Review: Snow White and the Huntsman

I was hoping to do a Compare/Contrast type of review between Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman but I never got around seeing the former and I didn’t feel like waiting for the latter to hit DVDs before reviewing it . Should I review Mirror Mirror I may revisit this post. For now let’s take a look and judge this film on its own.

Anyway as I’ve said before I think people are too hard on Kristen Stewart because, like Robert Pattinson, she’s the public face of the Twilight franchise. I still haven’t seen any of the Twilight films but I’ve seen her in The Cake Eaters, The Runaways, and Welcome to the Rileys and she was decent in all of them. I’m not saying she’s the greatest thespian in Hollywood but she has a fair range and is well above the line of terrible (Pattinson has yet to do anything for me). Seriously, she’s a whole hell of a lot better actress than January Jones (who I’m convinced with a name like that and her sub-par acting was actually meant to become a porn star but somehow her destiny went array and she broke into mainstream acting instead). And that’s the important thing.

Her latest non-Twilight film is a gritty fantasy adaption of the classic Snow White which seems kind of bizarre but not as novel as it would have been a few years ago. In fact gritty re-imagining of Fairy Tales is pretty much the norm these days. The film has done surprisingly well its opening weekend but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a piece of crap.

Full review after the jump.

Review: Men in Black 3

I should have included this movie in the Summer Movie Preview from a few weeks back since a) this is a science fiction themed film that is b) based on a comic book, and that’s clearly up my alley. However I literally just plain forgot that this movie existed. That is probably a good clue of what my personal feelings going into this flick. Anyway…

Dear Hollywood, 

 I understand that you’re currently in a phase, a possibly never-ending phase, where you’re banking off brand recognition for your films in order to make profit. So I do understand the logic behind making a sequel to a film that came out ten years ago. But there is question that you don’t ask yourself enough when you green light this stuff: do we, as a society, need this movie? Men in Black 3 fifteen years removed from the original Men in Black doesn’t seem like a film that caters to a clear cut audience. It can’t be aimed at children since how many young kids are old enough to even remember Men in Black? Is it aimed for people my age? Because I feel that the ability to care about such an old franchise passed about seven years ago. I’ll give your credit for bringing in Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones and original director Barry Sonnenfeld. But you lose all that credit since Sonnenfeld started filming BEFORE THE SCRIPT WAS EVEN DONE! 

My point is this: Men in Black 3 shouldn’t exist, especially after Men in Black II which was an awful, awful film. Just because you can make a terrible sequel doesn’t mean you should. Do you really think this film will be a huge hit here in 2012? 

Love,

Beta Magnus

Full review after the jump.

Review: Dark Shadows (Film)

Dark Shadows is a film based on the soap opera of the same name. Running from 1966 to 1971 the series was a supernatural themed show, meaning that it had ghosts and vampires and all that good stuff. As I understand it a young Johnny Depp was obsessed with this show, specifically with the vampire character Barnabas Collins, to the point that he apparently wore cape as a child. Starring in a Dark Shadows film seemed to be a dream project of his and wanted his good friend and collaborator Tim Burton to make it a reality.

A word on the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp relationship, if I may.

Longtime friends they first worked together on Burton’s film Edward Scissorhands and their most recent film was Alice in Wonderland. Now some of these collaborations are considered very good while others not so much. Such is the nature of Tim Burton because in general he’s always been very hit or miss when it comes to making movies. But many people have been saying they’ve gotten pretty sick of it lately partly because no one really liked Alice in Wonderland and partly because things weren’t looking any better in the months leading up to this film’s release. As always because he directed Big Fish I had to give Burton the benefit of the doubt because that movie was crazy awesome. Did I regret my blind obedience or did things work out better than last time?

Full review after the jump.

[WARNING: Lots of spoilers in this review. Read at your own risk]

Beta vs. Motor City Comic Con

I was going to work on a review of Dark Shadows but a mix of laziness and a trip to a convention derailed my plans a bit.  What convention you ask? Why none other than the Motor City Comic Con.  I don't go to conventions often, mainly because they cost money I don't have any money.  But this one happens to mostly be a bunch of vendors selling stuff so the cost of admission wasn't that high. The Lady loves going to these kind of things so she thought it'd be fun if we went.

About twelve years ago I used to go to this thing every year (It used to be twice a year and I often went to both) so I thought it'd be fun if I filmed d a little bit of it for prosperity.  Check out what I came up with.

I didn't want to be an asshole with a video camera filming every damn thing so we took some photos as well.  Check them out after the jump.

Review: Avengers vs. X-Men #3

Here we are with another issue of Avengers vs. X-Men. One unfortunate trend I’ve been noticing about this series is that apparently a lot of stuff has been happening in tie-in issues. Specifically a really cool thing happened in (I believe) Uncanny X-Men #11 where Cyclops releases “The Avenger Protocol”…which turns out to be the X-Men’s PR rep sending out an e-mail detailing the situation from their point of view, depicting the Avengers as an invading, hostile American force come to kidnap Hope Summers because she’s a mutant. Which means Cyclops is awesome because he just destroyed the Avenger’s good public image. Depressingly this doesn’t happen in the book I’m actually reading. Again, I’m not reading tie-ins because Marvel is releasing this main series, so anything necessary to get the whole plot should be here and anything else should just be there to enhance the story. My friend who’s been more proactive in checking out various tie-ins tells me that certain Avengers are now picking sides, which hasn’t happened in the main book yet (Although that may change with issue four). Should this continue and more interesting and important details come out outside of this book this miniseries will be a failure simply because it would mean I would have to spend an unreasonable amount of money a completely story.

Anyway the artwork is again done the team of John Romita, Jr. (Pencils), by Scott Hanna (Inks) and colors by Laura Martin (Colors) but this time Ed Brubaker takes the reins on the script.

Full review after the jump.

[WARNING: Lots of spoilers in this review] 

5 Unpopular Opinions About Dragon Ball

[By the way, the poll on the left is finally closed. According to it I have...four fans total, and two people who visit periodically. Clearly I'm on my way to internet celebrity] 

No "Z" Necessary

If you were to say that Dragon Ball and/or Dragon ball Z is the best manga/anime of all time it’d be hard to argue with you. It’s been almost thirty years since its debut and it still has a ton of fans all over the world and continues to do pretty darn well as far as merchandise goes, seeing as video games featuring Goku and his friends are still pretty good sellers. My friend Iron Eagle, who is a teacher, tells me that kids are still fully aware of the franchise. When you think about it too closely it’s pretty crazy. But just because it’s popular and long lived doesn’t mean it’s perfect.

Many of you know damn well that it’s hard for me to say I’m not a fan of franchise without looking like a big liar. The truth is I love the manga; it’s a fun comic that doesn’t require a whole lot of thinking on my part to thoroughly enjoy it. I have always been pretty annoyed with the anime though. However my biggest problems with the franchise aren’t limited to its cartoon. Much like with Star Wars about a year ago I decided to express some of my issues with the DB franchise.

Now I need to remind you all that these are just my opinions. I’m just saying how I’ve interpreted things and you can very easily disagree. Feel free to do so in the comment section, or better yet come up with your own lists.

Click below for unbelievably nerdy rambling.

Review: The Avengers (2012)

And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth's mightiest heroes found themselves united against a common threat!

I’m writing this intro from the past (Last week) before I’ve actually seen The Avengers. The review after the jump is slightly more recent. Anyway I’ve talked a lot about this movie and Marvel Studio's quest for 100 million bags of gold coins bringing their characters to life in a single cinematic universe and I assume you’re as sick of me saying basically the same things over and over again as I am. Here’s the basic stuff you need to know if you’ve been living under a rock:

As teased in the post credits stinger of the first Iron Man movie in 2008 Marvel has been building towards an Avengers film for four long years. Since then there have been several films all in the same continuity: The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger. Cameos from the various characters, Easter Eggs and littered throughout and plenty of post-credit teasers; all of it in order to set the tone and create the world for this film. And practically every damn person from those film are reprising their roles…except Edward Norton because, you know, screw that guy I guess. Joss Whedon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Dollhouse and writer of the greatest superhero comic ever (Astonishing X-Men #1-24) is both writing and directing it and if there’s one guy in Hollywood I give a lot of leeway with its him. It’s a terrible idea to get one’s hopes up in a movie like this but with the pedigree involved it’s damn hard not to.

Full review after the jump.

Review: The Five-Year Engagement

Jason Segal is awesome. He’s one of the best comedic actors in Hollywood, he’s a talented writer and pretty much dedicated something like five years of his life to bringing the Muppets back into popularity (Then rode into sunset like a man after it was all over). He’s like the perfected version of what Seth Rogen is famous for being, except he’s much taller and has a waaay better first name. The Five-Year Engagement is, more or less, a follow-up to Segal and frequent collaborator/director Nicholas Stoller’s critically acclaimed Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Directed by Stoller and written by both it’s another quirky R-Rated romantic comedy.

The problem is that when it came out on April 27th it bombed. Hell, every new movie that came out April 27th bombed leaving Think Like a Man on top of the Box Office yet again (I haven’t seen it yet but this might be the most annoying weekend result for me since The Expendables made Scott Pilgrim bomb). As of this writing it’s only made about a third of its budget back and with The Avengers (150 million bucks and counting) coming out this weekend I’m guessing it’s not going to have an upswing any time soon. But as John Carter taught us a bad financial outing doesn’t mean a film is bad so we’re going to give this flick a chance.

Full review after the jump.