Tagged: Superman

Review: ‘Casino Royale’ 3-Disc Collector’s Edition DVD

I’m not objective when it comes to James Bond. [[[Dr. No]]] was the first “grown-up” movie I ever saw, and I’ve been writing about 007 in magazines and my books ever since.

Nor am I particularly dispassionate about [[[Casino Royale]]]. The New York premiere at the great Zeigfeld Theater was the best experience I’ve had in cinemas for the last few decades — and it was there that I ate humble pie because, to my shame, I had been dead set against Daniel Craig in the role prior to that (I had been rooting for runner-up Henry Cavill, and anyone who’s seen him as “Charles Brandon” in the second season of Showtime’s [[[The Tudors]]] can see why).

The only thing I wasn’t a big fan of was the original, cautious, DVD release that didn’t even include an audio commentary. Naturally, everyone knew that a big special edition would eventually appear, and, following record-breaking grosses and a Blu-ray release that really put the medium on the map, this is it.

The film remains exceptional but quibbliable (some nitpick at the central, drawn-out poker game, while I cavil [if you’ll excuse the expression] at the dispassionate off-screen dispatching of the main henchmen, to be hastily replaced by some generic thugs for 007 to slaughter at the climax).

The three-DVD status of this Special Edition (tomorrow) is also questionable, since the second disc only contains the extras found on the original release, promoted to their own disc apparently to make way for the previously absent audio commentaries. Even the DVD menus aren’t particularly distinguished.

However, the approximately nine hours of new Special Features made it worth the wait. Having done forty good, bad, or ugly audio commentaries myself, I know a great one when I hear it, and Casino Royale now has two. The first, with director Martin Campbell and producer Michael Wilson, is packed with illuminating info (including that the opening was inspired by The Ipcress File and the finale by Don’t Look Now), but the second is even better.

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Review: “Joker” HC one-shot

joker21-8422230On October 22, DC will be releasing the hardcover graphic novel Joker (originally titled [[[Joker: The Dark Knight]]]), presented to you by writer Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo. This is the same creative team who were behind the mini-series [[[Lex Luthor: Man of Steel]]], which explored the mind-set of the Metropolis multi-millionaire and touched on his justifications for why he sees himself as the necessary anti-thesis to the Last Son of Krypton.

[[[Joker]]] is a story of roughly the same note, though not narrated by the villain as Lex Luthor: Man of Steel was. In this hardcover graphic novel, the story is narrated by Jonny Frost, a two-bit hood. In an interview with Newsarama, Azzarello said that the reason for this was because the Joker’s narration couldn’t be trusted, given that he was insane, and so it was important to see it from the point of view of someone close to him.

As the tale begins, the Joker has been in Arkham for some time now and has only just now been released, legally and by the book (though how is never explained). This book plays the Joker as a gangster rather than a mass murdering psycho constantly trying to prove there is no point to life. As such, one of the major plot elements is that the Joker had several criminal operations going on when he went in and now he’s found that they have been taken over by others. To regain his criminal power and his money, the Joker begins hunting down the Gotham mobsters who have dared to dip into his operations, telling them, “I want what’s mine back.”

To help him on this quest, he grabs Killer Croc and Harley Quinn (who seems to be a mute in this story), as well as new assistant Jonny Frost, our narrator, a small-timer who admires the Joker and wants to be just like him. As the story goes on, the Joker directly challenges Two-Face, who has taken control of Gotham’s underworld while the Clown Prince of Killers has been away. And with each passing day, Jonny Frost realizes that the Joker is not a person to admire at all.

Not a bad idea. How was the execution?

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Comic Mix Six – The Six Worst Comic Book Video Games

  • Uncategorized
  • October 18, 2008

xmennesbox-9758167Comic books, admittedly, don’t have a great history when itcomes to video game adaptations.  Hell,most games based on licensed properties have a certain stigma about them.  It probably stems from the fact that theyfeel like a cheap cash-in…a way to make a quick buck on a popular fad such asmovies, TV shows, and yes, comics.  Now,that’s not to say ALL comic book games are bad, no; but the genre does have itsshare of stinkers.  Out of all thepossible crap-fests out there, these are the top six games that should never beallowed near your console of choice…EVER.

Marvel’s Uncanny X-Men– 1989: NES

Back in the heyday of the Nintendo Entertainment System,they were making games for EVERYTHING. At the time, publisher LJN held the rights to the Marvel license, andsadly, churned out turd after turd.  Oneof their biggest steaming piles was this mess, based on Marvel’s MightyMutants.  What made this game sobad?  Well, sadly, the technology of theday seems to be the biggest culprit.  Thegame took a top-down view of the action, and since there was only so much youcould show in 8-bit, character details were pretty much non-existent.  That, combined with the muddy, dirty colorsof the backgrounds and you were lucky you could see anything at all, let alonewhich character you had selected. Nothing was recognizable, despite the fact that it had a decent sized rosterselected from the books.  Thankfully, it’sone of the few bad marks on an otherwise mostly successful game franchise.

Fantastic Four – 1997:Playstation

Ugh.  When you talkabout ugly games, two system generations ago, we had some DOGS.  3D graphics were all the rage, and polygoncounts were climbing higher and higher. Sadly, they still couldn’t figure out that muddy background thing, andso stuff tended to blend together – badly. At least this time you could see what was happening…but it wasn’tpretty.  Take a tried and true gameplaystyle, affectionately known as the “beat ‘em up”, and add comic’s firstfamily.  What could go wrong?  Well, how about poor control, terrible plotand just plain shoddy gameplay?  First,the game is about the Fantastic FOUR…so you have Mr. Fantastic, InvisibleWoman, Human Torch, The Thing and…She-Hulk? Wouldn’t that be FIVE?  Then, you have repetitive, lazy combat (anormal pitfall for the “beat ‘em up”) of miscellaneous enemies that are largein number and small in variety.  Add to thatthe poor hit detection, lousy control response and just a general sense of “whybother?” and you fantfour-screen002-7432099have this mighty gem.  Fantastic,indeed.

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The Man of the day After Tomorrow, by John Ostrander

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  • October 16, 2008

And every fair from fair sometime declines / By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d

Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

smallville-2-figures-8099962

 

The Superman of today is not the Superman of the Thirties, nor of the Eighties, nor the Superman that will be. At some point the Man of Tomorrow becomes the Man of the Day After Tomorrow. He will evolve and change as he has since his creation. Everything changes, everything evolves. The alternative is death and extinction.

The principal problem (IMO) with the most recent Superman film, Superman Returns, is that director Brian Singer wanted to go back and make the Superman 3 film that he felt should have been made. However, that interpretation of Superman belonged to the era in which the original Christopher Reeve Superman was created. Say what you want about Smallville, it at least re-interpreted Superman as if he had come to Earth recently and was a young man today. Sure, at the start it was a little Superman 90210, but so what? It translated the mythos into something recognizable for our era. In fact, in this its supposedly last season, after losing two of the lead supporting cast members, I think the show has gotten better. It borrows heavily from the comic book mythos that spawned it but has consistently thrown a new spin on that mythos. Superman Returns didn’t.

It’s not just Superman; comics as a medium needs to re-invent itself, to adapt to changing times. I love, honor, and respect the comic book retailers but they are in hard times and its going to get harder. Comics are a niche market and the retailers are part of that niche.  There’s x amount of fans buying the books and they have y amount of cash to spend on them. DC and Marvel play the same games from the Eighties with continuity heavy crossovers and attempts to crowd one another off the shelves. None of this grows the market.

One of the things I like about ComicMix and other sites like it is that we are where the eyeballs are, where the future of comics is going to lie – here on the Internet. This is where you can grow the market. It’s cheaper to produce stories on the Internet – no cost for printing or shipping, no distribution or retailer percentages – and you can still package the material for trade paperbacks which is where the real money is in comics anyway. Most of all, it has the potential to reach people who don’t go to comic book stores.

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On False Equivalency, by Elayne Riggs

  • News
  • October 15, 2008

goddamn-batman-2-7699744I was but a wee babe in the ‘60s, and I don’t really remember JFK’s assassination, or his brother’s, or King’s. I don’t think we had separate drinking fountains for black and white kids in New Jersey. But I remember racism. Anti-Semitism affected me directly (we were the only Jewish family in a heavily Catholic neighborhood) but, as our suburb became integrated and I was best buddies with a black boy, the jeers of racists were never far behind. Prejudice is kinda hard to forget, too, since it never went away.

Granted, everyone may be a little bit racist or sexist or homophobic. But there’s a difference, to my mind, between folks who need to work a bit more on their white or male or hetero privilege and people who wallow in it, who wear their ignorance proudly like a badge of honor. It’s like the difference between what superhero comics fans used to understand as the good guys and the bad guys. We read how the bad guys could fool some of the sheeple some of the time, but at heart they were just plain rotten because they had no moral core. And it was understood that they were not to be emulated nor aspired to and that there was a clear delineation between them and the “do-gooders.” This was in the days before do-gooders apparently became boring and passé.

I think the McCain campaign is counting on the American public to forget that he and his boring, passé do-gooder opponent are vying for a position that will affect millions of real lives very deeply, and pretend instead that they’re voting for the American Idol who will best kick ass and take names (especially yours, which reminds the government that they’d like to thank our fine troops so much for all their wonderful phone sex conversations!). Perhaps they reason that, since the whole Wild West schtick worked so well for the caricature currently occupying the White House, the same script can be retooled for the “James Garner He’s Not” Maverick and Sancho Bimbo — no wait, that’s Bible Spice — no sorry, I meant to say Caribou Barbie. Frontierswoman with a gun! And a helicopter! And golly gee, she knows how ta use ‘em, winkety wink!

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Guggenheim talks ‘Green Lantern’

  • News
  • October 14, 2008

There’s been a lot of talk about new, darker toned movies being made of DC Comics properties based on the success of The Dark Knight. That’s had one aisle of comic fans pretty psyched, as the more mature direction of Batman’s big screen adventures have definitely upped the gravitas factor. On the other hand, not every character lends itself to a "dark tone," such as the impending Superman relaunch.

Luckily, it sounds like Green Lantern is going to shine through the blackest night for a full on "respectful approach to the character [of Hal Jordan, and] a loving approach to the entire mythos."

That’s according to Marc Guggenheim, the writer of the upcoming Lantern feature. He spoke to Newsarama about the film’s progress, saying that "it’s pretty far along." The television producer and part-time comic book writer has worked on the script with Greg Berlanti and Michael Green.

"We’re reasonably deep into [Green Lantern]," he tells the website. "I’m never really comfortable publicly commenting on the movie because unlike the TV show, I’m just one of three writers and I’ve sworn a blood oath to secrecy. But we’re in the thick of it. We’re moving along at a pretty hefty clip."

And, according to Guggenheim, the alleged "revamp" of DC film properties hasn’t effected Hal Jordan in the slightest.

"I know a lot’s been made in newspapers and magazines about a revamping of DC’s approach," says Guggenheim. "That hasn’t been my sense. Maybe a focusing; maybe a ratcheting up of pace and energy. Whatever it’s been, it really hasn’t affected this project in the least. All the drafts have come in on schedule. All the notes have been the same kind of notes that we would have gotten in the absence of any ‘revamping.’"

Guggenheim tries not to pay attention the rumors and speculation about the project, but couldn’t avoid hearing the biggest rumor of ’em all: Ryan Gosling as Hal Jordan.

"I read that online," Guggenheim says. "As one of the writers, I’m not really involved in the day-to-day pre-production on it all. But I think it would be pretty amazing [casting.] I’ll go on record saying that."

Regardless of how the production aspect shakes out, there’s no question that it’s a wonderful time for comics on film.

"The kind of summer we just had, with movies like Iron Man and Dark Knight, makes a fertile marketplace for all comic book movies," Guggenheim says. "the timing could not have been better for us with [Green Lantern]."

Earlier this month, Latino Review scooped that Green Lantern was aiming for a 2010 release date. By all accounts, it looks like Hal Jordan will be on time for lift off.

Giggenheim and Berlanti’s Eli Stone has its second season debut on ABC tongiht.

Review: ‘Monty Python’s Tunisian Holiday’

51hrrisu-nl-sl500-aa2401-3018019Well as careers go, here’s a good one. Start off writing a fanzine and wind up working with and for Del Close and Monty Python and, specifically, John Cleese. Then you get to write all kinds of books about your labors.

Long-time comics journalist and frequent ComicMix commenter Kim Howard Johnson has a new book out called Monty Python’s Tunisian Holiday. It’s a misnomer; Monty Python was in Tunisia to work. They were making a movie. Monty [[[Python’s Life of Brian]]], to be exact. But few would buy a book called [[[Kim Howard Johnson’s Tunisian Holiday]]] unless it had a lot of sex in it, so the title choice is obvious. So are the contents: it’s Howard’s account of his time with the Pythons in Tunisia filming [[[The Life of Brian]]] and touches on his time on-stage with the group at the famed Hollywood Bowl concerts (Howard’s a professional, trained by no less than Del Close).

This is less of a companion volume to his [[[The First 200 Years of Monty Python]]],[[[ And Now For Something Completely Trivial]]],[[[ Life Before (and After) Monty Python]]], and [[[The First 280 Years of Monty Python]]] than it is Howard’s story chronicling his experiences as both a performer in the movie and a journalist covering the shoot. As such, it’s more of a companion volume to Michael Palin’s recently released autobiography Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years (I highly recommend the audiobook version, read by Palin). It’s witty, it’s thorough, and if you’re a Python fan or a movie nut, it’s completely vital. 

By the way, Howard’s got prefaces from Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, and his former boss and collaborator ([[[Superman: True Brit]]]), John Cleese. It’s nice to know people.

O.K. Cool, Howard. Great job. Now go do that biography of the Bonzo Dog Band I’ve been wanting so desperately.  Ummm… after you finish that [[[Munden’s Bar]]] story you’re doing with…

Behind the Mask, by Martha Thomases

  • News
  • October 11, 2008

In the early 1980s, conspiracy theories were all the rage. There seemed to be a cottage industry in debunking the conventional theories about the Kennedy assassination. Paul Krassner once said that he read so many articles on the subject in Penthouse magazine, next to the pin-ups, that he became aroused every time someone mentioned the Warren Report.

These ideas were everywhere. I remember seeing a long rant (printed up, on a poster in Washington Square Park) explaining that Mark Chapman and John Hinckley were both brainwashed by the CIA as assassins, with Chapman’s murder of John Lennon being a test run for the attempt on President Reagan.

While this seemed far-fetched, there was one aspect that made sense to me. Both Chapman and Hinckley were said to have acted in imitation of Travis Bickle, the character played by Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver. Robert DeNiro has never been more physically compelling than he was in that role, but Travis Bickle did not seem to me to be a happy person. It did not look like fun to be him.

Mark Millar plays with this idea in Kick-Ass. In this series, a scrawny young kid, feeling left out, puts on a set of long-johns and goes out on patrol. He gets the crap kicked out of him at first, but he also learns how to fight, and he attracts the attention from the media he can’t attract at school. Soon he’s considered a hero, and inspiring imitators of his own. Through it all, he remains a skinny kid, with few apparent social skills. I want to adopt him.

If people were going to base their actions on fictional characters, I thought it was much more likely for them to try to imitate Batman. After all, Batman and other non-super-powered heroes (like The Spirit, The Sandman and The Green Hornet) were beloved by millions, and Taxi Driver was a relatively small independent film, celebrated by elitist New York intellectuals.

Where were our costumed vigilantes?

It’s only taken a quarter century, but they’re here! According to a recent story in the New York Daily News, there is a group of people who dress up in costume and go on patrol. (more…)

Routh to ‘Return’ as Superman?

  • News
  • October 10, 2008

The DC movie goodness keeps rolling in and for the second day in a row, Latino Review is spilling the beans.

At Monday’s Watchmen presentation in New York City, which you can read about here, the Web site’s Kellvin Chavez had the opportunity to speak with DC Comics President Paul Levitz. Over the course of the candid conversation, Levitz revealed something quite interesting about the oft-whispered Superman reboot.

According to the site, Levitz stated: "[Previous Superman] Brandon Routh has come around the offices in New York and Los Angeles as of late to talk about Superman and what we want to do."

This is the highest profile indication that the newest live-action Superman film would include members of the lukewarmly received Superman Returns. Chavez’s report continues to mention that "Mr. Levitz made it seem … that [DC Comics and Warner Bros.] loves Brandon Routh as Clark Kent and that he’s just a great guy." (more…)

Net goes Nuts Over Spacey Rumor

  • News
  • October 5, 2008

kevin-spacey-as-luthor-5133878Much is being made of a comment, buried deep in an interesting interview with actor Kevin Spacey regarding his participation in the next Superman film. The UK’s Independent noted that Spacey was signed to reprise his Lex Luthor in the film but doesn’t quote the actor directly. Instead, he commented on his life as a producer and occasional actor.

"Well, look. If I’m not producing, then I’m an actor for hire. It ends there. That doesn’t mean you’re not working with a director and other actors and a writer to make the best movie you can, but it’s a temporal experience, you’ll be together for a couple of weeks or months and then you’re done."

While it’s true he was committed to the next film, which at the time was still going to act as a follow-up to Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, the playing field ahs changed. Singer is no longer attached to the film, which was recently announced as being rebooted ala Batman Begins.

After all, Warner Bros. Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov told  the Wall Street Journal what the rest of us knew walking out of the theater that the homage to Richard Donner "didn’t quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to. … It didn’t position the character the way he needed to be positioned."

Exactly who will write, director or appear in the new start has yet to be announced so there may well be a lot of guessing through reading tea leaves. We suspect that any new Superman feature film will not bring back anyone from the Singer film or the 1980s features.
 

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