Titanic 3D: What's the point?

Okay, so let me start this out like this, this post is coming from me, Michael III, who until last night had never seen Titanic. Really over protective parents so the nudity was a block to me, but after seeing it, the nudity wasn't that big of a deal so I'm kind of mad that they made me wait until I was older. And although I turn 20 this year, I just never felt the need to watch it but I thought it would be nice to see with my wife...who also has never seen it, which I found out after the movie, and neither one of us liked it.

Besides what I think about the story line, let me start my critical analysis with the hype about it coming back out in 3D. There shouldn't have been anything about the 3D because all there was of the 3D was the fact it looked beautiful. The movie should have focused more on being digitally Re-mastered because it was picture perfect from what I could see. But for 3D, out of the two movies I have seen in 3D, Dark of the Moon and Green Lantern, I was sorely disappointed. But here's why. I know the two movies I just listed, one of them being the biggest blockbuster of last summer, were action movies, but even though there wasn't the action—action movies have, there was still enough to make this movie POP! If they had done it right.

You see I was expecting my first experience with Titanic to be an enjoyable memorable 3D moment with my wife. I was expecting the ship to jump out at me when it sank when the camera was at certain angles, I was expecting to almost have water splash in my face, maybe see some birds or dolphins jump out at me...but the only 3D I got was the little infomercial about the movie being in Real-D 3D. After that the only "3D" I got was the clarity that comes with 3D and maybe when they had close ups on the people that were talking and the other person was out of focus; the out of focused person would sort of pop out. But that's it. Not even "The Heart of the Sea" popped out when old Rose dropped into the ocean at the ending and the camera was right under it for Christ sake! Fail! It looked gorgeous, and they should have focused on saying it was "Re-mastered" not it was 3D.

Now onto the story, it was extremely tacky. Honestly there are better love stories written out there and I also just don't like love stories that end sadly. But Cameron has really cheesy dialogue throughout that movie and to me, Kate Winslet's acting…eh, I wasn't feeling it. I mean I get what Cameron was trying to direct her to do: show a woman who was still a child inside because of all the restraints she has had on her life and then exposing it as she breaks out of her shell to find out who she is. But to me, Winslet just acted like a spoiled little child the whole time. Leonardo acted his butt off but she was too much a child in my opinion. The dialogue was cheesy too. The lines were way too specific and childish at most times. But I got what Cameron was trying to say.

Cameron was trying to depict what really happen on Titanic that fateful night. Much like when they make movies about segregation that really show to you the brutality that was back in that day. Like the guy who ran the exploration of Titanic said, "Three years, I’ve thought of nothing but Titanic; but I never got it…I never let it in." That was perfect for me! Cameron was explaining that each and every person on that ship had a story and he did it by showing a cheesy love story but that message really shined when the ship was sinking and there was the old people in the bed, the mother singing to her kids, the father holding his baby when the one boat comes back to see if there are any survivors. That was perfect because the greatest thing on this earth is love and that night when the ship went down it not only tore the world up but it tore up a lot of hearts. Cameron was making sure we realized just how tragic that night was; we needed to get it because until then all we did was treasure hunt the ship basically. Or we talk about “how cool” it is while we watch a simulation of that night. But like Old Rose said, “Thank you for that fine forensic analysis, Mr. Bondie. Of course, the experience of it was somewhat different.”

How I felt about it was how I felt about The Twilight Saga and The Last Airbender. It was a good idea but would have been better in someone else's hands.
I know people are going to hate me for this, but this is According to Michael III, so I don't know why you think this is According to Everyone Else. sorry. But until the next time, According to Michael III, what was the point of bringing it back out?

—Michael III

JUST PAY THE MAN!

Oh come on! Just give the poor man his money! Have all of you heard about this yet!? Apparently since Lionsgate wants to release Catching Fire November 2013 they are already in pre-production and have Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson are already signed on to do the movie, Director Gary Ross isn’t (slashfilm.com). Would you like to know why? Well apparently Ross wants more money. That’s it. And I don’t know about you but that can’t seem like a big deal. According to Geektyrant.com The Hunger Games has already grossed over 363 million dollars…and the movie has only been out for two freaking weeks! That’s a lot, not including all the merchandise they’ve sold like The Hunger Games Tee my sister just wore to school again today. Then the movie is still in theaters, they haven’t even put into the fact that there will be another 363 million coming in because of the fact that the movie will come out to DVD and BlueRay and people will buy it then! Ross, who did direct The Hunger Games if you didn’t catch that, only made a whole 3 million to not only direct, but to WRITE the film as well (Geektyrant.com). I say ‘only,’ but that man just made probably more than I will make in my lifetime…at least until my novels finally get published, but he made a small fortune and he’s asking for a little more money. I think, they haven’t released how much he wants.

Seriously? Minus the three million he made from what the movie made so far and it’s still 360 MILLION dollars and they’re crying because he wants more to direct the next one? Sources haven’t said just how much he wants but come one!? By the time this movie is finally out completely on DVD and BlueRay the amount they will make will most likely be at least in the billions, and a few million more to pay the man that helped make him that much in the first place is a problem!? I don’t get it? The funny thing is they want to do this fast! Jennifer Lawerence was in X-Men: First Class (Mystique) and she is now being talked to about doing the next one. And like Geektyrant said: “If that happens, Catching Fire will most definitely be put on hold, so they need to lock down a director pretty fast.” They want to have this movie out in a little more than a year, and they already have a writer signed on to help write, assuming Collins will have a hand in the script to. Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) is writing the next script. I’ve never seen Slumdog Millionaire, but from what people are telling me it’s a fantastic movie and so obviously a big name writer like that will probably make the next installment fantastic. But to me this all seems ridiculous that they are trying to hassle this out, he may be greedy, but in my opinion he has the right to be because he helped make them that much money and he has a right to a little more. I mean three million is small already for the man who did Pleasantville and Seabiscuit, both great movies I’ve also heard…but I kind of dislike him now that I know he wrote the script to the Tale of Despereaux, and that movie sucked when the story was so beautiful; but still, three million is kind of small, especially now. He’s going down in history and he shouldn’t go down as the director they threw away when he did such a good job. The Hunger Games franchise should not pull a Harry Potter and Twilight Saga move. They had too many directors and some of them didn’t do a better job than the last. So let me tell you this, According to Michael III, JUST PAY THE MAN!

—Michael III

P.S.

But I’m excited there is going to be a second X-Men: First Class.

—Michael III

"Bombshell" "Smash" TV Recap: Frank finally finds out about Julia and Michael, Ivy loses control of her sanity (SPOILER ALERT!)

So this week’s Smash, “Hell on Earth,” focused on Julia’s unraveling marriage and Ivy’s insipid sanity. If you watched the drama, it truly was a Bombshell. I keep trying to tell Ivy that God don’t like ugly but I guess she can’t hear me through the screen…especially since the episode was pre-recorded months ago. Anyway, if you believe in God or not, everyone at least believes that if you do good, good will happen to you. And the conflict between Ivy and Karen has gotten ridiculous. Karen has been nothing but nice to Ivy and Ivy continually keeps being the biggest b**ch on the planet. What has been happening; good things to Karen and bad things to Ivy. This week the good thing that happened to Karen was she landed the national commercial for orange juice in which Ivy was late to. The bad thing that happened to Ivy besides once again losing to Karen, she fell down drunk on the show she was working on a as a chorus girl and Karen happened to see it all due to the fact that at the audition for the commercial they accidently switched sun glasses when they bumped into one another. Being the b**ch Ivy is she threw Karen’s away and being the gentle soul Karen is, she went to return Ivy’s at the Heaven on Earth. That’s when she saw the spectacle that is Ivy failing miserably to hold it all together. Ivy has been under “a lot of stress” as her dreams tumble down after being so close to them. Like I said, God don’t like ugly!

Karen follows Ivy all around the city and the two of them have it out to the point that Karen tells Ivy that Derek chose her as the first choice to sleep with him. Eventually the two of them get drunk as Karen refuses to leave Ivy alone and they end up in Time Square singing and dancing to a remix of a song I don’t know the title of but finally they’re having a good time after Karen tells Ivy it’s her night to shine. But when they get back to Ivy’s apartment, Ivy tells Karen they’re not best friends because of everything that happened and Karen just replies, “I know.”

Meanwhile Frank accidently finds a song that leads to him asking the right questions when Julia comes home later that night. It’s kind of creepy hearing him sing it while he plays the piano. Julia walks in slowly and realizes what he is singing. When he asks her to sing it I knew he had lost a few screws. He almost immediately guesses it was Michael she was having an affair with and the next day goes to confront him. That’s when Michael lets it slip that, “it was over a long time ago. And it shouldn’t have started up again, but that’s on me.” Frank realizes it’s been more than just since they began working on Marilyn, and as Michael tries to grab him when he begins to stumble away Frank decks him right in the face. Then he goes home to pack and Leo yells at his mom for telling him about the affair, saying that they were “happy” but now Frank is leaving. As Julia tries to stop him he yells about the betrayal and the fact she didn’t mention that it was the second time they had started having an affair. Slamming the door he leaves the house and where he went is unknown.

Other stuff happened too, like Ellis trying to become a co-producer but Eileen shuts him down because he didn’t realize how over his head he was. Tom realizes his new beau is a republican, which is bad for him I guess…but he becomes closer to Sam (The Random Gay Black Guy) as they worry about Ivy. I call Sam that because when he first shows up he’s just this random black guy who knows Ivy and it’s not until the next episode you find out his name and it’s not until like two or three after that you find out he’s gay as well. Who knew? Also Eileen plays Derek so that way he stays after he was talking about revamping a lot more than just the lead and talking about doing another workshop in a year. But the episode was really about Frank, Ivy, Karen, and Julia and how some need to hold it together and some just need to let people know the truth.

I honestly feel bad for Frank and in my opinion if Julia had really been sorry about what was going on, then right away, when she broke it off the second time with Michael, she would have told Frank the truth, then he may have been a little less angry and at least heard what she had to say. But is there really a way to explain why you cheated on someone? But Frank was right, saying it was nothing is stupid. I never realized that. Just because you feel bad about it afterwards doesn’t make it nothing. At some point it was something, or if not, then if anything it was betrayal, lies, deceit, and all the other stuff Frank yells off at her. Anyway, I’m excited to see what’s going to happen next week when Uma Thurman guest stars as the newly titled Bombshell begins anew. I like that title by the way; it just summarizes who Marilyn Monroe was and the news that was dropped in Julia’s life and how Ivy feels and how Karen’s life is turning out but for the better. Julia just says the title with a straight face as she realizes that’s it…for a lot of things.

Anyway until next time, According to Michael III, sometimes it’s better to just tell the truth, and sometimes it’s better to ease into it but the truth now is always better than hearing it somewhere else or finding out from someone else later…

—Michael III

To Love a Stable Boy--Where Queen/Mayor Regina comes from: TV Recap on last night's "Once Upon A Time" (SPOILER ALERT)

So after finally getting caught up on OUAT all I can say is wow. I'm just amazed at how this show continually keeps getting better and better each and every single week and it just amazes me how well the writers of this show tell their story. Not to mention the actors. They are just flawless in my opinion because if it wasn’t for them the story wouldn’t have the dramatic effect they have. Each week my heart aches more and more for the characters that can’t be with their lovers and my soul bridles with rage as the Queen continually makes everyone’s lives as miserable as hers was. Last weeks “Hat Trick” really dove more into what the curse can do and brought up the question of whether or not the curse affected all the worlds that are fairytales to us or if it affected the characters that Regina knew at the time of the curse. I guess that will be answered eventually, but the emotion Sebastian Stan (Bucky-James Barnes-from Captain America: The first Avenger) displays as a desperate and totally certifiable Mad Hatter chocked me up a little and without him, Emma would have never possibly started to believe in the curse.

OUAT is a show that is loosely based off of the story of Snow White. If you don't know about this show then you need to go subscribe to Hulu+ right now. But OUAT is about the evil Queen, Regina, who is hell bent on destroying everyone's lives...yeah what evil queen isn't? But as you dive deeper into the show you find out that her hatred extends from Snow White who somehow ruined her happiness long ago and in the wake of trying to destroy the lives of Snow White and James (Prince Charming) she obtains a curse that is supposed to take all of the fairy tale world and place it in a world where there are no happy endings, apparently our world, which I don’t get and you’ll see why in a bit or you already see if you watch the show. But before the curse can take place Snow White and Prince Charming have a baby that is supposed to be the savior of them all. So having Geppetto build a magical box they transport the baby Emma out of their world right as the curse takes place.

Years later a little boy named Henry shows up at the door of a woman named Emma Swan and tells her he's the little boy that she gave away. Taking him back to the town of Storybrook, Maine Henry shows her a book that has a collection of a bunch of fairy tale stories and tells her that they aren't just stories they’re real. Henry continues to tell his biological mother that she is the baby Snow White and Prince Charming had and that she's there to break the curse. "Nobody leaves Storybrook," he tells her and the reason why is because the curse took all the fairy tale creatures and placed them in this one town wiping their memories and keeping them trapped there and at first only one of them knows the truth of their other lives: The Evil Queen who is now mayor of the "prison." But you come to find that Rumplestiltskin also knows the truth, and you find that out in a special episode about him.

The only problem I have with the show is the fact the Queen was so blinded by rage and pain that she doesn't realize her curse didn't do much. The whole point of the curse was to trap them all in a world where there are no happy endings, but the problem is the show goes back and forth each episode to show what's going on in our world now and what happens to the characters in their world when they faced similar situations. It helps build the two different stories to see how where they came from and who they were is manifested in our world. But as you see their original stories come alive you realize the fairy tale world didn't have very happy endings either. If you're up to date on the show you know that Rumplestiltskin has lost his son and got his heart broken, Grumpy was once named Dreamy but heart break changed his name, Snow White and Prince Charming had a lot of problems and the show is still going through them, Red Riding Hood and Granny got an upgrade, and by upgrade I’m talking about a Taylor Lautner upgrade if you know what I mean, The Huntsman...well that episode was just jacked up and poor Emma she finally opens up and the dude dies as he kisses her; but you get the point. The curse really didn't change much except keep the lovers that were together apart and that's Snow White and Charming, other than that no one else is dealing with anything. Well Rumple's girl is in an insane asylum in the real world and he still loves her so there is that. I don't know, I love this show but the curse really didn't do much so if you watch it or are going to you'll see what I mean.

But last night’s Episode, "Stable Boy" was full of surprises. It begins showing a softer and younger side of the Queen Regina who is in love with her stable boy…but her mother is just as bad or an even worse evil witch like her daughter will eventually become and only wants her daughter to marry up in society. At least we get to see where Regina gets it from. One day in a secret meeting with her lover a young girl stuck on a rampaging horse screams for help. Regina rides to help her and we find out it’s Snow White, played by the adorable and becoming widely popular Bailee Madison (Bridge to Terabithia, Don’t be Afraid of the Dark, and Just Go with It with Adam Sandler. She was also the “girl” version of Max in Wizards of Waverlyplace). Grateful for saving his daughters life, Snow White’s father, the King, asks Regina to marry her, and wanting her daughter to succeed and not knowing she’s fraternizing with the stable boy, her mother accepts for her, which in retrospect shouldn’t even count.

Accidently Snow figures out about her and Daniel, the Stable Boy’s, plan of escape to get married; running away from it all. Chasing Snow down Regina gets Snow to understand about true love and gets her to promise she won’t tell especially not her mother…but, we see where Regina gets her manipulation as her mother tricks Snow into telling her the plan which leads to disaster when Regina’s mother catches them right as they’re getting ready to run and kills Daniel by ripping out his heart and crushing it. She convinces Regina to marry the King and with that the first step is taken. Snow, the little naive child that she is, believes the next day that Regina is preparing for her wedding with Daniel and tells Regina that she was the one that let her mom know. You can see on the screen something just snaps in Regina and her mother sees the whole scene as she tells Snow that she’s not marrying Daniel because what they had wasn’t real and that it’s about becoming a family with the King and Snow. Snow leaves excited for her new step-mother and Regina confronts her mother about setting the whole situation up all the way to Snow on the horse. As she storms off she says, “I should have let her die on that horse.”

Back in our world Regina has methodically set Mary Margaret, who is Snow White, up for the murder of the wife of David Nolan, who is Prince Charming. The trial is about to begin and Emma struggles to find way to prove that she is innocent. That’s when she goes back to the scene of the crime to find a piece of a shovel that broke off when someone was burying the heart of David’s wife, Katherine. Already on Regina’s tail, she sneaks into the Mayor’s house with the help of her biological son but Regina’s adopted son, Henry, and finds the shovel that matches. But the next day when she has a warrant there is a brand new shovel in the garage. As they take Mary Margret off in chains to her trial she confronts Mr. Gold, who is Rumplestiltskin, about not really helping Mary Margret—which if you watch the episode before you know that he made a deal with Regina to get some battery charges against him dropped. But he tells her it’s not over and walks out. Frustrated Emma throws a vase of flowers the news reporter Sidney, Genie/The mirror, gave her. When the vase smashes she finds a bug and finally realizes Sidney hasn’t been on her side at all. As she goes to apologize to “The Stranger,” the first outsider to enter town besides Emma, they hear Ruby, Red Riding Hood, scream and they run to find her pointing and rambling about the alley behind her Granny’s dinner and that’s where they find Katherine…

Alive…

So now the question becomes how is Katherine alive when the heart that was found was tested for DNA and matched Katherine’s…is it possible that Regina once again did the whole “pull out your heart and you’re still alive unless I crush it” move? Or does Regina have other resources that can help her fake a DNA test. But it’s ridiculous when you realize that all this drama was because Snow White was just a little girl trying to help. Regina even goes as far as to see her in jail to tell her she knows she didn’t kill Katherine but she does deserve what’s happening to her. Talk about F-ed up!

It honestly frustrates me now that I know why the Queen is so hell bent on destroying her life I find it very trivial. Honestly, she shouldn’t be blaming Snow when it’s all her mother’s fault in the first place. Well, I guess you’re parents are your parents no matter what they do. But I have a feeling the story between Regina and her mother isn’t over. I mean we’ve already seen her kill her father to help the curse get put into action, and she loved her dad. So what makes up believe that out of everything Mommy dearest doesn’t get a little payback either?

Either way, I can’t wait for next week since they showed “The Stranger,” August Booth, holding the dagger of “The Dark One” or otherwise known now as Rumplestiltskin. The dagger, if driven through the heart of the current Dark One will make you the new Dark One; but how does August know about the dagger when even Henry, with his book, doesn’t know who Mr. Gold really is? Oh well, I guess we’ll find out on Sunday, and look for my recap on that next Monday! Until my recap of tonight’s delicious Smash tomorrow, According to Michael III, OUAT needs to be picked up for another season already!

—Michael III

Ben Tennyson is tested! TV Recap on the series finale of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien (SPOILER ALERT!)

Ben 10 just got an upgrade.

I’ve been a fan since I was a little kid for the TV show about the boy who gets the ultimate “weapon” and uses it to fight evil. But I finally just watched Saturday’s series finale of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien and it was interesting to see a different side of Ben: A tempted Ben.

After exactly six years in the Ben Tennyson universe created by “Man of Action,” Ben has gone through the original Omnitrix and then the Ultimate Omnitrix, or Ultimatrix for short, allowing Ben to go to the next step of the current aliens he has been through. But in this episode Azmuth tells Ben that he feels the Ultimatrix wasn’t worthy of Ben after Ben just survived one of the hardest test he’s ever had to face besides taking down Kevin when he absorbed all of Aggregor’s powers and the powers of the Ultimatrix. Ben had in his hands all the power in the universe. He had the Ultimatrix, he had Ascalon, the “ultimate weapon” that Azmuth had created long before he made the Omnitrix or the Ultimatrix, and he had the powers of the Diagon: the ultimate inter-dimensional being that had been plotting over thousands of years to conquer the dimension Earth resides in. And Ben gave it all away.

Continuing the story, when the Diagon first tried to enter this dimension one warrior stood against the heralds that came to pave his way: Sir George. Seeing that Sir George needed help, Azmuth gave him the sword and Sir George was able to fight off Diagon’s minions and defeat the Diagon himself. The sword, Ascalon gave him immense power even the ability to slowly age or never age…Sir George was the first and original Forever Knight; hint the name of the organization that Ben has constantly fought against. After Sir George dies Ben uses the sword to take out Vilgax after Vilgax had absorbed all of the Diagon’s powers. Ben uses the sword to absorb all of Diagon’s powers and he starts off wanting to use the power to turn the Earth’s humans back to normal after the Diagon had turned them into his inter-dimensional walking minions.

Vilgax begins to poison Ben’s mind by telling him that Ben could use all the power he has to wipe out all evil. He compares to two of them saying they’re very much alike because both of them obtain power to make a difference. Considering it, his cousin Gwen, his friend Kevin, and his girlfriend Julie all talk him out of it. Julie asks him if that’s what he wants to really do after everything they had been through. While thinking about it, a whole entire montage comes on the screen going over the only two seasons Ultimate Alien has had and its predecessor, Alien Force and it’s three seasons. After going through it all and remembering just how good he is and all the good they have done, he decides to do what he originally said he was going to do and turned all the humans back to normal.

That’s when Azmuth shows up taking back the sword and asks for the Ultimatrix. Ben gives it up but then asks Azmuth why. “I thought I had proven I was worthy enough to wield it.” That’s when Azmuth again slaps Ben in the face with a gift besides the fact he’s being cocky about his accomplishments with the Omnitrix and Ultimatrix. He tells Ben to look at his wrist and on it is a new Omnitrix…actually according to Azmuth, it’s “THE Omnitrix.” The one he has been working on for six years since Ben originally got the prototype by accident. It’s a sick looking watch and I don’t feel like describing it…I guess you’ll have to wait for the next installment of the Ben 10 series: Ben 10: Omniverse to see it. But if they sell that one of the Ultimatrix I’m going to buy them for me and my little girl.

I really don’t know where this show can go from here. If you’ve watched the show from the beginning at least up until you see Ben 10,000, and watched this season we know that eventually Ben gets control of all the alien powers in the universe and become the ultimate hero. Gwen is a powerful half-human half-Anodite, and Kevin…well now that he’s good he’s no longer evil in the future so one day we’ll see what Kevin turns out to be. But I’m excited to see if they’re going to eventually make Ben an adult since he asked Azmuth as usual for the Master controls and instead of saying no this time Azmuth’s reply is, “Maybe for your 18^th birthday.” I like that idea. Honestly it’s really hard for you to keep up if you have no idea where Ben has come from, but I remain a fan and I can’t wait to see what awaits me in Omniverse. Until I finally watch Once Upon A Time, According to Michael III, “It’s HERO TIME!”

—Michael III