Now, as an added bonus due to my absence last week and because it's Christmas time, here's the last review of the year.
Now, when I reviewed Arthur Christmas, I mentioned how it added realism to fantasy, but this movie does the opposite, adding fantasy to realism. I'm sure everyone who's seen this movie remembers the ground-breaking (at the time) attention to detail the movie had, making everyone feel so real. Nowadays, the artistic skill hasn't aged well, with many of the animations feeling stiff and robotic, especially in the hot cocoa scene. The overt attention to detail also leads to a pretty nasty uncanny valley, but that isn't to say the movie isn't without its merits.
The theme for one matter is not often portrayed the way it is here. Sure we've had religious movies that discuss faith and belief and even though like the Polar express that use symbolism instead of pure Religion, but maybe it's the fact that I'm a christian myself, but I never saw a problem with it. There were a few times were I felt they were kind of pushing their belief in the story, but they seemed to come around nicely, keeping the story from getting too direct.
The discussion of faith and belief is so very much a discussion of blind faith, but with how Santa can apparently be everywhere on the glob in on night, know what children are naughty and nice, and being able to make any present he wants, often portrays Santa as the child's version of God: Omnipresence, Omniscience, Omnipotent.
Then there's one of my favorite extra characters: The Ghost Hitchhiker. He often questions the faith of the protagonist and points it out when he's having a crisis. The movie is really good, but it's all an emotional film filled with really good effects for its time and some exceptional symbolism and themes.
Merry Christmas everyone
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Arthur Christmas (2011) - an animation review [Outdated, check newer review]
First, I apologize for the two week delay, but christmas sometimes means spending time with your family, and when you live in the middle of nowhere, that means a lot of traveling.
Quite a wonderful movie this is, this movie might just be my second favorite telling of the story of Santa (I'll leave my favorite telling for a special occasion). The story tells what could also very well be one of the most "realistic" tellings of Christmas.
The movie was made by Sony Pictures Animation, just like Surf's Up, and I feel that these guys really know their stuff when it comes to adding realism to the fantasy. And I don't mean that ridiculous "gritty realism" we keep seeing in modern cinema like "The Dark Knight" or in video games like "Call of Duty", I'm talking about where the writers see the world for what it is, and consider it as if this WAS the real world, a movie about Santa in the modern world, delivering presents to every child every year and the real workings of it all.
The movie stars Arthur, the son of the current Santa, Malcolm. He is pretty much a klutz and worries about everything, but he cares deeply for every child in the world, working in the mail room and answering every letter Santa can get. His older brother, Steve, is currently next in line to be Santa and is trying really hard to make Christmas goes as smoothly as possible, using state-of-the-art magitech to solve his problems and figure everything out.
Now, what's Magitech? I won't go too much into it, but basically it means that the technology is powered by Magic. The magic in this case, comes from the Aurora Borealis, up on the north pole, which allows for reindeer to fly and pull sleighs. Frankly, I LOVE this. The logic behind it all feels like it came from the imagination of a child on how Santa works. Which is how it should be.
The story followers suit when Arthur finds out that the present of a young girl was failed to be delivered and he is heartbroken. He eventually gets strung up by his grandfather, who wants to prove that the old ways still work, by getting the present to the girl himself. Problems ensue as Steve is incredibly jaded by his work in delivering presents to every single child that he just can't find it in himself to care for every single one of them. The elves freak out and start to believe that the Santas are betraying them and all seems lost.
The movie is brilliant and has one of the best stories a christmas story has. Almost always people try to shove down the throats of the audience about the "true meaning of christmas", but here Christmas isn't important, it's the children that are.
Quite a wonderful movie this is, this movie might just be my second favorite telling of the story of Santa (I'll leave my favorite telling for a special occasion). The story tells what could also very well be one of the most "realistic" tellings of Christmas.
The movie was made by Sony Pictures Animation, just like Surf's Up, and I feel that these guys really know their stuff when it comes to adding realism to the fantasy. And I don't mean that ridiculous "gritty realism" we keep seeing in modern cinema like "The Dark Knight" or in video games like "Call of Duty", I'm talking about where the writers see the world for what it is, and consider it as if this WAS the real world, a movie about Santa in the modern world, delivering presents to every child every year and the real workings of it all.
The movie stars Arthur, the son of the current Santa, Malcolm. He is pretty much a klutz and worries about everything, but he cares deeply for every child in the world, working in the mail room and answering every letter Santa can get. His older brother, Steve, is currently next in line to be Santa and is trying really hard to make Christmas goes as smoothly as possible, using state-of-the-art magitech to solve his problems and figure everything out.
Now, what's Magitech? I won't go too much into it, but basically it means that the technology is powered by Magic. The magic in this case, comes from the Aurora Borealis, up on the north pole, which allows for reindeer to fly and pull sleighs. Frankly, I LOVE this. The logic behind it all feels like it came from the imagination of a child on how Santa works. Which is how it should be.
The story followers suit when Arthur finds out that the present of a young girl was failed to be delivered and he is heartbroken. He eventually gets strung up by his grandfather, who wants to prove that the old ways still work, by getting the present to the girl himself. Problems ensue as Steve is incredibly jaded by his work in delivering presents to every single child that he just can't find it in himself to care for every single one of them. The elves freak out and start to believe that the Santas are betraying them and all seems lost.
The movie is brilliant and has one of the best stories a christmas story has. Almost always people try to shove down the throats of the audience about the "true meaning of christmas", but here Christmas isn't important, it's the children that are.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Happy Feet 2 (2011) - An Animated Review
http://megashare.sh/watch-happy-feet-two-online-TkRReU9BPT0
Ok, I know that these movies aren't exactly christmas related, but they are winter related, so in honor of December and Christmas, including Happy Feet from last week, I will be reviewing winter and christmas-themed movies. Hopefully this can be a recurring theme for the later years.
So, here's the sequel to this event and to last week's movie, Happy Feet 2.
This movie is much like the first in that it isn't exactly a conventional film, though the plot is much more evident than before. But first, the characters, since I want to save the plot for last.
We have a return of Mumble, Ramon, and Loveless from the first movie, but aside from Mumbles, the everyone from the first movie has been designated to background character status. Though it is interesting to see old secondary voice actors from the first movie returning to reprise their roles, like the skua who got abducted by "aliens"and such. We do though, get introduced to Erik, Mumble's son, and Sven, a Finnish Tufted Puffin who flew off to Antarctica. Sven is actually a very interesting character, being quite relatable as the movie goes on.
Erik is also an interesting character, playing the naive, but insecure child who can't find his place in the world. Though I'm a little uncomfortable with the underlying message behind the story.
As well as the story of Erik and Mumble, we also get the story of Bill and Will the Krills, two Krills that break away from their swarm and try to find a new life for themselves, only to eventually return to the Swarm with new knowledge.
The plot of the story goes as such. Erik is feeling alone and different as he is not a good dancer and his father has turned his entire civilization into dancers/singers. Running off with Ramon, who is also feeling lonely, with his two friends, Bo and Atticus. Bo is actually a very interesting secondary character, with her motto "an obstacle is nothing more than a challenge" ringing in the background of everything she does.
Erik and friends make their way back to Ramon's old colony where they discover Sven, a Puffin pretending to be a flying penguin due to the color of his feathers. Mumble eventually catches up with them and takes Erik home, but not before Sven imparts some very dangerous false hope about being able to fly.
They meet Brian the Beach Master, an Elephant Seal with a lot to prove. He ultimately gets stuck and needs Mumble to get him out, after which Brian swears an oath of gratitude to Mumble and leaves. Unfortunately, as Mumble and Erik were gone, a huge iceberg came by and blockaded all of Emperorland, leading to terror and confusion, as well as a lot of trouble. Skua try to take advantage, starvation is feared to come, and everyone's plans each begin to fail. Eventually Mumble goes to collect on his oath with Brian to get all the elephant seals to come help, but Brian refuses, being caught with his pride on the line. Luckily, Erik sings a wonderful operatic song that wins the hearts of the seals and they all help, leading to emperorland being saved and Erik finding his place in the world.
Now, I'm a little bit put off by this movie, but the ending does save it. What bothers me at first is that the whole point of the first movie was going outside of what society tells you, but here, Mumble continuously appears to be in the right and Erik and Sven are the delusional ones. What saves the movie from this is when Mumble is unable to convince Brian to help and instead of believing in the impossible like Sven says, or following his father, like Mumble says, Erik makes a beautiful song that touches all their hearts about it all. Proving his place in the world.
I also love that the subplot surrounding the two Krills is very homosexual. And by that I mean, the two male Krill are very clearly in love with one another.
Anyway, another beautiful movie, with beautiful music, my favorite song being the end when Erik sings and good night everyone
Ok, I know that these movies aren't exactly christmas related, but they are winter related, so in honor of December and Christmas, including Happy Feet from last week, I will be reviewing winter and christmas-themed movies. Hopefully this can be a recurring theme for the later years.
So, here's the sequel to this event and to last week's movie, Happy Feet 2.
This movie is much like the first in that it isn't exactly a conventional film, though the plot is much more evident than before. But first, the characters, since I want to save the plot for last.
We have a return of Mumble, Ramon, and Loveless from the first movie, but aside from Mumbles, the everyone from the first movie has been designated to background character status. Though it is interesting to see old secondary voice actors from the first movie returning to reprise their roles, like the skua who got abducted by "aliens"and such. We do though, get introduced to Erik, Mumble's son, and Sven, a Finnish Tufted Puffin who flew off to Antarctica. Sven is actually a very interesting character, being quite relatable as the movie goes on.
Erik is also an interesting character, playing the naive, but insecure child who can't find his place in the world. Though I'm a little uncomfortable with the underlying message behind the story.
As well as the story of Erik and Mumble, we also get the story of Bill and Will the Krills, two Krills that break away from their swarm and try to find a new life for themselves, only to eventually return to the Swarm with new knowledge.
The plot of the story goes as such. Erik is feeling alone and different as he is not a good dancer and his father has turned his entire civilization into dancers/singers. Running off with Ramon, who is also feeling lonely, with his two friends, Bo and Atticus. Bo is actually a very interesting secondary character, with her motto "an obstacle is nothing more than a challenge" ringing in the background of everything she does.
Erik and friends make their way back to Ramon's old colony where they discover Sven, a Puffin pretending to be a flying penguin due to the color of his feathers. Mumble eventually catches up with them and takes Erik home, but not before Sven imparts some very dangerous false hope about being able to fly.
They meet Brian the Beach Master, an Elephant Seal with a lot to prove. He ultimately gets stuck and needs Mumble to get him out, after which Brian swears an oath of gratitude to Mumble and leaves. Unfortunately, as Mumble and Erik were gone, a huge iceberg came by and blockaded all of Emperorland, leading to terror and confusion, as well as a lot of trouble. Skua try to take advantage, starvation is feared to come, and everyone's plans each begin to fail. Eventually Mumble goes to collect on his oath with Brian to get all the elephant seals to come help, but Brian refuses, being caught with his pride on the line. Luckily, Erik sings a wonderful operatic song that wins the hearts of the seals and they all help, leading to emperorland being saved and Erik finding his place in the world.
Now, I'm a little bit put off by this movie, but the ending does save it. What bothers me at first is that the whole point of the first movie was going outside of what society tells you, but here, Mumble continuously appears to be in the right and Erik and Sven are the delusional ones. What saves the movie from this is when Mumble is unable to convince Brian to help and instead of believing in the impossible like Sven says, or following his father, like Mumble says, Erik makes a beautiful song that touches all their hearts about it all. Proving his place in the world.
I also love that the subplot surrounding the two Krills is very homosexual. And by that I mean, the two male Krill are very clearly in love with one another.
Anyway, another beautiful movie, with beautiful music, my favorite song being the end when Erik sings and good night everyone
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Agents of SHIELD Episode 10 - An Adaptation Review
OK, we finally get ourselves a new episode people, and it is quite the game changing doozy. Now, I won't spoil until the end, but people, this is a GREAT episode, there's drama, character development and we finally get a return of Mike Peterson from the first episode, played, once again, by that great actor, J. August Richards. Now, I'm definitely just fanboying since I was a HUGE fan of him in Joss Whedon's Angel, but still, having someone with actual super powers show up again is a huge thing, especially when it's their second time, instead of a purely episodic situation.
But first, the characters that matter most, that stars. Melinda May shows a surprising amount of emotion in this episode and it is showing how her and Agent Ward's relationship is progressing. She's getting a LOT more aggressive and clearly isn't happy that Coulson wants her help to find Skye's parents. It gets pretty juicy when she yells at her and spills that Coulson isn't telling her the whole truth.
Fitz is getting a little weird for me. I mean, at the beginning of the series, he was always a bit over-dramatic and serious about situations (typically in the wrong direction and more about filth and order than actual missions), but he had a lot more range when he would goof and get nervous and make corny jokes. Lately though, he's been getting quite aggressive towards Simmons as well, with this weird "possessive" tone he seems to emit about her. He also seems to be less fun, becoming a real kill-joy and carrying this perpetual scowl on his face from time to time.
Now, for Agent Ward. Ward is becoming an interesting secondary character, but he still hasn't risen to "star" status as of late and he constantly seems to be help back by his own seriousness. But today, he shows a little more character as he shows to actually be a lot more in control of his emotions than even Melinda May is, being the more collected of the two, even in situations where lesser men in shows like these, would go the route of idiot.
Now, the plot of the episode, which means we are approaching spoiler territory.
The events of the story go as such. Edison Po, a military tactician, has been broken out of prison by Centipede with three soldiers using the same Centipede serum that was used on Mike Peterson in the pilot. They've managed to stop the explosion factor thanks to their adventures in Hong Kong, but that doesn't leave it perfect, as the serum needs constant update and refill, something that doesn't seem evident in Mike himself.
It seems the tranquilizer serum Fitz and Simmons used to knock Mike out in the pilot had some kind of chemical reaction that caused his body to adapted the Centipede formula completely into his body without negative reactions. (Though I don't think it still has the regenerative property Extremis was so popular for as Mike gets injured really badly and still seems pretty bad a few hours later). The only negative traits still there is that he gets VERY hungry and needs a LOT more food to eat due to all the energy he uses with his powers.
Centipede discovers that Mike isn't needing the new serum anymore when they try to shut down the project again, and the kidnap Mike's son, and force him to lie to the team and trade Coulson for Mike's son. He does, though he tries to fix it right away, only for Coulson to agree since Mike can't convince them otherwise. After Mike ensures the safety of his son, he runs back after them, only to be caught in an explosion and Coulson gets taken away.
Now, we all know Mike isn't really dead, right? This is the first season and they wouldn't have just brought him back into the show just to kill him off right away. This will clearly be used as a fake out with Mike returning from the dead to save the day somehow, but still, a great episode, though I really want to see a real psychic in this show soon
But first, the characters that matter most, that stars. Melinda May shows a surprising amount of emotion in this episode and it is showing how her and Agent Ward's relationship is progressing. She's getting a LOT more aggressive and clearly isn't happy that Coulson wants her help to find Skye's parents. It gets pretty juicy when she yells at her and spills that Coulson isn't telling her the whole truth.
Fitz is getting a little weird for me. I mean, at the beginning of the series, he was always a bit over-dramatic and serious about situations (typically in the wrong direction and more about filth and order than actual missions), but he had a lot more range when he would goof and get nervous and make corny jokes. Lately though, he's been getting quite aggressive towards Simmons as well, with this weird "possessive" tone he seems to emit about her. He also seems to be less fun, becoming a real kill-joy and carrying this perpetual scowl on his face from time to time.
Now, for Agent Ward. Ward is becoming an interesting secondary character, but he still hasn't risen to "star" status as of late and he constantly seems to be help back by his own seriousness. But today, he shows a little more character as he shows to actually be a lot more in control of his emotions than even Melinda May is, being the more collected of the two, even in situations where lesser men in shows like these, would go the route of idiot.
Now, the plot of the episode, which means we are approaching spoiler territory.
The events of the story go as such. Edison Po, a military tactician, has been broken out of prison by Centipede with three soldiers using the same Centipede serum that was used on Mike Peterson in the pilot. They've managed to stop the explosion factor thanks to their adventures in Hong Kong, but that doesn't leave it perfect, as the serum needs constant update and refill, something that doesn't seem evident in Mike himself.
It seems the tranquilizer serum Fitz and Simmons used to knock Mike out in the pilot had some kind of chemical reaction that caused his body to adapted the Centipede formula completely into his body without negative reactions. (Though I don't think it still has the regenerative property Extremis was so popular for as Mike gets injured really badly and still seems pretty bad a few hours later). The only negative traits still there is that he gets VERY hungry and needs a LOT more food to eat due to all the energy he uses with his powers.
Centipede discovers that Mike isn't needing the new serum anymore when they try to shut down the project again, and the kidnap Mike's son, and force him to lie to the team and trade Coulson for Mike's son. He does, though he tries to fix it right away, only for Coulson to agree since Mike can't convince them otherwise. After Mike ensures the safety of his son, he runs back after them, only to be caught in an explosion and Coulson gets taken away.
Now, we all know Mike isn't really dead, right? This is the first season and they wouldn't have just brought him back into the show just to kill him off right away. This will clearly be used as a fake out with Mike returning from the dead to save the day somehow, but still, a great episode, though I really want to see a real psychic in this show soon
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Happy Feet (2006) - An animation Review
http://megashare.sh/watch-happy-feet-online-TVRRNQ
First, I'm pretty sure everyone here knows about Happy Feet. The movie scored 1st place for three weeks and was the third most popular animated movie in the US. What makes this movie even more fascinating that just it's public popularity, the movie is also incredibly well received by critics. A few even wrote essays analyzing the themes of the movie.
One thing to say, this movie is unto itself, a very unique movie. It never leads you the way you expect it to happen, it follows no structure or story telling trope at all. In fact, the film itself is just as unconventional as its main character.
The movie stars Elijah Wood as Mumble, an Emperor Penguin who's father accidentally dropped him when he was just an egg, which left him very "unique" to other penguins. Robin Williams takes care of all the comedy needed here, but also a lot of dramatic narration as both Ramon, an egotistical but lovable Adelie Penguin and Lovelace, an incredibly smooth and sexual Rockhopper Penguin who runs a con as being a Guru, giving advice and information to unsuspecting Penguins.
Now, the movie has a LOT of religious undertones and symbolism, which Mumble's entire civilization being kept intact by religious extremists, and the Humans being treated as great Mystic beings/aliens from the beyond. As well as Lovelace's own Guru scam.
The movie also has a huge message about people being different, but I'm not a symbolism major, so let's get down to the music.
Now, this movie uses Music in both a soundtrack and musical style, with each song being intentionally made by the characters, as singing seems to be the ultimate way of Birds expressing themselves. The Music is amazing here. The only problem I have now and then is that they cut a lot of their songs short, which I can understand, since they have a LOT of stuff to tell, I just wish the editing could make it pass down easier.
Anyway, the music is amazing, my favorite number being "Boogey Wonderland" where they all get into a huge marching band and dance and sing.
Now, the story. Basically the plot goes as such, there a fish shortage in antarctica and all the penguins are starving. Mumbles is born without a singing voice and a predisposition to tap-dance, something repeatedly called "not penguin". He eventually gets kicked out of his community when he starts blaming aliens for the food shortage (they believe that it is a higher-power doing it). Mumbles teams up with Lovelace, Ramon, and Ramon's friends, who all want to find out the secret (Lovelace wants to know because he is dying from a six-pack ring around his neck).
Miraculously, Mumbles makes his way to human civilization and wins the heart of everyone there with his Dancing. He leads them to his own show the problem to them and the UN makes a big argument over whether they should do anything for the Penguins. And they all live happily ever after.
The movie is beautifully written an is spectacular and I can't wait to review the sequel later on. You know what? I'm going to end my animation Marathon with Happy Feet 2 and make a bunch of reviews abotu christmas related stuff, Happy Holidays everyone
First, I'm pretty sure everyone here knows about Happy Feet. The movie scored 1st place for three weeks and was the third most popular animated movie in the US. What makes this movie even more fascinating that just it's public popularity, the movie is also incredibly well received by critics. A few even wrote essays analyzing the themes of the movie.
One thing to say, this movie is unto itself, a very unique movie. It never leads you the way you expect it to happen, it follows no structure or story telling trope at all. In fact, the film itself is just as unconventional as its main character.
The movie stars Elijah Wood as Mumble, an Emperor Penguin who's father accidentally dropped him when he was just an egg, which left him very "unique" to other penguins. Robin Williams takes care of all the comedy needed here, but also a lot of dramatic narration as both Ramon, an egotistical but lovable Adelie Penguin and Lovelace, an incredibly smooth and sexual Rockhopper Penguin who runs a con as being a Guru, giving advice and information to unsuspecting Penguins.
Now, the movie has a LOT of religious undertones and symbolism, which Mumble's entire civilization being kept intact by religious extremists, and the Humans being treated as great Mystic beings/aliens from the beyond. As well as Lovelace's own Guru scam.
The movie also has a huge message about people being different, but I'm not a symbolism major, so let's get down to the music.
Now, this movie uses Music in both a soundtrack and musical style, with each song being intentionally made by the characters, as singing seems to be the ultimate way of Birds expressing themselves. The Music is amazing here. The only problem I have now and then is that they cut a lot of their songs short, which I can understand, since they have a LOT of stuff to tell, I just wish the editing could make it pass down easier.
Anyway, the music is amazing, my favorite number being "Boogey Wonderland" where they all get into a huge marching band and dance and sing.
Now, the story. Basically the plot goes as such, there a fish shortage in antarctica and all the penguins are starving. Mumbles is born without a singing voice and a predisposition to tap-dance, something repeatedly called "not penguin". He eventually gets kicked out of his community when he starts blaming aliens for the food shortage (they believe that it is a higher-power doing it). Mumbles teams up with Lovelace, Ramon, and Ramon's friends, who all want to find out the secret (Lovelace wants to know because he is dying from a six-pack ring around his neck).
Miraculously, Mumbles makes his way to human civilization and wins the heart of everyone there with his Dancing. He leads them to his own show the problem to them and the UN makes a big argument over whether they should do anything for the Penguins. And they all live happily ever after.
The movie is beautifully written an is spectacular and I can't wait to review the sequel later on. You know what? I'm going to end my animation Marathon with Happy Feet 2 and make a bunch of reviews abotu christmas related stuff, Happy Holidays everyone
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Surf's Up (2007) - An Animation Review
http://megashare.sh/watch-surfs-up-online-TXprNQ
Ok, first, this is not a great work of art or some phenomenal writing or anything. It is just a sports movie about Penguins surfing. And you know what? This might just be what animation needs to become a mature medium, by going in the opposite direction and making a silly sports film. Animation is always being used to tell great sweeping stories about revolution and heroes and princesses, but what about the normal films. What about the "Juno"s. The movies that don't seem to be anything at all besides just an excuse to make a fun movie.
The point I'm making is, once we start to see Animation as JUST another art form, we can start making all kinds of great movies. And maybe the best way to start that is to just make a generically good movie.
Surf's Up is not a kid movie, or a family movie, it's just A movie. The movie is about Cory Maverick, a Penguin from Shiverpool, Antarctica. This is one of the things I love about the movie, it's basically telling a generic surfing movie, but with birds instead of humans. Another thing I love about it is that it is filmed entirely from an interview perspective. With camera men filming the entire movie on-location. The guys who made this movie clearly knew what they were doing when they made this. People often call shaky-cam a lazy move when making a live action film because it removes us from the film, but in animation, where nothing is real, having a shaky-cam actually ADDS to the realism of the movie.
Well, anyway, the movie is basically about Cory Maverick going from Antarctica to a tropical island called Pen Gun island. He becomes good friends with a surfing chicken, named Chicken Joe, from Michigan and starts a romance with Lani, a lifeguard who is also the niece of "Big Z", a surfing legend that inspired Cory to want to be a surfer. We even get a generic villain named Tank who is actually a lot of fun. Not in the traditional fun Disney villain or the sympathetic Marvel comics villain, more in the, "is this guy really the best villain they could hire?" It really does add to the movie to make it feel like a real life film and nor an animated one.
Tank is a bit of a douche, but he's just weird enough and not shown enough that he doesn't really make you hate him, he just, is the villain. The movie is really a generic Surfing movie. You see all the plot twists that come about just in the first 20 minutes and you're just supposed to enjoy the ride. Shia LeBeouf stars as Cory and he does a spectacular job as him. Shia's best roles are always when he's intended to be this ordinary, realistic guy. And Realism is really all this movie tries for. Not in the gritty realism or even in the humane realism. In the, made by humans with humans and in reality realism.
Anyway, you've heard my review. Hopefully this warm and sunny movie will be a great distraction from how terrible the winter is going to be soon. Cya everyone
Ok, first, this is not a great work of art or some phenomenal writing or anything. It is just a sports movie about Penguins surfing. And you know what? This might just be what animation needs to become a mature medium, by going in the opposite direction and making a silly sports film. Animation is always being used to tell great sweeping stories about revolution and heroes and princesses, but what about the normal films. What about the "Juno"s. The movies that don't seem to be anything at all besides just an excuse to make a fun movie.
The point I'm making is, once we start to see Animation as JUST another art form, we can start making all kinds of great movies. And maybe the best way to start that is to just make a generically good movie.
Surf's Up is not a kid movie, or a family movie, it's just A movie. The movie is about Cory Maverick, a Penguin from Shiverpool, Antarctica. This is one of the things I love about the movie, it's basically telling a generic surfing movie, but with birds instead of humans. Another thing I love about it is that it is filmed entirely from an interview perspective. With camera men filming the entire movie on-location. The guys who made this movie clearly knew what they were doing when they made this. People often call shaky-cam a lazy move when making a live action film because it removes us from the film, but in animation, where nothing is real, having a shaky-cam actually ADDS to the realism of the movie.
Well, anyway, the movie is basically about Cory Maverick going from Antarctica to a tropical island called Pen Gun island. He becomes good friends with a surfing chicken, named Chicken Joe, from Michigan and starts a romance with Lani, a lifeguard who is also the niece of "Big Z", a surfing legend that inspired Cory to want to be a surfer. We even get a generic villain named Tank who is actually a lot of fun. Not in the traditional fun Disney villain or the sympathetic Marvel comics villain, more in the, "is this guy really the best villain they could hire?" It really does add to the movie to make it feel like a real life film and nor an animated one.
Tank is a bit of a douche, but he's just weird enough and not shown enough that he doesn't really make you hate him, he just, is the villain. The movie is really a generic Surfing movie. You see all the plot twists that come about just in the first 20 minutes and you're just supposed to enjoy the ride. Shia LeBeouf stars as Cory and he does a spectacular job as him. Shia's best roles are always when he's intended to be this ordinary, realistic guy. And Realism is really all this movie tries for. Not in the gritty realism or even in the humane realism. In the, made by humans with humans and in reality realism.
Anyway, you've heard my review. Hopefully this warm and sunny movie will be a great distraction from how terrible the winter is going to be soon. Cya everyone
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Episode 9 - An Adaptation Review
First off, sorry everyone for the late review, I had to drive home for the holidays and had to miss the latest episode until now. If it makes any of you feel better, I got into a car accident, so I'm already being punished for being late. Second, I would like to make a retraction on something I said last time, Jed Whedon did not write the last episode, i had gotten my intel from wikipedia and have suffered greatly from it. If wikipedia is telling the truth this time, it is THIS episode that Jed Whedon has written, but that's probably wrong too. In fact, for all I know, JOSH Whedon could be writing this whole show behind hundreds of different pen-names.
Now, onto the episode. This series is pissing me off in the best way it can, by hinting at the idea of one super-awesome-superpower and pulling a red-heron on us by giving us another awesome power instead.
The episode was advertised with Telekinesis being the power of the victim here, only for instead the culprit to be a dimension jumper trying to protect the victim unsuccessfully. (And I just spoiled the plot twist of the episode right away, good job me, your doing great at winning people to your show). I really like this idea on multiple parts, but it all centers to where Tobias (the dimension hopper) says he's returning to: Hell. Now, most would joke and say it's just symbolic or feels like hell, but Marvel actually HAS a Hell, and that means we'll be getting a whole adventure involving Mephito, the Marvel Devil. Of course, even if this isn't the case, it still leads to a second awesome thing that could happen.
In Marvel comics, there's a race of Mutants called Neyaphem that have demonic features and powers. Their leader, Azazel, actually showed up in X-Men: First Class as the Red version of Nightcrawler (you know, the teleporter). Now, first, this is PERFECTLY awesome if they decide to introduce the demon mutants this way. Now, in the comics, they were called mutants, but this was probably just because they wanted a cool explanation for Nightcrawler's demonic appearance. Here, they could just make them a race of demonic people with powers.
Also though, word has it that Marvel is trying to make their Inhumans more influential in the marvel universe since they can't use Mutants in the Cinematic universe. And I'll stop talking about this because nothing has anything to do with todays episode anymore.
The reason I spent this time explaining this whole thing is because aside from the reveal of Tobias being a dimension jumper, the story itself isn't that hard to follow from the standard AoS formula. This episode is actually, strangely enough, a Melinda May episode, where we learn just why she's called the Cavalry and why she is the way she is. It isn't really worth explaining since it's pretty much her being too tough in the line of work and she can't really forgive herself for some of the stuff she's done, but it's also nice in how they dealt with the affair going on between Melinda and Ward.
Normally in shows like this, they'll play it with cheep drama by having them get antsy or too smile-y around one another, but they made Ward and Melinda too professional for that and aside from Ward pausing at a joke about Melinda's sex-life from Skye, nothing was even made clear to the audience what was happening. I mean, if they hadn't of shown the two getting dressed together at the beginning of the episode, and I hadn't seen anything so far, I would have not even noticed really.
Another great thing about this episode is it's work with lighting. There were some moments that genuinely felt like a horror movie, with flickering lights and Tobias's teleporting power being used very well together.
Again, a very good episode, and I'm hoping this ends up leading to a subplot with Hell and the potential isn't just passed over like that.
Now, onto the episode. This series is pissing me off in the best way it can, by hinting at the idea of one super-awesome-superpower and pulling a red-heron on us by giving us another awesome power instead.
The episode was advertised with Telekinesis being the power of the victim here, only for instead the culprit to be a dimension jumper trying to protect the victim unsuccessfully. (And I just spoiled the plot twist of the episode right away, good job me, your doing great at winning people to your show). I really like this idea on multiple parts, but it all centers to where Tobias (the dimension hopper) says he's returning to: Hell. Now, most would joke and say it's just symbolic or feels like hell, but Marvel actually HAS a Hell, and that means we'll be getting a whole adventure involving Mephito, the Marvel Devil. Of course, even if this isn't the case, it still leads to a second awesome thing that could happen.
In Marvel comics, there's a race of Mutants called Neyaphem that have demonic features and powers. Their leader, Azazel, actually showed up in X-Men: First Class as the Red version of Nightcrawler (you know, the teleporter). Now, first, this is PERFECTLY awesome if they decide to introduce the demon mutants this way. Now, in the comics, they were called mutants, but this was probably just because they wanted a cool explanation for Nightcrawler's demonic appearance. Here, they could just make them a race of demonic people with powers.
Also though, word has it that Marvel is trying to make their Inhumans more influential in the marvel universe since they can't use Mutants in the Cinematic universe. And I'll stop talking about this because nothing has anything to do with todays episode anymore.
The reason I spent this time explaining this whole thing is because aside from the reveal of Tobias being a dimension jumper, the story itself isn't that hard to follow from the standard AoS formula. This episode is actually, strangely enough, a Melinda May episode, where we learn just why she's called the Cavalry and why she is the way she is. It isn't really worth explaining since it's pretty much her being too tough in the line of work and she can't really forgive herself for some of the stuff she's done, but it's also nice in how they dealt with the affair going on between Melinda and Ward.
Normally in shows like this, they'll play it with cheep drama by having them get antsy or too smile-y around one another, but they made Ward and Melinda too professional for that and aside from Ward pausing at a joke about Melinda's sex-life from Skye, nothing was even made clear to the audience what was happening. I mean, if they hadn't of shown the two getting dressed together at the beginning of the episode, and I hadn't seen anything so far, I would have not even noticed really.
Another great thing about this episode is it's work with lighting. There were some moments that genuinely felt like a horror movie, with flickering lights and Tobias's teleporting power being used very well together.
Again, a very good episode, and I'm hoping this ends up leading to a subplot with Hell and the potential isn't just passed over like that.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Rio (2011) - An Animation Review
So, this movie was actually on my list for a while now. There are many American Animated movies but not many that are made by someone other than Disney or Dreamworks in this day and Age. Which is pretty typical, but not really that good. Disney has always been the big Animation studio, always dealing with a secondary, more independent studio. Usually these Secondary ones were made by people who used to work for Disney. Which makes Blue Sky Studios an interesting case. They started as a small animation studio, thought hired by Disney, that worked on the Disney movie, Tron.
After that they made animated shorts until they made "Ice Age". A big hit, they became very dedicated animators and later on made Rio, their second Big Hit. I'm sure a lot of you saw the commercials for this movie and it is actually pretty good. Running at the average Animated movie time of an hour and a half, the movie was actually made by a native Brazilian, which makes me wonder about it. The movie is set primarily in Rio, but almost everything about Rio that is described feels like common knowledge anyone who spent ten minutes of Wikipedia to find. But even then, Rio itself is a very interesting place and the movie does an excellent job of using what they had to set the story.
The movie is technically a Musical, if only because the characters sing, but they don't portray the singing as like a musical. Characters who sing are intentionally singing and giving a performance for the other characters. The songs themselves are pretty general. They make good use of Brazilian Samba music but it is mostly unrecognizable. There were a few catchy tunes, but my favorite song among the bunch is "Hot Wings (I wanna Party)", sung by Will.i.am, Jamie Fox, and Anne Hathaway. The three singers don't blend but rather bounce off each other to show case each of their talents. A lot of people tend to hate on Will.i.am for his over use of Auto-tune and his constant self-promotion, but I've often had a soft spot for him.
The song, Hot Wings, is very corny, with a lot of bad rhymes and jokes, but that's the fun in my opinion. The song was meant, in my opinion, to be a bird version of a generic Club song, and it works. People often feel that songs in musicals need to only be sung good for them to be good. But for me, it is the songs that are intended to not be perfect that come across the most perfect. One of my favorite songs in Quest for Camelot is Ruber's Song, and it is very "bad" with unstable and forced lyrics. But that is some of the best kind. They make the singer feel real. Often times in Musicals, the entire world will drop whenever a song is being sung, and that sometimes feels forced, so when these types of songs come in, that feel like they were being written by non-professionals, it feels more realistic.
The only problem is sometimes the songs are terrible, but luckily Rio doesn't suffer from any bad music. Another good song I like is one of the best examples of a real-life musical number. It has some of the worst lines for a villains song, but it fits so well and it strangely catchy. Not pop-music or musical catchy, more, smile and shake your tush catchy.
Now, onto the characters. The movie stars Jessie Eisenberg as Blue, a flightless Spix's Macaw bird. Taken by Poachers, he ends up being left in Minnesota and taken care of by a little girl who slowly grows up to be the owner of a book shop. This is some of Jessie's best work. True, it's pretty easy to tell who he is behind the CGI, but he brings his usual snark and intelligence to the role. The character feels made by him, with his uncomfortableness but also being very intelligent and socially crippled.
The female lead of the story is Jewel, played by Anne Hathaway as a free bird who hates cages and domestication (something Blue is quite fond of). She doesn't have much in terms of character, but she's likable and quite confident, taking care of herself for the most part.
The best part about this movie in my opinion are how so many of the minor and secondary characters are given so much in terms of personality that no one feels unnecessary. Even Will.i.am plays a good role, even if it's just to act like himself as a bird.
The animation of the birds is amazing as well, they feel so well animated and human, but sometimes the humans themselves get left out of the caliber and skill. Not to say it is bad, it's just, there's a scene where Blue's owner has lost him and she's crying and it looks completely fake. But it's not the animator's fault. Crying in live-action is hard enough for actors, but to successfully animate and show someone crying, especially with their cartoonish art style, it makes it hard to feel the sadness and you just get uncomfortable.
Now, the villain. Played by Jermaine Clement, Nigel is not one of the most complex, but he is a very interesting villain. He is incredibly smart and is a lot more competent than most animated villains. In fact, he's possibly my favorite part of the film. He doesn't have the theatricality of Scar from Lion King or the suaveness of Hades from Hercules, but he is just so smart. I mean it, this movie has him doing some of the best planning out of any animated villain. escaped prisoner in the heart of Rio, hire a hundred monkeys to seek him out (and by hire, I mean intimidate), Monkeys fail? No matter, he knows where their headed now thanks to the monkeys, only have one prisoner, play on the heart of the hero to trick him. He's pretty generic in what he does to be honest, but the way he does it all is just so clever and intimidating.
Now, the plot of the movie. It's a pretty generic plot really. Blue is discovered to be the last of his kind and an Ornithologist from Brazil comes to beg Linda, Blue's owner, to help him keep the species alive. They head there and Blue meets Jewel and the two of them get caught up in a mess with some idiots Poachers and their leader's pet bird, Nigel. The two of them get cuffed together and hilarity ensues with them trying to find a way to get themselves free. They end up meeting Will.i.am and Jamie Fox as a pair of "urban" birds and Rafael, a poetic/romantic Toucan who becomes a great friend to Blue.
By the end, romance ensues between Blue and Jewel / Linda and Tulio and the Poachers are arrested (Nigel get sucked into a plane propeller and de-feathered). The movie is a great flick to watch with your family and there's even a sequel coming in April of 2014. Let's hope Blue Sky does better with the Rio franchise than they did with the Ice Age one.
After that they made animated shorts until they made "Ice Age". A big hit, they became very dedicated animators and later on made Rio, their second Big Hit. I'm sure a lot of you saw the commercials for this movie and it is actually pretty good. Running at the average Animated movie time of an hour and a half, the movie was actually made by a native Brazilian, which makes me wonder about it. The movie is set primarily in Rio, but almost everything about Rio that is described feels like common knowledge anyone who spent ten minutes of Wikipedia to find. But even then, Rio itself is a very interesting place and the movie does an excellent job of using what they had to set the story.
The movie is technically a Musical, if only because the characters sing, but they don't portray the singing as like a musical. Characters who sing are intentionally singing and giving a performance for the other characters. The songs themselves are pretty general. They make good use of Brazilian Samba music but it is mostly unrecognizable. There were a few catchy tunes, but my favorite song among the bunch is "Hot Wings (I wanna Party)", sung by Will.i.am, Jamie Fox, and Anne Hathaway. The three singers don't blend but rather bounce off each other to show case each of their talents. A lot of people tend to hate on Will.i.am for his over use of Auto-tune and his constant self-promotion, but I've often had a soft spot for him.
The song, Hot Wings, is very corny, with a lot of bad rhymes and jokes, but that's the fun in my opinion. The song was meant, in my opinion, to be a bird version of a generic Club song, and it works. People often feel that songs in musicals need to only be sung good for them to be good. But for me, it is the songs that are intended to not be perfect that come across the most perfect. One of my favorite songs in Quest for Camelot is Ruber's Song, and it is very "bad" with unstable and forced lyrics. But that is some of the best kind. They make the singer feel real. Often times in Musicals, the entire world will drop whenever a song is being sung, and that sometimes feels forced, so when these types of songs come in, that feel like they were being written by non-professionals, it feels more realistic.
The only problem is sometimes the songs are terrible, but luckily Rio doesn't suffer from any bad music. Another good song I like is one of the best examples of a real-life musical number. It has some of the worst lines for a villains song, but it fits so well and it strangely catchy. Not pop-music or musical catchy, more, smile and shake your tush catchy.
Now, onto the characters. The movie stars Jessie Eisenberg as Blue, a flightless Spix's Macaw bird. Taken by Poachers, he ends up being left in Minnesota and taken care of by a little girl who slowly grows up to be the owner of a book shop. This is some of Jessie's best work. True, it's pretty easy to tell who he is behind the CGI, but he brings his usual snark and intelligence to the role. The character feels made by him, with his uncomfortableness but also being very intelligent and socially crippled.
The female lead of the story is Jewel, played by Anne Hathaway as a free bird who hates cages and domestication (something Blue is quite fond of). She doesn't have much in terms of character, but she's likable and quite confident, taking care of herself for the most part.
The best part about this movie in my opinion are how so many of the minor and secondary characters are given so much in terms of personality that no one feels unnecessary. Even Will.i.am plays a good role, even if it's just to act like himself as a bird.
The animation of the birds is amazing as well, they feel so well animated and human, but sometimes the humans themselves get left out of the caliber and skill. Not to say it is bad, it's just, there's a scene where Blue's owner has lost him and she's crying and it looks completely fake. But it's not the animator's fault. Crying in live-action is hard enough for actors, but to successfully animate and show someone crying, especially with their cartoonish art style, it makes it hard to feel the sadness and you just get uncomfortable.
Now, the villain. Played by Jermaine Clement, Nigel is not one of the most complex, but he is a very interesting villain. He is incredibly smart and is a lot more competent than most animated villains. In fact, he's possibly my favorite part of the film. He doesn't have the theatricality of Scar from Lion King or the suaveness of Hades from Hercules, but he is just so smart. I mean it, this movie has him doing some of the best planning out of any animated villain. escaped prisoner in the heart of Rio, hire a hundred monkeys to seek him out (and by hire, I mean intimidate), Monkeys fail? No matter, he knows where their headed now thanks to the monkeys, only have one prisoner, play on the heart of the hero to trick him. He's pretty generic in what he does to be honest, but the way he does it all is just so clever and intimidating.
Now, the plot of the movie. It's a pretty generic plot really. Blue is discovered to be the last of his kind and an Ornithologist from Brazil comes to beg Linda, Blue's owner, to help him keep the species alive. They head there and Blue meets Jewel and the two of them get caught up in a mess with some idiots Poachers and their leader's pet bird, Nigel. The two of them get cuffed together and hilarity ensues with them trying to find a way to get themselves free. They end up meeting Will.i.am and Jamie Fox as a pair of "urban" birds and Rafael, a poetic/romantic Toucan who becomes a great friend to Blue.
By the end, romance ensues between Blue and Jewel / Linda and Tulio and the Poachers are arrested (Nigel get sucked into a plane propeller and de-feathered). The movie is a great flick to watch with your family and there's even a sequel coming in April of 2014. Let's hope Blue Sky does better with the Rio franchise than they did with the Ice Age one.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 8 - An Adaptation Review
WOW! When people first heard of a Marvel tv show being set in continuity with the Marvel movie franchise AND that it was going to be directed by the biggest Nerd Director for TV, I think the first thing that came to my mind was WAHOO! My favorite tv director/writer will be writing a tv show that is set in the same franchise as my favorite movie franchise. You can see why I chose this to go alongside my movie reviews.
But the second thing I thought about was how awesome it would actually be for a tv show to stay in continuity and bounce back and forth between Movie and TV, and they finally did it. I know the pilot was technically like that, but that was more like the show collecting everything obvious from the marvel movies and throwing them together as a way to get all their eggs in one basket. This time, they successfully created a great plot around something "related" to a movie tying in to the recent Thor movie, without outright taking writing material from it.
The story is for once, an Agent Ward episode, with the episode discussing some more about the tragic past of his childhood. We see hints to one tragic incident that we believe to be his past (which is by the way some of the best cinematic directing found in television ever), only to pull a twist that makes more sense with his placement in his family.
I'm definitely not going to spoil too much sense I really think this is some of Jed Whedon's best work. That's right, I said Jed, not Joss. For a show advertised as being directed and written by Joss Whedon, the guy has actually only written the pilot episode (though Wikipedia seems to think that the next episode will be co-written by him), and Jed was also co-writing that episode. Now, Jed has actually co-written only four episodes (the pilot, the second, the third and this episode). The fourth episode was actually one of my favorite episodes and it introduced an obscure but interesting villain from the comics in a new and perhaps better light. Jed has written two episodes I don't really like, but he has also written two episodes I really do, so I'm going to give him the same anticipation I gave his brother.
The plot of this episode goes as such: It's the aftermath of Thor: The Dark World and Coulson's team is leading the clean-up crew when a case of "super" has been detected in the Netherlands. It is revealed that an ancient Asgardian weapon, known as the Berzerker staff, has been unearthed and it has the power to unleash untapped rage and strength from the whoever touches it. And a cult of Norse-Pagans are planning on using the power to go to war with the earth.
Coulson enlists the reluctant help of the expert on Norse Mythology, who he consulted off-screen during the events of the first Thor. It is revealed that this so-called, expert, isn't exactly getting his information second hand. He's the Asgardian who hid the Berzerker Staff in the first place and just wants to be left alone.
Ward accidentally touches the staff and it unleashes some pretty unhappy memories he kept buried deep inside and he isn't acting like his normal self, acting like a regular angry jerk. Realizing soon after a quick talk with Melinda May, he tries to correct his behavior and he learns to focus his rage to protect the entire group from the army of Angry Norse-Pagans. Only to be upstaged by Melinda who uses all three pieces of the Berzeker staff at once to defeat the leaders of the Cult.
This is a great episode. I love Simmons being incredibly reluctant to believe any idea of Magic. I love how Fritz's character growth has stayed, with him now being the straight man to Simmons's jumpy-ness. And the ending was VERY shocking and interesting. I wasn't exactly liking the whole Skye-Ward relationship they were making and they've finally gone and pushed Ward in another, more character driving path.
I'm not going to spoil what happened this time around since anything that happens to Ward's character is now worthy of spoilers, but I just have this to say. The only three episodes where Ward got any character growth were co-written by Jed Whedon, so I'd put my money on any episode later including him to have some more Ward growth.
cya guys later, and tah tah for now
But the second thing I thought about was how awesome it would actually be for a tv show to stay in continuity and bounce back and forth between Movie and TV, and they finally did it. I know the pilot was technically like that, but that was more like the show collecting everything obvious from the marvel movies and throwing them together as a way to get all their eggs in one basket. This time, they successfully created a great plot around something "related" to a movie tying in to the recent Thor movie, without outright taking writing material from it.
The story is for once, an Agent Ward episode, with the episode discussing some more about the tragic past of his childhood. We see hints to one tragic incident that we believe to be his past (which is by the way some of the best cinematic directing found in television ever), only to pull a twist that makes more sense with his placement in his family.
I'm definitely not going to spoil too much sense I really think this is some of Jed Whedon's best work. That's right, I said Jed, not Joss. For a show advertised as being directed and written by Joss Whedon, the guy has actually only written the pilot episode (though Wikipedia seems to think that the next episode will be co-written by him), and Jed was also co-writing that episode. Now, Jed has actually co-written only four episodes (the pilot, the second, the third and this episode). The fourth episode was actually one of my favorite episodes and it introduced an obscure but interesting villain from the comics in a new and perhaps better light. Jed has written two episodes I don't really like, but he has also written two episodes I really do, so I'm going to give him the same anticipation I gave his brother.
The plot of this episode goes as such: It's the aftermath of Thor: The Dark World and Coulson's team is leading the clean-up crew when a case of "super" has been detected in the Netherlands. It is revealed that an ancient Asgardian weapon, known as the Berzerker staff, has been unearthed and it has the power to unleash untapped rage and strength from the whoever touches it. And a cult of Norse-Pagans are planning on using the power to go to war with the earth.
Coulson enlists the reluctant help of the expert on Norse Mythology, who he consulted off-screen during the events of the first Thor. It is revealed that this so-called, expert, isn't exactly getting his information second hand. He's the Asgardian who hid the Berzerker Staff in the first place and just wants to be left alone.
Ward accidentally touches the staff and it unleashes some pretty unhappy memories he kept buried deep inside and he isn't acting like his normal self, acting like a regular angry jerk. Realizing soon after a quick talk with Melinda May, he tries to correct his behavior and he learns to focus his rage to protect the entire group from the army of Angry Norse-Pagans. Only to be upstaged by Melinda who uses all three pieces of the Berzeker staff at once to defeat the leaders of the Cult.
This is a great episode. I love Simmons being incredibly reluctant to believe any idea of Magic. I love how Fritz's character growth has stayed, with him now being the straight man to Simmons's jumpy-ness. And the ending was VERY shocking and interesting. I wasn't exactly liking the whole Skye-Ward relationship they were making and they've finally gone and pushed Ward in another, more character driving path.
I'm not going to spoil what happened this time around since anything that happens to Ward's character is now worthy of spoilers, but I just have this to say. The only three episodes where Ward got any character growth were co-written by Jed Whedon, so I'd put my money on any episode later including him to have some more Ward growth.
cya guys later, and tah tah for now
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Mary and Max (2009) - an animation review
http://viooz.co/movies/228-mary-and-max-2009.html
Mary and Max is definitely not a movie for the everyday american. Why? because it is so different, animated or otherwise, that any american studio would ever think to make. The movie is bleak, depressing, and filled with more realism than anything I have ever seen. And is phenomenal. I do not often get to review works with such caliber due to most american movies of my genres not fitting well with the more high-brow works. The closest I have gotten is with Sam Reimi's Spider-man, and that movie is still very campy and silly and could hardly ever be considered "high-brow".
This movie was made in australia, which makes me glad to know that this blog will be getting some more culture and a peek into another world's work. It uses a similar claymation animation style as England uses and I am quite fond of the unique art quality one can get from it. I'm not exactly sure what they use to animate water yet, but it appears to be something like clear glue.
Now, do not consider that because this movie is animated it will entertain your children. The art is very grey with almost no color at all when the setting is in New York City and there are many animations that will make parents complain about censorship (such as nipples getting hard when cold and birds pooping on people in non-comedic fashion). The humor is labeled as Black Humor and it fits. It isn't dark or surreal, but more depressing with some humor being found in the tight cracks.
When I talk about animation outside of this blog, I often discuss how we, as americans, will never be able to create great works of cinematic art like Citizen Kane or the Godfather so long as we consider cartoons and animation only for children and immature humor. And Australia has shown us just what animation is capable of in terms of make a mature movie about life using animation.
You'll notice that I haven't gotten to the characters or writing yet and that is because the movie is not about some great chase or adventure. The movie is about the life and friendship of these two people, Mary, a young australian girl, and Max, an atheist with Asperger's syndrome living in New York City. The two are both very depressed due to having no friends and their respective baggage and problems. I will not discuss much of either of their characters since the movie itself is all about exploring their problems.
I can say that as someone with Asperger's Syndrome, this movie is a great way to show the world about how mental health is often viewed by other people and the many problems that people try to "cure". This is an oscar worthy film and deserves to be shown in all art schools.
Please, for all that is good in animation, don't make this movie slip through the cracks and become the exception to the rule, this is an amazing movie
Mary and Max is definitely not a movie for the everyday american. Why? because it is so different, animated or otherwise, that any american studio would ever think to make. The movie is bleak, depressing, and filled with more realism than anything I have ever seen. And is phenomenal. I do not often get to review works with such caliber due to most american movies of my genres not fitting well with the more high-brow works. The closest I have gotten is with Sam Reimi's Spider-man, and that movie is still very campy and silly and could hardly ever be considered "high-brow".
This movie was made in australia, which makes me glad to know that this blog will be getting some more culture and a peek into another world's work. It uses a similar claymation animation style as England uses and I am quite fond of the unique art quality one can get from it. I'm not exactly sure what they use to animate water yet, but it appears to be something like clear glue.
Now, do not consider that because this movie is animated it will entertain your children. The art is very grey with almost no color at all when the setting is in New York City and there are many animations that will make parents complain about censorship (such as nipples getting hard when cold and birds pooping on people in non-comedic fashion). The humor is labeled as Black Humor and it fits. It isn't dark or surreal, but more depressing with some humor being found in the tight cracks.
When I talk about animation outside of this blog, I often discuss how we, as americans, will never be able to create great works of cinematic art like Citizen Kane or the Godfather so long as we consider cartoons and animation only for children and immature humor. And Australia has shown us just what animation is capable of in terms of make a mature movie about life using animation.
You'll notice that I haven't gotten to the characters or writing yet and that is because the movie is not about some great chase or adventure. The movie is about the life and friendship of these two people, Mary, a young australian girl, and Max, an atheist with Asperger's syndrome living in New York City. The two are both very depressed due to having no friends and their respective baggage and problems. I will not discuss much of either of their characters since the movie itself is all about exploring their problems.
I can say that as someone with Asperger's Syndrome, this movie is a great way to show the world about how mental health is often viewed by other people and the many problems that people try to "cure". This is an oscar worthy film and deserves to be shown in all art schools.
Please, for all that is good in animation, don't make this movie slip through the cracks and become the exception to the rule, this is an amazing movie
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 7 - An Adaptation Review
I really liked this episode everyone. There was a lot of good jokes, some great character moments and this was certainly a well written plot.
This episode has some great moments for both Skye, Coulson, and Fitz (Fitz is becoming one of my favorite characters on this show). There isn't one character that the episode focuses on first, so I figured I'd talk about the new character brought into the mix, Victoria Hand. Ms. Hand is one of Coulson's superior officers who is leading today's mission and has an air about her similar to that of Nick Fury, especially in how at the end, it appears that she had predicted that Coulson would go against orders.
ONCE AGAIN, I WILL BE SPOILING THIS EPISODE FOR THOSE THAT DIDN"T SEE IT: WATCH IT YOURSELF
Victoria is actually a character from the comics, her being the second character to do so. In the comics, Victoria was a member of SHIELD before she was sent to a far off base for sending Fury a letter about how she hated SHIELD's approach to dealing with terrorism (basically america's approach). She later gets reinstated by Norman Osborn as his right hand when he takes over and turns SHIELD into HAMMER (Hammer doesn't stand for anything in the comics and the name was instead used for a rival industry in Iron Man 2 (since so many people didn't care about that movie I figured I'd tell you that), most likely because Norman Osborn is a Spiderman villain and he's owned by Sony). Since Norman isn't owned by Marvel, I'm curious to know how Victoria's character is developed, especially since she's a lesbian in the comics and it would be interesting to know what Joss Whedon will do with her (especially since he's well known for writing lesbians and Bisexuals).
Now, the plot of the episode goes as such, a dangerous military has gotten access to a weapon that can shut down any technology, including hand-guns and airplanes. They can't send a jet in, so they need to send in a small 2-man team. At first it appears that Melinda May and Agent Ward will be going in, but instead it is Ward and Fitz, since they need someone to dismantle the machine when they get there.
At first, when I heard this, I thought Fitz was going to be his usual self, suffering from his OCD and making all his uncomfortableness known, but he's very serious about this. It is revealed that he's still angry at himself and Ward from the last episode as Ward was the one who parachuted down to save Simmons when she leaped out of the "Bus" to prevent her EMP virus from taking everyone with her. Fitz felt inadequate, especially when he had just found out that Simmons is in love with him, so he's going on this mission to make sure he can prove himself.
The two are actually a great team, getting in and disabling the enemy. Now, at this time, Skye is getting really worried for Fitz and Ward (Ward especially since they've got this ting between them) as well as she wants to hack into SHIELD files from the central mainframe to get information on her parents. She and Simmons pull a very risky job of getting Skye's flash-drive into the mainframe so that she can hack in and get her access. She at first appears more interested in finding info on her parents, but when it is shown that she's running out of time, she does the "right" thing and gets info instead on Ward and Fitz's mission.
Skye then learns that the mission Ward and Fitz are on is a suicidal one since SHIELD seems to have no plans on sending a rescue team after them before SHIELD blitzkriegs the base. Luckily Coulson reacts accordingly and goes in to save the day with the team.
Coulson has been getting some more character development as well, getting into a fight with Victoria when he finds out about his men's lives in danger. He also finds out some info on Skye's parents, telling her "what he knows" but deciding to dig deeper into it with Melinda May's help. He also finds out that he's not privy to his own files about how he was brought back to life, making him get very worried about what is being kept secret from him.
I'm really looking forward to the next episode as it really is being made clear to be a tie in to the Thor: The Dark World movie, but I'm also getting interested in knowing if Coulson and the gang are going to rebel from SHIELD.
My only problem with how the show is developing is that our team of six has 3 woman and 3 men and we seem to have two romances blossoming on this team. I mean, I'm glad there aren't any love-triangles, but seriously? 2/3rds of the team is in a romantic relationship? It makes this feel way to compromised. I mean, Fitz and Simmons are clearly in love with each other and are getting ready to make "the kiss" while Ward and Skye are suffering from classic lead romance problems of having feelings for one another but being too different people.
My only hope is that Ward actually gets some character development. I mean, seriously? We've been through 4 episodes since we learned anything about his character. GIVE US SOMETHING! He's so bland that I want to know more about him before he becomes so boring that I just hate him. He's interesting so long as he is in combat, but other than that he's just so lame and robotic.
cya around guys
This episode has some great moments for both Skye, Coulson, and Fitz (Fitz is becoming one of my favorite characters on this show). There isn't one character that the episode focuses on first, so I figured I'd talk about the new character brought into the mix, Victoria Hand. Ms. Hand is one of Coulson's superior officers who is leading today's mission and has an air about her similar to that of Nick Fury, especially in how at the end, it appears that she had predicted that Coulson would go against orders.
ONCE AGAIN, I WILL BE SPOILING THIS EPISODE FOR THOSE THAT DIDN"T SEE IT: WATCH IT YOURSELF
Victoria is actually a character from the comics, her being the second character to do so. In the comics, Victoria was a member of SHIELD before she was sent to a far off base for sending Fury a letter about how she hated SHIELD's approach to dealing with terrorism (basically america's approach). She later gets reinstated by Norman Osborn as his right hand when he takes over and turns SHIELD into HAMMER (Hammer doesn't stand for anything in the comics and the name was instead used for a rival industry in Iron Man 2 (since so many people didn't care about that movie I figured I'd tell you that), most likely because Norman Osborn is a Spiderman villain and he's owned by Sony). Since Norman isn't owned by Marvel, I'm curious to know how Victoria's character is developed, especially since she's a lesbian in the comics and it would be interesting to know what Joss Whedon will do with her (especially since he's well known for writing lesbians and Bisexuals).
Now, the plot of the episode goes as such, a dangerous military has gotten access to a weapon that can shut down any technology, including hand-guns and airplanes. They can't send a jet in, so they need to send in a small 2-man team. At first it appears that Melinda May and Agent Ward will be going in, but instead it is Ward and Fitz, since they need someone to dismantle the machine when they get there.
At first, when I heard this, I thought Fitz was going to be his usual self, suffering from his OCD and making all his uncomfortableness known, but he's very serious about this. It is revealed that he's still angry at himself and Ward from the last episode as Ward was the one who parachuted down to save Simmons when she leaped out of the "Bus" to prevent her EMP virus from taking everyone with her. Fitz felt inadequate, especially when he had just found out that Simmons is in love with him, so he's going on this mission to make sure he can prove himself.
The two are actually a great team, getting in and disabling the enemy. Now, at this time, Skye is getting really worried for Fitz and Ward (Ward especially since they've got this ting between them) as well as she wants to hack into SHIELD files from the central mainframe to get information on her parents. She and Simmons pull a very risky job of getting Skye's flash-drive into the mainframe so that she can hack in and get her access. She at first appears more interested in finding info on her parents, but when it is shown that she's running out of time, she does the "right" thing and gets info instead on Ward and Fitz's mission.
Skye then learns that the mission Ward and Fitz are on is a suicidal one since SHIELD seems to have no plans on sending a rescue team after them before SHIELD blitzkriegs the base. Luckily Coulson reacts accordingly and goes in to save the day with the team.
Coulson has been getting some more character development as well, getting into a fight with Victoria when he finds out about his men's lives in danger. He also finds out some info on Skye's parents, telling her "what he knows" but deciding to dig deeper into it with Melinda May's help. He also finds out that he's not privy to his own files about how he was brought back to life, making him get very worried about what is being kept secret from him.
I'm really looking forward to the next episode as it really is being made clear to be a tie in to the Thor: The Dark World movie, but I'm also getting interested in knowing if Coulson and the gang are going to rebel from SHIELD.
My only problem with how the show is developing is that our team of six has 3 woman and 3 men and we seem to have two romances blossoming on this team. I mean, I'm glad there aren't any love-triangles, but seriously? 2/3rds of the team is in a romantic relationship? It makes this feel way to compromised. I mean, Fitz and Simmons are clearly in love with each other and are getting ready to make "the kiss" while Ward and Skye are suffering from classic lead romance problems of having feelings for one another but being too different people.
My only hope is that Ward actually gets some character development. I mean, seriously? We've been through 4 episodes since we learned anything about his character. GIVE US SOMETHING! He's so bland that I want to know more about him before he becomes so boring that I just hate him. He's interesting so long as he is in combat, but other than that he's just so lame and robotic.
cya around guys
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Chicken Run (2000) - An animation review
Now, I'm usually adverse to reviewing Disney and Dreamworks because everyone always reviews those when discussing animated movies, but I wanted to review something foreign and this was all i could find on such short notice.
Chicken Run is a claymation (Animated Clay) film done by the very skilled Peter Lord and Nick Park. These guys are VERY talented men from britain and have made many brilliant claymation before hand. Usually they stick to shorts like with Wallace and Grommet, but they still showed their skill with this movie as well.
Chicken Run stars Julia Sawalha as Ginger, a very brave chicken who dreams of escaping from the prison-like chicken coop and saving everyone as well. Mel Gibson plays Rocky, an american rooster who is mistaken for a flying rooster. This is actually one of Mel Gibson's better performances and everyone forgets that before he went crazy, he was a genuinely good actor and has played many interesting characters. Rocky, not a completely original character, but he plays him very well and plays the stereotypical american perfectly.
The movie has a very small cast, but none of them are really important. There's Mrs. & Mr. Tweeny a poor couple that owns the farm and a handful of Chickens that play supporting roles. The Tweenys are alright, but they aren't very complex. Mr. Tweeny is a bumbling farmer who's inherited the farm from a long line of farmers and Mrs Tweeny is a greedy woman who hates how poor she is and wants to make a LOT of money with their farm.
The chickens are as such: Mac, a scientist with a very heavy scottish accent (To all the Scotts, I apologize if that accent is wrong for a Scott), Bunty, a very pessimistic and grumpy chicken who still manages to have some fun with the rest of her chickens, and Babs, who is without a doubt one of the pluckiest chickens I have ever heard (pun intended). She's just so innocent and just says the most hilarious of lines.
There's also Fowler, a military old Rooster who's always strutting about and bragging about how the good old days were so great.
And then there's the rats. Played by Timothy Spall and Phil Daniels. This duo is just brilliant in their chemistry. Playing the roll of a couple of crooked but good-natured businessmen who do deals with Ginger to get her supplies to make her escape hatches.
The plot of the movie goes as such. Mrs. Tweeny is sick of being poor and their egg supplies are getting drastically low. So she decides to turn every chicken around into a pie and sell them. So when Rocky comes in, apparently flying in, Ginger believes that he can save the day by teaching them all how to fly. Rocky can't actually fly and is just a selfish "american" but he proves his metal when he saves Ginger from the pie machine and breaks it down. But once Rocky reveals his secret, he bolts and their left on their own. Ginger, left with no options, decides for one last desperate action: Build a giant plane to fly them out of there.
The movie itself is very well written, with a LOT of good jokes and English-American cross-culture humor. And the end, where they put together all the parts to get the plane up and ready is just spectacular. My only concern is just, with the size of the plane they made, they wouldn't even need to fly really. They could just drive out of their, though the whole joke of the film is that Chickens can't fly.
Another pet peeve I have for the movie, has nothing to do with the movie itself, but with the Tweeny farmers. I've lived on a farm and I know how the business is run, and if the chickens are seriously not giving you eggs three days straight, that's not a problems. And you can't just sell every egg you get either. The chickens are clearly getting too old to mass produce chickens. You need to hold back on your shipment and raise a new batch of chickens to start mass producing more. Heck, even if you want to make a pie farm instead from now on, you don't kill every last chicken at once, you need to get more chickens or else you won't be able to make another batch of pies.
All in all though, the movie is great. the characters are hilarious and every plot detail is revealed at the right moment. A great comedy
Chicken Run is a claymation (Animated Clay) film done by the very skilled Peter Lord and Nick Park. These guys are VERY talented men from britain and have made many brilliant claymation before hand. Usually they stick to shorts like with Wallace and Grommet, but they still showed their skill with this movie as well.
Chicken Run stars Julia Sawalha as Ginger, a very brave chicken who dreams of escaping from the prison-like chicken coop and saving everyone as well. Mel Gibson plays Rocky, an american rooster who is mistaken for a flying rooster. This is actually one of Mel Gibson's better performances and everyone forgets that before he went crazy, he was a genuinely good actor and has played many interesting characters. Rocky, not a completely original character, but he plays him very well and plays the stereotypical american perfectly.
The movie has a very small cast, but none of them are really important. There's Mrs. & Mr. Tweeny a poor couple that owns the farm and a handful of Chickens that play supporting roles. The Tweenys are alright, but they aren't very complex. Mr. Tweeny is a bumbling farmer who's inherited the farm from a long line of farmers and Mrs Tweeny is a greedy woman who hates how poor she is and wants to make a LOT of money with their farm.
The chickens are as such: Mac, a scientist with a very heavy scottish accent (To all the Scotts, I apologize if that accent is wrong for a Scott), Bunty, a very pessimistic and grumpy chicken who still manages to have some fun with the rest of her chickens, and Babs, who is without a doubt one of the pluckiest chickens I have ever heard (pun intended). She's just so innocent and just says the most hilarious of lines.
There's also Fowler, a military old Rooster who's always strutting about and bragging about how the good old days were so great.
And then there's the rats. Played by Timothy Spall and Phil Daniels. This duo is just brilliant in their chemistry. Playing the roll of a couple of crooked but good-natured businessmen who do deals with Ginger to get her supplies to make her escape hatches.
The plot of the movie goes as such. Mrs. Tweeny is sick of being poor and their egg supplies are getting drastically low. So she decides to turn every chicken around into a pie and sell them. So when Rocky comes in, apparently flying in, Ginger believes that he can save the day by teaching them all how to fly. Rocky can't actually fly and is just a selfish "american" but he proves his metal when he saves Ginger from the pie machine and breaks it down. But once Rocky reveals his secret, he bolts and their left on their own. Ginger, left with no options, decides for one last desperate action: Build a giant plane to fly them out of there.
The movie itself is very well written, with a LOT of good jokes and English-American cross-culture humor. And the end, where they put together all the parts to get the plane up and ready is just spectacular. My only concern is just, with the size of the plane they made, they wouldn't even need to fly really. They could just drive out of their, though the whole joke of the film is that Chickens can't fly.
Another pet peeve I have for the movie, has nothing to do with the movie itself, but with the Tweeny farmers. I've lived on a farm and I know how the business is run, and if the chickens are seriously not giving you eggs three days straight, that's not a problems. And you can't just sell every egg you get either. The chickens are clearly getting too old to mass produce chickens. You need to hold back on your shipment and raise a new batch of chickens to start mass producing more. Heck, even if you want to make a pie farm instead from now on, you don't kill every last chicken at once, you need to get more chickens or else you won't be able to make another batch of pies.
All in all though, the movie is great. the characters are hilarious and every plot detail is revealed at the right moment. A great comedy
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 6 - An Adaptation Review
Ok guys, after waiting an additional week, I have to say that this is definitely one of the best episodes of this week. It had a thrilling plot and a lot of danger and I genuinely thought they were going to use this as an opportunity to kill off Fitz and Simmons (ooh, spoilers). But anyway, this was a great episode, enough said.
This is a follow up to last episode's fiasco with Skye being under surveillance for what she did and Agent Ward not trusting her and treating her very distantly (most likely because he was getting feelings and everything). The major focus of this episode is one Fitz and Simmons who step out of the comedic side-character to show their genuine characters. We all know by now that Simmons took Fitz with her when she joined Agent Coulson and now we learn why. She wasn't just looking out for him by pushing him into the field, she is in love with Fitz. This is actually more comical in that the episode begins with Fitz trying to hit on Skye and Skye mistaking it for him talking about Simmons, showing that she already saw the chemistry between them.
This does leave a bit of a trope argument in this since it's the stupid boy who never noticed his life-long friend was in love with him. Why can't this be the other way around? because girls are always more in touch with their feelings or something. anyway we're off topic.
Anyway, the plot of the episode goes as such, A couple of volunteer firefighters are found dead and floating in mid air do to an electromagnet wave. It turns out the guys and their third partner had taken an alien helmet from the battle site from the end of the Avengers. It turns out the helmet is carrying an alien disease that infects through static electrical shock and kills them by delivering a powerful EMP wave, leaving them suspended in magnetic levitation.
Simmons accidentally contracts the disease and everyone does what they can to desperately try and get the disease cured. During the desperation, Fritz accidentally discovers that Simmons is in love with him and the two of them figure out a way to get it to work.
Sadly the cure makes the EMP wave go off anyway and it looks like Simmons is going to die, so she decides to jump out of the jet and die away from the crew so she doesn't take them down with her. Agent Ward is successful in rescuing her and everyone is saved and together again.
The episode ends with Coulson making a strange threat to his commanding officer that he won't let them shut down his crew, making me wonder if Coulson might become a rogue agent at some point. I'm also hoping and speculating that since Simmons had to use Alien DNA to cure her magnetic disease, it could potentially give her alien/magnetic powers later on. Which would be cool since Joss Whedon is great with writing Super-Powered women.
This is a follow up to last episode's fiasco with Skye being under surveillance for what she did and Agent Ward not trusting her and treating her very distantly (most likely because he was getting feelings and everything). The major focus of this episode is one Fitz and Simmons who step out of the comedic side-character to show their genuine characters. We all know by now that Simmons took Fitz with her when she joined Agent Coulson and now we learn why. She wasn't just looking out for him by pushing him into the field, she is in love with Fitz. This is actually more comical in that the episode begins with Fitz trying to hit on Skye and Skye mistaking it for him talking about Simmons, showing that she already saw the chemistry between them.
This does leave a bit of a trope argument in this since it's the stupid boy who never noticed his life-long friend was in love with him. Why can't this be the other way around? because girls are always more in touch with their feelings or something. anyway we're off topic.
Anyway, the plot of the episode goes as such, A couple of volunteer firefighters are found dead and floating in mid air do to an electromagnet wave. It turns out the guys and their third partner had taken an alien helmet from the battle site from the end of the Avengers. It turns out the helmet is carrying an alien disease that infects through static electrical shock and kills them by delivering a powerful EMP wave, leaving them suspended in magnetic levitation.
Simmons accidentally contracts the disease and everyone does what they can to desperately try and get the disease cured. During the desperation, Fritz accidentally discovers that Simmons is in love with him and the two of them figure out a way to get it to work.
Sadly the cure makes the EMP wave go off anyway and it looks like Simmons is going to die, so she decides to jump out of the jet and die away from the crew so she doesn't take them down with her. Agent Ward is successful in rescuing her and everyone is saved and together again.
The episode ends with Coulson making a strange threat to his commanding officer that he won't let them shut down his crew, making me wonder if Coulson might become a rogue agent at some point. I'm also hoping and speculating that since Simmons had to use Alien DNA to cure her magnetic disease, it could potentially give her alien/magnetic powers later on. Which would be cool since Joss Whedon is great with writing Super-Powered women.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Robots (2005) - An Adaptation Review
Ok guys, now that the Spiderman marathon is over with I can get back to reviewing Animated movies, which we'll be doing for a while, so you can step away from me talking about bad ways to keep canonicity and instead you get to watch me talk about good and bad ways to do an animated movie.
This movie is one of my favorites to be honest, so I can right away and say that this is a VERY good movie, but that's not just because of bias but because it really is. It's a heart-warming story about how new and shiny things are not always better and that you should always chase your dreams. The movie is only 80 minutes long, quite expected from an animated movie really (seriously, I could watch two animated movies in the time most live actions take nowadays, what's with that?)
The movie stars Robin Williams as Fender Pinwheel, a slightly deranged weirdo trying to make ends meet in the big city of Robot city. But he's not the main character, though he is one of my favorite characters with how cooky he is.
The main character in this story is Rodney Copperbottom, voiced by Ewan McGregor. He's a very intelligent and imaginative guy with dreams and hopes and goals and has to come to terms with the harsh reality of the big city. Luckily, he doesn't break down from it all and instead fights back, kicking and proving his worth among the chaos.
Then theres the Supporting cast and boy there's a lot of them. There's Piper, Fender's younger sister, Crank, a loser/quitter who never sees the bright side to things and is always remarking with sarcasm, Cappy, Rodney's love interest, and a hundred more.
The movie was out for almost a decade now so no spoilers, though there's no twist ending. The plot is such, Rodney wants to be an inventor and work under his idol Bigwell. He even makes a pretty cool invention and heads to Robot City to prove himself. Unfortunately, the company isn't taking new inventors anymore and is being run by a greedy corporate tycoon named Ratchet. Ratchet has an irrational hatred for anything outdated and plans to destroy every poor robot that can't buy his upgrades. Because Ratchet stopped selling spare parts to fix robots because he wants them to die, Rodney takes his place, fixing the robots himself. But he can't keep them all fixed forever, so he tries to find Bigwell and get it all working.
The movie is very well written and works like a short story about the cruelty of the modern day industry as opposed to how we saw it growing up. I also love how the entire world is set up. It's almost like someone made it all out of spare parts out of their room. And also, i see this argument about flying being the best way to show off 3D animation and I have to argue otherwise. Flying isn't the best way, it's just the easiest. This movie showed that 3D animation can also be shown best when using a surfing/roller-blading style environment. With everything sliding and swinging around, it makes it an ideal candidate.
The only problem I see with the movie is that there are quite a few romance subplots and other subplots in this movie and the movie doesn't spend much time on them. I'd love to see Fender and that receptionist girl he picks up get around to seeing each other some more. Or maybe have some other side-plots happen to explore some more character? but for what I got, i got a lot of what I like. In fact, this movie is probably one of the reasons I studied engineering back in high-school.
The story is very simple and isn't intended to be complex at all. But it is VERY mature and VERY well written. The movie isn't just about the story itself, it's seeing how this world works and seeing how the culture works. Instead of drinking hot coffee in the morning, they pour hot grease over themselves. I also love just how much attention to detail this movie does. The characters in this movie actually blink a LOT. People often joke about how in cartoons the characters don't blink, but they do it a LOT here and it just adds to how amazing this movie is.
It also has a very nice assortment of songs that work very well to set the tone of the scene. I especially love Tom Waits's Underground, which is the best song to ever play in a factory/hell setting like it is.
The movie did great critically and even got nominated for a few awards, though some critics argued that the story felt like it came off the assembly line. I don't exactly disagree with that, but the story is still very nice and good and definitely has a meaning that hasn't really been told as of late nowadays. Still, a great movie and you should all watch it.
This movie is one of my favorites to be honest, so I can right away and say that this is a VERY good movie, but that's not just because of bias but because it really is. It's a heart-warming story about how new and shiny things are not always better and that you should always chase your dreams. The movie is only 80 minutes long, quite expected from an animated movie really (seriously, I could watch two animated movies in the time most live actions take nowadays, what's with that?)
The movie stars Robin Williams as Fender Pinwheel, a slightly deranged weirdo trying to make ends meet in the big city of Robot city. But he's not the main character, though he is one of my favorite characters with how cooky he is.
The main character in this story is Rodney Copperbottom, voiced by Ewan McGregor. He's a very intelligent and imaginative guy with dreams and hopes and goals and has to come to terms with the harsh reality of the big city. Luckily, he doesn't break down from it all and instead fights back, kicking and proving his worth among the chaos.
Then theres the Supporting cast and boy there's a lot of them. There's Piper, Fender's younger sister, Crank, a loser/quitter who never sees the bright side to things and is always remarking with sarcasm, Cappy, Rodney's love interest, and a hundred more.
The movie was out for almost a decade now so no spoilers, though there's no twist ending. The plot is such, Rodney wants to be an inventor and work under his idol Bigwell. He even makes a pretty cool invention and heads to Robot City to prove himself. Unfortunately, the company isn't taking new inventors anymore and is being run by a greedy corporate tycoon named Ratchet. Ratchet has an irrational hatred for anything outdated and plans to destroy every poor robot that can't buy his upgrades. Because Ratchet stopped selling spare parts to fix robots because he wants them to die, Rodney takes his place, fixing the robots himself. But he can't keep them all fixed forever, so he tries to find Bigwell and get it all working.
The movie is very well written and works like a short story about the cruelty of the modern day industry as opposed to how we saw it growing up. I also love how the entire world is set up. It's almost like someone made it all out of spare parts out of their room. And also, i see this argument about flying being the best way to show off 3D animation and I have to argue otherwise. Flying isn't the best way, it's just the easiest. This movie showed that 3D animation can also be shown best when using a surfing/roller-blading style environment. With everything sliding and swinging around, it makes it an ideal candidate.
The only problem I see with the movie is that there are quite a few romance subplots and other subplots in this movie and the movie doesn't spend much time on them. I'd love to see Fender and that receptionist girl he picks up get around to seeing each other some more. Or maybe have some other side-plots happen to explore some more character? but for what I got, i got a lot of what I like. In fact, this movie is probably one of the reasons I studied engineering back in high-school.
The story is very simple and isn't intended to be complex at all. But it is VERY mature and VERY well written. The movie isn't just about the story itself, it's seeing how this world works and seeing how the culture works. Instead of drinking hot coffee in the morning, they pour hot grease over themselves. I also love just how much attention to detail this movie does. The characters in this movie actually blink a LOT. People often joke about how in cartoons the characters don't blink, but they do it a LOT here and it just adds to how amazing this movie is.
It also has a very nice assortment of songs that work very well to set the tone of the scene. I especially love Tom Waits's Underground, which is the best song to ever play in a factory/hell setting like it is.
The movie did great critically and even got nominated for a few awards, though some critics argued that the story felt like it came off the assembly line. I don't exactly disagree with that, but the story is still very nice and good and definitely has a meaning that hasn't really been told as of late nowadays. Still, a great movie and you should all watch it.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) - An Adaptation Review
http://megashare.info/watch-the-amazing-spider-man-online-TlRRME1nPT0
This movie is worst movie that just so happens to be the best at disguising itself as one of the most "Ok" movies of all time. And I would like the first say this: "We did NOT need a reboot of Sam Raimi's Spider-man!" Sorry, but seriously, this movie is nothing more than Sony trying to keep the money that they were getting from the first two Spider-men movies that it needed to do whatever it took, including appealing to the audiences that seemed to hate the first two movies for arbitrary reasons.
But let's get going and try to review this movie as a separate work (even though having the mere balls to make this a reboot of the greatest comic book adaptation movie there is makes it completely deserving of being compared). First, since you all know my opinions on the final verdict, I'm going to leave that and the real problems to last. Now, characters first:
Spiderman is the biggest dick in the universe. Gwen Stacey has a fetish for douche-bags who stalk her and her father disapproves of. Flash Thompson is a bully who grows and learns to accept Peter as a person and a friend. Uncle Ben is a good man and didn't deserve to die. Curt Conners has one of the biggest, out of the blue motivation changes there are. George Stacey (Gwen's father) deserved a LOT more character growth.
Now, I bet you are thinking, wow, that was the most opinionated review ever, this guy isn't professional at all. Let's go read Film Critic Hulk's stuff instead, which you should, it's really good stuff, but first, let me explain. Peter Parker does nothing in this movie that makes him look realistic, sympathetic, or heroic at all by the beginning and pretty much the entire movie. There are plenty of moments where he acts like he is learning, and growing as a person, but he never stays like that for long, instead going and doing another insensitive thing. Also, apparently Peter Parker is a wimpy, bullied nerd, but the first thing out of anything that he does, is get asked out by a very cute girl and he turns her down. Really, and I'm supposed to feel sorry for him and relate to him? And really, he stutters more than Shia LaBeouf
Then there's Gwen Stacey, who seems to think that if a guy is stalking you, he is someone you should ask to go on a date. Really? He shows up at the place you work without any explanation, then his uncle says that he has your picture on his computer, I'd get going in the other direction. And in case you want to say maybe she knows he's not really stalking her, I spent my years watching movies and tv shows glorifying stalking as a justifiable way for people to get girls to like you, so one year I tried that in middle school, no one I knew would let me live it down ever since. Girls don't like stalking, even when all you do is just stare at them during recess.
Now, to Curt Conners. Like the rest of the Spider-man movie villains, this was a good villain. He was tragic, he had motivation, UNTIL he pulls a 180 and decides to turn everyone into a lizard. They try to cover this up with having Curt leave a message confessing to his evil plans, but really? It feels 100% contrived and there could even have been ways to make this whole thing work. Maybe instead of a recorded message, you could have him try to turn another person into a lizard, and when they reject his offer he fights them and accidentally kills them. He sees this as a weakness on their part and decides to make everyone stronger, instead of this, for no reason, wanting to make all humans stronger for no reason.
And now Uncle Ben and Police Chief George Stacey. Both of these characters are actually really good characters, but the problem is that neither of them ever get any real character moments in the movie. All the Police Chief does is gripe about wanting to catch Spiderman and how Spiderman is a menace to the police and all Ben does is try to be a good parent to a bratty kid who can't seem to get his act together.
There are a few good moments in this movie, like when the mugger goes and kills Uncle Ben. It is a very different scene from the original Spider-man movie. In that one, the mugger was just a desperate guy robbing a jerk for money. In this, the jerk who gets robbed is completely justified in getting robbed, and the robber actually is nice to Peter, giving him what he was trying to buy as well. Then he drops his gun and Uncle Ben tries to be a hero and grab the gun from him and he accidentally shoots him. It's a great moment that feels very real (which is one of the only real moments in this entire film). Then there's that moment where Chief Stacey argues about how Spiderman is more of a danger to the city because he interferes with police activities.
Now, if any of you read my review of Rurouni Kenshin, then you know that I know a little about fight scene choreography and I have to say this. This movie has some of the best fight-choreography in any modern comic book movie at all. It's very good and properly demonstrates all of Spiderman's abilities, except one. Sadly, I have to say, this movie has left out one of Spiderman's most important super-powers ever, and I'm not talking about his web-shooters. I'm talking about his spider-sense. I mean, think about it, never in this movie do they really show Spiderman using his spider-sense. They have him use enhanced reflexes, but not his near-pre-cognition that was his trade-mark back in the day. In fact, he even gets tricked and sneak-attacked in the sewers, when in "reality" spiderman should have been able to easily get out of that situation by reacting with his enhanced reflexes.
Now, to what really drives home the problem with this movie, even more than how none of the characters actually grow or how none of the events in this movie make sense. It's the editing, the writing, and the camera-working. There are so many pointless scenes, whether they are too long or completely unimportant, that this movie feels like it would do so much better if the time used in this had been used to give many of the characters some more character growth.
All in all, this movie has a few good moments, but no where near enough to redeem its horrible lead characters and shitty writing. If I wanted to watch the origin story of Spiderman, I would have watched the Sam Raimi one
This movie is worst movie that just so happens to be the best at disguising itself as one of the most "Ok" movies of all time. And I would like the first say this: "We did NOT need a reboot of Sam Raimi's Spider-man!" Sorry, but seriously, this movie is nothing more than Sony trying to keep the money that they were getting from the first two Spider-men movies that it needed to do whatever it took, including appealing to the audiences that seemed to hate the first two movies for arbitrary reasons.
But let's get going and try to review this movie as a separate work (even though having the mere balls to make this a reboot of the greatest comic book adaptation movie there is makes it completely deserving of being compared). First, since you all know my opinions on the final verdict, I'm going to leave that and the real problems to last. Now, characters first:
Spiderman is the biggest dick in the universe. Gwen Stacey has a fetish for douche-bags who stalk her and her father disapproves of. Flash Thompson is a bully who grows and learns to accept Peter as a person and a friend. Uncle Ben is a good man and didn't deserve to die. Curt Conners has one of the biggest, out of the blue motivation changes there are. George Stacey (Gwen's father) deserved a LOT more character growth.
Now, I bet you are thinking, wow, that was the most opinionated review ever, this guy isn't professional at all. Let's go read Film Critic Hulk's stuff instead, which you should, it's really good stuff, but first, let me explain. Peter Parker does nothing in this movie that makes him look realistic, sympathetic, or heroic at all by the beginning and pretty much the entire movie. There are plenty of moments where he acts like he is learning, and growing as a person, but he never stays like that for long, instead going and doing another insensitive thing. Also, apparently Peter Parker is a wimpy, bullied nerd, but the first thing out of anything that he does, is get asked out by a very cute girl and he turns her down. Really, and I'm supposed to feel sorry for him and relate to him? And really, he stutters more than Shia LaBeouf
Then there's Gwen Stacey, who seems to think that if a guy is stalking you, he is someone you should ask to go on a date. Really? He shows up at the place you work without any explanation, then his uncle says that he has your picture on his computer, I'd get going in the other direction. And in case you want to say maybe she knows he's not really stalking her, I spent my years watching movies and tv shows glorifying stalking as a justifiable way for people to get girls to like you, so one year I tried that in middle school, no one I knew would let me live it down ever since. Girls don't like stalking, even when all you do is just stare at them during recess.
Now, to Curt Conners. Like the rest of the Spider-man movie villains, this was a good villain. He was tragic, he had motivation, UNTIL he pulls a 180 and decides to turn everyone into a lizard. They try to cover this up with having Curt leave a message confessing to his evil plans, but really? It feels 100% contrived and there could even have been ways to make this whole thing work. Maybe instead of a recorded message, you could have him try to turn another person into a lizard, and when they reject his offer he fights them and accidentally kills them. He sees this as a weakness on their part and decides to make everyone stronger, instead of this, for no reason, wanting to make all humans stronger for no reason.
And now Uncle Ben and Police Chief George Stacey. Both of these characters are actually really good characters, but the problem is that neither of them ever get any real character moments in the movie. All the Police Chief does is gripe about wanting to catch Spiderman and how Spiderman is a menace to the police and all Ben does is try to be a good parent to a bratty kid who can't seem to get his act together.
There are a few good moments in this movie, like when the mugger goes and kills Uncle Ben. It is a very different scene from the original Spider-man movie. In that one, the mugger was just a desperate guy robbing a jerk for money. In this, the jerk who gets robbed is completely justified in getting robbed, and the robber actually is nice to Peter, giving him what he was trying to buy as well. Then he drops his gun and Uncle Ben tries to be a hero and grab the gun from him and he accidentally shoots him. It's a great moment that feels very real (which is one of the only real moments in this entire film). Then there's that moment where Chief Stacey argues about how Spiderman is more of a danger to the city because he interferes with police activities.
Now, if any of you read my review of Rurouni Kenshin, then you know that I know a little about fight scene choreography and I have to say this. This movie has some of the best fight-choreography in any modern comic book movie at all. It's very good and properly demonstrates all of Spiderman's abilities, except one. Sadly, I have to say, this movie has left out one of Spiderman's most important super-powers ever, and I'm not talking about his web-shooters. I'm talking about his spider-sense. I mean, think about it, never in this movie do they really show Spiderman using his spider-sense. They have him use enhanced reflexes, but not his near-pre-cognition that was his trade-mark back in the day. In fact, he even gets tricked and sneak-attacked in the sewers, when in "reality" spiderman should have been able to easily get out of that situation by reacting with his enhanced reflexes.
Now, to what really drives home the problem with this movie, even more than how none of the characters actually grow or how none of the events in this movie make sense. It's the editing, the writing, and the camera-working. There are so many pointless scenes, whether they are too long or completely unimportant, that this movie feels like it would do so much better if the time used in this had been used to give many of the characters some more character growth.
All in all, this movie has a few good moments, but no where near enough to redeem its horrible lead characters and shitty writing. If I wanted to watch the origin story of Spiderman, I would have watched the Sam Raimi one
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 5 - An Adaptation Review
First, I would like to tell you that I am not avoiding Amazing Spider-Man like I did with Spiderman 3, but rather, i am preparing to make this a very special review since it is the last in my Spiderman review Marathon and I won't be reviewing Adapted movies afterward for a bit. I'm doing a lot of research into the movie and seeing what other more respected reviewers have to say before I give my piece.
Now, onto this episode. This was a pretty good episode and I'm glad to see that the show hasn't dropped in quality since episode 3. It was a pretty crucial episode as well so I hope you all watched it. In this episode, information on a meta-human (a human with super-powers but no clearly defined origin story behind them) in china has been leaked to the Centipede organization and he's been kidnapped. Worse-yet, Skye has been suspected of being a traitor since the leak has been trailed back to the Rising Tide, Skye's own group of Cyber Terrorists.
There's going to be a lot of info delivered on this episode because a LOT happens, so to make sure I don't give you a synopsis instead of a review, I'm going to discuss the characters and my review first. FIRST, this was a great Skye-Coulson episode. We see the betrayal Coulson feels since he was the one who recruited Skye and we see the guilt Skye feels for betraying them.
The episode itself is very good, one of the best so far. a LOT happens in it and it feels a lot like a movie short instead of an episode with how well written it is. There isn't a lot of pointless drama, or bad writing, it's all done correctly and nothing is dragged out. The reveals are made swiftly so as to not leave us groaning or pad for time and there's actually a lot that happens. If this were a movie, this could actually be a main plot for it. Though a couple sub-plots would probably need to be included for the run-time and to make it work.
Now for the knew characters. Chan (I forget his full name since it isn't on the wiki yet and I am terrible with names) is a meta-human with pyro-kinesis. He can create, manipulate, and is immune to fire. He's a stage magician who wants to be a star, but he is forced to keep his gifts a secret because of SHIELD. Once again, just like the Gravity episode, we see SHIELD's attempts to protect the world being turned against them.
We then get the girl in the flower-dress. I forget her name but it was probably a false identity anyway. She seems to be our evil Lieutenant for the show, making many of the orders on behalf of her organization (the same centipede group as the pilot). She also has a hobby of making superhero names for people: She gave Chan the name Scorch.
This is actually lamp-shaded a couple times, both by a scientist working for her, and Coulson. The scientist herself isn't very special and since she dies at the end, there isn't much left to talk about with her.
Last is Skye's hacker boyfriend(or ex-boyfriend). He's a fellow Rising Tide cyber-terrorist, one who seems really cool at first but then appears lost and kind of pathetic (though not enough to make him detestable). He and Skye were still together during her work with SHIELD, which became a problem when he got paid one million dollars to leak SHIELD intel on Chan to the Centipede group.
The centipede group is still experimenting with the Extremis serum from the first episode, but this time it feels a lot more natural. I guess I shouldn't have been too hard on the first episode for it's molotov super-soldier cocktail, but I wasn't that harsh. In this episode, the group wants to use Chan's immunity to fire to stabilize Extremis's problem with bowing people up. It works, but it results in Chan loosing that immunity and getting burned whenever he uses his power. This leads to Chan going homicidal on the entire lab, almost even taking out Coulson and May as well.
Luckily(or rather unluckily for me), they manage to inject him with two more dosages of Extremis to make him blow up. I understand that this was natural and expected and I like how they handled it all with Skye's boyfriend helping to quell the damage, but I was really liking this Scorch guy and wanted to see him in further episodes. But oh well, it was nice knowing him.
Well, hopefully I did better than a synopsis with this review and you all are enjoying Agents of SHIELD. All in all, this was another decent chapter
Now, onto this episode. This was a pretty good episode and I'm glad to see that the show hasn't dropped in quality since episode 3. It was a pretty crucial episode as well so I hope you all watched it. In this episode, information on a meta-human (a human with super-powers but no clearly defined origin story behind them) in china has been leaked to the Centipede organization and he's been kidnapped. Worse-yet, Skye has been suspected of being a traitor since the leak has been trailed back to the Rising Tide, Skye's own group of Cyber Terrorists.
There's going to be a lot of info delivered on this episode because a LOT happens, so to make sure I don't give you a synopsis instead of a review, I'm going to discuss the characters and my review first. FIRST, this was a great Skye-Coulson episode. We see the betrayal Coulson feels since he was the one who recruited Skye and we see the guilt Skye feels for betraying them.
The episode itself is very good, one of the best so far. a LOT happens in it and it feels a lot like a movie short instead of an episode with how well written it is. There isn't a lot of pointless drama, or bad writing, it's all done correctly and nothing is dragged out. The reveals are made swiftly so as to not leave us groaning or pad for time and there's actually a lot that happens. If this were a movie, this could actually be a main plot for it. Though a couple sub-plots would probably need to be included for the run-time and to make it work.
Now for the knew characters. Chan (I forget his full name since it isn't on the wiki yet and I am terrible with names) is a meta-human with pyro-kinesis. He can create, manipulate, and is immune to fire. He's a stage magician who wants to be a star, but he is forced to keep his gifts a secret because of SHIELD. Once again, just like the Gravity episode, we see SHIELD's attempts to protect the world being turned against them.
We then get the girl in the flower-dress. I forget her name but it was probably a false identity anyway. She seems to be our evil Lieutenant for the show, making many of the orders on behalf of her organization (the same centipede group as the pilot). She also has a hobby of making superhero names for people: She gave Chan the name Scorch.
This is actually lamp-shaded a couple times, both by a scientist working for her, and Coulson. The scientist herself isn't very special and since she dies at the end, there isn't much left to talk about with her.
Last is Skye's hacker boyfriend(or ex-boyfriend). He's a fellow Rising Tide cyber-terrorist, one who seems really cool at first but then appears lost and kind of pathetic (though not enough to make him detestable). He and Skye were still together during her work with SHIELD, which became a problem when he got paid one million dollars to leak SHIELD intel on Chan to the Centipede group.
The centipede group is still experimenting with the Extremis serum from the first episode, but this time it feels a lot more natural. I guess I shouldn't have been too hard on the first episode for it's molotov super-soldier cocktail, but I wasn't that harsh. In this episode, the group wants to use Chan's immunity to fire to stabilize Extremis's problem with bowing people up. It works, but it results in Chan loosing that immunity and getting burned whenever he uses his power. This leads to Chan going homicidal on the entire lab, almost even taking out Coulson and May as well.
Luckily(or rather unluckily for me), they manage to inject him with two more dosages of Extremis to make him blow up. I understand that this was natural and expected and I like how they handled it all with Skye's boyfriend helping to quell the damage, but I was really liking this Scorch guy and wanted to see him in further episodes. But oh well, it was nice knowing him.
Well, hopefully I did better than a synopsis with this review and you all are enjoying Agents of SHIELD. All in all, this was another decent chapter
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 4 - An Adaptation Review
I am SOOOO sorry guys. I've been trying to make this review but work just kept piling up and every time I got a chance to post it, I'd immediately forget when I get to my dormitory. So, without any more hold up, he's my thoughts on this one.
This episode is pretty average. Better than the first two, not as good as the third, whatever. It's plot, An ex-agent and protege of Agent Coulson has been spotted committing impossible crimes that make her appear to have precognition. I quite like how everyone in SHIELD immediately dismisses Psychic powers, a reference I hope to the fact that all the note-worthy psychics in Marvel are owned by Fox in the X-men franchise. Instead, it seems the girl has super-advanced technolofy that's decades in the making implanted in her head that gives her an eye in the back of her head and x-ray vision. Also, she has a bomb in her robot eye with a screen that tells her what to do and where to go. And if she refuses, BOOM.
It's a nice concept, though the rogue agent herself and the guy controlling her aren't that interesting of characters. There are some cool events though and the ending leads to TWO plot reveals. 1. The guy controlling the rogue agent was also being controlled and whoever was doing that is still out there. and 2. Agent Coulson isn't himself, or rather, the agent Coulson we all know and love, isn't the same Agent Coulson from before when he was training the ex-agent.
This all brings up some great thoughts and ideas, but first let's talk about the characters. Skye got a little more character growth and her relationship with Coulson and Agent Ward has gotten a little more fleshed out, but this is surprisingly a Coulson centered episode. May got a little character growth as well, learning about teamwork and trust. Actually, rather than be a centered episode, this show is pretty much a SHIELD episode.
Now for the thoughts and ideas. Coulson has been collecting a LOT of old trinkets over the years and has an old military helmet. It doesn't look like its from Coulson's time, which brings up the idea, what if Coulson is a LOT older than we think? What if he's died on numerous occasions and has been fixed up again and again.
Not much has happened in this episode though so I'll leave it at that. I'm sorry for taking so long.
This episode is pretty average. Better than the first two, not as good as the third, whatever. It's plot, An ex-agent and protege of Agent Coulson has been spotted committing impossible crimes that make her appear to have precognition. I quite like how everyone in SHIELD immediately dismisses Psychic powers, a reference I hope to the fact that all the note-worthy psychics in Marvel are owned by Fox in the X-men franchise. Instead, it seems the girl has super-advanced technolofy that's decades in the making implanted in her head that gives her an eye in the back of her head and x-ray vision. Also, she has a bomb in her robot eye with a screen that tells her what to do and where to go. And if she refuses, BOOM.
It's a nice concept, though the rogue agent herself and the guy controlling her aren't that interesting of characters. There are some cool events though and the ending leads to TWO plot reveals. 1. The guy controlling the rogue agent was also being controlled and whoever was doing that is still out there. and 2. Agent Coulson isn't himself, or rather, the agent Coulson we all know and love, isn't the same Agent Coulson from before when he was training the ex-agent.
This all brings up some great thoughts and ideas, but first let's talk about the characters. Skye got a little more character growth and her relationship with Coulson and Agent Ward has gotten a little more fleshed out, but this is surprisingly a Coulson centered episode. May got a little character growth as well, learning about teamwork and trust. Actually, rather than be a centered episode, this show is pretty much a SHIELD episode.
Now for the thoughts and ideas. Coulson has been collecting a LOT of old trinkets over the years and has an old military helmet. It doesn't look like its from Coulson's time, which brings up the idea, what if Coulson is a LOT older than we think? What if he's died on numerous occasions and has been fixed up again and again.
Not much has happened in this episode though so I'll leave it at that. I'm sorry for taking so long.
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Spiderman 3 (2007) - An Adaptation Review
http://megashare.info/watch-spider-man-3-online-TXpFNE13PT0
Ok, remember last time when I said I was hesitant to watch this movie because it was terrible? Well, I was wrong. Yeah, this movie isn't really as bad as I or anyone else made it out to be. I mean, yeah it has its problems, but not nearly as many as say Spiderman 2. The problem is that after Spiderman 2 people were broken from the illusion and were seriously hoping for something better to win them back, but it didn't, so they hated it extremely.
Now, the movie is bad for a lot of different reasons and it actually does fix a couple writing problems that were in the last film. The problem is the moves they made to try an win back the audience (I'm looking at you emo-bangs)
First, let's talk about what this movie did right, since no one seems to want to do that. Unlike in Spiderman 2, the pacing and relationships felt a lot better, and the movie all around felt like it was its own movie, unlike Spiderman 2 which constantly tried to retread old grounds. They even made this movie funny sometimes and a good laugh is pretty hard to find in superhero flicks nowadays.
But, let's look at the new characters, Eddie Brock, Flint Marko, and Gwen Stacey, and see what was done good or bad about them. I'm not too fond of how they portrayed Flint Marko, but I was never that attached to him as a character, I never even read about him in the comics, but Gwen Stacey on the other hand, she's a huge let down in this film. Instead of being Peter Parker's lost love, they turn her into the destroyer of the legendary Parker/Watson love. She's made into some perfect version of Mary-Jane that she instantly becomes jealous of: She's a model, she's Peter's lab partner, she replaces Mary-Jane on her Broadway show.
Then we get to Eddie Brock, an up and coming photographer who seems to be trying to replace Peter at the Daily Bugle. He's young, up-and-coming, and seems better than Peter at his job.
And actually, to be honest, this actually felt alright at the beginning. From the way the story was progressing, it looked like Eddie and Gwen were supposed to be the knew power couple that were going to leave Peter and Mary-Jane with nothing and serve as the obstacle for their romance. In fact, the whole first half of the film felt great. It felt like a really well paced story with a great plot. Everything seemed to be going great. I didn't even feel that the number of enemies were too much either.
But then, emo-bangs shows up. Actually, the real problems started to show up when Harry made his second 180 during the course of the whole film. It just felt so forced. I mean, Mary-Jane kisses him, then she runs out of the house, then he starts hearing his father's ghost and remembers everything that he lost during his amnesia? Also, William Dafoe, what are you doing here? At the end of Spiderman 2 you just acted like a representation of Harry's anger and angst, but now he's saying stuff that only the Green Goblin would know to say. As if he was really a ghost and not Harry getting crazy. And that doesn't make any sense.
Then he starts making Peter emo and ruining the whole film. Peter starts doing his stupid strut through the city, he does that ridiculous number at the jazz club, and he goes all dark avenger on Harry. I get that the suit was making him act this way, but does it really need to make Peter Parker a douche? Really?
Well, the second half itself isn't entirely bad. I did like the scene where Peter reveals Eddie for the lying tool he really is, but they ruin that by making Peter act like a douche to Jonah. The scene where Peter starts a fight in Mary-Jane's club and accidentally hits her is great too, though it is overshadowed by him acting like a douche in the scene before it. The entire douche-ness is the real problem of the movie, and that, coupled with Harry's out of the blue 180 is what makes this movie bad.
They actually had a really good movie here, even the ending was good. I laughed pretty hard during the scene where Jonah gets conned by a little kid when he's trying to get some footage of the crime scene. Though I wished they followed with the beautiful art scene caps from the last movie, like they did during Spiderman 2, instead of these photo scene-cuts. It feels a lot lazier.
All in all, this movie isn't that bad. The camera work isn't nearly as good as the last two, which saddens me, but that doesn't mean there aren't some good shots. But there's a lesson that can be learned from this movie: DON"T MAKE DOUCHE-BAGS OUT OF YOUR PROTAGONISTS!
Now, next week I'll be reviewing The Amazing Spiderman, one of my least favorite Comic book movies ever. Right next to The Dark Knight Rises and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Ok, remember last time when I said I was hesitant to watch this movie because it was terrible? Well, I was wrong. Yeah, this movie isn't really as bad as I or anyone else made it out to be. I mean, yeah it has its problems, but not nearly as many as say Spiderman 2. The problem is that after Spiderman 2 people were broken from the illusion and were seriously hoping for something better to win them back, but it didn't, so they hated it extremely.
Now, the movie is bad for a lot of different reasons and it actually does fix a couple writing problems that were in the last film. The problem is the moves they made to try an win back the audience (I'm looking at you emo-bangs)
First, let's talk about what this movie did right, since no one seems to want to do that. Unlike in Spiderman 2, the pacing and relationships felt a lot better, and the movie all around felt like it was its own movie, unlike Spiderman 2 which constantly tried to retread old grounds. They even made this movie funny sometimes and a good laugh is pretty hard to find in superhero flicks nowadays.
But, let's look at the new characters, Eddie Brock, Flint Marko, and Gwen Stacey, and see what was done good or bad about them. I'm not too fond of how they portrayed Flint Marko, but I was never that attached to him as a character, I never even read about him in the comics, but Gwen Stacey on the other hand, she's a huge let down in this film. Instead of being Peter Parker's lost love, they turn her into the destroyer of the legendary Parker/Watson love. She's made into some perfect version of Mary-Jane that she instantly becomes jealous of: She's a model, she's Peter's lab partner, she replaces Mary-Jane on her Broadway show.
Then we get to Eddie Brock, an up and coming photographer who seems to be trying to replace Peter at the Daily Bugle. He's young, up-and-coming, and seems better than Peter at his job.
And actually, to be honest, this actually felt alright at the beginning. From the way the story was progressing, it looked like Eddie and Gwen were supposed to be the knew power couple that were going to leave Peter and Mary-Jane with nothing and serve as the obstacle for their romance. In fact, the whole first half of the film felt great. It felt like a really well paced story with a great plot. Everything seemed to be going great. I didn't even feel that the number of enemies were too much either.
But then, emo-bangs shows up. Actually, the real problems started to show up when Harry made his second 180 during the course of the whole film. It just felt so forced. I mean, Mary-Jane kisses him, then she runs out of the house, then he starts hearing his father's ghost and remembers everything that he lost during his amnesia? Also, William Dafoe, what are you doing here? At the end of Spiderman 2 you just acted like a representation of Harry's anger and angst, but now he's saying stuff that only the Green Goblin would know to say. As if he was really a ghost and not Harry getting crazy. And that doesn't make any sense.
Then he starts making Peter emo and ruining the whole film. Peter starts doing his stupid strut through the city, he does that ridiculous number at the jazz club, and he goes all dark avenger on Harry. I get that the suit was making him act this way, but does it really need to make Peter Parker a douche? Really?
Well, the second half itself isn't entirely bad. I did like the scene where Peter reveals Eddie for the lying tool he really is, but they ruin that by making Peter act like a douche to Jonah. The scene where Peter starts a fight in Mary-Jane's club and accidentally hits her is great too, though it is overshadowed by him acting like a douche in the scene before it. The entire douche-ness is the real problem of the movie, and that, coupled with Harry's out of the blue 180 is what makes this movie bad.
They actually had a really good movie here, even the ending was good. I laughed pretty hard during the scene where Jonah gets conned by a little kid when he's trying to get some footage of the crime scene. Though I wished they followed with the beautiful art scene caps from the last movie, like they did during Spiderman 2, instead of these photo scene-cuts. It feels a lot lazier.
All in all, this movie isn't that bad. The camera work isn't nearly as good as the last two, which saddens me, but that doesn't mean there aren't some good shots. But there's a lesson that can be learned from this movie: DON"T MAKE DOUCHE-BAGS OUT OF YOUR PROTAGONISTS!
Now, next week I'll be reviewing The Amazing Spiderman, one of my least favorite Comic book movies ever. Right next to The Dark Knight Rises and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 3 - An Adaptation Review
First, I greatly apologies for the late reviews. My internet has been down so I never got a chance to re-watch Spiderman 3 and yesterday my workload prevented me from putting out a review of Agents of SHIELD right away afterward like I normally do. I will get around to reviewing the Spiderman movies some more but some other time (My hesitation also stems to the fact that Spiderman 3 is just crap and I reeeeeeaaaaaally don't want to watch it. I'm hoping one of my flatmates will agree to watch it with me.)
Now onto the review.
This episode is by far the best episode so far, but with the waist that was the last one and the weak opening that was the first, you really can't expect much in the form of shocking improvement. But I still say that this episode is really good.
WARNING: Major spoilers of this episode, sorry but I already gave my grade for it so let's go on ahead. First, let's give a plot synopsis: A very talented scientist held in protection by SHIELD has been kidnaped and investigation has led them to believe that he has been taken to Malta and is outside of SHIELD's jurisdiction. So they send Skye in as a mole during a party of his and she sneaks them in to get the scientist out.
Now the two new characters. The kidnapped scientist is named Dr. Franklin Hall, played by Ian Hart, and his kidnapper, is Ian Quinn, an old college buddy of his who is played by David Conrad. Franklin is a very smart scientist who actually taught Fritz and Simmons back in their days as students. He is also quickly becoming a very close favorite of mine. I soon discovered that Hall is actually a character from the comic books who goes by the names Gravitron. He seems to be a much different character this time around though and I like the transformation here.
There isn't much to say about Ian Quinn except for him being a selfish mineral digger who hates being confided by international regulation. He takes an old research theory that Hall made when they were drunk in college and actually got a prototype working and he "rescues" Hall from SHIELD custody because he wants him to work for him.
Here's were I really start to like Hall's character. Hall accepts Quinn's proposal, but only so that he can use the machine to kill Quinn and his entire complex. The machine uses an incredibly rare element called "Gravitonium" (I might have botched the spelling but who cares really) that can manipulate gravity. Coulson gets down to the lab and tries to save Hall but is surprised when he learns Hall's plans. Fritz and Simmons tell him he needs to use a catalyst to shut down the Gravitonium and the machine. Left with no other option, Coulson sends Hall into the Gravitonium and kills him and the machine.
The episode ends with Hall's hand reaching out of the Gravitonium and signaling for the coming of the first super villain of the show.
Now for the character development. This is really a Skye centered episode more than anything. They play the whole "can-we-trust-skye" thing again, though it's the third episode so I can let it slide, especially since it's the first time it was used so majorly. She's genuinely getting to care for the team and the mission also, and her relationship with Agent Ward is getting closer. I predict that by the end of the season their feelings are going to get full circle.
I like the debate on government power in this episode also, since neither side is painted in the 100% right. SHIELD is fighting to help people but their aren't exactly doing a 100% good job at it since their attempt to create infinite clean energy caused an alien invasion, but if men like Quinn get away with this then the world would be even worse. Really it's not that SHIELD are the good guys, it's Coulson's team that are the good guys.
Now for some predictions: Coulson is loosing a lot of his "muscle memory" lately and it could be a sign that he has a new body, which works with the LMB theory that he did die in the Avengers and this is a new Coulson body. I very much like this idea because LMDs are really just a plot device as of now and it would be great to have a character who is specifically a LMD.
That's it folks, see ya later, hopefully I'll have a review of Spiderman 3 next weekend.
Now onto the review.
This episode is by far the best episode so far, but with the waist that was the last one and the weak opening that was the first, you really can't expect much in the form of shocking improvement. But I still say that this episode is really good.
WARNING: Major spoilers of this episode, sorry but I already gave my grade for it so let's go on ahead. First, let's give a plot synopsis: A very talented scientist held in protection by SHIELD has been kidnaped and investigation has led them to believe that he has been taken to Malta and is outside of SHIELD's jurisdiction. So they send Skye in as a mole during a party of his and she sneaks them in to get the scientist out.
Now the two new characters. The kidnapped scientist is named Dr. Franklin Hall, played by Ian Hart, and his kidnapper, is Ian Quinn, an old college buddy of his who is played by David Conrad. Franklin is a very smart scientist who actually taught Fritz and Simmons back in their days as students. He is also quickly becoming a very close favorite of mine. I soon discovered that Hall is actually a character from the comic books who goes by the names Gravitron. He seems to be a much different character this time around though and I like the transformation here.
There isn't much to say about Ian Quinn except for him being a selfish mineral digger who hates being confided by international regulation. He takes an old research theory that Hall made when they were drunk in college and actually got a prototype working and he "rescues" Hall from SHIELD custody because he wants him to work for him.
Here's were I really start to like Hall's character. Hall accepts Quinn's proposal, but only so that he can use the machine to kill Quinn and his entire complex. The machine uses an incredibly rare element called "Gravitonium" (I might have botched the spelling but who cares really) that can manipulate gravity. Coulson gets down to the lab and tries to save Hall but is surprised when he learns Hall's plans. Fritz and Simmons tell him he needs to use a catalyst to shut down the Gravitonium and the machine. Left with no other option, Coulson sends Hall into the Gravitonium and kills him and the machine.
The episode ends with Hall's hand reaching out of the Gravitonium and signaling for the coming of the first super villain of the show.
Now for the character development. This is really a Skye centered episode more than anything. They play the whole "can-we-trust-skye" thing again, though it's the third episode so I can let it slide, especially since it's the first time it was used so majorly. She's genuinely getting to care for the team and the mission also, and her relationship with Agent Ward is getting closer. I predict that by the end of the season their feelings are going to get full circle.
I like the debate on government power in this episode also, since neither side is painted in the 100% right. SHIELD is fighting to help people but their aren't exactly doing a 100% good job at it since their attempt to create infinite clean energy caused an alien invasion, but if men like Quinn get away with this then the world would be even worse. Really it's not that SHIELD are the good guys, it's Coulson's team that are the good guys.
Now for some predictions: Coulson is loosing a lot of his "muscle memory" lately and it could be a sign that he has a new body, which works with the LMB theory that he did die in the Avengers and this is a new Coulson body. I very much like this idea because LMDs are really just a plot device as of now and it would be great to have a character who is specifically a LMD.
That's it folks, see ya later, hopefully I'll have a review of Spiderman 3 next weekend.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 2 - An Adaptation Review
Ok, to start things off, I HATE the "How we got there" trope in television. It is so cheep and overdone and does nothing but pad time and trick the audience into trying to figure out what happened. Now, as the show was going, I was actually thinking this might work, that it was going to use time travel. Since the new artifact they discovered is some kind of machine built with technology from all over time. The first thing they say is that the artifact is millions of years older that the ancient ruins it was in (I'm probably misquoting, but it was basically saying that it was older than the place it was in.)
This made me wonder if they were dealing with some kind of nazi german time machine, but no, instead we get a super laser weapon that the peruvian government secretly built with escaped Nazi scientists back years ago. Really?
But anyway, I guess this is what I get for expecting something new out of a crime drama. It seems they are all the same. overused plot tropes. easily identifiable character tropes. Though I do like the constant inclusion of world events the show is giving us. I mean, the first episode starts by pulling Agent Ward out from somewhere in Europe (I forget where, no one was talking that much and it took only a few minutes) and now we head over to Peru, even though half the episode is actually involved in the plane.
Now let's talk about character development. Skye and Agent Ward seem to be building more of a relationship, which was obvious from the start, but what I like about this is that they seem to be arguing mostly about their own ethics and don't genuinely act like children in this episode. Ward is speaking from the side of someone who has protected the country from threats for a while and has made sure not to let anyone know and he sees Sky as dangerous because of that. Skye sees Ward as dangerous because of what he does and she tries to protect people by showing them what is the truth. There's no one great evil here, both have reasonable sides and I like how it is developing.
What I worry though is Skye's group, Rising Tide, hasn't chosen it's side though and is showing sides of being evil. Especially during her talk of what they believe in. I don't know why, but when she mentioned how Rising Tide is all about taking pieces of ideas from everyone and using it all to form a single idea, really fits with the Centipede project done by the evil organization last episode where they took technology from every movie series in this franchise and put it all together. So it is probably going to be revealed that Rising Tide is the bad guys.
I also fear that maybe Ward or Skye will just end up siding with the other's ideology and there won't be any dynamic anymore. There isn't a single right side things.
Also, Fitz and Simmons got some new character development. It seemed Simmons dragged Fitz on board this team and Fitz doesn't seem that happy about it. He seems to have a lot of signs of having strong OCD, such as in the last episode where he didn't like touching anything in the crime scene. And in this episode, where he almost cost his team their lives when he started freaking out over the order of placement for his flying drones.
We see more of Melinda May's combat experience as well, learning that they used to call her the Cavalry and she seems to be just as good as Black Widow.
It is also brought to question why Coulson put together this team with so many rookies and inexperienced officers. The antagonist of this episode even says he's having a mid-life, or as Coulson puts it, and after-life crisis. Coulson seems to see a lot of potential for them all and I'm looking forward to their progression. Some of his backstory was presented in this episode as well, showing that he used to serve alongside the antagonist and that they had a romantic relationship back in the day.
Now for a little speculation: Agent Coulson as a LMD. I'd LOVE it if this happened. It would be so cool to introduce a new addition from the original Marvel mythos to the Movie Universe. I'm hoping that maybe Fitz might improve on his flying drones and create his own combat technology, like his own Iron Man suit. and who knows, if he gets popular enough, he might make an addition to the Iron Man cast like Coulson did.
I'm really interested to see how Thor 2 is going to play with Agents of SHIELD when it happens? Is Whedon going to make the episodes before and after the showing of Thor 2 connect to it in some way?
Also, I heard that they were doing end-credit clips like in the movies, so I went to take a look and really? the only thing you could think of was just have Nick Fury start yelling at Coulson for smashing a plane? They couldn't have done anything involving plot development wise?
I'm still keeping up with the series since I love the idea of the project, but this might be my least favorite episode in the season.
This made me wonder if they were dealing with some kind of nazi german time machine, but no, instead we get a super laser weapon that the peruvian government secretly built with escaped Nazi scientists back years ago. Really?
But anyway, I guess this is what I get for expecting something new out of a crime drama. It seems they are all the same. overused plot tropes. easily identifiable character tropes. Though I do like the constant inclusion of world events the show is giving us. I mean, the first episode starts by pulling Agent Ward out from somewhere in Europe (I forget where, no one was talking that much and it took only a few minutes) and now we head over to Peru, even though half the episode is actually involved in the plane.
Now let's talk about character development. Skye and Agent Ward seem to be building more of a relationship, which was obvious from the start, but what I like about this is that they seem to be arguing mostly about their own ethics and don't genuinely act like children in this episode. Ward is speaking from the side of someone who has protected the country from threats for a while and has made sure not to let anyone know and he sees Sky as dangerous because of that. Skye sees Ward as dangerous because of what he does and she tries to protect people by showing them what is the truth. There's no one great evil here, both have reasonable sides and I like how it is developing.
What I worry though is Skye's group, Rising Tide, hasn't chosen it's side though and is showing sides of being evil. Especially during her talk of what they believe in. I don't know why, but when she mentioned how Rising Tide is all about taking pieces of ideas from everyone and using it all to form a single idea, really fits with the Centipede project done by the evil organization last episode where they took technology from every movie series in this franchise and put it all together. So it is probably going to be revealed that Rising Tide is the bad guys.
I also fear that maybe Ward or Skye will just end up siding with the other's ideology and there won't be any dynamic anymore. There isn't a single right side things.
Also, Fitz and Simmons got some new character development. It seemed Simmons dragged Fitz on board this team and Fitz doesn't seem that happy about it. He seems to have a lot of signs of having strong OCD, such as in the last episode where he didn't like touching anything in the crime scene. And in this episode, where he almost cost his team their lives when he started freaking out over the order of placement for his flying drones.
We see more of Melinda May's combat experience as well, learning that they used to call her the Cavalry and she seems to be just as good as Black Widow.
It is also brought to question why Coulson put together this team with so many rookies and inexperienced officers. The antagonist of this episode even says he's having a mid-life, or as Coulson puts it, and after-life crisis. Coulson seems to see a lot of potential for them all and I'm looking forward to their progression. Some of his backstory was presented in this episode as well, showing that he used to serve alongside the antagonist and that they had a romantic relationship back in the day.
Now for a little speculation: Agent Coulson as a LMD. I'd LOVE it if this happened. It would be so cool to introduce a new addition from the original Marvel mythos to the Movie Universe. I'm hoping that maybe Fitz might improve on his flying drones and create his own combat technology, like his own Iron Man suit. and who knows, if he gets popular enough, he might make an addition to the Iron Man cast like Coulson did.
I'm really interested to see how Thor 2 is going to play with Agents of SHIELD when it happens? Is Whedon going to make the episodes before and after the showing of Thor 2 connect to it in some way?
Also, I heard that they were doing end-credit clips like in the movies, so I went to take a look and really? the only thing you could think of was just have Nick Fury start yelling at Coulson for smashing a plane? They couldn't have done anything involving plot development wise?
I'm still keeping up with the series since I love the idea of the project, but this might be my least favorite episode in the season.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Spiderman 2 (2004) Adaptation Review
http://megashare.info/watch-spider-man-2-online-TWpRek5BPT0
ok, the last movie I reviewed was Spider-Man, made by Sam Raimi and I though, what the heck, I'll do a review of all four Spiderman movies. That's right people, after this one I'm reviewing Spider-man 3 and the Amazing Spiderman. I'll also be reviewing each of the new episodes of Agents of SHIELD every week, so hopefully you'll be getting more reviews out of me nowadays.
While Spider-Man is my all-time favorite comic book movie, Spiderman 2 isn't. And the problem with it is just how constructed it is. Spider-Man felt alive and natural, everyone in the story from one character to the next was so defined and well written, they all felt like real people. But in Spider-Man 2, every character feels directed and pushed around by the script that no one really does anything natural.
Since there are so many problems and a lot of them have to deal with the script, i'm just going to go right there, since most of the characters are from the last movie and I'll get to the new ones later.
Right from the get go as the opening credits sequences role, we get reminded of just what an amazing movie the last one was by getting these beautifully drawn pictures of scenes and characters from the last movie. While these pictures are amazing and work to tell everyone what they missed last time, it only serves to remind me that Spider-Man was the best movie ever and as I watch this movie I keep wanting to return to watching Spider-Man.
Here's the thing, I still like Spiderman 2, but not as much as 1, and it has a LOT of problems, a lot more than even I realized the first time I saw it.
The biggest problem is how contrived it all is. Every new character or new event is somehow meticulously connected to everyone else in Peter's life. Mary-Jane is getting married to an astronaut who just so happens to be the son of J. Jonah Jameson. Oh, and remember how Jonah had that great character moment in Spider-Man when he refused to give Peter's name to the Green Goblin even though he hated Spiderman? Well they try to repeat that by making him get all sad about how he thinks he drove Spiderman to quit and then he gets all angry at him when he returns and we are supposed to laugh at how 180 he turns on the subject. That's not funny, it's annoying.
A lot of moments in this movie feel like they were just trying to recreate the feel of the last movie. And a lot of these moments are just unnecessary to the plot. There were a lot of unnecessary plot scenes in Spider-Man as well, but each of those scenes served to work with fleshing out the characters. In this movie, everyone is just left to follow the plot and everything that happens outside of the plot is just to make Peter more emo.
Here's another incredibly contrived connection between characters, Peter's teacher is good friends with Otto Octavius, Norman Osborn is working alongside Otto and sets Peter up with an interview with him so that he can write a paper for his class that will pass him. Oh yeah, Peter is failing his classes and loosing jobs because being Spiderman is cutting into a lot of his time and effort. And he keeps missing Mary-Jane's performances because he gets too late and the usher won't let him in.
Let's talk about this astronaut guy for a second now, because I hate him. Well, I don't exactly hate his character, since he seems like a pretty nice guy, but I do hate his reason for being in the movie. Here's a spoiler, it has nothing to do with the main plot. No, the only purpose he has to to marry Mary-Jane and make Peter more emo because he can't tell Mary-Jane his secret. And that is what pisses me off. At the end of the first movie, Peter made that great sacrifice and pushed Mary-Jane away because he can't risk hurting her. But then what does he do in this movie? constantly try to get with her while keeping his secret from her. It is pointless and the only reason I can think of why this happened is because a lot of people who saw Spider-Man 1 got really mad that the hero didn't get the smoking hot girl-next-door.
But I've griped on this movie long enough, now let me talk about what I do like about it. Like the first movie, what I love is their villain. I know the character of Doctor Octopus is a LOT different than in the movie, but so what, that's why I love him. Doctor Octopus is a terrible person in the comics, in this story, he's the perfect tragic villain. Just like with William Dafoe, Alfred Molina does his best performance when he is alone with his other side.
In Spider-Man, William Dafoe does his best performance by changing his voice and persona to fit two people in one head. In Spiderman 2, it's the polar opposite. There's only one person talking, but his interaction with the A.I. and metal claws is just brilliant. And the many times where the red eye in he center of one of the claws faces the screen with a side-shot of Otto's head just makes me get all excited for what happens next.
Though I do get a little annoyed at how the tentacle/claws keep getting shown like horror monsters, like when the doctor takes a chainsaw and tries to fight the claw. This felt like a direct spoof of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead franchise and just made me feel like this was just something the studios wanted, so Sam Raimi just put together whatever he felt like.
All in all, a pretty crappy sequel, but not nearly as bad as the later two movies. Because soon we will find out just how every Spiderman movie has shamed itself by just trying to recreate the same glory as Spider-Man and just got worse than the last. Spiderman 2 is still a decent movie to eat popcorn and enjoy with a few friends, but don't think you are getting another masterpiece like before.
ok, the last movie I reviewed was Spider-Man, made by Sam Raimi and I though, what the heck, I'll do a review of all four Spiderman movies. That's right people, after this one I'm reviewing Spider-man 3 and the Amazing Spiderman. I'll also be reviewing each of the new episodes of Agents of SHIELD every week, so hopefully you'll be getting more reviews out of me nowadays.
While Spider-Man is my all-time favorite comic book movie, Spiderman 2 isn't. And the problem with it is just how constructed it is. Spider-Man felt alive and natural, everyone in the story from one character to the next was so defined and well written, they all felt like real people. But in Spider-Man 2, every character feels directed and pushed around by the script that no one really does anything natural.
Since there are so many problems and a lot of them have to deal with the script, i'm just going to go right there, since most of the characters are from the last movie and I'll get to the new ones later.
Right from the get go as the opening credits sequences role, we get reminded of just what an amazing movie the last one was by getting these beautifully drawn pictures of scenes and characters from the last movie. While these pictures are amazing and work to tell everyone what they missed last time, it only serves to remind me that Spider-Man was the best movie ever and as I watch this movie I keep wanting to return to watching Spider-Man.
Here's the thing, I still like Spiderman 2, but not as much as 1, and it has a LOT of problems, a lot more than even I realized the first time I saw it.
The biggest problem is how contrived it all is. Every new character or new event is somehow meticulously connected to everyone else in Peter's life. Mary-Jane is getting married to an astronaut who just so happens to be the son of J. Jonah Jameson. Oh, and remember how Jonah had that great character moment in Spider-Man when he refused to give Peter's name to the Green Goblin even though he hated Spiderman? Well they try to repeat that by making him get all sad about how he thinks he drove Spiderman to quit and then he gets all angry at him when he returns and we are supposed to laugh at how 180 he turns on the subject. That's not funny, it's annoying.
A lot of moments in this movie feel like they were just trying to recreate the feel of the last movie. And a lot of these moments are just unnecessary to the plot. There were a lot of unnecessary plot scenes in Spider-Man as well, but each of those scenes served to work with fleshing out the characters. In this movie, everyone is just left to follow the plot and everything that happens outside of the plot is just to make Peter more emo.
Here's another incredibly contrived connection between characters, Peter's teacher is good friends with Otto Octavius, Norman Osborn is working alongside Otto and sets Peter up with an interview with him so that he can write a paper for his class that will pass him. Oh yeah, Peter is failing his classes and loosing jobs because being Spiderman is cutting into a lot of his time and effort. And he keeps missing Mary-Jane's performances because he gets too late and the usher won't let him in.
Let's talk about this astronaut guy for a second now, because I hate him. Well, I don't exactly hate his character, since he seems like a pretty nice guy, but I do hate his reason for being in the movie. Here's a spoiler, it has nothing to do with the main plot. No, the only purpose he has to to marry Mary-Jane and make Peter more emo because he can't tell Mary-Jane his secret. And that is what pisses me off. At the end of the first movie, Peter made that great sacrifice and pushed Mary-Jane away because he can't risk hurting her. But then what does he do in this movie? constantly try to get with her while keeping his secret from her. It is pointless and the only reason I can think of why this happened is because a lot of people who saw Spider-Man 1 got really mad that the hero didn't get the smoking hot girl-next-door.
But I've griped on this movie long enough, now let me talk about what I do like about it. Like the first movie, what I love is their villain. I know the character of Doctor Octopus is a LOT different than in the movie, but so what, that's why I love him. Doctor Octopus is a terrible person in the comics, in this story, he's the perfect tragic villain. Just like with William Dafoe, Alfred Molina does his best performance when he is alone with his other side.
In Spider-Man, William Dafoe does his best performance by changing his voice and persona to fit two people in one head. In Spiderman 2, it's the polar opposite. There's only one person talking, but his interaction with the A.I. and metal claws is just brilliant. And the many times where the red eye in he center of one of the claws faces the screen with a side-shot of Otto's head just makes me get all excited for what happens next.
Though I do get a little annoyed at how the tentacle/claws keep getting shown like horror monsters, like when the doctor takes a chainsaw and tries to fight the claw. This felt like a direct spoof of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead franchise and just made me feel like this was just something the studios wanted, so Sam Raimi just put together whatever he felt like.
All in all, a pretty crappy sequel, but not nearly as bad as the later two movies. Because soon we will find out just how every Spiderman movie has shamed itself by just trying to recreate the same glory as Spider-Man and just got worse than the last. Spiderman 2 is still a decent movie to eat popcorn and enjoy with a few friends, but don't think you are getting another masterpiece like before.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 1 - An Adaptation Review
Ok everyone, it is official, the tides have turned and the most anticipated television series to come around for Marvel fans has arrived and I am not sure of what to say, so I will give my thoughts about it and I will tell you what I feel this means for the future of the Marvel franchise.
The first thing I need to say is this show is directed by Joss Whedon and is expected to tie in to the Marvel movie franchise, which will probably make this show amazing, just by those factors, the God Director of Nerds directing the ultimate nerd show imaginable. This show might just be just as successful as the Incredible Hulk TV show that aired in the 70s for five years.
The problem though for this show, is that besides the backing of Joss Whedon and the entire Marvel movie franchise, this first episode doesn't have anything going for it that any other crime drama already has given us. It has the Boss, the Red and Green Rangers, the techies, and the rogue. The only thing that this show has that any other show doesn't have is Agent Phil Coulson, played by Clark Gregg at his best, he even gets to demonstrate some drama, showing that even Coulson can get angry in times of stress.
But there is some hope for later episodes, as the other interesting character is Mike Peterson, played by J. August Peterson. That's right, Charles Gunn is back and working with Joss Whedon. What makes this an even more perfect dream is Peterson lives when the show starts in Los Angeles, making this truly feel like after the events of Angel, Gunn stayed in Los Angeles and became the star of this show.
But enough fan speculation, let's talk about his power, and here is where the spoilers come in, since I am writing this review immediately after seeing the episode air in my college dorm with a friend of mine. But since the show just ended it isn't like you can just go see it tomorrow, so you might as well just listen to the Spoilers, since you are going to want to know what happened in this episode to begins with.
What we all expected to be Power Man, aka Luke Cage, is instead Mike Peterson, an ex-metal worker who got injured and replaced at his work. Offered the choice of being a lab-rat, he does so, having literally every super-power in the current Marvel Universe thrown into him all at once That's right, the origin story of the only super-powered character in this show, is he was given every single super-power from the other Marvel movies.
To be clear, he doesn't turn into the Hulk and swing around Thor's hammer, no, that would be just ridiculous. Instead, he has a weird centipede-like machine, made out of Alien technology, pumping a chemical formula that combines the gamma radiation, the Super soldier serum, and Extremis (from the latest Iron Man 3, which was awesome and I will eventually review that) to give him Super strength. I'm not sure about his level of recovery and indestructibility since he only took a shotgun blast to the chest, and that isn't really a big deal compared to what the rest of the Marvel superheros have to deal with.
We do know that this guy has the risk of blowing up like the other guys who had Extremis, so it is likely that he has some level of the heat-based power they also had, but he doesn't turn green or grow at all like the Hulk, so it can be guessed that the Gamma radiation wasn't really being used to power himself. My guess is that the Gamma radiation was being used to power the alien technology that was shooting the super-soldier serum into his system, since the Tesserack was also emitting gamma radiation and Thor's hammer also seems to give off the same blue glow as the Tesserack, as did Loki's magic staff.
Now let's look at the rest of the supporting cast. We have Agent Grant Ward, played by Brett Dalton, as our Red Ranger. He is the best of the best of Black Ops and specializes in terminating threats with extreme prejudice, which makes him a big counter to Agent Coulson's let's make calm and excepting attitude. I'm not really that into his character mostly because he seems all business and doesn't seem to have an ounce of compassion unless you give him a monologue about how messed up the world has become.
A shining moment for him came in his first appearance when he wasn't a member of SHIELD yet. He was tasked with retrieving a piece of stolen alien technology. He demonstrates a particular skill with fictional science fiction technology that seems more at home in Iron Man's world and uses it to break into the man's high-tech safe. What bugs me the most about this scene is that he apparently doesn't need the man's thumb print to open his safe, but that's just a nit-pick.
The shining moment comes from when Agent Ward gets discovered by the Mistress, who just looks so perfectly apathetic. She just stares at him and then stares away looking bored and so used to it you can't help but wonder, just HOW many times as someone broken into his room trying to steal something while she was in there. Then comes the fight scene. Itself wasn't anything special, just a normal many vs one fight in a kitchen and the weapons they use are interestingly creative when taken from kitchen supplies, and it does show just how skilled and brutal Agent Ward really is, so it wasn't pointless.
The rest of the characters are pretty stock. We have the anti-government elitist hacker named Skye, played by Chloe Bennet, though her being a super-hero fangirl is a nice touch and good foil to Coulson's own fanboyism and the two seem to get along well enough. Though it is pretty obvious from tv formula that Skye and Agent Ward are going to hook up since their interaction with one another.
Agent Melinda May, played by Ming-Na wen, is an interesting character, if only because I want to know more about her. She's apparently a big badass among the secret government employees and she's a veteran with a lot of combat experience under her belt, but she seems to not want to be involved in the world, preferring a desk job instead, and getting dragged into SHIELD by Coulson.
The last two characters are Fitz and Simmons, the two techies about the crew and a pair of scientist, specializing in Weapons technology and life science respectively. They have nice quirks are their chemistry is interesting to watch, but other that Iain's lack of desire to get messy and their tech babble when in a crisis, they don't even seem like they have much history together.
Now onto the plot. It is pretty standard, which is pretty normal for the first season. You don't want to alienate knew viewers with an overly complicated first season, since this is where you go and get people wanting to see the next episode and get them committed.
The plot of the series seem to be this, there's a new organization that is experimenting in big research and seems to be able to get access to weapons and powers from every known source, no matter how impossible it might seem. They experimented on Mike Peterson and gave him his superpowers and Skye catches notice of both Project Centipede, the project that gave Mike his powers and Mike himself. Skye gets caught by SHIELD and she helps them find Mike, who is going crazy due to the chemical formula. They manage to subdue him and they all form a team to stop the new evil bad guys that showed up.
The Show has a lot of promise for being a Joss Whedon TV show made with continuity to the entire Marvel movie universe, but the show itself didn't have anything going for it besides that tie in the show does have J. August Peterson in it AND Agent Coulson, but besides the comic book stuff and Joss Whedon himself, I've seen it all from a lot of other crime dramas. I'm still going to watch the next episode when it comes out next week and you should too, if only to give Joss Whedon support and to see what new super-powered plot they are going to involve next. The dialogue is great with the nice comic book humor Joss Whedon is known for throwing in. But if Buffy could be compared to being Joss Whedon's Wonder Woman and Angel could be his Batman, I wonder what kind of superhero this new show is.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Sam Raimi's Spider-man - An Adapted movie review
A long long time ago I reviewed a movie that was adapted from a manga and I complained about how it didn't follow the canonicity of the source material regarding the main character's abilities. So is it wrong that I have to say that this ISN"T a problem for Spider-man? I mean, we all know nowadays that Spiderman didn't actually start out with the power to shoot out webbing from his wrists. And since the Amazing Spider man came out I'm sure you all are aware of this, but is that a problem? When I criticized Rurouni Kenshin for not properly representing the ultra-fast swordsmanship from the anime and manga, it was because there wasn't anything to counter it because the sword fights were so infrequent and they never properly represented it until the very end.
During Spider-man, the movie is filled with amazing special effects that were beautifully directed. The flying camera angles and swinging motions made the audience believe that they were Spiderman swinging from rooftops and protecting the city. there was a much greater experience there. Sure the origin behind the web shooting was missing, but the power remained the same. For Kenshin, his power was swinging his sword at lightning speeds, and we didn't see it no matter how skilled the swordplay was to begin with. In Spider-man, the audience comes to see Spiderman swing around on webs, and that is what he did, and he did it beautifully.
Now though, if we are to talk about Sam Raimi's Spider-man, we also have to talk about the period it was made in. Comic Book movies were just getting the big audience love thanks to Time Burton's Batman, so they needed to make the movie as accessible to the audiences. That's why a couple of details were left out of the movie, like his web-shooters or Gwen Stacy. Yes, Gwen Stacy, we get to her now. Anyone who's paid attention to the Spiderman mythos is aware of Gwen Stacy and her tragic death scene with the Green Goblin. But here's the thing, this was the first blockbuster Spiderman movie to make it with the audiences and we needed a way to get them to want to bring their kids to the next one. Would it have been good business strategy to kill off Gwen Stacey during the first movie? Not even Nolan did that. He waited until The Dark Knight to kill off Rachel.
But the writers knew that if they included Gwen, they would have to kill her off, and since the only real interesting thing about Gwen is to kill her off, there's no point to having her for the movies. We all saw what happened when the writers tried to shove emo down Peter Parker's throat later on.
And to be honest, I liked seeing Mary-Jane in the movies. She was nice, pretty, and an interesting female character at the time. She wasn't just some pretty girl, she had a rough childhood, and we got to see that. We saw her interact with Peter even before he became Spiderman. He was just a childhood friend that she grew up with, and she stayed that way for most of the movie despite that great kiss scene with Spiderman. She's a human character, not just a token love-interest like most people tend to portray her or represent her as.
And then we get to my favorite actor in this movie: William Dafoe. This man sold the Green Goblin. Not many actors can show a split personality as well as Dafoe did, though, like any true fan, I can acknowledge there were some sketchy dialogues. His grunts and dialogue as the Green Goblin felt very rehearsed and sometimes unrealistic, but other times, particularly the scenes where Normal Osborn talks to the Green Goblin, it truly felt like there was this great and menacing force that lurked inside this pleasant and mature man. I especially like the way he tried to persuade Spiderman during their first conversation when Spiderman was paralyzed.
Another I have to say is the guy who plays J. Jonah Jameson. This man felt like a real guy, and not as much of a jerk as he may seem. When I first saw the movie I didn't like him, since i was on Peter Parker's side, but he's a businessman who makes money selling news. He calls Parker's photographs crap cause honestly, even in the comics, Peter Parker isn't that good of a photographer. And second, because he needs to make it seem like he's not good so Parker won't get an ego or expect to push him around. He has the power and he needs to make Peter know this.
A big reason why I, especially now, love this movie is how human this movie is. The two things I loved most about the movie are the people and the filmography. The way the camera flows through the sky and catches Peter crawling along the walls is beautifully done and the attention the director and writers give to the screen time for each and every character makes this movie seem so realistic and relatable.
Now, like I always do, let's discuss the plot. And it's pretty simple. Like I said, the big impact of the movie are how the characters all relate to one another so a majority of the movie is devoted to character interaction. What is left of the movie to tell a more narrative story is two different stories that eventually collide into one another. The first is Peter Parker's growth into becoming Spiderman and all of the stuff that Spiderman learns to become the hero he is destined to become. The second is the origin story of the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn, and how he grows into his new identity as a villain. It is so simple and the simplicity is what sells the movie. The story basically sets up two people who are destined to come into conflict and how these two forces decide to deal with the problems they face together.
The Green Goblin exacts revenge on his board of trustees when they turn on him and sell his company. Spiderman interrupts his fight and the two see the other as an obstacle. The Green Goblin first tries to persuade Spiderman into joining him, but when Spiderman rejects his offer, he tries to destroy him by crippling him emotionally by attacking his loved ones. This all collides into a spectacularly well choreographed fight between the Green Goblin and Spiderman as they throw all of their best weapons at each other. Ultimately Spiderman outweighs the Green Goblin and he discovers who the Green Goblin really is.
The movie ends with Peter Parker choosing not to be with Mary-Jane because when the Green Goblin found out about his feelings for her, he tried to use them against him. He can't have Mary-Jan be used against him, so he cuts off ties with her and walks off into the distance, leaving her heartbroken and his best-friend swearing revenge against Spiderman for the death of his father, the Green Goblin.
Now, some people may not like this movie, and that is their opinion, but often their reasoning baffles me. They tell me that the movie is cartoony in the bad way. They tell me Mary-Jane is a slut who jumps around between guys. They tell me the costumes were unrealistic.
Let me explain this to them. Comic books are not real life. Realism does not mean it reflects reality. Realism means the world has a sense of logic and reality in its own world. So, when a man has the power to shoot web out of their wrists and lift a cable car, you have to ask yourself, not is this realistic, but, does this look like it would happen in the world it was created in.
Now, about Mary-Jane's love life, Mary-Jane's first boyfriend, Flash, was a dick and they broke up after graduation. Then quite a while passed from Graduation to the present day, so Harry had more than enough time to try and get a romance between him and Mary-Jane, but let me explain something to you all. No relationship is made to last or made to stand against the tests of time. Not everyone is madly in love with their partner. People need to feel loved, and Mary-Jane didn't exactly have that great of an upbringing, so she probably needed to feel special to at least someone while she was trying to get out in the world. Mary-Jane's choices were understandable and relatable compare to her life.
And the last part, the costumes. I hear all the time about how Spiderman's costume apparently cost millions of dollars to make and how the Green Goblin's suit was clunky and plastic-looking. But let me explain something to you, 1. the material and expenses are not always convertible to movie logic. For what looked like a million dollar costume to us, was probably just a sewn together suit put together by a young man who had a nice sewing machine and a nice aunt to teach him how to mend clothing. and 2. The Green Goblin's suit was a PROTOTYPE. He stole it from his own company before they had time to cosmetically rebuild it. I doubt the first design for Halo's Spartan armor looked as smooth and fashionable when it was first designed. I'm sure the first was clunky and full of hard angles that looked aesthetically unpleasant.
The movie has a few problems, EVERY movie has problems. Citizen Kane's whole movie has a giant gaping plot whole in it and we still regard it as one of America's greatest masterpieces. And in my opinion, Sam Raimi's Spider-man is the best comic book movie ever made, even better than The Dark Knight.
During Spider-man, the movie is filled with amazing special effects that were beautifully directed. The flying camera angles and swinging motions made the audience believe that they were Spiderman swinging from rooftops and protecting the city. there was a much greater experience there. Sure the origin behind the web shooting was missing, but the power remained the same. For Kenshin, his power was swinging his sword at lightning speeds, and we didn't see it no matter how skilled the swordplay was to begin with. In Spider-man, the audience comes to see Spiderman swing around on webs, and that is what he did, and he did it beautifully.
Now though, if we are to talk about Sam Raimi's Spider-man, we also have to talk about the period it was made in. Comic Book movies were just getting the big audience love thanks to Time Burton's Batman, so they needed to make the movie as accessible to the audiences. That's why a couple of details were left out of the movie, like his web-shooters or Gwen Stacy. Yes, Gwen Stacy, we get to her now. Anyone who's paid attention to the Spiderman mythos is aware of Gwen Stacy and her tragic death scene with the Green Goblin. But here's the thing, this was the first blockbuster Spiderman movie to make it with the audiences and we needed a way to get them to want to bring their kids to the next one. Would it have been good business strategy to kill off Gwen Stacey during the first movie? Not even Nolan did that. He waited until The Dark Knight to kill off Rachel.
But the writers knew that if they included Gwen, they would have to kill her off, and since the only real interesting thing about Gwen is to kill her off, there's no point to having her for the movies. We all saw what happened when the writers tried to shove emo down Peter Parker's throat later on.
And to be honest, I liked seeing Mary-Jane in the movies. She was nice, pretty, and an interesting female character at the time. She wasn't just some pretty girl, she had a rough childhood, and we got to see that. We saw her interact with Peter even before he became Spiderman. He was just a childhood friend that she grew up with, and she stayed that way for most of the movie despite that great kiss scene with Spiderman. She's a human character, not just a token love-interest like most people tend to portray her or represent her as.
And then we get to my favorite actor in this movie: William Dafoe. This man sold the Green Goblin. Not many actors can show a split personality as well as Dafoe did, though, like any true fan, I can acknowledge there were some sketchy dialogues. His grunts and dialogue as the Green Goblin felt very rehearsed and sometimes unrealistic, but other times, particularly the scenes where Normal Osborn talks to the Green Goblin, it truly felt like there was this great and menacing force that lurked inside this pleasant and mature man. I especially like the way he tried to persuade Spiderman during their first conversation when Spiderman was paralyzed.
Another I have to say is the guy who plays J. Jonah Jameson. This man felt like a real guy, and not as much of a jerk as he may seem. When I first saw the movie I didn't like him, since i was on Peter Parker's side, but he's a businessman who makes money selling news. He calls Parker's photographs crap cause honestly, even in the comics, Peter Parker isn't that good of a photographer. And second, because he needs to make it seem like he's not good so Parker won't get an ego or expect to push him around. He has the power and he needs to make Peter know this.
A big reason why I, especially now, love this movie is how human this movie is. The two things I loved most about the movie are the people and the filmography. The way the camera flows through the sky and catches Peter crawling along the walls is beautifully done and the attention the director and writers give to the screen time for each and every character makes this movie seem so realistic and relatable.
Now, like I always do, let's discuss the plot. And it's pretty simple. Like I said, the big impact of the movie are how the characters all relate to one another so a majority of the movie is devoted to character interaction. What is left of the movie to tell a more narrative story is two different stories that eventually collide into one another. The first is Peter Parker's growth into becoming Spiderman and all of the stuff that Spiderman learns to become the hero he is destined to become. The second is the origin story of the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn, and how he grows into his new identity as a villain. It is so simple and the simplicity is what sells the movie. The story basically sets up two people who are destined to come into conflict and how these two forces decide to deal with the problems they face together.
The Green Goblin exacts revenge on his board of trustees when they turn on him and sell his company. Spiderman interrupts his fight and the two see the other as an obstacle. The Green Goblin first tries to persuade Spiderman into joining him, but when Spiderman rejects his offer, he tries to destroy him by crippling him emotionally by attacking his loved ones. This all collides into a spectacularly well choreographed fight between the Green Goblin and Spiderman as they throw all of their best weapons at each other. Ultimately Spiderman outweighs the Green Goblin and he discovers who the Green Goblin really is.
The movie ends with Peter Parker choosing not to be with Mary-Jane because when the Green Goblin found out about his feelings for her, he tried to use them against him. He can't have Mary-Jan be used against him, so he cuts off ties with her and walks off into the distance, leaving her heartbroken and his best-friend swearing revenge against Spiderman for the death of his father, the Green Goblin.
Now, some people may not like this movie, and that is their opinion, but often their reasoning baffles me. They tell me that the movie is cartoony in the bad way. They tell me Mary-Jane is a slut who jumps around between guys. They tell me the costumes were unrealistic.
Let me explain this to them. Comic books are not real life. Realism does not mean it reflects reality. Realism means the world has a sense of logic and reality in its own world. So, when a man has the power to shoot web out of their wrists and lift a cable car, you have to ask yourself, not is this realistic, but, does this look like it would happen in the world it was created in.
Now, about Mary-Jane's love life, Mary-Jane's first boyfriend, Flash, was a dick and they broke up after graduation. Then quite a while passed from Graduation to the present day, so Harry had more than enough time to try and get a romance between him and Mary-Jane, but let me explain something to you all. No relationship is made to last or made to stand against the tests of time. Not everyone is madly in love with their partner. People need to feel loved, and Mary-Jane didn't exactly have that great of an upbringing, so she probably needed to feel special to at least someone while she was trying to get out in the world. Mary-Jane's choices were understandable and relatable compare to her life.
And the last part, the costumes. I hear all the time about how Spiderman's costume apparently cost millions of dollars to make and how the Green Goblin's suit was clunky and plastic-looking. But let me explain something to you, 1. the material and expenses are not always convertible to movie logic. For what looked like a million dollar costume to us, was probably just a sewn together suit put together by a young man who had a nice sewing machine and a nice aunt to teach him how to mend clothing. and 2. The Green Goblin's suit was a PROTOTYPE. He stole it from his own company before they had time to cosmetically rebuild it. I doubt the first design for Halo's Spartan armor looked as smooth and fashionable when it was first designed. I'm sure the first was clunky and full of hard angles that looked aesthetically unpleasant.
The movie has a few problems, EVERY movie has problems. Citizen Kane's whole movie has a giant gaping plot whole in it and we still regard it as one of America's greatest masterpieces. And in my opinion, Sam Raimi's Spider-man is the best comic book movie ever made, even better than The Dark Knight.
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