Broken Glass Makes Me Laugh

Baking with Batman

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:09:00 +0000

This made me chuckle:More here.

David Mamet on visual storytelling

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:37:00 +0000

I'm reading David Mamet's Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business, and I came across this passage about visual storytelling. He's talking about movies, but I think it relates pretty well to comics, too. It starts off as a discussion of Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, but that's just context, the third paragraph is the important one:

...Hitchcock designs each sequence magnificently. There is no "master, over, close-up" about it. Each sequence is designed around its particular theme and purpose in the unfolding story. Once could easily label them, e.g., alarm, suspicion, second thoughts, challenge, remorse. It may be the world's best silent film, undiminished even by the addition of dialogue.

Why are silent films potentially better?

The perfect film is the silent film, just as the perfect sequence is the silent sequence. Dialogue is inferior to picture in telling a film story. A picture, first as we know, is worth a thousand words; the juxtaposition of pictures is geometrically more effective. If a director or writer wants to find out if a scene works, he may remove the dialogue and see if he can still communicate the idea to the audience.

Ancient theological wisdom put it thus: "Preach Christ constantly - use words if you must."

I've heard that suggestion before, to watch movies with the sound off to see if you can still follow the storytelling, though I've never done it, because, seriously, who has the time (and patience)? But I'm always meaning to look at my comics the same way, skipping the words and just reading the images to see how the artist tells the story. The only artist whose work I've ever made time to do that for is Sean Phillips. I don't know why I do it with his work and not any of the other dozens of artists on my shelves. Maybe it's the starkness of his drawings, or his cinematic approach, I don't know, but I should really start paying attention to what other people are doing, too.

I am so glad I don't know how to do this...

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:31:00 +0000

...because if I did, I'd spend all my time making my own little action figure movies.

The entire video is done so well, and looks really professional, from the motion blur in the opening, to the way the camera moves, to the laser special effects. The music and the choreography are pretty good, too.

The same person who made this has another series up as well, in the format of some kind of YouTube game. The game isn't particularly interesting, but the images of Batman and the Joker dancing crack me up. (On a side note, I really, really, really loathe the ads that show up on the videos on YouTube now, particularly because they're ON the videos).

Pack it in, nothing you ever do will be as awesome as this

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 04:40:00 +0000

At least I don't have to go to the movies anymore, now that I've seen the peak of cinema:

Is there any such thing as celebrating too early?

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 01:01:00 +0000

Remember the consternation about Usain Bolt's celebrating his win before the end of the race? Well, it hasn't stopped him:

The fastest boy alive

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 05:25:00 +0000

My brother's always buying hockey clothes for my sister's older kid. Being an athlete himself, I think he'd like to see my nephew take up sports. I got to thinking that I should get my say in from the comics side of things, so I bought this outfit for him:

"Time to get to work."

Hockey player or superhero? I know what I'd choose, but hey, it's up to him. I just want the kid to have options.

I almost didn't buy this costume for him because I thought, "Well, Hallowe'en's so far off." But then I remembered that when you're two, you can wear stuff like this anytime, anywhere and it's fine. Nobody cares that a two year old is at the mall dressed like the Flash. Just one more disadvantage of growing up, I guess.

Let's start the year off right

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:48:00 +0000

I posted Matt Harding's last "Where the Hell is Matt" video once before, but in order to get the full effect of the actual content of today's post, I think you need to watch it again, so here:

The lyrics for the song in this video are from a poem by Rabindranath Tagore. This is "Stream of Life":

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

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And here's a link to a more recent video in which Matt Harding explains how he is an actor and he faked the whole video (but not really).

It's New Year's Eve, so party like you're in Sweden's pants

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:30:00 +0000

I've watched this video way more times that I should have over the past two weeks, and I still laugh each time. Now it is my gift to you. Go into the new year with a hearty viking belly laugh:

If Superman were in The Dark Knight

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:01:00 +0000

This'll make you laugh:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

The Glorious Mane of Michael Bay

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:48:00 +0000

Okay, while I still think Michael Bay is a bit of a tool*, this video makes me want to be him:

It's all the pointing that makes me love it.

*To be fair, not really. He might be perfect lovely as a human being, I just don't like his work.
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Here's the pitch: Someone sets up a Twitter account as Michael Bay, and they post regular updates as if from the mind of the man himself. Hilarity ensues. Here's a sampling:

Fuck you. 11:21 AM September 29, 2008 from web
No. Seriously. Fuck You. 11:22 AM September 29, 2008 from web
Boom. That's it. That's all you need to know. 11:40 AM September 29, 2008 from web
If Im groggy in the am I get a triple venti espresso from starbucks and dump it on the first homeless person I see in downtown LA. It works. 08:25 AM October 02, 2008 from web
Right now, I am combing my hair. Holy hell it's a breathtaking mane. 09:46 AM October 02, 2008 from web
Would you describe my jaw as chiseled or cut from the finest marble man has ever quarried? 01:55 PM October 03, 2008 from web
This is the worst commute EVER. I'm buying a faster helicopter. 08:46 PM October 03, 2008 from web
C4 was not enough. That's what I invented C5. DOUBLE BOOM. 12:57 PM October 08, 2008 from web
I make all of my own furniture. Out of dynamite. 01:45 PM October 07, 2008 from web

The Dark Knight meets Toy Story

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:44:00 +0000

There's a bunch of these trailer mashups out there for the Dark Knight trailer, but this one's worth pointing out. It starts out okay, but I think it really comes together after the bit with Mr. Potato Head.

If you click through on the video, you can watch it in higher definition at YouTube.
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While we're on the topic of The Dark Knight, I spotted this image on Digg today, under the title, "Why Halloween Will Suck This Year":

God, that's awful. The thought of these clowns (ha!) roaming the streets is enough to make me want to stay inside that whole week with the door locked and the curtains drawn. It's going to be like the 'Year of the Borats' a couple of Halloweens back.

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I don't know what's worse, though, all those guys above, or this prefab Joker costume being sold in stores now:

What is that? The Joker as played by Rodney Dangerfield? "I told that last joke to my wife and she didn't laugh. Why so serious? I tell ya, I get no respect." Someone should get those guys that make the burgers look so good on Wendy's commercials to use their wizardry to make this costume look halfway decent.

Bono is a harsh and unforgiving god

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:13:00 +0000

This is pretty funny:

Flash photography

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:16:00 +0000

Okay, fine, I'll admit it: some photos are better with a Flash.

I didn't make this*, and I don't know where it came from, but I love it.

*I did make a small colour adjustment on the hand, though. Not sure whether I should messing with someone else's work, uncredited though it may be.

I spotted Plastic Man in a Toronto subway station last week

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 21:15:00 +0000

Sorry the quality of my photo isn't so great, but I didn't want to blow his cover.

Summer Comic-Movie Review: The Dark Knight

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 23:04:00 +0000

It’s been over a week since I saw the Batman movie and I’m still trying to come up with something intelligent to add to the conversation beyond, “Joker = good = Oscar. AmIrite?” The short version is that the movie is good, almost as good as everyone says it is. This is the Batman movie that gets is right, the one that we’ve (or maybe just “I’ve”) been waiting for. The Dark Knight is the best Batman movie to date (not that the competition in that arena is too fierce), and it’s one of the four or five best superhero movies made so far. This is a well thought out movie and it requires a well thought out response.

(Minor spoilers ahead)

The movie overcomes a lot of the problems I had with Batman Begins. Superhero movies, like any adaptation, are a tightrope act. The best adaptations demonstrate an understanding of the source material without being a slave to it; they show something new, while staying within the boundaries of the characters and their world. You can’t have Batman firing lasers out of his fingertips or detaching his head and throwing it at someone, but the same old kicking and punching isn’t going to cut it either. Movies like X2, Iron Man, and even the Blade series, succeed because they know what to keep from the comics, and how to use film to do things that comics can't. The failing of Batman Begins was that it didn’t show me anything I hadn’t seen before. They got the character right, but none of it was new. Batman Begins had no moments that made me sit up and say, “Yes. Exactly.”

The Dark Knight is chock-a-block full of those moments. I was smiling right through the first half of the movie (you know, until it got serious). The entire sequence in Hong Kong, to take one example, is perfect, from the rooftop preparations (which finally made me accept that the armour is a better choice (aesthetically and practically) than the cape and cowl of the comics), to the glide (which takes my least favourite aspect of the previous movie (the fucking gliding) and makes it awesome), to the fighting (showing how scary having Batman come after you would be), to the escape (pure Batman; a perfect combination of planning and daring. The WTF look on the cops’ faces says it all). The fighting in the building is just one of the many satisfying beatings Batman lays down in this movie, another great one being at the nightclub where Batman cuts a swath through mob goons, pummelling his way to Maroni. Nolan leaves behind the choppy Bourne-style fights of the first movie and pulls the camera back to let us watch the beatdowns in full. They have to use the first act to make Batman look cool, because he spends the rest of the movie getting punked.

The centre of the movie is, of course, Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker. Ledger’s Joker is a magnetic presence, and he lights up the screen whenever he appears. Just as Jack Nicholson's Joker is (undeservedly) held up as a classic, Ledger's performance here is one for the ages. The movie falters around the midpoint after a catastrophic death, and doesn’t fully recover until Ledger reappears in the hospital at Harvey Dent’s bedside. Ledger disappears under the Joker’s tics, mannerisms, and vocal intonations. If I hadn’t known who was playing the role, I’d never have been able to identify him. Hell, I still can’t see him in there even though I know who it is.

The writing plays just as important a part in defining the character. Each of the Joker’s speeches is perfect in the insight they give into his psyche. I particularly liked the bit where he explains his capriciousness by saying he’s like a dog chasing after cars, and that he wouldn’t know what to do if he caught one. When he started telling the (admittedly terrific) story of how his father gave him his scars I was disappointed that they’d nailed him down to a single origin, and then overjoyed when he gives a different explanation later in the movie. In one of several parallels with The Killing Joke, this bit of dialogue mirrors a line from that story in which the Joker says, “Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another... If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice.” Grant Morrison also has this terrific line in Arkham Asylum, in which a psychologist theorizes:

Unlike you and I, the Joker seems to have no control over the sensory information he's receiving from the outside world. He can only cope with the chaotic barrage of input by going with the flow. That's why some days he's a mischievous clown, others a psychopathic killer. He has no real personality. He creates himself each day.

(clipped from Adherents.com)

Nolan deserves much of the credit for taking this daring approach to the Joker. He abandons some of the traditional trappings of the character to give him a new, modern scariness. I was unsure about the Joker having face paint instead of white skin, but one of the opening lines describes it as “war paint,” which makes it make sense, and hints at the character’s savagery. The Joker’s appearance sets up an immediate and obvious contrast with Batman. The two characters’ masks make them inhuman, reducing (or elevating) them to archetypes or avatars. The clean and rigid lines of Batman’s armour are almost architectural, and reflect the order on the surface of the city, while the Joker’s scarred face and crumbling makeup suggest the underlying decay at Gotham’s soul.

Does anyone else hear the Bosom Buddies theme song when they look at this photo?

At the center of the story, between these two forces, is Harvey Dent. The dualism that pulls at him eventually manifests itself on his face. Dent is the true protagonist of the story, not Batman, because Dent is the only one who changes during the course of the movie. Dent’s fate shows the pessimism at the core of the story. (I honestly thought the movie was going to end in the aftermath of that big death and Dent getting his face burned off. I thought, "Well, I guess Batman loses in this one," because there was no way he could hurt the Joker like the Joker had just hurt him). A major theme of the movie, as several characters say outright, is escalation. Batman’s hasn’t improved the city; rather his presence has made things worse by drawing out a “better class of criminal.” The Gotham City of the movies isn’t the dystopia of the comics…yet. It’s getting worse since Batman showed up.

In adopting this worldview, TDK reflects the major Batman works of the 1980s, which shared this pessimistic vein. While Batman Begins took much of its inspiration from Denny O’Neil’s 1970s Batman stories (which, now that I think about it, may explain that movie’s blandness), The Dark Knight draws on the darker Miller/Moore Batman of the 1980s. Both Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan cite Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke as a major influence on their respective Joker stories, but while Burton used only the superficial aspects of the story (ie. the Joker’s disfiguration being a result of a plunge into a vat of chemicals), Nolan goes deeper into Moore’s story to draw out the psychology and motivation of the Joker. In The Killing Joke, the Joker terrorizes Commissioner Gordon in an attempt to show that madness is the appropriate response to the horrors of the world. In The Dark Knight, the Joker repeatedly puts people in situations where they are forced to confront their own capacity for savagery, as when he tells the people on two boats that their survival is contingent on them detonating the other boat. The Joker wants everyone to have the same epiphany he did: that the world is insane. Following from this, I’m convinced that if either boat had pressed the detonator they would’ve blown themselves up, leaving the other boat to realize what’d happened, and that their altruism had left them vulnerable.

The turning point in The Killing Joke is when Gordon, despite being put through hell, insists that the Joker be brought in by the book, “…To show him our way works.” In the movie, it’s when the people in the boats refuse to blow each other up to save themselves. (MGK has a perfect one sentence review of the movie hinging on this point). As in the comic, the movie Batman confronts the Joker with the idea that Joker’s failure in bringing others down to his level indicates that the Joker’s madness is a sign of personal weakness.

The depth of thought behind this Joker, and the magnitude of this actions (for example, the demolition of the hospital) elevate him beyond the comic book Joker, and leave the Burton/ Nicholson Joker looking like a joke. The scene in Burton’s Batman where the Joker and his goons dance their way through an art gallery, slopping paint on fine art, to the accompaniment of Prince on a boom box, seems like a Saturday morning cartoon in light of TDK. Months ago, Jack Nicholson stated that he was furious that he hadn’t been considered for the part of the Joker. I wonder if Nicholson, who wrecks the first Batman movie with his hammy acting, is sitting somewhere right now, having seen TDK, saying, “Shhiiiiitt.”

Some critics are writing that this movie is at the level of Heat or The Godfather II. I think that might be overstating the case. Parts of the film do transcend the genre to reach those heights, moreso than any other comic book genre movie. However, some of the speechifying is just too earnest and sentimental. As well, the movie drags in the middle after that catastrophic death, with Batman’s moping being less interesting than you’d think it’d be. The movie is close to perfect, but it isn’t quite there. However, it is exciting, complex, and both emotionally and psychologically draining. Oh, and the score is pretty amazing, too. The question I’m left with is that with the way things are at the end of the movie, the way everything has gone wrong, this movie is Empire Strikes Back, and the door is open for a sequel, but how can they possibly top what they’ve done here? Anything less will seem like a joke, but anything more won’t leave a city standing for Batman to defend.

The goddamn animated gif Batman

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:54:00 +0000

This shouldn't be nearly as funny as it is. But it is.

Read quickly, though.

'Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter'

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 04:14:00 +0000

George Bush surprised world leaders with a joke about his poor record on the environment as he left the G8 summit in Japan.

The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."

He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.

Mr Bush, whose second and final term as President ends at the end of the year, then left the meeting at the Windsor Hotel in Hokkaido where the leaders of the world's richest nations had been discussing new targets to cut carbon emissions.

(from The Telegraph.co.uk)

Why does shit like this always happen while The Daily Show is on hiatus? I've noticed that the weirdest, most satire-worthy events take place during those weeks when Jon Stewart and Colbert are off, as if public figures are using their absence as a "get out of jail free" card. Meanwhile, between this and the Jesse Jackson Obama comments, I'm going nuts (no pun intended) imagining the field day Stewart and Colbert would've had with this stuff.

I mean, come on. "He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock"? Seriously, COME ON. That can't be real. Am I on the Truman Show? It's like an Onion article come to life. What place is there for satire when real life is this farcical? What could you add to this scene to make it more ridiculous? "He then squatted and defecated in the doorway before moonwalking out of the room while pretending to fire six-shooters at the heads-of-state left in the room." See? That adds nothing. The whole situation is already as stupid as it can get.

I'm smiling for days every time this guy puts out a video

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:39:00 +0000

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Watch previous versions here: 2005 and 2006.

New Hulk Movie = Not So Good

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:54:00 +0000

I saw the new Hulk movie a few days ago, and I wasn’t very impressed. I didn’t out and out hate it either, but the movie doesn’t have much to recommend it. I came away pretty firmly neutral, which is the same way I felt about Ang Lee’s version a few years ago. Just as with that one, I have a hard time pinning down why the new movie doesn't work.

The main failing is in the writing. Good writing can excuse a lot, from shoddy effects to leaps in logic. Unfortunately, The Incredible Hulk, lacks in clever moments and memorable dialogue. I liked the “You wouldn’t like me when I’m hungry,” and “Why are you always hitting people?” but for the most part no one had a personality. Part of the blame lies with the actors, who, with few exceptions, come across as one dimensional. In particular, Liv Tyler (who I’ve liked in other stuff) began to grate on me with her breathy delivery.

Also, the movie waffles between genres, going from a dark, suspense story to the type of action movie that keeps logic at an arms length. I’m all for suspension of disbelief, but at times the military stuff in this movie is too dumb to be ignored. In the battle at the university, a full-on military assault with live ammunition and explosives is carried out in a public area. Later, during the fight in New York, a helicopter gunship fires at the Hulk and the Abomination in the middle of Manhattan, while they fight on rooftops. Never mind that bullets travel through buildings. None of the military's actions have consequences, whether that be injured civilians or General Ross getting bawled out. All of this is just lazy writing. Even one scene in which someone asked for an authorization for using this kind of force would have helped, but there’s nothing. I’m a fan of stupid action (I’ve had several conversations over the past few weeks in which I extol the virtues of Red Dawn), but the movie doesn’t live up to the tone it sets for itself.

Leaving aside smaller, technical details, chunks of the plot don’t make sense. I still don’t understand what Tim Roth’s character was supposed to do. General Ross juices him up to go fight the Hulk, but Roth can’t beat him in a fist fight, and guns are useless, so what was the point? (If that character had a personality, I’d say he should be commended for taking things to the next level and hulking himself up). A legion of soldiers like that I could understand (and that would’ve looked pretty cool too, a whole squad racing around like Roth does).

The tone of the movie is hurt further by all the “cute” moments. I remember reading something somewhere that said that a strength of the Ang Lee movie was that it didn’t have any moments where the Hulk bounded by and someone gawped and rubbed their eyes. This movie is filled with moments like that. The moment where they almost have sex is a cheap laugh. He can’t because he’ll get too excited, never mind that he ran full out through the streets with soldiers chasing him for several minutes before his heart rate became an issue there. Liv Tyler’s freakout at the cabbie is another example. It might’ve worked if something in her mannequin-like performance had hinted that she was capable of anything other than passiveness. The film abandons consistency in the style of a sitcom in order to pander to the audience.

Where Iron Man was subtle with its Easter eggs, Hulk is ham handed (although I suppose that’s appropriate in a way). Even the cameos are handled poorly in this movie. I accept that Stan Lee has to be in all these movies, but his cameos are work better when he’s in the background (in a Waldo sort of way) instead of the in-your-face appearance here. And with Lou Ferrigno, I can understand why you’d want to put him in, but his appearance only serves to remind you, “Hey, I’m watching a movie!” Even the Robert Downey Jr. bit, though cool, should’ve gone after the credits, like the equivalent Sam Jackson scene in Iron Man. It’s not part of the movie proper, and with the Banner scene preceding it, it gives the movie multiple endings.

What would’ve helped the movie? Aside from a complete overhaul, I don’t know. I do think the movies are missing something by not bringing up the Jekyll and Hyde aspects of the Hulk. The films treat the Hulk like a bigger, dumber Banner, instead of a different personality. I like the idea in the comics that Banner and the Hulk hate each other; Banner is afraid of the Hulk, and the Hulk hates Banner’s weakness. Moving the franchise more in the direction of horror/action might work, too. That’d accommodate the psychological aspects of the character that don’t seem to fit in the current pure action framework of the movies. The Hulk should be scary. The most effective scenes in this movie were during the fight in the factory at night, when you couldn’t see much. Changing the Banner/Hulk relationship by making the Hulk scarier would also help make sense of why Banner wants to get rid of the Hulk so badly. After all, in this movie every time the Hulk comes out he fixes Banner’s problems. Why would he want to get rid of that?

DC Comics via 60s Anime, and Marvel Characters Smoking

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:40:00 +0000

Cliff Chiang posted an awesome series drawings of what the DC universe would look like if it'd been put together by old school Japanese animators. My favourites are Batman by way of Gatchaman:

And Superman via Mazinger:

Check out more at Chiang's site.
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While I was looking around for links, I found this sweet picture of Mazinger by an artist named Jose Liebana:
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And finally, Drawn! linked to this great set of images by Chris Schweizer of Marvel characters smoking. The research that went into the project is pretty good, as some of these characters were only ever shown smoking once (if my memory is correct).

Marvel instituted a smoking ban in their comics a few years back, which I can understand, I guess, but you sometimes forget how many of their characters have been shown smoking. I mean, geez, Captain America?!

I notice that a lot of these instances came out of the 1960s, which paints an interesting picture of what a Madmen-like place the 60s Marvel universe was. The number of cigar smokers at Marvel jumped out at me, too. I guess it comes out of Jack Kirby's own cigar smoking. I was looking for cigar smokers at DC, but I could only come up with supporting characters. Can anyone out there think of any DC leads who smoke cigars?

Italian Spiderman

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:32:00 +0000

I haven't been the biggest fan of the Spider-Man movies, but this new direction they're taking looks like something I might be interested in:

As an aside, the people that made this clip deserve a lot of credit for how well they approximate the 70s look. Check out their site here. Background information here.

(links via Blog@Newsarama)

Movie Review: Iron Man

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:27:00 +0000

I wasn't going to write a review of Iron Man, seeing as plenty of reviews were already going up by Friday afternoon, but after watching the movie I have got to talk about it. Short version: If you haven't seen it, go watch it. You will enjoy yourself, I promise. Come back and read this after you've seen the movie. Oh, and if you haven't heard, stay to the end of the credits.

Things I liked:

- With great difficulty, I managed to watch only the first trailer before seeing the movie. That self-restraint paid off, because almost everything in the movie was a surprise. After the initial scenes, I never knew where they were going to go, or how nice the effects were going to look. The unpredictability that Robert Downey Jr. brings to his character only adds to the feeling that anything could happen.

- I had this image as my desktop for a while, and one day I looked at it and realized, the suit is his jet-pack. The movie follows through on that idea; it isn't about Tony Stark adopting the identity of Iron Man, it's about him building stuff and wearing it. As Warren Ellis (I think) says, he's the test pilot for the future. All the building and experimenting scenes are fun to watch, and the slow build before his first real flight makes the flying seem that much more exhilarating.

- Robert Downey Jr. owns the role of Tony Stark. I like him in everything he does, but here I stopped seeing him and only saw the character. He's got that jerkish charm, so that in the beginning of the movie you like him despite his arrogance, and later you like him because of his arrogance.

- They do a great job showing how smart Tony Stark is, and how his mind is always working so fast that people around him can't keep up. The movie Stark is a lot like Mark Millar's Stark, but with better dialogue.

- Jeff Bridges is terrific as Obadiah Stane. With his shaved head and beard, the physical change is enough so that you forget it's Bridges, and he's such a good actor that he never reminds you. I knew he was the villain beforehand, but the way he finesses Robert Downey Jr.'s character is so effective that even I started to doubt.

- The tech in the movie is awesome. It manages to seem cutting edge but still plausible.

- The movie makes being rich look really fucking cool. That might seem like a given for most people, but usually when I watch things like Entourage, I'm entertained and repulsed at the same time. I can't put my finger on why the obvious wealth on display in this movie didn't bug me, but it could be because everything was nice but also functional.

- I loved all the little Easter eggs, like:

the Ten Rings
Rhodes looking at the backup armour and saying, "Next time"
and of course, Nick Fury. (Note, too, the little scars around Fury's eyepatch, suggesting that, like the Ultimate version, he lost the eye to Wolverine). The dialogue in the Fury scene was stilted, but the sheer awesomeness of its inclusion overwhelmed everything else.

The movie included lots of these little comics moments, without having them be distracting.

Things I didn't like:

- It's good that they kept the Yinsen character (and name!) even in the new setting, but I didn't like that he was reduced from being a co-creator of the armour to being a gopher. I like the original idea that the first armour was a collaboration. It gives a reason why Stark hasn't build something like this before: he needed Yinsen's input.

- I understand that Middle Eastern terrorists are the new Soviets in movies, but the Arab stereotype created by American cinema is off-putting. Where Soviet villains were cool and calculating, Arabic bad guys are cowards and incompetents. When entering the cave where Iron Man awaits, the Arabic soldiers cower (understandably) and their leader shoves them ahead to preserve himself. The negative stereotyping in this movie isn't on the level of, say, a True Lies, but I was disappointed that they took this route at all.

- Terrence Howard, though likeable, didn't convince me as James Rhodes. I can buy Howard as many things, but, soft spoken as he is, not as a military colonel.

- After Stark's one mission to the Middle East, in which he kills about five or six guys, the problems in the region are never addressed again. There's some minor dialogue about him going out again, but in terms of the plot, the movie seems to dust its hands off and say, "Now that Iron Man blew up that tank, there's peace in the Middle East." I don't mind an action movie using shooting and explosions as a way of dealing with complex geo-political problems, I just wish they'd shown a more extensive operation than shooting six dudes.

All of these are minor complaints, and the fact that I watched a comic book movie and came away with only have one comic-related nitpick is bloody amazing. The movie is incredible, and I think I'll be seeing it again before it leaves theatres.

Lex Luthor. Dude. Get over it.

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:28:00 +0000

Look in that little window down there:

Is that guy ever doing any real work? How that company manages to stay afloat, I'll never know.

(image via Comics.org)

Hancock, Chalk Circle, and T. Rex

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:31:00 +0000

The number of movies coming out this year that I want to see is kind of ridiculous. Counting comic book movies alone, there's Iron Man, Hulk, Punisher: War Zone, The Dark Knight, Wanted, Hellboy 2, and Speed Racer (which is comic booky). On top of that, there's a new Indiana Jones and a new James Bond movie this year. Shockingly, they all look like movies I want to watch; I'm not getting the sinking feeling I got when I saw the trailers for Spider-Man 3 or X-Men 3.

It's all too much. Clearly, I'm in a coma and my brain is constructing a universe to keep me happy. I don't care; don't revive me.

One movie that fits into the group above, but hasn't been getting a lot of coverage is Will Smith's Hancock. The lack of marketing for this movie is surprising, considering it's a Will Smith, July long weekend movie. It's at the top of my list because I really like the trailer:

I like the humour, and I like the effects. It looks even better in a higher resolution. The music that's playing we first see Hancock hooked my attention, too. The song starts off as a kind of tinny guitar, before launching into a meatier riff. I went looking for it and found out that it's the one song, "20th Century Boy," but we're hearing versions by two bands. The tinny one is a cover by Chalk Circle, and the heavier one is the original, by T. Rex.

I found both versions on YouTube (because every video ever is on YouTube), and I've posted them below in the order you hear them in the trailer, with the cover version first and the original second. You don't need to listen to all of both songs, just hearing the contrast between the opening ten or twenty seconds of each is interesting.

See if you can guess the respective eras for each. Here's Chalk Circle:

And here's T. Rex:

Art Spiegelman on the CBC

noreply@blogger.com (Dav) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 03:35:00 +0000

Here's a nice little interview with Art Spiegelman that CBC aired last night. It touches on Spiegelman's major projects and ideas, so if you pay attention to what he's doing there won't be much here that's new, but it's good to have it all in one place.

One part to note is when Spiegelman discusses the decision by the Canadian book chain, Indigo, to not carry the issue of Harper’s containing his article on the Danish cartoon controversy. Disappointingly, as Spiegelman criticizes Indigo for shying away from selling a magazine because it contained the offending images, CBC blurs those same images.

I’m no fan of the Danish cartoons, but I’m even less in favour of censorship. Peter David addressed the issue of censorship succinctly, saying that the answer to speech you don’t like is more free speech, not less. At the end of the clip, the hosts of the program acknowledge that their network is engaging in the very actions that Spiegelman is objecting to, but their admission seems more of a way to blunt criticism than anything else.

(link via Quintin)