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oh dear
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.
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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:
Which of the Major Arcana are you?
created with QuizFarm.com</table>
And second answer:
Which of the Major Arcana are you?
created with QuizFarm.com</table>
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
What Kind of Empath Are You? created with QuizFarm.com |
no subject
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'.
no subject
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?