Blog: Articles filed under movies

I‘ve given it a great deal of thought, for it’s a complicated subject. However, I now believe that rebooting Star Trek is not a good idea.

The new Star Trek film, premiering this Friday, is a “prequel” in the sense that it takes place prior to the original series, but not a prequel in the sense that it actually results in an alternate timeline.¹ This allows J.J. Abrams to effectively shed the burden of forty-three years of Star Trek continuity and boldly go where Star Trek has never, never gone before.² Well, for the record, I think J.J. Abrams is wrong.

Yes, yes, I‘m well aware that for many people, J.J. Abrams is God, and oh-em-gee-how-could-you-say-such-a-thing?!

I’m not against rebooting Star Trek’s continuity per se. After all, Ronald D. Moore reimagined Battlestar Galactica, and that turned out rather well. Star Trek arguably has a more developed universe than Battlestar Galactica, however, which requires far more careful handling than simply overwriting the timeline. In that respect, Star Trek is more similar to Dune.³ It’s not the reboot that worries me—it’s the reasons for the reboot, and the ramifications of the reboot on both Star Trek as a franchise and the entertainment industry itself.

Abrams has repeatedly said that he’s not necessarily a fan of Star Trek in the way fans are (fanatically) and he tried to make a movie for people who like to see movies, not just for the fans. This strategy worries me, because it implies Paramount lacks confidence in the current Star Trek mythos‘ ability to attract more fans. We don’t want another Star Trek: Nemesis, after all.⁴

Let’s suppose that this is true. Suppose that, for whatever reason, our cultural climate is more attuned to the darker stories of Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars than the optimistic, semi-utopian future portrayed in Star Trek. If that is the case, then why are we trying to change Star Trek to fit into this new box? In doing so, we compromise the themes upon which Star Trek is based, and if that happens, then we don’t have Star Trek anymore—we‘ve got a new, mutated franchise inspired by Star Trek.

To some extent, we fans are complicit in this mutation of our beloved Trek. There’s a difference between loyal campaigning (to save the original series, for instance, or even the misguided efforts of those Enterprise loyalists) and attempting to sustain a franchise beyond its viability. Paramount wouldn’t have greenlit this movie were it not for the fans; regardless of intent, it’s the fans who are going to fill those seats—because of the title of movie and not its story. Because, let’s be honest here, fans: we’ve had the bald bad guy before (General Chang, Shinzon) and the evil uber-weapon (General Chang’s bird-of-prey, Shinzon’s Scimitar). This new film isn’t a fresh start for Star Trek; it’s a classic science fiction plot with cutting-edge special effects and the Star Trek characters.

Aside from the fact that it means starting from square zero, as far as fan base is concerned, why bother making another Star Trek movie at all? If Paramount is so concerned about the marketability of Star Trek, why not give Abrams a mandate to launch a new space opera movie franchise?

It pains me, as a Star Trek fan, to say this…. If this movie flops, it may be the final nail in the coffin of the dead horse that we’ve been beating. “Even J.J. Abrams, who is our Lord and Saviour, could not save Star Trek,” the Paramount executives will say. And maybe, just maybe, some overlooked script for a new space opera will get a second chance. On the other hand, if the movie is a success—and I suspect it will be, because it does look like a good movie—then the Star Trek franchise will have wind in its sails, but it won’t be Star Trek anymore. It’ll be the Abrams Science Fiction Franchise, Based on Star Trek Created by Gene Roddenberry. And all those franchises-that-could-be that wait in the wings for their turn will have to wait much, much longer.

To be clear, I‘m not saying Star Trek is definitely dead. I just don’t think that “any Trek is better than no Trek.” I‘d rather have a brand new science fiction franchise try to gather fans, and wait until such time as the Executives-on-High deem the market ready for a real Star Trek film.

I’m worried that by fervently attempting to resurrect Star Trek as a movie franchise, we‘re dooming the fledgling future science fiction franchises. We’re starting to get into territory where movie studios greenlight more and more adaptations of comic books and sequels to franchise films, putting their money on “safe” bets with pre-existing fans rather than taking a chance on new, more creative directions.

P.S. Another Firefly movie please, Universal!

• [ 1 ] Yes, time travel—prepare for headaches.
• [ 2 ] Namely, Spock and Uhura. Yeah, that’s right.
• [ 3 ] Seriously, who are you trying to fool, Brian Herbert?
• [ 4 ] I know that by saying this, I’m just begging for a comment from the one guy out there who thought that Star Trek: Nemesis was the single best movie of all time. Bring it on.

My reading week has suddenly left me swamped with things I‘m normally doing but don’t feel like doing right now, things I don’t normally do and don’t feel like doing right now, and things I wish I normally did and wanted to do this week but can’t do right now. Still, I managed to go see Coraline last night, and I’ve managed to find some time right now to write a short blog post with my reflections.

Let me get this off my chest first: I have never watched The Nightmare Before Christmas. I’ll pause for a moment to let you gasp.

As such, this is my first experience with the work of Henry Selick, and indeed, my first mature experience with stop motion animation. I don’t watch Robot Chicken (more gasps); I’ve never seen any Wallace and Gromit; and I was too young to appreciate Chicken Run.

The production quality on Coraline is amazing; indeed, if you didn’t know it was stop motion, you could mistake it for CGI. The amount of artistry and craftsmanship required for such a production boggles my mind. The doll for Coraline had numerous different faces that could be switched out as required to create any expression they wanted. Someone knitted the tiny outfits for the puppets! There’s something so romantic about stop motion animation; it is truly a labour of love. And while there’s nothing wrong with CGI—what we can do with computers is amazing—I‘m glad to see that some people are keeping the older art forms alive.

Henry Selick’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel is brilliant, although not as amazing as the production itself. The movie doesn’t patronize children: it is scary and intense, but its theme is powerful and deep. It uses fear to fright and delight—younger children might not enjoy some aspects, but older children will definitely enjoy the combination of adventure and fear. I have to confess that it won’t earn a spot in my list of favourite movies. However, if you haven’t already seen it, you should certainly check it out.

OpenOffice.org 3.0 is out today, so while I was downloading the torrent, I remembered I had yet to watch Michael Moore’s free film Slacker Uprising chronicling his campaign to get slackers to vote in the 2004 American presidential election.

The film was interesting. Whatever you think of Michael Moore’s position or techniques, he’s certainly passionate about what he’s doing. And democracy may not be the most perfect system of government, but it seems to be the best one we’ve tried so far. Democracy is all about getting the people to vote, and Michael Moore was encouraging people to vote. As Martha Stewart might say, “That’s a good thing.”

Tomorrow is Election Day here in Canada. If you are a Canadian citizen and 18 years of age or older, you can vote. If you aren’t sure how to do this, go to the Elections Canada website. If you can vote, you should vote. Even if you’re going to vote Conservative (I’m not), I want you to go and vote. We live in a democracy; it is your duty as a citizen to participate in the democratic process by voting for your representative in the next government.

You don’t need to be a political junkie to vote. I wish that everyone could be an informed voter, but that isn’t a requirement either. Just go to your polling station tomorrow and vote. There’s still time to research party platforms if you really want to be informed. Otherwise, just mark a name on the ballot.

If you don’t vote, then what right do you have to complain when someone you dislike comes into power? You didn’t do anything to even try to stop it from happening. If you don’t vote, then what right do you have to complain when the government cancels a program from which you benefit or introduces legislation that affects your family? Some people don’t vote because they’re apathetic—I find this particularly true of my peers. Like it or not, however, as long as you live in Canada, the actions of the government are going to have an impact on you. If you don’t vote, you’re sending the message that you don’t care about living in a democracy.

It doesn’t take up your whole day. It doesn’t even take up an hour. If you have already voted, then good job. You’ve done your duty. You can go home, sit on the couch, and watch TV until the next election rolls around—I won’t bother you. If you haven’t voted yet, then tomorrow, go to your polling station with the proper identification, get a ballot, and make your mark. That’s all you have to do.

Where would we be without villains? Well probably happier, and healthier … maybe safer. But perhaps a little more ignorant when it comes to matters of the human soul….

On Saturday I went to see a performance of Zastrozzi: Master of Discipline by a local amateur theatre group as a fundraiser for their local Belegarth guild. The play consists of an insane artist on the run from Zastrozzi, master criminal of all Europe (apparently set in 1893). Zastrozzi finally corners Verezzi only to face Verezzi’s tutor and guardian, Victor. As the play progresses, Zastrozzi and Verezzi both show signs of insanity while they separately investigate the nature of good and evil. Zastrozzi is a misanthrope and an atheist who believes his only purpose is to hold people accountable for their actions. Verezzi believes he is a servant, then a messenger of God, then a visionary, and finally a saint. Whether or not these men are sane is open to interpretation (what is sane anyway)? The play ends on a depressing minor chord, as such plays are wont to do.

The performance was excellent, especially the two actors who played Zastrozzi and Verezzi; they really threw themselves into the part and were enjoyable—sometimes terrifying—to watch. Since it’s the first play done by an amateur group, there were some wrinkles that still need to be worked out—the scene changes were horribly slow, for one—but all things considered, I was pretty impressed. Plus it reminded me that I need to go to the theatre more often.

Today I saw The Dark Knight. OMG another Batman movie!!! Or, as I like to call it, “A well done sequel to a well done movie that puts the Superman movie franchise to shame.” I really liked Batman Begins; it removed any campy elements of the previous Batman movies and presented Batman from a new, grittier perspective. As a sequel, The Dark Knight does not disappoint. It’s loaded with action scenes and fun Batman gizmos. All that praise for Heath Ledger’s performance? Deserved. Of course, I‘m in for Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, whom I believe are excellent in their roles in this film.

It’s kind of long, and it’s pretty predictable. But it’s fulfilling. The movie sets Batman up to take the fall for the events at the end, and it does not disappoint us. Yes, I know: I’m a sucker for tragedy. If the hero gets set up for tragedy, though, I darn well expect him or her to be subject to the tragedy and not find a loophole! That just makes me angry … and you wouldn’t like me when I’m—wait, wrong franchise. Wrong company!

I‘m looking forward to Watchmen. The graphic novel is the graphic novel. So of course there’s a chance that the movie will be utterly horrible. Comic book companies are getting better at bringing their characters to the big screen, however (case in point, The Dark Knight!). If you haven’t read Watchmen, check it out.

Speaking of villains, our old friend Dr. Horrible is back! Yes, that’s right: you can watch Joss Whedon’s awesome supervillain musical, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, for free again. The full episode is available on Hulu as well as the three individual acts, so if you missed it the first time, this is your chance to see it for free.

Now I‘m going to go watch Felicia Day’s webseries The Guild, which I learned about through her interview with Lifehacker.

I woke up today and went to Future Shop to buy Stargate: Continuum, although I couldn’t actually watch it until after work tonight. It was worth the wait.

I admit that I feared Continuum would be a “Well, let’s turn ‘Moebius’ into a movie.” Yet another time travel episode. Yes, there were similarities—it’s time travel, after all, with alternate timelines and whatnot—but this movie really captures the Stargate genre and provides the essential link between the old Stargate SG-1 series and (hopefully) the future movies to come.

The story is largely self-contained, due to the nature of the time travel. By the end, nothing in the Stargate universe has really advanced, with the exception of the execution of Ba‘al. That doesn’t stop it from being an excellent story, and the characters make it that way. Richard Dean Anderson’s “special guest appearance” brought O’Neill back into the mix. I would have liked more of him, but what little screen time he had was well used. The other members of SG-1 were awesome. Teal’c managed to pull off yet another convincing Heel Face Turn. Michael Shanks has a fun scene where he talks to the alternate timeline version of himself on a phone—we only see our Daniel Jackson and the phone and hear one side of the conversation.

Ba‘al is such a fun, classic Stargate villain. He really embodies what makes Stargate venerable: it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It has fun. Ba’al is your classic evil overlord who tosses off his gloating “last lines” and claims he can never be defeated (those of you familiar with the series may recall that he came close to fulfilling that claim once and a while). Cliff Simon portrays him in exactly that way: moustache-twirling bad guy who’s trying to see his latest evil scheme to fruition.

The effects are cool. The best effects, however, come from the non-visual effects. Some of the cast and crew went up to the Arctic and shot there, which is cool enough by itself. But the navy actually let them use the USS Alexandria, a nuclear-powered submarine. So we’ve been watching Carter and Mitchell trek across the frozen Arctic ocean, they meet up with their rescuers, and suddenly we see this submarine—a real U.S. navy submarine—surface through the ice. It is amazing. We also get to see it submerge again, and then the real crew of the submarine appears as themselves. You can tell that they are a bit nervous about appearing on camera. If you watch some of the special features, particularly “Stargate Goes to the Arctic”, you’ll learn how difficult some of those shots were to obtain. We also get to see some nice close-ups of real F-15s. The Air Force and Navy have been very good to the show. :P

The special features are great. I haven’t watched the commentary yet, but “Stargate Goes to the Arctic” shows you how those who went to the arctic lived and filmed. “The Making of Stargate Continuum” is interesting. “The Layman’s Guide to Time Travel” will be interesting if you want to learn more about time travel.

Stargate Continuum remains true to what Stargate SG-1 has been for ten years; existing fans will be pleased. Unlike The Ark of Truth, which served to tie up an existing storyline, Continuum will be a pleasant introduction to the series for new fans, mostly because of its self-contained nature. Those familiar with the series are going to have a grand time watching the various references from the past ten years of the show. I snickered several times when I noticed something that I recognized from another story. New fans will get to see the cast of SG-1 at their best and some great action.

Today began with a party. Lauren’s friend Becky’s graduation/birthday party, specifically. I tagged along in order to once again step outside my comfort zone and … well, interact with people. And it wasn’t that bad. There was lots of tasty food that was bad for my teeth (the best kind), and I didn’t feel too awkward.

But going to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian overshadows any of that. I‘ve am somewhat ambivalent toward Disney. The company has the capacity to produce terrifyingly horrible movies (like what’s up with this Beverly Hills Chihuahua thing? ) and some amazing movies, like the Narnia series. I love ‘em, and I hate ’em. Such is the contradiction of corporate America.

After emerging from the darkened theatre and another visit to Narnia, it is hard not to be impressed with the genius of the producers and C.S. Lewis. The story is romantic, but it also has enough adventure and fantasy to appeal to children and adults. At points I had to laugh—just a little—at the obvious Christian undertones, which I find simultaneously amusing and endearing. Maybe it’s something to do with Liam Neeson being a big fluffy lion. He’s just so adorable, and cute, and lethal—oh, and he’s also God, and you better have faith that he’ll show up when he knows you need him, and not a moment earlier.

Each of the Pevensies carry with them a particular temporal burden. As the youngest, Lucy has the most faith, but her siblings don’t always believe her intuition. One criticism I have of this film is that it has too little Lucy. She plays an important role, but it’s so small in comparison to the others. Much of the time she seems like she’s away from the main part of the action—and while I‘m not an advocate for child soldiers, I would have just liked to see more of her. Edmund is strong in his own right, but he struggles to stay out of Peter’s shadow. He gets a nice final jab at the White Witch in this film. He’s also the quickest to support Lucy when she claims to have seen Aslan, and he faces down the entire camp of Telmarines when he carries Peter’s proposal to Miraz. Susan is on the cusp of womanhood; we see her deflect a boy in London and then flirt with Prince Caspian. She questions her commitment to Narnia. I think Susan’s story in particular is rather sad, since she never does get to return to Narnia. I have a soft spot for her. Peter likewise is growing older and fighting new battles against bullies.

Speaking of battles, the battle scenes were violent in this film. I don’t know if it was the weather or the fact that some of the battles took place at night, but I found that aspect of the film much darker. It must be the whole loss of innocence theme. I’m thinking, “This is a Disney film. And we’re showing these kids hacking away at human beings.” At the same time, I can’t help cheering with Susan delivers a well-timed punch in the midst of battle, or when Edmund takes out a couple of guards and then escapes on the back of a giant eagle. It’s the little things that help.

If you spend too much time analyzing the themes and the messages of the movie, however, you’ll get bogged down in all the moral weight and you won’t enjoy the action! The White Witch’s scene is essentially a “don’t do drugs” message; Aslan wants you to have faith. This film is like an ogre: it has many layers. Peel them away at your own risk. I enjoy the fact that in our increasingly-barren wasteland of entertainment there are movies that still have deep themes. But I also appreciate it when such movies are packaged in a compelling narrative filled with great special effects, acting, and a worthy score. It leaves me with this sensation of actually having not wasted 2 hours watching photons bounce off a wall. Now that’s satisfaction.

Stargate: The Ark of Truth came out on DVD today, so I went right to Future Shop after class to buy it. Yes, MGM tells me to buy something, and I buy it. I am such a franchise junkie.

Obligatory spoiler warning here. Read more and feel the wrath of the Ori—oh wait….

I’m so satisfied. It took ten years to get here, but every step of the way was totally worth it. I was initially upset, but quickly resigned, to Stargate SG-1’s cancellation. They were kind of running out of apocalypses after all—and the recent terrible writing on Stargate Atlantis seems to reinforce that fact. That doesn’t mean I was going to ignore the direct-to-DVD sequels MGM wanted to produce, especially because the writers deliberately left the Ori saga half-concluded. More SG-1? Yes please.

Overall, I loved it. The dialogue among the SG-1 characters is just so satisfying; they are so comfortable with each other. Since the series has such a rich universe and backstory, it allows the writers to tie together elements that may once have been disparate, and even expands their creativity by giving them a better canvas. Yes, they brought back the replicators, but it was a temporary appearance—I would have been irked if the replicators became the villain once again—and I think that it served its purpose. The plot was intriguing, with just enough twists to keep me going and not too many to make me think, “This is utterly illogical.” There were a few parts I didn’t like, though.

What was up with the deus ex machinae? (Is that the plural form? I’ve never had to use it before.) Firstly, let me say that I realize the dilemma of the writers—of anyone who is writing a story involving interaction between humans and semi-omnipotent, nearly-cosmic beings like the Ancients/Ori. Morgan Le Fay healed Teal‘c after he was somewhat badly injured, then proceeded to toy with Daniel. Just make your mind already! It was Oma Desala versus Anubis all over again. When it comes to people like Teal’c miraculously surviving being shot, of course, it’s a good thing that the bad guys want to capture the good guys all the time. If the objective were to merely kill the good guys—well then, our series would be much shorter. When I am an evil overlord, I promise to summarily execute all good guys, starting with the ones who make the most defiant wisecracks.

Speaking of wisecracks, where’s O’Neill?! Richard Dean Anderson was—and is—the best part of Stargate SG-1; without him, it isn’t really “SG-1”, just “Stargate.” I understand his reasons for leaving the show, and seasons 9 and 10 were not terrible. But I miss him, and I hope he makes guest appearances in future SG-1 features.

But the best part of the show was just being immersed in that universe again. Stargate has a special place in my heart among various other science fiction series because of the way it successfully combines science fiction technology—wormholes, alien civilizations, starships, etc.—with present day humanity. Unlike Star Trek, it isn’t set far in the future when we’re used to having advanced technology at our disposal. Even now that Earth does have space travel technology in the form of the Prometheus-class cruisers, the characters bring that very contemporary element into the show with pop culture references and dialogue. Mitchell exemplifies this best at the beginning as he takes command of the Odyssey and says, “Weapons to maximum.” Major Marks plays the straight man: “Sir?” “Just make it go!” This isn’t Captain Kirk comfortably in command of the Enterprise—it’s an Air Force officer, who happens to be used to dealing with alien situations, nervously assuming command of a huge battlecruiser about to take a trip to another galaxy. Stepping into this universe that is so much like our own, yet slightly different, is very rewarding.

As I‘ve said previously, I’m tired of the repetitive fearmongering being done in the name of our “global warming” crusade. It’s another example of herd mentality exacerbating a crisis that it is supposed to be solving. Last century it was nuclear weapons, this century it’s global warming.

Well wake up people, and stop being so selfish! After all, we are not the only planet in this universe. There are many other planets out there that are heating up. In fact, I’ve “discovered” a dangerous new phenomenon that must be stopped! Universal warming.

Here’s how it goes. We constantly produce information. Information is useless without transmission; it only becomes usable when conveyed from one state to another (i.e., from person to person). Transmitting information requires energy. As energy is used, entropy in the system increases. To demonstrate, take talking for example. If you talk about something, you are transmitting information. This means you are increasing the net entropy of the universe. Everything you do increases entropy, unfortunately.

Why is entropy bad? Because entropy is the tendency of a system toward increasing disorder. As entropy increases, the amount of usable energy declines. Eventually we’ll suffer the heat-death of the universe and the end of all life as we know it!

This is a serious problem. If the universe ends, then Paris Hilton won’t be able to make any more movies, which means she’ll have to get a real job. We must all work together as a community to decrease the Earth’s universal footprint. The fate of reality depends on it1 My first recommendation is that Al Gore create a new documentary entitled An Incomprehensible Truth. That would be the best way to further spread this information to as many people as possible.

Let’s get on this, people!

I’ve been quite excited for Stardust ever since I learned about it, and tonight I went to see it. If I had one word to describe it, I‘d simply say beautiful.

I’m no critic. I like a lot of movies, movies that many people might dismiss as a waste of their time for one reason or another. Oh well. However, even most of my favourite movies don’t fall into the category of “beautiful”. Hot Fuzz was a raucous action adventure with a great plot, but it wasn’t “beautiful”. Serenity was an outstanding conclusion to Joss Whedon’s Firefly series, but it wasn’t “beautiful”. What was beautiful? I can name a few: Children of Dune, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, Stranger Than Fiction. Why? Dunno. Like I said, I‘m not a critic. But I like them.

They changed the story quite a bit from the book, but unlike many movies, this does not detract from it. The core of the story remains, wrapped around the nugget goodness of the central theme. In fact, I enjoyed most of the adjustments better than the book! Particularly the ending, which suited this story of love and magic far more than the book’s ending. Neil Gaiman is a remarkable writer, though. You should pick up Stardust and read it. While you‘re at it, get American Gods, Anansi Boys, and oh, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter. That last one will get you acquainted with crazy Terry Pratchett, if you don’t know him already, which will oblige you to read Discworld.

Yet I digress. Stardust. A tale of romance and adventure with the undercurrents of humour that should be present in such a movie. I love British film, especially humorous bits. There were sword fights, magical duels, and things that were in between. And if you want to see Robert De Niro in a dress, then you picked the right film. (Alternatively, if you don’t want to see Robert De Niro in a dress, don’t worry. Go see it anyway; he isn’t in a dress for long.) The special effects are adequate, a bit bright, but not presumptuous. I didn’t like Claire Danes‘ acting at first, but she grew on me, and I like how she portrayed the star by the end. Her little monologue to Tristran when he was a mouse was the most beautiful piece in the entire movie.

I can’t wait until this comes out on DVD. And I want that song at the beginning of the credits (“Rule the World” by Take That).

Hot Fuzz came out on DVD Tuesday. I didn’t see it in theatres, but I enjoyed Shaun of the Dead a lot, so I bought it. Like Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz parodies a genre of movies—in this case, cop-themed action movies. It is nonstop hilarious in the way that it’s virtually impossible to discuss specific parts of the movie—it’s all funny. Yet the humour isn’t cheap. There is a compelling plot buried beneath the parody too. Overall, I‘d readily rank it one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.

Last night Laura came online and started bragging about this awesome purchase she made at Zellers. When she revealed it was the complete Dilbert television series, I nearly went ballistic. Dilbert!! I used to watch it all the time when Teletoon aired it, but then they stopped, and that was sad. So I went to Zellers today and snagged a copy—$20 for the entire series. Can’t go wrong at that price.

Last night at work I got an odd phone call. There was an old lady who said she was calling from Vancouver. Apparently she had worked here in Thunder Bay as a kindergarten teacher between 1940 and 1975. She made sketches of the children’s heads. And now she was calling here to talk about “art”. It was at this point that I made a “help me” gesture to Danielle. I kept on trying to steer the conversation to see if she had a particular reason, but nope, that was it. I think she was just lonely—at one point she said, “Well, I‘m over 90 now, and I don’t know how much longer I have left … I just want to make a connection.” Nice lady, I‘m sure. I hope that if I live to be 90 I can be that eccentric. But it was the strangest phone call I’ve ever gotten to date (and we get some weird calls.)

Often you’ll read one critic or intellectual or another say something along the lines of how Hollywood is destroying the movie industry, creating cheap flicks at the expense of “art” and “culture”. And as much as I am sometimes tempted to agree with this cynical evaluation of our entertainment industry, I can’t bring myself to jump on that bandwagon. I just can’t.

I have observed that more movies are “packaged” these days. What are “packaged” movies? Well, these are the hits that look and feel like the director simply sent in a form from a mail-order catalogue—he or she filled out the title and main characters, and the company sent back a pre-packaged movie: special effects, music, etc. Movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, and—especially with its third installment—Spider-Man are packaged blockbusters.

Are packaged movies inherently evil? Does it make a movie bad? Of course not. I like each of those three movie series above—although none of them are particularly spectacular—but they aren’t moving and they aren’t cathartic. And sometimes you need that. Sometimes you don’t need a purging; you just need some action, some humour, and some explosions. The only reservation I carry is that it’s too reflective of certain negative aspects of our society—namely, this increasing dependence on pre-packaged items, like food, that we just buy in bulk at a grocery store.

There are the “indie” films, complete with festivals, to attempt to carry on the art-form that Hollywood has—so some say—left behind. The problem with this phenomenon is not its goals, but rather, its demographic. The people who go to film festivals are precisely the type of people who like the films at film festivals. Which brings us to the hilt of the matter: the audience. Do people really want art? Or do they want entertainment?

The answer has and always will be both, and this is why I can’t endorse those pessimistic and pretentious pundits who pretend to put-down Hollywood. I’m going to use Shakespeare as an example. Take King Lear, for instance. King Lear is one of my favourite plays and one of Shakespeare’s best. It has pithy intellectual themes, and as a tragedy, is carefully written to move us to pity and compassion for the terrible tribulations of the hero, Lear, and his descent into madness. But Shakespeare was no fool. His plays weren’t wildly successful just because of these themes—they were successful because they were also entertaining. King Lear has humour aplenty—ribald or otherwise—and that’s why it has endured 400 years’ worth of Eberts. If the jokes seem stale (or you just can’t get them), it isn’t because they’re silly. They just get lost in translation; the language differences over the past four centuries make Shakespeare a tad hard to understand at times.

Yet I digress. Shakespeare and his ilk knew something about how to get a crowd’s attention, and how to leave a part of their work with the crowd when the play was done. That’s why the movie industry isn’t in “decline”. This perception of decline is just a misinterpretation of the charts. We‘re changing all right, but we’re always changing—it’s what culture does. It’s a reaction to the last two decades of increasing technological development. Technology affects movies faster than it does stage or books (and to a degree, music) because of the visual nature of the medium; advanced technology means advanced movie-making techniques. Technology has developed more in the past two decades than it has in the past century. And it shows no signs of plateauing, so we have to be ready for more change.

Culture is dead. Long live culture!

Orson Scott Card once said that dread is a much stronger, much more effective emotion than horror. The dread of anticipation, the suspense created by not knowing precisely what’s out there, is much better than the shock value of pure gore and violence.

And that’s why Disturbia was an excellent movie. It’s the best execution of dread I’ve seen in a while. Unlike the typical horror movie, which nowadays consists of the main (unkillable) villain taking everyone out with a weapon of choice, one by one, in a fairly predictable fashion, this movie combined mystery, murder, and yes, romance (sorry, couldn’t think of another ’M’ word…).

The best parts are the parts right before something happens, when you know that something is going to go wrong, but you aren’t quite sure what. You know the old man’s hiding something, but how? The movie keeps you guessing in the most suspenseful manner. Then at the climax, most of the mystery gets revealed and the movie changes pace, slipping into a last-ditch attempt by the main character, Kael, to save his mom.

It was extremely well done. I particularly like how the killer did not have any supernatural elements associated with him. As much as I appreciate horror movies in which the supernatural plays a part, it’s always a good change to have regular, human villains. That makes it much more diabolical.

So if you’re thinking of going to see Disturbia, I do recommend it. There’s some blood and a fair share of violence, but if you’re looking for a gorefest, then you’ll probably be disappointed. If you’re looking for a good, suspenseful movie, go see it.

Tonight I went to see Stranger Than Fiction with Laura and Rhiannon. Now I am not a big fan of Will Ferrell, but this movie was not the typical Will Ferrell comedy, which is good.

Let me begin with some observations about movie theatres and how capitalism has affected them. In getting my food and drink combo I received a candy of my choice: Reeses Peanut Butter Cups or a huge package of Nibs. I like the former more than the latter, but I knew that if I took the peanut butter cups then they would melt during the movie. There were n people behind me, however, so I had to make the decision quickly. I took the peanut butter cups and ate them while waiting for Laura and Rhiannon, who were battling the automatic ticket machine.

The second observation that I would like to make concerns cell phones. It’s all well and good that you have a cell phone. Yay. But please, turn it off when you are in the movie theatre! There is something called etiquette, and even a somewhat reclusive 17-year-old like myself, who often exclaims that he doesn’t know all of these unwritten “rules” in life, knows that one should turn off one’s cell phone in a movie theatre. So ignorance is not an excuse. It does annoy people when one’s cell phone goes off during the movie. And for Zarquon’s sake, do not answer it and start talking! (This actually happened.)

Ah, yes, the movie. The movie. Well, at some points I didn’t like it at all. I thought it was poorly done and cheesy and too slow. But near the ending I was hooked. I could not get up to go to the washroom for fear of missing a small yet significant part of the movie. This is not an action movie; it was very serious and involved a lot of dialogue.

The ending was also predictable—not at the beginning, but nearer toward the actual end, I knew what was going to happen and why. But that’s okay. It was worth it, watching the movie build up to its end. I loved watching how Emma Thompson’s character, the reclusive Karen Eiffel, reacts to the news that her character, Harold Crick, is a living and breathing creature. She asks of her assistant how many people she has killed over the years, and reveals that she counted: eight. Can you imagine the revelation that, in writing your books (for she writes only tragedies where the hero dies at the end), you have been killing living, breathing people?

Will Ferrell’s performance goes above and beyond what he has done before. This is not the Zoolander, Old School type of humour, although some of that Will Ferrell does sneak into his portrayal of Harold Crick, which is okay, because that’s what makes the movie enjoyable. Harold reminds me a lot of Arthur Dent, the protagonist of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. In fact, I think that part of the reason that I liked it so much is that there were a number of parallels to h2g2. But I won’t spoil that for you.

The movie is well worth going to see. It made me feel so much better afterward. Lately I’ve been feeling stressed and a bit overworked. The ending may be a bit corny, but it was … nice. And it wasn’t the normal cheap sort of Disney-nice that seems to be manufactured in China these days and imported to 9 out of 10 movie screens. This movie had earned its ending.

After the movie we spontaneously decided to go bowling, which was great fun. I acquitted myself reasonably well; we bowled two games and had a great time.

But if I ever hear someone say “Little did he know…” in my head…

There is only one word that can describe Superman Returns: iconic.

That’s what Superman is to people; an icon for all that is good. And I think that Superman Returns captures that in its purest form. I went into the movie expecting it to be great; not excellent, but okay. I came out from an awesome experience that left me nearly breathless. It was way better than I expected.

Spoilers are ahead.

The best parts of the movie were by far the parts that showed Superman’s humanity. That was really the true conflict; summarized by Lois Lane’s article “Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman”. But the world does need Superman, and as this film shows, Superman needs the world.

Both Viv and I expected Lois‘ fiancé, Richard, to be a jerk. We expected him to be overbearing, arrogant, over-compensating in the face of Superman’s return to Lois’ life…and we could not have been more wrong. When I think back to everything that happens to Richard over the course of the film, he emerges as a mature character. He knows his wife still loves Superman (even if she doesn’t at first), and I think he realizes the truth about her son’s father. Yet he shows humanity’s best side when he follows Lois back to the Krypton continent to rescue Superman. And it was quite big of him to let Lois go into the hospital to see Superman near the end of the film.

Lex Luthor? Boy that man has a complex. Throughout the movie he is obsessed with Superman—it’s comic, in a way, and I think that this was a good choice because it helps contrast the ruthlessness that he displays at times. He can be a very cold character, for example when Kitty asks if billions of people will really die, or when he stabs Superman. So the comedic, almost Saturday-cartoon villain obsession he has with defeating his arch-foe helps lighten that.

Superman’s “defeat” and return? Awesome. The movie would not have been the same if Superman just beat Lex Luthor easily, nor would it have been the same if Lex Luthor weakened Superman, left him for dead, and then Superman mysteriously returned. But the ending was a combination of those that had one important element: we humans. In the end, it isn’t the world who needs Superman, it is Superman who needs the world. Lois saves him once, and then after he foils Luthor’s plot nearly at the cost of his life, she saves him again, in a different way—you need to watch it to see it. I cried during those scenes with Superman and the hospital and…

It is definitely worth the money to go see it. Oh, and the music! The opening credits were a trip of a lifetime. Honestly, if someone had pulled me out of that theatre after just those credits, I would have been a happy man. To hear that theme pumped out through the movie theatre speakers, to feel that electric charge running through my body, that’s why Superman Returns was so great. It captured lightning in a bottle.

Tomorrow I’m going to see Pirates of the Caribbean: The Dead Man’s Chest with my dad (and maybe my brother). That’s back-to-back movie-going.

Tonight I went to see The DaVinci Code in theatres. Spoilers are ahead. If you don’t want to be spoiled, go play elsewhere. If you’re ready for my totally biased and inaccurate ravings, please pull up a chair and scroll down.

Yes, I mean you.

Keep on scrolling. Nothing to see here.

Good. All scrolled out yet? No? Okay, scroll for a bit more. Get that scrollin‘ urge out of your system.

Ready? Excellent. Well, I’ve already read the book, but I won’t discuss the details that were different (mostly because I don’t notice those things ). The beginning is noticeably different, however.

Overall the movie was okay; it wasn’t a bomb, but it wasn’t anything special either. I enjoyed the very end, the last scene. It’s quite potent and a fitting way to conclude. The middle was where it started to drag. I think that this movie will actually be better to watch at home, where I can pause and go get a cup of tea or something without missing any of the information.

The camera angles were weird. Although they were fine for parts of the movie, at times I felt that they didn’t work well.

The acting was, again, okay. Tom Hanks (Langdon) and Audrey Tautou (Sophie) were not as bad as some critics have claimed. I think that Hanks was trying a bit too hard; he seemed unsure of how to portray Langdon’s eloquent multi-fold revelations to Sophie. Tautou, whom I’ve never seen before, acquitted herself well. I think that she’s probably resembled her character more than any of the other actors in action and characterisation. On the flip side, Jean Reno (Fache) was a surprise! I did not imagine Fache to either look or act like that at all, but in the end, he was one of the three best actors in the movie! The other two were Jean-Yves Berteloot (Remy) and Ian McKellen (Teabing), who provided the exciting, flamboyant ingredient that Hanks and Tautou lacked.

It was an awfully long movie. The problem, like I mentioned above, was that there’s so much information to cover, history and backstory and stuff like that. There were a few moments when I was sitting in the theatre and feeling a bit restless. In a way, it was riveting, but it could use a pause button.

Also, I succumbed to the evil corporate influence and bought the illustrated edition of Angels and Demons afterward. It was 25% off; I happened to have enough money on hand and it was right there in Shoppers Drug Mart, and it would ensure a pleasurable reading material for the long weekend.

I recommend that you see the movie, if only so that we can make Dan Brown enough money that he can retire in peace instead of making more movies. You’ll probably enjoy yourself if you keep in mind that a) Hollywood is greedy, 2) It’s fiction, and c) If you don’t do it, then you will be out of the loop. So go do it because it’s what the cool people are doing. You want to be cool, right?

Two more weeks until the Galactica season finale! (Just thought I’d throw that out there.)

Wow. What an awesome movie. I was a bit sceptical at first, especially because the beginning is a bit confusing. But I got into it afterward—it probably helps that Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are two of my favourite actors. All around though it’s a great movie. There are just those moments when Batman saves the day and you’ve just got to yell out, “Yes!” so loud that the other people in the room think you’re crazy.

I’m kind of um … surprised that “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” won for Best Original Song. That was unexpected. Fortunately, I‘m buoyed by Crash’s successful bid for Best Picture. I told you so. It’s an awesome movie, and now that it’s an “Academy-award winner”, if you didn’t want to see it before, you have to go see it or fear being shunned by the rest of society!

Last school week before March Break. Kind of anti-climactic? Well, it can’t be more anticlimactic than the last two weeks—come to think of it, than the entire semester! People, teachers, et cetera (I guess teachers are people too… ) were sick, and now the travel club has left for Europe. I have to present my French project today; it’s just a short oral presentation with a partner. Unfortunately, while I’m quite competent at writing French, my pronunciation sounds like I‘m attempting to skin a live beaver at a chainsaw-wrestling competition.

I’ll leave you with that image. Have a nice day.

My weekend was full of character-driven goodness, starting with Sin City on Friday and culminating on Saturday with Crash. I can certainly see why Crash deserves to win Best Picture, and I will not hesitate to call it one of the Best Movies Ever.

Seldom have I ever seen such a beautifully woven tapestry of character-driven stories. They all intertwine. It was uplifting and saddening, frightening and reassuring, profound and entertaining, all at the same time. The music was awesome. I cried at least once, and was teary-eyed for much of the movie.

Spoiler warnings below.

My favourite aspect of Crash would be that there was no bad guy. There were no clear winners or losers. The movie focusses on a number of main characters in Los Angelos, and as the movie progresses their lives connect in various ways. Each time we see the character, we get to see a new faucet of their personality. For example, there is one character, a cop, who we originally are supposed to see as racist. Later in the movie he puts his prejudices aside to save a Black woman from an overturned vehicle that’s about to explode—the same woman whom he groped while on duty a few nights before. So he’s not the completely irredeemable bad guy; he’s not the villain. All of the characters have both good and bad traits, do good and bad actions (some of them quite dramatic). The characters grow and change even though the movie itself takes place over only a few days. And all the while I’m watching this, I feel for the characters. I root for each one and say, “Come on, go for it! No, nooo, don’t do that! Come on, make The Right Choice!” Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.

For those who have not yet seen it, I strongly advise that you watch it as soon as possible.

After watching Michael Caine in Miss Congeniality, I‘ve decided that I want to be a miserable, grumpy elitist. That would work for me.

And if I could acquire a British accent, that’d be a cool plus.

I went to see The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe last night with my father and brother. It was pretty awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The camera angles were a bit too tight for my liking. It was like they were trying to stuff too much into every scene, or move too close in on a character’s face. It just felt unusual. It will be interesting to see how it translates to television.

I really, really enjoyed the music. For me, music makes a film. When I go to see a movie, I listen mostly to the music. If I ever get a novel published and someone (Zarquon forbid!) goes insane and wants to make a movie from it, it will have to have most awesome music. Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune still has, in my opinion, the greatest music of any miniseries/movie. But I do digress.

I’m posting this, by the way, because my dad told me this morning that he was surprised that I had not posted a Narnia review on my blog. So here it is, Dad.

Unlike Serenity, which was a good movie, I am very open to the idea of Narnia sequels. Hopefully they will be as entertaining as this one. Now, of course, this would have the disadvantage of me having to read the books all over again (I have not read them since at least grade 6, if not earlier in my life… .). It‘d be worth it, though. They’re good books and the movies, for a Walt Disney production, did not let me down. (The fact that I don’t remember half the book would help with that.)

Muwahahahaha.

I had a pretty good Hallowe‘en. After work, I went over to a friend’s house for a party and had a really good time. I caught the tail end of Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail, saw Shaun of the Dead, and then we watched the beginning to Monty Python’s Life of Brian twice (because two friend came in late, so we restarted that movie, but then everyone had to leave at 9).

Ever notice out many funny people are either British or their last name is Adams (or both)? Not all, of course, but just many. I love Monty Python so much that if ever I make a movie, it shall be a British comedy only slightly less funnier than Monty Python.

This entire week seems like it will be very hectic and rushed for time. I certainly feel that way. I suppose that part of it is due to the fact that teachers are preparing for midterm marks that are coming next week. Hallowe’en, of course, had a bit of pressure with it, and having it on a Monday amplified that impact.

Brought my computer to school today, along with a note saying that the school or my drama teacher wasn’t responsibile if it got lost or stolen. The bag fits in my locker, so thankfully I did not have to lug it around to every class. I used it in drama to write up our script for “Sleeping Beauty,” since I type faster and more neatly than I write. We’re almost done the script; it is turning out well and I like working with my group. Oh, and we had a fire drill during drama too.

I need to write more on my novel …

And I got The Plague today, but the first half of the first page was ripped, so I couldn’t read it; I will not skip that part. I think tomorrow I’ll borrow a copy from a kid who isn’t reading it and just read that paragraph, if the teacher can’t find me another copy.

And I’ve speculated on the absolute minimum work I must do in biology to maintain my grade (99%, I believe). It’s not so much work as homework, because she doesn’t check it. She gives us stamps for some assignment, but there is a very loose time limit. I by no means intend to slack off, but I am not as motivated as I should be. I do like biology, however. It is probably my most challenging class this semester.

Oh! And I read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I borrowed it from a friend because I haven’t been to the library yet to grab any new books. This entry’s already quite long, however, so I’ll talk about my take on it tomorrow or something. Until then, have a nice night.

I went to see The Brothers Grimm this afternoon with my dad. Actually, I think this is one of the few occasions where I‘ve seen a movie on its opening day. The first thing that attracted me to this movie was its director, Terry Gilliam. I’m a fan of Monty Python (Britain’s given us a lot of comedy, eh) and was interested in a film directed by him. Needless to say, it was a mixture of fulfillment and disappointment.

Spoiler Warning

The special effects were quite good. I wasn’t impressed, as they were nothing innovative, but they were also not cheesy, save for one effect. At the end of the movie, the evil queen is destroyed by shattering her magic mirror. This has the effect of destroying her tower as well as herself. Just as the mirror shattered, so she shatters into several thousand glass fragments. Watching Monica Bellucci’s face split like that was very weird and definitely cheesy.

As my dad remarked, Heath Ledger looked unbelievably different. Hair died black and cut short for the part of Jakob Grimm, I didn’t even recognize him. He played the part pretty well. Both Brothers Grimm worked nicely together, and I think they were the main source of humour in the film.

Speaking of which, the movie could have used more humour. I expected more humour from a Gilliam film. The movie wasn’t entirely serious and devoid of humour, but I just thought that there would be more of it. As it was, there were the usual jokes about the dysfunctional conflicts between brothers, the love triangle, and fun with French and Italian accents. Oooh, and computer-generated fairy tale creatures make for good humour opportunities too, although I think they didn’t cash in on as many of those as they could have.

My dad mentioned that it felt like parts of the movie were edited out that would have made it easier to understand. I agree that the scene cuts were very rough, time seemed to pass at irregular intervals. For example, one minute they were being tortured at the hands of the French occupiers, the next they were riding back to the village. Obviously I don’t want to see their whole (doubtlessly long and boring) ride, but the way in which the transition was performed made me think that I missed something there. Similarly, several other characters could have had better and more lengthy introductions.

The storyline was interesting enough but not captivating. Basically, the Brothers Grimm are con artists of their time. With the help of two flunkies, they stage mystical creatures for them to exorcise, thereby saving the day and making some money. Will (Matt Damon) is clearly grounded in the world, whereas Jakob (Heath Ledger) is a dreamer and scholar who has been documenting the fairy tales they hear in order to write it in a book. Jakob also has the added burden of guilt: when they were younger, their sister suffered from an illness and Jakob had been sent to sell the cow for money that could be used to purchase medicine. Instead, Jakob sold the cow for magic beans (sound familiar?).

After being apprehended by the French for fraud and encouraging superstition and the like, the two are threatened with death. In actuality, it’s a transparent scheme intended to use the Brothers Grimm to solve a “thorn in the foot” of the French general, regarding the disappearance of ten girls from a German village. The general is convinced it is the work of con artists like the Grimms, who are tasked to unveil the workings of the artist to the village and set everything right. Easier said than done.

In their adventures, they come across the love interest, Angelika (Lena Headey). Jakob falls for Angelika, although she kisses both at the end of the movie, leaving the matter of whom she loves unresolved (smell of a sequel?).

The girls are being captured and placed in crypts around a tower where a queen lives. The queen tortured the ancestors of the villagers for their spells, one of which was a spell for eternal life—but not eternal youth. To restore her youth, she has enslaved Angelika’s father to capture twelve girls and perform a spell during the blood moon (a lunar eclipse). The spell would doubtless cost the girls their lives as they knew it in return for restoring the queen’s beauty.

So Jakob and Will come to the rescue. Jakob confronts his demons by mortally wounding Will during their confrontation with the queen, an action that is crucial to their bid for winning against her magic. They bring down the tower down and rescue Angelika, who had been captured as the twelfth victim of the spell. The movie ends with much dancing and celebration.

H2G2 comes out on DVD on September 13 (apparently they‘re giving away free towels!) and after that I look forward to the September release of Serenity the feature film based on Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel)’s short lived series Firefly. The trailer looks awesome and I’m hoping the movie is equally impressive.

I saw The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy the day it opened. Best movie ever! Unfortunately, I’m too lazy to post a very long review, but I’ll see what I can do.

I shall begin with an imperative: Go watch it. Even if you haven’t read the book, or listened to the radio series, just bring a towel and watch. You might not get all the references, but you’ll enjoy it anyway.

It is definitely the best movie I have ever seen. They did a wonderful job at adapting the series for film. Now, loyal followers of the Guide, be warned: they have added in a lot of extra plot material that was not in the original book. Do what you’ve always done when reading the Guide—suspend your disbelief. The script was adapted from what Adams had already completed before his death.

For example, they travel to the Vogon homeworld, Vogsphere, in the movie. Also, the love story between Trillian and Arthur is emphasized, and an entire new “bad guy” plot is added. But they all fit perfectly into the story (although the “bad guy” plot leaves a few loose ends).

The song at the beginning of the movie, entitled “So Long and Thanks for All the Fish” is a brilliant piece of work. One of the best things about this movie is the way it opens: with a planet being destroyed, and ending with a planet being created, rather than the other way around as one might expect.

The ending does lag a bit, which is okay, and there are some aspects to the plot that I dislike, but overall the movie is too stunningly wonderful to disagree with those. I had a minor spasm of fear when I was watching clips and heard Trillian pronounce z the American way, but recovered when during the film a number of other actors pronounced it the British way.

At this point I would like to end my post with something witty and profound, but unfortunately, I shall not.

Yes, the one movie I have anticipated all my life—er, well at least since I‘ve found it. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy premieres in the U.S. and Canada on April 29, 2005!

Many people, including myself, are ambivalent (some outright outraged) about the movie. I think that Disney is in a precarious position: if they followed Adams’ script, then the movie should be okay. Although I warn people, remember that Adams has the tendency to rewrite the series for each medium. So it might differ from the books, just go with the flow.

Well, the marathon was quite entertaining. First I woke up in time to watch all six parts of The 4400, which I found interesting when it first aired. Then the final five episodes of Farscape followed immediately thereafter by Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars Part 1. Farscape is truly a series that I enjoy: witty, funny, ironic, emotional, profound and facetious at the same time.

Then six straight hours of Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune. I still can’t decide if I like the first or the third part best, the first part has that wonderful muscial last act, but part three has so much tension! And listening to that music again reminds me how much I want that soundtrack CD.

Woohoo! A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie is becoming a reality. Check out the trailer on Yahoo!

I can’t wait to see it. Too bad Douglas Adams didn’t live long enough to see his dreams for a movie become reality… .

Oh and Disney, if you mess this up, then I shall curse you unto eternity.

I made another scene today using trueSpace. You can view it in my gallery. Soon I’ll put up the actual scenes for download.

Happy Thanksgiving to Canadians, eh. Happy Columbus Day to Americans.

I watched House of Sand and Fog on Saturday. It was an incredibly depressing movie, and drowning with symbolism. If you haven’t seen it, don’t watch it.

Today, I watched Space’s Miniseries Marathon. I didn’t get up in time for V: The Miniseries, but I saw V: The Final Battle. I‘m not a big V fan, but it was good. Then there was Battlestar Galactica, which I’ve seen one too many times. One that I can never get enough of is Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune.

I added some more quotations, bringing the total count up to 25. (But who’s counting?)