How should I start explaining? The idea is that we have things locked away in our minds, and they are generally represented as a safe within our subconscious. It represents our innermost thoughts, and it can change the fabric of our very being.
The movie deals with shared dreaming, which is a collective subconscious of sorts (and interestingly enough, I wrote a paper about collective subconscious for my Science Fiction final 2 summers ago). It throws in aspects about dreaming, such as having the dream world be affected in some way based on what is happening to the body as it is sleeping, or having things being constructed/reconstructed in the dream state. One thing that's a little new is the idea of dream levels: while dreaming in a dream isn't something really new, the idea of forcing dreaming in dreams to reach lower levels or being stuck in dream limbo is an interesting plot device to introduce.
This is definitely a movie that warrants a lot of discussion, and would definitely be fitting for a science fiction class. That said, it's very enjoyable and thought provoking, but has good pacing, so you can stop every once in a while to rest and just enjoy some action before returning to the complex situation.
It's a wonderful mixture of action, comedy, drama, intrigue, and mental stimulation that fits in very well in the science fiction genre. I'm not very interested in lucid dreaming (I feel like I should let my subconscious govern that and get some insight that way), and while the very idea of inception (pun not intended) is a little terrifying, I think it'd be very interesting to deliberately be able to share a dream. It's almost the same idea as a time pod: you have all the time in the world (albeit the dream world) to do what you'd like, while still having your own time firmly (or not) planted in reality.

I definitely think it's worth watching a few times. You don't get a level of in-depth discussion with many other movies like you do with this one. :)

To compare with the "movie" (I'm still not really convinced it was a movie, instead of a series of barely-connected scenes trying to reference the show), I found it was a little more accurate, story-wise than I originally thought. Some of the things that happened did follow the show pretty well, so it raises my opinion of it by a few points. Only one or two though.

Given the short time-frame the story needs to be told compared to the amount of time for all of the episodes in the season (roughly 100 to 400), I can see why so many things were cut out. However, it doesn't make up for the poorly (re)written dialogue, the poor acting, some of the character changes (seriously, Zuko's scar is MUCH more prominent in the show), and how much disconnect there is. There also needed to be a lot more fun/silly moments. All of the characters and almost all of the scenes were so serious, you probably wouldn't have guessed it was based off of a children's cartoon series. Where's the fun? Where's the magic? (Also, to be nitpicky, I thought some of the form was sloppy; for example, I noticed the actor playing Aang was bending his knees too far when waterbending; in Tai Chi (as far as I know), which waterbending is based off of, you don't bend your knees beyond your feet/ankle (ends up putting strain on your ankles).

Anyway, stick to watching the show. It's much better. And if you have a Netflix account, you can watch all of the episodes through instant streaming! :)

This movie appealed to me in a lot of different ways. First off, it stars a supervillain, and while there are no superheroes in this movie (though, the upcoming Megamind will prove interesting in that regard), there is a another supervillain who appears to top him at almost every turn. Another point (or points, rather) are the cute little girls: Margo, Edith and Agnes. From the trailer, you could already see how Agnes, the youngest is so colorful and energetic. What you see less of in the trailer, and revealed in the movie, is how adventurous Edith can be, and how sassy (though protective) Margo can be. I was actually unaware until after the movie that Miranda Cosgrove voiced Margo, and while Margo already ended up being my favorite character of the three, the fact that Miranda Cosgrove voiced the character just added to that (I did enjoy her performances in Drake and Josh as well as iCarly). Finally, the minions. I think the first trailers for the movie, however long ago they were, actually only showed some situations involving the minions. They are definitely awesome little creatures (they remind me of the servbots from the Mega Man Legends games), and they do actually have the same yellow/blue color scheme.

The intro to the movie is pretty much exactly the same as one of the trailers: a supervillain has somehow stolen the Great Pyramid of Giza and replaced it with an inflatable replica. Soon after, Gru is introduced, and we see that while he is a supervillain, he's not a very "villainous" character. He's mean, selfish, a bit over-the-top sometimes, and he wants to commit crimes (usually involving stealing something). However, he's not evil. He's just mean. Without spoiling anything, he ends up having to take care of the 3 girls, which prove to be more of a handful than he originally thought it'd be.

I really enjoyed this movie, because I felt like I could relate to it. I enjoy the freedom Gru experiences (though, he has his own money problems to deal with; being a supervillain isn't cheap!), and to give a bit of info: Many times when I see on sitcoms about whether a parent would rather have a daughter or a son, I always end up siding with wanting a daughter. Considering how my love life (or lack thereof) tends to be, the chances of me getting married at some point is unlikely (though, every time I go down on a knee, even if it's just to tie my shoe, I think about how I would propose, which probably suggests to you how obsessive I am about these things). At this point, my only likelihood for children would be adoption, which wouldn't be so bad.....assuming I could even pass an adoption agency's test/standards.
Anyway, back to how it relates to the movie: the girls basically represent the type of children I would one day like to have: self-motivated, energetic (though that may end up exhausting me more often than not), creative, independent and respectful (while still questioning authority).

It's touching, and I was definitely close to crying (and this is after the fact that I tend to instinctively hold back crying in public). Also, I went with 3 good friends, and a good movie group always enhances the experience. :)

Can't wait for the sequel to Dr. Horrible. :)

A few weeks ago I saw Toy Story 3 with a few people. I enjoyed it, thought it was a great way to end the movie series, and all-in-all pretty amazing. Great job Pixar! Also, I really enjoyed the Pixar Short (Night and Day) that was played before the feature. However, I realized walking out the of theater, that the story to Toy Story 3 actually had quite a lot in common with Toy Story 2's story. Also, upon arriving home, I had remembered the other trailer involving the dropped story of the Buzz Lightyear recalls (maybe something for an aside later on). Regardless, I definitely left the movie with a happy note.

 Now, for the bad news....

I went and saw The Last Airbender today. I'll be honest: I was expecting disappointment since the first trailer was released. Good idea in theory (after all, plenty of people absolutely LOVED the TV series), but unfortunately, didn't pan out. I was hesitant to go, but I figured I should at least give it a chance.

Unfortunately, I was already surprised at how low the movie was, since one of the first words spoken was Avatar, but pronounce "Ah-vatar". Granted, there are many different pronunciations for different words, but that's already one thing that was thrown off from the show. A lot of the smaller details were changed (Zuko heading into the Southern Water Tribe due to a light shined from Aang when he broke free, rather than an accidental signal from an abandoned Fire Nation ship, for example). I can understand omitting some details, being that it's supposed to encompass the entire first season, which consisted of 20 episodes, but later on, when some of the more minor (but influential/memorable) characters come in the show, they get absolutely no mention in the movie. Some start playing bigger roles in the later seasons, so I don't know how that will be integrated.

One issue I definitely had with the movie was the acting. I usually blame bad scene representation on poor writing (and it's still the case here), but the actors could have done better. Some of the dialogue just completely felt out of place, and seemed like something an average middle-schooler would write. There simply wasn't enough flow, dialogue-wise, nor plot-wise (which is somewhat ironic, as the first season is about Aang's journey to study waterbending). The plot is somewhat difficult to follow unless you've seen the show, in which case it's only mildly connected. Everything felt very thrown together.

I could rant on and on about this movie, but it mainly boils down to one thing: It felt to me that they took out a lot of the east-Asian influences that the series had. It may have tried to copy what the show did, but it's missing that bit of magic, that bit of authenticity that the show just naturally portrayed. I'm not happy with the movie, but I'll have to see if it gets any better in the second one. You can only go so far to crush an audience's love for a children's TV show.

I actually only started watching the show last week, after I found out that the first season is available for instant streaming on Netflix. (I believe the whole series is available on Hulu as well)

First off, what can I say? The leader of the group, Hannibal, is played by Liam Neeson. It's Liam Neeson! You know it's going to be awesome!

The movie plays somewhat as a prequel to the show, explaining (to some extent) how all 4 members met, and why B.A. Baracus has a fear of flying (and a dislike for Murdock)

This movie is somewhat like The Losers from a few weeks past: It's high on action, high on comedy, sprinkled with a lot of ridiculous. If you enjoyed The Losers, Kickass (to a lesser extent), or the original show, this movie fits well for you.

From what I've seen of the original show, the new A-Team fits well to represent the old A-Team. Baracus is a little different, but really, who can be exactly like Mr. T? Also, Face felt like a whole new character for me, but maybe he changed somewhere later in the show. One of the disappointments I had was that Hannibal didn't really use any of his "Master of Disguise" tricks that somehow worked so well in the show. 

The only major problem I had with the movie was the villians. All of the villians seemed to be pretty dumb, and while the A-Team did use their cleverness and resourcefulness to thwart them, it was just surprising to see how they were more like fumbling accidental criminal masterminds.

Overall, it's an entertaining movie. Liam Neeson is as badass as ever, playing Hannibal, who's as cunning as ever, Murdock's as crazy as ever, and hey, you've got to love it when a plan comes together.

First off: Adrien Brody: relatable character. Dumb at times, but does a good job. Sarah Polley: does a REALLY good job at making me groan at every single scene she's in. It's not her fault so much as her character is STUPID. I really couldn't fathom how dumb she was. That kind of sums up the movie, really: dumb.

The concept of the movie was pretty good: Genius scientist couple specializing in splicing DNA (whoo lab montages), splices together the DNA of a new creature they've made (which apparently has some protein that's important for humankind) with human DNA under the guise of "the betterment of mankind" (which more turns out to be Polley's character's personal project).

Turns out the movie actually came out last year in Canada, and I have to say, this movie doesn't really give me a good first impression on Canadian film-writing. The acting is good, if not really awkward at times (mostly due to writing).

There are lots of scenes that will make you go "really? REALLY? *groan*". The visual effects on the creature are very good, actually pretty lifelike, for the most part.

Final verdict: not really worth watching. I do like Adrien Brody in this movie, but everything else just frustrated me too much to really enjoy the movie as a whole.

A few days later (after beating New Blood), I started Trauma Team, and I beat it over the Memorial Day weekend.

While in the other Trauma Center games, you are limited to mainly surgical procedures, Trauma Team decides to diversify by providing 6 different game modes: Surgery, First Response, Orthopedics, Endoscopy, Diagnostics and Forensics. The game has done away with its arbitrary time limit, but to counter this, some of the operations get complex and can take a very long time (the final orthopedics operation took me almost 22 minutes!). The operations themselves are also easier than in past games (I started on normal "Resident" difficulty rather than easy, as I've done with the previous games). This might be to counter-act the fact that none of the characters have the Healing Touch ability (and in previous games, I rarely used that ability anyway).

In previous Trauma Center games, especially toward the end, I was always faced with feelings of tension and panic, because of the ways the main viruses change and force me to multi-task. Trauma Team unfortunately doesn't give me that same "emergency" feeling, except during the First Response operations (as those require me to deal with multiple patients in administering first aid and prep patients to be sent to the E.R. It usually starts off easy enough, only making you handle 2 or 3 patients, but paramedics will quickly find more, and you will often find yourself with 5 patients, all of whom are losing vitals and dealing with their own problems (such as having an I-beam lodged inside their chests).

Diagnostics is very much like a logic puzzle, making you gather information about any abnormalities in the patient, then your computer partner will give you a list of possible diagnoses in which you will have to do a mix 'n match between what symptoms the diagnoses presents, and what symptoms you've found on your patient. As for Forensics, it's a very CSI-type experience, where you look at abnormalites on the corpse, their personal effects, as well as gather evidence from the crime scene. With every key point of information you gain a "hint card", and you combine hint cards together to formulate what exactly happened in your cases. These two sections are the least active, and you can take your time solving those parts of the game. It actually reminds me somewhat of the Ace Attorney series of games.

Overall, this game has been a really fun experience, but I have to say that it feels pretty short. In the other games, you play one linear storyline, consisting of about 30-35+ operations, but in Trauma Team, while you are playing as 6 different characters in an inter-weaving storyline with a total of about ~40+ missions, it feels a lot shorter. It's not a bad tradeoff though. Also, my only other gripe with this game is that Endoscopy is probably the strangest pull-away from the other games in terms of gameplay style, and the controls are a little difficult to learn. It's definitely interesting, but it could've used a little more polish.

Jake Gyllenhaal does a great job as the titular character Dastan, who has a personality much like Disney's Aladdin. He's mischievous, witty, courageous, and tries to do good, even though he's not always faced with the best of circumstances. His interaction with Gemma Arterton's character, Princess Tamina, proves to be a humourous one, as they often at each other's throats (in a less hostile way than I just made it sound). Just wait until a scene regarding tax-defaulters and ostrich races. :)

As for the story, the movie does a good job following the basic overarching plot of the game. It takes a lot of liberties with the details, but this isn't really a detriment; rather, it actually adds a bit of color and depth to the story. There are several acrobatic scenes involving long jumps, roof to roof (as well as climbing and other things), which definitely lend well to the acrobatic feats you pull in the game (which are similar to the Assassin's Creed games).

Who knows if they'll make a trilogy out of this as both the game and Pirates of the Caribbean were (and considering how the story plays out, it might be weird to twist things around), but they could probably do a good job. This definitely sets the bar for video game-based movies. I just hope they don't make a video game based off of this movie eventually (since you know, that would be kind of backward).

Final Verdict: It's actually a pretty good movie! Lots of action, intrigue, decent story, will please fans of the game, but no esoteric references to leave the unknowing audience confused. Great work! :)

The movie itself pretty much falls under the same scope as the sketches. If you're not familiar with those, you're just looking at the half-assed film with crude humor. The sketches always involve some kind of compound, some kind of bomb, (of which MacGruber has 20 seconds to defuse), his partner Casey (later replaced by Vicky), as well as another partner (who is usually played by that week's SNL host). MacGruber always has some problem that happens right as the bomb is ticking away, which always ends up with an explosion. Most MacGruber sketches come in multiple parts, which build upon the previous parts for additional hilarity.

The movie doesn't have a lot going for it, substance-wise. It's basically full of crude humor, hilarious antics (as MacGruber does), and a few sex scenes (which is also done in extremely humorous fashion). It's definitely a movie you never have to think about (kind of like Dumb and Dumber, but less....dumb), and lots of crazy violence and explosions. It's written well for what it is, and it's well delivered (though there is a short scene after the credits, it's not really worth the wait).

There's not a whole lot more to say about this film. It's short (especially compared to Robin Hood last week), and sweet. It's pretty predictable (but in a cliché comedy way), and the twist at the end definitely got everyone in the theater (all...20 of them at the 9:15 showing on Friday) laughing. I think the sketches (and thus the film) really appeal to audiences who watched TV from the early 90s and before (after all, it's a spoof on MacGyver).

Final Verdict: If you're looking for your slightly-retro, crude humor, look no more. If you really enjoy the MacGruber sketches on SNL, definitely go see it. Otherwise, you have nothing to really attach yourself to this movie with, and it'll just be an hour and a half of comedy you don't care for.