I love movie posters, I even have a frame in my office at home that I use to rotate posters that catch my eye (it currently is displaying one from Skyfall). Today, the Disney Parks Blog exclusively debuted the new poster for Saving Mr. Banks. I looked at the trailer just last week, but check out the poster: Continue reading
Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies, since I’ve always found them to be endlessly fascinating.
This weekend at Comic-con saw the release of a new trailer for Catching Fire, the upcoming sequel to last year’s The Hunger Games. I covered the first trailer back in April, but watch the new one and then read on for my thoughts:
We get a lot of new footage in this trailer, mixed in with some things we’ve seen before, so let’s take it from the top. Continue reading
I was 12 when Independence Day came out in 1996, and it had so many things that appealed to 12 year old me. It featured alien monsters, massive cinematic destruction, stunning effects, explosions and lots of action. I imagine that if I were 12 years old today, Pacific Rim would seem to be right up my alley. It’s got alien monsters (technically transdimensional monsters), destruction and explosions and stunning effects. But, I like to think 12 year old me would have left Pacific Rim with the same sense of dissatisfaction that 29 year old me has.
Pacific Rim tells the story of humanity’s fight against Kaiju, giant Godzilla-like creatures that appear from a dimensional portal at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and wreak havoc on the cities that border that body of water. Continue reading
The discussion about Ender’s Game has reached a head in the last several days, with new statements from Orson Scott Card, Lionsgate and now with the film appearing at Comic-con, so I thought I’d give my two cents worth. For those of you who don’t know, Ender’s Game is a science fiction book from 1985 written by Card, which has a movie adaptation of it coming out on November 1st. I remember reading the book repeatedly in middle school; at the time it was one of my favorites, though I never read any of its sequels. It wasn’t until later that I learned the truth about Orson Scott Card.
You see, Card is the worst sort of homophobe. Continue reading
Welcome to “Friday Favorites” which highlight some of my favorite movie-related things.
It would be safe to say that Data is one of my favorite characters in all of art, literature and storytelling. He’s most certainly my favorite TV character. There’s something about his story of an android longing to be human, without realizing that in all the ways that matter he already is, that’s innately compelling. Add in a dash of Pinocchio and Frankenstein’s Monster and you’ve got Data. Those of us who were big fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation were thrilled for many reasons when it transitioned to the big screen at the end of its run. But for me, one of the greatest joys of the movie is Data’s acquisition of the emotion chip, leading to this small scene, which remains one of my favorite things I’ve ever seen:
In the film, Data installs the emotion chip after a failed attempt at humor during Worf’s promotion ceremony. Continue reading
Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies, since I’ve always found them to be endlessly fascinating.
It’s been torture, having to wait until today to share this trailer with you. I’ll save my thoughts for after, so go ahead and watch:
My obsession with all things Disney should be well know by this point to anyone who regularly reads this blog. Continue reading
In the time since we last saw Gru, Margo, Edith, Agnes and the minions, they have grown into a family. Gru plays loving father to his three, adopted daughters, going out of his way to cater to them as individuals. His life of crime is behind him, and he and Dr. Nefario have turned his secret lair into a jams and jellies factory. At Agnes’s birthday party, Gru dresses up as a fairy princess to fill in for the one he’d hired for the party, while the moms of the other kids at the party keep trying to set him up with their single friends.
However, when an arctic research station is stolen, along with a chemical that can turn the most gentle bunny into a vicious, purple killer (between Despicable Me 2 and The Lone Ranger, vicious bunnies are having a moment), the Anti-Villain League decides to turn to Gru for help. After initially turning them down, he reconsiders and joins forces with them, in part to partly fulfill the longing for his old way of life. He’s assigned an AVL agent, Lucy Wilde, and the two of them set up shop (literally) in a mall where they suspect the chemical has been taken. And all the while, Gru’s minions seem to be disappearing. Continue reading
Welcome to “Friday Favorites” which highlight some of my favorite movie-related things.
I’ve mentioned previously my love for Tangled. It has many things at appeal to me, specifically. It’s hilarious, has great music, a strong female protagonist (in my opinion… I know there’s some disagreement about that) and is gorgeously animated. The highlight of the film, musically, artistically and from the standpoint of character, comes as Rapunzel finally gets to see the “floating lights” that she has dreamed about her entire life. But for me there’s one particular moment that I can relate to above all things. Take a look, and read on for my favorite moment:
Until last year, the technical aspects of film didn’t get talked about much among the general public. That changed somewhat last year with the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which was released in both a standard 24 frames-per-second version and a 48fps version. This brought some of film technology to the forefront of the conversation, if only for a little while (I imagine the discussion will resume this fall with the release of the 2nd film of The Hobbit trilogy). But it started me thinking both about what is required for something to be considered a movie and how the art of film can be influenced by the different technical options open to storytellers. There are a myriad of choices, from framerate to aspect ratio, color or black and white, sound or silent, spoken or musical, live action or animated, not to mention all of the different storytelling methods, and all of these choices have an impact on the way the story is told.
What has gotten my attention, and has me questioning what truly defines the film, is a story that is currently being told at the rate of one frame per hour, and has been ongoing since March. It began with the simple image of two people, and has gradually grown into an epic tale of a journey for answers, all with only one frame per hour. But here’s the twist, and the reason why people will tell me it’s not a movie: it’s from a webcomic. Continue reading
Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies, since I’ve always found them to be endlessly fascinating.
For today’s Trailer Tuesday I was going to do Austenland, but I couldn’t find a version of the trailer that I could embed here (so look for that sometime soon). Instead, today you’re going to get R.I.P.D., the supernatural comedy coming on July 19. Take a look, and read on for my thoughts:
The Love Pirate 