Action Movies The Way They Should Be

This past weekend I caught up with the rest of the world and watched both Jaws and Die Hard. The latter I had seen bits and pieces of on TV throughout the years, but it was my first time viewing it all the way through, and my first time completely for Jaws. I enjoyed them both very much.

What struck me with Jaws was how simple a movie it was. I've heard before about how the animatronic shark would not work properly for them during much of the shooting and they had to improvise. Many people believe this actually helped the film quite a bit, as what you don't see is more powerful than what you do. I have to agree. The movie was all about the suspense of the situation and kept me on the edge of my seat. The times when the shark is visible it can look really fake and cheesy, but with everything going on at the time I didn't care. I got so wrapped up in the characters and what was going to happen to them. There's a reason this movie launched the summer blockbuster.

For Die Hard I went into it expecting a big dumb action movie. What I got was a suspenseful, twisting plot and character development. While the villains are shallow stereotypes, Alan Rickman makes it so enjoyable you don't care. John McClane, his wife, and Sgt. Al Powell all grow and change. It's amazing. Sure, there's ridiculous situations that no one should realistically survive and ginormous explosions, but the story exists to be an actual story and not just something to move the action scenes along.

It's been 35 years since Jaws and almost 22 years since Die Hard was released. This year has seen a plethora of movies that remade films and TV shows from the 1980s and most of them have missed the mark of the original. Somewhere along the way from here to there we seem to have gotten lost. Studios too worried about dollar signs cranking out mindless pictures with large explosions, half naked actresses, and fart jokes with no real sign of plot or character development. All of those things have their place and can be a lot of fun.. I just don't understand where someone started thinking these were the essential parts of the film.

I think part of it is that a lot of the iconic characters of the 70s and 80s have been reduced to caricatures. In a society that seems to be fueled by nostalgia over the last 20 years, heroes like John McClane, Rambo, and Indiana Jones have all been over simplified to the point that a lot of people seem to be forgetting exactly why we fell in love with them in the first place. When even a creator seems to forget what made his characters and stories so great, it's clear what we really need are new heroes and stories. I think we're making a tinge of progress here and there. Iron Man went from a character that was mostly known in name and costume only by the general public to a character who now many people recognize and know, and it was all because we were given a movie that made him look human and interesting. There are a few directors out there who people seem willing to allow to tell original stories, Christopher Nolan being the one who is currently leading the pack. I haven't seen Inception yet but I'm excited to check it out.

The internet is overloaded with people complaining about the mindless films, but Hollywood is still making them. This is because people keep paying to go see them. Even a movie that the average person seems to agree is downright awful is making money at the box office. If people would stop settling for this drivel then maybe we could run Michael Bay and Brett Ratner straight out of the business. Wouldn't that be lovely?

Horror Wimp/Horror Lover

I never considered myself a horror fan. I think it has to do with me being such a 'fraidy cat as a kid. Remember that movie Little Monsters? There's a scene early on where one of the monsters pushes in the eyeball of either a kid or another monster. I can't remember which anymore, I just remember being scared that someone would do that to me. The shrunken head guy in the waiting room in Beetlejuice forced me to turn the movie off. I don't remember how far in we got in The Witches, I just know we never finished it and it gave me nightmares for weeks afterward. I don't think I was able to look directly at Large Marge until I was in my 20s, and my brother and I ritualistically watched Peewee's Big Adventure during most of our childhood. I spent a lot of time as a kid burying myself under the covers so the monsters couldn't get me and running down hallways because I thought I saw something. Who am I kidding, this happened as recently as after I saw I Am Legend.. I was totally convinced I was going to find those vamps/zombies huddled in every dark room of my house waiting to kill me.

The strange thing is that while visual representations of horror always had this effect on me, reading it was a whole different issue. It started with Christopher Pike books when I was in 6th or 7th grade. After awhile though, I got tired of them, as they all seemed to have the same pattern: innocent girl has a crush on a boy and wants to sleep with him. Boy ends up being some type of monster who tries to kill her, her family and her friends. My friends were reading R. L Stine books, but they all just looked so thin that I figured they had to be below my reading level. Then The Stand miniseries came out. I was crushing pretty hard on Corin Nemec at that point so I just had to watch it. I loved it and immediately wanted to read the book. My dad was a big reader of all of Stephen King's books, so we had a copy and I asked him if I could read it. I loved that even more than the mini-series since it was so much more in depth. To the kids at school I was now the weirdo who read 800+ page books, but I didn't care.

We had this used book store in town that let you trade in a book or two for another one. I would read through a King book then bring it back to the store and get the next one. If there was a movie that was made from the book, I would go to the store and rent it, but most of the time I was so disappointed at how not like the book they were, I'm not sure why I bothered. I absolutely refused to see the movie version of The Lawnmower Man because it was so obvious they had just taken the title with the excuse to use King's name and nothing else. I loved that short story so much that they really tapped into my geek rage with that one. (I highly recommend picking up Night Shift, not just for that one but because I think King's short stories are some of his best work.)

I was able to justify watching those movies because I figured that for the most part I already knew what was going to happen, so it would all be ok. I would have to go into the horror section to get these movies, and I remember glancing at all the various covers, usually full of skeletons or blood, and being petrified of the movies that lay inside. Does anyone know of a movie that had a skeleton cheerleader on the cover? I can't remember the name anymore, I just remember always seeing that and being freaked out. Another one I remember distinctly was the old Dead Alive cover. I don't know what it is that made me so scared of skeletons as a kid, but they featured a lot in nightmares along with an ET like creature with really long skinny legs.

I've been watching a lot of movies lately, particularly older movies since a lot of what's out right now is so derivative and I'd much rather see something original. I make my picks based on what I find on the internet. North by Northwest got mentioned in a few different places, so I rented it and loved it. Most recently, for whatever reason, it keeps being horror films. I've watched both the original Dracula and Frankenstein, as well as Night of the Living Dead and Nightmare on Elm Street over the last couple of months. I really enjoyed every one of these movies. While I didn't really expect the old Universal monsters to scare me, I was surprised that there was nothing in NOTLD or NOES that scared me at all. It probably would have as a kid, but now I just found them to be creepy and fun. Really fun. So fun that I'm going to watch all the NOES movies, even though I know a good portion of them are considered horrible by most fans. (Don't try to talk me out of this. People tried to tell me to not bother with Alien 3 or Resurrection, and I insisted on watching those anyway because I'm a completist.) I also figure I need to start checking out all the other slasher films, and I definitely want to watch the original Wolf Man...

There's something incredibly exciting about discovering you like something that you originally thought you never could. There are hundreds of films now just sitting out there waiting for me to enjoy them. The silly thing is I've been avoiding them way too long. I've always loved dystopian novels for the way they show a society gone wrong, often taken to it's most extreme conclusion. Most horror stories tend to do the same thing - they play with our fears of the unknown and the consequences of people's actions taken to extreme lengths. Whether I realized it or not, I've been a horror fan all along.

Any opinions on which movies I need to watch ASAP are greatly welcomed.. just realize I'm probably never going to watch The Human Centipede or Cannibal Holocaust. My imagination may not be as scared as it used to be, but my stomach still has its limits.

Want to play a good Back to the Future game?

I've been filling out surveys on the internet for a few years now. Some of them pay me in money and others in gift cards, but to be honest I like filling them out regardless. It's particularly great when they're related to something I actually care about, like letting movie companies know that their recent deal to hold back rental releases 28 days is not going to make me buy their movies.

Right before E3, it was announced that Telltale Games had purchased the rights to make a Back to the Future game. I was immediately wary of the idea, wondering just how they could possibly get it right. They're a good company and I enjoy what they've done with the Strong Bad and Monkey Island games they've put out, but Back to the Future? Could they really do it without losing what was so great about those movies?

Well, now you have the option to make your voice heard and give them a chance to not screw it up. Follow the link to take the survey on their site. Who knows, you might even win the $1000 drawing they're offering. I found it really fun to take myself. What nerd doesn't love rating their favorite parts/characters/action sequences of one of the best trilogies out there?

I suppose at the very least, you won't be dodging guys holding window glass or getting thrown into the wall by guys in muscle shirts anymore. Right?

Castle of Cagliostro Dub Wars

I've mentioned my love for this movie and how it's a large part of my introduction to both anime and Hayao Miyazaki films in my Ponyo review, so I will do my best not to rehash that here. Suffice to say that this is one of the most loved films from my adolescent years, and I highly recommend it to everyone who loves animation and light hearted adventure.

This film was made and released in Japan in 1979, but didn't find it's way to American audiences until 1991. The theatrical release was apparently subtitled, but when released on video, a dub was done by Streamline Pictures. This is the version which I originally saw and rented multiple times from the video store. In 2000 the rights to the film were purchased by Manga Entertainment and an all new dub was recorded. Originally, this was the only copy of the film I was able to own as the Streamline version was long out of print by the time I wanted a copy. I searched Ebay frequently for the older version, but it never came up. I went to forums and livejournal communities asking if anyone had a copy of the original dub that they would perhaps make a copy of for me and I would gladly pay the expense involved. The only responses I ever seemed to get were "the new dub is better anyway" even when I explained that I wanted the old one for nostalgic reasons.

About a month ago I found out that the Streamline dub was in fact out there once again albeit in the Australian and UK releases only. International copyrights being what they are, Manga Entertainment lost the rights to distribute the film there and now Madman Entertainment has it. They decided to use the original dub on their DVD release. After doing a bit of research that assured me I would be able to watch a Region 4 DVD on my computer thanks to VLC Media Player, I gladly paid the price for the DVD and Australian air mail in order to get my hands on the movie I had fallen so much in love with back when I was young.

In the years since first seeing this movie, I went digging for other Lupin III. I've read the first few manga collections, seen the TV series that aired on Adult Swim a while back, as well as most of the theatrical release films and direct to video releases. So I feel at this point that I have a pretty good knowledge of who the characters are and what they're all about. Castle of Cagliostro is a bit different than most Lupin III films. Both Lupin and his rival/love interest Fujiko are much less deviant in this film than they are in other movies. From what I've seen, however, the other characters are much closer to their normal roles.

In order to see which of these two dubs was superior, I watched both versions of the film fairly close to one another. I went about two weeks between viewings, but considering how many times I've watched the movie and the way my memory is in general I still had the Manga dub fresh in my mind as I watched the Streamline dub. Honestly? It is, for the most part, the same exact movie. Yes, the chosen words are different. Perhaps the Streamline dub was aiming more for fitting lip movements than it was with literal translation. In terms of plot points and the storyline itself, nothing is changed. The motives of the characters, the back stories, it's all pretty much the same. Whoever did the Streamline translation had no problem understanding the Japanese. I'll try to highlight some of the main differences for you.

The Wolf vs. Lupin III
The Streamline Pictures release did not have the rights to the name Lupin III (there's that crazy international copyright law again) so they refer to him as The Wolf most of the time. Jigen also calls him boss a lot more, perhaps as another way to get around the name problem. Perhaps the funny thing is they do call him Lupin once (though they pronounce it wrong) out of necessity because the animation shows his calling card with his signature on it. I suppose this name change alone is excuse enough for a new dub, since you most likely couldn't get all the actors together again to fix their lines.

Clarice
In the Streamline dub she's a princess, in the Manga she is the daughter of the Archduke. Strikes me as a simplicity change more than anything else. She also comes off as slightly more desperate at the end of the movie, though in both the end is the same.. she loves Lupin and doesn't want him to leave her.

Voice Actors
In the Streamline dub Wolf is played by Bob Bergen, who gave him a slightly nasal voice. It gives him a slightly more cartoonish feel most of the time. In the Manga dub Lupin is played by David Hayter, perhaps best known for being the voice of Solid Snake. Hayter plays him with a voice fairly close to his natural speaking voice, and he's a bit more like your standard dashing hero. I have to admit I prefer David Hayter's performance here. On the other hand, Inspector Zenigata is the exact opposite. I like the way he starts off sounding very serious in the Streamline dub, and you hear him coming apart and becoming more frustrated as the movie goes on, whereas in the Manga dub he sounds a bit silly from the beginning. The accents are all really overdone in the Manga dub. Everyone at the Interpol hearing is a stereotype of their respective country, and Gustav, the Count's large bodyguard, sounds like a bad Arnold Schwarzenegger impression.

Jigen and Goemon
In the Manga dub, Jigen curses far too much. He shouts "Christ!" repeatedly at the beginning of the film, and it really just seems out of place in an otherwise light hearted family movie. Goemon is perhaps the character who suffers the most in the Streamline dub.. he's fairly quiet, and they decided that the times he did speak it would be nothing but one liners. He's generally a very serious character with a more dry sense of humor.

Knight in Shining Armor vs Thief in the Night
When Lupin first visits Clarice in her locked tower, he vows to rescue her. She thinks it is completely hopeless. He gives a brief speech begging her to trust him. In the Streamline dub, he refers to himself as her knight in shining armor, and in the Manga dub he is a thief in the night come to steal her away. While I can understand that since Lupin is known as a master thief the latter may make more sense for the character in general, the fact is that the knight in shining armor speech was what always stuck in my memory and made me fall in love with the character. It was very romantic and sweet, and the more literal translation just lacks a lot of its charm. Hearing it again after so long, my heart melted all over again. That never happens whenever I watch the Manga dub.

Conclusion
In the end, I think both versions have their positives and negatives and you should just pick up whichever one is being sold in your country. You could of course also just watch it with subtitles and skip this whole mess. I'm left a bit clueless as to why people think the new dub is far superior, though barring the one scene mentioned above, I'm also forced to abandon my feelings that the original was the much better version as well. In the end this is simply a fantastic animated film, and no amount of word choice or silly voices can ruin that. It's a pleasure to watch and listen to in any language!

The Super Mario Bros Super Show!

If you're close enough to my age, you may have felt a tinge of excitement and nostalgia upon reading that title. We certainly all remember the "Do the Mario!" song that played over the credits, right? You probably have memories of loving this show, and maybe, like me, you waited anxiously for every Friday so that you could see the next installment of the Legend of Zelda cartoon.

I'm afraid I have some very bad news for you. Your nostalgia is lying to you. This happens a lot. I'm fairly certain it's a large part of the reason why some people still think Michael Keaton was a good Batman, why people rush out to see James Cameron movies, and why people got so upset over the Transformers movies. We have ideals in our heads of what things were like when we were kids and we except them as truth without ever going to revisit those things. It's possible that these things should never be revisited.

While browsing shows available for Netflix streaming, I experienced a feeling of glee when I saw the Super Mario Bros Super Show available. I added it to my queue immediately, and sat down to watch the first episode not long after. Oh boy. It's bad. I mean, really bad. The live action segments in particular are just absolutely horrible, and the cartoons aren't much better.

According to wikipedia, the live action segments weren't scripted. I guess that makes me feel slightly better about them, because if someone had actually written that dialogue I'd have to go on a full scale rant. The segments are cheesy, ridiculous, and go on much longer than they need to. Most of the celebrity guests who are normally decent actors come off absolutely terrible here. I always thought Winnie Cooper was one of the best parts of the Wonder Years, but here she acts as good as a random kid they pulled in off the street. I think the most amusing part is that for some reason their phone is completely covered in pizza. You would think plumbers might have a phone made out of pipes, but apparently Mario & Luigi love pizza so much that they decided to glue pieces of it to a rotary phone.

As far as the cartoon, story-wise, it's still pretty bad. The first episode has Birdo mistaking Toad for her baby who looks nothing like him. I can understand they decided to skip the whole gender bending aspect of Birdo, but we're also talking about a character who willingly throws his/her eggs at you. Why would she care about her baby? Other episodes I've watched so far are basically parodies, be it of westerns, King Arthur, etc. The kind of things cartoons do when they don't want to be even remotely original.

Bowser seems to only be referred to as "King Koopa" in the series, which makes me wonder exactly when we all started calling him Bowser. Sometimes he has Princess Toadstool captured, and sometimes she goes along with Mario, Luigi, and Toad. This show was made after Super Mario Bros 2 but before 3. You would think that maybe the princess would get something to do now and again, given that for most people I know, she was the character of choice in 2. I mean, she could float! Unless you were in a digging level, then you used Toad, right? But from what I've seen, she mostly just tags along and says "Oh no!" a lot. In all fairness I don't think this is gender bias as all the characters are treated pretty horribly.

Mario is the worst case of Italian stereotyping I've ever seen. He's constantly hungry for some form of pasta, and that's pretty much all he cares about. I now know where the idea of Luigi as a coward began. It's bothered me for awhile now wondering where that came from. In all the old games he was Mario's equal, but the latest generation seems to always portray him as a 'fraidy cat. Now I know I have this stupid show to blame. Hands down, the absolute worst is Toad. The voice chosen for him is extremely grating, and he mostly just spits out one bad joke after another. He has Mario's food obsession combined with general laziness and unwillingness to do anything. I suppose they were trying to make you relive that feeling you had when he continually told you the princess was in another castle. That's about the only reasoning I've got for it, anyway.

Did you know this show had not one, but TWO theme songs? There's the one that starts off the show, and another for when the cartoon segments begins. Both are that horrible style of rap that marketing executives seemed to think was what "the kids like" back in 1989. I think what was most amusing to me was that the cartoon theme explains how the Mario Bros ended up in Mushroom Land.. and I remember taking that as the official story of how it happened as a kid.

In all fairness, there are two things the show did right: both the music and the sound effects are pretty true to the games. When Mario stomps on someone, or touches a fire flower or star, the right sound goes off. The music is also based off the game's music, and goes so far as to play the underground theme when they are trapped in an underground prison, etc. It's a nice attention to detail that you don't often get in various interpretations. It's definitely more accurate than the movie ever was.

Sadly, I can't talk about the Legend of Zelda cartoon. Apparently it's not included in the set. I was so excited to get to the 5th episode and check it out.. and found it was just another Mario episode. Also, yes, I watched a total of 5 episodes of this show so far. So apparently, no matter how bad it gets, I still can't tear myself away from it. So if you still really love this show even now, I certainly can't say anything to you. I can't really endorse a purchase however, unless you find it for cheap and just can't resist.

Batman & Robin: Batman Reborn

I've been in love with Dick Grayson since the approximate age of 12. It started with Batman The Animated Series and quickly moved over to the comics. I even decided that if I ever found a guy in real life that was like him, I'd marry him.

I loved the Prodigal storyline that happened right around the time I was collecting. After all the Knightfall/Knightquest/KnightsEnd business, Bruce decided he needed more time off, and asked Dick to fill in for him. Dick was more than happy to put aside the Nightwing persona and do it for him. I haven't collected comics in ages, and honestly I stopped collecting Batman comics even before that. I do try to keep up to date with what's happening however. So when the death of Batman storyline came about, and they started playing the guessing game of who would replace him.. honestly there was no other choice in my mind. Of course it would be Dick.

Reviews of the Batman & Robin series were overwhelmingly positive from the get go, so I knew I had to get my hands on it. At this point in my life monthly visits to the comic shop just aren't practical, so I waited patiently for the release of the trade paperback. Actually, it's a hardcover. I didn't even realize they were releasing them this way, but I'm glad they did. It looks gorgeous and of course it's much harder to damage. I was afraid to take the sleeve off while I read it because I have a cat that loves to chew on paper, but the average person would have to try pretty hard to ruin the quality of these.

I enjoyed Morrison's New X-men run quite a bit, even though my thoughts on the whole thing were "Well, these aren't MY X-men, but I like the stories just the same.." I didn't get that feeling from this series at all. This is the Dick Grayson I've been in love with for more than half my life now. His thoughts and actions meshed perfectly well with the character I've known for so long. I can't count the number of times I smiled while reading this. In all fairness a general mention of Bruce and Dick as father and son is usually enough to make me all warm and fuzzy inside, so maybe I'm just easy to please in this regard. Damian Wayne was a completely new character for me, and I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about him. On the surface these "child of famous hero" characters always smack of fan fiction being brought into canon, but I think he's handled very well and brings a new dynamic to the Robin character and his relationship with this new Batman. He's both a compliment and foil for Dick's way of doing things, and I enjoy him a lot. I also really like the hood on his costume.

In terms of villains, I enjoyed that so far the Rogues gallery is pretty much literally a freak show. This early on they could have gone the obvious route and had them take on one of the big names to try to drum up interest and I'm glad they didn't. While I hope that the villains aren't constantly this gritty, I think it fit the tone of the book really well.

As you can probably tell, the art in comics often takes a backseat to storyline for me. I was not a fan of Quietly's art on New X-men, but I think it worked much better here in a Batman book. Or perhaps he has just grown as an artist. I still don't care for his shading techniques regardless. I found Philip Tan's art in the second arc a bit more enjoyable. Maybe it's just been a long time since I've read a comic, but I was also really energized to see the way they incorporated the sound effects into the images themselves. BANG is written in blood as someone is shot, and CRACK appears in the cracks as someone collides with a wall. Just a great subtle touch that shows how you can really take advantage of the medium you're working with.

I can't believe I have to wait until November until Volume 2 is out! Highly recommended for any Batman fan.

The Flight of Dragons

In the midst of a discussion about the Neverending Story with a friend on LJ, he mentioned this movie as one that he watched over and over again as a kid. The name didn't ring any bells, but considering that I loved pretty much all fantasy made in the 1980s, I knew I had to watch this movie. It's a bit rare - don't expect to rent this one from Netflix.

The movie takes place in a world where there are 4 wizards who seems to control all of magic and each has domain over a different area - the earth, the air and sea, light and harmony, and evil. Magic is slowly fading from their world because people are embracing logic and science. The evil wizard decides he's going to force people to embrace science until it kills them (with nuclear war) and then apparently he'll just sit around and rejoice about ruling the ruined wasteland they leave behind. Obviously the other wizards aren't too happy about this and decide to stop him, but they're not allowed to interfere directly. So they call upon a dragon, an old knight, and "the antiquity" (just run with it) tells them they need to go fetch a guy from the late 20th century to complete the group of heroes. This guy's name is Peter and he's an inventor/scientist who is also totally in love with magic and dragons and has even invented a board game that just so happens to feature all the characters we've met so far in the movie.

Everytime they showed the board game, I kept wondering if they actually made one for sale. I would totally play it.

If you go into this movie thinking really hard and expecting something serious, you're going to be really disappointed. The art is not stellar (it's the same group that did the old Lord of the Rings cartoon movies), the story is disjointed (apparently they picked and chose plotlines from two books and it shows), and its resolution is just a little too neat and silly. On the other hand, if you look at it from a child's point of view, or just an appreciation for 1980s animation, I think you'll really enjoy it.

I guarantee you that if I had seen this as a child, I would have made sure my parents' taped it so I could watch it over and over again. It has everything a fantasy lover could ask for: dragons, fairies, elves, dwarves, knights, trolls, wizards, and princesses. Two things I found pleasantly surprising: it wasn't afraid to kill characters, and there's one very strong female character who shows up in the final act (even if we don't get to know her too well). The part that I loved the most is the time they spend explaining just how something as incredibly huge as a dragon could fly. It also explains why they breathe fire as well. It really is a fairly plausable explanation. The funny part is at the start of the movie I thought "Man, those dragons aren't really flapping their wings or anything, they just seem to float.. how am I supposed to believe they can fly?" and then a half hour later they were actually telling me how! Silly me thought it was sloppy animation. They showed me.

If you're the type who needs to see something before purchasing, this is the internet and you probably know how to go find it. On the other hand if you're feeling more daring, I recommend buying it. If for no other reason than you're not going to see John Ritter and James Earl Jones face off in any other movie ever.

Battlestar Galactica Season 3

What a rollercoaster ride that turned out to be. At the end of season 2 I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about the jump ahead.. there were a lot of things there that just weren't thrilling me and left me lukewarm. However I think it turned out great and it was probably just what the show needed to keep things fresh and moving forward.

I don't consider myself a shipper.. at least I always figure a "shipper" is someone who spends a lot of time writing fan fiction about their favorite couple. If all it means is that you care passionately about a certain couple in fiction and want to see them together... well, shoot, I guess I am one. I spent a good portion of this season yelling at Kara, Lee, and Dualla. Anders not so much.. but that's probably just because they don't give him a whole lot to say most of the time. I think I spent most of "Unfinished Business" on the edge of my seat in one way or another. The ending drove me crazy.

I've already expressed my Starbuck love before, so I'll try not to repeat myself. I enjoyed "Maelstrom" quite a bit and by the time it was over I refused to believe that she was either dead or a cylon. Don't ask me how I could possibly have that cake and eat it too, but there it is.

Having gotten through to the end, it's pretty obvious she's cylon number 5. However, it sure seems like these 5 cylons are quite different from the others.. there's a whole ton of questions there to be answered. I find myself more confused than anything.. not really upset or even shocked. It's just things like "Why is Hera such a big deal if obviously Tyrol's kid is also a half breed?" Of course no one apparently knows that yet, but shouldn't the doctor have recognized it given the unique blood properties? At this point though, there's only one season left (and apparently a few prequel movies) so I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the ride. And not expect all questions to be answered since apparently it ends in a Lost-like fashion.. thanks, internet.

Lost and Battlestar Galactica

http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/05/26/tv-101-why-lost-decided-to-end-on-a-note-of-gobbledygook/

The above article best explains my complaints with the Lost finale better than I could. I cared about the characters tremendously and was glad to see (most of) them get their happy ending, but it still felt like a cop out. Also, I think adding purgatory in to your final season when you spent five seasons swearing your show had nothing to do with that is a dick move.

Another thing bugging me... all this discussion of how series have ended means everyone is spoiling Battlestar Galatica for me. It just ended last year! Not all of us watch a show as soon as it airs! *grumble*

Robert Downey Jr. Weekend

I didn't plan it this way but I spent both Sunday and Monday watching movies starring RDJ. I had been waiting for Sherlock Holmes to arrive via Netflix for weeks now, and it just so happened to finally ship the day after I went to see Iron Man 2.

Iron Man 2

I tried to avoid any reviews going into this one as it is pretty much a given that I'm going to go see a superhero movie, and I didn't want anyone else's opinions clouding my judgement. I had heard from others that the reviews weren't so great, but I tried not to let that influence me at all. The first Iron Man really surprised me. I had never really cared for the Iron Man of the comics, and the 1990s cartoon could literally put me to sleep. "What do I care about a man in a robot suit? I want superheroes!" were the kind of thoughts Iron Man would normally inspire in me. The first movie really changed the game for me, showing me that the man behind the suit was actually a really interesting character worth caring about. Jeff Bridges didn't make the most interesting villain in that movie, and the second movie seemed to suffer from the same problem. Am I really supposed to care about Mickey Rourke at all? He muttered a lot of bad Russian and made a few sourpuss faces. With his performances in this and Sin City, I'm not really sure I want to see The Wrestler. Sam Rockwell did a much better job of making Justin Hammer a more interesting character.. but the nature of that character was to ramble and pretty much every scene he was in made the movie drag a bit. I can't help but think about the upcoming Avengers movie, and wonder if it will suffer in a similar fashion. While it was great seeing War Machine come to life, to have the appearances by Nick Fury and Black Widow and how they interacted with Iron Man.. a lack of a compelling villain can make a superhero movie suffer.

War Machine is almost entirely what this movie did right. I'm very lukewarm about Don Cheadle in the roll. I wouldn't call him a huge upgrade like I saw some people calling him. I thought he did well while in the suit, but as just plain old Rhodey he seemed to lack some of the humor and just all around emotion we saw from the character in the first film. He played it all a little too understated. He seems to be more comfortable in an action sequence than outside it, which is really not what I expected from him. The first truly exciting part of the movie for me was when he donned the silver suit and the two of them went at it. I am always surprised by this - I remember playing with Voltron far more than I remember watching the cartoon, and I never cared all that much for Transformers, Power Rangers, or Gundam like others of my generation. If you would asked me in general if I cared about watching two robots fight each other I would tell you no. Yet when the two of them faced off I got very excited! And when War Machine popped out of the bottom of that stage with his big guns on, I got all giddy. Though that may be more the comic book nerd in me just being excited about seeing something I had only seen in drawings before suddenly on the movie screen. I can't really say "come to life" since most of it was probably CGI.

I've been a fan of Scarlett Johansson since Ghost World, and I thought she did a good job with what she was given here. They didn't really give her a whole lot but hopefully she'll have a bigger role when the Avengers come around. She definitely showed herself as a capable hero, and I was fully in love with the one scene where she got to really kick some ass.

Overall if you're looking for a good fun summer movie, I think you'll enjoy this. I don't think it touches on some of the themes as well as the first film did, but it's still a pretty strong follow up.

Sherlock Holmes

Here comes my best effort to not completely gush all over this review and collapse into ridiculous hyperbole.

I loved this movie. I loved it from the very first scene, as we see him analyze exactly how to take down his opponent in the proper sequence, what damage it will do to him, and how long it will incapacitate him. I had a lot of reservations when I first heard about this movie. Sherlock Holmes as action hero star just didn't seem to add up to me. Sometimes our first instincts are wrong. Very wrong. I think we all automatically picture SH as an older gentleman with his pipe, hat and coat, maybe the violin, and so we don't think of him as being able to fight. But why can't he be a little younger and more fit? It doesn't take away any from what he is: a man of supreme intelligence and logic who can solve just about any mystery put before him.

Beyond a required summer reading of The Hound of the Baskervilles, my written Sherlock Holmes knowledge is limited and restricted to what makes it into common pop culture. I'm willing to admit I probably learned more of it from Data on Star Trek TNG than anywhere else. So I can't testify to how accurate most of the character portrayals are, I can only say I loved watching them. I thought Jude Law made Watson a much more capable and stronger character than the one I've normally seen (he's usually a little bungling, isn't he?) and I loved Irene Adler immensely. I also really loved the way the movie kept you really uncertain as to whether the magic being used was real. I also should have known the character in the shadows was Moriarty.. who else would he be? Convenient to keep him shadowed that they can choose whoever they want for casting reasons later!

I also haven't seen a movie so slash-tastic since the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

My one complaint: being 4'10" does not make someone a midget! I have very close personal reasons for being adamant about this!

This one is definitely an absolute recommend for pretty much anyone.

In an unrelated matter I also re-watched X-men Origins: Wolverine. It definitely rates below X1 & 2, but above 3 for me. I think it's main flaw is that it's too obvious from the get go that Victor is still working with Striker, and so Logan just looks like an idiot who is too slow to catch up with the rest of us. Gambit is underused, Deadpool is squandered, and I get the feeling that if you were to watch this and then immediately follow it with X2, the pieces just wouldn't add up right. But it still rates as a fun summer movie flick and Hugh Jackman was still born to play Logan so I'm willing to forgive it a lot more than I do X3.