'Dark Angel' TV series - Remembering & Discovering

'Dark Angel' season 1 & 2 promos

I really liked 'Dark Angel' and was so ticked off when it abruptly ended after only two seasons. We bought both Season 1 and 2 on DVD and faithfully re-watched every episode. Perhaps if it aired now, instead of back in 2000 - 2002, it would be a huge hit. When you think of what is currently popular on television and the movies, 'Dark Angel' would smoothly fit right in the mix and do some major ass kicking! (which of course Max, played by the stunning Jessica Alba, totally did just that and rocked doing it!)

Two specific changes that happened with/to the show that bothered me: 1) it was moved to a different night for the second season, 2) the entire ordeal with Logan's legs being paralyzed then him regaining his ability to walk again towards the end of the second season drove me bonkers. But I still loved the show!

I did some digging and discovered what was SUPPOSED to happen if another season was picked up by the network...which it wasn't...and that would've been Season 3. The show was canceled on a cliffhanger:

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It was to bring together the storylines of season 1 (Manticore) and season 2 (ancient blood cult) and reveal the mythology of Dark Angel. As detailed by Charles H. Eglee: Many thousands of years ago, a comet passed closely through the atmosphere of the earth, and deposited viral material that killed 97% of the human race. Some people survived that had a genetic predisposition, some kind of antibody or immunity. The great pyramids in Egypt were actually genetic repositories, preserving the DNA of the survivors. This cult was an ancient blood cult that passed on this genetic immunity to selective members to keep this antibody against the return of the comet (which was set to happen in Season 3) so that they'd survive for being genetically select. Everybody else on the planet would perish and the members of the cult would be there to rebuild civilization, and thus inherit the earth.

Sandeman, Max's creator, out of the Manticore X-5 mythology, was a man that jumped from this cult to implement this immunity genetic technology into the rest of human society to save all of humanity. He believed that everybody deserved the cure. The other cult members deemed Sandeman a heretic and a threat, undermining their goals of rebuilding humanity in their own image.

Max was going to be the savior of the human race. Sandeman finally found out how to give this genetic immunity to everyone through Max. There were multiple ideas of how to spread Max's immunity to humanity, including: an air burst that would spread the antibody and dispersed through the human race and save everyone from the comet or, the immunity would be attached to the viruses associated with the common cold and thus spread through the common cold (he detailed how a scene would show original Cindy sneezing as part of the beginning of the immunity spread).

Series writer Moira Dekker also spoke on the DVD commentary that Logan's transfusion that allowed him to use his legs once again at the end of season 2 would begin to fail during season 3.
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And how about some TRIVIA:


>Season 1 begins and ends the same: "Sometimes it seems like it happened to someone else, like maybe it was a story I heard. Even though I know it happened." Max says it atop the Space Needle in the Pilot and Logan says it atop the Space Needle in the season finale.

>At the end of the series finale, "Freak Nation", the shot of the transgenics raising their flag mimics the American flag being raised by US Marines on Iwo Jima.

>Kevin Durand's character, Joshua, was modeled after a bloodhound. He was also Manticore's first gene experiment.

>Tagline: "She is the shape of things to come..."

'Dark Angel' (2000–2002), TV Series  -   60 min  -  Action | Drama | Mystery.
Scored a 7.4 out of a 10 from 11,575 users/voters at Internet Movie Database.   (and yet with a rating like that was canceled!)

Synopsis:  A group of genetically-enhanced children escape from a lab project. Years later we meet Max, one of the escapees who now works for a messenger service in the post-apocalyptic Pacific Northwest.

Creators: James Cameron, Charles H. Eglee
Stars: Jessica Alba, Michael Weatherly and Richard Gunn
~~~
Well, gotta bounce...as Max would say :)

"The Twilight Zone" - A Major Influencer

The Twilight Zone at Amazon

I hadn't been born yet during the five years that "The Twilight Zone" shows were filmed and broadcast. But I can appreciate and respect the incredible influence these shows had on the future of science fiction and fantasy in all areas of entertainment (movies, TV shows, books). Let us pay homage and review...

"Twilight Zone" (1959–1964), also "The Twilight Zone" (original title). 156 episodes.

TV Series - Rated TV-PG,  Fantasy | Horror | Mystery.
Score: 9.3 out of a 10 from 15,637 users/voters at Internet Movie Database.

Synopsis: Rod Serling's seminal anthology series focused on ordinary folks who suddenly found themselves in extraordinary, usually supernatural, situations. The stories would typically end with an ironic twist that would see the guilty punished.

Creator: Rod Serling
Stars: Rod Serling, Robert McCord and Jay Overholts

"Twilight Zone" Video Clips: Here and Here

Official Show Website - "The Twilight Zone"

Trivia:

>CBS wanted Orson Welles as the narrator/host, but the producers felt that he asked for too much money.

>All episodes in Seasons 1, 2, 3 and 5 were thirty minutes in length. Episodes in Season 4 (airing from January to May 1963) were one hour in length due to CBS' switching the show's available time-slot where only an hour could be taken.

>Rod Serling thought he had come up with the term "Twilight Zone" on his own (he liked the sound of it), but after the show aired he found out that it is an actual term used by Air Force pilots when crossing the day/ night sides above the world.

>Rod Serling invited any viewers to submit a script. He was flooded with over 14,000 scripts, and he actually got around to reading 500 of them. But only two were any good, and he couldn't use them because they didn't fit the format of the show.

>The TV Show was followed by:
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
The Twilight Zone (1985)
Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classics (1994)
The Twilight Zone (2002)

>Here are the famous quotes narrated by Rod Serling at the start of the episodes (each season varied a bit):

Season 1: "There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge.This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call - the Twilight Zone."

Season 2: "You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the Twilight Zone!"

Season 3: "You are traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop, the Twilight Zone!"

Season 4 & 5: "You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension - a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into the Twilight Zone."

Wow. Don't you just love that?!? I think I like Season One's Quote the best! I swear I'm about to open my back door and recite it to the world (or at least my husband who is actually out there!).

'Wrath of the Titans' - Zeus is in Trouble

'Wrath of the Titans' movie poster

'Wrath of the Titans' (2012), 99 min  -  Action | Adventure | Fantasy  -  March 30, 2012 (in theaters - USA).

Rating: 6.5 out of a 10 from 3,181 voters at Internet Movie Database.

Stars: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson and Rosamund Pike.

Official 'Wrath of the Titans' Movie Trailer

Official 'Wrath of the Titans' Website

Storyline - Written by Warner Bros. Pictures: 

A decade after his heroic defeat of the monstrous Kraken, ('Clash of the Titans') Perseus - the demigod son of Zeus - is attempting to live a quieter life as a village fisherman and the sole parent to his 10-year old son, Helius. Meanwhile, a struggle for supremacy rages between the gods and the Titans. Dangerously weakened by humanity's lack of devotion, the gods are losing control of the imprisoned Titans and their ferocious leader, Kronos, father of the long-ruling brothers Zeus, Hades and Poseidon. The triumvirate had overthrown their powerful father long ago, leaving him to rot in the gloomy abyss of Tartarus, a dungeon that lies deep within the cavernous underworld. Perseus cannot ignore his true calling when Hades, along with Zeus' godly son, Ares (Edgar Ramírez), switch loyalty and make a deal with Kronos to capture Zeus. The Titans' strength grows stronger as Zeus' remaining godly powers are siphoned, and hell is unleashed on earth. Enlisting the help of the warrior Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), Poseidon's demigod son Agenor (Toby Kebbell), and fallen god Hephaestus (Bill Nighy), Perseus bravely embarks on a treacherous quest into the underworld to rescue Zeus, overthrow the Titans and save mankind.

Quotes:

[from trailer] 

Zeus: You will learn someday that being half human, makes you stronger than a god. 

[from trailer] 

Hades: You're sweating like a human... next it will be tears. 

Reviewers' Comments:

>So bad it will make your eyes bleed.

>Action packed, and better than the first.

>Offers a lot of intense action sequences.

>Creatures this time are much more inventive.

>Decent 3D and visuals, but lacking plot.

>Story is better than 1st one, even though dialogues are weak. More light- hearted.

>Acting was fair and the plot was not complicated-thin material.

>The 3D was used nicely and didn't come off as a total gimmick.

>An entertaining experience, despite not being excellent.

>Don't watch it with pre-conceived ideas based on actual Greek mythology, but rather loosely based on the stories.

>Most of the characters were dull; the comic relief was dull! On a positive note, Liam Neeson and Ray Finnes were awesome as always.

>If you watch the movie with an open mind and can accept a shallow storyline, then the action and special effects make for some decent entertainment.