Darth Donald vs. Mickey Skywalker!

Star Wars – Darth Vader (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

I honestly thought this was a joke when I saw it posted on my favorite video game site, despite the fact that the text preview contained the phrase “This is not a joke.”.

 

 

 

Disney bought Lucasfilm.

 

 

 

That’s…pretty crazy actually.  I’m not sure what to think about it.  I respect George Lucas a great deal for Star Wars, but frankly if ever a person could be accused of misunderstanding the appeal of his own creation, it’s him.  Letting someone else have a crack at his universe might be just the thing.

 

 

 

And while Disney may be the poster child of corporate media mega-conglomerates they do have a good tract record with studios they’ve bought.  In 2006 they bought Pixar which never makes bad movies, and the movies since the buy out included Ratatouille, Wall-E, and Up.

 

 

 

In 2009 they bought Marvel Comics and their first film collaboration was The Avengers, which, if it’s not the best superhero movie ever made, is certainly the best superhero team movie.

 

 

 

It’ll be interesting to see what they do with Star Wars in 2015.

 

 

 

But the best thing they could do to garner fan support, would be to put the original cuts of episodes IV-VI out on Blu-Ray.

 

 

 

Now imagine the theme park rides!

 

 

 

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I Dreamed A Dream

I don’t care if it is a musical, this trailer got me excited to see this movie.

Les Miserables is the only live theater production I’ve ever seen.  But what a first!  My wife and I went to London a few years ago, and decided we should dress up and go out to the theater one night.  I chose what we saw, but to be honest I picked it with only the vaguest notions of what it was like or even about.  When the curtain went up, I was transfixed for hours.  The songs are wonderful, the story powerful, and the sets range from an effective use of a single light to evoke a sewer to the massive and elaborate barricade.  If you ever get a chance to see it, you should.

English: Les Miserables at Queen’s Theatre, as seen in the day. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

But if you can’t get to a live production, and you don’t want to wait until December to see what it’s all about, I’ve got good news for you!  It’s also a book by 19th Century French author Victor Hugo.  Don’t let the oldness and Frenchness put you off.  If you do, you’ll be missing out on a beautiful story of forgiveness and redemption.  Also quite a bit of stuff about the sewers under Paris.  Besides being a little on the long side, it’s not all that difficult to read.

And it’s very much worth it.

You have plenty of time to finish it between now and December.  The musical is fantastic, but it really is a singing summary of an even better book.

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How Did He Do It?

Joss Whedon (Photo credit: perobinson)

As far as what I’m familiar with, I’m a Joss Whedon fan.  I loved his run on Astonishing X-Men, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog was awesome, and  I think Firefly and Serenity are fantastic.  I have to admit that I’ve never watched a single episode of Buffy.  I know, I know.  Now the real fans are rolling their eyes and wondering why I even bother talking about the guy, but I just want to make the point that I like him, and I think he does good work.

However, I didn’t think anybody could make a good movie about the Avengers.

There’s just too many characters sharing screen time.  How can you cram them in, give everyone their due, build team chemistry, and have them save the day in the span of a single movie?  I didn’t think it could be done.

Joss Whedon did it.

If you haven’t seen The Avengers, go watch it now.  Find the best cinema near you, get in line earlier, and enjoy the show.  But make sure it’s in 2D.  3D is for suckers and real life.

The movie really is that good.  The script is clever and funny and spot on character-wise.  The action set pieces are huge but easy to follow.  The acting is great.  And somehow Joss Whedon juggles all six Avengers in such a way that everyone fits, nothing seems forced, and everyone gets their due on screen.  It’s just pure fun from beginning to end.

Seriously, quit reading this and go watch it.

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And this…

To continue what I ended with last week.  Here’s the trailer for the new Spider-man:

And while we’re watching trailers for super-hero movies:

And the big one:

Who thinks this is going to be a good summer for comic book movies?

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I Think I’d Like to See This

I guess it was only a matter of time before someone did a superhero movie in the found-footage style.  You can only make so many Paranormal Activity’s before it starts to get lame.

And by so many I mean one.

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The Nominees – 2012 Edition

Image via Wikipedia

Did you think Thor was one of the best movies you saw this year?  Well it wasn’t, and I’ve got the list to prove it.   That’s right, today the Academy announced this years Oscar

nominees.   Now you can find out what you should have been watching instead of The Hangover II: Hangovier.   Because, really, if I’m going to let someone else tell me what life choices I should make, I could do worse than a mysterious committee of rich, Hollywood types.

I’ve watched a grand total of one of the nine movies up for Best Picture.  So I think it’s time to modify my Netflix queue and see if I can fit a few more in before the big night.  Although I’ll really be tuning in to make sure “Man or Muppet” wins Best Song.

 

Related articles

• Full 2012 Oscar nominee list: Hugo and The Artist lead this year’s nominees (digitaltrends.com)
• Oscar Nominee Ignorance (eoghann.com)
• Your 2012 Academy Award Nominees [Oscars] (jezebel.com)

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A Long Expected Party

Who’s ready for next December?

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What Happened, Netflix? You Used to Be Cool.

What happened to us, Netflix?  Where did we go wrong?  Apparently you’ve been unhappy with our relationship for a long time, but I didn’t know.  I’ve always paid on time.  I hardly ever report damaged movies.  Was I keeping DVD’s too long before sending them back?  Did I take your promise of no late fees for granted?

Why can’t we go back to the way things were?  We’ve been together for so long now – since 2005.  You sent me The Aviator, and we spent all evening on the couch.  We spent hours together building my queue and rating movies.  I got two movies at a time, because I didn’t think I could handle anymore, even though I wanted to.  I remember I was attracted to your convenience and huge catalog of movies I would never be able to find at Movie Gallery.  Then one day you started to offer online streaming.  Sure you didn’t have a lot of quality things to watch at first, but I supported you.  Then when you were able to stream all of Starz content, I was so happy for you.  I got a blu-ray player, and even though you charge more for blu-ray discs, I was happy to pay it.  We watched some great movies and tv shows together that I probably never would have seen otherwise:  The Devil’s Backbone, The Sopranos, and a lot of Hitchcock.  I thought we were having so much fun.

It all seemed to go bad so fast.  First it’s the price hikes.  I know content is expensive.  I understand the market is competitive.  But did it all have to come at once?  My bill is going up over $5 a month.  That may not seem like much, but that’s like five movie rentals at Redbox.

Okay, maybe that wasn’t fair, and I know how sensitive you are about the Red- I mean, those guys, but it’s true.

Anyway, it’s not just the higher prices.  I might could look past those.  Now I find out you’re splitting your DVD rentals and your streaming in two?  Two bills on my credit card?  Two websites?  Two queues?  Two places to rate movies?  I don’t even know who you are anymore?  Should I still call you Netflix, or are you Qwikster now?  Qwikster.  Who calls themself that?  It’s the type of name Johnny Cash would say makes you get tough or die.

I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t have said that.  I’m just angry.

I don’t know what to do, Netflix.  I want to stay together, and I know you say you do too, but everything you do keeps pushing me away.  They say there are other fish in the sea, you know.

Just something you might want to think about.

 

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Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man

I just caught the first teaser for next years Spider-man reboot, The Amazing Spider-man.   Here it is in case you haven’t seen it.

My first thought was, oh great, another origin story.  I guess it is a reboot, so they have to start there, but it just feels like that whole story has already been done, and done well, not that long ago.  Sure Raimi’s Spider-man has its flaws, but the origin part is really well done.  I’m sure they’ll do something to distinguish this from the earlier movies besides change actors and directors, but I didn’t find this teaser all that thrilling.

Unless they make the entire movie the first-person/video game viewpoint they ended with!  It will feel like I’m Spider-man!

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Is Everyone Getting as Excited as Me?

This is one of Empire Magazines pictures of Peter Jackson’s take on The Hobbit.  I love it.  It has the same look and feel as Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, and I’m pumped about that.  I think Martin Freeman as Bilbo will be great, and I couldn’t be more excited to see Ian Mckellen reprise Gandalf.

Seeing this reminds me of a time in the fall of 1999 – a full two years before opening day of The Fellowship of the Ring – when Peter Jackson released an eight minute or so long internet teaser for his movies.  I must have watched that thing a hundred times.  A lot of it was Peter Jackson talking, but you got great shots of an insanely large orc army, and it ended with the scene where the fellowship walks over a mountain in single file so you get a great look at all of them.  I can remember talking to my friend Vernon about it over and over again, pouring over every detail.   It was exciting.

And now we get the Hobbit!

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