good job putting her down. Trying to dampen her light. Now though, as the sun rose turning the sky pink. The feel of the sea on her face, she felt alive again. Light and beautiful. She raised her cup to the sun and hoped that the old man at the convenience store had a good day as well.

The next day was rainy and cloudy. The day after promised clear skies.

Because of this, an older gentleman, white of beard and aching in his bones rolled a motorcycle out of his garage. An older but slightly younger woman, not used to being awake at this time of day but happy that her husband was happy, came walking out of the house securing a helmet over her hair.

“Let’s go, mama,” he said.

They drove into the coming dawn. They saw the sunrise. They hit the road again. They saw where the day could take them.

Should I Still Be Embarrassed Writing Fanfiction?

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I have written fanfiction since I was thirteen years old. I told no one for years. I still don’t tell that many people. But I just watched a movie called Turtles All the Way Down where Star Wars fanfiction features heavily into it.

Is fanfiction cool now? I severely doubt it but I wonder… because we’ve seen fanfiction go mainstream. Fifty Shades of Grey became one of the biggest franchises in bad BDSM history and it’s just Twilight fanfiction. Ditto the After series, which is just Harry Styles fanfiction(If I was Harry Styles, I would totally sue for that). Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan got their start writing fanfiction too.

I read a few articles about the subject and they all come down to the same thing. Writing is writing and it’s good or bad. We should be celebrating people being creative, not shame them for it.

However, much like how DND has become more mainstream, there is something that is still considered nerdier than it. LARPing. Disclaimer that I want to try LARPing and play an NPC that never goes on adventures. I just want to be a barkeep that offers quests to people and never leaves his bar or an item shop owner. Seems like a nice peaceful life.

Discretion over, my LARPing in the fanfiction world is real person fanfiction. There’s just something too parasocial and offputting when you write about real people.

Though to be fair, another great work, Dante’s Inferno is real person self insert fanfiction. Where Dante is like “I met Vergil and we became best friends and also I saw all these people that didn’t like me in hell”. So, maybe it’s not my cup of tea because I’m too blind to it.

There might come a day that I’ll feel confident enough to share one of my fanfics on this blog. Put my full name on it. Today isn’t that day. But for those that are able to do it, I salute you.

And hey, if you’ve written your own fanfiction and want to share, leave a comment with the link.

If you haven’t written fanfiction, go forth and do so! Get weird with it.

Write Fanfiction Before You Start Writing

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(There’s a scrape of metal on wood as I drag a chair over and turn it around. I sit on it backwards. I’m clearly uncomfortable but going to push through.)

Hey, kids. Let’s rap. I’m down with what the kids are with it these days. Let’s talk about writing.

So, you have rough ideas of your characters, the setting and concept for your manuscript. But you don’t know how to start or where to go with it. Well, I have the solution for what ails you.

Write fanfiction.

I see you slamming your hands against the table as you jump to your feet. You point your fingers like a bunch of Phoenix Wrights.

Hear me out. What is the purpose of fanfiction? Fanfiction has many purposes, it’s great practice for early writers who haven’t come up with their own concepts yet, you can use it to explore relationships that you haven’t seen in the media you’re fanficcing, add missing scenes that you feel should be included. But most of all, you can use it to learn how to write in voice.

And that’s why you should write fanfiction of your own work. You don’t have to worry about the scenario or place your characters in, you can just throw them in the sandbox and see how they interact with one another. You can establish how they interact, possibly hint at their past and then workshop that into your main work. You can also figure out what the tone is regarding your work. Is it fun and playful or dark and mysterious. That’s how you have fun. Hell, you can try your characters in different genres.

Anyway, that’s what I wanted to talk about today. Stay cool, kids.

(I get up from the chair and I was clearly uncomfortable because I’m walking poorly.)

Five Video Games That Should Become Movies

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This might be a controversial topic as video game movies are largely loathed and have only recently gotten good. Looking at you, Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy, thanks for holding up the side. I don’t think those movies were a fluke but we saw how bad it could have been with the ugly sonic from the first trailers.

AHHHHH!

The reason I say it’s a tossup is because there is so much history behind Sonic and the expectations are going to be so high. But there’s the kicker. There are a lot of different video games that you could turn into movies with their much less well known plotlines and hell they aren’t even known that well in the video game world. Let’s look at the five that I think would really work.

Blast Corps

Speed was an enormous hit. A bus that can’t slow down and if it does, it’s not going to just kill the people on it but people around them. That’s a hell of a pitch and idea.

What if you changed it that it’s a nuclear missile truck that can kill thousands, millions of people if it crashes into something in the wrong place. Enter the Blast Corps, a group of pilots and drivers that have access to a bunch of vehicles such as robots, giant dump trucks, bulldozers and cars. They need to destroy everything in the truck’s path to make sure that it doesn’t detonate.

That concept also rules. It’s high octane, ready to go for a blockbuster disaster movie. Roland Emmerich would salivate over the idea of making this movie. Also, you could make so many toys if you make it PG. Kids would love a big playset with collapsible buildings.

The tone could be kind of silly(because it’s a silly concept) and you could just have so much fun with it. You could make some of the most wild and out there characters. Just let the actors go broad and get nuts.

You could start off with them using those construction vehicles and “they’re like, we’re not going to be able to break through in time” and all of a sudden the mech comes busting through is like. “Kept you waiting, hunh?”

Get on this one, Hollywood.

Also before I move on, in the past, I’ve heard so many people give Roland Emmerich flack for making big dumb popcorn movies. Okay, the man has a skill for making good looking popcorn movies.

Look at that, that could be a painting. The main has a niche and has mastered it.

Wild Guns

A forgotten SNES game that deserves some love because it’s so much fun. It’s a western where Annie has hired Clint to help her get revenge for her father’s murder. The two of them head out and start gunning down anything in their path.

“Frank, you charismatically handsome devil, that’s been done to death!”

It has. BUT HAS IT BEEN DONE WITH GIANT ROBOTS?

Fuck yeah

There are dinosaur skeletons. There are high tech trains. There’s a giant robot crab. It is insane. Once more you can do so much with this.

You could write such good banter between Annie, who Clint thinks is this like simple rich southern belle until she grabs her guns and proves herself to him. Meanwhile, he becomes much more understanding.

Just imagine the action scenes. The two of them running around a town as robots open fire on them. The fire dying down as they gun down the robots. And with robots, you can make it PG as well, once again bringing in the kids. That’s why the foot soldiers in Ninja Turtles should always be robots cos you can go nuts on them without worry.

Also in the remake they added two more characters.

Doris that cool lady in green and Bullet that little gunslinging dog on a Green Goblin glider. This is made to be a hit.

Zombies Ate My Neighbors

Another game with a paper thin plot and a great title. Two teens, Julia and Zeke, find themselves protecting their idiot neighbors from an onslaught of a variety of monsters. They’re oblivious and keep cheerleading and barbecuing in the midst of this apocalypse.

There are zombies, you nerds! Leave the burgers

They use weapons like squirt guns, soda cans, weed whackers and bazookas to fight off zombies, blobs, evil plant monsters, killer dolls, mummies, vampires and sea monsters. You can have so much fun with all of that.

In the game you have to collect your neighbors before you can move on. Boom, a scientist invented a teleporter and it allows them to tap their neighbors and send them off. It would have a Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle vibe.

If you kept it moving with the run and gun vibe from the game it would kill as an action comedy. Sean of the Dead proved that you can do it already.

It Takes Two

What’s this? A modern game!? This would be great to be a more adult oriented video game movie. In it, two parents who are on the verge of divorce are magically turned into their daughter’s dolls. They are trying their best to get her to notice them so that they can get turned back into humans. But eventually another character named Hakim forces them to overcome obstacles to fix things between them and show how they’ve been neglecting their daughter.

This would be a fun family film that turns into a tearjerker towards the end. It would be like Up or Inside Out. Heartbreaking and wonderful. It could lead to so many great discussions.

I saw Inside Out with some parents and they openly wept. It was the discovery that they realized that they couldn’t make their children happy all the time. This builds on that with allowing them to check in with one another to make sure that they’re doing the best for each other and their kids.

Plus, you can add so much humor to it. A nice light in the darkness.

Bubble Bobble

Bubble Bobble is about two dragons that shoot bubbles that encase robots and other monsters before turning them into food. They are ready and waiting to become mascots and big as the minions. Look at how cute he is.

Just give them cute personalities and you are ready to go. Make a land of the dragons that they have to protect and them using their bubbles to fight back.

You would need to do a little more worldbuilding on this one though. The levels for Bubble Bobble weren’t exactly detailed.

Think of it as a blank canvas

Hell, you could do a crossover movie with the Yoshis! That would be super cute.

Summary

So those are my choices for the next video game movies. There are so many games out there that I might have to do this again and still never reach the bottom of the barrel. But who cares. This was fun.