Colombiana: The Professional 2?

I am a Luc Besson fan.

When I was a kid, I was just getting into movies. And I watched a crap ton. Then I saw an amazing film. Sure it came out in 1994, so it was kinda old when I saw it, but it was still awesome. The Professional. Also known as Leon. 

And this is also where I started my crush on Natalie Portman (I was a kid, she was a kid in the film, and she is 8 years older than me. So its NOT creepy).

This movie was more than just Portman's onscreen debut; it was an amazingly done film, with perfect cinematography, some of the best action scenes, great acting from Jean Reno and Gary "Awesome" Oldman (especially from Portman. Her first film, and she can emote as if she was acting longer than fricken Meryl Streep). And the story is amazing.

A quick sum up of The Professional: An Italian hitman named Leon (Jean Reno) is considered the best there is. He lives next door to a family; a member of which is a little girl named Matilda (Natalie Portman), who is the target of abuse by not only her father, but her stepmother and half sister. The only one she loves is her little brother. However, her crook father tried to hide some drugs from some crooked DA detectives, the leader being a psychotic detective called Stansfield (Gary Oldman). Stansfield kills the whole family, including the little brother, while Matilda is away and manages to find refuge next door by Leon, the hitman. She requests to be trained since she cant pay him to kill them. Action ensues, and a relationship develops.

This movie became my favorite film, and thus, Luc Besson became one of my favorite writer/directors. The man is responsible for the cult classic The Fifth Element, as well as many other great movies like The Transporter, La Femme Nikita, Kiss of the Dragon, Unleashed,  and more recently, Taken.

Now, when you watch a Besson film, you know it. And his newest written piece is Colombiana. While not directed by Besson, much like Taken wasnt, I have to say, it was good. The story is basically about a  little girl, Catalaya, who (kinda) sees her parents being killed due to involvment with a drug car-tel in Colombia. She escapes and finds her way to her uncle and Chicago, and grows up to be a great professional assassin (hit-woman?) while also persuing the people responsible for her family's death.

This stars Zoe Saldana, who is slowly being known as the next Halle Berry.

The movie does have its moments of predictability, but still pumps out the cool of a good revenge flick.

Not only that, but it also conveys what the main character has to sacrifice even MORE. You can understand why she may believe she has nothing to lose in the beginning, but as you watch more of the story, it's shown that she STILL has a lot to lose.

The film also has alot of fun symbolism play especially with the orchids, and every character has a certain depth. Well, accept for a couple villains.

The love scenes are kind of... sporadic, giving a sense of certain scenes being just fanservice since, lets face it, Saldana IS well on her way to being the next Halle Berry.

However, stay calm feminists, she never goes full frontal. The love scenes, and the very short shower scene, are still tastefully shot with the camera work. So it doesn't down-grade her character by showing her as an attractive woman.

Hell, a good part of the story builds BECAUSE she is female, and is one of the main reasons why cops were mislead in the first place.

My favorite part of the whole film is the constant call back to the professional.

This to me seemed like what Besson would have done if the story of The Professional was writtin slightly differently and continued. Think about it. In the film starring Portman, she is a little girl who loses everything due to a drug thing, and is taken in by a sympathetic assassin. In Colombiana, a little girl also loses everything due to a drug thing, and is also (kinda) taken in by an assassin. The key difference being two points in these character's lives.

In The Professional, Leon regretfully agrees to help Matilda learn the "basics" of being a hitman, however, she grows to love Leon like a new father figure, and both of their love for one another (the appropraite kind of love people) was able to help Matilda through her trauma, and Leon takes revenge for her anyway when she was in danger.

In Colombiana, Cataleya never really gets over her trauma. She is taught how to kill, yes, but she actually goes through with the business, so far so that it swallows up her morality and judgement all together. She was shown love, but shuns it all away for revenge. Unlike in The Professional the antagonists responisble for her parents death were in hiding and survive into her years as an adult. 

There were other call backs, like how the Cataleya character dresses, as shown above. The scene where her Uncle randomly shoots in the street vaguelly reminds me of when Matilda does the same.

Aside from all the references, it was a good story well told. I went to see a Besson film, and was satisfied, and Besson proves that an assassin film is always entertaining. The film really portrays how even though you want revenge so badly, bad enough to a point where you work outside justice, its sometimes best to let things go and appreciate what you survived with.

...but.... I would LOVE to see Natalie Portman reprise her role as Matilda.

Toonami... Where are you?

Go back some years ago. The earliest year being 1997. Your home from work, but most likely school. But you dont turn on the tv just yet. No you wait. You wait for that glorious block schedule, usually no later than 4. You get hyped. You recall what happened last time. And then you turn on the tv. You go to the channel your fingers have memorized....

TOONAMI

So what is Toonami? Toonami, in my opinion, started the afternoon block of action packed cartoons.

Especially Anime. Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon (yes I watched some of that too), Gundam Wing...

And dont forget the ones from here at home, Batman the Animated Series, in fact anything Batman, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, Samurai Jack....

And the great classics that will never go away; Thundercats, He-man, Voltron even the short lived Silver Hawks.

And  even gifts from good ol' Canada eh, REBOOT!

So... what happened? Where did it all go?

It all started with a simple theme intro. And the first host of this cartoon block. Moltar from Space Ghost, in space ship...

And the action commenced on March the 17th, 1997. And our generation was introduced to anime. And the otaku generation was born.

We were fascinated. Compelled. Both by amazing never before seen art and stories that made you constantly think "what? what happens next?" A martial arts master can shoot energy beams from his hands and fly on a cloud. An awkward teen-aged girl can become a superheroine. Both girls and guys were HOOKED.

The american shows hooked an even larger audience. The american shows CN produced brought in a more mature look. These shows dealt with mature and slightly adult stories of intrigue, action, inner conflict, and real life changing decisions in the ongoing battle against good and evil.

Plus, thanks to shows like Batman The Animated Series, it revolutionized the way animated stories are told and made.

And of course they added a perfect dash of nostalgia, with the older showsfrom the 80s and back (my favorite being Thundercats). And this is where the newer generation became fans of the old.

Then in summer of 1999, Toonami was relaunched with a new host Tom. Just in time for the start of the new millenium.

Toonami kept reformatting itself. And it was still loved by many. More anime. More action. They even gave a side story to explain the constant changes to the formats and Tom...

But then... the years went on....

the interes in anime through Cartoon Network started to fade....

And CN was losing money. And gaining rights to air anime on cable is expensive, as well as going through the trouble of dubbing the shows (which doesnt make sense to me personally. I mean, the animation is done, all you do is add new voices, and censor it to a point where its still good but not as good as it should be)

Toonami officially cancelled on March 17, 2008.

The host Tom, voiced by the great voice actor Steve Blum, now reduced to this:

had this to say;

"Well, this is the end, beautiful friends. After more than 11 years, this is Toonami's final broadcast. It's been a lot of fun, and we'd like to thank each and every one of you who made this journey with us. Toonami wouldn't have been anything without you. Hopefully we've left you with some good memories. So, until we meet again, stay gold. Bang."

They had to appeal to a different audience, and quickly. They didnt have time to wait for the newer generation to catch up to the content already made. So they basically pooped out whatever they thought the kids would like.

Unfortunately, this is too easy, because if its new, and the TV says the show is popular, then the younger kids would HAVE to like it. Because this is the first thing they see. And they like the first thing flashy they warp their minds onto.

The Japanese perfected the technique of feeding children what they "enforce" as "the thing that everyone likes". Case in point, most children's anime like pokemon or yu-gi-oh. Its constantly aired on the network to a point where you dont escape it. Then it features someone young with some type of item or pet that gives power. This allows marketing for toys, games, and collectible cards. And of course, you add a lesson to each episode about loyalty, friendship, and laughing at the end, while milking "kid friendly epic-ness"

This technique is the tool of the media moguls to make money off youth. But thats a blog for another time..

First Photo of Anne Hathaway as "Catwoman": NO

NO. no no no no no no no. This.... this is..... ugh... What is this?

I was originally going to post my thoughts on the Thundercats remake. That is until this caught my eye. What you see here is the first photo released of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Rises. I... lets just start the rant.

The concept of Catwoman is not hard to follow. Femme fatale. Thief. Has pointy ears to resemble a cat in the shadows. Sexual attraction to Batman.

This looks like the possible female version of Splinter Cell. I get the plausible thief thing.... but where are the ears? Where is the whip? If you showed this to me out of the blue, I wouldnt be able to tell thats Catwoman unless people told me.

I'd hate to say it... but Halle Berry had a more beleivable catwoman look...

Okay... maybe not THAT much better. But still, at least I can look at that and say "Yeah, I think she's trying to be Catwoman."

Now Michelle Pfeiffer... SHE pulled off Catwoman. 

You would watch her in action, and you KNOW that she is Selina Kyle. She pulled off that whip like a pro, the personality she gave off in both her personas was perfect, gave off the whole mysterious vibe...

The format is not that hard people. See this simple drawing?

Skin tight outfit + sexy figure + whip + cat themed mask and ear + thief = Catwoman

I mean... ok... I guess Hathaway is doing the whole realistic thief thing.... Looks like she's stealing the Bat-cycle.... And i guess those kind of goggles are needed to be a thief (i think).... but... ears please? So I can tell who the character is? If anything she looks more like a henchman. Or henchwoman, if you want to nitpick.

Anyway, like I said, not a good first reveal. Now if they showed her in something that looked like this, Live action of course:



then maybe I would get excited.

We'll see. But if there is no whip, then this is bull.