Tag: movies

Attempting to kill The Killing Joke

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Over the holidays, I took a little bit of time to watch the animated rendition of Batman: The Killing Joke, widely regarded as one of the most memorable Batman comics ever made.  Despite curmudgeon Alan Moore’s best attempts to discount its merit, there’s no denying that it’s a genuine classic that puts an exclamation point on the dark undertones of the series, and shows a very serious and vicious rendition of The Joker and a storyline that distances it miles away from the safeness of The Animated Series and the campiness of the 60’s Adam West show.

When the film debuted over the summer during Comic-Con, there was a lot of buzz in the negative sense about its execution; something about an artificially added storyline, damaging of female empowerment, and a very non-canonical relationship.  In other words, typical nerd outrage over something that a lot of people didn’t agree with.  Although the details of these particular elements did sound a little suspect, I didn’t really want to come to any conclusions without seeing it myself; after all, with the return of Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy to reprise their TAS roles, maybe this could be an epic retelling of an epic comic story.

Well, after watching The Killing Joke, put me in the camp of comic nerds who believes it was overall crap.

Continue reading “Attempting to kill The Killing Joke” →

Rogue One’s new alien race: Asians

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

This is the face I imagined Donnie Yen making when being told that his character was going to be basically a blind martial artist.

Disclaimer: I will not give away any Rogue One plot, but I make no promises that I will not state any character characteristics.  But who are we kidding, you’re not going to actually even have the chance to read this until my brog is back up, which really might be never.

To cut to the chase, mythical gf and I went and saw Rogue One on “opening night.”  Frankly, I’m not thrilled to have to shell out $40 for movie tickets that cost more than a home edition would be, but we live in a world that puts importance on immediacy, mostly because people on social media don’t know how to shut the fuck up, and not seeing things the very moment they’re released leaves one subject to the litany of spoilers that internet blabbermouths are inevitably going to barf out as soon as their fingers reach any sort of keyboard.  It also sets the bar extremely high for me to feel like a movie is remotely worth the cost of admission.

Rogue One was an entertaining movie.  I found it enjoyable, and nowhere near as bad as anything with Jar-Jar Binks in it.  It wasn’t $20 admission-per good, but honestly short of live performance and/or sports, I’m hard pressed to think of many things that are.  But I feel like there was an evident amount of care put into the movie that made sure to act as an appropriate addition to the franchise while not stepping on the toes of existing canonical storylines, while executing creative ways to tie existing plots together.

Continue reading “Rogue One’s new alien race: Asians” →

Another Wolverine movie and the sky is also blue

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Man, FOX is really milking their Wolverine hard-on all the way to the end, huh?  I think I’m more surprised that Hugh Jackman is completely okay reprising Wolverine for the ninth time with Logan, but I guess he really likes money and is completely okay with being typecast as Wolverine for the rest of eternity, no matter what else he does with his career.

Seriously though, Jackman has shown up in literally every single The Wolverine Show Movie Occasionally co-starring the X-Men, and just about every single one of them revolves around him.  Aren’t the fans tired of the character being ret-conned over and over again?

Wolverine hijacks all three of the original X-Men films, gets his own origin film, then his own stand-alone film.  He makes a cameo in First Class, before being thrust back into the spotlight in Days of Future Past, which I’m convinced existed solely to reset the Wolverine timeline so more Wolverine and Wolverine-centric films can be produced.  This is confirmed with his cameo in Apocalypse that takes him straight back to Weapon X.  And now Logan will be Wolverine in the far future.

Continue reading “Another Wolverine movie and the sky is also blue” →

Sensitivity cranked to eleven

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Last weekend, I saw Finding Dory.  I thought it was a pleasant film.  It’s definitely a sequel that absolutely requires prerequisite watching of Finding Nemo in order to understand the numerous references from the prior film.  But it’s a film that as should be expected with most Disney/Pixar collaborations, is the definition of a good movie; decently written, with a clear and basic point and objective, tastefully humorous and has a tremendous amount of heart.

I enjoyed the film, and walked out of the theater feeling entertained and pleased with my time investment.

But leave it to The Internet to actively seek out things to find offensive and subsequently complain about it, and do their best to put a wet blanket over something good.

Continue reading “Sensitivity cranked to eleven” →

Catching up with stories

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

During my weekend alone, I think I made it kind of clear that I wasn’t feeling too great, emotionally.  Catching up on writing about things kind of helped, but along the way, in between posts written, I found myself getting distracted.  I would check Facebook or play a League of Legends match, and then I’d chastise myself for squandering the opportunity of time that I had, and that I shouldn’t be wasting time doing what I could do at other times.

This was Saturday afternoon.  Since then, I haven’t played any League, and I closed Facebook everywhere; my browser, the tabs on both my iPhone and iPad, and on my other laptop.  More than anything, I think not looking at social media has been something cathartic and the forced separation something of a good thing.  What started as an evening became a day, and then it’s become several days, and at the time I’m writing this, I still haven’t checked Facebook.

The funny thing is how many times I’ve had to stop myself from almost doing so, especially over my phone, while I’m at work, in between assignments, or those fleeting moments where I want to not be doing work, catch my breath and see what’s going on elsewhere in the world.  I’ve frantically forced quit the app numerous times since then.  Eventually, I’ll check again, once routine settles back down.

But the time not spent playing League or looking at social media and thinking about either, I’ve actually, not surprisingly, been somewhat productive, in a manner of speaking; by catching up with stories.  And not “stories” as in hicks talking about television shows per say, although I am talking about some television shows; but if it weren’t for the fact that I finished reading one book, then I’d basically have entitled this whole thing “catching up on movies and shows.”

Continue reading “Catching up with stories” →

I hate 3D movies

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

A weekend ago, mythical girlfriend and I talked about possibly going out to see a movie.  We knew what we had in mind, but what lied ahead of us was the dubious task of finding a theater within reasonable distance, and a showing time that could accommodate us grabbing a quick bite to eat without keeping us out too late, as mythical girlfriend’s schedule has work on the weekends.

Needless to say, while combing through Fandango we didn’t find many options that fit our criteria without it being just beyond the realm of leisurely capability, or nowhere near any viable dining options.  And every single time we found a showing that might work, at a location that had some decent grub nearby, it turned out that it was a 3D showing.

We then entered a conversation about how really, we both didn’t like 3D films, because one, they’re absurdly more expensive than regular films, and two, the necessity to wear glasses is a pain in the ass, and for people like me who already wear glasses, the idea of stacking on a second pair just to watch a film is not very appealing.  We agreed that the only reason we end up watching 3D films at all, is because either their showings are at times that are convenient to our agendas, or we’re amidst a group that, again found the time to be convenient, or actually likes 3D films, and group mentality dictates going with the flow.

Continue reading “I hate 3D movies” →

Furiously excited for more Fast logos

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Among some of my guiltiest of guilty pleasures is my general love for The Fast and the Furious film franchise. I mean, when I was a wannabe car tuner who thought everything JDM was god-like, and wanted to do a laundry list of things to the cars that I’ve driven, I watched the first film with that “it’s going to suck, but I’m going to watch it, so I can criticize everything wrong with it,” oblivious to the irony that I was forking over my money to feed the machine regardless.

Eventually, the arrogance and false sense of superiority dissipated AKA I began to grow up, and it turned out that I actually enjoyed these terrible films. Yes, I enjoy them, but there’s little denying the fact that they’re really campy, over-the-top films. My mom would watch it and call it an “엉터리 movie,” which translated literally means “nonsense.” Whatever though, I still enjoy them, and I can admit that I have seen every single one.

Needless to say, I was amused by the announcement by Vin Diesel who used social media to drop the news that not only is the FF franchise continuing for an eighth installment, but there are plans to have a ninth, and a tenth installment of the story, so that the franchise can literally boast ten films in twenty years. Also amusing are their tentative April release dates, so I can probably pull out the birthday card and force mythical girlfriend to go see them with me. hue hue.

Continue reading “Furiously excited for more Fast logos” →