They made Street Fighter films too real, which still ended up with a campy M. Bison, whereas as ridiculous the Jackie Chan moment was, at least you got to see a guy do these absolutely ridiculous moves that made Mortal Kombat fun. Meanwhile, Legend of Chun-Li attempted to do that, to no effect, given how dark the story was, with its gore.
A lot of people love Street Fighter II: The Movie more than they like Street Fighter Alpha. I don't get why.
Alpha's animation is better.
The dark Hadou and and even the Super Hadoken are way awesome, albeit its been a 5 year upgrade, probably at the golden age of anime, after those of Perfect Blue, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop.
Its story is better and I could actually remember it!
I guess it didn't have a Chun Li nude shower scene though!
(I suppose that element did have elements of Psycho to it then again.)
I guess I'll stop here before
I rant. If anybody has a really good Street Fighter II review, please send it to me and we will compare
I watched Street Fighter Alpha: The Movie at my peak in college anime years about 5 years after it came out.
Napster and Kazaa were growing. Akira, Street Fighter Alpha: The Movie, Spriggun seemed to be the biggest internet hits in the pseudo US Revolution against Pokémon and Yugioh.
Fittingly enough, the main super villain for the Street Fighter Alpha movie is an Akira-inspired villain over 10 years after it came out.
The characters have Evangelion-ish eyes. It wasn't as ultra real as Rurouni Kenshin: Betrayal & Trust: The OAV, but it was hella good.
Friday, May 30, 2014
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Mortal Kombat movie: The set pros and the script cons
It's a pretty conservative film without a lot of risks or notables from the game, besides brand marketing. Quite mild deaths compared to the game and its martial arts inspirations, albeit it probably made the game cheaper.
The set design is absolutely PHENOMENAL though.
You're in a Enter the Dragon-like tournament and island, especially when Liu Kang uses the stick to fight the unnamed man.
The forest Johnny Cage fights Scorpion in is cinematic and photographic, like that of a fairy tale, or in a video game, like Final Fantasy VII's Sleeping Forest.
Sub Zero's gives you chills.
The Reptile stage is like that on Notre Dame.
Goro's is an Earth-like rocky craggy stage, signifying his strength.
And of course, the epic Shang Tsung stage with the spikes.
Not to mention the place with the platforms and the multiple deaths.
Way more video game-ish than Street Fighter.
Campy, with special effects narrators going "OOPSY!" in a high pitched voice, Mortal Kombat was a game with a lot of replay value that kept players going. A Pandora's box of video game design and achievement placement.
I felt that the entire fears and egos things never goes anywhere, unless Raiden was trying to trick them. Not to mention that Sonya already defeated Kano by the time this happens in the film, only to play a stereotypical damsel in distress against Shang Tsung, something not even Street Fighter did in their film!
Also I don't find Cage particularly funny. Then again, maybe they were supposed to portray him as a loser in the group. The Hollywood member.
The set design is absolutely PHENOMENAL though.
You're in a Enter the Dragon-like tournament and island, especially when Liu Kang uses the stick to fight the unnamed man.
The forest Johnny Cage fights Scorpion in is cinematic and photographic, like that of a fairy tale, or in a video game, like Final Fantasy VII's Sleeping Forest.
Sub Zero's gives you chills.
The Reptile stage is like that on Notre Dame.
Goro's is an Earth-like rocky craggy stage, signifying his strength.
And of course, the epic Shang Tsung stage with the spikes.
Not to mention the place with the platforms and the multiple deaths.
Way more video game-ish than Street Fighter.
Campy, with special effects narrators going "OOPSY!" in a high pitched voice, Mortal Kombat was a game with a lot of replay value that kept players going. A Pandora's box of video game design and achievement placement.
I felt that the entire fears and egos things never goes anywhere, unless Raiden was trying to trick them. Not to mention that Sonya already defeated Kano by the time this happens in the film, only to play a stereotypical damsel in distress against Shang Tsung, something not even Street Fighter did in their film!
Also I don't find Cage particularly funny. Then again, maybe they were supposed to portray him as a loser in the group. The Hollywood member.
Mortal Kombat and the movie's connection to Bruce Lee and Bond
1 year after the death of Brandon Lee, the son of Bruce Lee, Liu Kang's inspiration. Robin Shou represented an Asian American that demanded respect in a world of Hollywood that lacked it. It was like we still got a sense.
This was a year when Power Rangers was declining, although I find Mortal Kombat's action short, yet effective. Chris Cassamassa, Mortal Kombat suit actor would join WMAC Masters alongside many Power Rangers suit actors' crew.
Oddly enough, first Asian Power Ranger, Thuy Trang would play a villainess in the sequel, Crow: City of Angels, in what some may same is her most memorable performance outside of Power Rangers. Also her only starring role that was accessible to most. She oddly enough died in a car accident prior to 9/11 on a way to a wedding, much like how Eric Draven died celebrating with his wife in the original Crow and how Kali, her character in City of Angels dies, by being thrown off a roof into a car.
Quite honestly, I felt that the Power Rangers fight scenes were more abundant thanks to having them all the time in a television show. The campiness really fit there and you can debate that Power Rangers had a larger more memorable soundtrack.
Not to mention that Martial Arts films in general were becoming popular thanks to influences of the East.
Talisa Soto and Cary Hiroyuki-Nagawa, who portrayed Kitana and Shang Tsung respectively, previously starred in Timothy Dalton's License to Kill. One of Bruce Lee's pet projects was a film between Bond (George Lazenby) and Bruce.
This was a year when Power Rangers was declining, although I find Mortal Kombat's action short, yet effective. Chris Cassamassa, Mortal Kombat suit actor would join WMAC Masters alongside many Power Rangers suit actors' crew.
Oddly enough, first Asian Power Ranger, Thuy Trang would play a villainess in the sequel, Crow: City of Angels, in what some may same is her most memorable performance outside of Power Rangers. Also her only starring role that was accessible to most. She oddly enough died in a car accident prior to 9/11 on a way to a wedding, much like how Eric Draven died celebrating with his wife in the original Crow and how Kali, her character in City of Angels dies, by being thrown off a roof into a car.
Quite honestly, I felt that the Power Rangers fight scenes were more abundant thanks to having them all the time in a television show. The campiness really fit there and you can debate that Power Rangers had a larger more memorable soundtrack.
Not to mention that Martial Arts films in general were becoming popular thanks to influences of the East.
Talisa Soto and Cary Hiroyuki-Nagawa, who portrayed Kitana and Shang Tsung respectively, previously starred in Timothy Dalton's License to Kill. One of Bruce Lee's pet projects was a film between Bond (George Lazenby) and Bruce.
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Street Fighter The Movie Casting Choices: Ryu, Ken and Guile
Casting choices:
When I was younger I always thought Ryu was cool, because of the hadokens. When top billing was announced with Jean Claude Van Damme with the Guile, I thought I was wrong.
When I was younger I always thought Ryu was cool, because of the hadokens. When top billing was announced with Jean Claude Van Damme with the Guile, I thought I was wrong.
“May we speak with you please?”
“No”
I was an idiot!
Ryu is the original character of original Street Fighter, so you figure he'd be the main character.
The Karate Kid was still a classic for most fans, as well as many fans of underdog martial arts films.
Ryu and Ken's martial arts backstory is downplayed for a lame original black market storyline already done in the Double Dragon movie, opposed to having an homage to John G. Avildsen's Karate Kid movie rivalry with Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence. It's quite a shame since Jean Claude Van Damme played similar characters in Bloodsport, Kickboxer and No Retreat, No Surrender.
The Karate Kid was still a classic for most fans, as well as many fans of underdog martial arts films.
Ryu and Ken's martial arts backstory is downplayed for a lame original black market storyline already done in the Double Dragon movie, opposed to having an homage to John G. Avildsen's Karate Kid movie rivalry with Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence. It's quite a shame since Jean Claude Van Damme played similar characters in Bloodsport, Kickboxer and No Retreat, No Surrender.
Since hair style, accent and country of origin does not matter, why not make Jean Claude Van Damme Ken to possibly Jackie Chan's Ryu having portrayed Street Fighter characters a year earlier in City Hunter? Ryu was a symbol of Asia in the video game world that Hollywood lost with Bruce Lee. Having Jackie Chan or Sonny Chiba in the film could have bridged the gap that Hollywood was missing. And Jean Claude Van Damme as a figure of the Western action movie genre would have complimented that as well.
Jean Claude Van Damme does have a pretty sick flash kick though.
Why didn't they just get Short Round from the Goonies? As well as Corey Feldman to play Ken?
Ugh.
Ugh.
Monday, May 12, 2014
The absolutes of Wreck-It Ralph
Wreck-It-Ralph is a film about division:
The Have and Have Nots.
Good and Evil
Heroes (and glitches) and villains.
The bourgeois and the proletariat.
The Nicelanders live off Wreck-It Ralph's misery as the villain and Fix-it Felix's fame as the hero in a rigged game. I nickname it the Programmer's Joke. Shintoist feelings that everything has a spirit definitely are present in this Toy Story for video games story.
Groupthink and just wanting to fit in is a key theme in this film and maybe even most Pixar films, influenced by the American Dream. Wreck-It Ralph is this film's Buzz Lightyear, becoming his own Neo/Morpheus and decide to take the hero pill instead of the villain pill: he starts his own journey into finding his own path, like that of a Joseph Campbell hero, instead of what his programmer, God, etc told him to do.
To reference the possible coincidences in the film, allow me to list the similarities between the division of class in the film with the real world:
Some worlds have been dubbed homeless after major destruction of a world. Heck, Vanellope and Ralph both live in trash.
The Heroes of Hero's Duty can't fight a war they truly win, constantly stuck in the motions, like us humans, still winning medals along the way.
King Candy runs a backwards dictatorship attempting remove people different than him, fittingly a young girl who is a glitch instead of an old man.
Minor issues I have this is of course, Disney being a contemporary product can't say anything bad about the United States, although I'm assuming it'd be changed in international versions to make money, the rampant product placement that is used for humans, arcades and also video game characters to survive.
President of the United States makes Penelope good?
If you would light the cherry bomb on this theory, this would be a great place to start!
The Have and Have Nots.
Good and Evil
Heroes (and glitches) and villains.
The bourgeois and the proletariat.
The Nicelanders live off Wreck-It Ralph's misery as the villain and Fix-it Felix's fame as the hero in a rigged game. I nickname it the Programmer's Joke. Shintoist feelings that everything has a spirit definitely are present in this Toy Story for video games story.
Groupthink and just wanting to fit in is a key theme in this film and maybe even most Pixar films, influenced by the American Dream. Wreck-It Ralph is this film's Buzz Lightyear, becoming his own Neo/Morpheus and decide to take the hero pill instead of the villain pill: he starts his own journey into finding his own path, like that of a Joseph Campbell hero, instead of what his programmer, God, etc told him to do.
To reference the possible coincidences in the film, allow me to list the similarities between the division of class in the film with the real world:
Some worlds have been dubbed homeless after major destruction of a world. Heck, Vanellope and Ralph both live in trash.
The Heroes of Hero's Duty can't fight a war they truly win, constantly stuck in the motions, like us humans, still winning medals along the way.
King Candy runs a backwards dictatorship attempting remove people different than him, fittingly a young girl who is a glitch instead of an old man.
Minor issues I have this is of course, Disney being a contemporary product can't say anything bad about the United States, although I'm assuming it'd be changed in international versions to make money, the rampant product placement that is used for humans, arcades and also video game characters to survive.
President of the United States makes Penelope good?
If you would light the cherry bomb on this theory, this would be a great place to start!
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