Christmas came early this year

But now there's another whole year to wait for the actual movie. Crap.

300 For Emo Kids

Hi. I know, it’s been a while, but I’m back from my year of wandering in the desert that is Facebook. Frankly, that place sucks. Nothing but Farmville updates, Mafia Wars, and reminders that I forgot someone’s birthday.

Besides, I was just waiting for the right bit of pop culture to come along and give me a reason to start blogging again, and oh, wait, here’s something that combines two of my favorite things to write about... a preview for a comic book movie: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

If you've read this blog at all, you know I love me some comic book adaptations, but this one’s not exactly your standard superhero fare — more like a romantic hipster animé-inspired Nintendo game brought to life. And despite the fact that the trailer begins just like every other Michael Cera movie you’ve ever seen, this is not your typical rom-com. Just watch it, you’ll see.

Buzz has been building for this movie in geek circles for a while now, enough to get me to hunt down the source graphic novels/manga books (which, of course, I totally dig). I recently read a review of an early screening that said, “This movie is so true to the feel of the comics, it’s like 300 for emo kids.” Needless to say, I will actually be going to the theater for this one. And that doesn’t happen much anymore, especially since the theater chains are quietly raising prices this weekend. Way to make people want to stay home with their Blu-Rays even more, idiots.

Faithfully

OK, this is cool. Somebody took the “motion comics” version of Watchmen, made available online around the time all the hype started for the movie, and recreated, panel-by-panel, each shot from the Watchmen teaser trailer, making sure everybody who sees this realizes exactly how faithful Zack Snyder’s film is staying to the comic. Some of the early reviews I’ve read say too faithful, but as a devoted fan of the original work, I find that hard to believe. Besides, if you’re going to take on the task of adapting such a groundbreaking piece of graphic fiction, why mess with perfection?

Teaser Trailer:


Motion comics version:

Brad Pitt as Lion-O?

Unfortunately, no. But as fake previews go, this one’s pretty amazing.

Origin

The last X-Men movie was a disappointment for me, so I wasn’t sure what to think when I heard they were doing a solo Wolverine movie. Well, based on this trailer, I think I’m going to like it.

Who Watches the Watchmen?

Hopefully, lots of moviegoers in March. Based on the trailer, this is looking like a note-perfect translation to screen of one of my favorite stories ever—the trick will be to get people to watch a film about characters they don’t know. All the superhero archetypes are there, and while Watchmen may not have the immediate name recognition as the superheroes we all grew up with, the footprint it left on pop culture is hard to measure (although Entertainment Weekly did a pretty good job). Suffice it to say, Watchmen is directly responsible for the current dark, “grown-up” tone of superhero stories, where heroes are real people who feel the effects and consequences of each and every one of their actions. Without it, the modern era of comic book movies—from Tim Burton’s take on Batman all the way through to The Dark Knight—may never have come to pass, and you can even argue that its influence spread even farther into sci-fi and fantasy, leading to the strong presence of geek culture that rules the entertainment world. By making comics acceptable for grownups, there suddenly emerged legions of adult fans who showed they were willing to pay good money if movies and TV took them and their interests seriously. Without those fans, we might never have seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer reborn on TV or Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy make it to film, not to mention projects like Lost, 300, and the upcoming Star Trek reboot. So after all that, you can understand why there’s a bit of weight of expectation surrounding this movie. Enjoy the trailer:

The Dark Knight (Pixar remix)

Trailer mashups are the new black.

Long Past Fashionably, Just Plain Late

OK, I’ve ignored this song for as long as I can, but every since Z-Trip brought down the house at Unconventional ’08 with MIA’s “Paper Planes,” I cannot get it out of my head. Who knew gunshots and cash register noises could make for such an unforgettably infectious chorus? Every time I hear it, I just want to dance around the room making pistols with my fingers (and except for rare occasions like VIP parties during Democratic National Conventions, I’m not much of a dancer). Also, it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that I didn’t pick up on the biggest summer jam until fall arrived. Alanis might call that ironic.

And just for fun, here’s the extremely NSFW Pineapple Express trailer that made “Paper Planes” the hit it deserves to be.

Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist

This is high on my must-see list for the fall (in theaters October 3rd). Michael Cera rocks, and I feel strangely protective of the kid. Maybe it’s because whatever he’s in, I tend to feel his character’s pain and find myself wanting to impart some big brotherly advice to help him through the awkward spots. Not sure what I’d do with the whole “George Michael’s in love with his cousin” thing, though. That’s just weird.

And on a totally unrelated note, why does it seem like romantic comedies always get released in the fall? Is that a particularly romantic time of year? Why wouldn’t there be a bigger surge around, say, Valentine’s Day?

"I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office." —George W. Bush, May 12, 2008

The first trailer for Oliver Stone’s George W. Bush biopic, W, has surfaced on YouTube. It’s like a horrific car wreck. I don’t want to see it, but I can’t look away.

Batman vs. Batman vs... Batman?

I think I’ve mentioned it enough times now that you know I love well-done movie trailers. Well, even more than that, I love well-done fake movie trailers. And ahead of next month’s release of the Dark Knight, the folks over at Black 20 have got a freaking cool trailer that will settle once and for all who’s the best Batman. Who needs villains? The only disappointing part is, they didn't give Adam West his crack at the title. Nobody can overcome tilted cameras and animated sound effects the way he could.

“You’re a... teacher?” “Part-time.”

Summer movie season, here we come. Ahead of its release on Memorial Day weekend, the first trailer for Indy 4 (OK, fine—Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Blech. That title sucks.) made its way to the InterWeb this week. As expected, it looks action-packed, and I appreciate the willingness to crack jokes at the expense of Harrison Ford’s age, but there’s a few things that worry me. I’m remaining cautiously optimistic, but that shot of a car chase along the edge of an obviously CGI-created cliff is concerning. One of the greatest things about the original trilogy is that the locations were always real, and the stunts always looked like they could actually happen. George Lucas’ obsession with computer-created movies better not ruin this franchise too.

But as long as this movie remains firmly focused on Indy as the main character, and doesn't just become a setup to extend the franchise with Steven Spielberg’s boy-crush Shia LeBouf, I'll be happy. Something else that makes me happy is that Karen Allen’s character Marion Ravenwood from Raiders of the Lost Ark is back. You can see her briefly in one shot, but she’s such a great character, I’m surprised they didn’t play up her return more. Maybe in the next preview.

Warmup Act

One of the few reasons I still enjoy seeing a movie in the theater is the previews. As I’ve talked about in the past, I’m always fascinated to see how the editing houses try to condense two-hour fims into two or three minutes. A well-executed preview can really amp up my anticipation for a movie (I still think Garden State was the most successful example I’ve ever seen in this regard), and conversely, a bad one can make me lose all interest. One of the best parts of this time of year is that the studios have started up the marketing campaigns for the movies they hope will be next summer’s blockbusters, and I’ve got examples of the good and the bad. I’ve already mentioned my love for the Iron Man preview, but beyond that, what I’ve seen so far this season either has me counting down the days with childish glee...

....or making me think the filmmakers might as well have flushed their $150 million+ budget down the toilet. Yikes. Good luck recouping your money on this one. I haven’t seen anything that looked this bad since I suffered through the first 10 minutes of Buckaroo Banzai.

Misc.

It’s been a while since I last posted, and to be honest, I’ve been debating whether to give up on the blog entirely. I haven’t made up my mind yet, but I think for now, I’ll just continue to post when the mood strikes, and not worry about how long it takes me to come back to it. After all, it’s not like the internet is going anywhere.

For now, here’s a few things I’ve been enjoying lately:

• Gentlemen of the Road, Michael Chabon — An instant classic of an adventure novel, written in the vein of Sir Walter Scott or Robert E. Howard. I started and finished it on the plane ride home for Thanksgiving. Thoroughly enjoyable read.
• Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson — Eerily prescient cyberpunk novel that influenced everything from The Matrix to Heroes. Also a great read.
• The World Without Us, Alan Weisman — A well-researched and interesting look at what would happen to the Earth if humanity suddenly disappeared. Unfortunately, our legacy would mostly consist of all the plastic garbage we’d leave behind.
• the audio/video page on Andrew Bird’s bowloffire.com — All kinds of cool live stuff and remixes.
• Jerusalem, Steve Earle — The more Steve Earle I listen to, the more he becomes one of my favorite artists. I just recently downloaded this anti-war album he released in 2002, and sadly, the themes are still way too current.
• classic Christmas music — From Charlie Brown to the Chairman of the Board, they just don’t make ’em like they used to.
• Automatic For the People, R.E.M. — 15 years later, this is still an incredible album. “Sweetness Follows” has popped up in my playlists several times lately, and it especially crushed me with its greatness.
• The Jungle Book 40th Anniversary Platinum Edition — This was one of my favorite movies as a kid, so I Netflixed it this weekend. Disney did an incredible job with the remastering. The movie looks gorgeous, and I was happy to discover that I still knew the words to all the songs. My neighbors, on the other hand... probably not as happy.
• the performances of Scarlett Johannson — I never thought I was much of a fan, until I realized recently that she starred in six of the top ten movies in my Netflix queue. In the past few weeks, I’ve watched Scoop, Girl With A Pearl Earring, Match Point, and Lost in Translation, and I have to say, there’s something indefinably sexy about her that I find kind of mesmerizing. I’m having trouble deciding whether it’s her voice, her lips, or most likely, some combination of the two. Plus, she does voices on Robot Chicken, so she’s got serious nerd points. And hey, Woody Allen seems to love her. (Then again, he also loved his adopted daughter who was half his age, so maybe old Woody’s not exactly the best measuring stick.)
• the Iron Man preview — Robert Downey Jr. was the perfect choice for Tony Stark, and I love that Jon Favreau refuses to overuse CGI. If the movie is half as good as the preview, I’ll be happy.

Dazed and Confused

Well, after 5 days, I'm finally starting to feel settled in Denver. It's still a bit disconcerting to be living in a furnished sublet. I feel like I have to be on my best behavior since it's someone else's stuff (although given the state this place was in when I arrived, I don't think that's much of a worry), and despite being completely unpacked, I still don't feel like I live here yet. My life for the past few days has been a blur of wandering around downtown, searching maps to find nearby stores for cleaning supplies and things I forgot, trying to learn the ropes at work, and catching World Cup highlights whenever I can. All of this is made more difficult by the fact that I'm heavily jet-lagged due to the switch to Mountain Time. I keep nodding off around 9:30, and I wake up at the crack of dawn every morning raring to go. I did finally start to catch up a little this afternoon when I came home from work and grabbed a quick nap by the rooftop pool.

Overall, the decision to move out here seems to be a good one. Once I get comfortable at work, I think it's going to be a great spot for me, and the city itself has been nothing but amazing so far. The weather's been fantastic, and it just smells clean and healthy here, a welcome change after downtown Indy's ever-changing assortment of unpleasant scents. That said, there are some things I miss about the Circle City. Most of them will fade soon, but as long as AB is still there, I'll always be thinking about Indy.

Meanwhile, I'll try to find ways to amuse myself out here. With the holiday weekend coming up, there should be plenty of chances for fun. The Rapids apparently put on a great fireworks show every year, although the fact that they're matching up against the Revolution may not produce many fireworks of the goal-scoring variety, as neither team has been finding the back of the net too often lately. Thankfully, I'll have World Cup matches to keep my thirst for soccer sated. There's also a little movie coming out on Wednesday that I want to check out; haven't seen much publicity for it, but I think it's based on an old comic book. And in true competitive fashion, Marvel has cleverly timed the release of the teaser trailer for Spider-Man 3 to steal a little bit of DC's Superman thunder. Looks like, as rumored, Venom and Sandman will be the baddies this time. Hopefully, it stays truer to the quality of the first two movies and doesn't go the way of X-Men.

I'd talk about the US's early exit from the World Cup, but I'm still too annoyed to think coherently. I don't think Bruce Arena should be fired unless they have a better candidate lined up (too bad Guus Hiddink's not available), but I do think some new ideas would be a good thing for that coaching staff. Obviously, there were plenty of cracks in the dam, and when the pressure was on, they all burst. Mostly, what I learned from this World Cup is that the Yanks aren't anywhere near as good as they (or their fans) would like to think, and Clint Dempsey is the only US player who showed up. I'm guessing at least a few Euro clubs took notice.

Looking into the future

What with movie award season in full swing, I thought I'd give you a glimpse at what's guaranteed to be 2006's biggest blockbuster. Superman Returns? Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix? A Narnia sequel? Spielberg or Jackson's next epic? No, my friends. Following Woody Allen's cue, this director is making a return to form, going back to what made him famous in the first place... filthy dialogue and trivial geek-speak spewed forth from the mouths of New Jersey slackers. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... Kevin Smith's Clerks 2. This trailer got me so fired up, I had to buy the song from iTunes. (That would be Anthrax's re-recorded version of "Among the Living" from their 2004 album, The Greater of Two Evils.)

Speaking of geek-speak, it seems Chuck Klosterman (who I usually find a little tiresome in Spin and Esquire) is now writing a column for ESPN.com's Page 2. His topic? Why we feel the need to compare white athletes to other whites and black athletes to other blacks. Aside from being one of the weirdest and most thought-provoking columns I've ever read on ESPN's site, I challenge anyone to find another sports-related article which quotes the editor-in-chief of Slam magazine and Malcolm Gladwell. And as a second challenge, try to find at least 10 regular ESPN.com readers who know who Malcolm Gladwell is. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this piece.

And while on the subject of thought-provoking articles, I couldn't pass this one up. On Sunday, the New York Times ran the ultimate typography-nerd story. Unfortunately, it's already gone into their pay archive, but the gist of it is, a small segment of designers and type nerds are up in arms about the anachronistic use of typefaces in movies. The current example? In Good Night and Good Luck, the CBS logo, shown prominently in the studio where much of the film takes place, is set in Helvetica. However, the movie takes place in the early 50's, and Helvetica wasn't created until 1957. For more on the misuse of typefaces in period movies, see Mark Simonson's Typecasting. As a bit of a type nerd and also someone who examines printed materials on film much more closely than the average person, I find this whole thing very interesting, but also somewhat funny. Perspective, people.

Anticipation

Ever get that feeling when you're watching a TV show that they're building up to something really big? That's the way I've felt about Smallville this year (except for that idiotic episode where Lana became a vampire). Besides the big sweeps stunt of revealing James Marsters' evil master plan, there's been all kinds of portentious hints and sly references to the movies dropped this season, Lex is starting to slip into a supervillain's shoes, and Clark is slowly but surely embracing his superpowers. All of this seems to be leading to something very exciting at the end of the season. Will we finally see Tom Welling as Superman? It would make a lot of sense, since a stunt like that during May sweeps would coincide with what's likely to be a huge bout of Super-hype due to the summer release date for Bryan Singer's Superman Returns. In fact, DC and Warner Bros. already have the synergy thing going, premiering the teaser trailer for the new movie during this past week's Smallville episode. Looks like they really have tried to keep the tone of the first two Christoper Reeve films, even down to the music and using Marlon Brando's dialogue as Superman's birth father, Jor-El.

So what is in store for the show and the movie? Well, I could probably find out after 5 minutes on Google, but I think I'll just exercise restraint for once and enjoy the anticipation...

Lazy, lazy, lazy

Well, I wanted to post something, but I'm too tired to think. So here's a bunch of links to some humorous/quirky/cool stories, and one funny use of editing.

ABC and ESPN paid $100 million for the rights to the 2010 and 2014 World Cups. But the big news is that they were one of five American network groups bidding for the rights. That's a huge step forward for soccer.

Wide receivers in the NFL are wearing non-traditional numbers. And ESPN.com is writing non-traditional NFL articles.

According to Chinese scientists, there's a black hole in the middle of our galaxy.

You can buy a semi-pro indoor football team on EBay. For the low, low price of $100 grand.

And finally, a video editing house in Seattle had a competition to see who could recut a movie trailer to make it seem like something it was not. This is the winner. I warned these Hollywood types once already about overusing "Solsbury Hill," and now these folks have showed how that song's power can be used in horribly wrong ways.

If you're a fan of the Adult Swim shows on Cartoon Network and you haven't heard Danger Doom's The Mouse and the Mask yet, run right out and get yourself a copy. Hi-class underground rap interspersed with bits by various Adult Swim characters. Sweet.

Jingle Jingle

Well, I suppose since department stores have had their Christmas decorations out for almost a month, I shouldn't be surprised that the holiday movie hype has already begun. Here's a new preview for one I'm really looking forward to: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. (You need to have Quicktime to see this.)

More music

Ahh, the library. So much free music, so little hard drive space... Made a run through the CD section on Saturday, and I was apparently in the mood for some completely different sounds, because everything I checked out ended up being either rap or jazz. Still processing a lot of it, but it made for a nice change of musical pace this weekend. Here’s what I picked up:

Atmosphere, Headshots: Seven
Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Both Sides of the Brain
Blackalicious, Nia
Lyrics Born, Same !@#$, Different Day
Latryx, The Album
Thelonious Monk, Thelonious Himself
Charles Mingus, Ken Burns Jazz
Charles Mingus, Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (remastered)
John Scofield, Works for Me

Got passes today to a preview of Viggo Mortenson’s new flick, A History of Violence, tomorrow night. I’ll have a review later in the week. I’ve got high expectations for this one. The preview looks great, and it was very well-received at Cannes.