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What I Want to Happen: Pixar

Published on November 12, 2017November 17, 2020 by Michael Christopher Cole1 Comment

I’m a big fan of Pixar’s films. When Toy Story came out, I was 11 years-old, and I’ve kind of grown up with them. What’s been nice, about growing up with Pixar, is that they had such an amazing record (still have a good record). After Toy Story came A Bug’s Life, and Toy Story 2, neither of which was as deep as Toy Story, but certainly weren’t vapid either. After Monster’s Inc., and Finding Nemo was The Incredibles, and it lived up to the name. I was twenty years old, and watching Pixar do the unofficial version of Fantastic Four that we have still yet to get, but totally deserve.

After The Incredibles, we got Cars. Now, Cars is an article all in itself, but to try to quickly summarize what I have to say about Cars is: I personally think it’s the weakest Pixar original (it’s a total knock off of Doc Hollywood) which pains me, because George Carlin is one of my favorite comedians/celebrities of all time and he voiced Fillmore; it is the pivot point film between a Disney/Pixar partnership, and Disney owning Pixar, and was used as part of the negotiations; and so while I think it’s the weakest, in a lot of ways I still think it’s better than a lot of other films, and it’s important.

After the pivot of Cars, a reinvigorated Pixar went into what I think was their renaissance creating Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, and Toy Story 3 (the latter 2 were nominated for Best Picture Oscars, the former each getting Best Screenplay nominations). These 4 films, should definitely be mentioned when discussing the best animated films of all time.

Then after the renaissance came the other shoe. Part of Pixar’s agreement with Disney, was that they would create sequels to their most successful box-office films. After Toy Story 3, we got Cars 2. Now personally, I think Cars 2 is better than most will give it credit for, but it is certainly a departure from the depth of the four preceding films. We’ve since got Brave (an attempt at a deep dive which falls a little flat), Monster’s University (a serviceable prequel), Inside Out (the only foray into greatness since TS3), The Good Dinosaur (akin to the A Bug’s Life, in it’s fine but doesn’t match the glory of the prior film), then Finding Dory (again, it’s a serviceable sequel, but nothing special) and Cars 3 (I haven’t seen it yet).

The reason that I wanted to do this article, is that in couple of weeks Pixar is going to release their next film, which will be an original, entitled Coco. I really hope Coco is good, but I’m worried, because it looks like Pixar’s amalgamation of two recent animated films Kubo and the Two Strings mixed with The Book of Life. Now, I’m sure it is not a knock-off of those two films, but I hope it’s dissimilar enough. I want to see them really be creative and deep again, and this may have the potential, but I’m nervous. The film’s done though, so I want to talk about the future past Coco.

Pixar has five films they’re currently working on, but only 2 have been officially announced; The Incredibles 2, and Toy Story 4. Personally, I don’t want too many sequels from Pixar, since their strength has really been in originals, the exception of course being the Toy Story films, so while I thought TS3 wrapped things up nicely, I’m keeping a very open mind on this. As for the Incredibles 2, the original warranted a sequel more than any other Pixar original, and the first came at the beginning of the superhero era in film, so to check in with the family now with how the genre has changed is exciting.

But ultimately, I want more originals. One of the things that really has been great about the Pixar films that have been amazing were 2 things, originality, and character connection. I think people have misread the formula, I think they see Toy Story and think “kids like toys, lets make a movie about toys” or “kids like animals and adventure, let’s make a movie about animals and adventure (Up),” but the reason why we really fell in love with those movies is that Woody learns that he has to share Andy’s love, or that Ellie got to live the adventure she always wanted, and Carl finally did too. (BTW, I’m tearing up just thinking about Carl and Ellie, can you say that about any other 5 minute relationship in film history?)

If Coco for all of it’s “Dia de Muerta” makeup, which totally does look cool, doesn’t have some strong clinching emotional connection, it’s going to fall flat. That’s what I want to see, I want them to be the master manipulators that we all know they can be, and tug on our heartstrings. This is less likely to happen in sequels, because it seems to be something forged in the examination of new characters, although each Toy Story movie so far has managed it, that’s because each time the relationship with Andy, the Buzz and Woody relationship, and the relationship with their purpose in life altered to examine it. I hope the 4th manages to continue this, I hope that The Incredibles turns from Bob’s insecurity about domestic life, and how he loves his wife and kids, to him now knowing who he is again, being able to guide them more. I guess don’t have a clue what direction I want the Incredibles to head in, but I don’t want rehashing of the same basic emotional connections the way that I think some of their lesser sequels have.

Ultimately, I suppose the sequels aren’t going to stop, but let’s take ratio which seems to be a little more than half of the recent movies have been sequels, and flip it. Do sequels that are organic, but not necessarily just because they sell well. Pixar currently has an amazing legacy in the making, and I think there is a lot of promise assuming they make some adjustments. Look at their parent company Disney’s legacy. Disney, love them or hate them, has had an incredible run for 80+ years, and although there have been some lulls, ultimately they’re doing great. But one thing they do, they have places to put their lesser sequels. Sure, they’ll make the Cinderella 10: Back In The Saddle, but it’s straight to video. This is the way to make cash-grab movies, and not tarnish your legacy.

Lastly, I want to say, I’m going to continue to see every Pixar film until they have thoroughly defeated my spirit, and I don’t think they’re even close yet. Their worst film is still better than most, I just want to see them return to being better than EVERYONE.

Written by Michael Cole

Star Wars Retrospective (Part 3): Episode III Revenge Of The Sith

Published on November 8, 2017November 17, 2020 by theworldsbestblogwithpaulwrightLeave a comment

Hi, Everybody

Today I have the privilege of writing the next article in our series looking back at the entire Star Wars saga, with Episode III Revenge of the Sith. I hope you enjoy it.

– Paul

Star Wars Episode III Revenge Of The Sith written by Paul Wright:

Light your torches. Get your pitch forks. Wake the neighbors. Because I’m going to have an angry mob after me for what I’m about to say: Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith is a great Star Wars movie. Not only great, but one of my favorites, probably in the top 3. But hear me out, because Revenge of the Sith is a better movie than it gets credit for.

To be fair this isn’t exactly an objective statement. Like so many of you, my love of Star Wars and this film in particular, comes in large part from the experience of seeing it in the theatre. On the big screen. When the new trilogy ends, I’ll be proud to say that I got to see the entire Star Wars Saga on the big screen (Yes, I’m counting the re-releases, I’m not that fucking old yet). When the new trilogy, Episodes VII to IX, was announced I felt a profound sense of gratitude that I’d once again be able to go to the movie theatre with my friends and family and see a NEW STAR WARS MOVIE! The most important part of that last sentence was “friends and family” and probably the single biggest reason I love Star War so much.

I remember my Dad taking my brother and I to see the re-released “Special Editions” at the local theatre in Cambridge, Mass. At that point no one in the theater cared about Lucas mucking about with the movies, at the time I certainly didn’t care. There was a palpable excitement in the theatre seeing these incredible movies. Even if the guy next to me had seen the original back in 77, we were all about to see something new. Some of the additions actually really add to the trilogy, seeing Jaba confront Han in A New Hope, puts their conflict with him in Return of the Jedi in a slightly different light and bookends Han’s journey in that trilogy in a cool way. Say what you want, but I think re-releasing the original trilogy, changes and all, was one of the smartest moves Lucas ever made. Because even though some of the changes are for the worse, Lucas created a whole new generation of Star Wars fans and I was one of them. So, when the prequels came out I was chomping at the bit.

I’ll never forget seeing that first trailer for The Phantom Menace. This was before the internet was in constant use, I had no idea this was coming. My brother and I lost our minds, the movie we were about to see was forgotten because we just saw a trailer for a NEW STAR WARS MOVIE! It was pure joy and man… it was one HELL of a trailer. Try to forget any negative feelings you may have for The Phantom Menace and just try to appreciate this trailer on its own terms:

After The Phantom Menace mostly disappointed (but I walked away more or less enjoying it at the time), Attack of the Clones was a huge improvement. It’s a very flawed movie, but I love it. Finally, we got to the real meat of it… Revenge of the Sith. Seeing this movie opening night was without a doubt the best movie going experience of my life.

Me, my brother, and a group of our best friends waited in line for at least 2 hours to see the midnight show. At this point, I was in college and the highlight of the pre-show festivities had to be watching one of my best friends who was dressed as a Sith Lord, nearly get pummeled into submission by an 11 year old boy, toppling into a gigantic movie theatre display in what started as a “playful” lightsaber duel. Everyone in line loved it and it set the tone for a great night. Finally, we took our seats and the movie began and those immortal words appeared across the screen…

A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Far, Far away…

There I was surrounded by people I loved and hundreds of strangers, all there because we all loved these movies. This is what people are talking about when they call movies “magic”. There was magic in the theatre that night. I don’t think Ive ever seen a theatre crowd so wrapt to the movie they were watching.

I feel I should say I don’t think Hayden Christenson who plays Anakin Skywalker, is a particularly good actor. There were better choices for actors to play the man who would one day be the most feared and reviled individual in the galaxy. But Hayden Christenson stepped up his game between Episodes II and III. You could see that there was something very wrong about this guy. The transition from the swashbuckling man we see at the beginning of the film to the man consumed by rage and fear, ready to fight Obi-Wan to the death really works and is the backbone of the movie.

And since I brought him up, lets talk about the real hero of this movie (and the entire trilogy really): Ewan MacGregor. He is fantastic as Obi-Wan Kenobi. More than anyone in the prequels he always managed to make Lucas’ stilted dialogue work. I hate the idea of this stupid, fucking Han Solo prequel movie, but I’d love to see MacGregor return to the character in an Obi-Wan stand alone movie. I’m sure there are plenty of interesting stories that could be told during his 20 year vigil on Tantooine.

My esteemed colleague, Mr. Tim Cuff, believes steadfastly that the 3 way lightsaber duel in The Phantom Menace is the best lightsaber fight in the Star Wars Saga, but Anakin and Obi-Wan’s fateful duel on Mustafar is mythic. It’s the stuff of legend! The creation of Darth Vader! This is a fight fans have been hearing about for decades and it doesn’t disappoint. While the fight choreography in The Phantom Menace fight may be more dazzling, it’s hurt by the fact that film keeps cutting away to Padme’s misson, the Gungan’s battling the droids and Young Anakin in his spaceship. This fight only cuts to the almost equally epic Yoda vs Palpatine fight. Which is a thrilling fight no Star Wars fan ever thought they’d get to see. Yoda and Palpatine, the Jedi and the Sith in their purest forms.

Let’s not forget that these two men were like brothers and the power of there bond being destroyed is felt in every lightsaber swing. In my favorite scene in the movie, there’s a pause in Anakin and Obi-Wan’s fight across Mustafar’s volcanic landscape. Obi-Wan looks at Anakin with pain in his eyes and says “I have failed you, Anakin. I have failed you.” The tragedy is that Obi-Wan couldn’t save his friend, and though it wasn’t his fault, he’s haunted by it for the rest of his life. Of course, Obi-Wan ultimately wins the fight. Anakin is horribly maimed and burned. Obi-Wan says to him “You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you.” With nothing left of the man he once was, Anakin’s last words to Obi-Wan “I hate you!” are a guttural scream. With that Obi-Wan picks up Anakin’s lightsaber, the same weapon wielded by Rey decades later, and turns his back on his dying friend. The Emperor defeats Yoda and shows up on Mustafar to saves his apprentice. Almost like Frankenstein’s Monster his transformation into Darth Vader is complete.

What I love about this film is that its just as much about the failure of The Jedi as it is about the fall of Anakin Skywalker. Their monastic, black and white view of the world (as well as their arrogance) is what led to their downfall. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Luke is trained very differently when he becomes a Jedi. Luke was almost always kind of a grey Jedi, as if Obi-Wan and Yoda learned from their mistakes with Anakin.

So, the story of the creation of one of the greatest villains in cinema history was complete. The movie closes out with the setting of the twin sun’s of Tantooine and John Williams’ iconic music swells. The credits hit the screen: Directed by George Lucas. I shot up into air and screamed “FUCK YEAH!”. The theatre erupted. I’m sure opinions varied later on, but in that moment we were all caught up in the magic of Star Wars. Which brings me to my original point and why Star Wars is sacred to me. Star Wars is family. It turns strangers into brothers. It brings us together instead of tearing us apart. So, whenever a new chapter in the Star Wars Saga hits theaters, I look back at that night back in 2005 and realize I’m going to make new memories and have new experiences with the people I love. What is that, if not magic?

May The Force Be with you…

-Paul

Star Wars Retrospective (Part 2): Episode II Attack Of The Clones

Published on November 1, 2017November 17, 2020 by Michael Christopher Cole3 Comments

Hi, everyone

Our 7 part series looking back on the Star Wars Saga continues with Star Wars Episode II Attack Of The Clones. Today’s article is written by long time Star Wars fan and World’s Best Media contributor Michael Cole. I asked Mike to write up the Episode II article specifically because I remember years ago Mike saying how he thought this scene was cool.

That may just be some bullshit memory of a conversation we never had, but Mike’s article is a good read anyway!

-Paul

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones written by Michael Cole

I am of a unique generation of Star Wars fans. The original fans, even those who were very young in 1977, were already full-grown adults when the prequels started coming out. There is also a generation of kids for whom the prequels are their first taste of Star Wars. Between these two generations is mine, I was 14 when the Phantom Menace came out in 1999, and not quite 21 when Revenge of the Sith came out in 2005. One’s stance on the prequels seems to be largely dictated based on the viewer’s age upon their release, the older crowd seems to hate them, the younger crowd enjoyed them. So I think that I have a relatively unique viewpoint of the prequels.
Attack of the Clones is often considered the worst of all 7 saga films. I don’t agree, my own personal least favorite is Revenge of the Sith. What I want to do in this look back on Attack of the Clones, is focus on the positive. There are plenty of negatives, but there are a lot of positives that almost never get mentioned.

First, and this has nothing to do with the film itself, but a personal memory that I enjoy, is actually going to see the movie. When I went and saw Phantom Menace, I went alone, because I had no friends, when I went and saw Revenge of the Sith, I went with my two best friends, but for Attack of the Clones, I went with the largest crowd I think I’ve ever gone to a movie with. It was opening night and I went with a ton of people from school (I was a junior in high school at the time). As the lights went down, and the screen said “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” someone yelled “aww, I’ve seen this one already,” got up and walked out (I’m relatively sure he immediately walked back in, but I was too fixated on the screen to really pay attention). Regardless of the film itself, it was one of the best movie going experiences of my life.
Now, to the quality of the film. Like I said before, there is plenty of stuff that you’ve probably heard about that doesn’t work in this film, but rarely do you hear about the positives. We’ve only had one saga film since the prequels, and so perhaps this isn’t a fair statement, but the prequels when compared to The Force Awakens, are much more creative. The Force Awakens was a good film, but it doesn’t reinvent the wheel. In the prequels we saw a lot of expansion of the universe, we saw exciting set pieces and action sequences (and not a single Death Star!)

There are two things that I think stand out about the Attack of the Clones, first of all, we got to see an epic multi-Jedi battle in a gladiator style arena. The original trilogy had been somewhat limited as to what they were able to show with lightsaber battles due to their really not being anymore Jedi, but this wasn’t a problem for the prequels. We got to see the Jedi Council fly in, and kick some ass in a colosseum.

The next great thing about this film, is that for the first time in 4 movies, we got to see Yoda fight in a lightsaber battle. Looking back, little ball of a Jedi Master bouncing around Count Dooku in a cave may not be as impressive , but on opening night? That was the greatest thing I had ever seen!

Another highlight was the speeder chase through the ‘streets’ of Coruscant. Not completely original, but new and exciting in a Star Wars film. With Anakin jumping out of the car and landing levels below onto another car. This was a very Star Wars version of similar scenes from movies like The Fifth Element and Blade Runner. Even with his wooden line delivery, Hayden Christenson seemed pretty badass (for those first few minutes). You also began to see what Anakin and Obi-Wan’s relationship was like. Which brings me to my next point…

Finally, since the original Star Wars had come out, we knew to some extent that Obi-Wan had been Darth Vader’s (or Anakin Skywalker’s) teacher, and really this is the only film we get to see that dynamic. Hayden Christenson doesn’t really carry his share of the ‘chemistry,’ but Ewan MacGregor does. MacGregor’s performance shows us how close the two characters had been, which really adds layers to their reunion in A New Hope.

This is far from a perfect film. But I don’t think it deserves to be remembered as the worst Star Wars movie. I would argue that ultimately it suffers most, from the trilogy’s real problem. Which is that the whole films are never more than the sum of their parts. Some of those parts are really good, unfortunately they’re brought down by the ‘other’ parts.
May the Force be with you!

PlayStation 4: The Last of Us 2 & Spider-Man

Published on October 31, 2017November 17, 2020 by theworldsbestblogwithpaulwrightLeave a comment

We rarely cover video games on this site. Mainly because we haven’t had much coming out worth covering. I certainly wouldn’t call myself a gamer. In fact, until about 5 years ago I hadn’t picked up a video game controller since highschool.

One night I was meeting some people at a friends place to go catch a movie. When I got to my friends apartment he was playing Uncharted 2. I had vaguely heard something about Uncharted, but I had no idea this was what it was like! This was fucking incredible! It wasn’t like any video game I’d ever seen. I remember thinking “This is like a movie you PLAY!”

So for that past few years, I’m always excited when story driven video games like the Uncharted series come out. The Batman Arkham games where a big deal for me and The Last Of Us… Fuck… I almost don’t even know how to describe The Last Of Us. It was more that a video game or a movie. It was almost like they created their own storytelling medium. The Last Of Us is a masterpiece of gaming and storytelling.

Today, Sony dropped trailers for two of their big 2018 releases. The Last Of Us 2, which looks like it’s going to follow a different group of characters, and Spider-Man which looks like Sony is trying to do for Spider-Man what The Arkham games did for Batman. Both look amazing in their own way and I eagerly await their release in 2018. Check the trailers out below:

What I’d Like To See: Wolverine

Published on October 29, 2017November 17, 2020 by Michael Christopher Cole2 Comments

Over the last 17 years, we’ve had 6 main team X-Men movies, and 3 Wolverine stand-alone films. Among the 9 films, I think there are 4 great, 3 pretty good (I’m apparently in the minority when it comes to people who enjoyed Apocalypse), and 2 crappy movies. We’ve had 2 Magnetos, 2 Professor Xs, 2 Mystiques, but only one Wolverine.
Other than his brief childhood James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine is virtually ageless or at the very least he ages slower than the average person. So unlike the other X-Men characters, recasting him cannot rely on age shifts in order to adjust the actors. Hugh Jackman however, is about 18 years older than he was when he started playing the character, and while he has aged well, he is not ageless, and as you probably know Logan from earlier this year, was his final performance as the character. I don’t think however that it’s the last we will see of the character, so I want to talk about what I think Fox needs to do with Wolverine.

First, I think there is a chance that if Fox were able to partner up with Marvel, that Hugh Jackman would return for the role. He has been a vocal proponent of the two universes colliding. We’ve seen it with Spider-Man and Hulk, and so it’s not completely out of the question, but X-Men seems to be too financially viable to make Fox that desperate, so I don’t think this will happen, unless Marvel makes some offer that makes Fantastic Four (also a Fox property at the moment) a better financial option. So, I don’t think this is going to happen, but that doesn’t mean that imagining Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine fighting Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk doesn’t give me one hell of a nerdgasm.

Alright so the ultimate fantasy aside, here’s what I want to see that I think is realistic. As of right now, we have two X-Men films (not including Deadpool) coming out in 2018. None of which appear to include Wolverine. I’m glad about this, because it will give us some idea to what level these films can perform without Hugh Jackman—sure he only had glorified cameos in First Class and Apocalypse, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t people going hoping for him. I also think that a couple of X-Men movies without Wolverine gives us a bit of a pallet cleanser. These are X-Men films, but to a considerable extent 4 of the 6 main team films were Wolverine (feat. The X-Men) films. Let’s delve into the team more, hopefully some different characters are going to be X-plored, like Scott Summers who has been second fiddle in the movies despite apparently being a very large aspect of the comics. The same goes with Jean Grey’s Phoenix, (the next film being titled Dark Phoenix) who has also been given a weak portrayal compared to the comics.

Throughout out the next couple of X-Men movies (including New Mutants if it’s going to remain in the current continuity), I want to see them start up the hype for Wolverine, the way they have for other characters in the past. References to him in reports, and Easter Eggs (I’m not even sure they need to have the next actor cast yet). After a couple of films, do another Apocalypse style cameo. Where we see an actor in that animalistic berserker mode, without actually showing his face, but start to show how he’s different than Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine (again it doesn’t even have to be the actor who will ultimately play the new Wolverine).
Eventually, after Easter Eggs, and cameos, make him a side character. Perhaps it’s a main team story, with Wolverine passing through on the adventure (which from what I remember of the comic and the cartoon is fairly consistent for the character). He’s kind of a transient character, so maybe he happens to come to Professor X for help. He meets Jean, and the rest of the team, but doesn’t immediately jump back into team mode.
This process, allows Fox to slowly change the character, which is the nice part of replacing a member of a team franchise. The character is iconic, and arguably linked to Hugh Jackman as much as any other franchise character (maybe RDJ as Tony Stark is as closely tied) even more-so than characters like James Bond who at one point was definitely Sean Connery. The benefit here, is that unlike Bond, Wolverine doesn’t have to immediately jump to the next actor, who inevitably cannot live up. If Fox is smart they’ll take their time getting Wolverine back in the mix, and by that time, we’ll be so excited for it, that perhaps we won’t notice it’s not Hugh Jackman.
That’s what I want to see!

Star Wars Retrospective: Episode I The Phantom Menace

Published on October 25, 2017November 17, 2020 by theworldsbestblogwithpaulwright4 Comments

Hey Everybody,

It’s Paul

As you all know Star Wars is like a religion to me. It’s a sacred thing not just because of the magic of the films, but because of the incredible personal experiences I’ve had with friends and family while watching these movies. Obviously I’m counting down the days until Star Wars Episode VIII The Last Jedi opens and I wanted to do something special in anticipation of that film. So today is the beginning of a really cool series of articles that we’ll be posting once a week, from now until Star Wars The Last Jedi opens on December 15th. Each week a different contributor from World’s Best Media (myself included) will be writing a piece on a Star Wars film starting with Episode 1 and ending with Episode VII, right before the new film opens. Some of the articles are already finished and it’s been wonderful reading each one as it comes in. We’ll all get to experience these incredible movies through someone else’s eye. That’s what each of these articles will be about: the personal and emotional experience each of our writers had with a Star Wars film. I won’t be writing a long introduction to each article, but for the first piece I felt like I needed to explain what we’re doing.

So, first up is Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace written by my co-host on The World’s Best Podcast with Paul & Tim, Tim Cuff. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “ Tim Cuff? TIM CUFF?!!! He is no Star Wars fan! Heresy! Heresy, I say!” Believe me guys, I know where you’re coming from. But as soon as I started thinking about this doing this series of articles, I immediately thought of Tim for The Phantom Menace. First of all, Tim’s a great writer and secondly Tim has always had weird love and respect for Episode I. Now, he doesn’t let the movie off easy. Nor should he, because even the most devote fans of The Saga will admit that movie is a bit of a mess. But there are pieces of brilliance sprinkled throughout the film. After reading this article, you may agree with me when I say… The Force may be with Tim after all…

EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE by Tim Cuff

Unlike most of the other writers carefully selected to write these Star Wars-related articles, I am not a Star Wars guy. Being “not a Star Wars guy,” why on earth would Paul choose me to kick this whole thing off and recap Episode I, a movie disliked by many fans and non-fans alike? Well to understand why Episode I is so special to me, let’s hop in the ole time machine and head back to 1999.

Back when the Red Sox were still cursed and Limp Bizkit was a respected musical act, a young Tim Cuff was 13. I don’t think any description from me can do justice to what a major movie event Episode I was. A Star Wars movie hadn’t come out since 1983 (yes, I understand the original trilogy was re-released in theatres in the 90s, doesn’t really count). This was going to be the first Star Wars movie with modern special effects (yes, I understand the original trilogy had some CGI added in when it was re-released in theatres in the 90s, doesn’t really count). This was going to kick off a new saga. This was going to explain where Darth Vader and Obi Wan came from. Young Tim went into this movie with the absolute highest of expectations, and unlike most fans, he was not disappointed.

Let’s start off with Qui-Gon Jinn. If you don’t like Liam Neeson, I don’t like you. Liam Neeson is a boss now, and he was a fucking boss in 1999. Obi Wan, comparatively, is pretty lame in this movie (in terms of his storyline). He spends 50% of this movie inside of a parked ship waiting for everyone to get back, he has a weird short ponytail, and an even weirder super long side-of-his-head rat tail. In fact, other than the fact that they build Qui-Gon up so you can be devastated when he (18 YEAR OLD SPOILER ALERT) dies, I don’t understand why Obi Wan didn’t just replace Qui-Gon’s part in this movie. Anyways, I digress. Qui Gon is a quiet badass, akin to John Wick or Christian Bale in Equilibrium. He is a rebel who doesn’t blindly follow orders, he often disagrees with the Jedi. Anyone who tries to push back against those pompous galactic dickheads is cool with me. Although, to be fair, he was VERY mistaken thinking Anakin was the chosen one who will bring balance to the force. I can’t really stress enough how very, very wrong he was in this thought process.

My favorite Qui-Gon moment, which epitomizes him as a character: During the final battle with Darth Maul, when the force field walls temporarily stop the action and the duelists are forced to take a short break, Qui-Gon sits on the ground and fucking mediates. How badass is that? Imagine you are in a to-the-death battle with a red and black horned demon with a laser bowstaff that can cut through metal walls, and you have a 30 second break. Could you calm yourself enough to mediate!? Well, sadly, it didn’t help much as he is shortly offed with a lightsaber to the stomach. I honestly find those force field walls brilliant, even watching it now, as it stopped Obi Wan from helping and also forced him to watch his best friend and mentor die. Young Tim was devastated by this. I truly did not see it coming, I thought Neeson was an actor I would get to see in the sequels to come (reading about this online wasn’t a thing for me at the time), and it really did hit home.

As much as I loved Qui-Gon, I think the most memorable character in this movie is his killer: Jar Jar Binks. Sorry that was a typo, I meant Darth Maul. In a universe where the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad with no grey area in-between, there is no cooler bad guy than Darth Maul. I actually think it was a huge mistake to kill him off as from a purely visual standpoint he was the best character of the new trilogy. The black and red face (from my understanding the black is tattoos), the horns around the top of his head, the awesome ninja moves, and of course the fucking DOUBLE LIGHTSABER. After seeing the movie and loving Qui-Gon Jinn, when Young Tim went to Toys R Us after this movie did he reach for a green lightsaber? Nope, he went straight for the double red one. Who wouldn’t? My young mind was completely blown. There was no explanation given as to why suddenly the Jedis were ninjas that could almost fly (I guess “the force was stronger then”), but Young Tim didn’t care. I still find this 3-way swordfight to be the best in the entire series, old or new.

The podracing scene was, in many people’s opinions, the highlight of the movie. It wasn’t for me, I always liked the lightsabering more, but nonetheless the race was a truly awesome scene that inspired several great video games. If I was Anakin’s mother, I probably wouldn’t let him enter the race to help out some random strangers. The race is, after all, so dangerous that only 2 racers even made it to the finish line and it seems several of the racers died. When I asked my mother as a boy, “Can I enter a death race so some people that broke down can buy a new part for their car?” she said no, which is why I am not currently living up to my potential.

This is by no means a perfect movie, I will admit. The two biggest issues are Jar Jar and Anakin, but I will briefly tackle why they shouldn’t ruin the movie for everyone. Jar Jar is truly an awful character. Young Tim didn’t hate Jar Jar, he instead accurately thought of him as nothing. He was a nothing character. Under careful recent re-watching I realized Jar Jar could almost be entirely edited out of the movie with it making no difference. The only time Jar Jar contributes to the plot in any way is when he brings Obi Wan and Qui-Gon to the Gungan city. The only other moments he has are when he clumsily falls or has some annoying throwaway line. He was obviously included as a desperate attempt to appeal to children that miserably failed. As a child, I don’t remember any other children actually liking Jar Jar. However since he is such a minor, unimportant part of the movie you can try to just black him out and pretend he’s not there.

Jake Lloyd as Anakin to me is worse than Jar Jar, because his dialogue with other characters (especially Natalie Portman) is so important to the movie. His acting is almost always painful, and I blame Lucas for this. Lucas could have casted another actor, and also Lucas is known for providing the cast almost no direction. Someone as inexperienced as Lloyd likely needed lots and lots of direction. I in no way blame Lloyd as he was a child. My only excuse for this (to help make this aspect of the series tolerable) is even in 1999 we all knew Anakin was going to be Vader by Episode 3. Due to this, it was forgone conclusion Episode I is the only time we would be forced to hang out with Jake Lloyd. I wanted to add quickly I truly do feel bad for Jake Lloyd as Episode I clearly ruined his life. If you google his name or watch any interviews with him, you will immediately understand what I am referring to.

Episode I was quite polarizing when it came out; it received mostly mixed to negative reviews. However Lucas always said Star Wars is meant for children. Well Young Tim fucking loved it, so I guess to Lucas that is a win. Due to my contractual obligation with World’s Best Media to never speak negatively about Star Wars, I will end the review with that. After this movie we all poured some out for Qui-Gon and Maul, gone too soon, and prepared for the budding romance of Anakin and Natalie Portman. I mean, the scenes between them in the next movie can’t be as bad, right?

What I’d Like To See: MCU Phase 4

Published on October 15, 2017November 17, 2020 by Michael Christopher Cole5 Comments

Thor: Ragnarok comes out in a couple weeks, and is being called ‘the most anticipated movie of the fall,’ and I must agree it, looks awesome. This puts us at about the half-way point of the MCU Phase 3 (I believe Avengers 4 is the final film slated for this phase). What is going to happen with this phase has largely happened, and so I want to turn to speculation for Phase 4.
The phase one movies were largely introductions. We got the Avenger anchor characters (Thor, Cap, Iron Man, and Hulk) setup, and it culminated in The Avengers. Phase two was about expansion, in phase two we had movies like Guardians of the Galaxy who were the Avengers in space, and Ant-Man who is a West-Coast Avenger, as well as filling out the world-building of 3 of the originals (no Hulk movie for so many reasons). And so far Phase 3 has been letting our toys play together. We’ve had Captain America: Civil War (which is really an Avenger’s movie in many ways except they’re split) and Tony Stark is almost a secondary protagonist in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok looks as if it could be called Thor and Hulk against the universe. These mash-ups have been great, and Thor and Hulk look like they’ll be the up there as well.
Here is the thing you need to understand about Marvel’s process (as best as I can understand it): they started us off with characters that may have been B-list to the masses, but they knew wouldn’t require much to make them appeal to people who don’t give a shit about comics (while staying true to the comics), then as time as progressed, as the audience has become more hooked, they’ve brought us into a cinematic comic-book world unlike anything else. They started introducing us to less traditional movie-going experiences, but more traditional comic book experiences. Things are weird, and overall the audience is loving it—can you imagine when Iron Man came out in 2008 if someone had told you Marvel would make a movie about a talking raccoon and a sentient tree that you would have been excited? Maybe if you’re reading on this site I guess, but overwhelmingly I think the answer would be no for those of us not delving into the weird world of comic books.
For Phase 4, we’ve had the cross-overs, we’ve had the mash-ups, we’ve had the weird, now it’s time to get to ‘the replacements.’ By the beginning of Phase 4, the franchise will be ten years old, many of the actors will have been in for 6 or more movies, and it will be time to start changing the line-up. It’s not necessarily what many want as a viewing audience, but it is what the business will begin to dictate, and honestly, I think there are some great potential options for it.
Comic books, unlike movies or TV, don’t have actors they need to replace, and yet they often do replace the characters. Right now in the movies Steve Rogers is Captain America, but both Bucky Barnes (aka The Winter Soldier) and Sam Wilson (aka The Falcon) have both ascended to the role of Cap. Most of the superheroes in comic books have been multiple characters, and it can rejuvenate them, it can change perspective, and I think it can do that for the MCU.
You might be thinking, “I don’t want anyone but Chris Evans playing Captain America,” but just because he doesn’t play Cap doesn’t mean he can’t return as Steve Rogers, or even later to return as Cap if the storyline allows it. This option frees up the actors a lot, because while the paychecks are nice, for the Chris’s (Evans and Hemsworth, and maybe even Pratt) it’s a lot of physical work to keep in their superhero conditions.
As it is, in Homecoming, we basically get Tony Stark having outsourced many of the Iron Man duties to autopilot, and so I think there is nothing that says they have to kill off the characters, or recast, just replace. We need an Iron Man, and a Cap on the team, but do we need Steve Rogers or Tony Stark?
With Ant-man, we’ve already seen the second iterations introduced, largely because Hank Pym (played by Michael Douglas) is too close of a character to Tony Stark, whereas Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is a much different character.
The richness of comic books in adaptation is that there is so much source material much of it conflicting, but all kind of co-existing, and it allows the filmmakers to do whatever they want. It solves a couple of problems that I think are going to occur, one is that inevitably if these films continue going, there will need to be recasting, but this could allow a buffer space, and a shifting of the world/tone to allow new actors in. The second issue it solves is it uses fatigue on the part of actors playing the same characters to further world-build. It also allows different kind of conflicts, the conflict between characters not trusting a new Cap, or a new Thor, or whomever needs to be replaced creates conflict, and this has been Marvel’s strength is the conflict between protagonists, not the conflict between protagonist and antagonist.
Clearly, Kevin Feige knows what he’s doing, he’s been slowly sucking us all into a far less generic cinematic franchise, one that does resemble comic books more than traditional films in a lot of ways. So perhaps this will be the eventual route he takes, and if it isn’t I’ll be along for the ride, because on the whole he’s been getting it right, but I suspect if the audience keeps going along as he pushes us further and further, we’re going to see these kinds things happening, and I personally look forward to an MCU in which characters are replaced and not actors (for as long as possible).

What I Want To See: Game of Thrones Spin-off by Guest Correspondent Mike Cole!

Published on October 4, 2017November 16, 2020 by Michael Christopher Cole1 Comment

What I Want to See:
Game of Thrones Spin-Off

Writer: Michael Cole

Recently, it was announced that a FIFTH Game of the Thrones spin-off is in development over at HBO. I’m likely to give them all a try, but if we’re looking at it being franchised to that level, I have something very specific I would like to see happen, and I think you’ll want to see this too.
I should clarify that, obviously, we don’t know how the original series is going to end, and at least a couple of the spin-offs have been called prequels. We don’t know who will survive the final season, whether Westeros will be alive and well, severely damaged, or a White Walker infested hell-scape. Because we have no clue what’s coming, keep in mind that my pitch, which is a spin-off taking place after the events of original show is contingent on at least two of the characters surviving.
After the winter is over, or however the show ends, I want to see a spin-off starring Tormund and The Hound. We’ve now had 7 seasons, with all kinds of amazing speeches and conversations, and other character interactions, and I can honestly say none of them have entertained me more than the ten minutes of screen time that Tormund and the Hound shared in the season finale.

This two minute interaction, is essentially the trailer for the show I want to see, throw in a bit of their brutal battle scene, and you get the exact reason why I think this show would be incredible.
These two are a buddy comedy, THE buddy comedy, we’ve been waiting for. They are the Murtaugh and Riggs, or the Foley and Taggart, of gritty fantasy, or really of all fantasy. They have the necessary grit that’s been lacking in a lot of buddy comedies, the reluctance of the Hound to like Tormund, they’re perfect!
My idea, is that Tormund and The Hound (Sandor Clegane) walk the countryside after the great war, and end up defending villages and towns from all kinds of Westerosian danger. Structurally, think about Hercules: The Legendary Journeys starring Kevin Sorbo. In that show, Hercules and Iolaus, traveled around in the same manner, in this show however, Tormund isn’t a trusty side-kick, but rather a kick-ass partner to The Hound. In addition to the title characters, I think occasionally they would run into Brienne of Tarth, who would be this show’s Xena. As on GoT Tormund would pursue Brienne and lightly antagonize The Hound, and the show in the tone that those ten brilliant minutes of screen time have created.

The Hound’s desire to get himself killed, to just keep doing whatever he thinks is right until the day comes when someone or something ends his life, really means that if he doesn’t die in the finale of the show, it’s likely he’s going to go about doing this anyway, whether it’s alone or with a partner. Tormund on the other hand, doesn’t necessarily seem to seek death, but seems to find an excitement (to really live) by facing down those he opposes. The interesting nature of having two people approaching the same problems in the same way, for completely opposite reasons, would make for a lot of interesting character work and potentially some awesome philosophy to be interweaved into this tapestry.
I don’t know how many seasons this structure could run for without getting old, but I would think if you did at least one for every land mass or if you introduced seasonal story arches to go with the serial style of the episodes, you could probably make the show go for a little while, and personally I think most good drama or comedy/drama shows are doing shorter runs, and so I think ‘Tormund and The Hound’ is the winning formula for HBO to go with for their 6th spin-off (unless they’ve already thought about it and it’s one of the first 5).

What I Want To See: The Star Wars Anthology Films by Michael Cole!

Published on September 21, 2017November 16, 2020 by Michael Christopher Cole1 Comment

Hi guys,

Mike had a great idea to do a series of articles about his favorite things in pop culture and writing about where he as a fan, would like to see the property go. This one is about The Star Wars Anthology Films and it’s great! I loved reading it! We’ll be getting more articles in this series coming soon from Mike, in the meantime, Enjoy!

– Paul

The Star Wars Anthology Films

There is no doubt, that for many of us, we’re living in the Golden age of Star Wars fandom. We’re about to see the release of The Last Jedi, the third Star Wars film in as many years, and so far, we’ve been getting pretty good results. While, I know that there are some complaints that The Force Awakens was too repetitive of the original trilogy, that’s really the big complaint, and not too much else as far as quality. Rogue One, tells a backstory, that may have felt unnecessary before its release, but showed us how they could fill in elements of the story in original new ways.
The last couple months however, have come with some shake ups. First, Lord and Miller were fired from the Han Solo Anthology film (and replaced with Ron Howard. Wtf?) Then, last week, Colin Trevorrow was fired from Episode IX.
What I want to talk about today, is what I want to see from the future of the franchise. First of all, as of right now, it seems as if Episode IX will be the end of the Skywalker saga (that may not be the case but it is at least the public perception) but the Star Wars Anthology films will carry on the legacy after that point.
The Anthology films, so far have a good track record, as they are 1 for 1, and they did a lot as far as new terrain, new ships, new fighting styles, and told a good story, but still some feel it’s an unnecessary story. The Han Solo film, may end up doing the same in the sense that it will be much better than it expectations, but it has less going for it right now. Sure Han Solo is one of the favorite characters from the series, but part of that is because of his mystery which this will be filling in (it didn’t work wonders for Anakin Skywalker), and then there is the fact that the studio hired two comedy directors, who have been consistently good, but didn’t really show any particular aptitude for what this film should be, and then they’re being replaced by Ron Howard (did I mention Wtf?) who isn’t a bad director, but is arguably overrated, and honestly a weird choice given all the young risky filmmakers they’ve picked thus far. After Han Solo, there are rumors that we’ll see a Boba Fett movie, or an Obi-Wan spin-off, and while all of those could potentially be awesome—and make no mistake, I’ll be seeing all of them— they’re not what I want to happen.
One great thing about Rogue One, was that the cast of characters was almost completely new. We weren’t filling in unnecessary detail on characters we knew and loved, we were getting new characters. That’s what we should be getting. There are a million different directions these films could go in, and there is no limit on where in time you place them. We could get a ‘Knights of the Old Republic’ film or perhaps a series, we could get any element that is mentioned but not fleshed out completely and do more with it, i.e. Tattooine’s Hutt gangsters, podracing, and slave trade, or any number of other things could be explored. It shouldn’t all be so interconnected.
Arguably the only fully functional extended cinematic universe right now is the MCU, and one of the amazing things that the MCU does correctly, is despite teasers and Easter Eggs, they have some stand-alone films, but also as importantly, is they don’t stick to a genre. Ant-Man is a heist film, Winter Soldier is a spy film, Guardians of the Galaxy is a Star Wars film. This is something I want the Star Wars Anthology films to start doing; I want them to start to explore different tones and genres. It’s not to say they don’t have to remain Star Wars films in their feeling, but don’t be afraid to make a Star Wars film that’s more of a thriller, or more of a comedy. Rogue One very vaguely does that, solely in the fact that it’s somewhat similar to a Dirty Dozen Star Wars film, and hopefully Lucasfilm and Disney decide to go broader into the Galaxy Far, Far Away.

What do you want to see in the Anthology films? Tell me in the comments below.

How To Treat Source Material by Guest Writer Michael Cole

Published on September 15, 2017November 16, 2020 by Michael Christopher Cole3 Comments

I’m fortunate enough to know many talented and creative people. Some of them have already contributed great stuff to World’s Best Media. Like Tim Cuff, my cohost on The World’s Best Podcast with Paul & Tim, or Ryan McDonald who created the amazing promotional video for that podcast. Both Ryan and Tim have contributed much more than that to this creative project I started, but one person who’s had a big influence on this entire thing who hasn’t gotten his due, is an old friend of mine named Michael Cole. Mike’s an extremely talented writer who has his own blog and has published a book of his own short stories called “Everything I’ve Got: A Collection Of Short Stories, Poems, and Essays”. He was the person I went to when I knew I wanted to start a blog and there would be no World’s Best Media without Mike Cole. One of my goals, when I created World’s Best Media was to give a forum to all of these talented people I knew to offer what they’ve created to the world. So I’ve been wanting to do something with Mike specifically for some time and we are going to have him be a special correspondence for World’s Best Media. Mike will be contributing guest articles every now and again on topics similar to the type of thing we cover all the time on all our podcasts and blogs. Pop-culture, movies, books, TV, everything. So without further ado here is Mike’s first piece for our site. I already have one more of his articles ready to post and we’re very happy to have him writing for us. I think you guys will love his point of view. Below his article I just posted a link to his website. Enjoy!

-Paul

How to Treat Source Material by Michael Cole

When something is adapted into a movie, there is inevitably some complaint about source material. Whether it’s a video game, a book, a comic book, or a TV show, someone is going to be unhappy. It’s inevitable.
Currently, the problem tends to be that something doesn’t follow the source material close enough. It’s a natural complaint, after all if you were a fan of the original thing, then you want to see it adapted well, but is it a fair to expect a literal translation of page to screen?
I think it depends, and I don’t mean it depends on the specific work it’s based on, as much as I mean what the original format was. Look at a finite book series, like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson; there are 7 Harry Potter books, telling one overarching story, there are 5 Percy Jackson books (plus 5 where he’s a semi-main character, plus 5 where he’s a background character). Both of the series have pretty defined beats that lead to their ending in the final book, so they should be pretty close to the original source material, at least in those beats. Harry Potter does a pretty good job of this, cutting some of the fat that isn’t needed, but overall sticking to the same structure. Percy Jackson got two movies (of 5 books) and by the end of the second book, there was a battle which was essentially the final battle from book 5. By doing this, they had predetermined that even if it had been successful enough to warrant further movies, that they wouldn’t be able to continue following the story that had been laid out for them.
I think a finite series, should adapt the basic bones of the original, but an ongoing serial, something which has the mythology being rewritten constantly, has much less responsibility to strictly following the source material. We’re seeing this with comic books, they’ve been restarting, and reinventing, and reimagining the stories and the worlds, and so when it comes time to adapt them into films and TV shows there is a wealth of source material, but sometimes its contradictory, so in this way sticking with the spirit of the characters and their arches tends to be paramount, and making sure that any element that has remained untouched through all the various adaptations and updates isn’t changed (at least without VERY good reason). It’s well established that Joe Chill killed Bruce Wayne’s parents, in every variation except for Tim Burton’s Batman, in which Jack Napier killed them before becoming the Joker. While there was some disagreement about changing it, ultimately it made no impact on the ongoing storytelling in the overall Batman catalog, but allowed that films story to have the proper impact without shifting too far from source material.
What is interesting about film adaptations is, that if you look at them before a certain point (I tend to think of Harry Potter as being the turning point) a significant amount of book to movie adaptations had significant changes to the source material. Look at a movie like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest based on the novel by Ken Kesey, (among many other hugely successful films adapted from books around that time) it took a starkly different approach from the book. In the novel, the whole story is told from Chief’s perspective, and as readers we have a hard time differentiating between what is real and what is hallucination. There are moments in the book to make it clear that the Chief does hallucinate, like when the beds each lower down as the floor opens up and all the sleeping people are experimented on by putting mechanical and electronic parts in them. In the movie, because the story is closer associated with McMurphy’s point of view, we see the ward as being filled with people who are mentally ill, but the view point of it is clear itself.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, is an example of a book that would have been unfilm-able as a literal adaptation, and that is where a lot of stand-alone literature falls. We naturally want to see a film adaptation, but not every book translates, whether that be due to technical constraints, or more hard limit medium differences (if Chief had narrated the film as heavily as he had the novel, he would have been talking nearly the entire movie.)
One of my favorite books, The Knife of Never Letting Go which is the first book in The Chaos Walking Trilogy, is being adapted into a film for release in 2019. The book takes place on a world where everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts, including the animals. (I’m going to give no spoilers so don’t worry). The people refer to that concept as ‘Noise,’ as in your thoughts are your ‘Noise,’ and most people can hear everyone’s ‘Noise’. On the page, Patrick Ness, fills the page not only with what you need to know, but noise, words all over the pages a typography nightmare, and it makes for an incredible novel. We can ignore a lot of it visually, so we get the idea, but we’re not actually as overwhelmed as the characters. How is this going to work in the film? My hope is that they’re not going to be completely faithful to the novel. My hope is that they’ll find some other manner of conveying that, because— at least for me— ignoring audio noise will be too difficult and distract from the storytelling.
Ultimately, I think there must be a consistency whether it’s to the characters, or the concept, or in some cases it should tell the same story, but I think depending on what kind of source material you have, and what kind of film you’re going to make, you have to change things. You’re going to get some people mad, and those people will get frustrated with those who enjoy the new item, but a movie isn’t a comic book, or a book, or TV show, and the focus just has to be on the quality of the storytelling, and not an overwhelming reverence to an original in a medium that doesn’t tell stories the same way.

What do you think about adaptations and source materials? Do you prefer them to be perfect visual representations or are you ok with changing things as needed? Tell us in the comments below.

https://michaelchristophercole.com