300 Spartans

Comic Book Titles, Fantasy Adventure No Responses »
Jun 232010

  

300 (Widescreen Edition) takes a whole new turn on the story much like Spartacus. King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) of Sparta leads his army in a war against Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his army of Persians. 

Do you think this guy wears enough jewelry?

 

Spartans are trained in combat at a young age by sending them out into the wild to fend for themselves, wearing nothing but their underwear. At least I think it’s underwear. 

It’s interesting that Leonidas has his own pit of death to send unwanted Persians. It’s even bigger than the one on Army of Darkness. And that’s because, “This is Sparta!” Okay, I can go with that. 

      

The Ephors Leonidas visits are in serious need of acne wash. Either it hasn’t been invented yet, or they must ask the oracle first, which is always a beautiful woman. That’s how those mystics always seem to make any of their decisions. The bad guys pay them off so they could get a new oracle every day. Considering that the oracles keep dying whenever they’re used. 

      

Leonidas wants to go to war against the Persians, but the wise men insist that he shouldn’t. Leonidas is clever to mention that he’s merely taking a stroll with his 300 bodyguards. I know it sounds like a bit extreme, but he is the king. Among Leonidas’s loyal soldiers is a hunchback named Ephialtes (Andrew Tiernan), who wants to help out in battle. Unfortunately, Leonidas turns him down because he can’t hold his shield up properly. What a disappointment. It was enough for Ephialtes to serve Xerxes instead, and all he wanted to do was help. At least he got a pointy hat out of it. 

     

After awhile of traveling, the Spartan army’s luck begins to turn as a fierce storm takes out a faction of Persians because no fighting was required. But that’s not the end, only the beginning. The battles are fierce with a lot of slow and fast motion. Neither side shows any mercy. No prisoners. Nobody even gets to walk away from the battle. It’s kill or be killed, all the way. So many bodies, so little time. The battle becomes even more fearsome and creative as the Persian immortals reveal a demon-like presence. And let’s not forget that giant warrior. Now he’s a dangerous enemy, like a goblin on steroids. The Spartan army still has a long way to go before Xerxes himself. Can they stop him? 

      

This was a great movie based on the graphic novel. It has even lead to spoof titles like 305 and Meet The Spartans (Rated). What’s next? 300 Amazons? Now that would be interesting. 

One last item: At MegaCon 2010, there was a group of Cosplay characters dressed as a group of Spartan soldiers marching around and hooting. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos because they’re difficult to chase down.   

    


      

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Mega Man

Video Game Adaptations, Vinnie's Personal Favorites No Responses »
Jun 042010

        

I first heard about Mega Man from Captain N: The Game Master. Then I played some of the classic Mega Man video games and enjoyed them. Megaman: A Hero Is Born and Megaman – Battle for the Future (Vol. 2) (1994-1996) goes to a whole new level with a new and improved version of the classic characters.   In a world where humans and robots live in harmony, the young robot hero and his family, which includes his creator Dr. Light, are the only defense against arch nemesis Dr. Wily and his army of colorful robot henchmen. The main ones include Cut Man the logging bot with a voice of a psychopath, Guts Man the construction bot with monstrous strength, and Proto Man who is Mega Man’s evenly matched brother.        

     

The battle scenes with those bad bots are real exciting because Mega Man can copy a foe’s weapon just by touching him. In the video games, Mega Man has to completely destroy a bad bot in order to get his weapon. It’s also neat that when Mega Man copies a weapon, an image of the schematic instantly goes into his head.    

Mega Man’s sister, Roll, can also kick butt with a clever use of cooking utensils and cleaning tools as weapons. It took awhile for Mega Man to take her seriously though. Then there’s Rush the robot dog, who can instantly tranform into any type of small vehicle. He’s a bit clumsy, but a good companion for Mega Man, even while in the heat of battle. In the video games, Rush’s options are limited and he only gains one transformation at a time, which is based on which bad bot gets destroyed.  

        

One real advantage all of the robots have is that they don’t breathe. So they can still function normally underwater and in outer space. Robots also never age. That is, if they don’t rust.     

Here I am with a Cosplay Mega Man character at MegaCon 2010.

 

This show is definitely a favorite, especially after being familiarized with the original video game versions. It truly was a classic. Not every bad bot from the franchise was on this series, but a lot of them were. I’ll tell ya that I looked forward to each episode when a new one was featured, even if it was only for one appearance.

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Square One TV

Childhood Favorites, Variety Shows, Vinnie's Personal Favorites No Responses »
May 172010

Square One TV (1987-1992) was one of my most favorite PBS educational shows. It has reoccurring skits, game shows, and music videos all used to teach different types of mathematics, which happens to be one of my best subjects. One thing I don’t understand is that this is labeled as a show for younger kids, but some of the types of mathematics featured are meant for junior high level, such as probability, combinatorics, geometry, and negative numbers. I can remember when items like those were never excepted, let alone discussed, in grade school math classes.

One of my most favorite reoccurring segments was Mathman. A PAC-Man spoof, where the hero, Mathman, has to decide which numbers/polygons to eat. There were times when Mathman wins a free game, but if he’s ever wrong, just once, Mr. Glitch, who is a strange mini tornado villain, chases after Mathman and eats him. Then the game is over. Something puzzles me though. When Mathman runs for his life, what would’ve happened if he encounters another number/polygon before Glitch gets him? On the other hand, Mathman gets caught way too easily. There were times when Glitch plays the game, but I don’t think he’s ever won any. When that happens, Mathman gets to chase and eat him. Isn’t revenge sweet?

Here’s a YouTube video I found of a classic Mathman segment. So this makes how many times Mathman was eaten?

The second half of every episode has Mathnet. A Dragnet spoof, where two detectives, George Frankly (Joe Howard) and Kate Monday (Beverly Leech), use mathematics to crack cases. Personally, I think that mathematics is a great way to do so. In the later seasons, Kate Monday was replaced by Pat Tuesday (Toni Di Buono) without any explanation why.

Mathnet has a motto: “To Cogitate and to Solve”. An interesting item I’ve noticed is that the mathematicians never carry guns. Instead they use their gun holsters to hold their calculators. I guess you never know when you might need them when an arithmetic problem gets thrown at ya. I admit, it’s not exactly Numb3rs, but these are still interesting cases that can appeal to adults as well as kids.

I know there were other mathematical shows, but honestly, none of them could measure up to Square One TV.

I’m surprised that Square One TV hasn’t made it to DVD yet. I find it just as creative and memorable as such PBS shows like The Electric Company, classic Sesame Street, 3-2-1 Contact, and Reading Rainbow.

One last item: Speaking of Reading Rainbow, I met host Levar Burton at MegaCon 2010. He wasn’t very talkative, but when I went to get his autograph, I mentioned that I enjoyed watching him on the show when I was a kid.

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1990s Batman Cartoon

Batman, Comic Book Titles, Super Heroes 2 Responses »
Apr 052010

This Batman series, known as Batman the Animated Series (1992-1995), is more of a crime fighting drama, like in the comic books. There are no pop-up words and the action is more intense.

It also features more of the villains from the comics, who aren’t in the 60s version, such as Two-Face, Bane, Scarecrow, the Ventriloquist, Poison Ivy, and my personal favorite, Harley Quinn. All of the colorful villains are not kept in jail when they’re caught. They get sent to Arkham Asylum, where they can be rehabilitated and possibly become normal again. What are the odds of that ever happening? Then of course there’s the revelation of the villains’ real names along with some of their background stories. That makes it even more interesting.

This is also when I first learned that Batman’s dark presence and mask are only meant to scare the bad guys. It doesn’t really work against most of the arch villains since some of them are already a bit freaky, but it sure works against other criminals on the streets.

It was also difficult for me to follow the series since Batman does much of his crime fighting solo. In the 60s version, Robin always fights by Batman’s side. On this show, Robin sometimes joins in and even Batgirl makes appearances. Just not all the time.

There were several Cosplay characters from a couple of different conventions I’ve been to. The Joker, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy were from MegaCon 2010 and the Penguin was from Spooky Empire 2009.

Overall, it’s a good series that helped me understand the franchise better. The movie versions even made more sense that way.

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Alice in Wonderland (2010 version)

Fantasy Adventure 1 Response »
Apr 032010

I know this movie is still out in theaters, but I couldn’t wait to talk about it after seeing it for the first time. As you can see in this Cosplay photo from MegaCon 2010, Alice in Wonderland was definitely a movie to look forward to.

At Mini MegaCon 2009, I met Alice’s (Mia Wasikowska) stunt double Tarah Paige and she was sweet. I remember Tarah most from Stick It as young gymnast Tricia Skilken. Tarah also mentioned that she was a Decepticon from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Single-Disc Edition). My sister and I each got an autograph from her also.

 

Tim Burton’s version of Alice in Wonderland was different compared to other versions. Alice is a young woman from London, who is being forced into an arranged marriage. She also had strange dreams of being in Wonderland when she was a child. Now Alice goes there for real and is destined to slay the Jabberwocky, who works for the wicked Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter).

Other interesting characters include Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. After seeing him as other artsy characters like Sweeny Todd and Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, it was obvious that he was perfect for this role. I also like his eyes, they were cool looking.

There’s also the Cheshire Cat who can appear and disappear with a neat effect, like the disappearing demons on Charmed and a tiny Dormouse, who has the sword skills of Reppicheep from Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. However, she can be a bit arrogant sometimes. Like when she confronts Alice and gladly stabs her in the foot. Please, Dormouse. Save it for the battlefield, will ya.

Last, but not least, there’s Anne Hathaway as the White Queen. She is the sister of the Red Queen, but a polar opposite.  Anne Hathaway has played princess roles before, which I have enjoyed. I admit, this character doesn’t stand out as much, but it’s still a good one.

The effects in this movie are amazing. I didn’t recognize the playing card soldiers at first because of the strange armor they wear, but after seeing a few close ups of the numbers and symbols on their shoulders, I could tell what they were more easily.

When the huge battle between the Red Queen’s soldiers and the White Queen’s soldiers took place it was set up on a chessboard. It started out a little misleading as if it was going to be like a chess game, but then it became a more exciting battle much in the style of the huge battle scene on Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. It’s incredible!

This was a great film. However, the parts with Alice in the “real” world ran a bit long. Once Alice was in Wonderland, it was one great adventure of comedy and excitement.

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