I saw The Spirit on a date. It was me who wanted to see the film, so I was quite embarrassed after the movie was over when I asked her how she liked it. I felt immensely guilty for dragging this woman to see one of the worst comic book movies ever made, plus (and more importantly) I figured I wouldn’t be getting any later. Instead, she turned to me and said she liked it a lot. I wish someone could have timed the blank stare I gave her. It had to have been epic.
I should have realized her tastes were suspect when we had seen the animated movie “9” a week earlier. She didn’t like it at all, whereas I thought it was quite good.
Having said all that, she’s pretty demonic in bed. I guess that balances things out.
I ended a date once when the gal told me that Garden State sucked. I was like this girl obviously has no good taste and never called her again. Yeah, it was a dick move, but I sleep better now.
I’ve often felt like disowning my brother for defending the Star Wars prequels. The kid lives and breathes Star Wars and I have no doubt that he would literally chug a glass of Lucas’s armpit sweat.
I once ended a date after a girl told me she was really into religion and pro-life. We were about 5 minutes from doing the horizontal mambo before I kicked her out of my apartment. Don’t feel great about doing that but I had standards.
Yep. Without sounding arrogant, I’m a good looking guy and am far from socially inpt. I just have low tolerance for annoying people or ones that piss me off.
I will share a story.
I send a new PC to a guy at one of our other sites. He calls a couple of hours later asking me if I had a DVD-R that is 1/8 inch smaller. Needless to say I lost it and replied, “WHAT THE FFFFFFFFUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT! DVD-Rs come in standard sizes.” He then says,”well, the DVD-R doesn’t fit in the tray.”
To make long story short, this KNOB had the PC upside-down and was trying to insert a disk on the backside of the tray.
One of the highlights of 2009 was how I successfully deconverted a Born Again Christian virgin who took the Bible literally. She’s now a full-on atheist, and it’s all thanks to many months of my persuasion.
Whenever I hear a girl say ‘Born’ and ‘Again’ in the same sentence, I’m out. I don’t care if they’re religous, but not really really religous. I can’t relate to that.
I told this one girl I worshiped Thor once just to get her off my back. It creeped her out (once she figured out what he was) and I got a laugh out of it, lol.
Maybe. Lot’s more movie recommendations. Where you been?
So, the whole Ultraviolet thing…I will stick up for this flick. Kurt Wimmer got fucked by the studio on this movie big time. Don’t know if you ever read about it but it was a crappy situation. Needless to say I bought the novelization which was based on the original shooting script and have to say it was pretty good. The 7 minutes they added back into the dvd release was decent but not enough to save the movie. It did make more sense than the theatrical release though.
My laptop died and I had a problem with my PC. Everytime I came to this site, it was slower than dial-up. I finally got it fixed so I now have 2 Open Threads to catch up on.
I was drunk and let a girl steal my copy of Equilibrium the November previous.I take solace in the idea that she’s probably in jail now for other reasons.
Wow…you liked it? Kudos to you man. Seriously. The things you listed about the flick that made you like it is pretty much why I liked it. Most people shit on this movie whenever they talk about it. It’s so refreshing to hear someone go into it with an open mind and liking it for what it was.
I liked the fact you pointed out that is was a kinda low budget movie because (for Hollywood) is was.
This review made me a little happy. I am nt alone in liking Ultraviolet. So cool.
Hmm…I’ll concede that Milla is not Meryl Streep,but I think she does ok.But I think the narrative flow of the movie is fine.There’s a slow point in the film,but it doesn’t ruin the movie.The plot holds together within the context of the movie.There’s good TV movies and there’s bad TV movies. I would still say that here’s a good comic book movie that’s not based on an actual comic book book.
on another subject the Marmaduke movie is coming and no one has a problem with the theme song is about brushing yer teeth with Jack Daniels? This is what family movies of the 21st century is all about?
Heigl is cute,but she is not “thick”.Jill Scott is thick.Angie Stone is thick.Hell,Margaret Cho is thick.
One that note, has anyone noticed that her movie and the Tom Cruise movie have similiar premises,but her’s is supposed to be funny and his is supposed to be exciting?
Yeah she is thick, Angie Stone is obese well beyond thick.
When I say thick I’m talking women with curves and over 130 not to exceed 165lbs depending on height ratio.
Essentially a women who is heaver than the “Suggested” weight for her height, but not obese and still has a shapely (I.E. not Cantalope shaped) body a full figure.
Angie = Obese (Does not retain a hourglass shape she’s round)
You’re right ballsack, it is. You will lose your shit when you see the Katherine Heigl cameo in the last 5 minutes of the flick. Oops…..SPOILER ALERT, I meant to say.
Geoff jonns framed riddler?? 😦 its getting harder to keep my faith in jonns however. I hate how the BD covers lie to you now too. i dont think he will ruin DC, mainly change continuity for either better or worse. im a little pissy bout the whole life began on earth stuff.
i enjoyed it. Its full of easter eggs i geuss where it leaves you to figure out who it was who wanted riddlers help to kill batman only to get framed. not a real spoiler there so im not worried
I think that it is DC and Marvel’s fault for ruining people like Johns and Millar (well, to a degree theirs too, but that part we all know). This happens in every area, just not as visible.
They pick a guy, turn him (if he is not already) in a top seller with followers (which means garanteed base sales), then task them to do as many books/month, events, specials, etc., as (im)possible and dont even bother to at least try to match writting style with characters. Obviously when someone has to deliver so much in so little time, considering that one already knows it will sell regardless of quality, toss in there need for more time to expend with family/friends/live in general, and it won’t be hard to deduce that quality will 99.99% of the time will go downhill.
Not dropping quality in favor of schedule and number of books eventually becomes quite a non option after a time. Company starts expecting more and more of that person and then one realizes that the company is trusting a lot in one’s hands and that screwing up from the company’s perspective ($$ in numbers and frequently, preferably on schedule) means the company will screw that person badly, so whatever will sell and satisfy business expectations will be what one will do.
Of course, I am just playing the devil’s advocate, it aint as simple or as black and white, but it is a facet of the problem.
Its a part of the problem of course but DC have a history of heavy editorial interference in storylines (just ask Dwayne McDuffie) and the latest horribly written books have been by Eric Wallace and JT Krul.
Oh there are many aspects indeed, that one is a big one too, and imo both issues share some traits. If the editors keep telling the writer how and/or what he should write, then after a time he may feel inclined to only write somewhat within past directives to be sure his work will be accepted without further delay and reprisal.
It is a rich theme for a long discussion indeed. You may have noticed its one of the topics I like :D.
I’m not an X-Men fan but haven’t the editors for those books been notoriously heavy handed as well? I also know, as much as comic fans like a lot of what Jim Shooter did as EIC at Marvel, he was a real control freak.
I think it is less about the amount of editorial direct influence in the content of the stories and more about how it happens. Considering the complexity of a shared universe, editorial teams should have a better notion of the overal structure than a writer does, so it is needed to impose some limits and guidelines in some moments, sometimes even too much. Imo what makes that influence good or bad is the nature of these limits and guidelines, and how open minded the editorial team is to review them (after all the goal is to avoid problems, the guidelines are just chosen tools that can be changed as long the new tool also get us to the goal).
Ohhhh, I have come across conversations about this movie. People have VERRRYYY mixed reactions about it. I have not yet seen it but I do want to just to see what all the hubbub is about.
Ok…I am about to start watching “Ink” in about a minute or so. Live blogging of the flick will soon commence. This is a first for the blog. It’s better than watching the episode of “King of the Hill” that I was thoroughly not enjoying.
15 minutes in. First action scene. To many quick cuts for my liking like Batman Begins. Interesting visuals and effects. Have no idea what is going on. Kinda has my interest.
Dark Knight is the most overrated movie in recent cinematic history. And while I didn’t hate it, I’m damn near getting to that point given how so many fans seem to love it.
Ahem…you were speaking earlier about running jokes into the ground? The horse is dead and now it seems you are just tossing it’s salad for the fun of it. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
You had Heigl to play with for a little while. The wounds left on my soul from watching Mandy Lane are still fresh and bloody. I think I’m entitled to reference the movie for at least another month.
My problem with The Dark Knight is the same reason that the rest of you hated Kickass. Kickass was supposed to be a “realistic” look at being a superhero, and subsequently betrayed that premise when the 10 year old girl started running around cutting people with swords. TDK had the same premise: a realistic look at Batman, something radically different than other comic book movies. That premise was compromised with the opening scene, where a bus crashes into the bank in the middle of broad daylight and drives off (no crowd gathering outside, no cop cars arriving) and a bank manager sporting a shotgun and acting like the most cliched tough guy ever in cinematic history.
Take that plus Bale’s voice, the rapid edits, the stupid Bat-radar-in-his-eyes thingie, spending more time fighting the cops and police dogs than the actual villains in the film, the convoluted plan of the Joker to get tossed in prison, the worst fight ever in a movie (Batman vs. Two Face, where Bats literally jumps from off-screen and tackles Two Face AND THAT’S THE ENTIRE FUCKING FIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!) were enough to make me feel very meh about this movie.
Plus, I wasn’t as enamored with Ledger’s performance as everyone else, what with the clicking of the tongue and sounding like a cross between Stuart Smalley and Hannibal Lecter. I did love him in some scenes (pushing the pencil through the dude’s eye, walking away from the hospital dressed as a nurse, setting the money on fire).
And I didn’t really like Batman’s costume either. It was too “sectiony.”
how is the opening not realistic? that was probally the most realistic scene. bank people alwaise have a gun or an alarm under there desks. which is why no cops came earlier because they cut off the alarm. the bus thing could happen. of course people dont like bales voice, worst fight ever? umm…joker and two face are not fighters what did you expect? personally it seems for the most part your just hating the movie to hate it. the only rashinal things i see is ledgers performance, bales voice, MABY the radar thing but thats a big maby and you have to know even in the real world things dont happen realisticly.
The most realistic? Surely you’re kidding. A school bus crashes through the side of a bank in broad daylight without any visible damage, sits there for several minutes, and there was no crowd gathered outside staring at the accident? No one with a cell phone would have called the cops? How did it back into the bank? That was an active street. A line of school buses was going by, and then Joker drove off with them (oh so conveniently). You’d think the bus driver behind him would have called 911 and said, “Um, a bus just pulled into the street from a gaping hole in the bank.”
And let’s listen to the cliched idiot bank manager with his shotgun: “You have any idea who you’re stealing from? You and your friends are dead!”
I used to work as a part-time bank teller back in college. Bank managers don’t carry guns. Alarms, yes. Guns, no. That’s why banks have security guards. And Bank managers aren’t going to risk their lives to stop a robbery — it’s all insured. Bank managers aren’t going to endanger customers by shooting haphazardly.
You still want to claim this is the most realistic scene in the movie?
I’m not hating the movie just to hate it. I really wanted to like it. I couldn’t wait to see it, just like everyone else. And I liked Batman Begins, for the most part. But I gotta call bullshit when I see it. And this movie had an awful lot of bullshit.
Cball, I think the “do you have any idea who you’re stealing from” implies this is a bank mainly for organized crime money. It’s not a mom and pop bank. So I can buy in that world that he would have a gun.
it was a mob bank so managers carrying guns seems reasonable. the bus is there for a few minutes yes but how much reaction time would you expect the cops to be there like 4 seconds when someone calls them that a bus is in the bank? it takes time. the bus goes in the bank before the line of them arrives. it didnt look like much traffic was going on in the beggining anywaise.
yes i still back my opinion that this is the most realistic. i think your looking to much as to what is shown infront of you and not reasoning with yourself possibilitys and that all it really is when “realistic” movies dont make sence.
I agree with you about TDK being overrated but I feel Spider-Man 2 is worse. At least, imo, the good outweighed the bad in TDK. I honestly don’t think Spidey 2 is any better than the third one(I loved the first one though) even though so many critics & fans treat it like a ground breaking film in superhero cinema. Howard The Duck was more groundbreaking since it had duck tits and hinted at bestiality all while having been rated PG.
I gotta strongly disagree with you on Spider-Man 2. I loved that movie. That was quintessential Peter Parker, from having trouble paying the rent to getting fired from jobs to girl problems to people knocking him on his head with their bookbags — they got it soooo right. And Alfred Molina was rock solid as Doc Ock.
Only a few things bothered me: Ock is a normal guy with a bunch of mechanical arms. One punch from Spidey ought to end the fight. What made Ock such a tough villain in the comics was that Spidey never could get close enough to land a punch, but in the movie, the two were trading blows throughout. And I hated that Ock died. Why can’t villains ever live in these comic book movies? Plus, I didn’t really care for the whole mental block that prevented Peter Parker from using his powers. That was just rather hokey.
I’m not nearly as down on Spidey 3 as everyone else. It was alright. I HATED that they had Sandman be Uncle Ben’s killer. That was just ridiculous and muddied up a pretty simple story. And, of course, the evil Peter Parker bit went too far. And Venom was never adequately featured. But I thought it was solid — not as good as the first two, but still a decent watch. What I really loved was how Peter and MJ didn’t completely patch things up at the end. It was a pretty mature handling of a relationship, something you don’t normally see in comic book flicks.
My biggest problems with Spidey 2 is its “funny” scenes that were cringe inducing, some of the worst & most distracting extras in movie history, the girl with the cake, my growing hatred of Maguire & Dunst during it, Spidey ripping his mask off every 2 seconds to show Maguire’s face, and some flimsy logic(why would Doc Ock throw a car at a guy he needs to interrogate?).
As for Peter Parker; when he left a person to be mugged(or worse) in an alleyway, I realzed that that’s BND Parker and not the one I grew up with.
Good cinematography
Interesting visuals/effects
Liked the music score
Not so good acting
Decent action scenes but too many quick cuts kinda ruined them
A bit too long, could have been tightened up in places
A sorta WTF? ending
A very ambitious movie. Maybe a bit TOO ambitious given the low budget
There was a lot of room for improvement
Now I am going to bed since I have to work in the morning.
Christina Hendrix,Kerry Washington, a bottle of baby oil, a squeegi(Don’t ask), bubble wrap, hypoallergenic latex gloves,gerber baby food and a rain coat.
While you’re live blogging Ink, I’ll live blog “All The Boys Love Mandy Lane.” I’m ten minutes in so far, and while it’s still quite early, I’m thoroughly unimpressed. Typical teenage-bad-dialogue that’s typical of most horror films.
Twenty minutes in. It still sucks. I might as well be watching the Friday The 13th remake. The acting and dialogue is atrocious. And how many shots do we need of kids doing drugs?
33 minutes in. If this movie hadn’t come so highly recommended, I’d have turned it off by now. Nothing much has happened so far. Still more crappy teenage talk.
On the positive side, the title is quite accurate. The actress playing Mandy Lane is stupid hot.
Chances are good if you hate the flick at this point no matter how interesting the twist is you will still hate it. I don’t get the hate though, Maybe I am more tolerant of crap than I thought.
Okay. I totally saw that ending coming. (SPOILER) I knew Mandy had something to do with the murders that were happening from about 5 minutes in, when that dude jumped off the roof and she just watched approvingly. Having said that, I did dig how she got all psycho at the end, but it wasn’t enough to justify the previous 80 minutes of pure crap. Awful writing, bad acting, and not much originality.
Well, Ip Man was really good, so you’re batting .500.
Wait, I forgot about Punch Drunk Love. Okay, you’re one for three.
You should really watch Irreversible, seeing as how you now owe me. There’s a lot more going for the film than the infamous rape scene, so don’t let that put you off.
If by “flows” you mean flaws, it’s because people are usually going to relate to a live action movie featuring actual people more than a comic with drawings featuring unrealistic bodytypes(for the most part) doing impossible things while wearing costumes that are basically painted on. Unless you’re watching a movie by David Lynch, you’re going to expect a movie to make a little more sense just based on the method in which it’s delievered.
I watched Mutants today. I found it to be middle of the road. I felt the main character was a bit annoying and I couldn’t really relate to her. I didn’t care if she survived or not unlike some of the characters in Descent 2 which I also watched today.
Yeah,an’ uh…there was that time when Steve Englehart and Al Milgrim made Hank Pym look like Tom Baker Dr. who in West coast Avengers… an’ uh,um… ok, screw it I just wanted to share this…
all my Keith Moon fans say Ho!
Just finished Ils.
I liked this film for starting out with a dark undertone and slowly building the tension and maintain it with great camera work and control of space and with all the gore. I find the idea of mysterious unknown figures terrorizing people without any explanation to the audience to be frightening. That is the nature of violence I think. The not knowing why makes us uneasy.
I have had Avatar sitting in my house for over a week now and I am still not sure I want to watch it. Damn, movie is almost three hours long. that Twilight long.. whew!
Where can I check out Mandy Lane?
Been to Hulu….nada
been to watch movies.net, it sends me to downloadmovies.com
been to Net Flix….It has it, but it speaks of a free trial month (spidey sense tingling)
This is for those of you that bought the Superman/Batman Annual, was it good? If so, do you think it did the DCAU justice or do you think I shouldn’t bother and wait for the the Batman Beyond book to come out.
Thx Luiz and CBS for the suggestions I ran into some red tape with free-tv, so I peeped out youtube and we got a winner. Mind you it felt like I needed night vision goggles to make out anything clearly and I had to check it out in 8 to 9 minute chunks, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers, right?
As for the flick; it wasn’t the worst thing that I’ve ever seen, as a matter of fact the acting was better than I thought it would be. I liked how the movie was shot. My one gripe was (as I suspected it would be) was that Mandy was pretty much an open book, That much I could tell from the trailer. I didn’t find the movie engaging, but I did find it entertainig. Kinda like Dawson’s Creek on steroids.
I was reading about this movie earlier today. Worth a watch I guess. Personally I’m much more into the funnier horror movies like (ie Dead Snow, Tremors) instead of movies that are seriously scary and gory. This movie looks like it straddles the line so…I’ll give it a shot.
oh yeah, seen it, loved it, own it. I work with insects so that just makes it that much more awesome for me. I like that they make the spiders squeal in it.
ha ha yeah. I work with spiders and scorpions mostly.
I don’t know I think where I work there are more women than men, like 60/40. something like that.
hopefully this doesn’t come across as a dbl post
Anyway I’m surprised with the number of Spidey fans on here that no one has pulled the ol’ ;hey waitaminnit, spiders and scorpions are arachnids not insects card.
Now if you’ll excuse me… a fight broke out in science class. Seems some wiseacre is calling a toad a reptile. I have to reach them before all chaos breaks loose! 🙂
its brazilian wonder twins, fabio moon and gabriel ba’s birthday today, they turn 34. so i did a couple of quick drawings in my sketchbook to commemorate the occasion.
The plot seems rather typical in most distopia-theme games but the graphics are breath-taking and the gameplay seems like it could live up to the hype…
It would have to be Detroit, huh? Nonetheless that looked sweet as all get out I think I know what I want next year. What are the odds tat DC’c online deal will look half as good?
With Jim Lee doing the designs for the characters, it should be at least decent but I wouldn’t be surprised if DC got lazy with the settings and items and all that. They’ll probably put all their money into the characters.
This game looks way better. That action is off the scale and even with a simple “I had no choice – fighting a war I never wanted in” storyline, the gameplay will definitely make it worth it.
just watched this last night. Decent enough flick, an interesting character study of Lennon’s killer Mark david Chapman. The guy who plays Chapman delivers a pretty amazing performance. Worth checking out, especially if you’re a Beatles/Lennon fan.
Not to be a jerk, but I really think this guy, whose in Charge of Gainex doesn’t really seem to fit the description of a man in charge of an anime company. His answers to questions were good but he just seems more in it for the paycheck not to see quality anime produced… but I could be wrong.
The first graphic novel was so fun I put it on my list of 13 graphic novels that should be on any readers shelf. (Granted it was the most recent thing I read at the time and I needed one more book to fill out my list, but fun none the less.)
No, you haven’t. Whenever someone posts a link in their comment, I have to “approve” it if I have never approved a previous comment to the link site before. Does that make sense? It’s part of the spam guard on the blog.
Anyway, I just got home so I couldn’t approve your comment till now.
40 minutes in. This movie has way too characters and I’m getting lost at times trying to figure out who everybody is. But it’s still some sweetass eye candy.
I agree with Rush. There were definitely some cool visuals and scenes but it did drag a bit. Plus I figured out the twist about 10 minutes into the movie. I would say it’s at least worth a rental. Plus Eva Green is in it. That was kinda the best part for me.
Likewise. That show about the cop that’s an actual ass is fucking terrible. Just dick and fart jokes. Plus, King of the Hill is on like 5 times a night and that show is just dull.
I miss Home Movies, Minoriteam, and shit like that.
On the road thru memory lane, Jose… do you know if Pinky Hamsterino {probably mispelled) or dacl ( often thoght to be dad, because of how close the letters were )are still around other other user names?
@ CBS: What did you not like about PunchDrunkLove? Myself, I’ve never been a Sandler fan by any stretch of the imagination, finding his performances to be fairly one note. However PDL seems to be an understated performance by Sandler..thatI wish he would do more of. Oh man, I’m monologuing again. My fault.
It was just a dull story. Sorry, it just didn’t do anything for me. I guess I’m not a Paul Thomas Anderson fan. I turned off Magnolia halfway through and There Will Be Blood about half an hour in.
“Leonard Pierce
Since I’ve become so famous on The A.V. Club for hating Mark Millar that people assume bad reviews of his work are written by me even when they aren’t, I might as well address the thing he does that drives me so crazy. There isn’t really a name for it, but he’s at the forefront of a wave of writers who create witless, arbitrarily violent, “cinematic” action comics that cater to the lowest common denominator of readers and aim for no greater response than “Awesome!” Comics already have a (largely justified) reputation as cretinous fodder for arrested adolescents, but writers like Millar, Geoff Johns, Jeph Loeb, and Garth Ennis do the medium no further favors by continually writing brain-dead, utterly thoughtless stories whose only value is shock value, and whose only standard is the double standard. Their crimes are nearly innumerable: They’re badly written (the dialogue of any given character could easily be assigned to another with no loss of tone), they’re badly edited (what’s canon in one book is ignored in another), they’re lazily imagined (almost all of them use the incredibly uncreative trope of having the characters resemble real-life celebrities), they’re incoherent (they’re “realistic” when that means extreme gore, but unrealistic when that means plots that make sense or consistent characterization), they’re sexist (Ennis actually gets away with calling the only major female character in The Boys “The Female”), and they substitute cheap shocks (in the form of mutilations, rapes, and murders, especially of beloved characters) for thoughtful stories. I’ve got nothing against the darkening of comics, but these books are literally amoral—that is, they have neither a traditional moral stance, as in the great books of the past, or a philosophical inquiry of same, as in the best works of Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Grant Morrison. They’re just insipid, empty brutality and bombast. ”
sometimes we all whis we could on the subject of good superman films who you think should be the director of the next superman film will be if christopher nolan is to busy doing batman 3?
I wonder if I’d have been less accepting of Superman turning back time by going around the Earth really fast if I was a little older the first time I saw that movie? I just take it for granted now, but it is pretty out there even for comic book logic.
The spinning the Earth backwards thing always stuck out to me as sloppy. The fact that they used it twice is utterly ridiculous. Basically the whole story is a waste of time because Supes could just turn back time. Why not go save Krypton, or get Pa Kent to a hospital before he had a heart attack?
Even though Bryan Singer ignored that little detail, according to Jor-El’s monologue in the beginning of the movie, Krypton is thousands of Earth years away. He’d have to fly around the Earth for a lot longer than a few minutes in order to turn back that much time. Then he’d have to figure out away to stop Krypton from exploding once he got back there.
Since Pa Kent died of a massive heart attack, he might not have even survived if he got to a hospital. Superman would have had to of turned back time long enough in order to tell Pa Kent to stop eating so much damn bacon.
Ah, Pa Kent. As much as I’m happy that Johns gave us a Zod, Ursa, and Non similar to Superman 2, why did the douche have to go and kill Pa Kent?
You’re right. Still, Superman never has to face defeat if he can just spin back time. Plus, is that really safe to spin the world around? Wouldn’t that cause some kind of damage?
What Johns did to Pa was a hit job, imo. Poor Pa didn’t stand a chance against the almighty pen.
“When Roger Stern and I were doing CAPTAIN AMERICA we flirted — too strong a word already! — with the notion of doing a story in which Cap visits a VA hospital, and in one corner of a ward full of damaged survivors of WW2 comes across a legless, armless vegetable who, upon seeing Cap, stirs from his forty year coma and is revealed to be Bucky. We were thinking poignant, painful, pathos, lots of P words. And we realized, instantly, than in two and a half seconds someone else would have transplanted his brain, cloned him, or some other nonsense. Anyone who has any respect at all for the whole story of Cap and Bucky would, ultimately, know it was best to leave Bucky dead.” (3/30/1998)
I’ve been reading a boat load of Superman comics from the late 1980s/early 90s this past week, to re-afirm myself on why I love this character so-so much. It’s been rough lately since current comics make it a trend to shit on Big Blue at every turn. Nothing beats Bryne, Stern, and Jurgens’ ‘Super days’.
I’ve liked John Byrne’s work in the past and still like his art if he has the right inker(especially not himself), but now that Gary Coleman is dead, he’s got to be the most bitter man in North America. I take everything he says with a grain of salt since he often sounds like someone’s racist uncle who’s a mean drunk.
I’m curious about price of the three individual chapters. I’m thinking the digital version will add up to be close to the print version. I think they are concerned about not undercutting the retailers.
my fear is that it wont sell well on the ipad (due to being priced higher than the physical copy) and marvel will use that as an excuse to not continue doing same day digital downloads.
Forgive me if this was talked about in the last Open Thread(my computer keeps acting wonky when I’m on this site and that particular thread feezes everything up everytime I open it):
1) Does anyone have any opinions on JoeyQ basically getting a promotion(although it doesn’t sound like he’ll be doing anything differently)?
JoeyQ is as lucky as fuck. With all of the diehard Marvel Zombies & Fanboys out there, Odie, my French bulldog, could do just as good a job at Marvel as he has(probably better). I just hate that a guy who didn’t grow up reading comics(Marvel or otherwise and it definitely shows), has a huge amount of disdain for his readers(epsecially those who disagree with him; although, he’s toned that sentiment down slightly at cons & in interivews due to all the hatred Jemas received for the same viewpoint), and has no problem pushing his own agendas through the books not out of bettering the line but due to his own overgrown ego. Disney can not clean house fast enough!!!
2) I was curious if Marvel is just rapidly giving their heroes a heroic status quo or if they are giving the characters a logical progression. I just can’t see how Moon Knight(a guy who just beheaded someone in the first issu of his current series) or Hawkeye(a guy who was killing villains with his arrows all over the place) are now “good guys”. I’ve been tempted to pick up Secret Avengers and Parker’s Thunderbolts, but that issue, as well as my hatred for those in charge, are making it hard for me.
Of course there is no progression, JoeyQ says its done, then it’s done. But as for Moonknight, I can see him working with Cap. $3.99 on Secret Avengers doesn’t make it any easier for you either.
I am not pleased by this promotion. Though I will concede Joey Q. is better than Jemas he is still not the right person for the job for all of the reasons you listed and then some. With this new promotion and DC’s “five headed monster” running things in the main stream I do not see things going well for the industry in he next few years.
I have a feeling that there is going to be a huge influx of originality coming from the Independents. The indies is what is going to save this industry in the long run. People need to support them now more than ever because I really think the future of great comics being produced depends on it.
Though I really despise Marvel for the most part I do like picking up Jeff Parker’s and Jonathan Hick’s book’s in support for those guys. I vote with my dollars and I really wish more people would start doing the same. It is the ONLY way things will get better.
1. joe quesada is a bum, i was saddened when i read the news, but then i thought ‘wait, thats basically what he does already… i bet hes getting a raise though’
2. in regards to moon knight, his current series actually has him striving to be more heroic, i just checked and there is no beheading in the fist issue of vengeance of the moon knight (and i forgot how much i enjoyed opena’s work in it). so youre probably just thinking of the concluded ‘moon knight’ series which dragged on way too long, in which he was pretty into killing dudes.
so i guess to answer the overall question, it would depend on the writer of the series wouldnt it? moon knight’s progression began during dark reign, i couldnt speak to hawkeye though, bendis doesnt play by the rules, hes a bald headed bad boy with a heart full of napalm and a pen full of horseshit, he doesnt need logic! hes been protrayed much better in non bendis books, like his small appearance in mighty avengers, and that avengers the reunion book, which i dont remember finishing, but i probably sorta enjoyed… i know i liked the art at least… was that jim mccann writing? i know he’s doing the new mockingbird and hawkeye series, is it the same penciller too? any one know? i guess i could google it… yup, jim mccann
youre right, his head is tooooooootally chopped off. i guess i just didnt notice because of the lack of blood, which i guess is a classy move on opena’s part… i guess.
but at least hes TRYING not to kill so many dudes, you cant tell me ironman never accidentally killed a guy, or that a stray batarang never made its way into someones face…
I don’t have issue #1 of Vengence of Moon Knight infront of me, but he didn’t kill any of those Robbers. The Cops were surprised by Moon Knight didn’t kill any of them. He hasn’t killed anyone during this series.
That is a rather oddly drawn scene, it certainly does look like Moon Knight knocked the guys block off, but there is surprising lack of blood for someone that just was decapitated. Could it have been a mistake on the part of the artist? Maybe the guy wasn’t suppose to have his dome lopped off and it was drawn or inked incorrectly.
I’m just curious to hear from you guys, but do you ever buy comics for the characters? or the writers?
For me its been the writers. If someone like Grant Morrison or Alan Moore writes a comic, I’m more inclined to buy it. But I use to buy for the characters. I’d buy Daredevil just because I liked his powers. And if a bad writer came along, I’d just pretend Matt was going thru a rough patch in his life…
I buy comics for the writers/artists. A lot of non-readers don’t realize that these are real creators. They think comics are for kiddies. I once told my friend that the THOR comic I was reading was written by the same guy that scripted Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling” and he thought I was insane.
I used to buy blindly for characters as a kid (Superman, Daredevil, Spiderman, etc), but that was when comics were cheaper and I didn’t have to break the bank to afford it. Also, when your a kid everything seems so, so much cooler.
That said, I do try to stick with atleast ONE Superman title. I review Superman comics and he is my favorite character. I guess you could call it loyalty, though I did drop his books more than a few times.
Yeah I do agree that when we’re younger, the characters seem cooler and we don’t mind just buying it for the title. But, if I was a die-hard X-men fan and bought everything X-men I’d be broke, no question… Its a shame tho. I remember the feelings of just buying for the character, there were so many Flash Comics I bought that looking back on were so awful. However, the memories of just going to the shop and buying for a character I like were so great…
Shang Chi was one of my faves as well. Paul, to me was the evolutionary upgrade from Steranko. His work at that time was the most cinematic looking stuff that I’d seen. To this day I don’t know if I’ve seen his equal in that regard, but I digress.
As to your question about buying comics for the characters: For me, rarely. I’m definitely art-centric. Although back in the day (way back)) I would pick up Superman regardless of writer or artist. Then there was Omega which I picked up more or less as a lark, because there was a slieght wink to Superman that I thought was cool.
For the most part though..I’m art driven, if thats cool and the writing is nice, then I might follow the writer. Every blue moon or so the premise / concept will drive me to buy, but these days a character for characters sake is almost never a reason for me to buy a comic.
For the most part I follow writers/artists,I use to think when I was young I would follow characters, but looking back now, I would have to say it wasn’t the characters as much as the creative teams.
I only comic character I follow with complete loyalty(never dropping the comic, no mater who was writing or drawing it)was ‘Master of Kung Fu’ I had every issue of that book from the early ‘Marvel Special Edition’ stuff, up to the last issue (#122 I think). Man did I love that book, I even traded most of the X-men books to fill in my collection.
The Dough Moench/Paul Gulacy issues of ‘Master of Kung Fu’ are still some of the best comics ever produced in my option. The Gene Day stuff was also tight.
But yeah, Shang-Chi would have to be the one comic character I followed without question in my early days.
I guess I always felt like I had to buy the title to keep up with characters I love, but really, its wiser to go by the work you feel is good and well made rather than buying any random title…
I guess another thing to consider is I don’t think writers stick around as long on books like they use to, It was easy to be loyal to the X-Men and Chris Claremont back in the day because the guy wrote the book for over 15 freaking years! Frank Miller had to have spent at least 5 years on Daredevil and John Byrne spent like six years on the Fantastic Four. I am probably wrong, but it just seems like writers and artists don’t show much loyalty to comics these days, why should the fans.
Another excellent point, I.M. …I know once upon a time there was Wolfman Perez on TeenTitans, Wolfman Colan on T.O. Dracula Baron Rude on Nexus. Today that kind of sticktuitiveness is rare to say the least.
Sure ther are still some troopers: Kirkman Ottley Todd McFarlane Spawn and God help us; Bendis and Loeb (hey, at least they’re in it for the long haul), but by and large you’re more likely to find that there will be a fill in artist for a mini series
If mainstream comics don’t flat out flatline in the next 10 to 20 yrs, I’ll be surprised.
I’d put Erik Larsen over McFarlane in terms of staying with a book. Todd jumped ship pretty quickly on Spawn unless you consider his inking and story credit(I’m really skeptical that he has anything to do with the story though)staying with the title.
That is a great point. Like I said with Supes; John Byrne and then Stern and Jurgens all stayed loyal to the book for quite some time. Also, they all stayed true to Byrne’s vision of Superman.
The only creators I can think of like that in recent years are Kirkman on Invincible and his other books and Bendis on Ultimate Spidey (though Bendis may just be too clingly to let go).
Geoff Johns jumps from title to title like he was Scott Bakula in a time stream.
Johns was on Flash and JSA pretty long. Also, considering as long as he’s been on Green Lantern, I’d hardly say he jumps from title to title. Hawkman & Action are probably the only books he wasn’t on for an extremely long time. He was even planning on staying on Avengers longer but he got the DC exclusive(I bet Marvel is really kicking themselves that they didn’t offer him one first).
While Johns was on JSA that was a damn solid book, Hawkman as well.
I don’t like Johns’ Green Lantern stuff, mainly because I don’t like Hal Jordan as a character. I bought a few issues of the series (since it’s soo hyped) and thought it fell flat and that Hal should still be dead. Everytime I see him I think of Paralax and all the deaths he caused.
That, said when Johns is focused and not trying to do some HUGE MEGA EPIC story, he’s a very good writer. I wonder what New Krypton would have been if he stuck with it.
Don’t forget, Johns originally co-wrote both Hawkman and JSA with James Robinson in the beginning, who stuck on Hawkman until Palmotti and Grey took over the title.
Also, as far as the return of Hal and Parallax, back in the 90’s everyone fucking hated the “Hal went nuts and killed the corps.” saga. Then someone finally retcons it, people hate the retcon. I guess creators are Fucked if they do, and Fucked if they don’t.
Yeah that is a very good point. In fact, it makes a lot more sense to me now why I’m constantly dropping titles. Loyalty is a key element in storytelling. Your committed to seeing the story thru. You want to invest your time in it, and hoping the fans will invest their lives/money into as well. Brubaker has been writing Captain America for awhile so I guess there’s still some writers that wanna keep the tradition…
I’ve been know to pick up a book for its character, writer, or artist(although in the 80’s, I was all about the character, and in the 90’s, I was all about the artist) but these days at the age of 34, a writer is the only one that will get me to stay. I can read a book featuring a character or artist that I don’t like, but if the writing is bad, my favorite character or artist is going to have a tough time keeping me around.
The CCW*TV Companion Blog 
J.
i like equilibrium, have the dvd somewhere around here. if its on tv ill watch it every time.
havent seen ultraviolet, but while we’re making embarrassing admissions…
i like the spirit…
own the dvd and everything.
Wow.
I saw The Spirit on a date. It was me who wanted to see the film, so I was quite embarrassed after the movie was over when I asked her how she liked it. I felt immensely guilty for dragging this woman to see one of the worst comic book movies ever made, plus (and more importantly) I figured I wouldn’t be getting any later. Instead, she turned to me and said she liked it a lot. I wish someone could have timed the blank stare I gave her. It had to have been epic.
Now that is CLASSIC. Did you end the date after she told you she liked it?
I have ended dates for much less.
J.
I should have realized her tastes were suspect when we had seen the animated movie “9” a week earlier. She didn’t like it at all, whereas I thought it was quite good.
Having said all that, she’s pretty demonic in bed. I guess that balances things out.
I wasn’t a fan of 9 either. I didn’t hate it but it found it quite meh.
J.
I’m never dating you.
I thought the story could have been a tiny bit stronger, but it was still solid. Visually, it was absolutely stunning.
I thought the visuals in the first Ice Age were better. Plus it had that squirrel in it. If 9 had a wacky squirrel in it I would have liked it more.
J.
I’ll concede it wasn’t the magnum opus of a Mandy Lane.
Few things are my friend.
J.
I liked 9(although I wasn’t really expecting to) and Ice Age.
Ouch…
J.
I ended a date once when the gal told me that Garden State sucked. I was like this girl obviously has no good taste and never called her again. Yeah, it was a dick move, but I sleep better now.
I’ve often felt like disowning my brother for defending the Star Wars prequels. The kid lives and breathes Star Wars and I have no doubt that he would literally chug a glass of Lucas’s armpit sweat.
I once ended a date after a girl told me she was really into religion and pro-life. We were about 5 minutes from doing the horizontal mambo before I kicked her out of my apartment. Don’t feel great about doing that but I had standards.
I am a little less picky now.
J.
I hear you. If I was less picky as a teen or in my 20’s(like I am these days), my numbers would be a lot higher or I might even be married.
Are you sure that’s why your stats are low? 😀
I know that’s why my stats are so low. 😦
J.
This is not a bad thing.
It is when you’re on a computer at 12:00 AM on a saturday night instead of out with a girl(I’m talking about me, not Jose).
I hear that smartass. You speak the truth.
J.
Yep. Without sounding arrogant, I’m a good looking guy and am far from socially inpt. I just have low tolerance for annoying people or ones that piss me off.
I may not be socially “inpt” but I sure as hell can’t type.
I hear ya man. This why I am so glad I can swear at people at my job.
Amen brother. I am at the point in my life where I can’t be bothered by inane bullshit anymore. Too many fucking annoying idiots out there.
J.
I will share a story.
I send a new PC to a guy at one of our other sites. He calls a couple of hours later asking me if I had a DVD-R that is 1/8 inch smaller. Needless to say I lost it and replied, “WHAT THE FFFFFFFFUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT! DVD-Rs come in standard sizes.” He then says,”well, the DVD-R doesn’t fit in the tray.”
To make long story short, this KNOB had the PC upside-down and was trying to insert a disk on the backside of the tray.
Hahahahaha…knob. Awesome.
J.
One of the highlights of 2009 was how I successfully deconverted a Born Again Christian virgin who took the Bible literally. She’s now a full-on atheist, and it’s all thanks to many months of my persuasion.
And no longer a virgin either, I might add.
You are a man who does good works.
You do the Lord’s work my good man.
J.
Whenever I hear a girl say ‘Born’ and ‘Again’ in the same sentence, I’m out. I don’t care if they’re religous, but not really really religous. I can’t relate to that.
I told this one girl I worshiped Thor once just to get her off my back. It creeped her out (once she figured out what he was) and I got a laugh out of it, lol.
Your Mjolnir was too good for her anyway.
J.
Thank you kind sir. 🙂
Born again = you ain’t getting none
at least on the first date
I hear those religious girls can be really kinky.
Don’t like to play into stereotypes but from my experiences, they are.
J.
well, to them sex is naughty. so if they are going to sin, they are going to be really naughty and feel that they need to be punished
Loved Equilibrium, not so much Ultraviolet.
Is it worth while catching up on what I missed in the Open Thread these past few days? LOL!
Maybe. Lot’s more movie recommendations. Where you been?
So, the whole Ultraviolet thing…I will stick up for this flick. Kurt Wimmer got fucked by the studio on this movie big time. Don’t know if you ever read about it but it was a crappy situation. Needless to say I bought the novelization which was based on the original shooting script and have to say it was pretty good. The 7 minutes they added back into the dvd release was decent but not enough to save the movie. It did make more sense than the theatrical release though.
J.
My laptop died and I had a problem with my PC. Everytime I came to this site, it was slower than dial-up. I finally got it fixed so I now have 2 Open Threads to catch up on.
Oh,My Goodness…check out my you tube review of Ultraviolet from 6 months ago.Tell me if you think I sound stupid. http://www.youtube.comwatch?v=WYMCH93-pqM
I was drunk and let a girl steal my copy of Equilibrium the November previous.I take solace in the idea that she’s probably in jail now for other reasons.
Link is not working.
J.
I don’t wanna be egotistical but let’s try this…
Wow…you liked it? Kudos to you man. Seriously. The things you listed about the flick that made you like it is pretty much why I liked it. Most people shit on this movie whenever they talk about it. It’s so refreshing to hear someone go into it with an open mind and liking it for what it was.
I liked the fact you pointed out that is was a kinda low budget movie because (for Hollywood) is was.
This review made me a little happy. I am nt alone in liking Ultraviolet. So cool.
Love the self promotion BTW. 🙂
J.
I hated this movie, although it had interesting visuals.
Even Milla’s hotness couldn’t save it
Wow.I’m sorry you hated this flick.What didn’t you like about it?
Primarily the acting, I’m sorry aside from Resident Evil Milla Jovich can’t carry a movie on her shoulders.
The editing and flow of the movie was off, it felt like a tv movie.
I could go on
Hmm…I’ll concede that Milla is not Meryl Streep,but I think she does ok.But I think the narrative flow of the movie is fine.There’s a slow point in the film,but it doesn’t ruin the movie.The plot holds together within the context of the movie.There’s good TV movies and there’s bad TV movies. I would still say that here’s a good comic book movie that’s not based on an actual comic book book.
on another subject the Marmaduke movie is coming and no one has a problem with the theme song is about brushing yer teeth with Jack Daniels? This is what family movies of the 21st century is all about?
Brushing your teeth is cool now. Audiences are really sophisticated these days 🙂
The dreaded Marmaduke!
WTF happened to Owen Wilson’s career?
It’s called a paycheck, bro.
He needs to call Ben Stiller ASAP!
Get that Zoolander 2 going
You’re not alone, Deemar. I share your assessment: visuals good, story bad.
See ballsy agrees, he’s the AUTHORITY!
“Ballsy” doesn’t like anything without Katerine Heigl. Just sayin’.
J.
I feel that
Heigl is thick, she got meat on her
Good show “Ballsy” Hah!
I can’t help myself with the nicknames
Heigl is cute,but she is not “thick”.Jill Scott is thick.Angie Stone is thick.Hell,Margaret Cho is thick.
One that note, has anyone noticed that her movie and the Tom Cruise movie have similiar premises,but her’s is supposed to be funny and his is supposed to be exciting?
Yeah she is thick, Angie Stone is obese well beyond thick.
When I say thick I’m talking women with curves and over 130 not to exceed 165lbs depending on height ratio.
Essentially a women who is heaver than the “Suggested” weight for her height, but not obese and still has a shapely (I.E. not Cantalope shaped) body a full figure.
Angie = Obese (Does not retain a hourglass shape she’s round)
Queen Latifah = Thick (Retains shapeliness dispite weight)
seaballs doesnt like katherine heigl?
i like him even more now. cant stand that lady.
No, I said he doesn’t like anything WITHOUT her in it. Meaning he only likes movies with her IN them.
J.
Jose is determined to run that joke into the ground. If he’s invited to speak at my funeral, I’m sure he’ll find some way to mention Heigl.
I am now retiring that “joke” on the boards.
If I do get asked to speak at your funeral I will gladly bring it up there though.
J.
I’m currently watching Ip Man on Youtube. Nearly done, just twenty minutes left. Pretty good.
You’re right ballsack, it is. You will lose your shit when you see the Katherine Heigl cameo in the last 5 minutes of the flick. Oops…..SPOILER ALERT, I meant to say.
J.
J.
fucking babies again!?
I’m turning this blog into Baby Culture Warrior! Fuck comics!
J.
That kid rocks! That’s me if I’m overtired or have been drinking.
My enemies, my allies?
Shades of DD and The Hand?
anyone figure out the big riddle in the riddler joker asylum??
Ya. The answer to the riddle is “Geoff Johns is gonna ruin DC.”
Am I right?
J.
Geoff jonns framed riddler?? 😦 its getting harder to keep my faith in jonns however. I hate how the BD covers lie to you now too. i dont think he will ruin DC, mainly change continuity for either better or worse. im a little pissy bout the whole life began on earth stuff.
the previews of that looked good how was it?
i enjoyed it. Its full of easter eggs i geuss where it leaves you to figure out who it was who wanted riddlers help to kill batman only to get framed. not a real spoiler there so im not worried
Is the Riddler a bad guy again? I’m not a big Dini fan, but I liked that he had the Riddler somewhat reformed.
…and Lo the fall shall cometh
Ever since the five headed monster took over DC things have seriously gone off the rails, come back Paul Levitz…
I think that it is DC and Marvel’s fault for ruining people like Johns and Millar (well, to a degree theirs too, but that part we all know). This happens in every area, just not as visible.
They pick a guy, turn him (if he is not already) in a top seller with followers (which means garanteed base sales), then task them to do as many books/month, events, specials, etc., as (im)possible and dont even bother to at least try to match writting style with characters. Obviously when someone has to deliver so much in so little time, considering that one already knows it will sell regardless of quality, toss in there need for more time to expend with family/friends/live in general, and it won’t be hard to deduce that quality will 99.99% of the time will go downhill.
Not dropping quality in favor of schedule and number of books eventually becomes quite a non option after a time. Company starts expecting more and more of that person and then one realizes that the company is trusting a lot in one’s hands and that screwing up from the company’s perspective ($$ in numbers and frequently, preferably on schedule) means the company will screw that person badly, so whatever will sell and satisfy business expectations will be what one will do.
Of course, I am just playing the devil’s advocate, it aint as simple or as black and white, but it is a facet of the problem.
Its a part of the problem of course but DC have a history of heavy editorial interference in storylines (just ask Dwayne McDuffie) and the latest horribly written books have been by Eric Wallace and JT Krul.
Oh there are many aspects indeed, that one is a big one too, and imo both issues share some traits. If the editors keep telling the writer how and/or what he should write, then after a time he may feel inclined to only write somewhat within past directives to be sure his work will be accepted without further delay and reprisal.
It is a rich theme for a long discussion indeed. You may have noticed its one of the topics I like :D.
I’m not an X-Men fan but haven’t the editors for those books been notoriously heavy handed as well? I also know, as much as comic fans like a lot of what Jim Shooter did as EIC at Marvel, he was a real control freak.
I think it is less about the amount of editorial direct influence in the content of the stories and more about how it happens. Considering the complexity of a shared universe, editorial teams should have a better notion of the overal structure than a writer does, so it is needed to impose some limits and guidelines in some moments, sometimes even too much. Imo what makes that influence good or bad is the nature of these limits and guidelines, and how open minded the editorial team is to review them (after all the goal is to avoid problems, the guidelines are just chosen tools that can be changed as long the new tool also get us to the goal).
has anyone seen ink? is it worth watching? thanks
Wicked trailer. No idea what the movie’s about, but it seems kinda interesting.
Looks like I can have some sort of feed back about the movie for you later in about an hour of so ballsack.
J.
Haven’t seen it. I plan on it though.
Lemme know if you digg it.
Ohhhh, I have come across conversations about this movie. People have VERRRYYY mixed reactions about it. I have not yet seen it but I do want to just to see what all the hubbub is about.
J.
this was interesting. I was entertained.
Looks like a pretty cool student film
J.
Everytime I saw this I thought it wasn’t really Hoffman but clearly it is… Damn, lol, PT will make his actors do anything.
Ok…I am about to start watching “Ink” in about a minute or so. Live blogging of the flick will soon commence. This is a first for the blog. It’s better than watching the episode of “King of the Hill” that I was thoroughly not enjoying.
Does anyone care?
J.
I could just “live” blog the new episode of Hell’s Kitchen I have Tivo’d. That may be more entertaining.
J.
sounds cool man.
The Ink live blog not Hell Kitchen.
About 5 minutes in. I like the look of the movie. Colors looked very washed out at times. Feels sorta like a video game.
J.
Cycling through different peoples dreams and nightmares. Some cool visuals. Acting seems very iffy so far.
J.
15 minutes in. First action scene. To many quick cuts for my liking like Batman Begins. Interesting visuals and effects. Have no idea what is going on. Kinda has my interest.
J.
As bad as the quick cuts were in Batman Begins, they were ten times worse in Dark Knight, which is why that movie really irritates me so.
Yeah I hate that about Batman Begins and TDK.
I do have a bit of a gripe with Christopher Nolan that I’d like to get off my chest
im sorry *pulls out lightsaber* but i may not allow you to say anything negative about the soon to be holy trilogy of the chris nolan batman movies….
Dark Knight is the most overrated movie in recent cinematic history. And while I didn’t hate it, I’m damn near getting to that point given how so many fans seem to love it.
i believe avatar has the record for most overrated.
Didn’t see Avatar, so I have to reserve judgment.
don’t. It will be a couple hours of your life you won’t be able to get back.
I already went through that with Mandy Lane.
Ahem…you were speaking earlier about running jokes into the ground? The horse is dead and now it seems you are just tossing it’s salad for the fun of it. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
J.
You had Heigl to play with for a little while. The wounds left on my soul from watching Mandy Lane are still fresh and bloody. I think I’m entitled to reference the movie for at least another month.
You’re right. Fair play.
J.
It’s not overrated it’s a genuinely good movie, but TDK isn’t the “God Father” of superhero movies either.
It’s not a genuinely good movie. It’s a genuinely flawed movie with a few likable parts.
We’ll have to disagree on that.
I still respect ya’ though, even if you have a blindspot for TDK.
🙂
My problem with The Dark Knight is the same reason that the rest of you hated Kickass. Kickass was supposed to be a “realistic” look at being a superhero, and subsequently betrayed that premise when the 10 year old girl started running around cutting people with swords. TDK had the same premise: a realistic look at Batman, something radically different than other comic book movies. That premise was compromised with the opening scene, where a bus crashes into the bank in the middle of broad daylight and drives off (no crowd gathering outside, no cop cars arriving) and a bank manager sporting a shotgun and acting like the most cliched tough guy ever in cinematic history.
Take that plus Bale’s voice, the rapid edits, the stupid Bat-radar-in-his-eyes thingie, spending more time fighting the cops and police dogs than the actual villains in the film, the convoluted plan of the Joker to get tossed in prison, the worst fight ever in a movie (Batman vs. Two Face, where Bats literally jumps from off-screen and tackles Two Face AND THAT’S THE ENTIRE FUCKING FIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!) were enough to make me feel very meh about this movie.
Plus, I wasn’t as enamored with Ledger’s performance as everyone else, what with the clicking of the tongue and sounding like a cross between Stuart Smalley and Hannibal Lecter. I did love him in some scenes (pushing the pencil through the dude’s eye, walking away from the hospital dressed as a nurse, setting the money on fire).
And I didn’t really like Batman’s costume either. It was too “sectiony.”
how is the opening not realistic? that was probally the most realistic scene. bank people alwaise have a gun or an alarm under there desks. which is why no cops came earlier because they cut off the alarm. the bus thing could happen. of course people dont like bales voice, worst fight ever? umm…joker and two face are not fighters what did you expect? personally it seems for the most part your just hating the movie to hate it. the only rashinal things i see is ledgers performance, bales voice, MABY the radar thing but thats a big maby and you have to know even in the real world things dont happen realisticly.
sorry ballsack your just pressing my buttons lol. i dont mean to attack here.
The most realistic? Surely you’re kidding. A school bus crashes through the side of a bank in broad daylight without any visible damage, sits there for several minutes, and there was no crowd gathered outside staring at the accident? No one with a cell phone would have called the cops? How did it back into the bank? That was an active street. A line of school buses was going by, and then Joker drove off with them (oh so conveniently). You’d think the bus driver behind him would have called 911 and said, “Um, a bus just pulled into the street from a gaping hole in the bank.”
And let’s listen to the cliched idiot bank manager with his shotgun: “You have any idea who you’re stealing from? You and your friends are dead!”
I used to work as a part-time bank teller back in college. Bank managers don’t carry guns. Alarms, yes. Guns, no. That’s why banks have security guards. And Bank managers aren’t going to risk their lives to stop a robbery — it’s all insured. Bank managers aren’t going to endanger customers by shooting haphazardly.
You still want to claim this is the most realistic scene in the movie?
I’m not hating the movie just to hate it. I really wanted to like it. I couldn’t wait to see it, just like everyone else. And I liked Batman Begins, for the most part. But I gotta call bullshit when I see it. And this movie had an awful lot of bullshit.
Cball, I think the “do you have any idea who you’re stealing from” implies this is a bank mainly for organized crime money. It’s not a mom and pop bank. So I can buy in that world that he would have a gun.
Goddamn Ernest Hemmingway over here!
Dude I ain’t reading all that cliffnotes.
here are some of my cliff notes then
it was a mob bank so managers carrying guns seems reasonable. the bus is there for a few minutes yes but how much reaction time would you expect the cops to be there like 4 seconds when someone calls them that a bus is in the bank? it takes time. the bus goes in the bank before the line of them arrives. it didnt look like much traffic was going on in the beggining anywaise.
yes i still back my opinion that this is the most realistic. i think your looking to much as to what is shown infront of you and not reasoning with yourself possibilitys and that all it really is when “realistic” movies dont make sence.
You probably gonna like this link, Dark: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealityIsUnrealistic
I agree with you about TDK being overrated but I feel Spider-Man 2 is worse. At least, imo, the good outweighed the bad in TDK. I honestly don’t think Spidey 2 is any better than the third one(I loved the first one though) even though so many critics & fans treat it like a ground breaking film in superhero cinema. Howard The Duck was more groundbreaking since it had duck tits and hinted at bestiality all while having been rated PG.
I gotta strongly disagree with you on Spider-Man 2. I loved that movie. That was quintessential Peter Parker, from having trouble paying the rent to getting fired from jobs to girl problems to people knocking him on his head with their bookbags — they got it soooo right. And Alfred Molina was rock solid as Doc Ock.
Only a few things bothered me: Ock is a normal guy with a bunch of mechanical arms. One punch from Spidey ought to end the fight. What made Ock such a tough villain in the comics was that Spidey never could get close enough to land a punch, but in the movie, the two were trading blows throughout. And I hated that Ock died. Why can’t villains ever live in these comic book movies? Plus, I didn’t really care for the whole mental block that prevented Peter Parker from using his powers. That was just rather hokey.
I’m not nearly as down on Spidey 3 as everyone else. It was alright. I HATED that they had Sandman be Uncle Ben’s killer. That was just ridiculous and muddied up a pretty simple story. And, of course, the evil Peter Parker bit went too far. And Venom was never adequately featured. But I thought it was solid — not as good as the first two, but still a decent watch. What I really loved was how Peter and MJ didn’t completely patch things up at the end. It was a pretty mature handling of a relationship, something you don’t normally see in comic book flicks.
My biggest problems with Spidey 2 is its “funny” scenes that were cringe inducing, some of the worst & most distracting extras in movie history, the girl with the cake, my growing hatred of Maguire & Dunst during it, Spidey ripping his mask off every 2 seconds to show Maguire’s face, and some flimsy logic(why would Doc Ock throw a car at a guy he needs to interrogate?).
As for Peter Parker; when he left a person to be mugged(or worse) in an alleyway, I realzed that that’s BND Parker and not the one I grew up with.
man-o-man I gotta check TDK out!
Hey I’m just saying Nolan ain’t perfect, he has his flaws
22 minutes in. The cinematography is good.
J.
OK. Acting is not nearly as good as the acting in ” All the Boys Love Mandy Lane”. To some, this may be very bad news.
J.
36 minutes in. Overacting is killing me.
J.
Yes there is a lot of overacting and the production isn’t slick but I liked it for some of the story elements. Some of the ideas have potential.
It does feel like a very ambitious movie.
J.
46 minutes in. My favorite line so far: “For the love of fuck, people!” Delivery was bad though. Still, cool visuals.
J.
58 minutes in. This movie still has 50 minutes to go. I don’t think I am gonna make it.
J.
66 minutes in. I do like this “Storyteller” character.
J.
80 minutes in. I guess I can wait out the rest of the 26 minutes.
J.
Final Thoughts:
Good cinematography
Interesting visuals/effects
Liked the music score
Not so good acting
Decent action scenes but too many quick cuts kinda ruined them
A bit too long, could have been tightened up in places
A sorta WTF? ending
A very ambitious movie. Maybe a bit TOO ambitious given the low budget
There was a lot of room for improvement
Now I am going to bed since I have to work in the morning.
J.
Caught up on my New Doctor Who and goddamn it!
Jose I’m sold I wanted to not like it, but I do.
😦
I’m sorry you liked it D. I really am. Is there any way I can make t up to you? 🙂
J.
Yes
I’ll need…
Christina Hendrix,Kerry Washington, a bottle of baby oil, a squeegi(Don’t ask), bubble wrap, hypoallergenic latex gloves,gerber baby food and a rain coat.
I’ll see what I can do.
J.
You da Man!
Ah, Kerry Washington. One of my favorite women in Hollywood who is so often overlooked.
I’m catching up tonight. I finally have the time to catch up.
While you’re live blogging Ink, I’ll live blog “All The Boys Love Mandy Lane.” I’m ten minutes in so far, and while it’s still quite early, I’m thoroughly unimpressed. Typical teenage-bad-dialogue that’s typical of most horror films.
It wants you to think it is a typical teen horror film.
I know you will hate the movie. I am calling it right now. Don’t piss on my parade ballsack.
J.
Twenty minutes in. It still sucks. I might as well be watching the Friday The 13th remake. The acting and dialogue is atrocious. And how many shots do we need of kids doing drugs?
How you watching this movie?
Netflicks
It’s on Youtube.
Searching for it now
Blerg…
J.
Poot!
33 minutes in. If this movie hadn’t come so highly recommended, I’d have turned it off by now. Nothing much has happened so far. Still more crappy teenage talk.
On the positive side, the title is quite accurate. The actress playing Mandy Lane is stupid hot.
50 minutes in. Bored to tears.
Then don’t watch Ink. Though if you don’t like Mandy Lane you could very well love this thing. Wouldn’t be surprised.
J.
More shots of teens snorting. Ho hum.
I’m assuming there’s some kind of twist coming. Otherwise, I can’t see why anyone would think highly of this film.
There is no twist. Sorry.
J.
Black guy dies, of course. Oy. I think I’m about done with this film, especially if there’s no twist coming. Tell me again why it’s so good?
Because there is a twist. At least, in my opinion.
J.
Chances are good if you hate the flick at this point no matter how interesting the twist is you will still hate it. I don’t get the hate though, Maybe I am more tolerant of crap than I thought.
J.
Okay. I totally saw that ending coming. (SPOILER) I knew Mandy had something to do with the murders that were happening from about 5 minutes in, when that dude jumped off the roof and she just watched approvingly. Having said that, I did dig how she got all psycho at the end, but it wasn’t enough to justify the previous 80 minutes of pure crap. Awful writing, bad acting, and not much originality.
I’m sorry.
J.
Now watch Ils(Them). I’m about 30min into it.
The important thing is that you gave it a shot.
Oh, you’re watching Ils? I hope you like it. I would hate for another one of my recommendations to fall flat.
J.
Well, Ip Man was really good, so you’re batting .500.
Wait, I forgot about Punch Drunk Love. Okay, you’re one for three.
You should really watch Irreversible, seeing as how you now owe me. There’s a lot more going for the film than the infamous rape scene, so don’t let that put you off.
Ils was fucking scary.
I knew it! I knew it!
Brotha always dies
A.R.O.G. the sequel to G.O.R.A. the greatest turkish science fiction comedy movie of all time
Ha! the Turkish
They make the craziest movies
Rampage
What I find interesting is people overlook a lot of flows in comics more so than movies…hmmmm
I agree with this.
J.
If by “flows” you mean flaws, it’s because people are usually going to relate to a live action movie featuring actual people more than a comic with drawings featuring unrealistic bodytypes(for the most part) doing impossible things while wearing costumes that are basically painted on. Unless you’re watching a movie by David Lynch, you’re going to expect a movie to make a little more sense just based on the method in which it’s delievered.
Yes it was a lot longer than it needed to be.
I watched Mutants today. I found it to be middle of the road. I felt the main character was a bit annoying and I couldn’t really relate to her. I didn’t care if she survived or not unlike some of the characters in Descent 2 which I also watched today.
Haven’t watched Mutants yet. I did like The Decent 2 but I felt it was so completely unnecessary.
J.
Yeah,an’ uh…there was that time when Steve Englehart and Al Milgrim made Hank Pym look like Tom Baker Dr. who in West coast Avengers… an’ uh,um… ok, screw it I just wanted to share this…
all my Keith Moon fans say Ho!
Just finished Ils.
I liked this film for starting out with a dark undertone and slowly building the tension and maintain it with great camera work and control of space and with all the gore. I find the idea of mysterious unknown figures terrorizing people without any explanation to the audience to be frightening. That is the nature of violence I think. The not knowing why makes us uneasy.
I have had Avatar sitting in my house for over a week now and I am still not sure I want to watch it. Damn, movie is almost three hours long. that Twilight long.. whew!
IM
I find this just epic:
technologic….technologic…..
Where can I check out Mandy Lane?
Been to Hulu….nada
been to watch movies.net, it sends me to downloadmovies.com
been to Net Flix….It has it, but it speaks of a free trial month (spidey sense tingling)
suggestions?
Try this: http://www.free-tv-video-online.info/player/megavideo.php?id=G8AGAMA6
And ignore the ‘download full’ links.
Quality could be better, but I guess it is enough if you just want to check it out.
It’s on Youtube, although the last 5 minutes is cut off.
It’s not worth it, though.
Haters gonna hate.
J.
Its Star Wars starring Snoop Dogg and Daft Punk
This is for those of you that bought the Superman/Batman Annual, was it good? If so, do you think it did the DCAU justice or do you think I shouldn’t bother and wait for the the Batman Beyond book to come out.
I saw the last half of this movie…very weird.
Thx Luiz and CBS for the suggestions I ran into some red tape with free-tv, so I peeped out youtube and we got a winner. Mind you it felt like I needed night vision goggles to make out anything clearly and I had to check it out in 8 to 9 minute chunks, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers, right?
As for the flick; it wasn’t the worst thing that I’ve ever seen, as a matter of fact the acting was better than I thought it would be. I liked how the movie was shot. My one gripe was (as I suspected it would be) was that Mandy was pretty much an open book, That much I could tell from the trailer. I didn’t find the movie engaging, but I did find it entertainig. Kinda like Dawson’s Creek on steroids.
I’m not saying its true, but I heard this was going to be the 1st song on the soundtrack!
Phil you my favorite DJ!
Love this damn song
I was reading about this movie earlier today. Worth a watch I guess. Personally I’m much more into the funnier horror movies like (ie Dead Snow, Tremors) instead of movies that are seriously scary and gory. This movie looks like it straddles the line so…I’ll give it a shot.
then this should be right up your alley
oh yeah, seen it, loved it, own it. I work with insects so that just makes it that much more awesome for me. I like that they make the spiders squeal in it.
You don’t meet too many women who work with insects.
ha ha yeah. I work with spiders and scorpions mostly.
I don’t know I think where I work there are more women than men, like 60/40. something like that.
Watch out for the radioactive ones. They’re prone to bite.
yeah. I prefer to look on the bright side, I’m one lab mishap away from super-villainy.
I’d be your protaginsist
sounds like a plan 😉
hopefully this doesn’t come across as a dbl post
Anyway I’m surprised with the number of Spidey fans on here that no one has pulled the ol’ ;hey waitaminnit, spiders and scorpions are arachnids not insects card.
Now if you’ll excuse me… a fight broke out in science class. Seems some wiseacre is calling a toad a reptile. I have to reach them before all chaos breaks loose! 🙂
entomology studies both insects and small arthropods (aka scorpions and spiders).
Ha!
Didn’t even cross my mind ya Brainiac
I don’t know why, but it always cracked me up that he called the little girl a bastard.
That’s got a lot of recognizable actors for a direct to video release. I’m not expecting much, but I want to see that flick.
Anyone excited for “Deus Ex: Human Revolution” ?
good be the best thing from Square Enix since FF 6 🙂
*could
its brazilian wonder twins, fabio moon and gabriel ba’s birthday today, they turn 34. so i did a couple of quick drawings in my sketchbook to commemorate the occasion.
http://thisisthemodernage.wordpress.com/2010/06/05/happy-birthday-to-brazilian-wonder-twins-fabio-moon-and-gabriel-ba/
hehehe did anyone see what Bleeding Cool did to one of my favorite little plagiarizers Pat Lee.
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/06/05/punking-pat-lee/
Oh Rich Johnston, how I love thee.
That is awesome.
J.
Hah!
I need to visit Bleedingcool more
The plot seems rather typical in most distopia-theme games but the graphics are breath-taking and the gameplay seems like it could live up to the hype…
It would have to be Detroit, huh? Nonetheless that looked sweet as all get out I think I know what I want next year. What are the odds tat DC’c online deal will look half as good?
With Jim Lee doing the designs for the characters, it should be at least decent but I wouldn’t be surprised if DC got lazy with the settings and items and all that. They’ll probably put all their money into the characters.
This game looks way better. That action is off the scale and even with a simple “I had no choice – fighting a war I never wanted in” storyline, the gameplay will definitely make it worth it.
This looks bad-ass. It looks like Ghost in the Shell mixed with MGS. I’m curious is it an RPG or an action game.
While watching the trailer all I could think about was that this looks just like Transhuman by Hickman, but trying to be like MGS at the same time.
Yeah, IDK if its an RPG but it seems so epic. I’ve never seen action so intense with such high graphics. This game can’t come sooner…
Wow…Deus Ex looks pretty damn cool.
J.
just watched this last night. Decent enough flick, an interesting character study of Lennon’s killer Mark david Chapman. The guy who plays Chapman delivers a pretty amazing performance. Worth checking out, especially if you’re a Beatles/Lennon fan.
Getting drunk will help make losing the next 10 minutes of your life a little easier =)
yeah?
no?
(so far its a good theme for surfing the_web)
I LOVE REAL TIME MOVIE REVIEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
my new favorite actor is clive warren btw
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interview/2010-06-03/interview-gainax-hiroyuki-yamaga
Not to be a jerk, but I really think this guy, whose in Charge of Gainex doesn’t really seem to fit the description of a man in charge of an anime company. His answers to questions were good but he just seems more in it for the paycheck not to see quality anime produced… but I could be wrong.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=26536
The first graphic novel was so fun I put it on my list of 13 graphic novels that should be on any readers shelf. (Granted it was the most recent thing I read at the time and I needed one more book to fill out my list, but fun none the less.)
http://themspot1313.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/random-comic-book-thought-3/
I’ve been black listed. 😦
No, you haven’t. Whenever someone posts a link in their comment, I have to “approve” it if I have never approved a previous comment to the link site before. Does that make sense? It’s part of the spam guard on the blog.
Anyway, I just got home so I couldn’t approve your comment till now.
J.
Yeah, I should of known that CBR link would of gave me problems.
No worries.
J.
So this is my live blog review tonight. I’m watching Storm Warriors. Pretty cool so far. Martial artists with Jedi powers done “300” style.
Saw this a while ago. I was pretty good. I think they recently made a sequel to it finally.
J.
40 minutes in. This movie has way too characters and I’m getting lost at times trying to figure out who everybody is. But it’s still some sweetass eye candy.
That was a sweet film. The ending was a bit unexpected. Curious to see where the sequel takes us.
i hope you realize this is based on a loooong running chinese comic/manga
so what they are probably trying to put in too much
did you see the first one, the storm riders? its the origin story for wind and cloud
man i cant believe that was done in 98 where did the time go
also check out the duel with akin cheng and vicky zhao wei who is awesome
they same folks also did zu warriors but that was just ok
I did not realize that. I’ll have to watch Storm Riders then.
Actually, I was confused. Storm Riders was the first one and THIS one was the sequel that I spoke of. My bad.
I have yet to see Storm Warriors but I do want to because I did like Storm Riders.
J.
I just got this. May watch it tonight. Michelle Yeoh…le sigh…
J.
Ah man, this looks awesome. I wish theaters around me would show some cool import films. Some do but not enough. Its usually like one a year…
Just get the stuff from here. I have bought from them before. Never had a problem.
http://www.yesasia.com/us/en/home.html
J.
I’ve bought a few J-POP cd’s from here. A Jay Chou CD once too… but never a movie. I’ll have to look into a few movies now.
This looks good. I will have in 20 mins. I am ashamed to say I like NNTP.
Nothing to be ashamed about.
J.
Good flick
hey guys, i been feelin little down latly…for no reason lol. someone want to cheer ol gendy up?
J.
J.
J.
Hurricane Bear FTW!!!
J.
Haha. Talk about awkward.
wtf?
Alright! A fucking bear thread!
J.
what could be better?
J.
J.
J.
i guess this comes full circle to cheering gendy up, some sound advice
Crucifixion? one cross each door on the right..
Anyone see this?
Yes. Visually the movie was good, but some parts really dragged.
I agree with Rush. There were definitely some cool visuals and scenes but it did drag a bit. Plus I figured out the twist about 10 minutes into the movie. I would say it’s at least worth a rental. Plus Eva Green is in it. That was kinda the best part for me.
J.
Nope wanted to check it out though
It looked kinda cool, visually. I’ll check it out and let ya know what I think.
Nostalgia.
J.
I miss the older Adult Swim.
Me too. Some of the new stuff they play just makes me feel either really not hip or just fucking old. Half the shows on there now I could do without.
J.
Likewise. That show about the cop that’s an actual ass is fucking terrible. Just dick and fart jokes. Plus, King of the Hill is on like 5 times a night and that show is just dull.
I miss Home Movies, Minoriteam, and shit like that.
Minoriteam needs to return ASAP
That show was pure genius
I agree. I know a lot of folks that didn’t like it. It thought it was fantastic.
Me three!
J.
i used to watch it religiously now i dont even bother i think lucy daughter of the devil was the last new show i liked
well lucky fx has archer
I like Adult Swim in general, but yeah they need some new blood
Prince Jehova’s witness
nice lol
Losing Lois Lane from Secret Identity Productions on Vimeo.
Woody Allen meets Superman.
Yes, this is a real movie.
So…I think I need to see this.
J.
You and me both, brother.
On the road thru memory lane, Jose… do you know if Pinky Hamsterino {probably mispelled) or dacl ( often thoght to be dad, because of how close the letters were )are still around other other user names?
@ CBS: What did you not like about PunchDrunkLove? Myself, I’ve never been a Sandler fan by any stretch of the imagination, finding his performances to be fairly one note. However PDL seems to be an understated performance by Sandler..thatI wish he would do more of. Oh man, I’m monologuing again. My fault.
It was just a dull story. Sorry, it just didn’t do anything for me. I guess I’m not a Paul Thomas Anderson fan. I turned off Magnolia halfway through and There Will Be Blood about half an hour in.
You really are a riddle wrapped in an enigma ballsack.
J.
I like what I like.
Really? PT is probably the only USA writer/director I find to be flawless, but I guess his movies do have a bit of an acquired taste about them.
Pinky isn’t. I still do talk to him on facebook though. Dacl isn’t on here anymore either.
J.
whatever happened to hammy? I enjoyed his sometimes depressing and often hilarious commentary.
“Leonard Pierce
Since I’ve become so famous on The A.V. Club for hating Mark Millar that people assume bad reviews of his work are written by me even when they aren’t, I might as well address the thing he does that drives me so crazy. There isn’t really a name for it, but he’s at the forefront of a wave of writers who create witless, arbitrarily violent, “cinematic” action comics that cater to the lowest common denominator of readers and aim for no greater response than “Awesome!” Comics already have a (largely justified) reputation as cretinous fodder for arrested adolescents, but writers like Millar, Geoff Johns, Jeph Loeb, and Garth Ennis do the medium no further favors by continually writing brain-dead, utterly thoughtless stories whose only value is shock value, and whose only standard is the double standard. Their crimes are nearly innumerable: They’re badly written (the dialogue of any given character could easily be assigned to another with no loss of tone), they’re badly edited (what’s canon in one book is ignored in another), they’re lazily imagined (almost all of them use the incredibly uncreative trope of having the characters resemble real-life celebrities), they’re incoherent (they’re “realistic” when that means extreme gore, but unrealistic when that means plots that make sense or consistent characterization), they’re sexist (Ennis actually gets away with calling the only major female character in The Boys “The Female”), and they substitute cheap shocks (in the form of mutilations, rapes, and murders, especially of beloved characters) for thoughtful stories. I’ve got nothing against the darkening of comics, but these books are literally amoral—that is, they have neither a traditional moral stance, as in the great books of the past, or a philosophical inquiry of same, as in the best works of Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Grant Morrison. They’re just insipid, empty brutality and bombast. ”
taken from:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/infuriating-art,41613/
\
Well said.
Ha, dang.
This is why I usually find myself trusting AV Club reviews over anyone else, usually with respect to movies.
that gets a big thumbs up.
Took the words right out of my mouth.
Daggonnit Mike, This was the 3rd Open Thread in a row that I was trying to get my “THIS IS SPARTA!!!” war cry on.
Sure…I could go with “By Crom” “Imperius Rex” or “It’s Clobberin Time”, but its just not the same!
Oh well…I guess there’s always Wednesday……..SUFFERIN” SUCKOTASH
Let it go, dude.
'Indiana Jones Last Crusade' Let It Go en Yahoo! Video
this isn’t the same but can i help you where will we be dining tonight?
(0_0) ?????
At the Olive Garden… IN HELL.
see avs got it IN HELL. come on man i handed it to you
if only I could go back in time….
sometimes we all whis we could on the subject of good superman films who you think should be the director of the next superman film will be if christopher nolan is to busy doing batman 3?
Anyone who won’t give us a boring, emo Superman.
How about giving Bruce Timm a chance? He does the cartoons so well. I wonder if he’d be interested. I gotta believe he’d be able to pull it off.
I’d like a crazy foreign director…don’t laugh…Timur Bekmambetov would be my choice.
Del Toro would be cool if they went for a wild flick with Brainiac and shit like that.
Sam Mendes would do well with a down to Earth Superman film. Grounded in human emotions and what not, plus he’s a favorite of mine.
There is still hope, just need some crazy scientist to help you out
I wonder if I’d have been less accepting of Superman turning back time by going around the Earth really fast if I was a little older the first time I saw that movie? I just take it for granted now, but it is pretty out there even for comic book logic.
More out there than the kiss that causes selective amnesia?
1) With Stamp’s Zod being the best villain in any superhero flick, any minor problems the movie may have had are easily dismissed.
2) I forgot about that. 🙂
The spinning the Earth backwards thing always stuck out to me as sloppy. The fact that they used it twice is utterly ridiculous. Basically the whole story is a waste of time because Supes could just turn back time. Why not go save Krypton, or get Pa Kent to a hospital before he had a heart attack?
Too many plot holes.
Even though Bryan Singer ignored that little detail, according to Jor-El’s monologue in the beginning of the movie, Krypton is thousands of Earth years away. He’d have to fly around the Earth for a lot longer than a few minutes in order to turn back that much time. Then he’d have to figure out away to stop Krypton from exploding once he got back there.
Since Pa Kent died of a massive heart attack, he might not have even survived if he got to a hospital. Superman would have had to of turned back time long enough in order to tell Pa Kent to stop eating so much damn bacon.
Ah, Pa Kent. As much as I’m happy that Johns gave us a Zod, Ursa, and Non similar to Superman 2, why did the douche have to go and kill Pa Kent?
You’re right. Still, Superman never has to face defeat if he can just spin back time. Plus, is that really safe to spin the world around? Wouldn’t that cause some kind of damage?
What Johns did to Pa was a hit job, imo. Poor Pa didn’t stand a chance against the almighty pen.
I found this on John Byrne’s website:
“When Roger Stern and I were doing CAPTAIN AMERICA we flirted — too strong a word already! — with the notion of doing a story in which Cap visits a VA hospital, and in one corner of a ward full of damaged survivors of WW2 comes across a legless, armless vegetable who, upon seeing Cap, stirs from his forty year coma and is revealed to be Bucky. We were thinking poignant, painful, pathos, lots of P words. And we realized, instantly, than in two and a half seconds someone else would have transplanted his brain, cloned him, or some other nonsense. Anyone who has any respect at all for the whole story of Cap and Bucky would, ultimately, know it was best to leave Bucky dead.” (3/30/1998)
i like to leave all that at flirted
“When Roger Stern and I were doing CAPTAIN AMERICA we flirted ”
done, instantly the most interesting john byrne quote ive read!
Amen. Byrne and Stern are incredible creators.
I’ve been reading a boat load of Superman comics from the late 1980s/early 90s this past week, to re-afirm myself on why I love this character so-so much. It’s been rough lately since current comics make it a trend to shit on Big Blue at every turn. Nothing beats Bryne, Stern, and Jurgens’ ‘Super days’.
Stern, Buscema, and Palmer were legendary when they did Avengers.
Yes, Byrne FF and Superman runs are some of my favorites, I also like your name as just “heck” a lot, but we still know your listening.
Thankya. The ‘Listening’ part is from my blog, which I haven’t updated in a thousand years. 😛
I’ve liked John Byrne’s work in the past and still like his art if he has the right inker(especially not himself), but now that Gary Coleman is dead, he’s got to be the most bitter man in North America. I take everything he says with a grain of salt since he often sounds like someone’s racist uncle who’s a mean drunk.
Did anyone read the first issue of that new red hood mini? I was wondering if it was any good?
here is some merry Marvel news
http://marvel.com/news/comicstories.12697.iron_man_annual_in_stores~and~on_marvel_app
It’s going to be interesting to see how this all plays out.
J.
I’m curious about price of the three individual chapters. I’m thinking the digital version will add up to be close to the print version. I think they are concerned about not undercutting the retailers.
my fear is that it wont sell well on the ipad (due to being priced higher than the physical copy) and marvel will use that as an excuse to not continue doing same day digital downloads.
Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker! ONE DAY LEFT 🙂
I don’t have a PSP. 😦
There were rumors that Peacewalker was gong to be made available on PSN so people can play it on their PS3. I hope that happens at some point.
J.
i played the demo, it was pretty fun, too bad i sold my psp.
and jose, im sure theyll port it to ps2, like the recently ported but three years late syphon filter: logans shadow
Don’t fuck with La Parka!
J.
Ya gotta love the blonde mother smiling and picking up her son in the background after the wrestler punches the fan.
Ya, I caught that too. Priceless.
J.
That dude gets smoked, but that’s what he gets for trying to de-mask the guy.
Forgive me if this was talked about in the last Open Thread(my computer keeps acting wonky when I’m on this site and that particular thread feezes everything up everytime I open it):
1) Does anyone have any opinions on JoeyQ basically getting a promotion(although it doesn’t sound like he’ll be doing anything differently)?
JoeyQ is as lucky as fuck. With all of the diehard Marvel Zombies & Fanboys out there, Odie, my French bulldog, could do just as good a job at Marvel as he has(probably better). I just hate that a guy who didn’t grow up reading comics(Marvel or otherwise and it definitely shows), has a huge amount of disdain for his readers(epsecially those who disagree with him; although, he’s toned that sentiment down slightly at cons & in interivews due to all the hatred Jemas received for the same viewpoint), and has no problem pushing his own agendas through the books not out of bettering the line but due to his own overgrown ego. Disney can not clean house fast enough!!!
2) I was curious if Marvel is just rapidly giving their heroes a heroic status quo or if they are giving the characters a logical progression. I just can’t see how Moon Knight(a guy who just beheaded someone in the first issu of his current series) or Hawkeye(a guy who was killing villains with his arrows all over the place) are now “good guys”. I’ve been tempted to pick up Secret Avengers and Parker’s Thunderbolts, but that issue, as well as my hatred for those in charge, are making it hard for me.
Of course there is no progression, JoeyQ says its done, then it’s done. But as for Moonknight, I can see him working with Cap. $3.99 on Secret Avengers doesn’t make it any easier for you either.
I am not pleased by this promotion. Though I will concede Joey Q. is better than Jemas he is still not the right person for the job for all of the reasons you listed and then some. With this new promotion and DC’s “five headed monster” running things in the main stream I do not see things going well for the industry in he next few years.
I have a feeling that there is going to be a huge influx of originality coming from the Independents. The indies is what is going to save this industry in the long run. People need to support them now more than ever because I really think the future of great comics being produced depends on it.
Though I really despise Marvel for the most part I do like picking up Jeff Parker’s and Jonathan Hick’s book’s in support for those guys. I vote with my dollars and I really wish more people would start doing the same. It is the ONLY way things will get better.
J.
jose that statement has just made me drop Brightest day….i really fear for the future of this industry…
Good call GD. More money for good comics!
J.
You sound like Robert Kirkman with statement’s like that.
that would explain why he praises invincible so much lol 😀
1. joe quesada is a bum, i was saddened when i read the news, but then i thought ‘wait, thats basically what he does already… i bet hes getting a raise though’
2. in regards to moon knight, his current series actually has him striving to be more heroic, i just checked and there is no beheading in the fist issue of vengeance of the moon knight (and i forgot how much i enjoyed opena’s work in it). so youre probably just thinking of the concluded ‘moon knight’ series which dragged on way too long, in which he was pretty into killing dudes.
so i guess to answer the overall question, it would depend on the writer of the series wouldnt it? moon knight’s progression began during dark reign, i couldnt speak to hawkeye though, bendis doesnt play by the rules, hes a bald headed bad boy with a heart full of napalm and a pen full of horseshit, he doesnt need logic! hes been protrayed much better in non bendis books, like his small appearance in mighty avengers, and that avengers the reunion book, which i dont remember finishing, but i probably sorta enjoyed… i know i liked the art at least… was that jim mccann writing? i know he’s doing the new mockingbird and hawkeye series, is it the same penciller too? any one know? i guess i could google it… yup, jim mccann
Double check your issue. In the 5th panel you can see the crook’s head come off after being hit with Moon Knight’s motorcycle.
In his previous series, he only cuts the skin off of villains’ faces.
“In his previous series, he only cuts the skin off of villains’ faces.”
That statement just made my day.
J.
youre right, his head is tooooooootally chopped off. i guess i just didnt notice because of the lack of blood, which i guess is a classy move on opena’s part… i guess.
but at least hes TRYING not to kill so many dudes, you cant tell me ironman never accidentally killed a guy, or that a stray batarang never made its way into someones face…
I don’t have issue #1 of Vengence of Moon Knight infront of me, but he didn’t kill any of those Robbers. The Cops were surprised by Moon Knight didn’t kill any of them. He hasn’t killed anyone during this series.
I want to know how he keeps that white costume so clean in New York.
That is a rather oddly drawn scene, it certainly does look like Moon Knight knocked the guys block off, but there is surprising lack of blood for someone that just was decapitated. Could it have been a mistake on the part of the artist? Maybe the guy wasn’t suppose to have his dome lopped off and it was drawn or inked incorrectly.
IM
It may just be drawn oddly.
I’m just curious to hear from you guys, but do you ever buy comics for the characters? or the writers?
For me its been the writers. If someone like Grant Morrison or Alan Moore writes a comic, I’m more inclined to buy it. But I use to buy for the characters. I’d buy Daredevil just because I liked his powers. And if a bad writer came along, I’d just pretend Matt was going thru a rough patch in his life…
you?
I buy comics for the writers/artists. A lot of non-readers don’t realize that these are real creators. They think comics are for kiddies. I once told my friend that the THOR comic I was reading was written by the same guy that scripted Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling” and he thought I was insane.
I used to buy blindly for characters as a kid (Superman, Daredevil, Spiderman, etc), but that was when comics were cheaper and I didn’t have to break the bank to afford it. Also, when your a kid everything seems so, so much cooler.
That said, I do try to stick with atleast ONE Superman title. I review Superman comics and he is my favorite character. I guess you could call it loyalty, though I did drop his books more than a few times.
Yeah I do agree that when we’re younger, the characters seem cooler and we don’t mind just buying it for the title. But, if I was a die-hard X-men fan and bought everything X-men I’d be broke, no question… Its a shame tho. I remember the feelings of just buying for the character, there were so many Flash Comics I bought that looking back on were so awful. However, the memories of just going to the shop and buying for a character I like were so great…
Shang Chi was one of my faves as well. Paul, to me was the evolutionary upgrade from Steranko. His work at that time was the most cinematic looking stuff that I’d seen. To this day I don’t know if I’ve seen his equal in that regard, but I digress.
As to your question about buying comics for the characters: For me, rarely. I’m definitely art-centric. Although back in the day (way back)) I would pick up Superman regardless of writer or artist. Then there was Omega which I picked up more or less as a lark, because there was a slieght wink to Superman that I thought was cool.
For the most part though..I’m art driven, if thats cool and the writing is nice, then I might follow the writer. Every blue moon or so the premise / concept will drive me to buy, but these days a character for characters sake is almost never a reason for me to buy a comic.
For the most part I follow writers/artists,I use to think when I was young I would follow characters, but looking back now, I would have to say it wasn’t the characters as much as the creative teams.
I only comic character I follow with complete loyalty(never dropping the comic, no mater who was writing or drawing it)was ‘Master of Kung Fu’ I had every issue of that book from the early ‘Marvel Special Edition’ stuff, up to the last issue (#122 I think). Man did I love that book, I even traded most of the X-men books to fill in my collection.
The Dough Moench/Paul Gulacy issues of ‘Master of Kung Fu’ are still some of the best comics ever produced in my option. The Gene Day stuff was also tight.
But yeah, Shang-Chi would have to be the one comic character I followed without question in my early days.
IM
I guess I always felt like I had to buy the title to keep up with characters I love, but really, its wiser to go by the work you feel is good and well made rather than buying any random title…
I guess another thing to consider is I don’t think writers stick around as long on books like they use to, It was easy to be loyal to the X-Men and Chris Claremont back in the day because the guy wrote the book for over 15 freaking years! Frank Miller had to have spent at least 5 years on Daredevil and John Byrne spent like six years on the Fantastic Four. I am probably wrong, but it just seems like writers and artists don’t show much loyalty to comics these days, why should the fans.
IM
Another excellent point, I.M. …I know once upon a time there was Wolfman Perez on TeenTitans, Wolfman Colan on T.O. Dracula Baron Rude on Nexus. Today that kind of sticktuitiveness is rare to say the least.
Sure ther are still some troopers: Kirkman Ottley Todd McFarlane Spawn and God help us; Bendis and Loeb (hey, at least they’re in it for the long haul), but by and large you’re more likely to find that there will be a fill in artist for a mini series
If mainstream comics don’t flat out flatline in the next 10 to 20 yrs, I’ll be surprised.
I’d put Erik Larsen over McFarlane in terms of staying with a book. Todd jumped ship pretty quickly on Spawn unless you consider his inking and story credit(I’m really skeptical that he has anything to do with the story though)staying with the title.
That is a great point. Like I said with Supes; John Byrne and then Stern and Jurgens all stayed loyal to the book for quite some time. Also, they all stayed true to Byrne’s vision of Superman.
The only creators I can think of like that in recent years are Kirkman on Invincible and his other books and Bendis on Ultimate Spidey (though Bendis may just be too clingly to let go).
Geoff Johns jumps from title to title like he was Scott Bakula in a time stream.
Johns was on Flash and JSA pretty long. Also, considering as long as he’s been on Green Lantern, I’d hardly say he jumps from title to title. Hawkman & Action are probably the only books he wasn’t on for an extremely long time. He was even planning on staying on Avengers longer but he got the DC exclusive(I bet Marvel is really kicking themselves that they didn’t offer him one first).
While Johns was on JSA that was a damn solid book, Hawkman as well.
I don’t like Johns’ Green Lantern stuff, mainly because I don’t like Hal Jordan as a character. I bought a few issues of the series (since it’s soo hyped) and thought it fell flat and that Hal should still be dead. Everytime I see him I think of Paralax and all the deaths he caused.
That, said when Johns is focused and not trying to do some HUGE MEGA EPIC story, he’s a very good writer. I wonder what New Krypton would have been if he stuck with it.
Don’t forget, Johns originally co-wrote both Hawkman and JSA with James Robinson in the beginning, who stuck on Hawkman until Palmotti and Grey took over the title.
Also, as far as the return of Hal and Parallax, back in the 90’s everyone fucking hated the “Hal went nuts and killed the corps.” saga. Then someone finally retcons it, people hate the retcon. I guess creators are Fucked if they do, and Fucked if they don’t.
Yeah that is a very good point. In fact, it makes a lot more sense to me now why I’m constantly dropping titles. Loyalty is a key element in storytelling. Your committed to seeing the story thru. You want to invest your time in it, and hoping the fans will invest their lives/money into as well. Brubaker has been writing Captain America for awhile so I guess there’s still some writers that wanna keep the tradition…
I’ve been know to pick up a book for its character, writer, or artist(although in the 80’s, I was all about the character, and in the 90’s, I was all about the artist) but these days at the age of 34, a writer is the only one that will get me to stay. I can read a book featuring a character or artist that I don’t like, but if the writing is bad, my favorite character or artist is going to have a tough time keeping me around.
Sorry, one more.
http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/two_more_conversations_we_could_be_having_hc_edition/