Monthly Archives: June 2007

The new Fantastic Four movie

June 24, 2007 – 11:43 PM
Jalen and I went and saw “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” today. A couple thoughts… For one, it wasn’t as awful as I had been made out to believe. The Silver Surfer, as portrayed through his spoken dialogue, came off as fairly accurate to the spirit of the original comic book character. This was a pleasant surprise. Secondly, people should not expect the FF movies to take themselves too seriously. Obviously this franchise is going to be a little tongue-in-cheek, and given that our expectations were set along this trajectory in the first movie, complaining about the goofy moments in movie reviews is neither illuminating or relevant. Thirdly, I’m sorry, I don’t get the hype about Jessica Alba. She looks terrible as a blonde, and she’s on the generic side of exotic brunette IRL. Big deal. Finally, I’m really disappointed that they failed to show Galactus. He’s one of the coolest-looking characters in the Marvel Universe, and yet in this movie, he’s portrayed, more or less, as a menacing cloud/tornado thing. Weak. I realize the screenwriters would have felt the need to develop the characterization a bit more if they actually showed him in his giant humanoid form, but I have to say, a real bummer. Jalen thought it was TOTALLY AWESOME. Then again, he LOVED the Ghost Rider movie too. Talk about a screenplay that makes absolutely no sense.... Read More »
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RIP Steve Gilliard

June 2, 2007 – 10:13 PM
Steve Gilliard passed away this morning. He was all of 41. It was about a year ago that I subscribed to Gilliard’s blog. I was drawn to his writing the same way I was drawn to folks like Digby — he was fiercely honest, amazingly brave and wasn’t afraid to toss in a “motherfucker” into his writing where appropriate. He pegged this administration for the craven cowards that they are long before it was fashionable, and seemed to be a person of great integrity. At the very least, he was a writer who could distill things down into their base elements and present them for what they were without a bunch of extraneous bullshit. I had been following Jen’s posts for the last few months after Steve collapsed and was put into the hospital, and when Jen announced a couple weeks ago that Steve’s family has asked her to not post any more updates, I felt a sinking feeling in my gut that his condition had taken a turn for the worst. Steve was one of my favorite writers in the blogosphere, and I had been looking forward to his return. I am stunned and greatly saddened to read of his death. He will definitely be missed.... Read More »
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