Anthony J. Merced

New York is about to get hit with some heavy rain over the next few days. While I acknowledge that it’s nowhere near as heavy as what some states have seen, it’s still enough to keep this cinefile indoors for the weekend. So here is my list of top five weather related films:

1. Twister (1996)

There is no way that there could be a list of Man vs. Weather films without including the one that sparked such terrible reality shows as Storm Chasers. This epic film about a group of scientists chasing an impenetrable wall of wind was written by the late Michael Crichton and starred such fantastic 90’s actors as Bill Paxton (not to be confused with Bill Pullman or Bruce Boxleitner) and Helen Hunt. The real storm isn’t in the skies but instead is in the relationship between the Hardings. With their marriage in shambles, Bill (the name of both the actor and character) shows up to serve his wife Joe divorce papers. The big question is whether or not the suffocating bonds of marriage will kill them before the insanely high velocity winds. Given the campy nature of the movie, I’ll let you guess how their relationship works out.

2. A Perfect Storm (2000)

The movie should be renamed The Perfect Cast or Really Expensive Cast for a movie with such a B-Horror feeling. George Clooney and “Marky” Mark Wahlburg are accompanied by Diane Lane, John C. Reilly and Cherry Jones on this rollercoaster ride based on true life events. The fishing boat Andrea Gail is stuck in the middle of a weather phenomenon that slams into the North Atlantic. How will they survive? Better yet: Will George Clooney wink at the camera as the wall of CG water approaches off of the port bow?

3. Top Hat (1935)

Get in your time machine and go back to a time when a lot of rain created romance instead of dread. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers engage in a bit of competition over who has the best choreography. As it does in most of these old musicals, that competitive natures becomes extreme romance. Considered one of Astaire’s best roles, it is a happy break from the doom and gloom in the rest of this collection.

4. The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

I believe that Roland Emmerich must really hate major cities. Most of his films revolve around bringing down the most famous landmarks in cities like New York, Chicago and Washington DC. This time he employs the efforts of Mother Nature instead of space aliens. Dennis Quaid plays Dr. Hall, who is unaware of the consequences of Global Warming. His son, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, gets stuck in the middle of a cataclysmic climate shift while visiting New York. 80 feet of rain, tons of snow and ice storms of the least of their concerns as they await the passing storm. As long as you can survive the absurdity of the premise and not take it too seriously you’ll see just how Dennis Quaid saves the world, or just his son, once again.

5. The Karate Kid Part 2

You may be scratching your head as to why I would have chosen such an obscure sequel as The Karate Kid Part 2. The answer is simple: THE EPIC MONSOON THAT HITS OKINAWA! Daniel-san finds it hard to win over the tough rural Japanese crowd. Especially after he discovers the tension between Mr. Miyagi and his old love. Fortunately a heavy Monsoon comes forcing Daniel-san to be a true hero. After that all he’s got to do is win over Chozen in an epic battle that makes you wonder why any parent in their right mind would let their son go anywhere with Mr. Miyagi.

It’s been a little over a week since I sat down in a movie theater to end my personal Harry Potter journey and I’m finally getting around to putting my thoughts onto digital paper (otherwise known as the internet). Fans have been leaving theaters since then with a mix of emotions. Some are absolutely in love with the cinematic changes of J.K. Rowling’s epic story and others feel that somehow they were missing some of the more dramatic moments. Before we get too much into what those changes are, lets talk a bit about the movie itself.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is the last film (that we know of) in the Harry Potter Saga that started well over ten years ago. With this film, Warner Brothers was able to do something that very few film series have ever done before. That is locking in the same cast members for eight movies. Audiences have seen Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint literally grow from children to adults. Looking back at the films, its amazing to see just how small these people were back when Christopher Columbus was at the helm of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. The longevity of the casting helped to automatically create an immediate connection each time the viewing experience began. For that, Warner Brothers should be heralded for not only keeping the course, but also allowing very creative artists to expand on a series of books that are beloved around the world.

If you’ve never seen a Harry Potter film the plot goes something like this: Harry Potter is a student in wizard school who holds the key to defeating the most dangerous evil wizard in the world. Over the course of the last seven films, we’ve seen a slow build to this finale, which is an epic climax between the powers of good and evil. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 starts exactly where the first part ended. Voldemort has the Elder Wand and Harry has no idea where the last few Horcruxes could be. From there the journey through Harry’s past begins. The audience returns to some very memorable place in the story’s lore. Each one holds a perilous sense of danger where before it had been a place of security. The vaults of Gringotts, once a place of safety for mystical items, turns into the scene of a magical theft and escape. Hogwarts School, once considered the safest place and only true home of Harry Potter, becomes a war zone for the final battle. Even characters that the audience thought they knew reveal themselves in a different light, specifically Serverus Snape.

Unlike many fantasy films, the Harry Potter franchise has never suffered from a lack of acting talent. Alan Rickman, Ralph Fiennes, and Michael Gambon spent much of the earlier films carrying the dramatic weight. However, Radcliffe, Grint and Watson have come into their own, easily lifting the film to new heights for the genre. The much teased love between Hermione and Ron finally comes to a head just as Harry’s involvement with Ginny does as well. The roller coaster ride doesn’t stop with love and action. There is also a strong sense of realism in the consequences of character actions. Several key characters that fans have come to love over the years find themselves in mortal danger. Some of them make it and some of them perish. However it is this balance of fantasy and realism that lifts this climactic film above others that fell terribly flat, like Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

When the film closed it felt strangely similar to exiting the theater after Star Wars Episode III. It is the end of a long cinematic journey that many fans have grown with. Whether you’re a fan who simply viewed the movies or read each book, this film adds a level of visual closure to one of the most successful movie franchises of all time.

Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, Wall-E, Up, and Cars are just a few of the hits that help to make up the current viewing favorites of children across America. While Disney’s fantastic logo appears before the opening credits of every one of these movies, it is the less spectacular logo of the animation studio Pixar that is celebrated within the industry, and with great reason. The documentary The Pixar Story pulls back the curtain on the mysterious studio that has produced some of the most memorable animated characters since the early days of animation.

Thankfully, The Pixar Story is more than just a celebration of Pixar’s seemingly endless list of accomplishments. It is a chronicle of the long journey to success that almost didn’t happen. The story is told primarily by those who lived through it. People like Steve Jobs and John Lasseter provide the most input into what ends up being a very interesting story. Many times these types of documentaries fall flat simply because the story isn’t very interesting. Pixar’s story is one of risk, innovation and true entrepreneurship. All of these ingredients make for a story that is captivating, especially when its kept to under two hours.

The story of Pixar is one that starts, like many others, with a problem. The artistic visions of filmmakers like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were limited by the technological means of their generation. This is why a subdivision of LucasFilm, The Graphics Group, was created to address these problems. However, after hard times hit LucasFilm, Steve Jobs came along to save the day. Even after pumping nearly 10 million dollars into the company, Pixar found itself as nothing more than a high end hardware company trying to pimp out its technology to anyone who would take it. It wasn’t until a huge deal to make the first computer generated feature film, with the help of Disney, that Pixar truly began to spread its wings.

The Pixar Story isn’t very specific. It doesn’t dive into any problem long enough to confuse or sometimes engage the audience. Instead, the documentary relies solely on the idea that dreams can come true, a very Disney mindset. We listen to Steve Jobs and John Lasseter explain how close they came to losing everything and how hard it is to maintain the empire. However, these problems are never drastic enough to bring real concern to the audience. Instead we are left with a dream-like image of what hard work and determination can accomplish. It may seem like mostly a fluff piece, but The Pixar Story is the type of documentary that would make anyone rethink whether or not their ideal job is possible.

With over 4,000 screenings at over 3,000 locations, Mars Needs Moms may go down as one of the biggest flops in mainstream movie history. I’m sure films like Gigli are breathing a long sigh of relief, but this does little to make us forget about the epic failures on the big screen in years past. As a matter of fact, lets take a look at some of the more momentous flops in cinematic history:

1. Gigli (2003)
You can’t really start a discussion about the biggest box office failures without mentioning one of the more well publicized flops, Gigli. The Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez film seemed destined to pull in tabloid hungry fans itching to see more of the couple. Unfortunately, audiences had seen too much of the couple in magazines, on television and on the internet. By the time Gigli hit theaters, most people had already had enough of them sucking face in front of a camera. Add in some bad acting, lame one liners and awkward sexuality between a real life couple and you get a film that couldn’t pull in 4 million in its opening weekend. The epic celluloid failure not only failed to make back more than a minor fraction of its 54 million dollar budget, but it also had the distinction of seeing the largest second week drop off in cinema history. The film’s 82% drop is the furthest any film has fallen since the statistic has been recorded. Maybe the film’s only saving grace comes from Christopher Walken who plays a snoopy detective. It may be a combination of Walken’s awesomeness or just the fact that every one of his lines seemed improvised, but anytime he’s on screen the film is instantly lifted from the dumps. Unfortunately, he isn’t in the film enough to make it completely watchable. Just youtube his clips if you’re really all that interested.

2. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
Any teenage video game nerd of the late 90’s knows about the Final Fantasy craze. Considered by many fans to be the greatest video game series of all time, no one could deny the epic roll that SquareSoft was on after the release of Final Fantasy VII. Since they pioneered new ways of showing expressive cinematic vision through a video game platform, an equal step into the film world seemed guaranteed. So when 2001’s Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within finally landed in theaters it’s hard not to blame the creators for thinking that they could conquer the video game movie stigma. Unfortunately they were in for a rude awakening. The film’s budget had ballooned to nearly 137 million, roughly 67 million more than what had initially been budgeted. It took over 200 designers and over four years of work to bring one of the most impressive animated films to life. Directed by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, it seemed that they had avoided every pothole that diverted films like Super Mario Bros. and Double Dragon. Unfortunately, jaw-dropping animation wasn’t enough to cover up its rather thin sci-fi story. The film only made 32 million in the United States and an additional 53 million around the world. This meant that certain key Asian markets not only didn’t buy into the hype, but stood away from it at all costs. This probably had to do with Sakaguchi’s decision to make the film in English. While this film isn’t on the list for the same reasons as Gigli, money still talks and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within didn’t bring any of it home. In fact, it placed the eventual merger deal between SquareSoft and Enix in jeopardy due to the insane amount of money SquareSoft lost following the film’s release. Eventually, things worked out and now SquareEnix knows where its audiences is. We look forward to the next Final Fantasy game and not the next movie.

3. The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)
The signs of the fall of Eddie Murphy in the comedy world came much sooner but it was never more apparent than in 2002 with the release of The Adventures of Pluto Nash. Eddie’s career was taking a sharp turn toward the family market, however many of the fans that came to love him for his work in raunchy and inappropriate comedies were left out in the cold. This sci-fi comedy saw Eddie Murphy play a futuristic nightclub owner who investigates the mysterious destruction of his nightclub. The easier mystery to solve was why audiences didn’t gravitate toward this epic flop. Eddie Murphy was known for his indecent roles and sometimes racially charged comedy. This being one of his first cartoonish PG-13 forays, it’s easy to see why families kept their children away. This wasn’t the lovable doctor talking to animals or Eddie Murphy in a fat suit. While your average box office bomb is painful to watch, The Adventures of Pluto Nash was particularly rough on the check book. With a budget of well over 100 million, it pulled in a dismal 7 million worldwide! While DVD distribution helped somewhat, its hard to believe that a film starring such an iconic figure can do so poorly. Perhaps there was some social reason for this. Unfortunately, no one may ever know since this film seems to have a contagious disease that keeps people from watching it.

4. Heaven’s Gate (1980)
This film should have two titles Heaven’s Gate or The Death of Independent Cinema. Which ever you choose, it’s undeniable that this film changed the course of cinematic history. The late 60’s and 70’s saw film directors being given boundless freedom and experiencing unparalleled success. Films like The Godfather and Chinese Connection were proving that art was profitable in the United States. That was all undone with one blow from Michael Cimino. Heaven’s Gate premiered with a running time of over 4 hours! That included an intermission of course. Normally length is not an issue in cinema. We’ve seen wildly successful films such as Lord of the Rings, Titanic, and Saving Private Ryan that all surpassed the usual 2 hour mark. However, audience reception to the film was best expressed on its opening night. Cimino stood in the theater during the intermission wondering why no one was drinking their champagne. To his dismay, a poor soul was brave enough to tell him, “Because they hate the movie, Michael.” At the end of the day, the film only grossed 3 million dollars after a 44 million dollar investment. While reception to the film has lightened up somewhat, its effect on the industry has left a permanent mark. The outcry against the film eventually led to Transamerica Corporation, the corporate owner of United Artists, to sell the company to MGM. United Artists was then disbanded. At the time of its disbanding, United Artists had produced films such as Rocky, Pink Panther, and the James Bond franchise. This coupled with the failure of films like Sorcerer and One From the Heart led to a heavy studio involvement in the creative process. A power that may never be returned to the artists… thanks, Michael.

5. Cutthroat Island (1995)
What happens when you have a budget over 115 million dollars and you only make back 10 million? It kills an entire sub-genre and nearly kills your career as a bankable star, that’s what happens. Cutthroat Island was a swashbuckling film starring Gina Davis as a pirate looking to find three pieces of a treasure map. Unfortunately for her, not too many people were interested in finding buried treasure. This is one that can’t be completely blamed on producers or actors. Films like Hook captured the imaginations of audiences in the early nineties. Move to the middle of the decade and the trend shifts quite dramatically. The film is listed as the biggest box office flop of all time according to Guinness Book of World Records. It also killed Gina Davis’ marketability. Her later work in The Long Kiss Goodnight went ignored and she took the opportunity to transition into television. As for pirate films, it was almost ten years before they would make a return to big studio productions. Pirates of the Caribbean returned this classic sub-genre to its former glory. Considering some of the terrible films on this list, it’s a little heartbreaking that this would have the Guinness Record. Then again, when you’re watching terrible movies it’s hard to bring yourself to look for something further down in the toilet bowl.

Rockumentaries have been around since the 60’s, chronicling the life, times and music of some of the most famous artists in their prime. Lately, we’ve seen this breed of documentary slip away from the public eye and end up on the far end of the DVD rack. Many times, the films are thrown together as a tool to sell more albums, leaving music and film fans wondering why they waste their time viewing such lazy works. Luckily, even though those terrible concert videos still exist, it seems that we are moving away from such things. 2004’s Some Kind of Monster and 2008’s Shine a Light still prove that you can create something that doesn’t just sit on a shelf as an add-on to an album.

Iron Maiden: Flight 666 is one of those rockumentaries that looks to entertain instead of advertise. For those that have not been gifted with the ear for metal, Iron Maiden is one of the most prolific metal bands of all time. They’ve sold millions of records and currently sell out concerts nearly twenty years past their prime. Actually, if it weren’t for a few stray gray hairs and some wrinkles, you wouldn’t be able to tell that many of the band members are pushing sixty. This documentary shows you just how vibrant, energetic, and passionate very successful musicians can still be after years of touring.

The movie starts with an introduction to Ed Force One, the 757 jet that will ambitiously carry the band, crew and equipment around the world over the next six weeks. Front man Bruce Dickinson, a very capable pilot, dawns his flight uniform to guide the band on their first trip from England to India. Right from the beginning we see a potential for major disaster. A cabin full of rowdy crew members, heavy metal legends, and a large imprint of the band’s signature mascot Eddie on the back of the plane lets you know you’re not in for the usual concert film. Fortunately for the audience, the film doesn’t deteriorate into a bunch of egotistical arguments and late nights at the bar. Instead, the film shows us how loyal the crew is, how young and rabid their international fans are, and just how disciplined the band is to maintain the rigorous schedule they place on their calendars.

The tour takes them from India to Australia, from Japan to Alaska, from Mexico to South America, and finally from The United States to Canada. Along the way there are laughs and a few close calls. Including a golfing mishap that nearly ends the tour. Like any great concert documentary, it is the live performances that keep the piece interesting. Their energy is infectious and the formula never becomes dull. The same routine of travel, song, travel is replaced with interesting tidbits about the individuals that not only make up Iron Maiden but that also make up their loyal fanbase.

While Iron Maiden: Flight 666 won’t end up on a list for greatest rockumentaries of all time, it definitely provides insight and light entertainment to a genre that has been filled with social messages and egos. If you’re a classic metal fan, you owe it to yourself to check this piece out. If you’re a documentary fan, take heed in that everything doesn’t need a somber or sobering message to fit into the genre.

After a well publicized stint on the festival circuit Darren Aronofsky’s latest film, Black Swan, has finally hit mainstream movie theaters. Unfortunately, many of the problems that haunted his last film The Wrestler have resurfaced to plague this latest piece. Aronofsky’s newest issue has been his inability to find a cinematic identity. His earlier work such as Pi and Requiem for a Dream are in stark contrast thematically and visually to that of his most recent films. Apart of from this, Black Swan comes across as lazy with a series of missed opportunities. Paper thin characters and confusing story arches fill its relatively short running time.

The movie follows Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), an up and coming dancer in a prestigious New York ballet company. We first meet her on an important day in her career. She is auditioning for the lead role in “Swan Lake,” a role that would require her to be both the White and Black Swan. This difficult role pushes her beyond her comfort point and she inevitably bombs the audition. From there Nina undergoes a slow yet drastic transformation that not only gets her the lead role but also unravels her life. Portman is joined by Vincent Cassel as the obsessively brilliant choreographer Thomas Leroy. Anyone aware of Cassel’s previous work knows that he can deliver disturbing moments with relative ease. In the role of Thomas Leroy he is asked to walk the line of insanely genius artist who has a corrupt lust for his dancers. Mila Kunis and Winona Rider round out the rest of the relevant cast members but deliver very little to the overall impact of the film.

Black Swan has all of the pieces to create a beautiful yet sad film. The thread unravels almost immediately when we are never truly introduced to our  characters. Nina’s obsessiveness with perfection and unhealthy relationship with her mother are never explored. Moments of clarity are dropped haphazardly but never lead to anything. Her growing hallucinations throughout the film also go unexplained. While a need to be perfect can drive one to rather dastardly thoughts, Nina’s hallucinations come across as psychotic or at the very least a sign of deeper problems. None of these issues are ever addressed. In fact, the audience is left to wonder whether many of the significant events in the film ever happen due to the lucidity of the character’s perspective.

The main area in which I found myself being very disappointed was the cinematography. At times it appeared as if this was a shot for shot remake of The Wrestler. The camera work was documentary style: shaky and incoherent. The close ups last too long and don’t allow for a better interpretation of the setting. This style worked beautifully for The Wrestler considering that the main character was living in a run down town at the tail end of his career. Black Swan takes place in New York City with a young and beautiful main character. The early scenes of Nina practicing along side other dancers in the rehearsal studio seemed to beg for slow moving wide shots. Instead we were stilted with jerky tracking shots and seemingly meaningless close ups. The space was ignored, the city was ignored and the dichotomy that comes from playing the characters off of it was completely lost. The dance sequences in the finale also suffered from the intrusiveness of the camera. In the middle of it I wondered how Scorsese or Coppola would have shot such a well choreographed number.

Overall, Black Swan comes across as an overrated mess of a film that had astonishing potential. The later Darren Aronofsky gets into his career, the more it is becoming obvious that he has not grown from his earlier works. In fact, he has taken quite a few steps backward. The Wrestler designated a new direction for him as an artist. After Black Swan that direction is still unclear. In fact it is more obscure than ever before. This leaves one to wonder where the beautifully sad images from The Fountain and Requiem for a Dream have disappeared to.

On January 10, 1927, a 153 minute version of Fritz Lang’s epic film Metropolis screened in Berlin, Germany to a less than enthusiastic reception. What followed was a series of re-cuts and rearrangements for each market that the film was to be released. In the United States, theater managers saw a film more than 90 minutes in length to be a crowd killer. The 1920’s had seen record highs in attendance with an average movie length that has persisted into modernity. Couple this with re-edits for particular audience markets and incorrect screening processes (namely displaying the film at 24fps when it was meant to be seen in 16) and what was left was not even a shell of what Fritz Lang had intended to show the world. Now in 2010, thanks to a lot of effort and an equal amount of luck, we now have the closest version of to what was shown on that fateful night in 1927.

For those unaware of Metropolis, the film centers around a fictional mega city that is divided by two separate classes: the thinkers who live in the bustling city and the workers that live and work underground. When the son of the city’s creator realizes the hardships that people endure down below, he takes it upon himself to be their voice and champion. What makes Metropolis different from the typical socialist film of the era is its inclusion of a heavy science fiction undertone. The crafty creator enlists the help of a mad scientist to create a Machine Man to twist and distort the message of the workers. What ensues is a struggle between classes and a modern day telling of the Tower of Babel. While many reviews in the 20’s pounded the heavy socialist message of the film, its underlying topics have helped to preserve the film long past others that operated in the same vein. With a healthy mix of camera tricks and magical special effects, the film still portrays a futuristic world that can capture the imagination of an audience more than 80 years after its initial release.

What makes this restored version of Metropolis so special? The main reason goes back two years prior to this new release. In June of 2008 a rather mistreated copy of the 1927 film appeared at the Museum of Cinema in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was only after hearing an anecdote about the length of this particular copy that was screened years prior that an investigation began. Nearly 25 minutes of missing scenes were added back into the film, creating the closest restoration of the film ever seen. Due to the poor quality of the print, these scenes are rather noticeable. Not only is the film quite damaged, but the picture size also varies due it being a copy. Neglecting the physical appearance, this inclusion helps to flesh out the story and also provides a better pacing to the film. The print already in preservation was then cleaned up to look immaculate and joined with the lost scenes for the Blu-Ray release last Tuesday.

If you’ve never seen Metropolis, this is a great time to experience one of the crown jewels of early cinematic history. The restoration was handled with tremendous care and this new version ensures that future generations of film lovers will see the Fritz Lang classic as close to it was intended like never before.

I will be the first to admit that I was not taken by the Harry Potter craze when most were swept off of their feet. Maybe it had to do with my undying love for the Lord of the Rings Trilogy or the yet incomplete Star Wars Trilogy. Whatever the reason was, I never saw a Harry Potter film or read a Harry Potter book until the beginning of this October. I know that this will seem like blasphemy to most of the die hard fans but this was not a conscious choice. For the most part I just never had the time to watch. My interests took me in many different directions. Of course this ended when I saw the trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. My interest was peaked by an intensely dark trailer and the promise of a climactic battle. I had no idea what I was watching but it looked so epic that I had to be a part of it. (A great example of a movie trailer doing the job)

The 125 million dollar start to its theatrical residency shows that I wasn’t the only one swayed by this. Remembering that the movie was not inflated by 3D ticket prices, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 found itself with its biggest opening in franchise history. Not only did the beginning of the end create a sensational buzz, but this firmly places the Harry Potter series as the best selling franchise of all time. Sorry Star Wars. Throwing all of the statistics aside, the movie was quite an experience and one that only feeds into the finale next July.

The movie takes no time to get straight to the point. We open with a speech from Minister of Magic letting us know of the dark times we are in. This tone of troubled and dangerous environments is only compounded by a montage meant to help us catch up with the characters we haven’t seen for some time. Everyone is in danger and from the onset it is apparent that this movie is one that would be unpredictable and quite heavy. Considering the amount of brooding done in the middle portion, the ambush on Harry and his friends at the beginning helps to keep the audience on edge. Thankfully, the CG is done to perfection. A level of danger mixed with the thrill of the chase engulfs the viewer for the next ten minutes while Hagrid attempts to keep Harry out of danger. We are also introduced to the possibility of death early on. While it isn’t explicitly shown on camera, casualties of war are apparent from the very beginning.

David Yates did a tremendous job creating an atmosphere where the protagonists are completely in the dark. While avoiding danger, they must decipher the riddles left for them by those that are no longer living. This sort of storytelling can potentially lead to some stagnant action. However, Yates mixes personal stories, like that of the growing love interest between Hermione and Ron, with plot progression to avoid these dull moments. Frustration and self loathing also fills most of the conversations but not in a way that leaves the audience exhausted from large amounts of dialogue. Yates should be commended for taking very dense source material and doing what needed to be done to adapt it cinematically. If not, I may have seen a film that watched more like a book than a movie.

One thing that this series has been blessed with is tremendous acting. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have all progressed to become quite interesting dramatic actors. Unlike many child stars, the attachment to this series has guarded them and allowed them to progress into more mature subject matter. Holding onto the same three leads for seven films is not easy for any production. This is something Warner Bros. should be very proud of. Outside distractions have not effected the interest in each actor and actually made them quite marketable once the series is done. Rupert Grint, as a main example, is already linked to a future Martin Scorsese film.

Overall, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1 can easily be compared to The Empire Strikes Back. The parallels are striking in tone and tension. If Harry Potter is to take the throne from Star Wars, it won’t be without a tremendous effort worthy of the former king.

The year is 1998, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was still unreleased in the United States and Warner Bros. was busy solidifying movie rights to the successful English novel. The widespread success of the Harry Potter franchise was still unknown. However, capturing the film rights to a successful children’s novel is something that no studio could pass up. Two million dollars later, and a promise to keep the cast primarily British, left Warner Bros. with a franchise that would cross cultural and artistic barriers. With the rights in their possession, the powerhouse studio quickly looked for collaborators. It didn’t take long for Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks to step into the picture. After jostling back and forth, the two agreed to work on the project. Of course the success of the book franchise pushed both sides to act a lot quicker than they had initially shown interest in doing.

Spielberg had very specific ideas on what he wanted to create. Not only did he want to make an animated Harry Potter film, but he was also interested in condensing the books and potentially deviating from J.K. Rowling’s original literary intentions. While this is nothing new in cinema and something that Spielberg himself had been very successful in doing, it would most certainly be seen as blasphemy in hindsight of the franchise’s current popularity. However Dreamworks was, and still is, interested in putting out a product that could rival what was being done by Pixar and Disney. Combine this with the fact that Star Wars: Episode I had yet to be released, proving that CG had developed as a viable way to push the limits of the imagination, it was easy to see why Spielberg leaned so heavily toward making the books into animated features. Unfortunately for Mr. Spielberg, this mindset was not shared with Warner Bros. president Alan Horn. Whether the reason for the disagreement was Horn’s belief in the franchise in a live-action setting or J.K. Rowling’s insistence on the books not being gutted for cinematic purposes, the president of Warner Bros. decided that Spielberg and Dreamworks was not the way to go.

They parted ways and the rest is history…

Now lets get in our “way back” machines and think about what would have happened if Mr. Horn and Mr. Spielberg had been on the same page. What if Warner Bros. was completely behind the idea of the Harry Potter franchise being an animated series of features? What kind of landscape would we be looking at now? While there’s no positive way to predict this, there are a few probable outcomes that we can explore:

1. Harry Potter (the animated film) becomes a huge success and Dreamworks rivals Pixar:

Ever since Toy Story, Pixar has been the reigning king of animation. Their throne has been challenged but none have come anywhere near knocking them off of their throne. The release of a Harry Potter animated film would have preceded Pixar’s Monsters Inc. One of the reasons they became so dominant was the lack of true competition in the animated feature category. The inclusion of a widely successful Harry Potter animated film would have put Dreamworks in the stratosphere. They would no longer be the little company trying to take a small piece of the large pie. Pixar would have been forced to churn out more hits at a faster pace. Whether or not they’d still have the success they share now is debatable. However, the success of a Harry Potter animated film would most definitely have placed Dreamworks into true contendership and may have taken the wind out from Pixar’s sails.

2. The Harry Potter animated film is a huge success, spawning spin off television series and becoming a staple in childrens entertainment.

One of the main reasons for Harry Potter’s widespread success is its appeal to both young and old alike. It’s hard to say whether or not this would have maintained if the series had taken a strictly animated approach. Cartoons are widely considered to be a children’s medium in the United States. However, that market would have produced an insane amount of revenue through merchandising and potential television spin offs. The adaptation of later books into miniseries or ongoing television series would have continued to provide an endless stream of income. Star Wars is currently being fueled by this with the episodic continuation of the mythos through The Clone Wars. I’m sure the Harry Potter franchise would have also seen similar success.

3. After years of success, the franchise finally takes a leap into live-action in an attempt to deliver the literary interpretation to audiences around the world.

No one can deny the speed in which CG technology made it possible to see magical things come to life on screen like never before. It would be hard to see the Harry Potter franchise remaining in the animated world by present day, especially if it had seen such tremendous success. Of course actors such as Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson would not be available to deliver their youthful performances, but the franchise would still take a chance and create something visually stunning for the live action audience. The success that is currently experienced now may have only been delayed by a decade.

It was startling to see how quickly people jumped to the conclusion of how bad of an idea it was to consider the Harry Potter franchise as an animated venture. Hindsight is always 20/20. Spielberg and Dreamworks believed they were doing the best for the franchise in 1998. They were neither wrong nor right. The experiment never took place and all that can be made of it is speculation. Spielberg has proven over the years to be a master of creating mystical adventures for people of all ages. Every director that has worked on the Potter franchise has done a tremendous job and is responsible for increasing the notoriety of the product. However, the direction that Spielberg could have taken things is interesting and one that we can only imagine.

The popularity of the “zombie” is something that has reached new levels over the last ten years. The success of publications like Zombie Survival Guide, Pride, Prejudice and Zombies, The Walking Dead and Marvel Zombies are just a few examples of the new wave of undead madness. With the premiere of The Walking Dead television show on AMC and the release of Dead Rising 2 for the XBox 360, it’s hard to argue that there has been a time where zombies were more popular across multiple mainstream mediums. While success may have found the once niche sub genre, one thing that hasn’t changed is the underlying message of the undead apocalypse. Unfortunately, it is that message that has kept the sub genre stuck in an era that not only doesn’t resonate with modern audiences but also keeps it looking stale and out of touch. It is that failure which keeps each new production stuck in a time warp where the politics of the 1960’s clash with the frustrations of the modern era.

To truly understand the current plight of the zombie film, is to understand it’s origins. The zombie as we know it is treated as a pandemic or unnatural event, completely out of the control of humanity’s social structures. What ensues is an apocalyptic society devoid of government, order and ethics. Ever since George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, zombie films have been defined by a stark reign of anarchy, a direction that many artists in the 60’s believed was inevitable. The best cinema usually underscores the common sentiment of the people. During the late 60’s, a decade filled with broken political promises, racial tension and a loss of faith in the greater militaristic protector, a deconstruction of the current state seemed imminent. Night of the Living Dead gave that deconstruction a face and a voice in which to express itself. While the zombies may appear to be undead creatures revived from radiation from Venus, they can more accurately be described as the faithless masses of the country, desperately seeking a more primal way of living. Later on, in Dawn of the Dead, they are described as the mindless consumers that are no longer interested in the world around them. Consumption is the only goal.

While the zombie sub genre evolved from the classic horror era into post modernism, it has yet to take a leap forward since then. Physical characteristics changed along with the reasoning for the apocalypse. However, the underlying messages continue to remain even though the social landscape has alter greatly. People are no longer concerned with consumerism or the common perception. Instead we are faced with an audience concerned about dollars and cents. Economics take center stage yet the zombie film neglects this overall change in attitude. After watching the first episode of The Walking Dead, it was obvious how out of touch the genre has become. People may be swayed to watch by fantastic special effects and the promise of gory exploits. However, the overall experience falls flat without a new age purpose. The show touts a more personal experience, yet delivers less than any of the previous Romero films. Even then, the personal journey in The Walking Dead mirrors Greek Mythology more than modern political or economic environments. Much like Odysseus in The Odyssey, the main character is dropped into an unknown world and searches for a return to normalcy. Along the way, he encounters misfits, monsters, and unparalleled dangers. It is a far cry from the personal experience that seems to be flooding the common consensus of what the stronger elements of the show actually are.

Zombie films started as a glimpse into the exotic. It was an infatuation with mind control and the evil exploits of forgotten religions in the 1930’s. Afterward, it was consumerism and anarchy that filled the setting of the post modern zombie film. What should it be now? How can a genre that has said what it was already meant to say find a new topic? It is something that the modern zombie film will need to discover before it can truly separate itself from the cloud that George Romero has placed over it.