Daily Archives for June 7, 2009

Star Trek: Not Anime, Not Bad.

I just saw the movie todayyesterday. Now I was never a really big Star Trek fan, although as a kid I watched a lot of both the original series and Star Trek: Generations, which was better, because it had Patrick Stewart, who is awesome, and plays voices in anime such as Steamboy, which was awesome. The reason for me watching these shows was because my dad had control of the remote, so what he watched, I watched, I was a little fucking kid.

Star Trek

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Only picture I could find of the New Star Trek.....no, I didn't look especially hard.

What. The fuck. This movie was insanely awesome. It’s overall awesomnesscan hang with the likes of Transformers, which was equally as awesome. I mean, I expected it to have great special effects, but it surpassed my expectations withthat even. There was one thing, and one thing only, that was wrong with this movie: The TIME TRAVEL. The writers completely ignored the actual laws of time travel, talking about “changing the past” and “creating alternate realities by changing the past”. None of that can happen. You can’t go back in time and prevent the Twin Towers from falling (sadly), because we know today that on Sept. 11th, they fell, so even if you go back in time, they’re still going to fall. You can’t create an “alternate reality” that’s not how time works (of course, time doesn’t really even exist, except as a measurement). You know what…..don’t get me started. The Time Travel was slightly skewed, but even with that, this movie kicked serious, hardcore ass.

Casting:Could never be done better. Every part was perfectly played and awesome. I loved Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto, Heroes). Scotty (Simon Pegg, Shaun of the Dead)and Bones (Karl Urban) were other stand outs. They were phenomenal.  I also liked seeing Leonard Nimoy play old Spock. That was great.

Star Trek References:

  • I was glad to see Pike in this movie, who was the capt. in the first 2 episodes of the original series, until William Shatner busted in and decided to become famous (I can’t remember who originally played Pike, but sucked to be that guy).
  • Bones:  “I’m a doctor not a physicist!”
  • Scotty: “I’m giving it all she’s got captain!”

These guys played the characters perfectly. I mean. perfectly.Especially Zachary Quino as Spock, although that opinion could be bias, as I loved him in Heroes.

What if I hate Star Trek? Will I still like this movie?

No, you will love it. I saw it with someone who knows nothing about Star Trek, and he loved it. I’ll be the first to admit that the Star Trek Series was corny and dumb (yet strangely entertaining at times), but this movie makes Star Trek actually seem cool. It’s probably the most action packed movie made in decades. There was rarely a dull moment, from Child-Kirk driving his step-dad’s car which he stole) off a cliff, to skydiving from space, it’s all action, and no sappy-ness. There’s maybe one serious talk, between Spock and his father, which only lasts a minute.

Winona Ryder is hot, even when she looks old. Hell yea Winona.

9 out of 10 stars (no 10 because they bungled Time Travel).

My Neighbor Totoro

Antagonists? Plot? Hayao Miyazaki doesn’t need silly things like these in order to make  an incredible anime movie. He’s that good. Throw in some girls, some creatures and a forest and you’ve got an instant classic.

My Neighbor Totoro

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I loved this movie, and it wasn’t even completely subbed. I’d say about 25% of the subs never showed up for entire dialogues, but I mainly understood what was being said anyway, so it’s no big deal. This was an awesome movie. Was it as good as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time? Well, I wouldn’t go that far, but damn, three great anime flicks in a row! I’m hitting the gold right now! (Cowboy Bebop, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, My Neighbor Totoro)

Premise: Two girls and their father move out to the country while their mother is in the hospital (Why she’s in the hospital I have no idea, she showed no notion of being sick at any point). In this wooded region, the girls discover Totoro, the guardian (or something like that) of the woods.

Why is Miyazaki so damn good? The plot is so simple and easy, so why is the movie so freaking great? My guess is the movement in the animation, and the all together imaginativeness of the stories. He is a master of creating unique, intriguing characters. I mean, just take a look at the Bus-cat thing:

my_neighbor_totoro[h264.vorbis][niizk].mkv_004985485

This Bus-Cat looked so fucking comfortable.

Not only are his characters brilliant, but he stories are so easy to follow, and flow so smoothly, that it’s incredibly easy to get, dare I say, spirited away into one of his movies. Although, I will admit, there was one point in the movie where I almost fell asleep:

my_neighbor_totoro[h264.vorbis][niizk].mkv_002090131

This looks 20000 times more comfortable then anything ever, except maybe the Bus-Cat.

Miyazaki is the best director ever. I can’t believe I put off seeing this movie for years because it “looked dumb.” Never doubt Miyazaki. Let me say it one more time. Miyazaki.

Here is my revised Top Ten Anime Movies:

  1. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
  2. Howl’s Moving Castle
  3. Akira
  4. Steamboy
  5. Princess Mononoke
  6. Spirited Away
  7. My Neighbor Totoro
  8. Kiki’s Delivery Service
  9. The Cat Returns
  10. Perfect Blue

That was incredibly hard, as I didn’t know whether I should put this movie above Spirited Away or below. Obviously I chose the latter, but definitely a

FINAL GRADE = 5^^

Anyone know any Miyazaki films that aren’t on that list? or any other good anime movies?