Category: Movies

7 Days to Dragon*Con: Shall we talk guests?

ONE WEEK I CAN HARDLY STAAAAAND IT.  But onto today’s post!

As usual, Dragon*Con has a pretty fun guest list.  Here are some guests about whom I am pretty excited:

Jamie Bamber:  Hot Lee Adama goodness so say we all.

John Barrowman:  I’m watching Torchwood as we speak but I’ve been into John Barrowman for awhile because he is uber gay-rights, does musical theatre, and is incredibly handsome.

English: John Barrowman, photo taken during th...
English: John Barrowman, photo taken during the filming of Torchwood episode “Meat” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Amber Benson:  OMG remember when Tara gets shot and is all “Willow, your shirt…” and then she dies and it is terrible?  It wouldn’t have been as terrible if Amber Benson hadn’t portrayed Tara so heartbreakingly well.

Billy Boyd:  Fool of a Took!

LeVar BurtonSee this post.  Also, this post.  Also, Kunta Kinte.

James Callis:  I always thought that the way Caprica Six pronounced “Gaius” was hilarious.

Vinent CasoTaste my pirate patty! 

Felicia Day:  Self-explanatory.

Michael Dorn:  I really just want to ask him if he actually likes prune juice.

Jane Espenson:  She’s written for basically every show I like ever, like Star Treks TNG and DS9, Buffy, Angel, Firfly, Dollhouse, BSG, Caprica, Game of Thrones, etc.  Girl power!

Jonathan Frakes:  “He’s my number one dad!”

Kat Graham:  I remember when I first saw her on The Vampire Diaries I was all “Oh wow she is so beautiful who is that girl.”

Anthony Michael Hall:  “I’m a fucking idiot because I can’t make a lamp?”

Juliet Landau:  “Miss Edith speaks out of turn. She’s a bad example and will have no cakes today.”

Sean Maher:  I know it is weird but any cool, chill actor who is out just gets so much respect from me.

Joe Manganiello:  Words cannot express how good looking this man is, for realsies.

English: Joe Manganiello at 2010 Comic-Con Int...
English: Joe Manganiello at 2010 Comic-Con International (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

James Marsters:  I still refuse to believe that he is not actually British, despite having heard his real accent.  To me, he will always be Spike.

Rose McGowan:  Fact, I totally love Charmed I totally do.

Steven R. McQueen: I am also so into The Vampire Diaries and so am just going to be putting them all on the list, real talk.

Jason Momoa:  “Crown! A crown for Cart King!”

Kathy Najimy:  I re-watched Sister Act last night–how great was she in that movie?  Also, Hocus Pocus?  She’s so good in that.  “Burning rain of death” come on, y’all.

Nichelle Nichols:  I’m still holding out hope that George Takkei will make a surprise appearance with her.  I thought these two were basically a matched pair!

Amy OkudaThe Guild is great, so everyone who is on The Guild will also be on this list.

Sandeep Parikh: See above.  He also did The Legend of Neil, which is one of the funniest things I have ever seen ever.

Robert Picardo:  I have a soft spot in my heart for Voyager’s Doctor.

Carrie Preston:  I love that she’s married to Michael Emerson, what a power couple, for realsies.  Her Arlene is one of my favorite parts of True Blood.

David Prowse:  So the man who walked around in the Vader suit actually does conventions, amazing.

Darth Vader and The Guild (sort of)
Darth Vader and The Guild (sort of) (Photo credit: krysaia)

Patricia Quinn:  The lips that launched a thousand midnight shadowcasts.

John Rhys-Davies:  “I cannot jump the distance, you’ll have to toss me.”

J. August Richards:  Gunn!!!

Tim Russ:  Tuvok!!!

Katee Sackhoff:  A million, billion girl crushes.

Ian Somerhalder:  They don’t call him Smolder-halder for no reason.

Robin Thorsen:  Duh, The Guild.  Clara has some of the best lines, and she also locks her babies in a kennel.  Amazing.

Michael TrevinoVampyr Diareeeessss.

Paul Wesley:  See above.

I’m also pretty thrilled about Adam West and Burt Ward because, hello, Batman, and also that scene where Batman runs around the docks with the bomb and he has to decide whether to throw it at nuns or at ducks.  I’d throw it at the nuns myself.  J/K.

Obviously I won’t get to see panels with all these lovely people, because Dragon*Con has somanythings going on at once, so one has to pick and choose.  Luckily, this is a pretty good and large list, so I don’t think I can go wrong, y’know?

So which guests on the list made you go “eeeee!!!!” when they popped up on the Dragon*Con site?  Let me know in the comments!

32 Days to Dragon*Con: The Hobbit (Trailer)

 

I assume everyone has seen this trailer:

This trailer gives me chills.  The chills start when Thorin Oakenshield starts singing about the Misty Mountains.  Do you get chills?  I hope so.  I think this movie is going to be fantastic.

When did you discover The Hobbit?  I discovered it way back as a kid, when The Disney Channel would periodically air the incredible 1977 Rankin/Bass animated version of The Hobbit.

Cover of "The Lord of the Rings"
Cover of The Lord of the Rings

This is not to be confused with Ralph Bakshi‘s amazing animated The Lord of the Rings, which happened in 1978.  The animated The Hobbit opened with this gem:

Also the song about Goblin town which is quite possibly my favorite:

And also this song good lord how do I watch this movie again, the best:

And then there was that one time when South Park used the Goblin town song for an episode involving Lemmywinks and I lost my shit.

And also this Lemmiwinks song is basically “The Greatest Adventure” amirite?

Ungh I love South Park and also The Hobbit so much.  I did, of course, read the book at a certain point.  Lord of the Rings too.  I know people who, when the Lord of the Rings movies came out, did not know that they were based on books, which, ungh.  How do people who are not well versed in pop culture survive?  Hashtag: judgment.

 

39 Days to Dragon*Con: The Dark Knight Rises

 

I saw The Dark Knight Rises this weekend.  Did you?  Did you love it?  I LOVED IT.  I know this is blasphemous, but I actually liked it more than I liked The Avengers.  Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed The Avengers; it is a fun, clever, and funny movie with a great (and attractive) cast, and also Joss Whedon.  However, I like my superheroes dark.  Pitch black, actually,  My favorite graphic novels are Neil Gaiman‘s Sandman series and Watchmen, and those are pretty dark (see my posts here and here).  I just love Nolan’s Batman trilogy.  I know it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but the dark and brooding and graphic and realistic grittiness of the series really appealed to me, and so many scenes from each film are ingrained in my head.  While this movie wasn’t as good as The Dark Knight, mostly because Bane just isn’t as visceral and ferocious a villain as Heath Ledger‘s (RIP) astonishing Joker, this was an awesome film and you TOTALLY NEED TO GO SEE IT.

So a few very loose comments because I don’t want to spoil anything:  Anne Hathaway and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are great (particularly Anne Hathway, she’s just the best, and I adore the design on this particular Catwoman costume), and all the returning actors are also excellent in their roles.  Some fantastic French Revolution/Robespierre undertones.  Tom Hardy is a good actor but Bane’s mask allows him to showcase so little, so I feel for him.  Overall SO GOOD.  Have you seen the film yet?  What did you think?

The Dark Knight Rises
The Dark Knight Rises (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

*I’m going to mention the Aurora shooting because it would be dumb if I didn’t: it is all kinds of levels of terrible.  Batman is supremely anti-gun.  I think we all need to take a hint from Batman. I don’t have any profound words, just that what happened in Aurora was terrible, and that periodically during the movie my thoughts went to the victims and their families, and people can be terrible, and such.

 

45 Days to Dragon*Con: My Alien Confession

Confession time, guys: I’d never seen Alien until the beginning of this summer.  Or Aliens, Alien 3, Alien: Resurrection, and Alien vs. Predator.  I’ve remedied all of that, now (except for Alien vs. Predator, but that’ll be fixed soon too, I think).

Created by IllaZilla (talk) for general usage ...

I watched all these movies to prepare myself for Prometheus (I know I’m a clicheeeeee and also I liked Prometheus but that’s another story/post).  I’d seen bits and pieces of Alien, and of course I’d seen the chest-bursting scene, but it is always weird seeing an iconic film for the first time because there is that whole “Oooooh watching an iconic film” atmosphere.  .

The main reason I hadn’t seen Alien yet is because I was TERRIFIED.  When I was little my family and I would go to MGM Studios (now Disney’s Hollywood Studios) and we’d go on The Great Movie Ride.  This was basically a slow tram ride through audio-animatronic scenes from famous movies: Dorothy and Glinda from The Wizard of Oz, a sequence from Raiders of the Lost Ark, the big kiss at the end of Casablanca, complete with a plane.  One of the major sequences was a long, shattered spaceship corridor from Alien.  You saw the destroyed hallway and then a scared, sweaty (really, she was sweaty!) audio-animatronic Ripley and then, all of a sudden, an alien DROPPED FROM THE CEILING ABOVE YOU and was all drippy and trying to claw your head and it was terrifying and it scarred me for life.  Or rather, it scarred me until now.

Alien wasn’t that scary guys!  It was actually pretty awesome in a “Wow, this was clearly a revolutionary film and the dark is pretty terrifying and also Sigourney Weaver is the best” way.  And Aliens was pretty amazing in an excellent action movie way.  And Alien 3 was just pretty amazingly ridiculous (and also Tywin Lannister!)  And I’ll not talk about Alien: Resurrection except to say that I am glad that the human-alien hybrid didn’t have creepy hermaphroditic genitalia like in the original design:

Alien Hybrid
Alien Hybrid (Photo credit: Steam Pirate)

Yep, that almost happened.

So now I know, guys.  I know all about Alien.  I can speak with confidence, and I know that they mostly come out at night.  Mostly.