cowboys and aliens

You know what I realized after seeing this movie? I am ridiculously easy to please. I often scoff at my friends for thinking that movie A is worse or better than movie B, and yes, I know that's arrogant, but I guess I really am just easy to please when it comes to movies. I criticize them a lot, sure, but when it comes to these summer flicks, they don't have to be particularly deep. Yes, I had a lot of negative things to say about Green Lantern for example, but that movie failed on every level, even being just a simple popcorn movie. Hell, the popcorn made my stomach hurt when I saw that movie, so it even failed at THAT.

But, Cowboys and Aliens. I have mentioned several times not only in this blog but in real life that Harrison Ford is one of my favourite actors. I have seen LITERALLY every single movie he has been in, from American Graffiti (1973) onwards, and I would faint if I ever met him. Having said that, he was reason enough for me to see this movie, even if I heard it was worse than Green Lantern. Thankfully, it wasn't that bad, nowhere near it, but it wasn't AMAZING, as Captain America/Thor/First Class all were. Truthfully, it was a little silly. The plot was silly, the dialogue was silly, and yes, the premise was silly. Honestly, it seemed like Jon Favreau (of 'Iron Man' fame) wanted to make a Western, and then was kind of like 'OH SHIT THERE'S ALIENS AND SHIT WHAT THE FUCK DO WE DO' and then threw in a liberal amount of explosions, gunfights and fistfights, in addition to the aliens running around and screaming horribly in people's faces. I did NOT see this one in 3D, thankfully, and it was far more vibrant on the screen than I thought, so...yeah, keep on NOT seeing these movies in 3D!

Look, I went to this movie to see Daniel Craig (one of my favourite Bonds) and Harrison Ford (one of my favourite ACTORS) do and say ridiculous things. Olivia Wilde is absolutely gorgeous, and that's also a secondary reason I went to see it. There are explosions. People die. Aliens also die. There are fistfights, and stabbings, and gunshot wounds. A pretty fun summer movie, if you ask me. I was going to give this movie a 7/10, and that's pretty good. I then thought back to the other movies I saw this summer...I definitely enjoyed it far more than I did Harry Potter or Green Lantern, for example. As a MOVIE, it was pretty average. I feel as if Favreau would be a fine Western movie-maker, and I LOVE Westerns (the remake of '3:10 to Yuma' was just so good), so I would love to see him do this in the future. Again, though, 'Cowboys and Aliens' was a silly plot and premise and though I'm sure Favreau and everyone else involved was fully aware of that, they went ahead and tried to take it as seriously as possible. And you know what? It was good! A lot of the time when films like this take themselves seriously, it fails, but here it succeeds in large part thanks to Ford and Craig who come through with some pretty good performances. They're both kind of shady characters, and Ford is actually pretty awesome as the hardass guy who everyone is afraid of for fear of retribution. The first time we ever meet his character in the movie, he's about to torture some guy REAL good...I was saddened we didn't get to see him do some darker things, but, ah well. Craig was good as the man who can't remember his own name, and as the movie progresses, we learn his past, piece by piece...pretty fun stuff. The supporting cast, from Clancy Brown to Olivia Wilde to Sam Rockwell, they're all awesome in their own ways, despite the limited dialogue for Brown and Rockwell. Of course, Wilde is uber hot, so, yeah, she has that going for her too.

But, like I mentioned at the beginning, I am easy to please. I don't go into these movies and analyze them and say 'well, the villain wasn't layered enough!' or 'this actor didn't show proper emotions!' Who gives a goddamn? These movies are made to entertain people with explosions and gunfights and all that other stuff I mentioned. Oscar-bait this is not; it is mindless movie entertainment. Having said that, though, it's not on the same level as the comic book movies that came out this summer (again, it was way better than Green Lantern. FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS was probably better than that piece of crap), nor is it on the level of HP7.2 or Transformers 3. I DID enjoy it more than HP7.2, but I can at least be objective to know that the Harry Potter movie was far more popular than this, even though subjectively I think it was better.

Well, I've seen all the summer movies I set out to see. Here is my final ranking of them all against each other, with the rankings I gave them each in their individual blog posts:

Captain America: 8.25/10
Thor: 8/10
X-Men: First Class: 8/10
Transformers 3: 7/10
Cowboys and Aliens: 7/10
HP 7.2: 7.5/10
Pirates of the Caribbean 4: 6.5/10
Green Lantern: 2.5/10

I wish I could stress just HOW much I disliked Green Lantern even MORE, but I think you get the picture. Those are my personal scores for those movies, and I stick by them. That's also the order I preferred them in, despite their scores, but for the most part the scores do show the order and how much I liked them, so I guess it's accurate (for me, at least). For TF3 and PotC4, I had two rankings for each movie (TF3 was both 6.5 and 7 out of 10, and PotC4 was the same), but I decided to go with the scores above since thinking back, I did enjoy TF3 a lot, and I didn't enjoy PotC4 as much. Yup, I sure am a bonafide critic to be making these judgments...but seriously, I love movies, and I love writing about them, so...yarr. Cowboys and Aliens was fun. That's what I wanted, and that's what I got. Zenia probably would have complained about it had we gone to see it, so I'm glad we didn't go. KIDDING, Zenia, just kidding; you would have obviously loved it. What are the next movies I'm excited for? Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, then there's another movie with Clive Owen/Jason Statham/Robert De Niro about contract killers, then of course the aforementioned Spider-Man reboot, The Dark Knight Rises and the big one for me, The Avengers. A nice surprise I saw was the movie called 'Red Tails'....it looks SO COOL. It looks like it can be MORE than just one of these mindless movies....the trailer can be found here. Next year promises to be a big year for movies as well!

x-men: first class

I was looking through the old posts that I have, and I realized I never really posted about X-Men: First Class. I made a post for literally every other movie I have seen this summer (in theatres, at least), so I figured I might as well talk about First Class, since I enjoyed it so much. First of all, it’s a superhero movie, much like Thor, Green Lantern and Captain America all were; indeed, the name ‘X-Men’ has become insanely popular, and I would argue that of these four big ticket comic-book movies released this summer, X-Men: First Class had the largest appeal. It’s been a TV show (so my generation would know it), and it’s been reincarnated several times since I was a little kid, meaning that other kids would know it as well. It’s been made into a popular movie franchise as well, with Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, and many people regard X-2 to be one of the better comic book movies ever made. With the movie kind of riding on the coattails of its previous success, I was wondering just how good First Class would turn out to be…and man, it was probably one of the better movies (superhero or not) that I had seen in quite some time!

First of all, the acting. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender were the two stars in this movie, as young versions of Professor X and Magneto, respectively. It was interesting to learn of their backstories, and learn how the characters came to be as they are now (‘now’ meaning them as they are in the comics, ultra powerful leaders of mutants).They’re pretty awesome characters as they are, but, the movie definitely makes them more interesting. They have a bromance, pretty much, and are the best of friends…something that the earlier X-Men movies hints at, as the two are always cordial and even nice to each other most of the time. Professor X even goes to visit Magneto in prison, once he’s there, and they play chess and discuss other things; all this is reflected in the relationship that McAvoy and Fassbender cultivate in First Class, and it’s awesome.

I’ve read more than a few reviews of this movie since it’s come out, and nearly all of them have said what I’m going to say next: Michael Fassbender is awesome. I knew I recognized him from SOMEwhere; he’s the British soldier/spy dude from ‘Inglourious Basterds’, the Quentin Tarantino movie about WWII (with an interesting alternate ending). Anyway, he was in that movie, and he was pretty fantastic…and then I kind of never heard of him again. Suddenly, he was in First Class, and I was pretty excited, since he’s a pretty decent actor. What I saw, however, blew me away. Everything about him really pushed forward the character of Magneto, from the relationship with Xavier to his first ‘adult’ showing of his powers…he goes into a bank run by a Nazi sympathizer, and PULLS OUT THE GUY’S FILLING with his powers. That’s an interesting use right there. He then travels to Argentina, and proceeds to badass the place up…it’s just awesome in every way. He’s supremely talented, and the interesting story of Magneto definitely showed that to a more mainstream audience than ‘Inglourious Basterds’ ever could.

Xavier was alright. He was better than I thought he was going to be, with James McAvoy as the character. Like I said, I don’t really like McAvoy, but he was good. I enjoyed him using his powers to see into the minds of women to glean info about them, and then try to impress them…it was just funny seeing the usually stoic Xavier being basically a playboy. The character of Moira McTaggert was also super hot; I forget the actress’ name, but man, smoooooking hot. January Jones as Emma Frost was also pretty solid. She was there to look hot, and that she did, extremely well.
The villain, for me, is what makes or breaks the movie. Magneto is kind of a grey area, but in THIS movie, he was definitely not the villain. No, the villain was Sebastian Shaw, founding member of the Hellfire Club, played here by Kevin Bacon (who, in the movie, also was a Nazi doctor…who has connections to Magneto). I always forget what Shaw’s power is, which is to absorb kinetic energy, so when I saw it in the movie, I was pleasantly surprised. There is one absolutely awesome scene where Shaw goes up against a small army of soldiers, armed with submachine guns, rifles and rocket launchers…and wins. By himself! It was super badass. Indeed, even the way he dies (because come on, he’s the bad guy, he’s going to die at some point in the movie for an ‘origin’ movie) was super cool, because it involved Magneto. I’ve said this previously, but Magneto is my favourite comic book villain, bar none. He has long been my favourite (followed by Two-Face and then the Joker in 3rd place), and this movie did not disappoint.

I’d give this movie an 8/10. I’d put it on par with Thor, but Captain America was better than them both. Anyway, it was still a solid movie. It ends on a satisfying note, with Magneto and Xavier appearing in more…traditional garb and form, and hinting at some interesting future movies. You can bet for sure that there’s going to be a sequel, and perhaps the supporting cast of mutants will be more interesting than the super lame ones they had this time. I mean, I understand they could only really deal with the ‘normal’ mutants, as in, the underpowered ones, but man…they were super SUPER uninteresting. Wolverine made an awesome cameo (played by none other than Hugh Jackman), but that was about it. The sequel definitely sets up more adventures with Magneto and his new crew, as well as Xavier and HIS new crew. They’re still obviously friends, but, they just believe in two ways to accomplish what they think the goals of mutant-kind are. The movie showed this in a very awesome way, and I look forward to the sequel.

All in all, the movie had some awesome comic book movies. With the exception of the awful Green Lantern, the comic book genre took a step up. I think it showed a lot of people that quality movies can be made. Anyway, next summer promises The Amazing Spider-Man, The Dark Knight Rises…and, of course, The Avengers. I’ll see them all, but only The Avengers I’ll be seeing opening night…who am I kidding, I’ll be seeing them all opening night. Awww yeah.

captain america

What an awesome movie. I have long been a fan of Marvel stuff in general, for years and years, and the movie didn't disappoint. Thus far, in this web of movies that Marvel Studios has been weaving, it is setting up for one of the largest movie spectacles in history: The Avengers. I say one of the largest because, even with such phenomenons as Star Wars, or Harry Potter, or older ones such as James Bond....well, all of the movies within their respective franchises all are sequels to each other. James Bond less so, because it's just 'another adventure with Bond' type of deal, but with SW and HP, they're all direct sequels of one another. With 'The Avengers', Iron Man is its own franchise; Thor is its own franchise; Captain America will now be its own franchise. X-Men, and The Hulk, they're all their own franchises, and yet they're being tied together. Well, okay, not the X-Men, but still.

To go back to Captain America (I'll return to the Avengers in a bit, since it's relevant), however, the movie was great. Out of all the summer movies I've seen this year (and what a summer it's been), I think I would say it's my favourite. I'll reference this past blog post: http://the-matarese-circle.blogspot.com/2011/03/gray-distinguished-ionno.html as I had a list of the movies that were coming out this summer, when I wrote that back in March. I'd like to point out the part of the paragraph where I said the following: "My friends do not share the same belief that I do, which is that it's going to be one of the best movies of the summer, but...well, I look forward to them being proven wrong."

Hah! Well, suck on that, guys, because Captain America was probably the best movie this summer. I know, nostalgia seems to have gotten the better of everyone and artificially inflated HP7.2's reviews, but when/if people actually open their eyes and look at it objectively, they'll see that it was an above-average movie at best. That's not anything bad at all, and I even said myself I'd give it a 7.5 or an 8, which is pretty damn solid. It is far from 'amazing' or a 'masterpiece', however, but....well, I digress.

Captain America, then. The acting was superb! I have to say, the dialogue was a little cheesy, but it worked, because the entire movie was set in WWII. Anyone who knows anything about Captain America nowadays knows that he ends up in the present day, despite his origins being in WWII. In the comic books he is frozen and then re-awakened in the present, and that's what happens here, to an extent. I'm trying not to spoil anything, because I saw it at midnight, so I recognize that not very many OTHERS will have seen it by now. Before I continue, let me once more caution anyone against 3D; the glasses are uncomfortable, it doesn't add ANYthing to the experience, and you get charged more for it. Please for the love of all that is holy (and whatever that is not), do not go see it in 3D. It is a blight upon cinemas everywhere.

Right, back to the movie once more. The movie, due to the necessity of having to have the Captain back in action in present day for The Avengers, the NEXT Marvel movie coming out, is framed two present day things. What I mean is that there's about a five minute dealio at the beginning set in the present, and then a five minute dealio at the end set in the present...but the rest of that awesome movie takes place completely in the 40s. Speaking of the 40s, the set pieces looked fantastic. The Captain America costume never really looked very....soldier-y, and I was a little worried about how it would look in action. Honestly? It looked great. It looked convincing, and I believed that he could wear something like that into battle. After his first 'mission' as Captain America, Steve Rogers (the character's actual name) goes full-on superhero costume, with the stuff you see in the posters, and he gets his famous vibranium shield. In addition, they spent a good part of the movie emphasizing the fact that Steve Rogers was, despite his physical limitations, a good person, and I believe this really helped take the edge off of the AMERICA aspect. I mean, yes, there was a good deal of patriotism which is unavoidable, since when you boil it down, the movie is following an American super-soldier, fighting for the American group of Allied forces, against the Nazis (who make such good bad guys. Seriously, no one likes them. There's no better group of movie villains). However, like I said, the movie places much more emphasis on being a good person inside, than being an 'AMERICA FUCK YEAH' type of soldier.

The supporting characters were great, too. Tommy Lee Jones was hilariously awesome as the hardass army colonel, and Hayley Atwell was both smoking hot as well as badass as the love interest (and honestly, she looked like one of those pinup models that you would see in something like Mad Men, she looked as if she really did come from the 1940s). The Howling Commandos were also present, and they were as entertaining to the audience as the Brothers Three + Sif were in Thor. Finally, Hugo Weaving was deliciously evil as the Red Skull, as well.The Red Skull in the first place is somewhat of a caricature, just SO EVIL ALL THE TIME, because he's a NAZI, and HEY GUYS LOOK HOW EVIL HE IS. I have no problem with that, at all....because, look, he's the bad guy, his plan is to kill everyone, you might as well make him as crazy as goddamn possible. Hugo Weaving did that successfully, I think, but they could have done MORE. With what he was given, Weaving was great as he usually is (if you don't know who he is, look no further than Agent Smith from the Matrix, or the elven king from LotR), but the writers could have done a better job with him. The way he gets snuffed was kind of....weird. It wasn't totally satisfying, to me at least, but whatever. The movie kind of had to wrap up, so I got the sense that the writers/director just said to themselves 'oh shit, we only have a few minutes left! Quick, kill him off!'. I still loved the movie, don't get me wrong, but maybe if I watch it again it'll be more clear.

The last framing bit I spoke about basically is used as setup for the Avengers. Nick Fury, much like he appears at the end of Iron Man 2, shows up and explains to Captain America that he's now in 2011, and then it ends on a somewhat poignant note. Of course, like all Marvel movies, there's a scene after the credits...and let me tell you, I LOST MY HEAD. People in the theatre, i.e., 21-30+ year old guys, were all yelling and cheering at the scene, because it was amazing. Basically, stay after the credits. You won't be disappointed =P

But, yes, I would give Captain America an 8 or 8.5 out of 10. Maybe an 8.25. It was way better than HP, and I said I would give THAT a 7.5 or 8....so I guess I'll officially lower HP7.2 to a 7.5/10, and raise Captain America to 8.25/10 =P After Iron Man, I would say it's the best Marvel movie. Thor was pretty awesome, and so was X-Men: First Class, but....yeah, neither of them were as good as Captain America. Maybe I'm comparing apples and oranges, but, whatever.

The Avengers, now, has gotten a huge boost. Thor has since added a bunch of things, such as Hawkeye, more S.H.I.E.L.D. development, the Cosmic Cube being something that Loki is coveting....it's great. Captain America kind of adds to it, and explains some of it (Howard Stark, who was very much his own character and who was awesome, is involved in that), and ties in the myths that were presented in Thor (the various realms, Yggdrasil, etc etc) and brings them around again. Asgard is mentioned a few times....nothing for the Avengers is actually hinted at until the very end of the movie in that last framing bit, and of course, in the after-credits scene. Next summer holds The Avengers (May 3rd), The Amazing Spider-Man (July 3rd) and The Dark Knight Rises (July 20th), as the big blockbusters. I'll be seeing all of them, of course, but they're going to be amazing nonetheless. The last movie on my list for this summer is Cowboys and Aliens, being released a week from now. Saddle up!

box office mojo

It's a pretty handy site, and I quite enjoy it. I have always been, and probably always will be, a stats junkie. I enjoy leafing through NFL.com, or NHL.com and looking at stats and goals and minutes and all that kind of stuff....it's a lot of fun, for some reason. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/ is probably one of the most in-depth sites you can go to, when it comes to NFL stats. Since that's my favourite sport, it's awesome to see all the little things. I've spent so much time on Tom Brady's page/the Patriots' page....ah well.

But, to go back to the original topic, which is actually about movies, I love box office mojo. Actually, the site is http://boxofficemojo.com, and it's awesome. I brought it up, because a while ago in one of my posts, I wrote about how I thought Harry Potter 7.2 was going to absolutely destroy the box office. Well, I was right! Let's take a look, shall we?

http://boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3211&p=.htm

Working its final movie mojo, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 soared into the record books with the highest-grossing opening weekend ever. The series finale drew an estimated $168.55 million on around 11,000 screens at 4,375 locations, dethroning The Dark Knight's $158.4 million.

Awww yeah. Was I right, or was I right? But, really, that's not a true accomplishment, me predicting that accurately. Anyone in the world could have done that, and I'm sure many others did. I DO want to point out a few things, however. First of all, that estimated amount is ridiculously inflated, thanks to 3D ticket prices. The Dark Knight had that issue as well, but not nearly to this extent; TDK came out in 2008, and now, three years later, 3D is (unfortunately) super prevalent in theatres. This is evident later on in that same article:

Deathly Hallows Part 2 marked Harry Potter's first foray into 3D, and it made a splash with the broadest 3D launch ever (3,100-plus locations, including 274 in IMAX). [...] 3D accounted for 43 percent of the gross, which was a lower share than Transformers: Dark of the Moon's 60 percent at the same point but in the ballpark of most of this summer's other big movies.

43%?! That's insane. Yes, it was a lower share than TF3, but....okay, let's be honest here, going to see gigantic robots smash each other to pieces while the backdrop is explosion after explosion is FAR more visually appealing than a teenage wizard running around looking pensively into the camera. I said the special effects for HP 7.2 were sweet, and they were....that's not saying much, however, as TF3 completely blew it out of the water. Hell, even Green Lantern blew it out of the water, and that movie was garbage. Still, though, 3D sales are making up more and more of the gross of movies these days, which sucks, because 3D itself sucks. It makes the movie darker, and for movies like HP 7.2 that already have a dark (visually) setting, it just makes it look crappy. For movies with lots of CRAZY effects, it looks cool...but, not HP 7.2. Indeed, Avatar (by James Cameron), that movie was good to see in 3D, and that's why it made as much money as it did...BECAUSE of the 3D.

Funnily enough, HP 7.2 had one of "the steepest Friday-to-Saturday drop on record for a non-holiday first weekend, falling 53 percent to an estimated $42.85 million". While that's not anything to really laugh at, since that's still an obscene amount of money, it's still apparent that the movie does not have much staying power. I think it'll continue to rake in money for the next few weeks to a month (i.e. the rest of July and most of August), but then it'll fade away. By then, however, I'm sure it'll have made a ridiculous amount of money, as the trend for HP movies seems to be that while it fades pretty fast domestically, worldwide it tends to do pretty well. The one thing that might dent the sales, though, is Captain America. While that is one movie I cannot wait to see (going to see it at midnight!!), I also can't help but think that the last Marvel movie to be released before the Avengers comes out next May is going to also make a killing at the box office. Not on the same level as HP 7.2, but definitely pretty darn good. It's not going to do well overseas, though....while they've been marketing it as 'The First Avenger', which is smart, it's still a movie about a guy called Captain AMERICA. Like it or not, that's not going to resonate with a lot of people outside of North America (heck, it might not resonate with people in Canada)....the tagline is 'Heroes are made in America' for crying out loud. But, hell, I'm going to see it, and it's going to be awesome.

One thing that makes me feel better about the absolutely ridiculous amount of money that the HP franchise has made is this:

As a franchise, Harry Potter has now grossed $2.177 billion, and it's on the brink of eclipsing Star Wars' $2.218 billion to become the top-grossing franchise in history. In terms of estimated attendance, though, the eight Potter movies have had 57 percent of the impact of the seven Star Wars movies. Star Wars even wins on this front when just its initial releases are counted.

HaHA! Suck on THAT, Harry Potter! Even if HP does surpass Star Wars as the highest grossing franchise in history, it's still not accounting for inflation, at which point I think nothing can catch Star Wars. Even without inflation, SW is ahead because of the aforementioned 3D prices. For the record, thanks again to boxofficemojo.com, adjusted for inflation, here is what Star Wars would have made today:

Star Wars: A New Hope: $1,400,020,000

Empire Strikes Back: $771,699,800

Return of the Jedi: $739,307,000

I'm not even going to count the prequels, even though they too made an ungodly amount of $$. That's WITHOUT 3D prices...awww yeah. I mean, yes, Harry Potter made its killing in the book industry, where it is almost without peer (does the Bible count? I dunno.), and if you were to add the sales from all the books and what not to the movies, it would definitely climb significantly. But, I can say that for Star Wars as well, which also has a popular TV show + another one in the works; not to mention the fact that Star Wars spawned ILM [Industrial Light and Magic], as well as Skywalker Sound, two massive companies that changed the way movies today are made, Harry Potter included. My favourite movies of all time are also more popular than Harry Potter. Star Wars also had to compete against the movies of the 70s and 80s for attention....an era that saw Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, ET, Jaws, Diehard, The Godfather, Ghostbusters, and many other movies which are considered to be amongst the best of ALL TIME. You can't really say the same thing for HP, other than a few notable cases such as TDK or Avatar. According to that last block quote, if you look at the amount of people who attended the original SW movies, HP (as a series) has had just 57% of that number attend their movies. So, yup. Star Wars > Harry Potter, it's a verifiable fact. You know what else I don't understand? The 'omg, my childhood is ending' crap. People who say that astound me, really, it's a little ridiculous. I won't get too much into that now, but....if you're one of those people, you should be ashamed. I mean, really. It's a movie. I hope you weren't one of those annoying people who were ruining the movie for me with your crying. I paid money to see that film too, I don't need your sobbing screwing it up!

But, I digress. There was an extensive list of movies I wanted to see this summer: X-Men: First Class, Green Lantern, Thor, Pirates of the Caribbean 4, Transformers 3, HP 7.2, Captain America, and Cowboys and Aliens. Since then, I have added Horrible Bosses, Kung Fu Panda 2...well, that's it, really. Of all of those movies, I have seen them all except for Captain America (which I will strike off the list come Thursday), and Cowboys and Aliens, which comes out late July. I can't believe I'm getting all these movies in; normally I wait a really long time to see all the ones I want to see during the summer. Ah well, awesome for me....and for you, because then I get to write a blog post about it =P In any case, that's all for now. Back to work!

the boy who lived

Well, I just got home, and my heart is still racing like you would not believe.

....oh, did you think it was because of HP 7, pt 2? No no, silly person. I was driving home from the theatre, and there was a police cruiser next to me, and he decided that the best time to start his siren and lights to chase some dude in front of him down was RIGHT when I was next to his cruiser. I basically just freaked out, but thankfully, nothing bad happened. As soon as he was out of sight, I pretty much just gunned it home.

Oh right, the movie. Yeah, I went to go see the 12:15 show, which was cool. People dressed up, which was entertaining, and everyone was really into it....and then the movie started. Okay, so, I was a little tired beforehand, having worked all day, so I mean, I was exhausted. But...the movie was decent. It wasn't anything crazy, really, and that's what I expected. They changed a few things, and I believe it was for the better. I won't spoil anything, but, the changes they made served to help the movie as a whole. There are parts in the novel that, if DIRECTLY translated to film, would....well, be goddamned boring. No one wants to go see a blockbuster as popular as Harry Potter and be BORED. Hence, the changes. Where the Battle of Hogwarts takes place over maybe 75-100 pages of that novel, perhaps even less, that translates to nearly half the movie. I think 'Siege' of Hogwarts works better, since that's what they do, complete with magical artillery. It was visually stunning, that's for sure. The special effects were absolutely fantastic, and I loved them. A note: do not go see this movie in 3D. 3D in general makes things darker, and considering this movie was already pretty gloomy (just the setting itself was always dark and drab, being in Gringotts, and then skulking about at night, or in the day time in washed out colours), the 3D just made it darker. Seeing it in 2D is not only visually nicer, but it costs less, too. Screw you, 3D!

My issues with the movie are somewhat minor, but also somewhat major. They were enough to make me like it less....so here goes, I guess. Two main issues: the dialogue and the pacing. My goodness, who writes the dialogue?! Being someone who writes short stories/normal stories/etc., I will admit, it is difficult to find dialogue that snaps for each character, that conveys what they're feeling, and all that. Considering that this is a book adaptation, they can (and did, frequently) just take lines directly from the book itself, which is perfectly fine. The lines they didn't, though....it was just awful. Cheesy, dumb things would just come out of these character's mouths, and it would just sound stupid a lot of the time. It just came out really forced, even from the likes of actors such as Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, or Ralph Fiennes, who are all absolutely fantastic actors. Indeed, the latter two definitely hammed it up a bit with their performances. I don't think there's an actor alive who can put so many pauses into a speech as Alan Rickman. It's like he added a lengthy pause after EVERY sentence. Ralph Fiennes, as Voldemort....it was just silly at times. I definitely laughed, along with much of the audience, at some of the most serious moments in the entire movie, thanks to him. I can just see the .gif files being made now, honestly. I also cheered for Voldemort during his battle with Harry...we all know how THAT ends, but still. Suck it, people cheering for HP! There were way more people cheering for him than Voldemort (i.e., I was the only one, hehe), so I didn't feel bad. Also, people who cried? Really? I'm watching a MOVIE, please don't ruin my movie experience. The acting by the main trio was as wooden as usual, but, I didn't expect anything different, so that's not really a complaint. The pacing was a subtler issue; the movie would have large amounts of time where SO MUCH is happening you can barely roll your eyeballs all over the huge screen to catch everything...and then there are times where NOTHING AT ALL is happening. It kind of accordioned back and forth between 'lots of stuff happening' and 'nothing happening', which was unfortunate. Appropriately, however, the ending was very well done. Again, no spoilers, but it was calm and was a nice ending....a nice way to send off the most lucrative movie franchise ever made.

Speaking of that, Monday heralds the arrival of some new records, I'm sure. Millions upon millions went to go see this movie; tickets had been sold out for the midnight release a month beforehand. I have found, by looking at a lot of stuff from boxofficemojo.com (that stuff interests me, what can I say), that while the opening weekend absolutely trashes every other movie, in the coming weeks, the increase in revenue drops like you would not believe. All the hardcore fans go and see it immediately over that opening weekend, and then casual people go see it....well, more casually. This has been true for every HP movie, which is why the only HP movie with the staying power is actually the Philosopher's Stone, considering it was the first one, and had appeal that lent itself to being a kids movie. I firmly believe that, considering this is the LAST one, it will have the same staying power in that it will not fade as drastically as the other ones did, but it is DEFINITELY not a kids movie. It will probably break a billion dollars, but I mean, Pirates of the Caribbean 4 is probably going to achieve that feat. If PotC 4, a mediocre movie at BEST can do it, if Avatar, an even MORE mediocre movie (at best) can do it....then yes, HP 7 Pt 2 can do it for sure, as it's not THAT much better than those two films. Indeed, my rating for this movie would waver between 7.5 and 8/10, which is not bad at all. It's pretty solid, actually, so....yeah, go see it. As I said before, I'm not the biggest fan of the movies, I just wanted to go for the experience, which I did. Going with Ashley was super fun, and I don't regret it...despite the fact that I have to go to bed and wake up in less than two hours for a full day of stuff. woo! =P

With this movie under my belt, I've now seen almost all the summer blockbusters I set out to see. The only ones left at this point are 'Captain America', and 'Cowboys and Aliens', in that order of release. I am WAY more excited for Captain America than I was for HP 7 Pt 2....but, then again, it's a Marvel movie, and it's going to be goddamned awesome. I don't like the marketing tagline of 'Heroes are made in America', but....well, it's a movie about a dude called Captain America, I don't mind THAT much. Cowboys and Aliens has Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford (!) and Olivia Wilde. Need I say more?

But yes, HP 7 Pt 2. The movie franchise is done, for now, and it has been an interesting experience watching them all. It's sitting at 97% on Rottentomatoes.com; Pt 1 ended up at 79% when it was all said and done. I think this one will be a little higher, but 97%? Way, way too high. Now that it's commercially out, I foresee it dropping a bit, but still, maybe down to 88% or so. Anyway, it's done. Oh, the 'The Dark Knight Rises' trailer was in this showing! It was AWESOME. But yes, the Avengers will be assembling soon, because up next: Captain America! I can't wait.

transform and roll out

To start, I have loved the Transformers ever since I was a little boy. My cousins, who were born in the 70s (thanks to my gigantic family) have all watched the cartoon/collected the comics since THEY were little, and since they used to babysit me and I used to idolize them, I obviously liked a lot of the things they did. As a result, the best music is from the 70s/80s, the best movies (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future) are all from that era...and of course, so are the Transformers. I have a lot of the original toys (Soundwave is my absolute favourite, ever), and I have watched the 80s cartoon movie enough times that I know every line of dialogue as well as all the music.

So, when they decided to make a Transformers movie, I was pretty goddamn excited! The first one was siiiiick, but, no Soundwave. Understandably, I was a little saddened, but then again, Megatron and Starscream were in it, so it was all good. Also, Peter Cullen still voiced Optimus Prime, so that was cool too. Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen was....less good, in pretty much every way, but, that's cool. Soundwave was in it! He had a very minor role, but he was still IN it. I cheered when he came on screen, just so you know.

Fast forward to tonight, now that I have seen Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon. Let me start by saying this movie was pretty good. I would rate it a 6.5-7/10, which is pretty decent, to me. It's about average, I would say. At its core, it's about robots fighting each other, and my goodness, it does not disappoint in that regard. It still has some of that cheesy humour, but I think director Michael Bay listened to all the complaints about the 2nd movie, because he really fixed them. First of all, Skids and Mudflap, the racially toned dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks pair of Minis in the 2nd movie....they aren't even in the movie at ALL. Thank god, because that exclusion right there made the entire movie better. Soundwave got WAY more screen time, which made me cry tears of joy. Okay, maybe not tears of joy, but it was SO AWESOME.

My complaints with this movie are pretty small, if only because I went into the theatre expecting explosions, sweet cars, and more explosions, and I was not disappointed. I won't spoil anything, don't worry, but I think it's pretty fair of me to say that I have never in my life seen a movie that has more things that blow up in it. There's a part near the mid-point of the film where everything kind of lags, because it's just a bit of exposition; it's literally just the filmmakers trying to explain to the audience why everything is happening the way that it is. It makes sense, as far as the movie goes (that doesn't mean it's not a bit silly, because it is), but when they just throw exposition at you, I kind of doze off a bit. Bay must have known that would have happened, because half way through that exposition bit, he throws in a few explosions and a nice fight, and all of a sudden the movie picks up again. The end game of the movie takes place in Chicago....I would hate to have been in that city when the end of the movie went down, because my goodness, that place gets ****ed up. SO MANY EXPLOSIONS. It was awesome! People are dying left and right, Autobots are beating the crap out of Decepticons and vice versa....it was great. Shockwave, one of my other favourite Decepticons, makes his appearance near the beginning of the movie (in a kind of confusing way, to be honest, I'm not sure why he chose that moment to appear, the film didn't make it very clear), and it was pretty cool. One of the more stunning visual effects of the entire movie is when Shockwave sics his worm thing on a building in order to kill a bunch of humans....it's in the trailer, so you can see it w/o being spoiled, but on the big screen it looks absolutely fantastic.

I've pretty much stopped with the complaints, because, like I said, there aren't that many from me. I'm biased, so you might not feel the same way after it's done, but...I greatly enjoyed myself. I have long been a Decepticon fan, and so it will come as no surprise to ANYone when I say that they lose. I mean, come on, no one expects them to win. Every single movie they lose, and considering this is the last one....well, yeah, they're going to lose. I wasn't HAPPY about that (especially the way they get rid of Soundwave...I was a little sad, I'm not going to lie), but, I accepted it. I suppose that also makes the movie have a little less suspense, because there's no WAY that any of the important Autobots (Optimus, Bumblebee) are going to die, and obviously Shia LaBeouf and his new girlfriend are going to be protected by the mighty forces of movie magic as well. Speaking of that new girl, she's ultra hot, and the filmmakers did not squander an opportunity to show you. There are a gratuitous amount of shots that have her standing in small, tight dresses, with her long legs shown to the audience....okay, I guess it's important to have eye candy that doesn't revolve around sweet cars. But, man, the first shot of her you EVER see in this movie is the camera focused on her....rear end, as she is wearing nothing but a very tight pair of underwear, and a loosely buttoned shirt. I guess they wanted to impress upon you the departure of Megan Fox, because this girl is smoking hot. She IS a Victoria's Secret model, and they made use of her in that way.

Anyway, she was a passable actor, and much like Blake Lively in Green Lantern, she just had to stand there and look attractive and pouty. Which she did, very well! Gooooood for her.

At the end of the day, I went to go see massive robots beat up on other massive robots, and that's exactly what I got. I was pleasantly surprised by the way Bay cleaned up the movie when compared to the second one, and this is something I'd go see again on the big screen if only to enjoy the ridiculous amounts of explosions again. Small roles by Patrick Dempsey, John Malkovich and Alan Tudyk are hilarious as well. You know what else was awesome? The trailers. I saw trailers for: Harry Potter 7.5, Cowboys and Aliens, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and Captain America. By god, I am going to see ALL of them. I already have my midnight tickets for HP7.5, and Cowboys and Aliens as well as Captain America come out towards the latter end of July. The new Mission Impossible movie, which looks AMAZING (I thought it would be garbage, but it looks so cool!), comes out in December, so I have time before I see it =P I had not seen the HP7.5 trailer until then, and....well, despite not liking the HP movies at all, this movie looks like it's going to be absolutely fantastic. I've said this SO many times, but it's going to demolish every box office record known to mankind...and I'm excited to be a part of it.

Anyway, Transformers 3. It's great, and I recommend that you see it. It's entertaining, a good popcorn flick, good action....if you're not expecting a deep acting masterpiece, then you won't be disappointed. It's all action, all the time, with the Autobots and Decepticons! You know the drill; transform and roll out...to the theatre, that is.

hugh jackman ftw pt 2!

First of all, the post is referencing a previous blog post I made back in February: http://the-matarese-circle.blogspot.com/2011/02/hugh-jackman-ftw.html w00t self promotion on my own blog =P But, onwards.

I love my mom. I don't say that enough, you know? I mean, I don't really say it to HER often enough. I really should do it more. I also don't hang out with her as much as I used to, which is unfortunate, but unavoidable during the summer, thanks to work + exec + VUSAC. But, tonight, we went and hung out for the first time in a while, and we went to go see Hugh Jackman perform live at the Princess of Wales theatre! It was absolutely hilarious, he was just so natural at it. He told anecdotes, and related heart-felt stories, and sang and danced...it was great. The live orchestra was upbeat and jazzy, and everyone had an awesome time. I think one of the awesome things about the show as well was that he had two backup singers/dancers...but, they weren't just ANY girls. They've starred in some major Broadway musicals; one of them was so famous even *I* had heard of her. Their names were Merle Dandridge and Angel Reda, the latter being the one I had previously heard of. Dandridge had been in 'Rent' and 'Spamalot', two legendary musicals...and Reda played the role of 'Elphaba' from Wicked, on Broadway. I also have to say, while Hugh Jackman is an attractive guy...those two girls were absolutely smoking hot. Especially Angel Reda, she was this tiny blonde chick who was absolutely gorgeous. I was sitting kind of far away and I couldn't really look away from her whenever she was on stage. Of course, Hugh Jackman was on stage far more, as it IS a one-man show, so...woo!

I should say, if I haven't before, that he is one of my favourite actors. He's up there with Ian McKellen, Liam Neeson and, of COURSE, Harrison Ford (who is at the top bar none). I actually think if I ever met Harrison Ford, I would legitimately faint. Tom Brady would also have such an effect on me...but, he's not an actor. He HAS hosted SNL as well as cameo'd (as himself) on Entourage, but, whatever. He's great.

But, yes, the show was great. I got to hang with my mom, and got to see Hugh Jackman live. Honestly, one of my friends would have LOVED it. I sure did, and I KNOW she would have. It's funny, she's ALSO a super attractive tiny blonde chick as well! What a coincidence. She also can read this blog, so...uh.....I guess that means I have to say something mean. Um...she's crazy? Wait, that's not mean, that's just the truth. Hehehe....awww yeah. People who know her will agree with me when I say that when she says 'hello' (more like 'hel-LAOW!'), it's the most entertainingly awesome thing ever. w00t!

Honestly, I have not much else to talk about in this post. I COULD talk about my super attractive friends some more (it's kind of ridiculous. I mean, how is it that ALL of my friends are just nice AND super hot? Yes, I am primarily referring to the women, but the guys aren't bad looking. awww yeah, Matteo. =P), but that's boring. It'll just stroke their egos more, hehe. Transformers 3 I hear was good. The last movie I saw in theatres was Green Lantern, and we all know how THAT turned out (in case you didn't, let me spoil it for you: it was crap). I think a nice Transformers movie, a franchise of which I have been a fan of for literally my entire life, will wash the disgust out of my mouth...and by mouth, I mean psyche. That GL crap will scar you, man, I'm telling you. I also want to see Cars 2. I mean, Cars was never an awesome movie, though I liked it a lot. It was passable for a Pixar movie (that's always the bad rap it gets, 'it's passable for a Pixar movie' =P), because the characters are one-dimensional and a little annoying. I mean, they pull out all the crappy storytelling stops: arrogant asshole who thinks he doesn't need anyone realizes that he doesn't have any friends, and is forced to slow down and see the errors of his ways, and once he does, he finds true love and happiness. I mean, my GOD. Could there be a larger cookie cutter story frame? But, regardless, I still really enjoy the culmination of the movie, and it's a nice ending. Cars 2 seems to falter from the get-go, if only because Lightning McQueen, already a paper-thin character to begin with, is relegated to a supporting role, while the annoying Mater is the main focus. It just seems silly, since McQueen was the MAIN character in the first one, so the movie seems to have that weirdness going for it. I haven't actually SEEN this movie, remember that, but I really want to...and I'm sure I'll enjoy it, but let's just say that Kung Fu Panda 2 will probably be taking home the Oscar for Best Animated Picture this coming year =P

Before I end, I also want to show you guys this video, since Carrie showed it to me (also, Carrie is awesome. Just sayin'). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-CG5w4YwOI So gooooood. It's a Weird Al parody of 'Party in the USA'....called 'Party in the CIA'. This is legitimately one of my favourite Weird Al parodies EVER. He's had some really good ones, but this just proves he still has it. He's coming to Massey Hall on July 16th! Maybe I'll go =P Anyway, it's 12am, and I once again have work in the morning. ugh, I hate getting up early. I am definitely NOT a morning person. Anyway, caaaatch you all later!

zombies!

In keeping with stuff that has post-apocalyptic messages, I was thinking about zombies. The Walking Dead is starting back up soon, so that's going to be interesting. It's a show about zombies, which is based on a comic book series. While I do think the comic book series is far better than the TV show, that would be to dismiss the TV show, which is quite good. It's just that the comic books are SO MUCH better than most other comics, that's why I give it that distinction. Like most zombie stories go, the protagonist Rick wakes up in a hospital after a gunfight with a random dude on the street, and finds that the whole world has gone to hell. People - or what's left of them - are rotting in the sun, there's blood smeared everywhere, army equipment is all over the place, and, of course, the dead are walking the streets. He has no idea where his wife and kid are, and nearly everyone he knows is gone. It's a pretty bleak situation, to be honest. Still, it makes for dramatic television!

Speaking of dramatic, how about them Argos? No, seriously. They won today! Last year they lost in Calgary, to the Stampeders, and with a Canada Day re-match this year, they were out to prove that they're no longer a joke. It was a pretty gritty game, but, with 17 seconds left in the game, kicker Noel Prefontaine nailed a 43-yard field goal to put the Argonauts up 23-21, and Toronto walked out of Calgary with a win. Pretty awesome! It was a nice touch to an otherwise quiet Canada Day....no fireworks, or being hit BY fireworks, but still fun.

But, back to zombies. I really have always enjoyed the post-apocalyptic world when it comes to zombies. I think it's because zombies present the threat of something always coming towards you, never ending, never resting, just always...advancing. Much like aliens have the appeal of the unknown, and conversely, humans/wars have the appeal of the KNOWN, zombies are kind of a mix. They used to be humans...but now they're something else entirely, and now you don't know what's going to happen.

Matteo has an interesting post on his blog concerning zombies, I believe it's the very first post he ever typed up, so...yeah, go over there and find it or something, it's late and I'm too lazy to go find it, hehe. But, zombies are present in a lot of ways in the media, whether it's literature or films, or tv shows. The Walking Dead covers two of these ways, both comic books and tv, but there are plenty others. I Am Legend, the movie with Will Smith, is actually based on a book, and to be fair, the creatures in the movie are hardly zombies. They are kind of like another version of humans, devolved, almost. If you're going to read this book eventually, I suggest you skip ahead to the next paragraph, because I'm going to spoil the ending. Anyway, in the book, Will Smith's literary counterpart actually gets captured by these creatures (in the movie, you see that these things set a trap for him, and while he escapes, it is costly in more ways than one), and he wakes up down in the catacombs of the city (I forget if the book takes place in New York, to be honest). What ends up happening is quite morbid, as he kills himself, unable to take being down there with creatures who seemingly cannot understand him (as he cannot understand THEM), but the reader comes to an interesting revelation. During the book (and the movie), the protagonist had been capturing these creatures, former humans, himself, so that he could study and experiment on them in order to reverse the disease. Often, they would die from these treatments and experiments...which, I would imagine, is upsetting for the surviving creatures. In the book, then, when he is captured, the reader realizes that the creatures think of him as the Bogeyman, i.e. someone who captures people and takes them away to do horrible things to them....which is exactly what he was doing. It was an interesting way for the book to end, and I believe there is an 'alternate' ending, but I forget the rest of that stuff.

An interesting read, nonetheless. Another amazing book about zombies, probably one of my favourite books period, would be 'World War Z' by Max Brooks. It is fantastic, is written well, and is also written with interesting theories. I will not spoil any of the theories for you (as they concern how each country/area of the world deals with the zombie attack, and it's absolutely riveting), but the way it is written I can tell you without spoilers. It's written as if Max Brooks himself went around the world after World War Z was over, and spoke to people from every nation on the planet, gathering their accounts of before the 'war', during, and after. He speaks to every day people and important people, from the Secretary of State (of the USA), to a nuclear submarine captain, to a doctor in China, to a Canadian suburbanite, to a South African scholar...it's awesome. It's told through the style of interviews, so these people are relating their stories directly to Brooks...and, indirectly, to you, the reader. It's so good, and is definitely on the level of 'One Second After' in terms of how real it feels. Of course, it will never come THAT close, if only because zombies PROBABLY aren't that real of a threat...but, yeah, when the day comes that I'm zombified and those of you who are still alive are on the off-chance reading this blog, you'll probably laugh at me. No, scratch that, you'll DEFINITELY laugh =P

I always wonder what would happen if zombies took over, for real. I have dreams about this a lot. In my dreams, I end up traveling downtown to look for my friends. I remember once I had a dream where I was in the Birge-Carnegie building with essentially all of my really good friends, when the zombie outbreak happened. There were zombies all around, but we eventually managed to safeguard the entire building, and it became a base of operations of sorts, since the building is pretty large. It also has a cafe in the basement, and while none of us knew how to use the stuff down there, we figured it out and were able to use it as a place to regroup while we scouted the area for survivors. It was an interesting dream...but, then again, in OTHER such dreams, my friends have been in trouble and I go on the hunt to save them....and then I wake up. So anti-climactic...thanks, brain.

Ah well, though. Like I said earlier, it's super late, and I should really sleep. I'm taking advantage of the late-to-bed-late-to-rise thing of the weekends (especially the long weekend), as now that I work, I have to get up early all the damn time. I definitely will not be getting out of bed before 1pm tomorrow, but ah well. I also just played Madden 10...my god that game is crap. I've devoted so much time to it, and yet I know it's bad....and then I go back and play some more. At least I can say I got my money's worth for THAT game...also, I got it for like 30$, so that makes me feel a LITTLE better. Madden 12 better fix all the glitches, or else I will just cry =P But, time for bed; maybe now I'll have another heroic zombie dream! That, or a dream where Tom Brady throws me the SB winning TD pass...it'll be awesome either way.