Well, just got home from seeing Superman Returns
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
Overall, I enjoyed the movie. It's certainly not as good as Batman Begins, though in some ways they share one flaw in particular.
Plot: I really liked the plot in terms of how the characters related to one another (I'll get back to that in a moment), but I didn't much like the "scheme" that Luthor was trying. It just seemed a bit unworthy of big Lex, and a bit silly. It was enough to keep the movie moving and give Supes lots of chances to flex his muscles though.
Characters: the strong suit of the movie.
Clark/Supes. I thought that by and large he worked pretty well, though I wasn't really all that fond of creepystalker!Clark. I guess when you spend five years in space dreaming about a girl, it's a bit hard to realize she's moved on. Still, if Lois had ANY idea of how much he'd been stalking her with X-Ray vision all movie, she'd shove that krypto-dagger back in.
Lois: Pretty good, though I'd like to see her a bit more brash. For instance, I'd have had her slap Supes on the plane first out. I think the read in Superman:TAS is a hair better.
Perry White: Pretty much dead on.
Jimmy Olson: Annoying as Gehenna. In other words, DEAD ON.
Richard White: I kind of feel sorry for James Marsdon here. He's had a rough summer for romance. In one movie, his girlfriend turns into the next best thing to a force of nature and obliterates him during a kiss. Now, he's competing against Superman. That said, he was an interesting character, and I thought Marsdon played him very well. A nice change from Cyclops. (Oh, btw, with my wierd sense of humor, I was waiting for a Shiar Cruiser to show up while they're in the seaplane *L*)
They really could have had some fun with him, though it may have opened up lawsuits. A bit of fanboying...
Richard: "What was Superman like? Can he really melt things just by looking at them? Wish I could do that..."
Lex: I'm so used to Lex from Superman:TAS and JLU, but Spacey did a pretty good job overall. I'm not entirely sure why Lex would have a total airhead like Kitty around, but that's minor enough.
The Big Issue: Wow. I'll admit, I was a bit blindsided by it. Early on, I thought that the kid's mop of hair was rather "Clarkish", but I never really followed through on that thought. It never really hit me fully until Lex started waving the kryptonite in his face. It does raise all sorts of questions.. (aside from the Larry Niven questions). First of all, either Richard knows the kid isn't his (which we're given no hint of), or Lois moved on AWFUL fast, for Richard to think it's his.
Second, what do you think? Are we going to see Superbaby in DC Continuity now? I'd imagine it's almost inevitable. Once an idea like that is breached, some writer will run with it.
Also, watching the previews (Venom... BLEAUGH), I was struck with a potential "short" preview for a movie (one I'd pay to see). Start off with a picture of a planet with massive tounges of flame coming out of it... Apokolips of course. Then just have the words "Sometimes even the greatest hero can't do it alone. Then just show the Superman Shield, followed by the Bat, the WW, the Lantern and the Lightning Bolt. Yep... JLA. Ok, I'm dreaming.
Overall, I'll give it a B-, but enjoyable. (Rather have a Capt. Marvel movie, but I'm wierd).
Note: I've not been inspired to get back to my "self-help" thing. I imagine I will, eventually.
Friday, June 30, 2006
Saturday, June 10, 2006
The Meaning of Big "Events"
Well, Infinite Crisis is gone, we're heading into 52... but what does it all mean? It's a bit early to tell.
One problem that Comics have had for awhile,and has gotten worse and worse is that story events just have little meaning any more. Events and happenings come and go, and things that you would expect to have long term effects are forgotten within a year.
As I've said, I've been reading more back-X stuff of late, and also reading up on some current things I don't have the book for. So, we have Marvel's big "event" in "House of M", where hordes of mutants lose their powers. Now, on the one hand, there's a part of me that really hates it, because it means that a number of interesting characters are likely going to get "written out" of things for the forseeable future (especially Moonstar and Wind Dancer). In fact, it's not impossible that they'll go the way of Stevie Hunter or Alaistair Stuart.
Yet, I've also read that they're already backtracking. It appears that Magneto has powers back, Iceman may have his powers back soon... This sort of thing happens far too often, it robs "events" of their meaning. Dead characters return, depowered characters get them restored. "Events" become a course of profound tedium, because people know that there's little chance of the effects being allowed to stand.
Jean Grey
Colossus
Psylocke
Rogue
Wolfsbane
Magneto
All have been dead, or depowered at one point or another, and they've all returned. I'm probably forgetting a bunch.
*yawn*
I'll return to my "self-help" book in a few days.
One problem that Comics have had for awhile,and has gotten worse and worse is that story events just have little meaning any more. Events and happenings come and go, and things that you would expect to have long term effects are forgotten within a year.
As I've said, I've been reading more back-X stuff of late, and also reading up on some current things I don't have the book for. So, we have Marvel's big "event" in "House of M", where hordes of mutants lose their powers. Now, on the one hand, there's a part of me that really hates it, because it means that a number of interesting characters are likely going to get "written out" of things for the forseeable future (especially Moonstar and Wind Dancer). In fact, it's not impossible that they'll go the way of Stevie Hunter or Alaistair Stuart.
Yet, I've also read that they're already backtracking. It appears that Magneto has powers back, Iceman may have his powers back soon... This sort of thing happens far too often, it robs "events" of their meaning. Dead characters return, depowered characters get them restored. "Events" become a course of profound tedium, because people know that there's little chance of the effects being allowed to stand.
Jean Grey
Colossus
Psylocke
Rogue
Wolfsbane
Magneto
All have been dead, or depowered at one point or another, and they've all returned. I'm probably forgetting a bunch.
*yawn*
I'll return to my "self-help" book in a few days.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Men among demigods!
{Note, some time back, I speculated on the idea of a book written from the perspective of the "normal" people in the DCU. Well... lets play with that a bit. Any details he gets wrong is intentional. I'll post it along slowly. Hopefully someone out there will be amused eventually}
Men Among Demigods: by Albert McCalvay
Introduction:
There's simply no avoiding it. No matter where we go, no matter what we do, we're confronted with the fact that we walk amongst demigods. Strange visitors from long lost planets, shadowy figured lurking in the nights of Gotham, intersteller policemen with magic rings and many, many more.
Daily we go about our business, wondering if these demigods are going to intrude in our lives. We can't help but wonder if a psychotic clown will decide that today is meant to be our last day on earth.
We could move to some obscure corner of Oklahoma, but would that really solve the problem? After all, even if there wouldn't ever be a metahuman, costumed crimefighter or criminal within a hundred miles of us, that wouldn't change the fact that they walk in our worlds. It wouldn't change the doubts that assail us ever time we turn on the television.
What place do we have in a world of demigods? Is there any room left for humanity? Yes there is! That's what this book is all about, living a fulfilled life in this world. I'm including all the hints and tips I've used for years at the seminars I've held in motels, bowling allies and fine drinking establishments nation wide.
Men Among Demigods: by Albert McCalvay
Introduction:
There's simply no avoiding it. No matter where we go, no matter what we do, we're confronted with the fact that we walk amongst demigods. Strange visitors from long lost planets, shadowy figured lurking in the nights of Gotham, intersteller policemen with magic rings and many, many more.
Daily we go about our business, wondering if these demigods are going to intrude in our lives. We can't help but wonder if a psychotic clown will decide that today is meant to be our last day on earth.
We could move to some obscure corner of Oklahoma, but would that really solve the problem? After all, even if there wouldn't ever be a metahuman, costumed crimefighter or criminal within a hundred miles of us, that wouldn't change the fact that they walk in our worlds. It wouldn't change the doubts that assail us ever time we turn on the television.
What place do we have in a world of demigods? Is there any room left for humanity? Yes there is! That's what this book is all about, living a fulfilled life in this world. I'm including all the hints and tips I've used for years at the seminars I've held in motels, bowling allies and fine drinking establishments nation wide.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Focus! Focus!
I've been spending some time trying to catch up with the X-Verse lately and I think that I've begun to see one of the "problems" that is stalking it lately. The same problem also hits Superman and Batman in some ways.
The problem, simply, is focus, or more properly, lack thereof. With so many different books and teams out there, everything just gets too diffuse and confusing. What makes it worse is the fact that those books are usually dragged into self-crossovers. So, instead of there being an Uncanny story, and an X-Men story, there's a story that pulls them together. Indeed, Marvel's been doing this for years, with things like X-Cutioner's Song and X-tinction Agenda.
Even if a book gets a fairly good run, it's really hard to have great focus when you're dragged into the annual crossover kicking and screaming.
I don't necessarily think it's the number of books in and of itself, but the way that they are forced to "work together." At one time, Marvel was running Uncanny, X-Factor, New Mutants and the original Excalibur all at the same time, yet there wasn't a great deal of crossing over between them. In many ways, that worked and worked well. Each book had a focus and theme. Even when they did have crossovers like Fall of the Mutants (of course, this is slightly Pre-Excalibur), they were set up in such a way that each book was focusing on their own little angle, and didn't directly interact with the larger scheme of things until afterwards. In that way, each book had their own focus and themes, and wasn't forced to abandon those things to get dragged into this years mega-super-duper-uber-crossover. Now, INMVHO, Uncanny was the weak sister of the books in that time frame, but that's another issue for another time.
While the crossover-o-mania may not be as bad now as it was in years past with the X-books, from what I can see, they still have the problem of being all piled on top of one another. For instance, I just read the Trade book of the first 12 issues of Whedon's Astonishing X-Men (good stuff). It actually is more focused than the other books, and holds up on its own pretty well, other than out of nowhere Elixir shows up. He was necessary to the plot, but if you weren't reading New X-Men of that era, you could be pretty confused as to what he was doing.
This is only one aspect of focus, and maybe later I'll talk more about focus in terms of the world and threats they face. Or maybe not. You know I'm unreliable.
The problem, simply, is focus, or more properly, lack thereof. With so many different books and teams out there, everything just gets too diffuse and confusing. What makes it worse is the fact that those books are usually dragged into self-crossovers. So, instead of there being an Uncanny story, and an X-Men story, there's a story that pulls them together. Indeed, Marvel's been doing this for years, with things like X-Cutioner's Song and X-tinction Agenda.
Even if a book gets a fairly good run, it's really hard to have great focus when you're dragged into the annual crossover kicking and screaming.
I don't necessarily think it's the number of books in and of itself, but the way that they are forced to "work together." At one time, Marvel was running Uncanny, X-Factor, New Mutants and the original Excalibur all at the same time, yet there wasn't a great deal of crossing over between them. In many ways, that worked and worked well. Each book had a focus and theme. Even when they did have crossovers like Fall of the Mutants (of course, this is slightly Pre-Excalibur), they were set up in such a way that each book was focusing on their own little angle, and didn't directly interact with the larger scheme of things until afterwards. In that way, each book had their own focus and themes, and wasn't forced to abandon those things to get dragged into this years mega-super-duper-uber-crossover. Now, INMVHO, Uncanny was the weak sister of the books in that time frame, but that's another issue for another time.
While the crossover-o-mania may not be as bad now as it was in years past with the X-books, from what I can see, they still have the problem of being all piled on top of one another. For instance, I just read the Trade book of the first 12 issues of Whedon's Astonishing X-Men (good stuff). It actually is more focused than the other books, and holds up on its own pretty well, other than out of nowhere Elixir shows up. He was necessary to the plot, but if you weren't reading New X-Men of that era, you could be pretty confused as to what he was doing.
This is only one aspect of focus, and maybe later I'll talk more about focus in terms of the world and threats they face. Or maybe not. You know I'm unreliable.
Friday, June 02, 2006
New X-Men Academy X
Well, since watching X-3 last weekend, I've decided to splurge slightly and pick up some X-trade books. I'm NOT going to be getting marvel books as a rule, but waiting until the trades hit I think. I need to do more of that in any case.
Well, today had a chance to read the 3 "Acedemy X" books (I have the Hellions one left), and have to say that I found them to be quite enjoyable. Since I've been out of X-continuity for awhile, a fair amount of the background is lost on me, but aside from trying to figure out how Scott and Emma are a couple, it holds together enough for me to follow it. (Note, I do have the New Mutants TP, so I knew a fair number of the characters already).
I will say that the first and third volumes were far better than the second. The second book's storylines (especially the "ghost") were rather weak and annoying. What I did enjoy though was the fact that until the Blob's appearance right at the very end, there wasn't a great number of supervillians running around. In fact, you can argue that there weren't any "bad guys" at all until big Fred (ok, the guidence counselor, but he's being set up for stuff later obviously... which I imagine has played through by this point). The Hellions are often the primary "antagonists", but they aren't evil, just a bit cocky.
What that really did was give the opportunity to get into some nice characterization and interplay. As I've said before, those are the things that tend to last for me far longer than the latest Cyclops 173 point bank shot to nail someone in the back of the head.
I have done a bit of reading on Wiki, and it's a shame that they decided to gut the New New Mutants in the aftermath of House of M. Wind Dancer is a good character, and I hope they bring her back at some point.
Well, as you see, even if I post I still don't have anything too brilliant to say. Just consider your boringblogreading quotent fulfilled.
Well, today had a chance to read the 3 "Acedemy X" books (I have the Hellions one left), and have to say that I found them to be quite enjoyable. Since I've been out of X-continuity for awhile, a fair amount of the background is lost on me, but aside from trying to figure out how Scott and Emma are a couple, it holds together enough for me to follow it. (Note, I do have the New Mutants TP, so I knew a fair number of the characters already).
I will say that the first and third volumes were far better than the second. The second book's storylines (especially the "ghost") were rather weak and annoying. What I did enjoy though was the fact that until the Blob's appearance right at the very end, there wasn't a great number of supervillians running around. In fact, you can argue that there weren't any "bad guys" at all until big Fred (ok, the guidence counselor, but he's being set up for stuff later obviously... which I imagine has played through by this point). The Hellions are often the primary "antagonists", but they aren't evil, just a bit cocky.
What that really did was give the opportunity to get into some nice characterization and interplay. As I've said before, those are the things that tend to last for me far longer than the latest Cyclops 173 point bank shot to nail someone in the back of the head.
I have done a bit of reading on Wiki, and it's a shame that they decided to gut the New New Mutants in the aftermath of House of M. Wind Dancer is a good character, and I hope they bring her back at some point.
Well, as you see, even if I post I still don't have anything too brilliant to say. Just consider your boringblogreading quotent fulfilled.
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