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It comes out 4 days after my birthday which would be September 24th, 2010. My mother's favorite animal are Owls so me and my boyfriend said that we go with her to see it. It's based on book series and I have the first book in the series now. I'm planning to get the rest of the books but it's going to take awhile because there's 15 books in the series.]]> Mon, 6 Sep 2010 08:18:36 LittleCupcake http://www.rbcorner.com/cgi-bin/eblah/Blah.pl?m-1283072721/ http://www.rbcorner.com/cgi-bin/eblah/Blah.pl?m-1283072721/#num1
I haven't read the original graphic novels on which the movies are based, but I was a fan of this movie since I saw the trailers, I was blown away, and the movie just blew me away alot more. There are some pretty funny moments, epic fight sequences, lots of references to video games, and a killer soundtrack!]]> Sun, 29 Aug 2010 05:05:21 TheFullmetalAlchemist http://www.rbcorner.com/cgi-bin/eblah/Blah.pl?m-1279832417/ http://www.rbcorner.com/cgi-bin/eblah/Blah.pl?m-1279832417/#num1
When I went to see it earliier today, I did know much about this movie. All I knew was that it was a Science Fiction Thriller directed by Christopher Nolan, and starring Leonardo DeCaprio.

The story is very gripping and interesting, and the action sequences made the whole thing a lot better.

Just a warning: This movie may make your head feel wierd after watching (as with me). I'm also probably going to be having a really wierd dream tonight thanks to this movie. ]]> Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:00:17 TheFullmetalAlchemist http://www.rbcorner.com/cgi-bin/eblah/Blah.pl?m-1278517921/ http://www.rbcorner.com/cgi-bin/eblah/Blah.pl?m-1278517921/#num1
...Sorry to disappoint other Avatar fans out there who LOVED the show... but the movie was awful. USER AWFUL. I tried going with an open mind, I knew the movie wouldn't be EXACTLY like the cartoon and that it's M Night's interpretation... but it did not do the show any justice... at all.

In the Cartoon, element bending was AWESOME. Sharp, tight kung-fu movies would end with the whip of water, flying earth, fierce winds, or deadly fire. The element was an extension of yourself... but in this movie, the benders would do a 15 second dance or series of flips and tumbles... AND THEN something would happen with the elements (like water rising... very slowly... and a rock moving through the air... very slowly). Fail!

Also... the fire nation troops are worse then stormtroopers in the movie! How did they even take over the other three nations?! They stand... stand... AND THEN GET KNOCKED OVER BY AN ELEMENT. I was really looking forward to seeing some bad-ascii fire duels... but nada. I didn't really fear for the main characters dying because the fire benders were just THAT incompetent. Fail!

They put the whole first season into ONE movie... which was a mistake. There was too much ground to cover, so the plot moved at break-neck speed, giving little time to character development and enjoyment of the avatar world (which looked very low budget in my opinion). The sets were tight and small, so there wasn't much to look at except the characters talking (and sometimes I didn't want to watch THAT) and wide establishing shots made of CGI. Fail!

The acting... ugh the "acting". So WOODEN! And the Sokka said A funny line or two and then he was buggy-eyed man through the rest of the film; Katara needed to lighten the dell up... and have another expression other than immense concern (though she was pretty and had a sweet voice), Aang should have been called ANGST because that's what he was... through the whole movie and I can tell that they chose this kid for his fighting rather than acting; Zuko... I approved of... but his lines were stupid (YES. WE GET IT. You need to restore your honor to win favor with your father... you've only said it 6 times within an hour!!!); Uncle Iroh... Not the jolly fat man from the show WHOM I LOVE... but he was okay; the FireLord Ozai was ridiculous (nice deep voice but he had a boyish face (as most Indians do) so I did not fear him... and besides, how bad can he be? He commands an army of fire-bending losers); Azula... yes, M. Night, she does go crazy EVENTUALLY, but you don't need to make her a giggling bimbo to establish that (I miss my devilish Azula with the serpenty smirk); and Admiral Xhao... ugh! MIS-CASTED! He was one of the greatest villains on the show, voiced by the amazing Jason Isaacs... and the movie Xhao was just GOOFY, saying modern things and was a TOTAL COWARD instead of a bad ascii! FAIL FAIL FAIL!!!!

Pronouncing names... I understand that the cartoon was american made, based on chinese and japanese cultures, so names might have been mispronounced on the show... but don't go BUTCHERING them in the movie! I mean, M. Night was NOT using Asian actors for the whole movie (which I tried to get over, but Indians in Samurai gear with short hair LOOKED WEIRD and out of place... and the entire fire nation was like India rather than the beautiful Asian mystical land established in the show). Aang was pronounced "Uung" like "dung" but without the "d". Sokka was Soe-kah. Avatar, was pronounced "Ar-vah-tar" which just sounded WEIRD and Iroh was either E-Roe or something equally annoying. I understand if they are going for a more asian sounding dialect... but since they were using freaking Caucasians, Indians, and who knows what else for a Chinese/Japanese fantasy world... why go anal on names? Ar-vah-FAIL! (Also, Don't go thinking that I have something against Indians, but it was like watching a movie about the Holocust and the setting is Germany, but they film it in England with British and Irish actors playing the Nazis, don't even try to do a German accent, but pronounce the German names flawlessly... WHY DON'T THEY JUST GET GERMAN ACTORS?!)

Appa and Momo... FAIL ON APPA! Who looked more like a chiya-cat rather than a bison. Momo was passable. FAIL-ish!

Effects- Where decent... WHEN SOMETHING FINALLY HAPPEND! But the end battle at the Northern Water tribe fort was full of SUCK! No giant Aang-possessed Avatar water fish destroying Fire nation War ships... he just.. well, I won't spoil it if you DO decide to see it soon... WHICH I ADVISE YOU NOT TO. This piece of crap is only worth seeing on dvd... for free. Also, spirit realm looked just like the rest of the spam movie but with a blush-dreamy filter! LOW BUDGET! And the editing was horrible... HORRIBLE... it's like they didn't know who to focus on when one person was talking, so they just got shots of EVERYONE'S expression... yuck. FAIL!

In conclusion... this was a Fail on M. Night's part. It could have been great... EPIC even under a better budget, a better writer/director, and a few different casting choices. I squirmed in my seat so uncomfortably and threw my hands up in frustration multiple times with a "WTF?!" throughout the movie, and I wasn't the only person doing so. For those of you who have NEVER seen the series... watch this ho-hum movie, THEN watch the AMAZING show and you will be all "WTF?!" as well. I don't have high hopes for the next movie, which I hope there won't be one... or if they do, PLEASE let it be under a different director! And PLEASE let it be written by the AMAZING writers of the show! The script could not compare to... ugh, whatever. I cried at the end of the Series, because it had been YEARS since I had watched something SO wonderfully written, animated, full of imagination, and so perfectly concluded...

At the end of the movie... as SOON as the credits started, I grabbed my brother and was dashing out of the theatre to stimulate the suck out of my brain with sunlight.

FAIL! FAIL! FAIL!

]]> Wed, 7 Jul 2010 11:52:01 Lagger http://www.rbcorner.com/cgi-bin/eblah/Blah.pl?m-1278071913/ http://www.rbcorner.com/cgi-bin/eblah/Blah.pl?m-1278071913/#num1

Guess what - after over a year of writing, editing, rewriting, illustrating, proofing, proofing, and more proofing, I am now a published author, with an ISBN and everything  My first book, A Refugee in Oz, is now available on Lulu.com, in both paperback and downloadable formats.  When I get my shipment in I'll be selling them directly with my name scribbled on 'em, and in a month or two it should percolate over to Amazon.com.

This is a novel-length Oz adventure, based on L. Frank Baum's 14 Oz books.  Words and illustrations (LOTS of illustrations - at first I planned to do only a dozen, and ended up with over 40!) by Kim "Shameless Self-Promoter" McFarland.  Cover art by Lar DeSouza, webcomic artist for "Least I Could Do" and "Looking for Group," and also the guy who got me into ReBoot by sitting me down in his living room and showing me all of Season 3 in two days.]]> Fri, 2 Jul 2010 07:58:33 Slackbot