None of us wants a body massage.
Safe to say that when the summer movie season of 2009 is summarized, the success of Transformers 2 will be called into question by how many people straight up loathed the film. I’m still trying to wrap my head around how a movie so reviled by folks could gross near $400 million bucks, but so far it seems to be helping the late-summer action movie set out quite a bit by setting the bar so low.
I Killed Jar Jar
We’re about a month away from what I believe will be the sleeper movie hit of the year, DISTRICT 9, a film directed by Neill Blomkamp. Blomkamp’s currently famous for being the guy attached to the failed HALO movie adaptation, produced by Peter Jackson, but I’ve been a fan of his since seeing some of his work on commercial reels in my editorial days. He’s an effects heavy director, but weaves it into a documentary/handheld aesthetic that makes everything seem more realistic and, in result, fantastic. Plus, his work has some actual emotional heft to it, using sci-fi metaphor for real-world issues (like any good science fiction does).
Want proof of how awesome this guy is? Well here’s a bunch of his earlier work I found on YouTube.
DC Comic's Pet Semetary
I’ve been far away from superhero comics for a while and, after checking out the industry’s moves as of late, I’m happy with my decision. Marvel seems hell-bent on grabbing new readers by revamping their universe with character death, storyline changes, and putting celebrities in their work. Hell, even the Ultimate universe, which was intended to reintroduce classic Marvel characters to new readers without continuity considerations, is getting rebooted. DC’s not much better, killing Batman, ruining Superman, and confusing us all with Final Crisis (the reason I stopped reading in the first place).
Then there’s Green Lantern. He’s the oddest mainstream superhero, with a hard-to-define superpower involving willpower, creative design, and batteries, working alongside a backstory consisting of galactic police forces and cosmic politics. Also, there’s a living planet named Mogo. Compared to the Campbell-esque origins of Superman and Batman, it’s not an easy title to draw in folks. Lucky, writer Geoff Johns has been working hard on the book, spinning an epic story that reintroduces the character, defines his values and culture, then tests it all with a space-shattering war, culminating in this month’s kickoff of THE BLACKEST NIGHT.
Bamf.
A couple of days off during the week without my wife insures I will end up buying something for one of the consoles, despite a backlog the size of a monkey.
