Brandon Inada's Blog

I haven’t actually seen Avatar: The Last Airbender, the animated series the film is based on.

One of my friends told me I should check it out.  That was a long, long time ago.  I fully intend to; just haven’t quite gotten around to it yet.

The trailer looks promising.  The elemental effects look pretty cool.  Also, I’m really surprised by how faithfully the Chinese martial arts are being represented in the film.

Thoughts?

You know, I didn’t really care for Ong Bak 2 all that much, but, having watched the action heavy trailer for the follow-up, I’m a bit more optimistic about the sequel.

I’m guessing you really need to watch both movies, Ong Bak 2: The Empire Strikes Ong Bak and Ong Bak 3: The Return Of The Jaa, back-to-back to be able to appreciate them fully.

The pacing problems of 2 aren’t really pacing problems at all if you watch the sequels as the filmmakers intended you to see them: as one, bone-crunching, 4 hour long, Thai martial arts epic that’s completely unrelated to the first (Ong Bak Begins).

Ong Bak 2 Part One: Ong Bak Reloaded, isn’t really all that bad pacing-wise, as long as you realize the story won’t be completely wrapped up until you’ve sat down and watched Ong Bak 2 Part Two: Ong Back Revolutions as well.

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Here’s the thing:

I can sit down and watch The Empire Strikes Back in its entirety and come away from the experience feeling utterly satisfied, as though I’ve watched something whole and complete, even though there are clearly overarching story elements left unresolved at the film’s conclusion.  I don’t need to pop in Return Of The Jedi immediately after watching Episode V.  I’m good.

Now, maybe it’s because I grew up watching Empire and Return Of The Jedi, but I find that I can’t say the same of many of today’s trilogies, say, the Matrix sequels, or the last two Pirates films.

It’s hard for me to put my finger on exactly why I feel this way, but I think more than anything else it has to do with the fact that the first film in each of these trilogies was intended, first and foremost, to stand alone.

Although Pirates introduced a few minor story elements that would be elaborated upon in the sequels (Jack’s compass, for instance), the movie was written to have a definite end.   If the movie did well, then alright, there’s room for a sequel or two (or three, in the case of Pirates), plenty of backstory to draw from in case a follow-up is called for, but if not, well, that’s all there is, and that’s perfectly fine.  The story could have ended right then and there.

The same is true, perhaps even more so, of The Matrix. I don’t know about the rest of you, but when Neo’s talking into the phone, saying it’s over, I’m the Chosen One, and you Machines are going down, I believe him. The man can fly, for crying out loud! Of course, the Machines are going down. The End. I don’t need to see him dismantling the Machines one by one to know that humanity’s going to pull through in the end.

(To be honest, I wish the Matrix sequels had never been made. If, one day, my kids ever ask me if there were any more Matrix films, I’m pretty sure I’m going to lie and tell them, “No, that’s all there is.”

You know, so they never have to experience the same disappointment I felt watching Reloaded and Revolutions.)

So here’s the problem, in a nutshell:

The Matrix came out, was a huge, huge hit, and spawned a sequel, The Matrix 2, a five hour long sequel told in two parts: The Matrix 2: Part One and The Matrix 2: Part Two.

Pirates Of The Caribbean came out, was also a huge hit, and so, naturally, a sequel was filmed, again in two parts: Pirates Of The Caribbean 2, Parts One and Two.

The Matrix trilogy isn’t really a trilogy.  It’s one movie, with a really, really long sequel.

Ditto for Ong Bak.

Stumbled onto this interesting, manga/anime-inspired Super Mario Bros. piece by artist Saejin Oh while researching my previous post:

A preview of the entire "Super F-ed Up Bros. World 1-1" piece.

It seems that the original Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 continues to be a source of inspiration for artists everywhere (in this case, South Korea).

Just to warn you, the entire piece is a bit graphic in terms of it’s depictions of highly stylized, over the top violence; to view the entire piece, violent bits and all, click here to go to the artist’s page on deviantART.

(I love the way he incorporates the title screen and card and the cool Starman effect midway through.)

You can check out more of his stuff at his work blog here.

Here we have a really cool piece of video game-related embroidery by Elsa Olsson who hails from Sweden:

World 1-1 Embroidery

That’s right - the entire first level of the original 8-bit Super Mario Bros., Goombas, Power Up Mushrooms, and all!

Embroidered Goombas

World 1-1 - A Work In Progress

The project, begun in September of 2008, is still a work in progress; once completed (Elsa hopes to finish the project by spring of this year), the entire piece will measure 244 by 16 inches - a little over 20 feet long!

Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 Cross Stitch

Cross Stitch Pattern For World 1-1

Earlier this year, Elsa posted a short video clip of herself (and her kitty Klara) showing the current status of the project:

Check out her blog at http://supermariobrosworld1-1.blogspot.com for more about the project!

(The site is in Swedish; I used Google Translate to read her earlier posts…)

Artist Travis Pitts came up with this fun T-Shirt design (”We’ve Got Some Work To Do Now”) featuring Velma Dinkley of Scooby-Doo fame and the titular Great Dane chewing on what appears to be some vanquished monster’s (Frankenstein’s Monster?) hand:

I love the older, battle-hardened, post-apocalyptic version of Velma shown above.

The Mystery Machine (now Misery Machine, apparently) has been refitted with side-mounted chainsaws for hacking away at undead armies.

(Wonder what the giant wooden stake up top is for?)

Also, Shaggy, Fred, and Daphne are no more it seems.

What a great concept!

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Here’s what the artist himself had to say about the design:

Sticking with my favorite theme of heroic girls … and injecting realism or plausibilty [sic] to silly pop culture icons …, I knew I wanted to make a certain teen detective [and] her canine companion into the sole survivors of a Monsterpocalypse for the threadless loves Horror contest.

Everyone knows that it’s always the timid, quiet, second-string female character that gets the dramatic arc and has the wits and skill to survive most horror movies. I struggled for days trying to come up with a semi-realistic interpretation of this toughened, nerdy survivor-type gal- until I remembered I was dating one, and asked her to model for it.

Fun stuff!

Click here to buy the shirt over at Threadless.com and to check out more of the artist’s designs!