I saw The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button on Christmas Day. And let me say this first, the trailers have been amazing. That first easer trailer attached to the horrible Indiana Jones 4 was one of the best, if not the best, of trailers my eyes have seen. It had this perfect mixture of creepy, beautiful, and a surreal and believable magic to it. The Concept of being born young and growing young seemed genius.

It dealt with a concept I've had in mind for a long time. In that life is an arch when it comes to a physical stand point. When you are an infant, you are dependent, frail, fragile, and can't walk. You grow up to middle age and from then on it's back downhill to the same, or very similar stage when you're old. Now what this 'growing young' concept does it display the similarities of that cycle but propose the idea of an immature old man, and a mature young boy, and how everyone else would deal with this persona. Would it be something too odd to explain to people constantly enough so that this person would be on the move all his life? How would this effect a person's life?

I made the mistake I normally don't do of setting an expectation before I watch the movie. But this movie was a Love story, and not a Life story. Plot 'A' was his love for this woman, and the 'B' Plot was his life. I am not sure if that is necessarily a mistake but 1: I didn't expect David Fincher to turn this concept into a Love plot. And 2: I, personally, believe there was so much more to explore with the idea this movie proposed. This movie had the mistake of trying to do everything, while mainly focusing on the love story, but at the same time not developing Benjamin Button's character. It seemed they were too caught up with his physical defect to actually put some attention to who Benjamin was inside.

Benjamin Button's character is very stale, honestly. He is the same person inside, from the moment he's born to the day he dies, his body growing counter clockwise around his stationary self. That was a bit irritating. It is very apparent that the screenwriter also wrote "Forest Gump" because he shared the 'simple man' qualities, except less interesting, because his body is interesting enough to worry about what he's like.

Lot's of people complain about the Length of the film. I don't mind the length, it's the content. The story was a bit too clunky and faint. It seemed like it wanted to be one thing the first 10 minutes then something else the next 15 minutes then another thing the next 2 minutes... I wasn't sure what to think of it. And, as much as i thought of it the best connection I could think of with Benjamin's life and the backwards clock made by the blind clock maker, is just the concept of destiny, chance, and coincidence that the movie briefly touched upon just before his love of his life was struck by a car. (which i thought was a marvelous scene). But besides that I had no idea how those two stories are linked.

At first, the ending seemed anticlimactic the movie just kind of slowly ended. There was no climax in fact the ending was a montage and then a final shot of the backwards clock starting up again as it's being flooded (I try to ignore that last shot because i can't make any sense of it). At first I didn't like that ending, it really really bothered me. But after giving it some thought I kind of realized, if this movie was a life movie more than a love movie somehow, It made me realize it's not important how you die, it's important what you did in your life. And maybe this movie's finale gave a bad impression, but this movie has content interesting enough to make me like it. And this is why the movie to me was disappointing but not a bad movie.

And this weekend I'm going to give it another go and watch it a second time, now that I know what to expect and engage myself into the story as it is and give it a second try.

p.s. I'm going to be posting all my movie reviews on my Website's News page. I'll update every post I make here if I have a new entry on my site for you to go and see, but beside's that check out my website once a week to find my movie reviews if you think they're at all interesting reads.

p.p.s. five this

peace.

Hello everyone! I have the One Shot Comic Book Collab in my hands, and I have a picture to prove it.

These are the fellow arists who stuck together with me and conquered this beast. Thier art is found within the pages.

in order of pages: ('---' next to name means i have the info)

(cover)- Alex Warble
Julio C. Lopes
---Kevin Barrios (Buzzwerd)
---Jose Ortiz
---Chris Gianelloni
Diana Laino
---Dan Berry
---Nathan Malone
---Oscar Diaz
Luis Castanon
---Hans Van Harken
---Nathanial Milburn
---Michael Swain
Steven Bryant
---Alyssa Zevallos
---Tyler Naugle
Ola Olsen Lysgaard
Jarred Johnson
---Tyler Copes
Richard Sun
Corey Griffin
---Vincent Charrot
Joe Sparrow
---Ansel Matson Lies

Now, I never EVERYONE ON THIS LIST to pm me their mailing information! If you want your own issue, respond to this message accordingly. Please send me your detailed address so that your issue will reach your hands safely. title the PM "*YOUR FULL NAME* One Shot"

I'm happy this is done.

ps. i finished my street fighter collab part. ;3

I was talking to kevin Barrios (Buzzwerd) and asked him about my facial hair and he had this to say in all seriouseness....

Merry Christmas, One and all! (except jews, buddhists, and everyone outside the christian religion)

Hans here and announcing the release of the RWD's christmas 2008 submission. Watch it here!

below is a screen shot of my part.

Well a movie about the 'gay rights' movement. If you don't know the story, here's a plot summary:

"After moving to San Francisco, the middle-aged New Yorker, Harvey Milk, became a Gay Rights activist and city politician. On his third attempt, he was elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in 1977, making him the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the USA. The following year, both he and the city's mayor, George Moscone, were shot to death by former city supervisor, Dan White, who blamed his former colleagues for denying White's attempt to rescind his resignation from the board."

It was a good movie, and not because of the gay parts. lol. I thought it was an interesting story about a brave guy that fought for something he believed him for the sake of liberating 'his people' and many other people. And i don't mean brave as in coming out of the closet. This guy was sent death threats if he gave speeches, but he still got up and did it.

And what perfect timing for the recent Prop 8 surprise. Human rights. That's the subject this movie dwells on and the historical events dwelled upon. But, one thing I cannot come to comprehend is the reactions gays had. And this not only applies to gays, but everyone. This movie is but one example of how extremist, radical, impulsive, blind, thoughtless and cattle-like humans are. On the homophobe and gay side...

Yes, it's ridiculous to say that gays, if allowed to teach in schools, will influence children into becoming gay. Like, very well stated in the movie by Mr. Milk himself, "If that were true there would be lot more nuns right now" (keep in mind this is 1978 when catholic school nuns were more common).

But yes... yes it is indeed ridiculous to demand for 'human' rights by roaming the streets nude or topless, toppling trash cans and so on. Are you kidding me? If you want human rights, act like a human. Also, these gays were trying to show the world that being gay isn't a negative aspect of one's self. You really think walking nude, and wreaking havoc is the way to show that? No.

I shared sympathy for Harvey Milk's character. Because as he said, he wasn't fighting to get a job, he was fighting to get a life. To give all these gays he could a life. And he gave it all his might, and his effort. However, I couldn't have much sympathy for the majority of those gays acting like mad cattle. You might be who you are, but that doesn't mean you get the right of getting away with uncommon decency. Straight men in the celebration of love (Valentine's Day) don't strip naked by the truck loads to show how much they love sex. Essentially what i'm trying to say is how pissed it makes me seeing all these people fighting for something reasonable within these 'revolutions' they always loose touch of their meaning for whatever it might be they're fighting for. And react, instead of reason.

I guess, ever since i got to 'the liberal, individual Bay Area' I've realized many things:

It's not liberal. It's just segregation of millions of little clans (basically). You can be whatever you want (or join whatever clan you want) but as long as you don't step into any other's. So it's an illusion of individuality. It's like... 'groups of individuals'... which is a hilarious contradiction. the liberal aspect is just another illusion, because they aren't cool with people outside their clan, maybe casually cool, but i'm talking friendship. And this brings me to my point. Being so segregated into so many groups just makes a bunch of herds. and these cattle don't think for themselves, but react. The massive bodies... amoebas of people, the masses.

Ladies and gentlemen. There is no middle ground. Humanity is just an endless pendulum going from one extreme to the other... it sickens me.

So if there's anything i can ask... it's to listen, observe, think for yourself... and don't try to change other's opinions. Let them observe you and listen to you and take to consideration what they agree with from your words.

There is no good or bad in this world. No one does things consciously bad, they always see a benefit to one's self, in other words 'good'. The only people who do consciously bad things are psychopaths. The only thing there is in this world is your perspective. and everyone else's is different from one another and even those think they're doing good, too. Sometimes.

There is only one law:

Don't steal.

That applies to stealing a life, stealing someone's happiness, someone's virginity, someone's wife/husband, child, etc. etc. etc. And that can be summarized in one word...

Respect.

Merry Christmas,
-HVH

I doodled on my tankmen.

Visually, It saddens me that the colorful, vivid world of Gotham city was so downgraded in the new Batman movies.

Don't you remember the Gothic/Art Deco skyline crawling up to the sky with flickering lights. The Gargoyles, the alleys, the bridges... A city that really looked like it needed a big hand in Vigilante duties. A bold yet broken world, barely holding itself up from the terrible abnormal criminals that haunt its people. Cast in shadows, rain, snow or fog constantly...

Instead, Gotham city is now Chicago.

All of the visual charms of Gotham City, the character designs, imagination, and creativity of the world of Batman are gone.

Batman had this beautiful mixture of Pulp Fiction (and I don't mean the movie), Art Deco, Gothic Architecture, and old school sci fi.

Batman himself had the Bad ass of a cowboy, the slick and classy of James Bond, the poetic danger of Dracula, and the smarts and clever of the sherlock holmes. All these things, plus a disturbing past and psychology, and internal conflict.

Now, to me, these are incredible ingredients. And for nearly a century they have been slowly shaping to form the wonderful thing that is Batman. Why change it? I understand and admire seeing new things. I admire seeing Christopher Nolan's approach to the world. But there are certain aspects of batman that cannot be changed, for it makes it what it is. People claim that the reason why the new Batman movies are cool are because they are more realistic, and this works because batman doesn't have super powers. This all sounds good on the surface, but to me, there are numerous things in the core of the batman universe that make it fictional enough so that putting it in a real world setting won't work. The new batman movies are proof of that if you look at it deep enough.

I always thought Morgan Freeman's character in the new movies was basically pointless. people thought that it was cool to know where he gets his equipment from, and it is, but not important enough to entitle an entire character, basically an Alfred #2. When you try to explain so many things in a story it becomes sloppy, and it's pointless. What's most important is getting the basics focused. And Batman movies are just about Batman and his Rival, whoever that might be.

But The Dark Knight had too many protagonists, too many antagonists, protagonists turning into antagonists, making a big build up, cutting off their conclusion, switching from one to the other and back and not paying enough time or focus on the main character... so on and so forth. It started off good and just fell apart.

The New Batman lost every charm that batman ever had to me.

also, 'lol' at the pic below.

I am among the few hat hated The Dark Knight and Batman Begins... in fact this whole new take on the franchise. I am a very big Batman fan, though. I just dislike this new approach.

People are going nuts all over the Joker in this new film, that he's this 'great character' and such. Let me just start off by saying that before 'TDK' came out, and all the head-numb cattle were being pulled into the jaws of hype, everyone was stupidly saying "Tim Burton's Batman should have been called 'The Joker' because the movie focused on him way more than Batman" and that "Nolan's movie is not going to do that because he's much better than that". Of course though it did. It did exactly that. But because people seem to be so hungry for 'realism' in movies, like a 57 year old virgin nun is for a thick black cock, that whenever these films are made and marketed well and are based on characters already relatable... what can the audience do but not even watch the movie that is being projected in front of them, but just see it, stare at the pictures and squirm, giggle, laugh and clap when the joker pops up... So now that we're on the Joker, Let me get to the main focus of this News Post. This is me dissecting the Joker:

This shouldn't take too long, he's a very flat character after all...

-No background/Background is a mystery
-No motives behind his evil doings.
-Anarchist... basically anarchists just don't want order, and he has no reason (motives) for doing this. He just wants 'chaos'... that's just stupid.
-Doesn't seem to have any physical weakness. And excessively clever, perhaps to the point where he almost seems super human to a very realistically set movie.

-And he's a 'psycho'

...So Nolan's joker is: a mysterious, motiveless, anarchist, omnipotent, psycho criminal that seems to work under different sets of super natural rules (unrealistic to what this movie boasts to consist of) when concocting his plans against Gotham City.

This doesn't seem like a character, but more of an 'easy-way-out' plot device. Have you noticed that the only significant parts in the dark night were ones with the Joker in them? Because the Joker is not a great character, but more of a plot device... to keep a very boring, realistic, story... interesting.

A great Character has layers and flaws and insecurities etc. The Nolan's Joker has none of these.

This is why the Joker needs to have been made by Batman, this is why the joker had to have his face permanently fully disfigured by Batman. Because Now the Joker has motives, you understand his psychosis, because Batman chooses to wear a mask, but the Joker doesn't have a choice. The joker has a goal. There are basic elements in characters you can't change because it's what makes them who they are, and why they work.

The Joker is a cop-out. There fore, a poor character.

Hello everyone,

Just in case you haven't heard of my comic strip series I've been working on, 'Joy', I just wanted to explain what I have in mind for their future.

The 'One Shot' comic book collaboration has already been sent to the printers (about a week ago) and I'm pumped to start getting more stuff printed. Which is why I brought up 'Joy' so far I have 13 episodes done. And I plan to have 30 for their first issue. However I'm making 15 exclusive to the comic book, leaving 2 more episodes for online exposure. There would be no point in selling an issue if everything in it is online. So I'm basically announcing that there will be a while of me making the pages until you'll get more out of 'Joy'. After episode 15 that is.

For now, check out all the episodes so far here.

-HVH

p.s. The 'One Shot' comic collab is most likely going to be available at the NG store.