Had the weirdest saturday night out in a while. Went out to celebrate Lorraine's mate Vicki's birthday. Started off fine with food and cocktails. Then went to club we were on the guest list - it was heaving in all the rooms. Got a jug of Long Island Iced Tea cocktail to share, bopped to the 70s music, all was fine. Decided to investigate another room in the club - it was dark, packed, and hot - and that's when Vicki bless her gave us about a 2 second warning that she didn't feel well and fainted. She came round pretty quick but it was a bit worrying so we played it safe and decided to leave. We were only there for a bout 15 mintues and that includes the time spent queuing at the cloakroom!

Getting out into the fresh air seemed to do the trick so we decided to find a less crowded club because frankly it really was too packed in the one we'd just escaped (and call me old fashioned but what is the point in being in a club if there is literally no room to dance without elbowing each other). And we did find another club - except this one was the complete opposite. At 11pm - four of us were the only one's there. Excellent, no queue for the bar then! The contrast was just hysterical. The DJ told us he didn't take requests and was on till 2am after which we could request a song... right, except there's only four of us.... ok! It didn't matter in the end as some decent tunes were played and so we ended up having a great time :) I have kept the clubs nameless because frankly I quite liked having the empty club - I don't want people discovering it now :P They are both in W1. That is all I'm saying.

Flatmate Rachel is back from her holiday in Spain... I can't believe she leaves on Saturday - after nearly 4 years :( I don't think it will sink in till after her birthday/leaving do in a couple of a weeks. Any geeks in London want to flatshare with two other female geeks? Talking of which....

Star Trek - I have now watched Star Trek V - the campfire scenes are definitely the best for Kirk/McCoy/Spock friendship :) And I am well into Star Trek TOS: Season 3. Me and missy_manic loved The Tholian Web for Spock/McCoy tension but found floating Captain Kirk hysterical. And OMG I cannot even compute what I have just seen in Plato's Stepchildren - both hysterical and dark.

And if Empire are right and this movie turns out to be a "US Hot Fuzz" with Michael Keaton in the cast of a comedy you can colour me excited.

On semi-related noted - not Keaton's version but I did watch Adam West's Batman Movie at the weekend which was of its time really - it makes such an interesting contrast to the movies that followed it!

( July 14th 2009 )

^ Random spree at Borders. The flagship store on Oxford Street, London is closing down with 50% off everything :( Sad because this is one of my fav stores and was one of the first places I knew how to get to so to speak before moving to London to live.

Yeah so they made the best they could out of the new MK Dons venue but this is England and its not always warm so it meant that the balcony that was open to the air where the football pitch was *COLD* This is such a shame because normally I like to chill out and watch the cosplayers and general goings on but it was so cold I just had to keep moving along all the time. I felt a bit sorry for the VIPs - I hope they were warm/comfortable enough signing autographs all day! I noticed Marc McClure took to wearing a wooly hat to keep warm (kinda cute actually) - who can blame him. Leonard Nimoy must be one tough cookie to tough that out. I was kinda hoping I'd get a glance just to gawp stare in awe and watch the fans get their autographs but all the VIPs were in kind of mini tents so you couldn't see them unless you were up close in the queue. To be fair this might actually make it better for those that are paying to go up and get autographs.

The one part of the building that was completely indoors is where they set up all the stalls. Warmer so better (but when it got really busy it was HOT! (especially when your wearing a jumper cos the balcony areas were cold thanks to crappy British weather) Why hire a bigger capacity venue if your gonna cram all the stalls in an area that wasn't that much bigger to the original MK Centre venue?! That's my biggest gripe. It got really busy at lunchtime and it was a struggle to get to some of the stalls for sheer crowds. Kinda a victim of its own success. I think the event organisers utilised the space they had well but next year if the weather is cold they need to do think of an alternative somehow.

I was annoyed with myself for forgetting to bring my Superman DVD box tin for Marc McClure to sign so in the end I chose not to go to his stall. I did however get a kick out of the fact that the first thing I saw on arrival was a Star Wars stall that had a Falcon mural where you could take a photo of yourself "on the ship." I did a double take as I walked past because who was the geek getting his own photo taken in front of it - yep McClure! I don't know why but I got a kick out of that :)

Best costumes I saw included a Batman and Joker walking around, Rosarch, and The Doctor and Marty McFly :)

I bought some Star Trek stuff and one Doctor Who photo. Nothing major - I really wanted a red shirt Star Fleet academy tshirt but they'd sold out of all sizes except XXL. Instead I opted for a Spock Live Long & Prosper shirt.

Yes! Keaton's got a new project and it looks good :D

I happily stumbled across this on the interwebs. New Michael Keaton film -starring and directed! It's called The Merry Gentleman and also stars Kelly MacDonald. The trailer looks promising. :)

Hope it gets a UK release.

stolen from kalalanekent.

All Batman, Superman, Christopher Reeve, Michael Keaton fans need to watch this brilliant World's Finest fan trailer. I love it.

Keaton/Reeve FTW! :D

2006's LIST.
2007's LIST.

Movies I watched at the cinema in 2008 ranked in order of favourite:

20.\ Leatherheads
19.\ The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep
18.\ The Edge Of Heaven (Auf der anderen Seite)
17.\ Vantage Point
16.\ In The Valley Of Elah
15.\ The Good Night
14.\ Mama Mia!
13.\ W.
12.\ No Country For Old Men
11.\ Son of Rambow

( Top 10 )

Merry Xmas all! Hope Santa didn't disappoint and you are all having a good time.

Some cheese for the occasion from what looks like 90s daytime UK TV:



and even earlier:




;)

What did you all get under your Xmas Tree? I got some nice things:

- Vouchers - Next + The Body Shop
- Tetris DS game (this will keep me occupied for hours)
- Book - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- blu-ray DVD The Dark Knight

just under 1 hour till Doctor Who Xmas Special :D :D :D

So tonight was a joint bday bash for Darren and Jon @ work. The theme heroes and villans fancy dress + kareoke. Great fun. In attendance was:

The Joker, Joker-Nurse, Catwoman from different eras x 3, The Penguin, The Riddler, Lex Luthor, Clark Kent/Superman, Black Canary, Rambo, Danger Mouse, Poison Ivy, Clown bank robber, Hong Kong Phooey.

Am sure I've missed some out. But a fun night. I was Lex Luthor btw, and l sang 3 Doors Down 'Kryptonite' amongst other songs for the kareoke ;)

Photos tomorrow probably, If I've got the guts to post 'em though am sure they'll end up on facebook at some point.

These are notes I took during my bfi course on comics and comic book movies. Figured some people on my f-list might enjoy them also. Bare in mind they are not comprehensive so some of it may not make sense. And if anyone's got extra knowledge to add - please comment!

( Introduction - Film theory and reading comics. )
( Comics and Film Synergy )
( Comics and Film Synergy - Batman Example. )

*finally* got see The Dark Knight on bfi IMAX last night. The skyline shots are just even more stunning on the bigger screen.

Also, redderz and fearcat - your right there *are* Hot Fuzz lines of dialogue. This time I spotted Harvey Dent saying "Not exactly." And, Gotham Police, "That's what I'm talkin' about." ;)

Batman is so right:



SOURCE: Apple Geeks Lite.

Ok so it made me laugh, but on a serious note - I don't want Superman in that house.

Here's an interesting article summarising some of the recent criticisms of Superman Returns and thoughts on a sequel. When I'm less sleepy I may add my two cents in the comments if anyone responds.

Redirecting Superman’s flight path
Monday, August 18, 2008, 02:49 PM GMT [

As The Dark Knight rumbles steadily onwards towards a worldwide box-office haul of $750 million, thoughts inevitably turn to the next cinematic instalment of Batman's equally-statured DC Comics stable mate, Superman.

The Man of Steel , of course, returned to screens after a nineteen-year absence in 2006, courtesy of Bryan Singer's Superman Returns, but was regrettably not the hit that Warner Brothers were hoping for (although it's $400m worldwide haul was entirely respectable, the film's $270m price tag certainly took the sheen off the bottom line...).

While Singer fulsomely promised fans that he would go "Wrath of Khan" (i.e. more action) for the follow-up - tentatively titled The Man of Steel and due in 2010 - Returns was one of the more critically-divisive superhero movies of recent years. Over at MTV's blog devoted to comic book movies, two of the foremost names relating to Superman in the comics, Grant Morrison and Mark Waid, used their considerable expertise on all things Kryptonian to provide a blunt appraisal of Singer's effort.

Scotsman Morrison, whose vastly entertaining All-Star Superman certainly proved that he knows what makes The Man of Steel tick, felt the film squandered the character's essential appeal: "The idea was to make an American Christ figure, but what they centred on was his weakness," Morrison said. "They made him more a Lamb of God, rather than give us a real powerful Superman. They had too many scenes where he's being kicked to the floor, and that's not Superman. Superman would get up and fight."

Fellow writer Mark Waid, whose Superman: Birthright masterfully provided the character with a re-booted 21st-century origin story, was more pointed: "I so wanted that movie to work," said Waid, "but every choice they made in that movie was wrong. If you're making the movie in a vacuum, and there will be no other Superman movies ever again, go ahead and give him a son. But otherwise, that's a staggeringly awful idea. What are you going to do next? Either the kid has to be a part of his life, or get superpowers, which no one wants to see."

Both agree however, that a total reboot is the way forward. In Morrison's case, he's actually made direct overtures to the studio for the next film, as have other comic book writers Mark Millar, Geoff Johns and Brad Metzler: "I told them, it's not that bad," Morrison said. "Just treat Superman Returns as the Ang Lee Hulk." Waid concurs: "The Hulk has proven the audience will forgive you and let you redo the franchise."

Speaking as both a critic and a passionate Superman fan of 30 years, I am a staunch defender of Superman Returns, which I feel to be cruelly underrated. It's a gorgeous-looking film (if a little dark) and, although Brandon Routh's Superman had the burden of channelling the late, great Christopher Reeve, he did a fine job (If he got to play Superman less humbled and with a commanding presence akin to Reeve's, he'd be great).
Certainly, I am not immune to its various shortcomings, notably that Singer essentially remade Richard Donner's classic 1978 original, albeit with a more melancholic tone. Like Waid (and many others), I too was not a fan of Superman having a child - it's a concept better placed in the comics, where continuity is more malleable - yet, there was something admirably bold about its inclusion in the plot, providing Superman with an emotional conundrum that could not be overcome with great displays of superpowers. (Speaking of that: I defy anyone to tell me that the film's centrepiece action sequence in which Superman rescues the burning 747 wasn't the most vigorously-exciting, pulse-pounding and truly breathtaking action sequence of the last decade.)

The film’s poor financial performance was less to do with the its quality and far more to do with the political climate around the time of its release: a character who is classically referred to as “Defender of Truth, Justice and The American Way” would have been a harder-than-usual sell to an America then confronting the deep contradictions of its own self-image and to foreign markets who were daily being presented with the latest misdemeanours of the Bush administration’s blunt foreign policy, which appeared to be anchored on the phrase “Y’all kin go f*** yerselves...” – hardly a Superman-esque rhetoric.

(In an interesting contrast, The Dark Knight, aside from the fact that it’s a damned good Batman movie and the Ledger curiosity factor, is a film that gains much from post-9/11 considerations of terrorism – strikingly so, in fact.)

Yet Morrison and Waid are quite correct: a reboot is necessary. It’s not just down to the narrative millstone of the kid, which would have to be dealt with in a sequel – it’d be too strange not to. More importantly, this screen iteration of Superman deserves to have an identity of its own, rather than be shackled to Donner’s decades-old version, as daring and effectively nostalgic as that was.

Whatever The Man of Steel ends up as, I fervently hope that the producers fully embrace perhaps the most potent and enduring element of the character: Superman is unabashedly about hope and while many assume that this doesn’t play well in our cynical times, this is precisely what people like about Superman and why he has lasted seventy years with very little change to his creators original design. You can make the film as action-packed as you like, but an angsty Superman will never play as well as one who is a straight-ahead paragon of hope. These days, that’s more appealing than you’d think.

Ultimately, it’s worth remembering the sage observation of another esteemed comic writer, Neil Gaiman, regarding superhero movies: “The closer the film is to the look and feel of what people like about the comic, the more successful it is.” Gaiman feels that this is “something that Warners tends singularly to miss, and Marvel tends singularly to get right.”

Christopher Nolan’s superb Batman films suggest that Warners have wised up. Let’s hope so, because with the superhero movie genre in such vigorous health right now, it deserves to have a truly great film about the greatest superhero of all.

Just one thing: Superman’s costume features red, not maroon.

SOURCE: Danny Graydon, Telegraph

missy_manic emailed this funny video to me today. I figured others on my f-list might find this funny too. The Dark Knight - having trouble understanding?

WTF?!


see more pwn and owned pictures

This week has been a great week in fandom. Met Margot Kidder last weekend. Saw Superman: The Movie on the big screen twice - went again today. Went to The Dark Knight premiere to see the stars walk the red carpet on Monday, Finally saw The Dark Knight movie yesterday. Finished reading The Incredible Hulk novel and Somewhere in Heaven: The Remarkable Story of Dana and Christopher Reeve. Then tomorrow I will be going the Doctor Who Proms performance and the Doctor Who Exhibition. And on top of that, Spaced is now on DVD in the USA *yay* and I'm trying to keep up with the goings of Spaced Invasion USA. Oh, and fearcat and redderz - hope your having a good time in Sandford, Wells again! And that's without any of what I hope is exciting announcements from San Diego Comic Con? Heard anything exciting?

More later. And hope to catch up with f-list. :)

Sick of The Dark Knight hype? So is Iron Man. This is hilariously OTT love it:

Stolen from smwance because it caught my tickle bone:

OH MY GOD ZOD SUPERMAN II IS AIRING ON THE BIG SCREEN IN AUGUST :D *excited*

That means it's now:



^ this is also the date of UK premiere of The Dark Knight !

AND NOW:



I have never seen either of these on a cinema screen before. :D

I will also be going the BFI's screening on Incredible Hulk in August, and hils if you need an excuse to see it on the big screen again - Iron Man is also screening in August.

Tomorrow I am going to the first lecture at the bfi on Superheroes, Shoguns, Superspies and Spartans: Comic Books and the Cinema. Can't wait :D Am loving this bfi season :)

I'm not even a massive fan of The Joker but even I have to admit this is a fantastic looking poster:

Why So Serious? - The Joker

I've decided am gonna take half day off work to go and catch the atmosphere at the premiere. Don't think I'll be doing the front barrier queuing - it'll be too huge, plus summer holidays means I expect a lot of hardcore fans to be there. But worth going to join in with the buzz that am sure will be present :) I was there for Batman Begins so why break a habit? ;)

I heart ItsJustSomeRandomGuy's Marvel vs DC videos.

This one is a gem, especially when Superman and Spidey turn up.