Fighting Crime, Spinning Webs

I love Spider-Man. As a kid, he was the first comicbook character I collected. I had a huge collection of Spidey comics. I loved the 90’s cartoon. And when they started selling the US comics in stores in Ireland, the first one I bought was, of course, a Spider-Man issue. Though I was a bit lost, as the UK reprint collections I had been buying as well were about 6 to 8 months behind, so I had a lot to fill in. 

I was incredibly excited at the prospect of seeing my hero in live action in a major summer blockbuster movie with the budget and team to make it look good, and I adored the web swingers 2002 release, starring Toby Maguire. 

The follow-up in 2004, pitting our friendly neighborhood wall crawler against the awesome mind and might of Doctor Octopus took everything to the next level, resulting in a movie that still thrills me to this day. It did, however, get me in a not insignificant amount of trouble with my girlfriend for buying a super articulated 18 inch tall action figure released for that sequel, which I still have to this day, and I bring him to the cinema for the wall crawler’s big events, much to many other fans amusement. 

Although they generally get poor reviews from critics and fans alike, I unironically enjoyed the Andrew Garfield movies from the 2010’s. I still think that while the Toby Maguire had a much better Peter Parker, the Garfield ones captured Spider-Man far more accurately. But both are outdone by the Tom Holland series that brings Spider-Man and friends into the mega blockbuster universe that all began in 2008 with Iron Man. 

Being a comic character, it’s no surprise that I love his animated outings as well. The incredible Spectacular Spider-Man from 2008 is one of my all-time favourite cartoon series, with its gorgeous, clean, minimalistic designs, absolutely rocking theme tune, and top tier character development and story arcs. It died too soon, cancelled after only two seasons, ending on a cliffhanger, thanks to the purchase of Marvel by Disney. Disney! Till all are one! 

The theatrically released animated Into The Spider-Verse movie from 2018 left me utterly stunned in the cinema, sitting jaw wide open, gapping at the unique visual touches, the masterful characters and plot and the unexpected twists and turns, all wrapped in a genuinely touching story about family, love and loss. I consider it to be one of the finest superhero movies ever made, and certainly the best Spider-Man movie to date. 

All this to say that I’m very excited for the upcoming third instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Spider-Man series, No Way Home. 

Earlier tonight, I got my tickets for the preview screening on Thursday, December 16th in downtown. I would have preferred to get tickets for my local theatre, but all the good screenings (Read: Not 3D) were sold out by the time I learned they were even available. 

Friday morning had lots of space, so I’m also going to go see it then.

And maybe once more over the weekend. I haven’t decided yet.

Of course I’ve decided. You know me too well. 

Review: Marvel's The Avengers

I've been waiting to see this since the after-credits scene from Iron Man back in 2008. I've watched all the related movies, most more than once. I adore the choices made in actors for the characters, and I had faith that Joss Whedon could succeed in producing a big cast movie that gave everyone their due time in the spotlight.

I went to book tickets for The Avengers last Tuesday afternoon in a big, flashy, new, high-tech movie theater in Downtown Vancouver, only to find out that it was effectively sold out and what seats were left were either right up the front or at the extreme left or right sides. Instead, my friends and I headed for a cinema on Cambie that was also showing the movie.

The Park Theatre is one of three cinemas owned and operated by Festival Cinemas, an independent cinema group. Built in 1941, it still maintains a classic feel to it, from the single ticket counter at the front to the concession stand just before you reach the single screen. However, recent renovations mean that it can play summer blockbusters as good as the big boys, in 3D with full surround sound.

The staff are lovely, the butter is real (though why people put butter on popcorn still confuses me), and the seating is comfy. In fact, even more than comfy, the Park Theatre sports "love seats", with the ability to raise the armrest so you can snuggle with your loved one and enjoy the movie together.We didn't realise this last night, but we'll know for the future! I plan on making good use of it.

This has become, after just a single viewing experience, my favourite theatre in the Vancouver area. We've all decided that it will be our first theatre of choice for any upcoming movies for the foreseeable future. A wonderful, friendly experience.

Oh, and The Avengers was awesome. But then, you knew that already.

So, This Is Happening

Admittedly, we've all known it was going to happen since Lucas first tinkered with "improving" the originals back in the late 90's (Oh god... was it that long ago already?!?).

This reminds me of a scene from Father Ted.

Stop tapping it. It was done the day it hit the cinema screen for the first time. Leave it alone.

Nutshell Review: Up

Just back from Disney Pixars newest offering, Up. First impressions are good.

The music is fantastic, utilizing a lot of classical music to full and wonderful effect. The beats are well matched, though possibly the fact that I noticed them is actually a negative. Music should accompany the scene, never overpower it, but I just couldn't help notice how well certain pieces fit the action onscreen.

And the action is rendered in stunning clarity and detail. Once again, Pixar prove themselves masters of their chosen medium. Having seen Monsters Vrs Aliens earlier in the year, the difference in quality is astounding. Everything is lovingly crafted, from the principle characters holding your attention, to the tiny flowers, bugs and landscape details all over the scenery.

Which brings me to the characters themselves. Now, admittedly, they were clichéd and, highly ironically, very 2D in nature, but they were fun and enjoyable, and I liked them. The animals that appear were probably more fun than the few humans, but I certainly wasn't annoyed at any of the characters presented.

Finally, the big part of the movie, the 3D. It seems that this is becoming more and more prevalent in modern cinema. In just this year alone, I can think of three animated movies already released and one on the way presented in polarized 3D, the style that needs the lined glasses, rather than the red/green ones. Monsters Vrs Aliens was ok, but the 3D never seemed to be quite right. It was a fraction of a millimeter off the whole time, and both myself and Claire ended up with quite the headache afterwords. We didn't get to see Coraline, unfortunately, so I can't comment on that, and I have no interest in seeing A Christmas Carol, having been less than impressed by any trailers so far.

But Up was incredible! The 3D was, for me, stunning. It worked so well. There were just a handful of moments when it shifted a little off, but 90% of the time, I loved the effect. Bit's flying out at the screen, depth and distance between characters and backgrounds, and even effective multiple layering. It has to be said though that Claire disagrees with me. She found the 3D distracting and annoying again. She says it was better than Monsters Vrs Aliens, but still not great.

The one weakness is the story. It's rather basic, simple and clichéd, and feels unusually by-the-numbers for a Pixar production. Claire felt she could not only tell where the plot was going, but could almost predict the dialogue in some places. I think her situation wasn't helped by the fact hat she couldn't immerse herself in the movie because of the 3D, while I fell headlong into the screen and only resurfaced when the credits rolled.

Well worth seeing in my opinion, though not Pixars finest hour. Then again, they may never top the perfection of Wall-E, which all members of this household are delighted to point out was a movie released before 3D became the cool thing to do.

Cinema Vrs Flu

I really, really want to go to the cinema tonight. I haven't been to anything here in Cork since before the Epic Holiday (TM)! That's a long time now. I really want to see Burn After Reading, a Coen Brothers movie that looks like classic Coen Brothers stuff, staring Brad Pitt, George Clooney and John Malkovich. I'm interested in Mutant Chronicles, even if only for the fact that it stars Thomas Jane, Ron Pearlman and, amazingly, John Malkovich! He's in two new releases in the same week!

But I also really, really don't want to die. And I am. And if I go out, I'll die faster.

You see, dear reader, I have a nasty, nasty head cold that I picked up from the lovely little kiddies I teach. My nose feels like a tap, my eyes are sore on the inside, my hearing is muffled, and my throat is sore from a constant, annoying cough I've developed. I sneeze without notice, and this has lead to several goo-filled hands. I cough and hack until I've broken the horrible sticky stuff lining my throat away, and then just keep on coughing some more.

So instead, I'm wrapped in my dressing gown, curled up with a warm cup of tea with honey, contemplating cooking a steaming hot pot of soup, checking to see if the heating is still on every ten minutes, and thinking warm thoughts.

Nutshell Review: Death Race

Here's the problem. Most of my regular readers, of which there are but a handful to begin with, are Irish. This movie will not be getting an Irish cinema general release. It's a straight-to-DVD-er. How do I guess as much?? Because I've seen it. It was in a tiny cinema on it's opening night because no-one else was screening it, but I've seen it. And, boy! Are you gonna be missing something special!!

The trailer has everything you need to know about this movie. Big guns, ridiculous explosions between cars, a threadbare plot (at best), and Jason Statham. That's it. Expect more, and be bitterly disappointed. Expect this, and it's awesome. Even more awesome is the trailer for yet another Statham movie right at the start! You can't get enough of that wonderful actor.

Death Race, for those who do not know, is a remake of a 1975 movie, Death Race 2000 produced by Roger Corman. The Roger Corman. Which Roger Corman?? This one. Unbelievably, he serves as producer on the remake as well!!

All that aside, Death Race is awesome. I can't stop saying that. Because it is! It just is. So much violence. So much death. So much fun.

Edit: Oh boy!! Not only do I suspect that this might have a slim chance of getting into Irish cinemas (if it shows up near you, go see it!), but I just discovered Tom Cruise was a producer as well! Tom and Roger. Nice.

Nutshell Reviews: Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

After Mummy 2, I thought the franchise was dead. I really disliked the over-use of CGI effects, particularly during the final scenes versus the Scorpion King. I still can't understand why they didn't do an awesome fight between Brendan Fraiser and The Rock! That would have been cheaper to do than the atrocious fight we got instead.

But the trailer for the new installment, M3:TofDE, actually looked very, very interesting. It had action, humour, cool effects, a neat twist on the concept, a great cast and what appeared to be an interesting plot.

The opening 30 minutes are very boring. A good chunk of this is Rick O'Connell and the new chick playing Evey, who I really dislike, just being boring and very not funny in a "look how funny we are" kinda way. They make an awful joke at the start regarding the change in actress for Evey, and it went downhill fast from there for her. She delivered many of her lines with little flair, and seemed uncomfortable in the role. I really liked how Rachel Weisz managed to play the rough and tough, clumsy damsel, and make it enjoyable to watch. I was really hoping that this new Evie would be used as an example of how bad-ass the Emperor was and get killed. Early. On screen. With no chance for return. I would actually have preferred if Evey's character had not appeared in the movie at all, instead explaining her absence with a signing tour for her new book, or something. Her character did little in the movie to justify her presence anyway!!

But once Jet Li was brought back, things got exciting! The action kicked the movie into high gear, and it was a lot of fun. True, there were still far too many cringe-worthy, soppy moments, and it did get silly a few times. And once again, the CGI was in far too great a supply, but thus is the difficulty of bigger budgets. And the snow in the scenes in the Himalayas was terribly fake looking, particularly if anyone had to run through it, or step in it, or just interact in any way with it. It was clearly a non-sticky, non-melting, non-liquid based powdery stuff. And baddies were, while not quite immortal, ridiculously difficult to kill!

But despite all this, over-all, not a bad movie. It really was fun. I laughed out loud at a few scenes, and it was sufficiently pulp. I won't be rushing out to buy the DVD, and I might even recommend people to wait and watch it on DVD. Mummy 3: Rise of the Dragon Emperor is better than the previous movie in the trilogy, but not as good as the first one, and better than Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but still not as good as the trailer suggests. Pity. And there are just a few changes that could have made it much better! But that's a story for another time, as it requires talking about plot details and the finale.

Turning Death Into A Fighting Chance To Live

On the cover, it looks as though Star Trek has, after 42 years, five live-action series, one animated offering, making up an astounding 726 episodes over 29 separate seasons of television, ten movies in the bag, countless fan productions, computer games, a library worth of novels, comics, action figures and merchandising of all shapes and sizes, finally run it's course. Thank you Wikipedia for the informative facts there!

Of course, as on a book, covers are often deceiving, and Star Trek is currently attempting to rejuvenate itself with a new movie, based in the golden era of the franchise. Yes, Kirk, Spock and company are coming back. Younger, slimmer, and sexier fitter than ever before!

Let me say, straight up, that I am not a Trekkie. The only series I've ever enjoyed was Next Gen, and that was because, at the time, it was the only thing remotely like it RTE aired. I didn't have very much to compare it against, but for better or worse, it still holds a place in my heart. Plus, unlike later incarnations, RTE managed to show all of Next Gen at a reasonable hour! The Original Series was too old for me. RTE inexcusably stopped showing DS9 right before it got, according to those that know, good. Voyager was only ever shown at some ridiculous hour like 11pm, or later! And I don't think we ever saw Enterprise here. From what little I saw of Voyager, I liked it. It had the "boldly going where no one had gone before" vibe I enjoyed from Next Gen, and two of the handful of episodes I caught featured Q (they were a two parter I saw together), my favourite recurring "villain" from Next Gen.

I did, however, enjoy the movies. The classic ones, starring Shatner and Nimoy are still great fun to watch. Yes, even the whale one... maybe not the one with God, though. I love First Contact. But after that... I had to look up what Insurrection was about, and even after skimming the Wikipedia article for it, I just can't remember much about it at all. I seem to recall Data going berserk at the start, and then... nothing. That's it. Even after reading the plot synopsis. I still have yet to see Nemesis, and am in no hurry, really.

So that puts what I am about to say in perspective. Ahem.

Damn!! I am starting to look forward to Star Trek 2009 (formerly 2008. Accursed delays!). The cast sounds really strong, and when J.J. Abrams is reigned in and forced to do a movie-length plot, it can turn out great, unlike when he's let loose with a multi-season series (I would link to the official home-page but, "Yo! ABC dudes!! Spoilerific homepage!!")! Plus, I love their idea of minimalism in web design! Awesome! So, when Abrams stated upfront that there would be no big news for San Diego Comic Con (Have I mentioned yet that we'll be there?!? I have? Oh... well... we will), I was momentarily disappointed. Only slightly. But then, Paramount went and released these to brighten up all our days! Click to embiggen.






















They'll be available at the Paramount booth at San Diego Comic Con.
Which I'll be at.