This past weekend, we had a chance to watch all three LORD OF THE RINGS extended editions in a theater, back to back to back, at the historic Aero Theater in Santa Monica, CA. It’s been awhile since we’ve seen them and this blogger has never partaken in the extended editions of the films before. There is so much more nuance and character in these versions, that it was like watching them for the first time. Twelve hours flew by like the Great Eagles into the siege of Gondor! Each film, nearing the four hour mark with a food truck outside the theater, nearly the entire audience stayed the entire time. They cheered the appearances of the main heroes and actually HISSED at the appearances of such treacherous villains such as Wormtongue. This audience was primed and their excitement fueled everyone else’s. Classic moments were punctuated by hoots and hollers and sad moments were so quiet that you could hear a pin drop with the occasional soft sobs. Everyone was so engrossed the entire time, except for the girl who played candy crush in the 4th row for nearly 3 HOURS during THE TWO TOWERS. One of my favorite audience moments is when the hipster guy in front of me who was sitting alone and had been pretty silent for nearly ten hours screamed “YES!!!!” when Eowyn dropped some science on the Witch King with a “I am no man” right before she stabbed him in the FACE. I loved him for that. We all rubbed our eyes in the light of the pale moon as we emerged well past one in the morning. Our blood boiling and simmering like the firey lavas of Mount Doom. So moved from this experience that the residual feelings lasted well into the next day as I debated watching the entire HOBBIT trilogy that day. I couldn’t put those blu-ray’s in the player fast enough. Even after nine hours of that, I was still feeling as though my heart was full but still yearning for Middle-Earth. After a quick trip to Game Stop, some LORD OF THE RINGS video games are now left to satiate our Ring fever. We’ll let you know when we calm down a bit.

Well, the chutes are empty, the halls are bare and another Comic Con has come and gone. We at Blast From The Past had ourselves a banner year getting to see many of the great Hall H panels and getting many of the exclusive surprise goodies as well. After much waiting in line, our Saturday morning started off with executive producer of the new2017 CBS All Access series STAR TREK: DISCOVERY handing out coffee and donuts in the wee hours of the morning to all those waiting to attend the STAR TREK: 50 YEARS panel. When we were finally let in, the first panel was Warner Bros. Pictures moderated by Conan O’Brien. The walls of Hall H were stretched back making the screens surround the audience, enveloping our vision with new logos and imagery from the upcoming Warner Bros. movies they were showing us first look footage of the new DC Comics films. For the FANTASTIC BEASTS & WHERE TO FIND THEM portion, Eddie Redmayne himself handed out wands to the audience of 6000 and everyone got their own. The next panel was retrospective of the last 50 years of Star Trek with a panel of cast members from the original series, The Next Generation, Deep Space 9, Voyager and Enterprise. After that, the 30 year reunion panel for ALIENS attended by Director James Cameron, and cast members Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Hendrickson, Bill Paxton and Paul Reiser. The day ended with massively cool Marvel Studios panel showing us brand new footage from THOR: RAGNAROK, SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING, DOCTOR STRANGE and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL.2. Plus a first look at the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: MISSION – BREAKOUT! ride coming to Disney’s California Adventure next summer. It was an overwhelming wave of cool stuff, which every Comic Con ends up being, and we’re all gonna need a few days to recover but we can’t wait for next year to do it all over again!

Happy birthday to two of the most influential monsters of all time! 198 years ago, Mary Shelley published the novel that spawned both Victor Frankenstein and his infamous creature.

The subject of many a nerdy debate, is “Frankenstein” the name of the monster or the name of the man? And if it’s really the man, does one pronounce it “Fronkensteen,” as Mel Brooks would have you believe?

Whether you approach Shelley’s great work as a serious novel, respect Boris Karloff’s performance for setting the standard for an entire genre, or if you’re simply fond of the creature’s transformation into the caricature of Herman Munster, there is one point that cannot be argued. Pop culture was forever changed on that dark and stormy night. Here’s to another two centuries!