Official Press Release – 9/20/2011: Warner Home Video, Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation proudly present an action-packed hour of first looks at DC Universe Animated Original Movies properties on Friday, October 14 from 3:00-4:00 p.m. at New York Comic Con.

Central to the panel will be the world premiere of the animated short Catwoman, starring Eliza Dushku (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse) as the voice of title character. The 15-minute short will be included on the release of Batman: Year One, which streets October 18 on Blu-ray, DVD, for Download and On Demand.

The panel will also include the very first footage to be seen from Justice League: Doom, the highly-anticipated next entry in the ongoing series of DC Universe Animated Original Movies.

The panelists, which include the ultimate voice of Batman, Kevin Conroy, DCU executive producer Bruce Timm and casting/dialogue director Andrea Romano, will offer a glimpse into the 2012 DC Universe Animated Original Movies slate, give away some exclusive prizes to inquisitive audience members, and quite possibly welcome a few surprise guests to the stage.

An autograph session with the panelists will immediately follow the panel.

– Big Shiny Robot will be at NY Comic-con! Will you? Be sure to check out Big Shiny Robot for all your New York Comic-con 2011 news! –

After spending numerous years at the top of the “Best Unproduced Screenplay” list Seth Locheand and David Farr’s Hanna finally made it to the big screen with Joe Wright (Atonement, The Soloist) at its helm. The film stars Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones) as Hanna, a young girl raised in isolation by her father (Eric Bana). Hanna has been trained as an assassin so that she might one day track down Marissa (Cate Blanchett), the intelligence agent responsible for her mother’s death.

Hanna feels like it takes place in a parallel world where violence is constantly lurking behind the heightened reality. It’s not quite as gritty as Leon: The Professional or as comic book as Kick-Ass but it is equally as quirky and occasionally bizarre. It is these strange, seemingly Terry Gilliam influenced, moments that the film works best. The rundown fantasy theme park being my favorite setting as it effectively balances the violence of Hanna’s world with the childlike innocence that she also possesses.

I loved Hanna when I saw it in theaters. Watching the film a second time wasn’t nearly as exhilarating as the middle section of the film where Hanna travels with a bohemian family seemed slower and less interesting when compared to the rest of the movie. That complaint aside, Hanna is a wildly entertaining ride.

Bonus features include a great audio commentary with Joe Wright that covers just about everything you’d want to know about the making of the film. There is also an alternate ending that is more or less an additional scene that could have easily been added to the theatrical release or as an after-credits scene. It doesn’t change the story; it just briefly expands it. The rest of the extra content is made up of brief behind-the-scenes featurettes and glossy promotional material.

There’s something strange about Trainspotting that I’ve never been able to explain. Its story is about Renton (Ewan McGregor before anyone knew who Ewan McGregor was) a drug addict trying to break his habit while his friends disintegrate as they slip deeper into the numb haze of heroin abuse. And yet, despite its depressing plot, Trainspotting is an exhilarating cinematic experience. Somehow through all the muck, filth and deprivation the film inspires its audience to celebrate life. This might lead you to believe that the film glorifies drug abuse; it doesn’t. You’d be hard pressed to find a more devastating storyline than Tommy’s decent into addiction (which runs parallel with Renton’s ascent).

I remember seeing the film for the first time in one of the posh theaters in London’s Leicester Square. I hadn’t seen director Danny Boyle’s debut feature Shallow Grave but the reviews for Trainspotting were excellent so I paid the outrageous ticket price for an evening screening. I wasn’t quite sure of what I was walking into, but with a film like Trainspotting there’s really nothing that can prepare you for what you’re about to see. Following the film I was so enthused that I instantly bought the soundtrack and decided to drop in on one of the dance clubs in Soho rather than heading home to study. The idea of sitting still, when there were so many other ways to celebrate life, seemed like a waste of my cinematic induced adrenaline.

At the time, this was 1996, the only film I could really compare Trainspotting to was Pulp Fiction and while there are similarities between the two you’d never confuse one for the other. Returning to the film for the first time since its 2003 DVD release I’m pleased to find that the film hasn’t lost its edge or its humor. It also seems painfully clear that the film, at least in part, contributed to the international success of Guy Ritchie’s films (beginning with 1998’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and how its themes are mirrored in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream. The cast is phenomenal. McGregor gets most of the credit but Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle, Peter Mullan and Kelly Macdonald all deserve a slice of the spotlight. Boyle has of course gone on to establish himself as a phenomenal director with films like 28 Days Later…, 127 Hours, Millions, Sunshine and the Academy Award winning Slumdog Millionaire.

Lionsgate’s Blu-ray release looks wonderful and sounds even better. Despite the film’s limited budget Boyle, along with the help of cinematographer Brian Tufano, were able to create a vivid world bursting with color that looks gorgeous in high definition.

Bonus features mirror the 2003 DVD release, which is a little disappointing but not unexpected. Fortunately the 2003 release included a fantastic audio commentary with Boyle, McGregor, writer John Hodge and producer Andrew Macdonald. There are a handful of throwaway deleted scenes, a retrospective from 2003, a glossy behind-the-scenes featurette, interviews from the film’s showing at Cannes in 1996, a gallery of images and a pair of trailers.

A man (Adrien Brody) wakes up in a wreck car in the middle of a forest. His leg is pinned beneath the dash, there’s a dead man in the backseat and he has no recollection of how he got there or who he is. As the hours pass the man is haunted by snippets of memories and hallucinations as he slips in and out of consciousness.

Initially Wrecked feels very much like Buried and 127 Hours but eventually strays from that formula for much of the second half of the film. Director Michael Greenspan does a commendable job with Christopher Dodd’s screenplay but the film, even at only 91 minutes, feels entirely too long. The tension that exists at the beginning of the film isn’t sustained throughout. I assume that Greenspan and Dodd expected the mystery of the man’s identity and what exactly happened before he woke to carry the second half of the film but it doesn’t quite work. Brody gives a nice performance but ultimately he isn’t given enough to do. Wrecked is interesting but never as compelling as it needs to be. The film is worth a rent but I don’t see it having much replay value.

Bonus features are limited to some behind-the-scenes footage and the crew discussing the difficulties of filming in the middle of a forest. The theatrical trailer is also included but I highly recommend not watching it because it reveals too much and robs the film of its biggest twist.

Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti) is a lawyer and high school wrestling coach struggling to hold his life together as the economic downturn threatens to take his practice and rip apart his marriage. When an unethical way to make money off of an elderly client presents itself Flaherty risks it all for a little financial stability. But when his client’s teenage grandson shows up unannounced Flaherty is forced to take him.

Writer/director Thomas McCarthy’s (The Station Agent) Win Win mixes an ample amount of humor with a dose of reality to create one of the better films from 2011’s Sundance Film Festival. Along with Giamatti, the wonderful cast includes Amy Ryan, Jeffery Tambor and a breakout performance from Alex Shaffer as troubled teen Kyle.

Win Win could have taken the easy way out and offered up a more “crowd pleasing” ending, but it would have robbed the film of its credibility. Win Win is a great film because it feels honest rather than contrived and that’s refreshing and rare, even in an indie film.

Bonus features two deleted scenes, a pair of fluffy promo pieces, a music video for The National’s “Think You Can Wait” and an amusing walk down Main Street in Park City. Considering how celebrated the film has been I’m a little shocked that there isn’t an audio commentary.

Either Netflix’s blog got hacked, or hold on to your red envelopes.

Via their blog, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings offered the following apology:

I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation.

It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming, and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology.

Wow. Humility from an American CEO. Next thing you know, George Lucas will apologize for the “Nooooo!!!!” he added in Jedi and Greedo shooting first.

But in the vein of “that’s awesome. . .   whaaaaaAA?!?!!” in the same blog post Hastings announced the seperation of Netflix’s business into two seperate services.  Netflix will become a streaming-only service. If you want your DVDs and Blu-rays in those little red envelopes, you’ll be using their new service Qwikster.

Qwikster, aside from being a stupid name that sounds like a rejected character from The Phantom Menace, will offerns fans something they’ve wanted for a long time: video games! So, if you don’t already use Gamefly or Redbox, then you can get your games from Netflix Qwikster too.

This is obviously an attempt to stop the bleeding on their ailing stock price, which has slid over 20% since they announced last week that they were downgrading their expectations of how many subscribers they would have.

For full disclosure’s sake, as I write this I sit here watching Star Trek on Netflix instant streaming. When Netflix announced they were separating their charges for DVDs and streaming, I was actually happy. It saves me money every month, since I cancelled my DVDS. I think in a year and a half of dvds by mail, I had rented exactly four movies: Avatar on Blu-ray, 8: The Mormon Proposition, MI:5, Season 5, disc 1 (before it became available on streaming) and Gasland. That’s it. Meanwhile, we cancelled our cable and got a Roku Box specifically for streaming.

What I mean by this, in my opinion, is that streaming is the future for Netflix. They ought to focus on this, and renewing their partnerships with Starz or other media outlets, if they want to stay relevant and not become merely a source of junk films and tv shows that few people want to watch.

Although as long as they keep Dora, Diego, The Backyardigans, Phineas and Ferb, and Yo Gabba Gabba for the kids, Star Trek and Arrested Development for me, and The Young Riders, MI:5, and Robin Hood for my wife, we will continue to subscribe.

There is so much material crammed onto the Star Wars Complete Saga Blu-ray set that it’s difficult to know where to begin.

Instead of leaving an elephant in the room throughout the whole review, we’ll address the few changes to the films first. There are some changes made to the films and you’ve read all about them. As I’ve watched through the films in what little time I’ve had, I haven’t noticed anything major outside what’s been discussed. There are no evil surprises lurking in some unknown corner of the films for you. The changes that had attention brought to them were clearly the biggest, most notable changes that people took umbrage with. There were a number of great changes made, though. In the prequels, most of them involved polishing up effects that had instances of clipping in them, other effects were cleaned up. One of my favorite changes so far has been an update to Han being unfrozen in carbonite. If you’re not a giant Star Wars nerd you won’t even notice anything’s been done.

But there are two things I want to say about the changes:

Firstly, whether there are changes on this particular version you disagree with or not, you knew going into this set that there were going to be changes from the original theatrical releases that you didn’t like. One or two more shouldn’t enter into your decision whether or not you buy this set.

Secondly, for the most part, the vast majority of the changes are invisible. They are the upgrades to sound and picture quality people have been asking for all these long years. There are massive stretches of film where there isn’t a single, perceptible change in the films. People talk about the Special Editions as though George Lucas took a giant digital crayon to every frame of the film and it simply isn’t the case. I understand that for some people, some of the changes take you out of the film. I understand and respect that, but you knew that going in when you pre-ordered your Blu-ray set, a few more isn’t any reason to cancel your pre-order, especially since the original three films make up barely a third of the reason you’d buy the set.

Now that that’s out of the way, we can talk about everything else. I’ve tried to divide things up in some logical manner so you can skip ahead to what you’re interested in reading about. It’s a big set and this is going to be a big review. I’ll go over Picture and Sound Quality, Deleted Scenes, Documentaries, and Other Bonus Features. Hopefully, that will give you an idea of what I think of the set overall.

Picture and Sound Quality

One of my fondest memories was the first time I popped in my VHS tape of the brand new widescreen THX release of the Star Wars films in 1995 and thinking to myself, “Wow. These films have never looked better and I don’t see how they could with anything less than a movie theatre.” I was an incredibly naive 15 year old boy back then and the picture quality has improved so much with each subsequent release it’s ridiculous. Lucasfilm has consistently been able to maximize the most of every format they’ve released the films in and this Blu-ray is no exception. The picture and the colors and the sound is absolutely stunning.

The films are all crisp and clear, adding a definition and subtlety of color to them that I’m not even sure I realized watching the films on 35mm in 1997. Nothing about it, though, looks unnatural. There’s still that worn in grain and lived in feeling to the films. It’s not super-sharp in that live televised football sort of way. It’s much more painterly than that. Watching the films in the past you got that “lived in” look, but never has it been more apparent how “used” the Star Wars universe is. The painstaking attention to detail across all six films comes out when you can see the textures of cloth and furniture and set pieces and sets and props. It’s astounding.

The colors are brilliant and have never looked better. Ever. On the big screen or otherwise. As I write this, I’m rewatching The Empire Strikes Back and watching the Milennium Falcon make its escape from Cloud City and I can’t imagine the lighting looking any more beautiful. Maybe it’s because I’ve come to appreciate good lighting more and more over the years, but the films (aside from the minor changes) look flawless. It really has to be seen to be believed. All of the films look fantastic, but I have to say, Revenge of the Sith and The Empire Strikes Back are the standouts in picture quality. I’m not sure if it’s because more care and love were put into them or if they were just shot better, but they looked…more flawless than the rest.

And the sound… The sound mix (aside from one infamous addition) is utterly breathtaking and it taxes my sound system to the limit. In fact, this set might be the reason I upgrade (and get a bigger TV). I tested the films in a system with much better sound than mine and I felt like I was in a THX certified movie theatre. It was all mapped perfectly, the music was sweet and golden, and everything came together beautifully. Like I said, they’ve once again outdone themselves with the medium at hand.

Deleted Scenes

I was curious as to why the deleted scenes from the previous releases of the prequels weren’t included on this set. Not that I’d get rid of my old sets anyway, it’s just slightly annoying that my bonus features are spread over twenty some odd discs. But in some ways, that’s a good thing. We weren’t given the same material regurgitated over and over again. All of the behind the scenes material and deleted scenes featured are all new to this set. And there’s nothing more awe-inspiring than seeing new material from the Star Wars films we all know and love.

This is one of the biggest reasons to get the set. These are the historical documents of filmmaking attrition that we can learn from.

I’ll break the deleted scenes down by film:

Episode I and Episode II – There’s a reason these are deleted scenes. There’s not much to see here, just bits of scenes and animatics. nothing mind-blowingly impressive.

Episode III – By far, the best deleted scene for the prequels included in this set is the animatic directed by Steven Spielberg of the Obi-wan/Grievous chase. Spielberg wanted a first hand primer in how to work an animatic and supervised the making of this one. It’s VERY impressive and has a lot of flourishes that would have been nice to see in the final film (though some did find their way inside). The only problem with this sequence is that it went on for far too long.

The other major deleted scene from Episode III is the an animatic of Order 66 as it was originally to occur, combining the Wookiee attack and Order 66 simultaneously. Obviously it’s different and not as emotionally disturbing as the final version, but they did show what was to be the end of Quinlan Vos. It was brutal and amazing and would have been great to see in the final film.

A piece of a scene had clones guarding the Jedi Temple after Order 66 dressed as Jedi. Tem Morrison in disguise as Jedi guarding the temple was great, though I understand the scene had too much humour too it and the mood of the film needed to be dour at that moment.

And though I’d’ve loved to see the scene of Yoda communing with Qui-Gon, I can see where it would have dragged the film back a little.

Episode IV – As I watched the scenes with Biggs and Luke, I was reminded of Curt and Steve from American Graffiti. These scenes are amazing to watch, but it’s a very good thing they didn’t make it into the final film.

I’m wondering why they included the crazy woman on Tatooine and the blue milk scenes on the disc. They’re fun, but have zero re-watchability.

One of the most fascinating things was the original rough cut of the Cantina scene. It was assembled out of the original shoot and seemed to utilize every scrap of footage they shot. It’s a good thing they did the reshoots they did, though, especially when it concerned Greedo’s closeups. Watching a side-by-side of the original Greedo and the one that made it into the movie is almost cringeworthy.

Episode V – The extended scenes on Hoth might be my favorites in this entire set. It doesn’t matter that they aren’t terribly well-acted and have all the charm of a daytime soap, there’s something oddly…. alluring about them. They brought a smile to my face. They would have fleshed out Leia a little more, but would have changed the dynamic of the love triangle completely. In fact, you can see with this the careful balancing act they had to perform in the editing room to keep the love story completely balanced and appropriate. They had to strike a middle tone and these scenes showed how precarious a position they were in.

Which leads us to the alternate Han-Leia kiss… I can see this being the prefered version for fangirls everywhere. And the line, “Okay, Hotshot” will find its way into the Star Wars lexicon of quotes.

Lobots capture is almost heartbreaking and somehow adorable and later, it’s weird hearing Leia and Luke say “Boba Fett” in an extended scene.

Episode VI – The building of Luke’s saber is incredible and would have added a different layer to the film. The fabled sandstorm is amazing to see, though it’s easy to see why they cut it. They did explain what Luke does with the ladder on his X-wing, though. He simply discards it. The supply of X-wing ladders must be inexhaustible.

In the new bunker scene, the piles of Stormtrooper bodies is actually comical, but not more comical (and cringeworthy) than watching Crix Madine try to fill in for Admiral Ackbar.

And that leads me to the one deleted scene that I think would have improved the saga if it had been included. “Jerjerrod’s Conflict” documents the scenes where Palpatine orders the commander of the Death Star to blow up Endor if, somehow, the rebels manage to destroy the shield generator. It would have added so much more to Luke’s conflict and tension to the battle over all. There are as many reasons for not showing at putting in, so I can’t complain. And the bits of footage they had on the disc could hardly be put in the film and communicate the story seamlessly.

Documentaries

This is the second biggest reason to get the complete saga set.

One of the things that set me down my career path was behind the scenes documentaries and I’ve sought out everyone I could ever get my hands on in the Star Wars universe and they managed to put the most elusive one I’d ever hoped to see on the ninth disc in this collection. SP FX The Empire Strikes Back is a documentary I’ve been trying to track down for the better part of two decades and I always turned up empty. I’d have paid full price for just that one documentary at this point, making this set worth more than it’s suggested price 9 times over. Getting to watch that specific documentary for the first time was as exciting to me as seeing a new Star Wars movie for the first time and I’m happy for the chance to finally see it.

But the documentaries don’t stop there. There are scores of other documentaries. The Creatures of Return of the Jedi is an interesting look at the creature shops for the sixth Star Wars film (even though I’d seen about an 1/8th of it in From Star Wars to Jedi). My favorite documentary, aside from the SPFX special was probably the retrospective of The Empire Strikes Back that featured interviews with Irvin Kershner, Lawrence Kasdan, and George Lucas and their parts in creating Empire and crafting its story. It was inspiring and made me want to quit what I was doing and get back to writing in my notebook.

This is, by no means, an exhaustive collection of Star Wars documentaries, but an excellent cross-section that gives you a pretty good taste of what there is. Again, though, there aren’t any documentaries that appeared on previous DVD releases, so be sure to hang on to your older versions.

There is also scores of new material in the archives. Each film has sections divided up by local and you can choose to watch smaller mini-documentaries that are prop (or character or costume or location) specific. They run 3 to 6 minutes or so and are all incredibly enlightening. I’ve been a lifelong student of Star Wars and there are plenty of stories I hit upon that I’ve never heard and pieces of the archives I’d never even known that existed. They’ve pulled out all the stops on this one. All told there’s close to three hours of documentaries and interviews of that nature, enough to keep you busy for a long, long time.

Other Bonus Features

The other two most notable bonus features are the commentaries (from the previous release and scene-specific commentaries edited masterfully together from a dozen or more other interviews) and they are, as ever, worth your time. I’ll be honest, of all the special features I’ve explored, these are the ones I’ve had the least time with. I’ve skipped around here and there on them enough to know that I’ll be visiting them as soon as I can.

And then there’s the spoofs. They cut a 2-plus hour montage of Star Wars references in the popular culture over the last 30-plus years. There’s a smattering of everything and footage from things I didn’t know existed. Sure, there’s the pre-requisite clips from Simpsons, Family Guy, and Robot Chicken, but they pulled in Weird Al, Clerks, LOTS of Saturday Night Live (sketches I didn’t even know existed), The Daily Show, That 70s Show, and dozens of others. The most surprising inclusion to me, though, were some of the fan films (Chad Vader, TROOPS, etc.) and Eddie Izzard’s canteen routine. And then halfway into his canteen routine, they actually cut into the lego version of it. I was giggling like an idiot.

In Conclusion

For fans who complain that Lucas just packages the same old thing over and over and over again, there is hours and hours and hours of material I’ve never seen released before that is worth the price of admission alone. Add to that the films that look and sound better than they ever have in history, with commentaries new and old to inform you on the making of the saga, and you have a collection that is well worth every penny a few times over.

I’ll admit, I was a little exhausted when the “controversy” was happening. I was filled with anxiety about some of the changes. And yeah, there’s still some changes I don’t like. But after a day and a half of watching vintage documentaries, brand new retrospectives, and watching people involved with Star Wars talk about it on the discs with the same level of passion and enthusiasm I have for the movies, all of my Star Wars fandom was renewed and refreshed and I couldn’t be more glad for this set.

Do I wish they release more bonus features and bonus discs of the original versions on Blu-ray, too? Sure. I’ll buy that set, too. In the meantime, I’ve got more than enough on this set to keep me more than happy.

You can buy it here on Amazon.

Oh Big Shiny Robot readers, how I have missed you! My first post back is to bring you the official trailer for Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1. In this trailer we see Edward looking super vampirey, a wedding that takes place in the woods, Jacob STILL pining for Bella (the girl has such a personality on her, why wouldn’t he?), the super rough sex scene where Edward knocks Bella unconscious (this is based on a novel for teens?), a pregnancy that wasn’t supposed to happen, some fantastically CG’ed werewolves who make Bella the enemy, and glimpses into what all of you who have read the books know will be THE MOST AWESOME BIRTH SCENE EVER MADE.

The only thing I ask myself is: “Why, oh why, god? Why would you make these movies premiere on or around my birthday and ruin it for me year after year?”.

Breaking Dawn premieres in theaters nationwide November 18th (my birthday is the 21st).

A special guest post from Ron Brouillette:

Living in Utah, I’m no stranger to film festivals. I’m used to second-rate resort towns receiving international attention as celebrities, mostly has-beens, pack the overpriced condos and hotel rooms. I’m used to local media personalities reporting live, acting like this will be their big break, and trying hard not to realize that they are laughed at by their peers. I’m used to too much media coverage and not enough of anything that’s, well, good.

Let’s face it, the big film festivals in Utah are terrible. Out of all the good films, maybe half of one percent of them are worth seeing. Ever.
      
Fortunately, I wasn’t thinking about that as I went out to Layton to bask in the twelfth Gangrene Film Festival (or The Gangrene Film Festival: Size 12). What I was thinking was something along the lines of, “Why the hell am I driving all the way out to Layton to see something I’ve only ever heard of four or five times before?”
      
Of course, I was thinking that mostly because I thought Layton was south of Draper, not north of Ogden, and I was really worried that bad things would befall me out in the middle of Utah-nowhere. I’ve seen Deliverance.
      
It turns out, though, that Layton isn’t as much of a hick-town as I was imagining. It’s not a city, by any means, but it’s better than Tooele or Grantsville, or anything in the western portion of this state. As I circled around for fifteen minutes as my GPS tried to tell me that my destination was on my left in three-tenths of a kilometer, this thought soothed me. Soon, I gave up on the GPS, parked my car where everyone else was – right by the police station – and wandered over to the amphitheater to buy my ticket and bask in film festival goodness, tired from a long day, but stoked to be there.
      
The event opened with a murmur as the crowd took their seats. Being the kind of guy that I am, I meandered around the back of the lawn, looking at watch, wondering why the event was taking it’s time getting going. And then I saw them. The mighty Wasasquatch. Big, hairy beasts with musical instruments. Slowly, they came out on stage, surrounding a group of boy scouts hadn’t noticed before, and then it began…
      
If you’ve never seen a group of bigfoot awesomely covering 80’s music, then you haven’t really lived, I’m afraid.
      
So many bands have their own gimmick: Korn has their tricked out mic-stand, The Eagles have a five-part harmony, Limp Bizkit has an amazing lack of talent, and The Rolling Stones have wrinkles. But what Wasasquatch has is something so much more bizarre that it makes them so much more awesome. These are a bunch of guys who can deck themselves out to look like sasquatch and still play musical instruments, sing, and blow the roof of any given place off.
      
And they did blow the roof of the amphitheater off. Trust me, if you go there now, you won’t see a roof.

For an hour, I was enthralled seeing these hairy beasts blast out all of the hits of the eighties, and then some. When I heard the opening notes of “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables, I knew I was witnessing one of those rare magical moments, like seeing the very first sunset, or a really hot chick naked. It was just spell-binding. Throw in a great cover “Stairway to Heaven”, complete with ballet dancers; a subtle nod to OK Go with synchronized gliders; and a brass-band flash mob, and I was in a magical world where Neil Patrick Harris rides unicorns and Adam Sandler watches a midget on a tricycle.
      
And did I mention this was just the opener for the festival?
      
As Wasasquatch cleared the stage, we took some time to get to know the Weber State drum line, a moment that made me finally realize that a drum line can be used for something useful, and then we were off, viewing comedic short films the likes of which I’d never seen.
      
First on the block was “Recess”, a short film from Texas, directed by Bradley Montesi. This little film reveled to us how mean kids can really be by showing us the world that is recess through the eyes of a new student. Featuring a living trashcan and duck-duck-goose, this film had a certain subtlety to it that I was expecting. This being my first Gangrene experience, I was expecting all-out, obnoxious, horrible humor, similar to a Seth Rogan movie; instead, I was treated to something intelligent that seemed rather daring to make. A fun little piece, this one took home the best director award for the evening.
      
Moving ahead from “Recess”, and an interview with its director, I was surprised to find out the festival has international appeal, as a French film, from director Philippe Gregoire, called “Beep Beep” hit the screen. Probably the most original film I saw all night, and my second favorite, this entire short takes place in the cab of a truck while a man and his girlfriend try to sleep amidst the annoying alarm of her wristwatch. I just about died laughing to a dance/techno soundtrack – which, I can honestly say, I never thought would happen. Of course, after the film, there were the typical French jokes, but this one hit it out of the park.
      
My memory of the order after this gets kind of hazy, but I think our next flick was “BFFs At the What-A-Waffle”, from Florida director Jeffrey Fulgraff. Kind of a take-off on The Office, this whole short revolves around three “best friends” who work at a waffle house as they are interviewed about their friendship. As the three gets whittled down to one or two over the course of the interview, we get to see how friends truly feel about each other. This one I thought was surprisingly insightful, and somewhat twisted. Sadly, though, there weren’t enough waffles on screen to satisfy my hunger, but the crowd, which had grown substantially with the late arrivals by this point, just got into it.
      
After the waffle-fiasco, the Canadians invaded (less scary than it sounds) with a really dark, twisted view of the family gatherings called “The Table”, directed by Andrew Wall. This one just left me cringing and laughing together. The lead actor was so creepy as he sat in his shrink’s office, recounting the horrors of his youth sitting at the kid’s table while his disgusting family mocked. But he would get even, oh yes, he would…. There was just something about this one that was slightly off-putting, but I loved it for that. Probably, the only true dark-comedy (I’m thinking in the vein of The Ice Harvest when I think dark-comedy) at the festival, this was a blast, and reminded me why I wanted to kill my family. Er, I mean, why I love my family so. This was so twisted, disturbing, and humorously anti-climactic, it will always hold a special place in my heart.
      
And then we hit a hiccup in the festival when some locals managed to sneak their train wreck in. “MythOmania”, directed by D. James Henderson. This whole mood-killer takes place in a meeting for gullible people, much like an AA meeting without the good stories, as a new member shows up and completely takes advantage of them.  Of all the films I watched, this is the only one where I actually wanted to leave, but I had to keep telling myself it was a short film and the pain would end soon. Still, it’s all relative, and the fifteen or so minutes of it felt like an eternity. I still have the marks on my wrist from when I tried to escape. What makes this one so much more disappointing is that it was the only local film of the night, and it just killed the mood.
      
The thing that was awesome, though, is that the presenters were interrupted during their introduction as a man made a really sweet carving out of a log with his chainsaw in under five minutes. Things you won’t see at any other festival. That, and the breaking of yeti eggs by directors for a mystery prize. Let’s just say that the prizes were as mysterious as anything bought at the DI – probably because they were.
      
Thankfully, there were two films after the Utah travesty, and they both helped the evening end on a high note.
      
The Australians kicked it up a notch with “Abbie”, directed by Erin Good. This one was just good-hearted and whimsical, following Abbie on her first day at major corporation full of mindless workers, which she refuses to be. There’s a child-like quality to Abbie as she explores this new world with the curiosity of a child, finding fun in everything from the tape dispenser to the keyboard. Aside from a technical glitch that pulled me out of the movie, thank you, Ben, this was just a beautiful film that I don’t think could ever be pulled off by an American director. Also, it was the only multimedia film of the evening, featuring a really nice animation sequence at the end. Easily, this was the biggest surprise of the evening.
      
And then the last film, which has been hopping around the festival circuit for a bit of time now, and has, rightfully, won a crap-load of awards. “Sudden Death!”, from California director Adam Hall. I actually loved this one so much I went to the website for it and bought the DVD. It’s just that funny, and features John Laroquette. Basically, what’s worse than a musical? How about having your life become a musical… right before you die. The whole film deals with a new virus that kills you, but first makes you sing and dance like you were on Broadway. This one had me laughing my ass off!
      
Really, I went to Gangrene this year to support it. I wasn’t expecting much, especially in Layton, but in the end I had a blast. I saw a lot of funny movies, listened to some good music, and was able to just chill out in a park for a night, laughing and forgetting that all of this was happening in Utah. If you didn’t go to the festival this year, it was definitely your loss. The main festival cost just ten dollars to see, and you got three hours of mind-blowing entertainment for it. Sadly, I bought the ticket to stick around for the late festival, but I had to bail and miss it. But seeing what I did was fantastic! I just have to believe that next year will be as good, or even better…

Going into this summer’s blockbuster season X-Men: First Class was not only one of the films I was most looking forward to but also the one I worried the most about. X-Men and X2 are two of my favorite films but the instant Bryan Singer left to focus on rebooting the Superman franchise everything seemed to fall apart. X-Men: The Last Stand was a disaster and X-Men Origins: Wolverine was hardly the apology that I was looking for.

The idea behind X-Men: First Class has been kicking around for ages but much like the purposed Star Trek series Starfleet Academy it never seemed like it would ever come to fruition. The problem was that The Last Stand ended in such a way that there was really no way to move the franchise forward. First Class isn’t a reboot; it is Bryan Singer’s attempt to salvage the series he helped make a critical and financial success. The story is essentially an extended version of the origin story of Erik “Magneto” Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) and Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and the events that lead to the establishment of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters that was hinted at in Stinger’s original X-Men (and long since established in the pages of the comic book). Set in the 1960s, the film is also a Cold War drama and director/writer Matthew Vaughn’s tribute to Sean Connery’s James Bond films. To some the setting might seem a bit unusual, but considering the X-Men made their comic book debut in 1963 and were a direct reaction to the racial and political tensions that defined the decade, it’s a perfect fit. It also allows the film to fit within the timeline established in the previous films. I could drone on and on about how much I enjoy this film but I’d rather you simply watch it and decide for yourself. It’s not perfect but if you haven’t given the film a chance because you were put off by The Last Stand you’re really missing out on something special.

Watching the film again on Blu-ray is as pleasing as it was seeing it in theaters. The picture and audio quality is excellent and recreates the cinematic presentation perfectly. The bonus are exclusive to the Blu-ray release and while I would have loved an audio commentary from Vaughn and Singer they both make appearances in the 69-minute documentary Children of the Atom as well as the additional 20 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage included in the X Marks the Spot viewing mode. There are also a handful of extended scenes and a couple deleted moments (Lensherr in the Argentina airport, Kevin Bacon’s Shaw on a boat with Cuban generals and Xavier trying to seduce Rose Byrne’s Moyra).

The Children of the Atom documentary is fantastic, particularly the “Pulling off the Impossible” segment that focuses on John Dykstra’s visual effects and “Sound and Fury” which focuses on Henry Jackman’s score. Either segment could have been extended into to a feature-length documentary and I wouldn’t have complained. They do at least include the option to listen to Jackman’s score without the dialogue getting in the way.

There’s also a short featurette available to download or stream via BD-Live that extends off some of the “Dogfight” footage shown in The Children of the Atom.

All in all X-Men: First Class has been a wonderful way to spend a Friday afternoon. I suspect I’ll be returning to relive the experience in the near future.