The Spirit

Hopefully everyone had a great Christmas holiday! I went to watch The Spirit yesterday which was a lot of fun. I went into the theater without any big expectations. I never read the original The Spirit comic book by Will Eisner but have heard so many great things about the story. When I was working at Top Cow, my old boss, Jim McLauchlin (Top Cow's former Editor-in-Chief), tried to get publishing rights to the series. If Jim was in pursuit of this, then there's definitely merit to everyone's claims.

So I watched the movie and was thoroughly entertained. It's not your typical comic book movie. The Spirit is more of a dark police crime story than an ordinary comic book movie. For that reason the movie itself wouldn't appeal to the general audience. The movie's visual effects and directing style are interesting. It really captures this old time crime feel of the late 1920s and draws you into this strange but familiar world.

There was also plenty of satire as well. The movie makes many polictical, social, and literary statements. I found myself trying to analyze the meaning of everything in the middle of the movie instead of just sitting back and enjoying it. I stopped myself before going too far but just know there are a lot of material that will get your mind rolling. I'll have to go back and watch it a second or third time to fully analyze The Spirit in greater detail.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Trailer

Holy crap! The new trailer for the upcoming X-Men prequel, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, debuted today and it looks SO good!! Wolverine is as bad ass as ever and the fight scenes with Gambit and Sabretooth are SWEET!! This is going to be good! X-Men Origins: Wolverine premieres in theaters on May 1, 2009.
X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE HD

The Day The Earth Stood Still

So I went to watch The Day The Earth Stood Still in IMAX yesterday. I was eagerly anticipating this movie since it looked pretty good from the trailers and the story seemed pretty interesting. I refrain from ever reading any advanced reviews so that I can watch a movie without being influenced by someone's opinions. I did the same for The Day The Earth Stood Still. After watching the movie I feel that it's an average movie. It wasn't spectacular but it wasn't horrible either.

The movie started with an interesting premise and it was missing the suspense factor. A lot of times viewers are left just waiting and wondering about what will happen next. The story moved a long with little explanation about why things are happening the way it is. All the audience gets is that the aliens have come to save Earth from humans.

The Day The Earth Stood Still did have some pretty cool special effects. Unfornately the cool visuals were very limited and so was the action. There was a lot of talking that didn't help move the story along. Another issue I found was the religious themes throughout the movie. Mentions about arcs, THE flood, imagery of crucifixes, etc. did not really help the movie at all. If the theme was woven into the story more solidly, it would've been an interesting overtone to the entire film.

It was a good movie just to watch in leisure. I wouldn't go watch this again in the theater and maybe won't get the DVD of it either. Watch it when it premieres on network television.

Dragon Ball: Evolution Trailer

I'm not a huge fan of the anime Dragon Ball so naturally I don't follow up on any of news regarding it. I ran across this news brief announcing the new trailer for the live-action movie, Dragon Ball: Evolution. I honestly didn't even know a movie was in the works. Having seen this trailer for the first time, it actually looks like it'll be a fun action flick which is way much more than I can say about the anime.

Guess Who's Sylar's Daddy?

Source: Entertainment Weekly

I was getting my daily dose of science fiction entertainment news and came across some startling information! If you watched this past Monday's episode of Heroes, you'd know that Arthur Petrelli is NOT Sylar's father. Then that leaves the question, who is? Entertainment Weekly and several other news sources report that John Glover (Lionel Luthor, Smallville) has been signed on to play Sylar's father!! Those of you who watch Smallville know what a badass John Glover is. You just LOVE to hate the guy. I couldn't be happier with the producers choice for Sylar's dad.

Heroes: Villains has been mediocre at best. It hasn't recaptured the mystique it once had with this new volume of the series but so far the news of the changes and additions for the next volume, Heroes: Fugitives, seems far more promising. I hope that Heroes can return to its former glory or at the very least sustain itself as a decent genre series. As of right now, the show is hanging on by the threads. Let's hope the new blood can get Heroes back on track again.

Gasoline Thieves

Everybody knows how bad the U.S. economy is right now. We're technically not in a recession just yet but we're getting closer day by day. So with times being so tough for a lot of people and gasoline prices going through the roof, a need breed of thieves have emerged... gasoline thieves.

Local news reports that stealing gasoline is on the rise. Apparently the gasoline thieves steal gas from cars that are not protect and in neighborhoods that are relatively quiet. They pry open the gas opening and use a tube to get the gas out into a portable gasoline container.

What is the world coming too? There is so much chaos and craziness in the world. Thieves are turning to desperate measures as well as everybody else. Who would've thought that stealing gasoline would be hitting the headlines?

The U.S. economy has gone down so drastically and so rapidly. Everyone is feeling desperate and are struggling. I guess gasoline stealing is just a sign of the times. Economic forecasters predict that the economy may remain in this unstable state maybe until late 2009, early 2010. That sure is a long time and who knows what other crazy new crimes may arise from this.

Clay Aiken is Gay... and this is news?

I woke up this morning without checking my email or watching any news. I didn't listen to the radio so I was pretty much unaware of what's going on in the world. Well when I got to work and checked my email my friend had sent me something titled, "The Most Shocking News EVER!!" and I thought to myself what the Hell could this be? Terrorist attack? Death in the family? I thought the worst but then I opened up the email and I find that Clay Aiken is gay. Seriously? Seriously?!! This is the big news of the day?

I turned on Frosty, Heidi and Frank, my favorite radio show, and what are they talking about? They are talking about Clay Aiken. The guy may not have publicly stated he's gay but seriously does he need to make an announcement? Everybody already knew he's gay! I just find it so funny that he'd pull a publicity stunt like this. And it was refreshing that FHF was taking a sarcastic perspective on the situation. It was pretty funny (^_^)

He's always been kind of low on the music scene radar and he's falling fast. This really lame attempt to get his face and name back on the scene is utterly pathetic. And he's on the news not for his music but for "coming out." Of course this "big" news will past. It will be nothing but a distant memory in about a week. Tomorrow is another day and let's hope it won't be all about Clay.

Gods Behaving Badly

I just finished reading Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips today and I have to say that it's one of the most entertaining, hilarious and insightful books I've read in a long time.

For those of you who are not aware, Gods Behaving Badly is about the Greek gods trying to survive in the modern day world where nobody believes in them anymore. Apollo and Aphrodite continuously quarrel with one another and their godly conflict draws in an unsuspecting pair of mortal lovers.

My friend was reading it before I was and he was just raving about how great the book is. He gripped my interest when he told me how Eros is a born again Christian and that Aphrodite is a phone sex operator! WTF??

Marie Phillips' style of writing is witty and sharp. You are glued to every word of every page of this book. The way in which she writes the Greek gods makes the story stay so true to the ancient mythology. The gods are as selfish and petty as ever and Phillips captures that essence brilliantly in the novel.

There are so many laugh out loud moments. I had to hold in my laughter several times while reading it. I read a few chapters while I was waiting for jury duty and did my very best to hold in my laughter and I began to tear! Gods Behaving Badly is really fun and a light read that actually leaves you feeling good about life. It's uplifting and just a great read.