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MOVIES: Comparing Star Wars: The Force Awakens to Star Wars: A New Hope
This week I thought I’d do a comparison between Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: A New Hope.
I’m specifically looking for similarities here. Are there any? Well, that’s what the video is all about.
I make my comparison as I color a drawing.
The video contains movie SPOILERS. If you don’t want the movies spoiled, watch the movies first and then watch this video:
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If you liked this video and would like me to discuss something you think I might know about…
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…feel free to ask or suggest away, either here on my comments or anywhere else you’d like to contact me.
Just be aware that my Patreon patrons get their questions answered first and they get to see the videos weeks before anyone else.
If you want to be put up further up on the “queue,” feel free to become a patron at ANY level. It’s one of the many rewards you will receive for becoming a patron.
MOVIE – 4 Reasons Why Amazing Spider-Man 2 is Now my Favorite Spider-man Movie.
Finally got around to watching Amazing Spider-Man 2. It’s now my favorite Spider-Man movie and this post is all about the four reasons why.
I didn’t get to watch Amazing Spider-Man 2 in theater even though I wanted to. I recently bought the Blu ray version and watched the movie. It was a long movie. I ended up watching it in two parts, only because I watched it at night, it was really late and I had to get up early the next day.
I stopped it at the hour and thirty minute mark and really didn’t want to stop the movie. I was really enjoying it.
I finished watching the movie the next night.
Why the Movie Isn’t Great
Before I begin though, I wanted to point out the “elephant in the room.” This movie is NOT the best told Spider-Man movie. That honor belongs to Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2.
I’m not saying that Amazing Spider-Man 2 is the greatest Spider-Man movie, I’m saying it’s my favorite.
Amazing Spider-Man 2 has one critical flaw that practically ruins and taints the movie, namely, the Green Goblin.
The very fact that he’s in it at all ruins the movie. Not because he’s a bad villain, but because he’s shoe horned into the movie at the end in such an awful way that it ruins the movie.
The movie is about two hours and thirty minutes long and the Green Goblin is in it for about ten minutes. It’s incredible that in those ten minutes he pretty much manages to single handedly ruin the movie. It’s very disappointing.
However, there’s two hours twenty minutes of perfectly fun movie here. If you focus on that instead of the crappy ten minutes of Goblin, then you’d see where I’m coming from.
Why it’s My Favorite Spider-Man Movie
Alright, so if the movie isn’t perfect, why is it my favorite? Why is this my favorite instead of one of the Raimi movies? After all, it seems like the majority people like the Raimi movies and hate the Mark Webb ones.
Well, here are my reasons:
1. Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker
I really like Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker. I found him much more likable and relate-able than the Sam Raimi version.
In the Raimi version, Peter is a buffoon. He’s a big clumsy goof. He’s an awful lot like Jar Jar Binks. People like that Peter because he makes them laugh and you feel bad for Peter.
In the comics though, Peter is never a buffoon. If you read the very first Spider-Man comics drawn by Steve Ditko, you’d see that Peter is a smart, normal guy, who happens to be really into and really good at science. Because of this, he’s picked on by Flash Thompson and his girlfriend Liz.
Not only that but because of the way he’s treated, Peter in those comics is often an angry, emo, vengeful guy, who sometimes comes off as a jerk. Flaws he has to get over.
In the Ultimate Spider-Man comics Peter is written by Brian Michael Bendis as a normal but brilliant, kid who’s into science. He’s not a goof or buffoon and he’s very likeable.
In The Amazing Spider-Man 1 and 2 Peter is portrayed by Andrew Garfield as a normal, and brilliant guy who also seems a bit anti-social since he doesn’t seem to have friends. People seem to think he can be taken advantage of. As can be seen in that scene where the pretty girl tries to get him to do her boyfriend’s work.
He’s not a goofball, he’s just an “ordinary Joe.” I like that about him. We also see that he’s brilliant because he develops web shooters after becoming Spider-Man, in the first movie. Which is just like in the comics.
The Amazing Spider-Man movies also did something I thought was smart and necessary to Peter. It rebooted the series so he could be younger.
Peter works a bit better as when he’s younger. If he’s still in high school or even a freshman in college. The Peter in Spider-Man 2 has just graduated high school. He’s still young and trying to figure out his place in the world.
Garfield’s performance is fun, sincere and believable. He’s also a very funny and sometimes awkward guy.
Peter is shown to be a good person, and a very smart guy. This is a Peter I can identify with and he also rings true to the Peter from the comics.
I will also add here that his relationship with Harry Osborn is really nice in this. There’s some really great tension in the movie between the two of them but you can also see that they’re friends.
I think that was done really well.
2. Emma Stones Gwen Stacy
Not only is she pretty, she’s smart too. Smarter than Peter in fact.
She’s also funny, courageous and very confident. She has goals and seems like someone who’s going places.
From the moment she first came on screen in Amazing Spider-Man 1, you start to like her. Emma Stone does a wonderful job portraying her.
You can tell that, if Peter wasn’t in her life, she’d still be okay. She doesn’t need to be in any kind of relationship. She doesn’t need to be saved from her life. She has a great life from the start.
She just happens to also be attracted to Peter and you WANT her to like him.
3. Peter and Gwen’s Relationship.
Spider-Man comics really worked best when they’re a combination of romance comics and superhero comics. Amazing Spider-Man 2 really captures this. Amazing Spider-Man 1 also did this well though.
The relationship between Peter and Gwen really works in this movie. First, it works because, as I’ve said above, both Peter and Gwen are likeable people to begin with. When they get together you understand why they like each other.
You can see that they complement each other. They have he same interests, they make each other laugh, and they generally have a good time together. Their relationship feels sincere.
It’s nice to see them together. You like them together. It makes the movie fun.
There’s nothing false of forced about their relationship.
4. The Portrayal of Spider-Man
I think Amazing Spider-Man 2 has the best portrayal of Spider-Man in any movie.
From the first moment I saw him on screen I couldn’t can’t help but smile. First, he looks the part. His costume looks great.
Second, as he swings through the city, you can tell he’s having a blast being Spidey. He’s also hitting as many comic poses as the animators can cram into every shot.
Not only that but you get the thing that was missing in the Raimi movies, Spidey’s banter. As he’s going around preventing crimes all over New York, he’s cracking jokes.
It screams Spider-Man. This the Spidey I always wanted to see in the movies.
There’s even a scene where he’s modifying his webshooters in order to help him confronts the movie’s villain. This is classic Spider-Man. This is the kind of thing Spidey did in the comics.
He also protects little kids and tries to give other people confidence. This is the most likeable portray of Spider-Man there’s ever been.
More Good Than Bad
For all these reasons, Amazing Spider-Man 2 is now my favorite Spider-Man movie. Most of the movie is full of what I wrote about above.
I didn’t write about Jammie Fox’s Electro. He’s a decent villain and a good foil for Spider-Man to fight against. The best part of the Electro scenes is how they emphasize how cool Spider-Man is.
He just let’s Spidey be Spidey, and in that respect, he’s a great villain.
The Rhino is a good bad guy for the same reason. He makes Spidey look cool.
The bad guys just make the good stuff about Spidey in the movie come out more. Like I said at the beginning of the article, the weakest link in the movie is the Green Goblin. It felt rushed and taints the way you perceive the other good stuff in the movie.
Have You Seen It?
What do you think? I know this movie gets a lot of hate from people. I understand their frustration, but I also can see past the flaws.
Have you watched this movie? If you have, what do you think?
MOVIES – 3 Characters That Should Be in a Guardians of the Galaxy Sequel or Other Marvel Cosmic Universe Movie.
After I finished watching Guardians of the Galaxy, there were three cosmic superheroes I left wanting to see. You’ll see who they are and why I want to see them in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in this post.
I went to see the Guardians of the Galaxy movie with my eldest son and really enjoyed the movie. It was fun to watch.
That said, if I was to say the movie had a flaw of any kind, it would be that it didn’t have any superheroes in it. Don’t get me wrong, the protagonists were heroes, they were cool and all, but they weren’t superheroes.
The one character in the movie that I would consider a superhero was Groot. He had all those plant powers and stuff, but all the other guardians where just action heroes, not necessarily superheroes. They didn’t have powers like Groot.
The movie left me wanting to see cosmic superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Characters like Silver Surfer. But alas, the rights to Silver Surfer belong to FOX. Seeing him in a Marvel movie, isn’t going to happen.
Fortunately, he’s not the only cosmic superhero in the Marvel Universe. And there are three particular Marvel Universe cosmic superheroes I specifically want to see.
This one is such an obvious one. Guardians was practically screaming “Where’s Nova?!” As we saw in the Guardians movie, the Nova Corp is a peace keeping intergalactic police force. The Nova Corp. is supposed to have access to the “Nova Force,” which gives it’s officers super powers.
Nova, is a human being who gets the powers of the Nova force and joins the Nova Corp.
Where were these super powered Novas in the Guardians movie? I don’t know, but the more I watched the movie the more I wanted them to show up.
I definitely want to see them in the next Guardian movies or in their own movies.
Quasar is like a cross between Green Lantern and Superman. He’s got these “Quantum Bands” that are pretty similar to the Green Lantern’s ring. They’re able to create constructs out of “Quantum energy.”
He’s a very powerful character, and very similar to Superman in moral code and power.
Again, watching Guardians, I couldn’t help but think that Quasar showing up would be really cool. He would have been too powerful a character for the first Guardians movie, but having him show up in the sequel or giving him his own movie would be awesome.
Arguably, Adam Warlock IS in the Guardians movie. At least his Cocoon is. It’s an “Easter egg” in the collectors collection.
Adam Warlock, is a synthetic being. He was born in Cocoon and sometimes uses it to heal himself.
He’s got crazy cosmic superpowers that boarder on magic, but traditionally he uses the “Soul Gem” (one of the Infinity Gems) on his forehead, as his power source.
Adam Warlock is sometimes an antagonist and sometimes a protagonist. He’s a very chaotic figure and it would be fantastic to see him in a Guardians sequel or in his own movie.
Since his cocoon is already in the Guardians movie and because his comic history is so tied up with Thanos and the Infinity Gems, I think he’s got the highest possibility of showing up in an upcoming movie.
Who Would You Like To See?
Those are my three characters. There are many more cosmic characters in the Marvel Universe I didn’t mention but the ones above are the ones I was to see most. What do you think?
What about you? Do you have a Marvel cosmic character you want to see? sound off in the comics below.
Today I’m writing about the best computer generated animated movies that have come out in recent years.
This type of animated film is relatively new, but it’s really taken animated storytelling and managed to broaden it greatly. Especially in the eyes of mainstream audiences.
You’d think this list would be dominated only by Pixar and Dreamworks films. Well, you’d almost be right, but I decided to clump some of the Pixar and Dreamworks CG films into series. This frees up the list to allow other great CG films to get put on the list.
So let’s get started.
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There have been many directors who have attempted to make motion capture movies that look right. Beowulf,Polar Express, A Christmas Carol, all have gone into the “uncanny valley” territory, that happens when the you rely too heavily on the computer to do all the work.
This has made these movies, not only ugly, but not worth watching.
Along came Tin Tin. A motion capture CG movie done right.
Tin Tin does away with the attempt of making it’s characters super realistic. Also, when watching Tin Tin, it becomes obvious that the animators enhanced and touched up the motion capture until it looked just right.
I’m pretty sure they added and took away from the performances to make it all work. THIS is how motion capture is done well. When motion capture and animators work together in harmony to make something animate look right.
On top of that, the movie was directed by none other than Steven Spielberg. The movie comes across like an adventure movie in the same vain as his best Indiana Jones movies. It’s so much fun.
More animated movies should be in this genre. I’m looking forward to the sequel.
Rango was a unexpected surprise. A great western told with animals.
The unique look and feel of this movie was fascinating. It was odd, quirky, and fun.
Watching Rango, I wasn’t expecting much of anything, but it was a great surprise. Fun story, interesting characters, a unique genre. It really blew me away.
It became one of my favorite CG movies. A must watch for anyone who’s a fan of CG animated movies and westerns.
I have to admit, I’m a little bias about this one. I went to Sony animation studio to visit a friend when this movie was in development. I had lunch with the concept artists and I was blown away by the concept art for this movie.
This movie is totally fun and completely underrated. Mostly because it has been overshadowed another movie with singing and dancing penguins, whose name we will not mention.
Surf’s Up is nothing like that other movie.
So much of the dialogue is improvised by the actors. It’s funny, and that art direction is beautiful. The character designs are fantastic, the animation acting it awesome.
Also the water effects are pretty spectacular.
This movie is great. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.
Oh boy, this movie rocks. One of the funniest CG animated movies ever.
It also doesn’t actually look like a typical CG movie. It actually looks like the movie was animated using Legos
It’s a surprisingly deeper movie than it seems at first.
It was written and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the guys who brought us Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. A movie that also belongs on this list (only if it was on this list Tin Tin would be knocked off so I’m mentioning it here.)
This movie is super awesome. It’s about Legos and who doesn’t love Legos?
I had to put at least one Disney movie in this list. Tangled made my list for a few reasons. It’s a typical Disney formula princes movie that actually works well.
The art direction is beautiful. I love the colors.
I like the character designs of the protagonists a lot.
And it’s the last Disney movie Glen Keane worked on before he left Disney.
If you were to watch a CG Disney movie, this is the one I’d recommend. Yes, I like it more than Frozen.
Again, I’m clumping all the movies together here for the same reason I clumped the Toy Story movies.
I love Kung Fu, and I love animated action movies. These movies combine the things I love and makes them work really well in an action comedy environment.
These movies where a great idea, well executed.
Great action, great story, great designs, fantastic animated acting. You can’t go wrong.
It’s tough for a CG movie to beat this movie for me. It has superheroes in it, great look, a great setting, fantastic characters, amazing action, and exciting and moving story, and it’s so relateable.
The acting is amazing, it’s funny…it’s got a great director…I mean, it’s just so good.
It’s absolutely the best CG movie made so far. It’s a tough movie to beat.
What are Your Thoughts?
Did I miss your favorite? Have you seen all these movies? Do you think I’m missing anything?
The question is, which one of these two movies will do better that weekend?
There’s no way of knowing, of course. All we can do is speculate. That said, I’ve made a bet at work on which movie will do better.
But before I get into that let’s take a look at what each movie has going for it.
What Captain America 3 Brings to the Table
The Pros
Captain America 2 is one of best live action superhero movies ever made. It’s arguably THE best superhero movie. Captain America as a mainstream character has earned a huge reputation because of Cap 2.
The TV show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. keeps you involved in the Marvel Universe while you wait for the next feature, and it ties in nicely to Cap. 2.
By the time Cap.3 comes out, Avengers 2 would have also come out. Depending on how well that movie is received, Capt 3 will have some great momentum.
Marvel has a good stuff together when it comes to their superhero movies and is building a solid brand.
The Cons
Cap. 2 was so good, it’s got a LOT to live up to. And if Avengers 2 is good, it’s even got MORE to live up to. It’s possible that if the story is good but not fantastic, it’s going to get bad word of mouth because of over hyped expectations. This is, what happened to Dark Knight Rises.
What Man of Steel 2 (Superman vs. Batman) Brings to the Table
The Pros
It’s going to have Batman in it. He’s arguably the most popular mainstream Superhero in the world.
It’s going to have Diana Prince and possibly have her dresses in her alter ego, Wonder Woman. This would be the first time she has ever been in a feature film. That’s a big deal. Who doesn’t want to see that?
The potential of this movie being a set up for a Justice League movie, gives this movie a high curiosity factor.
And if it’s story is more solid than Man of Steel‘s, it’s going to get great word of mouth.
The Cons
The first Man of Steel movie was very divisive. It had plot holes and some people didn’t like the take on Superman. Warner’s doesn’t really seem to have a solid plan with their Superhero movies. They’re hit or miss which doesn’t give people too much confidence in their movie brand. Also, many people don’t like the idea of Ben Affleck playing Batman.
My Bet
Last week I was having a conversation about the latest Superhero movies with a director friend of mine.
The conversation eventually turned to Cap 3 and the Man of Steel sequel.
We started talking about the potential pros and cons of each movie. Then my friend asked me which one of these movies would “win.”
“I think it’s going to be Superman vs. Batman,. It’s got Batman in it. Ben Affleck or no, I think more people have more invested in Batman then Cap.”
My friend thought Cap. 3 would win, because Cap 2 was so spectacularly good. So he said,
“Bet you five buck Cap. 3 wins.”
“Ha ha ha, alright, I’ll take that bet,” so we shook on it, “We’ll find out in two years who’s right.”
The winning movie is the movie that makes the most money out of the two, once it leaves most theaters. We’ll see which movie does better.
ANIMATION/MOVIES – Top Ten Dreamworks Animated Movies
As lousy with bad sequels and spin offs as Dreamworks is, they’re also the studio, I think, is taking the most risks.
What do I mean by this? Well, they dare to make action adventure movies, catering a tad more to the male audience, than any other American Animation studios.
Yes this means that their movies aren’t as successful, considering it’s a demographic very difficult to get to go watch an animated movie, but they try. For this, I’m grateful, it means there’s an animation studio that makes movies that I will find appealing.
After thinking about it, I decided to make a list of my top ten Dreamworks movies.
I expected less from this movie. I really didn’t have any desire to watch this movie based on the trailers. I think it was poorly marketed.
After watching it, I was pleasantly surprised. It was reminiscent of Pixar’s Ratatouille but much less focused. It also veers away from Pixar’s movie enough to make it it’s own movie.
I liked how it had a lot of minority characters in it. That part was great. I liked how they incorporated the “Fast and the Furious” racing culture in there too.
Had they stuck more with that I think the movie would have been much more successful,. But they added a big snail culture thing at the beginning and made it more about the Indy 500, which didn’t fit with the other stuff.
They tried to cater to too many groups all at once and really failed to nail all of them. All that said, I still liked the movie for the bits they did get right.
By far one the ugliest movies Dreamworks produced. A movie so ugly I wasn’t going to go watch it. But I got curious, so opening weekend I went to watch it and laughed so hard I almost soiled myself.
This is the movie that put Dreamworks on the map. It’s first real hit. So very funny. So unexpected.
The ugliness of the designs ended up not being a big deal compared to how fun this movie was.
It’s difficult now, to remember how refreshingly funny and fun this movie was, now that it has so many sequels. That said, this is still a funny movie.
Aardmann animation and Dreamworks teamed up to bring us Wallace & Gromit the Curse of the Were-Rabbit. The second stop motion movie Dreamworks produced. This is Aardman charm at it’s best.
It’s a great parody of a horror movie starting Wallace & Gromit. It’s so good and darn funny.
The animation and action is top notch. It worth watching over and over.
My kids love it with good reason. This is a great movie.
Dreamwork’s attempt at a superhero movie. I really liked this one. Of course it helps that it’s my favorite genre but I didn’t know if it was going to be any good when I first watched the trailers.
I found myself really enjoying myself. The twists and turns in the movie where fun and it made me laugh.
If I’d liked the designs of the characters a bit more, it may have been higher on my list.
This is a movie I wouldn’t have minded seeing a sequel to.
This is yet another superhero movie. Only this group of superheroes are Santa Claus, The Tooth Fairy, The Easter Bunny, The Sandman and Jack Frost.
The problem is that the audience that they were catering to, which was teenage boys, were’nt going to go watch a movie about Santa even it he DID have swords.
I really liked this movie because it was a superhero movie. I liked the action and the story was not bad. I also liked the designs of the characters.
This was a fun movie. I have a feeling adults liked this movie more than the kids who watched it did. And I doubt enough teenage boys watched it.
This one could almost be called a masterpiece. It’s also got a special place in my heart because I went to the Dreamworks studios for the first time around the time it was being developed and I got to see some amazing concept art for it.
The story was great, the animation was fantastic. The designs were a bit more watered down than the ones I saw but still, they where great.
The art direction is stunning. The music is not bad.
This movie moved me and it was such a promising start for the studio. They did something with hand drawn animation that no big studio had done before. It was a risky movie that paid off.
Kung Fu Panda 2 was not as surprising as the first movie but still had everything the first one had. This made it very good. It’s the only movie on this list that is a sequel.
I liked this movie quite a bit. It was fun, funny and action packed.
It gave me exactly what I wanted and I left happy. I wouldn’t mind seeing yet another one of these.
Oh man, definitely one of my favorite movies. I loved the dragons, I loved the journey the characters take. I like the setting the characters designs, the action.
Everything about this movie is really fun. If only more animated movies where like this.
So, the American animation industry only does family movies. I mean that’s pretty much the mainstream animated movie in America is a family movie. Alright, so I decided that I’m going to make my Top Ten Family Movies.
This isn’t exactly what my family itself watches when we have movie nights or family nights.
My kids, they tend to have very varying taste depending on their age. For example, my three-year old son, he likes to watch what he calls “Cheese Gromit,” which is basically Wallace & Gromit, ad nauseam.
Those aren’t exactly theatrical feature movies, which is what I’m going to be talking about today. And I wouldn’t even know where to categorize that, under shorts films? I don’t know. And I’m going to restrict this to only American features.
You can either watch the video or read the transcription below.
I’ve also put trailers for each movie below:
Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, thanks for your support.
My number ten is actually a movie that I don’t own and I have just recently watched, and that is Rise of the Guardians by DreamWorks.
It didn’t do very well at the box office, and I think the reason is because it was a movie for teenagers, marketed towards teenagers about Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny. They’re not going to go to this movie because it’s about Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny, okay, it doesn’t make any sense.
When you watch the movie it’s actually not necessarily geared for the little kids. Little kids could like it, but it’s a lot more of a superhero show or a superhero movie than regular family fair that you would expect.
I actually really, really enjoyed it. I watched this movie I was like, this is fantastic. I like the take on the characters. I like the animation. I like the designs. The acting was fantastic.
The sidekicks in it were actually fun to watch and exciting to watch. You actually like watching the sidekicks in this movie. I really appreciated that.
I was really entertained and pleasantly surprised, and very saddened that it didn’t make as much money in the box office. This movie was a reason for so many layoffs at DreamWorks.
I understand why, because the marketing like I said was for teenagers and you were trying to get them to go watch Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny, and it’s just not going to work.
“Hey, want to watch the tooth fairy, 14 year old?” Come on. They’ll say “No.” They’re not going to do that.
So I think it was a great movie with a great premise, yet the marketing, was the wrong characters for the wrong target audience. And I think that was really the reason why it failed. But I really, really enjoyed Rise of the Guardians.
Yeah Lilo and Stitch, you know there’s something about this movie. Out of all the Disney hand drawn movies, I don’t know what it is about this movie. And on top of that the theme is family, “Ohana means family and family means not leaving anyone behind.”
They shove the theme down your throat in a really bad way. That’s just preachy, you know, and annoying and preachy.
But funny and fun and science fiction, It has an alien.
It’s beautiful with watercolor backgrounds, Lilo is really quirky and crazy and fun to watch. And it’s my number nine, I highly recommend it if you guys haven’t watched it with your family.
My number eight is a movie that when I first watched it I’m like,
“Really? This is not funny. This is so not funny. I don’t understand this comedy…Wow this is funny. This is really funny. Oh my gosh, this is so funny! I don’t know what it is about it but I think this is hilarious.”
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, this is a great family movie.
It’s just about a guy that makes it rain food and it’s based on a book.
At first, I really didn’t like it. Like I said, I didn’t get it, I’m like,
“This is really forced. It’s really, really forced.” But no, it grew on me as I watched it and the comedy kind of grew on me. And then I’m like “Why am I fighting this? This is really just a lot of fun.”
The characters move like Muppets which is really fun. They act like Muppets which is even weirder, but there’s something about it that just hit me where I live.
I don’t know what it is. It’s just fun and light-hearted, and it’s fun to watch with my kids, and it makes me laugh. It just makes me laugh. I highly recommend this movie and this is my number 8, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
My number seven, I don’t own. P was late watching this movie, and that is Wreck-It Ralph.
Wreck-It Ralph is about a videogame bad guy who decides he doesn’t want to be a bad guy anymore and he goes off into the arcade – he’s an arcade videogame bad guy – and goes off to find a way to not be bad and be a hero.
It’s really, really fun and exciting and there’s just a lot of nostalgia. If you’re really into video games you’ll like it. It’s a solid story. It’s very moving.
The moment I saw the trailer I’m like,
“That is going to make so much money, because we’re such video game obsessed people now.” Everybody plays video games now and it just hit the culture right where it lives.
I absolutely knew this was going to be a money maker just by its premise alone. But Rich Moore also managed to knock the story out of the park; great movie, Wreck-It Ralph, my number seven.
My number six, and I’m going to start cheating here, this is the beginning of my cheating. It is the entire Toy Story trilogy.
Toy Story is a fantastic, fantastic trilogy. Every single one of these movies is better than the next. I don’t know how they can possibly manage to do these movies and just make them better and better and better.
I mean, the reason I packed them in and say that the entire series is, my number six, is because if I split them up it would take up most of my list. There’s another series that I’m going to be talking about that would have also taken most of my list.
What can I say? Watch these movies. These are great family movies.
They are great, fantastic, great stories, great characters, they make you laugh too. It’s just oh my gosh! And there’s no singing, nobody has to stop the movie for a song, and it’s still merchandising galore for Disney.
My number five, I like even more than Toy Story:How to Train Your Dragon.
It’s got dragons in it. It’s got dragons in it. It’s cool it’s got dragons in it. The story is actually really, really good.
It’s really fun, about a boy who wants to kill dragons, who want to be a fighter but he’s totally isn’t a fighter and then he ends up befriending the most dangerous type of dragon ever. And it’s got basically barbarians in it, and the designs of the dragons are great.
I like the characters in it, they’re great, and it’s go action in it- a lot of it. And that’s what I really like about it, action.
That’s the kinds of movies that I do like, and I wish there was just more of these genre of movies where it’s family but theypushes it to action adventure.
That’s what I like, and this hits me right where I live, How to Train Your Dragon is my number five.
My number three is another Pixar movie, and that is Monsters, Inc.
Now maybe it shouldn’t be so high on the list because Toy Story might be much better, but I don’t know anybody who’s had a little girl who doesn’t think that the little girl in this movie is not their little girl.
You identify with her and that to me speaks a little bit more as far as family goes than to Toy Story, because you’ve got this little girl who really does feel like your daughter.
That’s just personally, where I’m coming from, and that’s why it’s higher than Toy Story.
If you have kids, you know that they’re obsessed and scared of monsters in the dark. This is like kind of almost like,
“Hey it’s okay they’re not so bad,” So this is a really great family movie, my number three is Monsters, Inc.
This movie is going to be number one in a lot of different lists. I’m going to tell you this right now. The Incredibles.
The Incredibles, it is a family movie about a family of superheroes and it’s awesome, and it’s one of the few movies out there that Pixar has done that actually deserves a sequel. But it’s all up to Brad Bird.
Brad Bird needs to decide what the next movie is going to be about. But this movie is the awesome.
You have to watch this movie. If you have a family, this is the family movie to watch, highly recommend it, The Incredibles.
What’s Y0ur List?
So that’s my Top Ten family movies. What do you think? What would your Top Ten have been?
I really actually enjoy getting comments from people who have left me their Top Ten. It’s really interesting to see what other people actually think about this stuff.
Go ahead and leave your Top Ten if you want on my comments below.
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I’m pretty certain I’m going to make some people very, very angry with me with this top ten list, because today I’m going to be talking about my favorite live action superhero movies. And I absolutely know that people are going to think I’m crazy based on my list here.
My number ten, I don’t have the DVD because it’s on Netflix so I can watch it anytime on-demand. It’s Captain America.
I loved the trailer, I thought it was great, I couldn’t wait to watch it and I thought that it really paid off in the first half of the movie, second half not so much.
The first half, I loved. The turning of Steve Rogers into Captain America, all that stuff was fantastic and I absolutely loved it.
One of the things I do like about Captain America as a character is that he’s a stand up guy. He’s a really good guy and the way he comes across isn’t cheesy, it’s just honest and it’s heartfelt and you kind of root for him.
He’s got very down to earth values, but the reason why it’s not higher, is because the second half of the movie, it just seemed like,
“…and then he became Captain America and everything went awesome, the end.”
There wasn’t really much of a movie once he became completely accepted as Captain America. It was just about how awesome he is.
The Red Skull shows up and he’s basically,
“Curses Captain America- you’ve foiled me again,”- and there was nothing about it that was compelling about the second half of the movie.
Still it’s really actually very re-watchable, in spite of that and it feels good to watch it, it makes you happy.
Oh here we go, let’s start pissing people off. My number nine is actually Batman: Dark Knight.
Why is this my number nine and not like my number one right? That’s the big question, and that is because it’s so difficult to sit and watch this movie all the way through and not want to shoot yourself in the head.
Of course, everybody knows Health Ledger as Joker is incredible; the story is actually really, really good, very dramatic, it’s just fantastic.
This is a really deep movie, it speaks to you, it has really strong themes, and it’s a great, great Batman. But it also feels so dark and so overbearing, that it’s really hard to just sit and watch it and enjoy it, without wanting to slit your wrists.
That’s really the reason. The other reason why, is that Batman here is really heavily compromised as a character at the end of this series of lying and cheating and becoming a cheat.
There’s something about the ethics at the end of the story that just didn’t ring true to me, which is going to be ironic because you’re going to see what my number three is. And then I totally go and back peddle and excuse myself, and make excuses. So I understand that I’m going to contradict myself later on, so just bear with me.
My number eight, and yes I really like this movie, The Amazing Spider-man, the new Mark Webb Spider-man.
I really thought they actually captured Spider-man much more in this, than in the Sam Raimi Spider-man Movie.
Yes you just heard me right. I did say that, it actually reminded me more of the Ditko Spider-man. Very skinny guy who’s kind of not the most likeable person in the world. Because Steve Ditko and Stan Lee didn’t really make a very likeable Peter Parker.
And this Spider-Man really came across this way. It was really reminiscent of that to me.
He has mechanical web shooters, which makes him a scientific genius, which is actually part of the character. There’s something about this that I like, and yes it’s a little dark, but he’s much more of a funny Spider-man than all the other types of live action Spider-man’s, and he is a little bit of a jerk.
You know what, Spider-man is a bit of a jerk. He is. I am a huge Spider-man fan, and he’s my second favorite superhero.
I really liked The Amazing Spider-man movie, my number eight.
My number seven I don’t have, I want to own it, but I’m saving my pennies for now and that is X-Men: First Class.
X-Men: First Class is the only X-Men movie that I think really nailed it. I’m not a huge X-Men fan, but I actually really, really thought that X-Men: First Class really captured the team. It was something about the way that the characters related.
The interaction with the characters, you really liked the way they worked together, you were rooting for them when they got together, they did their thing.
I liked the era. It was 60’s, it was kind of a spy kind of thing going, it worked.
I liked the feel of that movie, it’s exciting, it nailed it. I think it really did do a good job of getting the X-Men right.
More so than the other X-Men movies, so my number seven X-Men: First Class.
My number six is Spider-Man 2. Spider-Man 2, yes. As much as I like The Amazing Spiderman, it’s still not as good as Spider-Man 2. Spider-Man 1, I thought was awful. I thought it was a lame, lame, lame movie.
This movie actually was not, the relationship between Doc Ock and Peter Parker that is what makes this movie.
The whole Kiki’s Delivery Service story line in it and you know how much I like Kiki’s Delivery Service if you saw my Top Ten Miyazaki Movies. This is Kiki’s Delivery Service with Spider-man.
He loses his powers and then he has to try to— it’s just really interesting, I really liked it, it was a lot fun.
A lot of really fun, good, exciting action in it. Dr. Octopus is a really good bad guy in this, not cheesy like the Green Goblin was in the original, in Spider-man, the first one.
My number five is something that I’m constantly ranting almost against, I don’t want to rant against it, because I really do enjoy this movie and that is Donner’s Superman: The Movie.
This is the movie that all superhero movies keep copying. This is the movie that set up the genre of superhero movies. This is the formula that is copied over, and over, and over in different ways, even if it’s told in different sequences.
The superhero movies of today are basically retelling this movie over, and over, and over.
This is a great movie, Christopher Reeves, fantastic Superman, very silver age Superman. A happy light-hearted— it captures the wonder and excitement, and the music in it is great, the relationship between Lois and Superman is fantastic.
What can I say? It’s just great. The cast is fantastic.
The only thing, if anything, is that I think the bad guys are so comedic, that they don’t come across as dangerous to me. But it’s excusable because the movie overall is deep and thematic and fantastic, there’s a reason why everybody’s copying this movie.
Alright here we go the next controversial movie on my list, It’s Batman Begins.
What can I say about Batman Begins? It’s the best Batman movie ever made.
I think it’s better than Dark Knight, even though Dark Knight is deeper and the themes are deeper.
Batman Begins is watchable over and over because it doesn’t go so depressingly dark. It does really play up the danger of being Batman, what he has to go through to become Batman, there’s just something about it that really, really hits on so many levels.
If you haven’t seen it, you’ve got to watch, it’s a must watch.
Along with Superman: The Movie it’s one of those must watch superhero movies, Batman Begins my number four.
Here we go, this is where I stick my foot in my mouth and contradict myself from what I said about Dark Knight. My number three is Man of Steel, yeah Man of Steel, okay.
I’m a huge, huge Superman fan, so I liked this movie. I kind of wanted to like this movie, but it turned out that it wasn’t what I expected. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, though it had so much of what I wanted in it.
That said, I really, really enjoyed the movie. It wasn’t quite the Superman movie that the Donner Superman movie was. The Donner movie, you’ve got Superman in it, in Man of Steel, you really don’t have really Superman in it.
You kind of have until the very, very end, it’s kind of like the creation or the beginning of Superman. How he became Superman and how he’s learning to be Superman, even though he’s got the suit on, he still doesn’t know how to be Superman.
His ethics aren’t completely there, because he’s constantly fighting all these other forces.
It’s cheesy, it’s got some plot holes in it, and there is a controversial element in it that kind of takes Superman to a different place where he usually doesn’t go to.
Although you could arguably say that he does exactly the same thing in Superman 2. And that’s where I’m back peddling.
Batman does something in Batman: Dark Knight, that isn’t very dramatic.
Well Superman does something in the Man of Steel, that is not very Superman-ish, but it’s a little bit different because in Batman: Dark Knight, you’ve got an established Batman.
While in Man of Steel, you’ve got a character who’s trying to become Superman, and hasn’t quite made the choices that he will eventually, as a more mature, well developed superhero.
First of all, I think Henry Cavill is a great looking Superman, I think he plays the character well, I like the cast, I like the action in it, specifically the action.
If you want to see it, just find the link below on my blog, if you’re watching this on my blog. You should be watching it on my blog, because it’s meant to be watched on my blog. Okay so I’ll shut up now, let me go to my number two.
My number two is Ironman. To be honest, I kind of watched Ironman 2 more than I’ve watched Ironman.
Actually, if I was going to watch one of the two, either Ironman or Ironman 2, I tend to put Ironman 2 in there, because it has more action in it. But this is the movie that kind of set up the Marvel Universe, and the lightheartedness and it showed that you can go lite and yet still be powerful and exciting and real, without it having to go down Dark Knight Movie territory.
This is a fun movie, it’s fantastic, the story is rock solid while in Ironman 2, not so much, which is the reason why this is in and not the other one.
So this is a great, great movie. I highly recommend watching Ironman.
When I left the theater after watching this movie, I was so pumped. This movie got me so pumped, it’s so exciting, like it makes you want to be Ironman.
My number one, I don’t own it because it is on Netflix, but as soon as it’s off Netflix I’m going to go buy it. It is The Avengers movie.
The Avengers movie– Joss Whedon directed it and wrote it and made it spectacular, it is fan service all over the place.
It is fun, fun, fun. You leave that movie so overjoyed and happy, like yay it’s the Avengers, it’s so exciting, you know.
There’s something about watching that movie that makes you actually really feel like you’ve read a comic book.
It’s not dark and brooding, which a lot of people dislike about movies like Man of Steel and Batman. But this movie is very lighthearted, it does a good job of mixing light-hearted humor with serious action and it doesn’t feel cheesy at any point.
And it shows and compliments the characters, the characters come together, they’re butting heads and they’re very entertaining and it plays up the characters really well.
It really puts the Hulk on the map, makes him very exciting to watch. It shows that really the Hulk, as a character, needs other people around him, to really make him stand out. The Hulk is a little bit like salt, you just need a little bit to really make things pop right.
Everybody loves Loki, there’s a huge fan base of Loki now, because he’s just such a great villain in this movie.
Captain America is played dead on. I love his dialogue, and I love the way that he and Tony Stark are butting heads.
So that’s my number one, The Avengers.
In Conclusion
And that’s my list, what do you think, am I crazy? I know, I know, you’re mad at me for where I put a lot of these movies.
Let me know, let me have it, I don’t care, let me have it.
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I’ve been talking a lot about a lot of different animated cartoons. And one of the ones that I haven’t been able to, because it kind of doesn’t fit in the TV show genre or the OVA, I don’t know what to categorize it.
It’s a series called Giant Robo, and today I’m going to give you the four reasons why you ought to watch this show.
You can either watch the video below or read the transcription that follows it:
(Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. Thanks for your support.)
Giant Robo is a series but it’s not a television show.
It’s just a series of mini movies, I suppose is the best way to—it’s a serialized show, but it’s not a TV show. So, why am I recommending this? Let’s begin.
1. The character designs.
Now, the character designs are very, very old school. You can tell that they’re the little barrel chested kid, and these are very classic anime style characters, one step up from the Astro Boy style.
The designs are incredible. I love the simplicity and I love that style.
They use the aesthetics of modern Japanese cartoons, the way they have them now, but they play up the old styles of designs from back in the sixties. It’s incredible the way the characters look. I love the designs.
It’s eye candy, when it comes to what the characters look like, and the show and the feel, itself, of the show.
2. The Story
The second reason you should watch this show is because it’s actually a really, really fun story.
It’s generally about a world where the energy crisis has been fixed and this thing called the Shizuma Drive is now energizing everything. And what happens when an evil organization called Big Fire— it’s over the top, it’s really dramatic.
It’s told in an over the top, dramatic, super melodramatic style, but it’s operatic to the point where even the music is opera. And this organization called Big Fire, full of super powered beings, and I’ll get to that in a moment, basically wipe out the energy source because there’s a fatal flaw in the designs.
It’s all about that fatal flaw in the creator, Shizuma, and what he did that created the fatal flaw. And it’s all about this melodrama that happens around the design of this super energy and how the good guys, the Experts of Justice, that’s what they’re called, they’re trying to find a way to stop this chaos from destroying the earth.
So I mean, it’s over the top. It’s just great, right?
3. The Over the Top Superpowers
Big Fire, the bad guys, and the Experts of Justice, the good guys, they’ve got these ridiculous, over the top powers. Every single one is specialized in some kind of super power. They’re not dressed like super heroes, but they’re practically super hero team against evil super hero team.
Each one, you don’t know what their power is until they finally reveal it in the most dramatic way possible and it’s cool. It’s so cool.
It’s really imaginative use of characters with powers and they’re fighting and you know, you’ve got this little boy here and he’s got Giant Robo. He controls this gigantic, gigantic robot who fights giant other robots.
His name is Daisaku, the little boy’s name, and he basically orders this giant robot around. And there is some kind of sapiens element to the robot so that he actually thinks, it’s fascinating.
Of course, the boy inherited the robot from his father- all of that genre trope, the giant robot genre. But, he’s surrounded by this Experts of Justice who’ve got all kinds of super powers. It’s so cool.
You got to see it, you got to see it, okay?
4. The Exciting Action
And that gets me to the fourth reason why you should watch this show, and that is the way that the powers and the action is portrayed is so exciting.
It starts off like- oh, okay that’s cool, and eventually as the series moves and you get to see the story evolves, and all the drama starts playing out.
The stakes get higher and then the over the top action just builds and builds, and next thing you know, you’ve got armies of these super beings fighting other armies of super beings and it’s just crazy.
It’s so fun. If you like action adventure, over the top, exciting super powered characters and a giant robot fighting other giant robots, you’ve got to watch it.
Giant Robo is so much fun. I cannot emphasize how much fun this show is.
In Conclusion
It took forever for this show to come out because the father of the director-writer passed away, like, half way through the making of the show. So there was a huge hiatus in between episodes.
But, the quality is incredible. It’s just done so well. If you can find it and get it, watch Giant Robo. You won’t be disappointed. It’s worth your time.
All right, so if you’ve seen it, let me know. If you’re interested in seeing it, let me know.
What do you think of the show? Leave your comment below.
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Last week I posted a video comparing The Force Awakens to Star Wars: A New Hope. This week I give you my review of the movie.
.
, Peter is a buffoon. He’s a big clumsy goof. He’s an awful lot like Jar Jar Binks. People like that Peter because he makes them laugh and you feel bad for Peter.
drawn by Steve Ditko, you’d see that Peter is a smart, normal guy, who happens to be really into and really good at science. Because of this, he’s picked on by Flash Thompson and his girlfriend Liz.
comics Peter is written by Brian Michael Bendis as a normal but brilliant, kid who’s into science. He’s not a goof or buffoon and he’s very likeable.
and 2 Peter is portrayed by Andrew Garfield as a normal, and brilliant guy who also seems a bit anti-social since he doesn’t seem to have friends. People seem to think he can be taken advantage of. As can be seen in that scene where the pretty girl tries to get him to do her boyfriend’s work.
(Series)
(Series)
(Series)
, ad nauseam.
, and today I’m going to give you the four reasons why you ought to watch this show.
