Cyclops: Follicularly Blessed, So Why Hide It?
Jul 31Today, I finally had a very important nerd breakthrough. I figured out exactly why the versions of Cyclops’ costume wherein his head is completely covered bother me so much.
Unpopular Opinions: I Hope That IS Emma Frost
Jul 29Our pal Rich at Comic by Comic has some Wolverine trailer footage up. Go see.
Also, over at io9, a detailed screenshot breakdown.
Done looking? OK. So lots of griping going on about which characters they’ve plunked into this movie. Now usually, I am not exactly slow to join the Bitching Chorus, particularly when it looks like MEAN OLD HOLLYWOOD has taken our precious geekiana and made it ALL WRONG.
But you know what? I hope that is Emma Frost.
“But it doesn’t make sense for…” Don’t care.
“But unless there’s a Hellfire Club explana–” Don’t care.
“But it completely fucks with all forms of continuity and changes The White Queen FUNDAMENTALLY and…” Don’tcaredon’tcaredon’tcare.
I want to see Emma Fucking Frost in a movie and I don’t really care how she gets there. Bring it.
The X-Files: I Want To Care
Jul 29I went to one of the first “official” X-Files conventions and it was pretty sad. There wasn’t really any merch to speak of, save for a glossy, overpriced poster featuring half a giant Mulder head and half a giant Scully head staring back at you, urging you to believe. I think one of the Big Two was supposed to be there, but canceled. We did get Cancer Man and Langly — the latter was especially cool, doing a spritely q&a session/improv exercise and fielding the usual “can I have a hug/a lock of your hair/YOUR IMMORTAL SOUL” queries with panache. There was an underlying frisson of excitement — the thrill of a new genre phenomenon coming into existence — but also the overwhelming sense that this entire event wasn’t very well-planned, that they just kind of threw a bunch of X-Files-y stuff into a room and assumed everyone would eat it up. And at the time, we were all too willing to do so. You know where I’m going with this, right? Because, damn…a lot sure has changed.
Warning: There are SPOILERS for the new X-Files movie behind the cut. Although you probably don’t even care about that, do you?
Middlegirl Bonding
Jul 21So I’m enjoying the hell out of The Middleman. The combination of oddness and earnestness, of clever quips and trout-happy zombies and twentysomething drama…it all hits me exactly the right way. I need to check out the comics, but I’m waiting ’til the show goes into reruns — that way (by my screwy math, anyway), I’ll be Middleman-less for a shorter period of time.
One of my favorite parts of the show, though, is an element I wasn’t expecting: the relationship between Wendy Watson and her performance artist roomie, Lacey. As initially presented in the pilot, Lacey seemed like a fairly predictable character construct: kinda flaky, kinda annoying, easily distracted by the square jaw and pillow lips of The Middleman. I was anticipating lots of over-the-top performance art moments and eyeroll-provoking antics. What’s been developed in subsequent episodes is a lot deeper and loads more interesting. She’s a little wacky, but she’s not just wacky. She cares about Wendy, she misses her neglectful mom, and she’s more observant than people give her credit for. She has a soul. And the friendship between her and Wendy is really great — I think it would have been easy to make Wendy constantly fed up with her or just kind of above her various hijinx, but instead, they have a real bond. They feel like real friends, like Buffy and Willow — different people, but with a core of sameness that bonds them.
It’s tough to find a girl friendship on TV that feels that way. It’s nice to see on this show. Keep it up (and please, please don’t have a guy come between them).
Trailer Made
Jul 18We fankids get so invested in trailers. They present a lot of different issues for us to…decide on. Are we pants-pissingly excited for this film or are we just…pissed? Does this actor look like a good match for such-and-such comic book role? Does Mulder look too old? Does Nite Owl look fat enough? The judgments start from the very first frame.
And yet, sometimes trailers aren’t a very accurate gauge. The Phantom Menace had a fantastic trailer, and we all know how that turned out. So, you know, just to give a hypothetical, is it really worth our time to get into an IM argument with someone over exactly how kick-ass/un-kick-ass the Watchmen trailer is?
Apparently, it is, because that’s what I spent yesterday doing! (For the record: I think it looks cool, Husband Jeff not convinced.)
Things got a little dicey, though, because my opponent tried to present The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as an example of a “good” trailer that made for a shitty movie. I was so offended by this, I went and looked up said trailer, because in my opinion? This is one case where the trailer told you EXACTLY how shitty the movie would be.
Every bad call, every wrong decision pulsates through its 1:26 running time. The muggy quips that fall flat, the clunky CG, the hamminess of The Connery. It’s all there, right down to the part where the name is too long for them to say out loud, so they shorten it to “The League.”
Here’s hoping that the Watchmen clip (which I still think is super-swell) is an equally accurate barometer of the film’s ultimate quality.
(On a semi-related note: did you know you can follow Rorschach on Twitter? Get to it!)
