The flowers are beginning to bloom, the weather is getting warmer, the clothes are getting more revealing, and that can mean only one thing, summer movies are soon to be upon us in full force. The first aside from the, previously aforementioned X-men, is the massively buzzed about J.J. Abrams take on the Star Trek series.
Geeks and fanboys alike in full Vulcan-eared regalia have been spewing over the possibities for this movie when there were rumors about it, and the only thing anyone saw was a teaser of a massive silver Starfleet insignia, followed by SUMMER 2009! This relly is one of the rare times that the amount of buzz and hype that has been pumped into a movie actually delivers. I figured right off the bat Star Trek = Hollywood cash cow so no matter what this thing was going to make massive number even if it was a heaping pile crap put in a microwave and served to a family of 4, and/or Leonard Nimoy standing there with pointy ears spouting gibberish for 2 hours. Thankfully neither of those things happened.
Instead what we are given is a chance for the non-fans, myself included (was never an appeal to me), to truly experience Star Trek for the first time. In ever previous movie there was almost the preculding thought of "Well I never saw any before... don't they all kinda go with each other I won't know hats going on." They do a remarkably good job at taking that stigma away from the seires, and bringing old and new fans together into a movie that I'm sure we will be seeing a number of sequels to come. The basic premise of the story is fairly simple, massive ship comes out of some space lightning storm into the path of a Federation ship, which very much proptly blown to bits, yet not before a officer by the name of Kirk manages to evacuate most of the surviving crew and, more importantly his wife who happens to be giving birth to a bouncing baby boy. We flash forward 25 years and slowly but surely are all introduced to the characters many of those geeks and fanboys know and love.
I think what is one of the best parts of this film aside from the stry and wonderfull effects and action, is the cast they put in to portray the old favorites. The cast seemed like each of them were made for the roles they were in. Zacary Quinto (aka Sylar from Heroes) is nearly the spitting image of a young Leonard Nimoy's Spock. i don't think they could have gotten anyone to portray him quite as well as he did. Simon Pegg, yet another amazing choice, for Scotty. A man who happens to be a massive geek like many of us, I can only assume was amased and proceded to dance around in his own living room when recieving the call to do it. Chris Pine comes in as our new James T. Kirk, who thankfully did not decide to pick up "pause-acting." Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Karl Urban (Bones), John Cho (Sulu) and Anton Yelchin (Chekov) round out the rest of the party. A hearty golf clap to whoever decided on that grouping because it proved to be most impressive.
This movie really is as good as it sounds, though I would suggest speding a few extra bucks to see it Imax if possible. If there isn't one available try to find a digital theater, I'm still uncertain if the one I was at was one but the clarity seemed far higher than normal, and its a very noticeble and pleasant difference to the entire experience. If you aren't a sci-fi fan then this obviously isn't a movie for you, but if you are even in the slightest make it on your list of things to see the next time you are heading out for a flick.
This one is a no brainer and easily takes in the high marks for me, see it however you can and don't be afraid to spend the dough to do it right.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
X-Men: Origins... or Hugh Jackman running around with claws
Ok, now I'm really trying to do this as objectively as possible and really trying not to sound like a raving uber-fanboy. (which is very hard when discussing movies about things that are equally geeky) Now I've let this one sit to make sure I have the proper time to look back and make sure that I wasn't going on my inital gut instinct. At first coming out of the theater I thought to my self.."meh.. it was entertaining .. I guess, but they missed out on a bit." Now after taking that alloted time off, I really have to say that the only way to really think this was a "good" movie or a decent representation of the character is pretty off base.
I try and not bring in the knowledge I have of the character in when doing these but with something like this it's very hard because I know how incredibly well put together, and very carefully constructed Wolverine mythos is. Now this is a character that has spanned a great number of years of Marvel's history, and is almost as highly touted and hallowed as say Spider-Man. The story behind Wolverine is so complicated and difficult to tell, that I agree no one movie could ever do it justice, and that is where my problem shows at first. They are taking a character that has been taken over and used and woven in end to end of the Marvel-verse(?) by at least over dozen different wirters, artists, and directors , and at the end of the sitting come away with a very oversimplified story of his pre-X-men days. Certain characters used are very off form of what they are with the exception (for only a short time) of the Ryan Renolds portrayal of Deadpool. Which was very impressive short lived as it was and I have problems with that part too.
Alright now lets start at the begining and see where this takes us, it starts where I would have thought the basis of how he comes to be somewhere 1800's (supposed to be Canada) as what we come to find out is our good friend Logan/Wolvie. Now right off the bat they decide to change it up, which in most cases I'm willing to overlook had there not been the other string of inconsistancies. What happens is he kills a man who shoots his father in an argument, he's overcome with grief sprouts claws, loses it and takes a run at the shooter, who then tells him he was his father. Now what really happens is that is supposed to be a man by the name of Logan, who has a boy of the same age, but is only a groundskeeper who happens to beat his son when he drinks while young Wolvie is always sick living very rich. The other boy is made very clear in the origin story that he and what we find out to be Wolverine are NOT brothers. (now again willing to overlook but still) In this telling they go to tell us that our boy and the other who becomes Sabertooth very much are. After the incedent with the shooting (comic origins) he leaves and survives on his own and we next come across him trying to lead a new life under the name of the groundskeep Logan, in a logging camp in Alberta. Which in the movie Logan is his given name, and the logging thing came after he's pulled in by the government (US govt instead of Canadian) and trying to lead a life far from when he was pretty much a killer for the government.
I know I'm probably being picky and uber-geeky a bit but if you're going to make an adaptation try and stick to the story and timeline please. It eventually falls into Wolvie getting tracked down, his girl killed by Sabertooth and getting the adamantium put on him. Which should actually end up as him fighting with another man about a woman he was in love with who accidentally gets in the way and is killed by 3 claws under the ribs. The adamantium is actually put onto him years and years later. Anyway we fine the adamantuim on the skeleton, while Wolvie's attempt to get back ata Sabertooth, is a ruse to snatch his DNA for a project to build the Ultimate weapon, which is what they turn Deadpool into. Most fans at that point are either internally screaming or doing so out loud. The reason... because THATS NOT WHAT HE WAS its not even close. If you're just someone watching all of this makes for an entertaining flick but in the end it just tears at storylines and sub-plots and years of storytelling.
To most people its very cool but to someone that as a kid loved the character and read for a good portion of my formative years its just kinda bastardising it. Now there are some bright points here and there don't get me wrong. Action scenes well done, though the claws look really bad in a few spots. Gambit is very cool during his total of about 10 minutes of screen time, and the same with early Ryan Renolds Deadpool. Which I have to say is EXACTLY how it was supposed to be, and why I think it prompts the internal screaming bit when you see him as Weapon 11 later. It covers why Wolvie has memory loss which, and don't quote me on, is still kinda up in the air as far as the comic representation is concerned.
At the end of the day its a decent action movie that has people with superpowers, and if seeing it gets you into the comics by all means go for it and then start asking yourself "what the hell were they thinking?" This, if you haven't seen it at this point, I'd go with a wait to DVD and rent, to say you have, it's not really worthy of owning.
I try and not bring in the knowledge I have of the character in when doing these but with something like this it's very hard because I know how incredibly well put together, and very carefully constructed Wolverine mythos is. Now this is a character that has spanned a great number of years of Marvel's history, and is almost as highly touted and hallowed as say Spider-Man. The story behind Wolverine is so complicated and difficult to tell, that I agree no one movie could ever do it justice, and that is where my problem shows at first. They are taking a character that has been taken over and used and woven in end to end of the Marvel-verse(?) by at least over dozen different wirters, artists, and directors , and at the end of the sitting come away with a very oversimplified story of his pre-X-men days. Certain characters used are very off form of what they are with the exception (for only a short time) of the Ryan Renolds portrayal of Deadpool. Which was very impressive short lived as it was and I have problems with that part too.
Alright now lets start at the begining and see where this takes us, it starts where I would have thought the basis of how he comes to be somewhere 1800's (supposed to be Canada) as what we come to find out is our good friend Logan/Wolvie. Now right off the bat they decide to change it up, which in most cases I'm willing to overlook had there not been the other string of inconsistancies. What happens is he kills a man who shoots his father in an argument, he's overcome with grief sprouts claws, loses it and takes a run at the shooter, who then tells him he was his father. Now what really happens is that is supposed to be a man by the name of Logan, who has a boy of the same age, but is only a groundskeeper who happens to beat his son when he drinks while young Wolvie is always sick living very rich. The other boy is made very clear in the origin story that he and what we find out to be Wolverine are NOT brothers. (now again willing to overlook but still) In this telling they go to tell us that our boy and the other who becomes Sabertooth very much are. After the incedent with the shooting (comic origins) he leaves and survives on his own and we next come across him trying to lead a new life under the name of the groundskeep Logan, in a logging camp in Alberta. Which in the movie Logan is his given name, and the logging thing came after he's pulled in by the government (US govt instead of Canadian) and trying to lead a life far from when he was pretty much a killer for the government.
I know I'm probably being picky and uber-geeky a bit but if you're going to make an adaptation try and stick to the story and timeline please. It eventually falls into Wolvie getting tracked down, his girl killed by Sabertooth and getting the adamantium put on him. Which should actually end up as him fighting with another man about a woman he was in love with who accidentally gets in the way and is killed by 3 claws under the ribs. The adamantium is actually put onto him years and years later. Anyway we fine the adamantuim on the skeleton, while Wolvie's attempt to get back ata Sabertooth, is a ruse to snatch his DNA for a project to build the Ultimate weapon, which is what they turn Deadpool into. Most fans at that point are either internally screaming or doing so out loud. The reason... because THATS NOT WHAT HE WAS its not even close. If you're just someone watching all of this makes for an entertaining flick but in the end it just tears at storylines and sub-plots and years of storytelling.
To most people its very cool but to someone that as a kid loved the character and read for a good portion of my formative years its just kinda bastardising it. Now there are some bright points here and there don't get me wrong. Action scenes well done, though the claws look really bad in a few spots. Gambit is very cool during his total of about 10 minutes of screen time, and the same with early Ryan Renolds Deadpool. Which I have to say is EXACTLY how it was supposed to be, and why I think it prompts the internal screaming bit when you see him as Weapon 11 later. It covers why Wolvie has memory loss which, and don't quote me on, is still kinda up in the air as far as the comic representation is concerned.
At the end of the day its a decent action movie that has people with superpowers, and if seeing it gets you into the comics by all means go for it and then start asking yourself "what the hell were they thinking?" This, if you haven't seen it at this point, I'd go with a wait to DVD and rent, to say you have, it's not really worthy of owning.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Been a While
Ok so I haven't had much to write about... scratch that I probably have I just haven't had the ability/want to but I've got 2 new things coming shortly, Star Trek and the newest Trophy Scars album (most likely.) With a possibility for a moderately harsh ripping of the X-Men Origins take.
Monday, March 9, 2009
On Watching the Watchmen
So the eagerly awaited March 6th debut of the "most celebrated graphic novels of all time" has come and past, and I was there this past weekend to hopefully enjoy a remarkable story that wasn't destroyed by Hollywood and their (frequently) money grubbing whores.
I do have to say I was mostly pleased with the product as a whole though I have a gripe or two. As I said for the most part the movie was very well done, fluid and well coreographed action sequences, which as in the original telling did not leave very much to the imagination, save for Rorschach's trip to the bathroom on an escape from prison. The story stayed almost perfectly true to form, with a few embellishments here and there but nothing too bad, unless you're a Watchmen fanboy you would hardly notice and or care. Though if you are not a fan of the story you will most likely come out HATING this movie. You'll most likely find it over-violent, with an annoying if not obnoxious at times score and mediocre acting.
That being said the summary of the story is (for those of you who don't know at this point) an alternate history 1985 Nixon is on his 3rd term in office, and the Cold War is even dealier and more serious then it had ever been. The US is busy fighting in Afghanistan, while being threatened each day by the growing nuclear threat of Russia. The Watchmen are a group of former costumed superheroes now being forced to "retire" (night owl/Miss Jupiter) or operate underground (Rorshach). What bring our story into view is a former member of the Watchmen is assaulted in his apartment (in an awesome opening fight sequence) and subsequently tossed out the window, where he then falls about 30+ stories to his death. It goes from there with the ultra violent almost anti-hero Roshach delving into what seems to be an assasin taking out 'masks' which turns out to be much much more.
Now as for me I like the story, its very dark, gritty, not a whole lot of happy Superman boy-scout nonsense to be found in these parts type of story. To me it gives it a true sense of realism, less of a glamorisation of the superhero, and more of a better look at what human nature is really like. My biggest problem with this movie, and I don't know how many times I have said it durin and now even after, was the poor if not horrible at times choice of music. To me the musical chocies weren't exactly horrid, they were cliche and out of place. They instead of helping the mood and subtely accentuating the point of the scene, go out of their way to bludgen you over the head with a "THIS IS SAD SCENE SAD MUSIC PLAY NOW!" type of feel. It begins to get a bit obnoxious after a little bit. For example a funeral scene with the "Sounds of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel, if by definition the most cliche placement ever. Followed by a very awkwardly matched up love scene to Lenoard Choen's "Hallelujah," it just doesn't work right and just smashes the tone which needen't be said in your face. There is even a sequence near the end where "All Along the Watchtower" is being played as if it was trying to be 'this is the watchmen' theme song.' It failed.
Other than the my distaste to the music there wasn't a whole lot bad with this movie. It wasn't the greatest movie out there but it also didn't takea Hugo award winner and make it a pile of shit either. So in the end if you want to see a pretty solid superhero movie Watchmen is for you. Just try and spot the fanboys and steer away from them because their smells and babbling about how something is missing from the movie will annoy the shit out of you.
Watchmen gets a small soda and med popcorn from me (also eqiv. to 3.5/5) cuz thats what I had while watching.
I do have to say I was mostly pleased with the product as a whole though I have a gripe or two. As I said for the most part the movie was very well done, fluid and well coreographed action sequences, which as in the original telling did not leave very much to the imagination, save for Rorschach's trip to the bathroom on an escape from prison. The story stayed almost perfectly true to form, with a few embellishments here and there but nothing too bad, unless you're a Watchmen fanboy you would hardly notice and or care. Though if you are not a fan of the story you will most likely come out HATING this movie. You'll most likely find it over-violent, with an annoying if not obnoxious at times score and mediocre acting.
That being said the summary of the story is (for those of you who don't know at this point) an alternate history 1985 Nixon is on his 3rd term in office, and the Cold War is even dealier and more serious then it had ever been. The US is busy fighting in Afghanistan, while being threatened each day by the growing nuclear threat of Russia. The Watchmen are a group of former costumed superheroes now being forced to "retire" (night owl/Miss Jupiter) or operate underground (Rorshach). What bring our story into view is a former member of the Watchmen is assaulted in his apartment (in an awesome opening fight sequence) and subsequently tossed out the window, where he then falls about 30+ stories to his death. It goes from there with the ultra violent almost anti-hero Roshach delving into what seems to be an assasin taking out 'masks' which turns out to be much much more.
Now as for me I like the story, its very dark, gritty, not a whole lot of happy Superman boy-scout nonsense to be found in these parts type of story. To me it gives it a true sense of realism, less of a glamorisation of the superhero, and more of a better look at what human nature is really like. My biggest problem with this movie, and I don't know how many times I have said it durin and now even after, was the poor if not horrible at times choice of music. To me the musical chocies weren't exactly horrid, they were cliche and out of place. They instead of helping the mood and subtely accentuating the point of the scene, go out of their way to bludgen you over the head with a "THIS IS SAD SCENE SAD MUSIC PLAY NOW!" type of feel. It begins to get a bit obnoxious after a little bit. For example a funeral scene with the "Sounds of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel, if by definition the most cliche placement ever. Followed by a very awkwardly matched up love scene to Lenoard Choen's "Hallelujah," it just doesn't work right and just smashes the tone which needen't be said in your face. There is even a sequence near the end where "All Along the Watchtower" is being played as if it was trying to be 'this is the watchmen' theme song.' It failed.
Other than the my distaste to the music there wasn't a whole lot bad with this movie. It wasn't the greatest movie out there but it also didn't takea Hugo award winner and make it a pile of shit either. So in the end if you want to see a pretty solid superhero movie Watchmen is for you. Just try and spot the fanboys and steer away from them because their smells and babbling about how something is missing from the movie will annoy the shit out of you.
Watchmen gets a small soda and med popcorn from me (also eqiv. to 3.5/5) cuz thats what I had while watching.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
More things to come soonish
I do plan on making my review of Thursday's Epitah debut Common Existance, but I haven't figured out just what I want to say there just yet. That and I'm slowly but surely been having things go hopefully in the right direction for work things. (one interview and a govt. test) There will definately be more on the Census Bureau later and how mind numbingly easy their testing is.
There also seems to be a string of shows to be coming up soon enough that hopefully I will be able to get to and share as well. So until update number three this is all for now, look for most likely the census post first and then after a few more closely listened to times through of the new album, my take on that as well.
Be well.
There also seems to be a string of shows to be coming up soon enough that hopefully I will be able to get to and share as well. So until update number three this is all for now, look for most likely the census post first and then after a few more closely listened to times through of the new album, my take on that as well.
Be well.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Prince of Persia (360)
So in my search for jobs as of late I've come across the public library and how great it has become around here. One of the number of neat things they have there is a game and music section, which wile obviously not that extensive is not all that horrible. You get games for a week and its free so I'm not going to complain.
So I pick up the newest version of Ubisoft's Prince of Persia franchise. I'd seen it around and heard some quality things about it but hadn't the chance to actually play it until most recently. At first glance people may be a bit turned off by the quasi cell shaded design due to games like Windwaker and other such games made to look like they were designed with a 5th grader in mind, although it is anything but that. From the opening screen you are given the sense that this is going to be very beautifully done and well created at least from a visual standpoint, the detail and environments are incredibly well sculped and put together, as well they should becasue as we knoe from any PoP gane its not so much about figing the bosses or enemies so much as fighting the map itself.
The control scheme is incredibly simplistic for the amount of acrobatics and combos you pull off (horay for the use of the Assasin's Creed engine), I would generaly find my self hitting maybe one button here or there and stringing together some of the most amasing moves and or combos that I've seen in a while with very little effort. That is one of the things that made the journey through the game so enjoyable, no sifting through a manual of button combinations and attempting to memorize patterns just to take a run down a hallway. (which I'm very glad other games are taking this into consideration as well ie NHL 09, NHL 2k9)
The sorty line is all very well put together and I only realyl have one gripe about it, but before I get to that part, lets give a basic overview. You're wandring through the desrt searching for of all things a donkey, which apparently happens to be laden in sacks full of gold from a recent tomb raid. You then come across your soon to be new partner in this event Elika. The damsel in distress chased by guards that you for reasons of plot and there wouldn't be a game otherwise you decide to help. Though the guards see you with her and attack you so you're pretty much forced into the situation especially when she tells you about the dark god Arihman trying to escape and edstory the world. Much fighting ensues and her father smahes apart the seal that was holding said dark god and off you go to save the day. Now my only gripe with this is how they end this whole thing, and no I'm not going to be an ass and say what it is, but the whole point of the game is to seek an certain objective. Then after however many hours of gameplay you finish and go well that was fun... I guess thats it... wait ... why can I still control my character. Then you become, in my case at least, a little bit more than milidly upset but hope they do better because they damn well better explain what the hell happens in the next game.
Other than the one major gripe I have in story conclusion the game was a ton of fun, sometimes going back through and finding the litle balls of light can be a bit repetitive but if you want the achievements go for it, its always a good time stinging together a crazy wallrun/vault/slide/celing crawl/backflip magic jump.
And because most people look for some sort of rating scale its a check it out via renting it out of a holy crap you need to buy this game and own it forever.
So I pick up the newest version of Ubisoft's Prince of Persia franchise. I'd seen it around and heard some quality things about it but hadn't the chance to actually play it until most recently. At first glance people may be a bit turned off by the quasi cell shaded design due to games like Windwaker and other such games made to look like they were designed with a 5th grader in mind, although it is anything but that. From the opening screen you are given the sense that this is going to be very beautifully done and well created at least from a visual standpoint, the detail and environments are incredibly well sculped and put together, as well they should becasue as we knoe from any PoP gane its not so much about figing the bosses or enemies so much as fighting the map itself.
The control scheme is incredibly simplistic for the amount of acrobatics and combos you pull off (horay for the use of the Assasin's Creed engine), I would generaly find my self hitting maybe one button here or there and stringing together some of the most amasing moves and or combos that I've seen in a while with very little effort. That is one of the things that made the journey through the game so enjoyable, no sifting through a manual of button combinations and attempting to memorize patterns just to take a run down a hallway. (which I'm very glad other games are taking this into consideration as well ie NHL 09, NHL 2k9)
The sorty line is all very well put together and I only realyl have one gripe about it, but before I get to that part, lets give a basic overview. You're wandring through the desrt searching for of all things a donkey, which apparently happens to be laden in sacks full of gold from a recent tomb raid. You then come across your soon to be new partner in this event Elika. The damsel in distress chased by guards that you for reasons of plot and there wouldn't be a game otherwise you decide to help. Though the guards see you with her and attack you so you're pretty much forced into the situation especially when she tells you about the dark god Arihman trying to escape and edstory the world. Much fighting ensues and her father smahes apart the seal that was holding said dark god and off you go to save the day. Now my only gripe with this is how they end this whole thing, and no I'm not going to be an ass and say what it is, but the whole point of the game is to seek an certain objective. Then after however many hours of gameplay you finish and go well that was fun... I guess thats it... wait ... why can I still control my character. Then you become, in my case at least, a little bit more than milidly upset but hope they do better because they damn well better explain what the hell happens in the next game.
Other than the one major gripe I have in story conclusion the game was a ton of fun, sometimes going back through and finding the litle balls of light can be a bit repetitive but if you want the achievements go for it, its always a good time stinging together a crazy wallrun/vault/slide/celing crawl/backflip magic jump.
And because most people look for some sort of rating scale its a check it out via renting it out of a holy crap you need to buy this game and own it forever.
Monday, February 9, 2009
starting something again
So I'm not sure what I'm really going for here, hopfully this won't fall to the wayside like all other interweb endeavors that I've been going on with that have tried some sort of focus and then fallen apart.
I think what I have in my head is to actualyl update this from time to time... for whatever discussion-ey reasons I have, whether it be my seemingly constant frustrations with the current inabilty for the NY Rangers to score goals, what new albums are actually worth picking up (if i manage to get the cash to do so), or whatever.
Maybe its my want to start some sort of productive endeavor in putting my own thought out there that someone may actaully appreciate in some strange way. The logical conclusion being some sort of broacast medium but whatever happens happens. So this is the new thing for me, for now and well off we go I guess.
I think what I have in my head is to actualyl update this from time to time... for whatever discussion-ey reasons I have, whether it be my seemingly constant frustrations with the current inabilty for the NY Rangers to score goals, what new albums are actually worth picking up (if i manage to get the cash to do so), or whatever.
Maybe its my want to start some sort of productive endeavor in putting my own thought out there that someone may actaully appreciate in some strange way. The logical conclusion being some sort of broacast medium but whatever happens happens. So this is the new thing for me, for now and well off we go I guess.
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