At the Movies: Pirates of Caribbean: At World's End.

We are back (after a long hiatus), with another movie review. Once again I departed to take the sea with my trusty (and not so much backstabbers) mateys of the Lite Warrior House of the RAWS Society (yeah we like loooong titles). In our wet adventure we wintessed the conclusion of the saga (or at least until Disney's frozen head says soemthing) of the greatest pirate in the 7 seas ever: Capt. Jack Sparrow.

*Warning: Possible spoliers ahead*

Pirates 3 takes the story where the previous one (interesting fact: both movies were filmed at the same time in most of ths scenes) left: the surviving and guilty motley crew of the Black Pearl, helped by Capt. Barbossa and Tia Dalma, set on a mission to rescue Jack, since he is the key to save the pirate way of life from the greedy, blooded hands of Lord Cuttler Beckett who has no qualms in hanging kids or killing parents or using the Flying Dutchman as a nuke equivalent. But rescuing Jack is easier said than do and the movies has so many plot twist and backstabbing that you left wonder if all of this was a highly complicated ruse by Jack or just a massive bunch of coincidence, then again they are pirates and is Jack:

The Good: Capt. Jack Sparrow. He is the man that redefines the Cool Factor (tm) Scale. Only Batman is at that level than can freeze fire and use it as toothpick. he si back an more insane than ever. The scenes where he talks with himself can make alugh even rocks. And he still kick ass and gives you chills even if he is in the movie just for a half. He is the man, even in the last seconds of the movie. Heck even his rockstar dad makes an brief appearence that makes you wonder how that family can have such coolness in mere mortal genes. Other non-Jack good things are the bunch of plot twist that a clever spectator can deduce first, but are nicely explained later in the movie, the resolution of the Davy Jones plot, the massive backstabbing and the incredible last battle at the sea. And all the characters are redeemed while still being true to themselves and their wicked pirate ways. Finally, although many people didn't like it, I enjoyed how the movie expanded in the pirate lore of this particular universe. I think it makes it rich and complex, with a dash of magic to add flavor. Like any good classic pirate story.

The Bad: Will and Elizabeth stories take a long to be resolved, with some really cheesy scenes and you need to wait until after the credits to see an extra scene that ties the only loose end of the movie. That and the "Braveheart" speech of Elizabeth really taint an almost perfect comedy/action movie. If they decide to make a fourth movie I hope they focus only in Jack and introduce new characters (or use the ones that the prequel books already created). Dunno, Keira is pretty, but her character come across as pedantic in some scenes. Other bad thing is that the movie needs more Jack (even at risk of flash freezing the cinema). Finally, while you can see the first movie by itself, you really need to see 2 and 3 together to comprehend the full plot, is like is a movie in two installments.

The Fugly: nothing really, the movie delivers IMHO. At most the slurr in the speech that can difficult to understand some dialogues. Then again pirates are always drunk so...

The Veredict: The movie delivers, is a great entertaining one. I dunno if I would recommend to take little children to see it but is tame enough to please a wide variety of audience and keep the adults entretained. The fast pace can make you feel like you missed something, but the movie ties nicely with the previous one (just a suggestions, rent the DVD of the second movie before going to see this one, thatw ay you will have the plot fresh in mind). You have to see it or I will make you jump the board. Aye Aye Aye my mateys.

There Are Two Kinds of People in This World

I know what you're thinking. To make this statement is a gross over generalization. It is evidenced just by the makeup of our three contributors that there are at least three different kinds of people. But if you really think about it, it's true. Take anything, sauerkraut for instance. People either like it or dislike it. There aren't a lot of "undecideds." I'm finding this to be more true with other things as well.

As a philosopher once profoundly said, "There are two types of people in this world: Those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don't." I think it was Bill Murray in What About Bob? He said those words just slightly ahead of his time. In 1991 there may have still existed shades of grey. What wisdom and forsight he exhibited in predicting that less than two decades later, opinions about--everything--would become so polarized. In no U.S. presidential election since then has any candidate received more than 52% of the vote. We are divided smack down the middle.

People are for abortion or against it. You like the New York Yankees or you hate them. You are a Kobe Bryant fan or you can't stand him. You like the smell of gasoline or you think it stinks. You love to do Tae Bo or you think those people are on crack. Ever since John Kerry, it just is not cool to be on the fence. Oh, that reminds me of another one...you like flip flop sandals or you will never wear them.

Is it a sign of insecurity that people have to be so sure of themselves? Or maybe it is actually a sign of confidence? See what I did there? I took the middle ground. And by putting question marks at the end of my statements I ensured that I will never be held accountable for claiming either point of view. I am beginning to see the advantages of being wishy washy. If I keep this up, no one will ever be able to tell me I'm wrong ever again. And that's the most important thing in life is to never be wrong, or at least be able to claim that you were not totally wrong. Right? Or maybe it's not the most important thing but in the top ten of the list of important things. On the other hand, it could be completely unimportant. It depends. I guess.

I think I like this approach to thinking, or maybe not. It is good to stand firm on your convictions and I think everyone should be a little more mule headed, or maybe not, I don't know. What this world definitely doesn't need is more second-guessers and Monday morning quarterbacks...or maybe its exactly what we need. We need people who will make decisions and stand by them, or perhaps people willing to revisit the way things are done would be better, I'm not exactly sure what my opinion of that is. But one thing is for darn tootin'. (that's a phrase that originates from Canada...or maybe it was Minnesota) For darn tootin' sure, this blog post is a political commentary. Or maybe it is a morality commentary. Wait, it kind of reads like an excuse to go watch What About Bob? again. Maybe I should tag it as a movie review...

At the movies: Spidey #3

Last Friday I went to see Spiderman 3 with fellow comic book fans and friends form the Roleplaying and Wargaming Society of my University. My expectatives were mixed, as you know I'm not a Marvel fan, but on the other hand, I do like Spidey and as general comic book fan I want to see comic book based movies succed because that helps the comic industry.

As with the "300" movie I'm not going to go into a detailed review to don't spoil it for you... waht the heck I do need to revisit some key points to give this opinion so I should warn you that there will be spoilers ahead. I'm going to split in in three parts:

The Good: the music, the FX used in the Sandman and Venon, the fights and the general idea of how Peter got the black costume and how he got rid off it, without the burden that would be explaining the whole "Secret Wars" arc in a two and half hrs movie. I think it was a nicely done plot there. Another thing I liked was the new casting, as usual Sam Raimi got every single character pegged and perfectly matched. Bryce Howard as Gwen is identical (although I still think she could put a super Black Cat too). Topher Grace was a worry at the beggining, since in That 70's show he was so skinny. But I have to tip the proverbial hat to him, he IS Eddie Brock. Thomas Hayden Church really looks like the Sadman. He is usually a very capable actor that can express so much with just a look, well he did that this time to a new level. I really believed that he was regreting his past mistakes and I find easy to think that he can be redemeed.

The music was a nice blend of rock and soft lyrics and that is always welcomed in my book. Finally I enjoyed the twist that shows that the movie is his own realm not related totally to the comic: Spidey is loved by all the city. A frequent reader of Spidey knows that until he joined the Avengers, Spidey was seen by the citizens as a threat not better than the enemies he fought. But here in the movie, even with J.J. Jameson intervention, he is respected and seen as the hero he is, truth it got to his head but well he is not perfect. One fair point Oscar made was the overall theme of choices, to do the right or the wrong thing. Even Jameson showed his decent side by publishing an apology after the whole fake pictures scandal. Life is not only about great responsabilities but also about choices and the movie represents that very well.

As a last treat I enjoyed how the director offered a recap of the previous two movies by using them as part of the inital credits. It helps to get into the movie without annoying expositions.

The Bad: This movie suffers from the same illness that X3: too many stories to tell withouth depth or resolution. I would prefer to save Sandman story for another sequel, because it felt cramped with three villians, at least three arcs in one movie and you did't get a good character development for Eddie and Flint. Gwen Stacy, who ironically enough survived the movie while Venom no, was just there to be the candy eye (maybe just for me, because I'm not a bog fan of Kirsten Dunst as MJ) and the foil to the redhead that Joe "I hate comics but I make money with them" Quesada loathes. Also the scene at the dinner with emo-Parker and Gwen felt oddly familiar to the Mask. There are some minor plotholes (like the ending or the crane) but well, the movie can't be perfect.

The Fugly (otherwise known as Fucking Ugly): Emo-Parker. What the heck was that? It is bad enough to stand the way writers have treated Peter in the comcis as a massive case of schizo, dealing jokes when fighting the gusy that just screwed him and his family and is hard enough to deal with emos invading internet and the blogsphere, but get them glorified by making Peter one of them? That is plain lame and FUGLY!!! Just the haircut made me puke. But the dance in the streets ripping off John "Grease" Travolta stunt in "Fever on Saturday Night" is just so lame that it didn't make me laugh. Like Oscar told me, it screams D-O-R-K, not badass hero with a darkside. Couldn't they took a hint at SV where the usual goodie two shoes Clark gets really badass when infected by Red-K and unleashes his dark side? I know that Peter Parker was created to represent in some way the geeks that we are in highschool, but an emo? Sorry I can't get my mind around that. Do NOT do that again please, if there is a fourth movie. And I'm not going to mention the fanfic part of "Harry forces MJ to breaks Peter's heart", I'll just say that the writers must stay away from fanfics and the usual crappy teen-agst plot device who didn't even got solved at the end.

Bottomline, aside for the fugly part and the fact I was brief in the good, I liked a lot the movie, maybe just me, but I liked it more that Spidey #2, it felt better without the crappy teen-agst (tm) of the story of the second movie. I would rank this movie in the level of Superman Returns and X-Men 2, much, much better that the trainwreck of Wolvie and his friends and Halley named X3, but still a step below of Batman Begins and Spidey #1.

Green Arrow Movie

This week has been reported (http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/778/778978p1.html) that David Goyer is going to film a Green Arrow movie. David Goyer is known as the writer of the superb "Batman Begins" and as decent director (Blade II and Blade Trinity). His latest project, aside "Dark Knights" (sequel of Batman Begins) script, was the failed movie of The Flash with Ryan Reynolds as Flash. But there are four catches in this project: the movie is not going to be called Green Arrow nor something similar, but Super Max; is going to be like superhero-meets-prision break; Ollie would be GA just for the first ten minutes and the rumor is that Brad Pitt will play Ollie.

Here is Goyer's idea: "He's Green Arrow for the first 10 minutes of the movie, and then he's arrested and his secret identity is revealed," Goyer told Wizard. "They shave his goatee and they take his costume and send him to prison for life, and he has to escape. It's like Alcatraz, and he has to team up with, in some cases, some of the very same villains he is responsible for incarcerating in order to get out and clear his name. Of course, tons of people try to kill him while he's in there. We've populated the prison with all sorts of B and C villains from the DC Universe. For the fans, there will be all sorts of characters the hardcore comic book junkies will know, but they're all going to be there under their human names and no one is wearing a costume, but there will be a lot of characters with powers and things like that."

Now here is my opinion: is not secret here that I love GA as much as Supes so hearing the news of a movie is unreal (heck I even have a bow and practice archery because of that). However I have mixed feelings. Goyer is a decent director as I said earlier, but I prefer him as writer than director, he is better at that (but I guess that Christopher Nolan is out of question and Kevin Smith will be in the project just a technical consultant). So while I think the story will be good, I not feel so sure about the rest of the movie.

Second: Brad Pitt? Don't get me wrong, he is a good actor (when he wants to be anyways) and "Fight Club" is a proof of that and that he can play a badass. However I'm not crazy of him being Ollie. Don't ask me why, maybe is just that I like a lot how Justin Hartley portrayed Ollie. But I guess that since GA is not a big name in the mind of the public when they hear of superheroes, Brad Pitt's name can secure the box office.

The story idea: well although the Prision Break aspect is strage, I can say that in GA context makes sense. He is an urban, street level superhero, like Batman, so pitting him against his archenemies in a prision is a fresh take in a comic-to-movie wave where everybody (aside Superman Returns and sequels of Marvel movies)) is telling origins stories. Besides as IGN said, seeing at Ollie making a bow and arrows with scrap material in a prision and beating the crap of supervillians at bare hands is going to be quite cool.

As I said, the idea of a movie sounds cool and I want to see it, so a part of me is really glad (a movie of GA is like a geek dream of me). However the other part of me is sad because that means that WB is going to clamp the idea of a GA series like Smallville with Justin as the lead actor and that maybe we are not going to see anymore GA in Smallville. Unless DC and WB use GA's tv version as a marketing tool for the movie and the he will be back at SV. Who knows?

Guy's night out at the movies: COWABUNGA DUDE!!!!

Yes, I said it and I'm proud of it. I have been a TMNT-addict since I was eight and always enjoyed the stories of the Green Mean Machine (except for that awful run by Image). And now, when I lost my hope of seeing the last movie (since by the time it premiered in Mexico, I would be back at UK, where it is already out of the cinema... talk about bad timing), the darkside powers of Oscar allowed me... allowed us to watch the movie, from the comfort of our respective houses, at the same time, the new TMNT movie. That's why of the title of the section, techincally speaking, we saw the movie "together".

Now, into business. What can I say, although I'm a hard core fan of the Turtles in their more mature aspect, like the comic or the newest cartoon (before Fast Foward), I like also the funny side of them (I grow up with the 90's cartoon and the Archie comics were actually my first comic). This movie was... no IS the best mix of that. In my opinion, is the best movie of the Turtles so far.

Basically (and to don't spoil the story for you) is a story set loosely in continuity with the former three movies. The team is broken, the brothers fight between them, but a global kind of crisis, brought by the manipulations of a tycoon and a set of monster, bring the familiy togheter. And with friends and old enemies, they have to save the world.

I for one, love the fact that it was made in 3D, since it allowed more freedom to the creators, without havong to use the more traditional cartoon way. The director, Kevin Munroe, a comic writer with experience in his belt, in association with Peter Laird (one of the two creators of the legendary first big media indy comic), took the best of the old movies, left the bad of them and offer an epic movie, not dragged by continuity (in has a small recap at the beginning). The music is superb and the voice acting was excellent (it was weird at first to hear Tidus as Leonardo) with professional voice actors as the brothers and guest voices like Patric Stewart, Sarah Michelle Guellar and even Kevin Smith in a brief cameo and Mako in a last job. The movie even includes a homage to Batman by the apparition of a "new" character: The Nightwatcher, whose secret ID is not a secret after the first 5 minutes of the movie. Finally the character desing was great, although the humas looked a little bit stiff, the monsters and more important the Turtles and their father Sensei Splinter are perfect (I think this is the best depiction of the Old Master, even the fur was done with detail). You can actually see the bruises they got after a battle, the different pigmentation of their skins or the texture of their shells.

Now, there are three scenes that reminded me why, while everybody back in elementary school drooled for Mickey or Leonardo, I enjoyed more RAPH: because he is a bad ass thta has what it takes to do the job. The scene of the first battle against the monsters, the final speech but specially the battle against Leonardo made me root for him again (even when everybody says that personality wise I'm more like Leo, which is not bad, since is my second fav Turtle).

Finally, they used a classic "before the ages" myth (inspired in the cultures of Central America) as plot device, but it was moot to the real story: the importance of family. Although Mickey and Don got little screen time-development, it was great to see the issues between Leo and Raph (the star of the movie) and show the importance how even when you are at odds with your siblings, family still comes first, since family is the best team you could play for. I think is a good messages for kids (and the fan parents of those kids). The final face off versus the bad guys speaks louds of how a family/team can defeat any odds just by trusting each other and working together.

I could go on and on about the movie, but it will all praises (yes I'm THAT biased), so I will just say: I LOVE BEING A TURTLE.

At the Movies: Yes another senseless post about the 300.

"This is Esparta!!!" Yeah that is a badass motto, epscially if you spit it while kicking the nuts of your sworn enemy (of your annoying neighborgh), pushing him into a bottomless pitt. I might add it to my repertoire.

As is obvious, I went today to see this movie. I'm not going to discuss its political speech or historical accuracy, nro write a critic to the film. I'm just going to say what I think of it.

"300" has a kickass soundtrack and one of the best photography jobs I've seen, it actually looks like a comic, a Miller comic, and by that I mean that you might want to take a raincoat with you, since the blood and the gratious violence can actually faal upon you. Yep is that gory, but well is based in a Frank "I ruined Batman with my over the top comics" Miller (yes I have no love for Frank). As my friend who went with me to watch it said, it seems like the author was overcompensating.

Anyways, the movie accomplish its objective: move the spectactor beyond a gory tale of war to feel the emotion and wonder of one of the most epic battles in human stor. To realize that no matter how bad are the odds, no matter if you lose at the end, is your legacy, your will to suprass those odds what will grant youthe biggest victory of all: to be remembered by the generations to come.

Indeed the Spartans were mad (or at leats over the top in this movie) and their breeeding techniques might make proud certain wackos, but is undeniable that those guys had ball, big ones. 300 men, very well trained and conditioned faced the biggest army of the ancient world (of course before Alexander and the Romans). Even if they did lose, their victory meant enough time to the rest of Greece to regroup and present a better front versus the Persian army. Their victory was not a physical one in the battlefield, but a moral one: they damaged the persian morale, while boosting the greek one. That battle was one of the decisive one that actually conformed the Western civilization.

Yes the movie portrays that act of bravery, courage, brotherhood and honor. For the modern men their battle was a nonsense, but in a culture that lived for the war, like many others (e.g. the samurai, the viking, the aztec), it meant everything, the whole core of their reason to be.

It has some false ideas true (like elephants. They were used in war until the time of Alexander; or a rhinoceros which was only discovered in Africa until the colonial wars I think) but in some odd way is faithful, not to the story, but to Herodoto's and the ancient greeks myths and narratives. It is sure that the batlle was different and the only true fact is the number of soldiers. But is quite a ride (without the valkyries).

Do I recommmend the movie? Yes, although in no way is suitable for kids or even teenagers (not especially those who can't distinguish reality from fiction. I don't think that someone will appreciate a recreation fo the Thermopilas battle in the school cafeteria). Is an enjoyable movie, adapted carefully from teh graphic novel that gave it brith and to some extent, truthfully to the spirit, if not the facts of what transpired in that legenady battlefield of Ancient Greece. And I say this stating that I don't like Miller's work.

"Spartans! Ready your breakfast and eat hearty, for tonight we dine in Hades!" Leonidas (who is NOW* in my list of cool badasses. He fought with you loincloth and a cape.)

*it was a typo.