Denver Comic Con : Day One

In short, my first day at Denver Comic Con 2013 was amazing.

It is now midnight. I just got home. I'm getting up at 7am tomorrow so I can catch one the first panels. That is why I must be brief, and why I'm writing a blog from my tablet for the first time. I'm curious to see how well I can edit the pictures in here.

Hmm, looks like I can't. Oh well, so here's a quick commentary followed by some pictures of the day.

This is the first convention I've ever dressed up for. As I walked through downtown Denver sporting the Federation Uniform, I felt that odd outcast sense from the residential stares. Then I arrived at the line for Comic Con and felt right at home. The Cos-Play scene at this Con is very rampant, and very friendly.

I've met an official AMC walking dead zombie, and a professional voice actor (Hal Rayle). I've been introduced to new card games in development. I've seen Felicia Day from a far. I've attended a great panel on the battles of earning a place in the cartoon voice industry.

The highlight though is the strong vibe of respect and acceptance among the crowd of attendees. This really is a celebration of "being" geeky. It's only day one, and I've already had multiple nerdgasms.

OK, enough late night blabber. I'm off to sleep for Day 2. Enjoy a few pictures from my day ...

A Denver Comic Con Prequel Story, featuring Waldrop

It confounds me me that the last time I did something like this was 14 years ago. Before I begin my Denver Comic Con 2013 experience, let's flashback ...

The year was 1999. The location was Dragon Con, a three day science fiction and fantasy convention hosted in Atlanta, GA. I went with a close friend of mine who, while very relevant to the story, we will keep anonymous with the pseudonym "Waldrop". Waldrop was an impressive portrait artist that enjoyed getting his portraits signed by the celebrities they featured. At this point in time, I believe he had an Eric Idle portrait of his signed by Mr. Idle.

That, for the most part, was Waldrop's motivation to come to this convention with me. He had a great portrait drawn of Billy D. Williams as the Lando Calrissian Character, and Billy D Williams himself was to be at Dragon Con that year. So after dragging Waldrop through the trade room with me for a while, we went to meet the great Star Wars traitor himself.

Billy D. Williams from 1999's DragonCon

As we approached Billy Dick William's signing room, we were cut off by security. They informed the line that Mr. Williams would not be signing ANY Star Wars memorabilia. He would only be signing his new book, which we could purchase there for the signing. Well, a couple of underpaid security guards never stopped a pair of teenagers in my knowledge of the history of America. Confident that we could appeal to the "Artist" within Billy D., Waldrop snuck the picture under his shirt and we confidently continued forward. When we reached the book sellers they again warned us Mr. Williams would only sign the new book. We continued on, and Waldrop stood before Billy D. Williams with his portrait in hand.

"Hello Mr. Williams. I understand you are an artist, like myself, and I was just wondering if you had any comments about my piece of you here or maybe if you'd might honor it with your signature?"

Billy D. just stared blankly at Waldrop and said "No.", and pointed us towards the door.

Waldrop was devastated.

Adam West from 1999's DragonCon

I lead us on to the Celebrity Walk, in hopes of raising his spirits with a different celeberity. As luck would have it, Adam West's booth was within sight without a single attendee before him.

"Hey dude, cheer up! Let's go say 'Hi' to Batman!"

If you're not in the know, Adam West is fucking awesome.

I walk up, nerding out to Mr. West about how I grew up watching his show, when he notices the distraught Waldrop. 

"Yeah, that's great kid. What's wrong with your friend?"

Waldrop steps forward, "Billy D. Williams wouldn't sign my portrait of him."

Batgirl at 1999 DragonCon

"Really, what a jerk! Can I see it? Wow kid, this is really good. Tell you what, can I sign it?"

Waldrop begins to lighten up a bit, "Um, sure."

So Adam West signs Waldrop's Billy D Williams Portrait, writing in one corner "Great work kid, keep it up. Love, Adam West" and in the other corner "Sorry I'm such a douchebag. Love, Billy D. Williams".

He gives us the portrait back, and suggests that we get all the other celebrities at the con to sign it. Then we could bring it back to Billy D. and exclaim, "Hey all these other celebrities would sign it, why can't you?"

So that's what we did. A campaign across the DragonCon Celebrity booths to gather signatures to shove in Billy D. Williams face. Now this was 14 years ago, so my memory may be fallible but I remember us getting ...

Apollo Smile at 1999 DragonCon

Yvonne Craig (60's Batgirl)
Apollo Smile
Phillip Brown (Uncle Owen Lars)
Peter Ostrum (Charlie from the Chocolate Factory)
Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca Salt from Chocolate Factory)

Just to name a few of the signatures I remember ...

Now fast forward to 2013 ...

The Denver Convention Center Bear just wants to come in to play!

I'm attending my second convention in almost 14 years since that epic day! I'm excited and hopeful for some new stories to share from Denver's Comic Con. There will be many photos coming to this blog, so stay tuned or subscribed or however you choose to find my blog through the internets.

Boldly Going : A Commentary on Star Trek Into Darkness

Spoilers!

I apologize for starting a blog with required reading, but the situation calls for it. The following article inspired my Star Trek Into Darkness experience to such a degree that I am unable to write without including it.

The article is ...

Harry dives into STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS' spoilers to reveal the truth behind the blockbuster we're seeing!

 ... You're back already? Did you even ... oh alright! I'll summarize with an excerpt ...

The first film saw a 9/11 shock and awe attack upon Vulcan that resulted in it’s complete annihilation.   The attack also targeted Earth…   In addition, that very first attack – it took Kirk’s father – a father that in our beloved Trekverse, lived and served as a constant inspiration for Kirk.   In JJ’s, ol Tiberius has the swagger and the libido of Shatner’s Kirk, but he isn’t prone to preach the ideals of Starfleet.   Instead, he’s raised with at least one step-father that he has zero respect for – and is prone to reckless adrenaline rushes.   Shatner’s Kirk was an adventurer at heart, marveling at the infinite variety of civilizations out there around the stars.  We can see some of that with Pine’s Kirk – he’s anxious to get way out there, but he hasn’t believed in Starfleet for most of his life.

Now – is this Starfleet still based on the idealism of the 1960’s America?    No.   With STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, the Darkness of the film isn’t Khan.   It isn’t the Klingons or the Romulans, it’s the Darkness that has infected policy in STARFLEET.   In other words, this is a metaphor for a Post-9/11 America.    In JJ’s Verse, he has a Kirk that doesn’t yet value the core beliefs of STARFLEET…   Meanwhile, the rest of his crew…   good souls like Spock and Scotty…   They raise these issues with Kirk, but Kirk doesn’t want to hear it.   He’s us.   Kirk has always been us.   But just like Kirk, we’ve changed.    - Harry Knowles @headgeek666

Classic Star Trek was classic for a generation because it was once relevant.

From the BoOk Of Knowledge 

Roddenberry wanted to tell more sophisticated stories, using futuristic situations as analogies for current problems on Earth and showing how they could be rectified through humanism and optimism.

It's this often unspoken of ingredient of Star Trek's appeal that J.J. Abrams has kept alive in this interpretation  The alternate universe idea has changed the setting of Starfleet a little more than it's core characters. From this perspective, Into Darkness succeeds in presenting us the "What If" scenario of the crew of the Enterprise being pulled into the politics of "The War on Terror".

I found this sequel to be more in tune with the characters than the original, both in scripting and in portrayal. Simon Pegg in particular stole the show with his Scotty performance, and it felt like Chris Pine had included a little more Shatner to his performance. The Enterprise Crew I knew and loved as a child really felt reborn this time around.

Well, for the most part ...

There were a few moments that threw me off as a fan. Namely moments where classic scenes were relived from different perspectives. While Kirk is the driving motivation for pursuing Kahn, it is Spock who actually does most of the battling with the genetic superman. It's a cool alternate universe idea, I admit. Seeing Spock and Kahn battle it out was most excellent, but Spock yelling "Kahn!!"? Too much Abrams ... too much. Yes, like the original Shatner scream, it had a nice flare of cheese to it. Yet Spock's "Kahn" scream just killed any tension and tone building with the scene for me, whereas Shatner's kept the tension building to Ricardo Montalbán's victory orgasm.

Despite my little geeky nitpicking, Into Darkness was an overall success in bringing classic Star Trek back alive. It's nice to see good guys be good guys despite the darkness growing in their/our world.

I'm also thankful they didn't abuse Spock's classic "The need of the many outweighs the need of the few" line as a pro-war on terror statement. That would have been awkward ...

The Man In the Iron Suit : A Review of Iron Man 3

Sigh, I am a mutant with the power of opinion and its spider sense is tingling.

I wish I could put on a magical suit of armor to protect me from disappointment. I'd be "Denial Man", impervious to let downs. Everything I experienced would be "epic".

While I was a little disappointed, I still left the theater mostly satisfied by my Iron Man 3 experience. It was great for what it was, a movie about Tony Stark defeating his inner demons both external and internal. This film picks up with Tony Stark dealing with the shock of his experiences at the end of The Avengers. Its actually quite a nice continuation of the grander Marvel movie plot. We see how P.T.S.D. has taken it's toll on Tony Stark, who is so lost in his Iron Man weapon as a way to distract himself from his trauma. As the film unfolds, we see how the suit doesn't make the man as Stark successfully survives without his stockpile of technology. Tony Stark IS Iron Man, not the suit of armor.

So with Robert Downey Jr's excellent performance and the films deep introspective into the character of

Tony Stark, why was I disappointed? In the same fashion that I was disappointed with Oblivion. My expectations, led by a winter of action filled trailers, led me astray. I expected a lot more Iron Man battle action. Frankly it's not essential to see this in 3D as the majority of the film is dramatic dialog scenes. While there is some great action near the end, there's not enough of it to warrant the film being in 3d in my opinion.

Also there's the disappointment of new suit. The new armor is a running plot device to just fail on Tony, to the extent that Stark prefers to not wear it for most of the film. I think there's a plot hole in that throughout the movie we're left to believe that Tony is suitless due to only assessable suit being out of order. Then by the end of the film, we find out that Stark had an army of suits conveniently available for the ending showdown. That scene in itself was awesome in 3D, but you can't help but ask "why didn't he summon these suits earlier in the movie?".

The recurring theme for me this summer seems to be "stop having expectations". I think if I had gone to this movie without any expectations, I would have walked away a lot more satisfied. Iron Man 3 was a good movie, just not the style of movie I had expected. I suppose that says a lot for how well Iron Man 3 is if it can deter from my expectations and yet still satisfy. If you're a comic book movie fan, I highly recommend checking it out.

"Don't Drone Me, Bro!" : A Review of Oblivion

Science Fiction is making a comeback this decade.

I don't mean movies filled with aliens, space ships, and large explosions. Those are nice, but they fit more in the category of Sci-Fi. I mean films that focus on how technology, or scientific events, affect a person's character. Movies that use tone and timing instead of loud bangs and creature effects.

I'm referring to the movies that Oblivion tries so hard to be. Oblivion marks the stepping stone of better things to come in science fiction cinema. I say a stepping stone because Oblivion isn't necessarily great. It's not bad either, but something about it felt disappointing. I'll refer to this mystery effect as it's X-Factor. As much as I try to reimagine my experience in the theater, I can't explain why this movie wasn't great. Perhaps Joseph Kosinski was so lost in trying to get all the pieces that define classic science fiction into this movie, that he didn't leave any room for it to have it's own soul? Then again, maybe Tom Cruise just over acted the hell out of it? I can not say with certainty.

Most likely, it's due to the part my expectations played into the experience. I admit I went into this expecting typical Hollywood Sci-Fi. I may have even craved a little mindless space action, honestly. I wanted Tom Cruise one-liners fired off at mean looking aliens blowing up. While there is some action in this movie, it's not as much as I expected.

Illustration from the Graphic Novel

The movie does a great job of recreating the tone and mystery of a 70's Science Fiction film, like Blade Runner or 2001. The pacing here is much slower than I anticipated, which may be the big cause of my X-Factor experience. There's more plot to this than expected, with decent writing and human emotions being portrayed. While most of it is predictable, there was some nice emotional build up to Andrea Riseborough's declaration that "they are not an effective team". The cinematography is also gorgeous, much in tune with the graphic novel that inspired it.

Tom Cruise's performance is mostly spot on, if not maybe guilty of over acting a bit here or there. That's possibly the only real obvious complaint I have. Even the movie's "epic" conclusion highlights a Cruise monologue that, while well written, pulls the viewer out of the emotion of the moment. I'm sure it looked great on paper, but mixed with Cruise's taste for intensity it just doesn't flow right to me. Oh well ...


Again, I stress this movie is a big step in the right direction for science fiction cinema. 

Oblivion is a good movie, just not ... great?

Dr. Tongue's Evil House of Pancakes Presents Jurassic Park in 3D!!

1993 was an important year for my childhood. It was the first summer of my life where I got to go see movies in the theater on a regular basis. I saw The Fugitive, and The Man Without A Face. I was a little too young to appreciate those movies. I also saw Sidekicks and T.M.N.T. 3, the latter of which I cringe at the idea of watching again as an adult.

Yet none of those films would impact my life as much as the theater presentation of Jurassic Park did. To this day I still remember the awe I felt seeing those dinosaurs come to life on the big screen. It motivated me to read my first novel by Michael Crichton, may he rest in peace. That lead to discovering an author who inspired me to think big and aspire to write my own exciting tales of technology gone astray.

Well now I'm 31 years old, and Jurassic Park is back on the big screen in 3D. When I first heard the news of it's re-release I was more excited to see it on the big screen again then I was in the 3D conversion. Ever since my teens I've been an enthusiast for the theater experience. 3D has made it easier to explain this to people who don't understand the immersion factor of a theater presentation. Tell someone that if they didn't see Avatar in 3D then they didn't "really" see it, and chances are they'll accept that statement. Hell, they may even agree with you. But offer the same argument for a movie like Dark Knight Rises, and a debate will ensue.

Let's get the 3D conversation over with here. It was very impressive how well they converted it to that presentation. If you're into 3D, I highly recommend it. Ok, now that that's over ...

Here's what is even better about this re-release, they're also showing it remastered in it's original 2D presentation. Now, if you don't care about 3D but would like to see this movie again then PLEASE GO SEE THIS IN 2D!

You may be asking yourself, WHY WOULD I WANT TO PAY TO SEE THIS IN 2D WHEN I CAN SEE IT 3D?

Think about every crappy movie remake you've ever seen. Would you have preferred to have just seen the original on the big screen again instead of the money inspired reproduction? I would. Maybe I'm alone in this, but I would pay good money to see older movies in a theater again. Imagine the statement we could make to Hollywood if the 2D version of the Jurassic Park release made more money than the 3D version?

Maybe then Hollywood would give these classic's another chance on our modern cinema's instead of trying to remake them. These are all rumored remakes in development for 2013-2014 releases ...

• Carrie
• Escape From New York
• Robocop
• Mad Max
• Pet Sematary
• Point Break
• The Crow
• An American Werewolf in London
• Child's Play
• Drop Dead Fred
• The NeverEnding Story
• Overboard
• Highlander

I don't know about you but I'm sick of remakes. Well ... except for Evil Dead. That was pretty awesome, and Carrie does look like it's going to be pretty good. Wait, I'm losing focus here.

I don't want to see a new Escape From New York. I want to see Kurt Russel larger than life again! Here's our chance to show Hollywood that there's money to be made in re-releases. Please, for the love of classic 80's and 90's cinema GO SEE JURASSIC PARK IN 2D!!

Oh, since you've been such a good sport for reading this far here's a classic SCTV clip with John Candy about 3D movies. Enjoy!

Dead By Dawn : A Review of Evil Dead (2013)

Detoxing is a bitch. The body pains and aches for a fix. Your sensitivity of all your senses increase to painful levels. You can hallucinate, seeing movements out of the corner of your peripheral. The woods start to chase you. Dead animals appear around you, and family members begin to lie to you. They say you killed them. They say you're dangerous. You can smell their filthy souls. Dead by dawn ... dead by dawn ... you'll rot in hell you filthy bastards!!

OK, maybe detoxing off drugs isn't exactly like that, but it makes for an interesting metaphor. You certainly battle demons both internal and external. That's exactly what the new heroine of Evil Dead goes through in this 2013 remake of the 1981 original. Mia is a struggling addict who, with the help of her friends,organizes a "cold turkey" getaway at her family's old vacation cabin to get through her detoxing period. It creates for an interesting plot device to motivate the characters to stay at the cabin, despite the odd events that occur around them. They assume most of the hysteria by Mia (Jane Levy) is just manipulation to get back to the city to get high again. Oh how wrong they are ...

Now as far as biased reviews go, I'm a big fan of the original Evil Dead. It's a monument achievement in independent horror films. It launched the careers of both Sam Raimi (Director of the Spider-Man Trilogy) and Bruce Campbell (Burn Notice). For the past 30 years, Evil Dead has set the standard for campy horror movies. Even if you've never seen Evil Dead, chances are you've heard a few of it's hero's one liners.

With a fan base as strong as Evil Dead's, and it's lead actor Bruce Campbell, it's a challenging move to produce a remake with new characters and motivations. When I first read about the new lead character's drug detox plot, I started to lower my expectations. I began to fear for a CGI gore fest. While that could be entertaining, Evil Dead deserves better.

Thankfully Director Fede Alvarez felt the same way. Not only did he recreate many of the classic scares of the original, he did it all without the aid of CGI. As a student of film, you must see this movie to see how well this is done. Certain scenes that I assumed were done with CGI now confound me as to how they were done without it. The soon to be infamous Tongue scene comes to mind here, where the Demon Possesed Mia splits her tongue licking a razor blade.

Alvalrez stayed true to Evil Dead form in other ways besides classic gore techniques. The movie had a great pacing and soundtrack to it. It felt like an Evil Dead movie, and that's not an easy feat. All the little pieces of technical development have to flow together. The writing, while a new original take, had many winks to the classic. Especially in some of it's running gags. My favorite gag was how Mia's brother David (Shiloh Fernandez) always fixed major wounds on people with duct tape. 

The one issue I had during the movie was the lack of an obvious hero. Where is Ash? Is Mia the new Ash? Can't be, since she gets possesed early on. Is it her brother? It seems so until the very end. Before I spoil these questions, let me point out that Ash isn't the obvious hero in the original either. He was a very scarred and unlikely hero until he finally cut up his girlfriend to bits and started carrying around a chainsaw.

* Spoiler Alert!! *

In retrospect, the hero of the film should have been obvious considering the show stealing performances of it's star. Jane Levy lead this movie forward like a rock star! It's hard to believe she had never seen Evil Dead until after she got the part. I can understand why she would want this role without prior knowledge of the series. Mia is such an entertainingly diverse character. Levy got to be a loving sister, a struggling drug addict, a frightened woman, a possessed killer, a taunting demon, and in the movie's epic finale she gets to pick up a chainsaw and kick some undead ass. She even gets to drop a few demon killing one liners then. Best part of the movie is how she loses her hand. Sorry Ash, but Mia just outclassed you.

While a movie like Evil Dead isn't for everyone, I do highly recommend it. It's a reminder of what can be done without CGI effects. It's a resurrection of the fun of a campy horror film done right. For women, I also point out the achievements of Jane Levy. As an actress, Levy brings Mia to the levels of Sigourney Weaver's Ripley. She just flat out kicks ass! 

For the sake of your soul, which smells filthy by the way, go see it!