What makes a GOOD film?

After reading this article on /Film - my favorite film blog - and the comments on the article, it got me to thinking about what exactly makes a good film. While I believe the Toy Story franchise is an amazing franchise, I still believe people are entitled to their own opinions about films. With saying that, I do not think anyone should bash a film just because they did not like it. This White guy is apparently and so OBVIOUSLY a troll as he puts down all films that a lot of people like and praises those a lot of people do not like. If that does not spell T-R-O-L-L then it needs to get redefined. I do not agree that every Pixar film is golden and amazing, I still think give a film credit where credit is due.

And the commentors can be the worse. I try not to take offense when a film I love is criticized immensely (which is why I try not to review films of franchises that I am heavily a fan in), but sometimes it is hard to do so when so many derogatory words have been chosen to be used - someone refered to Harry Potter as a "wankfest" in the comments. Whats up with THAT?

These days, too many people are quick to bash something. I see this in the film world and the anime world. If something gets too popular in someone's opinion then some people just HAVE to go against the grain and hate it. That seems life a very sad like when you have to be antagonistic about everything.

With these people out there, the question of what even makes a good film becomes blurred. Everyone has a differing opinion in what makes a good film, but my key ideal would be that the film is ENTERTAINING. That's what a films are: entertainment. So, PERSONALLLY, if a film can keep my interest despite all the flaws, i still find it GOOD. It may not win awards, but it wins my heart.

Movies that excite me: The Last Airbender

*i was going to provide pretty pictures and handy links, but I decided to write this from my phone. Gotta love a Blackberry

Despite the fact this movie should have been called Avatar except the fact some huge movie about huge blue aliens took the name, The Last Airbender is based on a highly popular and amazing Nickelodeon cartoon. The series ended in 2008 and consists of series refered to as Books and the episodes are Chapters.

The tale follows Aang, the last of his kind and the Avatar, and the brother/sister pair of Sokka and Katara. They are in a world where the elements - water, earth, fire, and air - can be "bent" by certain people who have the innate ability to do so. The firebending nation is out to rule the world and Aang, the avatar who can bend all the elements, is supposedly the only one who can stop him.

That's the basic story. There are so many layers to the Avatar world that make the series very successful.

When a movie was announced, fans got antsy. They wanted this done, but they wanted it done right. M Knight Shamalan is the director and many people are still worried this movie will not give justice to the series. When actors were being chosen, fans were quite upset as many white actors were rumored to have been chosen when the Avatar world has characters who clearly are not white. Petitions exploded on the internet and so did communities against the moviemakers (such as aang_aint_white on Livejournal)

So, what do I think? I love Avatar...a lot. It is one of my favorite animated series ever. I was worried about the movie. Very worried. I still am quite worried that this will not live up to my expectations, but that is the problem with movie goers these days. They judge movies too harshly. From what I have seen in the trailer, the movie will be taking the entire season 1 (which takes place in the Water tribe area of the Avatar world) and it looks darn good. The bending looks fantastic and I can not help but love the cute kid who will be Aang.

I will be at this movie. I will even be wearing a costume. I'm excited.

Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) - Nintendo Stole the Show

Every year, the gaming world turns to E3 to find out what the latest in gaming will be for the coming year. The only thing last year’s show did for me was say Final Fantasy 13 would be released on the Xbox 360 - a marvelous announcement indeed! This year, I was thrilled the entire show as my eyes stayed glued to G4’s coverage and my constantly updated twitter feed.

Jaden Smith Interview - The Karate Kid

In the recent issue of Ebony magazine, Adrienne Samuels Gibbs conducted an interview with 11 year old Jaden Smith, son of remarkable Will Smith and Jada Pinkett- Smith. Here is the interview:

Gibbs: Why did you take on the challenge of The Karate Kid?
Smith: Well, I’ve always really been interested in the martial arts. I started taking karate when I was 3. So when my dad mentioned the idea to remake the movie, theres no way I was going to pass that up! And the story is really great. Its inspired by the original film, but different. In this one, I play Dre Parker. He’s a cool kid, but he has to move from his home in Detroit when his mom gets a job in China.

Book Review: The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner

Stephanie Meyer got absolutely lucky to come up with Twilight. She wrote the first book quickly. It got published quickly. Such a success story that all authors dream of.

Recently she released a novella to accompany her third, and my favorite, book in the series. Eclipse. This short book took a very minor newborn vampire and formed a story around her.

That was Meyer's mistake.

Meyer may have cared about this story, but its quite impossible for anyone else to care. Bree lacks a certain charm that Bella does. Her male counterpart, Diego, does not offer dashing, romantic escapades like Edward. Of course the four characters could not be compared, but its difficult to not too.

The writing seems rather lazy, atleast lazier then the Twilight saga and Meyer's other novel, "The Host". The words are quite simple and there are not many, if any at all, elaborate sentence constructions that I like Meyer for.

The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner released in the same month as the new movie, Eclipse. That would have been a clever ploy if it had been done after the movie instead of before. Maybe then, someone would have actually cared about Bree Tanner enough to like this novella.

Movie Review - The Karate Kid

I've been around martial arts my entire life. My father is a karate instructor and so are his two brothers. I've taken karate before and it still runs in my family. I've been to tournaments my whole life and have seen some amazing competitors.

So it was only natural that we went to see The Karate Kid, remake of the 1984 original, as a family.

This movie was an excellent, solid remake. It was highly entertaining and the training montage would even give Rocky a run for his money. Jaden Smith certainly proved himself as an actor, something he has not had an oppurtunity to do in his past films. The movie ran the gauntlet of emotions - from fear to anger to sadness to joy - and Jaden did not miss a beat. When he needed to cry, he did. When he needed to crack some classic Smith wit, he did.

Jackie Chan was spectacular as well. But he's Jackie effin Chan...what else can be expected?

The story progressed very well, but the characters outside of Jaden/Dre's training bubble were not very well developed. I'm not sure if it really mattered, however.

Very good movie. Go see it.

Breaking Dawn. Two movies.

Breaking Dawn, the forth and final book in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight saga, will now be split into two films, the first being released in November of 2011.

This whole scenario seems oddly familiar when the final book of Harry Potter had been split into two films. Is this a way to gain more money from the hordes of fans both franchises have or are they really just dedicated to giving the finale of each work as much dedication as needed?

Yes and no.

While the seventh Harry Potter book seems to need two films to cover the sheer amount of action, story, and character development that the book has, Breaking Dawn seems just the opposite. There does not seem to be any need for the two films as the book does not have much to offer. The basic story is simple and it may be a bit obvious as to where the split would occur, which may mean no Vampire Bella in the first film. Breaking Dawn was a very weak ending to the series, reading like a gigantic epiloque then an actual end. Its going to be very interesting to see what they can possible pack into two films with very little - it seems - to work with.

Twilight: Eclipse (the TRUE ending to the series) releases on June 30th. I'll be at a midnight showing after a release party with friends.

[Also, I'd like to note that Harry Potter and Twlight seem to trade off release months. Eclipse is June this year, HP is Nov this year. They seem to switch off next year. Maybe they do not want to step on each others toes. A pretty smart move]