|
| Wednesday, June 30, 2010 07:36 PM |
| (Last updated on Thursday, July 1, 2010 11:07 AM) | | On the Viewer - The Last Airbender |
 by Fëanor |
Anybody who's a regular reader of this blog knows I'm a huge fan of the Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. It's technically a kids' cartoon, but it's that rare and excellent kind of children's entertainment that could easily be recategorized as simply entertainment. It's not patronizing or idiotic - instead it's smart, funny, creative, thoughtful, thrilling, subtle, and moving. (You can check out my many Avatar-related posts here; the reviews of the episodes begin part of the way down this page.) In contrast, the film version is the worst kind of kid's entertainment - the kind of movie only an undiscriminating child could possibly enjoy.
In case you don't know anything about the show, and don't feel like clicking back through all my reviews, here's the premise: it's a fantasy action/adventure set in a world divided into four lands, each based on one of the four classical elements: air, water, earth, and fire. Select people in each of these lands have the ability to control - or bend - their land's element. Only one person, known as the Avatar, can bend all four elements at once. The Avatar is reincarnated every generation. He's meant to protect and unite all the people of the four lands. But the latest reincarnation of the Avatar - a young Air Nomad named Aang - disappeared without a trace 100 years ago, and since then the Fire Nation, led by the cruel Fire Lord, has made war on all the other lands and is threatening to take over the world.
One day, a young brother and sister living in the snowy wilderness of the Southern Water Tribe discover Aang trapped in the ice, along with his faithful flying bison, Appa. To everyone's surprise, the Avatar is still a little boy who ran away before he could learn to bend any other element but air. The brother and sister - Sokka and Katara - join with him to help him fight the Fire Nation, and to learn how to bend the other elements. Meanwhile, they're all being followed by the banished son of the Fire Lord, Prince Zuko, who's certain he can regain his honor if he can return home with the Avatar as his prisoner.
The original animated series was split into three seasons, or "Books," each one dealing with the Avatar's attempts to learn one of the other elements. This live-action film, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, is an adaptation of just the first Book: Water. The problem is, a lot happened in that first season, and although Shyamalan left much of it out, he still has to cut a lot of corners in order to fit what's left into just one 103-minute movie. Various rather important sequences are collapsed into short, extremely unsubtle dialog exchanges, or summarized awkwardly in chunks of narration or quick montages. The pacing and editing in general are poor. There's really no time to develop any of the many characters or their relationships. In the series, Aang's furry friends, Appa and Momo, are more than just cute animals - they're really fun characters, and Aang has a particularly deep and powerful bond with Appa, but here we barely get to know Appa at all, and Aang doesn't appear to be interested in him except as a mode of transport. Mysteries that were slowly built up and finally solved in the series are quickly dispensed with, as if the film doesn't even have confidence in its own ability to hide things from the audience. We barely have time to register the masked Blue Spirit as a character before his identity is revealed. In one scene, a character seems to die, but only a few scenes later, the camera swings over and casually reveals him still alive, with no fanfare whatsoever. It's like the film is telling us, "Oh, yeah, that guy's still alive. But you knew that already, right?"
The film is faithful in a general sort of way to the series, but it drops Aang's conversations with his previous reincarnations in favor of visits to a random dragon spirit, ignores the difficulties Aang had with his Avatar State, and changes completely the climactic ending of the battle at the Northern Water Tribe, surprisingly making it less violent than the cartoon. Aang merely scares away the Fire Nation soldiers with the threat of a giant wave, instead of rampaging among the ships in the form of a giant water demon. I rather like the way the film equates Aang learning waterbending with Aang learning to deal with his guilt and anger over the loss of his loved ones, and with the responsibilities of being the Avatar - although the metaphor would have been more interesting if they hadn't had the dragon spirit explain it to Aang in great detail. When Aang bows to everyone at the end, and he looks at the camera with a face full of mixed emotions as the music rises, it's actually reasonably effective.
But in general, the writing completely lacks the subtlety, cleverness, and humor of the original series. It's clumsy and dull, producing cringes and unintentional laughter. It doesn't help that the actors reading this awful dialog are almost universally terrible, with performances that range from overwrought to wooden. Of course, most of those actors are children, and talented child actors are rare. But the casting of this film was highly controversial, with many characters who had dark skin in the cartoon being played by Caucasian actors in the film. Shyamalan's defense was that he had chosen the right actors for the parts - the most talented, with the most natural chemistry with each other. If that's true, I'd hate to see the actors he rejected. Only Shaun Toub as Zuko's Uncle Iroh manages to remain dignified. Aasif Mandvi is over-the-top as Commander Zhao, but he does have one wonderfully brutal scene in which he publicly humiliates Zuko - one of only a handful of effective scenes in the entire film.
The Last Airbender is one of many films lately that was filmed in 2D and then converted to 3D after the fact. Unfortunately, it's very obvious that the 3D was added as an afterthought. Most of the time the effect is barely noticeable. The only reason to see the film in 3D is if you like wearing funny plastic glasses.
The action sequences are probably the best things about the movie, but even they aren't particularly interesting. It's confusing to me that a film made by M. Night Shyamalan could be so shoddily put together. Admittedly, the quality of Shyamalan's work went sharply downhill right after his first two films. But it was always clear to me, even when watching his worst movies, that he had great talent. There were always glimmers of brilliance. That's why I keep going back to the theater to see his next film - I'm waiting for another masterpiece, the one I keep thinking he still has in him. But I'm not so sure he does anymore. Anyway, The Last Airbender is certainly not it.
This movie was really an odd fit for him in the first place. All of his other films have been personal, original works - tense thrillers with twist endings. And yet here's a giant fantasy action epic based on a children's animated series. I'm not sure what possessed him to take on the project, and I'm not sure he should try something like it again.
In the series, there's a particularly brilliant and funny episode where our heroes go to see a play reenacting their own adventures. The play is terribly acted, with bad makeup, costumes, and dialog. It simplifies everything that happened to the people in it, and twists their story to its own ends. The effects are about the only impressive thing about it. This film reminds me a lot of that play. |
|
|
|
| Monday, June 21, 2010 11:30 AM |
| (Last updated on Monday, June 21, 2010 12:03 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.
- You can own your own TARDIS! (Note: TARDIS does not work.)
- Star Wars characters wearing modern fashions.
- In honor of Father's Day, io9 picked the best and worst fathers in sci-fi. What, Captain Kirk a bad father?! Oh... wait, yeah. I guess I have to give them Walter Bishop, too, but come on! He's trying so hard now!
- Here's video of a guy playing the music AND sound effects for classic video games live on the violin.
- Here's a website that lists movies by how many people (and animals) died in them. (Via)
- 22 ordinary things that look like the Starship Enterprise. Some of these are cheating in my opinion, but still.
- Photos from the set of The Hobbit. Yay!!
- Another cool trailer for Metroid: Other M.
- John Carpenter's The Thing in seven minutes. This was handy, as I haven't seen that movie in a long time. Maybe it's time to rewatch it, in its entirety... (Via)
- Photos from the official opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
- This time around, I'm totally obsessed with World Cup. It seems like every sport I turn my attention on now I fall in love with. Anyway, I definitely prefer watching World Cup to watching the Phillies at the moment, because gah! I particularly love the dry wit of the commentators, and the way they do not mince words at all, but brutally rip into everybody on the field: the teams, the officials. It's great. Here's a spiffy calendar for following the standings (via). You can also follow the matches in real-time on Fifa.com.
- We could have electronic eyeglasses by the end of this year: "Liquid crystals can change their refractive index when an electrical charge is put through them, so wearers can switch between distance and reading in the time it takes to blink.... Putting in the kind of motion sensors that are used in the iPhone also allows the glasses to sense when someone is reading a book or a newspaper and so change the focal distance of the lenses automatically."
- Pixar/Star Wars mashup art. (Via)
UPDATE:
|
|
|
|
|
| Tagged (?): Art (Not), Avatar (Not), Cartoons (Not), Doctor Who (Not), Fringe (Not), Gadgets (Not), Harry Potter (Not), Holiday (Not), Links (Not), Lists (Not), Mario (Not), Metroid (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Pixar (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Soccer (Not), Sports (Not), Star Trek (Not), Star Wars (Not), Technology (Not), Tolkien (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not), World Cup (Not) |
|
|
| Monday, June 7, 2010 09:58 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.
- Great new Star Wars-flavored Adidas ad above. I want more videos of Snoop Dogg wasting dudes with a lightsaber.
- The Scott Pilgrim movie continues to look awesome. Check out this clip.
- This is supposedly the first poster for Captain America: The First Avenger (via). This poster for Green Lantern is more definitively official.
- Marvel's got a miniseries coming called The Death of Dracula. Here are some preview pages. Supposedly Dracula's death is going to have huge consequences for the Marvel Universe as a whole. I'm vaguely curious, but I'm not familiar with the writer or the artist, and these preview pages aren't all that exciting. Plus, didn't Paul Cornell already kill Dracula in Captain Britain and MI13? Or am I remembering that wrong? (Via)
- Check out a brand new trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Pretty exciting!
- How to turn your van into Appa.
- In a recent interview, Christopher Nolan said there will be no Joker, Mr. Freeze, or Penguin in Batman 3. He also says it will be the end of a story. And he seems set on his (rather disappointing) idea of keeping Batman and Superman separate.
- Some dude remade Zelda II as a 3D FPS you can play in your browser. I always thought this game was the least interesting and most frustratingly difficult of the Zelda games, and Joystiq says this new version is even more difficult than the original, so I think I'll skip it. Still, cool idea.
- FYI, that "sinkhole" in Guatemala is actually a "piping feature," which is apparently something even more dangerous. (Via)
- Oh my.
- A readaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is on the way, this time directed by Let The Right One In director Tomas Alfredson and starring Garry Oldman as George Smiley. Neat!
- Woah, Julie Taymor's doing The Tempest with a cast that includes Helen Mirren, Alfred Molina, Djimon Hounsou, Russel Brand, Alan Cumming, Chris Cooper, David Strathairn, Ben Whishaw, and Felicity Jones. Sign me up!
- Guillermo del Toro may have left The Hobbit to direct The Great and Powerful Oz.
|
|
|
|
|
| Tagged (?): Art (Not), Avatar (Not), Batman (Not), Books (Not), Captain America (Not), Celebrities (Not), Comic books (Not), Craft (Not), Green Lantern (Not), Harry Potter (Not), Links (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Oz (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Shakespeare (Not), Star Wars (Not), Superman (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not), Zelda (Not) |
|
|
| Friday, June 4, 2010 09:53 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.
|
|
|
|
|
| Tagged (?): 3D (Not), Art (Not), Avatar (Not), Avengers (Not), Books (Not), Captain America (Not), Celebrities (Not), Comedy (Not), Iron Man (Not), Links (Not), Lists (Not), Monsters (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Simpsons (Not), Star Wars (Not), Thor (Not), Transformers (Not), Video (Not), Web comics (Not) |
|
|
| Friday, May 7, 2010 10:26 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 bootleg video of the trailer for that mystery project J.J. Abrams is working on with Steven Spielberg. Watch quick before the video is taken down! The trailer is apparently screening in front of Iron Man 2, and the movie is called Super 8. Looks like it has to do with some kind of dangerous creature escaping from Area 51. Which frankly bores me. I'm tired of Area 51 as a subject; it's so overused. Still, the trailer's kind of cool. We'll see.
- Is this the face of the new Godzilla???
- At the very end of this interview (the rest of which is interesting, too, btw), director Rian Johnson reveals some details about his next film, Looper.
- The X-Men: First Class screenwriters talk about the movie.
- The first image from the new Futurama series. It doesn't look good for our heroes! But then, it rarely does.
- Buttersafe is a web comic that hasn't been very good lately, but yesterday's entry entertained me.
- Amusing Star Wars-themed birth announcement video. The metaphors don't hold up all that well, but that's okay - it's still funny.
- They really are going to make a Planet of the Apes prequel film. Here's the synopsis: "Rise of the Apes is an origins story set in present-day San Francisco. The film is a reality-based cautionary tale, where man's own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy. WETA will render, for the first time ever in the film series, photo-realistic apes rather than costumed actors." I don't know about the CG apes, but if anybody can do it, WETA can.
- Impressive fan-made Street Fighter short film.
- Dude beat the original Super Mario Bros. using a DDR pad. That's insane.
- Some cool, comic book-related art by Paul Maybury. (Via)
- Check out this great fan-made Monarch henchman hoodie.
- Pretty cool new posters for The Last Airbender.
|
|
|
|
|
| Tagged (?): Art (Not), Avatar (Not), Cartoons (Not), Celebrities (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Craft (Not), Godzilla (Not), Kaiju (Not), Links (Not), Mario (Not), Monsters (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Star Wars (Not), Street Fighter (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not), Web comics (Not), X-Men (Not) |
|
|
| Wednesday, April 28, 2010 07:53 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.
- The early reviews for Iron Man 2 are disappointingly mixed, and are even leaning towards poor. I am sad.
- Gorillaz and Alan Moore are collaborating on an opera about the 16th century alchemist John Dee. It's not often that I get to put that much awesome into one sentence. I'm going to sit back and enjoy it for a moment. Aaahhh...
- Ridley Scott says his Monopoly movie will be about greed - specifically, it will be "a comedy that will look at the 'bloodbath' and 'bad behavior' in the real estate market that led to the current economic crisis."
- A sequel to Clash of the Titans is in the offing, with Louis Leterrier moving from director to producer, Sam Worthington keeping his starring role, and an as yet unnamed person taking over writing duties.
- Jon Favreau talks about Cowboys and Aliens and makes it sound pretty fun.
- A Predators video clip focusing on Danny Trejo's character, Cuchillo.
- If you ever enjoyed any classic 8-bit Nintendo games, you must play Super Mario Crossover. This is a slick, brilliant game that allows you to play the original Super Mario Bros. as any of a rather large group of classic video game characters, including Link, Samus Aran, Simon Belmont, Mega Man, or the dude from Contra. It's amazing how well the designer has integrated these characters and their abilities into this new setting, and how much it changes the game. (Via)
- I have no choice but to enjoy this Threadless design entitled "There and Back Again," which envisions Tolkien's Middle Earth as a London Underground route map. I only wish I could get a larger version of the graphic so I could take a closer look at it. (Via)
- The new trailer for The Last Airbender is pretty cool. Lots of impressive effects and action, and you get a better look at Appa. I'm still worried about the writing and the actors, though. There isn't a lot of dialog in here, but none of it is all that impressive, or delivered all that well. Still, I remain optimistic.
- Man, now I'm even more excited for the noir episode of Fringe. Over at this link you'll find a fantastic, black and white, old school-style trailer for the episode, plus a more traditional preview.
- A city made entirely of staples.
- The Grand Ole Bestiary includes a lot of very well-dressed, respectable-looking animals.
- Super Punch describes Laurie Lipton's drawings as dense and grim, and I have to agree. They're also very impressive work.
- An amusing Doctor Who poster. (Via)
- Illustrator Jim Tierney has some great work on display in this post, including a four-part piece inspired by The Hobbit which I am almost obligated to love. (Via)
- Great comic book-inspired art from Mike Huddleston.
- Are you a Facebook user who's sick to death of FarmVille? Then you might enjoy Barnville, a game which allows you to take violent revenge on a whole host of farm animals. (Via)
- Columbia is running out of time to make Ghost Rider 2. They'll lose the rights to the character if they don't start production soon. Even if they do manage to do it, they may not be able to get Nicolas Cage back, as he's busy with other things. Woo hoo!
|
|
|
|
|
| Tagged (?): Advertising (Not), Alan Moore (Not), Aliens (Not), Animals (Not), Art (Not), Avatar (Not), Celebrities (Not), Clothing (Not), Comic books (Not), Craft (Not), Doctor Who (Not), Facebook (Not), Fringe (Not), Ghost Rider (Not), Iron Man (Not), Links (Not), Mario (Not), Metroid (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), News (Not), Predator (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Shirts (Not), Tolkien (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not) |
|
|
| Friday, April 23, 2010 12:57 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.
- A sequel to Monsters Inc. is scheduled to be released on November 16th, 2012. Good stuff! (Via)
- Dark Night Of The Soul, the musical collaboration between David Lynch, Danger Mouse, and some dude who calls himself Sparklehorse, now has a release date: July 13th. (Via)
- Fun new clips from Iron Man 2.
- The Venture Bros' awesome ode to progressive rock. YES!
- If Daniel Craig doesn't come back for the next James Bond movie (whenever that is), Sam Worthington might take his place. Man, that guy gets all the jobs anymore!
- Word has it Marvel might make a series of smaller budget films to cover some of its lesser known properties, like Dr. Strange and Luke Cage. While I'd definitely like to see a Dr. Strange movie, I'm not sure I like the idea of them throwing together a cheap film adaptation just to have one. But we'll see how this goes.
- Ridley Scott revealed some plot details for the upcoming Alien prequel in an interview with MTV. It'll be set 30 years before the first movie and focus on the story of the "space jockey" who appeared in the derelict spacecraft.
- Check out this beard trustworthiness scale. Depending on whether you interpret my beard as a "Full Beard" or a "Homeless Beard," I'm either "Very Trustworthy" or verging on "Threatening." (Via)
- A couple of cool gamer-related images.
- Fun with LEGO.
- Looks like The Last Airbender and Green Hornet are both getting converted to 3D now, too. I was all for 3D at first, but this is really getting a little ridiculous.
- Okay, now that's just kind of twisted.
|
|
|
|
|
| Tagged (?): 3D (Not), Aliens (Not), Art (Not), Avatar (Not), Cartoons (Not), Celebrities (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Craft (Not), Gaming (Not), Iron Man (Not), James Bond (Not), LEGO (Not), Links (Not), Monsters (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), News (Not), Pixar (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Star Wars (Not), Toys (Not), Video (Not) |
|
|
| Wednesday, March 31, 2010 09:56 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.
- io9 interviews M. Night Shyamalan about The Last Airbender. He admits balancing the humor with the edginess was hard. He says his kids forced him to put Momo in the movie, but that he also had no choice but to cut a lot of other things, including the cabbage salesman (sadness!). He's determined to do three movies. It sounds like in one of those later films he might actually reveal what happens to Zuko's mom, which was one of the few loose ends left untied in the series. He also talks about Miyazaki being a huge influence, which is encouraging. I remain cautiously optimistic about these movies.
- Christopher Walken as M.O.D.O.K.
- A milk jug that knows when the milk has gone bad.
- Stephen Dorff has joined the cast of War of the Gods as Stavros, "a master thief who joins Theseus on his quest to help free Greece from the dark threat of the Titans."
- You've gotta love the fake company websites they make for big movies these days. Check out the site for Stark Expo 2010 (for Iron Man 2, via), and the site for Encom International (for Tron Legacy).
- The first trailer for Metroid: Other M focused on the story and the melodrama, and it sucked; this new trailer focuses on the action and the gameplay and it's much, much better. In fact, this game looks awesome.
- I love this Disney/Magritte mashup T-shirt.
- Lots of impressive work from the Society of Illustrators 2010 Student Scholarship competition.
- A fan made a brilliant, thrilling, action-packed trailer for the original Tron.
- Speaking of fan-made trailers, here's one for an imaginary Battlestar Galactica spin-off called The Twelve Colonies, set during the first big war with the Cylons.
- I hate umbrellas, but even I might go out of my way to purchase one if it had a broadsword handle.
- Sony BMG took down Beyonce's official YouTube channel for copyright infringement. Hahahahahaha!
|
|
|
|
|
| Tagged (?): Art (Not), Avatar (Not), Battlestar Galactica (Not), Celebrities (Not), Clothing (Not), Comic books (Not), Craft (Not), Disney (Not), Drink (Not), Gadgets (Not), Hayao Miyazaki (Not), Links (Not), Metroid (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), News (Not), Products (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Shirts (Not), Technology (Not), Tron (Not), Tron Legacy (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not) |
|
|
| Tuesday, March 30, 2010 11:01 AM |
| (Last updated on Tuesday, March 30, 2010 01:31 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.
- Dude, this Star Wars-ified version of Jay-Z and and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind" is amazing. (Via)
- The Gorillaz have released a digital bundle of their song "Superfast Jellyfish" which includes a computer game called Escape To Plastic Beach. More at the band's website. (Via)
- I'm not entirely clear on what it is, but apparently the folks at the LHC have done something new and exciting. (Via)
- io9 has some pretty amusing guesses as to what might be in an ancient and mysterious 1,000-pound lead coffin that archaeologists unearthed on the outskirts of Rome.
- More details on that anthology of Firefly stories that's on the way.
- Another American Godzilla movie is set to be released in 2012. Hopefully it will have nothing to do with the horrifically awful 1998 Roland Emmerich version.
- Some enterprising fans couldn't wait and Photoshopped Chris Evans into the Captain America costume so we could all have a sneak peek as to what he'll look like.
- Sounds like Iron Man 3 might be coming even sooner than expected - like, even before the Avengers movie.
- More Last Airbender footage! We've got the Japanese trailer, a new American TV spot, and a silly promo for the Teen Choice Awards featuring a couple of the stars of the movie.
- A new Sorcerer's Apprentice trailer. There are a couple of dumb things in here, but a lot of cool things, too.
- An amusing comic, in which a child finds the fallacy in a popular saying, but ultimately buys into it anyway.
- A new trailer for LEGO: Harry Potter Years 1-4.
- A couple collections of links to photos of President Barack Obama looking at awesome things. (UPDATE: here's the full set!)
- How about a free download of a track off Amanda Palmer's latest insane project, an album by fictional conjoined twin pop stars Evelyn Evelyn?
- Rachel Weisz could play the main villain in the next Bond film.
|
|
|
|
|
| Tagged (?): Avatar (Not), Avengers (Not), Books (Not), Captain America (Not), Celebrities (Not), Comedy (Not), Craft (Not), Firefly (Not), Godzilla (Not), Harry Potter (Not), Iron Man (Not), James Bond (Not), Kaiju (Not), LEGO (Not), Links (Not), Monsters (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), News (Not), Obama (Not), Photography (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Science (Not), Star Wars (Not), Toys (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not), Web comics (Not) |
|
|
| Thursday, March 18, 2010 10:24 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.
- Another great entry on Covered: Aaron Renier turns the cover of an issue of the Ewoks comic book into something more realistic, and culturally appropriate.
- Some pretty amazing submissions to March M.O.D.O.K. Madness.
- Rose McGowan has joined the cast of Conan as an evil half human, half witch. Which would seem to suggest she won't be in that Red Sonja movie after all. But you never know.
- A very amusing look at the dark dreams of a cute little kitty.
- The Bill Paxton pinball machine is complete, and it's a thing of beauty. Photo gallery here. (Via)
- This is pretty amazing. George R.R. Martin, in talking about a series of virtual cage match battles between fictional characters taking place on a website, decided to write a short short story about his own character, Jaime Lannister, going up against the Elder God Cthulhu. It's a fun little piece.
- Jay-Z and Jack White have recorded a song together! I must hear it! I must own it! (Via)
- Interesting details from M. Night Shyamalan about his live-action film adaptation of The Last Airbender. Huge bummer: King Bumi will not appear in the film. Kind of understandable, but still disappointing. I'm glad the guy's dedicated to doing multiple films, and that he seems to understand the nature and importance of the relationship between Aang and Appa. Also, looks like Shyamalan himself will appear in a later entry in the series as "a stinky cameo his family picked out for him." Hmm... Finally, this article mentions the question of whether the cabbage guy will appear in the movie, but doesn't reveal the answer! Tease!!
- Sigourney Weaver has joined the cast of Vamps as "the vampire Queen." Nice!
- The Hobbit starts shooting in June! Woo hoo!
- A 3D, computer-generated flyby of the surface of Mars created using data gathered from the Mars Orbiter. This is a great way to pick out where you want to set up your biodome when we move to Mars after the inevitable destruction of the Earth.
- The ISS takes a fond look at a great scene from an under-appreciated film.
- I know it's irrelevant, but this irrelephant graphic amused me.
- LEGO CubeDudes are always fun. Here's one of Kuato, that creepy dude from Total Recall.
- A great Killing Joke art piece, and Totoro cookies. (Via)
|
|
|
|
|
| Tagged (?): Animals (Not), Art (Not), Avatar (Not), Batman (Not), Cats (Not), Celebrities (Not), Comic books (Not), Craft (Not), George R.R. Martin (Not), Hayao Miyazaki (Not), LEGO (Not), Links (Not), Lovecraft (Not), Monsters (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Science (Not), Song of Ice and Fire (Not), Space (Not), Star Wars (Not), Tolkien (Not), Toys (Not), Vampires (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not) |
|
|
|
About
Welcome to the blog of Jim Genzano, writer, geek, and web developer. For a more detailed run-down of who I am and what goes on here, read this.
Recent Entries
Recent Comments
Feanor: "Huh. Strange. Yeah, I thought the show was uneven, but smart and different, with the potential to be ..."
on Recyclotron S.Tarzan: "Yeah. The weird thing is that they extended the cast contracts to November (which effectively postpo ..."
on Recyclotron Feanor: "Ah, I posted before I saw your second comment. November seems a little late, but okay!"
on Recyclotron Feanor: "Hmm. Well, I will try to remain optimistic, but it seems weird that there's been no announcement yet ..."
on Recyclotron S.Tarzan: "I should add that apparently Syfy is going to make a decision about Caprica season two by November o ..."
on Recyclotron S.Tarzan: ""Also, I assume this means Caprica is dead in the water, which is sad."
No, not necessarily. Ron Mo ..."
on Recyclotron poppy: "Which is exactly why I loved it so much! Hysterical."
on On the Viewer - Recent Film Roundup Feanor: "Exactly!"
on Recyclotron Mike V.: "Coen Brothers remawha who what why? John Wayne True Grit? Remake? Huh?"
on Recyclotron Feanor: "Heh. Yep, pretty much."
on On the Viewer - Recent Film Roundup
Most Popular Entries
- It's a Boy!!
(23 thumbs up, 14 comments)
- Hey, So...
(13 thumbs up, 15 comments)
- Griffin
(13 thumbs up, 0 comments)
- That new feature I was talking about...
(9 thumbs up, 3 comments)
- The Hulk Thought of the Day
(7 thumbs up, 0 comments)
- I Did It - Sort Of
(6 thumbs up, 4 comments)
- Re-Potterizing: Progress Report 5
(5 thumbs up, 3 comments)
- Birthday Wishes
(5 thumbs up, 2 comments)
- Ocean City Daytrip
(5 thumbs up, 2 comments)
- The Hulk Thought of the Day
(5 thumbs up, 2 comments)
Entry Archive
Tags
RSS Feeds
- Main feed:
- Comments:
- You can also click any tag to find feeds that include just posts with that tag.
|
