Monday, August 9, 2010

Countdown: My Top 5 Favorite Movie Heroins

After writing this article, and having to shorten it drastically when compared to the two separate articles featuring my favorite movie heroes and villains, here and here, I came upon the realization that the protagonists in movies are almost always men. This is primarily due to the stereotypical assumption that Hollywood has adopted; that women should be the nurturing type as opposed to the adventurous thrill seeking type that is common of movie heroes. As for myself, I'm not taking sides. I've simply compiled a, (regrettably shortened) list of my favorite movie heroins. So without further adieu, here is the countdown.


5. River Tam: Resilient, powerful and dangerous, the young girl turned experiment known as River Tam was the brain child of a secret government-run institution that's focus was on creating the perfect human weapon. River was the finest consummation of their experimentation.

River became the embodiment of not only physical prowess, but also of mental capabilities, quickly becoming a bona fide psychic. After her older brother Simon sprung her from her "schooling", River joined the crew of the Firefly-class transport ship Serenity.

However, the Galactic Alliance, the government that backed the ambiguous institution, would not let their prized student escape. River was hunted for her knowledge of the Alliance's secrets, soon leading to the events of Miranda wherein River, in an attempt to protect both her brother and her new found allies from Serenity, fought and killed dozens of insane and cannibalistic Reavers in hand to hand combat.



4. Neytiri: The daughter of Eytukan, leader of the Omaticaya Clan, Neytiri was one of countless Nav'I involved in the resurrection against the RDA, a mining conglomerate that had invaded Nav'I soil. Neytiri joined forces and fell in love with Jake Sully, an Avatar formerly working for the RDA, in an attempt to eliminate the RDA's forceful presence on Pandora.

Neytiri introduced Jake to her culture and trained him to become a capable warrior like herself. Through trials and tribulations, Neytiri pulled through, all the while at Jake's side. The duo gathered multiple Nav'I clans and put an end to the RDA's presence on Pandora in one massive battle.


3. Leia Organa: Strong willed and resilient, Princess Leia Organa was the youngest member of the Galactic Senate. She was also a key member of the Rebel Alliance.

The daughter of Anakin Skywalker, now the embodiment of oppression as the Sith Lord Darth Vader, Leia possessed a keen affinity for the Force which manifested itself in her connection with her twin brother Luke.

During the events of the Galactic Civil War, Leia became a hero of the Rebellion and a figurehead of both insurrection and peace. Though her powers of the Force were not tapped into until later in her life, her skills in combat, diplomacy and leadership helped the Rebel Alliance on many occasions such as the Battle of Endor wherein Leia helped to destroy the shield generator for the second Death Star allowing the main Rebel fleet to assault and destroy the Death Star, striking a massive, crippling blow to the Empire.


2. Eowyn: Eowyn, the passionate niece of Theoden, King of the mighty equestrian nation of Rohan. Eowyn was forced into the war for the Ring of power when her uncle Theoden became possessed by Saruman, one of Sauron's greatest enforcers.


Eowyn joined forces with the remnants of the Fellowship of the Ring who freed Theoden from Saruman's wicked grasp. Eowyn proceeded to protect her people from Saruman's forces when she helped to lead them to the fortress of Helm's Deep. Throughout her unreciprocated love with Aragorn, heir to the throne of the Gondor, Eowyn stayed strong, not letting her love of Aragorn intercede with her love for her people. Eowyn later proved herself in combat, when she slew the leader of the Nazgul, the Witch King of Angmar, whom no mortal man was said to be able to slay.



1. Sarah Connor: Before encountering both a time traveling robot assassin and a time traveling soldier, Sarah Connor was a typical young adult of the 80's. That was then. Upon encountering her first Terminator, sent to kill her future child, John Connor, Sarah learned that in the future, a computer called Skynet would use a robotic army to devastate the world in a nuclear war, purging most of the human race in the process. Her son would be the savior of mankind.

Sarah, upon learning the truth from Kyle Reese, a future soldier and the father of her unborn child, attempted to tell the world about her discovery. She was deemed clinically disturbed and was admitted to an insane asylum for a number of years, all the while unable to speak with her son and prepare him for the inevitable apocalypse.

Sarah, with the help of her son and a Terminator altered to protect John, escaped the asylum and lived on to pass on her knowledge of weaponry, military tactics, computer hacking, and the future in general to her son who would go on to save the world from Skynet.

Do you agree? Disagree? Who are your favorite movie heroins? Feel free to comment below.

Monday, August 2, 2010

News Flash! Korra, Chuck & New Widget

The Legend of Korra has been confirmed as a 12 part miniseries instead of an entire new multi-seasonal series. I for one was hoping for a new series, but who can complain? Besides, if this is successful enough, it's likely we'll see more sequels.

Spoilers Ahead for Seasons 3 and 4 of Chuck!

(To view the paragraph, highlight the empty space below.)

Linda Hamilton, the actress who portrayed Sarah Connor in the first two Terminator movies, has been cast in the role of Chuck's mother in season 4 of the hit NBC action-drama. The show's creators state that Chuck's search for his mother will be a main focus of the new season which will begin on September 21st.

I've created a new widget called Fanboy Freakout! (Upper right corner) Basically, it shows what I'm currently interested in or freaking out over. I'm not sure whether or not It'll last, but I figured I would give it a try.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Quick Movie Reviews: Inception, The A-Team, District 9 and more...


I've been watching a lot of movies lately. A lot! And I've been getting behind on my movie reviews. So in an attempt to give reviews to all the movies I've watched lately, I've decided to compile them all into a single post that is the epitome of Quick Movie Reviews (with the exception of Inception which deserves a full review). Enjoy!

Inception: Were do I start with Inception? This movie has so much going for it. With hugely successful movies from the past two years such as the The Dark Knight, Star Trek and Avatar, it's only natural that Hollywood should have a year of half-decent films. Yet, through the darkness and disappointment of movies like The Last Airbender, Robin Hood and Prince of Persia, their lies a few glittering gems; Toy Story 3, The A-Team and Inception have all delivered. However, none have delivered more so then Inception. To put things simply, if you only watch a single movie this year, watch Inception. It will, pardon the corniness, blow your mind!

Its hard to go into detail with Inception without spoiling anything. So if you're opposed to light spoilers, skip ahead to the second half of this post.

You still there? Good! Now I can tell you how much you've missed and how much you need to see this movie!!! Inception follows the exploits of Dominic Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his group of Extractors, individuals who enter a person's mind and 'extract' secrets for an employer.

Cobb and Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Cobb's longtime partner, are then enlisted into an attempt to plant a thought into the mind of the heir (Cillian Murphy) to a massive banking conglomerate. The process of planting a thought in a person's mind, Inception, is thought to be impossible, however Cobb has faith that it is attainable, all be it very difficult.

Cobb then proceeds to gather a group of individuals who assist both Arthur and himself in attempting to plant a thought into the heir's mind. The group consists of Cobb's employer, (Ken Watanabe), an architect, (Ellen Page), who articulates the dreams inhabited by the Extractors and several other participants of which I won't go into any detail about.

Throughout the group's attempt at planting a thought into the young heir's mind, they are faced with one resounding problem, a mental barrier created by the heir that takes the shape of armed security. This, of course leads to mayhem throughout Inception and provides a sort of James Bondish feel as the heroes narrowly escape the guards, or use high-tech gadgets to combat them.

With all of Inception's creativeness, their was one scene that stood out for me. The scene was were Arthur, while in a dream within a dream, is protecting his accomplices who are in yet another dream within a dream, confusing I know.

While Arthur is trying to protect his partners from a guard, the van that is carrying the entire group in the 'first' dream begins to spin out of control and topple over. As the van roles, so does the entire dream that Arthur is in. Walls quickly become floors as Arthur and the guard duke it out. The entire scene was visually stunning! Mind you, I'm not easily impressed by this sort of thing.

In summary, Inception is THE blockbuster of the summer and at two and a half hours long will leave you with a perfect sense of closure as you leave the theater, knowing that you've just seen the next best film.

Rating: 8.5 (Excellent)


District 9: District 9 has the makings of a great film and seems to have caught on with the sci-fi community. What I found appealing was how even with its blatant sci-finess, District 9 set itself apart from typical 'first encounter' films by having an unlikely protagonist, an unlikely setting, and an unlikely outcome.


Rating: 7 (Close to excellent)






The A-Team: Containing everything that a summer blockbuster should; action, comedy and explosions, The A-Team is a palate cleanser when compared to the summer bombs previously mentioned.


Rating: 7.5 (Close to excellent)






Gamer: Gamer is hands down one of the worst movies I've seen to date. It is littered with pointless attempts to startle the viewers and is clearly aimed at teens looking for a cheap thrill.


Rating: 1.5 (Vomit inducing)







Old Dogs: Surprisingly funny, Old Dogs draws heavily on the comedic talent of its two main actors, Robin Williams and John Travolta, creating a film that succeeds as a family friendly comedy.


Rating: 6.5 (Above average)






Law Abiding Citizen: Should it come as a surprise that Gerard Butler was in leading roles for three of 2009-10's worst films? (Gamer, Law Abiding Citizen, The Bounty Hunter). No, it shouldn't. It seems that whatever he touches seems doomed to be a terrible movie.

Law Abiding Citizen focuses on showing how the United States legal system is flawed. The movie makes its point quite well, but sacrifices realism in the process. Are we really to believe that Butler's character simply dug his way into prison cells and that he waited ten years to do so? Come on Hollywood...

Rating: 4.5 (Poor)



Unthinkable: Unthinkable is an edgy, vicious movie that in hindsight was like watching an hour and a half of torture. Literally. The movie revolves around a professional torturer and his attempts to crack the mind of a convicted terrorist. Those who can sit through the entire movie and all the acts of grotesque violence it presents will find themselves wishing they hadn't due to the empty feeling left at the film's culmination.

Rating: 5 (Average)




Edge of Darkness: Edge of Darkness provides a decent revenge-thriller, boosted by the performance of Mel Gibson, but in the grand scheme of things, is ultimately forgettable.


Rating: 6 (Average)







Invictus: Like all of Clint Eastwood's films, Invictus draws less on action, visuals and cheap thrills but more on the telling of a story in it's rawest sense.


Rating: 7 (Above average)






Karate Kid (1984): I may very well get bashed for saying this, but I found The Karate Kid to be dreadfully dull and loaded down with far too much of the stereotypical story that can be expected from 80s teen heartthrob Ralph Maccio.


Rating: 6 (Average)







The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: The epitome of Spaghetti westerns, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly serves as a decent cowboy film boosted by Clint Eastwood's typically excellent performance.

I've heard many a time about how this film has inspired current producers and directors. The only question I have is, why? The story was fine, but the acting was simply bizarre. Besides, its hard to take the movie seriously when all the Mexican characters were clearly portrayed by Iatlians.

Rating: 5.5 (Average)

Friday, July 23, 2010

The Clone Wars Season 3 Trailer & The Force Unleashed II

Here we have a new trailer, revealed at Comic-Con, for the third season of The Clone Wars.



There's not much to say about this. It looks cool, its always good to see more Cad Bane and it seems like TCW creators have once again aimed higher in terms of scale, e.g. the space battle.

Also, a web documentary for the upcoming sequel to The Force Unleashed.



I really liked how Hayden Blackman compared TFU II with The Empire Strikes Back, if it lives up to that statement, or it is even 50% true, then we're in for one heck of a ride when we get ours hands on this.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Avatar Sequel Confirmed!


Nickelodeon now has a press release for the rumored Avatar: The Last Airbender continuation. The sequel, Avatar: The Legend of Korra, takes place 70 years after The Last Airbender, and follows the exploits of Korra, an Avatar native to the Southern Water Tribe. According to the press release, by the start of the show Korra will have already mastered three of the four elements (water, earth and fire). When Korra endeavors to master the final element, air, she travels to the heart of the 'modern Avatar world', Republic City. The steampunk/industrial city is plagued by crime and also sports a growing non-bending revolution.

The release goes on to say that Korra's Airbending master will be Aang's son Tenzin. The press release also hints at the possibility of flashbacks to the characters from The Last Airbender. Finally, we can wrest assured that the show will be in good hands; those of the original creators of The Last Airbender, Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.

I'm so excited about this! As I've said previously, Avatar was one of my favorite shows. It had action, drama, character development and an incredible ambiance that simply sucked me in.

Korra sounds like an awesome continuation of The Last Airbender and is slated for a 2011 premiere.


Source: Detnews.com

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Updated Design & Speed Painting

I've been dabbling with the new template designer as of late and though I'm not entirely sold on the new design, I've decided to give it a try. What do you think of the new design? I'm looking for input.

On another note, I recently discovered multiple videos online that feature some of my favorite Fanboyish characters. These videos basically show a character being drawn on a computer program, but simply sped up so that you see the creation of the finished project quicker. They're very fun to watch, so I posted some of my favorites below.

Here's Captain Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly/Serenity.



Darth Maul from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.



Cameron from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.



And lastly, Sylar from Heroes.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Highlighted Song: Panoramic

The Book of Eli featured a wonderful soundtrack from composer Atticus Ross. My favorite piece was Panoramic. It literally gives me chills whenever I hear it. Is it weird to admit that? :P


Related Posts with Thumbnails