I'm so disappointed in Riker and Troi...

Omaha informs me that Riker and Troi got married somewhere along the way in movie ten, Nemesis which breaks the rule that even-numbered Star Trek movies don't suck. I haven't seen Nemesis so I was unaware of this.

I'm kind-of disappointed by this. I wanted them to be awkward fuckbuddies for the rest of their lives. That was what the chemistry between Jonathan Frakes and Mirina Sirtis gave off, and writing to that vibe would have been perfect for them.

It takes a bad writer in a poorly-thought-out universe to decide to marry two people who get together once in a while, fuck like mad, and then have trouble looking at each other in the morning... and then do it again three weeks later. Repeatedly.

"There's no reason we can't be civilized. Is there?"

So, I went and saw 300 tonight with j5nn5r tonight. It is a manly movie, about manly men doing the manliest of things. It has good humor, for its moments, but it is mostly a ballet of blood, of warriors in the thick of battle showing the difference between a disciplined army and a rout.

I tried, I really did, to see the political in it, and I failed. You can't make a movie about Thermopylae and deny that the Greeks were pale and the armies of the east weren't. Xerxes was a decadent SOB, but hey, so he was in real life. Yes, the movie was over the top in its goriness. Yes, it out-woos John Woo for it's fast/slow/fast illustrations of battle and gore. And it has more severed heads than a good Freddy film.

But the movie's heroes are dedicated to reason and nobility, two qualities that do not lend themselves to the Bush administration, or the U.N., or to any govermental entity currently stalking the Earth. In the end, 300 is a paean to doing what is right and just. It had nothing to do with your sexuality or your politics.

The camera work is beautiful. The men are handsome. The Virtual Studios work is amazing. The choreography is freakin' gorgeous. It's a manly film. Go see it.