Hole in the 4th Wall

I’m a big fan of comic books, and I do enjoy the movie portrayals (usually).

So, let’s look at the new Thor movie.

Story wise, I think that this original story was not a bad story, in fact it was intriguing. Not to give too much away, but still- WARNING SPOILERS(ish)
Thousands of years ago, a race of beings known as Dark Elves tried to send the universe into darkness by using a weapon known as the Aether. But warriors from Asgard stop them but their leader Malekith escapes to wait for another opportunity. The warriors find the Aether and since it can’t be destroyed, they try to hide it. In the present day, Jane Foster awaits the return of Thor but it’s been two years. He’s trying to bring peace to the nine realms. Jane discovers an anomaly similar to the one that brought Thor to Earth. She goes to investigate and finds a wormhole and is sucked into it. Thor wishes to return to Earth but his father, Odin refuses to let him. Thor learns from Heimdall, the one who can see into all of the realms that Jane disappeared. Thor then returns to Earth just as Jane returns. But when some policemen try to arrest her, some kind of energy repulses them. Thor then brings her to Asgard to find out what happened to her.

The characters were well portrayed and some unexpected cameos were enjoyable to see. I think the acting was well done and portrayals were casted well. The actors playing Thor and Loki were both really good, and their dynamic between each other plays really we off each other. They act like they are actually brothers.

And with all Marvel movies nowadays, there IS an aftercredit scene that leads into other movies. All I can say is that Marvel hasn’t let me down yet in terms of movie expectations (even Iron Man 3, although I wasn’t expecting much anymore…), and only time will tell if  these lead ups will pay off for Marvel when it comes to Avengers 4 or something, whenever that will be.

This movie is one of those movies where you want to know what happens at the end, but you kind of do not want to sit to the whole thing. This movie is not bad, just long. And that is one of my only complaint, it’s just to long and the science of the movie was here or there and never consistent.

Here’s the thing, if I want to sit at a movie, I want to be lost and mesmerized by its story. That usually leads to a loss in time. When one becomes fully enveloped in a movie and becomes invested in  its characters, you do not wonder “Gee this movie’s pretty long.” But I found myself thinking that every 15 minutes. It wasn’t the story that was engrossing, I personally found myself enjoying the concept of drifting aimlessly through space as a thriller, I do not think this type of movie has been done before. But I couldn’t get into the characters. It wasn’t their acting, I think Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are both wonderful actors, I just cannot get into the characters for some reason, and perhaps the reason for that is the second reason I do not like this movie.

The science is here or there. There are scenes where the science was realistic. But there were scenes where Bullock’s character was floating, but her hair was not. WHAT?
HOW CAN YOU CALL A MOVIE GRAVITY IF YOU DO NOT PORTRAY IT CORRECTLY? IT’S LIKE HAVING A PINK PANTHER MOVIE WITH OUT THE PINK PANTHER…OH WAIT THATS WHAT THEY DID!
This bothers me because I grew up a child known for his logic, and math and science skills, and as such, seeing something that obvious bothers me to no end.
I can understand when people tell me to suspend disbelief for something like that, but I mean come on, what you’re misportraying ( I cannot say lack of, because there is supposed to be a lack of) is in the title of the movie. I just cannot get over the fact that there is gravity where there should not be any.

Overall, I think this IS one movie you should see ( probably once because it is too long to sit for a second time). I think the actors were decent and the story is something I haven’t seen before and if you’re not a stickler for science as I am, then I think you will enjoy this movie.

Well… here we go again…

I have many problems with bad dubbing for shows brought to the US from Japan. BUT that is not the point. Today I going to talk about the American version of first Pokémon movie, entitled Pokémon…the First Movie… How presumptuous the franchise was already to just assume that they’ll have sequels. And who can blame them, back in 1999, no one could go anywhere without hear about these creatures. Now don’t get me wrong, this is one of my guilty  pleasures, I love the franchise, I just do not like the English dub of the animated show or movies.

So anyway, the movie is just an American dub over of the Japanese film Pocket Monsters (that’s the  Japanese name for the series): Mewtwo’s Counter Attack. The story is that the evil Team Rocket created a creature called Mewtwo and when it realized it was being used as a tool, it escaped and vowed revenge on all humans. And thats where the similarities end between the  two films.

The rest of the American version is full of (current to that time period’s) pop culture references and jokes. None of which are funny or make sense in the continuity, for example there was a reference to the the Minnesota Vikings- THERE’S NO MINNESOTA IN POKÉMON! The references do not add anything to the movie and does not make the movie “cool” or  “modern”.  In fact, they make the movie sound outdated and make the film sound like that the writers were to lazy make dialogue. The original have no references to anything and had a flowing dialogue and storyline throughout. The film then continues using the animation but botches up everything the original film stood for.

In the original film, the climax is resolved when both sides that pointless fighting is a bad thing, that it does not matter who is more powerful, that the clones and originals both have value, and that the circumstances of one’s birth is irrelevant: it is what one does with life that determines one’s destiny. In the dub, it was distilled to “Fighting is bad.” Really?
IN A FRANCHISE WHERE CREATURES THAT READILY BLOW FIRE AND ELECTRICITY AT EACH OTHER AS A SPORT, FIGHTING IS BAD? WHAT TYPE OF LOGIC IS THAT?  Never mind the fact that there should be a suspension of disbelief for the series but, did the American branch thought their children audience are that dumb that  they had to dilute the message of the film that much? There IS a difference between simplifying a message to a younger audience and the treating them like they need everything explained to them. I never got why children’s movie makers thought it was necessary to  talk down to their audience. Many children can handle and start developing connections and ideas about things like destiny and choice, and most would know fighting is usually wrong, so I do not understand what is with the talking down and the overly simple moral.

Both movies end the fighting with the protagonist, gets turned to stone somehow. Both version don’t explain how or how that the tears of the creatures bring him back to life that well either.

So this movie, is without a doubt, some of the worst in voice acting, dubbing, and writing I have seen to this day. If you really want to see this, I highly recommend the Japanese one with English subtitles. The English one will have you cringing from the references and bad jokes. It was just bad and the company did nothing to fix it in the shows or the other movies. So if you’re ever in the mood to relive your childhood, watch Pokémon, just don’t watch the english version.

Les Misérables has been everything from a book to a fighting game. So why not have a movie?

I…have mixed feelings for this movie. This 158 minutes film is based on the musical by the same name, which was based on a book by the same name. So this raises one of my concerns about this movie- how long is too long. If you think about it, a book is able to be as long as they want. A play usually is about 2 hours with 1-2 interruptions. A movie usually is about 1-2 hours without any interruptions. So can a media transition FROM a media transition work?

Well…I don’t know. I mean, a lot of the acting here is well done. Russell Crowe is being…well, Russell Crowe.  Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman I felt did a good job in their roles. The songs, well I have mixed feelings about. Some songs are well done, but by hour 2, I just got bored. Others were just out of place, for example, there a scene where Hugh Jackman must whisper to avoid being caught and then they start singing…WHAT?
Another thing that I felt weird was why they had to be super close up to the singers face. WHY?

These things I just mentioned are more nitpicks than anything to me, mainly because I really didn’t care for the material. But as a movie, it’s not that bad. So, My bottom line is…well, I’m in the middle on this movie. While a good movie by my standards, it’s 3 hours long! I got bored on my viewing for this review. I liked it when I first saw it but I couldn’t sit through it a second time. I’m really on the fence about this…see it for yourself and decide. I guess if you liked the source materials, go see it at least once. Yes, this movie has its problems, but it also does somethings right.

Well, as a new season of The Legend of Korra, the sequel to the hit animated show Avatar: The Last Airbender, started. I felt that it would be appropriate to start off this blog with my thoughts on the live action adaptation of the original series that most fans REFUSE to acknowledge its existence.

I will NOT get into the plot of this movie because if you wanted a summary of it, you can read the summary of the original series on Wikipedia, or better yet, you can watch the first season of Avatar to get the full story. Instead, I will be discussing why I feel this movie fails as an adaptation and as stand alone movie.

Before I begin, I must stress these are my own opinions. If you disagree, that is your choice.
Where the movie fails for me are two things: the action and the sequencing of the movie.Let’s start with the sequencing. There is a lot of things from the approximately 20 episode season that they cut out, they can also dedicate some time or even an episode or two to backstory. Now, to be fair that is reasonable, you cannot have every detail from the original in an adaptation, otherwise what would be the point. But, the what gets cut out and what gets left in has to make sense. And because of what they left in, a lot has to be explained. There is too much exposition in this film, leading things that should’ve happen earlier to happen way to late. For example, the brother and sister, Sokka and Katara, ask Aang, the protagonist, for his name twenty minutes into the film, instead of when they first met him. Another example is when Aang enters a temple room filled with statues with his past lives, but instead of letting the scene speak for itself, and let Aang realize the weight of his duties as Avatar and what he truly is, the actor just explains and explains and explains. I do not think I ever heard a character say or emote somehow how they feel or what they are thinking. It was all just backstory. So when something bad happens, am I supposed to feel bad for characters I could not connect with?

The other problem I had was the action sequences. We are in an age where with anything is can be cgi’d, why does it take six people to move a middle size rock when one person in the cartoon can move mountains? What happened to all the creativity? One small movement can bend an element in the cartoon but in this movie it took like a whole scroll of martial arts techniques to movie a drop of water or an ember. Because of this the action sequences suffered and were drawn out. If the movie were true to the opening of the movie, then this wouldn’t be a problem.

The were many other problems such as pacing and characterization, but I do not think I am qualified enough to discuss that yet (and this review would go on forever).

So Peter’s bottem line: DO NOT WATCH- if you want to enjoy the Avatar franchise, watch the original cartoon. Because there is nothing this movie can do to affect the enjoyment of the original, it was a rare anomaly of perfect music, comedy and action. So enjoy your cartoon and enjoy hating this movie.