Alan Rapp

Giant Robots vs. Monsters

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures Pacific Rim
  • IMDB: link

Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures Pacific RimThe idea behind director Guillermo del Toro‘s latest movie is hardly original. The world, not just Hollywood, has made a living on giant monster movies for decades. We’ve also seen a number of giant robot movies, particularly big-budget CGI-extravaganzas in recent years. Even animated movies such as Monsters vs. Aliens have pitted two groups of giant creatures against each other.

More than Blade II (the only watchable film from that franchise) or either of the Hellboy movies, del Toro’s latest is easily his most mainstream attempt at a summer blockbuster. We certainly get the director’s spin on things, and designs of creatures who seem right at home in Hellboy or Pan’s Labyrinth, but the story from the director and co-writer Travis Beacham itself is by the book (and doesn’t even attempt to color outside the lines). The result is a film that feels a lot like a mashup of Robot Jox, Independence Day (complete with last-minute inspirational speech and wacky scientists), Top Gun, Transformers, and various monster movies all spruced up with sexy CGI and de Toro’s eye for creature design.

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Perception – Blindness

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Perception – Blindness
  • tv.com: link

“All it took was a six-foot knife-wielding alligator.”

Perception - Blindness

After being called in to consult on a case of a judge found dead in his chambers with a mentally-impaired janitor (Del Zamora) holding the murder weapons over the body, Daniel spins a wild theory about change blindness where Donnie (Scott Wolf) and the rest of the courtroom actually saw the killer standing in for the judge but failed to notice it was a different man. Although he can’t convince Donnie of his theory, when the killer strikes again by committing murder in front of 200 witnesses, none of whom saw it happen, the Assistant District Attorney is forced to pay a little more attention to the FBI’s consultant and his wild theories, although Daniel has troubling playing nice with the FBI profiler (Sundra Oakley) Donnie brings in on the case.

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Fairest #17

/ / Comics

Fairest #17“The Return of the Maharaja” continues as Nalayani and Prince Charming spend a little time together separated from the rest of the royal entourage and Nalayani learns the series of events that led to Charming becoming India’s latest Maharaja. Although the pair are able to get out of their predicament involving a crocodile and quicksand at the issue beginning, Fairest #17 also introduces a new threat to Charming’s reign as Maharaja.

The quick thinking that gets the pair out of danger in the issue’s first few pages work well. Charming’s flashbacks give us some insight into the series of events on how the prince took power without ever addressing why Charming was in India in the first place. This also forces Nalayani’s story, the arc’s best character, to be put on hold for an entire issue.

The plague which first hits one of Charming’s concubines and later the Maharaja takes the arc even further from the story of Nalayani’s village. The source of the disease and eventual cure might turn out to offer interest insights into both characters, but for now I’m a bit concerned with the shift in direction of this latest arc. Hit-and-Miss.

[Vertigo, $2.99]

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