Unfamiliar faces in pop culture are like crops that haven'tburned yet. Our understanding
of Aquaman will change once again in the upcoming Batman vs Superman film which
is expected to be released in 2016.
Momoa isn't a Hollywood poster star like Ben
Affleck however, it could be a breakout role for him in mainstream films. He began his career as an actor for television series; Khal Drogo, his most notable role in hit HBO series Game of Thrones. Fans believed he was
exceptional as the violent and brooding character from George RR Martin's book
series. Given the evidence of the actor's work, its possible the writers are
aiming for an Aquaman that relies on brute strength; a hero that can take out an entire army with his bare fists. That similar type of Aquaman DC illustrated in the mid 90's carried a trident and had a hook for a left
hand. The biggest difference with Snyder's Aquaman is that he won't have the blonde hair, which, was one of the hero's most prominent, physical features.
No one would expect
Eisenberg to play the villainous Lex Luthor before watching him in The Double
(2013) which, has just recently gained him credibility for the role. Momoa on the other hand, was an excellent choice upon hearing the news. Theirs certainly been many surprises
with the casting, and theirs no mistake that DC is going all out in trying to do a better job than Marvel studios in feature-length filmmaking. Meanwhile, The TV series "Gotham" and "The Flash" are soon to air on television
The Sin City Sequel has over 2,000 VFX shots. That means we'll be watching a visual effect about every 4 seconds. Thanks to Prime Focus World, the sequel looks amazing.
More VFX Shots
The Sin City 'sequel' makes a profound leap in technologywith more hyper-stylized imagery to accommodate it's poetic dialogue. With top-of-the-line compositing, the Sin City 'sequel' is sure to bring a unique twist to the canon of film noir.
“How to train your Dragon 2” is the animated movie to watch this year, stretching some technological boundaries for feature-length animation filmmaking.
Dean Deblois has become one of the
most successful animation directors in the world, having directed “Mulan”
(1998), and “How to Train Your Dragon” (2010), the film’s predecessor. This
year, the sequel to “How to Train Your Dragon” soars. In fact, it flies higher than
the original with some of DreamWorks’s best animation to date.
Five years after the Viking village
of Berk has made peace with the dragons, dragons now live amongst the villagers
as working animals and companions, and even take part in racing sport. Hiccup
goes on adventures with his dragon, Toothless to stop the villainous Drago from
a massive invasion.
As for the story and characters, it’s
pretty decent; however, it doesn’t get much thicker than the whole “people
controlling dragons to fight other people controlling dragons” thing. Therefore,
it can, as a whole feel a little too straightforward. It would definitely
benefit the story if there were more off-putting subjects to make us feel
curious about the world Deblois has created for us.
Then again, the animation is simply
stunning. High flying dragons corkscrew their way through perilous attacks and
also make for friendly, occasionally cute companions. The animators used focal
length on there subjects to create a greater sense of depth during the battle
sequences. You can tell the most time spent was on texturing each dragon; the
skin textures were insane.
The animation isn’t like any other
I’ve seen neither by this studio nor, by an animated film I've seen thus far.
ITs masterfully executed like a live-action superhero film; the water being the
most realistically rendered piece. My only critisicm regarding our
technological advancements in 3-d animation is the movement of the hair and
clothes. I still think its being succeeded more in traditionally animated films
like “The Wind Rises” (2013). It will probably be the next improvement in 3-d
animation. Regardless, it’s a very rare and fresh medium since it’s a very
expensive one to produce.
Overall, “How to train your Dragon 2”
stretches some technological boundaries for feature-length animation
filmmaking. Its a sure hit, and the animated movie to watch this year.
"I'm more concerned about getting non-believers into
the theater or people who are less religious. A lot of people are thinking,
'Oh. I don't want to go see a Bible movie, but we completely shook up all
expectations and people will see that as soon as they sit down and watch the
movie. That is kind of what this art show is all about."
-Darren Aronofsky
The 2014 biblical drama is as experimental
as we came to expect from the one and only auteur Darren Aronofsky. Noah (Russell Crowe), the man commended
by God is destined to save the animals of Earth from the flood that will wash away
all evil. As the story continues, we see how Adam and Eve's sins have passed
down to their descendants.
Noah's Creation Myth
Unfortunately, blockbusters are really the only sources of
entertainment where we truly get to see the full potential of clean,
frame-by-frame CGI. This is because the medium is so damn expensive and can only
be achieved with an entire studio of artists working on it. However, for the
first time ever there was a film that came out this year that completely
decimates it. It took a hell of a lot of time animating this and then it was
animated on top of that in the post-production. Although this film is said to
be one of the auteurs weakest works, I would defend this clip by claiming it to
be one of the best sequences he’s ever directed.
"In the beginning, there was
nothing." The creation myth is hands down the most successful scene and,
perhaps the most powerful tonal montage we’ll see all year. This is an
incredible sequence combining Aronofsky’s style with mainstream action.No
visual effects were necessary.
Overall, you could tell when Aronofsky was at
his best and when he struggled. His work is extreme enough to look at even
without the effects. Just look at "Requiem for A Dream" (2000)—no visual effects were necessary. He’s
been renowned as one of the best independent film directors for rhythmic
montages and split screens. But in 2006, he directed his first mainstream film,
“The Fountain” which didn’t receive much positive acclaim. The biggest flaws in
Noah are the extreme-close-ups of uninteresting subjects that would have normally
done well in his independent work. That isn’t to say he isn’t improving. Noah
is much better than the Fountain, and will even please the non-believers as
well.
"It's Album Time with Todd Terje" fuses the nostalgic excitement of disco, funk, latin, jazz, retro film scores, and... elevator music??? - all with synthesizers from outer space.
4/5
What's wrong with elevator music? It's relaxing, it subconsciously elevates your mood, it helps cover up those awkward silences between you and that one other weird guy in the corner. Though, comparing something to elevator music has become somewhat of an insult. It might sound like it, but it really isn't a main influence on "It's Album Time with Todd Terje." I had to mention it though, because the music reminds me of the album art on Smash Mouth's "Astro Lounge." Its cover shows a big circular observatory towering from a red planet into the outer reaches of space. It must have one crazily awesome elevator ride to the top. There's a lounge inside the observatory complete with futuristic furnishings, bright colored cocktails, and waitresses with glowing silver skin. Terje's cover instead shows something of the past. He wants to bring back the forgotten styles that once ruled the nightclubs of the 70's and 80's and the classiness of the lounge piano before the pop/rock explosion of the 60's. But after just a few minutes in Terje's fantasy, we are transported into a future where all genres are mashed up and exuberantly celebrated.
The first track, "Intro," starts off with a descending, arpeggiated cosmic glitter that cleverly repeats out of sync with the rhythm. It reverberates around as if we were in a bio-luminescent cave that reflected shimmering light off its rippled pools of water. The straight 16th note beat that comes in uses shakers, snares and soft bass drum hits. Then, the chordal strums from an electronically-processed guitar turn what felt like a chilled out trip-hop groove into a Daft Punk-influenced electro-disco rock. Sirens in the background get turned up and build energy for the inevitable lift off. A whispered chant, "it's album time, it's album time, it's album time...," builds with the other layers in rousing anticipation. The sirens reach their peak and a gigantic voice bellows, "IT'S ALBUM TIME!" BOOM! There's a huge explosion. This is kind of not what I was expecting. It's strange that such an expertly mesmerizing sound peaks with such a clichéd DJ sound effect, but that's Todd Terje for you. He explores emotionally dense compositions, but he's also very playful and has a sense of humor mixed with the notion to not take things too seriously. Most of all, he just wants you to dance.
The next three tracks may be the most compositionally impressive. While "Leisure Suit Preben" may not be a good follow up to the hype that was built up on "Intro," it's still oddly engaging. A retro bass awkwardly struts along an alien chord progression with occasional turntable whips and scratches. It uncomfortably goes on for a full minute and then drastically changes to what sounds like a sort of 60's Star Trek soap opera theme. Yet again, it changes back to the retro bass but this time with bossa nova style bells and xylophones.
"Preben Goes to Acapulco" is a continuation, which takes us to the 70's. It has a funky disco beat under some jazzy synth riffs. It's suggestive of a disco competition where all sorts of ridiculous dance moves would be demonstrated for the first time. Acapulco, by the way, is a city in Mexico full of beach resorts and wild nightlife where Hollywood stars and millionaires would retire to back in the day. However, this track really just travels all over the place, feeling like an expert improvisation over an ever-changing chord progression.
If you haven't danced enough, in comes a jazzy salsa on "Svensk Sås," which translates to "Swedish sauce." This track as well as a later track, "Alfonso Muskedunder," could be the greatest moments of the album. It's a revitalization of the Latin fusion that hasn't been touched by a whole lot of artists for a long while. And with an expert DJ like Terje taking on the job, we couldn't be happier. Both are fast-paced, syncopated and melodized with instrumental vocals that could be reminiscent of jazz flute humming. While they sounds very similar to regular Latin jazz, Terje still personalizes it with his background electronic basses and textures. "Svenk Sas" is a smooth mambo that, towards the end, utilizes a heavy whirring sound effect in its background vocals (a sound most commonly found in dubstep). "Alfonso Muskedunder" is a highly rhythmic latin rock with insanely fast and complex percussion parts and a melodic style similar to 60's film scores.
Four of the twelve tracks on this album were already released in 2012. "Strandbar," "Swing Star (Part 1)," "Swing Star (Part 2)," and "Inspector Norse" were part of Terje's "It's the Arps EP." For those who are already familiar with this EP, the album will be somewhat of a letdown, seeing as a third of it is recycled works. Anyway, they're fascinating because they were made using only the ARP 2600, a semi-modular analog subtractive audio synthesizer, which was a popular tool for many notable artists of the 70's and 80's such as David Bowie and Herbie Hancock.
"Inspector Norse" was a big hit in 2012 among followers of the house music dance scene and was considered one of the best tracks of the year by a number of critics and magazines. It inspired a 15-minute mockumentary called "Whateverest," in which Terje says he dedicated the song to a Youtuber who called himself Inspector Norse. This character that Terje made up represents a part of himself and the kind of fan he wishes to make music for. Inspector Norse is a lonely and failed musician who has to take care of his sick father and run a tanning salon to make money. In his spare time he dances around his hometown with his iPod, not having a care in the world what others might think of him. At night he cooks up a drug he calls, "The Inspector Norse Special", and raves by himself in his own living room. But eventually, he slips into a drug-influenced depression and wanders around aimlessly in the streets searching for some kind of salvation. In the end, he will always have music to dance to, and that is what frees him from his troubles. Without it, he would have nothing. "Whateverest" is alluring in the simplistic beauty of its tragic scenario. Watch the "Inspector Norse" music video, which is a shortened version of "Whateverest," below.
The two other hits on this album are less impressive than many of the aforementioned tracks. "Delorean Dynamite" and "Johnny and Mary" venture into pop territory as they seem to be composed for the purpose of baiting listeners into listening to the rest of the album. They are both extremely well crafted, but their simple, slow-moving chordal themes repeat tediously past the 6-minute mark. The Delorean was made famous in the 80's "Back to the Future" trilogy, so "Delorean Dynamite" is probably made to feel like a high-speed trip through time or maybe even the cosmos in general. "Johnny and Mary" is a cover of Robert Palmer's 1980 synthpop hit single of the same name. It is instead slowed down into a pop ballad with heavily reverberated, tone-morphing synth chords and arpeggios, and the soft-spoken vocals of Bryan Ferry, the lead singer of the legendary Roxy Music.
There is one other track on this album, "Oh Joy," but it isn't worth talking about. The album hits a lengthy 59 minutes and cannot justify its length when it has tracks that reuse similar ideas and sounds. Its strengths are in its diverse exploration of several different musical styles and cultures while sometimes using daring but genius transitions to string them together. However, the album as a whole is unfortunately not as coherent. The lackluster opening in "Leisure Suit Preben" that follows "Intro" is self-defeating, and "Johnny and Mary" is an extremely off-putting and lyrically plain snooze-fest that sits in the middle of a very complex and imaginative instrumental album. Even the expert Latin tracks feel somewhat out of place. I think Terje realizes these faults though. The album title is indicative that it was simply just time to put out an album that compiled works he had previously created in his spare time when he wasn't so-often producing music for other artists. Despite this, "Its Album Time..." could most likely be the best electronic album of the year. I would not be surprised if Mr. Terje finds even greater success in the future. He is certainly a unique and important talent to look out for.
An engaging and curious world where two 'bros' set out on a journey to control Gunmen
I feel for 90s Gainax fans. They must be hitting their heads on a desk as the "Panty and Stocking" enters one ear and exits out the other. Luckily, they've got some redemption here with the new show "Gurren Lagann", a mecha by the makers of FLCL that has an unusual story cast of characters
I think the term 'unusual mecha' might also mean that it could be very accessible to the non-mecha fan like myself. I entered Gurren with some skepticism that I'd like it as much as I did. The focus is not just on robots or the fights that are conventionally involved in this kind of anime. It relies a lot on other aspects and has a very intriguing antagonist that feels sort of abstract at times, mixing in well with the abstract backdrops of Gurren's design.
It really has three big acts. The first one (eps. 1-8) being the best, the second, (eps.9-15) and the third (17-27) both being very good. Episode 16 is a recap.
Where most of humanity is trapped underground, two orphans, Simon and Kamina, find there way towards the surface, along side Yoko Littner, a girl who has lived there for some time team up with a large group of friends they meet along the way. Together they are determined to defeat "beastmen", non-spiral beings who are capable of controlling Gunmen, the robots that make this a mecha . The "beastmen" are lead by Lord Genome, (Spiral King). He was the guy who created them, and was the main antagonist for most of the time in the series.
In the second act, Theres a lot of good drama. We see Simon being very confident in what he has to do and Yoko being very sad. Also, Simon kind of has a love interest as well with a mysterious new character Nia, who is suppose to be Lord Genome's (Spiral King) daughter. The big and best battle begins when Simon fights against the Spiral King.
Towards the end of the series, things get a little weird but still maintains its awesome-ness. There is a time lapse where our Simon has grown into a man. His girl Nia turns into a psychotic android who wants to destroy all of the spirals, the fictional energy that everybody has. Rossiu is an idiot and Viral, a beastman, turns good and fights with Simon. And best of all Yoko is a teacher!!
This is definitely one of my favorite s of all time. I loved the characters, the relationships, and most of all the story. The only criticisms I'd give it is that the music could of used some improvement and the animation may be hard to follow for some. But again, it was amazing. Even if you don't like mecha , you should watch it.
A great, stylistic hodgpodge of zombies and teenagers
Animes like Samurai Champloo, Cowboy
Bebop and Afro Samurai do a great a job in the "pure entertaininment"
category. Likewise Highschool of the Dead shows us that a high budget anime can do a lot of things to attract a larger audience.with spectacular animation. Although its ridiculous overload of fan
service and risque humor will displease some viewers, sometimes the element works for its quirky and strange characters.
Throughout the series, you notice a
strange parallel with the George A. Romero's 1978 horror flick "Dawn of
the Dead". Surely the zombie genre has been done so many times but
HOTD surprisingly had anentertaining story in each episode. In addition, it is
animated. It differs from the live action experience and certainly creates a
new name for itself.
It's all about the entertainment.This show is definitely second on my
list for anime of the year in 2010 right behind "Durarara!". Since the fan service can get a little over the
top at times, its best to laugh at than to take it seriously.
Visually lush, 'The Cross' is successful in depicting Brueghel's masterpiece
Since the filmic language involves
capturing a 3-dimensional space, I found “The Mill and the Cross,” a 2011 drama
film, directed by Lech Majewski, a unique envisioning of Pieter Brueghel’s 1564
painting “The Way to Calvary.” Throughout the film, the theme of Christ’s
suffering is set in contradiction of the religious persecution in Flanders.
Pieter Brueghel's "The Way to Calvary," y. 1564
The film magnifies the painting with
a different set of lens. In the opening shot, the camera pans from left to
right showing the large cast of characters from Brueghel’s painting. Scholars
in film often times criticize horizontal panning; particularly when the camera loses
a greater sense of depth, however, Brueghel’s painting—being a 2-dimensional
piece of art causes us to think otherwise about the film. With the exception of
subjects moving within the frame, I believe this opening shot gave us the
illusion we were seeing his actual painting.
However, there were also some parts
which I was confused, in particular, the transitioning of each scene. While
there are some amazing techniques used in the film to mimic the painting, I
believe that some of them were not properly used.
This makes the film surprisingly more
ambiguous, and therefore offers several interpretations of Brueghel’s painting.
One is how Brueghel‘s thought process on the composition and applied brush
strokes constructs each scene. When he is sitting alongside his patron, he is
the omniscient narrator of the film and he has absolute control over plot
development. The other interpretation is that each part of the film either correlates
to a religious or political message. Christianity and politics were two major
subjects expressed in Brueghel’s painting, but the film had to get extremely
close-up on each character’s emotional reactions to the persecution in order to
convey a similar meaning to Brueghel’s. Certainly, Majewski’s “The Mill and the
Cross” is an unusual reworking of Brueghel’s “The Way to Calvary.”
Hands down, the most accurate portrayal of Ancient Rome, and for that reason, will especially be appreciated by the history buffs
The 2000 film “Gladiator,” directed by Ridley Scott, is about
Maximus Decimus Meridius, a general who becomes imprisoned and forced to fight
as a gladiator. After the unexpected death of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, Marcus’s
son Commodus becomes the new emperor. When Maximus gains popularity and
recognition from his victories in the games, Commodus fears that Maximus could
use this power to possibly overthrow him. Maximus continues to use his fame as
a gladiator to cause damage to Commodus's power and control, but only to
inspire the Roman people in such a way that will help them rediscover what was
lost as a result of the cruelty and corruption in Rome. This causes Commodus to
fight Maximus in the Coliseum at the end of the movie. Compared to other portrayals of ancient
Rome, this movie captures it through a very realistic lens. The most notable aspect
was the enormous coliseum where many of the close-up battles take place in. After
the battles are over, there are grand views of the space, which, must have been
done in CGI to give the viewer a greater sense of how big the actual coliseum might’ve
looked like.
After researching many of the Roman marble
and bronze busts, it was interesting seeing Marcus Aurelius portrayed
as an older man in the film. Actor Russell Crowe efficiently plays the brooding
gladiator Maximus quite well while Commodus, played by Joaquin Phoenix, is
menacing and unlikeable. The two strikingly different personalities make for an
interesting face-to-face confrontation at the end of the film.
A stifling encounter between Commodus (Jaoquin Pheonix) and Maximius (Russel Crowe)
Certainly, a well-executed
feature-length film that tries to stay historically accurate as possible to Ancient
Rome is a challenging and ambitious project for any filmmaker, considering the
limited amount of documentation there is to work from. When writing a detailed
script, some things have to be exaggerated for historical, and as well as for
entertainment purposes. For instance, scholars don’t believe that Commodus was
killed in battle by a gladiator, but this modification certainly made for a climactic scene at the end. Scott obviously took a unique approach by staying as true as
possible to what happened while also putting emphasis on the engaging battle
sequences within the coliseum. My favorite aspect of it was identifying the
different body armor and weapons each character used; one in particular was the
lorica segmentata—segmented body armor which Crowe wore for the majority of the film.
My 3-d segmented body armor compared with Maximius's segmented body armor
My 3-d model of the lorica segmentata.
Image of Maximius wearing the segmented body armor.
There have been many attempts in
trying to portray Ancient Rome on screen, but none come close to the quality
and consistency of “Gladiator.” It’s an exhilarating film that will appeal
mostly towards action fans, and especially those who are quite familiar with
the history of Ancient Rome.
