Dead Space

I had seen the trailer for Pandorum only once, and back then it struck me as very similar to Dead Space, the Electronic Arts game I was playing a few months ago. It combined horror and sci-fi, and I found myself irresistibly attracted to such a proposition.

Pandorum, starring Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster, unveils its mysteries slowly and keeps the tension and the suspense building from beginning to end. By the time you get to the final scene you think you know some things, but I doubt you will be right about all of them. (I sure wasn't.) The movie kept me guessing the whole time, and even though the first and third acts are vastly superior to its weaker and more unoriginal second one, it still was a fun time at the movies. And did I mention that Antje Traue looks crazy hot as the badass Nadia? Just one more reason to go open this box.

Epic

FlashForward is a new ABC sow whose first episode aired last Thursday. Actually, this show is the only one this new TV season that looks interesting, at least to me, and I was therefore interested in checking it out. You can watch it on ABC.com to judge for yourselves, but I thought it was great.

The premise of the show, which is based on a book by Robert J. Sawyer is really neat: the whole world blacks out at the same time for two minutes and seventeen seconds, and during that time they all experience a flashforward where they see themselves six months from then. The things some characters see in their future are good, but in some other cases, well… not so much.

Does this sound interesting? I thought this first episode was very well written, and I was glued to my screen for the forty-three minutes it lasted. I am interested in the characters, what they have seen, and how they are either going to fight to get there or to prevent it from happening. So check it out, because I think you will like it!

Perfect Bodies

I had wanted to see Surrogates since I first saw the trailer a few months ago. The movie, directed by Jonathan Mostow, is based on a comic book published by Top Shelf that I have never read, and that, judging from the artwork, I never will. The movie, however, was a different matter altogether, because it looked great, even though it was written by the same people who inflicted Terminator 3, Catwoman and Terminator Salvation upon us. That made me a little bit nervous, but I was willing to take my chances.

Bruce Willis and Rhada Mitchell star as FBI agents in this futuristic tale in which humans interact with each other through surrogates. It is like using Facebook and texting but taken to the Nth power. People stay home all day long and send their surrogates to work. But it's not just that. These people barely ever unplug and leave their control stations. When they want to go out, they do so through their surrogates. When they want to make out, they do so through their machines. When they go shopping, it is their robots they send. There is no human contact anymore, and everyone can be whoever they want to be, look the way they want to look (ie, perfect skin, perfect boobs, perfect hair), and act the way they want to act. There's barely any crime anymore, and everyone is happy. Or are they?

If this sounds unsettlingly familiar is because it is. This is the Internet taken to the extreme, the current communications technology amped up to its ridiculous maximum, and our humanity dehumanized to the fullest. Is this where we're headed?

Social commentary aside, Surrogates is a crime story. Somebody is killing people through their surrogates, something that should be impossible but that it is happening all the same. Agents Greer (Willis) and Peters (Mitchell) get involved in this investigation in which nothing and (especially) nobody is what they seem, and their struggles and adventures kept me interested from beginning to end.

I enjoyed the movie very much, and I certainly recommend it to everyone. And if you have read the comic book, let us know how faithful an adaptation the film was!

Nachezno

Mi querido coblogueador Nash, el Azote de Falsas Beldades, el Enemigo de los Orondos Mofletes, el General Alicantino, señaló el otro día lo mucho que le gustaba mi dibujo (bastante tontorrón, en mi opinión) de mí mismo vestido de Spider-Man, y dijo que podía hacer uno de él vestido de Lobezno. Y tal y como sucedió con su sugerencia para la fenomenal serie Amores estúpidos entre vampiros y tías tontas (que a ver si continúo), su sugerencia encendió el muchas veces adormecido fuego de mi imaginación, y me puse manos a la obra. Cincuenta minutos después de abrir la libreta y coger el lápiz, Nachezno había nacido para vivir, a buen seguro, incontables aventuras en las hiperactivas imaginaciones de los lectores de este vuestro blog. (Hay que ver que pendante que puedo llegar a ser.) Prolijidad verbal a un lado, ahí queda el dibujo de este dudoso superhéroe. Espero que os guste!

Leia: Episode II

El otro día os enseñé un dibujillo de la princesa Leia que hice en clase con mis niñas en quince minutos. Si recordáis, os dije que quería rehacerlo para que quedara mejor, y el resultado lo podéis ver acompañando estas líneas. Este dibujo lo hice en cuarenta minutos más o menos, y hasta tuve tiempo (y energía) para incluir a R2-D2, ese entrañable droide bajito y rechoncho. En fin: espero que os guste!

It's Raining Ham

Looks like I saved the best movie for last. I went to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs last Sunday, the day after going to see Jennifer's Body, which I saw the day after seeing The Informant! Fortunately, each movie turned out to be better than the previous one.

CWACOM is, like the title would lead you to believe, a delirious adventure packed with impossible events, surreal turns, and all the whimsy and mad creativity you could imagine. At the same time, the script also includes all the inescapable beats, such as a hard-to-please dad, an oddball main character (Flint, voiced by Bill Hader), an unexpected (by him) romantic interest (Sam, voiced by Anna Faris), and my all-time favorite: the determination to chase your dreams. I don't know how much of this is featured in the children's book the film is based on, but seeing the book is 32 pages long, I have a feeling a lot of it came from the screenwriters' imagination.

The movie is laugh-out-loud funny but it also packs lots of dry humor and hilarious comments the different characters just deadpan. ("Lets rock this car back and forth," states a member of an angry mob before proceeding to, well, rock said car back and forth like any self-respecting mob tends to do.) And said characters are voiced by a veritable army of unexpectedly familiar faces: Benjamin Bratt, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Lauren Graham, and Neil Patrick Harris, in addition to the aforementioned Bill Hader and Anna Faris. Plus the two actors that caught me completely unaware: Bruce Campbell, and the one and only Mr. T!

The character design was cool, with big heads and spaghetti-thin bodies and limbs, the animation was great, and the attention to detail was out of this world. The universe of CWACOM is vividly colorful and delightfully rendered, and those ice-cream-covered houses looked really yummy.

All in all, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was a pleasant surprise, and if you want to spend a good time at the movies, do not hesitate and check it out.

Cartoony Leia

This was the other picture I drew last Friday with my girls. Like the first one, it took me about fifteen minutes, and it only looks mildly creepy. Somehow, we got talking about Princess Leia, and I thought I'd give it a try. She didn't turn out exactly cute, so maybe I'll redo it with more time and more curves. Now that sounds like a good idea...