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WonderCon

On Saturday, James and I went to WonderCon in San Francisco. It was sort of a last-minute decision I made because I wanted to check out the Star Trek movie panel that day. The WonderCon website‘s description for panel didn’t name anyone, simply saying there was a “special guest”. I thought to myself, it’s probably just one of JJ Abrams’ people… or maybe even JJ Abrams himself, if I’m lucky!

James and I got there, and we were sitting in the audience, wondering who was going to show up and what was going to happen. It WAS JJ Abrams!! He came out, excited about the movie, and showed us the new trailer which will be showing with The Watchmen this Friday. It was pretty cool that we were the first people to see it.

He then brought out his other writer/producers, Robert Orci and Bryan Burk. AND… Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Zachary Quinto (Spock), and Chris Pine (Kirk). Wow! I was in the same, albeit huge, room as Zachary Quinto. They talked about the movie and answered some questions. Zachary Quinto mentioned how he’d seen the movie for the first time the night before, and he was speechless for about 20 minutes after because it was so good. I loved hearing Quinto talk about the movie and his experience working with Leonard Nimoy (or maybe I just love hearing Quinto talk?).

It was interesting how JJ Abrams described his formula for creating a story: take some normal, relatable people and put them in a crazy scenario. He also said something I found funny: his fans won’t complain about any of the crazy sci-fi stuff that happens on his shows. For example, in the Fringe pilot, there was a guy dying and turning invisible, and his girlfriend enters his mind, and no one complained about that stuff. However, they said, “Hey, they get a FREE lab at Harvard? How does THAT happen?”

We attended part of the Disney/Pixar UP panel, in which they showed us so many clips from the movie that I may as well have already seen it. Seriously, I know what the movie’s about now.

We also went to the Terminator: Salvation panel (no, Christian Bale was not there). I’ve never seen director McG before, and I don’t know if it was an act, but with all his swearing and talking about whether to display actress Moon Bloodgood’s boobs in the movie, he came off as rather a-hole-ish. Anton Yelchin, who plays Kyle Reese, was part of the panel. Why wasn’t he at the Star Trek panel as well (since he also plays Chekov in the new movie)?

Unfortunately, I don’t have any cool me-with-a-celebrity pictures like I usually do after going to conventions, but it was really awesome to see JJ Abrams and his crew (get it? crew? lol).

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Hollywood racism, cont’d

In an interesting turn of events, Jesse McCartney is no longer going to portray Prince Zuko in the Avatar movie. Zuko will now be played by Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire).

While this is better casting, including a non-white person in the previously all-white main cast, it also brings up another issue for me. The cast is now like this: the good guys are all white, and the bad guy is brown. *hand smacks forehead*

Why does it have to be such an uphill battle to cast non-white people in this movie? I have to say I’m rather disappointed in the Avatar creators, Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, for letting this happen. M. Night Shyamalan, who is directing the live-action movies, you should know better than this.

What does this say to non-white kids out there, looking to the Avatar show as example of diversity? Your cartoon has Asian characters, but sorry, in reality, heroes must be white?

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Hollywood racism

It bothers me how whitewashed Hollywood can be. Some roles are meant to be of a certain race, and somehow Hollywood casts Caucasians in these movies.

For the record, I have nothing against white people. In fact, I’ve been meaning to write a post about how I have a soft spot for guys who are white and nerdy — I did marry one, after all!

Dragonball Evolution (trailer)
I’ve never been a fan of Dragonball, but I know enough about it to realize they’ve butchered the story in this live action movie. The cast has some Asians (thank goodness), though Goku played by a white guy is seriously weird.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li (trailer)
Again, not a huge Street Fighter fan, but I know a bit about it. Chun Li in the game is about as Chinese as you can get. Kristin Kreuk is half-Chinese, but I really don’t think she conveys enough Asian-ness. I haven’t heard Kreuk speak in the movie trailer, so I don’t know how she sounds, but it just won’t seem right without that high-pitched Chinese accent that Chun Li has in the games. (“Spinning-a-bird-a-kick!”)

The Last Airbender
I’m a HUGE fan of the Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon. The show ended last year, and they’re now working on live action movies based on the show. Anyone who’s seen the show would realize that it’s set in a very Asian world. The people, culture, clothes, and general style of everything is Asian. So why is the entire main cast of the movie going to be WHITE? This movie could have had so much potential with a multi-cultural cast. I’m very disappointed, but of course, I’ll still see the movie and probably enjoy it.

Not a racist example: Cowboy Bebop
I love this anime show. Spike Spiegel is just about the coolest character ever. Apparently, Keanu Reeves will be portraying Spike in the live action Cowboy Bebop movie. I’m actually ok with this casting (well, the choice of Reeves himself is a different story), since the characters in this show are not necessarily of any specific race. So, really no racism this time; I just wanted to express my excitement that this movie is being made. :)

EDIT [2009.02.20]: Avatar now has 1 non-white cast member. See next post.

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YouTube Live

On Saturday, I went to YouTube Live in San Francisco. It was really fun, since I got tickets for free and saw all kinds of stars.

My favourite part of the event was the pre-show, an outdoor festival where people were just walking around, checking out the random little shows. I managed to meet all of my favourite YouTubers during the pre-show: Obama Girl, Michael Buckley (What The Buck), HappySlip, and KevJumba.

Me, KevJumba, and HappySlip!!
Me, KevJumba, and HappySlip!!

We tried to line up early for the main show, but the line was already long when we got there. Inside, the area was set up such that there were some seats at the front (for those with special tickets), while the rest of us were standing at the back. This kinda sucked since the entire sitting/standing area was flat, so I couldn’t see the stage while I was standing behind tall people (or average height people… I’m short). Right before the show started, security let some people in to fill up the remaining seats, and James and I got into the second-last row of seats! I was so glad to finally get a chance to sit down.

Tay Zonday (the “Chocolate Rain” guy) emceed, and Michael Buckley and LisaNova did random stuff backstage. There were also performances by Katy Perry, Will.I.Am, Soulja Boy, and Akon. It was really awesome to see all these stars together in one place.

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The new Star Trek trailer

The new Star Trek trailer started showing last week in theatres showing Quantum of Solace. I skipped out on seeing Quantum of Solace during opening weekend, so I didn’t see it until last night. As my luck would have it, they didn’t show the Star Trek trailer. I even got to the theatre early and everything.

I finally watched the trailer online last night. My reaction was… well, it was ok. Obviously, it will be hard to satisfy some hardcore fans like myself. If I wasn’t the huge Trekkie that I am, I would’ve just dismissed the trailer as “another action flick”. And that’s the thing about Star Trek, it’s NOT just an action series. It’s so much more. Of course, lots of Trekkies out there enjoy the action and special effects, so they might have really liked this trailer. I, on the other hand, appreciate the stories and the moral philosophy behind Star Trek.

Moral philosophy is what makes Star Trek so special to me. I wonder if this movie has any of that. Granted, the trailer didn’t show much, so the story is likely a lot deeper than the action-packed trailer. Either way, I’m keeping an open mind for this movie. It’s a much-needed revitalization of the Star Trek franchise. I was somewhat dismayed when I heard that JJ Abrams wasn’t a “huge fan” of Star Trek before making this movie, but his work on Lost and Fringe is commendable, so it’ll be interesting to see what he does with Star Trek.

Plus, Zachary Quinto (Sylar) as Spock is enough to make me drool. ;)