Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Links du Jour: Infinite Shrek, Spider-Man 3, and Lushbians

Gambit and Rogue by Clio ChiangSwashbuckling
  • A commenter was nice enough to give me some more info on the Captain Alatriste movie: "Alatriste is done and released, at least in Spain, South America, Mexico and several other places. You can get the DVD (region 2) at DVDgo.com. It has shown at a few festivals in the U.S., but there is no scheduled release date here." Thanks! I'll be keeping my eyes open for US release dates, and Amazon's going to send me an alert when it's available on Region 1 DVD.
  • Last week I mentioned that Antonio Banderas as Puss 'n Boots was the main reason I'm going to give Shrek 3 a look. It looks like I may soon be able to enjoy him without having to also endure the annoying ogre. Not that Dreamworks won't ask me to do that some more too.

Spies

  • Mike Myers is planning another Austin Powers movie. God help us. My five year old son is learning that -- no matter how funny it was the first time -- you can't just tell the same joke over and over again and have it stay funny. Maybe he and Mike Myers should have a conversation.

Mystery

  • ABC and the Lost producers have a schedule now for doling out the remaining episodes of the series. Basically, they'll be doing three more, shortened seasons of 16 episodes each. That sets the series to end in 2010. Earlier this year, Damon Lindelof was saying that they wanted to quit at four-and-a-half seasons. This new plan pads that out to about five full-length seasons (the equivalent of three full-length and three shortened ones). That means we'll get some filler, but I'm okay with that.

Fantasy

  • I like talking animals. I'm not what you'd call a fan of the genre -- hell, I didn't even know it was a genre -- but I grew up watching Bugs Bunny and Disney cartoons, so of course I like talking animals. Didn't know there was a whole award program specifically for them though.

Superheroes

  • Clio Chiang is one of my favorite artists and now she's got some superhero sketches up on her blog. That's her version of Gambit and Rogue illustrating this post. And that's exactly how I like to see Gambit and Rogue. Him: all flirty cockiness. Her: having none of it. Worst thing that ever happened to that couple was their going past flirtation into an actual relationship. Sam and Diane, man. Sam and Diane.
  • They finally went and made it official. It's been true for years, but now it's right there in the title: Wolverine and the X-Men. Coming soon to a Saturday morning near you.

Writing is Hard

  • I saw Spider-Man 3 over the weekend. I don't know if I want to write a full review of it, but the short version is that I was pretty disappointed. One of the reasons is that Venom just felt kind of forced into the whole thing. There was a great story in the film, but it got crowded out by the Venom parts. And here to explain why is Sam Raimi: "I had worked on the story with my brother Ivan. Primarily, it was a story that featured the Sandman. It was really about Peter, Mary Jane, Harry and that new character. When we were done, Avi Arad, my partner and president of Marvel at the time, came to me and said, 'Sam, you're not paying attention to the fans enough. You need to think about them. You've made two movies now with your favorite villains and now you're about to make another one with your favorite villains. The fans love Venom. He is the fan-favorite. All Spider-Man readers love Venom. Even though you came from '70s Spider-Man, this is what the kids are thinking about. Please incorporate Venom. Listen to the fans now.'" Worst advice ever.

Stuff Nobody Cares About but Me

  • Lady, That's My Skull has coined an ingenious new word: "Lushbian, n., a woman who usually acts heterosexual but becomes all kissy-face with other women when they are all really drunk." You know you know one.
  • This is why I don't get into anime. The Sci Fi Channel is starting a new feature called Ani-Monday. Great, says I. It'll be a chance for me to try out some anime from the ground floor instead of trying to jump into the middle of some ongoing series. But just look at some of the titles they're opening with. Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society is a perfect example of how inaccessible these things are for new people. It's obviously a continuation of the Ghost in the Shell series, but which part is it? None of them are numbered so that you know what to go back and watch. They never are. Or if they are, it's like another Ani-Monday offering: Street Fighter II V. Are you freaking kidding me? And people say that comics are hard to jump into.
  • Why, oh, why didn't I know there was a 2007 Keira Knightley calendar when it could've done me some good?

3 comments:

West said...

Lushbian: LOL

Wolverine: While the idea makes my nerdy parts chafe a bit, I guess it makes sense, marketing-wise, since they're making a Wolver-movie.

Spidey 3: I'm not sure how much story there was to tell with Venom, as he's not the complex character most movie-Spidey villains are.

I think the multi-tiered approach they took was the best way to go, but then, I loved the flick.

I'm kinda sad so many of my geek brethren felt differently.

Michael May said...

I'll post a little more about Spidey 3. I didn't hate the movie or anything, I just had high expectations based on my feelings for the first two.

Lisa said...

About Spidey 3 and Venom. I'm not an avid comic reader, so if I knew who Venom was then I'm not surprised the comic fans were ga-ga over him.

Even if he isn't quite the flushed out villain that others are in the Spidey world, I think he deserved his own movie -- if only b/c it played off the "dark side" appeal for someone like Peter Parker. The movie's momentum and pacing suffered due to too many villains.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails