Sunday, June 17, 2007

To Me, My Bored!

Hiya kiddies
I just returned from the best action movie I've seen this year. Sorry, Spider-Fans, 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer' is the new belle of the ball for Mr. Mike. I loved it. It was a marked improvement over the first Fantastic Four movie, some definite thrill moments. I choose to spoil nothing because I want everybody to go see it. As soon as I can drag my affianced away from her repeat viewings of Pirate-y Mr. Depp I shall see if she's up to watching handsome Mr. Gruffudth (oh, I know that's wrong and I'm sorry, I can barely get the Ioan part right. ) However you spell it, the man is awesome. The bald guy from The Shield is also tremendous. And Jessica Alba's growing on me, too, although the bluer eyes, blonder hair, and tanner face aren't helping in the beauty department.
Just as aside, ladies, having forced myself to sit through reality programming yesterday for the pilot of 'The Matchmaker' (I think that's what it was called) I saw a 22 year old lady with a tan so bad she looked 35 or more. And it's so false you wonder what she's hiding- but more to the point heavy make-up is not really attractive to me. Not that you're wondering what I'm attracted to, or that it matters what with me being engaged and all, I guess I mean I prefer a natural look that won't cause as much skin cancer. Go natural, fish belly pale as that might be. End of rant.
Finally Chris Evans. They give him more to do, it's a Johnny heavy story, poor Johnny's troubles like the first was a poor Ben story. And he carries it well. Nice work, guy. No complaints from the four. Not one.
Doom is even starting to feel closer to what I expect. Not the actor's fault. Still not seeing mad sorceror king, still seeing slimey electric jerk. But closer. Untouchable. Uber-powerful. No street-corner, hit-im-with-a-fire-hydrant-and-call-it-a-day pissant walloping this time around. The stakes are higher, the action is bigger, the cars fly more dammit! And I swear what I'm trying to get across is I LIKED THIS ONE A LOT. If Spidey 2 is my favorite comic movie (and it is) then FF2 is shaping up to be my second favorite. Like my friend Kirk pointed out, it's doing what Marvel has always done best: crossover promotion, with the FF as a launching pad for the Surfer.
And I really liked the Surfer here. Quiet, impossible menace. Nobility. Pathos. Romance. This is a Surfer I bet Stan Lee was proud of (and as I understand it, this character was always his personal favorite creation). When his big moment comes up against Galactus... let's just say my heart was leaping like I wish CG-Superman-Brandon had been able to make me feel.
I loved it. 3.5 stars. Possibly four if repeat viewings do it for me, too.
I only wonder where they'll go from here, assuming they get another sequel . They shot their wad here: Galactus is pretty much the worst of the lot in FF villains. After you save the Earth from ulimate destruction (and cosmic Doom) how to you follow that up? Mole Man? Paste-Pot Pete? Even the Puppet Master's gonna feel like a let down.
My money's on a Skrull invasion. Or better yet, a full-fledged Kree-Skrull War with Earth in the middle!
But I always say that.
And maybe the Avengers movie needs to keep that for itself. The Avengers movie needs all the help it can get, I'm sure. Tough to have like 7 heroes and give everyone something interesting to do, let alone pay seven good guys and whatever bad guys to be in the movie, and clear the rights issues that inevitably tie things like this up.
Anyway, see FF2. See it twice, give yerself a treat, why not? Then see it the third time, just for me. Pretty please? If they rake in enough loot, I still think they'll make a She-Hulk movie.
A guy can dream, can't he?
Plus, cheese and crackers, am I excited about Harry Potter 5! The trailer's looking SO nifty. Will it outdo my favorite (#3)? Possibly. Wait and see, witches and wizards.
And while you're waiting truck on down to Happy Harbor (www.happyharborcomics.com) and buy a copy of the Tales from the Harbor 2 anthology.
I done writed some'a that funnybook myself, I reckon, and all 24 pages of Star Warsy goodness be right there for y'all. Oh, plus hundreds and hundreds of pages of other stuff, some of which make my story look merely marvelous, true belie- oh, wait, I'm not affiliated with Stan Lee. Or George Lucas, either, more's the pity.
Now back to reading my latest Hugo winner from the seventies, Vonda McIntyre's Dreamsnake. Halfway through it now and it ain't my thing AT ALL, not much of my style of SF, but it won multiple awards so it' s gotta be good. Post-apocalyptic lady snake doctor dramance is all very well, brilliantly written in fact.
It just says something about the kind of taste I have.
Silver Surfer rules!