On the high seas with the dawn treader

The Chronicles of Narnia Voyage of the Dawn Treader

This book marks the last official adventure for the youngest two Pevensies, Lucy and Edmund. The next 4 books of the Narnia series kind of go into the actual first induction into the world of narnia but that comes later.

In this book Susan and Peter are in America with their father, WWII is still going on and the Pevensie children have been separated by the Atlantic ocean. The movie starts with Edmund trying to sign up for the war effort(like many other young boys of his day, it was a common occurrence in America too where young men would falsify their ages) and Lucy walking up and basically ratting him out. As has been the case through the first two books The Pevensies are staying with relatives. This time their Cousin Eustace, Eustace seems to be a "logical" type, kind of Ebeneezer Scroogish. He does not seem to be too interested in flights of fancy, he is a rather neat little boy(brags later on in the movie about winning his schools hygiene award 2 years in a row), who collects bugs and has a thing for sweets. Our first introduction to Eustace has him writing in his journal complaining about his annoying cousins and wishing that he could treat them like he does his bugs.

After an argument between the cousins Lucy and Peter adjourn to an upstairs bedroom where they speak about missing Narnia, when Lucy notices a ship in an ocean painting. She remarks that it looks like a Narnian ship with brings Eustace into the bedroom to complain about them constantly talking about their insane fantasy world. Eustace is tired of their prattling on and him and Edmund start having a row while Lucy continues to stare at the painting, all the sudden water starts running out of the picture. Lucy tries to get Edmund's attention but of course he and Eustace are still going at it, that is until the water splashes onto he and Eustace. Eustace panics, so they fight over the painting it gets tossed on the floor the room fills with water over their heads, they swim up out of the water only to be on the open sea. Now any who have read the books or seen the previous movies know once the impossible happens you are of course in the land of Narnia. They come up for air in front of the ship Lucy and Edmund had notice in the picture.

Now there are usually rules for the Sons of Adam and the Daughters of Eve coming to Narnia, usually it means Narnia is in need of help. Except this time when the are pulled onto the ship by King Caspian and crew well it seems that Narnia is in pretty good shape(or at least as far as the king knows). It seems that Caspian has been running successful military campaigns to reunite the many countries of Narnia that were broken up when his uncle started his wars against the magical folk. Caspian has decided to go on a Voyage to find the 7 lords who had run off when his Uncle took power in fear for their lives. They arrive at the Lone Islands to see what seems to be a deserted land, Caspian, Eustace, Edmund and Lucy travel inland while leaving some of the crew members and the brave Reepicheep the heroic talking mouse(from the prince Caspian story) to secure the boats. They enter a large tower where they are set upon by bandits, and while they appear to be fighting bravely against them(and possibly winning, Caspian, Edmund, and Lucy are used to fighting battles against overwhelming odds) until Eustace is brought in as a captive(this is Eustace's first trip into Narnia so he has yet to be trained with a sword and is not the world's most apt fighter).  Edmund and Caspian are put into the dungeon while Lucy and Eustace are most likely going to be sold by the slavers.

The next day comes Lucy is auctioned off and Eustace is on the block, Edmund and Caspian are being moved when the crew comes to the rescue, but while the crew has come to the rescue Narnia's rulers now realize why they are all here, there is some weird green mist that is kidnapping people and they must travel east in the Dawn Treader to try and find the causes of this great evil. For those who do not know the children are brought into Narnia when the land needs them and they need to learn a lesson or two.

The basic premise of this book is that Edmund, Lucy and also Caspian have been doubting themselves Edmund his worth since he is the younger brother. Peter was always in charge, Peter was the one everyone looked to when decisions needed to be made, and now coming back the king is Caspian he may be High King Edmund but he still has to answered to the much younger Caspian(I say much younger because time moves differently in Narnia than it does on earth, between their first foray into Narnia and meeting Caspian I think 400 years plus had passed in Narnia.). Lucy does not feel her value and wishes to be her older sister Susan, as she is starting to become a young woman the beautiful Susan is her idol. Caspian the young King misses his father and doubts his role as king and this seems to be just the mission to show them all who they are and how valuable.

There is a mysterious evil far to the east almost to the land of Aslan, and they must place seven swords at Aslan's table to break the spell.

This book would be the one where folks could really point to and say this is the proof that these are books basically using christian doctrine/mythology to tell a children's story. I really like the way the directors have stuck so closely to the books with these movies(I haven't read the books in at least 3 years), I noticed a lot of silly almost unnecessary moments in these movies that help you fall in love with characters in a book but are often left out of the movies because of well the attention constraints of the audience. The building of the relationship between Eustace and Reepicheep, Eustace finding his courage, the whole further quest to Aslan's country.  These books have endured for decades, I say the subject matter speaks for itself let the movie draw people in the same way.

This is a good movie, I was ready to be hard on this movie because of the last few "aimed at children, from successful childrens franchises" movies that have come out where basically the adults turned them into merchandising fests and ignored the story. Once again though I have been pleasantly surprised by their dedication to the story, and the characters. yes some things have been cut out, things are always cut out, some things were expedited slightly, but no so egregiously that you can't enjoy the story whether a newbie or someone who has read this books from early childhood and is seeing the movies in their 30's. The lion, the witch, and the wardrobe has been animated many times, acted out in live action as well. As I own a compilation book I of course know how the story ends. IF they do all 7 movies I will be happy, it was a good story and I love how it is all wrapped up in the end.

If you have a problem with magic, mysticism, mythological creatures and fantasy settings don't go watch this movie with your closed mind, you will not understand it. Hell by the time you got to the last book and realized what this story was really about it would have been such a waste of your time to have to backtrack and apologize for your tunnel vision that I'd rather not even have you begin the journey. If you have an open mind, are a fan of CS Lewis' work, or enjoy entering fantasy worlds go see this movie, hell take your kids.It's a good story, with a decent message, and a plot that will keep you guessing til the end

The trailers Chronicles of Narnia

Thor
Marvel is putting out its second big Avengers character's movies Thor, or The Mighty Thor if I want to tie it in to the comic. Now I can't give the trailer full props NOR can I ridicule it because THE THEATER had issues playing it. The basic Synopsis I get from the trailer:

Thor Norse God of Thunder the Odinson in his arrogance has peeved off his dad. In punishment for his transgression Odin takes his mighty hammer(Mjolnir), his Godly Mantle and sends him to Midgard(earth he said earth when someone talked to him so this may be Norse mythology lite). On earth the god of thunder tries to make his way while some major catastrophe is afoot caused by whatever mistake Thor made.
The shield agent from Iron Man is here so it seems to tie in to the finding of the Hammer after the credits in Iron Man 2. As far as "storyline" is concerned it seems to be meshing Ultimate and Regular. In Ultimate Thor is Thor has his powers some weird hyper scientific looking armor and a slightly futuristic looking hammer, Normal Marvel U he's got his enchanted stone looking hammer odd looking armor and a strange way of speaking.

They also seem to be using the

Whosoever holds this hammer,if he be worthy, shall possess the power of.....THOR

Mythos. Because in one trailer I saw the recently disgraced Odinson finds his mighty hammer and is unable to lift it. Yeah not anybody can lift Mjolnir pretty much gotta be of stout character and noble heart. I'll do a blog about Thor later though.

Gulliver's Travels

Jack black as gulliver a mail boy who wants to be a journalist is giving a story, lost in a storm, and washes up in the land of the lilliputians. An update of the story as there are hydraulic creatures use, jack black has a cellphone(droid or iphone for those who wana know). Gulliver is a rather short guy who tells tall tales to the lilliputians about his great life back home, promises to be their protector, is exposed as a braggart and then has to not only prove to himself the kind of man he can be but also redeem himself in the eyes of his minature hosts.

Looks like it could be a funny romp, but we shall see.

Rio

Another animated cartoon story about repopulating a species. Similar to Alpha and Omega. This time it is a story about two Macau, the last of their breed. The male is from america the female is in Rio. The female appears to either be wild or else in a preserve. The male is domesticated, living the good life.

Looks like there is a lot of high profile comedy voice talent. Thing is though, meh its kinda becoming rote here. The best of the breed and you know the mid to bottom of the barrel have to save the species. I mean a bird who can't fly isn't that like stretching it too damn far?

Oh well kids movie, not going to see it I'll wait til it hits cable. Plenty of funny actors but nah not feelin it.

Okay ready to bed this one, I'll add in the links and post it in a little while

By the way for those who noticed, no I did not link to gullivers travels simply because I've seen that trailer like 7 times now I'm tired of linking to that site hit one of my other trailer blogs, it's IN THERE, trust me

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Feeling like the white rabbit

"I mustn't be late, I mustn't be late"

I was a bad boy, I got sucked into "Push" and forgot to charge my phone BUT as baby bro has the Torch now I'm using his half charged battery for the walk up and will use my half charged battery for the walk back.

As I'm walking I believe I will check out "the Chronicles of Narnia, Voyage of the Dawn Treader"(almost lost this blog forgot I started it on the camera). Now I used to own a book of all the collected Narnia works, as I have often said I read a lot as a child. Being a latch key kid with not a lot of friends or near by relatives books and TV were how you got by. I mean yes Nickelodeon had started while I was a child but NOTHING like it is today, and Cartoon Network the stuff of dreams I tell ya.

It was just your 2-3 hour after school block and maybe a holiday special. Rudolph, Charlie Brown, a Muppet something or other who programmed for kids we didn't have money, we didn't buy anything aah how times change.

CS Lewis is said by some to have been a christian story teller. He crafted his love able stories with a central Messiah like figure (Aslan) who may not have been there with you EVERY moment

Okay made it to the movie theater with time to spare I'll expand on my CS Lewis thoughts later

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The beauty of promising a "chicken in every pot"

Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a pretty smart guy. Give me a book/manual/decent training class and I can get damn near anything. Those wonderful charts and figures that get put up when people discuss:deficits, tax cuts, government expenditures if I can see them full size and read the key on the side I can usually get the gist of what you talking about. Any term I don't understand I will hit google, websters, investor words, how stuff works, bing or whatever other source I may need to so that I can follow along with your argument/topic of discussion.

That's me though, see if something piques my interest I'm like a dog trying to get his beloved toy from under a chair. I'm gonna dig and scratch, try to get my shoulder/arm in there, run to someone seeking help, keep trying to find a way. That's not most people hell, I have come to believe that people have started creating lipper charts, Feng zwei curves, out da back door averages and you don't need to know so don't ask me reports JUST so they sound intelligent to the average person and you will stop questioning them and leave them alone if they seem to buttress your own position. Its 2010 most people in my age bracket have seen the results of Reaganomics from kindercare to adulthood.

We have seen our neighborhoods go from nice friendly places where we could play outside til the lights came on to desolate scenes from old westerns. Ghost towns where the lawless rule and the average persons goes about their day in fear hoping to stay under the radar. You hope to avoid the big rancher out to own every acre his eye can see, the drifting cowboys bored with the monotony of the trail so they have "just one night" to spice it up a bit.

When those at the top are allowed to ignore the rules(or buy them as they see fit), justice is based not on the incident but on your ability to pay for representation, a permanent "unclean" class is present and always decried as the "unstoppable" enemy while the people run around "defending" themselves from the enemy the haves keep all the spoils for themselves. As for the ne'er do wells hey all they need is a shadow to hide in. When justice is blinded by dollar signs who wants to call the law? Every negative encounter re-enforces the idea that they won't help us.

Look around now, isn't that what you see? The world going to hell while you and yours just try to survive? You don't have time for high minded ideas now do ya? Taking the time to research every last claim by somebody living in a gilded cage, eating off a silver spoon he doesn't know what your life is like. So let's say somebody who looks kinda like you tells you how it ain your fault, how if you just leave these folks over here (who by virtue of their past successes obviously know what their doing) alone that their success will lead to your success. And that as they are more successful you will see things improve for you, why they'll get so good on your side, if you put these folks in charge, that there'll be "a chicken in every pot".

Now you don't know who lipper is, or S&P but you know who chicken is. Hell look how many chicken proprietors are out there:Tyson, Purdue, The Colonel, Churches, Zaxby's, Popeyes, Mrs. Winners, Chic-Fil-A. Think of how inexpensive a chicken dinner usually is, its good, its quick all kinds of great memories for MOST people. Hell thinking about it can you name a bunch of "beef" companies? I mean you could name me a "burger joint" but even burger joints sell chicken. How about an actual brand of beef, you've got your super market meat department, might even be able to tell me who makes ya turkey sausage or your hot dogs. Ya steaks and pork chops though uh uh, not too many people in that game.

So you pick a cheap yet delicious item, an item that most people have dealings with on a regular. No nothing extravagant, nothing that's actually gonna put you out a few dimes, not Filet Mignon in every oven. Or a pan full(remember its only one chicken singular, might be able to feed a family of 4 2 days on 1 chicken) of Minions, NY strip, Prime Rib nah not that stuff that costs money. How about a pot full of lobsters? Yeah let's all be ballin, let's all be eating good give me that King Crab, that Caviar(beluga baby), Dom Peri in the glass, Private stock in the cup pimpin.

Nah, that's too much can't pull that off without people getting suspicious huh? KISS keep it simple stupid, a message people can understand and comprehend. Things that seem tried and true nothin fancy, elaborate or invasive. While not every chicken pusher sells it to you cheap, ain nothing like some tender, juicy chicken now is it.

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How I would map out the "Spiderman" reboot

Now look I know they ain askin me, I know I don't have enough ducketts in the bank to even tickle the hair beside their ear lobe BUT, if I were to be in such a position to influence the reboot of the movie franchise for my all time favorite comic book character(I used to own Spidey PJ's, yes there is a picture I severly doubt I will post it) this is how I would map out the progression. And I would have some set in stone, non reversible, no change banks, no time outs, no skipsies rules that had to be obey.

NO KILLING VILLAINS

Save Kraven(and for a short time Doc Ock) spidey villians don't die, they fake their deaths, the fall off the grid for a while but they don't die. Like all super heroes some started out with lame(or at least with lame looking costumes say like Shocker and the original Mr. Daisy Electro man was electro's original costume gay, you couldn't pay the guys from Will and Grace to wear that costume) villains. Maybe some new "threat", disease, or weird phenomenon popped up comics being pop culture usually runs with some new issue and makes it work in their medium.

So yeah I know you may wanna kill off the lame villians or hell some main ones no axing ANYBODY unless it was in the actual main story line.

Keep the Girl friends in order

Mary Jane Watson is Peter Parker's reward for always being that stand up guy, ALWAYS living by his credo of "with great power comes great responsibility"(and for Stan Lee pounding him into the sand EVERY other issue, Spidey rarely wins in the first meeting, hell sometimes not in that issue it's always Spidey in gravel, Spidey half conscious for Stan's most SUCCESSFUL CHARACTER EVER he sure beats the hell out of him regularly and the marvel universe has kept that them intact, just saying MJW is a great reward but so would not making his life suck 50% of the time). Spiderman came out in the 60's but his woman of tomorrow strong female love interest(Lois Lane started out the typical damsel in distress, MJW was the consummate whirlwind and firebrand from day one) I think didn't come around til the mid to late 70's.
I remember reading about how for like 3 issues and up til like the last 5 panels of the issue she was introduced in she was just a voice. They knew who they wanted her to be but hadn't decided fully how the fiery red head would look. And MJ wasn't a pushover oh no she was a Tigress she was on the prowl and when she finally caught the scent of our shy hero, man was her iconic "Face it Tiger, you just hit the jackpot" an understatement(look at the pictures name me one book nerd who wouldn't take every wedgie and melvin if thats what they were gonna end up marrying after college)
.
To my recollection the girlfriend list went:

Gwen Stacy(who was later killed by the jackal)

Betty Brant(it was actually more of a work place crush as she was much older than peter)
Felicia Hardy
And then Mary Jane Watson.

Yes I know those ONLY familiar with the ultimate universe will say but Mary Jane was there all along, no she wasn't but if you remember the ultimate series of marvel comics is a condensed, sped up version of all storyline putting the most BLARING character identifiable traits early to bring newbies up to speed(by the way Kitty Pride the X-men's Shadowcat would also be on the list if we added the ultimate universe since they dated) .

Adherence to basic costume design

I say this after calling Electro's costume gay(if me using gay in that way offends you, I accept that. I have nothing against gay people I just feel this situation fits that description) yes some costumes could get a mild color and "design" update, no Gobbyizing.
The Green Goblin's(Norman Osbourne) costume was god awful in Spiderman, yes I know the "imp" motif might have been a bit much but go with it.

Doc Ocs (Otto Octavius)costume was pretty simplistic just a green jumpsuit. So the trench coat and basic clothes worked.

For Electro(Maxwell Dillon) I say borrow from Infamous, some cargo pants, a bike messengers jacket done.

Sandman(Flint Marko) I mean his outfit in the movie was fine. Striped green shirt brown pants.

Venom(Eddie Brock) meh that's kinda his costume but brock was supposed to be the jock to Peter's nerd so not really feeling Parker lite in Topher grace.

Scorpion(Eddie Gargan) there have been a few successful updates of the scorpion suit so I say keep him buff, keep him simplistic, and let him slap around with the tail that shoots acid

The Rhino(Alex O'Hirn) now this one I wouldn't mind a switch to the Ultimate version. A mechanized cyber suit of destruction, yeah go with that.

Who's next who knows.

CAMEO's

Comic books thrive on them, I mention Felicia Hardy as the eventual black cat. Also if you add Black Cat do the Fox kids version of her origin:her dad "The Cat" was tricked into learning the super soldier serum, has a photographic memory and is black mailed into giving the CORRECT formula to The Kingpin by him threatening to test the formula on his daughter first.

And as all the Marvel heroes are NORMALLY based in NY you can stumble over anyone DO SO. Maybe even test a few "low tier" heroes who might be good for a test movie. Blade was an out of the Galaxy Home run for marvel. He NEVER worked as a comic and was Cameo King you have PLENTY of second or third tier heroes you can give minor screen time to and if you get positive feedback expand on him later.

Use ACTUAL STORYLINES

Most comic book movies fail because you get a writer who decides he has a better idea of how the character should act, a director decides he doesn't need to obey umpteen years of fan dedication and you get a train wreck: The last Airbender, BloodRayne, Dragon Ball Evolution, Elektra, THE HULK.

You change so many things that the character is unrecognizable and pisses off fans, then newbies see a hodge podge effect and possibly get sucked in by special effects but they aren't going to go long term with buying Merch. Respect the fan boys, they budget merch into their pay checks.


Wow this got longer then expected okay I will revisit this subject sometime this weekend. I'll go into more actual story depth instead of just the rules for what should be(which I think most spidey fans would agree are some pretty decent rules)

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Just had a JN moment

By JN I mean Jimmy Neutron(yes the cartoon character). Since this is "sequel, remake, reboot time" I think I'll start doing some blogs on:what would primal do.

Now some of these characters I'll be like "Duh" on, I'm a comic book geek but mainly a marvel comic book geek with a minor in some DC main stays. I've read some Dark Horse, Image, Milestone and one other but I'm not all super comic book geek. And I rarely read Manga's so I can't get all deep and in depth with manga characters(that would be baby bro, possibly would give him some manga chat time if I felt that folks wanted to discuss manga).

But yeah marvel, DC, TV I think as news comes out and stories are in the writing, green lit, pre or production phase and not yet release I'll say what I would do IF I was in charge. I mean what else is a blog good for if one doesn't opine right. So yeah the one I'm currently working on is about spiderman, hope to finish that by the end of the day(KNOWING I STILL have finished the black ops blog, tsk tsk tsk SLACKER).

Hope your having a great thursday as always feel free to chime in agree, disagree, leave a suggestion, I'm all ears

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Why I'm still against the "home ownership as wealth creation" philosophy

I've said it before and I will say it again:you want to show off how much money you want people to think you have "buy a house", you want to build up assets and wealth buy liquid items. What are liquid items:stocks, bonds, treasury: notes, bonds, bills;options, SOME commodities and raw material precious gems and metals.

Yes those things have fluctuating values but they are a lost faster and easier to sell than a house. Those who have read some of my past blogs talking about my portfolio will see what I mean. I talked last year about selling ford, now with a bank account attached to my brokerage account its at most a 5 day turn around between me selling the stock(if I do it at market value not a stop order which of course would require the stock to first hit my target sale price up or down) and the money being in my bank account ready to spend.
Also with stocks and other "smaller" liquid assets you don't need as much down and credit isn't that big an issue. If you have enough money to start the account they let you. While its better to buy in "round lots"(usually a stock order of 100 shares or multiples of 100) you could buy 1, 5, 10, 50 etc(and anywhere in between or above one of those numbers) as long as you have the money for the shares plus brokerage fees. Usually the brokerage fee is added per every X shares purchased PER order, so if you go over that share amount even by a share tack on another brokerage fee, if you make another stock order whether it be the same or a different stock tack on another brokerage fee.

Is it perfect no, I mean yeah gold, gems etc if you had a vault you could see and visit those but for most folks you log in to see your stock certificates. So yes if you wish to parade around your wealth you have to have a house or a car. What's wrong with saving up for those things? I mean what good is putting all of your money into something you don't actually own yet? Most trade able vehicles as long as it doesn't crater, expire, or self destruct whether it goes up or down you still own it. Miss a few car payments they take the car back and you don't get a dime. At least if a stock, right or warrant(different names for trade able vehicles) implodes if nothing else you get the tax write off.

I mean yes if you wanted to you could just hoard the cash in various bank accounts. Cash is always good and always king, so yes if you aren't worried about playing the casino game of investing its hard to argue with just keeping the cash on hand. Hell even IF you invest part of your portfolio should always be cash, money market account whatever always have cash on hand.

Yes you could also show off the piles of cash all Scrooge McDuck style if ya wanted to but flaunting isn't always safe. I mean hey I've never been one for flaunting so some of this is my own personal philosophy on life and the way this should go. I still say you want to accumulate something then accumulate it. Just you know lay off the debt for a little while, I could look up numbers and charts but I'm pretty damn sure anybody in america(and even a few of my international readers) knows someone who has lost a house or car. So some abstract number or series of numbers is unnecessary all you have to do is look around. Repo men and foreclosed signs are all around. Bigger isn't always better if you can't hold on to it

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