Aaron Hatch

Aaron Hatch

I'm majoring in Graphic Design at Fitchburg State University. My favorite topics to talk about are movies, animation and comics.

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Latest Articles

Latest Topics

1

Are Having Computer Generated Effects a Bad Thing?

A lot of people talk about how much they dislike CGI in films, and how they want more practical effects. They want more particle sets. They want more make up effects. They want to really feel like the character and setting are real, and not made on a computer. While CGI is over used in films: does that mean that they should not be in films at all. When is it appropriate to CGI, and when is it not? Also take in to mind that making CGI is a lot of work, and takes weeks or months to get right. With that said: is making images for film on a computer screen not considered hard work, or is just fans of practical effects not giving credit, where credit is due?

  • I love the tangible special effects of Stan Winston and Tom Savini, I often find CGI to be insipid in comparison, especially when violence is concerned - you can't beat a bit of corn syrup! I think time has shown that smart, sparing use of CGI ages the most gracefully. Winston's work in Predator and particularly Terminator 2 are examples of this, neither film looks that dated. With so many films like Avatar and Transformers having CGI as their chief selling point, I think it takes narrative and character development to make strong visual effects most memorable. – Hawkensian 10 years ago
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  • Might also be worth talking about CGI replacing people - like how Philip Seymour Hoffman's scenes in Mockingjay were supposed to be finished off with CGI, and that Final Fantasy: Spirits Within film which was fairly ground-breaking. – Hannah Spencer 10 years ago
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When a Movie Studio Dislikes Their Own Movie

When looking for news on the new Fantastic Four movie, I heard that Fox studios has an embargo for critics, meaning a movie critic cannot talk about the movie at all until the film is released. Essentially, this is a sign that Fox is worried about critics disliking the film, therefore causing bad press for Fantastic Four. Why is this? If a film studio does not like one of their own films, why make it in the first place? Why are January and February filled with crappy movies? I feel its more complicated than just simply saying "all films now-a-days sucks." Maybe a movie sounded good on paper, but turned out bad in execution. I just find it strange that movie studios would take a risk financially with releasing bad films they have no faith in.

  • Apparently Fox had the movie made because they had a limited time with the rights to the Fantastic Four franchise. One can discuss the relationship between the subject of a film and the studio and how that can impact the film itself. – missmichelle 9 years ago
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Why the NC-17 Rating Should Not Exist

With and an R rating, a director can get away with practically anything. Intense blood and sexual nudity can be seen in many film that are R rated. So In that case: Why does the NC-17 rating still exist? Some will say it is for movies that go to far with their sex and violence, but that is not really true. The reason the NC-17 raring exists is because basically, the film studio does not want the audience to see the film. This can be seen when films with a gay/lesbian sex scene will get an NC-17, but a movie with a man and women having descriptive sex still only gets an R rating. The film This Movie is Not Yet Rated demonstrates this problem.

  • This is really interesting. One could easily put this in the context of the current media monopoly in which six corporations own 90% of the media output in the US, with similar or worse rates in other nations. The control of what is deemed publicly acceptable and what is consumed is in the hands of a few. – Austin 10 years ago
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  • This topic brings up a very good point on how the NC-17 rating is more frequently used towards homosexual content than heterosexual content (Brokeback Mountain being one example). An potential article here could reflect upon the conservatism of the ratings board against certain people and beliefs, not necessarily whether a film has an age-appropriate rating. – dsoumilas 9 years ago
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3

Could Black Widow Have Her Own Movie

Everyone loves Black Widow in the cinematic universe, not just because she is sexy and bad ass, but also because her character in more normal when compared to the other members to the Avengers. So could she handle a whole movie, sourly dedicated to her. On one hand, It would be interesting to see where the Marvel Cinematic Universe would take a spy/superhero film. On the other hand, it is not interlay necessary considering we already know so much about her already.

  • I think it might be a stretch for her to have her own movie, but I could see her playing an integral role in say a Hulk film. This would kind of make sense seeing as a romance was "teased" in Age of Ultron between Widow and Banner. Widow would definitely not be the conventional love interest and to an extent she could even be the main character of the film. The film could even continue with Disney/fairy tale links and use themes from Beauty and the Beast. – Jamie 10 years ago
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  • Another topic to explore for a movie featuring Black Widow would be financial support for a female lead in a superhero film. Who would produce and back this project? This article could look at females who are in the minority when it comes to lead roles, directors and writers in mainstream media; especially in action hero themes. I though would support Black Widow in her own movie as a fan. – Venus Echos 10 years ago
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  • In the MCU, we actually know very little about Natasha, except what she tells us in movies where she is undercover or otherwise covering for herself (the exception is the fragmented scenes we see in Age of Ultron, and the events Loki mentions in the first Avengers film). By the end of Captain America 2, however, Natasha willfully disseminates every part of her history she's ever had to keep secret in order to save the world. For a character whose trade is secrets, that is a huge emotional development, and ripe for a continuation in her own movie. In any case, it seems nonsensical to me that she would be denied a film on account of familiarity, when Spider-Man will have no less than three separate origin movies by the end of the decade. Black Widow has had solo runs of comics for decades now, including the excellent spy thriller Name of the Rose by Marjorie Liu, and can surely take on a movie of her own. – bouzingo 10 years ago
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  • Natasha's rogues gallery is a touch on the light side. That's not to say she couldn't borrow them from somebody else obviously, just that it probably doesn't help her odds of getting a film. – Winter 9 years ago
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  • "Everyone loves Black Widow... because her character [is] more normal when compared to the other members of the Avengers." I think that's part of the reason she's only in movies like the Avengers and Captain America: the Winter Soldier. We love her because we love saying she's more badass than the other heroes. We love her because of her interactions with the other members and how she's a good friend to Cap and her awesome friendship with Hawkeye. We love her because she helps others. If Marvel were to create a movie focusing solely on Black Widow, let's say after the events of Winter Soldier when she has to create all new covers, it would be about Natasha picking herself back up after the emotional turmoil of revealing herself to the world. Yes, it would be interesting, but it couldn't lead a whole movie. If Marvel were to do a prequel or "What Happened in Budapest" deal, then we could see Natasha and Clint in a spy thriller that would be epic and awesome, but it would be before they are the way they are and the characters would be different. I don't think Marvel wants to risk it because fans love Natasha the way she is. Part of what makes her so interesting is also her mystery. We don't actually know that much about her past and that's fine with me. It resonates with the fact that she's a spy and such a cool character. I would definitely watch a Black Widow movie, but not all fans would. Kevin Feige himself stated that he thought Widow was better suited to helping the Avengers than going solo. It's not that the character couldn't carry her own film, it's more that the reasons many fans love her wouldn't be in those films. – VelvetRose 9 years ago
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7

The Woman in Refrigerators Theory: Killing Females in Comics

The term "Woman in Refrigerators" was coined by comic book author, Gail Simone. It is a trope in comics that a female character is killed or brutally injured by a villain, giving a reason for the hero to hate the villain even more. The trope can be insulting to women because of how it uses female violence as a cheep way to get emotion from a reader. What should writers do to avoid this trope? Can this be hard for writers to want to tell a compelling story, without having to kill a female characters? Does this mean you can't kill any female characters, even though male and female deaths happen all the time in comics? Is there a difference between killing a female character for story reasons, and killing a female character for a cheap gut punch.

  • This is an interesting observation. I agree that the trope is demeaning to women and I believe that an added reason for its popular use is simply that almost all superheroes are male. The death of a loved one provides for a dramatic and compelling plot twist, however, in these stories, the victim is bound to always be female unless the superhero is depicted as homosexual, which, is not common. As for your last question, there is definitely a difference and I believe it depends on the story and how it is written. A perceptive reader will be intelligent enough to distinguish between if the death is integral to the story or if it is meant simply as a cheap thrill. – ArynSkyn 9 years ago
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  • One question that I think should always be asked after the death of a character, be it female or otherwise, is did they die for reasons related to their own story or somebody elses? In short, was their death a fitting conclusion to their story arc, or a speed bump in one belonging to a different character. If the former, all well and good. If the latter, the question that then needs to be asked is, was this an organic part of that character's story which, looking back, we can see it building up to, or was it pulled out of thin air for no other reason than cheap emotion. If the first one, okay so long as you don't do it too often. If the latter, definite fridge stuffing. – Winter 9 years ago
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  • I think there needs to be a fair balance. Simone came up with the list because it was happening entirely too much. A majority of female characters were being brutalized, raped, or killed for the advancement of other character's plots - not their own. While the trope can be used and sometimes might be necessary, it should not be any means be the norm. Writers should push themselves to find more creative ways to help their characters advance, and pay attention to the fans pf these female characters. – SomeOtherAmazon 9 years ago
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3

The Representation of the LBGTQ Community in Children's Animation

In inspiration from gay marriage being legalized in the United States, it would interesting to examine how animation entertainment treats the LBGTQ community, in more recent years? In particular, how has the LBGTQ community been represented in children's animation? After all, The children are our future, and we should be sending a positive message of how to treat everyone like you want to be treated. What do we have do to have more gay or transgender characters in our children's shows and films, and how do we go about it?

  • I think that this would be a very interesting topic to tackle. From what I can tell, there is very little - if any - representation of the LBGTQ community in children's animation. In other words, there is little or no early exposure to the LBGTQ community for children. I would argue that instead of needing to represent that community to teach children to "treat others how they want to be treated", the kids just need exposure to the existence of the community; I, for one, don't think I even really knew what "gay" meant until I was ten or eleven, and I hadn't even heard of any other forms of sexuality. If anything, I'd think that, with the legalization of gay marriage in more and more countries, children need to see enough of the LBGTQ community in media to make it normal. If it's treated as an everyday occurrence (which it really is), I'd think that would promote kindness and acceptance even more than blatantly promoting it. I like how narrow this topic is. You could really have taken this in so many directions; there are so few books and movies in general that seem to represent the LBGTQ community. If you were to write about this topic, I think the major issue would not be the analysis of LBGTQ characters in children's animation (since so few seem to exist), but rather how to get around the public resistance. In that sense, this could be a very difficult topic to cover, because it's more than just an issue of children's animation; it's an entire societal issue. Could you look at a few specific tactics that could help overcome this issue? I'd be interested to see if there was a way that you could approach this topic in spite of the challenges; it's a very important one. – laurakej 9 years ago
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Published

Do We Need the Authors Approval in a Film Adaption

When an author hates the film adaptation of their book, it is mostly because the film missed what made the book so special. While it only makes sense for an author to want to defend his/her own book, does that make the film adaptation automatically bad? While Stephen King may be open on how he disliked The Shining, a lot of film fans would say that the movie is a masterpiece, regardless of King's disapproval. Should hate a film based on what the author says, or should just judge the film on our own?

  • This is a very good question. Whoever takes this up, I would suggest writing about the controversy between not only Stephen King but Percy Jackson, whose author reportedly does not like the movies (need a source, however can't verify this.) The author, E.B. White did not like the animated musical version of the film Charlotte's Web simply because of the songs (my source is Wikipedia though so you might want Wikipedia's source). There are plenty of times where the film is good on its own and plenty where the author goes against it and splits the fan down the middle. And in the case of Harry Potter, the author supports the films and the fans are still split down the middle. – SpectreWriter 9 years ago
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  • I think this topic could be elaborated on throughout numerous decades and different genres all the way back to the film adaptions of both Mary Poppins and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. While the modern film Saving Mr. Banks will tell you Travers eventually came to like the films made by Disney, in reality she detested what they had done to her characters. – cdenomme96 9 years ago
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  • I think a major distinction to be made is those films which have the authors on as creative directors or, they themselves wrote or co-wrote the script, i.e. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Gone Girl. I think this is a very interesting topic which goes into areas of who owns a story, should a story only be told once and left alone for the rest of time and so on. – Matthew Sims 9 years ago
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  • Alan Moore notoriously hates all the adaptations of his comics that have been made into movies, but he hates most of the creative people he's worked with, too. And maybe movies in general, hard to say. But certainly the factors include how difficult some authors are to work with. – Monique 9 years ago
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  • A film adaptation is really nothing more than a reinterpretation of the original text. Take Inherent Vice for instance, based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon (2009) and later adapted by Paul Thomas Anderson (2014). Never having read any of Pynchon's novels, but having seen all of PTA's films, what from I can gather is that Pynchon loves life like Value loves the Spy. "He is a puzzle, wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in riddles, lovingly sprinkled with intrigue, express mailed to Mystery, Alaska, and LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU! but it is too late. You're dead. For he is the Spy - globetrotting rogue, lady killer (metaphorically) and mankiller (for real)." I say 'gather' rather than 'get' because it's my least favorite (by default since I still love it) of Anderson's films because it has the biggest disregard for its audience. As an adaptation, it works, or at least that's what the critics and book-readers tell me; but as a film... not so much. The camera work and the editing tend to service Anderson and Pynchon more than they do me, which is bad since I haven't read a single word of the original text. This means that despite how great the film is, and it really is a damn-fine film if I do say so myself, it can't stand on it's own two feet. If you have to have someone say, "You should read the book to understand the movie"... you failed as a movie. At the end of the day, if I had to choose between Inherent Vice and The Big Lebowski to watch with my friends... "The dude abides." – Reggie "Rusty" Farrakhan 9 years ago
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Is It Right to be Nostalgia Blind?

Whenever a remake, adaptation, or a sequel comes out, fans can't help but compare it to the original because of how good the original was. On one hand, any film should always be judged in its own way, even if it is based on another property. On the other hand, does the film itself just beg to be companied to the original, simply because it was based on other property. Does comparing it to the original help us understand the flaw of the remake/adaptation/prequel, or does it blind as a viewer to enjoy anything new in a franchise.

  • It would help to broaden this a bit so we don't just talk about reboots but adaptations as well. The HP movies for example beg to be compared to the books, the Spider man reboots begs to be compared to the original trilogy which in turn begs to be compared to the comics. The good question is whether comparison is right. If anybody takes this up, I'd gladly read it. – SpectreWriter 9 years ago
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Latest Comments

Aaron Hatch

I would safely say that The End of Evangelion is probably the darkest anime I’ve watched. It invokes a surreal and depressing feeling I have not felt with any other anime. I’ve always described it as if David Lynch directed and anime. As for Shinji himself, I probably would be in the camp that doesn’t like him, but I wouldn’t go far enough to say I hate him. I appreciate the series trying to explore depression and how that would effect a typical anime lead character. Thanks for the fantastic article

The Endings of Evangelion: Exploring Shinji Ikari
Aaron Hatch

Yeah, That is true. In Loki’s case, He’s too good as a villain, so much so that he is more fun than Thor

The Marvel Cinematic Villains: What Makes a Memorable Antagonist?
Aaron Hatch

Red Skull not actually being dead is definitely possible. However, the reason I don’t think he will return is that Captain America: Civil War will most likely be the last Captain America movie, meaning the chances for Red Skull returning is very minimum. Who knows, we’ll just have to wait and see.

The Marvel Cinematic Villains: What Makes a Memorable Antagonist?
Aaron Hatch

Well said my friend. Thanks for Reading

The Marvel Cinematic Villains: What Makes a Memorable Antagonist?
Aaron Hatch

Thank you very much Jaye. Your kind words really mean a lot to me 🙂

Women in Refrigerators: Killing Females in Comics
Aaron Hatch

Yeah, like I said in the article, I start to wonder if Marvel Studios are just setting themselves up for disappoint when it comes to Thanos. He definitely need to have a bigger role in future films.

The Marvel Cinematic Villains: What Makes a Memorable Antagonist?
Aaron Hatch

I actually loved Kilgrave, and I thought he was one of the best villains that came from Marvel Studios, but that’s just me. Thanks for reading.

The Marvel Cinematic Villains: What Makes a Memorable Antagonist?
Aaron Hatch

I would love to see more female Marvel villains like Enchantress

The Marvel Cinematic Villains: What Makes a Memorable Antagonist?