Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

James Cameron has now officially caused the RMS Titanic to sink twice. That's one more time than God. Today, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Cameron's latest film Avatar succeeded what many analysts and critics had expected, it surpassed his 1997 critically acclaimed classic Titanic. This may seem like a huge day for the world of science fiction; however, I feel distraught. I still stand by my original review of Avatar as a good movie. Good. That's all. Today, I watched a great film within the science fiction genre, Duncan Jones' mostly overlooked Moon. The Sam Rockwell-starring picture is more than just a Kubrickian homage, it actually ascends the pool of normal sci-fi, and hovers around with that of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Is that a bit of an overstatement? Pure blasphemy to some? Quite possibly, but agree or disagree, I would find it hard to look somebody favorably in the eye if they chose Avatar as a better film than Moon. Building on that same thought, I can't help but imagine if Cameron, instead of Jones, had his name attached to the low budget Moon, that it would be at the top contention for most of the cinematic awards currently going on.

The aforementioned argument still doesn't really touch on Avatar's popularity to the general public. But that does bring up yet another argument as the film may lead in ticket sales, but has barely crested the U.S. domestic top fifty in attendance, in part due to the inflated 3-D ticket price attached to the film. So not only does this mean a superficial win over not only Cameron's Titanic, but actual perennial genre favorites The Dark Knight, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and many more of the big money makers in the past decade. It also pretty much solidifies that this entire 3-D thing is not going to go away. No longer is this a fun exploitation gimmick, but a distraction for possible good films to make an extra buck. THR's Heat Vision Blog has already reported that Warner Brothers is looking in to transferring the two films based on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows into 3-D. So in summation, Avatar was worth its ticket, it was an good movie, but somehow has contributed to the eventual ruin of the medium as a whole.

From one box office sensation to another. Paramount Pictures' shocking underdog horror hit Paranormal Activity's sequel has been rumored to have Kevin Greutert, formerly of the Saw franchise. Deadline Hollywood is instead reporting that Lionsgate has exercised an option in Greutert's contract, forcing him to make Saw 3D (see the above argument on Avatar's adverse effect on the movie business), and taking him away from Paranormal Activity 2. Kind of an interesting story, that will at least give Lionsgate a scapegoat when Saw 3D gets the horrid reviews that has come to be expected of the five films between it and the original Saw film.

Oh, and as a note, the picture up there is of Felicia Day, of Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog fame, for her video "Do You Want to Date My Avatar". After all the headlines Avatar has been producing, it was really the only unused picture on Google Image's "Avatar" search.

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

Yesterday, I blogged a bit about DC Comics' upcoming film adaptation news, and after reading through that story, I think a collective fear of fans of the superhero subgenre of films is that, especially after the massive success of last year's incredible The Dark Knight, that most of these films will just be attempts to copy and collect the reward, instead of bringing the beloved characters to life. Enter The Green Hornet, a comic film that will most certainly break the mode that has been set. The history of a Green Hornet film has always been interesting, as a 1990 re-edited group of episodes of the television series showed up as a feature film, via GoodTimes Home Video, to cash in on a resurgence of Bruce Lee fandom. Then, we saw the huge comic fanboy Kevin Smith jump aboard the wagon writing a script that was eventually abandoned. A real Hollywood movie eventually began to be realized though, when Seth Rogen, of all people, jumped on board to fill the spot of The Green Hornet role and write a script with screenplay partner Evan Goldberg, and attaching Stephen Chow as director, and star in the role of Kato. Recently, Chow dropped out of both roles, but the director slot was filled by Michel Gondry. A comic book film by Gondry? Starring Rogen? Written by the team behind Superbad? Definitely sounds like a good, original direction to be headed, even in light of the comic, that likes of which has transformed well into different genres and styles since its conception as a radio serial in 1936. The latest news however, is that Variety reports that Nicolas Cage is in negotiations to play the villain in the film. Now, some may recall the tragedy that was Cage in Ghost Rider, but we have saw what Cage can do while under a quirky director in Spike Jonze's Adaptation., which was a performance that actually doesn't deserve the "terrible actor" moniker that has befell him recently. There is also rumors about Cameron Diaz joining the cast as a love interest. Good or bad? As long as it is under Gondry and Rogen's tutelage, I can't really say anything bad about it, Diaz has actually been quite great in a few select films, such as one of my all time favorites Being John Malkovich, as well as Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York.

More pictures are up for The Fantastic Mr. Fox, via The Rushmore Academy. It looks brilliant.

Although it pops up on every other blog on the Internet, I have been trying to avoid covering anything related to The Twilight Saga: New Moon. However, in a recent interview with RottenTomatoes, Chris Weitz takes the conversation towards music and the possibility of Radiohead's Thom Yorke working on the soundtrack. Anything to pull in a normal person, eh Twihards? I think I'll just watch "Paranoid Android" on YouTube to get my fix, and Chris Weitz can go to hell!

One of the better days for DVD releases I can ever remember. The Watchmen director's cut is out today, including Amazon's exclusive Nite Owl ship and digital bundle that I may put in a few extra hours of work and/or prostitution to get enough money to buy. Also, my long wait for a theatrical release of Jared Drake's Visioneers, starring Zach Galifianakis, was never realized, but after a short festival run, it is finally available for purchase today. To add to my list of things I didn't get to see theatrically, despite getting a limited release, The Great Buck Howard came nowhere near a local theater, so today is the first official day I will get to see the quirky looking Sean McGinly film that features the talents of John Malkovich, Tom Hanks, Colin Hanks and Emily Blunt among others. And finally, Coraline, a great piece of animation from the hands of Henry Selick that is already on a short list of the year's greatest rounds out a list that will take most of my paycheck.

I will leave you today with a video from Cinematical, which combines my love for Japanese television that I don't fully understand with a bit of a shot of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The video doesn't tell us much about the upcoming film, yet the scene where Daniel Radcliffe peeping around the door framing in the first few seconds is worth watching. After all these years of women having creepy pedophilic magic filled dreams, Harry Potter finally nails the look of the rapist himself.