Brad's World

Inception: A Dream Within A Dream

2011-01-30T18:53:00.000-08:00

             I just bought this movie on blue-ray format a few days ago, however I have seen it about 3 or 4 times before my purchase of it, both in the theaters and streaming video online. This film is most definitely one of my favorite movies of all time, the music, the story, and the characters are rich with life and deep in detail. This is the kind of film that makes you want to take a second watch to truly understand all it's concepts and many entangled plot points, but It's all explained and presented in a way where it isn't all too hard to not understand, you just have to pay attention and take each scene into importance for later reference.

             The movie centers around dreams and how the subconscious mind can be tricked or manipulated by thieves known as Extractors, making a living stealing the deepest most secrets from people's minds who have a far way down to fall, such as powerful business men. This movie really feels like a video game made real with flesh and blood actors as there are many shared elements such as levels and each member of the team has a sort of job class with unique abilities as well as rules of whatever particular mission is presented to them.

             Inception is really difficult to put into words, as it's so visually stunning and i recommend anyone to experience it as it will have you question many things and can strike up some nice theories and debate. Chris Nolan (director of The Dark Knight) crafted this epic and it carries many of his signature motifs and directing style that he has come up with throughout his career. The cast also works well together and they bring there own emotional layers to Inception.

             I could go on and on talking about this film and it's one of those movies I can watch over and over again and never tire if it, it's great fun from beginning to end and it's blend of sci-fi,action thriller,drama and psychological expression are right up my alley. I really hope more stories like this that are inspired by real life issues and human behaviour but are shown in a very fantastical vision come around more often in the near future.

             Please comment and thanks for the visit, hopefully whoever reads this had at least some enjoyment of Inception but if not I would like to hear what you didn't like or whatever general thoughts you have on the subject of dreams, films or anything you feel that relates or can expand this blog.

Superman: The Man of Steel

2011-01-26T22:33:00.000-08:00

                There have been many interpretations of the character Superman, each carries the core elements of what makes Superman who he is, but with slight twist to keep the character fresh to whatever generation of fans the writers are trying to appeal to. I was introduced to Superman the same way I was with Batman which was in animated form when i was a kid during the 90s.

                I didn't see the first two Superman movies that starred Christopher Reeves until i was in my teen years and even though at the time they were made, they lacked the visual effects my generation grew up with, they still were fun to watch and the characters were acted, where you believed an all powerful being like Superman could still have human emotions and relate to the world around us.

                 My real love of Superman was brought upon watching the live action TV series Smallville, which was a natural step up for me after watching the animated series for awhile. Smallville much like the film Batman Begins, showed Superman's origins in his home town of Smallville where he battled various super powered enemies and dealt with normal teenage trials, all while trying to fulfill his life's journey of becoming Earth's greatest hero.

                 The most recent interpretation of Superman was the film Superman Returns that was released in 2006 which was not a terrible film in my opinion, it still did not hold up enough value for the critics and made less money then expected. So like most potential franchises that don't sore as high as their makers would have liked, there is another Superman movie to be released in 2012 and this time it's going to be a complete reboot, other than Superman Returns which was a sequel to the Christopher Reeves films and is going to be directed by Zack Snyder (300,Watchmen).

                 Superman has been around for 70+ years, even longer than Batman for that matter and as long as there is film, television and video games, Superman will be around I expect for another 70+ years and why not? he's awesome.

                  Thanks for checking out this posting and please share whatever thoughts you may have on this topic or anything related to it, come again!

Batman: The Dark Knight

2011-01-23T16:18:00.000-08:00

       This is my first blog posting and I'd like to start off by giving a shout out to my cousin Robert Chapman, who introduced me to blogging through his own blog called Bob's Blog, where for awhile now I've been commenting on various postings of his, so if you haven't already, go check it out.

       My first topic of choice is something I've been thinking about for a few years now, even more quite recently and that is The Dark Knight Rises, which is the third and possibly last film in director Christopher Nolan's re-imaging of Batman.

        I guess my fascination with the Batman started when i was a kid, around five years old, i use to watch the animated series that regularly aired on the Fox Kids network back in the 90s. This series although animated, was quite violent for a kids' cartoon but they never depicted anyone being killed, it also had some scary moments especially when it came to the villains like clayface, joker and poison ivy. I remember jumping up and down on my coach wearing my what I thought were very cool batman pajamas while pretending to be Batman as I watched the animated series, good times.

When Tim Burton's Batman flick came out in 1989 i wasn't even born yet, just a few weeks shy of it's release and when it's sequel Batman Returns came out in 1992, I was just about to turn three years old, the third installment Batman Forever came out in 1995, I was 6 years old. I was already into watching batman in animated form on the small screen, so you can imagine at 6 years old seeing a real life batman blew my mind, then came Batman & Robin in 1997 which I hate to even mention but was a complete box office bomb to say the least. Later on in my life I would eventually look back on these campy versions of batman as even more ridiculous but it was all good fun and these films were precious moments in my early childhood.

      There was a big eight year cap between when Batman & Robin came out in 1997 and when Christopher Nolan came out with his own darker, more realistic version of batman in 2005, which acted as a origin story of how Bruce Wayne created his legendary bat persona for the first time, the film was appropriately called Batman Begins. At the time Batman Begins came out, I was just about to turn 16 years old and i was in high school, where like me some other teenagers probably felt alienated at times and it was hard for me to make friends, all I wanted to do was get away and go somewhere else to find my reason in life or whatever, so I could identity with Christopher Nolan's Batman when I first saw it on the silver screen, I thought it was amazing and I couldn't wait for a sequel.

Then it came, The Dark Knight in 2008 and it was even better than Batman Begins, which was a huge relief, it ended up becoming one of the highest grossing films of all time. Now again i wait patiently for The Dark Knight Rises and with the recent casting of Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman and Tom Hardy (who by the way was excellent in another Christopher Nolan movie called Inception) he'll be playing a very different character named Bane, so I'm very curious about what surprises and thrills will be coming in summer 2012 when the film is officially released.

   Well I guess that's all my thoughts on Batman, so I'll finish this post by saying thanks for anyone who has or may take an interest of this posting, I really appreciate it.