Yes, No, Maybe So: "Green Lantern"

Another round of insta-judgments. Just add trailer. Suddenly we know if...

• yes) we're buying tickets
• no) we're shunning the movie, or...
• maybe so) withholding the judgments until we have more info.

Maybe so is usually the correct answer. Sometimes great trailers lead to disappointing movies. And sometimes virtually every piece of marketing for a movie will practically beg you not to see it when you might actually like it if you do  (*cough* TANGLED... more on that soon).

But it's hard not to pre-judge. Commercials invite you to do just that.

In brightest day... in blackest night... 

Ryan "Sexiest Man Alive" Reynolds stars as the Hal Jordan incarnation of Green Lantern. There have been many Green Lanterns, both before and after him but Hal is the most famous.

Yes. For those of you who are unaware, Green Lantern is actually not just any old superhero. He's powerless. The power is in his ring, a mystical device, and though he's superheroic, he's but one of many. In a way he's like an anonymous everyman worker-bee hero. It's an interesting twist on the typical one-of-a-kind hero concept if you stop to think over it. Which is why I was hoping some really crafty creative type would've pitched this as Green Lantern Corps to some cable station, and made it a really intelligent sci-fi multiple worlds series using something complex/multi-dimensional like Battlestar Galactica as inspirational role model rather than IronDevilSpiderBatSuperHulkMan. Instead it looks like we got...

No. ...just another Superhero Origin Flick. You've got your boyman who is suddenly given the gift of great power and he has to learn adult responsibility and heroism while some bland but beautiful girl encourages him from the sidelines. Sound familiar? It should. And: YAWN. I get that we need our hero myths. But do they have to be so similar every time? Also I laughed so hard this afternoon when @MediaObsessed said on twitter

Blake Lively as a fighter pilot? Oh Hollywood, sometimes penises should not be allowed in casting decisions.

HEE. So so true. I was worried about the casting from the get go. Ryan Reynolds is somewhat talented but there is something a touch blande/assembly line about him... like he's the photograph of a star rather than the flesh and blood actuality (though we totally thank him for the approximation of flesh part). When you add the Hot Girl of the Moment as the love interest it starts to just seem really... generic, like no one had a vision other than a Hulk-like grunted directive "Make Tentpole. Smash Puny Box Office Records."

Maybe So. Er... uh... I got nothing this time. It just looks so generic. It doesn't even look like good eye candy. The visual effects are generic too. It's hard to imagine this even being in contention for Best Visual Effects at the Oscars for 2011. Unless it's a really weak year. They do have 5 visual effects slot now. My point is this: I curse the day that CGI made filmmakers so lazy about the aesthetics of power. Why do all spells, mutations, powers, mystical or scientific equal gaseous colorful swirls?

I'm not interested. I'm a no. I know I complain about superhero movies a lot but I actually love superheroes. Like most boys and some girls, I grew up adoring them. I just want their movie doppelgangers to have more individualized personalities and to be made with real care for the big screen.

You?

Send in the (Green) Clowns

I'm off to a slow start this morning. Sometimes it can't be helped. Enjoy this first photo of Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern while I hook up my coffee IV, finish Oscar page revisions, and write about Inception... all while humming Sondheim's brilliant A Little Night Music score. What a mashup that will be.

BTW, loved the Broadway show last night. Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch are theater legends for a reason. Peters was exceptionally moving during "Send in the Clowns" -- I've never heard a Broadway audience go that quiet, basking in every nuance of that spectacular inimitable voice of hers -- and very funny hamming up the comedic portions of the show. There's this line in the second act about watching the summer sky smile, where Elaine Stritch says "That smile was particularly broad tonight." That line reading just killed. It felt like an affectionate elbow to the cast surrounding her that evening. Stritch was so funny that the young actress playing her granddaughter regularly had to wait a few extra beats to be heard above the laughter. Since this 1973 Stephen Sondheim musical is based on Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) and the film version of the musical in 1977 starring Elizabeth Taylor isn't definitive by any measure, I wonder why it doesn't get a second cinematic go? It couldn't be that expensive to mount since it basically only involves a few locations: mostly people's bedrooms and the grounds of a country estate.

"Desiree" via Eva Dahlbeck (55), La Liz (77), CZJ (09) and Bernadette (10)

All you need is a great actress of a certain age with a killer voice and a good comedic supporting cast. Plus beautiful costumes and careful outdoor cinematography. You're good to go. Do justice to the show's humor and the actress-playing-an-actress theatrical pathos and you've got Oscar nominations for Actress, Supporting Actress and a few tech categories at least.

[Trivia Tangent: Because we've been talking about the EGOT and the triple crown lately due to the upcoming Emmy awards, here's how that shakes out. As you know Catherine Zeta-Jones just won the Tony for this role so she only has to win an Emmy to get a triple crown. Bernadette, replacing her, has multiple Grammys -- or does she? -- and Tonys. She's been nominated for Emmys but hasn't won and the Oscar (let alone a nomination) eluded her even at the heighth of her fame in the late 70s / early 80s when she was in the mix at the Golden Globes winning for Pennies From Heaven and nominated for Mel Brooks' Silent Movie. Elaine has a Tony and multiple Emmys. No Grammy or Oscar.]

Switching gears*, to say the least...

I'm still sad there's going to be a Green Lantern movie instead of a Green Lantern Corps cable series. That could have been the next great complex and fascinating sci-fi television series to follow Battlestar Galactica with the right team. Instead I fear it will be a generic superhero movie franchise. It certainly looks generic. We need another great sci-fi series on television way more than we need another superhero movie.

If you had a power ring, what kind of things would you make it do? I mean, besides conjuring up free Broadway tickets.

*I apologize for the schizophrenia of this post. Everyone knows that superheroes and musicals don't go together.
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Link a Virgin

<-- Boy Culture Madonna in Interview, interviewed by auteur Gus Van Sant. They even discuss movies and Milk? Can't wait to read the whole thing
Vanity Fair Oscar winning moms and their offspring. Photo Gallery
/Film Does Disney have eyes on stage musicals based on Romy & Michelle, Coyote Ugly, Shakespeare in Love and more?
MNPP even horror buffs are hating this Human Centipede movie
Deadline Hollywood Roman Polanski breaks his silence. This is the whole statement. I find this whole tawdry decades old story so sad but the public reaction even more disturbing. Whether or not one thinks Polanski should come to the US and be sentenced it is very clear reading the comments on virtually any site/blog discussing this that for a huge swath of people nothing short of a death sentence would ever satiate them
NY Post Johnny Depp heroics. "straighten up your life"
30 Ninjas meaty interview with Jake Gyllenhaal on both Prince of Persia and Duncan Jones's Source Code
Movie Insider Green Lantern production imagery?
E.T. Steven Spielberg has chosen War Horse as his next film. That means he'll have two pictures coming out for 2011 (TinTin is also on the way). Isn't it strange how Spielberg always seems to be either completely absent or doubling up? Other two picture years: 1989, 1993 (what a year that was!), 1997 and 2002

In Space No One Can Hear You Link

Godxillary Alien vs. Pooh. Ohhh, that's just so wrong.
People celebrates Why We Love Julia Roberts. They have 20 reasons but forget to mention numero uno "she boosts our sales / pageviews when we display her thusly"
First Showing Michael Bay sounds intelligent (gasp) when he expresses concerns about 3D. But, frankly, I don't understand why he's having the meetings at all about 3D conversion. Transformers 3 hasn't started filming yet, so why not do it for real rather than worry about that post-production shortcut that Clash of The Titans went with?


"Stroobs" a collage of Meryl Streep cleavage (via jazzt). haha. The internet is a delightful place
Monkey See terrific piece on film criticism and the eternal confusion about what it's supposed to be
Screen Rant Angela Bassett joins the Green Lantern cast in potentially lucrative role for her. I'm all about Bassett getting more work, however that can happen. So, tentative "yay!" even though I still think Green Lantern woulda worked better as a television series with a complex sci-fi allegory bent (a la Battlestar Galactica)

Fun video from Film in Focus: Karina Longworth of LA Weekly on the Coen Bros classic, The Big Lebowski



The Dude abides.

It's not easy being green. Except today.

Awww, classic Kermie



Yes, I used that last year too. But Kermit. Classic.

Kermit's not the only one who found it to be a problematic color.


No, it's not usually easy being green but today, they celebrate you if you're wearing it... even if you aren't Irish.

Some movie peeps seem to enjoy being that color nonetheless.


(It helps if you're from outer space)

The word is still out on whether he'll enjoy it. Or whether we'll enjoy him in it.

photo src

Green Lantern is one of my favorite comic books but I have to say I'm totally worried about the movie. I never thought the comic was all that transferrable (power lanterns and rings and vast imagination powers and chanting?) Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are both lookers but they're also the type of generically handsome / beautiful that can get capital B boring if the characters or the performances aren't interesting. I like my comic-to-screen characters to have 3D personalities... or at least 2D stylistically heightened to feel like 200D (wait, what?) like Downey Jr's Iron Man, Pfeiffer's Catwoman, Ledger's Joker, etcetera.

But I got off topic...

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Have a happy one. And kiss Michael Fassbender if you see him!

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Sophie's Link

Meryl Streep brings endless funny. Have you read "name one masterpiece of cinema that I've starred in"? Hat tip to reader Cal for alerting me. Since this article appears in The Onion, it's Meryl Streep or "Meryl Streep" but both are equally awesome. One can certainly imagine the real Streep taking these shots at her self. She's always been fond of the self-deprecating zingers that somehow pretzel themselves until they're self-aggrandazing.

Of course, next Sophie's Choice comes up. Sure. Absolutely. That makes complete sense. But have you actually watched Sophie's Choice lately? Boy, talk about a movie that has not aged well. My performance is very good. No question. Oscar-worthy even...

So now is when you have to start really digging into my filmography because you're starting to think, "Can it be true that one of this generation's greatest actresses, maybe even the greatest—a national treasure, you might say—has never been in a film as good as Network, which isn't even Faye Dunaway's best movie?"

Ha. That's so true. Faye had quite the run. But... is it true? Does Meryl really not have her very own classic? P.S. The line about The Devil Wears Prada is killer.


More Linkage
Cinema Blend Dakota Fanning and Michael Sheen as bloodsuckers. I still weep that something as boring as The Twilight Saga will be "entertaining" us for years to come, but at least they're recruiting decent actors now that they won the lottery
Stareast Asia Zhang Ziyi engulfed in shoulder pads. Have you accepted that Ziyi is now more of a model than an actress. Maybe that's always how you've thought of her? You're smart
Topless Robot is Green Lantern doomed? I love Topless Robot. They're so self aware. This line from the highly speculative post is a beaut. It's a line which would never be typed on other genre loving fanboy sites but which belongs on all of them

But if I don't make wild, unfounded accusations about things I know nothing about, I feel like I'm not doing my job.

babblebook contemplates the catharsis of Inglourious Basterds. Great post
Cinephilia imagines Pitt & Jolie receiving the Inglourious call. The punchline to the scene is pretty great
Socialite's Life George Clooney breaks his hand. Damn, that man is fragile
PopCrunch Liz Taylor loves RuPaul?

Oh, Anne...
My nearly beloved Anne Heche (if only she'd get the good roles...) is back in, uh, form. Did you see her on Letterman? Now I think it's a terrible terrible terrible thing for a celebrity to diss a civilian on national television --manners, Celestia, manners!-- But that said, I like my Anne crazy, so I loved this.



Against my better judgment.

Finally
It's been ages since I've been to the popular flash site Homestar Runner for a Strong Bad e-mail but I clicked over this morning to watch a short comic bit on "indie film" vs. independent film. Back in the day --when? don't remember-- I wrote Strong Bad an e-mail asking something or other about movies but quickly realized it was a mistake and my e-mail would never be used to animate an episode because the world of Homestar Runner tends not to really deal with reality as we know it in. There's very little in the way of dated pop culture references / jokes. But, I guess Strong Bad is closer to planet Earth now that he's dissing art films and Hollywood poseurs and getting little visual digs in at Juno among other things.

Ryan Reynolds & Scarlett Johansson Sure Must Love Comic Books

Finally I can stop doctoring photos to produce various actors as Green Lantern. Ryan Reynolds won the coveted Green Lantern role for summer 2011's big superhero pic, so this faux poster to your left is my last. (whew) I assume he's playing "Hal Jordan", the silver age Green Lantern, though many have donned the emerald ring. But the casting of a 'star' defeats the angle on this movie that would've worked best... GLC. Green Lantern Corps. Hallo?!

Press coverage seems to indicate that the finalists were Bradley Cooper, Jared Leto and Justin Timberlake (?!?). I feel a little bit bad for Jared Leto in particular right about now since his career is so off the rails and a superhero franchise might have been just the thing for bringing a bit of normalcy back in to balance out all the rock star posing and erratic acting career. Plus he's already played a "Jordan" and it might've been fun to mentally flash over to Angela Chase's besotted gaze whenever anybody called his name in the new movie. To Angela Chase, Jordan Catalano was a superhero, you know.

The film will supposedly* be directed by franchise-friendly Martin Campbell who has two James Bonds, two Zorros and two Edge of Darkness (TV series and now a film) under his belt already. He's not averse to double duty so if* the film opens or when it opens in 2011 expect a 'Martin Campbell signed for Green Lantern 2' announcement.

Scarlett Johansson & Ryan Reynolds have been married for 9½ months now. In that short time the cartoonishly-perfect specimens ("boobs & abs") have gone completely gaga for comic book movies. Since they've been married The Spirit and X-Men Origins: Wolverine have opened in theaters and they've signed for Deadpool, Green Lantern and Iron Man 2 (where Scarlett will play The Black Widow). At this rate they're going to name their first child "Stan Lee" or "Diana Prince". Useless trivia: Both Ryan and Scarlett are the youngest (well, unless you count Scarlett's twin) of multiple siblings and they might adopt. Stay tuned.

*With superhero movies, especially with DC heroes, you shouldn't truly bank on it until the actor is in the latex and standing in front of a green screen. Ryan Reynolds was also supposed to play The Flash (the movie never started filming) and he's also supposed to reprise his X-Men Origins: Wolverine role as Deadpool in a spinoff. I suspect that that movie won't happen either.

Beware My Power... Green Lantern's Might

I promise I'm not going to mock up every potential Green Lantern in shiny emerald spandex but I go weak at the knees for opportunities to photoshop ... and for Green Lantern, too, as you must know. I don't secretly dream of a Hollywood career but if I did, The Green Lantern is at the top of the list of superhero properties I'd want to pitch. That said, I'd rank it up there with Wonder Woman under the heading Will Be Nearly Impossible To Pull Off. Good Luck! so I'm not particularly excited about seeing Hollywood try.

So, this is Shawn Roberts (pictured left) who was all the rumor-rage a couple of weeks ago, round about the same time as the Bradley Cooper rumor that IMDB stamped. But, recent casting of Thor aside, Hollywood almost never goes with relative unknowns for expensive franchises (despite stars being expensive and the properties themselves being the selling point) so I never took the Roberts rumor seriously. I suspect if the movie ever happens, and if it's not Cooper, it'll be a very familiar face bathed in green light.

Anyway -- my god get to the point, man! -- some people are far more skilled with visual trickery than I. If you haven't yet watched this fan-made Green Lantern trailer which is basically a very enthusiastic campaign for the casting of the always charming Nathan Fillion, you should.



Pretty impressive, yes?

Fillion himself is quite enthused about it.
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Christian Bale Losing Resolution. Too Many Copies!

When I announced I was seeing Terminator Salvation yesterday, I got a note from Rob, a longtime reader, which said

Let us know if the cinematography comes across as especially intrusive to the thespian process.

Heh. I am happy to report that unless Christian Bale's eyes are particularly sensitive to bleached colors and shadowy sets, Shane Hurlbut's lensing didn't intrude on his thespian process at all. But Bale intruded on Bale's thespian process.


I liked Salvation a lot more than this next statement will imply (here's the video review) but... John Connor was a dud. [editor's note: Isn't he always?] Christian Bale bored me silly. He used to be a thrilling and unpredictable actor. Now I feel like I'm seeing the same performance over and over again. It's like he's lipsynching to his own Arias of Intensity.

Since Bale has given at least one undisputably genius performance ("Patrick Bateman", American Psycho) I'd like to cut him some slack and blame Hollywood and movie audiences. Why is it that we need the same thing over and over again? Why do we need orphaned crime-fighting Batman to also be orphaned robot-fighting John Connor? Why do we need 4th and 11th versions of stories we've already heard? Why do we need a reboot of the Star Trek story which we've been hearing for over 40 years? For Christ's sake, why do we need a 8th season of American Idol? It's the same show every year.

Will we ever love something new?

I was thinking about this whilst perusing the internet yesterday and reading numerous gripe posts about X-Men Origins: Wolverine followed (in the same posts!) by anticipation of X-Men Origins: Deadpool or whatever they might call it. It's like we're goldfish or we're collectively stuck in a OCD moment, repeating the same cycle over and over again.


Instead of locking and unlocking our doors, we're swallowing hype whole, choking on it and then opening wide again "Give it to me!" It's basically Hollywood's ideal cattle herding loop. Even if we don't like a movie, we'll still go to its sequel.

But I'm spiralling off topic. In the case of Bale, I'm more concerned currently with Hollywood's (and by extension our) lack of imagination about who should play whom in franchises. I'm sitting there watching Anton Yelchin, who plays Kyle Reese as a teenager, and thinking 'Chekov from Starfleet impregnated Sarah Connor to stop Skynet?!?'

Shouldn't I be thinking "ooh, the young Kyle Reese!"?


Why did Chris Pine, suddenly get talked up for Green Lantern just as soon as people starting noticing he might not bomb as Captain Kirk? Should Captain Kirk really remind us of Green Lantern and vice versa? And then there's the problem of Samuel L Jackson. I've complained about this before but the Nick Fury casting really upset me last summer. It seems, scanning credits, like Marvel wants Nick Fury to be the connective tissue for all of their superhero movies. That would be a fun idea if it were a lesser or unknown actor but now all of these Marvel superhero movies will not only remind us of each other but of the following franchises or intended franchises (some didn't pan out): The Spirit, Star Wars, Shaft, Jumper, Afro Samurai, xXx, The Incredibles, S.W.A.T, Jurassic Park and even The Exorcist. I don't begrudge any strong actor a successful career but I really think there out to be a cap on how many big franchises one actor is allowed to appear in. Seeing the same faces over and over again (Jackson's) or hearing the same affected voice over and over again (Bale's) just makes all these movies seem more generic and copied and alike than they already are.

The internet was abuzz yesterday with the rumor that Bradley Cooper might play Hal Jordan / Green Lantern (the IMDB lists Chris Pine in the role but that's still only a rumor). I've mocked it up for you to the right. I forgot the mask but that's all Bradley there. Actors don't need padded muscle suits anymore. They have personal trainers and dieticians.

I like Cooper but I haven't even begun to ponder whether or not he'd be a good Hal Jordan. Still, better him than Chris Pine. That way I won't have to get used to Captain Kirk belonging to both Federation Starfleet and the Green Lantern Corps. Does Starfleet even allow dual citizenship?

Have you read the Terminator Retro Special?
PART ONE: Tech•Noir (The Terminator)
PART TWO: Model Citizen (Judgment Day)
PART THREE: Terminator Salvation Discussion (passed on rewatching Rise of the Machines after all)

Link What Yo Mamma Gave Ya

not a movie poster very cool UK poster for Let The Right One In. I'm confused. Does this mean the film hasn't yet opened there?
MNPP declares war on stupid sex-phobic Watchmen articles
Dr. Stan Glick alerts us to a free screening of Korean Oscar submission Secret Sunshine in NYC on March 26th. If you're fond of great actresses don't miss it. The lead performance is pretty damn incredible (she won at Cannes).
The House Next Door a detailed piece on misogyny and feminism in Battlestar Galactica


Deep Focus terrific review of the must see prison picture Hunger
Screengrab talks to Garret Dillahunt about his career upswing. I love him as an actor but there's no way I'm seeing Last House on the Left. If I need my scary Dillahunt I'll just have to wait for The Road to open and see it again (he terrified me and he was barely in it.)
/Film Will Chris Pine be Hal Jordan in The Green Lantern? Seems like a dull choice to me but then I am still haunted by Just My Luck. Unless he's suddenly bursting with heretofore unseen movie star charisma post Star Trek filming...

Tues Top Ten: Green Skinned Wonders

This list is dedicated to two crushes from childhood that never went away: First, Yvonne Craig (i.e. Batgirl!) who once played an Orion slave girl on Star Trek (prized for their eroticism). Second, Daryl Hannah... who is more caucasian than green but she doesn't think so. Leonardo DiCaprio may get all the press for being an environmentalist but Daryl is the hardcore real deal. I absolutely love her and you should, too. Plus you know: "California Mountain Snake" ... (red and yellow but you know -- snakes = green in the broader sense. Wha--Where am... Oh yes, the list).

Ten Best Green-Skinned Movie Characters

10 Speaking of snakes... One of the scariest things I ever saw as a kid was Medusa in The Clash of the Titans (1981). Don't stare too closely at her lopsided [shudder] key-lit eyes. You know what can happen... I'm so thankful that model work and stop motion haven't completely died in the movie making world because they are so much freakier than CGI as visual effects go. Yes they are remaking that one... and supposedly it's happening any minute now. The Parisian action director Louis Leterrier is helming. His last film was The Incredible Hulk so he must have a viridescent fetish. (How do you say "Orion slave girls" in French?)

09 I know Marvel and the Media have told me that I must prefer Leterrier's Incredible Hulk to Ang Lee's Hulk but I rarely do as I'm told. One reason to prefer the first Hulk (review) is that he seemed more phosphorescent and if you're going for scientific experiments gone awry which accidentally grant superhuman powers, why not saturate? Commit to the absurdity! (see also: Dr. Manhattan)

08 Buzz's run in with those squeaky aliens in Toy Story...

The Claw. The Claw is our master. It decides who will go and who will stay.

is still one of the funniest bits from any movie ever. I cherish the memory. I saw it with my brother and we had no idea what to expect (Pixar wasn't yet synonymous with instant classics). We laughed so hard that we missed the next few jokes that followed it.

07 Alligators (in general). Confession: I make a beeline at the zoo to see the alligator/crocs even though they never ever ever move. I wait and wait. They don't move! I love them onscreen even more (they move!) whether they're wrestling with Tarzan underwater, starring in comedic horror movies (Alligator) or trapped in supporting roles in cartoons (The Rescuers, Peter Pan)

06 Oola and Jabba The honeymoon was over even before the Jedi returned. Those crazy kids just couldn't work it out. She found him too possessive. He hated her independent streak. So he fed her to the rancor monster. What an a******.

05 This is more of a sideways fantasy than a reality. Plus no green-skin. There's talk of a Green Lantern movie very soon but the thing that would be brilliant that they'll never even consider doing is a hugely dense and populated sci-fi television series of Green Lantern Corps. Think of how many stories they could tell. There's more than just Hal Jordan to the Green Lantern mythos and we've got plenty of spandex single hero movies already. Try something new. The Pitch: Battlestar Galactica meets Dollhouse meets the superhero genre. Earth not included.

04 Kylie Minogue as "The Green Fairie" in Moulin Rouge! (retro) The most inspired / deranged pop star cameo ever? Maybe. Has anyone reading tried the newly legal absinthe? Did she appear to sing you showtunes? If so please tell me she knows more than just one song.

03 Yoda Make this list he must.

02 Even if I hadn't just been back to Wicked, there's no denying The Wicked Witch one of the top spots. I'm only denying her the top spot so that she'll terrorize me with an "I'll get you my pretty" or some such.



01 Kermit the Frog. The Muppets are Love.

Who would you include in a top ten green list? I admit I found the pickings a little slim. Blue is definitely more of a movie color.

previous top tens: overdue for Oscar, best TV of 2008, female directors, etc...
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Men (and Women) In Tights

Nevermind about those stupid "Aquafag" jokes/discussions that sprung up on the Internet because of that highly evolved [snort] Entourage show (wherein the lead character thinks of starring in an Aquaman movie) and check out these photos (by way of Towleroad) of the small screen's new Aquaman. Now I never watch Smallville --I'm not much of a WB kinda guy --but i'm tempted to tune in on the 20th.



Because it is Fall Movie "Prestige" season and we have numerous interesting dramatic pictures finally opening, I am perversely thinking about superhero popcorn flicks (just to keep y'all guessing). Plus there's the little factor that it's Friday. I want to see movies but I'm trapped in the apartment due to new window installations, etc... so it's a heavy blogging day as opposed to a moviegoing day. So here are four mini-lists for your consideration. Feel free to respond with your own.

Comic Heroes I'd Most Like to See @ The Movies
01 Iron Man
Not even close to one of my favorite characters but it's easy to see this character being adaptable for big screen antics... and if the right team is behind it, it could be compelling dramatically as well.
02 Dark Phoenix
Ever since Uncanny X-Men #135 (? -god, i'm old) I've wanted to see the greatest comic arc ever translated to film. Of course, given the current direction of the X-Men movies... I'm glad this isn't happening now.
03 The Legion of Super-Heroes or the Starjammers
I just have a thing for sci-fi mixed with superheroes I guess. DC's futuristic super-hero comic would be so fun for the right filmmaker. Or maybe it would just make a kick ass series (cable of course). You could do almost anything with it. So many characters to choose from, no need to be totally faithful, no definitive story arc, etc... free reign with fun sci-fi spectacle possibilities. Same goes with The Star Jammers except for the characters are more defined.

Comic-to-Movie Heroes I'm Most Dreading...
01 Ghost Rider (2006)
Nicolas Cage? Does he have clones or something? How is it that he is allowed to ruin so many movies? Blech. Mark Steven Johnson, the hack that desecrated Daredevil? Double Blech.
02 X-Men 3 (2006)
Well... it was fun while it lasted. With director Bryan Singer gone and Halle Berry remaining (still miscast and terrible as "Storm") and Brett Ratner guiding it along? Triple Yikes.
03 Wonder Woman (2007)
For the opposite reasons, I am scared of this. I love Joss Whedon (duh) -this film's writer-director for hire. But this character has always struck me as impossible to translate to the movies. Kinda like Green Lantern. Great character but too cheesy/hokey/retro for the movies?



The Best Comic Book Movies (Excluding Graphic Novels) are...
01 Spider-Man 2 (2004)
02 Spider-Man (2001)
03 X2 (2002)
04 Superman (1978) or Superman 2 (1980)
05 Batman Returns (1992)

Comic Book Characters That Deserved Better Screen Treatments
01 Daredevil
02 The Fantastic Four
03 Elektra (I was going to say Catwoman but she had a good run up until 2004)