Okay, non-anime topic time. Hey, Japan loves the four-eyed wizard boy too.
Now and again, I like to keep up with news in the Potterverse. I could get into a detailed ramble thousands of words long about exactly what I think of the series, but I’ll spare us both the trouble. Suffice to say that I’m a fan of the books. Despite my best efforts, I’m rather purist about it all and so most of the movies don’t sit well with me, but I’ve really come to love to hating them. (Oh, man, making fun of the Order of the Phoenix movie was great.) As such, I was kind of looking forward to the 6th movie’s release in November and was very surprised to find today, quite by accident, that it’s been pushed back eight months to July 2009. And why? Not because they’re not finished with it. They’re done. It’s just…they want a summer blockbuster instead of a winter-release film. …Wait, What? :|
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I’ve had this movie sitting around for a while, but I finally decided to watch it yesterday to distract myself from the epic tragedyfest that was episode 18 of Code Geass R2. I’m not usually much for shoujo, but I think this was a pretty decent choice of distraction.
(this review contains no spoilers!)
NANA
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I wasn’t expecting the rumor mill to kick into gear so soon, but it looks like some “reliable source” has said that Keanu Reeves has been “attached” as the role of Spike Spiegal in the recently revealed FOX Cowboy Bebop live action movie. Huh. Well, that’s interesting. I don’t really think anyone expected any big name actors to sign on for any of these upcoming US-made anime live action movies. I certainly didn’t, anyway, and I’m not quite sure that I want Mr. Reeves to be Spike. I’m having a hard time picturing it — what about you?
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It seems like almost immediately after I made my post about upcoming anime live action movies, I read an article in the Times about the mad rush of superhero comic movies and the idea that their popularity may be just about ready to peak. It definitely makes sense. After all, there have been well over a dozen comic book adaptions in the last several years. Many of them have been very, very successful, like the entire Spider-Man franchise, Iron Man, and most recently, The Dark Knight. Others were epic box office failures, like Catwoman and Elektra (I know, we were trying to forget those two even existed, right?). It’s been quite a mixed bag, but the high end is very, very high. I guess when comic movies are breaking record after record, people are going to start to think it’s too much of a good thing. It’s gotta end somewhere, right?
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With three ridiculously popular Death Note and the NANA live actions still in recent memory, it seems like everyone and their mom is making live action adaptations of anime, including some by American companies. The Dragonball movie’s finally got a confirmed release date in 2009, and Fox has just confirmed having acquired the rights to a Cowboy Bebop live action, not to mention that there are rumors floating around about an American adaptation of Death Note (do we really need more?), though I’ve forgotten where I read this. As well, both TOKYOPOP and Viz have recently restructured to include a new media branch that will supposedly focus on pitching properties to Hollywood. I find all of this somewhat surprising considering Speed Racer’s abysmal failure (though I don’t think it really deserved to bomb as badly as it did), but I’m curious — if even one of these live actions manages a mild success in the US, could that open the gates for many, many more, just as 2000′s X-Men and 2002′s Spider-Man seemed to have opened the floodgates for endless comic book adaptations?
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Usually, I can sit right down to writing after I’ve seen something. I’ll finish the last episode and fire up Notepad (because simpler is better) to write a review. I’ll come back from the theatre and set immediately to writing. But for some reason, I couldn’t do that after The Dark Knight. Immediately after finishing the movie, I didn’t want to write. I wanted to see it again, maybe two more times, before writing anything, but for a variety of reasons, that’s probably not going to happen any time soon. So I sat on it for a few days, pondering it and trying to sort out my opinions. That isn’t to say that I was ambivalent or didn’t have an immediate opinion at the time, it was just the details of it…
(this review contains mild, nonspecific spoilers)
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So they finally gave us a poster with Goku on it.
I can’t decide whether or not I’m excited about this movie. I’ll probably go see it regardless, and I had renewed faith when they announced that Stephen Chow would be involved. But they’re still using a white guy as Goku. ._. To be fair, I don’t remember any of his other roles well, and thus can’t judge him much as an actor, but it just seems weird? Orange gi sure looks weird in real life — isn’t it funny how we never realize these things? I hope they never make a live action Naruto, but if this movie’s even a minor success, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if someone tried to do the same with DBZ’s grand successor. I can’t remember, are they planning sequels for this Dragonball movie? Anyway, I’m glad they finally have a date on this after kicking around in the rumor bin for years after years.
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