I Love The Smell Of Humor In The Morning

I went into this movie thinking it would be racist and offensive, and yes, it was. The movie has sparked controversy over the use of the word “retard” and of course, Robert Downey Jr. playing a stereotypical African-American. The movie was offensive and slightly racist, but it had a point.

This movie was mocking Hollywood. The trailers at the beginning were an indicator of how the movie would satirize every genre of movie and every type of actor. The film covers directors and corporate backers, and even talent agents by tacking on Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey’s characters awkwardly into the plot.

The use of offensive terms and stereotypes was meant to show how Hollywood uses those elements un-artistically all the time. Ben Stiller poked fun at the very industry he works for, and you might find that circular logic troublesome, but this movie is a sort of reality check to show America how dumb and pointless entertainment actually is in our country today.

Plus the scene after the credits when Nick Fury showed up and invited Ben Stiller to join the Avengers was great, too.

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I made a promise I couldn’t keep. Covering Comic-Con by oneself is impossible. The convention center took days to explore, and each panel had a line so long, you would have had to be there an hour before hand to ensure attendance. I thought I’d have free time, but at night when I thought I’d post, I was occupied by parties.

As far as the Con went, I have mixed feelings. As a comic fan, everyone and everything you’d want to see would be there, and lines in teh comic book area wouldn’t be too horrible. But, the movie and TV and video game and toy stuff really stole comics’ limelight, and filled the con with tourists and kids who admittedly didn’t read. Harold & Kumar were there, for example, and their booth put Marvel’s to shame. But once I stayed out of the entertainment section and kept to the comics area, I had a good time meeting with publishers and creators.

The parties were by far the best part of the Con because I could meet and talk to people one on one. You’d turn around and Joss Whedon or Bruce Campbell would be chilling. I met Mark Waid, Stephen Baldwin, Bill Willingham, the heads of DC and Marvel, Keith Giffen, and Grant Morrison at these parties, and as a professional and a fan boy I had a great time just talking to people.

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courtesy Warner Bros.

Those of you who went to see The Dark Knight this weekend saw the trailer for the highly-anticipated movie adaptation to Alan Moore’s Watchmen, the first comic book ever collected in trade paperback.

The trailer looks awesome, and I’m looking forward to this movie, even though Alan Moore doesn’t approve. The comic is about an allegorical set of super heroes now in retirement. It’s the 1980s and the height of the Cold War. The comic is a tome, 12 issues, but well worth the read. The storyline is brilliant, but filled with all sorts of homage and allusions to comics. In fact, the world of Watchmen is a reflection of DC’s history, and acts as a massive love letter to comics fans. The movie will most likely remove a lot of these nuances to make the film more appealing to a wider audience.

All in all, this will most likely be a box office hit. Comic fans have known about Watchmen for years, and hopefully hype up to the film’s release will send people to bookstores to see what it’s about.

People are lining up, even after Friday, to see the second title in the new franchise of Batman movies. Dark Knight has broken box office records, and while it hasn’t yet made the most money for a super hero movie yet, it’s getting there.

But the first order of business is to point out that this isn’t a super hero movie. Sure, Warner Bros. used the likeness and names of some DC characters, but Dark Knight wasn’t based on the comics - it was it’s own beast. All the previous Batman movies, including Batman Begins, were super hero movies. The hero fights villain over the use of a doomsday weapon and good succeeds. I don’t know what Dark Knight was, but it was not one of those films.

I don’t know how Dark Knight didn’t have an R rating. The amount of pointless, sadistic violence was disturbing. Cellphones sewn under skin? Children held at gun point? I will be the first to admit, I read and watch disturbing stuff. I’ve read the likes of Carlton Mellick and Edward Lee, so my exposure to the absurdly violent is not something new. So when I say this movie was one of the most purposelessly disturbing thing I’ve ever seen, take my word for it.

This is not a movie for children. This is not a movie for people with children.

What this was was an immature grasp at “depth” and “creativity,” using bizarre killing as a juvenile means of tricking the audience into thinking the movie was groundbreaking. Like Dr. Horrible has said,”Killing’s not elegant or creative.” The Joker would do the sort of things he did in the movie, dead-man switching two boats and killing his own men, but the way he did it was not how the Joker should have been portrayed. They took a homicidal genius and turned him into a sadistic monster just because.

You could tell Saw 5 was attempting to break the super hero mold, which it did, by focusing on Harvey Dent almost more than Bruce Wayne, and showing us people suffering. Why was it so serious? This was not a fun summer movie - this was not Iron Man or Incredible Hulk. Save yourself the emotional scarring and see Mama Mia! instead.

Not bad. It was really hard to gauge what to expect from this movie based on the trailer due to many factors - how the success of Pan’s Labyrinth would influence the film, what comics would they adapt, etc. As far as that goes, Hellboy 2 was it’s own unique thing, apart from the comics and Guillermo del Toro’s other works.

The biggest pull for the movie was it’s bigger budget. There were more monsters, including a giant elemental and dozens of background creatures, making the movie seem very Men in Black-esque. This was a great aspect of the movie, that there was just a lot of cool, bizarre throw away monsters and magical creatures that added depth to the fantasy underworld.

There were a few characterization driven lulls in the film, but once the action started back up, these doldrums are forgiven. The sequel was a great summer movie, playing off the legacy of the comics, del Toro’s artistic style, and the first film, throwing in the types of gimmicks you’d expect from a Hollywood sequel.

If the movie breaks even, we may expect a third movie on the horizon, and I think with all the hype and the fact that this film is enjoyable and filled with imagination, a growing Hellboy fan base is assured. In the summer of great super hero movies - this is a must see, even if it’s just to see something different.

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a dud!

Many critics have been pointing out the movies problem of shifting from drama to action to comedy, usually in slow, stunted spurts that left the audience wondering what type of movie they were watching (the train wreck scene was a metaphor for the film). I think this tension arises from the fact that they didn’t know what type of movie they were making.

Hancock was a movie too invested in itself. The way the film was marketed showed the idea of the super hero, specifically Superman, but what he would be like in the “real” world. Basically, we were promised an action flick laced with comedy, a Men In Black if you will. But Hancock wasn’t a super hero movie. Sure, there was a super hero in it, but the film wanted to be about so much more than just that. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems the beginning of the new Batman movie is up online, for who knows how long.

This is the Joker in action. This seems to be a good set up, and didn’t fall into the “we need to show an origin” trap the earlier Batman films did.

The Dark Knight goes public for reals in theaters July 18th.

As online distribution continues to evolve with minisodes and blogs (like this one!), Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy and Firefly, plans to bring to the internet Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Set to be released in three segments for free viewing, the show stars Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Slither) and Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother).

A musical, the plot will focus around the villainous Dr. Horrible (Harris) fighting his nemesis Captain Hammer. The movie airs online July 15th and will eventually make it’s way to DVD with rumored bonus footage.

image courtesy www.drhorrible.com

© Fox

As far as Futurama goes, this “film” was decent. The plot and commercial divisions that exist for the transition to TV did draw you out of the action somewhat, but the big concern I had with this latest installment of Futurama was the slow pace of the comedy.

The old shows still survive due to the fast pacing of jokes - they are unrelenting, several popping up every minute. But Beast With A Billion Backs relies too much on what the plot is rather than how the plot is told.

There are constant lulls in the show where there are no comedic bits, but sci-fi plot devices to further the story. While this would be acceptable in another movie, for Futurama you expect fast-paced humor with a sci-fi twist. Many times in the movie humor took a back seat to explanation and events.

Of course, there was enough hilarious jokes to maintain this prolonged episode, but it goes to show that with more time to fill, writers will do things to fill that time, and in Futurama’s case that’s not a good thing. Had this been three individual episodes that didn’t need to pretend itself a DVD movie, the end product would have been much better.

However, fans won’t be disappointed with the inclusion of various characters and easter eggs, well-known and obscure, from the Futurama mythos. There is a lot you will miss if you haven’t seen the show.

That being said, I do look forward to later 2008’s release of Bender’s Game, a spoof of the fantasy genre.