I’ve been a bit Tron obsessed lately, so the moment I saw this T-shirt I knew I should get it:

I’m still not sure though whether to get the tee or the hoody; they both look awesome! Plus they both come with glow-in-the-dark ink… sweet. Both the tee and the hoody are available on Threadless for $20 and $45 respectively.

I haven’t blogged much about the Tron viral/ARG, but I’ve been following everything so far. About one and a half week ago there was a live event in San Francisco, where Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner’s character from the first movie) announced that Encom would be releasing an online version of their Space Paranoids game. And now there’s a trailer:

I think Alex from FirstShowing is right, in that Kevin Flynn will probably try to contact us through the game. There’ll be 15 new levels designed by Flynn himself, so there’s got to be something hidden within that. I’m guessing it’s going to be something collaborative, like the Dark Knight pixel picture from 2 years ago. Like each level represents 1 letter, but letter is only revealed after 100 scores above a certain threshold?

The story behind the ARG so far is that Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) disappeared 7 years after the events of the first movie; nobody has heard of him since, including his son. But there is a group called FlynnLives who still believe he is alive and that “he is out there, that he’s waiting for us, and that he will return when the time is right”.

If you’re interested in playing along, just sign up on FlynnLives.com. You can still earn badges for all of the previous steps, except for the live events (which I don’t have anyway).

Via FirstShowing

We’re less than a month away from Iron Man 2, so prepare to be bombarded with trailers, images and whatever else they come up with. This latest trailer doesn’t show any new footage, but it’s interactive. Hotspots within the video release further content once clicked on, with information on the characters and other interesting tidbits:

I still have to see My Neighbour Totoro and Ponyo (two of the few Studio Gibli movies I haven’t seen yet), but I know how adorable the characters can be. And these necklaces with them are just super cute:

I don’t think I’d actually wear something like this, but it’s still pretty. The necklaces are available in the Gypsy’s Jewels Etsy store for $12.00.

I’m quite looking forward to the Iron Man sequel and I always love it when movies do some viral-y/ARG-y stuff to promote them. So far we haven’t seen that much in the Iron Man viral besides a bunch of mysterious websites, but I’m hoping now the release date is in sight we’ll get to see more.

The latest website is for AccuTech, a research and development company and a subsidiary of Stark Industries. Their message is that they’ll be premiering their latest breakthrough, the HazTech Exoskeleton, at the Stark Expo 2010, which is happening on the 7th of May… the release date of Iron Man 2 in the US.

I’m curious to see what else they’ll be showing and whether they’ll go into the ARG area like The Dark Knight and Tron Legacy.

I don’t write about it that often here on this blog, but I’m a bit of a Greek mythology geek (and also other mythologies, like Egyptian, Roman and Norse, but mainly Greek). I love reading all the different tales about the Greek gods and heroes, and it’s the main reason why I went to ‘gymnasium‘ (Dutch high school type), so that I could have learn Latin and Ancient Greek. So I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for mythology movies, but am also waaay more quicker annoyed when they don’t get their mythology right. As in Clash of the Titans.

Clash of the Titans is the remake of the 1981 movie with the same name. It features Sam Worthington as the halfgod Perseus, who wants revenge on Hades (Ralph Fiennes) for killing his family. When the city of Argos is threatened by Zeus (Liam Neeson) and Hades to sacrifice their beloved princess Andromeda or risk the wrath of the Kraken, Perseus swears to defeat the Kraken. Together with a small group of soldiers and the immortal Io (Gemma Arterton), Perseus embarks on a quest to save Argos.

I know most people won’t care about the accuracy of the mythology while seeing this movie, but for me it was a serious annoyance. It’s like changing the basics of a fairy tale (hey, let’s add one of the seven dwarfs to the Rapunzel story!). Some of the mistakes I can forgive, cause they were remaking an older movie. For instance, the fact that there aren’t any Titans in either of the movies, yet the movie is called ‘Clash of the Titans’ can be blamed on the 1981 one (Titans were the gods before the Olympians and not one of them appears in this movie). Same with the ‘Kraken’; this newer movie took it from the older one, but the Kraken never was in the Perseus myth. Hell, the Kraken never appeared in any Greek myth… he’s from Norse mythology.

Besides those mistakes though, this Clash of the Titans messed up the story even more. For starters, Io. I understand why they added her to the story: to add a female heroine to the epic journey, because Andromeda is stuck in the city the entire time. But why Io? Haven’t they done any research at all? She’s Perseus’s ancestor. Turning her into a love interest just felt wrong. Then there’s Danae (Perseus’s mother) and her husband King Acrisius. Eh yeah, no. In the myth they’re father and daughter. Finally, most of the main story was just complete nonsense. The 1981 movie was a loose interpretation of the myth already, and now this movie was loosely based on the 1981 movie. Somewhere in the process it turned out not bearing any resemblance to the myth at all. It could have worked, if the story actually was interesting. But to me, it felt like huge action sequences with bits of dialogue and ‘plot’ to string it all together.

There’s no character development in this movie whatsoever. Perseus is basically whining the entire movie that ‘gods killed his family’ and that although he is a demigod, he’ll slay the Kraken as ‘a man’. Okay, Hades killed his family, so he’s got a reason to be pissed off with that god. But with all the gods? And not to use his demigod-ness while they have such a short period to save Argos? It also doesn’t help that Sam Worthington fails to give Perseus any charisma or likability; I still don’t see what people see in that guy. Liam Neeson as Zeus get some of the worst dialogue and some shiny CGI armor (it’s Twilight sparkly armor). I had hoped more from him here, but Zeus wasn’t impressive at all. And also goes through some wishy-washy-ness; releasing the Kraken on the humans, yet giving Perseus the tools to defeat the Kraken. It all just doesn’t make sense.

The action scenes and the CGI is one of the things I actually did like in this movie. I admit I’ve seen better (we all have), but it was still enjoyable. The big-ass scorpions were cool, even though I first didn’t realize there were more than 1 (was that just bad editing, or wasn’t I paying close enough attention?).

And then there’s the 3D. In one word: DON’T. The 3D here wasn’t necessary at all, and doesn’t give anything extra to the movie. I didn’t find it as annoying as some people were saying (it didn’t feel like paper cutouts, which I did have with the last Harry Potter movie), but it’s still not worth paying the extra money for.

I also wonder how much ended up on the cutting table. We got one or two glimpses from the other Olympians, like Artemis and Aphrodite, and it seemed like they put quite a lot of effort into creating their characters. But besides Zeus and Hades, they barely say anything (Poseidon and Ares get like one line each). I wish we could have seen more of the other gods.

Clash of the Titans isn’t a movie I’d recommend seeing in the cinema. If you’re going for only the action scenes, then enjoy. But if you’re hoping for a good story, full of heroes and gods, then give this a miss.

Most of you should have seen this trailer by now (it was a trending topic on Twitter last week when it was released), but for those of you haven’t I thought I’d share it with you to cheer you up this Monday morning. I’ve been looking forward to this movie for some time now and featured it in my Top 10 Most Anticipated 2010 Movies.

It’s about Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), a 22 year old bass guitarist for the band Sex Bob-omb, who meets the girl of his dreams Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Before he can be with her though he has to defeat her seven evil exes. It’s directed by Edgar Wright who previously did Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, so it’s sure to be fun!

Here’s the trailer:

Awesome, don’t you think?

Predators: Starring Adrien Brody and Laurence Fishburne, this movie follows a group of elite warriors who come to realize they’ve been dropped on an alien planet… as prey. With the exception of a disgraced physician, they are all cold-blooded killers – mercenaries, Yakuza, convicts, death squad members – human “predators” that are now being systemically hunted and eliminated by a new breed of alien Predators. This looks like fun! I loved the first movie, and this sequel looks like it could be a worthy follow-up. Release Date: 9 July 2010 (US), 22 July 2010 (UK)

Bluebeard (Barbe Bleue): I love fairy tale movies, and this French retelling of Bluebeard looks great. The fairy tale it’s based on is pretty dark, and not the most obvious one to turn into a movie. Based on Charles Perrault’s tale, Bluebeard tells the story of young Marie-Catherine, child bride to an aristocratic ogre with a reputation for murdering his wives. Marie-Catherine must employ all her cunning to outwit her husband and escape the most unpleasant of fates.

The Last Airbender: I’m still not convinced by this yet; but then I’m so attached to the cartoon version of this, I might be a bit too bias to judge this properly. Like in this trailer, the main thing that annoys me is the voice of Aang. It’s completely not right! But yeah, I guess anyone who hasn’t seen the cartoon won’t have a problem with it. Release Date: 2 July 2010 (US), 13 August 2010 (UK)

Despicable Me: After 3 short teaser trailers, that didn’t really show that much, we finally get a full length trailer of this 3D movie. It looks like it could be fun, although I don’t think it’s something I’d go see in the cinema. Release Date: 9 July 2010 (US), 15 October 2010 (UK)

The Switch: A smart, fun-loving single woman (Jennifer Aniston) decides it’s time to have a baby, with a little help from a charming sperm donor (Patrick Wilson). But, unbeknownst to her, Kassie’s plans go awry because of a last-minute switch that isn’t discovered until seven years later when her neurotic best friend Wally (Jason Bateman) finally gets acquainted with Kassie’s cute–though slightly neurotic–son. Release Date: 20 August 2010 (US)

Megamind: After super-villain Megamind (Will Ferrell) kills his good-guy nemesis, Metro Man (Brad Pitt), he becomes bored since there is no one left to fight. He creates a new foe, Titan (Jonah Hill), who, instead of using his powers for good, sets out to destroy the world, positioning Megamind to save the day for the first time in his life. Hmm, based on the description it could be fun, but this teaser trailer seems a bit… simple. Release Date: 5 November 2010 (US), 3 December 2010 (UK)

Episode 165: “We are young, we are strong”

I loved Kick-Ass, and can’t wait for everyone else to see it (see my review here)! The red carpet premiere is in a couple of hours at London’s Leicester Square, so in honour of that, here’s the music video from Mika’s Kick-Ass title track:

I kind of like the song, but I hate the clip. When I first heard it during the end credits after watching Kick-Ass, it felt as if it fit with the movie. But this clip?? Nope, not liking it at all.

I’ve told you here before about how my family watches tons of sports: football, tennis, Formula 1, skating (speed and figure), darts, basketball, cricket, the list goes on and on. I never really got into watching any sports at all, putting all my spare time into movies, TV, games and reading. But there’s one sports legend I wish I could have met: tennis star Jacques d’Azur.

I think that’s mainly because Jacques d’Azur isn’t only a tennis player; he’s so much more. Chess master. Actor. Director. Producer. Backgammon champion. Waterskier. He’s amazing. For the past 30 years he’s been a bit of legend at the Cannes Film Festival, having starred in, directed and produced a number of the festival’s biggest hits (read more about him here). I’ve always wanted to go to Cannes, if only just to meet him and get an autograph.

But now it seems that won’t be possible. A month ago he and his yacht ‘Bridgette et Anne’ both vanished near Tahiti last month. There was one last reported radio contact from him, but since then nothing has been heard. It’s been over a month now and none of the searches have found anything. Where is Jacques d’Azur?

I hope this is all just a silly mixup and that he’ll appear at the Cannes festival end of next month acting as if nothing is wrong. But I’m scared it isn’t; I’m scared that we might have lost one of the most talented individuals the world has seen.