The Adventure Begins! (Chapter 1)

               

        

You know, whether it involves a princess or not, I always find myself embarking on these quests both in the real and virtual world (THANK GOD Fallout 3 exists). I feel these quests don’t always have to require a princess for the hero to learn a lesson. Sure, love is always cool to have, but it can be distracting at times for the hero, and the hero has a higher chance of failing. As long as you have an enemy, a road, a goal/purpose, and a challenge that opposes the hero, you still have a great quest.
         A perfect example of a quest like this is a classic film called The Sandlot. You have the hero and his companions (Smalls and the gang), the challenge (Getting Babe Ruth’s autographed ball back), the enemy or dragon (Hercules the dog), the dangerous road (The Fence and Mr.Mertle), and the goal/purpose (Get the ball back before Denis Leary gets back home). A film like this just shows that you don’t really need a princess to make the quest serve as a life lesson for the hero. Other stories like The Catcher in the Rye, The Dark Knight Returns, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Night don’t have a princess and they succeed very well telling their own type of quest. That is why I prefer these different scenarios and stories rather than the whole gimmicky and predictable hero saves princess story (I’m looking at you Super Mario). The quests without the princess can be more exciting, suspenseful, and entertaining to be a part of. They also have a stronger impact and life lesson for the main hero (Never use a rare baseball as a baseball to play with Smalls) and each impact/lesson can be shown in a different way. If you were to have just the hero saving the princess (or prince if you want to do something different), what will the hero learn? Will the hero learn to be a better lover or kisser?

          As Foster mentions, all quests do involve self-knowledge, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re always about learning from your mistakes. Hell, you don’t always need the typical young hero to be the person who is taught a lesson. Take Alan Moore’s Watchmen for example. Each hero in the graphic novel has their own quest, but not every single one of them is about self-knowledge. Readers deal with revenge, motives, wonder, and even the sense of finding one’s self spirit on a different planet (the closest to probably self-knowledge). It fascinates me that quests like these make the adventure worth remembering, therefore making the story worth retelling in the future.
        Quests as a whole can be funny or depressing as hell. It’s the moments that a writer creates (using the main requirements obviously) really determines that choice, and I feel that every trip is quest. The trip can be as simple as a kid fighting the urge to stay in bed or get up and grab something from the fridge. The trip can be as elaborate as a kid fighting off a werewolf, zombies, super soldiers, ghosts, and a monster with a machine gun (Such fun times…ahhh) just for the sake of conquering his fears of haunted houses. Either way, no matter how fast or slow a trip is, a quest is a quest. An adventure calls and will live on when it’s complete.

Examples of Whedon

At times, Whedon mocks your stereotypical films with his witty dialogue and brave choices. These examples (respectfully from Cabin in the Woods and Dr. Horrible) take a jab a today's portrayals of horror films and super villains.


Dr. Horrible:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUvPfZqEftI

CitW:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4LBIs87F68

Irony Whedon uses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8aRoLQpBjo

Favorite Film Director

      It's difficult for me to choose an inspirational director. From Spielberg to Nolan, it took time to choose one, but I finally made up my mind in a period of 30 seconds!

JOSS WHEDON!

      Yes, THE Whedon that made every comic fan around the world shit their pants when he made The Avengers (such a fantastic film). What I love about Whedon is the fact that he always challenges himself as a director. He handles ensemble casts and makes sure everyone has a spotlight. As a writer, Joss Whedon tends to do something different every time instead of rehashing the same concept over and over again. The dialogue he creates is smart, witty, and brilliant, and he has the balls to do the unthinkable (killing a character everyone loves for example). He's made several underrated projects that fans love to this day (Dr. Horrible, Serenity, Firefly, Dollhouse) and has created what is the best comic book film of all time, The Avengers.
      
       Joss Whedon knows how to change the "game" of a story or film (Cabin in the Woods for example) and makes it become something very memorable. It's a shame he can be underestimated at times. Still, his work and skills in writing makes him an influential artist to me.

2014 Oscars Review

It was a difficult choice Sunday. Watch The Walking Dead or the Oscars? Of course, Walking Dead was going to be aired again later on, so in the end, it was the Oscars.

As much as I like Ellen as a host, I think she wasn't at her best like previous years and I thought last year's host did a better job. Yes, at times Ellen was funny, but I felt she was there for the sake of telling jokes popping in and out before and after an award or a commercial.

As for the winners, I was completely surprised American Hustle and even Wolf of Wall Street got NOTHING. Gravity pretty much swept the awards with 7 I believe while Dallas Buyers Club mostly got Best Supporting Actor/Best Actor and 12 Years A Slave gets Best Supporting Actress/Best Picture. The one award I was actually right on was Jared Leto's Supporting Actor and Gravity winning Best Director. Everything else turned out to be different than I thought it would be.

Though not as good as last year's show, the 2014 Oscars was still enjoyable to watch (except the entire idea of Frozen winning). Still, it was better than the episode of The Walking Dead I missed apparently.

Texas Chainsaw 3D - Sh*t Reviews #2

And so I thank you brother. Thank you for letting me borrow your Netflix account. And I thank Netflix for letting me watch a film that disrespects a horror icon without paying $13. Gotta love Netflix.

 

PLOT: A young woman travels to Texas to collect an inheritance; little does she know that an encounter with a chainsaw-wielding killer is part of the reward.

Again, like my previous review, what made me watch this was a commentary track from one of my favorite Youtube shows. Had that commentary track not exist, I wouldn't be reviewing this. Ever. But hey, gotta love laughing my ass off with this film.

 

Taking place immediately after the original, the opening sequence was actually the only decent thing for this film, but in the end, viewers end up in a trap. This is one of those movies where it starts off good and ends up sucking horribly. Man, such bad CG blood. Seriously, the CGI in this film is god awful. The acting is done by people who look like they belong in the adult industry and they do a terrific job portraying their stereotypical horror characters: The stoner, the slut, the brave guy, and the lead chick that just stands for eye candy. No acting required. Having been a fan of the original Texas Chainsaw, the "twist" in this film completely disrespects the mythology of Leatherface and is simply a copout. If only the lead read the damn letter in the first place. Still, gotta love those horror clichés. And my god, the 3D. 3D gimmicks once again. You know, it's not surprising that this film was only made to profit and sell the 3D use. This film completely abuses that and cheats people out of their money like the 3D in Saw 7 did (another bad review in the future).

As a horror fan and Leatherface fan, I was very disappointed with this film. I can never imagine the horror icon as a "anti-hero", and this film has establish that. At least it was something different. In the end, the actors, writing, fake blood CGI, and 3D won't convince you that Texas Chainsaw 3D is terrifying.

Texas Chainsaw 3D - 2/10

Spy Kids 3D - Sh*t Reviews #1

I think I'm about to start a new series of bad movie reviews. Yeah, I like to review good movies, but there are times where you really have to watch bad movies and have fun reviewing them. So this can be considered as the first entry to the Bad Movies playlist. Let's begin with Spy Kids 3D: Game Over. 

 

PLOT: Carmen's caught in a virtual reality game designed by the Kids' new nemesis, the Toymaker. It's up to Juni to save his sister, and ultimately the world.

 

I'll be honest, I enjoyed this as a kid. It's been years since I've seen this, and just recently, one of my favorite shows on Youtube reintroduced this film as their new commentary track. Of course I bought the track for $1 and I saw the film again. Now seeing this film again at a time when I know what's good or bad, I still question myself why did I enjoy this as a kid?

 

My god. Everything about this was just bad. For its time (2003), it was something new and something innovated with 3D. This was when 3D wasn't a thing. Now we live in a time where 3D and 4K and 4D aromascope are the future of movies. Should this film had been released recently, it would've been worse. The acting, the CG, the story, blaahhh!! I'll admit, there was one sequence I did enjoy (the mega race scene), but other than that, I was watching nothing but cheesy clichés, dialogue, and cheesy writing. And the cameos this film offers is hysterical. Still, I enjoyed Sylvester Stallone's crazy anticlimactic character: The Toymaker. That was the only good thing about the film to say the least.

With its 3D gimmicks, bad acting, and cheesy storytelling, Spy Kids 3 was nothing compared to the first two. Watching it with the commentary track wasn't a total waste. I had much more fun laughing at it than with it.


Spy Kids 3D: Game Over - 4/10

 

 

 

Favorite Commercial

As a hardcore gamer, I appreciate this. I'm not a fan of commercials, but this one stood for me. Featuring favorite characters from games I've played, this is, to me, the best commercial I've ever seen.