Which Spider Man Movie Is Better?

 My wife and I loaded up another movie to watch as she’s on the mend from a brutal cold.  This time we watched the new Amazing Spider-Man reboot.  I never saw it in the theaters, mostly because I just don’t make it out to see that many movies these days.  I wasn’t too keen on the idea that we would have a reboot of Spider-Man so soon after the original Tobey Maguire ones finished, but hearing the issues with the contract, it made sense.  Plus, with the mess of the third movie and the fact they weren’t able to get everyone back for another one, a new look at the story worked fine in my eyes.

I’m not going to get into a huge review of the movie.  Suffice it to say I enjoyed it, and I look forward to the next one.

The big question in my mind after the movie finished was whether I liked the original Spider-Man or the new Amazing Spider-Man better.  I had heard friends of mine offer their opinions both ways.  Once the final credits were rolling I sat back to answer that question.  And I finally came up with: I don’t know.  I don’t know which one I like better.  The Tobey Maguire one was one of my favorite comicbook movies when it was released, and remains one of the better ones out there.  The new one improved on it in some ways, but in other ways it fell short.

So I figured I’d do a comparison of the two movies, talking about where I thought Amazing Spider-Man beat out its predecessor, and where that doe-eyed Tobey Maguire took the prize.

First, who was the better Peter Parker?

Tobey Maguire was hard to top.  Andrew Garfield was going to have his work cut out for him to beat him out.  There are a few things to consider.  First, who had the better look?  For this, I had to give it to Andrew Garfield, hands down.  He had the skinny nerd-look far better than Maguire.  However, Maguire played the nerd angle far better than Garfield.  Garfield’s Peter Parker felt like a normal teenager – awkward around girls, but not really nerdy other than being smart.  Maguire really felt like the outcast in high school.  I think in the end, I’d have to give Maguire the edge here – he just felt more genuine as a nerdy character.

Second, Mary Jane Watson or Gwen Stacy

For me, this was no contest.  Gwen Stacy was far more interesting than Mary Jane Watson.  Much of this likely comes from the fact that I like Emma Stone as an actress more.  Gwen Stacy had her own share of issues.   Parker had almost no issue with landing Gwen Stacy.  It was far too easy for him to do so when he’s supposed to be the nerdy, every-man character.

The other thing in Gwen’s corner is that I am glad to see her in the movies.  I felt she had such an important part in the development of Peter Parker and Spider-Man (the comic series Blue is one of my favorite Spider-Man stories).  That this new series is taking the time to explore that angle is fantastic.  I’m actually hoping that Mary Jane Watson makes her debut in the next movie alongside Gwen Stacy.

Third, which film had the better Spider-Man

This one doesn’t come across as much of a contest for me either.  The new Spider-Man was done far better than the first one.  He does a lot more of the Spider-Man banter that’s such a draw to his character.  And when he’s in action, he feels far more athletic and aerobic.  More than the first movie, Amazing Spider-Man felt like they were going with the Todd Mcfarlane version of Spider-Man, which I still think is some of the best-drawn Spider-Man stuff out there.

Fourth, web-shooters or wrist-webbing-things

I’m going to have to go with web-shooters.  I’m a purist I guess.  I wasn’t really upset when they had them part of his mutations, but having the webshooters helps to accent how smart a guy Peter Parker really is.

Fifth, which film had the better villain

Oh, now this is a hard one.  I love the Green Goblin.  I think it’s impossible to beat Willam Defoe’s performance as the Green Goblin when you’re working with the Lizard.  Though the Lizard did look about a thousand times better than the stupid armored Green Goblin.

Here’s the thing, though.  I think by taking the time to set up the story in a movie or two before introducing the Green Goblin, they’re going to make a Green Goblin that’s even better in the new line of movies.  Still, when simply comparing these two movies, I’ll give the edge to the Green Goblin.

Sixth, the backstory of the Parkers

Okay, I didn’t like this.  I don’t like that Richard and Mary Parker have this old super-secret backstory as spies or scientists or whatever they are.  It detracted from my feeling of Peter as an every-man kind of guy.  It’s like he was destined to do all this stuff because his father and mother developed it all.  It’s too clean and neat a package.  I liked it better when the spider bite was essentially just an accident that happened to him.  Not that his parents were involved in it somehow.

Seventh, the better Uncle Ben and Aunt May

I’m going to split on this one.  Uncle Ben was better in this movie.  Aunt May was better in the original one.  I never got the close feeling with the new Aunt May I did with the original one.  And the flip-side is that I felt more like the new Uncle Ben.  His “with great power comes great responsibility” speech was better, and the way he met his end was more powerful.

Eighth, why does he keep taking off his mask

Yeah, really?  This kinda pissed me off.  By the end of the movie, at least three people knew Peter Parker was Spider-Man because he told them, and then a dozen or so others knew it because HE KEPT TAKING OFF HIS MASK!  Why?  It makes no sense and it just frustrated me.

Ninth, what about the supporting characters

Where was Harry Osborne?  He was as big a part of Peter’s growing up as Gwen was.  On the other hand, I think this version of Flash Thompson was far better than the previous one.  He and Peter Parker did hang around in the same circles, though Flash did make fun of Peter a lot.  Seeing Flash wearing the Spider-Man shirt at the end of the movie was great – I liked that touch of how much Flash respects Spider-Man.

So overall which one did I like better?  Unfortunately this exercise did not help me at all.  I’m still left without a clear-cut favorite.  I see more potential with the new series than the old series had, given that they are building more relationships over time, and are holding the best Spider-Man villain until later.  But it’s not a movie without its faults.

What about you guys?  Any of you have strong opinions one way or the other?

Movie Review: Brave

My wife has been battling a nagging cold for a while.  She finally fought it off only to have it return again this weekend.  We canceled our weekly roleplaying and I went out and bought Brave for her to watch so we could have a quiet evening in.

I wanted to see the movie a while back but never got out to the theater to do so.  We’re both big fans of Pixar movies, so we had high expectations.  The movie hit everything we wanted.

The plot is pretty straight forward (as most children’s movies are).  A young girl wants to rebel against her overbearing mother and forge her own path rather than doing what her mother wants.  Being a child, though, she is constantly overruled.  As the daughter of the king, she has come of age to be betrothed, and the local clan leaders all bring their sons to fight for her hand in marriage.  She is furious about this and enters the contest to win her own hand, defeating the boys and nearly driving the clans to war against her father.

Her mother tries to mend situations as her daughter fights harder to get away from her.  Neither one sees the value in the other.  Finally, the girl flees the castle to try to find a magical way to change her destiny.  From there, things go awry and the mother and daughter have to learn to respect the differences in each other, and both grow as a result.  (I won’t get into the details in case you want to see it yourselves).

I have to say, overall I enjoyed the first half of the movie a bit more than the second.  Once the princess heads out to carve out her own destiny, the story moves out of the realm of having her solve her problems in a normal, relate-able way and into the realm of magic and mystery.  Not altogether bad, but I was much more interested in seeing the conflict between the mother and daughter resolve with some basis in reality rather than through the help of a grand adventure.

Overall, it was a lot of fun.  A very cute movie (the three younger brothers are fantastic) with a good, original story.  Even with its faults, I did enjoy the movie thoroughly and would not mind seeing it again.  I can already see myself enjoying it with my nieces and nephews.

Movie Review: Moon

Note: Very minor spoilers (just set up the beginning of the film).

Last night I ended up seeing Moon, a sci-fi movie from 2009. The basic premise is that in the future, the majority of the world's energy supply comes from mining on the moon. There's a base on the moon and four automated harvesters that take care of the work. On the base, there is one human and a robot. The human is up for a three-year contract keeping things running, and then they head home.

It's two weeks before the guy up there now, Sam, is supposed to go home. He's looking forward to seeing his wife and his daughter who was born just before he started his contract.

Obviously, it's lonely up there. Live conversation is impossible, so all Sam has to keep himself occupied is his work, the robot, recorded messages, and a miniature town he's carving out of wood. It's lonely. Very lonely. And he's reaching the end of his line, starting to hallucinate and lose touch.

He heads out to one of the harvesters to pick up the newest cache of the mineral to send back to Earth when his roaver has a bad accident, the results of which start leading him into paranoia and investigation.



Overall, a fantastic sci-fi film. I enjoyed the mystery from beginning to end. Some of the parts I was able to call before they were revealed, and others came at me from left field. It reminds me that the best sci-fi movies tended to be less housed in special effects and more about the story. This film was clearly low-budget, but that did not hinder anything - the story was enough to carry this movie ahead of a lot of other action-packed films I've seen in the past.

Sam Rockwell did a fantastic job carrying this movie given that he was the only actor on screen for the vast majority of it. He was able to portray the loneliness very well, and the feeling of isolation made for a heavy evening. If you at all enjoy good sci fi, I recommend giving Moon a watch.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Went to see Captain America with the wife last night. Overall, a great movie. I had heard that the movie was a little slow early on and I can understand that view, but I felt like it was good to set up Steve Rogers' character before he became Captain America, and show all the obstacles he had to bypass to actually become the Captain America we all know.

If anything, I felt disappointed by the villains of the movie: Hydra. I liked Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull, but his motivations did not really seem that... well... impressive. The idea of a villain who's a bit insane and feels superior to the rest of humanity and recognizes his hero counterpart as being cut of the same cloth was done much better with the Green Goblin and Spiderman in the first Spiderman movie. Here it felt a bit more like the villain's plot was kinda tacked on in a few places to give Cap someone to fight against.

Even with the weaker villain setup, I still really enjoyed this movie. This year we've been lucky to get X-Men: First Class and Captain America as two of our comic movies (I haven't seen Thor or Green Lantern) and neither X-Men nor Cap disappoint.

If you do go to see the movie, I'd recommend staying to the end of the credits. There will be further references to a new movie coming out in May of 2012.

Black Swan

There may be spoilers below.

A couple nights ago I ended up watching Black Swan at my parents' house. It was one of the movies from last year I was not very interested in seeing. The premise did not appeal to me, and overall I just felt I should pass on the movie. But my parents had the flick and Laura and I didn't have any plans, so we ended up watching it with them.

Fantastic choice.

I'll preface this by saying it's not a movie for everyone. It's not that easy of a movie to watch. There are some cringe-worthy moments, and some seriously f-ed up moments. You spend a good portion of the movie questioning exactly what's going on and what's real. Natalie Portman's character's decent into insanity is very well-played, and her paranoia and unease is apparent from the very early stages of the movie. It's another of those movies where you follow the point of view of a character whose point of view you cannot actually trust. I ended the movie still wondering which parts were actually real and which were not.

If you're interested in a heavy psychological movie, I'd recommend this one. But be ready for a few parts that unsettle you a bit. I was pleasantly surprised by the movie.

Sucker Punch

Last night Laura and I headed out to the theater on a whim to watch Sucker Punch. I figured since I wrote about it back in the day when I first started seeing images for it, I should probably talk about it after I saw it.

I know most of the reviews out there for it are less than flattering. I think, like most things, it's a matter of managing your expectations. I went into this move expecting to see a few things:
1. Hot girls being badass in really cool costumes
2. Lots of cool visual effects and action
3. Weird combinations like zombies and samurai and dragons

Here's what I got:
1. Hot girls being badass in really cool costumes
2. Lots of cool visual effects and action
3. Weird combinations like zombies and samurai and dragons
4. Cool music and camera tricks

I did not get a fantastic story. I did not get a bunch of great acting. But neither of those things were things I was looking for, so I didn't really mind it. For what I wanted, it delivered. It wasn't the most surprising of stories - everything they're doing is telegraphed pretty far in advance so anyone paying attention could pick up on it pretty early. But for myself, it was the ride that really mattered. And boy, what a ride it was.

The word I came out with after the movie was "imaginative". I've seen WWI zombies before. I've seen samurai fights before. I've seen dragons before. But the way it was presented, with the trench battles, the blimps, the rockets, the biplanes. With the samurai toting some clearly not-samurai hardware. The fight between the dragon and the bomber. All great stuff that I've never really seen elsewhere. It captured my imagination and I had to smile that they were mixing up genres so effectively.

So my suggestion: if a bunch of high-action hot girls fighting in strung-together music videos with great camera work and computer work sounds cool to you, take a look at this film. Don't expect it to be much more than that, because the story, when all boiled down, is pretty simple and straight forward, and the characters are, except for a couple, not very well fleshed out. But man, what a ride.

Oh, and Sweet Pea was my favorite. Rocket took an early lead, but once I saw Sweet Pea in her "other world" get-up. Yeah. She won.

True Grit

Possible Spoilers Below!

Last night I finally caught True Grit. I've been a huge fan of the Coen Brothers, and seeing them reunited with Jeff Briggs was just too good to pass up. I had expected this movie to be a departure from their normal humorous bend of movie, delving into a bit more seriousness and... well... grit. They did take this movie to a few dark places, certainly, but they kept their good humor in as well. The sheer number of one-liners from the movie is just fantastic. Every character had a distinct way of talking about them, from the over-intelligent and driven 14 year old girl to the drunk and dry-witted US Marshall to the desperate-for-people-to-approve-of-him Texas Ranger.

Rooster Cogburn: We'll sleep here and follow in the morning.
Mattie Ross: But we promised to bury the poor soul inside!
Rooster Cogburn: Ground's too hard. Them men wanted a decent burial, they should have got themselves killed in summer.

The movie was slow in parts, and lacked a lot of the crazy gunfights and high-adrenaline chases that are standard in most cowboy movies, but instead filled the time with colorful scenes with fantastic characters talking and engaging in all manner of adventures. I felt like, as I was watching, this could have been how Cold Mountain was if it had some humor to it instead of being serious the whole way through. Even the bit characters, from the Undertaker to the man who sold the horses to the dentist/doctor were all fantastic to see.

In short, if you enjoy colorful conversation and surprisingly rich characters, this is the movie for you. It's great to watch from the beginning to the end how each character grows in relation to each other, and how despite the short time they all spent together they all ended up somewhat changed from the journey. Highly recommended.

Movies I Like That No One Else Seems To: The Mist

Spoilers below...

So last night I was looking through some of my movies and got to the M's and caught sight of this one. It made me think about how pretty much everyone I know who has seen the movie dislikes it except me - I love the heck out of it.

The movie hits a lot of my high points. A horror movie that's more than just a slasher flick or something like that. It focuses more on the way people react to the situation than on the evil bad things themselves. It has a touch of sci fi to it, a touch of post-apocalyptic-ness. Plus the music at the end (Host of Seraphim, in case you're curious) is just creepy as all get out.

Yet the few times I've shown it to other people, I tend to walk away as the only one who likes the movie, or part of the minority.

The reason most people seem to dislike it (as I understand it) is the fact that it's depressing as heck or that the main characters seem to do a complete shift at the end when they give up and essentially commit suicide after fighting so hard for survival.

I can understand the first complaint a bit more than the second - if you don't like depressing movies, you don't like depressing movies. End of story. I can't argue with that, and I can respect it. I just have trouble with the second issue, the complaint that it seems to break the characters. My feeling was that the suicide was essentially the end of a long road that, at every turn, was met with setback after setback. Every encounter with these creatures had been met with death and dying. It was easier to deal with in the supermarket when there were dozens of people around. But by the end, they were down to just the handful of them. They could see nothing beyond their car, and they could hear the strange creatures closing in. Given the idea that it was the end of the line, what's the other choice? Go down fighting (and therefore dying painfully) or end it quick?

A bit of a shame I'm in the minority on liking this movie, but that's okay. I'm not trying to convince anyone that doesn't like the movie to like it with this post or anything - just figured I'd say a few words about it. If you liked it, give it another watch! If you didn't, pull down a different movie and give that one a viewing instead. Movies are just good fun.

Turns Out Joss Whedon Is Funny... Who Knew?

So if you missed the news, there's evidently going to be a new Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie coming out. Only it's not going to have Joss involved at all. Entertainment Weekly asked Joss for his opinion. You can follow this link to see the article about it, or if you're too lazy, just read Joss' response below.

Kristin, I'm glad you asked for my thoughts on the announcement of Buffy the cinema film. This is a sad, sad reflection on our times, when people must feed off the carcasses of beloved stories from their youths—just because they can't think of an original idea of their own, like I did with my Avengers idea that I made up myself.

Obviously I have strong, mixed emotions about something like this. My first reaction upon hearing who was writing it was, "Whit Stillman AND Wes Anderson? This is gonna be the most sardonically adorable movie EVER." Apparently I was misinformed. Then I thought, "I'll make a mint! This is worth more than all my Toy Story residuals combined!" Apparently I am seldom informed of anything. And possibly a little slow. But seriously, are vampires even popular any more?

I always hoped that Buffy would live on even after my death. But, you know, AFTER. I don't love the idea of my creation in other hands, but I'm also well aware that many more hands than mine went into making that show what it was. And there is no legal grounds for doing anything other than sighing audibly. I can't wish people who are passionate about my little myth ill. I can, however, take this time to announce that I'm making a Batman movie. Because there's a franchise that truly needs updating. So look for The Dark Knight Rises Way Earlier Than That Other One And Also More Cheaply And In Toronto, rebooting into a theater near you.

Leave me to my pain! Sincerely, Joss Whedon.

Three Movies

On the flights to and from England, I managed to catch three movies. One I wanted to see and two I was indifferent about. They served well to pass the time, but I'm sure I did myself a disservice by watching them on the tiny screens available. Since they've all been out for a while, I'm going to ignore the whole plot recap and just talk about what I thought of each one.



The first was Iron Man 2. Second movie based on the Marvel comic, yadda yadda yadda. Most people know the whole story behind it. It was the movie I wanted to see for a while, so I was glad to finally get the chance to see it. In the end, I was... well, not really disappointed, since I didn't expect that much from the movie. But it delivered what I thought it would: not much. To me it felt like it was riding the coattails of the first movie too much, and didn't really do much to enhance Tony Stark's character. We knew he was a playboy, and he did that more. We knew he was smart, and he did that more. We knew he was sarcastic, and he did that more too. I didn't really feel like I got much more out of his character from this particular installment. To me it felt more like an "aftermath of the first Iron Man" than a new movie in its own right.



On the flight back, I caught the A-Team. I was hoping to see Robin Hood, which was available on the flight to England, but it wasn't an option on the flight back. I was not too happy about that, since I had no real desire to watch the A-Team when it came out, but given the option of watch the movie or do nothing in the cramped airplane, I opted to watch the movie.

And I'm glad I did. It was just a whole mess of fun on a bun. I was never a huge fan of the A-Team growing up. I loved the show, but for the life of me, I couldn't tell you anything about it other than the van was black with red, Mr. T was awesome, and Hannibal smoked cigars and had white hair. That's about the extent of what stuck with me. So I came into this movie without any thoughts about what people should act like or what they should do. Maybe that made it easier for me to enjoy for what it was - an action flick with a lot of explosions and completely ridiculous situations. I liked watching this one so much that I ended up watching half of it again later on the flight to pass some more time.



The last movie I saw was the Losers. Once it was over, I realized that all three of them were not really original movies - Iron Man and the Losers were both based on comic books, and the A-Team was a remake of the old TV show. Strange.

Anywho, I got sucked into this one because it had two actors I really like (though have no idea who they are). There's the guy who plays Stringer Bell on the Wire, and the guy who plays the Winchesters' father on Supernatural. Both are good actors, I think, who don't get the attention they deserve. So to see them in this movie made me happy.

Except the movie itself was not that great. It was similar to the A-Team - a bunch of guys who are military and then on the outs with the government trying to stop a bad guy doing bad things who is somehow on the same side as the government/military. Perhaps I would have liked it more if I hadn't seen the A-Team just beforehand, which I think is the superior movie of the two. The characters were flat for the most part, and the action was pretty low-key for a movie of this style.

More Sucker Punch

Evidently, I'm not the only one who thinks this movie looks fun. I got pointed over here to grab some of the posters. Personally, Sweet Pea is my favorite. Chic with a sword. How can you go wrong? Though it's hard to decide... can't wait for the movie. Enjoy!

Sucker Punch

So I found a new trailer for a movie coming out next March that has me pretty interested. It's called Sucker Punch, and I have no idea how it all fits together. But in the trailer, I see...

Samurai
Hot Girls
Mental Institutions
1950s Style Gangster Men
Airplanes with Missiles
Crashing buildings
Fully Automatic Guns
Scantly-clad Dancing
Mecha-type robots
and, of course, a Dragon

Evidently, the main character ends up somehow in a dream world where she can control some stuff, and something happens, and somehow that's good or bad. Clearly I'm not too sure what the movie's about. But with everything above rolled into one, how can it be bad??!?!

Inception

On Saturday night, Dan, Ellen, Laura and I went out to see Inception. I remember seeing the first trailer for it, having no idea what the movie was really about but wanting to see it simply because it was a Christopher Nolin movie. After his Batman treatments, and Momento before that, I was certain it would be good. Besides, the trailer reminded me a lot of when I saw the original trailers for Matrix - the movie's plot just didn't make sense, but that's because it was far too big to be put in a movie trailer.

My faith was rewarded. I am not going to give any kind of summary or anything like that for this movie, because if I do, you'll lose out on a lot of what the movie is. Pieces of it can be scraped from the trailer, but the movie is much bigger than that. Instead of telling you anything about the plot, I'll just say this:

Go see it.

If you like movies that make you think (and this one does), go see it. Make sure you pay attention, though. This isn't one of those movies you can start watching and then let your attention wander partway through. You need to watch carefully because everything's important.

The Karate Kid

In our ongoing attempt to keep cool during this oppressive weather, Laura and I made it out to a late showing of Karate Kid last night. We had a choice between seeing that one, but we were 10 minutes into it already (no previews!) or waiting around 40 minutes to see Iron Man 2, which we also have not seen. We went with the Karate Kid. Boy, was that a great decision.

We walked in and the movie had already started, but it was all just the introduction stuff. We got to see them rolling the stars of the film too, so I'm sure we didn't miss much (though I did notice Jaden Smith got the lead billing over Jackie Chan... interesting).

I'll start out talking about Jaden, since from what I've read, there's been a lot of complaints about how he only got the movie because of his parents, or that he's pretty egotistical or what have you already. He's riding his father's coattails to get where he is or whatever. Let me tell you, the kid did very well in this movie. He played the frightened kid being hounded by bullies, the awkward kid trying to flirt with a cute girl, the angry kid who just had to move away from all his friends, the desperate kid trying to find something to call his own, the mischivous kid, the frustrated kid and the determined kid all convincingly. I have a healthy amount of respect for the range he showed in this movie. It's not often I see a movie staring a child that I don't cringe at the kid's acting, but this one was just fine.

Second, I'll address the whole kung-fu/karate issue. My thought is 'who cares'? The story was essentially the same, and the fighting style was largely irrelevent to the main plot. It could have been kick-boxing or judo (maybe not sumo) and would have been fine. Actually, listening to Jackie Chan talk about Kung-Fu as an aspect of all life tied a lot of the story back to the differing philosophies between Jaden and the roving gang of bullies.

The movie was really top notch, actually surpassing the original in many ways. I'd have to say the only thing that did not top the original was actually Jackie Chan, and that's no fault of his - he did a stellar job. I just don't see how anyone could top Mr. Miagi. Fortunately, Jackie Chan did not try to mimic Mr. Miagi's performance - he took the character and made it his own.

Overall, I'd recommend this movie to just about anyone out there. Unless you didn't like the original story. If that's the case, this one, which follows essentially the same plot, won't do you many favors.

Post Apocalyptic

A couple of months ago, I wrote a review of I Am Legend, the book. Over the weekend, Laura and I were able to see the movie with Will Smith.

The movie wasn't all that bad. I really liked the visuals of New York torn apart by the virus. The flashbacks were well-done, showing a lot of what had happened with the world before everything went to pot.

But in the end, I have to say I was a little disappointed. Had I not read the book, certainly I would have liked the movie more, but like many things, the book was better than the movie.

In the book, the vampire/zombie things were a lot more interesting. They weren't just mindless monsters running after their kill. Some of them talked, and they had a plan. They knew where the main character was (though there were reasons they could not reach him), and they taunted him night after night.

Researching the virus felt more real in the book as well. We were able to follow through from one step to another and see how he was able to piece together what he learned about the virus through understandable break-throughs. In the movie, we're introduced to him with a full laboratory and doing blood tests and the like right off. Nothing showing him working at it and what pains he goes through just to learn more.

I think I did like the dog better in the movie than I did in the book, mostly because it was such a small part of the book - a dog that the main character finds and tries to befriend. In the book the dog is more of a springboard to show the desolation and loneliness the main character feels.

I also really liked the scene in the movie where he goes to the video store with all the manikins and the conversations he has with them. A nice touch to show how he's trying to cope with everything.

But I think my biggest criticism of the movie has to be the ending. I don't want to give away the ending of either, so I'll just say that the end of both comes down to the title, "I Am Legend", and each one takes it in a drastically different direction. The book, I think does it far better.

Ah, what the heck, I'll spoil it. If you don't want to know the ending of the book and movie, skip the rest of this post until you see the next picture.

Okay, now that's out of the way. The movie ended with Will Smith finding the cure, giving it to another human he found, and sacrificing his life to make sure they could escape with the cure. The end is a voice-over by the woman who got the cure from Will Smith as she says that the oncoming society that his cure is going to allow to exist is his legacy, and he will become a legend for bringing it about, essentially.

The book's ending is a bit different than that. He does find another person, but it turns out the person is a vampire who has found a way to control her appetite for blood and the like. She escapes from him and heads back to a society that the "enlightened" vampires are building. They end up capturing him and taking him back with them. He is given poison by the woman he had met earlier because, she tells him, the other vampires will never let him go now. They have become civilized and are the new society that is coming out of the old one. They're taking care of all the feral vampires and starting anew. The "I Am Legend" part comes from the main character's last thoughts as he looks out of his cell windows over the new society that's forming. People are looking at him frightened and he realizes that he is a monster to them. They cannot go out during the day, and during the entire book, he would hunt them when they are most vulnerable and kill them when they could not try to stop him. He killed hundreds of them in his time, and realizes that he became their boogie man. As he dies, he realizes that like vampires and the like for us, he will become the legend of their new society.

A bit more depressing, to be sure, but still, I like the book's ending better.



No spoilers in this one. The second post apocalyptic movie that Laura and I saw this weekend was The Road, also based on a book.

If you want to be depressed, see the Road. Or better yet, read it.

This one's a story about a father and his son as they travel through the end of the world. Like "I Am Legend", there are some things shown in flashback, but they don't really have anything to do with why the world is the way it is. They have to do only with the characters.

The entire story is built on these two characters and them trying to not only survive, but maintain the will to survive as they go. It's a f-ed up world. Food is scarce. Most of the animals and plants are dead. There's a scene where the kid and his father find a house where they can take a bath, and when they take their shirts off, they are disgustingly thin. Ribs poking out and everything.

There is a lot of talk in the movie about good guys and bad guys, and the father keeps talking about how they're the good guys. They don't resort to cannibalism, and they don't hunt people. But as the movie goes on, you realize how much humanity the father has lost just trying to keep his son alive. And the sad thing is I think the son realizes it too. It's a sad story, and never really picks up. There is no beginning, really, and the end's not really an end either. It's a small section of their life and showing the struggles to keep alive in the world the way it became.

Overall, I'd recommend the Road, but only for a time when you're ready for the story to depress you. It's a bit slow, but does a great job of drawing you in to the emotion of the world as it is.

Knight and Day

As usual, I will try to keep this as spoiler-free as possible.

Laura and I, in a bid to escape the scorching heat, headed out to the movies last night to see Knight and Day, the new Cruise/Diaz movie. The trailers had me in stitches when I saw them, and Dan gave the movie a good review, so we figured we should give it a whirl.

The movie started out very strong, from the beginning on the airplane through all the wacky situations that came up from Diaz trying to escape from Cruise and him constantly finding her and getting her involved in yet another crazy situation. The dialogue was top-notch, and Cruise had an insane charm to him that somehow made everyone want to go along with whatever he said. "Please, just stop shooting everyone!" Diaz shouts at him early on, to which Cruise, hiding with her behind a car while people are shooting at them, says (two uzis in hand), "Okay, I'm going to go out there and just talk to them real quick, okay? Now you just stay here, you're doing just fine." Then, after a beat adds, "Actually, I'm just going to go shoot them."

The movie is at its strongest in the first half, but after a while, it starts to slow down. The crazy situations get less crazy once the plot is introduced in full force, and while it still keeps its over-the-top-ness, it tones it back a bit, which is unfortunate.

In the end, I liked the movie, but I think Mr. & Mrs. Smith did the spy/romance/comedy thing better. This is one of those movies that, if I owned, I'd really want to watch the first hour over and over again, and just kinda let the end go by the wayside.

Oh, and there was a new trailer for Inception at the beginning of this movie and it finally told a little of what the movie's about. And it looks AWESOME!

Sure They're Fun, but Backwards???

Laura and I started playing a game over email today. We take plots of movies we've seen and try to describe what they're like if you've seen them backwards. It started with a couple of T-Shirts I saw.




So far we've got some pretty funny ones.

If you watch Titanic backwards its about a bunch of People Popsicles who thaw out and get on a boat and have a party. (Laura)

If you watch The Wizard of Oz backwards I think its actually sort of the same movie - Dorothy is happy in Kansas and magically arrives in Oz and gets scared out of her wits and goes back to Kansas where she realizes that Kansas isn't so great. (Laura)

If you watch Memento backwards it... makes sense. (me)

If you watch Schindler's List backwards its uplifting. (Laura)

If you watch the Major League backwards, a team of misfits hits a slump and stops playing together very well until finally the manager fires them all because she wants to move the team to a different state. Oh, and they put all the clothes back on a life-sized picture of her as the season progresses. (me)

If you watch Shawn of the Dead backwards, a bunch of undead people die and rise again as living people, swarming the planet. (me)

If you watch Fight Club backwards all the credit card companies blow up which causes a dude with a split personality to become sane and get a job at an accident appraisal company. (Laura)

If you watch Pocahontas or Avatar backwards, two lovers from different worlds decide that a bird really can't love a fish and they break up. (Laura)

If you watch Lord of the Rings backwards they find a ring in some lava, rescue it, and spend 3 movies trying to give it back to another guy who found it who gets saner the longer he wears it who then looses the ring again and a golem finds it and becomes a hobbit the longer he wears it, who then loses it and another guy finds it and becomes King the longer he wears it, who then loses it and the ring turns into a puddle of goo. (Laura)

To the other trilogy, Star Wars, a good man becomes evil and has an intense fight with one of the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy, but the powerful Jedi ends up going into hiding after that. Darth Vader rips apart the galaxy looking for the Jedi who has skipped around several places. Then he forgets the Jedi existed and just concentrates on consolidating power for his Emperor. He finds one of the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy, has a big fight with him, and then becomes good. (me)

If you watch Back to the Future backwards (yet another trilogy) a brilliant scientist falls out of love and miraculously travels forward in time from the old west to the 90s where he meets a kid who likes to skateboard and hangout with him, he then finds a time machine and decides to send the kid to the future but it seems that somehow the kids evil uncle has stolen an almanac and become rich so the kid finds out that he did it in the 50s, goes back in time and stops him from doing that, but he manages to break up his mother and father. His mother falls in love with him so he runs away and travels back to the 90s where it turns out that he didn't go time traveling at all. (Laura)

If you watch 12 Angry Men backwards, a group of jurors who are all of a single mind debate whether a particular kid is a murderer. Slowly racism and bigotry take hold of one of the jurors who manages to convince almost every one of the jurors to switch sides until a single stubborn holdout causes a hung jury. (me)

If you watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest backwards, an Indian catches a sink that's been thrown through a window of a nut house and then finds a lobotomized man. They stick his brain back in his head and he helps bring a kid who committed suicide back to life. The inspiration of this man helps unite the other people in the nut house, but soon they lose interest in his antics and he gets largely ignored by people there. Finally he decides he should leave and go to court instead. On the way home from there, he commits a crime. (me)

Try it out for yourself - they're pretty fun!