My Pull List

So anyone who is a fan of comics has likely heard of a pull list. Typically it is a list that your Local Comic Store(LCS/LCBS) is given by you to be pulled each week.

Well I am expanding the definition to include movies and Television. So here it is. The definitive list of the books are curently reading, the shows I plan to watch. The movies I'm eager to see, and the OGNs I want to read.

Some other terms that might be helpful to know:

Graphic Novel: This is typically a collection of single printed issues together in a collection. Though sometimes its an original story not printed elsewhere.

Original Graphic Novel(OGN): This is an original story printed for the first time as a Graphic Novel instead of single issues.

Trade Paperback(or Trades): Paperback version of a graphic novel.

Hardcover: Referring to hardcover graphic novels.

Tradewait:Tradewaiting is when someone chooses to specifically not read the single issues. Most common example(aka largest fanbase that does this) is Fables.

I also want to note this was inspired by Rich George of IGNComics, blog article about what he plans to watch this upcoming fall.


Firstly Comics I will read no matter what:

Ultimate Spider-Man

X-Factor

Scarlet

Casanova

Buffy Season __

Generation Lost

Grant Morrison Batman(Batman and Robin, Return of Bruce Wayne, the return, Batman)

Avengers: Childrens Crusade

Steve Rodgers:Super Soldier

Thanos Imperative


Books that I think are good reads currently:

Tony Daniel Batman

Captain America

Daredevil

Nemesis

Thor

Flash



Books that I am curious about(these are books on my pull list that haven't existed enough in a consistent quality for me to make a strong judgment on):

Hawkeye and Mocking Bird

Secret Avengers

Superman

WonderWoman

Shadowland:Powerman

Shadowland:GhostRider

Shadowland:Elektra

Ultimate Mystery



Books that I really should read as storyarcs/trade wait but don't(but are still great reads):

Fables

Walking Dead

Invincible Iron Man


Books that I read but aren't nessicarily great nor horendous:

Jericho:Season 3

Green Lantern

Uncanny X-men

Ultimate X



Books I want to be good but aren't:

ShadowLand

Avengers

Jurassic Park:Redemption

Avengers Prime

Brightest Day


Books that I tradewait:

Y the Last Man

Ex Machina

Powers


Books I'm about to start reading/excited to start reading:

Fantastic Four

Incognito:Bad Influences

Kick Ass 2

Loki

Ultimate Thor



So that's that list. I'll expand this list at

geekcorereview.blogspot.com/

with film and television later, but for now, that's comics for me.

A review of the web series The Guild: Seasons 1-3

Okay so this is going to be quick.
Season one is fairly dreadful. There are a few good minutes but a lot of it is really Zaboo being awkward and as such you just want him to go so you can watch Felicia Day do awesome things. And lo and behold, Season two has Zaboo moving out and suddenly as a result we get an interesting story that isn't based on the super awkwardness that is Zaboo being a stalker. Don't get me wrong, I like Zaboo as a character but his forced placement in the first season just feels too awkward and suddenly you don't want to be there anymore. It takes AWAY the enjoyment. Which shouldn't happen at all. The enjoyment should be living in the piece. Which brings us to season 3. Season 3 is firing on all cylinders. You get good payoff for many storyarchs that had been on the slow burn. The writers feel like they are finally confident as writers and allow their characters do things in a way that feels natural. It still feels too short though. I get that they are 5 minute episodes, but there should be more episodes than what is given. There should be closer to 20 episodes a season, not 12-13. Also more Wil Wheton. His character breathes incredible life into the show and it really steps up the game.

Mindless action movie with nothing but nostalgia keeping it going for an hour and 30 minutes? -- Yep it's the Expendables.

I think that about sums it up.

The only things this movie has going for it are the mindless action sequences and the nostalgia. Both are great. The action is some of the best I've seen since Rambo. I don't think it's better than Rambo(2008). Hell, I've been comparing this movie to Rambo repeatedly and you know what, this doesn't compare. Doesn't make it much not good, but ultimately it is disappointing. The casting. There isn't a single miscast in this entire movie. Everyone is used to their specific strengths and it works great. You get some legendary fights that will forever prove that not only were these guys the top of the field, they still are. The action has some of the biggest HOLY S---- moments all year. It will knock you back and keep hitting. So what doesn't work? For starters the story. And really this is everything. There's no heart here. I kept watching, and waiting for the reason I should care but it never came. I was never invested into the story. It all starts with Stalone creating a nation and a problem to be solved. That's not to say there are situations like this, but because this one was fake it didn't have the pathos. Had he chosen another real world conflict and then set his characters against that(and of course they can't solve it, but maybe help towards a solution) then maybe this movie might have had me on board. The character's don't get enough screentime to develop. Since these are all fresh, new characters, I never felt like I really understood who they were or what their history was. Some history was hinted at, but I feel like 30-40 minutes of screentime using a past mission to help set up more of their characters would have been nice. The dialogue and the like is really well done, the banter between these characters really gave the piece a charm to it. The CGI here is TERRIBLE. Any time it's a CGI effect, you can tell. Look at the boat scene in the beginning and anytime the camera is pointed towards the sky, you'll notice a fake night sky. The fire effect on a guy set on fire, looks terrible. Why? Because they have real fires burning around him and they don't match. What effects house couldn't match fire?! Anyways, the movie is set up to establish a franchise, and maybe that's were my story went to, to sequels. One that will end up killing off Stalone. But who knows. This movie isn't bad.
It's no Scott Pilgrim, but it's a good time and it'll tug at your inner action hero and remind you of the good ol' days of hard action. It just doesn't have the real heart to keep you locked in.

Overall, a B effort. I just wasn't blown away like I wanted to be.

Comic reviews Cover the weeks prior to August 13th

So this is a scatter shot of reviews, I did some reviews on Twitter but here are the ongoing ones. They aren't necessarily full reviews, but some quick shots of what I'm reading and reacting.


Green Arrow #1(2010, JT KRUL):

So we open up on a pretty lame Green Arrow beats up crooks and then the vic talks to GA about his new status Quo scene. designed for the kids just joining. I hate you DC for not just using recap pages to describe whats going on, seriously, these pages make me want to tear my hair out.
So there is a new owner of Queen industries?
Can anyone tell me when someone cared about Queen industries again? I know I've forgotten most of what has happened in recent years but uh, wasn't the key to K. Smith's run that he didn't have a company anymore, that he didn't have any money? Why are we retreading this tired(and frankly uninteresting plot line?) Also why did Ollie stop being independently wealthy? What did he and Dinah have an officail divorce off the page(you know, because we all thought that seperation was a genius idea) and she take all the money?
I suspect that someone named JT just failed to read what came before. I hate writers who think they can write this series. At least Judd had a handle on the character. Afterall, Green Arrow is Batman. But replace the gadgets with Arrows. and replace the acting like a playboy with the he IS a playboy. They are similar yet different. I wish DC had some respect for the character still. Honestly, I can stand Judd's run. I love K. Smiths Run and I think that Archer's quest was a great way to be both relevant and respectful of the past for a character who just came back to life. It was a a proper "I'm Back" story. I wish I could get Green Arrow to get respect and get treated like Daredevil in the Marvel universe. You know, the kind of character you can do anything you want to, BUT you have to be a good writer. (And if anyone ever says that I can't write better, I'll have you know I'm in the middle of designing my own Ollie Queen story for the random off chance that one day I might be a writer and work for DC).
Back to this issue.
Now I have to admit, this new QI leader(queen to on the nose?) is interesting. But this party scene is pretty terrible....
Oh God random killing. of that commissioner that they spent so much time establishing? Wow, way to make me...not care?
So that cliffhanger....kind of random.
And those last few pages that actually link and set up the future issues? Kinda dull. Unlike the flashpoint page in The Flash #1, this GA page makes me feel nothing.
So Issue one is a failure. Let's read......
Green Arrow #2:
\\\Durr Durr Durr. JT apparently needs to explain ANYTHING that's happened recently at the start of each issue. What's next, a background explanation of Cry For Justice. (Seriously, if he does that I'm outta here).
Wow, I didn't think it was possible, but that issue was worse than teh first. How do I know? the middle pages are pointless action. And then it ends on ANOTHER random cliffhanger.
Here's a lesson JT, if you end on a cliffhanger like a good comic, it should feel random. It should make sense. It also can't just be for the sake of shock value because we all know you didn't just shoot Ollie in the head. That's it. Book dropped. This is too terrible. I check out GA again when they get a new writer. Again.



Since I read it earlier, but want to include my thoughts, I enjoyed Shadowland Issue 2. I'm curious to see how this all turns out. But so far it looks like too much is happening without explanation. It's like Diggle is skipping all of the important stuff. He's also seemed to make it so that it looks like Matt might really be in control, but I don't think he is. ugh. I like it because I enjoy reading it, I just have complaints and don't rank it any higher than a C.


New Avengers #2(vol. 2):

Hi good Bendis writing. I missed you.
Okay so that's a little harsh, but this really is the book Bendis should be writing along side USM. He could write just these two books(if he was only writing two current books he's writing) and it would be amazing.
Bendis does this big ol' action sequence(and continues his love for the Marvel Magic universe) while still getting great character moments in all over the place.
Fantastic!

The Top 100 film list(Fall 2010 edition) Part 0

Because I just finished the final list for the Fall of 2010, which will premiere in September, I have found that 11 extra films didn't make it in the 100 anymore. They are now on display here. Also is the new format, going from the top of that paticular section down. This is for later reading as I found that if I set it up like this, when you look at it in the archive you can just go down from top to bottom reading the 100 list.

101.The Crow(1994)
102. Wanted(2008)
103. Pulp Fiction(1994)
104.To Kill a Mocking Bird(1962)
105.Jackie Brown(1997)
106.Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(2004)
107. Gold Finger(Bond) (1964)
108. Wizard of Oz(1939)
109. Schindler's list(1993)
110. Pitch Black (2000)
111.Grindhouse(2007)

A story of the Russian Mob and Porn, but tasteful. - a review of Middle Men

So I'm going to be very brief with this review.

I really enjoyed this film. It is your standard guy gets in too deep with the mob but it has some twists such as being from the perspective of the straight man not the crazies. and has the side angle of being based on the true story of how the internet really started. The story is entertaining, the characters are likable and or interesting and there are some great performances from all of the actors here. There are some cool plot points and for the most part a good chunk of the movie isn't all that predictable. The ending does feel a little Hollywood but not everything can be The Dark Knight. Check it out. Oh yeah, on top of being a drama, it's also really funny and will have you laughing for your money.


Overall, see this movie, a strong effort. Certainly a B+ and worth seeing. Do you NEED to see it in theaters? No. Will it be the best movie that came out this week that you'll see? Yeah. Yeah it will.

Backtracks: A review of The Sorcerers Apprentice

The Sorcerers apprentice is a tale of a young mouse who, when his master is out missuses magic to do his chores via sentient mops.
Oh, you wanted a review of the movie? Strangely that description does describe a scene, but mouse is metaphorical.

In general this movie dissapoints. That's not to say it's a terrible movie. it is fully watchable. but there are so many missteps and so many reminders of what this movie could be that you don't really want to watch more.
For example, the beginning. It is a 5-6 minute sequence that outlines the back story of the movie. But it shows so much material that it is clearly a 15-30 minute sequence edited down to a montage. This is because it follows the Jerry Bruckheimer school of film. Which that the first film in any franchise sticks strictly to the formula. Now that's not to knock formula, if done correctly(I.E. Pirates of the Caribbean) it can be successful. if not, you get Prince of Persia. This falls somewhere in the middle. And it sucks because of that. It makes you feel frustrated. What is that formula you ask? So for example, in the first ten minutes of the movie the overall plot will have at least sown most of it's seeds. It might be 30 minutes in before it shows you exactly what the plot is, but it does set it up. Also in the time you'll establish Genre. In these action/comedy cases, it means you'll get an action sequence, often unnecessarily so. and of course if they average 120 minutes, at around the 60 minute mark you'll get a big elaborate action sequence, at 90 minutes you'll have the hero all but defeated, and at 120 the movie will be over. It's a little more specific than that but that's the gist of it. Check it out for yourself. It's pretty accurate give or take 10 minutes. Except for that opening. Almost every time its set up by minute 10, and usually at or around minute 10 some big change happens in the heroes life to set him on his course. This all goes back to The Great Journey and Joesph Campbell but the point is that it is so trite that there is almost no variation in this movies that it falls on the other elements to make the movie work. Firstly the action has to be entertaining. Going back to Pirates(which I'll do repeatedly), that first action sequence is engaging and gives you an idea for Jack Sparrows character. You also get a sequence where you learn who each of your main characters are. That's what action sequences should do. They shouldn't be there simply to be plot, nor should they simply be there, they need to reinforce character. One or two action sequences in this movie do that. But that's it. The rest are just okay. So then we look at character. Well the characters are pretty bland. The main character is a science geek(we are told this repeatedly) who really hasn't had luck with the ladies since he was a child and Nic Cage's character F'ed it all up for him and then everyone thought he was crazy. He has a roommate that we see twice, and in those two appearances he is a far more interesting character than any one else in this movie. His(our main character played by Jay Buchnel) only really interesting bit of characterization is after he runs into and kind of almost stalks his childhood crush, he listens to her play a song on the radio(a fairly forgettable tune by one republic, this coming from someone who listens to one republic) and gets it to sync with a set of Tesla coils(really cool bit of science, look it up). Nic Cage seems to have been told to curve his awesomeness displayed in Kick Ass and as such is fairly boring. And so is our forgettable villain played by Al Molina. Okay so the characters are bland, the action is bland, what's good in this thing? Is the comedy any good, you ask? Good comedy can go a long way to taking a otherwise okay film and make it great. Well most of the comedy falls flat. Too many puns and too many jokes that just aren't funny or worth more than a chuckle. The movie's best joke is on the screen so fast that if you blinked you'd miss it. Basically(and this scene is longer in the trailer which is the entire reason I wanted to see this movie) Jay's character asks Nic if he's crazy. Nic puts his fingers up, his thumb and his pointer and closes them close in as if to say tiny bit. it is the great moment that I can't tell if it is the writing(at some draft, and if it was that person should write more) or if it was ab lib(in which case Nic Cage really was being curbed and not just trying to pay off his debt). I wanted to like this movie. On the bright side it didn't sequel bait. It's clear you could write more in this world but overall I don't want more to be done. I think you can do a Sorcerer story better and I don't want this to be our next fantasy franchise. Don't pay 10 bucks to see this.

Overall since it's not unwatchable, just disappointing, I'd give the movie a C-. But don't buy it or see it in theaters. Maybe watch it on Netflix one day, or On Demand. But unless you HAVE to own every Nic Cage movie, go see something better.

A movie that makes you feel like a Schmuck. - A review of Dinner For Schmucks

A Faux review because I couldn't bring myself to write a real review, maybe one day. But for now, this is as much thought as I can deal with for this movie. The rest of this week shall include the appearances of reviews for the Blu Ray of Kick Ass, and hopefully reviews of Middle Men and Easy A.

I can not emphasize how much you should avoid this movie. Unless all you like is movies with stupid humour and humor based on people supposedly acting like idiots them this movie isn't for you.



Overall avoid this movie. F. There is no way I can recommend this movie, I'd rather you pay money to see Twilight. I felt dirty watching this movie. Any movie whose message is obviously laughing at people doing stupid things is morally wrong, but at the same time having your entire movie having you do that? The validity of the moralistic message is lost when your creative forces don't follow it. I need a shower.

Scott Pilgrim Rocked My World - A review of Scott Pilgrim vs the World

Warning, there may or may not be spoilers included. this is your only warning.

So what is this movie about? Scott Pilgrim. Bass player. Down on his luck lovable loser. Finds his way into a relationship that kinda sucks and then meets the girl of his dreams. and then in order to date her, he has to battle her seven evil exes. But the movie is better than it sounds on paper. By a lot.

This is one of those directing experiences where you look at the final product and assume someone knew exactly what they were doing and firing on all the right cylinders. This is of course talking about Edgar Wright of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fame. This might be better than both of them. I know, I know. Blasphemy. But hear me out. I had one of the most enjoyable experiences with this movie even if I waited for way to long to see this movie early. I'm not even a fan of the books and yet I was fully engaged in the world and the story without much trouble. The movie has 7 elaborate action sequences and they are all beautiful. And I don't just mean in the sense that they are intense and full of emotional packed punches, they are that too, but they are fantastically pretty to look at. So this is a great diversion for me to talk about which is that this movie uses action as an emotional storytelling device to explore back story. Well most of them. There is one fight involving the twins that doesn't have the same kick that alll of the other scenes do, but overall most of the scenes are fantastic. Now I think this is part of Original Graphic Novel writer Brian Lee O'Malley's scripts in the book, but I find it really compelling and it works in a strange, surrealistic way. And part of the reason these scenes work is because there is a sense of magical realism going on. There has to be because when he defeats an evil Ex they burst into quarters. And so we then can move on to the Exes themselves. They are each carefully different from each other while all having an overall theme to them. I don't want to give away any of them because this movie is a hilarious comedy and part of that is these characters reveals, but I will say that the actors are strong in all of them except the twins. Because the twins are such a bit part in the movie and in their purpose they feel like a plot device, not as a part of the story. They are there and then they are gone. As for the other actors you have many solid performances, but none of them outside of the exes JUMP out and steal the show. Okay, that's a lie. The Culkin in this movie, Kirieon I think, is pretty awesome. Our leads are solid but they don't break the mold. See this movie as soon as you can.



This movie scores a rocking A- for being awesome. But when it comes down to me choosing between Inception and Scott as my fave movie of the year, Inception will win. When it comes down to which I'll watch more, Scott Pilgrim shall win.

MR. PILGRIM!!!!

Things on the horizon

overall this is just a rundown of things to come that I am interested in and will likely talk about in some capacity.



Graphic novel reads:
Batwoman Elegy
Omnibi including Daredevil by brubaker V2, Iron Fist, and Captain America

Reaction to fiction: Avatar the last airbender(that should be done before august I hope)

Event Retrospective: Infinite Crisis(hopefully before September)
Event Retrospective: Civil War(hopefully by the end of the year, contingent on acquisition of the hardcovers)

Reaction to Fiction(October, November) The Walking Dead (and other Zombies)

Top 100 film list 2010 edition(this fall)

Game Review:(TBD) Red Dead Redemption

Game Review: (TBD) Metal Gear solid 4

Game Review(TBD): Grand Theft Auto

Game reveiw:(TBD) Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core

Coverage of Pax10

Supernatural Review: Swan Song

NEWS NEWS NEWS - July 22nd EDITION

http://bluray.ign.com/articles/110/1107458p1.html


a full length blu ray of both version of grindhouse, theatrical and extended. The whole thing together in one place. Finally. At last.
October 5th release date set





http://tv.ign.com/articles/110/1107556p1.html

Coming in 2011: A sequel to the animate hit, Avatar:The Last Airbender.

Here's hoping this will lead to an entire series of series.



New photos from Green Lantern: http://movies.ign.com/articles/110/1107775p1.html
Abin Sur looks awesome and fully embraces the roots of this movie. Have fun audience.



http://tv.ign.com/articles/110/1107505p1.html

No more Caprica until January


http://comics.ign.com/articles/110/1107292p1.html
Collectors version of Fallout:New Vegas to include graphic novel prequel


http://www.aintitcool.com/node/45865
Tron:Legacy trailer :D


http://movies.ign.com/articles/110/1107763p1.html
Possible new Judge Dread


New walking Dead poster:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/45851





This article is our new segment since I wasn't able to get my other one done in time. It'll function by me linking you to other articles and giving you a basic idea for what the article is about. For the details, visit the article because the sites rock.
In addition, these links at the bottom of my articles are recomendations for those interested in the article, hand chosen by me. They are good items. They may be ads, but they are actually about what you want to know.



Grindhouse (Special Edition) [Blu-ray]
Caprica (TV Series) [Blu-ray]

Who is Salt? Jason Bourne. - A reveiw of the movie Salt

Seriously, its a female remake of Bourne series, complete with sequel bait ending. There is really only one or two reasons to see this movie, non of which are must see in theaters moments.


So basic rundown the movie: Angelina Jolie is a spy. Ignore the trailer, it gives you an idea of the kind of game the movie will play, but whether or not she is a spy isn't one of them. She is a spy. A mysterious man walks into her and Liev Schreibers office and offers a cryptic story about a Russian spy set up to kill the Russian president. He then says its Angelina. You also get Chiwetel Ejiofor as a cia agent.

spoilers
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The movie is then is she or isn't she a Russian agent. And I am going to kind of dip into spoilers for this but if you want to know my opinion it's that you should rent this movie, not pay to see it.

So this movie is a spy movie. You have the cat and mouse sequences from Salt(Angelina's character) and the CIA. You have the big action assassination scene. You have the car chase on foot. You have the double cross. The triple cross. You even get a big show down in an underground lair. All of the spy cliches are here. The movie has a fairly clever set up where in about 20-30 minutes into the movie(I don't have an exact time as I wasn't allowed my cell phone, a plight I'll expand on at the end) the movie actually shifts gears into Manchurian candidate territory but pretends to be more bold. Which really sums up this movie, several times this movie pretends to be more bold, and as a careful observer of cinema it was all telegraphed in a style closely akin to looking at a scene of a crime and a movie highlighting which elements are clues. But some people might not see it coming and get caught off guard. But I don't think that is the case. Why? Well let me explain. Originally I thought this movie was treating it's audience with more respect than some movies by not flashing back and explaining everything Ocean's 11 style. Instead what we get is that things just happen and you are expected to connect the dots yourself. What I realized on a second thought process is that the movie might have actually expected you to know what was going on the whole time and so instead the reason it didn't might be because it expected you already knew what happened. That the writers thought it was already perfectly clear and so they didn't go out of their way to explain it. The reason I believe this is because the entirety of this movie is that it is a borne identity clone with Angelina instead of Matt. And without nearly as cool action or intelligence. Instead what we get is an action movie set up to be a series of films. The ending could have been smart and wrapped everything up(the film is only 90 minutes long, they could have spent another 15-20 minutes clearing the movie up) but what we get is Salt on the run. The thing that almost made this movie brave, that 20-30 minute mark moment is that Angelina actually IS the Russian spy that they talked about. It is then later revealed that she actually isn't anymore, but the film was exciting for about 20-30 minutes when there was actually the possibility that she was a Russian spy and this was going to be a movie about Russian Spy from her perspective. That would have been cool.
So there are only a few things I consider cool other than that portion of the movie are two actors. First is Chiwetel Ejiofor who is criminally underused here. He is forced to play a lackluster, under developed character that is more of a plot device than an actual character and gets thrown away about halfway through. And the only reason he works is because he can act and even on his worse days(which really is this movie) he still is a competent actor proving he knows what he's doing. On the otherside we get Liev Schreiber playing this movie perfectly for about 85 percent of the movie. the other 15 percent he's hamming it up chewing scenery but still. It's fun to watch him go to work. He is very likable here. I have to say that when it comes to Angelina her work here is great for most actresses but for her it's actually kind of mediocre. It's not bad. It's good. It's just not great and kind of over par.
The action is better than most but still a bit under the bar set by the Bourne series.

Overall I found this movie to be uninspired and took the easy way out of what could have been a great movie. It gets props for bringing the Russians back into style, now if only we could get a bunch of Nazi's back into the movies and we can stop having terrorists.

The movie gets a C+, if you can look past an ending clearly devised for a sequel I might even give a B-, but I couldn't so my grade is a C-.




A word for my experience. First off, When I arrive at 4(three hours early), and I am fourth person in line, and then by the time the we get let in I'm 34th, something is seriously wrong. I don't have a solution for this problem yet(other than handing out tickets to people, not to passes, as they arrive) or actually yelling at people who join in. Now this doesn't actually stop me from getting in, but I'm certain there are some nice people about halfway through the line that didn't get in because of these line cutters. Some that had been in line since five, which isn't really fair.
They were still handing out passes while the line was going even though the line was clearly larger than the number of people who would actually be getting in.
They had the worst security I've been in. firstly they had the full scale, locking up electronics left and right when they see them(of course skipping anything that doesn't look like it; I know this because I had my psp in a small wallet looking case and they didn't even bother looking in the case) and then once in the theater they were monitoring the crowd using night vision goggles. and overall I wouldn't be surprised if someone still managed to film it.

I don't care how this idea got placed in Nolan's mind, its the best he's ever done - inception Review

Inception

The general idea in this movie is that you can enter someones mind and steal an idea. Anything else I could tell you would be spoilers.


So. I should also just say it right now, straight up, I loved this movie. It was fantastic. This is a film that will easily make my top 20 when I revisit my top 100 list for October. This is the kind of film that will inspire debate. This is the kind of film that makes movies like The Matrix and Fight Club totally simple in that they had one story all along, you just need to watch it multiple times to figure out what that is. This is a story with several narratives. You can look at the film and dissect it several ways. This movie will make you think. It is not a sit down and shut your brain off piece of trash. It is a smart, make you think and question existence kind of movie. The themes throughout haven't even all been discovered by our thousands of minds who have chosen o write upon its existence. instead just know this will twist your mind in ways you didn't think would happen.



The Acting is top notch here. The performances are high caliber. I wouldn't say any of them are oscar worthy or even career defining, but I will say it should open the door for several of the actors and actresses to hopefully get more notice for their talents by the mainstream public. For example while everyone knows her for Juno, few remember her from X-men:the Last stand, or her true piece of absolute magic in Hard Candy. Leo continues to show off the fact that he grew up with the world and proved himself long ago to be more than a child star. And then more thana teen star. And then more than just another actor. Joseph Gordon Levit is a dream as always. There are certain nuances to his performance that really remind me that he is just steps away from breaking out as being known for truly being Brilliant. Ken Watanabe also brings his A game and shows that he actually had more to him that what he was allowed to show off five years ago in Batman Begins.

The effects are mindblowing. These are the kind of effects I love. A lot of them are practical and when they use digital effects the only reason our minds know they are digital is because we look at something and go that isn't possible by any physics I know. which is how it should be. If you were to ask me, I'd easily give any effects awards to Inception over Avatar anyday. There are scenes such as the ones when they are first constructing the dream worlds that stand out as really pushing the technology. But the drawback about this is that they aren't used to much avail later in the film or in the films climactic last hour. Yeah it has a climactic last hour. deal with it.


I really wanted to give this film a full perfect score but it is failing in a couple points. The first major one is that while Nolan as a director has grown and is far more comprehensible in his shots than he once was, there are still the occasional scene where any and all logistics are out the window and I don't really feel like I have a strong mental image of the exact set up, even by the end of the scene. That said, some of the shots are too brilliant for words and most importantly Nolan continues to prove he can shoot cityscapes better than anyone else because he always manages to find a new angle to look at it from, never resorting to stock footage.

The whole thing weaves together in a story that I can't even talk about. But like I said, you will think you figured it out, and the person next to you will have come up with a completely separate response to the movie.


Overall I grade this A.

If a film could stalk you and figure out exactly what you want out of your horror/action movie, then this is the film that did it - a review of Predators

The movie in a nutshell: A bunch of crazy killer types are dropped from the sky. They are being hunted. By the alien race known as Predators.




I really don't want to tell you more because I don't think I need to. Either you already know what the plot is, or you don't. That is literally all you should know going into it. If you saw the original you won't get nearly as much enjoyment out of this one, but it is still worth your time. If you see this fresh you might think it the best action movie in a while.




This is a movie that is kick ass from the first second. It builds faster and faster towards answers and keeps you engaged from that first frame. The most important part is that it skips a lot of what would have been boring set up, and instead leaves that as a puzzle for the characters to solve and it works brilliantly. More importantly, constantly the movie employs LOGIC. It is rare for an action movie to do such, but if a character makes a decision often it makes sense, and if it doesn't make sense it does eventually via a further explanation of character. The premise is well done, simple, and is set up just right so as to keep the audience, as I said, engaged.

The movie opens up setting up a series of stereotypes. They are killers and they are for all intents and purposes a bunch of nameless and faceless characters to be killed off later. and in fact, the movie plays up this aspect by holding back on names until a logical character driven moment for a character. It works really well. A lot of the issues that could have come up are averted by good screenwriting. And you can of course LOL at the fact that Topher Grace gets dropped into this group. But I'll let that stand and let you make up your own mind on his performance when you watch the movie. They do get civilized rather quickly for killers and so they don't quite feel perfect, but they do feel overall solid. The characters are built up as being smart and being said to be actiony. It soon shows that each killer can back up what they claim with action and it is really important that the movie holds it in. Each of the eight main characters are distinct enough from each other that even without names you can know who each is without names. It is kind of hilarious that the Russian uses a minigun. Because both are known to be so efficient.

The movie keeps its first act well paced and shrouded in mystery. This is a movie about characters, not monsters. The sound design in here is really well done and really helps set up the tone between action and horror. It sets everything up through a system of fear so that rather than being about jump scares(there are only 2 or 3 in the movie) they use genuine tension to build towards truly horrific moments. The movie knows who scary it's antagonists are, and thusly slowly reveals them and keeps them in the shadows to remain scary. It is the Jaws effect.


The movie introduces several new alien designs that expands the Alien/Predator universe with new species. The film also gives us some new mythos to the Predator lore and while it does put some of the old non-movie predator movies out of cannon, it is authentic enough that it greatly expands the mythos. Most importantly it shows offa new design for the Predators and then also uses backstory to explain these new changes. It really works well.

The plot keeps up and once the humans finally see the predators they react true to life and once the first character dies, they start dropping for the rest of the film. The movie does eventually slow back down to explain some stuff, but it keeps the tension and the uneasyness going so that when the movie does slow down, you don't feel bored or taken aback by it. It's subtle. Then once a new character is introduced, the film steam rolls into the end of the film and you end up with some fantastic moments such as a predator taking a trophy, a outright duel, and the big finale.

Overall, I was enthralled by the movie and really enjoyed the experience. is it perfect? Of course not. But I also found it to be my favorite movie in the Predator series.

So overall, this movie gets a A-.
Check it out.

Because its cool and popular, and because I haven't done a top ten in a while, The Top Eleven Anime Badasses

The top Ten Anime Bad Asses



11.Alucard from Hellsing
10.Hiei from Yu Yu Hakusho
9.Ruroni Kenshin from...yeah
8.Racer X from Speed Racer
7.Princess Mononoke
6.Zack from Final Fantasy 7: Last Order
5.Light from Death Note
4.Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z
3.JiJi from kiki's delivery service
2.Lucy from Elfen Lied
1.Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho



There will eventually be explanation for these, but for now, just enjoy the list and figure it out yourself.

One Year Later - A reaction to James Cameron's Avatar

I didn't find myself blown away.


James Cameron let me down by not giving me a new story but instead rehashing an old, tired, warn out story. Stop me If you've heard this one. Military man is sent to make peace with the natives. It works too well and he becomes integrated with the populous. The military machine then is angered when he changes sides and tries to kill them any way. The natives are beaten back until they won't be beaten no more and rise up and scare away the machines. Ferngully. Pocahontas. Dances With Wolves. Smurfs. It's not like the comparisons don't hold up well. I can point that they are all about the white man falling in with the non-traditional natives as well. Now the biggest argument I've gotten is that maybe this generation needs that message. I argue that anyone old enough to know a message when they see one and willing to make a difference because of it, will be old enough to remember at least one of those movies, if not all of them and that this argument isn't valid. I don't want to go into any more specific plot points of this movie, mainly because it hurts my head to remember something I didn't like, but also because the movie was never special enough for me to care. which leads me to my next points...

Characterization. This movie really doesn't have much. Aside from Jake Sully, no seems to be able to remember any characters names. Now Jake does grow and follow a very traditional heroes journey growth structure. And his two human partners follow similar ones as well. while not ideal, it is still better than they have a predictable arc than no arc at all. But let us look at the rest of the characters. They all remain static. The Na'vi all learn that with a tiny number of exceptions, Man can not be trusted. The humans running the military and the corporation still think they are better and that the Na'vi are just savages. Other than those three, no one in this movie has any change. This movie spends two and a half hours trying to grow three characters who complete their change about half way through the movie. All the movie has is plot. That isn't to say that can't be done, just that it's boring. The movie is also a little insensitive in basically saying that unless you can download yourself into a new body, if you are in a wheelchair you aren't fit to do anything heroic. I was really excited about a movie with a disabled protagonist(which this fact was downplayed in the trailers) and was also an action movie. I had hope. But ultimately the movie leaves the potential for commentary about how disabled people are just as effective as non-disabled are but the movie instead was bored with what ti had and just existed.

The acting. Everyone in this movie seems to be bored. None of the acting(except the crazy archetype military leader) have much emotion or reaction. The actors don't seem very invested in their roles and this might be partially do to all of the green screen effects that they had nothing to work with. The acting isn't bad, like most of this movie, it just isn't good either. And the one military leader that isn't bored is chewing scenery and being hammy. I will give props to Sam Worthington becuase I found his turn of being downtrodden and being excited to be good, I just wasn't entirely convinced. Also Giovani ribsi may have been playing an archetype, but he played it up to par and I would like to see more of him as subtle, slimy, greasy villain types.



The graphics look phenomenal, TODAY. Five years down the line, ten? This film will act much like Jurassic Park did and less like The Matrix and Star Wars because the story doesn't hold up. His landscapes,his aliens all look great. The machines look fake(which is surprising) and that's unacceptable because you have created the entire environment. The one good thing I can say about the haphazard effects of the Star Wars prequels is that all of their effects, despite X different teams building it, all look seamless. I believe that all of the CGI comes from the same place. Here, when I look at the quality of the world and the quality of the Na'vi and then compare them to the gunships and the Mech I am simply not impressed and can easily tell they are different. And moreso, once I see this in full 1080i I expect the difference to become even more apparent. So everything that this movie hypes, I.E. graphics are the entire reason this movie exists. Why couldn't they just do R&D to create this technology and then apply it to movies that would actually have some merit to them?

Directing? It's James Cameron. He knows what he's doing.

Ultimately, the movie is a decent scifi film, pretty mediocre though, and I suggest District 9 much more. C-

a note: I went into the movie excited and ready to love it, and I'll admit that when I first watched it I was taken into the movie and just experienced as a good experience. But after a day of thought it slowly fell more and more apart until I realized I was reacting the same way I did to another flawed movie, Jurassic Park. The difference? Jurassic Park is fun on subsequent viewings. Avatar was not.

Its a boy meets girl, boy meets girl's son, boy and girl's son have a battle of wits kind of movie - A review of Cyrus

So here's how it goes: Boy(John C. Reily) meets girl(Marisa Tomei looking as hot as ever. Boy meets girl's Son(Jonah Hill). Son hates boy. Cue plot here. We've seen this story before. So why is this movie any better? Well for starters Girl's Son(the title character Cyrus) is 21 and still lives with his mom. Him and his mom have a deep, best friend mentality. John is a divorcee but is still friends with his ex-wife. there is what amounts to a sub plot about her getting remarried but it doesn't amount to anything. What ensues in this movie is from the very moment Boy meets Son, Son is working to drive Boy away from Girl.

Let's start with the acting. It is without a doubt phenomenal. All three of the leads each act like it is going to cost them their lives to give good performances. You can tell there is some brilliant work going on between them. Each and every moment is earned and works. It is very rare that acting works this well. It helps that it is a small independent film with next to no cast. I large portion of the jokes and the moments and the timing are the actors and they work very well. In fact a minimal amount of the film is script. Clearly set changes are part of the script, but most of what happens in the scene is the actors. This movie lives and dies with the actors and they break the mold and give you a spectacular response. There are some very important moments that if they hadn't been sold by the actors most of the quiet moments where the film could have failed.

This movie fails in one area pretty epically. Directing. The directing is Terrible. This is deplorable. The look of the film, the mockumentery style without being a mockumentary doesn't work. In fact it looks like trash and feels like trash because of it. The only reason the movie isn't a total failure is that the acting and at time the writing is so out of the ball park that it gets you to forget that the film is so poorly shot. This is incredibly disappointing but at least it gets to showcase the actors talents.
So overall I will give this movie a B-. I want it to be better, but it's not. At the very least I can say that score is entirely the acting.

Reaction to Fiction - Twilight series

Welcome to a new column called Reaction to Fiction. In this I discuss the merits of a franchise and its multi-media effects and how it impacts society at large.

Twilight


so a few things. I have read the first book(trash). I can say the movies are getting progressively better at telling these stories. There are still the obvious fundamental problems such as this being a story of necrophilia, Bestiality and Pedophilia, and abusive male figures. I do intend to see and review Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. I am not planning on reading the books but I have read the wikipedia articles and learned their plots, themes, and messages. I am also am a Feminist and equal rights activist. Thus many flaws beyond the writing come jumping out at me.

And you can't blame the vampire craze on Twilight since all of this happened in the 90's with the Anne Rice novels. It's just now with the internet people realize they are en masse.

I will point out that just because something isn't exceptionally written can still be enjoyable. Harry Potter for example. It has it's issues certainly, but it is still a fun coming of age adventure that captured the hearts and minds of a lot of people. Twilight isn't fun. Twilight is a chance for a generic girl to identify with a generic tale that basically sums up as a disney movie ala Cinderella. Seriously let's look at the two plots. Girl lives a life where she isn't pleased with her conditions. Girl finds man who is everything she isn't and from a different way of life. They fall in love without knowing anything about each other and are then abruptly torn apart. The boy then eventually realizes he must be with this girl and goes out to find her and marry her. The reason Twilight is more popular is that it aims its age target a little higher. It takes it to the PG-13 level and introduces teenage problems like Sex and the dream of Marriage(because obviously teenagers are stupid to get married but like to think of it anyways). So why does Cinderella work where Twilight doesn't? Because Cinderella's plights are real. She isn't worried about being uncool in school, the center of attention, or bored. She is, for all intents and purposes a slave. So the need to escape that life is a necessity. The story works further because of its time period. The story is from a pre-women's rights era. Therefore women didn't often have a lot of power to break from their own bondage. And that's not to say they weren't capable of the power, simply that they were systematically denied the rights and the chance to be equals. This is still true today, but it is much more subtle. You can also say similar things with Africans that were actually slaves. But we are here to talk about Twilight. But to complete the obvious parallels I need to point out that Vampirism is used as a metaphor for marriage/sex in the Twilight universe.


These books are clearly the signs of women in abusive relationships surrendering to gender expectations and being passive and incompetent. Meyer's work is doing more harm than good. She is glorifying being subservient and if I hadn't seen her speak I would assume she is just a pen name for some misogynist. Actually Meyer is a misogynist. She has no respect for women nor their ability to make rational decisions. Meyer offers up Bela three options. The first is the stalker that she stalks back. He is mysterious and abusive using phrases like "Get in the Car" and mysteriously being at the same place she is when she is in trouble. Meyer tries to distract you with the fact that He is stalking her by the fact that he saves her. The reality is that she doesn't show us most of the scenes where he is there just watching her and not saving her. And how creepy this is. More so, the one time she does we instead see Bela embrace him for doing so. Then in door number two we have her other would be protector, Jacob. Jacob and Bela's relationship is actually built up. We start by finding out that he is her childhood friend and he slowly becomes a good friend to her. Jacob's previously subtle attraction to Bela slowly grows more obvious to the audience(and possibly to Jacob too, but that' level of detail to a supporting character seems outside of Meyer's level of skill). Jacob is presented as the good guy. The safe bet. The non-dangerous one. That is until he becomes a werewolf. It is here that we begin to see that Bela is only attracted to bad boys because it isn't until this point that she ever truly considers embracing Jacob. And lastly there is the third option where she chooses neither of them. Oh wait, Meyer never presents this option. Meyer has the issue where she thinks that the character she set Bela out to be in love with is the character she should be in love with. It doesn't work out that way. In every way Meyer has set up Jacob to be the healthy relationship in her world and yet she ultimately treats him like dirt and makes him a pedophile. Meyer puts Bela through nothing but unhealthy relationships. Bela is constantly being treated like she has no personality and no ability to make decisions and thus they are always made for her by male figures in her life such as Her Father, Edward, Edwards "father", Jacob, and numerous others. Logically Bela would want to marry her creepy stalker right? Right? Okay so yeah, it doesn't make sense at all. Even in the context of the story it doesn't make any sense at all. Bela is trapped in a cycle of abuse and it is treated like a positive thing. Most of all, I feel bad for Meyer's husband. What must he be like if this is what Meyer thinks all relationships with men are like.

So here is where this all is a huge problem because this isn't the first novels to be like this. Harlequin novels do this all the time. So why is this a problem? It is because it IS so popular. By being a fan of this series you are saying you are a fan of abusive relationships and that's what you aspire to. You basically are telling everyone that you wish to NOT be in a healthy relationship. That you WANT guys to stalk you and treat you like dirt and be disrespectful. So long as they love you. Because that is what is happening in these books. It is the rationalization that it is okay to be in an abusive relationship because he loves you. Now I of course have been dodging the words Physically and Mentally in conjunction with abuse. That is because both are equally wrong. And they both leave scars. And because both are apt. All of the symptoms, all of the actions of an abusive relationship are the same. It is all a matter of where you are being hurt. And you wouldn't stay in a relationship like that would you? I hope not.

When I hear the phrase "I want an Edward" I cringe because it is like saying "I want a stalker that I can be in an abusive relationship with". Oh and the reason he sparkles is to make it even more obvious that he isn't a person, but a toy to be used. There is a phrase when it comes to a capitalistic society which is you pay with your wallet. So the more you pay to see and read these stories the more you tell the money counters, this works, we should make more of this. But it gets worse. You also tell the world this is what you believe. This is how you see things to be. It may not be true, but its what you desire and consider your idealistic view. And it is really bad. People wonder, "Why do crappy movies keep getting made and make money?" It is because you don't pay attention to critics and instead want to see it and then are surprised when it isn't good despite the critics telling you otherwise. The more you embrace popular items the more you try and homogenize what comes out in the future. This is because the moneycounters want to make more money and know that you will go see something that looks familiar than you are to try something new. You'll notice that until the movies came out, most of the books never got passed a second printing. Now they are at their umpteenth printing and the series is like a raging fire. However, the movies are their own beast. With each film, the story telling is getting better. They are getting better performances out of actors, better directing, they are paying attention to what needs to be cut and what deserves more attention. They know the source material sucks so they are making it better. Now that is not to say they are making good movies, but for example Eclipse is watchable and coherent. If your girlfriend takes you to it, it won't kill you. It is better than Last Airbender and last years Transformers 2. That isn't saying much, but it is something.


And before I give you my conclusion I just want to say that Bella as she is written is a thinly veiled allusion to Bela Lugosi, the original actor who portrayed Dracula in the original black and white movie Dracula.

I want to use Buffy the vampire slayer as an example of why Twilight is so bad. Buffy has a similar plot. Human girl falls in love with Vampire boy. But she eventually says something really important which is a cookie metaphor. she calls her self cookie dough, that she isn't ready to be done baking yet. And thus she needs to learn to be a person more before she can make a decision about who she should or shouldn't be with. Buffy shows Maturity to make rational, adult decisions. Something Bela like never could.


So, I want you to think about what you believe, what you want people to think of you when you give your support to that franchise. Is this really how you think of yourself? Is your self esteem really that low? Because I guarantee you that Freddy Kruger is better boyfriend material than Edward Cullen.


And then Buffy staked Edward the end.

He should have stayed in that ball of ice - a review of The Last Airbender

So quick summation of the movie's plot: The world is based of four elements and four nations(Fire, Earth, Water Air) and if you are a bender you can manipulate that element. There is this kid, named Ang(pronounced in this movie as Ong like in Ong Bak) and there is this prophecy about how this kid is the one kid in all of the nations that will balance the elements and use all four at once. So the kid freaks and runs away. He gets frozen in a block of ice and a hundred years pass. Captain America style, he is woken up from the ice by a Water Bender and her brother. The three then have to go on a quest to protect the world and stuff. And of course Ang never learned how to use the other elements so he now needs to do that so he can become the Avatar(the one who can bend all of the elements). This is actually a pretty good premise and is mired by its poor execution here. And as a note, I've never seen the show.


Main review:

Underwhelming. That is how I describe this movie. It is slow and every action sequence is dull. There is never any tension in this movie and I am never once under the belief that ANY character is in danger, be them friend or foe. Part of this makes sense. We have a team of goody-goodys fighting an evil empire. The goody-goodys should ever put their enemies in peril, just stop them. But the villains are never threatening. Other than something that happened in the past(that hundred year period) and even that could be chocked up to the previous Lord since he is obviously not 100+ years old. There is one time a character dies and it is a sacrifice but it isn't to hurt the bad guys or even protect the good guys. I won't spoil what it is, but its treated like a plot device and not an emotional moment. Worse is that the thing is used to stop isn't fully explored and instead just happens and then is gone. The one really cool moment and they breeze over it. And even worse is that this sacrifice isn't earned. There's no pathos to it, I never cared nor do I now care. There isn't a moment of mourning and the movie fails hard because of this. It is a result of characters that are wooden and flat.

I don't ever once in this movie believe the characters. I am always aware these are people being written because nothing they say sounds real. It sounds forced like they have to say this to get the plot to go where it needs to. And in some respects(so I'm told) the story is true to its origin(just condensed) but in many ways including numerous characters they've made huge changes. None of the characters show growth. They are, for the most part, exactly the same as they were when we first meet them. They don't learn lessons, they don't experience emotion or real hardships, things just happen and they are uninteresting when they do. These are characters that are one dimensional. And I am being generous with that description because with that because there is little to no development for these characters. They sort of have back stories, but the movie is in such a hurry to keep under its 95 minute run time that nothing can sit and happen. This was a quest movie. It needed to be two to three hours long. They needed to spend more time on action and needed to explain things and show more impact in the universe so that when a character bends and I am supposed to think this is really cool(so as to take the place of any actual action) I can buy into this lie that it is action and not just people staring.

Ultimately I wanted to go home and take a nap. And I fell asleep for about five minutes before my companion who was a fan of the show (but not this movie) woke me up because I was snoring. I kept hoping this film would pick up the pace and let the journey happen but it never did. It skipped over some obviously meaty portions. The movie is disjointed jumping from one episode to the next without showing the emotional impact of the adventure or letting it be obvious the wear the journey was having. I really wanted to care about the main character but the movie refused to let me, it felt like it was holding secrets back so that they could use them in the next movies but it is too much work and I don't care about him. None of the characters are treated well. The brother has a romance subplot for about ten minutes but it ends before you can embrace it. And that's his only subplot or character moment. The one main character who can't bend gets no development, shows no resentment for being so left out, no emotions at all. The movie falls apart because the only character with any back story and emotion is Prince (Danny) Zucko. Danny was exiled and now has to find the avatar to be able to be unexiled. Cool. They even have a flashback that explains his scaring and his exiling. This is awesome. The kid playing him over acts and chews scenery sometimes, but he is still the most developed character in the movie. There is a section in the middle after Ang is captured one of the times, and his actions seem to counteract his goals which is a pitfall of the movie because they never show the emotion for this to be believable. Lastly the girls in this movie are left under the heels of the men and this movie clearly doesn't know what to do with them other than bat eyelashes and run away. Its tasteless and despicable. Then there are the villians. They are all obviously mustache twirling I want to rule the world types and they are pretty stock and flat. There isn't reasoning behind their goals. There is never anything original about this movie except until we get the end and there is this really menecing little girl which was a nice moment, but an ending does not make a bad movie anything else. It is a clearly M Night type of ending. Even in Avatar. Logic and order do not exist in this world. Only pain and misery for the audience who have to sit through it so bored.

The effects in this movie are boring and uninspired. The water and fire often do look real but because of the manipulation going on it is obvious that they are CGI. They do their best, but it isn't enough to make me believe. This would be Avatar is not James Cameron's Avatar's special effects. The worst bit is the 3-D is dull and devoid of life. In fact, in quite a few scenes I took the glasses off because they didn't do anything. The film wanted to something more but the effects don't serve a purpose when it comes to the 3-D. And lastly M. Night's role in this movie. He directed, written and produced. And he tells you this twice. At the end His name is the one there. it is to remind you who to blame. He wrote this. The dialogue his stilted dialogue. In previous movies he could mask bad dialogue with great actors. And even then it came out strange, but better than nothing. His directing isn't terrible, but his structuring is. This movie doesn't even have The Happening's level of absurdity where I could rationalize it as intentional B-movie status. This film is just poor.

Overall this film is pretty underwhelming experience. I couldn't recommend it to anyone. That said it isn't a total failure. Certain characters like The Prince and his Uncle who is more of a father to him than his father are both interesting. some of the effects are cool and enjoyable. some of the pacing is just right. But in the context of the hour and a half length everything feels like filler. And again, the outline of the plot was strong. The film feels rushed and like it is a failed translation from one medium to another. and I kept thing "Man, this would make a great TV show."

Overall grade: D-

Letting Go of the Past and moving to the future - a Toy Story 3 reveiw

WARNING SPOILERS
WARNING
WARNING


Okay, with the warning out of the way. Let us start with the easy bit. What did I think? I loved it. but I recently talked to someone who didn't and it got me to thinking how do I explain, qualify my experience.

What works: The characterization. Woody has a fairly simple character arc. But it is done and explained simple enough for kids to understand, and complex enough that adults will look and find it genuine and believable. There is then the Jesse and Buzz Lightyear who have an interwoven storyarc. They have a very subtle love story and it works well for what takes place. The more overt story is that Buzz is brainwashed about halfway(maybe sooner) and in a very mechanical means. This is solved just as mechanically but with comedical side effects. Buzz takes some emotional turns and it is quite effective. This is one of the weak points where Jesse doesn't get a strong story arc here. Her's is much more downplayed which is strange because it isn't even as if this movie is being misogynistic. I point next to Ken and Barbie's story which is quite fun. It takes two very different characters who are surfacely shallow but as you get closer you see that both have secret undersides and aren't as shallow as they first appear. Barbie in particular is played as a strong willed female type. Lots-o-Hug Bear and the Baby also get developed as new characters and emotionally gripping backstories.

Next up is theme. This movies biggest theme is letting go and moving onto to new things. But it says it in a way that kids and adults can both understand and enjoy the message. It pitches that new areas of life are both scary and wondrous and that as you move on you don't have to forget about the past. It is filled with hope and treats change as a new adventure to learn but that ultimately it isn't as scary as they might be. And this is a lesson that both the toys and Andy will learn.

The voice acting work is fantastic here. All of the actors really show some depth, and even cameos like Timothy Dalton managed to show off their skills here.

This is of course a Pixar movie, and so writing, directing, and visuals are all top notch. There is some paticularly amazing work visually in the opening sequence and the short film that preceeds our story.

Without a doubt this film is strong, perhaps the strongest of the year(but that remains to be seen). I would like the world to enjoy this film.

It's not just the letter of the team, its the grade too - A review of A-Team 2010

Knockdown dragout that reminds us why movies like Diehard are classics.
I would consider this nowhere near as good as Diehard of course, but it does fall into the same category of great Action/Comedy. The movie is Funny and Actiony. Skip some of the more recent action movies, like Knight and Day and watch A-Team, it is worth your time.

The movie starts with Liam Neeson proving that he is really a bad ass. The movie proceeds to continue and instead of leaving it there, it slowly introduces us to the formation of the team AND gives us one of the most interesting action segments of the movie. They show us Hannibal(Liam's character), B.A., Face, and Murdock. Having never seen the television series on which it is based, I felt that I was sufficiently introduces to these characters in the first 10 minutes than I was to any of the characters in a number of recent releases. There are some very Qui Gon Jinn moments for Hannibal but ultimately his character is almost posed as the main character being the first character we are introduced to and being the team leader. You then have B.A. who is shown to be a former thug but wants to reform from his old lifestyle. They then collide and are both shown to be Army Rangers. This is a recurring plot point in this intro that brings them together. They go off to rescue Face who has gotten himself caught during an espionage mission gone awry because of his standard of wooing women everywhere. Lastly after rescuing Face, we meet Murdock, the ace pilot. He acts quite crazy and has the weakest of the introductions until you get him in a helicopter and right after you see him pull a move off that has the audience ask themselves "Can you do that with a helicopter?" you hear him proclaim "did you see that? I didn't even know I could do that." and it is at this point you start to see how this team is pulling together.

That's roughly the first five minutes. A big long action sequence. But the movie tells you what you are watching and this allows you to prepare for it. It never pretends to be something it is not, and on occasion will prove itself smarter than you. The main plot deals with the intro of the series(They were betrayed for a crime they didn't commit) and the plot sounds similar to the plot of the losers. But nevermind that since I don't usually talk about plot. The additional action sequences aren't nearly as thrilling as the first, but they do keep you entertained, and the finale is quite fun. If ever there was a problem with them it is that they don't throw you nearly enough curve balls. There is one paticular action sequence where you get to hear the line "They are trying to Fly the tank." and it doesn't come across as corny. That's impressive.

this movie has one major flaw, and that is that I am expected to take Jessica Biel seriously throughout. She has very little acting ability and while it isn't necessary in a film like this to have a lot, enough to convince me you are the role is required. She never does. And for that movie, you fail. More so in a 30 second encounter between Face and some random French reporter, you get a more believable and consistent relationship than you do between Face and Biel in the entire movie. There is also a problem where they have an emotional court scene and a funeral intercut and the editing removes the impact of both.

In the middle of good and bad you have Patrick Wilson(Niteowl in Watchmen) who plays his role deliciously chewing up the scenery. He is of course chewing the scenery so there is some bad, but it is entertaining enough to be consider a good part of the movie.

The movie devotes a large amount of its running time to setting things up and having them work out just right, or if not JUST right, a little to the left. In fact, a large problem the movie has is that everything often feels like it works a little too well and isn't nearly spontaneous enough. But it does feel like it is doing a good job updating the story of these characters(as I have been educated by wikipedia about) for the year 2010.
All in all, I think the film does a great job of being an enjoyable film experience and will polarize people far less than most other adaptations.
That and you get an awesome TKO from B.A. towards the end that is quite the enjoyable cinematic experience.
Overall, if I had to rate this movie, I'd give it an A-.

This movie is as bad as its titles pun - Knight And Day

Knight. And. Day. Knight and Day. KnightandDay. Seriously. Seriously? Seriously.
Studio, who thought this was a good idea? What person went Oh! we should change the title and a (so I'm told) great script into a meh script and a terrible title. The films original title was Wichita, an early locale of the film.

Okay so onto the movie itself. Let us start with what works shall we? Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise Tom Cruise. He is brilliant in this. This is partially the script, but the stuff that is clearly Cruise is good. It works. It's Tom on his way to a new point in his career.

So this movie is simple, its Tom Cruise playing Ethan Hunt, but crazy,except not. Or is he?! No he's not. the movie spends maybe five minutes trying to convince you this might be the case and then people start shooting at him and your like oh, he's not just a crazy guy going on the grid. Later you find out the film is Ethan Hunt is trying to protect this kid and this battery he made(yep, you read that right), but really the plot is Ethan Hunt and Cameron Diaz jet setting, he occasionally drugs her and changes her clothes while such in what might have been almost implied rape. The film works best when it doesn't take itself seriously, which is why it falls apart in the third act. and the second half of the first act. and some of the action sequences. You see there are really funny and smart lines like when Tom is taking Cameron out of a restaurant and trying to get anyone hurt so he holds her hostage. Yeah I know, convolution is the name of the game here. But just as he leaves he says something to the effect of "No body move, or I shoot myself then her!". And it is this hilarious moment. There is almost a moment in that same scene involving Riley Finn(or whatever the actor who played him on Buffy's name is) giving a thumbs up that is Awesome. Now onto why this movie fails horribly. It is clearly a Tom Cruise vehicle. The movie should have been about him. But it isn't. It is about Cameron Diaz's whiny character. She is a stupid blonde who we are supposed to believe builds cars(Ha!) from the opening sequence where she brings car parts in her carry on(yeah we totally believe you can bring large pieces of metal in a suitcase that big as a carry-on. Totally.) but it never does anything to make us BELIEVE this to be true. We see Cameron Diaz being this Damsel and then about 3/4 the way through the movie is like and now she thinks shes a bad ass(emphasis on thinks and the movie makes fun of her for it). But it all falls flat. And it doesn't ring true for the character and the change is so abrupt that he don't see the change. The next issue is that in the aforementioned drugging, often it is done durring what would have been the cool part of the action sequences but the writer couldn't think of anyway to keep the scenes going so he just ended them. Which is good, but instead of ending the scenes, he cuts you out of them with a deus Ex Machina. This should have been an amazing action/comedy. But because it skips the action scenes, it can't be an action movie. Because only half of the comedy works it doesn't stand up as a comedy. Because it isn't a romance movie and all the romance scenes seem more forced than Anakin and Padme, it doesn't work. This movie does not know what it wants to be and instead falls apart. There are some good things going on in it, and if you want to see Tom Cruise being awesome check it out.
But ultimately the point is that the film has a terrible ending(except one moment where you can see that there WAS something smart to this at some point.) The movie is polarizing. Trying to be action/comedy/romance. But at the same time trying to be a parody. SO I can't in good conscious give this movie more than a C+.

Oh and you may be wondering why I keep repeating things three times. Well it is because in film there is a rule of three for information. You hint, you show, you explain. This film just hits you with the same crappy jokes three times. And the joke wasn't even funny to begin with.

Ranking the Mosnters of Monsterpocalypse Intro

Here are the Destroyers:



T1:
Ultra Xaxor
Mega Mantacon
Ultra Mantacon
T2:
Mega Vorgax
ultra Gorghadra
Mega Gorghadra
Mega Mucustos
T3:
Ultra Mucustos
Ultra Vorgax
Ultra Rogzor

T4:
Mega Xaxor
Mega Rogzor
Ultra Zorog
Mega Zorog


Not included at the time of post "BiJ"

How a Destroyer player chooses his force - a monsterpocalypse article

How a Destroyer player chooses his force - a monsterpocalypse article


This article may feel redundant for some of you. For others of you it will blow your mind at how simple this is to do.


First off, Pick your monster. I am going to show to separate line ups using similar(in my mind) styles of play.**

Xaxor/Ultra Xaxor and Mantacon/Mega Mantacon


Let us start with what my choice of units would be for each and then I will explain why and how to go about choosing the units.

Mantacon:

Chomper x3
Explodohawk x3
Destructomite x3
Crawler x2
Spy Fly x4



Xaxor:

Explodohawk x4
Explodhawk Shadow x1***
Destructomite x3
Crawler x3
Explodmite x3

As you can see, the two lists focus on similar themes, now lets explain what went into these numbers.

Mantacon: the Whys...
With Mega Mantacon, I always, Always, always want to include chompers. They are your easy access to play mistake heaven. now this can be either poor positioning, poor dice rolls, or anything but if they are siting next to a chomper, you move next to the chomper with lighting attack and feeding frenzy do 4 points of damage(and then run away with Hit and Run). Also chompers grant energy cycle which allows you to conserve dice, which in the mega form is needed since you'll be using A-dice to snacrafice*.

The spy flys are of course there because with swarm, even shooty-less swarm, they are the cheapest way to secure a power base. My motto with mantacon is dice conservation. Taking repeated monster turns is the name of the game here.

The remaining units are support. Explodohawks are the universal cheese machine. With a better brawl stat than some monsters, Explodohawks are fantastic at scaring your opponent into thinking twice about moving near one without killing it. They are an easy diversion.

Crawlers and destructomites serve the same purpose. They are their to drop your opponents defense down as low as you can get it. While an obvious strategy for any monster, with lightning attack and dice conservation you are looking at reducing the number of dice you need to throw on turn one, to perform the combo again on turn two.

The synergy here is to get Mantacon to do maximum damage each turn. If necessary use explodohawks for damage.



Xaxor:

This should be pretty obvious if you read the article last week.
Explodohawks are for doing damage. Charge gives them an extra boost dice. therefore the plan is to charge and hit the enemy monster whenever possible.

This also synergizes with Xaxor who is a ranged/power fighter.
Xaxor doesn't have access to the free movement from the Spy fly so using it becomes less optimal.
Xaxor then uses crawlers and Destructomites to secure buildings to build up power, and weaken anyone who dares try to get close. Secondary, is that you can then try and set it up so that you throw your opponent near your power base once it is no longer optimal to gain p-die, and thus giving you a late game home field advantage.
The explodomites use a combination of the two strategies. They work to build the power base, but also threaten(in a team capacity) to hit the enemy monster that gets too close.


So the idea behind building a good force is synergy. I locate key abilities that I feel are best supported by units. So on Xaxor I pinpointed the blue charge ability and used that to my advantage. With mantacon I focused on Lightning Attack. The idea, I find, is that if you pick an Alpha/Hyper form pair that synergizes, you are more likely to synergize with your units.
And with so many abilities that monsters gain or lose when changing hyper forms, you need to focus on the abilities that remain constant when you are building a list.
overall I say this should be your goal. When building a unit force, they need to emphasize your monsters specialties. The unit, and the alpha, and the hyper should all synergize together.


Building choices are harder. Often this will come down to what works best with what you have access to. My building suggestions are going to be slightly less.

First off, since you are a destroyer, you will often want to destroy buildings. Therefore their abilities are less important. There are however a few key abilities to focus in on and make sure to have access to.


Superstructure- gives extra power die for destroyers destroying it.

Insurance: gaining extra power dice for the destruction of buildings is a great advantage.

Spire/blazing inferno/chemical spill: You deal extra damage.

The Imperial State building. This is a high defense, 3 P-die power up building. And it catches fire.

High Occupancy: Avoid fielding buildings with this ability because the number of nature monsters is on the rise, and Destroyers have none.

Shuffle: this is THE ability that can make or break a second turn of unit/monster because of the extra die.

*a term coined by a fellow player who seems focused on food and sheep puns, I.E. Bleep Back on a giant Sheep monster.
**note, If their is clamor for it, I shall also post on the other 16(1 ultra and hyper for each of the 9 monsters).
*** The one random extra ShadowHawk is for when you need to lure an opponent closer to a certain spot on the map, lest he take damage.

The 'Hawk Rush - a monsterpocalypse strategy

Destroyer Strategy...


The 'Hawk Rush

This one is fairly straight forward and relies on your monster having an alternate way to gain power dice. For the purposes of this topic I am going to focus on the currently released monsters(so no BiJ).
The basic idea is to not secure a powerbase and instead focus on using explodohawks to attack the enemy monster.



Vorgax: While I disagree with using this strategy with the morpher, but for that quick jab, you can set up your morphers to help set up a first turn power base.
I am not going to talk about them though because my morpher strategies are completely different.


Xaxor: This is what I am talking about, specifically that he has super stomp. Quick easy way to gain some power dice.

Manatcon: No easy way other than punching buildings to gain P-Dice. Thus, despite being my favorite destroyer, I will not use him in this discussion.

Rogzor: Disintegrate lets him do the same thing as mantacon, but for the same reason I won't talk about them individually, but instead at the end of the article I will talk about that idea.


Mucustos: Just punches buildings.

Zorog: Same.

Gorghadra: Super Rampage. Huzzah! the time of British oppression is over!


To summarize I will be talking about Gorghadra and Xaxor.


The Strategy: the way this plan works is to be using your unit turn to send explodohawks at your opponents monster.
The best plan is that turn one, spawn and move 5 hawks. Then on your second unit turn, respawn any explodohawks that were destroyed, move any towards the monster, and use remaining dice to spawn support units I.E. Crawlers, Destructomite, Chompers, Spy Fly(if you are a Swarm),Razor Beetle.

What you do if you have a 'hawk in range is send that hawk straight at their monster and use six A-die. Use six A-dice. Six. Six Six Six. The number of the beast. Six. Why? Even if you have their defense at 4 you could still be looking at average rolls(.5 + .5 + .5 + .5+ .5 +.5 + .67 + .67 +.67+(,67 if you are play Xaxor)**.
You then use the remaining three A-die anyway you can. You really should use them because with this strategy unless you really have a good idea for dealing that second turn of damage, you should take a monster turn instead of a second unit turn.

The monster portion: Turn one, gain P-dice via alternative means. Turn 2: deal ranged damage. Turn 3: Deal super damage.

Back up unit plan: this is for those pesky 7 defense monsters. If you can't do consistently average rolls to hit their defense which average is likely to be around 4-5 strikes, I suggest wrecking their power base. Aim for the buildings they build up. Hit their power nodes. and worse case scenario, just sit a unit next to their base on your unit turn before their monster turn.


Monster specifics: This strategy works best with Xaxor because of Charge, low hyper cost for easy flexing and the awesome 5/7, 7/5 health defense switch.

Why I disagree with monsters that can just punch a building with this plan? Because they can at most gain 5 P-Die from it. A good super stomp should net you 6-10 P-die. A good Super rampage, 6-10.
That is why.

Overall:

You may find it strange that this plan focuses mainly on unit damage, this is because monsters can reliably do damage. They have access to power dice, they have abilities that grant extra damage, ect. ect.. What you really need to do is get those extra bumps so that assuming you are evenly matched with your opponent, you are getting that small extra 1 damage to take a lead.
I say this because most games I have played(sans one or two players) and most games I have seen, players tend to be evenly matched.

Also, a lot of these strategies are fairly basic and apply for many scenarios. You would be surprised how different two areas can be. I traveled 100 miles within the same state and found in one area power base denial was a completely casual strategy, and in the other it was unheard of and won me many a early tournaments.




If you enjoyed this article, have other opinions, or want to yell at me and say this will never work(it does as I will often use this tactic when playing as Xaxor) let me know!.

hopefully next week I will have a different tactica for the masses.

**An A-die has a .5 chance of failure, and a B-die has a .33333333333--- chance of failure.

Been awhile...

Okay so technically ...its been like 6 months for me since I've updated.
I just wasn't in the mood to review or comment on anything, And I haven't really had the time either. In the interim I have written 5 short stories, 1.5 plays(by the end of the day it'll be 2 full plays of 75ish plays) and I've played a lot of miniatures.

Now Being this geekcore, I'm going to find myself heading back to my geeky roots and also hold up this blog some more.

First off, my rule of no personal BS will continue. That can all be found on my facebook and twitter and Gmail statuses.
Instead part of what will go here is my new Mini's stuff. I'm working on some 40k conversions(in theory), very slowly building and painting a Retribution army, and will soon be getting some new Monpoc figures.
What does this mean for you?
Well barring me not having any days off this coming future(doubtful), I am going to be posting comments and pictures of a lot of this stuff.




Oh and thats nids for 40k...

The top 11 songs of My Time

Top 11 songs...Of my time...


11. Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World
10.By my side by 3 Doors Down
9.Everlong by Foo fighters
8.Mad World by Gary Jules
7.The Unforgiven by Metalica
6.For Those About to Rock, (We Salute you) by ac/dc
5.Sympathy for the Devil by Rolling stones
4. Everything by Lifehouse
4. Tyrant by one republic(tie)
3.Duel of Fates by John Williams
2.Bittersweet by Apocolyptica
1. Polaris by Jimmy Eat World

its 2010...

and Updates and stuff will come, eventually.
Everything I had previously planned, forget it.
I will hopefully get something in here in march,
but not to leave anyone that reads this with a sign, oh i'm a dumb ass feeling.
I am here to tell you Read Fables. It is an amazing series by Bill Willingham and it will knock your socks off. Also the first trade is like 10 bucks and it alone is worth that price, but trust me. Read the first volume. You will likely find yourself soon reading the entire series, and for good reason.

Oh and sometime hopefully this weekend, I'll get the SmackJeeves page updated and there will be the entire first 22 pages of the comic put up. I don't know when I'll write and craft most of chapter two(I have some of it done) but it'll happen. And if I get good ideas, chapters 3,4,5,6 will also be made.



-Max

The top 11 tv shows that Dawned in the last decade

The top 11 tv shows that dawned in the last decade

Honorable(but not qualifying)Mention: Doctor Who(2005), technicly this is a continuation of the old series and therefore is very very old.

11. Dead Like Me
10.Torchwood
9.Dexter
8.Dollhouse
7.Supernatural
6. (Buffy the VAmpire slayer) The O.C.
Okay so Buffy would go here(pushing all of the above up a rank each, but it started in 1997 not in the new millennium and thus does not qualify. Barely.
5. Gilmore Girls
4.Angel
EDIT: It was pointed out that this show was released in 1999 not 2000, and therefore ineligible. So this spot is now for number 11, with everything else going up a rank, and the show is Jericho
3. Wonderfalls
2. Firefly
1. Pushing Daisies (Tear)

Other top ranks include
Battlestar Galactica
How I met your Mother
Chuck
Reaper
Lost
Prison Break
House
Arrested Development

The Boringist week of the year:2009

So because the last week of the year(christmas to new years day) is the slowest for most folks I'm going to set up my own mini film festival.
Every film shall be already released, with a few opitional Theatrical Releases. Your goal should be a film a day with at least two on New years eve and total of 9.
My personal list is more ambitious, I'm watching something like 17 movies.


V for Vendetta
The Departed
Up
Sunshine Cleaning
Corpse Bride
Terminator Salvation
The Fall
The Orphanage
2001 a space Odysey
Gladiator
District 9
Dirty Harry
Magnum Force
The Enforcer
Sudden impact
The Dead Pool


Optional Theatrical Films:
Sherlock Holmes
Up in the air

Top 11 modern D.C. Superheroes

Top 11 modern D.C. Superheroes
Same rules as the marvel, including having a list for villains.




11. Indigo 1
10.Blue Lantern Brother Warth
8.(tie)Flamebird(Thara)
8. (tie)Nightwing(Chris Kent)
7. Booster Gold
6. The Question(Renee Montoya)
5. Green Arrow
3.(tie) Batman(Dick Greyson)
3.(tie) Robin (Damien Wayne)
2. Green Lantern(Hal Jordan)
1. Batwoman

Update(or lack there of)

Okay so I just missed last sat. No biggie. Comic is the next post I'm doing and then I'm programing the rest of the month.
Reviews should resume in January. I should have a handful of things to at least talk about, if not review.
Friday night(Saturday morning) I'll have a review for Avatar. Saturday I'll have a review for whatever movie I see then. And then the week of New Years I shall have something for Sherlock Holmes.

Dollhouse has been canceled.

But I'm trying to save it.
If you haven't already, join the Facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=199365313412&ref=search&sid=299000555.3833548488..1

Beyond that I'll keep you updated as per plan.

Top 11 modern Marvel superheroes(based upon their current Marvel titles)

Top 11 modern Marvel superheroes(based upon their current Marvel titles)


So in a way this is my top 11 Marvel books on shelves but it kind of is not.
This top 11 will have a mate for villains.

11. Old Man Logan

10. Daredevil

9. Luke Cage

8.DeadPool(Wade Wilson)

7. Black Bolt

6. Nova Prime(Richard Rider)

5. Captain America(II)(Bucky Barnes)

4. Tony Stark

2. James Madrox / Layla Miller

1. Ultimate spider-man(peter Parker)

An explanation

So first off, I just traveled backwards in time...
So I'm going to be using Novemeber as a bit of catch up, periodically(as I stated earlier) I will be revisted these 11ish reviews and filling them in this month at my leisure. You won't see the full 30 Days of Night(two part) review until thanksgiving, I'll write the review when I'm home for the weekend(I don't own a copy of the movie anymore so I have not been able to review that. Likely though, a few such as Godfather on the list of backups will be very short, and the Serenity review may never appear. That is contingent upon real life circumstances where I am showing a friend of mine the series and we actually finish the series and watch the movie.

Hopefully, tomorrow night I'll be able to get a few reviews out of the way and have some lined up for you guys during the week.
So here's a few things I hope to be able to write reviews for during November...
Tru Calling the complete series dvd: I just bought this off amazon for really cheap, and I might even hang on to it as a gift for christmas, but should I fail to hold back I will be watching it and getting through that series giving you guys a look at the box set.

Persepolis

The Filth

EDIT: Something I forgot to mention, you may not see updates consistently. Not that you have in the past but other than what I've said in this update and the one from a week ago, there is a chance I won't be able to write up anything else of paticular worth unless the day comes up.
But look to see hopefully at least one thing a week.