Peter & Uncle Ben

This is great...

Watching Superman/Batman: Apocalypse

Over the past decade or so Marvel and DC have been producing an increasing number of animated movies that go straight to DVD. As a comic book fan, I look forward to these movies because they are usually adaptations of story lines that would otherwise never make it into a feature film. I’m not entirely sure how appealing these movies are to viewers who do not follow comics, however, and it was pretty obvious in the early dvd’s that the creator’s weren’t either. Honestly, the quality of these movies is pretty hit or miss, and in the beginning there were a lot more misses than hits. I feel like they do keep getting better, and there seems to be a lot more production value put into them. DC in particular has put out a couple of pretty good ones recently, a couple of which I want to talk about later.
Right now, however, I have Superman/Batman Apocalypse in my blu ray player all ready to go. This just came out today so I don’t really know much about it. I know that it is adapted from a story line written by Jeph Loeb with are by the late, great Michael Turner. (I thought he was great anyways... he was often criticized for mainly drawing half naked, half starved ladies...)

It’s not not true...

Ok let’s begin. [Probably spoilers ahead!] First of all, I guess this is a sequel to Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. I thought that one was pretty disappointing, so let’s hope this is an improvement.

This opening sequence is fun. Kevin Conroy! Yes! There may be a debate about who played the best Batman on screen (I vote for Christian Bale, I never really bought Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne), but there is not contest for the voice of Batman. Kevin Conroy is Batman as far as I’m concerned. Tim Daly is back as Superman, which is good. As is Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman. A nice Justice League reunion thing going on. Summer Glau? She can do crazy, can she do Supergirl?

Actually, she can do whatever she wants

Not a big fan of the character designs here. You can tell they’re trying to emulate Michael Turner’s style, so they get bonus points for effort, I guess.

Why would GCPD ever think blimps are a good idea? They are floating bombs just waiting for some psychotic clown to drive it into a building.

Yay Krypto!

Ed Asner is back as Granny Goodness, a fantastic role for him. I like the design of her and the Female Furies. I am enjoying this fight scene right now. I’m not sure who the woman in white is, but I recognize the others from Supeman: the Animated Series. I’ve always had a thing for Lashina for some reason. Maybe it turns out I’m into bondage or what not...

Note to self: investigate that further...

Shopping montage? Really?

The fight against the Doomsdays was pretty boring. In fact, this whole thing is boring me a little. Maybe it’s because I know the story already. Now our heroes are on Apocalypse, and the action is picking up. OK, the Parademons look like Koopa Troopas to me so it’s hard to take them seriously. I guess no one ever takes them seriously, them being Darkseid’s cannon fodder and all.

Barda and Wonder Woman versus the Female Furies is turning out to be the best action sequence so far. Meanwhile it’s Batman + jetpack versus giant dogs. Whoops! He’s eaten! Batman’s dead! Spoiler!

Blood, swears and scantily clad women? Earlier, I was going to talk more about the primary audience of these movies, but it’s getting pretty obvious that it’s not children. It’s not that this is an x rated gore fest by any means (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but it does have a pretty dark and adult feeling to it. So if it’s not meant to get children into comics, then it’s obvious that it’s directed towards older fans who already into comics and know the stories and characters. I mean, how many people really know who Big Barda is? Also, judging from the amount of animated female flesh being shown, it seems like it might more directed at males than females. So, I ask again, just how widespread an audience is DC hoping for here. Male comic book fans may be extremely vocal on the internet, but it’s becoming pretty clear you can’t rely on them alone.

Well, the ending was fun. I enjoyed Batman's confrontation with Darkseid, as well as the final battle on the Kent farm. I was particularly amused when Darkseid grinned and grabbed Superman's cape. I have to say that there was some very impressive action. If that's the main reason you watch these movies, then go ahead and give this a watch. Overall the story was just O.K., but you may enjoy it more if you are unfamiliar with the original comics.

Final Grade: B

P.S. The Green Arrow Showcase is pretty good. I've never liked Green Arrow as a character, not even in Justice League Unlimited. He always comes off as one-note and preachy. I liked him in this. "Sorry I'm late. You ever try changing clothes in a Hybrid?" I thought that was funny. Of course he drives a Hybrid...

Scott Pilgrim vs. the Box Office

This is about the seventh time I've sat down to write something about the Scott Pilgrim Versus the World movie. I am having a hard time articulating how I feel about it. I saw it a few weeks ago with three other people; My brother in law who read the books like me, my wife who only read the first half of the books, and a friend who didn't even know the books existed. My wife and friend loved the movie while me and my brother were disappointed. I've decided that most of the blame falls on book 6:

Books: ruining a movie near you as we speak!

Now, I'm not that stupid, I know that movie adaptations of books change a lot of things. It's a necessity, you can't fit all that information into two hours of film. There's a reason why it's called an adaptation and not a recreation or whatever. Knowing this, I absolutely loved the first hour of the movie. I thought that a lot of the things that were actually a good thing. The energy of the first two fights was fantastic.
/*I just realized that I am doing a horrible job of reviewing this movie for someone who has no idea what it's about. Well, that's not really my goal here. You want to read good reviews written by good reviewers? Go here or here. I'm more of a stream of consciousness kind of guy, I really don't know what's coming next...*/
Boobs! Wait, no... the energy of the first two fights = awesome! Patel's Bollywood number? Lucas Lee's stunt team? None of that was in the book but it was a lot of fun. I think I was laughing the whole time Chris Evans was on screen. I didn't care about divergences from the books, it was too much fun. The movie had a lot more emphasis on the band, and as an extension, music. That makes sense because it's not something that really translates that well in a book. The music really adds to the atmosphere of the story, and I want to get my hands on the soundtrack. The Clash of the Demonhead show was probably the pinnacle of my enjoyment of the movie. After that, however, I started getting uneasy. The entire Envy storyline was cut and the scenes with her suffered for it. I understand they couldn't fit everything in, but it still bugged me. Then Roxy showed up and she was defeated the way Envy is defeated in the book, even though the way Roxy was defeated in the book was friggen awesome. I can forgive all that! What I can't forgive is the blatant lack of robots!

Seriously, who doesn't love robots?

It was the fight with the Japanese twins that really threw me for a loop. I understand they wanted to incorporate the band more, and the scene is actually pretty cool. Or I think it was, I couldn't really tell because I was too busy whining about robots. In the book Scott faces off against a couple of robots before fighting the twins in a very Kim Pine related subplot. I never expected that subplot to be addresses so I wasn't expecting the fight to be exactly the same, but come on! Robots!
Then there was the end. Crazy different. Seeing how the movie was made before book 6 was released, I shouldn't have got my hopes up. It just bugs me when things are changed that didn't really need to be. A fucking microchip? Come on!

You expect the guy in a $4000 suit to believe microchip? Come on!

Enough about the book. Most of you will never read it (even though you should). As an adaptation of a book I love I give this movie a B, but on its own I give it an A. If I wasn't bogged down by disappointment I would have really loved this movie. Just ask my wife!

You should probably ask her soon

This movie is one of the most original and fun movies I have seen in a while. The casting was top notch. Even Michael Cera seemed to break out of his shell, he didn't stutter or glance at his shoes once! Ellen Wong's Knives was too cute for words. Kieran Culkin nailed Wallace. Alison Pill was perfect as Kim Pine, even if her role was severely reduced. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Anna Kendrick give me two boners at once! Jason Schwartzman was at his smarmy best, but the guy who stole the show was Chris Evans. I said it before and I'll say it again, I was laughing at during the whole Lucas Lee scene.
It felt like watching a video game. The action scenes were fantastic. This is what video game movies should be. You should watch this. I understand if you want to wait for it to come out on DVD, but get it right when it comes out. It's worth it.

A Movie You Should See: The Host

This movie came out in 2006. Since then, I have tried to recommend it to as many people as possible, but a lot of you don't quite believe that it could be as awesome as I say it is. Well it is! I understand the hesitation, however, because it's a hard movie to describe. The only real way to describe it is as a Korean monster movie, and while this is an accurate description, it doesn't really do the movie justice. The movie focuses on a family. The patriarch is an old man who runs a snack shack on the shores of the Han River. He has three adult children, his daughter is a champion archer, one son is an alcoholic University graduate (that's pretty much all you get there) and another son is somewhat of a simpleton who lives with his father. This simpleton has a daughter. It is pretty obvious early on that he is absolutely devoted to her, though he has a hard time showing it. In fact the whole family is devoted to her, and it seems as though she is the glue that keeps this otherwise dysfunctional family together. Then some slimy gross monster crawls out of the Han River and steals her away.

No, it's not Ke$ha...

I'm not really spoiling anything for you as this happens pretty early and is mentioned in every synopsis. The scene where the monster emerges from the river is fantastic. Actually, pretty much every scene with the monster is fantastic. The special effects here are great in a way that you tend to forget that there are special effects at all. You can tell a lot of thought was put into how this amphibious mutation would move and interact with the humans it's stealing. It stumbles and slips when it's on land so it gets creative. I was impressed with how the monster was presented throughout the movie. There wasn't a slow build up to a showy reveal, it was just another character in a great story.

See? He fits right in!

As I said though, the focus is really on the family trying to find their missing child. Each character goes through personal growth, but it all seems pretty organic. The simpleton son is the one who grows most of all, driven almost insane by his desire to find his daughter being hindered by his inability to articulate it. The climax of his growth does seem a little forced (literally) but by this time you just want to see something good happen to him.

The acting in this movie is top notch. All of the actors are foreign (get it?) to me, but you can check them out here. There is an element of comedy throughout the movie that could seem corny in a movie like this but is pulled off do to the skill and interactions of the actors.
In conclusion, I absolutely love this movie. It has something for everybody. There's a rampaging monster, mean polluting Americans (yep! it's our fault!), government cover ups, personal growth, comedy, tragedy and fried squid!
I can't recommend this movie enough. I give it an A+. Watch it!

A Horror Movie I Kinda Want To See

I don't like horror movies. There, I said it. I find no joy in being startled or scared, I get that enough from my doorbell. Every once in a while, however, a horror movie comes around that I actually want to see. Well, usually it's sci fi or a supernatural thriller, and not just a hack n slash gore fest. This time it's Devil. I don't know why, but this preview really interests me. I think it's a pretty interesting and scary premise. Strangers trapped in an elevator with crazy things happening when the lights go out. It looks fun.
This movie is not directed by M. Night Shyamalan, only written by him. I think putting his name in the trailer will be less of a benefit than it used to be. The thing is, he is pretty good a writing thrillers. I really enjoyed The Sixth Sense and Signs. I think he got a bit caught up on the twist ending thing, but if you ignore that, the guy knows how to make a good movie. I hope this movie doesn't try to have a huge twist, but I think they'll try to stump us with the mystery of who the Devil (or whatever). For the record I'm guessing it's the brunette woman. She says something ominous in the beginning and is the first to be attacked (red herring?)... but who knows.
Anyway, it looks interesting. You may not think so, but I do. One of the only other horror movies I really liked was The Descent, another very claustrophobic thriller. Other than that I can't think of many horror movies that I really enjoyed.

DC Universe Online

I have been casually following news about this game for what feels like several years now, never quite believing it would ever be finished. But now they unleash this awesome looking trailer and a release date of November 2010? I am officially excited for this game. I realize the video is not fully visible yet. Until I fix this (which might never happen) you can view it here.

More Scott Pilgrim

The final Scott Pilgrim book comes out next week! I am very excited. I am also psyched about the movie which comes out in August. Here is a neat little remix for you.