Akira

For comic-book geeks, its a great time to be a movie goer. It has become mainstream to show your fan-boy appreciation for your favorite neon-tights-wearing super heroes. And these days, its not even the A-List characters getting the popcorn treatment. Along with Batman, Iron Man, Wolverine, Spder-Man, we are seeing Hellboy, the Watchmen, Wanted, and heck, even Cowboys vs. Aliens getting the big budget movie makeover! The new go-to place for scripts and movie rights is now Comic-Con. Lesser-known publishers like Dark Horse and Vertigo are getting their characters snatched up by Hollywood cronies quicker then Wolverine can heal from a splinter. Even indie comic book writers are getting movie deals from there fresh off-the-press new stories. All with good reason.

Comic-book characters have that great fantasy element that still manages to stay anchored to real world issues and problems. We don’t want to see a Joe Schmuck on screen go through the same things we do, we want it glorified and amped up in situations involving radioactive spiders and time-traveling arch nemesis’. The story is just so much better that way and has been a full-proof method since we can remember. Our super-heroes are the modern time reproductions of Greek/Roaman mythos. Just take a look at Thor and Wonder Woman, both of whom will show up in an Avengers movies within the next year or two. Hindu gods can also relate.

The problem is, the genre is being milked to hell. For every great super hero movie, we have the Daredevils, the Catwomans, the Punishers, Hulks… etc. We have spin-offs, and franchise reboots. Some of the with success while others with yawn-inducing affairs. Though I do predict there is a lot more that can be done with the genre (I will not be content until Cable & Deadpool gets an R rated romp in a 2-hour action-sci-fi flick; who’s with me?). It’s just that releasing a comic-book inspired movie is definitely not an exciting idea as it was a couple years ago. Though they can milk the comic-book to movie genre for at least another ten years (think Batman vs. Superman, or Spider-Man & Wolverine movie team-ups, yeah I really think I am onto something, mock my words!); we need to see something fresh and new. And what is the new trend? 80’s cartoon-inspired live-action reboots and anime!

Super-hero movies, its time to take a back-seat. We all know you were full-out “flame-on” mode human-torch-style, blazing up the silver screen, but there are some new contenders nipping at your neon-colored tights.

The Wachowski Bros. sparked the idea with Speed Racer, though it was a horrible mess of a film. But there are plenty more coming down the pipe. It seems as if movie execs sat around watching repeats of Robot Chicken and taking notes. And I for one am definitely not complaining. Personally, the new onslaught of movies to come are going to be really exciting. Between the on going whoring of comic-book franchises and the new anime/80’s cartoon installments around the bend, its a great time to be a fan-boy indeed!

Dragonball – “Definitely the story of this movie is different from the original. But it’s a necessary change because we need to condense the long story of the original for a movie,” Marsters told Jump Square magazine. Not having high-expectations of this one, it needed a mention. You can check out the trailer here.

Akira – The movie that led the way for the growing popularity of anime movies in the West. Currently developed by Warner Bros. and is looking at a 2009 release. It is being penned as “Blade Runner meets City of God.” That should be enough to make us hyped for its release!

He-Man – Also under the reigns of Warner Bros., He-Man has the story-line that will make for a perfect summer-movie blockbuster. The premise being an epic battle between good and evil, and also fantasy and magic vs. science and technology. I am thinking 300 meets Matrix type of style. Let’s just hope they leave out Orko.

Snake Eyes

GI Joe: Rise of Cobra – With a Transformers sequel on the way, Habro’s other major license is looking for a major release ideally in 2009. With the classic characters such as Duke, Snake Eyes, and the evil Cobra Commander making it to the cast, this will be a throw-back that all the 80’s kids can get behind.

Other Notable Mentions – Voltron, Street Fighter, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (and no, not this horrible one), Ghost in the Shell (Steven Spielberg’s project)

Facebook has been getting some heated criticism for unveiling its new redesign recently. Most of you have noticed with the constant status updates by friends and foes alike, stating how much they hate the new layout. Some even dedicating groups revolting towards it. Though I do agree the redesign took some getting used to, I feel that it was a great leap towards becoming much more user-friendly while managing limitless micro-content without keeping the site too busy (something myspace.com fails at).

The facebook team also seems to be always ahead of the web-trend curve, releasing updates that cater to the tech-savvy (hah! savvy… isn’t that pirate speak?). They were one of the first to come out with an iPhone web-edition of their site, and also the first to offer an iPhone native app as well. The newest version of the native app, I would argue, is a better overall experience to the actual web site itself!

The pirate English mode is just another example of how facebook just “gets it” and always does a bit more then its competition in keeping their site engaging for the millions of users.

PS – Check out the effort I did to blur out sensitive info from the screenshot.

Click to see screenshot

The caption below the character “Mashimaro” (which is supposed to be “a funny rabbit”, but looks awfully like a hamster) says:

“Welcome. how are you? Where are you from? I am from Japan. We are good friends. I have e new car, do you want it.”

LOL. Engrish at it’s finest! I am totally using this.