While Oren Peli‘s Paranormal Activity is blowing up in theaters and making tons of cash, he is prepping his next film for Paramount Pictures, Area 51. He has cast his lead actors in the film, and guess what. No one’s heard of them… yet. Reid Warner, Darrin Bragg and Ben Rovne are the people who will star in the film. I don’t know about you, but I like that he is using people we’ve never heard of. It will add believability to the story.

Area 51 has been shooting in Utah for a month already. As we’ve said before, it will be one of the found footage films, like the Blair Witch Project, and Paranormal Activity. It’s being described as a claustrophobic terror. Peli says,

I’d rather not say anything about Area 51 except that I am very pleased to be working with the same team who stood by me for the two or three years it took Paranormal Activity to get into theaters.

He has a much bigger budget to work with this time around, and I’m interested in seeing how this project turns out. The film follows three teenagers whose curiosity leads them to the legendary and mysterious Area 51 Air Force base deep in the Nevada desert.

Check out the official press release below for more details:

LOS ANGELES, October 6, 2009 – Writer-director Oren Peli is set to start production next week on AREA 51, his follow-up to the supernatural chiller PARANORMAL ACTIVITY which after creating exceptional underground notoriety since its production in 2007 is now in the early stages of its US release by Paramount.

The AREA 51 storyline is a closely guarded secret but is reputedly centered around three teenagers whose curiosity leads them to the legendary and mysterious Area 51 Air Force base deep in the Nevada desert. AREA 51 will, like PARANORMAL ACTIVITY employ a “found footage” narrative strategy. Though Peli will enjoy a significantly larger budget than the $11,000 he spent to make PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, he will continue to work with undiscovered actors.

AREA 51 is produced by Jason Blum under his Blumhouse Productions banner, with Room 101’s Steven Schneider and IM Global chief Stuart Ford serving as executive producers. The film was co-financed by Aramid Entertainment Fund and Incentive Filmed Entertainment, with IM Global handling worldwide sales and CAA co-repping the title in the U.S.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY has enjoyed sell out midnight screenings in 33 cities over recent weeks and Paramount is set to expand the film to around the clock screenings in 40 cities this weekend.

Said Peli: “Actually, I’d rather not say anything about AREA 51 except that I am very pleased to be working with the same team who have stood by me for the two or three years it took PARANORMAL ACTIVITY to get into theatres.”

Said Blum: “Oren has already proven that he has a unique gift for using technology and our inherent fear of the unknown to tell simple yet emotionally compelling stories. In this case his canvas is just a little larger.”

Said David Molner, Chairman of both Incentive and Aramid Capital Partners:” Not since ‘Blair Witch’ has such innovative film-making set off such a stampede among young movie audiences. We are proud and privileged to be in business with Oren and Jason and our longtime partners at IM Global.”

Said Ford: “We’ve already had a crazy ride with Oren and Jason on PARANORMAL ACTIVITY that looks set to get even crazier. It’s exciting to be launching into AREA 51 with Oren just as a worldwide audience is discovering his thrilling debut.”

This happened to me not two weeks ago while sitting at my desk. Something caught a snag of an old memory from a time before childhood, but after infancy. I spent the rest of my afternoon digging around frantically through my brain, searching the internet for clues with terms I attempted to mold as warmth became brief images and brief images became words. I looked and looked, but couldn’t find it. I earnestly wondered for hours if I had only dreamt such a feeling.

After work, I called my sister to ask for help. I told her about my ordeal, but that I could at least remember a small boy named “Nemo” and a bed that could move, somehow. She told me that I wasn’t dreaming and that it must involve something named “dreamland.” We went searching. It was not 10 seconds later that we had found it: Little Nemo: Adventures In Slumberland.

Turns out, I couldn’t have seen it at as young an age as I had thought, since the movie was released in the U.S. in 1992. I was not put off, however, and went straight to work finding a copy to watch so that I could relive a childhood memory. Fortunately, I found a copy, and began watching, immediately.

[-] Synopsis [-]

The main character of the story is Nemo, a young boy, maybe around 8 years old?, who is the only child in an upper-middle class home. The setting for his home looks to be early 1900’s and could be geographically located any place close to Marry Poppins. Nemo’s father is the type of character who is not too snooty to play with his son; he’s just too busy obsessing with his work. His mother doesn’t look to have a job other than fussing about Nemo and baking pies for him to sneak out of the ice box at night. Oh, and Nemo has a pet flying squirrel, Icarus, that chirps out enunciated English so well, we might as well be talking.

Nemo likes to spend most of his time in some sort of near-death coma, during which he dreams about some crazy place called Slumberland. Actually, he was gathered by a royal entourage lead by one Professor Genius who entered his upstairs window via dirigible and presented him with a royal invitation. When Nemo arrives, he’s greeted by a festival in his honor, meets a princess (Camille) who thinks his pajamas are cute, is lead around by a dirty, cigar smoking clown riding a giant crow (Flip), and is told by a toy train loving gargantuan of a king (King “Morphy” Morpheus) that he, Nemo, has been selected as the heir to the thrown of Slumberland. At this point, Morphy gives Nemo some sort of magical key that unlocks any door in Slumberland and is told there is one door he must promise to never, ever open.
So, later that night… Nemo opens that one door he promised not to ever open, lead into mischief by Flip, the dirty clown. The gala being held in honor of Nemo’s coronation is interrupted shortly after when an amorphous blob of darkness swallows King Morpheus. Everyone else is left unharmed, but curious as to who opened the door. Then they all simultaneously slapped their foreheads and walked slowly towards Nemo, mumbling his name like an undead horde.

Nemo wakes up in his bed and decides it was all a dream, but King Morpheus’ giant royal scepter of all things light and dreamy laying next to him in his bed says different. Disregarding the foreign object in his bed, Nemo goes down stairs to get some pie but upon opening the ice box, his house is flooded. So, he jumps on his bed and rides it through the water to the safety of a vast and featureless expanse of blue, surrounded by fog. There he bumps into Professor Genius who informs Nemo that Morphy is now a prisoner in Nightmareland. Nemo convinces the Prof. that they should use the power of the King’s staff to enter Nightmareland for a rescue operation, but the only person in Slumberland who knows how to get there is Flip, the dirty clown, who everyone hates… and who is being prepped to be shot out of a cannon by order of Princess Camille.

Nemo and Genius stop Flip from being the first clown in space and grab the princess, just to make sure all the principal characters are together, and head to Nightmareland.

Once in Nightmareland, the Princess is nearly drowned by weird, flippery creatures and the group stumbles into the three of the only four friendly goblins in the whole of evilness. Later, a group of flying monkeys take everyone away and Nemo is powerless to stop them.

Again, Nemo wakes up in his bed, and again with the scepter. This time, he also has the three friendly goblins with him and the fourth one falls from the sky. Nemo, the four things, and Icarus jump on the bed, at which point it grows legs and walks through the city to gallop into a giant vortex. After that, the bed choses to simply fly.

Nemo leads the group to the dark fortress center of Nightmareland where we don’t see many creatures, but we do get to see a freaky, flying, hammer-head manta-ray and the giant, bat-like evil king of all darkness. Using the scepter, the King Morpheus’ incantation (delivered from nightmare prison via good goblin, earlier), and Icarus like a music lyre, Nemo blasts the king of darkness into nothingness. Everyone captured is now safe, but Nemo is looking a bit on the dead side. So, Morpheus uses the scepter to bring him back to life. Next, everyone has a huge party as Nemo leaves Slumberland to wake up in his bed, leaving all of us to wonder if any of it ever really happened.

[-] Review [-]

This movie is definitely a fun one, but doesn’t quite rank with the likes of other epic animated movies form the past, like Miyazaki. There is an obvious mix of styles as the character designs look American, object motion looks Japanese and the environment looks of ambiguous origin. This alone makes Little Nemo a unique film to watch, but that does not mean it is necessarily the kind of animation you would like to see.

All of the characters are as memorable as the characters of, say, Adventures of the Gummi Bears. Not especially memorable, but not really all that forgettable. The four friendly goblins suffer the unfortunate circumstance of being completely flat characters. Flip, while memorable visually, is not so well remembered for his lines or voice acting (Mickey Rooney). Even Nemo isn’t very interesting; most of the time he’s screaming out garble about pajamas while trying to remember the incantation to use the scepter. Morpheus is a typical epic kind of character, like most any other king in a children’s movie, but still flat. Princess Camille definitely ranks most memorable as the most outspoken one of the bunch who is allowed to convey the most emotion. Camille laughs, cries, cuddles, insults, is sarcastic and even punches Flip in the face. Plus, at the risk of sounding somewhat pedophilic the combination of her voice, personality and physicality makes her very attractive.

The movie seems to move through a lot of story pretty quickly just so it can spend more time establishing moods for scenes other places. This is something I always dislike. I really don’t mind a longer movie if it means that all of the story is told. We are supposed to see connections between the real world and Slumberland based on subtle queues from the background and such. For instance, Nemo must like planes and dirigibles since they’re hanging in his room, but never focused on, hence why there are lots of balloons and blimps in Slumberland. Also, I feel as though the movie is trying to convey the sense that we are watching a dream, but it doesn’t quite get me there.

The world of Slumberland changes four times from pristine, to flat and neutral, to dark and evil, and back to pristine, again. Each of these changes are transitioned by Nemo waking in his bed with some element from the dream in hand. This should be like a dream in that the entire landscape changes drastically, without warning, and that Nemo’s mind is tricking him into seeing his room, but the dream persists even there, as if he were about to wake up, and then went back to dreaming, again.

The story is pretty classic good versus evil, and there is at least one lesson about keeping promises presented as a sort of theme throughout the movie. So, I guess there’s some substance there, but if I were to watch this movie as a new release, today, it would have to have some serious hype for me to recommend to any serious movie goers.

When it comes down to it, the only thing this movie has going for it is my infatuation with it from childhood. It gave me a lesson in the form of pure emotion that can never be expressed in words, but it can all be expressed in one scene of the film that happens near the very end: the kiss scene.

[-] The Kiss Scene [-]

The kiss scene is between Camille and Nemo. Nemo is just the guy. In almost any kiss scene, ever, the guy can be replaced, but Camille cannot. She has been established as a woman, essentially. Her qualities up to this point show that she is sensitive to feelings of others, aware of her duties to her kingdom, and in control of her emotions to a certain point, which makes her more personable than someone who always retains control. In this scene, Camille shows a myriad of emotion and messages through three simple acts.

[1] The first act is cuddling with Icarus who she expressed dislike with earlier in the movie. [2] The second act is shedding a tear while thanking Nemo. [3] The third act leaning out to kiss Nemo.

What this all means to me is that Camille knows she is a figment of Nemo’s imagination and that the whole of the events were a dream. She’s passing out kindness because she feels that this moment may be her last moment in existence, which she expresses by holding Icarus. When she tries to thank Nemo for creating the dream and letting her experience the adventure they shared, she means to dole out kindness as she did with Icarus, but she cannot. She sheds a tear because she realizes cognitively what she was feeling subconsciously: she will miss Nemo. So, finally, she leans out to kiss Nemo and to claim a bit of comfort for herself that makes life worth living, the kind that is shared between two people in one act of committed love and acceptance, the kind that, at this age and in the face of nonexistence, is also as pure and innocent as it can possibly be.

This may be fantastically over-romanticized, but it’s what I felt as a child and what I appreciate more, now, that I can assess Camille for her character qualities.

[-] In the End… [-]

I think that the movie is worth watching just to gain the knowledge and experience that goes along with, what looks to be, a fantastic comic strip spanning from 1905 to sometime in the 1920s. The original strip is now past the expiration of copyright protection and I plan on buying it form whoever may have it published. I’ll have to find out who’s got the latter strips.

If you want to find out more about the story behind the story, check out this wiki page.

Zombies are a fun subject to create stories around and to place into existing stories to change their style. In this regard, zombies are no different than ninjas, pirates, the wild west or anything else of the like. They’re exciting because they are fantastic, something we will most likely never see like we do in movies, graphic novels and books, but their origins are tied to half-truths, extreme situations and our general ignorance of things scientific. All of which, makes the possibility of zombies seem more real, and, therefore, more intriguing.

The two best things that zombies do for people, I think, is scare them and allow them something that the world considers okay to beat with a bat until nothing put goo remains. In fact, that want to be scared and that want to release pure, uninhibited violence to lust-point is so strong that since we don’t know enough to say that zombies couldn’t exist, they can, and since we don’t know how zombies could be made, we thought of ways to make them.

Even so, zombie movies, in my mind, aren’t classified into a “zombie movie” category. Instead, they’re filed around inside of other genres, like action, horror, suspense, comedy, tragedy, and the like. If I had to put Zombieland into a category, it would probably be comedy, but it has so much more.

The two main characters of Zombieland make the movie, and the grand total of four human characters makes it cozy. Explanation is coming. In the post-apocalyptic anarchy that is a world completely covered with death, the remaining humans are obsessed with two things: staying alive and staying sane. Rarely, at this point in the chronology of a zombified Earth, will a human see another uninfected human, and if two do meet, they don’t want to stick together because at least one of them is certain to die, and neither wants any more emotional strain. This is how Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) and Columbus (Jessie Eisenberg) feel when they stumble upon one another, and why their names are simply destinations. This theme is reiterated and expanded upon when Tallahassee and Columbus meet Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). The sisters are focused on survival, which is clearly shown when they con Tallahassee & Columbus out of their vehicle and weapons, but they are also focused on sanity. The two sisters have always been together and will never split apart; they are each other’s hope and salvation. Eventually, however, the four learn to work together and each finds what they were missing or had lost from their lives, previously.

I won’t give away too much, but… the kind of writing that gives so much character definition is definitely OSCAR worthy, not only for it’s complexity, but for it’s ability and willingness to create a comic moment out of a dire & heartfelt situation. That’s the beauty of true comedy: it’s on another level; it’s so good that it can give all the insight to the human soul a Rembrandt can, but it also teaches you to laugh.

The story may have been lacking for some, but the narration of the lead character, Columbus, filled gaps where it would have been otherwise emotionally inappropriate for a character to speak. Without the narration, the movie would probably have been dragged out another twenty to thirty minutes with long pauses where the audience would stare at a Eisenberg’s face, wondering what he was thinking. The story didn’t lack character backgrounds, in fact, the audience knew enough of all four to feel connected with each, but, in all honesty, I feel that if it had any more, the movie would feel too rushed and forced, as so many other recent movies, do. The great part about the writing, however, isn’t about what’s in the movie: [*TIDBIT*] Reese and Wernick actually intended Zombieland to be a television show and this movie is actually just the first two episodes. So, there’s plenty more where this came from.

The graphic quality of this movie is high ranking, for sure, but not without its flaws. The feel of the colors and environments of every scene are very akin to anything you may remember from I Am Legend and the like. Almost always dark, and when there’s light, it’s just as frightening. So, I have to give major props to the editing and direction for maintaining the proper feel of a horror/suspense film throughout, and while I’m not going to cost the film points for things they don’t have much control over (like outfitting Wild Adventures, a working theme park, as a refined movie set), I am going to wag my finger at a few other things.

Make-up and costuming were pretty dammed great. I’d say 8 out of every 10 times I saw a zombie, I was at least partially disgusted by the gratuitous use of blood capsules and ooze dripping from undead mouths. The splatter effects they made were awesome, by the way. Not every zombie, however, looked as awesome and epic. Some simply looked like people in make-up, and whether those people are the center of the frame or not, that just won’t do.

CGI was another thing I could wave my finger at, in general. While the quality was definitely refined enough to put Zombieland into an imported car lot of motion pictures, it was not the most tricked out ride. I think the most obvious example of this is when three zombies chasing Columbus through Wild Adventures get smacked by a strangly pendulous carnival ride, as if it were a giant mace. They do seem to flail quite a bit like redeading undead creatures, but rag dolls and different camera angles probably would have looked better. I doubt it would have cost less, if that’s what you were thinking, as CGI is a bit cheaper, nowadays, than paying people to make dolls, operate machinery, and film inanimate objects.

There’s not really a whole lot more about Zombieland that I can write about without doing a thorough, completely spoil-laden synopsis. I laughed out loud, a lot (though Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is still my number one comedy this year), I cried true tears of sorrow (if you’re a father, you’ll understand), and I was honestly scared to the point of a startled jump at least three times (fantastic feat; bravo). I recommend seeing this movie, but only if you understand and accept that it is, indeed, gory, full of lots of violence, suspense, heartbreak, romance, hope, love and zombies.

Liam Neeson in the lead role of a movie that was hyped up to be all about revenge and killing people with guns, and promised absolutely no mentor-like traits for the main character, seemed like an odd fit. Maybe that’s just because I’m not as familiar with Neeson’s pre-21st century work as I should be, but he has always seemed like the mentor to me. I never really understood why he was put into films that involved him moving swiftly, pummeling people with fists or acting otherwise badass. His body type doesn’t seem right for it; he’s so damned tall and lanky. Nevertheless, Neeson seldom disappoints.

The first thirty minutes of Taken seemed devoted to quickly passing through slim shades of character backgrounds, establishing character relationships and a hint of story development that the audience knew would simply lead to some kind of turmoil, in spite of Neeson’s character, Bryan Mills. Though most of this part of the generic action movie formula was easy to see coming, some of it was refreshing. I was glad to see Mills was a military man who made the mistake of trying to have a family, but retired to make time for his daughter, Kim, played by Maggie Grace, who seemed to appreciate him. I was confused, alter, however, when Kim went through a fairly elaborate lie in a successful attempt at deceiving her father. This character trait was emphasized by Mills’ ex-wife and Kim’s mother, Lenore, played by one of my favorite actresses, Famke Janssen, when she basically spoke wrote to the audience, telling us that Kim could never really trust her father.

Thankfully, we were soon finished with typical spoon-fed characterizations and story and were on to the action part of the film. HUZZAH!

So, Kim, the daughter of some sort of ex-military-secret-agent-spy-ninja-kills-people guy, goes alone with other hot teenage chicks to Paris, where (surprise) all the hot chicks get kidnapped and put into an underground black market that specializes in selling sexy, female tourists to rich mob bosses, mostly likely for kinky, old-man secks. When said kidnappers enter the room to collect their ho’s, Kim is on the phone with her father. At first, this seemed kind of “yeah, right”, but my opinion of the writing quickly improved as Mills told his daughter to hide under the bed, try to scream out descriptions of the attackers as she saw them, and that, oh, yeah… she was going to be TAKEN. Dun, dun duuuuhhhhnnnnn!!!!

At this point, Neeson gives a nice little speech to the kidnapper who picks up the phone, telling him exactly what the picture at the top of this post says. Next, Mills commences to hit-manning it up.

/* [ACTION SEQUENCE]

Turns out his old military buddies pinpointed exactly who the kidnappers are and exactly what they were kidnapped for. So, now that pretty much everything concerning story is out of the way, Mills runs to Paris, kills people, talks with some old friend who is high up in the French government (who was in on everything the whole time, but we saw that coming, anyway), kills more people, finds his daughter being sold at an auction, kills even more people, gets handcuffed to a pipe, kills more people, shoots some old dude in the head, then takes his daughter back to America for voice lessons. Oh, I didn’t mention? Kim wants to be a singer, someday.

*/ [ACTON SEQUENCE]

The part that made this movie was the whole action part of it where Mills is gathering information while killing people. One part that made it so nice was that the camera angles and choreography made Neeson look like a professional when it comes to hand-to-hand self defense. Another thing about the action sequence was that it had aspects of the typical, unrealistic action movie followed immediately by something that seemed more realistic. For example, Mills has dinner with the old-friend-who’s-in-on-kidnapping-his-daughter-but-we-all-saw-that-coming-anyway named Jean-Claude (no, not that one) and wants information from him, suspecting he’s in on the kidnapping thing. Old drinking buddy grabs his gun and points it at Mills, but Mills had at some point taken all the ammo out of the gun (…wah?!), but then Mills takes out his gun and asks old drinking buddy for info. Hold up, it’s ’bout to get real, y’all. ODB (old drinking buddy), acts ignorant, so Mills shoots ODB’s innocent wife, but doesn’t kill her, then asks his question, again. See, that’s the kind of stuff that put this movie above other action movies, for me. Mills just plain doesn’t give a damn about anything besides getting his daughter. In fact, I’m pretty sure he left all her friends there to get raped by drug lords.

Pros: information gathering scenes, fighting scenes, shooting innocent people, killing the top-tier bad guy without letting him give a soliloquy

Cons: typical movie formula, no montages, no nudity (that I recall), happy ending (seemed weird to have one considering some of the realism in the film)

Finally, someone showed up to collect money and distribute tickets and the lot of us filed inside… to greet a crowd of movie goers already taking up more than half the seats. WTF, crappy-small-town-cinema-where-I-live?! WTF…? Chose a seat that was close to my preferred seats (puts my head at the same eye-height as the performers on stage/screen without stressing my eyes from the motion). Anyway…
*/ [CRAP THAT DOESN'T CONCERN THE MOVIE]

I enjoyed the entire first half of the movie. I loved how the writers and editors allowed character development, multiple parts of the storyline and character origins to all flow together and towards the same goal that all movies share, the ending. I enjoyed the style during the first half of the movie, also. Basically, the movie at this point was a work of art. It used imagery that evoked similar emotion in all viewers of epic heroism that we associate with “super heroes” who can do no wrong, fear no evil and are always just. Then it mixed that imagery with the reality of how ugly (not beautiful or epic) even a simple punch is, not to mention how awful death can be and what sort of mental instabilities one needs to be able to, yes, kill and maim people in such a way that they are truly vanquished. When my movie going companion leaned over and told me “I didn’t know you were in this movie,” during the Comedian’s various scenes, I must admit I was brought even more into the film. I would like to point out, however, that I am not, in fact, a rapist, murderer or psychopath… yet.

The philosophy of the writers in the first half of the movie is very compelling. The movie represents a new genre with for its graphics and story, but most of all for its version of the heroes we all hold in such high esteem. It really is something new in a world of same-olds. Alas, there were many problems with the film, also…

After the first half of the movie, we arrive at our first sex scene, of which there are four in the entire movie. Of these four, two are with the same couple and one is with two guys on one girl, ranking Watchmen among most $5 porn flicks for variety. The use of three of these four scenes was completely unnecessary. I say only three because one was very short and helped to explain the regression of the main character’s emotional mind from humanity, referring, of course, to the character who’s penis, that shows up over & over again in frames, is sure to be the most famous CGI effect for years to come (Dr. Manhattan is the main character, and you know it). In comes the next problem: the time spent on characters not pivotal to the plot of the story and without any development in these characters being shown.

He wanted an atomic blue wang really, really badly.

Dr. Manhattan is the most pivital character in the entire movie. The world lives or dies (and, in fact, lives) by his hands. The Comedian is the supporting character to Dr. Manhattan; without the Comedian, Dr. Manhattan would not be able to perceive the regression of his mind. Rorschach is the narrator of the film and, for the most part, his role is that of an observer. Night Owl II is just a sort of dork that runs around from place to place trying to figure out what’s going on, useful only for the camera to follow so we see scenes in places devoid of Dr. Manhattan, and he is just barely useful as a super hero. Ozymandias plays the ‘villain’ of the movie, whose motivations and philosophies are also greatly influenced by the Comedian, and as an ancient and powerful man he resets the world and brings piece to all nations. Silk Spectre II, as a character, has a pivotal role in the story, being that she aids Ozymandias’ plan and helps Dr. Manhattan to appreciate life from the human perspective, again. She, however, should not have a pivital role in anything because her character is used as nothing more than a f*ck-hole that several characters share; the same can be said for the actress that plays her.

The time spent focusing on Silk Spectre II was completely unnecessary, slowed the movie’s pace and debunked much of the credibility the movie created for itself. Since that one character did all that and took more than an hour to do it, my overall opinion of the movie is leaning more towards the negative (I wouldn’t recommend the film). The last, and worst, effect that the Silk Spectre II scenes had on the film was to change the style of writing and graphic art for the ending of the movie. What should have been a dramatic ending, I feel, was poorly rewritten as a direct result of a lack of motivation to finish a project properly that had already been contaminated by inartistic filth.

One last bit… WTF with the make-up on Carla Gugino (original Silk Spectre) as an old woman? It looked horrible. You spent how many millions, made fantastic scenes, made a man of CGI as the main character and can’t just go find some lady that looks like Gugino, but older? C’mon, WB. WTF?!

In my opinion, Marvel movies are all very similar. Spider-Man, X-Men, Hulk… they all contain very similar elements. They all pull on the nostalgic strings that connect us to the characters in the movies and those same strings make most true fans want to puke once they’ve had a taste of the updated story their favorite characters are apart of. All of the movies have experienced actors in the credits, but there are also quite a few inexperienced actors. I blame the direction for the actors’ lack of convincing performance mixed heterogeneously with higher quality acting throughout the movies. Even more iconic of the Marvel movie than its range of above average to disappointing acting/directing talent is its visual effects.

Some of the special effects, though they are stunning when compared to the graphic design and rendering capabilities of any random person, make us cringe to look at. CGI does not seem to be one of Marvel’s strong points. Look at any Marvel movie and there will, most likely, be a scene in which a character is completely CGI rendered, looks and moves in a very non-human manner, and is completely unnecessary, lowering the overall quality of the film. Sometimes, Marvel tries to get away from CGI, but replaces it with a mannequin (see Spider-Man).

Moving away from the irritations of most Marvel movie projects, allow me to address the most recent one, and the subject of this article. In the genre of Marvel Movies, I rate Wolverine as an 8/10 (hey, no Marvel movie is perfect… except, maybe, Iron Man). If I were to rate the Wolverine movie with all other movies that you could possibly watch, instead, I would rate it a 6~7/10.

THE STORY:
The story was very easy to follow, unless you had never heard of Wolverine and got a little lost wondering where you could get answers concerning your various questions about Wolverine, in which case I recommend that you watch an origins movie! Oh, wait…

This version of Wolverine’s origin is just as good as any other, but I am glad that Marvel chose to use their most recent publication of Wolverine’s origin to base the movie from. I have to admit that it was pretty bad ass to watch the sequence after Jimmy (Wolverine) and his brother (Sabertooth) run away from home and fight together through many of the largest military conflicts in the history of the world. I also, very much, liked how many important events and aspects of Wolverine’s life were not left completely out of the story, but in fact twisted into the story in such a way that left even a fan wondering (in an interested manner) how those essential parts of Wolverine’s life would be inserted, later.

There were a couple parts of the story when a sort of fact was merely stated concerning a character’s persona, instead of established. I mean to say that a character would just completely break down the fourth wall, look at you, and proceed to tell you all about themselves. This always annoys me. They would even rank each other to show who was more powerful. At one point, Wolverine says “I’m the best at what I do.” Really, Wolverine? And what is it that you do, exactly? Since you joined the Rape Brigade (you’ll see), all I’ve seen you do is stand to the side and bitch about having to kill innocents while others do all the work. Meh…

THE CHARACTERS:
There’s quite the list of famous mutants in this movie. Keeping in mind that Marvel tends to change “story universes” when the medium of the story changes, it wasn’t too hard to accept all of the chance runnins that Wolverine had in this movie.

As it turns out, Wolverine had some form of interaction with such high profile mutants as The Blob, Scott Summers (as a child), Gambit (who didn’t have a cajun accent, damnit), Emma Frost, John Wraith and even had a hand in creating Deadpool. BTW, Deadpool is relatively humorous before he becomes Deadpool ( and is played by Ryan Reynolds), but is simply a mindless, killing machine, later (as played by Scott Adkins). Also, a walking Professor Xavier is seen in the movie, but Wolverine does not meet him. With all these chance run-ins, I felt as though I had watched a movie about the origin of human mutation, itself. I also felt as though Marvel knows how sick people will soon get of its movies if they don’t change their gameplan and was trying to shove as many characters in as possible.

THE SPECIAL EFFECTS:
Although, Wolverine had a distinct Marvel movie feel to it, it also had some nice CGI touches not seen in other movies. Most notable are the effects showing wound regeneration on Logan. The most unnecessary, gratuitous scenes of CGI were (coming in at number two) when Sabertooth runs along the walls of the high school chasing young Scott Summers and (coming in at number one) when Logan is thrown into a semi and roles along the length of its trailer. The most awful non-CGI special effect is when Sabertooth is doing his falling/leaping/running thing. It’s just as silly as watching a live performance of Peter Pan with a character who is a retarded man who thinks he’s a tiger, running on all fours while suspended by wires… and isn’t Robin Williams.

The best special effect along the whole movie isn’t any one, single effect. I think the entire chase scenario when Wolverine is riding a motorcycle being pursued by military vehicles and a chopper is the best special effect incorporating action part of the movie.

OVERALL:
Well, I guess I would watch the movie, again, if it came on television, or my friends wanted to watch it, which is the same thing I could say about any other Marvel movie (except for Iron Man, which rocked ballz). Still, when compared to the X-Men movies, it is an improvement and if you are a fan, it is definitely worth seeing, at least once.

Also, make sure you stick around for the teaser at the end of the movie. There are a couple different versions. One is of Deadpool and the other shows Wolverine in a strange place. To find out how he got there, I recommend watching an origins movie… DAMNIT, MARVEL!

So, you may have heard about the new Star Trek movie that it’s “not your father’s Star Trek.” Well, that’s gotta be true because this movie is full of so much kickass crap (and so little in the department of psychedelic drug trip sequencing) it couldn’t possibly have come form the 60’s.

THE STORY

So, the one thing that encompasses this entire movie that has been done, and then done, and then done some more throughout pretty much every part of the Star Trek franchise is time travel. Yes, it’s one of those stories, but the time travel is much more important than you may yet realize.

As far as the story goes, the time travel part explains important happenings, like, how Vulcan was destroyed and how Spock’s mother died, and also changes many important things, such as how Kirk came to be born, be Captain of the Enterprise, and be friends with Spock. That’s the real thing that the whole time travel concept, including a little schpeil from the old Spock from the future: this movie exists on a different dimension and therefor a different reality than absolutely everything else Star Trek you could have possibly ever seen before. Which means, that the writers can do whatever the hell they want, and, I must say, I’m glad they didn’t go crazy with that amount of freedom and power coupled with this huge franchise and its endearing characters and values.

Anyway, Kirk’s dad dies b/c of the time thing. Kirk’s born in a shuttle b/c of the time thing. Spock’s mother and world get ’sploded because of the time thing. There are two Spocks because of the time thing. Scotty is discovered and joins the Enterprise because of the time thing. Kirk becomes captain because of the time thing. Kirk and Spock become friends because of the old Spock and the time thing. And, finally, Ohura is the sexiest black actress ever to grace the set of anything Star Trek and wants to jump Spock’s bones (not Bones, Spock’s bones) for a freaky night to never be forgotten… but not because of the time thing.

And when it’s all said and done, and the Federation is saved (except for some 6.8 billion vulcans), it’s pretty much back to the normal Star Trek…. except that Ohura is fucking crazy hot and wants some of that Vulcan peni-… okay, sry, sry…

VISUAL EFFECTS

I gotta say, this movie didn’t disappoint on visual effects. Stunts and scenery usually sum up the two categories that Star Trek does well with. Seeing the Enterprise rise out of a cloud of cosmic dust makes me want to cry with geeky joy. The scenery throughout the entire movie looks superb, including sets and CGI. The CGI animals look awesome on the icey crap hole Kirk gets dropped on. The Romulan giganto-mining vessel looks pretty bad ass, as well.

I rate the uniforms as a “meh…” and Scotty’s little alien friend as a “major league boo”. Besides that, I think I could watch the whole movie without sound and still have a geekgasm by the end… and NOT because of Ohura!

THE CAST

Simply knowing you’re watching a new Star Trek movie makes you prepare yourself for new and different things that you’re going to see happen to one of your most cherished of all stories and characters. So, I could see almost anyone playing any character in this movie. I mean, I really wasn’t expecting to see anyone from the White Castle movie in there, but hey… whatever. Good job using the sword, John Cho. Also, Simon Pegg was a pleasant surprise.

I think the entire cast did a great job at portreying a new and modernized version of the original characters, including the original actors’ manorisms that became part of the characters, save one…

Karl Urban, I’m surprised that you lost so much weight to play Bones in this movie, but your acting was so forced (maybe because of the American accent?) that I just didn’t like watching you. I’m sorry, I really am. Especially since now you’ve managed to tie the story of a stranded space marine from a video game I’ve always cherished to a series I’ve always loved.

BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL

The things that were in this movie that just really kind of irked me were far and few between, but they were still there. Such as, the whole trying to make the audience feel nostalgic thing. How many shots of the Enterprise coupled with a crazy trumpet fanfare were there, exactly? 12 billion? That’s what it felt like. I almost didn’t wanna see the ship, anymore. Oh, I know, GASP!

Want something more to gasp at? Gasp at this: I HAD ENOUGH LEONARD NIMOY AFTER ONE SCENE. I mean, c’mon… I liked the whole sequence where he is actually interacting with Kirk and telling the story of how he went back in time, but after that it was a sort of needless cameo after needless cameo. The flow was just seriously interrupted. And since we’re talking about Nimoy, Spock was basically the star of the movie. Just pointing that out. It was lots on Spock. I guess that’s less of an annoyance thing as a i-gotta-get-used-to-the-way-they-wanna-write-star-trek-now kind of thing.

OVERALL

Should you go see it? Hmm… let me think for just a moment on that one… YES YOU SHOULD GO SEE IT, YOU FUGNUT LOVIN’ CHIPMONGOOSEY! Even if it’s not what you wished it were or what you remembered, it’s still Star Trek and I don’t mean that it is titled or called ‘Star Trek’, I mean that the writing that was done for this movie keeps the story as Trekkie as it was before, but just a little … different. It’s something new. As an example, think of the original Enterprise, its outside and innards. Now, think Enterprise as made by Apple. It’s different, better is negotiable, but it’s new and it still works.

Pushing all the other things I thought about this movie aside (meaning, all the stuff I can’t remember about it that I originally wanted to write about, but now am too tired to), it’s good. I mean, so good that I’ll likely be paying to see it, again and again.

Let me start off this review by letting you know that this will be pretty short and sweet because unlike the other movies you’ve seen in the past one, two, maybe even as many as 5 years, this movie has so many good things going for it that I can’t nag it and don’t want to ruin it by giving too much away.

In my opinion, every movie has hurtles to jump associated with every viewers willing suspension of disbelief. That is to say, you have to be willing to believe in various aspects of the story to really get into the movie. The first hurtle you have to jump concerning this movie, you confront before you ever see it. You know it’s going to have aliens.

Thing is once you get inside the theater, you realize that these aren’t just aliens; these are but fucking ugly aliens that have bodies that look like some kind of mutated, walking crayfish. What the creators of the movie did to make this a little easier to accept was place them in an environment that is completely alien to most of us. Africa.

All of us that know anything about Africa know that some crazy effed up shizat goes on in certain places that are along the lines of tribal customs and primitive thinking mixed with AIDS, cocaine, modern weapons and lots and lots of killing. Besides that, we know nothing, so pretty much anything the creators want to put in Africa as far as buildings, government, people and giant, floating alien ships go, we’ll kindly accept. The biggest thing that District 9 has going for it, however, is that it’s not easily comparable to any other recent film.

There are only two movies I can think to compare it to: Enemy Mine (1985) and Alien Nation (1988). I mean, there’s this guy, who’s totally anti-alien-on-my-planet and helps enforce human laws in the alien-inhabited concentration camps of Africa. Everyone hates them. They’re disgustingly different from us, so pretty much everyone just wants to shoot them in the face, but out of common decency we allow them to live in horrible conditions and depend on the scummiest, lowest cast of human society anywhere for survival: the crazy African mofos that eat the dead alien bodies in hopes of gaining their alien powers.

So, the main character is picking up contraband out of the camps, gets sprayed in the face with alien goo, and starts to morph into an alien. The government agency he works for wants to cut him apart to analyze him, but he’s surprisingly against being dissected. The only place he can ultimately run is to the shelters he normally visits to divvy out lolli-pops and brutal beatings. He forms, what he considers to be at the time, a horrible and disgusting alliance with an alien to get back that alien goo he took and the government now has so that the alien can cure him.

I know I’ve given away so much of the movie, but I won’t give away the ending, the climax, or even most of the other stuff leading up to the climax.

The short-winded information that I promised to give you is that the main character is dynamic and grows in personality, drive, motivation, personal beliefs, and even communicative ability as the movie progresses. The constant flow of action mixed with emotion never pauses and keeps you constantly enthralled for the entirety of the film. Oh, yeah! I will let this out about the leading-to-the-climax-stuff: best action sequences I think I have ever seen, ever. EVER. Also, this movie has the best and most realistically effective uses of CGI I have ever seen. I mean, once the movie started rolling, I even forgot I was watching CGI.

What’s even better is that it’s story is fantastic and captivating. It’s got the truest kind of racism (the kind against other species and, eventually, ourselves), fear, anger, violence, lying, explosions, robots, biogenetic technology, flying ships, African war lords, government intervention, love for family and love for a race/species, mutation, development, change, metamorphosis, and each portrayed by it’s own character and all portrayed within a seamless, constant mood.

By mood, I mean that the look and feel of the movie never changes from one scene to the next. It always has aspects of dirty, dingy and diseased, but it becomes progressively more apparent. It has everything I want in a movie about the dirty truth of how horrible humans are on a base level. It’s the kind of mood I expect from zombie films and the like, but that has never been done correctly, until now. And it wasn’t even done with zombies or vampires or anything else you might fancy; it was done with something as jaded as aliens from outter space!

There really is a lot more to say about this movie than I thought I was going to and than I will say, now. Just… just go see it and decide for yourself if you like it or not. As for me, best movie this year.