Shmee.Me

December 8, 2014December 8, 2014

Space Pirate Captain Harlock Is Back! … Kinda

The original Space Pirate Captain Harlock was an Anime classic. It was one of the first Japanese cartoons to come across the Pacific Ocean and do well. I have not watched a lot of that show, but I am still very familiar with its iconic look and cast of characters because anyone that has any interest in anime has to be. When I saw the new 3D animated remake pop up on Netflix, I had to watch it.

The movie starts off when a mysterious young man named Yama is recruited to Harlock’s crew. Will he help Harlock with his goal of fixing the universe, or will he become the Space Pirate’s undoing? Yama will have to uncover the truth about the legendary pirate and the ruling government The Gaia Sanction before he makes his decision.

You would think with a title like Space Pirate Captain Harlock that it would be about the titular captain and not some young upstart, but that is apparently not what Toei Animation had in mind. This movie should have been called “Yama’s Quest featuring Space Pirate Captain Harlock” because then at least I wouldn’t have been disappointed to see the great captain as a side character. Now Yama isn’t completely uninteresting, but he isn’t a hundred year old rebel leader either. Sure in the end they kind of bring it all together, but I was left wanting more Harlock.

Odd story choices aside, the 3D animation in the movie ranges from amazing to bad. It feels a lot like cutscene animation from a video game. Where while the main characters and the environments look great, everything else is stiff, or copied and pasted to save money. Even though their visual style did look very cool, I did miss the unique look that has made Harlock the anime powerhouse that he is today. The look that anime studios are still coping.

This movie felt almost as if they were being forced to make a Space Pirate Captain Harlock movie. They had to use the title, and kind of make it look the same, but they really wanted to make movie about this new young Yama character. Then they used Harlock’s name and brand to sell it. Like I said, they did try and fix it all with the ending, but by then it was too late. This review may have sounded like I hated this movie, and that is not the case. It is kind of a cool flick. I am just disappointed because I wanted to see a Space Pirate Captain Harlock movie.

December 4, 2014December 4, 2014

Shmee Enjoys Atari: Game Over!

If you have ever taken any interest in video games at all, you have probably heard of the infamous E.T video game. It was said to be so bad that it caused the collapse of the video game industry in the early 80’s, and that Atari had no options but to dump all of the unsold copies of the game in a landfill in New Mexico. Microsoft and Writer/Director Zak Penn decided to look in to this modern myth with the documentary titled Atari: Game Over.

This could have been a boring movie about watching big equipment digging holes in the ground looking for black square pieces of plastic, but instead Zak Penn made a smart and loving look at the early game industry, and really the first major Silicon Valley startup Atari. These programmers and engineers were rock stars, and they made a billion dollar business in a matter of a few short years. Then it all came crashing down, and a game about a friendly alien made in five weeks to make it in time for Christmas holiday shopping season took the brunt of the blame.

Now if you have ever played an Atari 2600, you would know that there were more bad games than just E.T, and that if you have actually played E.T., you would know that it is not really that terrible. Sure it isn’t great, but some of those old 2600 games are pretty much unplayable, and E.T.’s creator Howard Scott Warshaw made some of the best Atari games ever, but it is E.T. that is always on the top of the “Worst Games Of All Time Lists”. Why? Because its release date coincides with the destruction of an early tech giant.

What I really liked about this movie is that was made by people who really love video games, and who really wanted to know what was in that New Mexico landfill. It is a fun journey, and a great way to see modern archaeology at work. They made digging up a landfill feel like Indiana Jones. If you love video games, urban myths, or maybe just miss the 80’s, Atari: Game Over is well worth your time. It is free if you have an Xbox 360, Xbox One, or an Xbox Video Account.

November 24, 2014November 24, 2014

I Wish ‘This Is 40’ Had A Story!

This is 40 had a lot of things going for it: It was written and directed by Judd Apatow. It was the spin-off of Knocked Up, and it was based on two of Knocked Up’s well liked characters. It featured a lot of great talent, but the problem is that none of it went anywhere. It was still funny in places, very funny in fact, but it just lacked cohesion.

This movie follows Debbie (Leslie Mann) and Pete (Paul Rudd) as they try to navigate turning 40. Their kids are getting older and harder to deal with, their parents drive them crazy, and their jobs are not going well. They are just having a hard time making it all work.

Now Mann and Rudd are very funny, so this premise sounds great, but the problem is that there is no real story. It is just them having a hard time getting older. The crappy parents thing could have been one story, or their jobs going south could have been another, but instead of picking something and exploring it, we get a bunch of little vignettes, so nothing really keeps us engaged.

Like I have said the cast is wonderful, and they almost make this movie work. Considering all of this movie’s flaws, I would still probably watch a sequel just to see all these people work together again. Because if they had gotten a script with any meat on it at all this would have been a good movie.

It has been awhile since Judd Apatow has given us a full fledged hit, and I think This is 40 could have been one, but instead of giving us one decent story, he gave us like four ‘meh’ stories. Still, these are all good actors in good roles. so maybe Apatow can bring it all together for This is 50.

November 13, 2014November 13, 2014

Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters Is The Worst Kind Of Sequel!

I am going to start off by saying I quite liked the first Percy Jackson movie. It was campy yet fun, and it offered an interesting spin on Greek Mythology. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters on the other hand, while still campy, is no longer fun. They made this sequel because they thought they could do it cheaper and make a profit. Not because anyone particularly wanted to do it.

Percy Jackson has not been up to much since the last movie, and other Half-Bloods have been gaining more fame than him, but never fear the world is in danger, so it is time for Percy Jackson to save the world. Well not quite, there is this tree girl, and now he has a Cyclops brother, but really it is just Percy Jackson off on an adventure. l I had hoped it would be an adventure anyway, but really it is more like they take a cab to Washington D.C., and then they boat to an island.

This movie really misses any sort of imagination the first movie had. Instead of modern takes on Greek Mythological locations, we get just normal places. Cool Greek monsters? The title would have you believe that there are a bunch in this movie, but there are only three main ones, and they are not that exciting. Along those same lines, this so called Sea of Monsters is actually a Sea of Monster, yes just one. So disappointing.

The acting was a weak point in the first movie, but it is much worse this time around. Thor Freudenthal the director is apparently no Chris Columbus, and he doesn’t know how to get any of his actors to do anything convincingly. With the exception of Nathan Fillion who is as charming as ever, but he is in this movie for like five minutes and then cashes his check and goes home. Not that I can say I blame him.

This movie had no love. A boardroom of people decided to try one more time to get some money out of this book series, and they cobbled together the bare minimum of resources to get it done. It is a shame because the first one played up the cheese with a wink and a smile, but this one just gives us a shrug and a grimace. If Percy gets signed up for any more adventures, I will not be watching them.

October 7, 2014October 7, 2014

Fate/Zero Could Have Been Fun!

Fate/Zero is a Japanese anime made by Ufotable and based off the light novel (short manga series) of the same name, and I think if I was a little younger I would have liked it more then I did now. It can be fun, but it gets caught up in its own mire to let that fun shine through in many of its episodes.

The plot follows seven mages as they battle for the Holy Grail, and to help them they get to summon heroes from the past to fight for and defend them. The Grail is not the normal Grail that we think of but an object made by mages to grant any wish, but since the mages couldn’t decide who got the wish their future families get to fight for it every so often. This battle takes place during the fourth Grail War.

Now the part of the series that really works are the heroes and mages battling each other. I mean who doesn’t want to see King Author duke it out with Alexander the Great, or see mages cast magic spells all over the place, but the problem is they cut away from the fun to show all the suffering these mages and “heroes” are causing. It is like they couldn’t handle just having a fun show about history’s (well historical fiction’s anyway) greatest warriors going at it, so they added in some brutal human suffering to spice things up a bit. It is such a shame because when this show is showing cool battles and hanging out with heroes it is great. It is a waste of the premise.

If you are an anime fan you may like this show. For people that are new to genre this is probably not a great place to start. I wanted to like this show, and when I was younger and more in to anime I may have given it more of the benefit of the doubt, but being older and having less patience I can’t help but see this show as a waste of potential.