The other day I was having a rather delightful conversation with a friend of mine about the concept of “shock.” Not in the extremely painful “put your bellend in Lord Rayden’s hand” way, either. We were discussing the ever annoying trend of how shocking people seems to be a goal these days.

It seems every few months some new internet video, movie, musician, artist, etc. tries to shock the world into paying attention to them. But why? What’s the goal? That’s where we are going to end up but first a little backstory.

I, like many people my age, are children of the internet. I am also a part of this sub-section of people that seem to enjoy being shocked. Telling me a horror film is the grossest film of all time is virtually begging me to watch it. You know my type; the person in the office who, when everyone else is freaking out over the latest 2girls1cup video is found sitting at their desk eye rolling that people are shocked by this shit (cwutididthar?). Quite simply: there exists a type of person now that is incredibly desensitized to horrific and disgusting things.

WE are the targets of these shock campaigns: not you. Allow me to explain.

The average person (let’s call them Poncey) isn’t exposed to websites like 4chan. Poncey has never heard of The Human Centipede or goatse. Poncey is easy to shock. There is no reason to one-up the fucked up shit of yesterday if you are targeting Poncey. Poncey is shocked by the average PG-13 horror film trailer.

People like Tom Six (the director of The Human Centipede) target people like me… they want to be Christ figures to a niche market. The most fucked up of the fucked up. They are attracted to the challenge of offending the most jaded, numb people alive.

For what purpose though? Is shocking people a good idea? Is there merit to it, or is it a simple flash in the pan? Is it just a quick 15 minutes of fame (or shame in some cases)? This is where the discussion get’s fun.

Shock for the sake of shock is pointless to me. Doing something disgusting to your body to shock me is easy but does nothing in the long run. If your goal is to simply make me think “man that guy was a fucking idiot” 3 years from the time I see your video (like 1 guy 1 jar) then by all means, shock me because that’s all your going to get from me in that regard. I will buy the ticket and take the ride but there will be no return.

However I do think shock can be used as a very, very intelligent tool if used properly. To a degree I think one of the most successful organizations in terms of productive shocking is PETA. Whether it’s disgusting, fucked up pictures of animals or naked women covering their bodies with their hands, they manage to produce a concise and clear message with their shock. They get your attention and then they slap you with some message. That is productive shock and exactly the way shock should be used. Whether I agree with PETA’s politics or not is irrelevant and by no means am I taking a stand as pro-PETA or anything; I’m simply saying I can appreciate an intelligently put together plan/message regardless of whether I agree with it’s message or not.

To an extent Mel Gibson accomplished a similar successful campaign with The Passion of the Christ. While I felt the movie was a bit of tripe, it did shock this country into having an almost renewal of faith. Of course now everyone knows he is (and has always been) a complete tosser and the anti-semitism of the movie was insane, it still accomplished what I believe his goal was: to shock people into believing. Where Gibson failed was the aftermath and this is where virtually all “shock” artists fail horribly.

Marilyn Manson is a perfect example to me of a fail shock artist. I know a lot of my friends are going to read that and shit bricks but hear me out… I love Marilyn Manson’s music, persona, everything about him except the shock. I truly think his most recent album, The High End of Low, is one of his best albums minus the 2 shock tracks. I mean come on, who didn’t read the song title “Arma-Goddamn-Motha-Fucking-Geddon” and eye roll? I’m surprised the record label even let that out. I woulda axe’d that shit from jump and told his ass “you’re not in high school anymore dude; stick with the substance.”

And that is where virtually all shock artists fail: substance.

Let’s stick with Manson for a minute. Marilyn Manson, without a doubt, had everyone’s attention in 1996. When he released Antichrist Superstar, he had the entire world in the palm of his hand. Everyone knew his name. I remember schools banned kids from wearing his shirts on campus; he was a fucking threat. Antichrist Superstar is a badass album as well; arguably one of the best and most important albums of the 1990′s. It effectively took the movement Nirvana started and crucified it.

So once the world was paying attention to him ready to hear whatever he had to say… what did he say? NOT A FUCKING THING. He was on every news station nightly and what did he do with this publicity? Nothing. Fuck all. He pissed it away. He wasted it all by trying to be a vague, ambiguous mystery person. My guess is he thought this would keep people interested in him; a constant search to find out who Marilyn Manson is or what he is about. It did the opposite. “Oh you’ve got nothing to say? Alright then. Ktxhbai.”

Nowadays he tries very hard to get back to that same level of importance; singing songs like “We’re From America” in hopes someone will be shocked and offended and pay attention to him but guess what? You had your chance, man. You could have changed things but you did nothing with the power you had. No one cares anymore; focus on your art, not trying to become a cultural icon again. We get it. You don’t dig Jesus. Right on. Got anything else to say? Then sit the fuck down. Oh and by art I mean music, not the watercolors. While I know a lot of people who are fans of his paintings but I simply see it all as “trying too hard.”

A more modern example is Lady GaGa. To me, she did the exact same thing Marilyn Manson has done but in a much less polarizing way. After The Fame Monster came out she was everywhere; she was #1 fucking everywhere. So then it comes time for her follow up album and I expected something with depth. Something with substance. I truly feel it did not deliver; it’s a good album don’t get me wrong (well, it’s okay, not as good as The Fame Monster) but she said nothing. Did nothing with this attention. GaGa fans can tell me all day how her songs are about a seemingly infinite amount of scenarios but listen… I’m an artist. I have heard artists bullshit the meanings behind something when asked. I get it. You can make anything about anything if you want to, especially when you’re talking to sycophants.

Very similar to Marilyn Manson she can go on any talk show in the world at any time and say whatever she wants and be heard so what does she do? Fuck all.

I know she is seen as some sort of LGBT icon and I think her shows and music are fantastic support for that cause; however I think she still tip toes the line of “saying what I want” and “saying what will sell.” She doesn’t draw any lines in the sand. She’s a diet version of Marilyn Manson; half the shock, but the same amount of substance. Yeah, I know Lady GaGa pulls her albums from chains that are notoriously anti-LGBT but is that really a big step in a world where downloads count for far more sales than actual pressed CD’s? I know it’s fun to see her as a rebel taking a stand but really think about how big of a difference that makes in the long run; especially considering Lady GaGa, not Target, went bankrupt. Just sayin’.

The problem is I don’t think these individuals had plans. The goal was to get attention; they never worried about what to do once they got it.

What is currently considered by most hardcore shock-fans as the most shocking and disturbing film ever made is A Serbian Film. I have written at great length about this film already on this website so I will skip over details; however I will say that the creators of the film claim it is about the following:

From Wikipedia:

In another interview Spasojević is quoted as saying “my shocking ‘A Serbian Film’ exposes the fascism of political correctness”. On the question of whether the violence depicted deals with Serbian soldiers and war crimes that they have committed, Spasojević answers: “‘Srpski Film’ does not touch upon war themes, but in a metaphorical way deals with the consequences of postwar society and a man that is exploited to the extreme in the name of securing the survival of his family”

To that… all I have to say is “yeah but… no.” While this may have been some sort of intended message from jump the film hardly conveys this message well. I don’t think the average viewer will walk away with any resemblance of that message in their mind. I do stand by it being the most shocking film I have ever seen, though. If you’re up for a wild ride I recommend it but it’s substance is actually more on how well the production is. The lighting and acting are incredible; but the message, the aftertaste you experience once the credits roll is not a feeling of message or substance. The film does end on this “society is a vicious cycle” message but sometimes I think the shock can steal the spotlight from the actual point and A Serbian Film is guilty of this.

In conclusion I truly believe shocking people can be a good thing. It’s a weapon and in the right hands it can bring about change but when used as simply a means to get attention without any sort of plan… it’s worthless.

If you want my attention I will give it to you but you better do something meaningful once you have it.

So here we are again. The Human Centipede. Before I go in, here’s the TLDR version for you people… this movie is black and white except for one color, brown, used only when shit is on the screen. Well, human shit. With this movie there’s constantly shit on the screen but filming it in sepia would be a bit more work so let’s bin that idea.

Let’s backtrack a little. The first film seemed to divide people into 3 sections:

• People that had no desire to see a movie about people being sewn ass to mouth (most people fall into this box here)
• People who saw it and hated it
• People who saw it based on hype about how gross it was and were disappointed (I fall into this box)

Most people I know didn’t just stumble upon this movie. It spread like wildfire because of the insane premise of chaining 3 people together ass to mouth. The Human Centipede was getting “grossest movie ever” hype when it first hit the scene so people like myself flocked to it to see if it delivered. I am one of those people and it did not deliver. I haven’t heard anyone who thought the first film was the grossest film they’ve ever seen. The reason is it showed very, very little. It left everything to the imagination. Scenes about feces were especially glossed over almost in an attempt to make the film more accessible.

Since the release of the first film it’s hype has been completely destroyed and raped by A Serbian Film (read my review of A Serbian Film here) and it does deserve that hype. Maybe not grossest film ever but definitely most fucked up I have seen. However the first film still had some charm to it. I enjoyed the almost porn-star level acting of the main girls and the over the top Rutger Hauer-esque doctor. I mean who didn’t laugh when he was yelling “FEED HER~!” over and over? That was a good chuckle!

From here on, I’m going into spoiler territory of these films. Not that any major plot twists happen… they are shallow movies that could be written on a napkin. But warning anyway.

So when I heard they were making a sequel I was curious how… the first film ends with the badass doctor dying. How can they make a sequel then? Then I heard the premise and thought it was a very smart approach. It’s about a fan of the first film who decides to do it for real. I love movies that break the fourth wall. My favorite “Nightmare on Elm Street” movie aside from the first is A New Nightmare because of it’s approach to mixing “real” people with fictional characters.

Then I began hearing the hype machine again; that Human Centipede 2 would pull no punches and be far more graphic than the first film. The twisted fucking pile of filth the first film promised to be; NOW it would deliver. Tom Six announced the film would be in black and white and I was incredibly disappointed with that call: it’s not that I have a thing against black and white films. Hell, Angel-A is one of my favorite movies of all time. However I think when you are going for gross out gore… color helps. Good color, at least. We’ve all seen the neon red blood of B-movies and laughed but when color is done right, it can make something gross so much grosser.

But okay, it’s independent film and I’d rather it be black and white than be poorly colored, so okay, I’m down still.

Finally today I sat down to watch it and man… what a let down.

They tried very hard to be grosser and gorier, obviously putting the budget of the film into special effects but in doing so, they sacrificed the rest of the film. The centipede isn’t even attempted until the 1 hour mark. The movie is only 80 minutes long!

Everything before the Centipede is way longer than it needs to be and has no depth or meaning. Meaningless scenes of him randomly killing people (instead of collecting people for his centipede…?). He must kill 10+ people not even including the centipede people. It’s just mindless and shallow. They try to incorporate some subplot about sexual deviation but it goes nowhere. None of this movie goes anywhere. It’s a movie without purpose or message.

There is some HILARIOUSLY AWFUL FILM MAKING here, folks. My favorite is a scene where his mother walks into his room to try and kill him. She stabs the bed with the knife multiple times and begins sobbing, thinking she killed her son. He walks in and turns the light on, she stares at him and then he lays down on the bed where she was stabbing and closes his eyes. She then slits her wrists and walks to the end of the bed, picks up a collage book he had made from images of the first film, and they argue about it.

Yes. You read that right. I didn’t fuck that up. She slits her wrists then they argue over a book.

Does she bleed to death? Naw. In fact the movie seems to forget she even sliced her arteries open the minute she touches the book. No, I’m not making this shit up.

I SAW IT! I WAS THERE!

It set out to be grosser than the first film but all it really did was put more fecal matter in it. The rest of the effects (even the mouth/asshole effect) are down WAY worse and way lazier than they were in the first film. EVERYTHING TOOK A STEP BACK TO GET SHIT IN THE FILM. LITERALLY.

Literally what they felt was the most important thing to the film

However the last 15 minutes are just flat out hilarious. I will try my best to remember it at all.

First you have a woman who is pregnant (previously she was “dead”) get up and run out the front door. Dude goes after her, she locks herself in a car and delivers the baby. Just pushes it out on the floor board of the car. She then turns the car on and, with him trying to break the window, steps on her baby to hit the gas pedal.

forget hybrids; this car is powered by newborn!

A girl then knocks the guy down, puts a funnel in his asshole and puts a centipede in this shitpipe.

Yeah this movie went all over the place…

It went there.

Anyways I say skip it. However if you had any morbid curiosity about it, here you go. It’s all here. Enjoy.

I’ve had problems with the RE film series from the get go. They were handed a license to print money if they just followed the game storyline and canon. I’m not saying the RE game storylines are epic masterpieces of story telling; but they’re at least stories. It was clear since the first Resident Evil film the direction the series would head. The series has nothing to do with story or even survival horror, the genre Resident Evil the game created.

Instead it’s nothing but “cool” scenes of absolutely dismal wire work, CGI and acting with zombies in it.

The story has dissolved into an unintelligible mess especially if you are familiar with the games at all. You’ve got monsters from RE5 but then you’ve got Wesker and Claire involved. It’s all so… random.

It doesn’t even qualify as fan service really since there’s nothing else going for the film.

They did finally kill my biggest complaint with Resident Evil 2 onward and that was Jedi Alice. I remember seeing RE2 in the movie theatre and in the end when she looks at the camera and causes the security guards nose to bleed I outloud proclaimed “Are you fucking kidding me?!”

Think of it like playing Resident Evil the game with Gameshark. It’s not scary when you know anything you encounter, you will pwn with no effort. It’s not scary when Alice is put in dangerous situations because she can inexplicably send out Force Shockwaves and destroy the Earth. Yes, she does that shit in this film.

However in the beginning they graciously execute all of the Alice clones, go to great detail to explain we now only have one real Alice and then they remove her of her powers. Thank. Christ.

It doesn’t do shit though. The rest of the film is the same. She’s still a fucking ninja and seems to not feel pain at all.

The movie also solves no issues or makes any progress whatsoever in the story arc. RE3 had a wasteland of a world and survivors trying to band together or find this magical place where protection existed (hey, it worked for 28 Days Later… but they didn’t have dual sword wielding ninjas) and in the end of this film… we’re in the same place. So what happens in this movie?

People shoot things, flip around on painfully obvious wires, say corny one liners and no one ever dies and there’s no consequence to anything.

My favorite addition though is her shotguns. Oh and just a side note, every single weapon in this film is dual wielded. From pistols, machine guns, shotguns to swords; why? Because 2 is always better than one! AMIRITE! Her shotguns though shoot coins for absolutely no reason. I guess this is supposed to show us how fucked up the world has become where she is making her own ammo out of discarded currency? They never show or explain that though. Maybe it’s an anti-American allegory that American business destroy the world? Naw, it’s a Paul Anderson movie. Get real.

So all it ends up doing is anytime she shoots someone they explode into a cloud of quarters.

Like in Scott Pilgrim.

All in all… I wish I could have just watched Scott Pilgrim instead.

Fuck this movie. Fuck this series. I’m out.

The Nightmare on Elm Street remake was pretty much shit. Jackie Earl Haley wasn’t terrible as Freddy and I liked the addition of Freddy being a child rapist but the movie never had the scary feel the original had, or the feeling of desperation. It seemed once it was revealed that Nancy was his first victim he was just counting down to her so it made all the other characters feel doomed from the beginning. Not even any interesting kills although the gore caused by his glove is considerably more brutal in 2010. Overall… nothing memorable. Haley’s serious, non-joking Freddy was a solid attempt but the rest of the film didn’t hold up much.

Altitude was a weird movie. It’s about these kids on a plane and the plane enters a big cloud and they seemingly enter another dimension; being picked off one by one by a giant tentacled monster in the sky. Yep. It’s that kinda movie. They sorta have it make sense however if you pay attention in the beginning, you can pretty much write the rest of the movie exactly how it happens. No big twists or anything. It wasn’t a terrible film but it’s far from great.

I just got back from seeing the much-hyped film, The Social Network. As of this writing, there are 154 critic reviews of it on rottentomatoes.com… and it sits with a 98% approval rating. To put that in perspective the often over-hyped Inception is at 87% and The Dark Knight is at 93%.

Is it that good?

It’s not the same kind of film as The Dark Knight at all; but I’d say its up there. Legit.

Fincher has been one of my favorite directors as long as I can remember. He makes dark, serious films that are often dialog driven and make the viewer think. The Social Network is no different.

When I first heard about The Social Network being made, I thought “big deal.” A movie about Facebook, woohoo. Most documentary-type controversy films are made years after the product or person is out of the public mind; however millions still use Facebook daily. So could it possibly have a conclusion? It does. However for the longest time I thought “who gives a shit” about a Facebook film.

I knew I would see the movie the minute the score was touched on. Fincher tapped Nine Inch Nails founder and front man Trent Reznor to produce a score for the film after hearing NiN’s “Ghosts” album; an open source, free to all instrumental album full of experimental soundscapes. The first time I heard the Ghosts album I knew it would either be a movie soundtrack or Reznor would be tapped for such a job. I even tried to get a video project I was working on to use the Ghosts album but I was told I didn’t know what I was talking about.

Reznor’s score is not at all the heavy industrial Nine Inch Nails sound most people are familiar with when they hear his name. Instead its melodic piano and ambient electronic music very similar to songs like “The Frail” and “Just Like You Imagined.” The film opens with the main character and his girlfriend discussing his academic future. When that scene ends we are taken to the credit screen and its there that the score sets the tone for the rest of the film. The main character simply walking home is all we’re shown; but the music weaves the tale to come. Reznor did an amazing job and I hope we see him scoring more films in the future.

The story itself is great and masterfully told. Through a series of flash forwards and flash backs we are told the entire story of Facebook; from concept to its current state. There are no Farmville jokes or anything like that; the film does have a light tone at times, but it’s always witty, smart and intriguing.

It’s also arguably the biggest Hollywood film ever to treat programmers with some sort of respect. Rather than making up “hacking” terms, the movie explains what he did in the beginning in very accurate precision that is not only logical, but functional. It’s things like this that treat the audience intelligently.

The movie is funny, smart, witty, thrilling and quite dramatic. The cast from beginning to end is spot on.

There has been some discussion where I work about whether the film is true or not. My boss claimed today that Zuckerburg said none of it is true.

Having seen the film, I wouldn’t be surprised if 100% of it was true. There are no deus ex machinas; there is no coincidence or major improbable situation. The film is grounded and logical and based on court records and his past interviews, I’m sure lots of this film is true.

Is that a bad thing? Does Zuckerburg look bad?

No. He doesn’t come off as an evil villain at all. He comes off exactly as what he is: a 20 year old billionaire. He’s human. He’s flawed. He doesn’t understand the power he has.

Overall I definitely recommend it. I want to see it again very badly just to soak it all in again. An amazingly quick 2 hours, I highly recommend checking it out.

My coworker Todd Stevenson and I saw the trailer for Frozen a few months back and it piqued my interest. The trailer reminded me a lot of Open Water which is both a good and bad thing. I loved the desperate, isolated feel of Open Water but I didn’t like the movie itself. I mostly blame this on the reason I saw the film… the Saw trailer. I was really into Saw before the first film even came out. Reading the synopsis online, seeing pictures and reading interviews made me desperate for any Saw footage at all. The first time the Saw trailer was available was with Open Water; and it wasn’t available online yet so I went and saw Open Water purely to see the Saw trailer. I remember going to the Sun Plaza theatre in Fort Walton Beach opening night to see Open Water… and being one of two people in the entire auditorium… and the Saw trailer was so intriguingly shocking and violent that it was far better to me at the time than the entire Open Water film.

So I was interested in Frozen because I did like the isolated feel of Open Water and I think you can do more with the Frozen concept than you could with the Open Water one… and I was right.

I will stay away from spoilers in this review.

I enjoyed Frozen completely. The 3 main characters have great synergy from the get go. The movie also covers a lot of the “Why didn’t they…” or “Wouldn’t they have…” scenarios completely and actually cleverly. In most films they have to have the scene where the characters exclaim to us that their cell phone has no signal or that the battery is dead. Frozen handles all of these scenarios convincingly, realistically and intelligently. There aren’t any scenes where the characters virtually talk directly to the audience just to fill in future plot holes; you find yourself in the film wondering “Why don’t they…” and then you catch yourself and remember an earlier scene where that thing was addressed very casually and discreetly.

This says a lot about how good the writing is.

The movie is completely carried by the actors and the writing. There is very little in the way of scenery, gore, or special effects here. Everything is very minimal and relies on the huge things that can kill a movie; the acting and the writing.

As the movie progresses and shit goes down (and shit most definitely goes down in this movie) the acting and writing get progressively heavier but also more relate-able. The dialogs characters have in incredibly dramatic situations rings true as to the same dialog or conflict you would have in the situation. None of the drama ever feels forced or artificial. This helps suck the viewer in like a two thousand dollar whore.

I really found myself connecting to the characters and truly not wanting to see what was going to happen next. This is where the whole “Drama Vs Horror” thing comes into play. I’ve heard the film described as both a thriller/drama and a horror film… and I think it belongs under horror. I have always found that an effective horror movie makes me fear what’s going to happen to the characters next or turn away out of fear of what will happen. Horror, to me, isn’t Freddy Kruger killing people by slamming them into walls while pinball sound effects play and he says “Tilt.” I don’t know what I would call that but its far from horrifying; its more comedic. If I am rooting for the killer then it isn’t horror to me.

I literally turned away in one scene during Frozen and was still disturbed by the sound effects. I don’t know if it was because my apartment was colder than usual or the movie itself but there were several scenes in Frozen where I felt genuine chills. That to me is horror. When I am genuinely afraid what will happen to the characters and don’t want to see them harmed. If the characters are intentionally written to be annoying and I am actively rooting for them to die in terrible ways then its not horror.

The special effects and make up definitely deserve a nod as well. The characters get increasingly more damaged by the weather and it’s very convincingly done and disturbing over the course of the film. There are no scenes where you as the viewer are meant to ooh and aah at the gore; the very minimal amount of gore in this film is handled in a serious tone, in a realistic way and effectively. The gore enhances the tension in the film which is how it should be.

Overall I thought Frozen was a great film. I don’t know how good it would be on multiple viewings but if you turn down the AC in your place and give this movie a chance I think it will disturb you as well.

First off, I am a huge fan of the video games. I’ve always enjoyed fighting games and Tekken has been one of my favorites (along with Soul Caliber, Guilty Gear X and Mortal Kombat… and of course, KILLER INSTINCT~!)

However I have never been so into the games that I learned every characters backstory. I’ve always found the story aspect of the Tekken games to be a disjointed mess of “neat” cut scenes with fighting and explosions that have very little actual merit or story.

So going into the Tekken movie, I didn’t expect much. I figured it would be absolutely terrible but I ended up enjoying it. I wouldn’t watch it again but for a single viewing it was kind of cool to see the characters I’ve controlled digitally for years come to life and fight one another.

My favorite characters were always Eddy Gordo, Yoshimitsu, Lei Wulong and Jin Kazama.

Lei Wulong is nowhere to be found in the film at all, however the rest are in there and are amazingly accurate to their in game counterparts.

Eddy Gordo is simply perfect in the film. The actor (who is also in the completely win Mortal Kombat Rebirth short film…) is amazing in this role. He moves exactly like Eddy Gordo and at times it’s rather impressive to realize you’re watching a real person doing this shit.

The movie puts a very large focus on Raven which I found a bit odd because I’ve never known anyone who played as him mainly. But there you go.

The movie definitely looks and feels like Tekken. The lighting is rather interesting for a fighting movie and takes a much more industrial approach to everything than the Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat movies did.

There are also so “super powers” or anything.

The movie takes the Mortal Kombat Rebirth approach to the acting as well by hiring martial artists instead of actors. This keeps the acting bar pretty low and the action bar high but the movie does a good job of hiding their weaknesses. The movie is hardly non-stop fighting but it has decent enough actors for the people who have to act. Characters who only have 5 or 10 lines aren’t the best actors but it works.

There are lots of wide shots like this which help keep the feel of the video game intact. The color scheme is also very accurate to the games and everything is overly saturated and hyper realistic.

The story focuses mainly on Jin Kazama and the murder of his mother. He joins the Iron Fist tournament to get a shot at Heihachi (played by the dude who played Shang Tsung in the Mortal Kombat film…). The story is simple enough to work. Typical revenge movie with no twists or shocks but in a movie like this, you didn’t anticipate a deep story.

The actor who plays Jin does a good enough job and the outfit/fighting style is very accurate to the film. None of his lightning abilities are ever touched on and I remembered his tattoo slightly bigger, but it works. They even try to explain his red gloves (although the person who gave them to him seemed totally fucking irrelevant and serves only to move the fighting scenes along) but they did try.

Heihachi never actually fights. Or wears his pimp wooden shoes. Both of those things were rather disappointing actually.

One thing I actually didn’t like about the film was the changing of the Jack character. Rather than Jack being a big, robotic brute… they changed the Jack’s to these masked robotic ninjas. It makes sense budget wise that they couldn’t have the Jack’s but I think they could have found some sort of compromise. They are enough explosions in the film that some of them could have been sacrificed to have the Jack’s in my eyes. At the very least if you can’t have the Jack’s, don’t call the ninja guys Jack’s. Just drop the Jack idea altogether, don’t try to tell me those fence mask wearing ninjas are Jack.

Yoshimitsu is great in the film although they never touch on his robotic traits. In fact the film goes to great lengths to explain that no robotics or artificial enhancements are allowed in the tournament. However, Bryan Fury has his robotics in the film and is plainly obvious. I mean, he gets kicked square in the face in one scene and doesn’t even flinch. His wounds heal during the fight. How they justify this doesn’t make sense and it really doesn’t make sense that they ignored Yoshimitsu’s robotic traits with that information.

But.. he fights like Yoshimitsu otherwise.

He does give reason to one of my bigger problems with the film; armed combat. Yoshimitsu has always had his sword however he was perfectly good without it. In the film, they arm his enemies so the fights are weapon based fights. Then to keep with this, they have another totally fucking irrelevant weapon fight with Bryan Fury.

It would have made more sense to me to have Kazama disarm Yoshimitsu and then continue the fight unarmed rather than arm Kazama. They also give Bryan Fury a silly ass chain wrapped in razor wire that seems incredibly out of place.

In short, I liked the film. It’s not great by any means but the style of the film is pretty cool and the characters are fairly accurate. There are a few silly scenes but in fighting game movies, I think we all expect a little stupidity.

If you get a chance to see it, check it out. It’s not a bad way to kill 2 hours.

Oh and for all you haters out there who hate on people who play as Eddy Gordo… in the words of Spoony… I AM THE LORD OF TEKKEN AND I WILL AIR JUGGLE YOU ASS~!!!!!!!!!

]]> http://brandonpence.com/2010/08/19/tekken-movie-thoughts/feed/ 0 http://brandonpence.com/2010/08/14/scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world-thoughts/ http://brandonpence.com/2010/08/14/scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world-thoughts/#comments Sat, 14 Aug 2010 05:54:40 +0000 Brandon Pence http://brandonpence.com/?p=233

Wow.

It was actually better than I anticipated.

I expected it to be good but it really did meet and exceed every expectation I had.

I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to spoil anything in it but definitely check it out if you get a chance. I will be seeing it again for sure and buying it on DVD. In comparison to the similar film Kick Ass, I would say Scott Pilgrim Vs The World exceeded it in every way… and I loved Kick Ass.

You can hear some thoughts from me and fellow designer Todd Stevenson over at Todd Stevenson’s blog.

Be sure to check it out.

That’s right. Tonight. 9:45PM at the Rave Motion Pictures in Destin, FL.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.

I used to read the comics though I was never an avid, “every issue” follower. I’ve only been that way with Spawn, The Sandman and Sin City really.

However I have always loved the premise; taking everyones experience “competing” with their significant others ex and manifesting that competition in a literal form.

Humans are creatures of existence based knowledge.

We “know” what we see. We judge by what we know. Our relationships are often judged on 2 standards:

• What Hollywood has taught us. That the good guy always ends up with the girl. That relationships always work. That love is eternal.
• What we experience. That often times, you don’t get the person you want and if you do, sometimes its shit.

When we get into relationships we relate our current experiences in the relationship to the 2 above criteria.

“Well my ex was a whore and that means this girl will be with me forever, thats how it works. Have to learn to love, its better to love and lost than never to have loved, etc.”

Scott Pilgrim takes this idea of always being compared to the past and manifests it in a literal form. Where you have to prove you’re not your significant others ex, that you don’t share their bad habits, that you’re “better” than them, Scott Pilgrim steps in and makes it literal; you prove you’re better than them by defeating them. In combat~!

I can’t wait to see it. The style of the film looks absolutely incredible. I love the mix of video game themes and graphics with real life and can’t wait to see how it plays out in the film. I will totally cheer if there is a Killer Instinct style ULTRA COMBOOOOO or even a C-C-C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKERRRRR thrown in.

I’ll post my thoughts after the film. But first… Royal Orchid Thai in Sandestin, FL!

I highly recommend downloading this movie. It’s free and it is a brilliant film that explores not only the mentality of big businesses but ways to fix problems in this world and approaches big businesses should take.

What it’s about…

From Vodo…

THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD is a screwball true story about two gonzo political activists who, posing as top executives of giant corporations, lie their way into big business conferences and pull off the world’s most outrageous pranks. This peer-to-peer special edition of the film is unique: it is preceded by an EXCLUSIVE VIDEO of the Yes Men impersonating the United States Chamber of Commerce. Because the Yes Men are being sued for this stunt, p2p is the only way that this film will get seen. Please spread the word!