Top 10 Fictional Drivers

Simply stated, this is a list of fictional characters that are defined by their time behind the wheel.  It doesn’t necessarily mean that this list is dependent on their driving skills.  They are picked and rank depending on how I find them interesting as wheelmen characters.

10.) NEEDLESS KANE

Needless Kane is the driver of the most popular car from the Twisted Metalgames, Sweet Tooth (which, for a time, I mistook for the name of the driver – and I know I’m not the only one).  He’s simply the Joker (or It’s Pennywise) on wheels.  He derives a demented sense of delight in death, destruction, mayhem, and chaos, hence, bringing those about with his iconic killing ice cream truck.

9.) OVERDRIVE

This B-list Spider-Man supervillain possesses nanites that allow him to have limited technopathy and modify vehicles to his liking.  Hence, he makes a great getaway driver and is sought by crews to be their wheelman during heists.  An amusing aspect of this character, as revealed in the excellent Superior Foes of Spider-Man comic series, is that he really wants to be a superhero but chose to be a supervillain since he thinks the stint will give him the best opportunity to “break in” the superhero community, reasoning out that famous superheroes like Hawkeye, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver all started out as supervillains first.

8.) FRANK WILLIAM “CHAS” CHANDLER

Chas is probably John Constantine’s closest and most loyal friend.  He is a London cab driver that constantly functions as Constantine’s ride whenever he’s on a case.  Most of the time, Constantine doesn’t really let Chas to be deeply involved on his supernatural escapades, for his own good, thus, he enjoys a survival rate that few of Constantine’s friends have.  However, in the now-cancelled (bummer) TV series, Chas is a more active sidekick for Constantine and has more of a supernatural reason behind his survival rate.  One night, in a club, Constantine put a protection charm on him before they separated.  Later, the club caught fire and Chaz with 47 others were burned.  But because of Constantine’s spell, Chaz absorbed those 47 lives, giving him the ability to die and regenerate 47 times.

7.) ALEX TULLY

After geek god Nathan Fillion was Malcolm Reynolds and before he became Rick Castle, he took on the role of Alex Tully, lead protagonist of the short-lived, unfinished TV series, Drive.  The show focuses on an illegal, cross-country road race of unlikely participants and Alex Tully was one of them.  Because of his past experience as a semi-pro racer and a notorious getaway driver/bank robber, he was coerced into joining the race when his wife was kidnapped.  It’s an intriguing story, but, unfortunately, we’ll never know how it ends since the series was cut off at only 6 episodes.

6.) BO DARVILLE a.k.a. BANDIT

Everybody – the people in the Smokey and the Bandit’s universe as well as the movie’s audience – loves this charismatic and iconic Burt Reynolds-portrayed character.  Already established as a legendary driver and folk hero in the beginning of the story, Bandit would bait the police to chase him so that he can divert the attention away from a beer smuggling operation that he had bet he and his friend, Snowman, can accomplish in record time.  Along the way, with occasional help from truckers that he was constantly in communication with via CB radio, Bandit would constantly outsmart and outrun the police – led by Sheriff Buford T. Justice – to hilarious effect.

5.) RACER X

Racer X is an important recurring character in the classic anime series Speed Racer.  This heroic masked racer/secret agent is actually the estranged older brother of main character, Speed, but though he has nagging suspicions of his real identity throughout the series, it was only near at the end of the series where the truth is fully revealed to him.  Racer X is considered by Speed as a superior racer that he vows to beat, and Racer X vows to look after his younger brother always.  His car’s name is the Shooting Star (number 9).

4.) DOMINIC TORETTO

Dom is the face of The Fast and the Furious franchise as well as its best driver (sorry, Brian).  He always wins in every race (he only loses when he allows himself) and does the craziest, most badass stunts.  He is a strong leader, a religious man, has a moral code, and puts family above anything else.

3.) FRANK MARTIN a.k.a. THE TRANSPORTER

Frank Martin is the titular character of The Transporter movie series and my most favorite Jason Statham role.  He was introduced as an immensely skillful and meticulous driver known as the best wheelman-for-hire there is.  He will transport anything or anyone – no questions asked, and always on time.  He strictly maintains three rules: 1.) “Once the deal is made, it is final”; 2.) “No names”; and 3.) “Never open the package.”  Moreover, he is a former Special Forces operative and can kick butt whenever he is crossed.

2.) SPEED RACER

The titular character of the classic Speed Racer anime drives the iconic Mach 5 – a racing car that has eight special features installed on it, which are activated by buttons labeled A to G on its steering wheel hub and a button H located on a console between the car’s two seats.  Speed is extremely fond of racing and his love for the sport is only rivaled by his love for his family.  His adventures aren’t exclusive in the race track, as he finds himself occasionally dabbling in crime fighting.

1.) WACKY RACERS

I have to admit that this list is built around the participants of Wacky Races, one of the Hanna-Barbera properties that I loved watching as a kid (and re-watching now as an adult).  I have no clear favorites and I enjoy all these quirky racers and their respective outlandish cars as a whole, so all of them – the Slag Brothers (#1 Boulder Mobile), the Gruesome Twosome (#2 Creepy Coupe), Professor Pat Pending (#3 Convert-a-Car), the Red Max (#4 Crimson Haybaler), Penelope Pitstop (#5 Compact Pussycat), Sergeant Blast and Private Meekly (#6 Army Surplus Special), the Ant Hill Mob (#7 Bulletproof Bomb), Lazy Luke and Blubber Bear (#8 Arkansas Chuggabug), Peter Perfect (#9 Turbo Terrific), Ruffus Ruffcut and Sawtooth (#10 Buzzwagon), and Dick Dastardly and Muttley (#00 Mean Machine) – share the top spot.

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‘Legends of Tomorrow’ Trailer Incites Excitement

The Legends of Tomorrow trailer just came out a few days ago.  And I was blown away.  With the goodwill that its parent shows, Arrow and The Flash, have established, I was already sure to watch this from episode one.  But because of the trailer, I’m now really excited for it.

Constantine is cancelled, Gothamis awfully stupid (glad I stopped watching it early), and Supergirl(which had a recent trailer as well) isn’t looking too promising (but I will still give it a try).  But with Legends of Tomorrow to join Arrow and The Flash, I think that DC’s TV series line-up is enough to keep Marvel’s small screen surge at bay for a while.  And I approve of the competition.  These two trying to out-do each other in adapting their properties in the small screen (and big screen) will only mean that us fans are going to be the winners.

Anyway, Legends of Tomorrow is a truly intriguing and original show.  Yes, the characters are adapted from DC comics, but the team and premise have no concrete comic book connections.  There is no “Legends of Tomorrow” team in comics, and it is in this show that this unlikely roster of characters will get to team up for the first time.  Thus, this is the most unique thing happening in the DC TV universe.

I love how villains Captain Cold and Heatwave are part of the team.  In the comics, Cold and his rogues are “crooks with a code”, only concerned in profiting from “honest” crimes like robbery and burglary, that when the fate of the world is at stake, it is more likely for them to team up with the heroes to save it than fight against them.  I appreciate how this facet – as implied by Cold and Heatwave’s inclusion to the team – is being translated into the TV universe.  This provides a genuinely interesting dynamic for the team.

But above anything else, my most favorite thing about this show is…

Caity Lotz was fantastic as Sarah Lance and being the original Black Canary in Arrow.  As a comic book fan, I wasn’t surprised when Katie Cassidy’s Laurel Lance was eventually made into the Black Canary in Arrow (in the comics, the real name of Black Canary is Dinah Laurel Lance after all), but, at that point, it was already apparent that Laurel is an inferior, annoying character (though she gradually improved in the latter part of Arrow’s third season) while Sarah is just plain awesome that I prefer for Sarah to remain as Black Canary.  Hence, when the character was killed off, I was pissed and heartbroken.  So, ever since it was being mentioned during this spin-off’s early days of development that Caity Lotz is going to be part of the main cast, my want for this show to happen is 150% affirmative.  I want Sarah Lance back to life so bad.  Hence, I’m so elated that this trailer confirmed that she’ll really be back via Lazarus Pit.  I don’t even care that the name “White Canary” originally belongs to a Birds of Preyvillainess – that can easily be retconned (and bring Sarah Lance to the comics).

Sarah Lance – and the rest of Legends of Tomorrow – will kick butt in January 2016.  Yep, still several months away, unfortunately.

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'Project Almanac' Fails to Become the 'Chronicle' of Time Travel Movies

I always have high standards for time travel stories.  I expect them to be smart.  I want interesting time travelersthat do interesting stuff in their time traveling, and clever set-ups made possible by time travel.  There should be a general adherence to the time travel rules it set – whether they are plausible or outrageous.  If it’s going to wobble a lot with its time travel logic, then, at least, the story should be engaging and enjoyable enough to compel my brain to turn off and just be overwhelmed by the fun.

I’m not fond of the found footage format of movie narrative.  It generally turns me off.  There are, of course, occasions that I liked movies that employed “found footage”, but it is more due to having good stories than due to the style.  I think, the only time I saw the found footage format being perfectly used to enhance the storytelling and cinematography was with last year’s Afflicted.

Now, for the first time ever, somebody decided to mix these two – a time travel story and a found footage format – and the result is Project Almanac.  I have to admit that when I got wind of the concept of Project Almanac, even with my distaste for the found footage format, I found it intriguing.  I don’t buy the argument that this movie is justified to use a found footage format so that, as a small budget production, it won’t have to worry of the subpar camera work (since how amateurish it will look is going to be justified by the realistic shakiness of a found footage).  Primer’s $2,000 budget proved that you don’t need a big budget to make a great time travel movie.  So if this movie decided to tell a time travel using the found footage format, it should mean that it’s primarily for the sake of creativity and doing something different – as if intending to become to time travel movies as what Chronicle was to superhero movies.

However, after watching it, I was disappointed by how it turned out.  Yes, it has its share of fun, sophistication, ingenuity, and intellect parts, but these fail to form an original, cohesive, and compelling time travel tale.  It employs cliché in its plot, and was boring and messy at times.  Worst, as expected, the use of found footage format did more harm to the narrative than good – it simply did everything I hated about it.

For what it’s worth, Project Almanac has enough good or passable parts to be watchable at least.  I simply had high expectations – since its premise is asking for such – that weren’t met.  It didn’t break ground with the time travel story nor with the found footage format, as it was obviously attempting.

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'The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of the Water' is a Madhouse of Fun

  

SpongeBob Squarepants has established itself as one of the funniest and most enjoyable cartoon properties ever.  It’s not as brilliant as The Simpsons or Looney Tunes, but if you get over the inherent annoyingness of the characters and the tone, you will realize that SpongeBob Squarepants is comedy gold – effectively using both absurdity and cleverness to be consistently hilarious.

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of the Water is exactly the quirky, fun madhouse one would expect from a SpongeBobmovie.  Its oddball plot centers on the disappearance of the secret recipe for the famous and beloved Krabby Patty; without it, SpongeBob is unable to make more of it.  When the residents of Bikini Bottom learned that there won’t be any more Krabby Patties, the town radically descended into Mad Max-level of post-apocalyptic anarchy.  As to be expected, it is up to SpongeBob and his friends to retrieve the missing secret recipe to return Bikini Bottom to its status quo.  Consequently, the search would even lead the gang to go to the surface.

There was actually nothing remarkable with its narrative; nevertheless, the gags, puns, and random silliness in the story’s flow fantastically worked.  I also liked the 3D transformation of the characters when they had to interact with the live-action surface world.  And Antonio Banderas hamming it up as Burger-Beard the Pirate resulted to an overall entertaining performance.

I understand that the eccentricity of SpongeBob is not for everyone.  But for those who learned to love the cartoon as it is, this movie is a slam dunk.

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'Parasyte' Could Be the Best Anime Series of 2015

If the year ended today, Parasyte –the maxim– (yep, that’s how the complete title goes) would be my choice for “Best Anime Series of the Year” (its original run was from October 2014 to March 2015) in the 4th Bernels.  Of course, there’s still half of the year to go, and it is still possible for another 2015 anime series to impress me more, but Parasyte is so good that it would take something really mindblowing to knock it off its pedestal.

The premise is about strange worm-like parasites (its origin, whether alien or a form of bio-weapon, was not particularly determined) that mysteriously pop out around the world one night and begin to take over human hosts by getting into their brains.  The plot focuses on a geeky, awkward high school student named Shinichi Izumi.  A parasite fails in its attempt to get into Shinichi’s brain, and instead has to settle on burrowing inside his right arm.  The parasite takes over Shinichi’s right arm, adopts the name of “Migi” (Japanese for “right”), and develops a default symbiotic relationship with Shinichi.  Moreover, not only does a conscious Migi gains absolute control of the right arm, but it can also morph into any form – functioning body parts, blades, etc. – it wants.  To survive, Shinichi has no choice but to put up with Migi.  Over the story’s course, the two learn to rely on each other and gradually develop a strong bond.  Meanwhile, those parasites that succeed in taking over the brains of their targets lurk around to devour humans for food.  The media dub these occurrences as “Mincemeat Murders” while the authorities do their best to hide the real story behind these murders to prevent mass panic.  Shinichi feels obligated to do something about it, and by enlisting Migi’s cooperation, he takes it upon himself to fight off the parasite-infected humans while keeping his own condition a secret from the people around him.

Nowadays, I have a hard time connecting to most modern anime series, but Parasyte has the tone and quality of those old anime series I used to watch in the past that it effortlessly appealed to my liking.  The Parasyte manga actually ran from 1988 to 1995, but this is just the first time that it has been adapted into an anime series, so maybe that’s the reason why it seemingly has that “90’s-style anime” charm.  I found this anime series to be very entertaining and engrossing that I was able to marathon all of its 24 episodes in one day.

Parasyte isn’t perfect.  It does have worn-out anime tropes, some noticeably dumb and annoying character moments, and an unimpressive soundtrack.  But, aside from those few faults, this anime is terrific and well-crafted.  The storytelling is splendidly compelling; its thoughtful themes about humanity, natural order, inherent instincts, and the essence of monsters are well-articulated; the characters are well-written and well-developed; and the animation is beautiful, thorough, and flawlessly gives justice to the thrill, violence, emotion, and stakes of its narrative and action sequences.  It has the makings of a classic, and a worthy watch for every anime fan with good taste.

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'Chappie' Suffers by Being Released in the Same Year as 'Ex Machina'

                                                                                       

I’ve just watched Ex Machina and Chappie back-to-back, and I think it’s appropriate to write about them in a single post, since, as the title implies, one movie suffers because of the existence of the other (or by watching them back-to-back). 

Ex Machina tells the story of Caleb, a programmer working for Bluebook (the Google in this story’s universe), who wins a company lottery to spend a week with Bluebook’s visionary CEO and founder, Nathan, in his uber-modern, secluded residence.  On Caleb’s arrival, Nathan reveals to him that his home doubles as his research facility and he has been secretly developing a humanoid robot with advanced AI named “Ava.”  Nathan solicits the participation of Caleb to conduct a Turing test on Ava to determine if she can pass off as human, which Caleb agrees to.  As Caleb continues to interact with the sensuous Ava, he wrestles with his growing feelings for her as well as the nagging suspicion that Nathan hasn’t been completely honest with him regarding the experiment.

Narrative-wise, the trailer of Ex Machina has unfortunately revealed enough details for someone watching the movie to predict almost every plot development and every plot twist, which diminished the suspense and surprise.  However, despite that, the narrative was consistently absorbing and intriguing.  The cast delivered compelling performances, and the dialogues were intellectually stimulating. 

In summary, Ex Machina is a superb, fresh, insightful, disturbing, and gripping science fiction psycho-thriller straight out of The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror.

        

Chappie is set on Johannesburg, South Africa wherein the police employ a state-of-the-art, armored robot force that they purchased from the weapons firm, Tetravaal.  Deon, a Tetravaal employee and the creator of the police robot units, develops an AI that can function the same way as the human mind.  Deon installed his AI on a damaged police robot unit intended to be disposed and it is reborn as “Chappie.”  As one would expect (it’s a familiar story), the rest of the movies sees Chappie struggling with his identity, being baffled and mimicking human behavior, and being eventually seen as a threat by mankind. 

While Ex Machina (rightfully) received acclaim from critics, Chappie, on the other hand, was brutally panned.  However, personally, I think it’s not that bad as its 30% Rotten Tomatoes rating suggests.  It does have its share of some genuinely entertaining and heartfelt moments.  But the story was generally untidy and uninteresting.  It felt like it was trying to be Short Circuit and District 5 and other things all at the same time.  Its tired but thoughtful message was lost in all that clutter

It can’t be helped to compare Ex Machina and Chappie.  Both movies tackled the same artificial intelligence premise, and both attempted to provide thought-provoking case studies on the implications of sentient, self-aware humanoid robots.  However, only Ex Machina succeeded in doing it in such a rich, engaging, and cerebral manner, that it simply can’t be helped but ruin Chappie, which is actually not a terrible film, for an audience who watched both movies within the same year. 

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Insane Theory: Natalie Portman Is Going to Be the Next Thor

When it was announced last year, as part of Avengers NOW!, that a female will not only assume Thor’s powers and Mjolnir but his name as well, I wasn’t particularly sold on the whole idea.  I argued in a past post that “Thor” is much of a definitive male name as “Spider-Man”, and letting a female assume the “Thor” name will make as less sense as Carlie Cooper assuming the name of “Spider-Man.” 

But, now, eight Thor issues later (and a couple of appearances in other books), I found the character so likable that I’m prepared to overlook the problem with the character name’s gender semantics.  Of course, if this were Spider-Man, I would have been greatly pissed (and I was, when Otto Octavius became the Superior Spider-Man) of the status quo change even if everything was done compellingly.  I do am a Thor fan, but not as deeply as I am a Spidey fan to passionately mind it.

One of my favorite 2015 comic book moments so far

Hours ago (as of writing), it was finally revealed that this new Thor is Jane Foster, and the first thought that came to my mind is --
NATALIE PORTMAN SHOULD DEFINITELY BECOME THE NEXT THOR IN THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE!

Natalie Portman – who plays Jane Foster in the MCU – is a smart, brilliant, Oscar-winning actress (and one my most favorite actresses ever).  When the first Thor movie came out, an observation made by some critics was that Portman was overqualified to play the role of a mere “love-interest character” as Jane Foster (and going gaga for Chris Hemsworth’s abs).  There was an understandable bafflement with Marvel’s casting choice.  Now, think about it: what if an actress of Portman’s caliber was cast for Jane Foster because the plan all along was for her to inherit the mantle of Thor from Chris Hemsworth?  Crazy, unlikely theory, I know, but there’s also some sense in it. 

Moreover, back in 2013, while being interviewed for Thor: Dark World, Portman teased:

“There are definitely many strong women [in the MCU], but it will be exciting when there is a central female character which I think is coming – I have heard is coming…”

Was she merely referring to the Captain Marvel movie (this was long before an official announcement)?  Was it just a coincidence that it was her that announced of “hearing” such project in the works?  Or could it be that she was already aware of Marvel’s plans for her character?  Was she already in talks of becoming the next MCU’s Thor?   Very intriguing questions.    

Regardless of it being Marvel’s plan or not, it’s something I really want to see.  I know that Hemsworth is at his peak right now, but, seriously, a choice between him continuing as Thor or seeing the female Thor – as to be portrayed by Portman – being adapted into the big screen is a no contest.  The latter scenario is just much more exciting!   (Besides Hemsworth could still hang around, but, as with the comics, he is no longer the central character, and instead of wielding Mjolnir, he would have Jarnbjorn as weapon.)   

If Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster becoming Thor isn’t actually in the plot of Thor: Ragnarok, well, it should be.  Make it happen, Marvel!    

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