Oh for crying out loud

Well you guys almost two reviews, one right after the other. The next review I did was for an older and nostalgic anime movie. I'll be honest half the reason I choose it was in hopes of catching more people's eyes with my reviews. The other half is because I love the freaking movie, but moving on.

I can not provide a link to my review even though it is done and posted. Why? It is blocked world wide. World wide means NOBODY gets to see it.

Yeah so the awesome review I had done of Kiki's Delivery Service, the same movie I've seen a couple others give a shot at, is unable to be shared. I've been dealing with nearly all my reviews being blocked somewhere already, so with my latest review completely blocked and no one really following my reviews at this point I am at a complete loss what to review next. It seems pointless when there is a chance no one will be allowed to see it. How can I prove I'm actually making movies when no one can see them?

C – Control – The Money and Soul of Possibility Review

Instead of working on a new pet peeve I give you a video review of an anime I watched recently. Bask in the glory of the awesomeness. Really though it's just a review :) It's hard to get certain points across without visuals so instead of posting a written review I went with a movie.

101 Pet Peeves #4-5

#4Forced Love Interest

We've all seen them, a character walks onto the scene and the main character instantly starts drooling over them. All they seem to do is fight when they are together, and suddenly they are a couple. I'm not going to claim writing convincing attraction and relationships is easy, but it is not a good sign when you can spot a designated love interest the moment they appear in the story. When this happens the characters never need to really work at their relationship. If one of them brings up a good point that they have every right to be upset about something will either distract the couple (like impending death) or the one who "started" the argument will end up apologizing. 

A real relationship, a good one at least, is full of compromise, from BOTH sides. It is so tiring to see characters paired off because the author didn't want them to be single. Sometimes this is evident from the start and others we see the whole cast get matched off screen in the epilogue.

And man do I hate the epilogue shoeing in random couplings. There are couples that those who have been following the story drop their jaws in disbelief, and sometimes the other half of the couples aren't even people from the adventure. They are random people there for the sake of characters getting married and popping out babies. Regardless of previous chemistry between characters or how much a character didn't want kids.

As for the forced love interest in the middle of the story there are several reasons I don't like when this happens. First it is easy and lazy. Seriously have a character accidentally fall on top of someone, have them blush, and bam you have a couple. Man I'd hate to see what would happen to a really clumsy person who got stuck in one of these stories. The other thing though is that is completely lacks any kind of drama or tension. Oh noes the main couple is fighting? Well no matter they will stay together in the end no matter what. Even harems/reverse harems have a designate love interest. It doesn't matter how much you may like a different coupling, it is obvious from the start who the main character will end up with.

Unless we are talking about my pet peeve #5

#5 Teasing the ship

Where forced love interests take things to fast stories these stories take the romance slow. There is a ton of chemistry and a lot of hinting of a character maybe liking another. It would be a great romance. . .except. . . it . . . never. . . follows. . . through!! Seriously, some stories exist in a world where everyone can be paired off neatly, but in this one no one gets together EVER. No one ever falls in love, or no matter how much it is hinted at nothing ever comes of it. This is probably a result of lazy writing just as much as designated love interests.

I'm not even sure what to say about this. People fall in love, they break up, it's just a fact of life. It doesn't have to be the center of a story, but such a thing should be acknowledged. Oh and seriously company's that do it! Stop teasing us!!

101 Pet Peeves #3

#3 Cut away response

This happens the most often in visual mediums, like comics, TV shows and the like. Character A will reveal something to character B and before B can respond the story cuts away to later that day or a different scene entirely. This is not to be confused with pulling back to imply loud screaming or profanity. It is usually a way to cheat with time in the story, instead of wasting an extra minute and a half with the response the show moves on.

The reason this bothers me is when I run into this, and notice it big time. The reveal will be HUGE but the character never acts like they have been told. Imagine the scene in Harry Potter when Harry is told he is a wizard. Then instead of him saying "I'm a what?"the whole scene that follows the story  is cut and we suddenly are watching Harry buy wizarding supplies. Bit of a cop out. For me half a story is how characters react to the things that are presented to them. Without emotion there is no story, so when a story cuts out a scene that would be nothing but emotion I get very peeved. 

And like I said the fact they have been told something isn't really addressed. We as the audience knows they have been told, but the character never acts like they were. Imagine in fact that after Harry is told he was a wizard we cut straight to him living his day to day life again. Eventually he goes to Hogwarts, but he never acts like he has been told and goes about life as normal.

Compared to other things this is just a smaller pet peeve that won't ruin a whole story, but simply take me out of the story for a minute with how clunky the transition is. If a character receives news, and instead of showing us that characters reaction we cut to the same character running to tell a different character then that works. At least then we get to see a reaction to the news.

Solution:
If you reveal something to a character then have a reason to do so. Either show us what happens next, or don't have the reveal in the first place. At the very least if you have a character find something out off screen have the character act like they know. Knowing secrets can be a great source of conflict for a character, and can potentially up the stakes. 

101 Pet Peeves #2

#2 Pretty Scars

Not a pet peeve that will cause me to chuck a book at the wall, but it is one I roll my eyes at. This pet peeve is directed at physical flaws, that aren't flaws at all.

We all have things that we don't like about our apperence. It seems to be part of our nature, but these "flaws" are like the skinny girl at the party complaining about how fat she is. It is also a way for a writer to cop out when it comes to giving a character some flaw. This flaw seems to crop up the most in fantasy and urban fantasy.

The attributes that can hint at having Pretty Scar syndrome are as follows:

* The character goes on and on about how much they hate this physical flaw. Not once, or twice but constantly. They think about it a lot and go on about how awful it is and how it sets them apart from others. Angst probably is up ahead as well.

* It is often tied to some tragic back story. It from when their parents died, someone tired to kill them, they messed with magic (or similar depending on the genre) beyond their control that backfired, or it shows that they are the last of a clan/race/family or similar.

*If possible they try to hid this flaw due to fear of being ridiculed about it. They are then often tormented for trying to hide the flaw if it is obvious. People may try to get a peek at this and will go to ridiculous lengths to do so for no other reason then to be mean to the character.

* The flaw actually has perks. They get special powers, super strength, or such because of such a thing. It has no real drawbacks either. Scars don't hurt ever, no real side effects will occur, and besides bully's no one has a problem with the flaw.

* The love interest likes the flaw. Not simply okay with it, but actually likes it. Which leads to the last and biggest one.

* The flaw when described sounds pretty and doesn't sound like a flaw at all.

These kinds of Pretty Scars are often odd hair or eye colors, markings/tattoos, scars that make men look rugged or are under clothing for women (bonus points if scars have unique shapes). They are missing limbs that are replaced with silver bound limbs that have super strength, blindness that is compensated with hearing so perfect that they basically 'see' better then normal people, and I'm sure there are others. Despite constant angsting from the character the flaw never has any real drawbacks and when it comes with a power, is needed at some point in the story. This character will reach a point that they will need their flaw to help them out and they will dwell on it for a moment going "never thought I'd be thankful that I had this scar/limb/etc." but they will continue to angst later about it still. Their love interest not only won't mind, but often will tell the character that the flaw is beautiful or some other such compliment depending on the gender and flaw.

Make me gag.

Solution:
If you are going to give a character a physical flaw don't cop out on it. Don't make it a blessing in disguise, or describe it as beautiful while having the character angst about it. A huge improvement would simply have the character be okay with the "flaw" and spare us the whining. If they must complain about it, then don't make the so called "flaw" super special and awesome. I think this is half the problem I have with characters with awesome super powers that only whine about them. Give your character a reason to hate this flaw besides the fact it's supposed to be a flaw. Make the flaw a hindrance, or have it simply be a part of who they are. It's like trying to claim a character is so beautiful it's a problem for them. I have no sympathy for such a character. In fact I might side with the bad guys on that one.       

101 Pet Peeves #1

#1 The Great Idea Wasted

I'm a sucker for new and interesting ideas. Give me a great "what if" and I'm hooked. What if Vampires turned out to be real and came out to the world? What if a part of our soul manifested itself as a physical animal? What if people could invade our dreams and steal our secrets? All of these what if's are from specific stories and personally I think are fascinating ideas. 

The problem arises when a story has this great idea, but at best it's a sub-plot or worse it's a side note alongside the story. 

I'll use Inception as the first example. (First it should be noted I liked the movie) Yes the movie was good, but it set up this idea that this technology was for "extraction," corporate espionage and such. Then went with "something no one else has been able to do before," namely "inception." If we never see what is normal, then how can we appreciate how difficult the extraordinary is? Not to mention the personal journey of the main character seems to be the most important point of the movie. The how was secondary. What I want to see is what extraction was like, and what lead to it being illegal exactly. Did someone uncover something they shouldn't? How common place was extraction before it was illegal? The world where someone can enter someone else's dreams is fascinating to me. It would be fascinating to find out exactly how they discovered what kind of people they needed to complete jobs, and how did they figure out that a kick can work. This stuff didn't pop up overnight. Did they have to start off without architects and realized someone had to build the world? There was so many places that the idea could have gone, that I was left disappointed that most of the story was finding out what had happened to the main character's wife.

Then there is a movie coming out soon (as I write this of course) that poses the question, what if time was literally money. How simple of a premise is that? But it's not one I've seen before. You work to earn time, and then you pay time for food, coffee and anything else you need. When you run out of time you die. Now the how this came about isn't what interests me, but the how somebody simply lives like that I want to know. Things like coffee would literally shorten your life, and the choice for frivolous things would be so much harder. Shorter but better quality life, or longer but potentially miserable life? From the trailer though the time could be switched for money really. The main character ends up being given a ridiculous amount of money, I mean time and is now on the run for guys who think he stole the money, I mean time. He meets a rich girl and falls for her. That sounds pretty much like any Hollywood movie about guy who gets item X and has to keep it away from the bad guys and falls for a girl along the way. Heck are there muggins in this world? How common is murdering someone for their life? Or is it easy to catch by following the time?

The problem I have with how these unique ideas are handled is they are often gimmicks to get people to put out the money for the stories/movies. The stories still fall into "formula #324" but this time in the future/underwater/etc.    

I want to see more using these unique ideas as the main point, not as settings. 

Solutions:

Try spring boarding off the unique idea. Ask questions, and try to make the idea more central to the story. What inspired the idea in the first place might be a great place to go back to. Ask if the base story would be the same if stuck in a different setting. Romeo and Juliet in space is still Romeo and Juliet. Star Trek though is an exploration of what might happen in space travel. Take the space travel aspect out of Star Trek and there is no story. Lastly don't shoe horn an awesomely unique idea into a story because you like the idea. Let the idea evolve and give it its own story. If it is that good of an idea don't ruin it.     

101 Pet Peeves

Everyone has pet peeves, but these aren't things that bother me like people with 16 items in the 15 or less lane. These are story pet peeves from movies or books that have specific things that bug the hell out of me, even if they aren't outright cliches'. Every day, best I can manage I will detail a single pet peeve. Not only why it bothers me but if possible solutions to fix the problem. Many will probably apply to fantasy or urban fantasy, my favorite genres though those won't be all I cover.

I will try my best to not cover things strictly from genres I don't follow. I don't read romance novels so if I have any romance pet peeves it will be from a different genre point of view. 

Anime I'm in the middle of

There are quite a few animes that I am actually in the middle of watching. This list will also be updated as I add more and finish shows. Partly for me to keep track of what I'm watching, and some are just taking awhile to finish. All of these so far are keeping my attention, though some more then others.

Anime I'm currently watching:
*Yakitate! Japan
*Mirai Nikki
*Vampire Knight
*Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro
*Kimi ni Todoke
*Solty Rei

A List

I have decided to make a full list of all the animes I have watched the whole way through. This list will frequently be updated as I watch more and probably remember a few I forgot. There are even more I'm in the middle of watching or I wasn't interested in enough to finish.

In no particular order:
*Digimon 01-02
*Spirited Away
*Howls Moving Castle
*Kiki's Delivery Service
*My Neighbor Totoro
*Magic Knights Rayearth Season 1
*No. 6
*Puella Magi Madoka Magica
*Witch Hunter Robin
*Escaflowne
*The Girl Who Lept Through Time
*Angelic Layer
*Battle Angel Alita
*Outlaw Star
*Chobits
*Petite Princess Yucie
*12 Kingoms
*Tenchi in Tokyo
*Princess Mononoke
*Ponyo
*Full Metal Alchemist (first one)
*Grave of the Fireflies
*Black Butler season 1
*Angel Sanctuary
*Poke'mon Season 1
*Poke'mon first movie
*Poke'mon Mewtwo Returns
*Poke'mon 2000
*Poke'mon the movie 3
*Utena movie
*Escaflowne movie
*Chibi Vampire/Karin
*Kurau Phantom Memory
*Avatar the Last Airbender (I'm counting it even though it isn't technically "anime")
*Fruits Basket
*Ouran Host Club
*Pretear
*Princess Tutu
*Tales of Earthsea
*Cowboy Bebop Movie
*Eden of the East
*Origin: Spirits of the Past
*Castle in the Sky
*X: The Movie
*Mezzo Forte
*Black Rock Shooter OVA
*FMA: Conquer of Shamballa
*C-The Money of possibility Control
*Ao no Exorcist
*Spiral

Let's Talk About Ashely Seaver Criminal Minds

I am a pretty big fan of Criminal Minds and anyone else who is as well probably knows about the online fan war of sorts to get JJ and Prentiss back on the team. The fans won and the new season has the status quo back.

But what about a new character that was introduced last season (6th) and won't be back at all? Ashely Seaver was a FBI cadet in training that came into the team to train but got a huge amount of backlash from the fan community. I was behind on the season at this point and didn't watch the 6th season until I already knew JJ and Prentiss would be back, so when I got to see this character everyone was bashing I already knew she wasn't going to "replace" JJ or Prentiss so I got to see her on her own merits.

So the big question is did Seaver deserve all the hate she got?

The largest concern I heard was she looked like a younger clone of JJ. An obvious attempt to replace her. The same could be said of Prentiss when Greenaway left the show, but where Prentiss was able to make a name for herself and stand above the fact she replaced a character/team mate Seaver unfortunately reminded me a bit to much of cheesy fanfics featuring original characters joining the BAU.

First she is in training when she consults with the team. Besides her "unique" background she didn't bring much to the team. Under different circumstances I might have bought the "young cadet" angle. A new agent that doesn't understand really what the team does and is green around the edges could be a source of conflict within the team especially if it was Strauss or someone else high up essentially trying to "replace" the current team with younger (cheaper) agents and thought profiling is as simple as checking things off a list. Imagine the personal conflict with taking an optimistic trainie and a downward spiral when they find out what people are really capable of and if they couldn't handle it. Not to mention the guilt the team might have if it ended up ruining the new character. (This would only work if the cadet was never supposed to be a pernament part of the team) Unfortunately the whole "young agent" angle seems to try and make the show "hipper" and have the main cast explain things to her. It seems almost like an audience surrogate, and since she is so new and young we are supposed to wish we were her or something.

There is also the issue of her appearence. Even if they wanted to go with a blonde actress my suggestion would be to give her short hair. All the women on the team have long hair aready so it would have made a nice visual change in pace and perhaps set her apart since it would make sense if the team was a little hostle to her for "replacing" JJ. It might have even been better to get an actress with a different hair color, the fans might have still been upset with JJ leaving but at least then it isn't so obvious.

Truth was even just trying to watch her character knowing JJ would be coming back didn't work. The character left me kinda cold. I wasn't outraged like some fans, but her character really wasn't as good as it could have been.  The reason Seaver was brought on was because her father was a serial killer, and that was supposed to give her a unique view on things. My issue with this backstory isn't so much what it was, but how it was presented. We find out immediately what Seaver's backstory is and so does the rest of the team. There is no tension or drama, it just is. Which I think really cheapens what could have been done with the character. It is an interesting angle for a new character for the BAU to be the son or daughter of a notorious serial killer but Seaver seems to be walking around proclaiming what her past is. It almost seems like the character is bragging it is brought up so often. You would think a character with that past would want to hide it more, and may have joined the FBI more out of a sense of guilt then any real desire to protect people. That at least would have been a little more interesting then what we got.

I also wasn't too pleased with the way the character was played, though if it was a director or actor decision I don't know. I think they were going for a wounded kind of personality, but what came out was more of the teen-ish "no one understands me I'm so sad." Where she just seemed so toned down that it seemed like she was bored. The actress just seemed uable to play this, "tough and competent character that has a wounded past." Hell every other character on the team plays that angle better. Since if you think about it every single member of the team (excluding maybe JJ) has been through something pretty sad/bad that drives them forward. Seaver seems to wallow in her past.

So maybe the outright level of hate was a bit much, but I'm not sad to see Seaver leave. I'm more sad for potential characters or plotlines that had to die to shoe horn her in.

Wouldn't it be better if it was a male FBI agent that had a serial killer father. The show has shown that at times that father passes on some of these traits to their sons. So this particular FBI agent probably would be really sensitive about who his father was, probably tired of getting judged because he is that mans son, and it might have been assumed by some that he would be exactly like his father. Of course that couldn't be revealed all at once in the same episode, since that would kill possible tension. Which is, what they did with Seaver.

The Lorax 2012 predictions

I am a huge fan of Dr. Seuss. I can quote facts about him and honestly I just love his stories. I've seen more of his stories then the average person, though I'll be honest I haven't seen everything he has done. I saw the new Horton Hears a Who in theaters and really liked it. When it came out on DVD I bought it as soon as I could. I know The Grinch starring Jim Carrey hasn't gone over well with a lot of fans. (At least that is what I hear fans say) But I think they did Horton right.

Now if there is one thing I am known for IRL it is "wishing" for certain things to happen and they actually happening. More of I guess I can predict what sort of things will be adapted. I predicted Tomb Raider Anniversary, a new(ish) Ocarina of Time, The Sword of Truth getting a visual adaptation (TV show) and several other books to movie adaptations. When I say predict I mean I say "wouldn't it be cool if..." at least months before such projects are announced. So after I saw Horton, I began to think about other Dr. Seuss books especially my favorite The Lorax. I did in fact utter "I wish the guys who did Horton Hears a Who would do The Lorax."

Now I didn't think that this would actually happen. The Lorax is known as being a controversial book and people tend to shy away from that sort of thing. Besides that really was wishful thinking, so to make myself feel better I created my own original take on The Lorax. I figured for a full lenth movie you would need to give the Onceler a face, so I redesigned him. I gave him green gloves and boots for his green hands and feet, and gave him slick black hair which I thought suited his personality. I didn't forget gold eyes that peak out at the beginning of the book, and went with a combination of a suit yet uniform outfit with the theme black and green.



This drawing and design of The Onceler is copyrighted to me

 I also worked on fleshing out his personality and gave him a first name.

This is Jeremy Onceler. He is foolish and stubborn, but not evil. He traveled and along his travels came across these beautiful Truffula Trees which weren't like anything else he had ever seen. He wished to share these trees somehow and misguidedly chopped one down and turned it into a thneed. This is when the Lorax appeared before him and scolded Jeremy for chopping down the tree. Jeremy hadn't thought about the consequences of his actions, but something about the way the Lorax scolded him made him angry and brought out his stubborn side. Over the years his business grew, and he did indeed listen to the Lorax when he came around to complain, but every time his heart would soften stocks would shoot through the roof, or something else would distract him. He became greedy and justified what he did, saying "if I don't do it someone else will so why stop?"

I won't go on about the details of my version, but the point I'm trying to make is even though the story is called The Lorax, the story is really one of the Onceler. His tale of greed and how he allowed his foolishness and stubborn nature to destroy a beautiful land, and eventual redemption that came too late and how he passed the chance for hope to the next generation.

Once again my prediction was right. The Lorax is going to be made into a CG movie and actually will be done by the same guys who made Horton Hears a Who. My first reaction when I heard the news? I was estactic.

Then a little time passed and some actual info came out. I've gone from happy.... to outright worried. Now I know that there hasn't even been a trailer out for this movie yet, but from all the information I've been able to gather so far what I've seen I don't really like. I'm not a complete purest and if something works I'm more then willing to accept changes. There are times though when it isn't the color of a characters eyes changed, a minor character dropped or a new subplot added that adds extra drama to the story that are the problems. Harry Potters eyes are blue in the movies, plenty of characters have to be dropped in huge stories, and ever read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? A man never approaches Charlie in the book trying to get an everlasting gobstopper, but it really works in the movie.

No, the things I can't stand getting changed are themes, or points. The Lorax is an environmentalist story. It is about ruining the world for the future to make a quick buck now. So what has me worried about this movie? First, some of the voice actors. Now Dani DeVito is going to be the voice for the Lorax. THAT is awesome. His voices sounds exactly how the Lorax's voice is described in the book. No it is the other . . . people that are in the movie. Ed Helms is going to be the Onceler.

What?

I had to look him up to find out who he is. Now he seems like a nice enough guy, and from what I can find he seems pretty funny. And his voice isn't bad, but it just doesn't seem to fit the image of a greedy business man that was so stubborn he ruined an entire land. Fine though I'll let that pass, maybe he will surpise me and be amazing in his role. Voice actors are able to change their voice for different characters, to the point some are able to be multiple characters in a single show and watching you'd never know. (yeah I'm talking about you Futurama) So I'll hold out hope for him.

Then I saw two other people listed on the credits. Zac Effron will be playing the boy that the Onceler told his story to in the book named Ted in the movie after Dr. Seuss. -.- Look I've never seen any movies Zac Effron is in, and sure he is a competent actor. But I take one look at him and think "pretty boy" that is mainly there to drag teenage girls to the movie. I'm not advoiding Zac Effron either, he just never appears in any of the movies I want to see. But even this I can ignore, up to this point I was still really excited to see this movie. It was the two things I found out next.


Most important character in The Lorax didn't you know?
It's why there as many images of her as there are for the Lorax


Audrey will be played by Taylor Swift.

Who the hell is Audrey?

The summary of the movie (as found on an "official" site)
The animated adventure follows the journey of a boy as he searches for the one thing that will enable him to win the affection of the girl of his dreams. To find it he must discover the story of the Lorax, the grumpy yet charming creature who fights to protect his world.

Oh right, the love story. Who could forget the love story that was the whole point of The Lorax? Um, how about "what love story." Look first I know to turn a short story into a full movie things need to be added, but why a love story? Doesn't that ruin the point of the message if it isn't "we need to be responsible with our world, and when things get bad fix it," but becomes "saving the world will get you a girlfriend?" What if the girl doesn't care about the enviroment? Should we then not care either since it won't make us "look good?"

Also. Taylor Swift? Really? Look she is fine at what she does, singing. I might not own any CDs by her but I've heard a song or two on the radio and didn't hate them (not my style, but not bad.) But why hire a singer for a voice actor job? She isn't an actor, or at least a good one from what I've heard. Is the movie going to be a musical? There are plenty of good voice actors out there so why pick someone with no experince and can't act? Okay besides name recognition.

I was really excited when I first heard about this movie, but as more and more information comes out it seems to be less about the original message and more of an attempt to just get teenagers in the theater. I'm not for being too preachy, there shouldn't be a scene where someone faces the camera and says "pollution is bad." We know that already, we don't need to be talked down to, but the message shouldn't also be drowning in cliche's and whats hip.

The very last thing about the summary. Did anybody notice the lack of mention for a certain someone? Someone I mentioned at the begining of this blog being the real main character of the story?

What about the Onceler?!

I'm also betting that they take away the Onceler's cigars in this new movie. Can't have smoking in a "family" film now can we?

(P.S this blogger would like noted she knows about the parallel between the real life story of The Lorax and sorta understands what the movie is going for. I still don't support it. Want to make a movie about Dr. Seuss's life? Fine, just don't ruin a good story for some cheap symbolizim or meta humor. Whatever you'd call it)

Not Quite "Limitless"

I liked the idea of the movie Limitless, and ended up renting it as soon as I was able. The movie was actually pretty decent, and I liked it well enough. Not something I'll buy but was well worth the rent. I start off stating I did enjoy the movie because from here on I will be pretty harsh

Quick disclaimer this is not a review, but an analyse of the movie so there will be spoilers.

The story goes, Eddie is a writer down on his luck. He can't even get the first sentence down for his book, and his girlfriend dumps him. He ends up running into his ex-brother-in-law who is a drug dealer and who gives him a drug that will "allow him to use all of his brain" and not seeing how his life could get any worse he takes the pill. It works and he finishes his book, and gets involved in the stock market.

I personally really like some of the artistic directions this movie took. When Eddie takes the pill everything gets brighter and more lively, and some of the special effects are just really cool.

I think the use of narration was well done as well. Having Eddie narrate his own story made sense, and helped make things more clear then they otherwise wouldn't have been.

The story itself..... is where I have problems. There are many points in the story where plot threads are brought up and either dropped or not fully explained. Not to mention a few other problems. We find out when Eddie drops the first 60 pages of his novel on the desk of an/his editor that he was given an advance. No other books by him are brought up to suggest he had proved he could write, and honestly what editor would give an advance to a "writer" who not only didn't have a single page written, but didn't have a summary or real idea? The movie made clear that Eddie couldn't even articulate what he was "writing" to anybody when asked. I find it highly doubtful that he would have really been given an advance, not to mention being able to be so chummy with an editor.

One of the problems with this movie is that despite supposedly having an extremely high I.Q when he is taking the pill Eddie doesn't act very smart. Sure "math became useful" and he can make thousands on the stock market in a single day, but he lacks any sort of common sense. First he gets a loan from a very shifty loan shark, and then forgets to pay him back fast enough. If the movie was trying to make a point that knowledge doesn't make up for sense (histories greatest minds often have emotional and social problems) then that would have been a legitimate thing for him to do if it was along with his personality. Unfortunately the movie never tries to make any such case and it just becomes a situation where we are told a character is smart but they continue to act stupid.   

Not only does Eddie not paying the loan shark on time cause the shark to end up with one of the smart pills, but Eddie is never able to come up with a way to get rid of the guy who now comes to him for more pills. Eddie at one point in the movie claims the pills allow you to "see the answers" but seems unable to figure things out for himself.

This movie also has a sexiest edge to it as well. Which I am very sad to say. When Eddie gets dumped by his girl friend we are supposed to feel sorry for him, which is fine. He is the "loser with a heart of gold" if you will and the main character. What bothers me is his treatment of women through out the movie. The first thing Eddie actually does when the smart pill takes effect is help his landlord's wife with a collage essay... and have sex with her. If I recall correctly Eddie had just been dumped, a few hours previously and he is already sleeping around. He doesn't show any remorse or even being shown as being so crushed by being dumped that he didn't care. (Not that I would condone it anyway) Look I'm not a prude, but the fact is he immediately commits adultery as soon as he is dumped and goes on a parade of sleeping around with random women thanks to his high I.Q. He is never called out on this and is in fact seen as a good thing.

He ends up back with his girlfriend after he gets his life back together. Am I suppose to be happy about that? Besides the fact they were dating at the beginning of the movie there is no way to know they actually "love" each other. The girl comes and goes in Eddie's life as she pleases so I don't feel any real commitment from her either. She dumps him for being a loser, gets back together with him when his life is going right, then leaves him again when she finds out it is all due to pills. 

Now don't get me wrong, this may seem like a huge amount of things "wrong" but it is easy enough to ignore them while watching the movie. The ride is fun enough.

This movie does do one thing that really bothers me. The very, very beginning where the movie starts we find Eddie standing on the edge of a building with men trying to get in. He then goes into the all famous "how did I end up here you ask?" which sends us to the real beginning of the story. I really hate beginnings like this, one is because it just seems really cheap, I am already watching this movie. I'm at least this invested, so unless the movie is that bad I'll probably be sitting through the whole thing. It's also cheap because it is such an obvious hook. Like the film makers needed to wave something in my face and go "LOOK!LOOK! SOMETHING COOL REALLY DOES HAPPEN IN THIS MOVIE!! LOOK!"

Someone might be looking at that scene and wonder where is he? Is it something important? Has he been caught doing something he shouldn't? The building looks neat enough, and maybe he has some plan so it will only look like he jumps or something. At least that is what I thought. Sadly though the location served no other purpose besides, looking cool and giving us a hard to break through door so Eddie could stall for time. There is a brief scene in the movie where Eddie is looking at the apartment and says "I'll take it." Just for the scene at the beginning to look cool. And be featured on the poster I suppose.

I'll leave this analyse with just a list of plot threads dropped, or just never fully answered instead of going on and on about them. Oh and I say BS to people who say that any of the "lost plots" are part of the point.

+Who killed Eddie's ex-brother-in-law?

+Did Eddie kill that women on the night he can't remember?

+If he didn't then who did?

+Why was the one guy sent to kill Eddie (not the shark)

+No really, why was the one guy following Eddie, willing to kill random people on the street and his girlfriend?

+How did the guy's boss find out about Eddie having the pills if that is the answer?

+Why did it suddenly get dropped as a problem as soon as the old guy died?

The ending was pretty okay. I liked Eddie's solution to the pills, but I'm not to fond of him running for a political office. Eddie may have been "smart" but he was never overly honest and never seemed to care about others. Besides him proclaiming he wanted "to change the world." Change doesn't mean for the better though.

End feelings: Overall I liked this movie. The actor was charismatic, and the visuals were very nice. The plot only stalled for a little when Eddie was going through the wish fulfilment section of the movie where we are supposed to wish we were him. Besides that it was always at least entertaining enough. The main problem with the movie was with the lack of a point. Is knowledge what you make of it? Does great genius come with great drawbacks? Or no matter how smart we may become we are always the same person inside and will continue to make bad choices because of who we are? I would have liked some kind of theme, besides "being smart makes everything better" which isn't true. In fact it wasn't true for Eddie who continued to make really stupid choices but this is never truly addressed. It is supposed to seem at most just a run of bad luck. Worth a watch if it the idea sounds like someones kind of movie, but not one I'll be rewatching any time soon.

The Little Nostalgic Mermaid

For my first review I'll tackle my favorite childhood movie. Trust me I can be objective.

The Little Mermaid as told by Disney. Growing up I wanted to be a mermaid, I practically breathed The Little Mermaid. I still know the whole movie almost by heart.

I shouldn't have to lay out the whole plot of the story, but here it is breafly. Ariel is a mermaid princess and is facinated with the human world. After sneaking up to the surface she spies a human prince and falls for him. She ends up rescueing him and making a deal with a sea witch, but is tricked by the witch. It all ends okay though (come on it is Disney.)

First because I have to mention it, the soundtrack is AMAZING. I am actually listening to it right now, and I kid you not the movie is playing in my head. Not just the songs with singing, but the whole thing is amazing and really brings the story to life. Onto the actually story though.

Don't worry this won't be just fangirl gushing, though I will indulge from time to time.

This is one major problem that this movie suffers from and I'll be honest nearly every Disney story does too, it is Princess Syndrome. Now it is true the original little mermaid was a princess too, but Disney has a thing for making every (important) girl character a princess. Either by birth or marriage. Now it does work in this story and is relevant to the plot, but the problem still stands. Why do only real princesses matter? The desire to wait for a "prince" to come along and sweep us girls off our feet is not a healthy one. (Beyond my standard fantasies ;p) Honestly though I do applaud Ariel for being the first princess who actually went out and chased down her prince and did something.

No matter her flaws I love Ariel. She has such a spunky attitude but is also just so likable.

Speaking of flaws though, the major concern I hear brought up against this movie is what Ariel does to get her guy. Namely give up EVERYTHING to be with him and even risk eternal imprisonment/slavery/turned into a worm thing. Eric (the prince) on the other hand doesn't have to give up anything to get the girl in the end. Ariel has to leave her home, her family and in fact everything she has ever known to be with Eric. Now this is a little bit related to reality though, and I can respect that. First at the time period when a girl married she did leave everything behind to live with her husband, and for modern times it does represent the change of growing up. Not to mention that part at the end always gets me teary.

Eric himself was actually fairly well done, especially considering he was the first prince to actually have a personality. I did like how at a certain point he gives up on the "fantasy" girl he isn't sure even exists, and allows himself to fall for Ariel. It showed that he fell for Ariel the person, not the fantasy.

Though, yes, falling in love in that short period of time is a bit much. I'm not overly fond of any "love at first sight" stories. Real relationships take a bit more work then, "hey I looked you in the eyes lets be in love forever."

The character that I think is the most loved though (next to Ariel) is the sea witch Ursula. Which is kinda funny if you think about it. It just seems Disney is so much better at creating interesting villains then regular characters.

Ursula wants to take over the underwater kingdom, and uses Ariel to try and achieve those ends. One thing that drives me nuts about these kind of villains though is how many want to "rule the kingdom/world" or what-not. One simple question, why? Like with Ursula, why is she so interested in ruling the ocean? This is never answered in the movie, but in the Broadway play Ursula is King Triton's sister. That of course makes a lot more sense than a random sea witch randomly wanting to rule the ocean. In fact that itself sounds like a really interesting story, one I'd love to hear. Moving on though. Ursula's character has a lot of charisma, and is just a lot of fun, even if her motives are never explained in the movie. She is just enjoyable as she is.

Last there of course is the visuals. The animation for this story is stunning and over 20 years later holds up really well, and if I'll be honest is often better then more recent movies. The world that was created was also beautiful, with bubbles constantly swirling around underwater, and all the little details that went into it.

My final thoughts: I can understand why others might dislike this movie, but for me all the flaws cannot dampen the beauty and energy this movie has. Every time I watch this movie I fall in love with it again.

In which I claim to Know a lot

I love stories. It really doesn't matter the medium, and I'm pretty broad in what I like. I'll watch live action movies, cartoons, devour books and comics like no tomorrow. If there is one thing I've come to realize though with each story I finish.

I notice too much. Not everything of course, but at the end of a book or movie I can go, "okay I really liked that story, but..." and list off several things that the movie could have done better. I also have a long list of things I like about the stories too, and I try to be as fair as possible.

The point of this blog will be "reviews" but not the typical reviews where the writer gives a rating at the end and tells readers if they should or shouldn't see/read what they are reviewing. My reviews are a bit more in depth, and will actually discuss various things at length. I will never recommend not checking out something I review. My opinion is I can state my own opinion, and give an indepth analysis of something but I can't say with any kind of certainty what someone I have never meet will like or dislike. I will have spoilers in my reviews because of the nature of the kind of reviews I will do. I of course have a huge list of stories to review, but recommendations or titles that someone wants my opinion on are welcome.