And Thus, The Man Of Steel Came To Be.

Read about Superman's true origins.

Marvel / DC

Here's a cool clip of action figures doing some acting. It's 'I'm Marvel/I'm DC' (in the spirit of the 'Mac/PC' commercials).

Then this is what happens when Hellboy get into the mix.

Hellboy II - The Golden Army

The elves are done well. The beings in the troll market are interesting.

The rest of the film...meh.

There are odd breaks in the pace of this movie. Tension builds up, then all of a sudden melts away in a tender or silly scene, only to ratchet back up again.

Then there are the odd gaps in logic:
- bullets (even oversized ones) can blow away a small, flying faerie, but won't hit what's behind them.
- the realm of magical creatures is hard to access from New York, where stubborn trolls won't let anybody in. But a quick trip to Ireland, and a handicapped goblin shows right up to open the door and give tours.

Save your money, see Dark Knight or buy the first Hellboy on DVD.

The Dark Knight

Yesterday I watched The Dark Knight on the big screen...and believe me, if you only see one movie in the theater this year, it's gotta be the new Batman!

This is, hands down, the best Batman movie ever made. Some people are calling this one of the best movies of all time, and though that may be a bit of a stretch, currently it's the top movie on IMDB's list.

Gotham is putting the squeeze on the mob, lead by Batman and Gordon. The mob's attempts to fight back are failing, so they enlist the help of the Joker, who turns the whole world upside down.

Heath Ledger's performance is amazing. His Joker is not the harmless prankster from the 60s, he's (as the character was originally depicted in comics) a psychopathic murderer with a twisted and morbid sense of humor. There's an unnerving piece of music they play in many of the Joker's scenes, which helps to remind the audience just how dangerous this lunatic is.

The other actors in this film are great, the story's tight (as far as action film stories go), and overall it's very satisfying.

For more on this movie, /film has this great, spoiler-free review.

Watchmen Trailer

Here's the trailer for Watchmen...another trailer being made into a feature-length motion picture! (If you didn't get that joke, look here.)

I've been a fan of Watchmen ever since the graphic novel was released. It's a great story set in a very alternate DC universe (hence, Night Owl as opposed to Batman). The story is amazingly deep, it's being told on multiple levels and has a number of themes running throughout. If you haven't read the one comic book that elevated comics to the level of graphic novel, then you really should.

I'm looking forward to this movie. Considering that 300 and Sin City were both great adaptions, I'm hoping that this will be as well. And for those that argue that it can't be done, since the story itself is so long, then it helps to know that Sin City was actually made up of 4 graphic novels and (in the case of Marv) stays true almost frame-by-frame.

Then again, I did pay to see League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in the theaters...

Uh-Oh

Worth a listen

Lion Hug

Here's a great story (and video) for anyone who's a friend of animals.

I Just Did A Microsoft Update...WHAT THE FUCK?!?

On Monday my computer notified me of the latest update for Windows XP. Though I'm normally very lazy, updating these things once a month at the very earliest, this time I went ahead and did it immediately.

Much to my dismay.

It's taken me two days to figure out what the hell this update did to my computer. I've been offline the entire time. There's no level of hell quite like trying to troubleshoot your PC without internet access...especially when your ISP's tech support line plays helpful "Visit us at www-whatever" messages while you wait on hold.

Long story short, it changed my ZoneAlarm internet security to 'high', which basically cuts off all access to email or web pages.

Thanks a lot, fucking Microsoft!

Hancock

Today I wanted to watch a movie. I basically had two choices: Wall-E or Hancock. I chose Hancock, figuring that was a funny superhero comedy starring Will Smith. What could go wrong?

I should have chose Wall-E.

Don't get me wrong, Hancock has its funny moments. Will Smith is basically playing a despondent, drunk superhero who just doesn't give a rat's ass anymore. Jason Bateman is the agent who's going to turn Hancock's image around. When Hancock is in action, especially when he's drunk at the start of the film, it's laugh-out-loud funny.

The problem is, this movie tries to go too deep. But in a bad way. I mean, a very poorly written way. When you actually find out his true origin, it makes about as much sense as the Highlander realizing he was from Zeist in Highlander 2. Then there's the ending itself, which is overly drawn out and underwhelming to say the least.

Diary of the Dead

Last weekend I saw George Romero's new zombie movie for sale on DVD, so I picked up a copy.

For one thing, it's shot in first-person style, ala Blair Witch or Cloverfield. So if you can handle those, you can handle this as well.

This one's a reboot of Romero's zombie movies, it takes place when the outbreak begins. But now everyone's got cell phones, camcorders, and internet access.

It's a bit strange, especially one of the characters who's motivation seemed to be how popular he could become on the web. Then again, this is no stranger than any other horror film.

Bottom line, it's another great Romero zombie fest, fits right in with his other films. The only thing this one lacked was Land of the Dead's budget and promotion.