When You Wish Without A Star

John Carter... fantastic movie, dismal box office, at least in the US.  Disney/Pixar's first live-action movie attempt scored way below their expectations and prompted the firing of at least one studio executive.

Conan The Barbarian (2011)... a decent attempt at relaunching the franchise, but also a box office failure.

Both studios had high hopes for these films.  What went wrong?  John Carter was the victim of an extremely poor advertising campaign that targeted kids and not the pulp/sci-fi/action buffs that were familiar with the books.  The Disney cable channels bombarded their commercial time with shots of smiling aliens, John Carter jumping really high and running around with his space dog.  Everyone I know that was not a die-hard fan just thought it looked stupid.

Conan's producers should have planned on a more marketable movie and cut a few scenes of gore and nudity so that they could grab the PG-13 rating instead of R.  This limited the intended audience, right out of the gate.

However, the biggest problem that both movies had was that they had absolutely NO STAR POWER!  Both title characters were practically unknowns.  This is a BIG gamble to bet so much money on (Conan cost $90 million, while John Carter's budget was a reported $250 million!!!)  Even the supporting characters were mostly unknown.  In Carter, you had Taylor Kitsch as the title character, there was Mark Strong as a bad guy and voice-overs by Willem Dafoe and Thomas Hayden Church, but you didn't see those last 2 on screen, so it doesn't count.  As far as Conan, Nobody outside of Stargate or Game of Thrones fans had ever heard of Jason Momoa.  I can't stress enough how huge of a mistake this was.  Admittedly, if either had worked, the executives involved would have been labeled as geniuses, but, alas, it didn't happen.

Conan was a slightly above average action flick, but John Carter was quite spectacular.  Fans of the books were very pleased.  There were few complaints from anyone who actually went and saw it.  There is a fan-made trailer for Carter that really helps boost interest in the film.  If only Disney had hired those guys to help promote it.  I showed it to some of the naysayers and they immediately had a 180 degree impression of the movie and wanted to rush out and see it.  I'll try to include it below.

From BoxOfficeMojo.com
Conan The Barbarian (2011)  Cost: $90 mil  Domestic Box Office: $21.2 mil
John Carter   Cost: $250 mil   Domestic Box Office: $70.7 mil

Both actually did better overseas, but that was in ALL foreign markets combined.

So.. When you film without a star, it makes no difference what studio you are....

Avengers Assembled

Highest opening weekend ever!  Well how about that.  Putting aside my usual quips about the Writer/Director, I'll talk some about The Avengers movie (I'm sorry, Marvel's The Avengers.  Wouldn't want to confuse it with that British TV series or the horrible motion picture based on it.).
All the players are there.  Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Nick Fury, Black Widow, Hawkeye and even the 3rd generation Bruce Banner/Hulk, this time portrayed by Mark Ruffalo.
So, Loki is on the loose and he's got his hands on the "Cosmic Cube" or Tesseract.  He's ready to open a portal to lead an alien army through to Earth and "free humanity from freedom" (paraphrasing), whatever that means.  Nick Fury brings together our heroes to save the world.
The team is pretty dysfunctional at first and there are a lot of arguments and in-fighting but they eventually manage to pull it together to unite against the common enemy.  The actors really bring the dialogue and banter to life and Robert Downey, Jr. manages to steal the scene just about every time he appears on-screen.  He's really nailed the Tony Stark persona.  All the characters manage to get fairly equal screen-time, and the action sequences keep things moving.
Overall, the movie actually does live up to the hype and Marvel just keeps marching forward.  Iron Man 3, which starts shooting within the next month, is slated for 5/3/13, Thor 2 for 11/15/13 and Captain America 2 is down for 4/4/14 (these are confirmed dates from Marvel, though subject to change).  This would probably put a follow-up to The Avengers at May of 2015, if they keep their current release formula.  As for The Incredible Hulk, Marvel has hinted that they may be looking at returning him to the small screen as an on-going series (queue sad, walking away music).  Whether or not they would get Ruffalo to portray him, or yet another actor, remains to be seen.

Other Marvel movie news: The Amazing Spider-man relaunch/reboot is out this summer with a release date for part 2 already announced.  Fox has a "use it or lose it" deal on the X-men and Fantastic Four properties so The Wolverine is in pre-production but no word on the FF other than they want to reboot it as well.  Marvel has also indicated that they would like to bring out some of their lesser known characters in lower budget films, one of which is Doctor Strange which I believe would be interesting (although they did produce a really bad version of him back in the 70's and Paramount/Full Moon Entertainment had a knock-off character called Doctor Mordrid back in the 80's).  There are even a few other characters that are in early development for possible TV shows.  We'll just have to wait and see...

Music Monday

Yes, it's Monday....and here's some music.....

New stuff from Rush and Asia.  Enjoy!

Affirmative Action

Back from hiatus with breaking news:

Benoit David

 Out with the old (sort of) and in with the new.  YES has recruited yet another lead singer due to front-man, Benoit David, contracting a respiratory ailment.  The band has gotten Jon Davison, from the Tennessee based progressive group Glass Hammer.  YES will be touring with him in April as they go to Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
Their current lineup is now Chris Squire (Bass), Steve Howe (Guitar), Alan White (Drums), Geoff Downes (keyboards) and Jon Davison (Vocals).  Oddly enough, original singer, Jon Anderson, had to leave the group due to Acute Respiratory Failure in 2008.

Jon Davison

Glass Hammer has been around since '93 but just recently signed Davison in '09.  He has appeared on their last 2 albums.  Vocally, he appears to be a good fit.

Post-Pilot Update

Terra Nova's second episode was worse than the pilot by way of boring me to tears.  Prehistoric birds terrorize the colony... riveting.

Person of Interest got marginally better in it's sophomore episode.  They may be able to make something of it.

Hawaii Five-O's new season is pretty good.  They picked up Terry O'Quinn (John Locke from LOST) as a semi-regular cast member.  I still only watch this part-time, though.
 
I tuned in to House because I thought they would have something new to show as he's in prison for being crazier than usual.  However, they still did the EXACT SAME THING that they do in EVERY episode.  That's right, he actually solved a mysterious medical case... IN PRISON!!!  That show has a rut it can't shake.  Oh, well.

And, post-finale update, Doctor Who answered many questions but posed new ones.  Not too bad of a cliffhanger.  The Christmas episode will be here before you know it.

Also, Warehouse 13 literally ended in a "bang" of sorts.  Going to have to wait for 6 months 'til next season on that one (although, they will also have a Christmas episode, but it will be out of continuity with the rest of the story-line like last year's).


Well, that's it.  Short and sweet.  Bon appetite...

To Blog or not To Blog....

...That's not really the question.  It's a matter of time and... (glances at TV: Woa! David Letterman is looking old! ...looks back at computer) ... where was I? Whatever, never mind.  And speaking of Nirvana, 20 years? Well, I've stated my very unpopular opinion that they are one of the most overrated bands to ever wear flannel.  Anyway, if you're still reading, I'm obviously all over the place here.

Just watched the premier of Terra Nova.  A future Earth is overpopulated and over-polluted.  A discovered rift in space-time offers a gateway to a prehistoric past and a chance to start over.  The story, though not completely original (See author Julian May and the Saga of Pliocene Exile), has potential.  Some of the dialog is forced and cliche' and, from a technical aspect, the editing has some annoying glitches.  All of these things can be worked out over time, if the network allows it.  Unfortunately,  Brannon Braga is involved with the production.  He is one-half of the "creative" team that is responsible for the downfall of the Star Trek TV franchise.  Hopefully the other 12, count 'em 12 producers will keep him in check.  He co-wrote the pilot episode and is probably responsible for most of my gripes.  I'll still give it a try, however, since there is a shortage of good speculative fiction programming on right now (really, any good programming at all).  I almost forgot, Steven Spielberg has his name on it too, but it's in really small letters.  He'll probably turn his back on it like he did with SeaQuest.

Person of Interest got off to a rocky start.  Another good premise held down by poor dialog and very dry acting.  Sorry, James Caviezel.  Oh, and Michael Emerson is just playing Benjamin Linus from Lost again, but as a good-guy this time (his character name in this is actually John Reese, not Ben Linus.  Sorry for the confusion).  The pilot seemed very rushed and things fell in to place a bit too conveniently.  I have a feeling they intended it to be a 2-hour episode instead of 1.  And Jim's beard was soooo fake looking.  I hope this show gets better because I had high hopes for it.

Doctor Who will be wrapping up it's sixth season (or should I say "series") this week.  It looks like it will be a major cliff-hanger.  The show is still going strong.  Big Bang Theory is back with a, well you know, ..bang and Fringe is back for another mind-bending season.

Saw a few movies over the summer, but missed more.  Captain America was pretty awesome, by the way.  Didn't see Green Lantern, but I heard that might be a good thing.  Didn't see Cowboys or Aliens and didn't get to go "Ape" ;)  The new Conan took a dirt nap with the new Fright Night, but still didn't see those either.  Well, there's always the video releases to look forward to.

Just finished Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's book, Hellhole....finally, and reading A Game of Thrones (I know, I'm late to the party.  Haven't seen the series yet either.)  DC Comics kicked off the New 52.  Re-launching 52 popular or new titles with number one issues.  Re-inventing or re-invisioning or re-gurgatating.  We'll see how that goes.

New music out by Lindsey Buckingham, Yes and a group I just discovered, Rival Sons.  Check it out.



Well I think I've recovered some of the ground I lost blogging over the summer.  We'll see if I can get back on here again before Christmas....

'PIRATES' SAILS & 'FIRST CLASS' IS FIRST-RATE

I know, I'm cheating by rolling both reviews in to one, but this summer entertainment season is hoppin'.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides set sail in the U.S. on June 20th but was already a success overseas.  It is well on its way to being one of the biggest money-makers of all-time.  To date it has made over $800 million world-wide.  So, the question remains, is it really any good.  The answer is...yes.  While parts 2 & 3 of the franchise were basically a single (and kind of dark) story shot and released back to back, part 4 is a welcome return to light-hearted adventure more in line with the first film.  Some are making comparisons to an Indiana Jones style as the crew is off on a quest for the legendary Fountain of Youth.  And, I must say that the way they approach it is quite clever if sometimes a bit tedious.  If you are a fan of the Jack Sparrow character you will be well rewarded as this is definitely ALL about him.  Penelope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush and Ian McShane (as Blackbeard) are along for the ride but it's Johnny Depp that carries this story.  This is a good and a bad thing.  Depp, as always, is very good, but a change of focus to another character now and then would have provided a better pace for the movie.  Instead, it's everyone pretty much reacting to whatever Jack Sparrow does and with a running time of 2 hours and 17 minutes it begins to run just a bit thin toward the end.  Also, being shot in 3D, the visuals really work well as opposed to a 3D conversion.  However, I didn't really see how it enhanced the movie that much.  I think a 2D viewing would provide just as much enjoyment.  Overall, I think this is a good re-launch and, if they can keep up the momentum, they may be able to get a few more nautical miles out of it.  The door is left open but it doesn't leave you hanging.  Time will tell...

X-Men: First Class was quite a pleasant surprise.  I purposefully stayed away from previews and spoilers for this as I wanted to go in fresh.  I didn't even know who was playing the main villain until just a couple of weeks ago.  I think that this approach paid off and allowed me to really experience the story as it unfolded rather than waiting for it to unfold.  Most people had a bad taste left over from part 3 and I think that explains the slow start at the box-office.  My advice to them is to go ahead and give it a try.  It is a period piece, taking place almost entirely in 1962.  The writing, casting, acting, effects and pacing are all well done.  There is plenty of action mixed with some humor and quite a bit of drama, mostly involving the primary leads of James McAvoy (as Professor Xavier) and Michael Fassbender (as Erik/Magneto).  So far, it's being well-received overall with the primary complaint being January Jones' performance as Emma Frost.  Let me just say that this is where the nitpickers are focusing.  There is nothing wrong with her acting in this and I'm not sure what people are expecting from a comic book-based movie.  This isn't Shakespeare!  Anyway, look for a few cameos and nods to other characters of the X-Men universe.