My Year in Lists, Part 3: TV, Movies, and "Be Seeing You"

"My Year in Lists" by Los Campesinos!

This is the first New Year's Eve in years that I've actually been a functioning person and not just a depressed blob. Yay me! Although that "functioning" part only goes so far: despite my obvious love for television, I cannot for the life of me make a coherent list of what I liked watching this year. I can try, but it's really difficult. Behold, the fruits of my effort:

FAVORITE SHOW OF 2010

 30 Rock

Obviously. The latter half of Season 4 and everything shown of Season 5 so far has been wonderful. From the introduction of CAROL, to the rapid-fire and insane jokes, 30 Rock this year was pretty consistently perfect. Sure, there were definitely some clunkers (I for one would prefer to never see that episode guest-starring John Slattery ever again), but I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say this was the funniest show on TV in 2010.

Best episodes: Season 4's "Don Geiss, America and Hope" and "I Do Do," Season 5's "When It Rains, It Pours," "Live Show," "Reaganing," and "College"

Honorable Mentions: Adventure Time, Regular Show, and Flapjack on Cartoon Network. The latter had a really terrible series finale though. Why did it even have to end?! Regardless, Cartoon Network is in the middle of a mini-Renaissance here with its new cartoon block. Adventure Time, Regular Show, and Robotomy (NOT MAD, bleck) made for a solid hour of Monday night TV this year. It was the most consistently entertaining slew of shows this side of Thursday Nights on NBC. Check out these episodes: "The Duke" (Adventure Time), "The Unicorns Have Got to Go," (Regular Show), "All Hands on Deck" (Flapjack)

The Fonzie For TV's Most Improved: Parks and Recreation; Community. I went from cringing every time these shows were on to laughing at them much more than I was laughing at The Office, which I was watching voluntarily. Okay, that isn't hard, but Parks and Recreation and Community both had great seasons this year. While Parks and Rec was relegated to a mid-season replacement (Thanks Outsourced...) Community has been rocking it all Fall long. I recommend marathoning it on Hulu as I did recently. 

Stupidest Reality Show That I Actually Watched Weekly: Pathetically I basically watch NBC comedies, cartoons, and MTV docu-reality shows and that's kind of it. The worst of the latter was easily Teen Mom. I don't think I need to even explain this choice. It's obvious. Even I got tired of it and I don't think I'll be watching it again next year. Runner-up is this season's Project Runway, which gets the title solely because GRETCHEN DID NOT DESERVE TO WIN AND I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO STRESS THIS ENOUGH. TEAM MONDO FOREVER.

Most Surprisingly Great Reality Show: Tie between Work of Art and Top Chef: Just Desserts. Why don't you read my posts about them and find out for yourself how entertaining they were? Those Magical Elves really know their stuff and had a really strong year, and with the repeatedly awesome Top Chef: All Stars continuing its season into the New Year it's looking like 2011 will be great for them, too. 

Obviously, I need to start watching Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and every other show you like. I will!

THE MOVIES I SAW THIS YEAR*

*The reviews are ones I published on my Flixster. Yep.

How to Train Your Dragon

AWW. IT WAS SO GOOD. It was really adorable and well-done in just about every way. The celebrity voice acting was actually quite good and I didn't even realize that it was all done by celebrities until the credits at the end. The story of Hiccup and Toothless was really sweet. I thought it was kind of annoying that all of the other kids started to like Hiccup when he showed dragon taming prowess, seemingly ONLY because of this talent, but by the end I barely minded. Also, the animation was of a very high quality; I think it was Dreamworks' best looking film to date. Highly recommended!

Also had the most surprising yet perfect ending to any movie I saw this year. I have to watch this again (on my Blu-ray :]) soon.

 Exit Through the Gift Shop

Movies like this are the kinds of documentaries that I like. Cool and interesting.

 Since that review is utter nonsense, read my post about the movie instead.

Please Give

The acting was good, but the story was meandering and ultimately pointless.

I think this was my least favorite of all of the movies I saw this year. I'm surprised that it got so many good reviews. This movie was largely forgettable; if it weren't for the excellent Rebecca Hall (who is on her way to making it really big; see: The Town), then I think I would have liked this movie even less. Rebecca Hall made it worth watching, even though I feel like her character became less and less interesting as the movie went on. Oh, and the girl playing Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt's daughter was great, too.

Toy Story 3

This was THE single most perfect ending I've ever seen to a trilogy in my life. The Toy Story series is my favorite of all time, the first one being my favorite movie ever, and this one is now most likely my second favorite. Definitely in my Top 5. I'm not that much of an emotional person but I was sobbing while watching it. It was EXCELLENT. Hilarious AND beautiful. You need to see this. Now. NOW. GO NOW.

 Yes, this is one of my favorite movies of all-time, and easily of the entire year. Really just perfect.  I need to watch my fancy Blu-ray of it soon...

Inception

Okay, I'll be honest - the last 1/3 of the movie was a little weak. I'll try to avoid spoilers but it just was confusing and went on too long. That aside, this movie was a perfect action movie - exciting, fun, smart, and keeps you on the edge of your seat. It seems complicated - it is. But it all starts to make a ton of sense until you start worrying that your life may be but a dream, too. (Well, the last part's confusing, but ignore that for now.) The acting was awesome and the story was the bomb. SEE IT.

 Also see my mini-review here.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

I liked it a LOT more than I thought I would. It was by no means perfect, but it was FUN, and that's what it needed to be. It wasn't a completely faithful adaptation, and there were definite problems, but the sum of its parts were wholly satisfying. WHOLLY. SATISFYING.

 CAPITAL LETTERS. Read my mini-review here.

Summer Wars

It was quite good. It reminded me a lot of Digimon: The Movie -- in a good way! It was very hardcore and sometimes unbelievable but still a lot of fun. Great characters. I must say though, overall I liked The Girl Who Leapt Through Time better. But this was still great.

 This movie is now out in select theaters in English, so go see it if you can! (Not that it wasn't great in Japanese. Subtitles, though, aren't for everyone.)

The Social Network

I enjoyed the dialogue. Aaron Sorkin's a master. I also liked Andrew Garfield and Armie Hammer (great name) as the Winklevi, tee-hee. Jesse Eisenberg made Mark Zuckerberg into this disturbing, depressed, awkward, uncomfortable to watch tragic (tragicomic?) figure, and I think his performance was so subtle that I didn't realize how good it was until the last scene. The last scene really brought it all together for me. That's when I knew that Mark was indeed our hero, or anti-hero. I had thought it was Eduardo all along. While Eduardo wasn't a villain perse, it's clear that Mark is our poor unfortunate soul of a very, very rich main character. Man, that guy's rich. But, um, yeah, do believe the hype, because this movie is very good.

I look forward to hearing this film's name called for nearly every category at next year's Oscars. I look even more forward to it winning several awards (maybe even Best Picture?).

Catfish

I got a very cool opportunity to watch this movie at a screening that had a Q&A afterwards with the directors + Nev. VERY cool. And since I'm a kid and there were other kids there and kids are just awesome, Nev and Rel stuck around for an hour (maybe even more; they were still talking to other people 20 minutes after I left!) and took more questions and talked to us. Very cool. All of the other girls were fawning over Nev but my friends and I talked to Rel, who was similarly very nice (but not as...not charming, but obsessed with the ladies). So, very cool. Although Henry disappeared. I wanted to talk to him, too. Oh well. It was cool talking to/shaking the hand of a filmmaker.

 Ah yes, my non-review. This movie was almost as much of a thriller as Inception was, and in that regard, it succeeded. Sure, it may be a bit dubious morally, but it was a heck of a ride.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I

I think I may be closer to a 4.5 on this one, but I really did love it, and would rank it up there with 1 and 3. It did feel like there was more "exposition" (even though these movies abandoned trying to re-familiarize audiences with the overarching plot about 3/4 movies ago, which is both good and bad) than actual action but I enjoyed it as a more character-driven story than other movies were. I really love the interaction between our main gang, especially Harry and Hermione and Ron and Hermione (I just love Hermione), and it was nice seeing pretty much all of our favorite characters again, even briefly (LUPIN HI LUPIN...WAIT WHERE ARE YOU GOING COME BACK AND BE IN THE WHOLE MOVIE PLEASE he looked really good in this movie, I feel like he's decreasing in age or something). This movie was SO BEAUTIFUL, I really felt like saying "wow" the whole time. The colors and the locations were great. Those HP kids better be grateful that they got to see all of these amazing places. The ending felt a bit odd; "No, Harry, I can't help Dobby, we haven't reached our death quota yet! And also it would be a perfectly sad way to end this movie! So let's end it now! Predictably! But let's also remind people that this is TBC by showing Voldemort! Yay!" Also I haven't read the book since it came out so the movie was a bit hard to follow at times, but even so this felt like one of the most succinct (despite its running time) films in the series, as well as the most engaging, and I'm SO READY for Part 2!

Stealth-edit. (how could I forget this movie?!?!)

BOOM. MOVIES OF THE YEAR. RIGHT THERE. Sort of.

Movies I wanted to see but didn't but will see soon: Black Swan; The King's Speech; 127 Hours; True Grit; Greenberg; The Kids Are All Right; Easy A; Winter's Bone; Waiting for "Superman"; Somewhere; Tangled; The Illusionist; Blue Valentine. Yeah, I don't get out much.

Alrighty then. There you have it. 2010 was a pretty decent year for me in many ways. 2011's going to be extremely scary, but I'm going to be cautiously optimistic. Optimism! That's new for me.

So, be seeing you in 2011, then!

I liked it a LOT more than I thought I would. It was by no means perfect, but it was FUN, and that's what it needed to be. It wasn't a completely faithful adaptation, and there were definite problems, but the sum of its parts were wholly satisfying. WHOLLY. SATISFYING.
clear rating

The acting was good, but the story was meandering and ultimately pointless.
clear rating

My Year in Lists, Part 1: Games and Books and Junk

"My Year in Lists" by Los Campesinos!

So as I said before, despite running this SUPER MEGA SUGOI-NYA blog about entertainment, I'm actually not that culturally relevant. Okay, I'M not culturally ANYTHING, but neither are my interests! Tomorrow I'm going to attempt to write about TV and it's going to be hard picking a numero uno considering the best show I watched this year is 10 years old. But that's what the word "try" exists for! For me to use it! (And fail!)

5 AWESOME GAMES FROM 2010*

*I didn't really play that many new games this year so honestly these are just the games I played. I'm sure that if I had played them, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Mass Effect 2, and whatever other games you liked would be on here. But games are expensive.

Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)

Okay! I know you hate this game! Everyone does! ...Except me. Final Fantasy XIII might not have lived up to the hype - but that would have been impossible. It may not be one of the better Final Fantasies - I, for one, cannot stand how the shopping system works, and despise how hard it is to make any money. The game is literally linear, as well, but I don't mind some hand-holding. What I do mind is a terrible battle system, and thankfully this game has perfected the FF ATB system and created one that is extremely fun, even addicting, to use. I loved the Paradigm Shift idea as well as staggering your opponent for massive damage. FF13 is a game where you basically run from one monster to the next, so it's great that fighting them is so enjoyable.

P.S. I LIKED HOPE. Sorry. And Lightning is awesome, but everyone knows that. (I also love Sazh. And the music in this game! And, GASP, I like the cut scenes!)

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Movie: The Game (PS3)

This PSN timed-exclusive provided me with many, many hours of fun multiplayer entertainment. I do think my friends would agree with me that this was the best multiplayer experience of our year (resurgence of Super Smash Bros. Brawl love aside). Is the game better than the movie? In some ways, yes. Look at that character design! Paul Robertson's sprite work was great; it had me longing for some kind of 8-bit Scott animated show. Also, the music in this game, by Anamanaguchi (did I spell that right? I did? YES), is phenomenal. I can hear it in my head right now, actually. That's what playing this game for about 6 hours straight will do to your brain, man. It screws with your mind. 

Super Scribblenauts (DS)

Yes, there was a sequel to Scribblenauts. Yes, it came out this year. Yes, I only just got it for Christmas. But it was AWESOME. AndoneoftheonlygamesIbeatthisyear. While I never got around to playing the original game, it sounds like this sequel took all of the criticisms (can only move with the stylus, too repetitive) and corrected them. The addition of adjectives means that there are so many possibilities in this game that it's impossible to just give it one playthrough. The game is definitely short; I beat it in about 6 hours! But this replayability and just the overall lighthearted tone of the game makes me want to go play it right now. Be right back.

Robot Unicorn Attack (Browser)

Okay! This game is a flash game by Adult Swim! It's pretty stupid! SUE ME BECAUSE I LOVE IT. Yes, this is how pathetic my crop was if this is on my list, but it's actually the most fun I've had with a game all year. Seriously. I played this game for hours straight and never got bored. This also wins my esteemed Fonzie Award for Best Music, with "Always" by Erasure. If you don't have that song stuck in your head within seconds you don't have ears. Or a heart. Why don't you go play the game right now? Take a little break?

Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver (DS)

If you didn't see this coming then you don't know me at all. AT ALL. -sob- Pokemon Silver for the GameBoy Color is my favorite game of all-time, so there's no way I could NOT love this game. I think SoulSilver is the reason I didn't really get any games this year; it just took up all of my time. I ended up getting a little bit burned out on it when I started Kanto, but I'm feeling the Pokemon fever again. There are just so many things to do in this game: the Pokeathalon, Gym Leader Rematches, KANTO as I mentioned, the Pokewalker (which I actually haven't used at all), etc. Pokemon is really one of the reasons that I love being a product of the early 90s. I LOVE YOU POKEMON HUGS AND KISSES XOXO

Honorable Mention: Dragon Quest IX (DS), which I just got for Christmas and thus haven't played too much of. I'm loving it so far, though.

Games that I wanted to play but didn't but will, definitely will: Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii), Trauma Team (Wii) (I got it for Christmas so I'll get around to it!), Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii), Costume Quest (PS3), Red Dead Redemption (PS3), Professor Layton and the Unwound Future (DS)

Games to Look Forward to in 2011!: Catherine (PS3), LittleBigPlanet 2 (PS3) which I am so excited for I can't even describe it, Pokemon Black and White (DS) surely to be my Game of Forever, The Last Story (Wii), Ninokuni (DS and PS3), and most of all the 3DS! which is not a game but a console, a console that will bring me so many games that I want to play that all I'll be able to do is play games all the stinking time.

THE 1 BOOK I READ FROM 2010*

*According to my Goodreads account, I've read 18 books this year. This is 7 less than last year but still a pretty solid number. However, only this book was released this year. Stuck in the past, I tell you! (Oh, although I did read this awful kid's book, Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation, which I got for free. Despite the "love interest" of sorts being named Allegra, it was terrible.)

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

I guess it wasn't really necessary for me to mention this, but I liked it a lot and Jonathan Franzen (plus Jonathan Safran Foer; more on that later maybe) basically made my year with this and The Corrections. I LOVED The Corrections; it's easily one of my favorite books. Almost immediately after finishing that one I began this one. Freedom touches upon similar themes, which is both good and bad. However, in the end it just did not hold a candle to Franzen's last book. 

Freedom made me physically ill at times, between the "turd excavation" scene and the sheer awfulness of lead female Patty Berglund, but I think for a book to elicit such a strong emotional response from me means that it must be doing something right. I think I would love this book if it weren't for the fact that I now have to write an essay about it. That's proving to be impossible. Oprah's Book Club! Help me! 

Books I read and loved this year that were from last year or earlier: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, which I still think about often; Let the Right One In by John Lindqvist; Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut; A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore even though most people hated it. And I already mentioned The Corrections. Also I totally feel like I read Atonement this year but I guess I didn't but I loved it so read it. Yay.

TOMORROW, on My Year in Lists: The Best TV That I Actually Watched This Year, Plus Some Other Stuff! Vague, I know! Excitement! 

The Problem with iPods

OKAY. SO. ALL CAPS TIME, PEOPLE:

My BLEEDING iPod, whom I named Floyd after Jason Sudeikis' wonderful character on 30 Rock, has decided to stop scrobbling my play counts WHICH I AM QUITE OBSESSED WITH MAINTAINING. OKAY, FLOYD, BE A JERK. THAT'S TOTALLY COOL. REALLY.

I'm going to murder this iPod one day. If only it wasn't so shiny and red and otherwise quite competent. BLARGH.

Since listening to my iPod is a worrisome process now, since Floyd is apparently extremely finicky and I guess only likes me listening to, like, "Move Your Feet" by Junior Senior as opposed to the album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel like I'd RATHER be listening to (even though "Move Your Feet" is a really awesome song, it's probably one of the only songs my iPod will actually properly sync these days and it's frustrating, urgh), here's a little playlist of the songs I'd actually be "jamming" to, once again, if Floyd WASN'T SUCH A BRAT. Yeah, Floyd. You stay in Cleveland. YOU STAY IN CLEVELAND UNTIL YOU UNDERSTAND HOW TO LOVE A WOMAN. ;_;



Create a playlist at MixPod.com

1. "Ghost" by Neutral Milk Hotel
From Aeroplane Over the Sea, this song is my latest favorite. Jeff Mangum, who if his last name was a Latin neuter singular noun as it looks to be would be called Jeff Manga in the plural, is/was a talented songwriter, even though his lyrics are quite out there sometimes (see: "The King of Carrot Flowers," Pts. 1, 2, and 3, the second of which features the repetition of "I love you, Jesus Christ/Jesus Christ, I love you, yes, I do"). This song can be a bit odd in parts but overall I think it's coherent. Either way it's wonderful. And the transition from this to the next song on the album, "Untitled," is perfect. Favorite line: "One day in New York City, baby/a girl fell from the sky/from the top of a burning building/fourteen stories high."

2. "Becoming a Jackal" by Villagers
Hopefully you remember this brother from a post I created a week ago by literally banging around violently on the keyboard until something made sense. Not to discredit this guy or that song ("That Day") but that post was extremely lazy. I'll make up for it by waxing philosophical about this song! Hahaha, just kidding. I do love this song, though. It's just very sweet and a little idealistic, maybe, and it just sounds like the musings of a dreamer. That's why my favorite line is: "I was a dreamer/staring out windows/out onto the main street/'cause that's where the dream goes."

3. "The Transfiguration" by Sufjan Stevens
This song is great, but something about it puts me off. The whole "Lost in a cloud/a voice/Have no fear!/We draw near!," although my favorite part of the song, sounds really familiar: it sounds like Stevens' "Chicago!" Apparently I'm not the only one to think so, either. The comments there say that they hear "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!" as well but I haven't noticed that yet. Let's listen to it again...together. It's interesting how this song is SO EXPLICITLY about God and yet no one would consider Soof a Christian artist...at least, not in the same way as, like, Relient K (whose song "Sadie Hawkins Dance" I just listened to, haha) are. It's also interesting that much of his fanbase is made up of completely non-religious people. Favorite line: "Lost in the cloud/a sign/Son of man!Son of God!"

4. "Firework" by Katy Perry
Wow, this is a fantastically weird transition. I personally think "Firework" is an awful song; so then, why is it on my list of songs I wanna listen to? (Please note, this song is not on my iPod.) It's because it's in that Just Dance 2 commercial! The version in that commercial is a much catchier remix of the boring and conventional original, so I like that one better. "Firework" is probably the most boring Katy Perry song I've heard, honestly, but it is also one of the catchiest. It's ALWAYS stuck in my head. Always! Favorite line: "Baby, you're a firework/Come on let your colors burst/Make 'em scream/"Aah, aah, aah!"/You're gonna leave 'em all in/awe, awe, awe!"

5. "Each and Every Day" by Best Coast
I think a lot of people find this band to be overrated, but I really like them! They just make simple "surf pop." All of their songs are about wanting people to be their boyfriends, or being hopelessly in love with people, and their lyrics are just simple and cutesy; the music itself is catchy and fun. What's to dislike? I think this is my favorite song by them (not that I know that many, I only know 3), and you know, now that I think about it, it's the saddest one of theirs that I know. Actually, no, that's "Boyfriend." But with lines like "You will never fall in love" this comes close. Also I like this song because it mentions being seventeen and I'M seventeen so obviously we are perfect for each other and are going to get married. Favorite line: "Everything I said to you last night might have been crazy/but I want you to know that I meant it/I meant it/I meant it/Oh, baby!"

6. "My Night With the Prostitute from Marseille" by Beirut
I love dramatic singers. Zach Condon, which is an unfortunate last name I'd think, is one such dramatic guy. "And weeeee/belieeeeeeeved/her thennnn/oh, ohhhhh" is the line that justified my purchase of this song. Even though I bought it for $0 from Amazon. But still! I don't know a ton of Beirut songs, just this and "Scenic World" and something else, but I should check them out, I guess. (I really like this song despite this seemingly apathetic review!) Favorite line: "And now/outside/I see your eyes meet the sky/and I/I won't lie/I kept you hear tonight." Subtly sad.

7. "I'm in Love" by Antony and the Johnsons
My favorite drama king! Just a great voice. This new album of his seems to be his happiest ever, if this song is any indication. It's definitely the least depressing thing I've ever heard him sing, and I've heard him cover "Crazy in Love." I read a review that said that in this song Antony sounds like he's about to "pass out" from his delirious, mad loving and I think that's apt. Favorite line: "I've been touched/oh, I've been touched/It means too much/it means too much!"

8. "Black Sheep" by Metric
From Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, this was the song by The Clash at Demonhead. The music was one of the best parts of this movie, and this song was my favorite! It's just a great song to listen to; a sing-along, I promise you, you will want to sing along to constantly. It's just plain addicting. Try not singing the chorus!: "Send you my love/on a wire/Lifts you up/every time/Everyone/ooh, pulls away/Ooh, from you!" Love it. Favorite line: "Hello/again/friend of a friend/I knew you when/our common goal/was waiting for/the world to end."

9. "Holiday" by Vampire Weekend
You may recognize this song from one of the 12,000 commercials it features on at the moment, most notably a car commercial and a preppy clothing commercial. Floyd and I, we get it. This is the perfect time for this song to get popular; it's holiday season! It's about a holiday! Although I always perceived it to be about a vacation type of holiday, not a Christmas one, kind of like "Holiday" by Weezer (similarly great, featured on my last playlist), but it still works, right? New York called Contra the best album of the year and while I liked it, I definitely disagree. The album was kind of boring, this, "Cousins," "I Think Ur a Contra," and my personal favorite "Diplomat's Son" aside. My album of the year personally is Gorilla Manor by Local Natives, and I even liked the mildly-received Champ by Tokyo Police Club more than this. But "Holiday" is still a catchy tune. Favorite line: "To go away/on a summer's day/never seemed so clear."

10."Rill Rill" by Sleigh Bells
This song makes me nostalgic for sixteen. How I miss it! This song is like a slow jam that I'd play at the prom I'm DJing in my head. Guest list: 1. Floyd. Floyd, I'm trying to win you back, you see? Stupid iPod. But can't you see people slow-dancing to this song, sort of? Maybe slowly dancing? I don't know. I tried. This song is pretty adorable and inoffensive but the album cover for this album is so darn ugly, I hate it, it detracts from the song even, so that's the one good thing about not listening to this on my iPod, because it means I don't have to look at the stupid album cover (which I theoretically could delete but what's the fun in that, man?). Favorite line: "Wonder what your boyfriend thinks about your braces/What about them/I'm all about them!" I find that so funny!

Now, back to whispering sweet nothin's to Floyd the iPod so that he will work properly the next time I sync him to my computer.(If anyone else is having the problem of their iPod Nano 5G not counting their plays after syncing to iTunes, please let me know! Let's find a solution, darn it!)

New York Comic-Con/Anime Festival 2010

I went to Comic-Con/NYAF this past weekend. It was pretty awesome. Yay!

I saw the standard cosplayers; there were so many Lightning's and Yukiko's and Ramona's of different shapes/colors/sizes, it was pretty nuts. But I actually liked a lot of the costumes I saw; it's awesome how much effort some of these people put in, and how much confidence they had, wearing skimpy outfits and posing for picture after picture. I know I took pictures!

I also got to see the first ever New York screening of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya on Friday. I was really excited for that, but man, the other people in the room were obnoxious as HECK. They laughed at every little thing, even if it wasn't all that funny; they applauded everything, too. It was insane. I mean, I loved being around a whole room full of people who I knew loved the same anime that I did, but they were so irritating. This girl we sat next to laughed so loudly and annoyingly, and this guy we sat behind waved to the voice actors who hosted the panel and I think he was dressed up as an InuYasha character or something and it was horrible. Towards the end of the movie -SPOILER ALERT- Kyon (main character) got stabbed out of the blue and everyone started laughing and clapping. How is that funny or applause-worthy whatsoever? They were taking me out of it, and it nearly ruined it for me. I still really enjoyed the movie but I hope I can see it in the comfort of my own home soon.

I wanted to go to the Square Enix panel, also, but it was full. Other things I wanted to do: play the games! Nintendo's booth had Kirby's Epic Yarn, Donkey Kong Country, Wii Party, and some other games that I really wanted to try but I never got the chance. I watched some guys play Kirby for awhile and it looked so gorgeous and cute, though. I really want it! Now.

I did get to play a little bit of Okamiden, but I had no clue what was going on. It did look really cute, though. I got a poster, a little mask-type thing, and some Chibiterasu silly bands from the Capcom area, which was nice. I wanted to play Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and get a poster, but that game was one of the most popular there, and I think you could only get a poster from one of the signings, which I didn't go to. Oh well.

SPEAKING OF SIGNINGS, I am a sucker for being in the presence of celebrities, so you can imagine how happy I was to MEET THREE (KIND OF MINOR BUT OH WELL) CELEBRITIES! :D I met Patrick Cassels, who works for Collegehumor.com, and got his autograph and a picture with him; he was so nice! Then I got a picture with and an autograph from Judah Friedlander (Frank on 30 Rock), which was pretty awesome, too. He told me to "stay sexy." Hilarious. And the best one of all was meeting Scott Adsit (!!!!! Pete on 30 Rock) who was on his way to the Delocated panel despite not really having anything to do with it! I got his autograph and told him that I loved 30 Rock and Moral Orel and once I mentioned the latter his eyes just lit up and he looked at me and said, "Thank you! I really appreciate that!" And then he asked me if I had seen Delocated and I said that I hadn't but I wanted to and he told me to check it out. AND I DID. And it was okay. It had Todd Barry in it which was great because I love Todd Barry. I also love Scott Adsit!! I wish I'd gotten a picture with him, but at least I'll always have the memory.

Even though I'm the cheapest person around I forced myself to buy stuff: tons and tons of pins, a Scott Pilgrim sticker, and a Scott Pilgrim t-shirt. The Oni Press booth had a ton of cool Scott stuff, and I wanted to get the wristbands but they said "July 2010" on them and were from SDCC, so I decided against it. Also, my wrists are too big for wristbands, anyway. ;_; At least I got the shirt! And a sticker! And I wanted to buy a book from there, Hopeless Savages, but it was $20 and I decided against it. They had a nice booth though. Pretty cool times. Oh, and the pins I got included a Pokeball, a Harvest Moon pin, a Spirited Away pin, a TON of adorable Inception pins, and super cute Wallace and Kim pins. I wanted to get Scott but he was sold out. You know, the only Scott thing I got that actually HAD Scott on it was the sticker. Too bad.

On Saturday night we decided to take a cab to the train station, and we managed to get a stretch limo. It was amazing. We went with these two random people we met; one of them was wearing a green suit. They were also amazing. We paid $30 for 8 people to take a stretch limo from the Javits Center to Grand Central. It was -- guess! -- amazing.

So that was my Comic-Con experience. It was tons of fun. I want to go next year. Can next year be tomorrow? Please? I hope I can meet Scott Adsit again and take a picture with him this time! But any celebrity will do. Please celebrities! Come find me and give me your autographs!

Today In News That Probably Only I Care About

Today's top headline:

MATT DAMON IS RETURNING TO 30 ROCK! YES. YES. YES!

Shall I re-post my awful Matt Damon dancing .gif? I think I shall!

Huzzah!

In other news:

• Will Forte is leaving SNL. This is, hopefully, an excellent career move for the very funny Forte [/alliteration]. I think he should do more voice acting, because he's good at it. His character was one of the few on Sit Down, Shut Up that I nearly tolerated (until that TERRIBLE joke about him developing boobs. That was mightily disturbing).
• BREAKING: Final Fantasy Versus XIII is still not out. Oh wait, everyone knows that already? Does everyone also already know that it probably isn't even coming out next year? They do? Oh. Well, carry on then.
• You can now trade games in at Best Buy. But should you? No.
• The interesting-sounding, Jim Carrey-starring romantic dramedy I Love You Phillip Morris is finally coming out. And on my birthday, no less! Now I can celebrate the good old-fashioned way: with gay convicts expressing their love through repeated escape attempts.
• Conan can make fun of NBC if his Tonight Show wins at the Emmy Awards this Sunday, permitted that his remarks "aren't false." In normal people's terms, that means we can potentially look forward to jokes about my admittedly most-watched network's poor ratings and even poorer management. Goody?
• Maybe you've heard of that suicide at a recent The Swell Season concert? Well, if you were one of the unlucky ones to be present, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova and company are willing to pay for your resulting therapy. That incident really was quite sad, and I'm not going to joke about it. If you'd like to read some people's impressions of what happened there, check out the comments of this SFWeekly article.
• To end on a lighter note, here's a cool mash-up between Scott Pilgrim and Avatar: The Last Airbender (the show, NOT the movie), posted by the former's director and just one of the nicest guys around (he seems nice to ME, anyway) Edgar Wright.

A'ight, so that's the story, from your favorite random news aggregate around. Check it. (If you read that in an Ali G voice it's pretty funny!) 

Books-To-Movies: How I See Them (A Candidate For Worst Title Ever)

(I guess this is kinda an addendum to my Scott Pilgrim review. An additional bullet point, if you will. And you will. So, yeah.)

Being someone who read the complete series of graphic novels before seeing the movie, I had to wonder whether I would be able to follow along as easily had I not.

With a lot of adaptations (book, TV show, movie, etc.), I always find it helpful to have some kind of background knowledge at least to have a good understanding of what's going on. For example, the Harry Potter movies: even when they were first coming out, I knew that it would be best to read the book first to have a complete understanding. However, these movies are top-notch adaptations in that they cover the majority of the books (this is true for the earlier ones, at least). The first movie sets up the HP universe well-enough that someone who, for some weird reason or another, hasn't read the books could still completely understand what's going on.

However, having read the books first allowed me to have free reign to whine about the little things missing. I like having my permission to whine, thanks very much. This is what happens with a lot of movies based on books that I've read. Atonement is widely considered a good movie, but I read the book first. That book is mad dope, y'all. (What does that even mean?!) It was one of the best books I read last year. But the movie just couldn't compare. Instead of enjoying Saoirse Ronan's acting/existence (don't ask) like I should have been, I found myself glaring and saying, "NOPE, BOOK WAS BETTER!" or "THAT WASN'T IN THE BOOK" or whatever. And it was a generally faithful adaptation, too. But oftentimes having read the book first will affect your perception of the movie -- usually negatively.

The thing is, I don't like watching the movie first, especially if it's faithful to the book.. I don't like reading books where I already know everything that happens. I couldn't read Fight Club for this reason, even though I probably would have liked it. It just bored me out of my mind because I already know that Tyler Durden is part of the narrator. (Sorry if that's a spoiler for you. I just read a Shadow of the Colossus spoiler so I understand how upsetting they can be. T_T)

However, with something like Scott Pilgrim, or like Harry Potter, watching the movie is seeing your favorite characters come to life. And I guess everything I just wrote about is really irrelevant, because SP and HP are totally different. The Harry Potter movies, like I said, have really good exposition. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World? Eh.

I think with something as insane as SP, it would be hard to understand what's really going on. The story is very streamlined, and it's not too confusing. It's random and nonsensical, but for someone who hasn't read the comic but likes video games it won't be too implausible. Weird, but possible. The thing I worry about for the non-reader who watches this movie is they're going to have a warped perception of the comic books if they ever to choose to read them later. While having read the books first influenced my opinion of the movie (which you can find here), someone who doesn't know that Kim Pine is more than a misanthropic, cynical jerk with a gigantic stick up her butt might will get the impression that that's who she is. It's not the case. It upsets me. Very, very much. It makes me so sad, so very, very sad. Although apparently some moviegoers enjoyed her depiction. I guess it's their perceptions not matching mine that upsets me.

Also, not having read the comics first, I would be confused about why Envy was so important, I might think Ramona is boring, and maybe even sort of NICE, which is not the case at all, and I might think that Young Neil is more important and socially awkward than is really the case.

In short, not knowing the comics will make you not know the real story. Will the story that appears confuse you? Well, the reviews by people who didn't even know about the comic don't seem to talk about being so confused (although there are people saying "WHY DO THEY TURN INTO COINS WUTWUT"), it's more like they're saying they can't relate. That is something that's lost in the movie, too. As I said before in the review that I will pimp as many times as possible, no one receives real characterization besides Scott. Knives grows up a little bit, too, but aside from that it's all about Scott. It makes sense, since this is Scott's side of the story. But reading the comics, you come to love everyone. In this movie, unless you're one of those weirdos who finds Movie Kim likable, you won't want to root for anyone. That's the biggest loss.

That, and you're missing out on a really good series of graphic novels.

Sorry this was so rambly and nonsensical. What I really just want to know is, for people who did not read the comic books first, what did you think of the movie? Does it make you want to read the comic books now? Did you understand everything without trouble? 

I Will Flip a Coin

In order to figure out what to write about, I'm going to use a coin toss simulator. Why not flip an actual coin, which I surely must have somewhere in my house? Because that would involve moving, stupid.

Heads means that I'm going to write about the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels vs. the movie. Tails means I'm going to just post a video from Good Will Hunting and bid you "Good day."

LET'S FLIP:

YES! LESS WORK FOR ME!



That's one of the best scenes from the movie, which I just saw today for the first time. It was excellent. You should go watch it on Netlfix Instant while I watch Roseanne. Man, the kids are way better actors than Roseanne is. It's a little unfortunate.

Download: "Miss Misery" by Elliott Smith, from Good Will Hunting.

P.S. Don't worry, I might write about Scott Pilgrim on Wednesday.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World Mini-Review

 

After months and months and months and months and MONTHS of hype, I finally saw Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World yesterday. HOORAY! It's very likely that if you're reading this right now, you know exactly what Scott Pilgrim's about, so I will refrain from saying anything more than 1. the graphic novels set expectations at exceedingly high levels and 2. this movie definitely appeals to a certain "type."

But was this the type of movie for me? The answer is YES YES YES.

Here we go with bullet points:

• The casting was nearly perfect. Knives, STEPHEN STILLS (!!!), YOUNG NEIL (!!!), Stacey, and even Wallace, who I was worried the most about, were all perfect. Guess who else was awesome? Michael Cera as Scott. Haters gonna hate, but I thought he was...I'm trying not to say great because that rhymes excellent. He did not play "himself" (although if you've ever watched this kid in an interview you would know that he's not quite as awkward as you think), he played SCOTT. 
• More on that: Scott was a bit "toned down" from the comics. However, he was still the most enjoyable character to watch for me; maybe this was because he was the one who received the most characterization.
• More on THAT: Okay, so obviously this movie tried to adapt six volumes into one two-hour movie, which is a hard thing to do perfectly. And while I think a lot of the plot changes that were made helped to make it more cohesive and fit better into the allotted time, certain choices were made at the expense of character development. Biggest offenders: Kim, Ramona, Envy. Envy isn't as important, so it's okay, but up until the fight against Todd we keep hearing about how Scott dated Envy and she broke his heart and blah blah blah. But we never delve into their back story, which is the most interesting part, and when Envy shows up you think, "What? How the heck did Scott ever date this girl?" Also, she's just bland as heck and she and Scott don't have any closure or anything. She's just never mentioned again. We got an idea of who Ramona was: mysterious and distant. But that was it. You never really understand why Scott is in love with her and fighting for her. It's like he's just going with the motions. They don't have too much nice alone time, which was too bad, because the scenes where they did were amongst my favorite (their second (?) date, the Seinfeld-esque scene although Ramona technically isn't in that one). Basically, Ramona is flat. 
• The most egregious offense OR more on that AGAIN: KIM. I HATED KIM IN THIS MOVIE. Kim is one of everyone's favorite characters. She's a cynical, misanthropic jerk, but she really does care about Scott and everyone else. In the comics, she has depth. However, in this movie, Kim hates everything and everyone, especially Scott. She is never happy and she is never not being sarcastic. When she sees Scott her eye starts throbbing and that scary, dramatic music even plays. (Those screechy violins, you know.) She HATES him because he dumped her in high school, but the real Kim didn't care about that THAT much. Also, the real Kim was interesting, and that was what made me the most upset. This Kim was boring and I can't remember almost anything she said.
• I missed Joseph. He's one of my favorite characters. Thankfully, they had the guy that Wallace stole from Stacey in a number of scenes, kind of as a replacement. Although he was nowhere as awesome as Joseph.
• Let's talk about stuff I liked again, though. I LOVED the music. Sex Bob-omb were, for being self-loathing and "terrible," really good. I really liked their "Garbage Truck" song. Stephen Stills was a good singer, and Scott was a surprisingly competent bassist. I liked his "Ramona" song, too, although Ramona kind of blew it off. THAT GURL, WAI SHE GOTTA BE LIKE THAT
• The opening credits. The opening credits made my heart race. (I'm a little over-dramatic like that.) The visuals were just very, very cool. I loved the opening scene, too. I don't know, I just found it perfect. 
• The fight scenes were pretty awesome, although I think some of them went on for too long. (Most notably the first one, against Matthew Patel.) I did love that Ramona talked about her relationships with most of them via black-and-white cutscenes. I think my favorite fights were Scott vs. Lucas and maybe Scott vs. Todd. That one was hilarious, mainly because of how it ended. (I loved the Vegan police high-fiving in slow motion.) 
• More hilarity: The Ninja Revolution game, that aforementioned Seinfeld scene, Young Neil's idiocy, Knives' stalkerish tendencies, Scott and Ramona's date, etc. etc. There's a lot. (Oh, also, but this comes towards the end: "Do you know how long it took me to collect all of the Evil Exes' contact information? TWO HOURS!"
• I'm just going to mention it again: Wallace ruled.

ENDING SPOILERS HERE:

• The ending was weird and not wholly satisfying. That last fight went on forever, and what are they trying to say -- they're basically suggesting that Self-Respect > Love, which is kind of stupid and kind of a bad message. I guess they were trying to set up an ending where Scott and Ramona DON'T end up together. Instead, Scott would end up with Knives (word is that that's an alternate ending). I actually kind of like the idea of that, because I really liked Knives, as creepy as she was at times. She was a sweet girl and Scott actually had a rapport with her. However, Knives basically says, "Dude, we just spent nearly 2 hours murdering people so you could make out with this chick for a little bit. Seriously? LYK GO GET HER LOL" so then Scott has to go get her. It was pretty stupid that Ramona STILL hadn't "found what she was looking for" or whatever, instead keen on leaving behind yet another ex. Sister sure is flighty. Which ending do you like better, Scott and Ramona or Scott and Knives? (Look at me, trying in vain to initiate conversation between commentators and myself.)
• Either way, I like the ending that Bryan Lee O'Malley chose for volume 6 instead. That was more meaningful.

ENDING SPOILERS, OVER

The movie's not perfect, but it's about as good as a live action Scott Pilgrim could ever be. I really liked it. Really liked it. I think your mileage may vary, and I don't see many "older people" enjoying this as much although you never know, but it's a sort of ADD-addled film that could possibly define my generation. Although I really hope not. I hate my generation. We don't deserve a movie this fun.

I give Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World 4 Slutty Wallace's Sleeping Next to Various Guys and Scott's out of 5.

P.S. Even though I gave Inception a better score, I think I enjoyed this more than that. It's being a comedy certainly helps. But they're both great so see them!

For the other movies I saw this summer, you can read my Inception Mini-Review here and my quick post about Toy Story 3 here.

Stupid Websites Are Stupid

The site I Write Like is one of those sites that analyzes your writing for something. In this case, they analyze whatever writing you post in the box and tell you which famous writer you write like. Apparently, I write like some guy named Cory Doctorow...and DAN BROWN.

I am now in a horrible mood and contemplating never writing again. So instead, listen to this song that I used to hate and now really like while I go weep in that corner over there.



Download here.
You can buy the album it's from here.
Alternatively, you can pre-order the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World soundtrack, which it will be on, here!

I Feel Like I Don't Have Much To Say

today. I just can't think of anything to write about.

I'm pretty obsessed with How to Train Your Dragon right now, so let's talk about this:

This year so far has been pretty terrible when it comes to movies. The Top 5 best-reviewed films of this year so far include 4 movies that were only released in limited and Toy Story 3. While the Top 5 at the end of the year does sometimes look a lot like this, by the summer months, we should be seeing more films that people have actually heard of in the Top 5 - at least one more. Toy Story 3 was amazing (it's probably going to be my pick for the best of the year/decade/my life, etc.)

Look at the Top 10 though - only one of them came out in wide release, too, and that was How to Train Your Dragon, coming in right after TS3 at 6th. The other four were Exit Through the Gift Shop, which I saw, the movie that won Best Foreign Film (so technically it came out last year, anyway), and two other films that most people have never heard of this.

The Oscars expanded the Best Picture playing field to 10 films last year so that wide releases would get attention and they'd get more ratings. Sadly, in a perfect world they would do this because there are 10 very deserving films. Back in the 90s, 80s, 70s, etc., people had heard of the Best Picture nominees. People had SEEN them. Does this mean movies are getting worse in general, or does it just mean that Hollywood productions are starting to lose steam? I'm thinking the latter.

Another thing: when the two best wide releases of the year (so far, but I might wager that they still will be in December) are animated films, I think that means that we need to start giving more credence to the animation genre. Animation is SO GOOD. Every year my top film is usually animated. Last year, it was Up. The year before that? WALL-E. Most widely-released animation isn't as good as Pixar, but every Pixar film is just as good, if not better, than the live action films that come out around it. Same with the limited-release Miyazaki films (I think Tales of Earthsea is this year; last year, it was the pretty good Ponyo), which always place in my EXCLUSIVE "Best of the Year" list. (It's exclusive because it only exists in my head.) DreamWorks either is really good (HTTYD, the original Shrek, and I guess Kung-Fu Panda even though I thought it was boring with AMAZING animation) or really horrible (every other film they've made except Shrek 2, which I for one liked). I almost didn't see HTTYD because the ad campaign was so horrible; they were selling it as yet another pop culture-referencing, stupidly kiddy film, which it isn't, AT ALL. People need to understand that animation is not just kid's fare anymore, and even when it is targeted towards kids (like Ponyo), most animation studios don't seem to get that "kid's film" does NOT equal "idiot's film."

This summer, the movies have been pretty lackluster, TS3 aside, obviously. This has been griped about a lot lately, mostly in passing, apparently, because I can't seem to find many articles. Here's one. Every movie that people hoped would be good turned out to be horrible or mediocre. Iron Man 2 had high expectations and fell flat, critically. I heard a LOT of people say that it was awful. Robin Hood was bad and failed commercially, too; Prince of Persia, The A-Team, Jonah Hex. The only summer film to come out that's gotten good reviews (ONCE AGAIN OTHER THAN TS3 I WILL REITERATE THIS OFTEN) is The Karate Kid, another "kid's film."

The only movies coming out that I'm excited for this summer now are Inception and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Nothing else seems like it's going to be worth the money to me. Despicable Me's been getting good reviews; The Kids Are All Right's supposed to be good, although that's in limited. The Sorcerer's Apprentice (starring Hiccup!) looks like it could be pretty decent. But even though the word on these movies may be good right now, it's more likely than not that they'll end up being the same old dreck that's been pumped out all year. I call it the MacGruber effect: a movie gets positive early buzz but ends up having a negative consensus. But I guess we'll see.

I hope this summer picks up in terms of movies, but I don't see that happening.

(On a side note - does anyone want to get an email saying that a new post has been published? Let me know and I can sign you up for that.)

SCHOOOOOL'S OUT FOREVAH

Not really, unfortunately. But as of today I'm FREE for the summer! YAY. Call me up, Bieber. I know you're not busy.

Since I have nothing to do all summer and have no friends whatsoever (SOMEONE PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT AND PROVE THIS IS FALSE D:), I'm going to be doing lots of blogging, about things like:

• Work of Art, that new art-related reality show on Bravo that is my latest guilty pleasure
• Pokemon, because it rules (and just tons of video games in general)
• Lady Gaga, because she is the complete opposite of Pokemon in that she does not rule, and for a second there I wrote "Pookemon," whoops
• Intervention and Obsessed, two of my favorite shows EVER that are going to be showing new episodes ALL. SUMMER. LONG. THERE IS A GOD AND HIS NAME IS KEN SEELEY
• Hopefully NOT college. No, we will speak about that as little as possible.
• how much I love making lists (expect a lot of them!)
• reviews of movies that I plan on seeing, like INCEPTION! and SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD! and maybe The Last Airbender...if someone PAYS ME. Hee hee, haw haw
• and other random popular culture-y things that may or may not be scarily random or pretentious

Most importantly, though, I will be posting .gifs of people dancing. LIKE THIS ONE:


GIFSoup

I never tire of that. EVER. That's the summer for you/me/US. Now give me a hug! ...Just kidding.

Have you read that Persona 4 comic yet? READ IT READ IT READ IT

Seriously though. Stick around, or I will weakly attempt to cause you physical damage, by such PAINFUL methods as poking and staring menacingly. Oh, yes. SO KEEP READING. 

New Scott Pilgrim Trailer!

If I haven't made it clear enough yet, I love video games. I love everything about them. I love playing them, watching them, reading about them, talking about them, even singing about them. YES, I SING ABOUT VIDEO GAMES. Poorly!

That's why I like Scott Pilgrim so much. It's this graphic novel series that's about cool people who like video games and anime and manga, and live very video game/anime/manga-esque lives. And they make it seem totally normal.

I would give you the whole synopsis but I'm lazy. Let's let other people do that for me!

Obviously, there is a movie coming out. This is the brand-new trailer for it, released yesterday. It will probably become a huge thing, and I guess that's good if it gets more people reading the comic books. I just hope that people don't just watch the movie and come up to me when I'm talking too loudly about it and they're like, "Scott Pilgrim! I love that movie!" because then I'll give them the stink eye, and no one wants to see that.

Ahem. Anyway, some of my favorite people are in this movie: Michael Cera, Johnny Simmons (HOTEL FOR DOGS SAY HAAAAY just kidding, god, don't ever admit it if you've seen that movie), Aubrey Plaza, etc. So of course, I'm excited, although I would be anyway.

And Edgar Wright is directing! You probably know his stuff (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz); my favorite thing of his is Spaced, which is this hilarious British comedy series that's similar to Scott Pilgrim in that it has lots of video game and other "geeky" references in it. It's good stuff. You should rent it. If you want, I can consider lending it to you...in ten years. OH SNAP.

So, yes. Enjoy that trailer and go out and buy the Scott Pilgrim comics. I'll probably be talking more and more about it as we get closer to the release date of the sixth/last volume and the movie. And then MAYBE I'LL WRITE SOME REVIEWS. Because Google tells me that everyone loves those! And by everyone, I mean the five people who read my blog.

Buy Scott Pilgrim volumes 1-5 here.

(Whoa, lots of caps! And sorry that the videos always get cut off! Stupid Youtube is stupid?)