Spiderman, like we have [already] seen it before!

Finally, after 5 long years, years filled with subpar films such as The Dark Knight or The Avengers, years filled with the dullest films to come along in years like Super 8, Star Trek, or even Captain America, we finally have a Spiderman film. Those dark days of waiting to see our friendly neighborhood webslinger finally get the big screen treatment is over. 2012 will be long remembered for bringing us exactly what we were all calling for: The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises. And shoved right in between these two, amongst the rest of the summer releases, is Spiderman.

The Amazing Spiderman is not a bad film, it's just not a great film and it is certainly not a film we needed. You see, the main problem was the exact thing that I was mostly worried about and (if you were unlucky to hear me talk about it in person) I've been vocalizing for months. It is yet another retelling of Spiderman. Yes, kiddos, we get to see how Spiderman became Spiderman. Again.

A Princess is John Carter's Mars...or something like that.

Despite Disney's best efforts to destroy it, John Carter turns out to be one heck of a movie. Whatever movie that Disney was trying to sell you, with the rock rifts, the Attack of the Clone scenes, the weird ships, the lack of story, they succeeded in hiding the better film that lay underneath. And I think that it's going to cost them. Dearly.

John Carter goes for a walk!

Now, let me address the name change for a moment. This movie is called John Carter. Simple. And boring. What does the name John Carter tell me? It's about a man named John Carter. And what is he going to do? Be John Carter, right? But what makes John Carter so important? He's John Carter. Honestly, this was another great example of Disney trying to hide the most important element that is the focus of this movie, which is John Carter, goes to Mars. You see, John Carter is from earth, but goes to Mars, where he has his adventure. So, if I were thinking straight, I would have called it something like, John Carter of Mars, to help with the marketing. Instead we get John Carter. Why not just called it John? Or J. Carter? Or J, for that matter? This movie would have been so much easier to find an audience with the words Of Mars, attached. John Carter, tells me nothing but John Carter of Mars tell me tons. However, Disney not calling it A Princess of Mars, was smart. When you think of Disney and Princesses, this movie would have been a sever disappointment to brainwashed girls across the board.  I am not sure why some reviewers haven't made this connection yet, but they need to shut their mouths and stop whining. Not to mention since this movie is about John Carter (as the name clearly states) viewers would have expected more from the Princess than we are given. If I say anything good about Disney and their marketing here, I say good call on not putting Princess in the title.

A quick word re: the score for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

I would love to go into great detail regarding this release. I would. I just have so many problems finishing started projects. I believe I have about 10 articles that I plan to write. I plan on getting to them in the future. I hope.


So here is a quick post  and maybe one'll expand in the future, who knows.

I recently acquired a copy of the Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Extended Edition score by James Horner. As a lover of the original release, getting this in the used bin at a store was a rare find. 


We all know that Wrath of Khan is one of the best films in the Star Trek franchise. The direction  the story, and the score all help to push it to the limits and beyond. Everything about the movie is wonderful. And James Horner really helped to come into his own on this one. It's powerful stuff, never really letting go, always pushing forward and always action packed. 

Harry Potter and the Order of the Half Blood Prince

Frustration and Love. 

Two ways to sum up the next two movies in the series. 

These movies are when the kids start changing into adults, despite almost dying time and time again.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is my least favorite of the movies. It also just happens to be my least favorite book, one in which J. K. Rowling decided to torture the hell out of the audience, by giving us an angry emo Harry, an evil witch Umbridge, more torture, long pages of the same thing over and over, tons of useless of subplots, and lots of pages of the same damn thing over and over. It is bad.

The movie doesn't score much better. In this case, it is because most of what they cut to make this movie the shortest in the series is a lot of the stuff that made the book tolerable. What's left is amended and incomplete. In fact, it feels like half a movie, and that is a huge reason why this is my least favorite.

It's not that the acting is bad. The kids kick ass and the adults are amazing. The new character of Umbridge  is played so deliciously evil by Imelda Staunton that it is going to be hard  to see her in anything else without being pissed off at her for her treatment of Harry and the Gang. The character is just so nasty, and Imelda just hits the right cords to make her just so unlikable. Plus the addition of Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood really adds another level to this growing cast. She is so enduring in her obliviousness and innocence. She is great fun to watch on screen. On the evil side, Helena Bonham Carter is brought in as Bellatrix Lestrange and just hits it out of the park. She is evil and crazy and creepy as hell to watch. She is great fun. 

Harry Potter Week

This was the way to usher in the last movie in the series. 8 movies, 4 days. Seeing them in a theater filled with other fans who want to be there. Seeing the films in order really helps show how the films improved and how certain mistakes that were left out that later came back to haunt them. You get to see the kids grow up and you get to see them deal with loss and hurt.

This was the way to see Harry Potter! I am so glad that my family was able to enjoy this experience. It won't happen like this again.

---MGS

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Fire

With the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, there was somewhat of a shake up when it came to the making of these movies. Chris Columbus decided to bow out as director of the third film and the search began for a replacement to take over the next film. Loads of names were tossed around, but with a big project such as this, there is always names that come and go.

In the end, they settled on Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron, know for such films as the critcially acclaimed Y Tu Mama Tambien, which is known for its extreme sexual content, and the film adaptions of A Little Princess and, afterwards,  Children of Men. To me, he didn't really seem to fit the expected mold. There was just something about the way he adapted A Little Princess that never sat well with me. It always felt like it went way to far away from the source material, but not in a terrible way, just enough hat it felt like it was only giving slight nods to the book. I was more than a bit worried.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is an interesting film. It shows that sometimes the established and expected norm can change, and with it comes a big breath of fresh air. Except for the fact that there is a huge budget behind this thing, this could amost be a fanasty indepant film, as it has that sort of sensabilty to it. 

Chris and his films felt a bit tired after the second film. Chamber still had too much presentation in it, it still had that weird paint by numbers feel, it still has very little in the area of surprise. In some ways, it was getting dull. This was apparently an assessment shared by others. 


After the second movie, somebody felt the need to want to re-launch the series, even taking it as far as redesigning parts of the established school buildings and designs. Alfonso's Hogworts, while still very similar to its earlier versions, have changed just enough to be quite noticeable which is both frustrating and interesting. Still, they are good changes, some welcomed, in fact.  An example of this being Hagrid's hut is further away from the school and down a hill. Such a simple change that makes the grounds, and therefore the castle, feel that much more spread out. Hogwarts isn't just a little place for students to go and study. Hogwarts is now a huge and spread out compound where people go to learn magic. 

'nuff said'

--MGS

Harry Potter and the First Two Movies

Harry Potter films are debatable. Ask any fan and they will tell you which one they like above the rest, and which one they aren't too crazy about. A good test would be, if that movie is on and you just happen to come upon it, do you turn the channel, because that is the film that you just don't want to watch, or do you continue watching it, because you just can't get enough? 


Having watched these recently again on the big screen, I am able to make a judgement call of my own.


Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is not my favorite. 

And why is that, you ask?


Sorcerer's Stone is an uphill battle the entire time. From the moment the movie opens, it has a very presentation feel to it. What do I mean by that? Simple, everything feels like it has to be announced before it is allowed to continue. Of course, this was done because of this being the first movie, it needed to have its characters, setting, and situations set up and brought the audience. If you haven't read the books, it does its job very well of giving you a lot of information. However, since this movie came out before the series was even half done, some of the choices that they went with feel out of place and lacking. Going back and looking at this movie feels like polite to a television show that will run for many seasons but is slowly, over time, began to ret-con itself.


The movie begins with the set up of this world, via John Williams' score and the arrival of Albus Dumbledore, here played by Richard Harris. Within the first five minutes we are introduced to Albus, Professor McGonagall (who is introduced to us via these words: "It is nice to see you this evening, (pause) Professor McGonagall." Now that we are properly introduced...), Hagrid, the word Muggle, Privet Drive, and Harry Potter as a baby. It's a lot to take in. A lot!


As the film progresses, it does introduction after introduction. Here's Ron, here's Hermione, here's the train, here's the hat, here's Draco, here's Quidditch, here's Nick, here's Snape, here's the story of Voldemort, here's Voldemort. It just goes on and on, which is why this film is such a challenge. The filmmakers HAD to do this stuff. They were required to do this stuff. They had to give us the old "Now coming to the stage, give a warm welcome for..."


The acting is, to be quite frank, wooden. Now, I am not talking about Alan Rickman or Maggie Smith and although at times there is a bit overacting they both rock their parts into greatness. No, I am talking about Ron, Harry, Heromine, Draco, and the rest of the kids. Basically, they are all trying, and you can see that on screen. I feel bad for them as they have so much weight and expectations on them as actors bringing these characters to life. One can almost say, that they got close to blowing it. Close.  But the dialog mixed with the so-so direction of, "now stand here, don't look towards the camera, and deliver the line," pretty much vindicates them. Chris Columbus is having trouble pulling off performances that don't feel distant and unrehearsed. Then there is the lack of development for such entities as Nick and the ghosts, the other kids in Gryffindor, and the main "villain," Quirrell. Basically they are given very little screen time, and for the most part, ham it up. Like I said before, it's rough.


I want to hit on the special effects here for a moment. I know that this was 2002, but those effects are terrible. The CGI looks cheap and not finished. The lack of motion capture makes these characters look like they live in a video game and the creatures that they meet are done so bad that they are actually distracting. And don't get me started on the Neville flying scene. Oy! Thank goodness they fixed this in later movies. 

Begin at the beginning...

Somebody I was talking to told me that they hated origin stories. I was confused because doesn't an origin story help set up important characters? Doesn't an origin story take the audience from knowing nothing of what they are walking into, to giving us all the details that we need to form an opinion of the character and their ways? I don't understand how somebody, especially a person that claims to enjoy superhero movies, can even say that they hate origin stories. After all, it all has to begin somewhere. 


I don't mind a good origin story movie when it comes to superhero films. After all, how do you introduce that character to a new audience, or an audience that doesn't know much about that character? Sure, you can take the approach that dropping the audience into the story forthright will make it more appealing. And maybe it could, to some of the audience. However, not giving anybody a place to start with is dangerous, and may lead to even more issues with the movie.

How'd you like a nice Hawaiian punch?

When The Green Lantern came out, I shared my view of this movie in a recent post. It wasn't a bad film, per se. It just didn't have anything terribly good to offer. It was an origin story, showing Hal Jordan's journey from a reckless pilot to a superhero saving the day. This movie had the task of giving us Hal before, during, and after he becomes this new hero. Some of it worked, Sinestro for one, and some of Oa as well. But most of it didn't. And therein lay the problem here. GL is an origin story that causes troubles, because at the end of the film, you still don't really know who Hal is, what the Green Lantern can truly do, and who the Corps really are. There are more questions than answers, and that feels like a cheat and a cop-out of sorts.

Cars 2: or Pixar puts on the brakes...

I am not going to review the movie. There seems to be very little need to do that sort of thing. I enjoyed it, critics hated it, various audiences are split.


No, I am going to talk about the importance of this film, from my perspective.

If you didn't cry during this scene, you have no hope

Cars 2 is not going to win any awards. Nor should it. This is not because it is a bad movie, it's really not. No it is simply because it isn't a normally high end Pixar film. Those movies, ones like UP and Toy Story 3 and Wall-E, those win awards. Those are movies that carry with them messages of hope and wonderment, while taking it's audience on a marvelous adventure into the depths of the filmmakers imaginations. Those stories take animated characters and flesh them out enough that you care about them, about what happens to them, and what will become of them long after you have left the movie. Those stories are the best live-action movies, starring animated characters. In other words they are gold.


Cars 2 is not in that category.


No, Cars 2  is just fun. It's not brilliant, it's not thought provoking, it's just fun.

team fortress 2

I really don't know why it's called "2." Nobody I know knows about Team Fortress 1. Team Fortress 2 is a war game where you can play as 9 different people: the heavy, who has a mini gun; the soldier, who has a rocket propelled grenade; the spy; who has a zapper, a knife, a disguise case, and a pistol; the pyro, who has a flamethrower; the medic, who has a saw, a syringe gun, and a thing that gives health; the engineer, who has a wrench and tool box; the scout, whose only good attribute is that he can run really fast. There is also the demoman. who has explosives, and the last is the sniper, and guess what he has ... did you guess sniper rifle? Well, you're totally WRONG! He has a sub machine gun, a machete, and, yes, a sniper rifle.

-adevlupes

Jane Austen Heroines - Part One, Elizabeth Freakin' Bennet

So, Jane Austen.

She was a poor woman dependant on her relatives for support. She was a "husband-hunting butterfly." She was a dedicated sister and the daughter of a clergyman. She was a girl disappointed in love and a woman disappointed in her prospects. She was a writer, popular in her time and astoundingly respected a hundred years later.

I dig her. It's a little bit annoying that I like Jane Austen so much, because it's kind of cliché, but what can you do? She was awesome. She wrote these witty, insightful novels that teased at the social issues of her time while being light and frothy enough for public consumption. And she wrote amazing women.

There are authors (so, so many authors) who write the same characters over and over again. Despite her limited canvas - she pretty much exclusively wrote about country gentry - Jane Austen never fell into this trap. Darcy is not Knightley is not Wentworth is not Crawford. But more importantly, Elinor Dashwood is not Anne Elliott is not Lizzy Bennet is not Emma Woodhouse is REALLY not Fanny Price. She wrote such a rainbow of fascinating, diverse heroines, strong and flawed and intelligent and unique, and I love it. I love them (except Emma, but we'll get there).

So let's talk about Jane Austen heroines.

Oh, no, Mr. Darcy! Please continue to insult me in public.

I think any discussion on this topic has to start with Lizzy Bennet, because damn. How much cooler can you get than Elizabeth Bennet? The heroine of Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth is clever and caring and prideful and a little bit daring. She's easy to love because she's so modern. You can identify with her. Pretty and smart, she overhears the hot new rich guy in town, Darcy, dissing her, and her feelings get hurt. Duh. Of course they would. A different hot guy, Wickham, is nice to her and talks shit about Darcy, and she believes it. Why wouldn't she?  Obviously, Darcy is an ass. And since Darcy very carefully keeps her from noticing that he's falling head over heels for her, she's taken off guard and PISSED when he proposes, especially since he makes a point of telling her how much her family sucks while he's proposing.

But the thing about Lizzy is, she listens. She learns. She doesn't just let her prejudices run away with her. And I don't care what you say, I find that admirable. It's hard to let go of your pride and your confidence in your own judgment and really accept that you were wrong. And Lizzy does that. She does that - on the strength of one letter from Darcy and some careful observation of Wickham - long before she encounters Darcy being all hot and sweet and a good brother on his own property.

These are what is known as "very fine eyes."

Frankly, Elizabeth Bennet is awesome.

And I'll tell you now, that's why I can't read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It's not because of the zombies. It's not because the Bennet girls are somehow martial arts experts. It's not because WTF, how would Georgian/Regency society even work in those conditions? It's because Lizzy - dear, teasing, loving, brilliant Lizzy - is a bitch to her sister in the first few chapters. Can you say Out of Character? I can, and I said it loudly and repeatedly as I threw the book at the wall.

So what have we learned today? Frankly not much, except that Lizzy Bennet rocks. So much that, and if I were (in a tragic breakdown of birth control methods) to have a daughter, I would name her Elizabeth. And I haven't even touched on the fact that Elizabeth and Darcy's antagonistic-until-it-isn't relationship is the model for a huge chunk of modern fictional romances. But you know what? I'm fine with this post not having a lesson or a point. Because Elizabeth Bennet is just. That. Cool.

Deal with it.

--Al

Weird Al- Perform This Way (Music Video)

Today Weird Al released his music video for "Perform This Way".  His first single off "Alpocalypse".
 All I can say is that's it's odd. Brilliant but odd (and a bit disturbing). Then again this is "Weird Al" we're talking about!

Alpocalypse comes out tomorrow!

-Adnor

Green Lanterns...um...lite?

"In Brightest Day..."

Oh, Green Lantern.

I know that I am going to be pretty harsh on the movie soon, and for the most part it's warranted. However, I still enjoyed the movie, dispite a lot of its flaws.

So what's good?

Let me get this out right now: Ryan Reynolds does a very good job as Hal Jordan. He takes the character that he is given, and really helps push it to that level that it really shines in the movie itself.

Mark Strong's Sinestro, who is given very little to do, is great. The chracter design, the acting, the way he takes control of the scenes he is in is great. His talk of having no fear and showing how to use the ring to his standards is really well handled. You can just feel him looking through and judging Hal, without even changing his expression. Without a word, he says loads. So good.

I liked Parallax, even thought it wasn't developed too well. The design was interesting, and the backstory was cool. Too bad I didn't get much else. (as an observation, had Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer done something similar to this character design, that movie would not have sucked quite as much as it did. That little change could have easily made the movie, at least, tolerable.)

The Guardians are pretty cool, but they don't do much in the comics, and they don't do much here. Still, their design is pretty neat, and the way they are presented is very epic, so it's got that going for it.

Some of the Corp character designs are pretty awesome as well. I love seeing what people come up with when they are being creative.

The voice acting, and subsequent CGI work, for Tomar-Re (Geoffrey Rush) and Kilowog (Micheal Clark Duncan) is very good. I like these character designs. Sure they were animated, but they still were cool to watch. No Jar-Jar here. I hope that there is more of them in the following films.

The use of humor is handled very well. After all, there is a lot of darkness here, so it really helps that they were able to work in some laughs for the audience. Most of it is at the expense of Hal, but that's alright.

When Hal uses the ring, especially later on, it's pretty darn cool. His suit in action is not bad.

The quick end sequence! Bring on the sequel! 

"In Blackest Night..."

Best of 2010: Inception

Hans Zimmer does good work. Sure, at times it's a bit over the top and over powering, but he does a good job of bringing his presence to a motion picture. His Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks were filled with powerful cues that were exciting one moment, reflective and sad another, and tender right after that, before jumping right back into the action. He keeps time with the action very well. I am posting a rather long track, but it helps to illustrate what I am talking about very well.

 The Dark Knight score (co-written by James Newton Howard) is nothing, if not  incredible. One of my favorite tracks of all time is on this soundtrack. The title is "Like A Dog Chasing Cars." The track is written with the ablsoulte chaos of the moment in mind, as it become more and more frantic, but never loses its thematic musical self. I love it and can't get enough of the power of this one scene of music.

And his theme for 2009's Sherlock Holmes is another on my list of great tracks. It captures the fun of the movie, the time frame, and excitement. It doesn't just sit there and take a breath, but dives right into the themes presented in the movie. This is the theme of a crime solver that lived a hundred years ago, and kicked ass! I mean listen to those strings. They are working overtime something fierce. And then that send off with a banjo? Brings chills.

He's also done some great work in The Lion King, Rango, The Rock, The Simpsons Movie, and The DaVinci Code, among so many others. Click here for a (much) bigger list.

Last year, Zimmer joined forces once again with Christopher Nolan to score a movie that was a great mystery to so many of us, Inception (click link for synopsis). From the first trailer, with its booming soundtrack and amazing visuals, I was sold. I couldn't wait to see this movie. Plus, it was from Nolan, so I knew that, at the very least, it would be interesting. 

hetalia (ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)

hetalia episode 19

this time the allies are having a confrance and china comes in late. he says that he had to make crab also he brought a whole lotta people to help him build a Chinatown there. then Germany is giving the Italian army a lesson on why you shouldn't run away. in the middle the Italian army runs away. then back at the confrance every body feels like their being watched. mostly because they are being watched by Canada and no one knows he is there. then Germany is making Italy run laps but instant ly runs away. then at the end of the confrance the allies realize Italy is in the room with them





-asevlupes

hetalia (i thought that died)

I'm doing posts on actual episodes now. the episode im writing on is episode 18. in the episode the axis (italy Germany and japan) get attacked by the allies (Americana england china Russia and France) it looks like the axis can protect them selves. Germany gets a gun japan takes out a sward and Italy waves a white flag. then Germany and japan get knocked out and Italy surrenders. then a giant person comes out of the water and starts to sing. the allies get freaked out and run away and Italy says that person was his grandpa Rome. then the allies attack again same deal but grandpa Rome sings a different song





-adevlupes

Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.

Star Wars Blu-Ray extras reveals.

Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.

Sweet Tooth: Out of the Deep Woods

Sweet Tooth is your normal post-apocalyptic comic book that takes place after a huge sickness or plague that has wiped out many people on the planet, but nobody knows why. Oh, and it has a boy with deer antlers.

To me, this volume of Sweet Tooth never really accomplishes much. It is an interesting story, with mysterious characters in a mysterious setting. There was, apparently, a plague that wiped out the population. Oddities grew out of this, such as Gus, who is a normal enough looking boy, aside from the antlers on his head.


<SPOILERS>

Hetalia

I'm out of characters from Hetalia so I'm just posting this:

-adevupes