Netflix

Image via CrunchBase

Netflix is one of the greatest inventions ever. When I first heard about it I was skeptical, mainly because I was one of the few who enjoyed going into a Blockbuster store and wandering around until I found something I wanted to watch, reading the back covers of all of the DVDs. I enjoyed talking to employees who would give me recommendations and knowing that my movies were being returned to an actual store.

My favorite part of Netflix is the streaming video. More and more titles are becoming available to watch directly on my computer so I don't even have to wait for a DVD to ship to me. Talk about instant gratification. Plus, this way I can watch as many movies as I want for less than $10 a month. Even when I do have the occasional movie shipped to me, it only takes 1 business day. Granted, I can only have one movie sent at a time, but thats ok because I don't use that service very often.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Netflix: 61% of Customers Streaming Movies [Chart] (gizmodo.com)
• What I'll miss about Blockbuster (salon.com)
• Maybe This Is Why Blockbuster Is Dying [Blockquote] (gizmodo.com)
• Netflix Cheers As Streaming Gains On DVD Shipments (blogs.forbes.com)

Upcoming Comic Book Movies

I am always excited when I hear a new movie based on a beloved comic character is coming out soon. Now several are on their way, including Captain America, Thor, Green Lantern, and the Avengers, so I'm even more excited than usual. A lead in to Thor was featured after the credits of Iron Man 2, where a SHIELD agent finds Thor's hammer Mjolnir in a crater in the desert.

I do think its a little odd to have the same actor play more than one character, though. For example, Chris Evans played the Human Torch in The Fantastic Four movies and is set to play Captain America in both The First Avenger and The Avengers movie. Ryan Reynolds has played Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and is set to reprise the role in a Deadpool spinoff. He has also played Hannibal King in Blade: Trinity and is set to play Hal Jordan in the upcoming Green Lantern film.

I've also been enjoying the direct to dvd animated movies being put out by Marvel and DC and am looking forward to more. Upcoming titles include Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, All Star Superman, Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, and Batman: Year One.

Related articles by Zemanta

• 10 superhero buddy movies we'd love to see [Steal This Pitch] (io9.com)
• 'Green Lantern: Emerald Knights' Animated Movie On The Way? (splashpage.mtv.com)

Comic Series I Am Currently Reading

Image by sandooches via Flickr

The following is a list of all comic book titles I am currently reading. The list is quite extensive.

Superhero Titles

Green Lantern (before seeing the movie)

Batman (after watching Batman Begins)

Superman
Hulk (after watching 1st Hulk movie)

Spider-Man
Avengers

Superman
Wonder Woman

Green Lantern Corps (before seeing the movie)

Nightwing (after reading Batman)
Robin (after reading Batman)
Batgirl (after reading Batman)
Punisher
Deadpool
Detective Comics
Action Comics
Runaways
Wolverine

Image via Wikipedia

Misc. Titles
Fables
Ex Machina

100 Bullets

Jack of Fables (after reading Fables)

Transmetropolitan

Hellboy (after watching both Hellboy movies)

Witchblade
The Walking Dead
Spawn

Related articles by Zemanta

• Should DC's movies try to create a shared universe like Marvel's? [Poll] (io9.com)
• Is A 'Justice League' Movie In The Works? (pinkisthenewblog.com)
• Justice League Movie - What Might Have Been (screenrant.com)

Inception

I saw Christopher Nolan's Inception the other day and was pleasantly surprised. The only problem I had with it was that it ran a little long (about 2 and a half hours). Then again, that is typical of any movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio. I guess he figures the longer the movie, the more he gets paid. Based on the previews, I thought the movie would be a lot harder to follow.

The idea of the movie was quite original, with the idea of planting ideas in people's heads via their subconcious through their dreams, which could be manipulated from the outside. The special effects were mind blowing (literally) and the plot was fairly interesting, especially with the dream within a dream within a dream sequences.

Like many directors, Christopher Nolan cast actors he was already familar with from his Batman franchise, including Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanbe, and Michael Caine. The only actress from the movie who I felt didn't add anything by their presence was Ellen Page. She is too young and innocent looking for this type of movie in my opinion.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Inception (cinemablend.com)
• Can Someone Please Explain Inception to Me? (observer.com)
• Christopher Nolan is Implanting the Seeds for Real-World Inception (anyclip.com)

Iron Man Movies and Action Figures

I for one thought Iron Man 2 was a much better film than the original Iron Man movie. Granted, the original established the origins of the character and had some cool special effects, but didn't do much else. Robert Downey Jr. was the right choice for Tony Stark/Iron Man in both films.

The 2nd film had a more menacing villain in Ivan Vanko/Whiplash, played by the intimidating, scary looking Mickey Rourke, better action sequences and special effects, more characters from the Marvel Universe including the Black Widow (who Scarlett Johansson portrayed beautifully even though her acting skills are usually subpar), Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), War Machine (Don Cheadle, who was a better choice than Terrence Howard, who is a terrible actor) and Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson to match his appearance in the Ultimate Marvel Universe). All in all, Iron Man 2 took place on a larger scale than the original and was a more entertaining film because of it.

That said, Hasbro's line of action figures based on Iron Man 2 are a tad disappointing. They lack the detail of the figures from the original movie and are much smaller, not fitting in with the rest of my rather large action figure collection, which is in the 5-6 inch scale or larger.

Predators

I just saw Predators and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this entry in the Alien/Predator series of films. Then again, AVP: Requiem was not exactly hard to surpass. Both franchises had numerous failures, starting with Alien: Resurrection. Predators was reminiscent of a couple of movies: The Condemned (the stranded criminals/mercenaries angle, Predator (of course), Aliens (the second movie in the Alien franchise), and Alien vs. Predator.

I didn't expect Adrien Brody to be able to pull off the tough guy mercenary role as Arnold Schwarzenegger did in the original, but he managed, even managing to throw in the gruff Christian Bale Batman voice. Topher Grace was his usual annoying self with a touch of evil thrown in for good measure, taking his role as bad guy Eddie Brock/Venom from Spider-Man 3 a step further into villainy.

Predators was definitely a Robert Rodriguez kind of film, using his filming style, some of the same actors that he always uses (mainly Danny Trejo), and the same type of humor. He executive produced the film.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Review: Predators Delivers a Tough and Exciting Jungle Trek (firstshowing.net)

Lego Video Games

I grew up playing with Legos like most kids and I always loved getting a new lego kit to put together. I still enjoy Legos to this day, but they are far

too expensive for me to continually invest money in.

The recent wave of Lego themed video games are some of the most addictive games I have ever played, namely Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman. They are so cute and fun and have hours and hours of gameplay with a high replay quotient.

Most games take me no more than a week or two to beat, but with the fun side missions including collecting all the coins, finding and collecting minikits and red blocks all while unlocking a vast amount of new characters and vehicles these games last a long time and I don't want to return them or trade them in for something better when I'm finished with them.

I'm definitely looking forward to playing Lego Harry Potter and to reexplore Lego Indiana Jones as I ran through it as fast as I could the first time around since it was a rental.

Jonah Hex

Image via Wikipedia

I don't know why both movie critics and the general public are putting down Jonah Hex. I saw it in the theater a few weeks ago and I thought it was an entertaining movie, albeit a bit short. I don't know what the rest of you people were expecting from a film based on the exploits of a C list comic book character.

I go to the movies to be entertained and that's all. If it manages to do more than that, its always a plus. That said, Jonah Hex was entertaining and had a few clever lines of dialogue thrown in so one can't totally discredit the acting. Josh Brolin was actually pretty good as the title character, John Malkovich was dastardly as ever, and Megan Fox played her typecast sex symbol character.

Prior to watching the movie, the only times I had seen Jonah Hex were in a few guest appearances in the comics (all involving time travel) and an episode or two of the Justice League animated series (also involving time travel), so I didn't really know what to expect. Maybe fans of the comic thought the film was disloyal to its roots as fans will often complain about. You have to view it as if its a stand alone movie, not a continuation or a direct translation of the comic. That goes for all comic book movies.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Jonah Hex: This western's firing blanks (theglobeandmail.com)
• 'Jonah Hex': Josh Brolin sleepwalks through this scarred comic-book adaptation (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Review: Jonah Hex a Fistful of Suck (eonline.com)
• Movie Review: Jonah Hex - Flick Sided (news.google.com)
• CinePhillyist Reviews ... Jonah Hex (phillyist.com)

Edward Norton

I just read today on E! Online that Edward Norton has been asked not to return to the role of Bruce Banner in the Avengers movie, due to be released in 2012. He is the only one who hasbeen asked not to return thus far. Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man), Samuel L. Jackon (Nick Fury), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), etc. have all been cast as their respective characters once again. Norton previously portrayed Banner in 2008's The Incredible Hulk. I for one am quite disappointed in this choice. Edward Norton is prefect for the role of Bruce Banner, a nerdy yet feisty scientist who struggles to contain the force of nature that is the Hulk within him. Norton has the perfect balance of nerd and badass, as evidenced by his character in Fight Club.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Incredible But True: Edward Norton Booted From The Avengers (eonline.com)
• Edward Norton OUT As 'Incredible Hulk' In Marvel He Said/She Said (huffingtonpost.com)
• Edward Norton Fired As The Hulk, Will Not Appear In 'The Avengers' (pinkisthenewblog.com)
• Ed Norton Will Not Play The Incredible Hulk In "The Avengers" (popcrunch.com)
• Marvel snubs Edward Norton over Hulk role (telegraph.co.uk)
• Edward Norton Won't Play Hulk In 'The Avengers' (mtv.com)
• Edward Norton Weighs In on 'Hulk' Controversy (justjared.buzznet.com)
• Marvel to Replace Edward Norton as Hulk in 'Avengers' (gossipcop.com)
• Ed Norton Saddened By "Avengers" Snub (popcrunch.com)
• Hulk Casting Decision Makes Edward Norton's Agent Angry (artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Edward Norton Won't Play Hulk In 'The Avengers' (UPDATED) (cinematical.com)

CGI

CGI technology has been used excessively in films for quite some time. CGI is very expensive and takes a lot of manpower to implement. Seems like producers sink most of any given film's capital into special effects instead of character development, plot, script, etc. What's even more upsetting is when they follow this formula and the CGI/special effects aren't even that impressive. Case and point: Superman Returns and the Nightmare on Elm Street remake.

Superman Returns was a completely unnecessary film and did not add anything of value to the Superman mythos. It was just a way of getting Bryan Singer's name on the movie (pissing off a lot of X-Men fans in the process because he couldn't work on X-Men 3)

In the Nightmare remake, Freddy Kreuger, a horror icon, was reduced to a CGI burn victim who looked more deformed than burned and scarred. In the original Nightmare on Elm Street series, all that was used was make up and ratty clothing to create his signature and memorable look.

Even the original Star Wars Trilogy used make-up, not CGI. CGI didn't even exist in 1977 when A New Hope was released. Plus, the shots of the rebel and imperial ships in the hangars were cardboard cutouts to save money. And Star Wars is freaking amazing. Filmmakers should use CGI when they have to, not just because its expected.

Twilight Saga

Image via Wikipedia

What's the deal with Twilight? There are far too many things wrong with the franchise for it to be so popular.

1) Vampires are supposed to kill people and drink their blood, turning those they have bitten into vampires and so on and so forth.

2) Vampires are not supposed to have teenage angst. They are supposed to be remorseless killing machines (unless they have a conscience like Blade, who just kills evil vampires and other creatures of the night).

3) When vampires are exposed to sunlight, they are supposed to die/disintegrate, not sparkle.

4) Robert Pattinson is a fairly average looking guy, so I don't see how he all of a sudden became a teenage heart throb.

5) In any movie or photo I've ever seen Kristen Stewart in, she always has this look on her face that says 'I don't want to be here.' She always looks depressed and the one or two times I've seen her actually smile it looks kind of creepy.

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Real Science Behind Sparkly Vampires (cinematical.com)
• Why are Vampires The Best Lovers? (socyberty.com)
• "53 'Twilight' vs. 'True Blood' Facts" and related posts (extratv.warnerbros.com)

Movie Theaters

I also couldn't help but notice that movies don't stay in the theater for very long anymore. It seems like at most a popular movie will stay in theaters for around 3 months. Is this because of short attention spans, bad word of mouth, or something else entirely? I always think back to when the first Jurassic Park was in theaters (1993 or 94) and it stayed there for almost a full year. Now a movie is lucky if it has a month and a half long run. What happened? Are movies just not as good anymore? (the answer is yes, by the way. Refer to my previous post for the reason why). I think it may be a good idea to do away with movie theaters and make all movies straight to DVD, which is almost what they're doing now anyway.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Theater Owner Begs Hollywood Not To Give Consumers What They Want (techdirt.com)

Movie Remakes

I, like many moviegoers, have noticed a growing trend in Hollywood over the past decade or so, or maybe even longer, of major studios putting out almost exclusively movies that are either based on books, based on comic books, based on video games, or are remakes. Am I the only one who is disappointed that there are no longer any original ideas out there, or at least that Hollywood has not latched onto them?

I think that instead of churning out remakes to movies that are already thought of as classics such as The Karate Kid and Friday the 13th, they should re-release them in theaters exactly as they were originally shown, so that they could get the younger generation to appreciate these films as I have and to gain whole new audiences without having to spend the money it would cost for one of these Blockbusters. They should do this with a lot of movies, including the original Indiana Jones and Back to the Future trilogies for starters.

I Love Comic Books Again

Image via Wikipedia

When I was I kid I was into comics. I collected the action figures, watched the saturday morning cartoons, and read the comic books. This was in the early 90's when the X-Men cartoon was on Fox, so naturally I was a Marvel guy. The first comic I bought was Venom #1 and my friend who was with me at the time bought The Death of Superman, which I also read and which remains timeless despite his subsequent resurrection. Meanwhile, Venom #1 is slightly outdated.

Years passed and I stopped reading, collecting, and watching. With the new boom of comic book movies that started with Blade (which at the time I didn't even know was a comic book character) I got back into reading comics to see what had changed and where these movies were getting their inspiration from as most of them were quite good.

When Batman Begins came out in the theater I enjoyed it so much that I started reading Batman comics even though I had never gotten into DC Comics before. I liked the comics so much so that I started reading other DC titles such as Superman and JLA. Then I found DC's Vertigo Comics and got into Fables, Watchmen, and Transmetropolitan. Most recently I have started reading Wildstorm's Ex Machina.

In terms of reading the comics, I collect them in trade paperback form for the most part, which can become quite costly. The best thing to happen to negate this effect was the CD/DVD-ROM collections that Marvel used to put out, but recently stopped. I hve alway wished that DC would do something similar and allow me to read their entire archives for $50-$60

Related articles by Zemanta

• DC Comics Releases iPad/iPhone App (geeksofdoom.com)