September?

It was startlingly, wonderfully cool walking out of my apartment this morning. I caught a whiff of dewy air. I felt transported back to the first day of school, waking up early (way earlier than I have regularly done ever since) to head to class. Weird.

Whew

Last review of the past season of Smallville is up. Yes, I know the show ended like two months ago, shut up. I admit that one of those months was my bad, but it took like two weeks for the editor to post this because she was moving. The other two weeks plus that aren't accounted for...wizard did it.

Re-reading this, I realize I need to smooth out my tone more. It's mockery, mockery, mockery, and then I got all meta. I mean I go from this:

Since being an intern, just like being a superhero, doesn’t fit into Clark’s emo plans to remain a recluse farmer, he refuses. Plus, he’d be working for Lex and that would be awkward times eleven. Lois says she’s looked into it (why?) and Clark and Lex used to be joined at the hip. But Lex is so evil! She asks why Clark and Lex were ever friends. The Gay, Lois.

to this:

“I love you like a brother, Clark.” And every sibling he ever had, he destroyed. He blamed Daddy for losing his brother. Yet how many times did he murder Julian Luthor when he brought him back, again and again, in imperfect copies named Grant Gabriel? In a world that never existed, Kara was as good as his sister, and he kept a Kryptonite bullet just for her. This is how Lex Luthor loves his family. It’s what he knows.

I don't know which one to be more embarrased by: my pathetic attempt at humor or my pathetic attempt to rescue some pathos and angst from Smallville.

OH JOY

He's back!

A large part of me realizes that, if reports from the parties involved and rumors about the production are true, it's a goddamned miracle that Iron Man ended up being so good. They had like nothing scripted, and stuff that was scripted was constantly revised, changed, and added to by just about anyone who had an opinion to offer. So, yeah, Jon Favreau's presence doesn't guarantee greatness, but if someone is capable of pulling good stuff from that creative process, hey, more power to him.

There's some grumbling about how he got re-signed, though. Some people think he played dirty outing the negotiation process on his blog or whatever. I say more transparency is always better in job hunting whether you're a kid out of college or a major Hollywood director. The important thing here is that he was right: the fans balked at the idea of an Iron Man franchise without Favreau. It settles my worries some after they announced a start date before anything else relevant to a sequel. At least I know that Favreau has discussed where the film is going with the cast/crew. So if they only have less than two years to pull a film out of their asses (and is that with taking into account the possible actors' strike?), it's good to know the people involved will at least be familiar with the material.

I guess Mark Wahlberg makes sense

I would have said Timothy Olyphant, myself, but Wahlberg's not too bad a fit for Max Payne. Trailer time!

(Thanks to darkling1 for the heads up.)

I'm kinda weirdly into the trailer and going "WTF TIMES TWENTY!?!"

( What, am I writing my dissertation? )

Given Max's original actor, I'd say Timothy Olyphant is the better match. Mark Wahlberg makes a convincing tough, but most of the time it's a sort of showy tough. Timothy Olyphant has those crazy eyes and, yeah, okay, he's stick skinny, but he's got the eyes of serial killer. (kent_allard_jr is not surprised to hear that I had a crush on him since Scream 2.) The intensity is in his favor, as is the snark. Wahlberg isn't a "snarky" sort of funny. He's actually bizarrely sincere in everything he's in. You need someone with more attitude than just 'tude.

And pictures don't lie: Timothy Olyphant even dresses the part of Max Payne. No matter what, though, I'm going to miss the voice actor who did Max. The guy was obviously born to narrate noir heroes and nothing else. You can't get a voice like his without smoking industrial smoke stacks' worth of tobacco and then dragging your larynx over broken glass. Jesus.