Monday, August 31, 2015

SuperWhoLock

While watching early seasons of Supernatural I thought I should write about SuperWhoLock. SuperWhoLock is fandom consisting people who like Supernatural, Doctor Who and Sherlock. I won't go into fandom or fan art or anything as such. This is about the shows and what makes them appeal to same people.

Supernatural is CW's tv show. Both Doctor Who and Sherlock are on BBC. This makes official crossover unrealistic. I would not be too surprised if there will be Doctor Who/Sherlock crossover but adding Supernatural from other company is much harder.

Supernatural tells about two brothers, Sam and Dean, who hunt supernatural things. I have not seen latest seasons but I assume this is still the case. Doctor Who is about time travelling alien and his companions. Sherlock is re-imagination of Sherlock Holmes in modern world. When planning this post I realized Sherlock is Doctor Who without science fiction elements. Weird smart man solving mysteries with his normal human companion. Steven Moffat is behind both shows and it could explain similarities.

In Supernatural almost everything has supernatural origin. There are few episodes where there is nothing supernatural but I have not seen episode with aliens. In Doctor Who it is almost always about aliens. During Matt Smith era show went more into fantasy territory but I can only remember one time when character was more like supernatural being than alien and it was during David Tennant's era. Solution to Sherlock's mysteries is always man and there are no aliens or anything supernatural. This makes crossover difficult from story's point of view.

So what makes these shows appeal to same people. Based on some fan art it is hot male leads. But I am not getting into that. Each show is about being smarter than your opponent. Supernatural is most violent of the three but Sam and Dean are against stronger opponents so they have to be smarter and find a way to survive. Doctor Who and Sherlock are about solving mysteries without violence.

Supernatural is horror show. Doctor Who has many horror episodes. Sherlock has episodes which start as horror but there is natural reason behind. Horror is connecting Supernatural and Doctor Who more than Sherlock but Sherlock has that element too.

I have no idea how to crossover all three but I know how to crossover each show with other shows. Sherlock and Doctor Who is easiest. It has to be Doctor Who story where he meets Sherlock Holmes. It could be historic Sherlock Holmes like in Sherlock Christmas special. Don't be surprised if familiar time traveler appears there. Sherlock and Supernatural crossover could be like Sherlock horror episodes where everything is caused by chemical or something like that.

This next I actually want to see. Sam and Dean are hunting mythological being which is actually alien. Doctor is also after same alien. It could be alien who comes to earth every now and then. I want to see this because I want to see Peter Capaldi's Doctor and Dean disapproving each others and other's methods. Clara and Sam could try to talk some sense into them. Episode could end Sam and Dean thinking it was supernatural and Doctor knowing it was alien.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is only Fantastic Four movie not telling the origin story. It is not the only reason why it is also the best Fantastic Four movie. It is sequel to Fantastic Four (2005). Rise of the Silver Surfer takes many steps to right direction. Third movie could have been actually a good Fantastic Four movie.

Rise of the Silver Surfer is based on first appearance of Silver Surfer and Galactus in Fantastic Four comics. Silver Surfer's character arc is quite close to comic. I guess they learned from first movie not to change characters too much. Doom is changed closer to what he is in comics. He is reborn and no longer metallic man. He don't wear mask all the time but I don't see it as a problem.

Fantastic Four movie by Fox would not be complete without ruining at least one important character. This time it is Galactus who we don't even see. We only see storm surrounding his ship. I thought he would be in third movie which never came. Movie got backlash for what it did to Galactus. Galactus is complicated character and movie reduced him to space storm.

Fantastic Four is worst part of the movie. They are little better than in first movie but there are still problems. Jessica Alba was miscast or her role was badly written. Maybe it was both. Movie made Sue Storm look like terrible person to make couple jokes and yes she is naked in public again. Johnny Storm is not as annoying as in first movie. Reed and Ben are what they were at end of first movie.

They should have kept Doom away from the movie. Even as better version of Doom he was not needed. He was clear villain in story where one was not needed. Galactus and Silver Surfer would have made better story without Doom. Galactus is alien who devours planets. He is not villain he just have to devour planets to stay alive. Silver Surfer searches planet for Galactus to devour in exchange for saving his planet. This would have been enough for good movie.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is best Fantastic Four movie. Which means it is least bad Fantastic Four movie. Silver Surfer parts are good. Doom is ok and rest is average at best. I hope someone makes good movie out of this story. It deserves much better movie.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Hitman: Agent 47 (2015)

I liked first Hitman movie. It had many flaws but it worked. It looked and sounded good. I liked chemistry between two leads. I was disappointed when I learned next Hitman movie would be reboot. Hitman: Agent 47 has many flaws but it sounds and looks good. Does it work is different matter.

First movie had quite simple story which turned bit more complicated but it made sense. This time it is not sure what characters' goal are. It can be story telling technique but there is something wrong when you don't know at the end of the movie what your main character wanted. There were so many twists it was unclear what 47's original orders were.

It didn't help when he acted inconsistently. For example when he meets John Smith first time he don't try to kill him. They fight but 47 don't try to kill John. Before and after he doesn't have any problems to kill people. But in that fight he don't try to kill his opponent. He has not reason to do that. Only reason was movie didn't want to show John Smith is much harder to kill than 47. At this point movie shows 47 as bad guy and John Smith as good guy. That could have worked better if trailers didn't show John Smith was the bad guy.

This wasn't only time movie forgot what characters knew at the time. When John Smith and Katia meet first time after 47 took Katia from John, John just start to beat Katia conforming everyone he is the bad guy. At this point Katia wasn't sure should she trust John or 47. She could have been talked away from 47 and she would have been more co-operative but John just beats her.

John's problem might be his under skin metal armor. If they applied it to his manhood he has no way to release himself. It would make any man angry. Under skin metal armor is so unrealistic concept. He would not walk through any metal detector. He couldn't grow in any way after getting armor. No more gaining muscles or fat. Losing muscle or fat would be problematic too.

I haven't talked much about the story. It is hard to talk about the story without going straight to last fifteen minutes and spoiling everything. Movie is just twists and scenes one after an other. Katia is woman looking for her father. Revealing he is her father was a twist. John Smith works for organisation who want to make own agents like 47.  Katia's father is also father of Agent program. 47 is hitman who's target is not clear.

Hitman: Agent 47 has good action scenes. It looks and sounds great. Script is abysmal. 47's plans involves unbelievable coincidences like interrogators bringing his guns to interrogating room and loading his gun. 47 seems to be able to get anywhere without any problems. If you can get past nonsense like this action scenes are good.  Movie leave you questioning what just happened. Some good movies do it too but this is not one of them. This time your questions come because movie was so badly written.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Fantastic Four (2005)

I always liked the sequel better. I remembered almost nothing from this. Only bad version of Doom and bad battle between Doom and Fantastic Four. On my list this is the worst Fantastic Four movie. Roger Corman movie was fun. 2015 movie had good ideas even though it was big mess. This doesn't have anything. It tries to do things comics had but it doesn't succeed. What works in comics don't always work in movie.

Maybe it tries too hard to be like comics. Johnny Storm makes fun of Ben Grimm  all the time. He does that in comics too but on movie it makes him look too much like jerk. Characters except Doom are like from comics. It is good thing except that there is no character development outside getting superpowers. Johnny and Sue Storm don't change at all if you don't count superpowers.

Reed Richards' character development is he finally find courage to marry Sue Storm. Ben Grimm has more character development. After becoming Thing he wants to get back to normal. When he finds out he is more useful as Thing he wants to be Thing.

Doom gets most character development. This would be good thing if movie didn't reinvent him. This time he is successful business man who loses his business after incident and becomes metallic man with superpowers. His character arc felt too convenient. His business started to go bad right after incident. Everyone wanted to get rid of him even though he was successful business man moments before.

Nothing happens to characters and almost nothing happens at all. Story just goes from one scene to next and then there is short battle between Doom and Fantastic Four. Battle follows comics' style by being short. Fantastic Four just uses their powers together and that stops Doom. There is no learning to work as a team story. They just know how to use their powers together.

Fantastic Four (2005) was made to keep rights for characters. They didn't have story to tell and they didn't know what they wanted. Whole movie ends up being one big mess. Ben Grimm is tragic character but all that is lost when Johnny Storm makes fun of him. Movie tries to have romance between Reed and Sue but teases three times with naked invisible Jessica Alba.

Movie movie was successful but it was more because of people wanting to see Fantastic Four or superhero movie rather than quality of the movie. It is forgettable but because it made money it got sequel. Rise of The Silver Surfer review is coming next Thursday. Yes. I bought it and yes I paid money for it. Not much though.

Monday, August 17, 2015

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)



If video is not shown, you can watch it here. Video contains some spoilers.

Star Trek Into Darkness will be last weekly movie review video I will do for a while. I didn't make the video I have teased for a while. It will be written blog post. I think it is better this way since my blog posts gets much more hits than my videos. Even blog posts with videos get much more hits than videos on those blog posts. Ration is over 10:1 which is quite confusing. That is one reason why I stop making weekly videos. I won't stop making videos. I only stop making movie review videos.

Star Trek Into Darkness was movie I was curious about but didn't want to support in any way or form. I patiently waited until it was shown on television. That way it didn't get any money from my watching and I didn't break any laws.

I didn't expect much from Star Trek Into Darkness but it was even worse than I expected. Star Trek (2009) was ok movie if you forgot it was Star Trek. Star Trek Into Darkness forgot to be ok movie. It just references older Star Trek and think it is enough for audience. I don't even want to go into how badly rebooted Star Trek has abused Spock.

If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.

Saturday, August 15, 2015

I will stop making videos for a while

I will make one for next Monday because I started it before. After that I don't know when the next will come. I am not giving up YouTube. I just change my YouTube focus to different things. First focus will be Finnish version of videos I have done to this site. I don't know when the first Finnish video will come.

I will continue with this blog. Mondays' posts will be written reviews from now on. I try to make videos for this site in future but I won't follow any schedule at first. I try to get back to regular schedule with this site's videos in future.

I do this because my YouTube channel have stuck in limbo and I have been told few times I should try Finnish videos. This blog gets much more hits than YouTube. People who come to this site doesn't seem to watch the videos. So I won't be force feeding videos on this site for some time.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

The Fantastic Four (1994)

This is first time I review movie that was never released. Some say it was never intended to be released and others say it was bought for never to be released. If I have to pick one I would say it was never meant to be released. When Marvel sold movie rights to their characters deal had clause that rights would return to Marvel if characters aren't used for certain time.

This is the reason why we are getting new Fantastic Four movie every ten years. The Fantastic Four was made because contract obligations. This time they didn't use lot of money. They have put more money into later contractual movies. It feels like they just pick someones to make movie every time they have to make a Fantastic Four movie and hope it works.

The Fantastic Four was never released but bootleg versions can be easily found. Every other person seems to have seen it after Fantastic Four (2015) was released. I had to see it when I found it.

One reason why I think this was never meant to be released was because some of the cast and effect makers seem to be in joke. Guy who plays Doctor Doom seems to have too much fun in his role. He makes Doom over the top comic book villain and script helps him in it. It is weird that this almost parody of Doom is most faithful live action version of Doom.

Almost parody describes this movie very well. Script could have worked as parody movie but actors excluding Doom are taking this seriously. Director is probably in joke. There are scenes which would not be in movie if director was serious.

Movie is quite faithful to source material. Only problem was they didn't have money for special effects. This means special effects are cut to minimum. Doom uses pistol and epic battle between Doom and Fantastic Four is fist fight between Doom and Mister Fantastic. When Fantastic Four walks into Doom's trap Doom says how boringly easy he caught them. Movie knew what it was.

Never released Fantastic Four movie is probably the most entertaining Fantastic Four movie. It had professionals having fun making funny competent low budget movie. Before Fantastic Four (2015) this was considered as worst Fantastic Four movie. After it this is considered as best. Fox is partly to blame because they took electronic versions of 2005 and 2007 movies away from everywhere. I guess they thought no-one wanted to pay to see more Fantastic Four after seeing the latest movie.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Fantastic Four (2015)



If video is not shown, you can watch it here. Video contains some spoilers.

Fantastic Four is probably most talked about superhero movie this year. Not because it is so good but because people want to know what went wrong. I wrote about that last Saturday. That post wasn't review. It was more of a general discussion what has happened around latest Fantastic Four movie.

This time I review the movie. Review lacks part where I discuss about last scenes. I didn't have usable footage for that. Last two scenes felt like movie tried to apology what had happened before and promise next movie will be Fantastic Four movie fans wanted. They threw away everything movie had done and prepared stage for totally different kind of movie.

Some Fantastic Four reviews tell what is wrong with movies today. Reviewers complained how boring first hour was because there wasn't any action scenes and how bad movie is because there is so little action. First hour was best part of the movie. Worst part was when big action scene come. It seems some people don't want any character development or story telling. If you want only action you should play video games which are much more about action than story or characters.

I will get back to that next week if I can make video I have postponed for weeks then. Currently it seems like I can do it but there is always change of something current appearing. It shouldn't be new movie unless something comes out of the blue.

If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.

Saturday, August 8, 2015

Fantastic Four (2015) is not that bad

There will be review with spoilers on Monday. This is more of spoiler free general discussion than review. Movie is surrounded by negativity. Fox is blaming director Josh Trank and Trank is blaming Fox. Reviewers seem to be competing who can make worst review. Rotten Tomatoes give movie 10%. IMDB gives 4/10 which is quite accurate.

Movie is not as bad as most reviewers say it is. I liked movie until last 15 minutes. Inside sources say Josh Trank had nothing to do with those 15 minutes. If you want to take sided on who ruined the movie this tells which side might be better choice. I am not saying Josh Trank is completely blame free but his part of movie works better than studio's part without him.

Movie has had negative publicity since the start. Audience wanted Stan Lee-Jack Kirby style Fantastic Four. Movie was developed as dark science fiction horror movie. Doom was said to be hacker and Johnny Storm was black. This caused backlash from fans and this probably made studio second guess their original vision.

After seeing the movie I say they should have stayed with original vision. Even black Johnny Storm worked to make movie better. They should have used that dynamic more. Doom was pretty much like hacker even though he is never called a hacker. Movie turns worse when it tries to turn into Stan Lee-Jack Kirby like Fantastic Four during last 15 minutes. Original vision would have given us better movie. Maybe not the movie we wanted but good or great movie.

Biggest problems movie has come from second guessing of the studio. Studio lost faith and tried to limit their losses. This shows in bad CGI and editing that cuts away important scenes. And in ending which throws away everything that happened before. Forced ending leaves everything ready for Stan Lee-Jack Kirby style superhero movie. Sequel already have date set but Fox might reconsider it after this bombs in box office.

Somehow I doubt Fox will understand they should have followed original vision. If next movie gets made it is probably similar to Marvel Studio's movies like we don't have enough of those already and more are coming. This movie's original vision was refreshingly different and I want to see more of it and director's cut of this movie.

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Slipstream (2005)

Slipstream is bad movie and mostly waste of time. I forced myself through it because it had one interesting idea which wasn't used to full potential. Movie starts bad. Continues even worse. Then there are couple things getting your hopes up but movie never delivers.

Interesting idea is time travelling device which lets you go back ten minutes. Scientist is using it to withdraw his money from bank several times. FBI is after him. Then movie turns into failed bank robbery movie. Bank robbers get time travelling device. Movie has interesting options but it goes on being failed bank robbery movie with little time travelling twist.

Movie doesn't understand time travelling. Editors don't understand it. Writers don't understand it. Director doesn't understand it. So characters don't understand it. There are many points where characters could have used time travelling but they don't use it. When they want to use it 10 minutes rule is in place or time machine is broken.

I missed the part when they broke the machine. It wasn't explained how it was broken because later it started to work. It started to work when they were in aeroplane because they were so high in the air. They tried longer travel that time. High in the air was important but they made long jump when aeroplane was crashing. It was slow motion scene and front of the plane was hitting the ground.

I guess high up in the air wasn't that important or touching person who was using the time machine. You had to touch the machine or person who touched the machine to remember the time jump. Last time all important persons remembered time jump even without touching. Time travel effect was going the film backwards fast. Last time they showed footage they had gotten back from earlier again like someone forgot to tell the editor how this time travel thing worked.

I wanted time travelling to be used cleverly but it never happened. Dialog was awkward at best. Characters weren't believable. They were stereotypes you have seen many times before. Then in next scene they might be different persons. Many times characters actions didn't make any sense. There were few glimpses of hope but movie didn't deliver.

I might be too negative because I expected science fiction and got bad bank robbery went wrong movie.

Don't watch latest Hitman: Agent 47 trailer if you don't want to be spoiled

Latest Hitman: Agent 47 trailer has Terminator: Genisys level spoilers. Is it becoming a trend to spoil movie's major twists in trailers? I surely would have liked to see this twist in theater unspoiled. Trailer starts interesting. Then it spoils the movie and you regret seeing it. If you still want to see it you can read my thoughts of it below the trailer.



I liked Hitman (2007). I wanted to see sequel. Hitman: Agent 47 is reboot. I liked idea of  47 being Terminator like evil and heroes fighting against him. Trailer starts like that. Then it reveal major twist that 47 is actually hero and characters originally shown as heroes are bad guys. That would have been great twist to see first time when watching the movie.

47 was too trigger happy in Hitman but Hitman: Agent 47 seems to be going even further. More unbelievable action. More violence. Chemistry between actors made me like Hitman so much. I didn't get same feeling from this trailer. This could end up being one of those action movies with unstoppable heroes you forget in couple weeks. I think 47 as Terminator like villain would have worked better.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Thoughts of Deadpool Trailer

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I was about to say Fox is getting their superhero act together. Last two X-Men movies have been good and everything related to upcoming Deadpool movie has looked good. Then I remembered new Fantastic Four is Fox's movie. I have not seen it yet but everything I have seen so far has been wrong.

Looks like we are getting origin story movie. I thought one of Wolverine movies told origin of Deadpool but I guess it has changed because X-Men movies got reboot two movies ago. I haven't seen the Wolverine movie so I can't comment how much Deadpool needed reboot.

Fox seems to be building X-Men universe. Deadpool movie has X-Men's Colossus. Do we see Deadpool in X-Men movies? X-Men universe has enough characters to make Marvel Cinematic Universe like movie universe. Fox also has Fantastic Four to add to the movie universe.

I liked Green Lantern reference but I hope it is dropped from movie. It works better in trailer. Green Lantern movie wasn't as bad as everyone say. I wanted to see sequel but it is not to be and Ryan Reynolds is probably not playing Green Lantern any more.

Deadpool movie seem to be in good hands. At this point Deadpool and Suicide Squad look most interesting superhero movies of next year.

Announcement: More spoilers in future

I wanted to announce this in post rather than starting to add more spoilers into future posts and videos. Original idea for this blog was to discuss movies with out worrying about spoiling them. At some point I started to make more spoiler free posts. It has made some posts harder to write because I have not wanted to spoil and there might be very little to tell about with out spoilers.

I won't be spoiling for spoiling's sake. I still try to keep posts and video's relative spoiler free. I just don't worry about spoiling as much when I discuss about movie's themes and problems. If there is good movie I want you to see spoiler free I will warn about spoilers and suggest you watch the movie first.

That was it for this time. See you next time.

Monday, August 3, 2015

They Live (1988)



If video is not shown, you can watch it here.

I have other review prepared but then my social media got filled with Roddy Piper and They Live posts. I hadn't seen the movie. At least I thought so. After seeing it I am not so sure about that. I might have seen it before but had forgotten it completely.

People remember They Live from Roddy Piper's movie career and nothing else. They Live is only big movie did. His other movies are much smaller. He kept doing movies but those movies never reached general audience. There are couple I like to see like Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies but don't expect reviews of those anytime soon.

I went bit experimental with this video. I hope I didn't go too far. It tried to get movies feeling.

If you liked the video you can find more videos from here.