Brandon Inada's Blog

Check out this fun, Space Invaders-inspired tee by artist Neil Gregory:

A Simple Plan

The T-shirt’s available at Threadless.com; the wall decal is on sale at blik!  (Check out my post here for more on blik.)

Stumbled upon these laughing, frog-like origami creatures by Joseph Wu:

Joseph Wu's Origami Warai

A professional origami artist who hails from Vancouver, Wu calls these amazingly expressive, adorable, little figures Warai, which means “laughter” in Japanese.

Here are a few of my favorites:

A Red Warai Waving Happily

A Green Warai With Open Arms

A Very Happy Blue Warai

More Of These Happy Fellows

Awesome!

To see more of these cute little creatures on Flickr (as well as some of his newer creations and experiments), click here.

Visit Joseph Wu’s official site to see more of his amazing work.

Check out this creative tee shirt design I found on threadless.com:

Burger Deconstructed, In Helvetica

It’s by graphic designer David Schwen.

Love the use of color!  (And not just because it matches the site so well…)

Cheeseburger.  Yum.

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.

-

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.