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Review: ‘Incredible Hulk’ DVD

025195039918-z-incrdcrfu-21-2312374Ang Lee’s [[[Hulk]]] film failed because he spent too much time on the Jekyll/Hyde aspects, the very ones that inspired Stan Lee.  After all these years, people wanted to see the Hulk leap and smash things.  When he leapt, we cheered, but there just wasn’t enough of it.

Director Louis Leterrier achieved a far better balance in this year’s [[[Incredible Hulk]]] which builds on the mythos while firmly settling into the new Marvel Cinema Universe. He wisely covers the obligatory origin materials during the title sequence and then gives us a story.

Unfortunately, the story just wasn’t as gripping as we had hoped.  The film, arriving Tuesday on DVD, is largely the Army hunting the Hulk as Bruce Banner searches for a cure.  While that worked fine in the 12-page [[[Tales to Astonish]]] stories, it’s not nearly enough for a feature film.  The biggest problem with Zak Snyder’s story is that the Super Soldier formula that is now linked to the Hulk and the Abomination is clearly able to turn people into weapons of mass destruction and all the military sees is a weapon.  Not a single person in uniform saw it as anything else and frankly, we’ve seen this theme before and done better elsewhere.

The notion that Emil Blonsky is a soldier towards the end of his career, with nothing to lose, and therefore more than willing to become the Abomination is a nice way to integrate the character from the comics to the film.  But, he’s as single-minded as everyone else in the story, which is a shame.

Penn’s script lifts the Mr. Blue character from Bruce Jones’ celebrated run on the title but reveals him to be Dr. Samuel Sterns, and frankly, I just didn’t buy their connection or the way Sterns suddenly switches from dedicated scientist to Colin Clive in [[[Frankenstein]]]. The fact that in the comics Stearns evolves into the Leader complete with big green head means he’s around should the movie franchise continue so hopefully he’ll be rounded out.

As presented, Leterrier’s film is pretty much A to B to C with pauses for Hulking out and destroying things until the climactic fight in Harlem.  I’ve certainly seen worse, but had hoped for something better considering [[[Iron Man]]], released just weeks prior, showed that serious issues could be addressed through fantastic means.
 

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Review: Zuda Comics’ October Competition

  • Uncategorized
  • October 19, 2008

ad63176st1sz225sq275172v0id93-5111091Every month, Zuda Comics, the online imprint of DC Comics, holds a competition featuring 10 different webcomics. The winner is selected based on a combination of factors including amount of votes, how often it’s been “favorited” and its overall user rating. The winning comic receives a contract to continue the series for 52 more pages on Zuda’s Web site.

For October’s competition, the Zuda editorial staff is punching out and handing the reins over to Peter and Robert Timony, creators of the Zuda comic Night Owls. In the spirit of Halloween, this month’s competitors are loaded with terrifying creatures, tantalizing mysteries and eerie landscapes. While every book doesn’t chime in on the holiday-inspired horror, each one has unique qualities that make for a month of fierce competition.

We’ve got the breakdown on all 10 of October’s Zuda books. Find out what’s good and what’s not so good, then go to Zuda to read and vote for your favorite book!

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Interview: Bryan Talbot on 30 Years of ‘Luther Arkwright’, Part Two

  • Uncategorized
  • October 19, 2008

Yesterday, we began chatting with British creator Bryan Talbot about the creation of The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, now celebrating its 30th anniversary. Today, we look at the remastered edition and more.

hofe-frontispiece-mid-1-7304433CMix: You actually went back after 20 years and did a sequel, Heart of Empire, but that doesn’t seem to resonate in the same way.  How do you view it today?

BT: I’m very proud of the story and the way I  told it. I wasn’t interested in repeating Arkwright. I wanted to use the sequel to tell a different story in a different way. Perhaps, if I do another Arkwright, I’ll go back to experimental mode and just let rip. Any sophistication in the storytelling techniques of Heart of Empire is beneath the surface, not in your face. It shouldn’t be consciously visible.

CMix: Luther Arkwright has endured and you even adapted it for BBC radio with a Pre-Doctor Who David Tennant as the lead.  Was it easy to adapt?

BT: I didn’t adapt it. They used their own scriptwriter. I sent a list of suggestions as to how they could make it work better as audio but when I eventually met the writer, after it was produced, they hadn’t passed the suggestions along. I still quite enjoyed it though. David Tennant and the other actors were great, the music and sound FX were fine. My only criticism is that it was too faithful to the original. Most of the dialogue was my speech balloons word-for-word. While these work fine on the comic page I feel that they should have made them more naturalistic for the spoken word.

Big Finish have also bought the rights to adapt Heart of Empire and Tennant has agreed to reprise his role as Arkwright but they’rehaving to fit into his now busy schedule.

CMix: There’s been talk for years about a film adaptation. What’s taking so long?

BT: That’s the film industry for you. Things seem to move at a glacial pace.

There’s always something supposed to be just about to happen, some big name writer’s become involved or a big production company is desperately interested but nothing seems to actually happen. Hollywood people seem to suffer from verbal diarrhea. About a year ago a producer got in touch with me to say how passionate he was about The Tale of One Bad Rat and how he had a director on board who loved it and so forth. I’ve never heard a thing from him since.

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‘Sarah Connor’ gets Full Season Order

  • News
  • October 19, 2008

After all the hubbub in recent weeks, it’s somewhat of a surprise to see Fox quietly announcing the full-season pickup for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Just last week, the show was given a sign of hope when additional scripts were ordered but now the full complement of nine episodes have been ordered bringing the full season total to 22.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Monday night series has seen only modest ratings in a tough time slot. Just 5.7 million viewers saw the most recent episode which sounds like a lot but in television terms is not.

Details will be formally announced Monday.  Speaking of tomorrow, the show’s blog has a post from Denise Thé, who wrote the episode and says, “’The Tower’ is the first of our episodes to be directed by a woman – the very talented Tawnia McKiernan. In the episode, Cameron fights a female Terminator – our first female-on-female Terminator fight. It’s a knock down, blow-your-hair back, jab-your-eye out (literally) fight scene. Be sure to watch closely – the arm and leg twists are not special effects! It’s also the first peek at The Turk since Samson and Delilah. The first insight into Weaver’s relationship with her daughter, Savannah. And at long last… the first time we address the mystery of who killed Sarkissian.”
 

The Theory of Webcomics: The Daily Grind

  • News
  • October 19, 2008

The Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge is a competition between online comic artists to see who can maintain the longest Monday to Friday update schedule, following a strict set of rules. Each artist lays $20 USD on the line. The last man left standing takes the entire pot. The competition started on Monday, February 28, 2005, and is still going with ten contestants remaining.

Webcomics giants like Scott Kurtz, Chris Crosby, Steve Troop, and Jennie Breeden have all missed updates and been beaten out for the top spot. Conversely, none of the remaining contenders feature on Wikipedia’s list of Self-Sufficient Webcomics. Does this seem counter-intuitive?

Any successful webcomic creator will tell you that regular updates are important — in order to build an audience, you need to provide regular content to keep people coming back to the site. And very few comics have come into success with only one comic a week — you could pretty much count them on one hand — so you’d need at least two or three updates each week. If you can stretch it, five is optimal, because it gets the working world checking your site as part of their daily routine.

If your readers have the right sort of personalities, an irregular update schedule could work in your site traffic’s favor. Studies of gamblers has shown that irregular rewards — that is, receiving a reward only sometimes, and seemingly at random, for the same action — play all sorts of fun games with human brain chemistry. This is pointed to as the cause of the Las Vegas zombies who sit at slot machines for days. Is that any different from checking Order of the Stickevery day hoping that one of the three weekly updates will be there?

(Well, how different it is depends on how much of a reward you consider a new OotS comic to be. Money is a pretty universal reward. The comic needs to be good enough to trigger a “reward” response, because a sporadic, unfunny comic quickly gets dropped, rather than obsessively watched.) (more…)

Warner Bros. Releases Complete Flintstones Box Set

flintstonesThose of you who are like me and impatient when it comes to the World of DVD’s knows what it’s like to buy each season of a TV show on DVD and then miss out on a glorious looking box set with better extras and a shinier box for your collection. Well, out next week is definitely one box set you won’t want to miss, as Warner Home Video is realasing The Complete Flintstones Series on DVD. The set will include all 166 episodes from six seasons (1960-66) on a whopping 24 DVD set in a cool looking "stone age" style box. No word on whether the box will include any of the films such as A Man Called Flintstone, but you can still hold your inner child over with hours of bonus footage never before seen on DVD.

Here you can check out a clip from one of the extras where the original writers and animators of the beloved series discuss how The youngest Rubble, Bam-Bam came to be and how the voice talent created the characters we know and love to this day. 

 

You can finally get your Yabba-Dabba-Doo on with the box set on October 28.

Hulk Smash RiffTrax! For Free!!

  • Uncategorized
  • October 19, 2008

hulkRemember sitting through any particularly bad episode of The Incredible Hulk and thought to yourself, "Boy, this would be great for Mystery Science Theater!"? Well, look no further because Mike Nelson and his band of riffers from RiffTrax.com have decided to take on the very first episode of season one entitled "Final Round".

RiffTrax, for those not in the know, is a website where you can buy MP3’s of the cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy) doing what they do best for movies that deserve it. After purchasing the Riff MP3, you then synch it up to the movie you purchased, like a makeshift commentary. With a selection ranging from Plan 9 From Outer Space to Ben Affleck’s Daredevil, you can purchase each "podcast" and watch it along with your DVD in the comfort of your own home. In a new deal, Rifftrax has partnered up with Overcast Media who will pre-synch the RiffTrax onto content posted for free by Hulu.com. This episode of Hulk is being offered for free as a Beta test and those who check it out are asked to give their feedback on how the service worked.

In the episode, Bruce Banner, going under the name David Benson (ugh) gets saved from muggers by local boxer "Rocky" (no relation) . Later Banner becomes Rocky’s friend and corner-man and uncovers a plot by Rocky’s manager for him to mule drugs. Not only do we get Martin Kove playing "Rocky", who is best remembered as the instructor who told Johnny to "sweep the leg" in Karate Kid, but we also get Ferrigno in green jumping in the ring to beat on the baddies!

Enjoy the full episode with RiffTrax commentary here.

 

‘Doctor Who’ Director Named

  • News
  • October 19, 2008

Two tidbits for Doctor Who fans.  First up, James Strong has been announced as director for the Easter Doctor Who Special for 2009. He will be working from a script by Gareth Roberts ("The Unicorn and the Wasp").

"We’re so happy that he’s returning to the fold," Russell T. Davies told Doctor Who Magazine. "James has handled Daleks in sewers, hordes of Adipose and Satan himself, as well as a Titanic with Kylie on board. But believe me, none of that will have prepared him for what we’re about to unleash in this next script!"

The soundtrack CD to the fourth season of the current Doctor Who will be released by Silva Screen Records on November 17. The disc will carry 27 tracks taken from throughout the season, which completed airing during the first half of 2008.

Those interested in downloading the album from the company can obtain it sooner.

The track listing is as follows:

1. Doctor Who Season Four Opening Credits (0:46)
2. A Noble Girl About Town (2:14)
3. Life Among the Distant Stars (2:30)
4. Corridors and Fire Escapes (1:12)
5. The Sybilline Sisterhood (1:53)
6. Songs of Captivity and Freedom (4:03)
7. UNIT Rocks (1:11)
8. The Doctor’s Daughter (1:38)
9. The Source (3:21)
10. The Unicorn and the Wasp (3:11)
11. The Doctor’s Theme Season Four (2:47)
12. Voyage of the Damned Suite (10:21)
13. The Girl With No Name (2:45)
14. The Song of Song (2:14)
15. All in the Mind (1:18)
16. Silence In The Library (2:57)
17. The Greatest Story Never Told (6:17)
18. Midnight (3:07)
19. Turn Left (2:20)
20. A Dazzling End (2:22)
21. The Rueful Fate of Donna Noble (2:44)
22. Davros (2:07)
23. The Dark and Endless Dalek Night (3:44)
24. A Pressing Need to Save the World (4:55)
25. Hanging On The Tablaphone (1:07)
26. Song of Freedom (2:51)
27. Doctor Who Season Four Closing Credits (1:07)

GoComics Adds iGoogle Gadget

  • News
  • October 18, 2008

People who enjoy customization, will be delighted to know that Uclick has launched a gadget for iGoogle.  Over 350 comic strips can be selected to appear on your homepage.  According to a release, the gadget, which was launched Thursday, will also contain comments, tagds, and posts from people who visit the GoComics.com site.

"Our new GoComics gadget for iGoogle is part of our strategy to expand the cartooning medium to readers old and new through digital media," said Uclick CEO Douglas Edwards in a statement. "We deliver daily entertainment features wherever our readers want their comics."
 

ComicMix Radio: Robert Tapert Storms Back

  • News
  • October 18, 2008

He was the “father” of Hercules and (actually) the husband of Xena, and now Robert Tapert returns to pop culture with a hand chosen set of horror movies and a new television series. In our exclusive interview, Robert fills us in on both plus where things stand with Xena and Evil Dead, plus:

  • Witchblade on ITunes
  • DC prepares a crash course on The Spirit
  • Neil Gaiman, Guillermo delToro and Dr Strange oh my!

Catch the full exclusive ComicMix interview with Robert Tapert right here on Sunday, and in the meantime get warmed by and Press the Button!

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-5939149 or RSS!

 

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