Entertainment Update

[lithera]

Well, the Superman movie is still pretty dead but Ain't it Cool had some new stuff on it. And speaking of Superman, there is an article about him in TIME. I don't think I like it, really. I think even if we have changed, Superman should still be the same sort of guy. It is the job of the person writing him to make it so we can relate with him. He shouldn't suddenly have a 'dark side'. He isn't Batman and he shouldn't be. That would be stupid.

There are a /lot/ of negative reviews coming in about Troy from the college screenings going on around the country. It makes me nervous but I'm still going to go see it. Anyone else want to come on Friday?

Here is the logo for Pixar's last collaboration with Disney - Cars.

The Pink Panther remake has started. It might just save Steve Martin's career. It really makes me want to go watch Roxanne and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

For you FF junkies out there, there are rumors flying about that Cliff Curtis may be up for a role. No idea who.

According to Variety, Ving Rhames will topline and executive produce Night Train, the Sonny Liston biopic with James Woods, Alfre Woodard and Kristanna Loken also expected to star.

John C. McGinley is providing the voice of The Atom in the upcoming Justice League Unlimited. (He's on Scrubs.) The Atom will appear in at least two episodes of the show, one written by Warren Ellis and the other by J.M. DeMatteis.

And... that's it for now. Back to polishing up training for tomorrow.

Comments

[thezzyzx.livejournal.com]

"I think even if we have changed, Superman should still be the same sort of guy. It is the job of the person writing him to make it so we can relate with him. He shouldn't suddenly have a 'dark side'. He isn't Batman and he shouldn't be. That would be stupid."

Agreed. The reason I don't read Superman these days isn't that I don't think he's not relevant for these times. It's that they've changed him so much to make him relevant that the bits about him that I liked are gone.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I remember there being a time when I liked Superman and there are distinct efforts being made to make me like him again. I'm going through older things and remembering that there was something there I liked and realizing why I don't like the comic now.

[thezzyzx.livejournal.com]

Thanks for not noticing my quadruple negative there btw ;)

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Ehn. I am not grammar picky. Well, I am not picky when it comes to my personal journal, at least, and if you used full sentences and punctuation. Beyond that, I'm pretty flexible.

[deqlan.livejournal.com]

I like Smallville's take on Superman, a deeply moral person who's restraint and secrecy alienates him from the world he is supposed to care about. Of course, I have no idea where the story is now, in terms of his identity.

One does have to wonder how he works a 9-5, and no one notices those long cigarette breaks he takes while Superman is battling Brainiac downtown.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

I do too. I also like how that secrecy and restraint is what is slowly driving Lex evil. At the end ofthe last episode there was a moment where Lex laid it all out. Something about how he was thinking about this prophecy (about Clark, obviously) and how the bad guy wasn't really the bad guy. "He can fly and create intense heat with his eyes and is amazingly strong... I mean, you've got to be really brave to stand up against someone like that. I think he's the good guy." Or something like that.

[crispengray.livejournal.com]

Cliff Curtis looks like they'd cast him for Ben Grimm. Maybe.

Superman has a schitzo side.

[apestyle.livejournal.com]

Remember in the early 90s when Superman had a mental breakdown and dressed up as a vigalante all in a brown outfit with a nightstick?

Good times, good times.

[bastardchimp.livejournal.com]

Superman's the eternal boyscout. That's what makes him so great. And that's the product of a good upbringing. Parents with a good set of values and small-town living. He knows right from wrong and provides great ballast for a world that also has Batman in it, you know?

But, once in a while, it would be great to see how someone with good values and a knowledge of right and wrong handles a world that is so far away from those values. BIRTHRIGHT has been a great mini-series so far (if you've been keeping up with it) because it address things like that and his alien origin with class and heart.

SUPERMAN should stay as he's always been. Some characters need to stay 'innocent' as a sort of breath of fresh air.

Whereas other characters, Like Captain America, really need to keep up with the times. The recent creative team on Cap' has been doing a great job brining this man of 1940's patriotism into a world where patriotism is blurred and tarnished. And what happened? They got thrown off the book because people didn't like that they made Cap deal with real situations.

Very tough line to walk, that.

[leiden.livejournal.com]

Last I read of cap he was forced to kill a bunch of people on live TV and then he revealed his identity because he was sick of being the posterboy for a lie. I thought that was about the best I've ever seen Cap. So they went and switched the team, huh?

Stupid, stupid Marvel. They're slowly starting to get a couple of their titles right but they seemed determined to screw them up as fast as they can. See the Marvel Knights: Spider Man. I haven't read Spidey since they went clone-happy and then decided that Peter and Mary-Jane were "rash" in their decision to get married. Marvel Knights seems to have fixed this, I'm anxiously awaiting further titles.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

I'm really liking Amazing Spider-Man. I'm staying away from the Marvel Knights titles at the moment. I just dislike the seventy two titles per character thing... It makes me unhappy.

[leiden.livejournal.com]

I admit to having not read Amazing in a very very long time. Eventually it just started making me angry. Too many clones. So I gave up and then started hearing about M.J. dying (but that was just her clone), Pete and M.J. seperating...etc. It was too much of a slaugher of what I had known to consider going back.

I picked up Marvel Knights because those titles tend to be a little more adult and a little less prone to quick art/writing team changes. I tend to agree that one character should only have one title but Spidey broke that rule a long long time ago. As it stands, I'm able to start in with a new title from issue 1 and hope that it holds onto its quality.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Right now the guy who wrote Babylon 5 (JMS) is writing it and has been for quite some time. It's been a little too mystic recently for my tastes but I do like how he really understands his characters. Peter and MJ had problems but they're dealing with them. I've really, really liked it.

[bastardchimp.livejournal.com]

Well, no...recently Cap (under the team or Robert Morales writing and Chris Bacchallo on art) had to deal with the problem of Arab prisoners who escaped from Guantanimo to seek refuge in Cuba...They took along with them an Arab doctor who was detained simply because he 'fit the profile'. The story involves Castro and Nick Fury...Good stuff. Controversal, perhaps.

So what Marvel did...Well, they put a guy on that's gonna have cap fighting Hydra "just like the old days".

yeah.

[leiden.livejournal.com]

Goddammit.

[apestyle.livejournal.com]

According to Marvel's honcho, Joe Quesada, Cappy being political doesn't sell. People read comics for escapism, not to have a political agenda served to them. Sales dropped a lot.

[leiden.livejournal.com]

Joe Quesada can eat me. I like intelligent and political comics.

[ocicat.livejournal.com]

Did you buy it? I didn't... and mostly because ya, poltical thriller style stories bore me. But then I won't read about Cap vs. Hydra either, because the character bores me either way.

[bastardchimp.livejournal.com]

Go NOW (or, you know, when you can) to the comic store and pick up the Morales/Bachalo run on Captain America.

That's my recommendation.

[leiden.livejournal.com]

I don't know about Ellis writing for a TV series. I mean if it was an HBO thing like Spawn and the gloves were off, hell yeah. Warren Ellis can write dark, gritty and nasty like nobody else can imagine. I point to The Punisher: MAX title running right now. After seeing the combination of his writing and Tom Palmer's art, I wonder why they ever let anyone else do it (although I thought the Marvel Knights title was a little too silly for punisher).

Case in point: "It's Omaha Beach, Wounded Knee, Rorke's Drift, the Killing Fields, the first day on Somme. World War Three in New Jersey. And only now, pouring automatic fire into a human wall do I feel something like peace." -Punisher MAX #1

I mean, jeebus christmas. The darker the better for Ellis. Which is why I worry when they give him an episode of a syndicated TV show.

On the other hand, at least they're not giving it to Claremont. Someone needs to pull Claremont away from the X-Men plus every other comic in the world and fire him from a cannon. Preferrably into the sun. Let's see him pull a Phoenix after that shit. *pant pant* *snarl* Sorry.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

I'm sure Ellis doesn't ahve to be dark. He said he had a fun time writing the episode and that he thought he found a side of the character most people didn't look at... whatever that means.

[leiden.livejournal.com]

I'm sure he doesn't have to be but every time I've seen him try the lighter side of something it ends up being kinda twister. Like the "funny" issues of Preacher.

[leiden.livejournal.com]

"twisted"

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

How depressing, that they think Superman needs a makeover because he's an ordinary, decent person who is willing to sacrifice himself for others. What do they think most of the soldiers in Iraq are? Batman?

[engross.livejournal.com]

i hope steve martin is good. i also hope they eventually give spiderman the black costume that he had in some of the later comic books.