“X-Men: First Class” Fever
**LEAKED SCENE**
I normally don’t go in for this kind of crap, but I’m anxious about this movie being good and redeeming the franchise. Here’s a leaked clip on YouTube. Watch it before it’s pulled:
It’s happening again – Fox has control of one of my favorite properties and is teasing me with a potentially good film. Literally – teasing. Dropping intriguing character vignettes YouTube videos and releasing 40 still images in the last week.
Glad to see the black leather is not making a come-back.
I KNOW I should have learned my lessons by now. But I actually liked Matthew Vaughn’s Kick Ass and the writing team looks pretty solid – Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz and Jane Goldman have all proven themselves on movies and TV shows which have plenty of nerd credentials.
Also – the lineup of qualified and talented actors and actresses further serves to muddle my usually quite rational thinking when going into a film like this. Yes, the continuity continues to be further eroded and fucked up. Yes, it makes no sense that Emma Frost has now appeared in two films completely out of a rational timeline (maybe all will be explained?). I’ve no hope of ever seeing my favorite characters interact on-screen in a normal way. Ahem, that would be Rogue and Gambit. I’m a child of the 90s animated cartoon series, so there’s no changing my mind. The best thing is just to accept that I love these two characters together and walk away.
Against my better judgement: I do think “X-Men: First Class” has the potential to be good. And potential potential is VERY exciting.
When it gets right down to it – X-Men are my favorite superhero group. I’ll support them no matter what shitty-ass movie or cartoon series or spin-off is being made. I’ll give them more of my time and energy than I would donate to any other Marvel, DC, Dark Horse property. It’s an abusive relationship, and I’ll keep coming back for more until they close up shop.
Here are the aforementioned character introduction trailers to entice you:
MEET BANSHEE
Top 10 Film Creatures Used as Transportation
Trains, planes, automobiles, horses and the occasional camel or elephant are the typical modes of transportation for the heroes and heroines of most Hollywood Blockbuster movies. But in the last few years as fantasy and sci-fi have become more widely embraced, the modes of transportation for characters have changed dramatically.
Especially in the last few months, I’ve found myself in the movie theaters turning to the person next to me and jealously exclaiming – I want to ride “insert awesome creature here.” Here are my top 10 personal favorite creatures used as transportation in film.
10. TaunTaun – a kangaroo, llama like creature from Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back. Native to the ice cold planet Hoth. They may smell bad, but they’ll keep you warm and cozy when you use their guts for a sleeping bag. And while you may not be able to ride one in real life, you can actually buy a TaunTaun sleeping bag, and be the envy of your friends at all the nerd parties.
9. The Great Eagles – the second coolest creatures in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. They appear a few different times – once to rescue Gandalf from the Orthanc Tower in Isengaard and next to rally during the climactic battle for Middle Earth, fighting off the Nazgul. They also fly into Mordor to pick up the fatigued Frodo and Sam as Mt. Doom explodes all around them.
8. lorek Byrnison – the talking polar “ice” bear from The Golden Compass movie. He acts as a guardian and protector of the main character Lyra, but also his own back-story, which yields some wicked cool bear-on-bear fight action. As opposed to bear-on-man action, which is what would happen if you attempted to ride a bear in real life.
7. Buckbeak the Hippogriff – appears in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The creature itself is a bit of a bitch to manage, but if the end result is a fun flight around Hogwarts, and a rescue later on in the film, than HP is willing to risk it. Buckbeak also has a warm spot in my heart as he was nearly the victim of a beheading.
6. Fell Beast – evil dragon creatures from the Lord of the Rings that are controlled by the Nazguls. They look bad-ass with their giant wing-span and have a cool scream to inspire fear in the hearts of weaker men. Unfortunately, that seems to be their favorite snack, so they would probably make you the neighborhood pariah when folks started going missing.
The Dollhouse Conflicts: Cancellation Rumors Fly
Poor, troubled Joss Whedon. He’s had off years, and great successes where no one expected (turning a failed movie into a TV series, and a failed TV series into a movie) so expectations were high for Dollhouse, and let’s be honest – the first four episodes did not deliver.
If I wasn’t a Whedon junky, I would have probably skipped off Dollhouse following episode 3 (as I did with Fringe). But the tenacity of wanting to see this show succeed where Firefly failed kept me watching. Things have picked up. Things have gotten good. Though I’m still not in love with any of the characters, and feel the humor is rocky at best…there is more to this than sheer entertainment value at this point. It’s getting Joss back on track doing what he does best – television. And if it takes a season or two to make that happen…I want to put him there. He’s delivered exciting content on three different TV shows, with my favorite mutants, and in a musical blog. What more could a nerd heart desire?
Also – I promised Tahmoh Penikett I would keep him in a job. 🙂
But a Twitter from Felicia Day picked up by Dr. Horrible and spread out to the Whedonverse has unleashed the storm which has no doubt been quietly building there for several weeks.
It doesn’t confirm that the show is canceled – merely a Season Two bridge episode #13 in which Felicia Day and Alan Tudyk were supposed to guest star is *possibly* not going to be aired. Hence – no Season Two, without an airing of the much touted Episode 13.
UPDATE: Tim Minear explains the situation here and soothes some of the savage beasties salivating at the keyboard. It’s incredibly helpful when the writers of a show watch the fan boards and respond. Why are these people so eerily accessible?
Right now – Dollhouse and Fox are the top trending searches on Twitter. I’ve even been prompted to tweet my fourth update in the last month about it, just to add my tiny push to the wave that is no doubt cresting at Fox’s door this very moment. All this started about 1 hour ago, btw. Hah!
So – I’m going to do my part and reserve a copy of the Season One DVD. I’m going to ignore the conflicting info flying around the net at present:
For some reason – as with X-Men Origins: Wolverine…I just can’t shake the feeling that the internets have been duped by bizarre FOX PR stunts as of late. Or maybe it is just the inability of old media to play nicely with new media creating circumstances which feed fan frenzy. Who knows?
Maybe you want to join in the twittering fun – to save Dollhouse?
Much Love, Mindy C
Wolverine: Origins Movie Leak
Can’t say that I’m quite shocked about this. But as a fan of watching action-movies on the big screen, with sound effects and explosions and audience response…I decided to pass on the opportunity to see a crappy screener version of this flick on my lap-top. Especially since it lacks a proper score and visual effects. Really? Are people that desperate?
If folks can’t stand to wait another month, it’s on them. But I don’t support Fox, the FBI and MPAA going balls out to prosecute someone about this. And I’m pretty leery about the response from a geek site like Ain’t it Cool News although I do agree with quite a bit of what it has to say about the incident and it’s casting a negative-light on comic fans. You don’t see other genre films getting early-leaked and peddled around the net. Right? Am I right?
As a fan, I want to support X-Men films, and the best way to do that is throw my dollars behind them.
I am however, amused that this happened to Fox. After they pulled the crap move and leeched profit from Watchmen, this seems an appropriate kick in the balls to them. But in all other instances, where folks are claiming this was a PR stunt by Fox…I don’t see how or why. They don’t stand to gain much from the fake-release of an incomplete product, unless it’s really that good and they anticipate word of mouth and early reviews will generate buzz.
Frankly, I’m confused by their advertisement stunts for this film. I was seeing pretty long trailers for this movie on Fox about a month ago. Usually you don’t see TV ads until two or three weeks before opening. Are they really so concerned about this product that they would pre-leak it?
But the real question is – why would you watch an unfinished version of a film, anyway? And similarly, why would you read the incomplete, first draft version of Midnight Sun? Granted, I did the latter, but only because Meyer herself had posted it, claiming there would be no more versions.
Frankly – first drafts and rough cuts SUCK. I would rather pay money to see a crappy completed project than download a free version with all the wires and grammatical errors showing. To me, it’s not about piracy, it’s about common damn sense. Which apparently quite a few folks lack.
Much Love, Mindy C
Portland Watches the Watchmen
Who watches the Watchmen?
About 300 or so lucky bastards in Portland, Oregon last night – yours truly and her husband NOT INCLUDED.
Here’s the scoop: The usual tom-foolery of my morning includes wrangling with a hot iron, finding relatively clean un-ironed clothes to wear, exercising the dog and ferret – AND surfing the net.
Wellll – the Comic Book Movie Rss Feed had this lovely gem to offer yesterday morning: Secret Watchmen Screening Thursday in Portland, Oregon . So, Dan and I quickly made plans to meet at the Lloyd Center Theater after work and try desperately to appear non-chalant in hopes of getting selected.
Turns out – about a bazillion other people read that article as well, and though they didn’t move the location of the screening, by the time we arrived, it was obvious they’d captured most of their “blind audience” elsewhere. It looks like the passes were handed out last Sunday, which is a pretty smart move if you want to avoid a fan-tainted audience. It worked well, and “regular folks” were lined up around the block with free tickets already clutched in their lucky bastard hands.
We were bummed at being turned away. Naturally.
Harry Potter and The Watchmen
Warner Brothers studios, after releasing two amazing trailers which had the fan-worlds buzzing, was sitting pretty two weeks ago.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince:
The Watchmen
Now, not so much.
Warner Brothers is suffering the results of it’s own hubris.
Firstly – the wild seven month release date time leap for the Half Blood Prince (HBP). In a country where Entertainment is news and news is entertainment and both are DEADLY SERIOUS to the masses, this is the equivalent of Global Warming…meaning that some people (like myself) want to believe that this doesn’t exist.
Hence, the Release Date petitions. I found at least three of them. Kudos to you if you can spot more.
But, they never intended to cause umbrage (heh, Doloris) with HP fans. Surely not. You can read the the WB President’s statement here and read the reaction of hardcore HP lovers.
Secondly is the most recently released news that FOX (those greedy bastards) are taking WB and the Watchmen to task, claiming they own all rights to the franchise. It’s all sticky, legal nastiness you can read about here.
Welcome to the “Dollhouse”
Some of ya’ll may have heard – but the talented Mr. Joss Whedon is helming a new series over at Fox called “Dollhouse” starring Eliza Dushku (of Buffy/Angel fame), Tahmoh Penikett (better known as Helo from BSG), Olivia Williams, and Amy Acker…to drop a few names.
It will be airing mid-season in 08-09, and the pilot episode is already completed. It’s been picked up for 7 episodes (thought other places I’ve heard 13) and seems to be green-lighted on all fronts.
The Dollhouse consists of a few folks who are memory-wiped and pimped out to the highest bidder to perform whatever task the folks might desire. It’s an intriguing premise, but the trailer doesn’t really do the show justice quite yet.
I hope this isn’t viewed as some kind of trite ALIAS knock-off. I have a lot of faith in Joss to make a successful go of a television series (it’s been 5 years). I’m trying really hard not to be ultra-nerdy about this and get TOO excited about the possibilities, or get my hopes up for the amazing awesomeness which is sure to ensue.
It’ll be nice to see/hear NEW Joss dialogue spoken by human beings again. I loved a few of his runs in comics, but some of it leaves me craving the chops of a decent actor to make it amusing and un-ambiguous.
I’m bad – and found a scene online already.
Think of it (and me) what you will, but I can’t wait for Dec 08/Jan 09 to roll around, and be knee-deep in Whedon love. 🙂
Much Love, Mindy C
Dan
tinyheroes
Tiny Heroes 