Con-Man: Anime Expo '15 Friday

Happy belated 4th of July! Hopefully you're recovered from a long weekend of celebrating the colonies and independence. For the pre-4th Holiday Friday it was time to roll out to Downtown, Los Angeles for my first full on experience at Anime Expo. But honestly after 8 hours at the show, I didn't even soak it all in, there's just that much going on. The Los Angeles Convention Center was hopping with religious protestors, food trucks, cars trying to park (TIP: Take an Uber!) and attendees waiting for their badges. The volunteers were hardcore about the crowd walking ON the taped lines, not between them, that's a new one for me. But the queue moved quickly and before you knew it, we were inside. In the lobby you had throngs of photographers and cosplayers, merchandise booth and huge banners for video games and cartoons.

The exhibit hall was packed with vendors from end to end. Not being an anime expert, much of it was familiar yet unfamiliar to me. Lots of Attack on Titan, Sailor Moon and Dragonball Z, video game giant Capcom had the latest Street Fighter set up while Bandai hocked toys then Funimation and Hulu showed off the latest animated series available. Figurines and models of Godzilla, Ultraman and Gundam filled booths while there was a surprising abundance of wigs and weapons. Wigs for all of the fantasty riffed cosplay characters and weapons like samurai swords, nunchucks, airsoft guns and fake brass knuckles for...whatever. Artist Alley was hopping with oh so many prints and sketches and my personal favorite; beaded magnets of 8-bit characters. One booth had giant Street Fighter characters like Zangief and Ken but not much in terms of Chrono Trigger. Then you had a guy walking around with a saxophone, playing the opening bars of George Michael's Careless Whisper. One of my anime expert friends will have to fill me in on that one...

Over in another exhibit hall was again the cosplay backdrops of bed and class rooms, the top of a building, Gothic cemetery and Japanese garden among others. Dozens of tables were set up for gaming and a small quarter operated arcade had favorites like Time Crisis, Terminator 2 pinball and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. A video game hall of fame was also in full effect with every home system imaginable set up for your playing pleasure. Taking a break, we people watched for a bit and realized every few attendees was carrying a stuffed animal or prop cane/sword/giant gun around. I also noticed that the demographic at AX was a little younger than your typical convention with many looking in their 20's and hardly a parent taking their child in sight. Lots of men dressing like female characters aka CrossPlay, lots of Pokemon and one group as Batman and villains.

I wondered how food set up worked for AX as many of the convention dining venues were closed. Outside there were a good two dozen trucks slinging food but we opted to walk a couple blocks over to L.A. Live. Just like Seattle and Emerald City, The Yardhouse was our lunchtime savior as it wasn't very crowded so it was time for some specials and Jameson Mules. Going back to the show, we opted to walk the floor some more and see basically every aisle. There was a wedding venue set up from a new anime that shows you just how deep the imagination and role play runs in these series. By my estimation there was only one booth selling garden variety Marvel and DC comic books as the bulk of vendors had manga and the ol' adults only hentai. Programming ran all day and into the wee morning hours with screenings, panels and separate ticket concerts. Would have loved to have sat down for some Cowboy Bebop but the timing just didn't sync up. To cap off the night in Downtown we headed to Little Tokyo's Wolf & Crane for some dranks ($5 Happy Hour!), way too much delicious food at Ebisu (Shrimp Shumai!) and some video games over at Eighty-Two (Sunset Riders!). With Anime Expo scheduled to take place in Los Angeles for the next five years, I'll be back next year ready to tackle more of the amazing show.

Fox Friday: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes & The Fault In Our Stars

A very randomly special Friday here at Dammaged Goods as we look at 3 seemingly sci-fi films that have little to do with one another besides being released by Fox.  First we'll check out #1 flick in America, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the follow up to 2011's quiet yet surprisingly solid reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  In that installment we met ape Caesar who after being injected with a test drug for Alzheimer's begins to gain super intelligence and leads an uprising.  Taking place 10 years after, Dawn finds us in the remote woods outside San Francisco where Caesar leads a community of intelligent apes in a peaceful existence.  Some humans wander into their territory looking for a dam that is their last hope to generate power and with it, their hopes at rebuilding society after the human created but Simian named epidemic has wiped out much of society.  From there, Caesar clashes with anti-human members of his tribe while assisting the survivors lead by Jason Clarke's Malcolm.  Of course common ground is found as tensions rise and before long it's another ape invasion resulting in Caesar and Malcom needing to work together to restore order.  While the film isn't boring or not enjoyable per se, it just wasn't very engrossing either.  The story beats are very basic and familiar and while the apes f/x looked amazing, I didn't give a crap if the humans lived or died.  While I appreciate films like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Godzilla, X-Men: Days of Future Past and now Apes trying to give audiences a little more story and emotion with their spectacle, it hasn't been wholly successful.  The best example is Cap's very familiar story that basically takes Three Days of the Condor's paranoid and violent government controlling conspiracy themes and adds a whole lot of action and technology without actually addressing or dissecting those issues and questions from 1975.  The worst example is probably Godzilla which relegated the title star to a minor role while we ran around with some very uninteresting characters for 90 minutes.

Another hit for Fox this summer was June's The Fault In Our Stars which cost $12 million yet opened up ahead of Tom Cruise's huge, $178 million sci-fi tentpole Edge of Tomorrow and to date has grossed $25 million more in America.  Worldwide though the action and visuals of Edge have given it a nice $100 million in extra ticket receipts.  Not that they are the same kind of film vying for the same audience, they just both happen to sound like science fiction films when Fault totally isn't.  While Edge was based on a Japanese Manga, Fault's source material is the 6th novel from best-selling author John Green published in 2012.  The story of teenage cancer patients Hazel and Gus, Fault explains to us early on that cancer sucks and the story being told will not be sugar coated.  However the runtime does include plenty of stock moments like the "meet-cute", the playful yet semi-fake sounding banter and a trip to Europe.  The Descendants' Shailene Woodley plays Hazel with humor and quiet grace while Ansel Elgort's Gus is goofy and open since he's survived a bout of the sickness and won't be silenced.  What's interesting is that these two play lovers here but previously acted as brother and sister in Divergent.  There's plenty of heart on display without the drama becoming too leaden or syrupy.  There were many a sniffle in the audience but I managed to keep it together.  I can only imagine that opening weekend with young fans of the book was Niagara Falls all day and night.  While it didn't hit me the chest the way that 50/50 did, Fault was a cute film dealing with serious issues and handled nimbly by director Josh Boone and screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber.  Oh and Michael Biehn totally should have played someone's dad in the film.  Speaking of the Biehn, on this day in 1986, Fox released James Cameron's sequel to Ridley Scott's Alien, Aliens.  See how this all works?

Ask Me a Question: X-Men: Days of Future Past

After cinematic go rounds with Spider-Man and Godzilla, it was time to get even bigger.  X-Men: Days of Future Past is allegedly Fox's biggest greenlit film in history behind Avatar.  Why?  Because the filmmakers decided to make a huge summer tent pole action film that involved time travel, a period setting and two casts.  Two casts?  Yup.  If you've kept up with the X franchise since 2000's X-Men, 2003's X2: X-Men United, 2006's The Last Stand, 2009's Origins: Wolverine, 2011's First Class and 2013's The Wolverine, you know that the merry mutants call for a huge entourage of guys and gals with wondrous and freakish abilities who fight on the side of good and evil.  First Class served as a prequel with James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender taking over roles previously played by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan.  Days of Future Past blends the new and original cast while introducing yet even more new characters.  What could have descended into overcrowded camp a la Batman and Robin (which is still an enjoyable romp, what?!), Days does a surprisingly effective job of utilizing both casts to tell a grand tale ripped from the panels of the comic books.

Continuity has always been an issue in the X-Men franchise because the original was a difficult production that studio Fox didn't quite believe in.  When it was a success, it was more about getting to the next film than it was maintaining a cohesive timeline.  In The Wolverine, we saw Hugh Jackman's gruff, adamantium metal fitted bones and clawed anti-hero hanging out in Japan.  Upon return he's greeted by friends-enemies-friends Professor Xavier (Stewart) and Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto (McKellan) who have put their differences aside to face a larger threat and need Wolverine's help.  From there we jump right into Days of Future Past with a small contingent of X-Men; Kitty Pryde, Iceman, Colossus, Bishop, War Path, Sunspot and Blink as they continuously evade seemingly unstoppable mutant hunting machines, The Sentinels.  I think it's Warpath who can sense them coming then Kitty transfers the consciousness of Bishop to his body a few days prior to warn his comrades so they can escape death.  Xavier, Magneto, Wolverine and old standby Storm catch up with the crew and think they can change the present by altering the past.  With Logan's healing factor and slow aging, he's the perfect candidate to go back 50 years to 1973 to help stop an assassination that will cause the Sentinel program to take root.

We then switch settings and casts for the 1974 scenes which sees Professor Xavier a shell of his former self after destructive results of First Class 10 years prior.  Logan, Xavier and Hank McCoy aka Beast recruit the super fast mutant Peter (Pietro in the comics) Maximoff (Evan Peters) to help break young Magneto (Fassbender) out of the Pentagon so they can stop the shape shifting Raven aka Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from taking out weapons and Sentinel designer Bolivar Trask (Game of Thrones' Peter Dinklage).  His death will trigger even more anti-mutant fervor while cementing the need for the Sentinel program.  The flick starts off well enough, just diving right in without much set up or explanation.  Even as a fan of the movies and comics, I was a little confused though as The Sentinel program seemed to come out of nowhere.  I suppose it could have all happened in the 7 year gap between Last Stand and Days but a little clarification would have been nice. 

Early scenes show the young X-Men using their powers to battle the Sentinels with Iceman finally flying around on ice bridges and slides.  Initial scenes with young Xavier and Magneto are very powerful with excellent performances from McAvoy and Fassbender. The 70's vibe provides some laughs with the fashion, water beds, etc.  Hugh Jackman looks swoler and striated as ever in his surprisingly lone shirtless scene but he does get in a heinie shot which I think is a first for the X-Flicks and does his usual likable loner act.  Going into the flick, everything we had seen of Quicksilver looked hokey and ridiculous.  His appearance seemed to be derived from Doc Brown from Back to the Future and the Carl's Jr ad of him eating a burger in super speed/slow motion was just awkward.  But in the film, it all works marvelously and he's one of the most memorable characters in the flick with arguably the greatest scene in the picture as he uses his super speed and mischievous sense of humor to break Magneto out.  In the comics, Mags is his father and there's a throwaway line alluding to it.

With the two casts jockeying for screen time, I was slightly astonished that much of the film takes place in the 70's with the First Class cast and Wolverine in a bit of a supporting role.  I figured it would jump between time lines with conflicts reflecting each other a la Inception but for the most part, the present day cast is confined to what seemed like only a handful of meaty scenes which don't really utilize or showcase characters like Kitty Pryde, Iceman and Bishop or the actors who play them.  That's actually a departure for this series that has always been so Wolverine centric and then gave Storm a boost at the expense of Cyclops when Halle Berry won an Oscar.  There are some great cameos throughout and the film ends on a high note that gets you pumped for future installments.  If you're going to see this, forgo the post-conversion 3D as it adds nothing to the experience.  NOTHING.  The Arclight's glasses are incredibly heavy and uncomfortable and they're battery operated so you get power flickers too boot.

After the film, producer Lauren Schuler Donner and Quicksilver, Iceman and Bishop actors Evan Peters, Shawn Ashmore and Omar Sy participated in a Q&A that was streamed out to each Arclight location around California.  Some quick bites:

- Project was brought to Donner's attention by former development exec, she read Wolverine's bio in a series bible and loved him.
- X-Men was most difficult because they didn't know what direction to go, she shrugs off part 3
- Story hammered out by Bryan Singer, Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Simon Kinberg then bounced off of Donner and then Kinberg went off to write script.
-X2 writers Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris did a few tweaks and are coming back for X-Men: Apocalypse which is still in story development mode.
- Had a subplot where present day Magneto, Professor X and Iceman go to the Mansion to rescue Rogue (Anna Paquin) but was cut due to time restraints.  Will be finished and scored and included in DVD release.
- It was kind of a low key affair but Omar Sy was visibly excited to be there and won the audience with his love for the franchise, gratitude for the opportunity and French man charm.
- Evan Peters was offered the role flat while Ashmore had to audition 5 times back in 2000 and was cast as a different character before taking over Bobby Drake.
- Shooting the movie was like a family reunion and Sy's first day was working with Professor X, Magneto, Storm and Wolverine which also meant Patrick, McKellan, Berry and Jackman.
- James McAvoy is a practical joker and cut the cheese in the middle of a scene
- Scheduling nightmare as Jackman was promoting Wolverine, Ashmore on The Following, Paquin on True Blood, Patrick and McKellan starring in a play together, etc.

I don't quite understand all the loathe for X-Men 3.  Part of it stems from the casting off of director Brett Ratner as a talentless hack but they guy knows how to make movies look good, always has great casts and has made fun flicks like Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2 with enjoyable mass market efforts like The Family Man, After the Sunset and Tower Heist.  X3 isn't perfect, there's too many characters crammed in, Cyclops gets killed off after 4 minutes of screen time, blah blah but the same people who made Days, made The Last Stand and had no problem singing it's praises on the DVD features and commentaries.  After director Matthew Vaughn jumped ship thinking he couldn't do what he wanted to do in the limited time frame, Ratner came in with little prep and made a perfectly fine X-Men movie because let's face it, X-Men isn't a masterpiece and Origins: Wolverine is downright crap with it's shoddy f/x, nonsensical mutant cameos, poor production values and unfulfilled potential.  While people go see Marvel marathons, I seriously doubt you'd get too many people willing to sit down for a triple feature of X-Men movies.

The Arclight does stuff like this all the time I feel but this just felt underwhelming.  From the eh moderating to the volume of the microphones being barely audible to the 20 minutes to get out of the parking garage, it was just like all the energy and goodwill from the film had been sucked out.

Summer Cinema: Godzilla

Godzilla.  What does that name mean to you?  For me, it brings back memories of catching parts of the various 28 cinematic chapters on TBS as a kid, guys in suits stomping on miniatures, early special f/x, his little kid Godzilla trying to blow blue fire breath and of course, the all famous Godzilla roar.  At the time of his release in Toho's 1954's Godzilla, the King of Monsters was seen as a metaphor for nuclear weapons like the ones dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.  Since then, The Big Green has defended and terrorized the population of Japan fighting against and alongside the likes of Jet Jaguar, King Kong, Megalon and Mothra.  While Godzilla mean "gorilla" and "whale", his appearance and history has always come from the prehistoric age and mixes Tyrannosaurus, Stegosaurus, alligator, etc.  In 1998, then kings of the special f/x driven disaster/sci-fi flick Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin brought Godzilla to America proper but the results were less than legendary.  Cut to 16 years later and Legendary Pictures has brought Godzilla back to America with a big budget, summer tent pole that will crush nearly $100 million opening weekend.

Following The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as 2014's latest action packed spectacle of the sequel/reboot/revamp variety, Godzilla employs another young director not accustomed to huge Hollywood budgets, Gareth Edwards.  Fresh from the success of his under $1-million dollar indie flick Monsters, Edwards does a great job making the leap to studio fare.  The film starts in Japan where engineer Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) has discovered a strange, earthquake like phenomenon occurring near a nuclear reactor.  Something beneath the surface awakens and the reactor is destroyed and the area turned into a quarantined zone.  Cut to 15 years later and Brody's now grown up son Ford (Aaron-Taylor Johnson) has to go bail pops out of prison because he's been lurking around the Q Zone for the last 15 years trying to figure out what happened.  We find out that the cause of the nuclear reactor destruction all those years ago was from the reawakening of a giant, mantis like creature dubbed Muto that has survived from the prehistoric era when the Earth was radioactive.  As the surface leveled out, Muto and others like him retreated to the depths of the sea to be closer to the Earth's radioactive core.  But the rise of manmade radioactive hot spots has drawn him to the surface.  Dr. Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) has been following these creatures for decades, one in particular, Godzilla.  Big Green arises from the ocean to hunt and take on Muto to give the world balance once again.

Edwards and writers David MacCallum and Max Borenstien approach new Godzilla with an old school touch like a disaster film where we follow a few protagonists on their journeys to safety and family reunion.  There's only a few human characters to keep track of so we don't have to delve too deeply into the backstory of a dozen characters a la The Towering Inferno or Independence Day.  But the approach sadly back fires to a degree as the characters are thinly sketched and not overly interesting or compelling, we don't root for them, we're not concerned with their safety, they're all just there to let us know what's going on.  Sure there's carnage, destruction and monster on monster crime galore but the film takes so long to build up to it that by the time it happens it's a little underwhelming.  The choice to delay Godzilla's appearance is a smart one but once he shows up to take care of business, the film cuts away to some human issue right before a monster mash is about to go down and that happens several times.  Don't get me wrong, there's some great stuff in the film from the Incredible Hulk like opening of news clippings and footage of nuclear tests and the rise of the mysterious beasts and cover ups, Godzilla's amazing appearance and movement, fluid action scenes, iconic shots of the monster, a flaming French kiss, nods to the original series, a nice pace, a trim 2 hour runtime and a penchant for actual sets and props VS total CGI environments. There's a familiar, low-watt, movie star free but capable cast involved who all do fine jobs no matter how brief their appearance.  In the end, it's not that Godzilla is boring or ponderous, it's just not very exciting, sadly.  And it's no Pacific Rim.  Elbow Rocket!

We saw the flick in 3D at The Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on their fake IMAX screen.  There's a great statue in the courtyard of the big beast as well as posters in the lobby etc.  If you haven't been to the Chinese IMAX, it's quite a nice place, beautifully decorated and of course a huge screen and giant speakers.  I can't say I noticed too much 3D difference but then I usually never do because it's a sham.  Just have stuff hurtling at the audience already so we know we're getting our money's worth!  I can't be totally immersed in the movie when I can see the edges of the screen and the tops of everybody's heads.