GUEST STRIP – BRANDON J. CARR
December 18th, 2009 |- Comics »
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- Guest Strip
(23 votes, average: 8.61 out of 10)
Well, there you have it! Brandon J. Carr’s smurfing last contribution to his series of guest strips. I think it turned out pretty smurfing good, don’t you?
Actually, I’m a little disconcerted at how well Brandon can draw a Smurf…
BUT NO MATTER! Brandon really came through for me and I can’t appreciate it enough. Thank you, Brandon, for your excellent work.
I think everyone should visit and bookmark Brandon’s site so they can stay current on what our dear chap is working on next. Yes. I think that will do nicely…
As you know, Avatar comes out today. But, for me, it’s almost been an after-thought. I haven’t really been anticipating the movie like I’m being told I should. I don’t know. Neither the concept or the visuals have hooked me just yet. When the comparisons to Delgo and Fern Gully cropped up with the first teaser images of the film, it left a bad taste in my mouth. If Cameron is supposed to be one of the most innovative filmmakers in the business, these comparisons to kids films shouldn’t be at the front of everyone’s mind.
I’ve given a few reviews a cursory glance and the majority of them are overwhelmingly positive. People are really tossing around the “IT’LL CHANGE MOVIES FOREVER” praise. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t.
I guess I’ll say that I’ve been half-purposefully keeping my head in the sand on this one. Because I do have faith in Cameron’s vision and I think I’d rather be surprised by what I see on-screen than what is being described to me in a review.
Despite the fact that I’m not entirely enthusiastic about the film, I still want to see it. Does that make sense? Keep in mind Cami and I just had a baby two weeks ago and I think my brains are leaking out of my ears.
If anything about Avatar has surprised me, it’s that Cami told m that she was excited to see the film. I don’t know if that’s because she’s at home with Pearl, is watching more television and has been exposed to more commercials for the film than I have. But I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth! I fully expected seeing this one by myself a few weeks ago!
Speaking of Avatar Cami and gifts, it’s likely I will see the film on Sunday with Cami as my parents watch over Henry and Pearl. We’re going over to their house this weekend to celebrate my 32nd birthday – which is actually on Monday, December 21. The Winter Solstice, baby! Shortest day of the year!! Woo?
If you’d like to get me anything for my birthday, boy would a pledge to the Kickstarter fund raising campaign for Theater Hopper: Year Three would be nice. I mean, really, really nice!
As of this writing, we’re 66% funded with 13 days to go. I’m getting VERY nervous about the time we have left in the campaign. I’m approaching it mentally as if we only have 10 days because I’m really afraid that the holidays are going to negatively affect fund raising efforts and people will forget to pledge.
Take this opportunity to pledge today! Right now you can get a copy of Theater Hopper: Year Three for $15, signed and numbered by your truly. The important thing to remember is that YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO GET THE BOOK FOR LESS. If you pre-order the book by pledging to the Kickstarter campaign, you don’t have to pay for shipping! If (and when) the book is published and put up for sale here, shipping becomes a factor.
So take advantage of this offer while you still can! And if you’re feeling extra generous, just look at all the other rewards for pledging larger amounts. Lots of great stuff!
I’ll leave it at that. I don’t want to push too hard.
In the meantime, let’s talk about Avatar a little bit in the comments section below. Who is excited to see it? Who is skeptical? Will it really “change movies forever” like they say? Leave your thoughts below!
Thanks again to Brandon J. Carr for an excellent series of guest strips this week and thanks to you for coming to the site and checking them out!
Have a great week!
Ugh... did you have that Smurfette dream again?
I’ll wait a few days to avoid the big crowds, but I’ll most certainly go see Avatar. It looks interesting visually and conceptually, and I’m curious to see where Cameron will bring us. I mean, so much time, effort and money went into making this movie… all of that has to have gone somewhere, right? Also, I have to say that between Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, It’s Complicated (my wife wants to see it, and I’ll happily follow her) and possibly Crazy Heart, it has to be one of the better bunch of movies coming out around the Christmas holidays in quite a few years. 🙂
No mention of the new Iron Man 2 trailer in this blog? I’m really surprised!
As for Avatar, I’m very much looking forward to it. I’m a fan of James Cameron, though so that adds to it. Plus, I have a massive fondness for 3-D. The fact that even 3-D hating critics like Roger Ebert and James Berardinelli are endlessly praising that aspect definitely shows that Cameron didn’t resort to cheap Monsters vs Aliens-type gimmicks for this.
I’m floating the idea of doing a strip of my own for Monday to address the Iron Man 2 trailer.
Wait and see!
As we’ve discussed on facebook, This movie is almost an afterthought for myself, and almost everyone I’ve talked to…I’m curious as to how that will effect its opening weekend B.O.
I’m trying to avoid any more hype about Avatar. My fear is that it won’t live up to expectations, and I want to enjoy it when I see it.
Employees at my theater got an early screening last night of Avatar. I was absolutely where you are, Tom. Didn’t care about the hype, couldn’t get excited.
The movie is 9 levels of astonishingly awesome. The story starts out a little slow, but as soon as they ended up in the jungle I didn’t care, because I was staring at the scenery. The movie is absolutely gorgeous, the story picks up and becomes really cool, and the last 45 minutes are a giant action sequence that will blow your mind.
It looks like a lot of hype for a thin, reused storyline. CGI can’t make up for a weak story. But that’s my opinion based on tv ads and trailers.
avatar is pure greatness. from a technological standpoint it’s groundbreaking cinema. Don’t see it in anything other than IMAX 3D.
I went to the midnight show of Avatar last night (in IMAX 3D, as the masses seem to have ordered), here’s some thoughts:
Visually… it meets the hype. Seriously, I was awe-inspiried by a lot of the CGI (which pretty much looked totally real), and if that counts as ground-breaking then it fit the bill. Though if it costs half a billion dollars to make it look this good, I’m not sure it will be very common in cinema for a while.
From a story and character standpoint, though, hardly anything amazing. The story was decent enough, even if it got fairly predictable. Ditto the characters, even though only about four of them get any attention, with everyone else regulated to the background (thus making it hard to care about them, despite the movie constantly saying how important they are. That-one-warrior-Navi, I’m looking in your direction). Script felt rather generic, with no good one-liners really stuck with me (though there are a couple good lines in the bunch). Villain is pretty cool, though; one of those awesome scenery-chewing roles that’s a treat to watch. So, naturally, there wasn’t enough of him.
Overall, good enough movie. On the visual front I can see it doing a lot of groundbreaking, but in terms of an actual movie, it’s mostly been done. I now need to see this in a regular screen with 2D to see if there’s any signifigant changes.
Will AVATAR change films forever? Well, the last time Cameron put this much time, love, and attention to detail into a film, he gave us TITANIC, a film which very much DID change the nature of cinema thereafter. So the chances for this bit of hyperbole having some truth behind it are far better than, say, the same claim being made about a Michael Bay or Roland Emmerich film.
For it to be truly groundbreaking, it would have to have a better story than “White Man here to save the Noble Savage from Heartless White Man”. A great deal has been made of the visual aspect of the movie, but I’ve had a very clear picture in my head of how the story will go since seeing the first introductory trailer. If I can’t be wowed by something unexpected in the story, something new that felt worth seeing, then what’s the point? If I wanted to go just for the pretty pictures, there are so many other formats my money could be better spent.
I’m trying not to be too cynical, because I don’t want that to ruin the movie when I do see it. But every review I’ve read that has touched on the actual movie itself has left me a little disheartened. The visuals are only going to be spectacular for as long it takes the rest of the film community to catch up with it. I want the story to be strong enough so that come five years from now when movies have advanced even further, I’ll still want to see it.
Not sure if you’re aware, but there’s a blog out there protesting Avatar on the basis that that the main relationship in the film is heterosexual. No really…
http://stopavatarmovie.blogspot.com/
Look, ma! There are stupid people on the Interwebs!
Zach, I checked out that site and one of their disruption techniques kind of confused me…
“Buy tickets to Avatar in bulk but do not attend showings. An empty theater sends a message”
No exactly what message this sends other than “Thanks for the free money, suckers” from atop Cameron’s palatial mansion.
I caught the midnight showing of Avatar. On the scale of 1-10 I’d give it somewhere around a 6. The CGI & SFX are fantastic, but it doesn’t make up for the worndown plot. I heard the comment “shoulda called it ‘Dances With Aliens'” muttered by a few people as we were leaving.
I kinda do not want to see it because the story is suppose to be really weak along with the acting. That is just what I hear. Kinda turns me off from wanting to see it. I get enough shiny colors from video games
Lol, no kidding about the message it sends. I’m more frustrated with the suggestion that people remain standing for the whole movie. But the supposed “thousands” of people who would be protesting today doesn’t seem to have turned up in the news at all. Funny that…
I’m not sure whether to laugh at this person or cry at the sheer terribleness of the arguments they make.
I found the story line strong enough to support the visuals. There were many sections of the movie where I was so engrosed in the movie that I had forgot there was popcorn in my hand. Yes other movies have used the white man goes native storyline I found it seemed like disney’s pocahantis(sp?)
the movie is worth seeing opining weekend before some one drops spoilers
Hahahaha pretty sure that blog is a really good joke
Avatar is like that gorgeous girl you flirt with at the club. She’s absolutely breathtaking, but when you go up and start talking to her, you quickly realize that she doesn’t have a lot to offer besides her looks. Still, you hook up, because she’s so hot, but afterwards you never call her again. That’s pretty much Avatar.
personally, I loved the movie and couldn’t stop thinking about it. saw it in IMAX 3d midnight on thursday. it was beautiful the 3D really added to the film. the story was fine, and if you try to make comparisons to films then you’ll succeed. but that goes for almost any movie. if this wasn’t james cameron making this film (though no one else could/would have), and there wasn’t so much hype, people wouldn’t be defensively trying to find reasons why it fails as a film.
go in and have a grand time. don’t go in trying to hate the movie. that’s a waste of your time and money.