So I was rummaging through YouTube the other day looking up old music.
I then remembered the soundtrack to an old movie called "Streets Of Fire",
and decided to look up some of the tracks.

The movie is self described as a "Rock & Roll Fable",
and is set in "another time, another place".
If there was ever a (good) movie based on Double Dragon, or Final Fight,
then this would be it.
If you've never seen Streets Of Fire,
then check it out kids if you can, it's a great film.

ANYWAY....
One of the several movie song tracks I found,
(Nowhere Fast)
was set to the visual eye-candy of an anime film called "Redline"
I had only heard of this movie before and have never seen it,
but it seems to be something like a Cannonball Run/Road Warrior/Death Race crossover.
I'm definitely going to put this in my NetFlix queue now.
Check it out .....and turn up the volume:
[link]

Commission Info:
[link]

Hi everybody,
I need to earn some income.
So I'm offering too do some pics to whom it may concern.
This is kind of new to me so I want to start off slow.

B/W and Color Sketch Commissions

I reserve the right to refuse any art request.

MATERIAL
-9x12 white Bristol cardstock paper.
-Pencil.
-Ink.
-Watercolor paint.
-Markers.
-Colored pencils.

REQUESTS
-Send me a note here on DA.
-Please provide communication info you'd like me to use for you
(DA notes are fine with me)
-Please provide a deadline that you would like, and I'll try to meet it.

CONTENT
-No yaoi/yuri please.
-Please keep request PG13-rated and below.
*I'm not unwilling to do R-rated material,
   but I'm not really an erotic and/or gory horror artist
   and I'd just rather not.
*R-rated and above material request will be $100.00.

DELIVERY
-Please provide your email delivery info.
-If you prefer to have the original drawing,
(I know I would)
then I'll have to ask for an addition $5.00 for S&H.
-Please provide the physical mailing address delivery info along with your initial request.

PRICING
$10.00 per B/W drawing via e-delivery.
$15.00 per B/W drawing via mail delivery.

$20.00 per Color drawing via e-delivery.
$25.00 per Color drawing via mail delivery.

$100.00 per R-rated and above drawing via e-delivery or mail delivery.

PAYMENT
-PayPal only USD payments accepted.
-Payment must be made in advance before I start anything.
(sorry it has to be this way, but I've been burned before)
-No refunds, but I'll resend drawing at no charge.

Thanx for your patronage.
Let's see how this works out.

Nothing important again.

Found this funny video:
[link]

"They make me laugh Rocky....eh heh".

So I went to see Captain America.
It was good.
And there was an Avengers preview at the VERY end too.
Stick around and see it.

There was also a preview to the new SpiderMan flick,
but it kind of left me scratching my head.

1st off, I really wish they didn't do a reboot.
I'd like to see a single movie continuity kind of like the Harry Potter series,
or the 007 movies that have been going since the 50's
(somebody correct me on that).
I dislike how a franchise will have to redo the origin every 3rd flick.
But I suppose this is done because of the modern short attention span of modern movie goers.
The producers probably thought it has to be done like this to "keep it fresh" or something.

With all that said, I actually do think it was nessessary in this case.
Although I liked the 1st and 2nd Sam Raimi interpretations,
I still had a few gripes about them, and Spiderman 3 was just a real mess.

This new movie trailer starts of with Peter Parker's parents "going away",
and him being taken in by May and Ben.
Ben played by Martin Sheen looks cool, but Aunt May seems a little younger here.......and kind of skaggley-looking.

Since they took the time to show his parents going away,
then the new film will probably allude to the Parkers going some secret government mission.
(yes kids, the Parkers were spies/secret agents)
This is a real interesting plot point that they've decided to add here.
And it's an often overlooked plot point too....
I believe that this little (?) backstory fact has been mostly only delved into in the comics.
The only other SpiderMan media outside comics has ever even mentioned it,
I think was the '95 Spider-Man animated TV series.
(somebody correct me on this too).

I think this will add a good amount of intrigue.
But I also have to a little real about this,
and say that I really don't think they're actually going to go to much into it in this movie.
I believe that it's more likely that this will be a sub-plot
that will probably be carried on and alluded to well into the next few SpiderMan flicks.
Which I think will be cool.
(Hey, maybe a spin-off movie: "Mister and Mrs. Parker".....somebody call Brad and Angelina)

Moving on.....
This film also seems to start the new series off with Gwen Stacy instead of MJ.
This was 1 of the gripes I had about the 1st film.
I really thought it would have been better to have had both Gwen and MJ appear,
with Gwen being the love interest and MJ being a friend.
Then, when Gwen is killed by the Green Goblin at the end of the film,
(like it should have been)
it would have had a more emotional impact and motivator
for Peter to choose not to carry on a relationship with MJ.
And his "rejection" of her at the end would have had a little more weight.
I'm kind of hoping that Gwen last 2 or 3 movies before she's whacked and MJ comes in.

(Another gripe I had about this series was the casting of Kirsten Dunst as MJ.
She PLAYED the role just fine, but she really didn't LOOK the role.
Kirsten Dunst is just average looking, MJ is supposed to be really HOT).

The trailer continues on and shows Peter to be kind of shy,
which is both ok and correct,
BUT..... then they really run with this, and go overboard.
Peter seems to be made out to be an emo kid.
We're talking EMO-'ala-Twilight here.
(he's even got the Twilight hairstyle too).
This kind of makes me groan, but they may make it work for this film.
It may not matter anyway, because we all know that Peter has
never STAYED shy and timid in any incarnation, in any media he's ever been in.
This emo look/phase will probably not last very long
and may just appear in the 1st part of the film.
We'll just have to wait and see.

Then.....
the trailer starts showing his mutations begin as he starts getting his powers.
1st with what appears to be an organic webshooter......coming out of the back of his neck,
(I suppose better there that another "back" area).
I had heard he was going to have mechanical webshooters in this new movie,
and I believe that I glimpsed them for a few seconds.
This makes me think that he's going to build a pipeline into his Spidey suit
that runs from the back of his neck to his wrists devices.
Biologically, this seems more "realistic", but it's a comic book movie dang it.
Does it have to try this much?

Finally.....
The Trailer doesn't go any farther as to what's in it or what villian the hero must face.
Instead, we're treated to "Mirror Edge" FPS parkour run through the NY skyline.

But who knows, what the heck do I know about film-making?

Hey Kids!!

Just thought I'd share some s'more unimportant news I heard.
To whom it may concern:

Some bad news 1st.
Megaman Ledgends 3 for the 3DS has been cancelled.
[link]
Now I never played the MML series except for "The Misadventures Of TronBonne".
But it's always bad to hear cancellation news, and I did like Tron's game.
I understand that the 2nd MML game story ended on kind of a cliffhanger 'ala The Empire Strikes Back.
So I guess it will still remained unresolved.
(Hey, maybe somebody will make some UCC for LittleBigPlanet MML3 equivalent or something).

But some great news too!!
Strider Hiryu has been announce for Ultimate MVC3
later this year.
[link]
Cool.

Nothing important for me to say here today,
(is it ever?)
but I was told of this funny video featuring MLP.

Basically, it's just a fake movie preview.
It takes the audio track of the 2005 film "Serenity" movie preview,
and replaces all the video with clips of the current MLP:FIM TV show.

[link]

Really funny.
The lip-sync on this is really good too!
All the Serenity audio dialogue is tight and really spot-on with the MLP footage.

So *kizer180 posed this question in a recent journal entry:
Who Needs their own Animated show?
[link]

I think that I'd have separate these into 2 catagories:
-"All ages" and/or "Young"
-"Adult" and/or "Mature"....(I don't mean this to mean "porn").

ALL AGES:
-Darkhawk (Marvel)
  Not well known far and wide, but well known enough.
  Because so little has been done with this character, there's not a lot of mythos to adapt.
  It leaves him pretty much wide open to be made into more.
  Although he is a cool looking character.....
  he might be considered too much of a gamble for any production company, (even Disney) to develop.
  (Arg! why was there never a MARVEL Legends figure made of him?)

-Rocket Raccoon (Marvel)
  Animated artstyle should try to look like MM's original artwork.
  This one should not be "kiddified" 'ala the original TMNT cartoon from '87.
  (Man I hate that show)
  It should be more liken to the (more faithful) '03 TMNT cartoon.
  I recall that the 1st scene in the 1st issue has a kindly old (Iguana) toysmith being shot to death.....
  by a robot clown assassin....
  who then proceeds to gun down the chimp security guards.....
  before being decapitated himself.
  (Hmm, maybe this one should be listed under "Adult"/"Mature").

-Power Pack (Marvel)
  Love 'em or hate 'em, I liked these old stories, they were fun and entertaining.
  I'm certain that these characters could carry a series on their own,
  (with an occasional cameo guest star).
  The animated artstyle of ATLAB, or the recent FF cartoon,
  (produced by Moonscoop, based/influenced by the 2 live-action FF films),
  would probably be a good fit for this show.
  If possible, the animated artstyle should be made to look like Jon Bogandove's.
  (comicbook artist who did later issues during the original/1st run of the book)

-Araña (Marvel)
  Like those listed above, a little obscure.
  But that's exactly why an animated show would be good for this character.
  The show could be like a cross between XJ9/Jenny and Batman Beyond.
  Or show life as a sidekick (to Ms Marvel I think) like those few episodes of the Batman
  cartoon that focused on Robin and/or Batgirl.
  Hmm....Maybe a SpiderWoman show.

ADULT/MATURE:
-Spiderwoman (Marvel)
  A show featuring all 3 spider ladies working together 'ala "Birds Of Prey".
  I think the 1st SW (Jessica Drew) was a detective/private eye.
  She could be partnered with SW2 (Julia Carpenter) in a detective agency with
  SW3 (Araña/Anya Corazon) as an intern sidekick.
  Detective stories with super-heroine action!
  A little combination of the Cowbow Bebop action, some Ghost In the Shell intrigue , and maybe
  a little bit of a Witch Hunter Robin feel thrown in.
  This would be really fun to watch.
  and speaking of detectives....

-Chun Li (Capcom/Udon)
  Like the Spiderwoman(s) show above, this should be an action, detective, cops 'n robbers
  type of show.
  CAPCOM PLEASE!!
  Stop! Stop! Stop! trying to do live action adaptations of this IP.
  An animated format lends itself to this universe much better.
  Existing SF animations have mostly ranged from really bad, to just mediocre.
  (The SF animated movie is great, and I love it, but it was still lacking to me).
  Focusing exclusively on a single SF character is a good idea.
  Of course I'd like to see cameos of other SF characters in this show, but the guest stars
  should not detract too much from Chun Li's adventures.
  We all know that she's all about action,
  BUT.....
  showing her do Sherlock Holmes type of stuff would be great too.
  Hey!
  Since Marvel and Capcom have done crossover games together.... then theoretically, this
  show could have a crossover with the Spiderwoman show I described above.
  (Hmmmm)

-Battle Chasers (IMAGE)
  We all know that this book just cut off, (but no one's sure why).
  If SOMEBODY would pick up the license to this they could adapt the existing 9 issues
  into a "1st Season".
  But there sure was a lot going on in these issues,
  (and even more that was just alluded to).
  To prevent a comicbook series that was only 9 issue long from becoming and adaptation that
  is also 9 episodes long,
  (I really hate corner-cutting production style),
  for this animated show, all the events and happenings in each issue should be lengthened
  and expanded.
  Everything in the original stories of the the original 9 issues should be stretched out to take
  up at least 20 episodes (hopefully more).
  I think that this would make the cartoon BETTER that the source material that it's based on.
  (Wouldn't that be a great feat?!).
  Animated artstyle of this show should of course TRY to look like the original comicbook art.
  We all KNOW it can be done.
  Then...everything after the "1st season" would be all new and we could finally see "What
  happens next".
  Joe Madureira could (hopefully) get back into BC at this time and be involved at some
  level of the show's production....which I do believe is important.

An animated show could take these kinda of obscure characters to new heights.

Hey kids!!

You all may have read my scathing review the TLA in my previous journal.
If you didn't and are interested, look here:
[link]

Basically I gave it a thumbs down, but I was not TOTALLY displeased with it, and I actually went to see it a 2nd time.
.....

I SAID I WENT TO SEE IT A 2ND TIME...NOW SHADDAP!!

Granted the only reason I did go see it again was because some friends were in from out of town and they wanted to see the film despite all the negative reviews, including my own.
So I took them to go see it,
(it was actually cheaper than taking them out to lunch or dinner thanx to the the Tuesdays specials).
Anyway,
They didn't think it was THAT BAD.....and I found that agreed with them.
I still think that it was not GREAT, but it was not as bad as I remember when I saw it the 1st time.

I then realized that, when I had gone to see this movie the 1st time......
I WAS NOT ACTUALLY WATCHING THE MOVIE.

I had realized that I what I was actually doing was NIT-PICKING it instead of actually watching it.
Dissecting, comparing, analyzing, etc
all throughout the entire movie as it was going by.
I kept LOOKING for every little thing that I could gripe about.
And I think a lot of other people may have done this too.

This movie really was better the 2nd time around because I was seeing it a little more for what it was, rather that what it wasn't.
I advise a 2nd watching to everybody who has already seen it and disliked it.
You may still hate it just as much as before.....but then again, maybe not.

I still think many things should have been done differently,
Like the alternate scenarios described in  ~reidavidson's review
[link]

Bottomline:
Wasn't half-bad, wasn't half-good.
It was better the 2nd time seeing it.

(**sigh**......let the hate-mail commence)

I'm sure DA is about to get flooded with movie reviews, so this is mine.

Bottomline on top:
"Bah".

If interested, keep reading.

OK the movie was not totally totally bad, but I still give it a thumbs down.
Too many child actors that needed more acting practice,
but I really won't hold this against the film because I was expecting that anyway.
I have always disliked kid actors in movies....with only a few exceptions.
(GOONIES never say die!)
Anyway, almost everything about the film comes off as boring and kind of bland.
No doubt because fans like myself who are familiar with the TV show pretty much remember everything in it.
And too much of the movie was almost a scene for scene remake of  the TV show,
which we've all seen repeatedly.
Seriously....Mr. Shyamalan could have clipped this movie together from the actual TV show.

I'm sure a lot of people will be complaining about the actor's acting in this movie, but I really didn't have a big problem with that.
Again, because I was expecting it.
(how many child actors do you REALLY REALLY like right now, at this stage in their careers?)
But this whole show was always about the adventures of these kids.
A lot of dialog was corny, but hey.....
IT'S BASED ON A CARTOON
corny gags and lines actually do work....in an animated cartoon, but not so much in a live action movie.

I think there was something like this in Stars Wars.
I'm not sure if it was Carrie Fisher or Harrison Ford, but somebody said something like:
"You can write this ****, but you can't recite it/say it/act it"
about some of the lines in Star Wars

The cast was fine with me, it was the movie's writing that was off.
The movie has almost none of the slapstick comedy.
There were only 2 incidents of this and both of them were the same gag of Katara accidently waterbending Sokka.
The audience I was in were actually laughing at all the unintentional comedy found throughout.
Mostly with the corny lines/dialog delivery.

The movie (unsuccessfully) squished the 1st 20 episodes into a 2 hour movie
I'm sure Mr. Shyamalan did this to "stay faithful" to the original, but this did not work for a movie.
Katsuhiro Otomo successfully squished 8 years of his manga AKIRA into a really good 2 hour (animated) movie.
(Arrggh, I here a live action "AKIRA" is in the works too).
Tatsunoko Production also successfully squished several episodes of Macross into  the (also animated) film Macross: Do You Remember Love?
Mr. Shyamalan should have tried to do it this way, but might have been afraid of fan backlash.
(He's gonna get that now)
Events from the TV show moved too fast here and didn't mesh well in the movie.
If fans like us were not already familiar with the cartoon, it would have been even more obvious.
People who have never seen the TV will probably be scratching their heads.
(Hmmmm.....I think I'll take my mom and dad to see the movie as an experiment and get their take on it).

This movie DID NOT have to follow the TV show THIS closely.

Appa an Momo were GREAT.....except that they had almost no screen time.
Mr. Shyamalan forgot that they are characters too.
but again...20 episodes into a 2 hour movie....he had to cut down a lot.

The best thing about this movie was the "world".
My praise to Mr. Shyamalan for getting the Avatar world perfect.
If anything, go see the movie for the environments.

In regards to the racism issue raised during production,
I didn't really care what race the characters were so long as they looked more or less like their cartoon counterparts.
This is something that the movie DID do good.
There are multiple races in the movie:
White people make up the Water tribes.....with a few Inuits shown in the background.
(Hey King Theoden was Master Pakku)
Asian people make up the Earth benders
Multi-brown people (yeesh can I  say that?) make up the Fire Nation.
And Mutlicolored/all races made up the Air Nomads.
(I guess the nomads really do get around and pick members where ever they might be found).

The fight scenes were good, but not like the spectacle of other martial arts films.
Examples:
Neo Vs "Various"...The Matrix
Li Mu Bai Vs Jen......Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Darth Maul Vs Quogon Jinn and Obiwan....SW episode 1
Bruce Lee Vs Han.....Enter the Dragon.
Lui Kang Vs Reptile, Vs SudZero, and Jonny Cage Vs. Scorpion....Mortal Kombat
etc, ect, ect.
These fights I always like to rewind and watch over and over.
Actually I do the same with various fight scenes.......from the Avatar TV show
Fight choreography was fine, but the fight cinematography needed to be tweaked,
because the fights scenes really lacked that "Umf" in it.
With a couple of exceptions.

I would much rather have seen a totally new Avatar ANIMATED movie be made 'ala "Cowboy Bebop: The Movie", or heck even "The Powerpuff Girls Movie".
Although I was satisfied with the TV show ending, there were still a few unresolved issues that I think could be dealt with in a new movie or at least a DTV one-shot OVA type of production.

Alas

If you still want to go see this movie then I recommend that you save some money by going to the bargain priced matinee,
AND
see it in cheaper 2D.
The 3D really was just tacked on and does not make the film a better experience.

Several months ago I heard that a new Gaiking (look him up kids) movie was in the works.
As a longtime fan of the "Super-Robot" anime genre this filled me with excitement.

Now before you all groan in disgust let me say that there have been a few live action anime movies that were good.
Deathnote, Blood, and even Speed Racer, I thought were all good and entertaining.
(No, not Dragonball Evolution).
Personally, I would prefer that no anime ever be made into ANY live action movie at all....I just love cartoons.

This may be old news, but check this out:
[link]

In terms of design, they did not veer off too much from the original source material, (although the movie itself may still do this....we'll just have to wait and see).
It seems to me that they split the difference between the original Gaiking design and a modern upgrade 'ala the TRANSFORMERS.
Although missing the original bright color scheme (which most super robots generally have), the character is still recognizable as Gaiking.

YES I said the "character"......in these type of shows the giant super robot was just as much a character as the pilots.
The visual design compromise between old and modern in this teaser is something I really would have liked to have seen in the Transformers films.
If Bumblebee was not yellow and Jazz did not have his signature visor eyes, they would have been totally unrecognizable.

And there's the magic word: "recognizable".

Although Sideswipe's design in Transformers 2 is not bad looking (for a Bayformer) I believe that his design is still so far gone from the source material that he really could be ANYBODY.
(but I suppose this happens with every new Transformers property).
But I still hate Prime's lips!!
Transformers, like ANY robot in the universe, do not NEED a physical human mouth to talk:
HAL, Robby, WALL-E, EVE, Ultron, Ed-209, K-9, Cylons (original), and various StarWars droids, etc.
(It's a good thing Shockwave wasn't in these movies.....Mr. Bay probably would have put lips on him too, and that would have really sent Transfans off the deep end).

I really don't think Mr. Bay saw any Transformers as characters at all.
I'm hoping that this Gaiking movie will be a good, and maybe show the industry how it should be done.
(Yes, it could end up as a crap sandwich too.....who knows?)

At least this Gaiking looks right.

Ok, I just saw last night's all new episode of The Boondocks.

The episode was about a kickball game between China and the USA played out like Stephen Chow's Shaolin Soccer.
(If you've never seen this movie, then may a weird holyman tie you to a love-crazed camel).
Anyway...
What I found most memorable about this episode is regarding a throw away character (OC made specifically for this 1 episode) named "Jennifer".

In the story, Huey believed that he had crippled her in a previous kickball game a year earlier.
As it turns out, it was shown that "Jennifer" was never actually crippled by Huey in the 1st place, but that the whole incident was a plot by Mr. Wuncler to get Huey to quit kickball....which he did.
Mr. Wuncler now needed Huey to play kickball again to win a bet.
So in order to get Huey to play again and relieve him of his false guilt for crippling little "Jennifer", he confesses to the set-up.

Mr. Wuncler has "Jennifer" come out and dance for Huey.
This dance that she does was really cute, and all I could think of was that this might go internet viral 'ala the "Haruhi dance" and the "Lucky Star dance".
Unfortunately, the shots used in this scene did not show "Jennifer" in full body during the entire dance routine.
A full body view of that dance itself lasted only a few seconds, while the rest of the scene only showed the dance routine from her torso up.

But it was still cute.

Well gee it has been awhile since I type up a journal entry.

I just saw How to Train Your Dragon earlier today.
I won't spoil anything, but this is a GREAT movie.
It didn't have any tearjerking moments like Toy Story 2 or UP, (yes I'm a full grown man who is moved to tears by some movies and/or music)......except maybe at the end when the hero wakes up in bed after the last climactic battle, but the scence wasn't emotion evoking to me.
Really love the score in this one too.
Gotta go out and buy the soundtrack.

I advise EVERYBODY in the universe to go see it.

As a WATCHMAN virgin (I still have not read the GN), I probably enjoyed this movie more than WATCHMAN readers did, but I didn't think the movie is as great as "everybody" says
I liked it, but I had more fun watching the Street Fighter movie.

I will say this though......after seeing this movie, I can't wait for Alan Moore's LOST GIRLS to be made into a movie.

This in my take/review/etc on the movie....spoilers ahead if you haven't seen it.
(I'm well aware of the Balrog/M.Bison/Vega name switcharoo's, but for the simplicities sake, I'm just gonna stick with the American names).
I freely admit that I am very longwinded, and this will probably the one of the driest reads ever, but the internet has long since taught us all that a thousand monkeys at a thousand typewriters will not produce Shakespeare.

Bottom Line on top if you don't want read on:
I LIKED IT, I THOUGHT IT WAS GOOD.

By now many of you have heard or read somewhere that this movie is CRAP, but everybody has their opinions, and I disagree with this one.
Was it a GREAT movie?.....No.
Was it a BAD movie?......No.
Of course as a Street fighter fan there was more that I wanted to see in it, and other things that i things that I thought should have been done differently, and I have more gripes about it than praises, but overall, I think the movie was done pretty well.

It seems to me that the makers wanted follow the HEROES, and Smallville formula of "no flights, no tights".
Granted, the SF characters don't really have superheroes costumes, but they DO have distinctive costumes.
The 1st Mortal Kombat film got this right along with the signature moves and made it look cool, (This movie only got this partially right, but let's talk about that later).
Having fewer character in it than Steven DeSouza's opus was certainly better in terms of film storytelling, and the character were written better and (more or less) character acurate.
(I've never held Van Damme responsible for the 1st live action SF movie, he didn't write it or direct it, Steven DeSouza did. I would recommend SF fans check out another Van Damme film "The Quest").
At times it seems like the movie makers only went halfway with things.....as if they couldn't decide what kind of movie they wanted to make.
The fight scenes looked better than I thought they would  (I did have low expectations for the movie), and one highlight is a scene that looks exactly like Chun Li's original stage.
Another highlight being the cameo of who I think was Cheng Peipei (Jade Fox from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).
Chun Li's fight with Vega was a disappointment...he stalked her with the stealth and grace a street thug, and what should have been a really cool fight (at least like the original animated movie)  ended really quickly and was way too short.

CASTING and CHARACTERS
I had misgivings about the casting, but after seeing the movie, I think for the most part they did ok....except for Chris Klein as Charlie, and Taboo as Vega.

The Vega actor from the DeSouza Flick-O-Pain looked right and "acted' the Vega character better.
(I recall this dude never spoke on camera. All his lines were spoken off camera. I always got the feeling that his voice was dubbed over 'ala Darth Vader/Darth Maul).

Chris Klein's Charlie was just-a-cop.
I certainly didn't expect him to have that Coolwhip head, but he barely fought at all in this movie.
He was written too light hearted and not serious enough.
Of course he partnered with the all-new-character-standard-local-hot-cop: Maya.
I like new characters, and I can see why for the sake of a film extra character are needed, but it seems to me like this would have been a good opportunity to have made Maya into someone like C. Viper instead.
(I'm certain SF4 was already well under way before the movie's pre-production was started).

Kristin Kreuk as Chun Li was fine, she looked and acted the part great.
In what I believe is the only truly laughable part of the film is in a nightclub when Chun Li uses her great detective skill to determine that M. Bison's secretary seems to be gay, and is oogling all the girls in the club, and proceeds to do a seductive dance to get her away from the bodyguards.
(I admit I really didn't mind watching  Kristin Kreuk's dance).
Chun Li is also the only character in this movie who has her signature move.
While she is given her crazy wirework moves, everybody else doesn't.....1 of those "things" that make it seem that they were going only halfway with this movie.

Neal McDonough as M. Bison was fine too. I think he did a good job.
M.Bison was shown more like a typical Kung Fu movie stereotype crime boss rather than a Manuel Noriega-esque military-like drug lord, but it worked for this film.
Unfortunately, all his signature moves were nowhere to be seen.
The closest thing to hinting at his Psycho Power is this weird lion growl sound playing when he appears, and his speculated ressurection at the end of the film after being killed by Chun Li earlier.
His origin story seems ripped from Marvel, when it is shown that he killed his wife for more power, (something Dr. Doom also did to the only woman who ever loved him).
I've always loved M.Bison's character design/outfit, (I once made it into a Halloween costume), and I would have liked to have seen some sort of paramilitary uniform (a 3 piece suit will only go so far), he should have at least dyed his hair black,

Rose was made out to be M.Bison's daughter in this movie, which really didn't bother me as much as Rose not having any of her Soul Power/psychic powers.
She was just this skeetering girl running around.
With no mysterious powers around M. Bison, why would Rose have any?
(Again with the going halfway on this movie).
Which begs the questions how did M. Bison lose the kid after he ripped out of her mother and why was he interested in getting her back?
(I've only seen the film once, and can't remember if they go into this).

Mortal Kombat's Robin Shou as Gen was done good if inaccurately, (every SF fan knows that Gen's chi/ki powers do not involve fireballs).
It would have been cool to have seen a couple of kids as Yun and Yang hanging around him.

Balrog's boxing career was downplayed, and he came off more like Birdie, but he did have a good presence throughout the film.

Overall, I LIKED IT, I THOUGHT IT WAS GOOD.
It was superior to the to the other live action SF movie (I know that's not saying much).
The movie entertained me.
Check it out, and don't look at it for what it isn't.

(Sigh) , let the hate mail commence.

I realize this is later than everyone else, but I just saw Batman.

It was a great movie, the best that has come out this year.
And I don't just mean a great comicbook movie....I mean one of the best movies period.

I love CGI animation... I also love traditional animation too.

But let's face it, Studios have to make a profit, and they just can't bank on traditional animation.
I hope I can say this without being misunderstood, but I look at CGI animation/traditional animation like the light and dark sides of the Force.
Where CGI is the darkside because it is "quicker, easier".
Of course traditional animation can look bad much easier than CGI (consult the many works of Hanna-Barberra for this)

With deadlines for production in existence, CGI is more practical, and great films, shows, and shorts can and are made.
I love watching traditional animated TV shows, but it just really saddens me to see traditional animated films go extinct.
NO ONE will produce an artsy traditional animation feature.
At film festivals around the world there's always the buzz around some great independent film that's a must see.
How often is this an animated film?
Animated films, CGI or traditional are far more difficult to make than going out and shooting a small production, and if an animated film is done, it's done in CGI.
Again, because it is "quicker, easier" and practical.

There are several CGI  TV shows that are done in a 2D style, which I love, because the directors know what to do with it.
But sometimes this is not the case.

The Transformers Beast Wars/Machines CGI, I thought was done much better than what was done in the  Energon, and Cybertron.
NOT because of the different art styles, but because of the animation itself.
The Transformers Beast Wars/Machines shows took some liberties with what the charter's looked like compared with the toys of the characters.
Those design liberties taken added with small subtle whimsical movements, gave the characters ....more character.
The  Transformers Energon, and Cybertron character designs were exact scans of the toy line that were then animated very blandly.....they were boring to watch and look at.
I actually enjoyed watching the human character's antics over the Transformers,
(The human character designs in these 2 shows were visually better than the drab looking humans of the original  series).
I love GONZO's other shows, but these 2 were just lazy.
One small example, in TBW/TBM, if a charcter was not the focus of a scene, and was in the background somewhere...they would be doing something, or at least seem a little restless.
Where as the same scenario in TE and TC, a background character was just standing there like a still frame cel shot ala'TOS.
(In this regard, these modern shows were actually more like the original badly animated Transformer TV show).
I enjoy the current Transformers Animated show, but I would love to see  a Transformers show where the robot action was fast and furious and just plain cool to look at.
Recent anime shows like Eureka7, and Code Geoss which mix CGI/traditional animation much bettr than TE, or TC .
Even an old show like Mighty Orbots had great (better) robot action.

Again, I love CGI, but...

Let's look at Final Fantasy The Sprits Within/Advent Children, The Incredibles, Beowulf, and the upcoming Star Wars Clone Wars.
I've always preferred the cartoony look of FF characters better than the modern look that's more photo realistic that was used in TSW.
I feel any FANSTASY character should not look totally realistic.
Even though Advent Children movie's character designs leaned more towards the photo realistic look than I would have liked, it still split he difference between the photo realistic and cartoony styles.
The characters can be just as believable if not more so when they're cartoony as in The Incredibles
In animation, MOVING realistic and LOOKING realistic are 2 different and separate things.
Apparently this was never part of the producer's plan for the flick-O-pain Beowulf.
They seemed to be counting on the 3D gimmick, so you know the movie was weak to begin with.
No amount of 3D would make this movie better.
Star Wars Clone Wars, (can't wait for this one) is a good example.
In a live action movie filled with live action actors, it makes sense for a digital stunt double, or character to look as photo realistic as possible.
(This also applies to the Superman, Batman, Spiderman, the Hulk, and Ironman movies too).
The SWCW cartoony artstyle characters designs against the (more or less) realistic look of the backgrounds fits really well.
Complete photo realism in an entirely CGI movie is only sometimes great.
Even changing the character designs of the flick-O-pain Beowulf would not have made me like it, but making The Incredibles look more like Beowulf would have really made me dislike that film.
God bless Brad Bird.

Again I love CGI animation... I also love traditional animation too.
These are only some of my feelings on CGI/Traditional animation.
I think It can be done both ways depending on what the feature would be produced.

ZING!
I've  digressed into a rave.
If you read all the way to the end thanx.

I just saw WALL-E.

This is a great film mostly about (robot) love and compassion....and a little social commentary on apathy.

To it's credit, this movie does focus more on robot action and "romance" (what else can you call it?)  all throughout.....something that I really wish the Transformers film, and Battlestar Galactica TV show would have done.
For all it's cartoonyness (live action sequences not withstanding) the robots are all fairly believable and fun to watch.
I got a chuckle out of how the Macintosh/Apple boot-up sound played whenever the robots activate/start up.
The film didn't make me cry like the Iron Giant did (I am older now than then), but I felt like it should have.
The use of old movie Musicals to relay the mood I thought was done very well, but I would have preferred all original music, and maybe more musical score than vocal tracks ala'silent film, but I suppose that wouldn't have worked out.

The movie has very little dialog until the 2nd half when human characters are introduced, and except for the captain, they're really not saying anything when they talk.
The human race never communicates face to face.
This I found especially funny because I've actually seen this in real life, (not to the extreme as depicted in the film, but I'm sure everybody out there has seen this too and knows what I'm talking about).
Fat lazy people in motorized scooters I've also seen in real life, but in the case of this movie, the space population actually had environmental reasons for being that way, and were afflicted with what I can only describe as a medical condition.
At the same time it is shown that they could chose to be otherwise.
I guess I shouldn't talk though....I myself am overweight and lazy too, but I've never ridden a scooter, and don't even own a cellphone.
Ah America, a country so great an rich that obesity is considered a disease here, while at the same time people here still go hungry.
Argh!  get'n to heavy here (no pun intended).

Go see the film.
You will not be disappointed.
(I do advise going to a late showing of the film to avoid having to hear the parents and children in the audience).

4/12/08
Hey Kids!

I've never done a Journal here before, but I feel this is something that should be shared.

READ THIS AND SHARE IT!

[link]

As artists, it is up to us to do something about this, and I'm certain even the general public is appalled by this.

4/14/08
Additional Orphan Works info

READ THIS AND SHARE IT TOO!

[link].

I'd like to thank UDON and company for setting my mind at ease.
They're not just another bowl of noodles.