Shawn

Well I promised I would post a review of Avatar: The Last Airbender so here it is. Now, I will do my best to not give away anything but if you’ve seen the series, then you already know everything

(Proceed with caution….and grab a drink its rather lengthy!)

Now first off, I am a huge fan of the series, and albeit I have not seen every single episode, I’ve seen a vast majority of them (before you start sending hate mail don’t worry, I’m catching up on them (gotta love netflix) So anyways…I had been anticipating this movie’s release since I first heard about it and although so many people were skiddish about M. Night Shyamalan directing it, I was actually glad. A lot of movies he does end up getting bad reviews, but they’re not bad reviews because his work is bad, I believe they are bad reviews because the critics who gave the bad reviews just didn’t “understand” his work. I personally don’t think its fair to give someone a bad review just because you didn’t understand it, however so many people chalk up them not being able to understand it as bad writing, bad film work, ect.  Unfortunately this movie is not exempt, I hear it is getting torn apart by critics and other reviewers and you know why?  Yep..you guessed it, they didn’t understand it! This movie is not like your normal remakes where people just take the source and put their own spin on it and show it they way they wanted to (example: Dragonball: Evolution). Nope, this movie actually followed the series to the letter. So if you went to see it, and had never seen the series, then you would probably be a little bit confused.

I was thoroughly impressed. From the opening scene that had “Book One: Water” appearing on the screen thats when my excitement began. I’ve seen many filmmakers take anime and video game remakes and butcher it by trying to do too much of “their own thing”, which as an aspiring filmmaker myself I can respect, but you kind of spit in the face of the fans when you overdo it. M. Night Shyamalan did not do this, he followed the book to the letter and I think did an excellent job of cramming the entire first season into one movie and I hope more than anything he pumps out two more (Book Two and Three) Now I will tell you before I get into the negatives that I THOROUGHLY enjoyed the movie, and yes I did go see it in 3D, however there wasn’t much 3D to the movie but you cannot blame M. Night Shyamalan or any of the other people who made this movie because it “was not shot in 3D” it was simply converted later.  When you do not “shoot” something in 3D it’s not going to be the awesome 3D where everything comes flying out of the screen at you all the time. However it did improve the quality of the movie, the visual effects looked astounding! It was fully digital..but I digress…let me move on to the very minor problems I had with the film

Characters!  The most important part pf any story is the main protagonist(s) and antagonist(s) (heros/villains) as well as their companion characters. Now they did an AWESOME job of making the characters look and sound like the ones in the series, I’m serious, AMAZING job. However the character development could have used a little bit of work.

Aang: he wasn’t as playful and free spirited or act like a “child” in the movie as he does in the series. In the series he was always playful and you could really see that he was still a child that had this great responsibility forced onto him.  In the movie, he looks like a child, but doesn’t act like one as he should be. I do not know if this lay at fault in the writing, the director, or the actor, it’s hard to say. But still other than that he did a great job at playing Aang.

Sokka: Well, for those of you who saw the series, he was the comedy relief, always goofing off and getting into trouble or being scolded by Katara. In this movie, he was not comical at all, he tries in one of the very first scenes but it lacks enthusiasm. He actually played a bit too angry, and although his character is that of a strong warrior type, his character was not angry all the time. That is how Zuko’s character is..but we’ll get to him in a minute.  Again I don’t know where the fault lies here either, but given these minor faults I don’t want to give the movie a bad wrap because it has to be EXTREMELY difficult to physically “act” as “anime characters” as they can be drawn doing crazy things and having insane expressions on their faces that aren’t quite humanly possible without a little CGI lol and that usually looks cheesy so I’m glad they didn’t go that route.

Katara:  No complaints here actually, the girl playing Katara did an AMAZING job, I could get the same feel from her as I did the character in the series. You can sense and feel the caring nature of her, and the balance. She was always the balance of the group, and would keep people straight and on the right path. You can even see that she cares for Aang dearly and is protective of him, and I’m not talking about by scenes where the two are together or anything and words are spoken I mean by her acting, her facial expressions ect. There was one scene (and I wont give anything away don’t worry) that she comes in and helps Aang and this was shortly after she fought somebody and gets injured, but when she comes into the room and helps him you can just see it on her face.  If I was going to say any of the actors hit the nail on the head with their character it was her.

Zuko: Well this guy did a very good job also. If you know him from the series, he is always angry, very angry because he is trying to reclaim his “honor”. He did a good job at that too however a touch more angry would not have hurt. The only real problem I have is the fact that the scar on his face should have been MUCH more noticeable than it was. Now I’ve seen people make comments about the ethnicity of him and everyone else from the Fire Nation and said that this is not right and not how it should be. Well I say to those people you’re wrong. In the series there is no “Ethnicity” it’s just the different nations, and you cannot go by the “color at which the characters were drawn“. They did an awesome job at separating the different kingdoms the way they did and I believe they did it this way so you could easily tell them apart just by looking at them, regardless of what clothes they were wearing. This was excellently done by Shyamalan in my book because when you’re dealing with anime its very hard to get actors to fill the roles you want that match the characters, and when you’re dealing with whole “nations” that are separated by elements, this was a smart way to separate them so you could easily determine who was who. I would bet that even if you never saw the series I think you could differentiate between them.

Iroh: This is another character that I have NO complaints from, he did an excellent job and matter of fact, he did so excellent of a job I really don’t have much more than this to say about the character lol.

Toph Bei Fong: What about Toph you say? ..well sorry to burst your bubble but she wasn’t in the movie, but of course if you saw the series you know that she doesn’t come in until Book Two: Earth.  Soooo M. Night Shyamalan screw all the critics who give you a bad review. PLEAAAAASE make two and three!!  Especially two! Toph is my favorite character

Now this last and final problem I have with the movie is probably the worst problem I have with it…..the pronunciations…they pronounce Aang’s name wrong, and even pronounce Avatar wrong.  They pronounce Aang’s name “Ong” and pronounce Avatar as “Ah-vatar” this really irked me when I was watching the movie. I read that they pronounced Sokka’s name wrong too but I don’t remember, if so I didn’t catch it. I had a major problem with this until I read something from the IMDB website and found out why he did it and (although I wish he didn’t do it) I’m actually ok with it as his reason for doing it was to show respect for the “roots” of the show’s culture.  Here I’ll quote the page and section:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0938283/

According to M. Night Shyamalan, the “mispronunciation” of the names of some of the characters (Aang, Sokka, Avatar, etc) is due to the fact that he wished to ‘honor the source material’ and use the Asian pronunciation

Well all in all I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. After leaving the theater I felt satisfied and although there wasn’t as much 3D as I had hoped, I wasn’t mad that I spent the extra money, I was actually glad that I did because I got a far better experience (but I’m stickler for audio and video quality). After watching the movie it left me wanting more, to the point that I’d almost go see it again! I hope that M. Nighy Shyamalan decides to make at least one more if not two more. Unfortunately all the naysayers out there who rip this movie and give it bad reviews and trash it are going to be the ones who destroy any chances of that happening. Now, although I am an avid fan of the series, I try my best to give an unbaised review and I think I have done just that.

Comments, Thoughts, Additions, Suggestions, Hate Mail ect are all welcome as always!

-Shawn-

Live Streaming from my Android Phone

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If no live stream is playing go to http://qik.com/darkon for my archived video’s you may have just missed the live stream but its all stored there.

I will be spending this weekend attending Anime Mid-Atlantic, an annual Japanese Anime Convention that I attend every year..and yes I will be in costume. I will be Zero Kiryu from Vampire Knight. I will try to broadcast as much as I can., This is all being streamed from my android phone so I apologize for any quality issues or “low bandwidth” because its going to depend on the service areas weather or not I get good speeds. I’ll try to piggyback my phone off of a WiFi network when available so I can get the best speeds and quality.

I will be there June 11-13th. Anything between now and then is simply just a test run. I hope you enjoy!

Checkout the AMA website www.animemidatlantic.com if you are interested in learning more about it.

-Shawn-

It’s been far too long since I’ve posted something, but you know I’ve been very busy…procrastination does that to you, keeps you busy and you can’t get anything done! However, I thought it was time I posted something and this movie warrants a review, even on my meager little blog.

Yep, the move title says it all and that is EXACTLY what the movie did, Kicked much ass. It was the epic of epicness and as far as I can tell most people who have seen it feel the same way about it (except Roger Ebert’s dull, square self). Roger Ebert of course gave it 2 thumbs down because the movie was to much for his old virgin ears to comprehend. His review was also a “spoiler” of the movie which is something you DO NOT DO as a critic. I really believe his utter distaste for the movie gave him some sick form of pleasure by intentionally trying to spoil the movie so people wouldn’t go see it. Which again is VERY VERY bad for a critic to do. I give you the one finger salute Mr. Ebert ..|., you can suck it! However to those of us not brainwashed or inhibited by society’s portrayal of what you should and should not do with a movie, thoroughly enjoyed it and was taken on a thrill ride of action and humor in true comic book fashion. People have lost sight of what a movie is supposed to do, it is supposed to take you on a visual adventure much like a book uses your imagination and takes you on an adventure in your mind…in your miiiiiiiiind.  Anyway, as most of you know I am a writer (otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this blog lol) and you know that I am an aspiring filmmaker that just doesn’t have a leg to stand on in the industry yet because he doesn’t “Know the right people” but its only a matter of time. I’m working hard to get there and my motivation and determination will not falter…anyway back to the review.  This movie didn’t skip a beat, I was either laughing at some of the quips and humorous scenes or spouting out “Holy shit!” at certain scenes. All in all, I sat down with my popcorn, box of Nerds candy (thank you Wonka!) and extremely massive “too much to drink” soda and this movie took me on an adventure through the world of Mark Miller and John Romita Jr’s comic (which some of you may know was published by Marvel’s independent label Icon) but did it so well that even somebody who has never read the comics could thoroughly enjoy the movie and get everything from it that it intended. I will have to admit I have never read the comics, but I plan to be buying them now.  I plan to support this film and buy related merchandise because we need more filmmakers like this who aren’t afraid to cross the lines set by the pen pushers in suits (which were only set so they could control Hollywood). I left this movie amazed, excited and feeling like it was money very well spent. I’ve left movie theaters saying “Wow that was a good movie.” but there’s very few movies I go see and leave the theater saying “Wow..holy shit that movie was EPIC” and having that feeling of satisfaction and excitement. I could have spent 3 times the amount for that movie and STILL felt the same way. Now most of you may have seen the trailer, but let me tell you the trailer DOES NOT DO THE MOVIE JUSTICE, the trailer is only a taste of what the movie offers and albeit a good trailer, it DEFINITELY doesn’t showcase the movies full potential. The movie is about an ordinary guy that is just fed up with society and the way things are going and he was getting tired of being pushed around, so he finally decides to take a stand and become a superhero (with no super powers) Along the way there are other superheroes and interesting people that you will meet, without trying to spoil anything for you there is one character in the movie that, in my book, is the reason why the movie is deserving of the title Kick-Ass.  All in all I was very impressed with everything, the actors, the director the way the movie was shot, I mean there was not one negative thing about the movie. Not many movies out there are like that where you enjoy it from Title to Credits without having at least one discrepancy.  I have to give it a 5/5 and I will DEFINITELY be buying this movie as soon as it’s ready to come out.

I just can’t say it enough, the movie was truly EPIC! Kudos to you Matthew Vaughn, epic film work there!

-Shawn-

As most of you know the East Coast (where I reside) has been hammered over and over again with snow and ice. Before the snow has had a chance to even think about melting we are bombarded again with more! Now…I like snow..really, I do, especially considering we hardly ever get any WHEN WE WANT IT! (key words here) ok mother nature I think you’ve been overly generous by making up for what the few previous years have been lacking but seriously ENOUGH is as they say…ENOUGH! Now..this got me to thinking, perhaps, it isn’t mother nature at all and its some dastardly deed being implemented by some unknown evil villain from his secret hideout location. I have named said villain, “The Snowman” and unlike Dr. Horrible’s awetastically epic PhD in horribleness this villain must have a PhD Arctic Annoyance. Someone must stop him! So I have devised a plan. I shall build an Armored Combat Suit (nicknamed Destructo) to combat said evil villain! I will of course require donations from the local citizens as my piggy bank only holds so many pennies.  It shall be constructed with a diamond coated titanium exoskeleton armor with gold plated insulated anti-electromagnetic embedded central computing system including a fully integrated Heads Up Display in helmet and internal thermal temperature control system. It will also come equipped with deploy-able fully automatic shoulder mounted 50 caliber machine guns, fist mounted rocket launchers, thermal detonator projectiles, head mounted flamethrower, hand held plasma beam cannon, rocket boots, a jetpack, and a kickass sound system so I can jam out to rock music while fighting evildoers!

Enclosed is a sketch (Mind you this is HIGHLY CLASSIFIED information!)

It will take some time and money to forge and construct my super-weapon. Until then it looks like I’ll be driving this to and from work every day

(Click play the very moment you begin reading - You may have to let it load first - Enjoy, Comment!)

(EDIT: They have since removed the sound track from youtube, which is where I originally found it, but I actually have the mp3 It just wouldn’t let me embed it the way I wanted. I will work on trying to get the audio file back up and working soon. Because without it, this post is kind of useless)

Shadows dance across the rooftops and wind whistles as it scatters dust across the floor of the nearby open buildings. Worn sandstone tablets litter the ground from the many half-toppled buildings and shacks that many refugees call home. Moonlight reflects from the murky well water in the center of town. A bucket dips down into water dissipating the moon’s projection on the water’s surface. A small boy stands near the well while another boy appearing twice his age reels in the water filled bucket. Their clothes are torn and both appear malnourished. The young boy turns quickly, the moon revealing scars of a harsh life upon his face. Off in the distance a rumble is heard, unidentifiable at first. A beast from the plains perhaps? A creation of man? Neither would be a surprise in this place. Between the raids and wild animal attacks this place has seen its share of misery and devastation. The strange sound gets closer, it’s definitely not an animal. Two lights spring to life revealing the mysterious intruder. Its the sound of an engine! “Rebels!” the older boy yells. A whistling sound is heard as nearby building explodes sending rocky shrapnel flying in all directions. Smoke and dust fill the air as machine gun fire rings out and bullets are heard ricocheting off the stone structures.  The two take off through the cloud of smoke running through the rubble laden village screaming at the top of their lungs for aid. Another building explodes and sending stone and debris flying into their path. The village comes to life as people awaken to the sounds of gunfire and explosions. A high pitched bell resembling that of an old dinner bell rings out rapidly from a larger building far away signaling everyone as a beacon of hope leading them to safety. The village erupts into chaos as two military style trucks pull up into the village. Gunfire rings out as men open fire from the backs of the truck, gunning down anyone trying to flee. Screams are heard as some of the fleeing refugees are hit by bullets tearing through the village. Less than a dozen armed men emerge from the trucks and begin to go from house to house rounding up women and children and shooting any resist. Smoke and fire can be seen from far off in the distance. “Damnit I’m too late!” Sam says out loud. He places a fresh clip in his AK47, chambers a round and runs toward the village. He can see people running toward the large building off in the distance, many make it others fall to the ground short. Two men appear in the upper windows of the large building and open fire with what seem to be old bolt action hunting rifles and are hardly a match for the invading rebels. The side of the building explodes as a rocket propelled grenade hits the right side of the building. Sam reaches the edge of town and takes aim on 3 of the rebels. Being mindful of his limited ammunition he chooses his shots carefully. He pulls the trigger letting out a three-round burst fire, hitting one rebel dead center in the chest. As he falls the two other rebels turn toward Sam but are quickly dropped by two more precision busts. With his presence now known a few more rebels run to intercept him they spot him, take aim and open fire. He dives to the right as a few bullets impact the ground a few feet from where he landed. Rolling back to his feet he continues to run to a small building and takes cover behind it. Bullets barely miss him as he looks around the corner long enough to count four rebels fixed on his position. He quickly leans around aiming blindly and fires hitting one rebel out of sheer luck. Quickly he jumps back as more a few bullets find their mark on the corner of the building barely missing him. He runs around the other side of the building and flanks the remaining three rebels. He takes one down with a well placed shot to the head and lets out a spray gunfire riddling the other two rebels with bullets. The gun clicks loudly indicating he’s out of ammo. He falls back behind the building and leans against the cold stone structure as he releases the empty magazine and grabs the last clip from his satchel. He checks for an ammo count “Damnit only three rounds left” he says as he loads the clip and chambers a round. He slowly moves to the corner of the building and looks around it to scan the area “Good thing there’s only two left..wait a minute make that three”. A larger man dressed in different clothing than the rest and wearing an eye patch emerges from one of the trucks. He is yelling at the two other rebels and pointing off in certain directions as if he is in charge. Leaning around the building Sam takes aim on the leader of the rebel group and fires. He misses his target and the bullet impacts the side of the truck. The the leader takes cover on the other side of the truck and begins opening fire on Sam’s location. With only two rounds left he quickly looks around the corner to analyze the situation. He swings back around, taking aim and fires one round at one of the rebels, the bullet strikes his chest. He drops to his knees only for a moment before falling over into a puddle of gas that seems to be leaking from the truck. “Two left but only one bullet, Sam Sam sam, how are you going to get your ass out of this mess” he says to himself. He looks around the corner again and notices a gas can attached to the back of the truck but he doesn’t have a clear shot. Taking a deep breath he pushes off from the side of the building and runs toward a pile of sandstone from one of the fallen buildings and dives behind it for cover. Now having a clear shot at the gas can, he takes aim and fires hitting the gas can, gas sprays out in all directions but nothing more. “Oh shit, plastic!” he curses realizing he is now out of ammo. He grabs the knife from his boot and looks toward the rebels to find a good path. All of a sudden fire erupts when the leaking gas makes contact with a nearby burning building. Within seconds the entire area around the truck and the rebel soldier is engulfed in flames. The rebel leader begins to run as the fire makes its way to the truck. The truck explodes sending metal and glass flying in all directions. The force of the blast knocks the rebel into a nearby rubble pile impaling him on one of the support beams. Sam stands up and scans the area for any remaining rebels, realizing its all clear he brushes himself off and begins walking with his hands in the air toward the large building in the distance.

Video Source Link: http://hitrecord.org/records/26018

Ok..  I’m sure I’m not the only one who has had to deal with this so I am pretty sure you all will agree..

What is the purpose of the drive through at a fast food establishment? To be “FAST” right? Hence the emphasis on “Fast Food”.  Ok so if you have no idea what you want, go inside so you can peruse the menu and decide what you want and then step in line.  Ok granted we’re all guilty of rolling up at the drive through speaker and go “I want a…wait a min..hrmm, that looks good too..” and now even though we’ve had our mind set on what we wanted to eat the fact that we are faced with a multitude of possibilities has completely obliterated our original idea.  Ok so given that reality, I cut the lady some slack and sit patiently in my car hoping that it doesn’t overheat and I’m able to order my food sometime before the next ice age.

So the lady starts ordering enough things to feed half of a football team, cancels part of it, then asks what comes with each meal and if she can substitute this for this and that for that…probably confusing the everlivingshit out of the guy behind the speaker. …and get this…all while staring in her driver side mirror looking back at me with this evil look on her face. At this point i wanted to just ram into the back of her car and push her out of the way because it was clear she was doing it on purpose.  So after debating with the drive through guy for what seemed to be fortnight she finally completes her order, I could tell she was pissed because she couldn’t get half of the things she wanted.  He gives her the total so I begin prepare to engage my vehicle into a forward motion and approach the speaker however I am denied said forward movement as her vehicle blocks my path still. She sits there looking at the menu a little bit longer and then sits there in her car while staring at me through her driver side mirror with this wickedly evil look on her face.  Who knew I would encounter my nemesis in an Arby’s drive through. Finally she pulls up (ever so slowly of course and I was debating on giving her a “push” to help her out and use the “I’m sorry, but I thought you were having car trouble and needed a push” excuse. I pull up, glanced across the menu, quickly chose what I wanted, ordered, received my total and proceeded around the corner. That’s how drive throughs are meant to be!

So we meet again….

So I drive around the corner and guess what she’s at the window DOING IT AGAIN! Asking every possible question known to man, questions that is clearly annoying the hell out of the employee working the drive through. So she finally gets her food and yep…you guessed it. She SITS there and inspects every single bag, every single food item, almost like she’s inspecting it down to every single curly fry. After she finishes the investigation of her food items, she sits there. Seriously?!? What more could you possibly need to do in a drive through?!?! You’ve already exceeded the maximum allotted drive through time 10 fold. Eventually she drives off, not before staring me down in her driver side mirror as if she was trying to blast me with laser beams from her eyes.  I don’t know the lady but if we so happen to encounter each other again I believe that drive through is going to turn into an episode of Vehicular Thunderdome!

TWO CARS ENTER!!! ONE CAR LEAVE!!!