Thursday, July 5, 2012

Reel Talk

The gentlemen and scholars over at Out Now With Aaron and Abe let me join them on their show again to chat about Ted and Magic Mike. On the podcast we also talk about some current movie trailers and predict some box office results. Aaron and Abe host a good show and it's always a lot of fun.

Give the episode a listen  here: http://www.hhwlod.com/out-now/out-now-ep-63-ted-and-magic-mike . And check out their other episodes.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Podcast Premiere

The awesome guys at Out Now with Aaron and Abe were gracious enough to have me( as well as Mark Hobin and Maxwell Haddad) join them for their latest episode reviewing Men in Black 3. I had a lot of fun being on the show and hopefully I'll be on again some time in the future!

Here's the link for the episode: http://www.hhwlod.com/out-now/out-now-ep-58-men-in-black-3

If I can organize my thoughts I'll drop my own review of Men in Black this week.

Jose

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Avatar: The Legend of Korra - Korra Not the Avatar?

I have been thoroughly enjoying Avatar: The Legend of Korra on Nickolodeon. I was late to the Avatar: The Last Airbender party but I devoured the series on once I discovered how amazing it was. Korra continues the series traditions of gorgeous animation, breath-taking action, and an amazing blend of humor and serious themes. I've been following the show pretty closely and I had a thought/theory about what's been going on in the show.

There's been some interesting theories floating around about Amon and about his identity as well as Korra and where the show is headed. I heard an interesting theory about Korra not being the Avatar. While I think that would be really interesting I doubt that the creators would pull the rug from under us like that. However, I had a thought that spun out from that theory.

There's been a pretty strong theme of balance and duality in Korra. We can see it in the tension between benders and non-benders, the way that Korra herself has struggled between the spiritual and non-spiritual, and even the old vs. new of pro-bending and traditional bending styles. Jumping off from that theme and from the aforementioned theory I had theory that perhaps Korra is and isn't the Avatar. What if she is only half?

Let me explain: Keeping with the theme of balance, what if the Avatar is no longer a single person. The Avatar is charged with keeping the world in harmony. What if the Avatar has been split into two people who together bring the world into a state of peace. We've seen Korra struggle with airbending and with the spiritual side of bending in general. It's been incredibly difficult for her even under the tutelage of "Mr. Spiritual" himself, Tenzin. Now for my theory to work the obvious other half must be Amon. Despite being a non-bender Amon speaks often of the spirits and certainly seems to be tied in with the spiritual world. This could all be a lie and there are definitely reasons not to take what Amon says at face value. And although he's positioned as the big bad of the series there's been an effort to make him slightly sympathetic. His backstory is sympathetic enough and his general message is one of equality. He takes that to an extreme but he's not a purely evil entity. Amon could be the other half of the Avatar. I can see the end game being Korra and Amon coming to terms on their disagreements. Maybe their battle escalates and brings even more destruction into the world and they have to broker peace for the greater good. Or maybe they must unite to stop a bigger threat.

Whatever the specifics end up being, I believe that having Amon and Korra come together and uniting as two halves of the avatar would fit perfectly into the themes this season. They could be the example of balance the world needs.

Anyway that's my crazy theory. I am most likely way off base, but the idea struck me and seemed to make a lot of sense(at least to me). I thought I'd get it out there.