No Longer TR2N, but TRON LEGACY & A Very Important Date

Alright, so there's a ton of stuff that I could say about what's been released so far at Comic-Con, but that would take way too long, as so much incredible stuff has been showcased there, so I'm just going to highlight two major movies that have been exhibited there(both ironically from Disney)-TRON LEGACY and Burton's Alice in Wonderland.

The teaser trailer for Alice in Wonderland is amazing (I've posted it below) and shows off the stereoscopic 3D style they're using in the movie. It shows a couple characters that we haven't seen released in pictures so far-the Jabberwocky, the Knave of Hearts, the White Rabbit, and the Cheshire Cat (voiced by Stephen Fry, who we all know and love for his dry British humor as the Narrator in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'm excited about that casting choice!).

One character who was disappointly absent from the teaser is the Caterpillar, brilliantly played by Alan Rickman. I think that's one of the best fitting roles for Rickman-you've got the dry sarcasm, snobbery, and unbearably slow drawing out of conversation. It's perfect. We also don't see the March Hare. Unfortunately the Mock Turtle won't be in this movie, for whatever reason. I'm still in love with the 'Alice in Wonderland' TV movie with Gene Wilder in 1999, and eliminating the Mock Turtle from a movie this epic seems a bad move.



One thing I'm wary about is that Johnny Depp is narrating the story as the Mad Hatter, as this is completely different and I'm not sure how that will affect how the story is told or how it comes off. Many people just think it's Burton giving Depp yet another spotlight, but as far as I'm concerned, if it works, I'm cool with it.

On to TRON LEGACY. I personally liked the simple yet awesome looking previous title of TR2N, but hey, that's Disney's choice. Jeff Bridges explained that the title is in reference to the story’s theme: “It’s basically a story about a son’s search for his father." K, Jeff. There has been a generic, unrevealing plot summary circulating on all the movie sites, courtesy of Disney, but there's one site that seems to have gotten some extra info on what exactly is going down. (SPOILER, sort of)

"The new film opens in 1989, where Kevin Flynn (Bridges) has become successful by basing games on his experiences in the Game Grid in the first film. Then he suddenly disappears, leaving behind his son, Sean, who we meet up with again 20 years later. Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) encourages Sean to track down his father, which of course leads him into the same computer world. There Flynn’s CLU character from the first film has gone bad, which explains how Jeff Bridges is the villain this time around. And, you know, Sean has to save the day in the end. "(Backseatcuddler.com)

Sounds awesome, right? Now for the teaser trailer, which was originally released at 2008's Comic-Con and many have been forced to watch in low quality or as a bootlegged copy for the last year. Disney finally released it in HD, and it blew my mind. The graphics are phenomenal, and they have stayed quite true to the original in terms of design and the original computer world, just jacked it up a notch with today's 3D technology. Even the clouds look real but digitalized.



Is it just me or is it simultaneously awesome and freaky when you see 1982 Jeff Bridges light up in that suit? I thought it was exciting but scary, anyway. TR2N will have a special 3D showing in 2010 but really be released in 2011.

Comic-Con and Disney did a fabulous job with the viral for this movie. Check out Peter Sciretta, Editor-in-Chief over at Slashfilm, for his incredible experience with that. One of the viral sites is Flynn Lives, which fills you in on what Flynn has done since the first movie, and a group following that is skeptical about his disappearance. It also gives you links to other sites that give you more info via 'old newspaper clippings' and things like that. It has been revealed that since he wrote that article, that Flynn's Arcade has been reopened in San Diego, making every TR2N fan within a ten mile radius wet themselves, most likely.

You can keep up with Comic-Con through these people on Twitter:
@importantdate @slashfilm @firstshowing @russfischer @IGNcom @SD_Comic_Con @davechensky @lsett @Kotaku @Comic_Con

Note: @importantdate is for Alice in Wonderland updates primarily.

New International Poster For a Christmas Carol w/ Jim Carrey

This poster may be amazing, but that's probably the last time I'll be impressed by this movie. I mean, how can you possibly put a new spin on this story, especially in 3D? (which I think is rather tacky for this story at this point). Everybody should just watch The Muppet Christmas Carol and experience the best Christmas Carol adaptation ever. You can't top singing pigeons and Michael Caine.

Back in the Game

I'm seeing Public Enemies tomorrow, expect a review in the next couple days...

Cinematic Doldrums.....

This summer has been disappointing since Star Trek came out. I was looking forward to Transformers, but I've heard enough feedback to deter me from even venturing to see it. Usually I don't let critics or other people deter me if it's a movie I want to see, but since this was one that I was questioning already, the ton of negative attention that followed it was enough to keep me away.

I am, however, looking forward to some stuff coming out this month and through December. I feel like the movie industry goes through cycles of great summer blockbusters and terrible movies the rest of the year, and then a year where the spring movies are good but the summer movies are awful save for a brilliant one here and there. This year I would categorize as the latter.

It was going strong with Up, Terminator (sorta), and Star Trek, but lost its steam after May. I wish that I could see Away We Go, since that's the only thing I've been compelled to see recently, but living in a small town brings along with it the disadvantage of not getting sufficient showings of indie or slightly artsy movies.

I feel like it's been forever since I've been the movies. However, there are some good ones coming up in the next couple months that look promising.

Public Enemies-July 1
Bruno-July 10
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince-July 15
Funny People-July 31
Julie and Julia-August 7
Ponyo!!!!! August 14
Inglourious Basterds-August 21
9-September 9
Couples Retreat-October 9

Scattered amongst these good eggs are atrocities like G-Force (Disney, you need to take a breather with these terrible animal movies/movies in general. Hopefully Princess and the Frog will redeem you) , I Love You Beth Cooper, and Ice Age 3, which already came out.

I am the most excited for Ponyo by far because I've been waiting for a year for it to debut in the States and it's been a while since Miyazaki has put out a movie. !!!!!!!!!

I'm not as confident about Harry Potter and Julie and Julia as the others, simply because I have been disappointed with Harry Potter movies for the most part but for some reason still go. Julie and Julia could go either way, but I excited because it's another movie about food. I feel the same about it as I did with Ratatouille; that the art of cooking was finally being brought into mainstream culture besides the ventures of Food Network (which no longer interests me nearly as much save a few shows).

The cast is similar to The Devil Wears Prada-Meryl Streep as an iconic older female lead, Stanley Tucci as her wingman, and a young actress (Amy Adams in this case instead of Anne Hathaway) in the supporting female role. In the capable hands of Nora Ephron, this should come to fruition quite nicely. Unless something goes wrong. Which has happened before (*cough* Bewitched remake).

Anyway, the epic movie that I wish I could put on this list but unfortunately doesn't come out until March 5, 2010 is Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. This movie is my light at the end of the tunnel. Incidentally, Burton also started filming Dark Shadows this summer in London with Depp starring as the vampire Barnabas Collins. FYI-Dark Shadows was a Gothic soap opera that aired on ABC in the 60s and early 70s which featured vampires, ghosts, zombies, and the like. Apparently it was awful. Hopefully he'll breathe some life into that franchise instead of sucking it dry (sorry I couldn't resist).I won't be able to see all of these movies but those I do get a chance to see I will write posts on afterwards. Let's hope that the summer shapes up a bit movie-wise.

Oh Indecision...

So it's been a while since I've last updated this fledgling of a blog, and that's because I'm debating whether or not I want to keep it a movie/soundtrack endeavor or to branch off and make it a food blog instead, since cooking and food oddities have become my new passion in the past two years or so. I've seen all of these great blogs about food and I think that's where I'd like to try my hand at writing. So in the coming days I will either start maintaining two blogs, each about the two subjects, or just start this one over again.

Awesome NIN remix!!

I was wrong when I thought Danny Elfman arranged the slightly altered Terminator theme which played throughout Terminator: Salvation. My friend and I searched for a good ten minutes after he wasted a dollar on buying what he thought included this theme. But ladies and gentlemen, he found it! The song from the trailer, "The Day the World Went Away", is by Nine Inch Nails, but is a remix of that song to include the Terminator theme and distorted bass. This song is AMAZING and the credit I gave to Elfman should swiftly be switched to RavenTheSkyKid, who made this remix, titled "The Day the World Went Away: War Distortion Mix". It's an amazing edit and you can all download it for free at ninremixes.com. (Songs-->The Day the World Went Away--> War Distortion Edit.) Download it and turn the bass up!

Terminator....I won't be back

The man vs. machine theme seems to be mounting with the release of Terminator: Salvation and Transformers 2 on the horizon. However, Salvation didn't quite cut it.

I'm not an avid watcher of the original trilogy- in fact I've only seen the second movie. Despite that, I was hoping to just get a thoroughly entertaining experience when I went to see this. Even that shallow expectation wasn't fulfilled, unfortunately. The writing was sub par, detracting from key scenes that demanded a strong script.

Christian Bale was the main character, and he seemed quite aware of this the entire length of the film. He provoked several bouts of laughter when he overacted in different situations. The same rough, hoarse voice pervaded every line of the movie, no matter what he was saying. He could have been ordering a Big Mac and still would've tried his best to sound dark and dramatic. Thoughts of the Dark Knight came back as Bale deactivated a motocycle terminator that looked exactly like the ejection cycle from Batman, then sped off on it. This peaked when he uttered the line "Where is she?" in the same urgent tone as "Where are they?" in the Dark Knight.

Also, another big no-no was letting Bale utter the line "I'll be back." When Arnold was bestowed with this classic line, he owned it. When he said, "I'll be back," you knew he was a badass, and he was going to own some people before he returned. Bale chose this line to be the only line he didn't try to overact. In fact, it was so nonchalant one would think that he was off to the market to pick up some eggs, or that the roast needed checking.

Despite these distractions, the CGI was quite good, and it was great to see an updated version of the Terminator blowing up everything within reach. Many references were given to the first three films, which helped please hardcore fans. Sam Worthington delivered as Marcus Wright and made the audience want to give him that second chance. ( I can't say more about him as it would include spoilers-just know he was convincing.)

Props to Danny Elfman for the amazing music. The pounding drums and strong brass are what saved many of the scenes in this movie. Every time that theme played you knew some shit was going down.

My Amateur Rating: C+

Things are Looking "Up" for Giacchino's New ST

Up's ST is up (no pun intended) for preview on Amazon ( http://tiny.cc/EWGoj ). The full album doesn't get released until May 26, but it was worth it to get a taste of what Michael Giacchino has thought up this time around, especially after hearing his phenomenal work on Star Trek. (http://tiny.cc/AR109)

From the 30 second or so clips of each track, the music at this point sounds like a great blend of traditional light hearted Pixar themes with the dominant genre on this ST being reminiscent of something you'd hear in a Cary Grant movie. Tracks 1 and 2, which are probably covering something to do with Carl (the main character's) past, are light, lounge style nods to smoky jazz clubs in the forties, while Track 7 feels like signature Pixar. I was glad they included actual tracks of sound effects on this release. The last three tracks are clips of just the sound effects from three different scenarios, done by the reputable Skywalker Sound, home of award-winning sound artist Ben Burtt. Burtt was a revolutionary in his work with Star Wars and most recently, WALL-E, last summer. "Memories Weigh You Down" is one of the best songs on here; I recommend it.

And of course, it wouldn't be a Michael Giacchino soundtrack without the characeristic puns and pop culture references for track names. I can't say this worked too well with Star Trek ("Enterprising Young Men" and "Nero Death Experience" are among them, not to mention "Nice to Meld You") but it's definitely appropos here. "Paradise Found", "Kevin Beak'n", "Escape From Muntz Mountain", and "Giving Muntz the Bird" are the most notable. There's also a track titled "52 Chachki Pickup", which I didn't see the humor in at first, and neither did a lot of others, but it turns out "chachki" is another word for a knick-knack or piece of junk, so I smell a veiled car insult in the works.

There are no obvious spoilers in the titles, so don't worry.(at least I thought so. if you feel that phrases will reveal the entire course of the movie to you and care enough not to listen,then so be it.) I wanted to get a feel for what the apparent villain (played by Christopher Plummer) in this movie would be like, so I Googled the name "Muntz". I'm counting on the fact that they're even making a reference here, but the most results I got were for a man named Earl Muntz, a notorious tinkerer and electronics fiend in the 40s and 50s. Check it out here, if you want - http://tiny.cc/Bswg3. He's also described as being rather off the wall. The timeline fits with Carl's, so I'm going to venture a guess that Muntz is somebody he knew in his youth that they find rather awkwardly roaming the jungle, or that he will embody most of the characteristics of this man Earl.

Whether these speculations are correct or not is beyond me, but it's always fun to figure out the easter eggs hidden in Pixar's work.

Make sure you get out to see Pixar's Up in theaters May 29th!