The Wizard of Oz IMAX 3D Re-Release - Was it worth it?

Last year I heard the news that they were going to remaster The Wizard of Oz for the IMAX in 3D. To tell you the truth, I didn't know how to take the news, as this was one of those films I didn't think would translate well onto the large screen.

I felt that the IMAX was meant for films that had the potential to feel huge. I went to see films like Avatar, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Dark Knight Rises, Hunger Games, Skyfall, Jurassic Park, and even Star Trek Into Darkness. There were many that I missed that I had wished that I had made the effort to see on the huge screen, and to even have the grand experience. I missed ones like Tron Legacy and the re-release of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Now movies that were not meant to be released on IMAX got a re-release over the last few years, one of them being Jurassic Park for it's 20th Anniversary, and I made the trip to see it, and man was it worth it, it was seriously one of those great experiences in the theater, I had never seen Jurassic Park on the big screen when I was younger, but this was just grand. I had never experienced The Wizard of Oz on the big screen either, so I decided that it was time, even if I was kind of skeptical for the whole experience.

The opening IMAX intro was cool to reflect the beginning of the movie, by going sepia. I still thought it was cool to see the whole movie on the large screen. I will admit first off, the 3D did nothing for me, but at the same time, I have ranted in the past on when a movie can be very poorly treated for 3D (eg Clash of the Titans), this was not one of those whatsoever. So it wasn't a poor conversion in any way, it just didn't pop out for me either. That being said, it was still cool to experience this classic movie on the largest screen possible. The best moment that stuck out was the whole tornado sequence. The vibrations of the tornado coming closer to the house could be felt very strongly, and it was really cool. I never want to be caught in a tornado, and I keep my fingers crossed that I never have to have that kind of experience, but this was cool. It was also cool to be able to experience all the detail that the artists and designers put into this film. All the details could be seen, and I didn't catch all of them.

So in answer to the question I proposed, "Was it worth it?" I would say yes. The biggest reason being that I had never had the experience of watching The Wizard of Oz on the big screen before. I was never the type that would watch it countless times as a kid, but watching it now, I can truly appreciate the craft, the effort, the performances, and everything about it. It is a unique film for the time period, and it is still something that anyone can enjoy.

With the release of The Wizard of Oz on IMAX 3D, and some older films that have made it to the largest screen possible, my hope is that they will continue to put some of these classics onto the IMAX. Ghostbusters is having it's 30th Anniversary next year, I suggest that they put that on the IMAX to celebrate it's 30th anniversary. I would totally make it for that. Seriously there are a lot of movies that would be great for the IMAX.

Regardless the future of older movies on IMAX, I still enjoyed my trip down the yellow brick road on the IMAX. 

Salt Lake Comic Con - September 7, 2013

I had the opportunity to be able to attend the first ever Salt Lake Comic Con. Keep in mind I have never attended a convention like this before, except for an Anime convention years ago, so this was a new experience for me. I have seen pictures and reports of the Comic Con in San Diego in the past, and thought it would be cool to attend one of these one day, and then I heard about the Salt Lake Comic Con back in July, and thought it would be a great idea to attend it. I soon got my ticket for the Saturday as I thought that would be the best day to attend.

My anticipation for the event grew as it got closer. When I first signed up, I wasn't originally planning to dress up for the event, but after a bit I realized that it would be a mistake to not fully join in the geek culture. So to do that, I got out my Marty McFly (Back To The Future) costume that I made for last Halloween and wore that for the Comic Con. I was really glad I did as well. I got on the train to head to Salt Lake, and the fun part came as I saw a few people in later stops come on board in costumes. A lot of the people on board knew that we were going to Comic Con, and they didn't know what character they were suppose to be, but me knowing who one of them was pulled out my phone and showed them a picture. It was a lot of fun, but when we switched trains to get over to Comic Con, I saw even more people in costumes. I was told that the Friday attendance was really high and that it was busy, and then I could hear and tell that this one was going to be bigger, much bigger.

When we got to the Comic Con held at Salt Palace, I saw that the line to get in wrapped around the building, and it was even a double line to get the wristband if this is the first day. The line to get in was an hour wait, for me that didn't really matter because as I got in line I saw many people in costumes and seeing their creativity was awesome. I think this was the reason why I was really glad I dressed up, because I got to join in by showing my creativity for a costume that I had worked on. I got many pictures of cool costumes that I had come across, and also there were many that wanted a picture of me in my costume. It was just an awesome experience.

I was about 50 feet away when they announced that they have officially sold out for the event, and they had to ask people that didn't buy tickets to leave. They were even struggling to let us in, ones who had purchased tickets. But they did announce that if we had bought a ticket, they would let us in. I eventually got in. And it started with checking out the booths.



I started with checking out the Ghostbusters booths as I am a big fan, and it was cool to see what they had. There was one club that could teach you how to build your own Proton Pack. I had thought about getting a Ghostbusters Proton Pack for a costume, but I had never considered building my own, so that started the gears in my head. I think that was the coolest part about this whole convention, being able to see the creativity of all the individuals in this room, I think we see a lot of the big things that sometimes we overlook the smaller groups that are very creative, and use these opportunities to show off their creativity and work. Another really cool booth was the Lego area. These creations were enormous, and were totally amazing. Check out the pictures below.

Another booth that I checked out which was really cool was the Weta Workshop booth. They had a lot of miniatures, and a lot of prop pieces from movies like The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. They were also selling books that showcased their work.

They also had booths for many celebrities. Many of them included William Shatner, Adam West, Peter Mayhew, David Prowse, Walter Jones, David Yost, Ray Park, Kevin Sorbo, and Stan Lee. Stan Lee was a last minute guest, but was totally cool. I didn't get a chance to meet him, but I did get a glimpse of him. I did get a chance to meet Walter Jones and David Yost though, and that was cool. They played the original Black and Blue Rangers in the 1990s TV show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. I also got to meet William Kircher, who was Bifur, one of the dwarfs in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. There were other celebrities as well, but didn't meet many of them as the lines were very long, but it was still cool to meet the ones I did.

It was really cool to see all these amazing things, and unfortunately I feel that I had only scratched the surface at this kind of event, as the booths are only a small part of the Salt Lake Comic Con, but there were many other things like the Panels, and the Film Festival. There was literally so much to do.

I did get the chance to attend a panel near the end. I went to the one about JJ Abrams and his take on Star Trek and Star Wars. It started off with talking about Star Trek, and what it has meant to each of the individuals conducting the panel. There were three of them, I forget the names, but one of them was a Science Fiction writer. They talked about what they liked and what they felt wasn't as strong, and then they talked about the new Star Trek movies and how they felt about them. Then they started to talk about Star Wars and what the franchise has meant to them. They then started to talk about the new Star Wars movies that will start coming out in 2015. They pointed out that they feel that these new Star Wars movies will bring back a lot of the old feeling that the first ones did. They pointed out, and I am sure you have noticed, is how the new Star Trek movies have a lot of Star Wars feeling to them. The other one they pointed out that really stuck out, the movie Super 8 that was released in 2011 and how it had the feeling of an old George Lucas and Steven Spielberg movie released in the 80s. That idea really stuck out as I have mentioned in the past that Super 8 was like combining ET and The Goonies. I feel that with each discussion and each new mention of the future Star Wars movies, my previous doubts of them being as good as the originals are being washed away. Also, in case you can't tell at this point, 2015 will be a big year for movies, just by Star Wars Episode VII and also The Avengers 2. There are other ones that I am sure will be released that year as well, but those ones stick out the most.

It was great to be part of history as the Salt Lake Comic Con became the biggest first year comic convention ever, with tickets up to around 80,000 sold. I am really anxious to see what next year brings to the Salt Lake Comic Con, just by seeing how this one turned out,  I am excited to see what they have in store for next time, I am sure a bigger venue, more cool booths and events, and panels, and bigger celebrities. The possibilities are limitless. Regardless, I had a great time at this one, and I can't wait for next year's Comic Con in Salt Lake.

Shadow Raiders Reflections before 15th Anniversary

It’s been a few years since I have talked about the TV show ReBoot. I did a post on it when I heard the announcement of the entire series being released on DVD. I was very excited as this was one of my childhood shows that I watched a ton growing up. There were three shows that were done using computer animation that I watched and loved. ReBoot was the first one, then there was Beast Wars, which came out on DVD two years ago as well, and it was about three months after I got ReBoot. Then the last one was Shadow Raiders.

To explain a bit more about me, I lived in Canada for quite some time, and when I lived there,  there were a few TV channels that I would watch, the big one was YTV that contained a lot of the big kids shows, and also some of the older ones that were still fairly popular. YTV was where I caught those three computer animated shows, as they were all produced by a Canadian company called Mainframe Entertainment. Therefore I got plenty of exposure to their works. This was how I became aware of Shadow Raiders when it was first released. Which first aired on YTV on September 16, 1998. The show lasted for 26 episodes.

To give you a history lesson on Shadow Raiders, it was first a toy line, just like Beast Wars: Transformers. Shadow Raiders was based on the toy line entitled War Planet. They were these little planets that would open up and you would have a station in them that had little men that you could play with. Think of Mighty Max if you have ever heard of that and you have the idea of the toy line. It had some cool things to it, but I only had one of them.

Anyway, I first saw a preview for it on TV and realized it was done by the same people that did ReBoot and Beast Wars, and since I really liked those shows, I knew that I was going to like this one as well. I got a blank VHS tape out (which was refered to as a video tape back then, DVD wasn’t popular yet) and set the timer to record the first episode. I remember sleeping in my basement in my home and watching the first episode with no sound, as the TV was mainly left on at that point just as picture noise to help me sleep, but the visuals were really cool that I really was curious about the dialogue that went along with it. When I woke up the next morning, I rewound the tape and watched the whole episode (with sound nonetheless) and I was hooked.

To give you a symopsis of the show, it was about four planets (Ice, Rock, Fire, Bone) that were divided and would steal resources from one another. This was done so each planet could survive, as each one had something of value. This had gone on for many years. All things change when the Beast Planet arrives. Planet Tek is destroyed by the Beast Planet, and Tekla of the planet goes out to warning star systems near her home world to warn them of the threat of the Beast Planet. She lands on Planet Ice, where she is in the middle of raid by the people of Rock to get the Ice off the planet. She eventually warns Graveheart, a miner from Planet Rock, and King Kryos of Planet Ice about the Beast Planet. They realize that they must get to all the planets to unite them.

You may think that they unite perfectly and things are all good, actually there are many different complications. Ahead are a few spoilers for the show, in the second episode, Graveheart and Kryos try to warn Planet Rock about the threat of the Beast Planet, but Lord Mantle, the leader of the planet, refuses to join forces with the other planets, and he doesn’t join for another 11 episodes, it isn’t till episode 13 where Planet Rock joins the Alliance. There are also many other complications like the leader of Planet Bone ditches everyone in battle, and his forces retreat with him. The biggest shocker is when Planet Fire is actually destroyed by the Beast Planet, and the people of Fire end up living on one of the battle moons of Planet Rock. So this show doesn’t really have that, “everything is great and everyone lives happily ever after”. There are things that happen that never get fixed, characters that die, etc. Were there flaws, of course, but I was able to check out the whole series again about a year ago, and it brought back all the nostalgia of when I first watched it. Even appreciated a lot of the story elements in the show.

Why do I share all of this with you? Well, this September marks the 15^th Anniversary of when the show first aired. I was hoping to hear of a DVD release of the whole show by now, but nothing, I am happy to have ReBoot and Beast Wars, but was also hoping to add Shadow Raiders to my collection. My hope with the 15^th Anniversary is to hear of a DVD release. Keep in mind they have released it in the past, but they are long out of print, and it isn’t a DVD set, but different volumes. It would be awesome to have a DVD release to accommodate with the Anniversary, and maybe a few new extra features about the creation of the show. I believe that there are many fans out there that would want to get the whole series on DVD, and maybe some that would re-buy the entire series for a new DVD edition. This was an important show in my childhood and I would hate to see it disappear into nothing. This is my call for any distributors that are reading this to consider getting the rights for the show and get a new edition of the DVD out soon. This is a big piece of my childhood for me, and I am sure there are many that feel the same.

Teaser for How To Train Your Dragon 2 released

How often do you get excited for a sequel? We have so many of them this day. Even to ones that we probably don't even really want sequels to, like Grown Ups 2 that has arrived this weekend. I enjoyed the first one, but don't see the purpose in really having a sequel to. There are even movies that shouldn't have had a sequel, like all the Direct to Video Disney Sequels. However, we live in a culture that really wants sequels to many movies made. There are ones that we expect sequels to like Iron Man, Star Trek. Even everyone was expecting a sequel to a sequel already made, The Dark Knight. Sequels bring in big bucks, so why not, in the minds of the producers.

There are many sequels that can really build on the first movie, for example Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. There are some that can be just better than the first, like Toy Story 3 (at least in my opinion). Some won't even do anything really different, like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Regardless of what a sequel does, there is no denying that it will bring in big bucks, just look at Despicable Me 2, that made more it's first weekend than the first did when it opened. By the way, if you haven't had the chance to see Despicable Me 2, it is definitely worth seeing.

Yes, we live in a sequel dominated culture right now, even many movies that are coming out right now also have a potential to be a first for sequels down the road, like Man of Steel. But regardless of the opinion of too many sequels, we will have a few that stand out that we must see. One of those for me is How To Train Your Dragon 2. This is one of those that I am really looking forward to. I really loved the first one that came out years ago, and is one of my favorite movies within the last few years. They just released a teaser for the movie and it is enough to get me excited for the new one, and is a really awesome. If you want to see the teaser, just click on the link below. 

Click here to view the teaser for HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2

Yeah we have a lot of sequels, but there are sequels that are worth it. And this one looks like it will be worth it. I don't know how many of you will agree, but I hope that you take a moment to view this awesome teaser.

Will Man of Steel bring in new fans for Superman

The last time that a Superman movie graced the screen was 7 years ago with Superman Returns. Superman has been a fairly popular superhero, but for me he has never been one that has stood out. The biggest reason is the costume. The style and the color never seemed to draw my attention. He looked like a bland superhero. Because of this, he was never one superhero that I was interested in checking out. I saw a few of his appearances here and there, but never felt drawn to check more of him out.

With that said, that could easily change with Man of Steel arriving in cinemas next week. They have given the character a modern update, with the costume going with a different modern look, and giving it a texture that seems rather cool in my opinion, and it ditches the underwear on the outside, which I never seemed to find appealing in superheros. I feel that they have modernized Superman by doing all this, and this helps for Superman to gain new fans.

The other thing that will help is that Christopher Nolan is the producer, who has worked on the Dark Knight Trilogy, which all those movies are great, and with everyone already impressed with how he dealt with the reboot of Batman, then they will want to know how he will deal with the reboot of another iconic superhero. The rest of the team is impressive as well. Also, there was an epic trailer that was released a couple of months ago that really gained attention. You can view that trailer by clicking here.

With everything that I have seen from Man of Steel, I am already very interested in seeing this new reboot of the franchise and will definitely catch it opening weekend, and maybe even the midnight showing. I even feel that this reboot will get new fans and possibly may help them want to go back and check out some of Superman's former adventures. I may look up a bit myself. Keep in mind, that this is all my opinion on the character in the past, feel free to share your thoughts.