Entertainment: Hilarious STAR WARS review

A couple of friends have suggested watching this Youtube review on a few occasions, and I finally got around to watching it - IT'S HILARIOUS! After watching the 70 minute review (there are 7 parts to this review - part one is below) of STAR WARS EPISODE I: The Phantom Menace, I was wanting more. Red Letter Media posted the review on Youtube, and also has reviews of some of the Star Trek movies and more.



The reviews, while being morbidly side-splitting, do offer thorough insight into how certain films fail to be spectacular. From character development, to story, to the whats and whys of how a movie successfully engrosses the audience, these reviews take you through the film from beginning to end pointing out inaccuracies, and failing movie logic.

I've taken screenwriting and creative writing classes in college - and though this doesn't make me an expert, these reviews would be great tools for educating as well as entertaining.

You can visit Youtube at the link below to see the Phantom Menace review:

STAR WARS: The Phantom Menace Review

There's also redlettermedia.com

Collecting: Additions to my She-Ra Collection

OK...so I broke my figure-a-month rule by proceeding to purchase not one but two vintage figures for my She-Ra collection - it's an early birthday gift (it happens to be next week).

I already had She-Ra - I got her when I was a kid. Frosta was my first purchase for this year-long venture, and she happily stands besides The Most Powerful Woman in the Universe, ready to defend against invaders from the rest of the toy room they both look over. Click here to see the previous blog entry here...

Thank God for ebay...it's the best way to complete this venture. Most of the items in the She-Ra action figure collection can be found there.

Sweet Bee was the first purchase. She hails from a race of bee-like people who venture to Etheria (the world She-Ra inhabits in her war against the Evil Horde) to find a new home (Sweet Bee's homeworld was destroyed when it's sun exploded). Unlike Frosta, Sweet Bee does catch the attention of She-Ra's twin brother He-Man, who develops a slightly noticeable crush on her.

The second figure was Mermista, the token mermaid character of the line. She is the princess of the underwater kingdom of Salineas. Her powers are derived from the Power Pearl, an artifact that is protected by the Salineans. She has control over the water, can convert from mermaid to human form, and can telepathically communicate with sea creature...very Aquamanish, don't ya think?

Entertainment: Green Lantern is Green Lit!

According to Comicbookmovie.com, Green Lantern will start filming in two months! I typically don't pay attention to all the hoopla that surrounds non existent comic book movies - a lot of time, it's just healthy rumor mill, or nothing truly etched in stone.

But an interview with Martin Campbell, director of the recent Zorro movies, and the two Daniel Craig James Bond reboot films, proves that this movie is on track - with Ryan Reynolds set to portray the Green Lantern...YES!

The approach of focusing Green Lantern on the character's intergalactic cop rendition is a smart move - setting it apart from previous comic book movies. This also opens up a whole galaxy to explore for a movie franchise.

I'm excited.

My 2010 Challenge is...

As a belated Holidays gift from my better half, I spent Saturday afternoon sifting through Ebay for some potential purchases. I went ahead and purchased an Adora action figure from the new Masters of the Universe Classic (MOTUC) exclusive toyline. It's the first figure from the line that I will be purchasing. The interesting thing is - she doesn't go on sale on mattycollector.com (the only place you can purchase it officially) until January 15th. The toyline is so hot that some of the limited release figures sell out in less than a day - one is released every month, with a bonus figure thrown in every now and again.

One of the remedies to missing out on a figure is to have joined the mattycollector subscription club, but you have to pay for that every month. The other way is to go to third party vendors - the online stores that go in and buy the figures in bulk, mark up the pricing, and sell them to the ravenous customers that missed out on the first round. This is not always the solution - Mattel is controlling the distribution numbers of the figures to a degree that you won't find a figure anywhere...without having to pay some outlandish markup through a third party vendor.

I digress...I'm holding out on purchasing a lot of the MOTUC figures due to the simple fact that I've collected many of the characters in the original line, as well as the 2002 updated line. I'm looking for something new - ala the Adora figure. I love the line, and am very excited for it's continuation, but I intend to invest my dollars in building up an MOTUC collection with a focus on the Princess of Power (POP) and New Adventures of He-Man (NA) chapters of the line. Until these figures start showing up on mattycollector.com, I am going to satiate my thirst for POP product by collecting the figures I never could as a kid.

Every month of 2010, I intend to expand my vintage Princess of Power collection by one figure. I am in no way planning to collect EVERY product from the line - I am not a completionist collector, and some products are of no interest to me. The core of this vintage collection will be:

First: the characters that appeared on the show
Second: expanding to interesting pieces that didn't appear in the show

January is Frosta - the Ice Impress of Etheria

She is the reigning Queen of Castle Chill in the Kingdom of Snows, and is known to have an intense crush on He-Man, Adora/She-Ra's twin brother. She sends out blasts of ice, as well as turn things into ice.

Entertainment: District 9

District 9 is a mind-blowing (no pun intended - you have to watch the movie to understand) action piece with social commentary. I almost regret not seeing this in theatres, but I wouldn't be me if I turned left instead of right, would I? The special effects are solid, and the realism of the documentary-style filming, and strong story and character development really drive this movie home. A co-worker pointed out how most of the cast was more or less composed of nobodies, and most of the budget went to special effects. A smart move...

Not to beat a dead horse, but this film is a good companion piece to the hit film Avatar (see previous blog entries), due to the strong social commentary. There's been a shortage of brilliant sci/fi movies - and these two come very close, if not being on the spot. I'm a sucker for solid story and character development in movies - I still hold that the deleted Queen Amidala scenes in the STAR WARS prequel trilogy would have made the films a little better than they were - and justify Anakin's virtually baseless switch to the Dark Side (I still need to see the STAR WARS prequel fan edits)...but I digress... District 9 is armrest-gripping as we watch the protagonist/hero delve into the atrocities of the alien concentration camp, and come to revelations about what's really going on - within the camp and without.

Now, my reviews have no intention of giving away plot details and spoilers - I have a notorious history of spoiling movies amongst my friends, and I dare say I have overcome this...shortcoming. Albeit, District 9 has enough action, story, character drama and special effects to keep any movie-goer's attention captivated.

Entertainment: Avatar Update

An old friend of mine/college room mate, and a guy that's got his finger on the pulse when it comes to computer generated special effects I'd say, pointed out a correction that needed to be made in my previous blog entry: ILM is indeed listed in the credits for the special effects work, but it seems that an FX house by the name of Weta
(also listed later in the credits) did a bulk of the effects. You don't usually hear about movies using multiple special effects companies - the media typically focuses on the big names like Pixar or ILM. But it is quite common for one film to use three or more FX companies for budgetary and timing/deadline reasons.

According to boxofficemojo.com, Avatar is at $615M, and the Sunday totals for the weekend are of course not in yet. We'll see if Sherlock Holmes, which is in the #2 spot, will beat out Avatar - but I doubt it. Several friends/contacts on Facebook responded to my previous blog entry/review of Avatar, most of them admit that they are going to see the film a second (or more) time - in one instance to experience the film in IMAX 3D. This obviously is why Avatar will remain #1.

I wonder if Cameron will outdo himself compared to his last movie blockbuster...Titanic.

Entertainment: Avatar is Good

I don't know what all the resistance to Avatar has been. The movie is on record as being the most expensive ever filmed thus far - estimates ranging from $237 to $460 Million, but what else would you expect from James Cameron? Cameron, who is known for creating the Terminator franchise, directing the second Alien film - simply titled Aliens, and also the massive blockbuster Titanic, should be given credit for producing groundbreaking special effects films that do not sacrifice story and character development.

Avatar is spectacular, and is best experienced in IMAX 3D. George Lucas's special effects house Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) worked on this, and has definitely taken computer generated imagery to the next level. The flora and fauna of the alien world of Pandora literally jump out at you in brilliant and luscious color, excitement and wonder. The story, though at first glance painfully derivative, takes some interesting twists, gives us a solid message about our present and future, and actually allows the audience to invest in the characters as the 2 hour and 47 minute journey unfolds. It is indeed a tale indicative of Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, as the main character evolves to stand for something by the end of the film.

Avatar's domestic opening weekend, however was not so spectacular - according to some sources, who compared Avatar's opening weekend numbers to those of New Moon (which made twice as much at $142 million). Bad weather and budget are the apparent culprits, but Avatar has moved on to more than make up for a slow weekend having already made $329 Million worldwide -making back most if not all of its colossal budget.

Indeed, one of the first people that ho-hummed the film was a good friend of mine that figured he'd just see it on DVD. Somewhere along the line, he changed his mind and was waiting in line with us on opening weekend Sunday. The line for the 7:30PM showing for Avatar at the Tampa, FL AMC Veterans 24 theaters was long - people were already there for an hour by the time we showed up, which was an hour before the show. By the end of the film, my friend was glad he came with us to see the film - this was something different, not necessarily new, but a fresh take on what's come before. I raved about the movie at work, and with other friends, and there's a lot of ho-hum out there.

I suspect a lot of that ho-hum is dying down, and the still-ho-hummers will re-nig their ho-humming once they go see what all the hoopla is about.