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Sunday, July 30, 2006
Merv and Chico

With Daredevil #87 Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark have convinced me that the certain "Brube noir magic" found in Scene of the Crime, Sleeper, Catwoman and other Brubaker books hasn't disappeared as the writer went exclusive to Marvel. The "Daredevil in jail" storyline did a great job of balancing gritty realism and exaggerated superhero nuttiness. It couldn't just be Matt Murdock in prison, there had to be Kingpin and Hammerhead. And Frank Castle. And then Bullseye shows up. Another creative team could have made this all seem crass but Brubaker's handle on Murdock's "voice" and Lark's stylized art created a certain atmosphere that made it work.

The story's last chapter was like a well done television season finale. Answers to big questions were given but then at the end there's a sequence that brings up even more questions (this Newsarama article talks to Brubaker about the end of the storyline). While it may be the last few pages of this comic that gets a lot of attention there's something I noticed at the beginning that only had me liking this comic more.

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That's right, Comedians of Comedy Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn are characters in the Marvel Universe and they're working on the wrong side of the law (they're pictured with fellow Comedian of Comedy Maria Bamford, who has yet to make an appearance in any comic).

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Danny Rand as Daredevil proves he is no fan of Just Shoot Me (my apologies to Mr. Lark for having to manipulate his art so it could fit on my blog).

Permanent Link: 8:16 PM | 0 comments

Thursday, July 27, 2006
Reggie Whatever



A bunch of Bay Area comedians got together to indulge Brent Weinbach's love of Disney Channel "tween" shows. It's an odd film with odd characters but there is some funny stuff in there. Arj Barker's wise speech to his students pretty much sums up the film: funny in that certain groan-inducing way.

Permanent Link: 11:36 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Leong: Man on the scene



Tim Leong's video diary of San Diego gives a good impression of what the con was like this year. Enjoy clips from the blogging panel, Jim "Robert Evans of Comics" Steranko, Ivan Brandon talking about 24seven and Kevin Church's true stories from the bathroom. The Eisners red carpet report has some nice moments, too.

Permanent Link: 2:59 PM | 0 comments

Recommended Reading: Batman #655

It's odd recommending a book from a big company starring a character everyone knows but I still feel the urge to tell people about Batman #655, by Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert. Arriving in stores tomorrow I can assure you that the first five pages of this comic contains more excitement than any Batman comic in the last ten or so years. The rest isn't too bad either. Morrison is doing something not too different than what he and Frank Quietly do in All-Star Superman. Even though this story is part of a continuing series in the DC Universe and Kubert, while a good artist, is a not a visionary like Quietly there's still this sense that Morrison has ignored all the baggage that comes with such an old and popular character and goes right for the most primal parts of Batman's character and story. The center of the story is Batman "learning to be Bruce Wayne again” and Morrison deals with it as smart as he deals with the Clark-Lois-Superman triangle in A-SS. There's even in a sequence that goes over the hours in Batman's day that reminded me a bit of the opening of A-SS #1 in how it goes over an important part of the character in a similarly quick but never rushed way.

If there's any specific group I would recommend this book to it is anyone else doing or wanting to do superhero comics. There's a lot to learn here about communicating the scope of a character and telling an interesting story about that character without ever needlessly dwelling on any one thing.

Permanent Link: 12:23 PM | 0 comments

Monday, July 24, 2006
I'm tired of these motherfuckin' crowds at this motherfuckin' convention!

At my most impatient I channeled my inner Samuel L. Jackson at the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con International. Even if you weren't there you certainly know by now how populated the con has gotten. By Saturday the convention had to turn away those who weren't pre-registered. Running all over the place while covering the con I sometimes felt that distress of time slipping away. You think two panels and a quick lunch will leave you plenty of time to see people you know on-line or meet creators you admire. Then walk from the convention floor to upstairs take place takes longer than you thought and that quick lunch that sounded so good becomes another mess when you see the line at the deli inside Ralph's. All these people, panels and exhibitors and it still feels like there isn't one significant news story, at least not in comics. It's not about big news or revelations for most attendees anyway, the teasing back-and-forth between creators and fans at the panels for Marvel and DC's universe spanning series prove that much. It's about finding the escapist faire you enjoy, horror films or role-playing games or whatever, and interacting with fellow fans as well as the people behind these projects. For those working in the entertainment industry SDCC offers a much more heightened (and stressful!) version of what they already do. But for most people SDCC is an inversion of their world. Escapism becomes the duty of the day and pretty soon you feel like reading the business section of the newspaper to relax a little. That business section will most likely have a piece on SDCC and “the nerd dollar,” though.

I probably gave myself too much to do and too little time to do it the first three days. The con started to become a blur. It certainly felt that way when I walked over the room 24B to see the crowd after the blogging panel (I missed the actual panel, covering Vertigo's showcase instead). I shake hands and say "hi" with people I only knew before as text and picture on a monitor but it’s for much too short a time. It was surreal to see Graeme McMillan, who lives down the street from me in San Francisco, for what I'm pretty sure is a total of three milliseconds. I wish it was more but everyone at the con, professional or no, is being pulled in three different directions at once.

One panel that did make me forget about Nerd Rush '06 was the Fantagraphics 30th Anniversary panel. Gary Groth, Kim Thompson, Mike Catron, Dan Clowes, Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez all seemed to have a fun time recalling the early days of putting together a comic company that didn't have much of a plan except that they wanted more quality comics. I learned that Groth used to drive an ice cream truck in the early days of the company, a thought that made me smile for the rest of the weekend.

The nights were more fun, though. Friday night I got see Church in all his glory. The sight and sound of him arguing with drunk UCLA students about the merits of Alex Ross is one of those perfect “San Diego moments” that I come to the con for. Standing on a crowded Broadway St. that erupted into cheers when Stormtrooper Elvis rode past in a rickshaw was another wonderful memory, which could only improve if he was riding in the rickshaw that was blasting the Star Wars theme.

Coming into Sunday rested and alert (I saw a production of Jesus Christ Superstar with old friends I hadn’t seen in fifteen years) was way better than coming into Saturday hungover and tired. I actually got a lot more work done there, both professionally and as a fan, than I think did all through Thursday to Saturday. All before 2:30 as well, for Kid Chris and I needed to catch a train back to Ventura. Talking to Eddie Campbell about blogging made up for missing the panel on the subject. I loved the quote he had from a friend who professionally reviewed comics, comparing what he does to bloggers who write of comics for free on their own: “I feel like a prostitute in a world of nymphomaniacs.” Brett Warnock and Melinda Gebbie were super-nice people as well. Lost Girls was a big success at the con. They had a mountain of 500 books and she was visibly surprised when she turned around to see that most had been sold by Sunday. From what I saw I think Alan Moore will be working with Top Shelf for a long time to come, with little of the struggles he has had with other publishers.

If I go back next year it will probably just be for two days and only as a fan. I’m not the kind of person who likes big crowds and I tend too worry too much about being rude when I have to leave someone abruptly for another booth or internet-friend. The idea of a more subdued Comic-Con experience sounds nice but then I realize that next year the crowds will get even larger. The popular booth on the floor then will be holding a contest for whoever does the best impression of Charlton Heston in Soylet Green.

Permanent Link: 6:44 PM | 0 comments

Tuesday, July 18, 2006
The more you try to erase me, the more I appear

More work for me is more videos for you. I've been enjoying Thom Yorke's The Eraser for the past few days so wasn't I happy when two performances by Yorke from The Henry Rollins Show showed up on YouTube. The versions of the songs performed here, "The Clock and "Cymbal Rush," are actually very different from what's on the album. The idea that any song from that album could be performed with just an acoustic guitar and voice amazes me and I think the way "Cymbal Rush" is played here is better than the album version (and hey, that's Johnny Greenwood backing-up his bandmate).

"The Clock"


"Cymbal Rush"

Permanent Link: 6:36 AM | 0 comments

Monday, July 17, 2006
Why isn't this show on DVD?

Like most people in the comics industry I'm gearing up for San Diego, which causes all kind of stress in me. Posting will be light here so in lieu of nothing, how about we all enjoy Tom Waits's appearance on Fernwood 2Nite?


Permanent Link: 4:20 PM | 3 comments

Friday, July 14, 2006
Everything is Going to Be Okay

As a companion to my A Scanner Darkly post I will direct to you to the first 24 minutes of the film (requires age verification kiddies).

I've seen a mix of opinions on the film. Some critics who disliked the film weren't getting into the very concept of the film, Owen Gliebman from Entertainment Weekly's review is an example, while others liked Dick's ideas but weren't won over by Linklater's adaptation. Both are valid reactions to the film but I still enjoyed how Linklater took this specific style of filmmaking and used it both toward making a political point and depicting a character's breakdown.

Permanent Link: 12:54 PM | 4 comments

Thursday, July 13, 2006
Video day

You thought Alan Moore on a British children's show was strange enough? Be prepared for when The Smiths and Sandie Shaw take a quick trip on Charlie's Bus.

UK Youngling: Where are we going?
Morrissey: We're going mad.



And here is the closest we'll get to a Superman Returns review by Grant Morrison.


Permanent Link: 11:27 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Quick Post, Genius Idea

Usually it is Mike who regales one and all with anecdotes from his store. While I certainly don't want to encroach on anyone's bogging territory I felt I must immediately share this observation made by employee/future San Francisco resident Pope Nathan

PN: The new Transformers film should be directed by Wes Anderson, not Michael Bay.

Yes. Strike that. FUCK yes. Whatever the auteur behind Armageddon is cooking up it will pale in comparison to the quirky angst that would arise between Optimus Prime (Bill Murray) and Bumblebee (Luke Wilson). If we can get a chase scene set to Weird Al’s “Dare to be Stupid” in the animated film surely the live action rendition of the war between Autobots and Decepticons can be feature songs by British Invasion bands.

Permanent Link: 4:18 PM | 0 comments

Smart Creative People are Fun

John Brion has become the ultimate “behind the scenes” guy for music and film today. He’s composed soundtracks for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and a couple of P.T. Anderson films. He’s also overseen albums by Fiona Apple and Kanye West. His shows at L.A. club The Largo have been received high praise. I’ve enjoyed his music but I was really impressed when I heard him on Sound Opinions talking so intelligently about his career and his view on music (he appears on show #32). Hearing him talk about the difference between a “song” and a “performance piece” by invoking Led Zeppelin, Kurt Cobain and Gershwin gave me something to mull over for the rest of the day. Maybe it’ll do the same for you.

I’ve been reading the aspecialthing.com interview with Louis C.K. in sections and continued to enjoy reading C.K.’s speak about trying to come up with his own take on comedy while still being a crowd pleaser. The fourth section features a really inspiring bit about how he really improved his stand-up by just going for broke when all other showbiz options seemed over. The whole interview is one of those great long Comics Journal or Playboy pieces that stand-up comics don’t usual get. I’m glad to see C.K. get this chance to share his ideas on entertainment.

Permanent Link: 10:03 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Wouldn’t You Miss Me At All?

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Syd Barrett, founder of Pink Floyd, dead at 60

When Syd Barrett disappeared the myths of being a genius/madman took over. There was a romance about the story of this man who started what would become one of the most popular rock bands in history, quit or pushed out because of erratic behavior fueled by LSD intake, recorded a few solo albums that brought everyone who listened to them intimately close to what a mental breakdown can feel like and was never heard from again. It was a myth that haunted Pink Floyd long after bassist Roger Waters had taken the reigns. The shadow looms largest with the song “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” and the album The Wall’s story of a rock star losing his mind. When the most successful line-up of Pink Floyd reunited and played the Live 8 festival last year Waters was sure to invoke Barrett when they started playing “Wish You Were Here.”

Rock music needs its legends. The lionization based around a man’s emotional difficulties might seem sick and indeed that’s a valid point to argue. But you can’t forget that when a group of music fans spin Piper at the Gates of Dawn and trade wild tales of what that crazy diamond must have been like that it’s behavior coming from a sincere affection for this great music. Barrett was leading Pink Floyd into the creation of psychedelic rock. It wasn’t entirely new territory for those who had heard The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, and indeed that band’s Roky Erickson shares a similar life story to Barrett, but Pink Floyd was where blues-based British rock music grew into something more introverted, more experimental and ultimately more creative. Barrett was there at the center of it playing that clear guitar that had the multi-colored stage lights passing through it like a prism (notice the album cover for Dark Side of the Moon) as he bore this crazed sound out of guitar and wah-wah pedal. When Barrett left that all behind the fans had to invent a persona to go along with the beautiful terror they’d hear on “Interstellar Overdrive” or the sweet sorrow of “Dark Globe” from Barrett’s first solo album The Madcap Laughs. Now the real person behind those songs and accomplishments is gone. Perhaps the Cult of Syd will only grow stronger now. As long as people can still hear this music I can’t see why it shouldn’t.

Permanent Link: 11:31 AM | 0 comments

Monday, July 10, 2006
Everything Is Not Going to be Okay

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The Onion: Have you thought about how the events of Sept. 11 might change the way you make movies?

Richard Linklater: I don't think so. I'm not working on any terrorist scripts or anything.


-From an interview in 2001 (P.S. there might be spoilers in this post)

The first thing we see in A Scanner Darkly is a hallucination. Bugs are crawling all over Charles Freck (Robbie Cochrane) and no matter how hard he cleans he and his dog are still covered in aphids. With the technique Linklater uses in this film thousands of animated bugs crawl over the characters onscreen, who are played by live actors but are then processed so they are then a part of animation. We are seeing something real and unreal at the same time, not unlike the Substance D-induced experience Freck is going through. What we are seeing can never be trusted and since in the world of A Scanner Darkly, which is only a slight exaggeration of our own; everything can be seen nothing can be trusted.

When I read Philip K. Dick’s book a few years ago what captivated me the most was the sense of desolation Dick had instilled in the lives of his drug-addled characters. This wasn’t one of his books dealing with robots, aliens or parallel worlds. The only sci-fi touches in the story are the scramble suits undercover cops like “Fred”/Bob Arctor (played by Keanu Reeves in the film) wears and a short sequence involving Freck’s suicide. Most of the book, certainly the aspect that I most responded to, was the accurate depiction of what a suburban drug addict’s world is like, with all the tragedy, comedy but mostly boredom that entails. Arctor’s brain is splitting him into two different people making him a man who personified the split between the “straight” worlds of law enforcement and that of the “freaks.” The law was so out of it in the ‘70s, with nothing much changing since but we’ll get to that later, that they thought the junky world that Dick was a part of were enemy number one. The greatest scene in the film is when Arctor, James Barris (Robert Downey Jr.) and Ernie Luckman (Woody Harrelson) are at their most paranoid, convinced someone has broken into their house and that their privacy has been violated. Their bumbling reaction to the would-be intruder, they’re so right they’re wrong, proves they are only a threat to themselves and how bizarre it is for Arctor’s other side to spend so much time and money surveying these people and considering them such a threat. If these lives are so pathetic what does that make those who are voyeurs into these lives?

The addicts’ side of the story is in fine form as it takes up the first 2/3rds of the film. Linklater’s talent in depicting low key human behavior that rings so very true, as seen in Slacker, Dazed and Confused and Waking Life which first employed this animation technique, serves him well as Reeves, Downey and Harrelson form their “Three Stooges on Ecstasy” routine. They are some very funny scenes as the gears on a bicycle and later a car’s engine confounds these three grown men. We never get an objective view of life in A Scanner Darkly so it would make sense that what would irritate the players in the show are mechanical systems that are not open for debate. Debating, philosophizing and just being gabby is what Arctor, Barris, Luckman, Freck and Donna Hawthorne (Winona Ryder) like to do the best although their logic only makes sense to them, if that. My personal experiments in substances were hardly notable but I was still whisked back, with some embarrassment, to lazy stoned days after school with several friends and me getting into the most boneheaded of discussions. Downey provides the best performance here as a fast-talking shyster of a man. Harrelson plays off him well being just as slow as Downey is fast. Reeves is the de facto leader of their group and you can see him stew in anger at the stupidity of his cohorts. Reeves may get a lot jokes at his acting talent’s expense but while he certainly offers no great range he is good at playing a confused and bewildered everyman. It worked in the beginning of The Matrix and it works very well here as Arctor and “Fred” split into two people.

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The world “Fred” lives in is meant to be an ideal against Arctor’s world, celebrated by a group of Orange County conservatives early in the film. Here the scramble suit worn by cops working for private drug enforcement agency Newpath has the people in them float through all possible configurations of the human body. It is the most impressive part of a visually rich film. Newpath can see every face on the planet but for their employees to be above such surveillance they must wear the face of everyone on the planet. Linklater’s text follows Dick’s faithfully; Freck’s suicide even comes complete with a narration directly from the book. But put in the context of a film released in 2006 as opposed to a novel released in 1977 and we see similarities and differences in subtext. The ideas about Big Brother’s watchful eye were certainly present in Dick’s novel but I felt it more prominent here, with a reference to tapped cell phone conversations appearing fairly early on. When Barris and Freck go to fetch the ingredients for some homemade cocaine the scene is sped up and looks like a fast forwarded tape made by a security camera. Barris is an informant of a different variety than Arctor and when he is talking to “Fred” and his boss “Hank” he is unafraid to paint his so-called friends as a “terrorist cell.” It may have taken a few years but I think Sept. 11th and the ensuing mishandled and corrupt War on Terror has influenced Linklater’s work. The animation in the film puts a deliberate layer of distance between us and the action were are seeing, making everyone in the audience someone scanning for activity. Arctor ruminates that if the scanner surveying him is not seeing things clearly then no one can find something tangible to make sense of his life because we certainly can’t. As we see the painted shell on Reeves wiggle and convulse we realize that we cannot find any solid truth either.

This political side of the story creeps underneath the film at first but by the third act it has come to the forefront. This is where the human drama Linklater establishes pays off and perhaps affords this film a second viewing. For most of the film we see Arctor and Hawthorne enter into something resembling a relationship, albeit one that is far more complicated than it should be due to both participants’ altered lives. We find out at the end that “Hank,” the boss of “Fred,” has Hawthorne only faking her drug addiction (or was she?). In the scramble suits the two talk to each other in cold voices not far from sound of the device Stephen Hawking uses to communicate with. Outside of the suits they are two damaged people but at least they are two damaged people who sound like they have some affection for each other. The climax of the film has Arctor freaking out when “Hank” is informing him that he will be sent to one of Newpath’s treatment facilities. The strength and weaknesses in the film are both on display in this key scene. The distortion of the scramble suit grows more severe as Arctor loses his grip on his life. At the same time we hear “Hank” give a long speech where I could just imagine the blocks on type on the screenplay. Linklater’s dependence on dialogue that worked so well before gives out as it must tackle exposition. It got to the point where I couldn’t pay attention to what the character was saying anymore and just concentrated on the psychedelic look of the person speaking to me. I felt like I was on drugs myself being lectured to by a cop and perhaps that’s the point. The final scenes of the film have the two sides of Hawthorne come together as she tries to find some way to help Arctor while he is transported to one of Newpath’s ranches in Northern California. The Methadone technique, introduced by the Nixon administration while Dick was first starting his drug career, is contemplated in the film’s final scenes.

The film ends with the most powerful section of Dick’s book recreated as text on screen. Dick lists his comrades who have fallen in the War on Drugs. Linklater has made a film for a time where a similar never-ending and destructive war has bolstered the government’s power to spy on its citizens for the crime of recreation.

Permanent Link: 6:10 PM | 0 comments

Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Fueled by Pocky

I covered the recent Anime Expo for PWCW. When I covered the Yaoi-Con late last year I got the sense of being out of place because I felt no connection to the material celebrated there. This weekend was much different. There was a wide enough variety of manga and anime that there was plenty to get me excited. Viz’s Golgo 13 program and two of Del Rey’s titles, Eternal Sabbath and Q-Ko-Chan (by Ueda Hajime, the artist on the FLCL books, whose work I learned sells better in the U.S. than it does in Japan), are all books I am interested in. I saw some cool anime titles that actually got me browsing Netflix’s database when I got back to my laptop (I still have to see Neon Genesis Evangelion). My fandom is miniscule compared to a lot of people at that con, though. The outpouring of enthusiasm I witnessed was a real shock compared to the comic conventions I’ve been to that were dominated by American content.

I had seen giant booths on convention floors before, such as DC Comics’ booth at San Diego every year, but I didn’t expect crowds of people around ADV’s two-story booth shouting “A! D! V!” while trying catch the free stuff being thrown out to the crowd. I hadn’t seen live performances like the one Pata witnessed on Saturday (Pata’s coverage of the con on a whole is worth reading). Nor do I recall seeing what had to be close to half the attendees in costume, various costumes for various days in some cases and many elaborate ones at that, to let everyone know what their favorite property was. My favorite costume was the guy who dressed up as an iPod, although the person dressed as a box of Pocky comes in at a close second. The biggest difference between what I saw here and what I saw at San Diego last year and WonderCon earlier this year is the presence of female fans. There are plenty of female fans at those other two conventions but so much of the content and atmosphere of the anime and manga at AX was geared especially towards female consumers. Talking to officials I discovered that AX’s growth over its fifteen years was due to younger readers, many of them female, discovering manga as favorite reading material at a young age. I've seen kids fill the aisles of the manga section at Borders now I was seeing the phenomena taken to a higher level.

I actually witnessed what could be seen as a microcosm for the evolution of manga/anime fandom as I covered two panels in the same room. At Dark Horse’s panel there seemed to be about an even split between male and female fans, with older men asking a lot of the questions to the panel. Editors such as Carl Horn talked about their samurai books and even mentioned their new acquisition Satsuma Gishiden as their “manliest yet.” The properties they discussed were some of the first published in the U.S. like Oh! My Godess and Blade of the Immortal, all appearing in a flipped format. Seeing the change in the room as the Shojo Beat panel started was hard not to notice. Now you had lots of teenage girls and some guys, many in costume, cheering in delight when the editors announced new serials in their magazine, now in color, like Princess Princess and Vampire Knight. Questions were dominated by fans asking when the titles they already read through scanlations will be picked up. Almost every panel I saw had a few editors with a pen and notebook taking down all the suggestions that were offered. The Dark Horse panel was smart, Horn speaks very eloquently on manga in America, but the Shojo Beat panel had an air of excitement I hadn’t seen at a comics convention. At the end the editors gave out freebies for those with stickers under their chairs. As I was walking out I saw men and women on their hands and knees desperately looking under not only their own chairs but any unoccupied seats. When have you seen Marvel do that to a crowd? This kind of difference might be nothing new to some people but I've only seen it on such a large scale recently.

To keep using San Diego as my comparison point to AX, imagine if the comics side of SDCC had as much excitement attached to it as the movie side of SDCC. I couldn’t make it to the con in time to see CLAMP’s appearance but the reports I got sounded not too different when a movie star or big time director make an appearance at Hall H at the San Diego Convention Center. I think American comics are on an upswing compared to five or ten years ago but because the audience is older the appreciation from fans is more muted and perhaps a bit more jaded. The fandom I saw in Anaheim had something close to that bursting spirit I had heard about whenever a bunch of older comics/sci-fi fans get together. Perhaps in a decade or so when manga fans get older and let careers and family life deplete their fan intensity we’ll hear similar nostalgia-tinged stories.

Permanent Link: 12:47 PM | 0 comments

Saturday, July 01, 2006
Have you heard of this film yet?

Why the World Needs Superman Returns (there might be spoilers)

Superman saving the experimental plane is one of the best action scenes I've ever seen. It had the right amount of suspense and excitement throughout. Superman flying through debris while Lois is bouncing around (although we should have seen some bruises on her at the end, she was being jerked around pretty violently) is why people see superhero films.

The other action scenes were well done but suffer in comparison to the first. Seeing a bullet bounce off Superman’s eyeball was a great image and the audience I saw it with gave that sequence quite the reaction. The ending worked as one of those drawn out superhero endings, with Superman saving Metropolis from destruction being the most impressive.

Brandon Routh did a great job as the sincere "boy scout" type, both as Superman and Clark Kent.

Kevin Spacey turned in the best performance in the film as Lex Luthor. He could go from being a funny villain to a scary villain in no time and good Lex Luthor should be capable of being both.

Frank Langella was believable and likable as a man who’s seen it all but still has some wonder about this strange visitor from another place.

Kumar beats up Superman. I liked that for some reason.

Why the World Doesn't Need Superman Returns

Parker Posey and Kate Bosworth should have switched roles. Posey plays this villain's moll who I don't think was even in the comics and she was more memorable than Bosworth's bland-to-unlikable Lois Lane.

The whole plotline with Lois's family and especially that kid could have been thrown out to streamline the film. The two and half-hour film did feel bloated at times. With all this soap opera nonsense being weak it should have been the first thing crunched down in the editing room.

I'll stop with the Lane-bashing but the writers shoehorned that kid in so awkwardly it just made the plotline less likable. No one has their kid with them at the office that much unless they're trying to win "least liked employee of the month". So of course the mother goes and puts the kid in danger by bringing him on Lex Luthor's boat. It's hard to like a character when you know she's probably one of those people who bring her kid to see R-rated movies with her.

Small things that shouldn't bother me but did: I believe Jimmy Olsen doesn't know what coordinates on a map are but not Perry White, a man who supposedly has been covering world affairs for many years. I believe appeal courts don't call witnesses but I might be wrong. Not enough of Kumar beating up Superman.

The film was good but not without its flaws. Hopefully those will be fixed in the sequel now that Bryan Singer and crew have already made the point that Superman is Jesus or whatever the were trying to do. This film had re-worked material of Marlon Brando, is too much to hope for that Richard Pryor gets similar treatment next?

Permanent Link: 9:00 AM | 0 comments

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