Super 8

Super 8
Kids meet an alien that just wants to go home. Sounds familiar except this is a Steven Spielberg movie, oh wait never mind.

Nothing new here and the special effects when seen on an old fashion TV looks just okay. I guess every generation needs lonely alien movie but I saw the best and do not care for updates.

For those younger movie goers this may be worth it as it has minor adventures and loud noises. The group of kids are cute and great actors.

Superman vs. The Elite

Superman vs. The Elite


The hero epics continue with yet another cartoon movie. In this one we superman questioning whether is non-deadly use of force is effective. A group of newcomers is much more violent and aggressive and the world seems to like it.

Eventually these newbies known as The Elite challenge Superman defeating him in a very public way. Yet Superman does the old switcharoo and tricks them. Eventually the world see that death is not the answer.

It was an old fashioned morals tale but the use of so much violence obscures the message.

Thor

Thor was another of those Marvel comics movie. It featured Natalie Portman but in my opinion Kat Dennings stole the show. Dennings sense of humor was the only thing that made this movie fun. Portman and Chris Hemsworth made this movie serious and I will applaud them for that seeing how they are dealing with mythical characters.

Thor is rendered powerless for most of the film and must deal with an evil brother. As gods none of them were sympathetic even after losing powers or almost dying. I first learned of Thor from the classic Adventure in Babysitting but never found his story appealing.

The Avengers Movie has several origin movies and I have watched all except Captain America, it seems the most boring. Still none of them are great and yes I include Iron Man. Not to just knock Marvel but I also hated the Dark Knight movies so DC also fails at putting up great superhero movies. The last superhero movie I enjoyed was Batman with Michael Keaton.

Loosing vs. Losing

Internet stupidity is spilling on to the TV. The Sunday August 15, 2013 night edition of the local ABC news had this grammatical error on display. I think what ever college intern who does the on air graphics did not even know they made a mistake.

In the last few months I have encountered over 100 people using loosing when they clearly meant to use losing. Here is the only proper use:

-To cast loose; detach: hikers loosing their packs at camp. 

The Jets coach should be LOSING HIS COOL not LOOSING HIS COOL.  He is not letting is cool detach he is actually having control issue with his cool. Given that Sanchez is his only QB hope I do not blame him.

For the sake of grammar and the future of the 

American-English language please always correct the kids when the spell losing wrong.

The Hunger Games

I tend to avoid the teen adult novels turned into movies but then I still watch them on TV. All the Harry Potters were truly awful, among the worst things put to film since snuff movies were invented.

Now The Hunger Games has a ridiculous plot that I could never get past with an actress who could not act here way out of paper bag.

The plot involves people in the far future from different districts who send there children to fight and die because they borrowed food from the one's in charge. Each district is a stereotype of workers like miners, farmers, and others. Some war that ended at least 74 years earlier lead to the invention of a game where 24 kids fight each other to death until only one person is left. It is not said what the winner gets but fame and fortune is suggested.

Katniss is the tale's hero. She uses her limited emotions, or at least Jennifer Lawrence's limited emotions, to save her sister from the "I-borrowed-food-lottery" and takes her place. Katniss is a hunter so killing is no an issue but she finds the games morally wrong. Although she ends up killing a bunch of kids she wins the love of the audience who watches this tragedy as sport.

After not killing herself and new BFF from her district the two district 12 heroes return home to an unknown future. Something in the world has changed though as Katniss has inspired more than a fanbase.

This movie is forgettable and reminds me of the dozens of 1970s futuristic movies about mankind almost dying. The looked silly back in the 70s and this remake does not add anything new to the genre. 

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse

Maybe it is working with young people or the fact I have a new Netflix accounts but I have been watching an abnormal amount of cartoon movies. Working with teens and twenty-somethings you miss a few of their references and most is music and movies. Comic book movies and young adult novels movies are the worst but I have been trying to give them a chance.

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse
This has Supergirl making her debut and then Apocalypse and friends make things complicated. Not as violent as a Marvel comic movie but still some bad deaths. I do enjoy the rich story lines and the animation is cool. Aside from that nothing stands out, you always know the good guys win.

After the movie they have another DC showcase short but those are much worse. The feature is all you need to watch because the DC universe is too big to explore in one night.

Planet Hulk

I was talking with co-workers about cartoons when I was a kid and how they never actually killed anyone. Even the Hulk was a kind monster. These youngster told me I should watch the new Marvel and D.C. cartoons and I would be shocked. So I did and I was.

In Planet Hulk you have the Hulk being exiled to a paradise planet. Unfortunately The Hulk as usual makes things worse by going off course and becoming a slave. It was just the story of Ben-Hur done by Marvel. Throughout the struggle out of slavery many being were violently killed. Even if none were human they still died in such horrible ways for a cartoon that was not meant to be funny.

Now the graphics and animation were great nothing like the old cartoons the repeated backgrounds to save time. The physics were unrealistic but that is something that is common in all superhero movies whether cartoon or live-action.

Would I watch more of these? Yes, but not with children around.

Mr. Popo

Dragon Ball first came out in cartoon form back in 1986 and the world was rich one filled with fantasy creature living alongside humans in what seem s to be the near future.

Mr. Popo is a genie who lives peacefully and tends the grounds of a lookout. Unfortunately the Japanese animators found stereotypes non-offensive and honestly did not think they did anything wrong. When drawing this guy.

As you may know this cartoon became popular in America a decade ago and currently is in reruns for kids programming all over. As far as I know no one has complained about any of the stereotypes but certain networks have modified Mr. Popo.

Why so blue? Well because people in the U.S. often overreact. There are dozens of Bugs, Tom and Jerry, and others episodes that I remember watching as a kid that are no longer being aired. While some are obvious even the minor violence in those Tom and Jerry cartoons have been de facto banned on televesion.

I do not mind not showing things but modifying them seems wrong. The original is always better and modifying messes with the story in certain ways. Among other Mr. Popo changes was most scenes with his flying carpet. Apparently the genie stereotype is also offensive so they tried to Disney-fy him by making him blue and losing all the references to an Arabic/Persian origin.

I cannot wait to see how future people will modify The Simpsons and all there offensive yellow skin and bulging eyes.

SVU's Season 14 Finale

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Her Negotiation

The season finale has a serial rapist and torturer that is clever enough never to get convicted going after Olivia. This was not revealed until the final seconds of the show and leads to possible big change when the 15th season premieres on Wednesday, September 25.

They came close to assaulting Olivia in the past but never have because that is unrealistic. The show has been heavy on every woman is a potential victim except for Olivia and I hope they have not crossed that line. Detective Olivia Benson is the strongest person on the show and to have some random criminal of the week assault her would put me off the show permanently.

Not every woman is a victim and the will cross a line by making Olivia one. Knowing this criminals pattern I hope she anticipated he was going to hunt her and this is a trap. If not I hope she fights him even if it means she dies because to become a victim seems worse.

I am late in watching the season finale so it would be fresh in my mind as the new season premieres. That faxt that I am on the edge of my seat waiting to see how this storyline plays out proves this show still has great writing. I hope they do not disappoint.