The Odds Are in Their Favor: The Hunger Games Aftermath

Ever since I read the books and the rumor of a movie adaption spread. I have been watching, waiting and hyping this. [Take note of posts here and here.] So now it's time for the verdict.

I am glad that when Arck and I caught the movie when it opened last  March 23, 2012 that we were with a mixed group of people who were able to read the book before watching the movie and those who haven't.

In terms of adaptation, I was a tad disappointed. Mainly, because there were a lack in the details presented. Then again I have read the trilogy. I, for one, know that what makes this particular series captivating is how well Suzane Collins is able to depict emotions using words and details. I do admit that all the major points in the story are covered in movie. [Before I forget, there may be spoilers.] The reaping is one of the things that I really liked as well as the entrance of the tributes on chariots. I didn't like the flashbacks bread scene, it's one of those things that went unexplained. Also the differences of the districts were not explained which I think is crucial in the upcoming movies and what it means to win the Hunger Games. You don't go home with just your life but you give your district a spark of good for some time. So, I'll grade this adaptation as a good one. Arckham being one of the people that had not read the books agrees that as a movie it was great. He shares that for a stand alone it was written well enough and portrayed well enough.

Coaching with Cinna before the chariot entrance.

As for the casting, I absolutely love Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss Everdeen). This girl can act! My favorite scene would be just before she was placed in the tube and placed in the arena. I could feel the fear and apprehension she portrayed. I not as happy with Josh Hutcherson (Peeta Mellark). Yes, he is lovable enough as Peeta but there was something lacking in his acting that did not translate well. I don't think he is very good with the heavy scenes and as I would dare say, he seems to have only one expression for sad, normal, mad and hurt. On the other hand, with the few cuts Liam Hemsworth (Gale Hawthorne) got in this movie, he was more effective in communicating emotion and he didn't even have to use words.

Jennifer Lawrence is a definite win as Katniss

As for other actors of note, Woody Harrelson (Haymitch Abernathy) did a wonderful job portraying the tributes' coach. Notable performances by Elizabeth Banks (Effie Trinkett), Wes Bentley (Seneca Crane) and Donald Sutherland (President Snow). My favorite casting would be Lenny Kravitz as Cinna. He was beyond effectively portraying the Cinna in my head as a read the book.

 

Movie graphics, sets, costumes and cinematography were not so bad either. I especially like the arena, the training room and the control room where Seneca Crane watches the tributes. I think the amount of meaningful stares were just enough but we have to remember that those cuts work only if the actor works on it as well.

Overall, the movie is a definite must watch. As for Lionsgate, they have a good franchise on their hands and the odds look greatly in their favor. For more information, click here.

Photo credits to Murray Close of www.thehungergamesmovie.com. 

The Capitol

The hype and tension has started building as March 23, 2012 draws closer which marks the premiere of The Hunger Games Movie. Guess what I found:

I have an Identification Pass from TheCapitol.pn.  As much as I want to be from another district, this is what I was given. You can also get one using either your Facebook account or Twitter. After being assigned to a District you will be directed to an Facebook community page where you can find other fellow district citizens.

Despite being assigned to District 1, I have to admit the site as well as the ID is pretty awesome. Don't forget to try it out and tell us which district you're from in the comments section.

Anyway, here's how long we still have to wait for the movie:

Let The Hunger Games Begin

Here's the trailer of one of the most awaited movie adaptations since Harry Potter, The Hunger Games:


The Hunger Games is based on the novel written by Suzane Collins. It actually is the first book of a trilogy. Collins placed the series in a post apocalyptic world and isn't the usual love themed young adult book which seems to be the trend of today. Collins was able to tap into emotions and themes such as politics, freedom and even death.

I found the book engaging and a definite must read. Now, let's hope the movie would be a must watch.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

  For the longest time, I had a prejudice bias that this movie sucked. People that watched it said it wasn't worth it, it cost $137 million to produce but only made $85 million worldwide in box office sales, and it featured neither Cloud nor Squall. No single black mage or Chocobo.

  Soooo, if the movie was so bad, how come I watched it again after 10 years? I just happened to be working on a series of posts on the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. Doing further research for material, I 

read the article on the Lifestream and saw it linked to the movie and mentions the Gaia Theory. Interested, I read on and eventually re-watched the movie.

Production:

  As mentioned above, the movie had a huge budget. This is very evident in the technology used in the animation. For a movie made in 2001, the photorealistic graphics of the movie still owns made after it to this day, ten years later. 

  Each frame of the movie is 10 megabytes and has twice the resolution of your HDTV. To give you an idea, standard videos play at 24 frames per second. At 10mb x 24fps, four seconds of the movie is one gigabyte. Yeah, I know.

  Designs for characters, environments, technology, vehicles and creatures are top notch. From armor scratches, dust on the ground, hair movement, and even freckles and skin pores. You gotta hand it to them. Keep in mind that this was 10 years ago. 

Plot (avoiding major spoilers, of course):

  The story centers around Dr. Aki Ross and her struggle to save the planet from the mysterious alien terror called Phantoms. Some thirty years prior to the events of the movie, a huge rock known as the Leonid Meteor hit the planet, and with it, came the Phantoms. 

Dr. Aki Ross

  For the past several months, Aki has been having the same dream over and over. And each time the dream repeats, it goes further than the last time and reveals more images. She records these dreams as she believes that these are messages and that something is trying to tell her something. The recordings get longer, but the message behind it remains unknown.

  Aki Ross and her colleague Dr. Sid attempt to understand the nature of the Phantoms in relation to Gaia, the spirit of the Earth in search of a way to eliminate the threat without the use of military might as armed combat may injure Gaia. As irony would have it, the military had built the Zeus Cannon-- an orbiting satellite that houses a powerful weapon with the sole intent of destroying the Leonid Meteor and the Phantoms with it.

Phantoms Attacking

Zeus Cannon

  As the story progresses, Aki finally finishes the dream. The alien race that was the Phantoms' former selves tells her the events that conspired prior to the meteor crash. Their planet was one torn apart by war. This caused their planet to be ripped apart by its own Gaia. As the planet collapsed, a chunk of it eventually became the Leonid, taking with it the alien Gaia and the ghosts of the dead aliens; violent, bio-etheric manifestations that can pass through solid objects and kill living organisms on contact.

  The military eventually succeeds at firing the cannon at the meteor only to agitate the alien Gaia to appear. Further shots only agitated it and caused to expand and grow more violent. Some spoiler moments later, Aki manages to stop it by awakening Earth's Gaia to protect itself. Just like the Lifestream did in FFVII.

Gaia being all Lifestream-y

The Verdict:

  Watch the movie with an open mind and don't expect Cloud or Squall to appear. The story is very well composed, but very poorly told. Aki remains interesting and engaging throughout the movie, but the other characters suffered. Photorealistic 3d and visual effects are way ahead of its time. Nobuo Uematsu's work was nowhere to be heard and thus the movie lacks awesome music. If you're a Sci-Fi fan and a Final Fantasy fan, watch it. If you're a Final Fantasy VII-only fan, you may not be able to appreciate it as much. Better wait for my Advent Children Complete review which should be out soon.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits within is property of Square Pictures and Columbia Pictures.

All images are screencaps from the movie.

Video Copilot's Lightsaber preset

 Lightsaber video! XD

 So upon picking up yet another geeky hobby of visual effects and video editing, lightsabers are definitely something I wanted to do. The first one I did was just MovieMaker and Photoshop. Eventually I picked up AfterEffects and started with presets. Surprisingly, it's a lot simpler to do than you would think.

 Check out Video Copilot to learn how to do the lightsaber effect. 'Later.

On Stranger Tides

The pirates are back with another sequel: The Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides. Arckham and I had the pleasure of catching it the day it was released in the Philippines.

So let's look at this movie in three parts: Characters, Setting and Plot.

Characters: I do presume Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) would no longer need any introduction. Our dear captain is back as Savvy as ever. Together with him in this movie is Penelope Cruz who plays Angelica, one of the people he had "stirrings" [apparently, according to Jack it means feelings] for. Angelica is the new female focal of the movie. Sad to say though that she fades into the background almost immediately and you rarely feel her presence throughout the movie. Yes, she made me miss Keira Knightly. The Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush) and Sparrow moments are still there which is a comfort to know. Baddy of the movie would be Blackbeard played by Ian McShane who does a pretty decent job at that.

Setting: As usual with this series, the setting is amazing. The islands, the props and the costume are still top of the line. The English wigs and the Spanish Armada costumes were superb. The mermaid CG was definitely commendable. The tails and transformations were seamless. Good job on this one.

Plot: Over all, it was predictable, nearly not as funny as the previous movies in this series and the Angelica-Blackbeard relationship was really weak.

The verdict is watch it but at the comfort of your own home when you have the time. There is no need to rush or save up for this one.

Thor (2011)

Thor. Alongside Captain America, X-Men First Class and Green Lantern, this is the comic book movie I most waited for to watch this year. Good thing it came out first. 

I will not spoil the plot for those who have not seen it yet. I'll just share my thoughts on the film.

Just to give Thor fans an idea about the movie (as well as the other Marvel Studios movies), Marvel decided to create a new Universe for the movie line. Like the Transformers movies, the Marvel "Movie Universe" is mostly a clash of other existing Marvel Universes. Mainly Earth-616 and Ultimate. Such indications are that Thor does not turn into Dr. Donald Blake, Nick Fury is Sam Jackson and Captain America uses a gun.

In the case of Thor, as mentioned above, Donald Blake is not Thor's alter ego. He's just perpetually Thor, but stripped of his powers (and his hammer) so that he could learn humility as decreed by his father Odin. An indication of Ultimate, but is obviously not Ultimate Thor. So this is an in-between.

Overall visual appeal of the movie is awesome. Special effects, costumes, fight scenes and sets. Not enough lightning shooting if you ask me, but it was still awesome. The plot was pretty much predictable if you've read

Thor: Ages of Thunder and what happened between Siege and Civil War. Scriptwriting is great. A couple of jokes here and there, combat speeches, and an alarming amount of Facebook references. Lastly, casting. Casting is nearly perfect. Get someone fatter for Volstagg and you have the perfect cast.

My verdict: watch it. Even people not familiar with the comic book story would love it.

Caught in a Tangle

It's been awhile. Well, not to worry, we are definitely back and we're back in the internet tangle. That's right I'm here to review Disney's 50th Animated Feature:

We caught this for our Valentines movie treat. [Yes, apparently we also do the couple things.] Yes, we watched it in both 3D and the regular cinema.

PLOT:
It's a more up to date take on the story Rapunzel. It starts out with how Rapunzel comes to be and why she's stuck in a tower. The plot progresses to a coming of age theme, where Rapunzel meets a thief,  Flynn, and they run through the forest into a Kingdom where unbeknown to Rapunzel is her true home. It's quite a fun chase, especially with Maximus, the incredibly smart horse, the different hoodlums who have dreams, and Rapunzel's greedy stepmother, Gothel.

PRODUCTION:
Well, Tangled is the most expensive animate film ever made with a budget of $260 Million and is the 2nd overall most expensive movie made up to date. I can say that it was a very well made investment. CGI comes out smooth even on 3D. Despite the limited settings of the movie, each one was well rendered and as with Disney animated films, details are superb. Slow motion, and Zoom Ins are very well timed which augmented the over all effect.

COMMENTS: 
I personally think that what really great is not just the story but the characters. Arckham and I agree on this, mainly due to Maximus. Now, that is a horse. The different characters are very well developed. The interaction between them is very intricate and well planned. The facial expression are exquisite and the characters are very much down to earth, hence easier to relate to.

With a story this old, known by young and old, it's hard to pull off being the second highest grossing animated film worldwide, but we give our Kudos to Disney for a well done film. *pat pat pat*

THE VERDICT: Watch it in 3D, buy the DVD and BluRay.

Green Lantern's Light!

Trailer's out:



Here's Deadpool's piece on it:



Being Green Lantern comic book reader, Martin Campbell, DO NOT disappoint me.


pweese *blink blink*.

Sorcerer's Apprentice Syndrome

No, I'm not talking about SAS, the computer glitch, but Disney's 2010 live action film.



Xy and I went out yesterday and decided to catch the last full show for The Sorceror's Apprentice. Let me just say this upfront. Cage + Bruckheimer + Disney = PWN. Really. We've seen it in National Treasure, and we definitely saw it here.


PLOT:[Minor spoilers ahead]
The story revolves around a boy that's destined to save the world. Been there, done that, yes, but this take on the oh-so-familiar theme is one to take note of. So Merlin, King Arthur's mage, was defeated by his his nemesis, Morgana le Fay a thousand years ago. His apprentice Balthazar[Nick Cage] does some serious magical butt-kicking and manages to postpone the world's apparent demise. Ten years ago, he then finds the one person that can end the End - Merlin's successor, a ten-year-old from New York named Dave[Jay Baruchel]. Main antagonist Horvath[Alfred Molina] had a little fight with Balthazar and both of them ended up being trapped in an urn leaving Dave to grow up some with crazy thoughts about magic and becoming a Physics nerd in college.

Ten years after the incident, the two sorcerers come out of the urn and all hell breaks loose and the fight to prevent the world's end ensues once more. Balthazar trains Dave to fulfill his role.

PRODUCTION:
CGI was great. Not off-the-hook awesome, but I'm sure it looks better in Blu-ray than on the silver screen. Set designs were awesomely made. The Chrysler building and downtown New York were some real-life places they reproduced in some scenes. Fight scenes were awesome. Some brawling, lots of Harry Potter-like spellcasting battles and even a car chase.

COMMENTS:
As most if not all of you know, Disney's first take on "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" was a mid-90's animated short and was a part of the movie "Fantasia". It starred a magically animated broomstick and Mickey Mouse in his red wizard robes with the pointy wizard hat.

This is one thing I was anticipating the moment I first saw the trailer. I wanted to see the broom. I just wanted to at the very least see the broom as Nick Cage's character is obviously not the same as Mickey's. There's probably a Hidden Mickey there somewhere, but if you pay close enough attention to the movie, I'm sure you'll see the broom as well.



I'd give this movie a 90sumting percent if I had a scoring guideline. Overall a great movie.

Reviewing the Swarm

First and foremost, Arckham and I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas. I hope you all have eaten well and are sufficiently full just as we are.

So with that aside, we'd like to give you our thoughts on Ben 10: Alien Swarm. Arckham was able to watch this movie ahead of me and I watched it with my siblings as our yearly Christmas Movie. Anyway, for those of you who are not familiar with it, there may be spoilers ahead and well, yes, it's based on the TV Series, Ben 10: Alien Force from Cartoon Network.

Now for a quick plot summary: Ben, Gwen and Kevin find some alien nano technology. They investigate and Ben goes into hero mode and saves the day from the Alien wanting to take over planet earth. It's pretty much a like the regular episode except in movie length.

PLOT	Xy: I think there could have been more twists and turns. It really felt like it's a regular episode nothing new and exciting Arck: I feel it's a bit empty as to how the last episode of alien force ended.
CASTING and CHARACTERS	Xy: Well great choice for Kevin which is played by Nathan Keyes. He really captured the character. Plus points from me who thinks he's hot. [Yes, Arck knows. :P ] As for Gwen (Galadriel Stineman)and Ben (Ryan Kelly), they could have done better. Gwen, I felt, had no power in the movie. Arck: I hate Gwen and Max (Barry Corbin). Kevin is dead on. Ben was so-so.
CGI	Xy: I love Big Chill! The voice and the way they portrayed her was right on. This is big plus on the movie. I also like the fact that the queen was really girly even if she was a bug and bot. Arck: FTW on the aliens.

On the other hand, great job on Kevin's car. The paint job on that Camaro is superb too bad it gets thrown by Humongousaur. I also like the car Kevin built. [Does anyone know what make that car is?]

Overall, being the geeks that we are we recommend you still catch it. It's the type of movie you either download or catch on the tube not really the one you go to the movies for. Why do we still recommend it? Well, for the CG of course. It is this movie's redeeming factor.

Power Rangers? XD