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

[umeyard.livejournal.com]

*puts on my I love Kenneth Branaugh t-shirt with I love Emma Thompson on the back*

Okay so yes, he does have a tendency to cast himself in roles, however as a director I happen to find him brilliant and insightful. He does adapt alot of the classics by Shakespeare as well as things such as "The Magic Flute" by Mozart to Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. My personal favorite is Dead Again. Not that famous of a movie but the cast is fantastic (His then wife Emma Thompson, Derek Jacobi, Robin Williams, Andy Garcia). Fell in love with that movie in Junior High, still one of my favorites to date.

I like that he takes classic stories and makes them more approachable for the younger generations without taking too many liberties regarding content (please compare Much Ado about Nothing to Baz Lehrmans Romeo and Juliet). So it brings things down to a level the average person can understand. He makes classics that alot of people find hard to read easy to watch.

Still hoping he does "Great Expectations" by Dickens one day.

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

I'd like to think those covers are a tribute to Ledger...

[sols-light.livejournal.com]

I have yet to see a Branagh film I liked, the man is an unmitigated pompous arse with as much respect for Shakespeare as Americans have for the Queen. He sets a historical play (Richard III) in early 20th Century Austria (I think) with no rational explanation, no obvious subtext for cultural comparison and the main quotable line delivered in a completely absurd context. "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse" from the top of a WWI tank implying that Richard simply wants to get out, rather than get his banner flying above his troops to inspire confidence in them in the hope of turning around the rout that was the final battle.

I'm barely going to touch on Macbeth, honestly, I think Mel Gibson did a better version, which is saying something. Yes, Branagh did delive the entire 4 hours of text, but to put the final scene on the order of Indiana Jones with the chandelier swinging and the sword to the heart across an entire ballroom... just no.

Thankfully this does mean his ham-fisted over-the-top actionalisation of thought-provoking is possibly good for a Comic Book conversion movie. At least it means he can understand subtext and present it with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Honestly, as long as he's not going to be Thor himself, it'll probably work out reasonably well, I just think he should not be allowed to butcher Shakespearean classics with twisted adaptations.