The Rabbit Hole

Zach Snyder's Superman reboot has finally produced a promo image. (There are also set photos of Henry Cavil as Clark. With the curl. Go figure.) It really bothers me that they're adding all this texture to superhero outfits. The Spider-Man reboot is doing the same thing. It just looks dumb and not at all shiny like I kind of imagine and love Superman for being. It's in awful contrast with his cape, which is as voluminously large and lush as any comic has ever drawn it. I just hate the texture on the suit. I hate it. I hated it in Superman Returns (though that suit had so much else going wrong with it besides that it wasn't the worst part). I hate the color scheme, but I get it, I suppose. You can't make a man run around in a bright blue suit any more. (Not even Captain America's USO costume was bright blue.) I still don't like it. I also don't like that, in close up, Supes looks like Martin Sheen. That's weirding me out. A lot.

I also know that Zach Snyder is typically great at making stunning images and trailers for mediocre-to-awful movies, and to be fair to him, it is a dramatic shot. But if this much is already going wrong in the visuals before you get to the movie of questionable quality....ouch. Sorry DC. Better luck next time. Maybe you can hope that the questionable costume changes to Thor and the Cap (as caught in these screencaps from the post-Captain America bump for The Avengers) will soon dwarf your own concerns? Naaaah. Whom am I kidding? Thor's costume features ARMS. It automatically wins at life. (Dear Chris Hemsworth and Chris Hemsworth's smoking-hot wife: please tell me you are polyamorous. It's not fair to keep all that hotness to yourselves.)

Another fun feature I found on the internet: Empire magazine explains (with spoiler warnings, bless 'em) who the F are all the dwarfs in The Hobbit. Thank you, Jebus. I got confused as to who they were when I was reading The Hobbit, so I couldn't tell you Ori from Dori now. Things this magazine, alas, cannot explain? How come Aidan Turner's character looks like an elf. I mean, the rest of the character look like goddamned dwarfs. I get that Aidan Turner is fucking hot, and it's damn shame to cover that up with layers of dwarf makeup, but come on. The man signed up to play a dwarf. Either you make him a freakin' dwarf and put the same squat nose and lumpy features on him as everyone else or you hire someone who doesn't look like a model. I mean, Richard Armitage is just as gorgeous, and they...well, okay, they made him into a Klingon, but still! He's not fabulously attractive! It's a start!

I did find out that James Nesbitt, who is absolutely fabulous in Jekyll, which WATCH WATCH WATCH if you've not seen, is in this, which, is a reason to watch. Too bad he's not a villain. (His Jekyll was chilling. And all that without any crazy monster makeup. It's almost all just him.) I'm not the hugest fan of The Hobbit, but I'm in. Hell, I'd be in for Andy Serkis as Gollum again. I saw a clip of him doing motion-capture for Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and whatever the merits of that remake, Andy Serkis, ridiculous in costume, is a resplendent physical actor. You don't need the CGI monkey face to see the monkey. He's amazing.

This:

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

I just thought I'd share since someone is apparently making a movie of Atlas Shrugged and it's a foregone conclusion that even if the best and brightest of the movie business were working on this thing (and they're not), it would never be as good as the worst part of The Lord of the Rings--books or movies.

On my way to the library before work today, a woman walking with a cane came across the intersection perpendicularly to where I was waiting to cross. She looked like she was saying something to me, so I popped out a headphone to be sure. She seemed to have stopped speaking, almost seemed to be waiting for my response, so I said something noncommital. I asked if she was cold, ha ha, it's cold outside, etc. (Actually, though it might just be that I've traded jeans for corduroys, it feels almost balmy out.)

Her response: "I don't feel cold because I've had so many strokes."

o.O???

Earphone went right back in and I all but ran across the street. What was I thinking? NEVER ENGAGE!

This is something dream-me took to an illogical extreme in my mid-morning dream. ( It features Christopher Lee but was not technically a nightmare. Who knew that was possible? )

The DM of the Rings

I don't even play RPG tabletop games, and I'm dying over some of these installments.

Oh, and thanks so much chuckro: you linked to TV Tropes a week or two ago and I've been serially checking out entries ever since. (Which is how I found this link.) I'll never have my life back!!!