I’m a pretty big fan of college football.  One of the big unwritten rules of college football is “Watch what you say, the other team will just use it to fuel their fire.”  This was true several years ago when it was said by a journalist that UGA wasn’t “man enough” to go to Alabama and win.   The team used that and came away with the victory that year.   Then, after UGA scored first when playing Florida a couple of years back, the whole teamed stormed the field in celebration.  It got everyone pumped that day and Georgia came away with the win, but for the next two years sports analyst, highlight reels, and most likely the coaches used that clip to fire up a Florida team that was already stacked with talent just to get the players fired up and give them another reason to go out and win.

Some of the best football coaches in the history of the game are masters at underplaying their team’s ability.  They do this so as to not have everyone in their conference gunning for their boys.  It’s usually a pretty sound strategy.   Fly under the radar.  Stun everyone with your on field ability.  Don’t overhype.

It was said again and again and again that AVATAR would be the game changer as it pertains to cinema.   James Cameron said repeatedly that he had to wait for technology to catch up with his ideas.  Everyone waited with bated breath for the next STAR WARS.  Then the movie was released…

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In this piece, our good friend and girly geek Kaci examines THE WATCHMEN.   I realized that I never quite gave my review of the movie and Kaci’s views (albeit harsher than mine) are kinda similar.  So what you’re about to read is a blogversation (a word I just made up) between Kaci and I concerning THE WATCHMEN.  My words are in blue italics an Kaci’s are normal.  Enjoy and comment:

Watchmen.

Lame. Lame. Lame. Boring. And more lame.

I wouldn’t say LAME.  It is a movie and a graphic novel that is full of it’s own self importance, but what a story.  It is one of the fullest, richest stories to come out of any comic that I’ve ever read.  Of course, I’m referring to the graphic novel.  The movie, while a good adaptation of the comic did have to strip away many of the elements that caused the comic series to be so layered.

Yesterday, when I went out to check my mail, I found two red envelopes in the box. Whoohoo for Netflix! I love getting fun things in the mail. (Agreed) One disk was part of the “True Blood” series and the other was “Watchmen.” So far, I think “True Blood” is … meh, but perhaps I should wait to talk about that another time. I was ready to watch “Watchmen.”

And after three long hours, I have to say this girly geek really hated that movie.

(It was the naked blue guy wasn’t it?)

I hated how Rorschach imitates Batman’s deep, raspy voice and how the ink in his mask kept moving around. It just made me want to smack someone. — Hey, special effects guy, get over here!

Before everyone jumps on Kaci, she’s read the comic, she knows the ink is supposed to move.  She just didn’t enjoy how it looked on film.   That’s the point she’s making.  I do have to say however, I can’t think of any other way for Rorschach to speak.  When I read the comic I imagined that rough, raspy, “Batmanish” voice.   I DID have a little problem with the mask effects though.  I thought the ink moved to swiftly.  I would have preferred a slower more subtle movement to the ink because I think that would make Rorschach a little more intimidating to his enemies…a little creepier as it looks like his face may be slowly coming apart or drooping or melting.  The effects crew just decided to move it faster than I imagined it is all.

I also hated how Dan Dreiberg sounded like a cheap imitation of Reeves’ Clark Kent; Ozymandias was laughably too skinny; and all the outfits and costumes were terr-i-ble — the 80’s were not nice to adults, apparently. Laurie’s hair was eww. — I really hope that was a wig. And Dr. Manhattan was pathetic. I understand I should feel bad for him since he is so tragically falling out of touch with humanity, and the women in his life eventually leave him because of his emotional distance, but I feel nothing for the guy.

Well, I think this is Alan Moore’s most blatant point with this book.  I don’t think the guy particularly cares for superheroes.  So everyone in the movie was a deconstruction of sorts of several different (what have become) archetypal superheroes.  Dan represented the altruism of characters like Superman coupled with the adventure seeking of characters like Blue Beetle.  Ozymandius is that Lex Luthor type who fancies himself the hero of the story when ultimately he’s the villain.  (His character is a lot more gray than that, but just go with me for the sake of argument.)  Dr. Manhattan represents the alien side of some of the more powerful superheroes like Superman or Martian Manhunter.  I honestly think that Moore, for all his genius, can’t wrap his mind around the simple concept that someone as powerful as a Superman or Martian Manhunter would actually be concerned with humanity.

But I should not have been surprised that the movie was lame. I read the graphic novel a few months ago because I heard the writer was a genius, and it was torture. Actually, there you go military folks. Heck with waterboarding. Just stick that terrorist in a cell with nothing to do but read “Watchmen,” and he’ll give you answers. I think Alan Moore writing was egotistical and self-indulgent. And the movie came across the same way. I guess in that respect it was an accurate portrayal of the graphic novel.

I totally understand where you’re coming from.  I agree to a point.  I didn’t like WATCHMEN on my first read either, but as I think back on the story, I can’t deny how well-crafted it is.  However, there are a LOT of people that worship at the altar of Alan Moore.  I can’t say that I’m one of them.

This movie was very highly praised when it opened, although I don’t understand why. Maybe all the critics watched were the opening and closing credits. Perhaps they were like, “Wow, that was a really great movie. I haven’t slept so good since ‘Titanic.’”  BAAA-ZING!

For me, the best part of the movie was listening to “The Times, They Are A-Changin’” playing over the opening credits. But I mean, who doesn’t dig Dylan. Now that man’s a genius. (Agreed.  In fact, he’s playing as I’m preparing this blog article.)

So even though this is not a timely review this probably matters little, but I would still give this a one-star rating at best. And I would tell anyone who hasn’t seen the film to consider him/herself lucky. The only thing you’ve missed is one seriously lame and boring flick.

I have a different take on the film on several levels.  The movie does something that only a handful of superhero movies have done to date – it strays very little from the source material.  The choices of what to leave in and take out were reasonable and understandable.  The costumes WERE the costumes of the characters in the comics. In my opinion, the casting was just right.  I can’t think of any other actors I could see in those roles.  However, as well executed as this film was, I can’t get past the fact that I didn’t really like the premise of the story or the presuppositions about superheroes that Alan Moore brings to his story.  So that detracts from my enjoyment of the movie.  It’s not the movie’s fault.  This was as nearly a flawless execution of any comic book adaptation that we’ve seen.  So I would give it 2 and a half stars.  It’s half perfect and that comes from the people who worked so hard to give the fans of this comic a great movie.  They succeeded in pleasing fans of the Watchmen comic I think.  However, I came to the party not a fan so my opinion was tainted before they ever started playing Dylan.

Check out the movie, the graphic novel, and the soundtrack, and help support the site:

I couldn’t think of a fancy title for this review, but I guess that’s ok…at least I’m writing something right?  Right?  Right.

I am admittedly a geek, but what I’ve found since making my foray into the blogoshpere/podcasting world is that I am far less versed in all things geekdom than I once thought.

My first exposure to The Green Lantern was through Challenge of the Superfriends reruns on Saturday mornings.  As a kid I totally bought into this guy’s awesome powers and even his one weakness…yellow.  As a kid it just made sense.

A few years later when I began reading/collecting comics, I found myself falling on the Marvel side of things for some pretty silly reasons.  But I was happy being a Marvel zombie.   It wasn’t until 1997 when I was in a comic shop and saw Grant Morrison’s JLA number 1 that I began to broaden my horizons into all things DC a bit.  You remember the cover don’t you?

It had S

uperman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, an as yet unknown to me Martian Manhunter, and Green Lantern all on there looking ready for action.  As I saw that cover I knew I must have that comic because there were the Superfriends all looking pretty awesome in a 90’s kind of way.   What I wasn’t prepard for was just how foreign the characters of Wally West and Kyle Raynier would be to me.   As I read the panels of those two discussing how out of place they sometimes felt as the “rookies” of the group, I got curious and began to seek out what had happened to the Flash and Green Lantern that I had known as a kid.   What I found was a whole other Universe that was just as rich and as fun as the Marvel Universe I had played in for so long.   In fact, DC offered something quite different from Marvel at the time.  I remember telling a friend, “Marvel has heroes…really good character, but DC has LEGENDS.”  I had become a bit of a DC nerd trying to uncover the history of these characters, who were their predecessors, just how cataclysmic has this Crisis been.  I learned to love the DC Universe, and I kicked myself for not paying more attention to it for the years before that I had been collecting.

So it is, that I bring to the table limited knowledge of certain DC characters when I watch these animated movies or even the big screen adaptations of the characters.   While I know the characters and enjoy them, my limited history with them makes such experiences a lot more fun than it may be for someone who has been completely devoted to a character for a while now.

It’s that way with The Green Lantern.  I know the origin of Hal Jordan.  I know how he went nuts and became Parallax.  I really enjoyed how Geoff Johns brought him back in “Rebirth,” and “The Sinestro Corps War” was one of the coolest things I’d read in comics in a long time.  I’ve really been looking forward to following “Blackest Night.”  However, I don’t know all the names of the Green Lantern Corps.  I recognize faces, but if a character is done slightly different than he or she is done in the comics, I miss it, and it doesn’t bother me.

Having said all that, I really enjoyed GREEN LANTERN:  FIRST FLIGHT.  As I watched it, I was impressed with the pacing of the movie, the animation was pretty good, and while I had some issues with the voice work and choices for voice acting, the story and characterization of the players involved made for yet another successful outing from the crew at WB and DC Animated.

The first thing that I noticed  about this film, and liked, was the pacing.  There is no time wasted in getting the ring on Hal Jordan’s finger, and while we are privy to his personality (fearless), and a little bit of his relationship with Carol Farris, there’s not a lot of time spent exploring that.  This is a movie about the rise of Hal Jordan as the Green Lantern of sector 2814.   Honestly, I like that.  While I love a good character piece and appreciate delving into a heroes psyche as much as the next geek, I also like it when the writers of a story move confidently forward realizing that it’s not necessary to explore romantic relationships, daddy issues, and egos to show what a character is made up of.   FIRST FLIGHT flows so well as not only an origin story but also an all out sci fi space movie that moves with very little slowing down from start to finish.

While some might complain that Hal figures out the ring a bit too quickly, let’s not forget that Hal didn’t become a test pilot because he’s stupid.  It takes a certain amount of intelligence to become a pilot, much moreso to pilot prototypical aircraft.  For me it’s not a stretch given how much the ring does for the wearer coupled with Hal’s own intelligence.  Also, as Hal learns, he does a lot of mimicking what he sees other Green Lanterns do.  Thus making the moments of his own ingenuity with the ring that much cooler.  Can you say fly swatter anyone?

There were a few moments in this movie where some animation took me out of the movie for just a second or two.  The use of computer animation was there several times and it was apparent.  In my opinion, when using computers to add effects or certain elements to animation, it shouldn’t stand out too blatantly as to separate itself from the rest of what’s going on.  It looks great, but it does have a bit of the off color brick in Scooby Doo going for it at the same time.  You know the brick I’m talking about…just different enough to differentiate itself as something that will be moved.

However, those few moments weren’t enough to turn me off to the animation as a whole.  The character designs were great and I really liked the fact that classic characters like Kilowog had a certain realism to their look.   Sinestro has less of the look of The Leader from Marvel comics with the big forehead, and looks more akin to his design from the “Justice League” and “Justice League Unlimited” series.  The Guardians, while at times hard to differentiate looked like…well, the Guardians, and Hal Jorda was Hal Jordan no mistaking him for any other Green Lantern we may have seen before.

The only thing that really bothered me about the movie was the voice acting.  There were, as with other DC Animated projects, so great actors put to use in this movie.  However, Christopher Meloni sounds a little too much like Robert Patrick to me, and I couldn’t shake that image while watching.  I really thought they should have tried to get David Boreanaz again, but I understand why they didn’t.   Michael Madsen is one of my favorite actors.  He has a subtle charisma about him that causes the screen to light up whenever he’s on it.  However, I really felt Kilowog’s voice was a little understated.  I guess I feel like someone that big should have a more booming quality to his voice.  All in all, those are really the only voices that bothered me.  So, I guess the voice work isn’t such a sticking point.

What really drives a movie like this, though, is story.  GREEN LANTERN: FIRST FLIGHT is the story of Hal Jordan’s rise to the role of Green Lantern of sectot 2814.   It is also the story of Sinestro’s descent into evil.  It’s a very well crafted story with moments that are dark and horrifying, and those moments that…well…those moments in movies that I am a complete sucker for.  SPOILER WARNING:  When all is lost and Hal steps up with no ring on his finger to save the day, then saves the day with a ring on his finger, I absolutely love it.  The final battle is big, the build up to the final battle is tense, the stakes are high, and the good guys kind of win in the end.

All in all I give this movie a very solid 3 1/2 green whatever I give 5 of  out of 5.  I don’t go full on 4 or 5 because I watched the sneak peek at SUPERMAN/BATMAN: PUBLIC ENEMIES before I watched FIRST FLIGHT and OH…MY…LANTA…IS THAT THING GONNA ROCK!!  However, if you’re a Green Lantern fan, or a fan of Superhero movies…pick this one up.  It’s totally worth it.

There are a few things I need to say before plunging into this review.

1. I really enjoyed Michael Bay’s first outing with the Robots in Disguise. I hear what those who are critical of the movie say, but as an overall experience I really enjoy it and think it’s a great movie.

2. I did read a few non-spoilery reviews of the movie before going to see it. I was disheartened because a lot of what I read tended to be very negative. I had no idea about a plot, and I had not really read any spoilers for the movie going into it. My expectations were pretty even in spite of the negative reviews I had read.

3. I loved the G1 Transformers series from the eighties. Transformers weren’t action figures…they were Transformers, the show was, to my child eyes, the best thing on television, and it still holds a very special place in my heart. Subsequent series, with the exception of Beast Wars, really tended to fall flat to me. They just didn’t feel like The Transformers.

4. There may be spoilers ahead, so if you don’t want anything ruined, don’t read.

This movie is really two different reactions for me. I’ve seen it twice now, and had I written this review after only one viewing, I would have written, “HOLY MONKEY SPIT!!! I freakin’ love this movie!”

Having seen it twice now, I say, “Wow. What a good movie.”

Upon the first viewing I found myself thrilling to Optimus being airdropped in to China to take out a huge Decepticon. I felt tears well up as I had to watch Optimus do something I never thought I’d have to see a second time in my life.

I cheered with the mention of the Matrix of Leadership. I laughed at jokes that weren’t too funny. I felt the awe of the 7 year old in me as Jetfire showed up. The whole experience the first time around was exactly what I wanted out of a Summer movie. I left with my jaw on the floor and completely ticked that people had been spewing venom on this movie.

The second time I saw it was a more low key affair with a couple of people who aren’t quite the fans that I and my friend Josh from New Day Photography, are. It was in this viewing that I realized how slow the pacing of the movie is, how unnecessary some of the humor is, and how pointless at least one of the characters are.

Let’s deal with the negative first. Sam’s roommate? Pointless. Well, after leading Sam and company to John Turturro’s Agent Simmons he’s pointless. For one things, Turturro is the far superior actor and when he’s on screen, it’s like no one else is there. So there is no need for a character who doesn’t have half the knowledge of Agent Simmons portrayed by a gentleman who’s a fine actor…just not on Turturro’s level. In fact, Leo would have best been served in the role of taking Sam where he needed to get and then either stayed behind in some sort of support role or even turned Sam over to the authorities to try to collect some sort of reward…I think it would have made his character more useful and he would have had more of a reason to stick around once Agent Simmons came on the scene.

The humor is a double edged sword for me. You had to expect Sam’s parents to be funny. However, at points they were a bit too over the top. To me, though, it’s all paid off once they are taken hostage and used to try and stop Sam in the final battle. The scene between Sam and his father is really emotional. All jokes are over, this is life and death, and instead of letting their son go for college, this is a mother and father letting their son go to save the world and potentially not make it back. It’s a moving scene and it stands complimentary to and as a counter to what we had seen from the Witwicky parents earlier.

The Autobot twins Mudflap and Skids were…too much. Too much vulgarity. Too much humor. Too much screen time. When we are shown a totally awesome Autobot in the form of Sideswipe in the opening sequence, when we have someone like Ironhide or the Arcee triplets in the movie, to spend so much time on a vulgar Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum duo is a little disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, they had their moments and at times even made me laugh, and I appreciated that the two could fight, but kids are gonna be playing with these toys and quoting their lines from the movie, and there were so many cooler Autobots that could have been used.

Then there’s Wheelie…I didn’t mind Wheelie at all. Except for the leg humping. That was unnecessary. He was grovelling enough to be funny, and he was a cool little character.

Ultimately, there are a few little plot points that rubbed me the wrong way, but even with the problems I just mentioned, it wasn’t enough to ruin the experience, the movie, or the franchise for me.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen had so much eye popping goodness about it, it did everything we wanted the first one to do, and it ramped the stakes up so high that even the slow scenes seemed intense.

The stakes for our characters were bigger than an unknown threat in the person of a frozen Megatron getting his hands on a source of power we don’t quite understand. This time around the Earth was at stake. The Decepticons, under the leader of an ancient Transformer known as The Fallen, are after the Energon they can harvest upon destroying our sun, and thus our planet. Sam has been thrown headfirst into this war, and has to step up in a way that goes far beyond anything he was called upon to do in the first movie.

The Decepticons seem to be coming in huge waves and all hope seems lost for a large portion of the movie. Then, the second things seem to turn around, the bad guys appear to win. Then…well, it’s just huge.

The action sequences in this movie (and there were a lot) were amazing. From the aforementioned Prime airdrop to appliances going all decepticonish in the Witwicky household, to a Decepticon psycho chick, on through to the end battle, The camera was, for the most part, pulled back to allow us to more easily follow the fights than the first movie.

Ultimately, we got what we asked for. More interactions between the Transformers, more focus on the giant robots fighting, and more robots.

As far as plot goes, this was a classic Transformers story. There was the search for an item on which everything hinged. Megatron will stop at nothing to accomplish his goal. Soundwave is sending his little minions and gathering the information needed to effectively strike against the Autobots. The Autobots have no clue what’s going on til the end, and then lay their lives on the line to save humanity.

There was a lot weak about this movie, but to me and the seven year old Steve that came out to play in the movie theater there was too much good to complain.

I honestly had no expectations for this movie. I knew that what I had seen looked amazing, but I knew little to nothing about the plot. So when I walked out the first time, I was super pleased. The second time, I was able to look at things in a less seven year old like manner. Combining the two experiences, I give the movie a strong 3.5 out of 5. I will probably see it again. I do like it enough to watch it as much as I have the chance to. I will definitely buy it when it comes out on DVD/Blu Ray, and I highly recommend it. In my opinion, it’s the best of the Summer so far. Just on a fun level.

Wolverine is one of those characters that, while I understand why he’s so popular, I’ve never really been a super fan of. I like him. When he does something totally cool, I think it’s totally cool. He’s just never been one of my favorite characters. In truth, I would have rather seen Fox produce a new X-Men movie rather than a movie solely about ole Wolvie. So it was with a little bit of trepidation that I drove the thirty minutes to Douglas, GA and Rockin’ 8 Cinemas to watch the latest superhero movie out there. That’s right….a 30 minute drive…to another town…to a movie theater called “Rockin.” (The seats rock.)

Like everyone, I had heard the mixed reviews. I had heard most people respond to Wolverine with a resounding “eh.” Unlike some, I didn’t download the leaked copy of the movie a few weeks ago. I was just too uninterested to take the time, bandwidth, or memory on my computer to do it. I was determined, no matter my trepidations, the mediocre reviews I’d seen, or the response of fans who downloaded an unfinished copy of the movie to sway my opinion as I watched the movie.

So what did I think?

I think the greatest strength of this movie is what makes the movie work more than anything else…the cast.

I knew going in that Hugh Jackman owns the role of Wolverine like nobody thought possible about eight years ago. He seems to understand the character, he gets what makes Wolverine so cool to so many people. So it is, when he steps on screen to don the adamantium claws, he brings Wolverine right off the page to right in your face on the screen.

Liev Schreiber was a surprise to me. I was a bit shocked to find out that the guy who played Cotton Weary in Scream 3 was gonna be Sabretooth….SABRETOOTH. It worked though. He did an outstanding job of making Sabretooth not only tough, hard edged, and threatening, but also bringing a touch of humanity to the character that we’ve not seen in the cartoons or the first X-Men movie.

Then there’s the one everyone was talking about, Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool. While he wasn’t on screen for very long, he definitely made an impact on the movie. He has a comedic timing and wit that allowed him to deliver Deadpool’s lines perfectly funny and appropriately B.A.

I was disappointed (and relieved a bit) to find out though that Weapon XI (read Weapon 11…which I thought was supposed to be Deadpool post Weapon X texting) was NOT Deadpool.

In truth, I have always been so indifferent about Wolverine, that I can’t come to this movie and pinpoint derivations from any of the supporting characters in the film. So I wasn’t constantly saying, “That’s not how it is in the comics.”

I DID read Wolverine Origins a few years back, but I was so disinterested that I really don’t remember it. So while a few of the things from the boyhood days of Wolverine are familiar, they weren’t fresh and important.

This is a movie that is well put together while not as epic as the trailers make it out to be. I was glad to see that the trailer only gave one really cool moment away. Wolverine vs. a helicopter. I was also glad to see that character development wasn’t completely thrown out the window only to be replaced with action. There are some genuinely good character moments not only from Jackman and Schreiber, but even people who are only on screen for roughly five mintues.

In fact, in watching this movie, there are only a few negative things that I saw.

First, and most obviously, are the special effects. There are moments that it seems any major studio should be able to pull off and give a more realistic look to. Action moments that apparently were done of a blue or green screen and the proper care didn’t seem to be taken to make the elements blend well. Normally, I wouldn’t mention anything about effects, but these moments seem to be things that shouldn’t be so obvious.

There is a moment when Logan is looking at his new adamantium claws and they are so blatantly digital that it took me out of what should have been a pretty interesting scene. (And understand that it’s HARD to pull me out of a movie.) I thought I had read that Jackman wore prosthetics for close up shots in at least one of the X-Men movies and it seemed to me that he should have been using them in this particular instance.

Another drawback to this film, to the story actually, is what I refer to as the Boba Fett mistake. (Yes, everything comes back to Star Wars for me.) While I love the prequel trilogy and remain one of it’s biggest proponents, it isn’t lost on me that a lot of the coolness that Boba Fett held for fans of the original trilogy was lost the minute they saw him as a little boy tagging along with daddy. I think the same can be said here. I like the mystery that always surrounded Wolverine before the comic ORIGINS was published. I think that’s a big part of the character’s appeal.  Well, this movie goes a long way in stripping all that away.

The final negative to this film for me was that it just didn’t thrill me.  It was entertaining.  It wasn’t BAD…it just wasn’t the second coming of the Marvel Super Hero movie.  Sadly, though, I think Fox is ok with that.   Unlike Paramount who went out of its way to make Iron Man something special, Fox seems content with just taking in the money it knows fans are gonna spend on the characters we love and know so much.  So, if the movie is acceptable…that’s good enough.  I disagree, I think this movie should have been the surprise of the Summer.  It should have had the Star Trek franchise backed against the wall just hoping that it could perform as well and get the buzz that Wolverine got.   Unfortunately, that won’t happen.  This movie will just fade into obscurity.  There’s just not much to talk about.

So in the end, I say this is an average movie.  Which is honestly more than I hoped for.  If you’re a huge Wolverine fan and can’t stand any descrepancies from the comic book franchise then…well, get a life…but you may also want to avoid the movie.  If you like a good action flick and you aren’t expecting Citizen Kane, you won’t be disappointed…but don’t expect to be blown away either.

Sigh, remember last Summer when we were excited EVERY weekend?  I miss that.