I enjoy superhero movies more, now that the level of movie-making technology & CGI makes them more believable. Iron Man & the recent Batman movies were pretty cool.
Spider-Man was ok, but the underwhelming use of Venom was a disappointment. Even when I was a little kid, I thought the Superman movies with Christopher Reeves were kind of retarded because the special effects were fake-looking & it was so cheesy.
Obviously, Superman is still the most awesome hero ever. However, my close second choice of powers would be that of The Green Lantern.
I think computer graphics have gotten to a point that could do the character justice. This trailer for the upcoming movie I saw on Fasthack looks pretty good. Of course, I would improve upon it- by adding more black to the suit, instead of it being all neon green.
I had a fairly eventful weekend. Sunday, I went with my brothers & one of their girlfriends to see the new movie about the Marvel character based on the Norse god of thunder- Thor.
Although I was interested in the mythologies of different cultures when I was a kid, the Thor comic book character was not really one of my favorites. I collected titles like the X-men, Spider-Man, Silver Surfer, Batman, & Superman.
Playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance gave me a newfound respect for the Son of Odin. In the game Thor's given a deservedly superior amount of power to smash the crap out of enemies.
Rating: The movie was a solid "7" in my opinion & I enjoyed it. It would get a better rating if there was less emphasis on the silly love story revolving around a temporarily mortal Thor & Natalie Portman's character. It was just overly corny & took away from Thor kicking ass.
We were joking about how Portman ruins the heroes of all the movies she's in, like Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars.
The adaptation of Thor to a movie was otherwise pretty good. The special effects & sound were awesome. The visuals & costumes were all cool, too. I also liked the explanation of the viking realm of the gods, Asgard. as an advanced race with power over space-time warps & other crazy technology.
I'd recommend it, unless you're a weirdo who hates superhero movies.
Personally, I'm more interested in the Green Lantern movie coming out- though I'm not a fan of the choice for Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, nor the overly-detailed suit & bright green mask...
I was just reading an article about the upcoming onslaught of new Disney-owned Star Wars media.
In the article's comments, someone mentioned "Ithorians". Being an self-admitted Star Wars geek of the highest order, I knew these are the 'hammer-head' aliens... like the one seen in the famous Mos Eisley cantina scene. (By the way, that particular Ithorian is Momaw Nadon. I'm so ridiculous that I knew that also & spelled his name exactly right...)
Anyway.... I did a random google image search & came across this cool image of an Ithorian Jedi, meditating in a natural setting.
The Ithorians are generally a peaceful species & environmentalists
who live on "herd ships" above their planet, as not to disturb the
natural ecology. Each herd was led by a force-sensitive shaman.
One of the great things about Star Wars is its use of truly alien creatures...
Despite the differences between the many species from different worlds,
"The Force" is a unifying & pervasive element that binds them all
together.
Similar to how the Green Lantern Corp. is
made up of beings of all kinds from across the galaxy, the Jedi were
also representative of the myriad Force-sensitive lifeforms in the Galactic Republic.
This weekend I went to see Marvel's"The Avengers" in 3D & it was pretty awesome. This is going to be a geek-tastic post, but I have to rave about this film a bit.
Marvel's The Avengers Trailer 2 (OFFICIAL)
When I was a kid, I collected comic books- but never had any issues of The Avengers. I was familiar with these and most of the other Marvel & DC characters, though. This movie made excellent use of the iconic heroes that make up the super team.
I'm very critical when it comes to most creative works, because I can usually think of a better way to do it. Only recently have superhero action movies gotten to the point where I think they are produced properly.
The Superman movies from the 80's seemed cheesy to me. I thought Tim Burton's version of Batman was ok back when I was 12 years old, but the sequels were garbage.
More recently, DC has been improving the quality of their movie franchises. Batman Begins was very cool, but Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight was horrible & The Dark Knight Rises looks like it's going to be crap. Bane & Catwoman look like they've been handled all wrong & Christian Bale's voice when he's Batman is unbearably annoying. I saw & really enjoyed The Green Lantern recently. I was glad that they did justice to one of my favorite comic characters.
As for Marvel movies, I really liked the X-Men movies & the Wolverine spin-off was done well. The Spider-man movies were good, but the portrayal of his arch-nemesis Venom in Spider-man 3 was weak. I don't really care for the Fantastic Four & haven't seen those movies. Even though The Silver Surfer was one of my favorite characters, I refused to see the Fantastic Four sequel when I learned that the planet-devouring Galactus was going to be some kind of nanobot cloud.
The individual movies leading up to The Avengers have all been solid films in their own right. They all came together to make a truly kick-ass movie that even my critical eye can find few faults with. The way that Marvel has worked to interweave all these separate stories into one overall thread has been brilliant.
• Iron Man has the benefit of the best casting decision ever, with Robert Downey Jr. playing Tony Stark. The state of computer graphics is finally at the point where the portrayal of the mech suit is believably realistic & looks amazing.
• I thought the digitally rendered Hulk looked 'off' in his previous movies, but he was much improved in The Avengers.
• Thor would have been a really cool movie if Natalie Portman & her character didn't ruin it.
• I haven't seen the Captain America movie yet, since I've always thought he was really lame. Chris Evans is a convincing Capt. America, though, that is true to the character.
Cap, The Hulk, & Thor are all being handled infinitely better than the ridiculous attempts made in the 80's.
"The Incredible Hulk Returns"
"Captain America" (1990)
As for The Black Widow, she's played by Scarlett Johansson... so..... that's all there is to say about that!
Loki was a decent villain for The Avengers, but the Asgardians (Loki & Thor) seemed pretty vulnerable for god-like beings. It was funny when The Hulk gave an unsuspecting Thor a taste of his strength, though.
The Avengers had some well-placed humor, eye-popping visuals, an exciting story, superb casting, and everything that should be in a great superhero movie. Like most people, I left the theater going "Wow!" & freaking out over all the amazing details. I give it my highest recommendation, whether or not you like superhero movies.
The excellence of this film was topped off with a final teaser scene, shown after the first set of end credits. The Marvel Film Universe is about to get a whole lot bigger & crazier!
To see the spoiler, highlight the text below:
The scene showed the alien who kneeling before an unseen figure on an asteroid in space. The alien said something to the effect that "battling with the humans would be courting Death." That's when I thought... "no way!!!"... before they showed 'the mad Titan' Thanos turn towards the camera & grin. I hadn't read any spoilers about this scene. However, I said right before it that the only way Marvel can build on something bigger would be to use a storyline like The Infinity Gauntlet series I read when I was a teenager. They are clearly going to bring the entire Marvel movie lineup (The Avengers, The Fantastic Four, Spider-man, & The X-Men) together to face off against Thanos & the Infinity Gems. Based on Marvel's track record so far, it is going to be completely awesome!
At least the official Avengers movie turned out better than this:
This weekend I made my annual trip to the Toy Fair trade show, held in midtown Manhattan at the Javitz Center.
It is a huge convention, featuring new products from toy & game manufacturers from around the world. I love seeing all the cool, fun things that are coming out on the market. There's definitely a lot to see, and I covered a lot of ground in the day that I was there, walking the whole show in 5-6 hours.
I also used the opportunity to make contacts with game publishers and toy companies to pitch ideas I'm personally trying to get to market, as well. I am especially focused on getting the strategy game I created, "Da Vinci's Challenge", published for retail again. Recently, a new edition of the game was produced, to be used as a promotional item by Swiss watchmaker, IWC Shaffhausen. I'll post up pics here soon.
Here is an album of all the photos I took at Toy Fair:
On thisisnthappiness.com I saw this really cool series of Super Silhouettes, but one caught my eye- the awesome Silver Surfer, silently patrolling the Universe:
If I had to pick, The Silver Surfer is probably the superhero whose powers I'd choose to have. As a cosmic being with abilities far beyond most humanoid characters, the experience would be one that's hard to even imagine... I'd just want to avoid dealing with Galactus. For the record, my runner-up choices would be to have Green Lantern & obviously Superman's powers. However, I'll stick with my choice to wield The Power Cosmic. From the Marvel Wiki :
The Power Cosmic: The Silver Surfer possesses the Power Cosmic
which is the core from which his other abilities manifest from. This
power was granted to him by Galactus, making Norrin one of the absolute
strongest and most powerful beings in the Universe.
Matter Control/Manipulation and Reconfiguration / Energy Emission and Absorption:
The Surfer has complete control of the four fundamental forces of the
universe, reaching nearly any effect he desires. As a result, the Surfer
can rearrange matter to create other configurations and can even
transmute elements. The Surfer can channel beams of energy through his
hands with sufficient destructive force to destroy planets [20][21], and pierce stars. Additional abilities include erecting force fields, phasing through solid matter[22], accelerating the evolution of lifeforms on a planet-wide scale [23], seeing the past by peeling back the layers of time, time travel [24],
trans dimensional travel, manipulation and discharging of any form of
energy or radiation, bestowing limited cosmic powers to others, reading
minds [25], casting illusions [26], and influencing human emotion and sensation [22].
The Surfer also possesses the ability to suppress the powers of other
mutants/beings making them temporarily or permanently out of use to
them. He can heal living beings even if they are near-death[22]. He cannot, however, raise the dead.
God-like Strength: The Surfer possesses almost limitless
superhuman strength, though the exact magnitude remains vague. He can
lift (press) far in excess of 100 tons effortlessly and can also use the
Power Cosmic to increase his strength to incalculable levels[27].
Invulnerability: The Silver Surfer's silvery "skin" was
designed to easily withstand the rigors of deep-space travel, and thus
far, it has proven to be virtually indestructible. In fact, his entire
body was made highly resistant to injury and he is thus invulnerable to
almost all types of physical harm. The Silver Surfer can easily
withstand the crushing pressures of a black hole [28]. He is not bothered by the friction associated with atmospheric re-entry, and has withstood plunges into stars[29]
and even supernovas unharmed. He also routinely weathers the stresses
associated with high-speed travel through space and hyperspace.
God-like Stamina: The Surfer's highly enhanced
musculature generates no fatigue toxins, nor body stress, or even sweat,
granting him inexhaustible physical stamina, which allows him to fight
other beings for prolonged periods of time before tiring, that is if he
even gets tired.
Hyperspace Travel: By exceeding over 99% of the speed of
light (186,272 miles per second), the Silver Surfer can shift himself
into hyperspace, a dimension in which velocity is not limited by the
speed of light[22].
Cosmic Senses: The Silver Surfer has certain
cosmic-energy enhanced perceptions which enable him through
concentration to become aware of the patterns of energy anywhere in the
world[30].
These abilities allow him far-ranging vision (in space he can see
people clearly over a light year away), the ability to see sub-atomic
particles, superhuman hearing, the ability to detect fields, traces, and
concentrations of pure forms of energy and discern their natures[31].
Cosmic Self-Sustenance: The Silver Surfer does not need to eat or breathe since he absorbs life-maintaining cosmic energy directly through his skin.
Here's a more lavishly detailed image of the "Sentinel of the Spaceways", by Joe Jusko:
In high school I wrote a similar program for the TI-85 calculator I was using for some of my later classes. I made a chart naming a bunch of my friends, teachers, etc & their characteristics. I entered it into the calculator so it would ask you questions and tell you who you were thinking about.
That was one of the ridiculous ways I creatively passed the time in Study Hall back in the day.
Nowadays I try to avoid programming & code if at all possible. Graphic interfaces are much more appealing to me.
