Stephen King's IT

Spoilers I guess?

Does anybody even read books anymore? Well I do, thank goodness for libraries! I was there to borrow something else when I noticed a creepy clown on the cover of this one book. Awesome, you got me interested! What do we got here?  Well, if it isn't the newest edition of  Stephen King's IT! I've never read this one before, so why not? I've read a few other books by King in the past and I've seen the TV-miniseries (I will refer to it as a movie from this point forward) and I remember liking them somewhat. Let's give it a go!

.... And after reading a few chapters. Oh my god! This book is long! A mammoth with over 1000 pages! I'll never finish this in time! Maybe it's just me, but "It" wasn't a book you can't put down because it's too exciting and you want to know what happens next. No, I found it hard to pick back up after taking a break reading it. The book and the movie suffer from the same problem (the movie to a greater extent), it can be pretty boring at times.

Let's state the obvious thing right from the get go. It should go without saying that the book is superior to the movie in many ways. Despite me having a hard time reading the book. It's far scarier and disturbing than anything they could put on screen.

I didn't care for the constant skipping between the present and the past. I think flashbacks work well in movies, but for whatever reason I don't care for them in books. Or maybe the problem lies in having seven main characters. Once you get through one character and their past the next one is waiting, dragging the overall story. I might have preferred if the book was divided in two parts, one with the childhood and the other with the adults.

It's hard to tell why the parts with the adult actors seem so flat and uninteresting compared to the child actors. To me, the child actors feel much more genuine, like they actually are the characters from the book, while the adults are just acting the role. Sounds stupid trying to explain it, but that's the way I feel.

The real show-stopper whether you look at the book or movie is of course "IT" aka Pennywise the Clown (played by Tim Curry). He is easily the most enjoyable part of either version! Whenever he is around something's happening! I may be scary, disgusting or very disturbing, but he truly breathes some life into this whole thing. The scene in the library (in the movie) is really the only part where they mishandled the character, he was too obnoxious and goofy.

The power of the dark side is strong in Pennywise!

The finale in the book makes more sense (although I'm not a big fan of that either), but the movie, oh boy, is it bad on so many levels!  The movie does a poor job explaining the connection between the true form of IT and Pennywise. Maybe it would have been for the better if the movie scrapped the book's ending and created something original instead? Let's say, a final showdown with Pennywise instead of having him abruptly disappear from the last act without an explanation?

Here IT comes... the disappointment!

Obviously there were parts that had to be changed or left out from the book when they made the movie. I didn't mind most of the minor changes made for the movie or stuff they left out of the book. However, there was one big moment in the book I really would have liked to see make it onto the screen, but it was only briefly mentioned in the movie, probably due to time and budget restriction. Also, I'm glad they left out all the sex-capades from the book....

Essentially the movie feels like a poor man's IT, meant for those who will never get around reading the book. Which is what every movie does, I guess. I think the movie did the bare minimum in order to tell the story right and it trips over right at the finish line. I get it, there certainly were some scenes in the book that are not OK to be shown on TV (or anywhere for that matter....), still I question why bother making something if you can't afford to do it right.

I'm not sure I remember where I was going with this, but nevertheless, even though I have a problem with both versions, the movie and the book, in the end which one would I recommend? Well, if you don't mind reading definitely go for the book. Don't like reading? Watch the movie! Want to check out them both? Then, I'd say watch the movie first and then read the book. The book will fill you in on anything you may have been left wondering about by the movie, to the point that it's too much information. I don't think anybody appreciated that gangbang in the sewers close to the end of the book. Seriously, WTF?

****

IT's not over yet! There is a remake coming out, I don't know when, but soon I hope! I think remake is the wrong word to use here, after all, the first one was a TV-series with just 2 episodes and not an actual movie. As far as I know the new one will be a real motion picture! So exciting! Supposedly the new movie is going to be more faithful to the book, not sure how that's going to happen. How are they going to adapt such a long story for a movie that is what,  2 hours, 3 hours long at tops? (Maybe Netflix should make it to a 12 episode series instead?) Okay, so I'm worried, but still so excited! This is the right way to make a remake! Take films that didn't turn out so good or didn't have the budget to be what it was meant to be. Not remaking classics that were good from the beginning with!

Will we see the twelve year old kids' smoking like they did in the book in the new movie? I don't think so! Some things are just too hardcore for the audience to handle.

The Origin of BB-8

That is the question. I have always found Wookiepedia a very reliable source of information regarding anything (obviously) Star Wars related question I may have had, but this time I was left scratching my head. It seems that I can't find a straight answer for who was responsible for the design of BB-8, design, not the actual building of the droid. Who drew the first preliminary sketch of BB-8? J.J. Abrams? Neal Scanlan? All different names pop up regarding this fact, but I'm still at a loss for a definite answer for my question.

So what exactly made me even question this? Well, coincidentally I purchased a Star Wars manga in December 2015, the same month Episode VII was released. The album I own is the Finnish edition of 2007, published by Pauna Media Group, but the original English version was published by TOKYOPOP in 2006 and the earliest date associated with this particular story of my interest, is 22 December of 2005. Star Wars Manga: Silver, as it was called, consist of five varying short stories. There was something that caught my attention in the second story of the album, Oh!! Jawajawa drawn by Hitoshi Ariga, known for his work on Mega Man and Pokémon series.

What caught my interest in this comic without any dialog was a background droid that appears in three panels in total. The resemblance between it and a certain BB unit is undeniable.

The comic droid does absolutely nothing, besides getting wrecked.

When there are thousands upon thousand pages worth of information within the Star Wars universe, I can't say, because I don't know, if anything like BB-8 has made an appearance in the Expanded Universe (or Legends now....) before this comic was even published. Or maybe something resembling BB-8 has been seen in the Mega Man universe? (I know absolutely nothing about  Mega Man so I can't tell)

Not that I'm accusing anybody of anything, I was just really surprised by finding something like this when I didn't expect it. Ashamed, I'll admit it took me over a month to find the time to sit down a read the whole thing. By the time I first read the comic, I had already seen the Force Awakens.

So I guess my real question would be, that whoever came up with the design of BB-8, were they even aware of this 24 pages long comic from Japan? Or perhaps I should ask if Hitoshi Ariga knows of his further contribution to the SW universe?

The Force Awakens

It was pretty awesome.

I don't want to spoil anything for anybody, so, I'm not even going to talk about the movie! Episode VII is the first Star Wars movie I've seen in a theater since The Phantom Menace that came out in 1999. As a movie experience this one was very exciting! After watching the movie I'm feeling very optimistic about the future installments, but at the same time I'm kind of feeling empty inside. For a brief moment the wait was over, but now it feels like forever before we get Episode VIII.....

Oh well, there's now a whole load of new stuff to collect....!

All You Need Is Kill / Edge of Tomorrow

All You Need Is Kill:

Original story: Hiroshi Sakurazaka

Illustrated screenplay: Ryosuke Takeuchi

Character design: yoshitoshi ABe

Art: Takeshi Obata

Edge of Tomorrow: 

A film adaptation from director Doug Liman 

Starring Tom Cruise,Emily Blunt

1h 54 min

Note: I tried writing this spoiler free, but I can't promise that minor spoiler wouldn't appear. Sorry. Also, I haven't had a chance to read the novel that the manga originated from, therefore I can only judge the movie based on my experience of the manga. I've read the Finnish edition of the manga and I'm writing this in English, so most likely some of the terms I use will differ from any official English translation.

Summary of AYNIK:
The united armies of mankind (United Defense Force) are at war against alien lifeforms known as mimics. One day, a Japanese rookie soldier named Keiji Kiriya dies during a battle. However, instead of staying dead, Kiriya wakes up, alive and well, in his bed at the military base and brushes off his violent death as a wacky dream. But then he dies again, and before too long, Kiriya realizes that he is re-living the day before the battle in an endless loop while the people around him are unaware of this. Kiriya tries to escape his death on the battlefield by running away from the military base, but is killed. He wakes up in his bed and shortly after, commits suicide. All his attempts are futile, he just keeps waking up on the day before the battle. Kiriya comes to the conclusion that he has to survive the battle, in hopes to break out of the loop. So he spends the same day in and out training and preparing himself for the fight ahead of him. With every battle ending in his death, Kiriya's skills improve and he survives for longer periods of time. During his 158th time on the battlefield, he comes face to face with Rita Vrataski, an American soldier who is hailed to be the best mimic killer in the world. It turns out that Rita is also caught in the same timeloop as Kiriya, and so the two decide to work together in order to break out of the loop and save mankind from the mimics.

teethed balls of death vs. starfish spaghetti monsters

Summary of EoT:
Well, we have the invading alien army. We have a character who wakes up the day earlier whenever he dies, and there's a woman named Rita Vrataski. Those three facts remain intact from the original version, although some alterations have been made on them. The story line is basically the same, although the setting of the big battle is moved from Japan to central Europe. The biggest changes are the explanation on how the time loop, created by the mimics, works and also the main character. They abandon the role of the private Keiji Kiriya in favor for Major William Cage, US Army Media Relations, played by Tom Cruise. The character of Cage in the beginning of the movie is more like a recruiter and not an actual soldier. Cage gets himself sent out in the battle as a punishment of insubordination, despite having no training on how to use the military mobile suit in combat. It takes Cage a few deaths as well to realize something isn't right. Before too long, Cage meets up with Rita and they start working together to rid the world of the mimics.

As with any story that includes some aspect of time travel, it can be confusing at times. Although, the movie and the manga don't play by the same rules on how the time loop works, I felt that the manga did a better job explaining its version of the rules while the movie's was altogether more confusing and to top it off, the ending threw all the rules out the window in favor for a very dislikable, cliché Hollywood ending.

I think there is a problem with the main character in both versions. Kiriya looks like a black haired Light Yagami, he stands out too much in the wrong way. I don't remember Kiriya's age being mentioned in the manga, but he looks way too young compared to the other soldiers appearing as support/background characters in the comic. The movie doesn't do much better, as Tom Cruise is too old for the role. It's sad when the looks of the side characters are much more believable in the story, making the main character feel out of place. Still, I will say that Tom Cruise does a good job acting in this, transcending from this smug and arrogant PR person, into a scared rookie and then into an expert soldier.

However, in the manga, there's something that bugs me even more than the main characters looks, mainly the women. There are basically only three females included in the story, our second main character Rita the badass soldier, a slutty cook and a mechanic. All of them are drawn way too young and cute in a very stereotypical manga way, in order for me to take them seriously. Since the manga is only two volumes long, I understand that the side characters won't be developed very well, but the women, except for Rita, seem to be unaffected about the destruction of humanity around them and they plain and simple, don't fit very well in the world the manga is trying to create. To be fair, the movie doesn't really do any better with its representation of women either. A little better, but not much.

Because of the restrictions of the story's length the storytelling has to move forward at a fast pace and some corners had to be cut in the development of the world these characters live in. The manga paints a really sad picture of the state of the army. They are sending soldiers to fight overwhelming enemies with ineffective weapons! Machine guns, rocket launchers and other explosives are practically ineffective against the mimics. The only weapon in the army's arsenal that may critically injure a Mimic is a pile driver-like weapon that fire lances. The downside is, that the weapon has an ammo limit of 20 and in order to fatally wound a mimic, a soldier would have to be standing right next to one of the deadly creatures. The reason Kiriya and Rita survive is because they abandon the army's choice of weapons and instead they use custom made battle-axes (although there are some inconsistencies in there, in one of Rita's flashbacks we see her using a machine gun against the mimics and it seems to do the job just fine).
The movie fancies machine guns, grenades and mines as the army's weapons which aren't quite imaginative when compared to the manga. Rita is shown to wield a big sword a few times, but not in the same extent like her ax master manga counterpart.

 

I have to say that the film's version of the armored battle suits looks just ridiculous. They look so heavy and slow, it's no wonder the mimics are kicking humanity's ass. It appears like the battle suits were designed only to help the soldier carry the heavy weapons mounted on the suit rather than to protect the individual inside the suit from injury. Granted, the suits didn't stop anybody from dying in the manga, but at least it looked like it could protect its carriers from some damage. The EoT's version leaves their operators as open targets. Right now, if I had to choose which version's suits looks better I'd go with the suits that appeared in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra)

Couldn't find a good screenshot from the G.I. movie. Picture from here. 

The manga does not shy away from showing off the mutilation of Kiriya, which is very fitting for a story that makes the death of its main character a major plot point. The only time we get to "enjoy" watching Tom Cruise's Cage's gruesome death is the first time he dies, otherwise he usually meets his end off screen or in a generic explosion. The movie could have been slightly better if they wouldn't have been so afraid to amp up some gore. All the deaths in the movie are so ineffective because we are never shown anything. EoT is essentially a sci-fi war movie and we barely get to see any blood! How about showing us a few torn up limbs here and there or an aftermath of an explosion? Anything!

The way the character of Rita Vrataski was handled in the film left something to be desired. The manga has three chapters dedicated to Rita's backstory while in the movie pretty much ignores Rita's past. Manga Rita seems more humane, while movie Rita is portrayed to be just a tough bitch. Then the movie specifically makes a point on how Rita doesn't like to be called a bitch at the same time they make her act like one. A good example to demonstrate the differences between the two Ritas is in one short scene that can be found in both versions. In the movie, Cage is fatally injured and Rita walks up to him, removes the battery from his mobile suit and walks away, leaving him to die. While in the manga, Rita tells Kiriya that she will wait by his side until he dies, and then she will take the battery from his suit. (What we're missing here is a third Rita, that would first put Kiriya/Cage out of his misery and then take the damn battery....) In the manga, Kiriya looks up to Rita and he becomes her equal through his own efforts, but the movie manages to turn things around that Cage, who was trained by Rita, has to save Rita from dying (making her into a "damsel in distress" while she's being a bitch about it).

As a standalone movie, and if you can avoid comparing it to its source material, Edge of Tomorrow is a decent film, and unintentionally funny at times. I'd probably recommend you watch the movie before reading any of its source material, that way the movie won't be as disappointing and possibly more enjoyable. Warning: the song playing over the ending credits is just atrocious and totally kills the mood of the film, even if the ending itself is already horrible. In conclusion, despite my whining over some stuff, the manga is the superior version out of the two. Especially the ending.

Not suitable for anyone under the age of 14

Funko Pop! Movies super-stylized Alien vinyl figure and Star Wars Clone Wars Darth Maul bust bank!

I got these two lovelies in February and do you know what's special about 5th of February?  Well, it's the birthday of the Swiss artist and creator of the Alien (aka Xenomorph) monster H.R. Giger (d. 12 May 2014), coincidentally, this date also happens to be my birthday. So, I'm more than happy to add this chibi Xeno into my still very scarce Alien collection.

I'm not gonna lie. I did think twice before I bought this, but my mind was weak and so here we are. Initially I thought that there was something very disturbing about this bust, mainly the fact that Maul is actually smiling or alternatively *le evil grin* but I have gotten used to it now. I love the details put in the gauntlets on his forearms. However..... <entering nitpicking mode> ..... there are some spots of white paint on the lower lip and the tattoos aren't that well painted on if you look closely.

It just so happened that I bought these two from the same place, so they were shipped in the same box. However, the way these things were packed left something to be desired for. The Maul bust was loose and didn't come with any original packaging (or any kind of protection for that matter). So the bust was basically shoved down on top of the Alien figure's box, slightly damaging it. So its original box got a bit crumbled, but the Alien figure itself is fine, no big deal. Same thing can't unfortunately be said of our red, horn headed friend here. I can only imagine that the horn's have been rubbing against the box for the whole postal trip, resulting some paint being scraped off of a few horns. Which is a little disappointing to say the least. I mean for Pete's sake, all you needed to prevent this was a small piece of bubble wrap if you didn't have enough to cover the whole damn thing! Ò ‸ Ó

And what's up with this post's title? Well, that was just something that was written on the bottom of the Alien's box. It sounds absurd and a little over exaggerated in my opinion. Oh, and the Darth Maul bank? Age recommendation is only 8+!  ＼（＾▽＾）／

The Lion King Collection

Here is again a post of my humble collection of things I never threw away in honor of the big news that I just found out about today. Disney is making a sequel to The Lion King in the form of a TV-movie and show! Read more here http://tvline.com/2014/06/10/disney-junior-lion-king-sequel-series-the-lion-guard/

Isn't that neat or what? Okay, so the show is going to be aimed for younger kids (age 2-7), which sounds a little weird first, but then again who cares? The back of the VHS tape's says that the age recommendation is from 8 years and up (on the Blu-ray it's 7 years). I remember that I was only 4 or 5 years old when I saw the original movie in theaters. Besides this new show is bound to be more kid friendly because they probably already took care of all the family feuds they could think up in the movies, no more daddies thrown down the cliffs by evil uncles or murderous/suicidal mother-in-laws........ awww! ( ಠ_ಠ)

Naturally, I have the two movies. For the record, I haven't seen The Lion King 1 ½ (or 3 depending on which country you're from) because I've only heard bad things about it.

Original trio. I've had these three figures since my childhood, Sarabi was the first one I got and the Scar figure was originally my brother's. On the Simba & Nala figure there is a clearly visible seam, as a kid, I used to try to tear them apart from each other! Now in hindsight, I'm glad I never managed to do that. :D Sadly, there are some irremovable smudges on the figures and the original paint is worn out here and there.

I think I got the Pumba figure from a relative and I bought the two Simba figures (the other one is significantly more scuffed up) from a flea market together with....

....sleeping Mufasa and Simba figure, which is so adorable!

Kiara or Simba? iron on patch. Honestly, I have no recollection of how this came into my possession, but it's cute all the same.

 

Happy Meal toys Kovu x2 and Zira. Not exactly the prettiest ones around, if you squeeze the toys they make a noise that sounds more like a pig rather than a lion. I found this old French McDonald's commercial on YouTube promoting these toy's  http://youtu.be/nlskILl_7Hc

 

Smarties tube toppers. Kiara with a butterfly, a very creepy roaring Simba and a broken one which was Rafiki holding cub Kiara. The tail feathers of Zazu, which is all that remains, came from something called Nestlé Magic Chocolate Surprise egg and amazingly there is even a video about those on YouTube  http://youtu.be/vrdpvI9yx6o

Coloring book with mazes, connect the dots, find five differences and so on. Here are a few selected pages from the book, I can't really tell the difference which pages were done by my brother and which ones I colored.

Nailed it!

*Update 07.03.15
Apparently I have a few stickers as well!

*Update 28.03.15

Found a children's book, the whole story of the movie in 4 pages! And the cub is a boy!

*Update 14.04.15

Zazu has been reunited with his tail feathers! I can't believe I found it... 

Something Alien this way comes...

Well, it has been a very quiet month and I can only blame my total lack of focus for this. Sometimes it is just so freaking hard to form sentences and today is one of those days!
To put it shortly, I wanted to share these two glitches that I've encountered so far in my play through of Alien Isolation. The first one is about when the playable character Ripley has sunken halfway through the floor and gets stuck in the small surrounding area, which makes you unable to move forward in the game. This was fixed by reloading and by not doing what the game tells you to do. The second one is some random floating guns, that may have been caused by reloading the game. What a tease! You are allowed to scavenge for some other materials in the game, but an extra gun? DENIED!






Bonus! Here is an small AvP painting I did maybe in 2012 (I'm not really good at putting dates on my paintings either). Height 12 cm and width 18,5 cm.