The Mothman Cometh: A True Story

Mothman is a Sci-Fi-Horror film about Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Local legend has it that settlers fought an Indian chief, Cornstalk, whose last act of retribution was to summon evil and turn into Mothman, basically a moth-like grim reaper. Fast forward to today and six friends are yanking one of their little brother under water, just to tease him. But he drowns and they cover it up by bashing his head in, one by one. Being a righteous daemon, the mothman cometh only when evil-doers get away with gruesome acts. In gory twists and turns, the mothman enters our world through mirrors (his version of portals include rear-view mirrors, drivers beware) and pick of the six friends.

Mothman is satisfying in that the six friends were so wicked that it was great seeing them get their just desserts. The Mothman CGI wasn't horrid like most of Syfy Channel's effects, and the gore was delightful, especially a line of guts sliding down a trailer. The acting wasn't exactly award-winning but it served its purpose. On the other hand, the costume department left something to be desired, the film was shot in an odd yellow hue, and Frank (the creepy old man character) was ridiculously deceiving.

Better yet, the Mothman Myth is real. So is Point Pleasant. So is the sightings and bridge accident of 1967. This adds a dimension of realism to the film, and an eeriness. Citizens of Point Pleasant still insist Mothman is real. Just as in the film, Point Pleasant commemorates Mothman at the yearly Mothman festival.

Mothman is worth the gore and CGI; the added layer of true elements makes the film worth a watch.

Rant: Remakes, and to a lesser extent, 3D

BSG: the Best TV Show Ever (Why Remake It?)

I sadly discovered that Bryan Singer is set to direct a Battlestar Galactica movie. BSG was riveting and science fiction (and television) at its best. With series and season long story-arcs like the X-Files, BSG was done right because it focused on amazing, deep, well-developed characters and amazing, deep, well-developed storylines. The show basically was about what it took humans from worlds destroyed by the cylons to survive while being aggressively pursued; throw in a heavy amount of spiritual and technological themes and you have as a sublime a television show as you’d ever get. And the ending was mind-blowing and very academic too. The need for a movie that has nothing to do with the remake series is lost on me. Why remake something that’s already been remade so well that you can’t possibly surpass it? Even the original 70s series (fans of campy scifi with like it) was sued by George Lucas for being way too similar to Star Wars. And do we have to be subjected to the inevitable 3D!

And this year alone a remake of a new movie is being pumped out. In this case, it’s a remake of the upcoming (hopefully) romcom (of the year) The Back Up Plan. Starring Jennifer Aniston, The Switch is a romcom about a woman who gets artificially inseminated. Uh, hello, strong J-Lo! J-Lo’s starring in exactly the same plot in her movie. Next thing you know, Jennifer Aniston’s turkey baster is going to pop out at you in 3D. The only thing about the Switch is that it’s based on a short story by a Pultizer Prize winner, so it may be deeper than The Back Up Plan. Though I’m a fan of Jenn, I have to side with J-Lo in this one. (Soundtrack suggestion: use So Hard by the Dixie Chicks, a heartbreaking song about the Chicks’ struggle to get pregnant.)

To be fair, a good portion of movie goers and critics were lukewarm to Clash of the Titans. My personal enjoyment of the film aside, we didn’t really need a remake. The original is iconic and its effects hold up to today. The story was better executed in the original, and the addition of the mechanical owl gave the movie an R2D2-eque character.

What Hollywood needs is originality. I’m certainly not hating on remakes (Dawn of the Dead and My Bloody Valentine were great) but just calling for some freshness in Century City.

TRON: Legacy

Alice in Wonderland is the movie of 2010, but TRON: Legacy is being released in December. Time will tell if this is a good movie, but judging by the trailer, it will be amazing (though no trailer will beat how epic the Blindness trailer was). Hedorah and I were in giddy fan mode when the trailer started, coupled with the fact that it was in Xtreme Digital 3D and attached to Alice.

The part that sent chills down my spine was when Jeff Bridge's son dusts off the Tron game. Then he enters into the Tron game and the trailer really takes off. The scene where he rides slowly up on that circular platform is another chilling scene, as the staticy electronic music plays during a montage of clips of the characters. The game with the glowing hollow disks looks great, and I love the David Bowie-esque guy rocking with the glowstick. And of course we're teased with just a snippet of a light cycle chase.

I calculate this will be a worthy tribute to the first movie, which I have a lot of fond memories of. I'm not sure if Garrett Hedlund can carry the film, but that's my bias against his raspy voice. The female supporting cast looks like a good balance between a femme fatale vibe and the sexy sci fi girl, and it's fantastic that Jeff Bridges was humble enough to come back. It also seems that the CGI recalls the effects of the first film, which hold up today.

And what can beat Tron set to a Daft Punk soundtrack? Kudos to Disney!

Jabba the Hutt: Renaissance Man

“Imagine if you will... the most ominous creature in existence. Now imagine that this creature is the ruthless leader of the most dangerous cutthroats in the galaxies.”

That’s how Kenner’s 1984 toy catalog described one of the most brilliant creations in the history of mankind: Jabba the Hutt.

Jabba the Hutt is vastly underappreciated. The poor Hutt is lampooned and jeered at all over, whether in movies or on the internet. He has been reduced to a symbol of the greed and gluttony of America. Jokes are made that fat people are Jabba, which if anything, is quite an unfair comparison for poor Mr. Hutt. He can’t help that his anatomy is made to me large. People, on the other hand, aren’t.

Jabba the Hutt was cunning and intelligent. No one can get to the top without the right amount of brains (granted, Jabba had the all the guards money can buy to make a point if the powers of his intellect weren’t enough). Jabba was also a caring Hutt. He once saved Ephant Mon on the ice moon of Glakka by shielding him with his body. Only the most caring person would risk their own life to save a trusted comrade. Sadly, even in his own universe, Jabba was misunderstood. Everyone in his court plotted against him, save for Ephant. Jabba expertly made sure to pit his courtiers against each other, thereby distracting them from finishing him off. Jabba even had an appreciation for art, of the carbonite sort. He was a patron of dancing and music, employing a band and a dance troupe in his desert palace.

If it wasn’t for that stupid slave girl and her Jedi friend, Jabba would be basking in the coolness of his palace on the arid sand dunes of Tatoonie at this moment.

Jabba was a renaissance man. Only someone so amazing would be so misunderstood. Greatness is too much for people.

So whenever you watch Star Wars again, or before you are about to make a Hutt joke, think about the Hutt you are making fun of. He is surprisingly not at all who think he is.

Jabba is also very kawaii!

A Monster is Born: Gojira (1954)

Godzilla has starred in twenty-eight films, has won numerous awards, and is an international icon beloved by children all over the world. Not bad for a fictional character. Especially when you consider that this character's first film was a dark, not-so-subtle metaphor for the horrors of nuclear warfare.

Many Americans have never seen the side of the Godzilla legend that is presented in Gojira (1954) and therefore are missing out on an important part of the monster's origin story. Unfortunately, it wasn't until 2006, over fifty years after the movie premiered in Japan, that the original subtitled and uncut version of Gojira was released on DVD in the United States. Up until this point, the only version of the film that was widely available on home video in the United States was the heavily cut and dubbed American version (known as Godzilla: King of the Monsters). The American version, while lovable in its own right as a piece of campy '50's science fiction, does not handle the original story with much care and accuracy. Nearly all of the political messages and illusions found in the original Japanese version were cut so as not to turn-off American viewers.

The political messages in Gojira, while occasionally heavy-handed, are absolutely essential to the storyline. Even Godzilla's first attack, which results in the sinking of a small fishing boat, is a clear reference to a specific nuclear accident, in which United States nuclear tests caused the contamination of the cargo and crew aboard the Lucky Dragon No. 5, a Japanese fishing boat. Viewed in this historical context, Gojira is haunting. Gojira 1954 is, arguably, the only Godzilla movie that is interested in its human character as much as it is interested in Godzilla himself. Here the monster is merely a metaphor for the nuclear threat. He does not have a personality as he does in the later films. This Godzilla does not does not dance and play with children, here he is much more animal like.

In regard to the human characters, this film features my all-time favorite, non-monster Godzilla character: the eye-patch wearing Dr. Serizawa. Serizawa is the type of scientist that only exists in the movies. He's reclusive, lives in a house that resembles a castle, and is tormented by the terrible power of his inventions. Serizawa is the tragic hero of the film. He holds the secret to defeating Godzilla in his invention, "the oxygen destroyer". True to its name, the oxygen destroyer is a device that sucks all the oxygen out of the surrounding water it is placed into. But while it is an object that could prove to be the last hope for humanity, it could also, in the wrong hands, be used as a devastating weapon. It is for this reason that Dr. Serizawa is extremely conflicted. Should he save the world from Godzilla only to hand humanity the keys to further devastation in the form of a deadly weapon? Of course, in the end, Serizawa decides to use the oxygen destroyer to vanquish Godzilla, but only at great personal sacrifice.

Godzilla himself is a powerful, intimidating force in the movie. It was because of budgetary issues that special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya decided to portray the monster as a man in a suit (he had originally wanted to animate Godzilla using stop motion techniques similar to those in King Kong). The resulting "suitmation" technique would become a staple of the Godzilla films. True, it does not look "realistic", but I personally love the look of the Godzilla films and would not be happy if the monsters look different than they do now. The detail in the handcrafted buildings that Godzilla destroys are very impressive. Thanks to the human actor underneath the Godzilla suit, the monster's movements look natural. He moves and reacts to his environment similar to the way in which a real animal would. Backing Godzilla's rampages through Tokyo is a rousing soundtrack, which is topped only by the iconic roar of the monster himself.

Gojira is a genre classic. Anyone with any interest in movie monsters, specifically those from Japan, obviously need to see Gojira in its original, uncut form. It is a film with a serious political message, yet it also manages to be very entertaining and engaging while teaching its lesson. As far as Godzilla goes, he has never been more menacing than he was in this movie, as he lumbers out of the water and into the city under the darkness of night. Godzilla's introduction, his head appearing over the crest of a hill, is a classic moment. On the other hand, Godzilla's death at the end of the movie is sad, in its own way, despite his role here as an unfeeling terror.