Hello, how are you doing on this glorious day?
Well, I was feeling nostalgic a few hours ago. Pretty nostalgic. You see, I remembered that I had this web log. I actually shut it down (made it not inaccessible to anyone who didn't have permission to see it) a few months ago because I couldn't think of much to type about and what I did type up just wasn't that awesome. I did publish quite a few posts and I deleted them all. Before I did that, however, I copied and pasted all of them onto a word document. That document is 210 pages long and 19.441 megabytes.
So yeah, this is the new First Post. (I used to just title posts whatever number they were. I think I'll do that again just for nostalgic reasons.)
So anyway, now that the introduction's done, here's the actual post:
Well, my pseudonym is Rick Levi and I'm a junior in high school. And...I can't really think of anything else to say because anything else I might say would probably be really boring.
Alright, there really is only one reason, I must admit, that I decided to start up this blog again - this movie:
I saw the teaser poster for John Carter earlier this year and I did think that the logo (the logo that's on the lower right corner of this poster) looked kind of cool. Then a trailer came out and I saw it but I didn't really like it. I mean, there were these weird green aliens in a coliseum, this one dude who kills a giant beast, airships, and other stuff you normally see in science-fiction movies. The coliseum scene and the Battle of Geonosis from Star Wars Episode II: The Attack of the Clones, in particular, came to mind. I did do a little research about John Carter (on Wikipedia, of course) and I found out that the movie was based on the first novel of an 11-part book series. It was interesting to find out that the series (A Princess of Mars being the first (and the one that this movie is based on) having been serialized in 1912 and published in novel form in 1917) was written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author of Tarzan of the Apes.
So, I knew that the movie wasn't a rip-off of Star Wars or Avatar, but I still didn't care much about it. A few days ago, however, my sister reminded me of the movie and told me that it actually influenced Star Wars. I decided to look up the trailer again and I found a different one. I liked the second trailer a lot more. It explained more about the story and it had better music and all that.
And also, something that's kind of unrelated - it reminded me of Superman. In the trailer (and the first one, too) John Carter has this ability to jump really high. This reminded me of Superman because in the original comics (not that I read the comics. Who reads superhero comics now anyways?) Superman can't fly but can only jump really high. And according to this one Cracked article, Superman is a rip-off of this one character called Hugo Danner from a book entitled Gladiator. And Gladiator was published in 1930, quite a while after the first Barsoom novel.
So yeah, I also looked on the Wikipedia page again and this time read it in greater depth. I found out that not only did the books serve as inspiration for Star Wars and Avatar, but that the also influenced some of the greatest writers of science fiction like Bradbury, Clarke, and Heinlein (I've never actually read anything by Bradbury but have read 2001: A Space Odyssey and am currently reading Stranger in a Strange Land).
So I suddenly had a lot more respect for the movie. And also a lot more interest, perhaps even excitement. And so, I'm going to go see it tomorrow in theaters. It seemed like more of a movie to rent, at first, but now I have high expectations for this blockbuster. I sure do hope that John Carter is better than TRON: Legacy.
The thing about TRON: Legacy is that I was stunned by it when saw it in IMAX 3-D. It had flaws, of course, but I didn't care. I was willing to ignore those flaws because the special effects were just awesome. After watching TR2N at home on DVD, however, I realized just how bad the story was. I was pretty glad that I had watched it in theaters because that is the only way to watch it. My sister had asked me if I wanted to go see Tangled instead but I refused. Now, I was old enough to know that Disney fairy tales are for everyone, not just little girls, but I just wanted to go see TR2N so much more. I'm so glad that I refused.
Tangled was a pretty good movie. It wasn't as good as the '80s and '90s Disney movies, but it was good. The animation was excellent. The movie came out in 2010 and its digital artwork still looks superior to the animation in the upcoming Pixar movie Brave. If you must know, I am somewhat anti-Pixar now. After Ratatouille (their last good movie, in my opinion), they started getting more and more pretentious. I mean that WALL-E was really boring and really unsubtle with its political message and UP tried too hard to manipulate the viewers' emotions. And the whole concept of Cars and Cars 2 just seemed kind of boorish, if you know what I mean. And what I don't like about Brave is its emphasis on the gender of its main character.
I just dislike it when it's made such a big deal that a female character is strong. Its alright in Mulan, because that is an awesome movie, but it seems that there's a prominent strong female character everywhere now. You know who the best example of a strong female character is? So obvious I shouldn't even have to tell you: Ellen Ripley (portrayed by Sigourney Weaver) from Alien. I mean, it's not made such a big deal that she's female. She could be male and it wouldn't have made much of a difference. You get what I'm saying?
Another reason I'm already prejudiced against Brave is because it seems like How to Train Your Dragon and Mulan put together. Those are two awesome movies, man. The animation in How to Train Your Dragon (which came out in 2010, like Tangled) also looks better than the animation in Brave. (Notice here, I'm using the word "animation" to mean "digital artwork" not "the way that the characters and various objects move across the screen." Yeah, just telling you. I mean, most people these days use the word to mean "digital artwork" but I don't think that that's an accepted definition. I'm just using the word because then I don't have to type as many letters.)
Sorry for getting so off track but I do that a lot. Anyway, I just hope that John Carter is better than Tron: Legacy. As I said, I've got high expectations for it. (And, yes, I do know that it was directed by Andrew Stanton, the director of WALL-E. But he also directed Finding Nemo, which is a good movie and probably my third favorite Pixar movie after Monster's Inc. and Ratatouille.) I'm expecting it to be third on my list of the coolest movies I'm going to watch this year:
1. Prometheus
2. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
3. John Carter
4. The Hunger Games
These are the four movies that I know I'm going to watch this year. I can't wait for the first three. I'm even excited for The Hobbit, which is strange because I thought that The Lord of the Rings was a boring trilogy. It's a seriously well-made movie, just really boring that's all.
And one other thing - I don't care at all for The Dark Knight Rises. I just don't, in case anyone wants to know.
I also have pretty much no enthusiasm for The Hunger Games but I did make a promise a long time ago to my sister that I'd go watch it with her. I forget why, there was a specific reason. I'm already unfairly prejudiced against the movie. And for no real reason. I'm like that one guy in that one episode of Parks and Recreation (which is an awesome show by the way) who refuses to vote for Leslie for no real reason and then Leslie and Ben take him bowling and he still doesn't want to vote for Leslie. Oh well, I guess THG might be alright. Everyone I know has already read all three of the books by now.
Did I tell you that I'm a hipster when it comes to literature? I mean, I don't read much anyway but when I do read, I try to read classics. The problem, however, is that pretty much all of the classics I've tried reading are really boring. But I'm a hipster because I don't read mainstream YA novels. I don't think I'm cooler than everyone else for not doing so and I'm not intending to sound like a jerk, it's just that the premise of The Hunger Games simply doesn't interest me. However, I do plan to read at least the first book someday so that I can fairly criticize it.
Well, that's all for today.
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