Avert Your Eyes from "Brightest Day"

As we all know by now, I love comic books. Comic books are a form of storytelling that combines the intimate methodical techniques of a novel with the visual flare of cinema. In many ways comics are superior to both formats as they can dispense the need for excessive Stephen King levels of exposition by just showing you a picture of what is happening and are capable of setting up much more dynamic shots than movie because the framework of a comic is not limited to the aspect ratio of a movie theater screen or television set.

Yes, comics can do just about anything and probably should try it all. Looking back at the 80s we had very daring writers assembling deconstructive pieces on super hero stories and analyzing the mental stress and odd social implications that a living breathing super soldier might pose to society. Unfortunately, the amazing lengths that comics such as Watchmen or Sandman took were inevitably the catalysts of the absolute destruction of the industry in the 90’s. Gone were the dark tales of cerebral meditation and in were the ludicrous large gunned, multi pocket wearing, amateurish anatomy of the Rob Liefeld age. Somehow comics survived and are now going through a revival thanks to a little bit of ingenuity and the knowledge that “fun” should always be a part of the equation.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the dark stuff; hell Preacher is so vile that it makes me giggle with delight and appreciate the message it’s trying to deliver with its overtly western feel. Despite this love of the macabre I have to say that silly fun will always rank higher on my personal comic shelf. The Bone series is easily one of my favorite comics to ever see Mylar. Ever since I collected the complete paper trade back I have made it routine to read through the whole thing at least once a year. Why? The characters are endearing, the quest is grand, and it knows when to take itself seriously and when to sit around and just goof off. Hell, this is a comic that takes the works of one of the most noteworthy writers of all time, Melville, and references him by naming a cute and cuddly creature after one of the most nihilistic characters in literature. In many ways it’s perfect. This sort of awareness is pivotal to its success; it understands its own universe and doesn’t deny what it is. So with all that said, let’s talk about Brightest Day.

For those of you that have read my stuff since the beginning, you might recall that I posted a rather negative review of cross over events in comics. To save time and space for those who never read the thing, I don’t really care for them. The idea of throwing together all the characters of a respective comic universe to do battle is rarely self contained within its own series and is nothing more than a ploy by the company to have people buying copies of comics from all of their various characters’ individual series.

Luckily Blackest Night was one of those rare gems that knew exactly what it was. First and foremost it was a Green Lantern comic and so it took great care in focusing almost exclusively on the events of Green Lantern that occurred before the cross over began. Sure there was some stuff about Mera and other supporting third tier super heroes, but it was always in small bursts that complimented the primary story. Blackest Night eventually ended and kicked off Brightest Day. As of writing this review I am 4 books in and what I see before me is a completely bland, insipid, scatter brained, juvenile mess.

I’ve always feared that comics might be in danger of going back in time to revisit the atrocities of the 90’s and books like Brightest Day are the reason. Imagine for a second, a comic book about super heroes within the pristine world where Superman and Wonder Woman reside that features a mother brutally murdering her own family and then ripping her own flesh off then proceeding to tear the skin off her now dead family. Oh I’m real…. Yes, this is a scene in Brightest Day. This is a scene that occurs within the standard DCU. Superman will forever be a hero who protects the people of a world where house wives do things on the level of The Collector. Sure I’m aware that sick things happen in life and many might point to me and say, “Stop trying to censor this! You just can’t accept the harshness of reality.” Well to that I say, this is a work of fiction and for the sake of entertainment I am always willing to suspend my disbelief. I don’t mind this sort of behavior in expanded universe material, but once you have the most brutal of horror movie events unfolding on the pages of what will soon be cannon, I think you’ve got a serious problem.

Yeah, Brightest Day is kinda weird and gross. Blackest Night had its morbid scenes as well, hell this IS a zombie apocalypse run, but nothing on this level of insanity. Fans will probably point towards Marvel Zombies and ask why I don’t mention the strange happenings there but honestly Marvel Zombies was always nothing more than kooky fan service. In no way was Marvel Zombies canonical and once you throw Ash from The Evil Dead into the mix you quickly realize it’s all for fun. Blackest Night and Brightest Day want you to believe in this mythology badly; they want you to understand even years from now that yes, zombies are real and yes they can drop kick Hal Jordan like a punk bitch. This is the sort of stupid ideology taken from the 90’s where you just give the loyal fans exactly what they want no matter how inappropriate. Yes, I blame the recent rise in the popularity of zombies for constructing this DC run and shame on all of you for spoiling what once was great.

So other than being gross what’s wrong with it? Well for starters it can’t keep focused. I applauded Blackest Night for its tunnel vision. Brightest Day on the other hand while still belonging to the Lantern comics only does so in spirit. Hal Jordan and Sinestro in the 4 comics that have been published to date have only made an appearance in the first issue and only on the first 3 pages or so. What the hell have they been doing? This is the White Lantern for god’s sake! Shouldn’t they be more interested in the presence of a brand new Lantern Power source? Shouldn’t they be interested in this since it is essentially ALL of the Lantern powers rolled into one with the awesome bonus feature of being able to bring the dead back to life in the non flesh eating George Ramero sort of way? No, of course they’re not. They tried lifting it a few times and Hal chocked it up to being the Sword in the Stone myth. Do I ever wish that were true, hell where’s the Disney version? That would be a lot more entertaining than this schlock.

Wait, didn’t Sinestro seize the power at the end of Blackest Night for a moment? Didn’t Hal Jordan and the collective A-list members of DCU also get some of its mojo towards the end? This Lantern must suffer from some kind of bi-polarness if it freely offers Sinestro its power at the drop of a hat and then isolates itself like some 14 year-old self mutilator the next.

Without any Lanterns around you’re probably wondering, well then who is the story about? Hate to break this to you but Brightest Day suffers from the biggest problem of most cross over events in that it can’t decide who to focus on. The story jumps back and forth between Aqua man and Mera, Firestorm, The Martian Manhunter, and the Hawk duet. *yawn* other than the Martian Manhunter I really don’t care too much about these other characters. They may have had their decent runs here and there, but I’ve never read them and am not interested in starting now. Furthermore, this disjointed narrative can work and has worked in the past but it requires a great deal of creative story telling that I don’t think is present here. Hell you want a great tale that jumps between numerous characters? Read They Came Like Swallows, watch any Quentin Tarantino film, play Final fantasy 6 as these are all great examples of how you can build up an emotional investment in numerous characters and subplots that coalesce into a single cohesive narrative.

Obviously, the events of these separate characters are all unified by the White Lantern, but as of chapter 4 I’m still not seeing it. By now there should be a clear indication of how these completely boring and uninteresting events involving zombie sharks and Martha Mansons are tied to one another other than the very ambiguous, it’s the white lantern’s doing.

Come to think of it, the more I study this, the more I see a desperate ploy by DC to try and inject their increasingly unpopular A-list stars with relevance in the same manner that they did with their C-listers over the last few years. Blue Beatle and Booster Gold are great examples of characters dug up from the mud and turned superstar over night. The difference here is that while those two had interesting stories written around them that were, believe this, fun and captivating, the characters of Brightest Day are just given a zombie face lift because that’s the most edgy and contemporary thing they can think of to appeal to the current market.

Where are the Lanterns? Why is this zombie thing continuing? How is this event going to sit within the DCU several years down the line? What is the logic in depicting such violence when you have creative license to do so in expanded universe material? Umm, shoot – I’m missing two here. Ah the hell with it. So far Brightest Day does not impress me one bit. I’m starting to think that maybe pandering to the fans of zombie culture may end up biting DC back in the ass if they’re not careful. I’ll stick around for now but I would prefer not to *guffah*.

The Last Airbender. God, Let's Hope So.

As much as it pains me to admit, I think we owe a lot to the ever increasing popularity of anime. For better or worse the rise of anime within American pop culture has lead to another cartoon renaissance where production companies are bravely going into directions that they feared well over a decade ago. This is commendable because when you remove any preconceived bias and go analyze a cartoon down to its most basic structural points it becomes apparent that there are several hidden paths of creativity that animation can trek which live action cannot; more specifically, the suspension of disbelief.

Cartoons can get away with a lot, even the most off the wall zany ideas are considered “free reign”. You want giant robots? Sure thing! How about characters which behave in completely unrealistic ways? You got it! Want to play with perspective and warp the environment to stretch and mold it to our personal taste? Why the hell not! Sure, in the modern era of CGI film things like skewed environments and giant robots are possible, but when you juxtapose them against real people and actual set pieces it becomes as uncomfortably noticeable as a naked man’s erect penis at a playground. There is some territory within the art of visual storytelling that only cartoons can go while live action plays nicely at its own desk, you hear me M Night Shamalan?

So yeah – let’s talk about that Avat… that Last Airbender movie.

The Last Airbender marks M Night Shamalan’s return to directing children’s movies. Since he views himself as some untouchable demi-god transcending above the rest of us mortals (watch Lady in the Water if you doubt me), Shamalamy decided to hit the ground running and tackle the big budget live action movie adaptation of the critically acclaimed and highly successful Avatar: The Last Airbender series which ran on Nickelodeon from 2005-2008. The movie follows the quest of a young boy named Aang, the last of a group of eastern mystics who can manipulate the element of air, or as the colloquialism within the series goes, they bend it like that tennis player. Aang also happens to be the reincarnation of the avatar, a powerful human who can manipulate all the elements of life: fire, water, earth, and of course air. Given his unique gift he is of course destined to save humanity from its Mobius loop of stupidity. Yay. Truth be told you are probably familiar with this story even if you have never been exposed to the animated television from which this is derived, and by derived I mean in the same sense that diarrhea is the second version of that delicious Mexican food you had last night.

The story of Last Airbender was never anything special, go on admit it, when you deconstruct the whole thing down to its most basic elements (har har) you can’t help but notice that it’s a rehash of many popular Asian and Indian cultural stories and fables. This shouldn’t be seen as a misstep though since it was clearly homage. The creators had a great love for these ancient stories and were cross eyed with glee over the culture and traditions of these ancient societies. That very love and admiration for the source material shined through with each animation cell and as a result the audience was invited to explore and enjoy this world as well. This isn’t the case with the live action version. While extremely faithful to the plot of the first season, there is no passion or respect for the mythos. Whoever penned the screenplay should probably be dipped in honey and lowered into a pit of primeval dire anteaters by his/her nipples with a bee jar stuck up their ass because what we have here is a shallow experience that removes all the excitement from the original and opts for the abridged text book edition, now with tinier font!

One gets the feeling of being rushed while trying to get a hold of all the various story details and locations, like the film makers were actually embarrassed to have released this and were trying to usher people out into a meat grinder in the theater lobby to prevent word of mouth from spreading. Edits are terribly sloppy and pasted together in a confusing array of scatter shots that take the viewer from one locale and plot point to the next. In fact, this is probably one of the most horrific edit jobs I have seen in a while; there are moments where actual scenes appear to be missing as characters reference dialogue and actions that never took place. A tad bit jarring.

The movie also seems caught in the middle of a love triangle between the fans and the newbs as it desperately tries to please both parties. Narrative from one of the lead characters is used to explain things, but it becomes intrusive. Problem is if you’ve never seen the show all of this exposition ends up being vacuous. When love between two characters has the strength and thickness of a wet public restroom toilet paper square metaphorically personified in the act of them making googly eyes at one another, adding narration to explain their love is like having the story shot directly into your face with a blunderbuss. And if gunshots to the face weren’t enough the people behind this mess also decided to throw in some good ol’ montages and flashbacks for good measure! Not until very late in the film does the direction show any strong foot holding, and by then it becomes nothing more than a poor man’s Lord of the Rings paint-by-numbers exercise. This all leads to a caddy wompus cluster bomb of confusion that doesn’t give anyone the opportunity to connect with the characters or their struggles.

Do me a favor and sit down to watch one of the episodes of the cartoon series. Pretty charming characters, am I right? Well, did you happen to notice that not a single one of them is a realistic portrayal of an actual human being (with the exception of several bad guys like Zuko)? You might claim to know someone similar to them, but in actuality they operate completely outside the context of normal human behavior. That’s because they are parodies of human characteristics, they are an exaggeration of who we are. This is one of those strengths of animation I was talking about. Part of the reason the cartoon was such a treat was because the characters removed the audience from that man behind the curtain operating the large green headed plot. These characters were the foundation of the show that sparked your curiosity, their presence and conviction made you want to learn more about their world and its problems, and the characters were more than happy to show you. With the movie they are just going through the motions. Their rigid golem-like behavior makes you unsympathetic and unwilling to hop along their rickety rollercoaster with large segments of its track missing. This is a serious problem.

Most of the actors here seem competent, although I’m not actually sure. Maybe It’s because it was midnight when I saw it, and maybe it was because I was drunk, or maybe it was that strange vaporous substance coming off the three hookers I had brought with me, but I wasn’t able to peg down any real winners or losers here. I mean I want to say they were all bad, but I don’t think any of them were given anything to work with and I somehow doubt Shamalan gave them direction. Maybe watching a few episodes of the cartoon may have helped, but again I don’t think that sort of behavior would work well in a live action movie. This movie needed the assistance of a character director, someone who could have retooled the heroes and villains to make them functional and enjoyable within a live action framework rather than functionally retarded or rather just plain retarded for that matter. I think the kid who played Zuko was passable, but his performance was assisted by the angst filled and tormented role demanded by his character. Within a movie of melodrama, the one brooding character from the cartoon translates well.

At this time I would like to take a step into the deep end of the pool where the adults and big kids play so that I can make a very unpopular comment. In order to save this movie a person with a huge swinging pair needed to be propositioned to rework this mess and axe all the unnecessary things no matter how much the frothing fanboys wanted it (those dirty whores). This pains me, but Sokka should have been removed. No seriously, why was this character in the movie? I understand that he is a fan favorite, hell he was one of my favorite characters from the story as well but let’s not forget that his primary role was comic relief. Here he does nothing, and his presence becomes even more eerie and uncomfortable towards the end when they introduce the moon girl. She has no purpose in the movie and the relationship that forms between them is rushed and artificial. Couldn’t they have accomplished the same goals without those two characters and their respective subplot? The answer is yes! Sure it would have been sad to see Sokka gone, but do you think the movie would have been better had Boomie been in it? Yeah didn’t think so and yeah, I realize if you haven’t seen the show then this whole paragraph is probably a mystery. My apologies, I promise to try and stop comparing this to the cartoon.

Visually the movie doesn’t offend. The effects of the fire and water are decent although the fight scenes left something to be desired. I’m thinking that this slow motion nonsense needs to stop before I can get a good night’s sleep. The costume and make-up department must have had a blast with this film and it shows. All of the clothing and uniforms adorned by the characters are nicely updated translations from the original designs and the attention to detail is phenomenal.

The set pieces were epic and grand as they should be, but a little stock. I’m sure I saw that snow kingdom somewhere in the background of The Golden Compass. Come to think of it I believe they stole the animal effects department from that movie as well. The large Floating bison Appa has numerous on screen cameos throughout the film for the fans to soil their Clone Wars Undies, but he’s easily the worst effect in the movie. The skin looks like it was dipped in a grease fryer at KFC and the fur dithers like a sack of hair clippings thrown into a wind tunnel. Not entirely sure why CGI animators think fur moves that way, but what do I know?

Last Airbender somehow managed to give the fans everything they wanted in exchange for the soul of the project. The story is all over the place, the characters are husks, and there is nothing for the audience to bond with. You know what? Forget what I said earlier about divorcing this from the cartoon. The film makers didn’t care enough to make up their mind for who this movie was for, so I refuse to keep my promises. If you’re a fan you’ll be disappointed, if you just want to see a movie you’ll be confused, and if you are a movie buff then you’ll be frustrated with the sub sophomoric cinematography. Maybe there’s a good movie hidden within an intense editor’s cut but I highly doubt it. The lost scenes to this movie are probably kicking it with the arc of the covenant by now. If I happen to see any of the people that made this movie I will demonstrate my own bending of the four elements by throwing dirt in their eyes, subjecting them to prolonged water boarding, lighting them on fire, and farting on their face. You have been warned Mr. Shamalan.

Toy Story 3 Review (My first overwhelmingly positive critique)

So this is how my childhood ends, eh?

Real men are able to admit when a movie reduces them to a wet sobbing mass of crying man-baby goop. This occurrence is rare, but it happens, and Toy Story 3 is one of those gems that pulls at the heart strings with a meat hook and doesn’t stop until you’ve been completely gored and hollowed. But why did Toy Story 3 have this affect? Well the answer lies somewhere with time.

Looking at the lower right hand corner of my computer screen I happened to notice that we live in the year 2010, and sadly we still don’t have flying cars. Now call me a loon and throw me in a padded white room, but I recall the original Toy Story was released in 1995. Talk about meditative planning. 15 years speaks words about the amount of care put into a trilogy when most movies are able to forcefully squeeze out a new chapter every summer in this post Lord of the Rings capitalist money vacuum.

When the first Toy Story was released, I was still in elementary school, and it marked a special occasion as being the first movie I saw with a friend without any adult supervision. My good childhood chum, Peter Kelly and I went to go see this new marvel of computer technology and I was captivated. This was a strong sign of things to come. Never had the world seen animation like this and the story was good to boot! The characters were rich, their challenges were emotional, it was everything an intelligent film for both adults and children could be. The sequel followed a few years later, but by then I was getting ready to enter High School and things like Toy Story didn’t interest me, I was at that ignorant age where I had other interests like naked anime women; besides, it was a sequel and how well do those things usually turn out? Well about a year later when I finally caught it on DVD I was once again amazed at how spectacular the Pixar creative wizardry was. Sure, the theme of the movie wasn’t as deep as the original, but the writing and jokes were superior. Upon reflection it’s interesting to see that the premise of that particular movie was about a collective hyper nerd, as if lampooning the nerd pop culture that was blossoming and would soon govern our society for the next decade. Very clairvoyant of you Pixar. Finally, 11 years later we have the final chapter and talk about perfect timing.

So as with most Pixar movies we begin our epic tale with an animated short, this time around we are treated to a smart piece called Night and Day. This one is a bit difficult to describe, but it’s brilliant, maybe not as good as Presto, but then again what is? Similar to the theme of Presto, Night and Day is a major throwback to the classic Chuck Jones era of 2D animation, and while Presto emulated this formula in timing, rhythm, and pacing, Night and Day does it in a much more literal sense. The only downside to this short and the one thing that keeps it from becoming my favorite occurs somewhere towards the end. The message of the story quite literally breaks the fourth wall and rudely interrupts the delicate balance of what’s being said with the physical language. A minor nitpick, but afterwards I looked over my shoulder half expecting to see someone with a mallet hitting me on the head. Regardless, it’s still one of their finer entries and once again proves that this is a company that is only growing more relevant and powerful with time.

So yeah, let’s talk about the actual movie, shall we?

Toy Story 3 begins by summing up the very nature of a young boy’s imagination really well. The first 5 minutes are so in tune with how my friends and I used to play it’s uncanny. In actuality, the first scene is used to reestablish all the central characters, as any decent sequel should. It gives us a soft transitional period to familiarize ourselves with these loveable characters once more and reminds us why we loved them in the first place.

Soon afterwards reality sets in and the audience sees what’s been happening in the past decade. The cheerful little boy Andy, who owns all of the Toys, is now a teenager going off to college. With the heavy weight of adult hood looming over his shoulders it is quickly explained to us that he hasn’t played with any of his toys in years and it looks like their fate is destined for the attic. Still, the ever loyal Boy Scout (or maybe I should say Urban Ranger since it’s a Pixar film) Woody tries to convince the others that they have nothing to fear and that Andy still loves and cherishes them just as much as he did when he was a child.

Skipping ahead a few beats, Andy, while cleaning out his room in preparation for the big move out, decides to save his toys and retire them in the attic while storing Woody in a box destined for college. Thanks to a bit of plot convenience and Andy’s mother mistaking a large black trash bag for, well, trash disposes of the toys on the sidewalk to be thrown away. Feeling completely neglected the toys donate themselves to Sunnyside daycare, a place where toys can gracefully “settle down”. Upon arriving, the toys are introduced to Lotso, a cuddly teddy who smells like strawberries and leads the toys of Sunnyside. In his utopian society all seems well, but obviously there has to be tension in order to have a movie, so not all is what it seems. Within a day the toys find themselves enslaved in a strange militaristic POW setting and must escape from a grueling nightmare of toddler torture while they’re still in one piece, so to speak.

This time around, the story deals with much darker themes than the series is used to, most likely to stick with the beat of the original audience of Toy Story circa 1995. The whole thing turns into a prison escape movie that we’ve all seen a dozen times before. However, while the plot may not be a terribly original story idea, it’s not necessarily a bad one either. If Pixar has proven one thing time and time again, it’s that they are a company that is very genre savvy. Pixar tends to be self aware of their restrictions and the limitations of the stories that they write within. Let’s face it, all of their previous titles were also derivative, even the awesomeness of The Incredibles is nothing more than a perfect homage to the works of superhero pulp fiction. Literary fiction, often times considered the best kind of fiction, develops not from a strong story idea, but from the characters and their individual dilemmas. The audience gets the most satisfaction from seeing characters that they can relate to, characters that they want to see succeed and overcome the obstacle put before them. We end up caring for the characters that are the most layered and have the most semblance of humanity, and once again Pixar delivers the goods.

Speaking of the characters, if you’ve already seen a Toy Story film then you know the roster by now, and if you haven’t seen a Toy Story film yet then I suspect you may not actually be a Human or an American for that matter – communist bastards…. So leading the cast we have Tom Hanks as Woody and Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear. For me these two actors deserve a great deal of credit and probably should pursue more work as voice actors. I doubt they have a great deal of funny voices at their beck and call, but their stand alone vocals carry a lot of range and emotion. Hanks, has always managed to emote the feeling of a strong willed leader who is unquestionably devoted to his owner. Woody is the character the audience empathizes with the most and the tradition carries here as well. Tim Allen is boisterous, loud, and exudes confidence; furthermore his character often goes through the most jarring of character personality arcs which Allen is always more than happy to accommodate.

Rounding off the cast of the returners we have: Joan Cusack who returns to fill the shoes of the always perky and exuberant Jessie from Toy Story 2. Don Rickles, a man whose short fuse and miffed persona ooze from every word he speaks as Mr. Potato Head. Wallace Shawn, who’s inconceivably talented voice work, is lent to the ever pessimistic and troubled Rex. Estell Harris, a woman so stereotypically Jewish that her nagging voice perfectly complements the diametrically opposed Don Rickles. And of course, john Ratzenberger comes back as Hamm, because let’s face it; John Ratzenberger is to Pixar as Dom Deluise is to Don Bluth.

Let’s not forget about the newbies either. To begin I must stress the new voice of Slinky dog, Blake Clark, who does an outstanding job filling the enormous shoes left behind by the late Jim Varney. Other than Blake the two key characters introduced are Lotso, voiced by Ned Beatty (don’t worry, there are no banjoes within miles of this film) and Michael Keaton as the Ken doll. These two were phenomenal in their respective roles. Mr. Beatty does a terrific job as both a kind hearted, deeply troubled, and menacing villain. One of the biggest problems with the first two Toy Story films was that neither of them had very interesting or well constructed enemies. Both the bully from the first film and the prospector from the second were in many ways flat and unsympathetic. Lotso on the other hand has as many layers as a parfait, and Ned Beatty’s voice definitely helps to get across all the multi faceted layers that lie within each fold of his cotton stuffing. Michael Keaton on the other hand is simply played for laughs, but it works wonders. Keaton always works best when he is doing comedies, hell Beetlejuice alone is evidence of that and I always wondered where he had disappeared to over the past few years. Despite low profile, it’s good to have him back, and it’s nice to see him playing up a foppish and dapper pansy boy who desperately wants to be seen as a tough guy.

On a technical level the movie also impressed me. Sure I saw it in 3d but unlike that atrocity Alice in Wonderland, this movie didn’t induce ocular bleeding whenever red was present on the screen. The real treat with this picture is how contemporary and modern the graphics look despite the characters not appearing to have changed at all in the past 15 years. Whatever the animators did, it worked. The illusion of the classic design mingling with modern special effects truly shines.

The barebones artistic craft of film making was also impressive. All the editing, cinematography, and visual imagery really compliments the feeling of each scene. Even the somber moments of the film when it takes a decidedly dark tone paints a picture for the audience with every leaf, background object, and subtle lighting effect on display. Although to be honest this shouldn’t come as any surprise from Pixar. Even their worst movies like Cars were outstanding in this regard. Let’s face it: birds fly, nerds wank, Tiger Woods makes forced apologies, and Pixar knows their cinema.

After 15 long years and having grown up with these characters, this final movie leaves me both sad and infinitely happy at the same time. I can’t help but feel that this final movie is going to resonate with my generation more than any other. These are characters we were first introduced to when we were about Andy’s age in the original and now the series comes to a close with a fond farewell to both childhood and friends while embracing the future with a modest warmth and optimistic sense of excitement. The final moments of this movie had me reflecting upon my own childhood and took me back to the moments when I first had to leave for college and the time I left my parents’ home to strike it on my own. When viewing this movie I attended a 9:25pm showing on a Tuesday night and the theater was occupied by no children or middle aged adults. Everyone was around my age and I felt a sort of kinship, a kind of synergy with them as if there was an unspoken message being sent to one another that this was in fact a love letter to all the innocent wide eyed children who remember seeing the first film in theaters. For a movie trilogy that is not actually telling a single over arching narrative, I get this sense that the three movies work together very well to tell a complete story about these simple inanimate objects and what they mean to the people who love them. This in many ways is a perfect trilogy and while it saddens me to see it gone, I’m glad they gave me a conclusion. There are so many companies out there who desperately seek to make sequels just for the money, but this is a movie that needed to be made for the fans. Thanks for the good times; I’ll always have the memories.

By the way Pixar, nice touch with Tottoro.

Things Yet to Come.

To say that I am an RPG fanatic is about as appropriate as calling Charles Manson a loony guy; sure its true, but there might be a better adjective somewhere in the unabridged Webster. I love all RPGs, whether they be western, "J", or MMO. Most of my childhood seems to be filled with anti-social memories of me sitting at home curled up in a blanket taking on the adventures of a mute hero.

To honor my devotion/addiction I will be writing about both new and old rpgs that I've played over the years. The focus of these writings will be on the ones that were either so good that they permanently took up residence in the tiny spot of my brain that used to house important stuff, or so bad that they left their mark by scarring my brain tissue. These writings may or may not follow any type of order, but I will try to keep it chronological. Can't make any promises on that though, we'll see what happens as the days pass.

So that's it for now. Before I go, I want to take the time to honor the late and great Dennis Hopper. I realize that his death is old news by now, but last night I got around to watching Blue Velvet to honor his memory. After sitting down and going through the movie again I began to understand just how talented he was and came to the understanding that we really did lose a great actor. For those of you who have never seen Blue Velvet, it gets the official Cactus stamp of approval. Watch at your own risk though, its a very disturbing movie that will have you questioning human behavior in no time. The sick and demented sort of surrealism that is right up my alley.

Until my next blog, keep reading and take the time to check out Dennis Hopper's filmography if you haven't done so before; yes, that includes the Super Mario Brother's movie.