Well, now that I’ve rebuilt the website, I guess it’s time to start
generating content, and what better way to do that than by bringing back
the podcast?
Episode 8.01: Back and Catching Up continues the
proud tradition I do on every first podcast back from a hiatus, and
that’s begin by explaining the hiatus! Then I take you around the
website and all the awesome rebuilding I did, and then ramble about all
the things that happened while I was gone, such as:
“Weird Al” Yankovic releasing his album Mandatory Fun and talking a lot like he was retiring.
Marvel Studio’s announcement of Phase III of their Cinematic Universe, and the fact that they got Spider-Man back!
And general reaction to the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer
Plus, I have an important lesson for you, the listeners, so give it a listen!
Well, gang, my hard work for the past few months is finally done. Well, done to the point where I think it's ready for public consumption.
My I present my newly rebuilt and redesigned website, Chaos in a Box.com!
My website had been due for an overhaul for quite some time now. As much as I liked how it looked, my knowledge of HTML peaked in 2003, and it was starting to look it. And every time I wanted to update it or revise it, I found myself dusting off my old copy of Microsoft Front Page and having to write a new webpage from scratch.
Besides, I never really finished my last rebuild 9 years ago, leaving it a mess of dead links spread across three servers. It would all get very messy if you started clicking around too much.
So I started thinking about doing a rebuild about a year ago. Rather than always having to build a webpage from scratch, I started looking at all the DIY web designers that are out there now. Having read the reviews, and chatting with friends that are more knowledgeable than me, it looked like WordPress was the way to go. I had one of those more knowledgeable friends install WordPress on my server for me, and I was off to rebuild my website!
Then I kinda got bored with that and finally opened a Netflix account.
But then, as 2015 started, my employers realized I had two weeks of leftover vacation time from last year. And they really wanted me to get it off the books. With two weeks off, I figured this would be the perfect time to just sit down in front of my computer and get it done. Once I tweaked the settings in WordPress and got a layout and design I liked, it just a ton of cutting and pasting as I copied all my old webpages, and pasted them into WordPress's templates.
I put in almost full workdays, taking breaks occasionally to enjoy some sunshine, eat, and watch episodes of Jem on Netflix. It was a lot of cutting and pasting. But at the end, I had some statistics: 248 podcasts, 188 movie reviews, and 348 entries in my original blog were all copied over.
It's all there now. It's searchable. You can dig it all up. The best thing I discovered about WordPress was its embedded MP3 player, so you can now easily listen to my podcasts in your browser.
When I did my last rebuild 9 years ago, a friend of mine was sad that I dumped all my movie reviews prior to 2004. So, just for him, I found all my older movie reviews in my archives, and my movie reviews section is complete once again, all the way back to when I started doing them in 1998! The first movie I reviewed was the first American Godzilla film, in case you're curious. And re-reading those early reviews, I'm almost embarrassed at how much I loved LOVED LOVED The Phantom Menace when it first came out.
My original blog is there as well, but I buried it a little bit. I mean, I haven't updated it in 9 years, so there's no reason for it to be so front and centre. Besides, back then, I had no qualms whatsoever about naming names and calling out people who pissed me off. I did have instructors at NAIT who pulled me aside and said, "Gee, Mark, if you keep saying stuff like that online, you're going to find it really difficult to find a job," and I do know of at least one job the blog cost me. Reading it again all these years later, I'm a touch embarrassed at it all. But I can't help but remember how passionate I was back then...how serious I was about my writing. I really remember posting my articles on Sunday night, and getting excited e-mails from my friends on Monday morning telling me how awesome my article was and how amazing a writer I was.
So, for those reasons, I kept it. However, some articles are "special editions," where names have finally been changed to cover my own ass protect the innocent. And besides, as I observed when I first attempted this rebuild a year ago, most of this stuff has been online now for 10 years or more. If it was going to come back and bite me in the butt, it would have by now. (The one incident I mentioned happened a mere month after I posted it.)
It's all there for the world to see. As Dinobot said with his dying words, my tale is told to those who ask, the ill deeds with the good, so that I may be judged accordingly. Head on over to chaosinabox.com, and read my tale.
Here we are on Fishing in the Discount Bin once again. Not quite done with The Matrix franchise yet, as we still have to tackle it's universe-expanding anime spinoff The Animatrix. This pops up in my notes at May 10, 2014.
I was facing a dilemma. I wanted to go see Kingsman: The Secret Sevice, but at my usual theatre in West Edmonton Mall, it was only playing in Ultra AVX. For those who don't know, Ultra AVX is currently one of Cineplex's premium theatre experiences. You get the maximum allowable screen size without going IMAX, the most state-of-the-art sound systems, assigned seating, more comfortable chairs...and $3 more on the movie ticket.
Yeah, I'm cheap enough that the extra $3 is enough to give me pause. If I'm going to see a movie in 3D, I'll spring for it, because the assigned seating assures you a good seat. But for a regular ol' 2D movie? Ehh....
And then I remembered I don't always have to go to West Edmonton Mall. As much as I love browsing in that cathedral to consumerism, it's not always required. Hell, whenever I drive into Edmonton, I always drive by Cineplex's North Edmonton theatre. It's a good theatre, I've seen lots of movies there, and most of the shops I wanted to check out where there on the north side anyway. And the North Edmonton theatre was showing Kingsman in a regular ol' theatre. I was only going halfway this time...to the north side!
On the north side is the Best Buy I usually blow money in, and I had $7.99 left on my last Christmas gift card. $7.99 is just enough for one Blu-Ray out of the discount bin, and I knew what I was going to get....
Independence Day is one of my favourite films. Hands down, you will never find better popcorn entertainment. And I was due for the Blu-Ray upgrade anyway. Sadly, the Blu-Ray didn't include the extended edition that was on the DVD, so I guess I'll be hanging onto my DVD a little longer. Oh, let's be honest, I never throw away any DVDs. I love movies too much, in all their formats.
But it wasn't just oldies, had to pick up the hot new release of the day, Disney's Big Hero 6. Like many a geek, I believe that superheros and animation are a genre and a medium made for each other. And when Disney bought Marvel, we were all a tingle at the prospect of a Disney animated Marvel Cinematic Universe. Big Hero 6 drew its inspiration from a short-lived Marvel comic from about 10 years ago. Some people were upset that it wasn't an official Marvel production with the Marvel logo up front and everything, but Marvel admitted that Big Hero 6 was so below their radar on what to adapt that they just kind of gave it to Disney and said, "Do with it as you will."
Anyway, when I saw it back in November, I had a great time with it. And, because The Lego Movie got snubbed, it managed to nab the Oscar for Best Animated Film, too. Could always use more Oscar winners in the library.
Quick bite of lunch, and I was off to the theatre! Here's why I do like going to catch movies at West Edmonton Mall. When I'm ridiculously early, I can go browse and entertain myself. But North Edmonton is in a power centre. And as most critics of power centres will tell you, they are not very pedestrian friendly. I got a good parking spot near the theatre, but then I had no desire to walk all the way across a frigid parking lot to check out some of the stores. So I wound up going to the theatre early. I mean, I'm usually at a theatre early to get good seats, but this is early even for me.
I typically don't eat at the movies anymore, because I mostly go to weekend matinees these days, and since it's right after lunch, I'm not hungry. But I ate this time because, hey, I'm ridiculously early and standing in line at the snack counter is something to do. And then I went into the theatre. Getting there super-early is good because then you can pick the good seats, and you can open your loud, crinkly candy wrappers without bothering anyone, but I looked at my watch, and I had 40 minutes until showtime.
At least I was finally able to get onto the Timeplay server and get that working on my phone. I have a friend in Vancouver, and they've had Timeplay at their theatres for a while now, and he loves it. They only rolled it out to Edmonton theatres this past summer. You've got the special app on your smartphone, and then, during the pre-show at the theatre, Timeplay comes up and you can play interactive trivia games and win stuff. My friend in Vancouver tells me he's won free popcorn and such, but out here, all they ever seem to offer for prizes are SCENE points. It's weird. I've been convinced to sign up for dozens of rewards programs (so much so that I now carry a second wallet just for all the rewards cards), I go to see so many movies, but Cineplex's SCENE is the one rewards program I haven't signed up for.
Anyway, even though I got Timeplay working, I didn't play. Why? Because they flash your name on the leaderboard up on the big screen, and I'm actually pretty self-conscious about seeing my name up in lights. Strange given my day job, right?
So, I was getting pretty jazzed to see Kingsman. It was essentially James Bond from the creators of Kick-Ass. If they could skewer the tropes of the superspy genre the same they did the superhero genre, then I knew it was going to be a good time. I was shocked when my Mom said she wanted to go see it, because Colin Firth, star of a hundred rom-coms, is one of the stars.
Eggsy is a kid in London who's been in and out of trouble with the law for most of his life. Seeking to avoid a prison sentence, Eggsy calls on one of his deceased father's old colleagues, Harry Hart, to bail him out. Harry sees potential in the boy, and reveals that he and Eggsy's father are members of a top-secret spy agency called Kingsman, and that Eggsy has what it takes to be an agent. Eggsy begins his basic training, while Harry goes off on his latest case, investigating the tech billionaire Richmond Valentine, who's been brokering secret deals with world's richest and most powerful, and throwing those who don't go along with his scheme into his private prison. Soon, it's Harry and Eggsy on the case, hunting down Valentine before he can destroy the world.
I enjoyed it. As expected, just like Kick-Ass, it was very profane, very bloody, and very self-referential. That being said, it had the same problem as Kick-Ass, in that the creators have too much love for the formula they're lampooning to stray too far from it.
I give it a solid 3 nibs. Go check it out!
Normally, this is where I'd post the link to the complete review on my website, but I am so close to finishing rebuilding my website, that I'm going to hang onto it, and it'll be the first content when my rebuilt website goes live.
And from there, it was just a nice, leisurely drive home. Since I didn't have as far to drive home, I was home a lot earlier than I thought I'd be, and still managed to enjoy a lot of my evening. And, most importantly, I save $3 on a movie.
It's time once again for Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly watching of a movie I own, then ranting about it. We're finishing off The Matrix Trilogy with The Matrix Revolutions. This is in my notes at May 4, 2014.
Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly viewing of a DVD, Blu-Ray, and occasionally, an ol' VHS I own, only for me to sit here and rant about why I like it. Right now, I'm working my way through The Matrix franchise, and we get to the second in the trilogy, The Matrix Reloaded. This shows up in my notes at April 27, 2014.
Hey! I just realized that the Oscars are less than a week away, and I haven't blogged my usual list of Oscar picks yet!
This is a proud tradition, going back to the early days of my website, and my college radio show. See, I do my Oscar picks a little bit differently than anyone else. Every other Oscar preview show you watch, they'll be telling you about the Best Picture predictions, and the Best Actor & Actress predictions, but not me. I'm only going to give you my picks in the categories that I have good track record in predicting the winner: Best Visual Effects, Best Original Song, and Best Animated Film. So, let's get to it!
So I do this bit on my podcast called Mark Tastes Random Things, where, live on mic, I sample whatever latest pre-packaged food concoction I've discovered and offer my thoughts. It all started a few years ago when, at the Bargain Store, I discovered the Jones Soda Holiday Pack on sale, and bought one. I figured it'd be a good bit as I sampled their Gingerbread Soda and Candy Cane Soda and rambled about it. And it was good.
So I knew it was time for a resurrection a few days ago when I was at the grocery store, and, in the pop cooler, I found a bottle of Jones Soda's Peanut Butter and Jelly flavour.
Since I'm still in a netherworld of rebuilding my website before I start up the podcast again, I turned to Sound Cloud to do a special installment of Mark Tastes Random Things for the Jones Soda PB&J flavour.
But that's not all! Cleaning out my hard drive, I found two, never-released-to-the-public installments of Mark Tastes Random Things that I made just to make my friend laugh.
I was ready to make this segment a one-and-done thing, but my friend loved it so much, he encouraged me to keep doing it. And, since I love fast food, one of the main topics quickly became whatever latest promotional item the nearby fast food restaurants are serving.
I joked about this on my podcast as to why I think my friend encouraged me to do this. I think it's because I've become his fast-food-consumer-by-proxy. See, about 12 years ago or so, after reading books like Fast Food Nationand watching movies like The Corporation, he decreed fast food restaurants to be the evilest of the Evil Corporations, and swore to boycott all fast food forever. I, however, have no such political convictions, so I have no problems with a mass-produced burger.
So it makes sense that these two episodes I made just for him were some of McDonald's promotional items in late 2013. First up was the McDonald's After Eight Pie. Are you familiar with that tasty chocolate known as the After Eight? Well, McDonald's figured out how to turn it into a pie. After one co-worker described them as "murder your wife for one delicious," well, I knew I had to give it a go.
But that's not all! At around the same time was the last time McDonald's brought back the most famous of their promotional items, the McRib.
And that's all I got right now for Mark Tastes Random Things. In one way, it's good announcing practice, as they taught me in broadcast school that one way to practice your announcing is to narrate your surroundings while you're driving down the road. And here I am, narrating what I'm eating! I don't like doing it, though, because I don't know how to fill the dead air while I'm actually eating. Should I smack my lips and make all kinds of obnoxious loud eating noises? I don't know.
Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I gaze upon one of the many movies I own and rant about it. I think it's time I delve into the Matrix franchise, and crack open my ol' Matrix boxed set. Let's take a look at The Matrix. This is in my notes at April 27, 2014.
Well, not really. Sony still technically owns the movie rights to Spider-Man. Sony still has financial and creative control over the character, and will handle all production and marketing and distribution of any Spider-Man solo films.
But, under this new deal that's been signed between Sony and Marvel, Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios and grand czar of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is now in charge of the Spider-Man film franchise, and Spider-Man and the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are now free to interact with each other.
So how did we get here? Well, way back before they formed their own movie studio, Marvel did what any other comic book company would do: sell off the movie rights. The movie rights to Spider-Man were sold off ages ago, and after a court battle that lasted for most of the 1990s, the rights were granted to Sony, and thus the Spider-Man film franchise that we know was born.
However, the turning point was this past summer and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Granted, it made $700 million worldwide, but it was the lowest-grossing Spider-Man movie ever. That, coupled with the critical drubbing it got, had fans everywhere screaming, "Give Spider-Man back to Marvel!"
Meanwhile, ever since Marvel formed their own movie studio, they have been trying to re-aquired all their properties. As we learned during the Sony hacks, it turns out Marvel and Sony were having some deep negotiations about Marvel regaining Spider-Man. And some 11th hour shenanigans must have taken place for Marvel to get their way, because rather than the big splashy media events they like to do to announce this stuff, it was mentioned in a news release sent out just before midnight on Monday.
So, with Marvel now running the Spider-Man film franchise for Sony, and Spider-Man now free to interact with the Avengers, Marvel's been shuffling around their release schedule. The first Marvel Cinematic Universe Spider-Man film is coming in July 2017, and the release dates for Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and The Inhumans are all being shuffled around to make room. Spider-Man is also allowed to appear in one Marvel film before his first solo film. It's all but confirmed now that that appearance will be in Captain America: Civil War, because Spidey was a big part of the original comic storyline.
New franchise-runners also means a new Spider-Man. Andrew Garfield, who I thought did a stellar job despite mediocre stories, is being show the door. Apparently, Marvel wants a younger Spider-Man, more like the teenager that Spidey is always known to be. (Garfield just turned 31 in real life.) Marvel apparently wants an actual teenager to play the teenaged Spider-Man.
And Sony has also announced that, despite these developments, their still soldiering on with their Sinister Six, Venom and TBD Female Character spinoffs. Of course, The Amazing Spider-Man 3 has been canceled in favour of the Marvel reboot.
And out of all this, all I can think is, "Is it too late to film a new post-credit stinger for Avengers: Age of Ultron, one featuring Spider-Man?" I was always more of a DC guy when I was a kid, but the only Avengers comic I had was one where Spidey tried to join the Avengers. Alarms were going off in Avengers Mansion, the Avengers assembled to track down the intruder, and they eventually found Spider-Man, who had made a web hammock beneath the QuinJet's wing, where he just casually said, "C'mon, guys, let me join."
I SO WANT THAT TO BE MY POST-CREDITS STINGER IN AGE OF ULTRON!!!
Meanwhile, over on the DC side of the street, we just had the epic 2-part episode of Gotham showing us the secret origin of the Scarecrow.
Yes, everyone I went to college with, I know the Scarecrow was on Gotham. For those just joining us, Scarecrow has always been my favourite Batman villain. So much so, that back in my college radio days, Scarecrow was my on-air name.
I'm enjoying Gotham for the most part right now. I'm just a little afraid they'll fall into the Smallville trap. On Smallville, it was always fun to see these hints and secret origins of various Superman characters, but by season 6, you're screaming at the TV in frustration. "GET ON WITH IT!"
So for Scarecrow's secret origin, we met the Scarecrow's father, Dr. Gerald Crane, and the Scarecrow proper, Johnathon Crane, is just a teenager. The elder Dr. Crane lost his wife in a house fire, and he blames himself for her death because he was too afraid to go back in and save her. Thus leading to his obsession with phobias and fears. Dr. Crane has been torturing people by literally scaring them to death, in an attempt to find a cure for fear. And of course, he experiments on his son. The final scene is the future Scarecrow, having received an overdose of his father's cure, cowering in fear as he hallucinates being harassed by terrifying scarecrows.
It was OK. I'm not sure I like this idea of the Scarecrow being a legacy villain, taking the mantle from his father. But you can see some motivations. Maybe now the Scarecrow becomes obsessed with fears and phobias because he's trying to cure his condition.
What can I say? I always kind of hoped they'd do young Scarecrow much like how they're doing young Riddler. Have Prof. Johnathon Crane be this brilliant, yet slightly off, professor of psychology over at Gotham University who's called in as a profiler on a couple of cases. And, since it's been established that Harley Quinn studied psychology at Gotham University, I always had this idea that maybe Harley Quinn studied under Prof. Crane. So you can introduce young Harley Quinn by having Harlene Quinzel be one of Prof. Crane's grad students.
In other news, I'm on vacation again this week, burning off more vacation time. Decided to head into the city, because I always enjoy how wonderfully uncrowded West Edmonton Mall is on a weekday morning. Swung by HMV, and I stunned myself. I finally bought Brazil on Blu-Ray.
Brazil. Terry Gilliam's legendary dystopian tale. Rather than anything malicious on the part of the state to crush your will and bring you under control, it's the relentless bureaucracy. I have actually never seen it. I've been wanting to see if for ages. Way, way back in high school English, when we were studying 1984, it was a film that my teacher would reference and name-check a lot. I knew a girl in college who cited it as her favourite movie. With that pedigree, I knew I must see it some day. And besides, it's a Criterion edition. The Brazil Criterion has long been held up as one of THE Criterion editions, and the reason why Criterion does what they do.
Since I got my first DVD player in 2001, I've been eying the Criterion of Brazil, but I always stopped myself because Criterion editions get pricey. But, that day, I looked at the $39.99 price tag, and said, "Screw it. Let's get it." And then I got to the till, and when the clerk rang it up, it came up at $32.99. Clerk said, "Huh. The computer says it's $7 cheaper. I won't tell if you won't." And I got it for the lower price.
With a new Blu-Ray in hand, it was then upstairs to see Jupiter Ascending.
Yay! The Wachowskis are back with a new sci-fi epic! Always curious to sew what else the creators of The Matrix are creating. And I know I'm a minority here, but I love, love, LOVE Speed Racer. So what did they concoct for us this time?
Jupiter Jones. The daughter of Russian immigrants. Makes her living as a cleaning lady, scrubbing the toilets of Chicago's elite. Inspired by stories of her astronomer father, who died before she was born, she gazes up at the stars and dreams of something more. "Something more" falls in her lap one day when aliens try to kill her at a medial clinic, and Caine, the half-human/half-wolf bounty hunter rescues her. Turns out Jupiter has the exact same genetic make-up as the recently deceased Queen of the Galaxy, and under the rules of ascension of the galaxy, this makes her next in line for the throne. Of course, this makes her a target for the Queen's children, because her existence is a threat to their claims to the throne.
I got strong John Carter vibe from Jupiter Ascending. They focus a little too much on world-building than plot and character development. And despite being our protagonist, Jupiter isn't very proactive, just kind of going along with the flow of this new world she's been thrust into. And, as such, the plot gets rather repetitive, as Caine is always charging to her rescue, as she gets swept up down the wrong path.
That being said, it is pretty funny in some places. While most of the characters speak in that faux-Shakespearean that's common to sci-fi/fantasy films, Jupiter keeps acting all commoner like and reacts to all these unbelievable situations with the same, "Holy crap." And there's a great scene halfway through showing us the galactic bureaucracy. Who knew that laying a claim to the throne had so much paperwork?
All in all, maybe I'm getting old and have seen too many space operas, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that I'd seen it all before. 2 out of 4 Nibs. Complete review is over on the website.
And before I wrap this up, just one little side quest.
My new routine when coming home from the city is to take the long way through Spruce Grove, where I'll stop for supper at one of the two new burger chains making inroads into Canada: Carl's Jr or Fatburger. Yesterday, Carl's Jr won the coin toss. What can I say? I'm still enjoying the novelty of how new they are. Same way in the late 1990s when Burger King finally came to Alberta.
Anyway, on my parka, I've got a Doctor Who button. Just the smiling face of the Tenth Doctor. A friend of mine brought it back for me after a vacation in London. I'm sure he paid no more than £1 for it. But that button has become the best icebreaker ever.
Case in point, the clerk at Carl's Jr. She saw the button, let out a shriek of glee, and began extolling the virtues of Doctor Who and how it's like every great science fiction and superhero franchise rolled into one. I was pretty into it, but after about 10 minutes, I started thinking, "I'm really hungry. Can I place my order now, please?"
But still, it's great time to be a geek. Cute girls are reveling in the fandom, and not recoiling in horror, like they did when I was in high school. I just like not feeling alone anymore.
At the start of January, I was elated to discover Jem and the Hologramson Netflix, and began cherry-picking my favourite episodes. Then, I was crushed to learn that it was being removed from Netflix by the end of January. I missed my chance to watch every episode when I missed Amazon's lightening deal to get the complete series for dirt cheap...never again! Luckily, I had already booked the last week of January off to use up some leftover vacation time from last year. My plan was to sit back, relax and watch every episode of Jem.
Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly blog where I watch one of the movies I own and rant about it. Today, something a little different. I'm looking at the 1958 samurai epic The Hidden Fortress. This is dated in my notes at April 5, 2014.
Another season, meaning the good folks at DC Comics and Warner Brothers are out with another straight-to-video animated film. Let's look at the latest one....
Starring the voices of Matt Lanter, Sam Witwer, Jason O'Mara, Shemar Moore, Jerry O'Connell, Christopher Gorham, Rosario Dawson and Nathan Fillion.
Backstory: Well, again, I lament that the bigwigs decreed that the only films that sell well are ones featuring Batman and Superman, and the only way we'll really get one featuring another DC hero is if they feature prominently in a Justice League story. Hence, the latest film, Throne of Atlantis, based on the New 52 Justice League story of the same name, and giving us the gritty reboot of the origin of Aquaman. This is also the latest in the new batch of "shared continuity" films that they're giving us, following up on the last Justice League film, War. So how does this latest animated outing fare?
Plot: In the wake of Justice League: War, the King of Atlantis is dead. Orm, heir to the throne of Atlantis, is eager to take advantage of this, and with the assistance of Black Manta, is eager to stir up tensions between Atlantis and the surface world and bring on full scale war. But Queen Atlanta knows there is another hope...the child she had with a surface dweller, who resides on land, unknowing of his destiny. Meanwhile, a series of mysterious attacks on submarines and the the theft of some nuclear missiles has drawn the attention of the newly-formed Justice League, and they being investigating. In the course of their investigation, the learn of Atlantis's existence, and that war is coming. To stop the war, the race begins to find the true heir to the throne: Arthur Curry. Will Arthur accept his destiny as Aquaman and the ruler of Atlantis and bring peace to Atlantis and the surface world?
What I Liked: Well, with Aquaman always considered a bit of a joke, there's a few good gags. Our first introduction to him is drunk in a bar, talking to the fish in the aquarium. And they do make a subtle reference to the over-the-top Aquaman we saw on Batman: The Brave and the Bold. There's some good character bits with our favourite Justice Leaguers, as Superman teaches Wonder Woman the benefits of a secret identity, and some good Flash/Green Lantern banter. And it's a great introduction to Aquaman's world, as Mera is also given a prominent role.
What I Didn't Like: I'm really starting to think this franchise is wearing out its welcome, as there's a whole "been there, done that" hanging over the proceedings. I'm getting tired of watching the Justice League take down hordes of invaders. Aquaman's origin story is such a routine origin tale. We've just...seen this all before.
Final Verdict: I'm getting so very tired.
2 Nibs
Bonus Features: For additional goodies on the Blu-Ray, you get a featurette on the score, a deleted scene featuring Nightwing and Robin, the 2014 NY Comic Con panel promoting the film, a featurette on Aquaman's rogues gallery, 4 bonus cartoons featuring Aquaman, and a sneak peak at the next in the series, Batman vs. Robin.
So, I'm finishing up a week off. The Company wanted me to use up some leftover vacation time from last year, so I took a week to just chill out at home. I had no real plans until I saw that Jem and the Holograms expires from Netflix on Monday, then my plan became binge-watch Jem like my life depended on it.
I'll probably have a full blog entry on the joys of Jem in the weeks ahead. For those who don't remember this classic product of the 1980s, we follow the adventures of Jerrica Benton, president of Starlight Music and head of the charity the Starlight Foundation for Foster Girls. But by night, Jerrica becomes Jem, the world's most beloved pop star. She accomplishes this transformation thanks to Synergy, the world's most advanced AI and sound and projection machine, working through the holographic projectors concealed in Jerrica's earrings. Only 4 others know her secret: Shana, Aja, Kimber, and Raya, her best friends since childhood who form her backing band, the Holograms. And using the powers of generosity, love, and friendship, they do battle with their rival band the Misfits for pop chart supremacy.
It's like every fad and trend of the 1980s threw up on Barbie and it is the trippiest nostalgia trip ever. As a kid growing up, it was right there on Saturday afternoons between G.I. Joe and Transformers and that's when I first started thinking that girls may not be icky after all.
Anyway....
I came across the episode KJEM. In this tale, our heroines are asked to underwrite a struggling radio station until the station can successfully relaunch as a community station serving the nearby college. But of course, there's an evil broadcast conglomerate who wants to put the station out of business, and it turns into every "big evil developer vs. plucky teens trying to save their community centre" plot that was so popular in the 1980s. However, I was quite taken by this one scene. When things look dire for our struggling station, the old station manager takes to the air one last time to give his final sign off. I listened to his speech, and I was like, "Wow. This just sums up the power of radio so nicely."
So I had to rip the clip to share.
tl;dr: I just dig that the benefits of my business was the moral of a 1980s cartoon.
Well, this past week, we finally got our first look at one of the most talked-about superhero reboots coming in 2015, and that's Fantastic Four.
Sadly, it's been talked about for all the wrong reasons. First up, people were talking about the lack of promotion. Usually, with superhero films, we start getting teases a full year before release. The preview the costume, they showcase the sets, do everything to show you how faithful they're being to the comics. But for this...nothing. Just blurry spy photos until this teaser came out.
Then there was the report that Dr. Doom, one of the most iconic supervillains in comics, had been reduced to an angry, anti-social blogger with the online handle "Doom." In fact, some fear the comics are being ignored altogether as Kate Mara, who's playing Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, revealed in an interview that she was told not to read the comics to research her character as they are "doing something never done in the comics."
And let's not get into the criticism of the casting of Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch. What's so wrong with the Human Torch being a black guy?
Director Josh Trank, fresh off his debut film Chronicle, has said that in his Fantastic Four, he's going for a David Cronenberg body horror kind of feel, citing The Fly and Scanners as his biggest influences on the film. I dunno...much like Superman and the resulting Man of Steel, Fantastic Four is a property I never envisioned going dark and gritty. Also, much like the recent Spider-Man reboot, they've decided to draw their primary inspiration from the Ultimate Universe, meaning now the FF get their powers from a teleportation accident, and not being bombarded with cosmic rays, so that makes references to The Fly rather apt.
Rounding out the cast, we've got Miles Teller as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm/The Thing, Toby Kebbell as Victor Domashev/Doom, and Tim Blake Nelson as Harvey Elder, who'll hopefully become the Mole Man in the sequel.
So...here's our first glimpse.
Is it just me, or are they really trying to make it look like Interstellar? The fact that they are taking more of a hard sci-fi stance than the usual superhero fare looks interesting, but it doesn't really look or feel like Fantastic Four. The most FF looking this is the bit at the end with our heroes looking at a mysterious shimmering shaft of light. Given all the negative stuff I'd been reading about this film, the trailer definitely comes across as...not as expected.
Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I watch one of the movies I own and then blog about it. Today's film needs no introduction, as it's still pretty prominent in pop culture today: Frozen. This was originally in my notes at March 30, 2014.
Here we are once again, on Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly watching of a movie I own, and blogging about it, because I really need a hobby. Today, we get to one of the critical darlings of 2013, Gravity. This pops up in my notes at March 9, 2014.
Well, I'm just hangin' out at home, burning off some leftover vacation days, so I may as well get to some blogging I've been putting off. We got our latest batch of Marvel movies, so I've wanted to ramble about them a bit. First up, we've got our first trailer for Ant-Man.
Ant-Man has had a long and storied development that has been well-documented elsewhere, so I'll try to give you the Coles Notes. Way, way back in 2006, when Marvel announced that they'd be going into business for themselves and starting their own movie studio, they said their first three films would be Iron Man directed by Jon Favreau, The Incredible Hulk directed by Louis Leterrier, and Ant-Man directed by Edgar Wright. When Nick Fury's post-credits scene in Iron Man got everyone hot and bothered at the prospect of an Avengers movie, Ant-Man got put on the back, back burner so Marvel could launch their "Phase I." But Wright remained attached to the project, and kept doing development work as he bid his time doing Scott Pilgrim and The World's End.
When Marvel announced their "Phase II," Marvel revealed that Ant-Man would finally happen as their first film after Avengers: Age of Ultron. Wright finally got down to the nitty gritty. Paul Rudd was cast to play the second Ant-Man, Scott Lang. Michael Douglas came on board to play the first Ant-Man, Hank Pym. Evangeline Lily signed on to play Pym's daughter Hope! Corey Stall was going to be the villainous Darren Cross, who takes up the mantle of Yellowjacket. It was finally going to happen!
And then, this past summer, mere months before filming, disaster struck. After hanging in there since 2006, Edgar Wright left the project. Creative differences was the official reason given. The rumor and speculation was that Ant-Man was always intended to be kind of a standalone thing, but when the Marvel Cinematic Universe took off, Marvel started pressuring Wright to add more Marvel Cinematic Universe elements. And finally, the director and studio reached an impasse. Wanting to maintain the schedule they'd set up, Marvel quickly began the search for a new director. Frequent Will Ferrell collaborator Adam McKay was approached, but negotiations fell apart after a weekend. McKay did do enough work, though, that he's getting a co-writer credited on the screenplay. Finally, a new director was found in Peyton Reed, who brought us the cheerleader epic Bring It On, and the Jim Carrey vehicle Yes Man.
(Fun trivia fact: Reed was once attached to do Fantastic Four, but 20th Century Fox [who own the movie rights to FF] balked at his idea to set it in the 1960s and base it on the original Stan Lee and Jack Kirby run.)
New director in hand, last-minute re-writes done to satisfy the new creative direction, leading many to wonder what the final product is now going to look like. And we got our first glimpse when they finally released the new trailer a couple weeks ago.
This trailer was...not what I was expecting. Despite being a founding member of the Avengers and having a 50+ year history in comics, Ant-Man has always been seen as this goofy, B-list character (except for that one time when Hank Pym punched his wife and the name became synonymous with spousal abuse). And with a comedy talent like Edgar Wright as director, the hope was that Ant-Man was going to be the next Guardians of the Galaxy, a film that embraced the goofiness and turned into a very funny, yet very solid action adventure. But instead of the next Guardians of the Galaxy, this comes across more like "Generic Superhero Film #762."
I'm still holding out hope, though. Being a sucker for superhero films, you know I'll be there when it opens on July 17.
Oh, and we also got the second trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron.
I know some people are fretting over how dark it looks (especially with the creepy version of "I've Got No Strings" playing in the background), but I'm still loving it. We're getting some more Hulk vs. Hulkbuster action. Lots of wisecracks, too, about the Hulk's red eyes in that battle, leading many to speculate that he's being mind-controlled by Scarlett Witch in that scene.
Thursday means Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I watch one of the many movies I own and blog about it, because I really don't get out much. Return with me now to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as I watch Thor: The Dark World. This comes from my notes of March 8, 2014.
So what did I peruse on Netflix this past weekend? Sometimes, Netflix can be a great place to find the classics that you've missed out on. The Big Lebowskiis high on the list of cult classics I knew I had to see someday, so when I saw it had recently been added to Netflix, it shot straight to the front of the queue. And, with a quiet Saturday night at home, I knew it was time to check this classic off my cinematic bucket list.
Welcome back to Fishing in the Discount Bin! I took a couple weeks off there for Christmas and New Years, but I'm back, and I still have a ton of DVDs and Blu-Rays to watch and blog about! Let's start off this year with Disney's 2010 gritty reboot of princess tales, Tangled. This is originally in my notes at March 2, 2014.
It seemed like it was going to be an OK day. Yeah, we had some snow and bitter cold, but the online road reports said the highways were OK. But it didn't warn me about those city streets. Nothing more frightening than being in bumper-to-bumper traffic and your turn's coming up, so you start hitting the breaks and turning the steering wheel, but you don't slow down or turn. But I made it through the city in one piece.
What was so important that I had to brave such city streets? Well, the first weekend in January is the traditional end of the whole Christmas vacation season, so I was hot to spend some gift cards. Movie geek that I am, one of my gift cards was for Cineplex, so I figured it was finally time to see The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.
The Hobbit was pretty good. I have the same general complaint that I have with the entire Hobbit trilogy, and that is, when they expanded a single novel into a trilogy, you can really feel the padding. At 2.5 hours, The Battle of the Five Armies is the shortest of the trilogy, but I was still checking my watch a few times wondering when they'd get one with it. I remember coming out of the theatre after the second film and thinking, "But what's left? Bard the Bowman kills Smaug, we have the Battle of the Five Armies, and that's it!" And that's pretty much what happens in the film. I'm a little miffed that Bard killing Smaug kind of becomes a James Bond-style pre-credits sequence, when it would have made a much better end to the second film, but whatever.
As I'm sure I've blogged before, I love The Hobbit and have read it several times, but have never been able to plow through the incredibly-dense The Lord of the Rings. So when I saw some of the large scale battles in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, I was always thinking, "Oh, I hope we get to see the Battle of the Five Armies done like this someday." And we did. And it was magnificent.
Didn't do much else in the city besides see the movie. I wanted to spend some Christmas cash on a new Otter Box for my iPhone. For those not in the know, an Otter Box is a protective case to keep the phone from getting damaged. Otter Box has the reputation as being the most durable in the world. A co-worker actually ran over his iPhone with his car. The Otter Box was destroyed, but it did its job and the phone was fine.
I must have dropped my iPhone one too many times as my Otter Box was starting to get pretty beat up and most of the little trap doors that cover the headphone jack and such had snapped off. The hope is to save my pennies and when my cellphone contract is up this fall, I'll upgrade my 4S to a shiny new 6. Or, since Apple seems to announce the new iPhones in the fall, maybe by the time my money is saved up and my contract is done, they'll have unleashed the 6B or whatever on the world.
And, of course, one of my gift cards was for Best Buy, so it was time for new Blu-Rays. I picked up the latest movie version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Yeah, the movie sucked, but I love TMNT. As many other critics pointed out, about the only thing they got right in the film was the Turtles themselves. Well, at least their personalities. Still not crazy about their hulking new design.
And that was it. Headed straight home after that. After slip-sliding around one too many street corners in the city, I was thoroughly and completely done. Bring on the new year!
So if you're ever looking to waste some time, one of the most interesting places to do it is at the National Film Board of Canada website. If you've never visited their website, or downloaded their award-winning app, the National Film Board has spent the past few years digitizing literally thousands of their films and making them available streaming online for free. It's great if you ever have fond memories of some of their cartoons, or feel nostalgic for Grade 3 movie day.
When I'm feeling nostalgic, I start looking up some of their Vignettes. Remember these? They seemed to dominate TV throughout the 1980s. These short films, between 1-5 minutes in length, always highlighted a unique aspect of Canadian history or culture, and ran on TV in between the programs. They were very much the forefathers of the beloved Heritage Minutes. Of course, the most famous and most beloved one is the Log Driver's Waltz. But in my last bout of nostalgia, I looked up the one detailing the history of the Bluenose.
The way it's all in black and white, with a doom and gloom narrator, it almost seems like a 1940s newsreel. And I always found the end so sad, seeing the wreckage of the once-mighty ship, just sitting and rotting off the coast of some island.
Now it's really interesting to compare this to the Heritage Minute about the Bluenose, which takes half the time to construct a tale of high seas adventure.
It's an interesting contrast. How do you want to remember the ship...as a wreck rotting on a reef, or as the legendary racing and fishing schooner?
Many many years ago, I blogged that most museums and interpretive centres seem to have a little theatre that shows a short film about the history of whatever it is the museum or interpretive centre is dedicated to. "Why don't they sell that film on DVD in the gift shop?" I mused in my blog.
The last real vacation I took was about five years ago. I went to an old college friend's wedding in Calgary, and took a few days to head out to Banff National Park. One of the sights I saw was the Cave and Basin Hot Spring. Once a bustling swimming pool and health spa, it is now an interpretive centre and historical site, detailing how the discovery of the hot spring, and the formation of a government department to look after and administer it, led to the creation of Canada's national park system. Being an interpretive centre, they have a little theatre that shows a little film about the history of Banff. And, of course, the film wasn't available on DVD in the gift shop.
So imagine my surprise when I searched for "Banff" on the National Film Board's website, and discovered that the Cave and Basin film was an official National Film Board production, and available for multiple repeat viewings on their website. And if I really still want to buy it on DVD, I can do so from the National Film Board's online store.
So here's the little film you'll see if you ever find yourself at the Cave and Basin in Banff: Steam, Schemes, and National Dreams: The Story of Banff National Park.
And now we conclude our broadcast day. Customary to do so with the playing of the national anthem. In their "recently added" section, the National Film Board had a music video for the national anthem that looked quite familiar. And then it dawned on me. When I was kid and just got cable, one of the channels was the PBS station out of Detroit. To acknowledge their Canadian viewers, when PBS concluded their broadcast day, they would run this film for O Canada! I thought it was something those PBS producers whipped up, but no, it's an official National Film Board production.
And as the National Film Board website points out, the recording of O Canada was the one made for the 1976 Olympics. So every time Canada one a medal, this was the recording of O Canada that played.
Here we are again with Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly watching and viewing of one of the many films I own. The time, we peek in on one of my favourite directors, Tim Burton, and his 1999 film Sleepy Hollow. This shows up in my notes at February 17, 2014.
As always, I'm blogging my Christmas card letter, so folks whom I may have drifted away from who may be googling my name one night can also know how I'm doing.
Good day,
‘Tis I, Mark Cappis, once again including a nice little form letter in this Christmas card to let you know what’s been going in my life, especially in this year, 2014.
As always, writing this letter is difficult for me, as I can’t figure out enough ways to say “nothing.” My life is still rather quiet and uneventful. I get up, go to work, come home, watch a lot of TV. That’s it. My apartment doesn’t allow pets, so I can’t even get “crazy cat guy” on the go.
Work is still going fine. As you may recall from last year’s letter, I am the afternoon show host and music director for 97.9 the Range in Westlock, Alberta. (“Music director” at a radio station is the guy who actually picks the music the station plays, for those not in the biz.) Well, there has been a notable addition to my duties. In my little cluster of radio stations, 93.5 Prairie-FM in High Prairie switched to country music. So the Company said, “Since we’ve already got a perfectly good music director for country music, let’s have him do both stations!” So I do the music for both 97.9 the Range and 93.5 Prairie-FM now.
Not much else of note happened. I won a contest and got to be on TV. CTV Edmonton was having a contest to give away tickets to the Indiana Jones exhibit at the Telus World of Science. For the heck of it, I entered, and for the heck of it, I won. Part of the prize was I got to go sit in the studio audience for CTV Edmonton Morning Live’s special Indiana Jones show. That was a lot of fun! Haven’t used my free tickets to go see the exhibit yet, but I’ll probably do that first thing in January.
And I’m still quite active on the social networks, if you ever want or crave more frequent updates as to the nothing that goes on in my life. I finally brought back my podcast, too. That ran last year from January until June, when things started getting busy at work. Looks like things will be getting quiet again in January, so I’ll be able to launch the 2015 series really soon.
I’m on LinkedIn, too, but I’m still new to that and figuring it out. And I got my Ello invite the other day, but I’m not there yet.
Oh, and I got a new printer, too. Which is why you’ll see this card has a nice printed label instead of being addressed by hand. I may have lost some of that hand-made quality, but my wrists are thanking me. And that’s all from my tiny apartment in Westlock, Alberta. Have yourself a Merry Christmas, and all the best in 2015.
Here we are again with Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly viewing of some movie I own, only for me to sit and blog and rant about it. This time out, we're doing Tom Hanks' writer and directorial debut, the 1996 comedy That Thing You Do!. This is in my notes at February 16, 2014.
Well, yesterday, it was off to the city to do some Christmas shopping. I won't tell you my usual tales of big city adventure, though, as it mostly involves stressed out Christmas shopping, and you are no doubt currently living your own version of that tale. I hope, though, that you are finding time in the stress to take a moment for yourself, as I did when I wandered into a movie theatre to finally see Interstellar.
Christopher Nolan, the man behind the last trilogy of Batman movies and Inception is back with a science fiction epic about wormholes and distant alien planets. How awesome does that sound? As it turns out, it's very awesome. Much like Gravity last year, this is a sci-fi epic that sought to root itself in real physics and the real science of what may be residing out in the vastness of space. And much like Gravity, I was in awe at how they managed to capture the vastness of it all. I almost regret not paying the extra to see it in IMAX, because if I got that overwhelming sense in just a regular theatre, I'm sure IMAX would have melted my brain.
In the not-too-distant future, humanity is dying out. Planet-wide plagues have left food scarce. Cooper was once one of NASA's best and brightest pilots, but when NASA was dismantled so its resources could be used feeding the world, Cooper became a farmer. But a mysterious presence in his daughter's bedroom leads him to the secret bunker where the remnants of NASA continues working. Out near Saturn, a wormhole has been discovered, leading to life-supporting planets in another galaxy. Cooper is soon implored to lead the expedition through the wormhole, find the astronauts who've been sent ahead to survey the planets, and begin laying the groundwork for a colony. Perhaps humanity can be saved by moving it to another planet. Will Cooper survive the mission and return home to his family? Or will his daughter be forced to continue his work?
In a way, Interstellar tries really hard to be this generation's 2001, only with a more linear plot. The vastness of space...the big science ideas...and for the most part, it works. It's incredibly tense and exciting when you see what can really happen out there.
The only thing that I really didn't buy was the ending. After all the real science, the ending got a little too "wibbley wobbley timey wimey" for my tastes. But, you'd come this far, you may as well see it to the end.
Well, with all the trailer goodness we've had over the past few weeks, what with Star Wars and Jurassic World and all, it only made sense that eventually one would come along that I'd great with a resounding "meh." And that trailer is for Terminator Genisys, the big reboot to the Terminator franchise.
I've never been too crazy on the idea of all these Terminator sequels. The first one and T2 form this wonderful 2-part story, full of awesome action and just enough weighty sci-fi concepts to push it over the top. I went to the theatre to see Terminator 3 back in the day, and while it was enjoyable, it really didn't bring anything new to the table. I was excited about Terminator Salvation because a prequel about the future war is something I'd craved for ages, but again, I walked away thinking that it really didn't offer up anything new.
And sadly, in this first trailer for the reboot, I'm not seeing anything new. Kyle Reese is once again sent back in time to protect young Sarah Connor from a Terminator, sent back in time by Skynet in a last-ditch effort to win the war against humanity. But when Reese arrives in the past, it's not the past he was told about. Rather than a meek waitress, Sarah Connor is already a hardened soldier, and her adopted father...is a Terminator. Reese must get to the bottom as to how and why the past has already changed, while staying true to his mission of protecting Sarah Connor.
Alan Taylor, the director of Thor: The Dark World is directing it. Emilia Clarke is the new Sarah Connor, Jai Courtney is the new Kyle Reese, and Arnold Schwarznegger is back as the Terminator. I was pleasantly surprised to see Lee Byung-Hun as the new T-1000, as I thought he was pretty cool as Storm Shadow in the live-action G.I. Joe movies. Oh, and the Doctor himself, Matt Smith, is in it as well.
Terminator Genisys, in what's hoped to be the start of a new trilogy, hits theatres July 1.
And of course, there was the big James Bond announcement. We have the title of the next James Bond film! In November 2015, James Bond will return in...
Spectre.
This makes me very happy. At the end of Skyfall, I said I felt like that the James Bond reboot that began with Casino Royale was finally complete. We had a new M, Q was back, Moneypenny was back....everything was back. If only they could bring back James Bond's arch-enemy Blofeld and his terrorist organization known as SPECTRE.
Long story short: due to some legal wrangling over ownership, the James Bond producers actually lost the rights to Blofeld and SPECTRE. But, last year, after years of negotiations (and with all the involved parties who took it personally having finally died off), they were able to reacquire the rights. So, for the first time since 1971, it looks as though James Bond will finally be doing battle against his arch-nemesis.
Along with the poster and the title, this official plot synopsis was revealed:
A cryptic message from an unlikely source sets James Bond navigating the layers of a sinister organisation known as SPECTRE. As M continues fighting political pressures that threaten the future of MI6, Bond draws closer to uncovering a hidden truth that threatens to destroy everything he has fought to protect.
The cast was revealed, too. Alongside Daniel Craig back as Bond, our villain is known as Franz Oberhauser, played by Christoph Waltz. His henchman is Mr. Hinx, played by Dave Bautista. For our new Bond girls, we've got Monica Bellucci as Lucia Sciarra and Lea Seydoux as Madeleine Swann.
Filming begins on Monday for a November 6, 2015 release.
Time for Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly blog about some movie I own. We finish our voyage through the Alien franchise with Alien Resurrection. This shows up in my notes on January 26, 2014.
While I`ve had a lot of fun blogging about the new crop of trailers over the past week, there's one that's been going by with not much notice that I've wanted to talk about, and that's for The Peanuts Movie.
Charlie Brown in animation is a subject that's always fascinated me. Almost 50 prime time animated specials, 4 theatrically released features films, an 8-episode mini-series, and a Saturday morning cartoon. Can you think of any other comic strip that's had as successful a career in animation? I'm pretty certain, thanks to the cartoons, I was fully aware of Charlie Brown and Snoopy long before I knew it was a comic strip.
When I was a kid, Fisher Price made this toy. You'd get these 1-minute long movies on these big yellow cartridges. You'd plug the cartridge into the special movie viewer, turn the crank, and watch the movie. I got it for Christmas when I was 4 or 5 years old, and it was my favourite toy, and no doubt started my path to movie geekdom. And one of the cartridges I had was a Snoopy one. Woodstock was on a raft in stormy seas, but it was eventually revealed he was just daydreaming in his bird bath. Snoopy pulls him out and dries him off with a blow dryer. That was it. My first exposure to Charlie Brown in animation.
And then there were the TV specials, which I'd watch occasionally. It wasn't until college that I really started appreciating the pathos in A Charlie Brown Christmas. And when I was a kid, I did have a friend who had A Boy Named Charlie Brown on VHS, and wound up watching it a lot over at his place. I caught a bit of it on TV a few months ago. Since it was made in the 1960s, I forgot how the animation got a little...psychedelic in places.
So, as you can see, nothing but heaping waves of nostalgia when I learned that this new, CGI movie is in development.
Apparently, Charles Schutlz's son and grandson came up with the story idea back in 2006 and began shopping it around Hollywood. They eventually found a home at Blue Sky Studios, the animation studio responsible for the Ice Age and Rio franchises. Steve Martino directs, and he gave us the Blue Sky films Ice Age: Continental Drift (aka the fourth one) and their adaptation of Horton Hears a Who. In fact, it was Martino's adaptation of Horton Hears a Who that won him the gig, as the Schultz estate was impressed with his faithfulness to the original book. I should mention that the Schultz estate does have complete creative control over the project, to maintain faithfulness to the characters.
And faithfulness does seem to be a key word in the production. The producers have also acquired the rights to Vince Guaraldi legendary jazz scores to the various TV specials to be used in the film. Bill Melendez, who directed the vast majority of TV specials and original animated films until his death in 2006, will once again be voicing Snoopy and Woodstock thanks to archival recordings. And the voice cast was announced last week, too. Following the tradition of the franchise, all the voice actor are age-appropriate kids.
I just can't get over the animation in this trailer. Even though it's modern-day, 3D, computer animation, the pains they've gone through to make it look like Charles Schultz's original 2D art is astounding. The music, the voices of Snoopy and Woodstock, everything works great to successfully pull on the nostalgic heart strings.
Then the present day pop song strikes up and we get some 3D Snoopy vs. the Red Baron action and something about it starts feeling a little bit off.
But it leaves me feeling cautiously optimistic.
The Peanuts Movie hits theaters on November 6, 2015.
Upon the announcement that we'd be getting our first trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens by the week's end, I couldn't help but flash back to an earlier time in my life when I was counting down to a Star Wars trailer. It was another wintery November, but back in 1998. I was still going to college, and lucky for me, the dorms had been wired into the campus computer network over the summer...and it's high speed Internet. Thanks to that, it was absolutely no problem to download the first teaser for Episode I.
One of the main lecture halls had even been outfitted with a projector that summer, so I politely asked one of my professors if we could use it after class one day to see that trailer on the big screen. It still stands as an excellent trailer...which made the resulting film and the entire prequel trilogy just the tad more disappointing.
I've been saying for a few years now that I couldn't help but feel burnt out on Star Wars. After watching the abysmal Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie, I just threw up my hands and said, "I'm done!" I've been told that the resulting series gets better than the movie, and even though I tried to binge watch it on Netflix, I got bored and wandered off about halfway through the third season. It just seemed like Star Wars had nothing new to offer me.
And yet, when Disney bought Lucasfilm two years ago, and announced Episode VII for 2015, you couldn't help but feel a twinge of excitement. George Lucas had long been declared the scapegoat for how poorly the prequels turned out. Would new creative talent really be the answer?
From what I gather, a lot of directors actually turned down the job, fearing the pressure that would come with doing a new Star Wars films. One of my favourite directors, Brad Bird, was an early contender, but Bird's official reason for declining the offer was to finish up his new film Tomorrowland. The one who finally rose to the challenge was J.J. Abrams, whom many felt would be a good choice, as his Star Trek reboot had long been branded a Star Wars ripoff anyway.
Very little about the plot and characters has been revealed at this point. We know that Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford are all back as much older and wiser versions of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo. With five confirmed actresses in key roles, it already has more female characters than the entire original trilogy. Lawrence Kasdan, who co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi back in the day, is back, co-writing alongside Abrams.
Many are praising the look of the trailer for focusing on the new characters and not nostalgia, but I disagree. The nostalgia is there in spades. The familiar sight of X-Wing fighters, skimming across the surface of a lake. An R2-droid, but he has what looks like a soccer ball for a body. And many online are describing a swell of emotion upon seeing the Millennium Falcon fly again, taking on two TIE fighters, but this time over a desert instead of in the depths of space.
Much fuss is being made over the new lightsaber, and how it has two smaller blades shooting out the bottom, forming a hilt. Many question its practicality. But then, how practical was Darth Maul's double-bladed lightsaber? Would you not accidentally cut off your own arm if weren't careful with that?
So the nostalgia's in the trailer. It's taking the very familiar, and presenting it in new contexts and a new light. Unlike the prequels, which emphasized the new. This is saying, "Hey. This is everything you loved, but in a new light."
Yeah, I've watched this trailer a dozen times now. Am as I excited as I was on that wintery November night in 1998, when I was the Episode I teaser for the first time? No...I don't think anything will ever top the excitement I felt back then.
This feels new, and different, yet familiar. There's not so much excitment, but cautious optimism. I've been down this road before, so I'm trying to avoid heartbreak once again.
But seeing X-Wings in flight again just looks amazing.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits theatres December 18, 2015.
Fishing in the Discount Bin once again, where I watch a movie I own and blog about it. Way back, last January, I picked up the Alien franchise from a discount bin, and I've been re-establishing my nerd cred by watching them. Today, we get to the third in the franchise, Alien3. This was originally watched and blogged about on January 25, 2014.
_poster.jpg)
.jpg "A screen grab from the trailer: a figure in black stands in a wintery forest. He weilds a lightsaber, but this one is shaped more like a broadsword, complete with two energy discharges near the base that form a hilt.")
.jpg "The Millenieum Falcon, flying over a desert, takes on two TIE Fighters.")
