The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Review part 2
So this film is the top of that heap but being the best of the worst is not always the same as being good. This film has it’s issues and compared to what I consider a good movie it is at best trivial and mediocre. Unless you have something invested in the film (like, say, you read the books over and over again and dream of yourself as Katniss (or boy Katniss)) you will be reasonably entertained for 123 minutes and go home vaguely pissed that they stretched this last film into two movies while going about the rest of your life. It is good solid entertainment but it won’t blow your mind the way A Clockwork Orange did to me at 17.
I guess the issue I take with this film is up until now the series has been relatively smart. Stuff made sense and I didn’t feel let down by the characters doing stupid things. However once they raised the scope of the film from a Battle Royale reality show and your concern for the individual characters you care about into a country wide revolution the individuals have to get a whole lot stupider to keep the plot going. 
I spotted about 8 different ways President Snow could have ended the revolution (most of them rhyming with “puclear” or “bustained sombardment”) but he wants to play head games while his white armored Stormtroopers seem to have forgotten which end of their assault rifle the pew pew comes out of when shooting at guys climbing trees 20 feet away. Meanwhile the revolutionaries get equally as stupid in order to properly fall into obvious traps.
Also while I enjoyed this film in general the padding was pretty blatant. How many times do we need to see a wrecked field of human corpses in order to establish that President Snow is evil? Also what is the deal with him being so evil? A little character development on President Snow would be nice. Did he start out evil and just take joy in killing innocent children or did he have to work up to it? Does he really think he is doing something good? It’s rare that someone wakes up and says “Today I will be a total bastard”. Most people think they are doing the best they can but he was so evil that he turned into a caricature and thus lowered the actual impact of the movie. He felt a lot like Dr. Evil and therefore turned Katniss and her crew into Austin Powers.
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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 Review part 3
Actually now that I think about it another issue was the lack of character development for some of the secondary characters. It’s only been a year since the last film but I was really struggling to remember who Finnick was or why I should even care. He had something going on but honestly faded back into the morass of good looking young white guys who infest these films lik hipsters are infesting my home town. I would be hard pressed to tell him apart from Gale. There were two other tributes besides Peeta but put a gun to my head and I still couldn’t pick them out from any one of the 100,000 jumpsuited Caucasians. The only characters that stood out were the ones that had something distinctive about them (Boggs was the black guy, Effie looked like she was going through chemotherapy, Haymitch was the only male who didn’t look like he escaped from Abercrombie & Fitch island, President Coin had long hair, and Plutarch was of course Phillip Seymore Hoffman).
The action was fun but clearly shot with 14 year old girls in mind. If unarmed humans charging trained troops armed with automatic weapons had been a viable strategy WWI would have ended in about a week. Also I know it was important to show Katniss as this super hero but shooting down jet bombers with a bow and arrow is pretty laughable even with explosive arrows. While I was having fun watching this film I could feel might thumb twitching hoping to find the fast forward button. Pacing was sluggish and they could have dropped about 40 minutes of Primrose in my opinion (book fans don’t hate on me please).
But in the Valley of the Blind the one eye man is king and this film is the pick of the litter. It might even have two eyes. While most of the factions got stupider at least the overriding story isn’t lame and all the actors can and do act. 
You buy Jennifer Lawrence as a girl caught up in events beyond her control and while the nature of her actual feelings for Peetah (or boy toy Gale) remains as mysterious as the joys of a womans body does for me at least you get the feeling she actually does have them (this line from one of our funny t shirts I think I have heard in my head about once a week for my entire life).
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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 Review part 4
The story. It pretty much picks up with Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) in the hands of revolutionaries while Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) is being held in the capital. The rebels are led by President Coin (Julianne Moore) and Plutarch Heavensbee (Phillip Seymore Hoffman) with help from security heavy Boggs 
(Mahershala Ali. He was in the 4400. I thought he looked familiar. The image I pulled from one of our novelty t shirts). They want her to be their spokesperson but Katniss wants nothing to do with it until she sees Peeta on the TV pitching how great President Snow is or something (Snow is Donald Sutherland and is great). She agrees to help them as long as they rescue Peeta. She goes out into battle and gets filmed bitching about how evil the Capital is (no argument here) while up to her knees in the burnt corpses of her former friends and neighbors. Show proves how evil he is by bombing a hospital and then the revolutionary base. A team is sent in to rescue Peeta and when he gets back they find the bad guys messed with his mind.
You know when you add it up that’s not a lot of events for 123 minutes. They really were stretching this out into two epics. At least they aren’t calling it the Hunger Games Saga. So do I recommend you see it? If you saw the first two (or read the books) absolutely. If you didn’t you will be lost without a paddle. Very little will make sense starting with who is this chick and why is she cool with going into battle against modern soldiers armed with a bow and arrow. This film does not stand alone well. Honestly my recommendation means very little for movies like this because either you are inclined to go or not. There is no middle ground for someone who saw the first two films but is on the fence for this one. I will say if you are dating someone who is into the Hunger Games it is well worth your time. She will love it and if you watch the first two on streaming (or just skim the Wikipedia story synapses) you will probably develop a connection or something like that with her. Let me know what that is like. Bathroom break? Go when Haymitch is telling Katniss about the Peeta rescue. That’s when I went.
Thanks for reading. I have Dumb and Dumber To to do tomorrow. Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook (and in real life please. I have serious self esteem issues), etc. Talk to you soon.
The Infamous Dave Inman
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Real Life Hoverboards!!!
It is well known that most everything cool in this world was first shown in a science fiction movie or TV show. In fact most of our coolest stuff now was first in Star Trek (cell phones, tablets, self aware computers, green dancing slave girls). I used to do some writing for another blog that specialized in technology that comes from science fiction (got shut down unfortunately).
One of the cooler inventions from science fiction (for me) was always the hoverboard from Back to the Future, which ironically in the movie was readily available in the far off year of 2015 (this image is from a novelty t shirt in our Back to the Future collection). Talk about an awesome way to get around. Of course really without direction control the vectors will have you on your ass every time (statics was one class I actually aced. I am the vector king). However I always wanted to have one.
Now a company right here in the Bay Area has officially invented a working Hoverboard! I couldn’t be more excited. It works on magnets and needs a metal floor but still a lot of half pipes are metal these days. Check out this amazing article about Tony Hawk riding a real hoverboard! Awesome!
From what I understand the board was more invented to help move ocean containers and the like but still the possibilities are huge. It’s only a matter of time before kids are shattering bones with these things.
Now all we need is for some company to get working on my real Back to the Future dream flying cars. Enough with all this traffic not to mention bridge tolls. I’d like to see someone look into that time machine thing too but as a fan of the Butterfly Effect I don’t think it’s a good idea. Also it’s impossible because inertia is a bitch. Think about it.
the Infamous Dave Inman
A Question from the Six Million Dollar Man
So I have been taking a lot of yoga lately and it’s supposed to clear your mind and lead you to a spiritual nirvana or something. I must be doing it wrong because my mind is always wandering all over throughout the course of the class. For some reason I seem to always be thinking about either obscure zones I used to visit in World of Warcraft (why do I need to think about the Wetlands? I played Horde) or old TV shows from my childhood.
(Actually that gives me something else to think about. In 30 years will I be thinking about Breaking Bad or SOA? Image courtesy of the Breaking Bad t shirts collection).
Anyway, today I was thinking about the Bionic Man and this occurred to me: one of Steve Austin’s weaknesses was always cold temperature. If he got really cold his arm, legs, and eye would shut down. However the electric blanket was invented in 1912 and the thermostat in 1883. It seems like sticking a heating element into the bionics would be easy peasy. Heck, you could put warming elements into a regular prosthetic limb if you really wanted to. Also if his eye were totally destroyed wouldn’t Steve Austin have massive scarring on his face? Yes this is what I was thinking about tonight while in Child’s Pose.
the Infamous Dave Inman
Star Trek Retrospective: the Menagerie Part I and II
I think this episode gets the award for best reuse of old pilot footage ever. Thank heaven Leonard Nimoy was in both the pilot and the series. Otherwise they would have had to let this one go completely. Also this episode is a great chance for Star Trek fans in wheelchairs cosplay.
However I want to take issue with Pike as it relates to the JJ Abrams abominations. Was it absolutely necessary for the new time line to put Pike in a wheelchair again? In TOS he was horribly burned by delta rays in a training accident. So does it mean that regardless of time line he is inevitably fated to end up in a wheelchair? How about a timeline where he just stubs his toe or something? 
Also couldn’t they give Pike some kind of Darth Vader-esque power suit or something? I mean if JJ wants to be making Star Trek anyway. Image courtesy of the Star Wars t-shirts collection.
Anyway, this was an intriguing episode although it did result in the Talosians gaining their slave population assuming Vina can still have about 20 children and they aren’t too particular with regards to inbreeding. I did like seeing the formal uniforms and court marshal procedures. Although if the Talosians could create a fake Mendez with Kirk from thousands of light years away why didn’t they just create fake orders from Star Fleet telling him to drop Pike off toot sweet?
the Infamous Dave Inman
Big Hero 6 Review Part 1
Brave but not heroic.
I must admit I have fallen into the trap of letting trailers fool me into expecting great. It is something I should be hardened against by now but I guess the fact that I am doing fewer movies per week has lulled me a level of complacency that is dangerous for my fragile mind state. I took a hit when I really didn’t like Intersteller and now this film fails to live up to my (inflated) expectations.
Not to say Big Hero 6 was bad. It was decent. However the producers of this film made it abundantly clear that it was by the same crew that created Wreck-It Ralph, one of my favorite animated films. What they did not make clear is the fact that the director and writers of Wreck-It Ralph had nothing to do with it and that is like saying that the painting you did of your cat sleeping is by the same producers as the Mona Lisa just because you buy your canvas the guy who sells it to Da Vinci. That plus a massive trailer blitz had me hoping to add another masterpiece to my roster of go to animated films.
Is it fair to compare this film to WIR? In one sense no but in the sense that they blasted WIR’s name all over it yes. If you invite comparison you cannot complain when you fail to live up to that comparison. I see this as some idiot in the Old West strapping on a six gun and challenging the fastest gun. When you jump in the ring with a grizzly you cannot complain when you get your guts ripped out.
So is this film good when not compared to WIR? I’d say it’s adequately good. The story kind of blows and if you or your kid finds having a really appealing character die in a fire early on troubling (wait a good guy dies in a Disney film??? How is that even possible? I guess that’s where the PG rating comes from) you will be annoyed but the animation is truly excellent 
(in an improved Incredibles sort of way. The image is from a great Incredibles logo t shirt I wear once in a while) and the visuals stunning so if your kid understands death (or you ok telling him that Tadashi just “went to stay with Grandma for a while”) he or she will be reasonably entertained.
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Big Hero 6 Review Part 2
But to continue with my fair/unfair comparison to Wreck-It Ralph where does this film fail to live up to the comparison? Well to be honest when you look at WIR you can see that it has three key elements that work seemlessly together; story, character development, and action. Each part reinforces the other two and together they form one of those really cool Celtic patterns that looks gorgeous from a distance and when you get up close you can see the intricacy of the pattern. In Big Hero 6 the film tries to do the same thing but instead of having the elements work together they keep on tripping on each other. The character development blocks off the story while the story gets in the way of the action and the action lessons the value of the character development. It was like watching the Three Stooges all try to go through one door at the same time and bounce out or perhaps a new kind of roshambo.
I guess this is from a comic book of some kind and I will give the film mad props for the best Stan Lee cameo yet (image courtesy of the Marvel T-Shirts collection). It did have a comic book feel to it but most comic book movies invite a level of story complexity sadly lacking in this plot. The main bad guy’s plan was dumb and rather than let him develop organically he is forced into the film with all the subtlety of a multiple trepanning delivered with a ball peen hammer. Again, I know. Kids movie so we can’t expect One Hour Photo but WIR managed to give us a great story that still entertained the rugrats.
On the other hand Baymax is super cute and cool and if your kids are the type to fall in love with unique cartoon characters this movie has a ton of them each with a distinct personality and look. Like I said I don’t consider this film Nut Job bad or even bad at all. Just not great. Of course since everyone else is tongue bathing this film on a regular basis (88% on Rotten Tomatoes) looks like I get to be the kid in the Emperors New Clothes once more.
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Big Hero 6 Review Part 3
The story. Hiro (Scott Adsit) is a precocious 14 year old who makes money in illegal bot fighting. He is pulled out of a jam and into college by his older brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney) who convinces him to try to get into the robotics program by impressing Prof. Callaghan (James Cromwell). Hiro does it by inventing microbots that merge to form a big robot amoeba. That night there is a fire and Tadashi and Callaghan are killed and the microbots destroyed.
While in the mass of depression Hiro activates Baymax, a giant rubber healer robot Tadashi invented. Baymax wants to heal Hiro and so helps him follow his last microbot only to discover a bad guy is building thousands of them for some reason. Hiro hooks up with a bunch of his other nerd friends and in order to stop the guy with the microbots they make superhero costumes for themselves. Baymax turns from a super sweet balloon guy into a killing machine and there is a “twist” that comes from no where and does nothing other than give the bad guy a reason to be bad.
3 of 5. OK.
So worth seeing or not? I’d say yes, but when Wreck-It Ralph came out I saw it four times in the theater and then bought it on DvD and have watched it probably a dozen times since. I could easily not see this film again for several years if ever. 
I would put in on the level of Frozen (another film that I thought was less good than apparently every other American alive or dead. Maybe I am just tilting at windmills here (or maybe my “alternative” childhood has given me a different outlook on life. Thanks dad) Image courtesy of the cartoon t shirt category) and I’m sure you will see a lot of toys, video games, shirts, and Halloween costumes for all the characters. Your kids will enjoy it as long as death doesn’t freak them out and you will not be totally bored so I’d say go for it. 3 of 5 phasers.
the Infamous Dave Inman
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Star Trek Retrospective: Episode 13 the Conscience of the King
Another one of my personal favorites. This story had some serious gravitas, as well as a cool twist and amazing acting. The scene where Kirk has Karidian read the Kodos proclamation is incredibly powerful.
However one thing I love about this show is it is a nice glimpse into Kirk’s past (oh wait! At age 13 Kirk spent part of his childhood on Tarsus IV, not stealing cars in Iowa? Gosh how did JJ Abrams miss that with all the extensive research he did prior to writing his first Trek-ish film?) as well as a look at the social dynamic of the TOS era Federation. 
Looks like there was a “good ole’ boy” network that experienced officers such as Kirk could tap into to get things done like when he called his friend Captain Daily and asked him to not pick up the Karidian troupe. In this the show was a little more like the frontier of the Empire from Star Wars (I see the similarity. Image courtesy of my own collection of Star Wars t-shirts. I swing both ways).
I also really enjoyed Lenore, who managed the difficult task of appearing a naive innocent while at the same time being totally evil and bat guano nuts. Not an easy thing to pull off and but she did it. Kudos to Barbara Anderson. She later won four Emmys for work on Ironside and was in the pilot film for the Six Million Dollar Man. As a nerd and fan of retro tv shows I have to applaud her.
the Infamous Dave Inman
