Charlize Theron's Ravenna vs Angelina Jolie's Maleficent

So my wife and I watched Maleficent the other night, we recently got Sleeping Beauty (the 1959 animated movie) on Blu Ray. I had never seen it before but I was familiar enough with the story and the stories antagonist Maleficent As far as villains go she is definitely up there on the nightmare fuel list! After watching Sleeping Beauty I thought to myself there is one evil bitch! But as an adult I want to know more about her, why is she evil? Has she always been evil? Apparently Disney thought so too after the relative success of Universals 2012 live action fairy tail Snow White and the Huntsman.
I remember seeing the trailer for SWatH and thinking "wow this movie looks promising". And for the most part it was, even with Kristen Stewart's Ctrl. C-Ctrl. V performance SWatH was good. SWatH had up and coming star Chris Hemsworth and A-lister Charlize Theron which IMHO elevated this movie from mediocre to better than bad. In all honesty Charlize Theron owned every scene she was in in this movie and rightfully so....the movie should have been called Ravenna's Quest for the Ancient Chinese Pearl Cream.
So getting back to Maleficent, I understand it's Disney's property and they can do as they please with their characters, but my wife and I were both let down by this revision of the story of Aurora and Maleficent. I do appreciate the alteration of the "true love's kiss will break the curse" much the same way as Frozen  poked fun at one of Disney's infamous tropes,..love at first sight->marriage-->live happily ever after. I'm glad to see Disney has outgrown the naivety of it's older films and have stayed relevant in our cynical day and age.
But herein lies my conundrum!  I want Maleficent to be that evil bitch I saw in Sleeping Beauty I feel like they neutered one of their most iconic villains! So in this case I think the 21st century version of Snow White's curse breaking kiss worked better, it allows Ravenna to be Ravenna...an evil bitch!
Both films have their strengths; incredible actresses that elevate their characters, impressive use CG for the fantasy creatures in both films, and a more truthful/believable explanation of "true love".
But both also have their short comings: weak performances from the title character coughsnowwhitecough, and too drastic a deviation of the primary villain and other key characters.    

Movie Review: Dragon Wars

My sincerest apologies to anyone who paid money to see this in the theaters, or bought this steaming pile of excrement on DVD! Fortunately I borrowed a copy from a co worker and still felt violated after sitting thru *most* of it....I couldn't do it man, it's that bad!

I remember sitting home on Sunday afternoon's as a kid watching channel 11's Godzilla flick, I loved Godzilla and his crazy monster pals like Jet Jaguar and King Ghidora even the newer Heisei and Milenium series are fun to watch as an adult.

This movie tanks on every level; acting is atrocious, the actors must've been desperate for a paycheck, the audio sync is off throughout the movie, the CG serpents stand out like a sore thumb, there is no sensible transition between scenes...perfect example big battle in down town LA, segways to a scene where the lead female is tied down on a sacrafical altar in front of the tower of Orthank from LotR: TTT! O.o WTF!? The evil villan looks like he belongs in a Mortal Kombat movie. Lets go back to the battle in LA for a moment, an army of CGI clones obviously inspired by 300 and the LotR trilogies just show up in LA riding veloceraptors and lumbering lizards with rocket launchers strapped to their back and what looked suspiciously similar to Nazgul wyrms.

The military comes to the rescue when the proverbial shit hits the proverbial fan with tanks chopers and fully auto assault rifles....but they loose! O.o

There was absolutely nothing special about the special effects in this action packed part of D-Wars

Apache Helicopters flying top speed thru a metropolitan area doing 90 degree turns to evade the Nazg....baby dragons. Gawd Awful!!!

This movie makes Snakes on a Plane look like Shakespeare.

F-

Final Fantasy Dissidia

Another Final Fantasy title announced during Jump Festa is FF: Dissidia. For the 20th Anniversary of Final Fantasy Sqenix is producing a very different type of Final Fantasy for the PSP, Dissidia is a fighting game of sorts that pits the protagonists and antagonists from FFI thru FFIX, maybe X.

The video below showcases fights between Zindane and Kuja from FFIX and Cecil and Kain from FFIV and closes with the Warrior of light facing off against....Sephiroth! The game is planned for the PSP, where was this title at the PSP's launch!? It would've /will sell many PSP's! Dissidia sounds pretty cool! Chaos vs Cloud, Sephiroth vs Ultimecia, Emperor Palmecia vs Tidus! Can't wait for this game to be released.

Movie Review: The Chronicals of Narnia the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

When my wife and I saw Narnia , she loved it but she had also read the book as a child. I on the other hand did not, I was reading JRR Tolkien and thus have mixed feelings about the film, I'll take her word that the film is faithful to the novel. The opening sequence in WWII England was fabulous and the final battle against the White Witch had some interesting similarities. Narnia is a great fantasy movie for children, like Harry Potter I hope this movie sparks an interest in reading the books. Tilda Swinton (The Beach) was amazing as the White Witch! As good as Ian Mckellan was as Gandalf, Tilda was just as good as the White Witch. My only gripe was that I think the film should have spent a bit more time with Jadis so the connection between her and the White Witch was a little clearer. I got it but I think it might be missed by "Joe movie goer". As I stated earlier this movie is for children but there are aspects adults will catch while the kids are mezmerized by talking bevers and lions. I am extremely pleased with the casting of the four children, they could've gone all Hollywood but opted to with truer actors, these kids fit the roles perfectly. Georgie Henley (Lucy) is delightful on screen and Skandar Keynes has just the right look as Edmund and does a good job portraying the character and all Edmunds emotions. There are many sickly sweet scenes, but I don't fault the film, it's that we adults aren't used to it anymore, we're jaded and synical. Children will see this film differntly than we do.But then there are scenes that felt unbalanced, most notably the Aslan sacrafice. It resonates a specific scene in Passion of the Christ. Whether intentional or not by C.S Lewis I made that connection, for kids it may be a bit too scary in my opinion.Another scene that seemed odd for me was when Father Christmas showed up out of thin air and gave these kids weapons. This scene seemed edited and didn't work quite as the extended scene in LotR when Galadriel gives the Fellowship gifts as they depart from Lothlorien.The final scene that didn't sit well with me was Lucy's first encounter with Mr Tumnus, but as I said earlier what I saw will not be what children see. When Mr Tumnus invites Lucy to his home for tea and cake I instantly had warnings going off in my mind. I somehow doubt children would have that same forboding.As I watched the final battle I kept thinking of William Wallace.....why? HmmmmThe fight between Peter and the Witch was enjoyable to watch, the sets were all magnificent, the aerial scenes with the Gryphons were cool, Liam Neeson doing the voice of Aslan was the right choice. There were some obvious super imposures that I spotted, but didn't detract from the overall experience. In the end the thing that stuck with me the most was something Professor Kirke told Lucy, during the credits, when she asked if she could ever go back to Narnia. It was the youngest of the four who first discovered Narnia, it was then that I realized as we get older we loose our imagination, we become jaded and see the world differently. So is the case with the audience, the children in the audience will be able to believe in Aslan and Mr. Tumnus and the beauty of Narnia, we will see four kids wisked away to the counrtyside to escape war torn england and thru there boredom create a fantastic world that mirrors the real world around them.

B