I finally got around to seeing the film Coraline! Whilst I wanted to see it at the cinema, I somehow missed the opportunity. I managed to get a copy on DVD with both the 2D and 3D versions included (along with 4 pairs of 3D glasses), but I have only sat down to watch it in “2D” so far.

Coraline is a visually stunning stop-motion film. I could not believe how fluid and beautifully animated the characters were. The visuals were quite similar to the style of The Nightmare Before Christmas, but thankfully it isn’t another stop-motion musical! (Phew! I hate those). Whilst the look is quite similar, it does feel a lot less exaggerated and a little more refined. Coraline definitely has it’s own look.

The story is about a young girl (Coraline) who doesn’t get enough attention from her parents. As they had just recently moved into a new home (an old house), she stumbles across a hidden door which leads to an alternate universe. Everything is suddenly “better”. Her parents give her undivided attention and come across a lot more loving and caring than her “real” Mum and Dad. The only weird thing is that everyone there seems to have buttons for eyes. Obviously, something isn’t quite right and we are treated to a very dark, yet incredibly imaginative story.

I highly recommend you check out this film, not only if you are a stop-motion loving nut like me. Coraline is a great film which is beautifully animated and definitely worth anyone’s time. Go see it, and let me know what you think

• As a joke, one bat suit was made with nipples, as in Batman & Robin (1997). It was presented to Christian Bale as the real bat suit, but he knew instantly it was a joke, having seen a few design pictures during preproduction. He did pose for some publicity photos in the “nipple” suit.
• Robin Williams, Lachy Hulme, Paul Bettany, and Adrien Brody all expressed interest for the role of the Joker before Heath Ledger was cast. When asked, “Why Heath Ledger as the Joker?” Christopher Nolan said, “Because he’s fearless.”
• To prepare for his role as the Joker, Heath Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character’s psychology, posture and voice (the last one he found most difficult to do). He started a diary, in which he wrote the Joker’s thoughts and feelings to guide himself during his performance. He was also given Alan Moore’s comic “Batman: The Killing Joke” and “Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth” to read. Ledger also took inspiration from A Clockwork Orange (1971)’s Alex and Sid Vicious.
• Director Christopher Nolan and co-writers Jonathan Nolan and David S. Goyer decided not to explore the origins of the Joker in order to portray the character as “absolute.”
• While in the nurse uniform, The Joker’s name badge says Matilda. This is the name of Heath Ledger’s daughter.
• It’s Sir Michael Caine’s opinion that Heath Ledger beat the odds and topped Jack Nicholson’s Joker from Batman (1989): “Jack was like a clown figure, benign but wicked, maybe a killer old uncle. He could be funny and make you laugh. Heath’s gone in a completely different direction to Jack, he’s like a really scary psychopath. He’s a lovely guy and his Joker is going to be a hell of a revelation in this picture.” Caine bases this belief on a scene where the Joker pays a visit to Bruce Wayne’s penthouse. He’d never met Ledger before, so when Ledger arrived and performed he gave Caine such a fright he forgot his lines.
• Bruce Wayne develops and wears a new Batsuit in the film. This Batsuit was an improvement on the outfit from Batman Begins (2005), and made Christian Bale more comfortable and agile in his performance. It was constructed from 200 unique pieces of rubber, fibreglass, metallic mesh, and nylon (producing an impression of sophisticated technology), with elastic banding added for tightening the costume to fit Bale. The gauntlets had their razors made retractable and able to be fired. The suit’s cowl was based on a motorcycle helmet and separated from the neck piece, allowing Bale to move his head left/right/up/down, and comes equipped with white eye lenses for when Batman turns on Bat-sonar.
• The Joker make-up was composed of three pieces of stamped silicone, which took less than an hour to apply to Heath Ledger on each day of shooting. Ledger described it as “new technology which is much quicker to apply than regular prosthetics;” he felt he was not wearing any make-up at all.
• Costume designer Lindy Hemming based the Joker’s look around his personality, in which “he doesn’t care about himself at all.” Hemming was inspired by countercultural pop culture artists like Pete Doherty, Iggy Pop, and Sid Vicious. She avoided his design being vagrant, but made it scruffier and grungier, therefore making his movements slightly twitchier and edgier.
• An explosion was filmed at the Battersea Power Station in London. The fireball created calls from panic-stricken local residents, who assumed a terrorist attack was on the out-of-use Station.
• The Batman Comic Books “The Long Halloween”, “The Killing Joke”, “The Man Who Laughs” and the first two comics to feature the Joker character served as an influence on the film’s storyline.
• The “Batman” theme is heard only twice in the film, as Composers Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard decided that a heroic theme that a viewer could hum would ignore the complexity and darkness of the character. Hearing the tune only twice would create what Zimmer calls “a musical foreshadowing.”
• Heath Ledger improvised when he started clapping inside his jail cell in a mocking and sardonic capacity as Gordon is promoted. The clapping was not scripted but Christopher Nolan immediately encouraged the crew to continue filming and the sequence was included in the film.

Source: www.imdb.com

I’m a little concerned about the lack of advertising about this movie, especially as it is due for release in a month or so. It doesn’t exactly fill me with a lot of confidence, especially when you compare it to the amount of advertising done on the Iron Man movie.

Is it because they knew Iron Man was worth the effort and Hulk isn’t? It certainly makes sense not to waste money on a product that is doomed to fail.

There was also issues with Norton (writer/star) and Marvel having different ideas about the movie. This was later settled with the following outcome:

“What people will see is Marvel’s cut of the movie. This is not the Edward Norton cut by any means. His opinion is their cut is valid because probably it’s going to make a lot of money. And, he recognizes that, if you’re a businessman, that makes sense. But he would have released something a little longer, a little more character driven.”

This could be good or bad. On one hand, Marvel could be editing out the garbage, or they could just be shortening the audeince’s agony. To me though it sounds like they are just chopping it down into something short enough for kids to focus on, seeing the amazing Hulk smash up a few things, just so they can release a Hulk toy and hope they get some sort of merchandise sales.

The trailer also doesn’t help me much. Infact it made me want to do a bit poo and rub it into my eyeballs. It really was that awful.

Anyway… What are your opinions on the (lack of?) events and promotion of this movie? Along with the uninspiring trailer. Do you think it will be atleast better than the last poor attempt?

“I wouldn’t mind coming back as a Bond villain,” he said. “But I don’t think they would pay me enough money.”

Preliminary talks between the production company and the aged thesbian have been taking place since two years ago when Daniel Craig reprised the role in Casino Royale.

“I think Daniel Craig is a terrific choice,” said Connery. “I think they’re going back to a more realistic type of Bond movie as I don’t think they could have gone much further with the special effects.”

Personally I think it would be a cracking idea for Connery to come back in the opposite role. They could explain away the notion of why so many people have played Bond by showing that there is life after MI:6, albeit a Marlon-Brando-in-Apocalypse-Now type existence. A bit like in Goldeneye with Alec Trevelyan going bad – this time an ex-Bond goes bad.

A message to the producers: pay him some money! People want to see this!

Full Story: The Daily Mail

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RdaOE_Xhf0[/youtube]

Ugh.

Here’s the thing Nintendo: I like your games. I really do. But your online service sucks balls. It’s really a poor excuse for a service and I don’t see how making it worse is going to benefit you one iota. Who wants to pay to play games online? Or for “additional content”? I certainly don’t. I miss the days when you bought a game, paid your money, and that was that.

Please, Nintendo, won’t you listen to your fans and overhaul your online system? Some people might be happy to pay, but not for the dismal piece of crap you’re peddling right now.

In a way I understand what you’re trying to do. You’re notifying people on the game box, (by way of a new red wifi logo), that they’ll have to pay for some content. This eliminates the surprise and anger that consumers would inevitably feel if they suddenly discovered they had to pay further down the line.

But why make your users pay at all? At the moment, that’s all your online system’s got going for it – the fact that it’s free. That’s it. In all other aspects, XBOX Live is better.

There. I said it.