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The Red Baron is a movie about the famous German flying ace. I didn’t get to watch the original language version, something that is probably far more enjoyable. Instead, we saw the English version. Never having spent too much time reading about the life of Manfed von Richthofen, the movie served as a reasonable introduction. Though factually accurate to some degree, there are a number of scenes and occurrences that are not historically true.

That doesn’t detract from the quality of the movie at all: the aerial combat scenes are spectacular and the overall depiction of World War I life one that reminds the viewer that war cannot be a good thing.

Von Richthofen is a young pilot who, together with a bunch of close friends, partakes in the sport of flying fighter aircraft. The aim is not to kill the pilot of an enemy plane; instead, it’s all about disabling that aircraft and ensuring no one comes to any harm. This ideal is slowly but surely eroded. As the war takes its toll on the German army and as von Richthofen climbs through the ranks of the airforce, it is inevitable that victory takes top priority. Through battle after battle, friends of the Red Baron die in combat, causing him to question his motives and the sense of the war.

With the enemy closing in, the German army prepares for its last stand. At the young age of 25, Baron Manfred von Richthofen is shot down in combat over France, respected as much in death as during his short life by enemy and countrymen alike.

Overall, the two hour long movie is interesting and entertaining. At times, the action shifts a bit too quickly from one scene to another, with abrupt changes from high action to serene scenes quite common.

For anyone with a passing interest in history or aviation The Red Baron is recommended viewing, in my opinion.

I can’t believe I hadn’t hear anything about this movie until this morning, seeing posters and then listening to some podcasts in which this movie was mentioned. District 9 is a science fiction movie directed by South African Neill Blomkamp, featuring unknown actors. I have a feeling that will change – the movie has opened to rave reviews in the USA and will open on the local circuit next week Friday.

I’ve enjoyed watching the trailers and am most impressed and intrigued. It feels odd watching a trailer for a movie shot entirely on location in South Africa – none of those nondescript NY skyscrapers…

Here’s an excerpt from the synopsis on IMDB: the film opens with a documentary-style series of interviews that introduce the situation. Twenty years before, an alien ship is seen coming towards Earth and arrives above Johannesburg, South Africa. It hovers above the city for three months without any contact; eventually humans take the initiative and cut into the ship. They discover a large group of aliens who are malnourished and sick. The aliens are later assessed as apparently being all “workers”, with their leadership mysteriously missing (it is hypothesized that a plague may have wiped out all of the leadership-caste). Grainy footage shows part of the ship (supposed to be a command module) falling to Earth, but nobody has been able to find it, leaving the ship inoperable.

Cannot wait to see this one!

I love science fiction as much as anyone. Probably more than anyone. Funny that I’ve never latched onto the whole Star Trek thing, however. Never. Star Wars was cool, and still is. Star Trek was always a show with guys sitting on chairs pretending to be in a spaceship, and not really pretending very well either. Worse still, pretending to be in a spaceship that was under attack, being shaken about. That’s sort of what Star Trek was to me.

The hype surrounding the new Star Trek movie and the great reviews I read prompted me to go along and see what the fuss is about. I’m afraid to say that Star Trek in 2009 is pretty much what it was in the early 1980′s: guys standing around in a pretend spaceship, pretending to be bumped about. J.J. Abrams tries hard to breathe new life into the old franchise. His reboot of the series by bringing up the possibility of an alternate reality opens the door for many sequels, which there will be, based on the many positive reviews out there. For me, time travel tales don’t work. They especially can’t work when a character in one reality meets up with himself in another. That blows the story for me.

There was an obvious requirement to showcase an original Trek cast member in the new Trek incarnation. Nimoy as an old Spock has that honour, meeting up with a younger version of himself towards the end of the movie. By that time, we’ve seen a wildly reckless James T. Kirk drive a vintage Corvette like a maniac, being beaten up by Starfleet Academy recruits, cheat himself through the Kobayashi Maru test and climb onboard the USS Enterprise to aid the threatened planet of Vulcan even though he’s been grounded. Those feats are peanuts compared to the other hi-jinks Kirk gets up to, making Star Trek a dead ringer for movies like Agent XXX.

Carbon copies of the well-known crew are introduced too, of course: Uhura, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu and Chekov. Spock appears twice, in a young and an older body. They try too hard to be what the original characters were.

There’s plenty of action, good special f/x and an ingenious reboot of an old favourite. As someone who’s never been a Star Trek fan, there’s little to commend the movie, however. I was somewhat disappointed that the hype didn’t quite materialize in what I saw…

The first X-Men movie was good, the second interested me very little and I gave the third one a miss. It was with much interest then that I followed opinions and reviews of the much-hyped Wolverine movie, a motion picture focusing on a single character of the mutant superhero team. Hugh Jackman certainly looks the part – his hair styled into those pseudo-ears together with the beard and sharp chin makes him a dead ringer for one of the more popular characters in the Marvel universe. Whether he could hold his own in an origin story was an interesting topic of conversation.

Reviews and opinions range from the hyperbolic to the disappointed. I, for one, think the movie as a whole was well executed and it stays true to the Wolverine backstories I’ve been exposed to. Young James and his half-brother flee home after a violent night in their home sometime in 1845. By virtue of their mutation that enables their bodies to be healed, both James and Victor get enlisted in every armed conflict known to the USA, from the American Civil War to Vietnam. In modern times, Major Stryker enlists them into a team of mutants from which James Logan departs, sickened by the violence the team exhibits. His half-brother is still in the service of Stryker some six years later, when the Major starts hunting down mutants for experimentation and the creation of a super soldier. It is at the hands of Stryker that Logan receives his adamantium skeleton and becomes the Wolverine.

The movie is fast-paced and I enjoyed some of the more exxagerated shots of Jackman on his motorbike, being pursued by a chopper and two Hummers – almost carbon copies of panels one would expect to find in a comic book. Jackman plays his part well, as does most everyone else. A number of other characters from the X-Men universe make an appearance, but they seem to fit in well and aren’t used to simply fill up the running time. Once again I remembered the Weapon X program, something I had completely forgotten about and that’s a graphic novel I need to dig out of my collection.

There was nothing much I disliked about X-Men Origins: Wolverine. To come up with something would be nitpicking. It was an enjoyable spectacle for the comics geek and should appeal to those in the mood for an action picture, too. Though you’ve undoubtedly heard many opinions and made up your own by now, I’ll give you mine: if you enjoy the X-Men mythos to any degree, you’ll want to see this movie.

It’s a movie that fanboys have been waiting for years to see on the silver screen. Thankfully, technology has enabled Zack Snyder to produce a worthy movie adaptation of the twelve part comic book series that has featured on Time‘s most influentual literature list.

By now, you’ll know the story even if you haven’t ever been exposed to the Watchmen. It’s an alternate future for the USA: Nixon has been re-elected more times than anyone cares to remember after having won the Vietnam war through the intervention of Doctor Manhattan, erstwhile physicist Jon Osterman who has gained true superpowers in a freak laboratory accident. The US victory in Vietnam has increased tensions with the USSR and those tension cause both nations to teeter on the brink of nuclear war at the time the story starts with the murder of The Comedian in late 1985. The murder of The Comedian is investigated by Rorschach, part of a group of costumed crime fighters who have been outlawed in recent times. The mystery of the murder deepens as Rorschach‘s investigation continues.

So I’ll come out and say it: this is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. It’ s by far the best adaptation of any comic book I have ever witnessed and it remains as faithful and true to the original as possible. The costumes are fantastic, as is the 1985 street scene in New York. The CG effects utilized to bring Doctor Manhattan to life and Nite Owl‘s flying craft Archie are too cool. I enjoyed this one from start to finish and cannot find fault with it. The two and a half hour running time provides ample time for the story to be developed and the most relevant elements of the iconic comic book to be included.

I can’t wait for the three hour DVD edition to be released in July. Before then, I planning to see the movie at least one more time. If you’re a fanboy, you should already have seen this movie

Not long to go now…

Like all other fanboys the world over, I can’t wait for the release of the Watchmen movie on 6 March. For an event we’ve waited almost twenty years for, another week isn’t too long to go. If you haven’t read the acclaimed graphic novel yet, I highly recommend you seek out your nearest comics retailer and pick up a copy.

It will take some effort to read and a second pass is a good idea. To get into the storyline in more detail, check out the excellent annotations at Cap’n Wacky.

If that’s too much work for you, I can recommend the Watchmen motion comic for the iPod Touch, which is a direct translation of the comic book including narration. A Watchmen video journal documents the making of the movie.

Boing Boing Video has a sneak peek at the Watchmen in a recent episode and Wil Wheaton has a spoiler-free write-up.

6 March 2009. Almost here.

Many books have been written about the history of the Mac. Welcome to Macintosh is a short documentary that was released in December of last year. It details the history of the Macintosh and includes a host of Apple celebrities who played a part in bringing the Mac to life. Interestingly, neither Woz nor Jobs appear. They are simply referred to here and there or shown in recorded clips. One would think that they were rather instrumental in the overall development of the Mac…

Among those making an appearance on screen are Guy Kawasaki and Andy Hertzfeld. Leander Kahney, author of the book Cult of Mac, features prominently too. There is no narration. Instead, on-screen titles lead the viewer through the fascinating process of how the Apple brand has captured the imagination of many the world over.

If the Mac is your cup of tea, Welcome to Macintosh may well be of interest to you. Its running time of roughly 80 minutes is bound to keep your interest. Also, don’t neglect MacHEADS, a similar documentary about the cult of the Mac.

The legal case that could have delayed the eagerly anticipated Watchmen movie has been resolved.

The details of the settlement are not known at present, but who cares! It seems as though the March 2009 debut is a go. Time to break out that graphic novel, start watching the trailers and get in line for some tickets…

via The Hollywood Reporter

Quantum of Solace stars Daniel Craig as agent 007 and continues the story of Bond‘s quest to discover Mr. White‘s affiliations. At the end of Casino Royale, Bond has tracked White down and is ready to bring him in for questioning.

Solace begins with a crazy car chase through the Italian countryside, ending up in the city of Siena. Here, White‘s interrogation starts, and ends in seconds: a traitorous MI6 agent aids his escape. In Royale, the movie got underway with a spectacular chase scene on a construction site in Madagascar. In Solace, it’s a similar chase, this time taking place on the rooftops of Siena. It’s one of many similar set pieces, and it makes the movie appear less fresh and less interesting than Craig‘s debut in Casino Royale. The British Secret Service never seems to get to grips with White‘s affiliation with the mysterious Quantum organization, whose main player is Dominic Greene.

As a Bond villain, Greene is decidedly pedestrian. He poses as an environmentalist to gain access to water supplies in key geographical locations by destabilizing governments. In an interesting reflection on current events, the US aids his cause in return for access to oil supplies.

In stark contrast to the exotic locations, 007 spends most of his time in decidedly backwater places: Haiti and Bolivia. Thankfully, we are spared the barrage of Sony product placements that we saw in Royale. Ford gets a fair bit of showtime, including showing off an electric version of the Ka. The producers were obviously impressed with the digital tabletop seen in Minority Report – MI6 agents seem to use this technology all the time…

Bond gets to investigate Greene‘s plan to set up a military government in Bolivia that will transfer ownership of certain land to the Quantum organization. He has enlisted the CIA to assist in getting rid of Bond, something that Felix Leiter is not too happy about. That’s about it. The story doesn’t really go anywhere interesting and, though the pace is frenetic, there is nothing really new about this Bond adventure.

Coincidentally, Bond-girl Camille is intent on revenging the death of her parents. The new Bolivian military dictator is her target. That’s similar to the story in For Your Eyes Only. The fight on the theatre’s roof in Bregenz ends with Bond holding his quarry by his tie before letting him fall a couple of stories to the ground below. That’s a scene from Octopussy. Field agent Fields is killed in the hotel room and her naked body covered in oil, left on the bed. That’s Goldfinger. Camille and Bond jump out of an aeroplane and share a single parachute: that’s similar to the stunt in Moonraker. Whether intended or not, these copies of previous Bond exploits do little to make Solace compelling. On the contrary, it’s almost a bit too bland and nowhere close to the enjoyable adventure we saw in Casino Royale.

If you’re a Bond fan, you’ll see it and want to own it on DVD just to complete your collection. But somehow I doubt Quantum of Solace will be remembered as one of the better Bond adventures…