War, Tarantino style...

First I have to disclose that I'm a pretty big Tarantino fanboy, so there really wasn't a possibility that I would NOT like Inglorious Basterds. However I couldn't have prepared for just how much I did like it. It is equal parts moving, brutal, and...well....glorious.

I guess the best place to start would have to be how wonderfully Tarantino-an the whole thing is. It's split up into chapters, which is a convention he uses pretty often, and I think it's a great way to transition between completely different elements of the story without it feeling disjointed. Much like if Pulp Fiction had just seamlessly transitioned between scenes, or Kill Bill. It wouldn't make any sense. A lot of people accuse a lot of his movies as being slow and wordy. A lot of this came up in discussion of Death Proof, and this film, but personally I think it provides much more depth to the story and the characters. In the case of Basterds for instance, the very first scene with Mr. LaPadite and Col. Landa is wordy...but it serves to show right off the bat how cold and calculating Landa is. He knows exactly what LaPadite is up to the second he sets foot in the house, but he needs to establish a rapport in order to get information out of LaPadite willingly. There was a quick blurb I read recently about another film (I don't remember what it was now) that said something on the lines of the director focusing on the mundane. I think this totally applies to Tarantino. In focusing on the small, seemingly inconsequential, details of a scene and dialogue it makes it all the more powerful once something goes awry. Another for instance is the scene later in the German bar. You're treated to what seems like a typical bar conversation, with a bit of added tension from our Basterd characters, but when shit hits the fan its like a punch right in the face, and you realize that the shit hitting the fan means so much more once you get to know all the characters in the bar at least a little bit.

The other main interesting point of the movie is the style. I didn't really pick up on it specifically until toward the end when you watch all the high-ranking Nazi officers watching this propaganda film of Fredrick Zoller seemingly just shooting Americans in the head for the duration and them just laughing and enjoying it. The film itself is a propaganda film, and it's great. After realizing that, you can take a step back and realize that we're doing the same thing as the Nazis...sitting back and laughing and cheering while the Nazis are being killed on screen. Now, I'm not saying that it does this in a heavy-handed “look what you've become!!!” way at all. It's just an interesting observation. We have our own quintessential American badass, complete with Southern accent, Aldo Raine (the part where he “speaks Italian” freaking killed me), while the Nazis (especially Hitler) are shown as madmen who want nothing more than to spread chaos and destroy the world. Not that that's too far off, but it's just funny in spots like when they're watching their propaganda film and Hitler leans over and says it's the director's finest film ever and it's literally just a dude shooting Americans, and when Hitler is getting his portrait done in front of a world map with swastikas just all over the thing. The film seems to be catching a lot of flack for being so gory, but really I didn't think it was that bad. There are a couple quick gruesome parts, but nothing terrible...until the end. The final scene is definitely squirm-worthy, but it serves a purpose. It's not there just for sheer gross-out factor, it's there to completely drive home the point of *someone* getting their comeuppance.

Without good characters, you can't have a good film, and Basterds has no shortage of awesome characters. Brad Pitt is absolutely fantastic as the aforementioned Aldo Raine. The small detail of the scar around his neck that is never explained but really just adds to the overall badass effect that makes you not want to question this guy. Did someone try to slit his throat? Was he hanged? It doesn't matter. He will kill you. As good as he is, he gets eclipsed in my opinion by Christopher Waltz as Col. Hans Landa. Completely stole the show. He's so ridiculously smart, and always calculating, that you know that there is no way he would ever let anything get by him, and he will always get precisely what he wants, no matter what the cost. The way he always keeps such a level head makes him just seem all the more evil when he's toying with people who think they're pulling a fast one on him. It also makes it that much more jarring when he completely loses his cool at one point. Daniel Bruhl also plays a very interesting part in Fredrick Zoller. You first see him as this bumbling movie buff who's just trying to pick up a girl who's not interested. Later we come to realize he's this Nazi war hero who's American-killing exploits they made a propaganda movie about. He still maintains his unassuming kid persona when trying to hit on the girl, but when he's with his Nazi buddies you see his true colors start to bleed through a little bit. Especially while watching his own movie you really see how all of it starts to go to his head when he abruptly explodes.

All in all Tarantino's alternate-reality-propaganda-war-drama is a complete success. Brilliantly acted, brilliantly shot, brilliantly directed. You can't ask for much more. This has been a pretty good year, or at least a good month considering I've seen 2 contenders for best movie of the year in as many weeks. Granted they've been films I was excited about before, but nothing has really let me down this year yet, with the exception of Harry Potter...but I've been told that that's my fault.

...Insert quote from District 9...

It’s very rare that a film that I get real excited about real early can live up to the lofty personal expectations I create for it. Even The Dark Knight, which was absolutely amazing, still suffered from the anticipation that had been building for me. I’ve been looking forward to District 9 for a long time now, so I had that anticipation coupled with the MASSIVE amount of buzz it got at Comic-Con, and it far exceeded them.

I saw the film yesterday and I’ve been trying to think of anything to say about it other than simply, “Wow.” I’ve been following the director, Neill Blomkamp, since he was announced to helm the Halo movie a couple years ago that has since descended in to development hell and been essentially abandoned. Blomkamp has a more special effects background and has done some commercial work, but he’s also done a few little short films (most notable of which called “Alive in Jo-Burg,” which is basically what kind of spawned District 9…it’s fantastic, check it out on YouTube), including a couple live-action Halo shorts. All of his shorts had such depth, which immediately drew me in.

That depth continues into the world of District 9. The universe he has created in the movie is so rich and detailed it immediately immerses you. The faux-documentary style helps to make it sort of a fictitious bit of history too. No one ever comes right up on the screen and spoon-feeds you what happened and how we got to where we are. Instead we are forced to use context clues and fragmented bits of news footage to piece together what’s been going on. It makes it much more of an engaging experience. The CGI, much like in Blomkamp’s shorts, takes center stage, and yet never really reads as CG. His mastery at seamlessly integrating the CG into the environments just makes the world all the more believable. Even in detail, such as how emotive the prauns can be with their faces and just the believable mass they seem to have.

The other stand-out was Sharlto Copley, who played the main character, Wikus Van De Merwe (which is so much fun to say…try it). I got the chance to sit in on the District 9 panel at Comic-Con and he made it clear that he’s not an actor. He had just grown up making movies with his friends and acting in them. This style of acting worked absolutely perfect for this film. I’m fairly sure a good bit of his performance was ad-libbed, and it totally worked. It felt much less that he was acting scared, or angry, or whatever, and more like he actually was frustrated with something. I hope to see more of this guy in the future.

I think the thing that sealed it for me was the intensity. They kept the intensity up and never let up the whole time. This was most apparent in the gore level. It wasn’t over-the-top at all, there was just a lot of it, but it made sense. For instance, when Wikus is firing an alien gun at his pursuers, I expect them to get blasted into a whole messy puddle of nothing, and that’s exactly what I got. Also, Wikus losing his fingernails…whoa. It’s not just the gore that made it intense though. The whole situation woven throughout the film is just plain tense. The subtext of apartheid is constantly there (but not in your face or preachy), and that’s obviously not a happy situation. You never really get a clear view of who’s good and who’s bad either, and I like that. I don’t like when things are so clean cut. They obviously have their place, but not here. I mean you’re following Wikus, and you see him learn some lessons, but (without giving anything away) he’s also kind of a douchebag, so you always kind of have this moral question about him.

I’m sure I’m leaving things out, but I could seriously just gush about this movie for hours. It may not be the most original idea ever, but I think it was presented in such a fresh and original way, that I am honestly convinced that this is the best movie I’ve seen this year. I hate to suffer from short-memory syndrome, but I’ve been trying and trying to think of anything I’ve seen that could top it. Star Trek and Up come close, but I just think this one’s the most solid. I know that all the ridiculous buzz it’s getting can be off-putting, and I would be skeptical too, especially when everybody (including me) is saying the same thing: “omgz! fresh and original!!1!1!” but seriously, do yourself a favor and see this movie. I can’t wait to see what’s next for Mr. Blomkamp, because he is certainly going places.

(Not even close to a) Lightning Round Comic-Con Recap, Part 3

I realize that Comic-Con “news” is getting a bit stale, but this is a good way for me to pass the time while I'm at work. Also, it's fun for me to recount what happened so I don't forget. Onward!

So this was day 3, and the plan was to just hang out in Hall H all day because there was a lot of really good stuff going on that day. There were a couple of things that we weren't really super excited about, but it wasn't worth leaving and then trying to get back in later. So the hall opened at about 10 so I think we ended up getting out there about 6:30 or something. We were really trying to stay on east coast time so it was really like it was 9:30, so that's not so bad right? The cool thing was that now that all the Twilight people had left we were actually really close to the front of the line. Even though we got there just as early as the previous day, we were maybe only like 500 people back as opposed to like 2,500.

So we got into the hall and were able to secure a seat about 10 rows back on the left side of the stage. Just about perfect. We tried in between panels during the day to move closer to the center but it was a freaking madhouse over there with people ninja-ing into seats the instant they became available. Oh well, we were still content with our spot. Then the day got started. The first panel of the day was Warner Brothers. They had a bunch of awesome stuff to show. They started off with the kid who plays Max in the upcoming Where the Wild Things Are (who's name, incidentally, is Max Records..freaking best name ever) coming out to introduce some clips. He was so cute, and he wrote notes about what to say on his hand. I already love this kid. Then they showed a short clip of Spike Jonze talking to Maurice Sendak about the movie, and Maurice seems to think that Spike is doing a fantastic job, which from what I saw I have to agree with, but getting Sendak's approval is pretty much the best recommendation you can hope for. Then they showed a few scenes from the movie itself that totaled probably 15 minutes or so...maybe longer. It all looked absolutely fantastic. I'm SO glad they went more with guys in suits for the monsters. It just helps so much with the overall feel of the film, plus actually giving something for Max to tangibly interact with and emotionally connect with works wonders. I've always been a fan of Spike Jonze's style and it just seems perfectly suited for this, and from what I saw it really looks like he's keeping the core and soul of the book completely in tact, so that made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Next up from the Warners was The Book of Eli. I knew absolutely nothing about this movie going into this, other than the title and that Denzel is in it. I gotta say though, it looks like a lot of fun. The Hughes brothers are directing, and looking at their resume, they've done some pretty good work (Dead Presidents, American Pimp, Menace II Society) so that's promising. Plus just look at the cast: Gary Oldman, Denzel Washington, and Mila Kunis (we actually almost literally ran into her in a hallway later on that day). Anyway, they showed a sort of extended trailer for the movie and it looks awesome. Sort of a modern Mad Max minus the cars, which kinda sounds like you're taking away the best part, but Denzel gets to be a total badass and that's ALWAYS fun to watch. Apparently he did all his own fight scenes too...nice. Also Gary Oldman let slip that they're starting to shoot the next Batman movie next year to set up for a 2011 release. Very interesting considering Chris Nolan still hasn't confirmed that he's doing it...so who is?

After that was onto something I also didn't know anything about and didn't particularly care too much about either: the new Nightmare on Elm Street. Now granted, I've only seen 2 or 3 of the original Nightmares, but I really dug them, and a lot of that is because of Robert Englund. He absolutely IS Freddy, and the fact that he's not in this new version really hurts it right out of the gate. They did, however, get Jackie Earle Haley in the role because apparently he's doing every movie and TV show ever now, and judging from the footage the dude can definitely pull it off. The footage was still kind of underwhelming. They say its not an origin story, but that's kind of all the footage they showed was. I don't know. I wouldn't mind seeing it, but I'm not gonna line up for it.

In yet more news that I didn't know about, the next panel was for Jonah Hex. I apologize for not even knowing this was a comic in the first place because it definitely seems awesome. I'm not really a big fan of westerns per se, with the exception of Tombstone and Unforgiven, but I do love when they ratchet up the action and sort of Spaghetti 'em up. I think the setting is great, but I only really dig the western machismo when it's pushed over the top. Anyway, I hope the director, Jimmy Hayward, can pull it off considering his only previous directing experience is Horton Hears a Who. The main people from the cast were on the panel, including Josh Brolin, who is a total badass, Megan Fox, who is very hot but was wearing far too much makeup, and Michael Fassbender, who I don't know, but I felt bad for because people were only asking (stupid) questions to Megan. The stuff they showed from the movie looked like a whole lot of fun and actually had glimpses of Megan Fox actually...acting. Crazy. Also, Will Arnett and John Malkovich, who didn't make it to the panel...you can't go wrong there. The film was definitely a surprise standout of the whole con, and a lot of people were buzzing about it after the panel.

To wrap up the Warner Brothers showcase we had the other project from them I was super excited about (the first being Where the Wild Things Are), Sherlock Holmes. To get things started, Robert Downey, Jr. walked onto the stage and very presidentially stepped to the podium and just soaked in the applause. He then laughed and said that he just loved it. Then he introduced the extended trailer. Unfortunately, the trailer didn't have a whole lot of stuff that wasn't in the trailer that was already out, but fortunately the stuff that's in it is freaking awesome. It's funny because when I heard they were doing a Sherlock Holmes movie with RDJ, I was in immediately, and when I saw the trailer it wasn't what I was expecting AT ALL. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that. The even better part was that I still love it. I love everything about it. RDJ, Jude Law, Rachel McAdams (who is just as cute in person...), Guy Ritchie directing...everything. Sadly neither Jude Law nor Guy Ritchie made it to the panel, but the rest of the guys there were fantastic.

So that was a wrap for the Warners. If they day would've ended there I would've been happy, but coming up next was the Disney/Pixar stuff. Considering I'm a big fan of both...this was good too. John Lasseter actually was the moderator for the whole panel which was really really cool because I think that guy is just brilliant. They really just launched right into the thick of things with announcements, all of which were really exciting. First off, for 2 weeks in October, they're releasing both Toy Story movies as a double feature in theaters...in 3D. They didn't rework it in 3D, all they did was add the second eye to the camera and saw how it turned out. They showed the intro to Toy Story 2 and it was amazing what just that little alteration did to it. Next, they announced that on Valentine's Day next year, they're releasing Beauty and the Beast in theaters in 3D. This one they actually went back in to the original cels and remastered them. They showed the Belle song, and (obviously) and the Beauty and the Beast song (dancing in the ballroom) and it was mindblowing how good they both looked. After that they talked a bit about this made for TV movie they're doing called Prep and Landing. It's about the elves that go in and sort of prep houses for Santa's arrival. They showed a bit and it was surprisingly pretty good for a made for TV movie. Then they finally spilled some beans on the new hand-drawn musical that Disney's coming out with, The Princess and the Frog. The directors, Ron Clements and John Musker (who both worked on some classics like The Little Mermaid and Aladdin), came out to talk about it a bit, and they were great. They showed some not quite finished footage, but it was still just so refreshing to see Disney getting back to what made it so great in the first place. Then a bit of a surprise. They brought out Hayao Miyazaki (who made such movies as Howl's moving castle and Spirited Away) to talk about his new movie, Ponyo. He was great. He was just such a sweet, soft-spoken, old Asian man. I wanted to hug him. They showed a pretty long clip of Ponyo, and much like his other movies, it was beyond words. Out of context I had no idea what I was watching, but it was absolutely, jaw-droppingly beautiful. The fact that he does all this animation by hand makes me never want to pick up a pencil and draw again. It was a perfect note to end on, and then Patton Oswalt came out to take some questions, which were actually very good this time.

Next on the agenda was something I've been really stoked about since the first trailer I saw maybe almost a year ago, 9. It made me go watch the short film that director Shane Acker first started with, and it was great, so it only made me more excited about this movie coming out. I mean the sheer fact that he had an idea that made Tim Burton seek him out to tell him that he would like to help this movie become a reality tells you how good it is. The whole world that Shane has created just seems so rich and deep, that it really draws you in. they showed a very pivotal scene in the movie and you really get a great feel for the characters and this world they live in, and the action is top notch. The panel was excellent too, Shane was there, Tim Burton (again!!), Timur Bekmambetov (who's also producing it...he directed Wanted), Elijah Wood, and Jennifer Connely. They all seem VERY excited about this project, and that really rubbed off on the audience I feel like.

After the 9 panel, we got a glimpse at a movie called Legion coming out. I knew absolutely nothing about this one either. It's basically kind of a world-ending war between angels and people. The director, Scott Stewart, kept basically selling it on the basis that it has angels with machine guns. Pretty good sales pitch, Mr. Stewart. The footage looked like a bit of fun, plus it's got Paul Bettany who I like a lot, and Doug Jones who's a pretty fantastic character actor.

Now, to top off a number 9 sandwich, we got to the District 9 panel. I think this movie came out of the con as the definite winner. They had a secret screening of it the night before and the buzz about it was off the charts. I had been totally excited about this since the Halo movie that Peter Jackson was producing fell through. When I had first heard about that project I researched the director he had tapped, Neil Blomkamp, and watched all his short films and loved all of them. The faux-documentary style with a science fiction edge, and the seamless CG was all brilliant. This film actually draws its inspiration from one of Neil's shorts that he made, Live in Jo-burg, which if you haven't seen it...check it out. It was awesome seeing Peter Jackson in person and seeing how much he believes in this project and how he said that it's sort of gotten him re-interested in doing smaller, lower-budget movies. It was funny too how the first thing he said when he walked out was clearing the air about the Hobbit. He basically said that they're not even to a point where they can start offering roles to anyone yet, so don't ask. They showed probably 20 minutes of footage from District 9 and even with how excited I was about it..it still fascinated me. I cannot WAIT to see this, and I'm pissed that I'll be out of town (for work, no less) this weekend when it comes out.

So that was our day in Hall H. It was a long one, but it was chock full of awesomeness. The awesomeness didn't even stop there! Earlier in the day we ran into some guys with fliers and Flynn's Arcade (from Tron) tokens. The fliers said something like “help us find Flynn!” and had a star on a map of downtown San Diego, and had business hours: 9:00 - ???. Sounds like a party. It seemed like a good idea so when we were walking around looking for dinner we figured we'd walk by the address and see what it was. When we found the address, we found a building with all the windows blacked out and a big neon sign that just said in all caps FLYNNS, and a paper hand-written sign on the door that said “Flynn's Arcade, open @ 9pm.” We knew immediately, that we had to check this thing out. We went and grabbed some food pretty much next door, and took a load off for a bit. Then at about 8 we walked over to Flynn's and it turned out there were already some people lining up, so we did too. More and more people started turning up but we were still probably 10 people from the front, and right at 9 they opened the doors. It was awesome. They had a fully-functional arcade set up in there with tons of neon signs including a “Home of Tron” sign, and 80's music blasting over the stereo. All the games were free so we immediately played a game of air hockey (I won). Then we split off and I went and played a couple games of the actual Tron cabinet they had set up (!!!) and took some pictures, grinning ear to ear the whole time. They had a few Space Paranoids cabinets set up too, which is another game from Tron. My wife was playing some Marble Madness when I caught up to her and I started talking to another guy that was taking pictures and he was like “I'm just waiting for that back wall to open up.” Just then, Separate Ways by Journey came on the stereo...noticeably louder than the previous songs. The other picture taking guy and I looked at each other and both kinda said “maybe we should move that way now.” I grabbed my wife who had just finished getting a new high score just as the lights and sound started to flicker. Then, sure enough, the wall that the Tron cabinet was resting against opened up, and the music changed to some Daft Punk. As we walked through the dark hallway behind the game, the walls were lined with concept drawings of the new light cycle from Tron Legacy and a couple other vehicles from the movie, and then we turned the corner. Sitting there, on a spinning round pedestal was a real honest-to-god light cycle. Not real in the sense that it was going to drive out of there, but real in the sense that it was there, in the real world. After a few minutes of gawking at it and taking pictures and wondering how long it would take for one of the security guys to beat the life out of me by the time I jumped the rope, we continued down the hallway and we got shirts with big print on them that say “Flynn Lives.” When we left there was a LOT more people in line than had been when we had gotten in. Then we walked giddily away and back to the hotel. Whew!

How did I not hear about this?!

A lot of people (not myself) are sort of groaning about the oversaturation of zombies in pop-culture right now. While I do agree that there does seem to be an abundance of the undead around in various media, I don't think that's a bad thing. Granted I've been playing Left 4 Dead for like a week (why did I not get that earlier???) so I might be even more skewed than usual on this subject, but still. I feel like the Zombie genre is just so ripe for going in so many different directions, it's still not tapped out yet.

The main cool thing about zombies is that they absoluetly satisfy human fascination with death, without really making us feel guilty. These things only resemble humans in body shape, but we feel no remorse for brutally killing them because well, frankly, they're dead already. Because of this it allows us to explore the more morbid side of human curiosity (what happens to a body when it gets attacked with a lawnmower?) without making us feel bad for watching it or wondering about it in the first place.

In recent years since there's been a divide slowly being drawn between fast and slow zombies, it also opens you up for directions you can take zombie media. For instance fast zombies can be more of a thriller/suspense/action product, such as 28 Days Later (even though they're not technically zombies..), the re-made Dawn of the Dead, and the game Left 4 Dead. Slow zombies can be more suitable for comedy because they're not all up in your face all the time, so it gives you more time to play with writing-wise, such as Shaun of the Dead, Fido, etc. Slow moving zombies can provide a good amount of suspense and dramatic tension as well, just as long as the scenes are set up properly. George Romero USED to be great at that.

Anyway those are just some things I've been thinking about, and seeing this trailer really brought all the thoughts to the forefront of my head because this looks like even still another direction I haven't seen anybody take with the undead and it looks great!

(Not so) lightning-round recap of Comic-Con, Part 2

Alright, so here's day 2...which is actually day 1 of the con, but if you count preview night then...well you get it. Since this was the first day where stuff actually started to go down, there were (expectedly) a lot more people there. Luckily we were prepared for the lines. We had fortunately watched a very informative “con survival guide” video over at uglycouchshow.com. It was funny and it really explained a lot of things well for the noobs like us. For instance, we wanted to hit Hall H (the biggest hall there...fits about 6500 people) first thing in the morning for the Disney 3D Showcase, which started at 10, so we had been thinking get there around 8-8:30 and we'd be fine. After watching that video we decided to push it ahead and we got there around 7:15 or so. Good thing we did because we were still about 3,000 people back. We could've still gotten in had we gotten there later but we would have been MUCH farther back.

The crowd in this line was skewed because the Twilight panel was that day, and TONS of Twi-tards had taken over the line spots the night before. To elaborate on the Twilight panel...it wasn't just Twilight. It was whatever the studio is that puts it out, so it was like Astroboy, something else, THEN like 20 minutes of Twilight. And they hadn't even announced who was going to be there! So these people camped out to see 20 minutes of something that may or may not have people they want to see...wow. I feel bad talking down about Twilight fans because I know there are some people that are legitimate fans, and I (of all people, obviously) understand that we're all geeks for something. However (most of ) the Twilighters bug me because they're not fans of the mythology, or the story, or the books, or the character development, or whatever....they're fans of that one hot guy from the movies. Drives me freaking crazy. Anyway this was the only day we had to deal with that. We weren't in there for that panel but apparently as soon as it ended something like 75% of the room left...crazy. End rant.

Anyway, on to the fun stuff. So we were in line for a couple hours, which really wasn't too bad, and then we got into the massive, hangar-like Hall H. Did I mention it was huge? We found a seat pretty much dead center of the room...lots of people in front of us and behind us. They were actually really decent seats, and considering they had a massive screen above the stage, and 2 more massive screens out over the audience, we had no problem seeing anything up close if we needed to.

Then the ball got rolling. The director of programming for Comic-Con, with whom we became very familiar with over the week, came out and said a few words, then introduced the moderator for the Disney 3-D panel, Patton Oswalt. First off, I just love that guy. He's genuinely funny, always just seems like a good dude, and he really is sort of proof that geeks can make it in this world. Anyway he kinda gave the rundown of what we were into, then he brought out the first guest, Robert Zemeckis. He was there to talk about his newest CG venture, A Christmas Carol. Going in I wasn't really expecting much from this. I mean there's been so many Christmas Carol adaptations and everything, plus there are the issues with the “realistic” CG movies dealing with the uncanny valley and all that. He did make a point as to him not being done with live-action. He just really believes in the technology and the freedom it gives you as a director to be able to put your camera literally anywhere. Also, and I agree, it makes effects blend a lot more seamlessly. For instance when something “unnatural” happens, you're not thinking “oh, that's CG” because the whole thing is. Anyway, they showed a good 10 minute portion of the movie (the part where Marley first visits Scrooge) and I have to say it was genuinely intense. I'm so glad he's taking that direction with it, because there is some seriously messed up stuff in that story that usually ends up getting glossed over. Also, the CG was most impressive. They've much improved upon the way eyes work, and the way Jim Carrey's eyes dart around so much to show so much emotion it would have been a total shame for that not to come across, but it really did beautifully. The 3-D was top notch too. I love 3D when it's done well and not just throwing crap at the screen to make you duck or something...it just gives so much more depth to scene. I was a little skeptical about Jim Carrey too for whatever reason but the more I thought about it, who better to play multiple characters? And he totally nailed Scrooge in the clip we saw. As Mr. Oswalt put it to Mr. Zemeckis: “you really made the scary parts scary!” and that's a good thing. Bonus: Zemeckis made a “I can neither confirm nor deny, but if I WERE to do it....” comment on a new Roger Rabbit.

If the panel were to have stopped there I would have been totally happy already, but next up was Alice in Wonderland, so needless to say I was super excited about that. Mainly because Tim Burton showed up. That was even more awesome because he's apparently never been to Comic-Con before, at least as a guest rather than an antendee, so that was cool because I hadn't been before either! He didn't really say anything earth-shattering or anything but it was still awesome to witness a conversation with one of my favorite directors ever. They showed the trailer which was so short it was almost just a teaser but the stuff in it looked great. Once again the 3D looked fantastic, and I can't wait to see it on IMAX. Apparently it was pretty much all the completed footage they had...which means they better get to work! We've of course all seen the still images but it was awesome to see stuff in motion, and by now I'm sure the trailer itself is pretty readily available but it was awesome. Patton kept prodding Tim asking if he had anything else he wanted to show and proceeded to show the trailer 2 more times. The way he kept asking you could tell something was up. Finally Burton said something along the lines of “well there is this imaginary friend, that might show up” or something, and sure enough Johnny Depp walked out, and the whole place went nuts. Especially with all the 13 year-old girl twilight fans. It was still pretty awesome though, and he proceeded to wave and say two words: “Tim Burton!” and then left.

Next up was Tron. I've always been a big fan of Tron, even though I haven't seen it in I think about...forever. However, after sitting through this panel it has made me very re-excited about it, and I've been trying to hunt it down on DVD since then. Apparently Best Buy, Target, and Wal-Mart don't carry it. WTF? Anyway, there was a good group on the panel. The director, Joseph Kosinski, the two main actors Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde (you may know her as 13 from House...at least I do), and the Dude himself, Jeff Bridges. They were all very enthusiastic, especially considering how long this thing's been in development, and how little they still had to show for it. They did show a good bit of concept art that all had a very similar look to the old movie but modern enough without going overboard. There was a new light vehicle that actually had 4 wheels and could seat 2 people I think, and the newly redesigned light cycle. Also they've sort of revamped the disc arena so that looked really cool. I think only one person in the question line made a dumb Big Lebowski question for Jeff Bridges and he just laughed.

That concluded our day in Hall H. We wanted to stick around for the big Avatar panel later in the day with James Cameron, but we didn't want to stick around for Twilight in the middle...that thing really should have been first thing to clear those people out. Also we wanted to make sure we got in line early for the Dexter panel later since that was one of our keystone things that we could not miss. We had a couple hours to kill before that so we wandered around the exhibit hall some more, once again constantly giggling. We made our way over to the Image Comics booth and it turned out that Robert Kirkman (writer of the Walking Dead...one of my favorite writers, period) was signing there pretty soon so we said sweet and jumped in line for that. It also happened that the new hardcover Walking Dead, vol. 4 just came out, so I bought that. We waited in line for about an hour until he showed up. I talked to him for a bit while he was signing my book and he was totally awesome. Super nice guy, and hilarious. I always read his letters column at the end of the Walking Dead issues because hes so funny, so it was really cool to see that he's that funny in person.

I was pretty stoked after that, then we went ahead to jump in line for Ballroom 20 for the Dexter panel. Ballroom 20 is big. Not as big as Hall H obviously, but it's still about 4000 people, so the line was massive. It was outside, but it was covered so thats good, but it went alllllll the way down the side of the convention center about 5,000 feet (probably a little less than that...I'm bad at estimating) then came all the way back, then you went in. It moved pretty fast though, the line stopped when the room filled up for the Burn Notice panel, then apparently a lot of people left after that so we ended up getting in the Psych panel which was only one before Dexter. So we were only in line for like an hour and a half. Not too bad. I had never actually seen Psych, I had only heard of it offhandedly on USA at some point, but apparently a LOT of people like it as evidenced by the attendance there, and really the cast and producers that were there seemed really funny and interesting so I might give it a shot.

The Dexter panel was all I could have hoped for. We got a trailer for season 4, which looks fantastic. I like that not only are they introducing the family aspect for him to juggle but also bringing back a familiar “adversary” for him that could put some pressure on him as well. The panel was great as well. Michael C. Hall, his wife/sister Jennifer Carpenter, Julie Benz, John Lithgow, and the producers were all great. This panel probably had the best Q&A of all too. Great questions and all the guys on the panel answered well. The funniest thing to me was that Jennifer Carpenter acts exactly like her character Deb. I expected her to be completely different, but she was up there and so nervous and funny. It was very endearing. Oh Deb...

So that was that! After that we went back to the hotel, grabbed some food, and passed out. Another down, and 2 more to come!

I found your secret room...

(NOTE: there be slight spoilers in here, but I figure its been out long enough...)

It's always nice to see a movie...or any project really...come along that you can tell was really a labor of love. Moon is one of those projects. From the get-go you can tell that the budget was just about next to nothing...and probably mainly spent on paying the couple of actors and building the set. That's by no means a bad thing, it's just refreshing to see a movie project that was put out because the people involved wanted to put it out rather than a studio pressing them to make it mainstream (read: dumb it down).

Now, I'm (clearly) not an actor, but I can only imagine that one of the hardest thing for an actor to do is act by him or herself. Not only do you not have anyone else around to interact with, but really you're pulling an Atlas and bearing the entire weight of the scene, or in this case the entire movie, on your shoulders. Sam Rockwell did an absolutely brilliant job of keeping my attention the entire time. Now, to be fair he was acting alongside Sam Rockwell, so I'm sure that kept him afloat.

When the film starts out we're given a very quick dose of backstory which is all you really need to get to the meat of it. Basically, the aptly named Lunar Industries has set up at least one mining facility on the moon that is looking for something called Helium-3. All we know about this stuff is that it's abundant and it makes clean energy. Hooray! Once that's out of the way we're immediately introduced to Sam Bell...who plays the sole employee of the particular mining base he's stationed on. He's looking pretty grizzled, and who can blame him? He's a couple weeks away from finishing out his 3-year contract on the facility by himself. We also meet his robot assistant GERTY, who's voiced by Kevin Spacey. GERTY has a small cache of emoticons that it uses depending on the situation, and also just generally helps Sam out and tries to keep him sane by giving him some company.

It seems that Sam's main responsibilities include checking on the status of the harvesters (the machines that roam around digging for that precious He-3), retrieving said He-3, and being alive. He's pretty good at at least a couple of those. Whilst going to retrieve some cargo from one of the harvesters he goes a bit crazy and forgets what he's doing...then drives into the harvester itself...which is not the proper way to retrieve the cargo.

Once Sam wakes up in the infirmary, this is when we hit the real meat of the film. He seems to have suffered some brain damage and therefor is sort of put on lockdown, not being allowed to leave the facility. He gets tired of being cooped up and finds a way out...and finds the broken harvester along with the crashed rover...and Sam in it. DUN DUN DUN!

Here's where I get a bit spoilery. Once the two Sams are back and safe, comes a bit of a twist that you can see coming from about 37 miles away. They're clones. Had this been the big Shyamalanian (try saying that 3 times fast...or once) crescendo, I would have been pissed because it was SO obvious, but it isn't. This is where it gets good. Instead of opting to take the tired road of exploring the ethical implications of cloning and all that, we're left with 2 clones quickly realizing that they are in fact clones, and dealing with it in their own ways. The original (at least to us) Sam, who starts looking more and more like some sort of zombie toward the end of the film, is in denial for a time but subtly drops off-hand comments that show he believes the new Sam. It's interesting because it shows that even though they are exact replicas, they can manifest their same character traits in different ways. A highlight: Rockwell on Rockwell violence.

Eventually New Sam comes up with a plan to send Zombie Sam back to Earth so that he can meet his “family” and all that. It's very touching, and very human. Zombie Sam by this point has realized what the 3-year contract really is...the lifespan of a clone...so he figures there's no real point in him leaving, and tells New Sam to go instead. Now, during all this scheming, one would think that GERTY, being programmed by the big evil coporation, would be acting in the corporation's best interest and squash these two jerks immediately, but he doesn't. When Sam asks him “Don't you want to help me GERTY?” he responds with “I want nothing more than to help you” which shows that he is programmed to help Sam, regardless of the situation, which is a nice change from the evil robot HAL ripoffs we expect in this context.

So now, my only problem with the movie...the ending. It's very....abrupt. We get some audio playback alluding to Sam apparently speaking out about what happened up on the Moon and most people disregarding him and stuff like that. That's all well and good, but the audio clips are so short that by the time you kind of figure out what they're saying, it's over. I feel like if they would have done the same thing, but made them video news clips or something I think it would have been more effective.

The interaction between the two Rockwells is handled very well, in that the compositing team did an excellent job in selling that there are, in fact, two Sam Rockwells in that room. And he did a fantastic job acting with himself as well. As I alluded to earlier..that could not have been an easy task. Also, I read that they did the outdoor moon scenes with the rovers and stuff with miniatures...I love to see people still doing that! I keep using the term “refreshing” when thinking about this movie because it really is refreshing to see a solid, tightly written, well acted, little sci-fi film that doesn't try to preach anything. I always enjoy a film in which you can tell everybody involved was completely behind the project too. Can't wait to see what the director, Duncan Jones (this was only his second movie), comes up with next!

Comic-Con '09 lightning round recap Part 1

Ok, so it's almost 2 weeks gone now, but it's still pretty fresh in my mind just because I had a blast, and I keep looking at my pictures. I just want to give sort of a quick rundown of all the madness we encountered.

Wednesday (Preview Night)
We kind of made the mistake of going to the zoo for the first half of the day and completely wearing our feet out. Don't get me wrong, the San Diego Zoo is absolutely amazing, and this WAS our honeymoon so we wanted to get out and do other things, but we should have kept in mind that we were going to be walking around a good bit for the next few days. Anyway I digress...

The only thing we wanted to accomplish on preview night was hitting the exhibit hall for some exclusives. Some people went freaking nuts for these things and ended up carrying around 2 or sometimes 3 giant bags full of exclusive figures. I don't have that kind of money. There were a couple that we had to have though. We made a mad dash over to the Mezco booth so I could get the Hellboy Mighty Mugg-looking guy (I got a second one for a buddy of mine) and then hit the NECA booth for the exclusive April O'neil to go with the rest of my Ninja Turtles set. Then we went to the Entertainment Earth booth and actually had to end up waiting a little while to get the Dexter Dark Defender figure for another buddy of mine. While we were in line, my wife (still getting used to that!) went and grabbed a whole bunch of the Star Wars Mighty Muggs that she didn't have already.

Once we got the toys out of the way we could sort of wander around the showroom floor and took in the sites. Whilst doing that we caught a sneak preview of Bioshock 2 which looks fantastic. I love that the direction it looks like they're taking with it. Getting to play as a Big Daddy looks like so much freaking fun. They didn't explain too much as to who the big bad is and stuff like that, only that there is at least one "big sister" now who I guess is the yang to the Big Daddy's yin...but I'm happier not knowing too too much. I don't like spoilers. Since we were in the video game section at that point I found my way over to the Behemoth booth. They're the guys that make Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers. If you don't know what those are, check em out. Now. Little did I know they also made actual physical things! I got the set of 4 Castle Crasher knights because the nice lady talked me into it. It also turned out that the programmer and the artist from the games were there too so I got one of the display cases of my knights signed by both of those guys, and they were awesome. That sort of ended our mad buying spree.

After that we continued wandering around constantly just in awe (I'm pretty sure I only stopped giggling once) and constantly being barraged with free buttons and posters and stuff like that. Oh! We also found David Peterson who does all the writing and art for the Mouse Guard comics. My wife was super excited because that's one of her favorite comic series so we went over and got a bitchin' print that he had there and got it signed. Unfortunately, the guy was kind of a dick. His publicist was there and he just kept talking to her...never even made eye contact with the dude who's book he was signing before us, and said maybe one word to us when he signed it. He didn't even touch the money we handed him for the print, his assistant did. We wouldn't want him sullying his hands with money for his wares now would we?

This has gotten far too long at this point, so I guess I'll have to break this whole recap up into sections. Oh well. Day 2 to come!!