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Thursday, December 9, 2010 01:27 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.
- This bullet point is for reposts from Twitter! There are a lot of rumors flying back and forth about the Alien prequel, and it's hard to determine which are true and which false. The news the other day was that the film's release had been pushed back, but now it sounds like that would only have happened if they could have gotten Leondardo DiCaprio for the movie, because they would have to have taken his schedule into account. Since they couldn't get Leo, the movie will proceed on its original schedule, with production beginning next March. However, the same report said the movie would be called Paradise, and now it sounds like that's not true. So who knows? In other movie news previously tweeted, Orlando Bloom is supposedly close to signing on to reprise his role as Legolas in The Hobbit. Now we all know Legolas was not in The Hobbit, but seeing as how he's a wood elf, and the dwarves spend some time in the wood elves' prison in Mirkwood, I can see how you could sneak him into the story. I just hope they don't make a big deal about it, and he's more of a background character. My final bit of previously tweeted news has to do with a TV show. Fringe's first episode of 2011, and the first episode aired from its new post in the Friday night "death slot," will be called "Firefly." I thought at first this was an ominous coincidence, but Blastr points out it was probably a deliberate joke/reference by the show creators.
- Sometimes reality really is stranger than fiction: those Indonesian Hobbit people may have shared their island with giant, 6-foot-tall cranes.
- Mario is celebrating his 25th anniversary this year, so The Autumn Society produced a nice commemorative image for him.
- Dude, Madballs! I remember Madballs!
- An... interesting reimagining of a Casper the Friendly Ghost comic book cover.
- The first official promo pics from the fourth Pirates movie. Nothing too exciting here, but still. Fun.
- The nisse is apparently a Scandinavian gnome of some kind. Here are some neat snow globes featuring the creature.
- A wonderful Star Wars print by Daniel Danger called "Sanctuary Moon."
- This year's Swedish Icehotel features a room inspired by Tron: Legacy. Click through for some cool pics.
- Click through and comment for your chance to win a custom-crafted lightsaber.
- My favorite Daily Batman in a while.
- Nick Cave is doing a movie about bootleggers during prohibition which will star Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy. Cool.
- The Wachowskis have been unable to secure funding for "their tale of forbidden love between an American and Iraqi soldier and the men's plan to assassinate President George W. Bush" (big surprise there!), but not to worry! They have another project in the wings: a modernized take on the story of Robin Hood which they're hoping might star Will Smith. Considering their love of stories about bad-ass rebels sticking it to The Man, this sounds right up their alley.
- A couple of intriguing set pics from X-Men: First Class.
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Tagged (?): Aliens (Not), Animals (Not), Art (Not), Batman (Not), Celebrities (Not), Comic books (Not), Craft (Not), Fringe (Not), History (Not), Links (Not), Mario (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Pirates (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Robin Hood (Not), Star Wars (Not), Tolkien (Not), Toys (Not), Tron (Not), Tron Legacy (Not), TV (Not), Video games (Not), X-Men (Not) |
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Friday, March 12, 2010 10:00 AM |
(Last updated on Friday, March 12, 2010 10:11 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.
- Look up and check out the hot new Robin Hood trailer. This movie is really looking good. Max Von Sydow! Love that guy. Rise, and rise again! (Via)
- Warner Bros. has picked up a script treatment called Leonardo da Vinci and the Soldiers of Forever which "re-imagines [the artist] as a member of a secret society who falls headlong into a supernatural adventure that pits him against biblical demons in a story involving secret codes, lost civilizations, hidden fortresses and fallen angels." Dude. I'd watch that. As long as it's nothing like The Da Vinci Code.
- LEGO mosaic Totoro!!
- Cool posters for Aliens vs. Predator 2 and Tron Legacy.
- Fun LEGO version of a scene from Up.
- Dude, sweet! Hugo Weaving is going to be the Red Skull! This makes me feel loads better about the casting of Captain America.
- They're going to release an extended version of Avatar to theaters in late summer. Oh, come on! Just stop. You already made all the money in the world!
- Check out "The Video Game Bosses' Lament." It's funny, and nostalgic! I played a lot of those games.
- The producer of Metroid: Other M reveals which filmmakers inspired the game's style.
- Cool art involving castles, knights, and dragons.
- Man, I hate regular expressions. They're useful and powerful, but they're so confusing that I rarely take the time to try to figure out how to put one together that can help me. So this online tool for building them could really come in handy. (Via)
- Criminal Empire for Dummys sounds like it could be a fun crime drama. The cast includes Michael Clarke Duncan, Harvey Keitel, and Gary Oldman.
- So, they're making a live-action Smurfs movie starring Neil Patrick Harris as... somebody, Jonathan Winters as Papa Smurf, Katy Perry as Smurfette, and now Quentin Tarantino as Brainy Smurf. Umm... what? This is real? This is not a joke?
- UPDATE: They're gonna make a Dan Dare movie! And they want Sam Worthington to play Dare! Nice!
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Tagged (?): Aliens (Not), Art (Not), Captain America (Not), Cartoons (Not), Celebrities (Not), Craft (Not), Hayao Miyazaki (Not), History (Not), LEGO (Not), Links (Not), Metroid (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Pixar (Not), Predator (Not), Quentin Tarantino (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Robin Hood (Not), Toys (Not), Tron (Not), Tron Legacy (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not) |
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Tuesday, December 15, 2009 09:49 AM |
(Last updated on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 10:19 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.
- Videos keep going up and down this morning! But for now, at least, please enjoy the trailer for Robin Hood above (via). This is the upcoming film from Ridley Scott, starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett. It looks pretty awesome. Check out some stills from the movie here. Damn, Blanchett looks good.
- A lot of stories are coming out about how Avatar ripped off this and Avatar ripped off that. I don't really care that much about any of them. I mean, what didn't rip off something? But I do enjoy this gallery of art by Roger Dean, even if it is presented in the same context.
- Cool sculptures, including one of Santa Cthulhu and Mrs. Cthulhu, and one of Odin's ravens.
- IMPORTANT INFORMATION: scientific determination of how long Luke would likely be able to survive the freezing temperatures of Hoth while stuffed into the guts of a dead Tauntaun. (Via)
- Custom-made portable Dreamcast.
- Photographic evidence of a previously unknown ancient civilization being unearthed in the area of the Amazon. (Via)
- Still loving these LEGO CubeDudes.
- Google and Facebook are jumping into the URL-shortening biz.
- A list of all the Golden Globe nominees. I've only seen one of the Best Motion Picture nominees (The Hurt Locker), although that one was very good. Here's my review.
- There was a bit of an uproar a while back when the title of Kevin Smith's upcoming cop movie changed from the rather amusing A Couple of Dicks to the bland and lame A Couple of Cops. Seemingly in response to the uproar, the title was quickly changed back. Now it looks like they're changing it again - to Cop Out. It seems an unfortunately appropriate change this time.
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Tagged (?): Art (Not), Awards (Not), Facebook (Not), Google (Not), Hacking (Not), History (Not), Internet (Not), Kevin Smith (Not), LEGO (Not), Links (Not), Lovecraft (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Robin Hood (Not), Science (Not), Star Wars (Not), Technology (Not), Toys (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not) |
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Thursday, October 1, 2009 12:12 AM |
The Take |
by Fëanor |
Fëanor's (semi-)weekly comic book review post.
This post covers new releases from the week of 9/9, plus a back-issue I missed. Beware spoilers!
Back-issues and old data
The Unwritten #4
Things start off with some really brutal, violent, and twisted Tommy Taylor fan fiction, which just sets the scene for the brutal, violent, and twisted stuff that's about to occur in the main story. Tom uses the knob he found last issue to open the door into his father's secret room and, even though he's warned by Mathilde Venner that entering the room will set terrible things into motion, he does so. Inside, he finds a map of fictional locations, which is bound to be important and powerful. Oddly, inside the room there is no storm outside, and the coffee mug on the desk is still hot. Did Tom somehow go back in time when he walked into the room? Meanwhile, nearly everyone else in the house is horribly murdered! When the killer chucks Venner's head at Tom, it dissolves into a puddle of letters. Is she a fictional character somehow brought to life? If so, was it chopping her head off that turned her back into letters - or was it Tom touching her? Does he have some kind of power? And now Tom has been framed for murder, but Tommy's flying cat familiar has also appeared out of nowhere, perhaps to help him?
Crazy stuff! I'm loving the way this story is shifting and evolving in unexpected ways, while its mysteries remain mysterious.
Thumbs Up
New releases
Adventure Comics #2
Meh. This series has hit a serious sophomore slump. We open with a couple of soldiers trading exposition with each other. Then there's a reasonably impressive two-page spread of Brainiac tearing their ship apart, and an interesting tease of some kind of Kryptonian-killing project Luthor was working on. Then we go back to checking out Superboy's lists of things Superman and Luthor do. These had gotten really creepy and interesting at the end of last issue, but they immediately become silly again here. The romantic scene between Superboy and Wondergirl is a bit hard to take, although I like the way Krypto tries to set the mood by lighting the candle with his laser vision. I also enjoy the look on Luthor's face when he learns that Superboy has returned. The backup feature has lots of Lightning Lad storming around shouting at people, which is less than fun. I'm curious as to what the story is with his buddy Lightning Lord and his missing twin, but not really all that curious. I think I might drop this book.
Thumbs Sideways
B.P.R.D.: 1947 #3
The "To Be Continued" at the end of this book means there must be more issues in this miniseries, but this sure feels like the last one to me! The issue opens up with a bunch of our heroes getting slaughtered in horrible ways. Interestingly enough, our villain is also dispatched, as his fellow vamps don't take kindly to what he's been doing back on Earth. I'm not clear on exactly what happens to Simon, or the only guy who actually escapes the castle ruins. The latter guy calls in what happened, but then Bruttenholm says, "They're all dead." So, was Simon killed by the witches? And the guy who made the phone call - did he die, too? If so, how? He seemed safe. Did he kill himself? Or did the innkeeper kill him, thinking he was now a vampire? I don't know. Maybe the next issue will clear things up a bit, but I'm a little disappointed that this one was so confusing; I don't think it was meant to be.
Thumbs Up
Dark Reign: The List - Avengers #1
This is one of a series of one-shots focusing on Norman Osborn's sinister to-do list, which is really pretty much just a hit list of the heroes he wants out of the way. One of the guys on his list presents himself on a silver platter in this issue: Clint Barton. Barton finally loses it and heads across town to kill Osborn personally. As you might expect, it does not go well. One of my favorite scenes comes before all that happens, though, near the start of the issue. Barton asks, "If you could go back in time and kill Hitler, would you?" Cap responds, "I did." Miss Marvel: "You did what?" Cap: "I, uh, killed Hitler." Awesome.
Anyway, Barton gets surprisingly far on his assassination attempt. I like the way he uses to his advantage the fact that the Dark Avengers is just a loose alliance of people who hate and distrust each other. When he throws Venom out the window, everyone's first assumption is not that they've been invaded, but that Venom has tried to escape. Barton then pretty easily works his way through most of the rest of the team - but there's not much a human being can do against a God.
Good issue! Fun, exciting, with an interesting ending. And I have to admit, the preview for Dark Reign: The List - Daredevil is pretty intriguing, too, even though I'm not really a fan of author Andy Diggle, or where Daredevil is at right now. I mean, leader of the Hand? Really?
Thumbs Up
Dark Reign: Young Avengers #4
The real Young Avengers put together a pretty clever trick to protect Hawkeye's secret identity. Melter has a horrific flashback that reveals why he's so twisted up inside, and quickly thereafter we learn the true origin of the Enchantress. There's a sudden but inevitable betrayal from Melter. And Danny, having learned the shocking truth about his mother, responds with shocking violence and finality. At the end we've got three different teams of Avengers in one room together! (Too bad Cornell couldn't work out a way to have the two or three or four other teams of Avengers show up, too, just to get the whole gang together.) Should make for a nice big showdown next issue. Fun series! Lots of surprising twists and turns, creative ideas, and dark humor.
Thumbs Up
Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #6
This is a HUGE issue of Hellboy, revealing important new secrets about his origin and heritage. Not only is he a king of demons, and a king of witches, he's also the rightful king of Britain!! In the end, he's given a terrible choice: he can take on the heavy mantle of his birthright, pull forth the sword, call up an army, and lead it to bloody war - or not. If he refuses, the world may be swept away by Nimue and her monsters. If he accepts, he could lose his humanity and himself in the tide of violence. It's really powerful and epic stuff. It's very impressive to me that after all these years, Mignola can still tell fresh, original, exciting stories about this character, and that he can still be revealing secrets about this character that are interesting, that make sense, and that fit in believably with what we already know about him.
In the back of the book is the conclusion to the MonsterMen story that started last issue. It's pretty neat, too; crazy, funny dialog, creative imagery, fascinating story.
Thumbs Up
The Marvels Project #2
I feel like I'm supposed to know who John Steele is - the guy the Nazis have in the tube. But whatever. I love that Fury and Red are the guys who help Erskine defect, by flamboyantly assassinating a bunch of Nazis. It's interesting getting a look at some of the other really early, lesser known Marvel Mystery Men, too. I'd never even heard of Fiery Mask, Phantom Bullet, or Mister E. But I guess that's because those guys were quickly created and quickly discarded. Brubaker explains Phantom Bullet's disappearance from the Marvel Universe by killing him and throwing him in the garbage. Harsh! But it's cool the connection that Bullet has to The Human Torch and The Angel. And it's good to see The Human Torch pulling himself together, learning that he can be one of the good guys, and coming back to the world. I really like the way this series is coming together.
Thumbs Up
Models Inc. #1
I was rather looking forward to this miniseries for some reason, but I didn't end up being all that impressed by the first issue. The cover and letter from the editor are done up like a fashion magazine, and with good reason, as the main story inside features the return of Marvel's various supermodel characters. They're all palling around together, dealing with pushy photographers, difficult relationships, and petty criminals. At the end, one of them is pulled right into the middle of a murder mystery. It's a cute idea for a story, but Paul Tobin's dialog feels forced and fake, and I just don't care that much about the characters. I actually much prefer the backup one-shot, "Loaded Gunn," which features fashion guru Tim Gunn presiding over the grand opening of the Janet Van Dyne memorial wing of the New York Fashion Museum. AIM shows up to steal some of the superhero costumes and gadgets included in the exhibit, but Gunn isn't going to stand for that and jumps into an old Iron Man suit to take them out. It's an amusing idea and Marc Sumerak's dialog is pretty funny, although occasionally a bit cheesy.
Thumbs Sideways
Muppet Robin Hood #4
It's a very meta, postmodern, Monty Python-esque ending for this miniseries, as the characters chase after, and ultimately find, the book's narrator, who gives them the address of the writer. They then presumably track him down as well, and the original writer is briefly replaced by someone who, in a hilarious interlude, makes the Swedish Chef into the hero who saves Robin. Then the original writer returns to bring us the story's happy ending, which features Statler and Waldorf as a pair of bad-ass immortal knights. It's not the greatest comic ever, but it's amusing and fun.
Thumbs Up
Ultimate Comics: Avengers #2
Of course one of our number one questions after last issue is, how the heck does Cap have a son he didn't know about? Where did he come from? This issue answers that question almost immediately, with a flashback that reveals a naughty night Cap shared with a redhead named Gail, the same redhead who'd later end up married to Bucky. There's a quick, subtle scene of Gail and Bucky together in the present that I really enjoyed; it doesn't tell you anything about them, but it shows a lot. Shortly after Cap was lost, it's discovered that Gail's pregnant, and the government takes the baby away from her and raises him in what's essentially a prison, where they train and test his abilities. Early in the book, there's an exciting scene where Cap escapes from his handlers, but the flashback scene where his son escapes from his handlers is far more brutal, twisted, and epic. That he could have been quietly planning this all along, with a smile on his face! And the origin of his red skull? He cut his own face off with a knife!! Wow. Anyway, now Fury has to put a team together to go get Cap. Danvers: "I'll give you Hawkeye, but the rest of my Ultimates stay a million miles from your black ops crap." Fury: "Fine by me. Hawkeye's the only cool one, anyway." Heh. He's right about that, too. Looks like they're also pulling in Tony Stark's smarter, nastier, more successful older brother, a character I hate the very concept of, but maybe he'll turn out to be okay. The series is definitely fantastic so far!
Thumbs Up
The Unwritten #5
Speaking of fantastic, this comic book right here is absolutely amazing. It leaves Tom Taylor completely behind to instead takes as its narrator and main character the famous, real-world author Rudyard Kipling. It turns out Kipling, and pretty much every other major author throughout history, had dealings with the group that Tom Taylor is currently facing off against. It's a group of people who are trying to influence and control the world by influencing and controlling the fiction that's written in it. Kipling falls under the group's power without even realizing it. When he defies them, they hurt him terribly, so he finds a strange and beautiful way of fighting back. By the time he's realized how much power he really has, it's too late, but he manages to record his secrets in a book, which, years later, is found by a Mr. Taylor...
Mike Carey writes this story with true power and artistry, and artist Peter Gross matches Carey's words with astonishing and blazingly imaginative imagery. This book reveals the secret history of fiction. It's an extremely moving and intelligent comic, and one of the best I've read in a while.
Thumbs Up
Wednesday Comics #10
Batman - Time for the final confrontation between Bats and Mrs. Slut! She's got dogs, but we all know Batman is an expert at dog fighting. Fling! Fun art.
Kamandi - Triumph for our heroes! More great art.
Superman - Supes engages in psychic warfare with the aliens by shooting all his memories into the mind of one of them at once. As he helpfully and rather clumsily explains, this takes out all of them simultaneously because they're a hive mind - which is both their strength and their weakness. The dialog is kind of weak, but the fight is mighty entertaining.
Deadman - Some bad-ass gymnastics from our hero lead to what looks like a final victory, but obviously there must be more to wrap up, as we still have two issues of this left. Anyway, exciting action!
Green Lantern - Another great episode of this, as Hal soars up to face off against an entire alien armada. I love the way he uses that great line he learned from his friend Dill to explain to them how tough he is and how much trouble they're in. Good stuff.
Metamorpho - A guy turns out to be an alien who's made of exposition! Yeah, dude shows up and explains what's really going on and how terrible it's really going to be when Algon touches the Star of Atlantis, and it looks like that's just about to happen at the end of the strip. It's maybe a bit clumsily told, but the story's kind of interesting, and there's some fun comedy from Java again.
Teen Titans - Finally everything is about to be explained. It would almost be intriguing if it weren't so poorly written.
Strange Adventures - Strange gives Korgo exactly what he wanted - except it's not really what he wanted after all. Fantastic, and with beautiful art and colors, as usual.
Supergirl - Supergirl hopes to stop the aliens peacefully, but it doesn't look to be going well. This one's getting exciting - looks like there's about to be a fight, finally!
Metal Men - Wow. This strip actually managed to move me this week. Well done, chief!
Wonder Woman - Hey, confusing and cluttered art, story, and panel layout again! What a surprise! Although the part where they raise the ancient god-monster is kind of cool.
Sgt. Rock and Easy Co. - I think this is probably one of the best issues of Wednesday Comics so far - almost all the strips are better than usual, and this strip is no exception. The annoying back-and-forth struggle between Rock and the Nazi commander isn't that fun, but the final three panels are well drawn and very effective.
The Flash - I'm not entirely sure I know what's going on in this strip anymore, but I don't care, because it's crazy and cool. The Flash finds himself in some crazy alternate future reality that's a world of apes ruled over by Grodd. In an eerie and fascinating twist, one of the apes suddenly reveals herself to be Iris, and it looks like Barry's about to lose his wife just as he heard he would when he visited the future. But I have a feeling he'll save her somehow.
The Demon and Catwoman - Cool magic fighting! With swords and bees and necklaces! I'm liking it. Although the way Catwoman keeps getting possessed and unpossessed is becoming a bit tiring.
Hawkman - It's all Hawkman fighting a T. Rex this week, and you know that's good comics, especially when he starts taunting the thing about how it can't touch its own nose.
Thumbs Up |
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Tagged (?): Avengers (Not), B.P.R.D. (Not), Brian Michael Bendis (Not), Comic books (Not), Dark Reign (Not), Ed Brubaker (Not), Geoff Johns (Not), Hellboy (Not), Mike Mignola (Not), Muppets (Not), Paul Cornell (Not), Robin Hood (Not), The Take (Not), Ultimate Comics (Not), Wednesday Comics (Not) |
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