It’s been a long time coming, that is for sure. Ever since the first Lord of the Rings film, The Fellowship of the Ring, was released in 2001; film goers have been scratching at the walls, waiting for The Hobbit to be recreated in the same ilk. It took multiple directors, including the visually impact-ful Guillermo del Toro, and eventually settling with Peter Jackson, before the film was released. It went through the usual stages of ‘Production Hell’ taking in total almost 17 years for the rights to the film to be cleared and production to actually be started.

Jackson, who shot to fame and common knowledge, because of his amazing adaptation of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, had a long established career prior to the first film release, in 2001. Frightener’s not withstanding, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (LOTR), consisting of The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), and The Return of the King (2003) set a new benchmark in for long format film making, the likes of which had not been seen since Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Sure some films have clocked in at a greater length (the current longest running film is ‘Logistics’ at 857hrs, and is still screening), most long-form films are considered to be ‘art-house’ or highly independent. LOTR with a combined running time of 683 minutes, showed that given the right incentive, audiences would be willing to sit through hours-upon-hours of men in green tights, helicopter panorama shots, and CGI eyeballs glaring out of the screen.

But the LOTR stands on its own feet. It was a fantastic series of films, brought to life in a new and unique way. The LOTR trilogy of books represented some 1200 pages of original source material to work with, and if you have ever actually read it (I have) it feels closer to 3000. It’s long. And yes, I know I alienate some readers with that remark. That was part of the of mystique of Tolkien, his amazing descriptive language was powerful enough to conjure of worlds in his readers minds. Powerful enough to spawn a spoken language. How many authors can really say that?

The Hobbit was the first popular Tolkien book. It was a scant 320 pages. Once the films development hell was broken, production on the film began. Production, on one film. That film was then expanded into two films. Those two films were then expanded into three films. Jackson, being an innovator in both the visual and the digital, also decided to use some very new technologies to help bring the story of Bilbo Baggins to life; and while in some respect those technologies worked, in others they fell short.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, will inspire some audiences, blending perfectly into the Lord of the Rings trilogy, for others it will seem all too familiar. My opening statement must be explained, but first a little intro to the film.

Set just prior to Bilbo Baggins (Sir Ian Holm) Eleventy-First birthday, Bilbo opens the film sitting down to write the story of his adventures. A familiar Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) strolls in to find Bilbo working at his desk. We flash back to Bag-End, some 60 years prior, where a much younger Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is sitting in front of Bag End puffing on some pipe-weed. Along comes a tall man, dressed in grey… Gandalf (Ian McKellen). Gandalf and Bilbo have a very awkward conversation about the importance of the word ‘good’ in the statement ‘good morning,’ and we start rolling forward.

Soon, Bag End is filled with Dwarves; Dwalin, Balin, Fili, Kili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, and Thorin. The dwarves ravage the food stores of Bag End, and lay into rather comical song and dance numbers while juggling pots, pans, and dishes all through the hobbit hole. Never once dropping so much as a fork. Eventually Bilbo is coerced into an adventure of the most epic nature. The dwarves are attempting to re-take their ancient home of Erebor, lost when the great and powerful dragon, Smaug invaded and laid claim to the gold hidden there in. Meanwhile, and unbeknownst to the dwarves and hobbit, a Necromancer (human with dark magic) has conjured something great and evil back from death.

The troop sets out on their quest, and from this point it all becomes much too familiar.

You see, the problem with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, is three fold; artistic, acting, and technological. Technologically speaking, one of the biggest enhancements and caveats to the film is the use of 48fps cinematography. If you aren’t familiar with the term, that means that the source footage was shot at 48 frames per second. Most films up to this point have been shot either digitally, or using 24fps. Special cameras were used, and likewise special projectors need to be used in order to show film at that speed. Doubling the number of frames, doubles the speed that a given second of film is captured. 1 second of film is captured across 48 consecutive frames, providing a huge jump in clarity and crispness to each second.

But this jump in technology has its downside too. In fact, our press screening was originally supposed to take place at one theater in the Salt Lake valley, but when the projector at that theater failed the night before the screening, we were moved to a completely different theater, at very short notice. It all worked out, because in the end it was one of the newest and most comfortable screens I have ever been privileged to sit in front of. (Thanks Megaplex 17, errr. 19).

The 48fps does bring the clarity and crispness out in the shots. The landscape of the filming location (New Zealand) was amazing. Green, bright, vivid, lush, just wonderful to look at. If Jackson ever fails as a big-budget director, he should pursue nature photography. But the 48fps poses a big problem for digital effects. Whether it be that the rendering was done incorrectly, or was just not reviewed well, there were large amounts of irritation in the quality of those digital effects. Primarily, effects that were in motion were obvious and not convincing.

In a day and age of film production, where digital and real blend themselves together seamlessly, it was very disappointing and jarring to be able to spot clearly a digital effect. Of particular point were flames and fast-motion. Flames were the most obvious one. For instance, during the scene in Bag End, there are two juxtaposed flames. One still and serene;  a real candle burning on a holder. The flame small, yellow and gentle. That candle sat next to a veritable forest fire, burning in the hearth. Flames whipping around, raging like it had just been poured with gasoline. The flames had no weight to them. They seemed to cast no light, nor shadow. Yet those flames moved much too fast to be real. They stood out like a sore thumb, just slammed in a door.

Also, during a scene in which the Warg Riders were chasing down Radagast the Brown, none of the characters on screen felt real. They seemed to jump from frame to frame. To my eye, it looked like they had been digitally created at 24fps, but then double-framed to 48. It’s hard to explain the effect, but it would seem like they moved too fast for the frame. Like they had no gravity, no weight in life. Like picking up a foam brick that looks totally realistic. You visually expect it to weigh a few pounds, but are shocked to feel it weighs almost nothing. It changes your perspective to look at it again; no longer does the brick look real. The Warg Riders trot around the screen, pivoting from spot to spot, without faltering or digging in. Only Radagast’s sled leaves a mark on the screen, and that especially feels fake.

The last and most apparent technical ramification of the 48fps, is the use of green sets, and digital mattes. Special Effects are expensive. The time, and energy necessary to build them, color them, render them, and put them on film, is a costly endeavor. But sometimes you need to film something in a location that doesn’t actually exist. Enter digital sets. A sound stage is setup and decorated just as normal, but a green backdrop is used, and later the backgrounds or various elements in the shot can be laid in with computers. This can work great in some respects, but often it is just a matter of convenience. Sometimes, real care and attention to details are used, but other times not. Unfortunately, those digital backgrounds really stand out as fake in The Hobbit.

One particular scene has Galdalf standing in Rivendell talking with Lady Galadriel on a veranda, overlooking the great waterfalls. Whether it be because of the 48fps, or poor effects specialists,  there is a hard-edge to the sets, that doesn’t match the tone of the backdrop. Again it is something difficult to explain with words, and much easier to point out in film, but the set seems to be standing in front of the backdrops, not in front of space. The depth of the shot is cut down by the use of in-focus backdrops, which under normal visual conditions couldn’t exist. The backdrops seem only about 5 feet behind, and not the thousands of feet that they should be.

The artistic problems are largely due to the source material and writing. The book was only 320 pages long, as I mentioned earlier. That 320 pages is being spaced out into 3 films, 3 hours each. 9 hours of film. Even a moderate reader could probably finish the entire book, before the entire trilogy would finish. A glacier pace of a film that has led to some scenes being prolonged, and some scenes being added. Now, I am not a Tolkien fan, and the reason is because I always found Tolkien to be slow because of the time it takes to describe a scene. It reads well enough, but when you can capture the entirety of the description in just a single second or image, you end up with these long sequences of nothing but eye-candy, in order to fill time.

The film is too slow. Fight scenes seem to carry on forever, and there are so many of the recognizable Peter Jackson helicopter panorama shots, that you are left with a feeling of slight boredom at times. It’s great and all, very visual, but oh so slow in places. Still, those 3 hours seem like 2. But it’s an ass-hurting 2 hours.

And then there is the other problem. The one that really bothered me. I have seen this movie before. In all likelihood, so have you. It was called, The Fellowship of the Ring.

Sure, some scenes are new, the actors are different, the plot is different, but the timing is the same. The camera work is the same. The sequences are the same. The events are the same. If you known The Fellowship of the Ring well enough, you will probably spot the similarities too. It felt more like recycled footage, left on the floor from the first movie than something new an original.

Acting. This is a hard one for me to admit, but the acting was great. With one exception. Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins. I was all set to love this, being a Freeman fan. I was ready for Freeman to be whom I mentally recalled when I thought of Bilbo. But no. Freeman, who you may remember from the new Sherlock Holmes tv series on BBC as John Watson, or Arthur Dent in the 2005′s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, was not Bilbo Baggins. No, instead it was just Martin Freeman. There was no acting, no character traits that were unique to Bilbo, no modifications from the wonderful ‘befuddled’ Freeman we get in Sherlock or Hitchhikers. I was disappointed in this greatly. This was not Ian Holm’s character, only younger. This was Martin Freeman in costume, and nothing more.

Finally, before my review becomes too scathing, was the Dwarves. Other than Thoren, I would challenge you to identify any of them by name/sight. So little time is given to the other characters, that unless you took queue cards with you, it would be an endeavor to recall who does what. It ended up being the Snow-White dwarves. There was the happy one, the old one, the fat one, the young one, the strong one, the brothers, and Thoren.

Despite all the rambling remarks about what was bad; the film itself was great. No, Really. I enjoyed it a lot. It was a perfect journey back into the Lord of the Rings universe. It laid itself into the original and established film-series mythos, without leaving you identifying too many inconsistencies. (other than Orcs being different, goblins being different, the ring discovery, floppy feet, swords not glowing, and a few others.) The Hobbit was much more an adult movie, with its now PG-13 rating (it was still unrated at the time of our viewing), it was much more adult than what I was expecting from a childrens story. Decapitations and disembowelment aside, it seemed perfectly suited to the young teen crowd. You know, the ones with money. But the adults will fill the theaters also.

It was worth seeing. It is worth seeing in the theaters. I would even say it is worth seeing in IMAX 3d. Don’t wait for the film to come to bluray, or DVD. If you enjoyed The Lord of the Rings trilogy, then The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, will be like a trip down memory lane. And luckily, that isn’t an unexpected result.

How much alcohol did it take: It was 10am on a Wednesday. ZERO
Rating: 6.5/10. It was good. Really good. It wasn’t great. 48fps has its technical challenges to face, but this movie should be seen in theaters

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A confession. I love Gary Oldman. Not like that. Just love what he does. When he acts, he does it very well.

It all started for me with Fifth Element (one of my favorite movies of all time) Oldman played Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg. And did a great job at it. But it wasn’t until I watched Fifth Element, that I realized how many times before I have been blown away by his acting… Dracula in the  1992 Copola film. Oswald in the 1991 JFK film. Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy. He has the chops. And as Jim Gordon in the Batman series, he nailed it. And lets not even talk about his part in Harry potter as Sirius Black.

Akira needs a few strong actors to fill in the roles. It is a character driven story, that largely follows 5 characters. Tetsuo, Kaneda, The Colonel, Kei, The Doctor, and Roy. Akira the character only has a minor role, despite his name being the headliner.

With Garrett Hedlund rumored to fill the part of Kaneda (the lead), and now Oldman as The Colonel, there are only 3 main parts left to be filled.

/voting for Cillian Murphy for the part of Tetsuo…. oh please, oh please. That would be an excellent choice.

(source)

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Rise of the Planet of the Apes, perhaps the most ‘of’ filled title of all time,was a decent enough movie. If you saw it you were probably impressed with the excellent blending of CGI, digital matte work, and live action. They were woven together in one of (if not the) most well crafted CGI assisted films of all time. The story was good, but not great, and if you made it all the way to the ending credits, you know what the premise will be for the pending sequel.

With Serkis signing on the reprise his role of Caesar, we know a few key things. First, that this film takes place some time during Caesar’s normal life time. Second, assuming the first is true, then this film will largely be focused on the spreading pandemic, and the actual rise of the Apes into a community, lead by Caesar.

We don’t know yet if James Franko will be returning to his role of Will Rodman, because Franko has a VERY full slate with no less than 6 films in production and pre-production between now and then end of 2012. So if Franko returns, you can anticipate that the ‘Planet of the Apes’ (speculative title) will be released some time in 2013.

/lots of speculations abound, since this is still really early in the game.

(source)

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Who doesn’t remember playing “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” growing up? Well, let me re-phrase that. Who, who is near to my 32-year-age, doesn’t remember. Obviously you little pip-squeaks out there probably have only the most vague of idea’s what I am talking about. And to you, the phrase ‘Oregon Trail’ or Q-bert mean nothing.

But to us, us old and in-firmed, Carmen Sandiego was a great little piece of educational software. Much more enjoyable than some of the other tripe of the age.

Well, just because Hollywood is out of ideas, a big-screen adaptation of the game-series is being produced. And who get’s to be the lead character? I would have hoped Sofía Vergara; but no. In stead we get Jennifer Lopez. And I am absolutely sure that there will be a singing/dancing number to appeal to the ‘girls’.

Oh Hollywood, how I wish that you would wake up. Just because you can do a thing, doesn’t mean you SHOULD do a thing. If you are going to do SOMETHING, try to do it right. Don’t just do it because you can, or else we end up with The Mask 2.

/sad face.

(source)

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BS.

The truth is much worse than the fantasy. Die Hard 5, the fifth installment in one of the greatest Action film franchises of all time, is truly slated for a release on Valentines Day, 2013. And to add insult to the injury, the film is being directed by John Moore (Max Payne, The Omen, Behind Enemy Lines), penned by the salt in the wound, Skip Woods (Swordfish, Hitman,  X-Men Origins: Wolverine,  A-Team), and will be focused around John McClane’s yet un-cast son being abducted by Russian’s.

Anyone think, Shia LaBouf? Nah. My thinking is more towards Justin Chatwin (Dragonball Evolution, War of the Worlds.) Call it a hunch.

Here’s the skinny.

• Die Hard 5 will be titled A Good Day to Die Hard
• Shooting begins in January 2012
• The sequel will be released on February 14th, 2013 (Valentine’s Day).
• The story is set in Russia and begins with John McClane heading to Moscow to sweet talk some cops into letting his apparently-wayward son out of jail for something he did, but when he gets there, things surrounding his son’s arrest are not as they appear and world-threatening terrorist hijinks ensue.
• McClane, Jr. has yet to be cast.
• They still don’t know if it will be rated PG-13 or R.

So, is there still a question about what I will be doing on Valentines Day 2013? Yeap. Enjoying a nice dinner with my wife, and NOT going and seeing Die Hard. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!

(source)

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Little Red Envelope

In my mailbox this week:
Faster

Release Year: 2010

Staring:
Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Oliver Jackson-Cohen

The day he is released from prison, “Driver” sets out to right the wrong that was given him. One bullet at a time.

Driver, as psudeonym that is never broken through the film, was caught, tried and convicted after a bank heist goes deadly wrong. His brother, Gary was killed when an informant told a hit-crew about their hideout. Driver, was just doing his job. His first job. The getaway driver.

But when Garry is killed by the crew, Driver is shot and killed. Yes. Killed. He is dead for 10 minutes, before he sits up in a bolt of anger on the hospital bed. After serving his 10 years in prison, Driver is released onto an unsuspecting world. He sets out to kill everyone who was responsible for his brothers death. But first he needs a car, a gun, and a list of names.

Driver starts his job, and makes a quick kill first. A very public quick kill. And now the ‘Cop’ (Billy Bob Thornton), and a paid playboy millionaire ’Killer’ (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) is hot on his tail. But that won’t stop Driver. Nothing will.

The Cop suffers his own internal dilemmas. A hidden heroin addict, separated from his addict wife, he hides everything from his department, because he only has 3 days left until retirement. The Killer has skeletons in his closet too, hiding his occupation and obsessions from his girlfriend. Or at least sheltering it from her.

Faster was just what you would expect it to be. Hardcore action fun. Violence. Blood. Language. Sexuality. Drugs. Murder. All of it. Just what I needed.

But aside from the outright awesomeness that it was, it was actually a good story. Driver is a ghost. Not really in the literal sense. But you spend a significant portion of the film just wondering what his real motivation is, or even if he has an ulterior motive. He is just a straight forward character. A man, killed, who watched his brother murdered in front of his eyes. He was locked up in prison, and found his solace in his plan. His determination to find vengeance upon all those who were associated with the murder.

But, I found myself questioning. Was he real? Was he just a ghost, a specter or vengeful angel come to seek retribution. It didn’t matter, because I was riveted to the film. It kept on going, never really letting up. There were a few slow minutes during some of the more introspective elements to both the Killer and the Cop, but once it came back around to Driver… It was pedal to the floor.

Sure, the film isn’t for everyone. Like I said, it is pretty violent. It earns its R rating. But if you can get into a film despite its violent overtones, then Driver was a lot of fun. Granted, I am probably among the few people who thinks that Dwayne Johnson is actually a good actor (Walking Tall, The Rundown, South-land Tales), who just happens to get caught up in some bad roles (Tooth Fairy, Escape to Witch Mountain).

Adding in some Billy Bob to the film was a touch of nice. Thornton seems to have lost some 20lbs for the role, looking every bit that closeted heroin addict that he plays. The two, while never really meeting on screen, work well together to keep the story moving. A touch of Carla Gugino as the other detective, helps some, but really wasn’t necessary.

Overall, Faster was a good flick. I enjoyed it a lot, and was never bored or lulled by the story. It’s quick, just like the name would suggest. And while it may not be Predator, or Fast and Furious, it was good in its own right.

How painful was it: A good old fashion action film. No disguising it. And no pain associated.

Rating: 7/10. I knew what I was going to get, and I got it. It was just what I wanted.

The Wife’s Retort: 6/10. Not as bad as I thought it would be.

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Maybe it is just me, but the ‘S’ icon on Crowse costume seems to be rather inlaid with patterns. To my eyes, it seems rather steam-punk. Steam punk and superman may not be too bad of a combination, and considering how Zach Snyder presents his films, in heavily desaturated hues and hard highlights; having a bit of steam-punk thrown into the new reboot might actually work well to help enhance the film.

Crowe, seen here smoking on set in costume, will obviously be more of an onscreen presence than the prior Marlon Brando portrayal of Superman’s Kryptonian father. In the 1979 classic, Brando had a very small on screen role, where he is seen helping the baby Kal El into his space ship to be sent to earth. Later in the film, Brando’s ghost head is used as an info-dump device to give a young Clark Kent all the information he needs in order to become his alter-ego of Superman.

And while it may still be possible that Crowe will have limited time on screen, it seems like the place where these photos were taken was near to the previous action sequences filmed with Henry Cavell. Could the dispossessed ghost of Jor-El be haunting or guiding Superman as he works to fight evil on Earth?

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Terra Nova, new to Fox’s week-night line up, follows a family of 5 who are sent back in time to a Jurassic era, in order to escape from the self destruction of the Earth’s environment. The family, of whom only 1 (the Mother,  Elisabeth Shannon) is actually needed, are sent through a ‘Time Fracture” into the past, where a colony of Terra-naughts are building a new life for themselves amongst the dinosaurs.. Err terrasaurs. But while you may think that this 85-million years in the past would mean that life is difficult, apparently sending supplies and entire houses through the crack is no big deal. The village of Terra Nova is thriving. Focusing on the research of the age, in hopes that something can be done in order to save the future. The premise is pretty strong. But…. it finds itself getting so dumbed down that by the second episode, we are already dealing with ‘monster of the week’ and the third episode introduces the death plot of ‘virus outbreak.’

What Works:

The basic premise is pretty good. Honestly, it’s the reason I set out to watch it in the first place. It’s sort of like Jurassic Park, but more imaginative. The blending of space-time continuum stuff along the way was just an added benefit. The lost-in-space was another good blending for the show. Aside from the premise, the characters work pretty well too. There are several interesting ones to boot. (straight from Wiki…)

• Jason O’Mara as Jim Shannon, a police officer and devoted father with a complicated past.
• Shelley Conn as Elisabeth Shannon, a trauma surgeon who is selected for Terra Nova. She is married to Jim.
• Landon Liboiron as Josh Shannon, the 17-year-old son of Jim and Elisabeth. He is reluctant to leave his girlfriend behind.
• Naomi Scott as Maddy Shannon, the first daughter of Jim and Elisabeth. An awkward 15-year-old, she hopes to reinvent herself on Terra Nova.
• Alana Mansour as Zoe Shannon, the five-year-old daughter of Jim and Elisabeth Shannon.
• Stephen Lang as Commander Nathaniel Taylor, a pioneer and leader of the settlement. The first person to arrive, Taylor survived the first four months (118 days) on his own and then began building a community as new settlers came through; he has been the leader of the settlement for seven years. In early development, he was named Frank Taylor.
• Allison Miller as Skye, a veteran resident of Terra Nova who guides Josh. Her parents are said to have died and she teaches Josh the value of family.
• Mido Hamada as Guzman, the head of a security team who also serves as a trusted adviser to Nathaniel Taylor.
• Christine Adams as Mira, the leader of the “Sixers”.
• Rod Hallett as Dr. Malcolm Wallace, Jim’s rival.

A few of those names are probably pretty new to you. But one should stick out like a sore thumb… Stephen Lang. You may remember him as Colonel Quaritch in Avatar. Well, let’s just say that he probably was type-cast for the roll of Commander Taylor; because he is the same character in both. And that leads us into the bad.

What Doesn’t Work:

The plot.

I get the foundation. I get the subject and the motivations. But the way that the story is being presented is so bloody simple. While watching the first premiere episode, my wife and I were calling out major themes for the story, and even future episodes, without any mistake. The 6ers. The ‘lost son.’ The informants. The alternate history of the earth. All of it was just as plane as day. I think the formula that Terra Nova is working with is strikingly similar to most other SciFi shows of the past few decades.

Monster of the week. Virus out break. Shortage in supplies. Internal strife. Missing crew member. Introspective on a character. Big mid-season break cliff hanger where someone unexpected shows up. Important death of someone we cared very little about. Repeat.

It happened with Stargate Universe. Star Trek. X-Files. You name it. And I usually call it as spinning down the drain. The plot becomes formulaic. Repetitive.

Also, while I am not sure that it is as much a negative, as a pass, is the use of the alternate time line (the past they are in, is not the past we know. It’s a different possible past. Or at least that’s what we are told.) But this is used to get away with everything that they do. Dinosaurs are different, and called things like “carnasaur” and “howlers.” And we don’t have to worry about the Sound of Thunder effect. However, I imagine this will be either changed mid season or enhanced in some way. Either with a possible effect on Earth’s future, or we come to find out that we are actually in Earth’s distant future, and not its past.

The second episode also left me pretty jaded. Having already seen ‘The Birds,’ this episode seemed really lazy for a #2 run.

The acting.

Stephen Lang. What can I say. He was a definitive character in Avatar, and to see him playing the same sort of misunderstood bad-ass in this series, is well… ironic I guess. No. That’s the wrong word. Repetitive, to repeat myself. Tough but lovable, yet strong and determined. At least so far he seems like he is the good guy that he is presented as. However, he has ulterior motives just like everyone else, and I bet that the loss of his son to the jungles of history has the potential to change his character traits.

The second episode, we see people interacting with dive-bombing birds made out of pixels and fairy dust. The over-acting, and lack of realism in the characters interactions with the make-believe flying creatures was laughable at best. You see, birds, or even dinosaurs, need to be light in weight in order to fly. And yet these creatures are made to seem like they are lined with lead. When Josh Shannon is fighting with all his strength to close a door against a flying dinosaur that is just barely the size of a pigeon, well… it just doesn’t work for me.

The future episodes.

I already mentioned the monster of the week aspect, but it bares true when I saw the preview for the next episode. A virus that makes people forget about other people; well I smacked my face. If they are going to be like this, I just don’t know if I can put up with it.

The similarities with other shows.

Being produced by Stephen Spielberg, it isn’t surprising to draw the comparisons with Jurassic Park. I didn’t anticipate that they would actually use set elements from the movie, in Terra Nova. The stockades are straight from Jurassic Park. I wasn’t expecting some of the shows though. Lost in Space was pretty self defining. Quantum Leap is there too. A little mystery with Lost, and some Survivor aspects with the rivalry with the ’6ers’. Maybe I have just seen too many shows for things to be new to me…

Am I going to keep watching? Yes. Because some SciFi is better than no SciFi. Am I going to enjoy it? I don’t know just yet. The first 2 episodes get a better-than-pass rating of 6/10. Will that continue? Who knows. Should you be watching it? Sure, if your Monday nights are free. But if you are a football fan, then I would stick to the games. You aren’t really missing much if you have already seen Jurassic Park, Lost in Space, and Quantum Leap.

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Little Red Envelope

In my mailbox this week:
Paul

Release Year: 2011

Staring:
Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Seth Rogen, Jason Bateman

Traveling the western United States, after just finishing up Comic-Con, two Brits happen upon a stranded alien who is trying desperately to get home.

Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost. Honestly, you either love them or hate them. I find very few people who are in the later category, but still there are some. If you enjoyed Hot Fuzz, or Shaun of the Dead, like I did, then you shouldn’t be surprised by yet another glowing review of this duo’s films. 

But… I wasn’t sold off the bat. You see, while I love Pegg and Frost, I find that I am getting increasingly annoyed with Seth Rogen. It’s a personal thing, just like how some people can’t stand Samuel Jackson. No matter what part Rogen plays, he is always still Seth Rogen. Same voice, same inflections, same demeanor. No variation at all. And for an actor, a major film actor, it seems more like Seth Rogen as an alien, than an Alien played by Seth Rogen.

Subtle variation. But none the less, it’s been a pet peave of mine for a while. Just like all Tim Burton movies are Tim Burton movies.

But, I was pleasantly surprised.

The film starts off with Graeme Willy (Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Frost) visiting their life long Mecca or Comic-Con in San Diego. The mingle with their heros (including Jeffery Tambor) and after a hotel mix up, are constantly being confused for gay lovers. Gollings is a former Nedula award winning author, who wrote one short story when he was a child. Willy as a graphic artist, who loves to capture caricatures of people on his journeys.

The two set off to see some of the great paranormal sites of the West, piloting an RV on a heading for Area 51. But along the way, the ‘accidentally’ back into a truck belonging to some local hicks. Convinced that they are being chased down the highway by the locals, Willy and Gollings flee in terror, only to realize (moments before it crashes) that  the vehicle following them is nothing more than a jet black Crown Victoria.

But when it crashes, the survivor turns out to be the last thing that they expected. An alien. Paul the alien. Named after the dog he killed when his space ship crash landed some 60 years earlier. Paul was captured by US forces, but treated with consideration. Until the government decided that they had learned all they could. Now they want the information he can’t describe. His brain, his skin, all of it.

Paul flees, and asks Willy and Gollings to help him get to a safe destination where his people can come rescue him.

Sounds dry, but don’t be distracted. Paul is a perpetual nod to the geek audience. Scene after scene are filled with references to other awesome movies. Ghostbusters. Star Wars. Star Trek. Close Encounters. With so many winks, you would think that it would become mundane and boring, but some how it never does. It keeps delivering wit right down until the very lest moment. Beyond. Right into the credits.

Paul is hilarious. Unfortunately, it is also very directly targeted towards the geek. Hence, I loved it. My wife loved it. If you are a reader of Watch Play Read, I would venture that you would love it to.

Luckily, Seth Rogen, all though he was still Seth Rogen, didn’t really hurt the film. He has this ‘lovable big guy’ (wife’s description) that works well for how they made the character of Paul. You expect hijinks and low brow humor, but instead you get a lot of high brow. It’s a different kind of film, that I can recommend strongly.

If you enjoyed the ‘Blood and Ice Cream’ movies, then you should like this. It isn’t in the series, but it feels very similar. And, add in a dash of Jason Bateman, and you have some comedy gold.

How painful was it: Awesome. No really. It was that good.

Rating: 8/10. I can’t give a film 10/10 if it has Rogen in it. And there were a few dull moments towards the middle. But otherwise, it was great.

The Wife’s Retort: 8/10. Didn’t really know what to expect, but that was seriously hilarious.

The post LRE #53: Paul appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

We’ve talked about Tron Legacy to death; everything from the sound track, to the inclusion of Cilian Murphy in an un-named roll. The later, really was a dead give-away that Tron 3 (which I suspect will be titled as Tron: End of Line) was going to be a done deal.

Well, now a faithful fan, whom happened to be getting a signed autograph, has spoken confirmation from the mouth of the man who played Tron (the character) and Allan Bradley in both of the Tron films. Boxleitner goes on to say that “It is a done deal.” and that it will have a 2013 release date.

There will be much speculation here at WPR as to what the primary themes of the show will be, but my suspicions are that it is set sometime in the near future, when Dillinger has split from Encom to form his own company, and then manages to steal the remaining code for the Grid. In essence, rebooting the grid. But the grid was able to operate safely from Flynn’s personal server, because the server was offline to the rest of the net. Just imagine what could happen if the grid was allowed out into the real world.

Speculate away my friends, but I for one will be standing in line (metaphorically) for two years, waiting for its release.

(source)

The post Tron 3, confirmed for 2013. By Tron himself! appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Sorry about that.

Photos of Henry Cavill on the set of the new Zach Snyder superman, in full costume, surfaced today. And let’s just say that the new costume, is more than flattering. So much so, that it almost seems like someone has come through with an air-brush, or perhaps SOCK to increase the appeal to the female demographic.

The new costume, is totally confusing me. For one, it just doesn’t seem right, as we have already discussed. Secondly, it’s pretty darn hard to express arm-veins, through clothing, especially tight clothing, which means that this costume is almost certainly largely prosthetic. That said, the bulge that is protruding in the crotchal region is, well, let’s not beat around the bush here… Huge.

Almost laughably so. Perhaps that is jealously, perhaps not. I lean towards not…. But it definately seems like the costume director wanted to emphasize certain aspects of Superman’s phisic, and well, it seems like that was accomplished. (Realistically, it is probably just that for ‘insurance’ purposes, Cavill is required to wear a super-cup to protect his manhood.)

Ok. enough. I need to go look at boobs now.

(source)

The post Is Superman going to be in 3d? Or is he just happy to see you? appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

At this point, only a few are known about. And two of those are attached below in Youtube format.

First, Lucas has ‘decided’ that his original vision, included Obi-Wan sounding less like a Krayt Dragon, and more like some sort of bizare child molestor, while trying to frighten off the Sand People, in Episode IV.   While, I, myself, am deathly afraid of child molesters, the notion of a Jedi child molester, is truly frightening. I whole heartily understand why Lucas would want to make Obi-Wan sound less/more frightening than he did (this is a bogus lie, and just thought it would be humorous. This sounds like shit in a can.)

Second, Lucas, in his god-like vision, realized that the most important moment of Episode III (Revenge of the Shit) was when Anakin stood up after having been converted over to Darth Vader. Upon learning that he is responsible for Padame’s death, he proceeds to screem…. NOOOOOOO!.

Lucas, knowing that this was the most important, and so seldom (not) ridiculed moment of the entire prequel series, inserted this same sort of emotional outburst in perhaps the greatest moment of the ENTIRE FUCKING SERIES. When Darth Vader returns to being Anakin, and takes a stand against the Emperor. Now, instead of quiet realization, Vader screams ‘NOOOO’ like a pansy.

The third, is too egregiousness to even show. (well, that and I couldn’t find a clip.) Ewoks, not have eye-lids, and blink. Seriously. WTF. Is it too late to cancel my pre-order? When will Lucas finally take a hint, and leave ‘good enough’ alone. Or at least, leave ‘messed the fuck up’ alone?

update:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRejStaN3q4

(source)

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Over at ComicBookMovie.com, they got their hands on the official casting call for extra’s and some of the left over small parts. Included in the call, was a quick summary of the project. A quick plot overview, that pretty much says that this will be yet. another. superman. reboot. in. every. sense. of. the. word. Essentially, Superman I.

“In the pantheon of superheroes, Superman is the most recognized and revered character of all time. Clark Kent/Kal-El (Cavill) is a young twenty something journalist who feels alienated by powers beyond anyone’s imagination. Transported to Earth years ago from Krypton, an advanced alien planet, Clark struggles with the ultimate question – Why am I here? Shaped by the values of his adoptive parents Martha (Lane) and Jonathan Kent (Costner), Clark soon discovers that having super abilities means making very difficult decisions. But when the world needs stability the most, it comes under attack. Will his abilities be used to maintain peace or ultimately used to divide and conquer? Clark must become the hero known as “Superman,” not only to shine as the world’s last beacon of hope but to protect the ones he loves.

I guess if you happen to be in the BC / Vancouver area, you could always try out for a part. But for the rest of us, who were so very much wanting something different, I look on this as being a negative in the Man of Steel scorecard.

The problem, as I see it, is that we have seen this movie before. I personally have seen this movie at least 30 times (it’s a favorite. Yes, I am talking about the Christopher Reeve 1979 classic, with Marlon Brando, and Margot Kidder [pre insanity]). Not to mention all the comic books, and where ever else. The story of Superman’s rising from lowly beginnings is a classic story. A man of power (or a prince, wizard, warrior, heir) who is unknowingly born of royalty (or power, or prestige, or of a wizarding family) must travel the roads of life, not knowing the truth behind his existance (or his stature, or power, or that magic exists, or this his father was a xenophobic mad man) and not only learning of his great powers (or spider powers) but also of his great responsibilities (like killing Voldemort, or Lex Luther). He must learn to balance his family (even if they were killed by evil doers or wizards, or thieves) and his internal sense of right and wrong (and his desire for vengeance against those who have caused him harm). The hero (or jedi, wizard, or super-spider person) must fight against themselves (or evil ‘bizarro’ versions of themselves) and against their mortal enemies (be it wizard, dark lord of the sith, alien intelligence, or malevolent business man.)

See. Same story. Again and again. It’s called, a hero quest.

(source)

The post Man of Steel plot exposed in Casting Call announcement appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Little Red Envelope

In my mailbox this week:
Conan: The Destroyer

Release Year: 1984

Staring:
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Grace Jones, Wilt Chamberlain

The Manliest Man, The Manliest Woman, and The Manliest Basketball player, join guide a princess on her destiny, and defender her virginity.

Welcome to the week of Crom. And the triumphant return of the Little Red Envelope. And to celebrate the union, I’ve got a real treat. Conan, The Destroyer.

Harold as “Conan’s Greatest Adventure” can the film really live up to mid-80′s marketing hyper, and uber-masculinity potential? Nope.

Sad to say that, really, but the original Conan the Barbarian was a much much better film, in just about all senses of the word. But that isn’t to say that Destroyer is without or devoid of awesomeness in its own right. Destroyer is just probably better called ‘Conan, the quest for the sexing.’

The film starts out strongly enough. Conan, in his travels, is caught in a ruckus with a group of soldiers under the command of Queen Taramis, of Shadazar (Sarah Douglas), Conan and his companion / thief, Malak (Tracey Walter). Conan is almost defeated, but is instead questioned by the Queen. She lures him into revealing his most intimate desires, to be reunited with his own ‘queen’ Valeria (from Conan the Barbaria).

Taramis promises Conan to resurrect Valeria from the dead, if Conan will compete a quest for her. A quest ‘filled’ with challenges. Conan must escort / protect / not have sex with, Taramis’niece Jehnna (Olivia d’Abo). Jehnna has been set apart from birth, because of a unique birthmark that has been foretold to allow her the ability to reclaim a special jewel, which will then allow them to retrieve the horn of Shadazar’s deity Dagoth.

To accompany Jehnna, is her own protector, Bombaata (Wilt Chamberlain). As they set out on their quest for the jewel, Conan, Bombaata, Malak, and Jehnna, cross path’s with a warrior, Zulu (Grace Jones) who is being tortured, and a magician Akiro (Mako Iwamatsu). Thanks to Conan saving them from their respective intended fates, they each pledge themselves to Conan’s side.

As the film winds on, Conan must defend Jehnna from all sorts of wonderfully costumed entities, including  some sort of cross between a pro-wrestler, an alligator, and little red riding hood. In the end, as some key characters reveal their true intentions, Conan must come to do battle with the risen god, Dagoth (Andre’ the Giant). And in a display of physical might, remove that which has granted Dagoth his resurrection from stone.

Let just say that the film sure beats a kick in the pants. But there isn’t really much to it. In the world of video gaming, you could consider Conan the Destroyer to be one big 2 hour fetch quest. That isn’t to say it is bad, or boring, or anything like that, but it does play out in this one continuous story line that get’s to be a little dry and laughable right about the time that Conan is fighting against the aforementioned Red-Alligator-Hood. And all considering, it is perhaps one of the worst costumes I have ever seen. The best part of the whole action sequence, is when Conan discovers that the creature / wizard Thoth-Amon’s weakness is the mirrors that surround the room. Instead of breaking the closest mirrors, Arnold runs back and forth between the two sides of the room, almost like some sort of character in a Loony Tunes sketch. I was laughing histerically at this point.

And, of course, you know right from the beginning that when Taramis mentions that Jehnna’s virginity must be intact when she is returned to Shadazar, that there will be no such thing. What, with the manliest that is Grace Jones,… err… Conan laying in a tent next to hers? Of course that old V-card is going to be notched out when she returns.

But Arnold, that bastion of muscle, perhaps seems a little weaker in comparison to two of his side kicks. Grace Jones, and Wilt Chamberlain. For you young readers, you may genuinely have no idea who these two people are. You may have heard of them, but never seen them. Or seen them, but never heard their names. Wilt Chamberlain (the most likely one you will know) was a iconic basketball player, with a career average of over 30 points per game. He actually started his career as a Harlem Globetrotter, before going on to be center for the Warriors, Lakers, and 76ers.

Grace Jones is perhaps a little more obscure. A famous singer from the 70′s and 80′s, Jones was perhaps one of the first female singers to sport androgyny as a personality. While not necessarily masculine in features, the way she cast her body shape, hair, and costumes worked to this end. Her most successful song, Slave to the Rhythm, netted her a nomination for Best Female music video in 1986. Many say that present day performer, Lady Gaga, is nothing more than a rip off of Grace Jones style and presentation.

Chamberlain is 7′ 1″. Jones 5′ 10″. While Chamberlain has height in physical stature, Jones has a lean body that is almost devoid of fat, and still exceptionally strong. Sounds a little weird to talk about that, but it really makes for an evident point considering that she spends the entire movie running around in a thong, and dripping of 30-weight motor oil. When Conan finally does battle with Dagoth (who is played by Andre the Giant, who stands 7′ 4″ tall, you realize that Arnold is really a short dude. I don’t mean in comparison, but actually a small guy. He is reported to be over 6′ tall, but when this film was released, many fans questioned the truth of that statement. Most reports actually say that he is just 5′ 10″. Which to me, seems odd considering I am 5′ 11″. But I digress.

The action of Conan the Destroyer is just as good as you would expect. Pretty evident stunt doubles for most of the characters (I really could have sworn at one point that it was a dude dressed up on a thong, pretending to be Grace Jones) but what else would you expect? I mean, when a sword in ingested just under the arm, and a blood packet is exploded in the other hand, you can’t help but just sit back an enjoy just how awesomely horrible action sequences from the 80′s really were.

But who cares? Not me. Action is action. And some films, no matter how bad they are, are still awesome. If for no other reason than their nostalgia. So, if you are looking to man-up with a film this week, perhaps set yourself down for a triple feature. Watch Conan the Barbarian, immediately followed by Conan the Destroyer. Then pack you little doggy bag, and head on over to your local uber-plex, and check out the new Conan. I haven’t seen it yet, but hell, it’s gotta be at least as manly as these two films.

How painful was it: Bad, but awesome. Some ridiculous fight scenes, and more thongs on men than I care to see.

Rating: 6/10. Not as good as the first, but still has it’s own appeal.

The Wife’s Retort: You kidding? No way would my wife watch this with me. Even though I sat through Mamma Mia for her last week….

The post LRE #52: Conan the Destroyer appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Somewhere to the tune of $1.6 Billion US dollars in funding have been secured to build the 74-hectare amusement park. The  Rubicon Group Holding, who are also a CGI/Animation production group out of Amman, have secured the funding to build the theme park.

Construction work on the 74-hectare Red Sea Astrarium project in Aqaba, which will include four hotels and 17 entertainment developments, is expected to start early next year, The National reported.

But before you go off thinking that this is just some arrant venture,

The “Star Trek” attraction is being creatively developed by Paramount Recreation

….The Star Trek-themed centre will deliver a variety of multi-sensory 23rd-century experiences, culminating with a state-of-the art space-flight adventure that takes real-time immersive entertainment experiences to bold new heights.

That’s right. This is real, and really being created with the assistance of Paramount. The project is supposed to be started next year (2012) and is expected to be completed by 2015

(source)

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Here goes;

Caesar got smarter

Damn, the drug’s got side effects.

You damn dirty apes.

The post Haiku Review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Erg. Don’t really know what to say about this, but there are a few things wrong. I knew deep down that Nolan would prefer to display a ‘realistic’ Cat Woman (aka Selina Kyle), but I didn’t realize that she would be the cat in name only. Based off of what I see here, the closest that Hathaway comes to ‘Cat’ is a cat suit. (read, women’s underwear)

And maybe night vision goggles.

But seriously, wouldn’t she be better called something like ‘night vision girl’ if her costume and character’s primary attribute is the goggles?

The other interesting thing to note, is the batpod. The two wheel remnent of the Tumbler that was left after Batman’s Batmobile was destroyed in the second film, Dark Knight.

But memory tells me that this was destroyed in a fireball. So does that mean that Kyle resurrected the pod from the wreckage? Or did Bruce Wayne build the pod for her? Or did she steal the designs from Wayne Enterprises?

The third seems like the only option that might fit with the character.

(source)

The post That’s Cat Woman… wait… That’s Cat Woman? appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

I mentioned yesterday, that there was something wrong with his presentation, that just didn’t say ‘Superman’ to me.

Today, I still agree with that, with the added benefit of fake muscles.

Zach Snyder (300, Watchmen, Suckerpunch) has a way of making dark films seem vibrant. And judging by this one single image, he will be doing it yet again with Superman. His style leans heavily on desaturated film, with heavy post production. In general, I wouldn’t say that there is something inherintly wrong with that style, but judging by this first shot from the Superman reboot, I am still developing my reservations.

What I will say is that Snyder will be leaning heavily on the early histories of Superman, but somehow mixing it with modern day. Think Tim Burton Batman, driving around in Studibakers but still having color TVs.

Still, the fake muscles give me pause. Just looking at the images makes it feel fake. Over done. And I don’t know if that is what Superman needs right now.

(source)

The post First look at Cavill as Superman, IN COSTUME.. .It still isn’t right appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

I will admit I am not an expert at Robotech. I defer that honor to our mighty shogun, Xopher. But I am no novice. I have the ENTIRE Harmony Gold release from the early 00′s, sitting on a shelf in my basement. It encompases some 85 episodes across nearly 20 disks, all neatly boxed up in their respective cases. I watched the show originally during the 80′s, and was glad to make the investment 10 years ago in the DVDs.

With a new release, Harmony Gold is again releasing these largely unrelated series in mid-October. I say unrelated, because the series is actually 3 different and unrelated mecha series, tied in to look like one contiguous series. Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada. The series were re-dubbed so that they could all revolve around a core concept “protoculture”.

Overall, the series is pretty good. The original Macross portion is excellent. Southern Cross itself is also a good series, although the Mospeada portion I really didn’t get into. But still, with a pre-sale price at amazon of $61.99 for the entire series, that’s a marked reduction from the $200 or so that I spend, not 10 years ago. Am I upset? Not at all. Well, unless the new release has the original Japanese dialog. Then I might be a little upset.

If you are new to Robotech and Macross (Japanese common name for the series) then perhaps try “Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do you Remember Love?” which was a theatrical abridgment of the entire first 35 episodes, compressed into 2.

The post Coming to DVD; Robotech the Complete Original Series appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Ok, not all comments, just most. There is something wrong with this picture, and I just can’t put my finger on it. Granted, the guy has the right hair color, and sort of the right build; but there is still  just something wrong.

Maybe having our thousands of readers looking at the picture will help me to determine just what is out of sorts. Is it his apparent smugness? Something that can be washed away behind the lens? Is it the pants that are just a bit too tight, and shaped a little weird? Is it the shoes?

With the new Zach Snyder version of the Superman reboot, there are a lot of things that are still up in the air. With Snyder films carrying a particular style with them, it is yet to be seen if Superman will work with the format. At least we have almost 2 years before the film will be released in theaters to speculate and be given promo shots up the wazoo.

The post So this, is your new Superman appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Considering that the majority of our audience has hardly any experience with DOS or Disk-Operating-System, DOS represents one of the most important advancements in technology within the last century. DOS brought around a revolution in the way in which we use and control computer systems. Because of Intel’s introduction of the 8086 processor, Microsoft needed an operating system that could run on the architecture.

It bought the rights for Q-Dos from Seattle Computer Products for $25K, and the rights for 86-DOS for $75K, and packaged sold them as MS-DOS. MS-DOS became ubiquitous during the 80′s and 90′s for it’s inclusion in ‘IBM’ compatible PCs. But actually, Compaq and Zeinth should get the credit for including the first version of MS-DOS on it’s systems as PC-DOS.

Throughout the 90′s, DOS was the only way we could play games. Before Windows 95 we still had to worry about how much EMS memory we had, and shut down non essential components, just so we could get Wing Commander III to play (this was a bitch, and one of the first CD-ROM games I ever had.)

I know, I know. None of this matters. But when you consider that up until Microsoft Windows Vista, all Microsoft OS’s have had a core in DOS world. Only when 64Bit operations became realistic did DOS go to the wayside. Even today, DOS commands are some of the most essential parts of the Microsoft OS. Something breaks in Windows 7? you still pull up the Command prompt to fix it. And that CMD prompt is an emulation of DOS.

Yes, I am old. But when you consider how important the IBM-PC has been to the world, including home and office, the evolution of the Internet, and even this very website, it becomes respectful to say thanks to MS-DOS. Even if you don’t like who the M$ corporation became in later years, it’s roots were pretty humble.

CD c:\

del *.*

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Oh, don’t get me wrong. It was still just as serious as the first, and seeing Oswald Danes (Bill Pullman) having an emotional breakdown while being interviewed for a new program, definitely brought a sense of non-existent emotional range for the actor… But otherwise, Harkness, Cooper, and CIA agent Rex Matheson are all brought back into the main story line, as Matheson initiates a ‘rendition’ or extradition of the remaining Torchwood team members back to the United States for questioning.

But this episode also brings in a few new cast members; including Wayne Knight (aka, Seinfeld‘s ‘Newman’) as CIA head analyst Brian Friedkin, and Dichen Lachman as Lyn Peterfield (a ‘CIA’ agent who tries to kill Jack Harkness in mid flight across the Atlantic.

What was so great about this episode, is that it brought back some of the ridiculousness that the original series had. The highlight of that is when Gwen, Rex, and the ‘not gay’ steward Danny try to whip up a batch of formaldehyde to counteract the poison that Lyn slipped into Jack’s drink. We also find out that there is some internal chain of command that the as-yet-unknown enemy of Harkness uses to receive orders.

Overall, another excellent episode that was perhaps better than the first. It strongly continues the story arc and leaves me wanting for next Friday. Still gets a strong recommend from me, to all you viewers who are thinking about picking up the series.

The post Torchwood: Miracle Day, Episode 2 – Review appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Coming to theaters, Summer 2012, Dark Knight Rises is slated to bring the Christopher Nolan Batman reprisal to a close. We have already seen images, teasers, trailers, and gorilla marketing from Dark Knight Rises, but this is the first official poster art to have been released.

Expect the film to come for the Forth of July weekend, 2012.  Although the rumor has it that the release will be July 20th. Still a long ways out, but other than the next Spider-man, Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, GI Joe 2, Total Recall, and Borne Legacy… not to many films are stacked up to compete against the pending juggernaut.

The post Dark Knight Rises Gets Its Poster appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

Starting September 1st (or today for new subscribers) Netflix will offer a bunch of new service levels.

DVD by mail service

• 1DVDs, Unlimited times per month $7.99
• 2DVDs, Unlimited times per month $11.99

Streaming service

• Unlimited steaming, $7.99 per month

Then, you can add the two types of service together to get your monthly cost

• 1DVDs + unlimited steaming, $15.98 / month
• 2DVDs + unlimited steaming, $19.98 / month
• 3DVDs + unlimited steaming, $23.98 / month
• 4DVDs + unlimited steaming, $29.98 / month

The most common account held on Netflix (and the same one I have) is the 2DVDs+steaming. Unfortunately, this will have a 33% price increase come September 1st, going from the current $14.99. It will also be the second price hike for 2011, as January 1st brought the prices up from $13.99 to $14.99 per month for the 2disk + steaming accounts.

I love Netflix, I really do. But a price increase of 33% is a huge jump, and it leaves me questioning how long I will maintain my account. The service is useful, but many use it in lieu of premium cable packages. At the price of $20 per month, vs $10 to add HBO to my cable package, it leaves me wondering if Netflix might be pricing themselves too high for their demographic.

Find Netflix’s Press release on the matter below.

New Unlimited DVD-Only Plan at $7.99 is the Lowest-Ever Price Offered; Unlimited Streaming Remains $7.99

LOS GATOS, Calif., July 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) announced today it is launching new unlimited DVD-only plans in the U.S. at their lowest price ever– only $7.99 a month for the 1 DVD out at-a-time plan and $11.99 a month for the 2 DVDs out at-a-time plan.

New members can sign up for these plans by going to DVD.netflix.com.
Netflix also announced it is separating its unlimited streaming and unlimited DVD plans in the U.S. to better reflect the costs of each and to give members a choice: a streaming-only plan, a DVD-only plan or the option to subscribe to both.

With this change, Netflix will no longer be offering unlimited plans that include both streaming and DVDs by mail. The unlimited streaming plan will remain at $7.99 a month. The price for getting both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be $15.98 a month ($7.99 + $7.99).

For new Netflix members, the changes will be effective immediately. For existing members, the new pricing will start for charges on or after September 1.

“Netflix members love watching instantly, but we’ve come to recognize there is still a very large continuing demand for DVDs by mail,” said Andy Rendich, Netflix Chief Service and Operations Officer. “By better reflecting the underlying costs and offering our lowest prices ever for unlimited DVD, we hope to provide a great value to our current and future DVD-by-mail members.”

Netflix introduced streaming to its popular DVD-by-mail business in 2007. Since then, membership has climbed from 6 million to 23 million in the U.S. as people have embraced the idea of watching instantly an ever-expanding library of movies and TV shows on the hundreds of consumer electronics devices capable of streaming movies and TV shows from Netflix right to members’ TVs.

About Netflix:

With nearly 24 million members in the United States and Canada, Netflix, Inc. [Nasdaq: NFLX] is the world’s leading Internet subscription service for enjoying movies and TV shows. For US$7.99 a month, Netflix members in the U.S. and Canada instantly watch unlimited movies and TV episodes streamed over the Internet to PCs, Macs and TVs. Among the large and expanding base of devices streaming from Netflix are Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PS3 consoles; an array of Blu-ray disc players, Internet-connected TVs, home theater systems, digital video recorders and Internet video players; Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, as well as Apple TV and Google TV. In all, more than 200 devices that stream from Netflix are available in the U.S. and a growing number are available in Canada.

SOURCE Netflix Inc.

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Torchwood: Miracle Day, Episode 1 premiered on Starz on Friday night, to at least one eagerly awaiting audience member. I was prepped with my popcorn and drink, and fantastically didn’t need to pause or get up even a single time. The episode starts off a little confusingly, and unfortunately they never overcome what might be so back-story confusion. We open with convicted rapist and murder  Oswald Danes laying upon the bed of execution, awaiting his lethal injection. But when the pumps fire the deadly concoction into his veins, he doesn’t die. Meanwhile, a CIA agent  Rex Matheson is investigating a hack attempt on the CIA computer systems, based off of just a single word… Torchwood. The agent is severely injured in a car wreck. He doesn’t die. No one dies. And as a very inquisitive CIA agent starts to investigate Torchwood, all traces of the British paranormal investigation group, suddenly vanish. Computer records, paper records. Everything. One man steps forth, to help. Jack Harkness, former Torchwood Agent.

The episode starts off just as strongly as I could have hoped. However, the series has already suffered from a fatal faux pas. They didn’t do a very good job of explaining the back-story of Torchwood. Essentially leaving the entire legacy of the group to a mumbled phrase, and just moving forward. I am concerned that the un-initiated American audience might not get it. Perhaps it will help to take people back to the original series, but honestly I don’t think it will. That said, the episode was awesome. In one key scene, we watch as a burned to a crisp, but not dead, man’s head is surgically detached from his body; sounds nasty, but it was just cutting one remaining tendril. Some extremely strong graphic imagery which is very relevant considering the nature of the show.

Overall, an excellent start to the series. I can’t wait for the next episode.

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The Starz Original series, Torchwood: Miracle Day begins its 10 episode run. Hopefully by now, you are just as excited about the series as I am. I specifically kept my Starz package on cable just FOR Torchwood, if that tells you anything about how primed I am for this.

I won’t go through all the details of what is known, the plot, the synopses, etc. because hopefully by now you would have read some of my other articles from the last few months. So if you don’t know about it, go click some of those links. Below you will find a selection of youtube videos for the trailers and the Starz official website for the series.

So be sure to program your DVRs or tune in your TV’s for 10:00pm (ET/PT) [8pm mountain, for my local homies] and get a big ol’ bag of popcorn ready and waiting.

Starz Official Website (link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2H-4pmQMPo

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Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon was released to a lack luster crowd, last week. Just in time for the US Fourth of July holiday. The hope was that the extended theatrical holiday weekend would amount to larger box office totals.

They were right. By the time that Monday rolled around, Transformers 3 (T3 from here on in) had amassed some $116M in ticket sales, representing a new box office record for the 4th of July holiday. Globally, T3 has gathered some $300M+ in total ticket sales. And while that seems all fine and dandy, it is actually down some 30% from the sales totals for Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen (T2).

But lets not get consumed in the in’s and out’s of ticket sales, lets talk about the film. Well, in short… it was anything but short. With a run time of 2 hours and 37 minutes, by the time that T3 was finished, your ass is aching, your head is throbbing, and your eyes are yearning for sunshine. At least that was my opinion of things.

I CHOSE to see T3 in a standard screen DTS theater, with 3d. I did not option for the available IMAX 3d, knowing what previous incarnations of the film series have brought to the screen. Namely large explosions, and complex mechanical animation sequences. Which, experience has told me, do not look good on a screen as large as IMAX.

So down I sit, in a regularly large theater, with approximately 500 seats. And considering that this was 2:20pm on a Sunday, I was extremely surprised to find that it was a near sell out crowd. As the movie starts, we find out the back story in traditional Micheal Bay style. Large sets, explosive action, digital orgies of robot carnage. We begin with the war on Cybertron, which in and of itself was a very interesting sequence. We find that a very special ship was trying to escape from Cybertron. That ship held the key to the Autobots winning the war, no matter how defeated they were at the time. But the ship didn’t make it out.

Instead, it somehow managed to crash land on the moon in the early 1960′s. We also come to find out that the Space Race of the time, truly was a race. A race to the moon to investigate and retrieve what ever it was that had crashed. Given that this year (2011) is the 41st anniversary of man landing on the moon, I thought the association was a little forced. But understandable.

We cut forward to present day, to find out hero, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) slumbering. His uber-hot supermodel girlfriend wakes him, and wishes him luck in his day… asking if he needs lunch money. Sam, who lives in an apartment in Washington DC with Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) along with 2 mini Autobots, spends his days looking for employment. The job hunt becomes a running gag through the first half of the film.

Sam, a hero in his own right, looks high and low for a job before finally landing one as a mail-room clerk under they employ of Bruce Brazos (John Malkovich), an aggressive businessmen who is completely obsessed with the color yellow. Carly is in a position of trust and power, working for an industrial mogul. No one understands Sam and Carly’s relationship; someone who is so exceptionally attractive with someone who is rather gruff, dim witted, and unemployed. Again, this becomes a running theme through the film.

By the time we have actually advanced the plot away from Sam and Carly, low and behold, 1 hour and 30 minutes have elapsed in the film. From this point on, the words “Rollercoaster” “Gratuitous Explosions” and “needless” all come to mind. If you like Michael Bay’s directorial style, then the second half of the film is for you. Otherwise, you are out of luck. Basically, once that half way point is reached, you are not even left with a chance to take a pee break, without missing something action packed and exploding.

That isn’t to say that the movie is bad, but it is definitely not deep. There are no subtexts here, aside from “protect what you love.” And if nothing else, the film is more than a little in your face. Overall, it got to be a little annoying just how many nods the screen writers seemed to be inserting into the film. LeBeouf is his usual self; fast talking and never seems to have a coherent thought about him. Huntington-Whiteley seems more like a Rolls Royce emblem than an actress, half the time she is just standing there so that the camera has something to focus on.

And the robots. Autobots and generic-never-transform-Decepticons. I believe I only counted 8 Decepticons who actually transformed in this film. Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Laserbeak, Shockwave, and 3 generic suburban-robots. Otherwise, none of the others transform. Fine, I will accept that the invading hordes are non-transforming. But there were so many other things that had me rolling my eyes.

They bleed. Seriously, the Transformers in T3 bleed red blood. They spit, and in the most annoying fashion, spit on the lens of the camera. I WISH I could impart something on future directors, which is just blatantly disregarded in films… the fourth wall. If you cgi-animate spittle splashing on the camera lens, just for effect… you are a dumbass. Watching it, it adds NOTHING to the sequence, and will break your perception of film. You suddenly become aware that there is a camera there, filming the sequences.

But… There was one thing which above ALL others bugged me to the point of infuriation. If you don’t know by now, the voice of one of the main characters, Sentinel Prime, was performed by Leonard Nimoy. And if it took you all the way to the ending credits to realize that, then I will understand. HOWEVER, if you could not recognize his voice; don’t worry. Micheal Bay inserted at least 6 sound bytes from Star Trek, PLUS had Sentinel repeat some of Spock’s (Leonard Nimoy’s character in the original Star Trek TV series) most iconic lines from the series and films.

Including; I … always shall be your friend, The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and Engage transport. The last one, really bugged the shit out of me, because it is essentially a bastardization.. And he is not saying it to anyone. He is standing all by himself, on screen.

Ok. Yes. The film pissed me off. Yes, it left me with rage and headaches. Yes, it was long and drawn out. But unfortunately, it was still better than the second. The robot testicles were either not present, or smaller. The characters were predictable, but were put into situations that supported their personalities. The fight sequences were awesome. The sound, and action was above average.

Overall, the film gets a pass. I wouldn’t give it a 10/10, but I also wouldn’t give it a 0/10. I think, it was better than average, but still not as good as the first Transformers. If you haven’t cast your money’s into the Michael Bay pool yet, then perhaps go ahead. I hear he just had an Olympic sized pool installed, just for those left over quarters.

6.5/10 with a conditional -1 for overusing sound bytes from Star Trek.

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It’s where the real money is to be made.

Well, Rovio, the company who brought you Angry Birds, that most omnipresent game for just about every portable device imaginable, has hired on former Marvel chairman David Maisel, to help craft the company into  the next media empire.

Maisel, whom you may or may not know, was the chairman at Marvel who brought around the restructuring of the business to support the Marvel Studios division which brought us such gems as Iron Man, Hulk, and more recently Thor. Maisel was essential in Marvel securing over $500M in investment capitol to to produce Iron Man, the film which really changed how Marvel Studio’s operated.

During the Disney acquisition of 2009, Maisel stepped down as head. With his association with Rovio, it begs the question of which direction Rovio will be trying to go with the singular license. Rovio, who I will admit, has created a very good game, doesn’t really have anything more under it’s belt. Taking a big risk that in 5 years (leadin and production time for a major CGI film) that people will still be interested in Rovio’s products, is risky at best.

Consumer’s are picky. Just look at how quickly Pokemon went out of the major spotlight (yes, it is still around. But I am talking about the Star it was in the mid late 90′s). We as consumers are always looking for new things, and Angry Birds may not be that thing for too much longer.

(source)

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So far, Transformers 3 has earned a whopping $379M globally, which seem huge, but actually lags behind Transformers 2 by a paltry 6%. Unfortunately, the single day totals paint a different picture. Demand was just not as high for this one. Transformers 2 broke into the box office with a 1-day total ticket sales high of $62M and change (for reference, that was $10M behind the #1 single day record holder…. Twilight: New Moon). Transformers 3, was lucky to have broken $30M.

But those ticket sales were consistent across the weekend, without having a single day high, and immediate drop off, which help T3 get to it’s $116M record.

Having gone and contributed my $20 to that total, I can only say this… Good lord that was a long movie. I had a 6 hour headache after leaving the theaters. And couldn’t they have found a better screen writer? Seriously, we didn’t need to get all of the “Spock” references to know that it was Leonard Nimoy playing Sentinel Prime. When I past 6 direct quotes from Star Trek, I checked out and stopped caring.

‘Splosions were cool though.

(source) (source)

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That’s right, the psudeo-bigraphical-post-zombie-appocolypse thriller has move from “pre-production” to production. The attached images were taken on site in Isreal which is some what surprising in an of itself. You see, the first sequence in the book, is basically the first sequence that is being shot for the film. As the plague starts, Isreal closes it’s borders to anyone and everyone who is not of Isrealie descent. Ever. Like if your great great grandfather’s sister was an Isreali, you could get it.

But in order to enter, you must pass through a guntlet of dogs, who have been trained to sniff out the infected…

Pretty awesome to see this being held true. And, as you can clearly see…. Brad Pitt is definately attached.  According to AICN, he may infact be playing the part of Max Brooks (the Author). Time will tell….

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NO INCLUDED, Star Trek Animated

Well, except the one’s I wanted. DS9 and the Animated Series have not been put up at this time.  But still, good job Netflix for finally following through with a promise made, I believe, Last Year. Of course, the amount of time it would take to digitize the entire collection. And a quick look through reveals that urgency might have been the predominating mode. Even the first season of the original series is missing. But, at least what’s there is… in HD! And it’s the newer CGI version. TNG however, is not in HD.

So if there are any doubts about what I will be doing over the next few weeks, then those doubts should be calmed. I will be sitting idle, waiting to get the chance to watch the ONLY Star Trek series I haven’t seen all the way through… DS9.

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First a continued primer for the series, just in case you have never heard of it….

Torchwood, is an anagram for Doctor Who. The Torchwood Institute was established by Queen Victoria in 1879, after an encounter with the time traveling Doctor, of Doctor Who fame. The Queen saw a potential threat from extraterrestrials, and their potential manipulation of mankind and human history. All extraterrestrials were the target of Torchwood, including the now infamous Doctor.

Torchwood is a secret organization that operates outside of the law. All laws. And just the merest mention of the name grants passage into nearly ever secure investigation. During the raids of World War II, a time traveling agent encountered the Doctor. Harkness, who was masquerading as Captain Jack Harkness, a US volenteer with the RAF, has a strange encounter with the TARDIS, and now… can’t die. Ever.

When Harkness became aligned with the Torchwood institue, he shifted much of it’s focus away from the doctor, towards protecting the Earth. Harkness has a dark heart, and a singular resolve. But his nature is interesting. Being from the future, he is beyond out dated thoughts of heterosexuality or homosexuality. He will nail anything that moves. And does.

The Torchwood series started when Police Constable Gwen Cooper happened upon Torchwood conducting an investigation into a gruesome death. Witnessing the use of alien technology to momentarily revive the slain victim, Cooper starts her own investigation into Torchwoods Cardiff (Whales) location. When she finds all that she needs, she is asked to join their team. That’s where the Torchwood series begins.

Over the course of 3 seasons, and 32 episodes, Torchwood became notable for it’s edgier take on the Doctor Who universe. Unafraid to use sex and violence, Torchwood especially gained notoriety for it’s 5 episode 3rd season miniseries, Torchwood: Children of Earth.

Children of Earth focused on an alien presence coming to earth, claiming that in exchange for 10% of each nations children, the aliens (known as the 456) would not destroy all of humanity. The 456 had visited earth before, and in exchange for 12 children, they gave a cure for the Indonesian Flu, which could have killed 25 Million.  The 456 use powers to control children, freezing them in their tracks, and making them all chant in unison, “We are coming.”

It was a great series, very dark and very Torchwood. But excellently produced. When Starz announced that they have bought the series, I jumped for joy. Starz, with good money backing has been known for producing excellent television series, such as Spartacus and Camelot.

Below, you will find the 11 minute Starz Studio’s behind the scenes of the creation of Torchwood: Miracle Day. Hopefully it is enough to wet your whistle, and get you tuning in on July 8th.

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It all started a few months ago now. When “The Playboy Club” was picked up by NBC for national broadcast, KSL (being owned and ‘operated’ by the LDS church in Salt Lake City) refused to air the series. They cited that the values that the station stands for, are in complete opposition to the content that the show would bring. The refusal is not the first time that KSL has refused to go along with their network affiliation, and have a history of blocking shows from airing locally.

KMYU, which broadcasts out of Saint George is picked up by Comcast and Dish Network, and DirectV; although their native OTA broadcast signal is probably not strong enough to reach all of Salt Lake (from personal experience). They are owned by Four Point Media, which also owns Salt Lake broadcaster KUTV. The switch over to a competing channel is a one off, and these sorts of agreements do not happen very often.

Regardless, if you want skimpy 60′s playboy melodrama, then this is good news for you. Personally, I didn’t have any interest in watching it in the first place, so nothing won or lost for me.

(source)

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Now before you start going all animemoo or mangamoo on me, know that the film is actually going to be created by Warner Brothers Japan. The script isn’t done, the cast isn’t set, or the budget finalized, so take everything with a grain of salt. Kenshin, the classic anime and manga series about a sword wielding samurai, wandering in search of atonement for the sins he committed as an assassin during a great war. In my opinion, it is a similar premise to Zatoichi.

From Variety,

Takeru Sato will star as the title character Kenshin Himura, a samurai who vows to end his bloody career as an assassin and wander the country protecting the weak.

The pic is skedded to start shooting in July with a 2012 release penciled in. Warner is also releasing.

The helmer will be Keishi Otomo, a director of dramas for pubcaster NHK, who made his theatrical bow with the 2009 corporate drama ”The Vulture” (Hagetaka).

The cast will be unveiled at a later date.

Takeru Sato, who has worked on live action adaptations of Beck and Kamen Rider, is rumored to be cast as Kenshin in the film. But at the moment, not very much is known about the film. If you have seen any good live action adaptations, then you know that they typically fit into one of two categories; Awesome or Horrible. Awesome example: Casshern. Horrible example: Sailor Moon.

(source)

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The mega release is a blessing for Star Wars fiction fans, who include myself. Some of the novels, I would strongly argue, are better than the original films which started the franchise. Lo though we trudge through the realm of “Before A New Hope” but the time span that comes immediately after ROTJ represented some truly epic fiction. Of particular importance is the book series that started it all, Timothy Zahn’s “Thrawn Trilogy”.

The Thrawn Trilogy was the first officially sanctioned spin-off books, which were not penned by Lucas or someone working for Lucas. If you have any interest in the Star Wars universe, this is the place to start. The three books, Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command, were the foundation for the expanded Star Wars universe. As such, they are treated as Canon within all of the book series that followed (even in some respects the prequel movies)

So if you are a Kindle user, or have the Kindle app, you may want to take a look for these new additions to the library. And at the low price point of $7.99 each (for most) they are still cheaper than buying a paperback copy.

(source)

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As one of the stars of the 2009 hit Zombieland, Emma Stone has had more than her fare share of screen time with Zombies. Now she has been offered the lead role of Elizabeth Bennet in the big screen adaptation, or the original Pride and Predjuice (penned by Jane Austen in 1813) that was adapted to include something more…  Interesting, in 2009 by Seth Grahame-Smith.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, takes the original Austen snore, and incorporates Zombies into the story. The humorous book about a quaint English countryside which is plagued by ‘the stricken’ and brought to its knees. Bennett, the hero of the story, is taught by her father (along with her 4 sisters) into becoming a zombie fighting force, which sets out to eradicate the menace. According to Variety, Natalie Portman is attached to be at least partially involved in the production.

Natalie Portman, Annette Savitch, Richard Kelly, Ted Hamm and Sean McKittrick are producing through Portman’s Handsomecharlie Films and Kelly’s Darko Films.

Emma Stone, is a perfect fit for the part, in my opinion. And perhaps this will make for an excellent cult classic.

(source)

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According to the LA Times, Hulu, is putting itself up for sale. The ubiquitous Internet site, which streams past and present television series, has decided that there is no time like the present. Hulu is part owned by News Corp., Walt Disney Co., NBCUniversal parent Comcast Corp. and Providence Equity, and while a price has not yet been determined, the purchase would bring with it a slew of potential caveats.

The popular online television site, which has been the cause of much consternation in Hollywood, has retained investment banks Guggenheim Partners and Morgan Stanley to facilitate a potential sale, according to people familiar with the matter. Prospective bidders have received notice that the sales process would begin in about two weeks.

Hulu’s largest issue to date has been with regards to licensing. Most media sources have opted to allow a small percentage of shows to be shown on Hulu, and to use advertising embedded within the video streams and commercial type breaks before, during, and after the video has been viewed. Also, in mid 2010 Hulu started to offer ‘Hulu Plus’ which would allow access to a larger catalog of shows, and remove much of the advertising, for a small fee.

Hulu was originally thought to be offering an IPO valued at $2Billion some time in 2013, but with this recent move it is much more likely that Hulu will dissolve into a different brand, or be encompassed by a different service, than to continue in its current format. While not necessarily bad news, the sale might show signs of the rocky DRM foundation which Hulu is built on

(source)

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Little Red Envelope

In my mailbox this week:
True Grit

Release Year: 2010

Staring:
Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin

Another Oscar candidate, that I just didn’t get.

Ok, it’s true. I am not the biggest fan of the western genre. I believe I discussed that fact, way back on my review of The Good, The Bad, and The Weird. But I gave myself a challenge, to watch all of the Oscar candidates for 2010/2011 this year, and so… I must. This week, True Grit. Which came out in 2010 and starred Jeff Bridges in the ‘iconic’ role of Reuben J. “Rooster” Cogburn.

Originally the film adaptation of the 1968 novel (penned by Charles Portis) was adapted into a film in 1969, which stared John Wayne as the part of Rooster. The film is considered in many eyes to be Waynes best performance and actually won him his only Academy Award for the portrayal. I will admit, that I have not seen this version, nor have I read the original novel.

All I can go on, is the 2010 version. And having garnered 10 Academy Award nominations ( Best Picture, Best Director (Joel and Ethan Coen), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (Jeff Bridges), Best Supporting Actress (Hailee Steinfeld), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing,) it seemed sure to have won a slew of awards… However, it didn’t walk away with ANY of the final Academy Awards. Odd.

Well, not really in my opinion. But first, a synopsis.

One cold winter’s night, a farm hand and drifter, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) shoots and Kills young Mattie Ross’s father. Mattie sets out to bring Chaney to justice, by bullet or by law. But despite the fact that Chaney is sought by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (La-Beef) [Matt Damon] under a group of different aliases. But Mattie contracts with Rooster Cogburn to go after Chaney, for $100 dollars. Under certain conditions.

First, that Chaney is brought to justice for the crime of killing her father. Second, that Mattie is there when he is brought to justice. A stern willed little girl, Mattie has had almost no experience out in the wilds, sans a fox hunting trip with her father. But Cogbrun agrees, only to depart without Mattie in tow. Mattie, astride her ‘pony’ ‘blackie’ sets off in pursuit, and finally meets up with Cogburn (who has taken LaBeouf along because he offers a greater reward than Mattie’s $100). Together they hunt for Chaney, and his gang, the Ned Pepper gang.

Perhaps one of my quickest synopsis, but there really isn’t that much to the film. Yes, it is very well filmed. Yes, Bridges is amazing. Yes, Steinfeld plays a very convincing little Mattie Ross. But really, other than that this is perhaps the worst incarnation of mumble-vision I have ever seen. I understand that it is all part of the character, a point at which they themselves poke fun of when LaBoeuf nearly bites his own tongue off. But still, the largely, the only lines spoken through out the entire movie which were understandable, were those spoken by Mattie.

It isn’t that the film was Bad, it just wasn’t Good. And perhaps that is a ramification of my non-agreeing-personality with the Western genre. I don’t know. The story itself was overtly simple. Girls’ father is killed. Girl wants revenge. Girl hires bounty hunter. Bounty hunter finds target. Target gets killed. The end. Dundada, I just saved you two hours.

I guess the real issue I have is that I don’t understand some of the Academy’s choices with film. Is it just because this was a remake of a John Wayne film? Is that the only reason that it deserved a nod? I mean, 10 nominations is a hell of a lot. Best Picture, I do not agree with for certain. Direction? No. I don’t agree with that either.

I am a well stated Coen brother’s despiser, I believe I have mentioned that fact as well. You see, the Coen brothers (to me) have this habit of saying (with their films) “Hey, check this out. Look. See what we did there? Yeah, that’s cause we are the Coen brothers. It’s Jeff Bridges. Yeap, again. You don’t get it cause you aren’t us.” Why does everyone think the Big Lebowski is such a great film? Something I just don’t get. All their films are decidedly “Coen Brothers.” They have a very particular look, and feel. They play with the character’s in a certain way that makes all of their films feel similar. Think an independent version of Michael Bay. No, no explosions… but you can still recognize the look and feel of all his movies.

Best adapted screenplay, ehh. I can’t really comment on this having never read the original novel. Best Actor, Jeff Bridges. Ehh, again. Personally I think that this was an ok choice. However, having not seen all the nominated films yet, I can only say that Bridges wasn’t really acting all that out of typical character. He was gruff, and mumble, and if changing your speech pattern is all it takes for a nod, then Colin Firth was a better choice in The King’s Speech.

Best Supporting Actress, Hailee Steinfeld. Ok, this on I can perhaps agree with. She was really good, but perhaps bordering on over-acting. But it works in the roll, because she is supposed to be this little 14-year old girl, who is out of her element,  but acting as if she has all the power because her family has a good lawyer. It was a fairly good role for a little girl to play. Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, none of these I would really agree with either. The thing about costumes from historical periods is that there really isn’t anything new about it. They are all supposed to be real outfits that are potentially based on REAL OUTFITS. Maybe there should be an award for best seamstress.

Sound, ah. This is really my baby. Sound is something I love to nit pick. Sound Mixing and Editing have to meet one very stringent criteria. If you notice it, then something is wrong. Sounds a little off kilter, doesn’t it. But really, sound is this fundamental underlay to the film. It’s what brings the story, action, and visual representations off of the screen, and into your head. Seeing an action is only one part of a sequence, the other is hearing the action. A gun shot has very little effect without the reverberation of the report through the canyon backdrop. I will have to say that True Grit did an excellent job with sound. Capturing the open spaces and condensing those spatial emptinesses down into a palatable presentation. But, just because something was done well, doesn’t mean it was done best. And personally, Inception and Tron Legacy were better choices for sound. Inception took both, and was well deserved.

Ok, True Grit wasn’t the best film of the year. It wasn’t a bad film either. It had a very short story arch, that somehow seemed stretched over 2 full hours. If anything, it was a little long in some spots, and too short in others. Half of the film was spent just getting ready to head into the Choctaw territories, and the other half inside. Bridges was good, but not excellent. Matt Damon, was unfortunately, Matt Damon. If you were a fan of the book, or the original film, then perhaps this film is for you. As someone who has seen neither, I feel comfortable in saying that it was definitely not for me.

How painful was it: It took us two nights because the first half was so damn slow.

Rating: 4/10. True Grit was obviously not made for me, and so I did not enjoy it. Plus, Coen Brother’s films automatically get a (-1).

The Wife’s Retort: I agree. It really wasn’t that good. It wasn’t Bad, but it wasn’t good.

The post LRE #51: True Grit appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

According to AICN, Crowe is in talks to take on the role of Jor-El, the father of Kal-El; aka… Clark Kent.. aka, Superman. Crowe would take over the role from the last good veteran actor to dress in fancy glowing white overalls, Marlon Brando.

If true, then the all-star casting for the show is working exclusively in the B-Range. Jonathan Kent is slated to be played by Kevin Costner, and with Russell Crowe taking on the alternate father-type figure of Jor-El, we can only surmise as to the direction that the film will be going. Crowe, 47, would actually make a half-way decent Jor-El. Brando was a pretty close 54 when he acted the role during the 1978 big-budget version.

Also in this new reboot, are Michael Shannon as Zod,  Amy Adams as Lois,  Henry Cavill (a newcomer) as Clark.

(source)

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Little Red Envelope

In my mailbox this week:
X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X-Men 3: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men: First Class

Release Year: 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2011

Staring: Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender

A week long marathon, culminates in an epic review! A bit late.

While the Xmen movies can’t really be looked at as being one contiguous film series, they do represent two different sets of films that could potentially be one giant story arc. Maybe grouping them together will help in making sense out of the entire series. With the new Xmen: First Class now in theaters, I thought that no time was better to watch a good old anthology of some of my favorite movies.

Now, I wasn’t a comic book freak growing up. I had read my fair share, but it wasn’t until I reached my late teens that I finally started to read the series that I had always heard about. I started off pretty simple, with Hulk. It was right about the time that the Ang Lee Hulk film was being released, and despite the fact that even mentioning that film in the wrong crowd, could result in a serious pounding to my head, it never the less was my jumping off point.

We now sit 11 years after the initial adaptation of the X Men comic book series, into the realm of major motion pictures, and while it has been a roller coaster of a ride, with each incarnation we stray further away from the awesomeness that the original screenings brought with it. The entire series to date, has encompassed 5 movies; the original 2000 blockbuster, X-Men. 2003 brought X2: X-Men United, arguably the best of the series. 3 years later, and we got X-Men 3: Last Stand, seen as the worst of the bunch. 2009 brought us a reboot of sorts, where the ‘most popular’ character was given a back story, in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. And a new reboot, or even further back origin story was created with the 2011 film, X-Men: First Class.

The X-Men films are set in a world almost identical to our own, where we could believe that the events that unfold are secretly happening, and we are just unaware. A world where genetic mutation has granted a select few individuals special abilities. Some have amazing psychic powers, while others are able to manipulate their bodies or even their physical presence. Other’s still are able to harness external powers such as the air, or water, or fire, and manipulate them to suit their will. There are even stories of some, who can walk through walls…

Doctor Charles Xavier, a paraplegic British man, whom himself possesses some of these mutant powers, created a school where mutant children could learn and grow without facing the ridicule and scrutiny of a prejudice world. Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, is what it says, but also has a hidden secret. Xavier knows that some times, a little more force is necessary to ensure the safety of the world, not only for those mutant children, but for the rest of humanity.

So was born the X-Men. An elite group of mutants who’s powers and abilities have been honed to the point of a razor. Who have learned to not only harness and control their powers, but to use those powers to accomplish specific goals. To protect, to defend, and to fight for what is good. And while a specific mantra was never revealed, they seek ‘the peaceful coexistence of humans and mutants.’

When the comics were penned, there were originally 5 X-Men.

• Doctor Charles Xavier, code name ‘Professor X’
• Hank McCoy, code name ‘Beast’
• Scott Summers, code name ‘Cyclops’
• Robert Drake, code name ‘Iceman’
• Warren Worthington III, code name ‘Angel’
• Jean Grey, code name ‘Marvel Girl’

But that was in 1963, and over the course of 40 years a great number of things change. But largely, these original characters have always been the core of the X-Men comic book series. In the mid 1970 the series received a small reboot. The reprinting of many of the story arc’s from the first 7 years of runs, was modified to introduce new characters. In 1975 the most popular character (and the basis character for the new films) Wolverine was introduced. Professor X created a new group of X-Men, to now include:

• Ororo Munroe, code name Storm
• James “Logan” Howlett, code name Wolverine
• Kurt Wagner, code name Nightcrawler
• Sean Cassidy, code name Banshee
• Piotr Rasputin, code name Colossus
• John Proudstar, code name Thunderbird
• Shiro Yoshida, code name Sunfire

And over the course of some 530+ comics, the plots, characters, villains, and powers of all of the characters have been heavily modified to suit anything that the artist desires. Marvel Girl, became Ms Marvel, and then Jean Grey, and the Phoenix. Characters came, went, died, or just disappeared. Recreated as different entities, recycled as it were. The entire series was rebooted, and re crafted a few times, and eventually brought to the big screen to fill the desires of a huge swath of comic book fans, and action movie fanatics.

In order to try and write this review, I will do the following; First, I will address each film individually, and sequentially. Then I will try and tie them all in together, and see just how well they fit. or, if they can be made to fit together at all.

The first film in the series was met with great anticipation; not just from me but from rabid fans. The X-Men comic book series has seen it’s share of adaptations, but until 2000 they had all been confined to either character stories or cartoon animations (although, there are some foreign ‘adaptations’ that could be argued as being film versions. Let’s not get into those.)

The story can be argued to be focused around 2 different X-Men; Rogue (Anna Paquin) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). Rogue is a young girl, who recently discovered that when she touches people, their life force is drained. She accidentally puts her boyfriend into a coma, while the two share an intimate kiss. Unable to deal with the pressures that result, Marie aka Rogue, takes flight and soon finds herself in the Canadian Rockies.

As she takes shelter in a bar, she witnesses a cage fight between Wolverine and other bar patrons. Wolverine, with his mutant power to heal from almost any injury dominates the fights. The added benefit of having a metal skeleton and retractable claws doesn’t hurt any either. As Wolverine leaves the bar after being ostracized for his abilities, Rogue hops a lift. But soon the pair are happened upon by Sabertooth, a villain who is trying to capture one of the two heroes. But Sabertooth is fought off by Cyclops and Storm, just in the nick of time.

The story continues to evolve, and reflects that the changing attitudes towards mutants is approaching a climax, and that new legislation is being introduced to license and register each and every mutant, and to catalog those mutants individual unique powers. Having lived through the Jewish Holocaust, Eric Lehnsherr (aks Magneto) says enough, and begins a revolt against the entities in power. By capturing the figurehead of the mutant registration movement, one Senator Kelly, Magneto seeks to level the playing field.

The original X-Men is a classic. Yes, it has been over 10 years since it was introduced, and there are times when the story is a little weak, but overall it is a fantastic movie. It’s one of those films from which you see a story being brought to life, a story that you have always known. As I said before, I wasn’t a comic book nerd. But I understood more than enough to get right into the movie, and pop a virtual chubby that first time that you see Wolverine’s claws extending out from his hands.

Visually, the film doesn’t hold up to well. The special effects do seem a little dated, and the acting can be considered over the top. Particularly by the two whiniest characters in the show, Rogue and Cyclops. They were infuriating to watch, but the interaction between Wolverine and Cyclops, and the not so hidden attraction Wolverine has for Scott’s wife, Jean Grey (Famke Jensen) is a lot of fun. The verbal exchanges come off as a little rehearsed but they are still worth watching.

The true stars of this film are obviously Magneto, Professor X, and Wolverine. Ian Mcellen is an incredible actor, and apart from his pantomiming the gestures of magneto, gives an excellent performance. Patrick Stewart as Professor X is perhaps one of the most perfect casting in a film, of all time. Perhaps a benchmark, by which others can be measured. You close your eyes, and are described a professor X (Middle aged, bald, gentle but tough demeanor, and a powerful presence) and Stewart comes right to mind.

And then there is Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Jackman only had 1 significant role prior to landing the iconic part (Curly in a production of Oklahoma). Jackman brought his A-game, and because he did such an excellent job, became a very well respected and noted actor. Future rolls of Wolverine, and other movie projects have kept him working, and even to this day he turns out excellent looking films (Real Steel, I am looking at you!)

X-Men was a great film, and an awesome start to a fun and exciting film series. If you haven’t seen it, you probably should watch it. Yes, it has aged and some of the elements are a little dated, but overall the film should stand the test of time. As a launching point for the series, you can’t really ask for too much more.

This was the one we were waiting for. Lots of fighting, lots of struggle. Internal drama, and introduction to some of the more interesting characters. While the original focused much of its attention on Rogue, the focus of X2 is pretty much square in the butter zone. Wolverine and Jean, Magneto and Mystique, and then.. William Stryker.

The story continues right where the last one left off. Magneto has been imprisoned inside of a plastic prison, unable to gather enough metal to manipulate in order to break himself free. William Stryker, who developed the prison, has secretly been using a mutant whose brain secretions are a powerful toxin, that renders the victim very susceptible to suggestion and manipulation.

Strykerwants all mutants dead. No if, ands or buts. While we think that he seeks his goals to protect the country he lives in, it may in fact be for more nefarious reasons. Stryker is more than willing to use and control mutants, as long as it helps him reach his goal. And after having used the neural drug on Magneto, Stryker finds out all he needs to know in order to bring down the Xavier school.

Wolverine, has been off trying to find his own back story. Wolverine remembers only tiny little flashes of who he was before his body was lined with adamantium, the metal which gives his a nearly indestructible frame and claws, but as Wolverine returns home to Xavier’s school, the school is raided by special agents under the employ of Stryker. Tasked with capturing everyone possible, children included, Wolverine and some of the more advanced students put up a valiant fight to protect the school. But they are ultimately defeated, and forced to flee.

Since Professor X has been captured Stryker, and is being forced to use Cerebro, the uber-powerful psychic computer, to hunt down and kill all the worlds mutants, the X-Men and Magneto’s team of mutants must join forces in order to stop Stryker. And the truth to Stryker, might shed some light on Wolverines past.

In perhaps one of the best scenes, Bobby (aka, Iceman) has a confrontation with his parents, in which his parents ask if ‘he ever tried, just not being a mutant.’ A very clear reference to the persecution that many homosexual’s have been subjected to. This scene alone received significant recognition for helping Gay Rights.

But let’s not sway from the point. X2 is AWESOME. It is exactly what you would come to want from an X Men movie, and over the series of 5, X2 stands above the rest as being the high point. It gave you just enough of everything you wanted. Excellent action sequences, perfectly choreographed fight scenes, the right kind of representation of mutant powers, well blended CGI mattes and special effects, and even dialog and plot/story are head and shoulders above the first. X2 was the right X Men movie at the right time, and brought the life to the series that it still rides upon today.

For every mountain, there must be a valley. Perhaps the ride was too high, and the roller coaster just needed to reach the low. Regardless, for everything X2 was, X3 was not. It was almost like they said, ‘Ok, everything that was in X2 times it by 10.’

10x the mutants, 10x the fighting, 10x the blah blah blah. Well, we also got 10x the crap. It was just too much. And while I can understand what they were trying to say and do with it, the results were medial at best. It’s a delicate line, one one side is not enough of something, and on the other side is too much. In the case of X3, I think the problem really stems from having too many unnamed and named mutants.

X3 continues where X2 left off, with Scott brooding his bloody red eyes out about having lost Jean to a tidal wave at Alkaline Lake (spoiler, sorry.) and Wolverine tries to comfort him by telling Cyclops that he wasn’t the only one who lost somebody that day. Scott goes all emo, and hops on his motorcycle and drives some 5000 miles in an afternoon to the site of Jeans demise. And after a rage filled eye-explosion, Jean rises from the ashes of her death, reincarnated as the Phoenix. Well, sort of.

Meanwhile, Worthington labs, has used a mutant boy’s (Leach) special abilities to synthesize a ‘cure’ to mutation. Leach’s powers suppress other mutants powers, within a finite distance from himself. Hank McCoy, aka Beast (Kelsey Grammar) goes to make sure that everything is on the up and up at Worthington labs, and finds his own blueish appearance repressed by Leach’s powers.

Magneto, is much less impressed. During an attempt to rescue Mystique from a mobile prison, she is hit with a weaponized version of the cure, and turned into a normal human being. Magneto, ultimately outraged by the weaponization of the cure into something designed to target mutants so specifically decides that enough is enough, and gears up for a war against the humans. Meanwhile Jean suffers from split personality, and can’t find the balance between Jean Grey and the Phoenix, a nearly uncontrollable source of physic power. In a visually awesome fight scene, a key character is killed and Jean decides to join Magneto to his own ends.

Wolverine and the rest of the X-Men must make ‘a last stand’ against Magneto as he tries to destroy Leach and stop the source of the cure weapon. And so Magneto unleashes a few hundred random mutants to fight against 5 or 6 X Men.

Over the top. Too many characters, and not enough time invested in any one person. And too much time on the insignificant ones. X3 started off on a strong point, explaining a little back history of Jean Grey, Charles and Eric, when Jean was being recruited. Some cool use of CGI to digitally youth-enize the ageing professor X and Eric. But from that point, it just starts going down hill. The plot gets hazy, and there is WAY too much time invested on whiny characters. I seriously wanted to punch my screen each and every time that I saw cyclops. I just started to wonder if his tears could be real. Wouldn’t they just vaporize?

And there is one character, Arclight. I couldn’t tell for the life of me if she was the ugliest woman on the planet, or the ugliest feminine man in existence. If it weren’t for the bra under a mesh t shirt, I would have been left confused, but that kind of lack of attention to the physical appearance of a character just left me confused. While I understood that Jean was fighting against the Phoenix the entire film, Famke Jensen looked more like she just couldn’t be bothered to get the make-up before that day’s shoot. Each and every day.

The saving grace, if it could be called that, was Wolverine. Still bringing his A-game, he was as strong of a character in X3 as he has been in any of the other films. This time, a new group of X Men has been assembled to assist him, Beast, Iceman, Kitty Pride, Storm, and my personal favorite, Colossus round out the crew. Rogue has gone all whiny and decided that the fact she can’t wear gloves all her life has made her life unlivable, and does something stupid. Honestly, I couldn’t care less.

X3 sucked, in comparison to the rest of the series. Each film has it’s own problems, but none of them are as clear and present as the story in X3. The choice to focus on the Phoenix seemed like trying to make a mole hill out of a mountain. While we sort of get the fact that she is this all powerful entity, the closest we actually get is Eric saying ‘what have I done.’ On a plus side, at least being at the low point gives you vantage to look up. If you HAVE to skip one of the series, this is it. It was still decent enough to watch, but just isn’t as good as the rest.

X3, was a success, in that it didn’t flop. It generated just over 2x it’s cost to produce. The panning largely came from the critics and the fans, but the general population largely liked what they saw. As of this writing, it generated the highest box office totals for the entire series, with X2 coming in a close second. Adjusted to the cost of production, X3 just barely made 2x the production cost, vs nearly 3x for X2 and X-Men.

But with a relatively high cost (~$200M) the decision was made to tone things back a little bit. The working premise was that each of the main X-Men characters would get their own back story production, where they could be the focus of either a new singular movie, or perhaps a small film arc. The obvious candidate was the most well received character in the entire series, Wolverine. The second character to receive the treatment would be Magneto. That will be discussed in the X-Men: First Class section.

But Wolverine. We know somethings about him, but outside of having read the comic book series, much is still grey. We know that he is former military, and that he has had some advanced training. His mutant powers of recovery, were augmented by Stryker (see X2) by grafting Adamantium onto his skeletal structure. The combination of Metal and healing made Wolverine an almost indestructible soldier.

But in the current day and age, Wolverine remembers only a small bit of who he is, and how he got there. Origins: Wolverine is this story. It starts off with the very day that Logan discovers he has a mutant power. Set in the 19th century in Canada, James (aka Wolverine) is struggling with a fever. James’ father, is soon killed in a fit of jealous rage by the grounds keeper, Thomas Logan, another James’ best friend Victor watches. With his dying breath, Thomas reveals that he (and not the man whom James thought [played by Jackman]) is actually his father. James goes running off into the woods, after his mutant powers manifested during the rage attack. Victor comes with, and both of them decide to live life on their own.

During a truly epic montage, we find James and Victor fighting along side each other in battle after battle. Fighting in the trenches in WWI. Storming the beaches in WWII, Battling the Vietcong in Vietnam. We quickly learn that both Victor and James are unaging, and contain not only mutant powers, but their own personal demons. Victor, unable to control his own rage is always brought to the brink, before being rescued emotionally by James.

Eventually, James and Victor are recruited by William Stryker in the form of the Team X program; a group of mutants who operates with questionable morals. When one particular fight goes south, James says enough and leaves. He leaves behind everything, including his brother in arms, Victor (Liev Schreiber). A number of years later, Logan (James’ new identity) is living his his girlfriend on the edge of a Canadian mountain, working as a lumberjack. Happy. Until Stryker comes to collect him, and tell him that someone is killing all the members of his old team.

Logan is recruited to undergo a very experimental procedure to graft a rare and almost indestructible metal onto his skeleton, in order to give him enough strength to stand up to Sabertooth, his brother Victor. But as we know from X2, Stryker is wicked, and the truth of the Weapon X program comes to light.

Wolverine was a great movie in its own right. The tighter focus on a single character really lends itself well to the show type. Pretty much a step back from the hodgepodge of characters that X3 suffered from. Add in the casting of a few great actors (Jackman, obviously. But also Liev Schreiber, Will.I.Am, Ryan Renolds, and Kevin Durant) and you get a really well played out movie. The special focus of the dynamic between Wolverine and Sabertooth is excellent, and the back story (while not necessarily true to the characters) was enough to be convincing. If nothing else, Wolverine created a new story arc, which will be further enhanced with the 2012 release of “The Wolverine” the sequel that follows a now amnesiac Logan and his journey’s around the world.

If there was any single element that could be considered to be great about Origins: Wolverine, it really was the focus on a single character. Everyone has a story, and by having too many people, those stories all get blended together. With Origins: Wolverine, we only see one story, and one story line. The story line plays out like it should, with a Hero, a villain, and a dilemma. Simple and concise. But they managed to throw in just enough of the awesome extra sauce to make the story compelling. Wolverine get’s it right.

It isn’t without its problems though. There are times where the action can get a little ridiculous. I mean, jumping a 1200lb Harley over a helicopter is pretty silly. The makup on Kevin Durant looks just about as fake as Wolverine walking away from an explosion. That said, there is one thing that I loved, which was a concept also incorporated into the First Class movie. Take a real event (in this case, the 3-Mile Island meltdown) and retell it. So that the story is true, but the circumstances are slightly different. What if 3-Mile was caused by Wolverine, and not by a faulty control valve? I loved this, and would love to see more films incorporate this ‘secret history’ type of approach.

Overall Wolverine was a win for me. It wasn’t as good as X2, but it can stand on it’s own legs. If this had been the first of the series, it would have been just as good. Oh, and Liev Schreiber kicks ass as Victor.

Back to the drawing board. A reboot, perhaps. Perhaps not. An alternate time line? Not so much. It’s a little confusing to place First Class inside of the continuum that has already been created. If 1962 is the basic date for the film, then the characters should have aged around 50 years in linear time between First Class and X3. So if Charles was 30 in First Class, he should be around 80 in X3. Maybe we can make this work.

First class is the origin story for the entire franchise, we are supposed to believe that this is the start, and other than Logan’s back story there is nothing that occurs before this moment in time (within the X-Men universe). The first sequence in the film is a shot for shot recreation of Eric battle with magnetism against the gates of his concentration camp. A recreation of the original opening scene from the first X-Men movie, and a very power demonstration of how and when a mutant can manifest his powers. If it weren’t for some small and subtle differences, I would have through the entire sequence was recycled footage.

A jump in the time line later, we find a young Charles Xavier woken within his home to find his mother rummaging through the refrigerator. Charles, who has already manifested his powers and has learned a great deal of control over them, find that the woman in his kitchen is not who she says. A young Raven, later known as Mystique changes from into a young and nude blue child. Charles offers her his friendship, and we fast forward yet again.

Charles (James’ Macavoy) is now finishing his PhD at Oxford, and Raven has accompanied him to England posing as his sister. Charles is an attractive and somewhat conceited young man, who uses his mental powers to help manipulate situations that present themselves, but never lets them be abused. Raven, posing as an attractive blonde American girl of mid to late teens (Jennifer Lawrence) just wants to fit in, without having to hide her true self.

When the CIA agent Moira Mactaggart, stumbles across a secret deal between a underworld kingpin, Sabeastian Shaw, and NATO, she see’s things that she can’t readily explain. Namely Emma Frost (January Jones) turning into a human diamond. Moira seeks out Charles trying to gain more information of mutations, and how they may be changing humanity. The CIA covertly enlists the help of Charles and Raven to form a new special ops group, tasked with finding and stopping Sabatian Shaw. In the process, they happen across Eric who is singularly minded on the destruction of Shaw for the atrocities he committed during WWII.

Charles and Eric join forces to create a new group of mutants who can combat against the mutants Shaw already has at his disposal. Included in the group are Angel Salvadore, aka Angel. Armando Munoz, aka Darwin. Alex Summers, aka Havok. and Sean Cassidy, aka Banshee. Raven adopts the name Mystique, Charles is referred to humorously as Professor X, and Eric is dubbed Magneto, and the scientist Hank McCoy, whom is later dubbed Beast. Each has their own powers but spends a pretty decent montage sequence learning how to harness those powers.

As the film progresses we realize that the events are unfolding as a ‘secret history’ of the Cuban missle crisis, and that the truth was all constructed by Sebastian Shaw. And in a final confrontation, the fate of friends and now enemies is set into motion.

First Class was originally slated to be X-Men Origins: Magneto, a back story for Charles and Eric’s meeting and friendship, and eventual falling out. But as movies were drafted, and revised, First Class was made as a replacement to Magneto and not as a sequel to it. First Class shouldn’t be looked at as a reboot however, despite much of the mulling of that fact. Much that was in First Class can be seen to align with the other films, including an awesome cameo from Hugh Jackman.

First Class was enjoyable, and I give it a solid second place in my rankings of the 5 films. It wasn’t as good as X2, but it could stand up for itself. The acting was pretty good, McAvoy especially. The only caveat to that was more of a writing issue than anything else. How does one SHOW that they are using psychic powers to talk to another person? In this case, you use the cliche’ of the psychic telephone, and hold your fingers up to your temple. It got a little bit older, but was understandable. There was also a degeneration of ability towards the end, in that Charles at first would speak purely mentally to others. Towards the end of the film, this degenerated to yelling out loud.

Fassbender was also good as Eric. He had a strength and resolve in his character that was believable and powerful. The sound of his speech when in different languages was very convincing, and was excellently placed. However, when ever Magneto would use his powers to manipulate metal, Fassbender would take on this bizarre facial expression that was somewhere between passing a kidney stone, and an orgasm. Maybe more of an incredibly large bowel movement. You get the point.

Jennifer Lawrence was good as Mystique/Raven, although didn’t have that same sexual allure that Rebecca Romijn brought to the part. It was understandable, that perhaps Mystique just hadn’t learned that element of seduction yet.

The coup-de-gras was Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw. Perfect for the movie, his character might not be true to literary form, but his portrayal of the power absorbing ageless Nazi was stellar. I wanted more screen time. Particularly (unfortunately) during his cruel treatment of a young Eric, in the concentration camp. I say unfortunately, because it’s a touchy scene. Which, unfortunately had me laughing in fits at the end.

If you are paying close attention, Eric goes off on his rampage, ripping apart all the metal within the examination room. He throws his arms in the air, as he screams at the top of his lungs…. nein. Translated, ‘No!’. The sequence is a mock of the horrible Star Wars Episode 3 force-tantrum  Darth Vader throws. I laughed. Hard.

But then there is January Jones, aka Emma Frost. A lot has been said about her already by many others beside myself. I will agree, with everything about her being emotionless, cold, and boring. I will also add in the words, Fem-bot, and convincing… Perhaps, just perhaps, she did a good job. Was Emma Frost supposed to be cold as… Frost? Hard as… a Diamond? Perhaps. But maybe there were better ways of showing this lack of emotion than what was done.

Also, I was annoyed with the disposable characters. Particularly the guy who can make tornado’s. Did he even get named during the film? It wasn’t until that evening that I found out his name was ‘Riptide.’ Or how about Darwin. He can adapt to survive in any situation, except this one. Lucky guess Shaw. Lucky guess.

First Class gains my approval. If it wasn’t a reboot, then it was worthy enough to stand within the time line. As I mentioned a few things just don’t fit, but otherwise I will let it stand. It was good enough, that I wouldn’t mind seeing another movie set in between Wolverine and First Class. Maybe about the moon landing. Maybe about, well I don’t know. Nothing else interesting happened during the 70′s.

If you haven’t seen it, go out and check it out. It’s worth a matinee for sure, and for me it was worth the full price of admission.

Where do I start with the overall picture. We have had 3 different beginnings come around in the series itself, but only a single first movie. I think they best way to approach the overall picture is from the film-based chronological start. Wolverine.

Got you there, didn’t I. It’s true, the original mutant appears to be Wolverine, with his and Victors powers manifesting around the same time. While comic-wise there may be other mutants before him, we can probably consider Logan to be the first for the time being. But Logan has almost nothing to do with the rest of the time line; we see that he was born, lives, fights, and then in the period just before the Vietnam war (which marks the beginning of the Wolverine story) we have the First Class story.

The events of First Class, appart from the secret history elements play out without having too much of an influence upon the rest of the series. There are a few things that don’t quite line up, mainly with Hank Mccoy and Moira Mactaggert.

Moira was used in X3 as a doctor in Scotland who was working with a mentally devoid human body (no brain functions, just an empty shell). If the previous mentioned dating is correct, Moira would have been in her mid 50′s maybe 60′s in the X3 movie. Something that just didn’t seem correct, but could be explained easily at a later time by some sort of anti-aging situation.

Secondly, in First Class we find out that Hank built Cerebro, where as in the rest of the X-Men films, it was understood to be Charles and Eric. While I believe this was used to help explain how and why Hank is such a generous, I honestly thought it could have been pretty easily explained and done with about 30 seconds with Charles and Eric, sans Hank. But we get it, Hank is a genius. And he thinks that he feet are repugnant. Which is something I just didn’t understand. Other than his feet (which fit just fine in normal dress shoes) there is nothing physically distinct about him.  But Hank lines up with the rest of the story.

Charles lines up just fine, and you can almost see that McAvoy is channeling a young Patrick Stewart into his part. He got it, and I get it. I liked it. And Xavier is perhaps the best character throughout the series. Oh wait…. Xavier was supposed to be paralyzed at the end of First Class, but is seen walking around at the end of Wolverine (18 years later). We will let that one slide.

To McVoy / Stewart’s best, is Cyclops at the worst. There was nothing I cared for less throughout the entire series than him. Which sucks, because he was actually my favorite. Something about the leader.

Overall, and with just a few exceptions, I think that the films lined up really nicely. And I don’t really have a problem with thinking about them as being one contiguous story arc. Combined, the series has been a huge financial success, each film  (with the exception of First Class, at present) has surpassed cost of production to generate a rather significant profit.

• X-Men cost $75M to produce, and generated $296M (294% above production cost)
• X-Men 2 cost $110M to produce, and generated $407M (270% above production cost)
• X-Men 3 cost $210M to produce, and generated $459M (119% above production cost)
• X-Men Wolverine cost $150M to produce, and generated $374M (149% above production cost)
• X-Men First Class cost ~$150M to produce, and has thus far generated $221M ($48% above production cost)

X-Men was by far the most financially successful, but has also had the longest availability time. X3 was far and away the least successful, only just exceeding a 2x return on investment (which is still pretty good.) But thinking about the whole, the franchise becomes a juggernaut (pun). Perhaps not as successful as some of the truely all time great film anthologies (Star Wars, Star Trek, Aliens, Terminator) it’s very likely that we will be seeing more films.

And with the X-Men comic franchise reaching an end of production in 2012, but still representing some 500+ issues, you can rest assure that there is more than enough material to satisfy your entire life’s ambitions worth of X-Men.

So in conclusion, X-Men was a great series. Just like everything else, it has it’s ups and downs. But what doesn’t? No two movies can be just as good as each other. Even things like the original Star Wars trilogy had high (Empire) and low (Return) points. You just have to remember that if you want more of it, go buy it. Rent it. Watch it. If you don’t like it, that’s fine. Bitch about how bad it is. Just keep an open mind in all things, that other’s might have different opinions.

How painful was it: Only near 15 hours worth of video, and I would gladly do it again

Rating: X-Men: 7 out of 10, As a launching point for the series, you can’t really ask for too much more.

Rating: X2: X-Men United: 9 out of 10, X2 was the right X-Men movie at the right time, and brought the life to the series that it still rides upon today.

Rating: X-Men 3: The Last Stand: 4 out of 10, if you HAVE to skip one of the series, this is it. It was still decent enough to watch, but just isn’t as good as the rest.

Rating: X-Men Origins: Wolverine: 7 out of 10, It wasn’t as good as X2, but it can stand on it’s own legs. If this had been the first of the series, it would have been just as good. Oh, and Liev Schreiber kicks ass as Victor.

Rating: X-Men: First Class: 8 out of 10, if you haven’t seen it, go out and check it out. It’s worth a matinee for sure, and for me it was worth the full price of admission.

The Wife’s Retort: 15 hours? Was it really that long? X-Men 2 was the best one of them, though. Yay, Hugh Jackman!

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It seems that a group, identified as Lulz Security, has by passed what ever measures Sony might have put in place, with a simple SQL injection.

Now get this. It seems that the 1M user names and passwords were all stored in… Plain Text. Seriously.

According to Engadget:

A portion of the group’s exploit is posted online in a RAR file, which contains over 50,000 email / password combos of unfortunate users. We’ve downloaded this file (at our own risk, mind you) and can verify these sensitive bits are now in the wild, though it remains unclear if what’s published matches reality. In addition to user information, the group has blurted out over 20,000 Sony music coupons, and the admin database (including email addresses and passwords) for BMG Belgium employees.

Seriously Sony, this is getting to be a running gag. In this day and age, security needs to be on corporations top most important things to invest in. After all, penetration through the gateways just makes it all that much easier to work through the internet network. Most corporations don’t just put their one single web server up and out there, they usually have ties back to the main corporate network. And while most firewalls will prevent breach access, they often can not pose any restrictions if the correct credentials are passed. Failing to an SQL injection is one thing, but leaving a user/password manifest in plain text? That’s just ridiculous.

Time to invest in a crypography class, Sony. Next time it might be something more costly. Like say, PSN? (duh. duh. duh.)

(source) (official statement from Lulz)

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For all your viral marketing fans (me included,) here is the first video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKEV8XEZ5yI&feature=player_embedded

The chanting in the background in un-decipherable. But to my ears, it sounds Spanish. The prisoner part of it might directly tie into the mythos of Bane.

Now Video two:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAfEgGaRmis&feature=player_embedded

The second video seems to show a break out at Arkham. Fire, and confusion. For a second there is a flash of a tag of “Vigilate or Hero” but we don’t know if that relates to the Caped Crusader, or someone else. Also, there is the briefest flash of a web address… www.facebook.com/pages/The-Fire-Rises/21965700­1385788, but that seems to lead to a dead page…

Update:

Here is the 3rd video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umkXZxmGH1Y

Update 2:

And here is the 4th

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haLTzLa8moc&feature=related

Good luck!

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To be produced into a film by Disruption Entertainment, it will be produced by JC Spink (Hangover, I am Number 4, Butterfly Effect), the premise follows an a cop who uncovers the truth about a super-hero’s goals. While we all wish that the super-hero was nothing but altruistic, the reality is much more nefarious. Can one singular normal human, stand against the world mightiest hero, Alpha-One?

An interesting premise, but my lack of knowledge within the DC universe makes me wonder how and even if, DC would try and tie this film into the main-sequence of films that DC has been working on. If it stands alone, it would seem to be a play on superman, taken almost from the Lex Luthor stand point, well… the opposition. It’s interesting, but I don’t see it really working out as a dark film. Society today, much like in the 40′s, strives for the good hero. We love the good fight, against evil. I think it is the American ethic at play, that we don’t want to be the underdog, becoming the champion. We want to be the champion, with no competition.

But super-hero’s are super-hero’s for a reason. And finding one as an evil character (think Ozymandias in Watchmen) might not sit well.

(source)

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Written by veteran writer, Jane Espenson (Star Trek DS9, Buffy, Dollhouse, and others) has written 10, 3-minute long web-only animated shorts Torchwood: Web of Lies, followups to the aforementioned Miracle Day series. Although the premise is unknown at this time, the animated shorts will likely act as a either a bridge between the last Torchwood mini-series, Children of Earth and the new series, premiering on Starz July 8th. Or as a gap filler, between the one episode and another. New episodes are scheduled to appear on the web after each televised episode is aired.

Dushku will voice at least one character, along with regular cast members John Borrowman (Captain Jack Harkness) and Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper). The comparison is being made between this animated short series, and the lead in for Spartacus. The animation quality for those webisodes was excellent, essentially animated comic strips, so I can only hope that the same quality and attention is paid to the Torchwood series.

But perhaps another way to look at this, is that there may be a Torchwood comic series in the works. If an artist has been commissioned to create these webisodes, it may not be that far fetched to imagine a full spin-out Torchwood comic, reviving the long dead one that started with the original airing of the television series.

(source)

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Little Red Envelope

In my mailbox this week:
Ip Man 2

Release Year: 2010

Staring:
Donnie Yen, Lynn Hung, Simon Yam, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo

The sequel to, in my opinion, the greatest martial arts movie of all time. I can only hope.

If you read my review of the original Ip Man, then you should not be surprised when I say that it was perhaps the greatest martial arts movie of all time. And yes, I have seen a bunch. But the thing is that most of the others lacked a crucial element… story. All the ones that have come before have primarily been focused on the fight sequences. Even going back so far as the Bruce Lee films, such as Enter the Dragon (perhaps the second best, imho.) The fight sequences have been over played, and unbelievable. I mean, seriously… Tiger Claws?

But Ip Man broke away from tradition, and embraced the story along with the fight. And oh what a story it was. The story of Ip Man, or Master Ip, a Kung Fu Master of the Wing Chun school in the Foshan Provence in China, right at the time of the Japanese occupation. It was an excellent story that told the tale of how one man making a stand, can inspire a country and change the world.

If you haven’t seen it, don’t even bother continuing with this review until you have. You will be doing yourself a service by checking it out on Netflix. Ignoring the quality of the story, it also had some of the greatest fight sequences I have ever seen. To the caliber of Donnie Yen (Master Ip) landing 10 punches a second on his opponents, while still pulling them all from being fatal.

Ip Man 2 continues the story of Master Ip. Having been shot during the anti-climax of Ip Man, Master Ip has been spirited away from Foshan by his friend Chow Ching-chuen to Hong Kong, to escape the occupation, Master Ip is attempting to establish an actual school to teach the art of Wing Chun. But no one comes to his school, until on brash young man challenges the Master to a fight, with the promise that if he looses he will pay his school fees.

When Wong Leung (Huang Xiaoming) handily looses the fight, he runs away without paying. Shortly he returns with 3 other friends, who also attempt to defeat the master. As before, they are handily defeated. But Wong has a knack for trouble, and soon lands the school in hot water. It turns out that no school is allowed to exist unless it has been sanctioned by the other Kung Fu masters of Hong Kong. And the leader of the master, is none other than Huang Xiaoming (Sammo Hung, the guy who actually choreography the films fight scenes.)  Master Ip must fight the other masters, and stay in battle until a single stick of incense has burned itself out.

Master Ip’s only true challenger is Huang. But Haung reveals that Master Ip must also pay a monthly fee for the honor of opening a school. That doesn’t sit with Master Ip. Huang is also working the underground, and his connections to the police and the British occupation of Hong Kong. Working to create boxing match to pit Kung Fu against western boxing star ‘Twister’ (Darren Shahlav).

The truth is that Ip Man 2 is just not as good as the original movie. I truly hate saying that, but it is the truth. The sequel, while perhaps having better fight sequences, just didn’t have the same quality of story as the first. Ip seemed more angry, and much more likely to cause serious harm to an opponent, where as in the first he would always hold himself back; sure of his own strength. Perhaps this is an element that just didn’t translate well into the sequel, that Master Ip has lost his reservation, or even his confidence. Regardless, the story was less congealed than the first. Where the first film strongly focused on standing up to oppression, the second was much more about pride.

While pride is a strong enough subject for a film to be based, it seems in contrast to the first. Originally Ip man was not a proud man, he was humble despite is prowess and presence. He lived a life of luxury, until that was taken away from him, but he was always generous with what he had. And while the generosity is still there, Ip Man 2 focuses itself on standing up to name calling, and remaining proud in the face of a different kind of oppression (physical in the first, sociological in the second.)

It just didn’t feel right. Perhaps that is my western sensibility playing into the films subject. But if you can get past the weaker story, the fight sequences are epic. Perhaps too epic, bordering on the ridiculous, but they are still something to behold. The amazing thing in the first, is just how powerful Ip is in comparison to his opponents. Handily defeating 10 men, this time Ip faces 100. Armed with butcher knives. Instead of facing a Japanese master of Karate, IP fights against 5 masters of Kung Fu, plus one master of western boxing.

And it seems odd that a boxer nearly brings the end of Ip. And while the rules are changed mid-battle to favor the boxer, the power vs the speed seemed out of balance.

Donnie Yen brings his A game to the film, and you are left with a real sense of the character of Master Ip. He is a great actor, and playing across the screen from Sammo Hung was, again, epic. If you want to see how well a fight sequence can be coordinated and filmed, this is definitely the film for you. Honestly, this film should be considered a new bar by which martial arts films are compared. The first already established the bar, the sequel just reinforces it. Well, with the exception of the last 30 seconds of the film, where a young Bruce Lee makes a cameo. It was unnecessary, and seemed to just be added to encourage western audiences. It was out of place, and shouldn’t have been included.

So, it may not be AS good as the first, but it holds its own. Originally it was slated that the movie series would be a trilogy, but the director and producer were so happy with the results of this film, that they don’t believe they will be making the third installment. Me, personally, I hope that they do. It’s not that the story needs an ending, but I would love to see a film of this caliber yet again.

How painful was it: Not quite as awesome as the first, but better fight sequences.

Rating: 8/10. If you loved the first, you will love the second. If you haven’t seen the first, wait to see this until you have.

The Wife’s Retort: I agree. Not as good as the first, but pretty darn good.

The post LRE #49: Ip Man 2 appeared first on WatchPlayRead.

It’s not that I have anything against Albert Hughes, quite the opposite in fact. I thought that Book of Eli was one of the most visually beautiful movies that I saw last year. The problem I have is with the recreation of a classic pop culture icon, into a modern day marketing slob.

Akira is perhaps the most quintessential Manga and Anime films of all time. If you haven’t seen it or at least read it, you really are doing a disservice to the Japanese film business. When Warner Brother’s picked up the rights to the film, we squealed with delight. Seriously, I made sounds that resembled a little girl.

Then we heard “…. except it will be in New York.” And things like “…. Keanu Reeves.” or “Leonardo DiCaprio” and suddenly, all hope was lost for savings this important remake.

Now even the director of the film has bailed. And while I can’t blame him, this leave Akira in one of two boats… Dead in the water. or…. let’s just get something done, so we can hold onto the rights to the title.

Lord, please let it be the first. Because the second is just a horrible prospect.

(source)

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If you subtract the costs of repair, loss profit, and recovery from the effects of the Tsunami (approximately 1.83 Billion) Sony still managed to post a net loss of 1.37 Billion dollars. Roughly half of the loss Sony felt during the fiscal 2010-2011 year was associated with Tsunami / Earthquake damage and recover.

It’s now estimated that approximately $171 Million has been lost because of the efforts of Anonymous, the Internet hacking organization, and various other hacking and security issues.

The Sony Pictures group also lost big time, with a slew of flopper’s. All told, the motion picture division lost 14.9%, or $7.23Billion, from the previous year.

But it wasn’t all gloom and doom. According to Variety,

The Networked Products & Services division, which includes games, recorded an operating profit of 35.6 billion yen ($429 million) in FY 2010, compared with a loss of 3.3 billion yen the previous year. A big reason for the better results were cost cuts to PlayStation 3 hardware and higher sales of PS3 software.

Still. You really have to look at the big picture. Sony as a conglomerate generated a fiscal year total of 7.181 Trillion yen (or $88.17 Billion.) That $3.2B only represents around 4%. Sony hopes to increase sales totals by more than that 4% next year, to reach 7.5 Trillion.

Now that’s alot of cash.

(source)

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At 46%, more than half of all ticket sales were for standard film screens. This is the lowest percentage for a non-family oriented film since Avatar was released, even lower than some of the truely stinky stinkers, like Clash of the Titans. But it poses the question as to whether some studios will start to question the penetration of 3D into the theater market.

Last year, the box office totals for 3D films where of a significant enough amount to off-set the lose in total ticket sales, by the increase in average individual ticket prices. With 3D films costing roughly $2 in addition to the base ticket price, film studios may start to wonder if they have put all their eggs in one basket by so quickly betting upon 3D as being the major source of revenue for up coming films.

According to Variety,

This weekend, the worldwide haul for Disney’s four “Pirates” films crossed $3 billion, making the series one of Hollywood’s most successful franchises. But because “Stranger Tides” is the first “Pirates” pic released in 3D, bizzers questioned whether auds, already comfortable with Johnny Depp in two dimensions, felt the need to shell out extra cash for the 3D premium. (With “Thor,” Paramount introduced a new potential franchise in the 3D format, and 60% of the opening-weekend aud picked the stereoscopic version.)

The important thing to remember, however, is that only a very small number of films released are actually filmed in 3D. The majority, like Pirates, Harry Potter, and the afore mentioned Clash of the Titans were all filmed in standard 2dimensional digital film. After the film has been finalized, it is passed off to a secondary production company who use the film to produce a stereo-scopic 3D film. They digitally take elements of the original, and break apart the image, to create the 3 dimensional effect. That’s why many films like Thor don’t really seem all that 3D, and only have a few moments of out-of-the-screen sequences.

Imagine if it costs $1million to convert a film to 3d. And 1 million 3D tickets are sold, at $2 addition per ticket. Well, that’s $2 million in extra box office revenue. A reduction in the excess overhead cost equates directly to the final box office tally.

So it begs the question of why. Why did Pirates do less than in 3D than it did in 2D. I actually think the answer is pretty simple. Kids. Parents took their kids to go see the movie, and parents have an easier time shelling out an extra $2 for themselves, than $20 for their 10 kids. Maybe not 10 kids, but enough that it is basically like buying another ticket or two. I know I have held off on seeing 3D movies, because I didn’t want to be bothered with trying to keep the glasses on my 3 year old child.

(source)

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Via a post on his facebook page, Diesel posed an interesting question:

GRRRR..

D T the writer/director just landed in New York with the good news. We can start filming this summer. However, there is a catch… in order for us to make a true R rated film, I must work for scale upfront. Not unlike the “Find me Guilty” experience (which I wouldn’t have changed for the world)…

Money is always second to art, integrity and spirit… but the real issue is deeper. Can I suspend my life, to momentarily venture to that dark place… called Riddick.

Now, I need to hear from Our collective… you.

Basically, the production company doesn’t want to lose money to Vin if the film is an R rated flop. So they are trying to negotiate for Diesel to be paid ‘in the rears’ based upon how successful the film is. While itself not an uncommon solution for low budget film, it is a little interesting for something like a semi-major movie series to resort to methods like this.

The catch is that if the film is toned down to PG13, they will likely pay Diesel up front for his part. If it is R, they want to pay after based on box office totals. While I don’t think Diesel should be working for free, nor do I think it is fair for him to be forced into a crappy movie. Riddick is a violent character, and seeing a toned down version of Riddick would be like watching a PG13 Die Hard (note…. it was the worst of the bunch) or a PG13 Alien vs Predator (again, worst of the bunch). Violence has it’s place, perhaps it’s that the production company is trying to target too wide an audience, rather than their specific market.

90 year old grandma’s don’t want to go see teenie bop films. 18 year old bachelors, don’t want to go see chick flicks. Yes I generalize, but I would venture that this is largely true in all demographics. Considering that the MPAA rating is an asinine rating system based off of the opinions of around 10 viewers, and dropping the F-bomb once, gets a PG13, twice get’s an R. Or that breasts in ‘fleeting view’ garner a PG13, but if that fleeting view is sexual in nature, then it is R? grr. the system is broken.

So would you go and see a PG13 Riddick film? Would you go because it is Riddick? Would you go if it was PG13, but not if it was R?

update: It’s been pointed out that I made an omission. Pitch Black was R rated, but Chronicles of Riddick only garnered a PG13 rating. Still Pitch Black was better.

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The next incarnation in the Star Trek rebooted franchise has been officially pushed back by six months. Primarily this is because JJ Abrams is over worked. He currently is juggling 2 post production films (Super-8, and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol) in addition to 4 television series (Fringe, Undercovers, Person of Interest, and Alcatraz) and if that combination doesn’t make for a busy schedule, then I don’t know what would.

As upset that I am, I can’t really blame them for the push back. Star Trek 2 is one of those films that I would rather be delayed, and be done right (ala the first reboot) than done quickly and sloppy. The audience isn’t going anywhere, so there isn’t a hurry. The subject isn’t topical, and there is nothing else out there that will fill in the niche of Star Trek. I mean, come on… It’s Star Trek. There isn’t anything quite like it.

Still, even with this report, the push from summer 2012 to winter 2012 should be seen as a soft date. With all honesty, the film will actually get released in summer 2013, for two simple reasons.

1) The Avengers.
2) Summer releases garner higher box office totals than winter releases. Well, with the exception of Avatar.

(source)

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