Batman Begins

A hearty hello to all my viewers!!!! I am dreadfully sorry for my lack of intense and life changing movie posts. I have been dealing with technical difficulties for the past two weeks. Well enough of my life story. Let’s get back to the good stuff.

            


              Ah yes! The Dark Knight trilogy! Directed by award winning director Christopher Nolan, the Dark Knight trilogy has made Superhero movie history by becoming the top grossing movie trilogy ever created. Christopher Nolan was interested in recreating the Batman film series and focus more on the origin of the Dark Knight himself, and the first film in the series, Batman Begins, does just that.

 

Set in a more modern version of Gotham City, Batman Begins starts at the very start of Bruce Wayne’s life. From his parents tragic death to first Bat signal shown in the cloudy night sky over Gotham.
Bruce Wayne, played by Christian Bale, fights to protect the crime ruling Gotham City from the psychotic Dr. Crane a.k.a Scarecrow, played by Cillian Murphy, who works for the leader of the secret League of Shadows, Ra’s al Ghul, played by Liam Neeson.
 Christopher Nolan stated that he wanted to touch on the part of Bruce Wayne’s life that nobody has done before. Nolan wanted realism and humanity to be the basis of the origin film. The Batmobile was drastically redone. Six models were created in a span of four months before Nolan was finally satisfied. The full design and development took nine months and several million dollars to create the drivable tank seen in the movie. The hand on fight choreography was based on the Keysi Fighting style which utilizes a self defense system based on quick reflexs and natural instincts. The score for the movie was composed by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. Batman Begins was the eighth-highest grossing film of 2005.

 

Throwback Thursday! (Batman style)

Holy movie franchise Batman!!!

This post is the first in the Batman series which will continue for quite some time, so buckle up because this bat mobile is about to take off!!

Talk about a classic!! The 1989 movie Batman sparked a flame in movie directors, actors, and producers. It is the movie that inspired three sequels, a cartoon series, and the highly acclaimed Christopher Nolan reboot trilogy.

                The story begins in Gotham City at Bruce Wayne’s childhood and shows the audience the tragic murder of his parents that results in Bruce’s decision to become a crime fighting bat. (Yeah!) The movie then fast forwards a couple years to Bruce’s adulthood where he has taken his father’s place as head of Wayne Enterprise. Gotham City is still being ruled by crime, but the new district attorney Harvey Dent and the new police commissioner James Gordon do their best to stop the chaos. News of a bat like person terrifying criminals intrigues the newspaper journalist Vicki Vale, who is currently dating the millionaire Bruce Wayne.

                One night during a fight between Batman and some thugs, an accident occurs where a thug, Jack Napier, falls into a vat of chemicals. The rest of the thugs run away thinking Batman killed their partner, but Jack miraculously survives but suffers from discolored hair that turned green and skin that turned white. After a failed attempt at fixing his injured face, he is left with a permanent twisted grin. Jack is driven insane and begins calling himself the Joker because he has the appearance of an abnormal clown.

 

                The Joker creates a chemical gas that makes the inhaler laugh them self to death… literally!! The Joker plans on letting this lethal gas loose on Gotham, killing everyone. Batman foils his plan and the Joker falls to his death from the top of a bell tower. The End!

                    COOL FACTS YOU PROBABLY DIDN’T KNOW

·         The bat mobile was actually a tricked out Chevrolet Impala.

·         The brand Nike created the bat suit.

·         Director Tim Burton decided not to use tights because it wasn’t as intimidating.

·         The music score became the iconic theme for batman TV shows, comics, and movies.

·        Jack Nicholson (The Joker) won the Golden Globe award for Best Actor.

 

Special thanks to my bro Ben who gave me the idea to do this post.

Battle of the Spidermen

                Not too long ago Hollywood made a kind of risky move by rebooting a movie trilogy that only ended 5 years ago. Was it too soon?? Maybe, but the majority of people didn’t mind considering the reboot was better than the first. You don’t agree? Well then, LET THE BATTLE BEGIN!!

Spiderman (2002) VS The Amazing Spiderman (2012)

 

 

 

 

 

VS





 

Round 1! (The Hero)

                Of course, when a movie is based on a worldwide beloved comic series, you can’t just change the pilot of the story. Although one can change how an audience is drawn into the characters life.

 

Spiderman (2002) showed us the classic interpretation as a nerdy outcast in high school. Peter Parker (played by Toby Maguire) lives with his beloved aunt and uncle, has a rich best friend, and has a crush on the most popular girl in the school. After getting bit by a genetically enhanced spider, our hero finds out he has super powers and uses those skills to save the world from a man bent on ruling the world.  It’s a classic hero vs. villain tale.
 

                The Amazing Spiderman (2012) showed us a modern day more realistic version of what Peter Parker’s character (played by Andrew Garfield) might look like in today’s society. Yes, he had glasses, but he would rather wear contacts. Yes, he has a crush, not on the most popular girl in school, but the prettiest and nicest girl in school. This version actually shows Peter Parkers childhood and the reason he now lives with his aunt and uncle. It shows a mystery revolving around Peter’s parents and leaves the question “what happened to them?” in everyone’s mind. It is for this reason that Peter sneaks off to where his father used to work and is bitten by the spider.

 

 

Round 2! (The Villain)

                With great superpowers, come greater villains with better superpowers.

                Spiderman (2002) lets the audience know who the villain will most likely be in first 10 minutes of the movie. Norman Osborne, owner of the billion dollar research corporation Oscorp Industries, is the father of Peter Parker’s best friend Harry Osborne. Norman Osborne is a power hungry business owner whose business is about to be shut down. In order to save his business he tries to sell a new type of super solider serum and tests it on himself. Of course something goes wrong and Norman becomes a super strong, super smart, bipolar lunatic called the Green Goblin. Like many villains, he craves power and seeks to rule the world.

              
               The Amazing Spiderman (2012) gives a new feel to a super villain. Dr. Curt Connors, an animal genetic researcher at Oscorp Industries.  Dr. Connors, a genuine nice guy, tests a new cell regenerating serum on him so he can grow back his left arm that he lost in his childhood. The serum, mainly made out of lizard DNA has a strange side effect that transforms Dr. Connors into a giant… wait for it… lizard!! The more serum that Dr. Connors uses the less there becomes of Dr. Connors. As the Lizard starts his plan to turn New York into lizards like him, I started to wonder what his motive really was…

Conclusion

And the winner is: The Amazing Spiderman! (There's a reason they put "Amazing" in the title.)

             To make it brief, Andrew Garfield does a better job at portraying Peter Parker then Toby Maguire did. Andrew Garfield made the character more realistic to the audience and made his story more personal. Although the Lizard had been a more "well-rounded" rounded character then The Green Goblin. I personally still believe the Green Goblin was the definition of "arch enemy" and my personal favorite Spiderman villain. As a whole Spiderman (2002) was a new take on Hollywood by rebooting the superhero movies, but The Amazing Spiderman (2012) blows the first one out of the water and rightfully sits as the 45^th top grossing movie of all time.

 

 

Take a look at their movie trailers below. The Amazing Spiderman comes on Blu-ray/DVD November 9th, 2012. If you have seen both of them, please leave a comment on which one was your favorite and why.  

 

 

Spiderman (2002)

The Amazing Spiderman (2012) 

Jaws Flaws

Hi Guys!! (and girls) Here's a short video showing some of "Jaws' flaws". It was an awesome movie, but this is really how it should have ended...

A Bite Out of Jaws

Hey everyone! What classic horror film still has people afraid to go back in the water? If you answered Free Willy, you most likely have a strong fear of killer whales. The correct answer is…

 

 Released in 1975, Jaws had made motion picture history by becoming the highest grossing movie of its time. Its release sparked the beginning of a new concept in movie making, which was actually created by accident and bad luck. Director Steven Spielberg never knew how much of a challenge this movie would become. They started shooting the movie with no script, no cast, and no shark. Every day, on set, something would go wrong with their prop shark named Bruce. Shooting off the coast of Massachusetts, they never thought shooting at sea would be such a problem. Steven Spielberg even said in an interview, “We would shoot five scenes in a good day, three in an average day, and none in a bad day”.  The unreliable mechanical shark hardly ever worked which made Spielberg come at the movie with a new approach. The shark attack scenes were re-done so that no one actually saw the whole shark. This new approach is actually what made Jaws turn from a poorly done Japanese horror movie into the thriller that we now see today. The actors played a key part in making the audience believe that there was a really big shark. There is actually real shark footage in the movie which includes a smaller size actor in a shark cage to give a bigger feel to the shark.

 

The story, based on the classic novel by the same name, is a cat and mouse plot where as the police chief Brody, played by academy award nominee Roy Scheider, tries to stop the new devastating shark attacks on the beaches of Amity Island. The police chief must make job threatening and possibly even life threatening decisions to keep the residents of Amity Island safe this unwelcomed “guest” during the summer’s tourist season.

As the biggest tourist day of the year, July 4^th, quickly approaches, more and more shark victims are washing up on shore. By this point Brody pleads the mayor to close the beaches with no success. Things get personal for the police chief Brody when a shark attack sends his youngest son to the hospital. Brody, with the help of marine biologist Hooper (played by award winner Richard Dreyfuss) and a slightly deranged shark hunter Quint (rightfully played by the well known Robert Shaw), go on a life cat and mouse hunting trip aboard Quint’s fishing boat, the Orca, which is sure to keep anyone on the edge of their seat until the final clash between Brody and the unstoppable man eating machine. Motion picture composer John Williams makes his mark on the film with one of his most widely known movie scores. Director Steven Spielberg definitely doesn’t disappoint is this summertime thriller that still has people asking, “Is it safe to go back in the water?”

Let's start with the worst...

As this is my first blog i would like to say THANKS! Thank you for considering me as your time waster. Let's get down to business. I decided to start off this blogging adventure with one of my least favorite movies. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.....

It's a cool poster, therefore it would be a cool movie, right? WRONG!

     The movie introduces the main character Arthur Dent who wakes up one normal day and realizes that his house is about to be torn down to make way for new road construction. There's no three week warning or money for the inconvenience. Nope, just get out and leave. Well Authur's best friend, Ford Perfect, takes him out to eat to "relax the nerves". I guess that includes telling Arthur that he is actually an alien from outerspace. He is writing a book called "The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy", and that the Earth is going to be destroyed today to make way for new galatic road construction. (I bet Arthur was feeling selfish now). Suddenly a spaceship appears and BOOM! bye bye Earth.... That's it. Millions of lives gone, but it's ok because Arthur and Ford did what Ford knew best, they hitch-hiked on a passing spaceship.

    Well, Arthur is now probably the luckiest man on Earth... oh wait... (Too soon). Anyway, like every hitchhiker, they are caught and thrown out into the deep, cold, vacuum of space.  Fortunately, they are found and rescued by yet another passing spaceship (they must have sold tickets to see the firework show... oh, still too soon?). Ironically, this spaceship happened to have Ford's "semi-half brother", who also happens to be the President of the Galaxy ( who also stole the ship... but I guess it's ok if it's the President of the Galaxy.) On board, Arthur befriends a paranoid robot named Marvin and falls in love with this random woman who also survived earth... No one knows how or why but at least she's alive.

     The President of the Galaxy tells Arthur that they are looking for a special planet named, Magrathea, which holds the answers to the "Question of life, the Universe, and Everything."(Shouldn't the President of the Galaxy know where every planet is?) Apparently the spaceship that he stole has a computer called "Deep Thought" who gave him the number 42(yeah, that's a really deep thought.), which started there journey. On their quest, they made a pit stop on the planet of the President's arch rival from the past galatic-election, Humma Kavula, who happens to know the coordinates of Magrathea . However Humma demands the "Point-of-View" gun which can make the target understand the shooters point of view. (I need one of those.)

    Basically, after some fighting, flying, re-elections, sperm whales, and petunias, the group finds Magrathea and learns that the answer to their ultimate question about life, love, and good movie making was hidden inside of... wait for it....  the Earth. You would think all hope is lost now, right? Think again because, as luck would have it, they are already in production of Earth Mark II. After a tour of the new Earth, the people of Magrathea take Arthur home and he kills some really smart (and creepy) mice that want his brain for study purposes. Arthur also comes to find out that the President of the Galaxy signed for the destruction of Earth thinking it was an autograh signing (seriously, who voted for this guy??). After a couple  of shots from the Point-of-View gun everybody lives happily ever after having lunch at "the Restuarant at the End of the Universe." The end. There is no after the credits ending for this movie.