Superheroes!

[trinityvixen]

Because the real news is too depressing!

-While I realize there's a lot of ghoulish fascination at work here, it's also pretty fucking cool: Blu-Ray covers for The Dark Knight. The cynic in me sees the prominent Joker cover as a means of milking more money by wringing it from Heath Ledger's premature corpse. The realist in me recognizes that he was the star of the film and putting him on the cover makes sense in that light. (You can argue that Harvey Dent was the equal twin-star--heh, funny--but no one is saying that Batman was the focal point of the film.) I also love the editing on the back cover. :)

-Kenneth Branaugh directing Thor!? Well, he's in talks, anyway. I...honestly have nothing to say about that. So long as he doesn't then cast himself as the lead the way he did with almost every Shakespeare film adaptation he did, that's fine. (Don't get me wrong, he was good as the leads, but it got old.) Anyone knows more about Branaugh's directorial skill than I do wants to weigh in?

-Iron Man design art! The DVD is out tomorrow, probably with all these on there, but still, FYI. I love how very many of these drawings are pretty much realized exactly in the film. Except--and this is endlessly meta-fascinating--the one of the Mark II armor with the mini shoulder cannon. Because the only way Iron Man works as a sop to Tony Stark's I'm-not-making-weapons-any-more (except I totally am) newfound conscience is if you can't see the weapons. Yes, armor is a recognizeable part of warfare, but it's not a weapon out-and-out to most people. (It's more of a tool.) You have to hide the guns and the energy weapons (inside the wrist plates and as part of the flight stabilizers, respectively) if you want to swallow that fiction.

Comments

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I liked Much Ado About Nothing, but that's the only one I can say I loved to pieces. As You Like It was a disaster (set in 18-19-20mumble bumble century Japan). Hamlet would have been better if he'd not cast himself as the lead. He'd have been a better Claudius.

I like Branaugh, the actor, the person, well enough. (Certainly, he out-Guilderoy'd Lockheart as no one ever will.) I'm just not sure about all his directorial choices.

[sols-light.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen Much Ado About Nothing and I'm willing to concede I may just have seen some of his more pompous monstrousities. I'm intrigued to see what kind of Thor we get out of this too. Ultimates Thor with the Pacifist Tree-huggyness was great, but the madness would find it hard to hold up the whole origin story with the walking stick that turns into Mjolnir, so they'll have to pick one.