It Has Ended: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

A movie franchise that has spanned 10 years and that has kept primarily the same casting which consisted of 8 movies is quite a rarity. The Harry Potter series is genuinely one of a kind and have defined a generation. It has had an impact on pop culture and quite simply, something we may never see again in our lifetimes. The final installment of the movie series, one that was split into two parts, was released in theaters this past weekend and it certainly conveyed the emotion from the novel with epic battles and some heartbreak.

David Yates starts the movie without a recap or a "previously on..." deal here. Just a reminder that Voldemort has robbed Dumbledore's tomb and is now possession of the Elder Wand. That works best here and doesn't bog the pacing down and we can just jump right in. One thing I noticed off the bat was the lack of music. Yes, there is still music in the film and John Williams' unforgettable tune that is now forever associated with Harry and Hogwarts is there, but it's mostly faint and unassuming. It's not drowning in music like the Star Wars prequels, but I felt at times like I was at a funeral, it seemed that quiet and a bit awkward. It does pick up, of course, during the battle for Hogwarts and damn is it good.

It's interesting to see Daniel Radcliffe with the heroic stubble that is almost cliche now, but here he stands a man ready to face his mortal enemy, so I think it's fair that he looks the part. I've been on a bit of a re-watching spree as of late, and to have seen Daniel, Emma and Rupert grow up before our eyes. Their characters no longer have that glimmer of wonder and magic in their eyes, but the sunken visage of despair and fatigue. When the series started, it was filled with new magical worlds full of whimsy and discovery, now the once shiny pillars of Hogwards lay in ash and ruin and even I shed a tear as the Quiddich field burned and crumbled.

There is a lot going in this film, mainly because the second half of the book is where the action was while the first part set everything up accordingly and pulled no punches. Part Two continues that trend and allows proper time to give the battle for Hogwarts to play out and not be rushed and leave ample time to see pivotal parts of the book played out. I shudder to think what would have happened should this have been crammed into a single film. This really did get the treatment it deserved.

While it's certainly Harry Potter/Daniel Radcliffe's story, the minor characters really take the center stage, especially during the last half of the film. Maggie Smith who has played Prof. McGonagall throughout the series is a domineering force inside the body of an elderly woman. The fact that she was going through chemo treatments for cancer and still managed to work through this rigorous shoot displays what courage really is and does her character justice as she has in the past decade. Matthew Lewis who started out as awkward and clumsy Neville Longbottom, has become something of what embodies a Gryffindor. Neville shows bravery and even has a moment in defiance towards the Dark Lord himself. He's come along way from being bullied by Draco while practicing broom riding.

The scene-stealer here is Alan Rickman. Rickman, the legendary British star, was Rowling's first choice to play Prof. Severus Snape and does so here again as he has in the previous installments, gives Snape a voice and a performance that truly shows how complex the character is. I won't give away spoilers for those have yet to seen the movie or read the book, but it goes to show you in the world of Harry Potter, nothing is what it seems.

The final showdown between Harry and Voldemort actually comes across as anti-climactic. It's a bit of a breather since the Hogwarts battle just took your breath away with the special effects and tension you're feeling, especially for the fans of the series who knew what was coming. Ralph Fiennes once again dons the sans nose make up of Lord Voldemort and truly captures what a great villain can be. The scene with Snape in particular demonstrates his capacity for evil and his ruthless aggression.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 wraps everything up as Rowling intended, but should she continue on the legacy of the Potter stories, there is room to do so for another generation. The epilogue from the book is there as well, but I feel it would have been better with actual older actors instead of the current cast with just make up. I fear it doesn't translate well and we still get the impression they are early twenty-somethings instead of people almost forty. That is a small knit-pick out of a flawless adventure that concludes a story that will be enjoyed for generations to come.

Green Lantern costume revealed

My thoughts on this:

This could just be the suit that all of the corps members use, also it could just be his shell that he uses in space. I like how it looks like it's made of light. And alien and eerie, and not spandex or something man-made. I'm sure by the end of the movie, Hal will put his sort of stamp on his costume. The costume really isn't a "costume" as it is more like military regalia. It looks like it's created from the ring and not just something he made in his garage. The lights indicate that it's a powerful instrument and I like how the mask just looks like it's there. No edges, just something to conceal the identity. They could have just had his eyes green or something,but it looks organic, and they kept the symbol as is so for right now, I really dig this.

Justice League Casting Call Part One

I've had this idea in my head for a while now. With the recent casting of Ryan Reynolds as Hal "Green Lantern" Jordan, and with Brandon Routh's Superman contract expiring, will we ever see a Justice League movie, sort of how Marvel is getting the Avengers together?

Probably not in the next decade or so. But I'm not a major Hollywood casting agent *cough*yet*cough*, so I just want to have some fun here.

Okay, let's start with a new Superman.

Adam Scott. He has a pretty impressive resume, though I just discovered him on the show "Tell me you love me", which was a somewhat hit for HBO a while back. He has the stature, though he's my height, but camera tricks can work around that. He's pretty built, but put homeboy here on a workout regime and it'll be pretty good. He has the voice as well. In "Tell me", he played somewhat a mousy character named Palek, who reminded me a lot of Clark.





Now Batman...

....

I kind of refuse to recast Batman. Bale has owned this role since before he even had it. Check out "Equilibrium" if you want to know what I mean.


Now on to Wonder Woman. I refuse to case some 20-something as Diana. It doesn't seem right. Especially somebody like Meghan Fox or...yeah. So I went with another Megan. Megan Gale. Standing in at 5'11" and with a body that just doesn't stop, I think she'd be perfect, in addition to her "unknown" status so you could imagine her BEING Wonder Woman and not anybody else. I think she works on so many levels. The body, the face, the stature. She's not some lame, skinny 20-something WASP. I'm sure they'd redesign her costume a bit.





Now this guy was my pick to play Thor. Mainly because, you know, he actually has Nordic roots. I digress. Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård, or just Alex Skarsgard is my choice to play Aquaman. Now, Aquaman is an interesting choice for any JL movie, but I think with the "green movement" on everybody's mind and "going green" is a buzz phrase, I'm sure Hollywood wouldn't have a problem putting him in. He's a noble character that just never seems to find a great writer that lasts more than 20 issues or so. He's basically King Arthur...underwater. Literally. The entire ocean is his kingdom! I think he's underrated and would fit right in.


I'm being a little bias here including Zatanna into the fray, but I think Ms. Zooey as Z would totally work. Nobody, in my eyes, could do it better. Even if it's just a bit role, for example let's say Bruce goes to her asking to be on this new team, but she refuses for two reasons. A) It'd be time away from her job, since crime-fighting doesn't pay the rent and B) it would distract her from looking for her father, who has mysteriously disappeared. I'm ALL for this. Plus her in that outfit? Yes please.


Since Cooper here didn't get the Green Lantern role, I decided he'd be just as good as Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow. I had originally thought it'd be kind of cool to put in Conner Hawke instead for a number of reasons: the team was looking for new blood, we already have a rich tycoon in tights, Connor and Zatanna would have something in common with their missing fathers and possibly a story involving her actually joining, but whatever. I figured if you had Hal, you'd have to have Ollie here on the action. Though where as Batman is the brooding billionaire, Ollie is the more swashbuckling type. I'd totally write him as the old Errol Flynn type, too. Originally I was trying to see if Kin Shriner would work as Ollie, but I realized I just didn't think it would. Kin did the voice for GA on the JLU cartoon a few years back. It's the voice I hear when I read Ollie in anything. He looks a bit like him, too. Oh well.

That's it for now. Next time we'll discuss Flash, Martian Manhunter and a slew of cameos. Wesley Dodds? Ted Grant? Fire? Kyle Rayner?

Who knows.

Holy. Crap. Ooooooooh

Toy Story 3!!

Space Nazis!

This movie has been in production for a while, and finally will be going to Cannes.

Imagine if in 1945, the Nazis went to the moon. That's right. The moon. And what if they took their best scientists to help build a new fortress and weaponry. Actual fact: a plethora of former Nazi scientists worked on the Apollo missions for NASA. Now...what if they have been planning to return?





That's right! SPACE NAZIS!

official site

Big Man Japan trailer

This looks crazy!

Watchmen thoughts.

I was very impressed by this film. It managed to stay very faithful to the book while adding it's own spin to the material. First the good:

Jeffery Dean Morgan IS the Comedian. He seemed to step right off the page, every amoral inch of him. My favorite part of the comic (IT'S NOT A FUCKING GRAPHIC NOVEL! IT'S A SERIALIZED COMIC!) was always his funeral, and the flashbacks were done perfectly (though why no Capt. Metropolis at the first meeting of the Crimebusters, though they kept it simple and just called the team Watchmen?)

Same with Jackie Earle Haley. Not to downplay the rest, but these were juggernauts on screen. Every nuance of Rorschach was perfectly captured by Haley, and his gravelly voice matched the character to a tee, making him seem to come off the page even more faithfully than Blake (& was a far sight more believable than Christian Bale and his Nathan Explosion impersonation).

Though downplayed in all of the reviews I've read, I felt that Matthew Goode played Ozymandias superbly. A perfect mix of arrogance and genius, like Tony stark on brain steroids. The addition of the meeting with oil & coal magnates was an example of Snyder adding depth to the character, whom I always felt was very underused and almost seemed tacked on in the original text.

The relationship between Dan and Laurie played out very well, and surpassed my expectations beautifully (How awesome was Patrick Wilson as the socially awkward Drieberg?)
As was the case with the one in 300, the love scene was VERY well done. People are saying that it was awkward, I think, because in movies usually the couple is naked & kissing: not gyrating and enjoying it like those of us in the real world do.

But the biggest kudos go to the execs at Warner Brothers for even green-lighting this project. Think about it:


* a Superhero movie with no recognizable characters
* No big name stars
* full frontal male nudity
* an 'R' rating in a genre that typically is frequented by minors
* GRAPHIC violence, nudity, sex, all of which make this a VERY un-family friendly movie
* AND a run time that most studios would balk at


all of this, PLUS a huge effects heavy budget for what equates to an art house superhero flick, would tell most execs to kill a project, or at least fire the director. But Warner not only supported the movie, but advertised the FUCK out of it! TV ads, viral websites, multiple theatrical trailers! This was a huge gamble on the part of Warner & and they went ahead anyway. Though, it's understandable that the weekend box office didn't meet their standards.

And now a few gripes:
The sound editor should be shot. I felt like I was watching a music video half the time, the music was so loud.

Speaking of Music, some of the song choices were a little weird to me. 'Sound of Silence' seemed like an odd choice for the funeral (I'd have preferred there was no music at ALL at that point), and 'Hallelujah', while a good song, seemed very out of place for the love scene. Maybe if those songs switched places?

Silhouette's murder being a hate crime. I know it's knit picky but in the comic she's kicked out in disgrace and murdered by an old foe wanting revenge (and speaking of gay, where was Capt. Metropolis & Hooded Justice sharing some thickly veiled gay time?).

The lack of Sally changing her name to Jupiter to hide the fact that she's Polish AND Laurie not going by Juspeczyk. I know it's a minor detail but they could have slipped it in with one sentence.

The revelation that Eddie Blake is Laurie's father was very watered down, & her hatred and animosity towards him was not properly portrayed. Again, a simple sentence, taken right from the book when Rorshach visits Dr. M and Laurie, would have helped that. I'm sure that certain scenes were cut for time that will flesh it out better (here's hoping on the DVD), but as is it's a little lacking.

And, despite the fact that the movie is 2hrs and 40mins long, it still seemed fairly rushed. Not nearly enough time was spent with Malcolm analyzing Rorschach (crossing my fingers again for the DVD), and Dr. Manhattan's history was lacking a bit. They never explained why he burned a Hydrogen symbol into his head. Or the reason why he would wear clothes and then not. The way I've always looked at it, Manhattan wears less and less clothes through out the book as he slowly loses his humanity, where basically a thing like shame (as Adam and Eve learned from the tree of knowledge) doesn't exist to him. so him being naked is as like how God created the first humans.

And TOO MUCH NIXON AND HIS PENIS NOSE!

Overall the pros vastly outweigh the cons, most of which are superficial to begin with. By far the most complex, thought provoking comic book movie we've seen thus far, eclipsing even the Dark Knight in terms of sheer brilliance. Bravo to all involved. I think I may need to do a second viewing at some point. Plus, they hinted a lot that Adrian is gay. Hrm.

p.s.- I liked the altered ending, and Hollis getting murdered is going to be on the DVD, as per Snyder.

Surgery...surgery...

In the not so distant future, an epidemic of organ failures devastates the planet. Out of the ashes of this tragedy, a savior emerges: GeneCo, a biotech company that offers organ transplants...for a price. Those who miss their payments are scheduled for repossession and hunted by the villainous organ Repo Men.

I had the opportunity to see Repo this past weekend and was blown away. Before one sees this movie, I advise you to not assume it's going to be similar to Moulin Rouge! or Rocky Horror. Or some abstract amalgam of the two. It's nothing like them at all. This modern, futuristic rock opera is unlike anything I have ever seen. The opening shots were drawn comic-book panels that briefly set up the prologue. A side note, all of the art was illustrated by co-writer Terrance Zdunich, who also portrays "GraveRobber". The characters in the film have their own story, yet all are intertwined with the other, and yet not at all complicated, though layered.

The President of GeneCo is Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino, Romeo + Juliet), learns that he is dying, while Shilo Wallace (Alexa Vega, Spy Kids), a 17-year-old girl with a rare blood disease, that she's been told she inherited from her deceased mother, sneaks through underground tunnels to her mother's tomb. Shilo follows a bug out of the mausoleum in an attempt to capture it, and in the process, runs into GraveRobber (Terrance Zdunich), who is busy digging underground. They flee from heavily-armed "GenCops" and enter a massive underground graveyard since grave robbers are to be killed on sight. Shilo is sighted...but saved by one of the mysterious Repo Men.

Shilo wakes up after passing out from blood-pressure problems, to the face of her over-protective father, Nathan Wallace (Anthony Stewart Head, Giles from "Buffy"). He has been keeping her locked in their house for seventeen years due to her disease. Shilo is bitter towards her late mother for giving her this disease and her even more so towards her father. Nathan, upset, gets ready for work...secretly as the head Repo Man for GeneCo. He takes great pride in his work, but knows that he can never reveal it to Shilo in fear of breaking her trust.
President Largo has three ungrateful and spoiled children: Luigi (Bill Moseley, The Devil's Rejects, Carnivale), Pavi (Ogre, vocalist for industrial band Skinny Puppy) and Amber (Paris Hilton). They fight and bicker over who will inherit the company after their father dies. All the while, they're taking inventory at a GenCo storehouse in a fantastical number that is one of my favorite songs in the whole production. Though, unbeknownst to the Largo children, their father has other plans. He sees a possible heir is Shilo, who he invites to see a Genetic Opera that night and introduces her to Blind Mag (Sarah Brightman), who thought Shilo died at birth.

Meanwhile Nathan, repossessing a spine, calls Shilo, who is at "Sanitarium Square" being guarded by Rotti's twin henchwenches while he's distracted. GraveRobber arrives and helps Shilo slip away from the twins. Meanwhile, Rotti announces that Blind Mag will be performing her final song as well as that Amber will be the spokesperson for the newly-revealed Zydrate Support Network, a rehab center for those addicted to the potent painkiller Zydrate. Shilo watches GraveRobber explain Zydrate, harvested from the brains of the dead and sold to addicts. Those who are addicted to surgery, like Amber, need Zydrate to ease the pain. Amber arrives and gets a shot of it, explaining in the process that she will be replacing Blind Mag after Mag's eyes, which she got from GeneCo, get repossessed after her final song, which in my opinion is the showstopper of the movie. GenCops arrive and everyone scrambles to escape, except for Amber and her two escorts, who hold her up as she passes out in a drug-induced haze.

Shortly after that, Nathan delivers the repossessed spine to Rotti, and he gives Nathan his next target: Blind Mag, though Nathan refuses. Rotti, Pavi, and Luigi follow Nathan as he works on another victim, trying to guilt him into repossessing Mag's eyes. He still refuses, and leaves once done with the victim. Later, Rotti sends the twins to accompany Blind Mag to Shilo's house, where Blind Mag confesses to Shilo that she is Shilo's godmother, having been good friends with Shilo's mother, Marni, before she died. Mag was sent by Rotti to convince Shilo to come to tonight's Genetic Opera. However, she also warns Shilo about GeneCo. Nathan arrives and starts an argument with Mag before kicking her out of his house. After trying to tell her dad that a Repo Man will take Blind Mag's eyes, Nathan tells her that there's no such thing as the Repo Men and sends her to bed. When she argues, he asks what she, a seventeen year old, could possibly do and without hesitation, Shilo retorts that it's better than being forty. Joan Jett makes a brief cameo as the guitarist in Shilo's musical number, properly entitled, "Seventeen". However, Shilo's dream-like rock number ends abruptly as Nathan slaps Shilo and she runs off.

Back at the Largo Manor, Amber, complains to her father that her latest surgery ruined her face. Rotti explains that he told her not to get so many surgeries. However, he eventually gives in and tells her that he'll take care of it, just like the good father he's always tried to be. After she leaves, Rotti has a monolouge and signs his will, which shows Shilo as his sole beneficiary. Nathan, after realizing that Shilo isn't home, discovers that GenCops have stolen Marni's body from the basement. Everyone gets ready for the Genetic Opera (Nathan puts on his Repo Man gear, Blind Mag walks through the cemetery on the way to the opera house, Amber picks up a last hit of Zydrate before the show, etc.). Meanwhile, GraveRobber express his beliefs that there will be a massacre at the Genetic Opera, and that whoever survives it will rule GeneCo.

The ending is too good to give away. There is tragedy, murder, revenge, and actually a bit of comedy. Darren Lynn Bousman has made a name for himself as a go-to guy for over the top, operatic gore and he doesn't shy away from it here. Repo! is often tremendously bloody with sanguine spilling left and right, often directly on top of naked flesh. He takes what he learned making Saw II--IV and pushes in into overdrive as he uses it to skewer one satirical target after the next. Normally, I am one to shy away from sexualized violence. I find it repulsive and saddening, but here, Bousman has found that perfect mix between sexy and grotesque. Though the bloodletting is vicious, it never spills over into elaborate rape fantasy.

The cast is made up of a bizarre collection of geek favorites, musicians and world famous opera singers is almost weirder than the movie's central concept. Paul Sorvino is exquisite fun as the patriarch who controls the world, but finds himself unable to defeat cancer. Sorvino is fascinating to watch when he is let loose and he has a singing voice to rival any star of stage. Sarah Brightman is also quite good in a small roll that is entirely divorced from her signature turn in "Phantom of the Opera". The rest of the cast is a bit of a mixed bag. Alexa Vega is strong as the daughter of the organ stealer and Anthony Stewart Head outdoes his Buffy singing, easily by a hundred fold. Meanwhile, Bill Mosely is obnoxious and all over the place, playing his seventh version of characters he's played before. The biggest surprise to me was to see Paris Hilton and her actually being watchable as Amber Sweet, even if she is heightened-reality version of herself. But the real standout is Nivek Ogre of Skinny Puppy. The man steals the show as a deformed lothario who has a nasty habit of killing his lovers. I sense him being a popular costume for comic conventions to come.

Repo: The Genetic Opera combines brutality with comedy and music very effectively. The interactions between the characters as they sing their parts make for great character development and story progression simultaneously. I'm not the type to like weird, cult films but this held my attention. It's definitely worth a viewing, and if you have time to immerse yourself, then it's definitely worth some good applause. I must say, I don't profoundly pitch or push quite so personally for many things, but I do think such a rare and beautiful film should not go unnoticed and unappreciated. The DVD release is scheduled for January 25th 2009, but there is still time to push and plead to your local theater and ask for them to screen it. You won't soon regret it or soon forget this experience of a movie.

Wheel of Time...movie? Not this again.

Says Variety.

My dream cast has changed over the years, obviously. I just don't see it as a movie. Though I wonder if it'll catch on like LOTR or be plummeted to the ground like "Eragon".

Iron Man is iron-clad solid.

Last night, my local movie theater had a special preview showing of Iron Man at 8 pm. So a few of my cronies and I piled up in a clown car and headed out. After the new “Dark Knight”, “Indiana Jones”, and “Incredible Hulk” trailers finished, it was showtime.

This was just an all-around good movie. Not just a movie that’s part of the “superhero” genre, but a fun, action-packed movie that everyone can enjoy. Seriously, I’m thinking of asking my mom if she wants to go see it sometime. Possibly for Mother’s Day. While I’m not a huge Iron Man fan, I know the backstory and are familiar with the supporting characters.

For those of you out of the Marvel loop for the past 45 years or so, here’s a quick backstory: Created by writer-editor Stan Lee, writer Larry Lieber, and artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, Tony Stark (and his iron-clad alter ego) first appeared in Tales of Suspense #39 in March 1963. Tony Stark, after being gravely injured and forced to build a devastating weapon, instead created a suit of power armor to save his life and help protect the world as Iron Man. He is a wealthy industrialist and genius inventor whose suit of armor is laden with technological devices that enable him to fight crime.

And that’s the story in a nutshell. The movie is very similar (small tweaks here and there): Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.),is captured by terrorists in Afghanistan. Ordered to build a missile for them, Stark uses his resources instead to build a powered exoskeleton to make his escape. Returning to America, Stark improves his armor and becomes the technologically advanced superhero Iron Man. Gwyneth Paltrow plays his personal assistant Virgina “Pepper” Potts, Terrence Howard as pilot James Rhodes, and Jeff Bridges plays the villainous Obadiah Stane. And yes, there is a cameo by Stan Lee, probably which has got to be his favorite yet.

Like I said, I wasn’t too familiar with Iron Man, but I can tell you this: Downey is Stark. There is charisma, there is heart, and on top of the fact that he looks like Stark. The movie makes tweaks here and there, but nothing outrageous that even the most die-hard fanboy will find little to complain about. The best part about the movie is the casting. It’s beyond stellar. The script is solid as iron (pun intended). Now, if I did have to knit-pick, I would say that just when you think you’re going to hear our hero’s theme…you don’t. While there are heavy metal sounds here and there, it doesn’t really have a dramatic feel. I also wished they had casted Jarvis, however with Paltrow as Potts doing the “butler” jobs, there wasn’t really a need. Though, he has a role…in a way. The special effects are amazing, but then again what would one expect from the guys from “Transformers” and Stan Winston. It has a great pace and not a second of film is wasted.

Any possiblity of a sequel is answered in the 30 second clip at the end of the credits. “Dark Knight” is 2 months away, so in the mean time check this one out. It’s one hell of a good ride.

Overkill

I am doing my best to not sound like an elitist here, but I don't think I can hold my tongue for much longer. The whole trend nowadays is to make a comic book property and make it into a 95 to 125 minute movie, and it's starting to show it's age. Now, don't get me wrong! I love Spider-Man 1 and 2, X-Men 1 and 2, Batman Begins, Sin City, Superman: The Movie and have been looking forward for The Dark Knight since the credits rolled on "Begins". Though I like them, because they are actually well-made.

News from WonderCon has told me that several new properties will be made into movies, even one that had only been on the shelves for a few days. Is Hollywood that dried-up that it can no longer even come up with it's own stories anymore? It feels weird to me now since when I was growing up, I was ostericized for reading the "funny books" and I see the same people who made fun of me standing in line for these movies. Same deal with Lord of the Rings, but that's a whole different story right now.

I think Hollywood needs to back down for a while. If they continue on the track they are on, we'll be stuck with movies NOBODY wants to see cluttering up our cinemas. Does anybody really want to see LeVar Burton as Deathlok? Honestly, Hollywood hot shots, lay off my books.