July | 2009 | the m0vie blog

July in Review

Posted on July 31, 2009 by Darren

Oh what a month its been.

It was the month of Comic Con – where nothing too surprising happened, but we did get excited about Tron: Legacy despite the length of time since the original. It also saw Marvel cement the details on The Avengers and Captain America movies.

The BBC broadcast Torchwood: Children of Earth – and it was good. Still, a minority of fans were seriously uncool, forcing one of the writers out of cyberspace. I think the miniseries might have been about the recession. Also, the new Doctor (Matt Smith) started filming and got us thinking about Stephen Moffat’s first season.

It was a year since the release of The Dark Knight and the 70th birthday of the character of Batman, so we took a week to celebrate various aspects of the character.

We also looked at great ways of advertising classic movies.

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Mon Capitan – Captain America and International Audiences

Posted on July 31, 2009 by Darren

With The Avengers universe building up – Marvel’s plan to introduce a bunch of comic book characters through solo films and tie them together into one big team-up movie -, there is one of the prequels (if we can call them that – they aren’t really prequels or sequels and some aren’t even origins) that I am really interested in. It isn’t Favreau and Downey’s Iron Man 2, nor is it Branagh’s Thor. I am most interested in how the Captain America movie comes about – particularly at the moment. This has nothing to do with the charmingly awful version we saw about twenty years ago. This is more to do with how the most blatantly American superhero will do overseas.

America, F%!& Yeah!

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Filed under: Comics, Movies | Tagged: america, americana, avengers, barrack obama, captain america, captain america: the first avenger, Comics, films, indiana jones, iron man 2, marvel, Movies, obama, politics, popular culture, the avengers, thor, world war 2 | Leave a comment »

Getting Animated – The Revival of Old-Fashioned Animation?

Posted on July 31, 2009 by Darren

We live in the era of 3D and CGI. I remember back in they day there were worries and complaints by all the unions in Hollywood that the advent of perfect CGI would mean the end of actors in Hollywood – why pay Jim Carrey $20m a film when you can create a character for a fraction of that? Needless to say it hasn’t happened yet and I doubt it will. Hollywood and movies have always been the land of personalities. Get rid of those personalities and you have very little. It isn’t the antics of directors and writers that fuel the tabloid industry. So it’s logical that the part of the industry that has been most threatened by the marching on of science is the one where there is already minimal personality. I speak of course of the death of 2D animation. Although I hope I’m being premature – there have been two stories in the past 24 hours that indicated that old-fashioned non-live action films may not be quite dead.

$Just a fraction less sophisticated than the animation Wes Anderson employs...$

Just a fraction less sophisticated than the animation Wes Anderson employs...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 2D, 3d, animation, cartoons, cgi, conventional animation, disney, films, illustrated, Movies, pixar, rapunzel, the fantastic mister fox, the fantastic mr. fox, the frog princess, the princess and the frog, traditional animation, wes anderson | 1 Comment »

Non-Review Review: Once

Posted on July 30, 2009 by Darren

Maybe Once is that mythical “good Irish movie” that comes along roughly once every five years or so, or maybe I’m being a little soft on it, but I really enjoyed it when I caught it last night. It does have some rather glaring flaws, but it seems to work well despite them.

Tally ho(wth)...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: film, glen hanstead, irish cinema, irish movie, john carney, Markéta Irglová, Movie, music, non-review review, once, review, the frames | 2 Comments »

It’s a funny world – Comic Con ’09 in retrospect…

Posted on July 29, 2009 by Darren

It seems to have been a fairly average year at Comic Con – no big surprises (pleasant or otherwise), just solid confirmation of what us movie watchers had suspected all along. Contrary to what some suggested, apparently the Twilight fangirls didn’t ruin the experience for everyone. In fact, there were a whole host of fascinating insights on a whole slate of geek-interest projects. I don’t think anyone seems to have left particularly disappointed.

Fun with glow sticks...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 2012, 3d, alice in wonderland, avatar, comic con, comiic con 09, disney, doctor who, fangirls, hot tub time machine, iron man 2, james cameron, johnny depp, sdcc, the hobbit, tim burton, titanic, tr0n, tr0n: legacy, tron, tron: legacy, twilight, twilight: new moon, twitter, zombieland | 1 Comment »

Non-Review Review: Kung-Fu Panda

Posted on July 29, 2009 by Darren

There’s nothing like a nice relaxing movie that you can cuddle up on the couch and just enjoy. Another testament to what was a fantastic summer last year, Kung Fu Panda may not have been the best animated film of the year – that honour goes to Wall-E – but it was still a fun, enjoyable and lively romp which should leave you smiling for most of the runtime.

Everybody was Kung-Fu fighting...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: angelina jolie, animated, animation, cgi, dreamworks, dustin hoffman, films, ian mcshane, jack black, kung-fu, kung-fu panda, Movies, non-review review, panda, po, review | 1 Comment »

Blessed are the Geek, For They Shall Inherit the Earth…

Posted on July 28, 2009 by Darren

It’s a good time to be a nerd. When exactly did it happen? How did Star Trek become cool again? When did nearly half of all blockbusters find their roots in the oft-mocked comic book artform? When did Comic Con become a major event in the Hollywood calendar? When did it become truly hip to be square?

Haute culture?

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Filed under: Comics, Movies, Opinion | Tagged: arts, blockbusters, comic book movies, comic books, comic con, culture, films, geeks, graphic novels, mainstream, Movies, nerds, pop culture, popular consciousness, popular culture, popular taste, prestige | 2 Comments »

The Once and Future King (Kong)…

Posted on July 28, 2009 by Darren

Wow, looks like those monster movie revivals show no signs of abating. King Kong is apparently next in line, getting the prequel treatment. There’s apparently an adaptation of a book Kong: King of Skull Island. It seems a rather quick revival for Kong, who seems to go through thirty-to-forty-year cycles of popularity.

Quit Monkeying Around...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: cgi, films, in development, king kong, king of skull island, kong: king of skull island, Movies, peter jackson, prequel giant monkey, remake, skull island, spin-off | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Iron Man

Posted on July 27, 2009 by Darren

I had a bit of a Marvel weekend this weekend, where I caught both Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk back-to-back. I think I have to concede that I am – just slightly – fonder of the not-so-jolly green giant. Though they both are very good superhero films and a testament to what was a fantastic summer season. Iron Man was a stunningly well-put together movie on a hero who had – until the movie – been relatively second-tier and it’s anchored in an astonishing central performance from Robert Downey Jnr.

Gold-Titanium Alloy Man just doesn't have the same ring to it...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: comic books, film, iron man, jeff bridges, jon favreau, marvel, Movies, non-review review, review, robert downey jnr., tony stark | 15 Comments »

The Incredible Avengers…

Posted on July 27, 2009 by Darren

The Avengers has gone form being the movie project I was most skeptical about to one of my most anticipated movies of the comic years. Indeed, the summer of 2011 is looking to be one for the books with a whole rake of massive cult and comic book films coming out – Thor, Captain America, Green Lantern and, should Gary Oldman be believed, Batman 3. However, the culmination of Marvel’s planning within the cinematic world will be the release of The Avengers in 2012. I’ve never been much of a Marvel fan, but I will concede that they have pulled off an amazing movie-making feat. They have created a fully-integrated film universe from a variety of disparate sources building to to a clear target.