"That's it! You cocky cock! You'll pay for your crimes against humanity!" -OR- "She geeks, she geeks. She has the capacity to geek."

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, 2010. Three Stars.

BACKSTORY!!! I like a lot of the stuff that Oni Press publishes, so even though it looked like it could be obnoxious, I decided to give a book called "Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life" a shot (yes the backwards-facing quotation mark on the cover irks me, but I'm like that!). AND I LOVED IT. The art style is amazing. It's really fun. And really funny. All the characters are dorks and like music (who does that sound like??). And the main character has to fight his girlfriend's seven evil ex-boyfriends, and all the battles are like video games. OH MAN! I'd alternate in between spazzing out about it and forcing it on anyone I could to read it! That was back in 2004; for the past six years I'd been impatiently waiting for all six volumes to come out (they ended up being released pretty much one volume a year; the final volume came out in July).

FAN BOY ALERT!!! If you know me, you know I never shut up about this. But I think this is still so unbelievably cool: So, before Volume 3 came out, I happened to be on the internet the same time Bryan Lee O'Malley was on it, asking fans for photos to use on billboards in the book. I exuberantly sent at least 15. Check out Chapter 15, 14th page: IT'S ME!!!

THE MOVIE!!! Firstly, I knew Bryan Lee O'Malley was involved in writing the screen play, and I'm a big fan of Edgar Wright, but I had serious doubts as to whether this comic that became so near and dear to my heart could successfully be adapted to movie form. I didn't wanna see any trailers, I didn't wanna see any clips, I didn't even wanna talk about it, so that I'd have zero expectations for this movie. Because if I let myself, I would totally nerd out and get really excited for it, inevitably getting my expectations too high, then be inherently disappointed when I finally did see it.

But, my super friend Alex got a few of us sneak preview passes to see it last night! So I finally let myself watch the official trailer on the website yesterday. And, it didn't look half bad!

The movie had me at the 16-bit Universal Studio logo. Mamma Jamma.

I can't believe Michael Cera pulled off being Scott Pilgrim. He was good! And Ann from "Arrested Development" was one of the evil exes! Reunited!

All the actors in this were superb. This review would be even longer if I wrote about every single one of them, so I won't. But I have to say that the girl that played Knives Chau was exceptional. I was very impressed with her performance!

I just absolutely love Aubrey Plaza, and I'm so happy she's in this movie. She's a perfect Julie. Uncanny in appearance, and she nailed the character.

Also, Jason Schwartzman is the perfect Gideon. I had my doubts about Kieran Culkin as Wallace (I thought he looked too slobby when I saw the trailer), but he ended up being perfect too. I can't remember if I saw Superman Returns or not (must not have made a good impression on me if I did...), so I was always like "Oh Brandon Routh's playing Superman, so he must just be another boring Hollywood actor." But then I saw this, and I was intrigued... His being Todd in this movie has sealed the deal on my small infatuation with him!!

Why didn't they have the real Comeau play Comeau? Nelson Franklin did just fine, but, there's a real Comeau so how cool would that have been?

Thomas Jane is the Vegan Police!!!

I liked the comic book-y graphics they added; I wasn't sure how it was going to work out, but it ended up looking decent and fun. Really appreciated how they incorporated some of the text from the book, especially the names/descriptions/ratings boxes. And there was a good ratio of real-life scenes to fastly-cut-fantastical scenes.

Hey, is that Gideon the cat on Scott's mug in the first scene?

I have lots of little details I'd really like to talk about, but I think I have to stop here. But maybe someday, if you see the movie, we will talk about it!

Because I'm such a fan of the comic and already knew the story, I knew what was going to happen in the movie and I knew what kinds of things to expect. So I can't say if it was good or not, or even if the story was cohesive or if the pacing was effective. But I can definitely say I really really enjoyed it. They did a really good job of taking a six-year labor of love and adapting it to a 1 hour and 45 minutes movie.

If you've never read the book and know nothing about this, and you see this movie, please tell me what you think?

I want to watch it again right now.

BTW, at the end of the screening, Edgar Wright, Anna Kendrick, Michael Cera, and Jason Schwartzman came out and took questions about the movie. They talked about behind-the-scenes stuff, and Edgar talked about how they did the music stuff for the movie, and such. Cool!!


Hee hee hee.

Also, read the book some time! scottpilgrim.com




Can I please be a "Music Supervisor" for movies?????

"They're pissing on us and not even giving us the courtesy of calling it rain."

Avatar, 2009. Three Stars.

The general public seem to go ape for this movie. Since I Don't Believe The Hype, I knew I probably wouldn't like it.

Also I have a few friends that haaaaaaated this movie. Even though I avoided hearing their reasonings in order to preserve a fresh outlook on it when I finally did see it, it's another reason I knew I probably wouldn't like it.

If I did end up seeing it, it would be in IMAX in 3-D to see all the fancy visuals... And thanks to a friend's suggestion on a cold Friday morning, that's what I did.

And I liked it.

I normally can't stand CGI when CGI takes over where costumes/puppets/analog would have been better (Iron Man, I love you, but you already had an Iron Man suit made, why not just use that??). But the CGI in this was appropriate and couldn't have been done as good in another way, and it looked GOOD. The story was not original, but it was strong, and was not as trite as I was originally lead to believe. Also I like when good guys win, and I like Ewokian battles.

The 3-D felt a bit wonky at times, maybe it's because there was a lot of extreme foreground-background stuff going on. Maybe it's because I'm not used to 3-D and expect it to be perfect. It's probably because I was wearing my 3-D glasses over my regular glasses. Six Eyes.

Here's something weird. I don't mind violence in movies most times because it's not real life, just a movie. And I actually think over-the-top violence/gore (Shoot 'Em Up, Dawn of the Dead, District 9) is fun! But because such a good job was done making this world realistic, both visually and its compatibility with reality, that the death and destruction ended up shaking me up.

Pretty much fell in love with Neytiri, Zoe Saldana did a great job as her.

It was awesome to see Giovanni Ribisi as a corporate dickhead (I first saw him in an X-Files episode, that was like a lifetime ago!). But I'm a little sick of seeing Joel "I'm typecast as a plucky nerd" Moore, he seems to be cropping up everywhere lately for me. I get so happy when Sigourney Weaver is in a movie. Michelle Rodriguez wasn't obnoxious in this.

I didn't know that the guy that played Jake Sully was also Marcus in T4. Did he lose half a person for this role?? I remember him being pretty huge as a half-Terminator...

I only gave this movie three stars because even though it's good, it's just another big Hollywood box office smash. And it's hard for me to get emotionally attached to those kinds of movies. I don't think it has what it takes to make that huge impact on me that it has with other people. I'll leave it up to other people to give it four or five stars, which they will.

"Oh my God, what's wrong with your hands!"

Star Trek, 2009. Four Stars.

That T4 review really threw off the timeliness of my reviews. I need to play a bit of catch-up.

I saw Star Trek when it came out in the theatre. Saw it opening night, and we liked it so much that Tim and I took his mom to see it a few days later for Mother’s Day! And after all the hype the movie generated, I want to see it again STAT to see how I still feel about it. When does it come out on DVD??

Just checked: November 17th! Rad!

So, as stated in earlier reviews (par example, Star Trek: Insurrection), I like Star Trek. And I like this movie. I thought I would hate this new “My daddy’s dead” brat-faced Kirk, but, he was still cute and a bad-ass! Just had even more edge.

Zachary Quinto is a perfect Spock, but it’s too bad that his “Sylar” face looks like his “Spock” face, because even though he’s totally being Spock, all I can think about is Sylar.

Uhura and Spock are a thing? I’m totally okay with that.

Actually, I loved everyone in this, and they all did a great job breathing new life into these already-established characters. I got a kick out of Karl Urban’s Bones. (In fact, it's the only time I've ever gotten a kick out of Karl Urban.) A friend told me that was one of the only parts of the movie she didn’t like since he mimicked the original Bones’s character, while everyone else’s character is a unique adaptation. I can understand it, but really Urban did such a phenomenal job that I think it works fine in this reboot, plus it's really enjoyable! And like I mentioned in the T4 review, I really didn't mind that Anton Yelchin was in not one but TWO summer blockbusters, and as pretty important characters. His Chekov is commendable comedic relief, and I like that he's a kid. And he does it all with integrity. Also, SCOTTY!!!

I liked that Leonard Nimoy is in this, because I like him.

Since I mentioned so many actors, I feel badly if I don't mention all of them now. Eric Bana. Bruce Greenwood. John Cho. Those are the only ones I was familiar with before seeing this, and they were all great. Except, Winona Ryder. I don't know how I feel about her being in this.

This movie is really fun and enjoyable, and it looks cool. If you're not a big sci-fi fan, you still might like this. If you're a die-hard "Original" Star Trek fan, you still might like this.

"What should I tell your men when they find out you're gone?" "I'll be back."

Terminator Salvation, 2009. Three Stars.

This review is a long time coming. And it's why I haven't been updating; I really wanted to get this one done before I wrote anything else. But it was so difficult to write. I have so many mixed, strong feelings. And my suckage with words was making it frustratingly hard to get out what I wanted to say.

Here we go:

I love The Terminator, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day is my all-time favorite ever. I don't remember much about T3, which I'm pretty thankful for... but my point is, I grew up with Terminator, and I am crazy about it.

So when I found out about T4, I made sure I got my Opening Night/Midnight ticket. I was very excited!

Because, LOOK AT THIS TRAILER!! It THRILLS me! It's scary, and exciting, and makes me feel like, "YES! Finally, we get to see the aftermath of Judgment Day, and John Connor kicking butt!!"

Well, this is why I try not to get too excited about movies before I see them, because when I get excited, I always get let down. And poor little me was nearly devastated.

The movie is NOT BAD. Really. But it's also NOT FANTASTIC. It felt like a long movie. There was way too much attention paid to some parts, like when Marcus is trying to figure out where the heck he is, whereas other parts were glossed over, like John Connor's relationship to his wifey (WHO IS PREGNANT, and yeah it's cool to see a pregnant lady in a movie and not have it be a big deal, but when John Connor is spawning? BIG DARN DEAL. Yeah, also there were no sparks between them. It was just blah.)

Also, the other movies oozed such a strong sense of doom, which was surprisingly missing in this flick. And Skynet just wasn't very scary.

I'd heard that originally, the focus of this movie was going to be Marcus, and that John Connor was just going to be running around in the background. I would have been cool with that. I think it would've been interesting. But what ended up happening is that both Marcus and John Connor were the main stars of the show, and it just didn't work out very well. It was pretty confusing and disjointed.

I'm still unsure how I feel about Christian Bale as John Connor. I love Christian Bale. And I love that he has done a lot of cool weird cult-y sci-fi action-y flicks (American Psycho, Equilibrium, Reign of Fire, Batman Begins / The Dark Knight, Rescue Dawn). I would have preferred that John Connor be someone a little less "known" so the audience can have an easier time seeing John Connor as John Connor rather than John Connor as Famous Hunky Guy. But clearly Christian Bale's impressive CV shows that he's more than capable of being a fabulous John Connor.

Yet, John Connor didn't really feel very John Connor-y. We know that eventually he becomes this kick-butt hero of humanity, but... what happened to his smart-ass-ness?? One of my friends mentioned that he thought John Connor was just expectant of everything to happen, hence he was on edge and paranoid. I agree, this could explain his blank-ness. But I don't think the movie did that much to tell us that he is actually going through that. So it just felt awkward. It makes more sense that, at this point in his life, he should be at a transition stage where he's still his smart-ass-y self, but is beginning to show his strengths as a leader.

It was awesome when he was listening to that same Guns N' Roses song ("You Could Be Mine," which is in fact my most favorite GNR song!) from T2 while he was on his bike and catching the Moto-Terminator. But since they were pulling so much from that scene, I wish they just had him say "Easy money"!

I was totally fine with the actor that played Kyle Reese, and it didn't bother me that he played a big role in another summer blockbuster. And I think it's cool how young he is; it's like we're witnessing the genesis of John Connor's influence on him and future soldiers.

I thought I would hate Fake Arnold, but, I didn't!

I would like to see this movie again...

Hey, does anyone else think that McG's a douche?

You know what was pretty great, actually? "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles". And that got canceled. I call shenanigans!

"Why the fuck would I blow up Chick-Fil-A? It’s fuckin’ delicious!"

Observe and Report, 2009. Three Stars.

I enjoyed the trailers for this flick, and I'd see them on TV a lot. Because they trailers are kind of silly, I completely forgot that this was not a silly movie, but rather a dark comedy.

Yes, this is a daaaaaaaaaaaark comedy. I was sitting in the theatre thinking, "WOW this isn't silly, some of it's SAD!" But I figured it out soon enough. I really liked it. I liked the choppy-ish editing and segment-y scenes. It was quirky-ish and funny. And everyone was great in it. Pretty darn dark, especially when set against a backdrop of a typical suburban mall, but that's how I like my comedies sometimes!

I would like to see this movie again!!

"In my opinion, the existence of life is a highly overrated phenomenon."

Watchmen, 2009. Three Stars.

I'm personally giving this movie Three Stars because I really liked it. But, it's not a very good movie!

I love the comic book, and it was so cool seeing the characters come to life and the story unfold on the big screen. There's so much that happens in the comic book, however, and it was a good move to not include every single thing in the movie, and instead focus on the larger overall themes. That being said... the pacing was so slow at some points and so fast in others, that the things that were supposed to have a big impact on the audience (like, Holy Shit The Comedian! and, Oh, THAT'S why Bubastis exists!) ended up coming up short.

The beginning of the movie was well-done: Totally dug the snapshot-ish narrative of the history of the Minutemen and what happened to the superheroes, it was fun and effective.

The ending has been changed, but it's just a different means to the same end. I thought it was pretty interesting and okay. Plus, the movie couldn't handle including the original ending.

I didn't like some of the casting. Matthew Goode was good as Veidt, but he lacked the "god-like" physique which added to his "superhuman-ness" in the comic. I GUESS Malin Akerman did a great job because Laurie Juspeczyk is a pretty vapid and one-dimensional character, but she sounded like Drew Barrymore and it was annoying.

Who's actually great in this? Patrick Wilson is perfect as Dan Dreiberg (and he's wicked cute!!). Jackie Earle Haley is everything I could have hoped for in a Rorschach. And I gotta say, it was SO COOL seeing Doc Manhattan! Way to go, Billy Crudup! The blue wang didn't freak me out as much as it did everyone else in the cinema. Everyone else in it was pretty decent too. Jeffrey Dean Morgan looked just like The Comedian.

So like I said, I liked it. If you're a fan of the comic book, you'll probably like it more than dislike it. If you're not familiar with anything about it, you'll most likely leave the cinema confused, dissatisfied, and tired.

**UPDATE 3/18/09**

There is something important that I forgot to mention. The soundtrack SUCKS. Cheesy, dumb, uninspired. The music during the awkward sex scene would've been HILARIOUS, only if the movie had that fun self-awareness to pull it off. But it didn't! Totally sucks!

(If memory serves correctly, I don't think I minded the song used in the opening credits though. Eh.)

"Gay Muslim activists. That is a very rare job description."

Religulous, 2008. Three Stars.

Good movie, but exactly what you'd expect from Bill Maher. I thought it was funny. But I was a wee bit annoyed that, at first, he tried to tell people that he was "just trying to understand how people feel," but in the end, he really just bashed the entire concept of religion.

I think that, if he were really serious about getting his point across to a new audience instead of just preaching to the choir, he would have been less aggressive and offensive. For example, he ended the movie by saying that, in order for the human race to survive, religion must be completely done away with... A harsh assessment after a 90-minute beliefs-bashing romp!

It was, however, interesting to hear some of the weird beliefs people have, and how they use religion to validate them.

Also, there was lots of Michael Moore-esque editing. It makes for a fun-to-watch movie, but also makes one take the content a little less seriously.

"You're in love. Have a beer." OR, "I'm not a baby. I'm a tumor."

Hellboy II: The Golden Army, 2008. Four Stars.

Such a gooooooood movie!!! And I totally agree with my friend Alex: Ron Perlman doesn't play "Hellboy;" Ron Perlman IS Hellboy!

I'm totally okay with the story line in the movies being different from the comic book. It's actually a necessity. And for some reason I'm okay with Hellboy and Liz having pyro demon twins.

The ONLY bothersome thing in this movie is Hellboy as a little kid, it looked too weird!

"Time for lunch... in a cup!"

Wall-E, 2008. Three and a Half Stars.

Friends that have seen this movie looooooooved it! One went so far as to say it was his favorite Pixar movie ever. (Mine's still The Incredibles!)

My grandmother, on the other hand, hated it. She took my little cousin to see it, and said it was boring and not a very good kids movie. Also, as an avid recycler, she didn't appreciate being preached to. After the first half hour, my cousin, who was also bored, asked if they could leave. So, yeah, my gramma and cousin walked out on Wall-E!

I went to see it, and I enjoyed it. The characterizations of all of the robots, and the non-traditional storytelling (there was no dialogue in the first half of the movie, but it totally held my attention), was pretty amazing!! And I thought all the goo-shaped humans in hover chairs and sipping meals out of cups was right on and funny. Plus it had a happy ending, which always melts my heart!

But after hearing how my gramma reacted, I think I need to see this movie again. I liked it, but I'm 26. Buddies of mine that liked it are around my age or older, but not as old as my gramma. Maybe a second viewing would help me see if this is actually a successful kids movie or not. Because if grandmothers and little kids are walking out of this movie, maybe Pixar needs to reconsider who their audience is.

"We were younger." "We had guns!"

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, 2008. Four Stars.

I so enjoyed this movie! More so than the people I saw it with. The "Indy" character stayed true, the action was fun and ridiculous (like all Indiana Jones movies!), and I didn't even mind "Mutt" or that Indy and Mary got married at the end. All good fun. I've overheard complaints about how the whole "aliens" thing was "unbelievable." IT'S AN INDIANA JONES MOVIE. It fits right in, plus gives the whole "50's sci-fi" feel that was accurate to the time period. I've also heard that the "bad guy" wasn't "bad" enough. Though I agree a little bit, I don't think that's a negative thing, just interesting.

Can't say it enough: I really enjoyed this movie!!

"I'm sorry. This is the fun-vee. The hum-drum-vee is back there."

Iron Man, 2008. Four stars.

That's right, FOUR STARS!!

I'd heard that the Iron Man costume and stuff was all CGI, which I thought was really stupid and would look bad and ruin the movie for me. But I decided to suck it up and see it in the cinema with some of my friends. And, the CGI didn't bother me a bit! I actually almost forgot all about it.

The writing was really well done, it was like a real movie rather than a summer blockbuster with pretty special effects. It caught me off-guard. And the acting is great. Everything about it grabbed my attention. Plus, S.H.I.E.L.D.! Samuel L. Jackson is Nick Fury. That's something to look forward to!

I'd not really followed any of the Iron Man comics, I'm only familiar with The Ultimates. But, from what little I previously knew about him, I could tell that Robert Downey Jr. IS Tony Stark! He's magnificent!! I love that guy in movies.

Gwyneth Paltrow, who I think has the nicest name ever, was sooooooooooo cute in this movie.

And, Jon Favreau directed this? Way to go, dude!