Kick-Ass / Green Lantern

Last weekend, I went to Comic-Con for the second time in as many years. A ton of Hollywood people were in attendance as comic books have been embraced by Hollywood as a source to be mined for content to reap boatloads of cash from the global box office. I’ll write more about my Comic-con experience in my next post but there were several films that piqued my interest and led me to stay at home this weekend. Kick-Ass, directed by Matthew Vaughn and based on a comic by Mark Millar, was one of those films. They showed footage that had some amazing fight choreography and brought about a raucous reaction from the audience. After I came back from San Diego, I came upon an early draft for Kick-Ass and read it this weekend. I also came upon an early draft of the Green Lantern script.

Minor spoilers ahead!

The Kick-Ass script is fairly strong. A nascent superhero, Kick-Ass bumbles along, attempting to break away from his mundane life and pushes himself to see if he has what it takes to be a hero. Billed as a realistic view of a world where people without superpowers try to become superheroes, the script still contains many trappings of a comic book world. Usage of comic book physics and spandex costumes are a couple of items that make this less grounded in reality than I thought it would be. And Kick-Ass may be the titular hero in the film, but the supporting cast is as important and possibly more interesting than the lead character. After seeing the clips at Comic-con, Hit Girl might steal the movie and Nic Cage looks to have a great role as a mad blue-collar Batman if they stay with his character arc. The footage was definitely a hard R for violence, strong language, and bloody dismemberment. They kicked up the violence from the version of the script I read. Though there were action scenes galore, hopefully there’s still room for the smaller, quieter moments between characters that should help glue the film together. The ending sets up a possible sequel but changes the world in a way that could hinder the storytelling if they aren’t sure what happens in the next film.

The Green Lantern script was not as polished. The film will definitely depend on the special effects to drive it with an alien world inhabited by different alien species, glowing green constructs, and a destructive monster of chaos named Legion. They will all have to be rendered really well for this film to fly. I also think they took cues from Superman the Movie, especially the part when Hal shows Carol his powers which reminded me of the scene when Lois Lane goes flying with Superman for the first time. The finale where Hal heroically saves Carol needs work since it seems hard to visualize and a bit sappy, but it may work in a capable director’s hand. Since it was a very early version, hopefully they’ve cleaned up a number of problems now that they have cast Ryan Reynolds in the lead role and will probably go into production soon.

Wonderland

Pictures from Tim Burton’s reimagining of Alice in Wonderland and they’re as fantastically surreal as you’d imagine a Burton production to be. As an exercise, I played with some redesigns for an “Alice in Wonderland” update many years back and interestingly enough I imagined Helena Bonham-Carter’s character from Fight Club as an excellent example of how the Cheshire Cat would act. Feigning and fawning, here and there. And in my version, I suppose Johnny Depp could have stepped in as the White Rabbit. I had imagined the character young, noble, but frightfully timid. Since they’re probably not going to ask me to do designs on the film now, here are a couple of sketches.

RIP MJ

I didn’t have MTV when I was a child so I relied mostly on network television for music videos. I would stay up really late on Friday nights just to watch Friday Night Videos, especially for the chance to catch a new Michael Jackson video. The artistry and talent that went into the amazing trifecta of videos (Thriller, Beat It, and Billie Jean) was a phenomenal feat that could arguably be said to be unmatched. I had taped the Motown special on our VCR where he moonwalked, playing it over and over to see where the trick was or if there were any wires. My uncle had bought a VHS tape of Thriller with the special behind the scenes footage showing the making of the video which I watched many, many times. These were some of the things I’d like to remember about the Gloved one, the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.

Where to watch the Michael Jackson Memorial online

Parallels and Divergences

Time is relative. For example, it took me 5 hours to see a 2 hour movie a several weeks ago. I left home to a friend’s house, we picked up someone else, went to the theater, saw the movie, and drove the converse route back which took a total of five hours. So although I thought Star Trek was a decent film, I’m not sure it was good enough for me to justify the time I spent trekking (pun intended) to go see it.

Time is an important aspect in the recent works of JJ Abrams. I’m not just citing Star Trek, but also his television shows, Lost and Fringe. The new Star Trek rises from events that have occurred in the future, creating a new timeline for the writers to create new adventures for a new generation. The film theorizes that though the past has been drastically changed, some things are still fated to occur, specifically the gathering of the Enterprise crew members. Lost, I feel, is going to follow a similar path in the last season. The show has set up a cyclical time loop that can go one of two ways. Either the final season will show how the events of the previous season caused the cycle to be broken or it will show how even though events may have been changed, the cycle is destined to continue into the next iteration. For more in depth and possibly mind numbing discussion on Lost, see Jeff Jensen’s analysis on EW. On the season finale of Fringe, it was revealed that a parallel world in a divergent timeline exists where again on the surface everything seems very similar but underneath things are quite different. For example, in this reality, the Twin Towers were never hit, a premise I first saw in Brian K. Vaughan’s Ex Machina. Haven’t been a huge fan of Fringe and its loose use of pseudo-science but there are bits and pieces that are intriguing.

With more and more science fiction entering the mainstream entertainment channels, I really hope that subject matter isn’t dumbed down too much and that new ideas will be explored, especially when dealing with adaptions of existing works (ie No Khan for a while please). I just hope that they don’t merely retread old ground and seek to challenge the viewer.

Pockets of Inspiration

Sometimes it seems like everyone lets you down and nothing goes your way. Then, a series of interesting events occur that gives you a sense that things aren’t too bad and there are things to look forward to. I call these fortunate times “Pockets of Inspiration”. They aren’t always readily apparent and they need to be sought out, but when you find them, it’s worthwhile.

New material from Faye Wong might be on the horizon. She’s doing some ads so her break for motherhood may be soon over. Here’s a recent release of a song she did several years ago with new arrangement.

New episodes of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya are airing in Japan. Interspersed within the timeline of the original series, the first new episode is as good you expect, mixing different sci-fi conventions into an interesting milieu. I just hope they’re priming us for a new season.

The Storm Riders sequel is coming out in the near future and there is a new trailer. I’m not too confident in the Pang brothers based on the films I’ve seen from them but the footage doesn’t seem too bad. I’ve been waiting for the sequel for a decade so with the success of this film, I hope that more effects-laden epic martial arts movies will be on the horizon. 

The Storm Warriors Trailer

And the trailer for the next Final Fantasy game is just stunningly gorgeous. If the story and game mechanics are good, I might have to break down and get a PS3 when it’s released.

Final Fantasy XIII Trailer

Now if only the unwatchable Naruto filler would end so that the main storyline could continue.

And I don’t know why, but I have this song on repeat.

Keri Hilson – Knock You Down

Dragonball D-evolution

I believe in constructive criticism. As much as I wish I could just say Dragonball Evolution sucks and leave it at that, I’m going to do some analysis. I was introduced to Dragonball Z by my sister’s boyfriend (now husband) over 15 years ago so I do know a bit about the property, though not as much as he does.

The writing, acting, casting, and characterizations were bad. Admittedly, it’s difficult to adapt the manga directly since Dragonball starts with Goku as a kid and there is a lot of storyline that happens before he gets to an adult but the filmmakers didn’t get several of the things that made Dragonball popular. The fighting. Aimed mainly at adolescent boys, the inhumanly wild fighting was a huge factor in Dragonball’s success and they didn’t come close to replicating it. The characterization. Goku wasn’t the smartest guy but he was good-natured and optimistic as hell. In the film, they tried to protray him as a geeky underdog who needed to overcome his lack of confidence. Totally out of character. There’s been a good deal of discussion on whether the lead should have been cast as Asian (as well as on the upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender film). Since I’ve only seen the anime in Japanese or Cantonese, I’ve always assumed that he was Asian.

A couple special notes about the writing. No good can come from a film that uses the words, “There are no rules.” Also, at one point, Goku mistakenly knocks out Chichi and the next time they meet, they kiss. As a result some impressionable kids may feel that it’s okay for guys to hit girls and if they do, there’s a chance you might get a kiss. Moral fail.

When I watch movies, especially ones based on properties that I like, I always see ways to improve it and what I would do differently. While I was watching it today, I sketched out an idea of how I might have gone about it. I would have gone a bit steampunk. Oh, and they didn’t have any cloud surfing. WTF!?

Wolverine: The Mockery

I haven’t seen X-Men Origins: Wolverine yet but with the reviews I’ve been reading, I’m not sure if I’m interested in doing so. The online mockery may be more entertaining.

NBC – New Shows

Here are promos for the new shows that were picked up for the new season:

Parenthood – Based on the movies (which I never saw), looks like a show that could catch on and do really well but not really my cup of tea.

Trauma – One of the possible medical dramas poised to replace ER. Looks like something Peter Berg would put together. Promo looks very loud and manly. Seems action packed but whether they can maintain that momentum from episode to episode is where it will succeed. Glad to see Cliff Curtis playing a role that looks interesting.

Mercy – The other medical drama that is poised to replace ER from the nurse’s POV. Might scare the guys away and will need to pull in the Grey’s Anatomy/Desperate Housewives crowd.

Day One – Been following this one but haven’t seen much footage. Whether this might go into “The Stand” territory or is purely an urban survival story is to be seen. Hope it will be more like Lost than Heroes.

100 Questions – One of the few sitcoms picked up. Really similar to Friends which isn’t surprising since it’s produced by James Burrows. Looks good but will ride on the shoulders of Charlotte Payne coming off as endearing.

Community – Chevy Chase is on TV again. Not sure whether I like the lead but the supporting cast has some potential. I think this show will succeed on whether people will give the show a chance to find its footing and whether it will ever find its footing.

On a side note, I’m not liking Parks and Recreation too much so far. Amy Poehler deserves better than to ape Steve Carrell’s role in The Office.

Self-Death-pricating

Suicide. It’s a somewhat taboo word. People try to avoid it if they can but it’s been popping up on my radar lately since I’ve been hearing it discussed  from various sources. With the recent anniversary of Cobain’s death, the multiple suicides in the Korean entertainment industry including the most recent one, suicides because of economic difficulties, the local Freddie Mac executive, and  a film that recently played at SXSW, suicide can be sensationalized in the media. I even saw a character attempt suicide when watching the Naruto Shippuden: Bonds movie recently.

When a person has reached a point where he/she is unable to cope with real or perceived extreme stress/pain, suicide enters into the equation as a way out. Technically, that seems to be what usually occurs but emotionally, it can be difficult to understand. I have wanted to write an opus on the subject of teen suicide, but have never found the right way to go about it, so I’m curious to see the film that played at SXSW.

What I’m Doing

- Applied to the ABC Entertainment Group Production Associates Program but wasn’t among the finalists.

- Since I’ve had time, I’m trying to write a feature script based on the following sketch (circa 2001) which is an updated look at an existing character.  Making headway but writing this is daunting since it’s something that I know would be difficult to  get made. Probably going to mine my sketchbooks for a less ambitious idea.

- Finished a 30 Rock spec script. Still needs a little polish but it was easier than I thought it would be. I even came up with a crazy awesome idea for another episode that I might have to write, though I do want to see if I could write a dramatic hour long piece. Needed to write a spec to submit to programs for NBC, CBS, and Warner Bros. Looks like I missed the CBS deadline though.

- Writing something that could essentially be a Twilight Zone/The Outer Limits episode or fodder for a sci-fi mag. More on this in my next post.