Well, I finally got around to checking this movie out. I swear I added it to my Netflix queue not long after I first got a PS3, but it took forever for it to become available. In fact, even this copy had to be mailed from Massachusetts or somewhere like that, which means that they didn't have it in stock anywhere closer to me, and probably that they had gotten tired of it sitting at the top of my queue and had given up on it showing up anywhere closer to me. I was, of course, pissed at them for sending it across the country because that takes an extra couple of days.
I was extra annoyed, though, because it also takes them an extra day just to ship it (so it didn't even get shipped until I was expecting it to arrive and then didn't arrive until around the time that I would normally expect to be receiving the next movie on my queue after returning it). Oh, yeah, they actually did that with two of my movies this past week, so I pretty much lost that week as far as movie watching is concerned.
On the other hand, Persona 3: FES came out on Tuesday, so it's probably not a bad thing that I didn't have any movies to distract me from the game (it's looking grim, I'm starting back over from the beginning, which means I'm planning to sink at least another 80+ hours into it, not to mention the 30+ hours of additional content they've added).
Not that this is relevant at all, but the other movie was Dan in Real Life. I actually wasn't able to watch it all the way through. It's a very painful movie to watch. So, yeah, if you ever plan to see it, make sure that the option to just stop it is available, because I swear there must be a point where everyone has to just say, "Wait, I can't handle anymore uncomfortable situations. Please, just stop. Seriously." Or maybe it's just me. But whatever, I'm supposed to be talking about Appleseed: Ex Machina. not Dan in Real Life.
So, yeah, Appleseed. It was an interesting experience. I remember watching the first one, probably two years ago. I remember not recommending it to friends. Or rather, I remember not recommending it to people who like movies as a storytelling medium. I probably told most people who asked that it was visually extremely interesting, if also rather schizophrenic. But, so if you haven't seen it, and, well, you probably haven't, then I should warn you that the story sucks. This made watching the sequel a little challenging because I had more or less forgotten the story, because it sucked. Luckily, they gave a 15 second or so recap of what was going on: you know, some sort of dystopian, post-apocalypse world with an isolated utopia populated by the survivors of the devastating world war, run by synthetically designed and produced humanoids incapable of emotions and protected by cyborgs and human piloted robot suits (because there's always robot suits, or samurai, which is why that series Samurai 7 was such a breakthrough, you know, having samurai fighting robot suits, that's on the same order as pirates fighting ninjas). Anyways, I felt right back up to speed.
But, lets forget about the story for a moment (ha, I already did). That first one was an interesting experience because of the visuals. The idea behind it was to try to combine three different animation styles in one movie. There were normal, hand drawn anime visuals, computer generated visuals, and then this third thing that's a mixture of the two (which is also done with computers...I don't know what it's called, but if you've seen Richard Linklater's movies Waking Life or A Scanner Darkly, then it's kind of like that only not trippy). The result was kind of odd. Now, it's fairly common to see the robots and spaceships and stuff done with computers while the characters and backgrounds are animated. The difference here was that they thought they could switch between the two using that third style.
The best example of this would be when the main character, some cute chick who kicks lots of ass, pulls out a gun. She's an anime character, so when she pulls it out, it appears hand-drawn. However, as she pulls it out and the lights shine on it, the metal glistens, which is done using that third strategy. Then, the camera cuts to her firing it and it's fully computer generated against the anime background, and, for that matter, attached to an anime arm.
So, I've now seen the next one, but in high definition, which is clearly worth something. From the looks of it, the producer people made the command decision to cut down on the anime-style stuff and do most things either with that in-between option or full CG. The main difference, though, is that this in-between option has gotten significantly more advanced since the previous one. The result is that it's really more CG, only it ends up with a very hand drawn look. The only way I can describe it is to tell you to go check out the cut scenes from that game Rogue Galaxy that I talked about a while ago, because it used the same style in its CG cut scenes.
So, this one primarily uses that style for its characters, instead of the anime style, and then switches back and forth on the backgrounds between CG and a hand drawn style. So, it's still fairly schizophrenic, but overall the look is a bit more unified.
Anyways, it was a rather odd experience to watch it. This animation style comes out looking very, very similar to today's graphics quality on a PS3 game. I very much imagine that most of the action we see in the movie could be done in real time during gameplay on the PS3, with a fairly minimal drop in quality. So, watching it felt a lot like watching the cut scenes from a game (for that matter, the story could have come from a game too, a bad game, just to be clear). I think I preferred the style from the first one, since at least it was unique, even though it was uneven.
The other kind of weird thing to realize is that I am totally a sucker for video game girls. Because every single girl in this movie looks like she could have come out of a video game, I was pretty much thinking to myself, "Oh, she's cute" over and over and over again. It was kind of surreal. I'm not sure if it was the hair (the classic, this is CG so we're not going to waste our time trying to render millions of individual strands), or the super smooth skin, but they all reminded me of Rinoa Heartilly (FFVIII, which is not to say that I'm any particular fan of her or even that game, she would just be the video game cutie that they all reminded me of).
One cool thing about it, though, was that John Woo was involved. So, of course, there had to be doves somewhere. And, so, well, it was a robot dove sending out some signal to take control of the general population and have them attack some building or other. I smiled. Also, the actions scenes in general were cool and well choreographed and stuff. I'm almost certain I liked the action in this one a lot more (I'll admit I don't really remember the action scenes from the first one...yeah, I don't really remember anything from it). Definitely the main advantage to doing CG action movies like this is that you can really play with the camera and this did a very good job of that. Of course, there were still times when the characters seemed weightless, especially the robot suits (you have to wonder how maneuverable a giant robot suit really is, especially if that means it's capable of dodging bullets in a mid-air battle), but at least the actions was gorgeously done.
But, yeah, otherwise it wasn't too memorable. I guess if they make another one, I'll add it to my queue. I don't have the will power to stop myself. And, besides, every single female character in it is cute, that's worth something.
That is all.
Francis
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Forbidden Kingdom
So, I just saw The Forbidden Kingdom. And, well, it was really fun. Totally awesome watching Jet Li and Jackie Chan playing around and having fun. Of course, there were totally cool fight scenes and plenty of funny lines and general silliness. So, yeah, I liked it.
There were some interesting things about it. For one, I have no idea where the title The Forbidden Kingdom comes from. I'm tempted to say that the Weinsteins are poking fun at themselves for re-purposing Hong Kong kung fu movies and giving them ridiculous unrelated titles. If that's the case, um, that's kind of weird. But kudos for them for being self aware enough to recognize that they're doing it. Now all they need to do stop giving these types of movies completely random names and we'll move on. On the other hand, maybe there actually was some sort of Forbidden Kingdom somewhere and I just missed it. Yeah, that's probably it.
The most interesting thing, though, was the fact that they felt the need to anchor this movie with a young white male. Yes, that's right. You take pretty much the two most famous and popular martial arts movie stars alive today and put them in a movie together and still feel the need to add a white guy to make sure that it appeals to American audiences. That is sad. Admittedly, they spend the first half of the movie just making fun of that very fact. I mean this literally by the way. Jackie and Jet spend massive amounts of time laughing at poor Michael Angarano (or something like that...the star of Sky High, if you ever saw it, not Shia Lebouef...or something like that...even though he looks kind of like a shorter, stouter version of him in this movie...and that was a terrible use of pronouns, just for the record). In fact, there's one fight where Jackie uses him as a weapon (which is pretty awesome)...and as a cushion on occasion as well.
Of course, they still eventually train him and he becomes of semi-capable fighter or whatever. At least they make the decision to never put him anywhere near the level of those two. He becomes good enough to handle the random henchman, which I guess is the minimum for him to be able to keep up at all. And, of course, he proves his value and blah de blah. They come to respect him and are proud of him and yeah, it doesn't matter.
Anyways, why does it have to be a white kid? Story-wise, there's no reason for it at all. It's literally done entirely to make for easier viewing for white audiences. But that's stupid since we've seen that movies with entirely Asian casts are quite capable of making money at the box office (think of that Crouching Tiger movie or those artsy Jet Li movies...or maybe Memoirs of a Geisha or whatever, I didn't actually watch the full thing so I can't say for sure that there wasn't a random American geisha or something hanging around). So, really, it's just done because the Weinsteins are stupid. I guess we all knew that though, so whatever.
Seriously, though, if I were Jackie Chan and Jet Li, and we were going to star in a movie together, I would want that movie's young star to be some charismatic martial artist who will one day become as renowned as me. I would take this as an opportunity to show off somebody who's going to be a star and put them in front of the whole world. I wouldn't want that role to go to some American kid who has relatively little fighting experience. But that's how it went. Which kind of sucks.
On the other hand, the kid did a decent job in the role, so I have to give him credit for that. Not that he had to do much besides get laughed at, but I don't mind.
I was also a little dissatisfied with the flow of the movie. They kind of had this formula where we started by watching them travel to a new locale (bamboo forest, desert, lake, burned village, cherry blossoms, or whatever), then we had a scene or two with Jackie, Jet, and the kid which were awesome, then we had a pointless, forced, kind of awkward scene with the love interest. And then we were back to traveling. This was typically interspersed with a scene checking up on the bad guys. And that was the vast majority of the movie.
From that description, you can probably tell what made me dissatisfied with the flow of the movie. Yeah, the love interest was completely pointless. Her only reason for existing, at all, was because these movies are required by law to have a kick ass girl who starts out thinking the boy is useless and embarrassing (because he is) but eventually realizes that there's more to him than what she first saw. I mean, even freaking Balls of Fury had to do that, and it's just using ping-pong to make fun of the American martial arts movie form.
I did kind of like how the kid would eventually start hanging out with her at each of the locales because he'd be tired of Jackie and Jet laughing at him and beating him up. So he'd retreat to her while she'd be playing one of those string instrument things and typically be a good boy a sit quietly and listen...okay, and stare at her. But, it was still not really a fun way to develop her character and it was an entirely ineffective way to develop their relationship of sorts.
Of course, having them be sparring partners would be even more clichéd so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. I guess if I were making the movie, I would have had him listen and then try to actually start a conversation with her, maybe even learn about her (while not staring at her). Instead of their way, where he listens and then she randomly volunteers information, probably just to end the awkward silence created by him staring at her. You know what, it would have been better if they just didn't have him staring at her the whole time (at points it honestly seemed like he was drooling a little bit).
But, whatever, what's done is done. The despite these shortcomings, the sheer awesomeness of watching a movie with Jackie Chan and Jet Li easily outweighed them. Most importantly, though, it was clear that they were having tons of fun making this movie and that really comes out while you're watching it. So, yeah, good job guys. You should make another one. Minus that ridiculous Monkey King hair on Jet Li, that was a little much.
That is all.
Francis
There were some interesting things about it. For one, I have no idea where the title The Forbidden Kingdom comes from. I'm tempted to say that the Weinsteins are poking fun at themselves for re-purposing Hong Kong kung fu movies and giving them ridiculous unrelated titles. If that's the case, um, that's kind of weird. But kudos for them for being self aware enough to recognize that they're doing it. Now all they need to do stop giving these types of movies completely random names and we'll move on. On the other hand, maybe there actually was some sort of Forbidden Kingdom somewhere and I just missed it. Yeah, that's probably it.
The most interesting thing, though, was the fact that they felt the need to anchor this movie with a young white male. Yes, that's right. You take pretty much the two most famous and popular martial arts movie stars alive today and put them in a movie together and still feel the need to add a white guy to make sure that it appeals to American audiences. That is sad. Admittedly, they spend the first half of the movie just making fun of that very fact. I mean this literally by the way. Jackie and Jet spend massive amounts of time laughing at poor Michael Angarano (or something like that...the star of Sky High, if you ever saw it, not Shia Lebouef...or something like that...even though he looks kind of like a shorter, stouter version of him in this movie...and that was a terrible use of pronouns, just for the record). In fact, there's one fight where Jackie uses him as a weapon (which is pretty awesome)...and as a cushion on occasion as well.
Of course, they still eventually train him and he becomes of semi-capable fighter or whatever. At least they make the decision to never put him anywhere near the level of those two. He becomes good enough to handle the random henchman, which I guess is the minimum for him to be able to keep up at all. And, of course, he proves his value and blah de blah. They come to respect him and are proud of him and yeah, it doesn't matter.
Anyways, why does it have to be a white kid? Story-wise, there's no reason for it at all. It's literally done entirely to make for easier viewing for white audiences. But that's stupid since we've seen that movies with entirely Asian casts are quite capable of making money at the box office (think of that Crouching Tiger movie or those artsy Jet Li movies...or maybe Memoirs of a Geisha or whatever, I didn't actually watch the full thing so I can't say for sure that there wasn't a random American geisha or something hanging around). So, really, it's just done because the Weinsteins are stupid. I guess we all knew that though, so whatever.
Seriously, though, if I were Jackie Chan and Jet Li, and we were going to star in a movie together, I would want that movie's young star to be some charismatic martial artist who will one day become as renowned as me. I would take this as an opportunity to show off somebody who's going to be a star and put them in front of the whole world. I wouldn't want that role to go to some American kid who has relatively little fighting experience. But that's how it went. Which kind of sucks.
On the other hand, the kid did a decent job in the role, so I have to give him credit for that. Not that he had to do much besides get laughed at, but I don't mind.
I was also a little dissatisfied with the flow of the movie. They kind of had this formula where we started by watching them travel to a new locale (bamboo forest, desert, lake, burned village, cherry blossoms, or whatever), then we had a scene or two with Jackie, Jet, and the kid which were awesome, then we had a pointless, forced, kind of awkward scene with the love interest. And then we were back to traveling. This was typically interspersed with a scene checking up on the bad guys. And that was the vast majority of the movie.
From that description, you can probably tell what made me dissatisfied with the flow of the movie. Yeah, the love interest was completely pointless. Her only reason for existing, at all, was because these movies are required by law to have a kick ass girl who starts out thinking the boy is useless and embarrassing (because he is) but eventually realizes that there's more to him than what she first saw. I mean, even freaking Balls of Fury had to do that, and it's just using ping-pong to make fun of the American martial arts movie form.
I did kind of like how the kid would eventually start hanging out with her at each of the locales because he'd be tired of Jackie and Jet laughing at him and beating him up. So he'd retreat to her while she'd be playing one of those string instrument things and typically be a good boy a sit quietly and listen...okay, and stare at her. But, it was still not really a fun way to develop her character and it was an entirely ineffective way to develop their relationship of sorts.
Of course, having them be sparring partners would be even more clichéd so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. I guess if I were making the movie, I would have had him listen and then try to actually start a conversation with her, maybe even learn about her (while not staring at her). Instead of their way, where he listens and then she randomly volunteers information, probably just to end the awkward silence created by him staring at her. You know what, it would have been better if they just didn't have him staring at her the whole time (at points it honestly seemed like he was drooling a little bit).
But, whatever, what's done is done. The despite these shortcomings, the sheer awesomeness of watching a movie with Jackie Chan and Jet Li easily outweighed them. Most importantly, though, it was clear that they were having tons of fun making this movie and that really comes out while you're watching it. So, yeah, good job guys. You should make another one. Minus that ridiculous Monkey King hair on Jet Li, that was a little much.
That is all.
Francis
Monday, April 14, 2008
New Amsterdam Finale
Well, New Amsterdam's over now. I'm not certain, but I'm suspicious that Fox Network has no intention whatsoever of making a second season. To be honest, I don't think they ever did (I think they were embarrassed that they paid for someone to make the first season). But whatever, I wouldn't mind if they let it keep going (read as: I would probably keep watching it). Overall, it was pretty decent.
Structurally, I think I kind of liked it. I'm pretty sure I mentioned this before, but I'm not really a fan of police investigations, so I liked that there was a lot more to the show than that. I liked the period piece interludes, where Amsterdam is invariably seducing/falling in love with another woman. I think they typically worked pretty well and helped to give him a reason to care (since he always seems to care).
I wasn't really into the side plot with him finding the woman of his dreams. The most interesting thing, for me though, was how he simply tossed her aside when he found out it wasn't her (which makes his getting shot in her presence a no-win situation for her: either he dies because she made him lose his immortality or he dumps her because she didn't). In his defense, he can't waste his time on the wrong girl since he believes that the right one must have been present when he had his heart attack. Still, it was surprisingly heartless and cruel of him. I appreciated it.
It did suck that she never believed him when he told her he was 400 years old. I gotta be honest, but that should have been his first clue that she wasn't the right one. I mean, would you want to be with someone who denies that, like, 90% of your life ever happened? Of course not. I have no idea why he put up with her for so long (okay, fine, she was kind of hot).
As for his partner, I'm not sure how I feel about her. She's decently hot, and she's got a pretty kick ass attitude and a swagger about her that's certainly fun to watch (not in a dirty way, mind you). I just don't know what purpose she serves. Admittedly, he basically works alone so she just tags along when he fills her in, so I think she has to wonder what her purpose is as well. But, I guess she fills the role of new comrade in his life who has to slowly be filled in on his history and personality so that the viewers can get caught up. But what happens after that point (which should have been the end of, about, episode four)? Well, we're still waiting.
Also, there's his new boss. She's definitely something. Probably more fun than him, actually. Only, where did she come from? I swear I never saw her introduction (or maybe I wasn't paying attention), but suddenly I started seeing her going around telling Amsterdam what to do and stuff (not that he ever listens to her). I guess she's Cuddy (I have no idea how to spell that name, weird) to his House...but that better not mean he's got some weird, contrived crush on her. That would make me sad, although it would be understandable.
Otherwise, this season ended just about how things are supposed to: back where we all started. Of course, that means that if they do make a second season, they're going to have to come up with a new plot, because the search for his "real" true love is going to get old pretty quick (ha, let's be honest, it was old from the beginning). And, besides, him actually finding his true love would be just about the worst thing that could happen to the show (because then he could die and that would take away the only thing that makes him special). So, I guess we'll just have to see if things ever get to go anywhere else. In any case, this show was way better than Journeyman. And that's all that matters.
That is all.
Francis
Structurally, I think I kind of liked it. I'm pretty sure I mentioned this before, but I'm not really a fan of police investigations, so I liked that there was a lot more to the show than that. I liked the period piece interludes, where Amsterdam is invariably seducing/falling in love with another woman. I think they typically worked pretty well and helped to give him a reason to care (since he always seems to care).
I wasn't really into the side plot with him finding the woman of his dreams. The most interesting thing, for me though, was how he simply tossed her aside when he found out it wasn't her (which makes his getting shot in her presence a no-win situation for her: either he dies because she made him lose his immortality or he dumps her because she didn't). In his defense, he can't waste his time on the wrong girl since he believes that the right one must have been present when he had his heart attack. Still, it was surprisingly heartless and cruel of him. I appreciated it.
It did suck that she never believed him when he told her he was 400 years old. I gotta be honest, but that should have been his first clue that she wasn't the right one. I mean, would you want to be with someone who denies that, like, 90% of your life ever happened? Of course not. I have no idea why he put up with her for so long (okay, fine, she was kind of hot).
As for his partner, I'm not sure how I feel about her. She's decently hot, and she's got a pretty kick ass attitude and a swagger about her that's certainly fun to watch (not in a dirty way, mind you). I just don't know what purpose she serves. Admittedly, he basically works alone so she just tags along when he fills her in, so I think she has to wonder what her purpose is as well. But, I guess she fills the role of new comrade in his life who has to slowly be filled in on his history and personality so that the viewers can get caught up. But what happens after that point (which should have been the end of, about, episode four)? Well, we're still waiting.
Also, there's his new boss. She's definitely something. Probably more fun than him, actually. Only, where did she come from? I swear I never saw her introduction (or maybe I wasn't paying attention), but suddenly I started seeing her going around telling Amsterdam what to do and stuff (not that he ever listens to her). I guess she's Cuddy (I have no idea how to spell that name, weird) to his House...but that better not mean he's got some weird, contrived crush on her. That would make me sad, although it would be understandable.
Otherwise, this season ended just about how things are supposed to: back where we all started. Of course, that means that if they do make a second season, they're going to have to come up with a new plot, because the search for his "real" true love is going to get old pretty quick (ha, let's be honest, it was old from the beginning). And, besides, him actually finding his true love would be just about the worst thing that could happen to the show (because then he could die and that would take away the only thing that makes him special). So, I guess we'll just have to see if things ever get to go anywhere else. In any case, this show was way better than Journeyman. And that's all that matters.
That is all.
Francis
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