So last night I went with my friends to see Captian America. Which, I will admit, was good. But I’m still going to give it a B. Unlike some other films in the Marvel line, it didn’t have me leaving with “That was AWESOME” type of feeling, and I was expecting that.
The problem I think is that there was too many characters with hinted at side plots that didn’t really end up anywhere. It was a film of cameos. Most of which you see in the trailer. There were some elements of Cap’s story arc I kind of felt like I missed an episode, and maybe I did since I don’t watch Agents of Shield (though I want to) or Agent Carter (again, want to).
This felt more like an avengers type movie with a bad guy you don’t really understand. Which on one hand is interesting. You know he’s the bad guy, bur you don’t really understand why till the end. Its more soft then the previous Villians tended to be.
This movie also made me want to go and write an essay on how Phase Two of the MCU is basically Tony’s downspiral into PTSD and depression.
So while it was good, and I enjoyed it, I felt the story was a little awkward in places and some characters could have had their side plots taken out with no detraction from the main story. It gave us a look into Winter Soldier’s past, but I’m not sure how well it fits in with what was previously shown (particularly about how the activate/deactivate Bucky).
Today is May Fourth, which has been adopted by Star Wars fans as a bit a punned holiday.
I first watched Star Wars in sixth grade. I walked in during a viewing of Return of the Jedi, and was so confused as to what was going on. I thought that there was some strange thing going on that every time that blond kid hit the machine man, he gained a maniacal part.
Well, my friends decided that was not going to stand, and eventually I watched all of Star Wars (well, until recently. Still need to watch VII). I watched Phantom Menace first, then the original trilogy. I think this set me up for an interesting look at the trilogy. Many of my friends grew up with the originals. They had time to build expectations for the Prequels. Thus they hated the prequels a little bit and I actually was able to enjoy them.
Not that I don’t see the flaws (and quite a few point to Lucas himself as a cause despite the blame I see cast towards characters and casting). The original trilogy was made in a 7 year period. They were right along side one another, and limited in the same ways by technology. The Prequels had 30 years of tech advancement. It gave Lucas & Company the chance to widen the scope of the universe they were playing in. Only I think Lucas decided this was his chance to take to the editing pen again and made too many small changes that make the fan who watched the original trilogy first and grew up with it go “Wait…that doesn’t fit.”
Prequels in general have this problem. Star TrekEnterprise had this problem, though not nearly as badly as Star Wars. Enterprise was filmed 32 years or so after the original series. The average person had more technology around them, and in some way the sets looked more advanced then the sets of what was supposed to take place 100 years later. Simply because they had to update it to be compatible with the reality.
It also had problems because it was new history and had to fit in with the older series, which didn’t always prove to be easy. And many people with the power to effect the show’s ability to stay floating quit long before the show started making strides in connecting it to the older series.
Of course, going back to Star Wars, I’ll have to see what almost 20 years with the Prequels (Phantom Menace came out in 1999)has settled in and biased me against (or for) the new movie.
Deadpool was rated R. It is rightfully so rated. It earns its rating with aplomb and is happy about it. However parents across the nation seemed baffled about a Superhero movie being R, choose to ignore it and then took their young children (and by young I mean under the age of 13) to see a movie clearly not meant for them.
The odd part of this is how much Deadpool marketing, as well as fans familiar with the comics went out of their way to try and inform parents that this movie was marketed towards adults, has always been for adults, and that it might not be something you want to bring your child to see.
Tonight I got to watch the film Deadpool. It’d a comic book based film, and probably one of the more well known of this year’s new movies.
It centers around Wade Wilson, a mercenary for hire who finds out he has terminal cancer. He is offered a chance at a possible cure and while he rejects it at first he ends up deciding to do it as it would mean more time with his fiancée. Things of course don’t turn out as planned.
The movie was hilarious. It is definitely not a film for children or people easily offended by swearing, some nudity ( of both genders) , or gory violence. It definitely deserved it’s R rating. I liked the more realistic reactions to situations by the characters.
I wouldn’t go to see it if you expect the same guy you saw on Wolverine: Origins. This one is less creepy and more like his comic character.
Well, I missed one day out of the year already, but I’m going to just shrug that one up. Its the holiday weekend, I can give myself a break. Besides of all the things to worry about, posting on this blog is not going to be one of them. But enough about that, lets go on to today’s actual post subject.
For this post, I decided I wanted to talk about one of my favorite classic films. Balalaika is a 1939 musical based on stage musical produced a few years earlier. It stars Nelson Eddy and Ilona Massey. It also has some notable character actors in the background including Charles Ruggles (The Grandfather in Parent Trap) and Frank Morgan (better known as the Wizard from The Wizard of Oz).
The plot of the movie is an interesting alternative history of Russia. Instead of the Romanovs, the royal family of Russia is the Karagins, but that doesn’t mean the people of Russia are any less likely to try and rebel. Eddy plays the Prince, Peter Karagin who falls in love with a singer he hears at the Balalaika, a club in St. Petersburg. He disguises himself as a student to romance Lydia Marakova, who is secretly a revolutionary along with her father (a music professor) and brother (a pianist). They do the local work of the Party from their home where Professor Marakov also teaches music.
Peter manages to fool Lydia and her family into believing he’s just a music student by singing a great rendition of The Volga Boatman, a Russian folksong.
Suitably impressed, Lydia decides to give Peter “Teranda” a chance. He in turn decides to use his princely influence to get her a interview with the head of the Russian Opera. The two fall in love but things of course don’t go as planned.
Lydia’s brother turns out to be a hothead who is not willing to just wait for the right moment, and goes to hold a revolt in town. Unfortunately he is killed when the Cossack (led by Peter) come to break up the crowd. This leads her father to agree to be part of an assassination plot of General Kargin, Peter’s father. I’m guessing Peter is probably a son of a younger son, thus not actually high on the line of succession as they both make it out of this movie alive, and we all know what happened to the Romanovs
While Paval Marakov can’t do it in the end, a family friend does shoot the General. This of course ends Lydia & Peter’s relationship. For one, Lydia is arrested at her debut at the Opera for participation in the General’s not-so-fatal shooting. Also, Peter is off to war.
Things don’t go so well for our pair as the movie continues. There is a revoltion in Russia which makes Peter and many of his aristocratic friends (and fellow Cossacks) flee to Paris where they now live much less effluent lives. Lydia, freed from prison by Peter as one of his last acts before going off to war, finds herself struggling to keep a job.
The movie ends with them all joining together for a New Years day party years after the war. Peter’s former valet Nicki and his wife Marsha (who was Lydia’s maid when she sang at the original club) have opened a Russian themed club called the Balalaika and have decided to serve the Aristocracy of Russia one more time as many of them have become their close friends.
They both watch sorrowfully as Peter continues to be heartbroken, and they worry about Lydia who has disappeared for awhile. However they both end up at the Club that night, and through some careful scheming, Marsha and Nicki get the two lovebirds together while singing a New Years wish to a mirror, and thus reuniting them for a happy New Year.
Its a good movie, in my opinion and one of my favorites of Nelson Eddy. Its full of great songs. I wish I could find a video of Nelson Eddy singing Silent Night in German with the German troops as the two sides hold a truce for Christmas.
The only regret I have is since this was never a book (to my knowledge) we don’t really get to see what happened with Peter & Lydia during the years they were apart. It also doesn’t really give you a good idea of the passing of time. Just that you get the feeling years have passed.
If you are in the mood for a classic musical or for operettas, I suggest watching this movie. It has wonderful singing and a good love story.
This was a good movie. It had a good plot, had hints of romance but didn’t over do it, had good visual effects and it was part of a franchise I happen to love.
The only issue I had with this movie was the computerized Jeff Bridges (Clu). When the character was standing still, it was hard to discern it was computerized, but whenever he spoke and you were in a close up or he moved in a close up there was this slightly inorganic movement that didn’t match up. It wasn’t anything major but it did remind you that this wasn’t completely Jeff Bridges. (Wonder what he thought of his CGI younger self). Although to be honest, this might just be on purpose to show that Clu was a program, not just a clone of Kevin Flynn.
Also, Tron has taken styling tips from The Stig. (Not really an issue just wondering if they ran out of a effects budget to create a CGI Tron)
The music was also good, and I like the improvement on the lighting effects (still has the idea that its not very bright in Grid-land, but
This isn’t a particularly good review, I realize that. Its just something to get me back into writing in this blog. As you can tell I haven’t posted since February (How is that possible?!?)
I should probably start this off with saying I have never read a Green Lantern Comic. In fact till recently I keep getting the Green Hornet and the Green Lantern mixed up. My only previous experiance with Hal Jordan was as a secondary character in a Oliver Queen fanfic.
I had Lost in Austen on my Netflix Instant Queue for several weeks, and last night my mother decided it was time we watched it. It was a 3 hour long movie about a girl named Amanda Price who has a doorway to the Bennet’s house in her bathroom. She’s got a mother urging her to marry, a boyfriend who wants to marry her but proposes when he’s drunk so she doesn’t believe him, and a flatmate who appears for about 5 minutes total in the movie so she is unimportant.
spoilers beneath. Apparently I have trouble explaining a movie without explaining the whole movie. But there is a lot I left out.
Sokorra Lewis 