Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category

I usually try and avoid what I consider spoilers for any of the shows, movies, and games I enjoy, but rumors and almost-facts seem to pop up so frequently once they are known that they are impossible to ignore.

Rumors are a constant for pretty much anything in media. The sci fi and fantasy rumor mill is just as bursting at all times as any other. We can take some pride in knowing that some big rumors we discover end up being the hard facts later on, but there is never any real way to know until the official statements are made.

In the meantime, let’s gossip.
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You know what I mean. Those endings that leave it up to you, the viewer, to decide what has really happened.

I don’t mean the “What Happens Now?” endings where things are open enough for you to continue the movie as you please but it still feels complete.

I mean the “What Just Happened?” endings. The ones where really there is no right answer, so it can be whatever you want.

For the most part I hate those endings.

I want closure. I want something definitive. Because that makes a more interesting story. Leaving it up to me, nine times out ten, isn’t more creative, it’s just plain lazy, and giving me no credit as a viewer to accept the ending you really wanted me to see.

Obviously, I was inspired by “Inception” for this rant, because while it was a good movie, and enoyable all the way through, my husband and I both felt a little cheated when we got to the end because it did exactly what we feared but knew it would.

If you have not yet seen the film, you may want to skip this entry. There will be spoilers.
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In 2006 a comedy came out called “Idiocracy” staring Luke Wilson. It was about the decline in human intelligence as the natural way of evolution until in the future the world would be nothing but a bunch of hicks and morons. The movie is rather funny, my husband and I love it, but the sad thing is how possible the movie’s scenario actually seems.

The way society is heading now we really are doomed to one day have our own Idiocracy.
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My husband and I just finished the second episode of the anime version of High School of the Dead, a series about the zombie apocalypse starting in downtown Tokyo.

It was originally a manga that my husband adores and is still reading as new chapters come out.

So far the adaptation from manga to anime is spot on.

I watched my first anime before I read my first manga, Weiss Kreuz, an older series about assassins posing as flower shop workers during the day. It is not a great anime, but it has a special place in my heart, and like many of its fellows it also has an accompanying manga.

The manga for Weiss Kreuz is not typical, but tells the story of how the main characters ended up working together, a prequel to better understand the events in the anime.

Manga and Anime relations for a single series can develop in a number of different ways. Most people assume that the norm is to have a manga that existed first that they then translated into an anime to see the stationary pictures come alive with movement and voice actors.

Sometimes it is that clean cut, but not always.
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First I must send out a HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to my wonderful geek husband of two years now. I love him more each day, and that’s not just me saying that. Geeks in love stay in love.

You make every day better.

I dabbled in amateur film making when I was in college. Of course then I had resources that I no longer have outside the classroom. I was spending a semester in England where I took a class that allowed me and my teammates to create two short films. The experience really showed me how much work goes in to even just a minute’s worth of screen time.

Difficulty for anyone can change depending on a number of factors—experience, cooperation among participants, equipment, and time.

Time will always be the first one that gets you. For the 3-5 minute films I made for my class in England we were given a week to film and two to edit. You would think that would be more than enough for such a short movie.

But then remember you have to have an idea, actors, locations, props, and equipment to get everything done.
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It isn’t often that a movie is so bad that I allow it to join the ranks of my most hated movies of all time, like The Spirit, Shadow of the Vampire and To Die For. But The Last Airbender was so painful to watch, I almost left the theatre.

I do not leave movies without giving them the full benefit of the doubt, but maybe sometimes I should. If I had left when I realized that no, the movie was not going to get better, I could have avoided the inevitable soul-raping that took place.
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A good sci fi film is about atmosphere. It’s not just aliens or fantastical creatures, or even a futuristic setting. It’s a whole feeling that grips you while you’re watching it. At least, that’s true for good sci fi films.

This past decade I feel like we have been falling short. There are examples of a few truly great sci fi movies, but for the most part I have been disappointed.

The inspiration for this blog was the recent sci fi flick, “Splice.” After over a week since I saw the movie I am still unsure how to accurately describe it. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t good. It was messed up. It was disturbing. It was just plain weird. And not in the ‘well, that’s what I want of my sci fi movies’ kind of way. More like a big WTF.
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There are classic lines from movies that have become a part of cinema history. These lines are often used in parodies and quoted in reverence.

I don’t have any problem with parodies or when a classic line is spoken specifically to honor the movie it came from.

But there are also generic lines, lines we have heard again and again that have become more than just clichés, they are an epidemic.

You know some of the classic lines I’m talking about.

The American Film Institution’s list of the top 100 movie quotes in American cinema puts this at #1:
 

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

But my favorite would have to be #79:

Striker: “Surely you can’t be serious!”
Rumack: “I am serious… and don’t call me Shirley.”

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I realize I have been starting a trend lately with not doing the blog I promised to do the week I said I would, but I will get to “Why Today’s Cartoons Suck” next week. Today I need to rant.

I recently posted the blog “Comic Book Movie Adaptations FTW” in preparation for Kick-Ass, The Losers, and Scott Pilgrim vs the World. I admitted not having read Kick-Ass or The Losers at the time, but before seeing Kick-Ass in theatres I finally got the chance to read its comic.

And I hated it.

Don’t misunderstand, I adored the movie. It was everything I wanted it to be. But the comic almost had me backing out of seeing the film at all.

I would like to avoid spoilers for those of you who have not read the comic or seen the film yet, so I will try to generalize as I explain why the comic upset me so much.
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I used to associate 3D movies more with IMAX theatres and huge blockbusters, but in the last couple of years 3D has really begun to take over. It’s everywhere now. TVs are even being made with 3D capability to keep up.

We live in a 3D world and apparently we want our entertainment to follow suit.

Well, it must be true because fans keep going and spending that ridiculous amount extra for plastic glasses. Personally, I don’t have a problem with movies coming out in 3D when it honestly enhances the experience. My problem is with the 3D overload.

Some movies are meant to stay 2D.
 
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