Warp Section

…but here’s my review of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. I’ve been looking forward to this one, and not just because of the amazing previews featuring the spot-on Silver Surfer effects. I really liked the first Fantastic Four movie. It was fun, and didn’t get wrapped up in superhero angst that seems to be the norm these days. (Hey — superheroes who aren’t dysfunctional and tortured? OMG!) I loved the interaction between the four teammates. I really believed they’d known each other for years, they knew how to wind each other up, but they pulled together in a crisis and really worked together as a team — they used their powers in concert as a team. The X-Men films only marginally accomplished that. (Don’t get me wrong — I love the first two X-Men films, but they depended on angst and individuality more than teamwork.)

The new film had everything I liked about the first one, so good show there. And it also managed to do justice to one of the classic storylines in all of comicdom. Here’s the thing: I watch something like Ghost Rider, and I’m not convinced the filmmakers have ever picked up a comic book in their lives, much less the one they’re trying to adapt. With the Fantastic Four, I felt like the filmmakers were living and breathing the source material, that they must have had issues of the comic piled around their offices and studios, not just to get the characters’ poses right, but to get the feel, the colors, the mood, the spirit of the thing right.

They get it. A superhero movie should be more than guys in spandex (or leather) kicking butt. It’s about people confronting the extraordinary. It’s about looking up in the sky and thinking, Wow. The superpowers don’t make someone a hero. It’s what they use their powers for.

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You all probably already know this by now, but in Captain America #25 Steve Rogers (Capt. America) is assinated.

After the shocking events of Captain America #25, Steve Rogers, better known to the world as the star-spangled Captain America, lies dead, having been assassinated on the steps of a federal courthouse. Being led to trial for violating the Superhuman Registration Act and engaging in the Civil War that pitted super hero against super hero, Rogers was senselessly taken from a world that he had helped save countless times before.
Source: Fallen Son: Death of Cap - Marvel.com news

Captain America was started by Marvel during WWII as a force to battle the Nazis.  The character has had a long history and changed over the years. There are folks who think that Cap isn’t really gone and Marvel will bring him back somehow.

Comics have “killed off” lots of characters in the past (e.g. Superman) and brought them back.  Wonder how this one will be handled?

Any guesses?

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I’m just old enough to remember the original series.  It does, believe it or not, come on in the wee hours of the morning on YTV I believe.  Ah the 60s cartoon, the theme song, ah the memories.  Regardless great news here:

Spider-Man swings back into television action in early 2008 as an animated series from Culver Entertainment to air on Kids’ WB! on The CW, it was announced by Kids’ WB! Senior Vice President and General Manager Betsy McGowen and Sony Pictures Television Co-President Zack Van Amburg.
Source: Marvel Announces New Spider-Man Cartoon! - Forever Geek

I hope this one is better than the Fantatic Four that’s out now.  Man I wanted to like it, but it just doesn’t thrill me.  I also hope that it comes to YTV since I don’t have any WB channels on my cable system.

Any of you remember all the Spidey appearances on Electric Company?  Yes, when Morgan Freeman was on the show.

Yes, I’m old.

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Forever Geek is reporting the Saturn Award nominations today.  Much to my surprise Superman Returns received 10 nominations.  I have yet to see it, and from what my friends are saying about it, I think I can still wait.  X-Men III, yeah that was good.  Of course Pirates of the Caribbean was good.

The nominees for the 2007 Saturn Awards have been announced, with Superman Returns leading the pack with 10 nominations. Other nominated films include: X-Men: The Last Stand, Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, Casino Royale, Mission: Impossible III, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Stranger Than Fiction
Source: Superman Returns leads 07 Saturn Award Nominations at Forever Geek

Forever Geek picks their favs for the winners.  For the animated category I have to agree with Scanner Darkly.  That was one freaky film.

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In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll state up front that this is a bit of shameless self promotion. I’ll get to that in a minute.

Back in the eighties, writers George R. R. Martin (the Song of Fire and Ice series), Melinda Snodgrass (Star Trek: The Next Generation), and some of their friends started a series of novels asking the question: What would superheroes really be like, if they existed in our world? What developed was the Wild Cards universe: a brilliant alternate history in which super powered people shape the fate of the world. Notice I said people and not heroes, because these guys have flaws. Some of them — even the good guys — are not nice people. This series came out around the same time as Alan Moore’s Watchmen and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, and is rooted in the same dark, gritty realism.

These books were my soap opera all the way through high school and college. I adored them, I adored the characters, especially the Great and Powerful Turtle (a shy telekinetic who flies around in an armor plated VW beetle), Popinjay (a projecting teleporter — he points at you, you end up someplace else), the Sleeper (who changes his form and power every time he sleeps), Peregrine (a woman with wings), and even Carnifex (a general bad ass who seems to be mellowing charmingly in his middle age). The history in these things is real (heroes brought before the House Unamerican Activities Committee in the 50s, that sort of thing). Wild Cards is what happens when some of science fiction and fantasy’s most talented writers get together to play with the whole idea of superheroes.

Well. There’s a new book in the series coming out next year from Tor Books: Wild Cards: Inside Straight. George R. R. Martin has posted a sample chapter on his website, here.

Now for the shameless self promotion: I’m one of the writers. I picked up my first Wild Cards book in 1988 and I’ve read every single one since. I’m a fan. Becoming one of the contributors to Inside Straight — creating new characters and helping to shape this alternate world — is a fangirl dream come true. I’m so excited I could explode. Much like the fabled Wild Cards character who never made it into the series: Nova Boy, who had the power to make the sun go nova…once.

For more information about Wild Cards, see fan site Wild Cards Online.

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I don’t know anyone that is excited over Fantastic Four’s next movie, except those looking forward to seeing Silver Surfer, unfortunately I don’t have a Silver Surfer image, but I do have a peak at their new ride thanks to 20th Century Fox for releasing the image.

One thing I noticed is that the car-like vehicle only has three seats. Is it really supposed to be that way? Jessica Alba is looking really good though.

Plot Spoilers:

Doctor Doom was melted and frozen solid by the Fantastic Four and then shipped to Latveria at the end of the first film. Tim Story has confirmed that Doctor Doom will make a dramatic return in this movie and “he will be back in full DOOM, not like we had him in the first film.”

Actor Ioan Gruffudd has confirmed that Julian McMahon will be back for the sequel.

Tom Rothman, Chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment, has confirmed that Galactus will also appear in the film.

via Wikipedia

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It only seems like superheroes are experiencing a stretch of massive popularity. It’s happened before, you know. I grew up in the 70s and 80s watching Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, the Bionic Man — and Woman, Superfriends, and Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. Good times, my friends.

The came the backlash. The Greatest American Hero was probably best known show of the time to take the whole concept of superheroes and turn it on its ear (Let’s take some unlikely noob and give him superpowers–without any instructions. Hilarity!). Lesser known but no less irreverent was Misfits of Science. This was the original “Heroes.”

You knew what you were getting with the opening credits: An old, ratty looking TV set is airing a corny performance by a jazz pianist singing, “Those misfits, misfits of science. Those wild and crazy scientific guys…” An unseen viewer reaches over to turn the channel. But the channel won’t change. The knob breaks off. Then the disgruntled viewer kicks in the TV screen in an effort to get that song to stop. The whole thing shatters, then we get the real theme song: 80s rock at its finest with the cast credits and show clips.

So, what you were getting was cheesy. Yet zippy. It was awesome.

I’ll confess I don’t remember too many details. A DVD set does not seem forthcoming on this one, so I can’t go back and check if my memory isn’t making more of this show than it deserves. But I do remember how much fun it was. After years of superhero shows that took themselves very seriously, this really was a group of misfits. They couldn’t always control their powers. They argued. They did things like use Gloria’s teke to cheat at roulette. They drove around in an ice cream truck as their disguise. I wouldn’t be surprised if the film Mystery Men owes something of its origins to the Misfits.

Actor resume trivia: the show featured Max Wright (the dad on Alf) as the non-superpowered lab supervisor/father figure Dick Stetmeyer, and Courteney Cox (of Friends) as telekinetic Gloria. And Kevin Peter Hall (Dr. Elvin Lincoln, who could shrink himself to a height of 7 inches) really was that much taller than everyone — he also played bigfoot creature Harry in Harry and the Hendersons.

Misfits of Science on TV.com

The Misfits of Science Wiki (thanks for the photo!)

UPDATE: Here’s a weird bit of serendipity: Tim Kring, creator of Heroes, was a writer on Misfits of Science. Seriously. You can’t make up stuff like this.

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The Flash aired a year after Tim Burton’s Batman, and the influences of the film on the show are massive. Flash’s Central City has a dark, dripping, gothic look to it, not as over the top as Burton’s Gotham, but still there. Pay special attention to the art deco civic murals that seem to adorn every building. Danny Elfman even does the theme song. Even the camera angles–from street level looking up, cutting across streets at angles–and the cartoony look of the villains owe something to Burton’s Batman.

Watching the pilot episode on DVD some seventeen years after the show aired, I forgot about the Burtonesque feel of it. Or maybe in 1990, blown away by Batman, I thought all superhero shows should look like that. I still really like that style, but with the distance of time I can now see it for what it was: a trend, probably best left behind.

The story in the pilot episode is simple, even formulaic. A freak lab accident involving lightning and chemicals grant Barry Allen the power of speed, which he learns to control with the help of Dr. Christina McGee. He’s reluctant to accept his powers at first, but when his brother is killed by a motorcycle gang wreaking havoc throughout the city, he dons the red suit and seeks justice. A formulaic story, but well done in this case. It doesn’t try to be any more clever or complex than it is, and therefore doesn’t muddy the waters.

This time around, the thing I really enjoyed about the show is the characters. They have snappy dialog, good chemistry, and real human depth. They have families and feelings. This doesn’t feel like a show about a superhero so much as it feels like a show about a regular guy who happens to acquire a superpower and has to figure out what to do about it. (Sound familiar? Maybe that’s one of the reasons I haven’t gotten into Heroes. It just doesn’t feel all that new to me.) John Wesley Shipp and Amanda Pays are lots of fun to watch, and I look forward to delving into the rest of the episodes on the DVD set. Future episodes include Mark Hamill as the Trickster, and he seizes the role with obvious relish, seeming to use it to finally lay the specter of Luke Skywalker to rest.

A funny side note: Barry works in a police department crime lab and gets no end of grief from his beat cop father–and the rest of the force–about not being a “real” cop. That sort of storyline never would have happened in a world with CSI.

The Flash on TV.com

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Warning: Do not read this post unless you want spoilers on Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Jericho and Smallville.

Some of these are common sense, and some are interesting. Don’t complain to me if you read them and didn’t really want to.
Read the rest of this entry »

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Lauren Sheler Donner, the producer that is involved in many great comic book franchise films, recently talked to the IESB about the progress of certain movies, like Wolverine, Magneto, Gambit, and Constantine 2.

Wolverine
People have been wondering if Bryan Singer was going to run the Wolverine movie, and Donner said that she would love it, but because he is working on the sequel to Superman, who knows. They hope to do the Wolverine project sometime in the fall because they do have the script ready to go and the project out to directors.

Magneto
I love Magneto, he is probably one of my favourite superhero, supervillian, super powered character. A Magneto movie would be great, and thankfully it is still moving forward. “We have a really great script, we have a director that is interested and he’ll do a rewrite on the script”.

Gambit
One of the biggest disappointments for me was the lack of a Gambit character in the X-Men movies. They left him out because they already had two strong male roles in Wolverine and Cyclops, but I’d still like to see the character come out on top with his own movie. “I think we would weave Gambit within our story, it wouldn’t be “The Gambit Movie”". Who would she like to see in the role as Gambit? “In “Lost” the guy, what’s his name, there was a guy in there that was the perfect Gambit, the guy with the straight hair, good-looking, the bad boy, Sawyer, Sawyer [Josh Holloway]”. Interesting choice, and it’d probably have a fair bit of women in the theatre to see that, but I don’t think he could do the accent all that well.

Constantine 2
Yes, Keanu Reeves will be back in Constantine 2, and she says its going to be scary. “We have been working with a team of writers to come up with a story… We are really going to go for it this time. The area that we found is great…it’s really scary, it’s good”. Unlike most movies these days being shot in a set outside the US, they did not use the UK. I am curious to see what location they chose. Francis Lawrence will produce but a new director is being sought.

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