Yearly Archives: 2011
Robin in Batman: Arkham City? Yes, Please!
IGN.com has uncovered a clue that may finally confirm Robin (or at least Dick Grayson) appearing in the upcoming Batman game! I am utterly thrilled! They have been playing some teasers or watching trailers or something and uncovered this picture hidden within the streets of Gotham City.
We All Know Why the Show was Cancelled...
Let this be the first of many blog posts to reveal to my readers that I am a HUUUUUGE fan of Robin. Even moreso than Batman, I love the Boy Wonder. I plan to go into great detail why in some future posts. But this news is too good to pass up. Batman: Arkham Asylum was a brilliant game, and the sequel stands to be even better. That Robin may get a cameo or a reference or anything is simply awesome.
I was absolutely livid when Robin wasn’t included in Batman: Arkham Asylum. That game was a Batman fan’s dream come true. It was so intricate, and so detailed and so immersed in the world of Batman. They even had one part of the game where you collect 30+ biographies of characters large and small in the Batman universe, from Commissioner Gordon down to the freakin’ Rat-Catcher and Tweedle Dum. And yet, with 30 some odd bios to collect, there wasn’t one single mention of anything Robin related!!
No Robin, no Dick Grayson, no Tim Drake, no Red Hood, no Spoiler; nothing! They had Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, but no mention of Robin.
I was only left to believe that the creators of the game were the worst kind of Batman fans, those who cannot appreciate Robin. I mean, sure, the first game was fantastic on its own, but to go out of their way to not even mention Robin is annoying to a fan like me. So I hope this little teaser means good things ahead!
Batman and Robin co-op gameplay is probably too much to ask for…
Here’s the original story at http://www.ign.com: Batman: Arkham City
The Dastardly Deadline
I’m sure everybody has had to deal with a deadline, usually when an essay or a project is due. But I think on-the-scene newspaper reporters have a unique sort of deadline problem, which stung me up, down and right-round Monday morning.
First, a little background: my newspaper, The Daily Sentinel, comes out in the afternoon. The deadline is 11:30 a.m. for Page 1, and Noon for the rest of the paper. Usually, it’s easy to get everything done by then. But on Monday I had to cover a high-profile criminal sentencing in County Court. And the judge, the attorneys and the attempted murderer weren’t particularly concerned with finishing on my time frame.
Court starts at 9:30 a.m., and the judge calls cases in whatever order he pleases. So I have to be in my seat by 9:30 a.m. and just hope that he is able to wrap up all of his morning casework and the high-profile case in question by my deadline. That didn’t work out so well on Monday. It wasn’t until 11 a.m. that we finally got around to the case I was there to see: the attempted murder of a husband by his estranged wife.
The case: On the night of March 8, 2010, an estranged wife going to her husband’s home…and about an hour later, he runs out screaming for help with a slashed throat. She’s inside with several stab wounds to her abdomen. The police and rescue crews arrive and both survive – but they have conflicting stories. She says that she only went to visit him to discuss a few financial issues, but he was disgruntled, high on heroin and eventually came at her with a knife because she was in a new relationship. She says that he stabbed her in the bedroom, chased her through the house and stabbed her again while she was lying on the living room floor. Somehow his neck got cut during that scuffle.
He says that she came to visit him in a much more festive mood, and convinced him that they were going to have sex. He says that she told him she wanted to try on some bikinis for a trip to Florida, and that he should lie down on the bed and close his eyes. When he did, she put her hand over his eyes, whispered ‘I love you’ in his ear and then slit his throat with a knife. The man survived, jumped off the bed and ran through the house. She chased him and cut him again in the abdomen, as well as cutting the phone cord. He managed to get away and run outside to the neighbors, with her following him out and screaming for him to go back.
After a trial in January, the jury found her guilty of attempted murder. He was never charged because all the evidence points towards his side of the story. She never claimed that she followed him outside, yet they found her blood out there. Among other evidence. I sat through the whole trial and was as convinced as the jury that she was guilty.
Fast-forward to Monday, and she’s going to be sentenced. Sentencings are one of the more interesting stories I get to write about. Because after all the casework and adjournments, and many months after the crime, everybody gets a chance to talk and confront each other in the courtroom. The defendant gets to say a few words, the victim can say whatever they want to the defendant, the lawyers can talk and even the judge gets to say a few words. Family members also get to chime in. For a reporter, there’s a lot to listen to and write about.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get started until 11 a.m…with my deadline at 11:30. The first few people started talking, and I took diligent notes. Then people just kept talking…and more family were allowed to speak. And 11:30 came and went and we weren’t even at the defendant’s turn to speak. And the judge wouldn’t even tell us how many years she’d get in prison until the very, very end.
So there I was in a back hallway off the courtroom calling up a fellow reporter back in the newsroom. I was trying to think up how to word my story off the top of my head, while simultaneously looking up quotes in my notebook and trying to listen to the person who is speaking in the courtroom. Fortunately the defense attorney was droning on and on, giving me plenty of time to try and put my story together over the phone. So bad time to have general brain farts left and right.
But in the end, we got a story done and on Page 1, and we got everything we needed to get. It was a sloppy story and nowhere near as well-written or concise or well-put-together as I would have liked. But it was done, it was accurate and that’s what’s important at the end of the day. Still, that’s the sort of deadline problem I have to deal with on occasion.
Here’s my story online: Camelot Stabber
Once I was covering a trial and a defendant accused of murdering a police officer was taking the stand to testify in his own defense. Of course, after numerous pointless delays that morning in the courtroom, he didn’t get on the stand until 11 a.m. This was a man whose side of the story I’d been waiting to hear for 4-5 years! Who was finally going to explain to everybody why he didn’t do it (He did) and where he really was when the robbery/murder took place.
It was a packed courtroom, so it was very awkward of me to have to keep going in and out. I’d already called in my story that morning, it was ready to go…but dammit, I needed to get something from this defendant in that day’s paper. Page 1 was going to read that this guy was taking the stand, so it would be stupid to not have any of what he said. However, the testimony began with some background information, slowly building up towards the robbery.
And so between all my running around and the crunching minutes, my story lead with the fact that he once washed car windows outside a stadium.
NBC says ‘no fly’ to Pilot of Invisible Jet
The Wonder Woman pilot produced by David E. Kelley has been dropped by NBC. There won’t be a series.
We could have had this on our TVs!
That’s a shame. I was looking forward to a cool Wonder Woman TV show, especially considering all the crap that’s on TV now anyway. Not that I watch much of it. But I try to make it a point to watch good superhero TV. I used to watch Smallville, and I have every intention of trying to catch up on the latest seasons, what with all the cool hero cameos.
But still, Wonder Woman looked like it could be cool. I know Kelley has a history of good shows, and a modern take on the character could have been a blast. There were some changes to her status quo, but quite frankly, I’m cool with producers making some cosmetic changes to superheroes to make them work. It’s not like Wonder Woman has a status quo that’s set in stone, a la Superman or Batman. Heck, the last status quo I can remember was when she was Diana Prince, a secret agent for a superhuman investigation agency tasked with investigating Wonder Woman. It was stupid.
According to Deadline:
Despite some negative early speculation, the pilot was not a disaster as some suggested. People who have seen it describe it as “ambitious” and “well crafted”. But its screenings and testing were very mixed. “The audience couldn’t buy into the modernization,” one insider said. There were early signs of resistance against updating the classic franchise and the character when fans slammed the superhero’s new, contemporary costume. “It was a conceptual thing,” another insider said. “Do we need a comic book hero?”
I loved the updated costume. I also heard that Wonder Woman wore her traditional bathing-suit look in the pilot as well, so she had multiple costumes. But I have no problem at all with giving Wonder Woman pants. By all means, let her wear pants!
Now we’re just left to hope that somebody bootlegs the pilot and we can see it for ourselves. *fingers crossed*
It was THORbulous!
*****WARNING!!*****POSSIBLE SPOILERS*****
I believe it's specifically in all caps.
With the legendary hammer Mjolnir at his side, the Mighty Thor smashes his way into movie theaters with an alright flick that could have used more time to flesh out its characters and narrative. It was a good movie, no doubt, and fun to watch; but I wasn’t blown-away or truly immersed in the adventure like I was hoping. THOR tells a nice story, has a lot of fun characters, has a lot of fun in general and definitely didn’t let me down.
It could have just been more.
Personally, I’ve never been a fan of Thor as a comic book character. He’s just never interested me. The concept is cool, that these myths of legend are real, and in a world of superheroes, they become superheroes as well. I’ve just never cared about Thor. So I didn’t have any fan-love going in to see this movie. Just excitement about the upcoming Avengers, and Marvel-love in general. I absolutely loved both Iron Man films, so I was hoping for more of the same.
THOR sticks very close to the comics, with Thor and the gang almost lifted directly from the page. They even recreated Loki’s giant horned helmet. While this is a good thing, I rarely complain about changes made from comics to movies; especially if they’re just cosmetic. So if you’re a stickler for that sort of thing, worry not. THOR is righteous.
Quick story recap: Thor and Loki are the sons of Odin in Asgard, a mythical kingdom where magick and science are the same thing. Thor is set to inherit the throne, but he’s arrogant and starts a war with Asgard’s ancient enemies, the Frost Giants. An angry Odin strips Thor of his godly power – and mighty hammer – and casts him down to Earth to learn humility. With the help of a hottie scientist, Thor learns to appreciate other people and gets his power back in time to stop Loki from taking the throne and stabbing Odin in the back.
First the good: THOR is a fun film. All of the actors are great, and all of the characters are a lot of fun. The standouts are definitely the leads: Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, the love interest. I read online somewhere that this movie gives us a nice glimpse at how much fun Natalie Portman can have in a movie when she’s not stifled by George Lucas and the crappy dialogue of the Star Wars prequels. I’d have to agree. She had spunk and personality, and was very very cute.
Likewise, I’m told, Hemsworth was a dreamboat to all the ladies in the audience. Kudos to him. As Iron Man proved, you’ve got to have a competent leading man, and I think he did the job well. Thor commanded the screen. Hemsworth was arrogant and cocky as Thor, and I believed the transition into a more caring person – though it came about much too quickly. It feels like Thor learned his lesson over the course of a weekend. But Hemsworth does such a good job as Thor that he pulls it off. He definitely enjoys his time on Earth, and the friendship of Jane and the others. Thor is definitely a friendly guy.
Women love him, men want to be him.
All of the characters are a lot of fun in the movie. Loki is a pretty good villain, though he doesn’t stand out as particularly great. The actor does a fine job, and there are a few twists. But he wasn’t nearly as mischievous or evil as I would have liked. Anthony Hopkins is great as Odin, very kingly. He even looks rather badass in the Odin at War scenes. Heimdell was probably the coolest character in the movie; he was a blast. A real surprise there.
Both Thor and Jane Foster each have a supporting cast of friends, and all are fun. Though I think Darcy and the professor are a lot more fun than Sif and the Warriors Three. Seeing the previews of Darcy’s wittiness, I was worried she’d be just uneeded comic relief. But they used her well. It’s important that both main characters get a supporting cast because it helps to flesh them out as real people. Thor isn’t just price of Asgard, he and his pals also hang out and go on adventures and drink. Though here’s a good place to start nit-picking.
The movie is too short. There is a lot of ground to cover, but the film is constrained by a less than 2-hour time limit. There isn’t enough time to flesh everything out as much as it deserves. The Warriors Three are a fine example of this. We meet them, they each sort of get a line or two about their personality, but little more than that. We don’t get to spend much time with them as people; they’re window dressing. The crucial scene when they rejoin Thor on Earth doesn’t have the impact it should because we don’t know them or their relationship to Thor well enough.
And they sort of rush through the nature of the gods and Asgard in the beginning. I was worried that people might not understand, but one must have faith that movie-going audiences will get it. I’m grateful that they had Anthony Hopkins read out the exposition rather than forcing people to read text. I’ve come to hate opening scrolls, except in Star Wars…maybe.
SHIELD suffered from the speed as well. Agent Coulson is cool in the Iron Man films, but he doesn’t get nearly as much screen time in Thor. He’s very much the straight man, but not with the skill and quirkiness he has in the other movies. And Thor choosing to join his side in his last scene is, likewise, rushed. Hawkeye was a waste as well, just a quick cameo that amounted to very little; not even much of a tease for Avengers. Who’s going to remember him from this film? No one!
Though there was one fun cameo: the Eye of Agamotto!
Teasing a Dr. Strange film.
The only parts of the movie that I simply didn’t like were the endings. That’s not to say they weren’t good endings for this movie, in fact they were. Thor is victorious, and they are appropriately epic. My problems with the ending are that they don’t line up with the Avengers. Like the end of Iron Man 2, where Fury tells Tony that he’s not suitable for the Avengers, this movie ends in a way that’s going to add an extra, unnecessary step to the start of the Avengers. How does Thor get back to Earth? This movie would have been exactly the same had it ended with Thor getting the girl, is what I’m saying.
And the teaser at the end of the credits was a complete waste. Nobody cares about the macguffin they introduce, even if it will appear in Captain America and/or the Avengers. Nobody cares about it right now. It’s just a macguffin. And that the macguffin is introduced using that professor character is just stupid. Beyond this one movie, that professor shouldn’t matter. Not even with the Loki tease. Considering the other post-credit teases and how much fun they were, this one teases nothing. Considering Captain America is coming out in two months, and the Avengers in one year, so much more could and should have happened at the end of the credits.
How awesome would it have been to have Thor meet Iron Man? A 3-minute scene were the two have some interaction, or Thor recruited into the Avengers Initiative (like the end of Iron Man 1) would have been brilliant! But they wasted it!
It was the perfect opportunity to get us fans salivating for what was to come. Or they could have properly teased the Thor sequel with a glimpse of…
Beta Ray Bill!
Henchman-4-Hire 