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So much has happened since I last posted!  For those of you who are not aware, I will start at graduation.  Last May I graduated Summa Cum Laude from Huntington University in Indiana with two majors: Digital Media Arts-Animation and Computer Science.  My senior animation team released a short film called “What Remains,” which I produced and wrangled renders for (important later on!) and which can be seen at WhatRemainsTheFilm.com.  I worked with a great team on this project, and really enjoyed the experience!  I also worked on another fun team developing a ticket-sales system for fine arts events. continue »

I know this is a little late, but “Tangled” was a very good movie that I enjoyed seeing twice so far, once late last fall, and then again recently on Blu-ray (amazing quality, by the way).  “Tangled” is what new Disney releases should be.  The style, the storytelling, and the overall cohesiveness of the music, characters, and animation is of the high quality that I would expect from such a production studio.

“Tangled” is the Disney retelling of the the story of Rapunzel continue »

So I watched the movie “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” the other day, not necessarily intending to watch that movie in particular, but just wanting to watch a movie in general.  However, when I saw it listed on Netflix, I realized that I had thought about watching it before.  I had wanted to see it when it first came out, but I heard shortly after it came out that it was pretty much a flop.  Still, I was curious to see what it was about.

To start off with, I just have to say that my expectations were quite off.  I really enjoyed “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,” even though it is relatively unknown and definitely its own kind of movie.  The movie is set up as a sort of retro-futuristic spy movie, complete with gadgets, giant robots, and gallantry.  The movie, while only a few years old, was produced as if it were made in the thirties, forties, or fifties, predicting the state of the world several decades into the future of that era.  As such, digital technology is nonexistent for the most part, and all of the gadgets, while advanced in concept, are still based on older concepts such as propellers on planes and ancient radio sets.  The production, also, is in the same style of years ago, using “bad” compositing techniques, somewhat gaudy traditional transitions, and messy “film” grain and damage.  But I am convinced that most, if not all, of these missteps were intentional to support the notion that this movie was really made in the forties.  Regardless of this stylistic practice, the one shortfall that I noticed most was that the acting was genuinely sub-par in execution.  But that did not subtract from the movie enough to be a huge issue.

Perhaps my favorite part of the movie was the development and insight put into the creation of the characters, gadgets, and environments.  Many of the concepts of the various environments are extremely nontraditional, lending a definite creative streak to the production.  For instance, who says that airbases were necessarily designed to support air raids?  Why not have these be the bases for naval operations?  Is this confusing enough?  Well, I am not quite sure how it was pulled off, but this discrepancy was easily handled by the storyline.

I would highly recommend “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” as a fun movie to watch.  I realize that most people will not appreciate it as much as I do, but I do believe that it is at least an interesting movie that was skillfully crafted.  I do agree that it is definitely not the “greatest movie ever made,” but I still really enjoyed the movie as a whole, especially the unique setup of many of the key concepts.

Well, it has been quite some time since I have posted, mainly due to school finishing up and getting my summer started and all. Regardless, I wanted to go back and review “Iron Man 2” since I had been looking forward to the release of that movie all last school year.

Iron Man 2 starts out with Tony Stark being the superstar he always had been before he was Iron Man. He enjoys his new life, especially the part where he refused to hand over the Iron Man technology to the government, supposedly in the name of “privatization.” Through his new life, people saw him as becoming more and more invincible, and he even began to convince himself of this. But, unbeknownst to everyone else, he was slowly becoming poisoned by the plutonium required to fuel his life-sustaining electromagnet that kept the shrapnel in his chest from entering his heart.

I really enjoyed this movie, but probably not for the reason that most people would anticipate. There were plenty of action sequences, special effects, and gadgets, but I enjoyed most the development of Tony Stark’s character. Tony showed us that although he definitely had a life changing experience which caused him to help the world become a more peaceful place, he was still affected and enamored by the “glamorous” lifestyle he had lived even before his change. He did come to realize, though, throughout the movie, how temporary and precarious life is, even for someone as strong as Iron Man.
There is no doubt that Iron Man was a great movie. But in the same manner as I thought about the first Iron Man movie

 Iron Man 2 is not the best movie ever, but it is definitely a fun, enjoyable movie to experience.

Last night I watched a movie that I have long been told I would enjoy, “Minority Report.” I did enjoy the movie, and I could see why people thought that I would like it.  There are really several areas of the movie which I think it excelled at, including story, art direction, and effects.

I am a huge fan of Sci-Fi, so of course I enjoyed the futuristic component of the movie.  However, I especially enjoyed the technology, with everything from the cars to the computer interfaces being intriguing to me.  However, one thing kept bugging me throughout the movie: why carve the victim and assailant’s names into wood spheres?  Yes, I realize that the idea was uniqueness (referencing wood grain), but it just seems like a waste of digital technology.

The discussion of free will was especially engaging, including the look at personal choice in the face of a predetermined future.  It also made me think twice about how incidents in the past can influence events in the future.  Regardless, the movie was an excellent commentary on the exploitation of a few for the “good” of many.  Is the end result really “good” if it comes at the expense of others?  Also, can we safely “prove” a person’s behavior in advance through social scientific mechanisms and then make absolute assumptions based on those “trends” and propensities?

This was an entertaining movie with some compelling assumptions.  The conclusions the movie reached are similar to the ones I have reached, especially when regarding the preciousness of life.  Also, it also affirms my uncomfortability with knowing the future.  I would rather life my life as it is, and find out about it as it goes!

Further thoughts?