I’ll admit it: I went into Oz the Great and Powerful with a bad attitude. After the terror that was Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland I didn’t want to go near anything similar that Disney did. That feeling was only solidified after seeing the film’s debut trailer and, once marketing materials came out showing the Wicked Witch with cleavage, I was certain there would be nothing redeemable to this film. However,  I did my best to go into the movie with a clean mind, ready to be fully supportive of the film if it turned out to be something enjoyable. Was director Sam Raimi able to create an awesome film out of the Oz legacy? Well, it was at least… Read More →

Zombies have officially worn out their welcome. Just like so many “gimmick” creatures before them, the zombie fad has become increasingly tired with every passing year thanks to the bevy of new zombie-based action movies, TV shows, and video games being released feeling like they’re doing little more than kicking a dead corpse. It’s quite sad that zombies have reached this point as the creatures really have a lot of storytelling potential left to unearth – certainly more than Call of Duty likes to show – and it would be great to see more intriguing zombie tales told, perhaps with a little more philosophy or symbolism behind them. Warm Bodies holds itself up to be just that, even though it’s… Read More →

Despite being a quite unpopular opinion, and one that seems to enhance the fallacious idea that the “book is always better,” I honestly don’t care if a movie adaptation doesn’t include, or even changes, some aspects of the work it’s based on.While I don’t mean that an adaptation has the freedom to change everything about the source material, the fact of the matter is that books and movies are different mediums and, as such, must be treated differently. Some parts of a book translate perfectly to the silver screen. Others, however, simply don’t work as well and need to be changed, replaced, or reworked for the audio/video arts. Sadly, many people making adaptations don’t realize this fact and, instead of focusing on… Read More →

NOTE: SPOILERS WILL BE DISPLAYED IN RED The biggest movie franchise since Harry Potter has finally finished as the second half of the final film in the popular Twilight series has at long last hit theaters. Based on the infamous books of the same name, everyone and their dog has had a go at the Twilight films, making the popular tween franchise the butt of just about every joke revolving around vampires, contrived romances, and bad acting. To my great chagrin, however, a byproduct of this market cynicism toward the series has been a lack of almost any strong criticism about it. At all. Because it’s the joke of the party, hardly anyone seems to even give it a fair… Read More →