Archives for : movies

Magic in Me

Posted by :David Manly On : November 8, 2016
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Category: comics, Doctor Strange, Marvel, Movies

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One of my favourite superheroes has finally made his way to the big screen this past weekend, but what if you don’t know anything about Dr. Stephen Strange? Thankfully, dear reader, I have got you covered!

Who is Doctor Strange?

Doctor Stephen Strange was a celebrated and world-famous neurosurgeon – and had the ego to match. His arrogance made him think he was better than everyone, but it was only after a severe car crash mangled his hands that he thought he had lost the only thing that made him special. As a result, he spent his fortune trying every medical (and non-medical) treatment he could trying to fix his hands, but to no avail.

It was then that Strange heard of a healer known as the “Ancient One,” so he travelled to Tibet to meet him, but because of his arrogance, was promptly refused treatment. But, upon seeing the frail man resist an attack using mystical abilities, Strange was forced to admit that magic and evil existed and needed to be resisted. Strange then pledged to no longer pursue healing his hands for selfish reasons, but to protect and learn the mystic arts from the Ancient One, who was Earth’s magical protector known as the “Sorcerer Supreme.”

Strange studied under the Ancient One, and spent years training his body and mind to harness magic within himself, the Earth, and other dimensions. And he was a natural!

Upon the death of the Ancient One, Doctor Strange inherited the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme.

Are you saying there is magic in Marvel movies now?

Basically, yes.

After introducing space and aliens in the Avengers, Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy, the realm of the supernatural was the next logical place to go. The Marvel universe in the comics is filled with supernatural allies and enemies, and is key to introducing different dimensions and the multiverse!

And, don’t forget what Thor said in his very first movie:

Who is the bad guy in the Doctor Strange movie?

The bad guy is called Kaecilius (played by Mads Mikkelsen), a former student of the Ancient One, who desired darker abilities and powers beyond what was taught. So, he left the school with his followers and began finding ways to contact a more powerful master, which is where we meet him at the beginning of the movie.

So there’s a bad guy worse than Kaecilius? *WARNING – Minor spoilers below!*

Yes, called Dormammu. He is an ancient being and ruler of the Dark Dimension, and he seeks to bring all planets and realities into his domain. So, a pretty bad guy.

Who does Strange have to help him in the movie?

In addition to the Ancient One (played by Tilda Swinton), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has help from both the mystical and human realms.

A fellow student, Baron Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) takes a shine to Strange when he enters the school, and quickly becomes both a teacher, a mentor, and a friend.

Wong, who was Doctor Strange’s assistant in the comics, mans the library in the movie and is a powerful mystic in his own right. He is played by Benedict Wong.

And lastly, Rachel McAdams plays Christine Palmer, an Emergency Room doctor and one-time romantic partner of Strange who comes to his aid after his accident.

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What did you think of the movie?

I really enjoyed it!

The images and effects were amazing, and very similar to the classic art from when Strange was first introduced in the comics in the 60s and 70s. While the villain, Kaecilius won’t win any awards, credit must be given to fleshing him out a little bit.

Cumberbatch was an amazing Doctor Strange, and I can’t wait to see him pop up in a future movie and become the Sorcerer Supreme. It was a great ride, and was a great primer of the magical side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

I whole-heartily recommend you see it – I know I’ll be seeing it again!

Are there mid-credits and after-credits scenes?

Oh yes!

One serves as a tease for an upcoming Marvel movie, while the other hints at what is to come in (hopefully) future Doctor Strange movies.

Final thoughts?

The movie was fantastic! It adds a big piece to the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe and was visually stunning.

**WARNING! BELOW ARE SPOILERS! Only read below to find out my thoughts on those two scenes**

**LAST SPOILER WARNING!***

In the mid-credits scene, you see Doctor Strange talking to Thor about why Thor brought his brother, the magical trickster Loki, to New York. Thor says that it is because they are looking for their father, Odin, who was replaced by Loki in the movie, Thor: The Dark World. Strange replies that he thinks he can help. This scene is a teaser for the upcoming Thor movie entitled Thor: Ragnarok, and it would make sense that Strange would become involved in his comings and goings, as it is rumoured to mainly take place in different dimensions and realms.

The after-credits scene has Mordo, after leaving the final battle, approaching Benjamin Bratt’s character (who was healed by magic earlier). Mordo goes into a bit of a speech about magic and the people who use it, before forcibly extracting the magic, leaving Bratt paralyzed on the floor. Mordo explains that there are “too many sorcerers,” and it looks like he will be taking the magic others have harnessed for his own uses. My theory is based on his comments at the end of the movie, where he states that breaking the natural laws of magic and reality should be punished, and these people are therefore unfit to wield magic. And, in so doing, will become the evil villain version of Mordo that he became in the comics.

*Spoilers end*

The Jaws That Bite

Posted by :David Manly On : July 12, 2016
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Category: Animals, Jaws, Movie review, Movies

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Whenever someone asks me what my passions or vices are, I usually respond that I like movies and television too much. But that is putting it mildly – I adore movies. I would watch a movie every day of my life if I could, and that extends to all sorts of different entertainment avenues where you are the audience, like plays, musicals, etc. But movies will always be my number one favourite.

I love to be entertained, taken away, transported to somewhere else and experience the highs and lows that cinema can invoke in all of us. There’s nothing better than sitting in a dark theatre and sharing an emotional thrill ride with everyone else in the theatre. It’s a magical experience, and it took me a long time to understand why.

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine the other day, and she asked me what it was about movies that I loved so much. I responded by saying that I liked the sense of escapism. That it allows me to turn my brain off, forget my problems, and enjoy the ride.

And some movies, what a ride they are!

Recently, I re-watched one of my favourite movies of all time: Jaws.

I saw Jaws when I was probably around eight years old with my brother, and I distinctly remember my dad recommending it because it was about sharks (which I loved), a Stephen Spielberg film (which I loved), and the first summer blockbuster ever. And I devoured the film … pun intended. And I have watched it over and over again in the over 20 years since, and have yet to get tired of it.

Jaws is by no means a perfect movie, but it is pretty damn close.

The casting is spot-on, with Roy Scheider playing new Police Chief Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as the underappreciated shark expert Hooper, and Robert Shaw playing the shark-hunter Quint. Each of them deliver fantastic performances, with my personal favourite being this scene:

The film masterfully builds up levels upon levels of suspense, mostly because you really never see the shark in the first half of the movie. You see it attack swimmers, the aftermath of the attacks, the paranoia of the townspeople, and the thoughts of the three main stars – but never the shark itself (mostly because the shark didn’t really work during production, causing Spielberg to hide it).

And then, the scene where first see the shark is pure movie magic:

The film continues to build from that moment, from one encounter with the shark to the next, as the crew find themselves completely unprepared for the ferocious nature and pure tenacity of the predator. That is, until the explosive final confrontation between Brody and the shark that puts an end to the threat once-and-for-all.

However, as much as I like the movie (and I do), I am of two minds with regards to it. To put it simply, I love everything about the movie, but I hate the aftermath of the film.

As a result of Stephen Spielberg scaring everyone out of the water back in 1975, people began to hate sharks because of how the great white shark was in the movie, as a mindless killing machine. As a result, individuals went out in the water with the specific purpose of hunting and killing sharks, simply because of the movie.

In fact, the author of the book that the film was based on, Peter Benchley, mentioned repeatedly that if he would have known more about real sharks and their behaviour, he would have never written the book, and deeply regrets what happened as a result of both the book and film. As a result, Benchley became an advocate for sharks and ocean conservation, and spent the rest of his life trying to undo the damage he did and try to alleviate people’s fears of the majestic animal. (Source)

A fantastic new film, entitled The Shallows, came out recently, and hits many of the same beats as Jaws. Blake Lively stars as Nancy, a young woman who gets attacked by a shark on a surfing trip and becomes stranded on a rock too far to swim to shore, as the shark is patrolling nearby. It is a great movie and Lively is amazing in it, but the absolute best part of the movie happens when her character finds a GoPro in the water.

As she records a final message to her family in case she doesn’t survive her daring plan of escape, she says one extremely important line. She doesn’t blame the shark … she blames herself, as she admits that she wandered into the shark’s feeding ground and put herself at risk.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Blake Lively said:

She’s surfing and she comes upon a shark’s feeding ground and a whale carcass. She swims into that, and as any wild animal would do, when food is scarce and times are tough, here something is on its feeding ground and it protects its territory. Both of them are just battling to stay alive. Neither one of them is evil, necessarily — they’re both fighting each other for their lives.

And that is just amazing.

Look how far we’ve come in 41 years, and I can only hope that people continue to realize that sharks are not evil, just misunderstood.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – A Plot Analysis

Posted by :David Manly On : March 25, 2016
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Category: Batman, Batman v Superman, DC, Man of Steel, Marvel, Movie review, Movies, superheroes, Superman

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Last night, I was able to see one of the biggest movies of 2016 – Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and decided to write this review to voice my opinion on the film.

Keep in mind that I will be discussing key moments from the film, plot points, cameos and more, so SPOILER WARNING!

Last chance to stop reading to avoid spoilers … Ok, so let’s get right into it.

The movie begins with a retelling of Batman’s origin, which anyone who has seen any Batman movie, TV show, animated feature, video game, etc. is very familiar with. After a night out seeing a movie or the theatre (it differs), young Bruce Wayne leaves the performance with his parents, Martha and Thomas Wayne. They are robbed a gunpoint, Martha Wayne’s pearls drop (which are CGI for some reason in this movie), and Bruce Wayne is left as an orphan. Then, after the funeral, Bruce falls into a cave nearby his house and encounters bats. Thus, he becomes Batman.

Most people know Batman’s origin, and in a movie that was – and not to mention felt – long, it could have been cut out and started from Bruce Wayne’s perspective during the events on 2013’s Man of Steel. Long-time readers of my blog know how I felt about that movie (you can read my review here), as I had many issues about the world that had been created, especially how Zod got his powers so quickly, and Superman not protecting people during the final battle.

There was a lot of outcry about this after Man of Steel was released, so it gets addressed. A lot. Numerous characters make point-blank statements that wherever a superhero battle is happening, the locations are abandoned, empty, or in one hilariously bizarre case, after-business-hours, so the office towers were “mostly empty.” There is even a whole subplot in the movie about Superman being held accountable for his actions, and he even attends a Senate sub-committee meeting to defend his actions. But, that’s getting ahead of myself.

After Bruce’s origin story, we see Bruce Wayne fly to Metropolis in a helicopter and try to save people from Zod and the ensuing battle. Bruce was rightfully angry when Superman and Zod destroy countless buildings (including the Wayne Financial building), injure others and kill a lot of people. This sets the stage for the primary conflict for Batman.

And then we cut to 18 months later.

We learn quickly that Bruce Wayne sees Superman’s power as too much for one being not of this Earth (read: alien), and that he could destroy everyone without a thought. So, he decided to find enough Kryptonite to kill Superman if necessary.

This started him on a collision course with Lex Luthor (played by a manic Nicholas Cage-level insanity by Jesse Eisenberg, who just got annoying in the role), who happened to be trying to import a massive batch of Kryptonite into the States, but was blocked by the very Senator leading the Senate committee mentioned above – how convenient!

To locate the shipment, Wayne went to a party held by Lex to steal the information, where he met Clark Kent and a mysterious woman who stole the stolen data from Bruce. At another event, he met the woman again, got the drive back and decrypted the information.

Meanwhile, Clark was worried about not being able to help everyone, but goes on being a God among men and saving Lois (who, as always, has a knack for getting into danger and needing saving). While Superman attended the Senate hearing, a bomb went off (thanks to Lex) killing everyone and Superman goes into hiding because he was ashamed. In this film, Lois was relegated to her own subplot about mysterious bullets that were made by LexCorp and worrying about Clark when he disappeared.

Bruce found the Kryptonite thanks to the drive (as well as other information I’ll get to later), and tried to steal it from Lex. He failed due to intervention from Superman and they had a staring contest.

While this is happening, Lex made a deal to get access to the Kryptonian ship from Man of Steel and Zod’s body. I’m still not entirely sure what he did, but he somehow used Zod’s fingerprints to become the new commander of the ship, and used a glowing yellow pool (called a Genesis pool?) to combine his DNA and Zod’s to create an “abomination”.

Bruce then successfully stole the Kryptonite rock from Lex and made some weapons, including a spear and gas grenades, for his eventual fight with Superman. As for the armoured suit in the trailer (inspired by the Frank Miller comic The Dark Knight Returns)? I was hoping we’d be able to see Bruce build it to try and compensate for the massive strength differential between the two, but no such luck.

Lex then kidnapped Lois, threw her off a building to lure Superman, and told Superman that he wanted Batman dead. Superman said he wouldn’t kill him, and Lex said that he kidnapped Clark’s mother (Martha Kent), and would kill her in an hour if Superman didn’t bring Lex the head of Batman. So, Superman flew off to gets Batman’s help.

Batman, on the other hand, was all decked out for war against Superman and didn’t let him explain the situation. So, they fought. Batman used Kryptonite gas to weaken Superman so he could get a few licks in, but Superman recovered and pummeled Batman. So, Batman used more gas and got him stunned enough to, after some bizarre CGI grapple gun antics, got him underfoot and about to be gutted with the Kryptonite spear.

Superman said to “find Martha” and “save Martha,” and Batman lost his mind (as that was his mother’s name – and where I think the flashback to the night Bruce’s parents were murdered would have been PERFECT), and then Lois rushed in to tell the truth to Batman about Martha Kent.

Batman threw the spear away and promised to rescue Superman’s mom (which he did), and Superman promised to find Lex Luthor (which he did). But not before the cocoon Lex created in the Kryptonian ship hatched and, in some terrible green screen CGI work, emerged Doomsday.

In the comics and cartoons, Doomsday was a creature bred and evolved to be the perfect killer. And every time he “died,” he would be resurrected and could not be killed that way again.

Anyway, Doomsday was quickly attacked by the US military and survived. So, Clark fought Doomsday and lost quickly. Batman went to help and also had trouble. Then, the mysterious woman Bruce Wayne met earlier appeared as Wonder Woman (and in my opinion, the best part of the movie), and she helped. Superman tackled Doomsday and flew into space, and the US nuked the both. Doomsday fell to Earth and regenerated into something deadlier, and Superman spent some time soaking up the sun’s rays before he rejoined Wonder Woman in the fight.

Lois grabbed the spear from before, but almost drowned in retrieving it. So Superman abandoned the fight, saved her, and flew with the Kryptonite spear and stabbed Doomsday. In his death throes, Doomsday stabbed Superman in the chest and they both died.

Superman was given a very public military funeral and Clark Kent was buried in Smallville (where he grew up) with Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince (Wonder Woman’s alter-ego) in attendance and they quickly teased the formation of the Justice League. And, Lex Luthor was in jail and visited by a very angry Batman. Lex, seemingly out of his mind, ominously said that something worse is coming – also teasing the eventual “big bad” of the upcoming Justice League movies.

A few things:

– Batman had a “vision” of an apocalyptic future, teasing the bad guy in the future Justice League movie (which looks to be the villain, Darkseid), as well as a visit from “Future Flash” warning him of what is coming in that future movie and to “get them together.”

– Inside Lex’s drive stolen by Batman and Wonder Woman, there were files on other metahumans, including videos showcasing the future Justice League members – the Flash stopping a mugging, Wonder Woman all over the world (and a photo from the early 1900s), Aquaman fighting off a submersible, and Cyborg being turned from a man into a machine.

Ok DC and Warner Brothers – we get it. You have a Justice League movie coming out and are trying to build a DC Cinematic Universe, but the film was overstuffed already with Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. These extraneous cameos for characters we won’t see for a while, and won’t have their own movies for years, were obvious and wastes of time.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe had movies introducing single characters in their own movies before building up to the big team-up in Avengers, followed by more individual movies culminating in Avengers: Age of Ultron. They had years and years to build up the world and the characters before putting them all together. That is why it worked.

Teases and looks at what will be coming are good, but not at the expense of the film you are trying to make.

But what did I think of the movie overall?

Well, the movie was ok. I wasn’t a big fan of Man of Steel, so I wasn’t anticipating this movie to be fantastic. Unlike other superhero movies, I’m not in a rush to see it again, as it wasn’t exciting, it was overly long, and the effects were less than optimal. The dream sequences were awkwardly placed, Batman’s origin was redone … again, and the reasons for fighting (Batman thought Superman was too powerful and Superman thought Batman crossed the line) changed because Lex kidnaps Superman’s mom. Therefore, Batman and Superman fight because of a misunderstanding. It’s not the be-all, end-all brawl that everyone and the trailers and marketing were suggesting.

Honestly, it seems like after Man of Steel, DC and Warner Brothers decided to make Superman and Batman fight, and reverse-engineered a reason why.

But, there were some enjoyable parts in the movie. The action sequences were mostly good, as long as they didn’t get too CGI-heavy, and Wonder Woman fighting looked great. But that was about it.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will make a lot of money, but I don’t think it will make nearly as much as DC and Warner Brothers would like. And maybe they will learn their lesson. But, with Wonder Woman already  filmed and The Justice League Part 1 shooting now, who knows what will happen. I had hoped they would learn their lesson three years ago from Man of Steel …

The Results Are In!

Posted by :David Manly On : February 29, 2016
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Category: 2016, Movies, Oscars

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1452131746568dc5a2070267.82757724So, the results are in from last night’s Academy Awards … and how did I do?

I won my Oscar pool!
Out of 24 categories, I received a total mark of 17/24, which is roughly 71%.

But how did I do if you compare my predicted wins versus what I placed on my actual ballot?

Best Supporting Actor

The nominees were:

Christian Bale, The Big Short
Tom Hardy, The Revenant
Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone, Creed

Who I thought would win: Mark Ruffalo

Who I predicted on my official ballot: Sylvester Stallone

Who won: Mark Rylance  *WRONG*

 

Best Supporting Actress

The nominees were:

Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara, Carol
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

Who I thought would win: Alicia Vikander

Who I predicted on my official ballot: Alicia Vikander

Who won: Alicia Vikander  *CORRECT ON BOTH BALLOT AND PREDICTION!*

 

Best Actress

The nominees were:

Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

Who I thought would win: Saoirse Ronan

Who I predicted on my official ballot: Brie Larson

Who won: Brie Larson  *CORRECT ON BALLOT!*

 

Best Actor

The nominees were:

Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Matt Damon, The Martian
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl

Who I thought would win: Eddie Redmayne

Who I predicted on my official ballot: Leonardo DiCaprio

Who won: Leonardo DiCaprio  *CORRECT ON BALLOT!*

 

Best Picture

The nominees were:

The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight

Which movie I thought would win: Spotlight

Which I predicted on my official ballot: The Revenant

Which movie won: Spotlight  *CORRECT ON PREDICTION*

 

So, all-in-all, not too bad this year – and at long last, my Oscar losing streak has ended!

How did you do?

May I Have the Envelope Please?

Posted by :David Manly On : February 25, 2016
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Category: 2016, Movies, Opinion, Oscars

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This Sunday is the 88th annual Academy Awards (also known as the Oscars), which is a big deal with my family.

Ever since I was a little kid, I would see as many of the nominated films as I could, and engage in a friendly competition with my family regarding who would win each and every category. And the competition was fierce!

Some years I won, but I mostly lost. And it has been a number of years since I tasted victory – though last year was a close call between me and my mother – but I have a good feeling about 2016.

But in lieu of writing who I think will win, as that would give my competition an edge until the ballots are cast on Sunday night before the telecast, I will list here who I would like to win based on my own observations.

To be clear: I don’t necessarily think that these nominees will win (though they could). But these choices are for if I controlled the votes, these are who I would pick for Best Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and Picture.

Now, why should my opinion carry any weight?

I am an avid movie watcher, as anyone who follows this blog or me on social media can attest, and I love being lost in a story. I love actors who can transform themselves for a role and make me believe that what I’m watching is real, even though I’m sitting in a movie theatre with strangers. I adore the escapism aspect of being engrossed in a movie, and I am endlessly fascinated with acting and the movie making process.

And, of course, I see a lot of movies.

Now – may I have the envelope please?

Best Supporting Actor

The nominees are:

Christian Bale, The Big Short
Tom Hardy, The Revenant
Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone, Creed

Who I think will win: Many in the media are split for who will win between Sylvester Stallone’s triumphant return to the silver screen as Rocky Balboa and Mark Ruffalo’s performance in Spotlight as a reporter who struggles with his faith amid a breaking story of molestation of boys in the Catholic church.

If my vote was the only one that mattered, I would choose Mark Ruffalo to get the award, as it was a fantastic performance in a movie filled with great performances from everyone. But of all the actors in that movie and nominated in this category, Ruffalo’s character of Michael Rezendes genuinely struggled with the revelation about the church and questions not only his career, but his judgment and personal belief systems. It was fantastic.

Best Supporting Actress

The nominees are:

Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara, Carol
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

Who I think will win: This was probably the easiest category for me to decide, as I thought Alicia Vikander’s acting in The Danish Girl was easily the best of the bunch – and its a talented group!

In the movie, she plays Gerda Wegener, who is the wife of Einar Wegener (played by Eddie Redmayne), a man who discovers that he is actually a woman (by the name of Lili Elbe) trapped in a man’s body. However, in becoming the person he should be – Lili – Gerda’s life becomes fragmented, shattered, but then through the lens of Lili, pieced back together. As much as the relationship between Gerta and Einar runs through the film, I believe that the friendship and adoration that arises between Gerda and Lili as the true hero of the film.

Because of each other, Lili is able to embrace herself, and Gerda is able to (after a lot of difficulties) stand by and support her during her trials and tribulations.

Best Actress

The nominees are:

Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

Who I think will win: For me, this was the most difficult category to choose, as Brie Larson was captivating in Room and deserves to be one of the leading contenders for the prize. But, of every single movie I saw in 2015, one of the best would probably be Brooklyn – and that is due to the incredible performance of Saoirse Ronan (her first name is pronounced as: SUR-sha, like inertia) as Eilis (pronounced AYE-lish) Lacey, a young Irish woman who immigrates to Brooklyn in the 1950s.

The movie is a modest story of Ellis’ travels to America, and her struggles to make a new life in a strange country. And, in so doing, she find love in a young Italian man, Tony, who becomes her boyfriend. But, when her sister is ill, Ellis goes back to Ireland and meets Jim, with whom she has an instant connection with. It is that struggle where Brooklyn and Ronan excel – playing the trope of “stranger in a strange land” twice in the same movie – when she first comes to Brooklyn, and when she goes back to Ireland after becoming comfortable in America.

Ronan’s performance is heartbreaking, honest, and most importantly, touching. Every experience, struggle and decision is acted and displayed with honesty. It was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while, and her performance was the main reason.

Best Actor

The nominees are:

Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Matt Damon, The Martian
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl

Who I think will win: This is a hard category to choose, as many people consider Leonardo DiCaprio as a lock to win for his powerhouse performance in The Revenant, which was fantastic. But, if I were in control and had the deciding vote, I would choose Eddie Redmayne for The Danish Girl.

His performance was hauntingly realistic, as his character, Einar Wegener realizes that he was a woman born in a man’s body, and decides to embrace who he is by transforming into Lili Elbe through one of the first uses of sexual reassignment surgery.

Redmayne’s transformed himself for the role, much like when he won the Oscar in 2015 for The Theory of Everything. You could feel the mixture of shame, excitement, trepidation, fear and confusion as Einar struggled to accept Lili as more than she was initially presented – as a simple joke Einar and his wife played on guests at a party. As Einar said in the movie, “Something’s changed,” and the emotional weight carried by Redmayne, as well as the actress who plays his wife (Alicia Vikander), was a sight to behold.

Best Picture

The nominees are:

The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight

Who I think will win: Personally, I haven’t liked the Academy’s decision to open up the Best Picture category to more nominees than it used to have – it just becomes a cluttered mess.

Now, based on my picks above, you might think I would pick Brooklyn as the winner in this category, and it was a hard choice. However, I decided to pick Spotlight as the recipient because it was a true ensemble piece that showcased the talents of everyone involved.

It was a difficult story to tell, but they did it with class. And if anyone asks why I decided to go into journalism, even though investigative reporting is not something I have done a lot of, Spotlight is what I’ll refer them to. It is a thrilling movie without big action scenes, a tragedy without simplifying or trivializing emotions, an ensemble piece where everyone gets to shine, and one of the best stories about journalism since All The President’s Men.

However, I would not be upset if Brooklyn won, or even The Revenant or The Big Short, but my pick would be Spotlight.

But, that is just my opinion.
If you could decide – who would you choose and why?

And be sure to watch the 88th Academy Awards at 8:30 pm EST on Sunday, February 28th.

Lastly, I’ll be sure to update this post on Monday, February 29th, so you can see how my picks here and my choices for my Oscar pool differed.

The next step

Posted by :David Manly On : April 7, 2014
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Category: Blog Posts, blogging, comics

Tags:, , , , , ,

Superheroes have always presented a very interesting dilemma to me; in that they are often impossible flights of fancy yet simultaneously a form of wish fulfillment. Who hasn’t, at some point or other, wished that they could fly, teleport, read people’s minds or heal from any injury? I am not embarrassed to say that I have often found myself wishing I could fly to work, be super-strong so I could protect those I love or just be a badass like Wolverine or Batman.

I’m also not ashamed to say that I love superheroes and comics, and I have since I was a kid. I adored the thrill of opening up a comic for the first time and getting lost in the conflicts that filled their days – some relatable to my everyday experience, others not. But it never mattered, because I would always take something away from those books I would read as a child. Even though they were stories about individuals with extraordinary powers, they had personality traits that I admired and wanted to emulate, but most importantly, they had flaws.

Back then, I read as much as I could by the big companies, as well as some smaller ones. But my favourites were always Marvel heroes (and Batman), and they still are to this day.

The characters that probably had the largest impact on me as a child were the X-Men. Sure I loved Spider-Man, Daredevil, Captain America and the rest, but the X-Men were my go-to series. They dealt with ostracization, racism, bullying, being true to yourself, etc. And all of those themes spoke to me, as I encountered that during my young life. But comics, and reading in general, were an escape from the trials of being a kid, like bullies and feeling like an outcast sometimes.

I loved going to the comic book store and seeing what issues were new, talking to the owner about my favourite characters, and being so excited to read an issue that I couldn’t wait until I got home to crack it open. In fact, I still have a few comics from those days that are hidden away somewhere that I could not bear to part with. Some of them are collectibles and first issues, while others have great memories, like the great DC vs. Marvel comics crossover event from the mid-1990s.

But why am I talking about comic books and superheroes in what has (mostly) been a blog about science, animals and journalism?

I have decided to expand my blog to talk more about video games, movies, comics, etc., while still striving to maintain the science-bent, tone and style that was here previously. I am a big fan of pop culture and an avid consumer of it, so I will be putting that absurd amount of knowledge to good use here, and I hope you enjoy it. I will be writing more along the lines of previous posts, such as “The Science of Smaug the Terrible,” where I discussed the feasibility (using biomechanics) about if dragons could exist, and “Man of Steel shows its rust” highlighting issues I had with the changes made to the Superman mythology in the latest reboot.

Stay tuned true believers!

To be continued …