Watchman Trailer
Posted on August 1, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Wow — the trailer for “The Watchman” looks amazing!
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Comic-Con 2008
Posted on July 23, 2008 at 6:00 pm
I’m getting ready for one of my favorite events of the year, Comic-Con in San Diego.
It began in 1970 with a few dozen comic collectors swapping comics and stories. This year, all 125,000 passes were sold out long before this evening’s opening night. I always refer to it as the Iowa caucuses of popular culture and the LA Times calls “the World’s Fair for pop-culture aficionados” and “the Super Bowl of popcorn cinema.” This is where everything that will be cool a year or two from now in comics, gaming, movies, television, and music begins. The people who buy comics are a tiny fraction of the entertainment marketplace but they are hugely influential because they are fiercely independent — they don’t wait to see if something is considered cool before making up their minds — and even more fiercely passionate — if they like something, they will get the word out. I am always touched and inspired by the way so many of the attendees are completely comfortable in their fanboy geekdom and wear it proudly, knowing that next year the people who didn’t talk to them in high school will be following whatever trends they help to determine this year. But that may be because I am such a fangirl myself. 
Everyone will be there — from Deepak Chopra with his Virgin comics line to the people who come dressed up as superheroes and movie characters and collectors of arcane memorabilia to the stars of the new Watchman movie and the scholars from universities who write about what it all means and the people behind and on screen from all the biggest upcoming movies (including “The Hobbit.” “Clone Wars,” Disney’s next big animated release “Bolt,” and “City of Ember”) and television shows. Celebrities in attendance include the Mystery Science Theater guys, Seth Green, the original voice talents from top cartoons including the original Charlie Brown kids, Tori Amos, author Dean Koontz, Bill Murray, Steve Coogan, Method Man, Matt Groening (of “The Simpsons” and “Futurama”), and Triumph the Wonder Dog.
Keep checking, because I’ll be posting about my adventures. In the meantime, check out my pictures from 2006 and 2007.
Batman
Posted on July 21, 2008 at 8:00 am
B+| Lowest Recommended Age: | High School |
| MPAA Rating: | PG-13 |
| Profanity: | Some rude language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Social drinking |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Comic book violence and mayhem, some disturbing |
| Diversity Issues: | None |
| Date Released to Theaters: | 1989 |
The critical and box office success of The Dark Knight is a reminder to take another look at the last re-booted Batman
Dr. Horrible — This Weekend Only!
Posted on July 19, 2008 at 10:30 am
Until midnight tomorrow you can watch a new three-act musical from Joss Whedon (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Firefly”) online. It is the story of Dr. Horrible (a sensational Neil Patrick Harris) and his nemesis, the very manly Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion of “Firefly” and “Waitress”). And of course there is a girl, Felicia Day as Penny.
Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon says:
So you’ll have to forgive me if I lapse into slavish overpraise here for Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the utterly brilliant singing, dancing, Web-only action-adventure you and your brothers have cooked up. I hope it doesn’t sound like hyperbole when I say that Dr. Horrible is better than kittens and sunshine and cheese. Doled in three tantalizing, quarter-hour-long nuggets (the first two went up earlier this week, the conclusion debuts July 19), “Dr. Horrible” stars an impeccably dorky Neal Patrick Harris as a would-be supervillain who pines for his lovely laundromat crush, Penny (a luminous Felicia Day), while battling nemesis and rival Captain Hammer, a musclebound jerk played with idiot bravado by “Firefly’s” Nathan Fillion. Will Horrible create his freeze ray and earn his way into the Evil League of Evil? Will he get the girl? Tuneful, hilarious and, in typical Whedon fashion, unabashedly tender, the only thing wrong with Dr. Horrible is that the damn thing isn’t a regular series.
It has already inspired responses like this one from a would-be sidekick:
After Sunday night, it will be available only on DVD, so watch it online while you can! (NOTE: Brief mature material)
Women Critics on Superhero Movies
Posted on July 5, 2008 at 6:00 pm
The members of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists speak out on superhero movies. Are they just for boys?
MaryAnn Johanson, who’s carved her critic’s niche by taking superhero movies seriously, provides an introduction:
“Comic books and comic book movies ain’t just for boys anymore-if they ever were. The latest slew of superhero flicks, which began to come of age with 2000’s “X-Men,” have gotten increasingly sophisticated and now focus equally on the existential dramas of their heroes and the mythic arcs of their typically tragic stories as they do on slam-bang action…Today we’re seeing fantasy drama with an accent on the drama. Superhero movies are not longer lighthearted comedies dressed up in capes-as in 1978’s “Superman”-or expressions of over-the-top outrageousness-as in Jack Nicholson’s Joker in 1989’s “Batman,” for example. Even “Hancock,” which was marketed as a comedy, turns out to be more intensely dramatic than it is funny.
Lexi Feinberg comments, “I’d say they’re mythic. Adam Sandler movies represent the dumbing down of audiences much more than “Spider-Man” or “Batman”.”
The critics overwhelmingly chose “Iron Man” as the best recent superhero movie and hope for better superhero movies featuring women. The survey quotes my comment about Elektra and Catwoman: “they were made by people who don’t understand women, comics or movies.”