I've been trying to lay off DC Comics (which is still weird because the 'C' in DC stands for Comics, so it's effectively saying Detective Comics Comics, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms) during the whole "DCnU/Reboot/Relaunch" event, because, well, there wasn't any specific reason. I guess I just wanted to wait and see how this thing plays out before tearing it apart.
But then, in DC-related news, the first shot of Henry Cavill, the man who would be Superman in Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, in the costume surfaced today. What. The. Heck? How come, in over thirty years, has no one been able to make a decent looking big-screen Superman suit? If you haven't seen it yet, you can see it HERE. And be sure to check out the enlarged version, where a lot more detail is visible.
Just from the shot on SHH!'s story page, the costume doesn't look half bad. But, in the enlarged shot, some things really start to stick out. First, there's the latex-scale thing going on. Spider-Man started a dangerous trend when he first appeared on the silver screen in 2001, and no one has used it to as great as success (including the last attempt at a Superman film) since.
The 'S' is still raised, but not as much. However, it also has the scaley pattern to it. It just looks...weird. It also appears to be closer to the Golden Age 'S' shield than his modern costume. That begs the question, "Why?" There's a reason that artists no longer draw the logo that way. It just looks awkward.
The sleeves have kind of a cuff to them that at first I though was how some artists have been drawing him lately. It could have been that they had already seen the costume and were trying to integrate design elements into the comics, but then I realized that Supergirl is the one with a similar pattern. Not exactly the same, but similar. I also noticed that there is piping on the legs and along the torso. Not sure what the fascination with that these days, and it appears to pop up in most redesigned costumes (I've even tried it out with the Zero character a couple of times). Hopefully, the suit doesn't have ribbing...
We haven't seen the back of the cape yet, so we don't know if it'll have the yellow S shield, but I will give them props for having what appears to be a cloth cape. Looks better than the Returns cape, anyway. I also like that the colors look to be brighter in general than the Routh costume. The reds are red, instead of a maroonish/brownish color.
Speaking of reds, I can't be certain, but from the picture it looks like Supes is missing his bright red briefs. A lot of people say that it's goofy to have a grown man in tights AND wearing his underpants on the outside of his clothes. I argue that, without the pants, the character just doesn't feel right. There's too much blue, broken up only by what appears to be a dark-colored belt. Now it looks like one, big ,scaley, blue body suit. It's a similar argument to the Wonder Woman bikini debate. People crow on and on that a person shouldn't be fighting crime in a swimsuit or with their tighty whities (or in this case, red...ies) on display for the world to see. But without these elements, the characters don't look right. They just don't seem like themselves.
To me, it always comes off as a desperate ploy to look hip and modern, just like with the armored panels and piping and ribbing. At least, however, it isn't CG alien musculature and is an actual, physical costume.
The actor looks like he could play an evil Superman. Could be the seemingly lack of eyebrows.
I went on longer about the costume than I thought I would, so I'm going to cut it off here. I'll probably tackle the DC Reboot when I have more time and energy. Also have to get in my thoughts on Captain America eventually...
Showing posts with label green lantern. Show all posts
Showing posts with label green lantern. Show all posts
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
It's Summer summer summer, etc...
Before I get to the main bulk of my blog for today, I'd like to take some time out for an announcement. I said for weeks (and months) that a new edit for Project Zero: BulletProof was coming. Anyone who started reading it before May/June and then came back to it recently may have discovered that there's differences. Some huge, some minor. I've talked about it before, but the book has a new opening.
Because of the new edition, I'm participating in the July sale at Smashwords. Use coupon code: SSW50 at checkout before July 31st to receive half off Project Zero: BulletProof.
Yeah, I know, it's already into the month of July, and I've already written a couple of entries in July, but I figured I should write something about the summer. And...well, really don't have much to say about the summer yet, so I'm going to talk about some of the things I've seen, listened to, played, and read.
Some of the following I've already touched on before now, so I'll keep those brief...er.
Thor: Liked it. Sad they're getting the guy who wrote Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer to write number two. A+
X-Men: First Class: Liked it. Not sure if they're doing another one. Confused on whether this was a sequel or reboot since it was kinda both. A
Green Lantern: It was ok. Could've been better, but it could've been worse. Ryan Reynolds was Ryan Reynolds, but with a Green Lantern ring. C+/B-
Horrible Bosses: Haven't said anything about this one at all. I was expecting a raunchy comedy about wanting to and plotting to kill horrible bosses. That is what I got. That might not sound like praise, but it was damn funny. I like Jason Bateman. He has that...comedic timing that other actors don't always have. It got kind of silly towards the end and I, for the life of me, figure out why Jason Bateman and Jason Sudeikis are friends with Charlie Day. B+
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Not the movie, the book series. It's been pretty good. I read through Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters pretty quickly. I was a little sad when I discovered it's in the Juniors section at Barnes and Noble. I mean, I'm reading it because so many students I've had have read it, and I try to read at least some of what they're reading (which is a miracle after I was goaded into reading Twilight. I try to understand the appeal based on the fact that the demographic is 10-16 year old girls, but it was 500 pages of the same thing), but still, I had to have an employee show me to the Juniors section.
Lightning Thief gets an A, Sea of Monsters gets a B because it was slow to get moving and not much happened except for at the end.
The Chronicles of Vladmir Tod: I started reading this way back in September when I was proctoring the MAP test and got through the first three. I picked up the fourth a week ago. I remember why it took me so long to get to Eleventh Grade Burns. This was, however, in the Teen Fiction section and B&N. Not sure what the difference is since both this and Percy Jackson are fantasy novels with fair amounts of violence, teen characters, and hints of innuendo. C
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Multiplayer Beta: I subscribed to PlayStation Plus (I was going to before the outage, and they were offering the extra months as part of the anniversary. It had nothing to do with the free trial as part of the "Welcome Back" package. I swear.) and thus got into the Beta a week earlier than most. If you played the second game, you'll feel at home once you get used to the control changes (they aren't major, but there are a few). My biggest problem is melee and I'll go into what I like and dislike about the game at a later date (probably). B (with potential to be higher at release)
Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3: Let's be honest, if you've played one DW game, you know what you're getting. That said, if you're a fan of the first two and of the Gundam Universe (and if you're not, then you probably have no interest in the game, anyway). The new cel-shaded graphics make the suits pop out more than they did in the past games. The new art style also adds cool splash effects to the beam weapons.
The mission structure is similar to the first in that the main story is just a poor excuse to jam popular characters from the various TV shows (and the series continues to stick only to the shows, no OVA characters here). However, the various modes from DWG2 make a return, but they aren't blocked off from the story mode this time around, so now everything counts for something (whether it be G point currency, MS plans (replacing the parts system from 2), or pilot level). Yeah, a lot of this affected the story mode the last time around, but it's even more integrated in 3.
Score for Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3? Fan of the series/Gundam: A. Other Players: not even on your radar.
Also, the manager at the GameStop I bought it at (don't like GameStop, but I had gift cards and it's the only store selling the game) insulted me because I said I was going to preorder Arkham City at BestBuy to get the Robin character. I don't care if you like Robin or not, but yeah, insulting customers is not good customer service.
I started watching Camelot since it's on the streaming service on NetFlix (grr to NetFlix raising its prices, even if it had to to remain a viable business). The series is enjoyable, even knowing it won't be back for a second season. I really like seeing the guy from Shakespeare in Love as Merlin (the dude looks good bald and he's a good actor). My biggest problem is Arthur. I had a hard time believing this whiny little weirdo is going to become the king of legends.
Because of the new edition, I'm participating in the July sale at Smashwords. Use coupon code: SSW50 at checkout before July 31st to receive half off Project Zero: BulletProof.
Yeah, I know, it's already into the month of July, and I've already written a couple of entries in July, but I figured I should write something about the summer. And...well, really don't have much to say about the summer yet, so I'm going to talk about some of the things I've seen, listened to, played, and read.
Some of the following I've already touched on before now, so I'll keep those brief...er.
Thor: Liked it. Sad they're getting the guy who wrote Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer to write number two. A+
X-Men: First Class: Liked it. Not sure if they're doing another one. Confused on whether this was a sequel or reboot since it was kinda both. A
Green Lantern: It was ok. Could've been better, but it could've been worse. Ryan Reynolds was Ryan Reynolds, but with a Green Lantern ring. C+/B-
Horrible Bosses: Haven't said anything about this one at all. I was expecting a raunchy comedy about wanting to and plotting to kill horrible bosses. That is what I got. That might not sound like praise, but it was damn funny. I like Jason Bateman. He has that...comedic timing that other actors don't always have. It got kind of silly towards the end and I, for the life of me, figure out why Jason Bateman and Jason Sudeikis are friends with Charlie Day. B+
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Not the movie, the book series. It's been pretty good. I read through Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters pretty quickly. I was a little sad when I discovered it's in the Juniors section at Barnes and Noble. I mean, I'm reading it because so many students I've had have read it, and I try to read at least some of what they're reading (which is a miracle after I was goaded into reading Twilight. I try to understand the appeal based on the fact that the demographic is 10-16 year old girls, but it was 500 pages of the same thing), but still, I had to have an employee show me to the Juniors section.
Lightning Thief gets an A, Sea of Monsters gets a B because it was slow to get moving and not much happened except for at the end.
The Chronicles of Vladmir Tod: I started reading this way back in September when I was proctoring the MAP test and got through the first three. I picked up the fourth a week ago. I remember why it took me so long to get to Eleventh Grade Burns. This was, however, in the Teen Fiction section and B&N. Not sure what the difference is since both this and Percy Jackson are fantasy novels with fair amounts of violence, teen characters, and hints of innuendo. C
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Multiplayer Beta: I subscribed to PlayStation Plus (I was going to before the outage, and they were offering the extra months as part of the anniversary. It had nothing to do with the free trial as part of the "Welcome Back" package. I swear.) and thus got into the Beta a week earlier than most. If you played the second game, you'll feel at home once you get used to the control changes (they aren't major, but there are a few). My biggest problem is melee and I'll go into what I like and dislike about the game at a later date (probably). B (with potential to be higher at release)
Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3: Let's be honest, if you've played one DW game, you know what you're getting. That said, if you're a fan of the first two and of the Gundam Universe (and if you're not, then you probably have no interest in the game, anyway). The new cel-shaded graphics make the suits pop out more than they did in the past games. The new art style also adds cool splash effects to the beam weapons.
The mission structure is similar to the first in that the main story is just a poor excuse to jam popular characters from the various TV shows (and the series continues to stick only to the shows, no OVA characters here). However, the various modes from DWG2 make a return, but they aren't blocked off from the story mode this time around, so now everything counts for something (whether it be G point currency, MS plans (replacing the parts system from 2), or pilot level). Yeah, a lot of this affected the story mode the last time around, but it's even more integrated in 3.
Score for Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3? Fan of the series/Gundam: A. Other Players: not even on your radar.
Also, the manager at the GameStop I bought it at (don't like GameStop, but I had gift cards and it's the only store selling the game) insulted me because I said I was going to preorder Arkham City at BestBuy to get the Robin character. I don't care if you like Robin or not, but yeah, insulting customers is not good customer service.
I started watching Camelot since it's on the streaming service on NetFlix (grr to NetFlix raising its prices, even if it had to to remain a viable business). The series is enjoyable, even knowing it won't be back for a second season. I really like seeing the guy from Shakespeare in Love as Merlin (the dude looks good bald and he's a good actor). My biggest problem is Arthur. I had a hard time believing this whiny little weirdo is going to become the king of legends.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
We are the Corps!
I saw Green Lantern (like anyone expected me not to) and I liked it. I thought it was fun, even if the movie had some problems. My problem was more with the family (or at least one adult supervisor and a mess of kids) that sat down in the row behind us right before the movie started. The movie is not (as IGN claims here) a kid's movie. Sure, there are tons of brightly colored alien creatures (for about 10 minutes), but even those scenes aren't really for kids. And judging by the reaction of the squirly bunch behind me, they seemed to agree with me.
Half the kids (there were four) were bored and complained about being bored to anyone who didn't want to listen, and the other half were shrieking at any loud noise or bright light. And there was language I wouldn't want a little kid to pick up. Hal calls several people a$$holes (which totally goes against his character, but we're not focusing on the quality of the film itself here) and Kilowog refers to Hal as a female dog. Now, the film is rated PG-13, and I'd still wince if there were kids that young in the audience. But these were children who looked to be between the ages of 6-10. And not to mention the violence. Sure, there are colorful aliens in the film, but a good number of them die in horrific ways (well, ok, one gets part of his chest blown off and the rest have their essence ripped out in the forms of really painful looking, screaming skeleton).
This isn't the next Star Wars. It's an adventure that takes place mainly in one locale, not the across galaxies space-farrin' adventures of the Star Wars films (or planet/sea of the Indiana Jones or Pirates movies).
This isn't the next Star Wars. It wants to be. It wants you to believe it is. But it isn't (though with the over use of CG, I'd be hard to press to blame you if you mistook it for one of the prequels). It isn't for kids.
It does, however, have Bzzd. And that makes me smile.
Half the kids (there were four) were bored and complained about being bored to anyone who didn't want to listen, and the other half were shrieking at any loud noise or bright light. And there was language I wouldn't want a little kid to pick up. Hal calls several people a$$holes (which totally goes against his character, but we're not focusing on the quality of the film itself here) and Kilowog refers to Hal as a female dog. Now, the film is rated PG-13, and I'd still wince if there were kids that young in the audience. But these were children who looked to be between the ages of 6-10. And not to mention the violence. Sure, there are colorful aliens in the film, but a good number of them die in horrific ways (well, ok, one gets part of his chest blown off and the rest have their essence ripped out in the forms of really painful looking, screaming skeleton).
This isn't the next Star Wars. It's an adventure that takes place mainly in one locale, not the across galaxies space-farrin' adventures of the Star Wars films (or planet/sea of the Indiana Jones or Pirates movies).
This isn't the next Star Wars. It wants to be. It wants you to believe it is. But it isn't (though with the over use of CG, I'd be hard to press to blame you if you mistook it for one of the prequels). It isn't for kids.
It does, however, have Bzzd. And that makes me smile.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Even the Spider-logo Looks Sad...
A while back I wrote an entry detailing my feelings on changes being made to comic book costumes both in books. And in film.
In the second post (about Cap's movie costume), I said that I wouldn't talk about costume changes again unless someone decided to really screw with the design. It's like both DC and Marvel read that and took it as a challenge. It wasn't, guys who designed the movie costumes for comic book films. It really wasn't. The offenders this time are Green Lantern and *sob* Spider-Man.
I've already said how I feel about the CG-costume for GL, so I won't wax on about that. Instead, I'll focus on the recently revealed picture of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man. The one thing that I thought the Sam Raimi-directed Spidey films got right was the costume. Sure, the thing was latex instead of spandex and they added the web & texture design, but overall, it was the red and blue costume that Spidey was famous for.
While the picture isn't 100% clear and the mask isn't present, there are some changes that are notable. The spider logo on the chest has been change so that the lower four legs are stretched and the two outer legs bleed into the border of the red section. Which brings me to the red section. It appears to taper off and does not have what many call "the belt" of the Spidey suit. There is a section of red on the back right (his left, our right) that just...ends, so it could be that because the picture is of a battle-damaged suit, the belt has been torn off. That we'll have to wait for the final product to verify. It is clear that the gloves are no longer a solid piece of red, but are broken up by the blue, and it just doesn't look good.. Someone else pointed that there appears to be metallic material on the inside of the wrists, which Emma Stone has confirmed to be web-shooters.
So, yeah, somehow the makers of the reboot managed to make even the costume Emo. Congratulations. First, you cast another ugly 30-year old (yes, I know Garfield is 27, it was an exaggeration) to play a teen Peter Parker (Petey was 18 in the first film), but then you make him something straight out of Twilight (check here to see him with Robert Patterson-quaffed hair).
That was something that bugged me about the first film. Apparently, Peter Parker is smart enough to be able to fashion that latex thing with its ornate raised webbing and scaly material, but can't create webshooters. So, really, in Raimi's trilogy, Parker wasn't a genius, he was a seamstress. A master seamstress.
The argument for the new suit is that if the studio made the film exactly like the comic, then that would alienate non-comic book fans as an audience. Yeah, that argument would be valid...if the year was 1999 (when the only popular comic book film at the time was the first Blade. No, Spawn doesn't count and the Batfilms were in the toilet). But, now we have comic faithful films like the Iron Man and Batman (current franchise) films. So, yeah, that argument doesn't really fly anymore. IM blended together several storylines and Batman borrowed heavily from stories like "Year One."
The reason behind the reboot was to wipe the bad taste of Spider-Man 3 away. And what was it replaced with? Something worse. The best we could've hoped for was that Marvel made a deal to co-finance the film and allow Sony to ditribute like it did with Universal (or was that Paramount) and the Incredible Hulk and maybe, just maybe see Spidey in the Marvel-produced films. At worst, we could get something to pander to the teen Twilight crowd. I think we all know which one it's shaping up to be...
In the second post (about Cap's movie costume), I said that I wouldn't talk about costume changes again unless someone decided to really screw with the design. It's like both DC and Marvel read that and took it as a challenge. It wasn't, guys who designed the movie costumes for comic book films. It really wasn't. The offenders this time are Green Lantern and *sob* Spider-Man.
I've already said how I feel about the CG-costume for GL, so I won't wax on about that. Instead, I'll focus on the recently revealed picture of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man. The one thing that I thought the Sam Raimi-directed Spidey films got right was the costume. Sure, the thing was latex instead of spandex and they added the web & texture design, but overall, it was the red and blue costume that Spidey was famous for.
While the picture isn't 100% clear and the mask isn't present, there are some changes that are notable. The spider logo on the chest has been change so that the lower four legs are stretched and the two outer legs bleed into the border of the red section. Which brings me to the red section. It appears to taper off and does not have what many call "the belt" of the Spidey suit. There is a section of red on the back right (his left, our right) that just...ends, so it could be that because the picture is of a battle-damaged suit, the belt has been torn off. That we'll have to wait for the final product to verify. It is clear that the gloves are no longer a solid piece of red, but are broken up by the blue, and it just doesn't look good.. Someone else pointed that there appears to be metallic material on the inside of the wrists, which Emma Stone has confirmed to be web-shooters.
So, yeah, somehow the makers of the reboot managed to make even the costume Emo. Congratulations. First, you cast another ugly 30-year old (yes, I know Garfield is 27, it was an exaggeration) to play a teen Peter Parker (Petey was 18 in the first film), but then you make him something straight out of Twilight (check here to see him with Robert Patterson-quaffed hair).
That was something that bugged me about the first film. Apparently, Peter Parker is smart enough to be able to fashion that latex thing with its ornate raised webbing and scaly material, but can't create webshooters. So, really, in Raimi's trilogy, Parker wasn't a genius, he was a seamstress. A master seamstress.
The argument for the new suit is that if the studio made the film exactly like the comic, then that would alienate non-comic book fans as an audience. Yeah, that argument would be valid...if the year was 1999 (when the only popular comic book film at the time was the first Blade. No, Spawn doesn't count and the Batfilms were in the toilet). But, now we have comic faithful films like the Iron Man and Batman (current franchise) films. So, yeah, that argument doesn't really fly anymore. IM blended together several storylines and Batman borrowed heavily from stories like "Year One."
The reason behind the reboot was to wipe the bad taste of Spider-Man 3 away. And what was it replaced with? Something worse. The best we could've hoped for was that Marvel made a deal to co-finance the film and allow Sony to ditribute like it did with Universal (or was that Paramount) and the Incredible Hulk and maybe, just maybe see Spidey in the Marvel-produced films. At worst, we could get something to pander to the teen Twilight crowd. I think we all know which one it's shaping up to be...
Monday, December 20, 2010
Uncharted The Movie: Fillion's Bane
When I downloaded the demo for the first Uncharted game, booted it up, and watched the intro sequence, I was stunned when the main character, Nathan Drake, opened his mouth and was not voiced by Nathan Fillion (who some of you know as Capt. Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly). That's because it appeared someone at Naughty Dog really had a hard-on for the self-described "ruggedly handsome" actor. Nathan Drake bears a striking resemblence to Fillion and yes, they share the same first name.
Recently, talks have been underway of a movie based on the video game franchise. They have a director and writer who decided that the best idea would be to make the film a family affair. So...instead of getting something akin to Raiders of the Lost Ark, we'll get National Treasure. Fantastic. When it came to selecting an actor to portray Drake, Nathan Fillion himself started a Twitter campaign to get the lead role. So, much to dismay of his and the game's fans, it was announced a few weeks ago that Mark Wahlberg would be portraying the wise-cracking, loner, asshole.
I have nothing against Marky Mark, but I would've loved to have seen Fillion in a role that seemed like such a perfect fit. A lot of people said that the man best known for his role on a super short-lived Sci-Fi Western could not carry a blockbuster action movie, and three years ago, when there was a lot of fan support for Fillion to play Hal Jordan in Green Lantern, I would've agreed. The director has also said that he has never heard of Nathan, and the guy was kind of an ass about it.
And what has Wahlberg done that makes him a box office draw? The Happening? Planet of the Apes? The only film I recall seeing because of Wahlberg was Shooter, and I'll admit he was pretty badass in that.
However, he (Fillion) is now the star of his own prime time drama on ABC. Now in its third season, Castle has managed to survive far past his other shows. Now, I'll admit, I have always been immersed in nerd culture, so I knew of the Fillion long before most ever heard the name, but why can't he star in a bigger movie? Espeically now that he has a lot more exposure with Castle?
And why does it seem like all of the high profile projects that fans want to see (like Uncharted or Transformers) go to people who really don't know anthing about or care about the property? The argument there is that filmmakers make movies to appeal to the general audience, not us nerds who made the property popular in the first place. My counter to that is look at Iron Man. That took a comic book character that a surprisingly large number of people claimed to have never heard of, and made him a household name. And how did they do it? By sticking to the source material.
So here's my advice Hollywood: If you insist on adapting a popular franchise on the silver screen, try to get someone who understands why its popular and make a faithful movie.
Recently, talks have been underway of a movie based on the video game franchise. They have a director and writer who decided that the best idea would be to make the film a family affair. So...instead of getting something akin to Raiders of the Lost Ark, we'll get National Treasure. Fantastic. When it came to selecting an actor to portray Drake, Nathan Fillion himself started a Twitter campaign to get the lead role. So, much to dismay of his and the game's fans, it was announced a few weeks ago that Mark Wahlberg would be portraying the wise-cracking, loner, asshole.
I have nothing against Marky Mark, but I would've loved to have seen Fillion in a role that seemed like such a perfect fit. A lot of people said that the man best known for his role on a super short-lived Sci-Fi Western could not carry a blockbuster action movie, and three years ago, when there was a lot of fan support for Fillion to play Hal Jordan in Green Lantern, I would've agreed. The director has also said that he has never heard of Nathan, and the guy was kind of an ass about it.
And what has Wahlberg done that makes him a box office draw? The Happening? Planet of the Apes? The only film I recall seeing because of Wahlberg was Shooter, and I'll admit he was pretty badass in that.
However, he (Fillion) is now the star of his own prime time drama on ABC. Now in its third season, Castle has managed to survive far past his other shows. Now, I'll admit, I have always been immersed in nerd culture, so I knew of the Fillion long before most ever heard the name, but why can't he star in a bigger movie? Espeically now that he has a lot more exposure with Castle?
And why does it seem like all of the high profile projects that fans want to see (like Uncharted or Transformers) go to people who really don't know anthing about or care about the property? The argument there is that filmmakers make movies to appeal to the general audience, not us nerds who made the property popular in the first place. My counter to that is look at Iron Man. That took a comic book character that a surprisingly large number of people claimed to have never heard of, and made him a household name. And how did they do it? By sticking to the source material.
So here's my advice Hollywood: If you insist on adapting a popular franchise on the silver screen, try to get someone who understands why its popular and make a faithful movie.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
...In Blackest Night
I was going to rage about the stupid guy who decided it'd be a good idea to lunge out in front of my car in order to flip me off. I presume that it was to signify his displeasure with my car being too close to making contact with his stupid, stupid body, and the only time my car was remotely near him was when he jumped from the side of the road to flip me the bird. But hey, clearly I was in the wrong here...
No, what I really wanted to talk about was the upcoming Green Lantern film. I'm too lazy to research my own writing, but I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it somewhere on this blog before. This week saw the release of the first trailer for DC's quote "space epic." My problem with that is that very little of it appears to take place in space. But hey, it was just a 2:30 trailer. And we did get to see a lot of the cooler Lanterns that everyone was hoping to see (Kilowag and Tomar Re come to mind). Abin Sur and Sinestro also look pretty sweet.
That said, I do have some problems with what we've seen so far. First, Blake Lively was terrible in that snippet from the trailer. Second, Hal's characterization just seems...off. Could be Reynold's portrayal, could be the material from given him, I don't know. I'll wait to see if the wise-ass, doubt-ridden Hal works for the movie. Third, and this is the one that I've seen most complained about, is the special effects. The biggest one that I've seen is the mask. It just looks painted on, it makes Ryan Reynold's look cross-eyed, etc. Hopefully, the rumors about it being unifinished CG work prove true and it's either fixed or reshot with an actual mask.
With the argument about the costume, and I've said this before, is that the filmmakers side is that the costume is meant to look alien, because the ring is from outer space, etc. But, and this is my reasoning, is that the ring constructs the costume based on the user's preference, so wouldn't it stand to reason that at least Hal's costume would be cloth or even some kind of armor akin to the uniform from First Flight.
But my BIGGEST problem? It was revealed today that WB and DC have been sending out replicas of the Green Lantern ring from the film to celebrities and editors of websites that have been promoting the film. Allegedly, these rings are actually wearable and of much higher quality than the promo rings DC has been giving away at Comic Conventions. WHY? Why do companies do this? Give away expensive gifts to celebrities that could easily afford them that could care less about the product being advertised? Yeah, that's a good way to promote your product/film/whatever.
I said it on twitter (you can follow me at http://twitter.com/#!/klynchmob) and I'll repeat it here: I hope that DC/WB put these rings (or an even higher quality ring with selectable sizes) up for sale some time before the film comes out.
No, what I really wanted to talk about was the upcoming Green Lantern film. I'm too lazy to research my own writing, but I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it somewhere on this blog before. This week saw the release of the first trailer for DC's quote "space epic." My problem with that is that very little of it appears to take place in space. But hey, it was just a 2:30 trailer. And we did get to see a lot of the cooler Lanterns that everyone was hoping to see (Kilowag and Tomar Re come to mind). Abin Sur and Sinestro also look pretty sweet.
That said, I do have some problems with what we've seen so far. First, Blake Lively was terrible in that snippet from the trailer. Second, Hal's characterization just seems...off. Could be Reynold's portrayal, could be the material from given him, I don't know. I'll wait to see if the wise-ass, doubt-ridden Hal works for the movie. Third, and this is the one that I've seen most complained about, is the special effects. The biggest one that I've seen is the mask. It just looks painted on, it makes Ryan Reynold's look cross-eyed, etc. Hopefully, the rumors about it being unifinished CG work prove true and it's either fixed or reshot with an actual mask.
With the argument about the costume, and I've said this before, is that the filmmakers side is that the costume is meant to look alien, because the ring is from outer space, etc. But, and this is my reasoning, is that the ring constructs the costume based on the user's preference, so wouldn't it stand to reason that at least Hal's costume would be cloth or even some kind of armor akin to the uniform from First Flight.
But my BIGGEST problem? It was revealed today that WB and DC have been sending out replicas of the Green Lantern ring from the film to celebrities and editors of websites that have been promoting the film. Allegedly, these rings are actually wearable and of much higher quality than the promo rings DC has been giving away at Comic Conventions. WHY? Why do companies do this? Give away expensive gifts to celebrities that could easily afford them that could care less about the product being advertised? Yeah, that's a good way to promote your product/film/whatever.
I said it on twitter (you can follow me at http://twitter.com/#!/klynchmob) and I'll repeat it here: I hope that DC/WB put these rings (or an even higher quality ring with selectable sizes) up for sale some time before the film comes out.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Another one of those nights...
It's another one of those nights where I'm just too tired to think of anything to write. Rather than taking the same cheap way out, I'm going to try something new...ish. I think I saw it one an episode of Family Guy once. The positive sandwich. I'm going to say something positive, then negative, then something positive.
+ Joss Whedon was finally officially announced as the director for The Avengers. Since the movie seems to be on a tight schedule, it seems there is a fair chance that this will stick.
- A woman at work last night came in to buy networking equipment. One of our associates helped her and noted that she complained a lot that her coupons wouldn't work, so he said that there's an e-mail coupon going around that would work, so he prints it out and hands it to her.
The woman comes up to the register, where I've been scheduled for most of the week, and, before I'm even finished with the customer ahead of her, she starts yelling out her phone number. I have to assume it's for the loyalty card. Then she spends most of the first couple of minutes alternating between whistling and humming. Everytime I hear whistling, I always think of Red from That 70's Show, "You know what's the best part about whistling? You can STOP whistling." So at that point I was already pretty irritated with the customer. Like, I wanted to place a pane of glass in front of her, run up behind her, and do a knee drop into the back of her head, forcing her to go face first through the glass. But, I don't, since I'm such a nice guy.
I finish ringing her items through and scan the e-mail coupon the other employee gave her, and tell her the total. She says, "I have this coupon, too!"
Without skipping a beat, I reply, "That coupon isn't valid on any technology items."
With one of the most obnoxious smiles I have ever seen, she says, "Well, guess what. Your guy back there said it does..."
Again, without missing a beat, "Well, guess what. It doesn't matter what he said, it's not valid on any technology items."
Now, whenever that happens, there's one of two outcomes. The customer gets so pissed that I won't push the coupon through (on a lot of tech stuff, I couldn't even if I wanted to, which I didn't in this instance) and leave, or, they knew the coupon wasn't going to work so they grumble about how shitty we all are personally and they pay for their stuff and leave. It was the latter.
I didn't hear about the fact that the salesman had printed out the email coupon to be nice until after I called him up to the front (we have radios, but I think it's BS to call someone out over a public network like that) to tell him not to tell customers they can use those coupons on tech.
The only good thing about the whole ordeal was that it got her to stop whistling.
Then she came back today. Guess what she asked for?
+ After giving a customer a lot of help (as well as helpful suggestions on where to get product we don't carry, because we're an office supplies store, and what she was looking for wasn't office supplies), she turned to me and said, "You're amazing, you know that?"
Kind of weird, but ok, nice to get a compliment on a shitty day.
+/- A lot of things are being shown at Comic-Con. There, that covers the lot o' ya.
Also, one of the districts that I guest teach in is looking for permanent building subs...er...guest teachers. It'd only be a bit more money, but it'd be working everyday, which would be nice.
Also also (instead of PSS), some of my work is on a site for authors so they can get feedback and help from other authors (doesn't always work out that way, but hey, somethings better than nothing), and today I got a message from John Connor. Unfortunately, it did not contain anything about saving the future or going with him if I want to live.
+ Joss Whedon was finally officially announced as the director for The Avengers. Since the movie seems to be on a tight schedule, it seems there is a fair chance that this will stick.
- A woman at work last night came in to buy networking equipment. One of our associates helped her and noted that she complained a lot that her coupons wouldn't work, so he said that there's an e-mail coupon going around that would work, so he prints it out and hands it to her.
The woman comes up to the register, where I've been scheduled for most of the week, and, before I'm even finished with the customer ahead of her, she starts yelling out her phone number. I have to assume it's for the loyalty card. Then she spends most of the first couple of minutes alternating between whistling and humming. Everytime I hear whistling, I always think of Red from That 70's Show, "You know what's the best part about whistling? You can STOP whistling." So at that point I was already pretty irritated with the customer. Like, I wanted to place a pane of glass in front of her, run up behind her, and do a knee drop into the back of her head, forcing her to go face first through the glass. But, I don't, since I'm such a nice guy.
I finish ringing her items through and scan the e-mail coupon the other employee gave her, and tell her the total. She says, "I have this coupon, too!"
Without skipping a beat, I reply, "That coupon isn't valid on any technology items."
With one of the most obnoxious smiles I have ever seen, she says, "Well, guess what. Your guy back there said it does..."
Again, without missing a beat, "Well, guess what. It doesn't matter what he said, it's not valid on any technology items."
Now, whenever that happens, there's one of two outcomes. The customer gets so pissed that I won't push the coupon through (on a lot of tech stuff, I couldn't even if I wanted to, which I didn't in this instance) and leave, or, they knew the coupon wasn't going to work so they grumble about how shitty we all are personally and they pay for their stuff and leave. It was the latter.
I didn't hear about the fact that the salesman had printed out the email coupon to be nice until after I called him up to the front (we have radios, but I think it's BS to call someone out over a public network like that) to tell him not to tell customers they can use those coupons on tech.
The only good thing about the whole ordeal was that it got her to stop whistling.
Then she came back today. Guess what she asked for?
+ After giving a customer a lot of help (as well as helpful suggestions on where to get product we don't carry, because we're an office supplies store, and what she was looking for wasn't office supplies), she turned to me and said, "You're amazing, you know that?"
Kind of weird, but ok, nice to get a compliment on a shitty day.
+/- A lot of things are being shown at Comic-Con. There, that covers the lot o' ya.
Also, one of the districts that I guest teach in is looking for permanent building subs...er...guest teachers. It'd only be a bit more money, but it'd be working everyday, which would be nice.
Also also (instead of PSS), some of my work is on a site for authors so they can get feedback and help from other authors (doesn't always work out that way, but hey, somethings better than nothing), and today I got a message from John Connor. Unfortunately, it did not contain anything about saving the future or going with him if I want to live.
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