tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-209082962024-03-12T21:06:34.663-07:00Lier XDI guess this is mostly a review blog now.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-15950624821319265632017-01-10T20:00:00.002-08:002017-01-10T20:00:40.784-08:002016<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br /></div>
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2016 was a year in which television shows were played on the
television and other devices. This is an authoritative list of shows that I
have watched that were the best.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>The Americans</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
Soviet spies were sent to America
during the cold war. They performed clandestine missions for the KGB. This all
really happened in real life and was called Directorate S. The show takes
liberties with the premise, and I’m sure that real life spies could not
possibly compete with the wig game that’s displayed in the show.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
I think the Americans is more
relevant now than ever with what some people are starting to call Cold War II.
People and counties react in certain ways because of reasons that others may
not be privy to. It is usually way more complicated than because they’re ‘evil.’</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
I think it’s interesting to see
the earlier beginnings of some of the decisions in the 80s that had long
lasting ramifications today. Things like supporting apartheid South Africa, and
the CIA spending approximately 20 billion (1980s) dollars to train and assist
the Mujahedeen in overthrowing Soviet Afghanistan. Immoral things were done for
geopolitical reasons for both sides. There’s always been attempts to marginalize
our atrocities while demonizing others.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
The Americans is grounded with
their characters. They’re well defined and feel genuine. </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Halt and Catch Fire</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
First of all, this show has a really dope
opening theme.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
This is another show that is set in the 80s
era where people are reacting in a rapidly changing technological landscape. Characters
don’t get along with each other, and feuds get developed over misunderstanding.
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Better Call Saul</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
Show features very nuanced characters and
its very enjoyable seeing them interact.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Mr. Robot</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
Despite having a meandering start, I enjoyed
the much-needed characterization on Darlene and Angela. It’s nice to see that
the FBI has competent agents again and that it’s not all about super hackers. I
think there’s a good setup for season 3.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Silicon Valley</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
The show is absurd because the tech
industry is absurd.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This show makes me
laugh and I guess comedy is very subjective.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>iZombie</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
This show is very much Veronica Mars with
zombies. There might be a little ‘buffy’ in there too.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Travelers</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
I really like time travel shows and I think
this one does it big league. Appreciate that Brad Wright doesn’t hit you over
the head with exposition dumps. </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Rectify</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
The show didn’t really get the resolution I
wanted, but in a way I think that’s the point. This is an exceedingly slow
show. I think Teddy Jr came away as MVP of the series, which I could not have
imagined in the beginning. World class acting.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">9)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Stranger Things</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
Poor Barb. The show being short is a good
thing. I feel like it ended a little weaker than it started.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">10)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Got ham</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast">
I feel giddy when dumb things happen in this
dumb show. I really enjoy when villains do villainous things. People say that
the tone of the show is all over the place, but that’s just what the show is
about. There’s a manic energy that I really enjoy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Note: I caught up on the Leftovers. Season 2 is a perfect
season of television and would easily have been number 1.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-21098003047160986922012-09-20T21:09:00.001-07:002012-09-20T21:17:54.984-07:00Resident Evil Retribution (2012)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Disclaimer: I realize
that I am taking this movie too seriously. It’s a movie about monsters and
zombies, it doesn’t have to make sense, right? </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">There will be
spoilers, though you are probably not watching the movie for the story.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Resident Evil Retribution takes place immediately after the
last one. Alice, Chris, and Claire are all on the super tanker Arcadia while
Umbrella and evil-Jill are seen on various helicopters headed towards the ship.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Everything explodes, and we see Alice fall into the water.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Umbrella Mega-Evil Corporation, in an effort to sell biological
weapons to opposing nations, had to create multiple-block-wide simulation
cities in their super secret UNDERWATER RUSSIAN facility. They have created duplicates
of downtown Moscow, New York, Tokyo, and Racoon City. Umbrella has
filled these places with perfectly functioning vehicles, weapons, electronics,
furniture, and everything.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Umbrella has also prepared fifty different models of clones
which can be programmed with various directives to fulfill various testing
purposes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, the same clone
model can be programmed as a mom, or a business executive, or a business executive mom. They’ve
been inserting these clones inside these city-domes to test out their
bio-weapons in a realistic scenario. At one point in the movie, we see a
conveyor belt of thousands of clones. They're just being strung up by wires swinging aimlessly along the assembly line in the air. How is Umbrella able to
create so many clones? If they had this kind of future technology
(along with holo-projectors and future bombs and vehicles), why do they need to
even develop bioweapons?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We see one of these tests play out with an Alice clone
getting eaten while trying to protect her daughter in an initial outbreak scenario. We see cars collide, fires
get started, zombies get shot, and furniture gets broken. How is Umbrella able
to replace everything for each test? Do they have a staff of cloned janitors
and mechanics to reset it every time? How are they able get new vehicle? How could
they afford to spend what must be a trillion dollars to construct this
facility, and expect to turn a profit? This is ridiculous. Did anybody think
the movie through?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The ‘real’ Alice wakes up in an interrogation chamber when
somebody releases her. She explores the various city environments (with
zombies!) until she gets to the main control centre, where she finds Ada Wong.
Apparently , Albert Wesker. CEO of Umbrella, (the same person who we kinda saw blew
up in a helicopter last movie) has sent in a team to try and rescue Alice. The
Red Queen artificial intelligence system has turned crazy, taken over all
remaining Umbrella assets, and is now focused on exterminating humanity. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have to fight through various test
environments to get to the underwater elevator which will lead them to the
surface. Wesker also sent in another team consisting of Barry, Leon, redshirts,
and Luther West from the last movie. They’re to rendezvous at one of the test
environments.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s actually a little strange that a trillion dollar
facility wouldn’t have underwater emergency escape pods. I guess they're trying to cut cost after overspending on hallways made entirely of light panels,
holographic projectors for the sky, and domes with weather control.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So Ada and Alice go through the New York environment, and
fight some monsters. They go through the Raccoon City and find
the clone-Alice’s daughter. She thinks Alice is her mommy. The Red Queen’s
security forces featuring Michelle Rodriguez and evil Jill attempt to kill the
girls. Alice escapes to the Moscow environment where she helps the ‘guy team’
fight against a bunch of gun-wielding monsters. The rest of movie is pretty
by-the-numbers. They fight bigger monsters while members of the team die one by
one. Alice's desire to protect/rescue her faux-daughter conflicts with saving the rest of the team. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Four members are alive by the time they explode the
facility and escape to the surface. Jill/Michelle Rodriguez crashes the party
in their submarine. A boss fight occurs featuring exclusively melee weapons.
Alice almost loses until she remembers to remove Jill’s mind-controlling beetle
from Jill’s chest. Umbrella should have made a mind controlling hat or helmet
or something, but<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul WS Anderson
thought that the heart was the gateway to controlling a person. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jill becomes good again.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Michelle Rodriguez has a secret weapon. It’s a super
parasite that grants super strength and regeneration when inserted into her
body. Seconds later, she was able to heal through bullet wounds through her
head. It’s so powerful that it’s almost like magic. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They defeat her anyway, and Wesker sends a helicopter to
pick up the survivors. The chopper lands at the White House where Wesker had
become the President of the World in the time between the two movies (about a
week or so, I’d guess.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He gives Alice
super powers and tells her that she is the only hope for humanity to stop the
RED QUEEN AI from killing off everyone. It’s like Terminator, but with zombies.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The final shot of the film is Alice staring out the balcony
in disbelief as the camera pans out, revealing the white house is besieged by an
unending swarm of zombies and other creatures.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That’s strange, because Alice should have seen them while
the chopper is flying into the base.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And if the Red Queen wanted to kill all humans, she should send
in a couple of nukes at the white house.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If they don’t have nukes, then use those magical
self-destruct bombs (like the ones on the Tanker or in Japan.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Terrible movie overall.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Plot Holes?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m not an expert at underwater engineering, or weapons. I
don’t think it’s smart to give monsters access to guns, rockets, and grenades. Just
from a safety perspective, it would seem like a dumb idea if they accidentally
ruptured the dome. What if stray bullets damage the edges? I’m only bringing
this up because Ada brings it up during the film, telling Alice to not shoot at
something.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There’s also a huge Licker that wanders around the service
corridors, demolishing everything it its way. We’ve seen that it’s capable of
causing massive damage to buildings, cars, whatever. The Red Queen probably
shouldn’t have let it loose. It’s funny though that Alice finally kills it by
shooting a clip into it’s exposed brain. (The brain is always exposed, it’s not
like she removed the skull or anything.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It would have been nice to see some sort of quarantine
procedure in this research facility. An ability to lock things down if bad
things happened, possibly purge all life forms inside of an environment. That
kind of technology should exist, right? Umbrella was testing various bio-weapons,
if they can’t clean/wipe out contaminants, how could they test things properly?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This film heavily hinted that all the characters in the
first film were clones, Alice included. I thought they were going to get in the
‘life is important, even clones’ territory, but everyone pretty much just
glossed over the facts. At this point in the story, Humans are a near extinct
species. I thought it might have made sense to convert this place into a
sanctuary for humans. They’re able to manufacture clones as needed to fight
zombies. There’s safe, (weather) controlled environment domes. The team kills
tens of thousands of (near completed) clones without even thinking or feeling
anything, even though Alice has adopted her clone’s daughter. Wesker is one
dumb dude.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Big Butt Stick</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“The previous films sucked, why would you expect this one to
be any good?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ll be honest, I
didn’t truly think this one would be any good. I enjoy making fun of movies.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“It’s just a zombie movie, stop expecting realism.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That’s no excuse. There’s no reason why a film can’t have
action and also a compelling story. See: Dark Knight, Inception, Source Code,
The Thing (1982), Avengers, Matrix 1.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The RE universe is just incoherent. It’s about 5 years after
the zombie apocalypse. Humans are vastly outnumbered by zombies and other
creatures. How are Umbrella facilities still operational? Where is food/power
coming from? By now, all canned/shelf food have long expired. Why would anyone
still willingly work for an organization that’s doing this? No thought has been
put into anything. It’d complicate things if the people that the heroes are
fighting had actual depth.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What’s Umbrella’s endgame? With Wesker as CEO, he was
probably using the company as a way to achieve ultimate power and to gain
immortality through the T-Virus. That’s sounds ok. In the last movie it was
shown that Wesker was laying a trap for Alice the entire time. He wanted to ‘eat’
Alice and to consume her DNA so that his mutation would stabilize. In light of
this film, why wouldn’t he just go to the sweet Russian Umbrella Prime base?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Profit through bioweapons? They have cloning technology, and
the ability to place directives into clones. It doesn’t take much thought to
see how this technology is worth more than a million times the bioweapon.
People can essentially achieve immortality Sixth Day style. Just download memories
into a new, younger clone body. There’s unlimited organ replication. They can
bring loved ones back from death (in a non zombie manner <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span> ) They can sell clones
to Governments, trained to kill with no moral qualms about following orders.
They can replace Presidents with their clones. Possibilities are endless.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But yeah, let’s build a secret base with multiple city
blocks to test out bioweapons.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Too many dumb things in the movie that are too trivial to
mention.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The audience is hammered with the idea that Umbrella started
doing this stuff because of money. It just doesn’t make sense because they
could do so much more with what we’ve seen that they could do.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There’s a really simple fix for it too. Umbrella’s one and
only goal was to take over the world, Bond-villain style. Why were they
creating monsters. They want to shit up the planet, and then repopulate it with
those Japanese Umbrella Execs and clones of Mila Jovovich. That’s an idea I can
get behind.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>What about the Action Scenes? It's a good action movie, right? Stuff blows up?</b></div>
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There's nothing really memorable about any of the fights. It's just a bunch of named good guys shooting at named bad guys shooting at zombies. And they all miss. Nothing particularly unique or spectacular.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Though I didn't like the 2 minute slow motion reverse-shot at the start of the film, I thought it was visually interesting. That's about it.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Resident Evil Retribution feels like a 3/10 movie at the theatres. It's about 5/10 if you want to watch the film and mock it with a couple of friends. (but do it at home, and not at the theatres)</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-86797747616418802552012-07-05T22:49:00.000-07:002012-07-05T22:49:19.802-07:00Amazing Spiderman 2012<br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think there’s a really anti-reboot/remake sentiment in the
general public. It’s like having new revisions somehow diminishes the
originals. I don’t mind remakes at all. It’s another chance at making a story great. If it ends up being bad, I could just ignore it. I don’t remember much from the Sam
Raimi Spiderman films. I’ve watched the first two movies maybe twice, and the
third once in the theatre. They were decent films for sure. I just remember a
generally good vibe from those movies. I think the third had some problems
which could have been fixed.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By now, I’ve probably seen the origin story for Peter Parker
half a dozen times. He’s a photographer/high schooler nerd who gets bit by a special
(radioactive, sometimes genetically modified) spider. He abuses his powers at
first, until through inaction, he caused the death of his Uncle Ben. He then
figures out to use his powers responsibly to do some actual heroics.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I think this version of the retelling the best I’ve seen. It shows a version of Peter Parker who isn't above lying to various people to get what he wants.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My problem with the movie is that so much of it was
unrealistic. I’m willing to allow the idea that a spider bite can give super
powers, or that a man can inject reptile DNA and regrow his arm. That comes
with the price of admission.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What I don’t find realistic is Oscorp. They supposedly have
twenty (non summer) intern positions available for highschool students. That’s
a bit strange, I suppose. I guess if they were students with a lot of
potential, Oscorp would want to ‘lock’ them in. Fine. (I loved the idea that
there’s a place in fiction with hundreds of bustling scientists in the
background doing SCIENCE acitivies!) The problem is that Oscorp has worst security in the
world. Peter was able to sneak into a place filled with GM spiders. It was just a single layer of door passcodes. I think most computer OS require you to type your password for every significant change. What they should have done to get Peter his power was to have the interns shown a new batch of genetically modified spiders. The spiders could have been demonstrating hostile behaviors forcing them all to be incinerated. Maybe one of them survived by hiding behind some extra durable webbing, and manages to bite Peter Parker. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Later on in the movie, Gwen Stacy, another intern, was
able to go up to a machine and just fabricate a serum that modifies genetic
material. That’s insane, especially when you consider that the place has
EVERYTHING NEEDED TO MAKE A BIOLOGICAL WEAPON in one of the world’s biggest
cities. </div>
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<br /></div>
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I think having Curt Connors as the villain could have
worked. I remember that a big portion of what made him sympathetic in the
show/comics was that he had a family, which was a driving motivation for
injecting the serum. From what we’ve
seen in this movie, he’s put a potentially fatal serum inside himself JUST
BECAUSE he wants another arm. I’m sure that Oscorp has a synthetic limb
division that would like volunteers. If the movie Connors had a wife and
son/daughter, and it was revealed that his amputated arm was the result of a genetic
defect that was passed down, then he would have had a non-selfish reason for
testing it on himself. Dr. Connors would have lived his entire life knowing
that he was physically defective and inferior. The only non-broken thing was
his intellect. He wants to find a cure so that his kids, and others like them,
wouldn’t have to suffer like he did.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nope. Connors did it because it was his last chance to grow an arm. What’s that? 80% fatality rate? Who cares. He always loved his right hand.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the Lizard found out that Spiderman was Peter Parker,
he wasn’t even shocked. I would have thought that a successful mutation that
yields amazing agility and wall climbing abilities would be at least
interesting for him. Lizard Smash. Wouldn’t it have been great if the Lizard
didn’t magically turn into a creature 3 times his human size? They could have
used the scale prosthetics shown in various scenes. You know, let the actor
genuinely act, instead of putting a cgi mask on his face.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was mostly disappointed that a potentially humanizing
storyline with the Lizard was reduced to a conservation-of-mass-defying cgi
green monster. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The rest of the movie was pretty predictable. I think I’m
more disappointed with this movie because it was so close to being great.
Instead, it’s just good.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
7/10</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-79778169634187358082012-06-26T21:19:00.002-07:002012-06-26T21:19:51.729-07:00Brave 2012<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA">As with a lot of other Pixar movies,
there’s a short animation movie right before the main feature. For Brave, it
was La Luna. It’s about three generations of people who are supposed to care
for and clean up the moon. You see, the phases of the moon only show up because
these guardians have been maintaining it. The grandpa and dad are bringing the
son for his first maintenance work. The two adults both want the boy to do
things their way, from the way he wears his hat to the tools that he’ll use. On
the moon, they come across a problem that they couldn’t solve. The boy came
into his own, deciding to wear his hat sideways, and use a bit of ingenuity to
solve their problem. Once they’re done, they climb back to their boat on Earth
and admire the crescent shape of the moon. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA">When the credits for La Luna came, I jokingly said that the best part of the film had
come and we could leave. I wish we did.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA">There’s something wrong when the best part
of a movie happens in the first 5 minutes. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA">I’m not sure what the appeal is for Brave.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA"><minor "plot"="" spoiler=""> </minor></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA">The film tells the story of a (Scottish?)
princess who doesn’t want to be married through a contest. She wants to choose
her own fate and to marry for love instead. The Queen mother doesn’t agree. The
two have a fight and the princess runs away. In an effort to use magic to
change the queen’s mind, she accidentally inflicts a curse on her mother. The
two of them spend the rest of the film trying to undo the curse, while learning
the point of view of the other.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA"></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA">That’s essentially the entire story. I kept
waiting for something interesting or memorable to happen, but it never happens.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA">Brave doesn’t have anything that’s inherently
offensive or terrible. It just doesn’t do anything other than tell a generic
fairy tale. There are only three locations in the entire film: Spooky Forest,
Castle, and Castle Ruins. There’s supposed to be a lesson in Brave, but it’s
something like ‘the power to change your own fate is within yourself’. I think
the real moral should be ‘talk with your parents/child, and then you wouldn’t
have to go to a woods witch to try to poison your mother.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA">There’s no real
point in the story where we see why the Queen has changed her mind. Did she see
something unique in her daughter while cursed that she couldn’t before? Not
really.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-CA">What went wrong with Brave?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA">Toy Story had toys were sentient. They
experience emotions just like us.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA">Monsters Inc. had creatures whose job was
to scare children because they believe children are dangerous invaders.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA">Finding Nemo had a talking fish trying to
find his son.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA">Wall-E had robots gaining sentience in a
post-human world, and going through vast distances for love.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA">Up had a curmudgeonly old man trying to
fulfill his dream after a lifetime of setbacks. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA">Brave is about a princess who wants her
mother to be less controlling.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA">Usually, I think bad films can be salvaged
with some minor changes. I don’t think that this film could really be salvaged
at all. The problem, I think, is that it has a bad premise. Any of the other
Pixar movies above has a more interesting premise. There are more stories that
are available from the start. Brave did something worse than Transformers 3, or
Harold and Kumar Christmas. It was boring from start to finish. It didn't push any envelope. There's no interesting ideas. There's no cute or funny animal. It was just a waste of time.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=20908296" name="_GoBack"></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA">3/10</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-76931127993572064282012-01-01T02:48:00.001-08:002012-01-01T02:48:47.382-08:00Doing a Triple. Sherlock Holmes 2, Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, Tin Tin.<br><p>Sherlock Holmes 2. Game of Shadows.</p><p>I'm not really a fan of old timey period pieces. I actually fell asleep in the theatre briefly during the first Sherlock Holmes.</p><p>The film works as an action movie, but there's not really a lot of meat to the story. I'm not sure if it's entirely unreasonable to expect a Sherlock Holmes property to have a great mystery that needs to be solved. The movie begins with Professor Moriarty, who is Holmes' intellectual equal, orchestrating various bombings in Europe… at least that's what Holmes suspects. It turns out that Moriarty has been orchestrating events which were meant to destabilize Europe so that there would be rising tensions for a new, modernized World War. Good thing Holmes is there to stop him, right?</p><p>There's no real mystery in this movie, and that's probably its biggest flaw. Holmes and Watson gallivants from place to place exploding things and running from explosions in slow motion.</p><p> </p><p>The movie isn't great, but there are no significant flaws. I just wish that it ended on a different note. I would not have minded if Moriarty did not lose at the end. It would have been refreshing to see the villain win in a movie for once. I would have enjoyed it more if Sherlock Holmes was not explicitly shown at the end of the film as well. A little bit more ambiguity would have been appreciated.</p><p> </p><p>Note: Some of the action sequences were visually annoying. Mixing slow motion with 'fast motion' in the same scene is really distracting. It's absolutely terrible during the Forest scene. If you've seen this you'll know what I mean.</p><p> </p><p>PS: I am really tired of seeing Robert Downey Junior playing his smart douchebag role.</p><p> </p><p>Mission Impossible: Ghost Complex.</p><p> </p><p>I have not watched any Mission Impossible movies before this. I don't think I've really missed a beat on the story though.</p> <p> </p><p>Does the story really matter for this type of movie? It's about Tom Cruise and his team pulling off near impossible missions in dangerous circumstances. It's barely relevant. The story here is that there's a crazy highly intelligent man who believes that the world should be bathed in the glow of nuclear light… that the world and humanity will come out of it stronger. He's actually probably got a point. Whatever can survive a mass extinction will probably be the best of the best… I mean just look at the Walking Dead. Those survivors show the best parts of humanity.</p><p> </p><p>Regarding the action, it's fairly well done. I imagine it looks great on IMAX 3D. There's a problem with the Dubai scenes though. When the team is halfway set up with the infiltration, they realize that an unexpected factor has arisen (which is used to raise the tension) , and that the characters have to trade real data to the terrorists. At this point, they decide to continue the ruse. It would actually have made a lot more sense if they decided to not stick with the plan. I don't get it.</p><p>My main gripe with the film is that for a super intelligent villain, he's actually pretty darn stupid.</p><p> </p><p>Tin Tin</p><p>Tin Tin is a boy-detective-reporter who goes on crazy adventures solving mysteries with his adorable dog. I am not really familiar with the series at all. I've seen some characters before but I don't really know their names. At first, I thought the dog was named Tin Tin, and the movie was about its crazy adventure.</p><p>The first part of the movie is slow, but it crescendos nicely by the end of the film. Scenes are lively, but not distracting. There's just enough going on in each scene to be visually appealing without being bombarded by weird antics. What's really surprising for me is that, while marketed for a younger audience, the film features the main character owning and using his gun, and the side-character captain is an alcoholic. It seems like something that would have had a lot of discussion behind the scenes. I'm just glad it ended up the way it did.</p><p>The setup for the story is pretty sloppy. Tin Tin is at the local market when he spots an awesome model ship. Just after he buys it, two mysterious persons try to purchase it from him on the spot. Turns out the model ship contains a clue to the adventure. A bit too convenient.</p><p> </p><p>I would have liked to see more consequence to the character's actions. A lot of property is damaged during the movie, and people don't really seem to react to that appropriately. They're really minor criticism. Is it hypocritical for me to judge this film more lightly on the basis that it's a cartoon? I thought the end product was good, and that the characters (especially the dog) to be endearing. Turns out that people are able to put up with more garbage with things that they enjoy.</p><p> </p><p> Sherlock Holmes 2 - 5/10</p><p>Mission Impossible - 6/10</p><p>Tin Tin - 7/10</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-59104838039483463232011-11-06T01:51:00.001-07:002011-11-06T01:51:10.421-08:00A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas Explosion 3D.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">I could rant about the commercialization of Christmas, and how commercials seem to start the second after Halloween, but that’s not really important. It’s just weird to have a Christmas movie in the first week of November. Am I the only one who thinks it’s insane to essentially spend 1/6<sup>th</sup> of the year celebrating Christmas?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I went to a two dimensional showing despite the fact 3D is in the title. Whenever there’s a ‘3D’ moment, I am reminded of how terrible this whole 3D fad really is. Gratuitous 3D is the worst. There are scenes with stuff flying towards the camera, hitting the camera, and cracking it. Do people actually like that kind of stuff? Things that bring you out of a movie? They should have a 2D cut for the 2D version without tall the crap flying towards the screen. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“This (fake) 3D penis is really awesome. Just wish I saw it in 3D so it’s right up against my face. Thanks, James Cameron, you Avatard. “ <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s been years since Harold and Kumar are roommates, and they’ve grown apart. That’s not unusual because statistically people lose half their friends every 6 years. Harold’s become a successful banker-man with a large house and a beautiful wife. Kumar’s been kicked out of the medical practice because he’s failed his drug test. He’s been living in squalor with his life focused on chasing the next marijuana high.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The day before Christmas, a magical package containing a magical joint is delivered to Kumar’s apartment addressed to Harold. When Kumar delivers it to Harold’s new address, the magical joint starts the magical adventure by burning down the Christmas tree, which was a gift from his wife’s violent Mexican cartel-ish dad. So the adventure begins with them trying to find and replace the McGuffin tree.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I guess I just had too high of an expectation for this film and franchise. I thought Go to White Castle was a genuinely good film. Escape from Guantanamo Bay was an alright film. It’s been a while since I’ve watched those movies. From what I could remember, they started off pretty reasonably, and were steady slides into more and more absurd situations. They culminate at an absolutely insane point where everything sort of flows together. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">3D is easily the worst of the trilogy. From the start, the relationship between Harold and Kumar were strained. They don’t really like each other anymore, and it gives off a weird vibe. By the end though, they learn to become BFFs and everything works out. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s kinda cool, I guess. This film starts with a pretty insane premise and never really attempts to bring it back to reality. In this movie, it is clear that all the characters in this world are larger-than-life. They have a car accident and a car is ruined. Of course they won’t call the police or their insurance company. They were mistaken as extras in a musical while hanging out at a back alley. Despite their protests, the lady was apparently able to get them in full costumes and into the rehearsal. Movie logic :/ </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the original, the world is shown to be fairly normal with unusual freaks that the two characters meet. Harold and Kumar are still grounded to reality. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this movie, it is clear that all the characters in this world are larger-than-life and does things just to move to the next sketch. It feels less organic.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Don’t get me wrong, there are some genuinely funny scenes in the movie. They’re just too few and far in-between. The same baby joke is rehashed throughout the film. Two characters get locked in the same place for half the film. The best parts of the film are the short vignettes when we’re taken away from the characters. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think the film would probably be better if the characters were high the entire time, that it wasn’t clear if everything is really happening as we see it. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As is, A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas didn’t work for me. I had a terrible experience during and after the film. I would sit in silence as people around me were laughing. I understood the jokes, but they felt completely flat. Honestly, I think the combination of “THREE DEE” and “CHRISTMAS MOVIE” has turned me completely off to the film. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I wish I hadn’t paid money to watch this. I’m sure all the funny bits would end up on youtube anyway. 3/10</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-59131396963263213442011-10-16T23:46:00.001-07:002011-10-16T23:46:46.563-07:00The Thing 2011 Review. <p class="MsoNormal"></p> <p class="MsoNormal">It's a good imitation of the 1982 John Carpenter film of the same name, but it isn't the real thing.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">If you aren't familiar with what The Thing is, then you need to go and watch the 1982 version right the heck now. It's better than this movie.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Don't bother reading the rest of this. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Now that you've presumably watched the 1982 Thing, this prequel basically follows the same structure. You already know what happens in this film as it links directly to the 1982 Thing.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>2011 Thing tells the story of the Norwegian Camp. They discovered an alien spacecraft by following an ancient energy signal. They discovered a body encased in ice outside of the spacecraft so they fly in Kate, an American paleontologist who has experience with thawing creatures, to the Norwegian Base. Eventually, the Thing breaks free from the ice and starts killing or assimilating people. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Hilarious things ensue and people die.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">One of the great aspects to Carpenter's version is that all of the creature shots are practical effects. As a result, the creature looks and feels real and the characters respond to it in a realistic manner. In Carpenter's version, the Thing is shown to be an intelligent creature. It only attacks when cornered, and prefers to assess the situation in order to sow distrust.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">With the prequel, they've opted to use both CGI and practical effects. I found a couple of cgi shots which bordered on being completely unbelievable and absurd. It didn't feel possible or helpful or realistic for the creature to 'thing out' by splitting in half down the centre and to grow some teeth. Humans are shown to be ultra fragile in that one touch from the thing can cause skin merging and subdue the prey. It makes no sense for the thing to even need to transform out of humanoid shell. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Thanks to modern computer technology, the Thing is now able to move around thing out in gruesome detail. So we get scenes where a ridiculous monster trapezes down hallways knocking everything apart. I guess that's cool.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The creature in this film doesn't feel very smart. It feels like an unrealistic, dumb monster.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">There's a lot of room for improvement for 2011 Thing. The characters in this film don't feel distinct in either their looks or their behavior. There are really only three or four characters that stood out. I think the main problem is that many of the characters have the same beard. Was this intended to throw off the trail of who ends up on the helicopter at the end? Like some kind of Beard-Plot-Shield? We know that at least two bearded men survive in the helicopter at the start of the 1982 Carpenter film. Most of the characters are merely thing-fodder. Contrast this with 1982 Thing where each character felt real and unique, despite how little screen time they got.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">It feels to me like Kate was acting not smart for a lot of the film. Imagine you found living alien cells that imitate other cells under the microscope. What would you do in a facility full of scientists? Kate decides not to tell anyone. Remember, this was before the shower/helicopter scene so she didn't really have any reason to mistrust anybody. When she's telling everyone about the imitation the next day, the dialogue felt like it was ripped straight out of Kurt Russell's mouth. Same with her speech outside in the snow. I was seriously contemplating leaving the theatre when she says she has a test for the thing. If it turned out to be a fire-blood test, I would have left. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">As the film progresses, the Norwegian camp looks more and more like the one we see in the 1982 film. We see why weird monster remains are where they are. We see holes get put in buildings, and axes in walls. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">It's largely faithful to 1982 Thing and has dialogue which could be lifted directly from that film. No real big plot hole (Norwegians were shown to be using dynamite to uncover the alien ship in 1982!), and everything mostly fits. There's no sense of real paranoia, and they could have used the language barrier better. I think the tension would have been much better if certain lines were not subtitled. Thing 2011 is an entertaining film which adds interesting things to the franchise. It just won't be as well regarded as The Thing 1982.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">7/10</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Discussion (spoilers)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The 1982 movie didn't leave things very clear. We didn't know if either of the characters we see at the end was human or Thing. There's not really that kind of ambiguity to this film.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">So when the Thing escaped from the ice-block, it inflected a dog, which was unseen for the rest of the film until the end credits. It can be used to infect explain any of the characters… including the woman character, and the helicopter doctor guy. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It brings up the question… why didn't the dog try and infect Lars during the night? Why didn't the dog thing the suicide scientist? </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Why did the doctor guy thing out in the helicopter? There's not really any reason for it to Thing out at that time. It wasn't cornered. For all it knew, they were landing again because they forgot something… but it decided to thing out and cause the helicopter to crash.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">There are two possible times for him to be assimilated… after the crash and inside the spaceship. If two humans could survive the crash, then the thing probably could have too. It could assimilate Carter if he's unconscious or something. The problem is that his black co-pilot was with him the entire time and he was human the entire movie (as demonstrated in the breakroom scene.) Would the thing infect one while leaving the other human? It seems like a really weird stratagem. This means that both were human when they attacked Lars and stole his flamethrower. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">So he must have been turned while in the alien spaceship. As he's calling out for Kate, the thing tracked him down. So why wouldn't Carter-thing try and convert Kate right then and there in the spaceship. He had the weapons and she's not really suspecting anything. In a one-on-one encounter, it doesn't really make sense for the thing to not engage.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">When he's pleading with her to not burn him, I thought it would have been interesting if Carter actually breaks out of character and speaks as the thing. Maybe throw lines like "I don't even care about your world. I just want to go home." Or something.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Now, what if Carter was human right at the end of the film? That he removed his earrings because it's god damn cold and the metal saps heat away. Or that he sometimes wears his earring on either side of his face. Other people say that they heard him scream like a thing as he's burning. I was paying attention to see if he things out with tentacles, which he never did. I think it would be poignant to see Kate burn the only other human due to mistrust. </p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-69004878009407671182011-09-28T03:05:00.001-07:002011-09-28T03:22:58.349-07:00Terra Nova Review: Time Travelling Dinosaurs.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The show starts off with text on the screen sstating the premise of the show.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">AT THE DAWN OF THE 22<sup>ND</sup> CENTURY. THE WORLD IS ON THE VERGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL COLLAPSE. MANKIND’S ONLY SURVIVAL LIES 85 MILLION YEARS IN THE PAST.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">We are shown a futuristic apartment in a smog-filled city. It might have been Beijing or Shanghai or something. There’s a character walking inside the hallways wearing a futuristic air filter. Oh no. The air is so toxic that you can’t just breathe the air outside!</div><div class="MsoNormal">The first 5 minutes of the show just keeps hitting the viewer on the head about how terrible the future really will be. Consumerism and High-Tech gadgets are pretty much gone, except for the occasional super thin ID cards. The dad goes inside his apartment and shows his family the wonder of an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">orange. </i>Apparently they’re so rare that it’s been years since some of them have seen one. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The mom name-drops that respiratory diseases have risen recently, probably due to the poor air quality.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal">So, the police come in and say they have to search the house. In the future, one person can only have one offspring. They have three. The police finds the third child (named Zoe.) and the dad is put in jail.</div><div class="MsoNormal">For twelve more minutes, we see the dad try to solid snake his way out of prison and to the Stargate facility. In the end, he makes a mad dash towards the portal.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">FLASH FORWARD 2 YEARS</div><div class="MsoNormal">In the two years, the mom found a way to get the family into Terra Nova and travel into the past because she’s a doctor. Even though she can have a good life, she doesn’t want her kids to stay in a dying world! The bad thing is that the dad(Jim) has to stay in prison, and Zoe can’t go.</div><div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">The first sixteen minutes of the show has been entirely superfluous. Honestly, if they excised it, the pilot would probably be better. I don’t think they had enough budget, time, or imagination to create the world of 214X well enough. Everyone is living in squalor… in a dying world. They don’t outright say what caused the environmental collapse. I hope it isn’t just pollution or ‘global warming’. Anyway, there’s enough dialogue after the jump in time to describe the future. There’d be more mystery and would have probably been better.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal">Jurassic Park.</div><div class="MsoNormal">So the Terra Novan colony has existed for 7 years now. They quickly explain that this is an entirely new timeline so they can kill dinosaurs or whatever they want without causing any causality problems.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Characters make the comparison about the lush environment compared to the dark/gloomy/perpetually cloudy environment. I can understand things like “The air is so fresh!”, but things like “I’ve forgotten what the moon looks like”, or “the sky is so blue I’ve never seen.” is bizarre. Are there no television programmers in the future about what the past is like? Minor complaint.</div><div class="MsoNormal">When the family and the rest of the expedition arrive at Terra Nova, the dad is assigned to agriculture duty.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The youngest daughter Zoe finds some brontosaurus which was right on the other side of the fence. Nice job keeping dinosaurs away, security. It was one of those Jurassic park moments, and I guess it was absolutely necessary. Doesn’t mean it makes sense in-universe.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The main conflict of this episode revolves around Josh (the son) hanging around female love interest (Sky) and engaging is some incredibly dumb shenanigans. They decide to go into a restricted zone to jump off a waterfall. They also decide to go make alcohol in an area with dangerous dinosaurs. On their way back to the camp, they were ambushed by dinosaurs. That’s such an unforeseeable plot twist! Oh, Sky shows Josh some strange cave markings, and then makes him promise not to tell anyone about the cave markings. Yeah, like that won’t be a plot point in the future.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The other plot point involves the doctor wife healing a man who was supposed to be a thief. Turns out that the guy is a “Sixer”, which is a group of people from the sixth pilgrimage who have since left the main group and found their own colony. The thief breaks out of the hospital laughably easily, and then proceeds to try and assassinate Taylor, the leader of Terra Nova. Why nobody at the hospital decided to inform security (to warn Taylor or anyone), I don’t know. Probably just bad writing or something. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Jim stops the plot and becomes a new cop. They go for a ride outside the gate and spots the Sixers riding towards the camp. They’re here to exchange some ‘meteoric iron’ for the prisoner and some supplies.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Sixers have a hidden agenda and are led in part by Taylor’s son. Apparently Taylor’s son is the one making the cave markings which will be the key to controlling the future.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The retarded teenagers and the sixers storyline intersects when the sixers were murdered on their way back to the their camp. The teenagers find their vehicle and hides inside it when dinosaurs come. They are rescued by the end of the episode.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">This show has excellent dialogue/interaction such as</div><div class="MsoNormal">“GET AWAY FROM ME”</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Hey I know you, you are Drake, right? It’s me, Sky.”</div><div class="MsoNormal">“SKY? ALRIGHT GET IN”</div><div class="MsoNormal">Right as they’re getting away from a dinosaur.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two guards chilling at a tower.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a aiotarget="false" aiotitle="" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh4G8sXdd-lJZHMENCVmaZogiGKABWV0iRSxKyNbRzJaf8RSm_BqGEiMvoaWTijqeIJtO9q3PDIKS8Dt5lgV3unWq8A9KZJtGFNG2pavQI7huyOXVuC1UnLtaGkxx-Ych5Wz9-8w/s1600/TN04.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh4G8sXdd-lJZHMENCVmaZogiGKABWV0iRSxKyNbRzJaf8RSm_BqGEiMvoaWTijqeIJtO9q3PDIKS8Dt5lgV3unWq8A9KZJtGFNG2pavQI7huyOXVuC1UnLtaGkxx-Ych5Wz9-8w/s1600/TN04.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Security perimeter is so poor that people can just crawl outside the gate. If jurassic park taught me anything, is that there are small killer velociraptor everywhere.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_PCjP1BaVsRcp9j1wu3lZisB4QFiSlOroHZYfmzhs_2_SQ62LDlgj33LLLa3OFQkF4G8Nusw9pBjVgX4LdrQWkutzYeP-a32l8nrp4KPGfPcCdYX7wTKvS8oO_tyChPVv54ZZNA/s1600/TN01.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_PCjP1BaVsRcp9j1wu3lZisB4QFiSlOroHZYfmzhs_2_SQ62LDlgj33LLLa3OFQkF4G8Nusw9pBjVgX4LdrQWkutzYeP-a32l8nrp4KPGfPcCdYX7wTKvS8oO_tyChPVv54ZZNA/s1600/TN01.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No guards at all. I guess that's why the little girl was able to feed the brontosaurus some leaves.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPRjHmdSMJ5mEc7yoda_-nzKR-I5Sk8I4T0BhQ6kzltbKjfIXvI3RF-LvVkVrscaIuslZd5kxq8sG0uPhwcK-Z0lPRZlitBThbG8x2-8nXuF7hYxGh00q7G1WSonxZ7e0F3Gp_TQ/s1600/TN02.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPRjHmdSMJ5mEc7yoda_-nzKR-I5Sk8I4T0BhQ6kzltbKjfIXvI3RF-LvVkVrscaIuslZd5kxq8sG0uPhwcK-Z0lPRZlitBThbG8x2-8nXuF7hYxGh00q7G1WSonxZ7e0F3Gp_TQ/s1600/TN02.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One guard on tower.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqu9ogrYNXQL6y8NzgrwsUqr0OVk2WDeYhzr7IYqAdyd4HBI-NdSiLQliFW7AEj7CB23d_6Bc4QAjAtwiP5kqzesv6I8jwUvO_xe3in1dpm1jFx7jNKkEzK2HpBxZVcWWG-qoAcw/s1600/TN05.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqu9ogrYNXQL6y8NzgrwsUqr0OVk2WDeYhzr7IYqAdyd4HBI-NdSiLQliFW7AEj7CB23d_6Bc4QAjAtwiP5kqzesv6I8jwUvO_xe3in1dpm1jFx7jNKkEzK2HpBxZVcWWG-qoAcw/s1600/TN05.png" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">What I don’t like about the show, which probably won’t improve as it goes on, is that the military/security of Terra Nova is so absurdly terrible. We have areas where there are absolutely no guards while dinosaurs roam nearby. We have guards that don’t know to fire a weapon until ordered by the main characters. We have (farm) areas which are not within the perimeter of the colony. Terrible planning, guys.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Also, I refuse to believe that 130 years from now, humans won’t have weapons that would simply shred dinosaurs apart. Even in an environmentally collapsed Earth, you just know that hoards of money will be spent developing even more effective weapons of war.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">5/10</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s a pilot episode. It’s not very good at all. I have a feeling this show is going to be a lot like Falling Skies… except that Falling Skies doesn’t have as dense of characters as here. The teenager plot reminds me a lot of Tyler from V.<br />
Is this show worth watching? I wouldn't say so. There's not really anything here that's done particularly well. There's better things to do with your time. Go watch Breaking Bad, or Fringe, or Supernatural. Go back and watch SGU or Alphas.<br />
<br />
I am curious to see what kind of storyline they can do to sustain a full season.</div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-72118744467027163822011-08-25T03:47:00.000-07:002011-08-25T03:47:06.150-07:00Conan 2011 Review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal">When I saw this movie today, the entire 200+ seat theatre was empty. At first I thought it was because of the 18A rating which would limit the audience, but just when the room began to darken and the trailers started to roll, a dad and his ten year old son came in. If the father thinks his son is mature enough to grasp all the complex situations in the film, all the power to him.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Now, the lack of an audience is not necessarily an indication about the quality of the film. The last film that was empty on the first opening week that I saw was Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. It was a pretty good, but complex film.</div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m not a fan of the original Conan film. The only thing going for it was Arnold Swarzennegar’s portrayal of Conan. He was played as a dumb, simple, and generally good hearted guy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Arnold also seems to struggle to read his lines, but it was clear that he was trying his hardest. His bad acting actually contributed positively to the movie. If someone like Arnold, with little to no talent, can be a movie star, then maybe I can achieve my goals too.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Conan 2011, starring Jason Momoa, is definitely a technically competent film which supposedly follows the original book/novella mythology closer. There’s no glaring flaws technically. The action scenes were actiony. The musical score was engaging. The computer graphics / set design / costumes were all good. Alas, there are some problems with the pacing and story... which isn’t necessarily caused by the writers/script supervisors. A lot of changes can happen from script to the screen which can come from a myriad of sources. There were supposedly a lot of rewrites during the filming process, and the film shows that.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The first third of the film is actually completely fine. It tells the story of Conan’s upbringing, and the events causing him to seek out the main baddie, Zym. Ron Perlman performed an adequate role as Conan’s dad.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The second part is about Conan as an adult. He’s been looking for Zym for the last twenty years unsuccessfully, until he happens to find one of Zym’s lieutenants at a bar. Hilarity ensues and bowels explode. Conan kills a bunch of guys for an hour or so. Oh, he accidentally rescues a white monk-lady who has pure blood. She’s also the only person that Zym needs to complete an evil ritual. Conan goes to a variety of different locations during the hour. I think the film could have use some “Indiana Jones”-style map transitions, or “Lawrence of Arabia”-style wide shots to really demonstrate the distances that Conan is covering. Conan’s journey doesn’t feel mythic. He just bounces from location to location changing sidekicks briefly. It would feel different to really show the passage of time.</div><div class="MsoNormal">In the final act, Zym acquires the monk-girl and is finally able to complete the mask which will give him ultimate power…the power to shout really loudly and to collapse his skull-shaped cave. Yeah, it was a bit anti-climactic considering Zym has been saying that it’ll make him a new god. Incredibly underwhelming. Oh, he dies like a punk in the end because he spends time gloating instead of killing Conan.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Conan’s entire life so far has been about getting revenge against Zym for murdering his whole tribe. When he finally kills Zym, the story just ends. He has about three lines of dialogue, none of which reflects what just happened. It’s like killing Zym was not a big deal at all. There’s no indication that he’s changed at all through the story. There’s no real character arc. There’s no growth. Arnold’s Conan goes through a gamut of change through the 1982 movie. He grows as a character and finds love. 2011 Conan remains the same.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Conan 2011’s weak final act really hurts the film. Is it really too much to ask for the villain to have laser eyes? It needed to be over-the-top to make the final battle compelling. He needed to complete a task that was truly heroic. </div><div class="MsoNormal">5/10</div><div class="MsoNormal">There’s some parts of the film I would like to rewatch. I would never go out of my way to watch it.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-18450199805345965732011-07-28T19:23:00.002-07:002011-07-28T20:35:44.159-07:00Harry Potter 7b Review<p class="MsoNormal"><br />
</p><p class="MsoNormal">I think the worst decision in the film franchise is splitting up Deathly Hallows into two parts. I understand that it's meant to give time for the audience to 'feel' the desperation, loneliness, and helplessness of the main trio. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>What ended up happening is a bunch of close-up shots of the main characters delivering lines. Now, I don't think the acting is particularly bad. The problem is that all the characters, throughout the two movies, are extremely one-note. They're all just acting heroically defiant. The side characters are all heroically scared.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Part 1 was flawed because there was no real resolution. The movie just ended at a point that's not even really the climax. Some people excuse this because it is the first part of "Deathly Hallows", but that argument is bunk. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>A movie should be able to be viewed in isolation. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Anyway, 7B is much better than the first part mostly because stuff actually seems to happen in this film. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Unfortunately, the stuff that happens fall under two categories.</p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">1)<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span>Harry/Gang pleads with somebody or something to inspire them to help.</p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">Example: Gringott goblin, Dumbledore's brother, Ravenclaw ghost</p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:1.0in;mso-add-space: auto"> </p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">2)<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span>Harry is put on the right track by some coincidence/external force.</p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">Example: Multiple horcrux visions… first leading him to the room, then more visions telling him exactly which object. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Voldemort fucking off immediately after touching Snape, allowing Harry to get Snape's memories.</p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast">Harry and gang coincidentally running away in the same alley as Dumbledore's brother in Hogsmead.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Through the entire series, Harry has been told what to do and where to go. He's had this expectation since birth due to his history with Voldemort. Dumbledore has manipulated Harry for years, giving him cryptic hints of what to do. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I don't think Harry's really made any important choice by himself. I would have loved to see Harry question his destiny at the end of the movie. He was prepared to sacrifice himself to save the world, but we never really saw him try to weasel out of it. Yeah, Harry Potter's just that good… but even Jesus had doubts about his crucifixion at Gethsemane. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Fun things:</p><p class="MsoNormal">I recall of couple of scenes where there was a clearly more important objective, but the trio decides to do some other stuff first like visiting the main hall and seeing the injured.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Where were the students running to/from after the hall scene? Harry was running to the Ravenclaw tower, and there were tons of kids running down it. In the previous scene, all the students were in the great hall! </p><p class="MsoNormal">I find it hilarious that wizards are battling/running entirely on foot. You have brooms. Probably a harder target to hit while in the air. They'd travel faster too.</p><p class="MsoNormal">After Snape jumps out of the window, but before the shield is put in place, there were establishing shots of dementers/ghosts/death eaters floating around the castle. Good job, guys. They didn't even try to help.</p><p class="MsoNormal">There was a deatheater who said something along the lines of "Maybe we should wait" to Voldemort regarding the attack on Hogwarts. That line was never explained at all and seems out of place. What would waiting to break down the shield possibly do? Voldemort should have killed him for being a dumbdumb.</p><p class="MsoNormal">I like that they never even bothered to explain what happened to Harry and why he didn't die in the Forbidden Forest. Oh? The elder wand refuses to kill him? Good thing it was dialed back enough to kill Voldemort's horcrux, but not enough to kill Harry.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Voldemort knows that the gang is destroying his horcruxes. He doesn't seem to really put any effort in protecting them with his guards. What he really should have done was send one of the objects into deep space. Good luck tracking that down, Harry.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Conclusion: </p><p class="MsoNormal">After the movie ended, I asked a friend. "Did you like that?"</p><p class="MsoNormal">"I like that the series is over."</p><p class="MsoNormal">I am glad that the series is over. This movie is way more entertaining than Part 1, so there's that. It provides a conclusion with reasonable answers, but it is clear that certain things don't mesh correctly. (ie. Time-Turner from Book 3, kids teleporting everywhere, the whole disarming wands/new owner thing.) Pt2 is worth the time if you've already seen the other movies. Just sad that it didn't end on the best note.</p><p class="MsoNormal">7/10</p><b></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-54859422983035749432011-06-20T00:15:00.001-07:002011-06-20T00:15:10.316-07:00Green Lantern Review<p class="MsoNormal"><br> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Not extremely terrible, just horribly generic, formulaic.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">If you are looking for just another superhero film, Green Lantern is great.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">So, billions of years ago, there existed a group of intergalactic space cops called the Green Lantern Corp. Their powers come from a magical green ring which uses the power of "Will" to wish anything into existence. The power of "Will" directly contrasts the "Fear" which is yellow in colour. Billions of years ago, the galactic council rulers fought against the evil Fear-using Parallax Smoke Monster. Parallax was all about destroying worlds. When Parallax was defeated, he was imprisoned in an asteroid in the 'lost' sector. Well, six months ago a space ship crashed on the asteroid and accidentally released Parallax. Oops.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Well, Ryan Reynolds eventually gets one of these rings and the origin story continues.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I want to give special props to the bald scientist played by Peter Sarsgaard. He has the most interesting plot in the story… at least before he became horribly ugly. Something that didn't jive with me is the casting of his character's father. IMDB states that Peter is 40 while his movie dad is 52. <br></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p> <p class="MsoNormal">There's a bunch of plot weirdness in the film which can be overlooked if you don't attempt to think about it. That's pretty standard fare in genre films though. For example, Ryan Reynolds got teleported to a dock/beach and discovers an alien/ alien ship and calls his best friend to pick him up. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>His best friend knows about the alien, a magical ring, and a lantern. In the next scene Ryan Reynolds is all alone in his house playing with the ring. Why would the best friend, being a scientist, not want to investigate the ring with Ryan Reynolds? Didn't make sense. <br></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Another example is the prison of Parallax. So this guy can destroy whole worlds and actually wants to dominate and rule the entire universe. He was defeated… but not killed. I wouldn't want to have a threat like that alive, so there better be a reason for not killing it. Anway, the galactic council decided to put this galactic evil on a remote asteroid with security so lame that three dudes in space suits accidentally freed it by stepping on the surface of the asteroid. The deaths of billions are on you, immortal guardians of the universe. Oh, and I love the intro scene where the three aliens were calling for help in an alien language (subtitled), but when Parallax starts to escape, he was speaking English. I understand that the Green Lantern Rings have translator capabilities. That's cool. Why was Parallax speaking in English? They could have avoided the problem entirely if the three aliens were speaking English at the start too. Eh. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Green Lantern isn't bad. There are a couple of laughs in the film. There's some clunky dialogue. There's some neat visuals. In the end, it isn't as deep as 'The Dark Knight" nor as entertaining as "The Green Hornet". Just some mediocre superhero film.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">6/10</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-38147270369487766912011-06-12T02:26:00.002-07:002011-06-13T20:07:47.446-07:00Super 8 Review.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Seems like JJ Abrams have been getting involved in a lot of movies and television shows recently. Alias. Lost. Fringe. Alcatraz (upcoming). He's also done a couple blockbuster movies. Mission: Impossible 3, Cloverfield, Star Trek.<br />
One thing that Abrams brought from Star Trek: The Star Trek was the lens flare. Film makers in the past dread the lens flare. They believe that it brings the audience out of the film whenever a lens flare pops up in a shot. I'm convinced that Abrams intentionally put lens flares in the film. Super 8 ends on a lens flare. Ugh.<br />
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Super 8 is about a group of kids trying to make a movie amidst some chaos in the town. If you've seen the trailer then you can predict all of the major beats in the film. The story felt like an amalgamation of different genre films that ultimately didn't mesh into a satisfying resolution. Evil Government and Evil Military trying to do evil while the a Heroic Scientist (with the help of some kids) stops them. There's another layer of personal story beneath that about accepting loss. The moral is that life sometimes suck and that accidents happen so let the pain/resentment/guilt/necklace/whatever go. Let it go and move on with your life.<br />
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The teen actors in this film are good. They acted exactly how kids should act; They were annoying. The female lead (Elle Fanninng) was good but not spectacular.<br />
<br />
Overall, Super 8 isn't a great film. The story was mediocre. The visual effects are about what a modern film should have. I don't think I've gained any valuable insight into humanity, or lost any brain cells by viewing this movie. It was entertaining while on but it's just an average movie without anything that's overwhelmingly positive or negative.<br />
<br />
Super 8? More like Super 6/10<br />
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Spoiler Warning / Other Observations<br />
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I can't believe that the military (bad guys) are portrayed as such dum dums.<br />
1) It took them four days to realize that an evacuation is probably a good idea. They knew that the monster was free the moment that the train was derailed. They should have evacuated the town the next day citing some sort of chemical spill.<br />
2) Why would the military ship the Magic Metal back to the town in trucks? If they were intending to study the material, they probably shouldn't send it to the exact place of the monster. That just sounds like a bad idea.<br />
3) How bad do you have to be to let a stoner and four kids get away from a refuge centre? Keep in mind that the Military knows that the Heroic Scientist had accomplices that was filming the night the train crashed. Also, let's assign only one (high ranking) guy to guard a military prisoner. Can't afford to get grunts to stand outside of the prison cell. Nope, that wouldn't make sense.<br />
<br />
4) I liked that the monster magic metal bullshit only magnetized selective things. It didn't grab numerous other vehicles that still had people. It didn't suck in braces kid's braces. I saw tons of metal still lying around everywhere, but I guess that the magic metal ship only takes what the magic metal ship needs.<br />
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5) Hey guys, did you know that the movie is set in the past? Technology in the past used to be all huge and clunky! You didn't know that huh! Well, walkmans are the latest in technology. Stop.<br />
The audience knows its the past. Please stop trying to spell everything out. I don't want a character to say that such and such is a Walkman and that it's the latest in technology... and that it plays cassettes. Just put it in the device in the scene. No need to explain it. Kids can figure it out.<br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-48439022277152667362011-06-03T06:33:00.002-07:002011-06-03T06:37:29.925-07:00X-Men: First Class Review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">It is easy to write about bad films. Great films are difficult to write about. Much easier to say that a film is bad because of plot hole X and logical fallacy Y. It's also a lot more fun to trash a movie.<br />
<br />
This X-Men prequel is less about the First Class and more about the story of Charles and Erik. If you have had exposure to the franchise's history, then you know the basic storyline of the film.<br />
<br />
Erik (Magneto) was raised/taken into a Fun Camp during World War 2. When the Nazis discovered his ability, they performed experiments on him. Erik believes that the rest of humanity will try to control, enslave, and exterminate mutant kind. Charles grew up in America (and miraculously retains an English accent) far away from the atrocities of man. He believes that mutants and humans can share the future and co-exist in harmony. Despite the ideological difference, Charles and Erik became Best Friends once they grew up while working on a mission for the CIA. After the mission, Magneto and Professor Xavier are put on opposite sides and sets up the status quo for future installments (hopefully).<br />
<br />
The story is pretty hard to mess up and I'm glad that they didn't. The origins of Magneto is forever tied to the Holocaust just like Captain America with World War 2. It would have been disastrous to have changed anything.<br />
<br />
I feel that the 'First Class' parts didn't really mesh well in the film as they didn't appear until the 60ish minute mark. This film is 130 minutes long and they had plenty of time to at least give the remaining characters a little depth. I'm sure comic enthusiasts would have gotten more out of those characters but I barely know any of them.<br />
<br />
The only big criticism I have about First Class is all the constant 'winking' at the viewer with references. SPOILER ALERT. During the film Charles attaches some electrodes onto his skull to tap into Cerebral. "It works better if you are bald." "I'm not shaving my hair." Charles becomes paralyzed from the waist down at the end of the film, and he's all like 'well at least I'm not bald'. Ugh. "We should give ourselves some cool man nicknames. I'm Mystique, what about you?" " Oh I'm like a Banshee because I can do this." wink "I cause a lot of Havok" wink wink "Hey you should have a cool name like Professor X and you should be called Magneto." wink wink "Even I've got to admit you're kind of a BEAST now." Fuck you writers. We don't need you to throw in names like that. It didn't feel natural at all. The audience can figure out which characters are which if they really cared. I can't forget about the big one. "Oh we're still working along side the G-Men." "No you need to stay independent. You don't work for the G-Men. You're now an X-Men." Fuuuck.<br />
<br />
There's also some really bad trope-y dialogue. Charles: "They were only following orders". Erik: "THE LAST TIME I HEARD THAT THEY KILLED SIX MILLION JEWS. NEVER AGAIN."<br />
<br />
Anyway, this film doesn't really jive with the established film franchise, but that can be easily forgiven since the later films have been terrible. I understand that this is supposed to be the start of a new trilogy of films. I hope that the sequels don't falter like the last X-men trilogy.<br />
<br />
X-Men: First Class won't win any awards in the writing department, but is well produced and well acted. Definitely solid entertainment.<br />
7.5/10</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-5238550275110162662011-05-09T04:45:00.001-07:002011-05-09T04:45:33.448-07:00I want this back in Vancouver.<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ7cEAmv4675Cf2RvL0hjcCnLzCVCFnbvvHr-HG47SkeHeMiXYPMWdakin6bAiJqsJqLaUxPzpcQT_meoJwpebHHSvFToztGwRI2hp3gLdQYK2NwKuD3yGupmJbnex9gXcNxcWiw/s1600/hk+speed-733448.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ7cEAmv4675Cf2RvL0hjcCnLzCVCFnbvvHr-HG47SkeHeMiXYPMWdakin6bAiJqsJqLaUxPzpcQT_meoJwpebHHSvFToztGwRI2hp3gLdQYK2NwKuD3yGupmJbnex9gXcNxcWiw/s320/hk+speed-733448.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604681212186187666" /></a></p>63.42Mbps down, 67.71 Mbps up.<br>This is the internet speed in the new apartment in Aflong aflong kong.<br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-25305830726233373832011-03-30T13:06:00.001-07:002011-03-30T13:06:16.970-07:00Sucker Punch Review."There was a time when reading wasn't just for fags. And neither was writing. People wrote books and movies. Movies with stories, that made you care about whose ass it was and why it was farting. And I believe that time can come again." - Joe Bowers, Idiocracy.<br><br>I was genuinely excited for Sucker Punch when I heard that Zack Snyder, director for 300 and The Watchmen, was doing a triple (writing, producing, directing) for this film. Girl gets put in an insane asylum and has to escape before she gets lobotomized by her stepfather after her inheritance. It sounded like the perfect vehicle to tell a visually engaging story. Unfortunately the film does not deliver.<br> <br>Sucker Punch was boring. That's the cardinal sin of movie making. I struggled to find why I wasn't engaged in the film. Hot looking chicks kicking ass in a beautifully rendered world. I really shouldn't have been bored. I came to the realization that I didn't care about any of the main characters. Sucker Punch is similar to the movie within Idiocracy. There's an ass on the screen that farts for 2 hours.<br> <br>Spoilers ahead<br><br>The film starts in the 'real world' when Baby Doll's evil stepfather (presumably) murdered Baby Doll's mother for inheritance. Turns out the mom left everything to her two daughters. Angered, the stepfather decides to go and molest Baby Doll, but when Baby Doll fights back, he goes after the younger daughter. Baby Doll gets a gun and fires at the step-dad, but she misses and hits a light-bulb. The shrapnel from the light bulb apparently kills the younger sister. The stepfather puts her in an insane asylum and pays Blues, the orderly, to arrange for her to be lobotomized. This will happen in five days. The film then does a cool-guy montage and skips to day 5 when she is getting lobotomized. Wait a second. We are suddenly placed inside of a whore house where the mental patients are now suddenly whores. The Insane Asylum runned by Blues is now a Burlesque owned by Blues. In this second world, Baby Doll's virginity will be sold to the "High Roller" in five days. She intends to escape before that happens. She is joined by two sisters named Sweet Pea and Rocket, and two interchangeable characters named Amber and Blondie. <br> <br>At every major plot point, Baby Doll goes into a third world that is filled with CGI. Once there, she and her team fights demonic statues, Nazis, dragons, and robots to fetch an item that will help them escape. Things go wrong for some of the characters so that in the end only two girls remain. Baby Doll chooses to sacrifice herself so the last girl can escape. That's why she gets lobotomized. At the end we see that events in the Burlesque world pretty much all happened. Blues, the main antagonist of the movie, gets what he deserves.<br> <br>So, why didn't I care about half the scenes in this movie? Let's start with the third tier worlds. They are entirely formulaic. The characters are briefed by a 'Wise Man' who tells them what they need to do for the mission. They then do the mission. There's absolutely no jeopardy in these scenes because we see these girls do absolutely unrealistic moves. When the robot Nazi punched one of the girls, she was fine. When the girls fall from a plane 200 feet high, they were fine. Once it is clear that the characters won't get hurt at all and that they would (probably) obtain the object that they need, I lost all interest.<br><br>Another problem is that the third tier worlds are supposed to represent them doing something in the Burlesque world. For example, one girl is supposed to lift a lighter off of a fat guy. In the dream world, they're fighting dragons and hordes of monsters for magic stones that can create fire. It feels like there's such a huge disconnect between world two and world three that I couldn't care. What does it mean when the bridge fell in the dragon world? What do the monsters mean? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Five seconds in the burlesque world is stretched into 10-15 minutes in the cgi worlds.<br> <div> <p>"A while ago I had written a script for myself and there was a sequence in it that made me think, 'How can I make a film that can have action sequences in it that aren't limited by the physical realities that normal people are limited by, but still have the story make sense so it's not, and I don't mean to be mean, like a bulls--t thing like <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet_%28film%29" title="Ultraviolet (film)" target="_blank">Ultraviolet</a></i> or something like that... It's as crazy as anything else that I have ever done. It's a movie that nobody can get made with the ending that it has and the subject matter."<b> - Zack Snyder</b><br></p></div>I think that's where the main problem lies. The plot was just a vehicle to have these action scenes and those scenes are in a reality where the characters can't really get hurt. Having the burlesque world just puts another barrier to my caring for the movie. I'm not even looking at what 'actually' happens. The real version to the story is similar to the burlesque but with minor differences. So if what I'm looking at isn't what actually happened, why would I care about the events in burlesque world? I don't. What does dancing mean in the burlesque world? Heck if I know. What happened in the real world when Blues shot/raped those girls? How can an orderly have that much power?<br> <br>What's the solution? Merge the insane asylum with the burlesque world. They're similar enough that the story doesn't have to change much at all. Have Baby Doll take some 'medication' which causes her to imagine the world around her as a burlesque. Have characters/elements phase back and forth from their counterparts in the two world. It would have been interesting visually at least.<br> <br>This film is bad. Easily one of the worst films I've seen this year. I'd rather re-watch The Last Airbender than see this again. The CGI fights are good, but becomes meaningless. It is like watching someone play a video-game with god mode turned on. Cool man you just killed all them monsters, congratulations on your hard work.<br> <br><br>Possible Plot hole: Why didn't Baby Doll just tell the female psychiatrist that Blues was planning on forging her signature to lobotomize? Baby Doll was present when Blues and the stepfather were talking about it. That's why she was planning the escape. The least she could have done was raise the concern to the psychiatrist that she doesn't want to be lobotomized and maybe the psychiatrist can stop it. Can anyone explain?<br> <br>3 out of 10<br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-64278536481837407222011-03-22T23:31:00.000-07:002011-03-22T23:31:34.623-07:00Supernatural (Anime) Episode 1+2.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b>The Alter Ego</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">This series starts with a creepy man sharpening a knife. There’s a woman tied up in the background. The old man claims to be her husband ‘Zack’ and promptly stabs her thirteen times.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Next, we finally see Sam and Dean driving the Impala talking about the case. Apparently the murderer could be in two places at once, and there have been cases like this in the past two years. Doesn’t take much to realize that the old man is a shape shifter. (I much prefer skinwalker like in the original show.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Anyway, Sam and Dean, and the hot female detective of the week visits the scene of the crime. The female accidentally cuts her finger on the door frame. (THIS IS IMPORTANT) The female establishes that she was a friend of the murdered wife from the start. The two brothers find a trail of blood leading to the sewers. Sam asks “How can he leave a trail of blood like this?” I want to know how the cops missed this.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The brothers head to the sewers to pursue Zack. They get ambushed by the shape shifter. Sam wakes up tied up and sees the shapeshifter Dean. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It isn’t the real Dean because the real Dean just received a shoulder injury. Through the power of exposition, FakeDean says that he resents Sam had a normal life while he had to hunt with Dad who leaves without a word. When FakeDean leaves announcing his plan to attack the hot female, real Dean wakes up. He frees himself and slings around on his injured shoulder as if it wasn’t injured. I guess that plot point wasn’t important huh. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Real Dean goes to the female’s apartment. Turns out the shape shifter kidnapped her and took her form. Dean identifies this by the lack of a cut on her finger. She escapes. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Sam and Dean drives on the road when suddenly Dean pulls a gun onto Sam while driving on a busy highway. “I know you’re not Sam. You think I don’t know my own brother?” Sam claims that Dean is the fake. They fight each other (while the car is still going) but Sam ultimately gets the gun.</div><div class="MsoNormal">At this point, we see realSam walk into a busy highway holding his gun towards the Impala. He fires and the car dramatically stops inches away from hitting realSam. fakeSam shape shifter is dead. The story effectively ends here.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m just aghast at the thought of Dean deciding to out fakeSam while driving on a busy road. That’s not even the worst crime. He decided to have a conversation while holding a gun to fakeSam’s face while driving. This is a level of stupid that I can’t handle. It wasn’t like Dean was trying to press for information. All he says is that he knows Sam is a fake and that he knows he’s a shapeshifter. You could be doing that while parked or inside the hotel. Instead he needlessly endangers the rest of the people on the road by pulling this stunt.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Why is RealSam on the highway miles away from the building anyway? How did he know that the Impala was coming when the road is completely packed? It doesn’t make sense. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As a pilot, the Live Action version is much, much better. It was able to set up the story in terms of the Yellow-Eye Demon / backstory more coherently. Here, we get flashes of scenes that will probably be explained in future episodes. One of the strengths of Supernatural is the ability to explain the actions or motivations of the monsters in a realistic way. What was the shapeshifter’s plan? Torment women? He left the Female alive. What was his plan in the apartment when he was acting like her? At no point in the story am I able to see a rational plan from the shapeshifter. The original show had the benefit of using 42 minutes to tell the story so I guess it is only fair I view the next episode too.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Roadkill</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">There’s not much to say here. The episode is almost an exact remake of the episode Roadkill from Season 2, Episode 16. I just want to comment that Dean is a terrible driver. Once again he swerves and almost hits a target. At one point Sam says that the most important thing is to take Molly away from the forest. Sam and Dean then continue to explore the haunted house. Good going, Sam</div><div class="MsoNormal">. </div><div class="MsoNormal">In the original, there was an accident which occurred 15 years ago. Molly accidentally kills Greely with her car. She also died. Greely’s wife was so distraught that she commits suicide after burying Greely. It is a custom for folks to plant a tree with the dead. Similar thing happens in the anime except that there’s multiple photographs of (an adult) tree. Sam comments on one photo and that’s how they realize where the body is buried. But wait a minute, how can there be photos of an adult tree when it was planted fifteen years ago? That means that Mrs. Greely must have stuck around for years after her husband died. Her suicide must have been recent. Unfortunately, the appearance of Mrs. Greely’s ghost matches the ones before her husband died. This means that she killed herself soon after. What if she did survive for years? This wouldn’t make sense because for the last 14 years, she would have seen Molly run through the woods into her cabin asking for help. What’s going on here?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Another change in the story is that Mrs. Greely also haunts the road after her suicide. At one point she drags Molly into the river and tries to choke her out. Sam jumps into the river to try and save her while Dean disposes of the body. Why would Sam jump into the river to save a ghost from a ghost? When Mrs. Greely is destroyed, he showed concern over Molly telling her to breathe. I want to make it clear that Sam knows that she’s a ghost. Molly’s a ghost. She can’t die again. She doesn’t even breathe. </div><div class="MsoNormal">David (Molly’s husband) mentions in the anime that she was cremated. According to the lore, cremated bones can’t have ghosts. Ugh.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">After the credits of the episode, Sam freaks out and we see a tease into the history of the characters.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Bottom Line.</div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m not impressed with the anime. While Jared Padalecki reprises the voice of Sam Winchester, Dean is portrayed by an other actor. I think having only half the cast actually makes it worse. I don’t want to be reminded that Dean isn’t actually Dean. :/ I feel like if they spent any time reviewing the show that they would realize the mistakes in lore or logic.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-74250883785366467942011-03-13T03:56:00.001-07:002011-03-13T03:56:15.300-07:00Battle: Los Angeles Review.AMERICA<br>HECK<br>YEAH.<br><br>BEATING ALIEN SCUM WITH OL' FASHION dumb luck.<br><br>The movie is focused on US Marine Staff Sargeant Gantz (played by the incredibly handsome Aaron Eckhart aka Harvey Dent). He's a veteran soldier who has commanded a few too many soldiers to their deaths from no-win situations. Gantz filed for retirement but he's been called for active duty because of the invasion. He's assigned to a unit with an officer that's fresh from the academy. (Commissioned officers are higher ranked than enlisted people.) The unit has been ordered to retrieve some civilians in an area which is about to be blown up. They have to race against the clock to rescue these people while fighting alien foot soldiers. Good people died from impossible situations and the fresh officer freezes up. Gantz gave a motivating speech to the officer. It doesn't matter if they are ordered to go left or to go right. They will follow orders as long as it is made. Gantz makes an addendum later in the film that there are no-win scenarios where left and right both lead to good men dying. The unit finds civilians and helps them escape while discovering that each alien force is commanded by a 'command centre'. If this Command Centre was destroyed, then all of their machines would stop functioning. Wow. more heroic sacrifices are made and in the end they win.<br> <br>The Aliens in this film are unusual. They arrive on Earth via disguised meteor-spaceships crashing into the waters near major coastal cities. Los Angeles, Tokyo, and New York are just three out of twenty such ships. Immediately, ground soldiers pour out of these vessels and start murdering people. Oh yeah, they landed in water because that's their primary fuel source. Earth is one of the rare places in the universe where water is predominately in liquid form. I didn't think it would be too hard to melt some asteroids or to melt an ice planet. The aliens are able to survive in 'Earth temperatures' so unless frozen water makes powering their ships uneconomical, its just kinda weird to expend all of this alien-power (and potential casualties) for slightly warmer water.<br> <br>Aliens have been tracking us for years according to behind-the-scenes material. They know what kind of technology we use and are able track us using our radios. They've abducted our people and know of our weak spots (anyplace where the flesh is soft). Here are some simple mistakes that future alien invaders should follow if they want to successfully invade Earth.<br> <br>1) Make more than one robot/equipment that can function as a command centre. Let's call this a 'backup command centre'. You know, just in case your command centre gets blown up, or has a slight power outage. Redundancy is good.<br> <br>2) Make it so your robots don't fall out of the sky without active commands being sent. Modern designs for robots that explore planetary bodies in our solar system has to work with something called a "Time Delay". Although radio signals travel as fast as the speed of light, the distances across space is so huge that it'll take about a second to travel from the Earth to the Moon. It can take tens of minutes to travel from Earth to Mars (depending on orbit). It is impossible for us to constantly control the mars rovers from Earth. Not with a 10 minute delay. By the time we receive the result of the commands we send, thirty minutes would have passed. Not easy to drive a car that way. The robots are designed to be able to interpret the surrounding areas and make intelligent navigational decisions. So why is it that the 'drones' in this movie just fall down when the command ship is destroyed? It makes absolutely no sense. I can understand that they might go into an automatic shutdown mode, where they'll slowly land on the ground. It's like the alien drones are 100% controlled by the command ship 100% of the time. That's ugh.<br> <br>3) Destroy all of the (major) military bases around the world. It isn't hard. Go on wikipedia and search for military bases. Launch nukes (or whatever cleaner equivalent the aliens might have) and you will take away 90% of the resistance.<br> <br>4) Destroy the Earth's power grid. Unless they're going to tap into our power plants, this seems like a no-brainer to me. It would disrupt communication and make survival a bit tougher for humans. Oh yeah, getting rid of the power grid would have stopped the army from discovering your secret base. Good job Aliens. <br> <br>5) Put more armor on your alien cannon. So during the film the aliens bring out a cannon the size of a ride-able lawnmower. Literally took two burst of machine gun fire to destroy it. The cannon also had to be (hover) pushed around. To be honest, the weapon didn't seem that much more destructive than their own laser/blaster weapons.<br> <br>6) Use the magical boring machines to your advantage. They were able to bury a ten story tall command centre in the middle of the city without disrupting the ground near it. (The asphalt breaks near it when the machine became erect.) Why not use the same machine to tactfully move the only command centre away from the combat zone? Naw, let's have it crawl out of the ground so everyone can see it and it becomes more exposed to aircraft fire. IF YOU KEPT THE BUILDING UNDER THE GROUND (and made them think it was destroyed), THE US AIRFORCE WON'T TARGET IT SOME MORE. THEY WOULD THINK YOU HAD SOME SORT OF REDUNDANT BACKUP COMMAND CENTRE.<br> <br>7) Defend your command centre better. If your entire operation hinges on keeping one structure intact, I think it might be important to make sure that the structure stays intact. This means having enough troops to fight off any human intruders. It means having aircrafts that can kill five soldiers on the ground. I guess they did kill one soldier with the four dozen aliens that were sent. Good kill ratios. <br> <br><br><br>So, what did I think of the movie? I don't dislike it. I feel like the aliens are designed to fail just so humans can face a technologically advance force and still win. I wouldn't have minded if humans lost in this film. Like any good military film, the soldiers are presented as heroes who would obey their DUTY to SAVE LIVES and SUPPORT FREEDOM. It gets a little heavy handed at times. I enjoyed it on a visual level. There's just too many tiny details that are dumb for me to really dig the movie. If I were to place a numerical score to the film, it would be around a 6/10<br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-10707288407718713832011-03-11T01:18:00.001-08:002011-03-11T01:18:23.719-08:00Tsunami. We're all gonna die.Well, maybe not me. Two things.<br>1) Vancouver Island is a pretty good shield.<br>2) Richmond will get sunk :(<br><br>We're just getting a tsunami advisory, which isn't supposed to be a big deal. <br><a href="http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/">Source</a><br> <br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-59497055699933576152011-02-10T13:52:00.000-08:002011-02-10T13:52:47.895-08:00Justin Bieber: The Board Game.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhexo_yR2nerbsP-PxIOmJpjxrHQQS-X1B_T12P1IUyfWlymRLSmi7T4oJt15jmgXlupgRWLAh1za0SWrFS8nqdqZLgOVNGAliVDuVlE2yXRkdXb664tVXZ7tgD5x7ffmxHaMP1qg/s1600/10022011177.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhexo_yR2nerbsP-PxIOmJpjxrHQQS-X1B_T12P1IUyfWlymRLSmi7T4oJt15jmgXlupgRWLAh1za0SWrFS8nqdqZLgOVNGAliVDuVlE2yXRkdXb664tVXZ7tgD5x7ffmxHaMP1qg/s320/10022011177.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrkKL-wDWRMUClNeHsrkggW8VLC4Nsr5JDVd43oPhJzttOmPiUC67OPl8N9TB3Cf-JQu6CzGGOPrqemU9A_N-_dHck9NizCnvZCJJLXSCjBhB0BhGsYMQlxOn9kmI23vRksxP7Vg/s1600/10022011178.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrkKL-wDWRMUClNeHsrkggW8VLC4Nsr5JDVd43oPhJzttOmPiUC67OPl8N9TB3Cf-JQu6CzGGOPrqemU9A_N-_dHck9NizCnvZCJJLXSCjBhB0BhGsYMQlxOn9kmI23vRksxP7Vg/s320/10022011178.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="240" /></a></div><br />
<br />
This makes me want to punch things. Do people actually buy stuff like this? :( :(<br />
<br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-39603671433305014302010-09-21T19:14:00.000-07:002010-09-21T19:14:01.104-07:00Resident Evil: Afterlife.<span style="font-size: small;"></span> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">3D movies don’t really work well for me. I’m getting tired of things being shot at my face.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">A few issues I had while watching the movie.</span><br />
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</style> <![endif]--> <div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span>1)<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Where are all the janitors? In the underground headquarters of Umbrella Corporation, everything sparkling clean. Supposedly, everyone has been living underground for years. Can things look a little dilapidated? All the vehicles are neatly parked and shiny. Awesome. Wesker must have had several hundred janitors stowed away in his underground stronghold. Same goes for the field of planes which have been left in the open for months. In the world of the film, all industries are dead. Alice found no (other) survivors at all during the six month journey from Japan to Alaska to California. Who has been providing Umbrella with electricity? Food? Ammunition? Soap? Toilet Paper? New tires? </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span>2)<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> One of my biggest complaints for the movie franchise is that the character of Alice has been given magical powers via the “T-Virus”. Yes, a virus that makes people turn into zombies also gives people super powers such as making a ground shockwave with the mind. I was actually surprised when Wesker took the ability away from Alice. “Thank you for making me Human again.” Oh, if only you still were human. Alice has still shown extra ordinary abilities with her speed and strength. At one point, she was hit with a mallet into a wall (which actually broke the tiles on the wall.) She was out of commission for about a minute (so that Claire can have her action scene), but quickly sprung back into action with apparently no injury. Great job stating that you depowered her only to have her still do inhuman things. Oh yeah, since Alice was on the Chopper the entire time, why didn’t she kill Wesker the moment he started to punch in the code to destroy the Umbrella Facility? Because it serves the plot.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span>3)<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What is Umbrella’s plan anyway? I don’t recall the specific plot for the films, but I believe the T-Virus was made as a bio-weapon. It was accidentally released at the end of the first film. The second film is about the initial spread of the virus at Raccoon City. By the third film, the virus has spread worldwide. Supposedly, they’re interested in studying Alice because they believe that her blood or genetics contain the secret to curing the whole zombie infection… or at least make them dormant. Now, they’re all about making monsters and doing extremely unethical experiments. I wonder what all the survivor security guards and janitors are thinking about all of this. I was hoping that we get to see some director in charge of some facility that isn’t PURE EVIL. Maybe they exist, but Alice killed them all. (There is a short conversation between the characters stating that the crew of the Arcadia was so disgusted at Wesker that they all fled on life rafts. I guess the guys at the prison missed this part with their night vision/heat sensing goggles. And I guess the crew decided to not take the four or so choppers with them and instead try to make it out alive on boats.)</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span>4)<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Wesker’s plan made no sense. When we see him on the chopper the first time, it was a little bit ridiculous that he was able to inject Alice so quickly without Alice being able to fire. I guess he knew she was on the chopper all along, because he was holding on to the syringe the entire time. Alright. Neat. He protected himself. I get that. So why would he leave the chopper unpiloted for a minute while he had his confrontation with Alice? I actually thought it was on auto pilot or something. Wesker is dumb. The plane crashes and Alice wakes up first because she is entirely human while Wesker is a super human.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: small;">Let’s follow this movie from Wesker’s perspective at this point:</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><br />
</div><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">I wake up from the burning wreckage. Dang. That chopper was brand new and sparkly. Now it is all burning and dilapidated. Well, at least I’m still alive and I’m super human. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Oh no. The T-virus isn’t bonding to my body correctly. I need to eat human flesh to stabilize myself.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Where’s Alice? I want to eat her. She is the only known human to fully bond with the virus. Eating her will allow me to become super powerful. Oh. She isn’t here? Darn. She must have woken up before me somehow. Wait a minute, I thought I was the super human here! </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Where do I go now? Let’s go to one of Umbrella’s many secret base. It is a ship. It is a ship named Arcadia.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">*Six months later*</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">There’s a plane? Someone’s flying to Arcadia? Who is it? Let’s use the magical Satellite Voice amplifier along with the Umbrella Heat signature finder. If we had this technology all along, why didn’t we use it to capture that Claire girl?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> But, Arcadia is moving south to LA for no reason. Should I tell the crew to stop and wait for Alice to land on the ship so I can eat her? Or at least head back north and send out flares or radio signals to the plane telling her to land? Let’s not.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">*A couple of days later*</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Oh look, Alice landed at a prison facility along with other survivors.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">I most definitely want to consume her, so I’ll send some bio-monsters to go and kill her. Yes, these monsters must be deadly. I hope Alice makes it out alive.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">*Another few days later.*</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Gee, is that a plane that’s heading to the boat? Does everyone know how to fly a plane? Apparently. Is it Alice? No? Hm.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Wait, that’s Alice and Claire coming on a boat. Alice is coming to this room right now! Let’s talk. And not seal the room via the computer controls so anyone can sneak through at any time. Besides, I like to fight more people while my horribly mutated dogs fight other people.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Muahaha. Look at their slow bullets fly. I can move so fast. I am powerful. Now, the Redfields are out of commission.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Should I use my super speed (fast enough to dodge bullets) to knock Alice out and finally eat her? Nope.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Let’s slow motion try to eat her. Ow! There’s a knife in my brain. Good thing I can recover from that! Let’s try again. Hopefully, Alice doesn’t have another weapon that can be shot in my face.</span> </blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;">Darn, I guessed wrong. She did shoot it in my face. I am going to fake die.</span> </blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;">Muahaha I am alive again, and I’m going to eat this old man to regain my complete strength. Since I’ve proven that I am too dumb to even kill three ‘normal’ powered humans, I’m going to escape. I hope that the one chopper out of a dozen or so isn’t booby trapped by Alice’s only self destruct device.</span> </blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;">Bah. I am now dead. Darnit. I was so dumb and unlucky.</span></blockquote><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><span style="font-size: small;">So what is Wesker’s goal? It is apparent that he doesn’t care about the Company Directive anymore. He just wants to become a super-being of sorts. Having a character seek out power for the sake of seeking power is pointless. With the way he does things, there will be no human left alive? What’s the point of being all powerful when you’re the only one alive?</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">That’s not to say I hated the film entirely. I loved seeing Wentworth Miller (who played Michael Scofield in Prison Break) trapped in a prison within a prison, trying to break out. I found it to be hilarious. The end of the film had a teaser for the next installment of the franchise. Jill Valentine is now apparently controlled by Umbrella, and they’re flying towards the Arcadia to capture some people for experiments. I’m guessing that these people are controlled by an AI like the White Queen. (People at theatres are retarded. They just have this urge to head out as soon as the credits roll. THE LIGHTS ARE NOT ON YET. IT MEANS THAT THE PRESENTATION IS NOT OVER. I love it when the scene continues and people who are on their way out turns around to watch it.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Ultimately, is the film worth watching? I think so. Just expect that characters will do dumb things. The film isn’t worth paying full price. It is probably better than spending time watching old episodes of Star Trek though.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-32359983704811752222010-09-03T01:46:00.003-07:002010-09-03T01:46:43.383-07:00Going to Pax.So long, suckers!<br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-32197730073492257172010-09-03T01:46:00.001-07:002010-09-03T01:46:08.393-07:00Girl who Leapt Through Time. 2006.<br>Japanese Animated Film.<br><br>Spoilers in review.<br><br>This movie is set in contemporary modern day Japan about a girl (Makato) who... leaps through time. That is, she finds out that she is able to literally jump and travel through time. Like any adolescent, Makato starts by changing minor things so that they work out better. Suddenly, she is able to have all the extra sleep that she wants. She gets perfect grades. Eventually, she uses this power to avoid some decisions in life. One of her best friends (Chiaki) wanted to ask her out on a date. Makato couldn't handlethis so she goes back in time to avoid the whole 'asking her out' part from ever happening. She uses this power to avoid facing any major changes to her life.<br> <br>Anyway, it turns out that there are consequences to her time-leaps and that there's a finite amount. Blah blah blah. Saw it coming a mile away.<br><br>There's a serious flaw to this story which was very distracting to me. The way that 'time' works does not make sense at all. In the original timeline, Makato has a tempura (fire) accident during cooking class. The brakes on her bike is also broken, which eventually led to a fatal accident...which was undone by her first, accidental time-leap.<br> To solve the tempura problem, she asks another student to fry it first. He became the one who accidentally causes the fire. This shows that certain events 'must' happen. Later in the movie, Makato's other friend started riding a bike which lead to another fatal accident. Yeah. People need to ride their bikes more carefully.<br> <br>By the last act of the film, it turns out that Makato gained her timeleaping ability because she accidentally fell a time-nut, which grants the user power over time. I'm not even kidding about this. The time-nut was originally lost by the time-traveller-Chiaki, who is desperately trying to find it. Chiaki only came to the past to see a famous painting which was destroyed in the upcoming world-wide catastrophe. Unfortunately, the painting is still being restored, so he hasn't had a chance to see it yet. And he never will have that chance because he must disappear. He can't go back to the future because he used his last time-leap to save Makato's other friend from a fatal bike accident. He disappears and Makato is a sad panda.<br> <br>Later, Makato finds out that she has one time-leap left because Chiaki went back in time before she used her time leap. WHY DOES SHE STILL REMEMBER THE OTHER TIMELINE IF SHE NEVER HAD THE CHANCE TO USE HER LAST TIME-LEAP? PLOT HOLE. To help Chiaki go back to the future, she time-leaps before he used his last time-leap so that he still has one more to go to the future. <br> <br>Some sappiness occurs where the girl and the guy reveals that they love each other, etc.. <br><br>And then the most retarded thing happens. <br><br>Chiaki still goes home, but he says that he'll wait for her in the future.<br> <br>Makato is alright with this, and she replies that she'll be 'running towards it'.<br><br>What does Chiaki mean by he'll wait for her? It'll only appear to be a second to him when he travels. Makato will be much, much older in the future.<br> <br>Also, Makato only finds out in this film that she kinda loves Chiaki. Now she'll remain single her entire life for an unspecified point in the future when they'll meat? This shit is retarded.<br><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-69267736076205002582010-07-22T01:30:00.001-07:002010-07-22T01:30:59.360-07:00Inception (no spoilers)Saw it Tuesday.<br><div class="gmail_quote">Dreams are uniquely human, as far as we know. We all experience dreams at one point in our lives. Dreams can be a way for the subconscious to reveal desires or yearnings. They might show stresses or fears. <br> (I once had a dream where I was trying to convince the person I was talking to that he/she was dreaming, and that I was a figment of their imagination. I knew that I was real though. I was just being a dick. And then I woke up. What the heck does this say about me?)<br> <br>I think that a lot of people would want to explore their dreams if they could, which is why this film resonates with so many people.<br><br>There are a lot of concepts and layers within this movie and I'm sure that there will be thousands of articles and essays devoted to this film.<br> I think its nice to look at an artwork to try and derive meaning. Some people say that the movie is a metaphor for the interaction between film making and the audience. Various people in the film would represent different roles for the movie making process. Archetects, writers, chemists, directors, financiers. Neato. Yeah, I guess you can look at it that way, but is that what Nolan intended, or is it just a coincidence?<br> <br>Inception was enjoyable for what it is. The story is straightforward for me. It was quite easy to understand. Yeah, you will have to simply go along with certain ideas with the film, but they are really minor points.<br> <br>That being said, this film is incredibly overhyped. The ending is a huge cop-out. Yeah, I understand that the final scene is like an "Inception" for the viewer. You can say that the point is to make you question what you just watched, but I feel that a good film doesn't need to rely on such a gimmick. I recommend everyone go watch the movie, just don't expect any great twists or deep psychological answers which will blow your mind. It sure didn't blow mine.<br> <br>With regards to the film's ending question... does it really matter if the spinner top fell? No. Whether real or not, you are only watching a film (which isn't real.)<br><br> </div><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-3756969363820306502010-07-07T02:37:00.000-07:002010-07-07T02:37:05.080-07:00The Last Airbender Review.I was really hesitant about watching the film. On one hand, there were <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/last_airbender/">a lot of people</a> who seem to hate the movie. On the other is that Avatar was one of the few animu that I enjoy. On the third mutant hand is that if the movie was truly terrible, I don't want to contribute to its success.<br />
<br />
Well, after the first weekend box office results, I was content to know that the paltry sum I paid won't make this film a financial success.<br />
<br />
I want to comment that I watched it on Tuesday. Cineplex apparently now has a special deal where for the same price as normal, you also get a regular popcorn and a regular drink. Neato. I might watch all of my films on tuesdays now. When I got into the theatre 10 minutes before the preview started, I walked into an empty room. All alone. By the time that the movie started, there were less than ten people. Flop.<br />
<br />
The Last Airbender is by no means a great film. I'm not sure if it is a good film either.It definitely isn't the theatrical disaster that some people are calling it. This is definitely not Battlefield Earth of the decade.<br />
So, I have seen all three seasons of Avatar, so I understand the story behind the movie. I don't know for sure if a non-fan can properly follow the story or understand its significance. <br />
<br />
<b>Bad </b><br />
<br />
1) Tone <br />
Avatar is supposed to be for kids to enjoy. The animu had a lot of silliness to many of the scenes. I can recall only two instances in the movie which had the light hearted scenes of the show, and they both involve Katara accidentally splashing Sokka with her faulty waterbending.<br />
<br />
While the story of The Last Airbender has a lot of serious elements, the humour in the show helped create more rounded characters. It showed that despite only being kids, they were fated to do such incredible things. I don't think Aang smiled or laughed once in the film. He definitely doesn't have the same playfulness as the series.<br />
<br />
2) Dialogue / Treating people like Full Retards.<br />
<br />
“Do you have a spiritual place I can meditate?” “Yes, we have a <i>very</i> spiritual place.” <br />
<br />
When Aang goes to the very spiritual place to meditate, he first talks about how the record for the longest meditation was four days, and that it took a lot of concentration.<br />
<br />
<br />
“We need to show them that we believe in our beliefs as much as they believe in their beliefs” <br />
The dialogue in the movie is bad. I was cringing about once every minute. I can't really blame the actors for being shit when they are forced to work with this type of material. Then, each of the characters announced to everyone else what they were going to do in the scene. Yue and Sokka both says that they were going to leave the room. And they do. Katara then announces that she is going to stay. And she does. Its as if the audience is incapable of seeing what the characters are actually doing, so the writer decides that it is necessary for the characters to say exactly what they are going to do.<br />
<br />
AND THEN Katara starts to talk with Aang, who just started to meditate.<br />
"Aang, can you hear me? It's Katara."<br />
Shut up, Katara, HE'S TRYING TO MEDITATE. YOU ARE SO STUPID.<br />
<br />
<br />
Oh, and Zhao / Fire Lord Ozai's various conversation about Zhao going into a lost temple and finding a scroll which will lead them to victory. They had to constantly bring it up because M Night doesn't believe that the audience has the capacity to understand what is going on. If we don't get to see<a aiotitle="Zhao getting the scrolls" href="http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/The_Library"> Zhao getting the scrolls</a> which contained this awesome secret, we don't really need to hear about him doing it five times. They could have excised all of those scenes and just had Zhao show up at the end.<br />
<br />
<br />
3) Pacing: Trying to fit 440 minutes of content into 100 minutes.<br />
Obviously, the movie will not be a direct translation simply because of the time contraints.<br />
I understand that not every single line of dialogue or every single episode can be filmed. There's just a problem when Aang, Kitara, and Sokka arrives at the Southern Air Temple, and they didn't know each other's names. <br />
<br />
Another example of pacing issue is that the 'romantic' relationship between Princess Yue and Sokka was reduced to one of the many narration dialogues. That's fine, I guess, except that they placed such a great deal of time later on their emotional goodbyes. If time was not spent developing the relationship, then time shouldn't be spent on them at all. <br />
<br />
According to casting and promotional posters, the <a href="http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Kyoshi_Warriors">Kyoshi Warriors</a> were going to play a major part with the film. Extending the film by another 20-30 minutes and incorporating more of the episode content would have definitely helped create more rounded characters.<br />
<br />
4) Bending / Movement tracking.<br />
I thought that they should have made the computer animation sync more with the movements of the actors. It just seems kinda silly for the actors to swing their arms a couple rotations in front of them just to have the water animation remain the same.<br />
<br />
The fire in the fire bending is far too slow. It feels like a really slow fireball that is heading in a direction. I did not like this.<br />
<br />
There were scenes lasting about 30 seconds when Aang and Katara are practicing water-bending by doing Tai Chi. Practice is good, except that the movements between the two characters aren't even consistant. One of them would hold their hands together, while the other would have them apart and uneven. The director should have told them to do it again.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>What I did like:</b><br />
Wonderful set/costume design. I loved the 'feel' of the world. The movie made me believe that it was possible for a city to exist like the one in the north pole. Yeah, the artists had the animu to base everything on, but I thought they did it wonderfully.<br />
<br />
Zuko's story - I think the actor and character is very consistent with the show. He is driven with the same passion and anger of the series. The only WTF moment is after he kidnaps Aang, we see that Zuko has been having a soliloquy while staring out the window. Didn't need to see that, and its not really the appropriate time. I just wish that we had seen Iroh try and calm Zuko down some more. The Iroh/Zuko relationship is one of the best in the series.<br />
<br />
<b>Summary:</b><br />
<br />
It feels to me that The Last Airbender could have genuinely been a good film. The set designs were there. The whole concept about the look was spot on. There were problems with dialogue, which can't easily be fixed. There is definitely a problem with some of the pacing. Hopefully there will be a director's cut that can somehow salvage this mess. Reincorporate some of the other side stories and cut around the stilted dialogue.<br />
<br />
I really do wish to see a second and third installments, but I wouldn't want to have the same writer involved. I think he's a capable director and a good producer.<br />
<br />
The Last Airbender was directed, produced, and written by M. Night ShyamalanUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20908296.post-45045499442419383382010-06-23T00:40:00.001-07:002010-06-23T00:40:06.553-07:00!!<br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0