TRON: Legacy

I understand from my brother, having not seen it myself, that the original Tron was not necessarily a good movie because of story and characters, but more because of the technological potential it introduced for the movie industry.

For this reason, the more I think about it, the more disappointed I am with Tron: Legacy. Story and characters were typically meh, but I could have accepted that if it actually had given me some CGI that wowed me. Instead, Flynn/CLU and Tron looked like they had just stepped out of Final Fantasy: Spirits Within, a movie made a decade ago which, at the time, was a huge step forward in computer animation. Tron: Legacy ought to have been the same, but instead, we still have the dead-eyed plastic-face that is not going to convince me that real live human actors are going to be replaced by CGI in the very near future.

Tron could have paved the way for Hollywood's future, but instead, it inspires hopes of a fourth Matrix movie featuring really awesome bullet time, or perhaps Wrath of the Titans (oh yes, it's in the works, folks, because Clash was SO AWESOME!) will rock some stellar claymation!

Has James Cameron not been willing to share yet? Now Avatar was a prime example of meh story and characters being reasonably well covered by excellent computer animation. In fact, Cameron said that he did not want to make his dream movie until he could make the computer generated character look *real*. Haters will always be hatin', but I think he succeeded in that, at least with Zoe Saldana's character. How does a giant blue cat creature get to look more human than a youngered Jeff Bridges?

How did X-Men 3: The Last Stand manage to give me pleasant dreams about a young Professor X and Magneto knocking on my door? Were Old Jeff's wrinkles that difficult to work with, dudes?

{ETA}I should add that I only saw this in 2D. I think I can let my imagination cover how the 3D effects involving light cycles/planes, glowy orange or bluish white stripes in a sterile, tetris-like monochromatic world would look. Apparently these effects involved ground breaking technology, but when the majority of your audience can't identify the intricacies of said technology and just sees what looks like rehashed CGI and light cycles that can turn in more than 90 degree angles, it's really not all that impressive.

Ah well. The important thing is that I finally know where Thirteen went. Obviously, Foreman, House, Taub and Chase already knew this, which explains why they didn't care about her lying about her destination and subsequent disappearance from Princeton-Plainsboro.

And now on to the previews!

Green Hornet: Apparently Seth Rogen has been blasted for doing this. My brother is a big Bruce Lee fan, so he's not happy. We'll see how this goes.

Hop: Preview featured a cute CG bunny playing the drums. And then what.

Season of the Witch: Why do movies that look pretty darn good have Nicholas Cage in them? At least he doesn't have a stupid accent and it's nice to see Ron Pearlman getting full title credits.

Pirates of the Caribbean 4: Depp = YES. Rush, McShane, Cruz = yes. No Bloom or Knightley = YES. I'll be there.

Why do we pay celebrities so much?

A nurse saves our lives, but nurses are fighting for jobs and pay. Meanwhile an athlete or an actor entertains us and we pay them millions. Why?

A comment to a Buzz I posted about my secret love of Brangelina made me realize something important.

In summary, a commentor pointed out that Brangelina had lost brownie points with the Black Community because they have not been treating Zahara's hair properly. If you have not seen the documentary, Good Hair, you should, as it reveals just how culturally important hair is to the [North American] Black culture.

The angry comments against poor little Zahara's hair are all based on a few pictures of her in the public. More recently, her little sister Shiloh has been dressing like a boy, for which Angelina has also come under fire from the public. She has repeatedly said and shown that she allows her children to express themselves. That means the boys have mohawks, Shiloh dresses like a boy (which is Angelina projecting her bisexuality onto her child, according to one psychologist, and, according to others, will lead to Shiloh being ostracized by her peers because of her mother's repression. Interestingly, this article in US Weekly was changed to this version, where "experts" now say it's okay), and Zahara sometimes has a bad hair day that apparently, according to some, is a self-esteem issue waiting to happen. Really? If we want to talk about self-esteem, let's hope the Jolie-Pitts don't let their kids read all these hateful comments and articles about them. 

THe kids look healthy and happy. I don't think Child Services is concerned about their hair and fashion sense, therefore, why are we?

Why is it our business?

Have any of these bloggers, commentors and journalists actually sat down with the Jolie-Pitt family to rationally discuss these issues? No, of course not. Why do that when we can just unleash our disapproval and unsolicited advice online!

Based on this and all the other gossip rags and TMZ and the like, it finally dawned on me that this is why we pay celebrities stupid amounts of money. Basically, by paying them this much, it justifies our prying into their private lives. It justifies us putting them on giant pedastals and then ripping them to shreds on the way down when they stupidly reveal themselves to be only human.

This morning on the radio, the "Entertainment Report" talked about the real reason why Scarlett Johansen and Ryan Reynolds broke up. Gossip magazines regularly go on "Baby Bump" hunts. Tiger Woods is still the butt of many jokes. Paparazzi invades invade Michael J. FOx's dad's funeral. Police images of Rihanna's battered face are leaked online.

Obviously celebrities have things very good in many ways, but frankly, I do not envy them the scrutiny (or the loneliness of such a fake world). I can't imagine how thick one's skin must be to handle it. Especially now when they can't even trust friends to keep their secrets, such as the recent video of Miley Cyrus on a Salvia trip that made its way to the internet after being recorded on a friend's phone.

The therapy and rehab alone must cost them a large chunk of their million dollar salaries. All because enquiring minds want to know - as if it is our right - their deepest and darkest secrets and impose our ideals on their lives. Apparently, paying them this much allows us to cast the first and many, many other stones.

BUZZ

Moondust and Madness

I've recently found Goodreads and have been slowly but surely filling it up with all the books I've read and want to read. I used to use the Virtual Bookshelf app on Facebook, but, you know, Facebook. lolPrivacy.

Anyway, in my rememberings of what books I need to add, I am reminded of this little classic. You see, my brother and sister were avid readers. The former liked mystery and action and adventure novels and comics, while my sister had a big box full of the typical romance novels. I am fortunate that my sister didn't care much for me when we were growing and therefore it was my brother who had the most influence on my tastes, hence the big X-Men collection I am soon to share with my daughters.

However, I did sneak into her collection one day and decided I wanted to read one to see what it was about. Trust me to find the cheesy romance that involves an alien sex slave trade! 

"Abducted by Commander Varian Saar of the starship Wanderlust, lovely Jana Greyson found herself high about her native Texas in a world beyond her imagination. A helpless pawn in an intergalatic struggle, Jana knew her handsome captor (WHO HAS AN EVIL SEXY TWIN BROTHER) held her fate in his powerful grasp. ANd now he was stealing her heart as well. Their passion was forbidden, their desire was undeniable, and their love soon blazed as brightly as the stars!"

Oh yeah baby. And then they took off their bras.