2011 GENRE MOVIE POLL RESULTS

My “Which 2011 genre movies are you looking forward to most?” poll closed yesterday and I want to thank the few of you who took the time to vote in it for doing so. I placed this poll at the bottom of our blog page, so maybe that is to blame for the small number of responses. Still, it does give myself and my fellow Genre Guardians an idea of which of the many genre films that are being released this year that you are interested in.

Cowboys & Aliens came out on top with 62% of the voters interested in seeing this film. I am interested primarily for its unique blend of sci-fi and western genres. I’m also a fan of director Jon Favreau’s Iron Man films, which proves to me he has the ability to humanize science fictional concepts. Also, the casting of Daniel Craig as the alien-weapon toting cowboy and Harrison Ford as the iron-fisted Col. Woodrow Dolarhyde is inspired!

Battle: Los Angeles gained the second highest number of votes, scoring 50% of the votes. I have already seen and written my review of this film. While it was not quite as good a science fiction film as I had hoped it would be, it was still a very good film overall.

 

Sucker Punch received 37% of the votes. I’ve also seen and reviewed this film. I was, and still am, uncertain as to what this film was actually trying to say or do. While I was both appalled and entertained by the film, I can’t say for certain that I actually liked it.

 

Also coming in with 37% of the votes were: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Super 8, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and The Thing. I look forward to Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides the most, despite the loss of both the director Gore Verbinski and Orlando Bloom’s Will Turner. I’m one of the few people who liked Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, so I have no doubt that Transformers: Dark of the Moon will entertain me as well. The more I learn of the plot of Super 8 (which admittedly isn’t much) the less I’m looking forward to seeing it. Still, with J. J. Abrams both helming and writing the film, I still am betting that this will be good. I’ve seen all but one of the Harry Potter films at the theater, so I have no intention of not seeing the final chapter Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 at the theater. I’m intrigued by what is purportedly a prequel to The Thing; but is it a prequel to the 1982 John Carpenter film or the novel on which it was based?

 

Of the films that received 25% of the votes, the two I am most looking forward to seeing are Captain America: The First Avenger (I love that they set it in WWII) and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (I loved the first film and all the principals are back for this sequel). I like that they are going back to early days of the X-Men with X-Men: First Class (I particularly like the 60’s era setting), but not enough to see it at the theater. I’ve never been a huge fan of the original Planet of the Apes series. I never saw the Tim Burton “reimagining” travesty. So I have little to no interest in Rise of the Apes, a purported prequel which is suspiciously similar to Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (’72).

 

Of the films that received 12% of the vote, I have no intention of seeing any of these at the theater. I’ll most likely rent Green Lantern, I Am Number Four, Thor and Season of the Witch when they come to blu-ray, but Red Riding Hood, The Adventures of Tintin and Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage will have to be watched on cable, if at all.

 

As for the remainder of films that received 0% of the votes, I will definitely rent Scream 4 (I’m a fan of the original films). The remainder - The Green Hornet, Reel Steel, , The Witches of Oz and The Cabin in the Woods I’ll watch on cable; but I will pass on The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1, just as I did on the two previous films in the series.

Thank you again to all of you who voted. Let me know if you would like similar polls to this and what I can do to make them easier and more accessible to participate in.

 

Here are the full results of the poll:

 

Cowboys & Aliens 5 (62%)

Battle: Los Angeles 4 (50%)

Sucker Punch 3 (37%)

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides 3 (37%)

Super 8 3 (37%)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 3 (37%)

Transformers: Dark of the Moon 3 (37%)

The Thing 3 (37%)

X-Men: First Class 2 (25%)

Rise of the Apes 2 (25%)

Captain America: The First Avenger 2 (25%)

Sherlock Holmes 2 2 (25%)

Red Riding Hood 1 (12%)

The Adventures of Tintin 1 (12%)

I Am Number Four 1 (12%)

Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage 1 (12%)

Thor 1 (12%)

Season of the Witch 1 (12%)

Green Lantern 1 (12%)

The Green Hornet 0 (0%)

Reel Steel 0 (0%)

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 0 (0%)

The Witches of Oz 0 (0%)

Scream 4 0 (0%)

The Cabin in the Woods 0 (0%)

Total Voters: 8

INTRODUCING ZOMBZANY THE NECROMANCER - PART ELEVEN

In part eleven of Introducing Zombzany the Necromancer, Zombzany concludes his Hammer Horror Movie Marathon by asking Bill E. Bones how many zombies he saw. Bones makes a few guesses, but Zombzany is not satisfied by his answers. Bill makes one wise crack too many and Zombzany proceeds to return Bones to his grave. Enjoy the final episode of this series, Introducing Zombzany the Necromancer- Part Eleven!

This is the last bit of video that I got off of this first tape that I ganked from Zombzany’s video vault. The old media whore that Zombzany is, there were many more of these dusty old tapes in there that I tucked in my lab coat while he was dirt napping. So you can look forward to seeing more of these videos staring Zombzany, Bill E. Bones, Major Mac Maniac and even your favorite freak, Fritz “Doc” Freakenstein! Let me know what you think of these videos so far and tell me which of Zombzany’s friends or fiends you’d like to see the most!

ZACK SNYDER'S SUCKER PUNCH: WHAT IS THE REAL REALITY?

It has now been three weeks since I saw the film Sucker Punch at my local theater. I have read more reviews of this film after seeing a movie than any other film I have ever watched. The reason for this is I have yet to read a review that explains to me successfully why Sucker Punch deals in not one fantasy setting, but two distinct fantasy worlds. Most reviewers dwell on the sci-fi-fantasy action set pieces that take place in Baby Doll’s mind as she dances, while either ignoring the nightclub-bordello imaginary setting; or completely confusing it with the real world setting of the asylum. Snyder has done such an extraordinary job of creating lasting and impactful images in the fantasy quest settings that it is almost as if the human mind is not able to retain the more dark and disturbing imagery of the nightclub-bordello. For me at least, I found this primary bleak fantasy setting at least as gripping as the later secondary dazzling quest fantasy worlds. I have still not satisfied my need to understand why the director and co-writer of Sucker Punch created a counter unreality to the harsh reality of the asylum setting. To compound the confusion, the sequencing of these two separate, yet parallel (un)realities is done in a very nonlinear fashion, so that one is forced to piece together the timing of the events taking place in both worlds after the film has concluded.

I decided that if I was going to get an answer to these questions, the only place I might get them is from the creator himself, Zack Snyder. After a fairly lengthy and exhaustive search of the Internet, I came up with many fluff pieces talking about all the surface glamor of Sucker Punch, but not anything that answered what the film is actually about; either thematically or theoretically. The closest I could find was this interview of Mr. Snyder by Jack Giroux posted on the website Film School Rejects on March 27. I’ll post some of the quotes by Zack Snyder from this brief interview that I feel give at least a glimpse as to what Sucker Punch was really about.

Jack Giroux: The film has gotten that interesting type of polarizing reaction.

Zack Snyder: It has. For me, I honestly think with Sucker Punch – it’s weird. I feel like people either see it two ways: completely in the overt version as exactly what they see, which is just this girl going crazy and then going on this adventure for no reason. That version of the movie that people see is as a super straightforward movie. Or people see it as a crazy, sort of, commentary on genre films and what is sexuality and why the girls are dressed like that. I think that’s also valid, because that’s what the movie is.

Jack Giroux: Would you say the film is a critique on geek culture’s sexism?

Zack Snyder: It is, absolutely. I find it interesting, in a lot of ways, that this movie – of all the movies I’ve made – has been universally hated by fanboys, which I find really interesting. It’s like a fanboy indictment, in some ways. They can’t have fun with the geek culture sexual hang ups.

Jack Giroux: I thought it was basically you commenting on those attendants at Comic-Con who shout, “You’re hot!” at beautiful cast members.

Zack Snyder: Yeah! 100%. They don’t know how to be around it. It’s funny because someone once asked me about why I dressed the girls like that, and I said, “Do you not get the metaphor there? The girls are in a brothel performing for men in the dark. In the fantasy sequences, the men in the dark are us. The men in the dark are basically me; dorky sci-fi kids.”

Jack Giroux: Do you feel like most people are missing that idea? Aren’t there self-referential lines about that in the film, like when Sweet Pea says the dances have to be more than titillation?

Zack Snyder: Oh yeah. There’s a few of those. She says, “The dance should be more than titillation, and mine’s personal,” and that’s exactly a comment on the movie itself. I think 90% are missing it, or they just don’t care. See, I don’t know. I haven’t had the opportunity to question people about the film, and I feel like that’s the next step with taking the time to interview people about what they saw, or what they thought they saw. The other line that I think is important is, as soon as the fantasy starts, there’s that whole sequence where Sweet Pea breaks it down and says, “This is a joke, right? I get the sexy school girl and nurse thing, but what’s this? A lobotomized vegetable? How about something more commercial?” That is basically my comment on the film as well. She’s saying, “Why are you making this movie? You need to make a movie more commercial. It shouldn’t be so dark and weird.”

This is only about half the interview, but it deals with the aspects of Sucker Punch that I’m the most interested in. Here is the first quote of Zack’s where he states, “Or people see it as a crazy, sort of, commentary on genre films and what is sexuality and why the girls are dressed like that. I think that’s also valid, because that’s what the movie is.” Is Mr. Snyder saying that the movie is just his way of pointing out the conflicting motives of genre films that both empower women and exploit them simultaneously? If that were the case, he might have chosen a far lighter tone that would have accomplished the same goal. Therefore, there must be more to the film than that.

In this next quote, Mr. Snyder seems to reinforce this theme of Sucker Punch by saying, “Do you not get the metaphor there? The girls are in a brothel performing for men in the dark. In the fantasy sequences, the men in the dark are us. The men in the dark are basically me; dorky sci-fi kids.” Zack Snyder seems to be underplaying the darker undertones of the brothel, by stating that it is a metaphor for “dorky sci-fi kids” who go to see genre films to watch girls in skimpy outfits acting out male fantasies. If I thought Mr. Snyder was being completely truthful with this comment, I might be insulted. However, I think he’s having a laugh here at his own personal joke, which he is still unwilling to completely let anyone else in on. I think like most creative people, he wants the work of art to speak for itself and he feels uncomfortable or is just unwilling to explain it to anyone else. It’s like the old adage: If you have to explain the joke, than it’s not really funny is it?

The most revealing comments of this interview is when Zack Snyder says, “The other line that I think is important is, as soon as the fantasy starts, there’s that whole sequence where Sweet Pea breaks it down and says, ‘This is a joke, right? I get the sexy school girl and nurse thing, but what’s this? A lobotomized vegetable? How about something more commercial?’” Here is where Mr. Snyder at least infers that he intentionally created a film that contrasted ugly truths with beautiful fantasies; but still, he does not address to what end! Is Sucker Punch just one glorious visual manifestation of men’s ignominious treatment of women; at least within the confines of our popular entertainments? These quotes from the director seem to indicate just that. If that is the case, than Mr. Snyder is a far shallower creative mind than I have given him credit for.

Even now I find myself wanting to better understand this dark disturbing film that is interrupted by bursts of intoxicatingly stunning visual images that should have made it far more entertaining than it actually was. I find that I’m disappointed that Sucker Punch wasn’t either a pleasant diversion or a profound exposé, but a diluted mixture of both.

Anyone who is interested in reading the entire interview with Zack Snyder can read it at http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/interview-zack-snyder-on-the-sexuality-and-world-of-sucker-punch.php.

AN OPEN INVITATION TO POST COMMENTS!

Two weeks ago, I posted my review of the film Sucker Punch and instead of just saying why I thought the film was good or not, I attempted to look deeper into the meaning of a film many are just passing off as an exploitive fantasy. This review post has received over 1, 600 page views to date; which is five times as many as my next highest review post! I think this demonstrates several things: One: that there are many people who have not seen the film, but have read the many negative reviews and are looking for someone who has something positive to say about it. Two: that the people who have seen it and were angry or at least perplexed by it are looking for someone who has at least attempted to find some deeper meaning to the film, or at least make some sense of it. Three: that there are well over 1000 people who are interested in Sucker Punch, but not in what I have to say about it.

I came to the conclusion on this last point, because I have only received one comment on my review of Sucker Punch! One of the things I like about blogging, and reviewing films in particular, is the feedback I get in the posted comments area of my blog. I really enjoy reading what people think of my review; whether it is to agree with my points, or to disagree with my points. This exchange of ideas and opinions really excites me and makes me want to make my next posted review even better!

I’ve only been blogging now for about sixteen months, but I already follow about two-dozen blogs. Whenever I think I can add something of value to the posting of someone else’s blog, I post a comment there. One of the most rewarding parts of this is getting a response from the blogger on my comments. I find it very interesting when someone responds to my comments, because it helps me to better understand what the blogger was trying to say in their post on their blog. Because of this, I always answer the comments posted on my blog’s posts, because I’m assuming that the person commenting feels the same way I do.

So please take this as an open invitation to post comments on my reviews and let me know what you think!

If you are interested in finding out if there was any real depth or meaning to Sucker Punch,  keep and eye on this blog, as I will soon be posting some interesting comments on the film by the director Zack Snyder himself!

FRIDAY NIGHT FILK! REDNECK FANBOY BY ANDREW ROSS

Freak thinks he's the only one that knows good filkin', but yer old pal Major Mac Maniac has been to a few sci-fi cons hiself, so I knows a thing or three about filk myself. This here is real country-filk sung by good ol' boy Andrew Ross at Orycon 32 in 2010. Yehaw!