SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie Bitch Slap (2009).
Bitch Slap was first movie I wrote about. That post is quite terrible. I didn't have routine and couldn't write that well. Not to say I can do that now. It felt like good idea to revisit the movie for one year anniversary. It was not. I couldn't watch it with one sitting. I had to have a break at half way point. This movie doesn't deserve revisit, but because I watched it again, here it is.
This movie has Kevin Sorbo, Lucy Lawless and Renée O'Connor. You know, Hercules, Xena and Gabrielle from Hercules' and Xena's tv shows. Kevin Sorbo has little screen time. Lucy Lawless and Renée O'Connor have blink-and-you-miss them roles. I didn't see Lucy Lawless or Renée O'Connor first time I watched this. It would have been interesting to see these three together. It would have made this movie better.
I didn't have to have break first time, because I wanted to see how the story goes on. It has too much stupid plot twists. Those are only thing, that can make you watch this. You may want to see, where this goes to. But it is not worth the time. This time I knew, where this goes and there was nothing interesting. Women are hot and slow motions have some entertainment value. But if I want to see something like that, I can watch something, where women have even less clothes. Those movies have same level of acting than this and less violence. There are better movies, If I want to see violence.
This is like exploitation movie without exploitation. Cheap movie with cheap effect. Bad acting, bad dialog and stupid story. Exploitation movies try to hide that, with showing something, you don't see in normal movies. This movie doesn't dare to show anything. This has slow motion scenes, where exploitation movies have exploitation. Best word to describe slow motion scenes is naughty.
When you have story with major twists, you give clues during movie. When people watch movie again knowing the twist, they can see the clues and that makes movie even better. Does this movie do that? No. There are nearly no clues of any plot twists before twist is revealed. When you watch this movie again, characters' actions doesn't make sense. You can see main plot twist from miles away, if you have seen one certain movie. There were some clues for that, but character's actions don't make any sense, when you know the truth.
I have to think something else for next year. Maybe something I actually like.
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
One Year Anniversary
One year ago I started this blog. I had one movie blog before this, but it didn't live past first few posts. This is first that got going. One reason is that Netflix finally came to Finland and now I have enough movies to write about. Before I only had my movie collection and rented movies. Before starting this, I started writing reviews to Netflix and IMDB. Then one of my colleagues told about her blog and I got idea to start blog, where I don't have to worry about spoiling. I try not to spoil too much. Sometime I succeed in that. Sometimes I spoil too much without giving new point of view or anything else. Sometimes I just have to spoil the whole movie to make my point. I try to leave something unspoiled, if I can say what I wanted without telling everything.
One reason, why this blog is this way, is that I miss Finnish Babylon 5 community. There was Finnish Babylon 5 community containing message board and few web sites living on schedule Babylon 5 was shown in Finnish television. After episodes, they were analysed episodes and community members speculated, what will happen in future episodes. There was policy of not talking about episodes not yet shown in Finland. Episodes shown in Finland were totally spoiled in community. This community is one reason, why I think Babylon 5 is the best tv series ever. I have watched it few times without community and it is still works.
I try to balance analyzing and not spoiling too much. Obviously, I can't go as much analyzing as Babylon 5 community did. Those using the sites and message board knew what the deal was. Someone coming to this blog is may want spoiler free material or at least doesn't want to be totally spoiled. With Doctor Who's 50th anniversary, I got some of that Babylon 5 community feeling again. I could follow international discussions without spoiling. I won't be able to see chirstmas special when it is aired first time. So that was only for that one time.
My HBO Nordic rants have been most popular posts of this blog. Last week I saw news, how it is getting only fraction of subscribers and daily users of that of Netflix or ViaPlay in Sweden. I assume situation is similar in Finland. I think we have same streaming services in Finland as they have in Sweden. HBO Nordic messed they launch and they still haven't catched others. HBO Nordic have their advantage that they show their episodes same time all around the world, but that doesn't seem to matter to customers. Or they gave so bad first impression that customers doesn't want to give them second change.
I have more than enough to watch in Netflix and ViaPlay. I checked HBO Nordic site for this this post. Selection of movies is quite limited. Series selection is much better. But for me there were only few series that I want to watch and few that I may want to watch, if I gave them change. HBO Nordic feels like good additional streaming service, when you could do fine with only Netfilx or ViaPlay. From this perspective it is strange that HBO Nordic is most expencive of the three. I might give HBO Nordic change in future. If their movie selection doesn't change much, one or two months could be enough to watch everything interesting and then you can cancel your subscription.
After HBO Nordic rants comes my Ninth Legion posts. For those posts I had to do some studies, because movies were based on real history. Roman army had ninth legion, that just disappeared from historical references. First it was there, then it wasn't and there was never ninth legion again. Historians today don't know what happened to them. I think my ninth legion posts get people, who are interested in history, rather than people, who are interested in movies. I didn't start to do other movies based on history, because I am not into that kind of movies. I might do other similar posts, if I find correct movies. The 300 Spartans and 300 could be suitable movies. No promises yet. Those kind of post take more time than my regular posts, but they tend to get more hits too.
Some people celebrate number of posts or episodes. I chose to celebrate years for two reasons. This is blog that have regular schedule and I don't want to count trailers as posts. This post is 188th post. This blog has gone past 100 posts even, if you take trailers out of that number. Counting years is easier and better in this situation.
I have no big plans for future. There will be themes. Even theme months, if I got enough material. Around christmas there will be few christmas themed movies. No other themes are planned at the moment. I try to do Star Trek episodes I promised some time in future. Now that I ended Doctor Who Thursdays, I may start Star Trek Thursdays. Before that I want to do some movies.
On my Green Lantern post, I told, how movie made me want to check the comics. I did check them. I started from first issue of New 52. New 52 is relaunch of every DC comics, that happened two years ago. Now I have read every Green Lantern comic of New 52. Until latest issue, those have been best DC material I have read excluding special releases like Dark Knight returns and Red Son. Latest issue is first one after Lights Out event and may suffer from start of new story lines. I bought the Spider-man comic, which have that Gwen Stacy story. I had to buy physical copy, because I couldn't buy electronic version. When Amazing Spider-Man sequels come, I can check how faithful they are to original story.
I talked earlier how I wanted to watch Stargate. I got to half way of first season and then it started to feel like work. I didn't like the politics of Stargate unit and rest of the army. The world of Stargate is interesting enough. I don't want to watch, how people on earth argue, who will control the stargate. I may give it a second try and try to watch it on slower pace until it feels interesting again.
Doctor Who's 50th anniversary episode was first tv program in years, I watched, when it was aired. Live sport programs excluded. I also recorded it and have seen it three times already. I still think it is best Doctor Who story. It had so much little presents for whovians, that it is amazing how good the story was. There were dozens of little things, like lines of dialog from older episodes, but it all worked in a way, it didn't feel forced.
I think that was all for this post. Thanks for reading my blog and I hope you continue to enjoy it in future too.
One reason, why this blog is this way, is that I miss Finnish Babylon 5 community. There was Finnish Babylon 5 community containing message board and few web sites living on schedule Babylon 5 was shown in Finnish television. After episodes, they were analysed episodes and community members speculated, what will happen in future episodes. There was policy of not talking about episodes not yet shown in Finland. Episodes shown in Finland were totally spoiled in community. This community is one reason, why I think Babylon 5 is the best tv series ever. I have watched it few times without community and it is still works.
I try to balance analyzing and not spoiling too much. Obviously, I can't go as much analyzing as Babylon 5 community did. Those using the sites and message board knew what the deal was. Someone coming to this blog is may want spoiler free material or at least doesn't want to be totally spoiled. With Doctor Who's 50th anniversary, I got some of that Babylon 5 community feeling again. I could follow international discussions without spoiling. I won't be able to see chirstmas special when it is aired first time. So that was only for that one time.
My HBO Nordic rants have been most popular posts of this blog. Last week I saw news, how it is getting only fraction of subscribers and daily users of that of Netflix or ViaPlay in Sweden. I assume situation is similar in Finland. I think we have same streaming services in Finland as they have in Sweden. HBO Nordic messed they launch and they still haven't catched others. HBO Nordic have their advantage that they show their episodes same time all around the world, but that doesn't seem to matter to customers. Or they gave so bad first impression that customers doesn't want to give them second change.
I have more than enough to watch in Netflix and ViaPlay. I checked HBO Nordic site for this this post. Selection of movies is quite limited. Series selection is much better. But for me there were only few series that I want to watch and few that I may want to watch, if I gave them change. HBO Nordic feels like good additional streaming service, when you could do fine with only Netfilx or ViaPlay. From this perspective it is strange that HBO Nordic is most expencive of the three. I might give HBO Nordic change in future. If their movie selection doesn't change much, one or two months could be enough to watch everything interesting and then you can cancel your subscription.
After HBO Nordic rants comes my Ninth Legion posts. For those posts I had to do some studies, because movies were based on real history. Roman army had ninth legion, that just disappeared from historical references. First it was there, then it wasn't and there was never ninth legion again. Historians today don't know what happened to them. I think my ninth legion posts get people, who are interested in history, rather than people, who are interested in movies. I didn't start to do other movies based on history, because I am not into that kind of movies. I might do other similar posts, if I find correct movies. The 300 Spartans and 300 could be suitable movies. No promises yet. Those kind of post take more time than my regular posts, but they tend to get more hits too.
Some people celebrate number of posts or episodes. I chose to celebrate years for two reasons. This is blog that have regular schedule and I don't want to count trailers as posts. This post is 188th post. This blog has gone past 100 posts even, if you take trailers out of that number. Counting years is easier and better in this situation.
I have no big plans for future. There will be themes. Even theme months, if I got enough material. Around christmas there will be few christmas themed movies. No other themes are planned at the moment. I try to do Star Trek episodes I promised some time in future. Now that I ended Doctor Who Thursdays, I may start Star Trek Thursdays. Before that I want to do some movies.
On my Green Lantern post, I told, how movie made me want to check the comics. I did check them. I started from first issue of New 52. New 52 is relaunch of every DC comics, that happened two years ago. Now I have read every Green Lantern comic of New 52. Until latest issue, those have been best DC material I have read excluding special releases like Dark Knight returns and Red Son. Latest issue is first one after Lights Out event and may suffer from start of new story lines. I bought the Spider-man comic, which have that Gwen Stacy story. I had to buy physical copy, because I couldn't buy electronic version. When Amazing Spider-Man sequels come, I can check how faithful they are to original story.
I talked earlier how I wanted to watch Stargate. I got to half way of first season and then it started to feel like work. I didn't like the politics of Stargate unit and rest of the army. The world of Stargate is interesting enough. I don't want to watch, how people on earth argue, who will control the stargate. I may give it a second try and try to watch it on slower pace until it feels interesting again.
Doctor Who's 50th anniversary episode was first tv program in years, I watched, when it was aired. Live sport programs excluded. I also recorded it and have seen it three times already. I still think it is best Doctor Who story. It had so much little presents for whovians, that it is amazing how good the story was. There were dozens of little things, like lines of dialog from older episodes, but it all worked in a way, it didn't feel forced.
I think that was all for this post. Thanks for reading my blog and I hope you continue to enjoy it in future too.
Monday, November 25, 2013
Doctor Who - The Day of the Doctor (2013)
"Hello sweetie, spoilers..."
Wow! Just wow! This was made for Doctor Who fans. Others won't understand, why this episode is so cool. In Doctor Who time is a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff. It doesn't move linear from cause to effect. That is why all The Doctors could have made calculations for saving Gallifrey and never remember doing so. And that is why we whovians can like this episode, even when there are such a continuity errors in this episode. There was convenient memory loss explained, but to do the calculation, they had to know, what they were doing before the memory loss.
That could have been left out of the episode. It was there to give something for fans of classic Doctor Who. Three Doctors could have done that like they did with sonic screwdrivers earlier. Or it could have been four Doctors with 12th coming from the future. We did see few seconds of Peter Capaldi's Doctor. Another present for whovians. A little teaser of things to come, but not actually showing, what he will be looking like. There was rumour that Peter Capaldi would be in this episode. That turned out to be true.
Presents didn't end there. There was rumor that one of the classic Doctors would appear. All of them were there in archive footage and in CGI. But most liked classic Doctor Who actor Tom Baker had role in this episode. Another wibbly wobbly timey wimey thing in big picture, but this was 50th anniversary episode and party full of presents for whovians, rather than episode which takes itself too seriously. It was serious, if you don't count presents to whovians. I don't want to rant about presents. They were cool and I can live with fact, that they didn't make much sense in big picture. I think Tom Baker was coolest thing in the episode. He was longest running Doctor and most popular one with David Tennant. There were presents too numerous to mention in this post. And it was cool.
I feared, I couldn't enjoy this episode fullest, because I haven't seen last season and this would be filled with action. Latter fear was because of trailers. Neither thing happened. This episode didn't require knowledge of last season and I think, you could enjoy this without knowing Doctor Who. You would miss all the stuff I told earlier, but you could enjoy the episode. Action was at regular Doctor Who level and mood didn't went too dark even during time war scenes.
Episode happened during the last day of Time War. The day when Doctor destroyed both Daleks and Time lords. Doctor is starting ultimate weapon, when interface of weapon shows, what are the consequences of his actions. He will meet tenth and eleventh Doctor. This meeting and their adventure together doesn't change mind of Doctor. But it makes tenth and eleventh Doctor to realize, Doctor didn't have any other change. Tenth and eleventh Doctor came to share the burden of Doctor and press the button.
Clara talks eleventh Doctor out of it. Eleventh has had longest time to think about this and he has idea, how they could save the Gallifrey and time lords, if they change time. They will freeze Gallifrey in time and that would make Daleks firing each others when they try to destroy it. Doctors have made calculations to freeze Gallifrey from first Doctor to 12th Doctor. When 12th Doctor comes, their plan succeed. I think, it will be 12th Doctor, who saved the Gallifrey since he had latest calculations. I think, all this will be explained during 12th Doctor's run. There is only christmas special left for 11th Doctors run. So all this was set up for 12th Doctors run. As christmas special will probably be too.
This episode changed the playing field. Since relaunch, Time War and Doctor killing Daleks and Time Lords, was defining factor of Doctor's run. Time War is still there, but now it has ended differently. What happened to time lock and how things have changed because ending is different now? How many Daleks survive and what they do now? This builded hype for christmas special and 12th Doctor's run. I am again excited about Doctor Who. That wasn't always the case during eleventh Doctor's run.
There was no Captain Jack Harkness, ninth Doctor or Timothy Dalton.There were rumors of Captain Jack being there, but we only got mention of him and saw one of his devices. It was informed earlier that ninth Doctor wouldn't be there. He would have fitted the story, but he would have changed the dynamics. As Captain Jack would have done. Tennant and Smith had great dynamics. This was best performance from Matt Smith I have seen. I waited Timothy Dalton, because he was leading Time Lords during the Time War. He was in one special episode, where Time Lords tried to break free from time lock.
This is now my favourite Doctor Who story. It is worthy of 50th anniversary episode. I have to find analyzes of this episodes. I want to know, why one character had fourth Doctor's scarf. Is the actress related to Tom Baker? Episode had so much presents for whovians that I definitely have missed some of them.
Spoiler warning is stolen from Geeks of Doom. It was so clever, I had to use it myself too.
Wow! Just wow! This was made for Doctor Who fans. Others won't understand, why this episode is so cool. In Doctor Who time is a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff. It doesn't move linear from cause to effect. That is why all The Doctors could have made calculations for saving Gallifrey and never remember doing so. And that is why we whovians can like this episode, even when there are such a continuity errors in this episode. There was convenient memory loss explained, but to do the calculation, they had to know, what they were doing before the memory loss.
That could have been left out of the episode. It was there to give something for fans of classic Doctor Who. Three Doctors could have done that like they did with sonic screwdrivers earlier. Or it could have been four Doctors with 12th coming from the future. We did see few seconds of Peter Capaldi's Doctor. Another present for whovians. A little teaser of things to come, but not actually showing, what he will be looking like. There was rumour that Peter Capaldi would be in this episode. That turned out to be true.
Presents didn't end there. There was rumor that one of the classic Doctors would appear. All of them were there in archive footage and in CGI. But most liked classic Doctor Who actor Tom Baker had role in this episode. Another wibbly wobbly timey wimey thing in big picture, but this was 50th anniversary episode and party full of presents for whovians, rather than episode which takes itself too seriously. It was serious, if you don't count presents to whovians. I don't want to rant about presents. They were cool and I can live with fact, that they didn't make much sense in big picture. I think Tom Baker was coolest thing in the episode. He was longest running Doctor and most popular one with David Tennant. There were presents too numerous to mention in this post. And it was cool.
I feared, I couldn't enjoy this episode fullest, because I haven't seen last season and this would be filled with action. Latter fear was because of trailers. Neither thing happened. This episode didn't require knowledge of last season and I think, you could enjoy this without knowing Doctor Who. You would miss all the stuff I told earlier, but you could enjoy the episode. Action was at regular Doctor Who level and mood didn't went too dark even during time war scenes.
Episode happened during the last day of Time War. The day when Doctor destroyed both Daleks and Time lords. Doctor is starting ultimate weapon, when interface of weapon shows, what are the consequences of his actions. He will meet tenth and eleventh Doctor. This meeting and their adventure together doesn't change mind of Doctor. But it makes tenth and eleventh Doctor to realize, Doctor didn't have any other change. Tenth and eleventh Doctor came to share the burden of Doctor and press the button.
Clara talks eleventh Doctor out of it. Eleventh has had longest time to think about this and he has idea, how they could save the Gallifrey and time lords, if they change time. They will freeze Gallifrey in time and that would make Daleks firing each others when they try to destroy it. Doctors have made calculations to freeze Gallifrey from first Doctor to 12th Doctor. When 12th Doctor comes, their plan succeed. I think, it will be 12th Doctor, who saved the Gallifrey since he had latest calculations. I think, all this will be explained during 12th Doctor's run. There is only christmas special left for 11th Doctors run. So all this was set up for 12th Doctors run. As christmas special will probably be too.
This episode changed the playing field. Since relaunch, Time War and Doctor killing Daleks and Time Lords, was defining factor of Doctor's run. Time War is still there, but now it has ended differently. What happened to time lock and how things have changed because ending is different now? How many Daleks survive and what they do now? This builded hype for christmas special and 12th Doctor's run. I am again excited about Doctor Who. That wasn't always the case during eleventh Doctor's run.
There was no Captain Jack Harkness, ninth Doctor or Timothy Dalton.There were rumors of Captain Jack being there, but we only got mention of him and saw one of his devices. It was informed earlier that ninth Doctor wouldn't be there. He would have fitted the story, but he would have changed the dynamics. As Captain Jack would have done. Tennant and Smith had great dynamics. This was best performance from Matt Smith I have seen. I waited Timothy Dalton, because he was leading Time Lords during the Time War. He was in one special episode, where Time Lords tried to break free from time lock.
This is now my favourite Doctor Who story. It is worthy of 50th anniversary episode. I have to find analyzes of this episodes. I want to know, why one character had fourth Doctor's scarf. Is the actress related to Tom Baker? Episode had so much presents for whovians that I definitely have missed some of them.
Spoiler warning is stolen from Geeks of Doom. It was so clever, I had to use it myself too.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Doctor Who - The Beast Below (2010)
SPOILER WARNING!!! This Post spoils Doctor Who episode The Beast Below (2010)
I am not biggest fan of 11th Doctor's run. It goes too weird for me at times. It has great episodes like this one and then something you could call fever dreams. Matt Smith is not the problem. Stories are. This is the second episode with 11th Doctor and his new companion Amy Pond. Doctor came to meet Amy night before her wedding and they left to adventure time and space.
On their first adventure, they enter to Starship UK. Starship UK contains population of Great Britain. They have escaped deadly solar flames. On ship Doctor sees something is wrong. There is girl crying and everyone ignores her. There are Smilers everywhere. Smilers are smiling robots, who sit in booths and follow what is going around them. When they see something they don't like, they change their face to unhappy face. If that doesn't help, they change their face to angry face. If that doesn't help, they rise from booth and stop what they don't like.
Amy is taken into voting booth. There she is told the truth about Starship UK. After knowing the truth she has to choose either to forget or protest. Doctor finds Amy watching video, where she ask herself to take Doctor away from Starship UK and not to investigate Starship. Doctor has realized earlier, that Starship UK doesn't have any engines and it shouldn't be moving. Doctor wants to learn the truth and he hits Protest button. Floor below them opens and they are dropped into large creature's mouth. Every five years everyone has to vote. Those who choose Forget, can continue their lives. Those who protest are fed to large creature.
During their escape Amy and Doctor meet Liz 10, the queen of Starship UK. Liz doesn't have to vote and the truth is not told to her. She has tried to find that out. Liz, Amy and Doctor go to The Tower, where truth is revealed to them. Whole Starship UK is build on top of the last star whale and whale is steered by torturing it. They learn that queen has to vote too. Her choices are forget and abdicate. Doctor loses his cool. He understands why Amy choose to forget. Amy didn't want to make Doctor to choose between humans and space whale. Doctor's choise is to make star whale brain-dead so it can't feel pain. Amy put pieces together and realizes star whale wanted to help all along. She forces the queen to press Abdicate. For moment that seems like end of Starship UK but soon everything comes back to normal with exception. that they are now moving faster than before. People realize, that they don't have to torture star whale. It helps them because it wants to help.
11th Doctor makes decisions without listening others. Sometimes his decisions are bad ones and there are consequences he didn't meant or doesn't like. Sometimes his friends help and stop Doctor before it is too late. Sometimes they are not able to do that. I like that Doctor is fallible. This may be build up for 50th anniversary where he has to face his biggest choice, which killed both Daleks and Timelords.
This will be last Doctor Who post for some time. I wanted to introduce Doctor Who before 50th anniversary and I have now done that. Doctor Who Thursdays will return later. I will do my 50th Anniversary episode post next monday. Next week is one year anniversary of this blog and I have something special for Wednesday and Thursday. That is why Doctor Who gets monday next week. Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary episode is shown next saturday at same time all around the world. I don't know how it is in other countries. In Finland it shown on public channel. I recommend watching it if you have a change.
I am not biggest fan of 11th Doctor's run. It goes too weird for me at times. It has great episodes like this one and then something you could call fever dreams. Matt Smith is not the problem. Stories are. This is the second episode with 11th Doctor and his new companion Amy Pond. Doctor came to meet Amy night before her wedding and they left to adventure time and space.
On their first adventure, they enter to Starship UK. Starship UK contains population of Great Britain. They have escaped deadly solar flames. On ship Doctor sees something is wrong. There is girl crying and everyone ignores her. There are Smilers everywhere. Smilers are smiling robots, who sit in booths and follow what is going around them. When they see something they don't like, they change their face to unhappy face. If that doesn't help, they change their face to angry face. If that doesn't help, they rise from booth and stop what they don't like.
Amy is taken into voting booth. There she is told the truth about Starship UK. After knowing the truth she has to choose either to forget or protest. Doctor finds Amy watching video, where she ask herself to take Doctor away from Starship UK and not to investigate Starship. Doctor has realized earlier, that Starship UK doesn't have any engines and it shouldn't be moving. Doctor wants to learn the truth and he hits Protest button. Floor below them opens and they are dropped into large creature's mouth. Every five years everyone has to vote. Those who choose Forget, can continue their lives. Those who protest are fed to large creature.
During their escape Amy and Doctor meet Liz 10, the queen of Starship UK. Liz doesn't have to vote and the truth is not told to her. She has tried to find that out. Liz, Amy and Doctor go to The Tower, where truth is revealed to them. Whole Starship UK is build on top of the last star whale and whale is steered by torturing it. They learn that queen has to vote too. Her choices are forget and abdicate. Doctor loses his cool. He understands why Amy choose to forget. Amy didn't want to make Doctor to choose between humans and space whale. Doctor's choise is to make star whale brain-dead so it can't feel pain. Amy put pieces together and realizes star whale wanted to help all along. She forces the queen to press Abdicate. For moment that seems like end of Starship UK but soon everything comes back to normal with exception. that they are now moving faster than before. People realize, that they don't have to torture star whale. It helps them because it wants to help.
11th Doctor makes decisions without listening others. Sometimes his decisions are bad ones and there are consequences he didn't meant or doesn't like. Sometimes his friends help and stop Doctor before it is too late. Sometimes they are not able to do that. I like that Doctor is fallible. This may be build up for 50th anniversary where he has to face his biggest choice, which killed both Daleks and Timelords.
This will be last Doctor Who post for some time. I wanted to introduce Doctor Who before 50th anniversary and I have now done that. Doctor Who Thursdays will return later. I will do my 50th Anniversary episode post next monday. Next week is one year anniversary of this blog and I have something special for Wednesday and Thursday. That is why Doctor Who gets monday next week. Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary episode is shown next saturday at same time all around the world. I don't know how it is in other countries. In Finland it shown on public channel. I recommend watching it if you have a change.
Monday, November 18, 2013
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie The Amazing Spider-Man (2012).
I liked Sam Raimi's Spider-man trilogy. Even the third film. I hoped it would get sequels. I was very disappointed to learn that Spider-man would be rebooted. Spider-man 3 was released 2007. This came 2012, which felt too soon. I know superhero movies are selling well at the moment and Spider-man 4 wasn't at top of the list for Sam Raimi or Tobey Maguire. At least that is the rumor I hear last. Even when Spider-man 4 was not coming, this came too soon after Spider-man 3. It is hard for me to say, this is better than Sam Raimi's Spider-man movies. Only thing worth complaining is, that Peter takes his mask off too easily and too many people know he is Spider-man. Even Aunt May seems to know, he is Spider-man.
Movie tells origin story of Spider-man once again. But this time it doesn't follow comics too faithfully. That was good choise. Death of uncle Ben makes more sense now. First it felt, we have to wait for Spider-man too long. But that was to make us feel for these characters. Peter is not yet Spider-man. He have just got his powers and tries to figure out what to do with them. Ben and Peter had fight and Ben was looking for Peter, when robber shoots him. Peter could have stopped the robber earlier, but let him go because he didn't like shop owner. Nothing larger than life like in Sam Raimi's Spider-man. This is more realistic and down to earth.
Villain of this movie is The Lizard. Lizard was rumoured to be in Spider-man 4. That would have been downgrade in villains. Lizard is good villain for origin story. He is not one of Spider-man's iconic villains and doesn't take too much focus from origin story. I guess writers took lesson from Batman Begins and didn't put any of big guns in first movie. Like in Batman Begins, we are hinted that iconic villain will make appearance in next movie.
This time love interest is Gwen Stacy, who was Peter's one true love before Mary Jane. I don't know how faithfully movies follow Gwen Stacy's story from comics. If they do, build up for the thing she is remembered most, started in this movie. And that made me wait for next movie more than anything else in this movie. Yes, there was mystery surrounding Peter's parents. Peter's father worked with Dr Connors for Oscorp. Then one night they had to go away and leave Peter to May and Ben. Dr Connors continued to work on their project and is later turned into The Lizard because of it. But Gwen Stacy, if they follow the comic story, it will be really big thing in blockbuster movie. As it was in comics when it happened.
I started to watch this movie to write post on why this movie shouldn't have been made and now I am building hype for sequels. It was that good, but I think it suffers from coming so soon after Sam Raimi's Spider-man trilogy which was quite popular.
I liked Sam Raimi's Spider-man trilogy. Even the third film. I hoped it would get sequels. I was very disappointed to learn that Spider-man would be rebooted. Spider-man 3 was released 2007. This came 2012, which felt too soon. I know superhero movies are selling well at the moment and Spider-man 4 wasn't at top of the list for Sam Raimi or Tobey Maguire. At least that is the rumor I hear last. Even when Spider-man 4 was not coming, this came too soon after Spider-man 3. It is hard for me to say, this is better than Sam Raimi's Spider-man movies. Only thing worth complaining is, that Peter takes his mask off too easily and too many people know he is Spider-man. Even Aunt May seems to know, he is Spider-man.
Movie tells origin story of Spider-man once again. But this time it doesn't follow comics too faithfully. That was good choise. Death of uncle Ben makes more sense now. First it felt, we have to wait for Spider-man too long. But that was to make us feel for these characters. Peter is not yet Spider-man. He have just got his powers and tries to figure out what to do with them. Ben and Peter had fight and Ben was looking for Peter, when robber shoots him. Peter could have stopped the robber earlier, but let him go because he didn't like shop owner. Nothing larger than life like in Sam Raimi's Spider-man. This is more realistic and down to earth.
Villain of this movie is The Lizard. Lizard was rumoured to be in Spider-man 4. That would have been downgrade in villains. Lizard is good villain for origin story. He is not one of Spider-man's iconic villains and doesn't take too much focus from origin story. I guess writers took lesson from Batman Begins and didn't put any of big guns in first movie. Like in Batman Begins, we are hinted that iconic villain will make appearance in next movie.
This time love interest is Gwen Stacy, who was Peter's one true love before Mary Jane. I don't know how faithfully movies follow Gwen Stacy's story from comics. If they do, build up for the thing she is remembered most, started in this movie. And that made me wait for next movie more than anything else in this movie. Yes, there was mystery surrounding Peter's parents. Peter's father worked with Dr Connors for Oscorp. Then one night they had to go away and leave Peter to May and Ben. Dr Connors continued to work on their project and is later turned into The Lizard because of it. But Gwen Stacy, if they follow the comic story, it will be really big thing in blockbuster movie. As it was in comics when it happened.
I started to watch this movie to write post on why this movie shouldn't have been made and now I am building hype for sequels. It was that good, but I think it suffers from coming so soon after Sam Raimi's Spider-man trilogy which was quite popular.
Saturday, November 16, 2013
The Night of the Doctor
Doctor Who 50th anniversary prequel/teaser/call-what-ever-you-want. The Doctor in this is eight Doctor. We never saw him transforming into ninth Doctor. This mini episode explains why.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Doctor Who - The Fires of Pompeii (2008)
SPOILER WARNING!!! This Post spoils Doctor Who episode The Fires of Pompeii (2008).
This was regular Doctor Who episode, until it was announced that Peter Capaldi will be 12th Doctor. After that I promised to do this episode. Now I will do that. Peter Capaldi is not only actor, who became regular Doctor Who actor. Karen Gillan, who will later be Amy Pond, companion of 11th Doctor, has also role in this episode. She uses so much face paint and has so small part, that you miss her, if you don't know she is in this. This episode could be written into 12th Doctor story, if writers want to do that. I don't think that was planned, but some times writers get lucky.
Doctor Who and his companion Donna Noble travel to Pompeii one day before the volcano day. When they realize that, they decide to leave, because this is fixed point in time and there is nothing they can do about it. Street merchant has sold Tardis to 12th Doctor and they have to stay little bit longer. Peter Capaldi's character is not called 12th Doctor. It is totally different character. Or is it? You could make that character into 12th Doctor, who has totally lost his memory and started to live regular life in Pompeii. For that reason I call him 12th Doctor. I want to be able to say "I told you so", if they really make Peter Capaldi's character in this episode to 12th Doctor. Him buying Tardis is only hint about tha,t if you don't count, that Doctor saves him in the end and one shot, where Doctor holds hands with 12th Doctor.
Doctor and Donna start to realize something is wrong. Every oracle can tell the truth, but none of them can tell something will happen next day. Oracles tell who Doctor and Donna really are, but they don't know anything about volcano day. Arms of oracles have started to turn into stone. One oracle has started to make alien technology from marbles. Donna tries to tell people that volcano will erupt next day. This annoys Sisters of Sibylla enough to make them kidnap her. Doctor follows them and they meet high priestess of sisterhood. She has completely turned into living stone. She tells that the Pyroviles control the citizens.
Doctor and Donna escape into Mount Vesuvius. There they find out that the Pyroviles plan to turn earth into their new home planet. This would mean end of the world for humans. Then they realize why oracles can't see volcano erupting. The Pyroviles use volcano's energy and that prevents volcano erupting. Doctor has to make hard decision. He has to make the volcano to erupt and destroy Pompeii to save the rest of the world. Oracles see how future changes when Doctor pulls the lever. When they escape the eruption, Donna talks Doctor into saving someone. Doctor comes back and saves 12th Doctor and his family. While watching the destruction 12th Doctor invents word volcano.
If Peter Capaldi's character is 12th Doctor, why oracles didn't say anything about that? Oracles told things that will happen in season finale. There is way to explain that. If the Pyroviles thought 12th Doctor was not threat to them, they may want to keep it that way by not telling him he is 12th Doctor.
This was 4th season episode as was Midnight. Both had hints for season finale. Makes me wonder, should I watch whole season to find all hints I have missed earlier. Next week however is time for 11th Doctor. If I counted correctly, week after that I could write about 50th anniversary. I should be able to see it same time as it is aired around the world.
This was regular Doctor Who episode, until it was announced that Peter Capaldi will be 12th Doctor. After that I promised to do this episode. Now I will do that. Peter Capaldi is not only actor, who became regular Doctor Who actor. Karen Gillan, who will later be Amy Pond, companion of 11th Doctor, has also role in this episode. She uses so much face paint and has so small part, that you miss her, if you don't know she is in this. This episode could be written into 12th Doctor story, if writers want to do that. I don't think that was planned, but some times writers get lucky.
Doctor Who and his companion Donna Noble travel to Pompeii one day before the volcano day. When they realize that, they decide to leave, because this is fixed point in time and there is nothing they can do about it. Street merchant has sold Tardis to 12th Doctor and they have to stay little bit longer. Peter Capaldi's character is not called 12th Doctor. It is totally different character. Or is it? You could make that character into 12th Doctor, who has totally lost his memory and started to live regular life in Pompeii. For that reason I call him 12th Doctor. I want to be able to say "I told you so", if they really make Peter Capaldi's character in this episode to 12th Doctor. Him buying Tardis is only hint about tha,t if you don't count, that Doctor saves him in the end and one shot, where Doctor holds hands with 12th Doctor.
Doctor and Donna start to realize something is wrong. Every oracle can tell the truth, but none of them can tell something will happen next day. Oracles tell who Doctor and Donna really are, but they don't know anything about volcano day. Arms of oracles have started to turn into stone. One oracle has started to make alien technology from marbles. Donna tries to tell people that volcano will erupt next day. This annoys Sisters of Sibylla enough to make them kidnap her. Doctor follows them and they meet high priestess of sisterhood. She has completely turned into living stone. She tells that the Pyroviles control the citizens.
Doctor and Donna escape into Mount Vesuvius. There they find out that the Pyroviles plan to turn earth into their new home planet. This would mean end of the world for humans. Then they realize why oracles can't see volcano erupting. The Pyroviles use volcano's energy and that prevents volcano erupting. Doctor has to make hard decision. He has to make the volcano to erupt and destroy Pompeii to save the rest of the world. Oracles see how future changes when Doctor pulls the lever. When they escape the eruption, Donna talks Doctor into saving someone. Doctor comes back and saves 12th Doctor and his family. While watching the destruction 12th Doctor invents word volcano.
If Peter Capaldi's character is 12th Doctor, why oracles didn't say anything about that? Oracles told things that will happen in season finale. There is way to explain that. If the Pyroviles thought 12th Doctor was not threat to them, they may want to keep it that way by not telling him he is 12th Doctor.
This was 4th season episode as was Midnight. Both had hints for season finale. Makes me wonder, should I watch whole season to find all hints I have missed earlier. Next week however is time for 11th Doctor. If I counted correctly, week after that I could write about 50th anniversary. I should be able to see it same time as it is aired around the world.
Monday, November 11, 2013
The One (2001)
SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movies Timecop (1994) and The One (2001).
The One is Jet Li's Timecop. Both movies have highly regulated technology and someone wants to use it for their own advantage. Both movies have policing agency, whose agents travel between version of worlds. In both movies hero's wife is killer in their bedroom, while hero is outside watching it happen. In both movies hero ends up into world, where the wife is still alive. And most of all both are scifi movies with martial arts actionmovie star in leading role. Plus in both movies, there are two versions of hero. Who ever wrote the script, have seen Timecop. You can find my Timecop posts following Timecop tag.
In Timecop technology was time travelling. In this it is travelling between different universes. There are 125 different universes in multiverse and in everyone, there is different version of you. When one version of you is killed in one universe, his energy is given to other versions of you. There are different hypothesis on what happens, when there is only one version of you. Yulaw is determined to find out the truth. He has killed 123 different versions of him and got extraordinary abilities. There is still one to go, Gabe in universe much like ours. I say much like ours, because in that universe George W. Bush talks about universal healthcare like it is a good thing.
Unlike in Timecop, our hero is not working in agency, that travels between world. This time he is Gabe, regular police officer, who doesn't know anything about multiverse. That role is given to Jason Statham. This is first movie, where Jet Li and Jason Statham are together. Jason Statham is rookie multiversecop hunting Yulaw with his mentor. If multiversecops have to kill Yulaw, they have to kill Gabe too. There can't be only one version of person. How this haven't happen before is quite strange. Are every version of person dying same time, if they are dying on old age? Does the life style change anything? Or is the energy so low at old age, that it doesn't make big change? Movie doesn't bother to explain these questions. It is like same matter can't occupy same space stupidity in Timecop.
Movie doesn't use multiverse as much as it could have used it. It begins in universe where Al Gore won the election. Most of the movie happens in universe where George W. Bush won the election and then there is multiversecop's universe, that is like future world. Some actors play different roles in different universes. But that is almost all we got from multiverse. It is good thing that this technology is made hard to use. You have to be in certain place at certain time, if you want to travel to different universe. Unless you are in multiversecop's universe, where only the time matters.
Ending doesn't make much sense. It was told that there are different hypothesis what happens, when there is only on version of person, The One. Destruction on universe was mentioned and The One becoming god was mentioned. If there are these kinds of possibilities, then why multiversecops sent Yulaw to prison planet, where other inmates wanted to kill him or at least hurt him. They were ready to send Gabe to his universe, where he could have been given life in prison or death sentence for crimes Yulaw did. Multiversecops wanted to sent them to great danger. If other dies, other would become The One. It doesn't make sense that multiversecops sent them to universes where they can't be followed and other one killed when other one dies.
The One is Jet Li's Timecop. Both movies have highly regulated technology and someone wants to use it for their own advantage. Both movies have policing agency, whose agents travel between version of worlds. In both movies hero's wife is killer in their bedroom, while hero is outside watching it happen. In both movies hero ends up into world, where the wife is still alive. And most of all both are scifi movies with martial arts actionmovie star in leading role. Plus in both movies, there are two versions of hero. Who ever wrote the script, have seen Timecop. You can find my Timecop posts following Timecop tag.
In Timecop technology was time travelling. In this it is travelling between different universes. There are 125 different universes in multiverse and in everyone, there is different version of you. When one version of you is killed in one universe, his energy is given to other versions of you. There are different hypothesis on what happens, when there is only one version of you. Yulaw is determined to find out the truth. He has killed 123 different versions of him and got extraordinary abilities. There is still one to go, Gabe in universe much like ours. I say much like ours, because in that universe George W. Bush talks about universal healthcare like it is a good thing.
Unlike in Timecop, our hero is not working in agency, that travels between world. This time he is Gabe, regular police officer, who doesn't know anything about multiverse. That role is given to Jason Statham. This is first movie, where Jet Li and Jason Statham are together. Jason Statham is rookie multiversecop hunting Yulaw with his mentor. If multiversecops have to kill Yulaw, they have to kill Gabe too. There can't be only one version of person. How this haven't happen before is quite strange. Are every version of person dying same time, if they are dying on old age? Does the life style change anything? Or is the energy so low at old age, that it doesn't make big change? Movie doesn't bother to explain these questions. It is like same matter can't occupy same space stupidity in Timecop.
Movie doesn't use multiverse as much as it could have used it. It begins in universe where Al Gore won the election. Most of the movie happens in universe where George W. Bush won the election and then there is multiversecop's universe, that is like future world. Some actors play different roles in different universes. But that is almost all we got from multiverse. It is good thing that this technology is made hard to use. You have to be in certain place at certain time, if you want to travel to different universe. Unless you are in multiversecop's universe, where only the time matters.
Ending doesn't make much sense. It was told that there are different hypothesis what happens, when there is only on version of person, The One. Destruction on universe was mentioned and The One becoming god was mentioned. If there are these kinds of possibilities, then why multiversecops sent Yulaw to prison planet, where other inmates wanted to kill him or at least hurt him. They were ready to send Gabe to his universe, where he could have been given life in prison or death sentence for crimes Yulaw did. Multiversecops wanted to sent them to great danger. If other dies, other would become The One. It doesn't make sense that multiversecops sent them to universes where they can't be followed and other one killed when other one dies.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Doctor Who - Midnight (2008)
SPOILER WARNING!!! This Post spoils Doctor Who episode Midnight.
As I told earlier, this is my favourite Doctor Who episode. This is clearly filler episode. Small, simple set and few actors. Probably didn't take much time to shoot. This came just before season finale. Being filler in Doctor Who doesn't mean a bad episode. This episode shows what good director can do with good script and good actors. You don't have to spend lots of money to make good tv or movie. I planned to do this during october, because this is one of my favourite horror stories. It still works after I have seen this several times.
Midnight is leisure planet, where light makes outside lethal to any life forms. People has to be protected from light all the time. Doctor takes shuttle to see sapphire water wall. His companion Donna doesn't want to take four hour shuttle ride to there and another four hour back. Regular route to waterfall is blocked and shuttle has to take detour. Passengers get to know each others. Everything is fun and games until shuttle stops. This should never happen. Passengers start to freak out. Doctor, Hostess and Dee Dee, one of the passengers, try to calm others down.
When passengers calm down, something starts to knock walls of shuttle. Sky, one other passengers start to scream that something is coming after her. Something attacks the shuttle. Electronics malfunction. Cockpit with pilots is gone. Shuttle has stopped in middle of nowhere. Passengers has to stay inside waiting for rescuers. They can't go out side because it is deadly outside. Sky starts to act strangely. She repeats everything anyone says. This freaks out the passengers. They start to argue what they should do with Sky. Majority wants to throw her outside. Doctor want to keep her alive. Some passengers think they should throw the Doctor outside too.
Then Sky starts to repeat everything they say at same time person speaks. Then she stop repeating everyone else than Doctor. This goes on until she says things before the Doctor says them. Slowly Doctor start to repeat what Sky says and other passengers see Doctor as problem. This is one of few times, when Doctor is alone and no-one in shuttle knows who he is. He doesn't help his situation by not telling who he really is.
I don't want to spoil the episode any more. There are no weak links in this episode. Every character acts realistically and we see how different kind of people act in this kind of situation. Group doesn't always do best choices, if wrong people are too loud and people who see what actually happens are not loud enough. This shows how dysfunctional groups work. I like how passengers justify their actions at the end. I think you could do academic work based on this episode.
As I told earlier, this is my favourite Doctor Who episode. This is clearly filler episode. Small, simple set and few actors. Probably didn't take much time to shoot. This came just before season finale. Being filler in Doctor Who doesn't mean a bad episode. This episode shows what good director can do with good script and good actors. You don't have to spend lots of money to make good tv or movie. I planned to do this during october, because this is one of my favourite horror stories. It still works after I have seen this several times.
Midnight is leisure planet, where light makes outside lethal to any life forms. People has to be protected from light all the time. Doctor takes shuttle to see sapphire water wall. His companion Donna doesn't want to take four hour shuttle ride to there and another four hour back. Regular route to waterfall is blocked and shuttle has to take detour. Passengers get to know each others. Everything is fun and games until shuttle stops. This should never happen. Passengers start to freak out. Doctor, Hostess and Dee Dee, one of the passengers, try to calm others down.
When passengers calm down, something starts to knock walls of shuttle. Sky, one other passengers start to scream that something is coming after her. Something attacks the shuttle. Electronics malfunction. Cockpit with pilots is gone. Shuttle has stopped in middle of nowhere. Passengers has to stay inside waiting for rescuers. They can't go out side because it is deadly outside. Sky starts to act strangely. She repeats everything anyone says. This freaks out the passengers. They start to argue what they should do with Sky. Majority wants to throw her outside. Doctor want to keep her alive. Some passengers think they should throw the Doctor outside too.
Then Sky starts to repeat everything they say at same time person speaks. Then she stop repeating everyone else than Doctor. This goes on until she says things before the Doctor says them. Slowly Doctor start to repeat what Sky says and other passengers see Doctor as problem. This is one of few times, when Doctor is alone and no-one in shuttle knows who he is. He doesn't help his situation by not telling who he really is.
I don't want to spoil the episode any more. There are no weak links in this episode. Every character acts realistically and we see how different kind of people act in this kind of situation. Group doesn't always do best choices, if wrong people are too loud and people who see what actually happens are not loud enough. This shows how dysfunctional groups work. I like how passengers justify their actions at the end. I think you could do academic work based on this episode.
Monday, November 4, 2013
Green Lantern (2011)
SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie Green Lantern (2011).
I have never read any Green Lantern comics. My only exposure to Green Lantern are random event comics and few JLA comics. What I remember from them, is that Green Lantern was one of those jerks with no personality. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter act like adults while rest act like spoiled kids. I have always been more of a Marvel guy than DC guy. When I was younger and read comics there were only Superman and Batman available. Rest of DC is quite unknown to me. This movie has reputation of being bad superhero movie. Is it that bad?
It is not good movie, but I don't think, it is as bad as it is said to be. I don't know how faithful it is to source material. For someone, who doesn't know the source material, it is little below average superhero movie. It looks good. Story telling is off the mark. Things are not explained enough and there is too much stuff that is not needed. I didn't like that all the main characters were connected to each others. Everyone knew each others and had history. It didn't work for this movie. It felt like bad Spiderman story, where everyone Peter Parker knows is some sort of supercriminal. There was no need for Hector to have crush on Carol Ferris and be part of extended family. He was introduced as random scientist. Later we learn that he knows everyone else because he and his father are part of extended family. Movie didn't give reason why there were this extended family.
Hal Jordan is irresponsible test pilot, who is always running away from responsibility and commitment. He gets power ring from dying green lantern. Power ring allows him to make solid constructs with his willpower. Hal Jordan storyline is him thinking, is he really up to task of being Green Lantern. In that storyline we see his extended family. I think this storyline is worst part of movie. Hector storyline links to this storyline. Hector is scientist and loser son of senator. Hector gets called to look at dead alien. He gets infected by Parallax. Infection disfigures him and gives him superpowers. He uses his new powers to revenge those who see him as loser.
There are two villains in this movie. Hector has more screen time but main villains is strange energy or something like that creature called Parallax. Movie starts when Parallax get away from his prison. Parallax is part of Green Lantern Corp story line. Hal jumps between Hal Jordan and Green Lantern Corp storylines. Green Lantern Corp storyline is better of these. Green Lantern Corp storyline is given less time than Hal Jordan storyline. Hal Jordan story line is down to earth and Green Lantern story line is cosmic. Movie should have chosen one and go with that. Now main storylines are in so on different levels that it hurts both storylines.
Green Lantern Corp storyline doesn't explain almost anything for first half hour or so. Things just happen and it feels like anything can happen. We learn almost everything important by the end of the movie. It feels like movie was made for those who know Green Lantern. I wanted to know more about Guardians. Maybe that was saved for sequel, which may never come.
Movie has some good ideas, but can't make all of them work. Extended family is good idea to give more meat for characters. Problem is that it doesn't work. it makes movie longer than it should be and take us away from Green Lantern Corp storyline. Two villains with different power levels didn't work. Parallax was just too powerful for the rest of the movie. Hal had enough trouble with Hector, who only had telepathic and telekinetic powers. For final battle he gets Parallax, who has eaten worlds and beaten group of best green lanterns.
Friends don't get fooled by Green Lantern mask. Movie almost jokes to movies, where hero's friends don't recognize the hero, when he is in his hero outfit. Hector storyline is good. Too bad that Parallax spoils it. If it was up to me Parallax and Green Lantern Corp storyline were saved for sequel. In this movie they ate credibility and time from Hal Jordan and Hector storylines. Those storylines would have been enough for this movie.
This is like Fantastic Four movies and Ang Lee's Hulk. You can watch them once, but there is no need to watch them again. You don't go telling people how great they were and you soon forget they existed. However this movie made me want to check Green Lantern comics.
I have never read any Green Lantern comics. My only exposure to Green Lantern are random event comics and few JLA comics. What I remember from them, is that Green Lantern was one of those jerks with no personality. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter act like adults while rest act like spoiled kids. I have always been more of a Marvel guy than DC guy. When I was younger and read comics there were only Superman and Batman available. Rest of DC is quite unknown to me. This movie has reputation of being bad superhero movie. Is it that bad?
It is not good movie, but I don't think, it is as bad as it is said to be. I don't know how faithful it is to source material. For someone, who doesn't know the source material, it is little below average superhero movie. It looks good. Story telling is off the mark. Things are not explained enough and there is too much stuff that is not needed. I didn't like that all the main characters were connected to each others. Everyone knew each others and had history. It didn't work for this movie. It felt like bad Spiderman story, where everyone Peter Parker knows is some sort of supercriminal. There was no need for Hector to have crush on Carol Ferris and be part of extended family. He was introduced as random scientist. Later we learn that he knows everyone else because he and his father are part of extended family. Movie didn't give reason why there were this extended family.
Hal Jordan is irresponsible test pilot, who is always running away from responsibility and commitment. He gets power ring from dying green lantern. Power ring allows him to make solid constructs with his willpower. Hal Jordan storyline is him thinking, is he really up to task of being Green Lantern. In that storyline we see his extended family. I think this storyline is worst part of movie. Hector storyline links to this storyline. Hector is scientist and loser son of senator. Hector gets called to look at dead alien. He gets infected by Parallax. Infection disfigures him and gives him superpowers. He uses his new powers to revenge those who see him as loser.
There are two villains in this movie. Hector has more screen time but main villains is strange energy or something like that creature called Parallax. Movie starts when Parallax get away from his prison. Parallax is part of Green Lantern Corp story line. Hal jumps between Hal Jordan and Green Lantern Corp storylines. Green Lantern Corp storyline is better of these. Green Lantern Corp storyline is given less time than Hal Jordan storyline. Hal Jordan story line is down to earth and Green Lantern story line is cosmic. Movie should have chosen one and go with that. Now main storylines are in so on different levels that it hurts both storylines.
Green Lantern Corp storyline doesn't explain almost anything for first half hour or so. Things just happen and it feels like anything can happen. We learn almost everything important by the end of the movie. It feels like movie was made for those who know Green Lantern. I wanted to know more about Guardians. Maybe that was saved for sequel, which may never come.
Movie has some good ideas, but can't make all of them work. Extended family is good idea to give more meat for characters. Problem is that it doesn't work. it makes movie longer than it should be and take us away from Green Lantern Corp storyline. Two villains with different power levels didn't work. Parallax was just too powerful for the rest of the movie. Hal had enough trouble with Hector, who only had telepathic and telekinetic powers. For final battle he gets Parallax, who has eaten worlds and beaten group of best green lanterns.
Friends don't get fooled by Green Lantern mask. Movie almost jokes to movies, where hero's friends don't recognize the hero, when he is in his hero outfit. Hector storyline is good. Too bad that Parallax spoils it. If it was up to me Parallax and Green Lantern Corp storyline were saved for sequel. In this movie they ate credibility and time from Hal Jordan and Hector storylines. Those storylines would have been enough for this movie.
This is like Fantastic Four movies and Ang Lee's Hulk. You can watch them once, but there is no need to watch them again. You don't go telling people how great they were and you soon forget they existed. However this movie made me want to check Green Lantern comics.
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