My Cosmic Cue

yeah... I saw that

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Beware the Batman - Trailer

So... Batman is getting a new series....for only the second time in my lifetime of watching Bat media I'm not incredibly impressed... look for my review of this in the coming weeks...

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This doesn't change our relationship Clark....

So over the weekend I got to see the Man of Steel.

The character really needs no introduction as we've known this origin story for nearly 80 years.  Man of steel as a superhero movie is another classic example of great work from Director Zack Snyder(watchmen, 300 sucker punch) , writer David Goyer, (Blade, all of the recent Batman movies,) and Christopher Nolan (do you really need me to put references here?)

This movie takes cues from the better Superman books and makes supes very relatable but still very alien. I do like that he is a drifter at first because he doesn't really know what to do with his powers.  They really play up the "find your true self" theme echoed by both of his fathers. This theme is something that's not truly displayed in most superman books... With the exception of maybe the new 52 justice league. 

Aside from the tone of the movie about a boy being brought up and never truly fitting in, the thing that made this movie head and shoulders above the other supes films is that we finally get to see Superman cut loose against people who are as strong as him. General Zod (played by Michael Shannon)  is Menacing but still very calculating. his fights with  Superman are everything I've ever wanted in a Superhero movie. the person  who Really stole the show was Faora- Ul (played by Antje Traue) It kinda Makes me a little mad when you know characters like that will only have one outing and never be heard from again.

  Antje Traue as Faora-Ul

When it's all said and done I thought it was a very good first outing. Christopher Nolan and company managed to make a good film about a character I hate. Its definitely a movie I'd like to dissect and watch again ...unlike Iron man 3

Now that he's done this with both Batman and  Superman I'm pretty sure the WB is going to just give him the keys to the DC universe and tell him to get busy.

        SOON....

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The sorta pretty good but still weird Spider-Man

Over 4th of July week-(in?) I  got a chance to see the amazing spider-man. what I'll say is this first off.

Sam Raimi's movies are Sam Raimi's movies. 

Kinda like how the 1990's spider-man is just the 1990's spider-man and Spectacular Spider-man kicks that long winded show in the nads. (yes, that's my childhood it just pooped on....) This movie does the origin story of spider-man with a fresh set of eyes.  But to be honest spider-man didn't need an origin reboot... well at least that's my opinion anyway. 

In this movie we see a more up-to-date Parker who is still awkward with no friends and struggling to find his place in the high school food chain. This is where the director Mark Webb(500 days of summer which I recommend) Nails the feel of peter's  school life to a T. some of the best interactions in the movie if not the best were between Andrew Garfield (Parker) and Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy) it made for good banter where at times I felt like uncle ben  like " dammit, go on Pete kiss her already"

Speaking of Uncle Ben we get to see a lot more from him this time around. How he's genuinely a cool ass old dude. Aunt May and the other Parkers (ya know Peter's ACTUAL parents) are a bit of  ornaments in the flick. I don't mind that as much, but what seemed kinda haphazardly thrown into the movie was the turning point for Peter to become Spider-Man. The scene where uncle Ben dies by the hands of the guy Peter lets get away was kinda glanced over. It seemed very obligatory on the screenwriter and director's part to show it, and that's how they handled it. That was one of the things that bugged me a great deal. it would kinda be like if a batman origin movie just had bruce wayne's parents get mugged really quick and in the next scene he's batman.

The things that worked for this movie other than Peter's relationship with Gwen is him finding out about his powers. Imagine gaining the abilities of spider-man on day one just think how many doors would you break? some of the scenes in the movie where he's exploring his abilites are priceless (the alarm clock for example) I really liked spider-man's tendencies in this movie where they had him fight like and do some very spider-like things. His sewer sequence was brilliant. But overall what takes the cake is this.... 

Pete making his webbing is a thing of beauty.

Anyway onto the things that didn't work....

Spider-Man's relationship with Curt Connors was pretty bland. Also, Curt connors himself had no real motivation or character depth. OK yea, you lost your arm and you worked with Pete's dad, but once he became the lizard it was kinda like "fuck my phd's!!! everybody needs some scales up in this bitch!!!" He just seemed like such a forgettable villain. Which may be one of the things that messed with me more is that he WAS a forgettable villain through and through. I think a smarter spider-man movie would have made use of that.

at the end of the day this didn't feel like the marvel movies we had been spoiled with for the last 3-4 years. Notably because Sony still owns Spider-man. I hope that if marvel can't incorporate Pete into their movie-verse then they at lease make his own movie-verse a whole lot better.

Bottom line: It's worth checking out whenever you get a chance.

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The impossible has been made possible.. (avengers) review

Let me preface this post by saying when I was a little kid I really never thought I'd see this day...

Last night I watched the avengers movie. Despite the rampant piracy which would have allowed me to watch it a week and a half ago I abstained from that for one reason. There are a handful of films that will get my cash this year and this movie is the first one.

Avengers Picks up where Thor left off. Loki has sought to pick up the cosmic cube from s.h.i.e.l.d. He seeks to bring a galactic army to enslave the planet. Obviously nick calls on the avengers to try to take him down. Problem is that these boys don't seem to play well together. There is a good deal of infighting and inside jabs that follow before the avengers come together (ha, see you thought I was gonna say assemble) to save the day.

If you're looking for a deep story or character development you're not going to find it here or even back stories.. why? because marvel spent the last 4 years doing it. cultivating a perverbial "movieverse" with all of the characters in the movie.. in a sense this movie was nothing but act 3 to what I have dubbed "the marvel experiment".

The action in this movie never fails to impress. The quips and jokes throughout are all very clever. Tony's banter with everyone is very good but everyone has their moments, even Black Widow. I must say in the last action sequence hulk steals the show.

I'm just gonna end on this note, The bar has been set astronomically high for comic book adaptations. The marvel experiment has been a success thus far. it's crazy that marvel is doing this without the full control of all of their properties. it makes you wonder why a company like warner brothers (who owns ALL of DC properties) can't seem to make a good comic flick other than Batman. At this rate Warner bros will be playing catch up for a LONG TIME to come... I hope in the future (with the help of disney) Marvel is able to obtain all of their licenses. Just to think what would it be like to have the avengers fighting Dr Doom or hulk fighting wolverine? Just imagine Nick fury showing up in peter parker's room

Nick Fury: " hey peter, mothaf*cka you wanna be an avenger?"

(spider-man takes off the mask) 

Parker: what?

Nick Fury: "the avengers, mothaf*cka you wanna join?"

parker: umm what?

Nick Fury: "say what again! SAY WHAT AGAIN?"

In closing PLEASE go see the avengers it's awesome! even if you haven't seen the other movies go see this one. Help continue to make the marvel experiment a success 

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Standing In The Twilight (Black Lagoon: seasons 1&2)

so last night I finished the anime black lagoon. It was a fairly enjoyable series. It is set sometime in the mid 90's when a japanese buisnesman Okajima Rokuro  is asked to deliver a disk for his company in the south china sea. He is kidnapped by pirates who subsequently offer him up for ransom. His company refuses to pay and chooses to leave him for dead in the middle of the ocean. As he's trying to negotiate for his own life he learns some of the shady stuff his company has been doing. Of course he ends up being spared because the pirates see him as an asset for negotiations and transactions, so he becomes the member of the crew.

Over the course of the series we don't see "the gradual change" in the main character from within. Instead we see our main character spend the majority of the series trying NOT to change. The world around him continually tells him that in order to survive in a world of wolves you can't be a vegetarian. (I just made that up lol)  He spends the series teetering in the middle between what he knew in his old life as a mundane corporate gofer his new life as a pirate courier living day to day in a lawless town.

I'm blogging about this series mainly because it never occurred to me how much I am like Rokouru in my life. I am a man teetering in the middle trying to please certain people around me and yet trying to go after what I want. I think what speaks to me in this show is the fact that you can't be certain of things when you enter a world of uncertainty.  Rokoru wanted to believe he wasn't a monster like the other people in his city and he sought to prove that. every time he thought he was "saving" someone he realized he was only projecting trying to preserve a life that he knew in his heart he was bored with anyway. I think the message of black lagoon is this: you can't stand on the fence forever, eventually you'll fall on one side or the other.    

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ok so I'm late to the party...don't kill me

so since we've moved into our new place my roomate asked me to watch dexter. now mind you I had heard about the show before, but as you will get to know me I put many many shows into the cue. then eventually I watch them and I'm like "wow slumber party at my place!"

my take:

Dexter is an interesting character in the sense that he is more  or less trying to fit in. granted he's a serial killer you would think that would be hard. but what always amazes me is the parallels of his life in every season. (now mind you, I'm only on season 4)  often times he's being shown what he could have been, what he could be and how people are effected once they find out who he REALLY is.

the show's approach to humanizing him is interesting because most of the time he feels like and sees himself as alien to the world not because he kills people but because he's never truly learned about human compassion.

so far, to me dexter is more about a man trying to figure out his place in the world as opposed to a righteous serial killer trying not to get caught.