Archive for the ‘Movies/TV’ Category

  • 01 Jul

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    Green Lantern

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    Continuing my summer of Super Hero movies I wanted to offer a few thoughts on DC’s effort to counter Marvel’s series of Avengers prequels, with Green Lantern.

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    I grew up a Marvel guy while dabbling a bit in the Batman books, but I never really got into Green Lantern until the Kyle Rayner era.  I grew to really like Rayner, to the point that I despised the decision to bring Hal Jordan back as the main Green Lantern – so I have a had time with this character to begin with. That said, the writing going on in the Green Lantern books is amongst the best in comics right now, and I’m really enjoying the storyline.

    Caution: Spoilers Ahead

    I went into this movie with pretty low expectations. I think it was one of the few movies where each time I saw the previews I wanted to see it less. I’m not a big Ryan Reynolds fan, but I don’t dislike him – and I know my wife likes seeing him in movies. I was pretty leery of the CGI-suit, as well as how all of the aliens would be portrayed in the movie.

    Walking out of the movie, it about lived up to my quasi-low expectations.  I didn’t hate it, but on the heels of seeing X-men First Class – which had a pretty adult storyline – Green Lantern really came off cheesy.  The dialog was pretty poor, there were a lot of mischaracterizations and characters who were pretty rich in the comics became very one-dimensional.  This movie is almost like a meal where you have all of the right ingredients, but screw up the amounts so that you’re tasting the wrong things in your dish – that was Green Lantern.

    I loved seeing Oa (the Green Lantern planet) and loved the training sequences, but felt like that whole movie was way to short.  I wanted them to spend more time with the Corp, more time with some of the other strong and developed characters (namely Sinestro).  The storyline was inconsistent how they painted the picture of the Green Lantern Corp, but when it came time to take on Parallax, all of the Lanterns were conspicuously missing.

    The worst part was at the end (after the credits), when they had Sinestro putting on the yellow ring. Here was a character, while very well developed off-screen (and partially from my comic knowledge), had no real attachment with the audience and yet was somehow supposed to draw a surprise reaction by putting on this yellow ring. I felt like the director at that point was like “Crap, I don’t think we’re going to get a sequel on merit alone, we better put in some kind of tease.”

    One thing that came to mind while reflecting on this movie: what if I’m not the target audience.  More and more we saw Super Hero movies that have very adult themes: like The Dark Night and X-men First Class. However, what happens when you see this movie through the eyes of a young teenager or tween?  All of the sudden the dialog doesn’t seem as cheesy.  Given that aside from some freaky scientist mutations, there really wasn’t a lot of adult content, and the love interest between Hal Jordan and Blake Lively’s character didn’t really get too steamy or complicated. Maybe this movie, similar to Star Wars, was targeted towards a younger audience.

    Right now this movie would probably fit at the bottom of the “2011 Super Hero Summer” list, below Thor and X-men First Class.  I’m anxious for Captain America to come out later this month, at which point would be a good time to update the Top 10 Superhero Movie list I wrote in 2005.

    What did you think of Green Lantern?

  • 18 Jun

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    X-men First Class

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    After taking a few days off from the Ireland blogging, I took the time to get caught up with a few things here – as well as getting caught up on the summer super hero blockbusters by seeing X-men First Class. I was a little nervous about sitting in a dark theater while recovering from a 7-hour jet lag, but I chanced it and was successful.

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    In case you didn’t know: I’m a comic geek, and the X-men – my first love – extends to our cat named Logan. Unfortunately the last chapter of the X-men movie really ruined that franchise, to the point to where they couldn’t make any more sequels.  I’m not quite sure how X-men First Class fits into all of this. Is it a prequel, or is it a franchise reboot. Nonetheless it rectifies the monstrosity that was X-men 3 and brings this franchise somewhat back.

    [Warning: Possible Spoilers Ahead]

    Of all of the comic movies,X-men has the ability to venture into some political and philosophical discussion – how do people deal with persecution and prejudice. The battle between the ideals of Xavier and Magneto have always been intriguing, and I love how this movie explored their friendship, their commonalities, and how their falling out occurred. I love that the movie used the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis as the foundation of this movie.  The Missile Crisis is one of the few times in our history when we humanity (from a US point-of-view) was genuinely threatened, and it gave the X-men a plausible way to save the world. I love how the US and Soviets – enemies that only minutes ago tried to destroy each other – agreed that mutants were so threatening that they had to band together to take the mutants out.

    Other things I loved about First Class:

    • One of the best training montages in a super hero movie.  One could make an argument for Batman Begins, but I love how Xavier helped each one of the students develop their powers and learn how to grow their abilities.
    • The performances by James McAvoy as Professor X and Michael Fassbender as Magneto. These guys did a wonderful job playing young versions of these characters without trying to look like caricatures of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan.
    • Young Nazi-killer Magneto was badass
    • During the movie, my wife Bethany pointed out that Michael Fassbender looked like a younger Jon Hamm.
    • I loved the imagery that was used with the “Magneto” helmet.  It of course had the very practical use of blocking telepathy, but I loved how it served as the mantle of the leader of the mutant superiority movement. That moment with Magneto put on the helmet had a Darth Vader-like approach of embracing the villainy
    • I really liked Kevin Bacon’s acting in this movie, he made a pretty good villain
    • That cameo with Wolverine was fantastic

    Things That Bothered Me About First Class:

    • I didn’t like how Mystique turned out at the end. The dots that brought her to Magneto’s side didn’t connect, and especially the timing of her turning was bizarre. Somehow we were expected to believe that she would walk over the crippled body of (essentially) her brother over to the guy who caused the incident. I don’t know if the writers felt compelled to have her switch sides by the end of the movie, but I felt like people would have accepted a switch in the sequel or even off-screen.
    • The Hellfire Club was a little misused and came across a little one-dimensional. In the comics they were originally this secret society, but the movie portrayed them as this hodge-podge group of super villains.
    • Some of the choices they made for characters were a little strange. There are definitely better mutants out there that could have been used rather than Angel and Darwin (who ultimately were really one-dimensional).  This comes down to whether this was a prequel or a reboot. I wish it would have been a reboot, because then you could have gotten away with using some characters that were used in other movies.

    It’ll be interesting to see where the X-men franchise goes from here. Part of me wishes they didn’t pack so much into this movie and reserved it for a sequel. My guess is that this movie has been acclaimed enough and has made enough money to continue down this story, so now the question is “Where do they go here from now?”. Do they introduce new characters, and do they introduce the ones we know?  How does this tie into the previous movie canon and the Wolverine movie?  I would love them to take the “Reboot” route that was done with Star Trek, then they could introduce some of the stronger characters that we grew to love in previous movies.

    What do you think of this movie?  Where do you think it compares with the other movies? Not counting the Wolverine movie, I would say that this movie probably is second to X2, beating out the first first movie (all of which are miles above X3).

  • 11 Mar

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    Looks like this is 24’s last season

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    The writing has been on the wall, but it seems that in the next few days we’ll learn what has been too evident: that 24 is going to be taken out back.

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    From Variety:

    “24‘s time is almost up. 20th Century Fox TV and Fox appear ready to end the long-running hit after this season, the show’s eighth. Studio and network execs declined comment — but it’s believed that the final decision will be made in the next day or two. Move is not a huge surprise, but still reps the end of an era for Fox.”

    I can’t way I’m too terribly surprised.  I was a late-coming onto 24 and didn’t watch my first “live” season until Season 4, but there was a time when my friends and I had “24 Night”, where we planned out evenings around watching this show together.  We were going strong for a few years, but then the abomination that was Season 6 hit, followed by a writers strike that took the show off the air for a year.

    The next thing you know, we’re not only not having 24 night together, but many of us aren’t even watching the show the same evening it airs.  Bethany and I just finished the previous week’s episode nearly a week after it aired, this is how low it’s fallen on our totem pole of TV shows.

    24, you were a great show, but you fell victim to the same stale, recycled plotline that occurs year after year.  Now it’s become Willie Mayes dropping fly balls in the outfield.  Thanks for the memories 24, but I do think it’s time you’re put out to pasture.

  • 15 Jan

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    Team Conan

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    There is so much crap going around about the Tonight Show wars between Conan O’Brien, Jay & NBC. Such good writers have weighed in on this, that I can’t really add much – but I do want to say this: I’m on Team Conan all the way. 

    If there’s something I can’t stand, it’s poor performance being rewarded – and with that I don’t understand why NBC thinks how rewarding Jay Leno’s slumping ratings by moving him back into the Tonight Show is a good idea. This just goes to prove that the heads at NBC have no patience, react in nothing but knee-jerks, and are just heartless with the wrong people.

    NBC set Conan up to fail from the beginning, by brining in another LA-based show (Leno’s) to compete for guest talent.  By giving an outlet to Leno fans in denial, NBC encouraged these people to stop watching the Tonight Show. I understand they didn’t want to risk Leno going across the street to ABC or Fox, but they could have set up Jay to do some relief pitching when the Tonight Show is in reruns with a similar comedy show, or even allow Jay to do some periodical specials (like the weeknight SNL’s). Instead they set up Conan for failure, then stab him in the back on his way out.

    I’ve definitely been watching the coverage over the last few days and I did want to share a few gems from this week:

    First you have to see Jimmy Kimmel appearing on Jay Leno’s show Thursday night. For Jimmy to say what he said to Jay’s face – I have the utmost respect for Kimmel and when I start boycotting Jay’s Tonight Show, I’m turning the channel to ABC now.

    Check out this article from the New York Times in 1992, when Jay Leno had the same thing happen to him. If you changed the names from “Letterman” to “Leno” and “Leno” to “Conan” you’d swear this was written last week. This just goes to show what a hypocrite Leno is.

    Of course you can’t miss Conan’s original statement from Tuesday, which is seriously the must classy punch-in-the-face one could give.

    This is all Jeff Zucker’s fault, and Maureen Dowd of the New York Times does a prefect job explaining why.  How this debacle does not result in his firing is beyond me. Under Zucker’s leadership, this network has been run into the ground.  This goes back to them not having any patience, resulting in the cancellation of many great shows like Studio 60 and Journeyman that likely would have developed into worth successors of NBC’s drama cornerstones like West Wing and ER. Let’s be frank: how many Law & Orders can you gravy train off of?

    And it wouldn’t be a pop-culture moment if you didn’t have a Downfall parody:

  • 06 Nov

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    MPAA: Those Evil Movie Pirates

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    Watch this, and feel your blood boil.  Watch as 60 Minutes, a supposed beacon of broadcast journalistic integrity, is spoon-fed propaganda from the MPAA, and eats it right up.

    Let me make one thing clear: I don’t support movie piracy. At the same time, I can’t sit here and let the MPAA spread misinformation and scare tactics, painting everyone with a broad brush of evil.

    I love how Leslie Stahl eats up all of the information – my favorite part is the look of disgust at 2:50 when she repeats “In the diaper bag” – without offering any kind of challenge or exploration in the truth of their claims.  Instead, she just lets them go on and equate people who film movies in theaters to drug cartels, human traffickers and child prostitution.

    I understand that there is a valid point in damage being done the counterfeit DVD circles, but 60 MInutes let the MPAA completely blur the line between them and the kids who download bit-torrented movies on the Internet.  Furthermore, Stahl allows the MPAA to tarnish the US citizens with their broad brush, yet conveniently forgetting about the rampant piracy that is going on in Asia – specifically China – where they’re making money hand-over-fist from piracy.  It makes sense that DVD counterfeits may cost them money, but where’s the direct linkage with bit-torrent? Still, the MPAA goes for their low-hanging fruit – the “gee-whiz computer technology”.

    In the piece the MPAA allege that their industry is robbed of $6 billion annually by piracy – yet they base this on the false pretense that everyone that downloaded their movie had the original intention of seeing it in the theater, or purchasing the $25 DVD.  That’s simply not true. According to the MPAA, the people downloading these movies must be doing it because they’re evil jerks who want to rob the “little people” of the movie industry blind.  There can’t possibly be another side to this: the fact that people want to consume this media in different ways – that some people actually don’t want to go sit in a crowded theater with the talking and crying babies and $5 soda.  In the piece they showed people being wanded and searched, as well as forced to turn in their cell phones, just so they can see a movie.  Wow, when you treat your customers like criminals and give them cavity searches, who wouldn’t want to go to a theater?  No way in hell am I going to give you my money, just so I can be treated like that.

    It’s one thing if you’re providing a good alternative – like a same day digital release that I can watch in the comfort of my home theater with a cold beer in my hand – but the fact is that you’re blatantly ignoring the changing market conditions and instead just whine about the Internet.  Where was Mark Cuban to talk about his same-day release and digital distribution ideas?  60 Minutes had no interest in providing any other views in this complex issue.  Apparently movie downloading equates to drowning puppies: no one can have a differing view.

    I love how they parade out Steven Soderbergh to say that he wishes the Internet was never invented.  I’m sure you do Steven, because now people can warn other movie-goers about some of the crap that people call “movies” and expect people to shell out $8-12 to go see.  Surely the fact studios green-light these sure-fire bombs (soon-to-be Avatar, anyone?) can’t be the reason no one sees these movies. no it’s all based on piracy.

    Soderbergh says they’re losing money at an alarming rates, yet I think someone forgot to tell him that 2007 was a record-breaking year when it came to movie theater revenue.  If I’m not mistaken, 2008 was an even better year for them.  Apparently he still thinks they’re not being paid.  Someone should tell him that the revenue you bring in, over the cost/budget for the picture (which I believe includes the salaries for “the little guys”) = profit for the studios.

    Again, I’m not advocating piracy or making excuses for those who download movies – however is it too much to ask 60 Minutes to at least do some research before they parrot the MPAA’s talking points?

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