Sure, at the end of the day this computer animated movie about a fire breathing teenager is really solely geared to preteens of the male persuasion. With a male character who looks like an anime character who is geeky and has superpowers, this is a movie that will really grab a hold of the young crowds. And sure, like all cable movies, this is a potential series, but I am a complete sucker for superhero movies. And in the same vein I am a sucker for underdog tales. I vaguely remember seeing an ad for the original comic book online a few years ago, so it was surprising to see a movie pop up that was based on a comic series I’ve yet to read or even fully be aware of. Researching the series, it’s story where the villain is taken on by Firebreather and Image characters like Invincible, Shadowhawk, and many more respective properties.
Tag Archives: Adventure
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
What Disney studios have done is completely remade their take of “Alice in Wonderland” except they’ve given director Tim Burton carte blanche to completely re-think the lore and Burtonize it to the fullest extent. These days though, Burtonize is akin to doing basically nothing to completely re-work a formula. “Alice in Wonderland” is Tim Burton basically just riding on his name recognition even more by offering up a re-telling of “Alice in Wonderland” except now with a darker tone, surreal imagery, the usual suspects in terms of supporting characters, and a cliché story about a person destined to save a land and become a warrior who will save them from evil.
The Expendables (2010)
I grew up with two kinds of movie fans. One (my mom) was a hardcore horror buff, and the other was an unabashed action buff (my dad), so for most of my life before I sought out various genres, all I sat and watched were sleazy action flicks and gory horror films. “The Expendables,” while not a perfect movie, is a call back to the classic action films of the seventies and eighties when men were buff, grizzled, hairy and fired off huge guns while also getting the woman in the end, it’s a traditional action film that is also director Sylvester Stallone’s own version of “The Wild Bunch” about old cowboys who have one last stand to reclaim their dignity and self-respect. They do the missions because they feel as if they have to, and they don’t take in to caution their own well beings.
Skyline (2010)
I’m still trying to wrap my head around why the Strause brothers included a very superfluous prologue of Balfour’s character being sucked in by the bright lights of the alien ships and then suddenly zooming back to him and his girlfriend in a plane with the card reading “15 Hours Earlier…” Why is that opening scene important to know? What relevance did that have to anything? Did they feel the movie was so mind-numblingly stupid they’d have to lure us in from second one? “Skyline” (a movie Roland Emmerich would groan at) is the “Dragon Wars” of 2010, a movie with a great concept that fails on every conceivable level of entertainment, competence, and creativity imaginable. This is a movie–much like “Dragon Wars”–that should rightfully have been relegated to cable television but somehow warranted a theatrical release all for a PG-13 B grade science fiction movie about aliens consuming Earth and Eric Balfour… well you’ll see.
Assassin's Creed: Ascendance (2010)
As I suspected going in to this originally, “Ascendance” is really just something of a sample of the upcoming game to whet the appetite’s of fans and isn’t really about telling a story as it is setting up the potential for the main arc of the new “Assassin’s Creed” game. There is a lot of foreshadowing, a lot of storytelling and dialogue that’s meant to reflect on events in the game, teases to events about to occur, and even a cameo by a major influential historical figure in the final scene. Admittedly I’ve never played the game nor am I familiar with much the particulars so “Acsendance” is a short film that will be polarizing to just about anyone who hasn’t played the actual game and are unaware of the sequel and its specifics.
Cura Te Ipsum (Webcomic)
In the interest of full disclosure, creator Neal Bailey is a former contributor of Cinema Crazed, and a long time close friend, but we’re reviewing his comic anyway because it’s entertaining.
Web comics are a tough sell. I know for a fact. There are thousands of them out there by many talented artists and writers (I’ve read more in my time than I could hope to list), all of whom have something unique or hilarious to give readers and sadly most of them are a dime a dozen in terms of entertainment. Sometime you’ll come across something original like Penny Arcade, Nedroid, or Movie Comics, and then sometimes… there’s stuff obviously drawn on MS Paint. In the same vein, if they’re stand alone comics that have a different story every day, audiences attention spans can waver and they tend to move on and wait for better comics.
Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam (DVD)
Here’s what I assumed happened with the release of “The Return of Black Adam”: DC and Warner Bros. didn’t have enough creative material to turn the reunion of Superman and Shazam! in to a feature length film, and in spite of Shazam! playing a supporting role, Superman is much too iconic to be used as simple filler before a big animated feature from DC home video, so what they did was take the half hour movie featuring Superman and Shazam! and, knowing no sensible fan would spend twenty bucks on a half hour movie, filled the DVD with other short animated films starring DC third tier characters that were featured on prior DVD Releases. Deep down this feels like DC Comics testing the waters for a Captain Marvel animated movie, gauging public interest and we’re paying them to be a focus group.