Went to see Captain America last night, a somewhat late showing, and in a small- to mid-sized theater, since we opted for the 2D showing. Still, we got there nearly 45 minutes early, and the best seats were already taken, and the theater was completely full by the time the movie started, so I guess that's good news for Marvel ( Read more... )

Been thinking about TV and film adaptations of sci-fi and fantasy novels lately, after a couple of events. The first was being part of a conversation about Game of Thrones, where most of the participants had seen the TV series, but never read the books. The other was seeing complaints about "spoilers" in reviews of Harry Potter and the Deathly ( Read more... )

Enough of the travelogue; it was nearly a month ago now anyway. I have a question: If you're bringing out a big-budget movie called Captain America, a movie about the most patriotic superhero there is, and you're bringing it out as a summer tentpole movie, what date do you pick? I mean, seriously, how do you not go for July 4? Yeah, OK, I know. ( Read more... )

Sparky and I went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 on Saturday, which we'd both been looking forward to for some time. I was curious to see if they'd pull it off, because the first movie didn't seem to leave a lot of room for a sequel. If you send your hero on a Voyage of Self-Discovery in the first movie, and he, well, Discovers Himself, then where do you ( Read more... )

(Yes, I went for the obvious joke title. Somebody's got to do it.)

Saw Thor on Saturday night. Although I hadn't intended to see it in 3D, there was a problem at the theater with our showing, so we got a free upgrade to the 3D version. I didn't mind, because the upgrade was better than waiting 30+ minutes for our showing, and the 3D version was on ( Read more... )

The "summer movie season" starts in a couple of days, when Thor hits theaters. And even though I've pretty strictly limited my movie consumption the past couple of years, I was thinking of kicking it up a notch this summer, because there's a number of things that appeal to me. I'm a Marvel junkie, so Thor and Captain America are no-brainers -- but ( Read more... )

Went with Elora and Sparky to see Deathly Hallows, Part I this afternoon, and it was...well, pretty much exactly what I expected, really. It was dark, it was brooding, it has lots of bad things happen, and it has no ending. If it were forced to stand on its own, not as half of a longer movie, or as the seventh movie in a series, I'm sure it would ( Read more... )

Elora and I watched Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time the other night, and we were surprised to find that it wasn't nearly as awful as we thought it would be. That's not an unfair assumption to start with, given that most movies based on video games are simply terrible. As it happens, we've played the game the movie is based on (neither of us ( Read more... )

I mentioned to my gaming group last night that I was thinking of joining the Scott Pilgrim backlash movement. It's a logical fit -- for those who don't know, Scott Pilgrim, the graphic novel, is the current darling of the indy-comics set, those who believe that comics are an art form that can tell more stories than just guys in tights punching ( Read more... )

Saw Inception last night. Very satisfying on many levels, although I think I was expecting a bigger twist or gotcha at the end. Also, for all the trailer footage of folding up Paris, they didn't seem to emphasize the dream-state very much; except for the very awesome hotel scenes, it was more or less realistic. I didn't have much trouble ( Read more... )