I'm a Marvel...and I'm a DC

I thought Iron Man was fantastic -- and I'm looking forward to and have very high expectations for The Dark Knight -- so I love this little YouTube clip:

Coultonfield

If you're waiting for Jonathan Coulton to return to the Twin Cities on May 1st, you can keep an eye for him here...

Star Trek Pushed To May 2009

I didn't expect this -- apparently, they've pushed back Star Trek until May 2009 -- a whole half year later than we originally thought we would see it.

On one side, I'm sad to wait a little longer -- but at the same time, I think that the longer without Star Trek the better -- it's out of the public eye.

I suppose it's not a surprise that the end of the writer's strike would have these sorts of things come up. They say it's not because of the script -- and I believe that -- but it's probably because of how the whole movie market place changes with a quarter of no script activity.

And it'll make it even more eagerly awaited, I think...

Getting Enterprise Right

One of the interesting things about the Star Trek teaser is that it looks like this is actually trying to do the same thing that it looked like Enterprise was doing -- bringing something like the 1960s Star Trek into the present day.

I think there is certainly an open question about how accepting a fan audience would be to see a new cast play the same characters -- I'm happy with the cast, and I would like to see the definitive dream of a better future for mankind be revitalized for the present day.

You wonder if this will fall apart because it's tied to tightly to the original series -- Nimoy's involvement makes this a concern --- or that it'll end up so different than the Star Trek we have grown up with that it'll be difficult to accept. I don't think it's impossible to recast; after all, characters like James Bond and Batman are reguarly recast.

It'll be interesting to see -- I know I certainly plan to.

Cloverfield

I'm quite excited by this movie -- of course, as a Lost and Alias fan, I would be. I'd like to see it as soon as possible, and apparently they are doing a little contest, and you might be able to help.

Sylar is Spock

It's been confirmed in several locations now -- and I'm thrilled that retroactively Heroes can become even more the geekiest show ever, by not only having Sulu, a Doctor Who, a Master, and Malcolm McDowell but now a future (or is that a past) Spock in Zachary Quinto.

I'm very content with this casting -- Zachary Quinto proved to be a fantastic actor in Heroes, showing quite a wide range so he should be more than capable to play Spock. I'm a little concerned that including Leonard Nimoy as well in the film will make this a bit too backward looking -- making some of the same mistakes as the last Superman film made -- but we'll see.

Stardust

The first trailer for Stardust, the movie based on the novel by Neil Gaiman, is out, and it looks very, very promising.

The Diary of Harold Crick

I went to see Stranger Than Fiction this evening. It's an odd film, and is to Will Ferrell what something like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Truman Show are to Jim Carrey. I don't think this is as good as either of those two films -- and I think this is a movie that would fall apart if you poked at it too much, but it's still got some interesting elements and is worth seeing.

But the biggest surprise for me was that I thought there was some Douglas Adams-like influence in the film. There's one point that I think is obvious once you see it -- and I won't mention it for spoiler reasons. And there's an unusual interest in wrist watches, much like Adams. And in one scene, Harold Crick goes to see Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, an obviously similar connection, and Python loved having sequences with auditors and accountants, sometimes making fools of themselves, and other times showing how they want to get out of their desperate life.

I don't think this is a huge influence on the film -- and I really don't see the whole plot of the film as something particularly Douglas Adams (and the whole plot isn't Charlie Kaufman either). It's not quite in that league, in my mind -- but it is a film worth looking at.

the muppet matrix

Whoa. This is a great combination of muppets, CGI, and the Matrix. Very enjoyable.

The Midnight Chronicles

If you're relatively connected in the Minneapolis/St Paul SF/Fantasy community, you probably know someone who is involved with The Midnight Chronicles, an independent fantasy film that's currently in production. They've got a trailer online.

The film is based on Fantasy Flight Games' Midnight, and if the trailer is any indication, the special effects are very ambitious for a small independent film. It's really amazing what can be done for effects these days and how accessible the technology is becoming.

Can't Stop the Signal

I saw the current work-in-progress print of Serenity, the film version of the TV series Firefly.

I think it would be wrong to go into great details about the movie at this point in time; you don't really want spoilers -- and this really will be must-viewing for people who were fans of the television series, and the many, many people who have since discovered the series on DVD. And if you haven't seen the series, your really should check it out -- it's a rich, rich universe, and something that you only get to explore a corner of in the television series.

One thing I notices is that the television series it's very strongly influenced by the late 1800s Wild West post-Civil War universe, and that's turned down a little bit in the film, but the Asian influence is a little higher here. And oddly, I realized one thing in the movie that it shares with Farscape -- it's playing in some of the same territory as the British Science Fiction series Blake's 7. I've thought that the comparison with the US Civil War is interesting, because the main characters of Firefly are on the losing side.

It'd also interesting because I see a bit more of how Firefly fits into the same sorts of themes as the other Joss Whedon TV series, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel, and also a bit with the work he's been doing on the Astonishing X-Men comic.

Our showing had Ron Glass make a personal appearance, who plays Shepherd Book in both the TV Series and the Movie. He answered a few questions, had a discussion, and then signed autographs. It was a bit odd, actually.

I think the best thing about it is that it would be so very easy for Firefly to have joined that all-too-long list of television series that fail after a brief run on television, due to the vagaries of that market. But due to the devotion of fans, it's had a very, very rich afterlife. I think there's more buzz about the TV series now amongst my social circles than when it was first on the air and totally mishandled by FOX.

And it's getting late. Serenity comes out in the end of September. Obviously, if you followed Firefly, you'll want to see the movie -- and if you haven't, well, it's a good excuse to spend your summer watching it on DVD, or on Sci Fi, which will be airing all of the episodes later this summer as part of their Friday line up.

Because really, it's a film for fans who just never, ever, give up.

And it's late, and I have to work, so off to sleep I go.

Oh, I agree with Tim Wick about Charlie's Angels -- it was good fun, and I was very pleasantly surprised.