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Feb 6, 2010

Space Battleship Yamato – Live Action Movie

At first I was going to play off badbart’s comment in The Last Air Bender post until I realized that he said ‘Star Destroyers’. This, of course, meant the gigantic, triangular battleships in the Star Wars saga. When I first read his comment I thought he was talking about the American version of Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers).

Many of you youngsters probably haven’t even heard of Space Battleship Yamato/StarBlazers. This show was absolutely AMAZING when I was a kid. It aired in the mid-1970’s, right around the time that the first Star Wars film was kicking around. We would rush home after school and try to catch it on whatever UHF station was carring it. Back in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area it was channel 33. Or maybe it was 27. I can’t remember because it was almost 30 years ago!

It turns out that this year they’ll be releasing a live action, $22M adaptation of the anime appropriately titled Space Battleship Yamato.

http://smashy.net/media/space_battleship_yamato_2010.flv

There are so many aspects to this story/film that it is like peeling back the many layers of an onion. According to wikipedia:

Set in the year 2199, an alien race known as the “Gamilas” (“Gamilons” in the English Star Blazers dub) are raining radioactive bombs on Earth, rendering the planet’s surface dead and uninhabitable. Humanity lives in refuges built deep underground, but the radioactivity is slowly infiltrating the underground cities too. Earth’s space fleet is hopelessly outclassed by the Gamilas and all seems lost until a message capsule from a mysterious crashed spaceship is retrieved on Mars. Blueprints for a faster-than-light engine are discovered inside the capsule, and an offering of help from Queen Starsha of the planet Iscandar in the Large Magellanic Cloud, who says that she has a device, the Cosmo-Cleaner D (Cosmo DNA), which can cleanse Earth of its radiation damage.

The inhabitants of Earth secretly build a massive spaceship inside the ruins of the Japanese battleship Yamato, the Space Battleship Yamato for which the story is titled. Using Starsha’s blueprints, they equip their new ship with a space warp drive, called the “wave motion engine”, and a new, incredibly powerful weapon called the “wave motion gun” which fires from the bow.

We were in awe of the wave motion gun when we were kids. We’d draw all of our space ships in our notebooks to have the gigantic gun in the front and, when we played on the playground, we always pretended that we would fire that behemoth and we’d act out the same type of firing sequence.

Think about how our minds were blown when we found out that the Earth forces built the Andromeda class fleet and it consisted of battleships with TWO wave motion guns! Even the English version had a catchy opening theme song that made all of us kids want to run around outside and pretend we were space explorers:

The story has everything: romance, robots, an environmental message, special effects, and an homage to history. Yes, the ship was named after that Yamato. Read up on it, kids! It’s interesting stuff!

It will be interesting to see how this adaptation works. They’ve Takuya Kimura (the 37 year old idol from the ‘boy band’ SMAP) as the lead and they’ve switched the gender of a few other characters. Other than those oddities it totally looks like a fun summer/spring popcorn flick. A little bit of spit and polish, some fancy new duds and this thing looks like it could be a winner.

Now if they only made a live action Robotech…

Feb 5, 2010

Posted by puzzlehead | 2 Comments

M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Last Air Ben...

http://smashy.net/media/the-last-air-bender-720p.flv

Let’s get a few things out in the open before I talk about this film. I admit that I am going into this movie ‘blind’ because I haven’t seen the cartoon that this is based on, “Avatar: The Last Air Bender”, which aired on Nickelodeon. The fact that it aired on Nickelodeon was one of the contributing factors of why I never watched the cartoon. Don’t get me wrong! I used to enjoy watching Nick. I just happen to feel that it’s glory days were when it aired Ren & Stimpy, Doug and Rocco’s Modern Life.

The second reason that I never watched the cartoon series was because I’m an anime watcher. For whatever reason I had no desire to watch this series, possibly because I was completely turned off on American made cartoons that sucked ass (Masters of the Universe, anyoone?). Somewhat elitest, sure. But can you blame me when most of my life I’ve encountered American cartoons that were either aimed at simple comedy or pimping some simple morality play?

So, it has come to pass that I will probably try and watch the original cartoon before this movie comes out. Although I might want to do it the other way around and watch the movie first and then watch the cartoon. The reasoning is simple: Where I’ve been burned by American cartoons in the past I’ve also been punched int eh face by American live-action adaptations of popular media in the cinema. Let’s look at the disappointing track record so far:

Dragonball: Evolution Words cannot express how this movie depressed me. It was pretty horrible. Acting? Bad. Action? Bad. Plot? You guessed it – bad. In fact, I don’t know how anyone could render Goku as a wimpy white kid when the entire story of Dragonball is based on the Chinese ‘Journey to the West’. In fact, The Last Airbender was even accused of falling victim to ‘racebending’ for doing the exact same thing. Give us Asian actors a break! And, no, you can’t cast Jet Li or Chow Yun Fat as a little kid.

Mortal Kombat. The exception for this was the first movie which proved to be a fairly entertaining jaunt through Outworld. The second movie? Crap. The cartoon series “Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm” was fairly formulaic. The television show “Mortal Kombat: Conquest” seemed like it was filmed in a Universal Studios back lot. In fact, the fight scenes in that show reminded me of another television show – the ‘World Martial Arts Council’. It was pretty bad.

D.O.A. (Dead or Alive) HEY! WHAT THE HELL DID THEY DO TO MY JIGGLEVISION?!

So, I’m awaiting this movie but with a little hesitation. Looking at the effects reminds me of Dragonball. Or, if you’re into cheesy Chinese movies, The Storm Riders. Ergo, I’m holding my breath and hoping that this singular trailer isn’t an omen of another cross-over let down.

Maybe they should have just traded off the popularity of James Cameron’s “Avatar” and hope that people get confused.

Apr 6, 2007

Posted by Smash | 4 Comments

300 to 1

As most of you know, I can be horribly closed-minded about things, especially movies/tv/music. From another review or even a trailer, I size up the intruding film and dismiss it. The problem is, even at those times, I still think I’m right far more than I’m wrong.

300 is an incredible example of me being wrong. Dead wrong. It seemed not much more than a 2+ hour single fight scene; the trailers for 300 gave the impression of a movie very thin on plot. I made this snap judgment and dug my heels in, prepared to defend, to death, if need be. Watching the monstrous film approach, I found that I had no allies in this belief. Dex and Angelbaby were heralding its glory before the motion picture even launched.

In hindsight, I should have recollected, better, whom I faced. When Sin City invaded American movie theaters, a short two years ago, I also had misjudged. The writing of Frank Miller expressed through the directing of Robert Rodriguez was unlike anything ever seen before. Sin City, as a film, has a supernatural hold over my mind. Whenever I recall scenes from that movie, I see them as frames within a comic book; I am unable to recollect fluid motion of characters and events. I attribute this magic to Rodriguez’s masterful adaptation of Frank’s artwork, black and white scenes with tiny accents of color throughout.

This time Miller teams with Zach Synder and creates another glorious triumph in 300. Visually the film is as stunning as facing down an invading army of millions. Synder brings artistic touches to the screen; changes in color saturation and grainy film scenes are blended together enrapturing. Fore-armed with the knowledge that most of the special effects are CGI wizardry, I expected to find a chink in this armor. Struggling until the very end, I never found one.

300 does have an Achilles’ Heel, however. The plot. With the screenplay, Snyder augmented the story with auxiliary elements. Parting is such sweet sorrow

First is King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and son. According to Plutarch’s accounting, the childless King encouraged his wife "Marry a good man, and have good children" as he strode off to battle. Secondly, Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) sacrificed her body in a political maneuvering to garner support for her husband. Frank Miller’s original comic, 300, lacked any of these details. Even with these elements, 300 possess a dangerously thin line of story. Yet, because this tale is based primarily on real events, one of the most heroic and inspiring events in all humankind, it impresses and inspires the audience. Much like the 300 Spartan warriors, 300’s powerful and formidable tragedy speaks far more about humanity. It mesmerizes the viewer while it brings forth the importance of freedom in the human condition. It addresses the value in self-sacrifice for the greater good.

Are you more jealous of my beefcake abs or my hot wife?

The history behind these events of this movie is awe-inspiring. The 300 brave Spartans who sacrificed their lives in the belief of freedom and defense of their country will be remembered for all of human history. This basic message of sacrifice for a worthy cause is an invaluable lesson. The 300 Spartan soldiers, augmented by 6000 greek militia (merely farmers and other tradesmen) used brains over brawn to defend their homelands. Their sacrifice united the Greek peoples, Athenians and Spartans alike to repel Persian God-King Xerxes and his incalculable horde of men. They did not go quietly into the night; they did not back down against insurmountable odds, and they did not die in vain.

Frank Miller has a unique gift for story telling; and 300 champions that talent. Synder shows a flair for visual presentation with the breath-taking special effects. Combined, these forces are unstoppable, much like a Spartan Hoplite. Each man’s talent overlaps and enhances the other. Together they form a mighty phalanx. I can only hope to see more of their combined efforts to entertain us in the future.

Mar 16, 2007

Posted by AngelBaby | 10 Comments

Casino Royale

Bond...James Bond

Just like I did with Silent Hill for Dex, I promised Smash a review of a movie and didn’t deliver until it hit the DVD shelves. Razy Jess is razy.

I
realize that most people find comfort in the familiar, but we’ve had
over 40 years and 20 films’ worth of James Bond, most of which follow
the same basic formula of international intrigue set against a
revolving door of baddies and babes. Casino Royale
isn’t so radical a departure, but it’s enough of one to inspire
enthusiasm and debate; it’s also one of the strongest entries in the
entire series. Now any new actor playing the iconic role of 007 is
certain to receive serious scrutiny from the worldwide legion of fans,
but Daniel Craig encountered unwarranted criticism before even one
frame of film had been shot, all because he’s blonde? Come on…

As it turns out,
Craig’s intense portrayal of Bond might be the best thing about this
movie. Abandoning many of the cartoonish clichés of Bonds past, Craig
is in immaculate physical shape but still gets the bloody crap kicked
out of him left and right. Instead of an nonstop parade of crazy
gadgets and gizmos and watch lasers and invisible cars aiding Bond in
combat and spycraft, here the focus is on stone-faced smarts,
determination and raw mano-y-mano physical violence, and with minimal
special effects these action scenes are outstanding. So yeah, there’s
no Q or Moneypenny and the leering quips are kept to a minimum, but
frankly they are not missed. Despite the new direction, in many
respects, Casino Royale recalls the look and feel of Connery’s ’60s
films. Thrill at the way it opens, as Ian Fleming’s spy/assassin makes
his first kills and the recognizable beginning of every Bond movie is
recreated in shadowy black & white. I’d love an entire Bond film in
a noir style, but Casino Royale is impressive enough that I’m
thoroughly psyched for the future of the franchise as it is.

Jan 4, 2007

Posted by Smash | 7 Comments

Fantastic Four 2

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/fantasticfourriseofthesilversurfer/large.html

I didn’t see the first movie. So I don’t know. And I don’t trust Angelbaby’s opinion on the first movie. The trailer looks awesome, and I’m shocked I’m saying this, but the CGI doesn’t look bad. It actually looks good (in the trailer at least).

Who knows?

Oct 23, 2006

Posted by Smash | 3 Comments