Upon further debate, I was told that Chuck Klosterman originally posited such a thought.  And it turns out, the American-flavored pop culture obsession with these supernatural blood-friendly fiends has some major symbolic plasma to it.  Terms like “life-drainer” and “sex-crazed” were thrown out, Edward was defended (not Edward!) and suffice it to say, the vampire thoughts did not end there.

Well to get me thinking, I decided I would list the things that ARE wrong with America and see how our Twilight’s and True Blood’s stack up.  So here goes:

#1 thing wrong with America: Our dependence on non-renewable energy.

America: Um, well.
Vampires: Subsist off of human blood and there are upwards of 6.7 billion humans circa 2008 (a.k.a. True Blood Season 1).  Seems to be pretty darn renewable to me, I mean geez that’s a lot of humans!

#2 thing wrong with America: We’re kinda bullies, sometimes.

America: BP is from England—duh, (P.S. follow @BPGlobalPR for a laugh).  And war(s), what war(s)?  Did you see Kate Hudson’s boob job? Who is she kidding anyway?
Vampires: The Cullens live off of animal blood and Bill is mainstreaming TruBlood-style.  While the majority of the two vampire worlds might be seen as less than peaceful, these two figureheads are held up as proof of politically correct blood-flavored sustenance for all.

#3 thing wrong with America: We still don’t have affordable universal healthcare.

America: We’re working on it man, give us some time, like a handful of years or so.
Vampires: Heal themselves.  Stupid self-healing vampires.

#4 thing wrong with America: We’re a lethargic, politically impotent, narcissistic bunch.

America: Quiet, Glee’s about to start.
Vampires: Way faster/stronger/quicker than humans, politics vary by vampire mainstay, and why yes, vampires are quite narcissistic.  Hey you probably would be too if you possessed eternal youth (@MrsKutcher I’m looking at you).

#5 thing wrong with America: We boast an untenable consumerist lifestyle.

America: Haven’t you heard of the Green Movement?  And what about the new iPhone, makes me want to toss my old one in the toilet just so I can get a new one!
Vampires: Some of us have been around and under the radar since before Jesus.  That has to say something.

#6 thing wrong with America: We idolize Paris Hilton instead of Toni Morrison.

America: Toni who?
Vampires: Have become an object of idolization, distracting our already ADHD-prone population even further (Edward!).  But in their own little vampire-written worlds, vampires are worldly fellows, (mostly because they’ve had centuries to become worldly, but worldly nonetheless).

And so as I near the end of my list of things that are wrong with America (obviously I could go on), I realize that vampires, at best, are a self-consciously constructed foil for ourselves.  American culture is still breaking out of slash feeling guilty for our Puritan roots; vampires are hedonists to a T.  And therefore, perhaps the way in which we portray these demons of the night heavily correlates to the way our own demons would like to act in the night (or day for that matter).  Other times, we hold our vampire figments up to a pedestal longingly gazing at them as they drain/glamour/suck whatever it is we constructed them to drain in the first place.  Sometimes I wonder if the vampires are having identity issues; good vampire one second, bad vampire the next.  Luckily, most of them are pretty good actors.

And so there you have it.  Vampires represent all that is evil about America?  Kind of.  Pop culture oozing all that is socially repressed into your favorite fad-of-the-moment fantasy box set?  On sale now.

"An Epic of epic epicness."

Social networking sites and the media have found synthesis these past few months, as movies and their twitter and Facebook fan pages have been areas where fans can get sneak previews of scenes, exclusive interviews and interact with their favorite actors.

Now, the upcoming motion picture “Scott Pilgrim VS The World” has a cool offer for fans via their Facebook page. Just by “liking” the film and helping it reach 100,000 fans on the site will release the trailer a week early.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World Facebook Page

“An Epic of epic epicness.”

Well, with this type of hype, it better be good.

They are doing their best to drum up action.  Not a bad ploy.  They are currently at 86,331 fans.

Synopsis:

Meet charming and jobless Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera).  A bass guitarist for garage band Sex Bob-omb, the 22-year-old has just met the girl of his dreams…literally.  The only catch to winning Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead)?  Her seven evil exes are coming to kill him.  Genre-smashing filmmaker Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) tells the amazing story of one romantic slacker’s quest to power up with love in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

Scott Pilgrim has never had a problem getting a girlfriend.  It’s getting rid of them that proves difficult.  From the girl who kicked his heart’s ass—and now is back in town—to the teenage distraction he’s trying to shake when Ramona rollerblades into his world, love hasn’t been easy.  He soon discovers, however, his new crush has the most unusual baggage of all: a nefarious league of exes controls her love life and will do whatever it takes to eliminate him as a suitor.

As Scott gets closer to Ramona, he must face an increasingly vicious rogues’ gallery from her past—from infamous skateboarders to vegan rock stars and fearsomely identical twins.  And if he hopes to win his true love, he must vanquish them all before it really is game over. www.scottpilgrimthemovie.com

Genre: Action-Comedy

Cast: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Alison Pill, Brandon Routh, Jason Schwartzman

Directed by: Edgar Wright

Writers: Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright

Based on the Oni Press Comic Book Series by: Bryan Lee O’Malley

Producers: Marc Platt, Eric Gitter, Edgar Wright, Nira Park

Executive Producers: Ronaldo Vasconcellos, J. Miles Dale

Official Website: www.scottpilgrimthemovie.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ScottPilgrim

This is the great trailer for Director Edgar Wright’s (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) new film, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, based on the ultimately ridiculous comic written and drawn by Bryan Lee O’Malley.

Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) has to do battle with the seven ex-boyfriends of Romana Flowers (Mary Winstead) in order to win her heart. Featuring Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, Anna Kendrick, and Jason Schwartzman, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is destined for AWESOME. Seriously, read the comics and you’ll understand.  Watch the video and get excited.

A still from Final Fantasy XIII (yes, this is CGI)

This week, the much awaited Final Fantasy XIII was released.  I naturally picked up a copy.  I fell in love with Final Fantasy with Final Fantasy VII, a love affair that continued with Final Fantasy X.  And, ninety minutes in, Final Fantasy XIII has me blown away.  But FFXIII is not the rare gem of a game that you get once a year.  Not anymore.

Last month saw the release of Uncharted 2, Bioshock 2, and Mass Effect 2 – each one a masterpiece in its own right.  Mass Effect 2 was rightly called “The Avatar Of Video Games” when it came out.  It has a sweeping story (which I have yet to finish), fantastic graphics, and solid acting.  And one month later, FFXIII may be called “The Avatar of Video Games”.  Not to mention the reaction expected for God of War III, coming out next week.

It’s not just the first quarter of 2010 that is seeing these games.  Alan Wake, Dead Rising 2, Dead Space 2, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and LA Noire (among others) are all slated for release by year’s end.  And yet the number of must-see movies worth the $12 ticket price is not as great.

Of last year’s big box-office fare – the sort of movie that you have to see in the theatre – most of the movies rounding out the top 50 were stinkers.  Yes, Avatar had fantastic visual effects; it also had terrible writing.  Following Avatar is Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.  And while Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (3), Up (5), The Hangover (6), Star Trek (7) and The Blind Side (8) are good movies, New Moon (4), Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (9), Sherlock Holmes (10), Monsters Vs. Aliens (11), Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (12), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (13), Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (14), 2012 (15), Fast and Furious (17), GI Joe: Rise of COBRA (18), and Paul Blart: Mall Cop (19) are either forgettable or stinkers.

I’m not saying that there aren’t terrible video games. In fact, when films and video games collide in the form of movie games, the results are almost invariably terrible.  Nor am I saying that movies don’t drive a large part of the economy.  Indeed, Avatar to date has grossed $2.6 billion worldwide.  Side by side, the two industries are extremely competitive.  Figures released today by MPAA showed that domestic ticket sales for 2009 reached $10.6 billion.  At the same time, NPD reports that total game sales for 2009 reached $9.91 billion.

Obviously, there are naysayers who claim that it’s not a fair comparison because a video game costs $60.  But with IMAX, 3D, and Blu-Ray/DVD, the price difference is less.  And indeed, video games lead Hollywood.  I saw Avatar in 3D at the Lincoln Square IMAX here in New York City.  In order to get tickets, I had to purchase them online.  The cost of the ticket with the service fee was $18.  No popcorn.  No soda.  $18 for one movie ticket.  Had I gotten popcorn and a soda, that would raise the ticket price to $25 for three hours of visual entertainment.

By comparison, I paid $65 for Mass Effect 2, once tax is added in.  I’m ten hours in and have a long way to go.  So for three times the cost, I am getting more than three times the entertainment time.  And I get decent writing.

While the $10.6 billion for movies is just domestic box office (not worldwide) and does not account for DVD sales, the $9.91 billion in games sales does not include an additional $7.3 billion in hardware sales or the millions of dollars in smartphone games.

Where movies have seen a slow and steady decline in quality writing, video games are becoming more and more story-driven.  Heavy Rain for the PS3 has been hailed (and derided) as a new category of game – a hybrid between an interactive movie and a video game.

When I look back at the movies I’ve paid to see in the movie theatre and video games that I’ve bought, the number of games that I felt I got my money’s worth outnumbers the movies that were worth the ticket price.  I’ve played games that have had me on the edge of my seat and I’ve played games that have left me with something to think about.  I’ve even played video games that have gotten me a little misty-eyed.

If these last three months are any indication, I’m going to spend much more time with a controller in my hand than parked at the cinema.

Disney IMAX 3D to boot.

Sears and Amazon are currently taking preorders for the Samsung 3-D ready LCD TVs with a starting price of $2600. Not bad but that is before you purchase the glasses at about $50 a pop.

While I very much enjoyed the visual effects of Avatar I still maintain that the masses are not going to sit in their living rooms at home wearing 3-D glasses to watch 3-D TV (a service that isn’t available yet).  Why not develop a screen that attaches to the TV to simulate the glasses, in essence, making the TV wear the “glasses” so that we don’t look like a bunch of 1950’s style morons while we chill at home?

(Editor’s notes)

The more clips I see from this movie, the more interesting it looks.  As seen over at Kotaku.

RedLetterMedia, the source of the epic 70-minute, 7-part, epic review/teardown/film school teachable moment of The Phantom Menace has published a somewhat less epic review of  Avatar.

Caution for harsh language, harsher sarcasm and uber-harsh political incorrectness.

(Editor’s note:  Start Wars Episode One  review is a RedLetterMedia must see)

Rupert Murdouche?

Rupert Murdoch just doesn’t get it. I think that perhaps he thinks that he is one of the only people that put good content out there. In this article on GigaOm, he goes on to state, “Content is not just king, it is the emperor of all things electronic!”. Well, there is some truth to that, but what he doesn’t understand is that in 2010 and beyond… ANYONE can put up content. Not just mega stale old media companies.

In today’s mobile web, you need to be nimble and keep innovation a top priority.  Content is one thing, but it is readily available.  One of the things that this article eloquently states is that old media companies need to start thinking like start-ups and look for innovative ways to utilize mobile touch technologies and new devices such as the iPad.

Being a content bully, isn’t going to be an effective strategy for Murdoch’s company.   Sure, FOX is doing ok this quarter, having a movie like Avatar and its 2 billion in revenue looks nice.  But take that away, and it doesn’t seem so cherry.

Rupert’s scared and he is trying to bully the internet like he bullies others in corporate boardrooms.  And out here in the content jungle, that’s not a wise long-term strategy.

Via GigaOm.

Ralph McQuarrie's Concept Art For Darth Vader And Luke Starkiller

In the Eighties and Nineties, Disney was notorious for its “vault”.  The business strategy behind this was well known.  Release the movies for a limited time every seven or eight years to get people to rush out to buy them.  It was fairly dickish – a crass money-making scheme that from the House of Mouse, the Happiest Place On Earth.  Now, in the era of Blu-Ray, there are two standouts who maintain an iron grip on movies that the viewing public demands.

The chief offender is, of course, George Lucas.  During the DVD days, Lucasfilm, Ltd. released all of the prequels in several editions and then moved onto releasing and re-releasing the Original Trilogy Special Editions.  The worst was when Lucasfilm released the Special Editions in a box set featuring classic poster art from the Original Trilogy without a single mention that it was, in fact, the Special Editions.  For the less hard-core out there, there is SWOTSE (Star Wars Original Trilogy Special Edition) and there is SWOOT (Star Wars Original Original Trilogy).  What is the difference between SWOTSE and SWOOT?  In SWOOT, Han shoots first.

Star Wars has always been a technology driver.  In 1992, Star Wars was released on LaserDisc to rave reviews.  Critics could not believe the detail or the sound quality.  One review raved about being able to hear the creaking of the leather of Darth Vader’s gloves.  That year also saw the release of Blade Runner: The Director’s Cut.  Between these two Laserdiscs, people saw the shift to digital video.  People wanted Dolby Surround Sound and letterboxing and directors’ cuts.

Lucas is also the progenitor of THX (named of course for THX-1138), the gold standard of audio and visual fidelity.  In the Nineties, if you were going to see a movie in the theatre, you’d want to be in the one that was THX-Certified.  To this day, DVDs come with THX optimizers.  Star Wars was the first movie to get the THX treatment.  In 1997, Lucasfilm released Star Wars on VHS and LaserDisc after being cleaned and optimized with THX.  Again, this was a blockbuster seller.  It was also the last time for seven years that Lucas would release SWOOT.

In 2001, when DVD was starting to get some momentum, Lucas released Episode I on DVD.  Again, it sold like hotcakes.  And in each year following, the prequels were released and sold well.  Finally, in 2004, Lucas released SWOTSE three times – first with the Special Edition poster art; then with the classic poster art; and, finally with SWOOT on “Bonus Discs”.  The shame of it was that SWOOT was neither anamorphic (meaning you had to manually adjust your DVD or television settings) nor was it in Dolby 5.1 Surround.  In fact, it was just a dub from the 1997 SWOOT LaserDisc.

2004 was the last release of SWOOT. And of course, 2006 saw the beginning of the Format War between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.  Two years later, the Format War was over and Blu-Ray came out on top.

Now, in 2010, there is no SWOOT on Blu-Ray.  There is no Star Wars on Blu-Ray at all.  And, four years after Blu-Ray really started, it is being threatened by digital download and streaming HD.

I mentioned two holdouts.  The other is The Lord Of The Rings.  When LOTR came out on DVD, Peter Jackson made it clear to fans that there would be two releases: the theatrical versions and the extended versions.  There was hope.  Here was a sci-fi director who was up front about what versions would come out and when they would.  And, in 2006, LOTR was available in HD-DVD.  Which was good even if the format failed.  Now, after four years, the Blu-Ray versions of the theatrical releases will be available.  But what about the Blu-Ray versions of the extended editions?  There is no release information beyond “maybe 2011 or 2012.”  And there is no release information at all about the Blu-Ray versions of the Star Wars saga.

I’m not sure about the prudence of holding out.  Both Star Wars and LOTR drive the technology of movies.  Episode I was the first movie to be screened in digital projection.  If they’re released, they will sell and sell well.  But the window is closing.  With things like FIOS opening up the digital pipeline to homes and sites like Hulu and Netflix streaming media, physical media will start to wane.  I know there’s a difference between the streaming HD version of LOST and the Blu-Ray version of LOST.  But how many people will plonk down money for the physical Blu-Ray copy of Star Wars and LOTR once there is the streaming On-Demand version?

To put this in perspective (and I know that anecdotal evidence is the worst), having watched LOST on streaming HD, I then bought the Blu-Ray versions.  I wanted better visual quality and better skipping forward and backward.  That, however, is because streaming HD is still in its childhood.  When FIOS takes off and bandwidth opens up, this might not be the case.  Within several years’ time, there may be no discernible difference between streaming HD and Blu-Ray.

To Lucas, Jackson, and Lucasfilm, Ltd. and New Line, I say this:

Strike while Blu-Ray still has noticeable advantages over streaming HD.  Release Star Wars and the extended versions of Lord Of The Rings on Blu-Ray.

It may be your only hope.