Anime Day #10: Death Note vs. Death Note

Warning, this comparison is spoilerific. If you have no desire to have the Death Note cartoon series or live action movies spoiled, do not read below the jump. I will pretty much spoil all of the Anime and a lot of the movie. You have been warned. This is a comparison breaking down some of the major differences between Death Note, the anime series, and Death Note, the live-action Japanese movie.

On to business! Here is my comparison between Death Note, the animated series and Death Note, movies 1 & 2.

Let's get a few essentials out of the way. The CG is cheesy when it's not in bright daylight, Misa doesn't have blonde hair, and the actor playing the guy who murdered Misa's parents was hysterically over-the-top. My husband and I kind of wish that L would have been American or British (which would make him the odd foreigner, cause friction in the police force, and explain the addiction to unhealthy foods, and explain why his eyes are buggy compared to everyone else). Now that we've covered the supernatural things, I'm going to focus on the structure of the series and how changes in plot and characters for the live action film, either serve or detract from the themes.

At the start of the first movie, we're made to feel sympathy for Light and his motivations. That is a big change from the anime, where Light is set up as this callous, perfect young man. Scenes are added showing how Light becomes personally disillusioned with the Japanese justice system. While I'm not sure I like this, I will say that it is easier for a movie audience, who has less time to get to know the character, to find some investment in his success. The beauty of Death Note as a series, is that it makes the majority of its audience simultaneously root for both Light and L. Without Light's internal monologue to show his superior intellect and cool logic, we need emotions to rope us in.

Another major change to the character of Light is that he has a girlfriend. In the anime, Light isn't very interested in dating, but soon starts going on dates with a variety of girls to avoid suspicion. Super-smart boy who holes himself up in his room and shows no interest in sex waves all sorts of red flags. Light has one particular girlfriend in the movie, Shiori, but if you're worried that he's going to get romantic mushy, never fear. That's all a very good ruse. By the end of the first movie, Light's use of Shiori proves that no matter what he was at the start, he has evolved into the Light Yagami we all love, the compassionless bastard with a strong sense of justice and unwavering ambition.

For the most part, the first movie is loyal to the plot of the anime. We go through how Light takes care of the FBI agents and how L narrows down his profile of Kira. We even get Light's potato-chip cam (though I will say, it was not as epic without the narration "I will take a potato chip... and EAT IT!")

I pwned that Potato Chip at AWA last year.

The real changes come right at the end as Light brings Shiori in as a pawn to take care of Naomi. This change of events illustrates exactly how brutal Light is willing to be as Kira. It was the kind of surprising manipulation that was needed to match the intensity of Light's later accomplishments.

The second film starts with Light joining L's team in the wake of his girlfriend's death and introduces Misa Amane as more than just a background character. Misa sends the tapes to Sakura TV, just like she did in the series, and gets Light to come where she can see him and discover that he is Kira. Misa is kidnapped by L's team and Light promises Rem that he will save her.

Here comes a major divergence from the series plot. It was undoubtedly changed to save a few HOURS of plot. We meet a lone woman who works for Sakura TV, approves of Kira, and wants to oust the slutty anchor and take her job. She is the replacement for that entire council of businessmen who, in the anime, use the Death Note to kill off business competitors.

Anime fans will remember that pinning down who was on this council and tracking them was a large plot that took up quite a few episodes. It was the key to recovering Misa's Death Note and to clearing their names, but it took a LONG TIME. For the purposes of an already long movie (2 hrs, 20 mins), they were streamlined into one hot lady.

After killing Sakura TV lady to reclaim her Death Note, the plot takes a fast track. L immediately doubts the 13-days rule and sets out to test it. He declares his suspicion of Misa, sends Mr. Yagami and all of the police away, with the second Death Note, to test his theory in California (because they need American criminals as lab rats, apparently), and tells Light that he plans to let Misa try to kill him so that he can stop her and prove that she is Kira.

SUPER SPOILER TIME. Rem decides to kill L and Watari to protect Misa. As L is on the ground in his dying throws, instead of just LOOKING at Light like he creepily did in the TV series, he has words. L collapses, Light runs off to sift through Rem's ashes and then gets out the Death Note to clean up the rest.

Misa looks on horrified as Light write's his own Dad's name in the Death Note, with the stipulation that he would bring back the second Death Note, first. We know this is accurate because Light let his Dad half his life and sacrifice his right to go to heaven in the series, just to get the second Death Note back and to try and kill Mello.

Mr. Yagami shows up, opens the case, and BAM! It's empty! How did he deny the will of the Death Note? It was a fake! L shows up, miraculously alive, and explains that he swapped Light's Death Note and that he didn't die when Rem wrote his name because he already wrote his own name and was already fated to die peacefully in 23 days. Bam!

Okay, so in my opinion, L getting out of it with a win is not cool. I don't like that change. But they wanted to cut out a whole slew of episodes and the Kira representatives, Kira-X, Near and Mello. Concessions had to be made. As Light is going all hysterical crazy pants and trying to write people's names on scraps of Death Note paper, Matsuda, true to his epic moment in the show, shoots the pen out of his hand.

This is where the two diverge again. In the series, Light runs off and slows down on a stairwell. He lays, bleeding, defeated, and unwilling to wait until he should bleed out, Ryuk writes his name in the Death Note. Watching Light die slowly would be boring and Ryuk has better sh!t to do, but he has to be the one to write Light's name because he brought the Death Note in the first place.

In the movie, in a more darkly comedic but not as Shakespearean moment, Light demands that Ryuk writes a name, any name. Ryuk write's Light's name and shows it to him. Light dies. Ryuk proves that he is a heartless God of Death. He doesn't care about Light!

I enjoyed seeing Light using Takada, toying with her emotions to communicate with Kira-X in the anime series. I don't think, like some, that Mello and Near were nearly derivative of L. I do agree with some, though, that the time between Light and Misa being "cleared" and capturing the corporate jack-off that Rem gave the Death Note too was a little long and would have been better abbreviated.

What the movie did was abbreviate the series. It trimmed down a lot of the parts that were just too drawn out. The Light/L friendship isn't as close in the movie, which is probably the most unfortunate missing element. Their mutual respect and rivalry is what made the L/Light dynamic so fun to watch. They were friends, but they had to kill one-another to win the epic chess match.

L's survival takes something else away. L's defeat is what drives Light to a new level of boredom and arrogance and allows him to be caught. If L simply wins, it's just not as satisfying.

The live-action movies are fun for fans who have already seen the series, but I would never start anyone off on them. As for the idea of an L movie that takes place in the 23 days before he dies, where he solves a bioterrorism case... no thanks.

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10 Best Cast Characters in the Harry Potter Movies

Another casting countdown. Over the years I've griped and cheered about casting in the adaptation of my favourite book series. Now, as it is coming to an end and we've met all the cast there is to see, I finally put my thoughts on paper... well... on paper if any of you decide to print this post.

The 10 Best Cast Characters in the Harry Potter Movies

(And don't tell me I forgot Alan Rickman. As fabulous as he is, he's wayyyy too old for the role)

10. Sir Richard Harris as Dumbledore

It's really sad that the knighted actor only got to complete 2 films (and he had a double for the second in many places) because he was the perfect Dumbledore. Harris had a sort of whimsy in his Dumbledore-- fitting of a man who likes ten pin bowling and wears purple robes-- and a respect for the character.

He was pressured into accepting the role by his granddaughter, and I'm glad for it. Richard Harris lost his life in 2002 to Hodgkin's Disease at the age of 72.

9. Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy

When they first cast Isaacs, I had a "whaaaat?" moment, because I forgot about things like hair dye. Once I saw him in the costume, I was sold. Isaacs has the sharp nose and the cold blue eyes, but most importantly, he has a silky, sophisticated, menace about everything he does. Isaacs is one of those actors who will always be remembered for his villians.

8. Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort

It seems like an odd choice to cast a man with a larger-than-normal nose as the one character in the book who doesn't have a nose, but CG can do wondrous things these days. Ralph Fiennes was a brilliant choice for the big bad Voldemort because he is a smart, dedicated actor who knows not to take a role in a "children's movie" lightly.

I clearly remember a post Order of the Phoenix interview where Fiennes discussed the particular madness of a man as evil as Voldemort. It would be easy to just play evil, menacing, snarly man. It would be boring. Ralph Fiennes is a great Voldemort for the same reason that Heath Ledger was a brilliant joker. He broke up his script and found strikingly different levels. He snapped between calm and calculating, maniacal and gleeful, and screaming rage like a true psychopath.

Nearly anyone could shave their head and don the makeup to look like Voldemort. His snake nose and bald head are pretty iconic. Fiennes knew that to act like Voldemort, he couldn't just tale the role lightly. He had to embrace it.

7. Julie Walters as Mrs. Weasley

Julie Walters has crinkled brown eyes that show genuine warmth with every smile. She screams motherly affection. And she's a real ginger!

Of course, Molly Weasley is the mother of six rowdy boys, and Julie Walters has the right presence to believably keep six boys and Ginny Weasley in line. When she snaps to scolding, we all turn our heads to check for our mothers. When she fawns over Harry, we all can almost imagine the smell of that dinner in the oven.

Presence. Sincerity. Warmth. Julie Walters is a perfect Molly Weasley.

6. Brendan Gleeson as Mad-Eye Moody

Brendan Gleeson kind of reminds me of one of those dogs with the muscly shoulders. He looks like a pug or a pitbull. Maybe he's capable of warmth and affection, but he's much better at scowling and scaring off cats. 

The same goes for Mad-Eye Moody.

Gleeson is a revered, talented actor. Like Ralph Fiennes, he didn't say "Kid movie!" and slack off. He's committed to making sure that Mad-Eye is the same gonzo, paranoid guy he is in the books. He looks the part and he plays it well.

5. Natalia Tena as Nymphadora Tonks

The right age, the right look, and my God, her voice is wicked cool.

4. Robbie Coltrane as Rubeus Hagrid

He's like a big furry teddy bear. Robbie Coltrane is another one of those actors who has a genuine soul that exudes warmth. Sure, I've seen him play mean and menacing, but he's so lovable as the simple half-giant.

Coltrane has been with the series for all eight movies, but he never seems tired of the role. He has kept up his commitment to the character. It's a good thing. I think he'd have to look over his shoulder for an angry Dianne Rowling if he butchered her favourite character. I think Hagrid might not have survived the Battle of Hogwarts if JK Rowling hadn't feared that very same thing.

3. Dame Maggie Smith as Minerva McGonagall

The fact that she has been Knighted should tell you that her acting ability is not in question. Maggie Smith has a tendency to be cast as stern women (I first saw her as a strict nun in Sister Act). She continued the type with the no-nonsense McGonagall.

It's easy enough to be a tight-haired teacher. Maggie Smith was sure, from the start, to make sure that McGonagall showed hints of compassion through her tough exterior.

2. Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange

Bellatrix is crazy, dark, and evil. Who better to play her than Tim Burton's baby mama? When Helen McCrory dropped the role due to her pregnancy and Carter filled in, I was ecstatic. Voldemort is the big baddie of the Harry Potter series, but I would rather be locked in a room with him than Bellatrix Lestrange.

Carter actually managed to make her character more maniacal and bipolar than Voldemort. Combine that with her frizzy hair, unusual beauty, and big dark eyes and you have one absolutely spot-on casting for the role.

1. Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood

When I first saw photos of Luna I thought that she looked freakily like a younger version of my room mate.

Then I saw this video. She IS Luna. Rather than talk about it, I'll just let you watch it.

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Lost in Reality Set Diary: Day 14 (My Last Day)

As my blogger profile says, I am a teacher, writer, and an actress. My BFA is majoring in Performing Arts and while I haven't done paid work since leaving the Boston area, I am currently involved in an exciting local Birmingham film project, Lost in Reality. LIR follows Angelo, a struggling actor who gets himself roped into a drama-centered reality TV show where he has to play the part of "The Animal." Unsatisfied with his life, Angelo decides to change directions when he meets Maggie, a down-to-earth girl with a great family.

I play Maggie.

We've been filming on weekends since March and today was my last day. I should really have kept a set diary the whole time, but it's never too late to give you a glimpse of the experience.

I was on set for 6 long days (Day 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 14) With the exception of Day 1, I was on set each day for 10-12 hours. While it was easy to pour myself into bed after those long days, I have to say that even 12 hours working on a project I'm passionate about is easier than working 4 hours in retail.

Last night I made the horrible mistake of touching up my hair color at the very last second. After going to see Thor I decided to pull out the dye I had bought 4 days ago to make sure that my sun-blonde highlights were back to a fiery copper. The bottle on the shelf had been mislabeled and I ended up staying up late trying to come up with strategies to hide my hair and worrying myself sick about continuity.

The photo to the left shows my hair wet because after wearing a hat until 1p, I had to wet it to tame it for my last on-camera appearance in the film.

Today was Day 14, the Duck Pond day and also time to pick up a few shots we didn't get when we filmed at the Maggie's house location. I headed to Mountain Brook for 9:30a and was, as always, way early. I'm chronically early. It's a good thing unless you're the one who has to explain to the guard at the gated community what you're doing there.

For those not familiar with the greater Birmingham Metropolitan area, houses in Mountain Brook have a reputation for being grand like this (see right). That's not the house we filmed at, that was the neighbor across the street.

The Mazer family has been kind enough to let Bernadette Chapman's cast and crew invade their back yard and their picturesque little lake that they share with a few other neighbors. The cast and crew were there last weekend to film some shady bedroom business and made friends with a duck we've named Jett (more on that later).

This pond was the setting for our picnic date and also for a scene at the end of the film where Maggie comes to meet Angelo. There is a running joke about the ducks at this pond.

Angelo feeds the ducks in this scene and believe me, they loved it. Our ducky friends were named after members of the reality TV show cast after we realized that one adorable duck had a poof of feathers on his head that mirrored the haircut of the character Jett, Angelo's friend on set. Jett duck was greedy, hogged the crackers, and was always trying to waddle into the shot. He actually walked right up onto our picnic blanket in the middle of the scene. I'm hoping this is in the blooper reel.

We put our PA on the task of duck wrangling. Thad's a real trooper.

You can sort of see Jett's poof in this cell phone shot. He's the white duck. The Mallard next to him is named Memphis after another character in the film.

The other excitement of this scene, aside from the ducks and the inconspicuous hat (which was at least a way to sneak a very subtle Harry Potter reference into the flick as it was my special July 16, 2005 hat from volunteering at Barnes & Noble), we had to deal with a beautiful but territorial swan.

I'm not sure if it's a he or a she, but we named it Natalie Portman for the obvious Black Swan reference. As long as we kept Natalie Portman fed, he/she seemed alright but there were a couple of times that Natalie Portman challenged Corey Merrida with a display of impressive wing span and Natalie Portman hissed at me because I didn't throw a cracker fast enough.

After the shoot at the duck pond we headed over to the other side of town to Lee Green's house to pick up some outside shots from last month. Between shots we had to wait for nightfall so we played a game of touch football. I admit that I got a little dehydrated and was boiling by the time I quit. Moody (sound) and Kyle (camera, not my Kyle) showed us some game and I caught a touch down pass that knocked me over.

We finished off the shots and said goodbye. I'll be looking forward to seeing those guys at the wrap party!

Follow our progress on the Lost in Reality Facebook page.

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Hanna: A Complete, Multi-Layer, Film Experience

For my first wedding anniversary I received a gift of paper, according to tradition. Paper was in the form of tickets to see any movie at the theatre local to my parents. The problem was that this theatre is small and doesn't show much. The choices seemed to be horror and the flood of celebrity-voiced 3D animated movies that are out right now-- and not even the Johnny Depp one!

Thor isn't out until next week and Brides Maids until the week after. I wasn't excited for much, so we took a shot on Hanna. I'm glad we did. Now, I'm not sure if Hanna being one-letter short of the spelling that is a palindrome was purposeful (I found it oddly symbolic), but every other image in the movie was quite deliberate. Hanna is an expertly crafted film and deserves better than the 71% it currently has on Rotten Tomatoes.


I'm going to try to be spoiler-free here, and so past the premise I'm not going to tell you anything about the story. Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) is a teenage girl raised in seclusion in the woods. Her father is training her to be some kind of elite killer and to have constant vigilance. The film starts with Hanna killing an adult deer in the frozen wilderness and that symbol isn't entirely clear until it is completed at the end of the piece.

Every bit of sound design is expertly chosen. Sounds like the crunching of snow draw your attention to later, more meaningful choices like the rhythm of a ceiling fan or the jarring, raw chip tunes played in combat scenes.

At the top of the film Hanna finishes her preparation and leaves the world she was raised in. Leaving the forest becomes her own Into the Woods experience and from here on out, the movie is pitch perfect. We don't know why the delightful villian, Marisa (Kate Blanchet), is trying to take her and kill her father (Eric Bana). We don't know what Hanna has been prepared for. Those mysteries are answered, but more important is the coming of age story that takes place.

The urban environments outside of nature are alien. The music and the bizarre environments immerse the audience in Hanna's perspective. Everything is new. Everything is strange. The art direction never takes the easy way out-- making the audience feel uncomfortable with sexuality-- and keeps Hanna innocent. Even the comedic moments are derived from awkward moments in socialization. Some of the best of these moments come from the strangely candid comments from her new teenage friend (because most teenagers just don't have a filter).

The fight choreography is well designed and well executed. Even the violence is disconnected. The film maintains a PG13 rating by keeping the real horrifying acts off camera, but this also serves a more artistic purpose than pleasing the ratings board. The disconnect translates to Hanna, showing how she is disconnected she is from the atrocities she has been trained to commit.

Then we have layer upon layer of symbolism. The deer is just one example. Throughout the film there is a Grimm's Fairytale element that continues the theme of Into the Woods.

Hanna is a well-planned, beautifully filmed and acted coming of age story nested inside a spy thriller. It's a must see for Spring 2011.

Final Grade: A

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Ten Worst Cast Superheroes of BlockBuster Film

As a follow-up to the Ten BEST Cast Superheroes, I thought I'd present a list of the worst. Some of these were really easy to decide, but some of these took more effort. Like with the Best Cast list, I had to decide if the casting was bad or if it was just the script.

Here they are, some of the worst castings in superhero film/television.


10. Toby McGuire as Spider-Man

Sure, the script was part of this shortcoming, but I'm not really sure that, even if the witty, sarcastic side of Spider-Man had been written, Toby could have pulled it off. Toby tends to play someone deep and serious, a wee bit angsty, but the wise-cracking doesn't seem natural. In most cases where it happened in the McGuire film, it seemed bitter.

Toby didn't really look like a teenager, or even a college freshman, at all in the series.

9. Topher Grace as Venom

Topher Grace should have played Peter Parker and a big, muscly blonde guy should have played Eddie Brock. Topher does not look at all like Eddie, who is always a beefy guy with yellow hair and thick, dark brows.

8. Jessica Alba as The Invisible Woman

I like Jessica Alba. She has a great presence, she's funny, she's gorgeous. Still, she was not right for this role. Jessica Alba is Italian/French/English/Mexican and her hispanic heritage really comes through in her appearance. Susan Storm Richards is always a classic looking, blonde-haired, blue-eyed house wife. Specifically a 50's housewife type, though she has strayed in recent years since the Fantastic Four movies.

Jessica Alba could have worked as a number of gorgeous superhero bombshells, but Susan Richards really needed to be naturally blonde. And don't start me on how bizarre those blue contacts look. I have eyes as dark/darker than Alba's and I know that there's no help for brown eyes. They were distracting and alien.

Instead of casting a hispanic woman and trying to make her look white, they could have cast a white woman (Rachel McAdams, cough) and saved Alba for another role.

7. James Marsden as Cyclops

Marsden may have looked good in the role. He may have been plenty hilarious in Enchanted, but as Scott Summers, instead of being a take-charge, semi-douchey hero type, he was an emo kid.

6. Jennifer Garner as Elektra

Elektra Natchios is Greek.

5. Halle Berry as Catwoman

I will give her a bit of credit in saying that there was no saving this script. The writer, after so many edits, told them to take his name off of it. Still, Halle Berry is not a good Catwoman. She doesn't have the cat-like quality that the character needs-- though once again in the name of fairness, that character wasn't even Selena Kyle.

4. Halle Berry as Storm

Storm is a Queen. She was worshiped as a Goddess. She calls down mighty storms and justice upon her enemies. Halle played her as a mouse. Storm had no strength and it was really disappointing to see one of the first strong women in comics played so meekly.

3. Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane

Once again the criticism is taking a bold comic book lady and making her a mouse. Lois Lane is a tough cookie and one of the most competent women in comics. Sure, her early years were spent fighting Lana, trying to trick infant versions of Clark Kent into marrying her. But Lois Lane has always had spunk and Bosworth just doesn't have it.

Add to it that Bosworth has a very distinct feature that Lois does not-- two different coloured eyes. The makeup team should have at least put her in contacts so that we wouldn't be distracted by a striking feature that the iconic character has never had.

2. Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze

Mr. Freeze was a scrawny guy in a big suit. Apparently big suit translates to Hollywood Terminator. We have to remember that Mr. Freeze was a scientist driven mad over the loss of his wife. Arnold just didn't feel believable.
Arnold, himself, is so very, incredibly iconic. It's like the viewers have an agreement with any producer of a movie to say "Oh, okay, so in this movie Arnold is Arnold as a Dad and in this movie Arnold is Arnold as a cop." He's always Arnold and therefore should not be forced into the role of another, already iconic character.

That movie had many other problems including rubber nipples on the Bat-suit, but not being able to believe Victor Freeze was a scientist or even anyone but an action star didn't have to be one of them.

1. Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson

There were problems with her hair in the first two movies, sure, but the bigger problem was that Kirsten Dunst was not Mary Jane. Apparently she was the only actress they tested who had any chemistry with Toby, but really that's just another reason NOT TO CAST TOBY.

Dunst's Mary Jane was excused as a mix between MJ and Gwen, but really Gwen has more spunk than that. If you were to average out Gwen's high maintenance love for fashion and teacher's pet thing with Mary Jane being a SUPERMODEL and a redhead, then you would, at the very least, get someone with twice as much attitude as Kirsten's Mary Jane.

And you can't really blame the script for her lack of presence in the role. If Dunst had the right strut, no lack of lines could have stopped her from stealing the spotlight.

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The Ten Best Cast Superheroes of Blockbuster Film/Television

This article is about the best cast superheroes of film. A follow-up article about the worst cast will be posted at a later date. I have to clarify that this list is for Blockbuster Films/Television only. We've seen some amazing fan films since the rise of the internet. I posed this question to my brother (who is a huge comic book nerd), to my husband (who is a purist about the comics he knows), and to my Facebook friends, who took off with it. Here are the Ten Best Cast Superheroes of blockbuster Film.

10. Erica Durance as Lois Lane

It took Smallville four seasons to get to Lois Lane. Anything would have been refreshing after watching Clark pine for three years over Lana, a coreless character who shifted to be whatever the writers needed for a storyline. In came Erica Durance. The first tease of her arrival in Smallville, looking for information on the "death" of her cousin Chloe, made all of the classic Superman fans jump for joy.

Durance, who was a tall, tough looking brunette and not a Hollywood twig, was a breath of fresh air. After three years of Lana, the viewers fully expected an angsty damsel in distress to ruin their hopes and dreams. Durance plays Lois strong and sassy with a clipped Cadence to her voice and a sharp attitude.

Durance also handles the on-camera violence well. We really believe that she knows what she's doing when she kicks a bad guy in the face.

Over the years Durance has proven herself as an actress. Episodes like #4.18, "Spirit" show her range when she gets to play other characters in Lois' body. She even succeeded in playing the wife of Zod and Chloe later on in the series and each performance was a success.

Talent isn't enough when casting iconic characters from a graphic medium. Erica Durance has the talent, but she also has the look (okay, so maybe she could drop a few blonde highlights).

9. Kelsey Grammar as Beast

It is important to clarify that this list is about the casting, not about the movie. There will be a few castings on this list that were great but existed within sub-par movies. X-Men and X2 were fantastic adaptations-- true to the spirit of the series, though they had already ruined a couple of characters. By the third X-Men movie, however, the producers' need to put in every character the fans wanted to see, completely ruined the series. Wolverine suffered from the same fatal flaw.

Still, Kelsey Grammar was that casting that, when announced, my brother and I slapped our foreheads and shouted "WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT?". Grammar had spent the better part of his career playing a scientist/doctor who was too smart to be really socially capable on Frasier. With blue fur and a suit, he should have been perfect. Too bad the movie wasn't.

8. Christian Bale as Batman

"I'm Batman" may be easy enough to say, but to play it is much harder. You need someone who not only fits the bill of brunette, pretty playboy, but can also play Bruce Wayne, the man, and Batman the hero. We need someone who we can believe dons a heavy suit and fights crime without the benefit of super-powers. Bale has yo-yo'd between extremes for the role, bulking up to play Bruce, slimming down for the Fighter and bulking up yet again. He may occasionally have a diva screaming fit at crew, but you have to give him credit for his dedication.

Bale plays the subtlety of man tortured by his past, balanced with the command of a billionare entrepreneur and the gritty, somewhat crazy presence of the iconic Batman. He changes his voice to explain why he is never recognized. He plays dramatic moments with the perfect level of performance.

Could someone else step in, bulk up and play Batman? Probably. Would we want to risk losing Bale? No. Batman is the best written DC character and if you want to argue with me I have a comments section. Batman is built on so many complex layers and the script is so perfectly written int he Nolan series to explain believably why a man with all of the money in the world would put on a high tech bat costume and fight crime. Bale may not be the only man for the job, but so far he has been the best Batman to don the suit on film and I don't care to see someone else try. I am completely satisfied with his performance.

7. Michael Clark Duncan as the Kingpin

I know what some of you are saying right now. "But Amy, isn't the Kingpin a big fat white guy?" Yes, yes he is. But then Nick Fury was also David Hasslehoff with an eye patch. It didn't stop him from turning into Samuel L. Jackson in the Ultimate Universe.

It needs to be considered in every film adaptation that we are not watching the main continuity (or Earth 616 in this case). The movie will not follow the major canon because it can't. Canon is spread out over sixty or more years for most popular comics and weird crap like rejuvination chambers and seventeen resurrections have taken place. Since the X-Men were in High School, fifty some-odd years have passed and still Cyclops is not yet 30.

I know that I said that the look of the character was required, but hear me out. In Kingpin's case the presence is more important. You can find six thousand sassy actresses to play Lois and just as many brunette pretty boys to play Batman. Kingpin needs to be large and in charge. He has to be silky, confident, powerful. Michael Clark Duncan is the only major, well-known actor I can think of who could even come close to the scale of what Kingpin needs to be. Maybe they should have brought in an unknown, but face it, we all like to see faces we know when they cast these films.

6. Ian McKellan as Magneto

I love Ian McKellen. I love his Richard III, I love his Gandalf. At first I wasn't too sure about his Magneto, namely because he is pretty frail and Magneto is always jacked. My brother, however, slapped some sense into me. I'm usually the one to point out that mainstream audiences will go "WTF" about comic canon. Sam pointed out that if you cut the rejuvination chamber and put Eric/Magnus/Max, whatever his name is these days in canon, in a modern setting and still keep his holocaust backstory, he has to be that old. You aren't going to find someone as old as Sir Ian McKellen who still looks like a superhero.

Ian McKellen is one of the most talented actors I will ever get the opportunity to see perform. It is more important to have someone capable of playing the part than just fitting the skin. Magneto is perhaps one of the best written supervillians of all time. He is complex. We don't, for one minute, believe that he believes he is truly evil. We always understand his motives and his good intentions. Magneto is an old man who fears a second Holocaust for his children and will do anything to prevent it. He does not believe that mutant kind and their human oppressors will ever coexist peacefully and he has seen first hand what can happen to a minority that trusts things to work out. Ian McKellan made that incredibly clear in the X-Men movies.

5. Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool

Close your eyes. Imagine Wolverine if the movie stopped before Wolverine's girlfriend "died." Wasn't Ryan Reynolds awesome as wise-cracking Wade Wilson? No, stop. Forget that abomination they called Deadpool in the latter half of the movie. Forget his no-face. Forget his no-speaking (WTF, Deadpool not cracking jokes. What is this?). Forget that the samurai swords in his arms would prevent any mobility when they were retracted because they would go up through his elbows.

Ryan Reynolds was great. The script was awful. Seriously. That movie should be burned.

4. JK Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson

Usually these kinds of lists stick to the major cast, but JK Simmons needs credit for his performance in Spider-Man 1-3. Spider-Man 3 was a stinky pile of melodrama, emo, and (*sings*) SAND-MAN, and that probably was what killed any chances of that series continuing. So far everything I have seen of the Andrew Garfield reboot looks fantastic and I'm really excited, but in doing a reboot I feel like JK Simmons went to waste.

Simmons not only looked the part once he was in the makeup, he played it brilliantly. Jameson is one of those parts that no actor should ever try to interpret seriously. Spider-Man needs more of his kind of comedy in it. When you remove the wise-cracks from Peter, he does seem a little out of place, but if the tone of Spider-Man is interpreted correctly, James should be exactly what Simmons made him: a cartoon.

I felt like JK Simmons fell out of a cartoon and that is a comic book nerd's dream when it comes to these bit parts.

3. Heath Ledger as the Joker

You knew I was going to get there. Heath Ledger as the joker still amazes me, because nobody believed it would be a good idea until they saw it. I believed it was a great idea because I try not to judge actors by the audience of their previous work. I remember the internet exploding with protests that a teen heart throb was going to play Joker. The wanna-be macho men that screamed the loudest only knew that he was in the gay cowboy movie and some teen films. They forgot The Patriot or that he wasn't just a teen actor.

I thought that Ledger would be great because I remembered how darkly mysterious his smile was in 10 Things I Hate About You. I was willing to give him a chance and I am glad I did. I've seen it argued that the impression of his performance was inflated by his premature death. I do believe, to some extent, that replacement would have been possible if he had quit instead of passed. Still, Heath Ledger's performance was brilliant. It wasn't just the script.

Now credit must be given to Christopher Nolan for being the first to bring us a truly twisted Joker-- a force of chaos more than a man. Ledger showed his true grit in his physicality (like his choice to lick his scars) and in the choice to play opposites. Katie Holmes could have learned a thing or two from Ledger. He took moments where a lesser actor would have been angry and played them gleeful. He took moments where Joker was putting on a grand show and made them oddly casual. Ledger's delivery of some of the best lines in the script took a route outside of the obvious and that is why we will remember him and his disappearing pencil trick.

2. Robert Downey Junior as Iron Man

RDJ looks the part. We've got that down. RDJ is also a recovering alcoholic, like Tony Stark. That's a fun (not really fun) fact, but it's not why he is great. Robert Downey Jr. is great because he plays a facade of arrogance and sharp wit with brilliant comedic timing and still leaves a subtle uncertainty underneath the surface of Tony Stark.

We laugh hysterically when he is being a wise-cracker, but we also feel his pain when he is struggling with the guilt of what his weapons have done or feeling his own mortality as he struggles against a villain.

He works so well with Gwenyth Paltrow, too. The chemistry is so intense that even when there is nothing in the script to suggest it, the sexual tension resonates between them.

RDJ is so good that he created a problem for Captain America casting. RDJ has so much presence that it was a struggle to find someone who could compete with him as a believable leader for the upcoming Avengers movie. Tony Stark is a big character and RDJ is the only man I can think of to fill his shoes.

1. Patrick Stewart as Professor Xavier

X-Men was the first superhero movie to turn people back to the superhero genre. Batman and Robin had previously hammered the last nail in the coffin and then Brian Singer came in to bust the lid open and raise it from the dead.

No matter what cast of characters you put in the X-Men, Xavier is a constant. Yes he's died, gone off, resurrected, returned... but we always think of Xavier because he is the proverbial father of the X-Men. Charles Xavier is the glue that keeps them together and in an origin he is essential.

The return of the superhero movie, thus, rested on finding a great Xavier and I don't think anyone thought of anyone outside of Patrick Stewart. Bald, present, wise, and the perfect age: Patrick Stewart had to be him.

Casting Xavier and Magneto with such talented, powerful actors ensured that, no matter how strangely Rogue, Storm, etc were written, the message of the movies still came through. No matter what else was wrong, we still understood that these films, though supernatural, were about real people, real fears, and real issues that we can relate to. Mankind struggles with hatred and acceptance every day and casting someone has naturally wise and assuring as Patrick Stewart reminded us that this wasn't just Sci-Fi, it is an allegory for the struggle of humanity.

Plus, the casting director was already guaranteed that he looked good bald.

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Casting Couch: Fantastic Four

My brother and I love to play at casting books and particularly comic books. The Fantastic Four series with Jessica Alba was alright, but it had major flaws (especially the second one) and Marvel has announced plans to reboot it. So who should play the fantastic four? Thing was amazingly cast, but keeping any one member of the cast would be confusing the the dimmer movie goers. They would start to wonder why Johnny Storm is Captain America. We have to start with a clean slate. So here are my ideas:

Mister Fantastic:

Before Ioan Gruffud was cast as Mister Fantastic, the iconic Reed Richards wasn't a beanpole. The Fantastic Four was meant to resemble an idyllic 50's TV Family. Reed Richards was broad-shouldered, broad-jawed, and heroic. Somewhere along the line a producer with no knowledge of the comics saw a character description and said "NERD!" before casting a lean but still handsome Welsh actor. Then the comics started conforming to the film and before too long Mister F was a beanpole.

So what happens if we take it back to origin? We need someone old enough, but still youthful and active. We want muscular, but also someone we can believe is a doctor or scientist. We need someone friendly looking. We want someone with brown hair, not black.


Eric Dane is most well known for his role as Dr. McSteamy on Grey's Anatomy. You may remember him as Multiple Man in the 3rd X-Men (or you may be one of those who tries to forget every detail of that movie.) Eric Dane has a sweet smile. He'd look good in the super suit, but we already also believe that he's smart enough to be a doctor on TV. Eric Dane is my choice for Mr. Fantastic.



Invisible Woman:
Susan Storm, or Mrs. Richards, began as a classic housewife type. When the comics first began, like most female heroes, she had a feminine, hands-off power that was so strong that they had to be even more sexist to keep her on level with her team. Susan Storm/Richards would use a burst of power and then, so she wouldn't be too strong, pass out.

Typical woman.

Now Susan is strong, compassionate, a mother, sister, and wife. We need someone who isn't the Hollywood twig, someone who would still be beautiful by a 1950's standard. My choice:


It's a little known fact that Rachel McAdams was the front-runner for the role in the 2005 film. When casting began in 2004, Mean Girls and The Notebook had not yet come out and so The Hot Chick was the most popular reference to her credits. The producers decided that with Chiklis, Gruffud, and Evans (who also hadn't broken out) as their cast, they needed a name to sell the movie on. McAdams didn't get the part (which sucks because she broke out in two widely popular films before the FF movie even came out!) and instead they went with a far more logical choice for the blonde-haired, blue-eyed anglo ideal: Jessica Alba. Alba is charming and gorgeous, but they really should have saved her for someone else.

Human Torch:
Johnny Storm was pretty well cast with Chris Evans, but now that Chris is Steve Rogers and we've changed Susan to someone a little more fair and soft-featured, we need a new Johnny. Johnny needs to be a bit younger than Susan, but still old enough to be a pilot. Johnny needs to be good-looking and blonde. We want pretty and cocky.

Going with the 1950's ideal theme I've had going, I found my perfect fit.


Armie Hammer received recent acclaim for playing double rolls as the Winkleboss twins in last year's The Social Network. Hammer can play the spoiled boy born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He's talented enough to create subtle differentiations between twin characters and still bold enough for a recurring role on Reaper.

The Thing:

Ben Grim is a tougher casting. You need someone who already has a broad build, someone talented enough to make bold choices in a makeup that could swallow a subtle performance. Ben is gruff and masculine. He's funny but also someone who is funny to pick on (Johnny and Ben need to play well off of each other). Without being able to throw Armie Hammer in a room with someone for chemistry, here is my match.

You may know Adam Baldwin from Firefly or Chuck. Both are awesome sources. Adam Baldwin is masculine, funny, and makes bold choices. Not to mention, his voice is perfect.

Dr. Doom:
You can't forget the iconic nemesis when casting a superhero movie. Last, but certainly not least, Dr. Doom! Doom requires a lot-- an attractive man who plays a nice, silky evil. It requires an actor who can be theatrical enough to pull off a performance in a mask. Rumour has it that James Purefoy dropped out after filming a few scenes of V for Vendetta because he couldn't pull-off a deep performance in a mask. Mask work is hard, but who better to handle it than...

Jason Isaacs is the best man for the arrogant, cunning dictator of Latveria. He also has a bit of experience playing evil behind a mask, namely as the Death Eater Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter series.

So there you have it: my fantasy casting for the Fantastic Four reboot. I can only dream, but dreaming did get me my first choice Superman in the Snyder reboot, so dreams are worth something.

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Your Highness: Funny in Context

I am going to have to preface this review-- in the spirit of full disclosure-- with the following statement. I adore Natalie Portman. It is rare I find major fault with her work, and usually it is with the overall film and not with her performance. Now that you know where my bias stands, here is my attempt at an objective review of Your Highness (R) starring Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, and Zooey Deschanel.

Your Highness was full of a lot of crude humour. I am, first off, going to give it credit for never making potty jokes. I really can't stand teen comedies where someone has to reach into a toilet or gets crapped on. It's sickening, more so than blood and guts and the raunchiest sex joke. Your Highness never went into toilet humour.



The problem with Your Highness is the sheer volume of sex jokes. That's not to say that adult humour has a limit, just that when it's as copious as it was in this flick, it tends to be more noticable which jokes are better than others. Some moments in the film lead to repeated fits of riotous laughter (particularly Thadeous' trophy). Others seem forced. There is plenty of room for immature humour to flow organically, but more than a handful of jokes in the film seem inserted just to fit them in somewhere.

This comes to the main point of my review. There is a context through which to view this movie that accounts for the forced adult humour and anachronistic exclamations. Maybe it was easier for me, being a gamer and only out of college since 2008. That's right. You got it. You need to view Your Highness as a tabletop role-playing campaign taking place in a college dorm.

Can you see it now? If you haven't seen the film, let me spell it out for you in the most spoiler-free way I can. Fabious (Franco) is played by a veteran gamer who knows how to stack his stats and loves to role play the hero. Belladonna (Deschanel) is played by his girlfriend, who at first came along because she wants to do everything with him, but later gets into it. Thadeous (McBride) is played by the nerd who fancies himself a frat boy and is more interested in tail and loot than the planned heroic quest.

The Game Master, who controls the rest of the cast of characters, has a pretty well thought-out, epic plot. There are stages to the quest, a Campbell-esque hero's journey, and though it's a tad predictable how the plot will develop, it's still fun to be part of the adventure. At times he has written epic speeches for the villains and at times their back-talk and inquiry catches him off guard and he slips out of his character voice and into something more wry and a little bit silly. Despite his goofy moments, he knows his players and he knows how to lure them down the path he has written with naked women and carefully plotted extras.

And then in comes the hard-core gamer, Isabel (Portman) who took numerous social flaws and stacked her character for combat, courage, and conviction. She doesn't quite get the point of having any social strengths in her character because she came to take names, not make friends. She's hyper-violent and probably the only person in the quest who would be able to get there without heavy-handed Game Master hints.

The acting in Your Highness definitely supports this theory of viewing. None of the actors played it for camp. They are very serious as they deliver the most absurd lines or even feast at a medieval table on snow peas and fish fingers. Portman, in particular, keeps a wonderful commitment to her roll, even when her alliterated lines take a turn for the filthy.

The movie is good-looking and the music is great. The visual effects, for the most part, are effective. There is one Portman fight scene where she's flying around fighting a monster and I was reminded of the troll in the dungeon of the first Harry Potter movie (it was bad). The puppeteer for the wise-wizard wasn't that great either, but I have a feeling that was more of a send up to the old Henson films like Labyrinth than an honest attempt at a cool effect.

The fights, even where the effects failed, were all fantastic. They were few enough that you cared about the characters and didn't space out. They were paced and easy to follow. The characters all had a fighting style that suited their personality and skill.

The bottom line of the review is this: If you pay any attention to the opening credits, you should know what you signed up for. It is a stoner comedy. Too many reviewers review every movie by the same standards. 300 doesn't have the same goal as Black Swan and they should not be compared. Your Highness was a low-brow stoner comedy and as that, it was successful.

If I was going to give it a rating on Netflix, I'd be between a 3 and a 4, so we'll say 4 stars so long as you don't have delicate sensibilities about sex jokes and drugs. If you don't want to hear perversion, don't see it. It's as simple as that.

Final Score: B

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