Sunday, April 28, 2013

Save FUTURAMA!

Hey, while I am willing to accept that it may never return, there's still a chance that it can stay. I'm not going to go out and ask every person who views my blog to sign the petition and save Futurama, no I am saying that if you like Futurama and would like to see new episodes that you would watch, sign it. I'm simply putting it out on here because not everyone knows this petition exists.

.................. sign here, everyone!

Well, once the end is nigh, I know that I shall be celebrating it in a grand fashion, by watching it. Next time I post, it will hopefully be about something different but if it isn't, it'll be about Futurama again, because it won't be something different!

HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!

Friday, April 26, 2013

Why Groening, Why?

I love Futurama. It was one of the better cartoon comedies and I have to say that it is one of the only one's that was able to make it's viewers laugh and have an emotional effect at the same time. The first four seasons, many people regard these as the best, the fifth movie season as a fun return, and the sixth and seventh seasons as hilarious, but degrading in quality. I have to say that I agree to disagree, in that sense I must say that while this general consensus is correct, specific details are always ignored.

1-4: The best seasons of the bunch, simply because of how it impacted the viewer. I remember being little and watching the scene where Fry was cryogenically asleep, that scene has had a huge impact on me to this day. Space Pilot 3000, to a Flight to Remember and Fry and the Slurm Factory where the three best episodes in my honest opinion of the first season. These episodes which occurred before, after and in between most of the episodes relegated for comedy showed that emotion could work in a show of this nature and that is what I believe gave the show it's success. The second season more or less flushed that emotion down the toilet with I Second That Emotion, with the new season taking a more Simpson-esque approach to the series. Nevertheless, while the emotion was an underlaying tone, this season was wonderful because of how hilarious it was. Let me explain, say you made this season a live action sitcom set in modern times you would in one form or another get the Big Bang Theory. The third season more or less continued this trend aside from such exceptions as Parasites Lost and Time Keeps On Slippin'. The fourth season was magical in the way that it had the most humour out of all the seasons far while bringing back the realism that got some viewers into the show in the first place. I feel this was because Groening recognized that if the show died that season, it died a good death. From Leela's Homeworld, Love and Rocket, Jurassic Bark, The Why of Fry, of course The Sting, Obsoletely Fabulous and Three Hundred Big Boys, people could see that this season was a bit of an apology from Groening for "selling out" to Fox the past two seasons by emphasizing humour. That was okay, we never minded the humour, we loved it, it's just that it did not give us what we loved about the first season of the show. The adieu the last season was supposed to have had more heart touching episodes than any season before because if it was the final season, I'm sure Groening wanted us to be attached. Then when he delivered us the devil's hands, we watched silently, laughing inside, as the idle playthings of Matt Groening finally came to a rest...

5:... or so we thought and then we bit his shiny metal revived ass. Out of all the Futurama movies made, only one was reminiscent of the old seasons and that was the first one, Bender's Big Score. The Nudar aliens provided a transition into the New Futurama, while the sublpot of Lars Fillmore gave insight into what we loved about the series and why the Bender-Fry Relationship was the best on TV at the time. Think about it, does the big score work as a start for the final season, or the last kiss of Season 4? The Beast with a Billion Backs was what showed us that the New Futurama was here, a Futurama more reminiscent of season's 2 and 3 with an added emphasis on ass. It was funny, but not really quite wanted. I'd be lying if I said that Bender's Game was the worst of the bunch, when it is really one of the best. Dedicated to another influential figure of my childhood, Gary Gygax, this film seemed like the emotional quality in it was only there because Gygax was gone, and that is the film's real shame. Ass has a less emphasis here, but it is still favoured more than the Futurama we all loved. Into the Wild Green Yonder was the Futurama we loved, but it's plot seemed just so insignificant that everything, the emotional quality, the jokes, seemed out of place. The order we got was all wrong, the yonder should have been first and the score last.

6-7: Groening you bastard you thought you were in the clear and in six you put an emphasis on sex, ass, boobs and more ass than ever before. But you still gave us wonderful impacting episodes so I forgive you, for in some of the episodes, the humour did seem forced. I thought at Rebirth that he was bringing back Futurama how it should have been handled, I was wrong and right. He was bringing back Futurama how CC would handle it and so it was a letdown season. But don't get me wrong, this episode had just as many emotional episodes as Season 4 did, it's just how the episodes in between were handled that took out the quality. Those episodes were the Duh-Vinci Code, The Mutants Are Revolting, Law and Oracle, Benderama, Neutopia, Fry Am the Egg Man and All the President's Heads. Groening did not know, though, if CC would keep Futurama alive for season seven and he made Overclockwise as another series finale, an attempt to sate the quality that the fan's had been demanding since the shiny ass was revived. It failed miserably, I am sorry to say. Aside from the VERY ending of that episode, it feeled like it belonged in the middle of the season as a mid-season finale, not a series finale because it did not give the fans what they wanted, only a prophecy. But the standout episode of the season, in fact the standout episode of Futurama's revival was The Late Philip J. Fry an episode that hit all the correct notes on an emotional level, a creative level, a comedic level and many more levels. In essention, the episode was Futurama's version of The Simpson's Eternal Moonshine of Simpson Mind. Of season seven, I think Groening foretold his show's fate and gave us such good episodes as A Farewell to Arms, Decision 3012, The Six Million Dollar Mon and Viva Mars Vegas. None were as good as they could have been, but were acceptable and gave good laughs, reminding us why we want to live on this Earth. Now what the last half brings, I'm sure will be very reminsicient to the old seasons, considering how Groening acted last time the show almost got cancelled.

If all goes well, though, Futurama will stay alive.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Movie Reviews

Very obscure return post, but since I have nothing to talk about I'll just review some films I recently saw on a grade of 10:

Zorro: Antonio Banderas' best film. Really it shows a renowned hero, Diego de la Vega, and displays what happens when that hero is disadvantaged. The introduction of Banderas' character, Murrieta, as the new Zorro is a pivotal moment in fictional character mythology. However, it did not leave it's mark. Since the film was so successful and successfully killed off the Zorro who we know and introduced Alejandro to us as a legendary character it would be hard to fathom the consequences if people paid more attention. You see, if people paid more attention, maybe eventually in the MCU Tony Stark could die, we get a new Iron Man and we all live on. The animosity between Captain Love and Murrieta is really what is the real antagonism in the film, with their encounters being foreshadowed by the goals of Diego. It is the wonderful acting from most of the cast that gets this film a 9/10.

Legend of the Guardians: Did a good story, inconsistent animation and the inability to go over the production costs ever harm a film? Yes it did. But not in this case. This film shows that not all animation studios are in it for the money, it shows the heart of the creators when making it that they really did not care how successful the film was if at least one child enjoyed it. The animation is wonderful most of the times but seems a bit bland at other times, but it does nothing to harm the film. So this gets a 7/10.

Wreck-It-Ralph: I did not have any hopes for this film before watching it. After the release of Toy Story 3 I figured that it was all about the money for Pixar, that they just did not care anymore since they started producing sequels like Monster's University, Finding Dorothy just because they could capitalize off of them. This film proved me wrong, that the studio does care. The Shut up and Drive part kind of peeved me simply because of how well executed the film was, I wished that Disney could wow the world again with some original music, but for the context of the film it was just fine. The animation in this film really was not all that brilliant, however, and seemed lazy at a lot of times, shining only in the Hero's Duty part of the game. So this gets a 7/10.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation: Yes I was one of those people hoping that Channing Tatum's Duke survived the events of the film. However, his death was obscure enough to ensure that if his character Comarad Hauser want's to come back, he can. The acting and the well executed story was just good, not wonderful, not a letdown it was just good. Jon M Bieber did a good job at killing all of the Rise of Cobra storylines, but one thing bothered me. If he was just going to kill every Joe from Rise of Cobra, why not bring back Marlon Wayans just to kill him? I mean, Wayans was contracted for a sequel and had a willingness to come back. Dwayne Johnson's acting is phenomenal and really hold's the film together, as it is shown that he cared for Duke as a brother and really had a personal reason to hunt down Cobra. D.J Cotrona and Eulodie Young (I think?) are not given enough screen time to be cared about, really. Bruce Willis I suppose portrays an All-American Hero, but me being a Canadian really would not know. The relation between Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes is well executed as well, keeping one thread from the previous movie alive because it was one of the few threads done very well. Rexford "Rex" Lewis is Cobra Commander and he is one badass bitch with zero screen time, good night Washington D.C. I'm going to flee on a chopper... again! There was no point of Lady Jaye, though, I'll just say that. One question, did Arnold Vosloo really get about 08 seconds of screen time? He must have been on the set for half an hour. So this get's a 6/10.