upcoming movies that rock my world

[marbleglove]

Okay, I just recently saw Transformers 2. It was fun. Bad like whoa, but fun none the less. I pretty much went into it figuring character development was a lost cause, and plot was probably something best left alone, but pretty people, pretty cars, and action sequences were a go. And yes they were. I was only really thrown out of suspended disbelief a few times when the physics of the situation was just a bit too far off.

While I enjoyed the complete schlockiness that was Transformers 2, the best part of the movie was seeing the previews. Some of them not only looked fun, but looked good, too. So here are a couple of movies that are coming up and look awesome!

Sherlock Holmes (25 December 2009)

Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock Holmes. Let us pause just to appreciate that bit of type casting... he's brilliant at what he does, he's a complete loose canon, a drug-addict, and a bit of an ass. It's perfect.

M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender (2 July 2010)

This just looks awesome! One caveat: Avatar isn't an anime that I follow. And thinking of the anime that I do like, I'm not sure that I would appreciate them being made live action. However, I don't watch the anime, and I do trust Shyamalan, and, as I said, this preview is awesome!

Comments

the last airbender

[kethrua.livejournal.com]

When I first heard about this movie I thought it would be really cool. M. Night Shyamalan is such a creative director and Avatar: The Last Airbender is such an interesting show, with such diverse and detailed world building that draws on so many cultures and ethnic traditions, treating them respectfully and authentically. And then I heard that he'd cast all the main roles with white actors except, take a guess, the bad guy. The preview looked very cool, but I don't think I can watch.

Re: the last airbender

[marbleglove.livejournal.com]

Urgh. That's not only peculiarly white-centric for a guy named Shyamalan but also peculiarly stupid for a serious director setting a movie in a quasi-Indonesian setting. What in the world was he thinking?

Sadly, it reminds me a bit of the history of the "Kung Fu" TV series, apparently originally designed to star Bruce Lee but then given to David Carradine instead.

Re: the last airbender

[kethrua.livejournal.com]

I don't know what he was thinking. He had the opportunity to make something really significant, to give role models and representation to kids of so many different backgrounds, including Inuit, Mayan, Indian, Korean, Chinese, Pacific Islander, Arab, Japanese, Tibetan, and Ainu. He didn't even try, instead asking first and foremost for Caucasian actors in the casting calls.
.

Re: the last airbender

[marbleglove.livejournal.com]

Someone clearly needed to slap him upside the head. Come to think of it, though, aside from the bad guy in "Unbreakable", I can't think of any non-whites he's directed. Huh.

And it's not just role models either. It's also a matter of visual distinctions. How many white Americans do you think can look at someone from east Asia and tell what ethnicity they are? A lot of people in America seriously can't tell the different between ethnic Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, etc. And given the history and cultures involved, mixing them up is certainly crass and can be dangerous. Having mass media cast them all as Caucasians certainly explains part of it but does nothing to excuse it.

A friend of a friend who is Hispanic went into the military and was trained as an Arabic interpreter because he "looked like them." That left me just a bit speechless.

Re: the last airbender

[kethrua.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I meant about representation. Even the actor they have as the bad guy is not right ethnicity for the part, and I understand that the "diverse" background characters are just sprinkled in at random. And using the non-whites for bad guys is not exactly winning him points anyways.

[lita-of-jupiter.livejournal.com]

have you seen the sherlock movie?
it was marvelous!

though now I keep imagining Amanda as Irene's mentor and Methos meeting sherlock

[marbleglove.livejournal.com]

Yup! I saw Sherlock Holmes and it was awesome. Although it's relationship to the books was distant at best. Mostly related to the names and professions of the characters rather than their actual character traits.

My first fanfic thought for the movie, though, was that clearly Sherlock Holmes was a Sentinel and Watson was his Guide, and they were both really confused by the matter because neither of them knew what Sentinels or Guides were, and they lived in Victorian England, too.

On the other hand, what if Irene IS Amanda?

[lita-of-jupiter.livejournal.com]

I can't claim to be very familiar with Sentinels as I have never seen the series but it would be very fitting from what I heard.

and Amanda as Irene would be a sublime move! Leaving Holmes cuffed to a bed is very much an Amanda move, though i can't see her being so manipulated by Moriaty and I confess that I really wanted to include the ROG somewhere, maybe as Mycroft's friend although he doesn't show up on this movie and never seemed like someone who would have friends.

Mrs.Hudson though always seems to be more than what she really is, or at least know more than it seems and she is always overlooked

[marbleglove.livejournal.com]

What if Moriarty is an immortal? Ooh, let's make Kronos be Moriarty. Hee!

And Kronos would definitely be enough to scare Amanda. Although I think he manages to sneak up on Irene at one point, doesn't he? which would be difficult for two immortals.

And Methos could possibly be around and trying desperately be least in sight so as to avoid: (a) Kronos, who wants to control him, (b) Amanda, who would try to manipulate him, and (c) Holmes, who would see too much.

I've read a story before in which Methos was one of Watson's doctor friends.

[lita-of-jupiter.livejournal.com]

Oh that must have been a good story, do you have a link?

Moriarity as Kronos? Interesting it would highlight the brain he had as he came up with the virus. thought you are right and he did sneak up on Irene/Amanda

I can just imagine Methos being Watson's friend and trying to not meet Holmes without arousing any suspicion from either Watson or the detective.

[marbleglove.livejournal.com]

It was "Elementary, my dear Dawsom" by Leoni Venter
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1724302/1/Elementary_my_dear_Dawson

I'm not sure about the books, but in the movie, at least, Moriarity was clearly experimenting with electricity. Electricity, in turn, has many similar properties to quickening. I wonder if we could say that Moriarity aka Kronos had found a way to defuse or mask his own quickening signature?

[lita-of-jupiter.livejournal.com]

maybe to mask it with an abundance of static energy?

or hide it by having someone known as an Immortal or a look a like of one at the station so if she noticed the quickening she attributed to that immortal or fake immie and Kronos meanwhile was channeling his energies trough some contraption into the rails of he train

[marbleglove.livejournal.com]

Ooh yes. I think Moriarty probably has some large factory that's part of the heavy pollution in London of the era, which makes him oodles of money but also has the side benefit of sending out blasts of static electricity. Immortals either love it (they're own quickening can't be sensed, or at least isn't readily identified as such) or hate it (it feels like the city is full of immortals, all the time).

Amanda aka Irene is always frustrated by it. Methos thinks its wonderful until he discovers who created it.

Sadly, the factory broke all sorts of laws, so was shut down almost immediately after Moriarty's arrest.

[lita-of-jupiter.livejournal.com]

Once Methos finds out he flees Europe, can never be to careful with Kronos

after the arrest he tries to get the technology for himself and steals it shutting down the factory and keeping all the other immortals from the secret.

The more law abiding ones love it as it stops them from being identified and challenged. Headhunters hate it as they can't find their targets

[marbleglove.livejournal.com]

And it just makes them all real antsy, regardless of whether they're peaceful or headhunters. The hairs on the backs of their necks are constantly standing at attention.

The Watchers aren't sure what's up with the London immortals of the era but they sure are a twitchy lot.

[lita-of-jupiter.livejournal.com]

I bet they put down it's due to rampant opium and cocaine consumption. some Immortals are worried it's the gathering starting but they don't feel any murderous urges... or more than normally anyway

the twitchiest of them try go to the far sides of the empire or at least far from London...

Methos is very glad about that, Irene/Amanda not so much she has a fondness for her Immortal and Chivalrous friends having them away from Europe doesn't make at all happy

especially as the ones staying seem to be the ones which don't care about those "modern" values and she can't escape

[lita-of-jupiter.livejournal.com]

Ohh very nice, especially how merging the fictional with the not (in HL verse that is)