This is Entry 287: Brian on the Aisle #14

That Other Age of Uh:

A "Review" of Avengers 2: Age of Ultron.

Welcome to another installment of Brian on the Aisle, where I take a look at a movie that most everyone else has months after people have. The Movie this time is one that I think most people saw coming. It’s Avengers 2: Age of Ultron!

Before I get to my "review" of the movie I'll say this: what you are about  to read is in no way a full review of the movie just my feelings & there might be spoilers if you haven't seen the movie yet. But I think the movie came out a few months ago so the movie has already been spoiled awhile ago but I just thought I'd put that warning out there.

Onto my talking about the movie! Now it’s not like I haven’t spent a few dozen posts talking about Age of Ultron. But this isn’t that Age of Ultron, this is a different. I knew it was going to be different going in. There was no way they were going even attempt to do the comic on the silver screen.

Now, is different good or bad? Both. My feelings towards the Avengers movies are not all that great. If I were to rank the Marvel Studios films, The Avengers is either near the bottom or at the bottom. What’s at the top? The Captain America movies with probably Guardians of the Galaxy next on the list.  This film did one thing better then it’s predecessor: it did not lag in the middle. I felt first film did way too much set up to then lag along in the middle before slamming into a over long fight scene for an ending.  There might be too much & not enough going on at the same time in this movie (one thing it it shares with the unrelated comic of the same name). I did like parts of the film, but these are small parts. A line here, a line there. A small interaction there, a small scene over there.

Of the new characters: Scarlet Witch comes off the best. Her official Avengers costume looks stupid. Quicksilver has a pointless death (he can move a truck quick enough to protect Hawkeye & Child but he couldn’t move behind the truck himself?) My choice for Quicksilver’s on the silver screen is the one from X-Men: Days of Future Past. He could have had move screen time then he got. Just one mission to break out his maybe dad? He can’t go with Xavier & friends to stop Mystique from killing the president? No? oh… ok. If you say so, Movie.

I guess my biggest problem with the movie is how connected it all was. No, I don’t mean the various cameos from characters from other Marvel movies. I’m talking how everything was too damn connected. Of course Hydra had Loki’s staff & had a bunch of half built robots laying around that Ultron could use later. Of course Iron Man had built his own mini army of robots that Ultron could use quite easily later. Of course he already had the idea & name for an super duper mega cool robot. They don’t explain where the name Ultron came from. Banner & Stark just know the name. Ultron just excepts it. 

“Yup. That’s my name. I hate everything else about Stark but I’ll still call myself the name he gave me. I might not call myself that BUT I will respond to it when people call me it.”

Another thing: WHY DID STARK HAVE TO MAKE ULTRON? Why make such a big alteration to the comics. Hank Pym has 3 things he’s known for in the comics. The movies already wrote him out a founding Avenger. Why not take the most interesting of things away from him, too!

My List goes as follows:

1. Created Ultron.

2. Founding member of the Avengers.

3. Is Ant-Man/Giant-Man.

They could have brought him in.

“Hey! This staff thingy Loki was using seems to have a computer in it. I need to call in someone who knows a lot of about this stuff. No, not Banner. Jarvis?”

“Yes?”

“Get me Hank Pym!”

“Yes. Right away.”

There you go. Pym is added in to your already overstuffed movie & he partly keeps his place in Marvel history. BUT NO: Banner & Stark have to be Ultron’s baby daddy. Ultron doesn’t even create The Vision. He has to get a only established in this film character to help him. WHY WOULD ULTRON HAVE A HUMAN HELP HIM CREATE HIS NEW BODY/VISION? ULTRON HATES ALL HUMAN LIFE! I DON’T CARE THAT SHE HAD SOMETHING HE NEEDED. ULTRON HATES HUMANS! HE’S HATED THEM FOR DECADES! ULTRON DOES NOT WORK WITH HUMAN FILTH!

I’m fine with Jarvis becoming the basis of The Vision, much more then I’m with Jarvis being an automated assistant & not a real person.

The cool, worked for decades backstories for Ultron & The Vision were tossed out in favor of… I don’t know what. Something less cool. Yeah… to do it right would have taken more time. But they could have at least attempted to do it. The Avengers movies have a timeline that stretches back to the 1940’s. They couldn’t have pulled something out of their collective butts & given them proper, not so connected origins.

One thing I noticed thing was how much James Spader, the voice of Ultron, sounds like Robert Downey Jr? That’s some good casting if they had thought that when he was chosen. One thing I disliked: Ultron being so chatty, I guess he gets that from Stark.  But it’s something I really disliked. It seemed to be off-putting to me. I don’t need my robotic death machine to be all jokey. Seems like a very Human thing to be doing. You know the thing you hate & want to kill off?

There is also so much heavy handed hinting at “Hey! Gotta make everyone hate each other! There has to be some sort of conflict! We are doing Civil War next time!” Might as well just called the movie Avengers 2: Prelude to Civil War co-starring Ultron. That makes more sense.

“I can’t trust anyone! I gotta do things behind your backs! I gotta protect the world with an Iron Sheild!” 

“Trying to stop wars that have not even happened have always started more wars!”

Another thing why can’t Black Widow & Banner just be friends? Close Friends? Why do you gotta hint that they are in a sexual relationship? “Don’t be playing hide the pickle!” Smooth move, Iron Man! Way to demeaning the possible relationship two of your fellow teammates might be having. Speking of relationships: Not sure about Hawkeye’s family. They seem an odd addition to the movie. They didn’t really add much to the movie. I did like seeing Linda Cardellini. She did her small part well.

I have 1 question: Why does Captain America keep taking off his helmet while out on missions? Helmets are there for a reason! They are there to protect you! Wearing them save lives! Your life maybe? WEAR YOUR HELMET! We know it's you, Chris Evans! You don't need to keep showing us your face!

The Thanos during credits cameo makes no sense being there. He didn’t play any part in the movie I just saw. Why are you there, Thanos?

If I can compare this movie to the unrelated comic for a moment: Way better ending to their story. Didn’t tell me that everything I had just seen didn’t actually happen due to some Deus Ex Machina BS.

That’s all I got at the moment. I might come up with more & if i do I’m make another post.

Until then: Stay Jazzy Everybody!

This is Entry 263: Brian on the Aisle #13

Welcome to another installment of the infrequent series called Brian on Aisle where I "review" movies that I've seen & want to talk a little bit about.

Today movie is The Avengers. Now why am I talking about it now & not 5 months ago like everyone else was? Well... I hadn't see it yet. I just saw the movie for the 1st time today. What took me so long? I was waiting.

Waiting for it to come to the theater a few blocks from my house where you can see movies for 3 dollars. Also, I made a promise to my Mother to see it with her. She's not really into comics or anything she just wanted to see the movie. So... I waited the time it came to my local theater to see it with her.

It came so we went (along with my father) to see the movie. Before I get to my "review" of the movie I'll say this it's no way a full review of the movie just my feelings & there might be spoilers if you haven't seen the movie yet. But I think the movie came out 5 months ago so the movie has already been spoiled awhile ago but I just thought I'd put that warning out there.

Now... what did I think of it?

Well... It was good. Not great. I liked Captain America: The First Avenger & Thor better. The movie started out slow, lagged through the first half of the movie & then ramped it up for an action packed 2nd half. Not really sure who or what the alien army was. I didn't recognize the name of the race, they might of been from the comics but I didn't know who they were. They kind of reminded me of zombies & just seemed to be to be fought. No real character to them.

Another thing: It's not the Tesseract, It's the Cosmic Cube! That's what the comics call it & that's what I call it. Sure, it sounds a bit hokey but all of stuff in comics sounds hokey.

The Hellicarrier looked cool!  The Hulk looked really good, probably the best he's looked in any of his recent movies appearances.  The humor was good. Many of the jokes got be laughs from the crowd. The Death of Coulson was sad (I knew it was coming but it was still sad). I quite liked Thor's "casual" look, the sans cape look. Sort of felt like the cape was pointless. Wasn't a big fan of the Mask of Cap's costume. Something just seemed a bit off about it. I'd see the sequel to see what they did with the Mad Titan Thanos & how they represent his "girlfriend".

What do I give the movie? 3 Avenges out of 5.

The theater is also playing the Spider-Man so I'll probably try to see that. Look for that "review" soon.

Until then Stay Jazzy everyone!

- Brian

This is Entry 259: That's Amazing, Spider-Man!

Last time, I made a post regarding the forth coming Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises & why I'm not going to see it. I thought it would behove me to make a similar post regarding the Spider-Man movie & just Spider-Man in general.

What's my feeling towards the movie? A little more favorable then my feelings towards TDKR. Yeah, it's a reboot but so are the Nolan Batman films. Do we need another origin story for Spidey? No. But I don't see how they could gotten away without having some origin story elements in their movie. It's not the origin, everyone already knows it or the basics of it. It's what you do with it/how you show it that matters. People might be complaining about it being there but they'd also complain if it wasn't there. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

What's my feelings towards the Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy: They were good movies (I even kind of liked the 3rd one). There were good parts & bad parts like most any movies. I think I read that Raimi didn't want to do a 4th movie so I reboot was bound to come around.

Full Disclosure Time: I've never been all that hot on Spider-Man, He's never been a favorite character of mine. All & all I can find him to be kind of boring at times. But that doesn't mean I haven't found things involving him that I haven't enjoyed. I have quite a number Spider-Man comics from the 80's that I really like (That might be because Black Cat, a character I really like, is in a number of them). The 1990's Spider-Man cartoon is awesome & I'll gladly put it up there on the lists of great comic book adaptation cartoons. Heck, even the current Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon is half way decent (At least the few episodes I've seen have been half way decent). The Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon can be good for a laugh.

I know this isn't much of a post but I just thought I'd put my feelings down on screen. Just to get them out.

- Brian

This is Entry 258: The Dark Knight Rises & I why won't be seeing it in theaters.

This summer, like last summer there are a number Comic Book movies coming out. Avengers has already come out & from what I hear is awesome (I have yet to see it. Long story on why I haven't). The next up is The Dark Knight Rises, the final chapter in Christopher Nolan's trilogy of Bat Movies (The other 2 being 2005's Batman Begins & 2008's The Dark Knight). As you you can tell by the title of this post I do not plan on seeing the movie in theaters.

Why not? It's not that I have anything against director Christopher Nolan, he makes good movies.  Christian Bale as Batman has done a fine interpretation of the character. I don't have against anyone else involved with the movie. I'm sure The Dark Knight Rises will be fine & will make tons of cash. I just don't feel like seeing the movie. But why not? Anyone who knows me & my hobbies would assume that this would be my thing! It's a comic book movie & I like comic books! I saw Batman Begins in the theaters with my Grandmother (which made for an interesting conversation post movie). I thought it was fine movie. Not sure all the movies I saw in 2005 but I most likely would have put it on my list of Good movies I saw that year. Go forward 3 years & we get to my problem: 2008's The Dark Knight. My "problem" is not really with the movie it's self. It's with the film's fans.

People seemed to loose their fricking minds in regards to the movie. Actually, they loose it regarding a major element of the movie. It's main villain: The Joker, portrayed by the late Heath Ledger. Now I haven't seen the full film but from the clips I've seen He didn't a fine good with the role. He made it his own. He wasn't a retread of the Jack Nicholson version Joker from 1989's Batman. He wasn't the Joker the Animated Series. He wasn't the Joker from the comics, which I'm fine with. I don't mind that the movies change elements, that they don't quite match up to the comics. They are separate things. 

As I said, my problem is it with the fans. I don't mind that you liked the movie. I don't mind that you liked Joker from the movie. I do mind you cramming it down my throat. This is partly in regards to the movies catchphrase "why so serious" which got run into the ground & then continued to be used for a few months beyond that. It was everywhere. I couldn't escape it. This over exposure of the character made me to start to resent that version of the character &  movie he was in.  I still like The Joker as a character, he's a great villain. I can still enjoy the movies Heath Ledger made before his death.

The Joker form The Dark Knight has never been a favorite look of mine. I got why they went with that look & was fine with it. It had some interesting points. I'll admit it does look cool. But it just wasn't my thing. I was prepared to move on.  Let it have it's moment in the sun & then move on to the next look but THEY won't let me. I think the movie got a bit over hyped due to the passing of Ledger, which was sad & still is. He should still be making movies. As I said it's not about him & the character. It's more about the fans.

I still sort of cringe at the usage of the phrase "why so serious", I feel a bit sad when the only version of the Joker I see people dressed up is the one for The Dark Knight. I do like it when I see people take that version of The Joker & do something with it, change it up a bit, make it their own.

I seen similar fan reaction lately with Tom Hiddleston's Loki (the main villain from The Avengers) but I'm more fine with it. Maybe since there isn't such a quotable catchphrase attached to that character that people can drive into the ground. Maybe that his costume isn't as easy to put together (Most of the items for Ledger style Joker costume could be found at your local Goodwill right off the rack). There could be a number of things.

I'm not exactly sure what I exactly wanted to say with this post. Not sure if I actually said what I wanted but this is something that has been on my mind the last few weeks as people ramp to the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises & my general lack of interest in the movie. I haven't even seen any of (many, many) trailers. I'm well established in the comic book fandom that I don't really need to go looking for info regarding the movie. It came to me. I of course ignored most of it. It's just not my thing.

I don't really know what the next version of Batman we'll see on film. I do know that there will be another version. There is always another version. Will it be my thing? Who know! I'll just have to wait & see.

Until nest time: Stay Jazzy Everyone!

- Brian

This is Entry 256: Why would I do that?

I was talking with someone today about The Avengers movie & we hit upon the topic of the character introduced at the very end of the movie. They said they didn’t know who that was. I made a comment about reading a book they were in & the reply I got was “Why would I do that?”

I decided to let the conversation move on from there & not answer that question because I didn’t it was the time or place to fully answer that question. I sort of feel that is response you’d get from many people regarding the reading of the comics. The movies make millions of dollars but do the comics themselves see any kickback from that? Not so much.

You can get someone to pay a few dollars to watch a movie? But to get them to actually read the books the movie is based that is a bit harder. I understand this. For example: The Avengers have been around since 1963 & over the years the team has had many, many different members & many different series bare the name of Avengers. It can be hard for a perspective new reader to know where to start. Both in the terms of where to start in that almost 50 years worth of comics but also where to start in the real world: They might not know where their local comic book store is or if there is even one locally.

Also, the comics are not the movies. Many people find this problem. But it’s shouldn’t be a problem. The Movies & Books should not be the same. They have similarities but they should be their own separate things (The movies adapted from the comics). Partly because there are somethings that comics do better then movies & there are somethings that movies do better then comics. Sometimes can’t be done in the movie or just lost in translation from page to screen. I know it can be a bit confusing (Hey! Why is Nick Fury a white guy in these comics?) but if you keep that in mind you it will serve you well.

So, If the movies are going to be a different yet still similar thing why would someone want to read the comics? You could possibly have a more well rounded viewing experience? You can get some of the in-jokes yourself & not have your friends/the internet pointing them out to you? You can help out the industry that inspired the movies you like so much? There are many answers to that question.

People don’t have to go into this blind. There are many people & websites that can help on your way. Some of these people people even work at where they books are sold or if these people are your friends might even loan some books!

To end this post I’ll answer the question “Why would I do that?” with another question “Why wouldn’t you do that?” :)

- Brian

This is Entry 250: Brian on the Aisle #12

This post is will be multi-tasking post. It's a 250th post, It's the 12 entry in Brian on the Aisle & I'm counting this as a part of the 2012 Project. The movie I'll be reviewing is The Adventures of Tintin.

Early on in my readership of comic books (The Early to the Mid 1990's): I read the Tintin books, collected almost the whole series (didn't notice until recently that I'm missing a few books). I loved them as kid. Still like them as an Adult. They are Awesome!

My enjoyment of the books were greatly enhanced by the fact at the same time that I was reading these books there was also an animated series based on the books on TV (They were on the cable network HBO. I think the cartoon were Canadian made or at least release in the States by a Canadian company). I could see all the action on the screen & then add those moving images to when I read the books.

------------

As I have done in the past, I saw Tintin at the second run theater near my house (3 dollars a movie!). Tintin is also one of the those movies that recently came out in both 2D & 3D, the theater I saw at it didn't does that the fancy 3D to show it in. I saw a few times during the movie that it might of looked cool if I saw it in 3D. But seeing in 2D in no way diminished my viewing of the movie.

The "Adventures of Tintin" series of books span over 20 books. What adventure do you start with? I think the filmmakers went with a good choose. A personal favorite of mine, a storyline that I'll be calling the Unicorn Saga. The Saga unfolds over 2 books: The Secret of the Unicorn & Red Rackham's Treasure. The movie was not just a translation of those 2 books. The Movie is a mix of those 2 books, parts & characters from another book in the series (The Crab with the Golden Claws) & Bianca Castafiore (a supporting character who appeared in a number of the Tintin books).

I understand why the added in the bits from The Crab with the Golden Crabs. That is the book where Tintin met Captain Haddock, a character who is featured quite heavily in the Unicorn Saga. So they had to explain how Tintin knew the Captain somehow. The addition of the Castafiore to the movie's story while not in any of the these 3 stories I did quite enjoy & didn't mind this alteration because it was in keeping with how she might have been used in the books.

The way the entire Unicorn saga is unfolded in the movie is totally different from the books they come from. Is this a bad thing? No. Not really. They needed to added in the elements from the Crabs to Unicorn so the overall story is different then the books. I did feel the melding of the 2 stories were done quite well. There were a few elements present in the Unicorn books that were felt out of the movie as they might of not made sense. Basically all of the plot to the Crabs books is not present in the movie which is ok since they only wanted to use the Unicorn plot line & having this secondary plot line would have been confusing as it in no way tied into the main Unicorn plot line.

The characterisation of Sakharine, the movie's main villain, is different then it is in the books. How he is presented in this movie he is more an amalgamation of very different characters from the books. This did leave me a bit puzzled as I watched the movie. I being a big fan of the books & having just reread the Unicorn saga recently I had the book freshly in the mind. I just couldn't place who Sakharine was in the books as I watched the movie. I knew that name! I thought of the character with that name to be a some what minor character (which I still think so as I took a look back at the books) where as in the movie he is the main villain! Many of the Tintin books used a number of different villains in the books & I can see why they wanted to have 1 central villain for the movie.

For the main cast, I would say the characterisations is pretty spot on. All the voices & actions fit with how I think they should have been. The catchphrases were all there! The CGI was a bit weird but something you could get use to. I was a bit weird seeing the "cartoony" look of the characters represent in such a realistic way. At times I felt that Captain Haddock's head was a bit to large.

Professor
Cuthbert Calculus

One thing I thing they could have done was the "whole" Unicorn story in this one movie. This one leaves us on a cliffhanger, setting up a sequel. I put the word whole in quotation marks because the movie does end how the story ends in the books. There were a few different events that happened in the books that didn't happen here & a few that happen in a different order. I suspect that many of those events would happen in the second movie. Many of those events are from the second book/second half of the story. I really hope they do make a sequel because my favorite character from the Tintin series is introduced in the second half of the Unicorn story. That character is Professor Cuthbert Calculus! He is Awesome! I'm not sure why I like him so much but I do. He is just plain awesome & quite a snappy dresser I might say. He was the one character I wanted to see show up in the movie but he didn't. Mainly because all of the stuff he did the Unicorn saga hadn't happened yet. If He's not in the sequel, I am going to be mad!

There were so nice references to the the other Tintin books in the movie (mostly in the opening credits & in the framed newspaper clippings at Tintin's home). You did get to see some of the Art of the books in the movie too which was nice.

So... Final Thoughts: What did I think of the movie? I thought it was good. Did I think going into that it was going to be bad & that it was going to "rape" a cherished piece of my childhood? No. I mainly wanted to see how they handled the story which they did quite well. It did quite boring (at least for me) during two long action sequences in the later half of the movie. I just felt they were overly long.

What do I give this movie? 3 & half Blistering Barnacles out of 5!

I greatly look forward to seeing the sequel!

Until next time, Stay Jazzy everybody!

- Brian

This is Entry 234: Brian on the Aisle #11

Welcome to another installment of Brian on the Aisle. Today we will be looking at the last of summer Super Hero comic book movies: Captain America: The First Avenger.

As I've made mention there is a movie theater near my house. They get the movies for their theater as they are exiting most of the big chain theaters. They also don't charge you an arm & leg to see the movie. Every movie is a flat rate of 3 dollars.

Out of the 4 comic book movie adaptation I've seen this may well be the best of the bunch. Green Lantern could have been so much more but was enough for Hollywood to make a sequel (Yes, there is going to be a GL sequel. Let's hope it better then the one we got). Thor was a good film. It was a fun romp of film.

Cap has some in common with the last movie I saw X-Men First Class. Both are period pieces (X-Men is set in the '60's & Cap set in the '40's mostly). I feel that Cap's setting was better & made me feel like it was the 1940's. It contributed to the film. Where as X-Men's 1960's setting was secondary & if you change a few things it could have easily been set in present day.

I think out of all the Marvel films I've seen this has the best transition. You actually get the costume from the comics in this movie, his original shield & how they are used work to further the story. His "improvised" costume was reminiscent of the World War II era costume worn by Captain America in Marvel's own Ultimate line of comics. It's yet another visual taken from that line of comics (Nick Fury's look being the biggest so far & from the looks of it Hawkeye's costume in the upcoming Avengers looks a bit like his Ultimate counterpart).

We got some awesome stuff from the comics: The Cosmic Cube, Arnim Zola (before changed his look), The Howling Commandos & probably the most awesome cameo I've seen. It may only be second to Wolverine's cameo in First Class. The cameo is one if you blink you'll miss him & you might miss him if you don't read comics. The cameo was by the original Human Torch. A truly geeky moment for me.

What else should I say about the movie other then it was awesome? It's got a good story, casted well (Tommy Lee Jones is just awesome), there is some nice action. Felt very comic booky in a good way.

Going into this movie I wasn't sure I'd see James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes in the movie. The way he's in the comics might not exactly work in the movie but there he was & was used well. They even managed to work in some of his comic book storyline. Cap failed to save him but that doesn't mean he couldn't be back for the Avengers film if you know anything about how's been used in the comics in the last decade.

I thought the inclusion of Howard Stark, father of Tony "Iron Man" Stark was a nice addition. He's not normally part of the Captain America origin story but it shows that yes these movie all exist in the same universe & characters can meet (see next year's The Avengers for more of this).

Regarding the origin story: it's pretty much the one of the comics just slightly altered to fit the movie. There is nothing there is to drastically different from the comic book. All the event from the comic happen, just a bit differently & that's ok. The major parts are there.

So... yeah. That's my feelings towards the movie. I saw it with my parents & they seemed to like it. My sister had seen it a weeks ago & liked it. So, not only is approved by me but it's approved by my whole family!

I give Captain America: The First Avenger 3 circular shields out of 5.

Until next time: Stay Jazzy everybody!

- Brian

This is Entry 223: Brian on the Aisle #10

Movie Poster!

Well... for this tenth entry of the "Brian goes to the Movies & then Blogs about them" I went & saw: X-Men:  First Class. You might be saying to yourself:

 Self, didn't that come out a few months ago & it's shortly coming on DVD/Blu-Ray soon?

Uh... it's a bit odd that you refer to yourself as Self but yes. It did come out a few months & is shortly to be out on the movie playing discs. But as said in posts past I live just a few short blocks from a 2nd run movie theater & if I don't mind waiting I see most major movies at a discounted price (3 Dollars). Knowing that it was soon to be on DVD/Blu-Ray & that the theater stops playing said movies when they do that I had only a short while to see it. So, I did that yesterday.

What did I think about it? Was good. I think that my viewing of the summer comic book movies is in an interesting order. I saw Green Lantern disliked it. I saw Thor next, liked it. Now I seen this & not sure if I liked more or less then Thor but I have 1 left: Captain America: The First Avenger. So, that should be the best of the four. Yes, I know that Cowboys Vs. Aliens was based off of a comic book but it's not super hero related so I'm not counting that. Plus, I don't really want to see that movie.

There was 1 kind of major part of the movie that I'm not sure worked all that well: The Era. Sure, they say it's the 1960's & keep showing things from the swinging '60s (Clothes, Cars, Reel to Reel Tape Players, JFK, etc.) but all background stuff. It just didn't seem like the 1960's. Doctor Who on a smaller budget (I'm not sure but this is a movie & Who is a TV show which to me means less money behind it) seemed to have done the 60's quite nicely a few months back. This version of the 60's just seemed off. The X Uniform I think do not look like something that would have been present during the time period. I just looks too modern. If you can put the "what era are we actually in?" out of your mind you can have a quite nice time at the movies. It's not a bad movie.

There was few nitpick things:
- I'm not sure Havok's powers work that way. I think I knew what they were going for "He's Cyclops' bother so his powers should work in similar fashion" Uh... no. Just because their brothers doesn't mean they have similar powers.
- Beasts' makeup from X-Men 3 looked better. It just looked more Beasty to me. I will say that I did think effect done with Beast's feet while he wasn't so furry earlier on in the film did look cool. I did make me wonder how he got his feet into his shoes. They looked like he folded his toes under & that can't be comfortable to walk like that.
- Banshee wasn't Irish or at least he didn't sound Irish. Yes, he could have been the American born child of 2 Irish immigrants but that's not how it's in the comics.
- Why kill off the only black mutant before he has a chance to really do anything?

I have a pretty good basic knowledge of the X-Men mythos & who people are but I just didn't know who Azazel (red Nightcrawler) & Riptide (who I had to look up online for his character's name since I don't it was ever said in the movie & I missed during the end credits) are. I might do some more research on them later on, I might not.

I thought it was a fun movie. I liked the relationships between Charles, Erik & Raven. I thought the scenes of Charles attempting to pick up women (Your a mutant, I'm a Mutant, Mutants are sexy, let's have sex) was funny. I liked the cameo in the movie (one of the better cameos from the Marvel movies since it's slightly served a story purpose).

What do I give it? 3 mutated genes out of 5. I did think about of saying 3 X's out 5. But XXX is something else :)

Until next time: Stay Jazzy everybody!

- Brian

This is Entry 214: Brian on the Aisle #9

So.... Captain America came out this weekend & what did I go see? THOR of course!

As I mentioned before there is a theater a few blocks from my house & they are a "second Run" theater. Most everything there has already left the first run theaters by now. So if you don't mind waiting a few months (Like me) so can see some cool movies & with an added bonus: Every movie not matter when it's shown during the day costs you $3.

They have Thor playing & I had not seen Thor yet. So I could walk from my house & see Thor for 3 dollars or I could pay a whole lot more & go a few miles more to go see Captain America? Hmmm....

------

First off: I thought it was awesome! Sure it was about 2 hours long but it didn't feel that way (as some movies do). There was a smattering of jokes worth laughing at, cool cameos (Both by Stan Lee & Hawkeye), cool visuals, good villains, some nice nods to the comics (Thor's assumed name, the phrase "Journey into Mystery" & the visual design of the movie).

In watching it I thought back to the last comic book movie I had seen Green Lantern. Why was Thor Good & GL not so? They do have some comparable points. The biggest is both have a chunk of their film not take place on earth. Thor fleshed out their other world where GL didn't. Also, GL's other world (Oa) was just too darn dark even in the light. Thor's other world (Asgard) never got that dark even in the dark :) Another thing: Love interests. In Thor she actually did something, furthered the plot & had some character to her. In GL: not so much. In Thor they went with the villain you wanted (Loki) & threw in some cool secondary villains (The Frost Giants). With GL they didn't go with the right villain (Parallax instead or Sinestro) & threw in a pointless secondary villain (Hector Hammond). I should stop harping on the GL movie but it's hard not to, there is so much wrong with it.

But I don't have much move about Thor that hasn't been said elsewhere. So I'll just end this post here.

Thor: Good! Go see it if you haven't already. I give it 3 & half Hammers in a crater out in the New Mexican dessert out of 5!

Most likely the next post will talk about the info reveled by DC Comics about "the New 52" at this weekend San Diego Comic Con. Look for the in a next week or so.

Until then: Stay Jazzy!

- Brian

This is Entry 211: Brian on the Aisle #8

Welcome to another installment of Brian on the Aisle this time we'll be looking at



*This is in no way a complete, well thought out review of the movie & sounds kind of angry. You have been warned!*

This is the 3rd Super Hero movie to come out this summer & so far the only one I've seen. I don't get out the movies very often (Last Movie I saw in theaters was Scott Pilgrim) but a friend asked me if I wanted to go. So, I went. I would like to go see X-Men: First Class. I'm still unsure about Thor (which has been out for sometime) & Captain America (which comes out next month). Going into this movie there wasn't that made me really excited to see it. I've never really been a big fan of Green Lantern but I was (kind of) interested in see how they'd translate it from page to screen. How did they do? eh. It's wasn't the best movie or the worse movie. It was ok. Did I feel I got my matinee movie price worth? I guess so.

From what I saw before I didn't really like art direction of the movie. It seemed too "dark" & the costume looked stupid. Well, the costume still looked stupid & the movie was a bit too dark. Also, what is with the eyes in this movie? If your in the Green Lantern uniform you will have weird looking eyes! Also, this movie really liked it's close ups' which I found odd. I don't need the extreme close up of someone's face! The extreme close up is almost never needed! Also, I found some of the special effects shots to be poorly done/unfinished. I could easily tell they were fake. Is I know they were fake but they shouldn't look that way.

I felt it tried to explain/introduce to many people & things. In the end didn't really seem to explain anything or anyone really well. It gave you enough information, most of the time. I also felt that their title character didn't seem to do much which is odd since he is the title character. If your main character doesn't even appear in your film until a few minutes into your film & those minutes were not filled with your movie's credits I think something might be wrong with your film.

This movie fell into something many Super Hero movies fall into: Let's just not have one villain but two! Why? Because two are so much better then one! There was Hector Hammond (who was under developed as a character & might as well been called a henchmen for all he did) & Parallax!

In the comics Parallax is seen as a giant bright yellow evil space bug, the sentient embodiment of fear traveling from world to world and causing entire civilizations to destroy themselves out of paranoia & a whole bunch of interesting stuff that would be to complicated to explain here. But in the movie it's a giant greyish black evil space octopus with a humanoid face doing some less interesting stuff like sucking the fear & their skeletons out of people to make it's self strong so it could seek out it's revenge on those that had wronged it! But at least it was a thing & not a menacing space cloud of Death that did nothing! (see Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer's Galactus). I think starting your movie franchise with Parallax was a bad choice. Sure, Green Lantern doesn't have a great list of villains & his greatest foe was a good guy for whole movie but Parallax is only an interesting character after Hal Jordan has done a bunch of stuff. Parallax is your foe in Green Lantern 3 or 4, not Number 1. You can set him up as a super evil entity, mention him as a threat but don't use him. Let it build but you can now! SPOILERS: You threw him into the sun! But... that doesn't mean he's dead & might be back in Green Lantern 2: the Electric Boogaloo. :) And yes they did set up the sequel, you don't spend that much talking about another color ring without doing something with it.

Plus, there were a few too many "coincidence" in the movie that I think was just poor planing/writing & most of these seem to be based around Hector Hammond's character. Maybe if he was better developed they could have been worked out better. maybe.

How was Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern: fine but he wasn't Hal Jordan. He was Kyle Rayner (another Green Lantern from the comics) or some odd mix of Hal & Kyle. Reynolds just didn't seem to full pull of how I think a "Hal Jordan" should act.

So, high points & there were a couple: there were some funny jokes. The art direction was dark but nicely done. The relationship between Hal & Carol Ferris (played by Blake Lively) seemed real & was nicely played. The aliens looked cool (even if you didn't get to see much of them).

I think I've just read too many comic books & know the story lines too well to fully give into the movie. It's was an ok movie. It's not the worse Super Hero movie I've seen (That currently goes to the 1977 Doctor Strange which completely missed the mark).

What do I give this movie... Seeing at there are 9 Lantern Corps (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, Black & White), I give it a 2 & half power rings out of 9.

Until next time: Stay Jazzy everyone!

- Brian

This is Entry 158: brian on the Aisle #7.5

It's another installment of Brian on the Aisle! Well, not really. It's more of I have some more thoughts about the last movie I saw: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World & I didn't feel like editing the last post.

Over the last couple of days I've been thinking about the film. The "review" I was posted was very shortly after seeing it, like a half hour after seeing said film. Over the weekend I've been thinking about it further. After the initial "Man, that's was awesome!" has worn off I thought more about what did I actually see. Now I will say this the film is still good & worth seeing. There is some wonderful visuals, some good music & a good time still seemed to be had by all! But, thinking about the movie a lot of things just seem to happen & their isn't much depth to it. You don't really get to know anyone in the film. Your given enough to make them seem like real people but you don't get much:

"Who's that?"

"Oh, That's Kim. She & Scott use to date. They went high School together. She is the drummer in Sex Bob-ombs with Scott"

"Ok. How did they break up? Is she dating anyone currently?"

"Uh....."

It's like that with most of the characters. You get a few short sentences with minor details of who the person in relation to someone else (most often the people being Scott Pilgrim or Ramona Flowers). Now this might just be the Movie & their might be more info in the books (which I have not read) about the characters but this a Movie review & I'm basing my comments solely on the Movie I saw. Characters come in, have their scene(s) & then leave. The movie doesn't really even go into why the League of Evil Ex's are even evil. Where they always evil or did they become evil after their break up with Ramona? If that's true, then doesn't that make Ramona evil herself?

Maybe I've just been thinking about this movie to much. I did enjoy seeing it. I didn't get all the reference, a number of the Video Game ones probably went right over my head. And I still stand by rating but it might be a lower 4 then it was originally. It's still a high 4 but probably not as high as it was last friday night/early saturday morning.

Until next time: Stay Jazzy Everyone.

- Brian

This is Entry 157: Brian on the Aisle #7

It's another installment of Brian on the Aisle! This time I went to see Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.

Leading up to this movie coming out everything I saw about about this movie made me want to see it more. Now this could either lead up to an awesome movie or a really crappy movie who shows all the good parts before you get in the theater. Scott Pilgrim is the former.

Confession time: I haven't really read the books the movie is based off of. I read the first book, a friend had it. It was good but I didn't really feel the need to read the rest of the books. Not sure I will. Maybe if they putt all the 6 books together in one big book? A Scott Pilgrim Omnibus! In Color!

But getting back to the movie: It was Awesome. Dare I say Pretty Super Cool Awesome? Yes, I shall: It was Pretty Super Cool Awesome! I'm not sure how to explain the movie it's like if a Video Game, a Music Video & Movie all had a threesome which lead to the birth of this movie, This awesome, awesome movie baby. There is so much to see in the movie & I doubt I caught all there is to see. This a movie definitely worth a second viewing. Possibly a third or a fourth. I hardily look forward to seeing what's going to be on the DVD (hopefully some of the stuff from the website).

I liked that there wasn't all that many "Big Name" people in the movie. Sure, Michael Sera (who plays Scott Pilgrim) is a Big Name but your main character should be a Big Name person. But most of the rest of the principal cast are mostly all known some how but aren't truly those Big Name people. Everyone did a superb job in roles. No one I thought was miscast in their role.

A great film. Wonderful visuals. Some good music. A good time seemed to be had by all!

So, what do I give this film: 4 Power Ups... out of Five!

BONUS CONTENT!

- Favorite comment heard pre-movie: "Why did you text me at 9:30 in the morning? It's summer, no one is up that early!"
- M. Night Shyamalan has a new movie coming out. When he name came on screen during the trailer laughter broke out in the theater. After it died down a voice was heard saying "Hey, Give it chance." which caused more laughter. Then some commented we should remember what he did to Avatar, a reference to the Last Airbender movie. As for the rest of the trailer no one really caught my eye as "I got to go see this movie!"
- In other news before the Movie: I had Sushi! And it was served on a conveyor belt!

So, until next time: Stay Jazzy!

- Brian

This is Entry 144: Brian on the Aisle #6

In 2007, a Blog was started. Contained with in it was the thoughts & opinions of a man with no plans of joining the military. The Blog wasn't really read by anyone. Today, still no one was really reading that Blog, it survives only because that man won't let it die. Sometimes he see Movies & then reviews them on said Blog. So if there are Movies he's seen & you can find this Blog, maybe you can read the segment called... Brian on the Aisle!

As you might be able to to guess I saw the A-Team remake yesterday.

I think my friend AJ summed it best when asked what she thought of the film: Meh. If anyone going into seeing the movie was hoping for the best film ever: you will be disappointed. If your looking for a way to kill 2 hours & see stuff blown up real good: you won't be disappointed. :) The Movie pretty much run along like this: fighting which leads to explosions, then attempts at story which lead into fighting which some fighting & then guess what explosions! Then we got to have some story bits but then that leads to some fighting & then BOOM more stuff blowing up. Now it may seem like I'm being hard on this movie which I kind of am. I did find most of the big action sequences thrilling & kind of engaging but the movie seems to lag a bit when there wasn't some sort of action happening.

Also going into this film you do have to turn off a bit of your mind & suspend a nice chunk of disbelief since a lot of stuff that when on needed to be time exactly are they would have gone horribly, horribly wrong. One thing that was a bit annoying was the all the extreme close-ups: I do need to see all the pores of the actors' faces. You can zoom out a bit & still get the same effect. Another thing it seemed like the movie had a lack of background music or at least lack of variety of music. Yes, I know I am watching the A-Team movie I don't need to hear the theme song for the 12th time! The use of a song by Steely Dan was put to ok usage. But then that the A-Team movie was as mentioned before: Meh. It was an Ok Movie. Most of the comments about the movie we, the 3 of us who saw the movie together, said followed them up or could have followed them up was "But it was the A-Team".

A few comments on the Acting: the actors playing the A-Team (Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson & Sharlto Copley) were all believable in their roles. Most everyone else in the movie was too but then you get to Jessica Biel, the only major female role in the film. I did not belief in her role, it did not seem real. Yes, she's acting but I think as an audience member I deserves some believability in the acting when when they are doing unbelievable things.

a comment about the humor from the movie: when your biggest laugh in theater is for a throw away sight gag your movie might not as funny as it could have been. So, the joke was really funny but it was the one thing that like the whole theater laughing. There was scatter laughs from people though out the movie.

Was it worth the $9.50 I spent on the ticket: sort of. The trailers did make me kind of want to see the movie & am I sad that I saw it: no. I liked the film. It might of been ok at a matinee price. The Movie didn't seem completely pointless like "The Takers", a movie I saw the trailer for before the A-Team started. If the movie seem pointless just from the trailer & most trailer try to use the best moment I worry want the rest of the movie is like. Now with I see this "Takers" film: no. Also, there is a movie trailer for something I thought was something you'd only see on SyFy network: it's "Piranha 3-D" which also seems stupid & seems like a film Dr. Forrester would have subject the crew of the Satellite of Love to if it was still around. :)

But speaking of good trailers: I saw a new trailer (at least to me it was) the "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" movie. Now the other trailer I saw made it look awesome & the trailer just added to the awesomeness!

So, what do I give the A-Team movie: 3 explosions!

Until next time: Stay Jazzy!

Also don't you just love it when a post come to together? :)

This is Entry 142: Brian on the Aisle #5

It's another installment of Brian on the Aisle.

Today I finally got out to see Iron Man 2 & it was Super cool & awesome! I really liked it. I did feel it was bit slow in parts & thinking back most of those parts did all seem to have Sam Rockwell (who played Justin Hammer) in them. I liked it, my dad (who went with me) liked it. Going into the movie I wasn't sure about Scarlett Johanson playing Black Widow, wasn't sure she'd be believable in the role. After seeing seeing here in the role: she did ok but wasn't completely sold on her in the role. I look forward to next Marvel Movie: Thor!

Some others movies I think you, my dear readers, should go out & watch. All of these movies are old:
- FEDS: this 1988 comedy starring Rebecca De Mornay & Mary Gross is one that is near & dear to my heart. In my formative years, during the summertime my older sister & I would stay up late at night. What would we be doing? Watching Movies. This was a frequent favorite. I recently bought a VHS copy of the movie (it has yet to be released on DVD as far as I know) & watched and it still holds up. Search this out!

- Trekkies: a documentary about the fans of Star Trek & is quite funny. I'm a minor fan of the Trek, I grew up watching the various series (TNG forward) & have seen a number of the films but am no way as far gone as those presented in the Film. I found a VHS copy at a Thrift store so I'm not sure if a DVD version exists.

- Toys: the 1992 Robin Williams film had recently been on my mind (not sure why), I then saw it on TV & shortly there after bought a DVD copy for myself. It's got a good story but what really drew me was the art direction: it's amazing! An underrated classic!

- Fanboys: a movie in the slightly similar vein as Trekkies but this time about Star Wars an entirely fictional account of their dealings. I remember hearing about this movie being made & hearing about problems with it's release (a 4 year difference between it's original release date & actual release date) then knowing it came out but I don't think got a wide release. After seeing it I think it should have it's a pretty fun movie, better if you the SW references.

That's it for now. Until next we meet: Stay Jazzy!

- Brian

This is Entry 137: Emerald City, FCBD & Scott Pilgrim

So, It's been a month & I have yet to post anything. I think I should post something, so here it is.

Those of you awaiting my review of Emerald City Comicon 2010: you''l be waiting a long time since there isn't going to be one. I will say It was super cool & awesome. Also, that I'll be back next year. I will have a decession to make: which day to attend: Friday or Saturday? The show is expanding to 3 days & don't attend the the Con on Sunday (I got Church to go too!) so do I continue to attend on Saturday or attend on Friday? A third option is attend booth day? I''l think about it.

In some what related news: Free Comic Book Day 2010 is only 16 days away. For more info check out their website: FCBD

A minor update on the my video project: It'll happen. sometime. Getting everything set up. I'll probablty have it up & running by Summer. Maybe late Spring. More on that as it happens.

In other news: If you you haven't seen the trailer for Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World I suggest you do.

SP vs. W

Now I haven't read the comics the movie is based off of but the Trailer is pretty super cool & awesome.

Until next time: Stay Jazzy!

- Brian

This is Entry 115: Movies!

So, I've always been a fan of Alternate Universes & DC is putting out a Movie featuring one of their best alternate worlds! It's the Justice League vs. The Crime Syndicate!



Info on the Movie which I got from Comicvine who got their info from IGN (which the video clip above comes from): DC's next animated feature is Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths. It's due out in Spring 2010 & is an original story from Dwayne McDuffie pulling from DC's past 'Crisis' stories. Bruce Timm is the executive producer. In the movie a “good” Lex Luthor arrives
 from an alternate universe to recruit the Justice League to help save
 his Earth from the Crime Syndicate, a gang of villainous characters
with virtually identical super powers to the Justice League. What 
ensues is the ultimate battle of good versus evil in a war that
 threatens both planets and, through a diabolical plan launched by
 Owlman, puts the balance of all existence in peril.

The voice cast is led by Mark Harmon (NCIS) as Superman, James Woods as Owlman, Chris Noth (Sex And The City, Law & Order) as Lex Luthor, William Baldwin as Batman (Dirty Sexy Money, Backdraft) and Gina Torres (Serenity, Firefly) as Super Woman and Bruce Davison (X-Men) as the President.

This Video is from MTV:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

I'm so going to get this when it comes out!

Until next: Stay Jazzy!

- Brian

This is Entry 94: Brian on the Aisle #4

I saw Star Trek today & it was pretty good. I don't have much to say about that I don't hasn't already been said. A nicely done movie. That is all. :)

As always: Stay Jazzy!

- Brian

This is Entry 65: Brian on the Aisle #3

MOVIE REVIEW!

Taken
Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Jansen & other people including one dude that looked like the guy from Grand Thief Auto 4.
Length: Hour & half or so.
Rating: PG-13 at least. Lots of violence. Some sex (nothing to graphic). No swearing ( I Think).

Summary/Review: Bryan Mills (Neeson) is a retired Government "Preventer", he prevents bad things from happening (read as he kills people). His daughter (Grace) goes to Paris with her friend. Lesson #1: don't talk to strangers, especially French strangers who might be working for Albanian sex traffickers. So, his daughter & her friend are kidnapped. But while this is happening the daughter is talking to her dad. She gets taken & the kidnapper now has the phone so the dad & the dude have a short chat:

Mills: I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.
Kidnapper: [after a long pause] Good luck.

So, Neeson uses his contacts to save his daughter from becoming a hooker & there is a time limit: he has like 3 days to find or he'll never find her. He goes to france & kills a bunch of people. The movie had a somewhat Bourne like quiality but with an old guy, older guy (Neeson is 52). Lots of killing with guns. Lots of fighting, jumping, running, car chases, etc. Also lots of jittery/shaky camera work. I think jittery/shaky means action! Lot of it means high action! To spoil the end: he gets her back. This movie was a lesson in extreme parenting & a lesson to not to talk to strangers. I give the movie: a 3 out of 5. It's a pretty ok movie with some cool action sequences.

Until next: Stay Jazzy!

- Brian

This is Entry 64: Go Joe!

This the trailer the upcoming "G.I. Joe" movie that aired during the Super Bowl but thanks to YouTube you can now watch here on MyBlog. Enjoy!



Or for a higher quality version of it go Here.

Now I wouldn't say I'm exactly a big fan of the toys, sure I played with them as a kid: what little boy didn't? And I have some faint memories of the cartoon but that doesn't look all that bad. I reserve faint judgement until the Movie comes out because any movie can look cool in a trailer!

As always Stay Jazzy!

-Brian

This is Entry 33: Brian on the Aisle #2

This go around I review the movie: Iron Man. To quote the woman a few rows in front of me at the end of the movie: "Hells Yeah!"

But before I talk about the movie, let's talk about the previews: I saw 4 action drama trailers: The Hulk, The Spirit, Indiana Jones, The Dark Knight & 2 Comedies: The Love Guru with Mike Meyers & Don't Mess with Zohan! with Adam Sandler. All except for Zohan look good. It might be good it's got the Apatow seal of approval! But it could be crap. :)

But I'm getting off track, I'm here to talk about IRON MAN! I'll try to keep this spoiler free. I took in a matinee showing with around roughly 20 to 30 people (these were just the people I saw in front of me, to the left & to the right. I'm not sure how many were behind me). I was the first person in the Theater seeing as I was an half hour early ( I miss estimated bus travel time but I didn't want to be late). So, we get through the cool previews & on to the main flick. It... was... Awesome!!!!! This comes from a guy who's never read any Iron Man characters.

The way it started out was great & continued to be so through out the film. You had your humor, your action, your geeky bits (They managed to fit in a Roxxon reference for gosh sakes!) The Actors all played their parts well, no one felt ill chosen for their roles. I look forward to Iron Man II & I know the perfect villain to show up since an appearance by him has been set up here in this film. Your take the terrorist group's name from the film, use some comic knowledge & who do you get? Yup, that guy! He would be perfect, you have to change a few things to fit with the era. But they did that anyways.

So the movie ended on a high note, the credits started to role & people were leaving?!?! I almost felt like yelling at them: "Where are you going? There is movie movie coming up after the credits!" And there was. It could have gone in the middle of the credits, there was a perfect spot for it, too! But it was at the very end. It, much like a film, was Awesome! The other 4 people who saw it also seemed to like it too. It was the first step to a real Marvel style shared universe, I won't tell you what happened. You could probably find out about it somewhere on the net but it left me wanting more. I await The Hulk later this summer & IM2 later on. So, I give the movie 4 suits of armor out of 5! (I hardly give anything a 5, so a 4 is pretty darn great).

Until next time: Save me a seat & Stay Jazzy!

-Brian