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| Thursday, April 17, 2014 03:36 PM |
| On the Viewer - Captain America: The Winter Soldier |
 by Fëanor |
Stories about Captain America almost necessarily end up being about America itself - the America of whatever time the story is written in. Whatever problems that America is dealing with; how America is seeing itself in that moment; the conflict between what it is and what it wants to be - all of that becomes fodder for the story. Winter Soldier is definitely no exception to this. This is a film that's being released in a time when America is still reeling from the NSA surveillance scandal, still trying to reconcile itself to the fact that the leader of the land of the free and the home of the brave has a kill list, and that we have mechanized murder-bots scanning foreign lands, executing people - some of them possibly innocent. And in this film, Captain America (Chris Evans) finds himself lost, disillusioned, without a clear purpose. He's a soldier, a man used to following orders, but when he goes out on a mission with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and finds he hasn't been told its full parameters, he feels betrayed. Then his friend Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) reveals that he and Fury's old comrade - now his boss on the World Security Council - Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) are about to launch into the air a fleet of gigantic mechanized warships that will patrol the skies, taking out threats before they can take us out. The ultimate preemptive strike weapons. But Cap isn't a man who believes in preemptive strikes. This is a guy who goes into battle, not with a knife or a gun, but with a shield. Cap is a protector, a defender, not an attacker. How can he live in a world like this? Work with men like this? Follow their orders?
Things quickly get worse when Fury and then Cap himself come under attack by an unknown enemy who knows them far too well. If Cap didn't know who to trust before, he certainly doesn't now. Not only is S.H.I.E.L.D. not what it appears to be, the legendary, unstoppable assassin coming after Cap - known only as the Winter Soldier - is not who Cap expects, either. He has to put his trust in the deadly and secretive Black Widow, and his new friend and fellow soldier Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) - not to mention Wilson's top secret flying gear - if he has any hope of surviving.
The Winter Soldier is a very wise, thoughtful film that also happens to be loaded with exciting, bad-ass action sequences and incredible visual effects. Marvel fans will be happy to see cleverly modernized interpretations of Arnim Zola and Georges Batroc, not to mention the introduction of Agent 13, and the return of Garry Shandling's smarmy Senator Stern and Cobie Smulders' quietly competent Maria Hill. Oh, and there's also Falcon. Falcon! It's so great to see Cap and Falcon together on the big screen. As usual, there's also a fun after-credits sequence featuring a couple of other famous Marvel characters that ties this story in to future developments in the Marvel Studios film universe.
Marvel Studios has yet to make a misstep, and in fact seems to be getting better with each film. The Winter Soldier is the best yet. It's truly a brilliant entry in their continuing saga, and a story that will have lasting consequences for the universe as a whole. It cleverly and powerfully parallels the story of a poisoned S.H.I.E.L.D. that doesn't know itself with the story of the poisoned Winter Soldier who doesn't know himself. I particularly like that Captain ultimately wins the day, not with a bullet or a punch, but by choosing not to fight. He succeeds by dropping his weapon, by embracing the possibility of healing and redemption and peace. It's a beautiful, brave moment. An American moment. |
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| Wednesday, March 7, 2012 11:06 AM |
| Recyclotron |
 by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- Dude, my friends wrote a book! You can buy it! You should buy it. Buy it now!
- One of my favorite of the recent posts on Reproductive Ryan Gosling. My very own poppy is a co-founder and contributor!
- Awww, look at the tiny Avengers! So tiny!
- A little goat! Hopping! On a bed!
- I love Marion, and I love Raiders of the Lost Ark, but... yeah. Baskets. *facepalm*
- Female Holmes and Watson.
- Blue And Bluer celebrates one of the great film classics, Grosse Pointe Blank.
- Some Game of Thrones humor.
- A little Daily Show for you.
- Heh. Poor Michelle.
- SANDWICH POLICE. That is all.
- Now here's something you can base a system of government on!
- Can't remember if I posted this before, but it's worth a repost if I didn't: Elmo and Grover as Street Fighters.
- An old script for an episode of the original Star Trek that was never filmed is going to get turned into a webisode by the New Voyages crew. Nice!
- There are birthday cake Oreos? Where can I get them?!
- Oh hey, it's that time of year again! March M.O.D.O.K. Madness!
- I kind of want this bird nest bed.
- Some pics from, and a new trailer for, Men in Black 3. I want to like this, because the original Men in Black is such a great movie, but... I just don't know.
- Another movie I want to like is John Carter. You can watch ten minutes of it right here. I was hoping to be really impressed by this, but despite some clever moments (and an inspired choice of when to cut short the clip), I could take or leave this movie.
- Some really cool props from Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor are up for auction.
- Cool Star Wars crayons.
- Cute Saruman figurine. All right, maybe cute isn't the right word, but whatever, I like it, is the point.
- Wow. Mike Mignola did a book cover for Heart of Darkness. Two great tastes that taste great together!
- I've mostly soured on the whole Simpson-izing thing, but these Simpsons versions of Scooby and Shaggy are fun.
- Look out! Tiger Batman!
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| Tagged (?): Animals (Not), Animated GIFs (Not), Art (Not), Avengers (Not), Batman (Not), Books (Not), Captain America (Not), Cartoons (Not), Celebrities (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Craft (Not), Food (Not), Game of Thrones (Not), Iron Man (Not), Links (Not), Mike Mignola (Not), Monty Python (Not), Movies (Not), Muppets (Not), Photography (Not), Politics (Not), Products (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Scooby-Doo (Not), Sherlock Holmes (Not), Simpsons (Not), Song of Ice and Fire (Not), Star Trek (Not), Star Wars (Not), Street Fighter (Not), Thor (Not), Toys (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not) |
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| Wednesday, January 4, 2012 10:50 AM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
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| Tagged (?): Animals (Not), Art (Not), Blade Runner (Not), Captain America (Not), Celebrities (Not), Clothing (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Dune (Not), Links (Not), Movies (Not), Photography (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Shirts (Not), Star Trek (Not), Tattoos (Not), Video games (Not), Zelda (Not) |
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| Wednesday, September 7, 2011 12:34 PM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Hey, remember when I used to post to this here blog thingie?? Thought I'd give that another try...
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
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| Tagged (?): Art (Not), Batman (Not), Captain America (Not), Cartoons (Not), Celebrities (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Cosplay (Not), Costumes (Not), Craft (Not), Dinosaurs (Not), Doctor Who (Not), Fast food (Not), Futurama (Not), Links (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Photoshop (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Star Trek (Not), Star Wars (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not), Web comics (Not), Wonder Woman (Not), Zelda (Not) |
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| Monday, July 18, 2011 02:55 PM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
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| Tagged (?): Art (Not), Avengers (Not), Batman (Not), Books (Not), Captain America (Not), Celebrities (Not), Comic books (Not), Craft (Not), LEGO (Not), Links (Not), Movies (Not), Photography (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Star Wars (Not), The Hobbit (Not), Tolkien (Not), Toys (Not), Video (Not), Wolverine (Not) |
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| Wednesday, July 6, 2011 11:43 AM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- A couple of fun recent entries on Reelizer: a Monty Python and the Holy Grail poster called "Find the Grail" (which might be instructions as well as a title, but the image is too small to do a proper "Where's Waldo?"-style search), and a beautiful Blade Runner poster.
- Speaking of posters, here's a snazzy one for Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- Dawww. Totally cute Firefly image.
- Heh. A look at the inbox of the Witch-King of Angmar.
- I'm pretty sure I've linked to Hungover Owls here before, but the last couple entries have been golden, so here you go again.
- Awesome Captain America art from Mr. Hipp in honor of the 4th of July.
- BBC News lists 50 of the most hated office-speak phrases. This is from the UK so obviously some of these are a bit odd to American eyes, but a surprising number are painfully familiar. (Via S)
- Pretty stunning photos of people cosplaying as Lady Gaga for the recent "Lady Gaga Day" in the Taiwanese city of Taichung.
- You know I can't get through one of these without some Star Wars links, but this time I will try to keep them to one bullet point. Here's Leia as a Sith, Luke being super-emo (though to be fair he has good reason, as the image makes clear), and a potential T-shirt revealing Leia's reaction when she learned her true parentage.
- Patton Oswalt's rejected pitches for Batman comics are pretty amazing. I'd read those!
- Hipster Puppies is now a book!
- Realistic, disturbing reimaginings of Super Mario villains.
- Amazing convention sketches by David Aja.
- How about some Harry Potter links? Here's a cool (if slightly inaccurate) illustration of Harry protecting Sirius from the Dementors; an amusing T-shirt (via); and all the Harry Potter novels summarized as mostly-wordless, single-page comics.
- Fun Wolverine T-shirt done in the style of old cartoons.
- I hadn't heard of this book called Gods Behaving Badly - about the Greek Gods secretly alive and well in present day and disguised as normal human beings in New York City - but it sounds like fun. And now there's going to be a movie with a pretty amazing cast: Christopher Walken (Zeus), John Turturro (Hades), Sharon Stone (Aphrodite), Edie Falco (Artemis), Phylicia Rashad (Demeter), Nelsan Ellis (Dionysus), Gideon Glick (Eros), Henry Zebrowski (Hermes), Rosie Perez (Persephone).
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| Tagged (?): Animals (Not), Art (Not), Batman (Not), Blade Runner (Not), Captain America (Not), Cartoons (Not), Celebrities (Not), Clothing (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Cosplay (Not), Costumes (Not), Firefly (Not), Harry Potter (Not), Holiday (Not), Links (Not), Mario (Not), Monty Python (Not), Movies (Not), Mythology (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Shirts (Not), Star Wars (Not), Tolkien (Not), TV (Not), Video games (Not), Wolverine (Not) |
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| Thursday, June 30, 2011 12:17 PM |
| (Last updated on Friday, July 1, 2011 02:15 PM) | | Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- I think I might have to take part in #ThePact. So if you see a picture of me eating a donut in my Twitter stream tomorrow, that's what that's about. (UPDATE: Here you go.)
- This unlimited movie pass, which allows you to see as many movies in the theater as you like for $50 a month, is a great concept, and I think I probably would have been all over it in my free-wheeling, movie-obsessed, bachelor days.
- Jesus Christ. There are actually six (6!) different versions of Frankenstein in development in Hollywood right now. Thanks a lot, Twilight.
- Also, they are still trying to get that He-Man movie made, apparently. I love He-Man and all, but I just don't see that turning out well.
- A collection of negative and positive quotes from critics about Transformers 3. You would have to pay me a very large sum of money to see this movie.
- I do enjoy a good Super Punch image roundup.
- A trailer and a gameplay video for a new Phineas and Ferb video game, subtitled Across the Second Dimension. There's a movie of the same title that'll be airing on the Disney channel soon. Exciting!
- If you hadn't heard yet, World of Warcraft is now free to play until level 20. Tempting! But even when I do get the time these days, I tend to avoid playing video games and work on making one, instead. So I think I'll still be staying away from WoW for the foreseeable future.
- I am intrigued by Google+! I'll just wait here for my invite. Doo dee doo dee doo... Anybody? (UPDATE: I'm on! Thanks, Amy!)
- I've always been a big fan of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, as well as Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam War film adaptation, Apocalypse Now, so I'm kind of excited that there's going to be a sci-fi film adaptation called Into Darkness, even if the people involved aren't exactly top notch talent.
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| Tagged (?): Art (Not), Books (Not), Captain America (Not), Cartoons (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Food (Not), Google (Not), Internet (Not), Links (Not), Masters of the Universe (Not), Monsters (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Phineas and Ferb (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Transformers (Not), TV (Not), Twitter (Not), Video games (Not), Web comics (Not), World of Warcraft (Not) |
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| Friday, June 24, 2011 12:55 PM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- Shirt irony!
- A nice piece depicting a tense moment from Aliens.
- Dan Hipp knows how to push my buttons.
- The latest Awesome Hospital amused me. "That'll get you thirty CCs of Ripitupazine, braff." Heh.
- io9 talks about some legendary cryptids that turned out to be real. Yay, platypus! Also, dream on, bigfoot believers! Btw, send your cryptid photos to io9 - they're offering a $2,000 bounty!
- Wizard World was in town recently - right near where I work, in fact - but I still didn't make it over there, because it's super expensive and I just would have wanted to buy everything I saw. Also, kinda busy here. Get off my case! Ahem. Anyway, I can simulate a visit to Wizard World by clicking here and looking at these pictures! And so can you!
- Have I posted about Yog-Blogsoth yet? I should have if I didn't. It's a dude trying to draw every creature in every H.P. Lovecraft story. Love the title, the concept, and the art! But beware - some of the images are NSFW. (Via)
- A camera that lets you adjust the focus after the picture has been taken?? Wow. The future is cool.
- Turns out the Red Skull started life as the cherry on an ice cream sundae.
- I'm not convinced Steven Spielberg's dinosaur show, Terra Nova, is going to be any good, but these posters are fun.
- Click through for links to many beautiful photos of a wedding at a museum.
- Emergency stakes.
- I would like to have this cookies n' cream cake, please. (Via)
- Enjoying this nostalgic Zelda comic and this NSFW Tyrion fan art from this Super Punch link roundup.
- Check out a bunch of cool posters for Immortals, the mythological epic from Tarsem Singh that I continue to be very excited about.
- If you haven't seen the new Captain America trailer yet, you really should. It looks like they got Cap's character just right. So many scenes and lines of dialog in here are so perfect. Really looking forward to this one!
- A six-foot LEGO model of Sauron's Dark Tower. Sweet!
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| Tagged (?): Advertising (Not), Aliens (Not), Art (Not), Captain America (Not), Clothing (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Cosplay (Not), Costumes (Not), Craft (Not), Dinosaurs (Not), Food (Not), Gadgets (Not), Game of Thrones (Not), LEGO (Not), Links (Not), Lovecraft (Not), Movies (Not), Mythology (Not), Photography (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Shirts (Not), Star Wars (Not), Steven Spielberg (Not), Technology (Not), Tolkien (Not), Toys (Not), TV (Not), Vampires (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not), Web comics (Not), Zelda (Not) |
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| Wednesday, April 27, 2011 12:50 PM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- Daphne from Scooby-Doo. Helloooo nurse!
- Annie Wu draws Dr. Mrs. The Monarch.
- A typically wonderful rendition of Emma Frost by Dan Hipp.
- Chris Samnee slaps down an amazing sketch of Captain America on Comic Twart. You know what that means: Cap is this week's selection! Awesome. (Also check out Samnee's wonderful, old school-style sketch of Dr. Doom and Mr. Fantastic fighting.)
- Arnold's returning to the Terminator franchise. On the one hand, I wouldn't mind having him back for old time's sake. But on the other hand, how do you explain a robot aging? And what else are you going to bring to the table besides Arnold? If there's not a good screenplay and a good director, it doesn't matter much who's in it. I mean, just look at the last Terminator movie. Or, on second thought, don't look at it. It's terrible!
- io9 takes a look at "The unlikely graffiti of Chernobyl."
- A dude who writes Syfy original movies developed a new way to make ice cream.
- The first official, HD trailer for Tarsem Singh's Greek mythology epic, Immortals. Oh my God, it looks so good. I love Singh's other films, and was really looking forward to seeing what he could do with this material and a big budget. Looks like he knocked it out of the park. These are the thrilling, wildly imaginative visuals I've come to expect from this filmmaker. I can't wait to see the complete, final product.
- This io9 article led me to these two interesting pieces: Michael Chabon's appreciation of a wonderful little book I haven't read in ages, The Phantom Toolbooth; and an analysis of why Julie Taymor's Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark failed.
- A couple of dudes were watching Game of Thrones, got into an argument over which of the characters was going to "win" (by which I guess they meant, take the throne and defeat all other challengers?), and it turned into a physical fight that ended with the police arresting one of them. Heh. That's silly, because clearly Jon and Dany are going to win, and I'll throw you through a window if you say anything different.
- The Beastie Boys are streaming their new album right here. You have to go and listen to it right now because it is fantastic.
- Hey, The Autumn Society is teaming up with Dreamworks Animation! Cool!
- I really enjoy the work of artist Katie Shanahan. Here's her version of Frank Miller's Robin.
- Fed up with toasters that don't give you even heating? Check out this round model!
- Water-ski alone with this skier-controlled tow boat. You know, if you're insane.
- A remote-controlled superhero.
- Oh, lord. A post-apocalyptic Zorro movie is on the way.
- Warner Bros. just added $9 million to the effects budget of Green Lantern, apparently as a last minute attempt to make sure the movie lives up to everyone's constantly rising expectations. I can't say this makes me feel particularly optimistic about this movie. You're trying to fix it by piling more effects on top? Yeah, that always works.
- In case you haven't seen it yet, here's the first official picture from the set of The Avengers, which started production the other day. Woo!
- Replacing the dialog in various scenes from Star Wars with depressing, existential French philosophy is surprisingly hilarious.
- Super Punch presents an illustration roundup and an image roundup.
- I posted these to Twitter the other day, but here they are again because they're awesome: cover art for a new limited series from Marvel called Red Skull.
- I love that we're bringing back the old William Castle theatrics and actually installing movie theater seats that shake you around for Super 8. Of course, they're probably doing this because they're desperate and feel they have to pull out all the stops anymore to get you away from your TV, your computer, and your smart phone and into the movie theater. But still.
- "Bacon-Fat Keyboard Lets Real Birds Tweet." It's about time!
- The art of Dushan Milic.
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| Tagged (?): Animals (Not), Art (Not), Avengers (Not), Books (Not), Captain America (Not), Cartoons (Not), Celebrities (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Crime (Not), Food (Not), Gadgets (Not), Game of Thrones (Not), Green Lantern (Not), Links (Not), Michael Chabon (Not), Monsters (Not), Movies (Not), Mythology (Not), News (Not), Philosophy (Not), Products (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Science (Not), Scooby-Doo (Not), Spider-Man (Not), Star Wars (Not), Technology (Not), Terminator (Not), TV (Not), Twitter (Not), Video (Not), X-Men (Not) |
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| Wednesday, April 13, 2011 02:32 PM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- Hey, it's Mumm-Ra the ever-living! What a guy! I always loved that subtitle, "the ever-living."
- The latest entry on Making Game of Thrones is about designing the throne room.
- Oh man, Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Cosmic Cube would be so awesome. Way better than Crystal Skull, surely.
- Paramount just greenlit a movie version of The Martian Chronicles. I'm not sure it'd be possible to make a good film adaptation of that book - it seems uniquely... bookish; delicate and lyrical and easily ruined - but I'd be excited to see someone try.
- Here's the first episode of the new web series, Mortal Kombat: Legacy. But yeah, don't bother watching it unless you're really curious or a superfan. It's composed almost entirely of cliches. Also, if you're going to shoot a person with a gun, why would you move really close to that person first? You've got a gun! It hits people from far away! Sigh.
- Here's a cool thing: a World of Warcraft player hit the level cap without ever killing anything, and completing only one quest. The person apparently leveled up almost entirely via exploring and discovering.
- AT-AT for America seems like a worthy cause. Let's do this, people!
- The art of banana carving.
- I posted this to Twitter a while back, but it's worth another link: George R.R. Martin's top 10 fantasy films. A lot of great picks here. I'm especially excited about the inclusion of Ladyhawke, a little film from the '80s that my brother and I seriously adored when we were younger.
- Nesting robots.
- Oh sweet lord. Taco Bell is testing taco shells made from nacho cheese Doritos. Is this disgusting or deeply desirable? I can't seem to decide. All I know is, I'd definitely eat one. (Via)
- Have you seen this one-of-a-kind, fan-made Tron light cycle board game yet? Great concept, wonderful execution.
- "Comedian Brett Kreischer is apparently in the habit of leaving surprises for the hotel maid."
- LEGO mechs.
- Hey, Warren Ellis is going to write a couple more novels! The first one will be called Gun Machine. I really enjoyed Crooked Little Vein, so this is good news. Plus, you know, Warren Ellis. (Via)
- Oh no! One of the blogs I read - Download Squad - is closing up shop. Sadness.
- Heh.
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| Tagged (?): Art (Not), Boardgames (Not), Books (Not), Captain America (Not), Cartoons (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Craft (Not), Dinosaurs (Not), Food (Not), Game of Thrones (Not), Gaming (Not), George R.R. Martin (Not), Indiana Jones (Not), Internet (Not), LEGO (Not), Links (Not), Lists (Not), Mortal Kombat (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Robots (Not), Song of Ice and Fire (Not), Star Wars (Not), Toys (Not), Tron (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not), Warren Ellis (Not) |
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Jim Genzano's books on Goodreads
