oh dear

[solarbird]

And again with the hot. Why is it being August in June and July? My snow peas are unhappy from the heat, my greens are all bolting (which, honestly, isn't really out of season, but I'm still cranky about it), and I'm having to water the frikkin' lawn. This is dumb. Oh well, it's supposed to cool off a bit this week.

We went and saw Superman Returns, and, um, yeah. It's a fan film. More importantly, it's not a particularly good or creative fan film. It's not awful, mind you; but it brought almost nothing new to the table. So while the acting and effects and such were better than the typical fan film, I expect professionals - you know, people who do this sort of a thing for a living - to do better than that with $200M or whatever the hell they had to spend. Instead, we get this total fanboy worshipfest of the Donner original, where he's trying to reshoot all the "coolest" bits from the first film shuffled around a little so it doesn't look like he's just doing a remake, and then have him tossing in all this extra oh for the love of god we get it already Christ imagery.

Honestly, scene after scene after scene is a resetting of a scene from the 1978 movie, except possibly for some of the inserts that overemphasised the Jesus shtick. (Note to self: buy a Jesus shtick. Whack Bryan Singer briskly about the head and shoulders with it at first opportunity.) I think I was particularly insulted by the crudity of Lex Luthor's evil plot; an excruciatingly lame scheme, it appears to have been designed solely for the purpose of establishing a set-piece comparison between the Fortress of Solitude as Heaven and the short-lived Luthor Island as Hell. And that's one of the subtle moments. The other attempts at thematic storytelling don't make enough sense to comment upon, except to note that, in a couple of cases they're actively self-defeating.

Here are the parts I didn't find either annoying or disappointing: 1. Surprisingly, the kid. He's fine. Superman's talk with him towards the end of the film is not fine, but that's not the kid's fault, or the fault of the actor playing him. 2. Lois Lane's fiancée is not a dick. He's a nice guy, and capable. Thank you for that. 3. The actors did the best they could with the material they had, with the exception of Sam Huntington's complete inability to get a handle on Jimmy Olsen. Well handled, everyone except Sam, who may now stand in the hallway holding buckets of water for a while. 4. um... I'd say Lex Luthor's anger, but the fact that they do nothing really very good with it kind of puts this back into the "annoying" category because of the wasted potential. 5. Luthor's psychotic prison friends, particularly the one with a talent for piano.

But that's about it. I could go into more detail, but I don't really want to bother. Instead, if you want a good Silver Age Superman story, skip the movie and find a copy of the Red Son graphic novel, which recently came out in compilation form. Silver Age Superman - by which I mean the Superman of the 50s-70s who is utterly indestructible except for Kryptonite, whose super hearing means he hears everything on the planet (and if this film is to be believed, hears everyone on this planet even in low earth orbit where there's no air to carry the sound waves - sorry, I digress), and who is essentially not a super man but a lesser god - is really, really hard to tell a story about, because you just can't hurt him, or even stop him. Nigh-invincible heros are, on the whole, desperately boring. Richard Donner managed it for one and a half or maybe two films (depending upon how much credit you give him for the 1980 Superman II); this film does not manage it; but Red Son pulls it off nicely. Go read that instead. It's a little more expensive than a theatre ticket, and it's not perfect but you probably won't get exasperated at it.

Still, it was a great day out and we had tasty food at Mama's (in Belltown) and Mimi got a nice bit of art for her kitchen at Pike Place Market. So all that was good.

Saturday's miles: 4.5
Sunday's miles: 2.6
Miles out of Hobbiton: 1015.6
Miles out of Rivendell: 557.6
Miles out of Lothlórien: 95.6
Miles to Rauros Falls: 293.4

Here, have some linkblogging:

Smartcars are coming to the US. They don't appear to run on E85, but I do think they're cute. No substitute for not being car dependent, but cute, and, of course, very high milage. I've no idea how they actually drive or how loud it is in the cabin or anything like that, of course.

spazzkat found a bunch of animation sequences from the Powerpuff Girls Z anime showing in Japan. They're on YouTube.

Omar the Model reports that Iraqi forces have reportedly captured one of the people behind the Askari Shrine bombing in Samarra. That's good; I just wish I had some idea how good, give the huge bombings earlier today.


All Snug in their Beds

I got a tiebreaker question on this one, and it was a close thing. First answer:

You scored as The Emperor. Divinatory Meaning: The Struggle for personal independence. Reverse Meaning: Unable to receive from others. You are very independent. You feel awkward asking for assistance and don't like accepting help from others. It is important to you to achieve those things that you've set your sights on, but often are not sure how to accomplish them.

Which of the Major Arcana are you?
created with QuizFarm.com</table>

And second answer:

You scored as The High Priestess. Divinatory Meaning: Be guided by your intuition. Reverse Meaning: Superstitious. Deluded. You feel energy around you everywhere. You are aware of things that others are not. You listen more to your inner voice or feelings than most people. Concentrate your efforts on this gift. It is a talent that will develop as you focus on it.

Which of the Major Arcana are you?
created with QuizFarm.com</table>

You scored as Traveler. You are a Traveler Empath, you come from a time & place far removed from here. You are an innocent, in search of your own kin and have a difficult time understanding this world. You are lost & only want to find your way back home. You bring unique gifts to this world and share them with a loving heart. Although very misunderstood, you are also very forgiving. (from the "Book of Storms" by Jad Alexander </td> Traveler 100% Universal 80% Artist 80% Judge 75% Fallen Angel 65% Precog 60% Healer 50% Shaman 40% What Kind of Empath Are You? created with QuizFarm.com

Comments

PPG anime

[avram]

Wow, so they’re gonna have like three minutes to work a plot into each episode after they get done with all those transformation sequences.

Still, kick-ass character design on Buttercup!

Re: PPG anime

[solarbird]

Having watched my share of shoujo anime, it's been my experience that they rarely play the full extended transformation sequences. There will be short versions, and micro versions, and sometimes you won't see it at all. Usually once an episode you see the whole thing for one character.

[darkphoenixrisn.livejournal.com]

I had the exact opposite reaction to the film. Reaction to it seems to be split down the middle.

[solarbird]

I know! You got my hopes up too, you bitch! ( ^_^ )

[darkphoenixrisn.livejournal.com]

Heh.

[sarakate.livejournal.com]

In my opinion, the only time Superman gets interesting is when he's faced with a problem that just plain isn't amenable to some variant of (1) lift something, (2) smash something really hard, (3) learn some secret with the super hearing or the x-ray vision, etc. The rest of the time, eh -- the hot guy in the fancy suit is better eye-candy than the big green guy with the monobrow, but the basic approach might as well be, "HULK SMASH!" as far as I can see. The issues with Lois and her fiance and the kid had the *potential* to be one of those interesting problems, but they just sort of established the parameters and then... left it there. Very disappointing.

Have you read C.J.Cherryh's Lois & Clark novel? It's been a while since I read it, but I liked it a fair amount, precisely because it *does* introduce those sorts of problems. It's worth picking up, although probably not worth spending a lot of effort chasing down.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

So, I don't think we'll be *running really fast* to catch Superman Returns; on the other hand, WILDLY jealous of your trip to Mama's - I used to eat there all the time when I worked in the Darth Vader Building across from Cinerama.

[jachra.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, it was impossible to dislike Lois Lane's fiancee. I liked how you could see him panicking whenever Superman came into the equation. It's gotta suck to be second fiddle, clinging to first place only because the lead fiddle is such a decent fella.

Only the piano guy was interesting, the others were just there. Impotent as he was, I liked Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor. Course, I was something like 10 when I saw the older movies... *cough*
Very energetic and forceful. And, for some reason, I liked his little "Kryyyyyp-tonite~!" when he was gloating over his smack down on Superman.

Over all, it was more interesting than I thought a Superman movie COULD be. Typically, I absolutely dislike Ye Olde Man of Steel, given that he's nigh-invincible (Silver Age, you say?) And his fashion sense is meh.
And Krypton architecture is boring like whoa.
...Speaking of which, it's always bothered me... Why, oh why, did the fair citizens of Krypton not flee their planet?
Why didn't Superman's dad build a space ship big enough for, say, his ENTIRE FAMILY instead of his one kid?
Clearly, their super brains did not cover these eventualities. Get too wrapped up in contemplating the universe and you forget the little things... like food, survival.

[mathmuffin.livejournal.com]

The original Superman story had baby Kal-el (Clark Kent/Superman) as the only Kryptonian rocketed away because one small rocket ship was all that his father Jor-el could finish in time before the planet blew up. No-one besides his wife believed him that the planet was in danger, so he had only his own resources. I think they stayed pretty close to that story in the first Superman movie.

DC changed the continuity in the comic book. The Kryptonians could not ordinarily survive off their planet due to a genetic flaw. Jor-el realized that if he had Kal-el born on Earth, then the baby would acquire invulnerability as a superpower before the flaw killed him. Thus, only unborn babies could be rescued from Krypton.

Erin Schram

[solarbird]

Yeah, Silver. Golden Age (original; an anti-aircraft missile would knock the breath right out of him and he could be hurt), Silver Age (50s-70s, discussed above), and modern, where he's more like Golden Age than Silver, are the three categories I know about. The 1990s animated series - which for my money is the best handling of the character - is modern; he's awfully hard to hurt and is awfully, awfully strong, but the super-breath thing doesn't exist at all, and he needs things like air to breathe, and he can't hear sound waves in space (since there's no, you know, air), and his super-hearing doesn't mean he hears everything on earth, just a lot of things - stuff like that. He's powered to the level where he's a real brick, but you can tell stories and not have them be stupidly contrived. Plus: no superdickery. ^_^

Anyway, in the 1990s animated version, Kryptonian spaceflight was actually pretty limited. Getting to orbit was routine, but they didn't get out-system yet except for a few experimental ships. His father's plan when he figured out what was going on was to put everyone in the phantom zone (along with masses of supplies, etc), fly the ship to earth, then retrieve everyone once there. Basically, getting a single person to another solar system was at the very limits of what they could manage. But he ran out of time, and there were other complicating matters I won't go into here - there were specific reasons the planetary council didn't believe him - that kept his plan from happening.

[jachra.livejournal.com]

First of all, what's this 'phantom zone' thing?

Second of all, it's harder to believe than you might think that spaceflight wouldn't follow other development... ;D at least the theoretical and experimental knowledge, if not practical spaceflight.

[solarbird]

First of all, what's this 'phantom zone' thing?
What, seriously? The Phantom Zone is basically a pocket dimension which they'd figured out how to get things (living and inanimate) into and out of. It's inhabitable - marginally - but not any fun at all.

at least the theoretical and experimental knowledge, if not practical spaceflight.
That's a big difference, tho'.

[jachra.livejournal.com]

Frankly, with a species that advanced, a lack of practical spaceflight seems a little dodgy to me. Especially since he felt reliable enough to build one with his own resources, one capable of FTL.

If he's able to build a small one, he should have been more than able to build a large one...
The only reasonable explanation is that he didn't have enough time... although exactly how much longer would it have taken?

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

Why is it being August in June and July? Because we're in the upswing of the 750 climate cycle, with possible additive contributions from cycles with other periods.

Last time it got this warm this fast was the Medieval Warm Period, when Greenland was actually green (hence the name). Of course, within a couple of centuries the Little Ice Age was starting, and anyone who didn't leave starved.

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

I'm in pretty much total agreement as to Superman.

It's surprising that they got really fine performances out of both the actors for Superman and Lex Luthor, and the movie still was mired in 'ehh'.

Oh, and the budget was $260M, noticably larger than the competition.

I really disliked their Lois. "How many f's are in catastrophe?" WTF? I thought she was supposed to be a smart journalist? She was tenacious, but not very bright throughout the whole thing. But her fiancee was a better man than SuperStalkerMan.

But I wasn't bored, for the most part, so it wasn't a total loss.

[solarbird]

I really disliked their Lois. "How many f's are in catastrophe?"
Lois in this series is a brilliant journalist and a great writer but can't spell her way out of first grade. That's a direct continuation from the first two movies in 1978 and 1980, about which I clearly know way too much.

Smart cars,and not so smart ones..

[(Anonymous)]

At least one Smart car is here-there's a roadstripe-yellow one here in Lexington..69MPG? Not bad. Side note...The gas mileage on hybrid cars really isn't all that impressive-there are standard cars that approach the mileage of hybrids.For the added complexity and potential cost of battery pack replacement,it almost doesn't seem worth it.If I ever wind up with a hybrid, I'm going to add solar assist..that would add mileage,and keep it cool while sitting in a hot parking lot..Scott

[starsongky.livejournal.com]

Powerpuff Z? Eww... They're cute as kids, not so sure as tweens. Buttercup should've kept the baseball hat though.

[firni.livejournal.com]

Having just gotten back from Wenatchee:

this ain't hot.

[solarbird]

This isn't. This is pretty nice. Yesterday was.

[firni.livejournal.com]

The worst day, IMHO, was last Monday, and even that didn't compare to 104 in the frickin' shade. Yay for the high desert.

[solarbird]

Well, this was still hot. That was some imaginary temperature I would classify as stupid hot, about which I will think no further if I can avoid it. ^_^

[firni.livejournal.com]

110 in the shade in Phoenix last week. Plus it was somehow HUMID because of thunderstorms.

OH BOY SIGN ME UP FOR A VACATION