Jumping on the Bed!

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve seen the Turtles. I skipped work for a couple of hours today so Sabrina and I could watch the matinée before all the kiddies got out of school. We were at the first showing! The theatre was having a fun little promotion for it and had the place decked out with green cellophane covering the lobby lights, posters all over the place and even had three-foot Donatello and Leonardo figures hanging from ceiling. Raphael and Michaelangelo were “popping out” of a sewer lid on top of the Nacho case. The overall effect was pretty cool. When we got to the actual auditorium, the lights on the sides were swapped out with green coloured ones. Totally awesome!

Decorations aside, the movie was visually and aurally crisp and clean thanks to the digital projector. There were only a dozen and a half people there including some friends from our seasonal work. The movie is obviously tuned for kids, but it isn’t nearly as “cartoony” as the original cartoons in the 80’s. It has a darker feeling closer to the original comic books, but not as violent, so the new movie is kind of a mix of the two.

The story is pretty simple but well thought out, with the exception of one glaring continuity hole (the last monster). Well, perhaps it wasn’t a hole, and just something that was poorly explained. Anyway, it was still fun to watch, and the animation was spot on. The character designs were impressive, even though April reminded me a bit of Lara Croft in the beginning, she ended up kicked ass in the end.

If you loved the cartoons as a kid, you should go watch the movie. Not the live-action ones, but this new one by Imagi Studios. Plus there are a lot of really cool voice actors in there, including a few surprise cameos. I just wonder when the sequel will be coming out. Cowabunga Dudes!

Mancer and I just watched 300 on a decently sized digital screen. It is one of those movies that you need to watch in the theatre. It’s an epic, plain and simple. I remember watching a trailer for it nearly a year ago and thought that it looked interesting even if the title was less than memorable. Now, of course, the title will pretty much stick in my head. I love big movies. I can’t help it. I told Mancer that I wanted to watch it and he said “But it’s really violent, why do you want to watch it?”

“Umm… because I’m an American?” He accepted that as a viable reason and he must have been more than curious about the movie since he came along as well, though I don’t think he enjoyed it as much as I did. I knew that it was going to be violent and I can tune most of that out. I knew what the outcome of the movie would be; don’t worry, I won’t tell any spoilers here. But it was still damn fun to watch. Just leave your brain at the door, and be prepared to be entertained for the next two and a half hours. Simple as that.

To give you an idea, I sometimes like movies more for their presentation and… visual creativity than their plot. Movies like “Kung Fu Hustle“, “The Cell“, and “Dark City” are all in my personal movie collection. Not necessarily because they’re great movies, but because I love their stylistic atmosphere. The fact that his movie was adapted from a Frank Miller graphic novel really shines through in a few parts of the film. Kind of like Road to Perdition, I didn’t know it was a graphic novel until after watching it and noticing how some of the scenes were framed almost exactly like they would in a comic book. That’s when Alchemise informed me of the origin of the movie.

I read a review on the movie and it had it’s normal advisory warning of what type of content to expect: Severed limbs, stylized blood, lots of violence, nudity, simulated Spartan sex. Enh? How do you simu… okay, I guess I’ll just have to watch it then. Lena Headey has a very nice body, and can command a performance when given a chance. I think I’ll leave it at that.

Overall, it is pretty gory, but it’s a good watch, and it’s certainly one that needs to be experienced in a movie theatre, not just on Blu-Ray or HD-DVD at home.

Now, I needs to get my Titan Quest on and kick some ass around SPARTA!