The London Expo

Its 9am on a sunny Saturday morning and a large army has descended on the Excel centre in London. Some of them have guns, others giant swords and quite a few of them appear to be ninjas. But I’m not panicking. Why not?... partly because I’m a hero (and heroes don’t cry), but mostly because it’s just the London Expo.

Expo is heaven (albeit a crowded one) for fans of Movies, TV, Anime and Manga. It features countless stalls selling toys, t-shirts, DVDs and all manner of nerdish delights. There’s also a few famous faces signing autographs and posing for pictures too. This year’s guest stars were a varied bunch; they included John Connor’s gun totting mother form the Terminator movies (Linda Hamilton), that evil looking bunny from Donnie Darko (James Duval) and a Hollywood acting legend who used to date Marilyn Monroe (Tony Curtis).

This eclectic gathering of stars should be the big lure for the crowds, but it’s not. An increasing number of people flock to Expo for one reason, it isn’t celebrities or shopping, it’s Cosplay. The opportunity to gawk at someone in ill advised spandex, wielding a Styrofoam sword while wearing a head made of papier-mâché. Impressive, beautiful, shocking or bizarre... pick an adjective and you’re guaranteed to bump into it walking around the Expo. A bearded man dressed as a Japanese schoolgirl is like a roadcrash, it’s horrifying, yet difficult to avert your eyes. Thankfully, some of the costumes are more alluring and amusing. Each year the costumes get more elaborate and numerous; once a minor oddity, they have become a principle attraction.

The term ‘Cosplay’ was first used by a man called Nov Takahashi to describe behavior he witnessed in L.A. in the 1980’s at the Sci-Fi Worldcon. Japanese language has a penchant for combing separate words to make one really cool one, in this particular case, Costume and Role-play. It’s more than just fancy dress, as ardent fans compete to recreate the look of their favorite characters in intricate detail. Popularized in Japan (the place where crazy trends go to become national pastimes) Cosplay has long been a part of the American convention scene too. Judging from this year’s Expo, we’re catching up in some style....

If you want to see what you missed or just relive the magic/ordeal then check out the gallery of this year’s heroes, villains and weird looking furry things.

UPDATE - Video links now below...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmhKizGIOQY&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAbAkbDYOYw&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBInbOo30ic&feature=channel

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

After the X-men trilogy made over a billion dollars it was a commercial inevitability that Wolverine, the series most popular brooding hero, would return. This film is the first of three planned solo outings, plotting the years of Wolverine's life before he joined Professor Xavier's team of X-Men. ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’, shows us just how Wolverine got his indestructible adamantium skeleton and those famous claws. It also reveals his bitter rivalry with his ferocious half-brother Victor (aka Sabertooth) and the tragedy of his doomed first love.

In the comics, Wolverine’s exact origins were an elusive secret for a long time. In a way, revealing the character’s back-story in such explicit detail does rob him of much of his aura of mystery. Arguably Wolverine is a more intriguing character as a man haunted by a terrible forgotten past. In particular, the introduction of an obligatory love story, feels more like a plot device rather than a genuine emotional connection between the characters. The film’s attempts complicate Wolverine and his origins don’t match the simple animal rage that epitomised his best comicbook incarnations. The film isn’t convincingly dramatic or mindlessly entertaining; but what else is worth watching?

The innate problem with any prequel is that we already know what’s going to happen. It’s all but impossible to generate suspense when we know with absolute certainty who’s going to live and die. Added to the fact that Wolverine is already almost impervious to physical harm, this leaves all the film’s earnest action deprived of danger. Another major challenge for this film is that it has to maintain continuity with all the existing X-men movies. This severely limits the plot, which at times seems contrived and painfully predictable. It's certainly not helpful that X-Men 2 already dwelt heavily on Wolverine’s murky past. Most of the film's supposed revelations will feel overly familiar to anyone with a basic knowledge of the character.

The film draws heavily on the endlessly vast universe of popular characters from Marvel comics for its supporting cast. However, the rapid parade of fan favourites looks like a cynical ploy to widen the appeal of the film as much as possible. The huge potential of characters like Gambit and Deadpool is wastefully squandered on a handful of scenes and a few glib lines. It’s pretty clear, the only reason they’re really here is to test the waters of audience interest before these characters get their own spin-offs. The fact that the studio announced that Ryan Reynolds's Deadpool was getting his own movie, within weeks of Wolverine's opening, seems to confirm these suspicions.

Although the film’s visual effects are without fault, the high standards set by the previous X-men trilogy leaves little room for it to distinguish itself. The spectacular has become so commonplace that it’s now impossible to overwhelm an audience’s good sense with some CGI and a few explosions. Hugh Jackman convincingly captures Wolverine’s iconic feral look yet again, but his surly charms are nowhere near enough to save an uninspired script. Pruning away the ensemble cast of the X-men trilogy was supposed to be a good thing. However, the weight of credibility which actors like Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen lend to a film can’t be underestimated. Liev Schreiber is an effectively menacing presence as Victor, but the film generally lacks performances of substances. Good actors fight a desperate losing battle against shallow writing, armed with only limited screentime. The film’s casting was adept; unfortunately almost every other aspect of the production falls disappointingly flat.

Marvel has already announced production on a further five movies in the X-men franchise. Only time will tell if these efforts will repay the faith of comic fans or further disappoint them. Of course you’ll still watch Wolverine, but you probably won’t like it much. Let’s just hope they find a proper script and some real claws for the sequels, because we both know, you’ll end up watching those too.

Star Trek

When I arrived at the cinema I was sweating. It wasn’t excitement. I’d been running. I wanted to make it to the early showing, because Star Trek draws a big crowd. I had moved with haste, but had modest expectations for the film that awaited me. For all its series and many movies, Star Trek had always disappointed me. Star Trek felt like quite a dull and sterile view of the future. It was a place where phasers were mostly set on stun and everything looked too shiny and brand new; like it had all just come out of the props department. It was also less spiritual than the Star Wars Trilogy; with no force, no dark side, just a lot of talking about particle physics. It’s impressive that with a film so faithful to its original inspiration director J.J. Abrams has still managed to change almost everything about Star Trek.

From the opening moments it’s clear that Abrams has introduced some much needed blood and danger into the supposedly ‘safe’ world of Star Trek. Ships explode, people die and are sucked into the silent crushing void of space. For the first time I truly felt the utter urgency and peril which such adventures should merit. For a while, big screen re-imaginings of old franchises had tended toward camp parody. They sacrificed convincing drama in favour of the lowbrow appeal of kitsch comedy. Now, studios finally seem convinced that there is an even greater box office appetite for dark realism. As a result ‘Star Trek’ is one of the best crafted summer blockbusters in some time.

When an alien race bent on revenge and the destruction of the peacekeeping federation of planets inadvertently travel back in time, it has a profound impact on those destined to crew the U.S.S. Enterprise and threatens the lives of billions. Though concepts of time travel and alternative realities may sound off-putting, this is just a necessary way of ensuring that the re-born franchise can stand alone from all the previous series and movies. It simply means forget what you think you know about Star Trek, because this is something new. The film is essentially an epic origin story, propelled at a blistering pace with relentless action and light flashes of humour.

The difficult challenge of re-casting the familiar crew of the USS Enterprise has been met with more success than fans could have dared hope for. The film’s fresh faced cast treads the fine line between impersonation and re-invention almost perfectly. Instead of A-list stars, the studio has wisely chosen emerging talents who bear a remarkable physical resemblance to the old crew. Their performances re-discover all the drama and humour of these characters, with little amiss to anger old fans.

Leading by example, Chris Pine captures the precise mix of arrogance and boyish charm that epitomises Captain James T. Kirk. Getting this role right was absolutely critical if the film was to succeed and win fan approval. William Shatner is a very tough act to follow, but as with many things, the film gets it absolutely right. Zachary Quinto looks and sounds convincingly like a young Leonard Nimoy, as logical Vulcan Spok, complete with those iconic pointy ears. His bickering tension with the impulsive young Kirk is well played and destined to become a powerful friendship. Karl Urban is also particularly impressive as Dr ‘Bones’ McCoy, the ships likeably cantankerous medic. Simon Pegg pulls off a difficult accent as miracle working engineer Scotty; while navigator Chekov’s lifelong struggles to pronounce the letter ‘v’ continues with amusing effect. Perhaps the only character to get a slight re-vamp is communications officer Uhura, who proves a more alluring love interest than you may remember.

For long time fans there are plenty of in-jokes and nods to the previous films and TV series to enjoy. Some references are more subtle than others, but none of them distract from the stunning success of this movie in its own right. Over the last few years many blockbusters have proved to be overhyped disappointments; devoid of emotion and fatally contaminated with bad CGI. However, ‘Star Trek’ fully delivers on its promise of entertaining adventure. The film’s action has compelling momentum and its characters have credible substance. It’s quite frankly rare to see a major summer release so unblemished by the typical failings of Hollywood.

As I leave the cinema, I see an almost endless line of people impatiently queuing outside. I ask someone what they're waiting for. Star Trek is the obvious reply. To boldly go?...the answer is yes. Warp Speed Mr Sulu!

Monsters vs. Aliens

DreamWorks animation studios can claim credit for Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar and the phenomenally lucrative Shrek franchise. Despite having persistently lagged behind Pixar in animation techniques and Oscar acclaim, DreamWorks’ bright, unashamedly childish efforts have brought them inconceivably vast box office success. Shrek 2 is the 10th highest grossing film of all time and made $919.8 million at the cinema alone. The DVD and Shrek 2 merchandise are estimated to be worth a further $800 million. Just one film about a green ogre with a suspiciously Scottish accent made DreamWorks nearly $2 billion. No wonder they’re starting production on Shrek Goes Forth with greedy haste. But first they aim to take a technical leap past Pixar with Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D.

You have to admire the cheerful simplicity of any title which manages to capture a film's plot and playful spirit in just three words. When aliens attack Earth, a desperate President turns to a crackpot general W.R. Monger and his ragtag team of monsters to save the day. The monsters and their foes of robots and alien clones are all joyously ripped straight from classic sci-fi B movies. The prospect of watching them duke it out for the fate of the planet is appealingly silly and unpretentious.

Like most of DreamWorks’ efforts, the film’s vocal cast sparkles with unquestionable A-List calibre. Reese Witherspoon is typically endearing as Susan, a young woman whose wedding day is ruined by a meteorite which turns her into the towering 60 foot ‘Ginormica’. With much of the film focusing on her struggles to accept her newfound monstrousness, this character could easily have been irritatingly timid and hysterical. Luckily, Witherspoon’s trademark plucky charms translate well to animated form. The rest of the cast also seems equally well chosen.

Taking a rare break from all Jack Bauer’s bad days, Kiefer Sutherland clearly enjoys playing the gruff and battle hungry general W.R. Monger. Likewise, Hugh Laurie revels in the chance to show off his rare comedic gifts as a Mad Scientist turned into a cockroach by an experiment gone deliberately awry. Seth Rogen feels strangely typecast as BOB the likably brainless and indestructible blob. His attempt to romance a bowl of jelly is perhaps also one of the films funniest moments. Meanwhile, skyscraper sized bug ‘Insectosaurus’ just might be the most adorable thing to ever terrify on the big screen. Arrested Development’s Will Arnett plays Neanderthal fish-man ‘the missing link’, while political funny-man Stephen Colbert fulfils the secret wishes of many Americans by playing the President.

Recent 3D Movies have ranged from the sublime Nightmare Before Christmas re-release, to the ridiculous Spy Kids 3-D. The concept had previously found more consistent success in theme park rides than feature films; remaining a novelty rather than establishing itself as a filmaking norm. Perhaps, new technology and the recent wave of successful 3D movies, finally marks the real arrival of a new dimension in cinema. The added depth and sense of motion compliments the playful cartoonish action of films like Monsters vs. Aliens. Of course there’s a couple of scenes where things fly off the screen into the audience, startling kids and parent alike, but such tricks are sparingly used. Overall, 3D is less jarring and distracting for animated films than it often seems to be for live action.

Considerable time and effort has clearly been put into Monsters vs. Aliens with evident visual and casting success. However, my one major reservation would be that the action focused plot is quite insubstantial for more grown-up audiences; the film really has little to offer beyond a traditional "it’s okay to be different" moral. Unfortunately, the sophisticated brilliance of Pixar efforts like Wall-E and Ratatouille has permanently raised expectations for children’s cinema. Compared to the endlessly re-watchable magic of those films, Monsters vs. Aliens seems disappointingly simple and ironically two dimensional. There is just enough silliness and action to cling to an audience’s attention once, but certainly not much to merit a second glance. It's good... it's just not Pixar good.

A link below to the history of 3D for all those who prefer to know how magic tricks are done...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_Cinema