This Weekend in Movies

I'll be seeing The A-Team tomorrow and The Karate Kid on Saturday.

Born in 1987, neither of these remakes' original sources are fresh in my mind which is - in my opinion - good because I can go in with no preconcieved notions. My boyfriend, a very big fan of A Team and Mr. T, will be unable to accompany me to the movie so I will try to read up a little on the A Team tonight, just to get a feel of what fans loved about the show.

My family will be accompaning me to see The Karate Kid or, as I affectionately call it, The Kung-Fu Kid. Our family business seems to be karate. My father and two uncles have been Karate instructors all my life. They even own a Dojo here in town. It's my dad's idea to go see this movie and I happily oblige. The trailer's look entertaining for this movie and Jaden Smith is adorable.

I also owe this blog a Prince of Persia review. I loved that movie so much.

Awards Show - MTV Movie Awards

This will quite possibly be my last year watching the MTV movie awards.

While I like to watch as many awards shows as I can possible stand - especially ones related to movies - the MTV awards show just does not seem to be to my liking. Typically, its the winners of awards that seems to make me roll my eyes. Even last year i made an entry about these dissapointing awards: http://jessichan99.livejournal.com/44139.html

Viewers can cast votes on MTV's site or through text message of who they want to win. Not just one vote...multiple votes. The awards should have a definent name change to something along the lines of a Viewers Choice awards. That would probably make me feel better since I do NOT think winners are chosen based on the content of their films or acting, but on how many fangirls can click a button.

That being said, here are the winners and my thoughts:

The Generation Award went to Sandra Bullock, which I thought was fitting and probably the most deserved award all night. Of course MTV had to do a girl-on-girl kiss between Sandra Bullock and Scarlett Johannsen. MTV just can not stay dignified for one second.

Biggest Badass Star went to Rain, who was also my pick for that category. I thought this award was deserved and Rain looked very happy to accept it. The other nominees which included Chris Pine and Angelina Jolie (for a movie that is not even out yet, may i add) with some other stars just did not compare to Rain's performace in Ninja Assassin. Incredibly badass. Congratulations Rain.

Best Scared as S--- award went to Amanda Seyfield for Jennifer's Body. I really thought Katie Featherson from Paranormal Activity would take this, but I should have known better that some cute, teenage-appealing star would. Don't get me wrong, Amanda Seyfield is great if you like that kind of stuff...

Best WTF Moment went to the Naked Trunk Surprise in The Hangover. I agreed that this was a huge WTF moment. The other nominees could not touch this.

Best Kiss went to New Moon. Second year in a row Twilight has taken this award. I also think that The Twilight Saga DOES have the Best Kisses and I actually did predict this win. Also MTV's Kiss Cam was very cute as Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens were put on and did a delightful little peck.

Best Villan went to Mr. Tom Felton a.k.a Draco Malfoy for his very villianous performance in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I thought Stephen Lang from Avatar would win this, but I'm glad Felton did. Half Blood Prince offered up a very dark - or should i say darker - change in his character and gave him a bit more screen time then the past Harry Potter movies. Considering he did his acceptance speech with Mark Walhberg and Will Ferall over his head, Felton is great guy.

Best Comedic Performance went to Zach Galifianakis from The Hangover. Very well deserved. There's really nothing else to say since I predicted his win and thought he was amazing in that movie. Very funny.

Best Breakout Star went to Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air. While I want to say that this award came about because she was wonderful in Up in the Air, I have a sneaking supicion that Twilight fangirls were amping up the votes for her, since she does appear in that franchise as well. I'm glad Kendrick is not letting that be the only thing she is known for - Twilight that is - and can not wait to see her in Scott Pilgrim later this summer.

Best Male and Best Female went to the leading stars of New Moon - Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. Robert also recieved the Global Superstar award in which THREE Twilight stars were up for (also Johnny Depp and Daniel Radcliff)

Best Movie. New Moon. Even with Avatar up for the award.

While I hate to cry FOUL again. Twilight was awarded so many huge awards during the show that it, again, should be called MTV's Twilight Awards. For the next two years, no one else should even be happy to be nominated for this awards show because they won't win if they go against Twilight.

I love Twilight. I've read all the books. More then once. I've brought merchandise. I'm excited for Eclipse and will be blogging about it in the coming weeks. I'm going to the midnight showing of the movie IN a self-made tshirt with my sister in a matching tshirt for Christ's Sake. I'm by no means one of those Twi-haters. HOWEVER, I am a movie fan and do not think the series deserves its praise movie wise. I do not think Kristen Stewart is a very incredible actress. I do think Robert and Taylor Lautner are good actors, but just not as good as someone like Johnny Depp or even Daniel Radcliff. Do i enjoy the films? Yes, because i love the franchise. Do i think the film is better then something like Avatar? No. Has anyone SEEN Avatar's numbers?! I do not even think the film is as great as a lot of films that have been released in the last couple of films. So, yes, I'm ranting about them winning so many awards two years in a row. Honestly, MTV, come up with a new voting system. Twilight is monopolizing your little, low-brow awards show.

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.

Movies That Excite Me: Prince of Persia

The movie released a couple days ago and reviews have been mixed. I'll be seeing the movie this weekend and here's how i feel about it before i go in:

I have not played the Prince of Persia games, unfortunately. Not that they haven't interested me, but i just have not played them. [note, however, that the newest game paired with the movie looks really really really bad] So, i am going into this movie as a Disney and Pirates of the Caribbean fan moreso then a person that has played the games. Even so, video game movies have been disapointing in the past. Video games offer up a new type of interaction that movies can not do. No matter how great a movie is - and i've seen some great ones - i still am very much aware of my surroundings, whether it be the crying baby a few rows up or the guy munching a bit to hard on his popcorn behind me. Video games allow me to immerse myself into a world and control a character to an extent. I do not understand how movies will be able to convey this, in my opinion, and even 3D movies can only do it to a certain point.

Even still, i have hopes that Prince of Persia will be an entertaining movie. A movie does not have to be earth shattering and move mountains in terms of new expressionalism or new cinema techniques to be entertaining. I personally feel that people have judged the movie too harshly [although, i am saying this WITHOUT having seen it yet. The trailers still look highly enjoyable]

Its from the same studios and people that did one of my favorite movie series, Pirates of the Caribbean, but i thought the concept behing Pirates is far better then Prince, and also allowed for more creativity. Taking a theme park ride allows for nearly an entire world to be created and a story to be formed. Taking a video game means there is already a world that needs to be inhabited and fans that want to be pleased.

So, I am expecting this movie to be entertaining none-the-less. A few reviewers and commentors around the web have called it a bit boring and dry at points. I certainly hope this is not the case as it looks so wonderful in the trailers. and, as a cosplayer, i think the COSTUMES look great in the movie! They also look accurate to what i've seen of the games

Frank Miller's Xerxes

Frank Miller is at it again.

His latest endevor is a prequel to his comic, 300, and it will focus around that Persian ruler, Xerxes. Dark Horse will be releasing the comic the beginning of next year and Miller says it will be more complex then his other hit, moreso because it covers 10 full years before the storyline of 300.

Zack Snyder, director of the movie 300, says that he is waiting to read Xerxes and that he can not wait to adapt it to the big screen.

Personally, I loved 300. I went into the movie with high expectations and was not dissapointed. It was like a thrill ride, twisting and turning me with excitement and joy. I'm glad to see that there will be a prequel comic and perhaps a movie! Even thought i think prequel, sequels, and remakes are dominating Hollywood at the moment, its always exciting to see more of the world of really good movies.

Epilogue pictures from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

*HP spoilers in this posta

Its been a few years since the wizarding crew of the Harry Potter world defeated Voldemort (in a lackluster final battle) and moved on to get married and have some wizarding kids of their own. Although the book was a satisfying end to the Harry Potter series, the most dissapointing of all seven books was J.K. Rowling's attempt at an epiloque to tie up the series with a nice little bow.

I was never a fan of the epiloque. I read and reread it, but it still seemed unneccessary and read like something a fangirl would write - especially with the cliche marriages and children names. With the upcoming movies for Deathly Hallows, the epiloque will be in place. Recent pictures were released for the epiloque scenes and they are as dissapointing as the book.

Although the epiloque takes place 19 years after the final battles, the epiloque pictures showcase some badly aged characters. They look significantly older then they actually should be. In the pictures we have Harry, Ron, Draco + son, and a girl that maybe the daughter of Harry and Hermione.

I'm just very dissapointed in the photos. I'll always be a Harry Potter fan (and I'm very excited about the opening of Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando), but the movies have been losing steam just like the books did.