Totally unnecessary recall, reboot remake, retelling, etc... (Total Recall, Spiderman, Bourne Legacy, Dredd, Fright Night, Scream 4, The Dark Knight, The Thing...)

It’s hard being a film lover when 90 percent of the movies available in theaters seem to be related to a previous story. I don’t think this is a bad thing in itself. There is a reason why many philosophers, writers and storytellers tend to use the same types of plots or narrative situations (follow the link to read about the seven basic plots or 36 narrative situations). They are naturally appealing to every person, and people understand them easily. When the story of a movie is simple enough we enjoy them and that is pop culture entertainment. The problem is that they tend to be very predictable and normally is easy to get distracted if the plot is too obvious. A good balance between history and surprise is hard to master and even harder to perfect. In the end I can tolerate a movie that is predictable if other aspects of the movie are enjoyable enough. 

What is currently bothering me with my recent film going experiences are not reused plots, but the completely reissuing of stories in general. Taking old movies and recalling a previously published material in such an obvious way that is making me harder to go to a movie that is just a plain reboot, remake, retelling, or just plain rip off of a previous movie or in some cases television programs or books. 

I think the last 12 months we had particular bad examples for watching this type of movies. With recent examples being Total Recall, Amazing spider Man and Bourne Legacy, and not too far ago Fright Night, the Thing and Scream 4, this last one making fun of the reboot premise with bad results. Let me make something clear, I don't think that these movies are particularly bad in their own right. It’s just that they feel unnecessary and relay too much to the source material. It makes them feel like you are watching the same old movie again. I don't mind a good story told and retold many times if the execution is good enough to sustain itself in its own. 

I understand the reason why these types of movies are made. They take advantage of good and memorable stories that are easy to adapt to new audiences. The original 10 year old Spiderman movies have certainly not been seen by many kids today and this year movie will be their original Spiderman. Many people in their 20s have never seen the 20 year old version of Total Recall, so the first time they see a three breasted woman will be this year. 

Total Recall, Spiderman and Bourne Legacy are so attached to the original material that feel that you have seen them before because you have ten or twenty years ago, And Bourne Legacy trying so much to stick to recent trilogy that the plot is a convoluted mess of corporations, chemical factories, scientists, and has no real payoff to the story doesn't really honor the directness and storytelling of the previous movies.   

They are not all bad movies. But they’re certainly not the best in their franchises. Of course, remakes don't need to be bad; Nolan’s Batman Trilogy is much better than Tim Burton’s and Joel Schumacher’s movies of decades ago. This year Dredd has much better history and characters than the 17 year old movie with Stallone. Last year Fright Night while still repetitive felt ok because of the lead actors. 

Nonetheless for a 30s year old man like me it felt unnecessary to see all these movies again, but still enjoyed them. 

And in the end this article is unnecessary too!

Sharing an Adventure game video history

Good Video on Adventure Games history, made from the folks of Gamespot.

There are no Promises in Prometheus

It’s been a long time since I left a movie so disappointed as yesterday after seeing Prometheus. In the past movies like Matrix Reloaded, Transformers, the Star Wars Prequels left me a bit unsatisfied, but I still enjoyed some parts of them and let them be what they are. But yesterday, I was constantly bored by the movie, it had such high promises, I mean how can you go wrong with a prequel to one of the best horror movies ever made, from a director of classic epic movies and a great cast?. But in the end I felt the movie was such a mess, didn’t really felt any direction, the characters don't act logically, not even the robot. The music is distracting, the story and motivations that push the movie forward feel like an afterthought. Even trying to tie everything together to the Alien Franchise fails miserably.







The cinematography is the high point of the movie, as is almost always the case in Ridley Scott’s movies, so no surprise in this regard. The music is too distracting; in many places no music would have added to the tension of the moment. But when big horns and drums start playing in the background, it takes away from the spectator’s concentration.






The acting of Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbender are very good, even though the characters really don’t have clear purposes. This is also the case of the hero, Noomi Rapace, whose performance is adequate but everyone else steals her thunder. Why should we care for her if she doesn't even seem to be in the same room with everyone else?


In the end I think all the problems I saw in the movie, besides the music, are related to bad scriptwriting. If the conflicts, motivations or actions are not clear, everything else will fail to deliver; this was also the case in the Star Wars prequels, and Matrix Sequels. You can have a richly and interesting universe, but is the people that inhabit it that keep us coming back for more.

http://www.projectprometheus.com/
20th Century-Fox presents a film directed by Ridley Scott. Written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof. Running time: 124 minutes.

Colors in Movie Posters

Want to share a blog, on the evolution of  color usage in poster through the time


http://www.vijayp.ca/blog/2012/06/colours-in-movie-posters-since-1914/


Quite interesting to see the evolution from yellow to blue and purple colors. 

Intereactive version:
http://www.vijayp.ca/movies/new_page.html

Snow White overdose. Is it good with a huntsman?

Snow White and the Huntsman is a new version of the classical fairy tale by the Brother's Grimm. It is the second movie this summer based on the titular character, and it can be classified as a medieval dark fantasy. Kristen Stewart plays Snow White presenting a character very empty in a world around her that is pushing, and saving her at every time. If we take into account that she has been imprisoned for a decade then we can understand why she doesn't seem to have any real personality. Something clear is that she just have the knowledge that she is the only one that can take back her kingdom from the bad queen, but she doesn't know how or why would she have such a knowledge?. In this regard the flatness in Stewart's performance is just what is needed. Completely opposite to Snow White is Charlize Theron's interpretation of the witch queen, Ravenna, and Chris Hemsworth as the huntsman, they are the real stars of the movie, and are the ones driving around Snow White's actions putting the plot in motion. I have to admit that Stewart's acting in this movie reminded me a lot of the performance of Keanu Reeves in the first Matrix movie. He was just a puppet between the bad and the good and was just reacting to the strange things happening around him. 

As I mentioned earlier, the characters played by Theron and Hemsworth have more depth than the world around them even though we do not get much details in their past we do feel the weight they carry with them. 

The movie is beautifully shot and the world has a lot of detail in the setting, everything looks like belongs in the dark ages , people are dirty, without obvious makeup, there are no glass bottles for example, and the main characters do get more filthy after the time they spent roaming the country side, lord of the rings style, even the nails have dirt under them and when people camp outside, they will wake up with dirt on they're faces and their hair messy. The only exception to this rule is the queen that is supposed to look so different, with such much beauty and well kept, compared to to the rest of the world around her do to her magic abilities. 

In the end the movie is a good experience, it definitely could be shorter and it does feel like it takes too much elements from other movies like Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Princess Mononoke and Twilight, among others. I recommend it and is much better than other efforts at retelling classic fairy tales like Mirror Mirror this summer and Alice in Wonderland of last year.

Other Snow White that is popular right know is the retelling of the character and other fairy tales characters in the television series "Once Upon a Time", the series has a very mediocre execution in an interesting premise and compelling story. Some characters are well developed and have lots of background story, but some can be so flat that drag the story and make some episodes very boring: for example Snow White of the fairy tales land is interesting and has an appealing arch, while the modern counterpart just seems flat in comparison. I guess its part of the supposed curse over the land that has trapped everyone, but while other characters seem to evolve and change she is always the same flat person. Much like the interpretation of Stewart in the movie Snow White and the Huntsman.

Brief History of VideoGames by Polygon(the Verge)

I want to share this Polygon(The Verge) made video, of a brief history of "console" videogames, I'm sad there is no love for pc games, but still I think is a great effort and has amazing editing. 

Here is the link to the original article.

http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/6/4/3057963/a-brief-history-of-videogames

Oh Bay - Why I hate Michael's Movies?

Once upon a time(1995 to be more precise) a young music video director, had the opportunity to apply its own distinctive style to big action motion pictures, he received the backing of major movies studios like Columbia, Universal and Buena Vista, and had the support of the biggest producer of blockbusters at the time (Jerry Bruckheimer). Right to this point, it’s the story of many directors, some of them improve on their technique and evolve from the video type of film making, others vanish again in anonymity and other can become one of the biggest money makers in the business, making blockbuster after blockbuster. One of these cases is Michael Bay, he sure has a distinctive style and has become one of the biggest money makers in the business, driving long lines of people to see his movies, he has only made 9 movies, and has an average of 205 million in domestic gross, all of his movies has grossed well above 100 million worldwide, and his last movie, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, grossed 1 billion USD worldwide. 

 So why do I hate his movies so much? In my personal opinion some of the worst movies ever made, are the Transformers trilogy by Michael Bay, I don't think those are the worst movies ever by any means, but I hate them as storytelling vehicles, what they represent, the style, the action, the dialogue, the love interest and almost everything in these movies I cannot tolerate. I personally think is the man on the director´s chair to blame, so that is why I'm going to tell you why I hate his movies so much, because my revulsion of his movies, is that they all have the same problems, in hind sight I cannot seem to find redeeming qualities after seeing the Transformers Trilogy and Armageddon, they are the ultimate representation of Bayism exaggeration. Even the Rock, a Movie I really liked when I first saw it in theaters now seems convoluted, overacted and too much over the top and with obvious plot holes, that I don’t even like it now, in the end he even ruined my fond memories of his best movies. 

I'm going to organize the list of movies from the worst of the worst to the not so bad movies. 

1. Most hated movie: Armageddon(1998), Bay’s third movie, I was eager to see this movie, when I went to see it with my friends, I mean what could go wrong after The Rock?. This movie was a terrible experience for me, I thought it looked like a Coca Cola commercial, it was too long, the acting was terrible, convoluted, over dramatic exposition in every little detail without any emotional payback, it was obvious for me that this was the beginning of the end of my appreciation of Michael bay. And I even tough the other asteroid movie of the year was better than this, I cannot even start to watch this movie on Tv without flinching in my sit, and changing the channel. 

2. Cool robots, too bad for the rest: Transformers Trilogy(2007, 2009 and 2011), I really had high hopes for these movies, He was coming from making The Islad, that didn’t seem so bad at the moment, there was somewhat good buzz from critics, but in the end the first movie was kind of interesting, and a good looking movie with good action set pieces, although bad dialogue and acting on the human and robotic characters. But the next two movies were a mess, not only were the next two movies more over the top in the action set pieces department, they were definitely terrible acted, everyone was annoying, I really can’t find any redeeming qualities in this movies, and why the hell everyone screams all the f… time?, screaming doesn't makes anything more dramatic! 

3. Most racist characters in a movie after transformers, Bad Boys 1(1995) and Bad Boys 2(2003), the first movie of Michael Bay, introduced Will Smith as an action star, it was kind of entertaining, and at first the screaming of every line of dialogue didn't seem so annoying and it was kind of funny. In the second movie, it the screaming part, became really annoying, the action and the movie didn't make any sense, and what was supposed to be the funny scenes with Martin Lawrence, were not really that funny (not that in the first one were funny at all), and did I mention that both movies are racist to every people in the planet, Latinos, Caucasians, Afroamericans, and to boot it sexist as well? 

4. Is it bad?, Pearl Harbor(2001), my only real complain with this movie is that is too long, is seems more like a miniseries that one movie, it spends to much time exposing a love triangle, that no one really cares about, but I could watch it again if its on TV. Besides, is such a piece of American nationalism that is hard to criticize from my point of view. 

5. Is not from Michael Bay?, Con Air, it certainly fooled me. 

6. Good at first, and now… : The Island(2005) and The Rock(1996). At first I enjoyed both movies a lot, now I think they are ok efforts from the director, it has some interesting concepts, cool action pieces that at least made sense in the context of the movie, but again the director takes too much time resolving conflict in the history structure, tells us stuff that we don’t need to know and that really don’t matter to the history, there are just scenes for the sake of it. These movies I can still watch on TV, I just wish there was a fast forward on the control that worked 

Here is a link of the most common 7 cliches used in Michael Bay’s Movies, I will add the spinning camera around the characters with they’re mouth open!

http://www.geekscape.net/7-cliches-from-michael-bay-movies

And some YOUTUBE compilations.

SPINNING SHOT:

EPIC!!!

GREAT PARODY OF WHAT AN ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE WOULD LOOK LIKE DIRECTED BY MICHAEL BAY: 

Images used on the Creative Commons license and taken from Wikipedia. Videos are trademark of they're owners, and licensed by Youtube. 

Internet – Give me More, Please no more

There has been a lot of buzz in the internet in the past few weeks related to one of the writers in TheVerge.com, Paul Miller a somewhat famous technology blogger has decided to stay offline for a year, and will be writing about this experience as a technology writer without the internet. Some people have stated that is a promotional stunt, he is foolish, there is no real reason to do something like that. All I was thinking while this was happening is that, good for him.

The internet is a great tool, it give us access to lots of information, and also lets us stay connected with the world at all times, people can send us email from the toilet, we can read them in the street or have the car read it to us, news feed are instantly updated thanks to tweeter, we know whatever is happening in our friends lives thanks to Facebook. This all sound great, but as is a blessing, it's also a curse. Emails of messages in the middle of the night, hundreds of work related email every day, more email on personal business, people are not thinking about essays, and inspiration is lost. Even I had troubled keeping my goal of writing two articles every week for this Blog; due to overload of information I have been receiving all week. It’s tempting to take a holyday from the internet. Disconnect your ties to the world, just keeping a regular cellphone, without messaging and internet access.

Don't Get me wrong, I love the internet, It has given me opportunities to learn a lot of stuff that in my country I hadn’t access to, comics, literature, music, movies, I am a culture consumist in the end, and that is hard when you don’t have access to culture. But sometimes we also need to disconnect, to be more productive asPaul states in his writing, without the worry to seeing an email that needs immediate response.

Please leave your comments after the article

Read more on Paul’s offline living in www.theverge.com

The Walking Dead review

I recently wrote about my love for the adventure genre of video games, still while the genre has been reduced to a downloadable format of games, with few exceptions on big budget productions (Heavy Rain for the PS3 comes to mind), it has growth to new markets, in much different styles of play from the one I used to love. The most prominent developer of these kinds of games right now is Telltale Games, and while they are fine in their own, I still think the old games are better. Tell Tales have done something very interesting with a business model were they have not really created new properties, they have made adventure games using a mixture of comics, TV and movie licenses like Strong Bad, CSI, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Law and Order and also old video game franchises like Monkey Island, Sam & Max (also a comic) and in the future Kings Quest. Their latest release is a license of The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead is a black and white comic book series, published by Image, created and wrote by Robert Kirkman. The comics are very dark in its topics, and are centered on the survival of a varying group of characters in a world where the dead walk the earth chasing living beings and trying to eat them. It has no end in sight, and the author even say there is no objective, no end game; it’s just trying to survive and the struggle of the cast to keep their humanity and body parts without becoming one of the walking dead. It has spawned a popular television series, and a novelization, I haven’t read the novel, I have read a great length of the comic book that is reaching number 100(I have read until #71 more or less), I didn’t care much for the TV series, while I liked most of the first season, the 2^nd one didn’t grave my attention, while still watched most of it. Then there is the Video Game, I loved it, great and dynamic story(at least in the first episode), the artwork is effective enough, giving it a lot of emotion even with a style reminiscent of the comic books (is almost cel-shaded with some detail in the characters, to give them more emotion), the game also features very good voice acting, that give the game emotion it deserves, and makes it feel a mixture between a comic book and a movie, with interactive moments and a branching path that takes to several endings depending on how people see you and how you´re character interacts with them. 

I was amazed how my wife, who never plays games and rarely watches me play, she doesn’t like zombie movies and even less comics, and she was completely engaged in the story and wanted to know what was happening to the characters. That for me is a good sign of a story well put together in a complete package. I recommend the game for everyone who likes the license and especially lovers of old adventure games, I haven’t seen such a great representation of the adventure game in years and am really glad to see it from the same company that is bringing back King’s Quest.

The Walking Dead

2012 Telltale, Inc. THE WALKING DEAD is © 2012 Robert Kirkman, LLC. Based on the Comic Book by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard.

Released in PS3, PC / Mac and Xbox 360

http://www.telltalegames.com/walkingdead/

What Happened to my Adventure Games?

When I started playing PCgames on 1986, my first game was King Quest: Quest for the Crown, a graphic andtext based adventure type of game where all actions where dictated by typedcommands and there was a graphic representation of the space and an avatar thatdepicted you're actions and movements (today is called third action view).There were no pointing and clicking, just typing verbs+nouns. Sierra Online inmy opinion had the best lineup of games and some of these great games were re-released not long ago by www.gog.com to be played on all they're text typingglory.

The King Quest series has a lot of charm in its story writing that is unmatched today, the first three games are hard to go back and play them again due to the graphic limitations and difficulty of the games, 4 and 5 are great adventures and 6 is really good, and has a very imaginative story and setting. I really want to try again 6 and complete King Quest 7, the only one I didn't had a chance to play when it came out in 1994, and it was really hard to get a copy in my native country (Colombia). By the way, don´t even try King Quest 8, it’s just a terrible try to build an action adventure story on a bad 3d engine. At least they did succeed somewhat in doing a good story in a 3d engine with Gabriel Knight 3.

For me the real Jewel in the crown found in gog.com, is the Space Quest series of games, they are all really funny have perfect comedic timing and are just love to play them again, even if as I mentioned earlier, the first three are games are text adventure games with graphic avatars. They are difficult, I really admire the imagination I had as a child to figure out the puzzles in those games. Space Quest 4, 5 and 6 are just plain funny. Here is a video made about the best moments in Space Quest 4.

I still cannot believe that the series that has endured the most of all the adventure games made by sierra Online is Leisure Suit Larry, the series had some good moments, but the quality of the writing compared to the Space Quest games is not even comparable, this series is above and beyond most of the comic games today. I’m going to try the fan made 7th game in the series and will look with interest if the Kickstarter project initiated by the two guys of Andromeda(how the writers used to called themselves) does in terms of getting a new version of the game.

I know that the old Lucasfilm games of are the most popular right know between adventure gamers, especially since they have recently released special editions of the first Monkey Island Games (that are specially great in the sword fighting parts) and the new releases made by Tell Tale Games of the Monkey Island and Sam And Max universes. These games are much easier to play than the old text adventures but they still have great quality writing.

The genre has evolved much, at first just text, then came the graphic nature with text input developed by Roberta Williams and Sierra Online, then came SCUMM with the release of Maniac Mansion, and was mostly popularized by the Lucasfilms Games, it was the beginning of point and clicking and a trend that really annoyed and pulled away many gamers, pixel hunting. There were great games that came from this system, Day of the Tentacle being probably the best comedy one in my mind, and several smaller studios adapted a similar system, while Sierra developed an Icon Based technology that was used in its adventure games until 1997 were you can point with the mouse and choose an icon to perform an action, like taste, talk, take, among others. Lucasfilms final two adventure games (Grim Fandango and Escape from Monkey Island) implemented GrimE, a better implementation of a 3d adventure that sierra could never master, and is similar interaction as to what the engine of Telltale Games uses for control of the characters or even what you do in Heavy Rain(2010) as one of the last big budget adventure games, created exclusively for the PS3 console.

There has been a resurgence of Adventure games, bringing special editions of the Secret of Monkey Island 1 and 2 in the iOS platform, I have also seen the Broken Sword games there and a DS port called Ghost Trick that is real good, there are a lot of creative talent are trying to improve the genre, Machinarium and Botanicula being resent examples, and if you dig in the internet, there are a lot of remakes for the Sierra Games made by fans. Telltale Games have done a memorable job in bringing the genre back at accessible prices and multiple platforms, I specially like they're last game, The Walking Dead, that inspired me to write this article, it had been a while that I really enjoyed a good adventure game.

It’s not a bad time to try these games, but be prepared to be frustrated, is not an easy genre to love, there is a lot of pixel hunting, confusing puzzles, and sometimes it’s hard to understand the logic of the writers.

PS: There are lots of more adventure games that I haven't try due to the difficult of getting them in Colombia, some of the best regarded games are: The Longest Journey and other European made games like Broken Sword, the Japanese have they’re one interpretation of the genre (mostly dating game, or at least the one’s I have played), and there are lot of independent games like Plan 9 from outer space, Amazon, Goblings, Sex Vixens of Outer Space, Simon Sorcerer, Dragon’s Lair, among others. I have also heard that the Freddy Parkas game by Sierra Online is one the funniest games out there, but I haven't tried it yet, maybe one day I will write about it.

Some links for you to check out about the genre:

http://www.thehouseofgames.net/index.php?t=1&a=2&s=2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_graphic_adventure_games
http://www.gog.com/en/catalogue/adventure
http://www.telltalegames.co


http://guysfromandromeda.com/

http://www.sierragamers.com/

The Games of 2011 vs 1986 - deadendthrills vs the PAST

I have been playing video games for such a long time, starting with a CGA Monitor in 1986 (I think!), and was amazed by my first play through of King Quest by Sierra in its glorious 4 colours (Magenta, cyan, white and black) at 320×200 pixel resolution. I did played with an Atari 2600 before that, but to be honest I was too young to have a good memory of the games I had, in my memory I really started playing video games with King Quest and Space quest. Looking how far have the games come its just amazing, there was no way to dream back then that these pictures will be from video games on a PC.


Check the page for finding more amazing art in video games:

http://deadendthrills.com/


I will share some of the DEADENDTHRILLS images i found most appealing, and show you what was avaible to me in 1986 when started playing on PCs(found in http://www.thehouseofgames.net):

F15 Strike Eagle by Microprose (1985)

BATTLEFIELD 3 by DICE (2011)

APRIL 29, 2012 | BATTLEFIELD 3 | 1 COMMENT | 1920X1080 | 2560X1440

ARTISTS: ANDREAS CHRYSOVITSANOS, ANDREAS FOUGNER, ANDREW HAMILTON, DANIEL SCHÖNHERR, DANIEL THIGER, EMELIE NILSSON, ERIC PERSSON, FREDRIK ULFVES, GUSTAV TILLEBY, JENS DRAS, JESSICA HELGESSON, JIMMY GUSTAFSSON, JOACIM LINQUIST, JOAKIM SVARLING, JOHAN ANDERSSON, JOHAN LUNDMARK, JOHANNES FORS, JOHN TROIVE, JONAS LEVIN, JONAS RONNEGARD,JONATAN NORDENSTAM, KAORI KATO, KENNETH JOHANSSON, KENNY MAGNUSSON, LARS MÅRTENSSON, LINUS LIDBERG, LIONEL CREGUT, MARCUS FRITZE, MATTHIAS ERIKSSON, MATTIAS HÄGGSTRÖM,MATTIAS KYLEN, MATTIAS MAGITO, MIKAEL ANDERSSON, MIKAEL LINDERHOLM, MIKAEL NELLFORS, NILS DUCKER, OSCAR CARLÉN, PETER HOYLES, PETTER SKOLD, PONTUS RYMAN, RENSE DE BOER,RICK UNDERHILL, RISAKO TANEDA, ROBERT SAMMELIN, SIMON BARSKY, STEFAN BOBERG, STEFAN VUKANOVIC, STELLAN TONRING, SUSANNA WESSLUND

KING'S QUEST: THE SEARCH OF THE CROWN by SIERRA ONLINE(1983)

THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM BY BETHESDA (2011)

THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM BY BETHESDA (2011)

ARTISTS: ALEX SCHWARTZ-RUDD, ANDY BARRON, BEN CARNOW, CHARLES KIM, CHRISOPHER ZDANA, CHRISTIANE H.K. MEISTER, CLARA STRUTHERS, CORY EDWARDS, DANE OLDS, DANIEL T. LEE, DENNIS MEJILLONES, GABRIELLE ADAMS, HIU LAI CHONG, JONAH LOBE, LIZ BEETEM, LUCAS HARDI, MASSIVE BLACK, MEGAN SAWYER, NATE PURKEYPILE, NOAH BERRY, RAFAEL VARGAS, RASHAD REDIC,ROBERT WISNEWSKI, RYAN SALVATORE, RYAN SEARS, TONY GRECO, YAN QIN

SPACE QUEST: THE SARIEN ENCOUNTER by SIERRA ONLINE (1986)

MASS EFFECT 3

ARTISTS: BEN HUEN, BOYD MCKENZIE, BRIAN SUM, CASEY BALDWIN, CHRIS RYZEBOL, CIARAN BEGLEY, DON ARCETA, FRANCOIS TURCOTTE, GRAHAM KELLY, HERBERT LOWIS, JAEMUS WURZBACH,JEAN SEBASTIEN BARIL, JEFF VANELLE, JOSH DEAN, JULIO JUAREZ, KEN FINLAYSON, KOLBY JUKES, LEE CHURCH, LUIS ALONSO, MARC-ANTOINE HAMELIN, MARCEL SILVA, MARK LININGTON, MATT RHODES, MIKE TROTTIER, MIKKO KINNUNEN, MORTEN OLSEN, NEIL MCKNIGHT, NEIL VALERIANO, NOEL LUKASEWICH, NOLAN CUNNINGHAM, RAFAEL GRASSETTI, RION SWANSON, RODRIGUE PRALIER,ROHAN KNUCKEY, RYAN LOVE, SCOTTY BROWN

The Avengers - a long time ago there was a bankrupt Marvel…

 

I have toadmire the effort of Marvel Studios, knowing the history of Marvel Comics and MarvelStudios and the tribulations that they have gone to get to make the movie The Avengers,released on Colombia and the United States last Friday (April 27^th of2012). The studio have finally given a resolution to a story after connectingthe universes of the Iron Man, Thor, Incredible Hulk and Captain American moviefranchises, and reacquiring the movie rights of the characters. After the company filed for bankruptcy on1996, they started to recover on several deals and fusion of companies that allowedit to create the studio and toy line, just in time for the comic book boom ofthe industry of the 2000s, and to great avail of marvel studios and a greatstring of comics based movies starting with Blade on New Line Studios in 1998 andX-Men on Fox Studios. Most of the 21movies released since 1998 in coproduction with several movie studios have beengood, with the particular exception of the Fox co-produced movies not directedby Brian Singer and the last X-men movie of last year, and also the terrible GhostRider Movies by Columbia Pictures. The most interesting movies have been the additional6 movies they produced independently and that have been the basis of TheAvengers, starting in Iron Man in 2008, introducing the characters, the topics,the personalities and Shield as the governmental entity that unites theAvengers in the movie. I wonder what is the feeling of a person that have notseeing the previous movies, specially Thor, that is the most direct prequel ofThe Avengers, it shares the hero, the villain and is the one that the SHIELD’s Director(Played by Samuel L Jackson) most directly refers as the effect that causes thecreation of the Avengers Initiative, you now, it’s the movie that introduces extraterrestrialaliens to earth.

In the end the movie is a great action flick with great characters and a thrilling story,but it also means that someone who hasn’t seen the previous movies will be lostwith so many topics and characters. I really liked the interpretation of MarkRuffalo as the Hulk and Bruce Banner, I improves a lot the previousinterpretations of the character, Chris Evans is better as Captain America, butit gets a little lost between all the characters, especially in the presence ofRobert Downey, Jr as Tony Stark who is still a scene stealer all the way. The newadditions are Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton (alias Hawkeye in the comics) andScarlett Johansson as the Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff, who still feel a littlebit as seat fillers in a team of greater than men heroes, but give greatperformances and give a human perspective of the fight, specially Black Widow,giving a great interpretation of the spy game, even if the fights (specially herfirst one) seems a little fake.

I recommendthe movie, but I greatly recommend that everyone who is going to see it watchesTHOR before, and if they can watch Captain America is not a bad idea, there isa lot of background talk about in the movie that are references to his movie.

 

SUPERHERO MOVIES, PAST AND PRESENT

 

1997 was abad year for comic superhero movies, what I think is the worst movie of thegenre came up, Batman & Robin was a terrible experience, it was goofy,tasteless and had cero respect for the source material that inspire it, andBatman "cried!". After that terrible experience in the theater I almost lost hopeon the genre, specially watching the previous efforts of the 80s and 90s, therewas charm In watching these superhero movies as a kid, but now being in my 20s Icouldn’t resist much of the kids’ stuff that the genre was target at. Then cameSpawn the same year, not a particularly good movie, but at least dark andentertainment, and handled topics that were outside the realm of superheromovies, and antihero from hell, the next year came Blade and reinforced thedark vision of the antihero genre and to boot was a good movie!. There werestill something missing from the genre, there was better cinematohraphy, betterstories, but the characters were still one-dimensional, just a prototype ofantiheroes or superheroes, nothing made them tick or what were they fightingfor? At least in the big screen interpretations of the superheroes, theinformation and background was there in the comic pages but nowhere to be seenin the celluloid.

Then, it happened, a combination of cinematic excellence in apopcorn package that changed what superhero movies could achieve, X-men in 2000was a great movie, with great characters(at least most of them, some likeCyclops were still left out). Even a movie like Unbreakable of the same year, wasall characters and cero action, gave us a look about what the mythology of thesuperheroes comics bring with them and we could hope to see in future movies. In2002 came Blade 2, X2: X-men United, Hulk and Daredevil (the first two greatmovies, the last two bad ones), that tried to excel on the exposition andbackground of the heroes, trying to give these god like beings more dimensions,and improving the genre considerably, while still kicking ass.

Of coursethe genre still suffers of bad writing, directing and acting. But for eachElektra and Fantastic Four (2005) there is at least a Batman Begins (2005) thatreminds us how great the genre can be. Being that the film industry isobviously driven by mass production and the big next thing is not surprise thatthere are so many bad movies, but at least through the cracks there are stillgreat movies to be seen. Specially in the last couple of years we have seenvery good interpretation of the genre, special by the push of Marvel comics,not only giving us better character development but also the creation of acommon universe where all the superheroes live in and will culminate in theevent movie that could be Avengers that will premiered on April 27^thin the United States and Colombia and a lot of other countries.

I will giveyou next a list of my recommended superhero movies, must – not see and what thehell happened? List of movies.

My personalbest superhero movies:

BatmanBegins and The Dark Knight – Directed by Christopher Nolan – best examples ofthe genre in my mind.

Superman 1 and2 by Richard Donner – these are movies that showed us the possibilities of thegenre, and that good actors can be part of the genre.

Batman (1989)by Tim Burton - still has a place in my heart, the esthetic is incredible, evenif the characters are a little thin.

X-men andX2: X-men United by Bryan Singer - not much to say about how great this moviesare. Also the presence of incredible actors (Patrick Stewart and Ian Mckellen) thatgive a quality that is hard to describe. Without them the movies would not besame. The third one couldn’t be saved by the same cast, a shame of bad scriptand director.

X-men:First Class by Mathew Vaughn – great actors again and very good direction of adescent script. Very well put together. This is what I hope will happened in theAvengers Movie.

Blade 2 by GuillermoDel Toro – well executed all around.

RED by RobertSchwentke – great cast and action scenes, not really super powered heroes, butexceptional people based on a great and short graphic novel.

The Rocketeerby Joe Johnson – for a 13 year old kid it was the best movie ever, so shut up.

Spider Man1 and 2 by Sam Raimi – these ones are very popular among critics, but to be honest I found them good but not really greatmovies, I felt the exposition got a little carried away with all characters andsome jumps in time were too distracting.

Other Good Moviesof the Genre: Iron Man, Thor, Captain America: First Avenger, Scott Pilgrim Vsthe World and Darkman.

What Happenedwith this movie?

Watchmen byZack Snyder – I enjoyed it but could not help to think how bad would feel forsome who had not read the graphic novel.

Hellboy andHellboy 2 by Guillermo Del Toro – I like these movies, but there is definitelysomething missing to make me watch them again. I think it might have to do withthe supporting characters and the love interest.

GreenLantern by Martin Campbell – what the hell happened in did!!

Hancock byPeter Berg – this movie feels like there is something great in the background,but cannot feel that the studio forced some changes that greatly damaged themovie, the same as the Green Lantern Movie and the League of ExtraordinaryGentlemen.



Do notwatch!!!

TransformerTrilogy by Michael Bay – hate these movies, I know they are not technicallysuperheroes, but still hate them.

Iron Man 2by Jon Favreu and Spider Man 3 by Sam Raimi – what a mess of movies, not real goalin mind besides selling more toys.

Ghost Rider1 and 2, Elektra, Punisher: War zone, Catwoman and lots more.



 

The Hunger Games Official Trailer [1080p HD] - All Hunger Games Trailers...

“The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work.

All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction.

Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case.”

― Chuck Close

Hunger Games Movie and Book Review

I Have read in the last year the trilogy of books of the Hunger Games, and founding them quite entertaining, the story and the storytelling elements give a description of a violent and difficult world, narrated and told in first person perspective by the protagonist, Katnis Evergreen, she narrates in a very focused way, not only letting you know what she thinks, but also only what she sees, so there is no opportunity for jumping ahead and it gives a sense of isolation that not everyone enjoys in this kind of reading. I would recommend it to most people, if they like the style of narration and doesn’t mind that the story is basically science fiction with some light romance elements that do not distract from the central motive of the story that I will describe at continuation.

As an admirer of good first person stories, as is this book, I found it hard to reconcile how they would handle the adaptation of such a personal story in the big screen. I was quite happy with the end result, the movie has a good pace, at first giving us enough glimpses of the world from the perspective of Katniss and then when it launches us in a bloodbath (obscured by the MPRS rating of PG-13), it give us enough information of the world and the confrontation of the kids of between ages of 12 and 18, who are the yearly tributes of the titular event to entertain the people of the Capitol (think American Idol where the duels are with swords, lances, arrows and knives in a large forest). The Hunger Games were put in place by the totalitarian government of the Capitol to remind the population of 12 districts that they should not try to revolt, or they will take what's is more dear to them, and in the process, giving them hope as the President Snow, explains it to the gamekeeper (producer of the show) in a key scene not in the book.

In the end, the movie is entertaining enough to be enjoyed by someone who has not read the book, and who have read will enjoy seen it come to life in such a well acted and produced action event. I think the ending is the weakest part of the movie, not giving the audience enough resolution to the story and also not giving us a glimpse of what the real danger is of the actions that Katniss performed during the movie, or at least something that resembles a bitter suit ending would have give it much more strength in final minutes

EAT ALL CULTURE

When people ask me if I like to read, I respond yes, I like it a lot.
When people ask me if I like movies, I respond that I love them.
When people ask me if I like video games, of course I do, I play a lot of them.
When People if I like to go to arts and museums, I said I do enjoy it.
When people ask how when do I have time to do all that stuff, I respond that I don´t know, but I do wish I have more time for all of it.


In the end I'm a culture consumist, I try to read a lot, watch lots of movies, play video games, visit countries and go to their museums, I want to know it all, to experience as much as I can while I'm alive, learn what works in culture and makes an art representation a pop, underground or cult hit. I want to keep learning about the whole wide world and what makes it change and evolve.


The Internet gave us a tool for infinite learning opportunities, and I now want to use the Internet as a tool for sharing my vision of the world and the experiences i have consuming all I can while I can.