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Review: 'Titan A.E.'
Titan A.E. is a good-hearted disappointment.
One of the striking things about Close Encounters Of The Third Kind was that it had the daring idea to present alien life as decidedly non-hostile, the aliens as curious about us as we are about them. Because extraterrestrial life is a blank, writers run amok imagining what life out there might be like. From Orson Welles to L. Ron Hubbard to Ben Edlund, John August and Joss Whedon (Titan's writers), they hardly ever come up with anything pretty.
Most recent sci-fi films, animated or otherwise, including the Mother Movie (Star Wars) construct their films around the premise that in the future there is a technologically advanced, demonic alien culture out there which has ravaged our planet; loathes humanity and is determined to wipe us out for murky reasons in the most vicious possible way at all costs. They always have great, if unreliable technology and weapons that fire light in pulsating bursts or laser beams. This has been the story of this summer's most spectacular catastrophe, Battlefield Earth, and also of this week's animated intergalactic adventure Titan A.E., directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman.
Some of the animation is very good, and if you're into it, worth the trek. But the plot is becoming numbingly familiar, the genre dangerously predictable: brash and irreverant (and handsome) young space orphan (Cale, voiced by Matt Damon) seething with father-son issues and soon to square off against the relentless and very blue Drej (like Border Collies, they are pure energy), which had suddenly blown up the earth 15 years ago to stave off the completion of the Titan Project, humanity's last and only hope. Yes, you probably have figured out by now that the headstrong Cale is the last hope for the future of the species.
Why wipe out an entire planet? It isn't because of anything humans have done, but because of what we clever rascals might do in the future, explains one character, especially if people regain control of the supership Titan, hidden away somewhere deep in the galaxy by Cale's dad. For some reason, just leaving primitive humans alone is never an option for the Drej. The Titan (A.E. stands for "After Earth) has the power -- precisely how is never explained -- to give humanity its own planet back, and Cale has to get to the ship before the Drej do, confronted along the way by innumerable laser blasts, betrayals, and rapid maturation experiences. Helping him along is the now standard sci-fi feminist tough-girl pilot Akima (Drew Barrymore) who flies and talks suspiciously like Han Solo when she and Cale aren't a-flutter over one another.
The well-equipped Drej are advanced enough to wipe out the earth in seconds and to capture Cale, but they haven't quite figured out how to build a cell that can hold him for 30 seconds. Although the future of humans is on the line, Cale never loses site of the real drama in the movie -- coming to terms with seething resentment at his Dad.
This movie, while entertaining and warm-hearted, isn't funny or scary enough. The special effects/animation bar is being raised all the time, and those in Titan, A.E. aren't spectacular. The studio expected male teenagers to flock to this movie, but according to the weekend grosses, they didn't. Neither did anybody else. Perhaps they sensed that the mythology is lame. That the writers stuck unaccountably close to the Star Wars story lines. That there are too many characters moving too quickly in too many different settings for us to know or care about any of them. And the plot....well, it's past time for some new clicks in the earth-ravaged-by-technology-humans-pursued by no-dimensional aliens sci-fi flick plot line. Almost anybody reading this could recite the plot line by heart without seeing a single scene. If you're into animation or special affects, go see it. Otherwise, Shaft is a better choice.
it appears that the review is already in. The movie either sucks or the producers targeted the movie to the wrong audience. It seems teens would rather watch stupid teen flicks with guys putting their dicks in pies.
"High Crusade", Pohl Anderson, I think. Book was better than the movie. It made the whole thing believable
The Good
The Bad
... is that it is generally taking into account the fact that each year, a *new generation* of movie goers is buying tickets, whereas most movie reviewers who complain of the same old plots aren't really considering this.
There are kids today who view Star Wars as a dusty old flick with cheesy hairdo's, a 'standard story line', and stupid looking special effects.
Face it, you're getting older. You might not like the same old bad-alien plots, but new moviegoers (new kids) who haven't quite gotten to that part about life yet, *are* buying tickets to see this story, in whatever form, manifest. And Hollywood knows this quite well.
So, start looking at different sources of entertainment. Hollywood is only ever going to try and do what's best for its bank accounts, and if that means more bad-alien movies, then that's what it's going to do... complaining about it belies your own misunderstanding of market regeneration, a Hollywood term.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Not only are the humans in Star Wars the chief bad guys, they are also the chief saviors (Luke, anyone?). Sure aliens have an important part to play (Chewbacca, for example), and the films very definitely point out that the Empire is a homocentric government, while the Alliance is "equal-opportunity" :)
:)\n"
As much as John Katz claims to know Sci-fi, he needs to go back and take a refresher course on Asimov, Clarke, Lucas, and others before casting stones. I've not seen Titan, so can't make a judgement on it, but my thoughts from the trailer in the movies a few months ago was that it looked reaaly bad (the mothership, for example, looked a little too much like a plastic model).
if ($user =~ m/shaldannon/i) {
print "\n-- $user
}
What is your Slash Rating?
I don;t think you are being too hars at all. The movie tanked. The plot holes (you covered most of them) were big enough to drive a truck through.
Th animation was utter crap. The GC stuff was pretty good, but the traditional animation was garbage and they did one of the worst jobs sticthing them together. They should have watched The Iron Giant a few more times. That movie did an awsome job of mixing traditional animation and CG animation.
And I am goddamn sick to death of the father-son angst BS plotlines! Am I the ONLY guy in the world who is not pissed off at his father? Jeebus. Make it stop!
The dialogue (if you want to call it that) reminded me of Ralph Bakshe movies: disjointed and rambling with no real point.
This movie felt like they were trying to make "Heavy Metal For Teens", but without the sex, drugs or humor. Whatever they were trying to do, they failed.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
No, but a movie with a horrible plot, bad voice acting, second-rate animation (not the CG) and the worst blemding of traditional animation and CG animation is crap.
This movie felt like they tried to mix Heavy Metal, any one of a dozen awful Ralph Bakshe movies, The Iron Giant and Star Wars into one movie. Whatever concoction they came up with really stinks.
I was surprised to see Ben Edlunds' name in the screenwriting credits. He usually does much better than that.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
Have you considered that that attitude might be why so many movies these days just suck? When you lower your expectations you get sub-standard drek.
When I pay money to see a movie I want more than just "okay".
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
The combination of CG and standard animation was terrible! Ugh! You could see the GC components in every scene they were in! No finesse at all.
You want good blending of traditional and CG animation, go see The Iron Giant.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
I don't want to lower my expectaions, and I don't think I should have to. I want good movies, goddamnit! I'm tired of crap.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
No, the "Titan" was built because the humans knew the Drej were going to attack, and because they knew these aliens would stop at nothing, including elminating Earth, to eliminate the human race.
The reason why the Drej wanted to destroy all humans was because humans were some sort of perceived threat to them (the story is never very specific as to how so)...
Sam: "That was needlessly cryptic."
Max: "I'd be peeing my pants if I wore any!"
On another note, Douglas Adams is also keeping a very tight rein on the production of Hitchhiker's Guide , so that's another positive note to look foward too.
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
Ok, so there are cute furry creatures in it. But it is Sci-Fi. The animation, for it's time, was well done, and there's real character development. Yes, the movie has it's flaws (too much of the Dom Deluis character), but it's very strong by itself. (And this was also a Bluth production).
Also, you can try "Balto", while not sci-fi, the story and characters are rather deep, and only suffers from improperly placed comic relief. But there *are* moments in that film that are quite moving emotionally.
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
>Animation, Titan A.E., and Usability is an interview I conducted with
>Mayo Tirado, one of the animation experts behind Titan A.E. He talks
>about the animation tools he uses, the books he's read, and the web
>sites he visits. He also has a couple of reasonable comments on
>usability and web development in general.
And this is exactly the problem with Titan A.E it looks like. Instead of going to Japan and studying how Anime and Manga projects are created and developed over there,US companies hire idoit Web designers...No wonder so much of American Animation tend suck so bad...
If anyone was hoping Titan A.E was going to be something along the lines of Gunbuster, you're going to be disappointed.
>Heavy Metal is without a doubt the most overrated American animated
>film of the twentieth century. I'm firmly convinced the only reason
>anyone liked it is because they were utterly stoned at the time
>(probably the only way to watch it, I'm sure).
It's the soundtrack that people go for. Heavy Metal the Moive is as you said, a pile of shit.
I find it slightly worrying that I read the book about ten years ago, but I can still remember what NIMH stands for. But I continually forget things like appointments, meeting times... Isn't selective memory wonderful?
-----
The real meaning of the GNU GPL:
The real meaning of the GNU GPL:
"The Source will be with you... Always."
Katz was too hard on this film, and I'm grateful to you for pointing out its finer qualities since I certainly wouldn't have sounded as elegant as you did.
That being said, I do have three points to make.
Go watch it. It's a little short, but fun. (And it's set a new standard for integrating CGI with traditional animation...)
--
Erskin
geek.
I've seen 'Titan AE' twice -- once on opening night, again on Sunday. The first time through I complained about some of the plot holes, but I went back to enjoy it as pure eye candy, and it works really well as that.
But it struck me that the movie's plot isn't all bad; it just suddenly and markedly gets dumbed down at one specific point.
For about an hour, the movie's going along great, covering some interesting issues: Cale's way of dealing with abandonment, humanity's demotion to third-rate species in the universe, Akima's zeal to collect those last few trinkets by which to remember Earth's lost culture... it puts our heroes into fascinating new environments, and it shows that aliens (specifically, the bats) can be shown as humanoid and wise without having to make them speak.
Then, suddenly comes the betrayal scene (which itself is handled very clumsily), and everything from there on out becomes standard formula. Pretty, but uninspired. All of the subplots which had been developed up to that point are suddenly dropped.
Throw away the rest of the film at that point, rewrite the ending to keep the evil aliens mysterious and impersonal, bring about the climax by having Cale abandon the commander then later come around after having dealt with his own personal demons, and you'd have a much deeper, more solid movie, I think.
All things considered, I really liked the character of Stith, the bowlegged kangaroo/griffin creature. She was a female sidekick but she wasn't portrayed as weak or stupid, she had a temper but she was an effective warrior -- come to think of it, she was probably this movie's Chewbacca. A lot of people have complained about her crazy leg design, but I enjoyed it as another example of Don Bluth coming up with unconventional characters.
> And lastly, if you watch the end, you can
:) Thank you!
> figure out that a gravity well in a huge
> ice/asteriod field could collect enough
> mass for a planet.
> Granted that they don't explain the mechanism
> (no living human knows it.) it does fit into
> the science fiction possibility category.
Interesting, I hadn't considered that aspect of the movie. I'd pretty much dismissed the movie as simple fluff, but your comments about the science caused me to revisit my thinking about the film.
As a result, I like it much more now.
James
And just what piece of sci-fi did Orson Wells write you sad sad little man? Or am I totally missing something, and Rosebud was some sort of starship?
-E
Most recent sci-fi films, animated or otherwise, including the Mother Movie (Star Wars) construct their films around the premise that in the future there is a technologically advanced, demonic alien culture out there which has ravaged our planet;
We haven't seen the same Star Wars, I think.
Star Wars is set in the past. In some other galaxy. Doesn't involve our planet, and the bad ass evil dude is a humanoid, not a nasty green-eyed bug alien. (Compare Aliens, Starship Troopers etc).
He did the voice of Preed, the First Mate.
Well it's debatable if the big planet instant terraformer device in Total Recall was supposed to be real or a hokey science fiction prop. Remember, that when Ahnuld goes to get his memory screwed with the first time, he's getting a science fiction action memory on Mars, involving alien technology and terraforming. ;)
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
Well Mononoke is a Miyazaki movie, and does actually bear quite a bit of resemblance to one of his earlier (famous) movies, Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind. (never ever look for the dub)
But they aren't as similar as a lot of American cartoons tend to be. More or less all of Miyazaki's movies are good. I suggest looking for Castle of Cagliostro, Porco Rosso, Kiki's Delivery Service, and My Neighbor Totoro. There are a lot of other films he's done as well, and they're worth checking out.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
Who's seen "Starchaser: The Legend of Orin"?
Now, *THERE'S* a Star Wars clone. One thing I'm looking for myself though is a 70's-80's sf cartoon movie that ran on Nickelodeon in the mid-80's, and was probably European. I remember that some of the people lived in Casseopiea (the constellation stupid, not the PDA) but that's about it.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
[Obscure sci-fi RPG reference: see 'Glitter Boy', RIFTS RPG, Palladium]
/.) - I think that the main reason we don't see mirror-defenses much is that most sci-fi flicks interchange lasers with particle beams, which don't reflect, and don't require they be held on a target for any outstanding period of time. (pulse rather than beam, etc...)
Unrelated to the above reference (which is the first time I've seen a cause for an appropriate RIFTS reference on
Still fun to watch though.
Give Eva time. It doesn't start getting REALLY good/deep until at least halfway through - and remember - when you reach tape 13, restart at the beginning, and watch the entire thing through again before you watch the last tape. You WILL miss things that are important - and the ending WILL confuse the $#!^ out of you the first time you watch it.
(Warning: Some of Jon Katz's comments may make little or no sense. Spoiler material contained within)
"This movie, while entertaining and warm-hearted, isn't funny or scary enough."
Ah, yes Jon. Exactly what were you expecting it be with a _PG_ rating? I was personally amazed at some of the content the ratings board let slip into the PG market. Gratuitous animated gore usually doesn't survive the 'dumbing down' to PG-level. Neither do butt-shots of the lead character. Had this been a PG-13 movie, and designed to be scary, we could've expected a lot more. They could have easily made the Drej absolute nightmares, but they didn't, because this is not a "scary" movie.
(WARNING: Spoilers below this point)
"The Titan (A.E. stands for "After Earth) has the power -- precisely how is never explained -- to give humanity its own planet back,"
It's not explained because most of the target audience (male teenagers, according to Katz) doesn't have enough of a grasp of physics. Hey Jon, do you know how Star Trek's Warp Drive works? How about their shields? What about the Death Star's energy cannons? No? Does it matter? Does it take away from the movie at all?
"The well-equipped Drej are advanced enough to wipe out the earth in seconds and to capture Cale, but they haven't quite figured out how to build a cell that can hold him for 30 seconds."
Sigh. And he misses a plot point entirely. Jon, did it ever occur to you that the Drej let him escape? Ever wonder why the Drej didn't wonder where their rogue fighter ran off to? Did Corseau's betrayal give you any clue? Sheez.
"For some reason, just leaving primitive humans alone is never an option for the Drej."
Gyah. Someone needs to explain the concept of a "plot" to Jon. Could the Drej be harassing humans because they're _gasp_ looking for Cale so they can make sure the Titan, a ship capable of destroying them utterly, is destroyed forever?
"Although the future of humans is on the line, Cale never loses site of the real drama in the movie -- coming to terms with seething resentment at his Dad."
Again, Jon misses another not-so-subtle plot point. Remember Cale's big speech at the start of the movie? About how he doesn't care about the human race as a hole, because it's already doomed? For a large portion of the movie, Cale is just in it for himself. As it progresses, he slowly grows into the role Corseau presented to him at the beginning, the "Saviour of Mankind". Meanwhile, Corseau slowly sheds his shiny exteriour to reveal the bitterness lurking underneath. It's wonderful to see plot depth like this in a _PG_ movie.
Overall, I found Titan AE to be exactly what I expected it to be: A "Transformers, the Movie" for the 21st century. Beautiful special effects, using a blending of CGI, hand-drawn animation, and painted art (which according to Katz is uninspiring and yet is supposed to appeal to the special-effects crowd?), a wonderful plot, and (for once) a non-orchestral soundtrack that not only fits well into the movie, but does wonders to set the mood. This is definately a movie to go see if you enjoy animation/cartoons at all, and while not quite as much 'fun' as Shaft, the fact that _it actually has a plot_ makes it far more enjoyable as whole (I saw Shaft prior to seeing Titan. It's a blast, but consists solely of Samuel L. Jackson being a badass).
The first 6 episodes of Evangelion are purely to introduce the main characters and to show just how butt-useless armies are against the Angels. Starting at episode 7, you realize that things are Not Quite Right, and by Episode 11 the show's in full-blown conspiracy mode. The X-Files's Cancer Man and the Syndicate are complete wimps compared to Commander Ikari and SEELE. Don't think of Eva as a TV series, think of it as an OVA (with a fixed and pre-planned storyline) that just happened to be shown on TV.
:)
Recommended reading to "get Eva": the old Hebrew myth of Adam and Lilith, Robert Browing's poems, the Oedipus myth, and and all old testament Christian mythology, and keep in mind that in German, "nerv" means nerve, "seele" means soul, and "gehirn" means brain. Trust me on all this.
Listen, I don't know what some people are expecting, but Titan AE was pure space opera. And it was well executed, if you ask me. I've been reading science fiction all of my life (all 23 years of it) and this story is just as good as a lot of it. When I watch this movie, it brings back memories of the Lensmen series, by E.E Doc Smith.
Face it, good SciFi is scarce these days. In fact, I challenge you to name 3 recently released SciFi flicks that are better. Mission to Mars? That hokey time-machine radio thingme? Get real.
When you've read as much science fiction as I have (that is, thousands of stories), this blends in nicely. It's not terribly original. The characterization is superficial, but adequate. But the universe and the characterization and the humor are all great. Don't listen to Katz. Go see it at least once. The music and visuals won't dissapoint you.
The game is called "Descent: Freespace" and "Descent: Freespace II" not Descend. Dork!
That darn Slashdot is so cool... Hey did you pay the phone *(#(Q%$#$ NO CARRIER
John K., I respectfully suggest that when reviewing the movie, you may have neglected to consider its true audience. It's really at a level that will appeal most to the 10-to-14 set than the later teens or grown-up /. crowd. If you can see it through younger eyes, it's actually a pretty entertaining little flick.
I'll grant you it's not Bertolucci, Kurosawa or Bergman, but what the hey, it's summer entertainment. I hope you'll think about that, wait a couple weeks, and go see it again.
Disclaimer: I don't work for the studio, the distributor, a theater chain, or anywhere in the infotainment industry...I'm just a poor old broken-down technical writer. But I DID see the movie yesterday.
"How many light bulbs does it take to change a person?" --BMcC-->
Richard Roundtree makes an appearance as "Uncle Shaft" from what I hear... Awesome.
Yep. He's there as "Uncle John".
And if you notice the old guy playing chess in the bar scene that Jackson calls "Mr. P" is none other than Gordon Parks, the director of the original movie.
Can't we read reviews in a million other places? Sure. I guess freedom of speech/press is okay just as long as it's something you want to read, eh? I don't recall Slashdot ever forcing *me* to read something I didn't want to read. The cool content is still here. What's "cool," however, is subjective. And guess what? It's not your site, now is it? Perhaps those who post to it get to decide what's cool here. Great. That's precisely how journalism is supposed to work. Don't agree with the Slashdot definition of "cool"? Find another site that better matches your needs, instead of whining about it here.
Read my stuff.
Moderate this down please.
pronoblem
Here fricking here. The characters were paper thin. It's hard to keep plots from being derivative in sci-fi, but usually people try to make up for that in some way (self-parody, clever characters, etc). Given the humans in the story, if they'd have lost in the end and been completely annhilated by the Drej, I'd have been hard pressed to give a crap. The story and the characters were unbelievably predictable, and totally non-funny. I think nathan lane's character was supposed to be funny (and I usually like nathan lane), but he wasn't given any fantastic lines. Any animation that didn't have to do with the characters was really pretty, but the characters themselves looked straight out of scooby doo. This is the only place around I've found so many people supporting this movie, and with few exceptions everyone who said they liked this movie did it while playing the call katz an idiot game. There should be some sort of mode to tune out anti-katz rants, so you can actually see some discussions that aren't 99% "This article is just more proof that Jon Katz is a worthless pile of goo".
This is the first post I've read that I actually agree with.
(warning, mild spoilers ahead)
Titan AE was not good. Yes, the animation was OK. It wasn't amazing but it was decent. But the script was horrendous! I mean, indescribably bad. "You go, it's better this way" had me laughing my ass off.
And the plot, ignoring the terrible dialogue, was still dumb. How about when the two main characters enlist an entire colony to help them rebuild a ship, then speed off and catch up to the guys who dropped them off? (err, if you've seen it you know what I mean). That was ridiculous.
And one other problem I had: in all the spaceship flying scenes, they had a big joystick / control yoke / thingy. To go faster, you pushed it forward. To 'pull up' you pulled it back. What if you want to go fast AND up? Just not an option I guess.
Oh, and the whole Titan ship, which is huge, has 4 measly little guns on the outside to protect it? No wonder the Earth got blown up, we all became idiots!
I could go on and on, but I guess I won't. If you're praising this movie I'd encourage you to take a step back and think about it again. Don't tell me it's just a dumb fun movie, MIB and Independence Day and Armageddon were just dumb fun movies, Titan AE is just CRAP.
Search first, ask questions later.
I usually like Japanese animation, but Akira still sucked. I'd much prefer watching this again than Akira again.
I saw the movie. Waste of $8. It was far too babyish, with a simplistic and wholly illogical plot. Bad dialogue too. I think boys aged 5-10 might enjoy this movie.
Can't we read reviews in a million other places? I guess JK's logic is: animated == "geek".
*sigh* Where has all the cool content gone?
Dennis
For those of you who missed this, the "Ben Edlund" who wrote this movie is the same guy who created "The Tick". Given the movie's openly cliche' plot and numerous pop references, I have to wonder if this didn't start out as a Tick-like deadpan satire, only to be brutally misused by Don Bluth and his team of Disney wannabes.
By the way, Katz neglected to mention the godawful soundtrack. Every 15 minutes they stop the movie to play some disposable pop song that directly relates to the plot. It's like at the last possible moment they decided they wanted to try to make it a musical. The characters might as well have put on top hats and done a cheery song-and-dance about asteroid fields.
It's a shame, because a lot of the dialogue and acting is actually quite good. John Leguisamo's toad-like critter who invents terrifying devices in his sleep, and is unable to figure out what they do after awakening should strike a chord for anyone here who's had to rewrite code they haven't looked at for a few months...
--
perl -e '$_="06fde129ae54c1b4c8152374c00";
s/(.)/printf "%c",(10,32,65,67,69,72,
$_="06fde129ae54c1b4c8152374c00"; s/(.)/printf "%c",(10,32,65,67,69,72, (74..76),(78..80),(82..85))[hex $1]/eg;
Gosh, lord, here is the plot of the french comic series " Le vagabond des limbes ", by Godard & Ribera. (Book cover shots here). In it, a renegade flees from authority in an invincible ship designed by his father. Interestingly, though, there is another duplicate of the ship in the hands of the authorities, but since both ships are invincible, none can dent the other.
Can't american scriptwriters invent something really original???
--
Here's my mirror
I don't think that the Aliens in this movie were stupid. Nothing from the movie portrays this.
--"Karma is justice without the satisfaction"
I saw Titan A.E. at a Dickenson Theater (pretty big chain in KC, dunno about where else) and they were also playing Fantasia 2000... so I don't think that particular theory holds true.
I was in a video store yesterday and came across a video (2 hours? how many cartoon videos do you know that are two hours?) of "The Maxx," a very very strange MTV animated show from five or six years ago featuring this big purple ogre with large teeth who is a nothing in real life but who is a superhero in his lush fantasy world (which dominates half the show)...it comes from the same era of MTV creativity that produced Aeon Flux...really funny too, as i recall, with decent animation...
Aren't you dead?
Despite this review, I went to see this movie last night. I could've skipped it and been just as happy. Stupid, cheesy plot-line. Bad dialogue. Hammy overacting. Villains that don't make any sense. And a plot device that's built up over the entire movie, only to turn out to be incredibly lame at the end.
The only saving graces of this movie were the animation, and pacing.
So many SF movies I see, I think to myself how much better the movie could've been if the writers had had a clue about SF. This one was no exception. The Drej could've been scarier without violating the PG rating (like the villain in Mulan), the plot device could've been interesting and thought provoking, and the dialogue and story could've been a lot better. The only part I liked was the 'smart guard' part.
If you want to see a stupid, cheesy movie that's actually is decent, see Independence Day or Mystery Men again.
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
> Independence Day was alright, if only for some of the special effects, but it wasn't ever meant to be a "serious" film. And Titan is supposed to be serious ??? What are you trying to say ?
- sigs are for wimps.
[formatted wrong on previous, sorry :) ] > Independence Day was alright, if only for some of the special effects, but it wasn't ever meant to be a "serious" film. And Titan is supposed to be serious ??? What are you trying to say ?
- sigs are for wimps.
The Drej supposedly destroyed the Earth because the Humans built the Titan... a ship capable of creating a new planet for the Human species since their old one was destroyed by the Drej. Cause and effect, anyone?
They didn't say that the humans constructed the Titan as a result of a possible Drej attack, just that they constructed it. Maybe this was for a colony, to solve over population , who know ! The point was that humans had a technology that was opposite to one of the Drej's most potent weapons. Drej=planet busting canon, Humans=planet building ship.
Cale's dad, apparently an otherwise smart guy, made the activation of the Titan contingent upon Cale surviving the escape from Earth, being found by one of his buddies, not losing the ring (would YOU give a small, easily-losable device that was humanity's last, best hope to a 4-year-old?) and then finding the Titan.
This is as believable as the future of a galaxy dependent on the disfuntional relationship between a farm boy , his half cyborg dad and their lightsaber battles !!!!(specially in a world with weapons that can destroy planets!)
- sigs are for wimps.
You're right. This discussion is starting to look like the silly Star Wars discussions about how the Force can't exists, can you build a planet destroying weapon, sounds in space, lightsabers and their scientific explinations.
Geez !!!
Some people just can't have any fun.
- sigs are for wimps.
"Try Heavy Metal."
OMG. I've seen 3rd graders draw better art than Heavy Metal. Actually, imagine the artistic ability of a 3rd grader and the hormones of a 15 year old boy run amok.
Sometimes I wonder how they made the movie with all the crayon eating going on.
Bad Mojo
Bad Mojo
"If you can't win by reason, go for volume." -- Calvin
You might be thinking of Exposure -- every episode, they show a short film (usually with a sci-fi theme.) created by some young up-and-coming director. I don't think it's always animated, but it's often heavy on the animation or CG. Obviously, quality can differ from show to show, but it's usually pretty good. Afterwards, there's an interview with the guy (or gal) who did it.
I've only watched a few episodes (I'm never quite sure when it's on), but so far I haven't been disappointed.
On a side note, I think some of the coolest and most creative stuff I've seen has been the little 30-second promos the Sci-Fi channel occasionally inserts between commercials. Kinda like all those ones MTV used to do back when they played music videos without the pre-teens screaming "I love you Carson!"
"Do you expect me to talk?" "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!"
I agree with you - while the plot was predictable, what movie isn't? Star Wars (the original 3, never saw the new one, dont really care), which many people here seem to fawn over (and I personally dont care for), is just as predictable, if not more so.
The music and animation was good, and had a Heavy Metal feel to it at times. It could have used some heavier material - personally, I think this movie would have done well if they had included material to get a PG-13 or R rating. Even my friend, who is NOT sci-fi or animation fan, and wasn't expecting much, ended up liking it.
Even though the plot was rushed to a somewhat anti-climatic conclusion (tho I must admit, I hadn't guessed what would be ON the Titan or what it would be for, until they got there - I was under the impression it was meant to search out habitable worlds).
This is a movie I could watch again in the near future. Maybe not this month or next, but in a few months I could watch it again and enjoy it. There are very few movies that I consider worth rewatching.
- Maine Coon
Hunt your preferred prey at Aliens vs Predator MUD. Join the war at avpmud.com port 4000
I don't know what possessed Katz to think himself a movie reviewer, I don't even see him as much of a writer. Moderate this down, I don't care. Katz may never see this comment, but I intend to set the filter so that I never see his stuff again either anyway.
Digital Wokan
I wanted to spend 8 years defending the US constitution.
The 10th Kingdom, for example.
Too bad it won't play properly on DVD-ROM drives...
--
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
He's now employing the same devotion to technique seen in The Iron Giant. They rotoscoped tons of scenes and painstakingly overdrew every frame. The effect is brilliant.
When I saw the trailers, I "knew" the movie was going to suck. The "tip-offs" were the blue aliens whose rendering style didn't match anything else in the movie. I just assumed this was the effect of rampaging amateurism when it's actually weapons-grade professionalism. Words can't do this justice. You need to see the flick. There is so much more I haven't even touched on.
Reading Katz, on the other hand, is like wanting an ice cream cone and then being strapped to a table, afixed to a funnel, and force-fed cod liver oil instead.
His writing is cloyingly overdramatic and his fishing for sensationalism is so blantant, that I think his work should be relegated to a distant site where we can send him millions of hits via perl script, so that he can achieve his little i'm-a-famous-writer orgasm without spraying us all in the face.
i would like to point out for anyone reading that [even though i haven't seen the movie and can't comment], the _book_ for "the rats of NIMH" was amazing, and probably better than the movie [based solely on the fact that, well, it always is].
It really is kind of a kid's book, and probably won't take you long [i think, i don't remember, been year..] but it's creative enough you can put up with that. Just find a library or something. In short, if you're bored enough to rent "rats of NIMH" you're definately bored enough to read it and you should. And if it comes down to reading NIMH or watching, say, the movie "boys and girls" in theaters now.. you want NIMH.
btw.. quick question.. am i the only person who every time i see the phrase "NIH syndrome" [Not Invented Here] i automatically think of NIMH..?
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
While i apologize deeply for the mispelling of "definitely", i take issue with your to complain about my usage of the word "i".
The word "i" was deliberately placed into lowercase despite a full awareness of the proper usage. I purposefully put "i" into lowercase when it is not the beginning of the sentance out of choice. I fail to see why "I" is uppercased, but not "you"; if anything this odd capitalisation exception [which is not seen in almost any other language] is indicitave of the almost rediculous emphasis on self-importance and deemphasis on self-sacrifice that pervades american culture so deeply. In effect, it is either saying that the person writing is important enough to be capitalized when they are the subject of the sentance, but not the listener, or it is saying nothing at all. Thus as i am unhappy with the general mindset of our culture that self must be promoted at all costs, i am unhappy with the pronoun pronunciation rules and do not take part in them. The non-capitalisation of "i" was not a mistake, it was a form of protest.
I realize this may not have been obvious because of the posting's other grammar mistakes-- namely the failure to begin sentances with capital letters three out of four times or so and the beginning of a sentance with a conjunction-- but it is the case. Understand that the post you replied to was meant to be a quick sidenote, not something meaningful.
I am aware this post contains at least one mispelled word and possibly unclear syntax. This is not purposeful; however, i do not care enough to fix them.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
The opinion that Ghost in the Shell was rushed/shallow/had a bad ending seems to be shared by quite a lot of people i've talked to.. but then again all of those people also said that the manga was much , much better than the anime, especially in those three respects. So i suggest you find the manga.. i'm sorry to say i have not yet managed to find a copy, and can't comment myself..
Anyway, Reboot was AWESOME. -_-
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Blah. American animated movies funded by large companies.. useless. Who cares. Well, at least it wasn't a musical.
..?
I suggest we use this thread to suggest to people some _real_, _creative_, maybe even *gasp* _deep_, *cough cough* ANIME *cough* animation they could be seeing if they want some kind of vaguely scifi-ish "edgy" thing.
There is, of course, the obvious [Ghost in the Shell, Nuku Nuku, Evangelon].. and i hear Lain is pretty good but i haven't gotten around to seeing it yet.. anyone want to suggest for me any really freaky/obscure anime i've never heard of?
Is there actually _any_ american animation of this type that doesn't suck? Lets see, there's Daria and South Park, but they're really something else.. i guess there's always Aeon Flux/Power Puff Girls/Space ghost or whatever.. i'm sure there's something good i'm missing.. is there? There was an ad i saw for something on the scifi channel that looked kind of nifty, any idea what that might have been? Is there any american animation that is truly and completely tripped out, not just "edgy"
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Did you guys here how they distributed that? They sent a 42 gig file over cisco routers to the a select amount of movie theatres. Pretty cool huh.
I went in expecting to see something along the lines of some of the better anime films I've seen. That is to say something aimed at the teenage to young adult audience. apparently Fox hasn't got the guts to put anything higher than a PG rating on an animated film.
Sure there were some serious flaws in the script and the plot was pretty poorly constructed, but it could have been at least partly saved if they had let the writers give it a little more adult script. If the dialog matched the type of story they seemed to be trying to tell it could have been a bit better.
They seemed to have run short on cash too. The "Kale!" scream from the trailer wasn't in the same spot in the movie so it stuck out in my mind, and I noticed that they used that same scream 3 times. How hard is it to get Drew Berrymore to scream Kale? That's not too bad, what really stood out was the fact that the computer rendering was absolutely amazing through 90% of the movie, but at the end when they do a sort of flyby panning shot of the landscape, all of a sudden the computer graphics drop off to really poor levels. (what's it cost for a few more hours of rendereing to finish off the scene?)
Acutally, it reminded me of a bad ripoff of Star Trek's Wrath of Khan...
If you think you know what the hell is going on you're probably full of shit. -- Robert Anton Wilson
If you think you know what the hell is going on you're probably full of shit. -- Robert Anton Wilson
jdube is who
Dear God... not macross 7 ;)
Or in most movies these days. I tend to go to the cinema expecting everything to be bad, so anything that isn't totally crap isn't too bad. Moral of the story: those with low expectations will see a lot of great things ;-)
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Sure Shaft probably sold more tickets at the box office, but this is also partly due to the fact that most people still imagine animated films as being kids' films. I must admit I walked into the expecting to be met by a storm of kids, how wrong I was given that the minimum age the audience must of been around 22.
Animated films, especially in the US, don't get much respect and although the Titan A.E.'s story line was as predictable as any other Hollywood film it showed that there is potential in animated films. Also, being an animated film I didn't feel let down with the fact that certain aspects looked like they had been done on a computer - not something I could have said for Star Wars episode 1.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Is this day and age of the thought provoking, Hall Mark Hall of Fame Edition movie, this was a refreshing breeze of mindless fun. I can concur the storyline was not well developed, but served its purpose none the less. These types of movies are meant to be enjoyed on the 'gee whize' effect with the story serving to get us there, and no more. The first Star Wars, the second best in the trilogy, following Empire and beating the crap out of RotJ, wasn't perfect literature, but it got the viewer where we wanted to go.
I am surprised that Katz put this much thought into a movie that was clearly meant to be appreciated for the action and glitz. I would almost feel sorry for Mr. Katz as it appears he has lost a bit of his inner child for the chance to rip a movie apart on its writing. What a shame.
As a whole, I greatly recommend this movie. Sit back, open your eyes, and be wowed. I sure was.
Bryan R.
Bryan R.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, or $12.50 as seen on eBay.....
Q: Where you going?
A: Going to get laid....
Q: What you got?
A: I got laid.....
Morphius! It's spelled Morphius!
Morfeus?!?
"Cheeese Grommit! We'll go where there's cheeese!"
1. It's a remake therefore as original as Lost in Space, Godzilla, Car 54, Dennis the Menace, The Avengers, etc. The future of Hollywood seems to be Nick at Nite reruns.
2. Samuel Jackson has been playing Shaft since Pulp Fiction who cares anymore?
Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
-- H. L. Mencken
if you're looking for some sort of substance to your movies, you aren't going to find it in an animated movie....
But somehow Jon Katz thinks it will be in Shaft?
Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
-- H. L. Mencken
Most recent sci-fi films, animated or otherwise, including the Mother Movie (Star Wars) construct their films around the premise that in the future there is a technologically advanced, demonic alien culture out there which has ravaged our planet; loathes humanity and is determined to wipe us out for murky reasons in the most vicious possible way at all costs.
alright i don't think you've ever watched star wars in your life! please tell me what "a long time ago in a galaxy far far away" means to you. shit even a 7 year old would understand it's not in the future. @#$%ing humans aren't even in the movie!!!!
and the whole friggin review is based on how the storyline sucked... shit that wouldn't matter if it's done right! how many video games are based on the same storyline? millions, yet we still love games like starcraft. why? cause it's a damn good game.
It was meant to be a troll, if that's what you are implying. I just wish it actually went by totals. the actual total of the response is 6. It started at 2, got 6 points, dropped 2, and should now be 6. sounds like it doesn't go beyond 5 or it is broken by not re-totaling everything. Blame the moderators for pointing it out, and for you reading it. It was funny or interesting by the estimation of 6 moderators. it was "overrated" by two of them. I win. nyah.
Lowmag.net
Actually, you are guilty of the sin of mis-appropriating parody as criticism. I'm making fun of Katz, not being critical of him. There is a difference.
Lowmag.net
The animated Slashdot writer "Jon Katz" is dumb and muddled, despite some entertaining moments and liberal use of the word "geek". This class of writer -- at least the Wired/Salon kind-- is becoming dangerously unimaginative and predictable. They rant on and on, and hold their opinion as truth and law. Almost anyone reading could figure out what these authors have to say by their trite little titles. CmdrTaco, who clobbered "Katz" in postings last week, is more informative.
"Jon Katz" is a addle-pated disappointment.
One of the striking things about Slashdot is that it holds the daring notion to present completely vapid content as news for nerds, which is curious to us as it is usually so 5 minutes ago. Because content here is a blank, posters run amok imagining pouring hot grits down Natalie Portmann's pants.
Most recent writers, animated or dead, including the Mother-of-All-Poseurs (Jon Katz) construct their articles around the premise of absolutely nothing, presented with great volume and fervor. They always have grandiose, if unreliable prose and puns that delight us in all too inconsistent bursts or analogies that fall flat.
Some of the writing is good, and if you're into it, worth the read. But the style is becoming numbingly familiar, the genre dangerously predictable: brash and irreverant writers seething with Natalie/grits issues and soon to square off against the relentless and very smart trolls (like Border Collies, they are naked and petrified), which had gone bezerk 1 year ago when Katz went to a place called the "hellmouth", which threatens the trolls with abuse of geekdom. Yes, you probably have figured out by now that the headstrong Katz is the least hope for the future of Slashdot.
Why demogoge Klebold and Harris? It isn't because of anything they did when they were alive, but because of one word: Geek. For some reason, leaving the topic of Columbine alone is not something that Katz likes to do. Helping him along is the stigma of the game "DOOM" and the revelation (made by Katz) that they were geeks, damnit! This leads to the sticky wicket of millions of hits to slashdot, and the purchase of the site by Andover.net.
The well-equipped Slashdot is advanced enough to create a popular community, but they haven't quite figured out how to fill the site with anything to keep down the unedited, flambait content. Although the future of Slashdot is on the line, Katz never loses site of his real goal in life -- coming to terms with being called a poseur by Slashdotters.
This writer, while entertaining and warm-hearted, isn't funny or clever enough. The special absent content/useless opinion bar is being raised all the time, and Katz's articles aren't any different. Andover expected male teenagers to adore this author, but according to the amount of trolls, they don't. Neither did anybody else. Perhaps they sensed that the subjects were lame. That the writer strayed from the hot grits that make Slashdot so great. That there are too many turns of phrase and abused cliche references too many different places for us to understand or care about any of them. And the point....well, it's past time for some new ideas in the geek-trolled-by-smarter-humans-than-him armed with natalie portman hot-grits troll-guns. Almost anybody reading this could recite the theme by heart without reading past the first paragraph. If you're into dull content and the word geek, read JonKatz. Otherwise, Stuff hot grits down your petrified shorts. It's more entertaining.
As promised, I've given up on Karma. have a nice day.
Lowmag.net
... the _book_ for "the rats of NIMH" was amazing ...
:-)
The book was entitled "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh", by Robert C. O'Brien. The movie was "The Secret of Nimh". The book was much better.
Now, quick -- what does NIMH stand for?
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
Not to get into a flame war, but I viewed Titan AE as a Hollywood try at Anime. Even japanese animation is hardly original all the time. But its strengths are different, as is the case with Titan AE.
Anime is a ultimately a cheap and cool way to portray superhuman characters without having to forego on dramatic plots. There are problems with that as any good Anime film has half a dozen of films with the same plot of ten percent the quality, but we [americans] have the same problem with actual movies, books, websites, even tv programs. in my experience, you have to read ten bad books to find one worth remembering. Good books are even rarer.
So don't judge Titan AE on a scale you would judge SW:TPM. it's at best unrealistic.
I was thinking of how to intentionally fail my drug test... It would make a good memoir story someday.
actually, Princess Mononoke is a '95 film. You could actually see it in the US around '97, with subtitles and/or bad dubbing. The graphics in the movie are just about '95 level.
The movie was re-released for american audience in '99 when it was professionaly dubbed. Of course the characters in the film are awesome, but the translation basically ruined it for me. Ineloquent dialog was the most annoying thing.
well, i guess that's the price you pay for not learning Japanese. 8)
I was thinking of how to intentionally fail my drug test... It would make a good memoir story someday.
saw 'shaft' last night and it was basically pretty horrible. There is only so much disbelief I can suspend for one movie
I'm amazed that _every_ time Jon Katz says something about a movie, I always feel the exact opposite way. I enjoyed Titan A.E. because it was your standard minimal plot - lots of pretty stuff movie. I hated The Matrix because it was your standard minimal plot - lots of pretty stuff movie trying to be a techno-religious event. I read Katz's reviews in the hopes that I will know what movies to avoid. Tell me what Hemos thinks.
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
Richard Roundtree makes an appearance as "Uncle Shaft" from what I hear... Awesome.
Hittin' the nail on the head right there -- the movie was fun. I have quibbles with some of the problems with the plot, and sure, there wasn't too much deep characterization going on, but damned if the movie wasn't just a lot of fun.
And compared to the pure and utter dreck we've been forced to endure in the name of "science fiction" in the past nine months or so (Supernova, Battlefield Earth, Mission To Mars...) this was a dandy welcome change of pace. For once I didn't feel as if the film was insulting the audience's intelligence.
It's no Iron Giant, but I liked it just the same.
This is probably not what you're thinking of, but I remember a comical story by Charles Sheffield (?) about a race of aliens who devote themselves to spreading their religion across the galaxy. They aren't that bright, and after a thousand year trip to planet Earth in hollowed asteriods, they take to door-to-door proselytization like Jehova's Witnesses. There is a great punch line that isn't very politically correct.
Most recent sci-fi films, animated or otherwise, including the Mother Movie (Star Wars) construct their films around the premise that in the future there is a technologically advanced, demonic alien culture out there which has ravaged our planet; loathes humanity and is determined to wipe us out for murky reasons in the most vicious possible way at all costs.
Geez, if you want to make sweeping (and basically wrong) generalizations, try not to use an example that doesn't fit the pattern.
-Star Wars isn't set in the future, it's set in the distant past
-the bad guys in Star Wars are human
-they have a very clear motive of maintaining their galactic empire
-the humans are more of a threat to the aliens than vice versa
-"we" don't have a single home planet in Star Wars
-the humans have the best technology we see
I think part of why Star Wars is so popular is that humans are portrayed as the real ass-kickers of the galaxy, instead of the more common self-deprecating "Oh, the aliens are so superior, we're so useless, we need other aliens to help us or we'll all die. But at least we're the Good Guys, because we haven't invaded any planets (yet)." Star Trek has a bit of the same feel, though it has a much less realistic view of human morality.
Personally, I think recent science fiction films have had a wide variety of different situations, and BEMs were more common back in the early days. Destruction/conquering of Earth is not really a common theme.
Gunbuster: Teenage girls doing calesthenics in giant mecha to save humanity! There's a moral twist that makes it worthwhile on other levels.
I also like Gall Force for two distinguishing characteristics:
-BFGs on a whole other scale
-it brings to mind a quote from DS9's Garrack "the repetitive epic is the very pinnacle of Cardassian literature" (watch it all, and you'll understand; I hope this series gets continued forever)
Besides, when you're done watching the real series, you get to see "Ten Little Gallforce" and laugh until you lose control of your sphincters.
Vision of Escaflowne (Tenkuu no Escaflowne/Escaflowne of the High Sky) is only semi-sci-fi; it's a retro-tech fantasy where people have sword fights in mecha.
Burn Up W is pretty funny, too. Not only has "body armor never looked this good", but it's the only anime I've ever seen where somebody questions the wisdom of building a giant battle robot; it's just kind of accepted in other anime.
The old Robotech stuff is worth watching, if you haven't seen it. It's funnier than people give it credit for. "Alright, let's fly the alien spaceship." "Whoops, we just accidentally folded space and took a city with us, out to around Pluto" "Just fold space right back where we came from." "Actually, the fold engines didn't come along for the ride." "Okay, just use the anti-gravity drives" "We didn't install them very well, they ripped right out" "Did you f***ers do anything right!" "Umm, I think we've still got some rockets..."
I can't believe this stupid thing. I actually moderated this article up ("insighful") but The Mighty Slashcode interpreted the "insightful" as "redundant" and moderated it down instead.
All right for using beta code in a production server... perhaps someone should look into this? Maybe?
"The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness."
How about:
Envy my 5 digit Slashdot User ID!
My favorite part of the movie is when the whiny cook character got blown away. It shocked me at first but then I realized that it's exactly what everyone wished for in the 5th Element.
Plus two stars for sparing us the whiny sidekick.
Cheers Andrew
I've got to agree with the anti-Katz troops here.
There was an old saying about Nolan Ryan, something to the effect that "fastballs are like ice cream cones, hitters love them... but hitting against Nolan Ryan is like having 5 gallons of Rocky Road shoved down your throat."
Lacking wit as I do, I'll leave the adaptation to Katz's writing style as an excercise for the reader.
woof!
He goes to enjoy the movie. If he enjoys it, great. if he doesn't, fine. But it's based on his feelings.
Because of that, he might not enjoy Pokemon because he is not a kid (or just enjoy saying 'Pikapika!') Or he might not enjoy the comedic stylings of Jackie Chan. But when an animated film comes along that he enjoys because he can relate to it, he gives it a good recommendation. For instance, he gave Stuart Little a bad review, and when razzed about it, pointed out that he doesn't have kids, but if he was going to recommend something for kids, he'd recommend Princess Mononoke or Titan A.E. as better substitutes.
Realize that there have been massive films that the critics have just panned that have still done well. And there have been films that have been raved about and you most likely have not seen Run Lola Run or High Fidelity. Just because a reviewer doesn't like the movie doesn't like a movie doesn't mean he was paid off... Besides, it's much more likely that a reivewer would be paid off to give a good review.
It's just much better to find a reviewer that you agree with 80% of the time, and rely on his view. Myself, I'll stick for waiting it to hit the dish and watch it there if I wonder if it's any good. Then again, I think Manos: Hands of Fate is funny.
--
Gonzo Granzeau
Gonzo Granzeau
"Nothing the god of biomechanics wouldn't let you into heaven for.." -Roy Batty
I personally really enjoyed the movie, and yes, it might have been predicitable and some of it was definately 'yeah right..' but there were some very enjoyable parts to it. I'm one who's akin to spotting the source of inspiration in movies (What, you think the ideas in the Matrix were unique?) and I think this one has several movies written all over it, and I think Star Wars was pretty low on the list, with Tron and Babylon 5 being very high on the list.
I'd also like to point out that this is the Americanized versions of Japanese animation (anime) that some of us enjoy, and with this bad showing, movies similar to Princess Mononoke and Ghost in the Shell will be much slower in coming to US theatres, which is bad news for anime fans in the US.
--
Gonzo Granzeau
Gonzo Granzeau
"Nothing the god of biomechanics wouldn't let you into heaven for.." -Roy Batty
Actually, I think that what the other poster was referring to was the artwork and blending of CGI and cel animation.
In terms of American animation, this was a new milestone. Even the Japanese masters of animation are experimenting with blending of cel animation and CGI with varying degrees of success. (See "Blue Sub #6" - ick... talk about No Blending; "Vision of Escaflowne" - one of anime's first ventures into integrating CGI w/ traditional animation; Or better, the new edition of "Silent Moebius" - auggugughgh a la Homer Simpson)
For the first time in a while, American animation has arguably overtaken anime in a new technical respect. You can't compare "Heavy Metal" to "Titan A.E." in terms of animation achievements.
Oh, as far as the "Star Wars" being a "destroy Earth" film, it's an arguable interpretation of symbolism, not quite so openly blatant as "Independence Day" or the other examples people have noted. Just my 2 cents.
Anybody remember the short story about alien invaders who were basically stupid? They intended to take over Earth, but earthmen found them gullible and easy to manipulate. Read it in a collection of short stories 25 years ago.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
See the movie, please? Yes, there's the "my planet's been destroyed, it's open season on the bad guys" theme (awful familiar, huh?), but I thought it was fun. Granted, there are things that raised questions in my mind (Pistol vs. being of pure energy... the pistol wins. What's with that??) I didn't go in there expecting an Asimov-level story, just a couple hours' diversion and some good music. I got both, and I was happy. It's a very dynamic movie, they keep things moving along, and they toss in a few good laughs. Pandering to popular cultire? Of course. Like "Shaft" isn't popular culture?
This is one movie that I'll add to my collection when it comes out -- preferably on laserdisc. (Did you know they still made those?) DVD will be my second choice, with videotape coming in a very distant third. It's how I reward the studio for making something I liked -- and the most powerful way to get them to make more! Think about that the next time you download The Matrix.
_ _____________
_________________________________________________
Ever notice that MCSEs advertise the fact, but Sun & Novell certified people don't?
"...America's great minds of today, teaching America's great minds of tomorrow. Poor bastards." -- A Beautiful Min
Now, about Akira. I know I'm not the only one thinking Akima/Akira... they're only off by one letter! I own Akira. Just watched it again a couple weeks ago. Then again, even it's not the best example of anime. (Oh, well. It's still very cool -- any kid that can stop a tank shell in it's tracks... well, DAMN.) Yes, I know it's 15 years old. I think Titan's animation was much better in technical terms. We (mainstream corporate America) haven't really considered animation as mature entertainment until just recently -- Japan has a HUGE lead on us, and lots of practice.
About the Drej & their sense of direction... We know genetic steganography exists. For Pete's sake, a high school student did it! (And got a nice award from Intel in the process.) The movie reminded me of when I used to shine my dad's Mag-Lite through my hand as a kid. Not too much of a stretch to use several keys to secure the REAL map (genetic and then location based -- makes for one heck of a road trip!)
Now, if you want to get into anime...
- Patlabor -- Fun with harmonic resonance
I'm having too much fun here... time to go. You mentioned Krispy Kreme donuts (mmmmm.... donuts.) By any chance are you in/near South Carolina? (Just curious -- it's where I am at the moment.)BubbleGum Crisis / Crash -- A jet turbine car with a military AI... that makes you go INSANE... wheee!splat.
Guyver -- Avoid the live action one. Mark Hamill was desperate. Regeneration from a single cell is cool.
Ghost in the Shell -- It's all fun until the big guy runs out of ammo.
Dominion Tank Police -- Just plain silly.
Battle Angel -- Three words: Rocket propelled sledgehammer.
Ninja Scroll -- Blood, martial arts, and more blood.
_________________________________________________
Ever notice that MCSEs advertise the fact, but Sun & Novell certified people don't?
"...America's great minds of today, teaching America's great minds of tomorrow. Poor bastards." -- A Beautiful Min
yes, it was one of the better animated movies i've seen... (and i've seen some BAAAAAAAAAAAAAD anime) considering that, it could have been much worse.
but then, i didn't go see titan ae to be moved, i went to look at the pretty pictures. i'd venture that if you're looking for some sort of substance to your movies, you aren't going to find it in an animated movie....
You know one of the things i just don't get about sci-fi and lasers is that noone ever thinks to wear a shiny suit or carry a big mirror. You would think that someone would have thought of that at some point.
from -e to pi, how pronounced was drew's lithp?
Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
I always hear people complain the plot of PM is too complex (for a PG 13). There are something I didn't catch until the second time. Why are you saying Mononoke is too simple?
/_____\. .......|
Real discussion please. As for me, I think the flew of Mononoke is sometimes the score are too "epic" and mature. If the male lead (with a great voice in the Eng version btw) had a little bit of relationship with Lady Eboshi, then it would have justify the scope of the film.
CY
vvvvvvv../|__/|
...I../O,O....|
...I./
..J|/^.^.^ \..|.._//|
...|^.^.^.^.|W|./oo.|
This movie's plot-line is worse than predictable. While the end-game is clear from the first five minutes the movie, there were many inconsistencies that made no sense to the careful watcher.
But you know what? Who cares! The movie is just incredibly entertaining. I left the theatre feeling good about myself, the movie, Titan, Bob, and everything else thrown up on the big-screen. The humor definitely hit a chord with me.
I do get the sense that many of the folks bashing the movie are doing it based on the simple premise that it's another 'wanna-be' trashing the genre. It is so far from the truth. Remember all those great saturday morning cartoons and late-night movies that DEFINED the genre? V? Robotech? This isn't crass commercialism. This is simply an interesting, amusing, and most important of all, ENTERTAINING movie for those willing to immerse themselves (pretend you're 13 again... toss the cynicism on the floor, Katz).
Loved it, Loved it, Loved it.
You are correct, they EMPTIED their lungs before going through the window. I think that attention to detail, however minor it might be, shows that these guys weren't interested in producing a movie for 8 year olds.
The movie was intelligent and funny, if not both at the same time.
I think Sci-Fi Weekly said it, but the movie, from what I have heard, simply reeks of sequelism. I've heard that there are a lot of questions without answers, and there is a lot of opportunity for well written prequels and sequels... and from the quantity of Titan A.E. literature, and the names of the authors gracing their covers, I am sure that we can expect much more in the future from this new, and unique, franchise.
WorldMaker
The proposition is this: Titan is poor because it is derivative and predictable in that it is a science fiction movie with a young protagonist hero, unlike Shaft which does not.
In fact, every genre film can be criticized in that regard, whoring old scenes a faire (without which the film would be criticized for being off-genre, by the way). Criticizing a genre film for being what it is is to condemn all such films, including the corpus of Westerns, Star Wars, Disney Films, Star Trek and the like.
For my own part, I thought Titan was a cheeseburger, albeit a tasty one. The animation was pretty, and it was fun. My 9-year old son loved it, and my daughter, though not captivated, enjoyed the film. I would see it again, if Wiliam wanted, but probably wouldn't go again on my own behalf. Agreed that it hits all fours on the traditional post-apocalyptic save the word cliches. I would happily rent it again -- it hit the cliches nicely, and it was pretty to watch.
Shaft, on the other hand, is an attempt to transplant a twenty year old cliche into modern times -- the very ultimate in derivative movie-making. I am not down on Shaft -- it is fine on its own merits. However, it suffers from the same flaws Mr. Katz finds here.
The proposition that an individual can describe the film scene-by-scene based upon the description is ludicrous. Sure, we know the broad strokes -- that's why we watch the genre film, not for the overall story (which everyone knows), but for the details.
Indeed, consider whether or not Jon Katz' review wasn't itself a derivative and wooden remake of all negative reviews of genre films. Haven't we seen all of these criticisms before, written in almost the same old way? I far preferred Canby's review of Titanic.
That's not much of a compliment. Mulan suffered the same problem as Shaft; Hollywood had to tame them. Shaft doesn't have sex, and Mulan is a bumbler who gets lucky a lot. The traditional Mulan story makes her much more impressive and kick-ass, so the story is much more challenging of traditional sex roles...
Boss of nothin. Big deal.
Son, go get daddy's hard plastic eyes.
Expanding a vast wasteland since 1996.
It took pieces of several movies: Tron (a hero with some special abilities relating to energy, the ships and creatures "de-rez", hero steals a ship/controls it with energy/difficult to control, similar to recognizer scene), Star Trek (genesis device), there are others which escape me at the moment.
Some other unbelievable/unexplained bits: The hero and misc humans successfully rebuild a spaceship and get it flying before either of the bad guys get to the Titan, even though the Drej have this "amazing technology" and even though the other bad guys have this head start and just as accurate a map.
They never explain why Titan is such a threat, they never explain why they couldn't use Titan when the Earth was attacked but could now. They never explain how the Drej are absorbed by the Titan (never REALLY), they never explain how Cale has all this knowledge about high energy weapons, energy system, propulsion, and navigation and stuff (he's been doing manual labor for the last 15 years, cutting up scrap ships!)...
It goes on, but you get the point.
I guess I'm echoing a lot of what Katz says... I was dissappointed.
"Why should I be content to simply live in this world, when I, as a human being, can CREATE it?" - Oertel
I'm a big science fiction fan. This is one of the first movies that I've ever seen that:
My favorite thing about this movie is the implementation details. (Let's hide the Titan in a field of ice crystals, The main charactor is working on spaceship salvage operation, The bad guys are energy beings, He decides to call the new planet "Planet Bob")
I also really liked the graphics in the movie. It was pretty.
The story was simple but acceptable. It had to be simple, otherwise it wouldn't have fit in a 90 minute movie. But even being simple and short, it showed evidence of there being all kinds of intresting background that there wasn't time to expand upon in the movie. It showed signs that it could be expanded into a good 3-500 page novel.
The things that I didn't like were mostly the standard things that piss me off in every outer space movie I ever see. Spaceships flying like airplanes, All the aliens being humanoid, etc. I really can't complain two much, because no one's ever done it differently.
Jon Katz compares the movie to Star Wars, which isn't even really sci-fi, it's fantasy. He then goes on to complain that it's not funny or scary enough. It wasn't trying to be funny or scary. Eithor would have wrecked this good movie.
Well, at least if people are going to rat on this movie, they should point out any other similar movie done better. I really can't think of one...
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
Conspiracy theories aside, Titan A.E. was in more theaters than any new movie coming out last weekend with 2,733. Shaft was right behind at 2,377, and Boys and Girls at 1,983. Fantasia 2000 had a meager 1,313. I had another friend tell me that he was sad that the movie didn't have many theaters (he saw it on Saturday and liked it, I've decided if I see it, it'll either be for free or on video).
What is it with these theories that people are out to 'get' this movie? Maybe I'm overstating the phenomenon, but I've heard it a lot lately...
Here's to hoping X-Men doesn't share the same fate as its FOX Animated brethren...
(here is the link to box office results.)
Oh, and instead of seeing TAE, I ended up seeing Chicken Run as a sneak... now _that_ is a great movie!
I think it's probably the best animated movie I've seen since Mulan.
If you're looking for other diversions, try 'Princess Mononoke' (originally Mononoke Hime) released in 1999. Neil Gaiman of Sandman fame contributed heavily to the translation of the screenplay. Perhaps since I'm not a Anime aficionado, the movie struck me as very original.
Given one hour to live, the student replied: "I'd spend it with professor FP who can make an hour seem like a lifetime."
Reminds me of Queen in Highlander.
The humans built the Titan, which brought the Drej down on them to destroy their planet.
"Hey, these guys just made a ship that can create a new planet. Let's blow their planet up." Isn't that kind of asking for it?
You'd think the aliens would've come down on them as soon as (or before) they discovered interstellar travel.
I thought the plot was really weak in this film.
And come on, who takes an explosion (that's meant to kill 2 people) in the stomach and sleeps it off?
Make the movie half an hour longer, tell us a hell of a lot more about the drifter colonies and such. ok... I'm done venting.
I was pretty sure that the Drej came after the human race because of the Titan. The little intro thingie said that the Titan was the most advanced ship, blah blah blah and because they built it, the Drej decided to eradicate them.
Maybe I didn't hear it correctly in the theatre, but that's what I remember. I don't think I'll see it again any time soon though; anyone want to back me up?
Watch/read 2001. Read the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (um... maybe not for scientific proof). AFAIK you can survive in space for a _very_ limited time (something like half a minute). Oh, and they didn't take a big breath, they exhaled. Otherwise the pressure difference would have teared them apart (I think).
"that's why we watch the genre film, not for the overall story (which everyone knows), but for the details."
That's why I thought Titan AE could have been a lot better, it lacked a lot of details. It seemed like the whole movie was those "broad strokes" filled in with a little eye-candy and bad music.
spoiler!
There was only 1 plot twist which I didn't see coming: The captain (ok, I forget his name) turning out to be a bad guy. Everything else was pretty easy to guess.
Heh... A friend of mine mixed up the head grand theft auto cop in "Gone in 60 Seconds" and Samuel L. Jackson.
:)
And remember Samuel L. Jackson in Lethal Weapon?
sheesh.
You can't really expect it to live up to Heavy Metal. Just because the movie won't be remembered, and loved, in 20 years, doesn't make it crap.
Cheers,
Rick Kirkland
I'm seeing it again -- I'm buying the DVD when it comes out -- it's a fun, beautiful film. The Bicycle Thief it isn't, but I didn't go to see The Bicycle Thief. I went to go see a rock em sock em space adventure, and that's what I got.
it's a simple case of to great things that taste like doodie together...i absolutly dispise any mix of CG and inked animation but i would be blown away if some one could do it and actually make it work...besides i've only seen one really good CG cartoon of late and that's Roughneck Chronicals...now that would've looked nice on the big screen
The Divine Creatrix in a Mortal Shell that stays Crunchy in Milk
The House Between - Original Sci-Fi Series
Quit posting from my machine! At least look and see who you're logged in as first! Sheesh!
Love you...what's for dinner?
The Divine Creatrix in a Mortal Shell that stays Crunchy in Milk
The House Between - Original Sci-Fi Series
Now, I love the cartoons. I do.
And I love it when things are made to explode at high resolution for my amusement.
And I don't mind when the plot gets a little thin in order to make room for the above-mentioned childishness.
But Titan A.E. was honestly tough to sit through.
I'd read reviews comparing it to the Last Starfighter in that it has a cheesiness that was ultimately redeemed by its innocence bla bla bla, but they were way off. Really, the innocence is contrived, the voice-acting is cliched (am i the only one sick of cartoons that sound like nathan lane?), it's unoriginal, the heart-wrenching Armageddon-y "go back to the ship, i'll sacrifice myself" moment was laughably unmoving.
I was in a multiplex in brooklyn, and the worst part, the absolute worst part of the whole stupid experience was the fact that i could hear the soundtrack to Shaft pulsating through the walls, taunting me with its badness, saying, "henry, henry, henry -- how are you going to turn down the black private dick, ten times out of ten, etc, for matt damon and janine garafolo in outer space?"
so, umm, don't bother. or at least go see it at a theater where they're showing big momma's house. that wasy, when it sucks and you leave, you can comfort yourself by saying to your date, "hmm. could've been worse."
god is just pretend.
I go to movies for fun. When I put my $8.50 up on the counter, I'm not expecting detailed plots.. twisting plot devices, classic literary devices..etc. I go to the movies for enjoyment. Titan AE was an amazing piece of animation, and throughly enjoyable. Just the plasma cloud scene with the "energy angels" was worth the price to get in.
Take a step back for a minute and just suspend the process in which we tear apart plots and scenes and enjoy Titan for what it was.. a wonderful escape from reality for a few hours.
I vaguely recall some article months back about Disney contracting it so that theaters couldn't play competing animation if they wanted to run F2K
Isn't that sort of contract the thing that got Microsoft into trouble? DOJ are you listening?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
I agree completely!!
if common sense was common, wouldn't everyone have it?
Well, isn't this surprising. I greatly enjoyed Titan A.E.. I think it's probably the best animated movie I've seen since Mulan. The character development was a bit loose, and the movie could have benefitted from being about 45 minutes longer with that time spent developing the characters a bit more. I think this would do very well as a series on Cartoon Networks afternoon Anime section. I liked the way the story moved, it wasn't anything revolutionary or earth shattering, but it was fun. Lots of things exploded, the melding of the traditional animation and the CGI stuff was excellent. The movie was VERY pretty, and well, it had my favorite character in any animated movie ever, That little turtle guy.
I cracked up at almost everything he said, and I loved it when he yelled 'Who's your daddy?!' while blowing up dredge ships. Very fun.
I thought the movie was pretty damn good personally.
Kintanon
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
Ghost in the Shell is excellent - no doubt about it. However I wouldn't have a 7 year old watch it. No comparison. Also the art work in Titan AE is much more memorable than Ghost in the Shell in my opinion.
90% of the wealth is in 2% of the pockets. Bummer to be in the majority.
Aside from the obvious plot of the entire movie being predictable. The "Dreds" (bad guys) used fighting styles similar to Tie fighters. And most of the battle scences could be seen in every Star Trek movie.
Aside from that the only real prob I had was a scene in the beginning when they were trying to escape the starbase. Thier ship had to smash into some doors and blast its way into outerspace. Only prob the cheap glass between them and space was cracked...and breaking fast. So what do they do? Take a deap breath and grab a fire extinquisher. The guy proceeds to break the glass and use the extinquisher to propel themselves to a nearby ship. Except for a few cuts from a previous battle, both are fine.
Anyone see that scene in Mission to Mars when he took off his helmet and his head froze up in less than a second? Wouldn't something similar happen? Or was it possible that they were just in a part of space that was normal ambiant temperature?
Well it was a kids film, I don't expect much from it.
"Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality." -Jules de Gautier
I think it's just that people are so underhanded and rotten that theories like this are more and more easily believable, because they really do happen nowadays. :(
It's getting tough seperating the BS from the real deal...
-- www.bteg.com | bleh.n3.net | hac47.dhs.org
I don't have a problem with 'cartoons', but the whole animation-on-top-of-CGI look I saw in the previews really turned me off. Clashed really bad, and tained the interest I had.
-- www.bteg.com | bleh.n3.net | hac47.dhs.org
Hahahahaha. It was a universe where sound waves were transmitted through space (the captain went to "silent mode"; colliding ice crystals made sound), where stopping your engines would make you move at the same speed as objects in your environment (whatever it is that transmitted sound also provided friction I guess), where there is a lot of ambient light all around (how else do you have all the reflections in the ice field?), and where gravity is universal (except when not having gravity is needed for a particular scene), providing a distinct "down".
but AE had pure energy life forms
Ah, something that Star Trek has every other week. Not really original anymore. (And why on earth does pure energy take the form of humanoids and needs separate space ships (and how can pure energy ships be blown up?))
I'm willing to accept alternative universes, with different laws of nature - just don't sell it as "realism".
-- Abigail
This is an American film. It was not made in Japan. As such, it is a landmark. Could you imagine seeing an American made film like this 10 years ago? 5 years? 1 year?
Try Heavy Metal.
Titan AE is no landmark except that its an American animation that isn't necessarily made for children XOR adults. Scratch that, I almost forgot about "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm."
I watched the movie, the storyline was a little cliche but I liked it. My biggest peeve was that I thought virtually all of the aliens were lame. (In the way they were drawn mostly.) The dregs were ok but they seemed a bit too much like overlay when they weren't on a CG background.
Heavy Metal 2 is coming out this summer, watch it and then rewatch Titan AE. If MH2K the step up to HM like its supposed to be, you should be very impressed.
:)
-Vel
Don't forget the whole scene about the roach's gravity generator and then they walk onto the Titan and gravity works as is they're still on earth.
I keep forgetting the movie cliche: gravity only works properly when it is being used as a plot device.
Or the "exhale because we're jumping into open space without pressure suits."
-Vel
I will say right now that I like a lot of romantic comedies. I like watching them for some laughs, a nice story, and just to be entertained. I'm your average chick when it comes to movies. I love the Little Mermaid, I dislike horror movies in general, and I usually have to be dragged to the movie theater if the intention is to watch a shoot em up gory action movie.
Thus, when my boyfriend (sci-fi fan) wanted to see Titan AE last week, I remembered the preview I saw and was like "oh joy, a shoot em up Power ranger-like movie. yeah right, no way, let's do something else." Then on Sat, I was with a group of people who all wanted to see it, so since I was outnumbered, I went and saw it.
I think the movie was rather suprising, I was expecting it to be hokey and not to like it. When I saw the Iron Giant (my roommate had free tickets) and Pleasantville, I was expecting those movies to be stupid too but ended up liking them. Pleasantville really has a lot in it.
Granted, Titan AE doesn't compare to Life is Beautiful, but it has a decent storyline, great graphics, and it was entertaining. You can't expect every movie to be deep and thought provoking. If you suspend belief during the movie, you'll be entertained. If you sit there and say "feh, an anti-gravity box is impossible" and "you can't move through space like you fly in planes" and "they live in outer space, who the hell is cutting their hair like that??" then you'll probably be more aggravated than entertained.
If you only want to go see movies that will win Oscars then save your money, but if you want to be entertained for an hour and a half then go for it. I'm a girly girl chick flick loving person and I liked it.
Clearly the plot, while perhaps not a literary masterpiece, was too much for Katz. I found the main characters very likeable, and the story was fun. While the Drej effects stood out at times, for the most part the effects sequences blended :).
very well with the hand-drawn animation. The chase scene through the hydrogen forest of Sessharim was just one of many enjoyable examples, as well as being one of many action sequences in the film. Moreover I was very pleased by the fact that the movie was not "kiddified", one character's neck is broken in full view of the audience, and more than a few others are violently killed. (In addition to those who die when the planet's blown up
The design of the film was very interesting on a non-cgi level also. Alien designs were by Wayne Barlowe, who most scifi buffs should be aware of, and the lifestyle and living conditions portrayed are of the grity run-down-future variety.
While I'm not usually a fan of american feature length animation, I think anyone who enjoys animation and/or science fiction at all should see this film and get an idea of what american animation can be.
I liked it very much, and my kids loved it. At least it had a story unlike Dinosaur. Don Bluth rules.
if electricity is created by electrons, is morality created by morons?
The Iron Giant? Was that totally American?
I don't watch Disney movies as a rule (for the same reason I don't purchase MS products). I had heard some good things about Iron Giant and when I watched it was pretty impressed. They do some cool things in augmenting traditional animation with computer effects. I thought the storyline was very good and there was actually a message, a moral to the story! Imagine that!
If you haven't seen it rent it sometime, you might be surprised (and you can actually watch it with a young person, unlike most anime).
Yes. I'm going to sleep now. I don't care if the clown eats me. Anything would be better than reading through Jon's drivel and all the drivel-oid replies....
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." -- Ken Olson, 1977
I only really saw a couple of problems with the animation in this movie:
1)Blending and realism of CGI in the end planet scene - not to mention the scale problem of the Titan behind the two main characters at the end. (It was _far_ too small in size.) The blending was fine most of the time until the end of the movie.
2) I say _most_ of the time because the film had the same problem that most American(TM) animated films have when trying to portray actual human movement. Anime has human movement downpat most of the time but can't seem to get an "american" face drawn right for some reason. Whereas American animation always seems to have body motion problems with their characters. Add this problem to the "clean" lines of a CGI world and you get the idea - the movements aren't "in tune" with the CGI environment and in _most_ cases aren't even all that human.
Until these factors get better, especially the second one, American animation is pretty much going to lag in favor of Japanese Anime - no matter how half-dollar-sized the eyes are or red-gaping-hole-without-teeth mouthed the anime characters are.
The Tick - "Spoon!"
"Bah!" - Dogbert
Animation, Titan A.E., and Usability is an interview I conducted with Mayo Tirado, one of the animation experts behind Titan A.E. He talks about the animation tools he uses, the books he's read, and the web sites he visits. He also has a couple of reasonable comments on usability and web development in general.
John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com (Usability Vortal)
How to Download YouTube Videos
It was evident merely from the previews that the movie would have a typical holywood storyline.
BUT HE IS WRONG ABOUT THE MOVIE'S ENTERTAINMENT VALUE.
There are some truly amusing and well thought out scenes. This, not to mention the fact that the animation is absolutely OUTSTANDING and the computer graphics AWESOME.
No, its not a revolutionary film... but it IS entertaining. And, to boot, its in a genre that I wish we saw A LOT MORE in the theaters.
Go see it. You won't regret it.
Do not spread "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0" over the internet, thank you.
Why would anyone care to moderate a post that much in relation to a Movie Review? I don't think that moderation in the current form works.
I think that a 2-level system where a post is either at 0 or 1 would be a more appropriate filter. Flamebait, trolls, and the like will surely fall to 0, and all non-offensive, relevant posts would be treated equally.
Okay, enough ranting.
Hmmm... sounds an awful lot like a certain feature writer here at /.
All in all, I thought it was a pretty tight, well-done sci-fi romp. When the kid got out of the Dredge cell, I chalked that up to them letting him escape to see where he leads them.
But... It dated itself with the music. Using toothless rock music for scene filler is always a big big mistake. Don't they remember the _Transformers Movie_? (You got the touch... you got the POW-AHH!) They could have used some low-key techo to complement the action quite nicely. Whgenever I heard Ned's Atomic Dustbin or whatever they used starting up a song, it made me cringe the same way as when I hear some REALLY bad girl-pop in an otherwise awesome anime flick.
-carl
. We've got computers, we're tapping phone lines, you know that ain't allowed - Talking Heads, "Life During Wartime"
Janeane Garofalo as a giant kangaroo?
Oh, Janeane - what happened to the brainy cranky girl I fell in love with so many years ago? Why do you have to spout action-movie cliches through the whole film? Oh, it hurts...
-carl
. We've got computers, we're tapping phone lines, you know that ain't allowed - Talking Heads, "Life During Wartime"
Think about it. Energy beings (protoss PSI properties) along with a hive mind (Overmind from Zerg)
If only for that it would have been unimaginative, I just wished that they would have expanded on the Drej, how he excaped from the cell, why they didn't question his excape from the cell and his piloting the ship "Ok, I can take 30 seconds to understand this weird energy interface of this ship and pilot it. Hell I can already figure out how to send messages with it" I'll give it this at least it looked like they represented the number correctly in binary on that guys screen at the critical moment in the movie.
They needed to expand on the plotline with the Drej, the Titan project, you know like what spurred the project in the first place. I mean unless you knew the Drej were going to attack why would they build that ship anyways? Not to mention how that kid fixed that ship in no time flat, beat the guys to the ship even when they had a head start in what seemed to be a far faster ship, AND how he knew how to make the ship use Drej energy???
More plot folks MORE PLOT!!!
Yhcrana
The voices in my head don't like you
This movie was tons of fun. There where plot holes of course and I agree the characters could have used some more development, but otherwise it was THE MOST fun I've had seeing a movie in quite a while. I thaught the surround sound for this movie was particularly good, the clangs, crashes and explosions where excellent.
I watch a lot of animation, and I thought Titan AE was really, REALLY spotty. Some shots were excellent, and showed a lot of care and attention. The scenes in the ice rings were very nice, with great care taken in setting up good reflections, etc. Another effect I liked was in the dredge prison--not the electrical stuff, but the slowly moving concentric circles on the walls. Nice effect--elegant, simple.
Then came the bad parts. There were quite a few scenes where the computer animation looked choppy--VERY choppy--as ships went flit-flit-flit across the screen. It looked like they skimped in some spots and only rendered every two frames of film (an animation cheat).
Another problem I had was with the integration of rendered and traditional (cel) animation. As a concept, I think it has potential, but if it is poorly executed, the effect is jarring. Some anime titles have had great success integrating computer animation (Macross Plus, Cowboy Bebop), and others have failed (Blue Submarine No. 6). In fact, Titan AE reminded me a LOT of Blue Sub No. 6--the cel animation looked so out of place with the rendered bits, totally mismatched.
Finally, in typical American and Don Bluth fashion, every frame must have movement. We see our hero laying on a bed, we have to pan around it and draw each frame--poorly. Waste of budget that could be better spent.
Dave
I've built up so much character I have an alter-ego
Was it just me, or was there just a bit of homage to David Brin's 'Uplift' trilogy in this movie? Both seemed to me to be "shameless space opera" (Brin describing his work) but in a fun and enjoyable way. And both had the earthlings as the down-but-not-out race that still has a bunch of things the stodgy old Galactics haven't thought of yet.
I swear, I was continually waiting for the Drej to start yelling about "damned wolfling tricks"
-Denor
This review is yet again another whole hearted disappointment from Katz, I've got to stop reading his articles. Katz picks up on what he sees as every little inconsistancy in the movie. Guess what, go watch any sci-fi movie. Of course there's going to be little problems, that's because it's not REAL! If it were real it'd be rather boring. Don't like not having how the Titan works explained? Then I guess since they didn't tell you how the Fifth Element works must've made that a bad movie too.
It's really all about the expectations you go in with to the movie. If you're looking for the messiah of all movies to unfold before your eyes every time you goto the theatre, well yeah you're going to be disappointed 99% of the time. I went to see Titan AE for some good entertainment, which it definitly was.
One of my favorite parts of the movie are the sound effects. The ice moving around in the ice rings and the blasters were particuarly good. Also thought that the soundtrack was kinda fitting. I can't say I agree totally with the sound they picked, but the way they used it in the movie was pretty cool.
Stay cool
-- taking over the world, we are.
Here's my DeCSS mirror. Where's yours?
Here's my DeCSS mirror, where's yours?
I'll have to disagree with you on that. I'd say that the dialogue was, at best, very uneven. That little turtle mofo had great lines and was very well done, and the female protagonist (voice of Drew Barrymore) was also handled well, both by the writers and voice-actress. But the Weapons Specialist Kangaroo-Dog (Geanine Grafalo [sp?]) had almost no interesting dialogue-- all of her lines could have been replaced with grunts w/o detriment to the plot or chracter devel. For that matter, the protagonist (voice of Matt Damon) was handled in a pretty heavy-handed manner-- first he doesn't give a rat's-ass for earth, then he's suddenly gung-ho (this sealed by meeting Pellea's grandkids, or somesuch thing.) And poor Bill Pullman (did the voice of the turncoat human captain) was just about crushed by the weight of his awful dialogue-- it sounded like they'd cast those grim, manly utterances from cement.
Apart form strict dialogue concerns, the writing in general seemed to suffer from too-many-cooks syndrome: the scene with the ancient bat-people race was excellent, both in its early creepiness/buyability and its late wicked-awesome chace seen. But the reversal (really, double reversal) of Captain Benedict Arnold was ham-handed, at best, as was the conclusion.
But, yeah, whatever. Please flame me across hell's-half-acre and mod me down now.
Much Love,
"S"HM
*****
(I refuse to spellcheck out of contempt for your belief system)
I wholeheartedly agree that Princess M was very original (some REALLY cool monsters in the begging, and a lof of super characterization.) Unfortunately, (and maybe this is just 'cause I'm not an anime-afficianado) but I found this film to have, like, 5 pounds of plot in a ten pound bag. I actually dozed off several times during the last quarter of the film (and that's a really bad sign-- I don't think I've ever dozed off during a film before.)
Much Love,
"S"HM
*****
(I refuse to spellcheck out of contempt for your belief system)
I personally loved the movie! It was a hackneyed and time-worn plot, sure, but it had some wonderful touches and magnificent set-pieces that, for me, harkened back to the SciFi of old... Campbell, Azimov, Bradbury and the rest of the Amazing Magazine crowd. Great space opera stuff. Jon Katz was apparently never a kid. His comparison to Shaft is so bizarre and off-point that this is great evidence that as a film critic, Katz ain't no Kael.
Hey, it was a PG animated movie from Don Bluth. I wasn't looking for Akira. I wasn't looking for Alien or Star Wars. I knew what to expect from a Bluth film, got it in spades, and was delightedly surprised at the SciFi touches of the hydrogen forest, the bird-creatures, and the spectacular (no pun intended) ice rings.
If only there were more films with this much vision and innocence...
I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed the soundtrack, and that they did not use "pop" music.
:)
It's undoubtedly alternative.
MO
Titan AE made great use of the soundtrack to complement the mood. The animation and colors were awesome, and I thought the movie overall was well thought out (New Bankok was very cool).
I wouldn't expect the character development to get much better in any animation (except perhaps with some of the older disney movies like Bambi, and Dumbo). The actors did a great job with the voices, and there was humor throughout the whole movie (although it wasn't meant to be a comedy). Gune, the turtle was definitely the funniest character.
**Big spoilers**
The one biggest surprises that happened was when the Insect cook got shot, towards the beginning of the movie. I expected him to be the funny sidekick that survived right through to the end, and was shocked to see that he was killed.
You know what to do with the HELLO.
You know what to do with the HELLO. ...
Help create an open-source world
I didn't see anything slow about Corseau's transformation into the bitter traitor. That was the one character of the movie which I was disappointed with actually. He's HeroMan through and through, no cracks in his behavior, then suddenly he's caught talking to the leader of the Dredge? Okay, plot twist is good, but then he snaps in the most exaggerated way possible, leave them behind ... and then turns back into Mr Nice Guy all of a sudden when Cale saves him? At that point I didn't see a character left in Corseau, just a device used to throw in a plot twist and bring it predictably back around in the end.
Fun movie, for sure. But saying that this movie had good characterization just goes to show what state Hollywood is in these days. This was pretty corny stuff most of the time.
Oh, and the Dredge were the most visually cool enemies I've ever seen in a cartoon for a long time. Very creative animation style used on them, gave them a very out-of-reality impression.
You know what to do with the HELLO.
You know what to do with the HELLO. ...
Help create an open-source world
Totally, there was a whole scene where Cale is hanging from a rail with a deep black void below. All I am thinking is "I'm your father Luke" -[d]-
Look for it along the bottom of the New Bangkok colony.
"Tital A.E." was a great introduction to American audiences of what animation could be. Animation can be a field of film with more genres than the one The Mouse has defined for it. "The Last Unicorn", "The Iron Giant", and "Princess Mononoke" are all excellent examples of the genres that could exist if film executives got behind animation here in America. But how many million did "Iron Giant" pull in? It was a film critically praised by many in the film industry, but close to no one actually saw it, and, unlike "Mononoke", it was widely distributed here in America. The VHS version even comes with a toy - but how many of you have seen it?
So, if we really think animation is viable form for more than just song and dance with cute commercial tie-ins at McDonald's, we need to support films that stretch the current boundaries Disney has set for it.
That being the case, what ought to have "Titan A.E." been? Funny. Adventure packed. Paying homage to all those films we have ever loved, and all those films, outside of the animated, that it would like to become. Sure, it failed in some of those respects. It comes off as rip-off in places. Instead of being a homage to Star Wars in places, it sounds like they're trying to copy it. But then "Titan's" creativity catches you and you are enthralled. The chase through the hydrogen fields is imaginative and just plain cool, and the aliens of that planet, aiding Cale et al., are every bit as courageous and honorable as we could have hoped for. They are as good as the Drej are bad, but Katz fails to notice that there are multiple alien species within this movie, and so he sees "Titan" as one-sided. He's wrong.
My favorite character was Gune, the green li'l inventor guy. He's adorable. He invents something in his sleep, but he forgets what it does. There's a button... It's endearing and funny all at the same time.
No - this was not a masterpiece, but was it better than the usual drivel? Absolutely. Go see it. Have a fun time. Enjoy yourself. And enjoy a glimpse of what American animation might yet become.
Is anyone surprised at Shaft clobbering Titan AE? Shaft is a mainstream action romp with a big name lead actor and director. Titan is an animated action movie, its not disney and its not especially targetted at the usual childrens audience. Which do you expect to do better at the box office?
I was actually surprised when I first saw the previews for this movie at the begining of the year. An american studio trying to do somewhat adult animation, its a big change from status quo and is mostly likely due to the recent anime influx into america. I am going to go watch this movie if for no other reason than to support the concept of adult animation in America. The real problem this movie faces is that it marketed itself to teens, most of whom are too busy trying to be adults to go to a "kids" movie.
As for some of the other comments. Watch Star Wars again, its predictable and stupid in many parts. If it weren't a pop culture event it would have never done as well as it did. For instance, why can a common droid easily hack a super space stations computers? How can a crop dusting farm boy become an ace fighter pilot with no training? Where are the escape pods on the millenium falcon? Etc, etc, etc. Oh and as for the music in Titan not being a John Williams score like SW, I guess that means they're trying to be original. What a horrible thing.
BTW, three things date movies most - music, hair, and costuming. Watch an Buck Rogers episode and laugh at the early eighties costuming. Transformers: The Movie has eighties rock. Doctor Zhivago has 60s hair. Of course effects date a movie too, but there's not as much you can do about that, other than plan your effects sequences well. Again look at the Death Stars targeting sequence at the end of Star Wars for dated special effects. What was the refresh rate on those rebel monitors anyway? :)
So far I've gotten all my Karma from telling people they are wrong... :)
I haven't actually seen the movie yet, but one of the things that turned me off when I saw the trailer was the glaring incongruity between the character art and the computer-rendered backgrounds.
Like many other animators before them, the folks at Bluth's studios appear to have fallen victim to the blind pursuit of the so-called holy grail of CGI: photorealistic rendering.
Because computer-generated imagery is still very much in its infancy, many people mistakenly assume that the ultimate goal is to be able to generate images that look absolutely true-to-life. Yes, that can be one goal of CGI, but that should definitely not be the only goal.
Artists in traditional media have long eschewed realism in favor of stylized renditions of reality, usually to better emphasize certain features or emotions better than realism would allow. If photorealism were the ultimate goal of visual art, then hand painting would have simply become obsolete when photography was invented.
Fortunately, some people are busy doing research on techniques and algorithms that can be used to coax non-photorealistic images out of a computer renderer. This newly emerging field is called non-photorealistic rendering (NPR), and it has already been used very successfully in commercial efforts, most notably the television series Futurama (which uses a specific NPR technique called cell shading). I for one was extremely impressed the first time I saw those great smoothly-animated (but still cartoony-looking) 3D ships flying through space in the very first episode of Futurama.
Fortunately, the future of NPR looks very promising. Adventure Gamer has a short but informative article on the state of NPR in adventure games. The site also has a preview of an upcoming game called Runaway, which makes extensive use of NPR for character art, and looks absolutely stunning. Download the runaway trailer, and prepare to be flabbergasted by what you see. (Yes, it really is 3D rendered!)
It's too bad it didn't occur to Bluth that attempted photorealism in the background art would look just plain silly next to hand-animated characters. I guess they were just pushing for the "Wow!" factor; the average Joe Sixpack is more impressed by flashy freedee 'puter graphics than he is by the seamless and immersive environments than NPR can afford.
begin 644
Apathy -- The state of numbness of the mind. When you are apathic, you can think.
Your review of Titan A.E. sucks dude, and you completely missed all the possibility that is behind the story. The Titan was able to convert the energy of the Drej's into useful form--so we are given to realize the idea that perhaps humanity meant to use the Drej's as a source of power to colonize the Universe after all.
I mean, humans are humans, right? They're still betraying each other in their final hour. So what is preventing us from using the Titan to exploit another race? Maybe that was the whole point all along?
The Drej's kill the insect bartender who's begging for his life. How unchildish and cool is that? Miserable little insect anyway.
The Drej's are making deals with humanity--this means they are desperate! If they were so omnipotent, why are they trying to get us to turn on each other? That means they're afraid--of their own extinction.
The animation was also spectacular in many scenes. If you knew anything about raytracing or rendering in general, you'd know that much of what lies in the Ice Belt was extremely expensive to do, CPU-wise, and would appreciate it much more.
You're like my managers. I design a program that is a triumph of logic and organization, and all they can see is that the output isn't formatted in a way that can be easily inserted into their pet Microsoft Access databases. I write a masterpiece that the programmers who currently maintain it are still marvelling at, and my managers assume I was screwing around for four weeks because I missed a tiny (and easily fixed) detail in the requirements manual, even though the requirements were nearly impossible and required reverse-engineering three other commercial products using tools like SoftIce..
Look beneath the surface of Titan A.E. and you can see tens of subplots going on, political intrigue, lies, deceit, the struggle of human nature against itself, and the fact that the Drej's *aren't evil at all*, just *realistic* about humanity. The Drej's don't have any emotion or compassion--they are exterminating humanity because it's obvious that there's a Them-Or-Us conflict going on.
Your review is as callous as it is thoughtless, dude--I for one happen to leave my brain turned on when I see a movie, you should too.
sudog
Hey dude--space is not cold, there's nothing to conduct heat away from the body except as heat radiation. Think wet cloth vs inert air.
And the human body can survive deep space--what it can't survive is the lack of air. Scientific American and various alt.sci FAQ estimate that the human body could survive a bout with deep space for about 30 seconds or so. Sure your eyes would leak blood and your ears would pop like a s.o.b. from the explosive decompression, but you could do it just fine.
Laser blasters are perfectly reasonable.. I've seen backpack-mounted lasers capable of burning a hole through plywood at fifty paces. Who says similar weapons won't be built from better power packs in future? All we need is a decent coolant system and a bigger crystal core, right?
sudog
The animation was reasonably good, if you like characters that look like rejects from NIMH, although the combination of smooth CGI and hand-drawn characters often had the effect of making the hand-drawn portions of the animation look jumpy and rushed.
The plot, however, was TERRIBLE. I didn't see Battlefield Earth, so it's possible that BE is worse... but I don't know how. The writers trotted out every hackneyed cliche they could find for this one, and the only reason that the dumb good guys won was because, as usual, the bad guys were even dumber.
You'd think a species that had evolved into a pure-energy form (which, for some reason, still had two arms and two legs...) would be able to forego gloating last-minute victory speeches. Or at least to write decent ones.
The thing I found funniest, though, was that the dialog--but not the background music or sound effects--in the theater I was in cut out during the part where Cale explained how they were going to defeat the bad guys. So the effect was similar to this:
"We're screwed! They're closing in! They're going to kill us!"
"Yes, you're right! There's nothing we can do! Unless we [dead air, back of Cale's head indicating that he's speaking] which will save the day!"
I should've known something was up when I saw the preview with that crappy Creed song as background music.
The intro said the Drej attacked because Humanity built the Titan.
This was, to put it bluntly, a terrible movie. The animation was OK--nothing to write home about. The plot was awful. The characters (except for the turtle guy, who was funny but seemed to have a completely different personality every time he appeared on screen) were lame, flat, and poorly voiced. The writing ranged from forgettable to laughable (see the Drej "speeches" for examples of the latter). The music was disposable pap.
A couple of the more obvious problems:
The Drej supposedly destroyed the Earth because the Humans built the Titan... a ship capable of creating a new planet for the Human species since their old one was destroyed by the Drej. Cause and effect, anyone?
Cale's dad, apparently an otherwise smart guy, made the activation of the Titan contingent upon Cale surviving the escape from Earth, being found by one of his buddies, not losing the ring (would YOU give a small, easily-losable device that was humanity's last, best hope to a 4-year-old?) and then finding the Titan.
Maybe I'm being too harsh, but it seemed to me that to enjoy this movie, you'd have to not only shut off your brain, but remove it physically from your head and leave it at home.
check out nausicaa.net for great miyazaki-type information.
no
Oh, and the Dredge were the most visually cool enemies I've ever seen in a cartoon for a long time. Very creative animation style used on them, gave them a very out-of-reality impression.
Ever see the CGI show Shadow Raiders? Now THAT has(had?) cool enemies. While I liked the movie, I found the Drej to be poor imitations.Wiwi
"I trust in my abilities,
Wiwi
"I trust in my abilities,
but I want more then they offer"
-psxndc
The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.
Yes, there were homages to Star Wars and Heavy Metal. (I kind of liked it more for them, actually...)
Take it too seriously, and yes, it has its flaws and has them in fairly large numbers. BUT... It was a damned good ride that, if taken none too deeply, was a lot of fun.
SPOILER ALERT!!
And frankly, the intelligent guard scene was worth the whole price of admission. Yes, there were cliches, but there was also a fair amount of poking of fun at some of the standard cliches. Or "I think I'll take a little nap now..." In any other movie, it would've been the character's death. In this one? It's an excuse to hit us with "Nap is over now!". Yeah, it's got its sillinesses, but hey, it's the goofball bits that raised it above the complete production line drek and made me (and the friends I saw it with) laugh.
Shaft sucked. Standard bullshit shoot-em-up flick, the mexican drug lords unload thousands of rounds into the back of Shaft's beat up junker car from their SUV assault wagon, Shaft fires randomly with his hand gun and kills half of them. Wahoo!
Yes, Titan was "for kids". Even without taking that into account, the plot, characters, and effects were more substantial than nearly any scifi film of the past several years.
Maybe you liked it, maybe you didn't, but I sure hope films like this continue to get made.
Yet, I couldn't help enjoying myself more than a little. There were some great tributes in it to the original Heavy Metal movie, especially in some of the flight scenes.
The fact of the matter is that a Don Bluth film is more like cotton candy than a chocolate bar. Sweet and interesting, but in the end, very little actual substance.
Animation-wise, there were some places where I was not entirely impressed with the blending of the 2D and 3D styles. The backgrounds were entirely rendered in fairly decent 3D. However, occasionally there was some minor awkwardness between the interactions between the 2D characters and their 3D environs. Don Bluth's team could have more closely examined how the team at The Iron Giant tackled that problem for a better overall 'look' for the film.
Fans of Japanese animation or the Heavy Metal movie will have a ball with this film, but serious film buffs should definitely look elsewhere.
>Usually the Hollywood versions of movies SUCK,
>but GIBSON HIMSELF is involved with this flick,
>so it should be true to the text.
Didn't Gibson "give his blessing" to Johnny Mnemonic (which in my opinion was horrible)? I've lost most faith in Hollywood adapations of great science fiction novels. Tho, from what I've heard, Neuromancer should at least be interesting.. the director's the same guy that made at least a couple of Richard D. James' (Aphex Twin) videos. Lots of style.
Anyways.. for those that've only seen the Johnny Mnemonic movie.. read this..
--riv.
-- Nathaniel Hewitt [http://nhewitt.n3.net/] "Calm is the bottom of my sea: who would guess that it hideth droll
I've always hated reviewers. Siskel and Ebert always gave really good action, comedy and animated films bad ratings and these dumb, independant, hard-to-understand films good ratings. And why, might you ask? Because they're paid to do it. Their mind, which was once stuck on the ideas and emotions struck up behind the movie, has been clouded over and drives on the money they'll get for doing their job and promoting the right people (yeah, like there's no inside money going on with some of these critics).
I haven't seen Titan AE but it looks really good. So if you saw it and liked it, I say great and I'd be more apt to accept your opinion than some guy who does this for a living.
hey, don't get me wrong - i've never katz-bashed in here before. i am suprised, tho, that his movie reviews are actually published here.
if i rent a movie (even a technology-related one) and wrote a review on my web site, it'd hardly be something that slashdot would think worthy of linking to.
i downloaded a copy of tron w/ gnutella once, and it was ok. is that worthwhile?
Well, I liked Titan AE If you went in looking for a surprising movie, well, you will be disappointed. Personally, I LOVED the animation - especially the transition between CGI and traditional animation techniques within the movie. For those familiar with the old Space Ace and Dragons Lair games, well, you'll see more of it here. There's parts of the movie where you can definitely see those animation styles again
All in all, it's a good movie, IMHO. Of course, if you are looking for something new, don't expect it - of course, there are only 7 basic plots in the world anyway, and it's just how you decide to implement them. There was only one twist I found surprising (and felt like I should have seen it coming anyway, and felt a bit stupid that I didn't!) Take no heed of Jon on this one - make up your own mind based on people who have seen the movie, and aren't professional cynics... er... reviewers (IE - read all the /. posts ;-) My fiancee and I both felt it was worth the money we spent on seeing it - lots of laughter, some suspense, and one 'wow' when the nature of the Titan was revealed finally revealed - and why Titan is the only hope for humanity.
Dispite Jon's comments, not every alien is a bad guy or hostile, not everything about the movie is horrid, the animation doesn't suck, and there actually is a reason why the aliens went after the humans - if you think about the implications of Titan's energy systems.
Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr - looking for something to read? Check out my three free novels at MidnightRyder.org
Well, i was kinda looking forward to seeing this, but none of the local cineplexes were showing it! Coincidently, they WERE all playing Fantasia 2000. I vaguely recall some article months back about Disney contracting it so that theaters couldn't play competing animation if they wanted to run F2K. Anyone else remember this?
I don't care enough to go dig for it, but it might explain low ticket sales (well, above and beyond any quality issues).
You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.
Titan AE looked kind of dumb in the previews. I don't think anyone wanted to admit it, but while the previews were impressive, and the animation looks good, the music isn't bad, it looked... well... dumb. Heavy Metal it ain't.
Of course, I still wanna go see Shaft. Gotta love Samuel L. Jackson (Tho' till I see it I say Richard Roundtree did it better).
"I'm not even supposed to BE here today!"
The "2D character on 3D CG background" thing, first done in the Media Lab's Grinning Evil Death, has been done better before. The "zooming through the asteroid belt" thing has been overdone, from Star Wars to Star Crash. The "spacecraft that maneuver like low-speed biplanes" thing is an old George Lucas gimmick, but in Titan, they use rockets yet don't move in the right direction. The "repairing the junk spacecraft" thing - sigh. And, of course, the "big planet transformer just waiting for activation" thing came from Total Recall, where it didn't make much sense either.
I am in Virginia, home of.. I dont care!! heh.
donuts good, fat bad. donuts = fat? Hmmm in my case I suppose it does!! ack.
I loved the old series "Star Blazers" and many of the other series like that. Robotech was so cool for the long plots. TAE had nothing on that.
As to the drej sense of direction, the drej apparently were 1 ship and 1 race. and WHY were they scared of the Titan project? God, things that just sit and wonder are crazy.
People complain about plot holes in Battlefield Earth. They should look at this movie, huge plot holes.
1. Why drej dont like Titan??
2. The dad dies? how and the captian got away??
3. The captian turns in all of humanity, and yet was still able to turn the boy to saving humanity.
4. Wouldnt that Ice shield have been blasted to bits with the constant ice bombardment over 15 years?
There are many more holes. Animation wise, there was some cool scenes. I am still waiting for a movie that will make me believe its real, when it is animated. The old "Lord of the rings" movie tried radical animation with the massing of the orcs.. it sucked, but at least they TRIED new things.
Oh well, hmmm donuts...
I can program myself out of a Hello World Contest!!
Today in the morning I have submitted a review story about Titan A.E. and have being rejected. I suppose my review was a good one, and since Jon Katz thinks that the move was bad he'd better give it his own review. Anyway, what I said in MY review was that the movie ROCKED!
It was Beautifully made, increadible computer graphics, amazing animations, a VERY GOOD story line, INCREDIBLE SOUND TRACKS, Stupendous characters, and only A FEW cheesy moments (I expected much more cheeziness from an animation.)
THANK YOU JON KATZ, firstly you are an idea plagiator, and secondly you are a dumb-ass critic.
The Biblical notion of Noah was cheesy and reconstruction of the planet in what? 7 days? CHEESY. Everything else was better than OK.
AMAZING Ice scene in the space (the space crafts moving around in huge icebergs.
Even my GF liked the movie so it must be good!
You can't handle the truth.
If you went to this movie _expecting_ to see a classic, you would most certainly walk out with the feelings you relate here. I think you'll
find much more to enjoy in a movie if you try to lower your expectations. This review has only served to reenforce my belief that reviews suck ass. I'm not gonna rely on anyone to tell me what to like or not like.
Titan AE had a couple, and really ONLY a couple of week points. The animation was spectacularly beautiful, the voice talents were fantastic, and the score was very well done. My only complaints would be a) that at certain points, critical backstory is left out and scenes seem to jump from one to another (probably to avoid boring the youngsters) and b) in a couple of places, characters are left with nothing to do. example: toward the end, while the men are fighting, Barrymore's character is knocked out, but Garofalo's character is nowhere to be found. I feel all the problems with this movie stem from those two roots. The one-dimensionality of the Drej could have been easily repaired with a little back-story, perhaps a prophecy that the humans would destroy them. But put yourself behind a child's eyes. Simple heroes and simple villains work better for a mind that doesn't yet grasp the subtle nuances of motivation. You have good guys and you have bad guys, and they fight, and the good guys win. End of story. I will say this much for it: The hype to content ratio was not one percent that of Phantom Menace. I enjoyed it more, and was less disappointed than after the letdown following the 15 year buildup for Phantom Menace.
These people looked deep into my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined.
actually he loved the earth blowing up part, he couldn't remember anything else, he's four. Every time someone asked him he just said "the earth exploooded" with a goofy grin. I'd say they went to much for the pg rating, which i didn't mind because my son could go see it. If they opened up a little and settled for a pg-13 it might have worked a little better. Can't really show the anger of the main character being restricted to pg dialog.
And according to The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy you can survive in space for about 30-40 seconds.. so it MUST be true! :)
My point is simply that when 'creative license' is employed to move the story along, you get a lot more enjoyment out of it by accepting it for what it is, instead of trying to nitpick technical details.
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
It will be refreshing to see Neuromancer on the big screen. Gibson brings a very unique flavor to the genre of sci-fi, even if Case is kinda a script kiddie ;-)
On a more serious note, I hope that the movie does well, since the book is an absolute MASTERPIECE. Usually the Hollywood versions of movies SUCK, but GIBSON HIMSELF is involved with this flick, so it should be true to the text. Hopefully, it will do well enough in the box office to generate interests in his other books. I would really like to see some of the stuff in Idoru on the big screen!
To make a long story short, I haven't lost faith in modern sci-fi flicks, we just had a bad spurt the past few years, and there are still a few great sci-fi movies that came out of the 90's, I just hope that the direction goes more the way of Neuromancer and less the way of fluff.
Eh...
I got the impression that Gibson was going to be an integeral part of the development of the screenplay and directing. Am I wrong in this?
Eh...
rapid masturbation experiences??!? they allow that in <= Rated R material now??!?!?
Oh, wait. You said "maturation". Never mind.
Katz, you don't seem to have made so much as any mention of the soundtrack... Lit's I'm in over my head song and music video are great, even if the movie aint. Lit forever!
Kris
botboy60@hotmail.com
Nerdnetwork.net
Kris
botboy60@hotmail.com
Nerdnetwork.net
Mulan you say...that comment it'self basicly proved that you haven't seen all that much in the way of anything good. You stated it belonged on Cartoon Network's 'Anime Section'. 2 things to that... First off: It's called Toonami, Secondly: TITAN ISN'T ANIME!!!
Also, 'Who's your daddy?!'...not funny at all...way too overused of a phrase that has no real meaning. Besides, the Dredge are/is one being...there isn't really a 'daddy' involved.
A while back there was an article about good anime...watch some of that. Spacificly Mononoke, Macross Plus (anything from Macross is good), and, if you like action, DBZ...though I recomend obtaining some of the subbed movies...they're better.
"Is the world ready for Waluigi?"
Lang
What is the criteria for articles posted to the front page of Slashdot?
sub willPost {
my $writers_name = $_[0];
my $sensationalism_Flag = "false";
my $relevant_content = $_[2];
local(*known_writers) = $_[3];
$sensationalism_Flag = "true" if($writers_name eq "Jon Katz");
foreach $Known_name(@known_writers){
if ($Known_name eq $writers_name){return "true";}
elsif($relevant_content == 50){return true;}
if($sensationalism_Flag eq "true"){return "true";}
}
return "false";
}
What can i tell ya? nano-grains of salt....
Nuff Respec'
DeICQLady
7D3 CPE
>Indeed, consider whether or not Jon Katz' review wasn't itself a derivative and wooden remake of all negative reviews of genre films. Haven't we seen all of these criticisms before, written in almost the same old way?
Thank you. My thoughts exactly. Seems Katz could have written his review without actually watching this movie.
My bottom line...
I had fun. I went with my son (7) and we had a blast. He really enjoyed it and we talked a lot about it afterward.
I can't see taking my wife to go see this, it's not that kind of movie, didn't expect it to be. I'll buy it when it comes to video and watch it again with my kids. Not too many movies out there that are entertaining enough for me to sit through multiple times and still be suitable for single-digit-age children.
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
Yes, she was a cool character, but Drew Barrymore has such a totally unemotional voice. Plus, she didn't really develop at all during the movie. Still, that windowinping scene was cute.
Reading the last part of MouseR's message made me think of how bad Holloywood would mess up
Stranger in a Strange Land
A touching book about o male humna who had been raised on Mars being brought back to the earth.
They would propably get rid of Grok just becausethey didn't think we could understand what it meant
Theres one problem with reflecting your reality, sometimes your reality starts to reflect you.
I took my 11 year old nephew to the movie yesterday (no I wouldn't have went to it otherwise) and I was pretty much expecting exactly what JonKatz has described. Well because of that, I was quite surprised at the excellent graphics and sound. Anamation has come a long way. Yes the plot was quite predictable and easily forgetful, but the special effects make up for that. I would recommend seeing this one as a rental with a big screen and a good (and loud) surround sound system. Needless to say, my nephew loved it.
Rock N' Rule... dig it...
tell me about it... got a cbc recording from way back but I no longer have the betamax to watch it...
gonna have to consider getting the 'soon-to-be-released' dvd... and a dvd-player/drive to watch it...
>Uggg
2 paragraphs into this review I scrolled back up thinking to myself, "This is why people complain about...It Is JonKatz." Now I understand. Ideas I disagree with written with the -v (verbose) flag turned on.
The very first preview for Titan AE was fabulous. Then I remember later previews looking worse. I think the first time they were aiming for an older group then someone turned it down. I will agree that it could have been a better movie if they had aimed at an older audience.
BUT: The in outer-space physics was the best that I've seen from Hollywould in a Very long time. The humans (for those who haven't seen it) had guns which produced nearly too much kick and when a gravity generator gives out, they have a wonderful retreat mechanism: fire like mad and don't hold on to anything. I Loved It.
The space ships fired thrusters to maneuver. It was entralling to watch a ship behave like a point mass and to scoot around according to the forces acting on it. I didn't think anyone in Hollywould had ever taken a physics class.
I Am getting tired of the myth of the 'female warrior', yes it Is possible, no it almost never actually happens. I was impressed that the characters changed over time and showed depth (the captain was friend and enemy to the boy). I enjoyed the new interactions, "A smart guard, didn't see that coming."
The music just plain rocked. They did all new songs which actually fit the story not just the mood. In a pretty playing-with-the-dolphins scene they play "It's My Turn to Fly" and young Cal seems to change through this one scene. It's the first time someone he didn't know well did something really nice to him like flying an expensive starship through a firestorm.
The ancient, wise and reclusive race
The flying through the ice belt
The flight from earth
The repairing the ship scene
It was really good.
And lastly, if you watch the end, you can figure out that a gravity well in a huge ice/asteriod field could collect enough mass for a planet. Granted that they don't explain the mechanism (no living human knows it.) it does fit into the science fiction possibility category.
Watch it AND think about it.
Who's the black private dick thats a sex machine to all the chicks?
Shaft!
Damn right.
Who's the cat that won't cop out when there's danger all about?
Shaft!
Who is the man that would risk his life for his brother man?
Shaft!
They say that Shaft is one bad mother-
Shut your mouth!
But we're talkin' about Shaft!
We can dig it
He's a complicated man, that no one understands but his woman
John Shaft.
Oh BARF. "The Tick" was a tremendously cool, satirical animated series totally thrown away in a kidvid SatAM slot. There was just too much fanciful stuff in the comic book that could not be rendered any way OTHER than in animation. I believe Comedy Central is still showing episodes of this great series. Too good for Fox Kids, too good for Saban, maybe even too good for TV.
I have seen what a live-action "Tick" will look like. I saw the buried pilot for a live action "Dilbert" sitcom....believe me, it's as bad as you imagine and then some.
Ask yourself: do you really want to see a PUPPET Chairface Chippendale? Do you really want to see Arthur hanging from wires?
Ben Edlund is talented, but I doubt even he could save this horrible idea. If Fox Primetime wanted to do The Tick justice again, it could order new episodes of the animated series.
God, I miss the animated "Tick!"
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
So this would make Disney MickeySoft... heh
After it was over, she said, "Drew Barrymore was in that?!" So I said, "Yeah, but so was Matt Daaa-mon." And she said, "Yeah, duh, like he was that guy who didn't have a clue."
Actually, I was the guy who didn't have a clue.
[pink beam of light]
Ok so Jon does not like the SF mythos what the hell does this have to do with Shaft. They are two different genres nothing in common at all. Having said that Titan A. E. while not the best thing out there is very good. OK the Drej are powerfull but not perfect yep would have made a really good movie if there had been now way for Cale to escape as it was he took advantage of a hole that the Derj had not thought of. In some ways this movie made me think of the Uplift books by David Brin. Humans weak but with alot of guts hunted by far more powerfull aliens but they win (or halfway win) through luck and taking advanatge of the aliens blindspots. All in all a very cool mythos life sucks and the universe hates you but hard work luck and doing the right thing wins in the end. Did this movie have cliches? Yup. Do they ruin it? Nope. Also the anti-tech angle Jon is going for is not there. It is not tech that wipes out the world. It is a big ass weapon. In the end tech saves the race. A classic? No Very fun? Yup.
Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
Drej destroy Earth because of the titan. Why? I say because they saw that it would take alot of energy to do it. And although they developed a power plant to do it with, it could still be used as a weapon against the drej. The Drej were the bigdaddies on the block. When the humans developed a weapon that could potentially destroy them they blew up earth. The destruction of your own race is about the only thing that would motivate me into destroying anothers. just my 2 cents
Go SPEED Go!!!
an all-common gateway interface movie?
Interesting concept.
Ever get the impression that your life would make a good sitcom?
Ever follow this to its logical conclusion: that your life is a sitcom?
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
even if Case is kinda a script kiddie ;-)
Case, a script kiddie? To quote the back of the book, "Case was the best console cowboy that ever rode in Earth's matrix." Or something like that. =]
Ever get the impression that your life would make a good sitcom?
Ever follow this to its logical conclusion: that your life is a sitcom?
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
Also noticed that Katz pans Titan because it is derivative, but somehow doesn't address the same issue when he says Shaft was "more fun."
If I want a film review, I check out Ebert's website here, because when a movie is picked or panned, I like to know the reasons. I like to learn new things about the film under review, and about film history. I don't like long-winded versions of "good movie!" or "bad movie!"
I only read this "story" to check out the Katz-bashing. Got what I was looking for!
Maybe it was just me... well... hopefully not, but!
Did anyone else notice in a few spots in the movie (okay, maybe under 3 times), the framerate seemed to lag for a few seconds? The only time I can actually recall it was in a scene where Corsaeu was jumping about (would say more, but don't want to spoil the plot!). It just seemed to lag like a realplayer on a 33.6 for a sec.
Anyhow, just a thought...
-----------------------------------------
Ok, the humans build a ship that can rebuild the earth in case it gets destroyed. The Drej destroy the Earth because they built the ship. It seems to me that this is a circular plot hole.
$_='while(read+STDIN,$_,2048){$a=29;$b=73;$c=142;
I dont speak japanese, but my impression is that these are two completely different names.
Like Rob and Bob, Jon and John... you get the idea...
No sig for the moment.
I rather enjoyed the flick. As posted above, yes it could have been longer. But the thing to me is, Ever since Heavy metal they have been putting out flicks with all this classical music. Don't get me wrong I love classical, but too much is just too much. Hearing wing dings and flip flops gets annoying. Then cam the Iron Giant. That was the first cartoon movie ever to bring tears to my eyes. But still, the music wasn't there. There was some swing which was cool. Enter Titan. My wife and I wanted to go see it because we enjoy animation so much. We were blown away in the first ten minutes. It was beatifully rendered, and then the good old rock and roll, techno lust industrial kicked in and we were stoked. It was definately about time for something with good music other than Heavy Metal Revised. The Animation was beautiful. It looked shoddy at some points, but you can't expect greatness when dealing with so many mediums. The Models, the CGI, the 2-d, and then the paintings. That was all put in there, and I liked it. So you got a macho chick driving the car. Alot of people like babes like Akima. I really think it should be given a second chance. If they could make it longer, or as posted above, put it into the Cartoon Network Afternoon line up anime. That would be awesome.
***SPOILER ALERT*** (I don't want to be like the dweeb that ruined Fight Club for me... don't read on if you have not seen the movie yet.) This film must be seen in a theater with a good sound system. The audio team did a fantastic job. For example, when the ice was cracking, it sounded exactly like the cracking of a large frozen lake or colliding icebergs. Very cool.
The scene with Cale in the scrapyard working with his cutting torch (and leaving it adrift in space during his lunchbreak) was very cool and imaginative, much more so that the scene required.
The scene when the ship's cockpit glass was cracking was so good, I didn't even mind when they used a fire extinguisher to propel themselves to safety a few seconds later.
Drew Barrimore exceeded my expectations, and the fact that Garafolo was so "out of character" from her usual smart-alecky roles just proves that she is an actress and not a one-trick-pony.
Now for the weaknesses:
The pace of the movie did not feel right. I've never been a Bluth fan, because he often seems to dwell on moments that are not very interesting, while speeding through stuff that should probably be given more time. For example, during the scene when Cale was talking about how much he missed his father, I got bored and started noticing how well the steps of the flight deck were rendered... not the detail a good director wants the audience looking at during a first viewing.
Did the Drej remind anybody else of the Protoss from Spacecraft?
Other than the humans and the Drej, all aliens looked a little like some kind of animal or another (mostly lizards), were played for laughs, and their origins were never explained. They were all just geniric Disney-ish creatures that reminded me a little too much of the coke-snorting aliens from Heavy Metal.
The combination of free hand drawnings with advanced CGI took me out of the movie a little too often. If they had digitally rendered the characters, or had used traditional animation throughout, it probably would have been a slightly more emersive experience.
In the end, it was an hour and a half of purdy pictures, and the plot holes were no worse than those in The Matrix, which everybody seems to think is the coolest movie ever for some reason.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
1. Given that it was his "horrible idea", I think he will do his best with it.
2. The cast they chose is fantastic.
There is no Chairface in the series so far, nor talking buildings, but there is a Red Scare and a lot of other villians that they could not have gotten away with in an animated series, since the cartoon was aimed mainly at children. (The fact that it was good enough for teens and adults to enjoy was bonus, as far as they were concerned.)
As for live-action Dilbert... what difference would it make? The animated version sucks! Dilbert was clearly never meant to be anything more than a three-pannel comic strip.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
you obvisiously didn't get the shaft refrence if you moderated this down.
--- Justin Dearing http://www.justaprogrammer.net/ We're just programmers.
From the previews, I thought it was going to be bad tripe. My roommate asked me if I wanted to see it, and I was reluctant. I agreed because it was a lazy Saturday afternoon, and I figured it'd be good for a laugh - I'm always up for a B movie. Boy howdy, was I surprised, and pleasantly so.
On its own, the movie is poor indeed. Full of cliches, painfully inaccurate science, and plotholes large enough to drive a Star Destroyer through. I started the movie expecting crap, so I kept pointing out references to other movies. Look, dad is the Obi-Wan. Cale's Luke, Akima is Leia, Korso is the scummy Han Solo, that little turtle is Yoda, the Drej are a cross between the Protoss from Starcraft and the aliens from Independence Day, etc. I lost track after a dozen movie references.
That's when I started enjoying it.
When Cale held his hand up to the moon and saw the starmap, I thought "Indiana Jones and the golden disc atop the staff in Raiders of the Lost Ark." When the Drej copied the map from his hand, but got a flawed copy, I thought "Ha! Belloq, you Frenchman! Cheese-eating surrender monkey!"
When Korso and Cale were fighting in the control room of the Titan, I thought "Hey, Cloud City. Where are the lightsabers?"
When Gune (the little green Yoda-clone) came roaring out of the stars screaming "I've finished my nap!" I thought "Wow, it's the deus ex machina from the trench run in Star Wars, except Yoda wasn't flying the Millenium Falcon then."
The animation by Don Bluth reminded me of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace throughout the movie. I wanted to start pressing 'sword' to get Cale to fight his way through the Drej. "No, crap! Down! Down! Left! Sword!"
The movie appealed to me simply BECAUSE it was a ripoff of other movies. It shamelessly adapted from all the other sources and didn't even bother to cover them up. True, some of the similarities were vague (the "Cloud City" duel between Korso and Cale) and some were obscure (Belloq's/the Drej's flawed map) and I'm sure I missed others, but the ones I saw made me laugh _with_ the movie, and not at it. That's what surprised me, and made me feel like I got my money's worth. The plot, the special effects, the actors; all of that was secondary to the feeling that the director and I were enjoying a series of inside-jokes.
And that's what it was, really. A series of inside-jokes that wouldn't be funny on their own, but when strung together like that, they were great. Was it trying to be a summer blockbuster like Independence Day, or a timeless epic like Star Wars? I doubt it, so why judge it on those merits?
His repetitive arrogance annoyed the @#$% out of me and was the one truly annoying part of the movie for me. If they'd given his birthright to Akima, I would have been much more satisified. The relationship between the two was also way too cliched and wasted time that could have been spent on other points in the plot. The "bat people" totally kicked ass.
- Actual SCIENCE fiction. Hydrogen plants that were lighter than air, using an ice field to provide water to a new planet.
- Varied Alien Life. So many movies have boring humaniod aliens, but AE had pure energy life forms, koosh type things they ate, interesting male-female pairs (the two crew members from the ship), and the cool ass bat people.
- Realism. It was refreshing to see a Sci-Fi that didn't glaze over things like breathing in space, and acceleration (well, mostly)
- Music. Apparently I'm in the target audience who loves Sci-Fi, Modern Rock, and is 23
- Plot. Although somewhat predictable, the plot did have cool twists to keep things interesting.
- Fun. Plus, I found it overall fun to watch and visually pleasing.
Craig- "Silent Mode" wasn't in regard to the sound but the heat and energy of the ship's running. The term was just a throwback to the old earth term for submaries.
- Sound in space? Good point, but it's not the first excellent space opera to overlook that for dramatic reasons.
- The source of light in the ice belt and later planet Bob could be a problem. However, you probably can assume that they are somewhere reasonably close to a sun. Then, when the planet gets created they move it a little bit closer so the average temperature is above freezing.
- They did postulate that gravity generators had been invented which gave a "down" in space when on or near a ship. Between that and simple use of camera angles nothing seemed too unreasonable to me.
- I thought the bat people were great. They looked and fought cool. Plus, the history and mystery of the race was thought proviking. Why were they so willing to give up their lives for the humans? Why did they live on a planet with ruined buildings?
To speculate about the drej:Maybe they needed spaceships because a certain particular grouping (possibly dynamic) of energy made up a conciousness (similar to known life forms and carbon based molecules). Maybe they needed ships so they didn't bleed away when they flew (kinda like chopping off you arm and sticking it in the gas tank to take a trip).
Maybe an energy overload upset the pattern if hit in a certain place. (they did regenerate sometimes if the shot wasn't a direct hit) That might be similar to putting a human in a food processor. Then the energy formation becomes unstable and they explode.
The idea itself isn't earth shattering, but they did a decent exposition of it.
Better than the Wrath of Kahn? Are you nuts? The animation was NOT good at all. The movie progressed much too quickly. It had good moments, but it also had a ton of bad. The artwork was terrible for the most part, not up to Japanese anime standards in any facet. Akira eats this alive.
I eat the flesh off the living, and I vote!
It's from a Greek myth, and it's spelled "Morpheus".
-subtraho
unfinished feel to the CG shots First off I noticed a large number of in-frame artifacts. I'm open to the possibility that I was simply viewing a bad print, but the frequency and nature of the glitches leads me to believe otherwise. Particularly in the post-climax shot where the human survivor armada is descending upon Earth II ( or Bob or whatever ) there is a noticeable glitch in the texturing and shading of the lower-right-hand quadrant of the planet that lasts for several frames. I'm highly interested in how this sort of rendering artifact makes it into a finished production. cheapened notion of death and noble sacrifice I feel preachy saying this, but I was a little disturbed at how easily they sacrificied large numbers of extra charaters in the furtherance of angst-boy's quest without even the tiniest amount of reflection. By the end of the movie the body count was so high I didn't really see the point in sacrificing the Mercenary, why should anyone care?
if for nothing more than Akima :)
,
faeryman
Titan A.E. It must be a piece of shit! Let's go see it kids! It's gotta be less shity than the commercial preview...
If you were one of these people... you have a valuable lesson to learn. All movies' who's preview is about 10 seconds long, suck. Period.
------------------------
Is your sig file boring?
My first reflex is to agree with you but, no; enough already. The issue of SF movies having the same old plots over was dead when Sturgeon's Law was new. What makes you think that the typical /. reader gains from more than a sentence about "boring plot, same old, same old." ?
If you don't like it, then do your own movie. I don't mean this facetiously and in fact we in the thinking classes really need to give this some thought. Roughnecks proves that we're only a few years from moviemaking the way that Prince or Trent Reznor do music. Lay down the bass, go back, lay down vocals, etc.
With Poser, Bryce, Strata, etc. and motion sensor rigs getting cheaper there's no longer any valid excuse for sob stories about how big bad Hollywood won't let good movies be made. Kevin Smith, Robert Rogriguez, et al blow away any claims that live action costs that much either. Distribution? Please. Gimme a fat pipe,a good pair of goggles and I don't need no stinkin' multiplex. Gimme some Beenz or better token system and you've got a business model.
Of course, I live in the heart of the beast (being an employee of Time/Warner/AOL/Compuserve.....) so maybe I'm just naive. But don't bet on it.
So Jon, you're a Big Time Published Author; let's see your chops. You've written a lot about the cluelessness and vapidity of American society. Tell me your opinion of Courtney Love's piece on intellectual property, tell what YOU'RE going to do to help make independant artistic projects viable and we'll go from there.
If not, then get out of the way brother and let the revolution happen without you because I can tell you that among the actual moviemakers I've met being so very concerned about the long-term prevalence of pap rates somewhere between "did I ever find that roll of gaffer's tape?" and "should I have another beer?'.
See ya at the box office,
-Rustin
I felt disappointed after seeing the movie, but not for the same reasons as Mr. Katz. The fact that Titan A.E. was executed in animation form rather than live action set two expectations of mine:
1. The focus is on effects and action rather than subtle human emotion.
2. Nothing will feel spontaneous; everything will be planned, debated, executed and re-executed to present the story.
While I appreciate a cerebral film, I also get enjoyment from films that are no more intellectual than riding on a roller coaster for an hour and a half. My expectation was that I really expected Titan A.E. to be an engaging, science-fiction, Space-Mountian-like coaster ride akin to Aliens, Terminator II, Star Trek II, or The Last Starfighter.
I can't say that I expected intellectual or emotional stimulation, but as the frames flew before my eyes I really felt that in spite of the fast pace, the exhaustive pre-planning needed for this cartoon had done more to lobotomize, sanitize, and neutralize the "vision" of the film than it had given it extra life.
I didn't find what WAS rendered onscreen to be problematic as what was NOT rendered.
The movie sets up a tale very similar to that of Jesus Christ. A god-like father entrusts his son with a special gift and destiny. The son is cast out of the father's presence and is forced to dwell among men as an outsider. Through the his father's gift and the betrayal of his friends, the son is finally able to fulfill his destiny as the saviour of mankind.
The film has enough similarities to the story of Jesus that it becomes frustrating that certain elements were not addressed. Rather than address the issues that the writers themselves raise, they use their careful construction and planning to avoid generating any controversy or homage to the tale. It was obvious that what WAS presented on screen was very meticulously studied, debated, screened with test audiences, worked and re-worked to come up with an entertaining story, but why use the strong Christ-like story elements and then leave their usage ambiguous and unresolved. Why did the story end where it did? It wasn't clear whether the roller coaster ride was set in a story that was supposed to be a homage to Jesus or to be a Dogma/Good Omens sci-fi romp through religious tales.
I really enjoyed the roller coaster ride of shooting battles and space fights, but because the creators had made so much of a reference to religious issues I kept looking for things to be presented on screen that either never appeared or were so uncontroversialy and blandly presented that there presence was simply boring.
Also on the subject of religion... I was very disappointed that they named they named their movie with a name that's absolutely loaded with mythological significance but never proferred any reason that the characters in the movie would have used the term Titan as they did. A religious term without any real reason for it to be there.
One of the major plot points that was left unexplained in the movie was exactly what it was that humankind did to get the attention of the Drej to start their holocaust against humanity. A friend who saw it with me claimed that it was because mankind built the Titan that the Drej thought they should be eliminated. I find this to be unsatisfying that the Titan was built to save mankind from alien extinction and hence causes the extinction in the first place. I find the circurlar nature of this explanation silly, and long for ANY other rationale. The psuedo-explanation which was given was that the Drej wanted to destroy mankind because of the potential of what mankind was capable of doing.
The psuedo-explanation fits in well with the religious references, i.e. that it is the ineffible nature of original sin that the condemns man to eternal death and it is through the deeds of the son that saves mankind from persecution and death. It's just that as set up as a sci-fi story you long for a more clear cut explanation: mankind breaking the warp barrier, mankind making interstellar contact, mankind gaining control over the transformation of matter and energy (as the Drej clearly have control of).
At the end of the movie, I could see the enormous effort that the creators had put in to make this movie. But it was also clearly evident that their own efforts at self-censorship had lobotomized the film of any interesting or controversial questions.
I went into the movie expecting a nice roller coaster ride. I came out having witnessed a nice roller coaster ride. I saw exactly what I expected I'd see, but I hope that it's clear how the movie had the potential to go further than it did and how it misled my expectations.
The plot was perhaps less dumb that SW:PM, mostly because it didn't pretend to be anything more than a predictable SF-ish plot.
It was very pretty, and there was some nice attention to detail, like the baseball rolling after he puts it down.
And most importantly:
The comic relief is the smartest character in the movie.
Hey- weren't we just boycotting the mpaa? I thought jon katz ate that geek protest stuff for breakfast. What happened here?
So quick with fear you tiny fools!
I get to watch a lot of Titan AE ads... for whatever reason, local stations just ate them up and spit them out now two or three at a time.
At first: Ooh. Nice CG. Nice animation.
After Some (Commercial A.S.): There's something wrong here. I don't like the trailer at all!
Now: Oh yeah - everyone and their sister has tried CG+art, and it has ALWAYS BLOWN!
Yes, since the Battletech cartoon, I've rabidly hated idiotic notions that you can do CG for a bunch of things in a cartoon, and just freehand the rest... no matter how beautiful the elements are, I've yet to see some crack at this where there isn't a jarring difference in the move from graphics to paint and back. Stylistically, nothing good from one media translates into the other - paint has really expressive qualities to it that vanish in the hands of most of these CG hacks, while the CG stuff uses every sort of lighting model and scaling and effect to turn heads... "ooh! CG!". Instead of any attempt to nicely mesh with the painted animation, the CG tries to distinguish itself as much as possible, and as a result you get all these changes of context where your attention loses scope and has to be re-initialized. The people doing this film need to use better defines and globals instead of passing static scoping in the paint and computer animation modules of the project.
Now, Jurassic Park - that was a winner. The CG integration was great, because they _had_ to make it look real, or else they would have lost millions of bucks. The dinosaurs had the most distinctly non-CG (rotate, translate, repeat) motion, and weren't firing off patently CG effects every time they showed up on screen. They used CG to make them look more (not less) real! Hopefully it will happen again, maybe even to support a cartoon, instead of wrestling with it for the spotlight.
Data East: "Leaders in Dot Matrix Technology" - Star Wars pinball
I'll be the judge of irony and you are a sad sad case.
Bringing irony to the Slash-masses
Keeping
I'll be damned.
The Katz-master went back and corrected his error. It did say affects, honest! At least the grammar nazi has done his job.
Keeping
ugh??
/. instead of slashdot (didn't capitalize again!) in order to keep it short.
Passive voice, not irony. Grammar nazi is my proper name, not Grammar Nazi. I'll only capitalize it at the beginning of a sentence. 3 instead of three (gasp! at the beginning of a sentence, too!) is short form. Similarly I use
Mister AC, nobody ever said that a sig. file had to contain complete nice sounding sentences. Proper English should be reserved for slashdot commentary, where it is important. Signatures are mere billboards for ideas and jokes.
Keeping
Who the hell are you?
If you are going to go around signing, The Grammar Police then you sure as hell better get a user account.
Otherwise leave it to the grammar nazi, or the original grandpa GrammarCorrector who no longer posts. I did notice that someone recently took the name "Grammar Police". Please use it wisely and try not to be annoying.
Keeping
Very nice, indeed. Now try and maintain a positive karma. That is a challenge.
Keeping
LOL! A good, if sarcastic, review of a movie which deserved it. I'm getting sick of the standard Hollywood line of "science fiction" movies which are becoming more and more stomach churning with every release.
Independence Day was alright, if only for some of the special effects, but it wasn't ever meant to be a "serious" film. Unfortunately later writers and directors have seemed to fall into the trap of believing their own hype - that they are writing a serious film when all they're really writing is more Hollywood pap.
Science fiction so rarely makes it to the cinema from books, and invariably fails when it does, far more so than any other genre of film. This is a real shame, since there are so many decent books out there for the taking. OTOH, I'd rather not have one of my favourite books turned into a Hollywood "blockbuster" thank you very much :)
---
Jon E. Erikson
Jon Erikson, IT guru
Does anybody else think that Shaft got the "white treatment" in the new film? I said that in my own review a while ago, which was immediately dismissed by the public as being more of my unintelligible psychotic ramblings. But sure enough, a week later I saw at least two "real" reviewers agreed with me, including TNT's Roughcut. Did any of you get that same vibe?
To me it's more proof that Hollywood has a real problem with color (as if that idea still needed to be proven).
On Titan A.E., does anybody else agree that it would have worked better as an all-CGI movie? The movie failed on its opening weekend because teenagers though it was a kiddie movie. They're less likely to think that about a CGI feature (I know I didn't feel silly going to see Toy Story 2, but I'll wait to rent Titan cause, well, its a cartoon).
Phallic Symbols in LOTR
After a while, though, I got into the images, and began to really like it. While Disney goes for technical accuracy and the same old hero(ine), or the Mike/Trey/Mat culture uses bad animation but great dialog and deep social commentary, Titan AE tries to be nothing but beautiful. We expect a story, so it has one. It does not let the story interfere with the photography, and that I think that is ok. Most movies don't let the story interfere with killing, and people still go to see them.
The idea that the story was unoriginal is also meaningless. We live in a world of unoriginal ideas. Episode I, Independence Day, Galaxy Quest are all examples of movies with various degrees of unoriginal ideas and mediocre, but well executed scripts. The difference is that these movies follow appropriate formats. Even though Tim Allen was an incompetent drunk, we always knew he would save the day.
As an aside, one of the most original movies of the season, though it uses a well worn Poe technique, is Small Time Crooks. It isn't doing that well, and I don't think anyone expects it to.
It may be that I am in certain frame of mind (I also like Winter Sleepers), but I hope that we get more films like Titan AE. I am not interested in the Disney crap or the computer generated novelty of the Toy Story. Movies are there to make us believe, through the great imagery, does
I am, in fact, logged in as 'The Grammar Police' (mostly because someone else called me that and I said 'okay, why not!' and also because 'The Spelling Police' was already taken). I post anonymously because I figure any spelling or grammar corrections will result in immediately being moderated down as 'off-topic' and I will almost immediately have a negative Karma.
I also take exception to being told that I 'sure as hell better' get a user account. The only reason I have one is so that it remembers my settings so I can easily browse at thresholds below one. Many 'Anonymous Cowards' sign their posts with one tag or another, and yes, it risks the possibility that someone may masquerade as me, but that's my risk to take, isn't it?
In any case, my current crusade is against the misspelling of the word 'definitely' and other corrections are incidental. Anyone who does not wish to hear from me, may simply make a point of spelling 'definite' and 'definitely' correctly. (It really -is- too bad that 'The Spelling Police' was already taken. Much more appropriate to my current crusade, but perhaps once everyone spells 'definitely' correctly, I'll move on to proper usage of 'their,' 'they're,' and 'there.')
The Grammar Police
Though undoubtedly Titan A.E. draws from a wealth of contemporary sources (Star Wars, Tron, etc.), its most significant influence is quite ancient: the Hebrew Bible. Specifically, the story is a retelling of the Messiah tales embeded in the prophetic books of Jeremiah and Isaiah. In the prophetic books, the Messiah was conceptualized not so much as a spiritual or mystical figure, but as a political hero who would restore national sovereignty to the Israelite nation following the Babylonian Exile of 586 B.C.E. The movie and the books of the prophets are closely parallel, e.g.:
The Kingdom of Israel (Earth) is threatened by the "alien" Babylonians (the Drej); the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians (the destruction of Earth by the Drej) leads to the exile and Diaspora of the Israelites (the scattering of humans across the galaxy). An unlikely hero descended from the builder of the Temple (Cale) becomes the Messianic savior of the Israelites by participating in the miraculous rebuilding of the Temple and the ingathering of the exiled Israelites from all corners of the world to the promised land (I'm sure you can see the rest of the parallels).
Of course, Titan A.E. isn't meant to be an especially religious story; it's just important to remember when we complain about how one movie draws heavily from another, that almost every story at its core draws from the themes elaborated in the canons of Western civilization.