Sucker Punch Animated Shorts - Move Over Animatrix...or not!

Instead of linking all three of these my Facebook page (and continuously spamming everyone that has friended me over there), I compiled all three animated shorts into this blog entry. Now I can talk about them as well as drool over them.

Three animated shorts have popped up today to accompany Sucker Punch, which releases tomorrow March the 25th.

While the source where I found the shorts recommends them for viewing after the movie, I could not help but to view them prior. I, of course, am ready for my Sucker Punch fix despite all the grueling and horrible reviews floating around about it. After waiting on a movie for a year or so, I will watch everything pertaining to it and defend it in anyway possible.

After watching the three shorts, I don't think viewing the movie first is absolutely necessary. If you've seen the trailer a couple of times (or a couple hundred like myself) then each of these shorts adds to familiar elements that are in the trailers. They do not spoil anything about the plot - or lack thereof according to reviewers - about the movie. If anything, they just try to add on to the portions of the movie and may enhance the viewing of it, considering these little back stories will not be in the feature length film.







Each short takes place in a different level of Baby Doll's mind - ala Inception, but probably not as good. Having not seen the movie as of yet, I am unsure if the level of her imagination (minus the Brothel of course) is the correct order the videos are in, but I managed to put them in the order other sources have them in.

Animatrix is one of my favorite things on this planet! It was such a successful addition to the Matrix trilogy and is better to me then one of the movies in the trilogy. Animatrix utilized different directors and art forms for the majority of its animation which is something these Sucker Punch shorts did not do, but I really enjoyed this shorts. I think they all evoked the same emotion from me and were more similar then they are different, which does not put it on the level of the Animatrix as an animated accompaniment to a film. I found them enjoyable nonetheless.

Coming Soon 3/11 - Red Riding Hood, Mars Needs Moms, Battle:LA

This weekend we have three movies, two about aliens and one about the color red.

Red Riding Hood stars Amanda Seyfield and Gary Oldman and appears to be a gritty, dark, and twisted version of the classic fairy tale. From the trailer, the movie seems absolute gorgeous in my opinion. I love the usage of the "red hood", how it is always the brightest color and juxtaposed against the surrounds - especially the snow scene where it is a brilliant red spot and almost symbolizing a loss of purity. The movie seems to be taking on the sexual awakening analysis of the old story and throws in the werewolf. The trailer seems a hodge podge of about three storylines and I'm interested to see how they merge together.

Mars Needs Mom is a Disney movie with Seth Green voicing Milo, a young boy who must save his mother who has been abducted by aliens to raise Martian children. This animated film is going to have to compete against Rango, which released last weekend, and seems to be a pretty hilarious and standard Disney movie. It seems quite entertaining and would be perfect to take children to see.

Battle:Los Angeles is a movie I have wanted to see for a very long time, ever since I first saw a teaser trailer. Alien invasion movies are some of my favorite to see and Battle:La's trailer is really good for a trailer. The concept is, of course, simple. Aliens are attacking Earth to steal it's resources and will destroy all human kind to do so. Michelle Rodriguez is in the film and I am a huge fan of hers. Explosive and riveting, Battle:LA is sure to be better then the last alien invasion film, Skyline, which was highly disappointing. Whether humans win or lose, Battle:LA is a must see this weekend.

Here is an interview from Attack of the Show with Rodriguez. She is certainly a very intelligent woman and talented actress.

i Am Number Four - review with slight spoilers

With all the remakes and reimaginings and sequels and prequels, the industry is becoming saturated with original content that has existed in some form or another.

And with that, I recently saw I Am Number Four, a movie adapted from a book written by Pittacus Lore. I went into this movie blind as sometimes I do on purpose, having not read its source material.

Number Four was, in short, a well-rounded movie that could potentially appeal to all different age groups - as many young adult movies and novels tend to do.

The story is quite simple. John Smith (played by Alex Pettyfer who also stars in next months Beastly as, er, the "Beast") moves around a lot with his guardian Henri who is played by The Crazies Timothy Olyphant. Basically, hunky John is an alien. Him and nine others are being hunted down by an alien species and being murdered, in order. John is, obviously, number four.

There was not much that bothered me at all about the movie as it was highly enjoyable and kept me invested the entire time. There was something for everyone whether it be John without his shirt on (which happened very often and could have happened way more in my opinion) or the crazy action sequences that were intense. The movie had its heartwarming moments that made you Aww and the heartwrenching moments that made you cringe.

The one fault in the movie, despite how rounded it indeed was, was how apparent it seemed that the book needed to read. The movie glosses over something that were probably expanded on in book form. The key thing that bugged me was the reconciliation of John and his rival, football star Mark. Out of nowhere, at the end of the movie, Mark helps John and it was so jarring and made no sense, especially where we last saw Mark. Anything that can pull me out of a movie that I had been so into for the entire running time is certainly not good. Apparently, from what I know of the book, there was something that led to them making amends, but the movie did not even hint at that.

Despite that, the movie was pretty good and has me excited to read the book. It is definently worth checking out if you like young adult action mixed with drama but there was a certain lack of "sci fi" in it except for the glossed over alien parts. Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Skyline Does Not Deliver

Let’s just be blunt - Skyline was a direct to DVD movie with an exceedingly large special effects budget. The movie probably should not have been on the big screen at theatres across the country.
There have been many movies that showcased the battle for mankind against some extraterrestrial threat. Skyline barely compares to any of them. A large portion of the movie is spent in a high-rise penthouse and any attempt to escape is thwarted by the gigantic alien creatures. Humans can not win. Such a depressing concept, but it has quite the potential. This movie, however, did not use any of the potential that it had. Instead, we get bumbling humans that are impossible to identify with and seem to make stupid decisions one after the other.
One thing the movie has going for it, however, is it’s special effects. Despite the horribly boring story, the blue light the aliens generate and the aliens themselves are a terrifying, haunting beauty. From the flying aliens with multiple tentacles and brain snatching capabilities, to the monstrous walking aliens that leave destruction in their wake, to the massive regenerating spaceships, if there is one think Skyline got right it was their aliens. The controversy* surrounding these visual effects is almost forgivable by seeing them brightly on the big screen.
For such a “short” movie, clocking in at about 100 minutes, it seemed incredibly long and drawn out. As stated before, most of it took place in and around the penthouse which made the entire thing seem to stretch on for hours. A lot of the action sequences were even quite dull, only one scene seems to have actually been interesting.
This review is shorter then intended, but there honestly is nothing else to say about the movie. It was very simple, very boring, and very disappointing. Expectations were high for another, good alien invasion film. Skyline did not deliver and perhaps we better put our faith in the other, Los Angeles based alien movie releasing early next year.

*It is reported that Sony Pictures Entertainment is going to sue the directors of Skyline and Hydralux films because Sony paid Hydralux to create visual effects for Battle: Los Angeles and were not aware they were also creating the visual effects for the similar movie, Skyline.

Punched in the Face - Preview of Sucker Punch

I can not exactly remember when I heard of Zack Snyder’s latest creation. All I know is that it excited me beyond anything…and as more information comes about the film which debuts in March, I can not stop grinning.

The story goes a little something like this:

Movie Preview - Inception

I'll try not to talk about Inception too much, but I'm very excited for the movie:

http://movies.ign.com/articles/110/1103912p1.html

IGN just wrote an amazing, pretty spoiler-free review about the movie. They went as far to call it "Nolan's masterpiece". I'm a sucker for movies that have multiple layers or probably confuse the heck out of people - took me 3 times to get Prestige and now it's my favorite movie ever. However, I do not think a standard movie audience wants to be confused while watching a movie. Inception, however, seems to have this beautiful and amazing dream sequences that will hopefully hold someone's attention - that and the main story line. There seems to be sub-plots weaved throughout which always makes me happy.

I'm definitely excited.

Movies That Excite Me: Tron Legacy

To say that i'm a Disney fangirl is an understatement. Since i was a young child, my head has been filled with Disney via my parents. Trips to the theme parks. VHS tapes of all the movies (and now DVDs that i'm older). Mountains of merchandise. My whole family has always been enchanted by Disney. Love it or hate it, Disney is one of those companies that will just keep rolling no matter what.

When i first viewed the Tron Legacy trailer, it was attached to Prince of Perisa: Sands of Time. I'm not behind in my movie news because I knew the movie was going to be coming soon, but the trailer just seemingly blew my mind. It did not seem to take much to draw me into the world of Tron and want to know more.

At 22 years of age, I barely remember the original Tron movie. It released about five years before I was born and i will honestly say i have only seen bits and pieces of it. Having played Kingdom Hearts 2 multiple times, I am at least familiar wit Tron. Now, i want to watch the movie in its entirety thanks to this new trailer.

The characters, even those that do not offer one line of dialogue in the Tron Legacy trailer, captivate me and I want to know more about them. I have even screencapped the females - for future, cosplay purposes.

This movie definitely excites me. 12/17/2010 can not get here soon enough. Check out the trailer at the youtube link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9szn1QQfas

Movie Reaction: Splice

I hestitate to call this a review, so I won't. Instead, this will be my reaction to the movie Splice, which I saw this afternoon. There is just no way I could write a decent enough review to something that left me going "WHAT THE H###!?" afterward.

When I first saw the Splice trailer months ago, it seemed like a new scientific/sci-fi take on cloning. I expected a lot of messages about playing God (and not to do it) and I think that this message was set up early on with dialogue from a minor character.

I also thought the movie would be more a thriller then it was, but I think the climatic, thrilling scene was enough after all the WTF-moments the movie has delievered...and it still kept punching the audience in the face till the very end.

Rape. Incest. Beastility. Playing creator. Messing with science. This movie should, as my boyfriend put it, be shown as a warning to all scientists/bio-chemists so they will not attempt splicing or cloning. The movie was pretty disturbing, but I think the creators had to know that because they continuously pushed the envelope...continuously...When viewers thought it could not get any worse, it did. The shocking ending just left a bad taste in my mouth and made me dislike the Elsa character even more.

Actually, there did not seem to be a likeable character in the entire movie. I thought they were all crazy and, excuse my language, fucked up.

Even with all the WTF-moments, disturbing scenes, and the questioning of what was just seen, kudos to everyone involved with the movie and taking it to the extreme. Its certainly one of those movies you should see ONCE. If you see it more then that then you should question yourself.