The first National Treasure film was great, in my opinion. It had a unique and interesting story, the effects weren’t bad, and it blended some historical factoids into the story unobtrusively. I don’t think it deserved the relatively low ratings it got in places like RottenTomatoes.com.

The sequel, Book of Secrets, wasn’t too bad for a sequel, but it didn’t quite live up to the first film. It featured some of its predecessor’s elements, but it lacked the innovation of the original.

Book of Secrets was funny, and worth seeing if you liked the first movie, but it was a little disappointing. Mind you, it wasn’t bad as far as sequels go (e.g. Pirates of the Caribbean II), but it just wasn’t quite as good as the first movie.

The humor was good, and I liked the “President’s Book” (I won’t spoil it for you though). Overall the movie was enjoyable, but I liked the original better.

The Golden Compass, based on the book by Phillip Pullman, was a good film, though not quite as good as the book (which often happens). The pace was too quick, and the movie too short (just short of two hours). The Golden Compass is a 544 page book, with a fairly complex plot. The filmmakers cut things out, and re-arranged things until the movie moved at a quick pace and lacked important information. New Line, here’s a tip: Don’t try to cram a 500+ page book into less than two hours of film! Fantasy films can be much lunger than that. I, personally, don’t like it when movies have a running time of less than two and a half hours.

Some who have not read the book may have trouble figuring out what’s going on at times, due to the cut information. I felt that a lot of the changes and removals were unnecessary.

If you’ve read the book, then you’ll definitely want to see the film. If you haven’t, you’ll still enjoy the story…though (as with any movie based on a book) I’d still recommend reading the book first.

The Golden Compass was a good movie, and an even better book. Despite some complaints, I think the book’s overall essence was captured in the film. It’s worth watching.

T.A. Barron’s epic Pentology, The Lost Years of Merlin, may become a movie in the somewhat-near future. Paramount Pictures, as T.A. Barron writes, has obtained filming rights to the series.

Mr. Barron states that “the project could not be in better hands,” and that Paramount “understand[s] the power and depth of young Merlin - and they also know how to make spectacular movies.”

There is virtually no information yet, not even an IMDB page, as Barron has only optioned-out filming rights. Paramount may or may not actually make this movie, as there’s a long road between acquiring rights and starting production.

The final trailer of The Golden Compass has been released. It goes a bit more in-depth than the teaser that was shown before Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, and shows-off some cool CGI work.

Some notes for readers of the His Dark Materials books:

• Iorek Byrnisson will be voiced by Sir Ian McKellen, a name that will be familiar to Lord of the Rings fans.
• The last three chapters of the book have been cut from the movie, and have been moved to the beginning of the Subtle Knife film. Mainly because the filmmakers (and Philip Pullman) believe that the movie would end better that way. But could it also be because The Subtle Knife is such a short book?

Okay, it’s trailer time!

Until recently, I didn’t know that a The Dark is Rising Movie was in the works, until I heard it was slated for an October release this year. When I first saw the IMDB listing I thought “Cool.” Then I watched the trailer.

Okay, this movie is not The Dark is Rising (read the book yourself). Here are a a few points:

• In the book, Will Stanton lives in a Buckinghamshire, England. In the movie, he’s an American who just moved to England.
• Merriman Lyon is supposed to be an old, wise, Merlin-like character. Why does he look like Aragorn in the movie?
• The Dark is Rising has a serious Arthurian base. Does the movie? NO!
• The Old Ones’ magic is subtle and powerful, they don’t throw fireballs and blow things up.
• Will Stanton doesn’t have an iPod. Why the heck did the “modernize” it?
• Will Stanton is supposed to be wise, despite being only 11. In the movie he’s 13, and very un-wise. He’s too “typical American 12-year-old.” Sorry, Walden Media, thanks for playing.
• What happened to keeping the powers of the Light secret? In the film, Will (”disgusted at not being able to tell anyone”) blows up a car.
• Will Stanton, in the movie, is basically Superman without the power of flight. Oh, andhere’s a quote from the actual movie: “Can I fly?”
• Merriman Lyon “relies on wit, magic, other Old Ones, knowledge, experience, etc.” In the movie he relies on a bit of magic and a mace, his favorite weapon.

You can see more differences here.

Maybe they should change the name to “The Seeker: A film loosely based on The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper.” How can they get rid of the Arthurian base? The whole series revolves around that! Why did they think they had to change the characters beyond recognition? Hollywood magic instead of the subtle variety in the books? How could they?

The Seeker: The Dark is Rising is yet another movie “based” off an otherwise great book. Thank you, Walden Media, for giving us a Narnia/Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings/Superman/any fantasy film on the planet knockoff instead of The Dark is Rising.

Edit: Just a note. A bunch of IMDB forum users have been saying that the Dark is Rising series is “basically Harry Potter,” except DIR has been around since the ’70s. If you know how to read, then it’s apparent that they’re in no way similar.

Just a quick heads-up. The upcoming Indiana Jones film (May 2008 release) has been given the title “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” IMDB Page.

The Netflix plan where you get one DVD at a time, and an unlimited amount in a month, is a great deal. The only problem is you end up waiting for Netflix to get the disc your returning, and for them to send you a new one.

While you’re waiting for your next disc, take a look at Netflix’s new “Play Instantly” function. If you have broadband and Internet Explorer (it doesn’t support the much better Firefox browser) you can watch select movies over the internet. Only a fraction of Netflix’s selection is available for instant playback unfortunately, but that will change eventually. I think that in ten years, Netflix will mainly be streaming movies over the web, though the mailing service will still be available.

To play the instant playback films, just look around Netflix as usual. On the movie details pages, there should be a blue “Play” button below the movie thumbnail. If you see such a button, click it to play the movie. Netflix will download a plugin required for playback, and will then measure your internet connection speed. Within five minutes, your movie will be playing. Click the “Full Screen” button for a bigger picture.

Bonus Tip: If your video card has an S-Video output, run it over to your TV so you can watch the full screen movie over there. On a standard TV set, the quality generally appears higher than on your computer monitor, where it looks more compressed.

I was pleasantly surprised at the video quality. During playback, the movie did not stop to buffer more data, nor did it lose connection and halt entirely. There audio was fine, and there weren’t too many compression problems. It was somewhere between VHS and DVD quality. You definitely won’t confuse it with a DVD, but it’s better than a VHS.

After seeing the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix film (the day it came out, of course), I had the typical Harry Potter Fan reaction. “It’s-too-short! They cut-out half the good parts! WTH? And they got these parts all wrong!” After thinking about it for a couple weeks, I compiled my list of first impressions.

• It’s a bit too quick-paced. It jumps right in to the dementor scene, then the Order of the Phoenix’s Advance Guard picks Harry up pretty much immediately. Hermione and Ron explain a few things at Grimmauld Place, then it’s off to the Ministry of Magic for the hearing. After five minutes of that, you have a 10-second Hogwarts Express shot, then they’re all at Hogwarts. All of that happens in about 15 minutes, while it takes up nearly a third of the 900-and-something-page book.
• Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge) and Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) are brilliant.
• I liked the video montages of Umbridge’s rein at Hogwarts. It worked well to condense that part of the story a bit further.
• The soundtrack was amazing (unfortunately Borders was sold out of the CD, so I’m waiting a little on that).
• Why the heck did they play with the mechanics of the magic? In the books, the “Stupify” spell stuns the opponent, rendering them unconscious. In the movie, it just blasts them backwards.
• For some odd reason, the introduced “Levicorpus” in the film, though Harry doesn’t find out about it until book 6. Really, was that necessary?
• In the book, Bellatrix hits Sirius with a jet of red light, knocking him through the veil. Warner Brothers changed it to an “Avada Kedavra” (the Killing Curse), possibly for clarity. But if you’re going to use that spell, at least pronounce it right! It’s pronounced like Av-ah-da Ked-ah-v-ra. It’s not the way most Americans pronounce words. Hint: Study latin (or other Latin-based languages). Also, if you’re hit with an AK, you don’t have time to look around in disbelief (it’s instant).
• They skipped 90% of the Department of Mysteries. Yeah, so it shaves off a few minutes, big deal.
• They cut the parts where they’re fighting the Death Eaters (and winning). They made Harry and the rest look pathetic.
• What’s with the “Smoke-Teleporting”? They got Fred and George apparating right, so why not everyone else? Why did they put the pointless smoke in?
• The parts they showed in the Department of Mysteries looked too weird. The Hall of Prophecy was way too dark. It should be huge, with a big vaulted ceiling. What’s with the Veil Room? It as well was too dark, and unused looking. Remember, people work in the Department of Mysteries (scientist-like people). They wouldn’t let it look anything like it was in the film.
• How is it a veil if there’s no veil? It was just a big archway, with some digital bubble-liquid floating inside it.

Well, those are my major complaints. According to Melissa Anelli of the Leaky Cauldron, it gets better the more you watch it. She’s seen it at least four times so far (I’ve only seen it once, but I’d like to again before it’s released on DVD).

Well, I didn’t like the Prisoner of Azkaban movie much the first time, but now it could very well be my favorite of the lot so far. After I’ve seen Order of the Phoenix a few more times, we’ll see what I think about it then.

Remember Batman Begins? My personal favorite of the Batman movies, it was a bit different from the others. At the end, Gordon gives batman “a calling card” found at the scene of a robbery (if I remember correctly). It was a single card from a deck…the Joker.

In The Dark Knight, slated for an ‘08 release, we see what seems to be the beginning of The Joker in the Batman films. It’s a bit odd, though. They don’t seem to be simply remaking the Batfilms, but making a new, different, one. It’s not supposed to fit in with the old movies, obviously. Why not? In the original Batman movie, Bruce Wayne had not prior meeting with The Joker. So what’s going on? They’re making a sort of parallel series that’s different from the old ones. Basically, Batman Begins was the start of a new series of Batman films that are different from the old ones.

Whatever.

“It is the Alethiometer. It tells the truth. As for how to read it, you’ll have to learn by yourself.”

New Line Cinema, the company that made The Lord of the Lings movie, is at it again. Further building their reputation for fantasy films, they’ll soon be releasing a movie based on Phillip Pullman’s The Golden Compass.

When I was at the movie theater, waiting for a matinée of Pirates of the Caribbean 3 to start, I was surprised to see the trailer for The Golden Compass. Unaware that a movie was being made, I had been just about ready to start reading the book.

The trailer was amazing, living up to the standards of Lord of the Rings. You can view it at IMDB.

The book was pretty good (I just finished reading it yesterday), and the movie looks like it’ll be just as good. We’ll see in December, I guess.