Alien Teaser Trailer - Prometheus Style

This is fantastic. A fan made a teaser for the original ALIEN in the same style as the new teaser for its companion film, PROMETHEUS. I am nerding out hard for this, they did such a great job. PROMETHEUS has been my most anticipated movie of 2012 for a LONG time now. This is Ridley Scott not only returning to SciFi, but returning to the same universe begun in ALIEN. I canNOT wait. :-)

Here's the teaser for PROMETHEUS both for comparison and because it's so AWESOME.

The Movie Known As 'BATTLESHIP'

A lot of people seem to be dismissing 'Battleship' as one of the worst examples of bulls^&t film-making. A movie inspired by a classic board game. "How dare anyone make this thing" seems to be the sentiment. But I'm looking forward to it. Not because of the special effects or the explosions. No, I'm looking forward to it, because I'm genuinely curious about how it will turn out. Its not a secret that new, original, ideas seem to be a bit of a rarity these days. But I love seeing just about anything, so long as it piques my curiosity.
I don't see 'Battleship' as some trashy cash-in playing on a known brand. Actually I see it as an interesting story-telling challenge. The board game has no narrative, it has no characters, it simply is what it is. A game in which you guess the location of your opponents fleet and attempt to destroy them. Whatever fun can be found is usually born out of who you're playing with. So to see the basic premise of two fleets in combat taken to the level of Aliens on a mission, on Earth, is quite interesting.

Although some may say that Aliens are the next Zombies or Vampires, both so common now the language and intent of the concepts have become thinned to the point of non-existence, that Aliens are the safe choice to avoid any sort of political controversy, I don't really agree. When you commit to any sort of genre concept you're committing to a mythology. Now sometimes you reinvent that mythology, or rewrite, or throw it out entirely, but there are still inherent expectations from the audience. With Vampires; you have the thirst, the death by sunlight, the seduction in some cases. With Zombies; the plague, the carnage, the numbers. With Aliens you have; overwhelming technology, the larger than life scale, the complex yet simple nature of their mission. 'Battleship' seems to be not only meeting certain mythology expectations but also inventing some of their own. And I'm looking forward to seeing this new twist on the Alien Invasion genre.
The film-makers may appear to be simply cashing in, but they're still inventing everything as they go. If the film is a success than of course a sequel will be made, furthering the invention. Comparing "original" film-making to whats going on with 'Battleship' is in a way like comparing stand-up comedy to improv comedy. With stand-up you write material from scratch trying, if possible, to construct some for of narrative with that material in the hopes of appealing your audience. With improv you are given certain elements from either your audience or your fellow improvisers and you try to work within those elements and again construct a comedy narrative that would appeal to your audience. Saying 'Battleship' isn't a real movie is a bit like saying improv comedy isn't real comedy because someones feeding you the basic pieces to start with. It is real comedy, just a different form of expression.
I'm looking forward to 'Battleship'. I'm looking forward to it as someone who enjoys movies, as someone who enjoys scifi, as someone who enjoys story-telling. I'm looking forward to 'Battleship' period.

The Scorpion King 3: Battle For Redemption

'The Scorpion King' series is an interesting one. It aims to be good, fun, sword and sorcery adventure stories calling out characters like Conan and Kull, but, unlike a classic character like Conan, is often kept from moving into too adult of territory by an emphasis on being popcorn entertainment.
The first was a spin off of 'The Mummy Returns' the first sequel to the remake of 'The Mummy', which had the character attempt to take over the world and ultimately cursed by Anubis to live as a Scorpion monster. It aimed to explore the conqueror now in this movie an assassin and the last of his kind. It went through rewrites and edits ultimately becoming something other than what was intended. With the film shifted overall towards a lighter style and tone. It had more than a few awkward moments and weak scenes trying to justify the steps before the status quo already seen in 'The Mummy Returns'. I still think an alternate cut exists that would of worked out most of the problems the movie had, but we'll likely never see it. Which is unfortunate because a look at some of the deleted scenes gives you a glimpse of material that works so much better than what was in the final product. Problems aside however, the movie was still a fun enough little flick.
The second movie; 'The Scorpion King 2: Rise Of A Warrior' was a prequel featuring the main character as a young member of a royal guard out to avenge the murder of his father by the evil king. The title role was naturally recast with a younger actor to accommodate both the shift in timeline and the absence of Dwayne Johnson. It featured quite a number of elements with scorpion in the name seemingly to remind you that "this is the guy who becomes The Scorpion King", not the least of which was a giant, invisible, scorpion in the films climax. And overall had a greater emphasis on magic. While it wasn't nearly as good as the first, and suffered from the incredibly reduced budget, it was decent enough.
And now we have the third, the trailer for which is above. Just from this trailer it looks like a step above the second film. Once again the main character is recast, but now older as indicated by the impressive beard. And the setting has been changed to what appears to be Thailand. Ron Perlman and Billy Zane play brothers, with Perlman being the King and Zane scheming to take the throne. Here's the official synopsis;

'Since his triumphant rise to power in the original blockbuster The Scorpion King, Mathayus’ kingdom has fallen and he’s lost his queen to plague. Now an assassin for hire, he must defend a kingdom from an evil tyrant and his ghost warriors for the chance to regain the power and glory he once knew. Starring Ron Perlman (Hellboy) and Billy Zane (Titanic), and featuring 6-time WWE champion Dave Bautista and UFC star Kimbo Slice, The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption takes The Mummy phenomenon to an all-new level of epic action and non-stop adventure!'

Showing the trailer to my little sister, who enjoys the first film but hates the second, she said it looked "pretty cool". I'll give it a look when I get a chance, it comes out on DVD/Blu-ray January 10th. Maybe if things work out we'll see a fourth and fifth in the franchise. Who knows where those will go.

My morning.

My trouble this morning went like this, and i apologize if anyone is disgusted by the story; I got sick to my stomach and tragically the toilet, the only toilet in the house fyi, suffered the consequences. It became unusable in short. I looked for a plunger and realized we didn't have one. I tried any number of half thought ideas, all failed. Dad woke up and after a few sips of coffee i informed him of my crime. I went out to the garage in the hope of finding a plunger, again failure. I came back in to find the toilet fixed. "How'd that happen?" I exclaimed. Dad's response; "Its not my first rodeo." He than went to work, still a little sick from a cold he's been dealing with. Yes my dad is a badass.

Will Mankind Destroy Itself?