Guillermo del Toro

Stardate 07-15-2008

I have a man crush and Guillermo del Toro.

And its not just because I like el sabor latino; he is also a genius and is one of the most talented directors out there right now. My crush on Guillermo started about a year ago after I saw Pan's Labyrinth, which is now one of my all time favorite movies. The other night I saw Hellboy 2 with the Rumbler and we were both blown away. After watching both these movies for the first time, I was deeply motivated to go out and do something creative. I was left with a longing desire to create something as original and fun as the story that I had just seen. Its rare that a movie or a book can do this and I love when it happens.

The original Hellboy didn't do that much for me when I saw it a few years ago. I watched it again in preparation for Hellboy 2 and I must admit that I enjoyed it much more the second time, but I still wasn't blow away. Hellboy 2 was amazing. Guillermo did such an amazing job of writing a fun and original story. I'm amazed at how well he is able to make up a fairy tale. Though I've come to really like Hellboy as a character, I think that I loved the second movie much more than the first because the focus seemed to be not on Hellboy himself, but on the world that surrounds him, and this world was increadibly entertaining. The movie reminded me a lot of Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman in the sense that we share our world with magical unseen beings. They surround us, yet we are blind to their existence.

So whats up next for Guillermo? According to IMDB, Guillermo is set to direct Doctor Strange, which is a comic book movie. Dr. Strange is the Sorcerer Supreme of the Marvel Universe, responsible for defending it from mystic threats. He is a master of the mystic arts, using his abilities to battle evil magicians and other supernatural villains. He is also often consulted by other superheroes on supernatural matters. Neil Gaiman has been approached to write the screen play. This should be awesome.

After that, Guillermo heads off to New Zealand where he will direct The Hobbit and The Hobbit 2. After Peter Jackson decided that he did not want to direct, but instead decided to stay on as the executive producer, his first task was to find a director. He decided on Guillermo. I'm extremely excited about his decision. I hope that they work very well together. The interesting thing is that the first Hobbit movie will be based on the book. The second will be an original story written by Jackson, Guillermo and their creative team. The story will bridge the gap between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Some may have mixed feelings about this, but I am extremely excited to see what they come up with. I have a ton of faith in Guillermo's creative mind and writing ability.

Here are some of the monsters that Guillermo helped to create:

DragonForce

Stardate 07-10-2008

Holy crap!!! I have a new favorite band.  I was playing Guitar Hero III tonight and was able to unlock the bonus song, Through the Fire and the Flames by DragonForce.  It was pretty much the coolest song I had ever heard.  DragonForce is a power metal band from England whose signature sound is duel guitar solos.  I'm totally running over to East Millcreek Library tomorrow to see if they have any of their CDs.  Here is a music video of the song that I got to play on Guitar Hero III.  My favorite parts of the video?  The incredible hair of every member of the band, the keyboard player head banging, the duel guitar solo at the end.  You'll love the picture picture effect that allows you to see an up close look at the intricate guitar work and an up close of the guy's face at the same time.

Angelina Jolie's Twins

Stardate 07-01-2008


I thought I would try to increase my readership by posting these pictures of Angelina's new twin babies. I'm pretty confident that those who want to see my exclusive pics (my aunt is a nurse at the hospital in France) are the same demographic that love science fiction blogs. So to bridge the gap between Angelina Jolie lovers and scifi, I'm going to do a movie review of Wanted.

Today was Duane's bday, so for our hot date, I let Duane pick the movie. He must be a huge Angelina Jolie fan because this was his first choice. Wanted is about a secret creed of assassins called the Brotherhood whose members are assigned a person to kill. This assignment comes by the powers of fate and a weaving loom. The main character is a loser, a nobody, a blank wall, until he finds out that he is a member of this secret assassin group. It only takes him a day and some money in his pocket for him to magically transform into a total bad A. I must say that there are some excellent action sequences and some very clever and fun special effects. There his a huge level of violence, always a plus in my book.

On the downside, the characters are extremely unlikable. This movie was adapted from a graphic novel. I usually love comic book movies because I am a nerd and its easy for me to relate to the main characters. Peter Parker is the best example of this. Well, its a bit different in the movie Wanted. I would say that the kind of person who would really like the characters and would relate most to their personalties would be someone who played high school football. I'm going to go ahead and say that this is the Varsity Blues of comic book movies.

Don't waste your time.