Remember the one where Superman and Robin were on a break?
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
The Awesome List: Wonder Woman stuff, Mary Marvel vs. Supergirl, and Black Canary Barbie
Experience the Wonder
Experience the Wonder, a new website dedicated to displaying Wonder Woman merchandise, went live yesterday. It's a lot of fun to browse, because they've got everything from key chains to candy canes.
Seriously. Wonder Woman candy canes. And there's more stuff coming.
Mary Marvel vs. Supergirl!
Grant Morrison talks about the upcoming Final Crisis mini-series here. I wasn't sure I was interested in reading it until I got to this part:
Q: Who are some of the other major players, beyond the New Gods and some of the other characters you’ve mentioned?
A: Superman and Batman, obviously, are going to be a big deal. Wonder Woman is a big deal. The Question. Frankenstein. Mary Marvel… we’re going to take what’s been happening to Mary Marvel beyond all acceptable limits. I think fanboys should enjoy that one. There’s going to be a big definitive battle between Supergirl and Mary Marvel. Some seriously badass super-animals…
Wonder Woman's costume isn't as iconic as you might think.
I mean, when people think that this person is dressed as Wonder Woman, they obviously haven't seen so much as an episode of the TV show, much less eaten a Wonder Woman candy cane.
Because I wasn't enough of a girl already.
Now I have to buy a Barbie doll. The one on the left, naturally.
Experience the Wonder, a new website dedicated to displaying Wonder Woman merchandise, went live yesterday. It's a lot of fun to browse, because they've got everything from key chains to candy canes.
Seriously. Wonder Woman candy canes. And there's more stuff coming.
Mary Marvel vs. Supergirl!
Grant Morrison talks about the upcoming Final Crisis mini-series here. I wasn't sure I was interested in reading it until I got to this part:
Q: Who are some of the other major players, beyond the New Gods and some of the other characters you’ve mentioned?
A: Superman and Batman, obviously, are going to be a big deal. Wonder Woman is a big deal. The Question. Frankenstein. Mary Marvel… we’re going to take what’s been happening to Mary Marvel beyond all acceptable limits. I think fanboys should enjoy that one. There’s going to be a big definitive battle between Supergirl and Mary Marvel. Some seriously badass super-animals…
Wonder Woman's costume isn't as iconic as you might think.
I mean, when people think that this person is dressed as Wonder Woman, they obviously haven't seen so much as an episode of the TV show, much less eaten a Wonder Woman candy cane.
Because I wasn't enough of a girl already.
Now I have to buy a Barbie doll. The one on the left, naturally.
Concerning spoilers
In the comments on this post, a reader and I got to talking about spoilers and I realized I had more to say about the topic than I could do justice in a comment.The reader (I wish I could put at least a name to him/her, but I respect Internet anonymity as long as it's as polite and insightful as this person is) expressed her/his desire to go into Indy and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as cold and spoiler-free as possible. I know the feeling.
When The Empire Strikes Back came out in 1980 I was so excited to see the next Star Wars movie that I wanted to know everything about it as quickly as I possibly could. I read at least the comics adaptation and possibly the novelization before I ever saw the movie, so I knew the entire story before I ever set foot in the theater. I knew that the little, green pest in the swamp was the great Jedi Master Yoda, and I knew that Vader at least claimed to be Luke's dad (though I didn't completely believe him until Yoda confirmed it in Return of the Jedi).
I also knew that the movie ended on a cliffhanger, but that didn't make the end of Empire any easier for me to take. It was a long three years until Jedi came out and I could find out what happened to Han.
Empire is my favorite Star Wars movie now, but at the time I hated it. Not "hated" the way a lot of fans hate the prequels, but hated it as in I didn't like it nearly as much as I had liked Star Wars, which I had gone into completely cold (and which didn't leave me hanging the way Empire did). I decided that when Jedi came out, I was going to know a lot less about it than I had Empire.
That was a lot easier in the mid-'80s than it is today what with the Internet and all. Heck, even by the early '90s it was getting difficult. I'm watching T2 again right now and remembering all the interviews Schwarzenegger gave before that movie in which he revealed that he was playing the good guy this time around. That absolutely spoils the first 30 minutes of the movie where Cameron (albeit half-heartedly) tries to keep the identity of the good guy a secret.
Then there are trailers like the ones for Double Jeopardy and The Italian Job where they just tell you the entire movie -- including the end -- in three minutes. I just re-watched the Italian Job trailer and it still pisses me off.
How much info to seek out before I see a movie or read a comic is a hard call to make and I don't always know where to draw the line. I'd always love most to go into a story completely cold, but there are some spoilers that make me more excited to see a movie, not less.
I got some complaints when I posted links and an image for possible designs of the Cloverfield monster before the movie came out. At least two of the links were obviously bogus and the other two, as far as I was concerned, were just rumors, but some folks didn't want to know even about the rumors and I respect that. The image I posted turned out to be as false as I'd suspected it to be, but I distressed some readers because they thought I'd ruined a big part of the movie for them and I apologize for that.
I thought maybe I'd done it again by posting that Indiana Jones still with Marion Ravenwood in it. Even though it was fairly widely publicized when Karen Allen was cast, there are folks who didn't know that Marion was back for this movie and I may have spoiled something by sharing that image, even though it's an image that the studio wanted released to promote the movie.
And now that I'm talking about it, I've done it again for people who missed those previous posts.
Here's where I try to draw the line on this blog. Although I don't want to push away any readers, ultimately I've got to write about stuff that interests me or I'll be second guessing myself all day long. (More about that philosophy and how it pertains to fiction-writing later.) So when it comes to spoilers, I'll never knowingly give away a major plot point or surprise on this blog. I will however share things that get me more excited to see or read something, even if that means I'm no longer going into it cold.
Knowing that not everyone feels that way though, I'll also try to do a better job about putting potentially spoilery images behind cuts. In my excitement to share something cool, I might forget that occasionally, but I'll try. Hopefully that'll work for everybody.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
The Awesome List: Indy trailer, trying to be Wonder Woman, Justice Heroes League, and free Atomic Robo
And here it is.
Watch it here.
Trying to be Wonder Woman
Whenever I'm looking around for Wonder Woman stuff on the Internet, about two thirds of it is actually about the comic book character. The other third is women who use Wonder Woman as a term for women who "have it all" and "make it work." They're trying to balance the career, the kids; all that jazz.
I might get myself into trouble here and I certainly welcome feedback on what I'm about to say, but I think it's sad for a couple of different reasons that Wonder Woman is used that way. First, I think it's sad that career women with families (there's probably a better term, but hopefully you know what I mean) feel like they're the ones who have to make it work. Isn't it horribly outdated to think that only the wife has to balance her career goals with children? Where are the husbands while their wives are comparing themselves to a superheroic ideal?
Secondly, it's sad because Wonder Woman isn't a career woman with a family. She not only doesn't have kids; she's not even in a serious relationship where she has to balance someone else's needs with her own. She's a beautiful role model for women who need to have more confidence in themselves, but she's got it frickin' easy when it comes to "having it all."
Having said all that, Susanne Middelberg has a great photography gallery that includes photos of models dressed as Wonder Woman and the Flash trying to live everyday lives. I like it because it includes Dads, who ought to be just as harried and frantic as their wives.
It's all very tasteful and artistic, but I still feel like I should mention that there are naked people in the link.
Coolest superhero toys ever?
The Justice Heroes League! When do we get the comic series?
Free Atomic Robo
If I've done my job at all, I've got a couple of you curious about reading Red 5's Atomic Robo. And if your local comics shoppe is any good, you'll be able to get a free copy on May 3rd.
Watch it here.
Trying to be Wonder Woman
Whenever I'm looking around for Wonder Woman stuff on the Internet, about two thirds of it is actually about the comic book character. The other third is women who use Wonder Woman as a term for women who "have it all" and "make it work." They're trying to balance the career, the kids; all that jazz.
I might get myself into trouble here and I certainly welcome feedback on what I'm about to say, but I think it's sad for a couple of different reasons that Wonder Woman is used that way. First, I think it's sad that career women with families (there's probably a better term, but hopefully you know what I mean) feel like they're the ones who have to make it work. Isn't it horribly outdated to think that only the wife has to balance her career goals with children? Where are the husbands while their wives are comparing themselves to a superheroic ideal?
Secondly, it's sad because Wonder Woman isn't a career woman with a family. She not only doesn't have kids; she's not even in a serious relationship where she has to balance someone else's needs with her own. She's a beautiful role model for women who need to have more confidence in themselves, but she's got it frickin' easy when it comes to "having it all."
Having said all that, Susanne Middelberg has a great photography gallery that includes photos of models dressed as Wonder Woman and the Flash trying to live everyday lives. I like it because it includes Dads, who ought to be just as harried and frantic as their wives.
It's all very tasteful and artistic, but I still feel like I should mention that there are naked people in the link.
Coolest superhero toys ever?
The Justice Heroes League! When do we get the comic series?
Free Atomic Robo
If I've done my job at all, I've got a couple of you curious about reading Red 5's Atomic Robo. And if your local comics shoppe is any good, you'll be able to get a free copy on May 3rd.
Do you have time for a cute kid story?
What if it's dinosaur-related?
My son's Kindergarten teacher has obviously been teaching the class about Martin Luther King, Jr. He came home yesterday with a poster he'd made with a silhouette of himself and his own "I Have a Dream" statement printed at the bottom. My first thought was that it was pretty bold of the teacher to compare Kindergarten kids to MLK. But my second -- and lasting -- thought is that it's very cool that she's not only exposing them to King's dream, but also encourging them to form and communicate dreams of their own.
David may have gotten the point better than the kid who said, "I have a dream of a new video game," but not as well as his immigrant classmate who dreams of a world without hunger.
David's response is completely David though: "I have a dream that birds and lizards stay dinosaurs forever and carnivores didn't eat herbivores."
Preach it, Son.
My son's Kindergarten teacher has obviously been teaching the class about Martin Luther King, Jr. He came home yesterday with a poster he'd made with a silhouette of himself and his own "I Have a Dream" statement printed at the bottom. My first thought was that it was pretty bold of the teacher to compare Kindergarten kids to MLK. But my second -- and lasting -- thought is that it's very cool that she's not only exposing them to King's dream, but also encourging them to form and communicate dreams of their own.
David may have gotten the point better than the kid who said, "I have a dream of a new video game," but not as well as his immigrant classmate who dreams of a world without hunger.
David's response is completely David though: "I have a dream that birds and lizards stay dinosaurs forever and carnivores didn't eat herbivores."
Preach it, Son.
Sunshine (2007)
It'll probably help you know what you're getting into with Sunshine if you know that there's a commentary track on the DVD with the movie's scientific advisor Dr. Brian Cox. If that doesn't tell you all you need to know, then an anecdote Cox tells early on will. He talks about a conversation he had with director Danny Boyle where Boyle admits that if he could've made a $50 million documentary of Cox talking about the sun, he would have. But for $50 million, people want some action, so Boyle sacrificed a few scientific accuracies for a more exciting plot. I wish he would've sacrificed more.
Sunshine isn't a bad movie by any means, but it's got that slow, quiet feel like 2001 or the first part of Alien. Lots of long shots of the ship in flight and astronauts working with only the hum of the engines for soundtrack. And honestly, I'm okay with that, it's just not what I was hoping for. If it's meant to build tension, it fails, but I don't really think that's what Boyle's up to. It feels more like he's just establishing setting and showing us how lonely and isolated the astronauts are. Not because it's scarier that way, but just because it's more realistic.
Like Alien, Sunshine does pick up towards the end, but its vaguely defined threat isn't nearly as interesting as a giant, acid-bleeding, man-eating monster. And like 2001, I got the feeling that the climax was a lot more in love with itself than I was. I wish it had been more like Alien and less like 2001. But then, I've never liked 2001. (There, I've said it.)
Sunshine is a gorgeous movie and it's brilliantly acted. Cillian Murphy is fascinating to watch as always and Chris Evans does a damn fine job as a team member who puts the mission before all other considerations. When the mission is re-igniting the sun and saving all life on Earth, I can forgive him for that, but he still comes across as the buttholish villain to Murphy's wishy washy hero. That's all intentional though and it reveals the writing on Sunshine to be really smart. I liked Murphy; I agreed with Evans. It's an interesting situation to be in as a viewer and the coolest thing about the movie.
Michelle Yeoh is also awesome as the botanist in charge of maintaining the garden that supplies the ship's oxygen. Without having to explain it in dialogue you know exactly how she feels about her job, her plants, and her co-workers. Hell, everyone in the cast does a great job. Had I been more in the mood for a pensive movie about weighty subjects like duty, responsibility, heroism, obsession, and sanity, I would've liked it more. Unfortunately, I wanted a better defined threat and a less self-important ending.
Three out of five Manhattan-sized bombs.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
LinkWithin
