Finally Watched It

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Finally Watched It: One Missed Call

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Whenever there’s an American remake of a foreign movie, I make it my business to track down the original; which is how I found out about the REC series. When I heard about the American movie, I skipped it and went for the Japanese version. I just assume it’s better on principal now.

The premise of this movie is that this group of young people start getting calls from their own numbers. Upon listening to the voicemail, its the audio of their own deaths; essentially making it a call from the future bout how they will die. Obviously, they all run around trying to avoid their fate and solve the mystery.

What I like about films like this is the slow build, the quiet, the dark lighting, and thoughtful dialog. It is just simpler and – to me at least – more frightening than all the fancy CGI, slow-mo, and dramatic music. It makes everything feel so much more unsettling. It can drag a little sometimes but it’s nice to see any media take it’s time with you rather than inundate you with images for instant gratification.

I don’t particularly want to inflict the American version on myself to compare the two but if repeatedly asked, I may do so.

As I work through these movies (I have a list!) I am hitting more good movies than not, and I’m grateful for that. I’m sure I’ll come across some duds but seeing these has been awesome.

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Finally Watched It: The Host

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After a couple of idiot scientists decide the best place to dump a bunch of chemicals down a drain that leads to Han river, some creature mutates and starts attacking people. After getting no help from the authorities, one family decides to rescue a young girl themselves.

This movie calls itself “one of the greatest monster movies ever made,” and I have to agree. It’s tense, interesting, original, and just plain cool. You can tell there’s a bravery to it and some humor. The story is told well with some fun surprises and the creature effects are fairly impressive.

I also enjoyed this film’s realism. When people get hit, they go down and stay down. They don’t shake off a three story fall like in a lot of other action movies. I can’t speak to all the physics but when a character hits a wall, you don’t see them for a bit. They are indeed hurt.

If I had one complaint, not to spoil much, it would be this grieving scene that just goes on and on. At the start, I was touched, perhaps even shed a tear… But as it went on I started to think “Okay, plot time now! Time to wrap it up.” Overall, a totally awesome movie! Everyone who told me this movie was worth watching was right.

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Finally Watched It: REC 4 Apocalypse

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Unlike REC3, this installment in the franchise picks up from where the second movie left off with the reporter, Angela, being taken onto a quarantined ship with the soldier who rescued her and an elderly woman who survived the wedding in REC3. While Angela is there, the found footage is not, remaining in third person with shaky cam… Sadly disappointing as the found footage worked so well in the first two.

Anyway, the way this works is the survivors are on the boat with some scientists trying to work on a cure. The idea is that if something goes wrong, they can just blow up the ship and any infected people with it. Having a lab on the ship drains the power so the lights go out from time to time. The scientists and doctors believe that since Angela survived and keeps testing negative for the virus despite being exposed to it, they can use her blood and the blood of the infected monkey they keep on board to develop a vaccine.

I hate to say it but I hope this franchise is over. Not because this movie was overtly bad, it’s just the same story beats as every other horror movie out there. Don’t get me wrong, demon possession as a virus is a cool idea, the characters were entertaining, the actors were competent (at least in my opinion), but with the first two being so different I can’t help but feel let down by these last two. If they do another one, I’m not sure I’m going to bother watching it.

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Finally Watched It: Quarantine 2: Terminal

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In this installment, some contrived circumstances lead to the same plague from the first movie ending up on a plane. They gotta land and they get locked in a terminal to keep the sickness in.

This movie lost me at the first shot; which is a woman’s cleavage. The entire thing can be summed up with “What do you get when a bunch of cliches get on a plane with a zombie?” And like REC 3, this movie completely ditches the ‘found footage’ angle. It’s just a formulaic zombie movie. You can tell who’s gonna die within the first ten minutes and you’re either relieved because they’re stupid or you don’t care because you saw it coming a mile away.

Also, I am certain I’m on some sort of government watch list now because I was researching proper quarantine procedures because I’m sure the movie got something wrong.

Unlike REC 2, which was tense and interesting, I got nothing new from this movie. It’s every thing you’ve ever seen in a bland horror movie from the characterization, to the predictable writing, the standard camera angles and over-the-top gore. I watched this and Watership Down in the same day and the dead bunnies disturbed me more. It just had no heart and is absolutely forgettable.

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Finally Watched It: “Justice League vs. Teen Titans”

I guess this technically doesn’t count as a ‘finally’ watched it since this isn’t an old movie I should have watched but it is something that I’ve been waiting to get my hot little hands on and it’s my blog, so there!

 

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In this movie, Robin (Damien) is sent to train with the Teen Titans and while he’s gone, Raven’s father Trigon sends demons to possess the Justice League.  Before they can take down Trigon, the Teen Titans have to take down some of the greatest heroes in the world.

I seriously believe this movie was made to give Teen Titans a chance to shine where Teen Titans Go is such a massive fail. The animation is fantastic, the voice acting is on point and all the characters are interesting and fun to watch. Seeing the Titans at different ages – including an adult Starfire – was an experience. It was like finishing the Teen Titans show then coming back to see how they’ve grown since then and starring in this new adventure. The story is cool and you can tell the people that made this meant to make a good movie and not just fart out another straight to DVD release to make a quick buck. I could see myself watching this multiple times and this finally cleansed my brain after that Monster Mayhem crap. More movies like this please!

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Finally Watched It: “Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem”

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I’ve been trying to make sure I watch all or most of these direct to DVD DC movies but I’d avoided this one for a long time. My kid convinced me to borrow a copy and I see my instincts were correct to steer clear of it.

The Joker has a computer virus and it shuts down the city. Batman and company have to go save things and I just never got invested. Everything about this just grated on me. The setting is like a funhouse mirror version of the Batman Beyond universe, the puns are cringe worthy, the jokes are horrible, and even for a kid’s movie, this felt pandering and tiresome. I laughed once and that was when Joker kissed Solomon Grundy (ehrmahgerd, spoilers) and that was more out of ridiculousness than humor. The only other time I laughed was at the end when I asked if my kid liked it and… This is an actual quote: “It made me feel like this >does Running Man< It was action packed.”

That assessment is technically correct. A lot of stuff happens. That’s the best impression I can give you. The voice acting is ok, the animation style my annoy my eyes but it was cleanly done. I just couldn’t get into this one as much as I could Public Enemies or Crisis On Two Earths. Monster Mayhem made me long for the days of Batman: The Animated Series. I wanted to go back and watch Joker Fish so bad…

Anyways, I did it and now I don’t have to do it anymore! Yay! I’m sure there are other DC movies I haven’t seen and I’ll work on digging them up. Another movie will be up next Friday!

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Finally Watched It: REC 3

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Like the others, this movie follows an outbreak where the people are trapped inside with the infected. This time, it happens at a wedding and the bride and groom keep trying to get to one another.

I can see why they picked a wedding for this part as these days, everyone has some sort of recording device at an event like this. It wouldn’t be just the professional photographer’s point of view. However, midway through the  movie, it switches to third-person! Just out of nowhere; as if telling the story from first-person would be too hard after that so they gave up. And when I say gave up, I mean in every aspect. This movie just descends into the typical horror movie tropes with all the generic stupidity that makes you want to scream at the screen. An hour in all I cared about was when I was going to get the chainsaw I was promised on the cover but by the time I got it, it didn’t feel as if the movie earned it.

Despite the practical effects not being too bad, I felt so disappointed by this movie. The first two held together so well that this one feels like a cop out. It’s just not as tense and scary as the first two and it just gave in to all the typical zombie tropes of any other formulaic movie.

And this may be a bit spoiler-ish but my final word is… RIP; Sponge John. You were absolutely my favorite thing about this movie.

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Finally Watched It: REC 2

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I never really have much faith in horror movie sequels but… Wow. REC 2 is just amazing. I watched REC a while ago and when they heard they made more, I jumped at the chance to see it.

This film picks up pretty much where the first left off, with a backup team going in on the same mysterious emergency call. They go in with who they think is a doctor to find a cure for whatever contagion is in the building and face the horrors within the doomed building.

Holy shit, this movie is creepy. It’s well written, well paced, and the ending was satisfying. These movies really do follow the ‘less is more’ track and it makes for a really tense movie. It was almost as good as the first but it certainly didn’t take a giant step back like some other sequels. People make derpy decisions, sometimes the camera work can make you a little dizzy, and the twist as to what the infection is had me rolling my eyes a little but I can’t say it ruined the movie for me. But obviously, don’t watch this one before you watch REC.

There is a third and fourth movie and I really wonder if they can keep up the quality. I’ll be reviewing those in the coming weeks.

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April Writing Update

I haven’t just been plowing through all these books to review, I have been writing! Probably not as much as I should, seeing how I usually don’t hit my page goal for the day, but if I feel blocked on a story I go ahead and read through my pile of books.

Don’t even ask how the short stories are going… They’re not. Consider them stalled until come brilliant idea hits me.

The good news is, despite not always hitting that daily goal, there are some days where I fall asleep mid sentence because I just wouldn’t be able to stop writing. This means good things for the third book in the First Brood series. I really hope this will finally be the year I get it finished.

As for the blog, expect more reviews of the random books I find on the web, more movies, more comics, and perhaps even more art. You can see the “Finally Watched It” series has begun and I’m planning a series of posts called “There, I Fixed It” where I take movies that either sucked entirely or had a good concept but shit/lazy execution and plot out how they could have been improved. I get so frustrated with movies that fail so I decided to complain about it.

Yay?

There’s some exciting things coming down the pipe and I feel pretty awesome about them so I hope you all enjoy!

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Finally Watched It: The Seventh Seal

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Rather than summarize the movie, I’m just gonna talk about what I thought of it (since summaries of movies are just ridiculously all over the internet). Here’s the IMDB link if you’re interested. I also didn’t read any interpretations.

I found this movie to be pretty cool! In my opinion, the whole thing boils down to the “heroes” of the story being murderers, admitted rapists, and thieves. The kind are regarded as fools just because they paint their faces and dance while the layman laugh at the pain of others. I see this movie as an indictment of fanaticism, fear, and cruelty among humanity with death being the only equalizer.

For me, that meaning came into my head when someone said: “It is pointless.” It’s all pointless. Every character is trying to find God (in the Church, in the Crusades) but the only people who seem happiest are the ones who aren’t actively looking: The acting troupe family. They are so happy singing, laughing, entertaining others, and playing with their baby boy. That’s all they need from life; which was so sweet to me. Death will come to them in time; as it comes to everyone, but in the meantime, they are joyful people who share their joy with others without judgment. So, I’m glad I took the time to watch this movie.

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